Once upon a time, Dan and Una, brother and sister, living in the English
country, had the good fortune to meet with Puck, _alias_ Robin
Goodfellow, _alias_ Nick o' Lincoln, _alias_ Lob-lie-by-the-Fire, the
last survivor in England of those whom mortals call Fairies. Their
proper name, of course, is 'The People of the Hills.' This Puck, by
means of the magic of Oak, Ash, and Thorn, gave the children power--
To see what they should see and hear what they should hear,
Though it should have happened three thousand year.
The result was that from time to time, and in different places on the
farm and in the fields and the country about, they saw and talked to
some rather interesting people. One of these, for instance, was a Knight
of the Norman Conquest, another a young Centurion of a Roman Legion
stationed in England, another a builder and decorator of King Henry
VII.'s time; and so on and so forth; as I have tried to explain in a
book called _Puck of Pook's Hill_.
A year or so later, the children met Puck once more, and though they
were then older and wiser, and wore boots regularly instead of going
bare-footed when they got the chance, Puck was as kind to them as ever,
and introduced them to more people of the old days.
He was careful, of course, to take away their memory of their walks and
conversations afterwards, but otherwise he did not interfere; and Dan
and Una would find the strangest sort of persons in their gardens or
woods.
In the stories that follow I am trying to tell something about those
people.