Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-09-16
THE HIDDEN TREASURE-A FAIRY
TALE.
BY MRS. T p. SMITH

"a fairy tale, o motherw exclaimed several
little voices at once, as Mrs. ]. took her seat
at the accustomed hour, to tell the children a
story. "Now, mother, do tell US fairy tale,
every body says they are the most entertaining,
and Won know when Cousin NJ sent Mary
Howitts fairy tales, she said fairy tales were
quite fashionable" "Well," SAID the mother,
81 had as lief tell fairy tale as any other, but
first tell me what you think is the meaning Of
"fary," One replied, beautiful being" an
other "did not know, but the eldest boy said
he thoupht fairies were, "imaginary beings"
Taking that for definition, his mother then be-
gan the fairy tale called
THE HIDDEN TREASURE.
One evening. as, "a poor man and his wife,
with FIVE or six children, were sitting at the
door of their cottage, one Of the children said,
"O father how poor we are! do wish 4 good
fairy would come and tell US where we might
find great treasure. gueses would not
sit all day idle any more, and have so little to
eat" No sooner said than done, beautiful
woman, with radiant countenance, stood before
them, who said, Little hoy, | heard your wish,
and if you will obey my directions, you may
find n great treasure" Then, turning to the man
she said, "a treasure lies hid in your grounds; il
you will seek for it, you will find, and may
hav, it. it is not more than three feet from the
surface either; begin to-morror 10 dir 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 were very
poor indeed; though the man had a large tract
Of land, it was uncultivated, yielded nothing
barely sufficient pasturage for n poor COW,
which afforded them almost the; only sure
nourishment they had. They were poor, idle,
discontented people, ,and the children half starv-
ed; so to be sure they were glad enough to hear
the fary's words and could hardly wait till
the next morning to begin to dig. They were
up with the sun; those that could get shovels
dug with them, those hat could not, worked
with their hands. In fews days they had
dug considerable of place over, and sever,
al times they thought they had come upon the
treasure. but it was only stones: they went on
so for several weeks, but had not found the
treasure. .-- -..--
One night, as they 81: at the door, the beau
tifnl fairy again appeared "Well," said she,
"you havn't found the treasure yet! No mat
ter, dig away, you'll. find ii some time or other;
meantime, Mr.. Goodman, YOU must not let
these little folks strive; get some corn, throw
into the patch you have dug, and have some
corn growing. I'll come again by and by
dig away, you'll find the trensure; so she went
away .'
"That's capitalidea, said the father, Good
many "I'll get some corn, and plant there to.
morrow" So he did, and as they dug for the
treasure. it pleased them to sec how soon the
corn sprung up, and ripened, and what crop
they had and the cornstalks made nice food
for the COW, too. The mother dug for the
treasure, sometimes, and having become ac-
customed to it, they all accomplished together
quite large piece in a 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 bad bel
ter 90 into the woods, and get some wild straw.
berries, and put into the last piece they had
dug; it was just the place to make strawber.
ries very large, and it would please them but
dig on, said she, you will certainly find The fred-
sure get so the next day, the children went
and brought home baskets of strawberry roots
and planted nice bed of them; then they dug
away for the treasure. 1gEs - @3s-s
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 traveller came that way, and had