LITMIR.BIZ

      There’s nowhere quite as beautiful as Sheepskerry Island after a snowfall. The land is silent. The trees are laden down with heavy white powder that sparkles with tiny crystals of colour. Fairies have wings, of course, but they all love to make the first tracks in new-fallen snow. And that’s exactly what the Fairy Bell sisters were doing one week before Christmas.

      “The snow’s stopped. Can we go outside, Clara?” asked Silver.

      “If you wrap up warmly, including a hat, Lily,” said Clara.

      “I finally found a hat that makes me look adorable and keeps me warm,” said Lily. “Thank goodness.”

      “Let’s go and make snow fairies. Oh, but not you, Ginger,” said Silver. “The snow is too deep for a kitten. You stay here where it’s warm.”

      Ginger scampered over to the hearth rug and licked her fur by the fire.

      “Mind you put your wings carefully on the wing table before you go out in the snow,” said Clara. “I don’t want them to get wet. You know it’s not good for them.” Clara remembered how wet her own wings had been during the Valentine’s games last year. “And frozen wings break right off!”

      “It would have to get a lot colder before our wings broke off,” said Silver, laughing. “But we’ll be careful!”

      Silver helped Lily take off her wings and Lily helped with Silver’s.

      “Are you coming, Rosie?” Lily asked.

      “I’m just bundling up little Squeakie,” said Rosie. “Your wings are too little to worry about, aren’t they, Squeak?”

      “Hmph,” said Squeak.

      “Hmph?” said Rosie and she laughed. “I thought that was Lily’s favourite word.”

      “Hmph,” said Lily. “That’s not my favourite word. And besides, Squeak could be saying anything.”

      Rosie wasn’t so sure that was true. She was the closest to Squeak, looking after her every day and watching her grow and change. She had never heard a word from Squeak that she could not understand.

      “Come on,” said Lily. “Let’s get outside before the winds pick up again.”

      The Fairy Bell sisters trudged out the front door of their fairy house – but they didn’t get far before they all sank into the fresh snow.

      “It’s all the way over my knees!” said Silver. “Watch this!”

      She stood up straight as a board and then fell backwards. “Keep your legs together!” shouted Lily. “That’s the way to make a perfect snow fairy.”

      “I already know that!” said Silver. She spread her arms wide and fluttered them up and down. “Come on, Lily. You make one too. And you too, Rosie. And Squeak! Tink will see them in our fairy garden when she flies overhead. One week exactly from today!”

      The four Fairy Bell sisters made dozens of snow fairies on their white-blanketed lawn.

      “Look at Squeakie’s!” said Rosie. She went over to where Squeak’s snow fairy was. “How did you make those wings so big, Squeak, with those tiny arms you have? Your snow fairy looks as if she’s going to get up and fly away.”

      “Silver! Lily! Is that you? Everything’s so white I can barely see!”

      “That’s Poppy!” said Silver. “And Avery is right behind her.”

      The Fairy Bell sisters were friends with everyone on the island, but Poppy and Avery were special. Poppy was Silver’s best friend – through thick and thin – and Avery was Lily’s. The two fairies landed with a soft thud just next to the Bell sisters’ snow fairies.

      “These are beautiful,” said Poppy. “Oh, and look at Squeakie’s! Want to come with us? We’re going to pick out our Christmas trees at the Christmas tree forest.”

      Avery brandished a rather fierce-looking axe. “I know how to chop wood from when I worked on the mainland. Caraway Cooke sent me this so I could chop down the biggest tree on the island.”

      “Well, keep it away from me!” said Lily.

      “The biggest tree on the island is as tall as a mountain,” said Rosie. “But that will be good for cutting down the kind of trees we need.”

      “Come on, let’s go!” said Silver.

      “Wait!”

      Clara’s voice rang out from the front door of the fairy house. “Rosie, Silver Lily – we promised Tink we would let her do everything.” Even as Clara said the words she wanted to take them back. She loved choosing their Christmas tree each year and wanted to go with the other fairies to do just that. But she didn’t want to disappoint Tinker Bell – not when Tink hadn’t been home for Christmas in so long. “That includes choosing the tree.”

      Silver’s face fell. Lily’s mouth turned down at the corners. Even Rosie looked disappointed.

      “That’s right,” said Silver at last. “We promised Tink.”

      All five Fairy Bell sisters sighed a big sigh. It was Rosie who turned the moment bright again. “We didn’t promise we wouldn’t help our friends!” she said. “Come on everybody, let’s go pick out some Christmas trees! You too, Clara. Come on!”

      

      The Fairy Bell sisters and their friends flew up to Cathedral Pines, where Ginny and Genny, the Root Sisters, planted trees every year for the Christmas tree forest. The trees above them were dizzyingly tall.

      “None of those, of course,” said Poppy. “They’re way too big. Ginny and Genny will have some just our size.”

      They flew over to a field of fairy-sized Christmas trees.

      “They’d all be perfect for us,” whispered Silver when she saw them.

      “Tink will pick a gorgeous tree for you,” said Poppy. “The trees in Neverland are probably made of emeralds!”

      “With Peter Pan’s own arrowheads for decoration!” Silver said, and the two friends grinned.

      “Faith told me to pick whichever tree I like best for the classroom,”

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