In which this poem features a fairy I met at the library

Today's story is a poem.  The book A Fairy Went a-Marketing was a big sensation in my hometown, because the illustrator is a local teacher.  

Illustration by Jamichael Henterly, 1992

I'd heard that his wife and daughter were models for many of his beautiful paintings, but it was a shock when Ann Marie herself came into the library one day to return a stack of slightly overdue books.

"You--you're the fairy!" I gasped.  

She smiled at me, and paid her fine, and gently let me go.

A fairy went a-marketing
She bought a little fish;
She put it in a crystal bowl
Upon a golden dish.
An hour she sat in wonderment
And watched its silver gleam,
And then she gently took it
And slipped it in a stream.

A fairy went a-marketing
She bought a coloured bird;
It sang the sweetest, shrillest song
That ever she had heard.
She sat beside its painted cage
And listened half the day,
And then she opened wide the door
And let it fly away.

A fairy went a-marketing
She bought a winter gown
All stitched about with gossamer
And lined with thistledown.
She wore it all the afternoon
With prancing and delight,
Then gave it to a little frog
To keep him warm at night.

A fairy went a-marketing
She bought a gentle mouse
To take her tiny messages,
To keep her tiny house.
All day she kept its busy feet
Pit-patting to and fro,
And then she kissed its silken ears,
Thanked it, and let it go.

--Rose Fyleman