--- title: Fairy Ointment — English Fairy Tales · full text with trees description: Fairy Ointment, «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Dame Goody was a nurse that looked after sick people, and minded babies. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / Fairy Ointment # Fairy Ointment Fairy Ointment of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole text, 36 sentences and 823 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/1/) — Dame Goody was a nurse that looked after sick people, and minded babies. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/2/) — One night she was woke up at midnight, and when she went downstairs, she saw a strange squinny-eyed, little ugly old fellow, who asked her to come to his wife who was too ill to mind her baby. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/3/) — Dame Goody didn't like the look of the old fellow, but business is business; so she popped on her things, and went down to him. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/4/) — And when she got down to him, he whisked her up on to a large coal-black horse with fiery eyes, that stood at the door; and soon they were going at a rare pace, Dame Goody holding on to the old fellow like grim death. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/5/) — They rode, and they rode, till at last they stopped before a cottage door. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/6/) — So they got down and went in and found the good woman abed with the children playing about; and the babe, a fine bouncing boy, beside her. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/7/) — Dame Goody took the babe, which was as fine a baby boy as you'd wish to see. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/8/) — The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby's eyes with it as soon as it opened them. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/9/) — After a while it began to open its eyes. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/10/) — Dame Goody saw that it had squinny eyes just like its father. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/11/) — So she took the box of ointment and stroked its two eyelids with it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/12/) — But she couldn't help wondering what it was for, as she had never seen such a thing done before. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/13/) — So she looked to see if the others were looking, and, when they were not noticing she stroked her own right eyelid with the ointment. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/14/) — No sooner had she done so, than everything seemed changed about her. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/15/) — The cottage became elegantly furnished. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/16/) — The mother in the bed was a beautiful lady, dressed up in white silk. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/17/) — The little baby was still more beautiful than before, and its clothes were made of a sort of silvery gauze. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/18/) — Its little brothers and sisters around the bed were flat-nosed imps with pointed ears, who made faces at one another, and scratched their polls. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/19/) — Sometimes they would pull the sick lady's ears with their long and hairy paws. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/20/) — In fact, they were up to all kinds of mischief; and Dame Goody knew that she had got into a house of pixies. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/21/) — But she said nothing to nobody, and as soon as the lady was well enough to mind the baby, she asked the old fellow to take her back home. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/22/) — So he came round to the door with the coal-black horse with eyes of fire, and off they went as fast as before, or perhaps a little faster, till they came to Dame Goody's cottage, where the squinny-eyed old fellow lifted her down and left her, thanking her civilly enough, and paying her more than she had ever been paid before for such service. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/23/) — Now next day happened to be market-day, and as Dame Goody had been away from home, she wanted many things in the house, and trudged off to get them at the market. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/24/) — As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/25/) — And what do you think he was doing? - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/26/) — Why he went about from stall to stall taking up things from each, here some fruit, and there some eggs, and so on; and no one seemed to take any notice. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/27/) — Now Dame Goody did not think it her business to interfere, but she thought she ought not to let so good a customer pass without speaking. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/28/) — So she ups to him and bobs a curtsey and said: “Gooden, sir, I hopes as how your good lady and the little one are as well as----” - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/29/) — But she couldn't finish what she was a-saying, for the funny old fellow started back in surprise, and he says to her, says he: “What! do you see me today?” - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/30/) — “See you,” says she, “why, of course I do, as plain as the sun in the skies, and what's more,” says she, “I see you are busy too, into the bargain.” - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/31/) — “Ah, you see too much,” said he; “now, pray, with which eye do you see all this?” - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/32/) — “With the right eye to be sure,” said she, as proud as can be to find him out. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/33/) — “The ointment! - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/34/) — The ointment!” cried the old pixy thief. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/35/) — “Take that for meddling with what don't concern you: you shall see me no more.” - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/46/36/) — And with that he struck her on her right eye, and she couldn't see him any more; and, what was worse, she was blind on the right side from that hour till the day of her death. - ← previous: [The Ass, the Table, and the Stick](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/45/) - next →: [The Well of the World's End](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/47/) - ↑ back to [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/)