Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

230
THE ATTEMPT
(Scrotr Jfairiejs.
A good many years ago, one of those useful individuals called pedlars, or packmen,
came one day with his goods to a manse in the south of Scotland. The minister’s
wife inspected his collection, and probably made some purchases; hut for one of the
articles the pedlar displayed, the price he demanded was so exorbitant, that the good
lady asked in astonishment, if the fellow took her for a fool. “Ha, na, mem,” the
man gravely replied, “ the fools is a’ deed lang syne.”
As, according to the worthy man’s account, the race of fools has long since died
out, may the same not he said of those good old people, the fairies and brownies who,
we are told, in the days of our ancestors, haunted country houses, by kindly deeds
helped busy housewives in their toils, and by little mischievous pranks, annoyed the
idle and thriftless. It is not unlikely that had the “good people,” as they used
rather superstitiously to be called, continued till the present time to favour this earth
with their presence, they would have found themselves rather out of place in this busy
practical age, and even we might have found their old-fashioned ways of assisting us
rather hindering than helpful; so perhaps it is better for both parties that they have
taken their departure from this country, at least, where their services would not now
be duly appreciated.
But is it not true that there are yet fairies, far more kindly and trust-worthy than
all the fickle beings who were regarded in by-gone days with a mixture of fear and
respect; all the more valuable, because, unlike the graceful but fanciful creations of a
half-enlightened age, their feelings and affections are human, and they ever live
among us, doing their magic works before our eyes, and not in the darkness of the
night; carrying their wonderful power into the regions of the mind and heart, which
no unearthly fairies could ever do.
Every one has observed and admired the magic power which a tender mother
exercises over her child; how the little one, when any infantine trouble vexes its
heart, or trifling accident pains its little body, runs to its mother, certain of finding
her sympathy and her consolation; and with what fairy-like skill the loving parent
soothes her child, making it soon forget its griefs, and sending it away with a half-
formed sob breaking into a merry laugh. And not only in childhood, but through¬
out life, are we surrounded by good fairies—loving parents and friends, who are ever