The Christmas Fairy and Other Stories   By: John Strange Winter (1856-1911)

by John Strange Winter & Other stories by Frances E. Crompton & Mrs. Molesworth

[Illustration]

A Christmas Fairy

[Illustration: "A tall handsome lady came in, and Shivers flew to her arms."]

A Christmas Fairy

by JOHN STRANGE WINTER AND OTHER STORIES BY FRANCES E. CROMPTON AND MRS. MOLESWORTH

London New York Ernest Nister E.P. Dutton & Co.

Printed in Bavaria 1878.

[Illustration]

Contents

A Christmas Fairy John Strange Winter 5 Not Quite True Mrs. Molesworth 15 In the Chimney Corner Frances E. Crompton 41

A CHRISTMAS FAIRY

By John Strange Winter.

IT was getting very near to Christmas time, and all the boys at Miss Ware's school were talking excitedly about going home for the holidays, of the fun they would have, the presents they would receive on Christmas morning, the tips from Grannies, Uncles, and Aunts, of the pantomimes, the parties, the never ending joys and pleasures which would be theirs.

"I shall go to Madame Tussaud's and to the Drury Lane pantomime," said young Fellowes, "and my mother will give a party, and Aunt Adelaide will give another, and Johnny Sanderson and Mary Greville, and ever so many others. I shall have a splendid time at home. Oh! Jim, I wish it were all holidays like it is when one's grown up."

"My Uncle Bob is going to give me a pair of skates clippers," remarked Harry Wadham.

"My father's going to give me a bike," put in George Alderson.

"Will you bring it back to school with you?" asked Harry.

"Oh! yes, I should think so, if Miss Ware doesn't say no."

"I say, Shivers," cried Fellowes, "where are you going to spend your holidays?"

"I'm going to stop here," answered the boy called Shivers, in a very forlorn tone.

"Here with old Ware? oh, my! Why can't you go home?"

"I can't go home to India," answered Shivers his real name, by the bye, was Egerton, Tom Egerton.

"No who said you could? But haven't you any relations anywhere?"

Shivers shook his head. "Only in India," he said miserably.

"Poor old chap; that's rough luck for you. Oh, I'll tell you what it is, you fellows, if I couldn't go home for the holidays especially at Christmas I think I'd just sit down and die."

"Oh! no, you wouldn't," said Shivers; "you'd hate it, and you'd get ever so home sick and miserable, but you wouldn't die over it. You'd just get through somehow, and hope something would happen before next year, or that some kind fairy or other would "

"Bosh! there are no fairies nowadays," said Fellowes. "See here, Shivers, I'll write home and ask my mother if she won't invite you to come back with me for the holidays."

"Will you really?"

"Yes, I will: and if she says yes, we shall have such a splendid time, because you know, we live in London, and go to everything, and have heaps of tips and parties and fun."

"Perhaps she will say no," suggested poor little Shivers, who had steeled himself to the idea that there would be no Christmas holidays for him, excepting that he would have no lessons for so many weeks.

"My mother isn't at all the kind of woman who says no," Fellowes declared loudly.

In a few days' time, however, a letter arrived from his mother, which he opened eagerly.