Little Wideawake: A story book for little children

by Mrs. Sale Barker

There was a navy went into Spain;

When it returned it came back again.

OTTO IN THE WATER-BOTTLE.
A FAIRY STORY.

It had been such a day! The flakes of snow had been falling, falling like feathers on the pavement all day long. It was now dark, and little Otto stood at the dining-room window, watching them still falling in the light of the lamps outside. Otto is a handsome boy of about seven years old. It is New Year’s Eve; and he is going to a party this evening. Bertha, his sister, is being dressed for it at the present time, but he had been so noisy and troublesome, up in the nursery, while the ceremony of her dressing was going on, that he was sent downstairs to wait till his turn came.

Otto had been to a good many parties, and to two pantomimes this winter; still he was not at all tired of either parties or pantomimes; on the contrary, the more he went to the more he seemed to like them. But it was only at Christmas Otto was so gay; for did he not do lessons all the rest of the year with his sister’s governess? Miss Wigly was very strict, and thought children were much better without many holidays;—“particularly little boys,” she said. But perhaps that was because she was so anxious to get Otto well forward before he went to school.

For the last ten minutes he had been staring at the snow outside the dining-room windows, then he turned round and looked at the things in the room. A bright fire blazed on the hearth, the cloth was already laid for the dinner of the older members of the family, and by the side of the fire stood a comfortable easy chair, which papa generally sat in as soon as he had done his dinner.

Otto seated himself in this chair, and began to look at a bottle of water, which stood at the corner of the table nearest to him. His attention was attracted by the odd way in which things were reflected in the water. How minute the reflections were, and how they all curved, so as to make the room look round, as if seen in a mirror! He observed, too, his own little face, sometimes lengthened, sometimes widened, according to the part of the bottle he saw it in. These observations did not prevent him from thinking at the same time what a comfortable easy chair he was sitting in, and what a nice warm fire it was.

How long he had been reflecting upon all these things he never knew, when he observed, to his surprise, that the bottle was growing bigger; and, in another moment, instead of looking at it from the outside, he found himself inside it, looking at the objects beyond. And these were all changed. There was no water in the bottle now, but the water was outside, and the bottle itself was floating upon a river. The river seemed to wind along between mountains, and had beautiful buildings and trees upon its banks. A boat, rowed by two queer little men, was fastened by a chain to the bottle; and, as they rowed, the bottle was towed along. Gold and silver fish were playing about in the water; tiny children with wings were sporting in the air. The bottle inside was fitted up like an elegant drawing-room; and—most wonderful of all!—a beautiful fairy reclined on a sofa in the midst of it.