Page:A Study of Fairy Tales.djvu/104

80 and then the Streamlet from which she drew the water asked, "Why do you break your pitcher, little Girl?"

And she replied:—

And then the Streamlet said, "Now I must flow."

And it flowed on and on, getting bigger and bigger, until it swallowed up the little Girl, the little Tree, the Ashes, the Cart, the Broom, the Door, the Flea, and at last, the Spider—all together.

Here we have a tale, which, in its language, well illustrates Stevenson's "pattern of style," especially as regards the harmony produced by the arrangement of letters. From the standpoint of style, this tale might be named, The Adventure of the Letter E; it illustrates the part the phonics of the tale may contribute to the effect of the setting. Follow the letter e in the opening of the tale, both as to the eye and the ear:—

If we follow the e sound through the tale, we find it in Flea, beer, scream, creak, weeps, sweep, reason, heap,