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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jester's Sword, by Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Jester's Sword
+       How Aldebaran, the King's Son Wore the Sheathed Sword of Conquest
+
+Author: Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2012 [EBook #39385]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESTER'S SWORD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE JESTER'S SWORD
+
+[Illustration]
+
+BY ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
+
+
+
+
+_The JESTER'S SWORD_
+
+
+
+
+The Johnston Jewel Series
+
+BY ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
+
+
+Each, small 16mo, cloth, decorated cover and frontispiece, with
+decorative text borders _75c._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIST OF TITLES
+
+      THE RESCUE OF THE PRINCESS WINSOME: A Fairy Play for
+          Old and Young.
+
+      KEEPING TRYST: A Tale of King Arthur's Time.
+
+      *IN THE DESERT OF WAITING: The Legend of Camelback
+          Mountain.
+
+      *THE THREE WEAVERS: A Fairy Tale for Fathers and
+          Mothers as Well as for Their Daughters.
+
+      THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART.
+
+      *THE JESTER'S SWORD.
+
+*Also bound in full flexible leather, with special tooling in gold,
+boxed
+
+_$2.00_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    THE PAGE COMPANY
+    53 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+_THE JESTER'S SWORD_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How Aldebaran, the King's Son, Wore the Sheathed Sword of Conquest
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BY ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
+
+_Author of "The Little Colonel Series," "Big Brother," "Joel: A Boy of
+Galilee," "In the Desert of Waiting," etc._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    BOSTON
+    _THE PAGE COMPANY_
+    Publishers
+
+
+
+
+    _Copyright, 1908_
+    BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+    (INCORPORATED)
+
+    _Copyright, 1909_
+    BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+    (INCORPORATED)
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+    First Impression, June, 1909
+    Second Impression, August, 1909
+    Third Impression, October, 1910
+    Fourth Impression, November, 1911
+    Fifth Impression, November, 1912
+    Sixth Impression, January, 1916
+    Seventh Impression, August, 1917
+    Eighth Impression, April, 1920
+
+
+
+
+    TO
+    John
+
+
+
+
+      "_To renounce when that shall be necessary and not be
+      embittered._"                     R. L. STEVENSON.
+
+
+
+
+_The Jester's Sword_
+
+
+BECAUSE he was born in Mars' month, which is ruled by that red war-god,
+they gave him the name of a red star--Aldebaran; the red star that is
+the eye of Taurus. And because he was born in Mars' month, the
+bloodstone became his signet, sure token that undaunted courage would
+be the jewel of his soul.
+
+Now all his brothers were as stalwart and as straight of limb as he, and
+each one's horoscope held signs foretelling valorous deeds. But
+Aldebaran's so far out-blazed them all, with comet's trail and planets
+in most favourable conjunction, that from his first year it was known
+the Sword of Conquest should be his. This sword had passed from sire to
+son all down a line of kings. Not to the oldest one always, as did the
+throne, though now and then the lot fell so, but to the one to whom the
+signs all pointed as being worthiest to wield it.
+
+So from the cradle it was destined for Aldebaran, and from the cradle it
+was his greatest teacher. His old nurse fed him with such tales of it,
+that even in his play the thought of such an heritage urged him to
+greater ventures than his mates dared take. Many a night he knelt beside
+his casement, gazing through the darkness at the red eye of Taurus,
+whispering to himself the words the old astrologers had written, "_As
+Aldebaran the star shines in the heavens, Aldebaran the man shall shine
+among his fellows._"
+
+Day after day the great ambition grew within him, bone of his bone and
+strength of his sinew, until it was as much a part of him as the strong
+heart beating in his breast. But only to one did he give voice to it, to
+the maiden Vesta, who had always shared his play. Now it chanced that
+she, too, bore the name of a star, and when he told her what the
+astrologers had written, she repeated the words of her own destiny:
+
+"_As Vesta the star keeps watch in the heavens above the hearths of
+mortals, so Vesta the maiden shall keep eternal vigil beside the heart
+of him who of all men is the bravest._"
+
+When Aldebaran heard that he swore by the bloodstone on his finger that
+when the time was ripe for him to wield the sword he would show the
+world a far greater courage than it had ever known before. And Vesta
+smiling, promised by that same token to keep vigil by one fire only, the
+fire that she had kindled in his heart.
+
+One by one his elder brothers grew up and went out into the world to
+win their fortunes, and like a restless steed that frets against the
+rein, impatient to be off, he chafed against delay and longed to follow.
+For now the ambition that had grown with his growth had come to be more
+than bone of his bone and strength of his sinew. It was an all-consuming
+desire which coursed through him even as his heart's blood; for with
+the years had come an added reason for the keeping of his youthful vow.
+Only in that way could Vesta's destiny be linked with his.
+
+When the great day came at last for the Sword to be put into his hands,
+with a blare of trumpets the castle gates flew open, and a long
+procession of nobles filed through. To the sound of cheers and ringing
+of bells, Aldebaran fared forth on his quest. The old king, his father,
+stepped down in the morning sun, and with bared head Aldebaran knelt to
+receive his blessing. With his hand on the Sword he swore that he would
+not come home again, until he had made a braver conquest than had ever
+been made with it before, and by the bloodstone on his finger the old
+king knew that Aldebaran would fail not in the keeping of that oath.
+
+With the godspeed of the villagers ringing in his ears, he rode away.
+Only once he paused to look back, when a white hand fluttered at a
+casement, and Vesta's sorrowful face shone down on him like a star.
+Then she, too, saw the bloodstone on his finger as he waved her a
+farewell, and she, too, knew by that token he would fail not in the
+keeping of his oath.
+
+'Twas passing wonderful how soon Aldebaran began to taste the sweets of
+great achievement. His name was on the tongue of every troubadour, his
+deeds in every minstrel's song. And though he travelled far to alien
+lands, scarce known by hearsay even to the folk at home, his fame was
+carried back, far over seas again, and in his father's court his name
+was spoken daily in proud tones, as they recounted all his honours.
+
+Young, strong, with the impetuous blood begotten of success tingling
+through all his veins, he had no thought that dire mishap could seize
+on _him_; that pain or malady or mortal weakness could pierce _his_
+armour, which youth and health had girt about him. From place to place
+he went, wherever there was need of some brave champion to espouse a
+weak ones cause. It mattered not who was arrayed against him, whether a
+tyrant king, a dragon breathing fire, or some hideous scaly monster
+that preyed upon the villages. His Sword of Conquest was unsheathed for
+each; and as his courage grew with every added victory, he thirsted for
+some greater foe to vanquish, remembering his youthful vow.
+
+And as he journeyed on he pictured often to himself the day of his
+returning, the day on which his vow should find fulfilment. How wide
+the gates would be thrown open for his welcome! How loud would swell the
+cheers of those who thronged to do him honour! His dreams were always of
+that triumphal entrance, and of Vesta's approving smile. Never once the
+shadow of a thought stole through his mind that it might be far
+otherwise. Was not he born for conquest? Did not the very stars
+foretell success?
+
+One night, belated in a mountain pass, he sought the shelter of a
+shelving rock, and with his mantle wrapped about him lay down to sleep.
+Upon the morrow he would sally forth and beard the Province Terror in
+his stronghold; would challenge him to combat, and after long and
+glorious battle would rid the country of its dreaded foe. Already
+tasting victory, he fell asleep, a smile upon his lips.
+
+But in the night a storm swept down the mountain pass with sudden fury,
+uprooting trees a century old, and rending mighty rocks with sword
+thrusts of its lightning. And when it passed Aldebaran lay prone upon
+the earth borne down by rocks and fallen trees. Lay as if dead until two
+passing goat-herds found him and bore him down in pity to their hut.
+
+Long weeks went by before the fever craze and pains began to leave him,
+and when at last he crawled out in the sun, he found himself a poor
+misshapen thing, all maimed and marred, with twisted back and face all
+drawn awry and foot that dragged. One hand hung nerveless by his side.
+Never more would it be strong enough to use the Sword. He could not even
+draw it from its scabbard.
+
+As in a daze he looked upon himself, thinking some hideous nightmare had
+him in its hold. "That is not _I_!" he cried, in horror at the thought.
+Then as the truth began to pierce his soul, he sat with starting eyes
+and lips that gibbered in cold fear, the while they still persisted in
+their fierce denial. "This is not _I_!"
+
+Again he said it and again as if his frenzied words could work a miracle
+and make him as he was before. Then when the sickening sense of his
+calamity swept over him like a flood in all its fulness, he cast
+himself upon the earth and prayed to die. Despair had seized him. But
+Death comes not at such a call; kind Death, who waits that one may have
+a chance to rise again and grapple with the foe that downed him, and
+conquering, wipe the stigma coward from his soul.
+
+So with Aldebaran. At first it seemed that he could not endure to face
+the round of useless days now stretching out before him. An eagle,
+broken winged and drooping in a cage, he sat within the goat-herd's hut
+and gloomed upon his lot, and cursed the vital force within that would
+not let him die.
+
+To fall asleep with all the world within one's grasp and waken
+empty-handed--that is small bane to one who may spring up again, and by
+sheer might wrest all his treasures back from Fortune. But to wake
+helpless as well as empty-handed, the strength for ever gone from arms
+that were invincible; to crawl, a poor crushed worm, the mark for all
+men's pity, where one had thought to win the meed of all men's praise,
+ah, then to live is agony! Each breath becomes a venomed adder's sting.
+
+Most of all Aldebaran thought of Vesta. The stroke that marred his
+comeliness and took his strength had robbed him of all power to win his
+happiness. It was written "by the hearth of him who is the bravest she
+shall keep eternal vigil." As yet he had not risen above the level of
+his forbears' bravery, only up to it. Now 'twas impossible to show the
+world a greater courage, shorn as he was of strength. And even had her
+horoscope willed otherwise, and she should come to him all filled with
+maiden pity to share his ruined hearth, he could not say her yea. His
+man's pride rose up in him, rebellious at the thought of pity from one
+in whose sight he fain would be all that is strong and comely. Looking
+down upon his twisted limbs, the pain that racked him was greater
+torture than mere flesh can feel. Although 'twas casting heaven from
+him, he drew his mantle closer, hiding his disfigured form, and prayed
+with groans and writhings that she might never look on him again. So
+days went by.
+
+There came a time when, even through his all-absorbing thought of self,
+there pierced the consciousness that he no longer could impose upon the
+goat-herds' bounty. Food was scarce within the hut, and even though he
+groaned to die, the dawns brought hunger. So at the close of day he
+dragged him down the mountainside, thinking that under cover of the dusk
+he would steal into the village and seek a chance to earn his bread.
+
+But as he neared the little town and the sound of evening bells broke on
+his ear, and lighted windows marked the homes where welcome waited other
+men, he winced as from a blow. This was the village he had thought to
+enter in the midst of loud acclaims, its brave deliverer from the
+Province Terror. Then every window in the hamlet would have blazed for
+him. Then every door would have been set wide to welcome Aldebaran, the
+royal son of kings, fittest to bear the Sword of Conquest. And now
+Aldebaran was but the crippled makeshift of a man, who could not even
+draw that Sword from out its scabbard; at whose wry features all must
+turn away in loathing, and some perchance might even set the dogs to
+snarling at his heels, in haste to have him gone.
+
+"In all the world," he cried in bitterness, "there breathes no other man
+whom Faith hath used so cruelly! Emptied of hope, robbed of my all, life
+doth become a prison-house that dooms me to its lowest dungeon! Why
+struggle any longer 'gainst my lot? Why not lie here and starve, and
+thus force Death to turn the key, and break the manacles which bind me
+to my misery?"
+
+While he thus mused, footsteps came up the mountainside, a lusty voice
+was raised in song, and before he could draw back into cover, a head in
+a fantastic cap appeared above the bushes. It was the village Jester
+capering along the path as if the world were thistledown and every day a
+holiday. But when he saw Aldebaran he stopped agape and crossed
+himself. Then he pushed nearer.
+
+Now those who saw the Jester only on a market day or at the country fair
+plying his trade of merriment for all 'twas worth knew not a sage was
+hid behind that motley or that his sympathies were tender as a saint's.
+Yet so it was. The motto written deep across his heart was this: "_To
+ease the burden of the world!_" It was beyond belief how wise he'd grown
+in wheedling men to think no load lay on their shoulders. Now he stood
+and gazed upon the prostrate man who turned away his face and would not
+answer his low-spoken words: "What ails thee, brother?"
+
+It boots not in this tale what wiles he used to gain Aldebaran's ear
+and tongue. Another man most surely must have failed, because he shrank
+from pity as from salt rubbed in a wound, and felt that none could hear
+his woeful history and not bestow that pity. But if the Jester felt its
+throbs he gave no sign. Seated beside him on the grass he talked in the
+light tone that served his trade, as if Aldebaran's woes were but a
+flight of swallows 'cross a summer sky, and would as soon be gone. And
+when between his quirks he'd drawn the piteous tale entirely from him,
+he doubled up with laughter and smote his sides.
+
+"And I'm the fool and thou'rt the sage!" he gasped between his peals of
+mirth. "Gadzooks! Methinks it is the other way around. Why, look ye,
+man! Here thou dost go a-junketing through all the earth to find a
+chance to show unequalled courage, and when kind Fate doth shove it
+underneath thy very nose, thou turn'st away, lamenting. I've heard of
+those who know not beans although the bag be opened, and now I laugh to
+see one of that very kind before me."
+
+Then dropping his unseemly mirth and all his wanton raillery, he stood
+up with his face a-shine, and spake as if he were the heaven-sent
+messenger of hope.
+
+"Rise up!" he cried. "_Knowest thou not it takes a thousandfold more
+courage to sheathe the sword when one is all on fire for action than to
+go forth against the greatest foe?_ Here is thy chance to show the
+world the kingliest spirit it has ever known! Here is a phalanx thou
+mayst meet all single-handed--a daily struggle with a host of hurts that
+cut thee to the quick. This sheathed sword upon thy side will stab thee
+hourly with deeper thrusts than any adversary can give. 'Twill be a
+daily 'minder of thy thwarted hopes. For foiled ambition is the
+hydra-headed monster of the Lerna marsh. Two heads will rise for every
+one thou severest. 'Twill be a fight till death. Art brave enough to
+lift the gauntlet that Despair flings down and wage this warfare to thy
+very grave?'"
+
+Such call to arms seemed mockery as Aldebaran looked down upon his
+twisted limbs, but as the bloodstone on his finger met his sight his
+kingly soul leapt up. "I'll keep the oath!" he cried, and struggling to
+his feet laid hand upon the jewelled hilt that decked his side.
+
+"By sheathed sword, since blade is now denied me," he swore. "I'll win
+the future that my stars foretold!"
+
+In that exalted moment all things seemed possible, and though his body
+limped as haltingly he followed on behind his new-found friend, his
+spirit walked erect, and faced his future for the time, undaunted.
+
+His merry-Andrew of a host made festival when they at last came to his
+dwelling; lit a great fire upon the hearth, brewed him a drink that
+warmed him to the core, brought wheaten loaves and set a bit of savoury
+meat to turning on the spit.
+
+"Ho, ho!" he laughed. "They say it is an ill wind that blows good to
+none. Now thou dost prove the proverb. The tempest that didst blow thee
+from thy course mayhap may send me on my way rejoicing. I long have
+wished to leave this land and seek the distant province where my
+kindred dwell, but there was never one to take my place. And when I
+spake of going, my townsmen said me nay. 'Twas quite as bad, they vowed,
+as if the priest should suddenly desert his parish, with none to
+shepherd his abandoned flock. 'Who'll cheer us in our doldrums?' they
+demanded. 'Who'll help us bear our troubles by making us forget them?
+Thou canst not leave us, Piper, until some other merry soul comes by to
+set our feet a-dancing.' Now thou art come."
+
+"Yes, _I_! A merry soul indeed!" Aldebaran cried in bitterness.
+
+"Well, maybe not quite that," his host admitted. "But thou couldst pass
+as one. Thou couldst at least put on my grotesque garb, couldst learn
+the quips and quirks by which I make men laugh. Thou wouldst not be the
+first man who has hid an aching heart behind a smile. The tune thou
+pipest may not bring _thee_ pleasure, but if it sets the world to
+dancing it is enough. And, too, it is an honest way to earn thy bread.
+Canst think of any other?"
+
+Aldebaran hid his face within his hands. "No, no!" he groaned. "There
+is no other way, and yet my soul abhors the thought, that I, a king's
+son, should descend to this! The jester's motley and the cap and bells.
+How can _I_ play such a part?"
+
+"Because thou _art_ a king's son," said the Jester. "That in itself is
+ample reason that thou shouldst play more royally than other men
+whatever part Fate may assign thee."
+
+Aldebaran sat wrapped in thought. "Well," was the slow reply after long
+pause, "an hundred years from now, I suppose, 'twill make no difference
+how circumstances chafe me now. A poor philosophy, but still there is a
+grain of comfort in it. I'll take thy offer, friend, and give thee
+gratitude."
+
+And so next day the two went forth together. Aldebaran showed a brave
+front to the crowd, glad of the painted mask that hid his features, and
+no one guessed the misery that lurked beneath his laugh, and no one knew
+what mighty tax it was upon his courage to follow in the Jester's lead
+and play buffoon upon the open street. It was a thing he loathed, and
+yet, 'twas as the Jester said, his training in the royal court had made
+him sharp of wit and quick to read men's minds; and to the countrymen
+who gathered there agape, around him in the square, his keen replies
+were wonderful as wizard's magic.
+
+And when he piped--it was no shallow fluting that merely set the rustic
+feet a-jig, it was a strange and stirring strain that made the simplest
+one among them stand with his soul a-tiptoe, as he listened, as if a
+kingly train with banners went a-marching by. So royally he played his
+part, that even on that first day he surpassed his teacher. The Jester,
+jubilant that this was so, thought that his time to leave was near at
+hand, but when that night they reached his dwelling Aldebaran tore off
+the painted mask and threw himself upon the hearth.
+
+"'Tis more than flesh can well endure!" he cried. "All day the thought
+of what I've lost was like a constant sword-thrust in my heart. Instead
+of deference and respect that once was mine from high and low, 'twas
+laugh and jibe and pointing finger. And, too" (his voice grew shrill
+and querulous), "I saw young lovers straying in the lanes together. How
+can I endure that sight day after day when my arms must remain for ever
+empty? And little children prattled by their father's side no matter
+where I turned. I, who shall never know a little son's caress, felt like
+a starving man who looks on bread and may not eat. Far better that I
+crawl away from haunts of men where I need never be tormented by such
+contrasts."
+
+The Jester looked down on Aldebaran's wan face. It was as white and
+drawn as if he had been tortured by the rack and thumbscrew, so he made
+no answer for the moment. But when the fire was kindled, and they had
+supped the broth set out in steaming bowls upon the table, he ventured
+on a word of cheer.
+
+"At any rate," he said, "for one whole day thou hast kept thy oath. No
+matter what the anguish that it cost thee, from sunrise to sunsetting
+thou hast held Despair at bay. It was the bravest stand that thou hast
+ever made. And now, if thou hast lived through this one day, why not
+another? 'Tis only one hour at a time that thou art called on to endure.
+Come! By the bloodstone that is thy birthright, pledge me anew thou'lt
+keep thy oath until the going down of one more sun."
+
+So Aldebaran pledged him one more day, and after that another and
+another, until a fortnight slowly dragged itself away. And then because
+he met his hurt so bravely and made no sign, the Jester thought the
+struggle had grown easier with time, and spoke again of going to his
+kindred.
+
+"Nay, do not leave me yet," Aldebaran plead. "Wouldst take my only
+crutch? It is thy cheerful presence that alone upholds me."
+
+"Yet it would show still greater courage if thou couldst face thy fate
+alone," the Jester answered. "Despair cannot be vanquished till thou
+hast taught thyself to really feel the gladness thou dost feign. I've
+heard that if one will count his blessings as the faithful tell their
+rosary beads he will forget his losses in pondering on his many
+benefits. Perchance if thou wouldst try that plan it might avail."
+
+So Aldebaran went out determined to be glad in heart as well as speech,
+if so be it he could find enough of cheer. "I will be glad," he said,
+"because the morning sun shines warm across my face." He slipped a
+golden beam upon his memory string.
+
+"I will be glad because that there are diamond sparkles on the grass and
+larks are singing in the sky." A dew-drop and a bird's trill for his
+rosary.
+
+"I will be glad for bread, for water from the spring, for eyesight and
+the power to smell the budding lilacs by the door; for friendly
+greetings from the villages."
+
+A goodly rosary, symbol of all the things for which he should be glad,
+was in his hand at close of day. He swung it gaily by the hearth that
+night, recounting all his blessings till the Jester thought, "At last
+he's found the cure."
+
+But suddenly Aldebaran flung the rosary from him and hid his face within
+his hands. "'Twill drive me mad!" he cried. "To go on stringing baubles
+that do but set my mind the firmer on the priceless jewel I have lost.
+May heaven forgive me! I am not really glad. 'Tis all a hollow mockery
+and pretence!"
+
+Then was the Jester at his wit's end for a reply. It was a welcome sound
+when presently a knocking at the door broke on the painful silence. The
+visitor who entered was an aged friar beseeching alms at every door, as
+was the custom of his brotherhood, with which to help the sick and
+poor. And while the Jester searched within a chest for some old garments
+he was pleased to give, he bade the friar draw up to the hearth and
+tarry for their evening meal, which then was well-nigh ready. The friar,
+glad to accept the hospitality, spread out his lean hands to the blaze,
+and later, when the three sat down together, warmed into such a
+cheerfulness of speech that Aldebaran was amazed.
+
+"Surely thy lot is hard, good brother," he said, looking curiously into
+the wrinkled face. "Humbling thy pride to beg at every door, forswearing
+thine own good in every way that others may be fed, and yet thy face
+speaks an inward joy. I pray thee tell me how thou hast found
+happiness."
+
+"_By never going in its quest_," the friar answered. "Long years ago I
+learned a lesson from the stars. Our holy Abbot took me out one night
+into the quiet cloister, and pointing to the glittering heavens showed
+me my duty in a way I never have forgot. I had grown restive in my lot
+and chafed against its narrow round of cell and cloister. But in a word
+he made me see that if I stepped aside from that appointed path, merely
+for mine own pleasure, 'twould mar the order of God's universe as surely
+as if a planet swerved from its eternal course.
+
+"'No shining lot is thine,' he said. 'Yet neither have the stars
+themselves a light. They but reflect the Central Sun. And so mayst thou,
+while swinging onward, faithful to thy orbit, reflect the light of
+heaven upon thy fellow men.'
+
+"Since then I've had no need to go a-seeking happiness, for bearing
+cheer to others keeps my own heart a-shine.
+
+"I pass the lesson on to thee, good friend. Remember, men need laughter
+sometimes more than food, and if thou hast no cheer thyself to spare,
+why, thou mayst go a-gathering it from door to door as I do crusts, and
+carry it to those who need."
+
+Long after the good friar had supped and gone, Aldebaran sat in silence.
+Then crossing to the tiny casement that gave upon the street, he stood
+and gazed up at the stars. Long, long he mused, fitting the friar's
+lesson to his own soul's need, and when he turned away, the old
+astrologer's prophecy had taken on new meaning.
+
+"As Aldebaran the star shines in the heavens" (_no light within itself,
+but borrowing from the Central Sun_), "so Aldebaran the man might shine
+among his fellows." (_Beggared of joy himself, yet flashing its
+reflection athwart the lives of others._)
+
+When next he went into the town he no longer shunned the sights that
+formerly he'd passed with face averted, for well he knew that if he
+would shed joy and hope on others he must go to places where they most
+abound. What matter that the thought of Vesta stabbed him nigh to
+madness when he looked on hearth-fires that could never blaze for him?
+With courage almost more than human he put that fond ambition out of
+mind as if it were another sword he'd learned to sheathe. At first it
+would not stay in hiding, but flew the scabbard of his will to thrust
+him sore as often as he put it from him. But after awhile he found a
+way to bind it fast, and when he'd found that way it gave him victory
+over all.
+
+A little child came crying towards him in the marketplace, its world a
+waste of woe because the toy it cherished had been broken in its play.
+Aldebaran would have turned aside on yesterday to press the barbed
+thought still deeper in his heart that he had been denied the joy of
+fatherhood. But now he stooped as gently as if he were the child's own
+sire to wipe its tears and soothe its sobs. And when with skilful
+fingers he restored the toy, the child bestowed on him a warm caress out
+of its boundless store.
+
+He passed on with his pulses strangely stirred. 'Twas but a crumb of
+love the child had given, yet, as Aldebaran held it in his heart,
+behold a miracle! It grew full-loaf, and he would fain divide it with
+all hungering souls! So when a stone's throw farther on he met a man
+well-nigh distraught from many losses, he did not say in bitterness as
+once he would have done, that 'twas the common lot of mortals; to look
+on him if one would know the worst that Fate can do. Nay, rather did he
+speak so bravely of what might still be wrung from life though one were
+maimed like he, that hope sprang up within his hearer and sent him on
+his way with face a-shine.
+
+That grateful smile was like a revelation to Aldebaran, showing him he
+had indeed the power belonging to the stars. Beggared of joy, no light
+within himself, yet from the Central Sun could he reflect the hope and
+cheer that made him as the eye of Taurus 'mong his fellows.
+
+The weeks slipped into months, months into years. The Jester went his
+way unto his kindred and never once was missed, because Aldebaran more
+than filled his place. In time the town forgot it ever had another
+Jester, and in time Aldebaran began to feel the gladness that he only
+feigned before.
+
+_And then it came to pass, whenever he went by, men felt a strange,
+strength-giving influence radiating from his presence,--a sense of hope.
+One could not say exactly what it was, it was so fleeting, so
+intangible, like warmth that circles from a brazier, or perfume that is
+wafted from an unseen rose._
+
+Thus he came down to death at last, and there was dole in all the
+Province, so that pilgrims, journeying through that way, asked when they
+heard his passing-bell, "What king is dead, that all thus do him
+reverence?"
+
+"'Tis but our Jester," one replied. "A poor maimed creature in his
+outward seeming, and yet so blithely did he bear his lot, it seemed a
+kingly spirit dwelt among us, and earth is poorer for his going."
+
+All in his motley, since he'd willed it so, they laid him on his bier to
+bear him back again unto his father's house. And when they found the
+Sword of Conquest hidden underneath his mantle, they marvelled he had
+carried such a treasure with him through the years, all unbeknown even
+to those who walked the closest at his side.
+
+When, after many days, the funeral train drew through the castle gate,
+the king came down to meet it. There was no need of blazoned scroll to
+tell Aldebaran's story. All written in his face it was, and on his
+scarred and twisted frame; and by the bloodstone on his finger the old
+king knew his son had failed not in the keeping of his oath. More regal
+than the royal ermine seemed his motley now. More eloquent the sheathed
+sword that told of years of inward struggle than if it bore the blood
+of dragons, for on his face there shone the peace that comes alone of
+mighty triumph.
+
+The king looked round upon his nobles and his stalwart sons, then back
+again upon Aldebaran, lying in silent majesty.
+
+"Bring royal purple for the pall," he faltered, "and leave the Sword of
+Conquest with him! No other hands will ever be found worthier to claim
+it!"
+
+That night when tall white candles burned about him there stole a
+white-robed figure to the flower-strewn bier. 'Twas Vesta, decked as for
+a bridal, her golden tresses falling round her like a veil. They found
+her kneeling there beside him, her face like his all filled with starry
+light, and round them both was such a wondrous shining, the watchers
+drew aside in awe.
+
+"'Tis as the old astrologers foretold," they whispered. "Her soul hath
+entered on its deathless vigil. In truth he was the bravest that this
+earth has ever known."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Note: Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Jester's Sword, by Annie Fellows Johnston
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