CHRISTMAS GIFT 
 
 FROM 
 
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IF the old maxim, that " seeing is believing," had not become 
 in a great measure obsolete, under the march of mind, and the 
 progress of improvement, the long-mooted question of the exist 
 ence of the fairies, would have been settled on what in past ages 
 of ignorance, was considered the most substantial basis, to wit, 
 ocular demonstration. But, alas ! seeing is not believing in this 
 unbelieving age ; and though the accumulated testimony of the 
 existence of these little sprites, if brought to bear on a question of 
 fact, would satisfy any Court or Jury in Christendom, still the 
 skepticism of Science, and the hardihood of Philosophy, have at 
 all times wilfully shut their eyes to a chain of evidence, which 
 would be amply sufficient, to hang a hundred innocent persons, 
 Where hanging was in fashion. 
 
 It has been, however, settled by the decisions of almost all the 
 learned, of the present times, at least, that credulity and super 
 stition are incompatible with a certain degree of knowledge and 
 general intelligence ; and that in proportion as these latter become 
 widely diffused, the airy creations of hope, fear, and fancy, vanish 
 like spectres at the dawn of day. But I must confess that I for 
 one doubt the validity of this empty pretension. All, for example, 
 unite in boasting, that the present is the most enlightened age the 
 world ever knew ; and yet do we not every day see the most 
 enormous impositions practised on the credulity of mankind, 
 which, in their consequences, are a thousand times more mischiev 
 ous, than the innocent superstitions of classic, or oriental lore ? 
 
 957 
 
Shall we dare to boast, without blushing in each other s faces, 
 that science and knowledge have banished superstition and cre 
 dulity from the world, while the recollection of the imposture of 
 Matthias is fresh in our minds ; while the wretched train of fanatics, 
 called Mormonites, continues to rove over the land with increas 
 ing numbers ; while the Shakers remain steadfast in their faith 
 in the supernatural powers of Jemima Wilkinson ; a"hd above all, 
 while millions of enlightened people believe to this day, that a 
 " promise to pay" is equivalent to actual payment ? 
 
 Those who have taken the pains to investigate the history of 
 the human mind, in its progress from age 10 age, will, I think, be 
 perfectly satisfied, that there is just about as much superstition 
 and credulity in one as in another, and that the only difference is 
 in the modes by which they manifest themselves. Compare, for 
 example, the lore of Fairy land, with the rare absurdities, of what 
 is called the Science of Phrenology, or the still more outrageous 
 imposture of Animal Magnetism, and then ask ourselves, which 
 requires the greatest stretch of human credulity, or abject super 
 stition, in order to swallow its strange improbabilities ? The lat 
 ter most especially, is quite as much at war, with all the known 
 laws of nature, of matter, and the organization of matter, of mind 
 and its sphere of action, as is the being and agency of the fairies 
 in the affairs of mankind. The truth is, that as in the individual, 
 so in the never-ceasing changes of this rolling orb, every revolv 
 ing period, every new acquisition of years, produces a new suc 
 cession of shadows, which are pursued with equal avidity, and 
 equal faith jpi their, ..reality. New game starts up at every step 
 before us, and while we acknowledge to ourselves, that what we 
 have run down, was but a series of unsubstantial nothings, 
 we still continue the pursuit of the objects before us, with an eager 
 ness, which, like that of the gamester, increases with every unsuc 
 cessful cast. 
 
 For my part, if we must be the tools of superstition and credulity, 
 as seems to be our destiny, I confess I prefer the ancient, to the 
 modern mode of playing on these instruments. It is not alone, 
 because the little pranks of mischief or beneficence, played by the 
 elves and fairies, are associated with that period of our existence, 
 which seems all sunshine and flowers, as we look back upon it, 
 
that the story of these tiny beings, appeals to the memory and 
 fancy, with such alluring fascinations. There is something in 
 trinsically delightful in these airy creations, whether of the im 
 agination or the senses. Their agency was of a light, pleasing, 
 and gentle character, and unlike the old Gothic superstitions, de 
 void of cruelty or malignity. In their kindness they were benefi 
 cent and even in their punishments, there was nothing to inspire 
 terror, horror, or despair. All was diminutive in Fairy land ; the lit 
 tle beings did not, like giants, ogres, and witches, indulge unnatural 
 appetites, or deal in bloody atrocities. They were the creations of 
 an age of comparative simplicity and innocence, and partook in 
 the characteristics of pastoral gentleness. They were associated 
 with flocks and herds, shepherds and shepherdesses ; their delight 
 was solitude ; their harmonies those of nature ; and their sports 
 were in the silence of night, by the light of the moon. They were 
 in truth, a pure and gentle race ; the records of their agency in 
 human affairs, afford the finest lessons of morality to the infant 
 mind ; the romantic air, the rich invention, and inspiring interest 
 embodied in them, are in truth highly contrasted, with the great 
 er portion of those abortions of mind and imagination, which have 
 since superseded them, and over which our children daily pass to 
 the region of Morpheus. 
 
 But even those who are willing to acknowledge the existence of 
 fairies in the Old World, sturdily deny that they have ever yet hon 
 oured the New with their presence. Absurd and foolish incredu 
 lity ! Do not the elfin race love repose and liberty ; and can it be 
 supposed for a moment, that they could resistfthe tefnptation of 
 the boundless solitudes of nature, and the generous freedom of this 
 vast hemisphere? No. Every presumption is in favour of the 
 authenticity of the following statement, which I proceed to lay 
 before the reader, as well for the purpose of demonstrating the 
 emigration of the fairies, as to account satisfactorily for the ap 
 pearance of the following legends, as the dogmatical learned are 
 pleased to call the authentic records of Fairy land. 
 
 Sometime in the year 1818, or 1819, (for in regard to this there 
 is some little uncertainty, owing to the want of Almanacs, in this 
 particular region of country, at that time,) Mr. Simeon Stark 
 weather emigrated from Buncombe county, North Carolina, to 
 
the great West, in search of better land, though if the truth 
 must be told, that which he already possessed was quite good 
 enough to satisfy a reasonable man. But in the first place, he 
 had been told there were sections of country in Kentucky, con 
 siderably richer than any the Almighty ever formed, where it \va8 
 only to stamp on the ground, and the wheat would spring up 
 higher than your ears ; and in the second place, he was impelled 
 by the great maxim of "go ahead," which brought his ancestors 
 from the Old World, and will never rest till it has carried their pos 
 terity to the uttermost extremity of the New, where I suppose 
 they will jump offj in search of another still newer. 
 
 Being determined to proceed far enough, Simeon, or Sim, as he 
 was familiarly called, continued to go ahead, till he came into 
 what is now called Simpson county so denominated after his 
 name where he pitched his tent, just at the head of one of the 
 sources of Green river, which joins the Ohio, where Evansville 
 now stands. It was not far from the Big Barren, so called, be 
 cause it bears no trees, though! am told it is one of the most fertile 
 spots in all Kentucky. The first settlers of that fine Old State 
 it is almost half a century old were mighty hunters before the 
 Lord, and considered the land as "trifling," which afforded no 
 shelter for game. 
 
 Sim was delighted with his new "location," where he had all 
 out doors for his patrimony, and plenty of elbow room. He shot 
 all the spring, summer, and autumn, and in the winter set traps, 
 for all sorts of outlandish animals. In short, as he told me, "he 
 lived a free and easy life the happiest in the world, for he shaved 
 himself only once a year, and had a most Almighty everlasting 
 sprinkle of varmints all about him." 
 
 Here he resided a good number of years, undisturbed, save now 
 and then by an interloper, who came to settle some ten or twen 
 ty miles off in the neighbourhood, and molested him a little. But 
 all at once he became subject to divers strange annoyances, only 
 one of which I shall mention, for fear of being circumstantial and 
 tedious. He continually found that the game which had been 
 caught, as he could see by the marks on his traps, was stolen 
 away during the night, or had released itself in some manner, for 
 which he could not account. He at last determined to lay in 
 
wait for the thief, if it was a thief, and if not, " to discover the 
 unaccountable contrivance of the kritters," as he said, "in slip 
 ping their wind so slick." Accordingly he watched for several 
 nights in succession, during which nothing visited his traps, and 
 nothing was seen or heard, except, as he sometimes thought, a 
 strange sort of whispering about his ears, which confused him 
 exceedingly. 
 
 The moment he ceased his watch, the traps exhibited the same 
 appearances every morning, and Sim found his dander getting up 
 in such a style, that he could hardly keep from fighting with him 
 self, having nobody else to try his prowess upon. At, first he 
 thought of going over to his next neighbour, about twenty miles 
 off, to see if he wouldn t accommodate him with a fight, but his 
 mind took another direction, and he determined to catch the 
 tarnal varmint, whatever it was. He contrived various means, 
 and invented new devices, but all to no purpose, and began to 
 meditate going ahead to some other spot farther West ; when he 
 was arrested in his purpose, by one of the strangest adventures 
 he ever encountered in all his life. 
 
 Going out in the morning of the twenty-first of December, 1833, 
 about sunrise, with his gun, and followed by his two dogs, Thun 
 der and Lightning, he found that a new trap, which he had invent 
 ed the day before, and set for the first time, was sprung. "Thinks 
 I, I ve got the varmint now," said Sim, " and if I don t split him 
 into shingles, I m a triflin feller. So you see, I creeps up as quiet 
 as a dumb adder, motioned Thunder and Lightnin to lie still, 
 got close up to the trap, and listened with both ears I reckon. 
 But I heard nothin at all, except as I conceited, a little, somethin 
 like the queer whispers, that I used to hear, when I was out a 
 scoutin for the thief, or whatever it might be. 
 
 "Well, at last, I thought I d lift the trap, as there seemed 
 nothin under it, when as soon as I took it up, whew ! I wish I 
 maybe shot flying a thing which we Kentucky boys can t stom 
 ach by no means if there didn t fly out a flock of the queerest 
 little varmint women, I ever did see. I was pretty well stumped, 
 you may depend, but kinder by instinct cocked my gun, and let 
 fly at them ; but they gave a scream, and were out of sight before 
 my buckshot could overtake them." 
 
Such was the account which Sim gave me about a year ago, 
 as I stopped at his cabin, in a tour through the rich and beautiful 
 State of Kentucky. But the most interesting part of the story 
 is yet to come. In once more raising his trap, which in his 
 astonishment, he had let fall on seeing the strange birds he had 
 caught, he discovered a roll of birch-bark, tied up, according to his 
 description, after the manner of a parchment -deed. This he had kept, 
 without feeling, as he said, any great curiosity about what it con 
 tained, having in fact, forgot all his learning during his sojourn in 
 the woods. But he had a great notion of catching some of the 
 queer little varmints that he supposed had dropped it, and confes 
 sed to me that he had set that trap, and remained with his gun 
 cocked, watching it almost ever since they threw him off his bal 
 ance so completely that he missed his mark for the first time since 
 he was knee-high to a grasshopper. 
 
 The roll of birch-bark, on examination, was found to contain the 
 following Tales, embellished with the identical designs, of which 
 afac-simile is given in this volume. The whole is now published 
 for the joint benefit of the Editor and honest Sim, who not being 
 aware of the liberality, not to say, munificence of our Publishers, 
 modestly anticipates just enough from his share of the profits to 
 buy him a new rifle, with which he is in good hopes of bringing 
 down some of the little varmints aforesaid, that nobody in their 
 senses, can doubt, were a knot of fairies, which by some inscru 
 table accident, or equally inscrutable design, had thus been caught 
 in the trap of my good friend Simeon Starkweather. Sim has 
 promised to keep constantly on the watch with his rifle ready cock 
 ed, in case they should make their appearance again, and I cannot 
 forbear indulging the hope that at some future period, he may be 
 able to furnish the public by the same means, with a second 
 volume of A CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM FAIRY LAND, the title borne 
 by the mysterious manuscript. 
 
 The public s humble servant, 
 
 SAMPSON FAIRLAMB. 
 Chicago, April 1st, 1838. 
 
FLORELLA, OR 
 
 THE FAIRY OF THE RAINBOV/. 
 
IN a distant country, not 
 yet discovered, there 
 once reigned a pow 
 erful king, who having 
 neglected to pension any 
 of the historians and 
 poets of his court, they 
 in revenge unanimously 
 resolved never to mention 
 his name, which has thus 
 been irretrievablylost lo posterity. All that is known 
 of him is, that he was a widower with an only daughter, 
 who was the most beautiful child ever seen, and 
 who, as usual, had a fairy for her godmother. That 
 
he was a good and worthy king, is sufficiently proved, 
 by the oblivion which shrouds his name : since, with 
 very few exceptions, it is the ambition and crimes of 
 monarchs, rather than their virtues, which render 
 them illustrious. 
 
 The young princess being an only child, and heiress 
 to a great kingdom, was, as might be expected, care 
 fully attended to, and taught every thing calculated to 
 render her worthy of the high station to which she 
 was destined ; for the king, her father, had long given 
 out that he never intended to marry again, either be 
 cause he despaired of getting so good a wife, or that 
 in future he was determined to be master at home, as 
 well as abroad. In order to prevent her from being 
 contaminated by low company, she was shut up in a 
 high tower, and several maids-of-honour appointed to 
 attend her, that they might instil into her mind a con 
 viction of her superiority over the rest of her fellow- 
 creatures, and the indispensable necessity of support 
 ing her dignity on all occasions. For this purpose, 
 they were all strictly enjoined never to contradict or 
 thwart the young princess, except when she followed 
 the dictates of nature ; and to refrain from saying or 
 doing any thing to remind her that she was mortal. 
 The king, her father, and his counsellors, who were 
 all considered exceeding wise men, prescribed this 
 course in the education of Florella, (for that was her 
 name,) from a conviction founded on long experience, 
 that the less monarchs knew of their subjects, the 
 better they could govern them ; and the less the people 
 
knew of their monarchs, the more they would respect 
 their person and dignity. 
 
 Accordingly, Florella had every thing she could 
 wish for but liberty. When desirous to walk forth 
 into the fields to chase the butterflies or pluck the 
 flowers, she was told it did not become the heiress 
 of a mighty kingdom, to indulge in such vulgar 
 amusements ; and when she wished to join in the 
 sports of the little children of her own age, the old 
 governess, who was one of the most dignified ladies 
 
 --} 
 
 
 
of the court, would shake her finger and frown, telling 
 her, at the same time, that a king s daughter and the 
 heiress of a mighty kingdom, ought not to associate 
 with her fellow-creatures on terms of such degrading 
 equality. She was placed in the strait waistcoat of 
 court etiquette, environed on all sides by restraints, 
 obliged to perform every thing by rule, and, though 
 she made others do as she pleased, was never per 
 mitted to do as she pleased herself. 
 
 Thus shut up in her high tower, and debarred from 
 all intercourse with the world, she passed a great 
 portion of the day at the window, watching the little 
 children in their free and airy gambols enjoying their 
 sportful hilarity, their freedom and the crusts of bread 
 which they devoured with, such a happy zest, while she 
 herself turned with sickly indifference or disgust from 
 all the delicacies prepared to pamper her appetite. 
 As she grew up, her confinement became every day 
 more tedious and irksome, and her desire of liberty 
 more intense. She pined away, in envy of the more 
 fortunate children of poverty, who, left to themselves 
 and their wayward impulses, went whither they 
 pleased, and indulged in all the innocent freedom 
 of nature, without the restraint of maids-of-honour, or 
 an old titled governess. She often likened herself to 
 the little bird, which had been given her as a com 
 panion by her fairy godmother, and which, whenever it 
 saw its fellows sporting and chirping in the forest 
 that surrounded the high tower, would flutter about, 
 its feathers shivering with agitation, thrust its head 
 
between the wires, and try with all its little energies 
 to escape and enjoy the freedom of boundless nature. 
 " Poor bird !" said Florella, one day, when its song 
 seemed like that of one mourning its long captivity, 
 " poor little bird ! thy fate is like mine, only that 
 though I cannot free myself, I can give thee liberty. 
 I grieve to part with thee, for thou seemest the only 
 living thing with whom I can hold any sympathy, 
 thou being a prisoner as well as I. Go, and enjoy 
 the sweetest of all blessings, a life of liberty. Per 
 haps thou wilt sometimes come in the morning and 
 evening to cheer me with thy song, which will be 
 doubly sweet, because thy minstrelsey will be volun 
 tary." So saying, she opened the cage and taking 
 the little bird gently in her hand, carried it to the 
 window, kissed its yellow bill and set it at liberty. The 
 little bird at first sailed round and round in airy circles 
 before the window, as if loath to part from its gentle 
 benefactress; then settled down on the branch of a 
 stately elm nigh by, and pouring forth a strain of 
 melody more sweet and varied than ever it did in its 
 wirey prison, returned once more to the window, put 
 forth its little bill for a parting kiss, and then disap 
 peared in the shady recesses of the woods. 
 
 Florella, though she could not find in her heart to 
 regret what she had done, felt the departure of her 
 feathery associate so bitterly, that she sat down and 
 wept, until the old governess came, and argued an 
 hour or more to convince her that, being the daughter 
 of a great king, and heiress to a mighty kingdom, she 
 
was the happiest young damsel in the world. She 
 asked her if she wished for any thing, and the young 
 princess answered, "Nothing but liberty :" whereupon 
 the old lady shook her head, and told her that liberty 
 was only fit for the subjects and slaves of her father. 
 
 "Would I .were one of these," answered Florella, and 
 the old governess turned up her sharp nose in contempt 
 of such a grovelling sentiment. 
 
 When evening approached, Florella was anxious to 
 know whether the little bird would come and sing to 
 her, and as the dim twilight gathered around, her 
 anxiety increased to a degree that was painful, when, 
 
all at once she heard the well-known strain from the 
 same branch of the stately old elm. It was like the 
 visit of a long absent friend, and wiping away her 
 tears, she sat listening to the ever-varying notes, 
 which, pouring forth in the silence of the pensive hour 
 were inexpressibly touching and delicious. Florella 
 almost fancied she could translate the strain into a song 
 in praise of liberty, mingled, now and then, with a 
 mournful melody, indicating pity for her solitude and 
 confinement. Every evening and morning, the little 
 bird returned, and chanted his music with endless 
 variety, soothing the sorrows of his captive mistress 
 while he staid, but only rendering her more melan 
 choly in his absence. 
 
 Thus passed Florella s time, until she arrived at 
 the age of fifteen, when new thoughts and feelings 
 gradually introduced themselves into her gentle bosom. 
 Her sleep became restless, her dreams confused and 
 perplexing, and she no longer hailed the presence of 
 her little bird with eager welcome, or listened to its 
 song with her wonted pleasure. She grew more tired 
 of her prison every day : her temper became irritable 
 and capricious ; and on one occasion she made the 
 old governess stare, by pettishly asking, if her father 
 intended to keep her for ever from the s .ght of the 
 young princes that every day visited his court. The 
 old lady threw up her hands, opened her eyes, and won 
 dered who put such strange notions in the head of the 
 princess. She little suspected that Florella had another 
 teacher, and that nature had now become her guide. 
 
One sultry summer evening, having despatched her 
 maids -of-honour on various errands, devised for the 
 purpose of getting rid of their irksome attentions, and 
 persuaded the old governess to go to rest, which she 
 was the more inclined to do, from having drank an 
 
 additional glass of cordial Florella fell into a sad 
 revery. The dead calm, the desperate monotony of 
 her existence had now become intolerable, and she 
 passed much of her time in weeping, or complaining 
 to herself, concerning her doleful captivity and melan- 
 
choly prospects. " What avails it," she exclaimed, 
 "that I am the daughter of a king, and heiress to 
 a great empire, if I am thus to be debarred from all 
 intercourse with every body but slavish women, and 
 shut out from pleasures which I behold the lowest of 
 my fellow-creatures enjoying under my window ? Bet 
 ter had I been born the daughter of one of my father s 
 meanest subjects ; for then I might taste the sweets 
 of liberty, and be happy like them. Alas ! that I 
 should have for my godmother a fairy whom I never 
 see, and who never troubles herself with me or my 
 happiness." 
 
 As she uttered this querulous complaint, she heard 
 the chant of the little bird from its wonted perch, but it 
 afforded her no solace in the irritation of her feelings. 
 After a prelude of varying melody, the tuneful song- 
 
 ster flitted in at the window, and lighting on the shoul 
 der of the princess, placed its little bill close to her 
 
ear, and caused her to start and tremble by whisper 
 ing as follows : " My princess complains of the neg 
 lect of her godmother, and I am come to know her 
 wishes. Tell me what you wish and the fairy shall 
 soon know it. Whether your desires are granted or 
 not, will depend on their being reasonable or other 
 wise. Speak, my princess, and be not afraid. What 
 is it you most covet ?" 
 
 "Liberty," at length replied Florella: "in other 
 words, happiness, since experience has taught me they 
 are one and the same. If thou comest from my god 
 mother, I beseech thee, little bird, to tell her that the 
 first wish of my heart is, that I had been born a peas 
 ant s daughter instead of a princess ; that I might be 
 freed from perpetual restraints and irritating supervis 
 ion ; that I might sing, laugh, dance, and enjoy my 
 homely food with such a zest, as I see in the sons and 
 daughters of the poor, who are every day sporting in 
 the woods yonder; go where I list, do as I list, and 
 be free like them. ! that I had thy wings, little 
 bird, that I might free myself from this abode of list- 
 lessness, idleness, and despair !" 
 
 " Well," answered the bird, " your wishes shall 
 soon be granted, at least, in so far as your release from 
 this prison. The king your father has contracted you 
 in marriage with the son and heir of the great emperor 
 of the moon, who is daily expected at court. So pre 
 pare yourself, my princess, to be as amiable as possi 
 ble, for the prince is said to be a great connoisseur in 
 beauty, and a special admirer of little feet. Farewell : 
 
you will not see me again unless I am specially called 
 for. You will soon have a new plaything, and the lit 
 tle bird and his song will be no longer remembered. 
 Farewell, my princess ; recollect, I am the messenger 
 of thy godmother, and whenever you call for me I 
 shall appear." The little bird then chirped his adieu, 
 and flying through the window disappeared. 
 
 "& ::! 
 
 Florella remained in a profound revery for some 
 time after the departure of the fairy messenger. The 
 
idea of being soon released from her irksome abode, 
 and the teazing impertinence of the old governess, 
 brought joy to her bosom, while that of a husband, in 
 the person of the prince of the moon, created a trem 
 ulous fluttering in the same snowy region. She 
 straightway began to fancy what sort of a being he 
 was, and, ere her fit of abstraction was over, had con 
 jured up a youth clothed in all those attributes of 
 body and mind, to which the inexperienced heart of 
 woman bows with lowly adoration. She longed for 
 the hour of liberty, arid anticipated, with thrilling 
 hope, the period when she would resign it voluntarily 
 to her destined mate. 
 
 In a few days, the prince of the moon arrived at 
 the court of her father, and Florella was carried thith 
 er, to be introduced to him, decked in robes of state, 
 glittering with diamonds ; and as the prince was known 
 to be such an admirer of little feet, she wore a pair 
 of slippers so tight that she could scarcely walk. As 
 she rode to the royal palace, her heart throbbed with 
 mingled hopes and fears, and she wondered if the 
 picture of her imagination would be realized. Though 
 her person was as genteel as it was beautiful, her se 
 clusion from the world had made her both modest and 
 timid, and when brought into the presence of a splen 
 did court, in the midst of which stood the young 
 prince of the moon, she blushed up to the eyes, and 
 what with her embarrassment and the tightness of her 
 slippers, made rather an awkward appearance. 
 
 The prince, besides being a great judge of female 
 
propriety, had a particular antipathy to blushing, 
 which he sagaciously concluded was a sign of a trou 
 bled conscience. The first impression made by Flo- 
 rella was, therefore, not at all favourable, and when he 
 observed that though she had beautiful little feet, she 
 did not seem to know how to use them, he shrugged 
 his shoulders, elevated his eyebrows, took a pinch of 
 snuff, and s- \ something to his favourite attendant, 
 which bein ttered in the language of the moon, puz 
 zled all th< king s court to such a degree, that their 
 situation was quite deplorable : nevertheless, they all 
 stood in utter astonishment at his wisdom and wit. 
 
 The prince being a great traveller, and, withal, a 
 man of the world, behaved with singular discretion 
 and propriety. He bowed his head almost to the 
 floor, complimented Florella on the style of her dress, 
 asked the price of her diamonds, arid taking a little 
 ivory rule from his pocket, bent down on one knee 
 and took measure of her foot, which he pronounced 
 exactly of the size indispensable to his happiness. 
 " Had it been the hundredth part of an inch longer," 
 said he, " I should have been the most miserable of 
 men." 
 
 " But your moonstruck highness." said one of Flo- 
 rella s maids-of-honour, "is not yet acquainted with 
 the beauties of her mind, and the strength of her un 
 derstanding." 
 
 " Pooh !" replied the prince, " what is the strength 
 of the understanding but the foundation on which peo 
 ple stand ?" and pointed to the foot of the princess to 
 
give point to the joke. Whereupon, all the court 
 laughed, except Florella, who stood blushing in a man 
 ner very unbecoming, while her heart swelled with 
 indignation and disappointment. 
 
 The vision of her imagination had given place to 
 the reality. Instead of a handsome young prince, 
 bearing all the outward semblance of his rank, and 
 exhibiting the air noble at the very ends of his fin 
 gers, she beheld a diminutive, effeminate creature, 
 youthful indeed, but carrying, in his face and person, 
 the marks of premature decay, with nothing to desig 
 nate him as a man, but his enormous black whiskers, 
 and with a sallow, faded, greenish complexion, which 
 probably arose from eating green cheese, the universal 
 food of the inhabitants of the moon. Instead of ga 
 zing with rapture on her beautiful face, he did nothing 
 but look at her foot, concerning which, he every now 
 and then, made some remark, in his native tongue, to 
 his chief counsellor and favourite, the marquis of 
 moonshine, lord-keeper of the lost wits of all the peo 
 ple of this world. Being a man of inflexible honesty, 
 he scrupulously refrained from appropriating any of 
 these treasures to himself, although every body de 
 clared there was not a living being in the empire of 
 the moon, that would have been more excusable for a 
 little peculation, the marquis being, notwithstanding 
 his high office, a most exemplary blockhead. 
 
 After the presentation there was held a great feast, 
 during which Florella sat next the prince, and was 
 edified by a dissertation on cookery, in which he dis- 
 
played such erudition, that the princess ironically 
 complimented him on his knowledge of that most im 
 portant science. 
 
 " It has been my principal study during my trav 
 els," replied he, with great self-complacency, " and I 
 intend revolutionizing the whole system, as soon as 
 the old codger takes himself off, which I hope will 
 be soon. It is amazing, my dear princess, what ben 
 efits are derived from travel, if a man only has his 
 eyes about him." 
 
 Florella wondered who the prince meant by the old 
 codger, not dreaming it was his father, for though she 
 had seen but little of hers, she had always been ac 
 customed to think of him with reverence and affec 
 tion. The feast lasted six hours, during which, the 
 princess became so tired, that she wished herself back 
 in the solitary tower, listening to the chant of her little 
 bird, and the prince ate and drank so lustily, that he 
 became a little merry, insomuch, that he could hardly 
 keep his eyes open, and never opened his mouth but 
 to yawn. 
 
When Florella retired to her splendid chamber, 
 which was hung with blue and silver curtains, with 
 tassels of gold thread, and furnished with a bed and 
 chairs, covered all over with plates of burnished gold, 
 she cast herself on the bed, and wept to think that her 
 father had affianced her to a man, who looked as if 
 he was made of green cheese, whom not even wine 
 could inspire with wit or gallantry, and who thought 
 more of a lady s foot than her head or heart. 
 
 " I wo n t marry him, that I am resolved," cried she, 
 firmly and aloud. 
 
 "But you must, my princess," replied the old gov 
 erness, who had just entered. " Young ladies who 
 have the happiness to be born princesses, must neither 
 consult their heart or their understanding. They 
 must marry for the good of their subjects, and after 
 having made this sacrifice, they are held excusable 
 for never paying any attention to their happiness in fu 
 ture. You belong to the kingdom, and must marry 
 solely for the public good. 
 
 " Alas !" cried Florella, "-am I never to be free ? 
 must I always be either shut up in a high tower, or 
 fettered in bondage with a man I despise? O! that 
 I were one of my father s handmaids, rather than the 
 slave of his policy." 
 
 "And would I were in your place," thought the 
 old governess. " I would marry the old man in the 
 moon himself, to be young again, and reign over king 
 doms." 
 
 Florella found that she had gained nothing but addi- 
 
tional cares by her release from the solitary tower. 
 There at least she enjoyed repose, and was free from 
 the irksome yoke of inflexible etiquette. She was 
 now the slave of one unvarying round of heartless 
 nothingness. She was the victim of a perpetual 
 discipline, applied to teach her the precise measure 
 of civility and condescension due to people of every 
 rank ; every courtesy must be graduated by rule, and 
 whether she loved or hated, her deportment must be 
 the same. Neither her heart nor her understanding 
 was permitted the least relaxation from the restraint 
 of sleepless hypocrisy ; she could neither dress or 
 undress, eat or drink, except according to the canons 
 of court etiquette, and was every day condemned 
 to sit at table for hours, when she would ten thousand 
 times rather have been luxuriating among the flowers 
 of the garden, or rambling in the woods, where she 
 might enjoy the sweets of liberty. One thing alone 
 
 
consoled her : the young prince of the moon troubled 
 her but little with his attentions. The matter was set 
 tled that she was to become his wife, so soon as the 
 preparations were finished, and the articles of settle 
 ment made out; and the prince, in the meantime, to 
 dissipate his ennui, amused himself by paying devoted 
 attention to one of Florella s maids-of-honour, who, 
 as in duty bound, received his devoirs with exemplary 
 docility. 
 
 Thus stood affairs, when, in order to divert his il-4 
 lustrious guest, the great king (whose name, owing to 
 the malice of the poets and historians, is lost in obliv 
 ion) decreed a great hunt in the neighbouring forest, 
 which abounded in lions, tigers, wild boars, and other 
 pleasant game for royal sportsmen. As was the cus 
 tom of the kingdom, all the ladies, and Florella among 
 the rest, attended, dressed in courtly hunting-suits, 
 and mounted on prancing palfreys, led by pages, 
 whose duty it was, to conduct them out of all danger 
 from the rage of wild beasts. The young prince of 
 the moon, as a pretended mark of gallantry, insisted 
 on being Florella s page on this occasion, that he 
 might watch over her safety ; but the truth was, he 
 had a mortal antipathy to the faces of lions, tigers, 
 and boars, and chose to remain where there was the 
 least danger of encountering them. Florella had 
 rather have seen him in the jaws of a lion, than lead 
 ing her palfrey ; but she was told it was in accord 
 ance with etiquette, and for the good of the kingdom, 
 and nothing more could be said on the subject. Again 
 
she sighed for the liberty of doing as she pleased, and 
 wished herself the daughter of a peasant, rather than 
 a king. 
 
 At the first peep of dawn, the hunters and their 
 steeds, the ladies, their palfreys and pages, set forth 
 to the sound of trumpets and horns, mingled with the 
 baying of the deep-mouthed hounds, that echoed 
 through the depths of the forest, warning their shaggy 
 
 -j- 
 
 tenants of the coming danger. It was a goodly and a 
 splendid sight, to behold the gallant array of armed 
 princes, nobles, and steeds, glittering in the rich ca 
 parisons of those days, mingled with blithesome dam 
 sels, all of whom could truly boast, that their ances 
 tors came over to the kingdom in Noah s ark. Among 
 
these last, Florella shone with unrivalled splendour of 
 dress as well as beauty, and all the court ladies envied 
 her the devoirs of the young prince of the moon, who 
 did nothing but turn to look first at the maid-of-honour, 
 and then at Florella s foot, the point of which peeped 
 modestly forth from her gorgeous garments. So in 
 tensely was he employed in these courtly devotions, 
 that it so happened he had the misfortune to plunge 
 up to the knees in a slough, by which, his spangled 
 shoes, and silken hose, were grievously defiled. 
 Whereupon he inwardly cursed his stars, and lament 
 ed that ever he was born. 
 
 The company had now approached the recesses of 
 the forest, where the grim ferocious tenants were wont 
 to abide, in the midst of briers, tangled vines, and 
 hoary rocks, heaped in wild confusion, or rising above 
 the lofty trees in perpendicular walls, bidding defiance 
 alike to the influence of time and the efforts of man. 
 The dogs began now to snuff the air, and give the 
 loud signal of preparation, while horse and man ar 
 ranged themselves for the approaching trial. Pres 
 ently, the pack set up a universal chorus, and dashed 
 into the wild scene before them, where their cries 
 echoed, and re-echoed among the hoary rocks and sol 
 itary glens of the lonely forest. They were followed 
 by the hunters, while the courtly cavaliers arranged 
 themselves in parties, at the outlets of the glen, where 
 they supposed the wild beasts would make their exit, 
 when hard pressed, and the pages led their palfreys 
 where they might see the sport without sharing the 
 
danger. While thus disposed, the peculiar yelping of 
 the hounds, announced the discovery of their prey, and 
 the increasing clamour proclaimed the approach to 
 that quarter in which the courtly train, with the kino- 
 
 at their head, awaited, with gallant ardour, the appear 
 ance of the savage recreants. The spears trembled, the 
 bright swords glittered, and the arrows were drawn to 
 their heads, while the pack was chasing its prey around 
 
the gloomy refuge it had chosen, extending the circle 
 at each succeeding revolution, and evidently ap 
 proaching nearer every time. All now remained in 
 eager expectation of the appearance of some savage 
 beast, emerging from his retreat, and every heart beat 
 either with exultation or fear. The prince zealously 
 retained the bridle of Florella s palfrey, but it was ob 
 served, that he disposed himself at the tail of the an 
 imal, instead of its head, as he affirmed, that by this 
 means he could the more effectually restrain him from 
 running away at the sight of the ferocious animal, now 
 evidently approaching nigher and nigher. 
 
 At this moment, there rushed from out the rocky 
 glen a huge boar, with ivory tusks projecting from his 
 foaming jaws, eyes darting fire, and bristles erected 
 on his back like the quills of the porcupine. The in 
 stant he appeared, a hundred hissing spears and whiz 
 zing arrows were darted at his impenetrable hide, 
 some of which flew wide of their mark, and others 
 recoiled as from a rock. One spear alone penetrated 
 his shoulder and roused the animal to a rage that con 
 quered his fears, in the agony of pain. He rushed 
 towards the assembled throng, which, under the influ 
 ence of panic, or impelled by the unseen dominion 
 of the fairy godmother for purposes of her own, dis 
 persed in every direction, leaving the ladies and their 
 palfreys to take care of themselves, or to the guidance 
 of their pages, who scampered away into the recesses 
 of the forest, as fast as their legs could carry them, 
 and disappeared. 
 
The enraged beast after standing at bay with the 
 hounds, and goring them so sorely with his ivory 
 tusks, that at length, one by one, they sneaked away 
 paused for a moment, looking round with eyes glaring 
 with fury. The only living objects now in sight, were 
 Florella and her little palfrey, both equally congealed 
 with fear, and incapable of stirring from the spot. 
 On the first appearance of the boar, the prince of the 
 moon had dropped the reins of the palfrey, and beta 
 king himself to his heels, climbed a high tree, where 
 he remained ensconced among the branches, and trem 
 bling like the leaves around him. The wounded 
 beast, after eying the princess with malignant fury for 
 a little while, approached rapidly, whetting his tusks, 
 and chewing the foam. The little palfrey shook with 
 trembling terror, under his fears, and not his burden, 
 while Florella, as she gazed with horror on the 
 monster, gradually lost all recollection, and fell to the 
 earth. 
 
 At one and the same instant, the boar dashed to 
 wards his prostrate victim, and a figure darted from 
 the opposite quarter, and placing himself before the 
 insensible princess, stood spear in hand, waiting his 
 nearer approach. The animal paused a moment, 
 sprang forward, and was met by the weapon of the 
 stranger, who, with a steady eye and nervous arm, 
 darted it deep between the body and the shoulder- 
 blade, where it remained quivering with the force of 
 the blow. The savage animal uttered a horrible yell, 
 and stood arrested in his course. The blood spouted 
 
from his mouth, his limbs trembled, relaxed, gave way 
 under him, and he fell dead with a howl that echoed 
 far and wide. 
 
 Florella was roused by the appalling sound ; she 
 opened her eyes, expecting instant death, and instead 
 of the bristly boar, beheld a youth kneeling at her side, 
 
contemplating her pale yet beauteous face with min 
 gled admiration and pity. In the dimness of her 
 newly wakened senses, she at first mistook him for 
 the prince of the moon, and was turning away in 
 loathsome disgust. But as she recovered her sight 
 more perfectly, she saw in his stead, a charming 
 youth, dressed in a hunting-suit of green, who, though 
 not clad in the courtly style, was far more graceful 
 and dignified than her affianced husband, the recreant 
 prince of the moon. From gazing at the stranger, 
 she turned to look at the huge animal, that lay gasp 
 ing a few paces from her, and the conviction came 
 across her mind, that he was her deliverer. Their 
 eyes met, and the sensation the princess that moment 
 experienced, caused the lilies of her face to give 
 place to blushing roses. 
 
 " Am I right?" at length she said, with trembling 
 apprehension; "am I indebted to thee for rescue 
 from a cruel death?" and she shuddered as she look 
 ed towards the dead monster, whose blood made the 
 earth smoke around him. "Is it not so ?" added Flo- 
 rella. 
 
 " The boar fell by my hand," answered the youth, 
 modestly ; " and I consider it the happiest circum 
 stance of my life, that I have been instrumental in pre 
 serving so charming a lady." The voice was full and 
 sweet, and the tones fell on the heart of the princess, 
 softened as it was by the warmth of gratitude, which 
 she expressed not more eloquently with her tongue 
 than her eyes. 
 
" I require no thanks, lady ; my own feelings are 
 
 my reward." 
 
 " But my father is rich and great." 
 
 " Indeed ! who then art thou, sweet lady ?" 
 
 " I am the only child of the king of this country." 
 
 " I am sorry for it," said the youth, and a cloud 
 
 passed over his brow. 
 
 " Why sorry ?" asked Florella, anxiously. 
 
 " Alas !" replied he, " between the peasant and the 
 
 king there is an impassable barrier." 
 " What meanest thou V 9 
 
 " Nothing," he answered, and that moment a noise 
 was heard, which frightened the princess, so out of 
 all sense of propriety, that she cast herself into his 
 arms and begged him once more to become her pro 
 tector. 
 
The prince of the moon was all this while secure 
 ly perched amid the branches of the royal oak, where 
 
 he had sought shelter, and now recognising, in the 
 noises around him, the approach of the discomfited 
 hunters, bethought himself that it was unbecoming his 
 dignity to be found in this situation. He accordingly 
 forthwith descended from his roost, and cautiously ap 
 proaching the spot where he had left the princess to 
 the care of the boar, beheld the monster lying dead 
 on the ground. Whereupon, he boldly advanced, and 
 his coming roused Florella from her resting-place, 
 who, with many blushes, hastily withdrew from the 
 arms of the stranger. 
 
" Hoity-toity !" exclaimed the prince, " what is all 
 this ? and who are you that dare touch the person of 
 the daughter, and destined wife of the Lord s anoint 
 ed?" 
 
 " He saved me from the fangs of that monster, to 
 whose mercy you so gallantly left me erewhile," 
 replied the princess, scornfully eying the insolent 
 prince, while the stranger looked on him with lower 
 ing contempt. 
 
 " He kill that boar !" exclaimed the prince ; " that s 
 a likely story, indeed ! He is as much alive as ever 
 he was. See ! there, he is getting on his legs again, 
 and coming towards us !" And the valiant gentleman, 
 perceiving the dispersed hunters rapidly approaching 
 among the trees, drew his sword, and rushing on the 
 dead animal, began to cut and hack away in a desper 
 ate manner, while Florella and the stranger could not 
 for their souls refrain from laughing outright. 
 
 While thus employed, the king and his retinue came 
 up, and seeing how manfully the prince laid about 
 him, were astonished at his valour, complimenting him, 
 at the same time, on being the saviour of his destined 
 bride. The more they complimented, the faster the 
 prince repeated his blows, until at length, expressing 
 his belief that the monster was dead, he coolly wiped 
 the blood from his sword, and returned it to the scab 
 bard with a look of triumph. All the courtiers flock 
 ed around him, pouring forth strains of admiration, 
 and the king, taking the collar of the Order of the 
 Bloody Boar, from his own, hung it round the neck 
 
of the prince, whom he embraced, affectionately cal 
 ling him the preserver of his only child, that he 
 valued above all earthly blessings, because, without 
 her, his kingdom would be destitute of an heir. 
 The prince received these honours with exemplary 
 modesty, as is customary with those who really merit 
 them. 
 
 Florella, while she glowed with indignation, at the 
 base assumption of the recreant prince, could, at the 
 same time, scarcely repress her inclination to laugh, 
 when she remembered his alacrity in running away 
 
at the first onset of the boar. The young stranger 
 remained leaning on his spear, which he had succeed 
 ed in drawing out, seeming too proud or too indiffer 
 ent to dispute the prince s claim, yet looking so hand 
 some, that all the damsels of the court surmised that 
 he was a king, or the son of a king in disguise, and 
 admired him accordingly. Ever and anon, he cast a 
 look of such soul-withering scorn at the prince of the 
 moon, that the doughty hero resolved on being glori 
 ously revenged. 
 
 By the law of court etiquette, which was held the 
 most sacred of all the laws of this ancient and mighty 
 kingdom, it was considered a capital crime for a 
 subject to touch a princess of the blood royal, under 
 any circumstances whatever. No matter if her life 
 or her honour were in most imminent jeopardy ; no 
 matter whether about to perish for lack of help, by 
 fire, by water, or any of the accidents of life, death 
 was the penalty of touching even the hem of her gar 
 ments. 
 
 Taking advantage of this law, the prince of the 
 moon related to the king, how, while he was contend 
 ing singly, and with desperate valour, with the enra 
 ged boar, and the princess lay insensible on the ground, 
 this low caitiff had the audacity to intrude upon 
 her privacy, and pollute her sacred person, while thus 
 lying at the mercy of his brutal insolence, by raising 
 her up, and holding her encircled in his arms, while 
 he was in such extremity with the animal, that he 
 had no time to revenge this impious presumption. 
 
Nothing could equal the rage of the king, and the 
 horror of the courtiers, at hearing of this violation of 
 the law of etiquette. His majesty ordered his gallant t 
 band of guards, called the invincibles, forthwith to 
 seize the insolent wretch, and bind him so that he 
 might be safely carried to the capital, there to suffer 
 
 the penalty of his crime. It was in vain that Flo- 
 rella passionately denied the statement of the prince, 
 in so far as it was false, and related the cowardice of 
 the one, the gallantry of the other. She could not 
 controvert the assertion of her having rested on the 
 bosom of the stranger, for she felt that she should 
 remember it all her life, and in spite of all she could 
 say, the decree of her father was confirmed. All be- 
 c 
 
lieved the tale of the prince of the moon, who cun 
 ningly insinuated that the princess was not to blame, 
 as her person had been sacrilegiously violated while 
 she was in a state of insensibility ; which would ac 
 count for her mistake in supposing the boar had been 
 slain by the insolent interloper instead of himself. 
 What confirmed all this, was the silence of the stran 
 ger, who disdained to vindicate his claim to an act, the 
 omission to do which, he would have considered a 
 disgrace to his manhood. Accordingly, he was carri 
 ed as a criminal, accompanied by the whole court, to 
 the capital of the kingdom, where the prince of the 
 moon was received with shouts of triumph, the prison 
 er, with curses and hisses of scorn. The people 
 rejoiced in having so just a king to rule over them, 
 and the prospect of so heroic a prince for his succes 
 sor. 
 
 Such was the fury of the enraged king, at the in 
 dignity offered his house, that he convened the high 
 court immediately, and causing the judges to be in 
 structed how to decide, left them to their own deliber 
 ations. The prince of the moon, in virtue of his priv 
 ilege, was permitted to give in his testimony on hon 
 our, while the word of the criminal went for nothing. 
 
 As to Florella, the sacred law of etiquette prohibit 
 ed her appearance in so vulgar a place as a court of 
 justice. The decision being made beforehand, there 
 was no use in delaying it, and accordingly the young 
 stranger, who had saved the life of the princess, was 
 sentenced to death, for having touched her person. 
 
Florella was all this time, in an agony of grief and 
 despair. Her heart, while throbbing with gratitude 
 for the services of the poor youth, who was now to 
 expiate them by a cruel death, was overwhelmed 
 with remorse for having brought the doom upon his 
 head. Had not her foolish terror prompted her to 
 throw herself into his arms for protection, the recre 
 ant prince of the moon would not have seen her in 
 that situation, and the violation of etiquette had re 
 mained unknown. These feelings combined, produ 
 ced another still more potent, the joint issue of pity, 
 admiration, and gratitude. She used every effort to 
 avert the doom of the young stranger ; she threw her 
 self at the feet of her father, who spurned her as a 
 degenerate girl, insensible to the dignity of her birth, 
 
and the sanctity of royalty; she besought the prince 
 of the moon to make all the amends in his power for 
 his falsehoods, by disclosing the truth ; but that high 
 born and illustrious wight contented himself with ex 
 pressing his astonishment at her making such a rout 
 about a fellow that nobody knew, and who probably 
 could not tell who was his great-grandfather. Flo- 
 rella gave him a look, which made him feel so disa 
 greeably, that he was fain to go and solace himself 
 with the favourite maid-of-honour. 
 
 Suddenly, the sorrowful princess recollected the 
 little bird and his promise, and invoked his presence 
 in a voice so plaintive, that the very echoes answered 
 with a sigh. But the messenger of the fairy god 
 mother came not, and after waiting till she was out of 
 patience, she invoked him again. A third time she 
 called, and the sense of her desolate state worked so 
 painfully on her heart that she sobbed aloud. At 
 length, she heard a rustling at her window, arid open 
 ing it with eager impatience, the little bird flew in, 
 perched on her shoulder, and, placing its golden bill 
 close to her ear, whispered as follows : 
 
 " What dost thou require, my princess, that thou 
 callest on me in such tones of sorrow. Speak, that I 
 may carry thy message to thy fairy godmother." 
 
 Florella related her story and her sorrows, apprizing 
 the little bird, that the preserver of her life was, on the 
 morrow, to suffer a cruel death, for having opened his 
 arms to receive her, when she threw herself on his 
 bosom in an agony of terror. She besought him to fly 
 
to the fairy, and bid her in the name of her god-daugh 
 ter to come to her relief, redress her wrongs, and as 
 suage her sorrows, for she felt she could not survive 
 her preserver, if he perished for her sake. 
 
 " Be contented, my princess," answered the little 
 bird. " Do not despair of the help of Providence, 
 which is ever the shield of the virtuous. Thou art 
 good, and thou art pure, and such have ever a friend 
 in the Giver of all good. Hope for the best, but hope 
 humbly ; go to thy rest and sleep soundly to-night, for 
 who knows what to-morrow will bring. Farewell for 
 a while :" and the liitle bird, flying out at the window, 
 lingered for a few moments on the topmost bough of 
 a neighbouring tree, quavering forth a song so full of 
 triumphant felicity, that Florella became inspired 
 with sweet and balmy hopes. She soon after laid 
 herself quietly down in her bed, and slept so soundly, 
 that she did not awake until the beams of the morning 
 sun, shining full in her face, roused her to the memory 
 of the past, the consciousness of the present, the an 
 ticipations of the future. 
 
 It was some moments before the princess recalled to 
 mind the circumstances of the preceding day, and 
 the situation of the youth who had saved her life, 
 and already paid, or was about to pay, for conferring 
 that benefit, by the sacrifice of his own. The thought 
 brought with it a gush of tears, at the same time that 
 it roused her to a last effort for his preservation. Start 
 ing up, she called her attendants, but none came ; and 
 after waiting a few moments in agonizing impatience, 
 
she resolved to dress herself. On looking round, how 
 ever, she could discover no other garments, but such 
 as country-maids are accustomed to wear, and which 
 
 
 aU. r-* . BUT/ 
 
 appeared so coarse and unseemly that she could not 
 find in her heart to put them on, even if she had 
 known how. While standing in this state of perplex- 
 
ity, she cast her eyes around, and was struck with the 
 appearance of her chamber, which was exceedingly 
 small, and furnished in the most plain and simple style. 
 Confounded and alarmed at the change, she remained 
 bewildered and at a loss, until warned by a strange 
 voice without, saying : " Come, my little damsel, it is 
 high time to get up, and milk the cows ; don t you hear 
 them calling to you ?" and, sure enough, she heard 
 them lowing close under the window. 
 
 " Where am I, and what has happened to me ?" ex 
 claimed the princess, and running to the window, 
 looked out on a scene so strange, yet so fair and 
 cheerful, that she paused to gaze on it with delight. 
 A wide range of country spread before her, basking 
 in the bright rays of the sun, and glittering in the jew 
 els of the dewy morning. Cultivated fields, green 
 meadows enamelled with flowers, and woods waving 
 in the summer zephyrs, lay mixed together in all 
 the graceful harmony of nature. Flocks of sheep 
 spread themselves here and there, animating the hills ; 
 herds of cattle lay ruminating in lazy luxury under the 
 shady elms ; groups of merry children were sporting 
 at the doors of white-washed cottages that dotted the 
 landscape ; the birds were singing their morning sal 
 utations, the milkmaids their rustic love-ditties, the 
 ploughmen whistling their way to their daily labours, 
 and just at the foot of the hill where stood her new 
 abode, a little winding stream glittered among the 
 grass and trees, lending its murmurs to the universal 
 chorus of nature. Every thing around her seemed 
 
free and happy, and for a little while her spirit joined 
 in gentle concert with all these delicious harmonies. 
 
 " Do I dream," at length she said, " or have I trav 
 elled in my sleep to a new and more beautiful world 1" 
 
 She was answered by her little bird, which poured 
 forth one of his most delightful and animated strains, 
 from a bush laden with a thousand moss-roses, some 
 
just in the bud, some half expanded, others spread out 
 in all their rich exuberance, sparkling with dew-drops 
 and diffusing more than the fragrance of Araby the 
 blessed, through the surrounding air. When he had 
 finished his song, he bathed his bosom in the dewy 
 sweets, that lingered in the rosy recesses of the flow 
 ers, and shivering his feathers in ecstasy, flitted in at 
 the window, greeting her lips with a kiss of his gold 
 en bill. 
 
 " How likest thou thy new abode, my princess ? dost 
 thou think thou canst be happy here, in the enjoyment 
 of repose and liberty, wait on thyself, and be useful to 
 others ?" 
 
 " What dost thou mean, my little bird ?" asked the 
 princess in wonder. " Where am I, and to what pur 
 pose have I been brought hither ?" 
 
" To be happy, if thou deservest to be so. Thou art 
 now in the NEW WORLD, far distant from kings and 
 court etiquette, where to be useful is to be dignified ; 
 and where, when thy duties are performed to thyself 
 and others, thou mayest, without fear or reproach, en 
 joy all innocent sports and recreations, relieved from 
 the chains that have fettered thy youthful spirit, and 
 made thee a slave to all those artificial restraints, 
 from which the rest of thy fellow-creatures are free." 
 
 " happy, happy change !" exclaimed the princess j 
 in ecstasy, " but the recreant prince of the moon, shall 
 I be free from his odious persecutions ?" 
 
 " For ever, my princess, if thou performest thy du 
 ties in thy new station." 
 
 " But but the stranger who saved my life," said 
 Florella, with blushing hesitation. " Yet, alas ! why 
 do I ask of him ? doubtless, before this, he has laid 
 down his life for having given me mine :" and the 
 young princess melted into tears. 
 
 " He lives, and thou wilt see him again, on the 
 same conditions which shall free thee for ever from 
 the prince of the moon." 
 
 " And my father ?" said Florella, anxiously. 
 
 "Seek to know no more, "until the period comes. 
 Adieu, my princess, it is time to go forth and milk the 
 cows." Just then, the same voice was heard calling 
 on her, chiding her delay, but not in anger. " Go," 
 said the little bird, "it is the voice of thy protector, in 
 whose care the fairy hath placed thee, and for whose 
 kindness, thou wilt owe obedience, gratitude, and af- 
 
fection. See that thou payest the debt, or the forfeit 
 will be the loss of thy happiness. Farewell, till I see 
 thee again ? Shouldst thou become tired of thy new 
 abode, call on thy godmother, and she will restore 
 thee to the court of thy father." 
 
 The little bird flitted away, and Florella having 
 spent rather a long time arraying herself, for it was 
 an awkward business to one who had heretofore de 
 pended on others for assistance, in the most insignifi 
 cant offices Florella went forth, and met without the 
 door, a staid and venerable matron, decked in homely 
 yet cleanly weeds, with a countenance full of cheerful 
 benevolence, and eyes that sparkled even among wrin 
 kles. 
 
" Well, my daughter," said she, " you have overslept 
 yourself this morning, the cows are waiting for you. 
 But I suppose you are tired with your long journey, 
 and will be earlier to-morrow. Yonder is the milk- 
 pail, and you must bestir yourself, for we shall get no 
 breakfast, except from the cows." 
 
 Florella went forth, ashamed, not that the task of 
 milking alarmed her pride, but that she was conscious 
 of her entire incapacity to fulfil it. The cows snuffed 
 their noses at her appearance, and when she essayed 
 to extract the milky store, sidled away, as if impatient 
 at her awkwardness. In short, she could make noth 
 ing of it, and they were likely to have no breakfast if 
 it depended on her. The old woman, who was wait 
 ing her progress, at length came up, laughing at her 
 ill success, and saying she was likely to have but an 
 awkward milkmaid. After which, she seated herself 
 on a little bench, and bidding Florella take good notice, 
 finished the milking without any difficulty. 
 
 They then went in to breakfast, and the little fatigue 
 Florella had undergone, joined to the wholesome 
 freshness of the morning air, gave her such an appe 
 tite, that she ate more than became the daughter of a 
 great king, or than the sacred law of court etiquette 
 allowed, at the court of her father. 
 
 When the wholesome morning meal was done, the 
 old woman instructed her in various household duties 
 of a light and cheerful kind, and though Florella failed 
 in some, and performed others in an imperfect mariner, 
 the good old soul, instead of scolding or finding fault 
 
with her wretched bringing up, encouraged her by the 
 assurance that she could very soon learn to do better. 
 When the cottage was fairly pat to rights, she told the 
 princess she might go forth into the fields, and amuse 
 herself in any manner she pleased. Accordingly, Flo- 
 rella, tying on a little straw hat, which she could 
 scarcely feel on her head, went forth on a ramble be 
 side the stream that meandered through the meadows 
 at the foot of the hills. Here she met little children 
 of the neighbouring houses, sporting or fishing, or 
 playing off their various gambols, arid such was the 
 smiling welcome she ever bore in her face, that they 
 did not avoid, but approached her, with innocent free 
 dom, asking her name, where she came from, and 
 bringing her bouquets of wild flowers, which grew on 
 the banks of the stream. 
 
 There was a playful freedom, devoid of forward im 
 pudence, in the words and actions of these little ur 
 chins, so different from the fawning servility to which 
 she had been all her life accustomed, that though at 
 first it seemed strange, if not offensive, soon pleased 
 by its native charm, and blithesome hilarity. In a 
 little while, Florella found herself joining in their 
 sportive gambols, associating herself in their rural 
 pursuits, and sharing in all their hopes and fears. 
 When she left them, they told her she must come 
 again, and bring a basket which they would fill with 
 flowers. 
 
 The princess returned home pleased and happy, 
 that she had found companions, who were not her 
 
slaves, and in whose presence she could follow the 
 impulses of her heart, or the caprices of her fancy> 
 free from the cobweb toils, which had hitherto fettered 
 her on every side. Day after day, week after week, 
 glided away, during which Florella rapidly improved 
 in domestic skill, most especially in milking the cows, 
 who actually seemed now to welcome her coming, un 
 til at length the old dame, whom she called her mother, 
 and who deserved the title by her kindness, declared, 
 that she would be a treasure to any farmer s son in 
 twenty miles round, who wanted an industrious, frugal, 
 sweet-tempered wife. The step of the princess be 
 came every day more light and elastic ; deeper and 
 deeper was the tint of the roses on her cheek, while 
 her waking thoughts save now and then, a single re 
 collection, that ever brought forth a quivering sigh 
 were full of happiness, and her nights occupied in 
 balmy rest or happy dreams. 
 
 At length, at the expiration of six months from the 
 transformation of Florella, the old woman fell despe 
 rately ill, and, for several weeks, lay helpless on her 
 bed of pain. During all this time, the princess attend 
 ed her with the kindest care, the most gentle, tender, 
 and unabating assiduity. By day, she employed her 
 self in administrating to the pains of sickness, and the 
 infirmities of age ; by night, she sat at the bedside, 
 watching, weeping, and praying, for the blessing of 
 Heaven on her endeavours. By degrees, her soothing 
 cares, and tender attentions, proved successful. The 
 aged sufferer at length was able to arise from her bed 
 
of anguish, and to thank her careful nurse, that she 
 was still in the land of the living. She embraced her 
 with tears of gratitude, blessed her in words of warm 
 sincerity, and over and over predicted that Heaven 
 would reward her for her kindness. The little bird 
 also frequently cheered Florella, with his song, and 
 at length, one day flew in at the window, lighted on 
 her shoulder, and whispered in her ear : 
 
 " Well done, my princess, thy reward is at hand." 
 The good old woman insisted that Florella should 
 go forth, that she might, by partaking in the fresh 
 air, recover her activity and spritefulness. Accord 
 ingly, she put on her little straw bonnet, and sought 
 her usual walk along the bank of the little twit 
 tering stream, where the young children were delight 
 ed to see her again, and gathered wreaths of flowers, 
 which they entreated her to wear on her head. In a 
 
 *:,; 
 
little while, she was more charming than ever, and 
 more happy, too, in the consciousness of having paid 
 the debt of gratitude to her kind protector. 
 
 One bright summer morning, she wandered away to 
 her favourite retreat, a little cascade buried deep in a 
 shady glen, through which the crystal stream had, in 
 the lapse of ages, worn its way, now tumbling over 
 precipices, and anon foaming among the rocks, that 
 were green with moss and clambering vines. 
 
 Here, seated on the edge of a little crystal basin, at 
 the foot of the cascade, in which the speckled trout 
 might ever and anon be seen,darting at the little heedless 
 flies that fell upon its surface, Florella sunk into a 
 deep revery, in which the past was reflected on her 
 mind, even as the rocks and trees were reflected in 
 the glassy pool. Mellowed by time and distance, the 
 images of her father, of his court, and of every thing 
 connected with her past existence, appeared and dis 
 appeared like the pageants of a dream, and caused 
 neither regret for their absence, or anxiety for their 
 return. One recollection, and one alone, created pain, 
 and that was of the youth in the hunter s suit of green, 
 who had laid her under obligations, she feared he 
 would never give her an opportunity to repay, and 
 whom she longed to see once more, if only to thank 
 him. She sighed deeply at the recollection of the few 
 fleeting moments, when she lay trembling in his arms, 
 felt his heart beat against hers, and in the midst of her 
 terrors, was happier than she ever was before. 
 
 While her spirit was thus, as it were, absent from 
 
 D 
 
its tenement of clay, expatiating in the past, and seek 
 ing to pry imo the future, she was awakened to a 
 sense of the present, by the barking of a dog upon the 
 top of the precipice, over which the waters plunged, 
 
 and looking up, beheld the figure of a man in green, 
 eagerly bending over, as if watching her motions 
 with extreme interest. At first, she felt alarmed, and 
 
hastily rising, was about to leave the spot, when a 
 second look revealed to her heart the youth of her 
 contemplations, and caused its pulses to beat with new 
 rapidity. 
 
 " Florella," exclaimed the youth, in a voice trem 
 bling with eagerness, " do not fly. If my presence 
 is painful, I will retire as I came, content with having 
 seen you once more. Fare thee well," added he, in a 
 saddened tone, as he perceived her going away, " Fare 
 thee well ; I leave you in safety, since there are 
 no ravenous beasts to molest you in these innocent re 
 treats." 
 
 The heart of the princess smote her with a feeling 
 of ingratitude, for the conclusion of his speech had 
 recalled more vividly the obligations she owed him. 
 
 " Stay," cried she, with deep blushes arid panting 
 hesitation, " stay and receive my thanks, for it cannot 
 be a sin against modesty to express our gratitude." 
 
 In a moment, the stranger youth was at her side. 
 Florella thanked him for saving her life, with all the 
 warmth of an innocent heart, and the youth assured 
 her that the obligation was conferred on himself, since 
 it had ever been to him a source of unbounded happi 
 ness. Having lightened her bosom of its load of 
 gratitude, one might have thought Florella would have 
 been satisfied and went her way. But some how or 
 other, they had so much to say besides, that neither 
 seemed to think of parting. The princess related her 
 mysterious change from the heiress of a kingdom to 
 the maid of an old peasant-woman, and the youth, who 
 
announced his name as Armine, declared that their 
 fates seemed united, for he had been delivered from 
 death in the same mysterious manner, by a midnight 
 conveyance to his home. The princess blushed at 
 
 this allusion to a community of fate, and Armine con 
 templated her with such speaking looks, that she turn 
 ed away her face, and seemed gazing at the foaming 
 torrent at her feet. 
 
 L. 
 
Florella learned that he was an inhabitant of the 
 neighbourhood, and so significantly looked her won 
 der at not having seen him before, that he answered 
 her silence, by saying: "It was forbidden," Florella 
 blushed ten times redder than before, and rising, turn 
 ed herself towards home. Armine attempted to fol 
 low, and the princess staid him by waving her hand 
 for his departure. But he persisted in following at 
 her side, and such was the roughness of the path, 
 that she was often obliged to let him take her hand, 
 in order to guide her in safety, and if on these occa 
 sions he squeezed it too tightly, the princess ascribed 
 it to necessity rather than presumption. The first 
 step is every thing, and Armine, without any farther 
 opposition, accompanied Florella home, where he was 
 welcomed by the dame as an old acquaintance. 
 
From this time, scarcely a day passed, in which 
 they failed to meet by a thousand of those inscrutable 
 accidents which the world calls fate, but which 
 youths and young maidens, learning the first rudiments 
 of love, know full well are the result of a common 
 sympathy, by which they are irresistibly drawn to 
 gether by the chords of their hearts. Armine had 
 long looked his love, and the princess blushed hers, 
 ere he found words to declare his passion: he receiv 
 ed his answer in a silence, more expressive, a thou 
 sand times, than all the babbling eloquence of the de 
 ceitful tongue. Remembering the wise old saying, 
 that " silence gives consent," Armine folded the prin 
 cess in his arms : the throbbing of their hearts, recall 
 ed to her mind, the rescue from the ferocious boar, 
 and as Florella returned the embrace, she persuaded 
 herself it was only a tribute to gratitude. 
 
 At this mcment, they were startled by the appear 
 ance of a little woman, about three feet high, riding 
 on a rainbow, and decked in more than its celestial ra 
 diance. She sailed towards them, until the beautiful 
 arch, seemed to bend just over their heads, and en 
 close them within its dazzling semicircle. For a lit 
 tle while they stood in silent wonder, not altogether 
 unmixed with apprehension, when the fairy of the 
 rainbow, who was no other than Florella s godmother, 
 addressed them as follows, in a voice sweeter than 
 that of the sweetest-toned woman : 
 
 " Florella, thou hast tasted of life at both extremes 
 of the fountain. Thou hast learned what wealth, 
 
power, and honours can give, and what are the bles 
 sings of a life of innocent freedom, joined with the 
 discharge of those duties which all mankind owe to 
 each other. Choose now, and choose for ever, wheth 
 er thou wilt be a queen, or a free tenant of this land 
 of liberty, where thou and thy posterity for long ages 
 to come, shall enjoy those rights, which, though be 
 stowed by omnipotence, are filched away by his crea 
 ture, man. Choose now, and for ever." 
 
 " If my father could come and enjoy the same hap 
 piness," replied Florella. 
 
 "Thy father," replied the fairy of the rainbow, 
 " lives and reigns no more. He died months ago ; 
 but the people await thy appearance, and will submit 
 to thy authority. Wilt thou return and reign over 
 them ?" 
 
 " Never !" replied the princess, firmly. " When I 
 remember the buoyant health, the cheerful spirits, the 
 innocent freedom I have enjoyed in this land of liber 
 ty, and contrast it with the thousand vexatious re 
 straints, the cumbrous splendours, straight-laced eti 
 quette, desperate ennui, and little envious, malignant 
 passions of a court ; when I recall all these, my choice 
 is made. I will stay where I am, and share with the 
 rest of my fellow-creatures, what God has given equal 
 ly to all." 
 
 Armine, who had watched, with breathless impa 
 tience, and trembling apprehension, the decision of 
 Florella, at the conclusion of this declaration, threw 
 himself at her feet, and thanked her in words of grate- 
 
ful eloquence that she had not made choice of a station 
 that would have for ever separated his lot from hers. 
 The fairy, too, contemplated her with looks of affec 
 tionate approbation, and replied in these encouraging 
 words : 
 
 " Thy choice is wise, my daughter, and thou shalt 
 be rewarded for having learned to administer to the 
 happiness of others, by being happy thyself. Know 
 that thou art the grand-daughter of the old dame under 
 whose protection thou hast lately lived, and that a 
 malignant fairy, being offended with thy mother, stole 
 thee away, and as a punishment, sought to make thee 
 perpetually miserable by passing thee off for the 
 daughter of a king. Thou art now, through thy own 
 wise choice, restored to thy former state, and nothing 
 now remains but to complete thy happiness. Come 
 hither, Armine, and my daughter." 
 
 The youthful pair approached ; the fairy bent 
 down, joined their hands, blessed them, and rising on 
 the beams of the rainbow, disappeared in the blue dis 
 tance of the boundless sky. Florella, with the joyful 
 assent of her grandmother, was soon united to Armi 
 ne, with whom she passed a life of such joyous free 
 dom, sweetened and mingled with useful occupations, 
 that a thousand times she asked herself, for what un 
 heard-of crimes, Providence should punish people by 
 entailing on them and their posterity, the miseries of 
 kingly power and courtly etiquette. 
 
 The prince of the moon, on the disappearance of 
 Florella, returned to his empire, accompanied by the 
 
favourite maid-of-honour, and on the death of the em 
 peror, who was called by way of distinction, the man 
 in the moon, played such enormous pranks of tyranny, 
 that the fairy of the rainbow, whose power extended 
 over all that planet, changed him into a vast green 
 cheese, and his people, for one hundred years, were 
 permitted to prey upon him, as he had preyed on them. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 AND FAIRY RING-. 
 

 1 v 
 
 A 
 
 I 
 
 . 
 
 3 
 
 *> 
 
 3"* 
 
 
 | - 1 
 
 
UPON A TIME THERE LIVED 
 
 " 
 
 who having nothing useful to keep him out of idleness, 
 took it into his head to make war on ignorance and su 
 perstition ; and to account for every thing he saw, on the 
 principles of science and philosophy. Whenever he 
 
found himself unable to do this, he would not believe 
 his own eyes, much less those of other people. Most 
 especially he denounced the agency of ghosts, genii, 
 magicians and fairies in the affairs of mankind, and 
 not being able to reconcile the existence of spiritual 
 beings to his notions of the organization of matter, 
 sometimes came very near denying that of a Supreme 
 Being, " A cause without a cause, is no cause at all," 
 said he, to himself, " and of nothing can come noth 
 ing." 
 
 Most invariably did he make desperate war against 
 the fairies, to whom he had taken a mortal antipathy, 
 seeing he had invented several excellent theories, not 
 one word of which the people would believe, while at 
 the same time, they placed implicit faith in the gam 
 bols of the little elfin race. This made him jealous, 
 and he determined to demonstrate the impossibility of 
 their existence, on the principles of science and phi 
 losophy. He wrote a great folio, which being read by 
 about one person out of a thousand had no great ef 
 fect on the other nine hundred and ninety-nine, who 
 remained in all the bliss of ignorance, and he was as 
 tonished to find the people continued to believe in the 
 fairies, just as they did before. One day an honest 
 countryman came to him to inquire the reason why 
 a salt-water fish was always fresh, arid was going 
 away, after receiving an explanation, which puzzled 
 him more than ever, saying as he went out, " after all, 
 I reckon it is because God pleases it should be so." 
 " What s that you say, you ignorant blockhead ? Did nt 
 
I tell you it was the law of nature ?" And thereupon he 
 seized the great book he had written against the fairies, 
 and threw it at the head of the poor countryman, who 
 
 
 if he had not dodged on one side, would have fared 
 rather indifferently. As it was, he ran away as fast 
 as his heels would carry him, and told all his neigh 
 bours, the philosopher had gone mad. " Ah !" said 
 an old man of fourscore and ten, who was reckoned an 
 oracle, though he could neither read nor write " Ah ! 
 this learning is a terrible thing. I never knew any 
 good come from it, not I. Some how or other, I think 
 it only blinds people to what is, and makes them see 
 what is not." 
 
All this time the fairies had their eyes on the phi 
 losopher, and determined to be even with him one of 
 these days, unless he ceased his warfare against their 
 ancient dominion over the minds of men. Finding 
 that the obstinate old gentleman continued his attacks 
 with more virulence than ever, a council was called, 
 in a little fairy ring, to consider the best mode of pun 
 ishment. Every body knows that a fairy ring is a cir 
 cular plot of grass, round which is a line seemingly 
 occasioned by the application of fire. 
 
 The spot was situated in one of those delightful sol 
 itudes the fairies love. It was a little basin embodied 
 among hills and woods, in which was a clear spring, 
 whose white sands danced in its bottom, as the crystal 
 waters welled from the bosom of the earth beneath. 
 It was their favourite place of resort, and here they 
 held a council to decide in what manner they should 
 punish this doting, foolish, old fellow, who would not 
 believe his own eyes. 
 
 The affair would soon have been settled, if the lit 
 tle assemblage had not all talked at once, which, as 
 experience shows, is not the best way of despatching 
 business. Where there are no listeners, arguments 
 are very apt to be thrown away; and where every one 
 holds a different opinion, it is very difficult to come 
 to a decision. Much time was accordingly spent in de 
 vising various modes of punishing the old philosopher, 
 each one of which, though it would have been equally 
 effectual, was opposed by all but the mover. Matters 
 were getting into great confusion, when a venerable 
 
old fairy who usually presided over the assemblages 
 of the little elfin band, on account of having a 
 sharp shrill voice, louder than all the rest, rose, in 
 somewhat of a passion, and adjusting her hood with 
 special regard to the dignity cf her station, called 
 them to order, with such energy that she made more 
 
 noise than all the rest put together. This shows that 
 old women should always stay at home, and mind their 
 own business, instead of meddling with that of other 
 people, -seeing that old fools are the most desperate 
 fools in the world, for there is no hope of their ever 
 living to become wiser. 
 
It should have been premised, that the community 
 of fairies, of which I am speaking, was a republic, sit 
 uated somewhere in the great western continent, 
 whither they had been driven by the persecutions of 
 science and philosophy. It was composed of emi 
 grants from all parts of fairy land, in the known world, 
 who had united together for defence against their great 
 enemies, the philosophers, and never agreed in ONE 
 point since that time. There were some genii, and 
 magicians, from the east, among them, but these were 
 not permitted to say a word, as it was a fundamental 
 principle of their government, that the women should 
 do all the talking. The genii and magicians submitted 
 with rather a bad grace, but could do nothing, in a 
 community where the only privilege of the minority 
 was to pocket every thing but their own money. 
 
 Various were the projects discussed with great force 
 and eloquence, which was almost a pity, since nobody 
 heard them. A little fairy from Persia, insisted on 
 having the philosopher impaled alive ; another sug 
 gested the propriety of banishing him to the old world, 
 where he would entirely lose his wits, in studying 
 Phrenology and Animal Magnetism ; a third, strenu 
 ously recommended his being condemned to search all 
 his life for the philosopher s stone ; another that he 
 should undergo the infliction of being made to believe 
 what he could not account for ; a fourth insisted on 
 making him a politician, and getting him abused by 
 both parties ; a fifth enforced the propriety of setting 
 the critics at his great book ; and lastly, a plump little 
 
rosy-cheeked Irish fairy, as full of mischief and hi 
 larity as she could hold, earnestly, and with great force 
 of argument, recommended the immortal shillelah, for 
 
 there was more real virtue in that than in all the ma 
 gicians rods that ever grew out of a conjurer s beard. 
 There was some considerable disposition to discuss 
 the propriety of appointing a committee to inquire into 
 the constitutionality of this comparison between the 
 shillelah and the magician s rod, as well as the truth 
 of the fact of its ever having been known to grow out 
 of a conjurer s beard. Long and interesting debates 
 arose, in which the nature and properties of the shil- 
 laleh were minutely analyzed, and its origin discussed 
 with vast .learning and research. This led to an in 
 quiry into the relative force of reason and the cudgel 
 as instruments for governing mankind ; which led to 
 a disquisition on the difference between instinct and 
 
reason ; which naturally conducted them to the sub 
 ject of horses and cattle which, by direct inference, 
 led to raising wheat and tobacco ; which again led 
 to an inquiry into the abominable practice of smoking, 
 together with the best mode of baking buckwheat 
 cakes, and whether this was best done in this 
 state or any other. This led to a discussion of 
 State Rights ; which led to various eloquent decla 
 mations, which ended at last in loud calls of " Ques 
 tion! Question!" But no question could be found 
 in the variety of topics that had been discussed, 
 and the old fairy, who, by common consent, presided 
 over their deliberations, put on her spectacles to look 
 for it. 
 
 A long while elapsed before it could be found ; 
 but, at length, a little Greek fairy, who had spent 
 much of her time in the Cretan labyrinth, ferreted 
 it out, to the great content of all the rest, who had 
 begun to grow weary ; for even fairies become tired 
 of talking at last, although, like their sister Echo, 
 they always like to have the last word. 
 
 But the finding of the question did not seem 
 likely to facilitate the decision, for many had been 
 led so far astray, that they doubted whether they 
 had found the right one, and this again led to a great 
 deal of talking to very little purpose, except wasting 
 time, which, to be sure, is of no great consequence 
 to the fairies, who have nothing to do but to dance 
 by the light of the moon and stars ; gather together 
 in whispering groves to watch unseen the rural lovers 
 
on their lonely rambles ; bask on the brink of some 
 clear crystal spring or murmuring brook and admire 
 themselves in its glassy mirror ; plot mischief against 
 wicked wights that do ill offices to their neighbours, 
 punish the bad children, and reward those who obey 
 their parents and love one another. They are, indeed, 
 a delightful race of little beings, that never did any harm 
 in this world, although they have been much scandal 
 ized by evil tongues, and it may safely be said that 
 the world has grown little wiser or better since they 
 became objects of persecution to the philosophers. 
 But enough of this. The fairies were about to ad 
 journ for want of a quorum, when the sergeant-at- 
 arms, who had been stationed on the lookout, to pre 
 vent them from being intruded upon, came in out of 
 breath, and announced the approach of the philosopher. 
 Hereupon there was an end of all speeches, resolu 
 tions, motions and committees. With one accord, the 
 whole assembly resolved itself into invisibility, and 
 separating in little groups, peeping from among the 
 grass, or in the whispering branches of the trees, 
 awaited the approach of their enemy. The philoso 
 pher came walking slowly along, pondering on the 
 deplorable ignorance of the great mass of mankind, 
 who had no other grounds of belief than their own ex 
 perience, and the evidence of their senses. In the van 
 ity of his heart he plumed himself by a comparison with 
 those beneath, instead of those above him and forgot 
 that he was a thousand degrees farther below Infinite 
 Wisdom, than the mass of mankind was below himself. 
 
As he thus passed along, his attention was arrested 
 by the ring in which the fairy rout had just been hold 
 ing their council. " Ah !" said the philosopher, " here 
 is one of the evidences of human folly and credulity. 
 It is here that if we believe the vulgar, the fairies 
 dance their merry gambols by moonlight. I should 
 like to see them, not that I would believe it if I did, 
 for such a conclusion would be unphilosophical." At 
 
 this moment, the fairies, as if by one impulse, assumed 
 their forms again, and dashing into the ring, began 
 dancing an airy round, with all their tiny might. They 
 
crossed hands, twined their arms, achieved the pigeon- 
 wing, the partridge-run, and all the triumphs of the art 
 with which Celeste, and others delight the refined au 
 diences of the good city of Gotham, to the great credit 
 of the sex, and improvement of public taste and morals. 
 The Persian fairy, emulated the feats of the dancing 
 girls of the east ; the Scots lassie achieved a strathpsey; 
 the little redhaired Irish sprite capered an Irish jig ; 
 and a deputy from the forest of Fontainebleau, display 
 ed herself in a style that some of the more discreet 
 fairies thought not quite decent. 
 
 Surely, thought the little rabble rout, this will be suffi 
 cient for this unbelieving sinner ; he cannot doubt the 
 evidence of his senses. But they reckoned without 
 their host. The philosopher had no more faith in his 
 eyes than a blind man. " Verily," murmured he, aloud, 
 " some ignorant people, the dupes of their five senses, 
 would actually believe they had seen what I have seen, 
 but I am not to be deluded in this manner. I maintain 
 that the existence of fairies is impossible, and that 
 these rings so far from being made by them, as the 
 vulgar believe, are caused by lightning or mushrooms, 
 or toad-stools, or some other species of fungii or 
 something or other." 
 
 " It is false !" exclaimed one of the fairies who had 
 taken the likeness of a great toad-stool. 
 
 The philosopher gazed around him, but the fairy 
 rout had disappeared, almost despairing of converting 
 this unbeliever, even by the aid of the Missionary So 
 cieties. 
 
" Pooh !" said he, at length, " here is another proof 
 of the delusion of the senses. If I were as ignorant 
 and superstitious as the vulgar, I should really believe 
 I heard some one contradict me ; but as I see no one, 
 it is impossible I should hear any one, for, that invisi 
 ble beings speak, is an opinion altogether unphilosoph- 
 ical." 
 
 While he was speaking thus, the mushroom gradu 
 ally expanded till it grew as high as a man, and as 
 broad as an umbrella, and advancing towards the phi 
 losopher, covered him from the rays of the sun in the 
 politest possible manner. 
 
 " Strange, " said he, " if it were not unphilosophical, 
 I should be almost inclined to believe what I see. 
 Surely I have fallen asleep and am dreaming, or am 
 subjected to some supernatural influence." Here the 
 philosopher began to be rather vulgar, for he was re 
 sorting to a cause to account for his present state, 
 which he could not prove had an existence. 
 
His obstinate unbelief provoked the fairies almost be 
 yond endurance. " By the holy poker !" cried the little 
 Irish sprite, " but if he don t believe his eyes, I ll try 
 what the sense of feeling will do." So she let fly a 
 large potato, with such excellent aim, that it encoun 
 tered the philosopher s mouth, which was just opening 
 to continue his speculations, and knocked out two of 
 his front teeth, which to be sure were none of the 
 soundest. This was followed by a shower of huge 
 acorns, potatoes and fairy stones, which bruised him 
 sorely, insomuch that he essayed to screen himself 
 under the great toad-stool. But it all at once vanished 
 and left him exposed to the storm of missiles. The 
 philosopher cried out, " wonderful ! it cannot be, it is 
 
 unphilosophical, and therefore imposs " the word 
 
 was cut short by a discharge of fairy stones, which 
 appealed so successfully to his sense of feeling, that 
 he actually yielded to it what he had denied to the 
 other senses, and taking to his heels scampered away 
 towards home, followed b^_a. strange laugh which 
 echoed on all sides. 
 
The philosopher sat himself down in his study, and 
 opening his huge folio of arguments against the 
 existence of these troublesome fairies, soon con 
 vinced himself that all he had seen and heard, was 
 either a dream or a deception of those rascally cheats 
 the five senses. u It is impossible," said he ; " it is 
 much more philosophical to disbelieve what cannot be 
 proved to exist, than to believe what is unphilosophi- 
 cal." He then looked in the glass, and discovered 
 that his face was not only spotted with black and blue 
 bruises, but that two of his front teeth were missing. 
 This puzzled him not a little, and he was on the point 
 of going forth among his neighbours, and telling the 
 whole story, when the huge folio rose up against him, 
 and he resolved to preserve his consistency. " It is 
 of no consequence, thought he, " whether fairies exist 
 or not ; but it is of great consequence to be consistent." 
 Accordingly he set himself to work, and wrote another 
 book, in which he exemplified the credulity of the 
 vulgar, by placing a poor man precisely in the predic 
 ament through which he himself had just passed, and 
 attempted to explain the whole on philosophical prin 
 ciples. 
 
 The fairies were still more exasperated than ever, 
 at this contumacy, and determined to be revenged in 
 a manner before unheard of, in the annals of fairy land. 
 But while they were debating a plan for this purpose, 
 in which not two of them could agree, the philosopher 
 saved them the trouble. The result of his cogitations 
 on the adventure of the fairy ring, was a determina- 
 
tion to believe in nothing but what he could account 
 for, on the principles of science and philosophy, and 
 in order to qualify himself for the great task of separa 
 ting truth from error, proceeded forthwith to subject 
 every thing he saw to this new test of truth. 
 
 The first thing that puzzled him, was the mystery 
 of his own existence, which he attempted to demon 
 strate in various ways, none of which proved satisfac 
 tory. The consciousness of being, he considered but 
 a poor argument, inasmuch as it could not be demon 
 strated ; and a self-evident fact was to his mind no 
 evidence at all. At length, he hit, as he thought, on a 
 most satisfactory solution, in the shape of a two-legged 
 syllogism. " I think, therefore I exist," said he. But 
 while chuckling over this discovery, and enjoying 
 his new-found being, the demon of doubt whispered, 
 " What better proof have you of your thinking, than of 
 your existing ?" Whereupon the philosopher relapsed 
 into doubt again, and resolved to subject the matter to 
 the test of actual experiment. 
 
 " The cessation of life," quoth he, " is the best proof 
 of having once existed. I will die to satisfy myself 
 that I have actually lived." Accordingly he adopted 
 a system of starvation, which being slow in the pro 
 cess, would allow him an opportunity of making various 
 philosophical deductions, as to the phenomena of dy 
 ing. By degrees he grew both hungry, as well as 
 thirsty, and was sorely tempted to eat and drink, until 
 he reflected that he could not actually demonstrate 
 that he was either one or the other. He decided 
 
therefore, that it would be quite unphilosophical to 
 yield to an imaginary necessity. By degrees, as his 
 weakness increased, the keenness of his sufferings 
 diminished in proportion, and at length the emaciated 
 philosopher became thoroughly convinced, that the 
 sensations of hunger and thirst, could not be proved 
 to have an existence by any genuine philosophical de 
 duction from demonstrative principles. What seemed 
 the more to convince him of this, was the conduct of 
 the fairies on this occasion. In order to fortify him 
 in the opinion that hunger and thirst were all fancy, 
 as he lay almost helpless on his pillow, with misty 
 eyes, through which every object seemed dancing be 
 fore him in the maze of visionary uncertainty, and his 
 brain whirling in the dizzy mazes of madness, they 
 would circle in airy rounds about his bed, in a thou 
 sand fantastic forms, such as flit before the eye of the 
 nervous patient, in huge unnatural deformity, now 
 towards, and anon receding, like shadows of infernal 
 growth. If the philosopher had believed the evidence 
 of his senses, in relation to his being hungry or athirst, 
 he would have been obliged for the sake of consisten 
 cy, to give credence to these fantastic images, and ac 
 cordingly he settled the matter by disbelieving in both. 
 At length he was reduced to the last extremity. 
 He became a shadow in form, a wreck in intellect. 
 He died, and the last gleam of intelligence lighted 
 forth, in these trembling words, as heard by the " good 
 people," who were gathered about him, enjoying the 
 spectacle of his gradual dissolution : " I am satisfied 
 
now ; but what a pity I cannot benefit by the convic 
 tion, and live to settle this long mooted question, by 
 demonstrating in my death, that I have actually exist 
 ed." Thus the fairies were revenged, and a warning 
 example given, of the deplorable consequences of 
 doubting the evidences of our own senses, most es 
 pecially, in regard to fairy land. 
 
THE HUNCHBACK 
 
 
 AND BEAUTY. 
 

 LONG WHILE AGO 
 in a certain place, which 
 lies at a great distance 
 from any other spot in the 
 known world, there bub 
 bled forth a clear, crystal 
 spring, in a charming re 
 cess among the wooded 
 hills. It was more than 
 two hundred yards around 
 and the sands at its bottom 
 were as white as the driv- 
 
 en snow . The waters were 
 
more transparent than those of Lake George, and the 
 little air bubbles might be seen shooting upwards from 
 the bottom in long, bright, spiral streaks. All around 
 was quiet and repose, tor no one resided there but the 
 solitary nymph, whose plaintive voice resounds to 
 every call, and who to the infinite credit of her sex, 
 was never known to contradict any one, even when 
 they derided her beauty. I call her a nymph, in re 
 spect to classic lore, but she was in reality a Fairy, 
 who having offended one of greater power, by main 
 taining the superiority of black eyes and black hair, 
 over blue eyes and yellow hair, caused violent com 
 motion in fairy land. Two great parties arose, called 
 the black and blue roses ; one comprehending the 
 black, the other the blue eyes, and the contest was 
 aggravated, by several mischievous poets, who ever 
 and anon, composed lamentable ditties in praise of 
 their favourite colour. At length, however, the blue 
 eyes being the most numerous, triumphed ; and in a 
 great battle in which eye-shot Avere used for the first 
 time, and with fatal effect, defeated their adversaries 
 in the most signal manner, with the aid of several en 
 chanters and fiery dragons, which they had seduced 
 into their service by their bright eyes. The ringlead 
 ers among the black eyes were severely punished, and 
 the fairy who had first denied the divinity of blue eyes, 
 being of a contradictory disposition, as well as some 
 what vain of her beauty, was condemned to a hundred 
 years of invisibility, with the additional punishment 
 of never contradicting any body. 
 
Mortified and saddened to the heart, the Fairy Echo, 
 retired disconsolate into the solitudes of the hills and 
 woods, where there were few sounds and fewer words 
 to repeat ; for since she could not contradict any one, 
 she preferred silence to talking. Her favourite resort, 
 was the beautiful spring, for though she was invisible 
 
 to others, she could see herself, and her chief delight 
 was to sit and admire her eyes and hair in the bosom 
 of its crystal waters. 
 
Here also would sometimes come, at holiday times, 
 the young maidens and shepherdesses, of the valley, 
 to dress their glossy hair with flowers, and admire 
 themselves in the pure mirror which nature had gra 
 ciously provided for the gratification of their innocent 
 vanity. This was before the invention of looking- 
 glasses, and if it had not been for this spring, and the 
 songs of the shepherds, accompanied by their mellow 
 oaten reeds, there is reason to fear they would have 
 remained in unhappy ignorance of their own unequal 
 led beauties. One of these songs, sung by the shep 
 herd Daffadowndilly, is of such surpassing obscurity 
 as to merit preservation, seeing that if a man could 
 write so well without exactly knowing what he was 
 saying, how much better would he have done if he had 
 only comprehended himself. 
 
 My blue-eyed maid is far away, 
 
 And yet is ever near ; 
 The moon and stars shine not by day 
 
 Nor sun by night that s clear. 
 
 Yet were my lovely blue-eyed maid, 
 
 But absent when she s near, 
 The anguish of my heart were laid, 
 
 Like flowers upon a bier. 
 
 I would not care if star or moon, 
 
 Or sun shone day or night, 
 If I could see from night tojioon, 
 
 My own blue eye of light. 
 
 Thus when a thing is not a thing, 
 
 And rare things nothing rare) 
 A king is nothing but no king, 
 
 And blue eyes black eyes are. 
 
It may not be amiss to mention that at this moment 
 the Fairy Echo, who had not only been obliged to lis 
 ten to, but repeat the panegyric on blue eyes, at the 
 conclusion of this lucid inspiration, gave Daffadown 
 dilly such a box on the ear, that he thought his brain 
 had exploded, and jumping into the spring would cer 
 tainly have been drowned, if his head had not been 
 somewhat lighter than the water. 
 
 Among all the rural maids who visited the broad 
 crystal spring, none came so often, staid so long, and 
 left it with such lingering steps, as the charming daugh 
 ter of old Allaine, the richest shepherd in all the coun 
 try round, in flocks and verdant pastures, where the 
 clover blushed its rosy red, and the blue grass spread 
 its purple riches far and wide. But his brightest jew 
 el was his only child, the lovely Serene Fair, as she 
 was aptly called by her godmother, for her temper 
 was as sweet, as her face and form were beautiful. 
 Her eyes and hair were black, shining soft and glossy ; 
 her voice low and touchingly melodious, whether she 
 spake or sung ; her figure all graceful from the hand 
 of nature ; and the pure mirror of the crystal spring, 
 never reflected any thing so beautiful as when Serene 
 Fair, bent over, and dropt, tears into its bosom. She 
 was a great favourite of the Fairy Echo, for she had 
 black eyes, and hsr voice was so remarkably sweet, 
 that Echo delighted in repeating her song, or her com 
 plaints, almost as much, as she formerly did in contra 
 dicting every body. One of her favourite songs ran 
 as follows : 
 
AH! WO IS ME, TO HAVE TWO LOVES, 
 
 THAT BACK HAS MADE MY HEART HIS PRIZE 
 THE FIRST ALL BEAUTY BUT A FOOL, 
 THE NEXT A FRIGHT, BUT GOOD AND WISE. 
 
 MY EYES AND EABS ARE AYE AT STRIFE; 
 I SEE THE FOOL AND YIELD MY HEART, 
 BUT WHEN HIS LIPS SUCH NONSENSE PRATE, 
 I SIGH, AND WISH TO PART. 
 
 AND WHEN THE OTHER SPEAKS, SUCH STRAINS 
 OF WIT AND SENSE MY RAPT EAR HEARS ! 
 BUT AH ! THE HUMP THE HUMP REMAINS 
 MY EYES SUBDUE MY EARS. 
 
 OH ! WOULD KIND FAY BUT GRANT THE PRAYER 
 
 WHICH CRUEL FATE DENIES, 
 
 GIVING THE FOOL THE CROOKED BACK, 
 
 THE GENIUS HIS BRIGHT EYES ! 
 
As the damsel finished this tender ditty, she raised 
 her eyes to the blue firmament, and cast such bright 
 gleams upwards, that one of her eight-and-forty poet 
 ical admirers recognised them in a new constella 
 tion of glittering stars, of which Venus formed the 
 centre. 
 
 By degrees she became so accustomed to the pres 
 ence and voice of the young shepherdess, that Echo 
 languished when she was away, and had no other re 
 source in her loneliness, than the endless repetition 
 of her songs and sayings. The fairy grew at last to 
 love her dearly, and resolved in her own mind, that 
 when restored to her former power, and above all, to 
 the privilege of opposing and contradicting whenever 
 she pleased, she would do Serene Fair a good turn, 
 let her cause of sorrow be what it might. 
 
 At the same moment the damsel concluded her am 
 orous complaint, the spell of a hundred years dissolv 
 ed by its own limitation, and the Fairy Echo, not only 
 recovered the power of becoming visible, but the priv 
 ilege of contradiction. Her first impulse was to deny 
 the possibility of such a predicament as that which 
 Serene described. But she remembered the sweet 
 solace she had derived so often from hearing and re 
 peating the complaining songs of the distressed fair 
 one ; and when the latter, on seeing her, started from 
 her sorrowful reverie, and gazed on the fairy with 
 eyes of speaking admiration, the natural kindness of 
 her disposition triumphed over long habit, and she ad 
 dressed the damsel as follows : for her exultation at 
 
being at length freed from the spell of enchantment, 
 made her feel somewhat poetical : 
 
 GENTLE FAIR ONE, TELL ME WHY, 
 
 WITH THAT BRIGHT AND SPARKLING BYE, 
 THUS YOU WEEP AND FRET AND SIGH, 
 
 TELL ME WHY? 
 
"Alas! who art thou that askest the question?" 
 said Serene. 
 
 
 
 
 ECHO ! ECHO ! is MY NAME ; 
 
 , IP YOU ASK ME WHENCE I CAME, 
 I ANSWER NOT MY LITTLE DAME, 
 
 BUT ECHO is MY NAME. 
 
 
"I have often heard," answered Serene Fair, "but 
 have never seen thee before. Thou livest among the 
 lonely solitudes of the hills and vales, and repeatest 
 every thing thou hearest, without ever contradicting a 
 single word. Thou art beyond doubt a good-natured 
 nymph and not fond of talking like the rest of thy sex." 
 
 " Don t calculate too much on my silence or my 
 good nature," returned the fairy smiling, though she 
 had it on the very tip of her tongue to contradict Se 
 rene. " But I heard thy plaintive song just now. 
 Tell me the cause of thy unhappiness, and I will see 
 if I cannot find a cure. I owe thee much, for thou 
 hast been the solace of my solitude a long while past. 
 Tell me thy sorrows, ere I leave this spot perhaps 
 for ever." 
 
 " Alas !" said Serene, " to what purpose should I 
 tell thee. My lot is cast, and unless thou canst instil 
 wit into a fool, or change deformity into beauty, it will 
 be useless for me to to tell my story." 
 
 " A truce with this nonsense," replied the fairy a 
 little spitefully, " thou knowest not my power, so make 
 an end of thy tale, for I am in a great hurry, and can t 
 bear contradiction." 
 
 The damsel obeyed and related her story. She 
 told how she was admired and followed by all the 
 shepherds of the surrounding country, though she 
 blushed at this appearance of vanity and how, among 
 the rest, Alvord and Daffadowndilly were her most 
 devoted slaves. That the former was the wisest, most 
 virtuous and accomplished of all the young shepherds, 
 
playing delightfully on his oaten reed, inditing the 
 most charming songs, and employing himself in gain 
 ing useful knowledge, or relieving the distresses of 
 others. He was the most ardent, yet delicate and re 
 spectful of lovers, but, alas ! he could not claim to be 
 even well-looking. His eyes indeed, were sparkling, 
 and the expression of his face full of goodness and in 
 tellect, but he had a hump on his back, and " you 
 know," concluded Serene, " that spoils every thing." 
 " Bad enough, I confess," said the fairy. " But of 
 the youth with such a 
 fragrant name." 
 
 "O," said Serene, 
 " he is the most beau 
 tiful of all the shep 
 herds in a hundred 
 miles round. His blue 
 eyes" 
 
 " Pshaw !" interrupted 
 
 the fairy " Blue eyes 
 
 I would not give a sin 
 gle sigh for a blue eyed 
 
 lover. I dare say he has 
 
 not sense enough to go 
 
 into the house when it 
 
 rains." 
 
 " He is indeed very silly," said Serene blushing 
 " but then he is so beautiful. He is tall and straight 
 as a poplar, his cheeks are as red as a rose, his teeth 
 are like ivory, and his mouth the balmiest in the world, 
 
though I grieve that nothing comes out of it but non 
 sense, sweetened indeed by a fragrance like that of a 
 spring morning." 
 
 " But is he good-natured and kind-hearted ? for after 
 all my maiden fair, these are of more consequence to 
 a wife than wisdom and beauty in a husband. His 
 beauty will fade in a time, and his wisdom is for him 
 self and the world. But his good temper, is every 
 hour exercised towards his wife and children." 
 
 " Alas !" rejoined Serene Fair, " I fear he is not 
 even good-natured, though I confess he is a fool. He 
 cannot endure a reflection on his looks, is careless of 
 hurting the little insects that crawl, or fly about, and 
 always falls into a passion, or becomes pettish when 
 contradicted." 
 
 " What not bear contradiction ?" exclaimed the 
 fairy, "then I m sure he won t make a good husband. 
 You must discard him at once." 
 
 " But alas ! shall I confess to you that I cannot find 
 in my heart to do it. When I look in his face, my 
 heart yearns towards him with irresistible feeling, and 
 it is only when he opens his lips to speak, or attempts 
 the performance of an act requiring ordinary discretion, 
 I am brought to the conviction, that as his wife, I 
 should blush for him all my life. In pleasing my eyes 
 I shall do violence to my judgement. Assist me, ! 
 fairy with thine art. Endow the fool with wisdom 
 and virtue, or the hunchback with beauty." 
 
 " A very difficult case," quoth the fairy, and straight 
 way fell into a fit of musing, during which Serene 
 
stood trembling with anxiety. At length the fairy re 
 sumed. 
 
 " Wouldst thou that I endow the fool with wisdom 
 and virtue, or the wise youth with beauty ?" 
 
 The damsel was puzzled. She blushed deeply, 
 and her bosom palpitated with emotion. But soon 
 her determination was made. 
 
 " Let the beautiful fool become wise, witty and vir 
 tuous," whispered she, at the same time covering her 
 face with her hands, as if ashamed of her choice. 
 
 " It cannot be," rejoined the fairy. The feat is 
 beyond my power, for only Omnipotence can bring 
 forth fruits from the sands of the desert. I cannot 
 engraft wisdom on folly, or plant virtue in the hollow 
 heart. Yet this I can do. I can charm away the 
 hump of the wise and good youth. But it will be a 
 work of time, for these humps are obstinate things. 
 What sayest thou, maiden ?" 
 
 Serene pondered for awhile, and then with some 
 thing like hesitation assented to the proposal. The 
 fairy told her to encourage Alvord and Daffadowndilly 
 to visit her every day, bat by all means avoid coquet- 
 mg with either. She enjoined on her to listen to each 
 with attention, to con over their sentiments, and com 
 pare their thoughts and actions on every occasion 
 Meanwhile she herself would apply a charm which 
 would assuredly remove the hump in time, if Serene 
 would only wait with patience. 
 
 The damsel promised with rather a heavy heart, 
 and the fairy stamping with her foot on the ground, 
 
there straightway sprung up a beautiful, wide spread 
 ing moss rose, whose fragrance perfumed the air all 
 around, and whose profusion of ruddy leaves, afforded 
 a couch of unequalled softness as well as beauty. A 
 flock of gorgeous butterflies of every hue, were har 
 nessed by silken cobwebs, to the mossy velvet stems 
 of the rosebuds which environed the centre rose, and 
 the fairy flitting lightly into the recesses of the leaves, 
 buried herself in the luxury of the morning dews. 
 
 " Farewell awhile," said she, " remember my ad 
 vice, and sometimes think of one who will always be 
 your friend. Perhaps we may meet again." 
 
 The butterflies expanded their wings, and the cha 
 riot rising slowly, ascended out of sight, leaving the 
 air laden with the most delicious odours. 
 
 Serene Fair wended her way towards home, buried 
 in thoughts of the past and future. As she slowly 
 approached the rural abode of the good old shepherd 
 
her father, she was met on the way by Alvord and 
 Daffadowndilly, who approached her, the one with 
 eyes sparkling with welcome, the other, ever and 
 anon glancing his admiring looks towards his own 
 gay, fantastic apparel. He had on a fine new suit, 
 of the rarest fashion, for vanity abides in rural shades, 
 as well as in the court of kings. Alvord was plainly 
 equipt, for he knew his own deformity, and that fine 
 clothes would only make it more conspicuous, by at 
 tracting the eyes of the beholder. He suffered his 
 rival to precede him, and came forward with that 
 modest deference, which the slanderers of the sex 
 affirm is more praised than admired by women. 
 
 The young shepherdess as she approached, could 
 not help admiring Daffadowndilly, who indeed looked 
 the personification of spritely intelligence, with his airy 
 figure and blooming cheeks. She thought to herself, 
 " Lord ! how could I ever think of such a fright as that 
 poor hump-backed Alvord, with all his wit and good 
 ness. To be sure he talks like an angel, but after all 
 there is nothing equal to looking like one." 
 
 When Daffadowndilly came up, he neither blushed 
 nor stammered, for he was on too good terms with 
 himself, and began as usual to tell Serene a long string 
 of little nothings, all about himself, for he could talk 
 of nothing else, at the end of which he skipped away 
 in chase of a butterfly. Then it was that poor Alvord 
 ventured to approach the damsel, who at first was 
 strongly tempted to turn away. But the moment he 
 spake, there was a tuneful melody in his voice, a 
 
breathing harmony in its tones, and a witching charm 
 in the intelligence of all he uttered, that at once rivet 
 ed her ear, which for awhile triumphed over her eyes. 
 He seemed to forget himself, and become identified 
 with the beauties of nature, by which they were sur 
 rounded. He dwelt on the balmy freshness of the 
 zephyr of the south ; the green luxury of the meadows ; 
 the azure skies j the glorious lustre of the setting sun, 
 
 
 and the sweet concert of nature s harmonies that filled 
 the air all around, until Serene insensibly forgot his 
 deformities, and listened with all her heart. As she 
 heard his voice, she no longer saw his hump, or if 
 seen, it seemed but a trifle. " Surely," thought she, 
 " the charm already begins to work, and the promise 
 of the Fairy Echo will be fulfilled." 
 
As they strolled forward together, the conversation 
 gradually turned from nature to the sources of her 
 beautiful phenomena. Alvord by degrees opened her 
 mind to these, and gradually proceeded upwards in the 
 great climax, to the omnipotent cause of all things, 
 until the soul of the young maiden willingly accompa 
 nied him in his lofty contemplations. She bent her 
 eyes steadfastly on his face, and saw the spirit of di 
 vine genius that sparkled there, associated with the 
 charm of sincerity and virtue. At these moments she 
 was but an instrument in his hands, and had forgotten 
 Daffadowndilly entirely, when he broke on this com 
 munion of souls, with loud and angry exclamations. 
 
 The shepherd and the maiden started from a deep 
 reverie, at this offensive interruption, and looking that 
 way perceived the handsome youth approaching in a 
 
 most melancholy situatioluHe was covered with 
 mud, and his gay costume exhibited a sorry figure ; his 
 
light curling locks distilled the brown and sluggish 
 current of some stagnant pool, which as it ran down 
 his face, streaked it with a variety of unseemly waving 
 lines. 
 
 The first feeling of Serene, was that of displeasure 
 at the interruption ; but when she saw the doleful 
 figure approaching, she could no longer be angry, 
 and broke into laughter ; whereat Daffadowndilly was 
 exceeding wroth, and approaching still nigher, broke 
 out into a torrent of angry reproaches ; for he said 
 he had come by this sad mishap in consequence of too 
 eagerly pursuing the beautiful butterfly, which he in 
 tended for her. " And for all this, you only laugh at 
 me. Well I shall take care how I run after another 
 butterfly for you, I warrant." And then he looked at 
 the desolation of his fine new suit, while the tears 
 came into his eyes. 
 
 Serene now heartily despised him for the moment, 
 for the spoiling of his clothes, the dishevelling of his 
 curling hair, and the vestiges of the filthy water run 
 ning down his cheeks, had marred all his beauty. 
 She turned from him with contempt, and taking the 
 arm of Alvord, proceeded towards home, followed by 
 Daffadowndilly, who was in the worst humour imagin 
 able. He did nothing but grumble at the ruin of his 
 new suit, and over and over declared that he was sure 
 he had caught his death of cold. Happening to come 
 across a poor grasshopper, he crushed it with his foot, 
 in revenge for the mischievous consequences of the 
 pursuit of the butterfly. 
 
The evening was now approaching ; the long, 
 beautiful, soothing, quiet summer twilight was fast 
 dying away, and they had wandered a considerable 
 distance from the abode of the shepherd Allaine. A 
 quick, bright flash of lightning, passing zig-zag across 
 a black, angry cloud in the west, and followed on the 
 instant by a crash of sharp thunder, roused their ap 
 prehensions, and quickened their footsteps. There 
 was nothing save a cat and a spider, which Daffa 
 downdilly feared so much as thunder, and his first im 
 pulse was to scamper away homeward as fast as pos 
 sible. But he stood his ground manfully through two 
 more crashes, and until a third came so tremendously 
 loud and angry, that poor Daffadowndilly decamped 
 full speed, saying, as he ran away, that his mother 
 would die of fright, if he was caught in the rain. 
 
The storm now roared at a distance, and no shelter 
 was nigh. Darkness gradually shrouded the earth in 
 shadowy gloom ; the peals of angry thunder coursed 
 like ministers of omnipotent vengeance across the 
 rattling firmament above ; the innocent s^eep that spot 
 ted the long valley far and near, and the rural populace 
 one and all scampered away for shelter from the ap 
 proaching conflict of the elements. There was fear in 
 the heart of man, and the instinct of the beasts pointed 
 of the coming danger. It was the homage of all nature 
 to her God. 
 
 Serene hung more heavily on the arm, and clung 
 closer to the side of Alvord, who felt her heart throb 
 against him, and was happier than he had ever been 
 before. Alvord knew of no shelter for miles around, 
 for the long valley was one continued meadow, where 
 the shepherds pastured their sheep, and they all dwelt 
 in a beautiful village at its extremity. 
 
 " Is there no shelter nigh," at length panted Serene 
 who was gradually sinking with fatigue and appre 
 hension, as she heard the whirlwind roaring in the 
 distance. 
 
 " None," replied Alvord, " I know every nook and 
 little dell, and sheltered solitude, in all the country 
 round, but it is two miles, at le^ast, to the nearest 
 house." 
 
 " What what shall we do 1 Ah ! the heavens are 
 on fire and the last day is come !" 
 
 " Fear not, dearest girl," said Alvord, as he press 
 ed the hand that rested on his arm, closer to his heart. 
 
" Fear not. The hand of Heaven is never armed against 
 innocence like thine. Fear nothing. The lightning, 
 the thunder and the rain, are the ministers of benefi 
 cence, not of wrath. Do not fear do not de 
 spair, for virtue is ever its own shield, and thou art 
 virtuous." 
 
 Still they heard the rain and the wind rushing be 
 hind them, swiftly approaching nigher and nigher, and 
 a few big drops gave indication of their speedy coming. 
 At this moment the strength of the young and delicate 
 shepherdess failed ; her arm slipped from that of her 
 conductor, and ere he was aware of it, she sunk to 
 the ground. The shepherd then raised, and bore her 
 in his arms athwart the verdant meadows, until he 
 came to the foot of the mountains which skirted this 
 delicious valley all around, separating it from the rest 
 of the world. As ill luck would have it, he struck the 
 base of a rugged perpendicular precipice of rocks, 
 which, while they barred his passage, afforded no shel 
 ter from the coming storm. , 
 
 He was now brought to a stand, and his mind set 
 tled in the resolution, to remain where he was, cover 
 ing the shepherdess with his coat, as well as he could, 
 and thus brave out the pelting storm. She, almost 
 breathless now, clung to him for protection, and he, in 
 tones that were never afterward forgotten, assured her 
 his life was bound up with hers. 
 
 At this moment a loud and deafening roar rose on 
 the dead silence which occupied the intervals between 
 the crashes of thunder, and echoed along the side of 
 
the rude wall of rocks. It announced the approach 
 of one of those hungry and furious lions, which in the 
 days of pastoral simplicity, when the shepherds bore 
 no arms, used to haunt these rugged mountains, and 
 often in the dead of night, and most especially when 
 the storm drove man and beast, shepherd and his flock 
 into their lair, would break into the fold, in spite of the 
 watchful dogs, and despoil him of the fruits of a whole 
 life of pleasing cares. 
 
 Alvord looked in the direction whence the sounds 
 proceeded and could distinguish, when the momentary 
 intermission of the flashes of lightning left the world 
 in dismal darkness, two fiery balls at the distance of a 
 
few inches from each other, whose ceaseless motion 
 seemed like the restless flickering of lights in the 
 breeze. Well he knew the sound, and the glaring 
 fires, and now he began to despair of the life of her, 
 whom the danger had endeared to him a thousand times 
 more than ever ; for at this moment she lay nestling 
 in his bosom, her sense of delicacy being lost in over 
 whelming apprehension. 
 
 The glaring balls of quivering fire approached the 
 spot, where the shepherd and his innocent charge, sat 
 all alone, and helpless, for Alvord had not even a stick, 
 or a stone within his reach. A second roar of the hun 
 gry beast, announced his being close at hand, when 
 the exhausted Serene, almost dead with fright and 
 fatigue, cried out in despair. 
 
 "Oh that the kind fairy Echo was here! Would she 
 would come !" And the rocks resounded with the 
 music of her plaintive voice, " would come would 
 come !" followed by a strain of music so sweet and 
 low, that it seemed more like a sigh than a sound, and 
 stilled the raging elements into a deathlike repose. 
 Even the hungry lion paused a little while, as if over 
 awed or charmed with the strain ; but straightway 
 couched for a deadly spring. Alvord placed himself 
 before Serene, and sternly awaited his fate. 
 
 " Sweet Echo, come!" faintly exclaimed the shep 
 herdess ; and " sweet Echo, come !" answered the 
 dumb rocks, now gifted with a tongue. At that critical 
 moment, something flashed brightly through the gloom 
 of night, and fell on the rock at the feet of Alvord with 
 
a ringing sound. He snatched at it, and found within 
 his grasp, a trusty sharp-pointed blade. " Now fear 
 thee not, my own dearest maiden !" but she heard him 
 not, her senses were locked in oblivion. 
 
 In the midst of the furious uproar of the elements, a 
 contest commenced between the hungry beast and the 
 intrepid shepherd, while the fainting maiden was 
 gradually recovering to a sense of her situation. By 
 the flashes of lightning she could sometimes see what 
 was going forward, and her ears ever and anon, con 
 veyed to her the pantings of Alvord, and the threatening 
 growls of the enraged lion. She clasped her hands 
 and called on the fairy for assistance, but Echo only 
 repeated her cries. 
 
At length, after a tedious contest, the shepherd, in 
 stepping suddenly backward to avoid the spring of 
 the lion, stumbled and fell on the rock. The furious 
 beast now sure of his prey, placed his huge forepaws 
 on the breast of Alvord, and gave the death-growl, 
 which startled the silence of night, and roused the 
 shepherd-dogs for miles around. At this moment of 
 imminent peril, Alvord, made one last desperate effort, 
 and shortening his sharp-pointed weapon, thrust it with 
 all his remaining strength up to the hilt into the breast 
 of the animal. It reached his heart and he fell with a 
 horrid yell on the body of the shepherd, covering it 
 with a deluge of smoking blood. 
 
 Unable to release himself with all his efforts, Alvord 
 lay panting and struggling in the slippery blood of the 
 expiring beast, until Serene, mustering all her remain 
 ing strength and courage, came to his relief and by 
 her assistance, at length extricated him, saturated with 
 blood. "Ah! Alvord," cried she, "you have saved 
 my life." " Dear Serene," he replied, " you have 
 repaid the service as soon as it was rendered." 
 
 At this moment the dark clouds opened their bosoms 
 and the full orbed moon shone forth in all her mellow 
 beauties, silvering the landscape far and wide, and 
 leading along a train of twinkling stars, fit attendants 
 on the queen of night. A strain of aerial music, float 
 ing in the balmy air, and coming they knew not 
 whence, fell sweetly on their charmed ears, and in 
 the voice which warbled the following song, the shep 
 herdess recognised that of the fairy Echo. 
 
Speed, speed away 
 O er the meadows gay ; 
 The moon is overhead, 
 The stars their glories shed 
 Speed, speed away. 
 
 Good night, good night; 
 Dream of delight 
 And rest as sweet as I, 
 While in poppy leaves I lie, 
 Sleeping without a lullaby, 
 Good night, good night. 
 
 And looking upward, they saw the fairy in her 
 chariot of moss roses, drawn by troops of gilded but 
 terflies, slowly gliding over the summit of the dark 
 gray rocks, and disappearing behind the inaccessible 
 barrier. 
 
Straightway they bent their course towards the 
 abode of Serene Fair, guided by the bright lustre of 
 the moonbeams, and all the way the affrighted shep 
 herdess clung closer and closer to the side of Alvord. 
 If the glowworm suddenly lighted his little lamp at 
 her feet, she would cling to his arm for safety, and 
 when, on one occasion, a huge beetle, buzzed heedless 
 ly in her face, she silently clung around his waist for 
 support. Her heart overflowed with grateful confi 
 dence, and she never once remembered the hump on 
 the back of the shepherd. 
 
 The aged father of Serene was rejoiced beyond 
 measure at the return of his only child, unharmed ; 
 and when she told him of the obligations he lay under 
 to Alvord, he embraced him with tears in his eyes, 
 and called him his son. Sweet rest had they all that 
 night, save now and then, the shepherdess would 
 dream of the lion, and call on Alvord for help. 
 
 The next time Serene Fair saw her preserver, she 
 was struck with the diminution of the odious hump. 
 It seemed now scarcely more than a little roundness 
 of the shoulder, and she said to herself, " the spell of 
 the fairy is doing its work. How handsome he will 
 be, without that mountain on his back !" While con 
 versing together, with feelings inseparably entwined 
 together by the recollection of benefits conferred 
 and received ; recalling the dangers of the preceding 
 night, and anticipating the approaching festival of May 
 Day, so hallowed by the young shepherds and shep 
 herdesses in the long past times of pastoral simplicity, 
 
the existence of which is wickedly denied by the world 
 ly-minded, who should they see but Daffadowndilly 
 come pranking along over the clover fields, in a new 
 suit, as gay and conceited as ever. He approached 
 without a blush, for I have observed that meanness 
 and cowardice are always accompanied by uncon 
 sciousness of their own delinquency, and totally di 
 vested of the sense of shame. 
 
 The blood of Alvord coursed tumultuously through 
 his veins as he saw him thus coming up with an air of 
 perfect self-possession, as if unconscious of his degrada 
 tion ; and Serene at first felt inclined to treat him with 
 ineffable contempt. But the fresh air of the morning 
 had thrown such a rich carnation over his cheek ; he 
 walked so trim and straight, and his bright hair curled 
 so beautifully over his white forehead, that in a little 
 while she caught herself contrasting his broad straight 
 shoulders, with the hump of Alvord, which now seem 
 ed to have resumed more than its wonted deformity. 
 She sighed as she uttered a fervent, wish that the Fairy 
 Echo could have made Daffadowndilly, as wise and 
 brave, as he was handsome. 
 
 But this was only the weakness of a moment, and 
 the recollection of the kindness and courage of the 
 one, contrasted with the peevish selfishness, and 
 despicable cowardice of the other, at once reinstated 
 the former in the supremacy of her judgement, if not 
 of her heart. The silly youth uttered a hundred non 
 sensical fooleries, and exhibited a combination of ig 
 norance and conceit, such as he had often done before, 
 
but which the shepherdess had never found so tiresome 
 and disgusting. Alvord longed to tweak his nose for 
 his impertinence, but his contempt overcame his indig 
 nation, and he suffered him to exhibit his follies at full 
 length without interruption. This indeed was his 
 wisest policy, for this interview proved decisive, and 
 from that hour Serene felt inexpressible disgust when 
 ever Daffadowndilly approached her. The fool did 
 not know what to make of it, and his astonishment at 
 the rebuffs he met with, was so ludicrous, that the 
 shepherdess could sometimes scarcely restrain herself 
 from laughing in his face. In the end, however, he 
 consoled himself by ascribing it all to jealousy at his 
 coquetting with the other shepherdesses of the valley. 
 
 \ 
 
The first of May was now at hand, and the lads and 
 lasses were all on tiptoe for the doric festival, conse 
 crated to rural simplicity and unaffected happiness. 
 In the few days that intervened, Serene and Alvord 
 had been together often and long ; the shepherd was 
 one of those fortunate beings, who improve on ac 
 quaintance, and the prediction of the fairy seemed on 
 the point of being fulfilled, for the hump had almost 
 entirely disappeared. The eye of Alvord sparkled 
 brighter than ever with hope, and the pride of antici 
 pated success gave ease as well as dignity to his 
 deportment. Confidence gives new graces to real 
 worth, while it only communicates additional deform 
 ity to folly and pretence. 
 
 But the merry morn of May, and the birthday of 
 Serene Fair, was come. The flowers, the zephyrs, 
 and the warblers of spring, now all joined in happy 
 harmony to add to the charms of the opening year, 
 while the delicate and fresh tints of the grass and 
 leaves, reminded the beholder of the virgin purity and 
 tenderness of a young damsel, just beginning to in 
 dulge some dim, far-distant visions of the great pur 
 pose of her creation, namely, to love and be loved. 
 Blithe were the lads and lasses, blithe the chirping 
 brood of many-coloured insects among the grass and 
 flowers, and blithe all nature in her new spring livery. 
 The scene and the season were made for love, and to 
 love, they were now consecrated by the gentle tenants 
 of the shepherds valley. 
 
 Alvord was up betimes, and placing himself beneath 
 
the vine-encircled window of the beautiful maid, tuned 
 his oaten reed, and roused the twittering birds, who 
 replied to his lay, in a mingled variety of harmonies. 
 Serene was not quite ready to come forth ; she was 
 employed in decking herself for the Festival of May ; 
 being resolved not to be outdone by any of the rival 
 shepherdesses. While thus occupied, the shepherd 
 strove to speed her lagging with a rural serenade he 
 had composed expressly for the occasion. 
 
 Arise, arise i bright maid, the merry morn 
 Is up before you, blooming, fresh, and fair ; 
 Come, see the dew, the sparkling meads adorn, 
 And sweeten with your breath, the morning air. 
 Arise ! let us abroad, and keep the day 
 That first gave birth to you and rosy May. 
 
 Come forth like spring-time, genial, fresh, and green. 
 
 The mom is out of patience with your stay ; 
 
 And if you wait for gems or silken sheen, 
 
 "Will give her precious jewels all away. 
 
 The leaves will sprinkle diamonds as we stray, 
 
 And if you lack a blush, we ll borrow it of May. 
 
 The shepherd boys and girls are up and gone ; 
 Time passes, youth is fleeting as the dew ; 
 Arise, my Fair, ah ! leave me not alone, 
 While birds have mates, and lads and lasses too : 
 Arise, arise l my Pair, and keep the day, 
 Of the twin sisters, thou, and rosy May. 
 
 
Serene was touched with this simple ditty, and as 
 she at length came forth like the goddess of morning, 
 blushing rosy red, she was more than ever struck with 
 the new-born symmetry of Alvord s figure. There 
 was no hump to be seen, and the spell of the fairy had 
 done its work. As they sauntered slowly towards the 
 scene of the rural festival, their hearts communed with 
 each other in that unbounded confidence which is the 
 fruit of the rich soil of love alone, and the eyes, if not 
 the lips of Serene, more than once disclosed the secret 
 of her affections. 
 
 Dancing, sportings, music, songs, and tales of love, 
 gave zest to the scene, to which nature lent all her 
 matchless harmonies, of genial airs, meads enamelled 
 with flowers, soft murmuring streams, and deep shady 
 woods, where the shepherd might tell his tale of 
 love, unseen and unheard^ save by one alone. Serene 
 Fair was unanimously elected Queen of May, and 
 when it behoved her to choose a King, Daffadown 
 dilly was utterly confounded to see her give her hand 
 to the young shepherd Alvord. He adopted an inde 
 scribable grimace, shrugged up one shoulder, and forth 
 with paid his devoirs to the next most beautiful shep 
 herdess, being determined to be gloriously revenged. 
 
 At that moment, the air became redolent of the fra 
 grance of the rose, and all the rural company breathed 
 of nothing but delicious odours. The fairy Echo ap 
 peared in the air, seated in the ruddy recesses of her 
 moss-rose chariot, and approaching Serene Fair, ad 
 dressed her as follows : 
 
" The spell has done its work ; the deformity is 
 removed, and long years of happiness await the youth 
 who essayed to cultivate his mind and his heart, rather 
 than follow the barren paths of vanity and folly. Let 
 me join your hands and give you my blessing, for we 
 shall not meet again, except you require my aid, which 
 I foresee you never will, for you have built your hap 
 piness on the solid foundation of worth and intellect." 
 The good fairy then ascended her chariot, and sailing 
 through the air, disappeared high in the heavens. 
 
 Old Allaine blessed the choice of his darling child, 
 and lived many years of happiness, in contemplating 
 the bliss of Serene and Alvord. The latter grew more 
 handsome every passing day, and Serene Fair, while 
 her heart throbbed with gratitude to the fairy for her 
 powerful spell, never discovered that the transformation 
 was wrought by the magic of virtue alone. 
 
THE NAMELESS 
 
 OLD WOMAN. 
 
a certain 
 
 gear ujfjtclj 
 
 as teen unac* 
 
 countable lost in tije 
 
 contusion fcrcupjt afcout Wi \ 
 
 &2 tfje Keto Stale ; iit a cer* 
 
 tatn monttj not to te fonntr in 
 
 tje alentrer t an& on a m* 
 
 tain Irav vofjirti a long JH|| | ( 
 
 time ago sltjjpeH / 9| ^\\ 
 
 iw ,\ j ui \ 
 **) ^y 
 
 w^^,^ x-^, ** y ,^/v^s 
 
 BW&.J?, 
 
 ir:i 
 
 out of t$etoeefe 
 ano ran 
 
 ,w 
 
 <5>iT CSe^^^lE toao so little 
 ttjat a man once taal&eU ober tuttfjont serins 
 
there lived an honest, industrious gardener. He was 
 well known at Smith s Fly, and divers other places, 
 where the burgomasters and citizens were wont to 
 come bright and early in the morning to buy cabbages 
 and the like. 
 
 Rinier, for that was the only name he was ever 
 known by was a hard working man, insomuch 
 that he sometimes laboured on Sunday, before the 
 sun rose ; and as saving as the mother that bore him, 
 who it is related actually darned her old man s breech 
 es, till nobody could tell the colour of the cloth. But 
 a man may love money, though he will not sell his 
 soul for it ; and Rinier was an honest creature though 
 he was once accused by an old woman, who spent 
 two hours every morning, beating down the price of 
 parsnips, of having sold her a cabbage, instead of a 
 cauliflower ; which I verily believe was a great false 
 hood ; for he was as honest as daylight, though he 
 got all he could, and gave nothing away, not even the 
 peeling of an onion. The most signal act of his life, 
 was raising such a great cabbage, as caused much stir 
 in the city, and out of which, old George Schmelzel, 
 the Grand Krout, made a barrel of sour krout. But, 
 as there was not at that time, a single editor of a 
 newspaper to send it a present to, Rinier was defraud 
 ed of the fame he might otherwise have gained, and 
 the fact is now only known, to a few of the learned 
 who are curious in such matters. 
 
 Being a native of old Faderland, he ever preserved 
 an affection for the soil of his birth, which he mani- 
 
fesfed by a singularly strict observance of the venerable 
 customs, and becoming dress of his ancestors, which 
 he practised and adopted with commendable regular 
 ity and perseverance. Most especially he did signal 
 
 
 ize himself by a heroic attachment to Christmas and 
 New Year observances, and to the rites of the most 
 excellent St. Nicholas, of thrice-blessed memory. He 
 never failed to celebrate these glorious anniversaries 
 in a manner, which the degenerate descendants of the 
 ancient Hollanders, of the present time, would do well 
 to bear in mind and imitate. For these reasons, he 
 was well respected by the Saint ; who would, how 
 ever, have liked him much better, had he not been 
 such a close-fisted fellow. 
 
who was his great rival in trade she in like man 
 ner, dealing in vegetables and garden truck, which she 
 carried to market every morning. She was a little 
 ugly thing, as ever put a man out of conceit of matri 
 mony, and had been one principal cause why Rinier 
 continued a bachelor. For when he saw her sharp 
 nose, and chiri, her monstrous wide mouth, and heard 
 her shrill voice, of a cold frosty morning, he thought 
 to himself, " By donder dag, if I had such a wife, I 
 would jump into the Collect." Nobody would buy 
 any article of her in market, when they could get it of 
 any body else, and there she would sit every morn 
 ing till all the market-women, and Rinier among the 
 rest, had sold out, and gone home rejoicing. 
 
This excited her envy and malice against every 
 body, but most especially her nearest neighbour Rini- 
 er, for I have always observed, that people envy or 
 hate one another, just in proportion to their nearness. 
 Like poison vines, these bad passions only extend 
 their deadly influence to those who touch or come 
 near them. So the old woman was more spiteful to 
 wards Rinier, only because their gardens adjoined 
 each other, and she could not look out of her window, 
 without seeing him. My readers I hope will not get 
 out of patience with these observations, seeing it is 
 always my desire, in these my laborious lucubrations, 
 to mingle morality and instruction, with amusement 
 and recreation. 
 
 The old woman whose name I shall not disclose, 
 for fear of hurting the feelings of her descendants now 
 living and flourishing in the city ; and who, I wish 
 with all my heart, had been a man, that I might detail 
 her enormities without offence to the sex I have ever 
 held in special love and veneration the old woman, 
 I say, came at last to hate Rinier mortally, and see 
 ing him one day for she watched him as a cat does 
 a mouse counting a great heap of guilders he had 
 amassed together, determined to be revenged on him, 
 for his unmerited prosperty. But I must take in sail, 
 meaning that I must use fewer words, or I shall never 
 get to the end of my story. 
 
 She began by poisoning his pigs, debauching the 
 affections of his favourite cat, killing his young chick 
 ens when she could get a fair chance, by feeding them 
 
with crusts of hard bread, which stuck fast in their 
 crops, and practised divers other devices too tedious 
 to mention. But for all this, Rinier continued to 
 prosper ; and her spite and malice increased with 
 his store of guilders, which she could see him count 
 ing every day. 
 
 Thereupon, she determined in her own mind, to 
 try some more effectual means of revenging herself 
 on the poor man, whose only offence was, his good 
 success in the world. She worried her very soul out, 
 to find a way to be even with the splutterkin, as she 
 called him, and at last hit on a mode she thought 
 could not fail. She made up her mind to become a 
 witch, and forthwith carried her resolve into execution, 
 by setting out on a pilgrimage to the good town of 
 Naumkeag, where the witches had lately made their 
 
appearance in considerable numbers. Accordingly, 
 giving out, that she was going to visit her relations 
 at Coxsackie, she set forth, embarking in a sloop 
 from Martha s Yineyard, paying a fathom of wampum 
 beforehand for her passage. Captain Jonathan Doo- 
 little looked rather suspicious about taking her on 
 
 
 board, but was pacified by the prompt payment of her 
 passage-money. "I ll be darned," said he, "if she 
 don t look jist like some of them old creturs they hung 
 for witches t other day at Naumkeag." 
 
The suspicions of Captain Doolittle, were strength 
 ened by the behaviour of his vessel on the voyage. 
 She minded her helm no more than if there was no 
 rudder at her tail ; sometimes floating side, and some 
 times stern foremost ; and when they came to go 
 through Hell Gate, she cut such unaccountable capers, 
 running first for the Hog s Back, then into the Fry 
 ing Pan, and then into the boiling Pot, that Jonathan 
 thought the Old Boy had got on board the good sloop 
 Puttaquappuonckquame, as she was called, after a 
 great Narraganset chief, who sold all his land for ten 
 fathoms of wampumpeag. 
 
 The sloop was nine days getting to the mouth of 
 Connecticut river, where they fell into such a desperate 
 calm as the Captain had never seen before, and the 
 sun shone so hot, that an old rooster, who had made 
 sixty odd voyages with him, stuck fast in the melted 
 tar, with which the seams of the deck were filled, 
 where he stood cackling and flapping his wings, in 
 great tribulation. The Captain whistled Yankee 
 Doodle ; the mate stuck a jack knife in the mast, and 
 the cook threw a pewter spoon overboard, as an offer 
 ing to Davy Jones, which Jonathan called a tarnation 
 waste. But all would not do. The good sloop Put 
 taquappuonckquame, lay like a dead thing, on the 
 waste of waters, while all the live-long day, and day 
 after day, the sun darted his hot beams upon deck, as 
 if he meant to set the vessel on fire. 
 
 Captain Doolittle began to smell a rat, and his 
 suspicions concerning the old woman, made great pro- 
 
gress to windward. " I hadn t ought to take that 
 darnation old cretur aboard, for she doos look more 
 like a witch, than any white woman, I ever did lay 
 
 my eyes on." Upon this, and the calm continuing 
 more hopeless than ever, the Captain consulted with 
 the crew, each one of which, was a part owner, and 
 
it was resolved to make trial of the old woman, by 
 throwing her overboard, according to law. " If she 
 swims," quoth Captain Doolittle, " tJie thing is as 
 clear as grit ; if she sinks, the Lord have marcy on 
 her soul. Man is a fallible being, and can t know 
 every thing." " Yes," said the black cook, who owned 
 one ninety-ninth of the vessel " Yes, Capin Doolit 
 tle, you right one time any how. If Masser Gor- 
 A mighty want us toe de chalk all de time, I tink he 
 mought as well gie us a leetle more gumption." 
 
 While they were all ready to put this righteous 
 judgement into execution, luckily for the old woman, 
 a fine fair breeze sprung up, and all sail being set, the 
 vessel ploughed her way towards home, as if she had 
 become tired of lying still so long. This lucky event 
 saved the old woman for that time, though the black 
 cook considered it only another proof of her being a 
 witch. He insisted she saw into their design, and 
 raised the wind, just as she had laid it, to suit some 
 of her diabolical purposes. It is doubtful what had 
 been her fate, had not the wind suddenly increased to 
 a gale, which soon occupied all hands in taking in sail 
 and shutting the hatches. "The old sinner is at work 
 agin," quoth Captain Doolittle, " but never mind, I ll 
 fix her before the gander turns into goose-pie." 
 
 But alas ! Captain Doolittle never lived to carry 
 his threat into execution. The gale swelled to a tem 
 pest ; the darkness increased, as if another night had 
 fallen on the back of midnight ; (as a great orator once 
 said ;) the lightning created new darkness, and the 
 
thunder which raved, and rattled overhead, was lost 
 in the roar of the winds and waves, that alone made 
 themselves heard in the strife of the elements. " Cap- 
 in," said the black cook, " what you gie for my share 
 
 
 I 
 
 of de Puttaquappaonekquame ? I sell out cheap now." 
 Captain Doolittle pricked his ears, and smelling a spec 
 ulation, offered him about one twentieth of its value. 
 " Done !" cried the cook. " A bargain !" cried the 
 other, and just at that moment, a great shock struck 
 them both flat on the deck. 
 
The sloop had run on a reef, and, being somewhat 
 more than the age of Methusaleli that is compara 
 tively speaking for she was the oldest on record 
 fell to pieces, at the first shock, and sad to tell, 
 every soul perished, with the exception of the old 
 woman, whom the black cook, had he survived, 
 would have sworn he saw flying away on a broom 
 stick. 
 
 " What a fine speculation I ve lost !" thought Cap 
 tain Doolittle, as he swallowed his last mouthful. 
 
 "Ecod," quoth the ebony cook, "Ecod, I tirik I got 
 to windward of Masser Doolittle dis time." And thus 
 ended all their bargains in this world. 
 
 The old woman floated ashore on a hencoop, not a 
 great way from Point Judith, which together with all 
 the country, on that side of Narragansett bay, was 
 inhabited by Indians. As she wandered melancholy 
 along the wild shore, she came to where an Indian 
 was fishing for Skuppaugs, who on seeing her, pulled 
 up his line in a hurry, and ran away whooping and 
 bellowing, so that he might be heard in the silence of 
 the forest, I don t know how many miles, if it had not 
 been for the dashing of the waves, on the rocks at 
 Point Judith. 
 
 The old woman though sorely affrighted at first, was 
 emboldened by seeing the copper- coloured villain run 
 away so heartily, and following him leisurely, at length 
 came to his wigwam, where she found him talking to 
 his wife and pappooses, with violent gesticulations. 
 At her approach, the whole family uttered a great 
 
shout and ran away, as fast as their legs would carry 
 them. The old woman followed on, until by degrees, 
 the whole tribe of the Narragansetts was roused up, 
 
 and scampering before her at a great rate. Finally, 
 she as it were, conquered the whole country, from 
 Point Judith, to Seekonk, and might have taken pos 
 session, only she had other fish to fry. 
 
 At Seekonk, she met with some of the good Roger 
 Williams people, who not suspecting what a diaboli 
 cal errand she was on, kindly administered to her 
 necessities, and drew upon a piece of birch bark, a 
 rude map of the country, from Seekonk to Shawmut, 
 
whereby she was able to find her way there without 
 much difficulty. Here she came near getting into 
 trouble, on account of her striking resemblance to a 
 witch ; but escaped by appealing to the compassion of 
 these good people. She related the story of her dis 
 mal shipwreck at Point Judith, and her perilous jour 
 ney among the Narragansetts, and was not only per 
 mitted to pass, but ferried across all the rivers between 
 Shavvmut and Naumkeag for nothing. So she arrived 
 at the latter place without any accident. 
 
 But the difficulty was, to procure an interview with 
 some one who could put her in the way of joining the 
 society of the witches, who at that time, were begin 
 ning to attract the attention of the magistrates. She 
 noticed, that a great many of the people, looked very 
 suspicious at her ; and in particular, one of the select 
 men rather abruptly refused a pinch of snuff she of 
 fered him. She was for these reasons, afraid of ma 
 king any stir in the business, and had almost deter 
 mined to go home, as wise as she came ; when one 
 day, as she was wandering all alone, among the 
 swamps and rocks, in the neighbourhood, thinking 
 what she should do, she met a little old man, about 
 three feet nothing high, with a gun on his shoulder, 
 about four yards long, and such a cut-water to his face 
 as never was seen before. It was the finest nose in 
 the world to pull, for one might do it, without being 
 within two good yards of him, and quite out of the 
 reach of his arm. 
 
 "Ho!" said the little man, "who may you be. I 
 
know all the ugly old women in these parts, but I don t 
 think I ever saw you before ;" and then he began to 
 whistle the old tune of 
 
 " Frost-fish and dumplings, ho, Jemima 
 Where did you come from, ho, Jemima !" 
 
 This he did, with such a sharp shrill sound, that the 
 old woman put her thumbs in both her ears, though 
 she was somewhat hard of hearing. But there was 
 something in the fiery twinkling of the little man s 
 eyes, the redness of his nose, and other particulars, 
 too tedious to mention, that put the old woman upon the 
 suspicion, that he was no better than he should be. 
 So she made a curtsey, and offered him a pinch of 
 snuff, which he accepted, on condition she would her 
 self, apply it to his proboscis, seeing he could not 
 reach it himself. On doing this, the little man was 
 seized with such a fit of sneezing, that it loosed his 
 nose from his face, and away it flew, oversetting the 
 old woman in its passage. 
 
 " Vuur un Flammen /" cried the old man, setting 
 off in chase of his nose, as fast as his short legs and 
 long gun would let him. It led him a pretty dance, 
 through the swamps, among bushes, briers, and bull 
 frogs, and it is my private opinion, he would never 
 have overtaken it, had it not flown against a great tree 
 with such force, that it fell to the ground quite stunned. 
 Thereupon, the little man, laid hold of it, and with 
 much ado, clapped it to his face again, grumbling to 
 himself all the while. 
 
By this time, the old woman had recovered herself, 
 and came up puffing and blowing mightily. She took 
 him for one of her countrymen, because he spoke 
 Dutch ; not being aware that such sort of people, can 
 speak just what language they please. 
 
 " Good woman," said he, " you will oblige me, by 
 telling me where you got that snuff. I ve not had such 
 a fit of sneezing these thousand years." 
 
 " I bought it of old Blazee Moore, in New Amster 
 dam," quoth she. 
 
 "Is het mogelyk" exclaimed the old man, and that s 
 all he said about the matter. 
 
 By degrees, they fell into conversation, and at last 
 the old man asked her business in those parts, which 
 it is a wonder he had not done before, seeing the peo 
 ple are very curious thereabouts. 
 
" But for that matter," continued he, " there s no 
 occasion for you to answer. I know all about it, and 
 you ve hit the nail, right on the head. I am the man 
 for your money. Come to this spot to-night, exactly 
 at twelve, and your business shall be done, as slick 
 as a whistle." Saying which, he followed his nose, 
 the Lord knows where, for I don t. 
 
 When night came, the old woman set forth in full 
 confidence, of being converted into a first rate witch 
 of three broomsticks ; for, be it known, the communi 
 ty of witches, is a complete aristocracy, and there are 
 as many degrees of precedence among them, as 
 among the German nobility. 
 
 The night was dark as pitch, and had it not been 
 for the bright streaks of lightning, that scampered 
 athwart the sky ever and anon, she could not have 
 seen the nose on her face, even if it had been of the 
 size of that of the old man. Even with these occa 
 sional helps, she more than once lost her way, and 
 wandered about she knew not whither. At one time, 
 she entered an old Indian burying-place, where she 
 stumbled over the graves, and sometimes fell down 
 upon them, thus uniting the living with the dead. Es 
 caping from this, she not long after came to the spot, 
 where many years before, there had been buried in 
 one wide grave, the bodies of a party of white men, 
 women, and children, all of whom had fallen under the 
 tomahawk and scalping-knife ; having been surprised 
 by the savages, and every soul murdered in cold 
 blood. They had been buried in haste, for in those 
 
times of sore peril, people had enough to do, to take 
 care of the living, letting alone the dead. 
 
 The first thing that made her aware of her neigh 
 bourhood with the silent graves, was seeing by the 
 flashes of lightning, which now came so quick after 
 
 each other, that they might almost be said to run into 
 one, the bones of these poor victims of savage war 
 fare, striking out of the ground in many places. They 
 had been buried on the side of a hill, which in the 
 course of years, had washed partly away by the 
 rains ; and in one place, projected the bone of a leg ; 
 
in another, that of an arm ; in another, a grinning scull 
 stared her in the face ; and close by were the re 
 mains of a little child, all white as the driven snow. 
 The old woman s heart almost failed her, at seeing 
 such a sad sight of the triumphs of death, in this lone 
 ly spot, in the darkness of night. She repented of 
 her coming, and strove to find her way back again ; 
 but she only walked in a circle, and each time return 
 ed to see the white bones, glimmering in the flashes 
 of lightning. 
 
 When she had well nigh worn out her strength, and 
 began to despair of release from this labyrinth till day 
 light, on a sudden she ran plump against something 
 hard, and was almost knocked over. 
 
" Holloa !" cried some one at a distance " what 
 business have you with my nose ?" and she recogni 
 sed the voice of the little man she met in the morning. 
 " Ben je ledondered" added he, for he was apt to 
 speak Dutch when a little ruffled. 
 
 The old woman apologized, on account of the dark 
 ness ; the old man recovered his good humour, and 
 convinced her it. was under his special influence that 
 she was kept in this very spot ; for here it was that 
 the excellent company of witches celebrated their 
 midnight gambols. He told her it was now just mid 
 night, and the assembly would soon gather together. 
 
 And sure enough, they soon began to arrive one by 
 one, till their number amounted to about a dozen witch 
 es and wizards. One came on a broomstick ; another 
 mounted on a great tom-cat ; a third, had put a bridle 
 on a three-legged stool, and came cantering up at a 
 fine rate ; a fourth had stolen a neighbouring far 
 mer s pig, and was urging him on tail foremost, by 
 which cunning expedient, the obstinate animal was 
 persuaded that he was going homeward, instead of 
 directly the contrary ; a fifth bestrode a rail, the ends 
 of which were sticking into the posts, which perform 
 ed the duties of legs in the most surprising manner ; 
 and a sixth came on an old cock-turkey, that strutted, 
 spread his tail and gobbled as if he were as proud as 
 a peacock. In short, each one was well mounted as 
 need be, and rode with a most witching grace as 
 might be expected. 
 
 But the steeds were nothing compared to the riders. 
 

 V 
 
 / - -, . 
 
 $ > iii^f 
 
 PL!> rn a/ .-. ( ffl i , u ^ 
 
Such another company, is seldom seen of a summer 
 day, nor for that matter, at midnight either. There 
 was one, whose tongue had worn away all her teeth by 
 incessant talking ; another whose eyes were always 
 squinting, owing to a habit of continually casting sin 
 ister looks at her neighbours ; another whose face had 
 the expression of a cat, from being forever on the 
 lookout for the faults of other people, just as the cat 
 watches a mouse ; another with a face caved in like 
 a half moon, as yellow as saffron, and with an expres 
 sion of malignity, that made every one shudder. In 
 fact, if the honest truth must be told, the old woman 
 from New Amsterdam, was the handsomest among 
 them, and she was no great beauty. As to the male 
 witches, they had nothing to boast of, and are not 
 worth a description. Wickedness and evil passions 
 had worn them to skin and bones, and as they moved 
 about among the remains of the dead, they looked like 
 demons, or evil spirits employed on deeds of dark 
 ness. 
 
 When the party was complete, the old gentleman 
 with a long nose, who was evidently the principal 
 personage of this diabolical assemblage, called them 
 to order. Lights were fixed in the sculls that Jay 
 scattered about, from whence arose pale blue flames, 
 and the little man then proposed the eld woman, as a 
 member of the fraternity. Considerable debate arose, 
 but after having satisfactorily, answered a great vari 
 ety of questions, artfully calculated to elicit her evil 
 propensities, she was admitted unanimously, with the 
 
exception of a cross, withered virago, who always 
 opposed every thing, merely to have an opportunity to 
 indulge her ungovernable propensity to talking. 
 
 She was then sworn on a wicked book of politics, 
 to obey the commands of the little old man ; to keep 
 the secret of her initiation faithfully ; never to betray 
 any of the sisterhood ; and never to do good when 
 there was a possibility of doing evil. Then the little 
 imp, brought out a piece of parchment, made of the 
 skin of a man, that had been gibbeted for killing his 
 own mother, and placing a pen in the old woman s 
 hand, bade her sign her name, which she could not 
 do, by reason of never having learned to write. Up 
 on this, he directed her to make her mark, which she 
 was about to do in the form of a cross, when he ex 
 claimed in great tribulation, " Wat blixemis dat?" and 
 snatching the pen, obliged her to make a mark in the 
 shape of a forked tail. 
 
 When all was done, the little man called for the 
 music, and straightway came forth from among the 
 dry bones, some half a dozen cadaverous figures, with 
 divers strange instruments of music, such as have no 
 name, that I know of, and whose tones were expres 
 sive of sighs, groans, shrieks of agony, and curses of 
 despair ; all forming a concert expressive of guilt and 
 misery, rather than of gayety or joy. The assembly 
 then arranged themselves for the dance, under the 
 direction of the little man, who acted as master of 
 ceremonies, and who, by way of a great compliment, 
 led the old woman to the top of the set, and calling 
 
for " the Devil s delight," the whole party commenced 
 their revels. 
 
 This " Devil s delight," was a waltz, and it was ama 
 zing to see the supernatural agility of these superannua 
 ted old beldams. They looked right languishingly on 
 their partners, who in turn, ogled them with a most 
 insinuating air of devotion ; they whirled round and 
 round until their petticoats were inflated to the size of 
 a balloon, threw their legs about, in a style that some 
 what shocked the delicacy of the old woman, who had 
 been brought up in the old fashioned way ; and if the 
 honest truth must be told, behaved almost as bad as 
 the fine travelled ladies of these times do, when they 
 play the whirligig at balls, to the marvellous content of 
 all the admirers of handsome ankles and silken hose. I 
 
have been the more particular in describing the " Dev 
 il s delight," seeing it is beyond doubt, the original of 
 waltzing, a practice thus nearly allied to witchcraft. 
 The little man gloriously signalized himself in these 
 diabolical manoeuvres, though his nose was so much 
 in the way of his partner, that he was obliged to ele 
 vate it to an angle of forty-five degrees, so that it might 
 point over her shoulders. 
 
 Thus they continued, while the thunder rattled and 
 pealed above their heads, and the lightning darted 
 athwart the heavens, in zigzag windings just like 
 snakes with forked tongues. The skies seemed on 
 fire, and anon a great oak which almost overshadowed 
 the capering group, was shattered to pieces and fell 
 to the earth, with a crash that for a moment deadened 
 the roaring artillery of the heavens. But still they 
 danced on, whirling around and around in the lascivi 
 ous mazes of the " Devil s delight," shouting and hal 
 looing with an obstreperous merriment, that contrast 
 ed horribly with the uproar above, and the discordant 
 tones of the cadaverous musicians. Even when the 
 rain began to fall in torrents, whose ravages disclosed 
 new relics of the dead, they still continued their rev 
 elry, till the crowing of the cock announced the ap 
 proach of morning. 
 
 This too, was unnoticed and unregarded ; and the 
 dance continued, with increasing animation, until the 
 storm had passed away, and the bright beams of the 
 rising sun streaked the reddening skies. Then it was 
 that an honest man, who was out thus early in search 
 
of game, suddenly came upon them while they were 
 too deeply engaged to observe him ; and taking to his 
 heels ran back as fast as his legs would carry him, 
 
 giving notice to the magistrates of Naumkeag, of what 
 he had seen. Hereupon there was a great stirring 
 and uproar in the town; the magistrate summoned 
 the constables, and other official dignitaries, who to 
 gether with all those who could furnish themselves 
 with a horse shoe, sallied out to arrest the diabolical 
 rout, and bring them to condign punishment. This 
 they would certainly have done, such was the inten 
 sity with which these wicked reprobates waltzed the 
 " Devil s delight," had not the mystical influence of 
 so many horse shoes, communicated itself by some 
 unknown means, to the rout, who gradually remitted 
 the velocity of their airy circles, and began to snuff 
 the air instinctively. Just as the crowd came in sight, 
 
the little man suddenly stopt listened a moment, and 
 then exclaiming, " Wat donder is dat ?" disappeared 
 in the twinkling of an eye, no one knew whither. 
 
 Then with a shriek that rent the surrounding air, 
 they one and all, mounted their respective steeds, and 
 soaring in the skies, flew away like so many wild 
 geese all in a row. It ought to have been noted at 
 the time, that after the old woman had made the 
 mark of the forked tail, by which she became fast 
 bound to the fraternity, and shared their punishment, 
 the little man had given her a broomstick, with strict 
 injunctions to take as good care of it, as a sportsman 
 does of a first-rate steed. On this then she mounted 
 the moment the alarm was given, and wending her 
 course towards the west, where lay her home, flat 
 tered herself she would soon be out of the reach of 
 danger. 
 
 But whether it was that the broomstick had not been 
 properly exorcised by the little man, or that the old 
 woman did not manage it with sufficient skill, I 
 know not, but certain it is, that the rest of the witches 
 left her far behind in their flight. With all her chir 
 ruping and spurring, and jogging of the knees, she 
 could barely rise above the trees, and her speed was 
 little more than that of an ordinary pedestrian. See 
 ing this, the whole crowd turned their attention to her, 
 and began a pursuit that threatened the most alarming 
 consequences. The old woman whipped up the 
 broomstick, and the pursuers ran after, hurling clubs 
 and stones, and shouting maledictions, until they came 
 
so close, that just as she was about to cross a small 
 river that lay in the way, the foremost man seized hold 
 of her cloak behind, which caused her in the hurry of 
 unloosing it, to let go the broomstick, and it fell to the 
 ground. She had just time to become invisible, which 
 she did by muttering a little charm, when the whole 
 body of pursuers coming up, to their great disappoint 
 ment, found nothing but a broomstick. This they 
 
 threw into the stream,, where it hissed like a red-hot 
 ploughshare, to the great dismay of the beholders. In 
 memory of the mysterious disappearance of the old 
 woman, and the hissing of the broomstick, the stream 
 has ever since been called Mystic river. 
 
In the meantime, the old woman having lost her 
 magic steed, pursued her way stoutly towards New 
 Amsterdam, occasionally trying her hand at her new 
 vocation, and finding to her great satisfaction, that she 
 did very well, most especially excelling in sticking 
 invisible pins and needles. At length after an absence 
 of three weeks, she arrived safe home ; and the first 
 thing she saw, was neighbour Rinier counting his 
 money, which she found had increased several Dutch 
 ducats during her absence. At this she was very 
 much incensed, and resolved to set about reveng 
 ing herself without delay, for the imaginary injuries 
 that luckless wight had inflicted on her at various 
 times, most especially, by making money so fast. 
 
 During the absence of the old woman, Rinier had 
 pursued the even tenor of his way. He attended to 
 his garden, went every day, except Sunday to market, 
 from whence he always returned with his cart empty 
 and his purse full ; smoked his pipe in peace, and 
 grew to love money more than ever, the more he had. 
 It happened one day as he was at work in his garden, 
 as was his custom, bright and early in the summer- 
 morning, he was accosted by one of the smallest women 
 he had ever seen, all his life before. She was so 
 little that he took her for a child of three or four years 
 old, until on a closer scrutiny, he discovered she 
 was full grown. He wondered who she could be, 
 and where she came from, for the garden-gate was 
 always shut to keep out the Bowery boys, and it was 
 impossible she could have come through the house- 
 
door, which was in like manner barred against all in 
 trusion, when Rinier was at work in his garden. 
 
 The little creature made him a mighty low curtsey, 
 but with an air of dignity, showing that she thought 
 herself somebody, and would not have so demeaned 
 herself had she not come to ask a favour. Rinier in 
 return pulled off his hat, scraped his left foot, and 
 bowed almost as low as the little woman had curtsied. 
 Before he had time to ask her what she wanted, for he 
 was somewhat phlegmatic in his speech, the little 
 thing walked, or rather tripped up to one of the most 
 beautiful tulips in the garden, and begged him to give 
 it to her as she longed for it mightily. 
 
Rinier said, rather roughly, that she would long for 
 it a long time, unless she put down twelve stivers, 
 which was the lowest he would take for it, to the 
 mother that bore him, who was buried at Harlaem, 
 close by the great windmill. In vain did the little 
 woman conjure him in the most touching manner. 
 Rinier continued inflexible, the little woman went 
 away without the tulip, threatening vengeance in a 
 
 mysterious manner. " Pooh !" said Rinier, " what 
 harm can such a little thing as you do ?" But he an 
 swered like a great blockhead, for he ought to have 
 known that there is sometimes a great deal of the Old 
 Boy in a little woman. 
 
The next morning when he went into his garden 
 to plant a late crop of peas, he discovered to his aston 
 ishment, that his bed of tulips, which as a genuine 
 Hollander, he valued as the apple of his eye, was all 
 turned into an infamous weed, which the learned have 
 since nicknamed Stramonium, the Lord forgive them 
 for it. " Wat blikslager !" exclaimed the good man, 
 for he was too pious to swear, though it must be con 
 fessed, since he began to grow rich and hoard money, 
 though he prayed and read the Bible as much as ever, 
 it did not do him much good, for he was always 
 thinking about his ducats. 
 
 At first he refused to believe his eyes ; but was 
 obliged to be convinced at last, and with a perplexed 
 and sorrowful heart, began to dig up the infamous in 
 truders on his beloved bed of tulips. He was not 
 much of a believer in witchcraft, but this time could 
 not help suspecting some of the gentry from Naurn- 
 keag, had been playing their pranks with him. He 
 never thought of the threatenings of the little woman 
 that visited him the day before, as he dug up the 
 loathsome weeds ; and not to lose time, planted salad 
 in its place. 
 
 The next morning, going as usual into his garden, 
 he was struck dumb, at seeing everything turned top 
 syturvy. His radishes were changed into wild tur 
 nips ; his salads to mullins ; his onions to rag weed ; 
 his potatoes to paving stones ; and his cabbages to 
 great toadstools as high as his head. " Onbegrypelyk !" 
 exclaimed he, and if he had not had his pipe in his 
 
mouth, ten to one he would have got into a great pas 
 sion. As it was, he stood staring with his eyes wide 
 open, puffing out such volumes of smoke, that the peo 
 ple of New Amsterdan thought it was a great fog ri 
 sing out of the Collect. " I am bewitched to a cer 
 tainty," said he to himself, as he thought of the little 
 woman that came to ask him for a tulip. 
 
 This was the very day the old hag came back 
 from Naumkeag, after being made a witch, as I have 
 before related ; and now poor Rinier was placed be 
 tween two fires, as it were. The first thing she saw 
 
 , . -. 
 
 was Rinier counting liis money, and she found he had 
 added several pieces to his store during her absence. 
 Upon which she fell into a great passion, and deter 
 mined to be revenged on him, the very first opportu-? 
 nity. Accordingly that very night, she came into his 
 
room to stick a few pins in his back, but finding him 
 reading his Bible, she went out rather faster than she 
 came in, for witches have a great antipathy to the 
 good book, seeing they can do no harm to any person 
 while he is reading it. But she took good care 
 that he should read his Bible no more, for as soon as 
 Rinier began to snore, she stole it away, though it 
 burnt her fingers terribly. 
 
 Then it was that she commenced her diabolical 
 experiments on the poor man, who from that time had 
 no comfort by day, nor rest by night. Sometimes as 
 he lay awake in the middle of the night, for he now 
 hardly ever slept soundly, he would behold a crowd 
 of fantastic and terrible figures, like nothing human, 
 flitting back and forth about his room ; sometimes 
 lighting on his pillow, and sticking pins in him, grin 
 ning and chattering all the while. Sometimes one of 
 them would sit down on his breast, and glare upon 
 him with her great goggle eyes, till he would have 
 shut his own, if he could have done it. But his fac 
 ulties were all swallowed up by terror ; he could 
 neither stir hand nor foot ; and there he would lay, 
 until at last with a violent effort, he would throw him 
 self from his bed, shaking and sweating in agony. 
 The monstrous figures would then laugh aloud, not 
 like Christian people, but with a hollow chuckling 
 that seemed to come from no one knew where. 
 
 Often when poor Rinier set forth of a morning with 
 his marketing of which he now had special little 
 seeing almost all his garden truck was metamorphosed 
 
as I have before related his fat pony, who had all 
 his life time before, behaved in the most obliging and 
 peaceable manner, would begin to kick like a devil 
 incarnate, breaking Rimer s shins, staving in the 
 head-board, and finally obliging him to jump out. Then 
 he would neigh with all his might, and dashing down 
 the side of the hill, upset the little cart, with all its 
 contents right into the Collect. 
 
 He was accustomed to sit at his door, of a summer 
 evening, with his pipe in his mouth, listening to the 
 croaking of the frogs, with which the Collect at that 
 time abounded, and the chirping, buzzing noises of 
 the thousand little fry of animals and insects, which the 
 kindly warmth and genial showers waken into life and 
 music. People may say what they will, but there is 
 something to my mind irresistibly soothing, and de 
 lightfully melancholy in this nightly concert. It is 
 in harmony with the sobriety of evening, and with the 
 gentle emotions of the heart. But now this solace 
 was denied him. Clouds of moschetoes, would rise 
 from the swampy borders of the Collect, wing their 
 way by the sound of their trumpets towards Rinier, 
 and in spite of the smoke of his pipe, settle on every 
 part of his bare skin, inflicting stings, that seemed to 
 come from poisoned needles. Then he would be 
 obliged to flee into the house, shut the doors, and 
 windows, and deprive himself of the balmy air, and 
 soothing concert. 
 
 As he sat thus one delightful evening twilight, 
 smoking his pipe, and pondering on his manifold per- 
 
secutions, all at once he was alarmed, by a great com 
 motion in the Collect, which bubbled up in all direc 
 tions, as if agitated by some internal convulsion. In 
 a little while it subsided, and straightway, he beheld 
 a vast array of bullfrogs, emerging from the water, 
 
 and making theif ^ay^lifre ctly towards Mm with a 
 confusion of tongues, enough to confound the whole 
 universe. They came hopping forward, the regulars 
 in as good order as one of our Militia trainings, fol 
 lowed by a rabble of little frogs, who not being able 
 to bear arms, straggled along in the rear, like boys at 
 a procession, kicking up a great dust, and adding their 
 shrill pipings to the general concert. Each of the 
 
full-grown troop was armed with a formidable bulrush, 
 which he flourished in defiance, as he followed his 
 leader, a frog of about the size of a young bull, 
 and whose sonorous voice as he marshalled his 
 forces, sounded not unlike a cracked bell. 
 
 As this formidable array mounted the hill, in front 
 of the abode of the astonished Rimer, the commotion 
 of the population in the immediate neighbourhood was 
 indescribable. The little urchins who according to 
 the instinct of boys and pigs, were paddling about in 
 the soft ooze of the Collect, when they saw this tre 
 mendous rising of the frogs, ran away shouting with 
 all their might ; the dogs barked, the hens cackled, 
 the pigs grunted and squealed, and a flock of geese, 
 belonging to Alderman Boddepeepe, set up a mighty 
 alarm, as half swimming half flying, they made for the 
 opposite shore. Never since the great eruption of 
 frogs into the town of Windham, recorded in the his 
 tory of Connecticut, was there such a consternation 
 created by these animals, among a Christian people. 
 
 "Goeden Hemel!" exclaimed Rinier, " what the 
 Duyvel has got into these varments now ? I be 
 lieve they are coming to take possession of mine 
 house. Ah ! God bewaar us ! I almost wish they 
 would, for it is little better than a purgatory to me 
 now," added poor Rinier, sighing out a great cloud of 
 smoke. Seeing them coming directly towards him, he 
 fearfully ran away into his garden, in hopes of avoiding 
 them, but what was his dismay, when he discovered, 
 by the burning and itching of his skin, that it was nothing 
 
but a thicket of thorns and briers, from one end to the 
 other. To complete the measure of his miseries, 
 when he went to count his ducats next morning, 
 which he always did let what would happen, he found 
 nothing but a bundle of Shin Plasters ! 
 
 "The cup is full," cried Rinier in despair, meaning 
 thereby that the stocking was empty. " O ! Saint 
 Nicholas ! Saint Nicholas ! what will become of me, 
 miserable wretch that I am. I am befairyed, bewitch 
 ed, bedeviled, and bebullfroged ; assist me good 
 Saint Nicholas, or most assuredly I shall run mad and 
 die." But the good saint came not at his call, and 
 that night he went to bed, as if he never meant to rise 
 again. 
 
It was a dark and dismal night, for the sun was 
 just crossing the line, and the elements were in great 
 commotion, as if one half the world was laughing at 
 his coming, and the other weeping his departure. 
 The rain fell in torrents, the thunder rolled overhead, 
 and the lightnings flashed so vividly through the crev 
 ices of the doors and windows, that Rinier covered 
 his head with the bedclothes, though he was almost 
 smothered to death. 
 
 " Rinier ! Rinier ! Rinier !" exclaimed a deep 
 hollow voice, pausing ominously each time it uttered 
 his name. 
 
 Rinier answered not. He was speechless with 
 terrour. 
 
 " Rinier ! Rinier ! Rinier !" cried a little tiny 
 voice, with like pauses each lime. 
 
 Rinier answered not. He had jumped out of bed, 
 arid was saying his prayers, and making good resolu 
 tions, as people generally do when they think their 
 
last hour is come. He called again on the good 
 Saint Nicholas, and this time he called not in vain. 
 A voice straightway replied, seemingly close to his 
 ear, which he knew to be that of the good saint, and 
 being encouraged by his presence, raised his head, 
 and looked around him like one just waking from 
 some fearful dream. Just at his bedside stood the 
 jolly little man, his cheeks ruddy with health, his 
 heart light with good spirits ; and his eyes beaming 
 such bright benevolence, that the room was as light 
 as day. In one corner stood the little fairy he had 
 met in the garden, with her face to the wall ; and in 
 another crouched the wicked old woman. They 
 were silent and overawed ; for a higher power had 
 now interposed, and their enchantments over poor 
 Rinier were at an end. 
 
 " Rinier," said the excellent Saint Nicholas " thou 
 art sufficiently humbled for thine avarice and lack of 
 charity ; for know that the vices of mankind, are al 
 ways the instruments of their punishment ; first by 
 the evils they bring upon themselves ; secondly by 
 those they inflict on each other. Thy love of money, 
 by enabling thee to hoard it up, excited the envy 
 and malice of yonder wicked old witch, who of late 
 hath been tormenting thee. Thy want of charity to 
 wards that little fairy standing in the other corner, in 
 refusing her so small a trifle as a worthless flower, 
 hath justly subjected thee to her elfin power. Both 
 are now ended. Take thy bible again, which I have 
 obliged this old sinner to give up to thee, and hereaf- 
 
ter, fail not to remember, thou canst only be happy, in 
 proportion as thou shalt administer to the happiness 
 of others." 
 
 As Saint Nicholas ended, the old woman flew up 
 the chimney, with curses and maledictions ; the little 
 fairy, making a low curtsey to the saint, flitted through 
 the keyhole ; and Saint Nicholas vanished, no one 
 could tell how. 
 
 Rinier slept sweetly that night, which he had not 
 done for a long while, and waking in the morning, be 
 held his bible on a chair beside him. Then he knew 
 that what had past, was not a dream, and rising up 
 full of hope, resolved to take good heed to follow the 
 precept of the worthy saint, who had vouchsafed to 
 deliver him from such terrible visitations. He became 
 the friend of the unfortunate, the benefactor of the 
 needy, the comforter of the wretched, and lived long 
 enough, to prove the truth of the divine precept of 
 Saint Nicholas, " that we can only be happy, by ad 
 ministering to the happiness of others." 
 
THE FAIRY 
 
 EXPERIMENT. 
 
Sequestered among a range of lofty mountains, run 
 ning from no one knows whence, to nobody knows 
 where, there was once, and may be still, a charming 
 valley where all the beauties of nature seemed to have 
 come together in happy harmony. A foaming tor 
 rent, after dashing down the mountain side, meandered 
 with sweet delay all round the little vale, as if loth to 
 lose itself again among the cliffs that environed it, 
 and finally stole away, silently through an almost in 
 visible opening among the hills. 
 
A little meadow, round which the stream formed a 
 bright and glittering ring, all enamelled with nameless 
 flowers, lay slumbering as it were in these quiet reces 
 ses, where a cooling and perpetual shade threw its soft 
 mantle all over, and all around. Save the twittering of 
 the stream, no noise ever disturbed the everlasting 
 quiet of the scene, and such was the silence that reign 
 ed there, that echo had long since abandoned the 
 cliffs and caves of these mountains, because she could 
 never hear any sounds to reply to, and was in danger 
 of losing her voice for want of use. 
 
 It was in this fair sequestered nook of the New world, 
 that a band of fairies, under their king and queen, had 
 sought refuge from the persecutions of science and 
 philosophy, two deadly foes to these playful fantasies, 
 and airy inventions of the imagination, which give 
 delight to the spring-time of youth and around which 
 even wintry age hovers with tender recollections, 
 when recalling the visionary world of long past times. 
 Would that these charming illusions might once more 
 return, and science and philosophy learn to tolerate 
 any other dreams but their own ! 
 
 Driven from their home in the Old world, they 
 sought the New, and here it was they settled down 
 under their king and queen, who each boasted a de 
 scent from a family that had reigned over this very 
 tribe for six thousand years. It may be supposed that 
 they carried their heads somewhat high, and indeed 
 the sway they held was that of a complete despotism 
 except that it was somewhat softened by a habit their 
 
majesties had, of opposing each other on all occasions, 
 so that if either inflicted wrong, the other was sure 
 to interpose and set it right again. That this mutual 
 restraint is one of the blessings of matrimony, cannot 
 be reasonably questioned. Man would be a tyrant, if 
 not restrained by woman ; and woman would be man, 
 with all their female follies added to the list of mas 
 culine enormities. 
 
 But despotism cannot exist in our New world. 
 They had riot been long settled in the delightful val 
 ley, when attempting to exercise the prerogative of 
 regulating the fairy dances, which had never before 
 been questioned, her majesty found to her astonish 
 ment, that there was a decided opposition. They one 
 and all sent excuses, when invited to the next ball, 
 and on being peremptorily summoned, refused out 
 right unless her majesty would allow the introduction 
 of some new waltzes and quadrilles, which had be 
 come fashionable of late years. 
 
Not to be tedious, one thing brought on another, 
 meetings were called, resolutions adopted, and de 
 mands of old rights and privileges presented to the 
 king, which put the queen in such a passion, that she 
 vehemently insisted the troops should be called out, 
 and martial law proclaimed. The prime minister 
 Puck, who delighted in mischief, and who being both 
 a rogue and buffoon, had of course great influence 
 over the royal pair, joined in the plan ; and the sol 
 diers being ordered out against the insurgents, joined 
 them to a fairy, with three cheers and a caper. Upon 
 this their majesties, " hopped the twig," as they say 
 in fairy land ; that is they flew back to the Old world, 
 where they spread terrible tales of the wickedness of 
 the New ; while Master Puck, fled away to the In 
 dians, who adopted and gave him the name of Loo- 
 goochee, or Weehunsonack, under which appellation, 
 he plays his pranks to this day, among the wild men 
 of the woods. On the flight of the king and queen, the 
 fairies one and all agreed to abolish hereditary rights, 
 and establish a Republic, where all should have the 
 privilege of a voice in the government. Thus they 
 continue from that time, and such are the benefits 
 derived from the possession of liberty, that with the 
 exception of Master Puck, who still continues a con 
 firmed aristocrat, and is always in mischief, our fair 
 ies have become the most harmless people in the 
 world. 4 
 
 Beyond the mountains which environed the abode 
 of the little elfin race, there lived an old man, whose 
 
sole possessions were a poor cottage miserably out of 
 repair, and a little field which he had now become 
 too decrepid to cultivate. He had neither wife nor 
 child, friend nor relation, and lived alone by himself at 
 the foot of a ledge of steep rocks, which rose high 
 behind his humble abode, frowning it into utter insig 
 nificance. Yet the prospect before him was beautiful, 
 the air pure, and a spring of chrystal water, overshad 
 owed by a spreading tree afforded him a wholesome 
 beverage. Poor as he was, however, the old man 
 was kind hearted and hospitable. While he had, he 
 gave away ; nor did the beggar ever want food, or 
 the traveller a lodging, so long as the old man had a 
 house over his head, or a mess of corn in his barrel. 
 
 It happened one day, that an argument arose among 
 some of the fairy rout, concerning the effects of pros 
 perity and adversity on the character of mankind. One 
 portion asserted that wealth was most favourable to 
 the virtues of charity and benevolence ; while the 
 other maintained that those who suffered the evils of 
 want, were the most likely to sympathize in the wants 
 of others. The dispute ran so high, that some of the 
 most zealous, began to talk about a dissolution of the 
 Union, when a wise and temperate old fairy addressed 
 them as follows : 
 
 "I did not intend when I rose, to address the meet 
 ing, nor do I now mean to make a long speech. I 
 will, therefore, be as brief as possible, and content 
 myself with merely repeating all the arguments that 
 have ever been used on the subject, since the creation 
 
 
of the world. I have not the presumption to imagine, 
 that I can throw any additional light on the subject" 
 " You d better sit down then" muttered a spiteful 
 old fairy, who wanted to make a speech herself. 
 " Order !" cried another, and the first speaker, rinding 
 that the assemblage was fast diminishing, came to the 
 point at once, by proposing to try the experiment 
 on the old man, on the other side of the mountain. 
 " He is now poor and charitable, let us see what ef 
 fect competence first, and then wealth will have upon 
 his heart." 
 
 All agreed to this proposal, and it was resolved 
 that the experiment should be tried. The season had 
 been unfavourable, and the old man s crop of corn, 
 always but scanty, was now diminished to just 
 enough flour to make one loaf. When that was gone 
 he knew not where to get any more, for all the coun 
 try around, was almost as badly off as himself. 
 
 Sitting at his door one summer twilight, smoking 
 his pipe, his only luxury, and thinking what would 
 become of him, when his last loaf was baked and eaten, 
 on a sudden, there appeared before him, an old wo 
 man of the most wretched appearance. Her garments 
 were all in tatters ; her feet bare ; her face almost 
 fleshless, and pale as famine itself. As she leaned on 
 her cane, it trembled under her weight, and her body 
 bent downward, as if seeking refuge from want in the 
 grave. 
 
 The heart of the old man yearned with compassion, 
 as he looked at this deplorable figure, which stood 
 
before him, like some speechless spectre of mortality. 
 He arose and offered her his seat, into which she sunk 
 exhausted, exclaiming in faltering accents : 
 
 " Give me to eat, for I am famishing." 
 
 " Alas !" replied the old man, " if I relieve thy 
 hunger, I must starve myself. I have but one mess 
 of flour, and when that is gone, I know not where 
 to find another, for the country around is almost des 
 titute." 
 
 " Then God help me ! I must perish for hunger ; 
 for no food has passed my lips for two days past." 
 
 " Nay, that must not be," said the old man, whose 
 heart melted with compassion, " I will share my last 
 meal with thee, and trust to Providence for the rest." 
 
 
 Then he went and emptied his barrel of the last 
 batch of flour, with which he baked a little loaf, and 
 
they sat down and ate together. After this, the old 
 woman arose, and thanking him earnestly for his char 
 ity, said as she departed, " Put thy empty barrel out 
 by the side of the spring to night." 
 
 " For what purpose ?" replied the old man. 
 
 " I say put thy empty barrel out by the side of the 
 spring to-night," repeated she somewhat impatiently, 
 as once more thanking him, she went on her way. 
 
 " What nonsense !" said the old man to himself, as 
 he went once more and lighted his pipe, and sat down 
 to ponder over the desolate future. The injunction 
 of the old woman ran strangely in his head, and 
 finally, without expecting any good to come of it, he 
 went and did as he was desired ; after which he re 
 tired to rest, and slept soundly till morning. Rising 
 at the dawn of day, he went down to wash himself 
 at the spring ; when lo ! to his astonishment, he found 
 his barrel filled to the brim with corn. Thereupon 
 
he fell on his knees and uttered a prayer of pious 
 gratitude. 
 
 His immediate wants were now supplied, and he 
 was content for a time, though the thought often came 
 over his mind, that he might just as well put out two 
 empty barrels, as one, seeing that whoever filled one, 
 could as easily fill both. So one night he put out 
 two barrels, and in the morning they were both filled 
 to the brim. Having now more than he wanted, he 
 began to think what he should do with the superfluity. 
 At first, he resolved to distribute it among the neigh 
 bours who were suffering from a scanty harvest ; but 
 then the apprehension that the supply might one day 
 cease, and he be reduced again to want a meal, weigh 
 ed against his benevolent feelings. So at last he 
 went forth and sold it at a great profit, hiding the 
 money, under his hearth-stone. 
 
 When people begin to hoard, they are in imminent 
 danger of becoming avaricious, and so it happened 
 with the old man. He counted his money every day, 
 until he became tired of seeing the same coins over 
 again, and resolved to increase his store in order to 
 keep up the excitement of gain. Accordingly he pla 
 ced three empty barrels by the side of the spring, 
 which as usual he found full the next morning. These 
 he sold to his neighbours at a great price, taking advan 
 tage of their increasing necessities ; and the love of 
 money, waxing greater from fruition, he by degrees in 
 creased the number of barrels until they amounted to a 
 dozen. These also, he sold every day, until, by the time 
 
a year had passed away, he had become the most 
 wealthy man in all the country round. He built him 
 self a fine house, dressed in rich garments, indulged 
 in gluttonous indulgences, and could now hardly sleep 
 at night, for indigestion, and thinking of getting mon 
 ey. He was no longer charitable, kind-hearted, or 
 benevolent ; and when the poor came to him to beg 
 a little supply of corn, which now could be got no 
 where else, he would ask them a great price, and if 
 they could not pay it, drive them from his door. 
 
 
 
Meanwhile, he continued to set out more empty 
 barrels at the side of the spring; but he observ 
 ed with dismay, that as he increased the num 
 ber, the quantity of grain diminished. Every night 
 the barrels lacked more and more of being filled, so 
 that by degrees from being half full, he could now 
 almost see the bottom of them all. This caused great 
 perplexity and apprehension in his mind, and at last 
 he came to a resolution to watch one moonlight night, 
 and learn the whole secret of the business, which 
 though sorely tempted, he had heretofore refrained 
 from prying into. 
 
 Accordingly, when the evening shadows of the 
 mountains had gradually been wrapped up in the man 
 tle of night, and all was quiet, he went and climbed 
 the tree which overshadowed the spring, and burying 
 himself among its whispering leaves, awaited the elu- 
 cidationof the mystery. Thebrightmoonbeams silvered 
 the foliage of the woods ; the stars kept their silent 
 watch in the skies ; and the voice of sorrow or of joy 
 had ceased in the country around. The old man sat 
 in his covert still as death, watching with breathless 
 eagerness, until the mid hour of the night came, in all 
 the solemnity of silence and repose. 
 
 Then all at once, he saw a long train of little tiny 
 elves, streaming down the mountain side, all in a row, 
 and each bearing two grains of corn, which they de 
 posited in the barrels, fleeing away and returning again 
 with the silence and swiftness of thought. Although 
 their number was so great, he could not count them, 
 
yet the old man in his avarice, fearful the barrels would 
 not be half filled before morning, grew very impatient, 
 and could hardly keep himself quiet. 
 
 At last there came along a little fellow, carrying 
 three grains of corn, with which he was so overload 
 ed that he made his way with great difficulty, puffing 
 and blowing ail the while. As he approached the 
 spring, his foot slipped, he fell to the ground, and his 
 grains of corn rolled away at random. Instead of 
 picking them up, the little tired fellow, sat down on a 
 clover flower covered with dew to rest, at which the 
 old man got out of all patience, and forgetting himself, 
 cried out with all his might 
 
 " Hollo, little fellow ! if you don t stir your stumps, 
 the barrels will never be filled." 
 
 He had scarcely uttered these words, when the 
 rout of fairy elves, uttering a loud shriek, flitted away 
 toward the mountain, behind which they disappeared 
 like a flock of birds. The old man after waiting some 
 time, in hopes they would return once more, descend 
 ed from the tree, and fearing to look into the barrels, 
 returned home, to pass the rest of the night in doleful 
 anticipations. All these were realized the next morn 
 ing when on going to examine them, they were all 
 found to be empty. They were never filled again ; 
 but the old man comforting himself, that he had still 
 sufficient to maintain his state, went to his strong box 
 to count his money, when his wretchedness was com 
 pleted by finding that too all gone. 
 
 " Yet I have still my fine house, rich clothes, and 
 
costly furniture," he said as he went to bed next night. 
 But he waked up in the morning, in his miserable hut, 
 with all the emblems of poverty scattered around him. 
 
 A few days terminated his existence ; for the enjoy 
 ments of luxury, had rendered him incapable of sus 
 taining those privations which poverty had enabled 
 him to bear without a murmur. 
 
 From that time the fairies determined to reward 
 virtue, not by bestowing wealth or power, but by en 
 dowing it with the inestimable blessing, of a blame 
 less conscience, a benevolent heart, and a contented 
 mind. 
 

 
V 
 
 
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