Coloured Pencils.

My coloured pencils have been spirited away,

I have looked high and low for them today.

The fairies were here just yesterday you know.

Were they responsible for this terrible blow?

Without my coloured pencils I cannot draw.

Life is getting to be one rather big bore.

Pictures I have made of sweet fairy rings.

Leprechauns, toadstools and other magic things.

Perhaps I have given too many secrets away.

By writing about the fairies and their play.

Why a white unicorn I wanted draw today.

I saw it in the woods grazing happily away.

But without my coloured pencils I am sad.

To tell the truth I am getting real mad.

Why do the fairies play me such tricks?

Is this how they get their daily kicks.

Have you some coloured pencils to give away?

My thanks will be all yours for many a day.

Boredom.

A dull dreary day with a mist coming in from the sea I did not know what do to do with myself. I had finished reading my Library books and the newspaper, I had read earlier in the day. I turned on the radio and listened half-heartedly for a while but there was nothing to catch and hold my attention. My living room is like thousands of living rooms. With two armchairs and a settee with a table and four chairs. In one corner there was my old fashioned television. On the shelf above the settee was my radio. I must admit I was bored with the world and with myself.

I thought for a while that I could go for a walk but with the mist I knew that it would creep in under my overcoat and I would be most uncomfortable. At the local cinema a film about Cowboys and Indians was being shown. I had not seen a film for some time, as I do not like being in a cinema with its small seats that cramped my legs. I decided to stay at home. I thought to tidy up the cupboards upstairs in the bedrooms I had been going to do it for a long time but had never got around to it.

On my way upstairs I nearly fell over an old toy. Now who had left this toy on the stairs I have no children and myself I have not played with toys since I was twelve. This was quite a mystery as far as I knew I had, had no children to stay for some years. Picking up the toy I saw that it was a fire engine. I did not recognise it as a toy from my childhood so how did it get on my stairs. Taking the toy with me I went into the main bedroom and putting the toy on the bedside table I opened the first cupboard. Here were stored all the bedclothes that a household might need from Pillowcases to freshly ironed sheets. I could not do anything with this cupboard it was very tidy so I sat on the bed and looked at the fire engine.

The fire engine was bright red in colour and had a ladder and some small pieces of string that were supposed to be hosepipes fixed to it. As far as I knew I had never seen this toy before so how did it come to be on my stairs? My last visitor was an elderly Aunt of mine, my Father’s Sister. Did she leave this here for me to find and play with? My Aunt is a little lost and perhaps she thought that I was still the young boy that she had sometimes given toys to play with.

It was then that I heard some small feet running in my loft. It is really an attic and I was now curious as to who was running up there. I quietly went up the stairs to the attic and opened the door. Inside on the wall was an electric light switch and I quickly turned on the lights. I saw a small boy like creature and gently asked him his name. “Shamus the second came his reply. Did I disturb you with my playing?” “No Shamus the second you did not disturb me but who are you and what are you doing in my attic?”

“I am the son of Shamus your old friend the Leprechaun and he hid me here and told me to be very quiet.” “Have you seen my fire engine I seem to have lost it? I had it last night when I went downstairs for a drink of water and now I cannot find it.” I told Shamus the second that his fire engine was safe in my bedroom. “What did Shamus bring you here for and why did he not tell me?” Shamus the second told me this story. Shamus his father my very old friend was in danger his son Shamus the second was in even greater danger.

Shamus had made some pots and pans for a Wizard and the Wizard refused to pay the agreed price for the pans. Shamus used some magic and all the pots and pans now leaked and were no good to the Wizard. The Wizard swore that he would get his own back on Shamus and all that were connected with Shamus. Being afraid for his young son Shamus placed him here in my attic with the words that he was to be very quiet.

Shamus was not afraid for himself he knew enough magic to be able to stop a Wizard but with his son with him he felt that the boy was in more danger than himself. He knew I would not mind and had placed him quietly at night. Shamus knew that my house was guarded by magic and that no Wizard would be able to harm the boy while he was staying with me.

I took Shamus the second by his hand and took him down to the kitchen where I cooked him a large plate of sweet porridge oats. After he had eaten I gave him his fire engine and he spent a couple of hours at play. Then Shamus appeared in my kitchen he was slightly dishevelled but in very good spirits. It happened he told me that the Wizard tried to sneak up behind him but Shamus’s Shillelagh had attacked and given the Wizard some very heavy blows so that in the end the Wizard ran off. “He will attack me or mine no more he now has great respect from my Shillelagh, Thank you kindly for looking after my boy. You were the only person I could think of where the boy would be safe.

We all sat down to a good cooked dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Shamus the second ate just as much as his father who kept looking proudly at his son. After dinner goodbyes were said and they both vanished. Shamus the second left his fire engine in my dining room he wanted me to have it to remember him by. There was no danger of my forgetting Shamus or his son.

The Little Folk.

Fairies have become a part of my life.

No I do not neglect my loving wife.

She still takes it all in good part.

Just like she did from the very start.

Fairies are with me all of the day.

I have not the heart to send them away.

From early in the morning till late at night,

right through the hours of bright daylight.

At Breakfast, Coffee time, Dinner and Tea,

The little folk are with the wife and me.

Why even when we go to our beds.

One or two still fly around our heads.

What do they do when we are asleep?

I often wake up just to have a peep.

At night there are no fairies to be seen.

I think they all go home to the Fairy Queen.

If you Dear Reader suffer from Fairies too

There is really no help at all for you.

Fairies when they come, they come to stay,

No not even you can send them away.

Just bear with the little folk, like the Wife and I.

You too will get used to them by and by.

Caterpillar Invasion.

I did not sleep well in fact I got up three times during the night. I carefully checked the doors and windows. The feeling that something was going to happen was very strong. In the morning during my washing and shaving, I still had this feeling. A slight nagging deep down in the back of my head causing light pearls of perspiration to cover my forehead. I eat my breakfast and while drinking my second cup of tea the feeling was so strong that I left the house and went to the woods to see if the Fairies too had this feeling.

Yes, the Fairies had the feeling no one knew anything but all were on tenterhooks something was going to happen. Then from the sky came the attack, thousands upon thousands of caterpillars were dropping from out of the clouds and eating all of the green vegetation. We were under attack! Who were the attackers? Her Majesty the Fairy Queen Feeana came, saw what the caterpillars were doing, and waved her Magic Wand. The caterpillars turned into the most beautiful butterflies and we were once more safe in Fairyland.

Queen Feeana took from her robes a small mirror. This mirror as we all knew was magic it was a truth mirror. The Queen looked into the mirror and saw that the caterpillars were coming to us on the high Atlantic winds that a Sorcerer was sending them from the Amazon. Thousands and thousands of such Caterpillars are on the way Queen Feeana must stop them at once. Another wave of her Magic Wand and the winds dropped. It was so quiet without the noise of the wind that I myself thought I had gone deaf.

The butterflies would not live long here in our climate and Queen Feeana sent them back to the Amazon where they could live a natural butterfly life. The Queen then went back to her lovely home and soon news was that she was on a small holiday for while. In reality, Queen Feeana a Leprechaun and I were traveling by magic to the Amazon. The Sorcerer had underestimated the power of Queen Feeana’s magic and thought that as he was so far away from the Queens home that he was safe.

He had taken no steps to protect himself or his jungle dwelling. We made a perfect landing right in the middle of his living room. The room smelled badly from damp and moldering plants of which many were in the room. The Leprechaun hid himself behind a large pot filled with strange long leaves. I hid behind the sofa and her Majesty disappeared.

We did not have long to wait a hideous ugly old man came through the door and lit a small fire under a cauldron. He threw pieces of leaves and mushrooms into the cauldron. Then a bottle of some oily substance he poured into the mixture and then I saw them. Caterpillars were coming out of the pot thousands were crawling out to the door. In front of the house, a tornado was drawing the caterpillars up into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Leprechaun threw some orange powder into the cauldron and I found myself pushing the sofa onto the fire. In the middle of all this Her Majesty waved, her Magic Wand and the sorcerer turned into a caterpillar. He crawled to a plant that had long leaves like a banana and we saw him gradually change into a most beautiful butterfly.

The sofa was burning brightly and the flames quickly spread all over the house when we went nothing to show that a wicked sorcerer had ever lived here was to be seen. The jungle soon took over and now trees and plants with some of the most beautiful orchids grow where once the house of the sorcerer stood.

Her Majesty waved her Magic Wand and once more the bright flash a puff of smoke and we were again in Fairyland where the Fairies wanted a detailed report of all that we in the Amazon had seen and done. Knowing that the wicked Sorcerer was now a most beautiful butterfly there was much joy and laughing was the motto of the day in fairyland.

The World Over.

There are Fairies the entire world over;
especially in lands rich in four-leaf clover.
Ireland sends them on regular trips,
most Fairies travel you know on ships.
They have often been seen in the USA,
some I heard from only the other day.
Australia too has Fairies galore;
they originally came from a far away shore.
Up in the far north they turn water into snow;
this tale was told to me by a very old Eskimo.
They use magic from wands of gold,
and have done since the days of old.
All Nations have stories of Fairies and Trolls,
most of them no bigger than tiny dolls.
Mischievous and kind they really are,
they all travel both near and far.
Under various names we know them all,
Fairies, Leprechauns, and of course trolls so small.
Much of the work is done by the Fairy Queen,
very few Humans have the little people ever seen.
But you know they are in this World all over,
especially in lands rich with four-leaf clover.

Next Page