More than a hundred years ago, at the foot of a wild mountain in Norway, stood an old castle, which even at the time I write of was so much out of repair as in some parts to be scarcely habitable. In a hall of this castle a party of children met once on Twelfth-night […]

THE OUPHE[1] OF THE WOOD “An Ouphe!” perhaps you exclaim, “and pray what might that be?” [Footnote 1: Ouphe, pronounced “oof,” is an old-fashioned word for goblin or elf.] An Ouphe, fair questioner,–though you may never have heard of him,–was a creature well known (by hearsay, at least) to your great-great-grandmother. It was currently reported […]

If we may credit the fable, there is a tower in the midst of a great Asiatic plain, wherein is confined a prince who was placed there in his earliest infancy, with many slaves and attendants, and all the luxuries that are compatible with imprisonment. Whether he was brought there from some motive of state, […]

There was once a Fairy who was a good Fairy, on the whole, but she had one very bad habit; she was too fond of finding fault with other people, and of taking for granted that everything must be wrong if it did not appear right to her. One day, when she had been talking […]

My father and mother were gone out for the day, and had left me charge of the children. It was very hot, and they kept up a continual fidget. I bore it patiently for some time, for children will be restless in hot weather, but at length I requested that they would get something to […]

I. An empty sky, a world of heather, Purple of foxglove, yellow of broom; We two among them wading together, Shaking out honey, treading perfume. Crowds of bees are giddy with clover, Crowds of grasshoppers skip at our feet, Crowds of larks at their matins hang over, Thanking the Lord for a life so sweet. […]