# Fairies I have met

Illustrator: Edmund Dulac
FAIRIES I HAVE MET
"PLEASE," SHE SAID, "I WANT TO BE A NIGHTINGALE"
FAIRIES
I HAVE MET
BY MRS. RODOLPH STAWELL
ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BY
EDMUND DULAC
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
NEW YORK AND LONDON
DEDICATION
BEFORE Penelope could toddle she lived far away among the oleanders. The sunbeams who came down to see the oleanders saw Penelope too. She sat on the grass and played with them, and they loved her very much.
One day the sunbeams were sad.
“Penelope is going to England,” they said to each other.
“I am going to England with her,” said Sunbeam the First.
“How?” asked the others.
“I shall hide in her hair,” said Sunbeam the First.
“Then,” said Sunbeam the Second, “I shall go too. I shall hide behind her eyelashes.”
“And I,” said Sunbeam the Third, “shall hide in her heart.”
So Penelope went to England, with one sunbeam in her hair, and one in her eyes, and one in her heart.
When she was old enough to talk she spoke to the sunbeams.
“Shall you always stay in my hair?” she asked Sunbeam the First.
​“That is more than I can say,” he answered. “Perhaps when you are old I shall be obliged to go away.”
Then Penelope asked Sunbeam the Second—
“Shall you always stay in my eyes?”
“I hope so,” said Sunbeam the Second; “but perhaps if you are unhappy I shall be obliged to go away.”
Then the corners of Penelope’s mouth began to droop a little.
“Dear Sunbeam,” she said to Sunbeam the Third, “shall you be always in my heart?”
“Yes, if you keep me there,” said Sunbeam the Third.
“How can I keep you there?” asked Penelope.
“You must love the fairies,” said the sunbeam, “and understand them when they speak to you. If you love the fairies even when you are old, I shall stay in your heart always.”
These stories have been written for Penelope, so that she may love the fairies, and keep the sunbeam always in her heart.
CONTENTS
| | PAGE |
| The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird | 13 |
| The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy, and how they quarrelled | 21 |
| Princess Orchid's Party | 31 |
| The Cloud that had no Lining | 41 |
| The Fairies who changed Places | 51 |
| The Making of the Opal | 59 |
| The Big Spider's Diamonds | 69 |
| A Little Girl in a Book | 77 |
| The Fairy who was looking for a Home | 85 |
| The Box of Dreams | 95 |
| The Fairy who had only One Wing | 103 |
| The Little Boy from Town | 111 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird | |
| “Please,” she said, “I want to be a nightingale” | Frontispiece |
| | TO FACE PAGE |
| The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy | |
| He held out the little shell in the beam of coloured light | 24 |
| Princess Orchid’s Party | |
| She smiled at him very graciously when he was introduced to her | 36 |
| The Cloud that had no Lining | |
| And because the silver of the moonshine-fairies is very light he was able to carry a great deal of it | 46 |
| The Fairies who changed Places | |
| Drop-of-Crystal was too busy to speak | 54 |
| The Making of the Opal | |
| Of course the Dear Princess .… wore the great opal on the day that she was married | 68 |
| The Big Spider’s Diamonds | |
| The web and the diamonds and the Big Spider himself all fell to the ground | 74 |
| A Little Girl in a Book | |
| The other people in the book looked at her in surprise | 82 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1953, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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