FRAU ARNDT

TO MY DAUGHTERS
MARGARET AND BARBARA,
AND TO MY NEPHEWS
CHARLES AND STEPHEN JOHNSON,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY POEM

"The stories that the fairies told

I learnt in English lanes of old,

Where honeysuckle, wreathing high,

Twined with the wild rose towards the sky,

Or where pink-tinged anemones

Grew thousand starred beneath the trees.

I saw them, too, in London town,

But sly and cautious, glancing down,

Where in the grass the crocus grow

And ladies ride in Rotten Row,

St James's Park's a garden meet

For tiny babes and fairy feet.

But since I came to Germany,

The good folk oftener talk to me;

I find them in their native home

When through the forest depths I roam,

When through the trees blue mountains shine,

The heart of fairyland is mine."