Excerpt from Curious Stories About Fairies: And Other Funny People, With Illustrations by Billings<br><br>How the Agricultural System of the Black Brothers was interfered with by South West Wind, Esquire.<br><br>IN a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria, there was, in 'old time, a valley Of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was surrounded, on all sides, by steep and rocky mountains, rising into peaks, which were always covered with snow, and from which a number of torrents descended in con stant cataracts. One of these fell westward, over the face of a crag so high, that, when the sun had set to everything else, and all below was darkness, the king or the golden river was written in 1841, at the request of a very young lady, and solely for her amuse ment, Without any idea of publication. It has since remained in the possession of a friend, to Whose suggestion, and the passive assent Of the author, the publishers are indebted for the opportunity of printing it.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.