LITTLE PRUDY SERIES.

FAIRY BOOK.

BY

SOPHIE MAY.

BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, (SUCCESSORS TO PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, & CO.) 1866.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by LEE & SHEPARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

[Illustration: CRISTOBAL. Page 32.]

THIS BOOK OF FAIRY TALES IS DEDICATED TO LITTLE BESSIE.

LITTLE PRUDY SERIES.

BY SOPHIE MAY.

I. LITTLE PRUDY.

II. LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSY.

III. LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.

IV. LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACIE.

V. LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK.

VI. LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE.

CONTENTS.

PAGE INTRODUCTION 9

CRISTOBAL 19

WILD ROBIN 35

THE VESPER STAR 53

THE WATER-KELPIE 59

THE LOST SYLPHID 74

THE CASTLE OF GEMS 100

THE ELF OF LIGHT 117

THE PRINCESS HILDA 137

GOLDILOCKS 160

FAIRY BOOK.

INTRODUCTION.

While Prudy was in Indiana visiting the Cliffords, and in the midst of her trials with mosquitoes, she said one day,--

"I wouldn't cry, Aunt 'Ria, only my heart's breaking. The very next person that ever dies, I wish they'd ask God to please stop sending these awful skeeters. I can't bear 'em any longer, now, certainly."

There was a look of utter despair on Prudy's disfigured face. Bitter tears were trickling from the two white puff-balls which had been her eyes; her forehead and cheeks were of a flaming pink, broken into little snow-drifts full of stings: she looked as if she had just been rescued from an angry beehive. Altogether, her appearance was exceedingly droll; yet Grace would not allow herself to smile at her afflicted little cousin. "Strange," said she, "what makes our mosquitoes so impolite to strangers! It's a downright shame, isn't it, ma, to have little Prudy so imposed upon? If I could only amuse her, and make her forget it!"

"Oh, mamma," Grace broke forth again suddenly, "I have an idea, a very brilliant idea! Please listen, and pay particular attention; for I shall speak _in a figure_, as Robin says. There's a certain small individual who is not to understand."

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: Fairy Book by Sophie May
• 2: And now Prudy had turned about
• 3: A merry boy was little Cristobal
• 4: Everybody was merry but Cristobal
• 5: One may be ready for Christmas
• 6: Cristobal rushed eagerly toward the flames
• 7: He drove two of his father's kye
• 8: Dwarfish little brownies toward him
• 9: Summoning a meek little brownie
• 10: There was one good natured brownie who pitied Robin
• 11: The Moon looked at the Vesper Star
• 12: Whispered the Vesper Star gently
• 13: So Moneta donned a heavy dress of spun gold
• 14: Then Moneta looked in his face
• 15: In a transparent palace Moneta was sitting
• 16: You fancy you were once a sylphid
• 17: I will say there are sylphids in the air
• 18: Though she gazed till her eyes ached
• 19: There were children gathering strawberries on the hill
• 20: I would rather have it ache than be dried up
• 21: Illustration THE LOST SYLPHID
• 22: Intwining arms with a bright sylphid
• 23: Said the queen never forget Blanche
• 24: When Blanche awoke next morning
• 25: Blanche dreamed every night of Victor
• 26: She remembered the words of Queen Fontana
• 27: Then Thule went to his whistling again
• 28: Thule went into the woods again
• 29: When Thule turned his head only an instant
• 30: Followed by the messengers of Loki
• 31: In childhood Zora had been very fair
• 32: And I will seek the fairy Gerula
• 33: Gerula muttered again in low tones
• 34: ' Zora clapped her hands again
• 35: Then the treacherous Zora turned on her heel
• 36: Hildegarde will not forget you
• 37: When Despard spoke so hopelessly
• 38: Despard shall have all he can carry
• 39: Goldilocks shook her bright curls
• 40: Goldilocks had only gone back to Despard
• 41: The woman gave Goldilocks a loving kiss