Elfin Cottage

Three happy-go-lucky elf children, Elfred, Elzmay and Elvo, live on their own in a garden, puddle-jumping with toads, playing tag with fireflies and other elf games, sipping nectar from flowers with the hummingbird, and outsmarting the cat, the crows, and the big red fish in the pond (a bathing elf would be her wish!) When tuckered out from their frolics, they drop off to sleep in the closest berth-maybe a chink in the mossy stone wall or an empty bird's nest in a tree. They have no bedtime or time to arise, because they never go to school. They think they're smart enough-- In rain they take cover under toadstools and catch the drops in nutshells and bottle caps to drink. When they want to splash at the edge of the pond, they take turns teasing the big red fish to come to the other side. But then comes a harsh winter. The little elves weather it huddled down in a rabbit's damp, dark, crowded burrow-no fun there! When Elzmay complains to her brothers, Elfred concedes they may need a new home. In spring they emerge to hear a racket from behind the stone wall and, climbing to the top, find a new house being built near the old apple tree. Day after day they watch it grow bigger, and little by little they begin to figure--maybe they can build their own cozy little house in a nice, secret place! With no schooling, though, they can't read plans or measure in inches. Nor do they have any tools. But with great enthusiasm and a bottle of glue borrowed from the gardener's shed, they begin to construct their slap-dash little thatched cottage in a hidden bower. After some problem-solving, by midsummer the elves have worked to make their dream-house come true. Now they have a place of their very own, where they can lay their heads to sleep, sheltered from the elements and their foes. Their first guest is their friend the hummingbird, who comes to Elfin Cottage for tea, sweetened with honey made by the bee!

For children who might wonder what it would be like if they could just do as they pleased all the time, without any rules or school, the story of Elfin Cottage-told in rhyming couplets with charming na鴳e-style illustrations--shows that even a mostly happy life can be improved with a little "structure" added to it, that a job well done can be as satisfying as a game well played, and where there's a will, there's always a way!