The King of the Hummingbirds Read Online Free Page A

elves.
    â€œHush!” said the queen.
    Along came a rich merchant, riding in a carriage of yellow gold, and he stopped where he knew the pear tree was. He pointed, and two of his servants got out to look for the pear tree, but it was nowhere.
    The merchant scowled, banged the dottle from his pipe, then got down, huffing and puffing, to see for himself. But still no pear tree. “Blast,” said the merchant. One of the servants said, “Shall I cut you a rose, sir?” He stood prepared to cut off the rose with some scissors.
    The merchant waved it away in disgust. “Let’s go home.”
    Again the elves laughed merrily, but only for a moment. For hardly was the merchant out of sight when who should come along but a well-known poet with a solid gold walking stick. The poet saw that the pear tree was gone, which was more or less what he’d expected, and noticed the rose and went over to stand by it, hands on hips. He shook his head sadly and extemporized, making as original a poem as he knew how:
    O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible bug
That flies in the whirlwind
To give you a hug,
Has found out your bed
Of red, red light,
And his dark, secret love
Has given you blight .
    He snapped the rose from the stem, considered it a moment, then dropped it to the ground. The elves all dashed out to put the dewdrop back in.
    The poet looked up at the clouds and frowned, then thought about the rose. “I should take it back to the princess,” he said to himself, “as a metaphor of the shortness of life and the certainty of failure.” But on second thought he said, “She’d never get it.” So he went his way.
    The elves laughed nervously, not certain they got it either.
    Then came Eddie.
    Eddie was the only son of a poor Jewish blacksmith. He was a quiet, soft-spoken boy who was fat and wore spectacles and had read, in perfect innocence, many books. Every night before he went to bed he put out a saucer of milk for the elves, under the misapprehension (from something he’d read) that elves like milk. The elves were touched by this, and they drank the milk, winter and summer, though milk made them gag. When the king of the people said, “My daughter is old enough to marry, so I will give her hand to whoever brings her a single perfect pear,” Eddie’s old father and mother said, “Eddie, why don’t you see can you marry the princess? You’re a good boy, you ought to be a prince.”
    He didn’t believe he had a chance, but he said, “I’ll give it a try.” So now he had come to where the pear tree was, and he looked and saw, as the others had seen, no pear tree.
    He put his fists on his hips.
    Although he had never believed he had a chance, he was more disappointed than he’d imagined he would be, for the princess was beautiful and gentle and they liked the same things, and it’s royal marriages like that that make kingdoms safe and happy. In fact he was so sad he had to take off his glasses and wipe them. The elves crossed their fingers and began to worry that the test was unreasonably hard.
    But when Eddie had wiped his glasses, he noticed the rose, and immediately, without thinking, he picked it up and carried it away with him. And the elves danced with glee.
    As luck would have it, it began to rain, and Eddie had to run, his stomach bouncing up and down and his cheeks puffing out and in. Twice the dewdrop fell out of the rose and the elves had to sort through the raindrops for it and sneak it back into the rose in Eddie’s hand. Then at last he was home.

    â€œSo where’s the pear?” Eddie’s mama said.
    â€œThe tree’s disappeared,” said Eddie, and sighed.
    â€œDisappeared?” she said. “It was there this morning. I saw it with these two eyes!”
    Eddie shrugged. “Well, now it’s gone, Mama.” He put out milk for the elves, with an umbrella to keep the rain off, and he went up