Produced by David Edwards, Katherine Ward, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net MOPSA THE FAIRY BY JEAN INGELOW WITH ILLUSTRATIONS Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1919 Author's Edition. DEDICATED TO MY DEAR LITTLE COUSIN JANE HOLLWAY. [Illustration: THE ENCHANTED BAY. "Look at those five grand ones with high prows: they were part of the Spanish Armada."--PAGE 16.] CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. Above the Clouds. 1 II. Captain Jack. 14 III. Winding-Up Time. 23 IV. Bees and Other Fellow-Creatures. 42 V. The Parrot in His Shawl. 60 VI. The Town With Nobody in It. 80 VII. Half-A-Crown. 91 VIII. A Story. 106 IX. After The Party. 121 X. Mopsa Learns Her Letters. 133 XI. Good-Morning, Sister. 146 XII. They Run Away From Old Mother Fate. 158 XIII. Melon Seeds. 174 XIV. Reeds and Rushes. 187 XV. The Queen's Wand. 199 XVI. Failure. 219 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Enchanted Bay. Frontispiece Jack's New Friend. 82 Jack's Slave. 98 A Story. 107 The Queen. 114 The Apple Woman. 156 They Run Away From Old Mother Fate. 162 The Queen's Farewell. 234 CHAPTER I. ABOVE THE CLOUDS. "And can this be my own world? 'Tis all gold and snow, Save where scarlet waves are hurled Down yon gulf below." "'Tis thy world, 'tis my world, City, mead, and shore, For he that hath his own world Hath many worlds more." A boy, whom I knew very well, was once going through a meadow, which was full of buttercups. The nurse and his baby sister were with him; and when they got to an old hawthorn, which grew in the hedge and was covered with blossom, they all sat down in its shade, and the nurse took out three slices of plum-cake, gave one to each of the children, and kept one for herself.