The Little Folk

If enough people believe in something that isn't, does that make it so? Conversely, if enough people don't believe in something that is, does that make it not so?

Charles H. Grooms

Butterleaf was sad and gloomy. Depressed might be an even better word to describe his condition. People just didn't believe anymore. It was enough to make anyone sad, especially one of his kind.

Years ago, when he was young, things had been different. Back then, everyone believed in fairies and elves and leprechauns and dwarves and all of the rest of the little folk. They would often even leave a bowl of milk out for them, not that he had ever particularly liked milk, and it often wound up being consumed by some animal before one of the little folk had gotten to it, but it was the idea of the thing. Some of the big people had left it out for them out of genuine concern, others left it as a bribe because they wanted something and still others because they feared what might happen if they didn't leave some on occasion. But the point was that they believed! That was important.

Today, the only ones who believed in the little folk, besides the little folk themselves, were the simple minded and children, and only the very young children and the very simple minded at that. Big people were just too absolutely cynical today. Belief was very important to the little folk. Their very existence depended on it. Unfortunately, their own belief in themselves didn't count, it was the belief of the big people that was necessary. If it weren't for the children, well he didn't like to think what would happen if it weren't for the children.

Other than the dwarves and the elves, the little folk weren't much for keeping records, their own memories and stories handed down from generation to generation sufficed. Still, in all of his memory, and in all of the stories that he could think of, it was very unusual for one of the little folk to die of old age. It could happen, but it was really the exception rather than the rule. They could be killed by people or animals, and when one of them started getting so old that they were having a hard time in surviving, they generally put themselves in a position so that something like that could happen. Others were killed accidentally.

But in the last hundred years, and even more so in the last fifty years, a worse sort death had been facing them. Death through disbelief. They just sort of faded away. It was sad situation, to watch a friend of a few hundred years slowly fading from existence. First they started feeling a general weakness and lassitude which steadily got worse. Then they started to slowly become transparent and unable to interact with the material world, becoming unable to even pick up a morsel of food because their hand would pass right through it. By that time, they couldn't even eat if fed by someone else. Finally, they would just fade away completely. That was becoming the most common cause of death for the little people these days.

It was enough to depress any of the little folk. This was a new feeling in their long history. People like the dwarves might be very serious and even grumpy at times. Even the elves and leprechauns could be very serious at times, but none of the little folk would have considered depression to be a part of their makeup until recently.

Really serious thought and consideration had never normally been a part of the life of a fairy, they were too fun loving and devil-may-care. But Butterleaf was now doing some very serious thinking. His continued existence, and the existence of the rest of the little folk depended on it. Rats and trolls! Something had to be done about the current state of affairs, or there would soon be no little folk left in the world. And the world would be a much poorer place for it, in Butterleaf's considered opinion.

Butterleaf had a very good memory when he chose to exercise it, and he chose to do so now. He thought back over his life and tried to remember when it had all started. He was still young for a fairy, being only about three hundred fifty years old. It would have to do. He could definitely remember that things were different when he was young. Butterleaf did something that was unprecedented for a fairy. He had been in the forest, sitting on the stump of a tree that the big people had cut down. He had been sitting there for about two hours already, since about noon, thinking about the problem. He sat there until almost four the next afternoon in serious thought about the problem. Fairies were normally much too fun loving and carefree to spend more than a very few minutes on any problem. After that, if the problem didn't go away, they normally just ignored it, but he didn't feel that he could afford to ignore this problem any more. It was too important.

Finally, he felt that he completely understood the problem, and all of it's attendant causes. All of the little people had always been rather secretive around the big people, trying to stay out of sight. That had been a survival trait in earlier years, and had not been detrimental to them. Then something different had come about. The big people had started a long campaign of education of the masses. They had studied all sorts of subjects, including the sciences. One of the things that they had been taught was, if you can't see it, if you can't measure it, if you can't feel it or weigh it or taste it or smell it, it doesn't exist. Since the little folk had always tried to stay out of sight, by the big people's rules, they didn't exist. And if something didn't exist, then you shouldn't believe in it. Consequently, the current problem had developed.

Now that he felt that he understood the problem, and it's cause, he also felt that it should be one that he could solve fairly easily. If the big people had to be able to see something in order to believe in it, well he could make sure that they saw something. Like one fairy.

He decided to wait until dark and then go into the city. Having made that decision, he realized that he was famished. Fortunately, that was no problem. There were plenty of mushrooms growing nearby and some ripe berries. And contrary to the way that some of his kind were sometimes pictured by the big people, his kind did not use mushrooms for chairs. They did eat them, on the other hand. After he had eaten, he decided to take a nap, since he had not slept at all last night.

He awoke just as it was getting dark. He had a drink from a nearby stream and decided that it was time to go. He spread his wings and leapt into the air, flapping vigorously. Soon, he was flying along just above the treetops. He remained ever vigilant for owls. No sense in getting eaten just as he had solved the problem. He felt absolutely jubilant for the first time in years.

He had soon left the forest behind, and flew on past some farms to the city. He decided on a residential suburban neighborhood and found a safe place in a tree to spend the remainder of the night.

Dawn found Butterleaf perched on the limb of a largish oak tree, waiting for the right moment. To say that he was nervous would be a gross understatement. Then it seemed that all of a sudden, every big person in the area decided to come out of their houses at the same time. Of course, that wasn't really the case, but to Butterleaf, it seemed that way. What was actually happening was that school children were coming out to catch the school bus, and the adults were getting into their cars to go to work. Butterleaf just couldn't go down there into all of that! Three hundred plus years of conditioning to stay out of the sight of the big people was too strong to overcome with that many big people around.

Finally, things calmed down and Butterleaf was afraid that all of the big people had left the area. Still he waited. Eventually, the moment for which he had been waiting arrived. Several houses down the street, a young woman and a little girl came out of a house and headed in his direction. Butterleaf flew down from the tree and stood in the center of the lawn in front of one of the houses, in full view. It was the hardest thing that he had ever done. With wings trembling slightly in a combination of fear and nervousness, he waited.

Soon, the woman and child came near enough for them to see him, and the little girl spotted him right away. "Look! Mommy! Its a fairy!" He could feel the child's belief and it was like a shot of strength and energy to him.

"Yes, dear." He could feel the condescension in the woman's voice, and the child heard it too.

"But Mommy! Look. Its a REAL fairy!"

The woman stopped walking, glanced at him and then turned to the child and stooped down so that she could look the child in the face. "Now, Susie, you know that there are no real fairies. They are just make believe and pretend. That is only a doll that some child has left out."

Butterleaf was so shocked that he couldn't move. The woman thought that he was a doll, a toy! He could feel the little girl's doubt. In the light of her mother's denial, she wasn't sure anymore.

The woman stood and they started to walk away. The little girl turned her head and looked back at him. When she did, he flew back to the tree.

"He flew away, Mommy." The child believed again and he could feel the belief. It helped.

"Yes, dear." They walked on.

Twice more that day, similar events took place. On both occasions, the child believed.

Finally, as the children were coming home from school, a group of boys saw him. "Hey! Look. Some kid left a doll on the lawn."

"Yeah. That's dumb! A doll fairy!" The boys didn't believe. One of them picked up a rock and threw it at Butterleaf. It was fortunate for Butterleaf that his aim wasn't very good and he missed. Butterleaf decided that it was time to vacate the area. He flew off. He could feel the surprise and disbelief at what they were seeing mingled with a tinge of belief from the boys.

He hid for the rest of the day and that night flew back to the safety of the forest.

The next day, he thought about what had happened in the city. The belief of the children had helped him. He felt stronger than he had felt in years. Although there were problems involved, he truly felt that he had discovered the solution to the little folk's problem. Now the new problem was to instigate the solution on a large scale, and to get others involved. He talked to a few birds, rabbits, squirrels, bees and butterflies. He asked them to carry some messages for him. Of course, none of them would travel very far, but in the course of the day, each of them would come into contact with others of their kind and pass the messages on. The word would get around.

A week later, a large number of fairies, with a small assortment of other types of little folk gathered in the forest glen. The squirrels and rabbits in the area had been recruited to watch for the approach of humans for them. When all were seated, Butterleaf stood on his stump and talked to them. He reminded them of what had been happening. Then he explained to them the conclusions that he had come to. Finally, he told them about his adventure and how invigorated he had felt by the belief that had been generated. Then he outlined his plan. In essence, what he had in mind was that all of the little folk would pick their times and let the big people see them. If enough big people saw them, they would have to start believing again. That would be healthy for all of the little folk.

Most of the little folk, particularly the dwarves were skeptical. It was fortunate that there were two elves present, and most of the little folk respected the elvish intelligence.

One of the elves, Raindrop by name, stood up and spoke. "I have very carefully considered all that Butterleaf has said here today. First of all, let me say that I am very surprised that a fairy could spend the effort and thought on a problem that he has. Then to come up with such a plan and even execute it is even more surprising. But after careful consideration, I feel that he is absolutely right, and I support his plan fullheartedly. Eight days ago, we felt a very faint wash of belief. At the time, we had no idea what it was caused by, now we know. When we leave here to return to our own people, I intend to fully endorse Butterleaf's plan. I am sure that my friend, Moondance, will concur with me." He sat down and Moondance stood.

"I only wish to state that I fully agree with everything that Raindrop has said. I would like to add that I think that Butterleaf is to be congratulated. If his plan works as I think that it will, we will all owe him a strong vote of thanks, even our continued lives." He sat.

After a little more debate, it was generally agreed to accept Butterleaf's plan. The fact that the elves had endorsed the plan helped. The other, non-fairy little folk present agreed to take the information back to their people, and to note the endorsement of the elves.

***************

A young computer programmer living in New Orleans had decided to go squirrel hunting. He had been raised in the country and missed the freedom that his boyhood lifestyle had afforded. He also developed claustrophobic feelings of being crowded by all of the people in the city. Occasionally, he just had to get away from all of the people and a day in the woods helped. For him, this was to be a most unusual hunting trip. He was silently easing his way through the woods when he was spotted by an imp. The imp decided that this would be a good time to implement Butterleaf's plan and have a little fun at the same time.

The hunter spotted a squirrel in a tree and raised his .22 rifle to add the rodent to the one that he already had. Just as he was about to fire, a tree branch that had been pulled back snapped forward and hit the rifle. The programmer started to curse when he heard a burst of laughter. He quickly looked in the direction of the laughter, spotted the imp and nearly dropped his rifle. The imp quickly disappeared into the underbrush.

When the hunter returned to the city, he called a local TV station and reported the incident. The people at the TV station thanked him politely, decided that he was a fruitcake and promptly forgot about it.

A family of picnickers in West Virginia was startled when a young sprite asked them if she might have an olive. Speachlessly, the young mother placed a pimento stuffed olive on a paper plate and shoved the plate in the direction of the sprite. The sprite picked up the olive, thanked them politely and walked away, munching on the olive. Although the sprite seemed quite calm, she was actually very nervous and remained extremely alert until she was safely under cover. The family quickly finished their picnic and left.

***************

Within a month's time, some news reporters were making tongue in cheek reports about the sightings of various little folk around the world. They were treating it as a joke.

***************

A peaceful neighborhood in Lilburn, an Atlanta suburb, was startled when every dog in the neighborhood started frantically barking. As the residents of the area came out of their houses to see what the problem was, they were greeted with a strange spectacle. Those dogs that were confined to their yards by chains or fences were straining to get out of their yards, while the rest of the dogs were racing up and down the street in a pack, barking furiously.

At first, the people could not see what the cause of the commotion was, then they spotted it. A fairy would fly to one end of the block and land while the pack of dogs chased it, making loudly vocal their anger at the temerity of this strange creature to invade their territory. As the pack of dogs would near the fairy, he would leap into the air, laughing, and fly to the other end of the block, and the dogs would follow. Eventually, the fairy flew away, still laughing. It took the dogs a good half hour to calm down again. Naturally, it made the news.

***************

An elderly lady living in a suburb of Charleston, SC had been having problems with her flower garden. Weeds kept trying to take over the garden and her flowers had not been looking too healthy. She attributed that to the heat. At any rate, at about eight o:clock one morning, she decided that she should weed her garden before it got too hot for her to work outside.

She stepped out of her house and was surprised to see what she took to be a young teenaged boy knelling in the flower bed. She yelled at the boy to get out of her flowers, whereupon he stood, smiled at her and tipped his hat. He had pointed ears and his eyes seemed to be a little too large! The elf calmly ambled off into some woods that grew beside the lady's home.

When the lady inspected her flowers for any damage that the elf might have done, she found that there was not a weed in sight, a mulch of leaves and pine straw covered the ground around the flowers and they looked better than they ever had. She also found a flowering plant that she had never seen before. That night she placed a glass of cold milk on a patio table before she retired. The glass was empty the next morning.

***************

One afternoon, a farmer in western North Carolina had gotten tired of plowing around a large boulder that stood in the middle of his main field. He was working hard to move it, but it wouldn't budge. He had dug out the soil around the boulder so that he could get to it and had been trying to pull it out with his tractor, to no avail. He finally stopped, dismounted from his tractor and stood looking at the boulder, trying to decide what to do next.

Suddenly he was startled by a bass voice behind him that said, "Why don't you break it up, then the smaller pieces will be easier to move."

He turned and was confronted by what he took to be a short man, only about three and a half feet tall and nearly as broad through the shoulders as he was tall. His legs seemed to be a little too short for his height. The man was wearing sturdy boots and brown leather pants, a red jacket and a red cap on his head. He had a long white beard. He reminded the farmer of pictures that he had seen of dwarves in a book of fairy tales when he was a kid.

"Just how do you propose that I might break this blamed thing up?" the farmer asked.

"With a hammer and chisel," the answer rumbled out of the basement.

"Look," the farmer said. "I've got this here nine pound maul, and I swung that at this here blasted thing till I couldn't lift it no more. Didn't hardly make no difference in it at all."

"Whatever you say," said the little man and ambled off.

The farmer worked until nearly sunset and headed back toward his house. That evening, during dinner, he recounted the event to his wife.

"I'm sure that the little man meant well, dear," the farmer's wife said. "And I'm sure that you will figure it out." She had faith in her husband.

The next morning, the farmer headed back out to the field on his tractor. Just in case, he took his maul with him. When he reached the boulder, he found that it had been broken into four roughly equal pieces during the night. There was a piece of parchment leaning against one of the pieces, held in place by a rock. There was a note written on the parchment. It said, "I told you that it would be easier to move if you broke it up. That is what we dwarves would do."

The farmer easily pulled the four pieces out of his field.

***************

Within two month's time of the forest meeting, a few of the big people living on farms or in the country started to leave an occasional bowl of milk on their doorstep at night. Some animal usually feasted on it, but it wasn't always an animal that got it. Some of the little folk of various types that had started to fade, some of them already to the point of no longer being able to feed, grew strong and healthy again.

The name of Butterleaf became known by little folk of all types all around the world. Deep in the mountains, in a cavern unknown by humans, the dwarves carved two statues of Butterleaf, one life sized, the other twelve feet tall. The brownie king designed a new style of slipper which he called the Butterleaf shoe. The elves developed a new flowering plant, the leaves and flowers of which were exactly the color of fresh butter. They called it the Butterleaf.

For his own part, Butterleaf was just having fun again.

Next story of the Little Folk

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