The romance of a little dressmaker's apprentice who marries a prince; a legend of a Saxon king; a true story of what a small boy did with a penny; these are only three of sixteen lively and lovely tales for girls and boys, and for grown-ups who know the special charm of Eleanor Farjeon's imagination and narrative style. (They are the grown-ups who keep her "Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard" on their bedside shelves besides James Stephens' "Crock of Gold" and Walter de la Mare's "Memoirs of a Midget").

Though this is a special collection of Eleanor Farjeon's best tales, written over a period of years and previously unpublished in this country, the volume has unity of spirit and an arrangement that provides a delightful progression: first, five stories of pure fairytale, then five that have literally one foot in fairyland and one without, and a third group of stories of the world of reality. The stories come to full circle in the sixteenth tale, which stands alone. In "Pannychis", a poetic tale of two Greek children in the Golden Age, elders may find a pieces of Miss Farjeon's most distinguished prose and children something to remember and re-read.

The artist, Robert Lawson, has interpreted Eleanor Farjeon's imagination with a score of his loveliest illustrations.

From the dust jacket

The following tales are included:

• The Little Dressmaker
• The King's Daughter Cries for the Moon
• The Goldfish
• The Clumber Pup
• Leaving Paradise
• Tell Me a Story
• The Miracle of the Poor Island
• Old Surly and The Boy
• The Girl Who Kissed the Peach Tree
• In Those Days
• Pennyworth
• "And I Dance Mine Own Child"
• The Real-leather Writing Case
• The Glass Peacock
• The Kind Farmer
• Pannychis