The Elves of Mount Fern
9781465667700
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The Elves are the dearest and most mischievous little people in all the wide world. They live in Elfland, and Elfland can be found in every corner of the globe. They take up their abode on wooded hillsides, beside murmuring streams, or in deep, leafy forests. In the dead of night, when all the world is still, they steal forth from their dwellings and start on their merry midnight rounds. They dance in the moonlight on soft dewy lawns under wide-spreading trees. They visit their neighbors and friends among elves, and their neighbors and friends among men. The Elves can see and not be seen; they can hear and not be heard; and are so light and nimble in their movements that they can float through the air like a leaf in the wind. Once upon a time there was a company of Elves that lived in a stone wall. They had left their home in the forest glade for a season in the Giant World, as they called our world—because it seemed so big to them. While they were wandering about in search of a place to settle, they came upon a hole in a stone wall that exactly suited them, it was so snug and comfortable. The Elves were very much delighted and at once decided to make their home there. The wall belonged to Dr. Templeton. He liked privacy, and so he had this high stone wall built all around his garden and grounds. But Dr. Templeton’s gardener was very lazy and careless, and when some stones fell out of the wall, he simply rolled them over the bank. That was easier, he thought, than mending the wall; and, besides, the wall was so very thick that a few stones more or less did not matter in the least. The Elves thought it was very fortunate for them that the gardener was so lazy and careless, and promised themselves a gay good time with a season in the Giant World.
