A poor man and his wife had their first child late in life. It was a fairy child and the couple thought themselves blessed. But the fairy child would not take its mother's milk and the couple were desperate to find what the child would eat.
One day a beer truck had a flat tire on the road outside their house. It was a hot day, so the woman brought the driver a mug of cold water. They talked a little and the woman told him about her problem.
``My grandmother said they live on dew and pollen from the legs of bumble bees,'' the driver said.
So the woman collected dew and the packets of pollen from the legs of bumble bees and for a while the child grew stronger.
The man and woman ranged far and wide collecting dew and trapping bumble bees and robbing them and the child was endlessly hungry for more.
As winter approached, the bumble bees became scarcer and scarcer. The woman was frantic. She wore herself to a shadow and died in a county park five miles from her house where she had gone in a vain search for bumble bees.
The man was heart broken. He hated the fairy child. He made no attempt to feed her. But in three days the child looked well and happy. No longer thin and weak.
He watched the child all day and discovered her secret. She would crawl to the dog's dishes and eat dog food and drink from the dog's water bowl. The man realized they had offered nothing to the child but pollen for months. He set her in her high chair and gave her milk and a banana and a bowl of oatmeal.
The child ate it all and smiled and reached for more.