Jennifer Jane and the Tooth fairy 1/6

Jennifer Jane had a loose tooth!

Have you ever had a loose tooth? Well then, you'll know exactly how she felt. She just couldn't stop jiggling it with her tongue.

"Do stop jiggling that tooth," said her Mother.

Dad said that if it didn't come out very soon, she'd have to go to the dentist.

"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" said Mum, "because the tooth fairy will only pay for teeth that are taken from under your pillow."

‘I know several fairies,’ thought Jennifer Jane to herself ‘but I've never heard of a tooth fairy before.’

"Mum," she asked, "what's a tooth fairy?"

"Why, the tooth fairy will pay a shiny new 10p piece for children's first baby teeth. If you leave your tooth under your pillow when you go to bed at night, in the morning you'll find that the tooth has gone and there's a 10p piece there instead."

Well, she didn't mind having a bit more pocket money and just before bedtime, her loose tooth came right out. She felt the place where it had been with her finger and could feel the new tooth coming through.

"That's your grown-up tooth coming through and pushing out your baby tooth," said Dad.

Jennifer Jane wrapped her baby tooth up in a piece of paper and put it under her pillow. Sure enough, next morning, when she woke up, the tooth had gone and under her pillow in its place was a shiny new 10p piece, just like Mum had said.

At breakfast Jennifer Jane proudly showed her parents the shiny silver coin.

"Why do the tooth fairies want to buy children's baby teeth?" she asked.

Mum and Dad looked at each other.

"I'm sure I don't know," said Mother.

"Neither do I," said Dad "but there has to be a reason I'm sure! The tooth fairy always came for my teeth when I was a little boy and my parents used to tell me how they were always paid a silver threepenny piece for their teeth when they were young. A Threepenny Joey my Dad used to call it," he added.

Jennifer Jane finished her breakfast and then went off to school. Not even the teachers knew why tooth fairies wanted the teeth.

The English Mistress said that Jennifer Jane had "an insatiable curiosity" and the History Teacher said that as far as he knew, fairies had paid for teeth for hundreds of years but that nobody knew why the teeth were wanted.

Jennifer Jane asked everyone she could think of. She looked through the school library for books on ancient customs but there didn't seem to be any answer.

Tooth fairies paid for baby teeth with a silver coin and had been doing so for as long as people could remember but nobody knew why!

Eventually she gave up looking. The next day was a school holiday.

"I have to go to the bank and get some money," said Mother after breakfast, "would you like to come with me?"

"Yes please, mum," said Jennifer Jane.

She always liked going to the bank. It was fun standing in a line of people waiting to give their cheques to a person who sat behind a counter with a big glass window. Sometimes the man behind the window gave back lots of money and sometimes he just kept the cheque.

Dad had tried to explain but Jennifer Jane could never understand why people put money in a bank one day and then went back the next day and took it out again to spend it.

Today there were lots of people waiting to get their money. While she was waiting in one queue, Jennifer Jane noticed a familiar figure waiting in the queue for the next window.

‘That's Lieutenant Moonshine in ordinary clothes,’ thought Jennifer Jane to herself ‘but it can't be. Fairies don't come to town, they live in the woods and anyway they're invisible to grown ups.’

Jennifer Jane watched the person who looked like Lieutenant Moonshine hand over her cheque. The man behind the window asked, "How would you like it, Madam?"

"All in silver please," said the lady and the man opened his window and gave her a large bag full of coins.

"Thank you," said the lady and she turned round and walked out.

‘I'm sure that was Lieutenant Moonshine,’ thought Jennifer Jane, ‘when I get home I'm going to go and see her. I wonder why she wanted all that money?’