{"product_id":"2940013595897","title":"THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN GREEN - A Fairy Tale","description":"Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.  It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I was a child, I had an old nurse, who used to take me in her lap and tell me wonderful stories of the little people who dwelt in her own distant country beyond the sea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis was of course a long, long time ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, one afternoon, as I sat in my rocking-chair, I fell to thinking of those old days, and — a strange thing happened. I dropped asleep and dreamed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI dreamed of that time so long ago. I thought I was a little girl again, and that my old nurse rocked me in her arms, and told me a story more marvellous than any she had ever related before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome parts of it almost frightened me, and yet — I liked it; and when she ended, I cried out, \"O, tell it all over again, Nannie; do, please do.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut this waked me up. I rubbed my eyes and looked around, and then I knew, and I was half sorry for it, that I was a woman, and not a little girl any longer; that my old nurse was sleeping in the graveyard just over the hill, and that my story was only a dream.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI sat alone in the twilight, thinking about it, and at last said, \"Perhaps there is somewhere in the world a child whom it will please, as I dreamed it pleased me,\" and this is how I came to write The Story of The Little Gentleman In Green.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excerpt from the beginning of:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eONCE upon a time there lived, far away in the country, a little boy whose name was Harry. He had no brothers and no sisters; his father had been dead for a long time, and he had not a relative except his mother. She was a good woman, and very, very fond of her only child, Harry. She was poor, however, and had nothing in the world to give little Harry except her love. They dwelt in a small cottage, which was nearly three miles from any other house, and beautifully situated at the foot of a high hill. Just behind the house danced and frolicked a silver-clear little brook. Beyond the cottage it broke into a beautiful waterfall, which in spring, when the stream was full, dashed its spray even to the windows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn both sides, the brook was shadowed by tall, weird-looking trees. There were no others like them in the country, and whether it was for this reason, or some other, I know not, but the. cottage and its neighborhood was in bad repute among the villagers. They said the woods were haunted, and that at midnight all sorts of strange noises could be heard in them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a long time the cottage stood empty, as no one could be found who would live there. But Mrs. Ward had no superstitious fancies, and she was so poor that she was only too glad to hire it for the small sum for which the owner willingly let it, and she and Harry dwelt there quietly, in spite of the hobgoblins by which the place was said to be infested.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany of the villagers declared that they had been terribly frightened when passing through there at night, though no one could positively say he had ever seen anything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Ward laughed at these stories and said it was only the waterfall, and if the people would come and listen by daylight, they would hear the queer noises just the same; though even she had to confess that the waterfall sounded strangely now and then, and sometimes wondered if all waterfalls were like this one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet here she and Harry dwelt, as I have said, and earned their living by braiding hats of palm-leaf. When they had finished two or three dozen, either Harry or his mother took them to the village store, and Mr. Stone, the storekeeper, gave them goods in exchange; now and then, but very rarely., he gave them money, though I suppose Harry never had had a quarter of a dollar at one time in his whole life. Sometimes during the winter he had been to school for a few weeks, and so had learned to read tolerably well and to write a little; but it was very difficult for his mother to spare him, for, work as hard as she could, she could scarcely braid hats enough to keep them from starving; and sometimes she was ill, and then Harry had to work, and take care of his mother too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHarry liked school pretty well, but still better the fun of going to the village and meeting the boys every day, and was glad enough to do it, although he had to walk there and back again, a distance of about six miles. But he loved his mother better than anything else in the world, so he did not complain when he had to stay at home, but worked hard, singing merrily as a cricket all the time. When his mother was ill, he took care of her as tenderly as a girl could have done it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe would get up in the morning as soon as it began to grow light, go out and get wood and build the fire, then put the kettle on and make his mother a nice bowlful of gruel...","brand":"Leila's Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082987585776,"sku":"2940013595897","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013595897_p0.jpg?v=1763583090","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013595897","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}