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 4E CUP OF GOLD 
 
 BY RUTH MERRIAM GILLESPIE ft 
 
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THE CUP OF GOLD 
 
And there in all its beauty lay the Dream-Child 
 
The Cup ofQold 
 
 BY 
 
 RUTH MERRIAM 
 GILLESPIE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 ANNA WILLE 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 1917 
 
The Cup of gold 
 
 ON the shore of the western ocean 
 there is a great and beautiful 
 country, which in the ages long ago 
 was inhabited only by the Fairies of the 
 Hills and the Sea. 
 
 It was a land of flowers and sunshine, 
 even as it is now, with high mountains, 
 wonderful old trees, and fertile green 
 valleys. 
 
 The waves curled up on its shore, 
 sometimes against high cliffs and some- 
 times on a sandy beach where the Chil- 
 dren of the Sea came to play with their 
 
=i^ "the Cup of gddyv== 
 
 many-colored shells in the sunshine. 
 They rode through the caves on the 
 backs of the tortoises, and chased the 
 seals from the rocks where they dived 
 and played and drove them in to the 
 shore. At sunset they drifted out with 
 the tide to their home under the sea, 
 where they continued their play, hav- 
 ing games with the shimmering fish, 
 racing their white horses to the crests 
 of the waves, rolling great pearls on the 
 floor of the ocean, and making strings 
 of coral beads. 
 
 The Children of the Forest laughed 
 and danced under the trees, throwing 
 garlands of flowers high in the air where 
 they swung from the branches and sang 
 the songs of the birds with whom they 
 played. Sometimes they were joined by 
 the little bands of Elves and Sprites, 
 who came down from the mountains to 
 
; «( ^ The Cup of gold ^ ; « =^ 
 
 roll their nuggets of gold on the hill- 
 sides, and who told wonderful stories 
 of the caves of their mountain homes, 
 where the walls were gleaming streaks 
 of gold and green, with roofs all lined 
 with silver; and of a beautiful Princess, 
 whose eyes were the color of the azure 
 sky, whose hair of silken gold covered 
 her like a cloud, and whose robe was of 
 a silver sheen like the roofs of their little 
 caves. She ruled over them and was the 
 Spirit of Joy itself, until one day, in a 
 spirit of adventure, she had followed 
 some little black Gnomes deep into the 
 mountains, to the cave of the terrible 
 Iron King. 
 
 This stern King brooded and planned 
 and worked in a huge black cavern 
 deep down in the earth, where even the 
 millions of torches made only a dim 
 light. 
 
>:«(^ The Cup of gold ^:«: 
 
 The Children of the Forest laughed and 
 danced under the trees 
 
=*:-( ^ The Cup of gold y > 
 
 He ruled with a hand like his iron, 
 cold and hard and cruel, thinking only 
 of his own ambition and always work- 
 ing to forge that power which should 
 be supreme over all the world. Con- 
 stantly he planned, and constantly the 
 little Gnomes worked to accomplish 
 the mighty tasks which were ever be- 
 fore them; working night and day in 
 the great black cave with their torches, 
 flames, and hammers. 
 
 When the Princess came before the 
 King, he was very angry, though he ad- 
 mired her courage, and, wishing to show 
 her the might of his power, he had her 
 chained to the steps of his throne,where 
 he showed her the marvellous works 
 which he would give to the world; the 
 creations of his brain, made perfect by 
 the strength of his will, which would 
 at last make him Master of all. 
 
=*:« ( "The Cup of Qold y ^ == 
 
 The Princess was frightened, but she 
 was thrilled by the majesty of the King, 
 by his great strength, and by the won- 
 derful mind which conceived and car- 
 ried out the ideas inspired by his ambi- 
 tion and desire for power. But she 
 thought it was a pity that he should 
 not have a wider vision, that he should 
 not know the glories and beauties of 
 the rest of the world, or the inspiration 
 of the Spirit which would make him 
 truly great, and she was filled with the 
 desire to show him some of that joy 
 and light which he had never known, 
 and to give him a new understanding 
 through which they might together seek 
 that rare and beautiful child of the 
 Spirit, called Happiness. 
 
 Gradually the Iron King, overcome 
 by the sweetness of her smile, the glint 
 of the gold in her hair, and the wonder- 
 
» • M 
 
 — <(^ The Cup of gold y> 
 
 ful light in the starlike eyes, took away 
 her chains and allowed himself to be led 
 into a beautiful palace of dreams,where 
 she showed him all the beauty of the 
 world. He heard the songs of the birds, 
 the murmur of the streams, and was sur- 
 rounded by the perfume of the flowers. 
 She showed him the children dancing 
 in the sunshine, the purple haze on the 
 mountains, the white crests of the waves 
 on the shore, and the colors of the sun- 
 set. She tried in every way to soften his 
 cold heart, to bring the Spirit of Love 
 into his soul; but he gave her only a day 
 and then returned to that work which 
 was the passion of his life, and then — 
 he forgot her utterly. 
 
 The Princess went back to the Elves 
 and Sprites and waited for the Iron King 
 to remember and call her back. But the 
 summons never came, and so at the end 
 
=*> Q The Cup of gold y > = 
 
 of a year, not being able to forget, she 
 went and stood before him silently — 
 and — he followed her as before to the 
 palace of beautiful dreams, where she 
 tried again to win his heart to love and 
 happiness; but— at the end of a day he 
 left her. Only for a moment could she 
 hold him in her dream, for his ambition 
 was greater than his love; and she was 
 crushed by the Iron of his Will. 
 
 Each year she went to him with a new 
 dream, and each year she died a new 
 death of the Spirit in her effort to create 
 the dream-child of Happiness. Each 
 year of neglect and sorrow took away 
 some of her strength and power, for she 
 gave of herself, the very life of her soul, 
 receiving in return only a transient kiss. 
 
 Finally all her treasure of golden 
 dreams was gone and there came a time 
 when there was nothing left to offer the 
 
— >:«(^ The Cup of gold ^:« 
 
 Iron King; for the Spirit of Love is a 
 frail and delicate flower, which must 
 be tended and cherished to bring it in- 
 to its full power of beauty and bloom, 
 and which, if neglected, withers away 
 and dies. Each gift of the Princess was 
 a part of her life which the Iron King 
 absorbed into himself, and for which he 
 gave no return. 
 
 The joy and light faded from the 
 azure eyes, the lips no longer smiled, 
 and the gold of her hair became like 
 the silver of her robe. She left the golden 
 caves of her mountain home, and wan- 
 dered by the sea like a gray shadow of 
 the mist, grieving for the child of her 
 dreams, for the Spirit of Happiness, for 
 which she had sacrificed her life, and 
 which had never been born. 
 
 She wandered for a long time, and 
 finally came to a grotto filled with a 
 
=*:«( ^ The Cup of gold y !f= 
 
 soft blue light, and — resting on a large 
 rock on the yellow sand she saw a great 
 pink shell which was still unopened. As 
 she stooped to lift the top of the shell, 
 a dazzling Fairy of the Light stood be- 
 fore her and said: 
 
 "Thou who wast once the Spirit of 
 Joy art now the Spirit of Suffering, be- 
 cause thou gavest too freely of the gold- 
 en dreams which I bestowed upon thee. 
 I cannot bring back the golden dreams; 
 but I may bestow on thee one more 
 gift which, afteryears of strife and suffer- 
 ing, will rest upon the spirit of this land, 
 a blessing, even as thou, who hast lived 
 its life in thy spirit, shalt receive the 
 blessing of that gift which restores to 
 thee thy life and power. 
 
 "Open the shell and thou shalt find 
 thy dream — but it shall remain with 
 thee under another name — it is called 
 
==>I«r The Cup of gold \>= 
 
 the Spirit of Peace. In the hand of the 
 child thou wilt find the Cup of Forget- 
 fulness of Pain, and in the perfume of 
 the flower thy power to dream again. 
 
 "Nor shall thy golden dreams of old 
 be entirely lost. They shall live again 
 in the work of the Iron King for the 
 progress of the world; while the works 
 of his ambition and his lust of power 
 shall be works of ruin and destruction 
 breathing forth death and desolation, 
 which, after a day of life, shall go down 
 to oblivion forever; while those which 
 sprang from the inspiration of thy gold- 
 en dreams shall endure to be a glory to 
 the world." 
 
 The Princess opened the shell, and 
 there in all its beauty lay the dream- 
 child— the Spirit of Happiness itself— 
 for which she had sought so long; and 
 in the tiny hand was a golden flower 
 
='i<( ^ "The Cup of gol7j *> 
 
 shaped like a little cup. But as she took 
 it into her arms, the little form faded 
 away, leaving in her hand only the little 
 golden flower. For in this world it is 
 not permitted to keep the Spirit of Per- 
 fect Happiness for more than a moment, 
 and many never see its face. 
 
 The Princess clasped the flower to 
 her breast, inhaling its perfume as she 
 ran back to the hills. As she ran her 
 power came back, the silver of her hair 
 was tinged again with gold, and she be- 
 came more beautiful than ever before. 
 The Spirit of Happiness which she had 
 held in her arms for a moment now 
 shone from her eyes as the Spirit of 
 Peace. 
 
 She scattered the petals of the golden 
 flower, and the flower faces covered the 
 hillsides, and clustered in all the valleys, 
 sending out their perfumes of dreams 
 
=»> Q The Cup of g old ^ >> ^^== 
 
 and peace. Their petals caught the 
 rays of the sun, and shone in a golden 
 glory over all the land. 
 
 The Princess still lives in her moun- 
 tain home, and comes forth only once 
 a year to pour over the hillsides dreams 
 and fancies, perfumes and colors from 
 the great flower cup which the Elves 
 and Sprites have fashioned from the 
 walls of their little caves, and which 
 they w^ork every day in the year to fill 
 with the shimmer of golden dreams, 
 the perfume of silver memories, the 
 blue of the sky, the purple of the haze 
 on the mountains, and the colors of the 
 sunset, to renew and mend the broken 
 dreams and bring peace to the hearts 
 of men. 
 
<^HERE ENDS THE CUP OF 
 GOLD, A STORY BY RUTH 
 MERRIAM GILLESPIE«=?«FIVE 
 HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED 
 BY TAYLOR & TAYLOR AT 
 THEIR PRESS IN SAN FRAN 
 CISCO, IN THE YEAR MCM 
 XVII <^ ILLUSTRATIONS 
 BY ANNA WILLE 
 
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