CHAPTER VI.
CONCLUSION-SOME POPULAR TALES EXPLAINED.

INDEX




CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF FAIRY STORIES.

We are going into Fairy Land for a little while, to see what we
can find there to amuse and instruct us this Christmas time.
Does anybody know the way? There are no maps or guidebooks, and
the places we meet with in our workaday world do not seem like
the homes of the Fairies. Yet we have only to put on our Wishing
Caps, and we can get into Fairy Land in a moment. The house-walls
fade away, the winter sky brightens, the sun shines out, the weather
grows warm and pleasant; flowers spring up, great trees cast a
friendly shade, streams murmur cheerfully over their pebbly beds,
jewelled fruits are to be had for the trouble of gathering them;
invisible hands set out well-covered dinner-tables, brilliant and
graceful forms flit in and out across our path, and we all at once
find ourselves in the midst of a company of dear old friends whom
we have known and loved ever since we knew anything. There is
Fortunatus with his magic purse, and the square of carpet that
carries him anywhere; and Aladdin with his wonderful lamp; and
Sindbad with the diamonds he has picked up in the Valley of
Serpents; and the Invisible Prince, who uses the fairy cat to get