



Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive.)









[Illustration]

[Illustration: GOING TO THE MIDSUMMER BALL.]




                   THE

              FAIRY NIGHTCAPS.

             BY THE AUTHOR OF
  THE FIVE NIGHTCAP BOOKS, "AUNT FANNY'S STORIES,"
                 ETC., ETC.

                 NEW YORK:
           D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
             443 & 445 BROADWAY.
          LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN.
                   1861.




  ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
                       FANNY BARROW,
  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
                 Southern District of New York.




             TO MASSA CHARLES,
  WHOSE MOST LOVABLE QUALITIES WERE BUT FAINTLY
             PORTRAYED IN THE
           FIRST NIGHTCAP BOOK,
                  THIS
      THE SIXTH AND LAST OF THE SERIES,
            IS AFFECTIONATELY
                 Dedicated.




PREFACE TO THE CHILDREN.


DEAR CHILDREN,

Here is the last Nightcap book, making six in all. The story of "The
Three Little Fishes" was taken (but very much altered) from a clever
book for grown folks, written, I believe, nearly two hundred years
ago; but all the rest is true, "real true."

I have written them out with my heart full of love and good wishes
for you, and _you_, and YOU; and my only desire in return is,
that down in a cosy corner of your dear little hearts, you will keep warm,
one kind thought of your loving

                AUNT FANNY.




CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE

    THE FAIRIES' LIFE; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT THEY DID IN THE
    BEAUTIFUL HOLLOW,                                                  9

    THE CHILDREN'S LIFE; WITH THEIR JOURNEY TO WEST POINT,            37

    THE FAIRIES' LIFE; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MIDSUMMER BALL,         77

    THE CHILDREN'S LIFE; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF IDLEWILD, THE STAG DANCE,
    THE BATTLE OF THE FAIRIES, &c.,                                  145

    THE DEATH OF CHARLEY,                                            209




FAIRY NIGHTCAPS.




THE FAIRIES' LIFE.


In the deep shadow of the Highlands, at the foot of the old Crow Nest
Mountain, is a wild and beautiful hollow, closed around on every side
by tall trees, interlaced together by the clasping tendrils of the
honeysuckle, and the giant arms of luxuriant wild grape-vines.

The mossy edge of this magic circle is thickly embroidered with
violets, harebells, perfumed clover-blossoms, and delicate, feathery
ferns. A little brook, overhung with grasses and whispering leaves,
dances and dimples in the bright sunlight and soft moonbeams, and then
trips away, to offer the wild-rose leaves that have fallen upon his
bosom to his beloved tributary lord, the great Hudson River.

Not a bat dare spread his unclean leathern wings across this charmed
place, and the very owls that wink and blink in the hollow trees near
by keep their unmusical "hoot toot" to themselves.

In the short young velvety grass, a starry daisy, or a sly little
cowslip, peeps up here and there, but nothing else disturbs the
lawn-like smoothness, save a tiny mound of green moss near the centre
of the hollow, shaped marvellously like a throne.

It was the night of the eighteenth of June; and evidently there was
something of importance about to happen in the beautiful hollow, for
presently a train of glow-worms came marching gravely in, and arranged
themselves in a circle around the mossy throne; while thousands of
fire-flies flashed and twinkled through the trees. The soft,
coquetting wind wandered caressingly among the flowers, and the
moonbeams rested with a sweeter, tenderer light, upon the little brook
which murmured and rippled, and gave back many a glancing, loving
beam.

Suddenly a silvery tinkling bell was heard, like music at a distance.
Twelve times it sounded; and immediately after an invisible chorus of
sweet tiny voices were heard singing:

  "Hasten, Elfin! hasten, Fay!
  From old Crow Nest wing your way;
  Through the bush and dewy brake,
  Fairies, hasten, for the sake
  Of a mortal, whose pure breath
  Soon will fade, and sink in death:
  We for him sweet dreams will find,
  We will fill with balm the wind;
  Watch his young life glide away,
  Deck with beauty its decay--
  Till the closing earthly strife,
  Opens into heavenly life."

Instantly the air seemed filled with streams of light like falling
stars; the booming sound of humble-bees was heard, as fairy knights
and ladies came hastening to the call through the moon-lit air; the
knights pricking their chargers with their wasp-sting spurs, and the
ladies urging theirs quite as fast with their sweet, coaxing voices.

The grave, elderly fairies, came more soberly. They crept out from
under the velvet mullen leaves, and gravely mounted their palfreys,
which were small field mice, and held them well in, with corn-silk
bridles; for elderly fairies are inclined to be gouty, and don't like
to do any thing in a hurry; like other people, they are apt to go too
fast when they are young--and to balance the matter, are very slow
coaches when they are old.

Several ancient ladies, who had been napping in a secluded nook at the
root of an old tree, waited for their nutshells and four to be brought
up; and as the coach-horses were represented by hairy, white
caterpillars--who were so short-legged, that they took the longest
possible time to get over the ground--and as the ancient fairies had
much ado to fold their wings, and arrange their crinoline in their
carriages, you may be sure they were very fashionably late.

And now a strain of delicious music filled the air, the glow-worms
lighted up brilliantly, and the dew grew heavy with fragrance, as the
Fairy Queen, with a bright train of attendants, floated past in dark
green phaetons, made of the leaves of the camelia, and drawn by
magnificently painted butterflies, harnessed and caparisoned with
gold.

The dignity and queenly presence of her Majesty would have rendered
her conspicuous above the rest, even if her tiny golden crown and
sceptre, tipped with a diamond that blazed like a meteor, had not
indicated that she was a monarch; and the acclamations that rose on
all sides attested the attachment her subjects felt for her person.

She was indeed most lovely; and kind and generous beyond words to
describe; and she had called her court together this very night to do
that which makes both fairies and mortals lovelier and better, with
every new effort. Do you know what it is? It is, _trying to add to the
happiness of another_.

And now the Queen and her maids of honor gracefully alighted with the
eagerly proffered assistance of the fashionable young fairy dandies;
and the court gathered respectfully around, as the beautiful Queen
seated herself on her throne, and gently waved her sceptre to command
attention.

"My lords, ladies, and gentlemen," said her Majesty, in a voice of
perfect music, "I have called you together three nights before our
opening midsummer festival, because I know by my fairy power, that a
mortal--a gentle, lovely boy--will arrive here to-morrow, across
whose young life the harsh wings of pain and affliction have passed.
For a month or more he has so drooped and faded, that I fear, before
long, his pure life will be ended. His mother watches over him with
the undying, untiring love, which only a mother knows. We can help
her, my beloved subjects, and we will; we can steal the venom from his
painful sleep, by giving him fairy dreams; and on our gala nights we
will gently lift him from his couch, and bring him here. His sweet
presence will cast no shadow on our festivities, so pure and lovely
have been all the thoughts, words, and actions of his short life."

A murmur of pleasure rose from the assembled court, and the good and
beautiful Queen saw with delight, that her proposal had given pleasure
to all her subjects, with one exception; and he was her very honest,
but still more disagreeable prime minister, who, being a sour,
meddlesome old bachelor, hated children. His temper was not
particularly sweet just then, because he was making wry faces over an
attack of the gout in his great toe, from indulging too freely in
May-dew wine, and eating too often of roasted tiger-lily, which is a
very highly seasoned dish, and difficult to digest, unless you take
immediately after eating, half a dozen lady-slipper pills, which my
lord the prime minister never would take, on account of the name--for
of course, if he hated children he hated the ladies also--and as I
was saying, he felt very cross, and inclined to find fault with any
thing anybody else proposed; so making as low a bow as his stiff back
would permit, he began, with an abominable nasal twang: "May it please
your Majesty, who is this child you deign to favor so highly?"

"He is called Lame Charley!" graciously answered the Queen. "He is the
darling of all who know him."

"Are there any other children in the family, my liege?" snarled the
prime minister.

"About three dozen, more or less," answered the Queen, frowning
slightly, for she was not quite certain as to the number, and did not
like to be questioned. "Humph!" grumbled the prime minister. Then
muttering to himself, "Three dozen children! all eating dreadful
pumpkin-pie--with cheeks like saddle-bags, and voices loud enough to
make a mummy jump out of his skin in an ecstasy of astonishment at the
noise! was there ever such a foolish freak?" whereupon, taking out his
beetle-back snuff-box, and giving it the traditional taps, he helped
himself to such a prodigious pinch, by way of consolation, that he was
obliged to retire precipitately behind the honeysuckles, and nearly
cracked his left wing by a tremendous fit of sneezing. For let me tell
you that the pollen, or dust of the snap-dragon, properly dried,
makes very powerful fairy snuff, and I advise you not to try it.

The maids of honor had great difficulty to keep from bursting out
laughing at the flight of the cross old prime minister; and the Queen
pretended to arrange her bodice, made of the gossamer wing of the
katydid, to hide a smile; but now, reclining on her throne, and
gracefully fanning herself with her right wing, she indulged in a
pleasant chat with her favorites, about Charley.

"Dear Cowslip!" she began, "I am so interested in this lovely boy.
Will you assist me to watch over him, and keep away all harm from his
loving brothers and sisters? Particularly we will protect them from
the Kelpies, those hateful water-sprites, who would drag them down to
their dark caves beneath the wave, if once the children ventured upon
their realm. We will bid their little mother to warn them from getting
into row-boats, or wading out into the river; the Kelpies shall
content themselves with water-rats and tadpoles for this time, for too
many lovely children have already been sacrificed to their cruel
spite."

"Ah, beloved Queen!" answered Cowslip, "I, for one, will help you with
heart and will; those damp, wretched little goblins shall not hurt a
hair of their heads."

"And I, with might and main, will do your behest!" said the handsome
young Ripple, twisting his mustache.

"And I, gracious Queen!" cried the pretty Lota, "for I dearly love
children."

"And I, your Majesty," said Beeswing with Ripple and Firefly, "will
order our regiment--the seventh--to encamp under the sedges on the
shore, half to keep watch, while the other half sleep in the swaying
branches of the water-willows."

"Give us something to do for the dear children, dearest Queen!" cried
Dewdrop and Lilliebelle, two of the most famous beauties of the court,
and, what is far better, as good as they were beautiful; "let us also
help to make them happy."

"Well said, fair ladies and brave knights!" exclaimed the Queen; "with
such true and loyal assistance, my labor of love will be most
delightful. Come now--to the dance--while they are preparing supper."

She clapped her tiny hands thrice, and immediately the fairy band
commenced playing the most enchanting dances; and the beautiful hollow
was speedily filled with couples, whisking away in such rapid
evolutions, that you would have thought they would soon tumble head
over heels, from sheer dizziness; but as the dances were, after all,
not very different from ours, I suppose the fairies were quite as well
used to the rushing style; and, in good truth, as they were _fairies_,
it seemed more in keeping, for these rapid, gracefully undulating
movements, were the very poetry of motion.

Of course the elderly gentlemen fairies lounged among the
honeysuckles, and talked politics, and quarrelled dreadfully about who
should be the next President; for they took an immense interest in the
affairs of us mortals; and the elderly lady fairies just as much, of
course, pulled the characters of their best friends to pieces, without
so much as a single regret; while the lovely young Queen, with
half-a-dozen of her favorites, after dancing once, to set the fashion,
ordered her pages to shake down a perfect shower of wild-rose leaves,
on the edge of the hollow, of which they made soft and freshly
perfumed couches; and there they listened to the exquisite music, and
watched the dancers, and gaily devised plans for the comfort of our
dear little friend, Lame Charley.

While they were thus conversing, a queer little elfin sped down one of
the moonbeams, like a flash of summer lightning, and in an instant was
on his knee before the Queen.

It was the fairy, Slyboots, the Queen's favorite messenger, and the
most mischievous sprite in her dominions.

"Welcome, good Slyboots," cried the Queen; "by your bright eyes and
unsoiled wings, methinks you must have fulfilled our commands
faithfully. How fared you? and how did you find our dear 'Nightcap'
family?"

"Most gracious Majesty! I hurried to the great city, without folding
wing; merely stopping a moment to torment a miserly old landlord, who,
the day before, had turned a poor widow, with two little children, out
of his tenement house, because she was not quite ready with the rent.
I put a great fly on his nose, and a great flea in his ear, and
ordered them to stay there, and buzz, and bite him, till he went
nearly into fits."

A chorus of sweet fairy laughter greeted this mad-cap caper, and
Slyboots embraced the opportunity to whisper something to a small
brown spider, who had been listening with all his ears, and staring at
Slyboots with all his eyes, of which he had more than his share, and
who immediately scampered off with all his legs.

"Then, your Majesty," continued the elfin, "I hastened on, and flew
through the window into the room where Charley slept. All was sweet,
still, and hushed; and oh! how pure and lovely the pale boy looked, as
he lay there, his hands folded across his breast. As I gazed, a
radiant smile parted his lips, and a faint color came into his white
cheek. He was dreaming--his soul was full of holy thoughts--and the
smile had come, as he saw in his dream the Beautiful Home above, for
which he was preparing.

"The little mother, looking wearied with watching, lay upon a couch
near him. As I hovered over her, a large tear crept from under her
closed eyelid, and a quick convulsive sob broke from her breast. She
too was dreaming, dreaming of the sorrowful time when her darling
would be taken from her.

"I swept my wings lightly across her brow, and bade her waken. She
opened her eyes, looked upon Charley, and rising, with a sigh of
relief, she murmured: 'I have thee yet, oh my child! my darling!' and
hastening to him, she softly drew back the golden curls from his
forehead, sprinkled a few drops of grateful, refreshing perfume upon
his pillow, and then, tenderly touching his cheek with her loving
lips, went comforted back to her couch.

"The rest of the children were in the other rooms, fast asleep in
two-story cribs, and various dear little beds; and I left some of
them laughing merrily in their sleep, by telling them one or two
ridiculous anecdotes about your Majesty's stuffy old prime min----"

"Silence, Slyboots!" cried the Queen, trying not to laugh. "You shall
not make fun of our minister to our face. Go and order the supper."

Slyboots grinned sideways at the maids of honor, but bowed, with a
great show of penitence, to his Queen. Retiring from the presence, he
placed a tiny bugle, fashioned out of a small honeysuckle, to his
lips, and blew a shrill, peculiar blast.

It was perfectly well understood, for in an instant, a hundred small
pink and white mushrooms sprang out of the earth, making the most
del