Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1848-06-22

,dle; everybody
lost entertaining, and you
.,rn cousin M. sent Mary Howltts fairy
tales she said fairy tales were quite fashionable
MWeII D said the mother, 81 had as lief tell
fairv tale as any other, but first tell me whatyou
think is the meaning of "fairy." One replied,
"beautiful beings" another "did not know
but the eldest boy said he thought fairies were
"imaginary beings" Taking that for dehnl-
ton. his mother then began the fairy tale cal
led
THE HIDDEN TREASURE.
g. One evening. as a poor man and his vile, with
FIVE or six children, were sitting at the door OF
their cottage. one of the children said, o. IA
Their. how poor we are. do wish good fairy
would come and tell us where we might lind a
great treasure. | guess | would not sit all day
idle any more, and have so little to eat. No soon
er said than done-a beautiful women, with ra-
diant countenance, stood before them, who sad
little boy | heard your wish, and If you will
obey my directions, you may find great treas
ure' Then, turning to the man, she SAID, "a
treasure lies hid in your grounds; II you will
seek for it, you will find, and may have IT. 1t Is
not three feet from the surface either; begin to-
morrow to dig for it. She then went away
The children clapped their hands for Joy, and
the man and his wife could hardly credit their
ears, that they had really heard such thing;
for they we're very poor indeed; though the man
had large tract of land, it was uncultiyated,
yielded nothing, barely sufficient pasturage tor
COW, which afforded them almost the only sure
nourishment they had. They were poor, idle,
discontinued people, and the children half starv-
ed so to be sure they were glad enough to hear
the fairys words, and could hardly wait till the
next morning to begin to dig. They were up
with the sun; those that could get shovcls dug
with them, those that could not, dug with their
hands In a few days they had dug considerable
of place over, and several times they thought
they had come upon the treasure, but it was on
ly stones; they went on so for several weeks, but
had not found the treasure.
One night, as they sat at the door, the beauti-
full fairy again appeared. WELL said she, you
havn't found the treasure yeti No matter dig
away, you'll find it some time or other; mean
time, Mr.. Goodman, you must not let these little
folks starve; get some corn and throw into that
patch you have dug, and have some corn grow
ing I'll come again bye and bye-dig away
you'll find the treasure;' so she went away
That's a capital idea,' said the father, Good
man.) I'll get some corn, and plant there to-
morrow So he did, and as they dug for the
treasure, it pleased them to see how soon the
corn sprung up, and ripened, and what crop
they had and the corn-staIks made nice food for
the cow too. The mother dug for the treasure,
sometimes, and having become accustomed to
it, they all accomplished together quite large
piece in short time; and soon the good fairy
appeared again She said she knew they had
not found the treasure yet, but she was afraid
the young children had become tired of digging,
and she thought they had better go into the
woods, get some wild Strawberries and put in the
last piece they had dug; it was just the place to
make strawberries very large, and it would please
them, but dig on she said you will certainly
find the treasure yet; so the next day, the chill
dren went and brought home baskets of straw
berry roots, and planted a nice bed of them:
then they dug away again for the treasure.
One day they dug terrible hard piece of the
land, and had to pull up some old tree-stumps,
stones, &c, round large cherry tree behind
the house, and they were every tired. That night,
traveller came that way and had to stop there
over night, they lived so far from any other house
As they had no barn, he tied his horse to this
cherry tree and gave him his oats out of a bag
he brought on his back The traveller went a.
way next morning, but in few days they found
that the oats the horse had spilled and scattered
had sprung up in the nicely dug ground, and
they had little field of oats. This pleased Mr..
Goodman very much, and when the good fairy
next appeared, he told her of it. % yes, she
said it would be good plan to plant something
in each place as you dig it-she said the next
time she came, she would bring some seeds for
them So they had another object for which to
dig, besides the finding of the treasure-to see
the things growing
She was as good as her word, and brought the
seeds, and they had dug so WE'LL they could
plant great many melons and other nice things
which they never had before in their lives; and
the soil was SO good, and had been so nicely dug,
and turned over for the treasure, that the plants
grew so rapidly, and ripened so soon, that the
next time she came, she told them they had bet
ter stop digging while, Just till they could take
care of the oats and Strawberries melons, and
other things. They had eaten as much of them
as they wanted all the season, and sold some tC
the nearest houses and now Mr.. Goodman said
they would 90 next week to the nearest market
town, with the rest. So they went. The mar.
ket people said the strawberries were the largest
they had ever seen, and their melons brought
the highest price; and the mother surprised then
all by showing cheese she had made from the
milk of their COW, which had yielded twice a;
much, having had better feed. The three young
est children had carried each two baskets o
strawberries, (the baskets they made of willow
twigs,) while the elder ones and their father were
loaded with melons, pears, beans, corn, &c, ant
when they had sold them, and come out of the
town on their way home, happier family neve
were seen. They all had handful of none,
they had earned themselves
When they got home, they sat around table
and putting all their money upon it, sat looking
in wonder and joy. They had never seen s.
much in all their lives before; they were so pleas
ed, they had quite forgotten their treasure the
had dug SO hard and so long for, till the fair
put her head in at the door
How beautiful your farm looks 7 said she
and your cherry tree will bear bushels of mic
cherries next season, now you have dug ava
all those stones and stumps from the roots Sc
how it is branching out! and what have you here
looking on the table. Money silver dollars
c,;J che GT1;J T nof foH a,on fLo4o ,,o,c