THE FIRELIGHT FAIRY BOOK ***
Produced by Don Kostuch
[Transcriber's Notes]
The spelling of "didn't" as "did n't", "center" as "centre" and other such usages, has been maintained.
Here are the definitions of some unfamiliar (to me) words.
cataplasm (poultice) Soft moist adhesive mass of meal or clay, usually heated, spread on cloth, and applied to warm, moisten, or stimulate an aching or inflamed part of the body.
doggerel Irregularly fashioned verse of a humorous nature.
halberdiers Guard armed with a halberd, a weapon having an ax-like blade and a steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft.
importuning Beg for something persistently.
sedges Grasslike plants of the family Cyperaceae, having solid stems and three vertical rows of leaves.
seneschal Official in a medieval noble household in charge of domestic arrangements and the administration of servants.
[End Transcriber's Notes]
The FIRELIGHT FAIRY BOOK
By HENRY BESTON
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAURICE E. DAY
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY BOSTON
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, Inc.
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS PUBLICATIONS ARE PUBLISHED BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WASHINGTON, September 7. 1922
DEAR HENRY:--
"Grown-ups" arrogate entirely too much to themselves. I know this is so. I discovered it for a fact when I was not more than "knee-high to a grasshopper" myself. I knew, for example, that a certain amount of dirt on my face and hands in no way interfered with my enjoyment of my supper. The fact that my finger nails were not all they should have been had no bearing whatsoever upon the efficiency of those same fingers. Washing not only took time from other important pursuits, but also was mildly unpleasant. Nevertheless, my mother was not even open to reasonable argument on the matter. Arbitrarily, with the despotism of an early Roman Emperor, she rendered a dictum to the effect that I must wash, and soapy and submissive I had to be before I could come to the table. Again, any reasonable child can tell you that pleasure is the main object of eating; therefore, in all logic, one should eat if one feels like it at ten o'clock in the morning, or at three o'clock in the afternoon, a jar of Guava jelly, a pound of chocolates, a paper of ginger cookies, or whatever may appeal to one's aesthetic taste. This method of procedure, naturally, might necessitate recourse to the brown-wood family medicine closet. Certain discomfort might ensue. But was not the pleasure worth it? Again my mother arbitrarily took the matter into her own hands, disagreeing with me on fundamentals. She maintained that eating was not for pleasure simply, but for nourishment. Sundry unfortunate remarks were made containing references to gluttony. The pantry was locked, and regular meals at regular periods were prescribed. Indeed, poems with dreadful morals for those who ate between meals were recited to me, endeavor being made thereby to substitute terror for inclination.
Any reasonable child will find many such parallel instances of the assumed omnipotence of "grownups." With this awful indictment before me, you ask me, a "grown-up," to write an introduction for the "Firelight Fairy Book," and thereby to assume the responsibility for passing judgment upon it. There is but one circumstance that makes me willing to do so. I believe that where any nice "grown-up" is concerned, if you crack the hard outside shell with which circumstances have surrounded him, beneath it you will find a child. Banking on this, I venture to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the "Firelight Fairy Book." I liked particularly the story of the poor little prince, whose sneezing had such a disastrous effect; and the lost half hour is unquestionably an accurate historical account, because no one could have described so accurately, simply from imagination, what a lost temper looked like. What makes me even more willing to advance my opinion is that I do not stand alone. My conclusions are supported by a jury of my peers, for I have given the book as a Christmas gift, not only to my own children, but to other people's children, and to one of the prominent Senators of the United States. They have universally acclaimed it, and who can question the judgment of such a jury?
