The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 199–202 · Part 1: Part First
59. The Wise Fairy
Goal: Your child tells a story-poem in their own words and writes good questions about it.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 199 is Alice Cary's poem "The Wise Fairy", about a fairy who hides gold for poor spinners, ditchers, children and fishers; the gold stays gold when spent on needs and turns to clay when wasted. Section 200 lists words and phrases to use in sentences; Section 201 asks the child to tell the story; Section 202 asks for ten questions.
The lesson, step by step
Read the poem
Read "The Wise Fairy" aloud together, a stanza each.
For she was the friend of the friendless,
And her heart was in her hand.
Hard words
Talk about: flax and distaff (used in spinning), ditcher and dyke (a man digging a ditch), belike (perhaps), pasture. "Her heart was in her hand" means she was generous and ready to give.
Tell the story (Section 201)
Close the book. Your child tells the story of the Wise Fairy in their own words: who she helped, how, and the strange thing about her gold.
The lesson
Read the last stanza again.
'T is not in the gold we waste or hold
That a golden blessing lies.
Ask: What did the people learn?
Write questions (Section 202)
Your child writes 6 to 10 questions about the poem, each with an interrogation point. Then you answer some aloud.
Check it gently
Is each a real question, starting with a capital and ending with "?"? Fix one or two.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
Why did the fairy live in a tree?
What did she hide in the flax of the spinners?
Why did some of the gold turn to clay?
Answers to the book's problems
The fairy hid gold in the flax of poor women spinning, where poor ditchers' spades would strike, in the milking pails of poor children, and as a golden salmon in fishers' nets. Gold spent on shoes, bread or a warm coat stayed gold; gold spent on jewels, wine, fine silks or gambling ("staked his pleasure at play") turned to clay. The people learned to spend to some good end.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.