After the creature observes the family's sadness, wondering at the cause of it, he discovers that their emotional hardship is, in part, directly related to their financial hardship. They live in poverty, though it does not seem so to him because they have each other's company, having only the vegetables from their garden and the milk produced by their one cow. At this point, he stops taking food from their stores for his own subsistence and begins to feed himself with nuts and berries from the woods. Further, he realizes that Felix spends a large part of his day collecting firewood for the family, and the creature begins to borrow Felix's tools to prepare wood for them, often enough to last them for several days at a time. He then happily observes that Felix is able to use his time to do other jobs that need done: repairing the cottage, working in the garden, and so on.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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