Chapter 05 - Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

Sociology in Modules 2nd Edition

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Chapter 05
Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Philip Zimbardo's study of a simulated prison environment that used college students as
prisoners and prison guards
A. indicated that it is impossible to replicate a "real life" situation in a laboratory.
B. demonstrated that a social structure can influence the type of social interactions that occur.
C. indicated that social interactions are not influenced by social structure characteristics.
D. all of these

Type: I

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Chapter 05 - Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

2. Which psychologist is widely known for his mock-prison experiment involving college
students in order to study social structure and social interaction?
A. Michel Foucault
B. Philip Zimbardo
C. C. Wright Mills
D. Arlie Hochschild

Type: I

3. Social interaction is
A. the process of learning norms, values, beliefs, and other requirements for effective
participation in social groups.
B. the way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.
C. the ways in which people respond to one another.
D. a series of relationships linking a person directly to others and therefore indirectly to still
more people.

Type: D

5-2
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any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part
Chapter 05 - Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

4. Which of the following is an example of social interaction?

A. Felipe watches television and does needlepoint.
B. Mary wallpapers her bedroom walls.
C. Sally and Veronica, a lesbian couple, argue about a new piece of gay-rights legislation.
D. all of these

Type: C

5. Which of the following terms refers to the way in which a society is organized into
predictable relationships?
A. socialization
B. social structure
C. social interaction
D. culture

Type: D

6. According to Herbert Blumer, the distinctive characteristic of human interaction is that

A. the reality of humans is shaped by our perceptions and evaluations.
B. humans respond to behavior based on the meaning we attach to the actions of others.
C. humans interpret or define each other's actions.
D. all of these

Type: I

7. Which of the following believed that the "distinctive characteristic of social interaction
among people is that human beings interpret or ‘define' each other's actions instead of merely
reacting to each other's actions"?
A. Philip Zimbardo
B. William I. Thomas
C. Herbert Blumer
D. Ferdinand Tönnies

Type: S

5-3
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any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part
Chapter 05 - Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

8. Which of the following is true regarding marriage in Japan?

A. most husbands do not call their wife by name
B. husbands say "I love you" more often than other nationalities
C. most married Japanese couples do not actually love one another
D. marriage is considered more a relationship than a social status

Type: C

9. One of the most crucial aspects of the relationship between dominant and subordinate
groups is the ability of the dominant group to
A. define a society's values.
B. define social reality.
C. mold the "definition of the situation".
D. all of these

Type: I

10. The analysis of how the "definition of the situation" can mold the thinking and personality
of the individual is associated with the
A. functionalist perspective.
B. conflict perspective.
C. interactionist perspective.
D. feminist perspective.

Type: P

11. William I. Thomas notes that people respond not only to the objective features of a person
or situation but also to the meaning that the person or situation has for them. This view
represents which sociological perspective?
A. functionalist perspective
B. conflict perspective
C. interactionist perspective
D. feminist perspective

Type: P

5-4
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Chapter 05 - Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

12. Which term is used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined
positions within a large group or society?
A. status
B. culture
C. social structure
D. Gemeinschaft

Type: D

13. Jan, Randy, and Terry are science majors, and when they graduate from college, they find
jobs as a nurse, a midwife, and a hospital administrator, respectively. These new positions are
examples of
A. statuses.
B. social roles.
C. groups.
D. social networks.

Type: C

14. Ray is an African American who is currently enrolled at a four-year university where he is
studying social work. Which of the following is his achieved status?
A. social worker
B. male
C. African American
D. college student

Type: C

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further in the cave, where was a sofa, made of thick soft moss, on which
he was told to lounge at ease.

Before Hilty, there was spread a table, crowded with every sort of good
things to eat, except, that there was no fish or meat in sight. The dwarf
explained to his guest that all the cookies, goodies, and eatables were
made from things in the vegetable kingdom.

After Hilty had enjoyed a good dinner, the dwarf told his guest that he
would reveal to him one of the secrets of his skill, but he must not ask to
be told more. He would be shown how to make delicious sweets, and
valuable confectionery, from a common weed, which the chamois fed on
every day. But this done, he repeated, Hilty must, on no account, ask for
any other secret. Nor must he try to learn any receipt about any other
delicacy, or even watch, while the cooking was going on. If he did, the
[60]dwarf would be angry, and cut off the shepherd from his friendship.
He might even punish him, by causing him to lose his way, when
returning home.

Hilty gave his promise, making also the sign of the cross on his breast.
He swore an oath, that he would not see, hear, touch, taste, or try, even,
to feel, any further than was permitted and clearly commanded him.

Trusting his guest fully, the dwarf first took a basketful of what we call
“Iceland moss,” which grows so plentifully in the high Alpine pastures.
Then he showed how, with water and fire, he could make the delicacy
known among us as “Iceland Moss Paste.”

At once, after tasting a morsel of the confection, with gusto, Hilty

smacked his lips and began to dream of getting rich. He resolved to open
a shop and make the new confection in his own village.

But this Hilty was a greedy and covetous fellow and often made a
glutton of himself. Seeing that the dwarf had everything ready, to make
more confectionery, of other kinds, he made up his mind to learn all the
secrets. “This time,” he said to himself, “I shall set up, not a village shop,
but a big confectionery store in Lucerne, the great city.” He never
thought more, of [61]keeping the solemn promise, which he had just
given to the dwarf.

So, pretending to be very sleepy, he asked the dwarf to let him lie down
at length on the moss sofa and take a nap. The kind host at once agreed,
and made his guest comfortable. In a few minutes, pretending to be
asleep, Hilty, who was a gawk and a bumpkin, in manners, let his nose
and open mouth give vent to snores, long and loud.

This, in itself, was bad enough, and the dwarf was disgusted at such
manners and much irritated by the noise. But, worse than this was to
come. This ill mannered dairyman, who kept peeping between his
eyelids, got very much excited, as he saw the dwarf doing the most
wonderful things, with common weeds and flowers. Out of these he drew
juices, flavors, coloring matter, aromatic liquids, and sugars, either in
crystal, or in the form of gum or candy. Out of his pots, pans and kettles,
he poured what looked like the most tempting things to eat. They
smelled so delightful that Hilty forgot himself and, with his eyes wide
open, stared at the dwarf and what he was doing.

By this time, Hilty was building great air castles. He saw himself in a
great candy store in Lucerne employing fifty pretty girls, in attractive
uniform, to allure the public, wait at the [62]counters on the crowd of
customers, who came with plenty of money and all eager to get waited
on. They stood in lines, four deep, in front of the show cases, eyeing
what they were to choose; while those nearest the girls were eagerly
buying bonbons, chocolates, caramels, all-day suckers, mint drops and
Iceland moss paste, in boxes tied up in dainty, gay colored ribbons. Each
box was wrapped, not in common paper, but in dotted Swiss muslin, or
fine cambric. No one seemed to care how much the cost might be.

Back of the counters, were scores of lovely Swiss maidens, in white

bodices, with silver chains, ornamented girdles, and brilliant head-
dresses. These were tied, so as to show they were not yet married. There
were dozens of waiter boys and serving maids, scurrying around with
trays, attending to the people at the tables, who called for ices and
sweets, or drinks, to be sipped. His chief customers were among the
fashionable folks of Lucerne. For, in Hilty’s vision, his was the resort of
the most stylish people in the city.

Out in the kitchen, another company of cooks, confectioners,

dishwashers, and porters, kept hard at work; and, during rush hours, they
were nearly ready to faint. At the rear, two clerks were kept busy, every
moment, checking off the receipts, of boxes and barrels of white and
brown [63]sugar, sorghum, syrup, liquors, and all sorts of flavoring
extracts, besides delicacies imported from Constantinople, Calcutta,
Teheran, and Nagasaki.

On the shop front, the plate glass bore the name of “Jean Hilty,” in large
gold letters, and below this, one read “The Home of Hilty’s Famous
Genuine Swiss Mountain Confectionery and Iceland Moss Paste.”

The highest priced confection was a praline, or compound of nuts and

chocolate, which was packed up in a most dainty box, lined with
perfumed lace paper, and labeled in gold letters “Made according to the
sole receipt ever revealed by the King of the Dwarfs.”

The display, in the big window, of all the delicious things known to the
confectioners, and many of them from foreign countries, advertised to be
of “private growth,” and “imported in our own fleet of ships” was
dazzling.

Most astounding of all, was the tableau over the main entrance. It
consisted of a group of carved and gilded figures, in front of a highly
tinted background, showing the dwarf at the fire, with the well-spread
tables and the dairyman as his guest.

Out on the street, the crowd that stood on the pavement, gazing up to see
this pretty picture, in bas-relief, was so great, that the police [64]had to
make a lane and keep open a passage way, through the press of old and
young folks, so that ordinary people could get through.
So, for a half hour or more, inside that shepherd’s brain, a moving
picture show went on, as if a five-reel film was being rolled off, and his
imagination had spread the screen. The bright colors, in this picture, of
the furore for dwarf’s candy exceeded any gallery of paintings known in
Paris, or any panorama that could be made on canvas.

In fact the dairyman was so sure of the good time coming, that, with his
eyes wide open, he actually rubbed his two hands gleefully, right before
the dwarf. The next thing he did, was that he so far forgot his promise, as
to be heard in his glee. Instead of holding his tongue in silence, he talked
out loud to himself saying, “Am I not a lucky fellow? By Saint Matthew,
I am in luck, this time, surely.”

Hearing the strange noise, the King of the dwarfs turned around to look.
In one hand was his skillet, and in the other a ladle and a cloth; and with
both he was holding a very hot kettle, full of some liquid. In fact, he was
just about to pour out the boiling chocolate over a dish of caramels, made
after his own recipe.

But seeing the lazy lubber, wide awake, when he was believed to be fast
asleep, the dwarf’s [65]whole appearance changed. Instead of smiles, in
his usually happy manner, his eyes blazed with wrath, like fire. His face
wore one long scowl. He danced with rage, and screamed out,

“So that’s the way you keep your word, is it? You ungrateful bumpkin!
Take that, and that!”

Then, he flung the pot of hot chocolate at the fellow’s head, and followed
up his attack, with the ladle and cloth, batting him out of the cave.

What happened just after that, the dairyman never could, or would tell.
He was so stunned, that he lay insensible for several hours, as he
thought. The scalding, from the hot chocolate, made his face smart
fearfully. Tearing off part of his shirt, he bandaged up his head and
features as best he could, and then hobbled back home. It was weeks,
before his broken head was mended enough, and the ugly scars on his
face had healed. At last, he showed himself on the street, where the small
boys made his life a burden.

Henceforth the neighbors nicknamed him “The Dwarf’s Guest,” but he

never set up a candy store. [66]
[Contents]
VII
 TWO GOOD NATURED DRAGONS
The whole family of dragons, that are scattered all over the world, have a
very bad reputation. It is said that they feed on fat girls, and will not taste
anything but nice, tender, juicy maidens. If they try to eat old folks, and
grown up people, they get a stomach ache at once. Then, it takes many
bottles of medicine, besides keeping them a long time on a baby’s diet of
milk and bread, while they are getting well, before they are in full health
again.

But when they regain their appetite, they roam around through the
country, devouring maidens by the dozen. Then all the fathers, that have
lovely daughters, must be on their guard. They keep their girls at home,
for fear there will be none of them left.

This habit of the dragons to relish, on their bill of fare, only lovely
maidens, makes the brave young men want to fight and kill the monsters,
because, with so few girls left, they fear that they may not be able to get
wives, and, without these, they cannot have homes or be husbands. [67]

But the old dragons were foxy fellows, very cunning and crafty. So they
kept out of the way of the knights and heroes, with their swords and
spears, and arrows, and bow guns: and even from the fairies, who cast
spells over them. It was only once in a while, that a lucky fellow, like
Saint George, could stick his spear clear down the monster’s throat. It
happened, only rarely, that one like Sigurd, the Norseman, or Susanoo,
the Japanese, was able to slay one of the big, clumsy, crawling creatures,
with their trusty swords.

Happily there came, once in a while, a good natured dragon; that is, the
right sort of a fellow, jolly in disposition, and kind to boys. Such a
dragon would even invite a well-behaved man to take dinner with him,
and even point out what food on the dragon’s table tasted best.
Of course, the man would not always like what was served up before him
to eat; for a mortal cannot always enjoy what comes out of the dragon’s
kitchen, nor can he be sure of what he may be swallowing. Nobody
enjoys chewing up his grandmother, or his aunts, or cousins, or sisters,
even though he might, once in a great while, feel like doing so.

So when one goes to see a dragon, and does not, himself, get swallowed
up, he had better take [68]a sandwich or two with him, and not taste the
dragon’s delicacies.

No pretty girl, or plump young lady, ought ever to pay a visit to a

dragon’s cave, because, however kind and polite the monster would wish
to be, to his guest, his appetite might be too strong for him. Moreover,
the very sight of the lovely maiden might make his mouth water, and
then, after roaring out, “um, um,” he would be very apt to gulp her down,
at one mouthful. This might happen so quickly, that she would not know
where she was, or even think what her mother would say, when she
missed her, on ironing day. So, even in the case of a well-behaved
dragon, or one supposed to have a good character, any person had better
be careful about visiting a dragon’s cave.

Now there was a man in Switzerland, a cooper, who made tubs and
buckets, and, once in a great while, a hogshead or a bath tub. His shop
sign was a well-hooped barrel, set over his doorway. He was especially
expert at making and mending milk churns. Some of the girls used to
declare that butter came more quickly, and with less hard work, in churns
made by him, than in any others.

His name was not Rip Van Winkle, whose father, by the way, was born in
Germany, but he had a wife with a bad temper. She had a great
[69]reputation for scolding. It was said that her “tongue, which was only
three inches long, could kill a man six feet high.” In fact, some folks
declared that she did not need a sword, but she could fight a dragon with
her fiery tongue alone. Let her but open her mouth, and such a volley of
abuse would be shot out, at the monster, that, no matter how big, or how
hungry he was, he would curl up his tail and run, or else flap his wings,
like a frightened chicken, and be off.

Now when this cooper was asked how he felt, about having such a scold
for a wife, he used to make apologies, and say, “Well, it was not always
so. Once, she was so sweet and lovely, that I wanted to eat her up.”

Then, after a minute or two, he would add, “And I have always been
sorry, ever since, that I did not do it.”

When his wife heard of this, she called him “the son of a dragon, and a
woman-eater.”

One day, the cooper received an unusually severe punishment, not at the
hands, but from the mouth of his wife. This, however, he richly
deserved; for, after drinking, with his companions, all night, she had
found him lying in the gutter. After she had rolled him over, like a
flapjack, to see if the drunken lout was her husband, he got up, looking
very sheepish. Then he promised [70]to work hard that day. So she went
back home, to get his breakfast ready.

But instead of going to his house or shop, where the wood shavings
smelled so sweet, he resolved to take a walk, to get rid of a splitting
headache. So he scrambled up the mountain side, expecting, on his
return, to tell his wife, that he had been out in the woods, looking for
timber, to make hoops and barrel staves.

He hardly knew where he was going, for he was stupid and half dizzy,
from so much drink, from the night before, and pretty soon he slipped
and fell. Over and over, he rolled, until, coming to the edge of a
precipice, he stumbled and slid far down into a bog. This cooled him off
and brought him to his senses.

He tried long to find the way out, but could see no hole or cleft in the
rocks. After a while, he saw what looked like a tunnel, or, it might be, a
grotto.
Entering in and peering about him, he discerned four great round lights,
like moons. At this, his heart began to beat, his blood to swell in his
veins, and his hair to rise, nearly knocking his hat off. He saw two
streams of fire issue from beneath and between these shining orbs. After
a few seconds, he saw clearly two dragons, that were breathing out
streams of fire, that [71]nearly scorched off his eyebrows, while the
sulphurous smell nearly knocked him over.

At this, the cooper made the sign of the cross, and prayed for protection.
Thereupon, both the dragons, that had got their jaws ready to swallow
him, shut their mouths. They crawled up gently, with their tails down,
and they gave him to understand that they were friendly, by licking his
hands and feet. This they kept on doing, until all the mud, into which he
had tumbled, and which had stuck to his clothes, was entirely gone. It
was almost like taking a steam bath.

As the winter came on, the appetite of the dragons became less ravenous
and they ate little. Like bears and marmots, they went into their cave, and
kept very quiet, as if asleep. Moreover, even in summer, when these
dragons could not get a supply of maidens, they devoured a sweetish
substance, that exuded from a cleft in the rocks, which must have been
filled by a colony of bees, for honey trickled plentifully down into the
gully. At any rate, the cooper got to like the dragon’s winter food so well,
that he wondered how he could ever have enjoyed black bread and
cheese. In a month, his stomach got quite used to the new diet.

He was not afraid of the dragons, and they seemed to enjoy his company.
Perhaps they thought that, when the spring should come, he [72]might tell
them, when his wife went abroad out of the house; and then, if starving,
they might make a dinner of her.

Meanwhile, the cooper was missed in the village; and, as people wanted
their tubs mended, several parties of strong young men climbed the
mountains to find him. They sought in every grove and wood, over hill
and down dale, in valley, and on the slopes, but his body could not be
found. So, he was mourned as dead; for, in spite of his faults, he was
considered a good fellow.

But in spring time, when the sun began to climb high in the sky, and the
sap rose in the trees, the flowers bloomed, and, the cows went, with the
cheesemakers, to the higher pastures, the two dragons grew restless, and
their appetites came back in full force. Hoping to catch a nice fat maiden
or two, they began to stretch, and roll, and to writhe, and tumble. They
flapped, and furled, and unfolded their wings, until they felt ready to soar
and swoop, with all their former skill.

By this time, also, the cooper began to get homesick. Even though afraid
to meet his wife, he was longing to see his children, after his long
absence. He had got very tired of looking only on rocks and the walls of
the ravine. Moreover, the dragons did not seem to be as sociable, [73]as at
first, and they amused him no longer. Besides, he wanted to see his
neighbors again, to tell them of his adventures and even to pose as a
hero. He feared, however, that before he tried to get away, the dragons
might still eat him up; for they snorted, and bellowed, and rubbed their
stomachs, with their forepaws, as if hungry enough, indeed, to swallow a
horse with its harness on.

One warm day, the cooper heard, afar off, the echoes of the Alpine horn.
He listened with delight to the yodel music, as the shepherds called their
cows and goats. As he was wondering how he could get out of the valley,
and whether the dragons would let him go, he saw the larger one of the
two monsters unfurl his wings, which were as big as a windmill’s sails.
He flew straight up in the air, and, when near the blue sky, circled about
a few times, like the carrier pigeons, which the cooper had seen at home.
Then, careering far away, he disappeared in the dim distance beyond. No
doubt, that day, some poor daddy, on coming home at night, missed one
of his daughters. The cooper had noticed, that both the dragons had been
roaring with hunger, for several days previously, and now he had his
fears.
So the cooper watched his chance, determined not to let the other dragon
get away, without his stealing a ride on the monster’s back. He knew
[74]that a man’s weight, for a dragon to carry in the air, would hardly be
felt, so much as that of a feather.

For a dragon had the power of a catapult, the strength of a rhinoceros, a

roar like a lion, teeth like a tiger, fins like a fish, claws like a falcon,
wings like an eagle, and scales like an alligator. In short, a dragon was a
whole menagerie in itself.

So watching his chance, the cooper, at the very moment that he saw the
second dragon unfold his wings, grabbed hold of his tail; and, though it
was slippery, he hung on to this, for dear life. Far up in the air, the
monster flew, at first very high, and then low, as if he knew where the
cooper lived. Then, coming near his village, the monster swooped down
near the earth, and dropped his burden gently on the top of a wagon
loaded with hay. He was off before any one could let fly an arrow from
the string, or shoot a bolt out of a bow gun, or say “By Saint Matthew.”

As the cooper climbed down from the hay wagon, all the ducks, geese
and chickens set up a concert of welcome. Donkeys brayed, the cows
lowed, and dogs barked, and cats meowed. His wife, instead of scolding
him, threw her arms around him, and wept for joy. His children gathered
about, and so held his arms and [75]legs, that puss could not get near to
rub her sides against his limbs. All his neighbors and friends welcomed
him back with delight.

The next day, his shop was filled with leaky tubs, and churns that had
lost their hoops, and barrels that needed new staves. In addition, to this
old work awaiting him, the orders for new utensils came in so fast, that
he expected soon to be a rich man. He was so grateful, for his
deliverance and safe return, and for his continuing prosperity, that,
instead of hoarding up his money, he presented, to the church, in his
village, a beautiful silver communion service, on which two dragons
were engraved.
But his happiness was but for a short time, for his stomach had changed,
and could no longer digest the ordinary food of mortals, not even
buttermilk; and, as for cheese, it nearly killed him. Feeding so long, on
honey and dragon’s food, had ruined him for liking any other articles of
diet.

In vain his wife cooked everything very nicely and offered it in the most
tempting form. The maidens of the village, thankful at not being digested
by dragons, tried their best to tempt his appetite, with the very finest
their dainty hands could make, in the form of broths, salads, meats,
cakes, apple dumplings, puddings and tarts. The delicatessen shops sent
the choicest tidbits [76]they could roast before their spits, bake in their
ovens, or show on their tables, or in their shop windows. Nothing would
avail, and the poor man died of slow starvation; and this, before even
autumn had come.

After so sad an event, the popularity of even good dragons waned, so

that it is hard, nowadays, to make anyone believe there were such
creatures, that are named in encyclopædias. It is now, the firm opinion of
most Swiss folks, old and young, that the only good dragon is a dead
one, while those neither dead or alive, but only painted, or in fairy tales,
are good enough to know about. [77]
[Contents]
VIII
 THE FROST GIANTS AND THE SUNBEAM
FAIRIES
Many people think Switzerland the most beautiful country on earth. It is
certainly the world’s playground. Every year, many hundreds of
thousands of persons from various countries, go there to spend either the
winter or the summer. They come to enjoy the good sleep that comes
from the bracing air, to climb the high peaks, to see the flowers, to hear
the echoes of the Alpine horn, to ride over the mountain roads, or to be
whisked up, on electric railways, to summits among the clouds. With
most of the tourists, the effect of the sharp atmosphere is to whet their
appetites, even more than their wits; but perhaps this is what they seek.

The sick and the well alike get vast benefit. They think it great fun to
find so much ice and snow, and also so much sunshine, as if winter and
summer liked to play together. In February, hardy and strong people
enjoy sledding and sliding, besides skis and skittles, and [78]many other
merry sports. Children go out on sleds, with almost nothing on them, to
enjoy the air baths.

Yet Switzerland was not always a flowery playground, rich in splendid

hotels, where the boarders’ bills catch the spirit of the place and become
mountain climbers. For ages, it was a sort of North Pole, set in the
middle of Europe, frozen in, tight and fast, and with mountains of snow
and rivers of ice, where no animals could live. In this age, everything
was white. Then there were no animals, men, women, children or babies;
no flowers, no birds, no fish; no farms, no vineyards, but only dreadful
cold, all the year round, and for millions of years.

Then the frost giants ruled a land forever white with snow, that never
melted, and their king sat on the top of a solid mountain of ice. These
frost giants would not allow anything alive to come near them. They
made it the law that, whatever had eyes or nose, feet or hands, or paws or
wings, should be instantly frozen to death, and their solid carcasses
packed away in a refrigerator, a million years old.

The queen of the fairies, that lived down in the warm meadows, felt
sorry that so fine a place should have nothing in it that was alive, or had
any color, red, pink, blue, or yellow, violet or green. She believed that
the land could be conquered [79]from the frost giants and made a country
in which boys and girls could play and pick flowers.

It might, indeed, take several millions of years to melt the ice and cover
the ground with flowery meadows. But what was that? Because fairies
never care anything about days, months or years. They never grow old
and do not use almanacs, because not dwelling in bodies like ours, and
never having lived like us mortals, they do not get sick or have any
funerals or cemeteries. They are saved all expenses of being buried, for
they do not have any graves. There are no doctors, or undertakers, in
fairy land, even though the immortelle flowers bloom everywhere. It
seems to be that because some are wiser than others that they may be
called old, or mothers, aunts or grandmothers.

To carry out her purpose, the fairy queen made a friend of the sun and
asked his help. This, Old Sol, as the fairies called him, was very glad to
give; because he had rescued other parts of the world from the ice-kings
and made many lands bright and beautiful. He thought that the monarch
of the frost world and his white giants had reigned long enough, in
Switzerland. Besides, Old Sol wanted to show that he had not yet done
his best work. It is true that he had made other lands look lovely,
changing them [80]from barren rocks and sand, to fruitful fields, groves
and gardens, rich in wheat and corn, fruit trees and berry bushes, besides
peaches and apples and pears, roses and lilies.

Old Sol declared that, with the aid of the fairies, he would make
Switzerland the most beautiful of all countries, so that many people from
foreign lands would come to see it. He would scoop out lakes, channel
out rivers, smooth the face of the country, and make it lovely with
pastures, rich in cows and goats, and spangled with flowers of many
hues. Yes, if the fairies would promise to put enough clothes on their
favorites, and wrap them up in downy undergarments, with lots of fur
and wool for overcoats, he would help the prettiest flowers to climb up to
the high mountains. Then he would promise to furnish heat enough, so
that they could keep warm and live there. He would make it so pleasant
for them, that they would never get homesick, or want to go back to their
mothers in the valley below. In spite of the frost giants, the storms and
winds, the tempests, and the icy breath of the giants, these flowers would
bloom, and nod, and laugh at and defy all enemies.

What was even more wonderful, Old Sol promised that every flower, as
it climbed higher, should have a richer color on its cheeks, so that all the
world would wonder. Then, the plants, [81]in the warmer regions lower
down, should envy the brilliant faces of their sisters so high up. In fact, it
was to be a beauty contest. “Nothing venture nothing have,” should be
the rule. They might not grow to be so tall. Their feet might be larger, for
they would need strong toes, to hold on tight to the ground, when old
Boreas, the wind giant, tried his best to blow them away; but to win out,
they were sure to do, in the end, and beat Jack Frost and all his army.

When the fairies were called together, and told by their queen that the
Sun would be their friend and help them every day, and never tire of his
good work, you ought to have seen how happy they were. They all
clapped their hands, and every one, big and little, wanted to be brave and
go out to fight the frost giants. Each volunteer said, “I am not afraid. The
frost giants can’t freeze me.”

It was wonderful how the pretty fairies were perfectly willing to be

changed into humble looking plants, that never could grow very tall, but
lie quite flat on the ground, and have deep roots in the crannies. They
would have to live without much society, or excitement, and spend their
lives in clefts and hollows. What was hardest to bear, was, that most of
them would have to live like nuns; for in the case of many of them,
[82]their beauty would never be appreciated or even seen.
Some were glad even to become plain meadow grasses. When one plump
fairy was told she would become an Alpine Poa, and must carry her
babies on her back, she gladly consented saying, “I am willing.”

The enthusiasm for the war became an epidemic. Some of the big fairies
asked to be changed into trees—oak, maple, spruce, pine, or birch. This
was hard, for those who had been regular chatterboxes would now be
able only to sough in the breeze, or whisper in the winds, and they could
roar only in a gale or tempest. Some even begged to be allowed to take
on the form of the old-fashioned arolla, the most ancient of all the Swiss
trees.

It was astonishing to note how ready, these pretty fairies were, to put off
their lovely gossamer-like robes, lay aside their wings, and wear such
plain clothes, as some of them must, who volunteered to be meadow and
rock plants. But then, the idea of fighting the frost giants, and rescuing
the land from ice and snow, had filled them all with enthusiasm. It was
like patriotism among mortals. But then, they loved the children and
wanted them to have a pretty playground made ready for them, so that,
when babies and cradles came into the land, the flowers [83]would be in
bloom, for the little folks to pick and string around their necks.

So the queen of the fairies and her wise counsellors enrolled and
equipped an army of her fairies, who had agreed to be turned into plants,
for the long war against the frost giants. Of all these, Old Sol was to be
the general. Heaps of fur and flannel, wool and velvet, and hair and
down, were stored up, to make thick underclothes, and stout overcoats to
keep warm, and all sorts of wiry stuff, for toes to grip tight and keep hold
of the rocks. Then, with plenty of rich paints and dyes, to color their
cheeks, the Fairy Queen summoned the volunteers to come forth.

As each name was called, and a fairy stepped out, the queen waved her
wand. First, she pointed it upward, to where the stars were playing hide
and seek among the snowy peaks. Then, touching each kneeling fairy,
she tapped with her star-tipped wand, upon the neck of each.
Presto! What change! Eyes, nose, ears, lovely yellow, or raven black, or
shining auburn hair, limbs, hands and feet and wings disappeared, in a
golden mist.

When one looked again, there was, where each fairy had kneeled down,
a flower. Never was the like seen before, in all the wonderful floral
[84]world, either as to the kind, or blossom, or the shape of the stalk,
leaves or petals of the plants. Some hardly looked like flowers at all,
while others were recognized at once, as cousins or sisters of old friends;
but so dressed up, as if for an arctic journey, as scarcely to be
recognized. One had a family of little folks on its back—“As hairy and
furry as an Esquimaux baby,” whispered one fairy to the other.

Here was one creature, dazzlingly splendid in colors, while, alongside of

her, was a little lady robed entirely in white, as if she were to be the bride
of Jack Frost, and marry him in a country where the tint of ermine and
ptarmigan bird was the only one in fashion.

The lowliness, of some of these new born flowers, was perhaps the most
astonishing thing about them. Even when in bloom they were not over an
inch in height, while their neighbors, down in the valley, were all nearly
as tall as yard sticks. One group became only plain meadow grass, while
their relatives seemed dressed for Fifth Avenue, or the main street of
Zurich or Berne.

Although, when the fairies were turned into trees, and were, at first,
hardly higher than a needle, and not one of them had a body as thick as a
thimble, they at once began whispering, for [85]it was hard to give up the
old habit of talking every minute.

Of one pretty creature, shaped like a blue bell, with scalloped edges, it
was noticed that she shut up her mouth, and did not say a word. At this,
one wise old fairy looked up at the sky, and said, “It is certainly going to
rain.” Thereupon, since flowers were so cheap, this one, they called “the
poor man’s weather glass.” Another, that had a curiously shaped
blossom, they named Lady’s Slipper. To still another, very reddish, tufty,
and strong, they gave the title of Prince’s Feather; while an unusually
pert and active one, that had a very expressive face, they christened
Johnny-jump-up. This fairy had whimpered a little, at the idea of being
named after a boy; but, when told she would have clothes of many
colors, she was instantly happy, and welcomed her change into a flower
with a face that would never need rouge, or lily white powder.

While these, thus far mentioned, were mostly valley or pasture flowers,
and not expected to live very far up the mountain slopes, several others
volunteered to lead what some called “the forlorn hope,” but they were
too full of “pep” for that and took the name of the advance guard. These
were especially equipped for fighting the cold. These were the edelweiss,
the Alpine rose, and the octopetalla. They were made so frost-proof,
[86]by fur and thick clothes, that they could laugh in the very faces of the
frost giants, and dare them to do their worst in trying their best to freeze
them out.

Of the one, that seemed done up entirely in white flannel, and that kept
its blooms in a bunch, like a rosette, everybody knows, for it was the
edelweiss—proud of her name, the noble white.

Millions of fairies gathered together on the hill slopes, to see the

procession start, and did not mind waiting a thousand years or so. They
hung on bushes, sat on top of rocks and boulders and on the tree-
branches, or stood or hovered, wherever they could get either a peep, or a
good view of the fairy flower army, that was to march up to the heights
and wrestle with the giants.

Some wondered how the battle would go, and if the war would ever end.
Could they possibly march up the mountain sides, and hold their own,
amid the blasts of winter and amid the eternal snow and ice, and win the
land now covered up? Not a sign of field, or pasture, or road, or any
space clear of snow, was then visible. There was nothing but ice, many
miles thick and looming so far up in the air, as to seem, at night, to touch
the stars. The jagged rocks, splintered by the lightning, and the mountain
sides, clothed [87]with glaciers, like armor, and which were billions of
tons in weight, seemed very forbidding.

“Just give us a few millions of years, and we’ll surely win,” cried the
fairy queen, who was proud of her beautiful army, and who, with them
all, knew or cared nothing for what we call time.

Fairies never cry, but some felt as if they might weep, to see so many
pretty flowers killed, as they feared they would be. Even the idea of the
chills and shivers, they would have to suffer, made some of the timid
ones feel creepy.

Even suppose they could survive ice and frost, and the cold breath of the
strong winds, that might uproot them, how could they resist the
avalanches, that might overwhelm and crush them? If whole forests of
giant trees were often leveled, like egg shells, and flattened like
flounders, by these rolling terrors, or torn up by landslides, or ground to
gravel, by falling rocks, or carried away by landslides, how could tiny
and tender flowers hope to escape?

But the fairy queen knew the power of her friend, the Sun, and the
tenacity and perseverance of her flower children. So, laughing at such
forebodings, she bade the lovely flowers and little trees begin their
march. Their orders to advance were steadily “forward and upward.”
They were to hold the ground gained, inch by inch. They must even try,
again and again, to [88]split the rocks, and be willing to suffer cold, wet,
wind, and not be out of sorts, or show bad temper, when it rained too
much, or the clouds hid the sun. They must take advantage of every
nook, crevice, crack and cranny.

“Don’t be alarmed,” said one wise fairy to her neighbor. “I’ll warrant
you they will pretty soon complain that it is too hot, and sometimes even
ask the sun to veil his face with clouds. When the evil imps, that ride on
the Föhn, or south wind, visit them, one or more will be eager to marry a
frost giant, to keep cool.”
But the other fairy said, “that is only gossip,” and she did not believe
they would “ever be sorry and want to change back.”

When, after their first victories, the cows and goats should come, and the
birds make their nests, and men and women arrive, and the boys and
girls play, these fairies, thus changed into flowers, were not to object to
have their stalks eaten up by the cattle, or their seeds to be swallowed by
the birds, or their blossoms to be plucked by the children. Even when
they should come to their best bloom, and seem too pretty to be touched,
they were to welcome the cows and goats.

To all these directions, the new plants, trees, and flowers, nodded their
heads, and the war began. The older fairies went back to the vineyards,
[89]groves, forests, dales and meadows, in the lower lands of sunshine, of
mild climate, and of fair weather, and the battle was on.

Several millions of years slipped away, and some of the fairies in the
warm countries had almost forgot their cousins in the high Alps. Then it
happened that some thousands of them made up a party to go and visit
what they had once left long ago, as a polar region, of thick ice where no
land was visible.

What a change, and how lovely! When they reached Switzerland, and
looked over the landscape, they could not, at first, believe their own
eyes. True, it was mid-summer when they arrived; but, as far as the eye
could reach, they beheld valleys and meadows spangled with flowers,
from which floated the sound, or echoes, of tinkling bells, where
contented cows and goats were browsing. On the sweet perfumed air,
were wafted the aromatic odors of the delicious herbage, freshly cropped
by the cattle. Pretty houses, on the flat spaces, or perched on the hill
slopes, told of happy homes. Children were playing games, or picking
flowers. Church spires pointed toward Heaven. In one village, a great
long parade of sleek cows, their well groomed coats shining in the sun,
and one with a milking stool between her horns, was moving up, where
the grass was most luscious. Donkeys [90]and horses, laden with cheese
and garden produce, were moving in lengthened lines to the markets.
Here and there, castles, chalets, bridges, church spires, and thickly
clustered houses, told of villages, towns and cities; for man was now in
possession, and all the world rejoiced. It was like an heiress receiving her
fortune, for human beings thus to enter into the enjoyment of the lovely
landscape and beautiful country, which the fairies had helped so grandly
to create. [91]
[Contents]
IX
 THE FAIRY IN THE CUCKOO CLOCK
As a rule, and certainly with most fairies, mortals are considered to be
very stupid. In fairyland, the reputation of human beings, as dull witted
and slow, is a fixed tradition.

Before doing a new thing, men and women have to think it out. They talk
a good deal about “cause and effect”; whereas, with fairies, there are no
causes, but things, and events just happen. If they do not, the fairies
make them.

Some situations, like the sun and moon, the earth and sky, the summer
and winter, cannot be changed. Yet fairies can bring to pass lots of
wonders that surprise men. They can play tricks that puzzle them beyond
measure.

A hundred years ago, before the days of tourists, alpenstocks, hotels,

electric railroads, and other foolish novelties, the guides, and all village
folk, believed in the fairies. They felt as sure of giants and dwarfs, elves,
and dragons, as folk of today, that never saw a dodo, or a pterodactyl, or
an auroch, or a five-toed horse, believe these were once plentiful on the
earth. [92]

In fact, there was once a time, when men had no clocks or wrist-watches,
and girls did not carry at their waist the pretty gold or nickel time-
keepers of today. Nor did the big bells in the towers boom out the hours,
nor were the huge clock-faces or dials seen, by day or by night. In the
castles of Switzerland, where rich men or nobles lived, they knew
nothing about marking the hours and minutes by anything, with a round
face, having figures on it. One way to announce the hours was to have a
candle, with two little brass balls, on opposite sides of the wax, and tied
together with a string. When the flame burned, say, an inch, or other
measured space, the balls dropped down into a brass basin. This made a
loud, ringing noise, which sounded out the hours. Or, a little hammer
struck a bell, and that is the reason why a clock, as its name was at first,
was called a klok, or bell. On ships, the bells sounded every hour, and
half hour, and this is still the method, to which sailors are accustomed;
“eight bells” marking the end of one of the three periods of four hours
each, into which the day is divided.

The fairies could always tell the time, as well as men, by the sun, but
they were more interested in the moon and stars, for night was their joy
time. The common people had no word for a minute, or a second, or
anything less than an [93]hour. They knew when the sun rose and set, and
they guessed the time of day from the place of the sun in the sky—at the
east, as it rose in the morning, and during the afternoon, as it sank in the
west.

After the Alpen glow, or rosy light, that flushed the mountains like a
maiden’s blush, the fairies came out to dance in the meadows. They
always went away and disappeared at sunrise, for the dancing fairies
would be turned into stone, if the sun’s rays struck them. It was even
worse for them, than for mortals, who, even amid the ice and snow, when
climbing high mountains, might be sunstruck and die. One family of the
flowers they named Four o’Clocks.

But by and bye, men learned that they could set two sticks in a line north
and south, and the shadow line from one stick would touch the other.
They called this time twelve o’clock, or noon. The old men also took
notice that, in the long days of summer, the sun lengthened and, in cold
winter, shortened its shadows. They were thus able to count the days
before the flowers would bloom in the springtime. Then the yodel music
would sound and the cows be driven to pasture up in the high mountains.

From this noon shadow of the sun, men got the idea of the sundial.
Placing a round disc, or plate, made of brass, or copper, on a stone or
[94]post, and setting on one side of it a metal pin, they noticed the sun’s
shadow going round it in a circle. On the spaces, they marked the hours.
Soon, it became the general fashion to have sundials in the gardens.
Yet all the time the fairies laughed at mortals and declared that if they
could live on the earth, during the sunshiny hours, they would be able to
tell the time of day from the flowers and the sun’s place in the sky. So,
just for the fun of it, whenever they noticed a new sundial, of brass, or
stone, set up in a garden, they invariably held a ball, and danced around
it all night.

Once in a while, they went into a church when no one was there, and
walked and sported around the hour glass in the pulpit.

Of the arrant stupidity of some mortals, the fairies became finally and
perfectly sure, when one night, they gathered together for a merry dance
around a new sundial. This had been placed, only that day, in a garden
owned by an old fellow, who was reputed, by his neighbors, to be a very
wise man. The fairies were interrupted in their plan of playing ring-
around-a-rosy, when their sentinel, set to watch, had seen a strange sight
and called out a loud alarm.

Now this funny old fellow had a name which, if translated, into English,
would be Soft Pudding. He was a kind-hearted chap, that loved [95]the
birds, and his pets, and children, but he was a most absent-minded
codger. He never knew where his hat was, when he went outdoors, so his
wife tied it, by a string, on to his button hole, as she did the little
children’s mittens with a bit of tape, over their shoulders. Yet he was a
delightful daddy, and all the little folks loved him.

Mr. Soft Pudding gladly paid the bill for his new toy, the sundial. He was
so overjoyed at the idea of telling time by a shadow, that he talked about
it for hours. Indeed, he was so absorbed in it, that he forgot all about the
sun, and the necessity of its shining, or that daylight was at all requisite
for his enjoyment, in looking at the sundial.

So, on one cool autumn night, old Soft Pudding put on his cloak, lighted
his lantern, and walked out into the garden to see what time it might be!
Fool that he was, he found that as he changed the position of the lantern,
its rays every time cast a new shadow. Instead of its showing one time, it