Fairies I have met

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Fairies I have met
by Mrs. Rodolph Stawell

Illustrator: Edmund Dulac

3734781Fairies I have metMrs. Rodolph Stawell
Fairies I have met Mrs Rodolph Scott illustrated by Edmund Dulac




FAIRIES I HAVE MET



"PLEASE," SHE SAID, "I WANT TO BE A NIGHTINGALE"


FAIRIES

I HAVE MET

BY MRS. RODOLPH STAWELL


ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BY

EDMUND DULAC


HODDER AND STOUGHTON

NEW YORK AND LONDON




DEDICATION



BEFORE Penelope could toddle she lived far away among the oleanders. The sunbeams who came down to see the oleanders saw Penelope too. She sat on the grass and played with them, and they loved her very much.

One day the sunbeams were sad.

“Penelope is going to England,” they said to each other.

“I am going to England with her,” said Sunbeam the First.

“How?” asked the others.

“I shall hide in her hair,” said Sunbeam the First.

“Then,” said Sunbeam the Second, “I shall go too. I shall hide behind her eyelashes.”

“And I,” said Sunbeam the Third, “shall hide in her heart.”

So Penelope went to England, with one sunbeam in her hair, and one in her eyes, and one in her heart.

When she was old enough to talk she spoke to the sunbeams.

“Shall you always stay in my hair?” she asked Sunbeam the First.

“That is more than I can say,” he answered. “Perhaps when you are old I shall be obliged to go away.”

Then Penelope asked Sunbeam the Second—

“Shall you always stay in my eyes?”

“I hope so,” said Sunbeam the Second; “but perhaps if you are unhappy I shall be obliged to go away.”

Then the corners of Penelope’s mouth began to droop a little.

“Dear Sunbeam,” she said to Sunbeam the Third, “shall you be always in my heart?”

“Yes, if you keep me there,” said Sunbeam the Third.

“How can I keep you there?” asked Penelope.

“You must love the fairies,” said the sunbeam, “and understand them when they speak to you. If you love the fairies even when you are old, I shall stay in your heart always.”


These stories have been written for Penelope, so that she may love the fairies, and keep the sunbeam always in her heart.




CONTENTS



  PAGE
The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird 13
The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy, and how they quarrelled 21
Princess Orchid's Party 31
The Cloud that had no Lining 41
The Fairies who changed Places 51
The Making of the Opal 59
The Big Spider's Diamonds 69
A Little Girl in a Book 77
The Fairy who was looking for a Home 85
The Box of Dreams 95
The Fairy who had only One Wing 103
The Little Boy from Town 111




ILLUSTRATIONS



The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird  
“Please,” she said, “I want to be a nightingale” Frontispiece
  TO FACE PAGE
The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy  
He held out the little shell in the beam of coloured light 24
Princess Orchid’s Party  
She smiled at him very graciously when he was introduced to her 36
The Cloud that had no Lining  
And because the silver of the moonshine-fairies is very light he was able to carry a great deal of it 46
The Fairies who changed Places  
Drop-of-Crystal was too busy to speak 54
The Making of the Opal  
Of course the Dear Princess .… wore the great opal on the day that she was married 68
The Big Spider’s Diamonds  
The web and the diamonds and the Big Spider himself all fell to the ground 74
A Little Girl in a Book  
The other people in the book looked at her in surprise 82

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1953, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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