I had the book as a child in the early ‘90’s.
The book was brown and had pictures in the centre of the front and back, embossed. Collection of stories, one about a fire sprite and water nymph trying to be together. Illustration of them with a glass window between them. One of the last stories in the book had to do with a stone walled off orchard and a giant keeping the children out. Something about the stigmata.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
The story about the fire sprite and the water nymph sounds like “Through the Fire” by Mary de Morgan. The one about the orchard and the giant is “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde. I read “Through the Fire” in a collection called Beyond the Looking Glass, but that volume doesn’t contain “The Selfish Giant.”
It does look like these two stories both appear in Hilda Boswell’s Treasury of Children’s Stories. The cover has brown tones, so perhaps this is your book.
Thank you so much for solving this mystery that’s been nagging at my mind for years. I’ve already found and ordered a copy online. Thank you so much!!!