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Title: Types of Children's Literature
- A Collection of the World's Best Literature for Children, For Use in Colleges, Normal Schools and Library Schools
Author: Edited by Walter Barnes, - To be updated
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Types of Children's Literature
- A Collection of the World's Best Literature for Children, For Use in Colleges, Normal Schools and Library Schools" ***
TYPES OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
A COLLECTION OF
THE WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
FOR CHILDREN
FOR USE IN COLLEGES, NORMAL SCHOOLS
AND LIBRARY SCHOOLS
COLLECTED AND EDITED
BY
WALTER BARNES, A.M.
Application of the world's knowledge to the world's needs is the
guiding aim of this publishing house, and it is in conformity to this
aim that _Types of Children's Literature_ is published. There is
need of helpful direction for parents and teachers who wish to place
within reach of every child the beauty, wisdom, and knowledge stored
up in the world's best literature for children. The domain is so
vast, so rich, and so varied that a single volume which presents
specimens of all the different types for study and analysis by older
readers and for reading by the children themselves, may hope to make
easy and natural for children the entrance to the pleasant land of
books
PREFACE
This collection of specimens of children's literature has evolved
itself naturally and, as it were, inevitably out of the editor's
experience in teaching classes in children's literature in normal
school and college, and it is published in the belief that other
teachers of this subject find the same need of such a book that the
editor has experienced. For it is obvious that if we are to conduct
classes in children's literature either for general culture or for
specific training of teachers, we must have specimens of children's
literature readily accessible to the students. We must bring students
to a knowledge and appreciation of any author, period, or type by
having them study representative selections, and this principle
applies as logically to courses in children's literature as to
courses in other kinds of literature.
_Types of Children's Literature_ is intended to provide students
of the subject with a single-volume anthology of prose and poetry
illustrative of the different types, styles, interests, periods,
authors, etc., of writings for children. There are, of course, many
collections of specimens of children's literature; but they are all
made as reading books for children and, consequently, are
unsatisfactory, in some important respect or other, as source books.
Moreover, these collections are published in several volumes and
contain much that is mediocre and trivial. As far as the editor has
been able to discover, there is but a single one-volume collection,
and that collection, having been compiled solely for juvenile
readers, is impracticable as a text for college and normal school
classes. In teaching classes in children's literature the present
editor has had to use, as the only possible text, such sets of
literary readers as the _Heart of Oak_ series or such miniature
libraries as the ten-volume _The Children's Hour_ or the eight-
volume _Children's Classics_. This procedure has been both
expensive and inconvenient for teacher and students, besides not
supplying some of the material desirable in any symmetrical outline
of study.
In compiling the book the editor kept in mind several guiding aims.
Foremost was the wish to include in the collection at least one
selection--and that a masterpiece--of each type and kind of
children's literature in the English language. The different species
of prose and poetry; the various kinds of stories, such as fables,
myths, and fairy stories; the fundamental forms of discourse, such as
narration, description, the sketch, the essay, the oration, letters--
nearly all the molds, so to speak, into which the molten literary
stream has flowed all these types are represented by the choicest
specimens in the range of children's literature.
A careful inspection of the selections in this volume will reveal the
rich variety of the material. Specimens are to be found of folk
literature and modern literature, of the romantic, of the realistic,
of the crude and naive, of the artistic and sophisticated, of the
humorous and the pathetic. The editor has tried to find specimens
presenting as many themes, as many interests, as many emotions as
possible, characteristic specimens of the most important authors for
children, of all the civilizations that have produced literatures
which have become a part of the English-speaking child's heritage.
The collection contains literature for the little child and
literature for the boy or girl in the early 'teens, and it ranges
from primitive times down to this present decade. Moreover, since a
considerable part of the body of children's literature is made up of
original selections made over for children, a few masterpieces of
translations, re-tellings, abridgments, and reproductions have been
included.
The editor hopes that he has allotted a proportionate and equitable
amount of space and emphasis to each type, department, and section of
the collection. He had it in mind, at least, to give as many pages
over to poetry, for example, in proportion to prose, as many pages to
fairy stories, for example, in proportion to myths, as would indicate
roughly the average child's interests. If this proportion is not due
and just, as the editor sometimes fears, it is to be hoped that
critics will realize the web of difficulties in which such a task as
this is entangled.
A word as to the classification and nomenclature. The editor realizes
that this is neither original nor accurate. It is certainly not
scientific, as the types overlap here and there, and the names are
based partly on form and partly on content. But classification and
class names were indispensable in a book of this nature, and it
seemed a better policy to employ the classification and the names
already firmly established in common use than to attempt to subject
to a new system of scientific terms that which is by nature not
amenable to scientific laws and scientific precision. The
classification appears only in the Contents; it does not stand forth
in the book itself.
It should be said, further, that the order in which the different
types are placed in the book is more or less arbitrary, having been
determined largely by the succession in which children take them up
from year to year, beginning with the simpler forms and more childish
themes, and somewhat by the principle of similarity and contrast in
the types themselves. Needless to say, teachers will change the order
in which the species and specimens are studied in accordance with any
well-defined plan of their own.
A distinct service has been rendered, the editor hopes, by presenting
the definitive and authoritative versions of all the selections
given. This has meant a painstaking reading of every line in every
selection and the collation with editions that are trustworthy. Every
student of children's literature knows that it has been almost
impossible to find exact readings, and that most selections have been
distorted and garbled to suit the purposes of editors. No changes
from the originals have here been made except to abridge in a few
instances where it seemed imperative in a book intended for reading
and discussion in classes of both sexes. The editions used and the
changes made are given in the Notes.
The problems involved in selecting the best versions of certain
stories and the best translations from other languages have been
difficult. In general, the editor endeavored to choose the form which
seemed to have the highest literary value. In cases where two
translations seemed to possess equal merit, both are represented.
Every specimen of literature in this collection is a complete unit or
is at least a section easily detached--like an Uncle Remus or an
Arabian Nights story--from its original setting. This principle
precluded the inclusion of extracts from such children's classics as
_Gulliver's Travels_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and _Treasure
Island_. No survey of children's literature is complete without an
examination of such books as these; but they can easily be supplied
in inexpensive editions and used as supplementary to this collection.
It is evident that not every masterpiece of writing for children
could be included in this volume; but it is believed that no
selection has been included that is not a masterpiece. This belief is
based primarily on the fact that most of the specimens have been
chosen and approved by generation after generation of children,
culled out from the light and worthless as by an unerring hand,
through the most pragmatic of tests.
The only distinct type of children's literature not represented in
this collection is the drama, which is omitted because the editor was
not able to find a dramatic unit that would satisfy the ideal he had
in mind: that it be dramatic, that it be literary, that it be brief,
yet complete within itself, and that it be an original selection, not
a dramatization of some classic. For a similar reason no story of
American Indian life was put into the collection, though this
exclusion does not mean the omission of a type of literature. A large
number of Indian stories, both of Indian folklore and myth, and of
adventures with Indians, were carefully read; but not one of them, in
the editor's opinion, came up to the standard of a masterpiece and
was, at the same time, brief enough to be practicable for this book.
Some undoubted masterpieces from literatures lying outside the
recognized circle of the American child's "culture"--such, for
example, as the Japanese folk stories--also have been omitted. Other
splendid specimens of juvenile literature, as stories from Kipling's
_Jungle Books_ and essays from Burroughs, have been omitted
because of copyright restrictions.
No one realizes more clearly than does the editor of this collection
that no single book can include all the material that a class
studying children's literature should have before it. There are
dozens of children's books, for example, that a class should know or
know about. An appendix has therefore been placed at the end of this
collection, which lists the reading indispensable to a student of
children's literature. These books should be in the school library,
easily accessible to the students, and they should be considered as
an integral part of the body of children's literature.
As a compendium of good literature for children it is hoped that this
book may interest parents and teachers, quite independently of the
fact that it was prepared for classes of young men and women studying
children's literature, and that it may be put into the hands of
children.
There remains but the pleasant duty of acknowledging the advice and
encouragement received from many persons interested in this subject.
To the publishing houses who have granted permission to use
copyrighted material and to the Librarian of Congress thanks are due
for courtesies extended. To Mr. David Dale Johnson of West Virginia
University for collating; to Mr. Hunter Whiting for a great deal of
copying and collating; and especially to Professor Franklin T. Baker
of Teachers College, Columbia University, Professor James F. Hosic of
the Chicago Normal College, and Mr. John Cotton Dana of the Newark,
New Jersey, Free Public Library, for advice and criticism on the
manuscript,--to all of these the editor hereby expresses his
gratitude.
W. B.
FAIRMONT, WEST VIRGINIA
CONTENTS
BOOK ONE--POETRY
NURSERY JINGLES
CHARACTER SKETCHES
Little Miss Muffet
Diddle, diddle, dumpling
Let's go to bed
Jack Sprat
There was a little girl
SCENES AND INCIDENTS
Jack and Jill
Hickory, dickory, dock
There was an old woman
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
Little Jack Horner
TALES
Old Mother Hubbard
Little Bo-peep
The Babes in the Woods
NONSENSE AND HUMOROUS RHYMES
Old Dan Tucker
Old Man John
We're all in the dumps
I had a little horse
SATIRES AND TAUNTS
Georgy-porgy
April fool
Johnny's mad
Cry, baby, cry
Tell-tale-tit
TONGUE TWISTERS
Peter Piper
Swan swam over the sea
COUNTING-OUT JINGLES
Ickity, pickity
One-ery, two-ery
Inty, minty
Intery, mintery
GESTURE AND ACTION SONGS
Trit-trot
Hippity-hop
This little mouse
Here we go up, up, up
RIDDLES
A Cherry
A Fodder Field, a Hog, and a Dog
Hens
A Churn
An Egg
A Star
CATCHES
There, was a man who had no eyes
I am a gold lock
As I was going to St. Ives
CHARMS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Star of light
Marble, marble, roll away
Honest and true
Come, butter, come
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Mole on the neck
WEATHER WISDOM
Rain before seven
Evening red
When the fog goes up the hill
When the bees all homeward fly
AIDS TO MEMORY
One, two, three, four
Naught, one
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Thirty days hath September
PROVERBS
Birds of a feather
He that would thrive
Little strokes
See a pin and pick it up
For every evil under the sun
PEDDLER'S CRIES
Pease porridge hot
Hot-cross buns
SOME CHILDREN'S POETS
WILLIAM BLAKE
Piping down the valleys wild
The Lamb
Laughing Song
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
The Wind
The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse
Lullaby
A Flint
The Sisters
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
The Wind
Windy Nights
The Whole Duty of Children
My Bed Is a Boat
The Land of Counterpane
The Land of Storybooks
LUCY LARCOM
If I Were a Sunbeam
The Rivulet
The Brown Thrush
ANN AND JANE TAYLOR
Meddlesome Matty
The Violet
The Star
The Way to be Happy
ISAAC WATTS
Against Idleness and Mischief
A Morning Song
A Cradle Hymn
LEWIS CARROLL
Jabberwocky
You Are Old, Father William
The Walrus and the Carpenter
EDWARD LEAR
There was an Old Man of the West
There was an Old Man with a beard
There was an Old Person of Dean
There was a Young Lady whose chin
There is a Young Lady whose nose
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
The Jumblies
BALLADS
POPULAR
Bonny Barbara Allan
Sir Patrick Spence
Robin Hood and Allin a Dale
Kinmont Willie
MODERN
The Wreck of the Hesperus, _Longfellow_
La Belle Dame sans Merci, _Keats_
Lord Ullin's Daughter, _Campbell_
Young Lochinvar, _Scott_
How They Brought the Good News, _Browning_
The Revenge, _Tennyson_
LYRICS
OUR COUNTRY
America, _Smith_
My Native Land, _Scott_
Columbus, _Miller_
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, _Hemans_
Concord Hymn, _Emerson_
Old Ironsides, _Holmes_
O Captain! My Captain!, _Whitman_
LOVE LYRICS
To Lucasta, _Lovelace_
She Walks in Beauty, _Byron_
A Red, Red Rose, _Burns_
POEMS OF NATURE
The Greenwood Tree, _Shakespeare_
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea, _Cunningham_
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, _Wordsworth_
The Rhodora, _Emerson_
To the Fringed Genlian, _Bryant_
The Eagle, _Tennyson_
On the Grasshopper and Cricket, _Keats_
LESSONS FROM NATURE
To a Waterfowl, _Bryant_
The Chambered Nautilus, _Holmes_
The Bugle Song, _Tennyson_
SONGS OF LIFE
The Noble Nature, _Jonson_
The Character of a Happy Life, _Wotton_
Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth, _Clough_
For A' That and A' That, _Burns_
Invictus, _Henley_
Opportunity, _Sill_
A Psalm of Life, _Longfellow_
BOOK TWO
PROSE
STORIES
FABLES
The Dog and the Shadow, _Æsop_
The Fox and the Grapes, _Æsop_
The Hare and the Tortoise, _Æsop_
The Shepherd's Boy, _Æsop_
The Husbandman and the Stork, _Æsop_
The Wind and the Sun, _Æsop_
The Tortoise and the Geese, _Bidpai_
The Partridge and the Crow, _Bidpai_
The Fox and the Grapes, _La Fontaine_
The Wolf and the Stork, _La Fontaine_
FAIRY STORIES AND NURSERY TALES
TRADITIONAL
THE ACCUMULATIVE TALE
The Old Woman and Her Pig, _Jacobs_
THE ANIMAL STORY
The Three Little Pigs, _Jacobs_
THE NOODLE STORY
Hans in Luck, _Grimm_
THE HUMBLE HERO STORY
The Valiant Little Tailor, _Grimm_
Cinderella, _Perrault_
Whittington and His Cat, _Old Chapbook_
THE SYMBOLISTIC STORY
The Ugly Duckling, _Andersen_
The Flax, _Andersen_
THE STORY OF HORROR
Blue Beard, _Perrault_
THE GIANT STORY
Jack and the Beanstalk, _Jacobs_
MISCELLANEOUS STORIES
The Elves, _Grimm_
Te Frog-Prince, _Grimm_
The Quern at the Bottom of the Sea, _Asbjørnsen_
THE NEGRO FOLK TALE
Brother Rabbit and Brother Bull-Frog, _Harris_
MODERN
Brownie and the Cook, _Craik_
The King of the Golden River, _Ruskin_
THE ORIENTAL WONDER STORY
The Story of Aladdin, Arabian Nights
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
CLASSIC
The Gorgon's Head, _Hawthorne_
Theseus, _Kingsley_
GERMANIC
Thor Goes a-Fishing, _Mabie_
Baldur, _Keary-Morss_
THE HERO STORY
Sir William Wallace, _Scott_
THE REPRODUCTION
The Tempest, _Shakespeare-Lamb_
DIDACTIC STORIES
The Purple Jar, _Edgeworth_
Difference and Agreement, _Aiken and Barbauld_
Eyes and No Eyes, _Aiken and Barbauld_
ANIMAL SKETCHES AND STORIES
Rab and His Friends, _Brown_
The Busy Blue Jay, _Miller_
A Cry in the Night, _Long_
SELECTIONS FROM THE BIBLE
The Story of Joseph
The Story of Samson
David's Psalms: First, Nineteenth, Twenty-third
Christ's Sermon on the Mount
Paul's Discourse on Charity
OTHER PROSE FORMS
LETTERS
Lewis Carroll to Miss Standen
Thomas Hood to Miss Elliot
Charles Dickens to Master Hughes
ESSAYS
Traits of Indian Character, _Irving_
Of Studies, _Bacon_
The American Boy, _Roosevelt_
ORATIONS
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, _Henry_
Supposed Speech of John Adams, _Webster_
Gettysburg Address, _Lincoln_
APPENDIX
NOTES
INDEX TO AUTHORS, TITLES, AND THE FIRST LINES OF POEMS
TYPES OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
NURSERY JINGLES
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey;
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her,
Which frightened Miss Muffet away.
* * * * *
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John
Went to bed with his stockings on;
One shoe off, the other shoe on,
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.
* * * * *
"Let's go to bed,"
Says Sleepy-head;
"Let's stay awhile," says Slow;
"Put on the pot,"
Says Greedy-sot,
"We'll sup before we go."
* * * * *
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean:
And so betwixt them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.
* * * * *
There was a little girl,
And she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good,
She was very, very good;
But when she was bad--she was horrid.
[Footnote: Attributed to Longfellow.]
* * * * *
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
* * * * *
Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock
* * * * *
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe;
She had so many children she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread,
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
* * * * *
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well.
* * * * *
Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating a Christmas pie:
He put in his thumb
And pulled out a plum
And said, "What a good boy am I!"
* * * * *
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone;
But when she got there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
She went to the baker's
To buy him some bread;
And when she came back,
The poor dog was dead.
She went to the joiner's
To buy him a coffin;
And when she came back,
The doggy was laughin'.
She went to the butcher's
To buy him some tripe;
And when she came back,
He was smoking his pipe.
She went to the hatter's
To buy him a hat;
And when she came back,
He was feeding the cat.
She went to the barber's
To buy him a wig;
And when she came back,
He was dancing a jig.
She went to the tailor's
To buy him a coat;
And when she came back,
He was riding a goat.
She went to the cobbler's
To buy him some shoes;
And when she came back,
He was reading the news.
* * * * *
Little Bo-peep
She lost her sheep,
And couldn't tell where to find them.
"Let them alone
And they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them."
Little Bo-peep
Fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke,
She found it a joke,
For still they all were fleeting.
Then up she took
Her little crook,
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed,
But it made her heart bleed,--
For they'd left their tails behind them.
* * * * *
My dear, do you know
A long time ago
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were taken away on a bright summer day
And left in the woods, as I've heard people say.
And when it was night,
How sad was their plight!
The sun it went down
And the stars hid their light.
They sobbed and they sighed and sadly they cried,
Till the poor little things at last lay down and died.
And when they were dead,
The robins so red
Brought beech and oak leaves
And over them spread.
And all the day long, the branches among,
They sang to them softly, and this was their song:
"Poor babes in the woods, poor babes in the woods,
Oh, who will come find the poor babes in the woods?"
* * * * *
Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man;
He washed his face in a frying pan,
He combed his hair with a wagon wheel,
And died with the toothache in his heel.
* * * * *
Old Man John sitting down by the spring;
He's a Jew, he's a ring,
He's a many pretty thing.
He's a hammer with nine nails,
He's a cat with nine tails.
Whip jack, spur Tom,
Blow the bellows for Old Man John.
* * * * *
We're all in the dumps,
For diamonds are trumps;
The kittens are gone to St. Paul's;
The babies are bit,
The moon's in a fit,
And the houses are built without walls.
* * * * *
I had a little horse, his name was Dapple Gray;
His legs were made of cornstalks, his body made of hay.
I saddled him and bridled him and rode him off to town;
Up came a puff of wind, and blew him up and down.
The saddle flew off, and I let go,--
Now didn't my horse make a pretty little show?
* * * * *
Georgy-porgy, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play,
Georgy-porgy ran away.
* * * * *
April fool, go to school,
Sit on a two-legged stool.
Too wise you are, too wise you be;
You are not too wise for me.
* * * * *
Johnny's mad, and I am glad,
And I know what will please him:
A bottle of wine to make him shine,
And Mary Jones to squeeze him.
* * * * *
Cry, baby, cry,
Stick your finger in your eye
And tell your mother 'twasn't I.
* * * * *
Tell-tale-tit,
Your tongue shall be slit,
And all the dogs about the town
Shall have a little bit.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where is the peck of peppers Peter Piper picked?
* * * * *
Swan swam over the sea,
Swim, swan, swim;
Swan swam back again,
Well swum, swan.
* * * * *
Ickity, pickity, ally gadaw,
Dicks, do, ally gamaw,
Okus, pokus, pelly gaw,
Franz.
* * * * *
One-ery, two-ery, three-ery, thum,
Backsley, Billy, Nicholas, Bum,
One-a-tirry, Dick and Sirry,
Pot ban, riddle man,
Link, Pink, Sink.
* * * * *
Inly, minly, dibbity fig,
Delia, Dolia, dominig,
Otcha, potcha, dominotcha,
Ella Bella boo,
Out goes you.
* * * * *
Intery, mintery, cutery corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, brier, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock;
Along came Tod,
With his long rod,
And scared them all to Migly-wod.
One flew east, one flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest.--
Make your way home, Jack.
* * * * *
Trit-trot, trit-trot,
To buy a penny cake;
Home again, home again,
I met a black-snake.
Pick up a stone
And breaky backy-bone
Trit-trot, trit-trot
All the way home.
* * * * *
Hippity--hop to the barber shop,
To buy a stick of candy;
One for you, and one for me,
And one for Brother Andy.
* * * * *
This little mouse got caught in a trap,
And this little mouse she heard it snap,
This little mouse did loudly squeak out,
And this little mouse did run all about,
This little mouse said, "Do not bewail
And let us take hold and pull him out by the tail."
[Footnote: Recited on the baby's fingers or toes.]
* * * * *
Here we go up, up, up,
Here we go down, down, down-y;
Here we go up, and here we go down,
And here we go round, round, round-y.
* * * * *
As I went through the garden gap,
Whom should I meet but Dick Red-cap,--
A stick in his hand,
A stone in his throat,--
If you'll tell me this riddle,
I'll give you a gold fiddle.
(A cherry)
* * * * *
One day I went to my whirly-whicker-whacker, (Fodder field)
I met bow-backer, (A hog)
I called Tom-tacker (A dog)
To drive bow-backer
Out of my whirly-whicker-whacker.
* * * * *
One day I went to Body-tot,
I met three ladies in a trot,
With green heads and yellow toes,--
If you don't tell me this riddle I'll burn your nose.
(Hens)
* * * * *
Big at the bottom and little at the top,
A thing in the middle goes flippety-flop.
(A churn)
* * * * *
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
(An egg)
* * * * *
I have a little sister, she's called Peep-peep;
She wades the waters deep, deep, deep;
She climbs the mountains high, high, high,--
Poor little thing, she has but one eye.
(A star)
* * * * *
There was a man who had no eyes,
He went abroad to view the skies;
He saw a tree with apples on it,
He took no apples off, yet left no apples on it.
(The man had _one_ eye, and the tree had _two_ apples on it.)
* * * * *
(The following catch depends upon the second child repeating the exact
words of the first, except that he changes "lock" to "key.")
1. I am a gold lock.
2. I am a gold key.
1. I am a silver lock,
2. I am a silver key.
1. I am a brass lock,
2. I am a brass key.
1. I am a monk lock.
2. I am a monk-key.
* * * * *
As I was _going_ to St. Ives,
I _met_ a man with seven wives;
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each sack had seven kits,--
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were _going_ to St. Ives?
* * * * *
Star of light, so bright, so bright,
'Tis the first star I've seen tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.
* * * * *
Marble, marble, roll away,
Go find your brother;
Marble, marble, come back home,
Bring me another.
[Footnote: If you have lost a marble, take another marble and roll it
toward the place you lost the first one, repeating this charm. You
will find the lost one near the second marble.]
* * * * *
Honest and true, black and blue,
You may take your knife and cut me in two.
(An oath)
* * * * *
Come, butter, come,
Come, butter, come;
Johnny stands at the gate,
Waiting for a butter cake,--
Come, butter, come.
* * * * *
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Guard the bed that I lie on;
One to watch and one to pray,
And two to bear my soul away.
* * * * *
Mole on the neck,
Money by the peck.
* * * * *
Rain before seven,
Quit before eleven.
* * * * *
Evening red and morning gray
Sets the traveler on his way;
Evening gray and morning red,
Brings down rain upon his head.
* * * * *
When the fog goes up the hill,
Then the rain comes down by the mill.
* * * * *
When the bees all homeward fly,
Flowers will not long be dry.
* * * * *
1, 2, 3, 4,
Mary at the cottage door;
5, 6, 7, 8,
Eating cherries off a plate.
* * * * *
Naught, one,
Work is done;
Two, three,
Jubilee;
Four, five,
Ducks are alive;
Six, seven,
Stars shine up in heaven;
Eight, nine,
Queen, Queen Caroline,
Wash your face in turpentine,
Monkey-shine, monkey-shine,
Queen, Queen Caroline.
* * * * *
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
* * * * *
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which has twenty-eight in line,
Till leap-year gives it twenty-nine.
* * * * *
Birds of a feather
Flock together.
* * * * *
He that would thrive
Must rise at five;
He that has thriven
May rise at seven.
* * * * *
Little strokes
Fell great oaks.
* * * * *
See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck.
See a pin and let it lay,
You'll have bad luck all the day.
* * * * *
For every evil under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try and find it,
If there be none, never mind it.
* * * * *
Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot,
Nine days old.
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.
* * * * *
Hot-cross buns,
Hot-cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot-cross buns.
Hot-cross buns,
Hot-cross buns,
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.
SOME CHILDREN'S POETS
William Blake
PIPING DOWN THE VALLEYS WILD
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:--
"Pipe a song about a lamb:"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper, pipe that song again:"
So I piped: he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
So I sang the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read--"
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
THE LAMB
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life and bade thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright,
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little lamb, I'll tell thee.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
LAUGHING SONG
When the green wood laughs with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene;
When Mary, and Susan, and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing, "Ha ha he!"
When the painted birds laugh in the shade,
When our table with cherries and nuts is spread;
Come live, and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha ha he!"
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
THE WIND
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing by.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
THE CITY MOUSE AND THE GARDEN MOUSE
The city mouse lives in a house;--
The garden mouse lives in a bower,
He's friendly with the frogs and toads,
And sees the pretty plants in flower.
The city mouse eats bread and cheese;--
The garden mouse eats what he can;
We will not grudge him seeds and stalks,
Poor little timid furry man.
LULLABY
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
Flowers are closed and lambs are sleeping;
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
Stars are up, the moon is peeping;
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
While the birds are silence keeping,
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
Sleep, my baby, fall a-sleeping,
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
THE SISTERS
Sing me a song--
What shall I sing?--
Three merry sisters
Dancing in a ring,
Light and fleet upon their feet
As birds upon the wing.
Tell me a tale--
What shall I tell?--
Two mournful sisters,
And a tolling knell,
Tolling ding and tolling dong,
Ding dong bell.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
THE WIND
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass--
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all--
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
O you that are so strong and cold!
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
WINDY NIGHTS
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he;
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.
THE WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN
A child should always say what's true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.
MY BED IS A BOAT
My bed is like a little boat;
Nurse helps me in when I embark;
She girds me in my sailor's coat
And starts me in the dark.
At night, I go on board and say
Good night to all my friends on shore;
I shut my eyes and sail away,
And see and hear no more.
And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.
All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room, beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.
THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE
When I was sick and lay abed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.
And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bedclothes, through the hills;
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.
I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
THE LAND OF STORYBOOKS
At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.
Now, with my little gun, I crawl
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.
There, in the night, where none can spy,
All in my hunter's camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.
These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.
I see the others far away
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.
So, when my nurse comes in for me,
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear Land of Storybooks.
LUCY LARCOM
IF I WERE A SUNBEAM
"If I were a sunbeam,
I know what I'd do;
I would seek white lilies,
Rainy woodlands through.
I would steal among them,
Softest light I'd shed,
Until every lily
Raised its drooping head.
"If I were a sunbeam,
I know where I'd go;
Into lowliest hovels,
Dark with want and woe:
Till sad hearts looked upward,
I would shine and shine;
Then they'd think of heaven,
Their sweet home and mine."
Art thou not a sunbeam,
Child, whose life is glad
With an inner radiance
Sunshine never had?
O, as God hath blessed thee,
Scatter rays divine!
For there is no sunbeam
But must die or shine.
THE RIVULET
Run, little rivulet, run!
Summer is fairly begun.
Bear to the meadow the hymn of the pines,
And the echo that rings where the waterfall shines;
Run, little rivulet, run!
Run, little rivulet, run!
Sing to the fields of the sun
That wavers in emerald, shimmers in gold,
Where you glide from your rocky ravine, crystal cold;
Run, little rivulet, run!
Run, little rivulet, run!
Sing of the flowers, every one,--
Of the delicate harebell and violet blue;
Of the red mountain rosebud, all dripping with dew;
Run, little rivulet, run!
Run, little rivulet, run!
Carry the perfume you won
From the lily, that woke when the morning was gray,
To the white waiting moonbeam adrift on the bay;
Run, little rivulet, run!
Run, little rivulet, run!
Stay not till summer is done!
Carry the city the mountain birds' glee;
Carry the joy of the hills to the sea;
Run, little rivulet, run!
THE BROWN THRUSH
There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in the tree.
He's singing to me! He's singing to me!
And what does he say, little girl, little boy?
"Oh, the world's running over with joy!
Don't you hear? Don't you see?
Hush! Look! In my tree
I'm as happy as happy can be!"
And the brown thrush keeps singing, "A nest do you see,
And five eggs, hid by me in the juniper tree?
Don't meddle! Don't touch! little girl, little boy,
Or the world will lose some of its joy!
Now I'm glad! now I'm free!
And I always shall be,
If you never bring sorrow to me."
So the merry brown thrush sings away in the tree,
To you and to me, to you and to me;
And he sings all the day, little girl, little boy,
"Oh, the world's running over with joy!
But long it won't be,
Don't you know? don't you see?
Unless we are as good as can be!"
ANN AND JANE TAYLOR
MEDDLESOME MATTY
One ugly trick has often spoiled
The sweetest and the best:
Matilda, though a pleasant child,
One grievous fault possessed,
Which, like a cloud before the skies,
Hid all her better qualities.
Sometimes she'd lift the teapot lid
To peep at what was in it;
Or tilt the kettle, if you did
But turn your back a minute.
In vain you told her not to touch,
Her trick of meddling grew so much.
Her grandmamma went out one day
And by mistake she laid
Her spectacles and snuffbox gay
Too near the little maid.
"Ah! well," thought she, "I'll try them on
As soon as grandmamma is gone."
Forthwith she placed upon her nose
The glasses large and wide;
And looking round, as I suppose,
The snuffbox too she spied:
"Oh! what a pretty box is that;
I'll open it," said little Matt.
"I know that grandmamma would say,
'Don't meddle with it, dear';
But then, she's far enough away,
And no one else is near.
Besides, what can there be amiss
In opening such a box as this?"
So thumb and finger went to work
To move the stubborn lid,
And presently a mighty jerk
The mighty mischief did;
For all at once, ah! woeful case.
The snuff came puffing in her face.
Poor eyes and nose and mouth, beside,
A dismal sight presented;
In vain, as bitterly she cried,
Her folly she repented;
In vain she ran about for ease,
She could do nothing now but sneeze.
She dashed the spectacles away
To wipe her tingling eyes,
And as in twenty bits they lay,
Her grandmamma she spies.
"Heyday! and what's the matter now?"
Says grandmamma with lifted brow.
Matilda, smarting with the pain,
And tingling still, and sore,
Made many a promise to refrain
From meddling evermore.
And 'tis a fact, as I have heard,
She ever since has kept her word.
THE VIOLET
Down in a green and shady bed
A modest violet grew,
Its stalk was bent, it hung its head,
As if to hide from view.
And yet it was a lovely flower,
Its color bright and fair;
It might have graced a rosy bower
Instead of hiding there.
Yet there it was content to bloom,
In modest tints arrayed;
And there diffused a sweet perfume
Within the silent shade.--
Then let me to the valley go
This pretty flower to see,
That I may also learn to grow
In sweet humility.
THE STAR
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark!
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
THE WAY TO BE HAPPY
How pleasant it is at the end of the day,
No follies to have to repent,
But reflect on the past and be able to say,
My time has been properly spent!
When I've done all my business with patience and care,
And been good, and obliging, and kind,
I lie on my pillow and sleep away there,
With a happy and peaceable mind.
Instead of all this, if it must be confest,
That I careless and idle have been,
I lie down as usual, and go to my rest,
But feel discontented within.
Then as I dislike all the trouble I've had,
In future I'll try to prevent it,
For I never am naughty without being sad,
Or good--without being contented.
ISAAC WATTS
AGAINST IDLENESS AND MISCHIEF
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads her wax!
And labors hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labor or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.
A MORNING SONG
My God, who makes the sun to know
His proper hour to rise,
And to give light to all below,
Doth send him round the skies.
When from the chambers of the east
His morning race begins,
He never tires, nor stops to rest,
But round the world he shines.
So, like the sun, would I fulfill
The business of the day:
Begin my work betimes, and still
March on my heavenly way.
Give me, O Lord, thy early grace,
Nor let my soul complain
That the young morning of my days
Has all been spent in vain.
A CRADLE HYMN
Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber!
Holy angels guard thybed!
Heavenly blessings without number
Gently falling on thy head.
Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,
House and home, thy friends provide;
All without thy care or payment,
All thy wants are well supplied.
How much better thou'rt attended
Than the Son of God could be,
When from heaven He descended,
And became a child like thee!
Soft and easy is thy cradle;
Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay,
When His birthplace was a stable,
And His softest bed was hay.
Lo, He slumbers in His manger,
Where the horned oxen fed;
Peace, my darling, here's no danger,
Here's no ox a-near thy bed.
Mayst thou live to know and fear Him,
Trust and love Him all thy days;
Then go dwell forever near Him,
See His face, and sing His praise!
LEWIS CARROLL
JABBERWOCKY
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimbel in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O Frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimbel in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM
"You are old, father William," the young man said
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box--
Allow me to sell you a couple?"
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!"
THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might;
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky;
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand--
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach;
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said;
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the Oyster bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat;
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low--
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need;
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."
"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine!" the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?
"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but,
"Cut us another slice.
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"
"It seems a shame," the Walrus said.
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but,
"The butter's spread too thick!"
"I weep for you," the Walrus said;
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
"O Oysters", said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.
EDWARD LEAR
There was an Old Man of the West,
Who never could get any rest;
So they set him to spin on his nose and his chin.
Which cured that Old Man of the West.
* * * * *
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!--
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"
* * * * *
There was an Old Person of Dean,
Who dined on one pea and one bean;
For he said, "More than that would make me too fat,"
That cautious Old Person of Dean.
* * * * *
There was a Young Lady whose chin
Resembled the point of a pin;
So she had it made sharp, and purchased a harp,
And played several tunes with her chin.
* * * * *
There is a Young Lady whose nose
Continually prospers and grows;
When it grew out of sight, she exclaimed in a fright,
"Oh! Farewell to the end of my nose!"
THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
THE JUMBLIES
They went to sea in a sieve, they did;
In a sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a sieve they went to sea.
And when the sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
They called aloud, "Our sieve ain't big;
But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig:
In a sieve we'll go to sea!"
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
They sailed away in a sieve, they did,
In a sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a ribbon, by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast.
And every one said who saw them go,
"Oh! won't they be soon upset, you know?
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long;
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a sieve to sail so fast."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
The water it soon came in, it did;
The water it soon came in:
So, to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat;
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar;
And each of them said, "How wise we are!
Though the night be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our sieve we spin."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
"O Timballo! How happy we are
When we live in a sieve and a crockery jar!
And all night long, in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail
In the shade of the mountains brown."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,--
To a land all covered with trees:
And they bought an owl, and a useful cart,
And a pound of rice, and a cranberry tart,
And a hive of silvery bees;
And they bought a pig, and some green jackdaws,
And a lovely monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of ring-bo-ree,
And no end of Stilton cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
And in twenty years they all came back,--
In twenty years or more;
And every one said, "How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore."
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, "If we only live,
We, too, will go to sea in a sieve,
To the hills of the Chankly Bore."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live:
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.
BALLADS
POPULAR
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
It was in and about the Martinmas time,
When the green leaves were a-falling,
That Sir John Graeme, in the West Country,
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.
He sent his man down through the town,
To the place where she was dwelling:
"O haste and come to my master dear,
Gin ye be Barbara Allan."
O hooly, hooly rose she up,
To the place where he was lying,
And when she drew the curtain by:
"Young man, I think you're dying."
"O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick,
And 'tis a' for Barabara Allan";
"O the better for me ye's never be,
Tho your heart's blood were a-spilling.
"Do you remember the other day,
When we were at the tavern drinking,
You drank a health to the ladies all,
And you slighted Barbara Allan?"
"Yes, I remember the other day,
When we were at the tavern drinking,
I drank a health to the ladies all,
And three to Barbara Allan."
"Do you remember the other night,
When we were at the ballroom dancing,
You gave your hand to the ladies all,
And slighted Barbara Allan?"
"Yes, I remember the other night,
When we were at the ballroom dancing,
I gave my hand to the ladies all,
And my heart to Barbara Allan."
He turned his face unto the wall,
And death was with him dealing:
"Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all.
And be kind to Barbara Allan."
And slowly, slowly raise she up,
And slowly, slowly left him,
And, sighing, said she could not stay,
Since death of life had reft him.
She had not gane a mile but twa,
When she heard the dead-bell ringing,
And every jow that the dead-bell geid,
It cry'd, "Woe to Barbara Allan."
"O mother, mother, make my bed!
O make it saft and narrow!
Since my love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."
SIR PATRICK SPENCE
The king sits in Dunferling toune,
Drinking the blude-reid wine;
"O whar will I get a guid sailór
To sail this schip of mine?"
Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the king's richt kne:
"Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailór,
That sails upon the se."
The king has written a braid letter,
And signd it wi' his hand;
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence,
Was walking on the sand.
The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauchéd he;
The next line that Sir Patrick red.
The teir blinded his ee.
"O wha is this has don this deid,
This ill deid don to me,
To send me out this time o' the yeir,
To sail upon the se!
"Mak haste, mak haste, my mirry men all,
Our guid schip sails the morne."
"O say na sae, my master deir,
For I feir a deadlie storme.
"Late late yestreen I saw the new moone,
Wi' the auld moone in his arme,
And I feir, I feir, my deir mastèr,
That we will com to harme."
O our Scots nobles wer richt laith
To weet their cork-heild schoone;
Bot lang owre a' the play wer playd,
Thair hats they swam aboone.
O lang, lang may their ladies sit,
Wi' thair fans into their hand,
Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence
Cum sailing to the land.
O lang, lang may the ladies stand,
Wi' thair gold kerns in their hair,
Waiting for thair ain deir lords,
For they'll se thame na mair.
Half owre, half owre to Aberdour,
It's fiftie fadom deip,
And thair lies guid Sir Patrick Spence,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit.
ROBIN HOOD AND ALLIN A DALE
Come listen to me, you gallants so free,
All you that loves mirth for to hear,
And I will tell you of a bold outlaw,
That lived in Nottinghamshire.
As Robin Hood in the forest stood,
All under the greenwood tree,
There was he ware of a brave young man,
As fine as fine might be.
The youngster was clothed in scarlet red,
In scarlet fine and gay;
And he did frisk it over the plain,
And chanted a roundelay.
As Robin Hood next morning stood,
Amongst the leaves so gay,
There did he espy the same young man
Come drooping along the way.
The scarlet he wore the day before,
It was clean cast away;
And at every step he fetcht a sigh,
"Alack and a well a day!"
Then stepped forth brave Little John,
And Nick the miller's son,
Which made the young man bend his bow,
When as he see them come.
"Stand off, stand off," the young man said,
"What is your will with me?"
"You must come before our master straight,
Under yon greenwood tree."
And when he came bold Robin before,
Robin askt him courteously,
"O hast thou any money to spare
For my merry men and me?"
"I have no money," the young man said,
"But five shillings and a ring;
And that I have kept this seven long years,
To have it at my wedding.
"Yesterday I should have married a maid,
But she is now from me tane,
And chosen to be an old knight's delight,
Whereby my poor heart is slain."
"What is thy name?" then said Robin Hood,
"Come tell me, without any fail":
"By the faith of my body," then said the young man,
"My name it is Allin a Dale."
"What wilt thou give me," said Robin Hood,
"In ready gold or fee,
To help thee to thy true-love again,
And deliver her unto thee?"
"I have no money," then quoth the young man,
"No ready gold nor fee,
But I will swear upon a book
Thy true servant for to be."
"How many miles is it to thy true-love?
Come tell me without any guile":
"By the faith of my body," then said the young man,
"It is but five little mile."
Then Robin he hasted over the plain,
He did neither stint nor lin,
Until he came unto the church,
Where Allin should keep his wedding.
"What dost thou do here?" the bishop he said,
"I prithee now tell to me":
"I am a bold harper," quoth Robin Hood,
"And the best in the north countrey."
"O welcome, O welcome," the bishop he said,
"That musick best pleaseth me":
"You shall have no musick," quoth Robin Hood,
"Till the bride and the bridegroom I see."
With that came in a wealthy knight,
Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass
Did shine like glistering gold.
"This is no fit match," quoth bold Robin Hood,
"That you do seem to make here;
For since we are come unto the church,
The bride she shall chuse her own dear."
Then Robin Hood put his horn to his mouth,
And blew blasts two or three;
When four and twenty bowmen bold
Came leaping over the lee.
And when they came into the church-yard,
Marching all on a row,
The first man was Allin a Dale,
To give bold Robin his bow.
"This is thy true-love," Robin he said,
"Young Allin, as I hear say:
And you shall be married at this same time,
Before we depart away."
"That shall not be," the bishop he said,
"For thy word shall not stand;
They shall be three times askt in the church,
As the law is of our land."
Robin Hood pulld off the bishop's coat,
And put it upon Little John;
"By the faith of my body," then Robin said,
"This cloath doth make thee a man."
When Little John went into the quire,
The people began for to laugh;
He askt them seven times in the church,
Lest three times should not be enough.
"Who gives me this maid?" then said Little John;
Quoth Robin, "That do I,
And he that doth take her from Allin a Dale
Full dearly he shall her buy."
And thus having ended this merry wedding,
The bride lookt as fresh as a queen,
And so they returned to the merry greenwood,
Amongst the leaves so green.
KINMONT WILLIE
O! have ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde?
O! have ye na heard o' the keen Lord Scroope?
How they hae taen bauld Kinmont Willie
On Haribee to hang him up?
Had Willie had but twenty men,
But twenty men as stout as he,
Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en,
Wi' eight score in his companie.
They band his legs beneath the steed,
They tied his hands behind his back;
They guarded him, fivesome on each side,
And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack.
They led him thro' the Liddel-rack,
And also thro' the Carlisle sands;
They brought him to Carlisle castell,
To be at my Lord Scroope's commands.
"My hands are tied, but my tongue is free,
And whae will dare this deed avow?
Or answer by the border law?
Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?"
"Now baud thy tongue, thou rank reiver!
There's never a Scot shall set thee free;
Before ye cross my castle yate,
I trow ye shall take farewell o' me."
"Fear na ye that, my lord," quo' Willie;
"By the faith o' my bodie, Lord Scroope," he said,
"I never yet lodged in a hostelrie
But I paid my lawing before I gaed."
Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper,
In Branksome Ha', where that he lay,
That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie,
Between the hours of night and day.
He has ta'en the table wi' his hand,
He garr'd the red wine spring on hie--
"Now Christ's curse on my head," he said,
"But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be!
"Oh is my basnet a widow's curch?
Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree?
Or my arm a ladye's lilye hand,
That an English lord should lightly me?
"And have they ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,
Against the truce of the Bordertide?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Is keeper here on the Scottish side?
"And have they e'en ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,
Withouten either dread or fear?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Can back a steed, or shake a spear?
"O were there war between the lands,
As well I wot that there is none,
I would slight Carlisle castell high,
Tho it were builded of marble stone.
"I would set that castell in a low,
And sloken it with English blood!
There's never a man in Cumberland
Should ken where Carlisle castell stood.
"But since nae war's between the lands,
And there is peace, and peace should be;
I'll neither harm English lad or lass,
And yet the Kinmont freed shall be!"
He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld.
I trow they were of his ain name,
Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, call'd
The Laird of Stobs, I mean the same.
He has call'd him forty Marchmen bauld,
Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch;
With spur on heel, and splent on spauld;
And gleuves of green, and feathers blue.
There were five and five before them a',
Wi' hunting-horns and bugles bright,
And five and five came wi' Buccleuch
Like warden's men, array'd for fight;
And five and five, like a mason gang,
That carried the ladders lang and hie;
And five and five, like broken men,
And so they reach'd the Woodhouselee.
And as we cross'd the Bateable Land,
When to the English side we held,
The first o' men that we met wi',
Whae sould it be but fause Sakelde?
"Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen?"
Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!"--
"We go to hunt an English stag,
Has trespass'd on the Scots countrie."
"Where be ye gaun, ye marshal men?"
Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell me true!"--
"We go to catch a rank reiver,
Has broken faith wi' the bauld Buccleuch."
"Where are ye gaun, ye mason lads,
Wi' a' your ladders, lang and hie?"--
"We gang to herry a corbie's nest,
That wons not far frae Woodhouselee."--
"Where be ye gaun, ye broken men?"
Quo' fause Sakelde; "come tell to me!"--
Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band,
And the nevir a word of lear had he.
"Why trespass ye on the English side?
Row-footed outlaws, stand!" quo' he;
The nevir a word had Dickie to say,
Sae he thrust the lance through his fause bodie.
Then on we held for Carlisle toun.
And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we cross'd;
The water was great and meikle of spait,
But the nevir a horse nor man we lost.
And when we reach'd the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind was rising loud and hie;
And there the laird garr'd leave our steeds,
For fear that they should stamp and nie.
And when we left the Staneshaw-bank,
The wind began full loud to blaw,
But 'twas wind and weet, and fire and sleet,
When we came beneath the castel wa'.
We crept on knees, and held our breath,
Till we placed the ladders against the wa';
And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell
To mount the first before us a'.
He has ta'en the watchman by the throat,
He flung him down upon the lead--
"Had there not been peace between our lands,
Upon the other side thou hadst gaed!--
"Now sound out, trumpets!" quo' Buccleuch;
"Let's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie!"
Then loud the warden's trumpet blew--
"_O wha dare meddle wi' me?_"
Then speedilie to wark we gaed,
And raised the slogan ane and a',
And cut a hole through a sheet of lead,
And so we wan to the castle ha'.
They thought King James and a' his men
Had won the house wi' bow and spear;
It was but twenty Scots and ten,
That put a thousand in sic a stear!
Wi' coulters, and wi' forehammers,
We garr'd the bars bang merrilie,
Until we came to the inner prison,
Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie.
And when we cam to the lower prison,
Where Willie o' Kinmont he did lie--
"O, sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie,
Upon the morn that thou's to die?"--
"O, I sleep saft, and I wake aft,'
It's lang since sleeping was fley'd frae me;
Gie my service back to my wife and bairns,
And a' gude fellows that spier for me."--
Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
The starkest man in Teviotdale--
"Abide, abide now, Red Rowan,
Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.
"Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope!
My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!" he cried;
"I'll pay you for my lodging maill
When first we meet on the Border side."
Then shoulder high, with shout and cry,
We bore him down the ladder lang;
At every stride Red Rowan made,
I wot the Kinmont's airns play'd clang.
"O mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
"I have ridden horse baith wild and wood;
"But a rougher beast than Red Rowan
I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode.
"And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,
"I've prick'd a horse out oure the furs;
But since the day I back'd a steed
I never wore sic cumbrous spurs!"--
We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a' the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men, on horse and foot,
Cam wi' the keen Lord Scroope along.
Buccleuch has turn'd to Eden Water,
Even where it flow'd frae bank to brim,
And he has plunged in wi' a' his band,
And safely swam them through the stream.
He turn'd him on the other side,
And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he--
"If ye like na my visit in merry England,
In fair Scotland come visit me!"
All sore astonish'd stood Lord Scroope,
He stood as still as rock of stane;
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes,
When through the water they had gane.
"He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be;
I wadna have ridden that wan water,
For a' the gowd in Christentie."
MODERN
THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It was the schooner _Hesperus_,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.
The skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old sailor,
Had sailed to the Spanish Main,
"I pray thee, put into yonder port,
For I fear a hurricane.
"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And tonight no moon we see!"
The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.
"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow."
He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar.
And bound her to the mast.
"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
O say, what may it be?"
"'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast"--
And he steered for the open sea.
"O father! I hear the sound of guns,
O say, what may it be?"
"Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!"
"O father! I see a gleaming light,
O say, what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave
On the Lake of Galilee.
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf
On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.
The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool.
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
"Ho! ho!" the breakers roared!
At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.
The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed,
On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
John Keats
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful--a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery's song.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew;
And sure in language strange she said--
"I love thee true."
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gazed, and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
So kiss'd to sleep.
And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream'd--Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all
They cried--"La Belle Dame sans Merci,
Hath thee in thrall!"
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill side.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.
LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER
Thomas Campbell
A chieftain to the Highlands bound,
Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry."--
"Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle,
This dark and stormy water?"
"O, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
And this Lord Ullin's daughter.
"And fast before her father's men
Three days we've fled together,
For should he find us in the glen,
My blood would stain the heather.
"His horsemen hard behind us ride;
Should they our steps discover,
Then who will cheer my bonny bride
When they have slain her lover?"--
Out spoke the hardy Highland wight,
"I'll go, my chief--I'm ready:--
It is not for your silver bright;
But for your winsome lady:
"And by my word! the bonny bird
In danger shall not tarry:
So, though the waves are raging white,
I'll row you o'er the ferry."--
By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water-wraith was shrieking;
And in the scowl of heaven each face
Grew dark as they were speaking.
But still as wilder blew the wind,
And as the night grew drearer,
Adown the glen rode armed men,
Their trampling sounded nearer.--
"O haste thee, haste!" the lady cries,
"Though tempests round us gather;
I'll meet the raging of the skies,
But not an angry father."--
The boat has left a stormy land,
A stormy sea before her,--
When, oh! too strong for human hand,
The tempest gathered o'er her.--
And still they rowed amidst the roar
Of waters fast prevailing:
Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore,--
His wrath was changed to wailing.--
For sore dismayed, through storm and shade,
His child he did discover:--
One lovely hand she stretched for aid,
And one was round her lover.
"Come back! come back!" he cried, in grief,
"Across this stormy water:
And I'll forgive your Highland chief,
My daughter! oh, my daughter!"--
'Twas vain:--the loud waves lashed the shore.
Return or aid preventing:--
The waters wild went o'er his child,
And he was left lamenting.
YOUNG LOCHINVAR
Sir Walter Scott
Oh young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapon had none;
He rode all unarm'd, and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
He staid not for brake, and he stopp'd not for stone,
He swam the Esk river where ford there was none;
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
So boldly he enter'd the Netherby Hall,
Among brid'smen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all;
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,)
"O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?"--
"I long woo'd your daughter, my suit you denied;--
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide--
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."
The bride kiss'd the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaff'd off the wine, and he threw down the cup.
She look'd down to blush, and she look'd up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,--
"Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.
So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride-maidens whispered, "'Twere better by far,
To have match'd our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."
One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,
When they reach'd the hall-door, and the charger stood near;
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.
There was mounting 'mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;
Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lea,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX
16--
Robert Browning
I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
"Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through;
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.
Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,
Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit,
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.
'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;
At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;
At Duffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be;
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime,
So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"
At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black every one,
To stare through the mist at us galloping past,
And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,
With resolute shoulders, each butting away
The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray;
And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;
And one eye's black intelligence,--ever that glance
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.
By Hasselt, Direk groaned; and cried Joris, "Stay spur!
Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her,
We'll remember at Aix"--for one heard the quick wheeze
Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees,
And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,
As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.
So, we were left galloping, Joris and I,
Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky;
The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,
'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff;
Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white,
And "Gallop," gasped Joris, "for Aix is in sight!"
"How they'll greet us!"--and all in a moment his roan
Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone;
And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate.
With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim,
And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim.
Then I cast loose my buff-coat, each holster let fall,
Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all,
Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear,
Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer;
Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good,
Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood.
And all I remember is--friends flocking round
As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground;
And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine,
As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine,
Which (the burgesses voted by common consent)
Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent.
THE REVENGE
A BALLAD OF THE FLEET
Alfred Tennyson
I
At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far away:
"Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!"
Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: "'Fore God I am no coward;
But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear,
And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick.
We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fifty-three?"
II
Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: "I know you are no coward;
You fly them for a moment to fight with them again.
But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore.
I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,
To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain."
III
So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day,
Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven;
But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land
Very carefully and slow,
Men of Bideford in Devon,
And we laid them on the ballast down below;
For we brought them all aboard,
And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left to Spain,
To the thumb-screw and the stake, for the glory of the Lord.
IV
He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight,
And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,
With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weatherbow.
"Shall we fight or shall we fly?
Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die!
There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set."
And Sir Richard said again: "We be all good Englishmen.
Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil,
For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet."
V
Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so
The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe,
With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;
For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen,
And the little Revenge ran on thro' the long sea-lane between.
VI
Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks and laugh'd,
Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft
Running on and on, till delay'd
By their mountain-like San Philip that, of fifteen hundred tons,
And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers of guns,
Took the breath from our sails, and we stay'd.
VII
And while now the great San Philip hung above us like a cloud
Whence the thunderbolt will fall
Long and loud,
Four galleons drew away
From the Spanish fleet that day,
And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay,
And the battle-thunder broke from them all.
VIII
But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and went,
Having that within her womb that had left her ill content;
And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand.
For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers,
And a dozen times we shook 'em off as a dog that shakes his ears,
When he leaps from the water to the land.
IX
And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer sea,
But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.
Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,
Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and flame;
Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame.
For some were sunk and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no more--
God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?
X
For he said, "Fight on! fight on!"
Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck;
And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone,
With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck,
But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead,
And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head,
And he said, "Fight on! fight on!"
XI
And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer sea,
And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring;
But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could sting,
So they watch'd what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,
But in perilous plight were we,
Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain,
And half of the rest of us maim'd for life
In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;
And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,
And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it spent;
And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;
But Sir Richard cried in his English pride:
"We have fought such a fight for a day and a night
As may never be fought again!
We have won great glory, my men!
And a day less or more
At sea or ashore,
We die--does it matter when?
Sink me the ship, Master Gunner--sink her, split her in twain!
Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!"
XII
And the gunner said, "Ay, ay," but the seamen made reply:
"We have children, we have wives,
And the Lord hath spared our lives.
We will make the Spaniard promise, if we yield, to let us go;
We shall live to fight again and to strike another blow."
And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to the foe.
XIII
And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then,
Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard caught at last,
And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign grace;
But he rose upon their decks, and he cried:
"I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and true;
I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do.
With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die!"
And he fell upon their decks, and he died.
XIV
And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and true,
And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap
That he dared her with one little ship and his English few;
Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they knew,
But they sank his body with honor down into the deep,
And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthier alien crew,
And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her own;
When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep,
And the water began to heave and the weather to moan,
And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew,
And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew,
Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags,
And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain,
And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags
To be lost evermore in the main.
LYRICS
OUR COUNTRY
AMERICA
Samuel Francis Smith
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty;
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,--
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,--
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake!
Let rocks their silence break,--
The sound prolong.
Our fathers' God,--to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.
MY NATIVE LAND
Sir Walter Scott
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
"This is my own, my native land!"
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concent'red all in self.
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.
COLUMBUS
Joaquin Miller
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now must we pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone,
Brave Adm'r'l, speak; what shall I say?"
"Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"
"My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly, wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why, you shall say at break of day:
'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Adm'r'l; speak and say--"
He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!"
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
"This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
He lifts his teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Adm'r'l, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"
Then, pale and worn, he paced his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night.
Of all dark nights! And then a speck--
A light! A light! At last a light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"
THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS IN NEW ENGLAND
Felicia Browne Hemans
Look now abroad! Another race has fill'd
Those populous borders--wide the wood recedes,
And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are till'd;
The land is full of harvests and green meads.
--_Bryant_
The breaking waves dash'd high
On a stern and rockbound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches toss'd.
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moor'd their bark
On the wild New England shore.
Not as the conqueror comes,
They, the true-hearted, came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame;
Not as the flying come,
In silence and in fear;--
They shook the depths of the desert gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.
Amidst the storm they sang,
And the stars heard and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free!
The ocean eagle soar'd
From his nest by the white wave's foam;
And the rocking pines of the forest roar'd,--
This was their welcome home!
There were men with hoary hair
Amidst that pilgrim band;--
Why had _they_ come to wither here,
Away from their childhood's land?
There was woman's fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.
What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?--
They sought a faith's pure shrine!
Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod.
They have left unstained, what there they found--
Freedom to worship God.
CONCORD HYMN
SUNG AT THE COMPLETION OF THE BATTLE MONUMENT, APRIL 19, 1836
Ralph Waldo Emerson
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled.
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
OLD IRONSIDES
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;--
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!
Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the nood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;--
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!
O better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has wether'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult, O Shores, and ring, O Bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
LOVE LYRICS
TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS
Richard Lovelace
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such,
As you, too, shall adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
George Gordon Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
A RED, RED ROSE
Robert Burns
O, my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve is like the melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!
POEMS OF NATURE
THE GREENWOOD TREE
William Shakespeare
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat--
Come hither, come hither, come hither!
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets--
Come hither, come hither, come hither!
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
Allan Cunningham
A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast!
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While, like the eagle free,
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.
"O for a soft and gentle wind!"
I heard a fair one cry;
But give to me the swelling breeze,
And white waves heaving high:
The white waves heaving high, my lads,
The good ship tight and free;
LYRICS
The world of waters is our home.
And merry men are we.
There's tempest in yon horned moon,
And lightning in yon cloud;
And hark the music, mariners!
The wind is wakening loud.
The wind is wakening loud, my boys,
The lightning flashes free--
The hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea.
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
THE RHODORA ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew;
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The selfsame Power that brought me there brought you.
TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN
William Cullen Bryant
Thou blossom bright with autumn dew,
And colored with the heaven's own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.
Thou comest not when violets lean
O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple drest,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.
Thou waitest late, and com'st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.
Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue--blue--as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.
I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.
THE EAGLE
Alfred Tennyson
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND CRICKET
John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the grasshopper's--he takes the lead
In summer luxury,--he has never done
With his delights; for, when tired out with fun,
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never.
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one, in drowsiness half lost,
The grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
LESSONS FROM NATURE
TO A WATERFOWL
William Cullen Bryant
Whither, midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of days,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?
Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.
Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean-side?
There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,--
The desert and illimitable air,--
Lone wandering, but not lost.
All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.
And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.
Thou'rt gone! the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.
He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.
THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS
Oliver Wendell Holmes
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
THE BUGLE SONG
Alfred Tennyson
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.
SONGS OF LIFE
THE NOBLE NATURE
Ben Jonson
It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make men better be,
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day,
Is fairer far, in May,
Although it fall and die that night;
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauty see;
And in short measures, life may perfect be.
THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE
Sir Henry Wotton
How happy is he born and taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth, his utmost skill;
Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the world by care
Of public fame or private breath;
Who envies none that chance doth raise,
Nor vice; who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise,
Nor rules of state, but rules of good;
Who hath his life from rumors freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make oppressors great;
Who God doth late and early pray,
More of his grace than gifts to lend,
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book, or friend.
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.
SAY NOT, THE STRUGGLE NOUGHT AVAILETH
Arthur Hugh Clough
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
The labor and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
FOR A' THAT AN' A' THAT
Robert Burns
Is there for honest poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that?
The coward slave, we pass him by,--
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure, an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hodden gray, an' a' that?
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine--
A man's a man for a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a 'that:
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie ca'd "a lord,"
Wha' struts an' stares, an' a 'that?
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a cuif for a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
His riband, star, an' a' that,
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.
A prince can mak' a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that!
But an honest man's aboon his might,--
Guid faith, he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that,
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's comin' yet, for a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that.
INVICTUS
William Ernest Henly
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
OPPORTUNITY
Edward Rowland Sill
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:--
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge,
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel--
That blue blade that the king's son bears,--but this
Blunt thing--!" he snapt and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
A PSALM OF LIFE
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!--
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Finds us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present,
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;--
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
AESOP
THE DOG AND THE SHADOW
A Dog, crossing a little rivulet with a piece of meat in his mouth,
saw his own shadow represented in the clear mirror of the limpid
stream; and, believing it to be another dog, who was carrying a
larger piece of meat, he could not forbear catching at it; but was
so far from getting anything by his greedy design, that he dropped
the piece he had in his mouth, which immediately sank to the bottom,
and was irrecoverably lost.
THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
A Fox, very hungry, chanced to come into a vineyard, where there
hung branches of charming ripe grapes; but nailed up to a trellis so
high that he leaped till he quite tired himself without being able
to reach one of them. At last, "Let who will take them!" says he;
"they are but green and sour; so I will even let them alone."
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
A Hare laughed at a Tortoise upon account of his slowness, and
vainly boasted her own great speed in running. "Let us make a
match," replied the Tortoise; "I will run with you five miles for a
wager, and the fox yonder shall be the umpire of the race." The
Hare agreed; and away they both started together. But the Hare,
by reason of her exceeding swiftness, outran the Tortoise to such a
degree, that she made a jest of the matter; and thinking herself sure
of the race, squatted in a tuft of fern that grew by the way, and
took a nap, thinking that, if the Tortoise went by, she could at
any time overtake him with all the ease imaginable. In the meanwhile
the Tortoise came jogging on with slow but continued motion;
and the Hare out of a too great security and confidence of victory,
oversleeping herself, the Tortoise arrived at the end of the race
first.
THE SHEPHERD'S BOY
A certain Shepherd's Boy kept his sheep upon a common, and in
sport and wantonness would often cry out, "The wolf! the wolf!"
By this means he several times drew the husbandmen in an adjoining
field from their work; who, finding themselves deluded, resolved
for the future to take no notice of his alarm. Soon after, the
wolf came indeed. The Boy cried out in earnest; but no heed being
given to his cries, the sheep were devoured by the wolf.
THE HUSBANDMAN AND THE STORK
The Husbandman set a net in his fields to take the cranes and geese
which came to feed upon the new-sown barley. He succeeded in
taking several, both cranes and geese, and among them a Stork,
who pleaded hard for his life, and, among other apologies which
he made, alleged that he was neither goose nor crane, but a poor
harmless Stork, who performed his duty to his parents to all intents
and purposes, feeding them when they were old, and, as occasion
required, carrying them from place to place upon his back. "All
this may be true," replied the Husbandman; "but, as I have taken
you in bad company, and in the same crime, you must expect to
suffer the same punishment."
THE WIND AND THE SUN
A dispute once arose betwixt the North Wind and the Sun about
the superiority of their power; and they agreed to try their strength
upon a traveler, which should be able to get his cloak off first. The
North Wind began, and blew a very cold blast, accompanied with
a sharp, driving shower. But this, and whatever else he could do,
instead of making the man quit his cloak, obliged him to gird it
about his body as close as possible. Next came the Sun; who, breaking
out from a thick watery cloud, drove away the cold vapors from
the sky, and darted his warm, sultry beams upon the head of the
poor weather-beaten traveler. The man growing faint with the
heat, and unable to endure it any longer, first throws off his heavy
cloak, and then flies for protection to the shade of a neighboring
grove.
THE TORTOISE AND THE GEESE
[Footnote: This and the following fable are from _The Tortoise and
the Geese, and Other Fables of Bidpai,_ retold by Maude Barrows
Button.]
A Tortoise and two Geese lived together in a pond for many years.
At last there came a drought and dried up the pond. Then the
Geese said to one another,--
"We must seek a new home quickly, for we cannot live without
water. Let us say farewell to the Tortoise and start at once."
When the Tortoise heard that they were going, he trembled with
fear, and besought them by their friendship not to desert him.
"Alas," the Geese replied, "there is no help for it. If we stay
here, we shall all three die, and we cannot take you with us, for you
cannot fly."
Still the Tortoise begged so hard not to be left behind that the
Geese finally said,--
"Dear Friend, if you will promise not to speak a word on
the journey, we will take you with us. But know beforehand, that
if you open your mouth to say one single word, you will be in instant
danger of losing your life."
"Have no fear," replied the Tortoise, "but that I shall be silent
until you give me leave to speak again. I would rather never open
my mouth again than be left to die alone here in the dried-up pond."
So the Geese brought a stout stick and bade the Tortoise grasp it
firmly in the middle by his mouth. Then they took hold of either
end and flew off with him. They had gone several miles in safety,
when their course lay over a village. As the country people saw this
curious sight of a Tortoise being carried by two Geese, they began
to laugh and cry out,--
"Oh, did you ever see such a funny sight in all your life!" And
they laughed loud and long.
The Tortoise grew more and more indignant. At last he could
stand their jeering no longer. "You stupid..." he snapped, but
before he could say more he had fallen to the ground and was
dashed to pieces.
THE PARTRIDGE AND THE CROW
A Crow flying across a road saw a Partridge strutting along the
ground.
"What a beautiful gait that Partridge has!" said the Crow. "I
must try to see if I can walk like him."
She alighted behind the Partridge and tried for a long time to
learn to strut. At last the Partridge turned around and asked the
Crow what she was about.
"Do not be angry with me," replied the Crow. "I have never
before seen a bird who walks as beautifully as you can, and I am
trying to learn to walk like you."
"Foolish bird!" responded the Partridge. "You are a Crow, and
should walk like a Crow. You would look silly indeed if you were
to strut like a Partridge."
But the Crow went on trying to learn to strut, until finally she
had forgotten her own gait, and she never learned that of the Partridge.
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
A fox, almost with hunger dying,
Some grapes upon a trellis spying,
To all appearance ripe, clad in
Their tempting russet skin,
Most gladly would have eat them;
But since he could not get them,
So far above his reach the vine,--
"They're sour." he said; "such grapes as these
The dogs may eat them if they please."
--Did he not better than to whine?
THE WOLF AND THE STORK
The wolves are prone to play the glutton.
One, at a certain feast, 'tis said,
So stuffed himself with lamb and mutton,
He seemed but little short of dead.
Deep in his throat a bone stuck fast.
Well for this wolf, who could not speak,
That soon a stork quite near him passed.
By signs invited, with her beak
The bone she drew
With slight ado,
And for this skillful surgery
Demanded, modestly, her fee.
"Your fee!" replied the wolf,
In accents rather gruff;
"And is it not enough
Your neck is safe from such a gulf?
Go, for a wretch ingrate,
Nor tempt again your fate!"
TRADITIONAL
THE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIG
Joseph Jacobs
An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little
crooked sixpence. "What," said she, "shall I do with this little
sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig."
As she was coming home, she came to a stile: but the piggy
wouldn't go over the stile.
She went a little further, and she met a dog. So she said to him:
"Dog! dog! bite pig; piggy won't go over the stile; and I shan't
get home tonight." But the dog wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a stick. So she said:
"Stick! stick! beat dog! dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get
over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the stick
wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a fire. So she said:
"Fire! fire! burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig;
piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But
the fire wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met some water. So she said:
"Water! water! quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't
beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and
I shan't get home tonight." But the water wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met an ox. So she said: "Ox!
ox! drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick;
stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the
stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the ox wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a butcher. So she said:
"Butcher! butcher! kill ox; ox won't drink water; water won't
quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't
bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home
tonight." But the butcher wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a rope. So she said:
"Rope! rope! hang butcher; butcher won't kill ox; ox won't drink
water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't
beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I
shan't get home tonight." But the rope wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a rat. So she said: "Rat!
rat! gnaw rope; rope won't hang butcher; butcher won't kill ox;
ox won't drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn
stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over
the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the rat wouldn't.
She went a little further, and she met a cat. So she said:
"Cat! cat! kill rat; rat won't gnaw rope; rope won't hang butcher;
butcher won't kill ox; ox won't drink water; water won't quench
fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite
pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight."
But the cat said to her, "If you will go to yonder cow and
fetch me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat." So away went the
old woman to the cow.
But the cow said to her: "If you will go to yonder haystack
and fetch me a handful of hay, I'll give you the milk." So away
went the old woman to the haystack; and she brought the hay to the
cow.
As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the old woman
the milk; and away she went with it in a saucer to the cat.
As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill
the rat; the rat began to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang
the butcher; the butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink
the water; the water began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn
the stick; the stick began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the
pig; the little pig in fright jumped over the stile; and so the old
woman got home that night.
THE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
Joseph Jacobs
There was once an old sow with three little pigs, and as she
had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their
fortune. The first that went off met a man with a bundle of straw,
and said to him:
"Please, man, give me that straw to build me a house."
Which the man did, and the little pig built a house with it.
Presently came along a wolf, and knocked at the door, and said:
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
To which the pig answered:
"No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."
The wolf then answered to that:
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
So he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew his house in, and ate up
the little pig.
The second little pig met a man with a bundle of furze, and said:
"Please, man, give me that furze to build a house."
Which the man did, and the pig built his house. Then along came
the wolf, and said:
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
So he huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed, and he huffed, and at
last he blew the house in, and he ate up the little pig.
The third little pig met a man with a load of bricks, and said:
"Please, man, give me those bricks to build a house with."
So the man gave him the bricks, and he built his house with
them. So the wolf came, as he did to the other little pigs, and said:
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
Well, he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed, and he puffed,
and he puffed and huffed; but he could _not_ get the house down.
When he found that he could not, with all his huffing and puffing,
blow the house down, he said:
"Little pig, I know where there is a nice field of turnips."
"Where?" said the little pig.
"Oh, in Mr. Smith's Home-field, and if you will be ready tomorrow
morning, I will call for you, and we will go together and
get some for dinner."
"Very well," said the little pig, "I will be ready. What time
do you mean to go?"
"Oh, at six o'clock."
Well, the little pig got up at five, and got the turnips before the
wolf came (which he did about six), who said:
"Little pig, are you ready?"
The little pig said: "Ready? I have been and come back again,
and got a nice potful for dinner."
The wolf felt very angry at this, but thought that he would be
up to the little pig somehow or other, so he said:
"Little pig, I know where there is a nice apple tree."
"Where?" said the pig.
"Down at Merry-garden," replied the wolf, "and if you will
not deceive me, I will come for you at five o'clock tomorrow and
get some apples."
Well, the little pig bustled up the next morning at four o'clock,
and went for the apples, hoping to get back before the wolf came;
but he had further to go, and had to climb the tree, so that just as
he was coming down from it, he saw the wolf coming, which, as you
may suppose, frightened him very much. When the wolf came up,
he said:
"Little pig, what! are you here before me? Are they nice
apples?"
"Yes, very," said the little pig. "I will throw you down
one."
And he threw it so far, that, while the wolf was gone to pick it
up, the little pig jumped down and ran home. The next day the
wolf came again, and said to the little pig:
"Little pig, there is a fair at Shanklin this afternoon. Will you
go?
"Oh, yes," said the pig, "I will go; what time shall you be
ready?"
"At three," said the wolf. So the little pig went off before the
time as usual, and got to the fair, and bought a butter churn, which
he was going home with when he saw the wolf coming. Then he
could not tell what to do. So he got into the churn to hide, and by
so doing turned it round, and it rolled down the hill with the pig in
it, which frightened the wolf so much that he ran home without
going to the fair. He went to the little pig's house, and told him
how frightened he had been by a great round thing which came down
the hill past him. Then the little pig said:
"Hah, I frightened you, then. I had been to the fair and bought
a butter churn, and when I saw you, I got into it and rolled down
the hill."
Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and declared he would eat
up the little pig, and that he would get down the chimney after
him. When the little pig saw what he was about, he hung on the
pot full of water and made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf
was coming down, took off the cover, and in fell the wolf; so the
little pig put on the cover again in an instant, boiled him up, and
ate him for supper, and lived happy ever afterwards.
HANS IN LUCK
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Hans had served his master seven years, and at last said to him,
"Master, my time is up; I should like to go home and see my
mother; so give me my wages." And the master said, "You have
been a faithful and good servant, so your pay shall be handsome."
Then he gave him a piece of silver that was as big as his head.
Hans took out his pocket handkerchief, put the piece of silver
into it, threw it over his shoulder, and jogged off homewards. As
he went lazily on, dragging one foot after the other, a man came in
sight, trotting along gayly on a capital horse. "Ah!" cried Hans
aloud, "what a fine thing it is to ride on horseback! he trips
against no stones, spares his shoes, and yet gets on he hardly knows
how." The horseman heard this, and said, "Well, Hans, why do
you go on foot, then?" "Ah!" said he, "I have this load to carry;
to be sure it is silver, but it is so heavy that I can't hold up my
head, and it hurts my shoulders sadly." "What do you say to
changing?" said the horseman; "I will give you my horse, and you
shall give me the silver." "With all my heart," said Hans; "but
I tell you one thing,--you'll have a weary task to drag it along."
The horseman got off, took the silver, helped Hans up, gave him the
bridle into his hand, and said, "When you want to go very fast,
you must smack your lips loud, and cry 'Jip.'"
Hans was delighted as he sat on the horse, and rode merrily on.
After a time he thought he should like to go a little faster, so he
smacked his lips and cried, "Jip." Away went the horse full gallop;
and before Hans knew what he was about, he was thrown off,
and lay in a ditch by the roadside; and his horse would have run
off, if a shepherd who was coming by, driving a cow, had not stopped
it. Hans soon came to himself, and got upon his legs again. He
was sadly vexed, and said to the shepherd, "This riding is no joke
when a man gets on a beast like this, that stumbles and flings him
off as if he would break his neck. However, I am off now once for
all; I like your cow a great deal better; one can walk along at one's
leisure behind her, and have milk, butter, and cheese every day into
the bargain. What would I give to have such a cow!" "Well,"
said the shepherd, "if you are so fond of her, I will change my
cow for your horse." "Done!" said Hans merrily. The shepherd
jumped upon the horse, and away he rode.
Hans drove off his cow quietly, and thought his bargain a very
lucky one. "If I have only a piece of bread, I can, whenever I
like, eat my butter and cheese with it; and when I am thirsty, I can
milk my cow and drink the milk: what can I wish for more?"
When he came to an inn, he halted, ate up all his bread, and gave his
last penny for a glass of beer: then he drove his cow towards his
mother's village; and the heat grew greater as noon came on, till
he began to be so hot and parched that his tongue clave to the roof
of his mouth. "I can find a cure for this," thought he; "now will
I milk my cow and quench my thirst;" so he tied her to the stump
of a tree, and held his leather cap to milk into; but not a drop was
to be had.
While he was trying his luck and managing the matter very clumsily,
the uneasy beast gave him a kick on the head that knocked him
down, and there he lay a long while senseless. Luckily a butcher
soon came by, wheeling a pig in a wheelbarrow. "What is the matter
with you?" said the butcher, as he helped him up. Hans told
him what had happened, and the butcher gave him a flask, saying,
"There, drink and refresh yourself; your cow will give you no
milk, she is an old beast good for nothing but the slaughterhouse."
"Alas, alas!" said Hans, "who would have thought it? If I kill
her, what would she be good for? I hate cow beef, it is not tender
enough for me. If it were a pig now, one could do something
with it; it would, at any rate, make some sausages." "Well," said
the butcher, "to please you I'll change, and give you the pig for
the cow." "Heaven reward you for your kindness!" said Hans. as
he gave the butcher the cow, and took the pig off the wheelbarrow,
and drove it off, holding it by the string that was tied to its leg.
So on he jogged, and all seemed now to go right with him. The
next person he met was a countryman, carrying a fine white goose
under his arm. The countryman stopped to ask what o'clock it was;
and Hans told him all his luck, and how he had made so many
good bargains. The countryman said he was going to take the
goose to a christening. "Feel," said he, "how heavy it is, and yet
it is only eight weeks old. Whoever roasts and eats it, may cut
plenty of fat off it, it has lived so well!" "You're right," said
Hans, as he weighed it in his hand; "but my pig is no trifle." Meantime
the countryman began to look grave, and shook his head.
"Hark ye," said he, "my good friend; your pig may get you into a
scrape; in the village I have just come from, the squire has had a
pig stolen out of his sty. I was dreadfully afraid, when I saw you,
that you had got the squire's pig; it will be a bad job if they
catch you; the least they'll do will be to throw you into the horse
pond."
Poor Hans was sadly frightened. "Good man," cried he, "pray
get me out of this scrape; you know this country better than I; take
my pig and give me the goose." "I ought to have something into
the bargain," said the countryman; "however, I will not bear hard
upon you, as you are in trouble." Then he took the string in his
hand, and drove off the pig by a side path; while Hans went on
the way homewards free from care.
As he came to the last village, he saw a scissors grinder, with
his wheel, working away, and singing. Hans stood looking for a
while, and at last said, "You must be well off, master grinder, you
seem so happy at your work." "Yes," said the other, "mine is a
golden trade; a good grinder never puts his hand in his pocket
without finding money in it:--but where did you get that beautiful
goose?" "I did not buy it, but changed a pig for it." "And
where did you get the pig?" "I gave a cow for it." "And the
cow?" "I gave a horse for it." "And the horse?" "I gave a
piece of silver as big as my head for that." "And the silver?"
"Oh, I worked hard for that seven long years." "You have thriven
well in the world hitherto," said the grinder; "now if you could find
money in your pocket whenever you put your hand into it, your
fortune would be made." "Very true: but how is that to be managed?"
"You must turn grinder like me," said the other: "you only want a
grindstone; the rest will come of itself. Here is one that is a
little the worse for wear: I would not ask more than the value of
your goose for it;--will you buy?" "How can you ask such a question?"
replied Hans; "I should be the happiest man in the world if I could
have money whenever I put my hand in my pocket; what could I want
more? there's the goose!" "Now," said the grinder, as he gave him
a rough stone that lay by his side, "this is a most capital stone;
do but manage it cleverly, and you can make an old nail cut with
it."
Hans took the stone and went off with a light heart; his eyes
sparkled for joy, and he said to himself, "I must have been born in
a lucky hour; everything that I want or wish for comes to me of
itself."
Meantime he began to be tired, for he had been traveling ever
since daybreak; he was hungry, too, for he had given away his
last penny in his joy at getting the cow. At last he could go no
further, and the stone tired him terribly; he dragged himself to the
side of a pond, that he might drink some water and rest awhile; so he
laid the stone carefully by his side on the bank: but as he stooped
down to drink, he forgot it, pushed it a little, and down it went
plump into the pond. For a while he watched it sinking in the deep,
clear water, then sprang up for joy, and again fell upon his knees,
and thanked heaven with tears in his eyes for its kindness in taking
away his only plague, the ugly heavy stone. "How happy am I,"
cried he: "no mortal was ever so lucky as I am." Then up he got
with a light and merry heart, and walked on free from all his
troubles, till he reached his mother's house.
THE VALIANT LITTLE TAILOR
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
One summer's morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by
the window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might.
Then came a peasant woman down the street, crying, "Good jams,
cheap! Good jams, cheap!" This rang pleasantly in the tailor's
ears; he stretched his delicate head out of the window, and called,
"Come up here, dear woman; here you will get rid of your goods."
The woman came up the three steps to the tailor with her heavy
basket, and he made her unpack the whole of the pots for him. He
inspected all of them, lifted them up, put his nose to them, and at
length said, "The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out
four ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is
of no consequence." The woman, who had hoped to find a good
sale, gave him what he desired, but went away quite angry and
grumbling. "Now God bless the jam to my use," cried the little
tailor, "and give me health and strength;" so he brought the bread
out of the cupboard, cut himself a piece right across the loaf and
spread the jam over it. "That won't taste bitter," said he, "but I
will just finish the jacket before I take a bite." He laid the bread
near him, sewed on, and, in his joy, made bigger and bigger stitches.
In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam ascended so to the
wall, where the flies were sitting in great numbers, that they were
attracted and descended on it in hosts. "Hola! who invited you?"
said the little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The
flies, however, who understood no German, would not be turned
away, but came back again in ever increasing companies.
Then the little tailor lost all patience, and got a bit of cloth from
the hole under his work table, and saying, "Wait, and I will give it
to you," struck it mercilessly on them. When he drew it away
and counted, there lay before him no fewer than seven, dead and
with legs stretched out.
"Art thou a fellow of that sort?" said he, and could not help
admiring his own bravery. "The whole town shall know of this!"
And the little tailor hastened to cut himself a girdle, stitched it, and
embroidered on it in large letters, "Seven at one stroke!" "What,
the town!" he continued, "the whole world shall hear of it!" and
his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor put on
the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because he
thought his workshop was too small for his valor.
Before he went away, he sought about in the house to see if there
was anything which he could take with him; however, he found
nothing but an old cheese, and that he put in his pocket. In front
of the door he observed a bird which had caught itself in the thicket.
It had to go into his pocket with the cheese.
Now he took to the road boldly, and as he was light and nimble,
he felt no fatigue. The road led him up a mountain, and when he
had reached the highest point of it, there sat a powerful giant looking
about him quite comfortably.
The little tailor went bravely up, spoke to him, and said, "Good
day, comrade, so thou art sitting there overlooking the wide-spread
world! I am just on my way thither, and want to try my luck. Hast
thou any inclination to go with me?" The giant looked contemptuously
at the tailor, and said, "Thou ragamuffin! Thou miserable creature!"
"Oh, indeed?" answered the little tailor, and unbuttoned his coat
and showed the giant the girdle. "There mayst thou read what
kind of a man I am!" The giant read, "Seven at one stroke!" and
thought that they had been men whom the tailor had killed, and
began to feel a little respect for the tiny fellow. Nevertheless he
wished to try him first, and took a stone in his hand and squeezed
it together so that the water dropped out of it. "Do that likewise,"
said the giant, "if thou hast strength." "Is that all?"
said the tailor, "that is child's play with us!" and put his hand into
his pocket, brought out the soft cheese, and pressed it until the
liquid ran out of it. "Faith," said he, "that was a little better,
wasn't it?"
The giant did not know what to say and could not believe it of the
little man. Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high
that the eye could scarcely follow it. "Now, little mite of a man,
do that likewise." "Well thrown," said the tailor, "but after all
the stone came down to earth again; I will throw you one which shall
never come back at all," and he put his hand into his pocket, took
out the bird, and threw it into the air. The bird, delighted with its
liberty, rose, flew away, and did not come back. "How does that
shot please you, comrade?" asked the tailor.
"Thou canst certainly throw," said the giant, "but now we will
see if thou art able to carry anything properly." He took the little
tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled to the ground,
and said, "If thou art strong enough, help me to carry the tree
out of the forest." "Readily," answered the little man; "take thou
the trunk on thy shoulders, and I will raise up the branches and
twigs; after all, they are the heaviest." The giant took the trunk on
his shoulder, but the tailor seated himself on a branch, and the
giant, who could not look round, had to carry away the whole tree
and the little tailor into the bargain. He, behind, was quite merry
and happy and whistled the song, "Three tailors rode forth from the
gate," as if carrying the tree were child's play. The giant, after
he had dragged the heavy burden part of the way, could go no
further, and cried, "Hark you, I shall have to let the tree fall!"
The tailor sprang nimbly down, seized the tree with both arms as if
he had been carrying it, and said to the giant, "Thou art such a
great fellow, and yet thou canst not even carry the tree!"
They went on together; and as they passed a cherry tree, the
giant laid hold of the top of the tree where the ripest fruit was
hanging, bent it down, gave it into the tailor's hand, and bade him
eat. But the little tailor was much too weak to hold the tree;
and when the giant let it go, it sprang back again, and the tailor
was hurried into the air with it. When he had fallen down again
without injury, the giant said, "What is this? Hast thou not
strength enough to hold the weak twig?" "There is no lack of
strength," answered the little tailor. "Dost thou think that could
be anything to a man who has struck down seven at one blow?
I leapt over the tree because the huntsmen are shooting down there
in the thicket. Jump as I did, if thou canst do it." The giant
made the attempt, but could not get over the tree, and remained
hanging in the branches, so that in this also the tailor kept the
upper hand.
The giant said, "If thou art such a valiant fellow, come with me
into our cavern and spend the night with us." The little tailor was
willing, and followed him. When they went into the cave, other
giants were sitting there by the fire, and each of them had a roasted
sheep in his hand and was eating it. The little tailor looked round
and thought, "It is much more spacious here than in my workshop."
The giant showed him a bed and said he was to lie down in it and
sleep. The bed was, however, too big for the little tailor; he did
not lie down in it but crept into a corner. When it was midnight,
and the giant thought the little tailor was lying in a sound sleep,
he got up, took a great iron bar, cut through the bed with one blow,
and thought he had given the grasshopper his finishing stroke. With
the earliest dawn the giants went into the forest, and had quite
forgotten the little tailor, when all at once he walked up to them
quite merrily and boldly. The giants were terrified; they were afraid
that he would strike them all dead, and ran away in a great hurry.
The little tailor went onwards, always following his own pointed
nose. After he had walked for a long time, he came to the courtyard
of a royal palace, and as he felt weary he lay down on the grass
and fell asleep. Whilst he lay there, the people came and inspected
him on all sides, and read on his girdle, "Seven at one stroke!"
"Ah!" said they, "what does a great warrior here in the midst
of peace? He must be a mighty lord." They went and announced
him to the King, and gave it as their opinion that if war should
break out, this would be a weighty and useful man, who ought on no
account to be allowed to depart. The counsel pleased the King, and
he sent one of his courtiers to the little tailor to offer him military
service when he awoke. The ambassador remained standing by the sleeper,
waited until he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes, and then
conveyed to him this proposal. "For this very reason have I come here,"
the tailor replied; "I am ready to enter the King's service." He was
therefore honorably received, and a separate dwelling was assigned to
him.
The soldiers, however, were set against the little tailor, and wished
him a thousand miles away. "What is to be the end of this?" they
said amongst themselves. "If we quarrel with him and he strikes
about him, seven of us will fall at every blow; not one of us can
stand against him." They came therefore to a decision, betook
themselves in a body to the King, and begged for their dismissal.
"We are not prepared," said they, "to stay with a man who kills
seven at one stroke." The King was sorry that for the sake of one he
should lose all his faithful servants, wished that he had never set
eyes on the tailor, and would willingly have been rid of him again.
But he did not venture to give him his dismissal, for he dreaded lest
he should strike him and all his people dead and place himself on the
royal throne. He thought about it for a long time and at last found
good counsel. He sent to the little tailor and caused him to be informed
that as he was such a great warrior, he had one request to make to him.
In a forest of his country lived two giants, who caused great mischief
with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, and burning, and no one could
approach them without putting himself in danger of death. If the tailor
conquered and killed these two giants, he would give him his only
daughter to wife and half his kingdom as a dowry, likewise one hundred
horsemen should go with him to assist him. "That would indeed be a fine
thing for a man like me!" thought the little tailor. "One is not
offered a beautiful princess and half a kingdom every day of one's
life!" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I will soon subdue the giants, and do
not require the help of the hundred horsemen to do it; he who can hit
seven with one blow has no need to be afraid of two."
The little tailor went forth, and the hundred horsemen followed
him. When he came to the outskirts of the forest, he said to his
followers, "Just stay waiting here, I alone will soon finish off the
giants." Then he bounded into the forest and looked about right
and left. After a while he perceived both giants. They lay sleeping
under a tree and snored so that the branches waved up and
down. The little tailor, not idle, gathered two pocketfuls of stones
and with these climbed up a tree. When he was halfway up, he
slipped down by a branch until he sat just above the sleepers, and
then let one stone after another fall on the breast of one of the
giants. For a long time the giant felt nothing, but at last he awoke,
pushed his comrade, and said, "Why art thou knocking me?"
"Thou must be dreaming," said the other; "I am not knocking
thee." They laid themselves down to sleep again, and then the
tailor threw a stone down on the second. "What is the meaning of
this?" cried the other. "Why art thou pelting me?" "I am not
pelting thee," answered the first, growling. They disputed about
it for a time, but as they were weary they let the matter rest, and
their eyes closed once more. The little tailor began his game again,
picked out the biggest stone, and threw it with all his might on the
breast of the first giant. "That is too bad!" cried he, and sprang
up like a madman, and pushed his companion against the tree until
it shook. The other paid him back in the same coin, and they got
into such a rage that they tore up trees and belabored each other so
long that at last they both fell down dead on the ground at the
same time. Then the little tailor leapt down. "It is a lucky
thing," said he, "that they did not tear up the tree on which I was
sitting, or I should have had to spring on to another like a squirrel;
but we tailors are nimble." He drew out his sword and gave each of
them a couple of thrusts in the breast, and then went out to the
horsemen and said, "The work is done; I have given them both their
finishing stroke, but it was hard work! They tore up trees in
their sore need, and defended themselves with them, but all that is
to no purpose when a man like myself comes, who can kill seven
at one blow." "But are you not wounded?" asked the horsemen.
"You need not concern yourself about that," answered the tailor.
"They have not bent one hair of mine." The horsemen would not
believe him, and rode into the forest; there they found the giants
swimming in their blood, and all round about lay the torn-up
trees.
The little tailor demanded of the King the promised reward; he,
however, repented of his promise, and again bethought himself
how he could get rid of the hero. "Before thou receivest my daughter
and the half of my kingdom," said he to him," thou must perform
one more heroic deed. In the forest roams a unicorn which
does great harm, and thou must catch it first." "I fear one unicorn
still less than two giants. Seven at one blow is my kind of affair."
He took a rope and an ax with him, went forth into the forest, and
again bade those who went with him to wait outside. He had not to
seek long. The unicorn soon came towards him and rushed directly
on the tailor, as if it would spit him on its horn without more
ceremony. "Softly, softly; it can't be done as quickly as that,"
said he, and stood still and waited until the animal was quite close,
and then sprang nimbly behind the tree. The unicorn ran against
the tree with all its strength, and struck its horn so fast in the
trunk that it had not strength enough to draw it out again, and
thus it was caught. "Now I have got the bird," said the tailor, and
came out from behind the tree and put the rope round its neck, and
then with his ax he hewed the horn out of the tree, and when all
was ready he led the beast away and took it to the King.
The King still would not give him the promised reward, and made
a third demand. Before the wedding the tailor was to catch him a
wild boar that made great havoc in the forest, and the hunts--
men should give him their help. "Willingly," said the tailor, "that
is child's play!" He did not take the huntsmen with him into the
forest, and they were well pleased that he did not, for the wild boar
had several times received them in such a manner that they had
no inclination to lie in wait for him. When the boar perceived the
tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and whetted tusks, and
was about to throw him to the ground, but the active hero sprang into
a chapel, which was near, and up to the window at once, and in one
bound was out again. The boar ran in after him, but the tailor
ran round outside and shut the door behind it, and then the raging
beast, which was much too heavy and awkward to leap out of the
window, was caught. The little tailor called the huntsmen thither,
that they might see the prisoner with their own eyes. The hero, however,
went to the King, who was now, whether he liked it or not, obliged to
keep his promise, and gave him his daughter and the half of his kingdom.
Had he known that it was no warlike hero but a little tailor who was
standing before him, it would have gone to his heart still more than
it did. The wedding was held with great magnificence and small joy,
and out of the tailor a king was made.
After some time the young Queen heard her husband say in his
dreams at night, "Boy, make me the doublet and patch the pantaloons,
or else I will rap the yard measure over thine ears." Then
she discovered in what state of life the young lord had been born,
and next morning complained of her wrongs to her father, and
begged him to help her to get rid of her husband, who was nothing
else but a tailor. The King comforted her and said, "Leave thy
bedroom door open this night, and my servants shall stand outside,
and when he has fallen asleep shall go in, bind him, and take him
on board a ship which shall carry him into the wide world." The
woman was satisfied with this; but the King's armor-bearer, who
had heard all, was friendly with the young lord, and informed him of
the whole plot. "I'll put a screw into that business," said the little
tailor. At night he went to bed with his wife at the usual time, and
when she thought that he had fallen asleep, she got up, opened the
door, and then lay down again. The little tailor, who was only
pretending to be asleep, began to cry out in a clear voice, "Boy, make
me the doublet and patch me the pantaloons, or I will rap the yard
measure over thine ears. I smote seven at one blow, I killed two
giants, I brought away one unicorn and caught a wild boar, and am I to
fear those who are standing outside the room?" When these men
heard the tailor speaking thus, they were overcome with a great
dread, and ran as if the wild huntsman were behind them, and none
of them would venture anything further against him. So the little
tailor was a king and remained one, to the end of his life.
CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
Charles Perrault
Once upon a time there was a gentleman who married, for his
second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that ever was
seen. She had two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly
like her in all things. The gentleman had also a young daughter, of
rare goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her
mother, who was the best creature in the world.
The wedding was scarcely over, when the stepmother's bad temper
began to show itself. She could not bear the goodness of this
young girl, because it made her own daughters appear the more
odious. The stepmother gave her the meanest work in the house
to do; she had to scour the dishes, tables, etc., and to scrub the floors
and clean out the bedrooms. The poor girl had to sleep in the
garret, upon a wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine
rooms with inlaid floors, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and
where they had looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves
at their full length. The poor girl bore all patiently, and
dared not complain to her father, who would have scolded her if she
had done so, for his wife governed him entirely.
When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimney corner,
and sit down among the cinders; hence she was called Cinderwench.
The younger sister of the two, who was not so rude and uncivil as
the elder, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, in spite of
her mean apparel, was a hundred times more handsome than her sisters,
though they were always richly dressed.
It happened that the King's son gave a ball, and invited to it
all persons of fashion. Our young misses were also invited, for
they cut a very grand figure among the people of the countryside.
They were highly delighted with the invitation, and wonderfully
busy in choosing the gowns, petticoats, and head-dresses
which might best become them. This made Cinderella's lot still
harder, for it was she who ironed her sisters' linen and plaited
their ruffles. They talked all day long of nothing but how they
should be dressed.
"For my part," said the elder, "I will wear my red velvet suit
with French trimmings."
"And I," said the younger, "shall wear my usual skirt; but then,
to make amends for that, I will put on my gold-flowered mantle, and
my diamond stomacher, which is far from being the most ordinary
one in the world." They sent for the best hairdressers they could
get, to make up their hair in fashionable style, and bought patches
for their cheeks. Cinderella was consulted in all these matters,
for she had good taste. She advised them always for the best,
and even offered her services to dress their hair, which they were
very willing she should do..
As she was doing this, they said to her:
"Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball?"
"Young ladies," she said, "you only jeer at me; it is not for
such as I am to go there."
"You are right," they replied; "people would laugh to see a
Cinderwench at a ball."
Any one but Cinderella would have dressed their hair awry, but
she was good-natured, and arranged it perfectly well. They were
almost two days without eating, so much were they transported with
joy. They broke above a dozen laces in trying to lace themselves
tight, that they might have a fine, slender shape, and they were
continually at their looking-glass.
At last the happy day came; they went to Court, and Cinderella
followed them with her eyes as long as she could, and when she
had lost sight of them, she fell a-crying.
Her godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked her what was
the matter.
"I wish I could--I wish I could--" but she could not finish for
sobbing.
Her godmother, who was a fairy, said to her, "You wish you
could go to the ball; is it not so?"
"Alas, yes," said Cinderella, sighing.
"Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will see
that you go." Then she took her into her chamber, and said to
her, "Run into the garden, and bring me a pumpkin."
Cinderella went at once to gather the finest she could get, and
brought it to her godmother, not being able to imagine how this
pumpkin could help her to go to the ball. Her godmother scooped
out all the inside of it, leaving nothing but the rind. Then she
struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into
a fine gilded coach.
She then went to look into the mousetrap, where she found six
mice, all alive. She ordered Cinderella to lift the trapdoor, when,
giving each mouse, as it went out, a little tap with her wand, it was
that moment turned into a fine horse, and the six mice made a fine
set of six horses of a beautiful mouse-colored, dapple gray.
Being at a loss for a coachman, Cinderella said, "I will go and
see if there is not a rat in the rat-trap--we may make a coachman
of him."
"You are right," replied her godmother; "go and look."
Cinderella brought the rat-trap to her, and in it there were three
huge rats. The fairy chose the one which had the largest beard,
and, having touched him with her wand, he was turned into a fat
coachman with the finest mustache and whiskers ever seen.
After that, she said to her:
"Go into the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the
watering pot; bring them to me."
She had no sooner done so than her godmother turned them into
six footmen, who skipped up immediately behind the coach, with
their liveries all trimmed with gold and silver, and they held on
as if they had done nothing else their whole lives.
The fairy then said to Cinderella, "Well, you see here a carriage fit
to go to the ball in; are you not pleased with it?"
"Oh, yes!" she cried; "but must I go as I am in these rags?"
Her godmother simply touched her with her wand, and, at the
same moment, her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and
silver, all decked with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of
the prettiest glass slippers in the whole world. Being thus attired,
she got into the carriage, her godmother commanding her, above all
things, not to stay till after midnight, and telling her, at the same
time, that if she stayed one moment longer, the coach would be a
pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen
lizards, and her clothes would become just as they were before.
She promised her godmother she would not fail to leave the ball
before midnight. She drove away, scarce able to contain herself
for joy. The King's son, who was told that a great princess, whom
nobody knew, was come, ran out to receive her. He gave her his
hand as she alighted from the coach, and led her into the hall where
the company were assembled. There was at once a profound silence;
every one left off dancing, and the violins ceased to play, so attracted
was every one by the singular beauties of the unknown newcomer.
Nothing was then heard but a confused sound of voices saying:
"Ha! how beautiful she is! Ha! how beautiful she is!"
The King himself, old as he was, could not keep his eyes off her,
and he told the Queen under his breath that it was a long time since
he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies were busy studying her clothes and head-dress, so
that they might have theirs made next day after the same pattern,
provided they could meet with such fine materials and able hands to
make them.
The King's son conducted her to the seat of honor, and afterwards
took her out to dance with him. She danced so very gracefully that
they all admired her more and more. A fine collation was served,
but the young Prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he occupied
with her.
She went and sat down beside her sisters, showing them a thousand
civilities, and giving them among other things part of the oranges
and citrons with which the Prince had regaled her. This very
much surprised them, for they had not been presented to her.
Cinderella heard the clock strike a quarter to twelve. She at
once made her adieus to the company and hastened away as fast as
she could.
As soon as she got home, she ran to find her godmother, and
after having thanked her, she said she much wished she might go
to the ball the next day, because the King's son had asked her to do
so. As she was eagerly telling her godmother all that happened
at the ball, her two sisters knocked at the door; Cinderella opened
it. "How long you have stayed!" said she, yawning, rubbing her
eyes, and stretching herself as if she had been just awakened. She
had not, however, had any desire to sleep since they went from
home.
"If you had been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "you
would not have been tired with it. There came thither the finest
princess, the most beautiful ever was seen with mortal eyes. She
showed us a thousand civilities, and gave us oranges and citrons."
Cinderella did not show any pleasure at this. Indeed, she asked
them the name of the princess; but they told her they did not know
it, and that the King's son was very much concerned, and would
give all the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella, smiling,
replied:
"Was she then so very beautiful? How fortunate you have been!
Could I not see her? Ah! dear Miss Charlotte, do lend me your
yellow suit of clothes which you wear every day."
"Ay, to be sure!" cried Miss Charlotte; "lend my clothes to
such a dirty Cinderwench as thou art! I should be out of my
mind to do so."
Cinderella, indeed, expected such an answer and was very glad
of the refusal; for she would have been sadly troubled if her sister
had lent her what she jestingly asked for. The next day the two
sisters went to the ball, and so did Cinderella, but dressed more
magnificently than before. The King's son was always by her
side, and his pretty speeches to her never ceased. These by no
means annoyed the young lady. Indeed, she quite forgot her godmother's
orders to her, so that she heard the clock begin to strike
twelve when she thought it could not be more than eleven. She
then rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The Prince followed, but
could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers,
which the Prince took up most carefully. She got home, but quite
out of breath, without her carriage, and in her old clothes, having
nothing left her of all her finery but one of the little slippers, fellow
to the one she had dropped. The guards at the palace gate were
asked if they had not seen a princess go out, and they replied they
had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and
who had more the air of a poor country girl than of a young lady.
When the two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderella asked them
if they had a pleasant time, and if the fine lady had been there.
They told her, yes; but that she hurried away the moment it struck
twelve, and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little
glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the King's son had
taken up. They said, further, that he had done nothing but look
at her all the time, and that most certainly he was very much in
love with the beautiful owner of the glass slipper.
What they said was true; for a few days after the King's son
caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would
marry her whose foot this slipper would fit exactly. They began
to try it on the princesses, then on the duchesses, and then on all the
ladies of the Court; but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters,
who did all they possibly could to thrust a foot into the slipper, but
they could not succeed. Cinderella, who saw this, and knew her
slipper, said to them, laughing:
"Let me see if it will not fit me."
Her sisters burst out a-laughing, and began to banter her. The
gentleman who was sent to try the slipper looked earnestly at
Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome, said it was but just
that she should try, and that he had orders to let every lady try it
on.
He obliged Cinderella to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her
little foot, he found it went on very easily, and fitted her as if it had
been made of wax. The astonishment of her two sisters was great,
but it was still greater when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the
other slipper and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came her godmother,
who, having touched Cinderella's clothes with her wand,
made them more magnificent than those she had worn before.
And now her two sisters found her to be that beautiful lady they
had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg
pardon for all their ill treatment of her. Cinderella took them up,
and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them with all her
heart, and begged them to love her always.
She was conducted to the young Prince, dressed as she was. He
thought her more charming than ever, and, a few days after, married
her. Cinderella, who was as good as she was beautiful, gave her two
sisters a home in the palace, and that very same day married them to
two great lords of the Court.
THE HISTORY OF DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT
Old Chapbook
In the reign of the famous King Edward the Third, there was
a little boy called Dick Whittington, whose father and mother died
when he was very young, so that he remembered nothing at all about
them, and was left a dirty little fellow running about a country village.
As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was in a sorry plight. He
got but little for his dinner, and sometimes nothing at all for his
breakfast, for the people who lived in the village were very poor
themselves, and could spare him little more than the parings of potatoes,
and now and then a hard crust.
For all this, Dick Whittington was a very sharp boy, and was always
listening to what every one talked about.
On Sundays he never failed to get near the farmers, as they sat talking
on the tombstones in the churchyard before the parson was come; and
once a week you might be sure to see little Dick leaning against the
signpost of the village alehouse, where people stopped to drink as they
came from the next market town; and whenever the barber's shop door was
open Dick listened to all the news he told his customers.
In this manner Dick heard of the great city called London; how
the people who lived there were all fine gentlemen and ladies;
that there were singing and music in it all day long; and that the
streets were paved all over with gold.
One day a wagoner, with a large wagon and eight horses, all with
bells at their heads, drove through the village while Dick was
lounging near his favorite signpost. The thought immediately
struck him that it must be going to the fine town of London; and
taking courage he asked the wagoner to let him walk with him by
the side of the wagon. The man, hearing from poor Dick that he
had no parents, and seeing by his ragged condition that he could
not be worse off, told him he might go if he would; so they set off
together.
Dick got safe to London; and so eager was he to see the fine streets
paved all over with gold that he ran as fast as his legs would carry
him through several streets, expecting every moment to come to
those that were all paved with gold, for Dick had three times seen
a guinea in his own village, and observed what a great deal of money
it brought in change; so he imagined he had only to take up some
little bits of the pavement to have as much money as he desired.
Poor Dick ran till he was tired, and at last, finding it grow dark,
and that whichever way he turned he saw nothing but dirt instead
of gold, he sat down in a dark corner and cried himself asleep.
Little Dick remained all night in the streets; and next morning,
finding himself very hungry, he got up and walked about, asking
those he met to give him a halfpenny to keep him from starving; but
nobody stayed to answer him, and only two or three gave him anything,
so that the poor boy was soon in the most miserable condition.
Being almost starved to death, he laid himself down at the door of
one Mr. Fitzwarren, a great, rich merchant. Here he was soon
perceived by the cook-maid, who was an ill-tempered creature, and
happened just then to be very busy dressing dinner for her master
and mistress; so, seeing poor Dick, she called out, "What business
have you there, you lazy rogue? There is nothing else but beggars;
if you do not take yourself away, we will see how you will
like a sousing of some dishwater I have here that is hot enough to
make you caper."
Just at this time Mr. Fitzwarren himself came home from the city
to dinner, and, seeing a dirty, ragged boy lying at the door, said to
him, "Why do you lie there, my lad? You seem old enough to
work. I fear you must be somewhat idle." '"No, indeed, sir," says
Whittington, "that is not true, for I would work with all my heart,
but I know nobody, and I believe I am very sick for want of food."
"Poor fellow!" answered Mr. Fitzwarren.
Dick now tried to rise, but was obliged to lie down again, being
too weak to stand, for he had not eaten anything for three days,
and was no longer able to run about and beg a halfpenny of people
in the street; so the kind merchant ordered that he should be taken
into his house, and have a good dinner immediately, and that
he should be kept to do what dirty work he was able for the
cook.
Little Dick would have lived very happily in this worthy family
had it not been for the crabbed cook, who was finding fault and
scolding him from morning till night, and was withal so fond of
roasting and basting that, when the spit was out of her hands, she
would be at basting poor Dick's head and shoulders with a broom,
or anything else that happened to fall in her way, till at last her
ill usage of him was told to Miss Alice, Mr. Fitzwarren's daughter,
who asked the ill-tempered creature if she was not ashamed to use
a little friendless boy so cruelly; and added she would certainly be
turned away if she did not treat him with more kindness.
But though the cook was so ill-tempered, Mr. Fitzwarren's footman
was quite the contrary. He had lived in the family many years,
was rather elderly, and had once a little boy of his own, who died
when about the age of Whittington, so that he could not but feel
compassion for the poor boy.
As the footman was very fond of reading, he used generally in
the evening to entertain his fellow servants, when they had done
their work, with some amusing book. The pleasure our little hero
took in hearing him made him very much desire to learn to read,
too; so the next time the good-natured footman gave him a halfpenny,
he bought a hornbook with it; and, with a little of his help,
Dick soon learned his letters, and afterwards to read.
About this time Miss Alice was going out one morning for a walk,
and the footman happening to be out of the way, little Dick, who
had received from Mr. Fitzwarren a neat suit of clothes to go to
church on Sundays, was ordered to put them on, and walk behind
her. As they walked along, Miss Alice, seeing a poor woman with
one child in her arms and another at her back, pulled out her
purse, and gave her some money; and, as she was putting it again
into her pocket, she dropped it on the ground, and walked on.
Luckily Dick, who was behind, saw what she had done, picked it up,
and immediately presented it to her.
Besides the ill-humor of the cook, which now, however, was somewhat
mended, Whittington had another hardship to get over. This
was, that his bed, which was made of flock, was placed in a garret,
where there were so many holes in the floor and walls that he never
went to bed without being awakened in his sleep by great numbers of
rats and mice, which generally ran over his face, and made such a
noise that he sometimes thought the walls were tumbling down about
him.
One day a gentleman who paid a visit to Mr. Fitzwarren happened
to have dirtied his shoes, and begged they might be cleaned.
Dick took great pains to make them shine, and the gentleman gave
him a penny. This he resolved to lay out in buying a cat, if possible;
and the next day, seeing a little girl with a cat under her
arm, he went up to her, and asked if she would let him have it for
a penny, to which the girl replied she would with all her heart,
for her mother had more cats than she could maintain, adding
that the one she had was an excellent mouser.
This cat Whittington hid in the garret, always taking care to carry
her a part of his dinner; and in a short time he had no further
disturbance from the rats and mice, but slept as sound as a top.
Soon after this the merchant, who had a ship ready to sail, richly
laden, and thinking it but just that all his servants should have some
chance for good luck as well as himself, called them into the parlor,
and asked them what commodity they chose to send.
All mentioned something they were willing to venture, but poor
Whittington, who, having no money nor goods, could send nothing
at all, for which reason he did not come in with the rest; but Miss
Alice, guessing what was the matter, ordered him to be called, and
offered to lay down some money for him from her own purse; but
this, the merchant observed, would not do, for it must be something
of his own.
Upon this, poor Dick said he had nothing but a cat, which he
bought for a penny that was given him.
"Fetch thy cat, boy," says Mr. Fitzwarren, "and let her go."
Whittington brought poor puss, and delivered her to the captain
with tears in his eyes, for he said, "He should now again be kept
awake all night by the rats and mice."
All the company laughed at the oddity of Whittington's adventure; and
Miss Alice, who felt the greatest pity for the poor boy, gave him some
halfpence to buy another cat.
This, and several other marks of kindness shown him by Miss
Alice, made the ill-tempered cook so jealous of the favors the poor
boy received that she began to use him more cruelly than ever, and
constantly made game of him for sending his cat to sea, asking him
if he thought it would sell for as much money as would buy a
halter.
At last the unhappy little fellow, being unable to bear this
treatment any longer, determined to run away from his place. He
accordingly packed up the few things that belonged to him, and set
out very early in the morning on Allhallow Day, which is the
first of November. He traveled as far as Holloway, and there sat
down on a stone, which to this day is called Whittington's Stone,
and began to consider what course he should take.
While he was thus thinking what he could do, Bow Bells, of which
there were then only six, began to ring, and it seemed to him that
their sounds addressed him in this manner--
"Turn again, Whitlington,
Lord mayor of London."
"Lord mayor of London!" says he to himself. "Why, to be
sure, I would bear anything to be lord mayor of London, and ride in
a fine coach! Well, I will go back, and think nothing of all the
cuffing and scolding of old Cicely, if I am at last to be lord mayor
of London."
So back went Dick, and got into the house, and set about his
business before Cicely came downstairs.
The ship, with the cat on board, was long beaten about at sea,
and was at last driven by contrary winds on a part of the coast of
Barbary, inhabited by Moors that were unknown to the English.
The natives in this country came in great numbers, out of curiosity,
to see the people on board, who were all of so different a color from
themselves, and treated them with great civility, and, as they became
better acquainted, showed marks of eagerness to purchase the fine
things with which the ship was laden.
The captain, seeing this, sent patterns of the choicest articles he
had to the king of the country, who was so much pleased with
them that he sent for the captain and his chief mate to the palace.
Here they were placed, as is the custom of the country, on rich
carpets flowered with gold and silver; and, the king and queen being
seated at the upper end of the room, dinner was brought in, which
consisted of the greatest rarities. No sooner, however, were all the
dishes set before the company than an amazing number of rats
and mice rushed in, and helped themselves plentifully from every
dish, scattering pieces of flesh and gravy all about the room.
The captain, extremely astonished, asked if these vermin were not
very offensive.
"Oh, yes," said they, "very offensive; and the king would give
half his treasure to be free of them, for they not only destroy his
dinner, but they disturb him even in his chamber, so that he is
obliged to be watched while he sleeps."
The captain, who was ready to jump for joy, remembering poor
Whittington's hard case, and the cat he had entrusted to his care, told
him he had a creature on board his ship that would kill them all.
The king was still more overjoyed than the captain. "Bring this
creature to me," says he; "and if she can really perform what you
say I will load your ship with wedges of gold in exchange for her."
Away flew the captain, while another dinner was providing, to
the ship, and, taking puss under his arm, returned to the palace in
time to see the table covered with rats and mice, and the second
dinner in a fair way to meet with the same fate as the first.
The cat, at sight of them, did not wait for bidding, but sprang
from the captain's arms, and in a few moments laid the greatest part
of the rats and mice dead at her feet, while the rest, in the greatest
fright imaginable, scampered away to their holes.
The king, having seen and considered of the wonderful exploits
of Mrs. Puss, and being informed she would soon have young ones,
which might in time destroy all the rats and mice in the country,
bargained with the captain for his whole ship's cargo, and afterwards
agreed to give a prodigious quantity of wedges of gold, of still
greater value, for the cat, with which, after taking leave of their
Majesties, and other great personages belonging to the court, he,
with all his ship's company, set sail, with a fair wind, and, after a
happy voyage, arrived safely in the port of London.
One morning Mr. Fitzwarren had just entered his counting-house,
and was going to seat himself at the desk, when who should arrive
but the captain and mate of the merchant ship, the _Unicorn,_ just
arrived from the coast of Barbary, and followed by several men,
bringing with them a prodigious quantity of wedges of gold that had
been paid by the king of Barbary in exchange for the merchandise,
and also in exchange for Mrs. Puss. Mr. Fitzwarren, the instant he
heard the news, ordered Whittington to be called, and, having desired
him to be seated, said, "Mr. Whittington, most heartily do I rejoice
in the news these gentlemen have brought you, for the captain has
sold your cat to the king of Barbary, and brought you in return
more riches than I possess in the whole world; and may you long
enjoy them!"
Mr. Fitzwarren then desired the men to open the immense treasure
they had brought, and added that Mr. Whittington had now nothing
to do but to put it in some place of safety.
Poor Dick could scarce contain himself for joy. He begged his
master to take what part of it he pleased, since to his kindness he
was indebted for the whole. "No, no, this wealth is all your own,
and justly so," answered Mr. Fitzwarren; "and I have no doubt you
will use it generously."
Whittington, however, was too kind-hearted to keep all himself;
and accordingly made a handsome present to the captain, the mate,
and every one of the ship's company, and afterwards to his excellent
friend the footman, and the rest of Mr. Fitzwarren's servants, not
even excepting crabbed old Cicely.
After this, Mr. Fitzwarren advised him to send for tradespeople,
and get himself dressed as became a gentleman, and made him the
offer of his house to live in till he could provide himself with a
better.
When Mr. Whittington's face was washed, his hair curled, his
hat cocked, and he was dressed in a fashionable suit of clothes, he
appeared as handsome and genteel as any young man who visited
at Mr. Fitzwarren's; so that Miss Alice, who had formerly thought
of him with compassion, now considered him as fit to be her lover;
and the more so, no doubt, because Mr. Whittington was constantly
thinking what he could do to oblige her, and making her the prettiest
presents imaginable.
Mr. Fitzwarren, perceiving their affection for each other, proposed
to unite them in marriage, to which, without difficulty, they each
consented; and accordingly a day for the wedding was soon fixed,
and they were attended to church by the lord mayor, the court of
aldermen, the sheriffs, and a great number of the wealthiest merchants
in London; and the ceremony was succeeded by a most elegant
entertainment and splendid ball.
History tells us that the said Mr. Whittington and his lady lived
in great splendor, and were very happy; that they had several children;
that he was sheriff of London in the year 1340, and several
times afterwards lord mayor; that in the last year of his mayoralty
he entertained King Henry the Fifth on his return from the battle
of Agincourt. And sometime afterwards, going with an address
from the city on one of his Majesty's victories, he received the honor
of knighthood.
Sir Richard Whittington constantly fed great numbers of the poor.
He built a church and college to it, with a yearly allowance to poor
scholars, and near it erected a hospital.
The effigy of Sir Richard Whittington was to be seen, with his cat
in his arms, carved in stone, over the archway of the late prison of
Newgate that went across Newgate Street.
THE UGLY DUCKLING
Hans Christian Andersen
It was glorious out in the country. It was summer, and the cornfields
were yellow, and the oats were green; the hay had been put
up in stacks in the green meadows, and the stork went about on his
long red legs, and chattered Egyptian, for this was the language he
had learned from his good mother. All around the fields and
meadows were great forests, and in the midst of these forests lay
deep lakes. Yes, it was really glorious out in the country. In the
midst of the sunshine there lay an old farm, surrounded by deep
canals, and from the wall down to the water grew great burdocks,
so high that the children could stand upright under the loftiest of
them. It was just as wild there as in the deepest wood. Here sat
a Duck upon her nest, for she had to hatch her young ones; but she
was almost tired out before the little ones came; and then she so
seldom had visitors. The other Ducks liked better to swim about in
the canals than to run up to sit down under a burdock and cackle
with her.
At last one eggshell after another burst open. "Piep! piep!" it
cried, and in all the eggs there were little creatures that stuck out
their heads.
"Rap! rap!" they said; and they all came rapping out as fast as
they could, looking all round them under the green leaves; and the
mother let them look as much as they chose, for green is good for
the eyes. "How wide the world is!" said the young ones, for they
certainly had much more room now than when they were in the eggs.
"Do you think this is all the world!" asked the mother. "That
extends far across the other side of the garden, quite into the parson's
field, but I have never been there yet. I hope you are all together,"
she continued, and stood up." No, I have not all. The largest egg
still lies there. How long is that to last? I am really tired of it."
And she sat down again.
"Well, how goes it?" asked an old Duck who had come to pay
her a visit.
"It lasts a long time with that one egg," said the Duck who sat
there. "It will not burst. Now, only look at the others; are they
not the prettiest ducks one could possibly see? They are all like
their father; the bad fellow never comes to see me."
"Let me see the egg which will not burst," said the old visitor.
"Believe me, it is a turkey's egg. I was once cheated in that way,
and had much anxiety and trouble with the young ones, for they
are afraid of the water. I could not get them to venture in. I
quacked and clucked, but it was of no use. Let me see the egg.
Yes, that's a turkey's egg. Let it lie there, and you teach the other
children to swim."
"I think I will sit on it a little longer," said the Duck. "I've sat
so long now that I can sit a few days more."
"Just as you please," said the old Duck; and she went away.
At last the great egg burst. "Piep! piep!" said the little one,
and crept forth. It was very large and very ugly. The Duck
looked at it.
"It's a very large duckling," said she; "none of the others look
like that; can it really be a turkey chick? Now we shall soon find
out. It must go into the water, even if I have to thrust it in myself."
The next day the weather was splendidly bright, and the sun
shone on all the green trees. The Mother Duck went down to the
water with all her little ones. Splash! she jumped into the water.
"Quack! quack!" she said, and then one duckling after another
plunged in. The water closed over their heads, but they came up
in an instant and swam capitally; their legs went of themselves, and
there they were, all in the water. The ugly gray Duckling swam
with them.
"No, it's not a turkey," said she; "look how well it can use its
legs, and how upright it holds itself. It is my own child! On the
whole it's quite pretty, if one looks at it rightly. Quack! quack!
come with me, and I'll lead you out into the great world, and
present you in the poultry yard; but keep close to me, so that no
one may tread on you; and take care of the cats!"
And so they came into the poultry yard. There was a terrible
riot going on there, for two families were quarreling about an eel's
head, and the cat got it after all.
"See, that's how it goes in the world!" said the Mother Duck;
and she whetted her beak, for she, too, wanted the eel's head. "Only
use your legs," she said. "See that you bustle about, and bow your
heads before the old Duck yonder. She's the grandest of all here;
she's of Spanish blood--that's why she's so fat; and do you see,
she has a red rag round her leg; that's something particularly
fine, and the greatest distinction a duck can enjoy; it signifies that
one does not want to lose her, and that she's to be recognized by
man and beast. Shake yourselves--don't turn in your toes: a well-brought-up
Duck turns its toes quite out, just like father and mother,
so! Now bend your necks and say 'Rap!'"
And they did so; but the other Ducks round about looked at them
and said quite boldly:
"Look there! now we're to have these hanging on, as if there were
not enough of us already! And--fie--! how that Duckling yonder
looks; we won't stand that!" And one Duck flew up immediately,
and bit it in the neck.
"Let it alone," said the mother; "it does no harm to any one."
"Yes, but it's too large and peculiar," said the Duck who had
bitten it; "and therefore it must be buffeted."
"Those are pretty children that the mother has there," said the
old Duck with the rag round her leg. "They're all pretty but that
one; that was a failure. I wish she could alter it."
"That cannot be done, my Lady," replied the Mother Duck. "It
is not pretty, but it has a really good disposition, and swims as well
as any other; I may even say it swims better. I think it will grow
up pretty, and become smaller in time; it has lain too long in the
egg, and therefore is not properly shaped." And then she pinched
it in the neck and smoothed its feathers. "Moreover, it is a drake,"
she said, "and therefore it is not of so much consequence. I think
he will be very strong; he makes his way already."
"The other ducklings are graceful enough," said the old Duck.
"Make yourself at home; and if you find an eel's head, you may
bring it me."
And now they were at home. But the poor Duckling which had
crept last out of the egg, and looked so ugly, was bitten and pushed
and jeered, as much by the Ducks as by the chickens.
"It is too big!" they all said. And the turkey-cock, who had
been born with spurs and therefore thought himself an emperor,
blew himself up like a ship in full sail and bore straight down upon
it; then he gobbled and grew quite red in the face. The poor
Duckling did not know where it should stand or walk; it was quite
melancholy, because it looked ugly and was scoffed at by the whole
yard.
So it went on the first day, and afterward it became worse and
worse. The poor Duckling was hunted about by every one; even
its brothers and sisters were quite angry with it, and said, "If the
cat would only catch you, you ugly creature!" And the mother
said, "If you were only far away!" And the Ducks bit it and the
chickens beat it, and the girl who had to feed the poultry kicked
at it with her foot.
Then it ran and flew over the fence, and the little birds in the
bushes flew up in fear.
"That is because I am so ugly!" thought the Duckling; and it
shut its eyes, but flew no further; thus it came out into the great
moor, where the Wild Ducks lived. Here it lay the whole night
long; and it was weary and downcast.
Toward morning the Wild Ducks flew up and looked at their new
companion.
"What sort of a one are you?" they asked; and the Duckling
turned in every direction, and bowed as well as it could. "You are
remarkably ugly!" said the Wild Ducks. "But that is very indifferent
to us, so long as you do not marry into our family."
Poor thing! It certainly did not think of marrying, and only
hoped to obtain leave to lie among the reeds and drink some of the
swamp water.
Thus it lay two whole days; then came thither two Wild Geese,
or, properly speaking, two wild ganders. It was not long since each
had crept out of an egg, and that's why they were so saucy.
"Listen, comrade," said one of them. "You're so ugly that I
like you. Will you go with us and become a bird of passage?
Near here, in another moor, there are a few sweet lovely wild geese,
all unmarried and all able to say 'Rap!' You've a chance of
making your fortune, ugly as you are!"
"Piff! paff!" resounded through the air; and the two ganders
fell down dead in the swamp, and the water became blood-red.
"Piff! paff!" it sounded again, and the whole flock of wild geese
rose up from the reeds. And then there was another report. A
great hunt was going on. The hunters were lying in wait all round
the moor and some were even sitting up in the branches of the
trees, which spread far over the reeds. The blue smoke rose up like
clouds among the dark trees, and was wafted far away across the
water; and the hunting dogs came--splash, splash!--into the
swamp, and the rushes and reeds bent down on every side. That
was a fright for the poor Duckling! It turned its head and put it
under its wing; but at that moment a frightful great dog stood close
by the Duckling. His tongue hung far out of his mouth and his
eyes gleamed horrible and ugly; he thrust out his nose close against
the Duckling, showed his sharp teeth, and--splash, splash!--on
he went without seizing it.
"Oh, heaven be thanked!" sighed the Duckling. "I am so ugly
that even the dog does not like to bite me!"
And so it lay quiet, while the shots rattled through the reeds and
gun after gun was fired. At last, late in the day, silence; but the
poor Duckling did not dare to rise up; it waited several hours before
it looked round, and then hastened away out of the moor as fast as it
could. It ran on over field and meadow; there was such a storm
raging that it was difficult to get from one place to another.
Toward evening the Duck came to a little miserable peasant's hut.
This hut was so dilapidated that it did not know on which side it
should fall; and that's why it remained standing. The storm whistled
round the Duckling in such a way that the poor creature was
obliged to sit down, to stand against it; and the tempest grew worse
and worse. Then the Duckling noticed that one of the hinges of the
door had given way, and the door hung so slanting that the Duckling
could slip through the crack into the room; and it did so.
Here lived an old woman, with her Tom Cat and her Hen. And the
Tom Cat, whom she called Sonnie, could arch his back and purr, he
could even give out sparks; but for that one had to stroke his fur
the wrong way. The Hen had quite little legs, and therefore she
was called Chickabiddy-short-shanks; she laid good eggs, and the
woman loved her as her own child.
In the morning the strange Duckling was at once noticed, and
the Tom Cat began to purr and the Hen to cluck.
"What's this?" said the woman, and looked all round; but she
could not see well, and therefore she thought the Duckling was a
fat duck that had strayed. "This is a rare prize," she said. "Now
I shall have duck's eggs. I hope it is not a drake. We must try
that."
And so the Duckling was admitted on trial for three weeks; but
no eggs came. And the Tom Cat was master of the house, and the
Hen was the lady, and they always said "We and the world!" for
they thought they were half the world, and by far the better half.
The Duckling thought one might have a different opinion, but the
Hen would not allow it.
"Can you lay eggs?" she asked.
"No."
"Then you'll have the goodness to hold your tongue."
And the Tom Cat said, "Can you curve your back, and purr, and
give out sparks?
"No."
"Then you cannot have any opinion of your own when sensible
people are speaking."
And the Duckling sat in a corner and was melancholy; then the
fresh air and the sunshine streamed in; and it was seized with such
a strange longing to swim on the water that it could not help telling
the Hen of it.
"What are you thinking of?" cried the Hen. "You have nothing
to do, that's why you have these fancies. Purr or lay eggs, and
they will pass over."
"But it is so charming to swim on the water!" said the Duckling,
"so refreshing to let it close above one's head, and to dive down
to the bottom."
"Yes, that must be a mighty pleasure truly," quoth the Hen. "I
fancy you must have gone crazy. Ask the Cat about it--he's the
cleverest animal I know--ask him if he likes to swim on the water,
or to dive down: I won't speak about myself. Ask our mistress,
the old woman; no one in the world's cleverer than she. Do you
think she has any desire to swim, and to let the water close above
her head?"
"You don't understand me," said the Duckling.
"We don't understand you? Then pray who is to understand
you? You surely don't pretend to be cleverer than the Tom Cat and
the old woman--I won't say anything of myself. Don't be conceited,
child, and be grateful for all the kindness you have received.
Did you not get into a warm room, and have you not fallen into
company from which you may learn something? But you are a
chatterer, and it is not pleasant to associate with you. You may
believe me, I speak for your good. I tell you disagreeable things,
and by that one may always know one's friends. Only take care
that you learn to lay eggs, or to purr and give out sparks!"
"I think I will go out into the wide world," said the Duckling.
"Yes, do go," replied the Hen.
And the Duckling went away. It swam on the water, and dived,
but it was slighted by every creature because of its ugliness.
Now came the autumn. The leaves in the forest turned yellow
and brown; the wind caught them so that they danced about, and up
in the air it was very cold. The clouds hung low, heavy with hail
and snowflakes, and on the fence stood the raven, crying, "Croak!
croak!" for mere cold; yes, it was enough to make one feel cold
to think of this. The poor little Duckling certainly had not a good
time. One evening--the sun was just setting in his beauty--there
came a whole flock of great handsome birds out of the bushes; they
were dazzlingly white, with long, flexible necks; they were swans.
They uttered a very peculiar cry, spread forth their glorious great
wings, and flew away from that cold region to warmer lands, to fair
open lakes. They mounted so high, so high! and the ugly little
Duckling felt quite strangely as it watched them. It turned round
and round in the water like a wheel, stretched out its neck toward
them, and uttered such a strange loud cry as frightened itself. Oh!
it could not forget those beautiful, happy birds; and as soon as it
could see them no longer, it dived down to the very bottom, and when
it came up again, it was quite beside itself. It knew not the name of
those birds, and knew not whither they were flying; but it loved them
more than it had ever loved any one. It was not at all envious of
them. How could it think of wishing to possess such loveliness as
they had? It would have been glad if only the ducks would have
endured its company--the poor ugly creature!
And the winter grew cold, very cold! The Duckling was forced
to swim about in the water, to prevent the surface from freezing
entirely; but every night the hole in which it swam about became
smaller and smaller. It froze so hard that the icy covering crackled
again; and the Duckling was obliged to use its legs continually to
prevent the hole from freezing up. At last it became exhausted,
and lay quite still, and thus froze fast into the ice.
Early in the morning a peasant came by, and when he saw what
had happened, he took his wooden shoe, broke the ice crust to pieces,
and carried the Duckling home to his wife. Then it came to itself
again. The children wanted to play with it; but the Duckling
thought they would do it an injury, and in its terror fluttered up
into the milk pan, so that the milk spurted down into the room. The
woman clasped her hands, at which the Duckling flew down into the
butter tub, and then into the meal barrel and out again. How it
looked then! The woman screamed, and struck at it with the fire
tongs; the children tumbled over one another, in their efforts to
catch the Duckling; and they laughed and screamed finely! Happily
the door stood open, and the poor creature was able to slip out
between the shrubs into the newly fallen snow; and there it lay quite
exhausted.
But it would be too melancholy if I were to tell all the misery
and care which the Duckling had to endure in the hard winter. It
lay out on the moor among the reeds, when the sun began to shine
again and the larks to sing; it was a beautiful spring.
Then all at once the Duckling could flap its wings; they beat the
air more strongly than before, and bore it strongly away; and before
it well knew how all this had happened, it found itself in a great
garden, where the elder trees smelt sweet, and bent their long green
branches down to the canal that wound through the region. Oh, here
it was so beautiful, such a gladness of spring! and from the thicket
came three glorious white swans; they rustled their wings, and swam
lightly on the water. The Duckling knew the splendid creatures,
and felt oppressed by a peculiar sadness.
"I will fly away to them, to the royal birds! and they will kill
me, because I, that am so ugly, dare to approach them. But it is of
no consequence! Better to be killed by _them_ than to be pursued
by ducks, and beaten by fowls, and pushed about by the girl who takes
care of the poultry yard, and to suffer hunger in winter!" And it
flew out into the water, and swam toward the beautiful swans: these
looked at it, and came sailing down upon it with outspread wings.
"Kill me!" said the poor creature, and bent its head down upon
the water, expecting nothing but death. But what was this that it
saw in the clear water? It beheld its own image--and, lo! it was
no longer a clumsy dark-gray bird, ugly and hateful to look at, but
--a swan.
It matters nothing if one was born in a duck yard, if one has only
lain in a swan's egg.
It felt quite glad at all the need and misfortune it had suffered,
now it realized its happiness in all the splendor that surrounded it.
And the great swans swam round it, and stroked it with their beaks.
Into the garden came little children, who threw bread and corn
into the water; the youngest cried, "There is a new one!" and the
other children shouted joyously, "Yes, a new one has arrived!"
And they clapped their hands and danced about, and ran to their
father and mother; and bread and cake were thrown into the water;
and they all said, "The new one is the most beautiful of all! so
young and handsome!" and the old swans bowed their heads before
him.
Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wing, for
he did not know what to do; he was so happy, and yet not at all
proud. He thought how he had been persecuted and despised; and
now he heard them saying that he was the most beautiful of all the
birds. Even the elder tree bent its branches straight down into the
water before him, and the sun shone warm and mild. Then his
wings rustled, he lifted his slender neck, and cried rejoicingly from
the depths of his heart:
"I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was still the
Ugly Duckling!"
THE FLAX
Hans Christian Andersen
The Flax was in full bloom. Its pretty blue blossoms were as soft
as the wings of a moth, and still more delicate. And the sun shone
on the flax field, and the rain watered it; and that was as good for
the flax flowers as it is for little children to be washed and kissed
by their mother,--they look so much fresher and prettier afterwards.
Thus it was with the Flax flowers.
"People say I am so fine and flourishing," observed the Flax;
"and that I am growing so charmingly tall, a splendid piece of
linen will be got from me. Oh, how happy I am! how can any one
be happier? Everything around me is so pleasant, and I shall be
of use for something or other. How the sun cheers one up, and how
fresh and sweet the rain tastes! I am incomparably happy; I am
the happiest vegetable in the world!"
"Ah, ah, ah!" jeered the Stakes in the hedge; "you don't know
the world, not you, but we know it, there are knots in us!" and then
they cracked so dolefully:
"Snip, snap, snurre,
Bassilurre,
And so the song is en-ded-ded-ded."
"No, it is not ended," replied the Flax; "the sun shines every
morning, the rain does me so much good, I can see myself grow;
I can feel that I am in blossom--who so happy as I?"
However, one day people came, took hold of the Flax, and pulled
it up, root and all; that was exceedingly uncomfortable; and then it
was thrown into water, as though intended to be drowned, and, after
that, put before the fire, as though to be roasted. That was most
cruel!
"One cannot always have what one wishes!" sighed the Flax;
"it is well to suffer sometimes, it gives one experience."
But matters seemed to get worse and worse. The Flax was bruised
and broken, hacked and hackled, and at last put on the wheel--
snurre rur! snurre rur!--it was not possible to keep one's thoughts
collected in such a situation as this.
"I have been exceedingly fortunate," thought the Flax, amid all
these tortures. "One ought to be thankful for the happiness one
has enjoyed in times past. Thankful, thankful, oh, yes!" and still
the Flax said the same when taken to the loom. And here it was
made into a large, handsome piece of linen; all the Flax of that
one field was made into a single piece.
"Well, but this is charming! Never should I have expected it.
What unexampled good fortune I have carried through the world
with me! What arrant nonsense the Stakes in the hedge used to
talk with their
"'Snip, snap, snurre,
Bassilurre.'
The song is not ended at all! Life is but just beginning. It is a
very pleasant thing, too, is life; to be sure I have suffered, but that is
past now, and I have become something through suffering. I am
so strong, and yet so soft! so white and so long! this is far better
than being a vegetable; even during blossom-time nobody attends
to one, and one only gets water when it is raining. Now, I am well
taken care of--the girl turns me over every morning, and I have a
shower bath from the water tub every evening; nay, the parson's wife
herself came and looked at me, and said I was the finest piece of
linen in the parish. No one can possibly be happier than I am!"
The Linen was taken into the house, and cut up with scissors. Oh,
how it was cut and clipped, how it was pierced and stuck through
with needles! that was certainly no pleasure at all. It was at last
made up into twelve articles of attire, such articles as are not often
mentioned, but which people can hardly do without; there were just
twelve of them.
"So this, then, was my destiny. Well, it is very delightful; now
I shall be of use in the world, and there is really no pleasure like
that of being useful. We are now twelve pieces, but we are still one
and the same--we are a dozen! Certainly, this is being extremely
fortunate!"
Years passed away,--at last the Linen could endure no longer.
"All things must pass away some time or other," remarked each
piece. "I should like very much to last a little while longer, but
one ought not to wish for impossibilities." And so the Linen was
rent into shreds and remnants numberless; they believed all was over
with them, for they were hacked, and mashed, and boiled, and they
knew not what else--and thus they became beautiful, fine, white
paper!
"Now, upon my word, this is a surprise! And a most delightful
surprise too!" declared the Paper. "Why, now I am finer than
ever, and I shall be written upon! I wonder what will be written
upon me. Was there ever such famous good fortune as mine!"
And the Paper was written upon; the most charming stories in the
world were written on it, and they were read aloud! and people declared
that these stories were very beautiful and very instructive;
that to read them would make mankind both wiser and better.
Truly, a great blessing was given to the world in the words written
upon that same Paper.
"Certainly, this is more than I could ever have dreamt of, when
I was a wee little blue flower of the field! How could I then have
looked forward to becoming a messenger destined to bring knowledge
and pleasure among men? I can hardly understand it even
now. Yet, so it is, actually. And, for my own part, I have never
done anything, beyond the little that in me lay, to strive to exist,
and yet I am carried on from one state of honor and happiness to
another; and every time that I think within myself, 'Now, surely, the
song is en-ded-ded-ded,' I am converted into something new, something
far higher and better. Now, I suppose I shall be sent on my
travels, shall be sent round the wide world, so that all men may read
me. I should think that would be the wisest plan. Formerly I had
blue blossoms, now for every single blossom I have some beautiful
thought, or pleasant fancy--who so happy as I?"
But the Paper was not sent on its travels, it went to the printer's
instead, and there all that was written upon it was printed in a
book; nay, in many hundred books: and in this way an infinitely
greater number of people received pleasure and profit therefrom
than if the written Paper itself had been sent round the world, and
perhaps got torn and worn to pieces before it had gone halfway.
"Yes, to be sure, this is much more sensible," thought the Paper.
"It had never occurred to me, though. I am to stay at home and
be held in as great honor as if I were an old grandfather. The
book was written on me first, the ink flowed in upon me from the pen
and formed the words. I shall stay at home, while the books go
about the world, to and fro--that is much better. How glad I am!
how fortunate I am!"
So the Paper was rolled up and laid on one side. "It is good to
repose after labor," said the Paper. "It is quite right to collect
oneself, and quietly think over all that dwelleth within one. Now,
first, do I rightly know myself. And to know oneself, I have heard,
is the best knowledge, the truest progress. And come what will,
this I am sure of, all will end in progress--always is there
progress!"
One day the roll of Paper was thrown upon the stove to be burnt
--it must not be sold to the grocer to wrap round pounds of butter
and sugar. And all the children in the house flocked round; they
wanted to see the blaze, they wanted to count the multitude of tiny
red sparks which seem to dart to and fro among the ashes, dying out,
one after another, so quickly--they call them "the children going
out of school," and the last spark of all is the schoolmaster; they
often fancy he is gone out, but another and another spark flies up
unexpectedly, and the schoolmaster always tarries a little behind the
rest.
And now all the Paper lay heaped up on the stove. "Ugh!" it
cried, and all at once it burst into a flame. So high did it rise into
the air, never had the Flax been able to rear its tiny blue blossoms
so high, and it shone as never the white Linen had shone; all the letters
written on it became fiery red in an instant, and all the words
and thoughts of the writer were surrounded with a glory.
"Now, then, I go straight up into the sun!" said something within
the flames. It was as though a thousand voices at once had spoken
thus; and the Flame burst through the chimney, and rose high above
it; and brighter than the Flame, yet invisible to mortal eyes, hovered
little tiny beings, as many as there had been blossoms on the
Flax. They were lighter and of more subtle essence than even the
Flame that bore them; and when that Flame had quite died away,
and nothing remained of the Paper but the black ashes, they once
again danced over them, and wherever their feet touched the ashes,
their footprints, the fiery red sparks, were seen. Thus "the children
went out of school, and the schoolmaster came last"; it was a pleasure
to see the pretty sight, and the children of the house stood looking
at the black ashes and singing---
"Snip, snap, snurre,
Bassilurre,
And now the song is en-ded-ded-ded."
But the tiny invisible beings replied every one, "The song is never
ended; that is the best of it! We know that, and therefore none are
so happy as we are!"
However, the children could neither hear nor understand the reply;
nor would it be well that they should, for children must not
know everything.
BLUE BEARD
Charles Perrault
Once upon a time there was a man who had fine houses, both in
town and country, a deal of silver and gold plate, carved furniture,
and coaches gilded all over. But unhappily this man had a blue
beard, which made him so ugly and so terrible that all the women
and girls ran away from him.
One of his neighbors, a lady of quality, had two daughters who
were perfect beauties. He asked for one of them in marriage, leaving
to her the choice of which she would bestow on him. They
would neither of them have him, and they sent him backward and
forward from one to the other, neither being able to make up her
mind to marry a man who had a blue beard. Another thing which
made them averse to him was that he had already married several
wives, and nobody knew what had become of them.
Blue Beard, to become better acquainted, took them, with their
mother and three or four of their best friends, with some young
people of the neighborhood, to one of his country seats, where they
stayed a whole week.
There was nothing going on but pleasure parties, hunting, fishing,
dancing, mirth, and feasting. Nobody went to bed, but all passed
the night in playing pranks on each other. In short, everything
succeeded so well that the youngest daughter began to think that the
beard of the master of the house was not so very blue, and that he
was a very civil gentleman. So as soon as they returned home, the
marriage was concluded.
About a month afterward Blue Beard told his wife that he was
obliged to take a country journey for six weeks at least, upon business
of great importance. He desired her to amuse herself well in
his absence, to send for her friends, to take them into the country,
if she pleased, and to live well wherever she was.
"Here," said he, "are the keys of the two great warehouses
wherein I have my best furniture: these are of the room where I
keep my silver and gold plate, which is not in everyday use; these
open my safes, which hold my money, both gold and silver; these
my caskets of jewels; and this is the master-key to all my apartments.
But as for this little key, it is the key of the closet at the end
of the great gallery on the ground floor. Open them all; go everywhere;
but as for that little closet, I forbid you to enter it, and I
promise you surely that, if you open it, there's nothing that you may
not expect from my anger."
She promised to obey exactly all his orders; and he, after having
embraced her, got into his coach and proceeded on his journey.
Her neighbors and good friends did not stay to be sent for by the
new-married lady, so great was their impatience to see all the riches
of her house, not daring to come while her husband was there, because
of his blue beard, which frightened them. They at once ran
through all the rooms, closets, and wardrobes, which were so fine
and rich, and each seemed to surpass all others. They went up
into the warehouses, where was the best and richest furniture; and
they could not sufficiently admire the number and beauty of the
tapestry, beds, couches, cabinets, stands, tables, and looking-glasses,
in which you might see yourself from head to foot. Some of them
were framed with glass, others with silver, plain and gilded, the
most beautiful and the most magnificent ever seen.
They ceased not to praise and envy the happiness of their friend,
who, in the meantime, was not at all amused by looking upon all
these rich things, because of her impatience to go and open the
closet on the ground floor. Her curiosity was so great that, without
considering how uncivil it was to leave her guests, she went down
a little back staircase, with such excessive haste that twice or thrice
she came near breaking her neck. Having reached the closet door,
she stood still for some time, thinking of her husband's orders, and
considering that unhappiness might attend her if she was disobedient;
but the temptation was so strong she could not overcome it. She
then took the little key, and opened the door, trembling. At first she
could not see anything plainly, because the windows were shut.
After some moments she began to perceive that several dead women
were scattered about the floor. (These were all the wives whom
Blue Beard had married and murdered, one after the other, because
they did not obey his orders about the closet on the ground floor.)
She thought she surely would die for fear, and the key, which she
pulled out of the lock, fell out of her hand.
After having somewhat recovered from the shock, she picked
up the key, locked the door, and went upstairs into her chamber
to compose herself; but she could not rest, so much was she
frightened.
Having observed that the key of the closet was stained, she tried
two or three times to wipe off the stain, but the stain would not
come out. In vain did she wash it, and even rub it with soap and
sand. The stain still remained, for the key was a magic key, and
she could never make it quite clean; when the stain was gone off
from one side, it came again on the other.
Blue Beard returned from his journey that same evening, and
said he had received letters upon the road, informing him that the
business which called him away was ended to his advantage. His
wife did all she could to convince him she was delighted at his
speedy return.
Next morning he asked her for the keys, which she gave him, but
with such a trembling hand that he easily guessed what had happened.
"How is it," said he, "that the key of my closet is not among the
rest?"
"I must certainly," said she, "have left it upstairs upon the
table."
"Do not fail," said Blue Beard, "to bring it to me presently."
After having put off doing it several times, she was forced to
bring him the key. Blue Beard, having examined it, said to his
wife:
"How comes this stain upon the key?"
"I do not know," cried the poor woman, paler than death.
"You do not know!" replied Blue Beard. "I very well know.
You wished to go into the cabinet? Very well, madam; you shall
go in, and take your place among the ladies you saw there."
She threw herself weeping at her husband's feet, and begged his
pardon with all the signs of a true repentance for her disobedience.
She would have melted a rock, so beautiful and sorrowful was she;
but Blue Beard had a heart harder than any stone.
"You must die, madam," said he, "and that at once."
"Since I must die," answered she, looking upon him with her eyes
all bathed in tears, "give me some little time to say my prayers."
"I give you," replied Blue Beard, "half a quarter of an hour,
but not one moment more."
When she was alone she called out to her sister, and said to her:
"Sister Anne,"---for that was her name,---"go up, I beg you, to
the top of the tower, and look if my brothers are not coming; they
promised me they would come today, and if you see them, give them
a sign to make haste."
Her sister Anne went up to the top of the tower, and the poor
afflicted wife cried out from time to time:
"Anne, sister Anne, do you see any one coming?"
And sister Anne said:
"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass,
which looks green."
In the meanwhile Blue Beard, holding a great saber in his hand,
cried to his wife as loud as he could:
"Come down instantly, or I shall come up to you."
"One moment longer, if you please," said his wife; and then she
cried out very softly, "Anne, sister Anne, dost thou see anybody
coming?"
And sister Anne answered:
"I see nothing but the sun, which makes a dust, and the grass,
which is green."
"Come down quickly," cried Blue Beard, "or I will come up to
you."
"I am coming," answered his wife; and then she cried, "Anne,
sister Anne, dost thou not see any one coming?"
"I see," replied sister Anne, "a great dust, which comes from
this side."
"Are they my brothers?"
"Alas! no, my sister, I see a flock of sheep."
"Will you not come down?" cried Blue Beard.
"One moment longer," said his wife, and then she cried out,
"Anne, sister Anne, dost thou see nobody coming?"
"I see," said she, "two horsemen, but they are yet a great way
off."
"God be praised," replied the poor wife, joyfully; "they are my
brothers; I will make them a sign, as well as I can, for them to make
haste."
Then Blue Beard bawled out so loud that he made the whole house
tremble. The distressed wife came down, and threw herself at his
feet, all in tears, with her hair about her shoulders.
"All this is of no help to you," says Blue Beard; "you must
die;" then, taking hold of her hair with one hand, and lifting up
his sword in the air with the other, he was about to take off her head.
The poor lady, turning about to him, and looking at him with dying
eyes, desired him to afford her one little moment to her thoughts.
"No, no," said he, "commend thyself to God," and again lifting
his arm--
At this moment there was such a loud knocking at the gate that
Blue Beard stopped suddenly. The gate was opened, and presently
entered two horsemen, who, with sword in hand, ran directly to
Blue Beard. He knew them to be his wife's brothers, one a dragoon,
the other a musketeer. He ran away immediately, but the two
brothers pursued him so closely that they overtook him before he
could get to the steps of the porch. There they ran their swords
through his body, and left him dead. The poor wife was almost
as dead as her husband, and had not strength enough to arise and
welcome her brothers.
Blue Beard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all
his estate. She made use of one portion of it to marry her sister
Anne to a young gentleman who had loved her a long while; another
portion to buy captains' commissions for her brothers; and the
rest to marry herself to a very worthy gentleman, who made her
forget the sorry time she had passed with Blue Beard.
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
Joseph Jacobs
There was once upon a time a poor widow who had an only son
named Jack, and a cow named Milky-white. And all they had to
live on was the milk the cow gave every morning, which they carried
to the market and sold. But one morning Milky-white gave
no milk, and they didn't know what to do.
"What shall we do, what shall we do?" said the widow, wringing
her hands.
"Cheer up, mother, I'll go and get work somewhere," said Jack.
"We've tried that before, and nobody would take you," said his
mother; "we must sell Milky-white and with the money start shop,
or something."
"All right, mother," says Jack; "it's market-day today, and I'll
soon sell Milky-white, and then we'll see what we can do."
So he took the cow's halter in his hand, and off he started. He
hadn't gone far when he met a funny-looking old man, who said to
him: "Good morning, Jack."
"Good morning to you," said Jack, and wondered how he knew
his name.
"Well, Jack, and where are you off to?" said the man.
"I'm going to market to sell our cow here."
"Oh, you look the proper sort of chap to sell cows," said the man,
"I wonder if you know how many beans make five."
"Two in each hand and one in your mouth," says Jack, as sharp
as a needle.
"Right you are," says the man, "and here they are, the very beans
themselves," he went on, pulling out of his pocket a number of
strange-looking beans. "As you are so sharp," says he, "I don't
mind a swop with you---your cow for these beans."
"Go along," says Jack; "wouldn't you like it?"
"Ah! you don't know what these beans are," said the man; "if
you plant them over night, by morning they grow right up to the
sky."
"Really?" said Jack; "you don't say so."
"Yes, that is so, and if it doesn't turn out to be true, you can have
your cow back."
"Right," says Jack, and hands him over Milky-white's halter and
pockets the beans.
Back goes Jack home, and as he hadn't gone very far it wasn't
dusk by the time he got to his door.
"Back already, Jack?" said his mother; "I see you haven't
got Milky-white, so you've sold her. How much did you get for
her?"
"You'll never guess, mother," says Jack.
"No, you don't say so. Good boy! Five pounds, ten, fifteen,
no, it can't be twenty."
"I told you you couldn't guess. What do you say to these beans;
they're magical, plant them over night and---"
"What!" says Jack's mother; "have you been such a fool, such
a dolt, such an idiot, as to give away my Milky-white, the best milker
in the parish, and prime beef to boot, for a set of paltry beans?
Take that! Take that! Take that! And as for your precious
beans, here they go out of the window. And now off with you to
bed. Not a sup shall you drink, and not a bit shall you swallow
this very night."
So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, and sad and
sorry he was, to be sure, as much for his mother's sake as for the
loss of his supper.
At last he dropped off to sleep.
When he woke up, the room looked so funny. The sun was shining
into part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady.
So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window.
And what do you think he saw? Why, the beans his mother had
thrown out of the window into the garden, had sprung up into a
big beanstalk which went up and up and up till it reached the sky.
So the man spoke truth after all.
The beanstalk grew up quite close past Jack's window, so all he
had to do was to open it and give a jump on to the beanstalk, which
ran up just like a big ladder. So Jack climbed, and he climbed
and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and
he climbed till at last he reached the sky. And when he got there
he found a long, broad road going as straight as a dart. So he
walked along and he walked along till he came to a great big tall
house, and on the doorstep there was a great big tall woman.
"Good morning, mum," says Jack, quite politely. "Could you
be so kind as to give me some breakfast?" For he hadn't had
anything to eat, you know, the night before and was as hungry as
a hunter.
"It's breakfast you want, is it?" says the great big tall woman;
"it's breakfast you'll be if you don't move off from here. My man
is an ogre and there's nothing he likes better than boys broiled on
toast. You'd better be moving on or he'll soon be coming."
"Oh! please, mum, do give me something to eat, mum. I've had
nothing to eat since yesterday morning, really and truly, mum," says
Jack. "I may as well be broiled as die of hunger."
Well, the ogre's wife was not half so bad after all. So she took
Jack into the kitchen, and gave him a chunk of bread and cheese and
a jug of milk. But Jack hadn't half finished these when thump!
thump! thump! the whole house began to tremble with the noise of
some one coming.
"Good gracious me! It's my old man," said the ogre's wife;
"what on earth shall I do? Come along quick and jump in here."
And she bundled Jack into the oven just as the ogre came in.
He was a big one, to be sure. At his belt he had three calves
strung up by the heels, and he unhooked them and threw them down
on the table and said: "Here, wife, broil me a couple of these for
breakfast. Ah! what's this I smell?
"Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead,
I'll have his bones to grind my bread."
"Nonsense, dear," said his wife, "you're dreaming. Or perhaps
you smell the scraps of that little boy you liked so much for
yesterday's dinner. Here, you go and have a wash and tidy up, and
by the time you come back your breakfast'll be ready for you."
So off the ogre went, and Jack was just going to jump out of the
oven and run away when the woman told him not. "Wait till he's
asleep," says she; "he always has a doze after breakfast."
Well, the ogre had his breakfast, and after that he goes to a big
chest and takes out of it a couple of bags of gold, and down he sits
and counts till at last his head began to nod and he began to snore
till the whole house shook again.
Then Jack crept out on tiptoe from his oven, and as he was passing
the ogre he took one of the bags of gold under his arm, and off he
pelters till he came to the beanstalk, and then he threw down the bag
of gold, which of course fell into his mother's garden, and then he
climbed down and climbed down till at last he got home and told
his mother and showed her the gold and said: "Well, mother,
wasn't I right about the beans? They are really magical, you see."
So they lived on the bag of gold for some time, but at last they
came to the end of it, and Jack made up his mind to try his luck once
more at the top of the beanstalk. So one fine morning he rose up
early, and got on to the beanstalk, and he climbed and he climbed
and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till
at last he came out on to the road again and up to the great big tall
house he had been to before. There, sure enough, was the great
big tall woman a-standing on the doorstep.
"Good morning, mum," says Jack, as bold as brass, "could you
be so good as to give me something to eat?"
"Go away, my boy," said the big tall woman, "or else my man
will eat you up for breakfast. But aren't you the youngster who
came here once before? Do you know, that very day, my man
missed one of his bags of gold."
"That's strange, mum," said Jack, "I dare say I could tell you
something about that, but I'm so hungry I can't speak till I've had
something to eat."
Well, the big tall woman was so curious that she took him in and
gave him something to eat. But he had scarcely begun munching
it as slowly as he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard
the giant's footstep, and his wife hid Jack away in the oven.
All happened as it did before. In came the ogre as he did before,
said: "Fee-fi-fo-fum," and had his breakfast of three broiled oxen.
Then he said: "Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs."
So she brought it, and the ogre said: "Lay," and it laid an egg all
of gold. And then the ogre began to nod his head, and to snore till
the house shook. Then Jack crept out of the oven on tiptoe and
caught hold of the golden hen, and was off before you could say
"Jack Robinson." But this time the hen gave a cackle which woke
the ogre, and just as Jack got out of the house he heard him calling:
"Wife, wife, what have you done with my golden hen?"
And the wife said: "Why, my dear?"
But that was all Jack heard, for he rushed off to the beanstalk and
climbed down like a house on fire. And when he got home, he
showed his mother the wonderful hen, and said "Lay" to it; and it
laid a golden egg every time he said "Lay."
Well, Jack was not content, and it wasn't very long before he determined
to have another try at his luck up there at the top of the beanstalk.
So one fine morning he rose up early, and got on to the beanstalk, and
he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till he got to
the top. But this time he knew better than to go straight to the ogre's
house. And when he got near it, he waited behind a bush till he saw the
ogre's wife come out with a pail to get some water, and then he crept
into the house and got into the copper. He hadn't been there long when
he heard thump! thump! thump! as before, and in came the ogre and his
wife.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman," cried out the
ogre. "I smell him, wife, I smell him."
"Do you, my dearie?" says the ogre's wife. "Then if it's that
little rogue that stole your gold and the hen that laid the golden
eggs he's sure to have got into the oven." And they both rushed to
the oven. But Jack wasn't there, luckily, and the ogre's wife said:
"There you are again with your fee-fi-fo-fum. Why, of course it's
the boy you caught last night that I've just broiled for your breakfast.
How forgetful I am, and how careless you are not to know the
difference between live and dead after all these years."
So the ogre sat down to the breakfast and ate it, but every now
and then he would mutter: "Well, I could have sworn--" and
he'd get up and search the larder and the cupboards and everything;
only, luckily, he didn't think of the copper.
After breakfast was over, the ogre called out: "Wife, wife,
bring me my golden harp." So she brought it out and put it on
the table before him. Then he said: "Sing!" and the golden harp
sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the ogre fell
asleep and commenced to snore like thunder.
Then Jack lifted up the copper-lid very quietly and got down
like a mouse and crept on hands and knees till he came to the table,
when up he crawled, caught hold of the golden harp and dashed with
it towards the door. But the harp called out quite loud: "Master!
Master!" and the ogre woke up just in time to see Jack running off
with his harp.
Jack ran as fast as he could, and the ogre came rushing after, and
would soon have caught him only Jack had a start and dodged him
a bit and knew where he was going. When he got to the beanstalk
the ogre was not more than twenty yards away when suddenly he saw
Jack disappear-like, and when he came to the end of the road he
saw Jack underneath climbing down for dear life. Well, the ogre
didn't like trusting himself to such a ladder, and he stood and waited,
so Jack got another start. But just then the harp cried out: "Master!
Master!" and the ogre swung himself down on to the beanstalk,
which shook with his weight. Down climbs Jack, and after
him climbed the ogre. By this time Jack had climbed down and
climbed down and climbed down till he was very nearly home. So
he called out: "Mother! Mother! bring me an ax, bring me an
ax." And his mother came rushing out with the ax in her hand,
but when she came to the beanstalk she stood stock still with fright,
for there she saw the ogre with his legs just through the clouds.
But Jack jumped down and got hold of the ax and gave a chop at
the beanstalk which cut it half in two. The ogre felt the beanstalk
shake and quiver, so he stopped to see what was the matter. Then
Jack gave another chop with the ax, and the beanstalk was cut in
two and began to topple over. Then the ogre fell down and broke
his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after.
Then Jack showed his mother his golden harp, and what with
showing that and selling the golden eggs, Jack and his mother became
very rich, and he married a great princess, and they lived
happy ever after.
THE ELVES
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so poor that
at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So
in the evening, he cut out the shoes which he wished to begin to
make the next morning, and as he had a good conscience, he lay
down quietly in his bed, commended himself to God, and fell
asleep.
In the morning, after he had said his prayers, and was just going
to sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished on his table.
He was astounded, and did not know what to say to it. He took
the shoes in his hands to observe them closer, and they were so neatly
made that there was not one bad stitch in them, just as if they were
intended as a masterpiece.
Soon after, too, a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so
well, he paid more for them than was customary, and, with the
money, the shoemaker was able to purchase leather for two pairs of
shoes. He cut them out at night, and next morning was about to set
to work with fresh courage; but he had no need to do so, for, when
he got up, they were already made, and buyers also were not
wanting, who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pairs
of shoes. The following morning, too, he found the four pairs
made; and so it went on constantly, what he cut out in the evening
was finished in the morning, so that he soon had his honest independence
again, and at last became a wealthy man.
Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas, when
the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife, before going to
bed, "What think you if we were to stay up tonight to see who it is
that lends us this helping hand?" The woman liked the idea, and
lighted a candle, and then they hid themselves in a corner of the
room, behind some clothes which were hanging up there, and watched.
When it was midnight, two pretty little naked men came, sat down
by the shoemaker's table, took all the work which was cut out before
them and began to stitch, and sew, and hammer so skillfully and
so quickly with their little fingers that the shoemaker could not turn
away his eyes for astonishment. They did not stop until all was
done and stood finished on the table, and then they ran quickly
away.
Next morning the woman said, "The little men have made us rich,
and we really must show that we are grateful for it. They run
about so, and have nothing on, and must be cold. I'll tell thee
what I'll do: I will make them little shirts, and coats, and vests,
and trousers, and knit both of them a pair of stockings, and do thou,
too, make them two little pairs of shoes." The man said, "I shall
be very glad to do it;" and one night, when everything was ready,
they laid their presents all together on the table instead of the cutout
work, and then concealed themselves to see how the little men
would behave.
At midnight they came bounding in, and wanted to get at work at
once, but as they did not find any leather cut out, but only the pretty
little articles of clothing, they were at first astonished, and then they
showed intense delight. They dressed themselves with the greatest
rapidity, putting the pretty clothes on, and singing,
"Now we are boys so fine to see,
Why should we longer cobblers be?"
Then they danced and skipped and leapt over chairs and benches.
At last they danced out of doors.
From that time forth they came no more, but as long as the shoemaker
lived all went well with him, and all his undertakings prospered.
THE FROG-PRINCE
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
One fine evening a young princess went into a wood and sat down
by the side of a cool spring of water. She had a golden ball in
her hand, which was her favorite plaything, and she amused herself
with tossing it into the air and catching it again as it fell. After
a time she threw it up so high that when she stretched out her
hand to catch it, the ball bounded away and rolled along upon the
ground, till at last it fell into the spring. The princess looked into
the spring after her ball; but it was very deep, so deep that she could
not see the bottom of it. Then she began to lament her loss, and
said, "Alas! if I could only get my ball again, I would give all my
fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world."
While she was speaking a frog put its head out of the water and
said, "Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?" "Alas!" said
she, "what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball
has fallen into the spring." The frog said, "I want not your pearls
and jewels and fine clothes; but if you will love me and let me live
with you, and eat from your little golden plate, and sleep upon your
little bed, I will bring you your ball again." "What nonsense,"
thought the princess, "this silly frog is talking! He can never get
out of the well: however, he may be able to get my ball for me; and
therefore I will promise him what he asks." So she said to the frog,
"Well, if you will bring me my ball, I promise to do all you require."
Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water;
and after a little while he came up again with the ball in his mouth,
and threw it on the ground. As soon as the young princess saw her
ball, she ran to pick it up, and was so overjoyed to have it in her
hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with
it as fast as she could. The frog called after her, "Stay, princess,
and take me with you as you promised;" but she did not stop to
hear a word.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she
heard a strange noise, tap-tap, as if somebody was coming up the
marble staircase; and soon afterwards something knocked gently at
the door, and said:
"Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said,
By the fountain cool in the greenwood shade."
Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she
saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten; she was terribly frightened,
and shutting the door as fast as she could, came back to her
seat. The king her father asked her what had frightened her.
"There is a nasty frog," said she, "at the door, who lifted my ball
out of the spring last evening: I promised him that he should live
with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring;
but there he is at the door and wants to come in!" While she was
speaking, the frog knocked again at the door, and said:
"Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said,
By the fountain cool in the greenwood shade."
The king said to the young princess, "As you have made a
promise, you must keep it; so go and let him in." She did so, and
the frog hopped into the room, and came up close to the table.
"Pray lift me upon a chair," said he to the princess, "and let me sit
next to you." As soon as she had done this, the frog said, "Put
your plate closer to me that I may eat out of it." This she did,
and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, "Now I am
tired; carry me upstairs and put me into your little bed." And the
princess took him up in her hand and put him upon the pillow of
her own little bed, where he slept all night long. As soon as it
was light, he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the
house. "Now," thought the princess, "he is gone, and I shall be
troubled with him no more."
But she was mistaken; for when night came again, she heard the
same tapping at the door, and when she opened it, the frog came
in and slept upon her pillow as before till the morning broke:
and the third night he did the same; but when the princess awoke
on the following morning, she was astonished to see, instead of the
frog, a handsome prince standing at the head of her bed, and gazing
on her with the most beautiful eyes that ever were seen.
He told her that he had been enchanted by a malicious fairy, who
had changed him into the form of a frog, in which he was fated to
remain till some princess should take him out of the spring and let
him sleep upon her bed for three nights. "You," said the prince,
"have broken this cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for
but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I
will marry you, and love you as long as you live."
The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in giving her
consent; and as they spoke, a splendid carriage drove up with eight
beautiful horses decked with plumes of feathers and golden harness,
and behind rode the prince's servant, the faithful Henry, who
had bewailed the misfortune of his dear master so long and bitterly
that his heart had well-nigh burst. Then all set out full of joy
for the prince's kingdom, where they arrived safely, and lived happily
a great many years.
THE QUERN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Once upon a time in the old, old days there were two brothers, one
of whom was rich and the other poor. When Christmas Eve came
the poor brother had not a morsel in the house, neither of meat nor
bread; and so he went to his rich brother, and asked for a trifle
for Christmas, in heaven's name. It was not the first time the
brother had helped him, but he was always very close-fisted, and was
not particularly glad to see him this time.
"If you'll do what I tell you, you shall have a whole ham," he
said. The poor brother promised he would, and was very grateful
into the bargain.
"There it is, and now go to the devil!" said the rich brother,
and threw the ham across to him.
"Well, what I have promised I must keep," said the other one.
He took the ham, and set out. He walked and walked the whole day,
and as it was getting dark he came to a place where the lights were
shining brightly. "This is most likely the place," thought the man
with the ham.
In the woodshed stood an old man with a long white beard, cutting
firewood for Christmas.
"Good evening," said he with the ham.
"Good evening to you," said the man. "Where are you going
so late?"
"I am going to the devil--that is to say, if I am on the right
way," answered the poor man.
"Yes, you are quite right; this is his place," said the old man.
"When you get in they will all want to buy your ham, for ham is
scarce food here; but you must not sell it unless you get the hand-quern,
which stands just behind the door. When you come out again I'll teach
you how to use it. You will find it useful in many ways."
The man with the ham thanked him for all the information and
knocked at the door.
When he got in it happened just as the old man had said. All
the imps, both big and small, flocked around him like ants in a field,
and the one outbid the other for the ham.
"Well," said the man, "my good woman and I were to have it
for Christmas Eve, but since you want it so badly I will let you
have it. But if I am going to part with it, I want that hand-quern
which stands behind the door."
The devil did not like to part with it, and higgled and haggled
with the man, but he stuck to what he had said, and in the end the
devil had to part with the quern.
When the man came out he asked the old woodcutter how he was
to use the quern, and when he had learned this, he thanked the old
man and set out homeward, as quickly as he could; but after all he
did not get home till the clock struck twelve on Christmas Eve.
"Where in all the world have you been?" said his wife. "Here
have I been sitting, hour after hour, waiting and watching for you,
and have not had as much as two chips to lay under the porridge
pot."
"Well, I couldn't get back before," said the man. "I have had
a good many things to look after, and I've had a long way to walk
as well; but now I'll show you something," said he, and he put the
quern on the table. He asked it first to grind candles, then a cloth,
and then food and beer, and everything else that was good for
Christmas cheer; and as he spoke the quern brought them forth. The
woman crossed herself time after time and wanted to know where her
husband had got the quern from; but this he would not tell her.
"It does not matter where I got it from; you see the quern is good
and the mill stream is not likely to freeze," said the man. So he
ground food and drink and all good things during Christmas; and
the third day he invited his friends, as he wanted to give them a
feast. When the rich brother saw all that was in the house, he became
both angry and furious, for he begrudged his brother everything.
"On Christmas Eve he was so needy that he came to me and asked
for a trifle in heaven's name; and now he gives a feast, as if he were
both a count and a king," said the brother. "Where did you get
all your riches from?" he said to his brother.
"From just behind the door," he answered, for he did not care
to tell his brother much about it. But later in the evening, when
he had drunk a little freely, he could no longer resist, but brought
out the quern.
"There you see that which has brought me all my riches,"
he said, and so he let the quern grind first one thing and then
another.
When the brother saw this he was determined to have the quern
at all cost, and at last it was settled he should have it, but three
hundred dollars was to be the price of it. The brother was, however,
to keep it till the harvest began; "for if I keep it so long I
can grind out food for many years to come," he thought.
During that time you may be sure the quern did not rust, and
when the harvest began the rich brother got it; but the other had
taken great care not to show him how to use it.
It was evening when the rich brother got the quern home, and in
the morning he asked his wife to go out and help the haymakers;
he would get the breakfast ready for himself, he said.
When it was near breakfast time he put the quern on the breakfast
table.
"Grind herrings and broth, and do it quickly and well," said the
man, and the quern began to bring forth herrings and broth, and
first filled all the dishes and tubs, and afterward began flooding the
whole kitchen.
The man fiddled and fumbled and tried to stop the quern, but
however much he twisted and fingered it, the quern went on grinding,
and in a little while the broth reached so high that the man was
very near drowning. He then pulled open the parlor door, but it
was not very long before the quern had filled the parlor also, and
it was just in the very nick of time that the man put his hand down
into the broth and got hold of the latch, and when he had got the
door open, he was soon out of the parlor, you may be sure. He
rushed out, and the herrings and the broth came pouring out after
him, like a stream, down the fields and meadows.
The wife, who was out haymaking, now thought it took too long a
time to get the breakfast ready.
"If my husband doesn't call us soon we must go home whether
or no: I don't suppose he knows much about making broth, so I
must go and help him," said the wife to the haymakers.
They began walking homeward, but when they had got a bit up the
hill they met the stream of broth with the herrings tossing about
in it and the man himself running in front of it all.
"I wish all of you had a hundred stomachs each!" shouted the
man; "but take care you don't get drowned." And he rushed past
them as if the Evil One were at his heels, down to where his brother
lived. He asked him for heaven's sake to take back the quern, and
that at once; "if it goes on grinding another hour the whole parish
will perish in broth and herrings," he said. But the brother would
not take it back on any account before his brother had paid him
three hundred dollars more, and this he had to do. The poor
brother now had plenty of money, and before long he bought a farm
much grander than the one on which his rich brother lived, and
with the quern he ground so much gold that he covered the farmstead
with gold plates, and, as it lay close to the shore, it glittered
and shone far out at sea. All those who sailed past wanted to
call and visit the rich man in the golden house, and everybody
wanted to see the wonderful quern, for its fame had spread far and
wide, and there was no one who had not heard it spoken of.
After a long while there came a skipper who wanted to see the
quern; he asked if it could grind salt. Yes, that it could, said he
who owned it; and when the skipper heard this he wanted the quern
by hook or crook, cost what it might, for if he had it he thought he
need not sail far away across dangerous seas for cargoes of salt.
At first the man did not want to part with it, but the skipper both
begged and prayed, and at last he sold it and got many, many thousand
dollars for it.
As soon as the skipper had got the quern on his back, he did not
stop long, for he was afraid the man would change his mind, and
as for asking how to use it he had no time to do that; he made for his
ship as quickly as he could, and when he had got out to sea a bit
he had the quern brought up on deck.
"Grind salt, and that both quickly and well," said the skipper,
and the quern began to grind out salt so that it spurted to all sides.
When the skipper had got the ship filled he wanted to stop the
quern, but however much he tried and whatever he did the quern
went on grinding, and the mound of salt grew higher and higher,
and at last the ship sank.
There at the bottom of the sea stands the quern grinding till this
very day, and that is the reason why the sea is salt.
BROTHER RABBIT AND BROTHER BULL-FROG
Joel Chandler Harris
The day that the little boy got permission to go to mill with Uncle
Remus was to be long remembered. It was a brand-new experience
to the little city-bred child, and he enjoyed it to the utmost. It is
true that Uncle Remus didn't go to mill in the old-fashioned way,
but even if the little chap had known of the old-fashioned way, his
enjoyment would not have been less. Instead of throwing a bag
of corn on the back of a horse, and perching himself on top in an
uneasy and a precarious position, Uncle Remus placed the corn in a
spring wagon, helped the little boy to climb into the seat, clucked to
the horse, and went along as smoothly and as rapidly as though they
were going to town.
Everything was new to the lad--the road, the scenery, the mill,
and the big mill pond, and, best of all, Uncle Remus allowed him to
enjoy himself in his own way when they came to the end of the
journey. He was such a cautious and timid child, having little or
none of the spirit of adventure that is supposed to dominate the
young, that the old negro was sure he would come to no harm. Instead
of wandering about, and going to places where he had no business
to go, the little boy sat where he could see the water flowing
over the big dam. He had never seen such a sight before, and the
water seemed to him to have a personality of its own--a personality
with both purpose and feeling.
The river was not a very large one, but it was large enough to be
impressive when its waters fell and tumbled over the big dam. The
little boy watched the tumbling water as it fell over the dam and
tossed itself into foam on the rocks below; he watched it so long
and he sat so still that he was able to see things that a noisier
youngster would have missed altogether. He saw a big bull-frog
creep warily from the water and wipe his mouth and eyes with one
of his fore legs, and he saw the same frog edge himself softly toward
a white butterfly that was flitting about near the edge of the stream.
He saw the frog lean forward, and then the butterfly vanished. It
seemed like a piece of magic. The child knew that the frog had
caught the butterfly, but how? The fluttering insect was more than
a foot from the frog when it disappeared, and he was sure that the
frog had neither jumped nor snapped at the butterfly. What he saw,
he saw as plainly as you see your hand in the light of day.
And he saw another sight too that is not given to every one to
see. While he was watching the tumbling water and wondering
where it all came from and where it was going, he thought he saw
swift-moving shadows flitting from the water below up and into
the mill pond above. He never would have been able to discover
just what the shadows were if one of them had not paused a
moment while halfway to the top of the falling water. It poised
itself for one brief instant, as a humming-bird poises over a flower,
but during that fraction of time the little boy was able to see that
what he thought was a shadow was really a fish going from the
water below to the mill pond above. The child could hardly believe
his eyes, and for a little while it seemed that the whole world
was turned topsy-turvy, especially as the shadows continued to flit
from the water below to the mill pond above.
And he was still more puzzled when he reported the strange
fact to Uncle Remus, for the old negro took the information as a
matter of course. With him the phenomenon was almost as old as
his experience. The only explanation that he could give of it was
that the fish--or some kinds of fish, and he didn't know rightly
what kind it was--had a habit of falling from the bottom of the
falls to the top. The most that he knew was that it was a fact,
and that it was occurring every day in the year when the fish were
running. It was certainly wonderful, as in fact everything would be
wonderful if it were not so familiar.
"We ain't got but one way er lookin' at things," remarked Uncle
Remus, "an' ef you'll b'lieve me, honey, it's a mighty one-sided way.
Ef you could git on a perch some'rs an' see things like dey reely is,
an' not like dey seem ter us, I be boun' you'd hol' yo' breff an' shet
yo' eyes."
The old man, without intending it, was going too deep into a deep
subject for the child to follow him, and so the latter told him about
the bull-frog and the butterfly. The statement seemed to call up
pleasing reminiscences, for Uncle Remus laughed in a hearty way.
And when his laughing had subsided, he continued to chuckle until
the little boy wondered what the source of his amusement could
be. Finally he asked the old negro point blank what had caused him
to laugh at such a rate.
"Yo' pa would 'a' know'd," Uncle Remus replied, and then he
grew solemn again and sighed heavily. For a little while he seemed
to be listening to the clatter of the mill, but, finally, he turned to the
little boy. "An' so you done made de 'quaintance er ol' Brer Bull-Frog?
Is you take notice whedder he had a tail er no?"
"Why, of course he didn't have a tail!" exclaimed the child.
"Neither toad-frogs nor bull-frogs have tails. I thought everybody
knew that."
"Oh, well, ef dat de way you feel 'bout um, 'taint no use fer ter
pester wid um. It done got so now dat folks don't b'lieve nothin'
but what dey kin see, an' mo' dan half un um won't b'lieve what dey
see less'n dey kin feel un it too. But dat ain't de way wid dem
what's ol' 'nough fer ter know. Ef I'd 'a' tol' you 'bout de fishes
swimmin' ag'in fallin' water, you wouldn't 'a' b'lieved me, would
you? No, you wouldn't--an' yet, dar 'twuz right 'fo' yo' face an'
eyes. Dar dey wuz a-skeetin' fum de bottom er de dam right up in
de mill pon', an' you settin' dar lookin' at um. S'posin' you wuz ter
say dat you won't b'lieve um less'n you kin feel um; does you speck
de fish gwineter hang dar in de fallin' water an' wait twel you kin
wade 'cross de slipp'y rocks an' put yo' han' on um? Did you look
right close, fer ter see ef de bull-frog what you seed is got a tail
er no?"
The little boy admitted that he had not. He knew as well as
anybody that no kind of a frog has a tail unless it is the Texas frog,
which is only a horned lizard, for he saw one once in Atlanta, and
it was nothing but a rusty-back lizard with a horn on his head.
"I ain't 'sputin' what you say, honey," said Uncle Remus, "but
de creetur what you seed mought 'a' been a frog an' you not know
it. One thing I does know is dat in times gone by de bull-frog had
a tail, kaze I hear de ol folks sesso, an' mo' dan dat, dey know'd
des how he los' it--de whar, an' de when an' de which-away. Fer
all I know it wuz right here at dish yer identual mill pon'. I ain't
gwine inter court an' make no affledave on it, but ef anybody wuz
ter walk up an' p'int der finger at me, an' say dat dis is de place
where ol' Brer Bull-Frog lose his tail, I'd up and 'low, 'Yasser, it
mus' be de place, kaze it look might'ly like de place what I been
hear tell 'bout.' An' den I'd set my eyes an' see ef I can't git it
straight in my dreams."
Uncle Remus paused and pretended to be counting a handful of
red grains of corn that he had found somewhere in the mill. Seeing
that he showed no disposition to tell how Brother Bull-Frog had
lost his tail, the little boy reminded him of it. But the old man
laughed. "Ef Brer Bull-Frog ain't never had no tail," he said,
"how de name er goodness he gwineter lose un? Ef he yever is had
a tail, why den dat's a gray boss uv an'er color. Dey's a tale 'bout
'im havin' a tail an' losin' it, but how kin dey be a tale when dey
ain't no tail?"
Well, the little boy didn't know at all, and he looked so disconsolate
and so confused that the old negro relented. "Now, den,"
he remarked, "ef ol' Brer Bull-Frog had a tail an' he ain't got none
now, dey must 'a' been sump'n happen. In dem times--de times
what all deze tales tells you 'bout--Brer Bull-Frog stayed in an'
aroun' still water des like he do now. De bad col' dat he had in
dem days, he's got it yit--de same pop-eyes, and de same bal'
head. Den, ez now, dey wa'n't a bunch er ha'r on it dat you could
pull out wid a pa'r er tweezers. Ez he bellers now, des dat a-way
he bellered den, mo' speshually at night. An' talk 'bout settin' up
late--why, ol' Brer Bull-Frog could beat dem what fust got in de
habits er settin' up late.
"Dey's one thing dat you'll hatter gi' 'im credit fer, an' dat wuz
keepin' his face an' han's clean, an' in takin' keer er his cloze. Nobody,
not even his mammy, had ter patch his britches er tack buttons
on his coat. See 'im whar you may an' when you mought, he wuz
allers lookin' spick an' span des like he done come right out'n a ban'-box.
You know what de riddle say 'bout 'im: when he stan' up he
sets down, an' when he walks he hops. He'd 'a' been mighty well
thunk un, ef it hadn't but 'a' been fer his habits. He holler so
much at night dat de yuther creeturs can't git no sleep. He'd holler
an' holler, an' 'bout de time you think he bleeze ter be 'shame' er
hollerin' so much, he'd up an' holler 'gi'n. It got so dat de creeturs
hatter go 'way off some'rs ef dey wanter git any sleep, an' it
seem like dey can't git so fur off but what Brer Bull-Frog would wake
um up time dey git ter dozin' good.
"He'd raise up an' low, _'Here I is! Here I is! Wharbouts is
you? Wharbouts is you? Come along! Come along!'_ It 'uz
des dat a-way de whole blessed night, an' de yuther creeturs, dey say
dat it sholy was a shame dat anybody would set right flat-footed an'
ruin der good name. Look like he pestered ev'ybody but ol' Brer
Rabbit, an' de reason dat he liked it wuz kaze it worried de yuther
creeturs. He'd set an' lissen, ol' Brer Rabbit would, an' den he'd
laugh fit ter kill kaze he ain't a-keerin' whedder er no he git any sleep
or not. Ef dey's anybody what kin set up twel de las' day in de
mornin' an' not git red-eyed an' heavy-headed, it's ol' Brer Rabbit.
When he wanter sleep, he'd des shet one eye an' sleep, an' when he
wanter stay 'wake, he'd des open bofe eyes, an' dar he wuz wid all
his foots under 'im, an' a-chawin' his terbacker same ez ef dey
wa'n't no Brer Bull-Frog in de whole Nunited State er Georgy.
"It went on dis way fer I dunner how long--ol' Brer Bull-Frog
a-bellerin' all night long an' keepin' de yuther creeturs 'wake, an'
Brer Rabbit a-laughin'. But, bimeby, de time come when Brer
Rabbit hatter lay in some mo' calamus root, ag'in de time when 't
would be too col' ter dig it, an' when he went fer ter hunt fer it,
his way led 'im down todes de mill pon' whar Brer Bull-Frog live
at. Dey wuz calamus root a-plenty down dar, an' Brer Rabbit, atter
lookin' de groun' over, promise hisse'f dat he'd fetch a basket de nex'
time he come, an' make one trip do fer two. He ain't been dar long
'fo' he had a good chance fer ter hear Brer Bull-Frog at close range.
He hear him, he did, an' he shake his head an' say dat a mighty
little bit er dat music would go a long ways, kaze dey ain't nobody
what kin stan' flat-footed an' say dat Brer Bull-Frog is a better singer
dan de mockin'-bird.
"Well, whiles Brer Rabbit wuz pirootin' roun' fer ter see what
mought be seed, he git de idee dat he kin hear thunder way off yander.
He lissen ag'in, an' he hear Brer Bull-Frog mumblin' an' grumblin'
ter hisse'f, an' he must 'a' had a mighty bad col', kaze his talk soun'
des like a bummil-eye bee been kotch in a sugar-barrel an' can't git
out. An' dat creetur must 'a' know'd dat Brer Rabbit wuz down in
dem neighborhoods, kaze, atter while, he 'gun to talk louder, an' yit
mo' louder. He say, _'Whar you gwine? Whar you gwine?'_ an'
den, '_Don't go too fur--don't go too fur!_' an', atter so long a
time, '_Come back--come back! Come back soon!_' Brer Rabbit, he
sot dar, he did, an' work his nose an' wiggle his mouf, an' wait fer
ter see what gwineter happen nex'.
"Whiles Brer Rabbit settin' dar, Brer Bull-Frog fall ter mumblin'
ag'in an' it look like he 'bout ter drap off ter sleep, but bimeby
he talk louder, '_Be my frien'--be my frien'! Oh, be my frien'!_'
Brer Rabbit wunk one eye an' smole a smile, kaze he done hear a
heap er talk like dat. He wipe his face an' eyes wid his pocket-hankcher,
an' sot so still dat you'd 'a' thunk he wa'n't nothin' but a
chunk er wood. But Brer Bull-Frog, he know'd how ter stay still
hisse'f, an' he ain't so much ez bubble a bubble. But atter whiles,
when Brer Rabbit can't stay still no mo,' he got up fum whar he wuz
settin' at an' mosied out by de mill-race whar de grass is fresh an' de
trees is green.
"Brer Bull-Frog holla, '_Jug-er-rum--jug-er-rum! Wade in
here--I'll gi' you some!_' Now der nothin' dat ol' Brer Rabbit
like better dan a little bit er dram fer de stomach-ache, an' his mouf
'gun ter water right den an' dar. He went a little closer ter de mill
pon', an' Brer Bull-Frog keep on a-talkin' 'bout de jug er rum,
an' what he gwine do ef Brer Rabbit'will wade in dar. He look at
de water, an' it look mighty col'; he look ag'in an' it look mighty
deep. It say, 'Lap-lap!' an' it look like it's a-creepin' higher.
Brer Rabbit drawed back wid a shiver, an' he wish mighty much dat
he'd a fotch his overcoat.
"Brer Bull-Frog say, '_Knee deep--knee deep! Wade in--
wade in!_' an' he make de water bubble des like he takin' a dram.
Den an' dar, sump'n n'er happen, an' how it come ter happen Brer
Rabbit never kin tell; but he peeped in de pon' fer ter see ef he kin
ketch a glimp er de jug, an' in he went--_kerchug!_ He ain't never
know whedder he fall in, er slip in, er ef he was pushed in, but
dar he wuz! He come mighty nigh not gittin' out; but he scramble
an' he scuffle twel he git back ter de bank whar he kin clim' out,
an' he stood dar, he did, an' kinder shuck hisse'f, kaze he mighty
glad fer ter fin' dat he's in de worl' once mo'. He know'd dat a
lettel mo' an' he'd 'a' been gone fer good, kaze when he drapped in,
er jumped in, er fell in, he wuz over his head an' years, an' he
hatter do a sight er kickin' an' scufflin' an' swallerin' water 'fo' he kin
git whar he kin grab de grass on de bank.
"He sneeze an' snoze, an' wheeze an' whoze, twel it look like he'd
drown right whar he wuz stan'in' anyway you kin fix it. He say ter
hisse'f dat he ain't never gwineter git de tas'e er river water outer
his mouf an' nose, an' he wonder how in de worl' dat plain water
kin be so watery. Ol' Brer Bull-Frog, he laugh like a bull in de
pastur', an' Brer Rabbit gi' a sidelong look dat oughter tol' 'im ez
much ez a map kin tell one er deze yer school scholars. Brer Rabbit
look at 'im, but he ain't say narry a word. He des shuck hisse'f
once mo', an' put out fer home whar he kin set in front er de fire
an' git dry.
"Atter dat day, Brer Rabbit riz mighty soon an' went ter bed late,
an' he watch Brer Bull-Frog so close dat dey wa'n't nothin' he kin do
but what Brer Rabbit know' 'bout it time it 'uz done; an' one
thing he know'd better dan all--he know' dat when de winter time
come Brer Bull-Frog would have ter pack up his duds an' move over
in de bog whar de water don't git friz up. Dat much he know'd, an'
when dat time come, he laid off fer ter make Brer Bull-Frog's journey,
short ez it wuz, ez full er hap'nin's ez de day when de ol' cow
went dry. He tuck an' move his bed an' board ter de big holler
poplar, not fur fum de mill pon', an' dar he stayed an' keep one eye
on Brer Bull-Frog bofe night an' day. He ain't lose no flesh whiles
he waitin', kaze he ain't one er deze yer kin' what mopes an' gits
sollumcolly; he wuz all de time betwixt a grin an' a giggle.
"He know'd mighty well--none better--dat time goes by turns
in deze low groun's, an' he wait fer de day when Brer Bull-Frog
gwineter move his belongin's fum pon' ter bog. An' bimeby dat
time come, an' when it come, Brer Bull-Frog is done fergit off'n his
mind all 'bout Brer Rabbit an' his splashification. He rig hisse'f
out in his Sunday best, an' he look kerscrumptious ter dem what like
dat kinder doin's. He had on a little sojer hat wid green an' white
speckles all over it, an' a long green coat, an' satin britches, an'
a white silk wescut, an' shoes wid silver buckles. Mo' dan dat, he
had a green umbrell fer ter keep fum havin' freckles, an' his long
spotted tail wuz done up in de umbrell kivver so dat it won't drag on
de groun'."
Uncle Remus paused to see what the little boy would say to this
last statement, but the child's training prevented the asking of many
questions, and so he only laughed at the idea of a frog with a tail,
and the tail done up in the cover of a green umbrella. The laughter
of the youngster was hearty enough to satisfy the old negro, and he
went on with the story.
"Whiles all dis goin' on, honey, you better b'lieve dat Brer Rabbit
wa'n't so mighty fur fum dar. When Brer Bull-Frog come out
an' start fer ter promenade ter de bog, Brer Rabbit show hisse'f an'
make like he skeered. He broke an' run, an' den he stop fer ter see
what 'tis--an' den he run a leetle ways an' stop ag'in, an' he keep on
dodgin' an' runnin' twel he fool Brer Bull-Frog inter b'lievin' dat he
wuz skeer'd mighty nigh ter death.
"You know how folks does when dey git de idee dat somebody's
feared un um--ef you don't you'll fin' out long 'fo' yo' whiskers gits
ter hangin' to yo' knees. When folks take up dis idee, dey gits
biggity, an' dey ain't no stayin' in de same country wid um.
"Well, Brer Bull-Frog, he git de idee dat Brer Rabbit wuz 'fear'd
un 'im, an' he shuck his umbrell like he mad, an' he beller: 'Whar
my gun?' Brer Rabbit flung up bofe han's like he wuz skeer'd er
gittin' a load er shot in his vitals, an' den he broke an' run ez hard
ez he kin. Brer Bull-Frog holler out, 'Come yer, you vilyun, an'
le' me' gi' you de frailin' what I done promise you!' but ol' Brer
Rabbit, he keep on a-gwine. Brer Bull-Frog went hoppin' atter,
but he ain't make much headway, kaze all de time he wuz hoppin'
he wuz tryin' to strut.
"'Twuz e'en about ez much ez Brer Rabbit kin do ter keep fum
laughin', but he led Brer Bull-Frog ter de holler poplar, whar he
had his hatchet hid. Ez he went in' he 'low, 'You can't git me!'
He went in, he did, an' out he popped on t'er side. By dat time
Brer Bull-Frog wuz mighty certain an' sho dat Brer Rabbit wuz
skeer'd ez he kin be, an' inter de holler he went, widout so much ez
takin' de trouble ter shet up his umbrell. When he got in de holler,
in co'se he ain't see hide ner ha'r er Brer Rabbit, an' he beller out,
'Whar is you? You may hide, but I'll fin' you, an' when I does
--when I does!' He ain't say all he wanter say, kaze by dat time
Brer Rabbit wuz lammin' on de tree wid his hatchet. He hit it some
mighty heavy whacks, an' Brer Bull-Frog git de idee dat somebody
wuz cuttin' it down.
"Dat kinder skeer'd 'im, kaze he know dat ef de tree fell while he
in de holler, it'd be all-night Isom wid him. But when he make a
move fer ter turn roun' in dar fer ter come out, Brer Rabbit run
roun' ter whar he wuz, an' chop his tail off right smick-smack-smoove."
The veteran story-teller paused, and looked at the clouds that
were gathering in the sky. "'Twouldn't 'stonish me none," he
remarked dryly, "ef we wuz ter have some fallin' wedder."
"But, Uncle Remus, what happened when Brother Rabbit cut off
the Bull-Frog's tail?" inquired the little boy.
The old man sighed heavily, and looked around, as if he were
hunting for some way of escape. "Why, honey, when de Frog tail
wuz cut off, it stayed off, but dey tells me dat it kep' on a wigglin'
plum twel de sun went down. Dis much I does know, dat sence
dat day, none er de Frog fambly has been troubled wid tails. Ef
you don't believe me you kin ketch um an' see."
BROWNIE AND THE COOK
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
There was once a little Brownie who lived--where do you
think he lived?--In a coal cellar.
Now a coal cellar may seem a most curious place to choose to
live in; but then a Brownie is a curious creature--a fairy, and
yet not one of that sort of fairies who fly about on gossamer
wings, and dance in the moonlight, and so on. He never dances;
and as to wings, what use would they be to him in a coal cellar?
He is a sober, stay-at-home household elf--nothing much to look
at, even if you did see him, which you are not likely to do--only
a little old man, about a foot high, all dressed in brown, with a
brown face and hands, and a brown peaked cap, just the color of a
brown mouse. And like a mouse he hides in corners--especially
kitchen corners, and only comes out after dark when nobody is about,
and so sometimes people call him Mr. Nobody.
I said you were not likely to see him. I never did, certainly, and
never knew anybody that did; but still, if you were to go into
Devonshire, you would hear many funny stories about Brownies in
general, and so I may as well tell you the adventures of this
particular Brownie, who belonged to a family there; which family he
had followed from house to house, most faithfully, for years and
years.
A good many people had heard him--or supposed they had--
when there were extraordinary noises about the house; noises which
must have come from a mouse or a rat--or a Brownie. But nobody
had ever seen him, except the children, the three little boys and
three little girls--who declared he often came to play with them when
they were alone, and was the nicest companion in the world, though
he was such an old man--hundreds of years old! He was full of
fun and mischief and up to all sorts of tricks, but he never did
anybody any harm unless they deserved it.
Brownie was supposed to live under one particular coal, in the
darkest corner of the cellar, which was never allowed to be
disturbed. Why he had chosen it nobody knew, and how he lived there,
nobody knew either; nor what he lived upon. Except that, ever
since the family could remember, there had always been a bowl of
milk put behind the coal cellar door for the Brownie's supper.
Perhaps he drank it--perhaps he didn't: anyhow, the bowl was
always found empty next morning.
The old Cook, who had lived all her life in the family, had never
once forgotten to give Brownie his supper; but at last she died, and a
young Cook came in her stead, who was very apt to forget everything.
She was also both careless and lazy, and disliked taking
the trouble to put a bowl of milk in the same place every night for
Mr. Nobody. "She didn't believe in Brownies," she said; "she
had never seen one, and seeing's believing." So she laughed at the
other servants, who looked very grave, and put the bowl of milk in
its place as often as they could, without saying much about it.
But once, when Brownie woke up, at his usual hour for rising--
ten o'clock at night, and looked round in search of his supper--
which was in fact his breakfast, he found nothing there. At first
he could not imagine such neglect, and went smelling and smelling
about for his bowl of milk--it was not always placed in the same
corner now--but in vain.
"This will never do," said he; and being extremely hungry, began
running about the coal cellar to see what he could find. His eyes
were as useful in the dark as in the light--like a pussycat's; but
there was nothing to be seen--not even a potato paring, or a dry
crust, or a well-gnawed bone, such as Tiny the terrier sometimes
brought into the coal cellar and left on the floor. Nothing, in short,
but heaps of coals and coal dust, which even a Brownie cannot eat,
you know.
"Can't stand this; quite impossible!" said the Brownie, tightening
his belt to make his poor little inside feel less empty. He had been
asleep so long--about a week, I believe, as was his habit when there
was nothing to do---that he seemed ready to eat his own head, or his
boots, or anything. "What's to be done? Since nobody brings my
supper I must go and fetch it."
He spoke quickly, for he always thought quickly and made up
his mind in a minute. To be sure it was a very little mind, like his
little body; but he did the best he could with it, and was not a bad
sort of old fellow after all. In the house he had never done any
harm--and often some good, for he frightened away all the rats,
mice, and black beetles. Not the crickets--he liked them, as the
old Cook had done: she said they were such cheerful creatures, and
always brought luck to the house. But the young Cook could not
bear them, and used to pour boiling water down their holes, and set
basins of beer with little wooden bridges up to the rim, that they
might walk up, tumble in, and be drowned.
So there was not even a cricket singing in the silent house when
Brownie put his head out of his coal cellar door, which, to his
surprise, he found open. Old Cook used to lock it every night;
but the young Cook had left that key, and the kitchen and pantry
keys too, all dangling in the lock, so that any thief might have got
in and wandered all over the house without being found out.
"Hurrah, here's luck!" cried Brownie, tossing his cap up in
the air, and bounding right through the scullery into the kitchen.
It was quite empty, but there was a good fire burning itself out--
just for its own amusement, and the remains of a capital supper
were spread on the table--enough for half-a-dozen people being
left still.
Would you like to know what there was? Devonshire cream, of
course; and part of a large dish of junket, which is something like
curds and whey. Lots of bread and butter and cheese, and half an
apple pudding. Also a great jug of cider and another of milk,
and several half-full glasses, and no end of dirty plates, knives, and
forks. All were scattered about the table in the most untidy fashion,
just as the servants had risen from their supper, without thinking to
put anything away.
Brownie screwed up his little old face and turned up his button
of a nose, and gave a long whistle. You might not believe it, seeing
he lived in a coal cellar, but really he liked tidiness and always
played his pranks upon disorderly or slovenly folk.
"Whew!" said he, "here's a chance! What a supper I'll get
now!"
And he jumped on to a chair and thence to the table, but so quietly
that the large black cat with four white paws, called Muff, because
she was so fat and soft and her fur so long, who sat dozing in front
of the fire, just opened one eye and went to sleep again. She had
tried to get her nose into the milk jug, but it was too small; and
the junket dish was too deep for her to reach, except with one paw.
She didn't care much for bread and cheese and apple pudding, and
was very well fed besides; so after just wandering round the table
she had jumped down from it again, and settled herself to sleep on
the hearth.
But Brownie had no notion of going to sleep. He wanted his
supper, and oh! what a supper he did eat! first one thing and then
another, and then trying everything all over again. And oh! what
a lot he drank!--first milk and then cider, and then mixed the two
together in a way that would have disagreed with anybody except a
Brownie. As it was, he was obliged to slacken his belt several times,
and at last took it off altogether. But he must have had a most
extraordinary capacity for eating and drinking--since, after he
had nearly cleared the table, he was just as lively as ever, and
began jumping about on the table as if he had had no supper at all.
Now his jumping was a little awkward, for there happened to be
a clean white tablecloth! as this was only Monday, it had had no time
to get dirty--untidy as the Cook was. And you know Brownie lived
in a coal cellar, and his feet were black with running about in coal
dust. So wherever he trod, he left the impression behind; until at
last the whole tablecloth was covered with black marks.
Not that he minded this; in fact, he took great pains to make the
cloth as dirty as possible; and then laughing loudly, "Ho, ho, ho!"
leaped on to the hearth, and began teasing the cat; squeaking like a
mouse, or chirping like a cricket, or buzzing like a fly; and altogether
disturbing poor Pussy's mind so much, that she went and hid herself in
the farthest corner, and left him the hearth all to himself, where he
lay at ease till daybreak.
Then, hearing a slight noise overhead, which might be the servants
getting up, he jumped on to the table again--gobbled up the
few remaining crumbs for his breakfast, and scampered off to his
coal cellar; where he hid himself under his big coal, and fell asleep
for the day.
Well, the Cook came downstairs rather earlier than usual, for she
remembered she had to clear off the remains of supper; but lo and
behold, there was nothing left to clear! Every bit of food was
eaten up--the cheese looked as if a dozen mice had been nibbling
at it, and nibbled it down to the very rind; the milk and cider were
all drunk--and mice don't care for milk and cider, you know: as for
the apple pudding, it had vanished altogether; and the dish was
licked as clean as if Boxer the yard dog had been at it, in his
hungriest mood.
"And my white tablecloth--oh, my clean white tablecloth!
What can have been done to it?" cried she in amazement. For it
was all over little black footmarks, just the size of a baby's foot--
only babies don't wear shoes with nails in them, and don't run about
and climb on kitchen tables after all the family have gone to bed.
Cook was a little frightened; but her fright changed to anger
when she saw the large black cat stretched comfortably on the
hearth. Poor Muff had crept there for a little snooze after Brownie
went away.
"You nasty cat! I see it all now; it's you that have eaten up all
the supper; it's you that have been on my clean tablecloth with
your dirty paws."
They were white paws, and as clean as possible; but Cook never
thought of that, any more than she did of the fact that cats don't
usually drink cider or eat apple pudding.
"I'll teach you to come stealing food in this way; take that--
and that--and that!"
Cook got hold of a broom and beat poor Pussy till the creature ran
mewing away. She couldn't speak, you know--unfortunate cat!
and tell people that it was Brownie who had done it all.
Next night Cook thought she would make all safe and sure; so,
instead of letting the cat sleep by the fire, she shut her up in the
chilly coal cellar--locked the door, put the key in her pocket, and
went off to bed; leaving the supper as before.
When Brownie woke up and looked out of his hole, there was as
usual no supper for him, and the cellar was close shut. He peered
about, to try and find some cranny under the door to creep out at,
but there was none. And he felt so hungry that he could almost
have eaten the cat, who kept walking to and fro in a melancholy
manner--only she was alive, and he couldn't well eat her alive:--
besides he knew she was old, and had an idea she might be tough;
so he merely said, politely, "How do you do, Mrs. Pussy?" to
which she answered nothing--of course.
Something must be done, and luckily Brownies can do things
which nobody else can do. So he thought he would change himself
into a mouse, and gnaw a hole through the door. But then he suddenly
remembered the cat, who, though he had decided not to eat
her, might take this opportunity of eating him. So he thought it
advisable to wait till she was fast asleep, which did not happen for
a good while. At length, quite tired with walking about, Pussy
turned round on her tail six times, curled down in a corner, and fell
fast asleep.
Immediately Brownie changed himself into the smallest mouse
possible; and, taking care not to make the least noise, gnawed a hole
in the door, and squeezed himself through--immediately turning
into his proper shape again, for fear of accidents.
The kitchen fire was at its last glimmer; but it showed a better
supper than even last night, for the Cook had had friends with her,
a brother and two cousins, and they had been exceedingly merry.
The food they had left behind was enough for three Brownies at least,
but this one managed to eat it all up. Only once, in trying to cut
a great slice of beef, he let the carving knife and fork fall with
such a clatter, that Tiny the terrier, who was tied up at the foot of
the stairs, began to bark furiously. However, he brought her her
puppy, which had been left in a basket in a corner of the kitchen,
and so succeeded in quieting her.
After that he enjoyed himself amazingly, and made more marks
than ever on the white tablecloth--for he began jumping about
like a pea on a trencher, in order to make his particularly large
supper agree with him.
Then, in the absence of the cat, he teased the puppy for an hour
or two, till, hearing the clock strike five, he thought it as well to
turn into a mouse again, and creep back cautiously into his cellar.
He was only just in time, for Muff opened one eye, and was just
going to pounce upon him, when he changed himself back into a
Brownie. She was so startled that she bounded away, her tail growing
into twice its natural size, and her eyes gleaming like round
green globes. But Brownie only said, "Ha, ha, ho!" and walked
deliberately into his hole.
When Cook came downstairs and saw that the same thing had
happened again--that the supper was all eaten, and the tablecloth
blacker than ever with extraordinary footmarks, she was greatly
puzzled. Who could have done it all? Not the cat, who came mewing
out of the coal cellar the minute she unlocked the door. Possibly
a rat--but then would a rat have come within reach of Tiny?
"It must have been Tiny herself, or her puppy," which just came
rolling out of its basket over Cook's feet. "You little wretch! You
and your mother are the greatest nuisance imaginable. I'll punish
you!"
And quite forgetting that Tiny had been safely tied up all night,
and that her poor little puppy was so fat and helpless it could
scarcely stand on its legs--and so was unlikely to jump on chairs
and tables, she gave them both such a thrashing that they ran howling
together out of the kitchen door, where the kind little kitchen maid
took them up in her arms.
"You ought to have beaten the Brownie, if you could catch him,"
said she in a whisper. "He'll do it again and again, you'll see, for
he can't bear an untidy kitchen. You'd better do as poor old Cook
did, and clear the supper things away, and put the odds and ends
safe in the larder; also," she added mysteriously, "if I were you,
I'd put a bowl of milk behind the coal-cellar door."
"Nonsense!" answered the young Cook and flounced away. But
afterwards she thought better of it, and did as she was advised,
grumbling all the time, but doing it.
Next morning, the milk was gone! Perhaps Brownie had drunk
it up, anyhow nobody could say that he hadn't. As for the supper,
Cook having safely laid it on the shelves of the larder, nobody
touched it. And the tablecloth, which was wrapped up tidily and
put in the dresser drawer, came out as clean as ever, with not a
single black footmark upon it. No mischief being done, the cat
and the dog both escaped beating, and Brownie played no more
tricks with anybody--till the next time.
THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER; OR, THE BLACK BROTHERS
John Ruskin
CHAPTER I
HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED
WITH BY SOUTHWEST WIND, ESQUIRE
In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria there was in old
time a valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was
surrounded on all sides by steep and rocky mountains, rising into
peaks which were always covered with snow, and from which a
number of torrents descended in constant cataracts. One of these
fell westward over the face of a crag so high, that, when the sun had
set to everything else, and all below was darkness, his beams still
shone full upon this waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of
gold. It was, therefore, called by the people of the neighborhood,
the Golden River. It was strange that none of these streams fell
into the valley itself. They all descended on the other side of the
mountains, and wound away through broad plains and by populous
cities. But the clouds were drawn so constantly to the snowy hills,
and rested so softly in the circular hollow, that in time of drought
and heat, when all the country round was burnt up, there was still
rain in the little valley; and its crops were so heavy and its hay so
high, and its apples so red, and its grapes so blue, and its wine so
rich, and its honey so sweet, that it was a marvel to every one who
beheld it, and was commonly called the Treasure Valley.
The whole of this little valley belonged to three brothers called
Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck. Schwartz and Hans, the two elder
brothers, were very ugly men, with overhanging eyebrows and small
dull eyes, which were always half shut, so that you could not see
into _them_, and always fancied they saw very far into _you_.
They lived by farming the Treasure Valley, and very good farmers they
were. They killed everything that did not pay for its eating. They
shot the blackbirds, because they pecked the fruit; and killed the
hedgehogs, lest they should suck the cows; they poisoned the crickets
for eating the crumbs in the kitchen; and smothered the cicadas,
which used to sing all summer in the lime trees. They worked their
servants without any wages, till they would not work any more, and
then quarreled with them, and turned them out of doors without
paying them. It would have been very odd if with such a farm and
such a system of farming they hadn't got very rich; and very rich
they _did_ get. They generally contrived to keep their corn by them
till it was very dear, and then sell it for twice its value; they had
heaps of gold lying about on their floors, yet it was never known that
they had given so much as a penny or a crust in charity; they never
went to mass; grumbled perpetually at paying tithes; and were, in
a word, of so cruel and grinding a temper, as to receive from all those
with whom they had any dealings, the nickname of the "Black
Brothers."
The youngest brother, Gluck, was as completely opposed, in both
appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly be
imagined or desired. He was not above twelve years old, fair, blue-eyed,
and kind in temper to every living thing. He did not, of
course, agree particularly well with his brothers, or rather, they
did not agree with _him_. He was usually appointed to the honorable
office of turnspit, when there was anything to roast, which was not
often; for, to do the brothers justice, they were hardly less sparing
upon themselves than upon other people. At other times he used
to clean the shoes, floors, and sometimes the plates, occasionally
getting what was left on them, by way of encouragement, and a
wholesome quantity of dry blows, by way of education.
Things went on in this manner for a long time. At last came
a very wet summer, and everything went wrong in the country around.
The hay had hardly been got in when the haystacks were floated
bodily down to the sea by an inundation; the vines were cut to pieces
with the hail; the corn was all killed by a black blight; only in
the Treasure Valley, as usual, all was safe. As it had rain when
there was rain nowhere else, so it had sun when there was sun nowhere
else. Everybody came to buy corn at the farm, and went away pouring
maledictions on the Black Brothers. They asked what they liked, and
got it, except from the poor people, who could only beg, and several
of whom were starved at their very door without the slightest regard
or notice.
It was drawing towards Winter, and very cold weather, when
one day the two elder brothers had gone out with their usual warning
to little Gluck, who was left to mind the roast, that he was to let
nobody in and give nothing out. Gluck sat down quite close to the
fire, for it was raining very hard, and the kitchen walls were by
no means dry or comfortable looking. He turned and turned, and
the roast got nice and brown. "What a pity," thought Gluck, "my
brothers never ask anybody to dinner. I'm sure when they have
such a nice piece of mutton as this, and nobody else has got so much
as a piece of dry bread, it would do their hearts good to have somebody
to eat it with them."
Just as he spoke there came a double knock at the house door, yet
heavy and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up--more like
a puff than a knock.
"It must be the wind," said Gluck; "nobody else would venture to
knock double knocks at our door."
No; it wasn't the wind: there it came again very hard; and what
was particularly astounding, the knocker seemed to be in a hurry,
and not to be in the least afraid of the consequences. Gluck
went to the window, opened it, and put his head out to see who it
was.
It was the most extraordinary-looking little gentleman he had
ever seen in his life. He had a very large nose, slightly
brass-colored; his cheeks were very round and very red, and might have
warranted a supposition that he had been blowing a refractory fire
for the last eight-and-forty hours; his eyes twinkled merrily through
long silky eyelashes, his mustaches curled twice round like a corkscrew
on each side of his mouth, and his hair, of a curious mixed
pepper-and-salt-color, descended far over his shoulders. He was
about four-feet-six in height, and wore a conical pointed cap of nearly
the same altitude, decorated with a black feather some three feet
long. His doublet was prolonged behind into something resembling
a violent exaggeration of what is now termed a "swallowtail," but
was much obscured by the swelling folds of an enormous black,
glossy-looking cloak, which must have been very much too long in
calm weather, as the wind, whistling round the old house, carried
it clear out from the wearer's shoulders to about four times his own
length.
Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of
his visitor that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the
old gentleman, having performed another and a more energetic concerto
on the knocker, turned round to look after his fly-away cloak.
In so doing he caught sight of Gluck's little yellow head jammed in
the window, with his mouth and eyes very wide-open indeed.
"Hollo!" said the little gentleman, "that's not the way to answer
the door: I'm wet, let me in."
To do the little gentleman justice, he _was_ wet. His feather hung
down between his legs like a beaten puppy's tail, dripping like an
umbrella; and from the ends of his mustaches the water was running
into his waistcoat pockets, and out again like a mill stream.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck, "I'm very sorry, but I really
can't."
"Can't what?" said the old gentleman.
"I can't let you in, sir,--I can't indeed; my brothers would beat
me to death, sir, if I thought of such a thing. What do you want,
sir?"
"Want?" said the old gentleman, petulantly. "I want fire and
shelter; and there's your great fire there, blazing, crackling, and
dancing on the walls, with nobody to feel it. Let me in, I say; I only
want to warm myself."
Gluck had had his head so long out of the window by this time
that he began to feel it was really unpleasantly cold, and when he
turned and saw the beautiful fire rustling and roaring, and throwing
long, bright tongues up the chimney, as if it were licking its chops
at the savory smell of the leg of mutton, his heart melted within him
that it should be burning away for nothing. "He does look _very_
wet," said little Gluck; "I'll just let him in for a quarter of an hour."
Round he went to the door and opened it; and as the little gentleman
walked in there came a gust of wind through the house that made the
old chimneys totter.
"That's a good boy," said the little gentleman. "Never mind
your brothers. I'll talk to them."
"Pray, sir, don't do any such thing," said Gluck. "I can't let
you stay till they come: they'd be the death of me."
"Dear me," said the old gentleman, "I'm very sorry to hear that.
How long may I stay?"
"Only till the mutton's done, sir," replied Gluck, "and it's very
brown."
Then the old gentleman walked into the kitchen, and sat himself
down on the hob, with the top of his cap accommodated up the chimney,
for it was a great deal too high for the roof.
"You'll soon dry there, sir," said Gluck, and sat down again
to turn the mutton. But the old gentleman did _not_ dry there, but
went on drip, drip, dripping among the cinders, and the fire fizzed,
and sputtered, and began to look very black and uncomfortable.
Never was such a cloak; every fold in it ran like a gutter.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck at length, after watching the
water spreading in long, quicksilver-like streams over the floor for a
quarter of an hour; "mayn't I take your cloak?"
"No, thank you," said the old gentleman.
"Your cap, sir?"
"I am all right, thank you," said the old gentleman, rather
gruffly.
"But,--sir,--I'm very sorry," said Gluck, hesitatingly; "but--really,
sir,--you're--putting the fire out."
"It'll take longer to do the mutton, then," replied his visitor
dryly.
Gluck was very much puzzled by the behavior of his guest; it was
such a strange mixture of coolness and humility. He turned away
at the string meditatively for another five minutes.
"That mutton looks very nice," said the old gentleman at length.
"Can't you give me a little bit?"
"Impossible, sir," said Gluck.
"I'm very hungry," continued the old gentleman; "I've had nothing
to eat yesterday nor today. They surely couldn't miss a bit
from the knuckle!"
He spoke in so very melancholy a tone that it quite melted Gluck's
heart. "They promised me one slice today, sir," said he; "I can
give you that, but not a bit more."
"That's a good boy," said the old gentleman again.
Then Gluck warmed a plate, and sharpened a knife. "I don't
care if I do get beaten for it." thought he. Just as he had cut a large
slice out of the mutton, there came a tremendous rap at the door.
The old gentleman jumped off the hob, as if it had suddenly
become inconveniently warm. Gluck fitted the slice into the
mutton again, with desperate efforts at exactitude, and ran to open
the door.
"What did you keep us waiting in the rain for?" said Schwartz, as
he walked in, throwing his umbrella in Gluck's face. "Ay! what
for, indeed, you little vagabond?" said Hans, administering an
educational box on the ear, as he followed his brother into the
kitchen.
"Bless my soul!" said Schwartz, when he opened the door.
"Amen," said the little gentleman, who had taken his cap off, and
was standing in the middle of the kitchen, bowing with the utmost
possible velocity.
"Who's that?" said Schwartz, catching up a rolling-pin, and turning
to Gluck with a fierce frown.
"I don't know, indeed, brother," said Gluck, in great terror.
"How did he get in?" roared Schwartz.
"My dear brother," said Gluck, deprecatingly, "he was so
_very_ wet!"
The rolling-pin was descending on Gluck's head; but at the instant
the old gentleman interposed his conical cap, on which it
crashed with a shock that shook the water out of it all over the room.
What was very odd, the rolling-pin no sooner touched the cap than
it flew out of Schwartz's hand, spinning like a straw in a high wind,
and fell into the corner at the farther end of the room.
"Who are you, sir?" demanded Schwartz, turning upon him.
"What's your business?" snarled Hans.
"I'm a poor old man, sir," the little gentleman began very
modestly, "and I saw your fire through the window, and begged
shelter for a quarter of an hour."
"Have the goodness to walk out again, then," said Schwartz.
"We've quite enough water in our kitchen without making it a
drying-house."
"It is a cold day to turn an old man out in, sir; look at my gray
hairs." They hung down to his shoulders, as I told you before.
"Ay!" said Hans, "there are enough of them to keep you warm.
Walk!"
"I'm very, very hungry, sir; couldn't you spare me a bit of bread
before I go?"
"Bread, indeed!" said Schwartz; "do you suppose we've nothing
to do with our bread but to give it to such red-nosed fellows as
you?"
"Why don't you sell your feather?" said Hans, sneeringly.
"Out with you!"
"A little bit," said the old gentleman.
"Be off!" said Schwartz.
"Pray, gentlemen--"
"Off, and be hanged!" cried Hans, seizing him by the collar.
But he had no sooner touched the old gentleman's collar, than
away he went after the rolling-pin, spinning round and round, till
he fell into the corner on the top of it. Then Schwartz was very
angry, and ran at the old gentleman to turn him out; but he also
had hardly touched him, when away he went after Hans and the
rolling-pin, and hit his head against the wall as he tumbled into the
corner. And so there they lay, all three.
Then the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in the
opposite direction; continued to spin until his long cloak was all
wound neatly about him: clapped his cap on his head, very much on
one side (for it could not stand upright without going through the
ceiling), gave an additional twist to his corkscrew mustaches, and
replied with perfect coolness: "Gentlemen, I wish you a very
good morning. At twelve o'clock tonight I'll call again; after such
a refusal of hospitality as I have just experienced, you will not be
surprised if that visit is the last I ever pay you."
"If ever I catch you here again," muttered Schwartz, coming,
half frightened, out of the corner--but, before he could finish his
sentence, the old gentleman had shut the house door behind him with
a great bang: and there drove past the window, at the same instant,
a wreath of ragged cloud, that whirled and rolled away down the
valley in all manner of shapes; turning over and over in the air,
and melting away at last in a gush of rain.
"A very pretty business, indeed, Mr. Gluck!" said Schwartz.
"Dish the mutton, sir. If ever I catch you at such a trick again
--bless me, why, the mutton's been cut!"
"You promised me one slice, brother, you know," said Gluck.
"Oh! and you were cutting it hot, I suppose, and going to catch
all the gravy. It'll be long before I promise you such a thing
again. Leave the room, sir; and have the kindness to wait in the
coal cellar till I call you."
Gluck left the room, melancholy enough. The brothers ate as
much mutton as they could, locked the rest into the cupboard, and
proceeded to get very drunk after dinner.
Such a night as it was! Howling wind, and rushing rain, without
intermission. The brothers had just sense enough left to put up
all the shutters, and double-bar the door, before they went to bed.
They usually slept in the same room. As the clock struck twelve,
they were both awakened by a tremendous crash. Their door burst
open with a violence that shook the house from top to bottom.
"What's that?" cried Schwartz, starting up in his bed.
"Only I," said the little gentleman.
The two brothers sat up on their bolster, and stared into the
darkness. The room was full of water; and by a misty moonbeam,
which found its way through a hole in the shutter, they could see in
the midst of it an enormous foam globe, spinning round, and bobbing
up and down like a cork, on which, as on a most luxurious
cushion, reclined the little old gentleman, cap and all. There
was plenty of room for it now, for the roof was off.
"Sorry to incommode you," said their visitor, ironically. "I'm
afraid your beds are dampish; perhaps you had better go to your
brother's room: I've left the ceiling on there."
They required no second admonition, but rushed into Gluck's
room, wet through, and in an agony of terror.
"You'll find my card on the kitchen table," the old gentleman
called after them. "Remember, the _last_ visit."
"Pray Heaven it may!" said Schwartz, shuddering. And the
foam globe disappeared.
Dawn came at last, and the two brothers looked out of Gluck's
little window in the morning. The Treasure Valley was one mass
of ruin and desolation. The inundation had swept away trees,
crops, and cattle, and left in their stead a waste of red sand and
gray mud. The two brothers crept shivering and horror-struck into
the kitchen. The water had gutted the whole first floor; corn, money,
almost every movable thing had been swept away, and there was
left only a small white card on the kitchen table. On it, in large,
breezy, long-legged letters, were engraved the words:
_SOUTHWEST WIND, ESQUIRE_
CHAPTER II
OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE THREE BROTHERS AFTER THE VISIT OF SOUTHWEST
WIND, ESQUIRE; AND HOW LITTLE GLUCK HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF
THE GOLDEN RIVER
Southwest Wind, Esquire, was as good as his word. After the
momentous visit above related, he entered the Treasure Valley no
more; and what was worse, he had so much influence with his relations,
the West Winds in general, and used it so effectually, that
they all adopted a similar line of conduct. So no rain fell in the
valley from one year's end to another. Though everything remained
green and flourishing in the plains below, the inheritance of the
Three Brothers was a desert. What had once been the richest soil
in the kingdom became a shifting heap of red sand; and the brothers,
unable longer to contend with the adverse skies, abandoned their
valueless patrimony in despair, to seek some means of gaining a
livelihood among the cities and people of the plains. All their
money was gone, and they had nothing left but some curious, old-
fashioned pieces of gold plate, the last remnants of their ill-gotten
wealth.
"Suppose we turn goldsmiths?" said Schwartz to Hans, as they
entered the large city. "It is a good knave's trade; we can put a
great deal of copper into the gold without any one's finding it out."
The thought was agreed to be a very good one; they hired a
furnace, and turned goldsmiths. But two slight circumstances
affected their trade: the first, that people did not approve of the
coppered gold; the second, that the two elder brothers whenever they
had sold anything used to leave little Gluck to mind the furnace,
and go and drink out the money in the alehouse next door. So
they melted all their gold, without making money enough to buy
more, and were at last reduced to one large drinking mug, which an
uncle of his had given to little Gluck, and which he was very fond
of, and would not have parted with for the world; though he never
drank anything out of it but milk and water. The mug was a very
odd mug to look at. The handle was formed of two wreaths of
flowing golden hair, so finely spun that it looked more like silk
than metal, and these wreaths descended into and mixed with a
beard and whiskers of the same exquisite workmanship, which surrounded
and decorated a very fierce little face, of the reddest gold
imaginable, right in the front of the mug, with a pair of eyes in it
which seemed to command its whole circumference. It was impossible
to drink from the mug without being subjected to an intense
gaze out of the side of these eyes; and Schwartz positively averred
that once after emptying it full of Rhenish seventeen times he had
seen them wink! When it came to the mug's turn to be made into
spoons, it half broke poor little Gluck's heart; but the brothers only
laughed at him, tossed the mug into the melting pot, and staggered
out to the alehouse, leaving him, as usual, to pour the gold into bars,
when it was all ready.
When they were gone, Gluck took a farewell look at his old friend
in the melting pot. The flowing hair was all gone; nothing remained
but the red nose and the sparkling eyes, which looked more
malicious than ever. "And no wonder," thought Gluck, "after
being treated in that way." He sauntered disconsolately to the
window, and sat himself down to catch the fresh evening air, and
escape the hot breath of the furnace. Now this window commanded
a direct view of the range of mountains, which, as I told you before,
overhung the Treasure Valley, and more especially of the peak from
which fell the Golden River. It was just at the close of the day;
and when Gluck sat down at the window, he saw the rocks of the
mountain tops all crimson and purple with the sunset; and there
were bright tongues of fiery cloud burning and quivering about
them; and the river, brighter than all, fell in a waving column of
pure gold from precipice to precipice, with the double arch of a
broad purple rainbow stretched across it, flushing and fading
alternately in the wreaths of spray.
"Ah!" said Gluck aloud, after he had looked at it for a while,
"if that river were really all gold, what a nice thing it would be."
"No, it wouldn't, Gluck," said a clear metallic voice, close at
his ear.
"Bless me! what's that?" exclaimed Gluck, jumping up. There
was nobody there. He looked round the room, and under the table,
and a great many times behind him, but there was certainly nobody
there, and he sat down again at the window. This time he didn't
speak, but he couldn't help thinking again that it would be very
convenient if the river were really all gold.
"Not at all, my boy," said the same voice, louder than before.
"Bless me!" said Gluck again, "what _is_ that?" He looked
again into all the corners and cupboards, and then began turning
round and round as fast as he could in the middle of the room,
thinking there was somebody behind him, when the same voice struck
again on his ear. It was singing now very merrily, "Lala-lira-la";
no words, only a soft, running, effervescent melody, something like
that of a kettle on the boil. Gluck looked out of the window. No,
it was certainly in the house. Upstairs, and downstairs. No, it was
certainly in that very room, coming in quicker time and clearer notes
every moment. "Lala-lira-la." All at once it struck Gluck that it
sounded louder near the furnace. He ran to the opening, and looked
in: yes, he saw right, it seemed to be coming not only out of the
furnace, but out of the pot. He uncovered it, and ran back in a
great fright, for the pot was certainly singing! He stood in the
farthest corner of the room with his hands up and his mouth open,
for a minute or two when the singing stopped, and the voice became
clear and pronunciative.
"Hollo!" said the voice.
Gluck made no answer.
"Hollo! Gluck, my boy," said the pot again.
Gluck summoned all his energies, walked straight up to the crucible,
drew it out of the furnace and looked in. The gold was all
melted, and its surface as smooth and polished as a river; but instead
of reflecting little Gluck's head as he looked in, he saw meeting his
glance from beneath the gold the red nose and sharp eyes of his
old friend of the mug, a thousand times redder and sharper than
ever he had seen them in his life.
"Come, Gluck, my boy," said the voice out of the pot again, "I'm
all right; pour me out."
But Gluck was too much astonished to do anything of the kind.
"Pour me out, I say," said the voice, rather gruffly.
Still Gluck couldn't move.
"_Will_ you pour me out?" said the voice, passionately, "I'm too
hot."
By a violent effort Gluck recovered the use of his limbs, took hold
of the crucible, and sloped it so as to pour out the gold. But
instead of a liquid stream there came out, first, a pair of pretty
little yellow legs, then some coat tails, then a pair of arms stuck
akimbo, and, finally, the well-known head of his friend the mug; all
which articles, uniting as they rolled out, stood up energetically on
the floor, in the shape of a little golden dwarf about a foot and a
half high.
"That's right!" said the dwarf, stretching out first his legs, and
then his arms, and then shaking his head up and down, and as far
round as it would go, for five minutes without stopping, apparently
with the view of ascertaining if he were quite correctly put together,
while Gluck stood contemplating him in speechless amazement.
He was dressed in a slashed doublet of spun gold, so fine in its texture
that the prismatic colors gleamed over it, as if on a surface
of mother of pearl; and over this brilliant doublet his hair and beard
fell full halfway to the ground in waving curls, so exquisitely delicate,
that Gluck could hardly tell where they ended; they seemed to
melt into air. The features of the face, however, were by no means
finished with the same delicacy; they were rather coarse, slightly
inclined to coppery in complexion, and indicative, in expression,
of a very pertinacious and intractable disposition in their small
proprietor. When the dwarf had finished his self-examination, he
turned his small sharp eyes full on Gluck, and stared at him deliberately
for a minute or two. "No, it wouldn't, Gluck, my boy," said the little
man.
This was certainly rather an abrupt and unconnected mode of
commencing conversation. It might indeed be supposed to refer to
the course of Gluck's thoughts, which had first produced the dwarf's
observations out of the pot; but whatever it referred to, Gluck had
no inclination to dispute what he said.
"Wouldn't it, sir?" said Gluck, very mildly and submissively
indeed.
"No," said the dwarf, conclusively. "No, it wouldn't." And
with that the dwarf pulled his cap hard over his brows, and took
two turns, of three feet long, up and down the room, lifting his legs
up very high and setting them down very hard. This pause gave
time for Gluck to collect his thoughts a little, and seeing no great
reason to view his diminutive visitor with dread, and feeling his
curiosity overcome his amazement, he ventured on a question of
peculiar delicacy.
"Pray, sir," said Gluck, rather hesitatingly, "were you my mug?"
On which the little man turned sharp round, walked straight
up to Gluck, and drew himself up to his full height. "I," said the
little man, "am the King of the Golden River." Whereupon he
turned about again, and took two more turns some six feet long in
order to allow time for the consternation which this announcement
produced in his auditor to evaporate. After which he again walked
up to Gluck and stood still, as if expecting some comment on his
communication.
Gluck determined to say something at all events. "I hope your
Majesty is very well," said Gluck.
"Listen!" said the little man, deigning no reply to this polite
inquiry. "I am the King of what you mortals call the Golden
River. The shape you saw me in was owing to the malice of a
stronger king, from whose enchantments you have this instant freed
me. What I have seen of you, and your conduct to your wicked
brothers, renders me willing to serve you; therefore, attend to what
I tell you. Whoever shall climb to the top of that mountain from
which you see the Golden River issue, and shall cast into the stream
at its source three drops of holy water, for him, and for him only,
the river shall turn to gold. But no one failing in his first can
succeed in a second attempt; and if any one shall cast unholy water
into the river it will overwhelm him, and he will become a black
stone." So saying, the King of the Golden River turned away and
deliberately walked into the center of the hottest flame of the
furnace. His figure became red, white, transparent, dazzling,--a
blaze of intense light,--rose, trembled, and disappeared. The King
of the Golden River had evaporated.
"Oh!" cried poor Gluck, running to look up the chimney after
him; "oh, dear, dear, dear me! My mug! my mug! my mug!"
CHAPTER III
HOW MR. HANS SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED THEREIN
The King of the Golden River had hardly made the extraordinary
exit related in the last chapter before Hans and Schwartz came
roaring into the house very savagely drunk. The discovery of the
total loss of their last piece of plate had the effect of sobering
them just enough to enable them to stand over Gluck, beating him
very steadily for a quarter of an hour; at the expiration of which
period they dropped into a couple of chairs, and requested to know
what he had got to say for himself. Gluck told them his story, of
which, of course, they did not believe a word. They beat him again,
till their arms were tired, and staggered to bed. In the morning,
however, the steadiness with which he adhered to his story obtained
him some degree of credence; the immediate consequence of which was
that the two brothers, after wrangling a long time on the knotty
question, Which of them should try his fortune first, drew their
swords and began fighting. The noise of the fray alarmed the
neighbors, who, finding they could not pacify the combatants, sent
for the constable.
Hans, on hearing this, contrived to escape, and hid himself; but
Schwartz was taken before the magistrate, fined for breaking the
peace, and having drunk out his last penny the evening before, was
thrown into prison till he should pay.
When Hans heard this, he was much delighted, and determined
to set out immediately for the Golden River. How to get the holy
water was the question. He went to the priest, but the priest could
not give any holy water to so abandoned a character. So Hans went
to vespers in the evening for the first time in his life, and, under
pretense of crossing himself, stole a cupful and returned home in
triumph.
Next morning he got up before the sun rose, put the holy water
into a strong flask, and two bottles of wine and some meat in a
basket, slung them over his back, took his alpine staff in his hand,
and set off for the mountains.
On his way out of the town he had to pass the prison, and as he
looked in at the windows, whom should he see but Schwartz himself
peeping out of the bars, and looking very disconsolate.
"Good morning, brother," said Hans; "have you any message
for the King of the Golden River?"
Schwartz gnashed his teeth with rage, and shook the bars with
all his strength; but Hans only laughed at him, and advising him
to make himself comfortable till he came back again, shouldered his
basket, shook the bottle of holy water in Schwartz's face till it
frothed again, and marched off in the highest spirits in the world.
It was indeed a morning that might have made any one happy,
even with no Golden River to seek for. Level lines of dewy mist
lay stretched along the valley, out of which rose the massy mountains
--their lower cliffs in pale gray shadow, hardly distinguishable
from the floating vapor, but gradually ascending till they caught
the sunlight, which ran in sharp touches of ruddy color along the
angular crags, and pierced, in long level rays, through their fringes
of spear-like pine. Far above, shot up red splintered masses of
castellated rock, jagged and shivered into myriads of fantastic forms,
with here and there a streak of sunlit snow, traced down their chasms
like a line of forked lightning; and far beyond and above all these,
fainter than the morning cloud, but purer and changeless, slept in
the blue sky the utmost peaks of the eternal snow.
The Golden River, which sprang from one of the lower and snowless
elevations, was now nearly in shadow; all but the uppermost jets
of spray, which rose like slow smoke above the undulating line of the
cataract, and floated away in feeble wreaths upon the morning wind.
On this object, and on this alone, Hans' eyes and thoughts were
fixed; forgetting the distance he had to traverse, he set off at an
imprudent rate of walking, which greatly exhausted him before he
had scaled the first range of the green and low hills. He was,
moreover, surprised on surmounting them, to find that a large glacier,
of whose existence, notwithstanding his previous knowledge of the
mountains, he had been absolutely ignorant, lay between him and
the source of the Golden River. He mounted it though, with the
boldness of a practiced mountaineer; yet he thought he had never
traversed so strange or so dangerous a glacier in his life. The ice
was excessively slippery, and out of all its chasms came wild sounds
of gushing water; not monotonous or low, but changeful and loud,
rising occasionally into drifting passages of wild melody, then
breaking off into short melancholy tones, or sudden shrieks, resembling
those of human voices in distress or pain. The ice was broken into
thousands of confused shapes, but none, Hans thought, like the ordinary
forms of splintered ice. There seemed a curious _expression_ about
all their outlines--a perpetual resemblance to living features,
distorted and scornful. Myriads of deceitful shadows, and lurid lights,
played and floated about and through the pale blue pinnacles, dazzling
and confusing the sight of the traveler; while his ears grew dull and
his head giddy with the constant gush and roar of the concealed waters.
These painful circumstances increased upon him as he advanced; the ice
crashed and yawned into fresh chasms at his feet, tottering spires
nodded around him, and fell thundering across his path; and though he
had repeatedly faced these dangers on the most terrific glaciers, and
in the wildest weather, it was with a new and oppressive feeling of
panic terror that he leaped the last chasm, and flung himself,
exhausted and shuddering, on the firm turf of the mountain.
He had been compelled to abandon his basket of food, which
became a perilous incumbrance on the glacier, and had now no
means of refreshing himself but by breaking off and eating some of
the pieces of ice. This, however, relieved his thirst; an hour's
repose recruited his hardy frame, and with the indomitable spirit of
avarice, he resumed his laborious journey.
His way now lay straight up a ridge of bare red rocks, without
a blade of grass to ease the foot, or a projecting angle to afford
an inch of shade from the south sun. It was past noon, and the
rays beat intensely upon the steep path, while the whole atmosphere
was motionless, and penetrated with heat. Intense thirst was soon
added to the bodily fatigue with which Hans was now afflicted; glance
after glance he cast at the flask of water which hung at his belt.
"Three drops are enough," at last thought he; "I may, at least,
cool my lips with it."
He opened the flask, and was raising it to his lips, when his eye
fell on an object lying on the rock beside him; he thought it moved.
It was a small dog, apparently in the last agony of death from thirst.
Its tongue was out, its jaws dry, its limbs extended lifelessly, and
a swarm of black ants were crawling about its lips and throat. Its eye
moved to the bottle which Hans held in his hand. He raised it,
drank, spurned the animal with his foot, and passed on. And he
did not know how it was, but he thought that a strange shadow had
suddenly come across the blue sky.
The path became steeper and more rugged every moment; and the
high hill air, instead of refreshing him, seemed to throw his blood
into a fever. The noise of the hill cataracts sounded like mockery
in his ears; they were all distant, and his thirst increased every
moment. Another hour passed, and he again looked down to the
flask at his side; it was half empty, but there was much more than
three drops in it. He stopped to open it, and again, as he did so,
something moved in the path above him. It was a fair child,
stretched nearly lifeless on the rock, its breast heaving with thirst,
its eyes closed, and its lips parched and burning. Hans eyed it
deliberately, drank, and passed on. And a dark gray cloud came
over the sun, and long, snake-like shadows crept up along the mountain
sides. Hans struggled on. The sun was sinking, but its descent
seemed to bring no coolness; the leaden weight of the dead air
pressed upon his brow and heart, but the goal was near. He saw
the cataract of the Golden River springing from the hillside, scarcely
five hundred feet above him. He paused for a moment to breathe,
and sprang on to complete his task.
At this instant a faint cry fell on his ear. He turned, and saw a
gray-haired old man extended on the rocks. His eyes were sunk,
his features deadly pale, and gathered into an expression of despair.
"Water!" he stretched his arms to Hans, and cried feebly, "Water!
I am dying."
"I have none," replied Hans; "thou hast had thy share of life."
He strode over the prostrate body, and darted on. And a flash of
blue lightning rose out of the east, shaped like a sword; it shook
thrice over the whole heaven, and left it dark with one heavy,
impenetrable shade. The sun was setting; it plunged towards the
horizon like a red-hot ball.
The roar of the Golden River rose on Hans' ear. He stood at the
brink of the chasm through which it ran. Its waves were filled with
the red glory of the sunset; they shook their crests like tongues
of fire, and flashes of bloody light gleamed along their foam. Their
sound came mightier and mightier on his senses; his brain grew
giddy with the prolonged thunder. Shuddering, he drew the flask
from his girdle, and hurled it into the center of the torrent. As he
did so, an icy chill shot through his limbs; he staggered, shrieked,
and fell. The waters closed over his cry. And the moaning of
the river rose wildly into the night, as it gushed over THE BLACK
STONE.
CHAPTER IV
HOW MR. SCHWARTZ SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED THEREIN
Poor little Gluck waited very anxiously alone in the house for
Hans' return. Finding he did not come back, he was terribly frightened,
and went and told Schwartz in the prison all that had happened.
Then Schwartz was very much pleased, and said that Hans
must certainly have been turned into a black stone, and he should
have all the gold to himself. But Gluck was very sorry, and cried
all night. When he got up in the morning, there was no bread in
the house, nor any money; so Gluck went and hired himself to another
goldsmith, and he worked so hard, and so neatly, and so long
every day, that he soon got money enough together to pay his
brother's fine, and he went and gave it all to Schwartz, and Schwartz
got out of prison. Then Schwartz was quite pleased, and said he
should have some of the gold of the river. But Gluck only begged
he would go and see what had become of Hans.
Now, when Schwartz had heard that Hans had stolen the holy
water, he thought to himself that such a proceeding might not be
considered altogether correct by the King of the Golden River, and
determined to manage matters better. So he took some more of
Gluck's money, and went to a bad priest, who gave him some holy
water very readily for it. Then Schwartz was sure it was all quite
right. So Schwartz got up early in the morning before the sun rose,
and took some bread and wine in a basket, and put his holy water in
a flask, and set off for the mountains. Like his brother, he was
much surprised at the sight of the glacier, and had great difficulty
in crossing it, even after leaving his basket behind him. The day was
cloudless, but not bright; there was a heavy purple haze hanging
over the sky, and the hills looked lowering and gloomy. And as
Schwartz climbed the steep rock path, the thirst came upon him, as
it had upon his brother, until he lifted his flask to his lips to drink.
Then he saw the fair child lying near him on the rocks, and it
cried to him, and moaned for water. "Water, indeed," said
Schwartz; "I haven't half enough for myself," and passed on. And
as he went he thought the sunbeams grew more dim, and he saw a
low bank of black cloud rising out of the west; and when he had
climbed for another hour the thirst overcame him again, and he
would have drunk. Then he saw the old man lying before him on
the path, and heard him cry out for water. "Water, indeed," said
Schwartz; "I haven't half enough for myself," and on he went.
Then again the light seemed to fade from before his eyes, and
he looked up, and, behold, a mist, of the color of blood, had come
over the sun; and the bank of black cloud had risen very high,
and its edges were tossing and tumbling like the waves of the angry
sea. And they cast long shadows, which flickered over Schwartz's
path.
Then Schwartz climbed for another hour, and again his thirst
returned; and as he lifted his flask to his lips, he thought he saw
his brother Hans lying exhausted on the path before him, and, as he
gazed, the figure stretched its arms to him, and cried for water.
"Ha, ha," laughed Schwartz, "are you there? remember the prison
bars, my boy. Water, indeed--do you suppose I carried it all the
way up here for _you_!" And he strode over the figure; yet, as
he passed, he thought he saw a strange expression of mockery about
its lips. And, when he had gone a few yards farther, he looked back;
but the figure was not there.
And a sudden horror came over Schwartz, he knew not why; but
the thirst for gold prevailed over his fear, and he rushed on. And
the bank of black cloud rose to the zenith, and out of it came bursts
of spiry lightning, and waves of darkness seemed to heave and float
between their flashes, over the whole heavens. And the sky, where
the sun was setting, was all level, and like a lake of blood; and a
strong wind came out of that sky, tearing its crimson clouds into
fragments, and scattering them far into the darkness. And, when
Schwartz stood by the brink of the Golden River, its waves were
black, like thunder clouds, but their foam was like fire; and the roar
of the waters below and the thunder above, met, as he cast the flask
into the stream. And, as he did so, the lightning glared in his eyes,
and the earth gave way beneath him, and the waters closed over his
cry. And the moaning of the river rose wildly into the night, as it
gushed over the TWO BLACK STONES.
CHAPTER V
HOW LITTLE GLUCK SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED THEREIN; WITH OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
When Gluck found that Schwartz did not come back, he was very
sorry, and did not know what to do. He had no money, and he was
obliged to go and hire himself again to the goldsmith, who worked
him very hard, and gave him very little money. So, after a month
or two, Gluck grew tired, and made up his mind to go and try his
fortune with the Golden River. "The little king looked very kind,"
thought he. "I don't think he will turn me into a black stone." So
he went to the priest, and the priest gave him some holy water
as soon as he asked for it. Then Gluck took some bread in his
basket, and the bottle of water, and set off very early for the mountains.
If the glacier had occasioned a great deal of fatigue to his brothers,
it was twenty times worse for him, who was neither so strong nor so
practiced on the mountains. He had several very bad falls, lost his
basket and bread, and was very much frightened at the strange
noises under the ice. He lay a long time to rest on the grass, after
he had got over, and began to climb the hill just in the hottest part
of the day. When he had climbed for an hour, he got dreadfully
thirsty, and was going to drink, like his brothers, when he saw an
old man coming down the path above him, looking very feeble,
and leaning on a staff. "My son," said the old man, "I am faint
with thirst, give me some of that water." Then Gluck looked at him,
and when he saw that he was pale and weary, he gave him the water;
"Only, pray, don't drink it all," said Gluck. But the old man drank
a great deal, and gave him back the bottle two-thirds empty. Then
he bade him good speed, and Gluck went on again merrily. And
the path became easier to his feet, and two or three blades of grass
appeared upon it, and some grasshoppers began singing on the bank
beside it; and Gluck thought he had never heard such merry singing.
Then he went on for another hour, and the thirst increased on him
so that he thought he should be forced to drink. But, as he raised
the flask, he saw a little child lying panting by the roadside, and
it cried out piteously for water. Then Gluck struggled with himself,
and determined to bear the thirst a little longer; and he put
the bottle to the child's lips, and it drank it all but a few drops.
Then it smiled on him, and got up, and ran down the hill; and
Gluck looked after it, till it became as small as a little star, and
then turned and began climbing again. And then there were all
kinds of sweet flowers growing on the rocks, bright green moss with
pale pink starry flowers, and soft belled gentians more blue than
the sky at its deepest, and pure white transparent lilies. And crimson
and purple butterflies darted hither and thither, and the sky
sent down such pure light, that Gluck had never felt so happy in his
life.
Yet, when he had climbed for another hour, his thirst became
intolerable again; and, when he looked at his bottle, he saw that
there were only five or six drops left in it, and he could not venture
to drink. And, as he was hanging the flask to his belt again, he saw
a little dog lying on the rocks, gasping for breath--just as Hans
had seen it on the day of his ascent. And Gluck stopped and looked
at it, and then at the Golden River, not five hundred yards above him;
and he thought of the dwarf's word, "that no one could succeed,
except in his first attempt"; and he tried to pass the dog, but it
whined piteously, and Gluck stopped again. "Poor beastie," said
Gluck, "it'll be dead when I come down again, if I don't help it."
Then he looked closer and closer at it, and its eye turned on him so
mournfully, that he could not stand it. "Confound the King, and
his gold too," said Gluck; and he opened the flask, and poured all
the water into the dog's mouth.
The dog sprang up and stood on its hind legs. Its tail disappeared,
its ears became long, longer, silky, golden; its nose became
very red, its eyes became very twinkling; in three seconds the dog
was gone, and before Gluck stood his old acquaintance, the King
of the Golden River.
"Thank you," said the monarch; "but don't be frightened, it's
all right"; for Gluck showed manifest symptoms of consternation
at this unlooked-for reply to his last observation. "Why didn't you
come before," continued the dwarf, "instead of sending me those
rascally brothers of yours, for me to have the trouble of turning
into stones? Very hard stones they make too."
"Oh, dear me!" said Gluck, "have you really been so cruel?"
"Cruel!" said the dwarf; "they poured unholy water into my
stream: do you suppose I'm going to allow that?"
"Why," said Gluck, "I am sure, sir--your Majesty, I mean--they
got the water out of the church font."
"Very probably," replied the dwarf; "but," and his countenance
grew stern as he spoke, "the water which has been refused to the cry
of the weary and dying, is unholy, though it had been blessed by
every saint in heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel
of mercy is holy, though it had been defiled with corpses."
So saying, the dwarf stooped and plucked a lily that grew at
his feet. On its white leaves there hung three drops of clear dew.
And the dwarf shook them into the flask which Gluck held in his
hand. "Cast these into the river," he said, "and descend on the
other side of the mountains into the Treasure Valley. And so good
speed."
As he spoke, the figure of the dwarf became indistinct. The
playing colors of his robe formed themselves into a prismatic mist
of dewy light; he stood for an instant veiled with them as with the
belt of a broad rainbow. The colors grew faint, the mist rose into
the air; the monarch had evaporated.
And Gluck climbed to the brink of the Golden River, and its waves
were as clear as crystal, and as brilliant as the sun. And, when he
cast the three drops of dew into the stream, there opened where
they fell a small circular whirlpool, into which the waters descended
with a musical noise.
Gluck stood watching it for some time, very much disappointed,
because not only the river was not turned into gold, but its waters
seemed much diminished in quantity. Yet he obeyed his friend
the dwarf, and descended the other side of the mountains, toward the
Treasure Valley; and, as he went, he thought he heard the noise of
water working its way under the ground. And, when he came in
sight of the Treasure Valley, behold, a river, like the Golden River,
was springing from a new cleft of the rocks above it, and was flowing
in innumerable streams among the dry heaps of red sand.
And as Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams,
and creeping plants grew, and climbed among the moistening soil.
Young flowers opened suddenly along the river sides, as stars leap
out when twilight is deepening, and thickets of myrtle, and tendrils
of vine, cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they grew.
And thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance
which had been lost by cruelty was regained by love.
And Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never
driven from his door: so that his barns became full of corn, and his
house of treasure. And, for him, the river had, according to the
dwarf's promise, become a River of Gold.
And, to this day, the inhabitants of the valley point out the place
where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream, and
trace the course of the Golden River under the ground, until it
emerges in the Treasure Valley. And at the top of the cataract
of the Golden River are still to be seen TWO BLACK STONES, round
which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset; and these
stones are still called by the people of the valley THE BLACK
BROTHERS.
THE ORIENTAL WONDER STORY
THE STORY OF ALADDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP
In the capital of one of the large and rich provinces of the kingdom of
China, the name of which I do not recollect, there lived a tailor,
named Mustapha, who was so poor, that he could hardly, by his daily
labor, maintain himself and his family, which consisted of a wife and
son.
His son, who was called Aladdin, had been brought up in a very careless
and idle manner, and by that means had contracted many vicious habits.
He was wicked, obstinate, and disobedient to his father and mother,
who, when he grew up, could not keep him within doors. He was in the
habit of going out early in the morning, and would stay out all day,
playing in the streets and public places with idle children of his own
age.
When he was old enough to learn a trade, his father, not being able to
put him out to any other, took him into his own shop, and taught him
how to use his needle; but neither fair words nor the fear of
chastisement were capable of fixing his lively genius. All his father's
endeavors to keep him to his work were in vain; for no sooner was his
back turned, than he was gone for the day. Mustapha chastised him, but
Aladdin was incorrigible and his father, to his great grief, was forced
to abandon him to his idleness: and was so much troubled at not being
able to reclaim him, that it threw him into a fit of sickness, of which
he died in a few months.
The mother, finding that her son would not follow his father's
business, shut up the shop, sold off the implements of trade, and with
the money she received for them, and what she could get by spinning
cotton, thought to maintain herself and her son.
Aladdin, who was now no longer restrained by the fear of a father, and
who cared so little for his mother, that whenever she chid him, he
would abuse her, gave himself entirely over to his idle habits, and was
never out of the streets from his companions. This course he followed
till he was fifteen years old, without giving his mind to any useful
pursuit, or the least reflection on what would become of him. In this
situation, as he was one day playing according to custom, in the
street, with his vagabond associates, a stranger passing by stood to
observe him.
This stranger was a sorcerer, called by the writer of this story, the
African magician; and by the name I shall call him with the more
propriety as he was a native of Africa, and had been but two days
arrived from thence.
The African magician, who was a good physiognomist, observing in
Aladdin's countenance something absolutely necessary for the execution
of the design he was engaged in, inquired artfully about his family,
who he was, and what were his inclinations; and when he had learned all
he desired to know, went up to him, and taking him aside from his
comrades, said, "Child, was not your father called Mustapha the
tailor?" "Yes, sir," answered the boy; "but he has been dead a long
time."
At these words, the African magician threw his arms about Aladdin's
neck, and kissed him several times with tears in his eyes. Aladdin, who
observed his tears, asked him what made him weep. "Alas! my son," cried
the African magician with a sigh, "how can I forbear? I am your uncle;
your worthy father was my own brother. I have been many years abroad,
and now I am come home with the hopes of seeing him, you tell me he is
dead. I assure you it is a sensible grief to me to be deprived of the
comfort I expected. But it is some relief to my affliction, that as far
as I can remember him, I knew you at first sight, you are so like him;
and I see I am not deceived." Then he asked Aladdin, putting his hand
into his purse, where his mother lived, and as soon as he had informed
him, gave him a handful of small money, saying, "Go, my son, to your
mother, give my love to her, and tell her that I will visit her
tomorrow, if I have time, that I may have the satisfaction of seeing
where my good brother lived so long, and ended his days."
As soon as the African magician left his newly adopted nephew, Aladdin
ran to his mother, overjoyed at the money his uncle had given him.
"Mother," said he, "have I an uncle?" "No, child," replied his mother,
"you have no uncle by your father's side, or mine." "I am just now
come," said Aladdin, "from a man who says he is my uncle by my father's
side, assuring me that he is his brother. He cried and kissed me when I
told him my father was dead; and to show you that what I tell you is
truth," he added, pulling out the money, "see what he has given me; he
charged me to give his love to you, and to tell you, if he has any time
tomorrow, he will come and pay you a visit, that he may see the house
my father lived and died in." "Indeed, child," replied the mother,
"your father had a brother, but he has been dead a long time, and I
never heard of another."
The mother and son talked no more then of the African magician; but the
next day Aladdin's uncle found him playing in another part of the town
with other children, and embracing him as before, put two pieces of
gold into his hand, and said to him, "Carry this, child, to your
mother, tell her that I will come and see her tonight, and bid her get
us something for supper; but first show me the house where you live."
After Aladdin had showed the African magician the house, he carried the
two pieces of gold to his mother, and when he had told her of his
uncle's intention, she went out and bought provisions; and considering
she wanted various utensils, borrowed them of her neighbors. She spent
the whole day in preparing the supper; and at night when it was ready,
said to her son, "Perhaps your uncle knows not how to find our house;
go and bring him if you meet with him."
Though Aladdin had shown the magician the house, he was ready to go,
when somebody knocked at the door, which he immediately opened: and the
magician came in loaded with wine, and all sorts of fruits, which he
brought for a dessert.
After the African magician had given what he brought into Aladdin's
hands, he saluted his mother, and desired her to show him the place
where his brother Mustapha used to sit on the sofa; and when she had so
done, he fell down and kissed it several times, crying out with tears
in his eyes, "My poor brother! how unhappy am I, not to have come soon
enough to give you one last embrace." Aladdin's mother desired him to
sit down in the same place, but he declined. "No," said he, "I shall
take care how I do that; but give me leave to sit opposite to it, that
although I am deprived of the satisfaction of seeing the master of a
family so dear to me, I may at least have the pleasure of beholding the
place where he used to sit." The widow pressed him no farther, but left
him at liberty to sit where he pleased.
When the magician had made choice of a place, and sat down, he began to
enter into discourse with Aladdin's mother: "My good sister," said he,
"do not be surprised at your never having seen me all the time you have
been married to my brother Mustapha of happy memory. I have been forty
years absent from this country, which is my native place, as well as my
late brother's; and during that time have traveled into the Indies,
Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, have resided in the finest towns of
those countries; and afterwards crossed over into Africa, where I made
a longer stay. At last, as it is natural for a man, how distant soever
it may be, to remember his native country, relations, and acquaintance,
I was desirous to see mine again, and to embrace my dear brother; and
finding I had strength enough to undertake so long a journey, I
immediately made the necessary preparations, and set out. I will not
tell you the length of time it took me, all the obstacles I met with,
and what fatigues I have endured, to come hither; but nothing ever
mortified and afflicted me so much, as hearing of my brother's death,
for whom I always had a brotherly love and friendship. I observed his
features in the face of my nephew, your son, and distinguished him
among a number of children with whom he was at play; he can tell you
how I received the most melancholy news that ever reached my ears. But
God be praised for all things! It is a comfort for me to find, as it
were, my brother in a son, who has his most remarkable features."
The African magician, perceiving that the widow began to weep at the
remembrance of her husband, changed the conversation, and turning
towards her son, asked him his name. "I am called Aladdin," said he.
"Well, Aladdin," replied the magician, "what business do you follow?
Are you of any trade?"
At this question the youth hung down his head, and was not a little
abashed when his mother answered, "Aladdin is an idle fellow; his
father, when alive, strove all he could to teach him his trade, but
could not succeed; and since his death, notwithstanding all I can say
to him, he does nothing but idle away his time in the street, as you
saw him, without considering he is no longer a child; and if you do not
make him ashamed of it, I despair of his ever coming to any good. He
knows that his father left him no fortune, and sees me endeavor to get
bread by spinning cotton; for my part, I am resolved one of these days
to turn him out of doors and let him provide for himself."
After these words, Aladdin's mother burst into tears; and the magician
said, "This is not well, nephew; you must think of helping yourself,
and getting your livelihood. There are many sorts of trades, consider
if you have not an inclination to some of them; perhaps you did not
like your father's, and would prefer another: come, do not disguise
your sentiments from me; I will endeavor to help you." But finding that
Aladdin returned no answer, "If you have no mind," continued he, "to
learn any handicraft, I will take a shop for you, furnish it with all
sorts of fine stuffs and linens; and with the money you make of them
lay in fresh goods and then you will live in an honorable way. Consult
your inclinations, and tell me freely what you think of my proposal:
you shall always find me ready to keep my word."
This plan greatly flattered Aladdin, who hated work, but had sense
enough to know that such shops were much frequented, and the owners
respected. He told the magician he had a greater inclination to that
business than to any other, and that he should be much obliged to him
for his kindness. "Since this profession is agreeable to you," said the
African magician, "I will carry you with me tomorrow, clothe you as
handsomely as the best merchants in the city, and afterwards we will
think of opening a shop as I mentioned."
The widow, who never till then could believe that the magician was her
husband's brother, no longer doubted after his promises of kindness to
her son. She thanked him for his good intentions; and after having
exhorted Aladdin to render himself worthy of his uncle's favor by good
behavior, served up supper, at which they talked of several indifferent
matters; and then the magician, who saw that the night was pretty far
advanced, took his leave, and retired.
He came again the next day, as he had promised, and took Aladdin with
him to a merchant, who sold all sorts of clothes for different ages and
ranks ready made, and a variety of fine stuffs. He asked to see some
that suited Aladdin in size; and after choosing a suit for himself
which he liked best, and rejecting others which he did not think
handsome enough, he bade Aladdin choose the one he preferred. Aladdin,
charmed with the liberality of his new uncle, made choice of one, and
the magician immediately paid for it.
When Aladdin found himself so handsomely equipped, he returned his
uncle thanks; who promised never to forsake him, but always to take him
along with him; which he did to the most frequented places in the city,
and particularly where the principal merchants kept their shops. When
he brought him into the street where they sold the richest stuffs, and
finest linens, he said to Aladdin, "As you are soon to be a merchant,
it is proper you should frequent these shops, and be acquainted with
them." He then showed him the largest and finest mosques, carried him
to the khans or inns where the merchants and travelers lodged, and
afterwards to the sultan's palace, where he had free access; and at
last brought him to his own khan, where meeting with some merchants he
had become acquainted with since his arrival, he gave them a treat, to
bring them and his pretended nephew acquainted.
This entertainment lasted till night, when Aladdin would have taken
leave of his uncle to go home; the magician would not let him go by
himself, but conducted him to his mother, who, as soon as she saw him
so well dressed, was transported with joy, and bestowed a thousand
blessings upon the magician, for being at so great an expense upon her
child. "Generous relation!" said she, "I know not how to thank you for
your liberality! I know that my son is not deserving of your favors;
and were he ever so grateful, and answered your good intentions, he
would be unworthy of them. I thank you with all my soul, and wish you
may live long enough to witness my son's gratitude, which he cannot
better show than by regulating his conduct by your good advice."
"Aladdin," replied the magician, "is a good boy, and I believe we shall
do very well; but I am sorry for one thing, which is, that I cannot
perform tomorrow what I promised, because, as it is Friday, the shops
will be shut up, and therefore we cannot hire or furnish one, but must
wait till Saturday. I will, however, call on him tomorrow and take him
to walk in the gardens, where people of the best fashion generally
resort. Perhaps he has never seen these amusements, he has only
hitherto been among children; but now he must see men." The African
magician took his leave of the mother and the son, and retired.
Aladdin, who was overjoyed to be so well clothed, anticipated the
pleasure of walking in the gardens. He had never been out of the town,
nor seen the environs, which were very beautiful and pleasant.
Aladdin rose early the next morning, dressed himself, to be ready
against his uncle called on him; and after he had waited some time,
began to be impatient, and stood watching at the door; but as soon as
he perceived him coming, he told his mother, took his leave of her, and
ran to meet him.
The magician caressed Aladdin, and said, "Come, my dear child, and I
will show you fine things." He then led him out at one of the gates of
the city, to some magnificent houses, or rather palaces, to each of
which belonged beautiful gardens, into which anybody might enter. At
every building he came to, he asked Aladdin if he did not think it
fine; and the youth was ready to answer when any one presented itself,
crying out, "Here is a finer house, uncle, than we have seen yet." By
this artifice, the cunning magician led Aladdin some way into the
country; and as he meant to carry him farther, to execute his design,
he took an opportunity to sit down in one of the gardens on the brink
of a fountain of clear water, which discharged itself by a lion's mouth
of bronze into a basin, pretending to be tired: "Come, nephew," said
he, "you must be weary as well as I; let us rest ourselves, and we
shall be better able to pursue our walk."
After they had sat down, the magician pulled from his girdle a
handkerchief with cakes and fruit, which he had provided, and laid them
on the edge of the basin. He broke a cake in two, gave one half to
Aladdin, and ate the other himself; and in regard to the fruit, left
him at liberty to take which sort he liked best. During this short
repast, he exhorted his nephew to leave off keeping company with
vagabonds, and seek that of wise and prudent men, to improve by their
conversation; "for," said he, "you will soon be at man's estate, and
you cannot too early begin to imitate their example." When they had
eaten as much as they liked, they got up, and pursued their walk
through gardens separated from one another only by small ditches, which
marked out the limits without interrupting the communication; so great
was the confidence the inhabitants reposed in each other. By this
means, the African magician drew Aladdin insensibly beyond the gardens,
and crossed the country, till they nearly reached the mountains.
Aladdin, who had never been so far before, began to find himself much
tired with so long a walk, and said to the magician, "Where are we
going, uncle? We have left the gardens a great way behind us, and I see
nothing but mountains; if we go much farther, I do not know whether I
shall be able to reach the town again." "Never fear, nephew," said the
false uncle; "I will show you another garden which surpasses all we
have yet seen; it is not far off; and when we come there, you will say
that you would have been sorry to have been so nigh, and not seen it."
Aladdin was soon persuaded, and the magician, to make the way seem
shorter and less fatiguing, told him a great many stories.
At last they arrived between two mountains of moderate height, and
equal size, divided by a narrow valley, which was the place where the
magician intended to execute the design that had brought him from
Africa to China. "We will go no farther now," said he to Aladdin: "I
will show you here some extraordinary things, which, when you have
seen, you will thank me for: but while I strike a light, gather up all
the loose dry sticks you can see, to kindle a fire with."
Aladdin found so many dried sticks, that before the magician had
lighted a match, he had collected a great heap. The magician presently
set them on fire, and when they were in a blaze, threw in some incense
which raised a cloud of smoke. This he dispersed on each side, by
pronouncing several magical words which Aladdin did not understand.
At the same time the earth trembling, opened just before the magician,
and uncovered a stone, laid horizontally, with a brass ring fixed into
the middle. Aladdin was so frightened at what he saw, that he would
have run away; but the magician caught hold of him, abused him, and
gave him such a box on the ear, that he knocked him down. Aladdin got
up trembling, and with tears in his eyes, said to the magician, "What
have I done, uncle, to be treated in this severe manner?" "I have my
reasons," answered the magician: "I am your uncle, I supply the place
of your father, and you ought to make no reply. But, child," added he,
softening, "do not be afraid; for I shall not ask anything of you, but
that you obey me punctually, if you would reap the advantages which I
intend you." These fair promises calmed Aladdin's fears and resentment;
and when the magician saw that he was appeased, he said to him, "You
see what I have done by virtue of my incense, and the words I
pronounced. Know, then, that under this stone there is hidden a
treasure, destined to be yours, and which will make you richer than the
greatest monarch in the world: no person but yourself is permitted to
lift this stone, or enter the cave; so you must punctually execute what
I may command, for it is a matter of great consequence both to you and
me."
Aladdin, amazed at all he saw, and heard the magician say of the
treasure which was to make him happy, forgot what was past, and rising,
said, "Well, uncle, what is to be done? Command me, I am ready to
obey." "I am overjoyed, child," said the African magician, embracing
him; "take hold of the ring, and lift up that stone." "Indeed, uncle,"
replied Aladdin, "I am not strong enough, you must help me." "You have
no occasion for my assistance," answered the magician; "if I help you,
we shall be able to do nothing; take hold of the ring, pronounce the
names of your father and grandfather, then lift it up, and you will
find it will come easily." Aladdin did as the magician bade him, raised
the stone with ease, and laid it on one side.
When the stone was pulled up, there appeared a cavity of about three or
four feet deep, with a little door, and steps to go down lower.
"Observe, my son," said the African magician, "what I direct. Descend
into the cave, and when you are at the bottom of those steps you will
find a door open, which will lead you into a spacious vault, divided
into three great halls, in each of which you will see four large brass
cisterns placed on each side, full of gold and silver; but take care
you do not meddle with them. Before you enter the first hall, be sure
to tuck up your vest, wrap it about you, and then pass through the
second into the third without stopping. Above all things, have a care
that you do not touch the walls, so much as with your clothes; for if
you do, you will die instantly. At the end of the third hall, you will
find a door which opens into a garden planted with fine trees loaded
with fruit; walk directly across the garden by a path which will lead
you to five steps that will bring you upon a terrace, where you will
see a niche before you, and in that niche a lighted lamp. Take the lamp
down, and extinguish it: when you have thrown away the wick, and poured
out the liquor, put it in your vestband and bring it to me. Do not be
afraid that the liquor will spoil your clothes, for it is not oil; and
the lamp will be dry as soon as it is thrown out. If you should wish
for any of the fruit of the garden, you may gather as much as you
please."
After these words, the magician drew a ring off his finger, and put it
on one of Aladdin's, telling him that it was a preservative against all
evil, while he should observe what he had prescribed to him. After this
instruction he said, "Go down boldly, child, and we shall both be rich
all our lives."
Aladdin jumped into the cave, descended the steps, and found the three
halls just as the African magician had described. He went through them
with all the precaution the fear of death could inspire; crossed the
garden without stopping, took down the lamp from the niche, threw out
the wick and the liquor, and, as the magician had desired, put it in
his vestband. But as he came down from the terrace, seeing it was
perfectly dry, he stopped in the garden to observe the fruit, which he
only had a glimpse of in crossing it. All the trees were loaded with
extraordinary fruit, of different colors on each tree. Some bore fruit
entirely white, and some clear and transparent as crystal; some pale
red, and others deeper; some green, blue, and purple, and others
yellow: in short, there was fruit of all colors. The white were pearls;
the clear and transparent, diamonds; the deep red, rubies; the paler,
balas rubies; the green, emeralds; the blue, turquoises; the purple,
amethysts; and those that were of yellow cast, sapphires. Aladdin was
altogether ignorant of their worth, and would have preferred figs and
grapes, or any other fruits. But though he took them only for colored
glass of little value, yet he was so pleased with the variety of the
colors, and the beauty and extraordinary size of the seeming fruit,
that he resolved to gather some of every sort, and accordingly filled
the two new purses his uncle had bought for him with his clothes. Some
he wrapped up in the skirts of his vest, which was of silk, large and
wrapping, and crammed his bosom as full as it could hold.
Aladdin, having thus loaded himself with riches he knew not the value
of, returned through the three halls with the same precaution, made all
the haste he could, that he might not make his uncle wait, and soon
arrived at the mouth of the cave, where the African magician expected
him with the utmost impatience. As soon as Aladdin saw him, he cried
out, "Pray, uncle, lend me your hand, to help me out." "Give me the
lamp first," replied the magician; "it will be troublesome to you."
"Indeed, uncle," answered Aladdin, "I cannot now; it is not troublesome
to me: but I will as soon as I am up." The African magician was so
obstinate, that he would have the lamp before he would help him up; and
Aladdin, who had encumbered himself so much with his fruit that he
could not well get at it, refused to give it to him till he was out of
the cave. The African magician, provoked at this obstinate refusal,
flew into a passion, threw a little of his incense into the fire, which
he had taken care to keep in, and no sooner pronounced two magical
words, than the stone which had closed the mouth of the cave moved into
its place, with the earth over it in the same manner as it lay at the
arrival of the magician and Aladdin.
This action of the African magician's plainly showed him to be neither
Aladdin's uncle, nor Mustapha the tailor's brother: but a true African.
Africa is a country whose inhabitants delight most in magic of any in
the whole world, and he had applied himself to it from his youth. After
forty years' experience in enchantments, geomancy, fumigations, and
reading of magic books, he had found out that there was in the world a
wonderful lamp, the possession of which would render him more powerful
than any monarch; and by a late operation of geomancy, he had
discovered that this lamp lay concealed in a subterraneous place in the
midst of China, in the situation already described. Fully persuaded of
the truth of this discovery, he set out from the farthest part of
Africa; and after a long and fatiguing journey, came to the town
nearest to this treasure. But though he had a certain knowledge of the
place where the lamp was, he was not permitted to take if himself, nor
to enter the subterraneous place, but must receive it from the hands of
another person. For this reason he had addressed himself to Aladdin,
whom he looked upon as a young lad whose life was of no consequence,
and fit to serve his purpose, resolving, as soon as he should get the
lamp into his hands, to sacrifice him to his avarice and wickedness, by
making the fumigation mentioned before, and repeating two magical
words, the effect of which would remove the stone into its place, so
that no witness would remain of the transaction.
The blow he had given Aladdin was intended to make him obey the more
readily, and give him the lamp as soon as he should ask for it. But his
too great precipitation, and fear lest somebody should come that way
during their dispute, and discover what he wished to keep secret,
produced an effect quite contrary to what he had proposed to himself.
When the African magician saw that all his hopes were frustrated
forever, he returned the same day for Africa; but went quite round the
town, and at some distance from it, lest some persons who had observed
him walk out with the boy, on seeing him come back without him, should
entertain any suspicions, and stop him.
According to all appearance, there was no prospect of Aladdin being any
more heard of. But the magician, when he had contrived his death,
forgot the ring he had put upon his finger, which preserved him, though
he knew not its virtue. It may seem astonishing that the loss of that,
together with the lamp, did not drive the magician to despair; but
magicians are so much used to misfortunes, and events contrary to their
wishes, that they do not lay them to heart, but still feed themselves,
to the end of life, with unsubstantial notions and chimeras.
The surprise of Aladdin, who had never suspected this treachery from
his pretended uncle, after all his caresses and what he had done for
him, is more easily to be imagined than expressed. When he found
himself buried alive, he cried, and called out to his uncle, to tell
him he was ready to give him the lamp; but in vain, since his cries
could not be heard. He descended to the bottom of the steps, with a
design to get into the garden, but the door, which was opened before by
enchantment, was now shut by the same means. He then redoubled his
cries and tears, sat down on the steps, without any hopes of ever
seeing light again, and in a melancholy certainty of passing from the
present darkness into that of a speedy death.
Aladdin remained in this state two days, without eating or drinking,
and on the third looked upon death as inevitable. Clasping his hands
with an entire resignation to the will of God, he said, "There is no
strength or power but in the great and high God." In this action of
joining his hands he rubbed the ring which the magician had put on his
finger, and of which he knew not yet the virtue. Immediately a genie of
enormous size and frightful aspect rose out of the earth, his head
reaching the roof of the vault, and said to him, "What wouldst thou
have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all who
may possess the ring on thy finger; I and the other slaves of that
ring."
At another time, Aladdin, who had not been used to such appearances,
would have been so frightened at the sight of so extraordinary a figure
that he would not have been able to speak; but the danger he was in
made him answer without hesitation, "Whoever thou art, deliver me from
this place, if thou art able." He had no sooner spoken these words,
than he found himself on the very spot where the magician had caused
the earth to open.
It was some time before his eyes could bear the light, after being so
long in total darkness: but after he had endeavored by degrees to
support it, and began to look about him, he was much surprised not to
find the earth open, and could not comprehend how he had got so soon
out of its bowels. There was nothing to be seen but the place where the
fire had been, by which he could nearly judge the situation of the
cave. Then turning himself towards the town, he perceived it at a
distance in the midst of the gardens that surround it, and saw the way
by which the magician had brought him. Returning God thanks to find
himself once more in the world, he made the best of his way home. When
he got within his mother's door, the joy to see her and his weakness
for want of sustenance for three days made him faint, and he remained
for a long time as dead. His mother, who had given him over for lost,
seeing him in this condition, omitted nothing to bring him to himself.
As soon as he recovered, the first words he spoke, were, "Pray, mother,
give me something to eat, for I have not put a morsel of anything into
my mouth these three days." His mother brought what she had, and set it
before him. "My son," said she, "be not too eager, for it is dangerous;
eat but little at a time, and take care of yourself. Besides, I would
not have you talk; you will have time enough to tell me what happened
to you when you are recovered. It is a great comfort to me to see you
again, after the affliction I have been in since Friday, and the pains
I have taken to learn what was become of you."
Aladdin took his mother's advice, and ate and drank moderately. When he
had done, "Mother," said he to her, "I cannot help complaining of you,
for abandoning me so easily to the discretion of a man who had a design
to kill me, and who at this very moment thinks my death certain. You
believed he was my uncle, as well as I; and what other thoughts could
we entertain of a man who was so kind to me, and made such advantageous
proffers? But I must tell you, mother, he is a rogue and a cheat, and
only made me those promises to accomplish my death; but for what reason
neither you nor I can guess. For my part, I can assure you, I never
gave him any cause to justify the least ill treatment from him. You
shall judge yourself, when you have heard all that passed from the time
I left you, till he came to the execution of his wicked design."
Aladdin then related to his mother all that had happened to him from
the Friday, when the magician took him to see the palaces and gardens
about the town, and what fell out in the way, till they came to the
place between the two mountains where the great prodigy was to be
performed; how, with incense which the magician threw into the fire,
and some magical words which he pronounced, the earth opened, and
discovered a cave, which led to an inestimable treasure. He forgot not
the blow the magician had given him, in what manner he softened again,
and engaged him by great promises, and putting a ring to his finger, to
go down into the cave. He did not omit the least circumstance of what
he saw in crossing the three halls and the garden, and his taking the
lamp, which he pulled out of his bosom and showed to his mother, as
well as the transparent fruit of different colors, which he had
gathered in the garden as he returned. But, though these fruits were
precious stones, brilliant as the sun, and the reflection of a lamp
which then lighted the room might have led them to think they were of
great value, she was as ignorant of their worth as her son, and cared
nothing for them. She had been bred in a low rank of life, and her
husband's poverty prevented his being possessed of jewels, nor had she,
her relations, or neighbors, ever seen any; so that we must not wonder
that she regarded them as things of no value, and only pleasing to the
eye by the variety of their colors.
Aladdin put them behind one of the cushions of the sofa, and continued
his story, telling his mother, that when he returned to the mouth of
the cave, upon his refusal to give the magician the lamp till he should
get out, the stone, by his throwing some incense into the fire, and
using two or three magical words, shut him in, and the earth closed. He
could not help bursting into tears at the representation of the
miserable condition he was in, at finding himself buried alive in a
dismal cave, till by the touching of his ring, the virtue of which he
was till then an entire stranger to, he, properly speaking, came to
life again. When he had finished his story, he said to his mother, "I
need say no more, you know the rest. This is my adventure, and the
danger I have been exposed to since you saw me."
Aladdin's mother heard with so much patience as not to interrupt him
this surprising and wonderful relation, notwithstanding it could be no
small affliction to a mother, who loved her son tenderly: but yet in
the most moving part which discovered the perfidy of the African
magician, she could not help showing, by marks of the greatest
indignation, how much she detested him; and when her son had finished
his story, she broke out into a thousand reproaches against that vile
impostor. She called him perfidious traitor, barbarian, assassin,
deceiver, magician, and an enemy and destroyer of mankind. "Without
doubt, child," added she, "he is a magician, and they are plagues to
the world, and by their enchantments and sorceries have commerce with
the devil. Bless God for preserving you from his wicked designs; for
your death would have been inevitable, if you had not called upon him,
and implored his assistance." She said a great deal more against the
magician's treachery; but finding that whilst she talked, Aladdin, who
had not slept for three days and nights, began to doze, she left him to
his repose and retired.
Aladdin, who had not closed his eyes while he was in the subterraneous
abode, slept very soundly till late the next morning; when the first
thing he said to his mother was, that he wanted something to eat, and
that she could not do him a greater kindness than to give him his
breakfast. "Alas! child," said she, "I have not a bit of bread to give
you, you ate up all the provisions I had in the house yesterday; but
have a little patience, and it shall not be long before I will bring
you some: I have a little cotton, which I have spun; I will go and sell
it, buy bread, and something for our dinner." "Mother," replied
Aladdin, "keep your cotton for another time, and give me the lamp I
brought home with me yesterday; I will go and sell it, and the money I
shall get for it will serve both for breakfast and dinner, and perhaps
supper too."
Aladdin's mother took the lamp, and said to her son, "Here it is, but
it is very dirty; if it was a little cleaner I believe it would bring
something more." She took some fine sand and water to clean it; but had
no sooner begun to rub it, than in an instant a hideous genie of
gigantic size appeared before her, and said to her in a voice like
thunder, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave,
and the slave of all those who have the lamp in their hands; I and the
other slaves of the lamp."
Aladdin's mother, terrified at the sight of the genie, fainted; when
Aladdin, who had seen such a phantom in the cavern, snatched the lamp
out of his mother's hand, and said to the genie boldly, "I am hungry,
bring me something to eat." The genie disappeared immediately, and in
an instant returned with a large silver tray, holding twelve covered
dishes of the same metal, which contained the most delicious viands;
six large white bread cakes on two plates, two flagons of wine, and two
silver cups. All these he placed upon a carpet, and disappeared: this
was done before Aladdin's mother recovered from her swoon.
Aladdin had fetched some water, and sprinkled it in her face, to
recover her: whether that or the smell of the meat brought her to life
again, it was not long before she came to herself. "Mother," said
Aladdin, "do not mind this; get up, and come and eat; here is what will
put you in heart, and at the same time satisfy my extreme hunger: do
not let such delicious meat get cold."
His mother was much surprised to see the great tray, twelve dishes, six
loaves, the two flagons and cups, and to smell the savory odor which
exhaled from the dishes. "Child," said she, "to whom are we obliged for
this great plenty and liberality? has the sultan been made acquainted
with our poverty, and had compassion on us?" "It is no matter, mother,"
said Aladdin, "let us sit down and eat; for you have almost as much
need of a good breakfast as myself; when we have done, I will tell
you." Accordingly both mother and son sat down, and ate with the better
relish as the table was so well furnished. But all the time Aladdin's
mother could not forbear looking at and admiring the tray and dishes,
though she could not judge whether they were silver or any other metal,
and the novelty more than the value attracted her attention.
The mother and son sat at breakfast till it was dinner-time, and then
they thought it would be best to put the two meals together; yet after
this they found they should have enough left for supper, and two meals
for the next day.
When Aladdin's mother had taken away and set by what was left, she went
and sat down by her son on the sofa, saying, "I expect now that you
should satisfy my impatience, and tell me exactly what passed between
the genie and you while I was in a swoon"; which he readily complied
with.
She was in as great amazement at what her son told her, as at the
appearance of the genie; and said to him, "But, son, what have we to do
with genies? I never heard that any of my acquaintance had ever seen
one. How came that vile genie to address himself to me, and not to you,
to whom he had appeared before in the cave?" "Mother," answered
Aladdin, "the genie you saw is not the one who appeared to me, though
he resembles him in size; no, they had quite different persons and
habits; they belong to different masters. If you remember, he that I
first saw, called himself the slave of the ring on my finger; and this
you saw, called himself the slave of the lamp you had in your hand: but
I believe you did not hear him, for I think you fainted as soon as he
began to speak."
"What!" cried the mother, "was your lamp then the occasion of that
cursed genie's addressing himself rather to me than to you? Ah! my son,
take it out of my sight, and put it where you please. I will never
touch it. I had rather you would sell it, than run the hazard of being
frightened to death again by touching it: and if you would take my
advice, you would part also with the ring, and not have anything to do
with genies, who, as our prophet has told us, are only devils."
"With your leave, mother," replied Aladdin, "I shall now take care how
I sell a lamp, which may be so serviceable both to you and me. Have you
not been an eye-witness of what it has procured us? and it shall still
continue to furnish us with subsistence and maintenance. You may
suppose as I do, that my false and wicked uncle would not have taken so
much pains, and undertaken so long and tedious a journey, if it had not
been to get into his possession this wonderful lamp, which he preferred
before all the gold and silver which he knew was in the halls, and
which I have seen with my own eyes. He knew too well the worth of this
lamp, not to prefer it to so great a treasure; and since chance hath
discovered the virtue of it to us, let us make a profitable use of it,
without making any great show, and exciting the envy and jealousy of
our neighbors. However, since the genies frighten you so much, I will
take it out of your sight, and put it where I may find it when I want
it. The ring I cannot resolve to part with; for without that you had
never seen me again; and though I am alive now, perhaps, if it was
gone, I might not be so some moments hence; therefore, I hope you will
give me leave to keep it, and to wear it always on my finger. Who knows
what dangers you and I may be exposed to, which neither of us can
foresee, and from which it may deliver us?" As Aladdin's arguments were
just, his mother had nothing to say against them; she only replied,
that he might do what he pleased, for her part, she would have nothing
to do with genies, but would wash her hands of them, and never say
anything more about them.
By the next night they had eaten all the provisions the genie had
brought; and the next day Aladdin, who could not bear the thoughts of
hunger, putting one of the silver dishes under his vest, went out early
to sell it, and addressing himself to a Jew whom he met in the streets,
took him aside, and pulling out the plate, asked him if he would buy
it. The cunning Jew took the dish, examined it, and as soon as he found
that it was good silver, asked Aladdin at how much he valued it.
Aladdin, who knew not its value, and never had been used to such
traffic, told him he would trust to his judgment and honor. The Jew was
somewhat confounded at this plain dealing; and doubting whether Aladdin
understood the material or the full value of what he offered to sell,
took a piece of gold out of his purse and give it him, though it was
but the sixtieth part of the worth of the plate. Aladdin, taking the
money very eagerly, retired with so much haste, that the Jew, not
content with the exorbitancy of his profit, was vexed he had not
penetrated into his ignorance, and was going to run after him, to
endeavor to get some change out of the piece of gold; but he ran so
fast, and had got so far, that it would have been impossible for him to
overtake him.
Before Aladdin went home, he called at a baker's, bought some cakes of
bread, changed his money, and on his return gave the rest to his
mother, who went and purchased provisions enough to last them some
time. After this manner they lived, till Aladdin had sold the twelve
dishes singly, as necessity pressed, to the Jew, for the same money;
who, after the first time, durst not offer him less, for fear of losing
so good a bargain. When he had sold the last dish, he had recourse to
the tray, which weighed ten times as much as the dishes, and would have
carried it to his old purchaser, but that it was too large and
cumbersome; therefore he was obliged to bring him home with him to his
mother's, where, after the Jew had examined the weight of the tray, he
laid down ten pieces of gold, with which Aladdin was very well
satisfied.
They lived on these ten pieces in a frugal manner, and Aladdin, though
used to an idle life, had left off playing with young lads of his own
age ever since his adventure with the African magician. He spent his
time in walking about, and conversing with decent people, with whom he
gradually got acquainted. Sometimes he would stop at the principal
merchants' shops, where people of distinction met, and listen to their
discourse, by which he gained some little knowledge of the world.
When all the money was spent, Aladdin had recourse again to the lamp.
He took it in his hand, looked for the part where his mother had rubbed
it with the sand, rubbed it also, when the genie immediately appeared,
and said, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy
slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands."
"I am hungry," said Aladdin, "bring me something to eat." The genie
disappeared, and presently returned with a tray, the same number of
covered dishes as before, set them down, and vanished.
Aladdin's mother, knowing what her son was going to do, went out about
some business, on purpose to avoid being in the way when the genie
came; and when she returned, was almost as much surprised as before at
the prodigious effect of the lamp. However, she sat down with her son,
and when they had eaten as much as they liked, she set enough by to
last them two or three days.
As soon as Aladdin found that their provisions were expended, he took
one of the dishes, and went to look for his Jew chapman; but passing by
a goldsmith's shop, who had the character of a very fair and honest
man, the goldsmith perceiving him, called to him, and said, "My lad, I
have often observed you go by, loaded as you are at present, and talk
with such a Jew, and then come back again empty handed. I imagine that
you carry something which you sell to him; but perhaps you do not know
that he is the greatest rogue even among the Jews, and is so well
known, that nobody of prudence will have anything to do with him. What
I tell you is for your own good. If you will show me what you now
carry, and it is to be sold, I will give you the full worth of it; or I
will direct you to other merchants who will not cheat you."
The hopes of getting more money for his plate induced Aladdin to pull
it from under his vest, and show it to the goldsmith, who at first
sight saw that it was made of the finest silver, asked him if he had
sold such as that to the Jew, when Aladdin told him that he had sold
him twelve such, for a piece of gold each. "What a villain!" cried the
goldsmith; "but," added he, "my son, what is past cannot be recalled.
By showing you the value of this plate, which is of the finest silver
we use in our shops, I will let you see how much the Jew has cheated
you."
The goldsmith took a pair of scales, weighed the dish, and after he had
mentioned how much an ounce of fine silver cost, assured him that his
plate would fetch by weight sixty pieces of gold, which he offered to
pay down immediately. "If you dispute my honesty," said he, "you may go
to any other of our trade, and if he gives you more, I will be bound to
forfeit twice as much; for we gain only the fashion of the plate we
buy, and that the fairest-dealing Jews are not contented with."
Aladdin thanked him for his fair dealing, so greatly to his advantage,
took the gold, and never after went to any other person, but sold him
all his dishes and the tray, and had as much for them as the weight
came to.
Though Aladdin and his mother had an inexhaustible treasure in their
lamp, and might have had whatever they wished for, yet they lived with
the same frugality as before, except that Aladdin dressed better; as
for his mother, she wore no clothes but what she earned by spinning
cotton. After their manner of living, it may be supposed, that the
money for which Aladdin had sold the dishes and tray was sufficient to
maintain them some time.
During this interval, Aladdin frequented the shops of the principal
merchants, where they sold cloth of gold and silver, linens, silk
stuffs, and jewelry, and oftentimes joining in their conversation,
acquired a knowledge of the world, and respectable demeanor. By his
acquaintance among the jewelers, he came to know that the fruit which
he had gathered when he took the lamp were, instead of colored glass,
stones of inestimable value; but he had the prudence not to mention
this to any one, not even to his mother.
One day as Aladdin was walking about the town, he heard an order
proclaimed, commanding the people to shut up their shops and houses,
and keep within doors, while the princess Buddir al Buddoor, the
sultan's daughter, went to the baths and returned.
This proclamation inspired Aladdin with eager curiosity to see the
princess's face, which he could not do without admission into the house
of some acquaintance, and then only through a window; which did not
satisfy him, when he considered that the princess when she went to the
baths, would be closely veiled; but to gratify his curiosity, he
presently thought of a scheme, which succeeded; it was to place himself
behind the door of the bath, which was so situated that he could not
fail of seeing her face.
Aladdin had not waited long before the princess came, and he could see
her plainly through a chink of the door without being discovered. She
was attended by a great crowd of ladies, slaves, and eunuchs, who
walked on each side, and behind her. When she came within three or four
paces of the door of the baths, she took off her veil, and gave Aladdin
an opportunity of a full view.
As soon as Aladdin had seen the princess his heart could not withstand
those inclinations so charming an object always inspires. The princess
was the most beautiful brunette in the world; her eyes were large,
lively, and sparkling; her looks sweet and modest; her nose was of a
just proportion and without a fault, her mouth small, her lips of a
vermilion red and charmingly agreeable symmetry; in a word, all the
features of her face were perfectly regular. It is not therefore
surprising that Aladdin, who had never before seen such a blaze of
charms, was dazzled, and his senses ravished by such an assemblage.
With all these perfections the princess had so fine a form, and so
majestic an air, that the sight of her was sufficient to inspire love
and admiration.
After the princess had passed by, and entered the baths, Aladdin
remained some time astonished, and in a kind of ecstasy, retracing and
imprinting the idea of so charming an object deeply in his mind. But at
last, considering that the princess was gone past him, and that when
she returned from the bath her back would be towards him, and then
veiled, he resolved to quit his hiding place and go home. He could not
so far conceal his uneasiness but that his mother perceived it, was
surprised to see him so much more thoughtful and melancholy than usual;
and asked what had happened to make him so, or if he was ill. He
returned her no answer, but sat carelessly down on the sofa, and
remained silent, musing on the image of the charming Buddir al Buddoor.
His mother, who was dressing supper, pressed him no more. When it was
ready, she served it up, and perceiving that he gave no attention to
it, urged him to eat, but had much ado to persuade him to change his
place; which when he did, he ate much less than usual, all the time
cast down his eyes, and observed so profound a silence, that she could
not obtain a word in answer to all the questions she put, in order to
find the reason of so extraordinary an alteration.
After supper, she asked him again why he was so melancholy, but could
get no information, and he determined to go to bed rather than give her
the least satisfaction. Without examining how he passed the night, his
mind full as it was with the charms of the princess, I shall only
observe that as he sat next day on the sofa, opposite his mother, as
she was spinning cotton, he spoke to her in these words: "I perceive,
mother, that my silence yesterday has much troubled you; I was not, nor
am I sick, as I fancy you believed; but I assure you, that what I felt
then, and now endure, is worse than any disease. I cannot explain what
ails me; but doubt not what I am going to relate will inform you.
"It was not proclaimed in this quarter of the town, and therefore you
could know nothing of it, that the sultan's daughter was yesterday to
go to the baths. I heard this as I walked about the town, and an order
was issued that all the shops should be shut up in her way thither, and
everybody keep withindoors, to leave the streets free for her and her
attendants. As I was not then far from the bath, I had a great
curiosity to see the princess's face; and as it occurred to me that the
princess, when she came nigh the door of the bath, would pull her veil
off, I resolved to conceal myself behind the door. You know the
situation of the door, and may imagine that I must have had a full view
of her. The princess threw off her veil, and I had the happiness of
seeing her lovely face with the greatest security. This, mother, was
the cause of my melancholy and silence yesterday; I love the princess
with more violence than I can express; and as my passion increases
every moment, I cannot live without the possession of the amiable
Buddir al Buddoor, and am resolved to ask her in marriage of the sultan
her father."
Aladdin's mother listened with surprise to what her son told her; but
when he talked of asking the princess in marriage, she could not help
bursting out into a loud laugh. Aladdin would have gone on with his
rhapsody, but she interrupted him: "Alas! child," said she, "what are
you thinking of? you must be mad to talk thus."
"I assure you, mother," replied Aladdin, "that I am not mad, but in my
right senses; I foresaw that you would reproach me with folly and
extravagance; but I must tell you once more, that I am resolved to
demand the princess of the sultan in marriage, and your remonstrances
shall not prevent me."
"Indeed, son," replied the mother seriously, "I cannot help telling
you, that you have forgotten yourself; and if you would put this
resolution of yours in execution, I do not see whom you can prevail
upon to venture to make the proposal for you." "You yourself," replied
he immediately. "I go to the sultan!" answered the mother, amazed and
surprised. "I shall be cautious how I engage in such an errand. Why,
who are you, son," continued she, "that you can have the assurance to
think of your sultan's daughter? Have you forgotten that your father
was one of the poorest tailors in the capital, and that I am of no
better extraction; and do not you know that sultans never marry their
daughters but to princes, sons of sovereigns like themselves?"
"Mother," answered Aladdin, "I have already told you that I foresaw all
that you have said, or can say: and tell you again, that neither your
discourse nor your remonstrances shall make me change my mind. I have
told you that you must ask the princess in marriage for me: it is a
favor I desire of you, and I beg of you not to refuse, unless you would
rather see me in my grave, than by your compliance give me new life."
The good old woman was much embarrassed, when she found Aladdin
obstinately persisting in so wild a design. "My son," said she again,
"I am your mother, who brought you into the world, and there is nothing
that is reasonable but I would readily do for you. If I were to go and
treat about your marriage with some neighbor's daughter, whose
circumstances were equal with yours, I would do it with all my heart;
and even then they would expect you should have some little estate or
fortune, or be of some trade. When such poor folks as we are wish to
marry, the first thing they ought to think of, is how to live. But
without reflecting on the meanness of your birth, and the little merit
and fortune you have to recommend you, you aim at the highest pitch of
exaltation; and your pretensions are no less than to demand in marriage
the daughter of your sovereign, who with one single word can crush you
to pieces. I say nothing of what respects yourself. I leave you to
reflect on what you have to do, if you have ever so little thought. I
come now to consider what concerns myself. How could so extraordinary a
thought come into your head, as that I should go to the sultan and make
a proposal to him to give his daughter in marriage to you? Suppose I
had, not to say the boldness, but the impudence to present myself
before the sultan, and make so extravagant a request, to whom should I
address myself to be introduced to his Majesty? Do you not think the
first person I should speak to would take me for a madwoman, and
chastise me as I should deserve? Suppose, however, that there is no
difficulty in presenting myself for an audience of the sultan, and I
know there is none to those who go to petition for justice, which he
distributes equally among his subjects; I know too that to those who
ask a favor he grants it with pleasure when he sees it is deserved, and
the persons are worthy of it. But is that your case? do you think you
have merited the honor you would have me ask for you? are you worthy of
it? What have you done to claim such a favor, either for your prince or
country? How have you distinguished yourself? If you have done nothing
to merit so high a distinction, nor are worthy of it, with what face
shall I ask it? How can I open my mouth to make the proposal to the
sultan? His majestic presence and the luster of his court would
absolutely confound me, who used even to tremble before my late husband
your father, when I asked him for anything. There is another reason, my
son, which you do not think of, which is that nobody ever goes to ask a
favor of the sultan without a present. But what presents have you to
make? And if you had any that were worthy of the least attention of so
great a monarch, what proportion could they bear to the favor you would
ask? Therefore, reflect well on what you are about, and consider, that
you aspire to an object which it is impossible for you to obtain."
Aladdin heard very calmly all that his mother could say to dissuade him
from his design, and after he had weighed her representations in all
points, replied: "I own, mother, it is great rashness in me to presume
to carry my pretensions so far; and a great want of consideration to
ask you with so much heat and precipitancy to go and make the proposal
to the sultan, without first taking proper measures to procure a
favorable reception, and therefore beg your pardon. But be not
surprised that through the violence of my passion I did not at first
see every measure necessary to procure me the happiness I seek. I love
the princess, or rather I adore her, and shall always persevere in my
design of marrying her. I am obliged to you for the hint you have given
me, and look upon it as the first step I ought to take to procure the
happy issue I promise myself.
"You say it is not customary to go to the sultan without a present, and
that I have nothing worthy of his acceptance. As to the necessity of a
present, I agree with you, and own that I never thought of it; but as
to what you say that I have nothing fit to offer, do not you think,
mother, that what I brought home with me the day on which I was
delivered from an inevitable death, may be an acceptable present? I
mean what you and I both took for colored glass: but now I am
undeceived, and can tell you that they are jewels of inestimable value,
and fit for the greatest monarch. I know the worth of them by
frequenting the shops; and you may take my word that all the precious
stones which I saw in the most capital jeweler's possession were not to
be compared to those we have, either for size or beauty, and yet they
value theirs at an excessive price. In short, neither you nor I know
the value of ours; but be it as it may, by the little experience I
have, I am persuaded that they will be received very favorably by the
sultan: you have a large porcelain dish fit to hold them; fetch it, and
let us see how they will look, when we have arranged them according to
their different colors."
Aladdin's mother brought the china dish, when he took the jewels out of
the two purses in which he had kept them, and placed them in order
according to his fancy. But the brightness and luster they emitted in
the daytime, and the variety of the colors, so dazzled the eyes both of
mother and son, that they were astonished beyond measure; for they had
only seen them by the light of a lamp; and though the latter had beheld
them pendant on the trees like fruit beautiful to the eye, yet as he
was then but a boy, he looked on them only as glittering playthings.
After they had admired the beauty of the jewels some time, Aladdin said
to his mother, "Now you cannot excuse yourself from going to the
sultan, under pretext of not having a present to make him, since here
is one which will gain you a favorable reception."
Though the good widow, notwithstanding the beauty and luster of the
precious stones, did not believe them so valuable as her son estimated
them, she thought such a present might nevertheless be agreeable to the
sultan, but still she hesitated at the request. "My son," said she, "I
cannot conceive that your present will have its desired effect, or that
the sultan will look upon me with a favorable eye; I am sure, that if I
attempt to deliver your strange message, I shall have no power to open
my mouth; therefore I shall not only lose my labor, but the present,
which you say is so invaluable, and shall return home again in
confusion, to tell you that your hopes are frustrated. I have
represented the consequence, and you ought to believe me; but," added
she, "I will exert my best endeavor to please you, and wish I may have
power to ask the sultan as you would have me; but certainly he would
either laugh at me, and send me back like a fool, or be in so great a
rage as to make us both the victims of his fury."
She used many other arguments to endeavor to make him change his mind;
but the charms of the princess had made too great an impression on his
heart for him to be dissuaded from his design. He persisted in
importuning his mother to execute his resolution, and she, as much out
of tenderness as for fear he should be guilty of greater extravagance,
complied with his request.
As it was now late, and the time for admission to the palace was
passed, it was put off till the next day. The mother and son talked of
different matters the remaining part of the day; and Aladdin strove to
encourage her in the task she had undertaken; while she,
notwithstanding all his arguments, could not persuade herself she
should succeed; and it must be confessed she had reason enough to
doubt. "Child," said she to Aladdin, "if the sultan should receive me
favorably, as I wish for your sake, should even hear my proposal with
calmness, and after this scarcely-to-be-expected reception should think
of asking me where lie your riches and your estate (for he will sooner
inquire after these than your person), if, I say, he should ask me
these questions, what answer would you have me return him?"
"Let us not be uneasy, mother," replied Aladdin, "about what may never
happen. First, let us see how the sultan receives, and what answer he
gives you. If it should so fall out, that he desires to be informed of
what you mention, I have thought of an answer, and am confident that
the lamp which hath supported us so long will not fail me in time of
need."
The tailor's widow could not say anything against what her son then
proposed; but reflected that the lamp might be capable of doing greater
wonders than just providing victuals for them. This consideration
satisfied her, and at the same time removed all the difficulties which
might have prevented her from undertaking the service she had promised
her son with the sultan; Aladdin, who penetrated into his mother's
thoughts, said to her, "Above all things, mother, be sure to keep
secret our possession of the lamp, for thereon depends the success we
have to expect"; and after this caution, Aladdin and his mother parted
to go to rest. But violent love, and the great prospect of so immense a
fortune, had so much possessed the son's thoughts, that he could not
repose himself so well as he could have wished. He rose before
daybreak, awakened his mother, pressing her to get herself dressed to
go to the sultan's palace, and to get admittance, if possible, before
the grand vizier, the other viziers, and the great officers of state
went in to take their seats in the divan, where the sultan always
assisted in person.
Aladdin's mother took the china dish, in which they had put the jewels
the day before, wrapped in two napkins, one finer than the other, which
was tied at the four corners for more easy carriage, and set forwards
for the sultan's palace. When she came to the gates, the grand vizier,
the other viziers, and most distinguished lords of the court were just
gone in; but, notwithstanding the crowd of people who had business was
great, she got into the divan, a spacious hall, the entrance into which
was very magnificent. She placed herself just before the sultan, grand
vizier, and the great lords, who sat in council, on his right and left
hand. Several causes were called, according to their order, pleaded and
adjudged, until the time the divan generally broke up, when the sultan
rising, returned to his apartment, attended by the grand vizier; the
other viziers and ministers of state then retired, as also did all
those whose business had called them thither; some pleased with gaining
their causes, others dissatisfied at the sentences pronounced against
them, and some in expectation of theirs being heard the next sitting.
Aladdin's mother, seeing the sultan retire, and all the people depart,
judged rightly that he would not sit again that day, and resolved to go
home. When Aladdin saw her return with the present designed for the
sultan, he knew not what to think of her success, and in his fear lest
she should bring him some ill news, had not courage to ask her any
questions; but she, who had never set foot into the sultan's palace
before, and knew not what was every day practiced there, freed him from
his embarrassment, and said to him, with a great deal of simplicity,
"Son, I have seen the sultan, and am very well persuaded he has seen me
too; for I placed myself just before him; but he was so much taken up
with those who attended on all sides of him, that I pitied him, and
wondered at his patience. At last I believe he was heartily tired, for
he rose up suddenly, and would not hear a great many who were ready
prepared to speak to him, but went away, at which I was well pleased,
for indeed I began to lose all patience, and was extremely fatigued
with staying so long. But there is no harm done; I will go again
tomorrow; perhaps the sultan may not be so busy."
Though his passion was very violent, Aladdin was forced to be satisfied
with this delay, and to fortify himself with patience. He had at least
the satisfaction to find that his mother had got over the greatest
difficulty, which was to procure access to the sultan, and hoped that
the example of those she saw speak to him would embolden her to acquit
herself better of her commission when a favorable opportunity might
offer to speak to him.
The next morning she repaired to the sultan's palace with the present,
as early as the day before, but when she came there, she found the
gates of the divan shut, and understood that the council sat but every
other day, therefore she must come again the next. This news she
carried to her son, whose only relief was to guard himself with
patience. She went six times afterwards on the days appointed, placed
herself always directly before the sultan, but with as little success
as the first morning, and might have perhaps come a thousand times to
as little purpose, if luckily the sultan himself had not taken
particular notice of her: for only those who came with petitions
approached the sultan, when each pleaded their cause in its turn, and
Aladdin's mother was not one of them.
On the sixth day, however, after the divan was broken up, when the
sultan returned to his own apartment, he said to his grand vizier, "I
have for some time observed a certain woman, who attends constantly
every day that I give audience, with something wrapped up in a napkin:
she always stands up from the beginning to the breaking up of the
audience, and affects to place herself just before me. Do you know what
she wants?"
"Sir," replied the grand vizier, who knew no more than the sultan what
she wanted, but did not wish to seem uninformed, "your Majesty knows
that women often make complaints on trifles; perhaps she may come to
complain to your Majesty, that somebody has sold her some bad flour, or
some such trifling matter." The sultan was not satisfied with this
answer, but replied, "If this woman comes to our next audience, do not
fail to call her, that I may hear what she has to say." The grand
vizier made answer by lowering his hand, and then lifting it up above
his head, signifying his willingness to lose it if he failed.
By this time, the tailor's widow was so much used to go to audience,
and stand before the sultan, that she did not think it any trouble, if
she could but satisfy her son that she neglected nothing that lay in
her power to please him: the next audience day she went to the divan,
placed herself in front of the sultan as usual; and before the grand
vizier had made his report of business, the sultan perceived her, and
compassionating her for having waited so long, said to the vizier,
"Before you enter upon any business, remember the woman I spoke to you
about; bid her come near, and let us hear and dispatch her business
first." The grand vizier immediately called the chief of the mace-
bearers who stood ready to obey his commands; and pointing to her, bade
him go to that woman, and tell her to come before the sultan.
The chief of the officers went to Aladdin's mother, and at a sign he
gave her, she followed him to the foot of the sultan's throne, where he
left her, and retired to his place by the grand vizier. The old woman,
after the example of others whom she saw salute the sultan, bowed her
head down to the carpet, which covered the platform of the throne, and
remained in that posture till the sultan bade her rise, which she had
no sooner done, than he said to her, "Good woman, I have observed you
to stand a long time, from the beginning to the rising of the divan;
what business brings you here?"
After these words, Aladdin's mother prostrated herself a second time;
and when she arose, said, "Monarch of monarchs, before I tell your
Majesty the extraordinary and almost incredible business which brings
me before your high throne, I beg of you to pardon the boldness or
rather impudence of the demand I am going to make, which is so
uncommon, that I tremble, and am ashamed to propose it to my
sovereign." In order to give her the more freedom to explain herself,
the sultan ordered all to quit the divan but the grand vizier, and then
told her she might speak without restraint.
Aladdin's mother, not content with this favor of the sultan's to save
her the trouble and confusion of speaking before so many people, was
notwithstanding for securing herself against his anger, which, from the
proposal she was going to make, she was not a little apprehensive of;
therefore resuming her discourse, she said, "I beg of your Majesty, if
you should think my demand the least injurious or offensive, to assure
me first of your pardon and forgiveness." "Well," replied the sultan,
"I will forgive you, be it what it may, and no hurt shall come to you:
speak boldly."
When Aladdin's mother had taken all these precautions, for fear of the
sultan's anger, she told him faithfully how Aladdin had seen the
princess Buddir al Buddoor, the violent love that fatal sight had
inspired him with, the declaration he had made to her of it when he
came home, and what representations she had made to dissuade him from a
passion "no less disrespectful," said she, "to your Majesty, as sultan,
than to the princess your daughter. But," continued she, "my son, instead
of taking my advice and reflecting on his presumption, was so obstinate
as to persevere, and to threaten me with some desperate act, if I refused
to come and ask the princess in marriage of your Majesty; and it was not
without the greatest reluctance that I was led to accede to his request,
for which I beg your Majesty once more to pardon not only me, but also
Aladdin my son, for entertaining so rash a project as to aspire to so
high an alliance."
The sultan hearkened to this discourse with mildness, and without
showing the least anger; but before he gave her any answer, asked her
what she had brought tied up in the napkin. She took the china dish,
which she had set down at the foot of the throne, before she prostrated
herself before him; untied it, and presented it to the sultan.
The sultan's amazement and surprise were inexpressible, when he saw so
many large, beautiful, and valuable jewels collected in the dish. He
remained for some time motionless with admiration. At last, when he had
recovered himself, he received the present from Aladdin's mother's
hand, crying out in a transport of joy, "How rich, how beautiful!"
After he had admired and handled all the jewels, one after another, he
turned to the grand vizier, and showing him the dish, said, "Behold,
admire, wonder, and confess that your eyes never beheld jewels so rich
and beautiful before." The vizier was charmed. "Well," continued the
sultan, "what sayst thou to such a present? Is it not worthy of the
princess my daughter? And ought I not to bestow her on one who values
her at so great price?"
These words put the grand vizier into extreme agitation. The sultan had
some time before signified to him his intention of bestowing the
princess on a son of his; therefore he was afraid, and not without
grounds, that the sultan, dazzled by so rich and extraordinary a
present, might change his mind. Therefore going to him, and whispering
him in the ear, he said, "I cannot but own that the present is worthy
of the princess; but I beg of your Majesty to grant me three months
before you come to a final resolution. I hope, before that time, my
son, on whom you have had the goodness to look with a favorable eye,
will be able to make a nobler present than Aladdin, who is an entire
stranger to your Majesty."
The sultan, though he was fully persuaded that it was not possible for
the vizier to provide so considerable a present for his son to make the
princess, yet as he had given him hopes, hearkened to him, and granted
his request. Turning therefore to the old widow, he said to her, "Good
woman, go home, and tell your son that I agree to the proposal you have
made me; but I cannot marry the princess my daughter, till the
paraphernalia I design for her be got ready, which cannot be finished
these three months; but at the expiration of that time come again."
Aladdin's mother returned home much more gratified than she had
expected, since she had met with a favorable answer, instead of the
refusal and confusion she had dreaded. From two circumstances Aladdin,
when he saw his mother returning, judged that she brought him good
news: the one was, that she returned sooner than ordinary; and the
other, the gayety of her countenance. "Well, mother," said he, "may I
entertain any hopes, or must I die with despair?" When she had pulled
off her veil, and had seated herself on the sofa by him, she said to
him, "Not to keep you long in suspense, son, I will begin by telling
you, that instead of thinking of dying, you have every reason to be
well satisfied." Then pursuing her discourse, she told him, that she
had an audience before everybody else, which made her come home so
soon; the precautions she had taken lest she should have displeased the
sultan, by making the proposal of marriage between him and the princess
Buddir al Buddoor, and the condescending answer she had received from
the sultan's own mouth; and that as far as she could judge, the present
had wrought a powerful effect. "But when I least expected it," said
she, "and he was going to give me an answer, and I fancied a favorable
one, the grand vizier whispered him in the ear, and I was afraid might
be some obstacle to his good intentions towards us, and so it happened,
for the sultan desired me to come to audience again this day three
months."
Aladdin thought himself the most happy of all men at hearing this news,
and thanked his mother for the pains she had taken in the affair, the
good success of which was of so great importance to his peace. Though
from his impatience to obtain the object of his passion, three months
seemed an age, yet he disposed himself to wait with patience, relying
on the sultan's word, which he looked upon to be irrevocable. But all
that time he not only counted the hours, days, and weeks, but every
moment. When two of the three months were past, his mother one evening
going to light the lamp, and finding no oil in the house, went out to
buy some, and when she came into the city, found a general rejoicing.
The shops, instead of being shut up, were open, dressed with foliage,
silks, and carpeting, every one striving to show their zeal in the most
distinguished manner according to his ability. The streets were crowded
with officers in habits of ceremony, mounted on horses richly
caparisoned, each attended by a great many footmen. Aladdin's mother
asked the oil merchant what was the meaning of all this preparation of
public festivity. "Whence came you, good woman," said he, "that you
don't know that the grand vizier's son is to marry the princess Buddir
al Buddoor, the sultan's daughter, tonight? She will presently return
from the baths; and these officers whom you see are to assist at the
cavalcade to the palace, where the ceremony is to be solemnized." This
was news enough for Aladdin's mother. She ran till she was quite out of
breath home to her son, who little suspected any such event. "Child,"
cried she, "you are undone! you depend upon the sultan's fine promises,
but they will come to nothing." Aladdin was alarmed at these words.
"Mother," replied he, "how do you know the sultan has been guilty of a
breach of promise?" "This night," answered the mother, "the grand
vizier's son is to marry the princess Buddir al Buddoor." She then
related how she had heard it; so that from all circumstances, he had no
reason to doubt the truth of what she said.
At this account, Aladdin was thunderstruck. Any other man would have
sunk under the shock; but a sudden hope of disappointing his rival soon
roused his spirits, and he bethought himself of the lamp, which had on
every emergency been so useful to him; and without venting his rage in
empty words against the sultan, the vizier or his son, he only said,
"Perhaps, mother, the vizier's son may not be so happy tonight as he
promises himself: while I go into my chamber a moment, do you get
supper ready." She accordingly went about it, but guessed that her son
was going to make use of the lamp, to prevent, if possible, the
consummation of the marriage.
When Aladdin had got into his chamber, he took the lamp, rubbed it in
the same place as before, when immediately the genie appeared, and said
to him, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave,
and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their possession; I
and the other slaves of the lamp." "Hear me," said Aladdin; "thou hast
hitherto brought me whatever I wanted as to provisions; but now I have
business of the greatest importance for thee to execute. I have
demanded the princess Buddir al Buddoor in marriage of the sultan her
father; he promised her to me, only requiring three months' delay; but
instead of keeping that promise, has this night married her to the
grand vizier's son. What I ask of you is, that as soon as the bride and
bridegroom are retired, you bring them both hither in their bed."
"Master," replied the genie, "I will obey you. Have you any other
commands?" "None at present," answered Aladdin; the genie then
disappeared.
Aladdin having left his chamber, supped with his mother, with the same
tranquillity of mind as usual; and after supper talked of the
princess's marriage as of an affair wherein he had not the least
concern; he then retired to his own chamber again, and left his mother
to go to bed; but sat up waiting the execution of his orders to the
genie.
In the meantime, everything was prepared with the greatest magnificence
in the sultan's palace to celebrate the princess's nuptials; and the
evening was spent with all the usual ceremonies and great rejoicings
till midnight, when the grand vizier's son, on a signal given him by
the chief of the princess's eunuchs, slipped away from the company, and
was introduced by that officer into the princess's apartment. In a
little time after, the sultaness, accompanied by her own women, and
those of the princess, brought the bride.
No sooner was the door shut, than the genie, as the faithful slave of
the lamp, and punctual in executing the command of those who possessed
it, to the great amazement of them both, took up the bed, and
transported it in an instant into Aladdin's chamber, where he set it
down.
Aladdin, who had waited impatiently for this moment, did not suffer the
vizier's son to remain long in bed with the princess. "Take this new-
married man," said he to the genie, "shut him up in a room, and come
again tomorrow morning before daybreak." The genie instantly forced the
vizier's son out of bed, carried him whither Aladdin had commanded him;
and after he had breathed upon him, which prevented his stirring, left
him there.
Aladdin did not talk much to the princess when they were alone, but
only said with a respectful air, "Fear nothing, adorable princess, you
are here in safety; for, notwithstanding the violence of my passion,
which your charms have kindled, it shall never exceed the bounds of the
profound adoration I owe you. If I have been forced to come to this
extremity, it is not with any intention of affronting you, but to
prevent an unjust rival's possessing you, contrary to the sultan your
father's promise in favor of myself."
The princess, who knew nothing of these particulars, gave very little
attention to what Aladdin could say. The fright and amazement of so
surprising and unexpected an adventure had alarmed her so much that he
could not get one word from her. Aladdin, satisfied with having thus
deprived his rival of the happiness he had flattered himself with, went
outside the room, where he slept very soundly, though the princess
Buddir al Buddoor never passed a night so ill in her life; and if we
consider the condition in which the genie left the grand vizier's son,
we may imagine that the new bridegroom spent it much worse.
Aladdin had no occasion the next morning to rub the lamp to call the
genie; who appeared at the hour appointed, just when he had done
dressing himself, and said to him, "I am here, master, what are your
commands?" "Go," said Aladdin, "fetch the vizier's son out of the place
where you left him, put him into his bed again, and carry it to the
sultan's palace, from whence you brought it." The genie presently
returned with the vizier's son. The bridegroom was laid by the
princess, and in an instant the nuptial bed was transported into the
same chamber of the palace from whence it had been brought. But we must
observe, that all this time the genie never was visible either to the
princess or the grand vizier's son. His hideous form would have made
them die with fear. Neither did they hear anything of the discourse
between Aladdin and him; they only perceived the motion of the bed, and
their transportation from one place to another; which we may well
imagine was enough to alarm them.
As soon as the genie had set down the nuptial bed in its proper place,
the sultan tapped at the door to wish her good morning. The grand
vizier's son, who was almost perished with cold, by standing in his
thin under garment all night, and had not had time to warm himself in
bed, had no sooner heard the knocking at the door than he got out of
bed, and ran into the robing chamber, where he had undressed himself
the night before.
The sultan having opened the door, went to the bedside, kissed the
princess between the eyes, according to custom, wishing her a good
morrow, but was extremely surprised to see her so melancholy. She only
cast at him a sorrowful look, expressive of great affliction or great
dissatisfaction. He said a few words to her, but finding that he could
not get a word from her, he retired. Nevertheless, he suspected that
there was something extraordinary in this silence, and thereupon went
immediately to the sultaness's apartment, told her in what a state he
had found the princess, and how she had received him. "Sir," said
the sultaness, "I will go and see her; I am much deceived if she
receives me in the same manner."
As soon as the sultaness was dressed, she went to the princess's
apartment, who was still in bed. She undrew the curtain, wished her
good morrow, and kissed her. But how great was her surprise when she
returned no answer; and looking more attentively at her, she perceived
her to be much dejected, which made her judge that something had
happened, which she did not understand. "How comes it, child," said the
sultaness, "that you do not return my caresses? Ought you to treat your
mother after this manner? I am induced to believe something
extraordinary has happened; come, tell me freely, and leave me no
longer in a painful suspense."
At last the princess broke silence with a deep sigh and said, "Alas!
most honored mother, forgive me if I have failed in the respect I owe
you. My mind is so full of the extraordinary circumstances which have
befallen me this night, that I have not yet recovered from my amazement
and alarm." She then told her, how the instant after she and her
husband were together, the bed was transported into a dark, dirty room,
where he was taken from her and carried away, but where she knew not;
and that she was left alone with a young man, who said something to
her, which her fright did not suffer her to hear; and in the morning
her husband was brought to her again, when the bed was transported back
to her own chamber in an instant. "All this," said she, "was but just
done, when the sultan my father came into my chamber. I was so
overwhelmed with grief, that I had not power to speak, and am afraid
that he is offended at the manner in which I received the honor he did
me; but I hope he will forgive me, when he knows my melancholy
adventure, and the miserable state I am in at present."
The sultaness heard all the princess told her very patiently, but would
not believe it. "You did well, child," said she, "not to speak of this
to your father: take care not to mention it to anybody; for you will
certainly be thought mad if you talk in this manner." "Madam," replied
the princess, "I can assure you I am in my right senses; ask my
husband, and he will tell you the same circumstances." "I will," said
the sultaness; "but if he should talk in the same manner, I shall not
be better persuaded of the truth. Come, rise, and throw off this idle
fancy; it will be a strange event, if all the feasts and rejoicings in
the kingdom should be interrupted by such a vision. Do not you hear the
trumpets of congratulation, and concerts of the finest music? Cannot
these inspire you with joy and pleasure, and make you forget the
fancies of an imagination disturbed by what can have been only a dream?"
At the same time the sultaness called the princess's women, and after
she had seen her get up, and begin dressing, went to the sultan's
apartment, told him that her daughter had got some odd notions in her,
but that there was nothing in them but idle fantasy.
She then sent for the vizier's son, to know of him something of what
the princess had told her; but he, thinking himself highly honored to
be allied to the sultan, and not willing to lose the princess, denied
what had happened. "That is enough," answered the sultaness, "I ask no
more. I see you are wiser than my daughter."
The rejoicings lasted all that day in the palace, and the sultaness,
who never left the princess, forgot nothing to divert her, and induce
her to take part in the various diversions and shows; but she was so
struck with the idea of what had happened to her in the night, that it
was easy to see her thoughts were entirely taken up with it. Neither
was the grand vizier's son in less tribulation, though his ambition
made him disguise his feelings so well, that nobody doubted of his
being a happy bridegroom.
Aladdin, who was well acquainted with what passed in the palace, was
sure the new-married couple were to lie together again, notwithstanding
the troublesome adventure of the night before; and therefore, having as
great an inclination to disturb them, had recourse to his lamp, and
when the genie appeared, and offered his service, he said to him, "The
grand vizier's son and the princess Buddir al Buddoor are to lie
together again tonight: go, and as soon as they are in bed, bring the
bed hither, as thou didst yesterday."
The genie obeyed as faithfully and exactly as the day before, and the
grand vizier's son passed the night as coldly and disagreeably. The
genie, according to orders, came the next morning, brought the
bridegroom, laid him by his bride, and then carried the bed and new-
married couple back again to the palace.
The sultan, after the reception the princess had given him, was very
anxious to know how she passed the second night, and therefore went
into her chamber as early as the morning before. The grand vizier's
son, more ashamed, and mortified with the ill success of this last
night, no sooner heard him coming, than he jumped out of bed, and ran
hastily into the robing-chamber. The sultan went to the princess's
bedside, and after the same caresses he had given her the former
morning, bade her good morrow. "Well, daughter," said he, "are you in
better humor than yesterday?" Still the princess was silent, and the
sultan perceiving her to be more troubled, and in greater confusion
than before, doubted not that something very extraordinary was the
cause; but provoked that his daughter should conceal it, he said to her
in a rage, with his saber in his hand, "Daughter, tell me what is the
matter, or I will cut off your head immediately."
The princess, more frightened at the menaces and tone of the enraged
sultan than at the sight of the drawn saber, at last broke silence, and
said with tears in her eyes, "My dear father and sultan, I ask your
Majesty's pardon if I have offended you, and hope, that out of your
goodness and clemency you will have compassion on me, when I shall have
told you in what a miserable condition I have spent this last night, as
well as the preceding."
After this preamble, which appeased and affected the sultan, she told
him what had happened to her, in so moving a manner, that he, who loved
her tenderly, was most sensibly grieved. She added, "If your Majesty
doubts the truth of this account, you may inform yourself from my
husband, who, I am persuaded, will tell you the same thing."
The sultan immediately felt all the extreme uneasiness so surprising an
adventure must have given the princess. "Daughter," said he, "you are
much to blame for not telling me this yesterday, since it concerns me
as much as yourself. I did not marry you with an intention to make you
miserable, but that you might enjoy all the happiness you deserve and
might hope for from a husband, who to me seemed agreeable to you.
Efface all these troublesome ideas from your memory; I will take care
that you shall have no more such disagreeable and insupportable
nights."
As soon as the sultan had returned to his own apartments, he sent for
the grand vizier: "Vizier," said he, "have you seen your son, and has
he told you anything?" The vizier replied, "No." The sultan related all
the circumstances of which the princess had informed him, and
afterwards said, "I do not doubt but that my daughter has told me the
truth; but nevertheless I should be glad to have it confirmed by your
son, therefore go and ask him how it was."
The grand vizier went immediately to his son, communicated what the
sultan had told him, and enjoined him to conceal nothing, but to relate
the whole truth. "I will disguise nothing from you, father," replied
the son, "for indeed all that the princess has stated is true; but what
relates particularly to myself she knows nothing of. Since my marriage,
I have passed two nights beyond imagination or expression disagreeable,
not to mention the fright I was in at finding my bed lifted four times,
transported from one place to another, without being able to guess how
it was done. You may judge of the miserable condition I was in, passing
two whole nights in nothing but my under vestments, standing in a small
room, unable to stir out of the place or to make the least movement,
though I could not perceive any obstacle to prevent me. Yet I must tell
you, that all this ill usage does not in the least lessen those
sentiments of love, respect, and gratitude I entertain for the
princess, and of which she is so deserving; but I must confess, that
notwithstanding all the honor and splendor that attends marrying my
sovereign's daughter, I would much rather die, than continue in so
exalted an alliance if I must undergo nightly much longer what I have
already endured. I do not doubt but that the princess entertains the
same sentiments, and that she will readily agree to a separation, which
is so necessary both for her repose and mine. Therefore, father, I beg,
by the same tenderness which led you to procure me so great an honor,
to obtain the sultan's consent that our marriage may be declared null
and void."
Notwithstanding the grand vizier's ambition to have his son allied to
the sultan, the firm resolution he saw he had formed to be separated
from the princess made him not think it proper to propose to him to
have patience for a few days, to see if this disappointment would not
have an end; but he left him to give an account of what he had related
to him, and without waiting till the sultan himself, whom he found
disposed to it, spoke of setting aside the marriage, he begged of him
to give his son leave to retire from the palace, alleging it was not
just that the princess should be a moment longer exposed to so terrible
a persecution upon his son's account.
The grand vizier found no great difficulty to obtain what he asked, as
the sultan had determined already; orders were given to put a stop to
all rejoicing in the palace and town, and expresses dispatched to all
parts of his dominions to countermand them; and, in a short time, all
rejoicings ceased.
This sudden and unexpected change gave rise both in the city and
kingdom to various speculations and inquiries; but no other account
could be given of it, except that both the vizier and his son went out
of the palace very much dejected. Nobody but Aladdin knew the secret.
He rejoiced within himself at the happy success procured by his lamp,
which now he had no more occasion to rub, to produce the genie to
prevent the consummation of the marriage, as he had certain information
it was broken off, and that his rival had left the palace. Neither the
sultan nor the grand vizier, who had forgotten Aladdin and his request,
had the least thought that he had any concern in the enchantment which
caused the dissolution of the marriage.
Aladdin waited till the three months were completed, which the sultan
had appointed for the consummation of the marriage between the princess
Buddir al Buddoor and himself; and the next day sent his mother to the
palace, to remind the sultan of his promise.
Aladdin's mother went to the palace, and stood in the same place as
before in the hall of audience. The sultan no sooner cast his eyes upon
her than he knew her again, remembered her business, and how long he
had put her off: therefore when the grand vizier was beginning to make
his report, the sultan interrupted him and said, "Vizier, I see the
good woman who made me the present of jewels some months ago; forbear
your report, till I have heard what she has to say." The vizier looking
about the divan, perceived the tailor's widow, and sent the chief of
the mace-bearers to conduct her to the sultan.
Aladdin's mother came to the foot of the throne, prostrated herself as
usual, and when she rose, the sultan asked her what she would have.
"Sir," said she, "I come to represent to your Majesty, in the name of
my son Aladdin, that the three months, at the end of which you ordered
me to come again, are expired; and to beg you to remember your
promise."
The sultan, when he had fixed a time to answer the request of this good
woman, little thought of hearing any more of a marriage, which he
imagined must be very disagreeable to the princess, when he considered
the meanness and poverty of her dress and appearance; but this summons
for him to fulfill his promise was somewhat embarrassing; he declined
giving an answer till he had consulted his vizier, and signified to him
the little inclination he had to conclude a match for his daughter with
a stranger, whose rank he supposed to be very mean.
The grand vizier freely told the sultan his thoughts, and said to him,
"In my opinion, sir, there is an infallible way for your Majesty to
avoid a match so disproportionable, without giving Aladdin, were he
known to your Majesty, any cause of complaint; which is, to set so high
a price upon the princess, that, however rich he may be, he cannot
comply with. This is the only evasion to make him desist from so bold,
not to say rash, an undertaking, which he never weighed before he
engaged in it."
The sultan, approving of the grand vizier's advice, turned to the
tailor's widow, and said to her, "Good woman, it is true sultans ought
to abide by their word, and I am ready to keep mine, by making your son
happy in marriage with the princess, my daughter. But as I cannot marry
her without some further valuable consideration from your son, you may
tell him, I will fulfill my promise as soon as he shall send me forty
trays of massy gold, full of the same sort of jewels you have already
made me a present of, and carried by the like number of black slaves,
who shall be led by as many young and handsome white slaves, all
dressed magnificently. On these conditions I am ready to bestow the
princess my daughter upon him; therefore, good woman, go and tell him
so, and I will wait till you bring me his answer."
Aladdin's mother prostrated herself a second time before the sultan's
throne and retired. On her way home, she laughed within herself at her
son's foolish imagination. "Where," says she, "can he get so many large
gold trays, and such precious stones to fill them? Must he go again to
that subterraneous abode, the entrance into which is stopped up, and
gather them off the trees? But where will he get so many such slaves as
the sultan requires? It is altogether out of his power, and I believe
he will not be much pleased with my embassy this time." When she came
home, full of these thoughts, she said to her son, "Indeed, child, I
would not have you think any farther of your marriage with the
princess. The sultan received me very kindly, and I believe he was well
inclined to you; but if I am not much deceived the grand vizier has
made him change his mind, as you will guess from what I have to tell
you. After I had represented to his Majesty, that the three months were
expired, and begged of him to remember his promise, I observed that he
whispered with his grand vizier before he gave me his answer." She then
gave her son an exact account of what the sultan had said to her, and
the conditions on which he consented to the match. Afterwards she said
to him, "The sultan expects your answer immediately; but," continued
she, laughing, "I believe he may wait long enough."
"Not so long, mother, as you imagine," replied Aladdin; "the sultan is
mistaken, if he thinks by this exorbitant demand to prevent my
entertaining thoughts of the princess. I expected greater difficulties,
and that he would have set a higher price upon her incomparable charms.
I am very well pleased; his demand is but a trifle to what I could have
done for her. But while I think of satisfying his request, go and get
something for our dinner, and leave the rest to me."
As soon as his mother was gone out to market, Aladdin took the lamp,
and rubbing it, the genie appeared, and offered his service as usual.
"The sultan," said Aladdin to him, "gives me the princess his daughter
in marriage; but demands first forty large trays of massy gold, full of
the fruits of the garden from whence I took this lamp; and these he
expects to have carried by as many black slaves, each preceded by a
young, handsome white slave, richly clothed. Go, and fetch me this
present as soon as possible, that I may send it to him before the divan
breaks up." The genie told him his command should be immediately
obeyed, and disappeared.
In a little time afterwards the genie returned with forty black slaves,
each bearing on his head a heavy tray of pure gold, full of pearls,
diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and every sort of precious stones, all
larger and more beautiful than those presented to the sultan. Each tray
was covered with silver tissue, embroidered with flowers of gold:
these, together with the white slaves, quite filled the house, which
was but a small one, the little court before it, and a small garden
behind. The genie asked if he had any other commands, and Aladdin
telling him that he wanted nothing farther, he disappeared.
When Aladdin's mother came from market, she was much surprised to see
so many people and such vast riches. As soon as she had laid down her
provisions, she was going to pull off her veil; but he prevented her,
and said, "Mother, let us lose no time; before the sultan and the divan
rise, I would have you return to the palace with this present as the
dowry demanded for the princess, that he may judge by my diligence and
exactness of the ardent and sincere desire I have to procure myself the
honor of this alliance." Without waiting for his mother's reply,
Aladdin opened the street door, and made the slaves walk out; each
white slave followed by a black with a tray upon his head. When they
were all out, the mother followed the last black slave, he shut the
door, and then retired to his chamber, full of hopes that the sultan,
after this present, which was such as he required, would receive him as
his son-in-law.
The first white slave who went out made all the people who were going
by stop; and before they were all clear of the house, the streets were
crowded with spectators, who ran to see so extraordinary and
magnificent a procession. The dress of each slave was so rich, both for
the stuff and the jewels, that those who were dealers in them valued
each at no less than a million of money; besides the neatness and
propriety of the dress, the noble air, fine shape and proportion of
each slave were unparalleled; their grave walk at an equal distance
from each other, the luster of the jewels curiously set in their
girdles of gold, in beautiful symmetry, and the egrets of precious
stones in their turbans, which were of an unusual but elegant taste,
put the spectators into such great admiration, that they could not
avoid gazing at them, and following them with their eyes as far as
possible; but the streets were so crowded with people, that none could
move out of the spot they stood on. As they had to pass through several
streets to the palace, a great part of the city had an opportunity of
seeing them. As soon as the first of these slaves arrived at the palace
gate, the porters formed themselves into order, taking him for a prince
from the richness and magnificence of his habit, and were going to kiss
the hem of his garment; but the slave, who was instructed by the genie,
prevented them, and said, "We are only slaves, our master will appear
at a proper time."
The first slave, followed by the rest, advanced into the second court,
which was very spacious, and in which the sultan's household was ranged
during the sitting of the divan. The magnificence of the officers, who
stood at the head of their troops, was considerably eclipsed by the
slaves who bore Aladdin's present, of which they themselves made a
part. Nothing was ever seen so beautiful and brilliant in the sultan's
palace; and all the luster of the lords of his court was not to be
compared to them.
As the sultan, who had been informed of their march and approach to the
palace, had given orders for them to be admitted, they met with no
obstacle, but went into the divan in regular order, one part filing to
the right, and the other to the left. After they entered, and had
formed a semicircle before the sultan's throne, the black slaves laid
the golden trays on the carpet, prostrated themselves, touching the
carpet with their foreheads, and at the same time the white slaves did
the same. When they rose, the black slaves uncovered the trays, and
then all stood with their arms crossed over their breasts.
In the meantime Aladdin's mother advanced to the foot of the throne,
and having paid her respects, said to the sultan, "Sir, my son is
sensible this present, which he has sent your Majesty, is much below
the princess Buddir al Buddoor's worth; but hopes, nevertheless, that
your Majesty will accept of it and make it agreeable to the princess,
and with the greater confidence since he has endeavored to conform to
the conditions you were pleased to impose."
The sultan was not able to give the least attention to this compliment.
The moment he cast his eyes on the forty trays, full of the most
precious, brilliant, and beautiful jewels he had ever seen, and the
fourscore slaves, who appeared by the elegance of their persons, and
the richness and magnificence of their dress, like so many princes, he
was so struck, that he could not recover from his admiration. Instead
of answering the compliment of Aladdin's mother, he addressed himself
to the grand vizier, who could not any more than the sultan comprehend
from whence such a profusion of richness could come. "Well, vizier,"
said he aloud, "who do you think it can be that has sent me so
extraordinary a present, and neither of us know? Do you think him
worthy of the princess Buddir al Buddoor, my daughter?"
The vizier, notwithstanding his envy and grief to see a stranger
preferred to be the sultan's son-in-law before his son, durst not
disguise his sentiments. It was too visible that Aladdin's present was
more than sufficient to merit his being received into royal alliance;
therefore, consulting his master's feelings, he returned this answer:
"I am so far from having any thoughts that the person who has made your
Majesty so noble a present is unworthy of the honor you would do him,
that I should say he deserved much more, if I was not persuaded that
the greatest treasure in the world ought not to be put in competition
with the princess your Majesty's daughter." This speech was applauded
by all the lords who were then in council.
The sultan made no longer hesitation, nor thought of informing himself
whether Aladdin was endowed with all the qualifications requisite in
one who aspired to be his son-in-law. The sight alone of such immense
riches, and Aladdin's quickness in satisfying his demand, without
starting the least difficulty at the exorbitant conditions he had
imposed, easily persuaded him, that he could want nothing to render him
accomplished, and such as he desired. Therefore, to send Aladdin's
mother back with all the satisfaction she could desire, he said to her,
"My good lady, go and tell your son, that I wait with open arms to
embrace him, and the more haste he makes to come and receive the
princess my daughter from my hands, the greater pleasure he will do
me."
As soon as the tailor's widow had retired, overjoyed as a woman in her
condition must have been, to see her son raised beyond all expectations
to such exalted fortune, the sultan put an end to the audience; and
rising from his throne, ordered that the princess's eunuchs should come
and carry the trays into their mistress's apartments, whither he went
himself to examine them with her at his leisure. The fourscore slaves
were conducted into the palace; and the sultan, telling the princess of
their magnificent appearance, ordered them to be brought before her
apartment, that she might see through the lattices he had not
exaggerated in his account of them.
In the meantime Aladdin's mother got home, and showed in her air and
countenance the good news she brought her son. "My son," said she to
him, "you have now all the reason in the world to be pleased: you are,
contrary to my expectations, arrived at the height of your desires. Not
to keep you too long in suspense, the sultan, with the approbation of
the whole court, has declared that you are worthy to possess the
princess Buddir al Buddoor, and waits to embrace you and conclude your
marriage; therefore, you must think of making some preparations for
your interview, which may answer the high opinion he has formed of your
person; and after the wonders I have seen you do, I am persuaded
nothing can be wanting. But I must not forget to tell you, the sultan
waits for you with great impatience; therefore lose no time in paying
your respects."
Aladdin, enraptured with this news, and full of the object which
possessed his soul, made his mother very little reply, but retired to
his chamber. There, after he had rubbed his lamp, which had never
failed him in whatever he wished for, the obedient genie appeared.
"Genie," said Aladdin, "I want to bathe immediately, and you must
afterwards provide me the richest and most magnificent habit ever worn
by a monarch." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the genie
rendered him, as well as himself, invisible, and transported him into a
hummum of the finest marble of all sorts of colors; where he was
undressed, without seeing by whom, in a magnificent and spacious hall.
From the hall he was led to the bath, which was of a moderate heat, and
he was there rubbed and washed with various scented waters. After he
had passed through several degrees of heat, he came out, quite a
different man from what he was before. His skin was clear white and
red, his body lightsome and free; and when he returned into the hall,
he found, instead of his own, a suit, the magnificence of which
astonished him. The genie helped him to dress, and when he had done,
transported him back to his own chamber, where he asked him if he had
any other commands. "Yes," answered Aladdin, "I expect you to bring me
as soon as possible a charger, that surpasses in beauty and goodness
the best in the sultan's stables, with a saddle, bridle, and other
caparisons worth a million of money. I want also twenty slaves, as
richly clothed as those who carried the present to the sultan, to walk
by my side and follow me, and twenty more to go before me in two ranks.
Besides these, bring my mother six women slaves to attend her, as
richly dressed at least as any of the princess Buddir al Buddoor's,
each carrying a complete dress fit for any sultaness. I want also ten
thousand pieces of gold in ten purses; go and make haste."
As soon as Aladdin had given these orders, the genie disappeared, but
presently returned with the horse, the forty slaves, ten of whom
carried each a purse containing ten thousand pieces of gold, and six
women slaves, each carrying on her head a different dress for Aladdin's
mother, wrapped up in a piece of silver tissue, and presented them all
to Aladdin.
Of the ten purses Aladdin took four, which he gave to his mother,
telling her, those were to supply her with necessaries; the other six
he left in the hands of the slaves who brought them, with an order to
throw them by handfuls among the people as they went to the sultan's
palace. The six slaves who carried the purses he ordered likewise to
march before him, three on the right hand and three on the left.
Afterwards he presented the six women slaves to his mother, telling her
they were her slaves, and that the dresses they had brought were for
her use.
When Aladdin had thus settled matters, he told the genie he would call
for him when he wanted him, and thereupon the genie disappeared.
Aladdin's thoughts now were only upon answering, as soon as possible,
the desire the sultan had shown to see him. He dispatched one of the
forty slaves to the palace, with an order to address himself to the
chief of the porters, to know when he might have the honor to come and
throw himself at the sultan's feet. The slave soon acquitted himself of
his commission, and brought for answer, that the sultan waited for him
with impatience.
Aladdin immediately mounted his charger, and began his march, in the
order we have already described; and though he never was on horseback
before, appeared with such extraordinary grace, that the most
experienced horseman would not have taken him for a novice. The streets
through which he was to pass were almost instantly filled with an
innumerable concourse of people, who made the air echo with their
acclamations, especially every time the six slaves who carried the
purses threw handfuls of gold among the populace. Neither did these
acclamations and shouts of joy come from those alone who scrambled for
the money, but from a superior rank of people, who could not forbear
applauding Aladdin's generosity. Not only those who knew him when he
played in the streets like a vagabond did not recollect him, but those
who saw him but a little while before hardly recognized him, so much
were his features altered: such were the effects of the lamp, as to
procure by degrees to those who possessed it perfections suitable to
the rank to which the right use of it advanced them. Much more
attention was paid to Aladdin's person than to the pomp and
magnificence of his attendants, as a similar show had been seen the day
before when the slaves walked in procession with the present to the
sultan. Nevertheless the horse was much admired by good judges, who
knew how to discern his beauties, without being dazzled by the jewels
and richness of the furniture. When the report was everywhere spread,
that the sultan was going to give the princess in marriage to Aladdin,
nobody regarded his birth, nor envied his good fortune, so worthy he
seemed of it in the public opinion.
When he arrived at the palace, everything was prepared for his
reception; and when he came to the gate of the second court, he would
have alighted from his horse, agreeably to the custom observed by the
grand vizier, the commander in chief of the empire, and governors of
provinces of the first rank; but the chief of the mace-bearers who
waited on him by the sultan's order prevented him, and attended him to
the grand hall of audience where he helped him to dismount; though
Aladdin endeavored to prevent him, but could not prevail. The officers
formed themselves into two ranks at the entrance of the hall. The chief
put Aladdin on his right hand, and through the midst of them led him to
the sultan's throne.
As soon as the sultan perceived Aladdin, he was no less surprised to
see him more richly and magnificently habited than ever he had been
himself, than struck at his good mien, fine shape, and a certain air of
unexpected dignity, very different from the meanness of his mother's
late appearance.
But, notwithstanding, his amazements and surprise did not hinder him
from rising off his throne, and descending two or three steps, quick
enough to prevent Aladdin's throwing himself at his feet. He embraced
him with all the demonstrations of joy at his arrival. After this
civility Aladdin would have thrown himself at his feet again; but he
held him fast by the hand, and obliged him to sit close to the throne.
Aladdin then addressed the sultan, saying, "I receive the honor which
your Majesty out of your great condescension is pleased to confer; but
permit me to assure you, that I have not forgotten that I am your
slave; that I know the greatness of your power, and that I am not
insensible how much my birth is below the splendor and luster of the
high rank to which I am raised. If any way," continued he, "I could
have merited so favorable a reception, I confess I owe it merely to the
boldness which chance inspired in me to raise my eyes, thoughts, and
desires to the divine princess, who is the object of my wishes. I ask
your Majesty's pardon for my rashness, but I cannot dissemble, that I
should die with grief were I to lose my hopes of seeing them
accomplished."
"My son," answered the sultan, embracing him a second time, "you would
wrong me to doubt for a moment of my sincerity; your life from this
moment is too dear to me not to preserve it, by presenting you with the
remedy which is at my disposal. I prefer the pleasure of seeing and
hearing you before all your treasure added to my own."
After these words, the sultan gave a signal, and immediately the air
echoed with the sound of trumpets, hautboys, and other musical
instruments: and at the same time the sultan led Aladdin into a
magnificent hall, where was laid out a most splendid collation. The
sultan and Aladdin ate by themselves, while the grand vizier and the
great lords of the court, according to their dignity and rank, sat at
different tables. The conversation turned on different subjects; but
all the while the sultan took so much pleasure in looking at his
intended son-in-law, that he hardly ever took his eyes off him; and
throughout the whole of their conversation Aladdin showed so much good
sense, as confirmed the sultan in the high opinion he had formed of
him.
After the feast, the sultan sent for the chief judge of his capital,
and ordered him to draw up immediately a contract of marriage between
the princess Buddir al Buddoor his daughter and Aladdin. In the
meantime the sultan and he entered into another conversation on various
subjects, in the presence of the grand vizier and the lords of the
court, who all admired the solidity of his wit, the great ease and
freedom wherewith he delivered himself, the justness of his remarks,
and his energy in expressing them.
When the judge had drawn up the contract in all the requisite forms,
the sultan asked Aladdin if he would stay in the palace, and solemnize
the ceremonies of marriage that day. To which he answered, "Sir, though
great is my impatience to enjoy your Majesty's goodness, yet I beg of
you to give me leave to defer it till I have built a palace fit to
receive the princess; therefore I petition you to grant me a convenient
spot of ground near your palace, that I may the more frequently pay my
respects, and I will take care to have it finished with all diligence."
"Son," said the sultan, "take what ground you think proper, there is
space enough on every quarter round my palace; but consider, I cannot
see you too soon united with my daughter, which alone is wanting to
complete my happiness." After these words he embraced Aladdin again,
who took his leave with as much politeness as if he had been bred up
and had always lived at court.
Aladdin returned home in the order he had come, amidst the acclamations
of the people, who wished him all happiness and prosperity. As soon as
he dismounted, he retired to his own chamber, took the lamp, and called
the genie as before, who in the usual manner made him a tender of his
service. "Genie," said Aladdin, "I have every reason to commend your
exactness in executing hitherto punctually whatever I have demanded;
but now if you have any regard for the lamp your protector, you must
show, if possible, more zeal and diligence than ever. I would have you
build me, as soon as you can, a palace opposite, but at a proper
distance from the sultan's, fit to receive my spouse the princess
Buddir al Buddoor. I leave the choice of the materials to you, that is
to say, porphyry, jasper, agate, lapis lazuli, or the finest marble of
various colors, and also the architecture of the building. But I expect
that on the terraced roof of this palace you will build me a large hall
crowned with a dome, and having four equal fronts; and that instead of
layers of bricks, the walls be formed of massy gold and silver, laid
alternately; that each front shall contain six windows, the lattices of
all of which, except one, which must be left unfinished, shall be so
enriched in the most tasteful workmanship, with diamonds, rubies, and
emeralds, that they shall exceed everything of the kind ever seen in
the world. I would have an inner and outer court in front of the
palace, and a spacious garden; but above all things, take care that
there be laid in a place which you shall point out to me a treasure of
gold and silver coin. Besides, the edifice must be well provided with
kitchens and offices, storehouses, and rooms to keep choice furniture
in, for every season of the year. I must have stables full of the
finest horses, with their equerries and grooms, and hunting equipage.
There must be officers to attend the kitchens and offices, and women
slaves to wait on the princess. You understand what I mean; therefore
go about it, and come and tell me when all is finished."
By the time Aladdin had instructed the genie respecting the building of
his palace, the sun was set. The next morning, before break of day, our
bridegroom, whose love for the princess would not let him sleep, was
up, when the genie presented himself, and said, "Sir, your palace is
finished, come and see how you like it." Aladdin had no sooner
signified his consent, than the genie transported him thither in an
instant, and he found it so much beyond his expectation, that he could
not enough admire it. The genie led him through all the apartments,
where he met with nothing but what was rich and magnificent, with
officers and slaves, all habited according to their rank and the
services to which they were appointed. The genie then showed him the
treasury, which was opened by a treasurer, where Aladdin saw heaps of
purses, of different sizes, piled up to the top of the ceiling, and
disposed in most excellent order. The genie assured him of the
treasurer's fidelity, and thence led him to the stables, where he
showed him some of the finest horses in the world, and the grooms busy
in dressing them; from thence they went to the storehouses, which were
filled with all things necessary, both for food and ornament.
When Aladdin had examined the palace from top to bottom, and
particularly the hall with the four-and-twenty windows, and found it
much beyond whatever he could have imagined, he said, "Genie, no one
can be better satisfied than I am; and indeed I should be much to blame
if I found any fault. There is only one thing wanting which I forgot to
mention; that is, to lay from the sultan's palace to the door of the
apartment designed for the princess, a carpet of fine velvet for her to
walk upon." The genie immediately disappeared, and Aladdin saw what he
desired executed in an instant. The genie then returned, and carried
him home before the gates of the sultan's palace were opened.
When the porters, who had always been used to an open prospect, came to
open the gates, they were amazed to find it obstructed, and to see a
carpet of velvet spread from the grand entrance. They did not
immediately look how far it extended; but when they could discern
Aladdin's palace distinctly, their surprise was increased. The news of
so extraordinary a wonder was presently spread through the palace. The
grand vizier, who arrived soon after the gates were open, being no less
amazed than others at this novelty, ran and acquainted the sultan, but
endeavored to make him believe it to be all enchantment. "Vizier,"
replied the sultan, "why will you have it to be enchantment? You know
as well as I that it must be Aladdin's palace, which I gave him leave
to build, for the reception of my daughter. After the proof we have had
of his riches, can we think it strange, that he should raise a palace
in so short a time? He wished to surprise us, and let us see what
wonders are to be done with money in only one night. Confess sincerely
that the enchantment you talk of proceeds from a little envy on account
of your son's disappointment." The hour of going to council put an end
to the conversation.
When Aladdin had been conveyed home, and had dismissed the genie, he
found his mother up, and dressing herself in one of those suits which
had been brought her. By the time the sultan rose from the council,
Aladdin had prepared his mother to go to the palace with her slaves,
and desired her, if she saw the sultan, to tell him she should do
herself the honor to attend the princess towards evening to her palace.
Accordingly she went; but though she and the women slaves who followed
her were all dressed like sultanesses, yet the crowd was not near so
great as the preceding day, because they were all veiled, and had each
an upper garment on agreeable to the richness and magnificence of their
habits. Aladdin mounted his horse, and took leave of his paternal house
forever, taking care not to forget his wonderful lamp, by the
assistance of which he had reaped such advantages, and arrived at the
utmost height of his wishes, and went to the palace in the same pomp as
the day before.
As soon as the porters of the sultan's palace saw Aladdin's mother,
they went and informed the sultan, who immediately ordered the bands of
trumpets, cymbals, drums, fifes and hautboys, placed in different parts
of the palace, to play, so that the air resounded with concerts which
inspired the whole city with joy: the merchants began to adorn their
shops and houses with fine carpets and silks, and to prepare
illuminations against night. The artisans of every description left
their work, and the populace repaired to the great space between the
royal palace and that of Aladdin; which last drew all their attention,
not only because it was new to them, but because there was no
comparison between the two buildings. But their amazement was to
comprehend by what unheard-of miracle so magnificent a palace could
have been so soon erected, it being apparent to all that there were no
prepared materials, or any foundations laid the day before.
Aladdin's mother was received in the palace with honor, and introduced
into the princess Buddir al Buddoor's apartment by the chief of the
eunuchs. As soon as the princess saw her, she rose, saluted, and
desired her to sit down on a sofa; and while her women finished
dressing, and adorning her with the jewels which Aladdin had presented
to her, a collation was served up. At the same time the sultan, who
wished to be as much with his daughter as possible before he parted
with her, came in and paid the old lady great respect. Aladdin's mother
had talked to the sultan in public, but he had never seen her with her
veil off, as she was then; and though she was somewhat advanced in
years, she had the remains of a good face, which showed what she had
been in her youth. The sultan, who had always seen her dressed very
meanly, not to say poorly, was surprised to find her as richly and
magnificently attired as the princess his daughter. This made him think
Aladdin equally prudent and wise in whatever he undertook.
When it was night, the princess took her leave of the sultan her
father: their adieus were tender, and accompanied with tears. They
embraced each other several times, and at last the princess left her
own apartment for Aladdin's palace, with his mother on her left hand
carried in a superb litter, followed by a hundred women slaves, dressed
with surprising magnificence. All the bands of music, which had played
from the time Aladdin's mother arrived, being joined together, led the
procession, followed by a hundred state ushers, and the like number of
black eunuchs, in two files, with their officers at their head. Four
hundred of the sultan's young pages carried flambeaux on each side,
which, together with the illuminations of the sultan's and Aladdin's
palaces, made it as light as day.
In this order the princess proceeded in her litter on the carpet, which
was spread from the sultan's palace, preceded by bands of musicians,
who, as they advanced, joining with those on the terraces of Aladdin's
palace, formed a concert, which increased the joyful sensations not
only of the crowd assembled in the great square, but of the metropolis
and its environs.
At length the princess arrived at the new palace. Aladdin ran with all
imaginable joy to receive her at the grand entrance. His mother had
taken care to point him out to the princess, in the midst of the
officers who surrounded him, and she was charmed with his person.
"Adorable princess," said Aladdin, accosting her, and saluting her
respectfully, as soon as she had entered her apartment, "if I have the
misfortune to have displeased you by my boldness in aspiring to the
possession of so lovely a princess, and my sultan's daughter, I must
tell you, that you ought to blame your bright eyes and charms, not me."
"Prince (as I may now call you)," answered the princess, "I am obedient
to the will of my father; and it is enough for me to have seen you, to
tell you that I obey without reluctance."
Aladdin, charmed with so agreeable and satisfactory an answer, would
not keep the princess standing; but took her by the hand, which he
kissed with the greatest demonstration of joy, and led her into a large
hall, illuminated with an infinite number of wax candles, where, by the
care of the genie, a noble feast was served up. The dishes were of
massy gold, and contained the most delicate viands. The vases, basins,
and goblets were gold also, and of exquisite workmanship, and all the
other ornaments and embellishments of the hall were answerable to this
display. The princess, dazzled to see so much riches collected in one
place, said to Aladdin, "I thought, prince, that nothing in the world
was so beautiful as the sultan my father's palace, but the sight of
this hall alone is sufficient to show I was deceived."
Aladdin led the princess to the place appointed for her, and as soon as
she and his mother were seated, a band of the most harmonious
instruments, accompanied with the voices of beautiful ladies, began a
concert, which lasted without intermission to the end of the repast.
The princess was so charmed, that she declared she had never heard
anything like it in the sultan her father's court; but she knew not
that these musicians were fairies chosen by the genie, the slave of the
lamp.
When the supper was ended, there entered a company of female dancers,
who performed, according to the custom of the country, several figure
dances, singing at the same time verses in praise of the bride and
bridegroom. About midnight Aladdin's mother conducted the bride to the
nuptial apartment, and he soon after retired.
The next morning when Aladdin left the bridal chamber, his attendants
presented themselves to dress him, and brought him another habit as
rich and magnificent as that worn the day before. He then ordered one
of the horses appointed for his use to be got ready, mounted him, and
went in the midst of a large troop of slaves to the sultan's palace.
The sultan received him with the same honor as before, embraced him,
placed him on the throne near him, and ordered a collation. Aladdin
said, "I beg your Majesty will dispense with my eating with you today;
I came to entreat you to take a repast in the princess's palace,
attended by your grand vizier, and all the lords of your court." The
sultan consented with pleasure, rose up immediately, and, preceded by
the principal officers of his palace, and followed by all the great
lords of his court, accompanied Aladdin.
The nearer the sultan approached Aladdin's palace, the more he was
struck with its beauty, but was much more amazed when he entered it;
and could not forbear breaking out into exclamations of approbation.
But when he came into the hall, and cast his eyes on the windows,
enriched with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, all large perfect stones, he
was so much surprised, that he remained some time motionless. After he
recovered himself, he said to his vizier, "Is it possible that there
should be such a stately palace so near my own, and I be an utter
stranger to it till now?" "Sir," replied the grand vizier, "your
Majesty may remember that the day before yesterday you gave Aladdin,
whom you accepted for your son-in-law, leave to build a palace opposite
your own, and that very day at sunset there was no palace on this spot,
but yesterday I had the honor first to tell you that the palace was
built and finished." "I remember," replied the sultan, "but never
imagined that the palace was one of the wonders of the world; for where
in all the world besides shall we find walls built of massy gold and
silver, instead of brick, stone, or marble; and diamonds, rubies, and
emeralds composing the windows!"
The sultan would examine and admire the beauty of all the windows, and
counting them, found that there were but three and twenty so richly
adorned, and he was greatly astonished that the twenty-fourth was left
imperfect. "Vizier," said he, for that minister made a point of never
leaving him, "I am surprised that a hall of this magnificence should be
left thus imperfect." "Sir," replied the grand vizier, "without doubt
Aladdin only wanted time to finish this window like the rest; for it is
not to be supposed but that he has sufficient jewels for the purpose,
or that he will not complete it at the first opportunity."
Aladdin, who had left the sultan to go and give some orders, returned
just as the vizier had finished his remark. "Son," said the sultan to
him, "this hall is the most worthy of admiration of any in the world;
there is only one thing that surprises me, which is to find one of the
windows unfinished. Is it from the forgetfulness or negligence of the
workmen, or want of time, that they have not put the finishing stroke
to so beautiful a piece of architecture?" "Sir," answered Aladdin, "it
was for none of these reasons that your Majesty sees it in this state.
The omission was by design; it was by my orders that the workmen left
it thus, since I wished that your Majesty should have the glory of
finishing this hall, and of course the palace." "If you did it with
this intention," replied the sultan, "I take it kindly and will give
orders about it immediately." He accordingly sent for the most
considerable jewelers and goldsmiths in his capital.
Aladdin then conducted the sultan into the saloon where he had regaled
his bride the preceding night. The princess entered immediately
afterwards, and received the sultan her father with an air that showed
how much she was satisfied with her marriage. Two tables were
immediately spread with the most delicious meats, all served up in gold
dishes. The sultan, princess, Aladdin, his mother, and the grand vizier
sat down at the first, and all the lords of the court at the second,
which was very long. The sultan was much pleased with the cookery, and
owned he had never eaten anything more excellent. He said the same of
the wines, which were delicious; but what he most of all admired, were
four large beaufets, profusely furnished with large flagons, basins,
and cups, all of massy gold, set with jewels. He was besides charmed
with several bands of music, which were ranged along the hall, and
formed most agreeable concerts.
When the sultan rose from the table, he was informed that the jewelers
and goldsmiths attended; upon which he returned to the hall, and showed
them the window which was unfinished: "I sent for you," said he, "to
fit up this window in as great perfection as the rest; examine them
well, and make all the dispatch you can."
The jewelers and goldsmiths examined the three and twenty windows with
great attention, and after they had consulted together to know what
each could furnish, they returned, and presented themselves before the
sultan, whose principal jeweler, undertaking to speak for the rest,
said, "Sir, we are all willing to exert our utmost care and industry to
obey your Majesty; but among us all we cannot furnish jewels enough for
so great a work." "I have more than are necessary," said the sultan;
"come to my palace, and you shall choose what may answer your purpose."
When the sultan returned to his palace, he ordered his jewels to be
brought out, and the jewelers took a great quantity, particularly those
Aladdin had made him a present of, which they soon used, without making
any great advance in their work. They came again several times for
more, and in a month's time had not finished half their work. In short,
they used all the jewels the sultan had, and borrowed of the vizier,
but yet the work was not half done.
Aladdin, who knew that all the sultan's endeavors to make this window
like the rest were in vain, sent for the jewelers and goldsmiths, and
not only commanded them to desist from their work, but ordered them to
undo what they had begun, and to carry all their jewels back to the
sultan and to the vizier. They undid in a few hours what they had been
six weeks about, and retired, leaving Aladdin alone in the hall. He
took the lamp which he carried about him, rubbed it, and presently the
genie appeared. "Genie," said Aladdin, "I ordered thee to leave one of
the four and twenty windows of this hall imperfect, and thou hast
executed my commands punctually; now I would have thee make it like the
rest." The genie immediately disappeared. Aladdin went out of the hall,
and returning soon after, found the window, as he wished it to be, like
the others.
In the meantime, the jewelers and goldsmiths repaired to the palace,
and were introduced into the sultan's presence; where the chief
jeweler, presenting the precious stones which he had brought back,
said, in the name of all the rest, "Your Majesty knows how long we have
been upon the work you were pleased to set us about, in which we used
all imaginable industry. It was far advanced, when prince Aladdin
commanded us not only to leave off, but to undo what we had already
begun, and bring your Majesty your jewels back." The sultan asked them
if Aladdin had given them any reason for so doing, and they answering
that he had given them none, he ordered a horse to be brought, which he
mounted, and rode to his son-in-law's palace, with some few attendants
on foot. When he came there, he alighted at the staircase, which led up
to the hall with the twenty-four windows, and went directly up to it,
without giving previous notice to Aladdin; but it happened that at that
very juncture Aladdin was opportunely there, and had just time to
receive him at the door.
The sultan, without giving Aladdin time to complain obligingly of his
not having given notice, that he might have acquitted himself with the
more becoming respect, said to him, "Son, I come myself to know the
reason why you commanded the jewelers to desist from work, and take to
pieces what they had done."
Aladdin disguised the true reason, which was, that the sultan was not
rich enough in jewels to be at so great an expense, but said, "I beg of
you now to see if anything is wanting."
The sultan went directly to the window which was left imperfect, and
when he found it like the rest, fancied that he was mistaken, examined
the two windows on each side, and afterwards all the four and twenty;
but when he was convinced that the window which several workmen had
been so long about was finished in so short a time, he embraced
Aladdin, and kissed him between his eyes. "My son," said he, "what a
man you are to do such surprising things always in the twinkling of an
eye: there is not your fellow in the world; the more I know, the more I
admire you."
Aladdin received these praises from the sultan with modesty, and
replied in these words--"Sir, it is a great honor to me to deserve your
Majesty's good-will and approbation, and I assure you, I shall study to
deserve them more."
The sultan returned to his palace, but would not let Aladdin attend
him. When he came there, he found his grand vizier waiting, to whom he
related the wonder he had witnessed, with the utmost admiration, and in
such terms as left the minister no room to doubt but that the fact was
as the sultan related it; though he was the more confirmed in his
belief, that Aladdin's palace was the effect of enchantment, as he had
told the sultan the first moment he saw it. He was going to repeat the
observation, but the sultan interrupted him and said, "You told me so
once before; I see, vizier, you have not forgotten your son's espousals
to my daughter." The grand vizier plainly saw how much the sultan was
prepossessed, therefore avoided disputes, and let him remain in his own
opinion. The sultan as soon as he rose every morning went into the
closet to look at Aladdin's palace, and would go many times in a day to
contemplate and admire it.
Aladdin did not confine himself in his palace; but took care to show
himself once or twice a week in the town, by going sometimes to one
mosque, and sometimes to another, to prayers, or to visit the grand
vizier, who affected to pay his court to him on certain days, or to do
the principal lords of the court the honor to return their visits after
he had regaled them at his palace. Every time he went out, he caused
two slaves, who walked by the side of his horse, to throw handfuls of
money among the people as he passed through the streets and squares,
which were generally on those occasions crowded. Besides, no one came
to his palace gates to ask alms but returned satisfied with his
liberality. In short, he so divided his time, that not a week passed
but he went either once or twice a-hunting, sometimes in the environs
of the city, sometimes farther off; at which time the villages through
which he passed felt the effects of his generosity, which gained him
the love and blessings of the people: and it was common for them to
swear by his head. Thus, without giving the least umbrage to the
sultan, to whom he paid all imaginable respect, Aladdin, by his affable
behavior and liberality, had won the affections of the people, and was
more beloved than the sultan himself. With all these good qualities he
showed a courage and a zeal for the public good which could not be
sufficiently applauded. He gave sufficient proofs of both in a revolt
on the borders of the kingdom; for he no sooner understood that the
sultan was levying an army to disperse the rebels than he begged the
command of it, which he found not difficult to obtain. As soon as he
was empowered, he marched with so much expedition, that the sultan
heard of the defeat of the rebels before he had received an account of
his arrival in the army. And though this action rendered his name
famous throughout the kingdom, it made no alteration in his
disposition; but he was as affable after his victory as before.
Aladdin had conducted himself in this manner several years, when the
African magician, who undesignedly had been the instrument of raising
him to so high a pitch of prosperity, recalled him to his recollection
in Africa, whither, after his expedition, he had returned. And though
he was almost persuaded that Aladdin must have died miserably in the
subterraneous abode where he had left him, yet he had the curiosity to
inform himself about his end with certainty; and as he was a great
geomancer, he took out of a cupboard a square covered box, which he
used in his geomantic observations: then sat himself down on his sofa,
set it before him, and uncovered it. After he had prepared and leveled
the sand which was in it, with an intention to discover whether or no
Aladdin had died in the subterraneous abode, he cast the points, drew
the figures, and formed a horoscope, by which, when he came to examine
it, he found that Aladdin, instead of dying in the cave, had made his
escape, lived splendidly, was in possession of the wonderful lamp, had
married a princess, and was much honored and respected.
The magician no sooner understood by the rules of his diabolical art,
that Aladdin had arrived to this height of good fortune, than his face
became inflamed with anger, and he cried out in a rage, "This sorry
tailor's son has discovered the secret and virtue of the lamp! I
believed his death to be certain, but find that he enjoys the fruit of
my labor and study! I will, however, prevent his enjoying it long, or
perish in the attempt." He was not a great while deliberating on what
he should do, but the next morning mounted a barb, set forwards, and
never stopped but to refresh himself and horse, till he arrived at the
capital of China. He alighted, took up his lodging in a khan, and
stayed there the remainder of the day and the night, to refresh himself
after so long a journey.
The next day, his first object was to inquire what people said of
Aladdin; and, taking a walk through the town, he went to the most
public and frequented places, where persons of the best distinction met
to drink a certain warm liquor, which he had drunk often during his
former visit. As soon as he had seated himself, he was presented with a
cup of it, which he took; but listening at the same time to the
discourse of the company on each side of him, he heard them talking of
Aladdin's palace. When he had drunk off his liquor, he joined them, and
taking this opportunity, inquired particularly of what palace they
spoke with so much commendation. "From whence come you?" said the
person to whom he addressed himself; "you must certainly be a stranger
not to have seen or heard of prince Aladdin's palace (for he was called
so after his marriage with the princess). I do not say," continued the
man, "that it is one of the wonders of the world, but that it is the
only wonder of the world; since nothing so grand, rich, and magnificent
was ever beheld. Certainly you must have come from a great distance, or
some obscure corner, not to have heard of it, for it must have been
talked of all over the world. Go and see it, and then judge whether I
have told you more than the truth." "Forgive my ignorance," replied the
African magician; "I arrived here but yesterday, and came from the
farthest part of Africa, where the fame of this palace had not reached
when I came away. The business which brought me hither was so urgent,
that my sole object was to arrive as soon as I could, without stopping
anywhere, or making any acquaintance. But I will not fail to go and see
it; my impatience is so great, I will go immediately and satisfy my
curiosity, if you will do me a favor to show me the way thither."
The person to whom the African magician addressed himself took a
pleasure in showing him the way to Aladdin's palace, and he got up and
went thither instantly. When he came to the palace, and had examined it
on all sides, he doubted not but Aladdin had made use of the lamp to
build it. Without attending to the inability of a poor tailor's son, he
knew that none but the genii, the slaves of the lamp, the attaining of
which he had missed, could have performed such wonders; and piqued to
the quick at Aladdin's happiness and splendor, he returned to the khan
where he lodged.
The next point was to ascertain where the lamp was; whether Aladdin
carried it about with him, or where he kept it; and this he was to
discover by an operation of geomancy. As soon as he entered his
lodging, he took his square box of sand, which he always carried with
him when he traveled, and after he had performed some operations, he
found that the lamp was in Aladdin's palace, and so great was his joy
at the discovery that he could hardly contain himself. "Well," said he,
"I shall have the lamp, and I defy Aladdin's preventing my carrying it
off, and making him sink to his original meanness, from which he has
taken so high a flight."
It was Aladdin's misfortune at that time to be absent in the chase for
eight days, and only three were expired, which the magician came to
know by this means. After he had performed the magical operation, which
gave him so much joy, he went to the superintendent of the khan,
entered into conversation with him on indifferent subjects, and among
the rest, told him he had been to see Aladdin's palace; and after
exaggerating on all that he, had seen most worthy of observation,
added, "But my curiosity leads me farther, and I shall not be satisfied
till I have seen the person to whom this wonderful edifice belongs."
"That will be no difficult matter," replied the master of the khan;
"there is not a day passes but he gives an opportunity when he is in
town, but at present he is not at the palace, and has been gone these
three days on a hunting-match, which will last eight."
The magician wanted to know no more; he took his leave of the
superintendent of the khan, and returning to his own chamber, said to
himself, "This is an opportunity I ought by no means to neglect, but
must make the best use of it." To that end, he went to a coppersmith,
and asked for a dozen copper lamps: the master of the shop told him he
had not so many by him, but if he would have patience till the next
day, he would have them ready. The magician appointed his time, and
desired him to take care that they should be handsome and well
polished. After promising to pay him well, he returned to his inn.
The next day the magician called for the twelve lamps, paid the man his
full price, put them into a basket which he bought on purpose, and with
the basket hanging on his arm, went directly to Aladdin's palace; as he
approached he began crying, "Who will change old lamps for new ones?"
As he went along, a crowd of children collected, who hooted, and
thought him, as did all who chanced to be passing by, a madman or a
fool, to offer to change new lamps for old ones.
The African magician regarded not their scoffs, hootings, or all they
could say to him, but still continued crying, "Who will change old
lamps for new?" He repeated this so often, walking backwards and
forwards in front of the palace, that the princess, who was then in the
hall with the four-and-twenty windows, hearing a man cry something, and
not being able to distinguish his words, owing to the hooting of the
children and increasing mob about him, sent one of her women slaves to
know what he cried.
The slave was not long before she returned, and ran into the hall,
laughing so heartily, that the princess could not forbear herself.
"Well, giggler," said the princess, "will you tell me what you laugh
at?" "Madam," answered the slave, laughing still, "who can forbear
laughing, to see a fool with a basket on his arm, full of fine new
lamps, ask to change them for old ones; the children and mob, crowding
about him so that he can hardly stir, make all the noise they can in
derision of him."
Another female slave hearing this said, "Now you speak of lamps, I know
not whether the princess may have observed it, but there is an old one
upon a shelf of the prince's robing-room, and whoever owns it will not
be sorry to find a new one in its stead. If the princess chooses, she
may have the pleasure of trying if this fool is so silly as to give a
new lamp for an old one, without taking anything for the exchange."
The lamp this slave spoke of was the wonderful lamp, which Aladdin had
laid upon the shelf before he departed for the chase: this he had done
several times before; but neither the princess, the slaves, nor the
eunuchs had ever taken notice of it. At all other times except when
hunting he carried it about his person.
The princess, who knew not the value of this lamp, and the interest
that Aladdin, not to mention herself, had to keep it safe, entered into
the pleasantry, and commanded a eunuch to take it, and make the
exchange. The eunuch obeyed, went out of the hall, and no sooner got to
the palace gates than he saw the African magician, called to him, and
showing him the old lamp, said, "Give me a new lamp for this."
The magician never doubted but this was the lamp he wanted. There could
be no other such in this palace, where every utensil was gold or
silver. He snatched it eagerly out of the eunuch's hand, and thrusting
it as far as he could into his breast, offered him his basket, and bade
him choose which he liked best. The eunuch picked out one, and carried
it to the princess; but the exchange was no sooner made than the place
rang with the shouts of the children, deriding the magician's folly.
The African magician gave everybody leave to laugh as much as they
pleased; he stayed not long near the palace, but made the best of his
way, without crying any longer, "New lamps for old ones." His end was
answered, and by his silence he got rid of the children and the mob.
As soon as he was out of the square between the two palaces, he
hastened down the streets which were the least frequented; and having
no more occasion for his lamps or basket, set all down in an alley
where nobody saw him: then going down another street or two, he walked
till he came to one of the city gates, and pursuing his way through the
suburbs, which were very extensive, at length reached a lonely spot,
where he stopped for a time to execute the design he had in
contemplation, never caring for his horse which he had left at the
khan; but thinking himself perfectly compensated by the treasure he had
acquired. In this place the African magician passed the remainder of
the day, till the darkest time of night, when he pulled the lamp out of
his breast and rubbed it. At that summons the genie appeared, and said,
"What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the
slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands; both I and the
other slaves of the lamp." "I command thee," replied the magician, "to
transport me immediately and the palace which thou and the other slaves
of the lamp have built in this city, with all the people in it, to
Africa." The genie made no reply, but with the assistance of the other
genii, the slaves of the lamp immediately transported him and the
palace entire, to the spot whither he was desired to convey it.
As soon as the sultan rose the next morning, according to custom he
went into his closet, to have the pleasure of contemplating and
admiring Aladdin's palace; but when he first looked that way, and
instead of a palace saw an empty space such as it was before the palace
was built, he thought he was mistaken, and rubbed his eyes; but when he
looked again, he saw nothing more the second time than the first,
though the weather was fine, the sky clear, and the dawn advancing had
made all objects very distinct. He looked again in front, to the right
and left, but beheld nothing more than he had formerly been used to see
from his window. His amazement was so great, that he stood for some
time turning his eyes to the spot where the palace had stood, but where
it was no longer to be seen. He could not comprehend how so large a
palace as Aladdin's, which he had seen plainly every day for some
years, and but the day before, should vanish so soon, and not leave the
least remains behind. "Certainly," said he to himself, "I am not
mistaken; it stood there: if it had fallen, the materials would have
lain in heaps; and if it had been swallowed up by an earthquake, there
would be some mark left." At last, though he was convinced that no
palace stood now opposite his own, he could not help staying some time
at his window, to see whether he might not be mistaken. At last he
retired to his apartment, not without looking behind him before he
quitted the spot, ordered the grand vizier to be sent for with
expedition, and in the meantime sat down, his mind agitated by so many
different conjectures that he knew not what to resolve.
The grand vizier did not make the sultan wait long for him, but came
with so much precipitation, that neither he nor his attendants, as they
passed, missed Aladdin's palace; neither did the porters, when they
opened the palace gates, observe any alteration.
When he came into the sultan's presence, he said to him, "The haste in
which your Majesty sent for me, makes me believe something
extraordinary has happened, since you know this is a day of public
audience, and I should not have failed of attending at the usual time."
"Indeed," said the sultan, "it is something very extraordinary, as you
say, and you will allow it to be so: tell me what is become of
Aladdin's palace?" "His palace!" replied the grand vizier, in
amazement, "I thought as I passed it stood in its usual place; such
substantial buildings are not so easily removed."
"Go into my closet," said the sultan, "and tell me if you can see it."
The grand vizier went into the closet, where he was struck with no less
amazement than the sultan had been. When he was well assured that there
was not the least appearance of the palace, he returned to the sultan.
"Well," said the sultan, "have you seen Aladdin's palace?" "No,"
answered the vizier, "but your Majesty may remember, that I had the
honor to tell you, that palace, which was the subject of your
admiration, with all its immense riches, was only the work of magic and
a magician; but your Majesty would not pay the least attention to what
I said."
The sultan, who could not deny what the grand vizier had represented to
him, flew into the greater passion: "Where is that impostor, that
wicked wretch," said he, "that I may have his head taken off
immediately?" "Sir," replied the grand vizier, "it is some days since
he came to take his leave of your Majesty, on pretense of hunting; he
ought to be sent for, to know what is become of his palace, since he
cannot be ignorant of what has been transacted." "That is too great an
indulgence," replied the sultan: "command a detachment of horse to
bring him to me loaded with chains." The grand vizier gave orders for a
detachment, and instructed the officer who commanded them how they were
to act, that Aladdin might not escape. The detachment pursued their
orders; and about five or six leagues from the town met him returning
from the chase. The officer advanced respectfully, and informed him the
sultan was so impatient to see him, that he had sent his party to
accompany him home.
Aladdin had not the least suspicion of the true reason of their meeting
him; but when he came within half a league of the city, the detachment
surrounded him, when the officer addressed himself to him, and said,
"Prince, it is with great regret that I declare to you the sultan's
order to arrest you, and to carry you before him as a criminal: I beg
of you not to take it ill that we acquit ourselves of our duty, and to
forgive us."
Aladdin, who felt himself innocent, was much surprised at this
declaration, and asked the officer if he knew what crime he was accused
of; who replied, he did not. Then Aladdin, finding that his retinue was
much inferior to this detachment, alighted off his horse, and said to
the officers, "Execute your orders; I am not conscious that I have
committed any offense against the sultan's person or government." A
heavy chain was immediately put about his neck, and fastened round his
body, so that both his arms were pinioned down; the officer then put
himself at the head of the detachment, and one of the troopers taking
hold of the end of the chain and proceeding after the officer, led
Aladdin, who was obliged to follow him on foot, into the city.
When this detachment entered the suburbs, the people, who saw Aladdin
thus led as a state criminal, never doubted but that his head was to be
cut off; and as he was generally beloved, some took sabers and other
arms; and those who had none gathered stones, and followed the escort.
The last division faced about to disperse them; but their numbers
presently increased so much, that the soldiery began to think it would
be well if they could get into the sultan's palace before Aladdin was
rescued; to prevent which, according to the different extent of the
streets, they took care to cover the ground by extending or closing. In
this manner they with much difficulty arrived at the palace square, and
there drew up in a line, till their officers and troopers with Aladdin
had got within the gates, which were immediately shut.
Aladdin was carried before the sultan, who waited for him, attended by
the grand vizier, in a balcony; and as soon as he saw him, he ordered
the executioner, who waited there for the purpose, to strike off his
head without hearing him, or giving him leave to clear himself.
As soon as the executioner had taken off the chain that was fastened
about Aladdin's neck and body, and laid down a skin stained with the
blood of the many he had executed, he made the supposed criminal kneel
down, and tied a bandage over his eyes. Then drawing his saber, he took
his aim by flourishing it three times in the air, waiting for the
sultan's giving the signal to strike.
At that instant the grand vizier, perceiving that the populace had
forced the guard of horse, crowded the great square before the palace,
and were scaling the walls in several places, and beginning to pull
them down to force their way in, said to the sultan, before he gave the
signal, "I beg of your Majesty to consider what you are going to do,
since you will hazard your palace being destroyed; and who knows what
fatal consequence may follow?" "My palace forced!'" replied the sultan;
"who can have that audacity?" "Sir," answered the grand vizier, "if
your Majesty will but cast your eyes towards the great square, and on
the palace walls, you will perceive the truth of what I say."
The sultan was so much alarmed when he saw so great a crowd, and how
enraged they were, that he ordered the executioner to put his saber
immediately into the scabbard, to unbind Aladdin, and at the same time
commanded the porters to declare to the people that the sultan had
pardoned him, and that they might retire.
Those who had already got upon the walls, and were witnesses of what
had passed, abandoned their design and got quickly down, overjoyed that
they had saved the life of a man they dearly loved, and published the
news amongst the rest, which was presently confirmed by the mace-
bearers from the top of the terraces. The justice which the sultan had
done to Aladdin soon disarmed the populace of their rage; the tumult
abated, and the mob dispersed.
When Aladdin found himself at liberty, he turned towards the balcony,
and perceiving the sultan, raised his voice, and said to him in a
moving manner, "I beg of your Majesty to add one favor more to that
which I have already received, which is, to let me know my crime."
"Your crime!" answered the sultan; "perfidious wretch! do you not know
it? Come hither, and I will show it you."
Aladdin went up, when the sultan, going before him without looking at
him, said, "Follow me;" and then led him into his closet. When he came
to the door, he said, "Go in; you ought to know whereabouts your palace
stood: look round and tell me what is become of it."
Aladdin looked, but saw nothing. He perceived the spot upon which his
palace had stood; but not being able to divine how it had disappeared,
was thrown into such great confusion and amazement, that he could not
return one word of answer.
The sultan growing impatient, demanded of him again, "Where is your
palace, and what is become of my daughter?" Aladdin breaking silence,
replied, "Sir, I perceive and own that the palace which I have built is
not in its place, but is vanished; neither can I tell your Majesty
where it may be, but can assure you I had no concern in its removal."
"I am not so much concerned about your palace," replied the sultan; "I
value my daughter ten thousand times more, and would have you find her
out, otherwise I will cause your head to be struck off, and no
consideration shall divert me from my purpose."
"I beg of your Majesty," answered Aladdin, "to grant me forty days to
make my inquiries; and if in that time I have not the success I wish, I
will offer my head at the foot of your throne, to be disposed of at
your pleasure." "I give you the forty days you ask," said the sultan;
"but think not to abuse the favor I show you, by imagining you shall
escape my resentment; for I will find you out in whatsoever part of the
world you may conceal yourself."
Aladdin went out of the sultan's presence with great humiliation, and
in a condition worthy of pity. He crossed the courts of the palace,
hanging down his head, and in such great confusion, that he durst not
lift up his eyes. The principal officers of the court, who had all
professed themselves his friends, and whom he had never disobliged,
instead of going up to him to comfort him, and offer him a retreat in
their houses, turned their backs to avoid seeing him. But had they
accosted him with a word of comfort or offer of service, they would
have no more known Aladdin. He did not know himself, and was no longer
in his senses, as plainly appeared by his asking everybody he met, and
at every house, if they had seen his palace, or could tell him any news
of it.
These questions made the generality believe that Aladdin was mad. Some
laughed at him, but people of sense and humanity, particularly those
who had had any connection of business or friendship with him, really
pitied him. For three days he rambled about the city in this manner,
without coming to any resolution, or eating anything but what some
compassionate people forced him to take out of charity.
At last, as he could no longer in his unhappy condition stay in a city
where he had lately been next to the sultan, he took the road to the
country; and after he had traversed several fields in wild uncertainty,
at the approach of night came to the bank of a river. There, possessed
by his despair, he said to himself, "Where shall I seek my palace? In
what province, country, or part of the world, shall I find that and my
dear princess, whom the sultan expects from me? I shall never succeed:
I had better free myself at once from fruitless endeavors, and such
bitter grief as preys upon me." He was just going to throw himself into
the river, but, as a good Moosulmaun, true to his religion, he thought
he should not do it without first saying his prayers. Going to prepare
himself, he went to the river's brink, in order to perform the usual
ablutions. The place being steep and slippery, from the water's beating
against it, he slid down, and had certainly fallen into the river, but
for a little rock which projected about two feet out of the earth.
Happily also for him he still had on the ring which the African
magician had put on his finger before he went down into the
subterraneous abode to fetch the precious lamp. In slipping down the
bank he rubbed the ring so hard by holding on the rock, that
immediately the same genie appeared whom he had seen in the cave where
the magician had left him. "What wouldst thou have?" said the genie. "I
am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those that
have that ring on their finger; both I and the other slaves of the
ring."
Aladdin, agreeably surprised at an apparition he so little expected in
his present calamity, replied, "Save my life, genie, a second time,
either by showing me to the place where the palace I caused to be built
now stands, or immediately transporting it back where it first stood."
"What you command me," answered the genie, "is not wholly in my power:
I am only the slave of the ring; you must address yourself to the slave
of the lamp." "If that be the case," replied Aladdin, "I command thee,
by the power of the ring, to transport me to the spot where my palace
stands, in what part of the world soever it may be, and set me down
under the window of the princess Buddir al Buddoor." These words were
no sooner out of his mouth, than the genie transported him into Africa,
to the midst of a large plain, where his palace stood, at no great
distance from a city, and placing him exactly under the window of the
princess's apartment, left him. All this was done almost in an instant.
Aladdin, notwithstanding the darkness of the night, knew his palace and
the princess Buddir al Buddoor's apartment again; but as the night was
far advanced, and all was quiet in the palace, he retired to some
distance, and sat down at the foot of a large tree. There, full of
hopes, and reflecting on his happiness, for which he was indebted to
chance, he found himself in a much more comfortable situation than when
he was arrested and carried before the sultan; being now delivered from
the immediate danger of losing his life. He amused himself for some
time with these agreeable thoughts; but not having slept for two days,
was not able to resist the drowsiness which came upon him, but fell
fast asleep.
The next morning, as soon as day appeared, Aladdin was agreeably
awakened by the singing not only of the birds which had roosted in the
tree under which he had passed the night, but also of those which
frequented the thick groves of the palace garden. When he cast his eyes
on that wonderful edifice, he felt inexpressible joy at thinking he
might possibly soon be master of it again, and once more possess his
dear princess Buddir al Buddoor. Pleased with these hopes, he
immediately arose, went towards the princess's apartment, and walked
some time under the window in expectation of her rising, that he might
see her. During this expectation, he began to consider with himself
whence the cause of his misfortune had proceeded; and after mature
reflection, no longer doubted that it was owing to having trusted the
lamp out of his sight. He accused himself of negligence in letting it
be a moment away from him. But what puzzled him most was, that he could
not imagine who had been so envious of his happiness. He would soon
have guessed this, if he had known that both he and his palace were in
Africa, the very name of which would soon have made him remember the
magician, his declared enemy; but the genie, the slave of the ring, had
not made the least mention of the name of the country, nor had Aladdin
inquired.
The princess rose earlier that morning than she had done since her
transportation into Africa by the magician, whose presence she was
forced to support once a day, because he was master of the palace; but
she had always treated him so harshly that he dared not reside in it.
As she was dressing, one of the women looking through the window
perceived Aladdin, and instantly told her mistress. The princess, who
could not believe the joyful tidings, hastened herself to the window,
and seeing Aladdin, immediately opened it. The noise of opening the
window made Aladdin turn his head that way, and perceiving the princess
he saluted her with an air that expressed his joy. "To lose no time,"
said she to him, "I have sent to have the private door opened for you;
enter, and come up."
The private door, which was just under the princess's apartment, was
soon opened, and Aladdin conducted up into the chamber. It is
impossible to express the joy of both at seeing each other, after so
cruel a separation. After embracing and shedding tears of joy, they sat
down, and Aladdin said, "I beg of you, princess, in God's name, before
we talk of anything else, to tell me, both for your own sake, the
sultan your father's, and mine, what is become of an old lamp which I
left upon a shelf in my robing-chamber, when I departed for the chase."
"Alas! dear husband," answered the princess, "I was afraid our
misfortune might be owing to that lamp: and what grieves me most is,
that I have been the cause of it." "Princess," replied Aladdin, "do not
blame yourself, since it was entirely my fault, for I ought to have
taken more care of it. But let us now think only of repairing the loss;
tell me what has happened, and into whose hands it has fallen."
The princess then related how she had changed the old lamp for a new
one, which she ordered to be fetched, that he might see it, and how the
next morning she found herself in the unknown country they were then
in, which she was told was Africa, by the traitor who had transported
her thither by his magic art.
"Princess," said Aladdin, interrupting her, "you have informed me who
the traitor is, by telling me we are in Africa. He is the most
perfidious of men; but this is neither a time nor place to give you a
full account of his villainies. I desire you only to tell me what he
has done with the lamp, and where he has put it." "He carries it
carefully wrapped up in his bosom," said the princess; "and this I can
assure you, because he pulled it out before me, and showed it to me in
triumph."
"Princess," said Aladdin, "do not be displeased that I trouble you with
so many questions, since they are equally important to us both. But to
come to what most particularly concerns me; tell me, I conjure you, how
so wicked and perfidious a man treats you." "Since I have been here,"
replied the princess, "he repairs once every day to see me; and I am
persuaded the little satisfaction he receives from his visits makes him
come no oftener. All his addresses tend to persuade me to break that
faith I have pledged to you, and to take him for my husband; giving me
to understand, I need not entertain hopes of ever seeing you again, for
that you were dead, having had your head struck off by the sultan my
father's order. He added, to justify himself, that you were an
ungrateful wretch; that your good fortune was owing to him, and a great
many other things of that nature which I forbear to repeat: but as he
received no other answer from me but grievous complaints and tears, he
was always forced to retire with as little satisfaction as he came. I
doubt not his intention is to allow me time to overcome my grief, in
hopes that afterwards I may change my sentiments; and if I persevere in
an obstinate refusal, to use violence. But my dear husband's presence
removes all my apprehensions."
"I am confident my attempts to punish the magician will not be in
vain," replied Aladdin, "since my princess's fears are removed, and I
think I have found the means to deliver you from both your enemy and
mine; to execute this design, it is necessary for me to go to the town.
I shall return by noon, and will then communicate my design and what
must be done by you to insure success. But that you may not be
surprised, I think it proper to acquaint you that I shall change my
apparel, and beg of you to give orders that I may not wait long at the
private door, but that it may be opened at the first knock:" all which
the princess promised to observe.
When Aladdin was out of the palace, he looked round him on all sides,
and perceiving a peasant going into the country, hastened after him;
and when he had overtaken him, made a proposal to him to change habits,
which the man agreed to. When they had made the exchange, the
countryman went about his business, and Aladdin to the city. After
traversing several streets, he came to that part of the town where all
descriptions of merchants and artisans had their particular streets,
according to their trades. He went into that of the druggists; and
going into one of the largest and best-furnished shops, asked the
druggist if he had a certain powder which he named.
The druggist, judging Aladdin by his habit to be very poor, and that he
had not money enough to pay for it, told him he had it, but that it was
very dear; upon which Aladdin, penetrating his thoughts, pulled out his
purse, and showing him some gold, asked for half a dram of the powder;
which the druggist weighed, wrapped up in paper, and gave him, telling
him the price was a piece of gold. Aladdin put the money into his hand,
and staying no longer in the town than just to get a little
refreshment, returned to the palace, where he waited not long at the
private door. When he came into the princess's apartment, he said to
her, "Princess, perhaps the aversion you tell me you have for your
ravisher may be an objection to your executing what I am going to
propose; but permit me to say it is proper that you should at this
juncture dissemble a little, and do violence to your inclinations, if
you would deliver yourself from him, and give my lord the sultan your
father the satisfaction of seeing you again.
"If you will take my advice," continued he, "dress yourself this moment
in one of your richest habits, and when the African magician comes,
make no difficulty to give him the best reception; receive him with a
cheerful countenance, so that he may imagine time has removed your
affliction and disgust at his addresses. In your conversation, let him
understand that you strive to forget me; and that he may be the more
fully convinced of your sincerity, invite him to sup with you, and tell
him you should be glad to taste of some of the best wines of his
country. He will presently go to fetch you some. During his absence,
put into one of the cups you are accustomed to drink out of this
powder, and setting it by, charge the slave you may order that night to
attend you, on a signal you shall agree upon, to bring that cup to you.
When the magician and you have eaten and drunk as much as you choose,
let her bring you the cup, and then change cups with him. He will
esteem it so great a favor that he will not refuse, but eagerly quaff
it off; but no sooner will he have drunk, than you will see him fall
backwards. If you have any reluctance to drink out of his cup, you may
pretend only to do it, without fear of being discovered; for the effect
of the powder is so quick, that he will not have time to know whether
you drink or not."
When Aladdin had finished, "I own," answered the princess, "I shall do
myself great violence in consenting to make the magician such advances
as I see are absolutely necessary; but what cannot one resolve to do
against a cruel enemy? I will therefore follow your advice, since both
my repose and yours depend upon it." After the princess had agreed to
the measures proposed by Aladdin, he took his leave, and went and spent
the rest of the day in the neighborhood of the palace till it was
night, and he might safely return to the private door.
The princess, who had remained inconsolable at being separated not only
from her husband, whom she had loved from the first moment, and still
continued to love more out of inclination than duty, but also from the
sultan her father, who had always shown the most tender and paternal
affection for her, had, ever since their cruel separation, lived in
great neglect of her person. She had almost forgotten the neatness so
becoming persons of her sex and quality, particularly after the first
time the magician paid her a visit; and she had understood by some of
the women, who knew him again, that it was he who had taken the old
lamp in exchange for a new one, which rendered the sight of him more
abhorred. However, the opportunity of taking the revenge he deserved
made her resolve to gratify Aladdin. As soon, therefore, as he was
gone, she sat down to dress, and was attired by her women to the best
advantage in the richest habit of her wardrobe. Her girdle was of the
finest and largest diamonds set in gold, her necklace of pearls, six on
a side, so well proportioned to that in the middle, which was the
largest ever seen, and invaluable, that the greatest sultanesses would
have been proud to have been adorned with only two of the smallest. Her
bracelets, which were of diamonds and rubies intermixed, corresponded
admirably to the richness of the girdle and necklace.
When the princess Buddir al Buddoor was completely dressed, she
consulted her glass and women upon her adjustment; and when she found
she wanted no charms to flatter the foolish passion of the African
magician, she sat down on a sofa expecting his arrival.
The magician came at the usual hour, and as soon as he entered the
great hall where the princess waited to receive him, she rose with an
enchanting grace and smile, and pointed with her hand to the most
honorable place, waiting till he sat down, that she might sit at the
same time, which was a civility she had never shown him before.
The African magician, dazzled more with the luster of the princess's
eyes than the glittering of the jewels with which she was adorned, was
much surprised. The smiling and graceful air with which she received
him, so opposite to her former behavior, quite fascinated his heart.
When he was seated, the princess, to free him from his embarrassment,
broke silence first, looking at him all the time in such a manner as to
make him believe that he was not so odious to her as she had given him
to understand hitherto, and said, "You are doubtless amazed to find me
so much altered today; but your surprise will not be so great when I
acquaint you, that I am naturally of a disposition so opposite to
melancholy and grief, sorrow and uneasiness, that I always strive to
put them as far away as possible when I find the subject of them is
past. I have reflected on what you told me of Aladdin's fate, and know
my father's temper so well, that I am persuaded with you he could not
escape the terrible effects of the sultan's rage: therefore, should I
continue to lament him all my life, my tears cannot recall him. For
this reason, since I have paid all the duties decency requires of me to
his memory, now he is in the grave I think I ought to endeavor to
comfort myself. These are the motives of the change you see in me; I am
resolved to banish melancholy entirely; and, persuaded that you will
bear me company tonight, I have ordered a supper to be prepared; but as
I have no wines but those of China, I have a great desire to taste of
the produce of Africa, and doubt not your procuring some of the best."
The African magician, who had looked upon the happiness of getting so
soon and so easily into the princess Buddir al Buddoor's good graces as
impossible, could not think of words expressive enough to testify how
sensible he was of her favor: but to put an end the sooner to a
conversation which would have embarrassed him, if he had engaged
farther in it, he turned it upon the wines of Africa, and said, "Of all
the advantages Africa can boast, that of producing the most excellent
wines is one of the principal. I have a vessel of seven years old,
which has never been broached; and it is indeed not praising it too
much to say it is the finest wine in the world. If my princess," added
he, "will give me leave, I will go and fetch two bottles, and return
again immediately." "I should be sorry to give you that trouble,"
replied the princess; "you had better send for them." "It is necessary
I should go myself," answered the African magician; "for nobody but
myself knows where the key of the cellar is laid, or has the secret to
unlock the door." "If it be so," said the princess, "make haste back;
for the longer you stay, the greater will be my impatience, and we
shall sit down to supper as soon as you return."
The African magician, full of hopes of his expected happiness, rather
flew than ran, and returned quickly with the wine. The princess, not
doubting but he would make haste, put with her own hand the powder
Aladdin had given her into the cup set apart for that purpose. They sat
down at the table opposite to each other, the magician's back towards
the beaufet. The princess presented him with the best at the table, and
said to him, "If you please, I will entertain you with a concert of
vocal and instrumental music; but as we are only two, I think
conversation may be more agreeable." This the magician took as a new
favor.
After they had eaten some time, the princess called for some wine,
drank the magician's health, and afterwards said to him, "Indeed you
had a full right to commend your wine, since I never tasted any so
delicious." "Charming princess," said he, holding in his hand the cup
which had been presented to him, "my wine becomes more exquisite by
your approbation." "Then drink my health," replied the princess; "you
will find I understand wines." He drank the princess's health, and
returning the cup, said, "I think myself fortunate, princess, that I
reserved this wine for so happy an occasion; and own I never before
drank any in every respect so excellent."
When they had each drunk two or three cups more, the princess, who had
completely charmed the African magician by her civility and obliging
behavior, gave the signal to the slave who served them with wine,
bidding her bring the cup which had been filled for herself, and at the
same time bring the magician a full goblet. When they both had their
cups in their hands, she said to him, "I know not how you express your
loves in these parts when drinking together? With us in China the lover
and his mistress reciprocally exchange cups, and drink each other's
health:" at the same time she presented to him the cup which was in her
hand, and held out her hand to receive his. He hastened to make the
exchange with the more pleasure, because he looked upon this favor as
the most certain token of an entire conquest over the princess, which
raised his rapture to the highest pitch. Before he drank, he said to
her, with the cup in his hand, "Indeed, princess, we Africans are not
so refined in the art of love as you Chinese: and your instructing me
in a lesson I was ignorant of, informs me how sensible I ought to be of
the favor done me. I shall never, lovely princess, forget my
recovering, by drinking out of your cup, that life, which your cruelty,
had it continued, must have made me despair of."
The princess, who began to be tired with this impertinent declaration
of the African magician, interrupted him, and said, "Let us drink
first, and then say what you will afterwards;" at the same time she set
the cup to her lips, while the African magician, who was eager to get
his wine off first, drank up the very last drop. In finishing it, he
had reclined his head back to show his eagerness, and remained some
time in that state. The princess kept the cup at her lips, till she saw
his eyes turn in his head, when he fell backwards lifeless on the sofa.
The princess had no occasion to order the private door to be opened to
Aladdin; for her women were so disposed from the great hall to the foot
of the staircase, that the word was no sooner given that the African
magician was fallen backwards, than the door was immediately opened.
As soon as Aladdin entered the hall, he saw the magician stretched
backwards on the sofa. The princess rose from her seat, and ran
overjoyed to embrace him; but he stopped her, and said, "Princess, it
is not yet time; oblige me by retiring to your apartment; and let me be
left alone a moment, while I endeavor to transport you back to China as
speedily as you were brought from thence."
When the princess, her women and eunuchs, were gone out of the hall,
Aladdin shut the door, and going directly to the dead body of the
magician, opened his vest, took out the lamp which was carefully
wrapped up, as the princess had told him, and unfolding and rubbing it,
the genie immediately appeared. "Genie," said Aladdin, "I have called
to command thee, on the part of thy good mistress this lamp, to
transport this palace instantly into China, to the place from whence it
was brought hither." The genie bowed his head in token of obedience,
and disappeared. Immediately the palace was transported into China, and
its removal was only felt by two little shocks, the one when it was
lifted up, the other when it was set down, and both in a very short
interval of time.
Aladdin went to the princess's apartment, and embracing her, said, "I
can assure you, princess, that your joy and mine will be complete
tomorrow morning." The princess, guessing that Aladdin must be hungry,
ordered the dishes, served up in the great hall, to be brought down.
The princess and Aladdin ate as much as they thought fit, and drank of
the African magician's old wine; during which time their conversation
could not be otherwise than satisfactory, and then they retired to
their own chamber.
From the time of the transportation of Aladdin's palace, the princess's
father had been inconsolable for the loss of her. He could take no
rest, and instead of avoiding what might continue his affliction he
indulged it without restraint. Before the disaster he used to go every
morning into his closet to please himself with viewing the palace; he
went now many times in the day to renew his tears, and plunge himself
into the deepest melancholy, by the idea of no more seeing that which
once gave him so much pleasure, and reflecting how he had lost what was
most dear to him in this world.
The very morning of the return of Aladdin's palace, the sultan went, by
break of day, into his closet to indulge his sorrows. Absorbed in
himself, and in a pensive mood, he cast his eyes towards the spot,
expecting only to see an open space; but perceiving the vacancy filled
up, he at first imagined the appearance to be the effect of a fog;
looking more attentively, he was convinced beyond the power of doubt
that it was his son-in-law's palace. Joy and gladness succeeded to
sorrow and grief. He returned immediately into his apartment, and
ordered a horse to be saddled and brought to him without delay, which
he mounted that instant, thinking he could not make haste enough to the
palace.
Aladdin, who foresaw what would happen, rose that morning at daybreak,
put on one of the most magnificent habits his wardrobe afforded, and
went up into the hall of twenty-four windows, from whence he perceived
the sultan approaching, and got down soon enough to receive him at the
foot of the great staircase, and to help him to dismount. "Aladdin,"
said the sultan, "I cannot speak to you till I have seen and embraced
my daughter."
He led the sultan into the princess's apartment. The happy father
embraced her with his face bathed in tears of joy; and the princess, on
her side, showed him all the testimonies of the extreme pleasure the
sight of him afforded her.
The sultan was some time before he could open his lips, so great was
his surprise and joy to find his daughter again, after he had given her
up for lost; and the princess, upon seeing her father, let fall tears
of rapture and affection.
At last the sultan broke silence, and said, "I would believe, daughter,
your joy to see me makes you seem as little changed as if no misfortune
had befallen you; yet I cannot be persuaded but that you have suffered
much alarm; for a large palace cannot be so suddenly transported as
yours has been, without causing great fright and apprehension. I would
have you tell me all that has happened, and conceal nothing from me."
The princess, who took great pleasure in giving the sultan the
satisfaction he demanded, said, "If I appear so little altered, I beg
of your Majesty to consider that I received new life yesterday morning
by the presence of my dear husband and deliverer Aladdin, whom I looked
upon and bewailed as lost to me; and the happiness of seeing and
embracing of whom has almost recovered me to my former state of health.
My greatest suffering was only to find myself forced from your Majesty
and my dear husband; not only from the love I bore my husband, but from
the uneasiness I labored under through fear that he, though innocent,
might feel the effects of your anger, to which I knew he was left
exposed. I suffered but little from the insolence of the wretch who had
carried me off; for having secured the ascendant over him, I always put
a stop to his disagreeable overtures, and was as little constrained as
I am at present.
"As to what relates to my transportation, Aladdin had no concern in it:
I was myself the innocent cause of it." To persuade the sultan of the
truth of what she said, she gave him a full account how the African
magician had disguised himself, and offered to change new lamps for old
ones; how she had amused herself in making that exchange, being
entirely ignorant of the secret and importance of the wonderful lamp;
how the palace and herself were carried away and transported into
Africa, with the African magician, who was recognized by two of her
women and the eunuch who made the exchange of the lamp, when he had the
audacity, after the success of his daring enterprise, to propose
himself for her husband; how he persecuted her till Aladdin's arrival;
how they had concerted measures to get the lamp from him again, and the
success they had fortunately met with by her dissimulation in inviting
him to supper, and giving him the cup with the powder prepared for him.
"For the rest," added she, "I leave it to Aladdin to recount."
Aladdin had not much to tell the sultan, but only said, "When the
private door was opened I went up into the great hall, where I found
the magician lying dead on the sofa; and as I thought it not proper for
the princess to stay there any longer, I desired her to go down into
her own apartment, with her women and eunuchs. As soon as I was alone,
and had taken the lamp out of the magician's breast, I made use of the
same secret he had done, to remove the palace, and carry off the
princess; and by that means the palace was reconveyed to the place
where it stood before; and I have the happiness to restore the princess
to your Majesty, as you commanded me. But that your Majesty may not
think that I impose upon you, if you will give yourself the trouble to
go up into the hall, you may see the magician punished as he deserved."
The sultan, to be assured of the truth, rose instantly, and went into
the hall, where, when he saw the African magician dead, and his face
already livid by the strength of the poison, he embraced Aladdin with
great tenderness, and said, "My son, be not displeased at my
proceedings against you; they arose from my paternal love; and
therefore you ought to forgive the excesses to which it hurried me."
"Sir," replied Aladdin, "I have not the least reason to complain of
your Majesty's conduct, since you did nothing but what your duty
required. This infamous magician, the basest of men, was the sole cause
of my misfortune. When your Majesty has leisure, I will give you an
account of another villainous action he was guilty of towards me, which
was no less black and base than this, from which I was preserved by the
providence of God in a very miraculous way." "I will take an
opportunity, and that very shortly," replied the sultan, "to hear it;
but in the meantime let us think only of rejoicing, and the removal of
this odious object."
Aladdin ordered the magician's corpse to be removed and thrown upon a
dunghill, for birds and beasts to prey upon. In the meantime, the
sultan commanded the drums, trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments of
music to announce his joy to the public, and a festival of ten days to
be proclaimed for the return of the princess and Aladdin.
Thus Aladdin escaped once more the almost inevitable danger of losing
his life; but this was not the last, since he ran as great a hazard a
third time; the circumstances of which I shall relate.
The African magician had a younger brother, who was equally skillful as
a necromancer, and even surpassed him in villainy and pernicious
designs. As they did not live together, or in the same city, but
oftentimes when one was in the East, the other was in the West, they
failed not every year to inform themselves, by their art, each where
the other resided, and whether they stood in need of one another's
assistance.
Some time after the African magician had failed in his enterprise
against Aladdin, his younger brother, who had heard no tidings of him,
and was not in Africa, but in a distant country, had the wish to know
in what part of the world he sojourned, the state of his health, and
what he was doing; and as he, as well as his brother, always carried a
geomantic square instrument about him, he prepared the sand, cast the
points, and drew the figures. On examining the planetary mansions, he
found that his brother was no longer living, but had been poisoned; and
by another observation, that he was in the capital of the kingdom of
China; also that the person who had poisoned him was of mean birth,
though married to a princess, a sultan's daughter.
When the magician had informed himself of his brother's fate, he lost
no time in useless regret, which could not restore him to life; but
resolving immediately to revenge his death, departed for China; where,
after crossing plains, rivers, mountains, deserts, and a long tract of
country without delay, he arrived after incredible fatigues.
When he came to the capital of China, he took a lodging. The next day
he walked through the town not so much to observe the beauties, which
were indifferent to him, as to take proper measures to execute his
pernicious designs. He introduced himself into the most frequented
places, where he listened to everybody's discourse. In a place where
people resort to divert themselves with games of various kinds, and
where some were conversing, while others played, he heard some persons
talk of the virtue and piety of a woman called Fatima, who was retired
from the world, and of the miracles she wrought. As he fancied that
this woman might be serviceable to him in the project he had conceived,
he took one of the company aside, and requested to be informed more
particularly who that holy woman was, and what sort of miracles she
performed.
"What!" said the person whom he had addressed, "have you never seen or
heard of her? She is the admiration of the whole town, for her fasting,
her austerities, and her exemplary life. Except Mondays and Fridays,
she never stirs out of her little cell; and on those days on which she
comes into town she does an infinite deal of good; for there is not a
person that has the headache but is cured by her laying her hand upon
them."
The magician wanted no further information. He only asked the person in
what part of the town this holy woman's cell was situated. After he had
informed himself on this head, he determined on the detestable design
of murdering her and assuming her character. With this view he watched
all her steps the first day she went out after he had made this
inquiry, without losing sight of her till evening, when he saw her
reenter her cell. When he had fully observed the place, he went to one
of those houses where they sell a certain hot liquor, and where any
person may pass the night, particularly in the great heats, when the
people of that country prefer lying on a mat to a bed. About midnight,
after the magician had satisfied the master of the house for what
little he had called for, he went out, and proceeded directly to the
cell of Fatima. He had no difficulty to open the door, which was only
fastened with a latch, and he shut it again after he had entered,
without any noise. When he entered the cell, he perceived Fatima by
moonlight lying in the air on a sofa covered only by an old mat, with
her head leaning against the wall. He awakened her, and clapped a
dagger to her breast.
The pious Fatima opening her eyes, was much surprised to see a man with
a dagger at her breast ready to stab her, and who said to her, "If you
cry out, or make the least noise, I will kill you; but get up, and do
as I shall direct you."
Fatima, who had lain down in her habit, got up, trembling with fear.
"Do not be so much frightened," said the magician; "I only want your
habit, give it me and take mine." Accordingly Fatima and he changed
clothes. He then said to her, "Color my face, that I may be like you;"
but perceiving that the poor creature could not help trembling, to
encourage her he said, "I tell you again you need not fear anything: I
swear by the name of God I will not take away your life." Fatima
lighted her lamp, led him into the cell, and dipping a soft brush in a
certain liquor, rubbed it over his face, assured him the color would
not change, and that his face was of the same hue as her own: after
which, she put her own head-dress on his head, also a veil, with which
she showed him how to hide his face as he passed through the town.
After this, she put a long string of beads about his neck, which hung
down to the middle of his body, and giving him the stick she used to
walk with, in his hand, brought him a looking-glass, and bade him look
if he was not as like her as possible. The magician found himself
disguised as he wished to be; but he did not keep the oath he so
solemnly swore to the good Fatima; but instead of stabbing her, for
fear the blood might discover him, he strangled her; and when he found
she was dead, threw her body into a cistern just by the cell.
The magician, thus disguised like the holy woman Fatima, spent the
remainder of the night in the cell. The next morning, two hours after
sunrise, though it was not a day the holy woman used to go out on, he
crept out of the cell, being well persuaded that nobody would ask him
any questions; or, if they should, he had an answer ready for them. As
one of the first things he did after his arrival was to find out
Aladdin's palace, where he was to complete his designs, he went
directly thither.
As soon as the people saw the holy woman, as they imagined him to be,
they presently gathered about him in a great crowd. Some begged his
blessing, others kissed his hand, and others, more reserved, only the
hem of his garment; while others, whether their heads ached, or they
wished to be preserved against that disorder, stooped for him to lay
his hands upon them; which he did, muttering some words in form of
prayer; and, in short, counterfeited so well, that everybody took him
for the holy woman.
After frequently stopping to satisfy people of this description, who
received neither good nor harm from this imposition of hands, he came
at last to the square before Aladdin's palace. The crowd was so great
that the eagerness to get at him increased in proportion. Those who
were the most zealous and strong forced their way through the crowd.
There were such quarrels, and so great a noise, that the princess, who
was in the hall of four-and-twenty windows, heard it, and asked what
was the matter; but nobody being able to give her an answer, she
ordered them to inquire and inform her. One of her women looked out of
a window, and then told her it was a great crowd of people collected
about the holy woman to be cured of the headache by the imposition of
her hands.
The princess, who had long heard of this holy woman, but had never seen
her, was very desirous to have some conversation with her, which the
chief of the eunuchs perceiving, told her it was an easy matter to
bring her to her, if she desired and commanded it; and the princess
expressing her wishes, he immediately sent four eunuchs for the
pretended holy woman.
As soon as the crowd saw the eunuchs, they made way, and the magician
perceiving also that they were coming for him, advanced to meet them,
overjoyed to find his plot proceeded so well. "Holy woman," said one of
the eunuchs, "the princess wants to see you, and has sent us for you."
"The princess does me too great an honor," replied the false Fatima; "I
am ready to obey her command," and at the same time followed the
eunuchs to the palace.
When the magician, who under a holy garment disguised a wicked heart,
was introduced into the great hall, and perceived the princess, he
began a prayer, which contained a long enumeration of vows and good
wishes for the princess's health and prosperity, and that she might
have everything she desired. He then displayed all his hypocritical
rhetoric, to insinuate himself into the princess's favor under the
cloak of piety, which it was no hard matter for him to do; for as the
princess herself was naturally good, she was easily persuaded that all
the world were like her, especially those who made profession of
serving God in solitude.
When the pretended Fatima had finished his long harangue, the princess
said to him, "I thank you, good mother, for your prayers; I have great
confidence in them, and hope God will hear them. Come, and sit by me."
The false Fatima sat down with affected modesty: the princess then
resuming her discourse, said, "My good mother, I have one thing to
request, which you must not refuse me; it is, to stay with me, that you
may edify me with your way of living; and that I may learn from your
good example how to serve God." "Princess," said the counterfeit
Fatima, "I beg of you not to ask what I cannot consent to, without
neglecting my prayers and devotion." "That shall be no hindrance to
you," answered the princess; "I have a great many apartments
unoccupied; you shall choose which you like best, and have as much
liberty to perform your devotions as if you were in your own cell."
The magician, who desired nothing more than to introduce himself into
the palace, where it would be much easier matter for him to execute his
designs, under the favor and protection of the princess, than if he had
been forced to come and go from the cell to the palace, did not urge
much to excuse himself from accepting the obliging offer which the
princess made him. "Princess," said he, "whatever resolution a poor
wretched woman as I am may have made to renounce the pomp and grandeur
of this world, I dare not presume to oppose the will and commands of so
pious and charitable a princess."
Upon this the princess, rising up, said, "Come with me, I will show
you what vacant apartments I have, that you may make choice of that you
like best." The magician followed the princess, and of all the
apartments she showed him, made choice of that which was the worst
furnished, saying, It was too good for him, and that he only accepted
of it to please her.
Afterwards the princess would have brought him back again into the
great hall to make him dine with her; but he considering that he should
then be obliged to show his face, which he had always taken care to
conceal; and fearing that the princess should find out that he was not
Fatima, he begged of her earnestly to excuse him, telling her that he
never ate anything but bread and dried fruits, and desiring to eat
that slight repast in his own apartment. The princess granted his
request, saying, "You may be as free here, good mother, as if you were
in your own cell; I will order you a dinner, but remember I expect you
as soon as you have finished your repast."
After the princess had dined, and the false Fatima had been informed by
one of the eunuchs that she was risen from table, he failed not to wait
upon her. "My good mother," said the princess, "I am overjoyed to have
the company of so holy a woman as yourself, who will confer a blessing
upon this palace. But now I am speaking of the palace, Pray how do you
like it? And before I show it all to you, tell me first what you think
of this hall."
Upon this question, the counterfeit Fatima, who, to act his part the
better, affected to hang down his head, without so much as ever once
lifting it, at last looked up, and surveyed the hall from one end to
the other. When he had examined it well, he said to the princess, "As
far as such a solitary being as I am, who am unacquainted with what the
world calls beautiful, can judge, this hall is truly admirable and most
beautiful; there wants but one thing." "What is that, good mother?"
demanded the princess. "Tell me, I conjure you. For my part, I always
believed, and have heard say, it wanted nothing; but if it does, it
shall be supplied."
"Princess," said the false Fatima, with great dissimulation, "forgive
me the liberty I have taken; but my opinion is, if it can be of any
importance, that if a roc's egg were hung up in the middle of the dome,
this hall would have no parallel in the four quarters of the world, and
your palace would be the wonder of the universe."
"My good mother," said the princess, "what bird is a roc, and where may
one get an egg?" "Princess," replied the pretended Fatima, "it is a
bird of prodigious size, which inhabits the summit of Mount Caucasus;
the architect who built your palace can get you one."
After the princess had thanked the false Fatima for what she believed
her good advice, she conversed with her upon other matters; but could
not forget the roc's egg, which she resolved to request of Aladdin when
he returned from hunting. He had been gone six days, which the magician
knew, and therefore took advantage of his absence; but he returned that
evening after the false Fatima had taken leave of the princess, and
retired to his apartment. As soon as he arrived, he went directly to
the princess's apartment, saluted and embraced her, but she seemed to
receive him coldly. "My princess," said he, "I think you are not so
cheerful as you used to be; has anything happened during my absence,
which has displeased you, or given you any trouble or dissatisfaction?
In the name of God do not conceal it from me; I will leave nothing
undone that is in my power to please you." "It is a trifling matter,"
replied the princess, "which gives me so little concern that I could
not have thought you could have perceived it in my countenance; but
since you have unexpectedly discovered some alteration, I will no
longer disguise a matter of so little consequence from you.
"I always believed," continued the princess, "that our palace was the
most superb, magnificent, and complete in the world: but I will tell
you now what I find fault with, upon examining the hall of four-and-
twenty windows. Do not you think with me, that it would be complete if
a roc's egg were hung up in the midst of the dome?" "Princess," replied
Aladdin, "it is enough that you think there wants such an ornament; you
shall see by the diligence used to supply that deficiency, that there
is nothing which I would not do for your sake."
Aladdin left the princess Buddir al Buddoor that moment, and went up
into the hall of four-and-twenty windows, where pulling out of his
bosom the lamp, which, after the danger he had been exposed to, he
always carried about him, he rubbed it; upon which the genie
immediately appeared. "Genie," said Aladdin, "there wants a roc's egg
to be hung up in the midst of the dome; I command thee, in the name of
this lamp, to repair the deficiency." Aladdin had no sooner pronounced
these words, than the genie gave so loud and terrible a cry, that the
hall shook, and Aladdin could scarcely stand upright. "What! wretch,"
said the genie, in a voice that would have made the most undaunted man
tremble, "is it not enough that I and my companions have done
everything for you, but you, by an unheard-of ingratitude, must command
me to bring my master, and hang him up in the midst of this dome? This
attempt deserves that you, your wife, and your palace, should be
immediately reduced to ashes: but you are happy that this request does
not come from yourself. Know, then, that the true author is the brother
of the African magician, your enemy, whom you have destroyed as he
deserved. He is now in your palace, disguised in the habit of the holy
woman Fatima, whom he has murdered; and it is he who has suggested to
your wife to make this pernicious demand. His design is to kill you,
therefore take care of yourself." After these words, the genie
disappeared.
Aladdin lost not a word of what the genie had said. He had heard talk
of the holy woman Fatima, and how she pretended to cure the headache.
He returned to the princess's apartment, and without mentioning a word
of what had happened, sat down, and complained of a great pain which
had suddenly seized his head; upon which the princess ordered the holy
woman to be called, and then told him how she had invited her to the
palace, and that she had appointed her an apartment.
When the pretended Fatima came, Aladdin said, "Come hither, good
mother; I am glad to see you here at so fortunate a time; I am
tormented with a violent pain in my head, and request your assistance,
by the confidence I have in your good prayers, and hope you will not
refuse me that favor which you do to so many persons afflicted with
this complaint." So saying, he arose, but held down his head. The
counterfeit Fatima advanced towards him, with his hand all the time on
a dagger concealed in his girdle under his gown; which Aladdin
observing, he seized his hand before he had drawn it, pierced him to
the heart with his own dagger, and then pushed him down on the floor.
"My dear husband, what have you done?" cried the princess in surprise.
"You have killed the holy woman." "No, my princess," answered Aladdin,
with emotion, "I have not killed Fatima, but a villain, who would have
assassinated me, if I had not prevented him. This wicked wretch," added
he, uncovering his face, "has strangled Fatima, whom you accuse me of
killing, and disguised himself in her clothes with intent to murder me:
but that you may know him better, he is brother to the African
magician." Aladdin then informed her how he came to know these
particulars, and afterwards ordered the dead body to be taken away.
Thus was Aladdin delivered from the persecution of two brothers, who
were magicians. Within a few years afterwards, the sultan died in a
good old age, and as he left no male children, the princess Buddir al
Buddoor, as lawful heir of the throne, succeeded him, and communicating
the power to Aladdin, they reigned together many years, and left a
numerous and illustrious posterity.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
CLASSIC
THE GORGON'S HEAD
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Perseus was the son of Danaë, who was the daughter of a king. And when
Perseus was a very little boy, some wicked people put his mother and
himself into a chest, and set them afloat upon the sea. The wind blew
freshly, and drove the chest away from the shore, and the uneasy
billows tossed it up and down; while Danaë clasped her child closely to
her bosom, and dreaded that some big wave would dash its foamy crest
over them both. The chest sailed on, however, and neither sank nor was
upset; until, when night was coining, it floated so near an island that
it got entangled in a fisherman's nets, and was drawn out high and dry
upon the sand. The island was called Seriphus, and it was reigned over
by King Polydectes, who happened to be the fisherman's brother.
This fisherman, I am glad to tell you, was an exceedingly humane and
upright man. He showed great kindness to Danaë and her little boy; and
continued to befriend them, until Perseus had grown to be a handsome
youth, very strong and active, and skillful in the use of arms. Long
before this time King Polydectes had seen the two strangers--the mother
and her child--who had come to his dominions in a floating chest. As he
was not good and kind, like his brother the fisherman, but extremely
wicked, he resolved to send Perseus on a dangerous enterprise, in which
he would probably be killed, and then to do some great mischief to
Danaë herself. So this bad-hearted king spent a long while in
considering what was the most dangerous thing that a young man could
possibly undertake to perform. At last, having hit upon an enterprise
that promised to turn out as fatally as he desired, he sent for the
youthful Perseus.
The young man came to the palace, and found the king sitting upon his
throne.
"Perseus," said King Polydectes, smiling craftily upon him, "you are
grown up a fine young man. You and your good mother have received a
great deal of kindness from myself, as well as from my worthy brother,
the fisherman, and I suppose you would not be sorry to repay some of
it."
"Please, your Majesty," answered Perseus, "I would willingly risk my
life to do so."
"Well, then," continued the king, still with a cunning smile on his
lips, "I have a little adventure to propose to you; and, as you are a
brave and enterprising youth, you will doubtless look upon it as a
great piece of good luck to have so rare an opportunity of
distinguishing yourself. You must know, my good Perseus, I think of
getting married to the beautiful Princess Hippodamia; and it is
customary, on these occasions, to make the bride a present of some
farfetched and elegant curiosity. I have been a little perplexed, I
must honestly confess, where to obtain anything likely to please a
princess of her exquisite taste. But, this morning, I flatter myself, I
have thought of precisely the article."
"And can I assist your Majesty in obtaining it?" cried Perseus,
eagerly.
"You can, if you are as brave a youth as I believe you to be," replied
King Polydectes, with the utmost graciousness of manner. "The bridal
gift which I have set my heart on presenting to the beautiful
Hippodamia is the head of the Gorgon Medusa, with the snaky locks; and
I depend on you, my dear Perseus, to bring it to me. So, as I am
anxious to settle affairs with the princess, the sooner you go in quest
of the Gorgon, the better I shall be pleased."
"I will set out tomorrow morning," answered Perseus.
"Pray do so, my gallant youth," rejoined the king. "And, Perseus, in
cutting off the Gorgon's head, be careful to make a clean stroke, so as
not to injure its appearance. You must bring it home in the very best
condition, in order to suit the exquisite taste of the beautiful
Princess Hippodamia."
Perseus left the palace, but was scarcely out of hearing before
Polydectes burst into a laugh; being greatly amused, wicked king that
he was, to find how readily the young man fell into the snare. The news
quickly spread abroad, that Perseus had undertaken to cut off the head
of Medusa with the snaky locks. Everybody was rejoiced; for most of the
inhabitants of the island were as wicked as the king himself, and would
have liked nothing better than to see some enormous mischief happen to
Danae and her son. The only good man in this unfortunate island of
Seriphus appears to have been the fisherman. As Perseus walked along,
therefore, the people pointed after him, and made mouths, and winked to
one another, and ridiculed him as loudly as they dared.
"Ho, ho!" cried they; "Medusa's snakes will sting him soundly!"
Now, there were three Gorgons alive, at that period, and they were the
most strange and terrible monsters that had ever been seen since the
world was made, or that have been seen in after days, or that are
likely to be seen in all time to come. I hardly know what sort of
creature or hobgoblin to call them. They were three sisters, and seem
to have borne some distant resemblance to women, but were really a very
frightful and mischievous species of dragon. It is, indeed, difficult
to imagine what hideous beings these three sisters were. Why, instead
of locks of hair, if you can believe me, they had each of them a
hundred enormous snakes growing on their heads, all alive, twisting,
wriggling, curling, and thrusting out their venomous tongues, with
forked stings at the end! The teeth of the Gorgons were terribly long
tusks; their hands were made of brass; and their bodies were all over
scales, which, if not iron, were something as hard and impenetrable.
They had wings, too, and exceedingly splendid ones, I can assure you;
for every feather in them was pure, bright, glittering, burnished gold,
and they looked very dazzlingly, no doubt, when the Gorgons were flying
about in the sunshine.
But when people happened to catch a glimpse of their glittering
brightness, aloft in the air, they seldom stopped to gaze, but ran and
hid themselves as speedily as they could. You will think, perhaps, that
they were afraid of being stung by the serpents that served the Gorgons
instead of hair--or of having their heads bitten off by their ugly
tusks,--or of being torn all to pieces by their brazen claws. Well, to
be sure, these were some of the dangers, but by no means the greatest,
nor the most difficult to avoid. For the worst thing about these
abominable Gorgons was, that, if once a poor mortal fixed his eyes full
upon one of their faces, he was certain, that very instant, to be
changed from warm flesh and blood into cold and lifeless stone!
Thus, as you will easily perceive, it was a very dangerous adventure
that the wicked King Polydectes had contrived for this innocent young
man. Perseus himself, when he had thought over the matter, could not
help seeing that he had very little chance of coming safely through it,
and that he was far more likely to become a stone image than to bring
back the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. For, not to speak of
other difficulties, there was one which it would have puzzled an older
man than Perseus to get over. Not only must he fight with and slay this
golden-winged, iron-scaled, long-tusked, brazen-clawed, snaky-haired
monster, but he must do it with his eyes shut, or, at least, without so
much as a glance at the enemy with whom he was contending. Else, while
his arm was lifted to strike, he would stiffen into stone, and stand
with that uplifted arm for centuries, until time, and the wind and
weather, should crumble him quite away. This would be a very sad thing
to befall a young man who wanted to perform a great many brave deeds
and to enjoy a great deal of happiness in this bright and beautiful
world.
So disconsolate did these thoughts make him, that Perseus could not
bear to tell his mother what he had undertaken to do. He therefore took
his shield, girded on his sword, and crossed over from the island to
the mainland, where he sat down in a solitary place, and hardly
refrained from shedding tears.
But, while he was in this sorrowful mood, he heard a voice close beside
him.
"Perseus," said the voice, "why are you so sad?"
He lifted his head from his hands, in which he had hidden it, and,
behold! all alone as Perseus had supposed himself to be, there was a
stranger in the solitary place. It was a brisk, intelligent, and
remarkably shrewd-looking young man, with a cloak over his shoulders,
an odd sort of cap on his head, a strangely twisted staff in his hand,
and a short and very crooked sword hanging by his side. He was
exceeding light and active in his figure, like a person much accustomed
to gymnastic exercises, and well able to leap or run. Above all, the
stranger had such a cheerful, knowing, and helpful aspect (though it
was certainly a little mischievous, into the bargain), that Perseus
could not help feeling his spirits grow livelier, as he gazed at him.
Besides, being really a courageous youth, he felt greatly ashamed that
anybody should have found him with tears in his eyes, like a timid
little schoolboy, when, after all, there might be no occasion for
despair. So Perseus wiped his eyes, and answered the stranger pretty
briskly, putting on as brave a look as he could.
"I am not so very sad," said he; "only thoughtful about an adventure
that I have undertaken."
"Oho!" answered the stranger. "Well, tell me all about it, and possibly
I may be of service to you. I have helped a good many young men through
adventures that looked difficult enough beforehand. Perhaps you may
have heard of me. I have more names than one; but the name of
Quicksilver suits me as well as any other. Tell me what your trouble
is, and we will talk the matter over and see what can be done."
The stranger's words and manner put Perseus into quite a different mood
from his former one. He resolved to tell Quicksilver all his
difficulties, since he could not easily be worse off than he already
was, and, very possibly, his new friend might give him some advice that
would turn out well in the end. So he let the stranger know, in few
words, precisely what the case was;--how that King Polydectes wanted
the head of Medusa with the snaky locks as a bridal gift for the
beautiful Princess Hippodamia, and how that he had undertaken to get it
for him, but was afraid of being turned into stone.
"And that would be a great pity," said Quicksilver, with his
mischievous smile. "You would make a very handsome marble statue, it is
true, and it would be a considerable number of centuries before you
crumbled away; but, on the whole, one would rather be a young man for a
few years, than a stone image for a great many."
"Oh, far rather!" exclaimed Perseus, with the tears again standing in
his eyes. "And, besides, what would my dear mother do, if her beloved
son were turned into a stone?"
"Well, well; let us hope that the affair will not turn out so very
badly," replied Quicksilver, in an encouraging tone. "I am the very
person to help you, if anybody can. My sister and myself will do our
utmost to bring you safe through the adventure, ugly as it now looks."
"Your sister?" repeated Perseus.
"Yes, my sister," said the stranger. "She is very wise, I promise you;
and as for myself, I generally have all my wits about me, such as they
are. If you show yourself bold and cautious, and follow our advice, you
need not fear being a stone image yet awhile. But, first of all, you
must polish your shield, till you can see your face in it as distinctly
as in a mirror."
This seemed to Perseus rather an odd beginning of the adventure; for he
thought it of far more consequence that the shield should be strong
enough to defend him from the Gorgon's brazen claws than that it should
be bright enough to show him the reflection of his face.
However, concluding that Quicksilver knew better than himself, he
immediately set to work and scrubbed the shield with so much diligence
and good will, that it very quickly shone like the moon at harvest
time. Quicksilver looked at it with a smile, and nodded his
approbation. Then, taking off his own short and crooked sword, he
girded it about Perseus instead of the one which he had before worn.
"No sword but mine will answer your purpose," observed he: "the blade
has a most excellent temper, and will cut through iron and brass as
easily as through the slenderest twig. And now we will set out. The
next thing is to find the Three Gray Women, who will tell us where to
find the Nymphs."
"The Three Gray Women!" cried Perseus, to whom this seemed only a new
difficulty in the path of his adventure; "pray, who may the Three Gray
Women be? I never heard of them before."
"They are three very strange old ladies," said Quicksilver, laughing.
"They have but one eye among them, and only one tooth. Moreover, you
must find them out by starlight or in the dusk of the evening; for they
never show themselves by the light either of the sun or moon."
"But," said Perseus, "why should I waste my time with these Three Gray
Women? Would it not be better to set out at once in search of the
terrible Gorgons?"
"No, no," answered his friend. "There are other things to be done,
before you can find your way to the Gorgons. There is nothing for it,
but to hunt up these old ladies; and when we meet with them, you may be
sure that the Gorgons are not a great ways off. Come, let us be
stirring!"
Perseus, by this time, felt so much confidence in his companion's
sagacity, that he made no more objections, and professed himself ready
to begin the adventure immediately. They accordingly set out, and
walked at a pretty brisk pace; so brisk, indeed, that Perseus found it
rather difficult to keep up with his nimble friend Quicksilver. To say
the truth, he had a singular idea that Quicksilver was furnished with a
pair of winged shoes, which, of course, helped him along marvelously.
And then, too, when Perseus looked sideways at him, out of the corner
of his eye, he seemed to see wings on the side of his head; although,
if he turned a full gaze, there were no such things to be perceived,
but only an odd kind of cap. But, at all events, the twisted staff was
evidently a great convenience to Quicksilver, and enabled him to
proceed so fast, that Perseus, though a remarkably active young man,
began to be out of breath.
"Here!" cried Quicksilver at last--for he knew well enough, rogue that
he was, how hard Perseus found it to keep pace with him--"take you the
staff, for you need it a great deal more than I. Are there no better
walkers than yourself in the island of Seriphus?"
"I could walk pretty well," said Perseus, glancing slyly at his
companion's feet, "if I had only a pair of winged shoes."
"We must see about getting you a pair," answered Quicksilver.
But the staff helped Perseus along so bravely, that he no longer felt
the slightest weariness. In fact, the stick seemed to be alive in his
hand, and to lend some of its life to Perseus. He and Quicksilver now
walked onward at their ease, talking very sociably together; and
Quicksilver told so many pleasant stories about his former adventures,
and how well his wits had served him on various occasions, that Perseus
began to think him a very wonderful person. He evidently knew the
world; and nobody is so charming to a young man as a friend who has
that kind of knowledge. Perseus listened the more eagerly, in the hope
of brightening his own wits by what he heard.
At last he happened to recollect that Quicksilver had spoken of a
sister, who was to lend her assistance in the adventure which they were
now bound upon.
"Where is she?" he inquired. "Shall we not meet her soon?"
"All at the proper time," said his companion. "But this sister of mine,
you must understand, is quite a different sort of character from
myself. She is very grave and prudent, seldom smiles, never laughs, and
makes it a rule not to utter a word unless she has something
particularly profound to say. Neither will she listen to any but the
wisest conversation."
"Dear me!" ejaculated Perseus; "I shall be afraid to say a syllable."
"She is a very accomplished person, I assure you," continued
Quicksilver, "and has all the arts and sciences at her fingers' ends.
In short, she is so immoderately wise, that many people call her wisdom
personified. But, to tell you the truth, she has hardly vivacity enough
for my taste; and I think you would scarcely find her so pleasant a
traveling companion as myself. She has her good points, nevertheless;
and you will find the benefit of them, in your encounter with the
Gorgons."
By this time it had grown quite dusk. They were now come to a very wild
and desert place, overgrown with shaggy bushes, and so silent and
solitary that nobody seemed ever to have dwelt or journeyed there. All
was waste and desolate, in the gray twilight, which grew every moment
more obscure. Perseus looked about him rather disconsolately, and asked
Quicksilver whether they had a great deal farther to go.
"Hist! hist!" whispered his companion. "Make no noise. This is just the
time and place to meet the Three Gray Women. Be careful that they do
not see you before you see them, for, though they have but a single eye
among the three, it is as sharp-sighted as half a dozen common eyes."
"But what must I do," asked Perseus, "when we meet them?"
Quicksilver explained to Perseus how the Three Gray Women managed with
their one eye. They were in the habit, it seems, of changing it from
one to another, as if it had been a pair of spectacles or--which would
have suited them better--a quizzing-glass. When one of the three had
kept the eye a certain time, she took it out of the socket and passed
it to one of her sisters, whose turn it might happen to be, and who
immediately clapped it into her own head and enjoyed a peep at the
visible world. Thus it will easily be understood that only one of the
Three Gray Women could see, while the other two were in utter darkness;
and, moreover, at the instant when the eye was passing from hand to
hand neither of the poor old ladies was able to see a wink. I have
heard of a great many strange things, in my day, and have witnessed not
a few; but none, it seems to me, that can compare with the oddity of
these Three Gray Women, all peeping through a single eye.
So thought Perseus, likewise, and was so astonished that he almost
fancied his companion was joking with him, and that there were no such
old women in the world.
"You will soon find whether I tell the truth or no," observed
Quicksilver. "Hark! hush! hist! hist! There they come, now!"
Perseus looked earnestly through the dusk of the evening, and there,
sure enough, at no great distance off, he descried the Three Gray
Women. The light being so faint, he could not well make out what sort
of figures they were; only he discovered that they had long gray hair;
and, as they came nearer, he saw that two of them had but the empty
socket of an eye, in the middle of their foreheads. But, in the middle
of the third sister's forehead, there was a very large, bright, and
piercing eye, which sparkled like a great diamond in a ring; and so
penetrating did it seem to be, that Perseus could not help thinking it
must possess the gift of seeing in the darkest midnight just as
perfectly as at noonday. The sight of three persons' eyes was melted
and collected into that single one.
Thus the three old dames got along about as comfortably, upon the
whole, as if they could all see at once. She who chanced to have the
eye in her forehead led the other two by the hands, peeping sharply
about her, all the while, insomuch that Perseus dreaded lest she should
see right through the thick clump of bushes behind which he and
Quicksilver had hidden themselves. My stars! it was positively terrible
to be within reach of so very sharp an eye!
But before they reached the clump of bushes one of the Three Gray Women
spoke.
"Sister! Sister Scarecrow!" cried she, "you have had the eye long
enough. It is my turn now!"
"Let me keep it a moment longer, Sister Nightmare," answered Scarecrow
"I thought I had a glimpse of something behind that thick bush."
"Well, and what of that?" retorted Nightmare, peevishly. "Can't I see
into a thick bush as easily as yourself? The eye is mine, as well as
yours, and I know the use of it as well as you, or maybe a little
better. I insist upon taking a peep immediately."
But here the third sister, whose name was Shakejoint, began to
complain, and said that it was her turn to have the eye, and that
Scarecrow and Nightmare wanted to keep it all to themselves. To end the
dispute, old Dame Scarecrow took the eye out of her forehead and held
it forth in her hand.
"Take it, one of you," cried she, "and quit this foolish quarreling.
For my part, I shall be glad of a little thick darkness. Take it
quickly, however, or I must clap it into my own head again!"
Accordingly, both Nightmare and Shakejoint stretched out their hands,
groping eagerly to snatch the eye out of the hand of Scarecrow. But,
being both alike blind, they could not easily find where Scarecrow's
hand was; and Scarecrow, being now just as much in the dark as
Shakejoint and Nightmare, could not at once meet either of their hands,
in order to put the eye into it. Thus (as you will see, with half an
eye, my wise little auditors) these good old dames had fallen into a
strange perplexity. For, though the eye shone and glistened like a
star, as Scarecrow held it out, yet the Gray Women caught not the least
glimpse of its light, and were all three in utter darkness, from too
impatient a desire to see.
Quicksilver was so much tickled at beholding Shakejoint and Nightmare
both groping for the eye, and each finding fault with Scarecrow and one
another, that he could scarcely help laughing aloud.
"Now is your time!" he whispered to Perseus. "Quick, quick! before they
can clap the eye into either of their heads. Rush out upon the old
ladies, and snatch it from Scarecrow's hand!"
In an instant, while the Three Gray Women were still scolding each
other, Perseus leaped from behind the clump of bushes, and made himself
master of the prize. The marvelous eye, as he held it in his hand,
shone very brightly, and seemed to look up into his face with a knowing
air, and an expression as if it would have winked, had it been provided
with a pair of eyelids for that purpose. But the Gray Women knew
nothing of what had happened; and, each supposing that one of her
sisters was in possession of the eye, they began their quarrel anew. At
last, as Perseus did not wish to put these respectable dames to greater
inconvenience than was really necessary, he thought it right to explain
the matter.
"My good ladies," said he, "pray do not be angry with one another. If
anybody is in fault, it is myself; for I have the honor to hold your
very brilliant and excellent eye in my own hand."
"You! you have our eye! And who are you?" screamed the Three Gray Women
all in a breath, for they were terribly frightened, of course, at
hearing a strange voice, and discovering that their eyesight had got
into the hands of they could not guess whom. "Oh, what shall we do,
sisters? what shall we do? We are all in the dark! Give us our eye!
Give us our one, precious, solitary eye! You have two of your own! Give
us our eye!"
"Tell them," whispered Quicksilver to Perseus, "that they shall have
back the eye as soon as they direct you where to find the Nymphs who
have the flying slippers, the magic wallet, and the helmet of
darkness."
"My dear, good, admirable old ladies," said Perseus, addressing the
Gray Women, "there is no occasion for putting yourselves into such a
fright. I am by no means a bad young man. You shall have back your eye,
safe and sound, and as bright as ever, the moment you tell me where to
find the Nymphs."
"The Nymphs! Goodness me! sisters, what Nymphs does he mean?" screamed
Scarecrow. "There are a great many Nymphs, people say; some that go
a-hunting in the woods, and some that live inside of trees, and some that
have a comfortable home in fountains of water. We know nothing at all
about them. We are three unfortunate old souls, that go wandering about
in the dusk, and never had but one eye amongst us, and that one you
have stolen away. Oh, give it back, good stranger!--whoever you are,
give it back!"
All this while, the Three Gray Women were groping with their
outstretched hands, and trying their utmost to get hold of Perseus. But
he took good care to keep out of their reach.
"My respectable dames," said he--for his mother had taught him always
to use the greatest civility--"I hold your eye fast in my hand, and
shall keep it safely for you, until you please to tell me where to find
these Nymphs. The Nymphs, I mean, who keep the enchanted wallet, the
flying slippers, and the what is it?--the helmet of invisibility."
"Mercy on us, sisters! what is the young man talking about?" exclaimed
Scarecrow, Nightmare, and Shakejoint one to another, with great
appearance of astonishment. "A pair of flying slippers, quoth he! His
heels would quickly fly higher than his head, if he were silly enough
to put them on. And a helmet of invisibility! How could a helmet make
him invisible, unless it were big enough for him to hide under it? And
an enchanted wallet! What sort of a contrivance may that be, I wonder?
No, no, good stranger! we can tell you nothing of these marvelous
things. You have two eyes of your own, and we have but a single one
amongst us three. You can find out such wonders better than three blind
old creatures like us."
Perseus, hearing them talk in this way, began really to think that the
Gray Women knew nothing of the matter; and, as it grieved him to have
put them to so much trouble, he was just on the point of restoring
their eye and asking pardon for his rudeness in snatching it away. But
Quicksilver caught his hand.
"Don't let them make a fool of you," said he. "These Three Gray Women
are the only persons in the world that can tell you where to find the
Nymphs; and, unless you get that information, you will never succeed in
cutting off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Keep fast hold of
the eye, and all will go well."
As it turned out, Quicksilver was in the right. There are but few
things that people prize so much as they do their eyesight; and the
Gray Women valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a
dozen, which was the number they ought to have had. Finding that there
was no other way of recovering it, they at last told Perseus what he
wanted to know. No sooner had they done so, than he immediately, and
with the utmost respect, clapped the eye into the vacant socket in one
of their foreheads, thanked them for their kindness, and bade them
farewell. Before the young man was out of hearing, however, they had
got into a new dispute, because he happened to have given the eye to
Scarecrow, who had already taken her turn of it when their trouble with
Perseus commenced.
It is greatly to be feared that the Three Gray Women were very much in
the habit of disturbing their mutual harmony by bickerings of this
sort; which was the more pity, as they could not conveniently do
without one another, and were evidently intended to be inseparable
companions. As a general rule, I would advise all people, whether
sisters or brothers, old or young, who chance to have but one eye
amongst them, to cultivate forbearance, and not all insist upon peeping
through it at once.
Quicksilver and Perseus in the meantime were making the best of their
way in quest of the Nymphs. The old dames had given them such
particular directions, that they were not long in finding them out.
They proved to be very different persons from Nightmare, Shakejoint,
and Scarecrow; for, instead of being old, they were young and
beautiful; and instead of one eye amongst the sisterhood, each Nymph
had two exceedingly bright eyes of her own, with which she looked very
kindly at Perseus. They seemed to be acquainted with Quicksilver; and
when he told them the adventure which Perseus had undertaken, they made
no difficulty about giving him the valuable articles that were in their
custody. In the first place, they brought out what appeared to be a
small purse, made of deerskin, and curiously embroidered, and bade him
be sure and keep it safe. This was the magic wallet. The Nymphs next
produced a pair of shoes, or slippers, or sandals, with a nice little
pair of wings at the heel of each.
"Put them on, Perseus," said Quicksilver. "You will find yourself as
light-heeled as you can desire for the remainder of our journey."
So Perseus proceeded to put one of the slippers on, while he laid the
other on the ground by his side. Unexpectedly, however, this other
slipper spread its wings, fluttered up off the ground, and would
probably have flown away, if Quicksilver had not made a leap, and
luckily caught it in the air.
"Be more careful," said he, as he gave it back to Perseus. "It would
frighten the birds, up aloft, if they should see a flying slipper
amongst them."
When Perseus had got on both of these wonderful slippers, he was
altogether too buoyant to tread on earth. Making a step or two, lo and
behold! upward he popt into the air, high above the heads of
Quicksilver and the Nymphs, and found it very difficult to clamber down
again. Winged slippers, and all such high-flying contrivances, are
seldom quite easy to manage, until one grows a little accustomed to
them. Quicksilver laughed at his companion's involuntary activity, and
told him that he must--not be in so desperate a hurry, but must wait
for the invisible helmet.
The good-natured Nymphs had the helmet, with its dark tuft of waving
plumes, all in readiness to put upon his head. And now there happened
about as wonderful an incident as anything that I have yet told you.
The instant before the helmet was put on, there stood Perseus, a
beautiful young man, with golden ringlets and rosy cheeks, the crooked
sword by his side, and the brightly polished shield upon his arm,--a
figure that seemed all made up of courage, sprightliness, and glorious
light. But when the helmet hid descended over his white brow there was
no longer any Perseus to be seen! Nothing but empty air! Even the
helmet that covered him with its invisibility, had vanished!
"Where are you, Perseus?" asked Quicksilver.
"Why, here, to be sure!" answered Perseus very quietly, although his
voice seemed to come out of the transparent atmosphere. "Just where I
was a moment ago. Don't you see me?"
"No, indeed!" answered his friend. "You are hidden under the helmet.
But if I cannot see you, neither can the Gorgons. Follow me therefore,
and we will try your dexterity in using the winged slippers."
With these words Quicksilver's cap spread its wings, as if his head
were about to fly away from his shoulders; but his whole figure rose
lightly into the air, and Perseus followed. By the time they had
ascended a few hundred feet, the young man began to feel what a
delightful thing it was to leave the dull earth so far beneath him, and
to be able to flit about like a bird.
It was now deep night. Perseus looked upward, and saw the round,
bright, silvery moon, and thought that he should desire nothing better
than to soar up thither, and spend his life there. Then he looked
downward again, and saw the earth, with its seas, and lakes, and the
silver courses of its rivers, and its snowy mountain peaks, and the
breadth of its fields, and the dark cluster of its woods, and its
cities of white marble; and, with the moonshine sleeping over the whole
scene, it was as beautiful as the moon or any star could be. And, among
other objects, he saw the island of Seriphus, where his dear mother
was. Sometimes, he and Quicksilver approached a cloud, that, at a
distance, looked as if it were made of fleecy silver; although, when
they plunged into it, they found themselves chilled and moistened with
gray mist. So swift was their flight, however, that, in an instant,
they emerged from the cloud into the moonlight again. Once, a high-
soaring eagle flew right against the invisible Perseus. The bravest
sights were the meteors, that gleamed suddenly out, as if a bonfire had
been kindled in the sky, and made the moonshine pale for as much as a
hundred miles around them.
As the two companions flew onward, Perseus fancied that he could hear
the rustle of a garment close by his side; and it was on the side
opposite to the one where he beheld Quicksilver, yet only Quicksilver
was visible.
"Whose garment is this," inquired Perseus, "that keeps rustling close
beside me, in the breeze?"
"Oh, it is my sister's!" answered Quicksilver. "She is coming along
with us, as I told you she would. We could do nothing without the help
of my sister. You have no idea how wise she is. She has such eyes, too!
Why, she can see you, at this moment, just as distinctly as if you were
not invisible; and I'll venture to say, she will be the first to
discover the Gorgons."
By this time, in their swift voyage through the air, they had come
within sight of the great ocean, and were soon flying over it. Far
beneath them, the waves tossed themselves tumultuously in midsea, or
rolled a white surf-line upon the long beaches, or foamed against the
rocky cliffs with a roar that was thunderous, in the lower world;
although it became a gentle murmur, like the voice of a baby half
asleep, before it reached the ears of Perseus. Just then a voice spoke
in the air close by him. It seemed to be a woman's voice, and was
melodious, though not exactly what might be called sweet, but grave and
mild.
"Perseus," said the voice, "there are the Gorgons."
"Where?" exclaimed Perseus. "I cannot see them."
"On the shore of that island beneath you," replied the voice. "A
pebble, dropped from your hand, would strike in the midst of them."
"I told you she would be the first to discover them," said Quicksilver
to Perseus. "And there they are!"
Straight downward, two or three thousand feet below him, Perseus
perceived a small island, with the sea breaking into white foam all
around its rocky shore, except on one side, where there was a beach of
snowy sand. He descended towards it, and, looking earnestly at a
cluster or heap of brightness, at the foot of a precipice of black
rocks, behold, there were the terrible Gorgons! They lay fast asleep,
soothed by the thunder of the sea; for it required a tumult that would
have deafened everybody else to lull such fierce creatures into
slumber. The moonlight glistened on their steely scales, and on their
golden wings, which drooped idly over the sand. Their brazen claws,
horrible to look at, were thrust out, and clutched the wave-beaten
fragments of rock, while the sleeping Gorgons dreamed of tearing some
poor mortal all to pieces. The snakes, that served them instead of
hair, seemed likewise to be asleep; although, now and then, one would
writhe, and lift its head, and thrust out its forked tongue, emitting a
drowsy hiss, and then let itself subside among its sister snakes.
The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of insect--immense,
golden-winged beetles, or dragon-flies, or things of that sort,--at
once ugly and beautiful,--than like anything else; only that they were
a thousand and a million times as big. And, with all this, there was
something partly human about them, too. Luckily for Perseus, their
faces were completely hidden from him by the posture in which they lay;
for, had he but looked one instant at them, he would have fallen
heavily out of the air, an image of senseless stone.
"Now," whispered Quicksilver as he hovered by the side of Perseus,--
"now is your time to do the deed! Be quick, for, if one of the Gorgons
should awake, you are too late."
"Which shall I strike at?" asked Perseus, drawing his sword and
descending a little lower. "They all three look alike. All three have
snaky locks. Which of the three is Medusa?"
It must be understood that Medusa was the only one of these dragon-
monsters whose head Perseus could possibly cut off. As for the other
two, let him have the sharpest sword that ever was forged, and he might
have hacked away by the hour together, without doing them the least
harm.
"Be cautious," said the calm voice which had before spoken to him. "One
of the Gorgons is stirring in her sleep, and is just about to turn
over. That is Medusa. Do not look at her. The sight would turn you to
stone. Look at the reflection of her face and figure in the bright
mirror of your shield."
Perseus now understood Quicksilver's motive for so earnestly exhorting
him to polish his shield. In its surface, he could safely look at the
reflection of the Gorgon's face. And there it was,--that terrible
countenance,--mirrored in the brightness of the shield, with the
moonlight falling over it, and displaying all its horror. The snakes,
whose venomous natures could not altogether sleep, kept twisting
themselves over the forehead. It was the fiercest and most horrible
face that ever was seen or imagined, and yet with a strange, fearful,
and savage kind of beauty in it. The eyes were closed, and the Gorgon
was still in a deep slumber; but there was an unquiet expression
disturbing her features, as if the monster was troubled with an ugly
dream. She gnashed her white tusks, and dug into the sand with her
brazen claws.
The snakes, too, seemed to feel Medusa's dream, and to be made more
restless by it. They twined themselves into tumultuous knots, writhed
fiercely, and uplifted a hundred hissing heads, without opening their
eyes.
"Now, now!" whispered Quicksilver, who was growing impatient. "Make a
dash at the monster!"
"But be calm," said the grave, melodious voice, at the young man's
side. "Look in your shield, as you fly downward, and take care that you
do not miss your first stroke."
Perseus flew cautiously downward, still keeping his eyes on Medusa's
face, as reflected in his shield. The nearer he came, the more terrible
did the snaky visage and metallic body of the monster grow. At last,
when he found himself hovering over her within arm's length, Perseus
uplifted his sword, while, at the same instant, each separate snake
upon the Gorgon's head stretched threateningly upward, and Medusa
unclosed her eyes. But she awoke too late. The sword was sharp; the
stroke fell like a lightning flash; and the head of the wicked Medusa
tumbled from her body!
"Admirably done!" cried Quicksilver. "Make haste, and clap the head
into your magic wallet."
To the astonishment of Perseus, the small, embroidered wallet, which he
had hung about his neck, and which had hitherto been no bigger than a
purse, grew all at once large enough to contain Medusa's head. As quick
as thought, he snatched it up, with the snakes still writhing upon it,
and thrust it in.
"Your task is done," said the calm voice. "Now fly; for the other
Gorgons will do their utmost to take vengeance for Medusa's death."
It was indeed necessary to take flight; for Perseus had not done the
deed so quietly but that the clash of his sword, and the hissing of the
snakes, and the thump of Medusa's head as it tumbled upon the sea-
beaten sand, awoke the other two monsters. There they sat, for an
instant, sleepily rubbing their eyes with their brazen fingers, while
all the snakes on their heads reared themselves on end with surprise,
and with venomous malice against they knew not what. But when the
Gorgons saw the scaly carcass of Medusa, headless, and her golden wings
all ruffled, and half spread out on the sand, it was really awful to
hear what yells and screeches they set up. And then the snakes! They
sent forth a hundred-fold hiss, with one consent, and Medusa's snakes
answered them, out of the magic wallet.
No sooner were the Gorgons broad awake, than they hurtled upward into
the air, brandishing their brass talons, gnashing their horrible tusks,
and flapping their huge wings so wildly, that some of the golden
feathers were shaken out, and floated down upon the shore. And there,
perhaps, those very feathers lie scattered, till this day. Up rose the
Gorgons, as I tell you, staring horribly about, in hopes of turning
somebody to stone. Had Perseus looked them in the face, or had he
fallen into their clutches, his poor mother would never have kissed her
boy again! But he took good care to turn his eyes another way; and, as
he wore the helmet of invisibility, the Gorgons knew not in what
direction to follow him; nor did he fail to make the best use of the
winged slippers, by soaring upward a perpendicular mile or so. At that
height, when the screams of those abominable creatures sounded faintly
beneath him, he made a straight course for the island of Seriphus, in
order to carry Medusa's head to King Polydectes.
I have no time to tell you of several marvelous things that befell
Perseus, on his way homeward; such as his killing a hideous sea-
monster, just as it was on the point of devouring a beautiful maiden;
nor how he changed an enormous giant into a mountain of stone, merely
by showing him the head of the Gorgon. If you doubt this latter story,
you may make a voyage to Africa, some day or other, and see the very
mountain, which is still known by the ancient giant's name.
Finally, our brave Perseus arrived at the island, where he expected to
see his dear mother. But, during his absence, the wicked king had
treated Danaë so very ill, that she was compelled to make her escape,
and had taken refuge in a temple, where some good old priests were
extremely kind to her. These praiseworthy priests, and the kind-hearted
fisherman, who had first shown hospitality to Danaë and little Perseus
when he found them afloat in the chest, seem to have been the only
persons on the island who cared about doing right. All the rest of the
people, as well as King Polydectes himself, were remarkably ill-behaved,
and deserved no better destiny than that which was now to happen.
Not finding his mother at home, Perseus went straight to the palace,
and was immediately ushered into the presence of the king. Polydectes
was by no means rejoiced to see him, for he had felt almost certain, in
his own evil mind, that the Gorgons would have torn the poor young man
to pieces, and have eaten him up, out of the way. However, seeing him
safely returned, he put the best face he could upon the matter and
asked Perseus how he had succeeded.
"Have you performed your promise?" inquired he. "Have you brought me
the head of Medusa with the snaky locks? If not, young man, it will
cost you dear; for I must have a bridal present for the beautiful
Princess Hippodamia, and there is nothing else that she would admire so
much."
"Yes, please your Majesty," answered Perseus, in a quiet way, as if it
were no very wonderful deed for such a young man as he to perform. "I
have brought you the Gorgon's head, snaky locks and all."
"Indeed! Pray let me see it," quoth King Polydectes. "It must be a very
curious spectacle, if all that travelers tell about it be true."
"Your Majesty is in the right," replied Perseus. "It is really an
object that will be pretty certain to fix the regards of all who look
at it. And, if your Majesty think fit, I would suggest that a holiday
be proclaimed, and that all your Majesty's subjects be summoned to
behold this wonderful curiosity. Few of them, I imagine, have seen a
Gorgon's head before, and perhaps never may again!"
The king well knew that his subjects were an idle set of reprobates,
and very fond of sight-seeing, as idle persons usually are. So he took
the young man's advice, and sent out heralds and messengers, in all
directions, to blow the trumpet at the street corners, and in the
market-places, and wherever two roads met, and summon everybody to
court. Thither, accordingly, came a great multitude of good-for-nothing
vagabonds, all of whom, out of pure love of mischief, would have been
glad if Perseus had met with some ill-hap, in his encounter with the
Gorgons. If there were any better people in the island (as I really
hope there may have been, although the story tells nothing about any
such), they stayed quietly at home, minding their own business, and
taking care of their little children. Most of the inhabitants, at all
events, ran as fast as they could to the palace, and shoved, and
pushed, and elbowed one another, in their eagerness to get near a
balcony, on which Perseus showed himself, holding the embroidered
wallet in his hand.
On a platform, within full view of the balcony, sat the mighty King
Polydectes, amid his evil counselors, and with his flattering courtiers
in a semicircle round about him. Monarch, counselors, courtiers, and
subjects, all gazed eagerly toward Perseus.
"Show us the head! Show us the head!" shouted the people; and there was
a fierceness in their cry, as if they would tear Perseus to pieces,
unless he should satisfy them with what he had to show. "Show us the
head of Medusa with the snaky locks!"
A feeling of sorrow and pity came over the youthful Perseus.
"O King Polydectes," cried he, "and ye many people, I am very loath to
show you the Gorgon's head."
"Ah, the villain and coward!" yelled the people, more fiercely than
before. "He is making game of us! He has no Gorgon's head! Show us the
head, if you have it, or we will take your own head for a football!"
The evil counselors whispered bad advice in the king's ear; the
courtiers murmured, with one consent, that Perseus had shown disrespect
to their royal lord and master; and the great King Polydectes himself
waved his hand and ordered him, with the stern, deep voice of
authority, on his peril, to produce the head.
"Show me the Gorgon's head, or I will cut off your own!"
And Perseus sighed.
"This instant," repeated Polydectes, "or you die!"
"Behold it, then!" cried Perseus, in a voice like the blast of a
trumpet.
And, suddenly holding up the head, not an eyelid had time to wink
before the wicked King Polydectes, his evil counselors, and all his
fierce subjects, were no longer anything but the mere images of a
monarch and his people. They were all fixed, forever, in the look and
attitude of that moment! At the first glimpse of the terrible head of
Medusa, they whitened into marble! And Perseus thrust the head back
into his wallet, and went to tell his dear mother that she need no
longer be afraid of the wicked King Polydectes.
THESEUS Charles Kingsley
PART I
HOW THESEUS LIFTED THE STONE
Once upon a time there was a princess in Troezene, Aithra, the
daughter of Pittheus the king. She had one fair son, named Theseus, the
bravest lad in all the land; and Aithra never smiled but when she
looked at him, for her husband had forgotten her, and lived far away.
And she used to go up to the mountain above Troezene, to the temple of
Poseidon, and sit there all day looking out across the bay, over
Methana, to the purple peaks of AEgina and the Attic shore beyond. And
when Theseus was full fifteen years old she took him up with her to the
temple, and into the thickets of the grove which grew in the temple
yard. And she led him to a tall plane tree, beneath whose shade grew
arbutus, and lentisk, and purple heather bushes. And there she sighed,
and said, "Theseus, my son, go into that thicket, and you will find at
the plane tree foot a great flat stone; lift it, and bring me what lies
underneath."
Then Theseus pushed his way in through the thick bushes, and saw that
they had not been moved for many a year. And searching among their
roots he found a great flat stone, all overgrown with ivy, and
acanthus, and moss. He tried to lift it, but he could not. And he tried
till the sweat ran down his brow from heat, and the tears from his eyes
for shame: but all was of no avail. And at last he came back to his
mother, and said, "I have found the stone, but I cannot lift it; nor do
I think that any man could in all Troezene."
Then she sighed, and said, "The gods wait long; but they are just at
last. Let it be for another year. The day may come when you will be a
stronger man than lives in all Troezene."
Then she took him by the hand, and went into the temple and prayed, and
came down again with Theseus to her home.
And when a full year was past, she led Theseus up again to the temple,
and bade him lift the stone: but he could not.
Then she sighed, and said the same words again, and went down, and came
again the next year; but Theseus could not lift the stone then, nor the
year after; and he wanted to ask his mother the meaning of that stone,
and what might lie underneath it; but her face was so sad that he had
not the heart to ask.
So he said to himself, "The day shall surely come when I will lift that
stone, though no man in Troezene can." And in order to grow strong he
spent all his days in wrestling, and boxing, and hurling, and taming
horses, and hunting the boar and the bull, and coursing goats and deer
among the rocks; till upon all the mountains there was no hunter so
swift as Theseus; and he killed Phaia the wild sow of Crommyon, which
wasted all the land; till all the people said, "Surely the Gods are
with the lad."
And when his eighteenth year was past, Aithra led him up again to the
temple, and said, "Theseus, lift the stone this day, or never know who
you are." And Theseus went into the thicket, and stood over the stone,
and tugged at it; and it moved. Then his spirit swelled within him, and
he said, "If I break my heart in my body, it shall up." And he tugged
at it once more, and lifted it, and rolled it over with a shout.
And when he looked beneath it, on the ground lay a sword of bronze,
with a hilt of glittering gold, and by it a pair of golden sandals; and
he caught them up, and burst through the bushes like a wild boar, and
leapt to his mother, holding them high above his head.
But when she saw them she wept long in silence, hiding her fair face in
her shawl: and Theseus stood by her wondering, and wept also, he knew
not why. And when she was tired of weeping, she lifted up her head, and
laid her finger on her lips, and said, "Hide them in your bosom,
Theseus my son, and come with me where we can look down upon the sea."
Then they went outside the sacred wall, and looked down over the bright
blue sea; and Aithra said,--
"Do you see this land at our feet?"
And he said, "Yes, this is Troezene, where I was born and bred."
And she said, "It is but a little land, barren and rocky, and looks
toward the bleak north-east. Do you see that land beyond?"
"Yes; that is Attica, where the Athenian people dwell."
"That is a fair land and large, Theseus my son; and it looks toward the
sunny south; a land of olive oil and honey, the joy of gods and men.
For the gods have girdled it with mountains, whose veins are of pure
silver, and their bones of marble white as snow; and there the hills
are sweet with thyme and basil, and the meadows with violet and
asphodel, and the nightingales sing all day in the thickets, by the
side of ever-flowing streams. There are twelve towns well peopled, the
homes of an ancient race, the children of Kecrops the serpent-king, the
son of Mother Earth, who wear gold cicalas among the tresses of their
golden hair; for like the cicalas they sprang from the earth, and like
the cicalas they sing all day, rejoicing in the genial sun. What would
you do, son Theseus, if you were king of such a land?"
Then Theseus stood astonished, as he looked across the broad bright
sea, and saw the fair Attic shore, from Sunium to Hymettus and
Pentelicus, and all the mountain peaks which girdle Athens round. But
Athens itself he could not see, for purple Ægina stood before it,
midway across the sea.
Then his heart grew great within him, and he said, "If I were king of
such a land I would rule it wisely and well in wisdom and in might,
that when I died all men might weep over my tomb, and cry, 'Alas for
the shepherd of his people!'"
And Aithra smiled, and said, "Take, then, the sword and the sandals,
and go to Ægeus, king of Athens, who lives on Pallas' hill; and say to
him, 'The stone is lifted, but whose is the pledge beneath it?' Then
show him the sword and the sandals, and take what the Gods shall send."
But Theseus wept, "Shall I leave you, O my mother?"
But she answered, "Weep not for me. That which is fated must be; and
grief is easy to those who do naught but grieve. Full of sorrow was my
youth, and full of sorrow my womanhood. Full of sorrow was my youth for
Bellerophon the slayer of the Chimæra, whom my father drove away by
treason; and full of sorrow my womanhood, for thy treacherous father
and for thee; and full of sorrow my old age will be (for I see my fate
in dreams), when the sons of the Swan shall carry me captive to the
hollow vale of Eurotas, till I sail across the seas a slave, the
handmaid of the pest of Greece. Yet shall I be avenged, when the
golden-haired heroes sail against Troy, and sack the palaces of Ilium;
then my son shall set me free from thralldom, and I shall hear the tale
of Theseus's fame. Yet beyond that I see new sorrows; but I can bear
them as I have borne the past."
Then she kissed Theseus, and wept over him; and went into the temple,
and Theseus saw her no more.
PART II
HOW THESEUS SLEW THE DEVOURERS OF MEN
So Theseus stood there alone, with his mind full of many hopes.
And first he thought of going down to the harbor and hiring a swift
ship, and sailing across the bay to Athens; but even that seemed too
slow for him, and he longed for wings to fly across the sea, and find
his father. But after a while his heart began to fail him; and he
sighed, and said within himself--
"What if my father has other sons about him whom he loves?
What if he will not receive me? And what have I done that he
should receive me? He has forgotten me ever since I was born: why
should he welcome me now?"
Then he thought a long while sadly; and at the last he cried
aloud, "Yes! I will make him love me; for I will prove myself
worthy of his love. I will win honor and renown, and do such
deeds that Ægeus shall be proud of me, though he had fifty other
sons! Did not Heracles win himself honor though he was opprest,
and the slave of Eurystheus? Did he not kill all robbers and evil
beasts, and drain great lakes and marshes, breaking the hills
through with his club? Therefore it was that all men honored
him, because he rid them of their miseries, and made life pleasant to
them and their children after them. Where can I go, to do as
Heracles has done? Where can I find strange adventures, robbers,
and monsters, and the children of hell, the enemies of men? I will
go by land, and into the mountains, and round by the way of the
Isthmus. Perhaps there I may hear of brave adventures, and do
something which shall win my father's love."
So he went by land, and away into the mountains, with his father's
sword upon his thigh, till he came to the Spider Mountains, which
hang over Epidaurus and the sea, where the glens run downward
from one peak in the midst, as the rays spread in the spider's
web.
And he went up into the gloomy glens, between the furrowed
marble walls, till the lowland grew blue beneath his feet, and the
clouds drove damp about his head.
But he went up and up forever, through the spider's web of glens,
till he could see the narrow gulfs spread below him, north and
south, and east and west; black cracks half-choked with mists, and
above all a dreary down.
But over that down he must go, for there was no road right or
left; so he toiled on through bog and brake, till he came to a
pile of stones.
And on the stones a man was sitting, wrapt in a bearskin cloak.
The head of the bear served him for a cap, and its teeth grinned
white around his brows; and the feet were tied about his throat, and
their claws shone white upon his chest. And when he saw Theseus
he rose, and laughed till the glens rattled.
"And who art thou, fair fly, who hast walked into the spider's
web?" But Theseus walked on steadily, and made no answer: but
he thought, "Is this some robber? and has an adventure come
already to me?" But the strange man laughed louder than ever,
and said,--
"Bold fly, know you not that these glens are the web from which
no fly ever finds his way out again, and this down the spider's house,
and I the spider who suck the flies? Come hither, and let me feast
upon you, for it is of no use to run away, so cunning a web has my
father Hephaistus spread for me, when he made these clefts in the
mountains, through which no man finds his way home."
But Theseus came on steadily, and asked,--
"And what is your name among men, bold spider? and where
are your spider's fangs?"
Then the strange man laughed again,--
"My name is Periphetes, the son of Hephaistus and Anticleia the
mountain nymph. But men call me Corynetes the club-bearer; and
here is my spider's fang."
And he lifted from off the stones at his side a mighty club of
bronze.
"This my father gave me, and forged it himself in the roots of the
mountain; and with it I pound all proud flies till they give out their
fatness and their sweetness. So give me up that gay sword of yours,
and your mantle, and your golden sandals, lest I pound you, and
by ill luck you die."
But Theseus wrapt his mantle round his left arm quickly in
hard folds, from his shoulder to his hand, and drew his sword, and
rushed upon the club-bearer, and the club-bearer rushed on him.
Thrice he struck at Theseus, and made him bend under the blows
like a sapling; but Theseus guarded his head with his left arm,
and the mantle which was wrapped around it.
And thrice Theseus sprang upright after the blow, like a sapling
when the storm is past; and he stabbed at the club-bearer with his
sword, but the loose folds of the bearskin saved him.
Then Theseus grew mad, and closed with him, and caught him by
the throat, and they fell and rolled over together; but when Theseus
rose up from the ground the club-bearer lay still at his feet.
Then Theseus took his club and his bearskin, and left him to the
kites and crows, and went upon his journey down the glens on the
further slope, till he came to a broad green valley, and saw flocks
and herds sleeping beneath the trees.
And by the side of a pleasant fountain, under the shade of rocks
and trees, were nymphs and shepherds dancing; but no one piped to
them while they danced.
And when they saw Theseus they shrieked; and the shepherds ran
off, and drove away their flocks; while the nymphs dived into the
fountain like coots, and vanished.
Theseus wondered and laughed: "What strange fancies have
folks here who run away from strangers, and have no music when
they dance!" But he was tired, and dusty, and thirsty; so he
thought no more of them, but drank and bathed in the clear pool,
and then lay down in the shade under a plane tree, while the
water sang him to sleep as it tinkled down from stone to stone.
And when he woke he heard a whispering, and saw the nymphs
peeping at him across the fountain from the dark mouth of a cave,
where they sat on green cushions of moss. And one said, "Surely
he is not Periphetes;" and another, "He looks like no robber, but
a fair and gentle youth."
Then Theseus smiled and called them: "Fair nymphs, I am not
Periphetes. He sleeps among the kites and crows: but I have
brought away his bearskin and his club."
Then they leapt across the pool, and came to him, and called the
shepherds back. And he told them how he had slain the club-bearer:
and the shepherds kissed his feet, and sang, "Now we shall
feed our flocks in peace, and not be afraid to have music when we
dance; for the cruel club-bearer has met his match, and he will
listen for our pipes no more."
Then they brought him kid's flesh and wine, and the nymphs
brought him honey from the rocks; and he ate, and drank, and slept
again, while the nymphs and shepherds danced and sang. And when
he woke, they begged him to stay; but he would not. "I have a
great work to do," he said; "I must be away toward the Isthmus,
that I may go to Athens."
But the shepherds said, "Will you go alone toward Athens?
None travel that way now, except in armed troops."
"As for arms, I have enough, as you see. And as for troops, an
honest man is good enough company for himself. Why should I not
go alone toward Athens?"
"If you do, you must look warily about you on the Isthmus,
lest you meet Sinis the robber, whom men call Pituocamptes the
pine-bender; for he bends down two pine trees, and binds all travelers
hand and foot between them; and when he lets the trees go
again, their bodies are torn in sunder."
"And after that," said another, "you must go inland, and not
dare to pass over the cliffs of Sciron; for on the left hand are the
mountains, and on the right the sea, so that you have no escape
but must needs meet Sciron the robber, who will make you wash
his feet; and while you are washing them he will kick you over
the cliff, to the tortoise who lives below, and feeds upon the bodies
of the dead."
And before Theseus could answer, another cried, "And after
that is a worse danger still, unless you go inland always, and leave
Eleusis far on your right. For in Eleusis rules Kerkuon the cruel
king, the terror of all mortals, who killed his own daughter Alope in
prison. But she was changed into a fair fountain; and her child
he cast out upon the mountains; but the wild mares gave it milk.
And now he challenges all comers to wrestle with him; for he is
the best wrestler in all Attica, and overthrows all who come; and
those whom he overthrows he murders miserably, and his palace-court
is full of their bones."
Then Theseus frowned, and said, "This seems indeed an ill-ruled
land, and adventures enough in it to be tried. But if I am the heir
of it, I will rule it and right it, and here is my royal scepter." And
he shook his club of bronze, while the nymphs and shepherds
clung round him, and entreated him not to go.
But on he went nevertheless, till he could see both the seas, and
the citadel of Corinth towering high above all the land. And he past
swiftly along the Isthmus, for his heart burned to meet that cruel
Sinis; and in a pine-wood at last he met him, where the Isthmus was
narrowest and the road ran between high rocks. There he sat, upon
a stone by the wayside, with a young fir tree for a club across his
knees, and a cord laid ready by his side; and over his head, upon
the fir tops, hung the bones of murdered men.
Then Theseus shouted to him, "Holla, thou valiant pine-bender,
hast thou two fir trees left for me?"
And Sinis leapt to his feet, and answered, pointing to the bones
above his head, "My larder has grown empty lately, so I have two
fir trees ready for thee." And he rushed on Theseus, lifting his
club, and Theseus rushed upon him.
Then they hammered together till the greenwoods rang; but the
metal was tougher than the pine; and Sinis' club broke right across,
as the bronze came down upon it. Then Theseus heaved up another
mighty stroke, and smote Sinis down upon his face; and knelt
upon his back, and bound him with his own cord, and said, "As
thou hast done to others, so shall it be done to thee." Then he
bent down two young fir trees, and bound Sinis between them, for
all his struggling and his prayers; and let them go, and ended
Sinis, and went on, leaving him to the hawks and crows.
Then he went over the hills toward Megara, keeping close along
the Saronic Sea, till he came to the cliffs of Sciron, and the narrow
path between the mountain and the sea.
And there he saw Sciron sitting by a fountain at the edge of the
cliff. On his knees was a mighty club; and he had barred the
path with stones, so that every one must stop who came up.
Then Theseus shouted to him, and said, "Holla, thou tortoise-feeder,
do thy feet need washing today?"
And Sciron leapt to his feet, and answered--
"My tortoise is empty and hungry, and my feet need washing
today." And he stood before his barrier, and lifted up his club
in both hands.
Then Theseus rushed upon him; and sore was the battle upon the
cliff; for when Sciron felt the weight of the bronze club, he dropt
his own, and closed with Theseus, and tried to hurl him by main
force over the cliff. But Theseus was a wary wrestler, and dropt his
own club, and caught him by the throat and by the knee, and forced
him back against the wall of stones, and crushed him up against
them, till his breath was almost gone. And Sciron cried panting,
"Loose me, and I will let thee pass." But Theseus answered,
"I must not pass till I have made the rough way smooth;" and
forced him back against the wall till it fell, and Sciron rolled
head over heels.
Then Theseus lifted him up all bruised, and said, "Come hither
and wash my feet." And he drew his sword, and sat down by the
well, and said, "Wash my feet, or I cut you piecemeal."
And Sciron washed his feet trembling; and when it was done,
Theseus rose and cried, "As thou hast done to others, so shall it be
done to thee. Go feed thy tortoise thyself;" and he kicked him
over the cliff into the sea.
And whether the tortoise ate him I know not; for some say that
earth and sea both disdained to take his body, so foul it was with
sin. So the sea cast it out upon the shore, and the shore cast it
back into the sea, and at last the waves hurled it high into the air,
in anger; and it hung there long without a grave, till it was changed
into a desolate rock, which stands there in the surge until this day.
This at least is true, which Pausanias tells, that in the royal porch
at Athens he saw the figure of Theseus modeled in clay, and by him
Sciron the robber, falling headlong into the sea.
Then he went a long day's journey, past Megara, into the Attic
land, and high before him rose the snow-peaks of Cithaeron, all
cold above the black pine woods, where haunt the Furies, and the
raving Bacchae, and the nymphs who drive men wild, far aloft upon
the dreary mountains, where the storms howl all day long. And
on his right hand was the sea always, and Salamis, with its island
cliffs, and the sacred strait of the sea-fight, where afterwards the
Persians fled before the Greeks. So he went all day, until the evening,
till he saw the Thriasian plain, and the sacred city of Eleusis,
where the Earth-mother's temple stands. For there she met Triptolemus,
when all the land lay waste, Demeter the kind Earth-mother,
and in her hands a sheaf of corn. And she taught him to
plow the fallows, and to yoke the lazy kine; and she taught him to
sow the seed-fields, and to reap the golden grain; and sent him
forth to teach all nations, and give corn to laboring men. So at
Eleusis all men honor her, whosoever tills the land; her and
Triptolemus her beloved, who gave corn to laboring men.
And he went along the plain into Eleusis, and stood in the
marketplace, and cried--
"Where is Kerkuon, the king of the city? I must wrestle a fall
with him today."
Then all the people crowded round him, and cried, "Fair youth,
why will you die? Hasten out of the city, before the cruel king
hears that a stranger is here."
But Theseus went up through the town, while the people wept and
prayed, and through the gates of the palace-yard, and through the
piles of bones and skulls, till he came to the door of Kerkuon's
hall, the terror of all mortal men.
And there he saw Kerkuon sitting at the table in the hall alone;
and before him was a whole sheep roasted, and beside him a whole
jar of wine. And Theseus stood and called him, "Holla, thou
valiant wrestler, wilt thou wrestle a fall today?"
And Kerkuon looked up and laughed, and answered, "I will
wrestle a fall today; but come in, for I am lonely and thou weary,
and eat and drink before thou die."
Then Theseus went up boldly, and sat down before Kerkuon at the
board: and he ate his fill of the sheep's flesh, and drank his
fill of the wine; and Theseus ate enough for three men, but Kerkuon
ate enough for seven.
But neither spoke a word to the other, though they looked across
the table by stealth; and each said in his heart, "He has broad
shoulders; but I trust mine are as broad as his."
At last, when the sheep was eaten and the jar of wine drained
dry, King Kerkuon rose, and cried, "Let us wrestle a fall before we
sleep."
So they tossed off all their garments, and went forth into the
palace-yard, and Kerkuon bade strew fresh sand in an open space
between the bones. And there the heroes stood face to face, while
their eyes glared like wild bulls'; and all the people crowded at the
gates, to see what would befall.
And there they stood and wrestled, till the stars shone out above
their heads; up and down and round, till the sand was stamped hard
beneath their feet. And their eyes flashed like stars in the darkness,
and their breath went up like smoke in the night air; but neither took
nor gave a footstep, and the people watched silent at the gates.
But at last Kerkuon grew angry, and caught Theseus round the
neck, and shook him as a mastiff shakes a rat; but he could not shake
him off his feet.
But Theseus was quick and wary, and clasped Kerkuon round the
waist, and slipped his loin quickly underneath him, while he caught
him by the wrist; and then he hove a mighty heave, a heave which
would have stirred an oak, and lifted Kerkuon, and pitched him,
right over his shoulder on the ground.
Then he leapt on him, and called, "Yield, or I kill thee!" but
Kerkuon said no word, for his heart was burst within him, with the
fall, and the meat, and the wine.
Then Theseus opened the gates, and called in all the people; and
they cried, "You have slain our evil king; be you now our king, and
rule us well."
"I will be your king in Eleusis, and I will rule you right and
well; for this cause I have slain all evil-doers, Sinis, and Sciron,
and this man last of all."
Then an aged man stepped forth, and said, "Young hero, hast
thou slain Sinis? Beware then of Ægeus, king of Athens, to whom
thou goest, for he is near of kin to Sinis."
"Then I have slain my own kinsman," said Theseus, "though well
he deserved to die. Who will purge me from his death, for rightfully
I slew him, unrighteous and accursed as he was?"
And the old man answered--
"That will the heroes do, the sons of Phytalus, who dwell beneath
the elm tree in Aphidnai, by the bank of silver Cephisus; for they
know the mysteries of the Gods. Thither you shall go and be purified,
and after you shall be our king."
So he took an oath of the people of Eleusis, that they would serve
him as their king, and went away next morning across the Thriasian
plain, and over the hills toward Aphidnai, that he might find the
sons of Phytalus.
And as he was skirting the Vale of Cephisus, along the foot of
lofty Parnes, a very tall and strong man came down to meet him,
dressed in rich garments. On his arms were golden bracelets, and
round his neck a collar of jewels; and he came forward, bowing
courteously, and held out both his hands, and spoke,--
"Welcome, fair youth, to these mountains; happy am I to have
met you! For what greater pleasure to a good man than to entertain
strangers? But I see that you are weary. Come up to my castle, and
rest yourself awhile."
"I give you thanks," said Theseus; "but I am in haste to go
up the valley, and to reach Aphidnai, in the Vale of Cephisus."
"Alas! you have wandered far from the right way, and you cannot
reach Aphidnai tonight; for there are many miles of mountain
between you and it, and steep passes, and cliffs dangerous after
nightfall. It is well for you that I met you; for my whole joy is to
find strangers, and to feast them at my castle, and hear tales from
them of foreign lands. Come up with me, and eat the best of venison,
and drink the rich red wine; and sleep upon my famous bed,
of which all travelers say that they never saw the like. For whatsoever
the stature of my guest, however tall or short, that bed fits
him to a hair, and he sleeps on it as he never slept before." And he
laid hold on Theseus's hands, and would, not let him go.
Theseus wished to go forwards, but he was ashamed to seem
churlish to so hospitable a man; and he was curious to see that
wondrous bed; and, besides, he was hungry and weary; yet he shrank
from the man, he knew not why; for though his voice was gentle
and fawning, it was dry and husky like a toad's; and though his
eyes were gentle, they were dull and cold like stones. But he
consented, and went with the man up a glen which led from the
road toward the peaks of Parnes, under the dark shadow of the
cliffs.
And as they went up, the glen grew narrower, and the cliffs higher
and darker, and beneath them a torrent roared, half seen between
bare limestone crags. And around them was neither tree nor bush,
while from the white peaks of Parnes the snow-blasts swept down
the glen, cutting and chilling, till a horror fell on Theseus as he
looked round at that doleful place. And he asked at last, "Your
castle stands, it seems, in a dreary region."
"Yes; but once within it, hospitality makes all things cheerful.
But who are these?" and he looked back, and Theseus also; and
far below along the road which they had left, came a string of laden
asses, and merchants walking by them, watching their ware.
"Ah, poor souls!" said the stranger. "Well for them that I
looked back and saw them! And well for me too, for I shall have
the more guests at my feast. Wait awhile till I go down and call
them, and we will eat and drink together the live-long night. Happy
am I, to whom Heaven sends so many guests at once!"
And he ran back down the hill, waving his hand and shouting to
the merchants, while Theseus went slowly up the steep pass.
But as he went up he met an aged man, who had been gathering
driftwood in the torrent-bed. He had laid down his fagot in the
road, and was trying to lift it again to his shoulder. And when he
saw Theseus, he called to him, and said--
"O fair youth, help me up with my burden, for my limbs are stiff
and weak with years."
Then Theseus lifted the burden on his back. And the old man
blest him, and then looked earnestly upon him, and said--
"Who are you, fair youth, and wherefore travel you this doleful
road?"
"Who I am my parents know: but I travel this doleful road because
I have been invited by a hospitable man, who promises to
feast me, and to make me sleep upon I know not what wondrous
bed."
Then the old man clapped his hands together, and cried,--
"O house of Hades, man-devouring! will thy maw never be full?
Know, fair youth, that you are going to torment and to death; for
he who met you (I will requite your kindness to another) is a robber
and a murderer of men. Whatsoever stranger he meets he entices
him hither to death; and as for this bed of which he speaks, truly it
fits all comers, yet none ever rose alive off it save me."
"Why?" asked Theseus, astonished.
"Because, if a man be too tall for it, he lops his limbs till they be
short enough, and if he be too short, he stretches his limbs till they
be long enough: but me only he spared, seven weary years agone;
for I alone of all fitted his bed exactly; so he spared me, and made
me his slave. And once I was a wealthy merchant, and dwelt in
brazen-gated Thebes; but now I hew wood and draw water for him,
the torment of all mortal men."
Then Theseus said nothing; but he ground his teeth together.
"Escape then," said the old man, "for he will have no pity on thy
youth. But yesterday he brought up hither a young man and a
maiden, and fitted them upon his bed: and the young man's hands
and feet he cut off; but the maiden's limbs he stretched until she
died, and so both perished miserably--but I am tired of weeping
over the slain. And therefore he is called Procrustes the stretcher,
though his father called him Damastes. Flee from him: yet whither
will you flee? The cliffs are steep, and who can climb them? and
there is no other road."
But Theseus laid his hand upon the old man's mouth, and said,
"There is no need to flee;" and he turned to go down the pass.
"Do not tell him that I have warned you, or he will kill me by
some evil death;" and the old man screamed after him down the
glen; but Theseus strode on in his wrath.
And he said to himself, "This is an ill-ruled land; when shall I
have done ridding it of monsters?" And as he spoke, Procrustes
came up the hill and all the merchants with him, smiling and talking
gayly. And when he saw Theseus, he cried, "Ah, fair young guest,
have I kept you too long waiting?"
But Theseus answered, "The man who stretches his guests upon
a bed and hews off their hands and feet, what shall be done to him,
when right is done throughout the land?"
Then Procrustes' countenance changed, and his cheeks grew as
green as a lizard, and he felt for his sword in haste; but Theseus
leapt on him, and cried--
"Is this true, my host, or is it false?" and he clasped Procrustes
round waist and elbow, so that he could not draw his sword.
"Is this true, my host, or is it false?" But Procrustes answered
never a word.
Then Theseus flung him from him, and lifted up his dreadful
club; and, before Procrustes could strike him, he had struck, and
felled him to the ground.
And once again he struck him; and his evil soul fled forth, and
went down to Hades squeaking, like a bat into the darkness of a
cave.
Then Theseus stript him of his gold ornaments, and went up to his
house, and found there great wealth and treasure, which he had
stolen from the passers-by. And he called the people of the country,
whom Procrustes had spoiled a long time, and parted the spoil
among them, and went down the mountains, and away.
And he went down the glens of Parnes, through mist, and cloud,
and rain, down the slopes of oak, and lentisk, and arbutus, and
fragrant bay, till he came to the Vale of Cephisus, and the pleasant
town of Aphidnai, and the home of the Phytalid heroes, where they
dwelt beneath a mighty elm.
And there they built an altar, and bade him bathe in Cephisus,
and offer a yearling ram, and purified him from the blood of Sinis,
and sent him away in peace.
And he went down the valley by Acharnai, and by the silver-swirling
stream, while all the people blessed him; for the fame of his prowess
had spread wide, till he saw the plain of Athens, and the hill where
Athené dwells.
So Theseus went up through Athens, and all the people ran out
to see him; for his fame had gone before him, and every one knew
of his mighty deeds. And all cried, "Here comes the hero who
slew Sinis, and Phaia the wild sow of Crommyon, and conquered
Kerkuon in wrestling, and slew Procrustes the pitiless." But Theseus
went on sadly and steadfastly, for his heart yearned after his
father; and he said, "How shall I deliver him from these leeches
who suck his blood?"
So he went up the holy stairs, and into the Acropolis, where
Ægeus' palace stood; and he went straight into Ægeus' hall, and
stood upon the threshold, and looked round.
And there he saw his cousins sitting about the table at the wine:
many a son of Pallas, but no Ægeus among them. There they sat
and feasted, and laughed, and passed the wine-cup round; while
harpers harped, and slave girls sang, and the tumblers showed their
tricks.
Loud laughed the sons of Pallas, and fast went the wine-cup round;
but Theseus frowned, and said under his breath, "No wonder that
the land is full of robbers, while such as these bear rule."
Then the Pallantids saw him, and called to him, half-drunk with
wine, "Holla, tall stranger at the door, what is your will today?"
"I come hither to ask for hospitality."
"Then take it, and welcome. You look like a hero and a bold
warrior; and we like such to drink with us."
"I ask no hospitality of you; I ask it of Ægeus the king, the master
of this house."
At that some growled, and some laughed, and shouted, "Heyday!
we are all masters here."
"Then I am master as much as the rest of you," said Theseus, and
he strode past the table up the hall, and looked around for Ægeus;
but he was nowhere to be seen.
The Pallantids looked at him, and then at each other; and each
whispered to the man next him, "This is a forward fellow; he
ought to be thrust out at the door." But each man's neighbor
whispered in return, "His shoulders are broad; will you rise and
put him out?" So they all sat still where they were.
Then Theseus called to the servants, and said, "Go tell King
Ægeus, your master, that Theseus of Troezene is here, and asks to be
his guest awhile."
A servant ran and told Ægeus, where he sat in his chamber within,
by Medeia the dark witch-woman, watching her eye and hand. And
when Ægeus heard of Troezene, he turned pale and red again, and
rose from his seat trembling, while Medeia watched him like a
snake.
"What is Troezene to you?" she asked. But he said hastily, "Do
you not know who this Theseus is? The hero who has cleared the
country from all monsters; but that he came from Troezene, I never
heard before. I must go out and welcome him."
So Ægeus came out into the hall; and when Theseus saw him, his
heart leapt into his mouth, and he longed to fall on his neck and
welcome him; but he controlled himself, and said, "My father may
not wish for me, after all. I will try him before I discover myself;"
and he bowed low before Ægeus, and said, "I have delivered the
king's realm from many monsters; therefore I am come to ask a
reward of the king."
And old Ægeus looked on him, and loved him, as what fond heart
would not have done? But he only sighed, and said,--
"It is little that I can give you, noble lad, and nothing that is
worthy of you; for surely you are no mortal man, or at least no
mortal's son."
"All that I ask," said Theseus, "is to eat and drink at your table."
"That I can give you," said Ægeus, "if at least I am master in
my own hall."
Then he bade them put a seat for Theseus, and set before him the
best of the feast; and Theseus sat and ate so much, that all the
company wondered at him: but always he kept his club by his
side.
But Medeia the dark witch-woman had been watching him all the
while. She saw how Ægeus turned red and pale, when the lad said
that he came from Troezene. She saw, too, how his heart was opened
toward Theseus; and how Theseus bore himself before all the sons
of Pallas, like a lion among a pack of curs. And she said to herself,
"This youth will be master here; perhaps he is nearer to
Ægeus already than mere fancy. At least the Pallantids will have
no chance by the side of such as he."
Then she went back into her chamber modestly, while Theseus ate
and drank; and all the servants whispered, "This, then, is the man
who killed the monsters! How noble are his looks, and how huge
his size. Ah, would that he were our master's son."
But presently Medeia came forth, decked in all her jewels, and
her rich Eastern robes, and looking more beautiful than the day;
so that all the guests could look at nothing else. And in her right
hand she held a golden cup, and in her left a flask of gold; and she
came up to Theseus, and spoke in a sweet, soft, winning voice,--
"Hail to the hero, the conqueror, the unconquered, the destroyer
of all evil things! Drink, hero, of my charmed cup, which gives
rest after every toil, which heals all wounds, and pours new life
into the veins. Drink of my cup, for in it sparkles the wine of the
East, and Nepenthe, the comfort of the Immortals."
And as she spoke, she poured the flask into the cup; and the
fragrance of the wine spread through the hall, like the scent of
thyme and roses.
And Theseus looked up in her fair face, and into her deep dark
eyes. And as he looked, he shrank and shuddered; for they were
dry like the eyes of a snake. And he rose and said, "The wine is
rich and fragrant, and the wine-bearer as fair as the Immortals; but
let her pledge me first herself in the cup, that the wine may be
the sweeter from her lips."
Then Medeia turned pale, and stammered, "Forgive me, fair
hero; but I am ill, and dare drink no wine."
And Theseus looked again into her eyes, and cried, "Thou shalt
pledge me in that cup, or die." And he lifted up his brazen club,
while all the guests looked on aghast.
Medeia shrieked a fearful shriek, and dashed the cup to the
ground, and fled; and where the wine flowed over the marble pavement
the stone bubbled, and crumbled, and hissed, under the fierce
venom of the draught.
But Medeia called her dragon chariot, and sprang into it and fled
aloft, away over land and sea; and no man saw her more.
And Ægeus cried, "What hast thou done?" But Theseus pointed
to the stone,--"I have rid the land of an enchantment: now I will
rid it of one more."
And he came close to Ægeus, and drew from his bosom the sword
and the sandals, and said the words which his mother bade him.
And Ægeus stepped back a pace, and looked at the lad till his
eyes grew dim; and then he cast himself on his neck, and wept;
and Theseus wept on his neck, till they had no strength left to
weep more.
Then Ægeus turned to all the people, and cried, "Behold my son,
children of Kecrops, a better man than his father was before him."
Who then were mad but the Pallantids, though they had been
mad enough before? And one shouted, "Shall we make room for
an upstart, a pretender, who comes from we know not where?"
And another, "If he be one, we are more than one; and the stronger
can hold his own." And one shouted one thing, and one another,
for they were hot and wild with wine; but all caught swords and
lances off the wall, where the weapons hung around, and sprang
forward to Theseus; and Theseus sprang forward to them.
And he cried, "Go in peace, if you will, my cousins; but if not,
your blood be on your own heads." But they rushed at him; and
then stopped short and railed him, as curs stop and bark when they
rouse a lion from his lair.
But one hurled a lance from the rear rank, which past close by
Theseus' head; and at that Theseus rushed forward, and the fight
began indeed. Twenty against one they fought, and yet Theseus
beat them all; and those who were left fled down into the town,
where the people set on them, and drove them out, till Theseus was
left alone in the palace, with Ægeus his new-found father. But
before nightfall all the town came up, with victims, and dances, and
songs; and they offered sacrifices to Athené, and rejoiced all the
night long, because their king had found a noble son, and an heir to
his royal house.
So Theseus stayed with his father all the winter; and when the
spring equinox drew near, all the Athenians grew sad and silent, and
Theseus saw it, and asked the reason; but no one would answer
him a word.
Then he went to his father, and asked him: but Ægeus turned
away his face and wept.
"Do not ask, my son, beforehand, about evils which must happen:
it is enough to have to face them when they come."
And when the spring equinox came, a herald came to Athens, and
stood in the market, and cried, "O people and King of Athens, where
is your yearly tribute?" Then a great lamentation arose throughout
the city. But Theseus stood up to the herald, and cried,--
"And who are you, dog-faced, who dare demand tribute here?
If I did not reverence your herald's staff, I would brain you with
this club."
And the herald answered proudly, for he was a grave and ancient
man,--
"Fair youth, I am not dog-faced or shameless; but I do my master's
bidding, Minos the King of hundred-citied Crete, the wisest
of all kings on earth. And you must be surely a stranger here, or
you would know why I come, and that I come by right."
"I am a stranger here. Tell me, then, why you come."
"To fetch the tribute which King Ægeus promised to Minos, and
confirmed his promise with an oath. For Minos conquered all this
land, and Megara which lies to the east, when he came hither with
a great fleet of ships, enraged about the murder of his son. For his
son Androgeos came hither to the Panathenaic games, and overcame
all the Greeks in the sports, so that the people honored him as
a hero. But when Ægeus saw his valor, he envied him, and feared
lest he should join the sons of Pallas, and take away the scepter from
him. So he plotted against his life, and slew him basely, no man
knows how or where. Some say that he waylaid him by noe, on
the road which goes to Thebes; and some that he sent him against
the bull of Marathon, that the beast might kill him. But Ægeus says
that the young men killed him from envy, because he had conquered
them in the games. So Minos came hither and avenged him, and
would not depart till this land had promised him tribute, seven
youths and seven maidens every year, who go with me in a black-sailed
ship, till they come to hundred-citied Crete."
And Theseus ground his teeth together, and said, "Wert thou not
a herald I would kill thee, for saying such things of my father;
but I will go to him, and know the truth." So he went to his father,
and asked him; but he turned away his head and wept, and said,
"Blood was shed in the land unjustly, and by blood it is avenged.
Break not my heart by questions; it is enough to endure in silence."
Then Theseus groaned inwardly, and said, "I will go myself
with these youths and maidens, and kill Minos upon his royal
throne."
And Ægeus shrieked, and cried, "You shall not go, my son, the
light of my old age, to whom alone I look to rule this people, after
I am dead and gone. You shall not go, to die horribly, as those
youths and maidens die; for Minos thrusts them into a labyrinth,
which Daidalos made for him among the rocks,--Daidalos the
renegade, the accursed, the pest of this his native land. From that
labyrinth no one can escape, entangled in its winding ways, before
they meet the Minotaur, the monster, who feeds upon the flesh of
men. There he devours them horribly, and they never see this land
again."
Then Theseus grew red, and his ears tingled, and his heart beat
loud in his bosom. And he stood awhile like a tall stone pillar on
the cliffs above some hero's grave; and at last he spoke,--
"Therefore all the more I will go with them, and slay the
accursed beast. Have I not slain all evil-doers and monsters, that
I might free this land? Where are Periphetes, and Sinis, and Kerkuon,
and Phaia the wild sow? Where are the fifty sons of Pallas?
And this Minotaur shall go on the road which they have gone; and
Minos himself, if he dare stay me."
"But how will you slay him, my son? For you must leave your
club and your armor behind, and be cast to the monster, defenseless
and naked like the rest."
And Theseus said: "Are there no stones in that labyrinth; and
have I not fists and teeth? Did I need my club to kill Kerkuon, the
terror of all mortal men?"
Then Ægeus clung to his knees, but he would not hear: and at last
he let him go, weeping bitterly, and said only this one word,--
"Promise me but this, if you return in peace, though that may
hardly be: take down the black sail of the ship (for I shall watch
for it all day upon the cliffs) and hoist instead a white sail, that
I may know afar off that you are safe."
And Theseus promised, and went out, and to the market-place
where the herald stood, while they drew lots for the youths and
maidens who were to sail in that doleful crew. And the people stood
wailing and weeping, as the lot fell on this one and on that; but
Theseus strode into the midst, and cried,--
"Here is a youth who needs no lot. I myself will be one of the
seven."
And the herald asked in wonder, "Fair youth, know you whither
you are going?"
And Theseus said, "I know. Let us go down to the black-sailed
ship."
So they went down to the black-sailed ship, seven maidens and
seven youths, and Theseus before them all, and the people following
them lamenting. But Theseus whispered to his companions,
"Have hope, for the monster is not immortal. Where are Periphetes,
and Sinis, and Sciron, and all whom I have slain?" Then
their hearts were comforted a little; but they wept as they went
on board, and the cliffs of Sunium rang, and all the isles of the
Ægean Sea, with the voice of their lamentation, as they sailed on
toward their deaths in Crete.
PART III
HOW THESEUS SLEW THE MINOTAUR
And at last they came to Crete, and to Cnossus, beneath the peaks
of Ida, and to the palace of Minos the great king, to whom Zeus
himself taught laws. So he was the wisest of all mortal kings,
and conquered all the Ægean isles; and his ships were as many
as the sea-gulls, and his palace like a marble hill. And he sat among
the pillars of the hall, upon his throne of beaten gold, and around
him stood the speaking statues which Daidalos had made by his
skill. For Daidalos was the most cunning of all Athenians, and he
first invented the plumb-line, and the auger, and glue, and many a
tool with which wood is wrought. And he first set up masts in
ships, and yards, and his son made sails for them: but Perdix his
nephew excelled him; for he first invented the saw and its teeth,
copying it from the back-bone of a fish; and invented, too, the
chisel, and the compasses, and the potter's wheel which molds the
clay. Therefore Daidalos envied him, and hurled him headlong
from the temple of Athené; but the Goddess pitied him (for she loves
the wise) and changed him into a partridge, which flits forever about
the hills. And Daidalos fled to Crete, to Minos, and worked for
him many a year, till he did a shameful deed, at which the sun hid
his face on high.
Then he fled from the anger of Minos,--he and Icarus, his son,
having made themselves wings of feathers, and fixed the feathers
with wax. So they flew over the sea toward Sicily; but Icarus flew
too near the sun; and the wax of his wings was melted, and he fell
into the Icarian Sea. But Daidalos came safe to Sicily, and there
wrought many a wondrous work: for he made for King Cocalus a
reservoir, from which a great river watered all the land, and a castle
and a treasury on a mountain, which the giants themselves could not
have stormed; and in Selinos he took the steam which comes up from
the fires of AEtna and made of it a warm bath of vapor, to cure the
pains of mortal men; and he made a honeycomb of gold, in which
the bees came and stored their honey; and in Egypt he made the
fore-court of the temple of Hephaistus, in Memphis, and a statue of
himself within it, and many another wondrous work. And for Minos
he made statues which spoke and moved, and the temple of Britomartis,
and the dancing-hall of Ariadne, which he carved of fair
white stone. And in Sardinia he worked for Iölaos; and in many
a land beside, wandering up and down forever with his cunning,
unlovely and accursed by men.
But Theseus stood before Minos, and they looked each other in
the face. And Minos bade take them to prison, and cast them to the
monster one by one, that the death of Androgeos might be avenged.
Then Theseus cried--
"A boon, O Minos! Let me be thrown first to the beast. For
I came hither for that very purpose, of my own will, and not by lot."
"Who art thou, then, brave youth?"
"I am the son of him whom of all men thou hatest most, Ægeus
the king of Athens, and I am come here to end this matter."
And Minos pondered awhile, looking steadfastly at him, and he
thought, "The lad means to atone by his own death for his father's
sin;" and he answered at last mildly--
"Go back in peace, my son. It is a pity that one so brave should
die."
But Theseus said, "I have sworn that I will not go back till I
have seen the monster face to face."
And at that Minos frowned, and said, "Then thou shalt see
him; take the madman away."
And they led Theseus away into the prison, with the other youths
and maids.
But Ariadne, Minos's daughter, saw him, as she came out of her
white stone hall; and she loved him for his courage and his majesty,
and said, "Shame that such a youth should die!" And by night
she went down to the prison, and told him all her heart, and said,--
"Flee down to your ship at once, for I have bribed the guards
before the door. Flee, you and all your friends, and go back in
peace to Greece; and take me, take me with you! for I dare not stay
after you are gone; for my father will kill me miserably, if he
knows what I have done."
And Theseus stood silent awhile; for he was astonished and confounded
by her beauty: but at last he said, "I cannot go home in
peace, till I have seen and slain this Minotaur, and avenged the
deaths of the youths and maidens, and put an end to the terrors of
my land."
"And will you kill the Minotaur? How, then?"
"I know not, nor do I care: but he must be strong if he be too
strong for me."
Then she loved him all the more, and said, "But when you have
killed him, how will you find your way out of the labyrinth?"
"I know not, neither do I care: but it must be a strange road,
if I do not find it out before I have eaten up the monster's carcase."
Then she loved him all the more, and said,--
"Fair youth, you are too bold; but I can help you, weak as I am.
I will give you a sword, and with that, perhaps, you may slay the
beast; and a clue of thread, and by that, perhaps, you may find your
way out again. Only promise me, that if you escape safe, you will
take me home with you to Greece; for my father will surely kill me,
if he knows what I have done."
Then Theseus laughed, and said, "Am I not safe enough now?"
And he hid the sword in his bosom, and rolled up the clue in his
hand; and then he swore to Ariadne, and fell down before her,
and kissed her hands and her feet; and she wept over him a long
while, and then went away; and Theseus lay down and slept sweetly.
And when the evening came, the guards came in and led him away
to the labyrinth.
And he went down into that doleful gulf, through winding paths
among the rocks, under caverns, and arches, and galleries, and over
heaps of fallen stone. And he turned on the left hand, and on the
right hand, and went up and down till his head was dizzy; but all the
while he held his clue. For when he went in he had fastened it to
a stone, and left it to unroll out of his hand as he went on; and it
lasted him till he met the Minotaur, in a narrow chasm between
black cliffs.
And when he saw him he stopped awhile, for he had never seen
so strange a beast. His body was a man's: but his head was the head
of a bull; and his teeth were the teeth of a lion, and with them he tore
his prey. And when he saw Theseus he roared, and put his head
down, and rushed right at him.
But Theseus stept aside nimbly, and as he passed by, cut him in
the knee; and ere he could turn in the narrow path, he followed
him, and stabbed him again and again from behind, till the monster
fled bellowing wildly; for he never before had felt a wound. And
Theseus followed him at full speed, holding the clue of thread in his
left hand.
Then on, through cavern after cavern, under dark ribs of sounding
stone, and up rough glens and torrent-beds, among the sunless roots
of Ida, and to the edge of the eternal snow, went they, the hunter and
hunted, while the hills bellowed to the monster's bellow.
And at last Theseus came up with him, where he lay panting on
a slab among the snow, and caught him by the horns, and forced
his head back, and drove the keen sword through his throat.
Then he turned, and went back limping and weary, feeling his
way down by the clue of thread, till he came to the mouth of that
doleful place; and saw waiting for him, whom but Ariadne!
And he whispered, "It is done!" and showed her the sword; and
she laid her finger on her lips, and led him to the prison, and opened
the doors, and set all the prisoners free, while the guards lay sleeping
heavily; for she had silenced them with wine.
Then they fled to their ship together, and leapt on board, and
hoisted up the sail; and the night lay dark around them, so that
they past through Minos's ships, and escaped all safe to Naxos; and
there Ariadne became Theseus's wife.
PART IV
HOW THESEUS FELL BY HIS PRIDE
But that fair Ariadne never came to Athens with her husband. Some say
that Theseus left her sleeping on Naxos among the Cyclades; and that
Dionusos the wine-king found her, and took her up into the sky, as you
shall see some day in a painting of old Titian's, one of the most
glorious pictures upon earth. And some say that Dionusos drove away
Theseus, and took Ariadne from him by force: but however that may be,
in his haste or in his grief, Theseus forgot to put up the white sail.
Now Ægeus his father sat and watched on Sunium day after day, and
strained his old eyes across the sea to see the ship afar. And when he
saw the black sail, and not the white one, he gave up Theseus for dead,
and in his grief he fell into the sea, and died; so it is called the
Ægean to this day.
And now Theseus was king of Athens, and he guarded it and ruled it well.
For he killed the bull of Marathon, which had killed Androgeos, Minos's
son; and he drove back the famous Amazons, the warlike women of the East,
when they came from Asia, and conquered all Hellas, and broke into Athens
itself. But Theseus stopped them there, and conquered them, and took
Hippolyte their queen to be his wife. Then he went out to fight against
the Lapithai, and Peirithoos their famous king: but when the two heroes
came face to face they loved each other, and embraced, and became noble
friends; so that the friendship of Theseus and Peirithoos is a proverb
even now. And he gathered (so the Athenians say) all the boroughs of the
land together, and knit them into one strong people, while before they
were all parted and weak: and many another wise thing he did, so that
his people honored him after he was dead, for many a hundred years, as
the father of their freedom and their laws. And six hundred years after
his death, in the famous fight at Marathon, men said that they saw the
ghost of Theseus, with his mighty brazen club, fighting in the van of
battle against the invading Persians, for the country which he loved.
And twenty years after Marathon, his bones (they say) were found in
Scuros, an isle beyond the sea; and they were bigger than the bones of
mortal man So the Athenians brought them home in triumph; and all the
people came out to welcome them; and they built over them a noble
temple, and adorned it with sculptures and paintings; in which were
told all the noble deeds of Theseus, and the Centaurs, and the Lapithai
and the Amazons; and the ruins of it are standing still.
But why did they find his bones in Scuros? Why did he not die in peace
at Athens, and sleep by his father's side? Because, after his triumph he
grew proud, and broke the laws of God and man. And one thing worst of
all he did, which brought him to his grave with sorrow. For he went down
(they say beneath the earth) with that bold Peirithoos his friend, to
help him to carry off Persephone, the queen of the world below. But
Peirithoos was killed miserably, in the dark fire-kingdoms underground;
and Theseus was chained to a rock in everlasting pain. And there he sat
for years, till Heracles the mighty came down to bring up the three-
headed dog who sits at Pluto's gate. So Heracles loosed him from his
chain, and brought him up to the light once more.
But when he came back his people had forgotten him, and Castor and
Poludeuces, the sons of the wondrous Swan, had invaded his land, and
carried off his mother Aithra for a slave, in revenge for a grievous
wrong.
So the fair land of Athens was wasted, and another king ruled it, who
drove out Theseus shamefully, and he fled across the sea to Scuros. And
there he lived in sadness, in the house of Lucomedes the king, till
Lucomedes killed him by treachery, and there was an end of all his
labors.
So it is still, my children, and so it will be to the end. In those old
Greeks, and in us also, all strength and virtue come from God. But if
men grow proud and self-willed, and misuse God's fair gifts, He lets
them go their own ways, and fall pitifully, that the glory may be His
alone. God help us all, and give us wisdom, and courage to do noble
deeds! but God keep pride from us when we have done them, lest we fall,
and come to shame!
Germanic
THOR GOES A-FISHING
Hamilton Wright Mabie
Midway between Niflheim and Muspelheim lay Midgard, the home
of men, its round disk everywhere encircled by the ocean, which perpetually
rushed upon it, gently in still summer afternoons, but with
a terrible uproar in winter. Ages ago, when the Midgard-serpent
had grown so vast that even the gods were afraid of him, Odin cast
him into the sea, and he lay flat at the bottom of the ocean, grown
to such monstrous size that his scaly length encircled the whole
world. Holding the end of his tail in his mouth, he sometimes lay
motionless for weeks at a time, and looking across the water no one
would have dreamed that such a monster was asleep in its depths.
But when the Midgard-serpent was aroused his wrath was terrible
to behold. He lashed the ocean into great sheets of foam, he piled
the waves mountain high, he dashed the spray into the very heavens,
and woe to the galleys that were sailing homeward.
It happened once that the gods were feasting with Æger, the
sea-god, and the ale gave out, and Æger had no kettle in which to
brew a new supply.
"Thor," said. Æger, after he had thought a moment, "will you
get me a kettle?"
Thor was always ready for any hard or dangerous thing.
"Of course I will," was his quick reply, "only tell me where
to get one."
That, however, was no easy thing to do. Kettles big enough to
brew ale for Asgard were not to be picked up at a moment's notice.
Everybody wanted more ale, but nobody could tell Thor where to
find a kettle, until Tyr, the god of courage, spoke up: "East of
the river Elivagar lives my father, Hymer, who has a kettle mar-velously
strong and one mile deep."
That was large enough even for the gods.
"Do you think we can get it?" asked Thor, who always wanted
to succeed in his undertakings.
"If we cannot get it by force, we can by stratagem," answered
Tyr, and they started off at once, Thor taking the disguise of a
young man. The goats drew them swiftly to Egil, with whom Thor
left them while he and Tyr pushed on to finish the journey afoot.
It was rough and perilous traveling, but they reached Hymer's hall
without accident, and there Tyr found his grandmother, a frightfully
ugly giantess, and his mother, a wonderfully beautiful woman, with
fair hair, and a face so radiant that the sun seemed to be always
shining upon it. The latter advised them to hide under the great
kettles in the hall, because when Hymer came home in bad temper
he was sometimes cruel to strangers.
Late in the evening Hymer came home from his fishing. A cold
wind swept through the hall as he entered, his eyes were piercing
as the stars on a winter's night, and his beard was white with frost.
"I welcome you home," said Tyr's beautiful mother; "our son,
for whom we have been looking so long, has come home, bringing
with him the enemy of giants and the protector of Asgard. See how
they hide themselves behind that pillar yonder."
She pointed to a pillar at the farther end of the hall. Hymer
turned, and looked at it with his piercing, icy glance, and in an
instant it snapped into a thousand pieces; the beam overhead broke,
and eight kettles fell with a crash on the stone floor. Only one out
of the eight remained unbroken, and from it Thor and Tyr came
forth. Hymer was not glad to see Thor standing there under his
own roof, but he could not turn him out, so he made the best of it
and ordered three oxen to be served for supper. Thor had traveled
a long distance and was very hungry, and ate two of the oxen before
he was satisfied.
"If you eat like that," said Hymer, "we will have to live on fish
tomorrow."
Early the next morning, before the sun was up, Thor heard Hymer
getting ready for a day of fishing. He dressed himself quickly and
went out to the giant. "Good morning, Hymer," he said pleasantly.
"I am fond of fishing; let me row out to sea with you."
"Oho," answered the giant scornfully, not at all pleased with the
idea of having his powerful enemy in the boat with him, "such a
puny young fellow can be of no use to me, and if I go as far out to
sea as I generally do, and stay as long, you will catch a cold that
will be the death of you."
Thor was so angry at this insult that he wanted to let his hammer
ring on the giant's head, but he wisely kept his temper.
"I will row as far from the land as you care to go," was his
answer, "and it is by no means certain that I shall be the first to
want to put in again. What do you bait with?"
"Find a bait for yourself," was the giant's surly reply.
Thor ran up to a herd of Hymer's cattle, seized the largest bull,
wrung off its head without any trouble, and put it in the boat. Then
they both pushed off and were soon rowing seaward. Hymer could
pull a strong oar, but he had never seen such a stroke as Thor's
before. The boat fairly trembled under the force of it. In a few
moments they reached Hymer's fishing-ground, and he called out
to Thor to stop.
"Oh, no, not yet," said Thor, bending steadily over his oars; "we
must go a good distance beyond this."
Thor pulled with such tremendous power that they were soon far
out to sea, and Hymer began to be frightened. "If you don't stop,"
he called out, "we shall be over the Midgard-serpent."
Thor paid no attention, but rowed on until they were far out of
sight of land and about where he thought the great snake was coiled
in the bottom of the sea; then he laid down the oars, as fresh and
strong apparently as when he got into the boat. It was the strangest
fishing party the world ever saw, and the most wonderful fishing.
No sooner had Hymer's bait touched the water than it was seized
by two whales. Thor smiled quietly at the giant's luck, took out
a fishing-line, made with wonderful skill, and so strong that it
could not be broken, fastened the bull's head upon the hook and cast
it into the sea. The Midgard-serpent instantly seized it, and in a
second the hook was fast in its palate. Then came a furious struggle
between the strong god and the terrible monster which was the dread
of the whole earth.
Stung by the pain, the serpent writhed and pulled so hard that
Thor had to brace himself against the side of the boat. When he
found that the snake had taken his hook his wrath rose, and his
divine strength came upon him. He pulled the line with such
tremendous force that his feet went straight through the bottom of
the boat, and he stood on the bed of the ocean while he drew the
snake up to the side of the boat. The monster, convulsed with pain,
reared its terrible head out of the water, its glittering eyes
flashing, its whole vast body writhing and churning the ocean into a
whirlpool of eddying foam. Thor's eyes blazed with wrath, and he
held the serpent in a grasp like a vise. The uproar was like a
terrible storm, and the boat, the fishers, and the snake were hidden
by columns of foam that rose in the air. No one can tell what the end
would have been if Hymer, trembling with fright and seeing the
boat about to sink, had not sprung forward and cut the line just as
Thor was raising his hammer to crush the serpent's head. The
snake sank at once to the bottom of the sea, and Thor, turning upon
the giant, struck him such a blow under the ear that he fell headlong
into the water. The giant got back to the boat, however, and
they rowed to land, taking the two whales with them.
When they reached shore Thor was still filled with rage at the
meddlesome giant, because he had lost him the serpent, but he
quietly picked up the boat and carried it home, Hymer taking the
whales. Once more under his own roof, the giant's courage returned,
and he challenged Thor to show his strength by breaking
his drinking-cup. Thor sat down and, taking the cup, hurled it
against a pillar. It flew through the air, crashed against the stone,
bounded back, and was picked up as whole and perfect as when it
came into Thor's hands. He was puzzled, but Tyr's beautiful
fair-haired mother whispered to him, "Throw it at Hymer's forehead;
it is harder than any drinking-cup."
Thor drew in all his godlike strength and dashed the cup with a
terrific effort at Hymer. The forehead was unharmed, but the cup
was scattered in a thousand pieces over the floor. Hymer had lost a
great treasure by the experiment, but he only said, "That drink was
too hot. Perhaps you will take the kettle off now," he added with
a sneer.
Tyr immediately laid hands on the kettle, but he could not move
it an inch. Then Thor took the great pot in his hands and drew
it up with such a mighty effort that his feet went through the
stone floor of the hall, but he lifted it and, placing it on his head
like a mighty helmet, walked off, the rings of the kettle clanging
about his feet. The two gods walked swiftly away from the hall
where so many troubles and labors had awaited them, and it was
a long time before Thor turned to look back. When he did, it
was not a moment too soon, for Hymer was close behind, with a
multitude of many-headed giants, in hot pursuit.
In one minute Thor had lifted the kettle off his head and put it
on the ground, in another he was swinging the hammer among the
giants, and in another, when the lightnings had gone out and the
thunder had died in awful echoes among the hills, Tyr and Thor
were alone on the field.
They went on to Egil, mounted the chariot and drove the goats
swiftly on to Æger's, where the gods were impatiently waiting for
the kettle. There was straightway a mighty brewing of ale, Thor
told the story of his adventures in search of the kettle, and the feast
went merrily on.
BALDUR
Annie and Eliza Keary
PART I
THE DREAM
Upon a summer's afternoon it happened that Baldur the Bright
and Bold, beloved of men and Æsir, found himself alone in his
palace of Broadblink. Thor was walking low down among the
valleys, his brow heavy with summer heat; Frey and Gerda sported
on still waters in their cloud-leaf ship; Odin, for once, slept on the
top of Air Throne; a noonday stillness pervaded the whole earth;
and Baldur in Broadblink, the wide-glancing, most sunlit of palaces,
dreamed a dream.
The dream of Baldur was troubled. He knew not whence nor
why; but when he awoke he found that a new and weighty care was
within him. It was so heavy that Baldur could scarcely carry it,
and yet he pressed it closely to his heart and said, "Lie there, and
do not fall on any one but me." Then he rose up and walked out
from the splendor of his hall, that he might seek his own mother,
Frigga, and tell her what had happened to him. He found her in
her crystal saloon, calm and kind, waiting to listen, and ready to
sympathize; so he walked up to her, his hands pressed closely on
his heart, and lay down at her feet, sighing.
"What is the matter, dear Baldur?" asked Frigga, gently.
"I do not know, mother," answered he. "I do not know what
the matter is; but I have a shadow in my heart."
"Take it out, then, my son, and let me look at it," replied Frigga.
"But I fear, mother, that if I do it will cover the whole earth."
Then Frigga laid her hand upon the heart of her son that she
might feel the shadow's shape. Her brow became clouded as she
felt it; her parted lips grew pale, and she cried out, "Oh! Baldur,
my beloved son! the shadow is the shadow of death!"
Then said Baldur, "I will die bravely, my mother."
But Frigga answered, "You shall not die at all; for I will not
sleep tonight until everything on earth has sworn to me that it will
neither kill nor harm you."
So Frigga stood up, and called to her everything on earth that had
power to hurt or slay. First she called all metals to her; and heavy
iron-ore came lumbering up the hill into the crystal hall, brass and
gold, copper, silver, lead, and steel, and stood before the Queen,
who lifted her right hand high in the air, saying, "Swear to me
that you will not injure Baldur"; and they all swore, and went.
Then she called to her all stones; and huge granite came, with
crumbling sandstones and white lime, and the round, smooth stones
of the seashore, and Frigga raised her arm, saying, "Swear that
you will not injure Baldur"; and they swore, and went. Then
Frigga called to her the trees; and wide-spreading oak trees, with
tall ash and somber firs, came rushing up the hill, and Frigga raised
her hand, and said, "Swear that you will not hurt Baldur"; and
they said, "We swear," and went. After this Frigga called to her
the diseases, who came blown by poisonous winds on wings of pain,
and to the sound of moaning. Frigga said to them, "Swear"; and
they sighed, "We swear," then flew away. Then Frigga called to
her all beasts, birds, and venomous snakes, who came to her and
swore, and disappeared. After this she stretched out her hand to
Baldur, whilst a smile spread over her face, saying, "And now, my
son, you cannot die."
But just then Odin came in, and when he had heard from Frigga
the whole story, he looked even more mournful than she had done;
neither did the cloud pass from his face when he was told of the
oaths that had been taken.
"Why do you still look so grave, my lord?" demanded Frigga
at last. "Baldur cannot now die."
But Odin asked very gravely, "Is the shadow gone out of our
son's heart, or is it still there?"
"It cannot be there," said Frigga, turning away her head resolutely,
and folding her hands before her.
But Odin looked at Baldur, and saw how it was, the hands
pressed to the heavy heart, the beautiful brow grown dim. Then
immediately he rose, saddled Sleipnir, his eight-footed steed,
mounted him, and, turning to Frigga said, "I know of a dead Vala,
Frigga, who, when she was alive, could tell what was going to
happen; her grave lies on the east side of Helheim, and I am going
there to awake her, and ask whether any terrible grief is really
coming upon us."
So saying, Odin shook the bridle in his hand, and the Eight-footed,
with a bound, leaped forth, rushed like a whirlwind down the mountain
of Asgard, and then dashed into a narrow defile between rocks.
Sleipnir went on through the defile a long way, until he came
to a place where the earth opened her mouth. There Odin rode in
and down a broad, steep, slanting road which led him to the cavern
Gnipa, and the mouth of the cavern Gnipa yawned upon Niflheim.
Then thought Odin to himself, "My journey is already done."
But just as Sleipnir was about to leap through the jaws of the pit,
Garm, the voracious dog who was chained to the rock, sprang forward,
and tried to fasten himself upon Odin. Three times Odin
shook him off, and still Garm, as fierce as ever, went on with the
fight. At last Sleipnir leaped, and Odin thrust just at the same
moment; then horse and rider cleared the entrance, and turned
eastward towards the dead Vala's grave, dripping blood along the
road as they went; while the beaten Garm stood baying in the
cavern's mouth.
When Odin came to the grave he got off his horse, and stood with
his face northward, looking through barred inclosures into the city
of Helheim itself. The servants of Hela were very busy there making
preparations for some new guest--hanging gilded couches with
curtains of anguish and splendid misery upon the walls. Then
Odin's heart died within him, and he began to repeat mournful runes
in a low tone to himself.
The dead Vala turned heavily in her grave at the sound of his voice,
and, as he went on, sat bolt upright. "What man is this," she asked,
"who dares disturb my sleep?"
Then Odin, for the first time in his life, said what was not true;
the shadow of Baldur dead fell upon his lips, and he made answer,
"My name is Vegtam, the son of Valtam."
"And what do you want from me?" asked the Vala.
"I want to know," replied Odin, "for whom Hela is making ready that
gilded couch in Helheim?"
"That is for Baldur the Beloved," answered the dead Vala.
"Now go away and let me sleep again, for my eyes are heavy."
But Odin said: "Only one word more. Is Baldur going to Helheim?"
"Yes, I've told you that he is," answered the Vala.
"Will he never come back to Asgard again?"
"If everything on earth should weep for him," answered she,
"he will go back; if not, he will remain in Helheim."
Then Odin covered his face with his hands and looked into
darkness.
"Do go away," said the Vala, "I'm so sleepy; I cannot keep my
eyes open any longer."
But Odin raised his head and said again: "Only tell me this one
thing. Just now, as I looked into darkness, it seemed to me as if
I saw one on earth who would not weep for Baldur. Who was it?"
At this the Vala grew very angry and said: "How couldst thou
see in darkness? I know of only one who, by giving away his eye,
gained light. No Vegtam art thou, but Odin, chief of men."
At her angry words Odin became angry, too, and called out as
loudly as ever he could, "No Vala art thou, nor wise woman, but
rather the mother of three giants!"
"Go, go!" answered the Vala, falling back in her grave; "no
man shall waken me again until Loki have burst his chains and
Ragnarok be come." After this Odin mounted the Eight-footed
once more and rode thoughtfully towards home.
PART II
THE PEACESTEAD
When Odin came back to Asgard, Hermod took the bridle from
his father's hand and told him that the rest of the Aesir were gone
to the Peacestead--a broad, green plain which lay just outside
the city. This was the playground of the Aesir, where they practiced
trials of skill one with another, and held tournaments and
sham fights. These last were always conducted in the gentlest and
most honorable manner; for the strongest law of the Peacestead was,
that no angry blow should be struck, or spiteful word spoken,
upon the sacred field; and for this reason some have thought it
might be well if children also had a Peacestead to play in.
Odin was too much tired by his journey from Helheim to go to
the Peacestead that afternoon; so he turned away and shut himself
up in his palace of Gladsheim. But when he was gone, Loki came
into the city by another way, and hearing from Hermod where the
Aesir were, set off to join them.
When he got to the Peacestead, Loki found that the Aesir were
standing round in a circle shooting at something, and he peeped
between the shoulders of two of them to find out what it was. To
his surprise he saw Baldur standing in the midst, erect and calm,
whilst his friends and brothers were aiming their weapons at him.
Some hewed at him with their swords,--others threw stones at him,
--some shot arrows pointed with steel, and Thor continually swung
Miolnir at his head. "Well," said Loki to himself, "if this is the
sport of Asgard, what must that of Jotunheim be? I wonder what
Father Odin and Mother Frigga would say if they were here?"
But as Loki still looked, he became even more surprised, for the
sport went on, and Baldur was not hurt. Arrows aimed at his very
heart glanced back again untinged with blood. The stones fell
down from his broad, bright brow, and left no bruises there.
Swords clave, but did not wound him; Miölnir struck him, and he
was not crushed. At this Loki grew perfectly furious with envy and
hatred. "And why is Baldur to be so honored," said he, "that even
steel and stone shall not hurt him?" Then Loki changed himself
into a little, dark, bent old woman, with a stick in his hand, and
hobbled away from the Peacestead to Frigga's cool saloon. At
the door he knocked with his stick.
"Come in!" said the kind voice of Frigga, and Loki lifted the
latch.
Now when Frigga saw, from the other end of the hall, a little,
bent, crippled old woman come hobbling up her crystal floor, she
got up with true queenliness and met her halfway, holding out her
hand and saying in the kindest manner, "Pray sit down, my poor
old friend; for it seems to me that you have come from a great
way off."
"That I have, indeed," answered Loki in a tremulous, squeaking
voice.
"And did you happen to see anything of the Æsir," asked Frigga,
"as you came?"
"Just now I passed by the Peacestead and saw them at play."
"What were they doing?"
"Shooting at Baldur."
Then Frigga bent over her work with a pleased smile on her
face. "And nothing hurt him?" she said.
"Nothing," answered Loki, looking keenly at her.
"No, nothing," murmured Frigga, still looking down and speaking
half musingly to herself; "for all things have sworn to me that
they will not."
"Sworn!" exclaimed Loki, eagerly; "what is that you say?
Has everything sworn then?"
"Everything," answered she, "excepting, indeed, the little shrub
mistletoe, which grows, you know, on the west side of Valhalla, and
to which I said nothing, because I thought it was too young to swear."
"Excellent!" thought Loki, and then he got up.
"You're not going yet, are you?" said Frigga, stretching out her
hand and looking up at last into the eyes of the old woman.
"I'm quite rested now, thank you," answered Loki in his squeaky
voice, and then he hobbled out at the door, which clapped after
him, and sent a cold gust into the room. Frigga shuddered, and
thought that a serpent was gliding down the back of her neck.
When Loki had left the presence of Frigga, he changed himself
back to his proper shape and went straight to the west side of
Valhalla, where the mistletoe grew. Then he opened his knife and
cut off a large branch, saying these words, "Too young for Frigga's
oaths, but not too weak for Loki's work." After which he set off
for the Peacestead once more, the mistletoe in his hand. When he
got there he found that the AEsir were still at their sport,
standing round, taking aim, and talking eagerly, and Baldur did
not seem tired.
But there was one who stood alone, leaning against a tree, and
who took no part in what was going on. This was Hodur, Baldur's
blind twin-brother; he stood with his head bent downwards, silent
whilst the others were speaking, doing nothing when they were most
eager; and Loki thought that there was a discontented expression
on his face, just as if he were saying to himself, "Nobody takes any
notice of me." So Loki went up to him and put his hand upon his
shoulder.
"And why are you standing here all alone, my brave friend?"
said he. "Why don't you throw something at Baldur? Hew at
him with a sword, or show him some attention of that sort."
"I haven't a sword," answered Hodur, with an impatient gesture;
"and you know as well as I do, Loki, that Father Odin does not
approve of my wearing warlike weapons, or joining in sham fights,
because I am blind."
"Oh! is that it?" said Loki. "Well, I only know I shouldn't
like to be left out of everything. However, I've got a twig of
mistletoe here which I'll lend you if you like; a harmless little
twig enough, but I shall be happy to guide your arm if you would
like to throw it, and Baldur might take it as a compliment from
his twin-brother."
"Let me feel it," said Hodur, stretching out his uncertain hands.
"This way, this way, my dear friend," said Loki, giving him the
twig. "Now, as hard as ever you can, to do him honor; throw!"
Hodur threw--Baldur fell, and the shadow of death covered
the whole earth.
PART III
BALDUR DEAD
One after another they turned and left the Peacestead, those
friends and brothers of the slain. One after another they turned
and went towards the city; crushed hearts, heavy footsteps, no word
amongst them, a shadow upon all. The shadow was in Asgard, too
--had walked through Frigga's hall and seated itself upon the
threshold of Gladsheim. Odin had just come out to look at it, and
Frigga stood by in mute despair as the Æsir came up.
"Loki did it! Loki did it!" they said at last in confused, hoarse
whispers, and they looked from one to another,--upon Odin, upon
Frigga, upon the shadow which they saw before them, and which
they felt within. "Loki did it! Loki, Loki!" they went on saying;
but it was no use repeating the name of Loki over and over
again when there was another name they were too sad to utter
which yet filled all their hearts--Baldur. Frigga said it first,
and then they all went to look at him lying down so peacefully on the
grass--dead, dead.
"Carry him to the funeral pyre!" said Odin, at length; and four
of the Æsir stooped down and lifted their dead brother.
With scarcely any sound they carried the body tenderly to the
seashore and laid it upon the deck of that majestic ship called
Ringhorn, which had been _his_. Then they stood round waiting to
see who would come to the funeral. Odin came, and on his shoulder?
sat his two ravens, whose croaking drew clouds down over the
Asa's face, for Thought and Memory sang one sad song that day.
Frigga came,--Frey, Gerda, Freyja, Thor, Hnir, Bragi, and
Iduna. Heimdall came sweeping over the tops of the mountains on
Golden Mane, his swift, bright steed. Ægir the Old groaned from
under the deep, and sent his daughters up to mourn around the
dead. Frost-giants and mountain-giants came crowding round the
rimy shores of Jotunheim to look across the sea upon the funeral
of an Asa. Nanna came, Baldur's fair young wife; but when she
saw the dead body of her husband, her own heart broke with grief,
and the Æsir laid her beside him on the stately ship. After this
Odin stepped forward and placed a ring on the breast of his son,
whispering something at the same time in his ear; but when he and
the rest of the Æsir tried to push Ringhorn into the sea before
setting fire to it, they found that their hearts were so heavy they
could lift nothing. So they beckoned to the giantess Hyrrokin to
come over from Jötunheim and help them. She, with a single
push, set the ship floating, and then, whilst Thor stood up holding
Miölnir high in the air, Odin lighted the funeral pile of Baldur and
of Nanna.
So Ringhorn went out floating towards the deep, and the funeral
fire burnt on. Its broad red flame burst forth towards heaven; but
when the smoke would have gone upward too, the winds came
sobbing and carried it away.
PART IV
HELHEIM
When at last the ship Ringhorn had floated out so far to sea that
it looked like a dull red lamp on the horizon, Frigga turned round
and said, "Does any one of you, my children, wish to perform a
noble action and win my love forever?"
"I do," cried Hermod, before any one else had time to open his
lips.
"Go then, Hermod," answered Frigga, "saddle Sleipnir with all
speed and ride down to Helheim; there seek out Hela, the stern
mistress of the dead, and entreat her to send our beloved back to us
once more."
Hermod was gone in the twinkling of an eye, not in at the mouth
of the earth and through the steep cavern down which Odin went
to the dead Vala's grave; he chose another way, though not a better
one; for, go to Helheim how you will, the best is but a downward
road, and so Hermod found it--downward, slanting, slippery, dark,
and very cold. At last he came to the Giallar Bru--that sounding
river which flows between the living and the dead, and the bridge
over which is paved with stones of glittering gold. Hermod was
surprised to see gold in such a place; but as he rode over the bridge,
and looked down carefully at the stones, he saw that they were only
tears which had been shed round the beds of the dying--only tears,
and yet they made the way seem brighter. But when Hermod
reached the other end of the bridge, he found the courageous woman
who, for ages and ages, had been sitting there to watch the dead go
by, and she stopped him, saying:
"What a noise you make! Who are you? Yesterday five troops
of dead men went over the Giallar Bridge and did not shake it
so much as you have done. Besides," she added, looking more
closely at Hermod, "you are not a dead man at all. Your lips are
neither cold not blue. Why, then, do you ride on the way to
Helheim?"
"I seek Baldur," answered Hermod. "Tell me, have you seen
him pass?"
"Baldur," she said, "has ridden over the bridge; but there below,
towards the north, lies the way to the Abodes of Death."
So Hermod went on the way until he came to the barred gates
of Helheim itself. There he alighted, tightened his saddle-girths,
remounted, clapped both spurs to his horse, and cleared the gate by
one tremendous leap. Then Hermod found himself in a place where
no living man had ever been before--the City of the Dead. Perhaps
you think there is a great silence there, but you are mistaken.
Hermod thought he had never in his life heard so much noise; for
the echoes of all words were speaking together--words, some newly
uttered and some ages old; but the dead men did not hear who flitted
up and down the dark streets, for their ears had been stunned
and become cold long since. Hermod rode on through the city until
he came to the palace of Hela, which stood in the midst. Precipice
was its threshold, the entrance hall, Wide Storm, and yet Hermod
was not too much afraid to seek the innermost rooms; so he went
on to the banqueting hall, where Hela sat at the head of her table
and served her newest guests. Baldur, alas! sat at her right hand,
and on her left his pale young wife. When Hela saw Hermod coming
up the hall she smiled grimly, but beckoned to him at the same
time to sit down, and told him that he might sup that night with
her. It was a strange supper for a living man to sit down to.
Hunger was the table; Starvation, Hela's knife; Delay, her man;
Slowness, her maid; and Burning Thirst, her wine. After supper
Hela led the way to the sleeping apartments. "You see," she said,
turning to Hermod, "I am very anxious about the comfort of my
guests. Here are beds of unrest provided for all, hung with curtains
of weariness, and look how all the walls are furnished with
despair."
So saying she strode away, leaving Hermod and Baldur together.
The whole night they sat on those unquiet couches and talked.
Hermod could speak of nothing but the past, and as he looked
anxiously round the room his eyes became dim with tears. But
Baldur seemed to see a light far off, and he spoke of what was to
come.
The next morning Hermod went to Hela, and entreated her to let
Baldur return to Asgard. He even offered to take his place in Helhelm
if she pleased; but Hela only laughed at this and said: "You talk a
great deal about Baldur, and boast how much every one loves him; I
will prove now if what you have told me be true. Let everything on
earth, living or dead, weep for Baldur, and he shall go home again;
but if one thing only refuse to weep, then let Helheim hold its own;
he shall not go."
"Every one will weep willingly," said Hermod, as he mounted
Sleipnir and rode towards the entrance of the city. Baldur went
with him as far as the gate and began to send messages to all his
friends in Asgard, but Hermod would not listen to many of them.
"You will so soon come back to us," he said, "there is no use
in sending messages."
So Hermod darted homewards, and Baldur watched him through
the bars of Helheim's gateway as he flew along.
"Not soon, not soon," said the dead Asa; but still he saw the light
far off, and thought of what was to come.
PART V
WEEPING
"Well, Hermod, what did she say?" asked the AEsir from the
top of the hill as they saw him coming; "make haste and tell us
what she said." And Hermod came up.
"Oh! is that all?" they cried, as soon as he had delivered his
message. "Nothing can be more easy," and then they all hurried
off to tell Frigga. She was weeping already, and in five minutes
there was not a tearless eye in Asgard.
"But this is not enough," said Odin; "the whole earth must
know of our grief that it may weep with us."
Then the father of the AEsir called to him his messenger maidens
--the beautiful Valkyrior--and sent them out into all worlds with
these three words on their lips, "Baldur is dead!" But the words
were so dreadful that at first the messenger maidens could only
whisper them in low tones as they went along, "Baldur is dead!"
The dull, sad sounds flowed back on Asgard like a new river of
grief, and it seemed to the AEsir as if they now wept for the first
time-"Baldur is dead!"
"What is that the Valkyrior are saying?" asked the men and
women in all the country round, and when they heard rightly, men
left their labor and lay down to weep--women dropped the buckets
they were carrying to the well, and, leaning their faces over them,
filled them with tears. The children crowded upon the doorsteps,
or sat down at the corners of the streets, crying as if their own
mothers were dead.
The Valkyrior passed on. "Baldur is dead!" they said to the
empty fields; and straightway the grass and the wild field-flowers
shed tears.
"Baldur is dead!" said the messenger maidens to the rocks and
stones; and the very stones began to weep. "Baldur is dead!" the
Valkyrior cried; and even the old mammoth's bones, which had lain
for centuries under the hills, burst into tears, so that small rivers
gushed forth from every mountain's side. "Baldur is dead!" said
the messenger maidens as they swept over silent sands; and all the
shells wept pearls. "Baldur is dead!" they cried to the sea, and
to Jotunheim across the sea; and when the giants understood it,
even they wept, whilst the sea rained spray to heaven. After this
the Valkyrior stepped from one stone to another until they reached
a rock that stood alone in the middle of the sea; then, all together,
they bent forward over the edge of it, stooped down and peeped
over, that they might tell the monsters of the deep. "Baldur is
dead!" they said, and the sea monsters and the fish wept. Then the
messenger maidens looked at one another and said, "Surely our
work is done." So they twined their arms round one another's
waists, and set forth on the downward road to Helheim, there to
claim Baldur from among the dead.
After he had sent forth his messenger maidens, Odin had seated
himself on the top of Air Throne that he might see how the earth
received his message. At first he watched the Valkyrior as they
stepped forth north and south, and east and west; but soon the whole
earth's steaming tears rose up like a great cloud and hid everything
from him. Then he looked down through the cloud and said, "Are
you all weeping?" The Valkyrior heard the sound of his voice
as they went all together down the slippery road, and they turned
round, stretching out their arms towards Air Throne, their long hair
falling back, whilst, with choked voices and streaming eyes, they
answered, "The world weeps, Father Odin; the world and we."
After this they went on their way until they came to the end of
the cave Gnipa, where Garm was chained, and which yawned over
Niflheim. "The world weeps," they said one to another by way
of encouragement, for here the road was so dreadful; but just as
they were about to pass through the mouth of Gnipa they came
upon a haggard witch named Thaukt, who sat in the entrance with
her back to them, and her face toward the abyss. "Baldur is dead!
Weep, weep!" said the messenger maidens, as they tried to pass
her; but Thaukt made answer:
"What she doth hold,
Let Hela keep;
For naught care I,
Though the world weep,
O'er Baldur's bale.
Live he or die
With tearless eye,
Old Thaukt shall wail."
And with these words leaped into Niflheim with a yell of triumph.
"Surely that cry was the cry of Loki," said one of the maidens;
but another pointed towards the city of Helheim, and there they
saw the stern face of Hela looking over the wall.
"One has not wept," said the grim Queen, "and Helheim holds
its own." So saying she motioned the maidens away with her long,
cold hand.
Then the Valkyrior turned and fled up the steep way to the foot
of Odin's throne, like a pale snowdrift that flies before the storm.
THE HERO STORY
SIR WILLIAM WALLACE
Walter Scott
I told you, my dear Hugh, that Edward I of England had reduced Scotland
almost entirely to the condition of a conquered country, although he
had obtained possession of the kingdom less by his bravery, than by
cunningly taking advantage of the disputes and divisions that followed
amongst the Scots themselves after the death of Alexander III.
The English, however, had in point of fact obtained possession of the
country, and governed it with much rigor. The Lord High Justice Ormesby
called all men to account, who would not take the oath of allegiance to
King Edward. Many of the Scots refused this, as what the English king
had no right to demand from them. Such persons were called into the
courts of justice, fined, deprived of their estates, and otherwise
severely punished. Then Hugh Cressingham, the English treasurer,
tormented the Scottish nation, by collecting money from them under
various pretexts. The Scots were always a poor people, and their native
kings had treated them with much kindness, and seldom required them to
pay any taxes. They were, therefore, extremely enraged at finding
themselves obliged to pay to the English treasurer much larger sums of
money than their own good kings had ever demanded from them; and they
became exceedingly dissatisfied.
Besides these modes of oppression, the English soldiers, who, I told
you, had been placed in garrison in the different castles of Scotland,
thought themselves masters of the country, treated the Scots with great
contempt, took from them by main force whatever they had a fancy to,
and if the owners offered to resist, abused them, beat and wounded, and
sometimes killed them; for which acts of violence the English officers
did not check or punish their soldiers. Scotland was, therefore, in
great distress, and the inhabitants, exceedingly enraged, only wanted
some leader to command them, to rise up in a body against the English
or _Southern_ men, as they called them, and recover the liberty
and independence of their country, which had been destroyed by Edward
the First.
Such a leader arose in the person of WILLIAM WALLACE, whose name is
still so often mentioned in Scotland. It is a great pity we do not know
exactly the history of this brave man; for at the time when he lived,
every one was so busy fighting, that there was no person to write down
the history of what took place; and afterwards, when there was more
leisure for composition, the truths that were collected were greatly
mingled with falsehood. What I shall tell you of him is generally
believed to be true.
William Wallace was none of the high nobles of Scotland, but the son of
a private gentleman, called Wallace of Ellerslie, in Renfrewshire, near
Paisley. He was very tall and handsome, and one of the strongest and
bravest men that ever lived. He had a very fine countenance, with a
quantity of fair hair, and was particularly dexterous in the use of all
weapons which were then employed in battle. Wallace, like all Scotsmen
of high spirit, had looked with great indignation upon the usurpation
of the crown by Edward, and upon the insolencies which the English
soldiers committed on his countrymen. It is said, that when he was very
young, he went a-fishing for sport in the river of Irvine, near Ayr. He
had caught a good many trouts, which were carried by a boy, who
attended him with a fishing-basket, as is usual with anglers. Two or
three English soldiers, who belonged to the garrison of Ayr, came up to
Wallace, and insisted, with their usual insolence, on taking the fish
from the boy. Wallace was contented to allow them a part of the trouts,
but he refused to part with the whole basketful. The soldiers insisted,
and from words came to blows. Wallace had no better weapon than the
butt-end of his fishing-rod; but he struck the foremost of the
Englishmen so hard under the ear with it that he killed him on the spot;
and getting possession of the slain man's sword, he fought with so much
fury that he put the others to flight, and brought home his fish safe
and sound. The English governor of Ayr sought for him, to punish him
with death for this action; but Wallace lay concealed among the hills
and great woods till the matter was forgotten, and then appeared in
another part of the country. He is said to have had other adventures of
the same kind, in which he gallantly defended himself, sometimes when
alone, sometimes with very few companions, against superior numbers of
the English, until at last his name became generally known as a terror
to them.
But the action which occasioned his finally rising in arms, is believed
to have happened in the town of Lanark. Wallace was at this time married
to a lady of that place, and residing there with his wife. It chanced,
as he walked in the market place, dressed in a green garment, with a
rich dagger by his side, that an Englishman came up and insulted him on
account of his finery, saying, a Scotsman had no business to wear so
gay a dress, or carry so handsome a weapon. It soon came to a quarrel,
as on many former occasions; and Wallace, having killed the Englishman,
fled to his own house, which was speedily assaulted by all the English
soldiers. While they were endeavoring to force their way in at the
front of the house, Wallace escaped by a back door, and got in safety
to a rugged and rocky glen, near Lanark, called the Cartland crags, all
covered with bushes and trees, and full of high precipices, where he
knew he should be safe from the pursuit of the English soldiers.
[Footnote: In the western face of the chasm of Cartland Crags, a few
yards above the new bridge, a cave in the rock is pointed out by
tradition as having been the hiding-place of Wallace.] In the meantime,
the governor of Lanark, whose name was Hazelrigg, burned Wallace's
house, and put his wife and servants to death; and by committing this
cruelty increased to the highest pitch, as you may well believe, the
hatred which the champion had always borne against the English usurper.
Hazelrigg also proclaimed Wallace an outlaw, and offered a reward to
any one who should bring him to an English garrison, alive or dead.
On the other hand, Wallace soon collected a body of men, outlawed like
himself, or willing to become so, rather than any longer endure the
oppression of the English. One of his earliest expeditions was directed
against Hazelrigg, whom he killed, and thus avenged the death of his
wife. He fought skirmishes with the soldiers who were sent against him,
and often defeated them; and in time became so well known and so
formidable, that multitudes began to resort to his standard, until at
length he was at the head of a considerable army, with which he
proposed to restore his country to independence.
About this time is said to have taken place a memorable event, which
the Scottish people called the "Barns of Ayr." It is alleged that the
English governor of Ayr had invited the greater part of the Scottish
nobility and gentry in the western parts to meet him at some large
buildings called the Barns of Ayr, for the purpose of friendly
conference upon the affairs of the nation. But the English earl
entertained the treacherous purpose of putting the Scottish gentlemen
to death. The English soldiers had halters with running nooses ready
prepared, and hung upon the beams which supported the roof; and, as the
Scottish gentlemen were admitted by two and two at a time, the nooses
were thrown over their heads, and they were pulled up by the neck, and
thus hanged or strangled to death. Among those who were slain in this
base and treacherous manner was, it is said, Sir Reginald Crawford,
Sheriff of the county of Ayr, and uncle to William Wallace.
When Wallace heard of what had befallen he was dreadfully enraged, and
collecting his men in a wood near the town of Ayr, he resolved to be
revenged on the authors of this great crime. The English in the
meanwhile made much feasting, and when they had eaten and drunk
plentifully, they lay down to sleep in the same large barns in which
they had murdered the Scottish gentlemen. But Wallace, learning that
they kept no guard or watch, not suspecting there were any enemies so
near them, directed a woman who knew the place, to mark with chalk the
doors of the lodgings where the Englishmen lay. Then he sent a party of
men, who, with strong ropes, made all the doors so fast on the outside,
that those within could not open them. On the outside the Scots had
prepared heaps of straw, to which they set fire, and the barns of Ayr,
being themselves made of wood, were soon burning in a bright flame.
Then the English were awakened, and endeavored to get out to save their
lives. But the doors, as I told you, were secured on the outside, and
bound fast with ropes; and, besides, the blazing houses were surrounded
by the Scots, who forced those who got out to run back into the fire,
or else put them to death on the spot; and thus great numbers perished
miserably. Many of the English were lodged in a convent, but they had
no better fortune than the others; for the prior of the convent caused
all the friars to arm themselves, and, attacking the English guests,
they put most of them to the sword. This was called the "Friar of Ayr's
blessing." We cannot tell if this story of the "Barns of Ayr" be
exactly true; but it is probable there is some foundation for it, as it
is universally believed in that country.
Thus Wallace's party grew daily stronger and stronger, and many of the
Scottish nobles joined with him. Among these were Sir William Douglas,
the Lord of Douglas-dale, and the head of a great family often
mentioned in Scottish history. There was also Sir John the Grahame,
who became Wallace's bosom friend and greatest confidant. Many of
these great noblemen, however, deserted the cause of the country on
the approach of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, the English
governor, at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army. They
thought that Wallace would be unable to withstand the attack of so
many disciplined soldiers, and hastened to submit themselves to the
English, for fear of losing their estates. Wallace, however, remained
undismayed, and at the head of a considerable army. He had taken up
his camp upon the northern side of the river Forth, near the town of
Stirling. The river was there crossed by a long wooden bridge, about
a mile above the spot where the present bridge is situated.
The English general approached the banks of the river on the southern
side. He sent two clergymen to offer a pardon to Wallace and his
followers, on condition that they should lay down their arms. But such
was not the purpose of the high-minded champion of Scotland.
"Go back to Warenne," said Wallace, "and tell him we value not the
pardon of the king of England. We are not here for the purpose of
treating of peace, but of abiding battle, and restoring freedom to our
country. Let the English come on;--we defy them to their very beards!"
The English, upon hearing this haughty answer, called loudly to be led
to the attack. Their leader, Sir Richard Lundin, a Scottish knight,
who had gone over to the enemy at Irvine, hesitated, for he was a
skillful soldier, and he saw that, to approach the Scottish army, his
troops must pass over the long, narrow wooden bridge; so that those
who should get over first might be attacked by Wallace with all his
forces, before those who remained behind could possibly come to their
assistance. He therefore inclined to delay the battle. But Cressingham
the treasurer, who was ignorant and presumptuous, insisted that it was
their duty to fight, and put an end to the war at once; and Lundin
gave way to his opinion, although Cressingham, being a churchman,
could not be so good a judge of what was fitting as he himself, an
experienced officer.
The English army began to cross the bridge, Cressingham leading the
van, or foremost division of the army; for, in those military days,
even clergymen wore armor and fought in battle. That took place which
Lundin had foreseen. Wallace suffered a considerable part of the
English army to pass the bridge, without offering any opposition; but
when about one half were over, and the bridge was crowded with those
who were following, he charged those who had crossed with his whole
strength, slew a very great number, and drove the rest into the river
Forth, where the greater part were drowned. The remainder of the
English army, who were left on the southern bank of the river, fled in
great confusion, having first set fire to the wooden bridge that the
Scots might not pursue them. Cressingham was killed in the very
beginning of the battle; and the Scots detested him so much, that they
flayed the skin from his dead body, and kept pieces of it, in memory
of the revenge they had taken upon the English treasurer. Some say
they made saddle girths of this same skin; a purpose for which I do
not think it could be very fit. It must be owned to have been a
dishonorable thing of the Scots to insult thus the dead body of their
enemy, and shows that they must have been then a ferocious and
barbarous people.
The remains of Surrey's great army fled out of Scotland after this
defeat; and the Scots, taking arms on all sides, attacked the castles
in which the English soldiers continued to shelter themselves, and
took most of them by force or stratagem. Many wonderful stories are
told of Wallace's exploits on these occasions; some of which are no
doubt true, while others are either invented, or very much
exaggerated. It seems certain, however, that he defeated the English
in several combats, chased them almost entirely out of Scotland,
regained the towns and castles of which they had possessed themselves,
and recovered for a time the complete freedom of the country. He even
marched into England, and laid Cumberland and Northumberland waste,
where the Scottish soldiers, in revenge for the mischief which the
English had done in their country, committed great cruelties. Wallace
did not approve of their killing the people who were not in arms, and
he endeavored to protect the clergymen and others, who were not able
to defend themselves. "Remain with me," he said to the priests of
Hexham, a large town in Northumberland, "for I cannot protect you from
my soldiers when you are out of my presence." The troops who followed
Wallace received no pay, because he had no money to give them; and
that was one great reason why he could not keep them under restraint,
or prevent their doing much harm to the defenseless country people. He
remained in England more than three weeks, and did a great deal of
mischief to the country.
Indeed, it appears that, though Wallace disapproved of slaying
priests, women, and children, he partook of the ferocity of the times
so much, as to put to death without quarter all whom he found in arms.
In the north of Scotland the English had placed a garrison in the
strong Castle of Dunnottar, which, built on a large and precipitous
rock, overhangs the raging sea. Though the place is almost
inaccessible, Wallace and his followers found their way into the
castle, while the garrison in great terror fled into the church or
chapel, which was built on the very verge of the precipice. This did
not save them, for Wallace caused the church to be set on fire. The
terrified garrison, involved in the flames, ran some of them upon the
points of the Scottish swords, while others threw themselves from the
precipice into the sea and swam along to the cliffs, where they hung
like sea-fowl, screaming in vain for mercy and assistance.
The followers of Wallace were frightened at this dreadful scene, and
falling on their knees before the priests who chanced to be in the
army, they asked forgiveness for having committed so much slaughter
within the limits of a church dedicated to the service of God. But
Wallace had so deep a sense of the injuries which the English had done
to his country that he only laughed at the contrition of his soldiers.
"I will absolve you all myself," he said. "Are you Scottish soldiers,
and do you repent for a trifle like this, which is not half what the
invaders deserved at our hands?" So deep-seated was Wallace's feeling
of national resentment that it seems to have overcome, in such
instances, the scruples of a temper which was naturally humane.
Edward I was in Flanders when all these events took place. You may
suppose he was very angry when he learned that Scotland, which he
thought completely subdued, had risen into a great insurrection
against him, defeated his armies, killed his treasurer, chased his
soldiers out of their country, and invaded England with a great force.
He came back from Flanders in a mighty rage, and determined not to
leave that rebellious country until it was finally conquered, for
which purpose he assembled a very fine army, and marched into
Scotland.
In the meantime the Scots prepared to defend themselves, and chose
Wallace to be Governor, or Protector, of the kingdom, because they had
no king at the time. He was now titled Sir William Wallace, Protector,
or Governor, of the Scottish nation. But although Wallace, as we have
seen, was the best soldier and bravest man in Scotland, and therefore
the most fit to be placed in command at this critical period, when the
king of England was coming against them with such great forces, yet
the nobles of Scotland envied him this important situation, because he
was not a man born in high rank, or enjoying a large estate. So great
was their jealousy of Sir William Wallace, that many of these great
barons did not seem very willing to bring forward their forces, or
fight against the English, because they would not have a man of
inferior condition to be general. This was base and mean conduct, and
it was attended with great disasters to Scotland. [Footnote: "These
mean and selfish jealousies were increased by the terror, of Edward's
military renown, and in many by the fear of losing their English
estates; so that at the very time when an honest love of liberty, and
a simultaneous spirit of resistance, could alone have saved Scotland,
its nobility deserted it at its utmost need, and refused to act with
the only man whose military talents and prosperity were equal to the
emergency."--TYTLER'S _History of Scotland._] Yet,
notwithstanding this unwillingness of the great nobility to support
him, Wallace assembled a large army; for the middling, but especially
the lower classes, were very much attached to him. He marched boldly
against the King of England, and met him near the town of Falkirk.
Most of the Scottish army were on foot, because, as I already told
you, in those days only the nobility and great men of Scotland fought
on horseback. The English king, on the contrary, had a very large body
of the finest cavalry in the world, Normans and English, all clothed
in complete armor. He had also the celebrated archers of England, each
of whom was said to carry twelve Scotsmen's lives under his girdle;
because every archer had twelve arrows stuck in his belt, and was
expected to kill a man with every arrow.
The Scots had some good archers from the Forest of Ettrick, who fought
under command of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill; but they were not nearly
equal in number to the English. The greater part of the Scottish army
were on foot, armed with long spears; they were placed thick and close
together, and laid all their spears so close, point over point, that
it seemed as difficult to break through them, as through the wall of a
strong castle. When the two armies were drawn up facing each other,
Wallace said to his soldiers, "I have brought you to the ring, let me
see how you can dance;" meaning, I have brought you to the decisive
field of battle, let me see how bravely you can fight.
The English made the attack. King Edward, though he saw the close
ranks, and undaunted appearance, of the Scottish infantry, resolved
nevertheless to try whether he could not ride them down with his fine
cavalry. He therefore gave his horsemen orders to advance. They
charged accordingly, at full gallop. It must have been a terrible
thing to have seen these fine horses riding as hard as they could
against the long lances, which were held out by the Scots to keep them
back; and a dreadful cry arose when they came against each other.
The first line of cavalry was commanded by the Earl Marshal of
England, whose progress was checked by a morass. The second line of
English horse was commanded by Antony Beck, the Bishop of Durham, who,
nevertheless, wore armor, and fought like a lay baron. He wheeled
round the morass; but when he saw the deep and firm order of the
Scots, his heart failed, and he proposed to Sir Ralph Basset of
Drayton, who commanded under him, to halt till Edward himself brought
up the reserve. "Go say your mass, bishop," answered Basset
contemptuously, and advanced at full gallop with the second line.
However, the Scots stood their ground with their long spears; many of
the foremost of the English horses were thrown down, and the riders
were killed as they lay rolling, unable to rise, owing to the weight
of their heavy armor. But the Scottish horse did not come to the
assistance of their infantry, but on the contrary, fled away from the
battle. It is supposed that this was owing to the treachery or ill-
will of the nobility, who were jealous of Wallace. But it must be
considered that the Scottish cavalry were few in number; and that they
had much worse arms, and weaker horses, than their enemies. The
English cavalry attempted again and again to disperse the deep and
solid ranks in which Wallace had stationed his foot soldiers. But they
were repeatedly beaten off with loss, nor could they make their way
through that wood of spears, as it is called by one of the English
historians. King Edward then commanded his archers to advance; and
these approaching within arrow-shot of the Scottish ranks, poured on
them such close and dreadful volleys of arrows, that it was impossible
to sustain the discharge. It happened at the same time, that Sir John
Stewart was killed by a fall from his horse; and the archers of
Ettrick Forest, whom he was bringing forward to oppose those of King
Edward, were slain in great numbers around him. Their bodies were
afterwards distinguished among the slain, as being the tallest and
handsomest men of the army.
The Scottish spearmen being thus thrown into some degree of confusion,
by the loss of those who were slain by the arrows of the English, the
heavy cavalry of Edward again charged with more success than formerly,
and broke through the ranks, which were already disordered. Sir John
Grahame, Wallace's great friend and companion, was slain, with many
other brave soldiers; and the Scots, having lost a very great number
of men, were at length obliged to take to flight.
This fatal battle was fought upon the 22d of July, 1298: Sir John the
Grahame lies buried in the churchyard of Falkirk. A tombstone was laid
over him, which has been three times renewed since his death. The
inscription bears, "That Sir John the Grahame, equally remarkable for
wisdom and courage, and the faithful friend of Wallace, being slain in
battle by the English, lies buried in this place." A large oak tree in
the adjoining forests was long shown as marking the spot where Wallace
slept before the battle, or, as others said, in which he hid himself
after the defeat. Nearly forty years ago, Grandpa saw some of its
roots; but the body of the tree was even then entirely decayed, and
there is not now, and has not been for many years, the least vestige
of it to be seen.
After this fatal defeat of Falkirk, Sir William Wallace seems to have
resigned his office of Governor of Scotland. Several nobles were named
guardians in his place, and continued to make resistance to the
English armies; and they gained some advantages, particularly near
Roslin, where a body of Scots, commanded by John Comyn of Badenoch,
who was one of the guardians of the kingdom, and another distinguished
commander, called Simon Fraser, defeated three armies, or detachments,
of English in one day.
Nevertheless, the king of England possessed so much wealth, and so
many means of raising soldiers, that he sent army after army into the
poor oppressed country of Scotland, and obliged all its nobles and
great men, one after another, to submit themselves once more to his
yoke. Sir William Wallace, alone, or with a very small band of
followers, refused either to acknowledge the usurper Edward, or to lay
down his arms. He continued to maintain himself among the woods and
mountains of his native country for no less than seven years after his
defeat at Falkirk, and for more than one year after all the other
defenders of Scottish liberty had laid down their arms. Many
proclamations were sent out against him by the English, and a great
reward was set upon his head; for Edward did not think he could have
any secure possession of his usurped kingdom of Scotland while Wallace
lived. At length he was taken prisoner; and, shame it is to say, a
Scotsman, called Sir John Menteith, was the person by whom he was
seized and delivered to the English. It is generally said that he was
made prisoner at Robroyston, near Glasgow; and the tradition of the
country bears, that the signal made for rushing upon him and taking
him at unawares, was, when one of his pretended friends, who betrayed
him, should turn a loaf, which was placed upon the table, with its
bottom or flat side uppermost. And in after times it was reckoned ill-
breeding to turn a loaf in that manner, if there was a person named
Menteith in company; since it was as much as to remind him, that his
namesake had betrayed Sir William Wallace, the Champion of Scotland.
Whether Sir John Menteith was actually the person by whom Wallace was
betrayed, is not perfectly certain. He was, however, the individual by
whom the patriot was made prisoner, and delivered up to the English,
for which his name and his memory have been long loaded with disgrace.
Edward, having thus obtained possession of the person whom he
considered as the greatest obstacle to his complete conquest of
Scotland, resolved to make Wallace an example to all Scottish patriots
who should in future venture to oppose his ambitious projects. He
caused this gallant defender of his country to be brought to trial in
Westminster hall, before the English judges, and produced him there,
crowned in mockery, with a green garland, because they said he had
been king of outlaws and robbers among the Scottish woods. Wallace was
accused of having been a traitor to the English crown; to which he
answered, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his
subject." He was then charged with having taken and burnt towns and
castles, with having killed many men and done much violence. He
replied, with the same calm resolution, "that it was true he had
killed very many Englishmen, but it was because they had come to
subdue and oppress his native country of Scotland; and far from
repenting what he had done, he declared he was only sorry that he had
not put to death many more of them."
Notwithstanding that Wallace's defense was a good one, both in law and
in common sense, (for surely every one has not only a right to fight
in defense of his native country, but is bound in duty to do so,) the
English judges condemned him to be executed. So this brave patriot was
dragged upon a sledge to the place of execution, where his head was
struck off, and his body divided into four quarters, which, according
to the cruel custom of the time, were exposed upon spikes of iron on
London Bridge, and were termed the limbs of a traitor.
No doubt King Edward thought, that by exercising this great severity
towards so distinguished a patriot as Sir William Wallace, he should
terrify all the Scots into obedience, and so be able in future to
reign over their country without resistance. But though Edward was a
powerful, a brave, and a wise king, and though he took the most
cautious, as well as the most strict measures, to preserve the
obedience of Scotland, yet his claim being founded on injustice and
usurpation, was not permitted by Providence to be lished in security
or peace. Sir William Wallace, that immortal supporter of the
independence of his country, was no sooner deprived of his life, in
the cruel and unjust manner I have told you, than other patriots arose
to assert the cause of Scottish liberty.
THE REPRODUCTION
THE TEMPEST
Charles and Mary Lamb
There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of
which were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter
Miranda, a very beautiful young lady. She came to this island
so young, that she had no memory of having seen any other human
face than her father's.
They lived in a cave or cell, made out of a rock; it was divided
into several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study;
there he kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study
at that time much affected by all learned men; and the knowledge of
this art he found very useful to him; for being thrown by a strange
chance upon this island, which had been enchanted by a witch
called Sycorax, who died there a short time before his arrival,
Prospero, by virtue of his art, released many good spirits that
Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of large trees, because they
had refused to execute her wicked demands. These gentle spirits
were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero. Of these Ariel was
the chief.
The lively little sprite Ariel had nothing mischievous in his
nature, except that he took rather too much pleasure in tormenting
an ugly monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge,
because he was the son of his old enemy Sycorax. This Caliban,
Prospero found in the woods, a strange misshapen thing, far less
human in form than an ape; he took him home to his cell, and
taught him to speak; and Prospero would have been very kind to
him, but the bad nature which Caliban inherited from his mother
Sycorax would not let him learn anything good or useful: therefore
he was employed like a slave, to fetch wood and do the most laborious
offices; and Ariel had the charge of compelling him to these
services.
When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible
to all eyes but Prospero's) would come slyly and pinch him,
and sometimes tumble him down in the mire; and then Ariel, in the
likeness of an ape, would make mouths at him. Then swiftly changing
his shape, in the likeness of a hedgehog, he would lie tumbling
in Caliban's way, who feared the hedgehog's sharp quills would
prick his bare feet. With a variety of such like vexatious tricks
Ariel would often torment him, whenever Caliban neglected the work
which Prospero commanded him to do.
Having these powerful spirits obedient to his will, Prospero could
by their means command the winds, and the waves of the sea. By his
orders they raised a violent storm, in the midst of which, and
struggling with the wild sea-waves that every moment threatened
to swallow it up, he showed his daughter a fine large ship, which
he told her was full of living beings like themselves. "O my dear
father," said she, "if by your art you have raised this dreadful
storm, have pity on their sad distress. See! the vessel will be
dashed to pieces. Poor souls! they will all perish. If I had power,
I would sink the ship beneath the earth, rather than the good ship
should be destroyed, with all the precious souls within her.
"Be not so amazed, daughter Miranda," said Prospero; "there is
no harm done. I have so ordered it that no person in the ship shall
receive any hurt. What I have done has been in care of you, my
dear child. You are ignorant who you are, or where you came from,
and you know no more of me, but that I am your father, and live
in this poor cave. Can you remember a time before you came to
this cell? I think you cannot, for you were not then three years of
age."
"Certainly I can, sir," replied Miranda.
"By what?" asked Prospero; "by any other house or person?
Tell me what you can remember, my child."
Miranda said, "It seems to me like the recollection of a dream.
But had I not once four or five women who attended upon me?"
Prospero answered, "You had, and more. How is it that this still
lives in your mind? Do you remember how you came here?"
"No, sir," said Miranda, "I remember nothing more."
"Twelve years ago, Miranda," continued Prospero, "I was duke
of Milan, and you were a princess, and my only heir. I had a
younger brother, whose name was Antonio, to whom I trusted
everything; and as I was fond of retirement and deep study, I
commonly left the management of my state affairs to your uncle,
my false brother (for so indeed he proved). I, neglecting all
worldly ends, buried among my books, did dedicate my whole time
to the bettering of my mind. My brother Antonio being thus in
possession of my power, began to think himself the duke indeed.
The opportunity I gave him of making himself popular among my
subjects awakened in his bad nature a proud ambition to deprive
me of my dukedom: this he soon effected with the aid of the king
of Naples, a powerful prince, who was my enemy."
"Wherefore," said Miranda, "did they not that hour destroy us?"
"My child," answered her father, "they durst not, so dear
was the love that my people bore me. Antonio carried us on board
a ship, and when we were some leagues out at sea he forced us
into a small boat, without either tackle, sail, or mast; there
he left us, as he thought, to perish. But a kind lord of my
court, one Gonzalo, who loved me, had privately placed in the
boat, water, provisions, apparel, and some books which I prize
above my dukedom."
"O my father," said Miranda, "what a trouble must I have been
to you then!"
"No, my love," said Prospero, "you were a little cherub that did
preserve me. Your innocent smiles made me to bear up against my
misfortunes. Our food lasted until we landed on this desert
island, since which time my chief delight has been in teaching
you, Miranda, and well have you profited by my instructions."
"Heaven thank you, my dear father," said Miranda. "Now
pray tell me, sir, your reason for raising this sea storm!"
"Know then," said her father, "that by means of this storm, my
enemies, the king of Naples and my cruel brother, are cast ashore
upon this island."
Having so said, Prospero gently touched his daughter with his
magic wand, and she fell fast asleep; for the spirit Ariel just
then presented himself before his master, to give an account of
the tempest, and how he had disposed of the ship's company; and
though the spirits were always invisible to Miranda, Prospero did
not choose that she should hear him holding converse (as would
seem to her) with the empty air.
"Well, my brave spirit," said Prospero to Ariel, "how have you
performed your task?"
Ariel gave a lively description of the storm, and of the terrors
of the mariners; and how the king's son, Ferdinand, was the first
who leaped into the sea; and his father thought he saw this dear
son swallowed up by the waves and lost. "But he is safe," said
Ariel, "in a corner of the isle, sitting with his arms folded,
sadly lamenting the loss of the king his father, whom he concludes
drowned. Not a hair of his head is injured, and his princely
garments, though drenched in the sea-waves, look fresher than
before."
"That's my delicate Ariel," said Prospero. "Bring him hither: my
daughter must see this young prince. Where is the king, and my
brother?"
"I left them," answered Ariel, "searching for Ferdinand, whom
they have little hopes of finding, thinking they saw him perish. Of
the ship's crew, not one is missing; though each one thinks himself
the only one saved: and the ship, though invisible to them, is safe in
the harbor."
"Ariel," said Prospero, "thy charge is faithfully performed: but
there is more work yet."
"Is there more work?" said Ariel. "Let me remind you, master,
you have promised me my liberty. I pray, remember, I have
done you worthy service, told you no lies, made no mistakes,
served you without grudge or grumbling."
"How now!" said Prospero. "You do not recollect what a
torment I freed you from. Have you forgot the wicked witch Sycorax,
who with age and envy was almost bent double? Where was
she born? Speak; tell me."
"Sir, in Algiers," said Ariel.
"O was she so?" said Prospero. "I must recount what you
have been, which I find you do not remember. This bad witch,
Sycorax, for her witchcrafts, too terrible to enter human hearing,
was banished from Algiers, and here left by sailors; and because
you were a spirit too delicate to execute her wicked commands, she
shut you up in a tree, where I found you howling. This torment,
remember, I did free you from."
"Pardon me, dear master," said Ariel, ashamed to seem ungrateful;
"I will obey your commands."
"Do so," said Prospero, "and I will set you free." He then
gave orders what further he would have him do; and away went
Ariel, first to where he had left Ferdinand, and found him still
sitting on the grass in the same melancholy position.
"O my young gentleman!" said Ariel, when he saw him, "I
will soon move you. You must be brought, I find, for the Lady
Miranda to have a sight of your pretty person. Come, sir, follow
me."
He then began singing,--
"Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark, now I hear them, ding-dong-bell."
This strange news of his lost father soon roused the prince from
the stupid fit into which he had fallen. He followed in amazement
the sound of Ariel's voice, till it led him to Prospero and Miranda,
who were sitting under the shade of a large tree. Now Miranda
had never seen a man before, except her own father.
"Miranda," said Prospero, "tell me what you are looking at yonder."
"O father!" said Miranda, in a strange surprise, "surely that
is a spirit. Lord! how it looks about! Believe me sir, it is a
beautiful creature. Is it not a spirit?"
"No, girl," answered the father; "it eats, and sleeps, and has
senses such as we have. This young man you see was in the ship.
He is somewhat altered by grief, or you might call him a handsome
person. He has lost his companions, and is wandering about to find
them."
Miranda, who thought all men had grave faces and gray beards
like her father, was delighted with the appearance of this beautiful
young prince; and Ferdinand, seeing such a lovely lady in this desert
place, and from the strange sounds he had heard, expecting nothing
but wonders, thought he was upon an enchanted island, and that
Miranda was the goddess of the place, and as such he began to
address her.
She timidly answered she was no goddess, but a simple maid, and
was going to give him an account of herself, when Prospero interrupted
her. He was well pleased to find they admired each other,
for he plainly perceived they had (as we say) fallen in love at first
sight; but to try Ferdinand's constancy, he resolved to throw some
difficulties in their way; therefore, advancing forward, he addressed
the prince with a stern air, telling him, he came to the island as a
spy, to take it from him who was the lord of it. "Follow me," said
he, "I will tie you neck and feet together. You shall drink seawater;
shell-fish, withered roots, and husks of acorns shall be your
food." "No," said Ferdinand, "I will resist such entertainment,
till I see a more powerful enemy," and drew his sword; but Prospero,
waving his magic wand, fixed him to the spot where he stood, so that
he had no power to move.
Miranda hung upon her father, saying, "Why are you so ungentle?
Have pity, sir; I will be his surety. This is the second man
I ever saw, and to me he seems a true one."
"Silence," said the father, "one word more will make me chide
you, girl! What! an advocate for an impostor! You think there
are no more such fine men, having seen only him and Caliban.
I tell you, foolish girl, most men as far excel this as he does
Caliban." This he said to prove his daughter's constancy; and she
replied," My affections are most humble. I have no wish to see
a goodlier man."
"Come on, young man," said Prospero to the prince, "you have
no power to disobey me."
"I have not, indeed," answered Ferdinand; and not knowing that
it was by magic that he was deprived of all power of resistance, he
was astonished to find himself so strangely compelled to follow
Prospero: looking back on Miranda as long as he could see her, he said,
as he went after Prospero into the cave, "My spirits are all bound
up, as if I were in a dream; but this man's threats, and the weakness
which I feel, would seem light to me if from my prison I
might once a day behold this fair maid."
Prospero kept Ferdinand not long confined within his cell: he
soon brought out his prisoner, and set him a severe task to perform,
taking care to let his daughter know the hard labor he had imposed
on him, and then pretending to go into his study, he secretly
watched them both.
Prospero had commanded Ferdinand to pile up some heavy logs
of wood. King's sons not being much used to laborious work,
Miranda soon after found her lover almost dying with fatigue.
"Alas!" said she, "do not work so hard; my father is at his
studies, he is safe for these three hours; pray rest yourself."
"O my dear lady!" said Ferdinand, "I dare not. I must finish
my task before I take any rest."
"If you will sit down," said Miranda, "I will carry your logs the
while." But this Ferdinand would by no means agree to. Instead
of a help Miranda became a hindrance, for they began a long
conversation, so that the business of log-carrying went on very
slowly.
Prospero, who had enjoined Ferdinand this task merely as a trial
of his love, was not at his books, as his daughter supposed, but
was standing by them invisible, to overhear what they said.
Ferdinand inquired her name, which she told, saying it was
against her father's express command she did so.
Prospero only smiled, at this first instance of his daughter's
disobedience, for having by his magic art caused his daughter to
fall in love so suddenly, he was not angry that she showed her
love by forgetting to obey his commands. And he listened well
pleased to a long speech of Ferdinand's, in which he professed
to love her above all the ladies he ever saw.
In answer to his praises of her beauty, which he said exceeded all
the women in the world, she replied, "I do not remember the face
of any woman, nor have I seen any more men than you, my good
friend, and my dear father. How features are abroad, I know not;
but, believe me, sir, I would not wish any companion in the world
but you, nor can my imagination form any shape but yours that I
could like. But, sir, I fear I talk to you too freely, and that
my father's precepts I forget."
At this Prospero smiled, and nodded his head, as much as to
say, "This goes on exactly as I could wish; my girl will be queen
of Naples."
And then Ferdinand, in another fine long speech (for young
princes speak in courtly phrases), told the innocent Miranda he was
heir to the crown of Naples, and that she should be his queen.
"Ah! sir," said she, "I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of.
I will answer you in plain and holy innocence. I am your wife if
you will marry me."
Prospero prevented Ferdinand's thanks by appearing visible before
them.
"Fear nothing, my child," said he, "I have overheard and
approve of all you have said. And, Ferdinand, if I have too severely
used you, I will make you rich amends by giving you my daughter.
All your vexations were but trials of your love, and you have
nobly stood the test. Then as my gift, which your true love has
worthily purchased, take my daughter, and do not smile that I boast
she is above all praise." He then, telling them that he had business
that required his presence, desired that they would sit down and
talk together until he returned; and this command Miranda seemed
not at all disposed to disobey.
When Prospero left them, he called his spirit Ariel, who quickly
appeared before him, eager to relate what he had done with Prospero's
brother and the king of Naples. Ariel said he had left them
almost out of their senses with fear, at the strange things he had
caused them to see and hear. When fatigued with wandering about,
and famished for want of food, he had suddenly set before them
a delicious banquet, and then, just as they were going to eat, he
appeared visible before them in the shape of a harpy, a voracious
monster with wings, and the feast vanished away. Then, to their
utter amazement, this seeming harpy spoke to them, reminding them
of their cruelty in driving Prospero from his dukedom, and leaving
him and his infant daughter to perish in the sea, saying, that
for this cause these terrors were suffered to afflict them.
The king of Naples and Antonio the false brother repented
the injustice they had done to Prospero; and Ariel told his master
that he was certain their penitence was sincere, and that he, though
a spirit, could not but pity them.
"Then bring them hither, Ariel," said Prospero: "if you, who
are but a spirit, feel for their distress, shall not I, who am a
human being like themselves, have compassion on them? Bring them
quickly, my dainty Ariel."
Ariel soon returned with the king, Antonio, and old Gonzalo in
their train, who had followed him, wondering at the wild music
he played in the air to draw them on to his master's presence.
This Gonzalo was the same who had so kindly provided Prospero
formerly with books and provisions, when his wicked brother left
him, as he thought, to perish in an open boat in the sea.
Grief and terror had so stupefied their senses that they did not
know Prospero. He first discovered himself to the good old Gonzalo,
calling him the preserver of his life; and then his brother and
the king knew that he was the injured Prospero.
Antonio, with tears and sad words of sorrow and true repentance,
implored his brother's forgiveness; and the king expressed his
sincere remorse for having assisted Antonio to depose his brother,
and Prospero forgave them; and, upon their engaging to restore his
dukedom, he said to the king of Naples, "I have a gift in store
for you, too;" and opening a door, showed him his son Ferdinand
playing at chess with Miranda.
Nothing could exceed the joy of the father and the son at this
unexpected meeting, for they each thought the other drowned in
the storm.
"O wonder!" said Miranda, "what noble creatures these are!
It must surely be a brave world that has such people in it."
The king of Naples was almost as much astonished at the beauty
and excellent graces of the young Miranda as his son had been.
"Who is this maid?" said he; "she seems the goddess that has
parted us, and brought us thus together." "No, sir," answered
Ferdinand, smiling to find his father had fallen into the same
mistake that he had done when he first saw Miranda, "she is a mortal,
but by immortal Providence she is mine; I chose her when I could
not ask you, my father, for your consent, not thinking you were
alive. She is the daughter to this Prospero, who is the famous duke
of Milan, of whose renown I have heard so much, but never saw him
till now; of him I have received a new life; he has made himself
to me a second father, giving me this dear lady."
"Then I must be her father," said the king; "but oh! how oddly
will it sound, that I must ask my child forgiveness."
"No more of that," said Prospero: "let us not remember our
troubles past, since they so happily have ended." And then Prospero
embraced his brother, and again assured him of his forgiveness;
and said that a wise, overruling Providence had permitted that
he should be driven from his poor dukedom of Milan, that his
daughter might inherit the crown of Naples, for that by their
meeting in this desert island, it had happened that the king's son
had loved Miranda.
These kind words which Prospero spoke, meaning to comfort his
brother, so rilled Antonio with shame and remorse that he wept
and was unable to speak; and the kind old Gonzalo wept to see
this joyful reconciliation, and prayed for blessings on the young
couple.
Prospero now told them that their ship was safe in the harbor,
and the sailors all on board her, and that he and his daughter
would accompany them home the next morning. "In the meantime,"
says he, "partake of such refreshments as my poor cave affords;
and for your evening's entertainment I will relate the history
of my life from my first landing in this desert island." He then
called for Caliban to prepare some food, and set the cave in order;
and the company were astonished at the uncouth form and the savage
appearance of this ugly monster, who (Prospero said) was the
only attendant he had to wait upon him.
Before Prospero left the island, he dismissed Ariel from his service,
to the great joy of that lively little spirit, who, though he had
been a faithful servant to his master, was always longing to enjoy
his free liberty, to wander uncontrolled in the air, like a wild bird,
under green trees, among pleasant fruits and sweet-smelling flowers.
"My quaint Ariel," said Prospero to the little sprite when he
made him free, "I shall miss you; yet you shall have your freedom."
"Thank you, my dear master," said Ariel; "but give me leave to attend
your ship home with prosperous gales, before you bid farewell to the
assistance of your faithful spirit; and then, master, when I am free,
how merrily shall I live!" Here Ariel sung this pretty song:
"Where the bee sucks, there sack I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."
Prospero then buried deep in the earth his magical books and
wand, for he was resolved never more to make use of the magic
art And having thus overcome his enemies, and being reconciled
to his brother and the king of Naples, nothing now remained to
complete his happiness but to revisit his native land, to take possession
of his dukedom, and to witness the happy nuptials of his
daughter Miranda and Prince Ferdinand, which the king said should
be instantly celebrated with great splendor on their return to Naples.
At which place, under the safe convoy of the spirit Ariel, they, after
a pleasant voyage, soon arrived.
DIDACTIC STORIES
THE PURPLE JAR
Maria Edgeworth
Rosamond, a little girl of about seven years old, was walking with
her mother in the streets of London. As she passed along, she
looked in at the windows of several shops, and she saw a great
variety of different sorts of things, of which she did not know the
use, or even the names. She wished to stop to look at them; but
there was a great number of people in the streets, and a great many
carts and carriages and wheelbarrows, and she was afraid to let go
her mother's hand.
"Oh! mother, how happy I should be," said she, as she passed a
toy-shop, "if I had all these pretty things!"
"What, all! Do you wish for them all, Rosamond?"
"Yes, mamma, all."
As she spoke, they came to a milliner's shop; the windows were
hung with ribbons, and lace, and festoons of artificial flowers.
"Oh! mamma, what beautiful roses! Won't you buy some of
them?"
"No, my dear."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want them, my dear."
They went a little farther, and they came to another shop, which
caught Rosamond's eye. It was a jeweler's shop; and there were a
great many pretty baubles, ranged in drawers behind glass.
"Mamma, you'll buy some of these?"
"Which of them, Rosamond?"
"Which? I don't know which; but any of them, for they are all
pretty."
"Yes, they are all pretty; but of what use would they be to
me?"
"Use! Oh, I'm sure you could find some use or other, if you
would only buy them first."
"But I would rather find out the use first."
Rosamond was very sorry that her mother wanted nothing. Presently,
however, they came to a shop, which appeared to her far
more beautiful than the rest. It was a chemist's shop; but she did
not know that.
"Oh, mother! oh!" cried she, pulling her mother's hand.
"Look! look! blue, green, red, yellow, and purple! Oh, mamma,
what beautiful things! Won't you buy some of these?"
Still her mother answered as before, "What use would they be to
me, Rosamond?"
"You might put flowers in them, mamma, and they would look
so pretty on the chimney-piece. I wish I had one of them."
"You have a flower-vase," said her mother; "and that is not for
flowers."
"But I could use it for a flower-vase, mamma, you know."
"Perhaps if you were to see it nearer, if you were to examine it,
you might be disappointed."
"No, indeed; I'm sure I should not. I should like it exceedingly."
Rosamond kept her head turned to look at the purple vase till she
could see it no longer.
"Then, mother," said she, after a pause, "perhaps you have no
money."
"Yes, I have."
"Dear me! if I had money, I would buy roses, and boxes, and
purple flower-pots, and everything." Rosamond was obliged to
pause in the midst of her speech.
"Oh, mamma, would you stop a minute for me? I have got a
stone in my shoe; it hurts me very much."
"How comes there to be a stone in your shoe?"
"Because of this great hole, mamma--it comes in there: my
shoes are quite worn out; I wish you'd be so very good as to give me
another pair."
"Nay, Rosamond, but I have not money enough to buy shoes,
and flower-pots, and boxes, and everything."
Rosamond thought that was a great pity. But now her foot, which
had been hurt by the stone, began to give her so much pain that she
was obliged to hop every other step, and she could think of nothing
else. They came to a shoemaker's shop soon afterwards.
"There! there! mamma, there are shoes--there are little shoes
that would just fit me; and you know shoes would be really of use
to me."
"Yes, so they would, Rosamond. Come in."
She followed her mother into the shop.
Mr. Sole, the shoemaker, had a great many customers, and his
shop was full, so they were obliged to wait.
"Well, Rosamond," said her mother, "you don't think this shop
so pretty as the rest?"
"No, not nearly; it's black and dark, and there are nothing but
shoes all round; and besides, there's a very disagreeable smell."
"That smell is the smell of new leather."
"Is it? Oh!" said Rosamond, looking round, "there is a pair
of little shoes; they'll just fit me, I'm sure."
"Perhaps they might, but you cannot be sure till you have tried
them on, any more than you can be quite sure that you should like
the purple vase _exceedingly_, till you have examined it more
attentively."
"Why, I don't know about the shoes, certainly, till I've tried; but,
mamma, I'm quite sure I should like the flower-pot."
"Well, which would you rather have, that jar, or a pair of shoes?
I will buy either for you."
"Dear mamma, thank you--but if you could buy both?"
"No, not both."
"Then the jar, if you please."
"But I should tell you that I shall not give you another pair of
shoes this month."
"This month! that's a very long time indeed. You can't think
how these hurt me. I believe I'd better have the new shoes--but
yet, that purple flower-pot--Oh, indeed, mamma, these shoes are
not so very, very bad; I think I might wear them a little longer;
and the month will soon be over: I can make them last to the end of
the month, can't I? Don't you think so, mamma?"
"Nay, my dear, I want you to think for yourself: you will have
time enough to consider about it whilst I speak to Mr. Sole about my
boots."
Mr. Sole was by this time at leisure; and whilst her mother was
speaking to him, Rosamond stood in profound meditation, with one
shoe on, and the other in her hand.
"Well, my dear, have you decided?"
"Mamma!--yes--I believe. If you please--I should like the
flower-pot; that is, if you won't think me very silly, mamma."
"Why, as to that, I can't promise you, Rosamond; but when you
are to judge for yourself, you should choose what will make you the
happiest; and then it would not signify who thought you silly."
"Then, mamma, if that's all, I'm sure the flower-pot would make
me the happiest," said she, putting on her old shoe again; "so I
choose the flower-pot."
"Very well, you shall have it: clasp your shoe and come home."
Rosamond clasped her shoe, and ran after her mother: it was not
long before the shoe came down at the heel, and many times was she
obliged to stop, to take the stones out of her shoe, and often was
she obliged to hop with pain; but still the thoughts of the purple
flower-pot prevailed, and she persisted in her choice.
When they came to the shop with the large window, Rosamond
felt her joy redouble, upon hearing her mother desire the servant,
who was with them, to buy the purple jar, and bring it home. He
had other commissions, so he did not return with them. Rosamond,
as soon as she got in, ran to gather all her own flowers, which she
had in a corner of her mother's garden.
"I'm afraid they'll be dead before the flower-pot comes, Rosamond,"
said her mother to her, when she was coming in with the
flowers in her lap.
"No, indeed, mamma, it will come home very soon, I dare say;
and shan't I be very happy putting them into the purple flower-pot?"
"I hope so, my dear."
The servant was much longer returning home than Rosamond had expected;
but at length he came, and brought with him the long-wished-for jar.
The moment it was set down upon the table, Rosamond ran up with an
exclamation of joy.
"I may have it now, mamma?"
"Yes, my dear, it is yours."
Rosamond poured the flowers from her lap upon the carpet, and
seized the purple flower-pot. "Oh, dear mother!" cried she, as
soon as she had taken off the top, "but there's something dark in it
--it smells very disagreeable: what is in it? I didn't want this
black stuff."
"Nor I neither, my dear."
"But what shall I do with it, mamma?"
"That I cannot tell."
"But it will be of no use to me, mamma."
"That I can't help."
"But I must pour it out, and fill the flower-pot with water."
"That's as you please, my dear."
"Will you lend me a bowl to pour it into, mamma?"
"That was more than I promised you, my dear; but I will lend
you a bowl."
The bowl was produced, and Rosamond proceeded to empty the
purple vase. But what was her surprise and disappointment, when it
was entirely empty, to find that it was no longer a _purple_ vase!
It was a plain white glass jar, which had appeared to have that
beautiful color merely from the liquor with which it had been filled.
Little Rosamond burst into tears.
"Why should you cry, my dear?" said her mother; "it will be
of as much use to you now as ever for a flower-vase."
"But it won't look so pretty on the chimney-piece. I am sure, if I
had known that it was not really purple, I should not have wished
to have it so much."
"But didn't I tell you that you had not examined it, and that
perhaps you would be disappointed?"
"And so I am disappointed indeed. I wish I had believed you
beforehand. Now I had much rather have the shoes, for I shall not
be able to walk all this month: even walking home that little way
hurt me exceedingly. Mamma, I'll give you the flower-pot back
again, and that purple stuff and all, if you'll only give me the
shoes."
"No, Rosamond, you must abide by your own choice; and now the
best thing you can possibly do is to bear your disappointment with
good-humor."
"I will bear it as well as I can," said Rosamond, wiping her eyes,
and she began slowly and sorrowfully to fill the vase with flowers.
But Rosamond's disappointment did not end here: many were the
difficulties and distresses into which her imprudent choice brought
her before the end of the month. Every day her shoes grew worse
and worse, till at last she could neither run, dance, jump, nor walk
in them. Whenever Rosamond was called to see anything, she was
pulling up her shoes at the heels, and was sure to be too late. Whenever
her mother was going out to walk, she could not take Rosamond
with her, for Rosamond had no soles to her shoes; and at
length, on the very last day of the month, it happened that her father
proposed to take her and her brother to a glass-house which she had
long wished to see. She was very happy; but, when she was quite
ready, had her hat and gloves on, and was making haste downstairs
to her brother and father, who were waiting at the hall door for her,
the shoe dropped off; she put it on again in a great hurry; but, as
she was going across the hall, her father turned round.
"Why are you walking slipshod? no one must walk slipshod with
me. Why, Rosamond," said he, looking at her shoes with disgust,
"I thought that you were always neat. Go, I cannot take you with
me."
Rosamond colored and retired. "Oh, mamma," said she, as she
took off her hat, "how I wish that I had chosen the shoes! they
would have been of so much more use to me than that jar: however,
I am sure--no, not quite sure--but I hope I shall be wiser another
time."
DIFFERENCE AND AGREEMENT; OR, SUNDAY MORNING
Dr. John Aiken and Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld
It was Sunday morning. All the bells were ringing for church,
and the streets were filled with people moving in all directions.
Here, numbers of well-dressed persons and a long train of charity
children were thronging in at the wide doors of a large, handsome
church. There, a smaller number, almost equally gay in dress, were
entering an elegant meeting-house. Up one alley, a Roman Catholic
congregation was turning into their retired chapel, every one crossing
himself with a finger dipped in holy water, as he went in. The
opposite side of the street was covered with a train of Quakers,
distinguished by their plain and neat attire and sedate aspect, who
walked without ceremony into a room as plain as themselves, and
took their seats, the men on one side, and the women on the other,
in silence. A spacious building was filled with an overflowing
crowd of Methodists, most of them meanly habited, but decent and
serious in demeanor; while a small society of Baptists in the
neighborhood quietly occupied their humble place of assembly.
Presently the different services began. The churches resounded
with the solemn organ, and with the indistinct murmurs of a large
body of people following the minister in responsive prayers. From
the meeting were heard the slow psalm, and the single voice of
the leader of their devotions. The Roman Catholic chapel was enlivened
by strains of music, the tinkling of a small bell, and a perpetual
change of service and ceremonial. A profound silence and
unvarying look and posture announced the self-recollection and mental
devotion of the Quakers.
Mr. Ambrose led his son Edwin round all these different assemblies
as a spectator. Edwin viewed everything with great attention,
and was often impatient to inquire of his father the meaning of
what he saw; but Mr. Ambrose would not suffer him to disturb
any of the congregations even by a whisper. When they had gone
through the whole, Edwin found a great number of questions to put
to his father, who explained everything to him in the best manner
he could. At length says Edwin:
"But why cannot all these people agree to go to the same place,
and worship God the same way?"
"And why should they agree?" replied his father. "Do not you
see that people differ in a hundred other things? Do they all dress
alike, and eat and drink alike, and keep the same hours, and use the
same diversions?"
"Ay--but those are things in which they have a right to do as
they please."
"And they have a right, too, to worship God as they please. It
is their own business, and concerns none but themselves."
"But has not God ordered particular ways of worshiping him?"
"He has directed the mind and spirit with which he is to be worshiped,
but not the particular form and manner. That is left for
every one to choose, according as suits his temper and opinions. All
these people like their own way best, and why should they leave it
for the choice of another? Religion is one of the things in which
_mankind were made to differ_."
The several congregations now began to be dismissed, and the street was
again overspread with persons of all the different sects, going
promiscuously to their respective homes. It chanced that a poor man
fell down in the street in a fit of apoplexy, and lay for dead. His
wife and children stood round him crying and lamenting in the bitterest
distress. The beholders immediately flocked round, and, with looks and
expressions of the warmest compassion, gave their help. A Churchman
raised the man from the ground by lifting him under the arms, while a
Dissenter held his head and wiped his face with his handkerchief. A
Roman Catholic lady took out her smelling-bottle, and assiduously
applied it to his nose. A Methodist ran for a doctor. A Quaker
supported and comforted the woman; and a Baptist took care of the
children.
Edwin and his father were among the spectators. "Here," said
Mr. Ambrose, "is a thing in which _mankind were made to agree_."
EYES, AND NO EYES; OR, THE ART OF SEEING
Dr. John Aiken and Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld
"Well, Robert, where have you been walking this afternoon?"
said Mr. Andrews to one of his pupils at the close of a holiday.
_R_. I have been, sir, to Broom Heath, and so around by the
windmill upon Camp Mount, and home through the meadows by the
river side.
_Mr. A_. Well, that's a pleasant round.
_R_. I thought it very dull, sir; I scarcely met with a single
person. I had rather by half have gone along the turnpike road.
_Mr. A_. Why, if seeing men and horses is your object, you would,
indeed, be better entertained on the high road. But did you see William?
_R_. We set out together, but he lagged behind in the lane, so I
walked on, and left him.
_Mr. A_. That was a pity. He would have been company for
you.
_R_. O, he is so tedious, always stopping to look at this thing
and that! I had rather walk alone. I dare say he is not got home
yet.
_Mr. A_. Here he comes. Well, William, where have you been?
_W_. O, sir, the pleasantest walk! I went all over Broom Heath,
and so up to the mill at the top of the hill, and then down among
the green meadows by the side of the river.
_Mr. A_. Why, that is just the round Robert has been taking, and
he complains of its dullness, and prefers the high road.
_W_. I wonder at that. I am sure I hardly took a step that did
not delight me, and I brought home my handkerchief full of
curiosities.
_Mr. A_. Suppose, then, you give us some account of what amused
you so much. I fancy it will be as new to Robert as to me.
_W_. I will, sir. The lane leading to the heath, you know, is
close and sandy, so I did not mind it much, but made the best of my
way. However, I spied a curious thing enough in the hedge. It was an
old crab-tree, out of which grew a great bunch of something green,
quite different from the tree itself. Here is a branch of it.
_Mr. A_. Ah! this is mistletoe, a plant of great fame for the
use made of it by the Druids of old in their religious rites and
incantations. It bears a very slimy white berry, of which birdlime
may be made, whence its Latin name of _viscus_, It is one of
those plants which do not grow in the ground by a root of their own,
but fix themselves upon other plants; whence they have been humorously
styled parasitical, as being hangers-on or dependants. It was the
mistletoe of the oak that the Druids particularly honored.
_W_. A little further on I saw a green woodpecker fly to a tree,
and run up the trunk like a cat.
_Mr. A_. That was to seek for insects in the bark, on which they
live. They bore holes with their strong bills for that purpose, and
do much damage to the trees by it.
_W_. What beautiful birds they are!
_Mr. A_. Yes; they have been called from their color and size,
the English parrot.
_W_. When I got upon the open heath, how charming it was! The
air seemed so fresh, and the prospect on every side so free and
unbounded! Then it was all covered with gay flowers, many of which
I had never observed before. There were at least three kinds of
heath (I have got them in my handkerchief here), and gorse, and
broom, and bell-flower, and many others of all colors, that I will
beg you presently to tell me the names of.
_Mr. A_. That I will readily.
_W_. I saw, too, several birds that were new to me. There was
a pretty grayish one, of the size of a lark, that was hopping about
some great stones; and when he flew he showed a great deal of white
above his tail.
_Mr. A_. That was a wheat-ear. They are reckoned very delicious
birds to eat, and frequent the open downs in Sussex, and some other
counties, in great numbers.
_W_. There was a flock of lapwings upon a marshy part of the
heath, that amused me much. As I came near them, some of them
kept flying round and round just over my head, and crying "pewit"
so distinctly one might almost fancy they spoke. I thought I should
have caught one of them, for he flew as if one of his wings was
broken, and often tumbled close to the ground; but, as I came near,
he always made a shift to get away.
_Mr. A_. Ha, ha! you were finely taken in, then! This was all an
artifice of the bird's to entice you away from its nest; for they
build upon the bare ground, and their nests would easily be observed,
did they not draw off the attention of intruders by their loud
cries and counterfeit lameness.
_W_. I wish I had known that, for he led me a long chase, often
over shoes in water. However, it was the cause of my falling in with
an old man and a boy who were cutting and piling up turf for fuel,
and I had a good deal of talk with them about the manner of preparing
the turf, and the price it sells at. They gave me, too, a
creature I never saw before,--a young viper, which they had just
killed, together with its dam. I have seen several common snakes,
but this is thicker in proportion and of a darker color than they are.
_Mr. A_. True. Vipers frequent those turfy boggy grounds, and I
have known several turf-cutters bitten by them.
_W_. They are very venomous, are they not?
_Mr. A_. Enough so to make their wounds painful and dangerous,
though they seldom prove fatal.
_W_. Well--I then took my course up to the windmill on the
mount. I climbed up the steps of the mill in order to get a better
view of the country round. What an extensive prospect! I counted
fifteen church steeples, and I saw several gentlemen's houses peeping
out from the midst of green woods and plantations; and I could
trace the windings of the river all along the low grounds, till it was
lost behind a ridge of hills. But I'll tell you what I mean to do,
sir, if you will give me leave.
_Mr. A_. What is that?
_W_. I will go again, and take with me Carey's county map, by
which I shall probably be able to make out most of the places.
_Mr. A_. You shall have it, and I will go with you, and take my
pocket spying-glass.
_W_. I shall be very glad of that. Well--a thought struck me,
that as the hill is called Camp Mount, there might probably be some
remains of ditches and mounds with which I have read that camps
were surrounded. And I really believe I discovered something of
that sort running round one side of the mount.
_Mr. A_. Very likely you might. I know antiquaries have described
such remains as existing there, which some suppose to be
Roman, others Danish. We will examine them further, when we
go.
_W_. From the hill I went straight down to the meadows below,
and walked on the side of a brook that runs into the river. It was
all bordered with reeds and flags, and tall flowering plants, quite
different from those I had seen on the heath. As I was getting
down the bank co reach one of them, I heard something plunge into
the water near me. It was a large water-rat, and I saw it swim
over to the other side, and go into its hole. There were a great
many large dragon-flies all about the stream. I caught one of the
finest, and have him here in a leaf. But how I longed to catch a
bird that I saw hovering over the water, and every now and then
darting down into it! It was all over a mixture of the most beautiful
green and blue, with some orange color. It was somewhat less
than a thrush, and had a large head and bill, and a short tail.
_Mr. A_. I can tell you what that bird was--a kingfisher, the
celebrated halcyon of the ancients, about which so many tales are
told. It lives on fish, which it catches in the manner you saw. It
builds in holes in the banks, and is a shy, retired bird, never to be
seen far from the stream where it inhabits.
_W_. I must try to get another sight of him, for I never saw a bird
that pleased me so much. Well--I followed this little brook till
it entered the river, and then took the path that runs along the bank.
On the opposite side I observed several little birds running along the
shore, and making a piping noise. They were brown and white, and
about as big as a snipe.
_Mr. A_. I suppose they were sandpipers, one of the numerous
family of birds that get their living by wading among the shallows,
and picking up worms and insects.
W. There were a great many swallows, too, sporting upon the
surface of the water, that entertained me with their motions. Sometimes
they dashed into the stream; sometimes they pursued one another
so quick, that the eye could scarcely follow them. In one
place, where a high, steep sandbank rose directly above the river, I
observed many of them go in and out of holes with which the bank
was bored full.
_Mr. A_. Those were sand martins, the smallest of our species of
swallows. They are of a mouse-color above, and white beneath.
They make their nests and bring up their young in these holes, which
run a great depth, and by their situation are secure from all
plunderers.
_W_. A little further on I saw a man in a boat, who was catching
eels in an odd way. He had a long pole, with broad iron prongs at
the end, just like Neptune's trident, only there were five instead of
three. This he pushed straight down among the mud, in the deepest
parts of the river, and fetched up the eels, sticking between the
prongs.
_Mr. A_. I have seen this method. It is called spearing of eels.
_W_. While I was looking at him, a heron came flying over my
head, with his large flagging wings. He lit at the next turn of the
river, and I crept softly behind the bank to watch his motions. He
had waded into the water as far as his long legs would carry him,
and was standing with his neck drawn in, looking intently on the
stream. Presently he darted his long bill as quick as lightning into
the water, and drew out a fish, which he swallowed. I saw him
catch another in the same manner. He then took alarm at some
noise I made, and flew away slowly to a wood at some distance,
where he alighted.
_Mr. A_. Probably his nest was there, for herons build upon the
loftiest trees they can find, and sometimes in society together, like
rooks. Formerly, when these birds were valued for the amusement
of hawking, many gentlemen had their heronries, and a few are still
remaining.
_W_. I think they are the largest wild birds we have.
_Mr. A_. They are of a great length and spread of wing, but their
bodies are comparatively small.
_W_. I then turned homeward across the meadows, where I stopped
awhile to look at a large flock of starlings, which kept flying about
at no great distance. I could not tell at first what to make of them;
for they rose all together from the ground as thick as a swarm of
bees, and formed themselves into a kind of black cloud, hovering
over the field. After taking a short round, they settled again, and
presently rose again in the same manner. I dare say there were
hundreds of them.
_Mr. A_. Perhaps so; for in the fenny countries their flocks are
so numerous, as to break down whole acres of reeds by settling on
them. This disposition of starlings to fly in close swarms was observed
even by Homer, who compares the foe flying from one of his heroes to a
_cloud_ of stares retiring dismayed at the approach of the hawk.
_W_. After I had left the meadows, I crossed the corn-fields in
the way to our house, and passed close by a deep marle pit. Looking
into it, I saw in one of the sides a cluster of what I took to be
shells; and upon going down, I picked up a clod of marle, which
was quite full of them; but how sea-shells could get there, I cannot
imagine.
_Mr. A_. I do not wonder at your surprise, since many philosophers
have been much perplexed to account for the same appearance. It is not
uncommon to find great quantities of shells and relics of marine
animals even in the bowels of high mountains, very remote from the sea.
They are certainly proofs that the earth was once in a very different
state from what it is at present; but in what manner and how long ago
these changes took place can only be guessed at.
_W_. I got to the high field next our house just as the sun was
setting, and I stood looking at it till it was quite lost. What a
glorious sight! The clouds were tinged purple and crimson and
yellow of all shades and hues, and the clear sky varied from blue to
a fine green at the horizon. But how large the sun appears just as it
sets! I think it seems twice as big as when it is overhead.
_Mr. A_. It does so; and you may probably have observed the
same apparent enlargement of the moon at its rising.
_W_. I have; but pray what is the reason of this?
_Mr. A_. It is an optical deception, depending upon principles
which I cannot well explain to you till you know more of that
branch of science. But what a number of new ideas this afternoon's
walk has afforded you! I do not wonder that you found it
amusing; it has been very instructive, too. Did _you_ see nothing
of all these sights, Robert?
_R_. I saw some of them, but I did not take particular notice of
them.
_Mr. A_. Why not?
_R_. I don't know. I did not care about them, and I made the
best of my way home.
_Mr. A_. That would have been right if you had been sent of a
message; but as you only walked for amusement, it would have been
wiser to have sought out as many sources of it as possible. But so
it is--one man walks through the world with his eyes open, and
another with them shut; and upon this difference depends all the
superiority of knowledge the one acquires above the other. I have
known sailors, who had been in all the quarters of the world, and
could tell you nothing but the signs of the tippling-houses they
frequented in different ports, and the price and quality of the liquor.
On the other hand, a Franklin could not cross the Channel, without
making some observations useful to mankind. While many a vacant,
thoughtless youth is whirled throughout Europe without gaining
a single idea worth crossing a street for, the observing eye and
inquiring mind find matter of improvement and delight in every
ramble in town or country. Do _you_, then, William, continue to
make use of your eyes; and _you_, Robert, learn that eyes were
given you to use.
ANIMAL SKETCHES AND STORIES
RAB AND HIS FRIENDS
John Brown
Four-and-thirty years ago, Bob Ainslie and I were coming up Infirmary
Street from the High School, our heads together, and our arms
intertwisted, as only lovers and boys know how, or why.
When we got to the top of the street, and turned north, we espied a
crowd at the Tron Church. "A dog-fight!" shouted Bob, and was off; and
so was I, both of us all but praying that it might not be over before
we got up! And is not this boy-nature? and human nature too? and don't
we all wish a house on fire not to be out before we see it? Dogs like
fighting; old Isaac says they "delight" in it, and for the best of all
reasons; and boys are not cruel because they like to see the fight.
They see three of the great cardinal virtues of dog or man--courage,
endurance, and skill--in intense action. This is very different from a
love of making dogs fight, and enjoying, and aggravating, and making
gain by their pluck. A boy--be he ever so fond himself of fighting, if
he be a good boy, hates and despises all this, but he would have run
off with Bob and me fast enough; it is a natural, and a not wicked
interest, that all boys and men have in witnessing intense energy in
action.
Does any curious and finely-ignorant woman wish to know how Bob's eye
at a glance announced a dog-fight to his brain? He did not, he could
not see the dogs fighting; it was a flash of an inference, a rapid
induction. The crowd round a couple of dogs fighting, is a crowd
masculine mainly, with an occasional active, compassionate woman
fluttering wildly round the outside, and using her tongue and her hands
freely upon the men, as so many "brutes"; it is a crowd annular,
compact, and mobile; a crowd centripetal, having its eyes and its heads
all bent downwards and inwards, to one common focus.
Well, Bob and I are up, and find it is not over: a small thoroughbred,
white bull-terrier is busy throttling a large shepherd's dog,
unaccustomed to war, but not to be trifled with. They are hard at it;
the scientific little fellow doing his work in great style, his
pastoral enemy fighting wildly, but with the sharpest of teeth and a
great courage. Science and breeding, however, soon had their own; the
Game Chicken, as the premature Bob called him, working his way up, took
his final grip of poor Yarrow's throat,--and he lay gasping and done
for. His master, a brown, handsome, big young shepherd from Tweedsmuir,
would have liked to have knocked down any man, would "drink up Esil, or
eat a crocodile," for that part, if he had a chance: it was no use
kicking the little dog; that would only make him hold the closer. Many
were the means shouted out in mouthfuls, of the best possible ways of
ending it. "Water!" but there was none near, and many cried for it who
might have got it from the well at Blackfriars Wynd. "Bite the tail!"
and a large, vague, benevolent, middle-aged man, more desirous than
wise, with some struggle got the bushy end of _Yarrow's_ tail into
his ample mouth, and bit it with all his might. This was more than
enough for the much-enduring, much perspiring shepherd, who, with a
gleam of joy over his broad visage, delivered a terrific facer upon our
large, vague, benevolent, middle-aged friend,--who went down like a
shot.
Still the Chicken holds; death not far off. "Snuff! a pinch of snuff!"
observed a calm, highly-dressed young buck, with an eyeglass in his
eye. "Snuff, indeed!" growled the angry crowd, affronted and glaring.
"Snuff, a pinch of snuff!" again observes the buck, but with more
urgency; whereon were produced several open boxes, and from a mull
which may have been at Culloden, he took a pinch, knelt down, and
presented it to the nose of the Chicken. The laws of physiology and of
snuff take their course; the Chicken sneezes, and Yarrow is free!
The young pastoral giant stalks off with Yarrow in his arms,--
comforting him.
But the Bull Terrier's blood is up, and his soul unsatisfied; he grips
the first dog he meets, and discovering she is not a dog, in Homeric
phrase, he makes a brief sort of amende, and is off. The boys, with Bob
and me at their head, are after him: down Niddry Street he goes, bent
on mischief; up the Cowgate like an arrow--Bob and I, and our small
men, panting behind.
There, under the single arch of the South Bridge, is a huge mastiff,
sauntering down the middle of the causeway, as if with his hands in his
pockets: he is old, gray, brindled, as big as a little Highland bull,
and has the Shakespearian dewlaps shaking as he goes.
The Chicken makes straight at him, and fastens on his throat. To our
astonishment, the great creature does nothing but stand still, hold
himself up, and roar--yes, roar; a long, serious, remonstrative roar.
How is this? Bob and I are up to them. _He is muzzled!_
The bailies had proclaimed a general muzzling, and his master, studying
strength and economy mainly, had encompassed his huge jaws in a homemade
apparatus, constructed out of the leather of some ancient
_breechin_. His mouth was open as far as it could; his lips curled
up in rage--a sort of terrible grin; his teeth gleaming, ready, from
out the darkness; the strap across his mouth tense as a bowstring; his
whole frame stiff with indignation and surprise; his roar asking us all
round, "Did you ever see the like of this?" He looked a statue of anger
and astonishment, done in Aberdeen granite.
We soon had a crowd: the Chicken held on. "A knife!" cried Bob; and a
cobbler gave him his knife: you know the kind of knife, worn away
obliquely to a point, and always keen. I put its edge to the tense
leather; it ran before it; and then!--one sudden jerk of that enormous
head, a sort of dirty mist about his mouth, no noise,--and the bright
and fierce little fellow is dropped, limp and dead. A solemn pause:
this was more than any of us had bargained for. I turned the little
fellow over, and saw he was quite dead: the mastiff had taken him by
the small of the back like a rat, and broken it.
He looked down at his victim appeased, ashamed, and amazed; snuffed him
all over; stared at him, and taking a sudden thought, turned round and
trotted off. Bob took the dead dog up, and said, "John, we'll bury him
after tea." "Yes," said I, and was off after the mastiff. He made up
the Cowgate at a rapid swing; he had forgotten some engagement. He
turned up the Candlemaker Row, and stopped at the Harrow Inn.
There was a carrier's cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient,
black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking
about angrily for something. "Rab, ye thief!" said he, aiming a kick at
my great friend, who drew cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with
more agility than dignity, and watching his master's eye, slunk
dismayed under the cart,--his ears down, and as much as he had of tail
down too.
What a man this must be--thought I--to whom my tremendous hero turns
tail! The carrier saw the muzzle hanging, cut and useless, from his
neck, and I eagerly told him the story, which Bob and I always thought,
and still think, Homer, or King David, or Sir Walter, alone were worthy
to rehearse. The severe little man was mitigated, and condescended to
say, "Rab, ma man, puir Rabbie,"--whereupon the stump of a tail rose
up, the ears were cocked, the eyes filled, and were comforted; the two
friends were reconciled. "Hupp!" and a stroke of the whip were given to
Jess; and off went the three.
Bob and I buried the Game Chicken that night (we had not much of a tea)
in the back-green of his house in Melville Street, No. 17, with
considerable gravity and silence; and being at the time in the Iliad,
and, like all boys, Trojans, we of course called him Hector.
* * * * *
Six years have passed,--a long time for a boy and a dog: Bob Ainslie is
off to the wars; I am a medical student, and clerk at Minto House
Hospital.
Rab I saw almost every week, on the Wednesday; and we had much pleasant
intimacy. I found the way to his heart by frequent scratching of his
huge head, and an occasional bone. When I did not notice him he would
plant himself straight before me, and stand wagging that bud of a tail,
and looking up, with his head a little to the one side. His master I
occasionally saw; he used to call me "Maister John," but was laconic as
any Spartan.
One fine October afternoon, I was leaving the hospital, when I saw the
large gate open, and in walked Rab, with that great and easy saunter of
his. He looked as if taking general possession of the place; like the
Duke of Wellington entering a subdued city, satiated with victory and
peace. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart; and in
it a woman carefully wrapped up,--the carrier leading the horse
anxiously, and looking back. When he saw me, James (for his name was
James Noble) made a curt and grotesque "boo," and said, "Maister John,
this is the mistress; she's got a trouble in her breest--some kind o'
an income we're thinkin'."
By this time I saw the woman's face; she was sitting on a sack filled
with straw, her husband's plaid round her, and his big-coat, with its
large white metal buttons, over her feet.
I never saw a more unforgetable face--pale, serious, _lonely_
[Footnote: It is not easy giving this look by one word; it was
expressive of her being so much of her life alone.] delicate, sweet,
without being at all what we call fine. She looked sixty, and had on a
mutch, white as snow, with its black ribbon; her silvery, smooth hair
setting off her dark-gray eyes--eyes such as one sees only twice or
thrice in a lifetime, full of suffering, full also of the overcoming of
it: her eyebrows
"Black brows, they say,
Become some women best, so that there be not
Too much hair there, _but in a semicircle,
Or a half-moon made with a pen."
--A Winter's Tale_
black and delicate, and her mouth firm, patient, and contented, which
few mouths ever are.
As I have said, I never saw a more beautiful countenance, or one more
subdued to settled quiet. "Ailie," said James, "this is Maister John,
the young doctor; Rab's freend, ye ken. We often speak aboot you,
doctor." She smiled, and made a movement, but said nothing; and
prepared to come down, putting her plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon,
in all his glory, been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace
gate, he could not have done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like
a gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down
Ailie his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weather-beaten,
keen, worldly face to hers--pale, subdued, and beautiful--was something
wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled, but ready for anything
that might turn up,--were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even
me. Ailie and he seemed great friends.
"As I was sayin', she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor;
wull ye tak' a look at it?" We walked into the consulting-room, all
four; Rab grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential if cause
could be shown, willing also to be the reverse, on the same terms.
Ailie sat down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her
neck, and, without a word, showed me her right breast. I looked at and
examined it carefully,--she and James watching me, and Rab eyeing all
three. What could I say? there it was, that had once been so soft, so
shapely, so white, so gracious and bountiful, so "full of all blessed
conditions,"--hard as a stone, a center of horrid pain, making that
pale face, with its gray, lucid, reasonable eyes, and its sweet
resolved mouth, express the full measure of suffering overcome. Why was
that gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean and lovable, condemned by God
to bear such a burden?
I got her away to bed. "May Rab and me bide?" said James. "_You_
may; and Rab, if he will behave himself." "I'se warrant he's do that,
doctor"; and in slunk the faithful beast. I wish you could have seen
him. There are no such dogs now. He belonged to a lost tribe. As I have
said, he was brindle, and gray like Rubislaw granite, his hair short,
hard, and close, like a lion's; his body thick set, like a little bull--
a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. He must have been ninety
pounds' weight, at the least; he had a large blunt head, his muzzle
black as night, his mouth blacker than any night, a tooth or two--being
all he had--gleaming out of his jaws of darkness. His head was scarred
with the records of old wounds, a sort of series of fields of battle
all over it; one eye out, one ear cropped as close as was Archbishop
Leighton's father's; the remaining eye had the power of two; and above
it, and in constant communication with it, Was a tattered rag of an ear
which was forever unfurling itself, like an old flag; and then that bud
of a tail, about one inch long, if it could in any sense be said to be
long, being as broad as long--the mobility, the instantaneousness of
that bud were very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings
and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it,
were of the oddest and swiftest.
Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size; and having fought his
way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his
own line as Julius Caesar or the Duke of Wellington, and had the
gravity [Footnote: A Highland game-keeper, when asked why a certain
terrier, of singular pluck, was so much more solemn than the other
dogs, said, "Oh, Sir, life's full o' sairiousness to him--he just never
can get enuff o' fechtin'."] of all great fighters.
You must have often observed the likeness of certain men to certain
animals, and of certain dogs to men. Now, I never looked at Rab without
thinking of the great Baptist preacher, Andrew Fuller. [Footnote:
Fuller was, in early life, when a farmer lad at Soham, famous as a
boxer; not quarrelsome, but not without "the stern delight" a man of
strength and courage feels in their exercise. Dr. Charles Stewart, of
Dunearn, whose rare gifts and graces as a physician, a divine, a
scholar, and a gentleman, live only in the memory of those few who knew
and survive him, liked to tell how Mr. Fuller used to say, that when he
was in the pulpit, and saw a _buirdly_ man come along the passage,
he would instinctively draw himself up, measure his imaginary
antagonist, and forecast how he would deal with him, his hands
meanwhile condensing into fists, and tending to "square." He must have
been a hard hitter if he boxed as he preached--what "The Fancy" would
call "an ugly customer."] The same large, heavy menacing, combative
somber, honest countenance, the same deep inevitable eye, the same
look,--as of thunder asleep, but ready,--neither a dog nor a man to be
trifled with.
Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it
must kill her, and soon. It could be removed--it might never return--it
would give her speedy relief--she should have it done. She curtsied,
looked at James, and said, "When?" "Tomorrow," said the kind surgeon--a
man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that
he and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each
other. The following day, at noon, the students came in hurrying up the
great stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known
blackboard, was a bit of paper fastened by wafers, and many remains of
old wafers beside it. On the paper were the words,--"An operation
today.--J. B. _Clerk_."
Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places: in they crowded, full
of interest and talk. "What's the case?" "Which side is it?"
Don't think them heartless; they are neither better nor worse than you
or I; they get over their professional horrors, and into their proper
work; and in them pity, as an _emotion_, ending in itself or at
best in tears and a long-drawn breath, lessens,--while pity as a
_motive_ is quickened, and gains power and purpose. It is well for
poor human nature that it is so.
The operating theater is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the
cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants
is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager
students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down,
and are dumb, and gaze at her. These rough boys feel the power of her
presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her
mutch, her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, her black
bombazine petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her
carpet-shoes. Behind her was James with Rab. James sat down in the
distance, and took that huge and noble head between his knees. Rab
looked perplexed and dangerous; forever cocking his ear and dropping it
as fast.
Ailie stepped up on a seat, and laid herself on the table, as her
friend the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at
James, shut her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The
operation was at once begun; it was necessarily slow; and chloroform--
one of God's best gifts to his suffering children--was then unknown.
The surgeon did his work. The pale face showed its pain, but was still
and silent. Rab's soul was working within him; he saw that something
strange was going on,--blood flowing from his mistress, and she
suffering; his ragged ear was up, and importunate; he growled and gave
now and then a sharp impatient yelp; he would have liked to have done
something to that man. But James had him firm, and gave him a
_glower_ from time to time, and an intimation of a possible kick;--
all the better for James, it kept his eye and his mind off Ailie.
It is over: she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the
table, looks for James; then turning to the surgeon and the students,
she curtsies,--and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has
behaved ill. The students--all of us--wept like children; the surgeon
happed her up carefully,--and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to
her room. Rab following. We put her to bed. James took off his heavy
shoes, crammed with tackets, heel-capt and toe-capt, and put them
carefully under the table, saying, "Maister John, I'm for nane o' yer
strynge nurse bodies for Ailie. I'll be her nurse, and I'll gang aboot
on my stockin' soles as canny as pussy." And so he did; and handy and
clever, and swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed,
snell, peremptory little man. Everything she got he gave her: he seldom
slept; and often I saw his small shrewd eyes out of the darkness, fixed
on her. As before, they spoke little.
Rab behaved well, never moving, showing us how meek and gentle he could
be, and occasionally, in his sleep, letting us know that he was
demolishing some adversary. He took a walk with me every day, generally
to the Candlemaker Row; but he was somber and mild; declined doing
battle, though some fit cases offered, and indeed submitted to sundry
indignities; and was always very ready to turn, and came faster back,
and trotted up the stair with much lightness, and went straight to that
door.
Jess, the mare, had been sent, with her weather-worn cart, to Howgate,
and had doubtless her own dim and placid meditations and confusions, on
the absence of her master and Rab, and her unnatural freedom from the
road and her cart.
For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed "by the first
intention"; for as James said, "Oor Ailie's skin's ower clean to beil."
The students came in quiet and anxious, and surrounded her bed. She
said she liked to see their young, honest faces. The surgeon dressed
her, and spoke to her in his own short kind way, pitying her through
his eyes, Rab and James outside the circle,--Rab being now reconciled,
and even cordial, and having made up his mind that as yet nobody
required worrying, but, as you may suppose, _semper paratus_.
So far well: but, four days after the operation, my patient had a
sudden and long shivering, a "groosin'," as she called it. I saw her
soon after; her eyes were too bright, her cheek colored; she was
restless, and ashamed of being so; the balance was lost; mischief had
begun. On looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret: her
pulse was rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn't herself,
as she said, and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could.
James did everything, was everywhere; never in the way, never out of
it; Rab subsided under the table into a dark place, and was motionless,
all but his eye, which followed every one. Ailie got worse; began to
wander in her mind, gently; was more demonstrative in her ways to
James, rapid in her questions, and sharp at times. He was vexed, and
said, "She was never that way afore, no, never." For a time she knew
her head was wrong, and was always asking our pardon--the dear gentle
old woman: then delirium set in strong, without pause. Her brain gave
way, and then came that terrible spectacle,
"The intellectual power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way;"
she sang bits of old songs and Psalms, stopping suddenly, mingling the
Psalms of David, and the diviner words of his Son and Lord, with homely
odds and ends and scraps of ballads.
Nothing more touching, or in a sense more strangely beautiful, did I
ever witness. Her tremulous, rapid, affectionate, eager Scotch voice,--
the swift, aimless, bewildered mind, the baffled utterance, the bright
and perilous eye; some wild words, some household cares, something for
James, the names of the dead, Rab called rapidly and in a "fremyt"
voice, and he starting up, surprised, and slinking off as if he were to
blame somehow, or had been dreaming he heard. Many eager questions and
beseechings which James and I could make nothing of, and on which she
seemed to set her all, and then sink back ununderstood. It was very
sad, but better than many things that are not called sad. James hovered
about, put out and miserable, but active and exact as ever; read to
her, when there was a lull, short bits from the Psalms, prose and
meter, chanting the latter in his own rude and serious way, showing
great knowledge of the fit words, bearing up like a man, and doting
over her as his "ain Ailie." "Ailie, ma woman!" "Ma ain bonnie wee
dawtie!"
The end was drawing on: the golden bowl was breaking; the silver cord
was fast being loosed--that _animula, blandula, vagula, hospes,
comesque_, was about to flee. The body and the soul--companions
for sixty years--were being sundered, and taking leave. She was
walking, alone, through the valley of that shadow, into which one day
we must all enter,--and yet she was not alone, for we know whose rod
and staff were comforting her.
One night she had fallen quiet, and as we hoped, asleep; her eyes were
shut. We put down the gas, and sat watching her. Suddenly she sat up in
bed, and taking a bed-gown which was lying on it rolled up, she held it
eagerly to her breast,--to the right side. We could see her eyes bright
with a surprising tenderness and joy, bending over this bundle of
clothes. She held it as a woman holds her sucking child; opening out
her night-gown impatiently, and holding it close, and brooding over it,
and murmuring foolish little words, as over one whom his mother
comforteth, and who sucks and is satisfied. It was pitiful and strange
to see her wasted dying look, keen and yet vague--her immense love.
"Preserve me!" groaned James, giving way. And then she rocked back and
forward, as if to make it sleep, hushing it, and wasting on it her
infinite fondness. "Wae's me, doctor; I declare she's thinkin' it's
that bairn." "What bairn?" "The only bairn we ever had; our wee Mysie,
and she's in the Kingdom forty years and mair." It was plainly true:
the pain in the breast, telling its urgent story to a bewildered,
ruined brain, was misread and mistaken; it suggested to her the
uneasiness of a breast full of milk, and then the child; and so again
once more they were together, and she had her ain wee Mysie in her
bosom.
This was the close. She sank rapidly: the delirium left her; but, as
she whispered, she was "clean silly"; it was the lightening before the
final darkness. After having for some time lain still--her eyes shut,
she said, "James!" He came close to her, and lifting up her calm,
clear, beautiful eyes, she gave him a long look, turned to me kindly
but shortly, looked for Rab but could not see him, then turned to her
husband again, as if she would never leave off looking, shut her eyes
and composed herself. She lay for some time breathing quick, and passed
away so gently, that when we thought she was gone, James, in his
old-fashioned way, held the mirror to her face. After a long pause, one
small spot of dimness was breathed out; it vanished away, and never
returned, leaving the blank clear darkness without a stain. "What is
our life? it is even a vapor, which appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away."
Rab all this time had been full awake and motionless: he came forward
beside us: Ailie's hand which James had held, was hanging down, it was
soaked with his tears; Rab licked it all over carefully, looked at her,
and returned to his place under the table.
James and I sat, I don't know how long, but for some time,--saying
nothing; he started up abruptly, and with some noise went to the table,
and putting his right fore and middle fingers each into a shoe, pulled
them out, and put them on, breaking one of the leather latchets, and
muttering in anger, "I never did the like o' that fore!"
I believe he never did; nor after either. "Rab!" he said roughly, and
pointing with his thumb to the bottom of the bed. Rab leapt up, and
settled himself; his head and eye to the dead face. "Maister John,
ye'll wait for me," said the carrier; and disappeared in the darkness,
thundering downstairs in his heavy shoes. I ran to a front window:
there he was, already round the house, and out at the gate, fleeing
like a shadow.
I was afraid about him, and yet not afraid; so I sat down beside Rab,
and being wearied, fell asleep. I awoke from a sudden noise outside. It
was November, and there had been a heavy fall of snow. Rab was _in
statu quo_; he heard the noise too, and plainly knew it, but never
moved. I looked out; and there, at the gate, in the dim morning--for
the sun was not up, was Jess and the cart,--a cloud of steam rising
from the old mare. I did not see James; he was already at the door, and
came up the stairs and met me. It was less than three hours since he
left, and he must have posted out--who knows how?--to Howgate, full
nine miles off; yoked Jess, and driven her astonished into town. He had
an armful of blankets, and was streaming with perspiration. He nodded
to me, spread out on the floor two pairs of clean old blankets having
at their corners, "A. G., 1794," in large letters in red worsted. These
were the initials of Alison Græme, and James may have looked in at her
from without--himself unseen but not unthought of--when he was "wat,
wat, and weary," and after having walked many a mile over the hills,
may have seen her sitting, while "a' the lave were sleepin'," and by
the firelight working her name on the blankets, for her ain James's
bed.
He motioned Rab down, and taking his wife in his arms, laid her in the
blankets, and happed her carefully and firmly up, leaving the face
uncovered; and then lifting her, he nodded again sharply to me, and
with a resolved but utterly miserable face, strode along the passage,
and downstairs, followed by Rab. I followed with a light; but he didn't
need it. I went out, holding stupidly the candle in my hand in the calm
frosty air; we were soon at the gate. I could have helped him, but I
saw he was not to be meddled with, and he was strong, and did not need
it. He laid her down as tenderly, as safely, as he had lifted her out
ten days before--as tenderly as when he had her first in his arms when
she was only "A. G."--sorted her, leaving that beautiful sealed face
open to the heavens; and then taking Jess by the head, he moved away.
He did not notice me, neither did Rab, who presided behind the cart.
I stood till they passed through the long shadow of the College, and
turned up Nicolson Street. I heard the solitary cart sound through the
streets, and die away and come again; and I returned, thinking of that
company going up Libberton Brae, then along Roslin Muir, the morning
light touching the Pentlands, and making them like on-looking ghosts;
then down the hill through Auchindinny woods, past "haunted
Woodhouselee"; and as daybreak came sweeping up the bleak Lammermuirs,
and fell on his own door, the company would stop, and James would take
the key, and lift Ailie up again, laying her on her own bed, and,
having put Jess up, would return with Rab and shut the door.
James buried his wife, with his neighbors mourning, Rab watching the
proceedings from a distance. It was snow, and that black ragged hole
would look strange in the midst of the swelling spotless cushion of
white. James looked after everything; then rather suddenly fell ill,
and took to bed; was insensible when the doctor came, and soon died. A
sort of low fever was prevailing in the village, and his want of sleep,
his exhaustion, and his misery, made him apt to take it. The grave was
not difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made all things
white and smooth. Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the
stable.
And what of Rab? I asked for him next week at the new carrier who got
the goodwill of James's business, and was now master of Jess and her
cart. "How's Rab?" He put me off, and said rather rudely, "What's
_your_ business wi' the dowg?" I was not to be so put off.
"Where's Rab?" He, getting confused and red, and intermeddling with his
hair, said, "'Deed, sir, Rab's deid." "Dead! what did he die of?"
"Weel, sir," said he, getting redder, "he didna exactly dee; he was
killed. I had to brain him wi' a rack-pin; there was nae doin' wi' him.
He lay in the treviss wi' the mear, and wadna come oot. I tempit him
wi' kail and meat, but he wad tak' naething, and keepit me frae feedin'
the beast, and he was aye gur gurrin', and grup gruppin' me by the
legs. I was laith to mak' awa wi' the auld dowg, his like wasna atween
this and Thornhill,--but, 'deed, sir, I could do naething else." I
believed him. Fit end for Rab, quick and complete. His teeth and his
friends gone, why should he keep the peace, and be civil?
He was buried in the braeface, near the burn, the children of the
village, his companions, who used to make very free with him and sit on
his ample stomach, as he lay half asleep at the door in the sun,
watching the solemnity.
THE BUSY BLUE JAY
Olive Thorne Miller
I
One of the most interesting birds who ever lived in my Bird Room was a
blue jay named Jakie. He was full of business from morning till night,
scarcely ever a moment still.
Poor little fellow! He had been stolen from the nest before he could
fly, and reared in a house, long before he was given to me. Of course
he could not be set free, for he did not know how to take care of
himself.
Jays are very active birds, and being shut up in a room, my blue jay
had to find things to do, to keep himself busy. If he had been allowed
to grow up out of doors, he would have found plenty to do, planting
acorns and nuts, nesting, and bringing up families.
Sometimes the things he did in the house were what we call mischief
because they annoy us, such as hammering the woodwork to pieces,
tearing bits out of the leaves of books, working holes in chair seats,
or pounding a cardboard box to pieces. But how is a poor little bird to
know what is mischief?
Many things which Jakie did were very funny. For instance, he made it
his business to clear up the room. When he had more food than he could
eat at the moment, he did not leave it around, but put it away
carefully,--not in the garbage pail, for that was not in the room, but
in some safe nook where it did not offend the eye. Sometimes it was
behind the tray in his cage, or among the books on the shelf. The
places he liked best were about me,--in the fold of a ruffle or the
loop of a bow on my dress, and sometimes in the side of my slipper. The
very choicest place of all was in my loosely bound hair. That of course
I could not allow, and I had to keep a very close watch of him for fear
I might have a bit of bread or meat thrust among my locks. In his
clearing up he always went carefully over the floor, picking up pins or
any little thing he could find, and I often dropped burnt matches,
buttons, and other small things to give him something to do. These he
would pick up and put nicely away.
Pins, Jakie took lengthwise in his beak, and at first I thought he had
swallowed them, till I saw him hunt up a proper place to hide them. The
place he chose was between the leaves of a book. He would push a pin
far in out of sight, and then go after another. A match he always tried
to put in a crack, under the baseboard, between the breadths of
matting, or under my rockers. He first placed it, and then tried to
hammer it out of sight. He could seldom get it in far enough to suit
him, and this worried him. Then he would take it out and try another
place.
Once the blue jay found a good match, of the parlor match variety. He
put it between the breadths of matting, and then began to pound on it
as usual. Pretty soon he hit the unburnt end and it went off with a
loud crack, as parlor matches do. Poor Jakie jumped two feet into the
air, nearly frightened out of his wits; and I was frightened, too, for
I feared he might set the house on fire.
Often when I got up from my chair a shower of the bird's playthings
would fall from his various hiding-places about my dress,-nails,
matches, shoe-buttons, bread-crumbs, and other things. Then he had to
begin his work all over again.
Jakie liked a small ball or a marble. His game was to give it a hard
peck and see it roll. If it rolled away from him, he ran after it and
pecked again; but sometimes it rolled toward him, and then he bounded
into the air as if he thought it would bite. And what was funny, he was
always offended at this conduct of the ball, and went off sulky for a
while.
He was a timid little fellow. Wind or storm outside the windows made
him wild. He would fly around the room, squawking at the top of his
voice; and the horrible tin horns the boys liked to blow at
Thanksgiving and Christmas drove him frantic. Once I brought a
Christmas tree into the room to please the birds, and all were
delighted with it except my poor little blue jay, who was much afraid
of it. Think of the sadness of a bird being afraid of a tree!
II
Jakie had decided opinions about people who came into the room to see
me, or to see the birds. At some persons he would squawk every moment.
Others he saluted with a queer cry like "Ob-ble! ob-ble! ob-ble!" Once
when a lady came in with a baby, he fixed his eyes on that infant with
a savage look as if he would like to peck it, and jumped back and forth
in his cage, panting, but perfectly quiet.
Jakie was very devoted to me. He always greeted me with a low, sweet
chatter, with wings quivering, and if he were out of the cage he would
come on the back of my chair and touch my cheek or lips very gently
with his beak, or offer me a bit of food if he had any; and to me
alone, when no one else was near, he sang a low, exquisite song. I
afterwards heard a similar song sung by a wild blue jay to his mate
while she was sitting, and so I knew that my dear little captive had
given me his sweetest--his love song.
One of Jakie's amusements was dancing across the back of a tall chair,
taking funny little steps, coming down hard, "jouncing" his body, and
whistling as loud as he could. He would keep up this funny performance
as long as anybody would stand before him and pretend to dance, too.
My jay was fond of a sensation. One of his dearast bits of fun was to
drive the birds into a panic. This he did by flying furiously around
the room, feathers rustling, and squawking as loud as he could. He
usually managed to fly just over the head of each bird, and as he came
like a catapult, every one flew before him, so that in a minute the
room was full of birds flying madly about trying to get out of his way.
This gave him great pleasure.
Wild blue jays, too, like to stir up their neighbors. A friend told me
of a small party of blue jays that she saw playing this kind of a joke
on a flock of birds of several kinds, robins, catbirds, thrashers, and
others. These birds were gathering the cherries on the top branches of
a big cherry tree. The jays sat quietly on another tree till the cherry
eaters were very busy eating. Then suddenly the mischievous blue rogues
would all rise together and fly at them, as my pet did at the birds in
the room. It had the same effect on the wild birds; they all flew in a
panic. Then the joking jays would return to their tree and wait till
their victims forgot their fear and came straggling back to the
cherries, when they repeated the fun.
Once a grasshopper got into the Bird Room, probably brought in clinging
to some one's dress in the way grasshoppers do. Jakie was in his cage,
but he noticed the stranger instantly, and I opened the door for him.
He went at once to look at the grasshopper, and when it hopped he was
so startled that he hopped, too. Then he picked the insect up, but he
did not know what to do with it, so he dropped it again. Again the
grasshopper jumped directly up, and again the jay did the same. This
they did over and over, till every one was tired laughing at them. It
looked as if they were trying to see who could jump the higher.
There was another bird in the room, however, who knew what grasshoppers
were good for. He was an orchard oriole, and after looking on for a
while, he came down and carried off the hopper to eat. The jay did not
like to lose his plaything; he ran after the thief, and stood on the
floor giving low cries and looking on while the oriole on a chair was
eating the dead grasshopper. When the oriole happened to drop it,
Jakie--who had got a new idea of what to do with grasshoppers--snatched
it up and carried it under a chair and finished it.
I could tell many more stories about my bird, but I have told them
before in one of my "grown-up" books, so I will not repeat them here.
A CRY IN THE NIGHT
William J. Long
This is the rest of the story, just as I saw it, of the little fawns
that I found under the mossy log by the brook. There were two of them,
you remember; and though they looked alike at first glance, I soon
found out that there is just as much difference in fawns as there is in
folks. Eyes, faces, dispositions, characters,--in all things they were
as unlike as the virgins of the parable. One of them was wise, and the
other was very foolish. The one was a follower, a learner; he never
forgot his second lesson, to follow the white flag. The other followed
from the first only his own willful head and feet, and discovered too
late that obedience is life. Until the bear found him, I have no doubt
he was thinking, in his own dumb, foolish way, that obedience is only
for the weak and ignorant, and that government is only an unfair
advantage which all the wilderness mothers take to keep little wild
things from doing as they please.
The wise old mother took them both away when she knew I had found them,
and hid them in a deeper solitude of the big woods, nearer the lake,
where she could the sooner reach them from her feeding grounds. For
days after the wonderful discovery I used to go in the early morning or
the late afternoon, while mother deer are away feeding along the
watercourses, and search the dingle from one end to the other, hoping
to find the little ones again and win their confidence. But they were
not there; and I took to watching instead a family of mink that lived
in a den under a root, and a big owl that always slept in the same
hemlock. Then, one day when a flock of partridges led me out of the
wild berry bushes into a cool green island of the burned lands, I ran
plump upon the deer and her fawns lying all together under a fallen
treetop, dozing away the heat of the day.
They did not see me, but were only scared into action as a branch, upon
which I stood looking for my partridges, gave way beneath my feet and
let me down with a great crash under the fallen tree. There, looking
out, I could see them perfectly, while Kookooskoos himself could hardly
have seen me. At the first crack they all jumped like Jack-in-a-box
when you touch his spring. The mother put up her white flag--which is
the snowy underside of her useful tail, and shows like a beacon by day
or night--and bounded away with a hoarse _Ka-a-a-a-h!_ of warning.
One of the little ones followed her on the instant, jumping squarely in
his mother's tracks, his own little white flag flying to guide any that
might come after him. But the second fawn ran off at a tangent, and
stopped in a moment to stare and whistle and stamp his tiny, foot in an
odd mixture of curiosity and defiance. The mother had to circle back
twice before he followed her, at last, unwillingly. As she stole back
each time, her tail was down and wiggling nervously--which is the sure
sign, when you see it, that some scent of you is floating off through
the woods and telling its warning into the deer's keen nostrils. But
when she jumped away the white flag was straight up, flashing in the
very face of her foolish fawn, telling him as plain as any language
what sign he must follow if he would escape danger and avoid breaking
his legs in the tangled underbrush.
I did not understand till long afterwards, when I had watched the fawns
many times, how important is this latter suggestion. One who follows a
frightened deer and sees or hears him go bounding off at breakneck pace
over loose rocks and broken trees and tangled underbrush; rising swift
on one side of a windfall without knowing what lies on the other side
till he is already falling; driving like an arrow over ground where you
must follow like a snail, lest you wrench a foot or break an ankle,--
finds himself asking with unanswered wonder how any deer can live half
a season in the wilderness without breaking all his legs. And when you
run upon a deer at night and hear him go smashing off in the darkness
at the same reckless speed, over a tangled blow-down, perhaps, through
which you can barely force your way by daylight, then you realize
suddenly that the most wonderful part of a deer's education shows
itself, not in keen eyes or trumpet ears, or in his finely trained
nose, more sensitive a hundred times than any barometer, but in his
forgotten feet, which seem to have eyes and nerves and brains packed
into their hard shells instead of the senseless matter you see there.
Watch the doe yonder as she bounds away, wig-wagging her heedless
little one to follow. She is thinking only of him; and now you see her
feet free to take care of themselves. As she rises over the big
windfall, they hang from the ankle joints, limp as a glove out of which
the hand has been drawn, yet seeming to wait and watch. One hoof
touches a twig; like lightning it spreads and drops, after running for
the smallest fraction of a second along the obstacle to know whether to
relax or stiffen, or rise or fall to meet it. Just before she strikes
the ground on the down plunge, see the wonderful hind hoofs sweep
themselves forward, surveying the ground by touch, and bracing
themselves, in a fraction of time so small that the eye cannot follow,
for the shock of what lies beneath them, whether rock or rotten wood or
yielding moss. The fore feet have followed the quick eyes above, and
shoot straight and sure to their landing; but the hind hoofs must find
the spot for themselves as they come down and, almost ere they find it,
brace themselves again for the push of the mighty muscles above.
Once only I found where a fawn with untrained feet had broken its leg;
and once I heard of a wounded buck, driven to death by dogs, that had
fallen in the same way never to rise again. Those were rare cases. The
marvel is that it does not happen to every deer that fear drives
through the wilderness.
And that is another reason why the fawns must learn to obey a wiser
head than their own. Till their little feet are educated, the mother
must choose the way for them; and a wise fawn will jump squarely in her
tracks. That explains also why deer, even after they are full grown,
will often walk in single file, a half-dozen of them sometimes
following a wise leader, stepping in his tracks and leaving but a
single trail. It is partly, perhaps, to fool their old enemy, the wolf,
and their new enemy, the man, by hiding the weakling's trail in the
stride and hoof mark of a big buck; but it shows also the old habit,
and the training which begins when the fawns first learn to follow the
flag.
After that second discovery I used to go in the afternoon to a point on
the lake nearest the fawns' hiding-place, and wait in my canoe for the
mother to come out and show me where she had left her little ones. As
they grew, and the drain upon her increased from their feeding, she
seemed always half starved. Waiting in my canoe I would hear the
crackle of brush, as she trotted straight down to the lake almost
heedlessly, and see her plunge through the fringe of bushes that
bordered the water. With scarcely a look or a sniff to be sure the
coast was clear, she would jump for the lily pads. Sometimes the canoe
was in plain sight; but she gave no heed as she tore up the juicy buds
and stems, and swallowed them with the appetite of a famished wolf.
Then I would paddle away and, taking my direction from her trail as she
came, hunt diligently for the fawns until I found them.
This last happened only two or three times. The little ones were
already wild; they had forgotten all about our first meeting, and when
I showed myself, or cracked a twig too near them, they would promptly
bolt into the brush. One always ran straight away, his white flag
flying to show that he remembered his lesson; the other went off
zigzag, stopping at every angle of his run to look back and question me
with his eyes and ears.
There was only one way in which such disobedience could end. I saw it
plainly enough one afternoon, when, had I been one of the fierce
prowlers of the wilderness, the little fellow's history would have
stopped short under the paw of Upweekis, the shadowy lynx of the burned
lands. It was late afternoon when I came over a ridge, following a deer
path on my way to the lake, and looked down into a long, narrow valley
filled with berry bushes, and with a few fire-blasted trees standing
here and there to point out the perfect loneliness and desolation of
the place.
Just below me a deer was feeding hungrily, only her hind quarters
showing out of the underbrush. I watched her awhile, then dropped on
all fours and began to creep towards her, to see how near I could get
and what new trait I might discover. But at the first motion (I had
stood at first like an old stump on the ridge) a fawn that had
evidently been watching me all the time from his hiding sprang into
sight with a sharp whistle of warning. The doe threw up her head,
looking straight at me as if she had understood more from the signal
than I had thought possible. There was not an instant's hesitation or
searching. Her eyes went direct to me, as if the fawn's cry had said:
"Behind you, mother, in the path by the second gray rock!" Then she
jumped away, shooting up the opposite hill over roots and rocks as if
thrown by steel springs, blowing hoarsely at every jump, and followed
in splendid style by her watchful little one.
At the first snort of danger there was a rush in the underbrush near
where she had stood, and a second fawn sprang into sight. I knew him
instantly--the heedless one--and knew also that he had neglected too
long the matter of following the flag. He was confused, frightened,
chuckle-headed now; he came darting up the deer path in the wrong
direction, straight towards me, to within two jumps, before he noticed
the man kneeling in the path before him and watching him quietly.
At the startling discovery he stopped short, seeming to shrink smaller
and smaller before my eyes. Then he edged sidewise to a great stump,
hid himself among the roots, and stood stock-still,--a beautiful
picture of innocence and curiosity, framed in the rough brown roots of
the spruce stump. It was his first teaching to hide and be still. Just
as he needed it most, he had forgotten absolutely the second lesson.
We watched each other full five minutes without moving an eyelash. Then
his first lesson ebbed away. He sidled out into the path again, came
towards me two dainty, halting steps, and stamped prettily with his
left fore foot. He was a young buck, and had that trick of stamping
without any instruction. It is an old, old ruse to make you move, to
startle you by the sound and threatening motion into showing who you
are and what are your intentions.
But still the man did not move; the fawn grew frightened at his own
boldness and ran away down the path. Far up the opposite hill I heard
the mother calling him. But he heeded not; he wanted to find out things
for himself. There he was in the path again, watching me. I took out my
handkerchief and waved it gently; at which great marvel he trotted
back, stopping anon to look and stamp his little foot, to show me that
he was not afraid.
"Brave little chap, I like you," I thought, my heart going out to him
as he stood there with his soft eyes and beautiful face, stamping his
little foot. "But what," my thoughts went on, "had happened to you ere
now, had a bear or lucivee lifted his head over the ridge? Next month,
alas! the law will be off; then there will be hunters in these woods,
some of whom leave their hearts, with their wives and children, behind
them. You can't trust them, believe me, little chap. Your mother is
right; you can't trust them."
The night was coming swiftly. The mother's call, growing ever more
anxious, more insistent, swept over the darkening hillside. "Perhaps,"
I thought, with sudden twinges and alarms of conscience, "perhaps I set
you all wrong, little chap, in giving you the taste of salt that day,
and teaching you to trust things that meet you in the wilderness." That
is generally the way when we meddle with Mother Nature, who has her own
good reasons for doing things as she does. "But no! there were two of
you under the old log that day; and the other,--he's up there with his
mother now, where you ought to be,--he knows that old laws are safer
than new thoughts, especially new thoughts in the heads of foolish
youngsters. You are all wrong, little chap, for all your pretty
curiosity, and the stamp of your little foot that quite wins my heart.
Perhaps I am to blame, after all; anyway, I'll teach you better now."
At the thought I picked up a large stone and sent it crashing, jumping,
tearing down the hillside straight at him. All his bravado vanished
like a wink. Up went his flag, and away he went over the logs and rocks
of the great hillside; where presently I heard his mother running in a
great circle till she found him with her nose, thanks to the wood wires
and the wind's messages, and led him away out of danger.
One who lives for a few weeks in the wilderness, with eyes and ears
open, soon finds that, instead of the lawlessness and blind chance
which seem to hold sway there, he lives in the midst of law and order--
an order of things much older than that to which he is accustomed, with
which it is not well to interfere. I was uneasy, following the little
deer path through the twilight stillness; and my uneasiness was not
decreased when I found on a log, within fifty yards of the spot where
the fawn first appeared, the signs of a big lucivee, with plenty of
fawn's hair and fine-cracked bones to tell me what he had eaten for his
midnight dinner.
Down at the lower end of the same deer path, where it stopped at the
lake to let the wild things drink, was a little brook. Outside the
mouth of this brook, among the rocks, was a deep pool; and in the pool
lived some big trout. I was there one night, some two weeks later,
trying to catch some of the big trout for my next breakfast.
Those were wise fish. It was of no use to angle for them by day any
more. They knew all the flies in my book; could tell the new Jenny Lind
from the old Bumble Bee before it struck the water; and seemed to know
perfectly, both by instinct and experience, that they were all frauds,
which might as well be called Jenny Bee and Bumble Lind for any sweet
reasonableness that was in them. Besides all this, the water was warm;
the trout were logy and would not rise.
By night, however, the case was different. A few of the trout would
leave the pool and prowl along the shores in shallow water to see what
tidbits the darkness might bring, in the shape of night bugs and
careless piping frogs and sleepy minnows. Then, if you built a fire on
the beach and cast a white-winged fly across the path of the firelight,
you would sometimes get a big one.
It was fascinating sport always, whether the trout were rising or not.
One had to fish with his ears, and keep most of his wits in his hand,
ready to strike quick and hard when the moment came, after an hour of
casting. Half the time you would not see your fish at all, but only
hear the savage plunge as he swirled down with your fly. At other
times, as you struck sharply at the plunge, your fly would come back to
you, or tangle itself up in unseen snags; and far out, where the verge
of the firelight rippled away into the darkness, you would see a sharp
wave-wedge shooting away, which told you that your trout was only a
musquash. Swimming quietly by, he had seen you and your fire, and
slapped his tail down hard on the water to make you jump. That is a way
Musquash has in the night, so that he can make up his mind what queer
thing you are and what you are doing.
All the while, as you fish, the great dark woods stand close about you,
silent, listening. The air is full of scents and odors that steal
abroad only by night, while the air is dew-laden. Strange cries, calls,
squeaks, rustlings run along the hillside, or float in from the water,
or drop down from the air overhead, to make you guess and wonder what
wood folk are abroad at such unseemly hours, and what they are about.
So that it is good to fish by night, as well as by day, and go home
with heart and head full, even though your creel be empty.
I was standing very still by my fire, waiting for a big trout that had
risen and missed my fly to regain his confidence, when I heard cautious
rustlings in the brush behind me. I turned instantly, and there were
two great glowing spots, the eyes of a deer, flashing out of the dark
woods. A swift rustle, and two more coals glow lower down, flashing and
scintillating with strange colors; and then two more; and I know that
the doe and her fawns are there, stopped and fascinated on their way to
drink by the great wonder of the light, and by the witchery of the
dancing shadows that rush up at timid wild things, as if to frighten
them, but only jump over them and back again, as if inviting them to
join the silent play.
I knelt down quietly beside my fire, slipping on a great roll of birch
bark which blazed up brightly, filling the woods with light. There,
under a spruce, where a dark shadow had been a moment agone, stood the
mother, her eyes all ablaze with the wonder of the light; now staring
steadfastly into the fire; now starting nervously, with low questioning
snorts, as a troop of shadows ran up to play hop-scotch with the little
ones, which stood close behind her, one on either side.
A moment only it lasted. Then one fawn--I knew the heedless one, even
in the firelight, by his face and by his bright-dappled Joseph's coat--
came straight towards me, stopping to stare with flashing eyes when the
fire jumped up, and then to stamp his little foot at the shadows to
show them that he was not afraid.
The mother called him anxiously; but still he came on, stamping
prettily. She grew uneasy, trotting back and forth in a half circle,
warning, calling, pleading. Then, as he came between her and the fire,
and his little shadow stretched away up the hill where she was, showing
how far away he was from her and how near the light, she broke away
from its fascination with an immense effort: _Ka-a-a-h! ka-a-a-h!_
the hoarse cry rang through the startled woods like a pistol shot; and
she bounded away, her white flag shining like a wave crest in the night
to guide her little ones.
The second fawn followed her instantly; but the heedless one barely
swung his head to see where she was going, and then came on towards the
light, staring and stamping in foolish wonder.
I watched him a little while, fascinated myself by his beauty, his
dainty motions, his soft ears with a bright oval of light about them,
his wonderful eyes glowing like burning rainbows kindled by the
firelight. Far behind him the mother's cry ran back and forth along the
hillside. Suddenly it changed; a danger note leaped into it; and again
I heard the call to follow and the crash of brush as she leaped away. I
remembered the lynx and the sad little history written on the log
above. As the quickest way of saving the foolish youngster, I kicked my
fire to pieces and walked out toward him. Then, as the wonder vanished
in darkness and the scent of the man poured up to him on the lake's
breath, the little fellow bounded away--alas! straight up the deer
path, at right angles to the course his mother had taken a moment
before.
Five minutes later I heard the mother calling a strange note in the
direction he had taken, and went up the deer path very quietly to
investigate. At the top of the ridge, where the path dropped away into
a dark narrow valley with dense underbrush on either side, I heard the
fawn answering her, below me among the big trees, and knew instantly
that something had happened. He called continuously, a plaintive cry of
distress, in the black darkness of the spruces. The mother ran around
him in a great circle, calling him to come; while he lay helpless in
the same spot, telling her he could not, and that she must come to him.
So the cries went back and forth in the listening night,--_Hoo-wuh_,
"come here." _Bla-a-a, blr-r-t_, "I can't; come here." _Ka-a-a-h,
ka-a-a-h!_ "danger, follow!"--and then the crash of brush as she
rushed away followed by the second fawn, whom she must save, though she
abandoned the heedless one to prowlers of the night.
It was clear enough what had happened. The cries of the wilderness all
have their meaning, if one but knows how to interpret them. Running
through the dark woods his untrained feet had missed their landing, and
he lay now under some rough windfall, with a broken leg to remind him
of the lesson he had neglected so long.
I was stealing along towards him, feeling my way among the trees in the
darkness, stopping every moment to listen to his cry to guide me, when
a heavy rustle came creeping down the hill and passed close before me.
Something, perhaps, in the sound--a heavy, though almost noiseless,
onward push which only one creature in the woods can possibly make--
something, perhaps, in a faint new odor in the moist air told me
instantly that keener ears than mine had heard the cry; that Mooween
the bear had left his blueberry patch, and was stalking the heedless
fawn, whom he knew, by the hearing of his ears, to have become
separated from his watchful mother in the darkness.
I regained the path silently--though Mooween heeds nothing when his
game is afoot--and ran back to the canoe for my rifle. Ordinarily a
bear is timid as a rabbit; but I had never met one so late at night
before, and knew not how he would act should I take his game away.
Besides, there is everything in the feeling with which one approaches
an animal. If one comes timidly, doubtfully, the animal knows it; and
if one comes swift, silent, resolute, with his power gripped tight, and
the hammer back, and a forefinger resting lightly on the trigger guard,
the animal knows it too, you may depend. Anyway, they always act as if
they knew, and you may safely follow the rule that, whatever your
feeling is, whether fear or doubt or confidence, the large and
dangerous animals will sense it instantly and adopt the opposite
feeling for their rule of action. That is the way I have always found
it in the wilderness. I met a bear once on a narrow path--but I must
tell about that elsewhere.
The cries had ceased; the woods were all dark and silent when I came
back. I went as swiftly as possible--without heed or caution; for
whatever crackling I made the bear would attribute to the desperate
mother--to the spot where I had turned back. Thence I went on
cautiously, taking my bearings from one great tree on the ridge that
lifted its bulk against the sky; slower and slower, till, just this
side of a great windfall, a twig cracked sharply under my foot. It was
answered instantly by a grunt and a jump beyond the windfall--and then
the crashing rush of a bear up the hill, carrying something that caught
and swished loudly on the bushes as it passed, till the sounds vanished
in a faint rustle far away, and the woods were still again.
All night long, from my tent over beyond an arm of the big lake, I
heard the mother calling at intervals. She seemed to be running back
and forth along the ridge, above where the tragedy had occurred. Her
nose told her of the bear and the man; but what awful thing they were
doing with her little one she knew not. Fear and questioning were in
the calls that floated down the ridge and across the water to my little
tent.
At daylight I went back to the spot. I found without trouble where the
fawn had fallen; the moss told mutely of his struggle; and a stain or
two showed where Mooween grabbed him. The rest was a plain trail of
crushed moss and bent grass and stained leaves, and a tuft of soft hair
here and there on the jagged ends of knots in the old windfalls. So the
trail hurried up the hill into a wild rough country where it was of no
use to follow.
As I climbed the last ridge on my way back to the lake, I heard
rustlings in the underbrush, and then the unmistakable crack of a twig
under a deer's foot. The mother had winded me; she was now following
and circling down wind to find out whether her lost fawn were with me.
As yet she knew not what had happened. The bear had frightened her into
extra care of the one fawn of whom she was sure. The other had simply
vanished into the silence and mystery of the great woods.
Where the path turned downward, in sight of the lake, I saw her for a
moment plainly, standing half hid in the underbrush, looking intently
at my old canoe. She saw me at the same instant and bounded away,
quartering up the hill in my direction. Near a thicket of evergreen
that I had just passed, she sounded her hoarse _K-a-a-h, k-a-a-h!_
and threw up her flag. There was a rush within the thicket; a sharp
_K-a-a-h!_ answered hers. Then the second fawn burst out of the
cover where she had hidden him, and darted along the ridge after her,
jumping like a big red fox from rock to rock, rising like a hawk over
the windfalls, hitting her tracks wherever he could, and keeping his
little nose hard down to his one needful lesson of following the white
flag.
SELECTIONS FROM THE BIBLE
THE STORY OF JOSEPH
And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the
land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being
seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the
lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his
father's wives; and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the
son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his
brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren,
they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated
him yet the more. And he said unto them, "Hear, I pray you, this dream
which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the
field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold,
your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf." And
his brethren said to him, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt
thou indeed have dominion over us?" And they hated him yet the more for
his dreams, and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said,
"Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon
and the eleven stars made obeisance to me." And he told it to his
father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto
him, "What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother
and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the
earth?" And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the
saying.
And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And
Israel said unto Joseph: "Do not thy brethren feed the flock in
Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them." And he said to him:
"Here am I." And he said to him: "Go, I pray thee, see whether it be
well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word
again." So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to
Shechem.
And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the
field: and the man asked him, saying, "What seekest thou?" And he said:
"I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their
flocks." And the man said: "They are departed hence; for I heard them
say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" And Joseph went after his brethren, and
found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he
came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they
said one to another: "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore,
and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, 'Some
evil beast hath devoured him:' and we shall see what will become of his
dreams." And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands,
and said: "Let us not kill him." And Reuben said unto them, "Shed no
blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no
hand upon him "--that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver
him to his father again.
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they
stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on
him; and they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty,
there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they
lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites
came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh,
going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren,
"What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come,
and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon
him; for he is our brother and our flesh." And his brethren were
content. Then there passed by Midianites, merchant-men; and they drew
and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the
pit; and he rent his clothes.
And he returned unto his brethren, and said, "The child is not; and I,
whither shall I go?" And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of
the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of
many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "This have
we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no." And he knew it,
and said, "It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph
is without doubt rent in pieces." And Jacob rent his clothes, and put
sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all
his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused
to be comforted; and he said, "For I will go down into the grave unto
my son mourning." Thus his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold
him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and a captain of
the guard.
* * * * *
And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of
Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of
the Ishmaelites, and which had brought him down thither. And the Lord
was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house
of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with
him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And
Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him
overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And
it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his
house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's
house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that
he had in the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he
did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored. And it came
to pass that his master's wife falsely accused Joseph. And Joseph's
master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's
prisoners were bound; and he was there in the prison.
But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor
in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison;
and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the
prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the
Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.
And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of
Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt. And
Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, and against the chief of
the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in
ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the
place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard charged
Joseph with them, and he served them; and they continued a season in
ward.
And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and
the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And
Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and,
behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with
him in the ward of his lord's house, saying: "Wherefore look ye so
sadly today?" And they said unto him: "We have dreamed a dream, and
there is no interpreter of it." And Joseph said unto them, "Do not
interpretations belong to God? Tell me them, I pray you." And the chief
butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, "In my dream, behold
a vine was before me. And in the vine were three branches; and it was
as though it budded and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters
thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand;
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave
the cup into Pharaoh's hand." And Joseph said unto him, "This is the
interpretation of it: the three branches are three days. Yet within
three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy
place; and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the
former manner when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it shall
be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make
mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For indeed
I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I
done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." When the chief
baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, "I
also was in my dream, and behold I had three white baskets on my head.
And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for
Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head."
And Joseph answered and said, "This is the interpretation thereof: the
three baskets are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift
up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds
shall eat thy flesh from off thee."
And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that
he made a feast unto all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the
chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored
the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into
Pharaoh's hand; but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had
interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but
forgat him.
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed;
and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of
the river seven well-favored kine and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a
meadow. And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the
river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed; and stood by the other kine upon
the brink of the river. And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine did
eat up the seven well-favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
And he slept and dreamed the second time; and, behold, seven ears of
corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. And, behold, seven thin
ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the seven
thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke,
and, behold, it was a dream.
And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he
sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men
thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could
interpret them unto Pharaoh.
Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, "I do remember my
faults this day: Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in
ward in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:
and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he: we dreamed each man
according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with
us a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we
told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to
his dream he did interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted to
us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged."
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out
of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and
came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "I have dreamed a
dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of
thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." And Joseph
answered Pharaoh, saying, "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an
answer of peace." And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "In my dream, behold, I
stood upon the bank of the river: and, behold, there came up out of the
river seven kine, fat-fleshed and well-favored; and they fed in a
meadow; and, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very
ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of
Egypt for badness; and the lean and the ill-favored kine did eat up the
first seven fat kine; and when they had eaten them up, it could not be
known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill-favored, as at
the beginning. So I awoke. And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven
ears came up in one stalk, full and good; and, behold, seven ears,
withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them;
and the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto
the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me."
And Joseph said unto Pharaoh: "The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath
showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven
years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. And
the seven thin and ill-favored kine that came up after them are seven
years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be
seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken unto
Pharaoh: what God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there
come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt; and
there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty
shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume
the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of
that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. And for that the
dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is
established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now
therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him
over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint
officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt
in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those
good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and
let them keep food in the cities. And that food shall be for store to
the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land
of Egypt; that the land perish not through famine."
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all
his servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, "Can we find such a
one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is?" And Pharaoh said
unto Joseph, "Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none
so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt be over my house, and
according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the
throne will I be greater than thou." And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
"See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." And Pharaoh took off
his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him
in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he
made him to ride in the second chariot which he had, and they cried
before him, "Bow the knee": and he made him ruler over all the land of
Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without thee
shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." And
Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife
Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On. And Joseph went out
over all the land of Egypt.
And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of
Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went
throughout all the land of Egypt. And in the seven plenteous years the
earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the
seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in
the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city,
laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the
sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number. And
unto Joseph were born two sons, befare the years of famine came, which
Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On, bare unto him. And
Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: "For God," said he,
"hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house." And the
name of the second called he Ephraim: "For God hath caused me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction."
And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were
ended. And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph
had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt
there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the
people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the
Egyptians, "Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do." And the famine
was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the
storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to
buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his
sons: "Why do ye look one upon another?" And he said, "Behold, I have
heard that there is corn in Egypt; get you down thither, and buy for us
from thence; that we may live, and not die."
And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, "Lest
peradventure mischief befall him." And the sons of Israel came to buy
corn among those that came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to
all the people of the land; and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down
themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his
brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and
spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them: "Whence come ye?" And
they said: "From the land of Canaan to buy food." And Joseph knew his
brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which
he dreamed of them, and said unto them: "Ye are spies; to see the
nakedness of the land ye are come." And they said unto him: "Nay, my
lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons;
we are true men, thy servants are no spies." And he said unto them:
"Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come." And they said:
"Thy servants are twelve brethren, sons of one man in the land of
Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one
is not." And Joseph said unto them: "That is it that I spake unto you,
saying, 'Ye are spies:' hereby ye shall be proved: by the life of
Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come
hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall
be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any
truth in you; or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies." And
he put them all together into ward three days. And Joseph said unto
them the third day:
"This do, and live; for I fear God: if ye be true men, let one of your
brethren be bound in the house of your prison; go ye, carry corn for
the famine of your houses; but bring your youngest brother unto me; so
shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die." And they did so.
And they said one to another: "We are verily guilty concerning our
brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us,
and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." And
Reuben answered them, saying, "Spake I not unto you, saying, 'Do not
sin against the child;' and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also
his blood is required." And they knew not that Joseph understood them;
for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about
from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with
them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore
every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the
way: and thus did he unto them. And they laded their asses with the
corn and departed thence. And as one of them opened his sack to give
his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for behold it was in
his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, "My money is restored;
and, lo, it is even in my sack:" and their heart failed them, and they
were afraid, saying one to another, "What is this that God hath done
unto us?"
And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told
him all that befell unto them, saying: "The man who is the lord of the
land spoke roughly to us and took us for spies of the country. And we
said unto him, 'We are true men; we are no spies; we be twelve
brethren, sons of our father; one is not and the youngest is this day
with our father in the land of Canaan.' And the man, the lord of the
country, said unto us: 'Hereby shall I know that ye are true men:
leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine
of your households, and be gone; and bring your youngest brother unto
me, then shall I know that ye are no spies but that ye are true men; so
will I deliver you your brother and ye shall traffick in the land.'"
And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every
man's bundle of money was in his sack; and when both they and their
father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their
father said unto them: "Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is
not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away; all these
things are against me." And Reuben spake unto his father, saying: "Slay
my two sons, if I bring him not to thee; deliver him into my hand, and
I will bring him to thee again." And he said: "My son shall not go down
with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone; if mischief
befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave."
And the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass, when they had
eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father
said unto them: "Go again, buy us a little food." And Judah spake unto
him saying:
"The man did solemnly protest unto us saying, 'Ye shall not see my
face, except your brother be with you.' If thou wilt send our brother
with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send
him, we will not go down; for the man said unto us, 'Ye shall not see
my face, except your brother be with you.'" And Israel said: "Wherefore
dealt ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether ye had yet a
brother?" And they said, "The man asked us straitly of our state and of
our kindred, saying, 'Is your father yet alive? Have ye another
brother?' And we told him according to the tenor of these words. Could
we certainly know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down?'" And
Judah said unto Israel his father, "Send the lad with me, and we will
arise and go; that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also
our little ones. I will be surety for him: if I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except
we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time." And
their father Israel said unto them, "If it must be so now, do this:
take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the
man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh,
nuts and almonds; and take double money in your hand; and the money
that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in
your hand; peradventure it was an oversight. Take also your brother,
and arise, go again unto the man; and God Almighty give you mercy
before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin.
If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."
And the men took that present, and they took double money in their
hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood
before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the
ruler of his house, "Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready;
for these men shall dine with me at noon." And the man did as Joseph
bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were
afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house; and they said,
"Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time
are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon
us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses." And they came near to the
steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of
the house, and said, "O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to
buy food; and it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened
our sacks, and, behold; every man's money was in the mouth of his sack,
our money in full weight; and we have brought it again in our hand. And
other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food; we cannot
tell who put our money in our sacks." And he said: "Peace be to you,
fear not; your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure
in your sacks; I had your money." And he brought Simeon out unto them.
And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water,
and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender. And they
made ready the present against Joseph came at noon; for they heard that
they should eat bread there.
And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in
their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.
And he asked them of their welfare, and said: "Is your father well, the
old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?" And they answered: "Thy
servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive." And they bowed
down their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and
saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said: "Is this your
younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me?" And he said, "God be
gracious unto thee, my son." And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did
yearn upon his brother; and he sought where to weep; and he entered
into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out,
and refrained himself, and said, "Set on bread." And they set on for
him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians,
which did eat with him, by themselves; because the Egyptians might not
eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the
Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his
birthright, and the youngest according to his youth; and the men
marveled one at another. And he took and sent messes unto them from
before him, but Benjamin's mess was five times as much as any of
theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
And he commanded the steward of his house, saying: "Fill the men's
sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money
in his sack's mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's
mouth of the youngest, and his corn money." And he did according to the
word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning was light, the men
were sent away, they and their asses. And when they were gone out of
the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, "Up,
follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them,
'Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this it in which my
lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so
doing.'"
And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words. And they
said unto him, "Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that
thy servants should do according to this thing: behold, the money,
which was found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of
the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy lord's house
silver or gold? With whosoever of thy servants it be found, both let
him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen." And he said, "Now also
let it be according unto your words: he with whom it is found shall be
my servant; and ye shall be blameless." Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack. And he
searched, and began at the eldest and left at the youngest: and the cup
was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their clothes, and laded
every man his ass, and returned to the city.
And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet
there; and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto
them: "What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man
as I can certainly divine?" And Judah said: "What shall we say unto my
lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath
found out the iniquity of thy servants; behold, we are my lord's
servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found." And he
said: "God forbid that I should do so; but the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in
peace unto your father."
Then Judah came near unto him, and said: "Oh my lord, let thy servant,
I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger
burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh. My lord asked
his servants, saying, 'Have ye a father, or a brother?' And we said
unto my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old
age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his
mother, and his father loveth him.' And thou saidst unto thy servants,
'Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him.' And we
said unto my lord, 'The lad cannot leave his father; for if he should
leave his father, his father would die.' And thou saidst unto thy
servants, 'Except your youngest brother came down with you, ye shall
see my face no more.' And it came to pass when we came up unto thy
servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. And our father
said, 'Go again, and buy us a little food.' And we said, 'We cannot go
down. If our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we
may not see the man's face except our youngest brother be with us!' And
thy servant my father said to us, 'Ye know that my wife bare me two
sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in
pieces," and I saw him not since. And if ye take this also from me and
mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave.' Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the
lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life,
it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that
he will die: and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy
servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, 'If I bring him not unto
thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever.' Now therefore,
I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my
lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to
my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil
that shall come on my father."
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by
him; and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me." And there stood
no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And
he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And
Joseph said unto his brethren, "I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?"
And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his
presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, "Come near to me, I pray
you." And they came near. And he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom
ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with
yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land:
and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be
earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a
posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God; and he hath made me
a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto
him, 'Thus said thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt:
come down unto me, tarry not: and thou shalt dwell in the land of
Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy
children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou
hast; and there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of
famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to
poverty.' And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother
Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell
my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and
ye shall haste and bring down my father hither." And he fell upon his
brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them, and after
that his brethren talked with him.
And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, "Joseph's
brethren are come;" and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants. And
Pharaoh said unto Joseph: "Say unto thy brethren, 'This do ye; lade
your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; and take your
father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the
good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.' Now
thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father,
and come.' Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of
Egypt is yours." And the children of Israel did so; and Joseph gave
them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them
provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of
raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and
five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manner;
ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden
with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way. So he sent his
brethren away, and they departed; and he said unto them, "See that ye
fall not out by the way."
And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto
Jacob their father, and told him, saying, "Joseph is yet alive, and he
is governor over all the land of Egypt." And Jacob's heart fainted, for
he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which
he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent
to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: and Israel
said, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him
before I die."
And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-
sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God
spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob,
Jacob." And he said, "Here am I." And he said, "I am God, the God of
thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of
thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will
also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon
thine eyes." And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel
carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in
the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their
cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,
and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: his sons, and
his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and
all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto
Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready
his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and
presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his
neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph: "Now let me die, since
I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive." And Joseph said unto
his brethren, and unto his father's house: "I will go up, and show
Pharaoh, and say unto him, 'My brethren, and my father's house, which
were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me; and the men are
shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have
brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.' And it
shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, 'What
is your occupation?' that ye shall say, 'Thy servants' trade hath been
about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our
fathers:' that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd
is an abomination unto the Egyptians."
Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said: "My father and my
brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have,
are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land
of Goshen." And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and
presented them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren: "What
is your occupation?" And they said unto Pharaoh: "Thy servants are
shepherds, both we, and also our fathers." They said moreover unto
Pharaoh, "For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have
no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of
Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land
of Goshen." And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying: "Thy father and thy
brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the
best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of
Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among
them, then make them rulers over my cattle." And Joseph brought in
Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed
Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, "How old art thou?" And Jacob
said unto Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an
hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my
life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life
of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." And Jacob blessed
Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a
possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land
of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according
to their families.
And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore,
so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason
of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in
the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they
bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when
money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the
Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, "Give us bread, for why should we
die in thy presence? for the money faileth." And Joseph said, "Give
your cattle, and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail." And
they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in
exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the
herds, and for the asses; and he fed them with bread for all their
cattle for that year. When that year was ended, they came unto him the
second year, and said unto him, "We will not hide it from my lord, how
that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there
is not aught left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our
lands. Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land?
buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants
unto Pharaoh; and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the
land be not desolate."
And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians
sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them. So
the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to
cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end
thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests
had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which
Pharaoh gave them. Wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph
said unto the people: "Behold, I have bought you this day and your land
for Pharaoh; lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And
it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth
part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the
field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food
for your little ones." And they said: "Thou hast saved our lives: let
us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's
servants." And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this
day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the
priests only, which became not Pharaoh's. And Israel dwelt in the land
of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein,
and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of
Egypt seventeen years; so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty
and seven years. And the time drew nigh that Israel must die, and he
called his son Joseph, and said unto him, "If now I have found grace in
thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly
and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt; but I will lie
with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in
their burying-place." And he said, "I will do as thou hast said." And
he said, "Swear unto me." And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed
himself upon the bed's head.
And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, "Behold,
thy father is sick;" and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and
Ephraim. And one told Jacob, and said, "Behold, thy son Joseph cometh
unto thee;" and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. And
Jacob said unto Joseph, "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the
land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto me, 'Behold, I will make
thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude
of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an
everlasting possession.'
"And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee
in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as
Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. And thy issue, which thou
begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the
name of their brethren in their inheritance. And as for me, when I came
from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when
yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her
there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Beth-lehem." And Israel beheld
Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?" And Joseph said unto his
father, "They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place." And
he said, "Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them." Now
the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he
brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. And
Israel said unto Joseph, "I had not thought to see thy face, and, lo,
God hath showed me also thy seed." And Joseph brought them out from
between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And
Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left
hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and
brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand,
and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand
upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the
firstborn.
And he blessed Joseph, and said, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this
day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let
my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." And when
Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of
Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father's hand, to remove
it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his
father:
"Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon
his head." And his father refused, and said, "I know it, my son, I know
it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but
truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations." And he blessed them that day, saying,
"In thee shall Israel bless, saying, 'God make thee as Ephraim and as
Manasseh;'" and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto
Joseph, "Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again
unto the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to thee one
portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite
with my sword and with my bow."
And Jacob called unto his sons and blessed them; every one according to
his blessing he blessed them. And he charged them, and said unto them:
"I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with my fathers in the
cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in
the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan,
which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a
possession of a buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his
wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried
Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth."
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up
his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto
his people.
And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed
him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his
father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were
fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are
embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the
house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found grace in your eyes,
speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 'My father made me
swear, saying, "Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in
the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me." Now therefore let me go
up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.'" And
Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee
swear."
And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the
servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the
land of Egypt. And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his
father's house; only their little ones, and their flocks, and their
herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both
chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. And they came
to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they
mourned with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning
for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the
Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is
a grievous mourning to the Egyptians;" wherefore the name of it was
called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. And his sons did unto him
according as he commanded them; for his sons carried him into the land
of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which
Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of
Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went
up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. And
when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said,
"Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all
the evil which we did unto him." And they sent a messenger unto Joseph,
saying, "Thy father did command before he died, saying: 'So shall ye
say unto Joseph, "Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy
brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil."' And now, we
pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy
father." And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren
also went and fell down before his face; and they said," Behold, we be
thy servants." And Joseph said unto them, "Fear not; for am I in the
place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant
it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people
alive. Now therefore fear ye not. I will nourish you, and your little
ones." And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house; and Joseph lived
an hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the
third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were
brought up upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said unto his brethren, "I
die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto
the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And Joseph
took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit
you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." So Joseph died, being
an hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in
a coffin in Egypt.
THE STORY OF SAMSON
And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child
grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to
move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and
his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters
of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife."
Then his father and his mother said unto him, "Is there never a woman
among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou
goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? "And Samson said
unto his father," Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well."
But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he
sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the
Philistines had dominion over Israel.
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and
came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared
against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he
rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand:
but he told not his father or his mother what he had done. And he went
down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see
the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and
honey in the carcass of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and
went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them,
and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out
of the carcass of the lion.
So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast;
for so used the young men to do. And it came to pass, when they saw
him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
And Samson said unto them, "I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if
ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and
find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of
garments: But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty
sheets and thirty change of garments." And they said unto him, "Put
forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." And he said unto them, "Out of
the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
And they could not in three days expound the riddle. And it came to
pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson's wife, "Entice thy
husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and
thy father's house with fire: have ye called us to take that we have?
is it not so?" And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "Thou dost
but hate me, and lovest me not: thou hast put forth a riddle unto the
children of my people, and hast not told it me." And he said unto her,
"Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell
it thee?" And she wept before him the seven days, while their feast
lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her,
because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children
of her people. And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day
before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? and what is
stronger than a lion?" And he said unto them, "If ye had not plowed
with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle."
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon,
and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of
garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was
kindled, and he went up to his father's house. But Samson's wife was
given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.
But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, "I will go in to
my wife into the chamber." But her father would not suffer him to go
in. And her father said, "I verily thought that thou hadst utterly
hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger
sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her."
And Samson said concerning them, "Now shall I be more blameless than
the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure." And Samson went and
caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to
tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he
had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of
the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing
corn, with the vineyards and olives.
Then the Philistines said, "Who hath done this?" And they answered,
"Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife,
and given her to his companion." And the Philistines came up, and burnt
her and her father with fire.
And Samson said unto them, "Though ye have done this, yet will I be
avenged of you, and after that I will cease." And he smote them hip and
thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of
the rock Etam.
Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread
themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, "Why are ye come up
against us?" And they answered, "To bind Samson are we come up, to do
to him as he hath done to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went to
the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, "Knowest thou not that
the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done
unto us?" And he said unto them, "As they did unto me, so have I done
unto them." And they said unto him, "We are come down to bind thee,
that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines." And Samson
said unto them, "Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me
yourselves." And they spake unto him, saying, "No; but we will bind
thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not
kill thee." And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up
from the rock.
And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were
upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands
loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and
put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith. And
Samson said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the
jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men." And it came to pass, when
he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of
his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi.
And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, "Thou hast
given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now
shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"
But God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water
thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived:
wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto
this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty
years.
Then went Samson to Gaza. And it was told the Gazites, saying, "Samson
is come hither." And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all
night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying,
"In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him." And Samson lay
till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of
the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and
put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill
that is before Hebron.
And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of
Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up
unto her, and said unto her, "Entice him, and see wherein his great
strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we
may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us
eleven hundred pieces of silver."
And Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great
strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee."
And Samson said unto her, "If they bind me with seven green withes that
were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man." Then
the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withes which
had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men
lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him,
"The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And he brake the withes, as a
thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was
not known. And Delilah said unto Samson, "Behold, thou hast mocked me,
and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be
bound." And he said unto her, "If they bind me fast with new ropes that
never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man."
Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said
unto him, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And there were liers
in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms
like a thread. And Delilah said unto Samson, "Hitherto thou hast mocked
me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound." And he
said unto her," If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the
web." And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him," The
Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And he awaked out of his sleep, and
went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
And she said unto him, "How canst thou say, 'I love thee,' when thine
heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast
not told me wherein thy great strength lieth." And it came to pass,
when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his
soul was vexed unto death; that he told her all his heart, and said
unto her, "There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been
a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my
strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any
other man." And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart,
she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up
this once, for he hath showed me all his heart." Then the lords of the
Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she
made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused
him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict
him, and his strength went from him. And she said, "The Philistines be
upon thee, Samson." And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go
out as at other times before, and shake myself." And he wist not that
the Lord was departed from him.
But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him
down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in
the prison house. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again
after he was shaven. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them
together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to
rejoice: for they said, "Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into
our hand." And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for
they said, "Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the
destroyer of our country, which slew many of us." And it came to pass,
when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he
may make us sport." And they called for Samson out of the prison house;
and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. And
Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, "Suffer me that I
may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon
them." Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of
the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three
thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson
called unto the Lord, and said, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,
and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at
once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." And Samson took hold
of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it
was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his
left. And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." And he bowed
himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon
all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his
death were more than they which he slew in his life. Then his brethren
and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought
him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place
of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
SOME PSALMS OF DAVID
PSALM 1
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth
away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly
shall perish.
PSALM 19
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his
handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit
unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony
of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them
there is great reward.
Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not
have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be
innocent from the great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
PSALM 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the
still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou
anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
CHRIST'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was
set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught
them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for
they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor,
wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light
of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do
men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick;
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of
these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called
the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I
say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not
kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But
I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a
cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to
his brother, "Raca," shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever
shall say, "Thou fool," shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy
brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar,
and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and
offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in
the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence,
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou
shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine
oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it
is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by
Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is
more than these cometh of evil.
Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth; but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if
any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow
of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and
hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even
the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye
more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them:
otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that
they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father
which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for
they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret;
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when
ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore
like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of,
before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:
for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou
fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not
unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy
Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body
is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be
full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how
great is that darkness!
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love
the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for
your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and
the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father
feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking
thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil
not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so
clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things
do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take
therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye
shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt
thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast
out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again
and rend you.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or
what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a
stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that
ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits
ye shall know them.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in
thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And
every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall
be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people
were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having
authority, and not as the scribes.
PAUL'S DISCOURSE ON CHARITY
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and
all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not, charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall
fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I
put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but
then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as
also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of
these is charity.
LETTERS
LEWIS CARROLL TO MISS STANDEN
THE CHESTNUTS, GUILFORD
_August_ 22, 1869
_My dear Isabel:_
[Footnote: Little Miss Isabel Standen, whom Carroll had just met in a
park in Reading.]
Though I have been acquainted with you only fifteen minutes, yet, as
there is no one else in Reading I have known so long, I hope you will
not mind my writing to you.... A friend of mine, called Mr. Lewis
Carroll, tells me he means to send you a book. He is a _very_ dear
friend of mine. I have known him all my life (we are the same age) and
have _never_ left him. Of course he was with me in the Gardens, not
a yard off, even while I was drawing those puzzles for you. I wonder if
you saw him.
Your fifteen-minute friend,
C. L. DODGSON
THOMAS HOOD TO MISS ELLIOT
17, ELM TREE ROAD, ST. JOHN'S WOOD
Monday, _April_, 1844
_My dear May_, [Footnote: May Elliot, a little girl Hood had met
during a summer vacation.]--
I promised you a letter, and here it is. I was sure to remember it; for
you are as hard to forget, as you are soft to roll down a hill with.
What fun it was! only so prickly, I thought I had a porcupine in one
pocket, and a hedgehog in the other. The next time, before we kiss the
earth, we will have its face shaved well. Did you ever go to Greenwich
Fair? I should like to go there with you, for I get no rolling at St.
John's Wood. Tom and Fanny [Footnote: Hood's son and daughter.] only
like roll and butter, and as for Mrs. Hood, she is for rolling in
money.
Tell Dunnie that Tom has set his trap in the balcony and has caught a
cold, and tell Jeanie that Fanny has set her foot in the garden, but it
has not come up yet. Oh, how I wish it was the season when "March winds
and April showers bring forth _May_ flowers!" for then of course
you would give me another pretty little nosegay. Besides it is frosty
and foggy weather, which I do not like. The other night, when I came
from Stratford, the cold shriveled me up so, that when I got home, I
thought I was my own child!
However, I hope we shall all have a merry Christmas; I mean to come in
my most ticklesome waistcoat, and to laugh till I grow fat, or at least
streaky. Fanny is to be allowed a glass of wine, Tom's mouth is to have
a _hole_ holiday, and Mrs. Hood is to sit up for supper! There
will be doings! And then such good things to eat; but, pray, pray,
pray, mind they don't boil the baby by a mistake for a _plump_
pudding, instead of a plum one.
Give my love to everybody, from yourself down to Willy, with which and
a kiss, I remain, up hill and down dale,
Your affectionate lover,
THOMAS HOOD
CHARLES DICKENS TO MASTER HUGHES
[Footnote: Master Hughes had written to Dickens about _Nicholas
Nickleby_, protesting against Squeers' school.]
DOUGHTY STREET, LONDON
_Dec_. 12th, 1838
_Respected Sir_,
I have given Squeers one cut on the neck and two on the head, at which
he appeared much surprised and began to cry, which, being a cowardly
thing, is just what I should have expected from him--wouldn't you?
I have carefully done what you told me in your letter about the lamb
and the two "sheeps" for the little boys. They have also had some good
ale and porter, and some wine. I am sorry you didn't say _what_
wine you would like them to have. I gave them some sherry, which they
liked very much, except one boy, who was a little sick and choked a
good deal. He was rather greedy, and that's the truth, and I believe it
went the wrong way, which I say served him right, and I hope you will
say so too.
Nicholas had his roast lamb, as you said he was to, but he could not
eat it all, and says if you do not mind his doing so he should like to
have the rest hashed tomorrow with some greens, which he is very fond
of, and so am I. He said he did not like to have his porter hot, for he
thought it spoilt the flavor, so I let him have it cold. You should
have seen him drink it. I thought he never would have left off. I also
gave him three pounds of money, all in sixpences, to make it seem more,
and he said directly that he should give more than half to his mamma
and sister, and divide the rest with poor Smike. And I say he is a good
fellow for saying so; and if anybody says he isn't I am ready to fight
him whenever they like--there!
Fanny Squeers shall be attended to, depend upon it. Your drawing of her
is very like, except that I don't think the hair is quite curly enough.
The nose is particularly like hers, and so are the legs. She is a
nasty, disagreeable thing, and I know it will make her very cross when
she sees it; and what I say is that I hope it may. You will say the
same, I know--at least I think you will.
I meant to have written you a long letter, but I cannot write very fast
when I like the person I am writing to, because that makes me think
about them, and I like you, and so I tell you. Besides, it is just
eight o'clock at night, and I always go to bed at eight o'clock, except
when it is my birthday, and then I sit up to supper. So I will not say
anything more besides this--and that is my love to you and Neptune; and
if you will drink my health every Christmas Day I will drink yours--
come.
I am,
Respected Sir,
Your affectionate Friend
P. S.--I don't write my name very plain, but you know what it is,
you know, so never mind.
TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER
Washington Irving
"I appeal to any white man if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and
he gave him not to eat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed
him not."
_Speech of an Indian Chief_
There is something in the character and habits of the North American
savage, taken in connection with the scenery over which he is
accustomed to range,--its vast lakes, boundless forests, majestic
rivers, and trackless plains,--that is to my mind wonderfully striking
and sublime. He is formed for the wilderness, as the Arab is for the
desert. His nature is stern, simple, and enduring; fitted to grapple
with difficulties and to support privations. There seems but little
soil in his heart for the support of the kindly virtues; and yet, if we
would but take the trouble to penetrate through that proud stoicism and
habitual taciturnity which lock up his character from casual
observation, we should find him linked to his fellow man of civilized
life by more of those sympathies and affections than are usually
ascribed to him.
It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of America, in the
early periods of colonization, to be doubly wronged by the white men:
they have been dispossessed of their hereditary possessions by
mercenary and frequently wanton warfare, and their characters have been
traduced by bigoted and interested writers. The colonist often treated
them like beasts of the forest, and the author has endeavored to
justify him in his outrages. The former found it easier to exterminate
than to civilize, the latter to vilify than to discriminate. The
appellations of "savage" and "pagan" were deemed sufficient to sanction
the hostilities of both; and thus the poor wanderers of the forest were
persecuted and defamed, not because they were guilty, but because they
were ignorant.
The rights of the savage have seldom been properly appreciated or
respected by the white man. In peace he has too often been the dupe of
artful traffic; in war he has been regarded as a ferocious animal whose
life or death was a question of mere precaution and convenience. Man is
cruelly wasteful of life when his own safety is endangered and he is
sheltered by impunity, and little mercy is to be expected from him when
he feels the sting of the reptile and is conscious of the power to
destroy.
The same prejudices which were indulged thus early exist in common
circulation at the present day. Certain learned societies have, it is
true, with laudable diligence endeavored to investigate and record the
real characters and manners of the Indian tribes; the American
government, too, has wisely and humanely exerted itself to inculcate a
friendly and forbearing spirit towards them, and to protect them from
fraud and injustice. [Footnote: The American government has been
indefatigable in its exertions to ameliorate the situation of the
Indians, and to introduce among them the arts of civilization and civil
and religious knowledge. To protect them from the frauds of the white
traders, no purchase of land from them by individuals is permitted; nor
is any person allowed to receive lands from them as a present, without
the express sanction of government. These precautions are strictly
enforced.] The current opinion of the Indian character, however, is too
apt to be formed from the miserable hordes which infest the frontiers
and hang on the skirts of the settlements. These are too commonly
composed of degenerate beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the vices of
society, without being benefited by its civilization. That proud
independence which formed the main pillar of savage virtue has been
shaken down, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits
are humiliated and debased by a sense of inferiority, and their native
courage cowed and daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their
enlightened neighbors. Society has advanced upon them like one of those
withering airs that will sometimes breed desolation over a whole region
of fertility. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their
diseases, and superinduced upon their original barbarity the low vices
of artificial life. It has given them a thousand superfluous wants,
whilst it has diminished their means of mere existence. It has driven
before it the animals of the chase, who fly from the sound of the ax
and the smoke of the settlement, and seek refuge in the depths of
remoter forests and yet untrodden wilds. Thus do we too often find the
Indians on our frontiers to be the mere wrecks and remnants of once
powerful tribes, who have lingered in the vicinity of the settlements,
and sunk into a precarious and vagabond existence. Poverty, repining
and hopeless poverty, a canker of the mind unknown in savage life,
corrodes their spirits and blights every free and noble quality of
their natures. They become drunken, indolent, feeble, thievish, and
pusillanimous. They loiter like vagrants about the settlements, among
spacious dwellings replete with elaborate comforts which only render
them sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own condition.
Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes, but they are excluded
from the banquet. Plenty revels over the fields; but they are starving
in the midst of its abundance; the whole wilderness has blossomed into
a garden, but they feel as reptiles that infest it.
How different was their state while yet the undisputed lords of the
soil! Their wants were few, and the means of gratification within their
reach. They saw every one around them sharing the same lot, enduring
the same hardships, feeding on the same aliments, arrayed in the same
rude garments. No roof then rose but was open to the homeless stranger;
no smoke curled among the trees but he was welcome to sit down by its
fire and join the hunter in his repast. "For," says an old historian of
New England, "their life is so void of care, and they are so loving
also, that they make use of those things they enjoy as common goods,
and are therein so compassionate that rather than one should starve
through want, they would starve all; thus they pass their time merrily,
not regarding our pomp, but are better content with their own, which
some men esteem so meanly of." Such were the Indians whilst in the
pride and energy of their primitive natures; they resembled those wild
plants which thrive best in the shades of the forest, but shrink from
the hand of cultivation and perish beneath the influence of the sun.
In discussing the savage character, writers have been too prone to
indulge in vulgar prejudice and passionate exaggeration, instead of the
candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently considered
the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and
the peculiar principles under which they have been educated. No being
acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is
regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind.
The moral laws that govern him are, to be sure, but few--but then he
conforms to them all; the white man abounds in laws of religion,
morals, and manners--but how many does he violate?
A frequent ground of accusation against the Indians is their disregard
of treaties, and the treachery and wantonness with which, in time of
apparent peace, they will suddenly fly to hostilities. The intercourse
of the white men with the Indians, however, is too apt to be cold,
distrustful, oppressive, and insulting. They seldom treat them with
that confidence and frankness which are indispensable to real
friendship, nor is sufficient caution observed not to offend against
those feelings of pride or superstition which often prompt the Indian
to hostility quicker than mere considerations of interest. The solitary
savage feels silently, but acutely. His sensibilities are not diffused
over so wide a surface as those of the white man, but they run in
steadier and deeper channels. His pride, his affections, his
superstitions, are all directed towards fewer objects; but the wounds
inflicted on them are proportionately severe, and furnish motives of
hostility which we cannot sufficiently appreciate. Where a community is
also limited in number, and forms one great patriarchal family, as in
an Indian tribe, the injury of an individual is the injury of the
whole, and the sentiment of vengeance is almost instantaneously
diffused. One council fire is sufficient for the discussion and
arrangement of a plan of hostilities. Here all the fighting men and
sages assemble. Eloquence and superstition combine to inflame the minds
of the warriors. The orator awakens their martial ardor, and they are
wrought up to a kind of religious desperation by the visions of the
prophet and the dreamer.
An instance of one of those sudden exasperations, arising from a
motive peculiar to the Indian character, is extant in an old record of
the early settlement of Massachusetts. The planters of Plymouth had
defaced the monuments of the dead at Passonagessit, and had plundered
the grave of the sachem's mother of some skins with which it had been
decorated. The Indians are remarkable for the reverence which they
entertain for the sepulchers of their kindred. Tribes that have passed
generations exiled from the abodes of their ancestors, when by chance
they have been traveling in the vicinity, have been known to turn aside
from the highway, and guided by wonderfully accurate tradition have
crossed the country for miles to some tumulus, buried perhaps in woods,
where the bones of their tribe were anciently deposited, and there have
passed hours in silent meditation. Influenced by this sublime and holy
feeling, the sachem whose mother's tomb had been violated gathered his
men together and addressed them in the following beautifully simple and
pathetic harangue--a curious specimen of Indian eloquence, and an
affecting instance of filial piety in a savage:--
"When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath this globe,
and birds grew silent, I began to settle, as my custom is, to take
repose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, methought I saw a vision, at
which my spirit was much troubled; and trembling at that doleful sight,
a spirit cried aloud: 'Behold, my son, whom I have cherished, see the
breasts that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm, and fed
thee oft. Canst thou forget to take revenge of those wild people who
have defaced my monument in a despiteful manner, disdaining our
antiquities and honorable customs? See now the sachem's grave lies like
the common people, defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother doth
complain, and implores thy aid against this thievish people who have
newly intruded on our land. If this be suffered, I shall not rest quiet
in my everlasting habitation.' This said, the spirit vanished, and I,
all in a sweat, not able scarce to speak, began to get some strength
and recollect my spirits that were fled, and determined to demand your
counsel and assistance."
I have adduced this anecdote at some length, as it tends to show how
these sudden acts of hostility, which have been attributed to caprice
and perfidy, may often arise from deep and generous motives which our
inattention to Indian character and customs prevents our properly
appreciating.
Another ground of violent outcry against the Indians is their barbarity
to the vanquished. This had its origin partly in policy and partly in
superstition. The tribes, though sometimes called nations, were never
so formidable in their numbers but the loss of several warriors was
sensibly felt. This was particularly the case when they had frequently
been engaged in warfare; and many an instance occurs in Indian history,
where a tribe that had long been formidable to its neighbors has been
broken up and driven away by the capture and massacre of its principal
fighting men. There was a strong temptation, therefore, to the victor
to be merciless; not so much to gratify any cruel revenge, as to
provide for future security. The Indians had also the superstitious
belief, frequent among barbarous nations and prevalent also among the
ancients, that the manes of their friends who had fallen in battle were
soothed by the blood of the captives. The prisoners, however, who are
not thus sacrificed, are adopted into their families in the place of
the slain, and are treated with the confidence and affection of
relatives and friends; nay, so hospitable and tender is their
entertainment, that when the alternative is offered them, they will
often prefer to remain with their adopted brethren rather than return
to the home and the friends of their youth.
The cruelty of the Indians toward their prisoners has been heightened
since the colonization of the whites. What was formerly a compliance
with policy and superstition has been exasperated into a gratification
of vengeance. They cannot but be sensible that the white men are the
usurpers of their ancient dominion, the cause of their degradation, and
the gradual destroyers of their race. They go forth to battle smarting
with injuries and indignities which they have individually suffered,
and they are driven to madness and despair by the wide-spreading
desolation and the overwhelming ruin of European warfare. The whites
have too frequently set them an example of violence, by burning their
villages and laying waste their slender means of subsistence; and yet
they wonder that savages do not show moderation and magnanimity towards
those who have left them nothing but mere existence and wretchedness.
We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, because
they use stratagem in warfare in preference to open force; but in this
they are fully justified by their rude code of honor. They are early
taught that stratagem is praiseworthy. The bravest warrior thinks it no
disgrace to lurk in silence and take every avantage of his foe; he
triumphs in the superior craft and sagacity by which he has been
enabled to surprise and destroy an enemy. Indeed, man is naturally more
prone to subtility than open valor, owing to his physical weakness in
comparison with other animals. They are endowed with natural weapons of
defense--with horns, with tusks, with hoofs, and talons; but man has to
depend on his superior sagacity. In all his encounters with these, his
proper enemies, he resorts to stratagem; and when he perversely turns
his hostility against his fellow man, he at first continues the same
subtle mode of warfare.
The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with
the least harm to ourselves; and this, of course, is to be effected by
stratagem. That chivalrous courage which induces us to despise the
suggestions of prudence and to rush in the face of certain danger is
the offspring of society, and produced by education. It is honorable,
because it is in fact the triumph of lofty sentiment over an
instinctive repugnance to pain, and over those yearnings after personal
ease and security which society has condemned as ignoble. It is kept
alive by pride and the fear of shame, and thus the dread of real evil
is overcome by the superior dread of an evil which exists but in the
imagination. It has been cherished and stimulated also by various
means. It has been the theme of spirit-stirring song and chivalrous
story. The poet and minstrel have delighted to shed round it the
splendors of fiction, and even the historian as forgotten the sober
gravity of narration, and broken forth into enthusiasm and rhapsody in
its praise. Triumphs and gorgeous pageants have been its reward;
monuments on which art has exhausted its skill, and opulence its
treasures, have been erected to perpetuate a nation's gratitude and
admiration. Thus artificially excited, courage has risen to an
extraordinary and factitious degree of heroism; and arrayed in all the
glorious "pomp and circumstance of war," this turbulent quality has
even been able to eclipse many of those quiet but invaluable virtues
which silently ennoble the human character and swell the tide of human
happiness.
But if courage intrinsically consists in the defiance of danger and
pain, the life of the Indian is a continual exhibition of it. He lives
in a state of perpetual hostility and risk. Peril and adventure are
congenial to his nature, or rather seem necessary to arouse his
faculties and to give an interest to his existence. Surrounded by
hostile tribes whose mode of warfare is by ambush and surprisal, he is
always prepared for fight, and lives with his weapons in his hands. As
the ship careers in fearful singleness through the solitudes of ocean,
as the bird mingles among clouds and storms, and wings its way, a mere
speck, across the pathless fields of air, so the Indian holds his
course, silent, solitary, but undaunted, through the boundless bosom of
the wilderness. His expeditions may vie in distance and danger with the
pilgrimage of the devotee or the crusade of the knight-errant. He
traverses vast forests, exposed to the hazards of lonely sickness, of
lurking enemies, and pining famine. Stormy lakes, those great inland
seas, are no obstacles to his wanderings; in his light canoe of bark he
sports like a feather on their waves, and darts with the swiftness of
an arrow down the roaring rapids of the rivers. His very subsistence is
snatched from the midst of toil and peril. He gains his food by the
hardships and dangers of the chase; he wraps himself in the spoils of
the bear, the panther, and the buffalo, and sleeps among the thunders
of the cataract.
No hero of ancient or modern days can surpass the Indian in his lofty
contempt of death and the fortitude with which he sustains its cruelest
infliction. Indeed, we here behold him rising superior to the white man
in consequence of his peculiar education. The latter rushes to glorious
death at the cannon's mouth; the former calmly contemplates its
approach, and triumphantly endures it, amidst the varied torments of
surrounding foes and the protracted agonies of fire. He even takes a
pride in taunting his persecutors and provoking their ingenuity of
torture; and as the devouring flames prey on his very vitals and the
flesh shrinks from the sinews he raises his last song of triumph,
breathing the defiance of an unconquered heart and invoking the spirits
of his fathers to witness that he dies without a groan.
Notwithstanding the obloquy with which the early historians have
overshadowed the characters of the unfortunate natives, some bright
gleams occasionally break through which throw a degree of melancholy
luster on their memories. Facts are occasionally to be met with in the
rude annals of the eastern provinces, which, though recorded with the
coloring of prejudice and bigotry, yet speak for themselves, and will
be dwelt on with applause and sympathy when prejudice shall have passed
away.
In one of the homely narratives of the Indian wars in New England,
there is a touching account of the desolation carried into the tribe of
the Pequod Indians. Humanity shrinks from the coldblooded detail of
indiscriminate butchery. In one place we read of the surprisal of an
Indian fort in the night, when the wigwams were wrapped in flames, and
the miserable inhabitants shot down and slain in attempting to escape,
"all being dispatched and ended in the course of an hour." After a
series of similar transactions, "our soldiers," as the historian
piously observes, "being resolved by God's assistance to make a final
destruction of them," the unhappy savages being hunted from their homes
and fortresses and pursued with fire and sword, a scanty but gallant
band, the sad remnant of the Pequod warriors, with their wives and
children, took refuge in a swamp.
Burning with indignation and rendered sullen by despair, with hearts
bursting with grief at the destruction of their tribe and spirits
galled and sore at the fancied ignominy of their defeat, they refused
to ask their lives at the hands of an insulting foe, and preferred
death to submission.
As the night drew on they were surrounded in their dismal retreat so as
to render escape impracticable. Thus situated, their enemy "plied them
with shot all the time, by which means many were killed and buried in
the mire." In the darkness and fog that preceded the dawn of day some
few broke through the besiegers and escaped into the woods; "the rest
were left to the conquerors, of which many were killed in the swamp,
like sullen dogs who would rather, in their self-willedness and
madness, sit still and be shot through or cut to pieces," than implore
for mercy. When the day broke upon this handful of forlorn but
dauntless spirits, the soldiers, we are told, entering the swamp, "saw
several heaps of them sitting close together, upon whom they discharged
their pieces laden with ten or twelve pistol bullets at a time, putting
the muzzles of the pieces under the boughs within a few yards of them;
so as, besides those that were found dead, many more were killed and
sunk into the mire, and never were minded more by friend or foe."
Can any one read this plain, unvarnished tale without admiring the
stern resolution, the unbending pride, the loftiness of spirit that
seemed to nerve the hearts of these self-taught heroes and to raise
them above the instinctive feelings of human nature? When the Gauls
laid waste the city of Rome, they found the senators clothed in their
robes and seated with stern tranquillity in their curule chairs; in
this manner they suffered death without resistance or even
supplication. Such conduct was, in them, applauded as noble and
magnanimous; in the hapless Indian it was reviled as obstinate and
sullen! How truly are we the dupes of show and circumstance! How
different is virtue clothed in purple and enthroned in state from
virtue naked and destitute and perishing obscurely in a wilderness!
But I forbear to dwell on these gloomy pictures. The Eastern tribes
have long since disappeared; the forests that sheltered them have been
laid low, and scarce any traces remain of them in the thickly settled
states of New England, excepting here and there the Indian name of a
village or a stream. And such must, sooner or later, be the fate of
those other tribes which skirt the frontiers, and have occasionally
been inveigled from their forests to mingle in the wars of white men.
In a little while, and they will go the way that their brethren have
gone before. The few hordes which still linger about the shores of
Huron and Superior and the tributary streams of the Mississippi will
share the fate of those tribes that once spread over Massachusetts and
Connecticut and lorded it along the proud banks of the Hudson, of that
gigantic race said to have existed on the borders of the Susquehanna,
and of those various nations that flourished about the Potomac and the
Rappahannock, and that peopled the forests of the vast valley of
Shenandoah. They will vanish like a vapor from the face of the earth,
their very history will be lost in forgetfulness, and "the places that
now know them will know them no more forever." Or if, perchance, some
dubious memorial of them should survive, it may be in the romantic
dreams of the poet, to people in imagination his glades and groves,
like the fauns and satyrs and sylvan deities of antiquity. But should
he venture upon the dark story of their wrongs and wretchedness; should
he tell how they were invaded, corrupted, despoiled, driven from their
native abodes and the sepulchers of their fathers; hunted like wild
beasts about the earth, and sent down with violence and butchery to the
grave, posterity will either turn with horror and incredulity from the
tale, or blush with indignation at the inhumanity of their forefathers.
"We are driven back," said an old warrior, "until we can retreat no
farther; our hatchets are broken, our bows are snapped, our fires are
nearly extinguished; a little longer, and the white man will cease to
persecute us--for we shall cease to exist!"
OF STUDIES
Francis Bacon
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief
use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in
discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of
business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars,
one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of
affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time
in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation;
to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They
perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities
are like natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies
themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be
bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire
them; and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use; but that
is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation. Read not
to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to
find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to
be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to
be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with
diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and
extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less
important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books
are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full
man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore,
if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer
little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had
need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories
make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy
deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. _Abeunt studia
in mores_. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may
be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have
appropriate exercises. Bowling is for the stone and reins; shouting for
the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the
head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the
mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so
little, he must begin again: if his wit be not apt to distinguish or
find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are _cymini
sectores:_ if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call one
thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers'
cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.
THE AMERICAN BOY
Theodore Roosevelt
Of course what we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he
shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong
that he won't be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He
must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He
must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived,
and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all
comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind
of American man of whom America can be really proud.
There are always in life countless tendencies for good and for evil,
and each succeeding generation sees some of these tendencies
strengthened and some weakened; nor is it by any means always, alas!
that the tendencies for evil are weakened and those for good
strengthened. But during the last few decades there certainly have been
some notable changes for good in boy life. The great growth in the love
of athletic sports, for instance, while fraught with danger if it
becomes one-sided and unhealthy, has beyond all question had an
excellent effect in increased manliness. Forty or fifty years ago the
writer on American morals was sure to deplore the effeminacy and luxury
of young Americans who were born of rich parents. The boy who was
well off then, especially in the big Eastern cities, lived too
luxuriously, took to billiards as his chief innocent recreation, and
felt small shame in his inability to take part in rough pastimes and
field-sports. Nowadays, whatever other faults the son of rich parents
may tend to develop, he is at least forced by the opinion of all his
associates of his own age to bear himself well in manly exercises and
to develop his body--and therefore, to a certain extent, his character--
in the rough sports which call for pluck, endurance, and physical
address.
Of course boys who live under such fortunate conditions that they have
to do either a good deal of outdoor work or a good deal of what might
be called natural outdoor play do not need the athletic development. In
the Civil War the soldiers who came from the prairie and the backwoods
and the rugged farms where stumps still dotted the clearings, and who
had learned to ride in their infancy, to shoot as soon as they could
handle a rifle, and to camp out whenever they got the chance, were
better fitted for military work than any set of mere school or college
athletes could possibly be. Moreover, to mis-estimate athletics is
equally bad whether their importance is magnified or minimized. The
Greeks were famous athletes, and as long as their athletic training had
a normal place in their lives, it was a good thing. But it was a very
bad thing when they kept up their athletic games while letting the
stern qualities of soldiership and statesmanship sink into disuse. Some
of the younger readers of this book will certainly sometime read the
famous letters of the younger Pliny, a Roman who wrote, with what seems
to us a curiously modern touch, in the first century of the present
era. His correspondence with the Emperor Trajan is particularly
interesting; and not the least noteworthy thing in it is the tone of
contempt with which he speaks of the Greek athletic sports, treating
them as the diversions of an unwarlike people which it was safe to
encourage in order to keep the Greeks from turning into anything
formidable. So at one time the Persian kings had to forbid polo,
because soldiers neglected their proper duties for the fascinations of
the game. We cannot expect the best work from soldiers who have carried
to an unhealthy extreme the sports and pastimes which would be healthy
if indulged in with moderation, and have neglected to learn as they
should the business of their profession. A soldier needs to know how to
shoot and take cover and shift for himself--not to box or to play
football. There is, of course, always the risk of thus mistaking means
for ends. Fox-hunting is a first-class sport; but one of the most
absurd things in real life is to note the bated breath which certain
excellent fox-hunters, otherwise quite healthy minds, speak of this
admirable, but not over-important pastime. They tend to make it almost
as much of a fetich as, in the last century, the French and German
nobles made the chase of the stag, when they carried hunting and game-
preserving to a point which was ruinous to the national life. Fox-
hunting is very good as a pastime, but it is about as poor a business
as can be followed by any man of intelligence. Certain writers about it
are fond of quoting the anecdote of the fox-hunter who, in the days of
the English civil war, was discovered pursuing his favorite sport just
before a great battle between the Cavaliers and the Puritans, and right
between their lines as they came together. These writers apparently
consider it a merit in this man that when his country was in a death-
grapple, instead of taking arms and hurrying to the defense of the
cause he believed right, he should have placidly gone about his usual
sports. Of course, in reality the chief serious use of fox-hunting is
to encourage manliness and vigor, and to keep men hardy, so that at
need they can show themselves fit to take part in work or strife for
their native land. When a man so far confuses ends and means as to
think that fox-hunting, or polo, or football, or whatever else the
sport may be, is to be itself taken as the end, instead of the mere
means of preparation to do work that counts when the time arises, when
the occasion calls--why, that man had better abandon sport altogether.
No boy can afford to neglect his work, and with a boy work, as a rule,
means study. Of course there are occasionally brilliant successes in
life where a man has been worthless as a student when a boy. To take
these exceptions as examples would be as unsafe as it would be to
advocate blindness because some blind men have won undying honor by
triumphing over their physical infirmity and accomplishing great
results in the world. I am no advocate of senseless and excessive
cramming in studies, but a boy should work, and should work hard, at
his lessons--in the first place, for the sake of what he will learn and
in the next place, for the sake of the effect upon his own character of
resolutely settling down to learn it. Shiftlessness, slackness,
indifference in studying, are almost certain to mean inability to get
on in other walks of life. Of course, as a boy grows older it is a good
thing if he can shape his studies in the direction toward which he has
a natural bent; but whether he can do this or not, he must put his
whole heart into them. I do not believe in mischief-doing in school
hours, or in the kind of animal spirits that results in making bad
scholars; and I believe that these boys who take part in rough, hard
play outside of school will not find any need for horse-play in school.
While they study they should study just as hard as they play football
in a match game. It is wise to obey the homely old adage, "Work while
you work; play while you play."
A boy needs both physical and moral courage. Neither can take the place
of the other. When boys become men they will find out that there are
some soldiers very brave in the field who have proved timid and
worthless as politicians, and some politicians who show an entire
readiness to take chances and assume responsibilities in civil affairs,
but who lack the fighting edge when opposed to physical danger. In each
case, with soldiers and politicians alike, there is but half a virtue.
The possession of the courage of the soldier does not excuse the lack
of courage in the statesman, and even less does the possession of the
courage of the statesman excuse shrinking on the field of battle. Now,
this is all just as true of boys. A coward who will take a blow without
returning it is a contemptible creature; but after all, he is hardly as
contemptible as the boy who does not stand up for what he deems right
against the sneers of his companions who are themselves wrong. Ridicule
is one of the favorite weapons of wickedness, and it is sometimes
incomprehensible how good and brave boys will be influenced for evil by
the jeers of associates who have no one quality that calls for respect,
but who affect to laugh at the very traits which ought to be peculiarly
the cause for pride.
There is no need to be a prig. There is no need for a boy to preach
about his own conduct and virtue. If he does he will make himself
offensive and ridiculous. But there is urgent need that he should
practice decency; that he should be clean and straight, honest and
truthful, gentle and tender, as well as brave. If he can once get to a
proper understanding of things, he will have a far more hearty contempt
for the boy who has begun a course of feeble dissipation, or who is
untruthful, or mean, or dishonest, or cruel, than this boy and his
fellows can possibly, in return, feel for him. The very fact that the
boy should be manly and able to hold his own, that he should be ashamed
to submit to bullying without instant retaliation, should, in return,
make him abhor any form of bullying, cruelty, or brutality.
There are two delightful books, Thomas Hughes's "Tom Brown at Rugby"
and Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy," which I hope every boy still reads;
and I think American boys will always feel more in sympathy with
Aldrich's story, because there is in it none of the fagging, and the
bullying which goes with fagging, the account of which, and the
acceptance of which, always puzzles an American admirer of Tom Brown.
There is the same contrast between two stories of Kipling's. One,
called "Captains Courageous," describes in the liveliest way just what
a boy should be and do. The hero is painted in the beginning as the
spoiled, over-indulged child of wealthy parents, of a type which we do
sometimes unfortunately see, and than which there exist few things more
objectionable on the face of the broad earth. This boy is afterward
thrown on his own resources, amid wholesome surroundings, and is forced
to work hard among boys and men who are real boys and real men doing
real work. The effect is invaluable. On the other hand, if one wishes
to find types of boys to be avoided with utter dislike, one will find
them in another story by Kipling, called "Stalky & Co.," a story which
ought never to have been written, for there is hardly a single form of
meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement
which it does not seem to applaud. Bullies do not make brave men; and
boys or men of foul life cannot become good citizens, good Americans,
until they change; and even after the change scars will be left on
their souls.
The boy can best become a good man by being a good boy--not a goody-
goody boy, but just a plain good boy. I do not mean that he must love
only the negative virtues; I mean he must love the positive virtues
also. "Good," in the largest sense, should include whatever is fine,
straightforward, clean, brave, and manly. The best boys I know--the
best men I know--are good at their studies or their business, fearless
and stalwart, hated and feared by all that is wicked and depraved,
incapable of submitting to wrongdoing, and equally incapable of being
aught but tender to the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should
feel hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation
for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals. One
prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy should
have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need arises.
Of course the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly straight and
upright boy can have upon the companions of his own age, and upon those
who are younger, is incalculable. If he is not thoroughly manly,
then they will not respect him, and his good qualities will count for
but little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then his
physical strength and force of mind merely make him so much the more
objectionable a member of society. He cannot do good work if he is not
strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any
contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to every one
else if he does not have thorough command over himself and over his own
evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of
decency, justice, and fair dealing.
In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is:
Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!
ORATIONS
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH
Patrick Henry
Mr. President: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism,
as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just
addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in
different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought
disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do, opinions of
a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments
freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question
before this house is one of awful moment to the country. For my own
part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or
slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be
the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to
arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to
God and to our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time,
through fear of giving offense, I would consider myself as guilty of
treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the
Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of
hope. We are apt to shut our eye's against a painful truth, and listen
to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this
the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for
liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes,
see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern
their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it
may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and
to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp
of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the
past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in
the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify
those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves
and the house. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has
been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your
feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves
how this gracious re--ception of our petition comports with those
warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are
fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have
we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be
called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir.
These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to
which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial
array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen
assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in
this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies
and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be
meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those
chains which the British Ministry have been so long forging. And what
have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been
trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon
the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of
which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to
entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find, which have
not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive
ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to
avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have
remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before
the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the
tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have
been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and
insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been
spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these
things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There
is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to
preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been
so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle
in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged
ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest
shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An
appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable
an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week,
or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a
British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather
strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of
effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the
delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand
and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means
which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of
people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as
that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can
send against us. Besides, we shall not fight our battles alone. There
is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will
raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not
to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it,
it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but
in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be
heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come!
I repeat it, sir, LET IT COME!
It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace,
peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale
that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of
resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we
here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is
life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
others may take; but, as for me, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS
Daniel Webster
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my
heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that, in the beginning, we
aimed not at independence. But
There's a divinity which shapes our ends.
The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own
interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence
is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is
ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration?
Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England,
which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or
safety to his own life or his own honor? Are not you, Sir, who sit in
that chair, is not he, our venerable colleague near you, are you not
both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and
vengeance? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what
can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? If we
postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or give up, the war? Do
we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston Port Bill and
all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be
ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the
dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Do we
intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into by men,
that plighting, before God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when,
putting him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political
hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every extremity,
with our fortunes and our lives? I know there is not a man here, who
would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an
earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall
to the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place,
moved you that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces
raised, or to be raised, for the defense of American liberty, may my
right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof my
mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him.
The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war
must go on, why put off longer the Declaration of Independence? That
measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. The
nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we
acknowledge ourselves subjects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, I
maintain that England herself will sooner treat for peace with us on
the footing of independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to
acknowledge that her whole conduct toward us has been a course of
injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded by submitting
to that course of things which now predestinates our independence, than
by yielding the points in controversy to her rebellious subjects. The
former she would regard as the result of fortune; the latter, she would
feel as her own deep disgrace. Why then, why then, Sir, do we not as
soon as possible change this from a civil to a national war? And since
we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all
the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory?
If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause
will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the
people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry
themselves, gloriously, through this struggle. I care not how fickle
other people have been found. I know the people of these Colonies, and
I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in
their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every Colony, indeed, has
expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the
Declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of
a long and bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of
grievances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set
before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will
breathe into them anew the spirit of life. Read this Declaration at the
head of the army; every sword will be drawn, and the solemn vow
uttered, to maintain it, or perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from
the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty
will cling around it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send
it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard
the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw their
brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill and in the
streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in
its support.
Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly
through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not
live to see the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may
die; die colonists; die slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on
the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that
my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall
be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may.
But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a
country, and that a free country.
But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this
Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood;
but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the
thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future, as the
sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we
are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it
with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On
its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of
subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation,
of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come.
My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All
that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am
now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live
or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living
sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment;
independence _now_, and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER.
ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG
Abraham Lincoln
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we
can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,--that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.
APPENDIX
In this Appendix are given lists of masterpieces of children's
literature which, for reasons stated in the Preface, could not be
included in this collection. The editor has attempted to limit the lists
of books to those which, in his judgment, are undoubted masterpieces,
yet at the same time to include the books in the different types with
which students in normal school and college classes in children's
literature need to be familiar. These books should be in the reference
library at the disposal of the students, and reports and conferences on
them should form a part of the course in children's literature.
A brief bibliography of books dealing with literature for children
is appended. The teacher of the class in children's literature should
know some of these books, and perhaps use one as a text to guide
his work.
COLLECTIONS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
ELIOT, C. W. _The Junior Classics_. 8 vols. P. F. Collier & Sons,
New York.
SCUDDER, H. E. _The Children's Book_. 1 vol. Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston.
TAPPAN, E. M. The Children's Hour. 10 vols. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
Among school readers, the _Heart of Oak_ series, edited by Charles
Eliot Norton (D. C. Heath & Co., New York), is the most profuse in
literary masterpieces.
COLLECTIONS OF MOTHER GOOSE VERSES
HALLIWELL, J. O. _The Nursery Rhymes of England_. Frederick Warne
& Co., New York.
LANG, A. _The Nursery Rhyme Book_. Frederick Warne & Co., New York.
SAINTSBURY, G. E. B. _National Rhymes of the Nursery_. Frederick A.
Stokes Company, New York.
WELSH, C. _Mother Goose: A Book of Nursery Rhymes_. D. C. Heath &
Co., New York.
WHEELER, W. _A. Mother Goose's Melodies_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
CHILDREN'S POETS
In addition to the children's poets represented on pages 13-36, the
following books of children's poems should be in the school library:
BROWN, A. F. _A Pocketful of Posies_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
GARY, A. and P. _Poems for Children_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston, (In _Cary's Poetical Works_.)
DODGE, M. _Rhymes and Jingles._ Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
DOWD. _The Owl and the Bobolink._ Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
EARLS, M. _Ballads of Childhood._ Benziger Brothers, New York.
FIELD, E. _Songs of Childhood._ Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
LAMB, C. _Poetry for Children._ E. P. Button & Co., New York.
(Volume 8 of Works of Charles Lamb.)
PEABODY, J. P. _The Book of the Little Past._ Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston.
RICHARDS, L. E. _In My Nursery._ Little, Brown & Co., Boston.
RILEY, J. W. _Rhymes of Childhood._ Bobbs-Merjill Company,
Indianapolis.
SHERMAN, F. D. _Little-Folk Lyrics._ Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
TAGORE, R. _The Crescent Moon._ Macmillan Company, New York.
WELLS, C. _The Jingle Book._ Macmillan Company, New York.
ANTHOLOGIES OF CHILDREN'S POETRY
CHISHOLM, L. _The Golden Staircase._ G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.
HAZARD, B. _Three Years with the Poets._ Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
HENLEY, W. E. _Lyra Heroica._ Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
LUCAS, E. V. _A Book of Verses for Children._ Henry Holt & Co.,
New York.
PALGRAVE, F. _Children's Treasury of English Song._ Macmillan
Company, New York.
REPPLIER, A. _A Book of Famous Verse._ Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
STEVENSON, B. _The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks._ Henry Holt
& Co., New York.
THACHER, L. W. _The Listening Child._ Macmillan Company, New York.
WIGGIN, K. D., and SMITH, N. A. _Golden Numbers._ McClure Company,
New York.
ANONYMOUS. _Our Children's Songs._ Harper and Brothers, New York.
FAIRY STORIES
In addition to the collections of fairy stories mentioned in the notes,
the following collections contain first-rate material:
Folk Tales
JACOBS, J. _More English Fairy Tales and Celtic Fairy Tales._ G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York.
LANG, A. _The Blue Fairy Book and The Green Fairy Book._ Longmans,
Green & Co., New York.
RHYS, E. _The English Fairy Book._ Frederick A. Stokes Company, New
York.
SCUDDER, H. E. _Book of Fables and Folk Stories._ Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston.
WIGGIN, K. D., and SMITH, N. A. _The Fairy Ring._ McClure Company,
New York,
NEGRO FOLK TALES
HARRIS, J. C. _Nights with Uncle Remus_ and _Uncle Remus and His
Friends_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
MODERN FAIRY TALES
BARRIE, J. M. _Peter Pan_. Silver, Burdett & Co., Boston.
CARROLL, L. _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Through the
Looking-Glass_. Macmillan Company, New York.
COLLODI, C. _Adventures of Pinocchio_. Ginn & Co., Boston.
INGELOW, J. _Mopsa the Fairy_. J. B. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia. _Three Fairy Tales_. D. C. Heath & Co., New York.
KINGSLEY, C. _Water Babies_. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.
LANG, A. _Prince Prigio_. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.
MAETERLINCK, M. _The Blue Bird for Children_. Silver, Burdett &
Co., Boston.
MACDONALD, G. _The Princess and the Goblin_. J. B. Lippincott
Company, Philadelphia.
ROSTAND, E. _The Story of Chanticleer_. Frederick A. Stokes
Company, New York.
STOCKTON, F. R. _Fanciful Tales and The Floating Prince_. Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York.
THACKERAY, W. M. _The Rose and the Ring_. D. C. Heath & Co., New
York.
HOMERIC STORIES
No selection from the classic stories of Homer have been included in the
present collection, having been ruled out by the principle that nothing
but complete units must be presented. But every child must be exposed to
the charm of the wonderful story-teller of Greece. If the child prefers
verse--and Homer's stories are at their best in good verse--Bryant's
translation should be used (Students' Edition, 2 vols. Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston). Perhaps the best prose translation is that of Palmer
(Houghton Mifflin Company).
MYTHS
In addition to the Kingsley and Hawthorne stories of the Greek myths and
legends, the child's library should contain Mrs. Peabody's _Old Greek
Folk Stories_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston).
HERO STORIES
Preeminent among the stories in which the chief element of interest is
that which arises from the deeds of heroic characters, are the Robin
Hood and the King Arthur stories. The Robin Hood tales contain material
unusually interesting and valuable for children; but, though they have
been told and retold times without number, there is but one version that
may properly be called a "masterpiece." This is the Howard Pyle version,
_Merry Adventures of Robin Hood_ (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York).
A less expensive edition is called _Some Merry Adventures of Robin
Hood_.
The King Arthur cycle is at its best in the Malory version (_Le Morte
d'Arthur_, by Sir Thomas Malory. _Everyman's_ series. E. P. Dutton
& Co., New York). This, however, is somewhat too diffuse and too
difficult for any child but a bookish one. Sidney Lanier's version of
the stories (_The Boy's King Arthur_, Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York) is a masterpiece of narration for youthful readers, and it is
faithful to the atmosphere and spirit of the Malory stories.
The hero stories in Plutarch are among the choicest of stories in this
type. Edwin Ginn's edition (Ginn & Co., Boston) is an admirable one. It
is based on the Clough translation, which was based, in turn, on the
so-called Dryden version.
ANIMAL AND NATURE STORIES AND SKETCHES
BURROUGHS, J. _Wake Robin_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
KIPLING, R. _Jungle Book_ and _Just-So Stories_. Century
Company, New York.
LONG, W. J. _A Little Brother to the Bear_. Ginn & Co., Boston.
MILLER, J. _True Bear Stories_. Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago.
Mum, J. _Stickeen._ Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. A most
charming and thrilling story of a dog.
ROBERTS, C. G. D. _Kindred of the Wild_. Grosset & Dunlap, New
York.
SEGUR, S. Story of a Donkey. D. C. Heath & Co., New York.
SETON THOMPSON, E. _Wild Animals I Have Known_. Charles Scribner's
Sons, New York.
MISCELLANEOUS STORIES
(Chiefly Fiction)
ALCOTT, L. M. _Little Men and Little Women_. Little, Brown & Co.,
Boston.
ALDRICH, T. B. _Story of a Bad Boy_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
BLACKMORE, R. D. _Lorna Doone_. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New
York.
BUNYAN, J. _Pilgrim's Progress_. Ginn & Co., Boston.
CLEMENS, S. L. _Tom Sawyer_, _Huckleberry Finn_, and _The
Prince and the Pauper_. Harper and Brothers, New York.
COOPER, J. F. _Deerslayer_ and _Last of the Mohicans_. G. P.
Putnam's Sons, New York.
DEFOE, D. _Robinson Crusoe_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
FRANKLIN, B. _Autobiography_. D. C. Heath & Co., New York.
HALE, E. E. _The Man Without a Country_. Ginn & Co., Boston.
HALE, L. _Peterkin Papers_. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
HUGHES, T. _Tom Brown's School Days_. Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago.
SCOTT, W. _Quentin Durward and Ivanhoe_. Dana Estes & Co., Boston.
STEVENSON, R. L. _Treasure Island_. Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York.
SWIFT, J. _Gulliver's Travels_. D. C. Heath & Co., New York.
BOOKS ON CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
BARNES, W. _English in the Country School_. Row, Peterson & Co.,
Chicago.
CARPENTER, BAKER, and SCOTT. _The Teaching of English_. Longmans,
Green & Co., New York.
CHUBB, P. _Teaching of English_ (elementary school edition).
Macmillan Company, New York.
COLBY, J. R. _Literature and Life in the School_. Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston.
COX, J. H. _Literature in the Common Schools_. Little, Brown & Co.,
Boston.
FIELD, W. T. _Fingerposts to Children's Reading_. A. C. McClurg &
Co., Chicago.
HUNT. _What Shall We Read to the Children_? Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston.
LEE, G. S. _The Child and the Book_. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New
York.
LOWE. _Literature for Children_. Macmillan Company, New York.
MACCLINTOCK, P. L. _Literature in the Elementary School_.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
OLCOTT, F. J. _The Children's Reading_. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Boston.
NOTES
Page 1. Attention is directed to the classification of the Nursery
Jingles as indicated in the Contents. Several classifications of the
Jingles, from one standpoint or another, have been made, that by J. O.
Halliwell being the most elaborate, and that by the late Charles Welsh
being, perhaps, the most logical. The present classification is to
indicate more clearly the content, the source, the point, the
"intrinsic motive" of the Jingles. It is hoped that this new
classification will at least make conspicuous the scope and variety,
and the widely varying sources and themes, of the verses that children
have been selecting and scholars have been collecting under the generic
name of Nursery Jingles or Mother Goose Verses.
There are, of course, different versions of the Jingles, as there are
of any truly "popular" form of literature. Of not many Jingles can it
be said that any version is the oldest, the authoritative, the real
version. The editor, therefore, despairing of finding the most accurate
version, has endeavored to find the best. In many instances the best
seemed the one he had heard in childhood rather than the one printed in
any of the collections. The collection found most useful is Lang's
_The Nursery Rhyme Book_ (Frederick Warne & Co., London, 1897).
The editor has tried to select those specimens that would give teacher
and class as many characteristic Mother Goose elements, touches,
rhythms, and styles as possible. Many of the Jingles in this collection
have not been printed before--at least, not to the editor's knowledge.
He believes, however, that they are all genuine Folk Jingles, and he
hopes that their quaintness and novelty will justify their appearance
here.
Page 13. The poems from Blake are from _Poetical Works_ (George
Bell & Sons, London, 1909). The three poems are from the series called
_Songs of Innocence_.
Page 15. Christina Rossetti's poems are from _Sing-Song_
(Macmillan & Co., London, 1907). The poems are not given titles in
this, the authoritative edition.
Page 17. Stevenson's poems are from _Complete Poems_ (Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1912). The poems reprinted here are all from
the series called _A Child's Garden of Verses_. There are many
good editions of the _Child's Garden_, the Scribner edition being
one of the most beautiful.
Page 20. The Lucy Larcom pieces are from _Childhood Songs_
(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1874), and are here used by
permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.
Page 22. The four poems of the Taylors' are from E. V. Lucas's edition
of _The Original Poems and Others_ (Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co.,
London, 1903). The readings given here follow the last revision by Ann
Taylor, some years after the death of Jane. In the case of "The Star"
the more familiar version seemed, to the present editor, the better,
but he felt that he should conform to the reading that seems to have
the strongest authority. No attempt is made to discriminate between the
poems of the two sisters; all the poems are here ascribed to them
jointly.
Page 26. The first two poems of Watts' are from _Divine Songs for
Children_; the third poem, from _Moral Songs_, or, to give it
its full title, _A Slight Specimen of Moral Songs, such as I wish
some happy and condescending genius would undertake for the use of
children, and perform much better_. The two collections of poems for
children are to be found in Watts's _Horæ Lyricæ_ (Little, Brown &
Co., Boston, 1864). The advertisement to this edition states that "the
volume is reprinted, with many corrections," from the quarto edition of
Watts's entire works, published in 1753. Stanzas 5-10 and stanzas 12
and 14 have been omitted from the text of "A Cradle Hymn." They are
given here, that the student may have before him an illustration of how
necessary it is occasionally to expurgate material set before children.
5. Blessed babe! what glorious features,
Spotless fair, divinely bright!
Must he dwell with brutal creatures?
How could angels bear the sight!
6. Was there nothing but a manger
Cursed sinners could afford,
To receive the heavenly Stranger?
Did they thus affront their Lord?
7. Soft, my child; I did not chide thee,
Though my song might sound too hard;
'Tis thy mother sits beside thee,
And her arms shall be thy guard.
8. Yet to read the shameful story,
How the Jews abus'd their King,
How they serv'd the Lord of Glory,
Makes me angry while I sing.
9. See the kinder shepherds round him,
Telling wonders from the sky;
There they sought him, there they found him,
With his virgin mother by.
10. See the lovely babe a-dressing;
Lovely infant, how he smil'd!
When he wept, the mother's blessing
Sooth'd and hush'd the holy child.
12. 'Twas to save thee, child, from dying,
Save my dear from burning flame,
Bitter groans and endless crying,
That thy blest Redeemer came.
14. I could give thee thousand kisses,
Hoping what I most desire;
Not a mother's fondest wishes
Can to greater joys aspire.
Page 28. Lewis Carroll's poems reprinted here are from _The Hunting
of the Snark, and Other Poems_ (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1903).
"Father William" is from _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_; the
others are from _Through the Looking-Glass_. All three poems are
much better fun when read in their original setting.
Page 33. Edward Lear's poems are from _Nonsense Books_ (Little,
Brown & Co., Boston, 1888). This includes all four of the Nonsense
books by Lear: _Book of Nonsense_, 1846; _Nonsense Songs,
Stories, etc._, 1871; _More Nonsense Pictures_, etc., 1872;
and _Laughable Lyrics: A Fresh Book of Nonsense, etc._, 1877.
Page 37. The ballad of "Bonny Barbara Allan" is from Percy's _Reliques
of Ancient English Poetry_ (Frederick Warne & Co., New York, 1880).
The spelling is modernized. Stanzas 5-8 have been inserted. They were
discovered in Buchanan County, Virginia, by Professor C. Alphonso
Smith, of the University of Virginia, and printed in his monograph,
_Ballads Surviving in the United States_ (G. Schirmer, New York,
1916). This and dozens of other "popular" ballads are still sung in
the mountains of the Southern states; undoubtedly they have been
transmitted orally for generations.
Page 38. "Sir Patrick Spence" is from Percy's _Reliques_, the
edition above mentioned. In the editor's opinion, this is the most
effective of the several versions of this beautiful ballad.
Page 40. This version of "Robin Hood and Allin a Dale" is from
Sargent and Kittredge's _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_
(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1904).
Page 43. "Kinmont Willie" is from _The Poetical Works of Sir Walter
Scott, together with The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ (J. B.
Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1880). Sir Walter, in his
introduction to the ballad, states that because the piece had been
"much mangled by reciters," "some conjectural emendations have been
absolutely necessary to render it intelligible." As no other version of
the ballad has ever been discovered, no one knows just how many
"conjectural emendations" Sir Walter made. It is safe to say, however,
that the poet's taste and antiquarian interests would prevent his
taking unwarrantable liberties with the original. In its present form
it is one of the finest of the ballads, whatever change it may have
suffered in passing through Scott's hands.
Page 49. This poem of Longfellow's and "A Psalm of Life," page 83, are
from _Complete Poetical Works_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston,
1893). They are used by permission.
Page 52. "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and the Keats poem on page 75 are
from _Complete Poetical Works and Letters_ (Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston, 1899). Lord Houghton's version, as given in _Life,
Letters, and Literary Remains_, has some important variant readings.
Page 53. The Campbell poem is taken from the _Complete Poetical
Works_ (Phillips, Samson & Co., Boston, 1857).
Page 55. "Lochinvar" comes from the _Poetical Works_ (Thomas Y.
Crowell Company, New York, 1894).
Page 56. This spirited poem of Browning's is from the _Complete
Poetic and Dramatic Works_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1895).
Page 58. The three poems by Tennyson in this collection are from
_Poetic and Dramatic Works_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
1898).
Page 63. This version of "America" is from the facsimile reproduction
of the hymn in the author's handwriting found in _A History of
Newton, Massachusetts_, by S. F. Smith, D.D. (published, 1880, by
The American Logotype Company, Boston). The original copy of "America,"
according to all the evidence, is the one in Dr. Smith's handwriting
contained on a slip of waste paper which is now kept in the treasure
room of the Harvard Library. In this original version the two notable
points of difference from that given here are the reading "breathes"
for "breathe" in the third stanza, and "Our God" for "Great God" in the
fourth stanza.
Page 64. This well-known passage is the first stanza of Canto VI of
Scott's _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_ (_Poetical Works_
above described).
Page 64. Miller's "Columbus" is from the Bear Edition of Miller's poems
(Harr Wagner Publishing Company, San Francisco, 1909).
Page 65. Mrs. Hemans' poem is from _Complete Works_ (D. Appleton &
Co., New York, 1847).
Page 67. The "Concord Hymn" and "The Rhodora," page 74, are from the
_Poems_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1899).
Page 67. This poem of Holmes' and "The Chambered Nautilus," page 77,
are from the _Poetical Works_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston,
1895). The latter poem appeared originally in _The Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table_.
Page 68. "O Captain! My Captain!" is from _Leaves of Grass_ (David
McKay, Philadelphia, 1900).
Page 70. "To Lucasta" is from _Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, etc.,
etc., to which is added Aramantha, a Pastoral, by Richard Lovelace,
Esq. A New Edition_ (Chiswick: from the Press of C. Whittingham,
1817).
Page 70. Byron's poem is from _Hebrew Melodies_ (London, printed
for John Murray, 1815).
Page 71. "A Red, Red Rose" is from _Complete Poetical Works_
(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1897).
Page 72. "The Greenwood Tree" is from _As You Like It_ (New
Variorum Edition, 1890).
Page 72. This well-known sea song by Cunningham is from _The Songs of
Scotland, Ancient and Modern_, Vol. IV (printed for John Taylor,
London, 1825).
Page 73. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", or "The Daffodils," as it is
often called, is from _Complete Poetical Works_ (Thomas Y. Crowell
Company, New York, n. d.). The text is that of the edition of 1857.
Page 74. "To the Fringed Gentian" is from _Poetical Works_ (D.
Appleton & Co., New York, 1909). "To a Waterfowl," page 76, is from the
same.
Page 79. "The Noble Nature" is from the volume of Ben Jonson's poems in
_The Canterbury Poets_, edited by William Sharp (published by the
Walter Scott Publishing Company, London and Newcastle, n. d.).
Page 79. This poem of Wotton's is from _Reliquæ Wottoniæ_, etc.,
London, (printed by Thomas Maxey for R. Marriot, G. Bedel, and T.
Garthwait, 1651). The meaning of the third stanza is obscure. In this
edition it runs as follows:
Who envies none that Chance doth raise,
Nor Vice hath ever understood;
How deepest wounds are given by praise,
Nor rules of State, but rules of good.
Page 80. This inspiring poem by Clough is found in _Poetical
Works_ (George Routledge & Sons, London, n. d.).
Page 80. "For A' That an' A' That" is from _The Edinburgh Book of
Scottish Verse_ (Meiklejohn and Holden, London, 1910).
Page 82. The poem by Henley is from _Echoes_ (published by David
Nutt, London, 1908). This poem is the fourth of the forty-seven poems
in _Echoes._ The title "Invictus" is not in the original.
Page 82. "Opportunity" is from _Poems by Edward Rowland Sill_
(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1888).
Pages 85-86. These six fables are from _The Fables of Æsop_,
translated into English by Samuel Croxall, with new applications,
morals, etc., by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend (Frederick Warne & Co.,
London, 1869). This is the second edition. There are, of course, scores
of versions of the Æsopian fables. The one selected is approved by
Greek scholars for the fidelity of the translation, while its literary
value is unusually high. The tagged-on morals and applications have
been pruned away from the text.
Pages 87-88. The two fables of Bidpai are to be found in _The
Tortoise and the Geese, and Other Fables of Bidpai_, retold by Maude
Barrows Dutton (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1908). They are
reprinted here by permission of the publishers.
Page 89. These two metrical fables are from _Fables of La
Fontaine,_ translated by Elizur Wright, Jr. (Worthington Company,
New York, 1889). The French writer's fables, though usually not
original in content, are clever and keen and shrewd, and this
translation represents faithfully their thought and spirit.
Page 91. Both "The Old Woman and Her Pig" and "The Three Little Pigs"
are from _English Fairy Tales_, third edition (G. P. Putnam's
Sons, New York, 1910). The stories are from Halliwell's _Nursery
Rhymes and Tales_, but are retold by Jacobs, who, as usual, improves
the original without sinning against the mood and spirit of the
"popular" story.
Page 95. "Hans in Luck" and "The Frog-Prince," are from the translation
of Edgar Taylor, London, 1823. This, so far as the editor could
determine, was the first translation into English, and it remains one
of the best.
Page 98. "The Valiant Little Tailor" and "The Elves," are from
_Grimms Household Tales_, translated by Margaret Hunt (George Bell
& Sons, London, 1913). The two volumes of Miss Hunt's translation are,
together with her notes and Andrew Lang's introduction, an important
contribution to the folklore of the "popular" Fairy Story and Nursery
Tale.
Page 105. "Cinderella" and "Blue Beard," are from _The Tales of
Mother Goose_, translated from the French by Charles Welsh (D. C.
Heath & Co., New York, 1901). They are reprinted in this collection by
permission of the publishers. _The Tales of Mother Goose_ were
published in 1697. There have been dozens of translations, but Welsh's
version is perhaps the most satisfactory.
Page 110. This version of "Whittington" is from _Amusing Prose Chap-
Books, chiefly of Last Century_, edited by Robert Hays Cunningham
(Hamilton, Adams & Co., London, 1889). The version is strikingly
similar to the one given by Jacobs in _English Fairy Tales_,
which, Jacobs says, was "cobbled up out of three chapbook versions."
Page 117. "The Ugly Duckling" is from _Fairy Tales and Stories_,
translated by H. W. Dulcken (Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago, n. d.). The
Dulcken translation published by A. L. Burt Company, New York, n. d.,
contains the same stories as the Rand-McNally translation, and eleven
more.
Page 125. "The Flax" is from the translation of Caroline Peachey,
_Danish Fairy Legends and Tales_ (George Bell & Sons, London,
1881). This is the "third edition, enlarged." It contains fifty-seven
stories.
Neither of the Andersen stories used for this collection is a folk
story--though, for tradition's sake, they are here placed with genuine
folk stories. Of the fifty-seven stories in the Peachey translation,
all but ten are entirely original with Andersen, and all of these ten
he worked over to suit his purpose. Andersen, then, unlike Grimm,
Jacobs, Lang, and others, is not a collector and teller of fairy
stories, but a maker of fairy stories--if, indeed, they should be
called fairy stories at all. In spirit and purpose and method Andersen
belongs with the modern writers of fairy stories--with Macdonald,
Stockton, Ingelow, and Barrie, rather than with the "dealers in the
genuine article."
Page 133. This version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is from Jacobs'
_English Fairy Tales_ above cited. Jacobs states that this telling
came from Australia. It is the best version known to the editor--in
fact, the only possible change to be desired is in the flippant ending,
"The ogre fell down and broke his crown." This is too serious a matter
for such lightness!
Page 142. The only story of Asbjornsen reprinted in this collection is
from _Fairy Tales from the Far North_ (A. L. Burt Company, New
York, n. d.). The translator is H. L. Braekstad. Asbjornsen's stories
are sterling folk tales, but somewhat too gross and crude for the
delicate stomach of the modern child.
Page 146. This Negro folk tale is from _Told by Uncle Remus_
(Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1905. Copyright 1903-1904-1905 by Joel
Chandler Harris). Reproduced here by courtesy of Doubleday, Page & Co.
Page 155. Mrs. Craik's story is the first tale in _The Adventures of
a Brownie_ (Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago, 1911); it is printed here
by permission of the publishers. The text, according to the editor,
agrees with the standard text (Samson, Low, Marston, Low, and Searle,
London, 1872).
Page 161. The text of "The King of the Golden River" is that found in
_Ruskin's Works_ (American Publishers Corporation, New York, n.
d.). The versions commonly found in readers have been sadly mangled by
editors--largely on the theory, it would seem, that children cannot
understand the meaning of a word of more than two syllables.
Page 183. "Aladdin" is from _The Arabian Nights Entertainments_,
translated by Jonathan Scott (printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, &
Brown, London, 1811). The translation is based on Galland's French
translation, the first translation into any European language; but Dr.
Scott states that the stories are "carefully revised and occasionally
corrected from the Arabic." Of the many editions of _The Arabian
Nights_--several of them excellent--this has always seemed, to the
editor, the best.
The name in Scott's edition is spelled "Alla ad Deen," but the editor
has thought it best to use the name most familiar to the English
translations. The story has been altered slightly in that part which
relates the circumstances following the marriage of the princess and
the vizier's son. Quotation marks have been inserted throughout.
Page 267. "The Gorgon's Head" is from _The Wonder Book_ (Houghton
Mifflin Company, Boston, 1881).
Page 286. "Theseus" is from _The Heroes_ (_Kingsley's Works_,
Macmillan & Co., London, 1879). One obvious blunder in spelling has
been corrected.
Page 311. "Thor Goes a-Fishing" is from Mabie's _Norse Stories_
(Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago, 1902. Copyright, 1900, 1901, by Dodd,
Mead & Co.). It is printed here through special arrangement with the
holders of the copyright.
Page 315. "Baldur" is Chapter VI of _The Heroes of Asgard_,
revised and abridged by Charles H. Morss (Macmillan Company, New York,
1909). The preface states that "this volume is really an abridgment of
Keary's _The Heroes of Asgard_, adapting it to classroom use for
pupils of about the fourth and fifth grades." The selection is
presented here as a splendid specimen of "made-over" literature, as
well as, in its own right, a masterpiece of story-telling for children.
Page 327. The story of William Wallace is from _The Tales of a
Grandfather_ (Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1889). This edition
is "reprinted from the latest edition published in the lifetime of Mr.
Lockhart, and probably under his immediate supervision."
Page 339. "The Tempest" is from _Tales from Shakespeare_, with
introductions and additions by F. J. Furnivall (Raphael Tuck & Sons,
London, 1901). The "Tales" are very uneven in merit, the Comedies being
superior, in the editor's opinion, to the Tragedies, and "The Tempest"
being considerably the best of the Comedies. It is generally understood
that it was Mary Lamb who told the Comedies and Charles who had charge
of the Tragedies.
Page 349. "The Purple Jar" is from "Rosamond" in a volume entitled
_Frank, Rosamond, Harry, and Lucy_ (Frederick Warne & Co., London,
n. d.). This is an inexpensive volume containing all of Miss
Edgeworth's good stories except those in _The Parent's Assistant_.
One may not care for tales of this sort; but they have their value,
both as morality and literature, and "The Purple Jar" is one of the
most effective specimens of its kind.
Pages 354, 356. The two didactic stories by Aiken and Barbauld are from
_Evenings at Home; or, the Juvenile Budget opened: consisting of a
variety of miscellaneous pieces for the instruction and amusement of
young persons_ (Henry Washbourne, London, 1847). This edition is
described as "newly arranged." "Eyes and No Eyes" has been admired and
praised by thousands of readers of past generations, among whom Oliver
Wendell Holmes and Charles Kingsley are preeminent.
Page 363. "Rab and His Friends" is the first sketch in _Horæ
Subsecivæ_, First Series (Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York,
1893). An accurate and inexpensive edition is that in the Canterbury
Classics (Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago). It is one of the most pathetic
stories in all literature, conforming precisely to Ruskin's theory that
a child's story should be "sad and sweet."
Page 375. Mrs. Miller's story of the blue jay is one of the most
charming of the stories in _True Bird Stories_ (Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston, 1903). It is reprinted in this collection with the
permission of the publishers.
Page 378. "A Cry in the Night" is the second story in _Wood Folk at
School_ (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1903). It is printed here by special
arrangement with the publishers. Mr. Long's studies of wild animal life
are among the few distinctive contributions to children's literature
within this generation.
Page 389. The selections from the Bible are from the King James
Version. The verse divisions in this version have been ignored in this
reprint, as having little literary significance, and the paragraphs
indicated by the paragraph marks in the original have been used as the
natural units of thought--though the paragraphing does not always
represent the thought divisions. Quotation marks have been inserted
throughout.
From the story of Joseph, Genesis 37-50, it has been thought best to
omit the following: all of Chapter 38, Chapter 39: 7-19; Chapter 46: 8-
27; Chapter 49; 1-28. From the story of Samson, Judges 13:24 to end of
Chapter 17, one clause in the first verse of Chapter 16 has been
omitted. From the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:1-7:29, verses 27-32
from Chapter 5 have been omitted. The discourse of Paul on Charity,
First Corinthians, Chapter 13, has been separated into paragraphs.
Page 421. The letter of Lewis Carroll is from _Life and Letters of
Lewis Carroll_, by S. Dodgson Collingwood (T. Fisher Unwin, London,
1898). Hood's letter is from _Thomas Hood: His Life and Times_
(London, 1907). Dickens's letter is from _Letters of Charles
Dickens_ (London, 1880).
Page 425. Irving's essay on "Indian Character" is reprinted from _The
Sketch Book_, Author's Revised Edition (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New
York, 1888).
Page 434. "Of Studies" is from _The Essays of Francis Bacon_
(Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1907). The text is that of Aldis
Wright, but the spelling and punctuation have been modernized.
Page 435. Theodore Roosevelt's spirited and characteristic essay on
"The American Boy" is to be found among the essays and addresses in
_The Strenuous Life_ (Century Company, New York, 1911), and is
here used by permission of author and publisher.
Page 441. Patrick Henry's celebrated oration is from _Sketches of the
Life of Patrick Henry_, by William Wirt, third edition, corrected by
the author, Philadelphia, 1818, which is the first printed version of
the speech. No one really knows how much of it is Henry's, how much is
Wirt's. Wirt gives much of the oration in the third person, with many
"he said's." It is here given in the first person, following almost
precisely the version given in Tyler's _Patrick Henry_ (Houghton
Mifflin Company, Boston, 1898), which, of course, is based on Wirt's
version. All the evidence bears out the contention that Wirt's account
of the oration is authentic.
Page 443. The "Supposed Speech of John Adams" is taken from the
_Works of Daniel Webster_ (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1853). The
speech is really a portion of Webster's oration on Adams and Jefferson,
delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, August 2, 1826, less than a month
after the death of Adams and Jefferson. The "Supposed Speech" is
Webster's conception of how Adams might have answered a speaker who had
argued against the passing of the Declaration of Independence.
Page 446. This reading of the "Gettysburg Address" is taken,
punctuation and all, from the autographed copy of the address written
for the Baltimore Fair and signed November 19, 1863. The facsimile
lithographed copy of this is to be found in _Autograph Leaves of Our
Country's Authors_ (Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore, 1864). A full and
accurate account of the three versions of the address is found in the
_Century_ magazine for February, 1894.
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