Fairy Prince and Other Stories is a whimsical, emotionally warm collection of imaginative tales by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, where fairy-tale charm, humor, and gentle mystery illuminate ordinary life. Across its varied stories, children, villagers, and eccentrics discover that wonder often hides in the most familiar places, and that beauty, memory, and meaning are shaped by the eye that sees them. In one memorable sequence, children returning from a visit to the Blinded Lady try to decide what sight is most beautiful, asking the Old Doctor, the Store-Keeping Man, and the Pop-Corn Man for their answers. Their responses reveal youth, wealth, and a peacock flashing in apple blossoms, while the children themselves come home newly dazzled by their own house, garden, crow, sunlight, and supper. Another story reflects on the childhood desire to become a writer, "with a gold pencil," and introduces a world in which everyone has a Gift. Old Man Smith's Gift is finding lost things by reasoning out the probable place, a gift that helps solve missing-object puzzles and even the case of Little Tommy Bent. When Annie Halliway loses her mind, walks with the narrator and Carol through fields and hills, and becomes fascinated by a distant glint, the collection's blend of tenderness, curiosity, and enchantment deepens. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
