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 THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 
 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 
 
 
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 PRESENTED BY THE 
 
 
 
 
 WILLIAM A. WHITAKER 
 
 
 
 
 FOUNDATION 
 
 
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*^* Five hundred copies only of this edition 
 
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IN THE FIRE 
 
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 •LOnDOn:€LKin-n/^TH€W5-ViGO--5T- 
 
 •1892- 
 
IN THE FIRE 
 
 AND OTHER FANCIES 
 
 RY 
 
 EFFIE JOHNSON 
 
 iriTH A FRONTISPIECE BY WALTER CRANE 
 
 LONDON 
 ELKIN MATHEWS 
 
 At the Sign of the Bodlev Head 
 
 IN Vigo Street 
 
 1892 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY VVERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO. 
 
 CIRCrS PLACE, LONDON WALL. E.C. 
 
To the Friends whose sympathy has been 
 to me the source of many grateful memories, 
 I affectionately dedicate this Book. 
 
 2, Villas-on-the-Heath, 
 
 Hampstead, 
 November^ 1891. 
 
 VISAS' , 
 989919 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. In the Fire 
 
 11. The River. 
 
 III. Mirabel 
 
 IV. The Trial . 
 V. The Fairy-Ring 
 
 VI. The Cuckoo 
 
 VII. Forget-me-Nots 
 
 VIII. The Lad's House 
 
 IX, Wishes and Fate 
 
 X. The Blackberry Blossom 
 
 XI. Love and the Spring-time 
 
 PAGE 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 25 
 46 
 
 58 
 
 73 
 
 80 
 
 96 
 120 
 
 125 
 139 
 
IN THE FIRE. 
 
 T was Chrlstmas-tlme, and the soft 
 snow not only lay upon roof, hill- 
 side, hedge and tree, but it was 
 falling. Gently and softly it was fall- 
 ing from the leaden sky above to the white 
 earth beneath ; and in its fall it seemed to 
 level all the small inequalities of earth —as does 
 the purifying influence of heaven-sent sorrow. 
 
 But inside the parlour all was warmth and 
 brightness, for there was a splendid, old- 
 fashioned fireplace in it, piled high to-night, 
 with coal and logs ablaze, which gave out 
 a glorious heat. Before the fire, upon the 
 hearthrug lay little Rosie, fascinated by its 
 flickerings. 
 
 *' I can see the Fire King's grottoes. How 
 beautiful they are ! Oh, how I should like to 
 
8 IN THE FIRE. 
 
 walk about In them myself!" she exclaimed 
 aloud. 
 
 And a very short time afterwards she seemed 
 to be standing on the top bar of the large 
 grate, as the Fire King took off his flaming 
 cap to her In the friendliest manner possible. 
 
 "Come in, little girl, come In!" he called 
 out, and a number of tiny flame-men, who 
 danced In a train behind him, echoed heartily, 
 "Come in." So In Rosie walked, all among 
 the delightful grottoes of red-hot coal, and as 
 something very, very wonderful seemed to 
 have happened to her, she was not even 
 scorched by the heat, but felt It to be pleasant 
 and Invigorating. 
 
 *' Procession ! Procession ! " immediately 
 commanded the Fire King to the tail of flame- 
 men behind him. "Take our little girl guest 
 round the kingdom!" and his voice sounded 
 peremptory and crackly. Then he himself took 
 Rosie by the hand and led her about the fire- 
 kingdom. 
 
 She found It full of delightful surprises. 
 
IN THE FIRE. 9 
 
 None of the chambers were at all alike. 
 Wander where they would, each glowing- grotto 
 or cave- like chamber they entered was different 
 in shape and size from the one they left be- 
 hind ; and as there were no staircases, these led 
 one from another, up or down, in the most de- 
 lightfully higgledy-piggledy style imaginable. 
 
 Rosie found the variety more and more 
 interesting. 
 
 If you began to go anywhere there was 
 never any telling whether you would reach it 
 or some other place; and this, without trains to 
 catch or appointments to keep, was in itself an 
 entertainment ! 
 
 But for the Fire King's hand, however, 
 Rosie would have been lost over and over 
 again. As it was, they went merrily on, all 
 the little flame-men dancing behind them. 
 
 *' To the kingdom-top where the fire-breeze 
 plays!" shouted the King suddenly, and 
 twisting about, he promptly drew Rosie up- 
 wards to the top of the fire. 
 
 There the fire (which they here called the 
 
lO IN THE FIRE. 
 
 ** fire-breeze ") burnt uproariously of course; 
 and they all scampered and romped about in it 
 famously, until the procession was merged 
 into a wild dance of promiscuous flame. Soon 
 Rosie herself caught the spirit of joy and 
 consuming haste which seemed to actuate 
 everyone else, and springing about with the 
 Fire King, her hair and dress began to move 
 about as quickly as the fire-breeze itself, which 
 enveloped and wrapt them all round with such 
 invigorating restlessness. 
 
 Altogether it was the most wonderful dance 
 anyone ever took part in, this dance of the 
 fire-breeze on the top of the fire, for it was a 
 dance of hard work and aspiration ; and that is 
 why it was so refreshing. 
 
 It warmed, not only the flames themselves 
 that took part in it, but all Rosie' s family as 
 well, who sat at tea wondering why she slept so 
 long on the hearthrug, yet not liking to disturb 
 her; and it cheered all who looked on. 
 
 Great lumps of black coal and dark boughs 
 of wood changed into glorious, glowing sub- 
 
IN THE FIRE. I I 
 
 Stance under its aspiring energy; and were 
 finally borne up the great chimney, dark as 
 pitch, to sail as films of smoke nearer the 
 tranquil stars. 
 
 Well might Rosie rejoice in it ! 
 
 But suddenly all were crushed down ! 
 Rosie' s father was putting coal on. 
 
 What was the consequence of that ? 
 
 Well, in a moment the Fire King had pulled 
 Rosie with him down to the stedfastly glowing 
 grottoes below, calling out, ** Procession ! 
 Procession ! Escort our little girl guest to 
 the dining-hall, and leave the fire-breeze to 
 attack the fresh fuel." 
 
 So into form behind came the little flame- 
 men again, as the King gaily led Rosie back 
 to the very underneath part of the fire-king- 
 dom, where a capacious, glowing chamber, 
 with irregularly buttressed, glowing walls, be- 
 came their dining-hall. 
 
 '*We don't like your family staring at us 
 while we have meals, so we generally dine out 
 of their sight, somewhere below and behind," 
 
12 IN THE FIRE. 
 
 said the King to Rosie; and his voice sounded 
 confidential and less crackly under the sooth- 
 ing influence of the dining-hall. 
 
 '*I am sorry we have been rude," Rosie 
 rejoined with contrition ; and indeed she was 
 sorry; she had never thought that she could 
 hurt any one's feelings by gazing into the fire. 
 ** What do you eat ? " she inquired, to turn the 
 conversation. 
 
 ** Nice little bits of coal or wood," returned 
 the King ; *' you shall see how we do it." 
 
 Then he sat down at the end of a long, 
 glowing table, having placed Rosie at his 
 right hand ; and the little flame-men sprang 
 from behind and sat down, too, along the sides 
 of it, while into the hall frolicked a procession 
 of fire cooks, all wearing flaming aprons, and 
 carrying glowing dishes in their hands, the 
 contents of which blazed up the moment 
 they entered the room. Doubtless these were 
 *'nice little bits of coal or wood," as the 
 King had said. 
 
 Advancing towards the table, the chief cook 
 
IN THE FIRE. I3 
 
 then put his dish right upon His Majesty's 
 head, instead of placing it before him in a 
 civilised manner, and then the rest of the 
 cooks treated the rest of the flame-men in 
 exactly the same way. Each put a flaming 
 dish upon a head with considerable dispatch. 
 
 Then all the party blazed away comfortably 
 together. 
 
 *'And now," said the King, turning to 
 Rosie, ** now that you have seen how we 
 take our meals, what will you, yourself, take ? 
 The table was put here entirely for your con- 
 venience, because we, of course, never need 
 such a thing." 
 
 *' Thank you," said Rosie modestly, quite 
 relieved at having no flaming dish put upon 
 her own head ; *' a little bread-and-butter, 
 please." 
 
 The King was so very polite that the mo- 
 ment he caught what fell from her lips he 
 called out in the crackliest voice imaginable, 
 *' Bread-and-butter, at once, for the little girl 
 guest." 
 
14 IN THE FIRE. 
 
 Then up sprang three energetic flame-men, 
 up through the grottoes, out on to the bars of 
 the grate, and from there to the table in the 
 middle of the room, where they managed to 
 get a tiny morsel of bread-and-butter ; and 
 then they hurried back with it to the fire 
 again. 
 
 But, alas ! alas ! from no fault of theirs, of 
 course, but all owing to the climate, by the 
 time they had carried that morsel of bread- 
 and-butter to the presence of Rosie and the 
 Fire King, it had turned into the most dis- 
 agreeable black toast possible, with the butter 
 frizzling away in a frenzied manner on the top. 
 
 *' Is this what you like?" asked the King, 
 innocently, for he knew nothing whatever 
 about bread-and-butter. 
 
 '* Thank you ; this is — -toast, but it will do 
 very nicely," Rosie managed to say, but in so 
 hesitating a manner that the King at once 
 detected something was wrong. 
 
 ** Toast ! " he ejaculated ; ** then — nonsense ! 
 for that is not what you wanted ! " 
 
IN THE FIRE. 1 5 
 
 ^^Bread-and-butter for the little girl guest ! " 
 he cracked and frizzled out furiously. 
 
 ** Yes, your Majesty," said the three flame- 
 men in a fright; and off they set again — up 
 through the glowing grottoes, out by the bars 
 of the grate to the table in the room where the 
 family sat at tea ; and again they seized upon 
 another bit of bread-and-butter, and retired 
 with it to their own dining-hall as before. 
 
 But, alas ! alas ! all owing to the climate 
 again, of course, when they reached the King 
 and Rosie this bit was also burnt to a cinder. 
 
 With half a glance the King saw it was just 
 like the last, which Rosie had called " toast" ; 
 so, ordering these flame-men to sit down, with a 
 good deal of wrath, he signed to three others 
 to go on the quest again. Then, as these were 
 no more successful than the others had been, 
 the King, being a sensible creature, was 
 obliged to confess that he had ordered an 
 impossibility, and that it was out of his power 
 to procure bread-and-butter for any guest in 
 his own kingdom, however polite he might be. 
 
1 6 IN THE FIRE. 
 
 So he led little Rosie back to the bars of the 
 grate, and, waving farewell to her in his won- 
 derfully friendly way, bade her go and have 
 just what she liked to eat with her own family 
 at their table. 
 
 At which moment Rosie woke up, and went 
 to tea. 
 
 And afterwards, when she thought her 
 adventures over, and told her father of them, 
 while they sat cosily together in his armchair, 
 he said that it was really a very interesting 
 and curious time, this which she had passed in 
 the fire-kingdom, and that it plainly taught 
 him a lesson ; it taught him this — whenever by 
 any chance you do get out of your element in 
 this world, you cannot stay there very long, 
 because it is so next to impossible to find your 
 requisite nourishment there ! 
 
17 
 
 THE RIVER. 
 
 LL you could see was the water, drop- 
 ping from one stone to another on 
 the mountain side in a tiny waterfall. 
 It was a spring, which there issued 
 forth to thread its way down towards the foot 
 of the mountain, thence to the valley beyond, 
 and out into the wide world. 
 
 But this small spring had been making just 
 this same small beginning for many, many 
 years without knowing the result of its work. 
 Men had lived, and grown old, and died, trees 
 even had grown up and rotted away, positively 
 nations had risen and fallen while the moun- 
 tain rill, so small and unnoticeable, had been 
 springing up in this everlasting beginning. 
 
 At length one of the swallows that bathed 
 his beak in the rill talked to her in the sun- 
 shine. 
 
 B 
 
I 8 THE RIVER. 
 
 ** Fresh rill," he said, *' thank you for your 
 refreshing coolness. So deliciously you spring 
 up from beneath the sod. From time im- 
 memorial, so our swallow legends tell us, you 
 have faithfully afforded us this refreshment 
 whenever we have chosen to rest and take it. 
 Is there any way in which / can serve you ? " 
 
 Then the rill told the swallow her great 
 desire. It was, to find out if she had been of 
 any use in the world by constantly bubbling up 
 in this way for so many hundreds of years. 
 "Oh! swallow," she concluded, *'you who 
 have wings to use, fly— fly and see what the 
 other end of this my small beginning is like; 
 and tell me, for sometimes I long to know." 
 
 Without a word in reply the swallow lifted 
 his beak from the rill, and, with his sinuous 
 wings, flew down the mountain side, through 
 the valley, and out into the wide world ; and 
 ever he flew beside and along the river 
 which had its source in the mountain rill he 
 wished to serve. 
 
 It was at first, he saw, only the very smallest 
 
THE RIVER. 19 
 
 river, here and there in the valley spanned 
 by planks of wood, and cattle grazing in the 
 meadows near its banks stooped to drink its 
 waters as they lowed to each other across 
 it. Gradually, however, it grew wider and 
 stronger, through the influx of other streams 
 which ran to join it, and then turned great 
 water-wheels. 
 
 The bridges that spanned it henceforth were 
 built of stone or iron, arched and picturesque; 
 the houses on each side were large, with 
 gardens that nestled comfortably down to the 
 water's edge. 
 
 And cheery boatmen shouted or sang as 
 they launched or moored their boats upon it. 
 
 In short, the swallow noticed how useful the 
 river was, and what wholesome pleasure it 
 brought to all in its course ; in its cheerful 
 rush energy to turn a water-wheel, or freshen 
 the air; in its quiet moods — soothing to those 
 who rowed or drifted upon its surface ; and to 
 the ducks and water-fowl living upon it, the 
 river's was a very beneficent existence indeed. 
 
 B 2 
 
20 THE RIVER. 
 
 Ever and anon armies of gnats, or solitary 
 dragon-flies, danced above or darted across it. 
 
 By and by though, as the swallow still flew 
 on, even these characteristics changed ; and 
 the river became so large and so wide that 
 towns as well as houses were situated on its 
 banks ; large ships as well as boats floated 
 upon it ; and then, as it neared the sea, that 
 wonderful force, the tide, began to move it. 
 
 Thus the other end of the tiny mountain rill 
 was the mouth of a great river, moved by the 
 same force that moves the ocean ; and the 
 swallow had learnt how mighty and powerful 
 may be the end of a very small beginning. 
 
 But he had meanwhile learnt even more of 
 the river's worth than his bird's-eye view could 
 teach him ; for as his sinuous wings allowed 
 him to fly, or dart, or stop, in fact, do just 
 as he liked, he had flown and darted about, 
 and questioned many a thing upon the way. 
 
 "What good does the stream do?" he 
 asked, first of all, of the blue forget-me- 
 nots. 
 
THE RIVER. 21 
 
 ** But for the stream we could scarcely exist. 
 We live in and love the streamlet/' was their 
 reply. He next put the question to the water- 
 wheel, as it turned so busily round with a 
 merry splash. 
 
 *' Large as I am," he thundered in answer, 
 *' I could do nothing without the river! It 
 turns me round, I set the machinery going, 
 and that grinds the corn. I look upon the 
 river as a very great power in the world : it 
 certainly moves me more than anything else ! 
 Owing to the river I keep the mill going, and 
 the flour we make together — that keeps the 
 people going!" and the water-wheel turned 
 round and round in such a fury of glad work 
 that anything else he said was drowned in his 
 own roar. 
 
 Then it occurred to the swallow to question 
 the breeze as to what use the river was in the 
 world. 
 
 *'Ah!" she replied, *'the river and I are 
 very good friends, I follow her through the 
 valleys, for she makes the way smooth for me. 
 
22 THE RIVER. 
 
 Both the clouds and I are continually helped 
 by the river." 
 
 The water-rats, too, bore their testimony to 
 the river's usefulness. *' What the country 
 would do without it I cannot tell," said a 
 large, wise, old one. *' I have spent the best 
 of my life in running about these banks, wear- 
 ing out my teeth in eating up the rubbish I 
 find; but the river does more than ever I can, 
 for he just sweeps it away to the great hungry 
 ocean! And after that," he continued, **even 
 we water-rats need not trouble any more about 
 it. To clear away refuse is a great work," 
 he concluded with a heavy sigh ; then he 
 whisked up his long tail, and scampered to 
 work again. 
 
 And, lastly, what news the seagulls told the 
 swallow about the river, as they perched to- 
 gether in a ship's rigging at the river's 
 mouth. 
 
 *' Owing to the river these ships are enabled 
 to carry their cargoes of sugar, and rice and 
 coffee, that are in reality so much food and 
 
THE RIVER. 23 
 
 clothing for human beings ; and all owing to 
 this, too, towns spring up, and peoples 
 flourish,'' said the seagulls, chattering all 
 at the same time. 
 
 They knew these things so well, and were 
 quite glad to be able to give a little informa- 
 tion and have a talk with any one on the 
 rigging. 
 
 So then the swallow returned to the very 
 beginning of the river — the rill. 
 
 The sun was setting as he n eared the 
 mountain side again, so that it stood out like 
 a purple mystery m the golden light of the 
 sky behind it ; but the swallow was able to 
 And the rill, and when he reached her she 
 was springing up as faithfully and cheerily as 
 she had done for many hundreds of years, 
 from sunrise to dew-fall, all the years through. 
 
 The swallow rested upon the stone, and 
 after dipping his bill into her cool water, 
 said, '' Greeting and cheer I bring you, 
 gentle rill, and news from the other end of 
 you ; thanks to my strong wings, I have been 
 
24 THE RIVER. 
 
 able to fulfil your wish. For many, many long- 
 miles I have flown along the river which has 
 its rise in you." 
 
 And then the swallow gave the rill a faithful 
 account of all he had heard and seen ; and 
 convinced her that she was the source of im- 
 measurable good and use in this fair world. 
 
 So, thankfully the rill bubbled up from be- 
 tween the sods and the stones after that, and 
 merrily she danced down in a waterfall — more 
 merrily than ever, as the evening star beamed 
 over her for the hundred thousandth time. 
 
 ** Henceforth," she whispered, '* I shall be 
 content to contribute my humble beginning- 
 to the river for ever and ever, now that I 
 know I am of some use in the world. I will 
 never get disheartened again." 
 
 And the swallow who had cheered the 
 gentle rill pirouetted above and about her 
 in the gathering twilight for a while, then, 
 darting along the hillside, he dived through 
 the purple mystery into the golden light which 
 he loved. 
 
25 
 
 MIRABEL. 
 
 a iT^^>^rT\ HAVE had enough, too much of 
 love," said the stern King, in the 
 midst of his grief; " take her away 
 to my round tower on the cliff." 
 
 His beautiful wife had just died : he was 
 nearly broken-hearted, and this he said of his 
 infant daughter. He banished her soon after 
 she was born lest he should grow fond of and 
 have to lose her too. 
 
 The Court, as well, mourned the loss of their 
 good Queen ; but as the old Nurse Griseld 
 and Maid Agnes bore the babe away, one of 
 the ladies said : *' It is the sweetest babe 
 that ever was born ; it will be lonely in the 
 round Tower, so far away from us all ! " 
 
 Three hundred stone steps, as steep as the 
 cliff itself, led to the Tower. 
 
26 MIRABEL. 
 
 ** When she Is old enough," said the stern 
 King; *' the man who can climb those steps 
 shall have her, but with my consent she shall 
 never come down from the Tower before that 
 time," and he smiled a strange smile as he 
 added — '* and the man who ascends those steps 
 will be worthy of her. She will be sure to like 
 him." 
 
 And in spite of his grief he smiled again for 
 a moment, a bright smile, as he thought of the 
 future. 
 
 The people of the Court thought it sounded 
 all very easy, and that any princess would soon 
 be settled in life, if that was all a man had 
 to do to win her ; and they whispered among 
 themselves that His Majesty might have 
 chosen a severer test of a husband than that 
 one ; but then the people of that Court had 
 never tried to mount those steps themselves, 
 they had only looked at them in the distance. 
 
 So Dame Griseld and Maid Agnes, escorted 
 by a body-guard, took the infant Princess to 
 the Tower. 
 
MIRABEL. 27 
 
 There was little difficulty for either of them 
 in ascending the stone steps, they soon found 
 this out when they began to do so; and they 
 gazed up with interest at the round Tower, 
 which stood at the top of the cliff, overlooking 
 the plain below; but the King's body-guard 
 fell and floundered, and floundered and fell, 
 when they began to go up the steps, until at 
 last every man of them gave up the attempt 
 in despair. 
 
 Not one of them could do it. Each step 
 seemed more difficult than the last ; because 
 an invisible weight seemed to drag them back 
 as they ascended ; so the body-guard settled 
 at the bottom to watch, while the maid 
 bounded up like a roe, and the old dame, 
 who carried her precious charge, mounted in 
 more stately fashion. 
 
 On either hand were dark woods. Who 
 could tell what forms haunted these ? 
 
 The body- guard below wound the cheery 
 blast of a horn to comfort the dame and the 
 girl ; but this was not very much, when we 
 
28 MIRABEL. 
 
 consider they could have done nothing to help 
 had any danger occurred. At last, Dame Gri- 
 seld thinking so, turned round to dismiss them. 
 
 But the soldiers remained where they were, 
 winding the horn at intervals, because they 
 dared not return to the King until the Royal 
 child was safely lodged in the Tower. 
 
 And this Tower, at the top of the steps, 
 when at last the three who could, did reach it, 
 what was it like ? ~ 
 
 Really beautiful ! Neither very large nor 
 very small, it was perfectly round, built of 
 stone, dark with age, and almost covered with 
 climbing creepers. 
 
 Narrow casement windows caught the sun- 
 light, here and there, near the top or basement 
 of the Tower ; while the foliage of the creepers 
 and their delicate flowers, lent grace to its 
 rugged appearance. 
 
 Inside, when the maid and the dame entered, 
 they found everything as fresh and dainty as is 
 the heart of a flower ; indeed, the very perfume 
 of roses was in the air. 
 
MIRABEL. 29 
 
 The archway by which they entered opened 
 by a short passage into a circular hall, the 
 centre of the Tower ; and doors led from this 
 to different chambers on the ground-floor, a 
 staircase to the gallery above, whereon the 
 doors of the bedchambers opened. 
 
 A fountain played in the middle of the hall, 
 and upon its white marble basin were piled 
 fresh roses. Hence the perfume which filled 
 the Tower. 
 
 Dame Griseld took the infant Princess up- 
 stairs to the room prepared for her. 
 
 The colouring of this room and everv^thing 
 in it was yellow — different tints and shades of 
 yellow, sweet and dainty. 
 
 The old nurse put the child into a crib to 
 sleep; then she took Maid Agnes over the 
 whole of the Tower. 
 
 One room contained dining-tables, and was 
 a deep damask in colouring ; another, fitted up 
 with dark green lounges, pinked out here and 
 there with touches of faint blue. 
 
 The effect of every room was to induce 
 
30 MIRABEL. 
 
 repose, while the atmosphere of each was redo- 
 lent with the perfume of flowers, yet always 
 fresh. 
 
 Dame Griseld was quite satisfied with the 
 order in which she found everything: and in 
 truth she had reason to know when things 
 were as they should be, for she had lived 
 here before, many and many a year ago, when 
 the King himself was a child. 
 
 In these surroundings, then, the Princess 
 Mirabel grew up. 
 
 Her childhood, with its zest and quaintnesses, 
 and rushes of quick emotion, was gradually 
 left behind ; her girlhood passed ; and Mirabel 
 slept, and rose, and went about the Round 
 Tower, a graceful maiden, with her com- 
 panions — Dame Griseld ever faithful. Maid 
 Agnes, young and gay. 
 
 Thus the Princess had experienced change 
 in herself during their seventeen years' resi- 
 dence in the Tower; but the two others did 
 not appear to have altered in the least. 
 
 ** I know Dame Griseld is almost a hundred 
 
MIRABEL. 3 1 
 
 years old," said Maid Agnes one day to the 
 Princess, as they arranged the first roses of a 
 new summer in the marble fountain basin. 
 
 ** Who told you so ? " inquired Mirabel. 
 
 ** My grandmother,'' replied the girl. *' She 
 told me so when she heard that we were ap- 
 pointed by the King, your father, to attend 
 you, lady, here. ' Dame Griseld is almost as 
 old as the Tower itself is,' she said, so by that 
 she must have meant very, very old." 
 
 ** And how old are you, Agnes? " suddenly 
 asked the Princess, pausing in her beautiful 
 task to look her cheerful companion in the 
 face. 
 
 ** That I never can tell," replied the maid. 
 ^' I am older than any one knows or thinks, yet 
 I never look old, but always young, however 
 much I grow up." 
 
 They both smiled and pursued their work. 
 
 Just then Dame Griseld, in snowy cap and 
 large embroidered apron, came out of the 
 damask room towards them. 
 
 She came and sat and watched them as they 
 
^2 MIRABEL. 
 
 arrang-ed the flowers, for she loved her foster 
 daughter and Maid Agnes well. And at this 
 moment she said to herself, as she noticed a 
 wistful expression on the young- Princess's 
 face, which of late she had seen there rather 
 too often, ** In spite of the peace and delights 
 of this Tower, the child is lonely and needs 
 other companionship." 
 
 And, though Dame Griseld said nothing 
 aloud, she sighed and rose, then stooped and 
 kissed the Princess where she sat, and left 
 them. 
 
 Now the dame's thought was quite true. 
 Mirabel was sometimes both sad and lonely in 
 the Tower, she scarcely knew why. Many a time 
 after she had completed her studies, finished 
 her duties, and worked at her tapestry frame 
 until she was tired, she would gaze down the 
 great flight of steps, longing for — she knew 
 not what ; but it was evidently something the 
 Tower did not contain. And sometimes, un- 
 known to either of her companions, she would 
 leave her dainty, yellow bed unpressed, and, 
 
MIRABEL. 33 
 
 wrapping herself up, go out by a staircase that 
 led to the roof, and, in the moonlight, let her 
 imagination range freely away, over the darkly- 
 grouped trees that covered the cliff, to the 
 mysterious plain beyond, where began, as it 
 seemed to Mirabel, the wide, wide world. 
 Frequently at these times she had wished for 
 the wings of a bird, that she might fly where 
 her imagination urged her ; but then her 
 father's decree would occur to her, and she 
 would remember that a lover would one day 
 come to lead her forth. She must wait. 
 
 But the time seemed long. 
 
 However, at last they had reached another 
 early summer ; and the morning after the first 
 roses had been placed in the hall was fresh and 
 fair as morning could be. 
 
 A frolicsomie breeze waved the growing 
 meadow-grass on the plain beneath, and was 
 sporting in reckless mood with the sedate 
 Tower itself, when its inmates were pleasur- 
 ably disturbed at their early occupation by the 
 winding sound of a horn. 
 
 c 
 
34 MIRABEL. 
 
 At once Maid Agnes went to the window to 
 see what this might portend. 
 
 And there, at the foot of the three hundred 
 steps, were a dozen princes at halt on horse- 
 back. Again the horn sounded melodiously. 
 
 Dame Griseld's heart both bounded and 
 sank, for she knew at once what this meant ; 
 and the Princess Mirabel, as she stepped 
 through the archway to the top of the steps, 
 followed by her two companions, blushed, for 
 she too guessed that these were wooers who 
 had at last come. 
 
 Maid Agnes replied to them on a silver 
 horn. 
 
 When the cavalcade beneath heard the clear 
 response and caught sight of the lovely 
 princess standing there, her dark hair blown 
 by the wind behind her, they broke into an 
 enthusiastic greeting. 
 
 " We Princes are here," called out a voice 
 from below, ''all of us, with the King's con- 
 sent, pledged to try and win the Princess's 
 hand." 
 
MIRABEL. 35 
 
 ^' Then which of you can climb the stone 
 steps. Let us see!" replied Dame Griseld, 
 taking the Princess Mirabel fondly by the arm. 
 "The one who reaches the top the Princess 
 will be sure to like," added the old dame to 
 herself, remembering the King's words! 
 
 Whereupon began a bustle and stir among 
 the Princes below, as to who should try his 
 luck first. 
 
 At length they seemed to have settled the 
 matter, for presently the eldest among them 
 came forward to begin the ascent, while the 
 others watched him. To judge from his de- 
 meanour this Prince was a proud man, of 
 handsome build. 
 
 It seemed to the rest that the mere fact of 
 his trying was the very doom of every other 
 individual's chance. But, to the amazement 
 of all, he had not gone more than six steps 
 up the flight before he fell, and heavily too. 
 
 Nothing daunted, however, he rose and 
 tried again and again, but it was of no use, his 
 attempts all ended in failure ; so at last, with 
 
 c 2 
 
36 MIRABEL. 
 
 a half-ashamed, though polite bow to the 
 Princess, he gave up the ordeal, and, mount- 
 ing his horse, rode away. 
 
 A shout of unrestrained gladness burst from 
 his rivals as they saw him go ; and Mirabel 
 felt no disappointment. 
 
 Another Prince then came forward, another, 
 and yet another followed him ; indeed, each 
 now became so impatient to try his luck, that 
 they could wait in turn no longer, but began 
 all together to take the ascent anyhow. 
 
 Few of them got far up, however ; and those 
 that did found the greatest difficulty in getting 
 higher still ; meanwhile the Princess regarded 
 them all with interest and amusement rather 
 than deeper emotion ; while it must be con- 
 fessed that Maid Agnes made merry in her 
 own mind at their exoense. 
 
 Yet, although the Princess had not until 
 now noticed one among the many suitors who 
 roused her liking, she watched them all with 
 interest ; for, be it remembered, she had never 
 seen any of the opposite sex before. 
 
MIRABEL. 37 
 
 At last, however, as she was leaning forward 
 to mark which of the Princes were still strug- 
 gling up, and which of them had left off in 
 despair, she noticed for the first time that a 
 fair young Prince — as fair as her own wishes 
 — was leaving all the rest far behind ; and as 
 the Princess, thus looked down upon him he 
 looked up at her and, meeting her glance with 
 a quick, sweet smile, gracefully bared his head 
 as he gazed at her in return. 
 
 And something sprang up between them 
 there and then. It must have been love ; for 
 after that the Princess wished with her whole 
 soul that he might reach her. 
 
 From that instant she scarcely saw the 
 others — scarcely indeed noticed that one after 
 another they were falling heavily, and giving 
 up their efforts to ride away dejected ; for her 
 heart and gaze were alike 'concentrated upon 
 this particular Prince. 
 
 And surely he felt it ; for such strength 
 came to him, such buoyancy, such hope and 
 joy, that, flinging himself with renewed vigour 
 
38 MIRABEL. 
 
 again to the attempt, he succeeded In getting 
 higher and higher up the flight of steps. 
 
 Meantime the morning had worn away; it 
 was noon, and the sun's heat poured dow^n 
 upon the suitors — the few that remained — 
 making their ascent a hard toil ; and always the 
 fair young Prince kept steadily ahead of them. 
 Yet sometimes he too fell beneath the in- 
 visible weight which was so soon to entirely 
 vanquish all the others ; but upon finding that 
 the gentle Princess still watched him with un- 
 wearied interest, he would rise and struggle 
 on again. 
 
 And now the sun set ; the glory of purple 
 and golden clouds lay against the faint tints 
 of a pure sky. 
 
 Then Dame Griseld came anxiously to her 
 charge, and tried to entice the Princess in to 
 their evening repast; but Mirabel would not 
 move. 
 
 Dame Griseld, therefore, went in alone. 
 Twilight came on ; still Mirabel sat waiting 
 at the top of the steps, waiting for the valiant 
 
MIRABEL. 39 
 
 Prince, who, with laborious effort, mounted 
 steadily towards her. 
 
 At last there were only a few paces between 
 them, he looked to speak to her ; but at this 
 moment the mysterious w^eight dragging the 
 Prince back became so powerful, that he 
 fainted beneath it. 
 
 " Agnes ! Agnes ! quick, run to his aid ! " 
 called the Princess, in distress. 
 
 And, quick as thought, Maid Agnes, taking 
 water and food, went to the Prince's suc- 
 cour. 
 
 She bathed his temples, and restored his 
 senses, and then gave him nourishment. 
 
 He took it and ate, as he did so thanking 
 the maid in a kind voice. 
 
 The moon rose. The Prince looked again 
 towards his beloved bride elect. 
 
 She was still there, the moonlight on her 
 pure brow and graceful robing, and now that 
 he was so near her, his heart almost sickened 
 with delight. Again he returned to his task, 
 while the maid joined her mistress. 
 
40 MIRABEL. 
 
 ** What Is it that drags them all down when 
 they try to ascend the steps," said the Princess 
 as Maid Agnes came up, *'I cannot understand 
 it." 
 
 '* Lady," replied the girl, **It is well that 
 you did not ask me in the daylight, for then I 
 could see nothing ; but now, as the moon 
 rises, I think I do see something. It is dark, 
 and shadowy, but huge and monstrous. It 
 darts out from the wood and pounces upon 
 and burdens him. Look ! look ! look ! lady, 
 do you not also see it?" and the girl pointed 
 in horror towards the bending and slowly ad- 
 vancing Prince. 
 
 *' Can any shadow be so heavy to him ; or 
 is it a fiend ? It clings to his shoulders, and 
 whispers in his ear! Dear lady, look." 
 
 But the Princess saw nothing except the 
 Prince; and though she started at the intel- 
 ligence that fell from the maid's lips, her eyes 
 did not leave the nearing form of her beloved. 
 If anything, her love for him increased, as 
 tears of pity rose from her heart. 
 
MIRABEL. 4 1 
 
 The maid, however, having seen the mon- 
 strous shadow, or whatever else it was, ran 
 into the Tower terrified. 
 
 The Princess was thus left alone as the 
 Prince came close up to the topmost step. 
 
 Again he raised his eyes to hers, and again 
 his face flashed out delight. 
 
 Pain and his invisible burden now left him, 
 and for a moment he stood upright, free from 
 all hindrances — victorious ! 
 
 He smiled and bent low before Mirabel, and 
 taking both her hands in his kissed them 
 tenderly. 
 
 And after his hard stuggle and her long 
 waiting time, now, as they stood together in 
 the moonlight, it was rapture to them. 
 
 Well might they love each other ! And so 
 much did they love each other, even at this, 
 their first meeting, that it was long before they 
 turned from the spot where they first clasped 
 hands, and entered the Tower. 
 
 When they did so, however, Dame Griseld 
 stood in the round hall to greet them. 
 
42 MIRABEL. 
 
 *'Rest you by this fountain, Prince," she 
 said, as they approached, and she beckoned 
 to Maid Agnes, and drew them all together to 
 sit on the marble edge of the fountain, among 
 the roses. 
 
 Then she said, " I will now tell 3^ou what 
 that invisible power is which has tortured the 
 Prince, and puzzled the Princess so much this 
 eventful day." 
 
 So Mirabel learnt at last that the King had 
 entrusted her old nurse with the secret from 
 the very first. 
 
 '' In these woods at each side of the flight of 
 steps," continued the dame, *' lives a mighty 
 and wise magician, who devotes his whole life 
 to guarding what the King sends to this 
 Tower ; and none but the very young, or the 
 very old, can escape this magician's power. 
 Everyone else who would mount the three 
 hundred steps to reach the Tower, has to over- 
 come it. And this is no easy task, as the 
 Prince, through dear experience, has himself 
 felt and shown us this day. The reason he 
 
MIRABEL. 43 
 
 has had such difficulty in coming here is owing 
 to the magician's power. 
 
 **The wood is full of his messengers, who 
 haunt it ; and they have haunted it ever since 
 long before I brought the Princess, a babe, 
 in my arms, from her father's Court. 
 
 '* And the curious trait about these, the 
 magician's messengers, is that they are iii- 
 visible, only on the rarest occasions can any one 
 see them. And their one task is to try and 
 test the patience and perseverance of any one 
 who wishes to reach the Tower. No spells 
 can be brought to bear against the magician's ; 
 nothing can resist them except the continuing 
 patience of a good heart. 
 
 *' That is the one and only thing which 
 can triumph over his strange, invisible forces. 
 
 "So when the Princes arrived at the 
 bottom of the steps this morning, bright 
 though the sunshine was, the woods teemed 
 with the magician's unseen accomplices ; and 
 the moment the Princes began to mount the 
 steps, believing that because they saw nothing 
 
44 MIRABEL. 
 
 to hinder them from reaching the Princess 
 that nothing was there, out and upon them 
 sprang and pounced the invisibles, and tried 
 to drag them down with a clinging, clogging 
 weight. 
 
 *'And as you, fair Prince, were the only 
 one among them both willing and able to 
 rise and try again after every fall, you only 
 have been able to vanquish the magician's 
 messengers, and to prove yourself by the 
 King's test, to be worthy of the hand of his 
 daughter. You have won the Princess in 
 marriage ; you are worthy of her, and you 
 need never fear the magician's power again, 
 for through your own efforts you have now put 
 yourself out of the reach of it for ever." 
 
 And the Princess smiled with such pleasure 
 upon hearing this, that the Prince felt he 
 might — he must — and he did — kiss her ! 
 
 And Dame Griseld concluded, as her eye 
 lingered fondly on the happy pair, " So you 
 see how wise and kind both the King and the 
 magician were, for they have saved the 
 
MIRABEL, 
 
 45 
 
 Princess from all the impatient, reckless men 
 who have dared to hope for her, and arranged 
 that she should become the bride of the only 
 one whom she could love, the very one who 
 deserves to have her." 
 
 So the Princess left the Round Tower, and 
 went out into the wide, wide world, the good 
 young Prince's bride. 
 
46 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 HE clock constituted himself the Judge, 
 naturally enough ; his position re- 
 quired that he should do so. 
 
 He stood in the middle of the 
 mantelpiece, looking down over the rest of the 
 things in the room. 
 
 Then, as the others said, his opinion ought 
 to be weighty, when he had that heavy pendu- 
 lum inside him always at work. 
 
 A very wide-awake thing, too, is the clock ; 
 he never thinks of going to sleep ; and that is 
 a highly desirable quality in a judge ! So the 
 others quite approved of his nomination. 
 
 It was the middle of the night when the 
 clock was thus promoted ; and all the things 
 in that room had been quarrelling dreadfully. 
 Some took this side and some that; and the 
 case was called " The Cheerfulness of the 
 
THE TRIAL. 47 
 
 Canary verstts The Greater Cheerfulness of 
 Other Things in the Room." 
 
 So the ornaments at each side of the clock 
 swore they were the Jury. 
 
 Upon this the poker and tongs jumped up 
 on end, and declared they were pleading bar- 
 risters. It was difhcult for either of them to 
 look up to the clock — they were both so stiff- 
 necked ; but what of that, when they knew 
 that, however long they talked, he would not 
 go to sleep ? 
 
 *'What is the matter?" said the Judge, as 
 he took upon himself to open the case infor- 
 mally. '^ What is it all about ? " 
 
 Then up jumped the newspaper from the 
 table, and, before any one could prevent him, 
 rattled off this information in reply : 
 
 " There w^as a fight last night in the room 
 of a harmless and respectable old lady, Miss 
 Prisms, spinster. The table knocked the 
 chairs, the chairs kicked the table, the hearth- 
 rug rolled up and half-smothered the footstool, 
 the screen stood in front of everything it could. 
 
48 THE TRIAL. 
 
 and was as rude as possible, and the piano 
 twanged out of tune to insult the score ; the 
 shelves half killed the books by tossing them 
 out upon the floor, the keys locked up the 
 doors, and then jumped out of the keyholes ; 
 and all because of a most trivial incident. 
 
 **A bunch of flowers had been brought in that 
 morning, and placed upon the table in a vase 
 by Miss Prisms, spinster, in the most innocent 
 manner possible. (It was not even supposed 
 by the lamb at dinner that a gentleman had 
 given them to her.) However, the moment 
 Miss Prisms turned her back the flowers fell 
 to complaining among themselves. They said 
 that, for their part, they much objected to 
 being in prison ; that they regarded the vase 
 and the room as such, and nothing else ; and 
 then they went on to remark that most of the 
 other things near them seemed to be in prison, 
 too, and how wonderfully cheerful the canary 
 was — singing away in his prison, the cage. 
 They didn't understand how he could be so 
 cheerful behind those bars ! 
 
THE TRIAL. _ 49 
 
 *' Thereupon the speaking likenesses upon 
 the wall got eloquently angry about this praise 
 of the canary. 
 
 They persisted that nobody could look and 
 be more cheerful than they themselves were, in 
 spite of their prison-like frames. One of them 
 wore a perpetual smile, which was tiresomely 
 cheerful. Then the rest of the things spoke out, 
 some for the cheerfulness of the canary, agree- 
 ing with the flowers, and some for the greater 
 cheerfulness of other things in the room, till at 
 last there ensued a free fight." 
 
 After giving off all this information, the 
 newspaper fell flat again. 
 
 The Judge said, '' Tick, tack ! I see." 
 
 ''Vm for the canary's cheerfulness, my 
 ludl" exclaimed the poker, springing up on 
 end. 
 
 "And I'm for the greater cheerfulness of 
 other things in the room," said the tongs, as 
 he, .too, rose. 
 
 **Tack!" said the clock. *'Let the poker 
 
 begin." 
 
 D 
 
50 THE TRIAL. 
 
 Whereupon the poker rose and strained his 
 neck to speak, so that the judge and gentle- 
 men of the jury should hear every word. 
 
 He had no hands and arms to wave about, 
 of course, so he put as much expression as 
 possible into the feat of standing on end. 
 
 *' My lud, ladies and gentlemen, no one 
 who has seen the canary can have failed to 
 remark what a delicate yellow he is, and how 
 sweetly and clearly he sings. To begin with 
 then, my lud, the canary is particularly re- 
 markable for two most cheerful character- 
 istics — the colour yellow, and the habit of 
 singing. Nobody can deny this. 
 
 **Now from times far distant the habit of 
 singing has been regarded as an outlet for 
 mirth and good spirits ; and for quite as long 
 the yellow sun and sunshine have been re- 
 garded as emblems of cheerfulness. I be- 
 lieve, if the truth were known," continued the 
 poker, "we steel things are going quite out of 
 fashion, for no other reason than because that 
 interloping brass generation which is rising to 
 
THE TRIAL. 5 I 
 
 take our place Is yellow, and therefore more 
 cheerful-looking than we. In short, I declare 
 that yellow is cheerful, and cheerfulness is 
 yellow ! 
 
 *' The cheerfulness of singing, too, is univer- 
 sally acknowledged. Everyone knows that 
 the inhabitants of this house go about singing 
 whenever they feel particularly glad. Even 
 the spinster lady herself has been heard to 
 sing a little softly once, after a very precise 
 old gentleman had been to call upon her (the 
 card-tray here confirmed this fact in a whisper 
 to the desk wherein the love-letters lay), and 
 when she goes out the servants sing as loudly 
 as possible — if they are in a good temper, that 
 is. But whoever heard of any one singing oft' 
 a bad temper I should like to know ? 
 
 ** No one, except such as assist at that 
 unnatural, artificial place, the Opera. And I 
 am sure, my lud, no one in this room has the 
 bad taste to go there ! " (Jt was vain for the 
 opera-glasses upon the shelf to protest here , 
 nobody heard, stifled as they were in their own 
 
 D 2 
 
52 THE TRIAL. 
 
 case.) ^^ I therefore maintain, without fear of 
 contradiction," continued the poker, "that 
 the canary who sings so much and is so ex- 
 ceedingly yellow is the most cheerful prisoner 
 in the whole room." 
 
 Thereupon the poker returned to his 
 stretched out, recumbent position. 
 
 But just as most of the things in the room 
 were thinking over his words and beginning to 
 agree with him, up jumped the tongs. 
 
 He argued that singing was by no means a 
 sign of cheerfulness, and pointing to a bright 
 red plaque upon the wall, asked if anybody 
 present could deny the cheerful appearance of 
 that plaque ? As nobody attempted to do so, 
 he pointed out that this red plaque, though in 
 his opinion one of the most cheerful objects in 
 the room, had never sung a note in its life ; 
 moreover, he truthfully declared that it had 
 not a spot of yellow upon it. Then he said, 
 pointing to the fire, '' There is another of the 
 most cheerful objects in the room (unfortu- 
 nately it is out now, but my remarks w^ould 
 
THE TRIAL. 53 
 
 apply to It if it were in). In my humble 
 opinion the fire is a far more cheerful object 
 than the kettle, yet the kettle sings, while the 
 fire doesn't; the fire only roars in a modest 
 and primitive manner, and that very occa- 
 sionally; and yet, I contend, the fire's roar is 
 just as cheerful as the kettle's sinmno-." 
 And then he went on: "Through the open 
 window we hear a dismal sound at times ; it is 
 borne to us by the breeze from across the 
 common, we consider it most melancholy. 
 And what, my lud, you ask may it be? My 
 answer is, it is nothing more or less than the 
 d o n key singing ! 
 
 *' Human beings, too, sing hymns sometimes 
 in this very room ; and I challenge anyone 
 to say that the greater number of them are 
 cheerful. They are not. Some few may be, 
 but the majority are not. I protest that most 
 of them are so melancholy as to draw tears 
 from a heart of steel — my own, for instance. 
 Many a time, my lud, has the housemaid 
 found me rusty in the morning, owing to the 
 
54 THE TRIAL. 
 
 tears that have broken out all over me during 
 the Sunday evening singing of the wrong sort 
 of hymns, perpetrated by the mistress and her 
 friends !" And thus the tongs continued until 
 the judge was obliged to give him a hint to 
 stop. 
 
 He did so by becoming very striking indeed 
 himself — he struck twelve ; and the conse- 
 quence was that the attention of all turned 
 from the tongs to the clock, and the tongs 
 sank down in about as crushed a condition 
 as it is possible for a pair of steel tongs to 
 be reduced to. And every one was very 
 pleased; because the things in that room., like 
 many people in the world at large, cared more 
 about matters being brought to a conclusion 
 than about sifting truth. 
 
 Most people, whether they enjoy the begin- 
 ning or the middle of anything or not, are 
 invariably pleased at the prospect of its 
 coming to an end. 
 
 Therefore there was great satisfaction among 
 the things in the room when the long speech 
 
THE TRIAL. 55 
 
 of the tongs was stopped by the clock striking 
 twelve. 
 
 ** After all we have heard," then said the 
 clock, ** it is imperative that we should come 
 to some conclusion upon this matter without^ 
 further delay; and that is best done, in my 
 opinion, not by listening longer to the poker 
 or the tongs, or any one else who makes 
 speeches, but by consulting the canary him- 
 self. And as there is no need for me to send 
 any one to prison, where they are all more or 
 less already, I adjudicate that the canary be 
 consulted at once." 
 
 ** The canary is fast asleep, my lud," said 
 the poker; **and, unless you are a lire, or a 
 murderer, or a policeman, or a fractious child, 
 you cannot waken people up suddenly, even to 
 show you are interested in them ; it would be 
 considered rude." 
 
 **/can, though," said a voice in Court. 
 
 It was a quill pen who spoke. She was tired 
 of writing prim little notes (it was so long 
 since she had had to answer the love letters), 
 
S6 THE TRIAL. 
 
 and quite used to settling accounts, so up she 
 rose to settle this discussion. 
 
 Light as the feather she was she flew to 
 the cage, and, poking herself through its bars, 
 gently pricked the canary's head. 
 
 So the same little slumberous head came, 
 ruffled, from under the wing to ask, as the 
 Judge had done some time before him, *' What 
 is the matter? " 
 
 Back flew the quill to the table, while the 
 tongs explained to the canary all that had 
 happened. 
 
 When he understood how nearly everything 
 in the room had been brought into the discus- 
 sion, he opened his beak in a wide yawn, 
 and stretched out his wings, for he had been 
 most rudely wakened out of his sleep, and 
 then he said — 
 
 ** The tongs says truly. I am most melan- 
 choly, while I sing cheerfully enough, because 
 I have been sad at heart ever since I was put 
 into this miserable cage. It is only the recol- 
 lection of joyfulness which lifts and thrills my 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 57 
 
 song — the remembrance of what I used to feel 
 when I was free." 
 
 **Tack!" said the Judge; *^ that concludes 
 the case. And my advice to all present is, in 
 the future, do not judge by appearances only, 
 for those who do so are frequently found to be 
 in the wrong." 
 
5S 
 
 THE FAIRY-RING, 
 
 N the country sometimes, in the wide 
 fields or sheltered vales, you may 
 come across large rings of greenest 
 grass on the sward, known as *' fairy- 
 rings.'* They are plainly to be seen, because 
 they appear such a very bright green, compared 
 with the rest of the grass that grows there- 
 abouts ; and they vary in size and in shape a 
 little, but are always more or less circular. 
 
 They are to be met with often in the Isle of 
 Man, that fairy haunt ; and if you were to ask 
 there what fairy-rings are, you would be told 
 by the Manx people that they mark the 
 place whereon the fairies dance on summer 
 nights. 
 
 The grass is greener and more beautiful 
 after a fairy dance. 
 
THE FAIRY-RIXG. 59 
 
 Well, we mortals can hardly understand 
 that ! We only wear out the carpets or 
 scratch the polished floor when we dance ! 
 
 But then one always hears that fairies are 
 such very different creatures. 
 
 Where they come from nobody seems to 
 know — and nobody ever knew — because nobody 
 looked to see just at the rig-ht time ! 
 
 Some old women have searched bread-mugs 
 for them, and not succeeded in finding- them ; 
 but what of that ? Who but a half-blind old 
 woman could hope to find a fairy in a bread- 
 mug? 
 
 Some old grandfathers have chosen to sus- 
 pect the chimneys of being a daytime resting- 
 place for them ; but, as if fairies could care to 
 rest upon soot ! 
 
 Little girls peep into the Canterbury bells 
 and foxgloves for them ; but, if fairies are of 
 different sizes and shapes — as we have reason 
 to suspect they are — these would not accommo- 
 date them all. Besides, would not the bees find 
 them sadly in the way when they came there 
 
60 THE FAIRY-RING. • 
 
 to fetch honey ? And the noise a bee makes 
 buzzing about its work would seem like a 
 dreadful alarum to a tender fairy's sensitive 
 ears, one would think ! 
 
 The truth is, nobody ever knew where they 
 put themselves in the daytime, any more than 
 how they appear at night. So some boys say 
 they ** don't believe in fairies," and some 
 middle-aged people give up hope of ever 
 finding any. 
 
 Never mind ! Every one who is not so con- 
 ceited as to think he knows everything (which 
 nobody can know in this wonderful world) is 
 sure some good, and fine, and delicate Power 
 is hidden away somewhere in the Universe, 
 always ready to help to cheer the good, and 
 thwart evil ; to conjure up hope in desponding 
 hearts with pleasant surprises ; and treat kind 
 people to the kind turns they, in time past, 
 have done for others — some Power magical 
 enough to beautify whatever it touches. 
 
 Well, let it be called whatsoever you will, 
 it may be due to the fairies ! 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 6 1 
 
 But the mystery of where they put them- 
 selves in the daytime is ever unsolved. 
 
 We suspect they utterly change their sub- 
 stance, as the dewdrops do ; that they are 
 distilled into and out of the sunshine or moon- 
 shine. Who can tell ? 
 
 More wonderful things happen every day 
 than any one takes notice of; and, may be, 
 they go to the sun in the daytime, and come 
 back by the moon at night, without a thought 
 of rest at all, as sunshine itself does. Indeed, 
 might not fairies be condensed through suit- 
 able conditions and the presence of moonlight, 
 just as easily as are dewdrops through the 
 absence of sunshine and clouds ? 
 
 Who can tell ? Natural processes we take 
 for granted — the smoke tumbling up in the 
 still summer air instead of down ; the hoar 
 frost making transformation scenes of beauti- 
 ful tracery in a single night, are just as won- 
 derful as fairies and fairy workmanship. Only 
 just because we have found out something 
 about the conditions which produce these, we 
 
62 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 call them natural^ and think no more about 
 them. 
 
 Well, let us learn all we can about these 
 natural wonders ; for they ought to teach us 
 how multitudinous are the powers at work in 
 nature, and how vast is the sphere of possi- 
 bilities there ; not to conclude, as ignorant 
 little boys and girls do, that because we '* don't 
 believe" in anything, that therefore it does 
 not exist. 
 
 If you were to tell a mole *' the sun is 
 shining" when all the flowers were rejoicing in 
 it, and all the little ducklings were taking to 
 the water for the first time — pricking up their 
 new little feathers because of it, and every- 
 thing in the meadows was springing towards 
 it ; the mole, from the bottom of his sub- 
 terraneous passage and the depth of his blind- 
 ness might sturdily assert that he ** didn't 
 believe you." 
 
 But, mark you this, the sun woidd be shining 
 all the same I 
 ' So, whenever you hear people say there 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 63 
 
 are no fairies, remember this mole; and 
 good fairies may still exist for you in spite 
 of the poor, blind people who cannot see 
 them ! 
 
 At any rate we are going to have a good 
 look at them to-night, you and I, and a mutual 
 friend. We are going to try and find out 
 where they come from and whither they go, 
 and what they do and how they do it; and 
 altogether satisfy our curiosity about them. 
 It is June. And we came to the Isle of Man 
 last Saturday; just in time to buy the rhubarb 
 leaves full of strawberries which they sell on 
 the Douglas promenade. 
 
 We have stayed a day or two here, and 
 made excursions to different parts of the 
 island ; but now we are quite determined to eat 
 no more strawberries, no, nor enjoy anything 
 else whatever until we have made a grand 
 excursion to see the fairies. 
 
 We came across one of the fairy-rings in a 
 pretty vale yesterday morning, where we had 
 driven some distance inland ; so we shall visit 
 
64 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 it again to-night when the moon is up, and 
 enjoy ourselves. 
 
 Ah ! shall we be fortunate enough to find 
 the fairies at their dance ; or shall we only 
 prove ourselves to be *' moles" that cannot 
 see? 
 
 Time will show. The night is beautiful. 
 As we leave the sea its waves are lulling each 
 other and caressing the shore, and the mag- 
 nificent moon rises ; the whole of the heavenly 
 vault is irradiated by it. 
 
 Just the night for the fairy distillery to work ! 
 Surely we shall see fairies to-night ! 
 
 Half-an-hour's drive along the moonlit roads 
 and the man pulls up. We get out of the 
 carriage and leave him to smoke his pipe and 
 meditate upon what has induced us to take a 
 drive in the middle of the night, when his fare 
 is doubled. 
 
 After a few minutes' walk we see the roofless 
 chapel which no one could satisfactorily finish, 
 because the energetic fairies would come to 
 pull the roof off again directly it was put on ; 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 65 
 
 and then, turning down a field-path to the 
 left, we find the ring again. 
 
 A rock rises behind the velvet sward where 
 the ring is, a waterfall dances down not far 
 away, and a stream runs round two sides of 
 it ; all this is plainly discernible in the moon- 
 light. 
 
 Somehow we begin to feel uncanny. It is 
 close upon midnight; but for our w^atches 
 we should not have known that though, as 
 we are far from the sound of the clock's 
 striking. 
 
 Cowering under the rock behind a bush, 
 where we can see without being seen, we await 
 what shall be revealed. 
 
 There is no fear of our falling asleep ; the 
 only fear is that our mutual friend will imagine 
 something before she really sees anything at 
 all ; because she is rather an uncertain, nervous 
 person, the sort of person who says, ** What is 
 that?" in a tone of alarm if a cinder drop 
 upon the hearthstone, when anyone else, 
 hearing that same sound, would recognise it as 
 
 E 
 
06 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 the old original sound which a cinder always 
 did and always will make upon dropping from 
 the grate to the hearth. 
 
 In fact she is not at all the sort of person 
 you or I would have chosen to have with us 
 on an uncanny expedition of this kind ; the 
 truth is she invited herself, and we have long 
 since made up our minds to trust to our own 
 senses rather than her exclamations. 
 
 So far she has not uttered one. Presently 
 we hear something peculiar : it is a mournful 
 twirl of a sound that you and I at once re- 
 cognise as the melancholy cry of an owl ; but 
 our friend jumps decidedly, and breathlessly 
 looks to us for explanation. 
 
 We soothe her agitation by explaining it in 
 a whisper, and bid her watch the ring. 
 
 We all do so most intently for some time ; 
 but nothing unusual is to be seen. 
 
 We feel a good deal though, for the place 
 is damp, and however beautiful moonlight is, 
 damp and cramp interfere with the enjoyment 
 of it. 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 67 
 
 We are just making confession of this under 
 our breath to each other, when a delicious 
 sound fills and thrills the distance. It rises 
 and falls, dies, then melodiously and gene- 
 rously breaks out again — like a never to be 
 forgotten joy, In a rush of memory. 
 
 Cramp and ever}^thlng else are forgotten as 
 we listen, spellbound. In the middle of all 
 this you and I suddenly clasp each other's 
 hands, for there, as though ushered In by this 
 fluting prelude, are one, two, four, half-a dozen 
 streaks of light, settling themselves round and 
 over the fairy-ring. They hover in the air, 
 sometimes seem to go out, but generally re- 
 appear, just as you miss them. 
 
 Oh ! dear, this Is delightful ! 
 
 These must be fairy-lights. We hope the 
 nightingale will go on singing, for this seems 
 to bring them. 
 
 ** What's that?" our friend, w^ho has gone 
 marble pale at this sight, may well now exclaim, 
 for somehow there has come a rainbow-like 
 shimmering of beautiful colouring Into the ring, 
 
 E 2 
 
68 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 you cannot tell how ; but it rises above the 
 surrounding lights, then sinks again. And 
 now — yes, at last, here are the fairies ! 
 
 Beautiful, airy, fleet little beings, bounding 
 about, some of them, like india-rubber, flitting 
 about ; others like butterflies, dressed as the 
 flowers are, and graceful as they, constantly 
 vanishing and reappearing in a bewildering 
 manner. How long will this go on ? 
 
 Ah ! now they are settled and visible in- 
 deed, looking positively tangible. It is with 
 the greatest difficulty I prevent you from 
 putting out your hand to take and kiss one 
 sweet little fay. She has flown very near 
 the bush we crouch behind, and sits upon the 
 frond of a fern. She is about six inches in 
 height. Two of the tiniest petals from a tea- 
 rose, tilted up and curved, crown her hair; 
 her pretty short skirts are nothing but more 
 of these fragrant petals ; and, dear me ! how 
 very curious, her wings somehow absorb the 
 moonlight, so as to appear green, like the 
 delicate leaves from a rose tree. 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 6c) 
 
 For a moment she watches the others, pen- 
 sively, then falls to flirting with a glow-worm ! 
 He was shining most desperately close by, 
 in the hope of attracting her attention. 
 
 But who would have thought of her flirting 
 with a glow-worm, and such an airy fairy, too, 
 as she is ! 
 
 One would have expected her to flirt with 
 the glow without the worm. 
 
 Meanwhile something is happening to the 
 fairy-ring. The little fay gets fluttered and 
 flies back. 
 
 The Queen, the Queen, the Queen, has come. 
 Alas ! we never saw how. As usual, we 
 were not looking at the right time. However, 
 there she is now, and transcendently lovely 1 
 
 What a change, too, has taken place in the 
 fairy-ring. A peaceful pool has appeared in 
 the centre of it. 
 
 The Queen's feet rest upon lily-leaves. She 
 is throned upon a crescent moon. 
 
 Tiny stars of golden light are fixed around 
 her brow. Her perfect form is draped with a 
 
70 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 wreathing pure white cloudlet. Her glorious 
 hair falls waving about her ; while all around 
 her and above the ring, settles a concentrated 
 power of golden light, which looks like the 
 essence of joy. 
 
 Tiny doves, that seem to tell of the peace 
 which springs where the Queen reigns, fly 
 about her, and she carries a wand of pure 
 crystal in her hand ; it is a sign of the 
 strength and purity of her sway. 
 
 On her beautiful face is set the expression 
 of a noble purpose, and her eyes are liquid 
 with pity and love. 
 
 As she rises and raises the wand in greeting, 
 the air becomes suddenly melodious, and the 
 fairies spring and fling themselves together in 
 a wild dance of joy around their Queen. All 
 the time the sweet hubbub of spiritual sound 
 continues, the musicians thus invoked remain 
 invisible ; and although the theme is beyond 
 our ken, the fairies might be part of it, so 
 completely do their movement express unison 
 with it. 
 
THE FAIRY-RING. 7 1 
 
 In staccato passages they fall asunder, each 
 separately making obeisance to the Queen, 
 but when the sustained rhythm returns, they 
 fling together again and, with unanimous and 
 continuous action, move in a ring as before. 
 
 Watching the fairy dance we forget every- 
 thing else, even the nightingale's singing. 
 How long we crouch in this wrapt attention 
 we cannot tell ; but the sound of a cock crow 
 is heard, and heigh ! ho ! in a trice all are 
 gone ! vanished ! 
 
 Not even a lock of the fairy Queen's hair, 
 or a petal from a fairy crown is left behind ; 
 and but for the corroboration from the three 
 pairs of eyes, and the three pairs of ears of the 
 three wide-awake persons cowering behind the 
 bushes, we might have thought we had been 
 dreaming. 
 
 But we all three know that we have not been 
 even to sleep ! So there the matter rests. 
 
 We walk quietly back to the carriage, still 
 quite overpowered by the beauty of the scene 
 we have just witnessed; and after that when 
 
72 THE FAIRY-RING. 
 
 Other peeple tell us they "don't believe" in 
 fairies, we pity them, and class them as moles 
 who cannot see, while our minds wander back 
 to a certain summer night, to a romantic 
 island in the middle of the Irish Sea, and to 
 the beautiful fairy dance we so distinctly saw 
 there. 
 
 And whenever we see the green, green 
 grass that marks a fairy-ring, we wish that 
 we ourselves were more like fairies who 
 beautify what they touch. And we think that 
 perhaps if we had such a noble purpose and 
 pity, and love at heart, as shone from the 
 face of that beautiful fairy Queen, the glad- 
 some actions we should then be able to do, 
 would prove as great a blessing to those 
 around us, as did the fairy dance to the 
 fairy-ring. 
 
73 
 
 THE CUCKOO, 
 
 NE fine day Mrs. Thrush, who lived 
 in a beautiful nest built on the forked 
 branch of a tree, was very angry, 
 and this was the reason of it. 
 When she came home from flying- about and 
 picking up food on lawns miles distant, what 
 should she find but a perfect stranger, a large 
 cuckoo, sitting in her nest as comfortably as 
 though it belonged to him ! 
 
 *'You might have knocked me down with 
 a wren s feather," she told her husband after- 
 wards, in describing the incident to him ; *' I 
 was so taken aback ; I had heard of, but never 
 seen such impudence before ! " 
 
 Oddly enough, a few days afterwards, Mrs. 
 Blackbird had the same tale to tell her 
 husband. 
 
 ** I thought at first it was you, my dear, 
 
74 THE CUCKOO. 
 
 carefully keeping- the eggs warm, having re- 
 turned home before me," she said, " but when 
 I got near enough to see, I found to my 
 disgust it was a horrid brown cuckoo, filling 
 up the nest as though it were his own, and 
 sitting on my eggs, too ! " 
 
 Mr. Blackbird was naturally indignant when 
 he heard this, and very justly remarked : 
 ** When we want a nurse, my dear, we can 
 advertise for one, but no bird can submit to 
 such an intrusion twice." 
 
 Now if the blackbirds could but have heard, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Starling were holding almost the 
 same conversation in another part of the 
 forest. 
 
 In fact, not one pair of birds, but many a 
 pair, in every part of the forest which was 
 frequented by a cuckoo, had the same com- 
 plaint to make. 
 
 So a few weeks later, when Mrs. Thrush 
 had returned home again, again to find that 
 impertinent cuckoo sitting in her nest, Mr. 
 Thrush took action. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 75 
 
 He called a conference together of all the 
 birds of the forest, to be held in the largest 
 oak tree there, when the sun should be high in 
 the heavens, the subject of discussion to be, 
 *' How we are to punish that cuckoo ?" 
 
 And he left word at very nearly all the 
 nests in the forest ; and even the ow^ls and 
 the nightingales consented to come when 
 they heard w^hat the discussion was to be 
 about, though none of these liked going 
 about in the daytime. The owls were so 
 blind then, and the nightingales so tired after 
 their midnight singing. 
 
 When the time came, therefore, all the birds 
 were gathered together in the oak tree, and 
 you never heard such a chattering as there 
 was in your life. 
 
 Each bird wanted to tell his own particular 
 instance of the cuckoo's impertinent entrance 
 into his ow^n nest, but no bird wanted to hear 
 his neighbour's experience; and as they all 
 persisted in talking at once, no single one 
 got a hearing, till the lark sank down from 
 
76 THE CUCKOO. 
 
 above to tell them their noise was ** disgrace- 
 ful/' 
 
 *' Get a chairman, or, to speak more appro- 
 priately, a bottghvcLd.rv,^'' she said, '' to preside 
 over the meeting and keep the peace." 
 
 But this suggestion only caused more 
 wrangling still, for the birds could not de- 
 cide who should be placed in that enviable 
 position, the top of the tree ; because each 
 had a secret conviction that he himself could 
 best fill the post, and this made him object 
 to every other suggestion made. 
 
 So the whole day passed in useless talk. 
 The sun was obliged to go down before they 
 had done ; and the oak tree thought, as he 
 felt himself laden with chattering birds, that, 
 whatever their business might be, it could not 
 be so objectionably important as they them- 
 selves were. All that day they arrived at no 
 conclusion in the matter, and all the next they 
 would have still wrangled ; but at noon the 
 forest became gloomy ; the sunlight disap- 
 peared ; a thunderstorm came on. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 77 
 
 This utterly frightened and scattered the 
 birds. 
 
 The lightning flashed, the thunder roared, 
 and the tree swayed to and fro as the rain 
 came down in torrents, and every forest crea- 
 ture hid itself until the face of nature should 
 smile again. ^ 
 
 When the weather did clear, and Mr. Thrush 
 was able to fly back to his wife, anxious to tell 
 her about the conference — from which domes- 
 tic duties had detained her — he was much as- 
 tonished to find a great disturbance going on 
 in one of the trees near where his way lay. 
 
 Several of the birds that had been at the 
 conference were chirping about in a very con- 
 cerned manner indeed ; and he was still more 
 astonished when he learnt the reason of it, 
 which Mr. and Mrs. Starling rushed out to tell 
 him. 
 
 They said, *' Just when the storm cleared we 
 made for home, because it suddenly occurred 
 to us that all the time we were talking in the 
 oak tree the cuckoo might be sitting in our 
 
78 THE CUCKOO. 
 
 nest. And, sure enough, when we got back, 
 there he had been ; but, to our dismay, we 
 found that both he and our nest had been 
 struck to the earth by the lightning! " 
 
 Mr. Thrush looked at the ground as the 
 starling spoke, and there lay the poor cuckoo 
 — dead ; the nest broken in pieces about him. 
 
 This was the sight which made the birds so 
 concerned. 
 
 They took the poor, sad-looking, stark 
 little body away, and laid it near a quiet 
 stream, and covered it with leaves. Each 
 little bird brought one in his beak as a tribute 
 of forgiveness, and then they all cried — as well 
 as they could — and felt very mournful. 
 
 Indeed, such numbers of birds came from 
 all parts of the forest when they heard of the 
 cuckoo's fate, that the gathering of forgive- 
 ness at the stream was even more numerously 
 attended than the conference which met to 
 condemn him had been. 
 
 Night was falling in as the owl brought his, 
 the last tribute, to the cuckoo's funeral, so 
 
THE CUCKOO. 79 
 
 perhaps that was the reason he was able to see 
 so clearly just then, for he said : 
 
 ** We, who have so many faults of our own, 
 and are vain and quarrelsome, forgive you 
 your fault against us, O cuckoo ! And we 
 are not surprised that the avenging power 
 which destroyed you destroyed at the same 
 time one of our nests ; for which of us does not 
 deserv^e punishment for some fault or other ! " 
 
 Then the owl laid his leaf penitently upon 
 the dead cuckoo's tail and flew solemnly away ; 
 as, in due time, did they all. 
 
 And after the poor cuckoo was killed by the 
 storm, the birds in that forest never again 
 found fault with each other so readily as they 
 had done before. 
 
8o 
 
 FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 ^I^^OU are very mild-looking and very- 
 blue!" said a frog, looking at a 
 number of forget-me-nots that were 
 growing on the outskirts of a pond 
 out of which he had just jumped. 
 
 The forget-me-nots were much too tranquil 
 to be disturbed into replying by a personal 
 remark of that kind; but a duck that was 
 swimming about near took up the cudgels at 
 once. 
 
 ** Quack!" she said; **well, you are neither 
 yourself, but a yellow, bulging, jumping, 
 croaking person, whose eyes look as though 
 they might drop out of your head any minute, 
 and get lost in the water ! " 
 
 *' Humph!" exclaimed the frog, ^*it's no 
 affair of yours; I wasn't speaking to you, but 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 8 1 
 
 thinking aloud. I suppose people may think 
 aloud if they like, mayn't they? " 
 
 '' Quack ! " said the duck, '' if they do they 
 must take the consequences; and the con- 
 sequences of thinking aloud are, that other 
 people will overhear them, and take them to 
 task for their thoughts." 
 
 *' Humph!" returned the frog, **you are 
 ready enough with your word! Where do 
 you come from ?*' But he received no answer 
 to this, for the only part of the duck left above 
 water to give any answer was its tail — head 
 and body were lost to sight under water. 
 
 ** There's never any conversation to be got 
 with a duck," the frog grumbled to himself; 
 *' I've noticed that before. They just throw out 
 the first remark that comes into their heads, and 
 then turn tail uppermost to avoid your reply." 
 
 But the duck's head had been up listening 
 to him for some moments, and she quacked in, 
 ** On the contrary, we are generally up in time 
 to hear the tail end of what you are talking 
 about." 
 
82 FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 The frog was startled, because he did not 
 know the duck's head was above water again. 
 
 ** Come on land," at last he said, gruffly, 
 "if you want to have it out with me, then I 
 shall know which end of you will be uppermost 
 without keeping an eye upon you all the time." 
 
 But the duck knew she had the best of it on 
 the water, so she swam away; and there was 
 nothing left for the frog to talk to but the 
 mild, blue forget-me-nots. * 
 
 He jumped about and croaked a good deal, 
 hoping to attract their attention in that way ; 
 but as they took no notice of him whatever, he 
 began, " Humph ! if I may make so bold as 
 to inquire, what are you thinking about all day 
 long? If you would think aloud, as other 
 people do sometimes, it would make the after- 
 noon pleasanter ! " 
 
 The duck had once more come by, so she 
 put in here, " Quack ! that would depend upon 
 what their thoughts were. I doubt if your 
 thoughts would make any afternoon the plea- 
 santer," and before the frog could retaliate to 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 83 
 
 this disagreeable remark, she was topsyturvy 
 again. 
 
 But all at once one of the forget-me-nots 
 began thinking aloud for the benefit of that 
 jumping, bulging, yellow creature the frog; 
 and this was what she thought : 
 
 "We rise from the waters 
 To greet the fair Shower, 
 For we are the daughters, 
 
 Bom in glad hour, 
 Of Earth and the Sky." 
 
 Here, however, the frog interrupted her. ** If 
 you are the daughters, which are the sons?" 
 he asked. 
 
 *' It does not follow that there are sons be- 
 cause there are daughters," the forget-me-not 
 said gently; *' we have no brothers that we 
 know of." 
 
 *' Humph ! " said the frog, ** I thought it did, 
 that's all. But when I come to look at you, 
 you forget-me-nots, you do look so much alike, 
 I expect you are all twins, ay?" he ended, 
 interrogatively. 
 
 F 2 
 
84 FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 '' Since there are so many of us alike, twins 
 we cannot be/' again the forget-me-not gently 
 corrected. 
 
 " Then I expect you all came to life in a 
 batch like crocodiles' eggs!" concluded the 
 frog; *'go on." 
 
 And the forget-me-not continued : 
 
 " Ah ! fondly we yearn for 
 Our father, the Sky; 
 The Earth, our dear mother, 
 We always are nigh : 
 For our father we sigh." 
 
 ** Better do something else, it's no good 
 sighing," interrupted the frog; '* your father, 
 the sky, will never hear that, he's so far off! 
 Try jumping. You would get nearer to him if 
 you were to jump as I do." 
 
 ''We don't wish to leave our mother, the 
 Earth, though," objected the forget-me-not in 
 prose. "As it is, we can /ee/ her at our roots, 
 though we never see much of her, but if we 
 were to jump we should have to come up by 
 the roots, separate ourselves from her, and 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 85 
 
 never reach him, our father the Sky, after all ; 
 but fall back most certainly to die." 
 
 *' Thafwould be a pity," said the frog ; **but 
 I can't see that a little jumping should hurt 
 anyone. It's the only exercise I ever take — 
 except swimming of course" — he added 
 hastily. *' I have a good deal of that; but I 
 find that jumping always does me good." 
 And thereupon he jumped about to prove what 
 he said. 
 
 The forget-me-not watched him, but said 
 nothing ; for she had now found out that the 
 frog was one of those people who judge the 
 whole world by their own small experience, 
 and disbelieve other people's, whatever that 
 may be ; but one of the tiniest forget-me-nots 
 put in: ^'We never take any exercise at all. 
 Nothing does us so much good as standing 
 still and looking up to our dear father, the 
 Sky." 
 
 Just then the duck, who had returned un- 
 perceived by them and been standing tail 
 uppermost for some time near, burst in with, 
 
86 FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 *' I, on the contrary, get most good by looking 
 down ; and that is the simple reason why I do 
 it so often." 
 
 And the next instant she went head first 
 down again. 
 
 Now these interruptions all made the frog 
 angry, for the duck kept taking him by sur- 
 prise, and the frog was just the sort of person 
 to feel decidedly irritated when taken by 
 surprise. 
 
 ** What a creature that duck is for joining 
 uninvited into the conversation !" he observed, 
 testily. ** I never saw her like ! " 
 
 But the forget-me-not here began to think 
 aloud again : 
 
 " The Shower will carry 
 A message for me." 
 
 ** Humph ! that is nonsense," burst in the 
 frog. ** How can it? Such nonsense! I 
 never heard of a shower doing anything but 
 coming down and splashing upon stones; and 
 since there are no stones in the sky, it can't 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 87 
 
 even do that up there ! How will it carry 
 your message ? How can it ever get back tip 
 into the sky again at all, let alone carry any- 
 body's messages there ? " 
 
 The forget-me-not' s thoughts, however, had 
 been so upset by these constant interruptions 
 that she did not reply at all to this question. 
 
 ** Ho ! ho ! you can interrupt other people 
 when they are thinking aloud, I hear," again 
 burst in the duck, who was round unexpectedly 
 again as usual; '* I thought you didn't like it 
 yourself, and that that was why you found 
 fault with me a minute or two ago ! What a 
 fellow you are ! And as ignorant of the 
 shower and its ways, too, as can be ! I sup- 
 pose you think everyone croaks when they 
 send or take a message, as you yourself 
 do ! Well, you are very much mistaken, 
 Mr. Frog ; and, mark my words, these forget- 
 me-nots know a great deal more than you do 
 about some things." 
 
 *' Well," rejoined the frog, crestfallen under 
 the duck's sharp attack, ** I merely ask how 
 
88 FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 is the shower to carry a message to any- 
 one?'' 
 
 **You listen to the forget-me-not without 
 interrupting, who knows so much more than 
 you or I do, for the matter of that, though she 
 does nothing but stand still and look up all 
 day long, and you shall hear," said the duck. 
 
 The forget-me-not was still silent, however, 
 so they listened in vain. 
 
 *^ Quack! you see what you've done now," 
 said the duck (who it seemed could remain 
 still and horizontal when no one was going to 
 make a retort) ; " you've exhausted the kindness 
 of our dear little forget-me-not, who never by 
 any chance loses her temper. It's a disgrace ! 
 Now you may listen and listen, but you'll 
 grow none the wiser, because the forget-me- 
 not will not think aloud for your benefit any 
 longer. She'll think all the rest of the time to 
 herself" 
 
 And, having quite aired her sentiments, the 
 duck dived again, leaving the frog thoroughly 
 disconsolate and ashamed of himself. 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 89 
 
 ** Humph ! " was his mental note, " I wish I 
 hadn't been such a fool. There is something 
 in what that duck says, after all ! Perhaps," 
 he pondered, ''by putting so much of herself 
 out of sight directly she's said anything, she 
 makes her remarks more impressive. I'll try 
 the effect of that plan upon the forget-me-not; 
 for I want to hear how the shower can carry a 
 message to the sky." 
 
 " I am afraid you think I was rude, forget- 
 me-not ! " he exclaimed, and, plunging into 
 the edge of the pond, he endeavoured to stand 
 upon his head by sticking it into the soft mud 
 at the bottom of the pond edge, and kicking his 
 legs out of the surface of the water violently 
 behind. 
 
 But the forget-me-not took no notice of 
 what the frog was doing ; and when, after 
 having been very uncomfortable, he regained 
 his natural position to wonder what effect his 
 imitation of the duck had wrought, it was to 
 find three dragon-flies hovering above his head, 
 laughing at him. All their wings were shaking 
 
go FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 with laughter, and they had gradually been 
 coming nearer and nearer the surface of the 
 water, and nearer his struggling limbs, in that 
 tremulous, tentative, dropping hover with 
 which dragon-flies vary their darting flight, to 
 see if it really could be their old friend, the 
 frog, behaving so madly ! 
 
 " Hollo ! he ! he ! " they exclaimed ; ** then it 
 
 is you ? We thought we recognised something 
 
 about the hind legs ; but what was the matter ? " 
 
 *' Did you have a fit ? " asked one. 
 
 *' Or had something you were catching 
 
 caught you ? " asked another. 
 
 *' Or perhaps you really had stuck fast in 
 the mud? " cried the third. 
 
 *' He ! he ! " laughed they all ; *' it really was 
 a sight to see you standing on your head in 
 the mud." 
 
 " Humph!" said the frog, again crestfallen 
 and ashamed of himself, and very much taken 
 by surprise and annoyed, *' it's no affair of 
 yours. I suppose people may kick out of the 
 water if they like, mayn't they?" 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 9 1 
 
 ^^ Yes, yes," said all the little dragon-flies; 
 ** do it again — we like to see 3"ou ! We dart 
 about a good deal over the pond, but we never 
 before saw anything so amusing as a frog 
 behaving like that." 
 
 " Unless it had got its head fast in the 
 weeds," added one. 
 
 But the duck had been round for some time 
 unobserved, and now put in, *' Quack ! people 
 may do ridiculous things if they like, of course, 
 but they must take the consequences if they do ; 
 and the consequence of doing a foolish thing 
 is, that other people will laugh at them. I was 
 at the other side of the pond, and saw there 
 was something going on here, so back I came 
 at once, and I see what he has been doing. 
 The frog has just been rude to the forget- 
 me-nots," she explained, turning to the dragon- 
 flies, ** and I daresay he thought to make it up 
 by imitating me because they are great friends 
 of mine. Quack ! quack ! I hate such work ! " 
 
 *'He! he!" laughed all the little dragon- 
 flies; ** who would have thought this of our 
 
92 ^ FORGET-ME-NOTS. 
 
 friend the frog ? How was he rude to the 
 forget-me-nots, Mrs. Duck?" 
 
 ** Well," replied the duck, " she was think- 
 ing aloud on purpose to make the afternoon 
 a little the pleasanter for him, as he had asked 
 her to do, and he needs must interrupt her to 
 say he didn't believe her! I consider that 
 rude, don't you? I call it rude to inter- 
 rupt one at all, but to interrupt any one to 
 say she is talking nonsense when she is 
 telling the truth; I call that very rude, don't 
 you?" 
 
 And the duck quite forgot to turn topsy- 
 turvy, she was so indignant, while all the little 
 dragon-flies called out — 
 
 ** He ! he ! very rude, very rude." 
 
 And the frog was covered with confusion, 
 which he manifested by looking yellower and 
 more bulging than ever, and by his eyes be- 
 coming more prominent than before, while his 
 skin and limbs seemed to be paralysed with 
 fear. 
 
 And just at this very awkward moment, 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 93 
 
 what should come to turn away attention from 
 the unhappy frog, who was suffering so acutely 
 from the condemnation he richly deserved, 
 but the forget-me-not, thinking aloud again, 
 as though nothing whatever had happened to 
 interrupt her ! So that, just as the frog 
 thoroughly realised how rude he had been 
 to contradict her — how foolish to imitate the 
 duck in order to make a better impression 
 upon her, and how ignorant he was about the 
 shower, and about exercise not being good 
 for forget-me-nots, and everything else in the 
 world except jumping and croaking, the for- 
 get-me-not forgave him, and went on thinking 
 aloud, just as though nothing disagreeable had 
 happened — 
 
 " So, nightly returning 
 
 As vapour on high, 
 The shower our yearning 
 
 Tells to the blue sky : 
 Who brightens with pleasure 
 
 And rare joy above, 
 To learn of his treasure, 
 
 His dear daughter's love." 
 
94 FORGET-ME-NOTS, 
 
 *' And the thought of the shower's carrying 
 that message does cheer us wonderfully," con- 
 cluded the forget-me-not, in prose. 
 
 **I am obliged to you for thinking aloud," 
 said the frog; "I am much obliged," for, 
 while listening to the end of the forget-me- 
 not' s thoughts, he had recovered his self- 
 possession ; and he felt happier now that he 
 had heard how the shower did ascend into the 
 sky again. He was surprised it did not jump. 
 
 Even the duck could see that a desirable 
 change had come over him, and remarked, 
 ** I am glad you appreciate the forget-me-nots 
 at last, Mr. Frog ! Quack ! " 
 
 *' He ! he ! so are we— so are we ! " chimed 
 in the dragon-flies, their wings shaking with 
 satisfaction this time. " We are very fond of 
 all the forget-me-nots." 
 
 ** Humph ! " continued the frog; ** there is 
 something in being mild, after all, if it pre- 
 vents them from being so irritable as I am ! " 
 and he jumped as he made this great con- 
 fession. *'And as for their being blue,'' he 
 
FORGET-ME-NOTS. 95 
 
 concluded, "humph! that very fact should 
 have told me long ago that they were related 
 to the sky ; they are exactly the same colour 
 as he." 
 
 And with this he jumped away, the dragon- 
 flies darted off, the duck stood tail uppermost 
 in the water for so long, naturally and happily, 
 that one almost despaired of ever seeing her 
 head again ; and all was peace on the pond 
 once more, as the blue forget-me-nots con- 
 tinued to gaze up to the blue, blue sky. 
 
 f^^ 
 
96 
 
 THE LAD'S HOUSE. 
 
 HE particular person I want to tell you 
 about to-day was a lad who lived 
 once upon a time in this flower-be- 
 sprinkled world, when curious events 
 were always happening. 
 
 From the beginning- he was in comfortable 
 circumstances, for his father, who was very 
 rich, made him the handsome present of a 
 house directly he was born ; in fact, the very 
 house the lad was born in the father made over 
 to him for life. 
 
 ** It is rather small at present,*' said his 
 father, when the lad was old enough to under- 
 stand ; '*but don't be anxious on that score, 
 for when you grow it will grow too, so that it 
 will last you your lifetime ; and, as it is a 
 moveable house, you can take it about with 
 
THE lad's house. 97 
 
 you wherever you go. And prize it ; for if this 
 comes to grief, I cannot provide you with 
 another like it.'* 
 
 Then the lad's mother showed him over it. 
 
 There were several stories, a great many 
 passages, staircases, and two or three chambers 
 in it ; and the walls of almost all the rooms 
 and passages were red — a deep terra- cotta 
 colour. 
 
 At the "very top of all, however, was one 
 room, which had cream-coloured walls and a 
 skylight. This was the study, the most in- 
 teresting of all the rooms in the house, and 
 there was a little private chapel near it. 
 
 Of course, too, there were a front and a back 
 door, and windows to the house. 
 
 Now, although most of the rooms — the 
 kitchen and dining-room, for instance — were 
 furnished when the lad was born, the study 
 and the little private chapel were not. 
 
 *' Those," said his mother, '*you will have 
 to furnish bit by bit yourself, as you grow up. 
 I will help you to begin," she added. 
 
 G 
 
98 THE lad's house. 
 
 Then she gave him a beautiful image of a 
 saint to put upon the altar in his chapel. And 
 she taught him to sing and to play upon the 
 organ there. 
 
 The lad was truly happy for many years ; 
 and indeed he might well be, for his life was a 
 very enjoyable one. 
 
 In the winter time, when the soft snow fell, 
 making the face of Nature so pure and beau- 
 tiful, he, with other lads, would rush out into 
 it, and, pressing it into hard balls, they Vv^ould 
 fling it at each other in great enjoyment. Or 
 he would pause in crossing the fields to notice 
 how very black the uncovered parts of the 
 tree-branches looked, and how fascinating was 
 their tracery against the background of white 
 snow or blue sky. 
 
 As for the soft, luxurious, pure snow, which 
 the wind had drifted around in heaps, he felt 
 he would like to roll in them as the dogs did. 
 They scampered over the hard, frozen roads, 
 then they rolled about in the snow-drifts, en- 
 joying themselves to the full. 
 
THE LAD S HOUSE. 99 
 
 ** Winter is delightful!" the boy thought ; 
 and he looked forward to skating all the year 
 round. 
 
 And how about spring, when that drew 
 near? Well, that he thought delightful, too. 
 
 Then he could ramble over the meadows, 
 and find the early flowers, and peep into the 
 hedges and the trees where the birds built, to 
 see how many pretty eggs had been laid, or 
 race with the skittish, easily frightened lambs. 
 
 Then he could gaze from the hills at the 
 advancing April shower, as it came gradually 
 nearer and nearer, as a veil might move 
 among the hills and valleys, watering the 
 tender shoots that were springing to light, 
 and softening the bursting buds. 
 
 And when summer came round, Nature 
 seemed to him even more delightful still. 
 Then there was wading to be had in the cool, 
 clear river near the stepping-stones, when the 
 air was so full of warmth that even the tops 
 of these stones themselves were warmed by 
 the sun in the midst of the clear, cool water. 
 
 G 2 
 
lOO THE lad's house. 
 
 Then the wild flowers were blowing abundantly 
 in the fragrant meadows among the sweet, 
 tall grass. 
 
 He collected many of the flowers, learnt 
 their names, and stored them in his study ; 
 and he wandered at ease through the shady, 
 quiet woods. 
 
 To add to all this happiness, one summer, 
 after some years had passed away, he found in 
 the shady wood sweet Lizzeite. 
 
 She lived there in her little house with an 
 aunt. 
 
 And as autumn came on turning the leaves 
 to gold and ripening the fruit, the friendship 
 of these two ripened into love. 
 
 The nightingale said, *' 1 have watched the 
 youth and the maid walk out together in the 
 evening; and then sit, as the sun set, on a 
 heathery knoll, and though the air around was 
 soft and cool, they blushed with love's excite- 
 ment. 
 
 ** It will be a match," concluded the night- 
 ingale. 
 
THE tad's house. IOI 
 
 ** They will pair, they will pair/' cooed the 
 ringdove. 
 
 Thus the lad grew up into a tall youth ; and, 
 sure enough, his house grew with him, just as 
 his father had said it would do ; it enlarged of 
 its own accord in the most convenient manner 
 possible. 
 
 ^^ It is really a capital house," said the 
 youth to himself when he considered this; *'I 
 am, as I ought to be, thankful for it." 
 
 And as he grew still older he began to 
 understand that when he met Lizzette his 
 pulse beat with a quickened life, and that, 
 when he did not meet her, life seemed flat and 
 the world dull. 
 
 And all the grasses and flowers in the wood 
 and on the hillside, where the two used to meet, 
 whispered, ** They love." 
 
 However, about this time a very strange 
 thing happened to that wonderful house in 
 which the youth lived. I will try to describe it 
 to you. 
 
 Hitherto he had deemed it the most con- 
 
T02 THE lad's HOUSE. 
 
 venlent house in the world, as we know ; now 
 he began to think it just the opposite ; and for 
 this reason. 
 
 At nights now, when he retired to rest, 
 instead of enjoying that profound and un- 
 broken rest which had always before been his, 
 he was kept awake by a most bitter experience. 
 
 This was what now happened. 
 
 As the youth lay in bed, lights began to 
 dither and dance around his chamber, and hot 
 air to seethe about him, till, when midnight 
 had struck, from a trap-door at the end of one 
 of the passages would emerge a strange figure 
 — the figure of a man, but deformed into a 
 demon of glowing flame. Entering at the 
 closed door of the bedchamber, this form 
 would advance towards the bed with glowing 
 eyes, and bending over the stricken youth 
 would half consume him with a terrible heat 
 and horror. 
 
 Night after night the unfortunate youth 
 went through this dreadful experience, with 
 occasional weeks of respite interspersed^ and 
 
THE lad's house. IO3 
 
 he became worn and pale as a shadow; for 
 the house which he could not get rid of, 
 when his father had made it over to him for 
 life, was haunted ; and in consequence of 
 this the youth's life became a burden to 
 him. 
 
 '* He is pining, he is pining," cooed the 
 ringdoves with quick sympathy, as he passed 
 through the woods in the fresh morning air 
 looking scared and wan. 
 
 And in truth the youth was grieving at 
 heart, for he thought, *' I cannot ask sweet 
 Lizzette to be my wife, I, who am haunted by 
 a demon ghost ! I must first get rid of the 
 demon before I can tell her that I love her 
 even. Alas ! that it should be so ; for I do 
 love her with all my heart." 
 
 Then he wandered about, and gazed at her 
 window from afar ; and puzzled his brains as 
 to how he should get rid of his demon visitor ; 
 but he never once thought of consulting 
 Lizzette herself. 
 
 And time passed on. Just now, when they 
 
I04 THE lad's house. 
 
 met, the maid could scarcely understand her 
 lover's behaviour, for he was constrained and 
 silent, and never said — though he held her 
 hand so long at parting — '' Will you be my 
 wife?" 
 
 *' Ernest does not love me, after all,'' 
 thought sweet lAzzette ; and the tears that 
 rose to her eyes were almost checked by the 
 indignant question, " Then why did he woo 
 me?" 
 
 About this time the owl and the nightingale 
 had a talk together. 
 
 *' The young man grows pale and ill," said 
 the nightingale; *'the ringdove says he is 
 dying of love for the maid." 
 
 *' Tee- whit, tee- who ! " rejoined the owl, 
 most attentively. 
 
 *' The maid sits lonely, and as she listens 
 to my song her heart swells within her. If 
 she could but follow her thoughts, she her- 
 self would melt into the presence of the youth, 
 as cloudlets melt towards the full and golden 
 
 moon." 
 
THE LAD S HOUSE. IO5 
 
 *' Tee-whoo ! " again rejoined the owl. 
 
 *'Why do they not marry?" abruptly in- 
 quired the nightingale. 
 
 *'You see, there is something in the way,'* 
 the owl replied. 
 
 He then told the nightingale all about the 
 demon who haunted the youth at night ; for the 
 owl had watched and seen all through the 
 window several times. 
 
 The nightingale was very quiet after she 
 heard this : she was thinking her own little 
 thoughts ; then she flew away. 
 
 She flew till she reached the window of the 
 feverish youth, which was open, and, hopping 
 inside, witnessed the whole scene for herself, her 
 little beak twittering with fright the while. And 
 when, after the ghastly spectre's retirement, the 
 youth lay still and exhausted, the nightingale 
 picked up an open letter from his dressing- 
 table, and again flew off in another direction. 
 
 This time it was to the maid's window that 
 she flew, and, dropping the letter upon the 
 window-sill, she poured forth from a neigh- 
 
I06 THE lad's house. 
 
 bouring branch such a volume of song as 
 brought the maid near to listen. 
 
 And there lay the letter. The maid saw it 
 and took it in. 
 
 A dried flower was pinned upon one side of 
 it, one which Lizzette recognised, for she had 
 herself given it to Ernest a month before, and 
 beside the flower was written in his handwriting 
 these words — 
 
 " Precious gift from a tender hand — 
 
 A true, sweet heart that holds my own. 
 
 Would that I could, as oft I've planned. 
 Take that dear heart as my life's throne ! 
 
 Alas ! a fierce ghost glides between. 
 
 And scatters all my hopeful dream." 
 
 When Lizzette had read these words a blush 
 brightened her face, and, as she pressed the 
 letter to her lips, she murmured, 
 
 "Dear Ernest, I am yours, since you do 
 love me, and you are mine ; and no demon 
 shall torment you if I can help it." 
 
 The next day she started for the heart of the 
 forest, thinking all the time that Ernest himself 
 
THE LAD S HOUSE. IO7 
 
 must have placed those lines upon her window- 
 sill the night before. 
 
 Now the reason she went to the heart of 
 the forest was this : An old grandame lived 
 there, Witch Griffin, who was so old and so 
 wise, she knew nearly everything that other 
 people did not know; and whenever the people 
 of that country side were in a difficulty, they 
 went to consult Witch Griffin. 
 
 " She will tell me how to help my beloved,'' 
 thought Lizzette ; so she walked away fast all 
 day, that she might reach the witch before 
 nightfall. At last, when she was tired, she sat 
 down to rest for a little while under the trees. 
 
 The sun set, and the squirrels were chatter- 
 ing above her; but Lizzette could not under- 
 stand what they said. 
 
 '' Where is she going ? " asked one. 
 
 *' To the witch," returned another. ** I 
 have watched her most of the day, and she 
 has been going straight towards the witch's 
 cave." 
 
 *'I wish she wouldn't sit upon my nuts ! " 
 
I08 THE lad's house. 
 
 chimed in a third, his bright eyes twinkling 
 with anxiety ; " she is upon the very spot 
 where I have hidden a heap of them away for 
 next winter." 
 
 *' Never mind," said a fourth, **she won't 
 crack them." 
 
 *' Well, if she isn't quick, she will miss what 
 she came for," said the first, whisking up his 
 tail preparatory to retiring for the night, ** for 
 Witch Griffin goes out at moonrise, as we all 
 know." 
 
 But Lizzette could not understand them, so 
 she rose in a leisurely manner to continue her 
 journey ; and, just as the beams from the risen 
 moon fell, soft and mild, into the heart of the 
 forest, she caught sight of the witch's cave. 
 
 A deep dell, sunk among the trees, led to it, 
 as Lizzette knew well. 
 
 At first, as she approached it, she thought a 
 fringe of moonlight hung round the mouth of 
 the cave, but soon she discovered it was a 
 fringe of glow-worms which illumined its out- 
 line. 
 
THE lad's house. IO9 
 
 As she paused before entering this gloomy 
 dell, a sensation of awe crept over her for a 
 time. However, just as she had nerved her- 
 self to enter it, and was looking intently 
 before her in order to do so, a dark object 
 shot out from the entrance, obliterating the 
 light from some of the glow-worm fringe for a 
 moment, to appear the next, clearly defined 
 against the moonlit sky. It was plainly Witch 
 Griffin upon a broomstick ; she was evidently 
 off, and away for the night. 
 
 At seeing the object of her search thus 
 elude her, after so long and toilsome a jour- 
 ney, Lizzette was deeply disappointed. 
 
 Involuntarily she called after the witch ; but 
 so swift was the locomotive power in the 
 broomstick, that by the time Lizzette had 
 uttered a sound it and the witch were quite 
 out of sight. 
 
 Tears of disappointment rose to the 
 maiden's eyes ; but thinking that, at all 
 events, she would enter the cave and wait 
 for Witch Griffin's return, after having come 
 
no THE lad's house. 
 
 SO far to see her, even though she had to sit 
 up all night for it, Lizzette approached the 
 cave in order to do so. 
 
 Feeling about in the dark, she at length 
 found two or three ledges of rock, by means 
 of which she managed to climb into the mouth 
 of the cave. 
 
 There she sat down, wishing that glow-worm 
 light were brighter, her heart beating with 
 fright, as she felt all kinds of little bones, and 
 queer odds and ends upon the floor where she 
 stretched her hands about to feel her way. At 
 last she discerned a faint light at the far end 
 of the cave. Evidently it issued from an inner 
 sanctum. 
 
 Lizzette at once made her way towards this, 
 finding as she did so that the cave she was in 
 narrowed in this direction to a passage. At 
 the end of this passage a blank wall faced her ; 
 but to the right, where the light fell through, 
 was an opening. 
 
 Lizzette looked through, and started with 
 pleasure and surprise as a lovely sight met her 
 eyes. 
 
THE lad's house. Ill 
 
 She had peeped in through a sort of natural 
 window in the dome of a huge cave, which 
 stretched away far below, in the centre of 
 which softly beamed an indescribable sun. 
 Rays from this bathed the cave in a flood of 
 soft light. The sides of it were covered with 
 the most delicate flowers, moss, and vege- 
 tation. The flowers were more delicate, the 
 moss more velvety, than any to be met with 
 on the earth's surface, though they were 
 similar to these in kind. 
 
 But especially the light fell immediately be- 
 low upon a small lake of magical water, where 
 ethereal water-lilies and slender reeds rose. 
 And a dainty, almost transparent, cloudlet 
 floated between this sun and this water. 
 
 On the cloudlet reclined the greatest wonder 
 the cave contained — a beautiful winged child, 
 with wide open, dreamy eyes. 
 
 Lizzette gazed entranced till a sigh of joy 
 escaped from her. 
 
 The effect of her sigh was astonishing. It 
 conjured up all kinds of vivacity in the cave 
 
112 THE lad's house. 
 
 immediately. The hum of insects at once 
 filled the soft atmosphere ; hundreds of shadowy 
 butterflies began to flit about; and the child 
 upon the cloudlet changed his position, and 
 seeing Lizzette smiled, and then drew towards 
 her. 
 
 *' I came to consult Witch Griflin," said 
 Lizzette in answer to the inquiry in his eyes. 
 
 ** Consult me instead," the child simply 
 replied ; and love and sympathy seemed to 
 beam from him. " I am Child Praim, and 
 older than Witch Griffin herself, though ever 
 a child. It is I who instruct the witch in 
 Nature's secrets." 
 
 And so forceful was the sympathy in the 
 child Praim that Lizzette's story was soon told 
 to him. 
 
 *' And now the life of him I love is en- 
 dangered by a demon who haunts him. What 
 shall I do to help him ? " she ended. 
 
 The eyes of the child grew full of dreams 
 again for a while, as he paused to consider; 
 then he replied: "With you alone, O maid, 
 
THE LADS HOUSE. II3 
 
 is the cure for this distress. You, If you will, 
 shall chang-e this demon into a ministering 
 angel." 
 
 Then he flew about among the plants and 
 gathered a delicate passion-flower, a heart' s- 
 ease, and a lily from among them ; and binding- 
 them together with a golden hair from his own 
 locks, gave them into Lizzette's hand, saying, 
 ** And with these you shall do it. But," added 
 the child thoughtfully, "it will cost you 
 much, dear Maid. Are you prepared to save 
 him from misery at all risks and at any 
 cost ? " 
 
 '' At all risks and at any cost," returned 
 Lizzette in a trembling voice. 
 
 " Then take these flowers when the moon Is 
 full into the haunted chamber, and with your 
 own hand place them under his pillow at 
 midnight," said Child Praim. " And before 
 you go unbind your hair, and leave behind 
 you for ever in this cave with me that beautiful 
 brooch you wear, your maiden pride, which 
 you have worn ever since you were a child ; 
 
 H 
 
114 THE lad's house. 
 
 for only thus can the demon be exorcised who 
 works 3'our loved one ill." 
 
 Lizzette took off her precious brooch, and, 
 thanking- Child Praim, gave it into his hand ; 
 and as she withdrew, her heart gladdened and 
 full of gratitude, he waved farewell to her, and 
 motioned up hundreds of fire-flies to light her 
 through the dark, exterior cave ; and these 
 continued with her back through the gloomy 
 forest until dawn broke. 
 
 How grateful Lizzette felt towards Child 
 Praim is better imagined than described. 
 
 *' I will obey him and do all that he said," 
 she thought, for he is a wonderful child. And 
 then she felt glad the witch had escaped her. 
 
 Upon Lizzette's return home the first piece 
 of news she was told was this : *' Ernest is very 
 ill. He sent these flowers to you with a 
 message to say so last night." 
 
 It was Lizzette' s aunt w^ho told her this. 
 
 That night the youth lay stricken with 
 feverish weakness, as he had lain, too weak to 
 rise, for many days. His thoughts were run- 
 
THE LADS HOUSE. II5 
 
 ning on the cause of his distress, his demon 
 visitor, and his unconfessed love for Lizzette. 
 
 He tumbled and tossed as midnight drew 
 near, and then he quieted down into the still- 
 ness of horror ; a chill expectancy stole over 
 him. His dreaded visitor would shortly arrive 
 to work consuming torture. 
 
 The lights began to dart around, the hot air 
 to seethe about him. He closed his eyes to 
 shut out, if possible, the flame-like form he 
 knew so well : when noiselessly the door 
 opened, and sweet Lizzette entered, her hair 
 floating free, an atmosphere of freshness from 
 the moonlit fields, through which she had just 
 passed, about her. 
 
 And she was carrying in her hand the flowers 
 Child Praim had given her. 
 
 Softly she crossed the moonlit floor, and 
 approached her beloved in subdued agitation. 
 Her cheek paling and flushing as she did 
 so, her eyes full of tears and her lips trem- 
 bling. 
 
 At last she reached his pillow, and gently 
 
 H 2 
 
Il6 THE lad's house. 
 
 slipped the flowers beneath it. But, in doing 
 so, she bent over him ; and then a spell of 
 overmastering love held her motionless, and a 
 tress of her hair fell lightly upon his face. 
 
 As he felt this sweet, cool presence near 
 him, instead of the burning demon, Ernest 
 opened his eyes in amazed delight, and, seeing 
 Lizzette, thought her a blissful apparition. 
 Yet he breathed her name, and paled with 
 intense joy as he gazed into her eyes. These 
 were so full of love and pity, however, that 
 the next moment he had stretched out his 
 arms and drawn her to his heart ; and, as his 
 lips met hers, he found that this was indeed no 
 apparition, but tangible, breathing, dear Liz- 
 zette herself. 
 
 ** Dearest, did my message bring you?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Yes," she answered; "I came to make 
 you well," and her voice faltered. 
 
 " Oh ! you knew, then, that I was dying for 
 love of you, and you had heard of the demon 
 who haunts me so ? " he questioned eagerly. 
 
THE lad's house. II7 
 
 She blushed. 
 
 *' I must go," she whispered ; ** but come to 
 me soon, and you shall hear all.*' 
 
 But he clung to her slender hands. 
 
 *' Can you — will you be my wife, Lizzette ? " 
 he asked, imploringly, the question he had 
 never dared to put before, still holding her 
 fast. 
 
 Lizzette trembled in his arms and blushed 
 again ; her soft tears fell upon his burning 
 cheeks. 
 
 At last he caught a sound of assent ; and 
 again their lips met in lingering kisses. 
 
 But someone was watching this interesting 
 scene all the time. It was the nightingale ; 
 and so glad was she at the happiness she saw 
 taking place that a volley of song escaped her 
 quite unawares close to the window. 
 
 This startled Lizzette, so, withdrawing from 
 her lover's embrace, she passed into the moon- 
 lit fields again, back to her own home. 
 
 It was remarkable how quickly Ernest re- 
 covered after that night. The next day he 
 
Il8 ' THE lad's house. 
 
 was out, and went to see Lizzette to arrange 
 the wedding. 
 
 And it v/as still more remarkable how en- 
 tirely the demon ghost vanished after that 
 night. 
 
 He never appeared again. This, of course, 
 was all owing to Child Praim's directions, and 
 to his knowledge of Nature's secrets. 
 
 Afterwards Ernest's house was rid of that 
 demon for ever. 
 
 It was not until the two were married, 
 though, that Lizzette caught sight of the 
 beautiful angel into which Child Praim had 
 said the demon would change if she followed 
 out his instructions, and then it was only upon 
 rare occasions that it visited them. 
 
 At early morn it would appear, in the same 
 chamber where the fiery demon had used to 
 come ; and the angel seemed to descend near 
 them from the private chapel above. 
 
 It was a beautiful, bright form ; but whether 
 of man or woman, they could not tell. 
 
 It seemed like the best of both. And, with 
 
THE LAD S HOUSE. I I9 
 
 clasped hands and hopeful mien, it would gaze 
 upon them and point to Heaven, as though to 
 say that faith, and love, and aspiration must 
 always be returned to the God Who gave them 
 their precious happiness. 
 
 Ernest and Lizzette alwa;ys felt glad awe 
 when this angel visited them ; and after it had 
 faded away they remembered it. 
 
 Lizzette said, " It reminds me of Child 
 Praim." 
 
 " It makes me think over again all the hoi}'' 
 thoughts I have ever treasured, and more 
 beside," said Ernest. 
 
 Thus, you must admit that the times when 
 such things as these occurred were wonderful 
 times, and that the present of such a house as 
 the one Ernest's father gave to him was in- 
 deed a remarkable present ; for it grew with 
 his growth of its own accord, and when he 
 got rid of the demon there came an angel 
 to visit it. 
 
I20 
 
 WISHES AND FATE. 
 
 BROTHER and sister played to- 
 g-ether on a seashore. 
 
 The shore was like life : the sea 
 like fate. 
 They dug and delved in the sand together, 
 making a beautiful sand castle with a moat all 
 round it. They hoped the incoming tide 
 would presently fill the moat, and thus com- 
 pleted their work would be. 
 
 They dug away in the sand together dili- 
 gently for a long while. 
 
 The sun's rays were like time. Then the 
 boy paused. 
 
 In one hand his spade hung idle, while with 
 the other he shaded his eyes from the sun to 
 gaze over the open sea. 
 
WISPTES AND FATE. 121 
 
 The tide was coming in. The waves curled 
 and broke, scattering the spray nearer and 
 nearer. 
 
 The boy still looked out over the sea to the 
 horizon, where rode the gracefully- shaped sails 
 of distant ships. 
 
 *' Look at the ships, Marie," at last he cried, 
 as the spade fell from his relaxed hold. '* I 
 v/ish I were a sailor. When I am a man that 
 is what I will be. I will be a captain, and 
 command such a ship as one of those ; and I 
 will ride the waves from one side of the world 
 to the other," 
 
 For a moment the girl made no rejoinder ; 
 she was wrapt in her castle-making ; presently, 
 however, she too looked up and said, inquir- 
 ingly, ^'You would be a sailor, and ride the 
 ocean wave ? " 
 
 Then she also paused, and looked out over 
 the sea to ponder. 
 
 *' Oh !" at length she exclaimed, ** I should 
 like to smooth and strengthen things all my 
 life;" and so saying she stooped to strengthen 
 
122 WISHES AND FATE. 
 
 and finish the side of the sand battlement she 
 was making-. 
 
 Just then a wave they had not watched 
 broke nearer than the others had done, the sea 
 water from which suddenly filled all their little 
 moat to overflowing, and in addition to this 
 broke upon and changed the whole aspect of 
 the castle itself. 
 
 " Children," their mother called from the 
 beach, "we must go home; the tide is in." 
 
 So they left their castle-building upon the 
 shore. 
 
 Years rolled by. They grew up. 
 
 What of their wisnes ? Tlie brother realised 
 his in this way. He left his home to become a 
 sailor. He ploughed the wondrous main from 
 shore to shore, from continent to continent. 
 
 He grew strong in heart, and hand, and 
 thought. 
 
 ** How powerful is man, the maker of ships 
 and compasses'" was his thought. "I, with 
 this small instrument which man has made, 
 find a way in the unfurrowed deep from one 
 
WISHES AND FATE. I 23 
 
 side of the world to the other. Glory to man's 
 inventive powers!" he cried. 
 
 That night a storm arose. The Hand of 
 God was in the storm, though nobody saw it. 
 
 Both ship and compasses were lost ; and at 
 midnight the sea-gulls swirled about among 
 the troubled clouds over a pale-faced corpse. 
 
 It was the brother who had stood upon the 
 shore as a child, and wished to ride the main 
 on a ship of his own commanding. 
 
 He was freed from his self-sufficiency and 
 taken to another shore, whereon to frame at 
 heart a nobler wish in brighter sunshine. 
 
 And what of the sister — do you ask ? 
 
 She grew up with a tender heart. A tender 
 heart is easily wounded : hers was ; it became 
 filled with a longing which nearly broke it. 
 Then the storm of life came on. 
 
 But as she lay upon the earth, pale, half 
 dead, a swallow fell from the clouds above her. 
 He, too, had been wounded in life's way. 
 
 Forgetting her own pain she arose to alle- 
 viate the bird's, and, tenderly taking the trem- 
 
124 
 
 WISHES AND FATE. 
 
 bling creature in her soft hands, she bound 
 up the broken wing-. 
 
 And from that time the sister began to 
 realise her wish. Her sympathetic touch 
 soothed and strengthened many a sufferer. 
 
 For the Hand of God is in all the storms of 
 life, though few see it ; and even tender hearts 
 are sometimes broken, that new ones may be 
 given us in their stead, and highest aspirations 
 realised. 
 
125 
 
 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 HE little white blossom grew low down 
 by the roadside, among the grass. 
 
 ** I am such a little, washed out, 
 useless thing," she murmured to her- 
 self, at last; "would that I could be green as 
 the leaves, red as the flowers, or black — like 
 peoples' boots." 
 
 And her flower heart was full of discontent 
 and longing. 
 
 It was moonlight when the blossom thus 
 spoke, but she had been feeling what she now 
 expressed all the bright daytime, as she had 
 watched the passers by, especially their boots, 
 that came so near her; and she had envied the 
 black boots, because they got over the ground 
 so fast and could move away ! 
 
 *' I am stuck here," she murmured again, 
 
126 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 ** and so tired of being- nothing but a little, 
 wriite blossom ! " 
 
 Just then it seemed to her that a cloud had 
 come between her and the radiant moon ; but 
 when she looked up she saw only an owl, with 
 its soft brown feathers, and large, outspread 
 wings, about to alight upon a branch above 
 her. 
 
 He did so, and then, leaning his head on 
 one side, looked at the blossom in his most 
 melancholy wise way, as he gave vent to a 
 dismal, crooked sort of sound, his usual note. 
 
 That must be his " How-d'-ye-do ! " the 
 blossom thought to herself, " I will speak to 
 him." 
 
 *' Good evening, Mr. Owl," she then re- 
 marked aloud ; *' I wonder you are not asleep ; 
 most people sleep when the dew falls." 
 
 "Ah!" said the owl, '* I do the opposite; 
 and for my part I cannot understand how any 
 one with taste can prefer to go about in glaring 
 sunshine; moonlight is much pleasanter. I 
 revel in moonlight ; and I like mice and 
 
THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 127 
 
 beetles to eat, and damp and darkness to fly in, 
 better than anything- else you could name ! " 
 
 And he leaned his head to the other side, 
 opened his dark eyes wide, and made the 
 same twirling sound as before, still looking 
 fixedly at the blossom. 
 
 " That noise must mean anything- and 
 everything from an owl; he can't be saying 
 how d'ye do now?" thought the blossom. " I 
 will ask him another question." 
 
 '• Have you gone about the world much at 
 night, then ? " was what she next said. 
 
 "Oh!" replied the owl dismally, "a very 
 great deal, a very great deal." 
 
 " Are you then surprised to learn that I am 
 very sad down here?" continued the blossom, 
 too full at heart to keep silent about her 
 trouble. " I am so tired of being nothing but 
 a little, white blossom in the grass by the 
 roadside," she concluded, with a sigh. 
 
 " Ah ! wait, wait. What we want is worth 
 waiting for," said the owl. And, as the 
 blossom was wondering whether he could see 
 
128 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 into her very soul with his great, round eyes, 
 he lifted his beautiful wings, rose again like a 
 cloud between her and the bright moon, and 
 vanished from sight. 
 
 The blossom's petals shook with disappoint- 
 ment as she watched him go. 
 
 Suddenly another voice said close to her : 
 ** What is the matter ? Why do you sigh ?" 
 The blossom, in surprise, looked towards the 
 ground whence the voice rose and saw a glow- 
 worm ; but, never having seen one before, she 
 at once thought it was a bit of the moon fallen 
 from the sky above, which was speaking to her. 
 She looked up to the moon for the hole 
 whence the piece had dropped ; but there 
 shone the moon above as round and perfect as 
 usual ; so she said in a fright to the bright 
 spark, " Who are you ? " 
 
 "I am a glow-worm," returned the voice ; 
 " and I have often seen you before, but until 
 now you have always been asleep when I 
 passed. What is wrong with you, that you 
 shudder and sigh so ? " 
 
THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. I 29 
 
 *'I am discontented," said the blossom; 
 *' so tired of being nothing but a blossom ! I 
 want to be green as the leaves, red as the 
 flowers, or black — like people's boots. It is 
 the want of all this which keeps me awake and 
 makes me shudder and sigh," she concluded. 
 
 " Poor thing! " exclaimed the glow-worm; 
 *• I am sorry for you, and my advice is just 
 keep up your spirits, for whatever we want 
 in this world never comes the faster through 
 our getting low-spirited about it.'* 
 
 *' But do you think I ever shall be what 
 I want to be?" persisted the blossom, so 
 thankful at last to put the question, which had 
 burned within her for so long. *' Do you 
 think there is any chance of it ? " 
 
 ** To tell the truth," the glow-worm an- 
 swered, *' it would not surprise me, i( you 
 were in the end to become jus^ what you 
 wanted to be in the beginning." 
 
 The blossom at this rejoinder again shook 
 all over, but now it was with pleasure. 
 
 *'You see," the glow-worm continued, 
 
 I 
 
130 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 ** nothing- could be stranger or more won- 
 derful than my own experience, for instance. 
 I began life a most ordinary creature, a sort 
 of beetle, but ugly in colour as a slug. 
 Instead of lamenting my ugliness, however, 
 I determined to make the best of it; I tried 
 my hardest to be cheerful and attract my 
 fellows in spite of it; and now they tell me 
 I shine like the beautiful moon herself as I 
 go by. Wonderful! isn't it," she again ex- 
 claimed, " that I, the ugly slug, should in 
 any way resemble the beautiful moon ? In 
 my opinion, therefore, you need not despair, 
 for there is never any telling what you may 
 become in this world if only you keep up your 
 spirits and do your duty." 
 
 And, wishing the blossom good night, the 
 glow worm moved away. 
 
 How gladly the blossom gazed after It, now 
 that her anxiety had been appeased ; the very 
 dew seemed to heal her sorrow, and she slept. 
 
 The next morning bright was she directly 
 she awoke, as happy as possible, for the owl's 
 
THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. I3I 
 
 words rang in her mind, ** What we want is 
 worth waiting for," and the glow-worm's *' Be 
 cheerful." 
 
 "I will wait and be cheerful," she said to 
 herself, ** and perhaps even I shall be some 
 day as green as the leaves, as red as the 
 flowers, and as black as people's boots." 
 
 *' Hullo ! " exclaimed some one, and at the 
 same time the little blossom felt herself sprung 
 upon, and almost covered by something. 
 
 '* Oh, dear!" she called out. *' Who is 
 this?" 
 
 *' I beg your pardon ! " said the same voice, 
 and the next instant the blossom was free 
 again, for the thing, whatever it was, had 
 gone as suddenly as it had come. 
 
 Then, upon a neighbouring blade of grass, 
 she saw the intruder alight— a grasshopper. 
 
 '*You took me quite by surprise!" observed 
 the blossom to him, rather testily. *'I wish 
 another time you wouldn't jump all over one's 
 face in that manner : it's so unpleasant ! " 
 
 ** Dear, dear, how unlucky I am ! " replied the 
 
 I 2 
 
132 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 grasshopper, in an apologetic manner. ** The 
 last time I had a good jump I annoyed a hare- 
 bell. Dear Madam ! do forgive me ! It is so 
 difficult to calculate where I shall be after one 
 of my flying leaps. If you only knew," he 
 continued, " how difficult it is to aim straight 
 with your own body when you jump from 
 twenty to thirty times its length, I believe 
 you would forgive me," he ended. 
 
 '* If you can't tell where you will be when 
 you have jumped, why don't you stand still ? " 
 continued the blossom, still ruffled. 
 
 ** I sometimes do ; I am doing so now, you 
 see," returned the talkative grasshopper; 
 ** but I can't stand still always. I can take 
 short jumps, too, sometimes ; but then, sooner 
 or later, a fellow must see something of the 
 world ; and, when I feel this come over me, 
 I just take one of my flying leaps, and then, 
 you see, though I don't know exactly where I 
 shall be at the end of it, at least I know that I 
 shall get a change and see something fresh." 
 
 And before the blossom could make further 
 
THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 1 33 
 
 rejoinder, the grasshopper had quite disap- 
 peared. 
 
 *'0h!" she thought to herself, *'what a 
 good thing it is I can't jump about in that 
 way when I feel discontented ; I should be 
 flying into somebody's face, as sure as any- 
 thing, if I did." 
 
 And now she was vexed with herself for 
 having been vexed with the jumping grass- 
 hopper, who meant no harm. 
 
 That night, when the sun had set and the 
 stars were shining, a strange thing befell the 
 the little blackberry blossom. 
 
 One by one her petals began to fall from her 
 to the ground, and not through shuddering and 
 sighing, for now she was calm and happy. 
 
 The owl saw it with his great, round eyes, 
 for he had come to pay her another call ; and 
 the stars might have seen it had they not been 
 twinkling too busily to see at all ; but the little 
 blossom herself felt more astonished than any 
 one else could have felt at what was happening 
 to her. 
 
134 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 She waited silently, wondering what could 
 fall from her next ; and you may fancy her joy 
 when morning revealed that she was no longer 
 a little, white blossom, but a small, lumpy 
 berry, as green as the leaves. 
 
 Strangely contented now felt the little thing, 
 and, as she grew in the grass by the roadside, 
 day by day and night after night, you could 
 not have found a happier creature anywhere 
 than was she. 
 
 ** There is no telling what may happen 
 next," was what she began to think to her- 
 self at this time, '* in a world where wonderful 
 changes come about every day." 
 
 And the owl quite agreed with her, and 
 would have given her a great deal more of 
 his good advice, but when he came to see her 
 now she was always contentedly asleep. 
 
 And, fancy the berry's amazement when, 
 a week or two later, another change befell 
 her ! 
 
 She turned red — red as the flowers, as the 
 bright corn-poppies are ! 
 
THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM, 1 35 
 
 *' Oh ! " she exclaimed, joyfuliy; '* nothin^of 
 is too g-ood to be true in this wonderful world ! 
 Here am I as red as the flowers now — turned 
 from green to red ! If only I could end my 
 days by being as black as people's boots I 
 should die happy." 
 
 *' You won't need to die at all, I daresay," 
 said a voice, which she remembered to have 
 heard before, close beside her. *'You will 
 most likely be eaten up, and that will save you 
 the trouble of dying, anyhow." 
 
 And the berry again saw her acquaintance, 
 the grasshopper, who had turned up suddenly. 
 
 '' What do you mean by being eaten up ? '^ 
 she asked, rather timidly. 
 
 ** Just what I say, dear Madam," replied the 
 grasshopper, quickly. " Since I last had the 
 misfortune to jump upon you as a little, white 
 blossom, I have jumped about the world a 
 very great deal, and learnt much. Among 
 other things, I now know that, since you 
 have changed into a berry, if you turn black 
 you run the risk of being eaten up." 
 
136 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 "But what do you mean by that?" again 
 the berry asked. 
 
 " Ah ! well, my dear Madam, I see I must 
 explain myself," the grasshopper went on. 
 *' To be eaten up is to be put out of this 
 existence into somebody else's, quite involun- 
 tarily. Many people come to an end by being 
 eaten up, and many others come to an end by 
 dying, and, as to which you prefer, why, it's 
 all a matter of taste ! I personally prefer the 
 thought of dying ; but only the other day I 
 was talking with a friend of mine, a mush- 
 room, and if she didn't tell me she positively 
 looked forward to being eaten up 1 She said 
 she quite looked forward to being taken from 
 the fields some day in a can, and swallowed 
 by a biped 1 ' ' 
 
 '* And what, pray, is a biped!" asked the 
 berry in agitation. 
 
 " Oh !" returned the grasshopper, '' a biped 
 is a huge animal they call man. He has only 
 two legs to go upon, no wings at all, and he is 
 a very poor jumper ; yet he seems to get a 
 
THE BLACKBERRY" BLOSSOM. 1 37 
 
 good deal of his own way in the world, in spite 
 of his disadvantages. I myself always keep 
 out of his way, for he is desperately clumsy, 
 and breaks down the tallest blades of grass 
 cruelly wherever he treads." 
 
 *' Dear !" exclaimed the berry, again amazed. 
 *' Do you say that the mushroom looks forward 
 to being eaten up by a biped ? " 
 
 ** Well, as I said before, you know," con- 
 tinued the grasshopper, "there is no ac- 
 counting for tastes, and I could scarcely make 
 out what she meant, though she tried to ex- 
 plain it ; but she did positively assure me that 
 the thought of being eaten up, or fulfilling her 
 destiny, or whatever it was, made her thrill 
 with pleasure. But it's my opinion," con- 
 cluded the grass-hopper, lowering his voice 
 confidentially, ** that as she does not know 
 what it is to thrill at all, she just passes the 
 time by feeling pleasantly morbid about being 
 eaten up instead." 
 
 And away he went in his usual hurry, while 
 the berry was left to think over his words. 
 
138 THE BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM. 
 
 She rather begafl to fear this "being eaten 
 up." But in the end she made up her mind 
 that, if she had become all that she wanted to 
 be — green as the leaves, red as the flowers, 
 and black like people's boots before long, she 
 would be — yes, even if eaten up, she thought 
 — satisfied. 
 
 And when, a short time afterwards, the 
 golden sunshine of an autumn afternoon 
 actually turned the red berry into a fine, large, 
 ripe blackberry, blacker far than the cleanest, 
 best polished pair of boots, she was so tho- 
 roughly happy and contented, and grateful 
 and glad, that if the largest small boy biped 
 had come by on his way to school and eaten 
 her up whole, just as she was, she would not 
 have minded in the very least, because she 
 had now become all that she had ever wanted 
 to be ! 
 
 She had left her blossom time far behind, 
 and changed into beautitul, ripe fruit. 
 
139 
 
 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 T was spring-time. The goddess of 
 Love was awaking just as the West 
 wind blew by ; and she waved to 
 him such love-power as made the 
 West wind sigh again. 
 
 ** Go, breathe, and blow over the flowers 
 with the burden of love I give thee. Woo 
 them, till each flower-heart shall yield to love^ 
 and teach thee a priceless truth ! Let thy 
 breathing and blowing this spring-time be all 
 of love ! And before those flowers that heed 
 thee not, as the boundless wind shalt thou 
 appear in the form of an ethereal cupid, while 
 obeying this my decree." 
 
 So away flew the West wind, highly de- 
 lighted with his commission. He had often 
 
140 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 thought how delightful it would be to be 
 able to assume a form occasionally : and 
 then, to have orders from the goddess of 
 Love herself to make love to all the flowers — 
 nothing so much to his taste as this had ever 
 happened to him before ! 
 
 The first flower he came across was the 
 snowdrop. She stood, her dainty head hang- 
 ing petulant and free, on a patch of earth 
 from which the snow had lately been melted. 
 
 New warmth had stolen into the sun's rays 
 from between the fitful clouds, and driven the 
 snow from the earth's frozen bosom ; thus the 
 white snowdrop was clearly distinguishable 
 against the dark soil. 
 
 At once the West wind blew round and 
 about her, breathing of tenderness ; but the 
 snowdrop would have nothing to do with him. 
 She turned her head away and nodded in 
 exactly the opposite direction ; and the more 
 amorously the West wind blew the more em- 
 phatically the snowdrop nodded her dainty 
 head in just the opposite direction, as though 
 
LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. I4I 
 
 to declare that she would not submit to his 
 caresses. 
 
 The West wind was repulsed, and began to 
 fume in his sighing. But a robin, who, with 
 bright eye and warm breast, stood near where 
 the incident occurred, twittered out — 
 
 *' It is of no use your coming to woo our little 
 snowdrop. She plighted her troth to the North 
 wind long ago, directly she came up ; and I 
 have often heard her say she would be true 
 to him. And to be true to the one lover, 
 the snowdrop says you must be cold to the 
 other." 
 
 *' Oh, I see — I see ! " said the rejected West 
 wind, ill-pleased for all that ; he wanted to kiss 
 the dainty snowdrop so much. 
 
 And immediately he blew elsewhere, not 
 forgetting his disappointment, however, until 
 the golden crocuses were all a-bloom, and had 
 received him with open hearts, whispering — 
 
 " Full love maketh full joy ! " 
 
 Meanwhile the primroses had crept, chilled, 
 into existence. They were looking almost too 
 
142 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 pale and timid to be seen ; but when they met 
 the West wind and his balmy breathing over 
 the lea, they grew finer and bloomed gra- 
 ciously, yielding to him in return a balmy fra- 
 grance. And, when approached by the West 
 wind with his burden of love, they whispered, 
 *' In the delicacy of love is ineffable sweet- 
 ness ! " 
 
 And the W^est wind hovered and still 
 breathed over the primroses, while they 
 bloomed into greater beauty and more deli- 
 cate fragrance. 
 
 Then, at the dawn of day, on went the wind 
 to a hillside where he found the first Lent lily 
 blooming alone ; tall, green blades were her 
 only companions. She stood, coy and difficile^ 
 in the half-light of the mysterious dawn, as he 
 came up. He blew tenderly near the gentle 
 flower, but she heeded him not ; so then he 
 appeared in the form of a shadowy cupid, and 
 bowed low to the ground before her. Now, to 
 his joy, she noticed him. A slight tremor 
 betrayed this, and when he approached and 
 
LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 1 43 
 
 laid his burden of love over her, she swayed as 
 only so slender a stem could sway beneath it, 
 and yielding him a fragile kiss, sighed out — 
 *' Love's lightest touch is full of magic 
 power ! ' ' 
 
 And the West wind sighed too, for he was 
 feeling it. 
 
 But, as the sun rose, the Lent lily withdrew 
 into herself, and the shadowy form of Cupid 
 merged into the boundless West wind again, 
 hurrying on with his errand. 
 
 How different were the daffodowndillies 
 when he reached the gardens where they 
 grew ! 
 
 In groups they stood, bathed in light, and 
 at once they received the wind, as gladly as' 
 they did the joyous sunshine. 
 
 ** There is love for the having of all," said 
 they; " only the too particular need starve for 
 want of it." 
 
 And their heavy, golden heads moved and 
 met the West wind's amorous blowing as 
 readily as did the tree-branches. 
 
144 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 But the wind was learning all this time how 
 different was the quality of the love he awoke 
 in the different flowers. 
 
 When he drew near the hyacinths, that rose 
 luxuriously from garden-beds freshly sprinkled 
 with April showers, their sweetness gradually 
 overpowered him, and, for a moment, he, as 
 the shadowy Cupid, lay fainting at the foot 
 of a regal, white hyacinth, the embodiment of 
 fragrance. 
 
 *' Ah ! learn," said the queenly flower, as 
 he recovered himself, " that love too rashly 
 probed may be more powerful than you your- 
 self are. Beware how you rouse love ! " 
 
 And the burden the West wind carried grew 
 heavier than ever, for perfume and love from 
 the regal white hyacinth slid into it, and the 
 wind blew on, charged with an ominous truth. 
 
 Joy from the meadows now met him. 
 
 The hawthorn was a-bloom in the hedges, 
 the cowslips, and the buttercups and daisies in 
 the fields. 
 
 ** It is the spring of the year; May is here ! 
 
LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 1 45 
 
 and Love is the spring of life ! " sang the haw- 
 thorn, under the West wind's caress. 
 
 And the daisies, when he came up to them, 
 whispered, ** You find even us out ! True love 
 ever valued modesty ! " 
 
 Then the buttercups yielded him golden 
 kisses, saying, *' Priceless are love's pure 
 greetings ! " 
 
 And the cowslips whispered with myriad 
 responses to his breathing, '' Love lavishes 
 gifts — lavishes gifts ! " 
 
 Still onward the West wind bounded, and 
 now he came to convent grounds. 
 
 Lilac and laburnum trees shaded the paths 
 there. The wind revelled among them. 
 
 The delicately-poised laburnum flowers 
 swayed at once to his gentle touch, murmuring, 
 *' Mutual love maketh one life." 
 
 And though at first the lilac seemed stiff as 
 the West wind drew near, she in the end yielded 
 such a volley of delicious perfume as clearly 
 proved that **a stiff form may shield a heart 
 redolent with love." 
 
 K 
 
146 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 Sweet nuns walked in these paths and along 
 the terraces. In their devout faces rested 
 holy thought : but the West wind only bathed 
 them the more with the god-given burden he 
 carried. 
 
 The pensive maids glowed and shuddered, 
 and strove with the fond dreams of earthly 
 love which began to beset their hearts. 
 
 The West wind grieved as they resisted, for 
 he thought them the fairest of all earth's 
 flowers, and the lessons that love from their 
 hearts would have taught him he longed to 
 know ; but, since they would not yield to 
 him, on he blew till he found sweet violets 
 blowing in a cloister corner. They were well- 
 nigh hidden from sight ; but he found them 
 out, and pausing gently above, laid his burden 
 of love low down, till at last it reached the 
 flowers themselves, concealed under the green 
 leaves. 
 
 The response the violets then gave was so 
 searchingly sweet that the West wind trembled 
 and shook ; their sweetness was almost more 
 
LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. I47 
 
 than he could bear; and, as he trembled 
 entranced by their ineffable fragrance, he 
 heard them whisper, " Purest, sweetest love 
 is found in lowliest hearts." 
 
 And for long- moments the West wind hung 
 over the sweet, siueet violets. 
 
 But time was meanwhile wearing on. 
 
 And the wind knew from the bearing of the 
 rosebuds that summer was close at hand, and 
 the time of his spring wooing near an end. 
 So driving away from the convent grounds, he 
 hastened that he might reach the river where 
 he knew forget-me-nots grew, before his 
 wooing-time should be over. 
 
 As he approached the bank he could see 
 that some of the forget-me-nots were out, and 
 he rushed among the tall iris leaves to greet 
 them, and for the last time to assume the form 
 of a cupid. Bending towards the flowers, he 
 showered kisses upon their tranquil blue e3^es 
 until they trembled and sighed in their medi- 
 tation. " Here is love, love ! " they exclaimed. 
 
 And just as summer came up, to change 
 
148 LOVE AND THE SPRING-TIME. 
 
 the West wind into the South wind and end 
 his wooing time altogether, the shadowy form 
 of Cupid stood with his arms enfolding the 
 dear forget-me-nots who were yielding him 
 kisses, murmuring, ^^Ah! then for love's dear 
 sake forget us not, for of all the treasures 
 memory holds, those love has sanctified are 
 the most precious." 
 
 And then summer came on; and never 
 again could the boundless West wind assume 
 a form. But the lessons of love which the 
 flowers had taught him he never forgot. And 
 every spring-time as he breathes, and blows, 
 and bounds over hill and dale, and garden and 
 field, he is rife with love presage and heavy 
 with ruth. 
 
 Wertheimer, Lba & Co., Printers, Circus Place, London Wall, E.C. 
 
 //?^ 
 
RARE BOOK 
 COLLECTION 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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