Winikin was very much ashamed to have nothing to show but an empty basket nor did he improve matters by telling his parents that “there had been some very fine cherries in it.” However, what was done could not now be mended, and the only thing left for Winikin was to try to improve.
For a long time after, whenever he went on a message, the villagers would say: “Don’t be three weeks on the road, as when you went to fetch cherries for your sick father.”
He was still further ashamed when midsummer came round again and his brother set off for the beautiful garden on his little nag, while Winikin had only a cup and ball, that gave him a rap on the head every time he played with it when he ought to have been doing something else!
After receiving many raps, however, he learned that he must not take out his toy except at the proper time.
As long as their childhood lasted Finikin continued to visit the little boys, but when he began to grow too big to play with them, they bade him affectionately farewell, and as a parting gift they gave him branches of their apple-tree and cherry-tree. When these were grafted on two trees at the farmhouse they produced the finest fruit ever eaten. The cherries were the first white-hearts and the apples were ever since called golden pippins, on account of their origin. (Adapted.)
THE STORY OF FAIRYFOOT
Frances Browne
Once upon a time, there stood far away in the west country a town called Stumpinghame. It contained seven windmills, a royal palace, a market-place, and a prison, with every other convenience befitting the capital of a kingdom. It stood in the midst of a great plain, which for three leagues round its walls was covered with corn, flax, and orchards. Beyond that lay a great circle of pasture land, and it was bounded on all sides by a forest so thick and old that no man in Stumpinghame knew its extent; and the opinion of the learned was, that it reached to the end of the world.
There were strong reasons for this opinion. First, that forest was known to be inhabited time out of mind by the fairies, and no hunter cared to go beyond its borders—so all the west country believed it to be solidly full of old trees from end to end. Secondly, the people of Stumpinghame were no travellers—man, woman, and child had feet so large and heavy that it was by no means convenient to carry them far. Great feet had been the fashion there from time immemorial, and the higher the family the larger were their feet.
Stumpinghame had a king of its own, and his name was Stiffstep; his family was very ancient and large-footed. His subjects called him Lord of the World, and he made a speech to them every year concerning the grandeur of his mighty empire. His queen, Hammerheel, was the greatest beauty in Stumpinghame. Her majesty’s shoe was not much less than a fishing-boat. Their six children promised to be quite as handsome, and all went well with them till the birth of their seventh son.