The Irish standard., 1915-10-23

any of the mythical ones in her own
tales, she, herself, would yet. at the
end of her faring, find fabulous for
tune. To her mind and ours thirty
thousand dollars! six thousand pounds!
and a castle worth probably that much
more! would have been tabled fortune
beyond the fabulous. That is, If our
minds had been capable of grasping
such dizzy figures. But, in attempt TO
conceive such wondrous fortune, hith-
erto unheard of even in the realms of
fancy, our highly developed imagina-
tions, dazed and staggered, would have
given up in despair.
Among our mountains in those days,
the told-stories far more than supplied
the place of books, which were rare and
hard to find. In my childhood and
youth travelled many and many toll
some mile of mountain and moor, trail
ing down the tradition of a book that
was passing from hand to hand, and
from hill to hill, over the countryside.
When, after many hunt, and weary
wandering, l at length cornered the
treasure, might find it reduced,
by excessive use, to one-third its orig
inal size; but it was still treasure.
Maggie Burns beautiful stories, then, a
chief part of my earliest literature, ed
ucated my young mind and imbued me
with exceeding fondness for fairy and
folk lore, stimulating me to gather all
could and to read all could (when
I was able to get books to read)-and
later, to begin writing them for myself.
For whatever little success have met
with, to Maggie Burns for the inspira-
tion she gave me, is deal of the credit
due.
A favorite story of Maggie's then
one that she told us thousand times,
with our joy growing greater at each
fresh telling-the story Of Jack and
the King who was gentleman, |, long
after, set down in one of my books of
fairy tales, "In Chimney Corners" She
could never tell too frequently, we
could never hear too often, this rare
tale of the king who as the greatest
gentleman in all the world because he
had never once in his life said you're
a liar!" to any man, and who vaunt-
ingly offered his beautiful daughter in
marriage, with her weight in gold, and
half his kingdom, to any man from
any end of the earth, who, in one of
three chances, could make him for one
moment forget his gentlemanliness and
say the rude words-and who, after he
was tested in vain by 1854 of the great
est knights, champions and scholars of
the earth (who lost their heads for
their failure), succumbed at length to
poor brave Jack, the widows son from
Donegal Marvellous was the ingenious
plan by which poor Jack made the
mighty king forget his gentlemanliness
and won the kings daughter with
her gold and gear.
In my book, Donegal Fairy Tales"
"The Old Hays Long Leather Bag" is
one of Maggie Burns stories. And I
wove her wonderful tale, ''The Will
of the Wiseman," into the web of my
newest book, yourself and the
Neighbors.' Many more of hers
have embodied in other books. Mag
gie's most charming, oft-repeated
tale, "The Black Sheep" the Irish YER
sion of Cinderella (but far more beau
tiful than Cinderella), stirred our
young breasts with the spirit of ro-
nance, and probably gave us our first
Intoxicating glimpse into the spark.
ling land Of Faerie. And her splen-
did "Well Of the Worlds End" not
only gave us thrilling story, but like.
wise lesson in kindness and gentle.
ness that none of us ever could for.
get.
And here is how the fairies first
came to Ireland. When Lucifer and
his host rebelled in heaven, and that
Michael like the brave Irishman he Is,
led the good angels against him, there
was a third portion of angels who
chose to remain notwithstanding to
subscribe to the principles Of the WIN
ming side. But when Michael had
overcome and cast Lucifer and his
host into hell, he then commanded
that the neutral ones must quit
heaven. AS they didn't actually raise
hands against God he didn't deem
them worthy of hell; but as they
hadn't fought for God neither were
they worthy of heaven. Heaven" he
said, "you must lose, but I'll let you
choose for yourselves where you will
go to-" And tearfully the banned ones
replied, '1f we must lose heaven, we
want to go to the most beautiful place
in all the world, and the place that is
nearest to heaven. Send us to Ire
land" Michael granted them their
request, which he evidently had an.
ticipated anyhow. Some of them fell
into the seas around Ireland, becom.
ing the mermaids; but the greater por.
ton of them fell upon dry land, be-
No. 1775S.