The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-26
UNCLE COBUS'S STORY.
A Fanciful Story for Old and Young.
BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

/ BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
[Note-This story is specially copyrighted for pub
| icaton in the Sunday Journal by special arrange
melt with Mr.. Lowell and his pubishers
''Now, Uncle, you have not told US a story for
ever SO long" said my niece Lightfoot. land
you must tell us one this very evening"
eyes. do, Uncle Do; why can't your said
Coppertoes, crowding between my knees without
much ceremony .You used to have lots of
them"
MY dear children. all the stories nowadays
are full of facts, and mine are all of the silly.
old fashioned kind. Suppose were to begin,
| Once upon time there was gas, whose name
was hydrogen. and he lived in an india-rubber
bagf
30 no, no; not that kindw protested both at
once.
well. then one of the most curious circum-
stances relating to the coleoptorus insects e.
Now, you are really too bad, pouted Light
foot
''Then you don't think it fair that when the
pie is opened the birds should begin to-preach9
| am very much of your mind about that,
shall try to tell you story after my fash
ion. But it is so long since have told one that
/ am afraid shall make but poor hand at it.
You must let me have my head, as they say of
horses, and l may find the right round after
awhile So here goes.
s'When our English forefathers came over to
this new land, / cannot hear that they brought
any fairies with them. Though such tiny Great
ures take up but little space, yet Go not think
that the Pilgrim fathers would have cared for
| their company even though the Mayhower had
| not been packed so full of tables and chairs as
we all know it was. And / doubt if they would
have had very good time with the P. Fs at
| any rate. 1t is said know not how truly, that
one of the company that came few years later
to Salem brought with him an from
Hearnes oak, under which, you know, the good
folk loved tQmdance by moonlight. This he
planted and afine tree grew from It, and they
| say that whoever goes TO sleep under
that tree at the full of midsummer
moon will afterwards have the gift of seeing
| fairies. But never could find ont body who
| ever did this, except man named Hawthorne,
| and he either could not would not tell where
the tree might be found Some think 1t ia in
| Witch Woods, at Beverly. but for my part. /
| could never hear of guide who would take me
| to it. AS we'll as can make out, few English
| fairies did venture over from time to time, but
they were never very we'll pleased with our
| greensward; it was SO much less soft than what
| shoes so fast These all went back after the
| Revolution for fairies are not fond of new
| things, and they said that the good old time was
! gone. never TO come back A Mr.. Drahe says
| that he has seen them since on the Hudson riv-
| or, but his story does not seem very likely one
to me, and rather think he only dreamed it
after reading what an old poet named Dravton
had told about them 1t is pretty certain that
| Rchin Goodfelow never came over. though |
| have sometimes heard an owl shout. 'Ho! Ho!'
| in the woods very much as he is said TO do. l
| hardly think gladstone Robin even if he had
| come, would have cared to stay where even cider
| is sinful. unless it be turned to vinegar to keep
| some folks faces we'll soured great many
| will-o the wisps, who love to lead people the
wrong way, and souse them in cold water against
| their wills, found their way across the sea. and
| they seem TO like their new home very well.
But, on the whole, think it likely that we have
not any real English fairies here now. l
have heard, indeed, of Dutch Kobod, who
! struggled himself over to New Amsterdam but
/ should not think him settler Of very good
| quality.
/ ''Of course YOU know a country could not get
| along very we'll without fairies of some kind
other. For how could baby be born with sill
YER spoon in his mouth. or anything of that sort.
| without help from the fairies2 Now, we all
know very we'll that babies are now and then
born so, even here, there must be somebody
to manage it for them: and, that kind of thing
has always been done by fairies all the world
over. there must be some among US. WAS not
born myself in that way. hut know good
many boys that were and that made me curious
to find out all | could about the fairies that
brought the spoons At first l thought they
must be Irish ones. They are so apt to make
blunders. and that they. perhaps, had carried
my spoon to some ether baby But since then l
have thought that was not meant to have any,
and that / am as well without it. However
that put me on hunting up the fairies, and have
-learned that there are some Indian ones here. of
about the same size as the Europeans and very
much like them, only that they are of
swarthier hue. They wear leggincs made of the
little bags that spiders their eggs with, and
moccasins felted very neatly of fern down. that
| they may pass through woods without
scratching their legs or feet. They dress mostly
in skins. and those who can afford it wear the
golden furs of humble bees, which they know
how to cure nicely by stretching them spider
! webs, by moonlight, with the wrong side out
wards Lakes and rivers they cross in little
| canoes made OF acorn shells split in two length
| wise, padding them with the larger feathers of
the humminc bird which they find to answer
very we'll They still use the bow, with which
they are very skillful. a good marksman among
them bringing down midge upon the wing
| nine times out of ten. Their arrows are barbed
with hornet stings, and they make bowstrings
of three strands OF gossamer twisted tightly to-
gether. This is all could find out about them
which could be sure was true. l have heard
| other things but do not tell them again, be-
cause do not feel as if 1 could believe them
myself. It is said, for example, that their
dances not like those of the old world fairies,
but war dances. and that they paint themselves
| as the Indians do Whether these things are
likely no. you can judge we'll /. One
thing forgot Their wigwams, for so they call
them, made of the young cups of pitcher
plants Il would tell you their Latin name if
knew it mysel:) turned upside down, and staked
firmly with bats teeth. These will hold great
many of them. Some that have had more to do
with the whites build log cabins with grass
stems laid across each other But these are
not thought so good against rain, though
matched pretty thickly with fallen pine needles.
| They have Wednesday and Saturday after
moons, of course, to play in, just like everybody
else.
NOW there are two tribes of these fairies, one
Of them ruled by squaw sachem named Fan
ta-si-a, or she that boweth bubbles, and the
other by sycamore who is called Ell bo-gres, or
| he that comes out all right. Fantasia and her
| trina uarxr crood h.,no Int 4hax- oe