Now, the children’s parents were by no means greedy people, they shared the fairy’s gifts with their neighbours, with the happy consequence that where sorrow and sickness had been, happiness and health were in their stead.
And that is just as it should be, isn’t it? And what is the moral of this little tale? Be kind to all living creatures, even down to a tiny Red Mullet, and there is no knowing what may happen; perhaps your ship will come home, sooner than you expect, if you earn a mermaid’s gratitude.
THE GOLDEN WISH.
Lady Elizabeth was really a very nice girl. She was affectionate, and generous and distinctly clever. Lady Elizabeth was also pretty, and of course that goes a very long way; but for all that Lady Elizabeth was not happy, for the very simple reason that she was not contented.
The fact was that her father, the Earl, had lost a lot of money, and as earls go, he was poor, and the consequence was that Lady Elizabeth had to put up with a great deal that she did not like, and do a great many things that she did not care to do. She grumbled at having to perform the household duties, she grumbled at the servants, and grumbled because she had to go out and do the shopping and marketing herself.
From morning till evening she sighed for riches, and even if she woke up in the middle of the night, her thoughts turned to gold; and when thoughts continually turn to gold it is very bad for them, and is sure to make the thinker discontented and wretched.
Now it was through always having the same longing, morning, noon, and night, that a very strange and terrible thing happened to Lady Elizabeth; one of the most wonderful and awkward, things that could happen to anybody.
“She had to perform many Household Duties.”