A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
"'Now take off your handkerchief,' said he, and she found herself
in a queer-looking place all lighted up with beautiful lamps. A
little squint-eyed man came and said something the Nurse could not
understand. The little gentleman then hurried off Nurse into another
room, where, lying on a beautiful velvet bed, was the prettiest
little lady anybody ever did see.
"Well, before many hours there was a sweet little dot of a boy born.
Then the gentleman brought the Nurse a box of ointment and told her
to rub some over the baby's eyelids. When nurse had done so she put
the box in her pocket and forgot all about it. This got her into
great trouble, as I 'll tell you about presently. Nurse stayed some
days with the little lady, and got to love her very much, she was
that kind and good. The little lady liked Nurse, and told her that
she herself was a princess; that her husband was a prince; that they
lived in a beautiful country where there was no frost or snow, and
that they were fairies, not Pixies. Her father was the king of all
the fairies, and he was very angry because she ran away and married
the prince, who was not of so high a rank as she was, although he
was her cousin, and that to punish them he sent 'em both to Dartmoor
for a year. That time was now up, and they were all going home in a
few days.
"The fairy prince took Nurse to her home blindfolded on the big
horse, in the same way as he brought her there, and on parting gave
her the other ten guineas as he had promised. The next morning
Nurse was in a great quandary when she found the box of ointment in
her pocket. 'Well,' she thought, 'he will be sure to come for this
ointment, as they will all be going away to-morrow or the next day.'
"Nurse stayed up all that night, but the prince did not come, and
the next day and night passed without seeing him. Then Nurse felt
certain that they were all gone, and had forgotten the ointment,
and she could scarcely eat, drink, or sleep for thinking what virtue
there might be in it.
"When the fourth night had passed without his coming Nurse could
wait no longer, but opened the box and rubbed in a little of the
ointment on her left eye; but she only felt the eye prick and sting
a bit, so the woman thought the ointment must be only good for fairy
babies, and she went to bed quite satisfied.
"The next morning she thought she must have died and awakened up
in another world. Everything about her looked as if it had grown
ever so much. The cat, which always slept in her room, looked as
large as a great dog. Then remembering the ointment, she covered
her left eye, and all was as it used to be. The woman now got very
frightened, and started off after breakfast to go to Ashburton to
consult a friend of hers, a Mr. Stranger, who was very clever about
herbs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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