The story
There was once a cross, grumpy man who owned a cheap little clothing store. He acted as his own ‘puller in,’ because he enjoyed annoying people and inducing them to pay high prices for second class goods. He was overbearing to the poor, brutal to the children and never happy except when he saw somebody suffering. His neighbors all hated him, but had given him up as a bad John. Consequently they were very much surprised to notice a sudden radical change in him. He became kindly instead of cruel, benevolent instead of penurious and tried in every way to be a benefactor to all mankind. They couldn’t understand it and the mystery was not lightened when he unbosomed himself to a friend. ‘You see it was this way,’ he said. ‘I got in bad with the queen of the fairies and she put me over the jumps. See that wax lady in there? Well, she came to life and so did those other dummies, and I found out that after they had tortured me for a while that I was a pretty bad lot. So now I am a good scout, and I am going to keep on being one, for if I don’t that fairy queen will come back.’ The merchant never relaxes in his efforts to please the fairies, for the experiences he had were so fearful that he will never forget them.
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 5 April 1913
