The Magician's Tea-Party facts for kids

Quick facts for kids "The Magician's Tea Party"
This is a picture was painted for the fairy tale.
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	The Other Side of the Sun
Media type	Print
Publication date	1900

"The Magician’s Tea-Party" is a fun fairy tale written in 1900 by a British author named Evelyn Sharp. She was also a suffragist, meaning she worked to get women the right to vote.

The Story of King Wistful

The story begins with an eight-year-old boy named King Wistful. He rules a place called the Cheerful Isles. But King Wistful thought his kingdom was super boring and ugly. He even renamed it the Monotonous Isles, which means "boring islands."

One day, King Wistful sneaks out of his castle. He wants to find something exciting because he thinks his kingdom is the "dullest and ugliest and the most wearisome place in the world." As he looks around, feeling sorry for himself, he hears a voice. It's a little girl singing a song for him to come and play!

Sing-song! Don't be long!

Wistful, Wistful, come and play!

Sing-song! It's very wrong

To stay and stay and stay away!

The world is much too nice a place

To make you pull so long a face;

It's full of people being kind,

And full of flowers for you to find;

There's heaps of folks for you to tease

And all the naughtiness you please;

To sulk is surely waste of time

When all those trees are yours to climb!

Ting-a-ring! Make haste, King!

I've something really nice to say;

Ting-a-ring! A proper King

Would not make me sing all day!

When the girl appears, King Wistful notices her "brightest brown eyes." She introduces herself as Eyebright. When he asks where she learned her song, she says a magician taught her. She had to sing it every day until the King came.

Meeting the Magician

King Wistful tells Eyebright how boring his kingdom is. Eyebright tries to convince him it's wonderful, but she can't change his mind. Still, she gets him to follow her to see the Magician. The two children travel to the middle island. They go through woods and then take a boat to reach the Magician’s cave.

Inside the cave, Eyebright tells the Magician why they are there. She says he must help the King see how wonderful his kingdom truly is. The Magician shakes hands with the King and invites them to tea. He performs some magic, and a table and chairs appear. The King and Eyebright help set the table, and the three of them have a lovely tea party.

The Wymps and the Eye Swap

After tea, the children explain their problem to the Magician. He tells them that tiny creatures called "wymps" threw dust in the King's eyes when he was a baby. This dust made him unable to see the beauty around him. The Magician explains why the wymps did this. He then tells them they must go to Wympland to ask the wymps to fix it. With a flash of lightning, the Magician sends the children to Wympland.

In Wympland, the King and Eyebright find a wymp to talk to. The King tells the wymp about the dust in his eyes. The wymp says there's only one way to fix it: they must exchange eyes. Without a moment's hesitation, Eyebright switches her eyes with the King's. The King is upset because he didn't want Eyebright to see the world through his "dull" eyes. But at this point, he has no choice.

A New View of the Kingdom

Suddenly, the King and Eyebright are back home, looking over the kingdom. The King can now see how truly wonderful and beautiful his kingdom is! Eyebright, however, thinks she can only see five round islands in a row. But the King is so sure of the beauty that she agrees it must be a beautiful kingdom. Eyebright then runs off, and the King goes home to bed.

The story ends by saying that there is now a Queen of the Monotonous Isles. She always agrees with the King when he talks about how beautiful the kingdom is. This might seem surprising, but it's because "the Queen sees everything with the King's eyes."

About the Author: Evelyn Sharp

Evelyn Jane Sharp (1869-1955) was a British writer. She wrote many fairy tales, including "The Magician’s Tea-Party." This story was part of her book called The Other Side of the Sun.

Early Life and Education

Evelyn was the ninth of eleven children in her family. Her older sisters taught her at home until she was twelve. After that, she went to a school in London for three years. Later, she studied in Paris at the College de France.

Writing and Activism

Evelyn Sharp wrote more than twenty books and hundreds of short stories for children. Her stories were special because they treated children as smart and creative. She didn't talk down to them or try to teach them lessons in a boring way.

Evelyn also wrote for several newspapers. She was the first regular writer for the "women's page" in a newspaper called the Manchester Guardian. She also wrote for the Daily Herald for eight years and the Daily Chronicle in the 1930s.

In 1906, Evelyn became a women’s suffragist. This meant she worked hard to help women get the right to vote. She gave speeches and wrote articles to support this important goal.

Later Life

Evelyn continued her writing and travels. In 1933, when she was sixty years old, she married Henry. He was seventy-five. They were married for eight years until Henry passed away in 1941. Evelyn lived the rest of her life in London, where she died in a nursing home on June 17, 1955.