EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE MOPSA THE FAIRY BY JEAN INGELOW THIS IS NO. =619= OF =_EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY_=. THE PUBLISHERS WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED VOLUMES, ARRANGED UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS: TRAVEL ❦ SCIENCE ❦ FICTION THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY HISTORY ❦ CLASSICAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ESSAYS ❦ ORATORY POETRY & DRAMA BIOGRAPHY REFERENCE ROMANCE [Illustration] IN FOUR STYLES OF BINDING: CLOTH, FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP; LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP; LIBRARY BINDING IN CLOTH, & QUARTER PIGSKIN LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. [Illustration: THIS IS FAIRY GOLD, BOY; AND ’TWILL PROVE SO SHAKESPEARE] [Illustration: MOPSA _The_ FAIRY BY JEAN INGELOW EVERY MAN I WILL GO WITH THEE & BE THY GVIDE IN THY MOST NEED TO GO BY THY SIDE LONDON & TORONTO PUBLISHED BY J·M·DENT & SONS LTD & IN NEW YORK BY E·P·DUTTON & CO] FIRST ISSUE OF THIS EDITION 1912 REPRINTED 1919 THE TEMPLE PRESS LETCHWORTH ENGLAND INTRODUCTION Jean Ingelow may be said to have begun her study of the art of writing child-rhymes and the tales that are akin to them under Jane and Ann Taylor. A friendship had sprung up between the families at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, where the Ingelow youngsters used to stay; and “Greedy Dick” and “Mrs. Duck, the notorious glutton,” were among their favourite characters. In her first book, however, Jean Ingelow showed that she had a note and a child-fantasy of her own. They are seen in her fairy-ballad of Mimie and of the forest where the child-fairy lived: “When the clouded sun goes in-- Waiting for the thunder, We can hear their revel din The moss’d greensward under. “And I tell you, all the birds On the branches singing Utter to us human words Like a silver ringing.”