mysterious wires, can beat the wildest elf that ever mounted

"night-steeds."

A

NURSING A FAIRY.

of the hills between

One night a gentle

THRIFTY housewife lived on one
Zennor Church-town and St Ives.

man came to her cottage, and told her he had marked her clean-
liness and her care: that he had a child whom he desired
to have brought up with much tenderness, and he had fixed
on her. She should be very handsomely rewarded for her
trouble, and he shewed her a considerable quantity of golden
coin. Well, she agreed, and away she went with the gentle-
man to fetch this child. When they came to the side of
Zennor hill, the gentleman told the woman he must blind-
fold her, and she, good, easy soul, having heard of such
things, fancied this was some rich man's child, and that the
residence of its mother was not to be known, so she gave
herself great credit for cunning in quietly submitting. They
walked on some considerable distance. When they stopped
the handkerchief was taken from her eyes, and she found
herself in a magnificent room, with a table spread with the
most expensive luxuries, in the way of game, fruits, and
wines. She was told to eat, and she did so with some
awkwardness, and not a little trembling. She was surprised
that so large a feast should have been spread for so small a
party, only herself and the master. At last, having en-
joyed luxuries such as she never tasted before or since; a
silver bell was rung, and a troop of servants came in, bearing
a cot covered with satin, in which was sleeping the most
beautiful babe that human eyes ever gazed on.
She was
told this child was to be committed to her charge; she
should not want for anything; but she was to obey certain
laws. She was not to teach the child the Lord's Prayer;

she was not to wash it after sundown: she was to bathe it every morning in water, which she would find in a white ewer placed in the child's room: this was not to be touched by any one but herself, and she was to be careful not to wash her own face in this water. In all other respects she was to treat the child as one of her own children. The woman was blinded again, and the child having been placed in her arms, away she trudged, guided by the mysterious father. When out on the road, the bandage was removed from her eyes, and she found she had a small baby in her arms, not remarkably good looking, with very sharp, piercing eyes, and but ordinarily dressed. However, a bargain is a bargain; so she resolved to make the best of it, and she presented the babe to her husband, telling him so much of the story as she thought it prudent to trust him with. For years the child was with this couple. They never wanted for anything; meat, and even wines, were provided, -as most people thought,-by wishing for them; clothes, ready-made, were on the child's bed when required; and the charmed water was always in the magic ewer. The little boy grew active and strong. He was remarkably wild, yet very tractable, and he appeared to have a real regard for his "big mammy," as he called the woman. Sometimes she thought the child was mad. He would run, and leap, and scream, as though he were playing with scores of boys, when no soul was near him. The woman had never seen the father since the child had been with them; but ever and anon, money was conveyed to them in some mysterious manner. One morning, when washing the boy, this good woman, who had often observed how bright the water made the face of the child, was tempted to try if it would improve her own beauty. So directing the boy's attention to some birds singing on a tree outside the window, she splashed some of the

water up into her face. Most of it went into her eye. She closed it instinctively, and upon opening it, she saw a number of little people gathered round her and playing with the boy. She said not a word, though her fear was great; and she continued to see the world of small people surrounding the world of ordinary men and women, being with them, but not of them. She now knew who the boy's playmates were, and she often wished to speak to the beautiful creatures of the invisible world who were his real companions; but she was discreet, and kept silence.

Curious robberies had been from time to time committed in St Ives market, and although the most careful watch had been kept, the things disappeared, and no thief detected. One day our good housewife was at the market, and to her surprise she saw the father of her nursling. Without ceremony she ran up to him,-at a moment when he was putting some choice fruit by stealth into his pocket, and spoke to him. "So, thou seest me, dost thou?" "To be sure I do, and know 'ee too," replied the woman.

putting his finger on her left eye.

Shut this eye,"

"Canst see me now?"

Yes, I tell 'ee, and know 'ee too," again said the woman.

"Water for elf, not water for self;

You've lost your eye, your child, and yourself,"

She

said the gentleman. From that hour she was blind in the right eye. When she got home the boy was gone. grieved sadly, but she never saw him more, and this once happy couple became poor and wretched.

A

CHANGELINGS.

CORRESPONDENT, to whom I am much indebted for many curious examples of the folk-lore of the people in the remote districts to the west of Penzance,

says, in reference to some stories of fairy changelings"I never knew but one child that had been kept by the Spriggans more than three days. It was always complaining, sickly, and weakly, and had the very face of a changeling."

It has been my fortune, some thirty or forty years since, to have seen several children of whom it had been whispered amongst the peasantry that they were changelings. In every case they have been sad examples of the influence of mesenteric disease-the countenance much altered-their eyes glassy and sunk in their sockets-the nose sharpened-the cheeks of a marble whiteness, unless when they were flushed with hectic fever the lips sometimes swollen and of a deep, red colour, and small ulcers not unfrequently at the angles of the mouth. The wasted frame, with sometimes strumous swellings, and the unnatural abdominal enlargement which accompanies disease of mesenteric glands, gives a very sad, and often a most unnatural appearance to the sufferer. The intense ignorance which existed in many of the districts visited by me, at the period named, has been almost dispelled by the civilising influences of Wesleyanism. Consequently, when a scrofulous child is found in a family, we no longer hear of its being a changeling; but, within a very recent period, I have heard it said that such afflicted children had been "ill-wished."

THE LOST CHILD.

N the little hamlet of Treonike, in the parish of St Allen,

a

quently found. All the stories agree in referring the abduction of the child to supernatural agency, and in some cases it is referred to the "Small People or Piskies,”—in others to less amiable spiritual creatures. Mr Hals* has given one version

* See Davies Gilbert's Parochial History of Cornwall.

of this story, which differs in some respects from the tale as I heard it, from an old woman some thirty years since, who then lived in this parish. Her tale was to the following effect. It was a lovely evening, and the little boy was gathering flowers in the fields, near a wood. The child was charmed by hearing some beautiful music, which he at first mistook for the song of birds; but, being a sharp boy, he was not long deceived, and he went towards the wood to ascertain from whence the melodious sounds came. When he reached the verge of the wood, the music was of so exquisite a character, that he was compelled to follow the sound, which appeared to travel before him. Lured in this way, the boy penetrated to the dark centre of the grove, and here, meeting with some difficulties, owing to the thick growth of underwood, he paused, and began to think of returning. The music, however, became more ravishing than before, and some invisible being appeared to crush down all the low and tangled plants, thus forming for him a passage, over which he passed without any difficulty. At length he found himself on the edge of a small lake, and, greatly to his astonishment, the darkness of night was around him, but the heavens were thick with stars. The music ceased, and, wearied with his wanderings, the boy fell asleep on a bed of ferns. He related, on his restoration to his parents, that he was taken by a beautiful lady through palaces of the most gorgeous description. Pillars of glass supported arches which glistened with every colour, and these were hung with crystals far exceeding anything which were ever seen in the caverns of a Cornish mine. It is, however, stated that many days passed away before the child was found by his friends, and that at length he was discovered one lovely morning sleeping on the bed of ferns, on which he was supposed to have fallen asleep on the first adventurous evening.