Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories, Page 2

  PREFATORY NOTE

  "THE STORY OF PRINCE FAIRYFOOT" was originally intended to be the firstof a series, under the general title of "Stories from the LostFairy-Book, Re-told by the Child Who Read Them," concerning which Mrs.Burnett relates:

  "When I was a child of six or seven, I had given to me a book offairy-stories, of which I was very fond. Before it had been in mypossession many months, it disappeared, and, though since then I havetried repeatedly, both in England and America, to find a copy of it, Ihave never been able to do so. I asked a friend in the CongressionalLibrary at Washington--a man whose knowledge of books is almostunlimited--to try to learn something about it for me. But even he couldfind no trace of it; and so we concluded it must have been out of printsome time. I always remembered the impression the stories had made on me,and, though most of them had become very faint recollections, Ifrequently told them to children, with additions of my own. The story ofFairyfoot I had promised to tell a little girl; and, in accordance withthe promise, I developed the outline I remembered, introduced newcharacters and conversation, wrote it upon note paper, inclosed it in adecorated satin cover, and sent it to her. In the first place, it wasre-written merely for her, with no intention of publication; but she wasso delighted with it, and read and reread it so untiringly, that itoccurred to me other children might like to hear it also. So I made theplan of developing and re-writing the other stories in like manner, andhaving them published under the title of 'Stories from the LostFairy-Book, Re-told by the Child Who Read Them.'"

  The little volume in question Mrs. Burnett afterwards discovered to beentitled "Granny's Wonderful Chair and the Tales it Told."

  THE STORY OF PRINCE FAIRYFOOT