The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Firelight Fairy Book, by Henry Beston

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Title: The Firelight Fairy Book

Author: Henry Beston

Release Date: September 8, 2006 [EBook #19207]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRELIGHT FAIRY BOOK ***

Produced by Don Kostuch

[Transcriber's Notes]

The spelling of "didn't" as "did n't", "center" as "centre" and other
such usages, has been maintained.

Here are the definitions of some unfamiliar (to me) words.

cataplasm (poultice)
Soft moist adhesive mass of meal or clay, usually heated, spread on
cloth, and applied to warm, moisten, or stimulate an aching or
inflamed part of the body.

doggerel
Irregularly fashioned verse of a humorous nature.

halberdiers
Guard armed with a halberd, a weapon having an ax-like blade and a
steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft.

importuning
Beg for something persistently.

sedges
Grasslike plants of the family Cyperaceae, having solid stems and
three vertical rows of leaves.

seneschal
Official in a medieval noble household in charge of domestic
arrangements and the administration of servants.

[End Transcriber's Notes]

The FIRELIGHT FAIRY BOOK

By HENRY BESTON

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAURICE E. DAY

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, Inc.

All rights reserved, including that of translation
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS PUBLICATIONS ARE PUBLISHED BY
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FOREWORD

THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON, September 7. 1922

DEAR HENRY:--

"Grown-ups" arrogate entirely too much to themselves. I know this is so.
I discovered it for a fact when I was not more than "knee-high to a
grasshopper" myself. I knew, for example, that a certain amount of dirt
on my face and hands in no way interfered with my enjoyment of my
supper. The fact that my finger nails were not all they should have been
had no bearing whatsoever upon the efficiency of th