One day when all the world was gay with spring a king stood at a window of his palace and looked far out over his kingdom. And because his land was fair to see, and he was a young king, and his heart was happy, he made a song for himself and sang it loud […]

THE QUEST FOR THE NIGHTINGALE[6] Oh, who would go to fairyland?The moon is shining bright, oh,And who would go to fairylandUpon a summer’s night, oh! Across a field of fragrant fernAll sparkling with the dew, oh!Come trip it light to fairylandAnd I will go with you, oh! To fairyland, to fairyland,Who seeks may find the […]

Once upon a time there lived a wee woman whose bit of a garden was a delight to all eyes. Such flowers as she had! And in the midst of them, green as an emerald and smooth as velvet, was a grass plot with never a weed upon it. And through the grass ran a […]

One evening Little Maid Hildegarde’s father came home with wonderful news; the knights were coming to town. He had heard it as he came from the forest where he cut wood all day and he hurried every step of the way home to tell Hildegarde and her mother. “They are on the king’s business and […]

Once upon a time a woman was frying some pancakes, and as she turned the last cake in the pan she said to her little boy: “If you were a little older I should send you with some of these fine cakes for your father’s dinner, but as it is, he must wait till supper […]

There was once a little prince whose mother, the queen, was sick. All summer she lay in bed, and everything was kept quiet in the palace; but when the autumn came she grew better. Every day brought color to her cheeks, and strength to her limbs, and by and by the little prince was allowed […]

There was once upon a time an old woman who wanted an apple dumpling for supper. She had plenty of flour and plenty of butter, plenty of sugar and plenty of spice for a dozen dumplings, but there was one thing she did not have; and that was an apple. She had plums, a tree […]

Once upon a time there lived two brothers, who, when they were children, were so seldom apart that those who saw one always looked for the other at his heels. But when they had grown to manhood, and the time had come when they must make their own fortunes, the elder brother said to the […]