King Henry VII. and the Shipwrights
Marklake Witches

The Way Through the Woods
Brookland Road

The Knife and the Naked Chalk

The Run of the Downs

Song of the Men's Side

Brother Square-Toes

Philadelphia

If

T

A CHARM

AKE of English earth as much
As either hand may rightly clutch.
In the taking of it breathe

Prayer for all who lie beneath-
Not the great nor well bespoke,
But the mere uncounted folk
Of whose life and death is none
Report or lamentation.

Lay that earth upon thy heart,
And thy sickness shall depart!

It shall sweeten and make whole
Fevered breath and festered soul:
It shall mightily restrain
Over-busy hand and brain:

It shall ease thy mortal strife
'Gainst the immortal woe of life,
Till thyself restored shall prove
By what grace the Heavens do move.

Take of English flowers these-
Spring's full-faced primroses,
Summer's wild wide-hearted rose,
Autumn's wall-flower of the close,
And, thy darkness to illume,

Winter's bee-thronged ivy-bloom. Seek and serve them where they bide From Candlemas to Christmas-tide. For these simples used aright Shall restore a failing sight.

These shall cleanse and purify
Webbed and inward-turning eye;
These shall show thee treasure hid,
Thy familiar fields amid,
At thy threshold, on thy hearth,
Or about thy daily path;
And reveal (which is thy need)
Every man a King indeed!

O

INTRODUCTION

NCE upon a time, Dan and Una, brother and sister, living in the English country, had the

good fortune to meet with Puck, alias Robin Goodfellow, alias Nick o' Lincoln, alias Lob-lie-bythe-Fire, the last survivor in England of those whom mortals call Fairies. Their proper name, of course, is 'The People of the Hills.' This Puck, by means of the Magic of Oak, Ash, and Thorn, gave the children power

To see what they should see and hear what they should hear,

Though it should have happened three thousand year.

The result was that from time to time, and in different places on the farm and in the fields and the country about, they saw and talked to some rather interesting people. One of these, for instance, was a Knight of the Norman Conquest, another a young Centurion of a Roman Legion stationed in England, another a builder and decorator of King Henry VII.'s time; and so on and so forth; as I have tried to explain in a book called 'Puck of Pook's Hill.'

A year or so later, the children met Puck once more, and though they were then older and wiser, and wore boots regularly instead of going bare-footed when they