"Do tell us a fairy tale, ganpa."
"Well, will you be good and quiet if I do?"
"Of course we will; we are always good when you are telling us fairytales."
"Well, here goes.—Once upon a time, though it wasn't in my time, andit wasn't in your time, and it wasn't in anybody else's time, therewas a——"
"But that would be no time at all."
"That's fairy tale time."
EUROPA'S
FAIRY BOOK
RESTORED AND RETOLD BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
DONE INTO PICTURES BY
JOHN D. BATTEN
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
Copyright, 1916
BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
To
Peggy, and Madge, and Pearl, and Maggie,
and Marguerite, and Peggotty, and Meg,
and Marjory, and Daisy, and Pegg, and
MARGARET HAYS
(How many granddaughters does that make?)
My Dear Little Peggy:—
Many, many, many years ago I wrote a book for your Mummey—when shewas my little May—telling the fairy tales which the little boys andgirls of England used to hear from their mummeys, who had heard themfrom their mummeys years and years and years before. My friend Mr.Batten made such pretty pictures for it—but of course you know thebook—it has "Tom, Tit, Tot" and "The little old woman that went tomarket," and all those tales you like. Now I have been making afairy-tale book for your own self, and here it is. This time I havetold, again the fairy tales that all the mummeys of Europe have beentelling their little Peggys, Oh for ever so many years! They must haveliked them because they have spread from Germany to Russia, from Italyto France, from Holland to Scotland, and from England to Norway, andfrom every country in Europe that you will read about in yourgeography to every other one. Mr. Batten, who made the pictures foryour mummey's book, has made some more for yours—isn't it good ofhim when he has never seen you?
Though this book is your very, very own, you will not mind if otherlittle girls and boys also get copies of it from their mummeys andpapas and ganmas and ganpas, for when you meet some of them you will,all of you, have a number of common friends like "The Cinder-Maid," or"The Earl of Cattenborough," or "The Master-Maid," and you can talk toone another about them so that you are old friends at once. Oh, won'tthat be nice? And when one of these days you go over the Great Sea, inwhatever land you go, you will find girls and boys, as well asgrown-ups, who will know all of these tales, even if they havedifferent names. Won't that be nice too?
And when you tell your new friends here or abroad of these storiesthat y