nne Jefferies was the daughter of a poor labourer in the parish of St Teath.
It is said that she lived from 1626 to 1698.At nineteen she became a servant in the family of Mr Moses Pitt. She was a brave, bold girl, and her wish was to make friends with the fairies. So often after sunset she would look for them under the fronds of ferns, and in the bells of foxgloves, singing:
"Fairy fair and fairy bright,
Come and be my chosen sprite."
Or on a moonlight night, walking in the valley against the stream, she would sing:
"Moon shines bright, waters run clear,
I am here, but where's my fairy dear?"
For a long time the fairies tested her. They never lost sight of her, but would run from frond to frond of the ferns, so that she should never see them.
But at last, when Anne was sitting in her master's garden after her morning's work, she heard the branches moving, and thought her sweetheart had come to look for her. So she sat still, saying nothing, attending to her knitting, and soon she heard a soft laugh. Still no one appeared, and she said half-aloud, "You may stay there till the kueney grows on the gate ere I'll come to 'ee."
A strange, ringing and musical laugh, which she knew was not her lover's startled her. But she was a favourite in the parish, and told herself that no one would harm her. She heard the garden gate open and close again very softly, and soon she saw at the entrance to the arbour where she was sitting six little men handsomely dressed in green. They had charming faces and bright eyes, and the grandest of them wore a red feather in his cap. He came forward, bowed to her, and when she held out her hand, jumped on to it, climbed into her lap, and up to her neck and face, and began kissing her. Presently, he called the others, and they all came and kissed her. She was altogether charmed, until one of them pricked her eyes and blinded her. They carried her away to some distant place, flying through the air, and then one of them said, "Tear away!"--or so it sounded to Anne. Her sight was restored, and she found herself in a most beautiful place. The temples and palaces were of gold and silver; the lakes full of gold and silver fish, and the trees laden with fruit and flowers. Now the little people seemed no smaller than herself, and Anne joined in their place and dancing, dressed as splendidly as the rest. Her six friends constantly attended her, but the one who had spoken to her first aroused the jealousy of the rest because he remained always her favourite. At last they separated themselves, and went into a most lovely garden, where Anne would have wished to stay for ever. But the other five found the place, and came at the head of a fierce mob of the little people to attack her lover, who soon lay wounded at her feet. Then the fairy who had blinded her before laid his hands on Anne's eyes, and amid darkness and strange noises she felt herself whirled through space, as if a thousand flies were buzzing round her. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on the ground in the arbour with an anxious crowd of faces watching her. All thought she had suffered some kind of convulsion, from which she was now recovered.
