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The village lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners. In a sky of iron the points of the Dipper hung like icicles and Orion flashed his cold fires. The moon had set, but the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow, clumps of bushes made black stains on it, and the basement windows of the church sent shafts of yellow light far across the endless undulations.

Young Ethan Frome walked at a quick pace along the deserted street, past the bank and Michael Eady's new brick store and Lawyer Varnum's house with the two black Norway spruces at the gate. Opposite the Varnum gate, where the road fell away toward the Corbury valley, the church reared its slim white steeple and narrow peristyle. As the young man walked toward it the upper windows drew a black arcade along the side wall of the building, but from the lower openings, on the side where the ground sloped steeply down to the Corbury road, the light shot its long bars, illuminating many fresh furrows in the track leading to the basement door, and showing, under an adjoining shed, a line of sleighs with heavily blanketed horses.

Now the King Of the North had a beautiful daughter called Crystal. Her eyes were bright like the stars; her hair was black like the sky at night and her skin was as white as the snow which covered the ground outside the palace where she lived, which was built entirely Of crystals clear as the clearest glass.And the King Of the South had a son who had been named Sunshine on account of his brightness and warmth of heart.The King of the East had a son who, because he was always up early and was very industrious, had been given the name Of Sunrise.The King Of the West also had a song perhaps the handsomest Of the three, and always magnificently dressed; but as it took him all day to make his toilette, so that he was never seen before evening, he received the name of Sunset.

All the fairies from many countries are uniform with this volume.

   There are even indications of an earlier literary contact between Europe and India, in the case of one branch of the folk-tale, the Fable or Beast Droll. In a somewhat elaborate discussion. I have come to the conclusion that a goodly number of the fables that pass under the name of the Samian slave, Aesop, were derived from India, probably from the same source whence the same tales were utilised in the Jatakas, or Birth-stories of Buddha.

   These Jatakas contain a large quantity of genuine early Indian folk-tales, and form the earliest collection of folk-tales in the world, a sort of Indian Grimm, collected more than two thousand years before the good German brothers went on their quest among the folk with such delightful results. For this reason I have included a considerable number of them in this volume; and shall be surprised if tales that have roused the laughter and wonder of pious Buddhists for the last two thousand years, cannot produce the same effect on English children.

The Jatakas have been fortunate in their English translators, who render with vigour and point; and I rejoice in being able to publish the translation of two new Jatakas, kindly done into English for this volume by Mr. W. H. D. Rouse, of Christ's College, Cambridge. In one of these I think I have traced the source of the Tar Baby incident in "Uncle Remus."

   Though Indian fairy tales are the earliest in existence, yet they are also from another point of view the youngest. For it is only about twenty-five years ago that Miss Frere began the modern collection of Indian folk-tales with her charming "Old Deccan Days" (London, John Murray, 1868; fourth edition, 1889). Her example has been followed by Miss Stokes, by Mrs. Steel, and Captain (now Major) Temple, by the Pandit Natesa Sastri, by Mr. Knowles and Mr. Campbell, as well as others who have published folk-tales in such periodicals as the Indian Antiquary and The Orientalist.

   The story-store of modern India has been well dipped into during the last quarter of a century, though the immense range of the country leaves room for any number of additional workers and collections.

                                                                                                                                                 [Author]

"Do tell us a fairy tale, ganpa."

"Well, will you be good and quiet if I do?"

"Of course we will; we are always good when you are telling us fairy tales."

"Well, here goes.—Once upon a time, though it wasn't in my time, and it wasn't in your time, and it wasn't in anybody else's time, there was a——"

"But that would be no time at all."

"That's fairy tale time."

This is a lovely little book of fairy tales from throughout Europe. The author wrote the stories by finding tales that were common among many different European countries and cultures. The stories were very approachable, and are appropriate for all ages. There are 25 stories in totaly.

European Folk and Fairy Tales (also known as Europa's Fairy Book) is a collection of Folk and Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, first published in 1916, including : The Cinder-Maid The King of the Fishes Beauty and the Beast Reynard and Bruin The Dancing Water, The Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird The Language of Animals Snowwhite Joseph Jacobs (1854 – 1916) was a folklorist, literary critic and historian.

His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature. Jacobs wrote for journals and books on the subject of folklore and produced a popular series of fairy tales.