More English Fairy Tales

"Cast your breeches at it!" The goodman shied his breeches, and had nearly smothered it. But it wriggled out and ran, and the goodman after it without his breeches; and there wa...

At last, things got so bad that the master gave Tom the sack, and if he hadn't, all the rest of the lads would have sacked him, for they swore they'd not stay on the same garth...

He flung the ball, and off he goes as quick as lightning, and comes to the eldest brother's house. The old man receives him very kindly and told him he long wished to see him, a...

There was once an old woman, who earned a poor living by going errands and such like, for the farmers' wives round about the village where she lived. It wasn't much she earned b...

Now the very next Sunday was Yuletide, and all the folk were going to church in their best clothes, so Rushen Coatie said: "Oh! I should like to go to church, too," but the thre...

In the old days when London Bridge was lined with shops from one end to the other, and salmon swam under the arches, there lived at Swaffham, in Norfolk, a poor pedlar. He'd muc...

So the lad said, "It's no use of thee, thou pair of legs, standing alone at the window, as thou hast no eye to see with, so go join thy brother;" and he cast the lower part of t...

But the lad waited and waited till he saw the dragon go away, then he came down and skinned the little bull-calf, and took out its bladder and went after the dragon. And as he w...

_Then, if you are_ very _quiet, you will hear a teeny tiny voice say through the grating_ "Take down the Key." _This you will find at the back: you cannot mistake it, for it has...

The old gentleman said: "It is true; I am a hardened sinner. But I would give all my worldly goods if I could but see her once before I die." Then the young lord told him what h...

Now ponder well, you parents dear, These words which I shall write; A doleful story you shall hear, In time brought forth to light. A gentleman of good account, In Norfolk dwelt...

For some general remarks on the English Folk-Tale and previous collectors, I must refer to the introductory observations added to the Notes and References of _English Fairy Tale...

_Parallels._--The essence of the tale occurs in Kennedy, _l.c._, p. 67, _seq._ Gobborn Seer's daughter was clearly the clever lass who is found in all parts of the Indo-European...

Now, in the "English" versions there is practical unanimity in the concluding portions of the tale. _Magic dresses--Meeting-place (Church)--Flight--Lost Shoe--Shoe Marriage-test...