{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/fairy-tale-2",
 "title": "Fairy Tale",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 74,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 76,
  "n_stanzas": 19,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Among the hills lives John McCrae,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An honest man so all do say;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "John and his wife live together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mong the hills and blooming heather.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On their small faim they do keep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cow and a few goats and sheep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They own a little Highland horse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which ploughs and draws the peats from moss.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For they never saw a coal fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And peats give heat all they require;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peat fire makes best Highland whisky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which doth make a man so frisky.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "John is a crofter in Skye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May better days on him draw nigh;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet John he did not inherit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Any discontented spirit.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But happy with his humble lot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His little croft and poor turf cot;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He always to the Lord gives praise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though but a poor crop he doth raise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He never travelled far abroad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And worships still his father’s God;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From modern thoughts he is quite free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And newspapers doth seldom see.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He believes the tales his Granny told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To him long since in days of old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his wife, kind-hearted Mary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Believes in both witch and fairy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She sweeps her hearth so clean each night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For fairies in bright fire delight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they love to see all things neat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those pretty little creatures sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So to the cot of John McCrae",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They every night do wend their way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to view the peat fire burn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to help his wife to churn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Neighbors great jealousy display,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They can’t make butter like McCrae,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the fairies have the power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of making all the milk turn sour.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One moonlight night old John McCrae,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He in the glen saw fairies play;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prettiest sight he ever seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While they did dance upon the green.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And John doth solemn pass his word",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They were as small as humming bird;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he these charmers did behold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They were clad in green and gold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The most charming one upon the green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was just crowned the fairy queen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She told John she loved his wife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because her home it knew no strife.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But she asked John for a reward,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She said Mary’s bannocks were too hard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that the fairies loved to eat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little nibs of softer meat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So fully John he told Mary",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the strange request of fairy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So now each day she doth bake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little tiny griddle cake,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In morning fairies they have flown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the little cake too is gone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But wicked people full of vice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say that the cake is eat by mice.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But this John’s heart it snd doth grieve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That people should themselves deceive;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It hath been so since Adam’s fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some believe much, some not at all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So now farewell to John McCrae,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May we meet him some other day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to our heart it is relief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find a man with old belief.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some folks to beauty they are blind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So full of selfishness the mind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And others happy to catch gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the green field or hill or stream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}