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+-------------------------------------------------------+ | BOOKS BY OLIVER HERFORD | | | | _WITH PICTURES BY THE AUTHOR_ | | | | PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS | | | |-------------------------------------------------------| | | | THE BASHFUL EARTHQUAKE $1.25 | | | | A CHILD’S PRIMER OF NATURAL HISTORY $1.25 | | | | OVERHEARD IN A GARDEN $1.25 | | | | MORE ANIMALS _net_, $1.00 | | | | THE RUBAIYAT OF A PERSIAN KITTEN _net_, $1.00 | | | | THE FAIRY GODMOTHER-IN-LAW _net_, $1.00 | +-------------------------------------------------------+
NEW YORK · Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons
_It is not always well to place Unbounded Faith in Fairy Lore, Believing that in every case They all lived Happy evermore._
_Stranger than Fiction though we deem The Truth, it does not follow, too, That Fairy Tales, because they seem Still Stranger, must be still more True._
_Far be it from me to assail The Truthfulness of Fairy Writ, But let us take a Well-Known Tale And see what really came of it._
When Cinderella wed the Prince She thought him all her Fancy Painted, And this was not surprising since They were not very Well Acquainted. While he, not dreaming where she got Glass slippers, counted on a _Dot_.
The Prince was Brave, Industrious, Wise: Brave in bright Silks and Satins gay, Wise in the Lore of Ladies’ Eyes, And most Industrious--at Play; A Leader, too--in Fashion’s Set; And Deep--that is to say, in Debt.
Who was the Somebody of Note? (I never could remember names) Was it Mark Twain or Mr. Choate Or Mrs. Ward or Henry James That penn’d those words of Wise Import, “Who weds in haste repents--in court”?
But let us not Anticipate. The Princess wore a Plain Gold Frock; No Fairy Dress to spoil the fête By vanishing at Twelve o’clock. This time no Spell her pleasure blighted-- _Her god-mamma was not invited_.
Not that she really meant to flout Her Benefactress; but you see She had not told the Prince about Her Fairy Godmother, lest he Might change his mind if he foresaw A Fairy God-mamma-in-law.