Long, long ago it is told that the flowers were all white and that each received its color by some magic power. The little Daisy, with its yellow eye, received its golden center when the angry elves pelted the little Fairies with sunbeams. The Daisy grew to be very proud of her yellow eye and thought it showed off to perfection her pure white rim.
One day she was looking about the field where she grew and saw the little White Cups growing all about her in abundance. "There is too much white in this field," she told the other Daisies. "Our beautiful white borders would show off much better if the White Cups were golden." "But perhaps the White Cups do not wish to become golden," said her sisters.
"Oh, but we do, dear Daisies," said the White Cups all in chorus; "we have always wanted to be a beautiful yellow like your eyes, but we thought you would not like to have us that color, as we have to live in the same field." "Oh yes, we would," said the Daisy, "and I am sure the fields will look much more beautiful with you a golden color than white; besides that, we shall be seen to better advantage; so both of us will gain by the change."
"But who will help us to change our color?" asked the White Cups. The Daisy thought a long time, and at length she said: "You might get the Goblins to color you, but the thing is to get them to do it. They are such queer little fellows that if they thought they were bothering the Fairies they would do it quick enough; but if we ask them to make you yellow that we all may look more beautiful they would only laugh and run off."
"Why can't we make them think they would make the Fairies angry if they made us golden?" asked the White Cups; "I am sure we can find a way." "That would be the very thing," said the Daisy, "but what do you propose to do?" "We will ask the Fairies when they come into the fields tonight for their frolic," said the White Cups.
That night when the Fairies came flying over the field the White Cups called to them and told them what they wanted. "Oh, that will be beautiful," said the Fairy Queen, "and we can fool the Goblins easy enough, as you shall see." The Fairy Queen called her Fairies around her and whispered so low that the field flowers could not hear what she said, but they heard the Fairies laugh as they flew away.
Each Fairy alighted on a little White Cup and began to sing: "We love you, little White Cup, Our Lady of the Field; we will watch o'er you and keep you and from all danger shield; you are prettier than the Daisy with her yellow eye so bright, you are like a waxen blossom in the pale moonlight." Over and over they sang the verse as they leaned over and kissed the little Cups.
And by and by from out of the woods came the Goblins, hopping and jumping like leaves before the wind. "Here they are," they said, when they saw the Fairies. "Listen and hear what they are singing." When they heard the Fairies' pretty love song to the little White Cup the Goblins kicked up their heels and laughed, each laying a tiny finger beside his nose as he winked at his brother. Off they scampered to the woods again, and the Fairies kept on singing their song.
The Daisy watched with its yellow eye, wondering how her cousin, the White Cup, would be made the color for which she had wished. By and by the Goblins came back, but this time they carried bags over their shoulders and they crept carefully through the grass. The Fairies saw them all the time, but of course they pretended not to.
When the Goblins were quite near, the Queen said: "Come, my children; leave your best-loved flower for tonight. Tomorrow you shall come again." As the Fairies were flying away they glanced back, and in the moonlight they saw the Goblins hard at work over each little White Cup.
When the morning sun awoke he opened wide his eyes, for all over the field among the Daisies he beheld little Golden Cups nodding gaily at their cousins with the golden eyes. The next night when the Fairies came flying through the fields they saw the Yellow Cups. "You are more beautiful than ever," they said to the Golden Cups, "and we will call you our Golden Cups, but you must be known as the Buttercups or the Goblins will discover our trick and make you white again."
The Buttercups thanked the Fairies and told them they would be glad to be their cups whenever they gave a banquet and that never would they let the Goblins know the Fairies had fooled them. So they bloom among the Daisies in the fields and are called Buttercups, but they know to the Fairies they are the little Golden Cups, and the Goblins wonder why the Fairies always seem so happy when they fly near the Buttercup and find it changed. The Fairies are too wise to let the Goblins know how they fooled them, for the Fairy Queen has taught them that "Silence is golden," and they know their Queen is always right.
