I am going to tell a story, one of those tales of astonishing
adventures that happened years and years and years ago. Perhaps you
wonder why it is that so many stories are told of "once on a time", and
so few of these days in which we live; but that is easily explained.
In the old days, when the world was young, there were no automobiles
nor flying-machines to make one wonder; nor were there railway trains,
nor telephones, nor mechanical inventions of any sort to keep people
keyed up to a high pitch of excitement. Men and women lived simply and
quietly. They were Nature's children, and breathed fresh air into
their lungs instead of smoke and coal gas; and tramped through green
meadows and deep forests instead of riding in street cars; and went to
bed when it grew dark and rose with the sun--which is vastly different
from the present custom. Having no books to read they told their
adventures to one another and to their little ones; and the stories
were handed down from generation to generation and reverently believed.
Those who peopled the world in the old days, having nothing but their
hands to depend on, were to a certain extent helpless, and so the
fairies were sorry for them and ministered to their wants patiently and
frankly, often showing themselves to those they befriended.
So people knew fairies in those days, my dear, and loved them, together
with all the ryls and knooks and pixies and nymphs and other beings
that belong to the hordes of immortals. And a fairy tale was a thing
to be wondered at and spoken of in awed whispers; for no one thought of
doubting its truth.
To-day the fairies are shy; for so many curious inventions of men have
come into use that the wonders of Fairyland are somewhat tame beside
them, and even the boys and girls can not be so easily interested or
surprised as in the old days. So the sweet and gentle little immortals
perform their tasks unseen and unknown, and live mostly in their own
beautiful realms, where they are almost unthought of by our busy,
bustling world.
Yet when we come to story-telling the marvels of our own age shrink
into insignificance beside the brave deeds and absorbing experiences of
the days when fairies were better known; and so we go back to "once on
a time" for the tales that we most love--and that children have ever
loved since mankind knew that fairies exist.