Produced by Delphine Lettau, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Illustration] The Village of Youth And Other Fairy Tales BY BESSIE HATTON _Author of "Enid Lyle," etc._ With Numerous Illustrations BY _W. H. MARGETSON_ London, 1895 HUTCHINSON & CO _34 PATERNOSTER ROW_ Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. CONTENTS. PAGE I. The Village of Youth 1 II. A Child of the Winds 31 III. The Flower that reached the Sun-lands 72 IV. The Garden of Innocence 96 V. A Christmas Rose 124 VI. The Windflower 144 The Village of Youth [Illustration: The Village of Youth] "Yet Ah! that Spring should vanish with the Rose! That Youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close!" I. There was a young King who ought to have been the happiest monarch in the world. He was blessed with everything a mortal could desire. His palace might have been designed by the Divine architect Himself, so perfect was it in all its parts; and it stood amidst gardens with its dependent village at its gates, like a dream of feudal beauty in a story of romance. Notwithstanding his good fortune, the King was oppressed with what he conceived to be a great trouble. From the happy ruler of a happy people he gradually became grave and anxious, as if an intense fear had taken possession of his soul; and so it had. It was the fear of Age. He could no longer bear to meet old people, and eventually grew to hate the hoary heads and time-worn faces of his venerable subjects. He therefore divided his kingdom into two parts. The elders lived in one half of the realm, under the government of his mother, while he was King of the young. Riding, hawking, or sailing along the grey river, he never saw a wrinkled visage. Hence his kingdom was called the Village of Youth. The King was betrothed to a fair Princess named Rowena. She loved her future husband dearly, though his strange malady and the exodus of the old people from his dominions had clouded her happiness, and made her long for some way of alleviating his suffering.