Many are the wells in Lancashire that once were supposed to be the
homes of good or evil spirits--of demons or of beneficent
fairies--and, despite the injunctions of the Church against the
customs of praying at and waking wells, down to a comparatively recent
period they were resorted to by pilgrims of all grades who were in
search of health. One such spring near Blackpool, known as the
Fairies' Well, had its daily crowds of the ailing and the sorrowful,
for its water was credited with virtues as wonderful as they were
manifold, and from far and near people brought vessels to be filled
with the miraculous fluid.
One day at noon, a poor woman who had journeyed many a weary mile in
order to obtain a supply of the water with which to bathe the eyes of
her child, whose sight was fast failing, and upon whom all the usual
remedies had been tried without success, on rising from her knees at
the well side, was surprised to find standing near her a handsome
little man clad in green, who certainly was not in sight when she bent
to fill her bottle. As she stood gazing at the dainty object, the
visitor, without having previously asked her any questions, handed to
her a beautiful box filled with ointment, and directed her to apply
the salve to the eyes of her child, whose sight it would restore.
Surprised beyond measure at the little man's knowledge of her family
affairs, the woman mechanically accepted the gift, but when, after
carefully placing the box in her pocket, she turned to thank the
giver, he was no longer to be seen; and satisfied that she had had an
interview with one of the beings after whom the well was named, she
started on her journey to her distant home.
The strangeness of the present, given as she trusted it was by a fairy
who was conversant with the painful circumstances under which she had
made her pilgrimage, caused her to hope that the ointment would prove
efficacious in removing the disorder under which her child was
labouring; but this vague feeling, based as it was upon the mysterious
nature of the gift, was accompanied by a perfectly natural fear that,
after all, the giver might have been one of those mischievous beings
whose delight it was to wreak harm and wrong upon humanity.
When she reached home and told the strange story to her wondering
husband, the nervous pair decided that the ointment should not be used
unless a further mark of fairy interest in the child's welfare were
vouchsafed to them; but when a few days had passed, and the child
continued to grow worse, the anxious mother, in the absence of her
husband, determined to test the salve upon one of her own eyes. She
did so, and after a few minutes of dreadful suspense, finding that
evil results did not follow, and saying to herself that surely the
fairy could not be desirous of harming her child, she anointed the
little girl's eyes. She refrained, however, from making her helpmate
acquainted with what she had done, until in the course of a few days
the child's eyesight was so nearly restored that it was no longer
necessary or possible to keep the matter from him. Great were the
rejoicings of the worthy pair over their little one's recovery; but
there was not for a very long time any opportunity afforded them of
expressing their gratitude.
Some years had passed,--and, as the girl had never had a relapse, the
strange gift was almost forgotten,--when one day, in the market-place
at Preston, the woman, who was haggling about the price of a load of
potatoes, saw before her the identical little fellow in green attire
from whom, long before, she had received the box of wonder-working
ointment. Although he was busily engaged in a pursuit in which,
perhaps, few gentlemen would care to be interrupted, that of stealing
corn from an open sack, the thoughtless woman, regardless of
etiquette, and yielding to the sudden impulse which prompted her to
thank him, stepped forward, and, grasping the fairy's hand, gave
utterance to her gratitude.
To her surprise, however, the little fellow seemed very angry with
her, and, instead of acknowledging her thanks, hastily asked if she
could see him with both eyes, and if she had used the ointment
intended for her child. The frightened woman at once said that she
saw him with only one eye, and was entering into a long account of the
circumstances under which, with maternal instinct, she had tested the
value of the gift, when, without more ado, the irritated fairy struck
her a violent blow and vanished, and from that time forward the poor
woman, instead of being able to see better than her neighbours, was
blind of one eye. The daughter, however, often saw the fairies, but,
profiting by her mother's painful experience, she was wise enough to
refrain from speaking to them either when they gathered by moonlight
beneath the trees or in broad daylight broke the Eighth Commandment,
utterly unconscious that they were observed by a mortal to whom had
been given the wondrous gift of fairy vision.{23}