Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales | Page 2

a point which writers of modern fairy tales do not always realize
for their guidance.
The writer of the following tales has endeavoured to bear this principle
in mind, and it is hoped that the morals--and it is of the essence of fairy
tales to have a moral--of all of them are beyond reproach.
For the rest they are committed to the indulgence of the gentle reader.
Hans Anderssen, perhaps the greatest writer of modern fairy tales, was
content to say:
"FAIRY TALE NEVER DIES."
J.H.E.

CONTENTS.
PAGE GOOD LUCK IS BETTER THAN GOLD
THE HILLMAN AND THE HOUSEWIFE
THE NECK, A LEGEND OF A LAKE

THE NIX IN MISCHIEF
THE COBBLER AND THE GHOSTS
THE LAIRD AND THE MAN OF PEACE
THE OGRE COURTING
THE MAGICIANS' GIFTS
THE WIDOWS AND THE STRANGERS
KIND WILLIAM AND THE WATER SPRITE
MURDOCH'S RATH
THE LITTLE DARNER
THE FIDDLER IN THE FAIRY RING
"I WON'T"
THE MAGIC JAR
THE FIRST WIFE'S WEDDING-RING
THE MAGICIAN TURNED MISCHIEF-MAKER
KNAVE AND FOOL
UNDER THE SUN

GOOD LUCK IS BETTER THAN GOLD.
There was once upon a time a child who had Good Luck for his
godfather.
"I am not Fortune," said Good Luck to the parents; "I have no gifts to

bestow, but whenever he needs help I will be at hand."
"Nothing could be better," said the old couple. They were delighted.
But what pleases the father often fails to satisfy the son: moreover,
every man thinks that he deserves just a little more than he has got, and
does not reckon it to the purpose if his father had less.
Many a one would be thankful to have as good reasons for contentment
as he who had Good Luck for his godfather.
If he fell, Good Luck popped something soft in the way to break his fall;
if he fought, Good Luck directed his blows, or tripped up his adversary;
if he got into a scrape, Good Luck helped him out of it; and if ever
Misfortune met him, Good Luck contrived to hustle her on the pathway
till his godson got safely by.
In games of hazard the godfather played over his shoulder. In matters
of choice he chose for him. And when the lad began to work on his
father's farm the farmer began to get rich. For no bird or field-mouse
touched a seed that his son had sown, and every plant he planted throve
when Good Luck smiled on it.
The boy was not fond of work, but when he did go into the fields, Good
Luck followed him.
"Your christening-day was a blessed day for us all," said the old
farmer.
"He has never given me so much as a lucky sixpence," muttered Good
Luck's godson.
"I am not Fortune--I make no presents," said the godfather.
When we are discontented it is oftener to please our neighbours than
ourselves. It was because the other boys had said--"Simon, the
shoemaker's son, has an alderman for his godfather. He gave him a
silver spoon with the Apostle Peter for the handle; but thy godfather is
more powerful than any alderman"--that Good Luck's godson

complained, "He has never given me so much as a bent sixpence."
By and by the old farmer died, and his son grew up, and had the largest
farm in the country. The other boys grew up also, and as they looked
over the farmer's boundary-wall, they would say:
"Good-morning, Neighbour. That is certainly a fine farm of yours.
Your cattle thrive without loss. Your crops grow in the rain and are
reaped with the sunshine. Mischance never comes your road. What you
have worked for you enjoy. Such success would turn the heads of poor
folk like us. At the same time one would think a man need hardly work
for his living at all who has Good Luck for his godfather."
"That is very true," thought the farmer. "Many a man is prosperous, and
reaps what he sows, who had no more than the clerk and the sexton for
gossips at his christening."
"What is the matter, Godson?" asked Good Luck, who was with him in
the field.
"I want to be rich," said the farmer.
"You will not have to wait long," replied the godfather. "In every field
you sow, in every flock you rear there is increase without abatement.
Your wealth is already tenfold greater than your father's."
"Aye, aye," replied the farmer. "Good wages for good work. But many
a young man has gold at his command who need never turn a sod, and
none of the Good People came to his christening. Fortunatus's Purse
now, or even a sack or two of gold--"
"Peace!" cried the godfather; "I have said that I give no gifts."
Though he had not Fortunatus's Purse, the farmer