The Pink Fairy Book illustrated by Henry Justice Ford, 1st part

Henry Justice Ford (1860–1941) was a prolific and successful English artist and illustrator, active from 1886 through to the late 1920s. Sometimes known as H. J. Ford or Henry J. Ford, he came to public attention when he provided the numerous beautiful illustrations for Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, which captured the imagination of a generation of British children and were sold worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s.(Wikipedia)

Frontispiece

THE MAIDEN BRINGS THE COAT OF HAIR TO THE GIANT

THE CAT'S ELOPEMENT

One day she was seated in her room, playing on her favourite musical instrument, when

she felt something gliding up her sash, and saw her enemy making his way to kiss her cheek. She shrieked and threw herself backwards, and Gon, who had beencurled up on a stool at her feet, understood her terror,and with one bound seized the snake by his neck.

Paw in paw they appeared before the princess, and told her the story of their life and its sorrows. The princess wept for sympathy, and promised that they should never more be parted, but should live with her to the end of their days.

HOW THE DRAGON WAS TRICKED

' Hi ! dragon ! dragon ! if anyone asks you what has become of your horse, you can say that I have got him !'

THE GOBLIN AND THE GROCER

There was a light burning, and the Goblin peeped through the key-hole and saw that he was reading the torn book that he had bought in the shop.But how bright it was ! Out of the book shot a streak of light which grew into a large tree and spread its branches far above the student. Every leaf was alive, and every flower was a beautiful girl's head, some with dark and shining eyes, others with wonderful blue ones. Every fruit was a glittering star, and there was a marvellous music in the student's room.

THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD

Then she went out and fetched barley and strewed it before the cock and hen, and brought the cow an armful of sweet-smelling hay.

' Eat that, dear beasts,' she said, ' and when you are thirsty you shall have a good drink.'

URASCHIMATARO AND THE TURTLE 

“I am the turtle whose life you once saved. I will now pay my debt and show my gratitude. The land is still far distant, and without my help you would never get there. Climb on my back, and I will take you where you will.' Uraschimataro did not wait to be asked twice,

and thankfully accepted his friend's help. But scarcely was he seated firmly on the shell, when the turtle proposed that they should not return to the shore at once, but go under the sea, and look at some of the wonders that lay hidden there.

And directly the princess beheld him her heart was set on him, and she begged him to stay

with her, and in return promised that he should never grow old, neither should his beauty fade. ' Is not that reward enough?' she asked, smiling, looking all the while as fair as the sun itself. And Uraschimataro said ' Yes,'and so he stayed there. For how long? That he only knew later.

He ran to the brook, which flowed in a clear stream down from the mountain, and saw himself

reflected as in a mirror. It was the face of a niumrny which looked back at him. Wounded to death, he crept back through the village, and no man knew the old, old man to be the strong handsome youth who had run down the street an hour before.

THE SLAYING OF THE TANUKI

Suddenly she heard something whining and weeping in the corner, and, stopping her work, she looked round to see what it was. That was all that the rascal wanted, and he put on directly his most humble air, and begged the woman in his softest voice to loosen his bonds, which

were hurting him sorely.

By this time the hare had decided what he would do, and as soon as they arrived, he quietly set on fire the wood on the back of the Tanuki. The Tanuki, who was busy with something else, observed nothing, and only called out to ask what was the meaning of the crackling

that he heard.

THE FLYING TRUNK

They sat close to each other, and he told her a story about her eyes. They were beautiful dark lakes in which her thoughts swam about like mermaids. And her forehead was a snowy mountain, grand and shining. These were lovely stories.

He could no longer fly, and could never reach his bride. She stood the whole day long on the roof and waited perhaps she is waiting there still.

THE SNOW-MAN

' Bow-wow !' barked the old yard-dog ; he was rather hoarse and couldn't bark very well. His hoarseness came on when he was a house-dog and used to lie in front of the stove. ' The sun will soon teach you to run ! I saw that last winter with your predecessor, and farther back still with his predecessors ! They have all run away!’

THE PRINCESS IN THE CHEST 

…she was down in the garden, found at once the little bush with the three buds, plucked the middle one and ate it. It was sweet to taste, but afterwards was as bitter as gall.

Christian made haste to get up into the pulpit, and stood there, without noticing anything,

until the clock struck twelve. Then the lid of the princess's chest sprang up, and out of it there camesomething like the Princess, dressed as you see in the picture. It shrieked and howled, ' Sentry, where are you? Sentry, where are you? If you don't come, you  shall get the most cruel death anyone has ever got.' It went all round the church, and when it finally caught sight of the smith, up in the pulpit, it came rushing thither and mounted the steps. But it could not

get up the whole way, and for all that it stretched and strained, it could not touch Christian, who meanwhile stood and trembled up in the pulpit.

The smith took his sentry coat and wrapped it round her ; then she dried her tears, and took his hand and thanked him, and said that he had now freed her from all the sorcery that had been in her from her birth, and which had come over her again when her father broke the command against seeing her until she had completed her fourteenth year.

THE SNOW-QUEEN

The hobgoblin laughed till his sides ached, but still the tiny bits of glass flew about.

In the evening, when little Kay was going to bed, he jumped on the chair by the window, and looked through the little hole. A few snow-flakes were fallirg outside, and one of them, the largest, lay on the edge of one of the window-boxes. The snow-flake grew larger and larger

till it took the form of a maiden, dressed in finest white gauze.

And she set him close to her in the sledge and drew the cloak over him. He felt as though he were sinking into a snow-drift.

' I heard from my tame sweetheart that he was merry and quick-witted ; he had not come to woo, he said, but to listen to the princess's wisdom. And the end of it was that they fell in love with each other.'

They were tied to the reindeer, the little robber-girl opened the door, made all the big dogs come away, cut through the halter with her sharp knife, and said to the reindeer, ' Run now ! But take great care of the little girl.'

It was such a happy time that the pieces of ice even danced round them for joy, and when they were tired and lay down again they formed themselves into the letters that the Snow-queen had said he must spell in order to become his own master and have the whole world and a new pair of skates.

HANS, THE MERMAID'S SON

What he did not tell, however, was where he had been all the time; that only came out six years later, when people got to know that he had been caught by a mermaid out on the deep sea, and had been her guest during the three days that he was missing.

Just as he was at his busiest with this. Old Eric rose out of the lake, caught him by the cuff of the neck, whipped him out of the boat, and dragged him down to the bottom.

THE BIRD 'GRIP'

The prince went to the castle, and did with the grains of gold as the fox had told him, so that sleep fell upon everyone there ; but when he had taken the princess into his arms he forgot the fox's warning, at the sight of her beauty, and kissed her.

Then the darkness cleared away from the king's eyes, and the more the bird sang the more clearly did he see, till at last in the strange horse-shoer he recognised his youngest son. Then the princess told the king how treacherously his eldest sons had acted, and he had them banished from his kingdom.

I KNOW WHAT I HAVE LEARNED 

 

He fixed an iron spike into one of the beams of the roof, and ran his head against this till he had knocked several large pieces off his head. He was just as well as ever after doing this, and they got their broth without further trouble.

Soon after this the troll came home. It was dark by that time, and his wife bade him go and buy some candles. ' Oh, we shall soon get a light,' said the troll. With that he dipped his fingers into the fire, and they then gave light without being burned in the least.

Then the troll sprang into the water and ladled up so many fish that in a short time the trough could hold no more. They then rowed home again, and had a good meal off the fish.

THE KING WHO WOULD HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WIFE

Afterwards, when they were alone, he raised the corner, and knew for the first time that he had wedded a wrinkled old woman. And, in a furious burst of anger, he dashed open the window and flung her out. But, luckily for her, her clothes caught on a nail in the wall, and kept her hanging between heaven and earth. While she was thus suspended, expecting every

moment to be dashed to the ground, four fairies happened to pass by.