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watch over the flowers and plants, as the nymphs watch over the forest trees.
They search the wide world for the food required by the roots of the flowering
plants, while the brilliant colors possessed by the full-blown flowers are due to
the dyes placed in the soil by the Ryls, which are drawn through the little
veins in the roots and the body of the plants, as they reach maturity. The
Ryls are a busy people, for their flowers bloom and fade continually, but they
are merry and light-hearted and are very popular with the other immortals.
Next came the Knooks, whose duty it is to watch over the beasts of the world,
both gentle and wild. The Knooks have a hard time of it, since many of the
beasts are ungovernable and rebel against restraint. But they know how to
manage them, after all, and you will find that certain laws of the Knooks are
obeyed by even the most ferocious animals. Their anxieties make the Knooks
look old and worn and crooked, and their natures are a bit rough from
associating with wild creatures continually; yet they are most useful to
humanity and to the world in general, as their laws are the only laws the
forest beasts recognize except those of the Master Woodsman.
Then there were the Fairies, the guardians of mankind, who were much
interested in the adoption of Claus because their own laws forbade them to
become familiar with their human charges. There are instances on record
where the Fairies have shown themselves to human beings, and have even
conversed with them; but they are supposed to guard the lives of mankind
unseen and unknown, and if they favor some people more than others it is
because these have won such distinction fairly, as the Fairies are very just
and impartial. But the idea of adopting a child of men had never occurred to
them because it was in every way opposed to their laws; so their curiosity was
intense to behold the little stranger adopted by Necile and her sister nymphs.
Claus looked upon the immortals who thronged around him with fearless eyes
and smiling lips. He rode laughingly upon the shoulders of the merry Ryls; he
mischievously pulled the gray beards of the low-browed Knooks; he rested his
curly head confidently upon the dainty bosom of the Fairy Queen herself. And
the Ryls loved the sound of his laughter; the Knooks loved his courage; the
Fairies loved his innocence.
The boy made friends of them all, and learned to know their laws intimately.
No forest flower was trampled beneath his feet, lest the friendly Ryls should be
grieved. He never interfered with the beasts of the forest, lest his friends the
Knooks should become angry. The Fairies he loved dearly, but, knowing
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