Now the children all draw near
’Tis the time a tale to hear.
THE FAIRY HORSESHOE
At midnight a long time ago an honest hard-working blacksmith heard someone in his shop hammering, hammering, hammering, for all the world like another blacksmith making a shoe. But the sound was very quick and light, more like tapping, tapping, tapping. And all the time, whoever it was was whistling the prettiest tune you ever heard, and singing between times:
“I’m a cunning blacksmith,
I can make a shoe,
Heat the iron,
Bend the iron,