Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1849-01-26

The Hidden Treasure.


FAIRY TALE.
A fairy tale, o mother A." exclaimed
several little voices at once, as Mrs J. took
her seat at the accustomed hour, 10 tell the
children a story.
Now mother do tell US fairy tale
everybody says they are the most entertain
ing, and you know when cousin NJ. sent
Mary Howiu's fairy tales, she said fairy
ialeslwere quite fashionable" well, said
the mother, +" ! had as lief tell fairy tale
as any other, but first tell me what you
think is the meaning Of fairy" One re-
piled. beautiful being;" another did
not know !" but the eldest hoy said he
thought fairies were "imaginary beings
Taking that for definition, his mother be-
gan the fairy tale called
THE HIDDEN TREASURE.
One evening poor man and his wife,
with FIVE or six children, were sitting at the
door Of their cottage Que Of the children
said, 40! father, how poor we are do
wish good fairy would come and tell US
where we might ind great treasure. |
guess would not sit all day idle any more,
and have so little to eat" No sooner said
than done-a beautiful woman, With radi-
ant couuienancc, stood before them, and
said. Little boy. have heard your wish,
aud If you will obey my directions, you
will hnd great treasure. Then, turning
TO the man, she said A treasure lies hid
in your grounds; il you will seek for it.,
you ioU find aud may hare ii il is not
three feet from the surface either begin
tomorrow 10 dig for it," She then went
away. The children clapped their hands
for JOY, aud the man aud his wife could
hardly credit their ears that they had really
heard such a thing. for they were very
poor indeed though tue man had large
tract Of land, il was uncullivaied, yielding
nothing. barely sufficient pasturage for a
poor COW, which afforded them almost the
only sure nourishment they had. They
were poor, idle. Disconnected people, aud
the children half starved so 10 be sure
they were glad enough TO hear the fairy's
words, and could hardly wait till the mex,
morning to begin TO dig They we're up
with the sun those who could get shoyels
dug with them, those who could not, work.
ed with their hands. In few days they
had dug n considerable of place over,
and several times they thought they had
come upon the treasure, but il was only
stones they went on for several weeks,
bnt had not found the treasure.
One night, as they sat at the door, the
beautiful fairy again appeared. "Well I"
said she, lyon havn't found the treasure
yeti No matter, dig away. you'll find il
some time or other; meantime, Mr. Good
man, YOU must not let these little folks
starve; get some corn and throw into the
patch you have dug, and have some corn
growing. I'll come again by aud by--dig
arOay, you'H find the treasure" SO she
went away.
That's capital idea," said the father,
(Goodman.) an get some corn and plant
there Tomorrow" So he did, and as they
dug for the treasure, it pleased them to see
how soon the corn sprung up, aud rpen.
ed. and what crop they had and the
cornstalk made nice food for the COW, too.
The mother dug for the treasure, some
times, aud 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 60 into the woods, and get some wild
strawberries, and put into the last piece
they had dug it was just the place to make
strawberries very large, and it would please
them; but dig on (said she), you'll certain
iy find the treasure yeti" SO the next day
the children went and brought home baskets
Of strawberry roofs, 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 and stones &c, round large
cherry tree behind the house, and they
were very tired. That night a 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, aud gave him his
oats out Of bag he brought on his back.
The traveller went away next morning
hut in few days they found that the oats
the horse had scattered had sprung up in
the nicely dug ground, and they had field
of oats This pleased Mr. Goodman very
much, and when the good fairy next APP
peared lie told her Of il. "Oh, yes," re.
piled The fairy. sit would be good plan
TO plant something in each place as you dig
i"-she said the next time she came she
would bring some seeds for them. So they
had another object for which 10 dig besides