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fairy story
When I was very little my favorite story was one about a little fairy who would enviously watch all the children playing and desperately wished to be one of them, but of course couldn't because fairies walked above the ground, not on it. Also her wings were a dead giveaway. Over a long period of time she practiced stretching her toes down to the ground till she could actually touch it and give the impression she was tiptoeing. At this point she hid her wings in her clothes then went to meet the children. I don't remember much more of the story. What made a great impression on me was this extraordinary, beautiful, little creature putting herself through what amounted to torture in order to be able to play with ordinary kids. I adored the tale and have from time to time tried, in vain, to find it again. I think it was in one of those big children's storybook compendiums. Anybody heard of it?
I've spent the last couple of days at my folks' place resurrecting first my parent's computer, then my sister's so haven't been on the net much lately. Succeeded with my parents' machine by cannibalising one of my own to rebuild it. Failed with my sister's -- I'll probably go get another of my machines tomorrow for her.
I've spent the last couple of days at my folks' place resurrecting first my parent's computer, then my sister's so haven't been on the net much lately. Succeeded with my parents' machine by cannibalising one of my own to rebuild it. Failed with my sister's -- I'll probably go get another of my machines tomorrow for her.
Wonderful post!
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I can't say that I know who wrote the story though. For some reason it reminds me of George Macdonald's Phantastes. I don't think that image is in there but it does almost seem the kind of image he'd come up with.
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http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a127
Phantastes itself is there:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/325
Gutenberg Australia has some too ()
I shall have to sift through them and see if any have the story.
I'm very grateful.
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Though I'd love to track down some copies of her Malory Towers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malory_Towers) series. One of my favorite writers, Terry Moore, cites those as one of his great inspirations when he was a kid growing up in Africa. Mr Moore is famous for his superb "Strangers in Paradise" series... ooh... I might just re-read them next.
http://www.strangersinparadise.com
I fell for Darrel but I had desires for Alicia.
I'm loathe to part with any of my mum's books, but if you want dead tree copies I'm happy to go into the crates and have a look - at least I know they'll be in a good home.
Consider, however, that I may be mis-remembering. Most of the EB books I have from my mum are Eight O'Clock Tales and the like, and none of her "Of Adventure" or "Famous Five" style "mysteries, with lashings of ginger beer" era.
Re: I fell for Darrel but I had desires for Alicia.
No. Definitely don't send me dead tree copies. Sweet of you to consider it. Thanks. I'm trying to get rid of my paper. I'd love to read them, but I really want electronic ones. I have a feeling I'll have to wait until the rest of the publishing industry (the part that isn't Baen Books) wakes up and starts using unencrypted ebooks. Baen have been using unencrypted ebooks for a few years now and have found it makes for much happier customers.
I have previously bought encrypted ebooks and been locked out of them after upgrading my computers after (unrelated) computer crashes -- the ebooks no longer recognised my ownership so refused to open anymore. In one case I was only part way through the book; in the other case I hadn't even started reading yet. You will be locked out of all your encrypted ebooks when your computer hardware changes -- like in 7 years or less.
I will never ever buy encrypted ebooks again... even if I can crack them and decrypt them to plain text (which is against the stupid, stupid copyright law).