The Project Gutenberg EBook of It's Your Fairy Tale, You Know, by Elizabeth Rhodes Jackson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: It's Your Fairy Tale, You Know Author: Elizabeth Rhodes Jackson Illustrator: L. E. W. Kattelle Release Date: August 9, 2018 [EBook #57662] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT'S YOUR FAIRY TALE, YOU KNOW *** Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, Chuck Greif, amsibert and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Contents. (In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers] clicking on the image will bring up a larger version.) (etext transcriber's note) IT’S YOUR FAIRY TALE, YOU KNOW ELIZABETH RHODES JACKSON Illustrated by L. E. W. KATTELLE COPYRIGHT, 1922 By B. J. BRIMMER COMPANY First Impression, November, 1922 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AMBROSE PRESS, INC. Norwood, Mass. TO MY CHILDREN WINIFRED RALPH FOSTER KINGSBURY CONTENTS I. The Wishing Stone 1 II. The Pixie Starts It 8 III. The Pixie’s First Task 14 IV. Wendell Finds an Unexpected Ally 22 V. A Frog Somewhat Out of the Common 30 VI. The Story of the Enchanted Maiden 38 VII. Wendell Works the Midnight Spell 44 VIII. Cousin Virginia has a Caller 52 IX. The Breaking of the Charm 58 X. In the Giant’s House 66 XI. The Cloak of Darkness 73 XII. Blind Man’s Buff with the Giant 77 XIII. The Cap of Thought 83 XIV. The Magic Book 89 XV. A Choice of Charms 96 XVI. The Happy Family 102 XVII. Sammy Tries His Hand 108 IT’S YOUR FAIRY TALE, YOU KNOW CHAPTER I THE WISHING STONE HE children’s room of the Library was very still. Once in a while a murmur arose at the delivery desk, or some squeaky-shoed small feet crossed from open shelves to reading table. Occasionally a helpful child leaned across to another and whispered, “That’s a dandy book. Have you read the rest of them?” But all of these minor sounds were blended into the general effect of stillness and seclusion; and they did not even reach the ears of a small boy named Wendell, who bent over a large volume on one of the low round tables. He did not hear the footfalls nor the murmurs; he knew nothing of the rumble of traffic that rose through the windows; he was not even conscious of gathering dusk, though the librarian began to snap on lights in dark corners. Wendell read on and on, giving an excellent imitation of a bookworm. Absorbed as he was in his book, you probably picture him as a slight, pale little chap, somewhat underweight for his ten years, with pale cheeks, a bulging brow, large horn spectacles, completely immersed in a volume of Emerson’s Essays. Not at all. He had a round, brown face, a strong, lithe body, excellent arm and leg muscles, and nice brown eyes that were in unusually good condition because he never overworked them on school books. He had never opened Emerson’s Essays in his life, and the large volume that just now held his attention so completely was a book of fairy tales. Wendell never read anything but fairy tales, unless it happened to be “required reading” at the select school for boys that he attended. In fairy tales he reveled. He read them in bed with the light on at night. He read them before breakfast and thus made himself late at school. He hid them behind his geography in study periods. He took them to Sunday school till his teacher found it out. He read them in the street when he went on an errand and greatly irritated traffic policemen by trying to cross the street, reading. Altogether, it was proverbial in Wendell’s family that he could always be kept out of mischief by a fairy tale. But oh! what low marks he did get in school! For he didn’t like to study. He liked baseball and swimming and roller-skating, but he didn’t like the capitals of the United States, nor dates, nor fractions. Particularly he didn’t like fractions. Thoroughly entranced, he read on till another boy reached across in front of his page to get a book lying on the table. The interruption roused him. He glanced up, saw that the lights were on and the afternoon waning, reluctantly rose and returned his volume to the shelves, and sauntered out with two books of fairy tales under his arm. He strolled through the upper corridor, with an approving glance at the great panel of the Muses, who looked to him like fairies on a large scale; but his goal was the delivery room at the other end, with its wonderful paintings of Sir Galahad and the Quest of the Holy Grail, illustrations de luxe of one of Wendell’s favorite folk tales. Long he lingered over Sir Galahad arriving at the Castle of the Maidens, and long he gazed on the old spellbound king. He sighed deeply as he left the room at length. Oh, to have lived in those days! Through a cross street he hurried along to the Esplanade. Here was fairy land indeed, had Wendell but had eyes to see it! The sunset glow had not yet faded from behind the classic buildings on the river front, and twin necklaces of lights were strung between city and city. But it all seemed to the boy depressingly modern and unromantic. No suggestion to him of fairies or giants or witches or wishes. He walked along, still under the spell of his Library reading, regretting that there was not enough light to read as he walked, hurrying home to open his fairy books. From the Embankment, he turned into an old-fashioned street on the slope of Beacon Hill, and began to climb the heights. His great-great-grandfather had lived on that street, in Wendell’s present home, in the early days when fashion first built up the Hill. His great grandfather and his grandfather and his father, in turn, had lived there through many changes, as fickle fashion turned to newer avenues. As Wendell paused in front of his house,—a stern, square front, with a door whose solidity and heavy brass knocker and sentinel sidelights gave the impression that it had been put there to keep people out instead of to let them in,—he was hailed by a friend across the street. Sammy Davis’ father had a name that ended in idsky when he lived in Russia; but after he came to America and moved into one floor of the decadent mansion next to Wendell’s, the family had decided to give an American twist to the name. So Davis it had become. Sammy Davis crossed to Wendell. “Where yer been?” “Library.” “Get a book?” “Yep.” “Lessee it.” Sammy reached for the two books, grabbed them. Wendell grabbed in turn. Perfectly willing he was, of course, to show Sammy the books, but who doesn’t resent having things grabbed? Sammy ran across the street; Wendell followed, chased, ducked when Sammy dodged. There was an upright stone post at the inner edge of the sidewalk, barring vehicles from entering a narrow blind court that opened opposite Wendell’s house. Sammy dodged behind this, then out again, ran around in a circle and back to the post to dodge once more, then ran out again, then back to the post. The chase was prolonged and I suppose that they encircled that post a dozen times. When Wendell at length secured both books, he vaulted up and sat on top of the post, which was roughly hewn and small on top and not so very comfortable. Still, you could stick on. “I’ll tell you, Sammy,” he said. “You come over to-night, and we’ll each read one—oh Jehoshaphat!” He had suddenly remembered his home work,—a double allowance of fractions because he had failed to-day. {1} {2} {3} {4} {5} “Make it to-morrow night, Sammy,” he said. “I’ve got home work to-night.” A window on the fourth floor above was raised, a frowsy head stuck out. “Sammee!” called a strident voice. “Come in and eat.” “So long. Sorry to leave you,” said Sammy, and departed upward, while Wendell sat and mused on the post. Once more he drifted away into memories of fairy tales. At length he shook himself with a heartfelt though silent, “Gee whiz! I wish I were living in a fairy story right now, here in Boston,” and slid down and went in to dinner. Wendell’s family consisted of his father and mother and two older brothers, Alden and Otis. Just now there was also a visiting relative, Cousin Virginia, a sprightly young lady from New York, who tolerated Boston because it was only five hours from her delightful home town. She seemed to live in a constant state of amusement at things that Wendell’s people didn’t consider funny at all. Her greeting this time to Wendell was, “Well, Ralph Waldo Theocritus Shakespeare, how’s the Public Library to-day?” Wendell didn’t see anything funny in that. He grunted. “Did you happen to see that interesting new volume of correspondence between Socrates and Lady Jane Grey?” Wendell didn’t even know that this was intended to be funny. “I was reading fairy stories,” he said. “Shocking!” said Cousin Virginia. “A descendant of the Puritans!” “As to that,” broke in Wendell’s brother Alden, who was a Junior at Harvard, specializing in Original Sources, “the Puritans had some imagination. Look at witchcraft. Look at the Wishing Stone.” “What wishing stone?” asked Cousin Virginia. “I’ve seen the kind they set in a ring on a girl’s third finger. Do you mean that kind?” This bit of levity fell flat. “The Wishing Stone,[A]” said Alden, “was a projecting boulder in the Common, somewhere near the present junction of the Beacon Street mall and the Oliver Wendell Holmes walk. There was a tradition that if one walked or ran nine times around the stone and then stood or sat on it and silently made a wish, the wish would come true.” “And here you’ve shown me all the sights of Boston and left that out!” cried Cousin Virginia. “Why, it’s much more interesting than Bunker Hill Monument. Let us hie us thither by moonlight as soon as we finish dinner. Careful, Wendell; if your eyes should pop right out, you couldn’t put them back.” “The stone,” said Alden, “is no longer there.” “Oh, where is it, Alden?” cried Wendell. “According to the early diarists,” returned Alden, “most of those boulders on the Common were used for building stone from time to time. I doubt whether its history could possibly be traced.” “Well, why couldn’t they hang on to it when they had it?” said Wendell in deep disappointment. Then he went up to his room to do his home work,— that sad double lot of fractions. CHAPTER II THE PIXIE STARTS IT F course, Wendell’s intentions were excellent. He fully meant to devote himself to that home work, to forget the fairy stories that still hung like a mist about his brain and tackle those fractions like a man. But we all know how it is,—just as soon as we have looked at this one funny page of the newspaper, or read this one verse, or found out what the next chapter is about, we will certainly settle right down to business. There was the arithmetic. There were the two fairy books from the Library. Unless you are a seraph with wings and always do your duty, you will not be surprised to hear that Wendell treated himself to just one peek at the fairy stories before doing his home work, and that he never thought of those fractions till he heard his mother’s step on the stairs, when he shoved the fairy book into his desk drawer and opened his arithmetic at random. “Bedtime, my son. Have you finished your lessons?” asked his mother. “No! Bothersome lot! Can’t make anything of this example—have to give me another half-hour,” muttered Wendell, not really wishing to deceive his dear mother, but a little bit ashamed to tell her how he had neglected his duty. “I’m sorry, dear, but you’ll have to do it in the morning. You mustn’t lose sleep. And your brain will be clearer then. I’ll tell Jane to call you half an hour early.” “Many are called, but few get up,” as the proverb hath it. Wendell, next morning, was not one of the few. Jane’s call fell on sleepy ears. He turned over for one more snooze, woke an hour later to find himself ‘way behind time, hustled through his dressing and his breakfast, and was off to school with lessons unprepared,—a sad thing that happened only too often in his easy-going life. He managed to slide through most of his recitations, badly but not disgracefully, until he came to the arithmetic class. I might tell you in detail of his tragic floundering through problems that he was supposed to have prepared, of his guilty acknowledgment that he had not made up the delinquencies of yesterday and the day before, and of the stern wrath that was visited upon him by the arithmetic teacher, a strict and disciplinary spinster, whose patience he had often tried in the past. But this is not a school story. I have to record only such a part of his troublous career as led directly to the wonderful adventure of the Wishing Stone. So, briefly, he was “kept in,” with three days’ problems to finish before he could go home. His teacher, who bore the singularly happy name of Miss Ounce, left him alone in the deserted school-room. She had a lesson to give in another part of the building. Wendell pulled his book in front of him, flipped the pages open to the proper place, ran his fingers through his hair, and remained in that attitude, which may have denoted either deep concentration or utter dejection. He read the first problem through twice, and it had no more meaning for him than Dante’s Inferno in the original tongue. “Jee-rusalem!” he said aloud after a long pause. “Can I be of any assistance?” asked a friendly voice. It came from a little being perched on the desk in front of him, who certainly had not been there a moment before. He was about the size of a two-year-old child, but he had the face of an old man, a genial old man with twinkling eyes. His body was very round and quite filled his suit of blue knitted jersey, and his arms and legs were long and spindling. “For goodness’ sake, who are you?” gasped Wendell. “I’m a Pixie,” said the being. “You are?” said Wendell. “I didn’t know there were any—out of fairy stories.” “But I’m in a fairy story,” explained the Pixie politely. “I’m in the same fairy story you’re in.” “Am I in one?” said the startled Wendell. “Since last night,” declared the Pixie. “You wished to be, you know, on the Wishing Stone, after you had run around it nine times. It’s a sure charm.” “The Wishing Stone! Is that the old Wishing Stone—the alley post?” “Somewhat fallen into disuse,” assented the Pixie, “but never-the-less the Wishing Stone.” {6} Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, vol. I., p. 554. [A] {7} {8} {9} {10} {11} “Well, I never!” said Wendell. It was so stupendous, such an unbelievable piece of good fortune, that at first he did not grasp its possibilities. Then his eye fell on the open book lying on his desk. “Say!” he exclaimed. “If that’s all true, if I’m really living in a fairy story, there ought to be some way of settling junk like this in short order.” He gave a vindictive thump to the arithmetic. “That’s what I came for,” said the Pixie. “I thought I saw a business opening here.” “You mean—” faltered Wendell. “Why, I’ll do your problems for you. That’s easy. And you do three tasks for me.” “Three?” “Yes, it’s always three,” said the Pixie. “Say, I think I ought to get more than just these problems for three. I think you ought to do my home work till the end of the term.” “Just as soon,” said the Pixie. “No trouble to me. Is it a bargain?” “But what will you want me to do?” said Wendell. “I don’t know what I want you to do,” returned the Pixie. “How should I know? Take a chance. Be a sport.” “All right,” said Wendell. “I will. Here are the problems.” “Look in your desk,” said the Pixie immediately. Wendell opened it. There lay three sheets of large pad paper, covered with problems completely solved. Wendell’s name and the date were written at the top in his own handwriting. The work was done neatly enough to pass, but not so excessively neatly as to arouse suspicion. “Well, you are some little fiend at arithmetic,” pronounced Wendell with great relief. “Glad you are satisfied,” said the Pixie. “Of course you understand that if you can’t perform my tasks, you belong to me.” “Well, I might as well belong to you as to Miss Ounce,” ruminated Wendell. “Come on with your first task. I suppose it will be water in a sieve from the Charles River or something like that. They always are.” “I should say not,” said the Pixie with scorn in his voice. “That might be all very well for the old Kobold that lives under Flag Staff Hill. It’s just his style, in fact. He’s using the same stuff he did when Merlin was practicing. No, I like to advance with the best thought of the time. I’m no back number. Trust me, I’ll find something up to date.” “Well, speed up,” said Wendell. “What do you want me to do?” “How should I know?” said the Pixie. “Give me time. I’ll drop around to-night and let you know.” Just as he was speaking, the door opened, and in came Miss Ounce, and maybe Wendell didn’t jump! He started so conspicuously that Miss Ounce fixed him with an accusing eye and said, “Well, Wendell, up to mischief, I suppose, instead of doing your work.” “No, Miss Ounce,” said Wendell, noting with relief that the Pixie was nowhere in sight, and promptly handed over his papers. “Um, um!” murmured Miss Ounce. “Very good! Might be neater. Every one right, though. Now, Wendell, why is it that when you can do such excellent work as this, you have such a shocking daily record? Yes, shocking is the word.” Wendell knew the answer to that, but he didn’t give it. He took his lecture silently, standing first on one foot and then on the other, but his mind was on the magic task that the Pixie was to set him, and as soon as he could he slid out of the room. CHAPTER III THE PIXIE’S FIRST TASK HE Pixie came that evening, true to his word. Wendell, undisturbed by fractions, luxuriously idling over his fairy books, looked up suddenly and there sat the funny little fellow on the foot of the bed. “How are you?” said the Pixie. “I didn’t have time to say good-bye to-day. Your Miss Ounce turned the door-handle too quickly.” “That’s all right,” said Wendell. “Are you ready to spring my first task yet?” “Yes, sir,” said the Pixie gleefully. “And you can’t say it isn’t up to the minute. You must bring me an aeroplane that you have found traveling underground.” “Why, there’s no such thing,” said Wendell vexedly. “An aeroplane traveling underground! How silly! An aeroplane doesn’t travel underground. How can it?” “Don’t ask me,” shrugged the Pixie. “How should I know? You can’t expect me to make up the tasks and think up the answers too. Be reasonable.” And he vanished. Wendell was greatly cast down. “It’s a fool task,” he said as he went to bed. “In fact, it’s impossible.” He woke with a sense of calamity hanging over him. Really, it was almost as bad as having fractions on his mind. He was so serious at breakfast that Cousin Virginia asked him if he was practicing to be a Puritan Ancestor at a fancy-dress ball. This levity seemed to Wendell ill-timed. The brooding anxiety lingered with him all through school time. What if he couldn’t do the task? What would it be like to belong to a Pixie? He didn’t like the prospect. He came out of his school on Beacon Street, still with the cloud lowering over him. He felt desperate. He thought of going over to the train yards of South Station and stealing a ride in an empty cattle-car bound for the prairies of the West. He meditated stowing away on a ship bound for Timbuctoo or Guam or somewhere. Just then a tempting truck passed him “south”-bound on Beacon Street. It was low and it was going slowly, and altogether it offered just the right opportunity to “hook” a ride. Wendell seized the opportunity and the truck together; and dodged down inside unseen by the driver. In Allston, Wendell dropped out again. His mind was somewhat relieved by this pleasant adventure, and he didn’t wish to get too far from home. He hailed an electric for Park Street. Now, you may not believe it, but the first thing he saw when he got on the car was an aeroplane—a toy aeroplane about four feet long, carried in the arms of a freckle-faced boy. Wendell sat down by the boy. “Does it go?” he said. “Sure it does,” said the freckle-faced boy. “How?” said Wendell. “You wind it up,” said the boy. It was apparently a perfect model of a large aeroplane, a fascinating toy. The freckle-faced boy let him hold it, let him examine it closely. It was a joy to {12} {13} {14} {15} {16} see such a perfect mechanical model on that small scale; but suddenly it brought a leaden lump to Wendell’s heart. It reminded him of his impossible task. “Where you taking it?” asked Wendell. “Home. I live in Medford.” “Change at Park Street?” said Wendell. “Scollay Square,” said the boy. They were now opposite the Public Garden. “I’ll bet it can travel,” said Wendell. “You’ve said it,” replied the boy. “But,” he added, grinning, as the electric sloped down into the Subway, “this is the first time it ever traveled underground.” Wendell nearly bounced from his seat. “Say!” he almost yelled. “What’ll you take for that aeroplane?” “Don’t want to sell it,” said the boy. “I just got it.” “But if you should sell it,” persisted Wendell. “But I ain’t a-goin’ to sell it,” said the freckle-faced boy. “But if you ever should want to sell it,” reiterated Wendell. “Say, there’s something, you know, you’d rather have.” “Well, I don’t know. What, f’r instance?” “I’ll give you anything you like for it,” offered Wendell, who was rapidly formulating a plan in his mind. “Wouldn’t you like a gun, now?” “I’ve got a gun,” said the boy. “Don’t you want a dog?” pleaded Wendell. “Is it a trick dog?” asked the boy. “Do you want a trick dog?” questioned Wendell. “Yes, I do.” “Well, it is a trick dog,” said Wendell. “Just you get out here,” for meantime they were nearing Park Street, “and I’ll show him to you. I live right near here.” “What tricks can he do?” asked the boy. “You wait and ask him,” said Wendell. Once out of the Subway, Wendell left the boy on a bench on the Common, and sprinted across the green expanse, in spite of the official sign, KEEP OFF THE GRASS IF YOU WANT TO ROAM JOIN THE NAVY He shot around the corner of his street, circled the Wishing Stone rapidly nine times, climbed on top of it and said to himself, “I wish for a trick dog that will do any trick you tell him to.” “Woof! Woof!” said an ingratiating voice near him, and there was the dog. He was of no special breed, just a lost-dog breed of mongrel, but he had the look in his eye that means a dog will do anything in the world for you if he loves you. “Sit up and beg, old fellow,” commanded Wendell, and the dog sat up with an excited little bark. “Heel,” ordered Wendell, who had no time to lose, and the two chased excitedly through the streets to the Common, and there, to Wendell’s relief, waited the impatient boy with his aeroplane. “Here he is,” said Wendell. “Here’s your trick dog.” The freckle-faced boy looked him over critically. “He ain’t much to look at,” he said. “Well,” said Wendell, “you didn’t say you wanted him to take a prize in a beauty contest. You asked for a trick dog.” “What can he do?” asked the boy. “You just try him,” said Wendell. “Dead dog!” said the freckle-faced boy. The dog dropped flat and rolled over motionless. He didn’t even blink an eye. “Live dog!” said the boy, and up he jumped and frisked and wagged and was very much alive. “Is that all he can do?” asked the boy. “No, he can do any trick,” said Wendell. “I don’t know ’em all myself. He knew ’em when I got him.” “Where’d you get him?” asked the boy suspiciously. “Given to me,” said Wendell. “Let’s have the aeroplane.” The boy hesitated. Perhaps he was afraid that the dog had been stolen or found by Wendell, and might soon be claimed by the police. But the dog himself settled the question. He jumped up on the freckle-faced boy and “woof”-ed engagingly; and when the freckle-faced boy stooped to pat him, he licked the boy’s freckles so warmly and wetly and scratchily and lovingly that the boy hastily handed the aeroplane to Wendell and gathered the dog right up in his arms; and the bargain was complete. Wendell had a few pangs himself. The dog had found a warm place in his heart too. But he consoled himself with the reminder that he could wish for another just like him any time. And he had the aeroplane. He took it over to the parade ground on the other side of the Common, and tried it out. It flew beautifully. On its own merits, apart from Wendell’s need to satisfy the Pixie’s demand, it was a very desirable possession. It struck Wendell as strange that, whatever adventures the Wishing Stone had thus far brought him, seemed to increase the number of things he had to wish for. He had never yearned for an aeroplane before, but now it seemed to him that he couldn’t bear to part with this one to the Pixie. Of course, he had often thought he would like a dog; but now that the Wishing Stone had brought to life this wagging, barking, loving morsel of a pup, Wendell was almost unhappy without him. He wondered if it would be that way all the time,—if every granted wish would produce more ungranted ones. If that were so, it would really be happier not to begin the endless chain, not to have the first wish granted. That was the way it turned out in a good many of the fairy stories,—the black pudding, for instance, on the end of the old woman’s nose. A great truth was almost within Wendell’s grasp for the moment,—that it is not the attainment of a wish, but the effort to attain it that brings us happiness: that right activity, not idle possession, is man’s happiest endowment. Wendell had his finger on this key to happiness, but as he was only a small boy flying a toy aeroplane, and not a great philosopher, he did not grasp the key, but let his thoughts wander to the Pixie, who would probably be all ready with another task after dinner. When the Pixie suddenly appeared that evening (sitting this time on top of the chiffonier, with his thin long legs drooping over the drawers), Wendell said triumphantly, {17} {18} {19} {20} “Well, I got the aeroplane.” He stroked it lovingly where it stood balanced on his desk. “Why, yes, it’s an aeroplane, all right,” granted the Pixie; “but it isn’t traveling underground.” “But it was when I found it,” protested Wendell. “A boy had it in the Subway.” The Pixie looked crestfallen. “I never thought of that,” he admitted. “You win.” “Tell me all about it,” he added with some curiosity. Wendell told him the whole thing, but the Pixie looked grave when he mentioned the Wishing Stone. “You’re not using them up too fast, are you?” he said doubtfully. “That makes two, you know.” “Two what?” said Wendell. “Why, two wishes. You only have three, you know.” “Is that a fact?” asked Wendell anxiously. “I didn’t know. Is that straight?” “Of course,” said the Pixie. “Everything goes by threes in fairy stories.” “I’m afraid you’re right,” said Wendell gloomily. “I know I am,” said the Pixie. “Well, are you ready for the next task?” “All right. What comes next?” asked Wendell. CHAPTER IV WENDELL FINDS AN UNEXPECTED ALLY HE Pixie brightened a bit. “I have a poser this time,” he said. “You must find an acorn on Acorn Street.” It was Wendell’s turn to look crestfallen. As every Beacon Hill boy knows, Acorn Street is only one block long, or rather one block short, and there isn’t an oak on it. In fact, there isn’t a tree of any kind: there isn’t room for one. The Pixie looked delighted, but he tried to assume a nonchalant air to hide his triumph. He swung one knee over the other carelessly and tilted his chin. “We-ell!” said Wendell, a bit discouraged. But the thought came to him that in every fairy story the knight who passes the first of three tests always squeaks through the other two also, so of course there must be some way out. “I’ll have to be going,” said the Pixie in an offhand way. “You’ll find your arithmetic paper in the desk drawer. See you to-morrow night.” “Hold on,” said Wendell. “You forgot the aeroplane.” “Forgot it? How?” “Aren’t you going to take it along?” “Good gracious, no,” returned the Pixie peevishly. “I can’t take care of all the truck I tell people to bring me. I don’t run a junk shop. Keep it yourself. I don’t want it.” Now that was great luck for Wendell. It brought a large amount of pleasure into an existence which would otherwise have been most cheerless; for the unsolved problem loomed before him of finding an acorn on Acorn Street. He chose to go through Willow Street on his way to school next morning, which brought him of course to the head of Acorn Street. There was the neat little sign fastened on the brick wall,—a bunch of three acorns and the name in artistic lettering,—evidently the creation of an artist brain and fashioned by a master hand. Wendell had an inspiration. He would cut out one of those acorns and take it to the Pixie as a last resort. Of course, he might be arrested and put in jail for mutilating a street sign; and after all his trouble, the Pixie might not consider it an adequate acorn; still the suggestion was something to fall back upon. Standing at the top of the extremely steep slope which is Acorn Street, Wendell surveyed the prospect doubtfully. He saw a narrow cobble-stoned roadway; on his left, a trim row of doll houses, each with its projecting doorstep and old-fashioned scraper, its spotless white door and shining brass knocker, and a narrow brick sidewalk where two thin people could just walk abreast; on his right, a long brick wall, broken by neat back doors, and a still narrower brick sidewalk where only one very thin person could walk abreast. Nowhere was there a tree, nor room to plant a tree. There were a few straggling blades of grass between the cobble-stones and between the bricks, but not a crevice large enough to accommodate a single acorn. A postman came along, whistling cheerily. Wendell stood off the brick pavement to let him pass. Perhaps the postman could help. “This is Acorn Street, isn’t it?” said Wendell. “Some people call it that,” responded the postman jokingly. “Millionaires’ Alley, I call it.” “Why, are they all millionaires here?” asked Wendell. “Just about,” said the postman; “and I knew this street when there were three families in every house, and the walls that black with dirt, you could write your name on ’em in chalk. But these millionaire artists discovered it. Nuts, I call ’em, with their glass studios on the roof and their Packard cars that have to back out whenever the ice truck comes through.” Wendell felt that they were wandering from the point. “But did you ever see an acorn here?” he asked. “Nope,” said the postman. “No acorns here. They named it that, I guess, because it isn’t big enough to be named for a full-grown tree like Walnut or Chestnut. Peanut Street I’d call it.” “Well, I’ve got to get to school,” said Wendell. He jogged down the short but precipitous length of treeless Acorn Street, and so on to school. After school, as he started for home, the Public Garden tempted him, and he turned in from Beacon Street. It was a warm October day, and the Garden wore an air of resuscitated midsummer. He sat down on a bench on the Charles Street side, facing the lake, which looked very attractive, although it was no longer bright with the little boating parties and slow-gliding swan-boats of summer. A flock of doves, seeing Wendell settled to stay, fluttered down all around him for expected crumbs; and some busy little sparrows, who are always more alert than the doves and capture twice as much food, hopped along the path. Wendell felt in his pockets for stray provender, but without results. A gray squirrel, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, loped through the rustling leaves, and ran up the bench that Wendell occupied. He had a very busy air as of one who stops for a moment only, in the midst of pressing engagements. A slight inadvertent movement of Wendell’s sent him scurrying down again. He frisked through the dead leaves, dug up something of interest from among them and sat up on his hind legs to handle it. Wendell saw that it was an acorn and noticed that he was sitting under a young oak. “Pity they couldn’t plant a few of them where they belong,” he said bitterly. After the squirrel’s desertion, he sat there a few minutes longer, but the pigeons, too, soon found that he had no picnic to offer them and flew off in a flock to a small girl with bare knees, accompanied by a French-bonneted nurse, who had a whole bag of popcorn. He got up, then, and, kicking the leaves before him, shuffled out to the wide entrance at Charles and Beacon Streets. A traffic policeman, very military-looking in trim khaki, was holding up the Charles Street traffic while automobiles spun up and down Beacon Street. Wendell, pausing on the curb, saw him suddenly check the Beacon Street traffic, while still holding the Charles Street lines at bay. The large square expanse was quite clear except for the khaki figure with both arms uplifted. Charles Street truck-drivers prepared to speed up. Beacon Street automobilists craned their {21} {22} {23} {24} {25} {26} heads out to see what was delaying the long double lines. Foot passengers lining the curbstones looked impatient and watched the traffic man for the signal that did not come. Apparently he had forgotten what he was there for. Then a smile spread along the curb-stone ranks,—a smile that merged into a ripple of laughter quite unusual among self-contained Boston pedestrians, as the impatient waiters saw that the majestic khaki officer was holding up scores of important citizens to let one small gray squirrel cross the street. It was Wendell’s little friend of the Public Garden, still intent on pressing business, who, unmindful of all safety-first rules, was taking a diagonal cut from corner to corner across one of the busiest thoroughfares of Boston. “I know that squirrel. He lives in Louisburg Square,” Wendell heard a man say. “I know him by the look in his eye.” Which shows how cocksure of their own judgments some people are. The squirrel made the farther corner in safety. The traffic man gave the signal. The crowd surged forward, Wendell with them. He crossed by right angles to the squirrel’s corner and saw that busy little beast frisking along Charles Street, with the deliberate purpose of one who knows his goal, and then turning up into quiet Chestnut Street. Wendell followed him, as it was his direct route also; but it was not until the squirrel turned from Chestnut Street into West Cedar Street that Wendell saw with fast-beating heart that he carried in his mouth an acorn for his winter storehouse. If the squirrel should—oh, if only he should—! Yes, opposite Acorn Street he paused. It was evident that he had intended to proceed along West Cedar Street to Mount Vernon Street, which bounds Louisburg Square on the nearer side; but on the door-step of a West Cedar Street house sat a cat, a sleek gray pussy, and when she saw the squirrel, she grew tense all over and began to quiver, commencing at the tip of her tail; and the squirrel saw her—and turned up into Acorn Street. Would he drop it? oh, would he? Would no yapping puppy come to the rescue? Would no tidbit of garbage tempt him to investigation? No, Acorn Street appeared deserted by man and beast. Its aristocratic spotlessness offered no hope of a bread crust or even a banana peel. But just then one of the spotless white doors opened. A baby girl emerged right in the path of the squirrel. He was not alarmed: baby girls had been a bountiful providence to him since his infancy. But this baby was a determined little maiden whose brain and hand worked in unison. Quick as thought she grabbed the squirrel’s beautiful bushy tail, and quite as quickly she loosed it, for the little gray chap dropped his acorn and turned his sharp teeth upon that plump little hand. Then, as he felt himself free, he scurried up the hill without stopping for anything, and turned westward toward Louisburg Square. When Wendell passed through the Square, the acorn safe in his trousers pocket, the squirrel was still chattering excitedly on the branch of a tree, scolding every one in particular and in general for the loss of his acorn. “It’s a shame, old chap,” said Wendell, pausing to peer at him through the iron railing. “But I’ll bring you a bag of peanuts to make up for it, you old life- saver, you.” The Pixie wore an air of quiet triumph when he appeared in Wendell’s room that evening. So did Wendell. “Well,” said the Pixie. “Do you give up this time?” “Not this time,” said Wendell, quietly but with great enjoyment, and he fished the acorn out of his pocket and laid it on the desk in front of the Pixie, who glared at it savagely. “Well,” said Wendell, “are you satisfied?” “Oh, yes,” said the Pixie, ironically. “It’s an acorn. I know an acorn when I see one, thank you. But there aren’t any oaks on Acorn Street.” SHE GRABBED THE SQUIRREL’S BEAUTIFUL BUSHY TAIL “I know it. But a squirrel brought it all the way from the Public Garden and dropped it there. I saw him.” “A common or garden squirrel?” asked the Pixie incredulously. “Garden—when I saw him,” said Wendell. “But he might live on the Common for all I know.” “Some nutty squirrel,” said the Pixie dejectedly, “to block my game that way!” He sat fingering the acorn as if he hoped it would turn into something else. “Ah!” he said, brightening suddenly. “But I’ve thought of something for the third test that’s a sticker.” “What is it? A postage stamp?” asked Wendell. “You won’t feel so funny, young man, when you know what it is,” said the Pixie, glaring. CHAPTER V A FROG SOMEWHAT OUT OF THE COMMON SUPPOSE it’s a beacon from Beacon Hill,” said Wendell. “Now, that’s not bad,” conceded the Pixie. “I may use that some time. No,” triumphantly, “it’s a frog from the Frog Pond.” “Je-hoshaphat!” exclaimed Wendell. “You’ve got me this time.” The Pixie grinned. “I certainly think so,” said he. For if ever a frog made its lair in the Frog Pond, it was long before the present memory of man. The Frog Pond is a pool on the Beacon Street side of Boston Common. In shape it is somewhat like a lima bean. It has a concrete bottom. Near one end there is a gushing fountain and at the other a drain, that keep the water fresh. In warm weather, hundreds of Boston children “go swimming” there every day,—brown-skinned, black-eyed Italians, little Russian Jews, a small sprinkling of native Bostonians, quite a large handful of little negroes, “Parthians and Medes and Elamites,” no doubt, and “the dwellers in Mesopotamia”; but never, never a frog. In winter, when the pool is frozen, it is a skating pond, and Flag Staff Hill, just above it, makes an ideal start for a sled to go whizzing down across the icy glare of the Frog Pond. Popular opinion has it that it was this very slide on the Common that was made famous in the winter of 1774 and 1775 by the contest between the youngsters of Boston and General Gage’s redcoats, then quartered on the town, who tried to spoil the slide with sand and ashes. Instead of submitting timidly, the boys carried their complaint to General Gage himself, who assured them that they should be undisturbed in future and said in comment, “How can we hope to beat the notion of liberty out of this people? The very boys breathe the air of liberty!” Historical truth compels me to state, however, that the Frog Pond was not the scene of this interesting passage. It was undoubtedly on School Street, in the neighborhood of the historic Latin School, that the boys’ slide was spoiled, and it was done by the servant of General Haldimand, who was in command under General Gage, though General Gage was indeed the court of appeal that decided in favor of the Latin School boys. As to the servant, I think his idea was a good one, for I have disastrously tried to walk down School Street myself on an icy day. But if the Frog Pond was not the actual site of this historic strike for liberty, it may be called the direct spiritual descendant of whatever frozen pool had that honor. For the boys and girls of the Frog Pond in these modern days “breathe the air of liberty”; and the grown people of Boston know it, and the police know it. The Frog Pond, within close view of the Massachusetts State House, within three minutes’ walk of Boston’s financial center, and within a stone’s throw of the shopping district, belongs exclusively to the youngsters. Any grown person may occupy a bench on the walk and watch the fun, but he mustn’t complain if he happens to get splashed. Neither must he object to large groups of girls and boys all around him, struggling to exchange wet bathing suits for dry {27} {28} {29} {30} {31} {32} clothes without the shelter of a dressing room. The youngsters are required to put on their bathing suits at home; but after the swim who can be expected to traverse blocks and blocks of city streets in a wet bathing suit? They do the best they can to create for themselves a privacy that doesn’t exist. They bring newspapers and old blankets and sit under them on the grass to dress; they form close rings around each other at critical moments; and the Mayor of Boston consents, because he is very human and very sensible; and the Common police, who have all known the delights of the Frog Pond and the difficulties of dressing in public in their own boyhood days, turn their backs; and the majority of staid Boston citizens, walking home to dinner past the Pond after office hours, approves genially, and is of the opinion that the small minority that disapproves would better walk home by some other path. To the Frog Pond, then, Wendell bent his steps the following afternoon. He wore his bathing suit under his shirt and trousers, though it was somewhat late in the season for bathing. The warm weather had brought out a number of adventurous souls, Sammy Davis among them. “Hi, Wendell, come on in,” yelled Sammy. “How is it?” asked Wendell. “Fine! Warm as can be.” Wendell didn’t believe it. He knew the old trick of telling the newest comer how warm the water is. He stood undecided on the brick walk. “Seen any frogs in there, Sammy?” he asked. Of course it was a foolish question, but it popped out before he could check it. “Frogs? Naw!” said Sammy in exaggerated denial. “Frogs! Yah!” said the other boys, and hooted in derision. “I seen a frog,” piped up a bright-eyed colored baby in a bathing suit improvised from underclothes, who sat on the stone curb and paddled his wriggling brown feet in the water. “Seen a frog! Yes, like fun you did,” jeered his big brother. “I did seen a frog,” reiterated the baby. “There, on the grass. There he is now.” Wendell looked where the brown finger pointed. Could he believe his eyes? There on the grassy slope of the hill below the Soldiers’ Monument actually sat and blinked a green and speckled frog. The brown baby and Wendell were not the only people who had seen him. A shout went up from the water, and at the same time an echoing shout arose from a group of small boys who were climbing around on a captured German tank on the crest of the hill. The boys on the tank began to scramble down. The frog sat and blinked stupidly. It seemed dazed or injured, but as the tank contingent cast themselves down the hill, it leaped with that surprising suddenness that characterizes frogs, and with its long legs shooting behind, plunged head first down the slope and into the water. For the first time within the memory of this generation, there was a frog in the Frog Pond. Wendell cast off his clothes and shoes and shot in after it. Whew! but the water was cold! And how to locate the frog? A needle in a hay stack couldn’t compare with it. Excitement reigned in the Frog Pond. Every one gave chase. The water was not clear enough to show the reptile plainly, but occasional glimpses of it spurred on its hunters. They made futile grabs below the water; they swam and dove after that frog. Several times some boy’s hand closed over it, only to find its slippery length wriggling through his fingers. At length it was captured by Izzy Icklebaum, who brought it triumphantly to the surface and held it in a tight grasp. “Oh, Izzy, give it to me,” begged Wendell. “I’ll give you anything you want for it.” Izzy lent a business-like ear to this offer. “You will, eh?” he said, showing a large degree of interest. “Will you give me your aeroplane?” In spite of his deep regret, there was not even a moment’s hesitation on Wendell’s part. “It’s yours,” he said. “Here, give us the frog here in my stocking. Put your hands ’way in with him. That’s the big idea. Now I’ve got him.” Released by Izzy, the frog gave a futile leap, only to find itself entangled in the stocking foot. The capture was complete. Wendell put on his clothes over his wet bathing suit, slipped his feet stockingless into his shoes, slung the frog over his shoulder and started for home. “I’ll come in for it this aft.,” shouted Izzy after him. “Right-o,” returned Wendell over his shoulder, and sped on, his heart lightened of a tremendous burden, the last of the three tasks accomplished. True to his word, Izzy came over an hour later and bore off the aeroplane. Wendell tried not to care. He pinched the frog gently through the stocking to make sure it was there, and anticipated the Pixie’s disappointment. The Pixie certainly was surprised. Wendell handed him the stocking and told him to feel inside, and when the Pixie’s hand came in contact with the cold smooth skin of the frog, it gave the Pixie his first shock. He got his second when Froggy, catching a glimpse of light through the opening, leaped violently out, almost in the Pixie’s face. “Well, I suppose that’s settled,” said the Pixie, when the frog had finally come to rest in a corner of the room. “You really found it in the Frog Pond?” “Yes, I did,” said Wendell, “really and truly. So now I’ve finished the tasks, I’m glad to say.” “Well, I must say it’s a great relief to me,” returned the Pixie. “I never do know what to do with boys when I find them belonging to me. It’s a great responsibility. I’m glad I’m not a mother.” In spite of his relief, the Pixie continued to look gloomy and to fiddle uneasily with a pencil on Wendell’s desk. At last he broke out: “Of course, I’m not doubting your word, but you know and I know that you couldn’t find a frog in the Frog Pond because there aren’t any.” “But this one really was,” said Wendell, distressed to see that the Pixie was not quite convinced that he spoke the truth. “I saw him jump in myself, and Izzy Icklebaum fished him out.” “Well, it’s very fishy! I can’t account for it,” said the Pixie. He remained in a brown study for several seconds; then a bright thought illumined his little old face. “I have it. I bet I have it. Which side did the frog jump in from?” “Why, it came jumping down the hill from the Soldiers’ Monument. When I first saw it, it was near the top of the hill.” “Of course it was!” cried the Pixie, slapping his leg. “That’s where the old Kobold lives. This is just like his work. He never had an original idea in his life.” “You mean—?” questioned Wendell. “I mean this isn’t a real frog at all. It’s a person changed into a frog—by enchantment, you know. He’s always doing it, pulling that frog stuff. Why, I can count one, two, three—seven times anyway he’s used that same spell since Cinderella’s godmother first suggested it. I should think he’d be tired of it himself.” The frog sat and blinked at them with its goggle eyes. Wendell didn’t like its stare. He began to feel uneasy. Suppose it was enchanted. Suppose it should go back to its natural shape. He somehow felt sure he shouldn’t like that shape, whatever it might be. “Of course, this complicates things for you a bit,” said the Pixie briskly. “For me?” faltered Wendell. “Yes, you’ll have to break the spell, you know. You seem to forget this is your fairy story, young man.” “But how?” queried Wendell. “It seems to me this business of living in a fairy story is just nothing but getting out of the frying pan into the fire.” {33} {34} {35} {36} {37} “Well, you wished it, you know,” said the Pixie. He uncrossed his legs, crossed them the other way, gazed around the room, hummed a little tune. He seemed to be washing his hands of all responsibility. “Sometimes if you throw a frog against a wall it will do it,” volunteered the Pixie. He spoke as if he had no interest in the matter. “Do what?” asked Wendell. “Break the spell, of course.” Wendell hated to do it. He didn’t like the frog, to be sure, but that was no reason for hurting it. However, he advanced, under the compulsion of the Pixie’s words, grasped the smooth, cold creature, and hurled it against the wall—then jumped back startled. CHAPTER VI THE STORY OF THE ENCHANTED MAIDEN N place of the frog, before him stood a beauteous maiden. She had a dazzlingly clear complexion, big infantile blue eyes, and a wealth of golden hair which she wore so as to conceal her ears. She was dressed simply but charmingly in a sport blouse and skirt, silk stockings and low shoes. “Jumping caterpillars!” ejaculated the Pixie. “I guessed right.” “You are naturally surprised,” said the Beauteous Maiden, in a low melodious voice, “to see me in place of that odious frog. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for giving me back my natural form, though it can be only for a brief time.” “Have a chair,” said Wendell as soon as he could recover from the shock. “Thank you,” said the maiden, seating herself and gracefully crossing one knee over th...