The Forest Beyond the Woodlands: A Fairy Tale

“I don’t like it here!” wailed the voice of the coward within him. “There are too many things that I don’t understand. I’d like to run away from it all.”

David had not gone far on his way when the Voice spoke to him again. He had quite forgotten it during the time he worked at the Cobbler’s cottage, for the old couple had kept hi...

The moon was shining clear and bright as David stepped out of the door of the Mansion of Happiness. The clear song of the Bird broke again upon the peaceful evening air. David r...

David was the son of an honest wood-cutter. He lived with his father in a little cottage on the border of the woodlands. Away, away as far as the eye could see stretched great t...

When Ruth realized that it was David whom she had seen, that the little written message which she treasured so carefully and always carried tucked away in a safe place near her...

And what, during all this time, was happening to Ruth? We have left her a long time, and our thoughts naturally wander back to her, for we can no more forget her than David can.

“Must I lose you again?” he said to himself. “Well, I will not forget you again, my Blue Bird! I will keep you in my memory. And sometime, somewhere, I know that I shall hear yo...

It was so dark that Ruth could only stumble blindly on. Once she almost fell; had it not been for David’s strong arm she surely would have fallen. He called in a low voice, hopi...

In an instant there appeared to David, as if in a vision, the moss-covered seat and the beautiful little old woman of so many months ago. Again he seemed to hear the words, “Whe...

He had no idea how long he had slept or what awakened him; but when he finally opened his eyes, the sun was low in the western sky. His first thought was of the Blue Bird: what...

The next morning at sunrise David started on his journey. The kind wood-cutter, true to his word, pointed out the trail and even walked some little distance along it with the bo...

David and Ruth journeyed onward hand in hand. The Burning Mountain was now almost invisibly remote, and they knew that they must be near the Garden for which they sought. Soon t...

On they flew; and as morning stole into the sky and the stars began to grow pale, the great wingèd creature dropped down nearer to the earth, so that they just skimmed over the...

Ruth awoke the next morning to find herself in very comfortable quarters; for the Bronze King had taken quite a fancy to the pretty golden-haired little girl. He had told the wo...