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diff --git a/43245-0.txt b/43245-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c740164 --- /dev/null +++ b/43245-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3188 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43245 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 43245-h.htm or 43245-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43245/43245-h/43245-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43245/43245-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/lukebarnicottoth00howiiala + + + + + +LUKE BARNICOTT. + +by + +WILLIAM HOWITT. + +And Other Stories. + + + + + + + +Twenty-Eighth Thousand. + +Cassell & Company, Limited: +London, Paris, New York & Melbourne. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + THE STORY OF LUKE BARNICOTT 5 + + THE CASTLE EAST OF THE SUN 49 + + THE HOLIDAYS AT BARENBURG CASTLE 67 + + + + +[Illustration: After Young Luke.] + + + + +THE STORY OF LUKE BARNICOTT + +BY WILLIAM HOWITT. + + +The village of Monnycrofts, in Derbyshire, may be said to be a +distinguished village, for though it is not a city set on a hill, it is +a village set on a hill. It may be seen far and wide with its cluster of +red brick houses, and its tall gray-stone church steeple, which has +weathered the winds of many a century. The distant traveller observes +its green upward sloping fields, well embellished by hedgerow trees, and +its clumps of trees springing up amongst its scenes, and half hiding +them, and says to himself as he trots along, "a pleasant look-out must +that hamlet have." And he is right; it has a very pleasant look-out for +miles and miles on three sides of it; the fourth is closed by the +shoulder of the hill, and the woods and plantations of old Squire +Flaggimore. On another hill some half-mile to the left of the village, +as you ascend the road to it, stands a windmill, which with its active +sails always seems to be beckoning everybody from the country round to +come up and see something wonderful. If you were to go up you would see +nothing wonderful, but you would have a fine airy prospect over the +country, and, ten to one, feel a fine breeze blowing that would do your +heart good. You would see the spacious valley of the Erwash winding +along for miles, with its fields all mapped out by its hedges and +hedgerow trees, and its scattered hamlets, with their church towers, +and here and there old woods in dark masses, and on one side the blue +hills of the Peak beckoning still more enticingly than Ives's Mill, to +go there and see something wonderful. On another side you would see +Killmarton Hall and its woods and plantations, and, here and there +amongst them, smoke arising from the engine-houses of coal mines which +abound there; for all the country round Monnycrofts and Shapely, and so +away to Elkstown, there are or have been coal and ironstone mines for +ages. Many an old coal mine still stands yawning in the midst of +plantations that have now grown up round them. Many a score of mines +have been again filled up, and the earth levelled, and a fair +cultivation is here beheld, where formerly colliers worked and caroused, +and black stacks of coals, and heaps of grey shale, and coke fires were +seen at night glimmering through the dark. + +Near this mill, Ives's mill, there is another hamlet called Marlpool, as +though people could live in a pool, but it is called Marlpool, as a +kettle is said to boil when only the water boils in it, because it +stands on the edge of a great pool almost amounting to a lake, where +marl formerly was dug, and which has for years been filled with water. +The colliers living there call it the eighth wonder of the world, +because they think it wonderful that a pool should stand on the top of a +hill, though that is no wonder at all, but is seen in all quarters of +the world. But the colliers there are a simple race, that do not travel +much out of their own district, and so have the pleasure of wondering at +many things that to us, being familiar, give no pleasure. So it is that +we pay always something for our knowledge; and the widow Barnicott who +lived on this hill near Ives's mill, at the latter end of the time we +are going to talk of, used to congratulate herself when her memory +failed with age, that it was rather an advantage, because, she said, +everything that she heard was quite new again. + +But at the time when my story opens, Beckey Barnicott was not a widow. +She was the wife of Luke Barnicott, the millers man, that is, Ives's +man. Luke Barnicott had been the miller's man at Ives's mill some time; +he was a strapping, strong young fellow of eight-and-twenty. Old Nathan +Abbot had the mill before Ives had it, and Luke Barnicott was Nathan +Abbot's miller. There are many tales of the strength and activity of +Luke Barnicott still going round that part of the country. Of the races +that he ran on Monnycrofts' common side, and on Taghill Delves, amongst +the gorse and broom and old gravel pits: of the feats he did at +Monnycrofts and Eastwood wakes, and at Elkstown cross-dressing, where +the old Catholic cross still stood, and was dressed in old Catholic +fashion with gilded oak leaves and flowers at the wakes: of the +wrestlings and knocking-down of the will-pegs, and carrying off all the +prizes, and of jumping in sacks, and of a still greater jumping into and +out of twelve sugar hogsheads all set in a row, and which feat Luke was +the only one of the young fellows from all the country round that could +do. Luke was, in fact, a jolly fellow when Beckey married him, and she +was very proud of him, for he was a sober fellow, with all his frolics +and feats, and Beckey said that the Marlpool might be the eighth wonder +of the world, but her Luke was the ninth, because he could take his +glass and be social-like, but never came home drunk. And, in fact, no +millers get drunk. I can remember plenty of drunken fellows of all +trades, but I don't remember a drunken miller. There is something in +their trade that keeps them to it, and out of the ale-house. The wind +and the water will be attended to, and so there is not much opportunity +to attend to the beer or the gin-shop. Besides, if a miller were apt to +get drunk, he would be apt to get drowned very soon, in the mill stream, +or knocked on the head by a sail. + +There's something pleasant and sober and serious in a mill. The wheel +goes coursing round, and the pleasant water sparkles and plunges under +it, or the great sails go whirling and whirling round, and the clear air +of the hill top gives you more cheeriness than any drink; and the +clapper claps pleasantly; and the mill keeps up a pleasant swaying and +tremor, and the flour comes sliding down the hoppers into the sacks, and +all is white and dusty, and yet clean; the mill and the sacks and the +hoppers and the flour, and the miller's clothes, and his whiskers, and +his hat; and his face is meally, and ruddy through the meal, and all is +wholesome and peaceful, and has something in it that makes a man quietly +and pleasantly grave. + +Luke Barnicott was now the staid and grey-haired man of sixty: he had no +actual need of the hair-powder of the mill to make him look venerable. +On Sundays, when he was washed and dressed-up to appear at church, his +head seemed still to retain the flour, though it had gone from his +clothes, and his ruddy face had no mealy vail on it. Beckey, his wife, +was grown the sober old woman, but still hale and active. She came to +church in her black gipsy hat, all her white mob cap showing under it, +in large patterned flouncing gown, in black stockings, high-heeled +shoes, and large brass buckles that had been her grandmother's. On week +days she might be seen in a more homely dress fetching water from the +spring below, or digging up the potatoes in the garden for dinner. At +other times she sat knitting in the fine weather on a seat facing to the +evening sun, but giving shade in the earlier part of the day, under a +rude porch of poles and sticks over the door, up which she trained every +year a growth of scarlet runners, whilst around and under the windows +grew the usual assortment of herbs, rue and camomile, rosemary and +pennyroyal. + +The Barnicotts lived at the old Reckoning House, so called because, when +the collieries were active, just in that quarter, the men were paid +their wages there. It was a very ordinary-looking brick tenement, now +divided into two dwellings, in one of which to the west lived Luke and +Beckey, and on the east side lived Tom Smith, the stockinger or +stocking-weaver, and Peggy his wife. Tom Smith's frame kept up a pretty +constant grating and droning sound, such as you hear in many a village +of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire, and in some parts +of Normandy, and it was almost the only sound that you heard about the +Reckoning House, for neither of the families had any children, except +one boy, the young Luke Barnicott, the grandson of the old Barnicotts. +The Barnicotts' only son Patrick had been a great trouble to his +parents, the shadow-spot in their lives. He had got amongst a wild set +of young fellows of the neighbourhood, had been sharply scolded by old +Luke, and in a fit of passion had gone for a soldier. He had died in the +war in Spain, and his wife had died soon after of a fever, caught in +nursing somebody suffering under that contagious affection. They had +left their only child to the old folks, who was now a lad of about +fourteen, and as mercurial and mischievous an imp as the neighbourhood +could furnish. From the moment that he could run about he was in some +scrape or some danger. He strolled about the common, plaguing asses and +sheep and cattle that were grazing there, hunting up birds' nests and +wasps' nests, hanging over the sides of a deep pond just below the +Reckoning House, surrounded by thick trees, and more than once had gone +headlong in, and came home streaming with water like a spout on a rainy +day. Old Luke said he would go after his father if he escaped drowning +or tumbling into some pit; and poor old Beckey was just like a hen with +a duckling with this one little vagabond. Sometimes he was seen climbing +on the mill sails, sometimes on the very ridge of a house, and looking +down the chimney for swallow nests, at other times he was up in trees so +high, swinging out on a long bough after some nests, so dizzily, that it +made his poor old granny's head ache for a week after. They put him as +soon as possible to the school in Monnycrofts to keep him out of danger, +but sometimes, instead of reaching the school, he had been wiled away by +his love of rambling into some distant wood, or along some winding +brook, and looking after fish, when he should be conning his lesson. At +others, instead of returning home at night after school, he was got into +the blacksmith's shop, watching old Blowbellows at the glowing forge, +and often in danger of having his eyes burnt by the large flying sparks, +or having a kick from a horse that was being shod. Sometimes poor old +Beckey had to go to the village of a dark stormy winter's evening to +hunt up the truant with her lanthorn, and would find him after all at +one of the pits sitting by the blazing fire, in a cabin made of blocks +of coal, listening to the talk of the colliers over their ale. + +When, however, young Luke Barnicott had nearly reached the age of +fourteen, and had been set to scare birds in the fields, and to drive +plough for the farmers, and gather stones from the land, and had gleaned +in the autumn, and slid on the Marlpool in the winter, he took a fancy +to become a collier. He was arrayed in a suit of coarse flannel, +consisting of wide trousers and a sort of short slop, with an old hat +with the brim cut off, and was sent down sitting on a chain at the end +of a rope into the yawning pit sixty yards deep. There he was sent to +drive a little railway train of coal waggons drawn by a pony in these +subterranean regions, from the benk or face of the coal stratum, where +the colliers were at work, to the pit's mouth; but Luke soon grew tired +of that. He did not fancy living in the dark, and away from the sun and +pleasant fields, so one day, as the master of the pits was standing on +the pit-bank, up was turned Luke Barnicott, as invalided. He was lifted +out of the chain by the colliers, and as he writhed about and seemed in +great pain, the coal-master asked where he was hurt. He replied, in his +leg. "Show me the place," said the master. Luke, with a good deal of +labour and a look of much distress, drew off a stocking and showed a leg +black enough with coal dust, but without any apparent wound. "Where is +the hurt?" asked the master. "Here," said Luke, putting his hand +tenderly on the calf. The master pressed it. Luke pretended to flinch, +but the master did not feel satisfied. "Bring some water and wash the +leg," he said, and water was soon brought in an old tin. The leg was +washed, but no bruise, no blueness were visible. "Pshaw!" said the +master, "that is nothing to make a squeak about." "Oh, it is the other +leg, I think," said Luke. "The other leg!" exclaimed the master. "What! +the fox has a wound and he does not know where! Pull off the other +stocking." The stocking was pulled off by the colliers, but no injury +was to be found! "Come, Barnicott," said the master, "so you are playing +the old soldier over us! Why, what is the meaning of it?" "To say the +truth, master," said Luke, with a sheepish look, "the fact was--I was +daunted!" + +At this confession the colliers set up a shout of laughter; and the +master, with a suppressed smile, bade him begone about his business. +After this Luke was some time at a loose end; he had nothing to do, and +nobody would employ him. The story of his being "daunted" flew all round +the neighbourhood, and he was looked on as a lazy, shifty lad, that was +not to be trusted to. He strolled about the common, the asses and the +sheep, and the geese, and the young cattle grazing there had a worse +time of it than ever. The old people were in great distress about him; +the grandfather's prediction that he would go after his father seemed +every day more certain of fulfilment. Luke was active enough in setting +traps for birds, and digging out rabbits, and even in setting a snare +for a hare, which came by night to browse in the pretty large garden of +cabbage and potatoes that surrounded the Reckoning House. And he was +pretty successful in noosing hares and unearthing rabbits, but neither +his grand-parents nor Tom Smith would let them come into their houses, +lest they should get into trouble, and because that would have wholly +confirmed the lad in his wild habits. Luke got through his days somehow, +and in the evenings he used to go up and play with the lads at the +Marlpool, and here he found plenty of people ready to take in slyly the +fruits of his poaching, and give him a share of the feast at night. Old +Luke meantime went in his mealy garb and with his care-marked and +powdered face, to his mill and back, and many an hour of sad cogitation +he had, as his clappers knocked and his sacks filled, on what was to +become of this wild lad. Many a tear poor old Beckey shed over her +knitting, and many a shake of his head gave Tom Smith, as he heard +Beckey and Peggy talk of him. + +One day Luke had found his way to the common, beyond the Marlpool, where +the shaft of a new coal-pit was sinking. Nobody was to be seen on the +ground about the pit as he approached, but when he came up and looked +down, he saw a man at work in the bottom. The pit was sunk some thirty +yards or so, and he recognised a man of the Marlpool, named Dick +Welland, busy with his pick and shovel. It was evident that his butty or +mate had gone away somewhere temporarily, probably for beer. There stood +the windlass, with the rope depending, and the box at the bottom filled, +ready to be drawn up at the man's return. Till then Dick Welland was a +prisoner below. + +Luke lay down on his stomach, and looked down the shaft. He called to +the collier, and drew his attention to a brick which he held in his +hand. "Dick," said he, "I've a good mind to drop a brick on thee!" The +man in great terror cried out to him not to do it; for he had no means +of escaping from the blow, which must kill him on the spot. There was +yet no horizontal working under which he might run and take shelter. +Luke was delighted with the opportunity of frightening the man, and +laughing, still held the brick over the pit mouth, saying, "Now, now! +it's coming. Look out!" The pitman was in agonies of terror; he +entreated, he shouted, he moved from side to side of the pit, but still +Luke, with the true spirit of a tyrant and an inquisitor, held aloft the +brick, and cried, "I'll drop it, Dick. Now, it is coming!" This scene +had continued for a quarter of an hour, during which time the man had +endured ages of agony and terror, when Dick perceived the other man +coming over the common with a little keg of beer: he quietly arose, and +disappeared amongst the furze and broom. + +It was time for Luke Barnicott to be going. No sooner did the man below +perceive his butty above, than turning the earth out of the "cauf" or +box, he sprang into it, and called to him to draw him up with all his +might. Once on the bank, he cast a rapid glance round, and telling his +mate in a few hurried words what had happened, they both dashed in +amongst the furze bushes in quest of the culprit. They ran fiercely +hither and thither; they doubled and crossed and beat over the whole +common, as a sportsman beats for his game. But their game was nowhere to +be found. Luke, aware of the vengeance that he had provoked, had +securely hidden himself somewhere. His pursuers could discover him +nowhere. They returned to the Marlpool, and related the atrocious deed. +The whole place arose in a fury. All men and women vowed to pay the +young tormentor off. Dick Welland's wife, a tall, stout amazon of a +woman, the head taller than any woman of the whole country round; +strong, good-looking, and accustomed to walk with the stout strides and +the air of a virago, vowed merciless retribution on the culprit if ever +she laid hands on him. Tarring and feathering are a trifle to what was +promised him; he was to be dipped head foremost into the Marlpool, and +held to within an inch of his life. He was to be flogged and cuffed, and +pinched and nettled, and, in short, the whole blood of the Marlpool +boiled and seethed in vengeful anticipation of horrors to be inflicted +upon him. + +But "no catch me, no have me!" A week went by and no Luke Barnicott +re-appeared. Old Luke Barnicott went to his mill and back as usual, but +with a much sadder and darker air; poor old Beckey's eyes were red with +weeping, and her frame seemed all at once withered and grown shaky. The +incensed colliers and the redoubtable virago, Doll Welland, his wife, +had been seen watching the Reckoning House, night after night, +suspecting that the culprit must steal there in the dark to get +something to live on, for he could not live on the air. But Tom Smith +solemnly assured inquirers that no Luke had been seen near home since +the day when he flourished the brick over the pit-mouth; and that the +old folks were miserable about him. How Luke lived or where, no one +could guess; but those who knew him best imagined that he managed to +keep soul and body together by nuts, and beech-nuts, and pig-nuts, which +last he was very expert in digging out of pastures. Besides, farmer +Palethorpe of the Youlgreaves, not far off, complained that his cows +were heard running about one or two nights, and he believed somebody had +been trying to milk them. "That's Barnicott!" said Welland, and he and +his gigantic Doll carefully hunted over the woods and copses near +Youlgreaves farm, but to no purpose. About a week after Luke's +disappearance, and when his grandfather and grandmother began to think +that he had gone quite off to seek his fortune, some boys who had been +nutting in the Badger Dingles, near Youlgreaves, came racing home out of +breath, saying they had either seen a ghost or Luke Barnicott, for he +seemed to start out of the ground amongst the bushes, gave an unearthly +shriek, and darted away through bush and "breer," and was gone. Poor old +Beckey Barnicott swooned away, for she said she was sure the poor lad +had been "clammed" to death in the woods, because he dared not come +home; but Welland took another view of the matter, and starting off to +the Badger Dingles, he and his strapping wife hunted the thickets again +well over. They were near giving up their search when it occurred to +them to examine an old hovel in a field up above the Dingles, and there +they found a heap of fern in which somebody had evidently lain for some +time, and in the very last night. + +Sure that Luke was lurking somewhere not far off, they renewed their +search with fresh eagerness. They hunted the dingles all over again, and +just when they came to the end they saw something swing itself over a +gate and disappear. The Marlpool boys would have run off, thinking it +the ghost again, but Welland rushed forward, leapt the gate, and saw +Luke Barnicott sure enough racing at full speed to gain the dense +Hillmarton spruce plantations. Welland and wife gave chase. According to +their account Luke plunged into the plantation before they could come up +with him, but being hot on his trail they beat up the plantations, and +again started him. In the afternoon the people of the Marlpool saw an +extraordinary sight. It was Luke, ragged and haggard, without his hat, +and his light brown hair flying in the wind, running for his life over +the common, and Welland and his wife panting after him as if half tired +down, for they were people approaching their fiftieth year, though hale +and active, and stimulated by their vengeance to run to the last. Luke +was evidently aiming for the Reckoning House. All Marlpool was out to +watch the race. There was loud shoutings, and cries of "Stop him!" and +by others, "Nay, fair play! let the lad run." Old Luke Barnicott came +out on his mill-stairs, and cried with a voice which was never forgotten +by those who heard it to the day of their death, "Murderers! let the +child alone." + +Old Luke came down the mill-stairs like a frantic man and ran to meet +and protect his grandson, who was now speeding along the banks of the +Marlpool in a narrow larch copse that bordered the path's side, and was +not two hundred yards from his grandfather, when Welland met and turned +him. Young Luke wheeled like a hare, and dashing through the pool, for +he could swim like a fish, reached the other side before Welland and his +neighbours could recover from their surprise. Old Luke was in the midst +of them; he aimed a blow at Welland which felled him to the ground, and +then he dealt his blows round him with such effect, that five or six +great fellows lay sprawling on the earth. Old Luke was too furious to +speak at first, but he at length burst out with, "Shame on you, cowards! +murderers!" Luke had such a reputation for strength and skill in the +arts of wrestling and boxing that, though an old man, not one of the +fellows whom he had felled dare touch him. But, meantime, Welland was +up again, and scouring through the copse along the pool-side like a +maniac. His tall wife was running along the other side of the pool after +the lad. Old Luke threw off his mealy jacket and ran too. It was many a +day since he had run before, but every one was amazed at the speed with +which he went. Down the hill towards Askersick well, in the direction of +the Hillmarton plantations, went Welland and his wife; down followed old +Luke, stout and elderly as he was, but with a vigour that seemed +wonderful. The young fugitive was seen to leap the fence into the +plantations; Welland and his wife were seen to crush through the fence +after him, and soon after old Luke followed headlong through the gap, +and all disappeared. + +The people of the Marlpool stood on their hill watching this chase, and +when the flyers rushed into the plantation some ran down in that +direction. But the chasers were lost for nearly half an hour, when young +Luke was seen flying along the side of the Hillmarton dams--large +reservoirs of water that stretched in a chain along the valley amongst +woods and copses--and Welland was fagging after him like a dogged +blood-hound after a tired stag, or rather fawn. But pursuer and pursued +appeared dead beat with fatigue when they disappeared behind a mass of +trees. No old Luke, no Doll Welland were seen anywhere, for that wily +woman, as old Luke pursued through the plantation, had seized a pole +that lay on the ground, and, standing amongst some bushes, suddenly +poked it between the old man's legs as he ran, and caused him to tumble +forward and fall with a heavy dash on the ground, where, exhausted by +his unwonted exertion, and stunned by the shock, he lay breathless and +almost senseless. The huge woman then, as he lay on his face on the +earth, coolly seated herself upon him, and kept him there whilst her +husband pursued the boy. + +Meantime the young men from the Marlpool, running in the direction in +which they had seen Luke and his pursuer, at length found Welland +seated on the bank of the lake, intently watching a part of the water +where a mass of reeds grew, and where the boughs of the wood overhung +the water. + +"Where's Luke?" cried the young men. "He's there!" said Welland, red and +panting, and scarcely able to bolt the words from his chest. "He's in +the reeds!" Some of the young men ran round into the wood, and looked +down into the reed bed by climbing along the boughs of the trees, but +nothing was to be seen there. "He's not there, Welland!" they shouted, +but Welland stoutly maintained that he was there; he saw him go in, and +that he could not go out again without his seeing him. To make all sure, +one young fellow stripped and swam to the reeds, and beat all amongst +them, and declared that there was no Luke there. "Oh! the cunning beggar +is lurking somewhere up to the nose in the water!" shouted Welland; but +the young man paddled all about, declared the place very deep of mud, +but to the certainty nothing human was there. At this Welland rose up in +great wrath but after going round into the wood, said, moodily, "The +young scamp has done me again, but I'll settle him yet." And with that +he turned homewards, and the young men with him. + +Old Luke had before this recovered his breath somewhat, and, rolling his +incubus from him with wonderful ease, had risen up and gone towards the +dams, followed by the virago, who furiously abused him all the way, and +flung stones and masses of turf at him. When old Luke reached a keeper's +lodge near the dams, old John Rix, who lived there, told him Welland and +a lot of men had gone up the field towards the Marlpool. Luke then +hastened back, with the vengeful grenadier of a woman still following +and saying all the evil things she could think of. She upbraided the old +man for his bringing up of both this young Luke and of his father. "Bad +crow, bad egg!" she said. "Old rogue! you were no great shakes, I +reckon, in your young days, and the son was no better; no good came to +him; and as for this wicked boy, he'll come to the gallows, I'll +warrant, if a tree be left in the country to make one on." + +Old Luke went on, as King David did in his time when Shimei was hailing +stones and curses on him in his trouble, and took no notice. But he was +mightily troubled in his mind as he went on in silence. All his former +troubles with his son were brought back upon him, and he wondered how it +was that he was so much the more afflicted than other people with his +children. He began to think that he must have been a much more wicked +man than he had thought himself, and so he said, "Let her talk; +may-happen I've desarved it." But when he got home, and heard that young +Luke had been chased into the lake by Welland, and that he could not be +found, he sat down in his chair, and never stirred or spoke for an hour. +Poor old Beckey, who had enough to bear of her own, was terribly +frightened, and laid hold on him, and shook him, saying, "Luke, man! +Luke, speak! what ails thee? Hast a gotten a stroke?" But Luke neither +spoke nor stirred, but continued looking hard on the ground. The poor +woman was in the greatest distress, and began to call, "Peggy! Peggy! +come here! Peggy Smith." + +But at that old Luke suddenly rose. "Hold thy tongue! dunna bring +anybody here. They've killed the lad, an' they've killed me!" and, +giving a deep groan, he began to stagger upstairs, and soon undressed +himself and went to bed. There was an end of old Luke. The violent +agitation of his mind; the violent exertion that he had made; the fall +that he had got; and, no doubt, the abuse and upbraidings that the great +virago had heaped upon him, all had done their part. He never spoke +after he was in bed: a stroke of apoplexy had indeed fallen on him, and, +though the doctor came and bled him, he only opened his eyes for a +moment, and then died. + +When the death of old Luke was made known, there was a great sensation, +and the more so that nothing further was seen or heard of young Luke. A +great revulsion in the public mind took place immediately. These +transactions were the sole topic of conversation, not only in Marlpool +and Monnycrofts, and Shapely, but in every hall and hamlet and solitary +farm-house, the whole country round. They were the theme of discussion +in every ale-house, and at every barber's and blacksmith's shop, and in +every street-parliament far and near. They got into the local +newspapers, and assumed a variety of shapes the farther the rumours +spread. The Marlpoolians and Monnycroftians who had called young Luke +all manner of names as the most incorrigible of scapegraces, now pitied +him as a very ill-used and persecuted lad. "Why, all lads are full of +mischief," said Mrs. Widdiwicket of the Dog and Partridge public-house. +"I would not give a potato for a lad without a bit of mischief in him. +Poor lad! it was only his spirit, and what sort of a man is to grow out +of a boy without a spirit?" "True," said old Pluckwell, the gardener, as +he took his evening pot, "what's weeds in one place is flowers in +another. Why, they tell me flowers here are weeds in other countries; +and, as to this Luke, he must ha' grown into a prime spaciment with +cultivation." + +"Just so," said Nasal Longdrawn, the parish-clerk; "it seems to me that +these Wellands had real downright mischief an' malice in 'em, to chase, +and worry, and threaten a poor fatherless and motherless orphant so. +Poor lad! he was often very aggravating when he got upo' th' church +after th' starlings, and loosened the tiles, but I canna help feeling +for th' poor chap, now he's gone." + +"Gone!" said Mrs. Widdiwicket; "and where's he gone, thinken ye?" + +All shook their heads, and Roddibottom, the schoolmaster, got up and +strode about the house, and then suddenly turning round, facing the +company, with his hands thrust into his waistcoat pocket,--"Where's he +gone? why, ma'am, why, neighbours, if they put me into the jury box. I +should give my verdict that Welland knows!" + +"Oh, goodness me!" exclaimed Mrs. Widdiwicket; and all the rest again +shook their heads, and said, "Likely enough; that Welland is a savage +un. What but a hard un could chase a poor lad so?" + +"And what was he doing sitting there by the bank, and pointing to the +water, and saying, 'He's there!' and that he could not have got out +without him seeing him? How do we know what happened after they were out +of sight? A knock on the poor lad's head with a stick or a stone, and a +plunge into the dam! Eh? eh? I think that pond should be dragged." And +with that Roddibottom drank off his glass of ale, and walked out with an +air of inconceivable sagacity, and leaving all the company in wonder and +horror. + +"By leddy! what the mester says is right," said Pluckwell. "Who knows +what happened? and the boy has never been seen since." + +"Ay, the dam should be dragged," said Longdrawn; "there's a mystery +there." And looking full of mystery himself, he followed the +schoolmaster out. + +The feeling at the "Dog and Partridge" was the feeling everywhere. The +poor boy was invariably pitied, old Luke was pitied, poor old Beckey was +pitied, and the Wellands were looked upon as most savage and +bloodthirsty wretches. The excitement became great as time went on. The +dam was dragged where Welland had been seen sitting, but nothing was +found; search and inquiry were made after young Luke all round the +country, but not a trace of him could be found. The feeling that Welland +had killed the poor lad, and secreted his body somewhere in the bushes, +and only pretended for a blind that he had gone into the water, became +very strong. The Wellands were both taken up and tried for the murder, +his wife as accessary before the fact; and he was also charged with +contributing to old Luke's death, for though he had never opened his +mouth after his return but in one instance, it was--"They've killed him, +and they've killed me." + +Doll Welland had boasted how she had thrown the old man down by putting +the pole between his legs, and having sat upon him after his fall, and +what more she might have done nobody could tell. Besides, both her +husband and herself had vowed most bitterly, or, as the country +neighbours said, "most saverly," that they would finish the lad if they +caught him. And the persevering animosity with which they had contrived +to hunt him up, and to hunt him down at the last, betrayed a most +murderous mind and intent. Luke never turned up, and, at the March +assizes at Derby, the Wellands were tried; and numbers of the Marlpool +people who had quite sided with them till after the boy was missing now +gave fully their evidence against them, repeating the vengeful +expressions which they had used against poor Luke, and that they had +said twenty times, "They'd finish him, if they ever laid hands on him." +All these things, and the general feeling of the country telling against +them, both husband and wife were condemned for the murder of the lad, +though there was no direct evidence of the fact. Nobody would believe +anything else after the fierce chase and the savage threats, and the +disappearance of Luke just where Welland was found sitting. As the +evidence, however, was but circumstantial, though very aggravated, the +husband and wife were condemned to transportation for life, and were +shipped off to Sydney, with the hearty expression of satisfaction of all +Marlpool, Monnycrofts, Hillmarton Hall and hamlet, of the farmers, and +all the world besides. As the Wellands had five or six children, there +was a subscription in that part of the country to send them out with +their convict parents, and thus to rid this happy land of the whole +"seed, breed, and generation" of the bloodthirsty Wellands, according to +the phraseology of the Marlpool. + +Years went on: no Luke Barnicott ever re-appeared or ever was heard of; +and though the body was never found--never rose to the surface of +Hillmarton dam, nor was discovered in the wood--it became a settled +feeling that Welland knew if he pleased to tell, where the remains +could be found. But Welland and his family were broiling in the sandy +fields of Paramatta, cultivating the hot ground, and planting orange and +lemon orchards, which now embellish that neighbourhood, and show their +dark masses covered with golden fruit in mile-long woods to the people +sailing up the river past Kissing Point, and many another pleasant +promontory, with their mangrove trees standing in the water, and their +charming houses overlooking their rocky shores and well-kept lawns, dark +and lustrous with the Indian and Moreton Bay figs, the India-rubber +trees, and many a quaint Banksia and blooming shrub from sandy Botany +Bay. + +Years rolled on: the story of these events was forgotten everywhere +except in the immediate neighbourhood, where it was getting less and +less frequently adverted to. It was stereotyped in every one's mind of +those of more than infantine years at that period; but it was only when +some strange murder or some mysterious occurrence took place in the +country at large that it was revived and talked of far around. Fifteen +years had passed: poor old Beckey Barnicott was now between seventy and +eighty. She was still living at the Reckoning House, but she was +blind--stone blind. She lost her eyes soon after the shocking death of +her husband and the loss of her grandson. It was supposed that she wept +herself blind; and no doubt her grief of mind helped to produce this +catastrophe. It was found that old Luke Barnicott had saved a small sum, +which brought Beckey in ten pounds a year; and she had been advised by +the clergyman of Monnycrofts to sink the sum in an annuity, as she had +no one to succeed her, and so she had an income then of five-and-twenty +pounds a year. She was well off in that respect; and she had a +middle-aged woman, a widow out of the village, Amy Beckumshire, to live +with her and take care of her. Tom and Peggy Smith were both dead, and +the new miller, John Groats, used that part of the house to store corn +in. + +Poor old Beckey Barnicott used to get out into the garden by help of a +long wand, with which she felt her way, and she had learned to know +every part of the garden, and could feel the rosemary and lavender +plants, and used to sit in the sun in the rude porch and bask herself; +and when it was too hot, she took her place under a great elder tree, +which hung from a high bank on the far side of the garden, where a seat +was placed. There she used to knit diligently, for she could knit +without her sight wonderfully; and there for many a long hour she used +to think about old times, when her husband was full of health and +strength, and used to keep the mill up above spinning round like a great +giant, beckoning all the country round to come up and see something +wonderful. And when Tom Smith and he used to read the "Nottingham +Review," and all about Bonaparte, and Wellington, and Lord Nelson, and +talked over the affairs of the country. And then her thoughts would turn +on poor little Luke, as she called him, and her heart clung to his +memory with a wonderful tenderness; for he seemed to have been +misunderstood, and so cruelly used. She remembered many things that he +had done for her, and how he used to bring her heaps of nuts and +blackberries and mushrooms, and catch sparrows in winter to make nice +dumplings, and she thought to herself, "Ay, poor thing, he wasna so bad +after all! It was, Mrs. Widdiwicket always said, only his spirit; he +wanted more room for his life than he got here, and should have been a +soldier or a traveller, or something or another where he would always be +moving." She had often dreamt of her husband, who appeared to her and +said he was waiting for her in a very pleasant place; but he never +mentioned little Luke, and she never dreamed of him except as racing +before Welland and his giant wife, or plunging into Hillmarton dam, all +amongst the dark weeds and deep, slimy mud. + +It was a fine breezy summer's day, Mrs. Barnicott was sitting under the +great hanging elder, and her knitting-needles were going very fast for +so old a woman. She was stooping and wrinkled and lean, but there was a +quick motion in her darkened eyes and their twinkling lids, and there +was a motion about her withered mouth, and she gave every now and then +deep sighs as she shifted her needles, and seemed to look down at her +knitting, which she could not see, and then paused awhile, let her work +fall on her knee upon her check-apron, and raised her sightless eyes +towards the sky and seemed to think. Just then she heard an active step +as if a young man came along the brick pavement along the garden to the +house-door. There was a knock, and she heard a young man's voice--she +was sure it was a young man--ask if Mrs. Barnicott was at home. Amy +Beckumshire said, "Ay, there she sits, sir, knitting under the elder." +The young man advanced, and old Beckey rose up in wonder who it could +be. + +"Good day to you, Mrs. Barnicott," said the young man. "You don't know +me, but I have heard of you some years ago, and being in this part of +the country, I thought I should like to see you." + +"You're very good, sir, to come to see an old blind woman like me!" She +guessed that it was all about the sad business of her husband and +grandson that the gentleman had heard. "Pray you, sit down, sir," she +added, "there's room on the bench." + +"Thank you," said the young man. There was a little silence, and then +the young man said, "I've often heard of this neighbourhood, and I +always thought it must be very pleasant, and really I find it so. Why, I +seem to know all about it, as if I had seen it. The old windmill, and +the pool below here, and the Marlpool above, and the old church tower of +Monnycrofts." + +Beckey was silent and pondering. "And pray," she said, after a time, +"where might you hear all this about this country place?" + +"Well, it was very far from here. You must know Mrs. Barnicott, that I +have been a sailor, and have sailed nearly all over the world; and we +sailors make acquaintance in different ships with men from all parts. I +was on board the Swallow, bound for Pernambuco, in South America, for a +cargo of cotton and coffee, and I had a mate there that I took a great +fancy to; he came from some part of this country, Cosser or Hawsworth, +or some such place." + +"Ay, ay," said Beckey, "these are places not far off; you may see 'em +from th' mill up yonder. But it's many a year sin I seed 'em." + +"Ay, more's the pity!" said the young man; "but you can hear, and I +think I can tell you some good news." + +"What good news?" said old Beckey, suddenly giving a start, and turning +her blind eyes fixedly on him. "What good news can come to a poor old +creature like me?" + +"I should not like to agitate you," said the youth, "by going into +things long past, and very dark things too; but this mate of mine told +me several times of what happened here years ago; and I wonder," he used +to say, "whether any of the Barnicotts be living, and if they ever heard +of the lad that was lost?" + +"What do you mean?" said old Beckey; "do you know anything of little +Luke? is he alive? can he be alive? Speak, man! speak!" + +"Well, this young man thought he was alive." + +"What!" said old Beckey, "what! oh laws! you've made my heart jump into +my mouth. What did he know? Did he know Luke, and had he seen him?" + +"Well," he said, "he was alive and was a sailor." + +"A sailor! alive!" Poor old Beckey trembled like an aspen leaf, and +dropped her knitting from her knee. "Oh me! if this should be true!" she +said; "but my strength fails me; it is more nor I can bear." + +The young man took hold of her to support her, and bade her not agitate +herself; he believed her grandson was alive, and that they should be +able in time to learn more about him. + +"And you dunna know where he is? Are you sure he is alive? are you +sure?" + +"Well, I feel pretty sure. I know my mate said he was alive and well, +and a fine active sailor, five years ago; for he sailed to Ceylon, in +the Indies, with him." + +"Luke alive! oh laws! this is too much. Amy! Amy!" Amy Beckumshire, who +was standing at the door all curiosity and astonishment, came the moment +that old Beckey called, and the poor old woman, shaking and trembling as +with the ague, said to her, "Dost hear? Luke's alive, and is a sailor, +and has been i' th' Indies, and this gentleman has seen a sailor as knew +him!" + +"Is that so?" said Amy, in a voice of wondering inquiry, and looking in +distant respect at the handsome young gentleman. + +"I quite believe it is true, missis," said the young man; "I never knew +Sam Birchin tell me a lie." + +"He comes from Cosser or Hawsworth, that sailor does," said old Beckey, +all eagerness, "and knows all about this country, and all the old doings +here." + +"Gracious me!" said Amy, "how wonderful!" + +"O Lord," said old Beckey, lifting her sightless brow towards heaven, +"only let me once see Luke, and then take me--take me--that I may tell +my husband. But, laws-a-me! maybe he knows all about it." + +Poor old Beckey then asked the stranger a hundred questions: if he knew +what sort of a looking lad Luke was? how tall he was, and how he looked? +if he had heard that he had blue eyes and a very fair skin, and hair +very light coloured? To all these questions the young man said he could +give no answer; but he would write to Sam Birchin, who would be in port +soon, and ask him all about it. He then rose up and said he had ordered +his dinner at the Dog and Partridge, and must go there, but that he +meant to stay a few weeks in the country, and go and find out Birchin's +relations at Cosser. He did not mean to go to sea again; he had been to +Australia, and got enough gold to live on, and he meant to settle down +somewhere in the country. He should often come and see her while he +stayed. + +Old Beckey prayed God to bless him for the good news he had brought; an +angel from heaven could not have brought more blessed tidings; and as he +went across the garden she tottered after him, leaning on her frail +wand, and stood at the gate to listen to his steps going down the field. +Then she had to tell the wonderful news all over to Amy, and to ask a +hundred questions. What sort of looking young man was he, light or dark? +and how he was dressed, and how tall he was? Though he'd been a sailor, +she was sure he was a gentleman by his talk. Amy said he was a handsome +young man, and quite a gentleman in his dress. He was as finely dressed +as young Squire Flaggimore himself. His eyes were dark blue. + +"Blue, says ta?" broke in old Beckey. "Luke's were blue." + +"They are dark blue or black," said Amy. + +"And his hair very light?" asked Beckey. + +"No. Light! ravenly black." + +"Oh, then, he's not like Luke. Luke's hair," said Beckey, "was very +light, and a little sandy." + +"What! thou artna dreaming that this is Luke himself, Beckey" + +"Oh laws, no!" said Beckey. "It's not Luke, Amy; I was only wondering +whether it was like him. But thinkster I should not know Luke's voice? +Ay, that voice I shall never forget; it's down in my heart as clear as a +bell, though it's fifteen years come Michaelmas since I heard it, poor +fellow! And to think as he's alive, and 's a been a sailing all over the +world ever since! And now, thou sees, Amy, that's the reason that he +never came, like his grandfayther, in my dreams. How could he come, and +was alive all the time? But thou mun run, Amy, and tell the parson, and +Mrs. Widdiwicket, and the schoolmaster, as Luke has been seen i' th' +Indies." + +Amy was in a hurry to throw on her shawl and bonnet, and away to the +village; for we all like to tell a bit of news; it is a pleasure that we +enjoy immensely, and yet don't reckon it amongst our pleasures. But we +all feel like electric clouds charged with pleasant fire, and in haste +to let it off. No sooner is the word dropped in one ear than it is out +upon the tongue, and turns away to some other ear, and encircles round +the world like sunshine. Amy had the pleasure of stopping two or three +people before she got across the fields to the village, and telling them +that Mrs. Barnicott had heard of Luke, and that he was a fine young +sailor, and had been in the Indies and all over the world, and the young +gentleman at the Dog and Partridge had brought the news, and had seen +young Birchin of Cosser, who had sailed with him. Before Amy reached the +clergyman's the news had slipped down the village, and was all over it, +and flowing out at each end by people who were going to the neighbouring +villages. Mrs. Widdiwicket had heard the news from the young gentleman +in the parlour herself, and she said the young gentleman had hired her +horse, and was gone to Cosser to see Sam Birchin's relations. As Amy +issued into the street again, everybody was on the look-out for her, and +she had to stop, to her great satisfaction, and tell the story again, +and to correct some errors that had already got with it, for it was +already said that the young gentleman, who had been at Mrs. +Widdiwicket's all night, and had borrowed Mrs. Widdiwicket's horse, had +been with Luke, and had sailed with him to the Indies and all over the +world. + +At the top of the village street stood Roddibottom, the schoolmaster, +and Longdrawn, the clerk, and Sandy Spark, the blacksmith, discussing +the whole affair, and they had already raised a great wonder how it +happened that Luke had never sent word to his old grandmother that he +was alive. + +They were, moreover, now greatly disposed to lament the fate of Welland +and his wife, who had been transported for life for having killed Luke +when he was not killed, and were very near being hanged for it. The +whole of Monnycrofts was in a state of ferment on this great discovery, +and all the neighbouring villages soon partook of the excitement; and it +very soon communicated itself to the county papers, and very wise +reflections were attached to it on the dangers of condemning people on +circumstantial evidence. It was thought that no time should be lost in +recommending to Government to send out an order to recal Welland and his +wife home. Meantime old Beckey herself had managed to hobble up to the +mill, and thence to the Marlpool, where the story made the most amazing +stir. All the people were soon out of doors discussing the affair, and +those who had seen the chase on that memorable day pointed out all the +incidents of it. They showed where little Luke was running when old Luke +rushed down from the mill, and where he knocked down Welland and about +twenty more, according to their account, and so they went through the +whole story. + +Beckey, and so indeed all the neighbourhood, was impatient for the +return of the young man, but he had sent back Mrs. Widdiwicket's horse, +and was staying a week with Sam Birchin's relations. When he re-appeared +he was beset on all sides with questions regarding Luke, but he assured +them he could not give them much further information, than that Luke was +alive three years ago. He soon went to visit old Beckey again, who was +delighted to see him, and had hoarded up a whole budget of questions to +put to him. He informed her that his name was John Webster, that he came +from Liverpool, and that he had sailed to many wonderful countries. He +had been in the Indies, in North and South America, in China and +Australia. As old Beckey sat and plied her knitting-needles, he asked +her all the particulars about Luke, and about his death, as it was +supposed to have been, and he assured her that he had written to +Birchin to let him know all that he knew; everything about Luke +Barnicott. + +He continued to lodge at the Dog and Partridge, and had many +conversations with Roddibottom, the schoolmaster, Nasal Longdrawn, the +clerk, and all the rest of the village politicians who frequented that +house; and he heard many different versions of the story of Luke from +them, who all declared that, though he was very mischievous, he really +had no ill in him, though they could not account for it why he had never +let his poor grandmother know of his being alive. John Webster hired +widow Widdiwicket's horse and rode about, and commended very much the +country. The clergyman and Squire Flaggimore invited him to dine with +them, and were greatly entertained with his account of foreign +countries. But Webster used to go up to the Reckoning House as much as +ever, and talk to the old widow Barnicott, who was never tired of +hearing about the sea and foreign parts, because then she could imagine +what Luke had seen. Webster told her all about the enormous whales at +sea; how they used to see them come up near the ship, huge and black, +and rear themselves up almost as high as a house, and then souse down +again, and spout water up from their nostrils ever so high. And all +about sharks, and flying-fish, and dolphins, and the beautiful +nautiluses, and Portuguese men-of-war, that resemble the nautilus, but +are only like little ships of gristle, but are beautifully painted as a +rainbow, and they float about when the sea is calm as glass in the hot +climates, and look like beautiful flowers on a plain of crystal. And of +the sea-fire that rushes and flickers all round the ship at night, and +sails past like great lamps in the dark blue water; and of storms; and +wonderful birds; and of the mountains and great islands of ice that +float about as white as snow in the solitary ocean, thousands of miles +from land. And Beckey would drink it all in with hungry ears, and say, +"And all that Luke has seen! How wonderful! But I wonder whether he has +quite forgotten his poor old grandmother?" + +Webster did not believe that he had. Sailors did not forget their +relations; but most likely he thought his grandfather and grandmother +were dead, and so he thought he had no connexions left. Then Webster +told her about all the wonders of India, of grand towns, and palaces, +and temples; and of its great nations of black people, and their pearls +and jewels; of elephants, and tigers, and serpents; of palm-trees; and +of the wonderful flowers and birds. He told her of the rich fruits, +bananas, and pine-apples growing in the fields, and wonderful +orange-groves and fig-trees. And then he told her of China and Japan, +and the strange swarming yellow people, and all about the +tea-plantations, where the tea she drank came from; and of the people +who always live in boats; and of birds' nests that they make soup of. He +told her at another time of the beautiful countries of South America and +the West Indies, and all their palm and cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit +trees; of their custard apples and sweet mangoes, and yams instead of +potatoes, and a hundred of luscious fruits, and such beautiful flowers +in the hedges--finer by far than in our gardens, or those Squire +Flaggimore had in his conservatory. + +"All these," said the wondering Beckey, "thou has seen, and my Luke has +seen!" + +"To be sure he has," said Webster; "and then the monkeys and apes as big +as men, and great snakes that wrap themselves round bullocks, and +squeeze them to death; and all the black men that are brought to those +countries from Africa to cultivate the cotton, and sugar, and coffee, +and spices, because it is too hot for white men." + +Old Beckey was in a dream of wonder and of delight to hear what a world +this was--how big, and strange, and beautiful, and how little the people +of Monnycrofts and Marlpool knew about it; and yet Luke had seen it all. +"And I would not be surprised if Luke had got a good deal of gold, for +Birchin said he talked of going to Australia when he left the ship they +had sailed in together to India." Beckey did not know exactly, nor Amy +Beckumshire, who was always an eager listener to these stories, +whereabouts Australia was, and Webster told them that it was down on the +other side of the world, just under their feet. + +"Lauks!" the women exclaimed, "why, the folks must stand on their heads +there, or at least with their heads downwards;" and it was in vain that +he endeavoured to explain to them, by showing them an apple, that if you +stick little pegs in it they would all have their heads outwards at +least. Beckey could not see this, but she felt very particularly at the +apple and the pegs, and she insisted that the Australians _must_ have +their heads downwards, because ours always _were_ upwards. It was +useless endeavouring to make them understand that anybody's head was +always upwards, except when they were in bed; and so Webster told them +all about the strange things in Australia. The kangaroos, with tails as +big as bedposts, and that could leap across Beckey Barnicott's garden at +two leaps. He told them all about the trees that never shed their +leaves, but shed their bark instead; about the black swans, and the +cherries with stones outside, and possums and flying-squirrels and +flying-mice, and a kind of cuckoo that sings at nights instead of days, +and of all the gold that lies in the ground, and in the rivers there; +and Beckey and Amy wondered that everybody was not as rich as the Queen +of England, if they could dig up gold out of the ground, and fish it up +out of the brooks. Beckey was proud to think that Luke had seen all this +too; and she felt sure that he would manage to bring home a ship-load of +gold, for he was, as a lad, as sharp as a needle with two points. + +One day old Beckey had a nice jug of curds sent her up from farmer +Flamstead's, of Langlee, and she said, "Ah! that is that good Sally +Flamstead's doing. She is always very good to me." And she made Amy get +some sugar, and they had a delicious dish of cherry-curds, all three of +them, under the old elder. "Flamstead!" said Webster, that reminds me +that Birchin used to say, "Why, she must be as handsome as Sally +Flamstead," when any handsome woman was spoken of. And when I asked him +who Sally Flamstead was, he said, "Oh, that he had learned of Luke +Barnicott." For, whenever he saw a pretty woman, he was sure to say, +"Why, she is almost as handsome as Sally Flamstead." And now, I remember +Birchin told me that Barnicott had stated to him often when they were on +the night-watch together, quite a romantic story of his falling in love +with this Sally Flamstead when he was quite a little boy. He used to go +to Flamstead's farm at--at--where did he say? Lang--Lang--Lang--what was +it? + +"Langlee?" asked old Beckey. + +"Langlee! Langlee! ah, that was the name," exclaimed Webster. "He used +to go to Langlee, wherever that is." + +"Oh," said Beckey, "you may see it as you sit here. There, down the +slope, all amongst a mass of apple-trees. You may see the chimneys and +the thatch-roof. I can't see them; only in my mind's eye I see them +there well enough." + +Webster stood up and said, "Yes, he saw the place." Well, Barnicott told +Birchin that he used to go there to scare birds off the corn, and to +gather stones in spring off the pastures, and to watch young turkeys as +they fed in the field, and to fetch and carry in harvest time, and all +sort of things of that kind. And there was little Sally Flamstead, just +about his own age, something younger; and she Luke thought a regular +cherubim. All the ideas of angelic beauty that ever he had he got, he +said, by looking at Sally Flamstead. And she was such a good, kind, +little thing. You know, Luke used to say, that she was far above a poor +lad like me; she was the farmer's only child, and the old man was rich +for a farmer; he had flocks of sheep and cattle, and great fat teams, +and such corn and hay-stacks, and geese, and turkeys, and fowls, and +pigeons. Oh, he seemed to Luke quite a king. Yet little Sally Flamstead +took quite a fancy for Luke, and used to give him good advice; for, she +said, everybody said he was wild. Luke used to collect nuts and +mushrooms for her, and she used to give him ripe cherries and plums, and +often she would save her plum-cake and give him. She could always find +him, without seeming to seek him, when he was about the yard; for she +used to go skipping about to feed the pigeons, and ducks, and to chase +round and round with her little dog Tiny. Sometimes when he was going +out to scare birds on a very cold day in the wheat fields, she would put +some matches in his hat, that he might light a fire; or she would be +standing inside of the orchard hedge as he went by, and say, "Luke, look +under the bramble-bush by the paddock-gate," and there he would find a +good piece of pork-pie, or a little bottle of beer, or something of that +sort. Luke would have run his legs off to have obliged little Sally +Flamstead, and a regular courtship grew between these children. He used +to be sent to Monnycrofts to fetch Sally on an evening when she went to +take tea with her Aunt Heritage and her cousins, and Sally, as they +walked along, used to tell him wonderful stories about the Babes in the +Wood, and Robinson Crusoe, and Luke said that he declared he should like +nothing so well as to be on a desolate island, and have Sally there for +his man Friday. At length he got so enamoured that he vowed if ever he +should become a king, which did not seem at all improbable after the +wonderful things that happened in the world, according to what Sally +Flamstead told him, he would marry Sally, and that she should be his +queen. And Sally said she should like nothing so well. "But, Lord bless +you!" Luke used to say, "only to think of my foolishness. Why, Sally +Flamstead was far enough above me, and if she's grown up half as +handsome as she was then, she's married some great gentleman since then, +and rides a coach." + +When Webster had finished telling this, old Beckey suddenly started up, +laid hold of him, and put her hand on his face and felt down it, and +then, as suddenly, she gave a great cry, "It's my Luke! it's Luke! it's +Luke!" and she hugged him with a force that he did not think had been in +her old arms. The next moment she released her grasp, gave a deep sigh +and a sort of groan, and fell in a swoon. Luke--for it was Luke sure +enough--caught her up and set her on the bench, and while he held her, +he shouted with all his might for Amy. Amy came running, and was greatly +frightened; but Luke told her not to be alarmed: she had only fainted, +and would come round by and by. He bade her fetch a cup of water, and by +the time it came poor old Beckey was recovering. She never stayed to +drink the water, but she laid hold on Luke again, and began to laugh and +cry; and Amy said, "So! so! Mrs. Barnicott, restrain yourself, or you'll +go into high-sterics. And, mi! don't pull the young gentleman so; he'll +think you are going 'utick,'" meaning lunatic. + +Beckey took no notice, but catching Luke round the neck, to Amy's great +horror, for she thought now she was gone "utick" in reality, she began +kissing him, and then she laughed and said, "Amy, woman, it is Luke--my +own lad Luke. Oh! where were my eyes?"--Beckey always talked of seeing, +though she could not see--"where were my ears? But I reckon it's because +my own Luke has now gotten his man's voice and his man's look, and he +had only his lad's voice and his lad's look when he went. Black is his +hair, says thou, Amy? and it was as light and shiney as tow when he was +a lad. But so was his father's. When he began to tell me about Sally +Flamstead, all at once I heard his father speaking and himself speaking, +and my heart went with a great jump, and I knew it all. Ay, I'm blind +and deaf too, or I should ha' fun' that out before this. Luke, lad! +Luke, it is thee; thou wunna deny it?" + +"No, dear granny," said Luke, using the old familiar term, "I won't +deny it; I am your own Luke, and I am come to live near you while you +are left to us." + +"And yet, Luke," said the trembling old grandmother, "thou went away and +left us to think thou was dead, drowned, murdered; and all these years, +thou has neither written nor asked after me." + +"Oh, granny," said Luke, "that's been a bitter thing to me. I was forced +to run away, for I saw that those Wellands would never cease till they +had made an end of me. I went right off, and begged till I found myself +at Hull. There a ship captain met me in the street, and eyeing me +awhile, he said, 'For shame, young scamp, to go about begging, a +clever-looking, active lad like you. Come, I'll take you with me to sea. +Eh? what say you?' I thanked him heartily, for of all things I was +delighted to go to sea, where I expected to find some Robinson Crusoe's +island, or the like fine country, such as Sally Flamstead had told me +of. He took me on board a great ship, and there I was stripped and +tumbled into a great tub of water, and well washed, and my old rags were +flung overboard, and I was togged out in a sailor's suit, and set to +work to sweep out the cabin and swab the deck, and do all that kind of +thing, with two or three lads of my own age. In a short time we set sail +for the Cape of Good Hope; but before I went I told the captain that I +wanted my grandad and grandmam to know where I was, and I begged him +earnestly to write for me, and he said he would; but one day he called +me into the cabin, and said, 'I have seen a gentleman here from Derby, +who has come to buy whale oil to light his factory with, and he says, +'That young fellow's history is known all over our part of the country. +Look to it, captain, for he is the very imp of mischief, and had to run +away for trying to kill a collier down a pit with a brick, and when he +was missing the collier was charged with having murdered him, and he's +transported for it, and his wife too. I heard him tried at Derby +Assizes, and the young rogue's grandfather and grandmother are both +dead of grief.' + +"When the captain told me this I was ready to sink on the floor. Nobody +can tell how I felt. To think I had killed both my grandfather and +grandmother by my foolishness! As for Welland and his giant wife, I was +glad that they were transported, for they seemed to me to be so +malicious, and to have caused your deaths. At first I was stunned, and +then I burst out crying, and I thought my heart would break. I had +killed my only friends in the world; I was a wretch without a relative +or soul on earth that cared for me. + +"'Don't stand blubbering there,' said the captain, 'but go and show +yourself handy, and turn out a farrently fellow. You may if you will; +and if not, there's a rope-end and the yard-arm for you. Quick! make +yourself scarce!' That was a bitter voyage for me. I suffered dreadfully +from sickness and from cold in the southern latitudes; and I got plenty +of kicks and cuffs from the mates and the sailors, and plenty of dousing +and sousing with salt water that came sweeping over the ship's sides, +and with hail and rain as we had to turn out of our hammocks at night +when storms were raging, and we had to go up into the shrouds, and out +along the slippering, reeling yards, hanging over the dark, boiling, +roaring seas below. Oh! I often thought of these pleasant fields and +farms, and all my old favourite nooks in the woods and dells, at those +times, and I was often tempted just to drop off the yard-end, and bury +all my troubles in the raging ocean. But I got better of that; the +captain began to notice me for an active, and, as he said, clever +fellow, and I began to like the sea. I've told you, granny, of some of +my wanderings in India, and America, and Australia, and we can talk +these over at our leisure now." + +"But," said Beckey, "what made thee think of coming here if thou thought +us dead?' + +"I thought I'd come and see your graves, dear granny. That was all I +could do; and I thought I'd put a handsome stone at your heads, such as +I used to see, when I was a lad, in Monnycrofts churchyard, with a nice +verse at the bottom, and a golden angel at the top, with a long golden +trumpet blowing for the resurrection. But when I got to Mrs. +Widdiwicket's, and began to ask about the old people that used to be +here in my time, just in a roundabout way, that I might not be known by +asking about you too soon, I really thought all the people in the place +were dead. Old Squire Flaggimore and Madame Flaggimore, and old Parson +Simion and Mrs. Simion, and old Johnson, and Broadbent, and Cullycamp +the mole-catcher, and Shears the tailor, and Kettlebender the cobbler, +and such a tribe,--all gone! And the Barnicotts of the Reckoning House, +I said, are, of course, gone too. But what a start went through me when +the landlady said, 'Nay, poor old Luke died directly after the affair +about his grandson, which is a long story, but the old grandmother is +living still.' + +"Living still!" said I, starting up so that the landlady gave a jump, +and then she looked at me with such a look. + +"'You seem acquainted, sir,' she said, 'with these parts;' and she +continued looking at me, as much as to say, Who in the world are you? + +"I said, 'Oh, yes! I once was through here, and I was but a lad then, +and I heard an extraordinary story of a boy being killed by a collier, +or drowned in a dam or something.' + +"'Ay, drowned, sure enough!' said Mrs. Widdiwicket, or smothered and +buried alive somewhere--he never was found--no, never.' + +"I said I should take a walk and have some talk with you, for I was +curious about such things, and I inquired the way here. Now, I wonder +that Derby man never thought of telling somebody here about his having +heard of me being alive and on shipboard; but such men, with their great +mills and businesses, have so much to think of, they don't trouble their +memories with such things." + +"We never heard a rumour of such a thing," said poor old Beckey, who +kept fast hold of Luke's hand, as if she could not be sure enough that +she had him. + +"And what made thee pretend to be another, Luke, when thou came here?" +asked Beckey. + +"Oh, granny! that was only to break it easy to you. I did not want to +frighten you all at once with the news, when you thought me dead so +long. That was all." + +"Ah! that was good of thee, my Luke. 'And now, Lord, let me depart in +peace, since my eyes have seen thy salvation;'" and the happy old woman +again kissed her grandson, and shed some quiet tears. + +"Luke! Luke!" she then said, "as soon as thou began to talk of Sally +Flamstead, that's my Luke's voice, I said--it's him, it's him, and +nobody else, for how should anybody else know all about those things? +And dost ta know, Luke, Sally has not forgotten thee? She has aullis +been kind to me, and often comes up with a bit or a sup, a nice pot of +preserves, or a jug of cream, or a nice plate of pickelets; and she will +bring her sewing, and sit and talk for hours, and she is sure to turn +the subject to the time when you were children. She's never married, +though she's as handsome a wench as any lady in all the country-side, +and rich she is, and manages her farm like a man, for the old Flamsteads +are dead; and as for followers and sweethearts, heaven love me! she has +had them all, I think, dangling after her in their turns. Nay, there +came a very fine gentleman from London here, and he offered to keep her +a coach and settle a fine estate on her; but no, thank you, she would +not have him. No, she'll never marry, Luke, unless thou marries her. She +has often said, 'Luke would be a fine young fellow if he was alive, and +a good fellow too. They say he was wild and mischievous, but he never +was with me. No, he was always as good as pie, and would have jumped +into a coal-pit to do me any kindness.'" + +Luke said, "God bless her! I knew she was one in ten thousand, and if I +were----," but here Amy, who was as full of the news of Luke's being +alive and being come as an egg is of yolk, and had been out at the +garden gate to catch the first person going down the field-path and let +off her steam, came running out of breath, "Wist! wist! here is Miss +Flamstead coming up the field with a little basket in her hand, and a +nice white cloth on it. She's bringing you something nice, Missis +Barnicott; don't let us say who the young gentleman is, and see what she +will say. I warrant you she'll soon have an inkling of it." + +Sally Flamstead was already in the garden. She came on lightly in her +nice light muslin dress, and her pretty white bonnet with a red rose in +it, and her little blue parasol dangling loosely in her left hand. But +as soon as she saw the stranger she blushed, and coming forward timidly, +she said, "Oh! Mrs. Barnicott, I did not know you had company." Her +sweet face was all blushes and roses, but it was smiling and charming. +Luke rose, took off his hat, and made her a polite bow. Sally returned a +respectful curtsey, and going up to Mrs. Barnicott, kissed her, and sat +down beside her. Poor old Beckey had hard work to contain herself. She +trembled, and tears rushed from her blind eyes, and she kissed Miss +Flamstead again and again. Luke and Amy stood; Luke gazing with a +respectful but fascinated gaze on the smart young farmeress, and Amy +looking nobody could tell how--half smiling a suppressed smile, and half +curious, and fit to burst out with, "It's Luke, Miss Flamstead, it's +Luke!" + +"I hope you have no bad news, my dear Mrs. Barnicott," said Miss +Flamstead, wondering at her agitation. + +"No! no!" said old Beckey. "Good news! good news!" and she shook her +head as with an agony of emotion, and then burst out, "Luke's alive! +I've heard of him--this--this--oh! he's seen him! he's seen him in th' +Indies!" + +Miss Flamstead sprang to her feet, gave a look at Luke, and then +uttering a sort of shriek, she clasped her hands, and crying, "Oh! it is +he!" she sank on the seat. Luke sprang forward, seized her clasped +hands, kissed them passionately; and then Miss Flamstead standing up +and looking at him in wonder and as in a dream, they thus stood for some +time holding each others hands, while poor old Beckey and Amy cried +silently and plentifully for joy. + +We may leave them awhile under the old hanging elder tree, and let some +days and weeks roll on, as they did roll joyously at the Reckoning +House, and at Langlee farm. All the old courtship of childhood was +renewed. Luke and Sally Flamstead have strolled about the old farm-yard +and the old fields. They have laughed as they stepped by the old +bramble-bush, by the paddock-gate, and remembered the hidden pork-pie, +and the hidden little bottle of beer, and of cold days there. The bells +have rung out merrily from the tall stone tower of Monnycrofts church, +and a gay wedding party has descended the long churchyard steps, and +taken its way through the swarming villagers, along the village street, +and down the lane to Langlee farm. There Luke and Sally live as happily +as if they were in a Robinson Crusoe's island, or more so; and more so +than if he had been a king and had made Sally a queen. Luke has bought +the old mill on the hill, Ives's old mill, and it still swings its great +arms as if beckoning everybody up to see something wonderful. Old Beckey +still lives in the Reckoning House, and Luke always looks in as he goes +up the hill to the mill, and often the old woman is fetched down to +Langlee farm to pass whole days and weeks with him. There she has a nice +tall-backed cushioned chair set for her in a sunny corner, and she +delights to ramble about the garden and smell the flowers, and about the +farm-yard, and listen to the fowls and ducks and geese and pigeons, and +fancy that she sees them. + +"There's only one thing that troubles me," said old Beckey soon after +Luke had been recognised, "and that is, that Welland and his wife were +transported for nothing. Thou'st plenty of money, Luke, and if I were +thee, I'd send for them back." + +"Granny," said Luke, "they would not thank me to do that. If I sent, +they would not come." + +"No!" said Beckey, "do they like slavery better than Old England?" + +"Slavery!" said Luke. "Why, granny, they live in a finer house than +Squire Flaggimore, keep a fine carriage, and their children are finer +gentlemen and ladies than the Flaggimores by half." + +"Ah, say'st thou so!" exclaimed old Beckey in wonder. "How in the world +have they managed that?" + +"I will tell you, granny," said Luke. "When I was in Australia, and had +got a good lump of gold, the first thing I did was to set sail for +Sydney in order to find out the Wellands and set them free, and send +them home. When I got there I found a very fine city, fine as London, +though not so big. There were fine shops, and carriages driving about, +and fine ladies and gentlemen riding and walking about, and fine +streets; and all round the city were the most beautiful gardens and +plantations, and houses like palaces, with beautiful lawns running down +to the sea-side. 'This a fine city,' I said to a decent man who stood at +a shop-door, 'but where are the convicts lodged?' The man smiled and +said, 'It just makes all the difference as to what convicts you mean. If +you mean those who are lately come, you may find some in the convict +barracks in the old town there, and some everywhere working on the +quays, and in warehouses, and many are up the country farming and +shepherding. But if you mean the convicts that came out ten or twenty +years ago, look round. They inhabit the greater part of the palaces you +see. 'There!' said he, pointing to a very fine carriage with a handsome +pair of greys, and a coachman and two footmen before and behind in rich +liveries, 'that is the equipage of a convict of past days. There! and +there! and there! all those are carriages of quondam convicts.' + +"I was astounded. I then asked him if he knew a convict of the name of +Welland. + +"'Do I know him?' said the man. 'Do I know the governor, or the +chief-justice? Do you want to see him?' + +"I replied I did. + +"'Come along then,' said he, 'I want a little walk; and he led the way +across a very fine street, called George Street, and up a hill, and past +the governor's castle, and so along the parks and garden beyond, and +then he stopped at a grand gate with a grand lodge, and said, 'Here +lives your man.' + +"I stood in astonishment. 'Can it be true?' I said. + +"'How long has he been out?' asked the man. + +"Something like fourteen years," I replied. + +"'Just so,' said he; 'and has he a very little wife?' + +"A very great one," I said. + +"'That's your man then,' he rejoined, and he bowed and bade me good day. + +"I stood some time in doubt what I should do. I questioned how I might +be received by my old enemy, who had manifested to me so much malice, +and whom I had been the occasion of banishing into slavery. But I +thought, well, the transportation has been a lucky thing for him, and so +I will venture. I went in at the lodge gate, a woman told me the family +were at home. I advanced up a very fine gravel coach road, through the +most beautiful woods, and came at length into an open lawn and fine +flower-garden, where stood a grand white stone palace. 'Can this be the +mansion of Welland of the Marlpool?' I said to myself. 'Can the collier +have developed into a grandee like this, and through the chain-gang +too?' + +"But I ascended a fine flight of steps, and rang the bell. A servant in +rich embroidered livery, and profusely powdered, came to the door. I +inquired for Mr. Welland, and was shown into a noble library, where an +old white-haired gentleman sat reading the papers. A magnificent +Highland greyhound, here called the kangaroo hound, crouched on the +superb Turkey carpet near his feet, and the spaces of the walls which +were not covered with books were filled with fine paintings. The old +gentleman politely rose, and bowing, begged me to take a seat on the +opposite side of the magnificent marble mantelpiece. + +"I was puzzled how to begin my reason for calling. I looked in the old +gentleman's face, now calm and grave, and I was at a loss to determine +whether I was not mistaken after all. I thought I could trace a likeness +to the collier of the Marlpool, even amid that handsome suit of clothes, +that delicately fine linen, and under that snowy hair, but--could it be? +The old gentleman interrupted my speculations by mildly requesting that +I would oblige him by stating why I honoured him with a call. I paused +again for a moment. I grew still more confused, but I broke through my +restraint by an effort, and said, 'Was I right in opining that Mr. +Welland was a countryman of mine--from Derbyshire?' + +"A cloud fell on his brow, and he replied, but coldly, 'I am from that +county.' + +"'Then,' said I, reassured, 'you will not have forgotten the name of +Barnicott?' + +"A flush passed over his features--a fierce one, it seemed to me. His +eyes flashed, and he demanded, in a short, stern tone, what was the +purport of my inquiry. + +"'Because,' I said, 'I am that Luke Barnicott who was supposed to be +drowned in Hillmarton dam.' + +"As I said these words, the old gentleman gave me a startled look, +turned unusually pale, and then springing towards me, seized my hands +convulsively, and exclaimed, 'Thank God! what a weight you fling from my +soul! Is it, can it be true, that you are that boy?' + +"'I am he,' I said, 'and I have come six hundred miles to seek to make +amends for the unintentional misfortune of causing you'--I hesitated to +bring out the words of ignominy. + +"'Of causing my transportation!' he said promptly. 'Thank God for that, +now I know that I am not guilty of your death; but all these years I +have borne in my soul the feeling that you were rotting in the bottom of +that dam.' + +"The old man shook me vehemently by the hand. 'Thank God!' he ejaculated +again. 'Now all is right; now I shall live and die in peace. Now I can +say, Luke Barnicott, you did me the grandest day's work imaginable when +you caused my transportation, or rather when I caused it myself by mad +anger against you.' I asked his pardon a thousand times for my folly in +tantalizing him with the brick at the pit. + +"'Don't mention it,' he said; 'we have both of us something to forget +and to forgive. God, I trust, has forgiven us both. He has prospered me +beyond all conception. I am one of the richest men in this colony. I +have lands that would make estates for half-a-dozen noblemen, and I have +ships on half-a-dozen seas. My story is no secret; everybody knows who +are emancipists here, and who are not But we have wealth, and friends, +and rising families who will one day rank with the first people of the +colony in education and worth. As for me, I feel I am no longer the poor +collier of the Marlpool. By trade, by study, by associating with men of +intelligence and mind, my own mind and views have expanded. I have grown +out of a black, crawling, ignorant caterpillar into a something more +noble--into a man and a Christian. I rank with a marked class here, it +is true, but I have wealth and friends, and a fine virtuous family; and +I have laboured hard to subdue that fierceness and rancour which once +disgraced me. You are the cause of this, and I bid you ten times +welcome. But come, I must introduce you to Mrs. Welland.' + +"He led the way through a spacious hall into an equally spacious and +richly-furnished drawing-room, where I saw sitting a venerable lady, +reading with spectacles, and, like her husband, with hair white as snow. +She rose at our entrance, and I instantly recognised that remarkable +stature. But it was no longer the lofty, strapping figure, with a bold, +handsome face, and with an old slouched man's hat on, and arrayed in +dirty and negligent dress, as I recollected Doll Welland. The old and +venerable lady had the air of an ancient dowager empress. I could have +fancied her the Czarina of all the Russias. + +"'My dear,' said Mr. Welland, 'I introduce to you a friend, who comes, +as it were, from the dead. You must go back to past times, to the +Marlpool, to the windmill, to--Luke Barnicott.' + +"The venerable and stately lady stood in silent wonder. She gazed on her +husband, and then on me. 'What words, my dear, are these?' she said 'You +tear open old and very deep wounds.' + +"'Let them all be closed and healed for ever, for this is the boy +Barnicott, who "was dead and is alive, who was lost and is found."' + +"I will not," said Luke, "attempt to describe the venerable lady's +agitation, and, as that subsided, her joy. Like her husband, she seized +and held my hands, and wet them with streaming tears, and kissed them in +her emotion. All bitter feeling had long passed out of her bosom. They +had made a sharp expiation for their crime in persecuting me, during +their early years in the colony, and in the deep-lying sense of my +destruction in their souls up to this moment. This had softened and +ameliorated their hearts; they had become strongly religious; prosperity +had not spoiled them; and my arrival, and my errand to make a full +amends for my folly, now needless, cast a stream of heavenly sunshine on +the evening of their days. + +"I was constrained to take up my quarters with them during my stay. They +explained to their sons and daughters, now all grown up, and some of +them married, and with mansions and equipages of great splendour, who I +was,--for my story was familiar to them all. I found myself at once +amongst a set of fine young men and women, highly educated, and in every +respect most estimable and charming. I visited them at their houses, +and accompanied them to those of their friends situated on the woody +shores and promontories that surround the delightful Bay of Sydney. I +rode with them across the sandy tract, carpeted with flowers and +thicketed with blooming shrubs of rare beauty, to Botany Bay. There we +sometimes took boats, and enjoyed the dangerous and exciting sport of +killing sharks. In that water, clear as crystal, we could see the +terrible monsters come with rapid sweeps up to the sides of our boats, +which they would seek to overturn, in which case we should probably all +have been snapped asunder and devoured. But throwing them a piece of +meat on a hook, they caught at that, and we drew them up to the boat, +and stunned them by striking them on the nose with the boat-hooks, and +dragged them in triumph to land. + +"Sometimes we made a party at snake-hunting in the woods and thickets +around the houses of Mr. Welland, or of his sons or daughters, leading +down to the bay. Armed with whips, the ladies as well as the gentlemen, +and our legs defended with tall boots, we rushed into the wilderness of +shrubs, and starting the lurking serpents, most of them of deadly venom, +we gave chase, and soon cut them to pieces with our whips. Sometimes we +made long rides into the forests and encamped there in huts, and spent +whole days in shooting and in hunting the kangaroo. We visited the palmy +hills of Illawara, and saw the giant nettle trees, large as oaks, and +capable of killing a horse very quickly by their stings; or we roved +amongst the orange and lemon groves of Paramatta, and wondered how all +this enchanted life had sprung out of the collieries and the events of +the Marlpool, in Derbyshire. I can only say," Luke added when he closed +his narrative, "that I quitted my old cronies, the Wellands and their +children, with profound regret, and I feel that the regret was mutual. +The old collier of the Marlpool, now the millionnaire of Sydney, has not +forgotten his old friends and native place. I have brought with me £500 +to build and partly endow a school on the spot where his humble cottage +once stood; and I shall feel it my duty and my pleasure to state the +facts that this is the gift of the Wellands, fifteen years ago +transported on the charge of having murdered me in consequence of my +disappearance. That, innocent of the charge, God has wonderfully +prospered them in their distant exile; that they have grown rich and +esteemed, and have sent by me, whom they were supposed to have +destroyed, this handsome token of their remembrance to their native +place. That is due to their justification, and to the wonderful means of +compensation existing in the immensely-extended British empire, where +even the man unjustly condemned at home, can find, in his unjust +punishment, the way to far superior fortune; and where those justly +condemned may expiate their offences against society by returning to +virtue, and by attaining to a position and a power which enables them to +diffuse the most salutary hopes and the most substantial benefits around +them." + +This is the story of Welland the collier and Luke Barnicott, whom may +Heaven long preserve! + + + + +THE CASTLE EAST OF THE SUN. + +AN OLD STORY, FROM THE DANISH. + + +There was once a king who had been very prosperous and happy, but he was +growing old. He had six sons and one daughter. His sons were very gay +and jovial young men, who spent their days very merrily; and when the +old king saw their vigorous sports and their enjoyment of life, he +sighed to think that he could not be young once more. His daughter was +beautiful and mild, and devoted all her days to amuse the old king, and +to make him forget that he was growing old. But there came a very +handsome prince from a far-off country, and he fell in love with the old +king's daughter, and asked her in marriage, and desired to take her away +with him to his own kingdom. + +Now, the prince was very handsome, and had a very beautiful carriage, +and very fine horses, and many servants, and plenty of gold and jewels, +and everything which belongs to a prince. But the old king desired to +know where lay the kingdom of the prince, and what was its name. But the +prince said that it was the island which lay east of the sun and west of +the world, and that was its name; and that it was so far off that nobody +had ever been to it from this country, nor had any one come to this +country from it besides himself. + +Then the old king was not willing that his daughter should marry a +prince from a country so far off that nobody ever before heard of it. +The young princes, his sons, were also opposed to the marriage. They did +not like the prince because he was so much handsomer than themselves, +and had more money, and appeared with so much more splendour than they +could. They said he was probably some adventurer and impostor, for no +one had ever heard of the country he pretended to come from, nor could +they see how any one could get thither from a place east of the sun and +west of the world. + +Now, the princess felt a great affection for the strange prince, for he +was the handsomest man who had ever come to her father's court, and was +passionately in love with her; but she would not consent to leave her +father in his old age. Then said the prince, that he was bound not to +return to his own country, nor to take upon him its government, for +three years, and for that time he would stay in this country; and when +they went away at length, he would send the old king some of the water +which played in the fountain in the court of his castle, and some of the +apples which grew over the sides of the fountain, and were wetted daily +with the dew of its spray. This fountain was the fountain of +immortality, and the apples were the apples of youth; and whoever drank +of that water and ate one of those apples would be instantly young +again, and enjoy once more all the buoyancy and ardour of his freshest +years. + +When the old king heard that, he was very glad, and gave his consent for +the prince to marry his daughter, for above all things he wished to be +young again, and to enjoy his life as he had done in his youthful years. +The princess, too, on learning this, was willing to marry the prince, +for she thought if her father could be young again he would find plenty +of sources of happiness, and she herself would not grieve to go away to +such a far-off country, if by that means she could thus purchase for her +father the great desire of his heart, and the renewal of his life. + +So the prince and princess were married, and they lived in a splendid +palace near the old king, and were very happy. Every day the princess +found the prince more amiable and sensible, and desirous to add to her +felicity, and he promised himself a long and joyous life with her in his +own beautiful island east of the sun and west of the world--so long, +that nobody could tell the end of it, for they could drink of the +fountain of life and eat of the apples of youth daily. + +But the old king was so impatient for a draught of this water, and a +taste of one of those apples, that he forgot that the prince said that +he was bound not to return to his kingdom for three years. He was +impatient for the prince and princess to begone, and to send some of the +apples and the water, for he longed with a longing unto death for the +renewal of his youth, which in his memory seemed so beautiful. + +When the prince heard this he was very sorrowful, and said it could not +be done, for no one knew the way to his kingdom but himself, and that if +he returned before his time he should become a captive instead of a +king, and be miserable for ever. But the old king became very angry, and +redoubled his demands that the prince and princess should set out. The +old king's sons also insinuated that the prince did not go because he +had no kingdom to go to, but that he was what they had always asserted, +an adventurer and impostor. + +The princess was very unhappy, and besought the prince to tell her the +way to his kingdom, and let her go and bring the apples of youth and the +water of life; but he told her that it could not be done. It was more +than both their lives were worth. He begged the princess to promise him +that she would never urge this again till the three years were up, or it +would cost them then happiness for ever. But the old king was very +pressing. He said he might be dead in less than three years, and then he +should lose the beautiful renewal of his youth for which his soul +longed, and of which he had made himself sure when he consented that +his daughter should marry the prince. He urged his daughter to prevail +on her husband to set out, and the princess, between the commands of the +old king and the assurance of the prince that to press him further was +the total ruin of their happiness, was the most miserable of women, and +wept day and night. For many months she resisted, however, all desire to +penetrate into the secret of the prince, and all the importunities of +the old king, her father, and the taunts of the princes, her brothers. +But when she saw how the gloom of despair hung heavier and heavier on +the king's brow, and heard him say that if she loved him she could help +him, she was ready to break her heart of grief. But her brothers' words +sank deeper into her soul, for they derided the prince, her husband, as +a mock prince and a pretender, and said that he was the Prince of +Nowhere, for no one had ever heard of his pretended country. At length +her anguish grew to that pitch that she burst out in her husband's +presence with the words, "O that I could but know where your kingdom is, +that I might go and save the life of my father!" + +At these words the prince turned deadly pale, sprang up, and embraced +his wife passionately, saying, "Alas! alas! it is all true! We must +part, and for ever!" + +With a deep groan he escaped from her arms, and issuing out of the door +was seen no more. It was a dark, wild night, but he passed hastily out +of the palace, followed by all his servants. The princess, in a state of +distraction, ran after him to detain him, but he and his followers had +already disappeared, and from that day no man saw them again. + +Then the old king and the princes said that the pretended prince was in +reality a troll (wizard) or an evil spirit, and that they were well rid +of him. But the princess would not believe anything but that he was a +true and noble prince, who was bound by some solemn oath, and she was +overwhelmed with sorrow that she had thus broken his commands, and lost +him for ever. She hid herself long in the depths of her palace, and +wished that she were dead. + +But the old king, though he had said that the prince was a troll or an +evil spirit, began soon again to hanker after the golden apples and the +water of life, and bade his sons go and seek for the island east of the +sun and west of the world. The sons declared that they did not believe +there was any such island, or any such apples or water, but that they +were willing to go forth and make a quest after them. They were indeed +glad to have plenty of money put into their hands, and to be able thus +to go from country to country, and see the world. + +So the old king furnished two of them with money, and sent them out, and +they went away but never returned. Weeks and months, and then a whole +year went round, and the two sons neither returned, nor did there come +any news of them. Then the old king sent out two more, and they also +went out, but never returned. Weeks and months, and a whole year went +round, and they neither came back, nor any news of them. Then the old +king, whose desire for the golden apples and the water of life was only +become the stronger from his longings and disappointments, sent out his +last two sons, and bade them in Heaven's name to do their utmost, for if +they failed all failed him, and he had no son left to succeed him. So +they went, and, like the rest, they neither returned nor was there any +news of them. + +Three years had now gone, the time to which the prince had limited his +stay, and now the old king thought that he might have had the apples of +youth and the water of immortality, and by his impatience he had lost +them and all his sons into the bargain. There was nobody now left him +but his daughter, the princess, and she too now declared that she also +would set out to seek her husband, and the apples of youth and the water +of life at the same time. The old king was rejoiced to let her go, for +he thought of nothing but of renewing his youth, and no price seemed too +great to pay it. He had lost all his sons in the quest, and now he was +willing to risk the loss of his daughter and sole child, the prop and +last comfort of his age. + +So the princess kissed the old king, her father, and bade him be of good +cheer, for that if she was in life she would come back to him, and, if +possible, with the precious apples and water in her hands. Then she set +forth with the old king's blessing, and after she had wept herself weary +as she walked along, she wiped the tears from her eyes, looked +steadfastly into the wide world before her, and wandered on many, many +days, till finally she came to a mountain by which an old woman sat and +played with a golden apple. The princess asked the old woman if she knew +the way to the prince who lived with his stepmother in a castle east of +the sun and west of the world? + +"How camest _thou_ to know him?" asked the old woman. "Art thou, indeed, +the maiden that he should have married?" "Yes," replied the princess; "I +am she." + +"So! thou art really she!" said the old woman. "Yes! my child," +continued she, "I would gladly help thee, but I know no more of the +castle than that it is east of the sun and west of the world, and +thither canst thou not go, I fear. But I will lend thee my horse, and on +that thou canst ride to my sister, and perhaps she can tell thee. When +thou comest to my sister, then strike the horse behind the left ear, and +let it come home again. Thou canst also take with thee this golden +apple, for it may probably be useful to thee. But before thou settest +out, thou must stay all night with me." + +The princess thanked her, and stayed all night, and when it was early +morning the old woman said, "Stay a moment, I am queen of the beasts, +and we will find out if any of them know where the castle lies that is +east of the sun and west of the world." So the old woman went out before +the door, and whistled aloud three times; and there came the beasts +hurrying from all quarters--lions, and bisons, and wild horses, and many +another creature, great and small; but none of them could tell the way +to the castle. + +Then the princess mounted on the horse, and rode on and on for an +immense way. She rode over vast grey heaths, and over stony hills, and +through ancient mossy woods, till she came to a very old woman who sat +at the foot of a mountain with a golden reel. The princess asked her +whether she was not the sister of the queen of beasts, and whether she +could tell her the way to the castle that was east of the sun and west +of the world. + +The old woman replied that truly she was sister to the queen of the +beasts, but that she knew no more of the castle than that it was east of +the sun and west of the world, and that the princess would not, she +feared, easily get there. But, added she, "I am queen of the birds, and +in the morning I will ask them if any of them know the way to the +castle, for some of them fly very far. But, for my part, I have lived +here while the trees have grown up and rotted down several times, and no +one ever asked me the way to this castle before. However, I will lend +thee my horse, and on that canst thou ride to my other sister, the queen +of the fishes, if the birds know nothing. When thou comest to my sister, +strike the horse behind the left ear, and bid it come home again. And, +besides this, thou canst take this golden reel with thee, for it may +prove useful to thee." + +In the morning the old woman went out before the door, and whistled +three times aloud, and from all quarters of the sky, from wood and +mountain, came the birds flying--hawk and eagle, swallow and swift, the +travelling cuckoo, and the ancient phoenix, came sweeping down with a +great rush of pinions, but none of them could tell the way to the +castle. The phoenix had once seen it, but so long ago, and in a former +life, that she remembered nothing more than that she was dreadfully +weary with her flight from it homewards. + +The princess mounted the horse, and again rode on for days and weeks, +over huge, huge grey heaths and stony mountains, and through mossy +woods. At length she came to where another old woman sat at the foot of +a mountain, and spun from a golden distaff. The princess asked if she +were the sister of the queen of the birds, and whether she could tell +her anything of the prince who lived in the castle east of the sun and +west of the world? + +"Yes," replied the old woman, "I am the sister of the queen of the +birds; and art thou indeed the princess that the prince married?" "Yes," +said the princess; but the old woman knew nothing of the way more than +the two former ones. "East from the sun and west of the world lies the +castle," she said, "that is true, but thither canst thou never go. Three +times have the trees grown up and rotted down here, since I lived on +this spot, and thou art the first person that has asked the way to the +castle. Wait, however, till morning, and we will ask the fishes, for I +am queen of the fishes, and some of them swim very far." + +So in the morning the old woman took the princess down to the sea-shore, +and she whistled three times, and the fish came swimming from all +quarters. The herrings which travel the shores of sunny countries came, +and the shark, and the huge whale, but none of them had ever travelled +so far; only the whale had heard that he had relations very far south, +and that there was an island east of the sun and west of the world that +they sometimes sailed round, but the way to it the whale knew not. + +"So then," said the old woman, "there is nothing for it but to inquire +of the winds, for they travel farther than beast, or bird, or fish; and +first thou shalt go to the east wind, which is nearest. I will lend thee +my horse to ride thither, and when thou comest to the east wind, strike +the horse behind the left ear, and bid him come home; and take this +golden distaff with thee, for it may probably be of great use to thee. +God speed thee on thy journey, for it is a long one, and I know not how +thou canst get there, but shouldst thou ever travel this way again, I +pray thee let me know how it went with thee." + +So the princess thanked the queen of the fishes for all her kindness, +promised if she lived to let her know what befel her, and, mounting the +horse, rode away to the east wind. Over many a moor and mountain, and +through many a mossy wood she rode on for a long, long time before she +came to the east wind. But at length she arrived, and asked him whether +he could tell her how she might come to the prince who lived in the +island and in the castle which lies east of the sun and west of the +world? + +"Of the prince," said the east wind, "I have indeed heard, and of the +castle too, but the way can I not tell thee, for I have never blown so +far. But I will take thee to my brother, the west wind; very likely he +may know, for he is much stronger than I am, and blows farther. Thou +canst seat thyself on my back, and I will bear thee thither." + +The princess seated herself on his back, and away he went. When they +came to the west wind, the east wind said, "I have brought thee a maiden +who has married the prince who lives in the castle east of the sun and +west of the world--canst thou tell her the way thither?" + +"Nay," said the west wind, "so far have I never blown. But if thou wilt, +maiden, set thyself on my back, and I will carry thee to the south wind, +for he is far stronger than I am, and blows and wanders about +everywhere." + +The princess seated herself on his back, and it was not long before they +were at the south wind; and the west wind said, "I have brought thee a +maiden who has married the prince of the castle east of the sun and west +of the world--canst thou bear her thither?" + +"Nay," said the south wind, "I know not the way. In my time I have blown +about a good deal, but so far as that I never reached. But I will carry +the maiden to my brother, the north wind, who is the oldest and +strongest of us all, and if he cannot tell thee the way, then never wilt +thou find it." + +The princess seated herself on the back of the swift south wind, and +away he went at such a rate that the very heath trembled. They were +quickly at the north wind, but he was so wild and furious, that long +before they reached him he blew actual snow and ice in their faces. + +"What do you want?" growled he out, so that a shudder went through them +like cold water. + +"Oh! thou must not be so rude with us," said the south wind, "for it is +I, thy brother, and this is a maiden who has married the prince who +lives in the island castle east of the sun and west of the world. +Thither will she, and would now ask counsel of thee how to yet there." + +"Well," said the north wind, "I know the place well where it lies. I +once blew an aspen leaf thither, but I was so fatigued that I was not +able to blow again for many a blessed day. But if thou really wilt go +thither," said he to the princess, "and art not afraid, I will take thee +on my back, and see whether I cannot blow thee thither." + +The princess said she must and would go if there were any possible way. +That she was not in the least afraid, and would dare everything, let it +be as terrible as it might. + +"Here, then, must thou stay all night," said the north wind; "for we +must have the whole day before us if we mean to reach the place." + +Early in the morning the north wind awoke her; blew himself up, and made +himself so huge and strong that it was quite terrible; and away they +went through the air as if they would drive to the end of the world. +There arose so tremendous a storm, that whole villages and woods were +blown down; and when they came over the great sea the ships sank by +hundreds. Away they went over the waters, and that so far that no mortal +could conceive the distance. But the north wind began to grow weaker and +weaker, so immense was the way, that he could scarcely blow any more; +and he sank lower and lower down, till he at last flew so low that the +waves of the ocean struck his feet. + +"Art thou afraid?" demanded he of the princess. + +"No, not in the least," said she. + +And now they were not far from land. There lay the island, all beautiful +with pleasant palm and cocoa trees, lifting their airy heads in the +sunshine, and with green and flowery forests coming down to the edge of +the clear sparkling water. There stood the lofty castle with its +pleasant gardens and soft lawns sweeping to the sea, and many bright +birds and wonderful flowers all about. They had really reached the +island and the castle that lies east of the sun and west of the world. +But the north wind had scarcely strength left to reach the land, and, in +fact, he alighted on a rock which rose out of the sea at some distance +from the strand. + +"Here will I lie and rest myself a little," said the great rough north +wind, "and, to tell the truth, I would fain be excused going any nearer +to the island, for they are not used here to such rough visitors as I, +and were I to settle as softly as possible, I should chill many of these +gorgeous flowers and trees to death, and make those birds and +butterflies fall senseless to the ground. Ho! there I see our friend the +whale I will ask him to carry you over. Ho there! friend whale," said +the north wind hoarsely, "come hither, and carry over to the island the +princess who has married the prince there." + +The whale came somewhat surlily to the task, and blowing up a huge +stream of water to clear his voice, said,-- + +"If she go with me she mast go quickly, for I am in danger here. I have +pursued some tender herrings to this side of the island for my +breakfast; but if I am seen the people will shoot their arrows into me, +and probably come off in boats and with harpoons after me. It is rather +provoking that one cannot seek one's breakfast in peace without being +called on to become a ferryman." + +"Be civil, friend whale, as becomes thee," said the north wind. "I have +blown along all day and night with the maiden, and surely it cannot +hurt thy strong back just to bear her to the shore." + +"Waste no more words," said the whale, edging his huge bulk to the side +of the rock, "for there will soon be somebody spying us out." + +So the north wind bade the princess good speed, and she began to climb +upon the whale's back; but it was so steep and slippery, that she found +it very difficult to ascend. Several times she slipped down again to the +rock, and the whale began to snort and blow with impatience. At length +the princess accomplished the ascent, and thanking the north wind, she +was borne away towards the island. Before they reached it, however, the +whale plunged down under water, and swam so far under the waves, that +the princess thought she should certainly never come up alive. At +length, however, the huge creature emerged, and the princess recovering +her breath, and wiping the brine from her eyes and nostrils, asked the +whale why he treated her so rudely? + +"Why were you so long in getting up?" asked the whale. "Every minute of +your delay might prepare an arrow for my hide; and methinks that great +savage north wind, whom nobody can hurt, might just as well have carried +you to the shore, when he had brought you so far; but these northern +creatures are only barbarians." + +The princess thought she knew which was the more civilized of the two; +but she was too prudent to speak, as she might have this time gone to +the very bottom of the sea. So she was silent, till the whale rubbed the +green edge of the island with his side, when she leaped down, and spite +of his rudeness, thanked him kindly for his good office. + +The princess now approached the front of the castle, and seating herself +under the windows, played with the golden apple, and the first person +that she saw was the witch stepmother. + +"What wilt thou have for thy golden apple?" demanded she of the princess +as she threw open the window. + +"That is not to sell, neither for gold nor money," said the princess. + +"If thou wilt not sell it for gold nor for money, what then wilt thou +take for it?" asked the stepmother. "I will give thee whatever thou +desirest." + +"Oh, then!" said the princess, "if thou wilt do that, thou shalt have +it; and the price is, that I am admitted for an hour to see the prince +who lives in this castle." + +"That shalt thou," said the stepmother, and took the golden apple. But +when the princess came into the prince's room, there he lay in such a +deep sleep that the princess could not wake him. She called to him, +shook him, wept and lamented aloud and passionately, but all in vain. +She saw that he was held fast under a spell; and as soon as the hour was +past came the stepmother, and chased the princess from the room and from +the castle. + +The next day the princess seated herself again before the castle, put +yarn upon the golden reel, and began to wind it off into a ball. And now +it happened just as it had done the day before. The stepmother asked +what she would take for the golden reel, and she replied that it was not +to be sold for money or gold; but if she might for just one hour more +see the prince, she would give her the reel The stepmother gladly +agreed, took the reel, and conducted the princess into the hall where +the prince was. But he was, just as the day before, in so deep a sleep, +that, spite of all that the princess could do, she could not wake him. +She called to him, and shook him, and wept and lamented bitterly, but +all in vain; and the moment that the hour was up, the stepmother came +and chased her from the room and the castle. + +The next day the princess seated herself with her golden distaff before +the castle, and the instant that the stepmother saw her she longed to +have the golden distaff. The princess would not sell it for money or +gold, but again bargained for one hour more in the presence of the +prince. But now the servants of the prince, who had heard the +lamentations of a woman in his presence on the two former days, had told +him, and the prince was full of wonder. He was under the power of the +witch stepmother, because in three years' wandering through the world he +had not found a woman who loved him sufficiently to ask him no questions +as to whence he came and what he was. Therefore must he alternately +sleep twelve hours a magic sleep, and twelve hours keep awake; during +all which time the stepmother ruled over his kingdom and did as she +pleased. But now, the servants having awoke his curiosity, when the +stepmother brought him the wine at breakfast which locked him for twelve +hours in unbreakable sleep, he pretended to drink it, but in reality +poured it behind him. He was, therefore, awake when the princess +entered, and was astonished and rejoiced beyond all bounds to see his +wife again. She then related to him how it had gone with her, and how +she had managed to reach the castle. + +When she had told him all this, he said:--"Thou art come precisely at +the right time, for the stepmother has been exercising her witchcraft to +occasion me to marry another princess, which must have taken place if +she could have retained her power over me for a week longer. But now is +her power at an end, for it can endure no longer than till a true woman +asserts her right as wife in this castle. Henceforth must she flee to +her own kindred in the mountains of the mainland, and we are now free to +do whatever we please." + +Then the prince called in all his servants and showed them his true +wife, and there was great rejoicing, but the false stepmother had +already fled away. The prince held a great banquet of ten days, and +showed the princess all the beauties of the castle and island. + +After this she told him how her father, the old king, still longed for a +draught of the fountain, and a taste of the apples which grew in his +court, and begged that she might go and carry them. But the prince asked +how she could go, for the north wind had long blown himself back to his +place; and when the princess thought on this, and saw not how she was +ever to quit the island, she was very sorrowful. Then the prince smiled, +and said he would show her how she should go, and that he would go with +her. He therefore ordered provisions and wine for a long journey, and +commanded them to be carried down to the shore. But there was neither +boat nor ship to be seen. Yet the prince took the princess by the hand +and said, "Now we say farewell for the present to the island east of the +sun and west of the world, and we will set sail to see the old king, thy +father." + +At this the princess wondered more and more. But when they were come +down to the waters edge, the prince took from his pocket a small thing +like a folded skin, and said, "This is the ship in which we shall sail." +The princess laughed and thought it a jest, but the prince opened it, +and behold it was like a small boat. He stretched it out so long as his +arms could reach, and then set it upon the water, commanding one of his +people to step into it. He did so, and there was then room for two. +Another stepped into it, and there was immediately room for two more. +Thus it continued to expand till twenty men were in it, when the prince +ordered the provision and awnings for the voyage to be carried in, and +then stepped in with the princess. And now the princess saw that there +was ample room for all, and she and the prince sat under a canopy of +blue and gold, and the ship seemed instinct with life, and impatient to +set sail.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Odin had his ship of this kind, called Skidbladnir, or the +skating leaf, and in the Scandinavian Sagas such convenient vessels are +frequently mentioned.] + +Then said the prince to the ship, "Away, over land and water to the +queen of the fishes!" + +And the ship cut smoothly away over the sunny waves without oar or sail, +fleet as an arrow, till it reached the coast where the queen of the +fishes lived. She was greatly delighted to see the princess return with +the handsome prince, and in so wonderful a ship. The princess thanked +her for her kindness in enabling her to reach her husband, and gave her +one of the apples of youth, and a cup of the water; and no sooner had +the old woman eaten the apple and drunk the water, than her wrinkles +vanished from her skin, her hair from grey became black as the raven's +plumes, and she stood there as a beautiful and stately maiden. The +princess was not the less delighted than the queen of the birds, for she +now saw that her father would certainly regain his youth. With many +thanks on the part of the now beautiful queen of fishes, the prince and +princess took their leave, assuring her that they should call on her +sisters, the queen of birds and the queen of beasts, and give them also +the same youth-renewing fruit and drink. Thither the wonderful ship +sailed, and thence took its way at the prince's command to the court of +the old king. + +The old king was now become very weak, and lay at the point of death. +All his six sons had returned, having spent all their money in riotous +living in a distant city, and declared that they had been all round the +world, and had inquired in all lands, and that nobody had ever heard of +the castle east of the sun and west of the world. They protested that +there was no such place, and no prince of such a place, and that his +daughter would never return. + +At this news the old king groaned bitterly, and lay helpless and +sorrowful unto death. All his beautiful hopes of ever renewing his youth +died in his heart; and while he was about to give up the ghost, his sons +watched for his last breath, that they might seize on his treasures and +spend them in riot and folly. + +But just as they thought the old king's breath was departing, the prince +and princess came sailing over the land in the ship, and stopped, to the +amazement of all the courtiers, at the castle gate. Then entered the +prince and the princess, who was weeping for joy. She bore in one hand a +crystal flagon of the water of the fountain, and in the other a golden +salver of the apples of youth; and kneeling by the old king's couch, she +kissed him with many tears, and wet his lips with the water. All at +once the old man's eyes gleamed with a sudden brightness; he raised +himself on his elbows, and saw his daughter, with the prince by her +side, stand weeping for joy, with the salver of fruit and the crystal +flagon in her hand. Then he knew that she had reached the castle east of +the sun and west of the world, and had come back for his sake. He +eagerly stretched out his hand for the fruit, and having eaten one +apple, he sprang from his couch with a bound such as he used when +springing into battle, and then drinking a cup of the glittering water, +he stood before them a stately man in wonderful beauty and strength. In +his joy he stretched forth his arms and strode across the floor, and +laying his hands on his sides as if to make sure how well he felt, he +laughed and said, "Now again I am a king!" + +Then he embraced and kissed his daughter, and also embraced +affectionately the prince, praising them as the best of children that +ever king had. But suddenly his face darkened with a frown, and he said, +"What shall we do with those six nidings (worthless fellows) who call +themselves my sons? They shall all be put to death." + +But the prince and princess said, "Not so. They would buy their lives as +the reward for having brought the king the renewal of his youth." The +prince also requested that he might have the six sons delivered to him, +engaging to make useful men of them in less than five years. To this the +king, no longer called the old, readily consented; and when the feast of +rejoicing was ended, the prince again took the wonderful ship from his +pocket, and placing in it the six unworthy brothers, he bade the ship +sail away to a region of wild and far-off mountains, where he delivered +them to the keeping of the Dwarfs, who made them hew stone in the +quarries, fell timber and shape it in the forests and work at the anvil +in their smithies. There they laboured from day to day severely, and +lived on the coarsest fare, till wisdom and better thoughts by degrees +came into them, and they sent and petitioned that the king, their +father, would forgive them, and place them in one of the lowest offices +in his kingdom, where they might practise before all men the humility +and gravity which they had acquired from the Dwarfs, and the solitude, +the labour, and the frugal fair. + +The king, having consented to this prayer, and found them true to their +word, divided his kingdom amongst them, and sailed away with the prince +and princess in the wonderful ship to the island east of the sun and +west of the world, where he eats freely of the apples of youth, and +drinks daily of the fountain of immortality, and feels that he is a king +indeed. + + + + +THE HOLIDAYS AT BARENBURG CASTLE. + +BY OTTILIE WILDERMUTH. + + + + +CHAPTER I.--BREAKING UP. + + +It was very hot in the school-room at Steinheim, almost as hot as in an +oven, although the faded green blinds were drawn down. Neither learning +nor teaching goes forward satisfactorily on such days; and, indeed, it +was as much as the good schoolmaster could do, especially during this +hot summer, to keep himself and his dear children awake over their +books. When he walked up and down the narrow space between his tall +chair and the school-benches, like a caged lion, the children asked one +another anxiously, "Do you think he is angry?" not knowing that he only +did so to prevent himself from falling fast asleep in his chair. There +was not much danger of this happening among the children, for if any one +of them dropped his head somewhat over his book, another was sure to +tickle him under the nose with a pen-feather, so that he suddenly woke +up again. + +To-day, however, the children were not sleepy, but neither were they +industrious. Whilst they were reading, they kept looking up continually +from their books to the door, as if expecting somebody, and yet at this +time there seldom came any one, unless now and then an over-anxious +mother who thought that her Michael or little Jacob had been too hardly +dealt with. To-day, however, according to old custom, the schoolmaster's +daughter Mina, and the bailiff's Emma, were gone to the clergyman's to +ask about the breaking-up. For always as the time of the holidays +approached, Mr. Erdmann, the schoolmaster, drew up a very politely +expressed document in the name of the children, in which the clergyman +was requested, "now the harvest season was at hand," that he would give +permission to the children to discontinue their attendance at school "in +order," said the writing, "that we may be able to assist our parents in +the laborious business of the field." + +These petitions were then beautifully copied out by the best-writer in +the school, and two little girls chosen to present them to the +clergyman, because they were so much gentler and better-behaved than the +unmannerly boy population. + +It was never known that the clergyman had returned a negative to these +petitions for the school vacation, and yet there was always an +uneasiness and an excitement amongst the children which could not be +allayed. They might now almost have been on the eve of a little +revolution; even Fritz, the schoolmaster's son, could not keep himself +quiet, but fidgeted restlessly hither and thither. And yet Fritz was the +best and cleverest scholar in the school; he was destined for the +church, and had been instructed in Latin and Greek by the clergyman; +therefore it was his duty to set a good example to all the others. This +honourable post, it is true, had cost him an extra number of canings +from his father, till finally he was advanced so far that the +schoolmaster was able to say, with fatherly pride, when the others were +lazy or behaved ill, "There, look at my Fritz!" + +At length the door opened, and the girls entered, who had on this +occasion an especial importance in the eyes of the boys, and who, with +their smooth, beautifully plaited hair and pink frocks, looked very +pretty. + +"We are to break up!" said they, delivering thus to the schoolmaster, +with beaming countenances, the answer to the embassy. "We are to break +up!" was whispered loud and low throughout the school; but the master +struck a blow with the hazel stick upon his desk, and amidst an +instantaneous silence he said in a clear voice, "Silentium! that is to +say, keep your tongues still! The clergyman has consented to the +breaking up. Fritz, say it in Latin." + +"Hodie feriæ habemus!" proclaimed Fritz in a shrill voice. + +"Good! That is to say, to-day we break up," explained the schoolmaster. +"But you must, every one of you, write three beautiful copies; farther, +you must commit to memory the six hymns that are marked, and two pages +of selections, as well as ''Tis harvest time, the nodding corn!' Now, +behave well, all of you, and be industrious; and go very quietly home, +every one of you, like well-conducted children." + +Yes, indeed, very quietly and well-conducted! The little troop burst +forth like a wild herd into the open air, as soon as the door was +opened. + +"Hurrah! Breaking up!" shouted they, wild with joy; even the exemplary +Fritz set up such an unbecoming shout of exultation that his father, +who, however, was well pleased himself, thought it right to give him an +admonitory pluck by the hair. Soon after the wild herd dispersed; many +amongst them entering into such poor, joyless homes, that in comparison +the school must have appeared a paradise, and yet they rejoiced that +they had broken up, and we cannot be angry with them. It is the fact of +labour, of regular occupation, which makes the feeling of liberty so +like a golden blessing; the neglected lad, who lounges about idly one +day after another, certainly never experiences the happy sense of a +breaking up. + +Arrived at home, the schoolmaster exchanged his thin school-coat for his +house-doublet, and seated himself comfortably on the wooden squab, for +which his wife had made a cushion, for he had neither a house-coat nor +yet a sofa. + +"Now, thank Heaven, for again a short pause," said the weary and +hard-working man; "it will do me good to have a little rest, and look +after my garden; and the bailiff has promised me some beautiful +carnation-layers, it is not yet too late for them; we'll have it very +beautiful, won't we, mother?" + +"Yes, yes, father," replied the acquiescent wife; "only early in the +morning, and not in the blazing heat of noon." + +In the meantime, Fritz was earnestly and mysteriously whispering to Mina +in a corner. "Do _you_ ask," at length said Mina. "Nay, _you_ had +better," returned he. + +Mina, who had this day been with the clergyman, might surely venture a +word with her father, and she began therefore, at first shyly, and then +more boldly, "But, father, is it true?" + +"What true?" asked he. + +"May we?" asked she again slowly. + +"May you what?" inquired he again. + +"Go to see Mrs. Dote at the castle!" exclaimed Fritz, now speaking quite +boldly, and astonished at his own courage. + +"Yes, oh yes, father!" now besought Mina, earnestly and in a winning +tone. "You have no objection, mother, have you?" asked she, addressing +her mother; "and if mother is willing, father, you won't say no, will +you?" + +"And Mrs. Dote has invited us," said Fritz decisively; "and you +promised, you know, father, and you always keep your word." + +"Why, yes; what do you think, mother?" said the good-natured father, +somewhat undecidedly. + +"I don't know what to say," replied the mother, thoughtfully, "whether +Mrs. Dote really meant it; and it is such a long way." + +"Oh, mother!" exclaimed Fritz, "five hours' walk, the nearest way +fifteen miles; we can do that very well." + +"But you can't spare Mina, can you?" suggested the father. + +"Well, as far as that goes," said the mother smiling, "I think I can +manage; little Paul will soon run alone, and Adolf plays about nicely in +the garden. If you have no objection, father, we might give them the +pleasure for once; I can soon have their few things ready." + +"Oh, mother, how kind and good you are!" exclaimed little Mina joyfully; +Fritz threw his cap in the air, and shouted, "Hurrah! all the world +over!" + +The father's consent was silently given, and preparations for the +journey began as if it really were round the world that they were going. + + + + +CHAPTER II.--THE JOURNEY. + + +Before daylight, on the following morning, the children were already up. +Mina combed and plaited her long hair by herself, in order to prove to +her mother that she was fit to be trusted alone amongst strangers. Fritz +also was washed and his hair combed, and he himself carefully dressed by +the same hour, for on those hot summer days it was necessary to set out +early. + +The schoolmaster had given the children a very exact description of the +road and all the places through which they must pass; the mother put +bread and early pears in Mina's basket as refreshment by the way, +together with some nice fresh butter, carefully laid in damp green +leaves as a little present for Mrs. Dote. Fritz's knapsack was packed as +full as it could hold, with his Sunday clothes, a clean frock for Mina, +and a change of linen, and all else that was necessary for them both, on +so great and unexampled a journey. Mina was to carry the little basket, +and a large red umbrella, a piece of old family property, which the +mother gave them in case of need. They made a hearty breakfast of new +milk and bread, and this over Fritz took his cap and his newly-cut hazel +stick in his hand, whilst Mina, having put on her round straw hat, took +the little basket on her arm. Their hearts felt a little heavy on this +the first great leave-taking of their lives, and the good mother seemed +as if she could never make an end of her admonitions and warnings, her +messages and compliments to Mrs. Dote. But at length the last farewell +was spoken, and the brother and sister, their young hearts throbbing +with the excitement of adventure, set forth on their way. The parents +gazed after them till they had turned the corner, and then the father +went into his beloved flower-garden, and the mother into the house, to +look after her yet sleeping children. + +Mina's heavy heart was soon light, as she walked on in the clear +freshness of the morning air, which heralded a fine day. These children +were not accustomed to parties of pleasure or to amusements; their +journeyings hitherto had never extended beyond three or four miles from +home, as far as Elsingen, where the grandmother lived, and yet now they +had set out on such a long journey on a visit to Mrs. Dote, the +lady-housekeeper of a royal castle! How joyously their hearts beat, how +brilliantly their imaginations coloured the glories that awaited them! + +Mrs. Dote, the castle housekeeper, was once lady's maid in the noble +family of Erlichhofen, where, also, the schoolmaster had held his first +appointment; she had, in consequence, become very friendly with the +schoolmaster's family, and had been greatly looked up to, as a person of +much experience, by the schoolmaster's young wife, so that the +black-eyed Fritz, who was her godson, had an especial claim to her +regard. Years went on; the schoolmaster was ordered to a distant place, +and they heard nothing for a long time of Miss Lisette, till at length +she surprised them by a visit with her husband, an old man, keeper or +house-steward of the royal hunting-castle of Barenburg, whom she, not +then by any means young herself, had married. The schoolmaster and his +wife returned the visit, and there it ended; for the distance was too +great for the wife, who was delicate, to go on foot, and driving was too +expensive an affair for a schoolmaster. Soon afterwards, also, the +house-steward fell ill, and his wife was wholly engaged in attending +him; and after his death, being herself advanced to his office, and the +care of the castle entirely confided to her, she could not be absent +from her trust even for a single day. She had, however, long since +invited her godson and his sister to pay her a visit, and now at length +it was about to be accomplished. + +The children walked onward, beguiling the way with merry talk; they had +soon passed the familiar scenes which lay between them and the next +village, and thenceforth it was wholly a land of new discovery. "But, +look, that little brook runs along a good deal merrier than our slow +Steinbach at home!" + +"Just look there, on the hillside lies a churchyard, with nothing but +white crosses!" said Mina, in a melancholy tone. + +"A beautiful churchyard!" laughed out Fritz, "it's nothing but a flock +of geese; hark how they are cackling!" + +"Oh yes!" returned little Mina, sorry that she had felt melancholy +without any need. "But what a queer church-tower! Do you see, there are +four little towers round one great old one! And just look there, they +have got the stork's nest on the town-house! how foolish! A stork's nest +belongs to the church." + +By degrees, however, the spirit for making new discoveries cooled; the +cheerful talk ceased, and their steps became more and more weary; the +sun was very hot, and the children were unaccustomed to long walks. They +had, before setting out, said so much about their own strength, that +they now felt ashamed of confessing to each other how tired they were, +till at length Mina said, "But, I say, Fritz, how far have we yet to +go?" + +"We must sit down for a little while that I may study our +travelling-map," said Fritz consequentially; and they looked out for a +nice, shady place, on the grassy edge of the field, under some willows, +which having found, it was with a great sense of relief that the boy +threw down his knapsack and stretched himself on the soft green turf. +"Mossigheim, a mile and half," read he from the paper on which his +father had noted down the distances; "we have passed that; Erlach, three +miles--that was the place with the queer church-tower; Rothenhof, three +miles--that must be the beautiful farm-house yonder, all amongst the +fruit trees; next comes Disselsburg, where father said we were to take +our first rest. Now, however, we must quietly study the travelling-map; +but we will, in the first place, rest a little while." + +"Oh yes!" sighed little Mina, who was thoroughly tired; "but shall we be +soon at the castle?" + +"Not just yet," said Fritz, in a low voice; "we have only come about +seven miles and a half, and we have now ten and a half to go." + +"Oh, that is impossible!" exclaimed Mina, "for it is only fifteen miles +altogether." + +"Well, see," said Fritz, drawing out with great importance his father's +silver watch, as large and as thick almost as a warming-pan, and which +had been lent to him for this journey; "we set out at five o'clock, now +it is eight; we will only go a little farther, as far as to where the +guide-post stands." + +"Is it eight o'clock, and so hot already!" sighed Mina; "dear Fritz, I +should so like to go to sleep for a little while!" + +"Go to sleep," said he, in a fatherly tone, "and I'll take care of you +the while; when you have had half-an-hour's sleep, we shall be able to +reach Mrs. Dote's by noon." + +Mina folded the shawl that her mother had given her in case of cool +evenings, laid it under her head, and dropped into a sweet sleep. Fritz +thought he could look at the country far better if he lay down, and his +well-filled knapsack making a splendid pillow, he, too, was soon fast +asleep by his sister, they, neither of them, having slept well the +preceding night. They forgot the heat, the weariness, and the oppressive +thirst, which the pears they had eaten, and which were not very juicy, +had rather increased than otherwise. Fritz forgot also that he had not +only his sister, but his father's precious watch to guard, and slept as +sweetly and as soundly as in his bed at home. + +"Nay, what sort of tramps have we got lying here!" was the exclamation +which Fritz heard, as he at length awoke out of a long sound sleep. He +looked up with amazement and rubbed his eyes, as he saw the green trees +and the blue sky above him, instead of the white-washed ceiling at home, +and a tall respectable-looking countryman standing before him, who again +spoke: "Eh, my young fellow, where do you come from?" + +Fritz was now wholly master of himself, and whilst Mina slowly awoke, +and like himself gazed round her with astonishment, he related to the +farmer where they came from, and the journey they were upon, in proof of +which he showed him his father's silver watch and the map of the journey +which he had drawn. + +"Indeed! you are going to Barenburg, then; I know the housekeeper very +well; she is a very good lady; but it is twelve full miles there, every +inch! In what condition are your feet for walking?" + +Fritz sprang up, and felt himself again ready for the march; Mina's +limbs, however, were stiff from the rest; and when she began to walk, it +was with difficulty. + +"Nay, that young lass is not used to such long walks," said the farmer +good-naturedly; "she can get as far as my house down yonder, and then we +must see what is to be done." + +And what a beautiful, substantial farm-house they were taken to, with +the pretty garden in front, and the splendid meadow behind, and the nice +cool parlour, which was shaded from the sun by the projecting thatch; +and then what a kind farmer's wife she was, who set before them +delicious butter-milk and new-baked cakes, for they had that morning +been baking. The children were overjoyed. Mina had heard and read a +great deal about the dangers of the world, but if everywhere throughout +the world people were as good as these, it could not be so very bad. The +farmer's wife, who had been born and brought up at this farm, and had +never in all her life been farther from home than Disselsburg, felt +great compassion for the children, who had come such a long way. She +would not therefore hear of them again setting out before dinner, +although they had partaken so largely of cake and butter-milk that they +were in no condition to do much honour to the excellent buttered oatmeal +porridge, of which the dinner principally consisted. + +The children of the farmer, who also came hot and tired from the school, +beheld with great astonishment the young travellers, who appeared to +them to have such polished town manners, though Steinheim was anything +but metropolitan. Before long, however, they became quite familiar, took +them into the stable and showed them a calf and a young kid. + +It was very agreeable to the children in this hospitable house, but the +twelve full miles, of which the farmer had spoken, lay like a weight on +Mina's soul. How could it possibly be so far to Barenburg Castle? + +"Do you know what?" said the farmer, when, after dinner, they were +thinking of again setting out. "I promised some time ago to take a +waggon-load of straw to Kochendorf; I shall not be doing anything with +the horses this afternoon, I will therefore have the straw loaded; you +can ride nicely upon it, and from Kochendorf down to Barenburg is only a +nice little mile and half, and in the cool of the evening I can drive +home, and you reach the end of your journey." + +No sooner said than done! Fritz thought it was rather a pity that the +pedestrian journey upon which they had calculated so much had now +dwindled down to a mere nothing; but Mina, not being ambitious in this +way, accepted with the greatest delight a lofty seat on the soft bundles +of straw. The beautiful butter that her mother had sent by them for Mrs. +Dote was becoming soft from the heat by this time, therefore the kind +farmer's wife exchanged it for some of her own, which was fresh, of a +much finer colour and quality, and quite firm from having been kept in +ice-cold water. + +Towards evening, a little shaken, but at the same time nicely rocked as +in a cradle, for the waggon travelled slowly, the children reached +Kochendorf. The waggoner helped them down from their lofty throne-like +seat; Mina carefully picked off from Fritz and herself all the straws +that hung dangling about them, then taking up their knapsack and basket, +after a friendly leave of the kind farmer, they followed in the cool of +the evening, with renewed strength and cheerful hearts, the road that +was pointed out to them. + +It was at first a narrow green path between thick hedges, where they +could scarcely see many paces in advance; before long, however, it +opened into a broad, magnificent avenue of old lime-trees, which, now in +flower, filled the air with a delicious fragrance. With beating hearts +and full of a strange expectation, the children pursued this road which +seemed already very grand, and unlike anything they had been accustomed +to. + + + + +CHAPTER III.--MRS. DOTE. + + +There,--all at once, the road again expanding, the castle stood before +their astonished gaze, in its ancient splendour! Two gigantic bears, +carved in stone, which gave name to the castle, stood like sentinels +before it; whilst bounding deer on the pillars, and a pair of monstrous +stag's horns on the pediment, showed it to be, as of old, a hunting +castle. Lofty gates opening upon broad flights of steps led to a green +turfed front court, where, in the midst of flowering shrubs, a splendid +fountain threw aloft its silvery jet of water. The last golden beams of +the setting sun lit up the beautiful old building, and the children +stood enraptured, seeming almost to have entered into Fairyland. + +"Now, where are you going?" inquired in a somewhat surprised, but not +unfriendly voice, an old gentleman handsomely dressed in blue uniform +with white facings, who was pacing slowly up and down with a thick cane, +to which was attached a thick tassel. Fritz supposing that at least he +must be a general, and hardly knowing what title sufficiently elevated +to give him, replied, "Your pardon, dear prince!" this being a style of +address to dignified persons, which he had met with in an old +almanac,--"Your pardon, but we are only going to Mrs. Dote, the +housekeeper. You know Mrs. Dote, perhaps," he added, with a certain +degree of consequence. + +"Oh, yes, to Mrs. Housekeeper Walter," returned he graciously, and +smiling to himself at the grand title which had been given, for he was +no greater a personage than the porter. "You must simply ring at the +little side-door yonder. Mrs. Housekeeper told me that she was expecting +some visitors;" and he pointed out with his stick the direction in which +they must go. + +Encouraged by this gracious reception, and yet anxious, nevertheless, +the children advanced to the wing of the castle which had been +indicated, and which opened into the inner court, where again they had +another view of the castle, which on this side, lying in deep shadow, +looked still more imposing and mysterious than in the front. Here, +seated on a bench in a little garden, sat a stately lady, with her hands +lying gracefully one upon the other in her lap, and who had turned her +head towards the shyly-advancing children. + +"So, so, there comes at last my little schoolmaster!" exclaimed she in a +pleasant voice as they approached. "Well, it is nice that you are come! +Yes, yes, mountain and valley cannot meet, but people can! How little I +thought that the baby Fritz that I carried in my arms to be baptized, +and dandled so nicely to keep him from crying, would one day come to see +me such a fine young fellow! But now, come in with me, you must be +hungry." + +Anything more charming than Mrs. Dote's little parlour could not be +imagined; the children thought that the princess herself could not live +in one more beautiful. It was full of all such old, carved furniture as +was superfluous in the castle; a little sofa and high-backed chairs of +faded blue silk damask; a cabinet and table of marqueterie and ormolu; a +splendid fire-screen, on which figured, in faded embroidery, a +shepherdess with her flock of sheep feeding around her. By the stove +stood a basket lined with wool, in which lay a fat lap-dog, so soundly +asleep as only to make a little grumbling as the children entered; a +beautiful cage hung in the window, in which was a canary bird, now too +aged to sing; vases of artificial flowers; portraits of princely +personages; every kind of splendour, in short, which was not wanted +elsewhere, gave to this apartment a princely appearance; and the +children, who had never in their lives seen anything more beautiful than +the bright sofa which stood in the parsonage parlour, were dumb with +reverential wonder. + +But it was not possible to remain very long silent with Mrs. Walter, as +she was called at the castle; she was lively and talkative, and knew how +to win the children's confidence. She led them to talk to her about +their life at home, about their parents and their little brothers, and +she in her turn told them of the time when she and their parents lived +such near neighbours. + +"I had not such a very easy life in those days," she said. "I had been +left an orphan when very young, and for many years was knocked about +amongst strangers. The lady I then lived with was very queer-tempered +and proud; for it often happens, that those who have only riches to +boast of, are not nearly so affable and considerate as the truly nobly +born. I had no parents, no brothers nor sisters, and felt myself quite +alone in the world. Then came your parents, and as I myself was the +daughter of a schoolmaster, I had naturally a liking for schoolmasters. +Your mother is of a timid, gentle nature. I was much older, and had, as +a matter of course, much more experience than she; I therefore was able +to help her in many ways, and, in short, I found quite a home with your +parents. We had very nice times together, and sympathized with each +other in joy and in sorrow. I could not have stayed in my place when +they left if I had not become acquainted with my blessed late husband, +the castle house-steward, who, when we married, brought me here, where +it was quite another thing to living in the house merely of a wealthy +baron." + +"Was your gentleman-husband, the castle house-steward, as elegant as the +gentleman out there in the blue coat?" asked Fritz. + +"As he?" asked Mrs. Walter, with offended pride. "Get along with you! He +is a simple porter, and was my husband's underling! You should have seen +my husband in his grand official uniform, with his beautiful white hair +and his bunch of keys, going through the castle before the grandees, and +relating everything from the days of the late prince up to the time of +the ever-blessed Emperor Charlemagne! I learnt it all off from him, and +it is to me just as if I had been born and brought up in the castle. But +now, children, you must have your suppers. Barbett has made us some +currant-marmalade; to-night you must go to bed early; to-morrow you +shall see everything." + +The children would gladly have seen something of the castle that +night. Through the window they could see only in the moonlight +mysterious-looking marble statues, and hear the splash of the fountain; +but they expressed their acquiescence, and after they had eaten the +currant marmalade, which did great credit to Barbett, they were +conducted to their beds, where a new delight awaited them. + +For Mina a bed had been prepared in the lady housekeeper's own pretty +chamber, whilst that for Fritz was in a small room adjoining, where all +kinds of curiosities were stowed together. But they did not forget, +according to the promise they had made their mother, before going to +sleep, to thank their Father in heaven, who had brought them safely to +the end of their journey. Mina, in going to sleep, looked upon a large +portrait of some princely child in a rose-coloured laced coat, and with +high-dressed hair. Fritz, on the other hand, was faced by an ancient +folding-screen, upon which an Indian princess was riding on an elephant. +They both, however, soon dropped asleep, to pass into a world of +wonderful dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER IV.--BARENBURG CASTLE. + + +But the waking next morning was still more wonderful. They opened their +eyes, and did not know where they were, and thought they were still at +home at Steinheim, in their little tiny chambers, till all at once they +remembered that they had now actually and truly awakened in a castle. +Then Mina found a beautiful china basin ready for her to wash in, +whereas, at home, they had each to fill the iron dish with water from +the well before they could wash; and the breakfast-table, with its +handsome old-fashioned blue and white china service, and aniseed bread, +because they had not fresh bread every day at Barenburg Castle; indeed, +everything was just like a fairy tale. + +And yet that was only the beginning of the glorious things which were +displayed to their enraptured gaze, when, after breakfast, Mrs. Walter +took the important bunch of keys, and conducted the children through the +chambers and state apartments of the castle. Softly, very softly and +carefully, with a sort of reverential awe, they stepped along the narrow +line of carpet which was laid on the polished inlaid floors, only now +and then allowing an exclamation of pure astonishment to escape their +lips, as when, for instance, they beheld their own figures advancing at +full length, to meet them in the lofty mirror-doors, or when some other +object of more than ordinary magnificence, or of an unusual character, +caught their eyes. + +The flight of steps which led from the garden, through the lofty glass +doors, opened into the dining-hall, in which the gentlemen were +accustomed to dine on their return from the chase. The walls were +painted with a series of beautiful pictures, representing a forest, +through the thick underwood of which a slender roe glanced forth here +and there, or where, on the margin of some splendid lake, the noble stag +was quenching his thirst, or a mighty boar whetting his tusks on the +trunk of some old forest tree. Above, on the ceiling, the gallant falcon +and the heron seemed to be floating under masses of well-painted clouds. +The dishes and drinking vessels of the table, which were exhibited in a +large antique glass cupboard, were all formed from stags' horn, or were +ornamented therewith; splendid and immensely large deers' antlers were +fastened upon the walls, and under each pair was an inscription stating +that the noble animal which had worn these antlers had been killed by +this or that royal prince, now long deceased. To this hall succeeded +small apartments, the one more beautiful than the other, the favourite +suite of rooms of the late princess, furnished with sky-blue silk; a +dancing hall, with splendidly painted walls, representing ladies and +gentlemen in antiquated costume, who were making stately bows and +curtseys to each other, and a gloomy chamber furnished with dark red +silk damask, containing an immense richly gilded bed, in which a +persecuted emperor had once slept. Mina felt frightened in this room, +and pressed still closer to Mrs. Walter. + +"There, sit down," said the old lady, "you are tired, poor child;" and +she pointed to a handsome arm-chair, covered with blue silk, which stood +beside the bed. Mina timidly seated herself, but she started up again +terrified, for that very moment, from the seat of the chair, was heard +in the sweetest, flute-like notes, the melody, "Rejoice ye in life!" +which her father, when he was not too weary, played so often to them on +the old spinnet at home. That was the most wonderful thing of all--a +chair which could play music more beautifully even than her father +himself! After this they walked on more quietly still, looking +continually round, in the expectation of some other wonderful surprise. + +Mrs. Walter, through her late husband, the son of a yet older +house-steward, who had been brought up in the castle, had herself so +completely entered into the spirit of the place as almost to regard it +as her own property, and she was therefore as much gratified by the +delight and astonishment of the children as if it had been a personal +compliment to herself. + +"Now, is it not beautiful?" asked she of Mina, as she turned the key in +the last door. + +"Very beautiful to look at," replied Mina, "but I don't know whether I +should quite like to live in it. I don't know a single little nook where +I could sit with my knitting." + +But such little nooks abounded all the more beautifully and sweeter in +the garden, where the children found a new world of wonder. According to +their ideas, derived from the garden at home, which was celebrated, not +only in the village itself, but through the whole neighbourhood, they +imagined, under the name of a garden, a beautiful smooth piece of +ground, divided into accurately-formed vegetable-beds, which wore +bordered and adorned with lovely flowers, and in the very middle of all +a green painted garden-house covered with creepers. Here, however, it +was quite different. + +Adjoining the castle was "the garden in the pig-tail style," as Mrs. +Walter said, with ornamental twisted borders, the paths strewn with +bright gravel, and planted all about with box-trees clipped into the +strangest shapes, balls, pyramids, and even the human form, and, in the +middle of all, a fountain which threw up water almost higher than the +one in the front. For a great distance also beyond the castle extended, +too, what was called "the park," with shrubberies, in which stood +wonderful statues; where, amidst lawns of fine turf, shone forth the +most gloriously brilliant beds of flowers, where was a little lake, with +its red and white painted little vessel, and a cottage built of +tree-stems, in which sat an old hermit in a brown gown, with a white +beard, and a large open book before him, who turned his head and lifted +his spectacles when any one opened the door. + +Mina, and even the courageous Fritz, ran away screaming at first, until +at length, accustomed by degrees to the miracle, and assured by Mrs. +Walter that the old man was only a painted figure, they took heart, +though the machinery remained a great wonder to them. + +There was many a charming little nook amongst the shrubs on the soft +green sward in front of the lake, on which two old swans belonging to +former times swam about, where the children could sit side by side and +tell each other stories and fairy tales. Nor yet had they come to an end +of the discoveries in the garden, nor yet had Fritz wholly completed the +accurate description of the journey which he had promised to send his +father. + +The children had been accustomed to a simple, laborious life, therefore +their holidays appeared to them a season of the purest enjoyment. Mina, +brought up to very early rising, was every morning ready dressed, and +put her head within her brother's little chamber to summon him, whilst +he was yet generally asleep; and every morning Fritz asked her, "But, I +say, Mina, isn't it a dream?" and she replied laughing, "No, it isn't a +dream." + +Amidst all the pleasure and the delight of their beautiful surroundings, +they also endeavoured to do all they possibly could to be of use to Mrs. +Dote. Fritz cut small firewood for her, and piled it up neatly in the +kitchen; they both helped her to look after the little garden which she +had for her own especial pleasure. Mina threaded her needle, which was +not always easy for her old eyes to accomplish; and Mrs. Dote, on her +part, taught her all kinds of beautiful stitches in needlework, and +described to her the magnificent dresses which she made, and of which +she had the care when she was lady's-maid. + +"Ah! what good times the gentlefolks have!" sighed Mina; "when I think +how my mother has to consider before she buys a cotton gown, and +countesses have satin and velvet and silk gauze." + +"Never trouble yourself about that, child," said Mrs. Walter, "there are +often heavy hearts under the light gauzes and the shining silks. I was +right glad over my lowly condition, when I came to understand thoroughly +this high life." + +"Yes, I must say," remarked Fritz, who was sitting at a side-table +engaged over the history of his travels, "the porter below there seemed +to me at first very high-bred and elegant; but if I had every day of my +life to walk up and down in front of this beautiful castle----" + +Here he was interrupted, for at that moment a knock was heard at the +door, and in came, to Fritz's great surprise and embarrassment, the very +porter, the burden of whose life he had been compassionating. It was +very seldom that he quitted his post, although there was now nothing to +attend to at the castle door, where, frequently for months together, not +a soul approached the place excepting the few servants who now were kept +there. Mrs. Walter therefore looked with inquisitive wonder at the large +letter which he held in his hand. + +"There, read, Mrs. Housekeeper," he said, "it is just come; there will +now be work enough for us." + +"Really!" exclaimed Mrs. Walter, "the Princess Clotilde, with her +children! Now, that is charming! It has always grieved me so that the +beautiful castle should stand unoccupied, and I am glad that it is +precisely that excellent lady who is coming. To-morrow? Well, I must +look about me. Everything is in order, however; nothing but the beds +want getting ready. Good, very good, Mr. Schnallenberger." + +Mr. Schnallenberger retired with a dignified mien. Mrs. Walter rose up +with an air of business, and took up the important bunch of keys, +saying, "Come, Mina, you shall go with me; you can be of some use." + +"Ah! a real, living princess," said Mina, "I shall be frightened if I +meet her." + +"I shall not," said Fritz boldly, "all men are equal before God, prince +or peasant or nobleman; it makes no difference." + +"You talk as you know, foolish boy," said Mrs. Dote, now for the first +time really angry; "it is true that God created all men equal, but the +Lord himself has appointed to each one his particular place; one in a +lofty position, another humbler, and the humble must never fail in +respect; and the lofty will one day be called to answer before the Lord +for his stewardship, whether he have done well or evil, with that which +was intrusted to him." + +"But in that world," persisted Fritz in a somewhat low voice, "there +will be no distinctions of rank." + +"In that world," returned Mrs. Walter warmly, "our Lord, it is true, +will not judge according to rank and station, but according to every +one's work, according to the obedience of faith with which the will of +the Father has been done. And the will of the Father is, that every one +abide submissively in his own place without envy and without pride; +remember that, you conceited boy, with your equality!" + +Fritz thought it wisest to remain silent, after this reproof, although +really what he meant was not so bad, after all. + +Mina accompanied the old lady to the large press which contained the +delicate, though somewhat yellow, bed-linen trimmed with fine lace; and +that which was necessary was given out for the beds, and the chambers +were made ready for their new inhabitants. + + + + +CHAPTER V.--THE PRINCESS. + + +The princess arrived at Barenburg Castle on the evening of the following +day. The housekeeper, in her most splendid attire, a violet silk dress +and a splendid lace cap, together with the rest of the household, +solemnly received her at the foot of the flight of steps leading into +the castle. The children witnessed the arrival from the little window of +the porter's room, and even the free-minded Fritz felt a reverential +throbbing of the heart, as he saw the carriage-step let down, and the +princess alight, wholly different in appearance to what he had expected; +not a lofty, magnificent lady in a crimson silk dress and a little crown +on her head, like Queen Esther or Pharaoh's daughter in the picture +Bible, but a somewhat small, slender lady, in a grey silk dress and +simple white bonnet, which she took off, as she stood on the +castle-steps, gazing with agreeable surprise, as it seemed, on the +beautiful ancient structure and its charming surroundings. Her brown +hair was simply parted under a small blond cap, and her blue eyes +glanced so mildly from the delicate, pale countenance, that the +children, seeming to forget that they had expected anything different, +Mina whispered softly to Fritz, "But she must be very, very good, +though." + +Whilst they were watching the princess, the servants assisted two +beautiful children from the carriage, who now joyously, and with an +exclamation of astonishment, sprang up the castle steps; a boy and a +girl, somewhat younger than Fritz and Mina, so richly and so elegantly +dressed, that they could not have been mistaken for other than princely +children. + +"But, mamma, is it not lovely? And shall we live here?" exclaimed the +little girl. + +"Yes, my child," said the princess, and kissed her on the forehead. + +"Are there yet stags in the park," demanded the boy with a princely air +from the respectful porter; "and can I have a gun here to shoot them?" + +The mother smiled, and seemed half-embarrassed by the commanding tone +which her young son assumed. + +"There are the park-grounds belonging to the garden," said the +revenue-warden of the district, who had come to the castle to receive +the princess, "and beyond lies the deer-park; the keeper who lives there +will be able to assist the young prince in the shooting of game." + +"That must be an arrogant young fellow," thought Fritz; yet he felt, as +it were, attracted to him as he saw the handsome, frank countenance of +the young Hugo, as, with his hand in his mother's, he entered the +castle. + + * * * * * + +It was late before Mrs. Walter, who had been in attendance on the +princely guests in the suite of rooms prepared for their reception, +returned to her own parlour. + +"The gracious lady," said she, in a business-like tone, "has only +brought with her a single waiting-woman for herself and a maid for the +children; there was everything to do, therefore, and I was needed to +help." + +"No ladies of the court, and no servants?" asked Mina, astonished. + +"What sort of a princess is she, then, Mrs. Dote?" asked Fritz, who had +been studying in the calendar the geneology of the princely house. "She +is not, after all, then, the wife of the reigning prince; and there is +no wife mentioned as belonging to the late prince." + +"Well, children," said Mrs. Walter, after a moment's silent +consideration, "you have sense enough for me to explain to you exactly +how it is with the princess. She is really the wife of the crown-prince, +now deceased, and is herself of a noble house, though not noble enough +to please the old prince, and therefore he would never acknowledge the +marriage. His son, however, always believed he would do so. He thought +his papa would yield his prejudices, because the lady was so lovely and +a very angel for goodness. But it was not, and never will be right, when +children go counter to the will of their parents, and when young people +think they know what is best;--you remember that as long as you live! +However, they were married whilst the old prince was on a long journey +abroad; when he returned, therefore, he was dreadfully angry, and would +not acknowledge the marriage. The noble young crown-prince would not +leave his wife; so, for the sake of peace and quietness, they lived +abroad, where he died of nervous fever two years ago, without being +reconciled with his father, from which misfortune our Lord preserve all +young people! The princess returned to this country and lived very +retired, and I have heard that the old prince would not even hear the +children spoken of. However, as this old castle is now appointed for +their residence, I think it a good sign." + +That which Mrs. Walter thus related made the princess very interesting +to the children. + +"Do you know, Mina," said Fritz to his sister that same evening, "I +shall never be envious of anybody in this world again." + +"Were you envious, then?" asked she. + +"Well, it was in this way," returned he. "When I saw those handsome +children, in their beautiful dresses, bounding up the castle-steps, I +thought to myself, 'They are quite at home now, where we dare only take +a little peep; they have everything so nice, yet I don't know that they +are any better than we.'" + +"Did you really think so!" said Mina amazed. + +"Now, however, I think," returned he, "how well off we are. Father and +mother are happy together, grand-parents, and everybody love one +another, but those poor things have lost their father, and they dare not +see their grandfather." + +"Perhaps it will all come right," said Mina consolingly "I should like +to see that lovely princess again." + +"But she must be only addressed as--most gracious lady," said Mrs. Dote. + + + + +CHAPTER VI.--THE PRINCELY CHILDREN. + + +Spite of his views of freedom and equality, Fritz walked somewhat more +timidly with Mina in the garden the following day. + +"You may go without any fear," Mrs. Dote had said encouragingly; "only +you must keep rather in the side walks than in the broad alleys. You can +go and gather me a beautiful nosegay and fresh green for the little hall +where the family will dine. And if you should meet the young grandees +and they should speak, you must answer prettily and politely; only mind, +don't you speak first." + +"He is, however, nothing but a boy, like me, only somewhat younger," +Fritz was again ready to reply, but he checked himself and remained +silent. + +They had not been long in the garden before they saw the two handsome +children coming hand in hand down the broad alley. + +"Oh, how charming it is!" exclaimed the little girl, delighted. "I never +saw anything so charming!" + +"And is it not charming," said the boy, "that your governess is still +poorly, and that my tutor is gone a journey, and so we have a holiday?" + +At this moment they saw Fritz and Mina, who stepped somewhat embarrassed +aside. + +"Do you live in the garden?" inquired the little girl. + +"No, young gentry," returned Mina, to whom no other title suggested +itself, and she curtseyed. + +"My name is Meta," said the little girl with frank simplicity; "and his +name is Hugo," added she, pointing to her brother, "but where, then, do +you live?" + +"At Steinheim, fifteen miles from here," said Fritz, in his +straightforward manner, and perfectly self-possessed. "We are now on a +visit to my godmother, Mrs. Dote, the castle housekeeper, during our +holidays." + +"Indeed! we also have holiday," said Hugo. "Do you know of any bird +nests? I have never seen a bird's nest." + +"I know of one," returned Fritz, somewhat hesitatingly, "but----" + +"Well, where is it?" inquired Hugo, with a little impetuosity. + +I'll show it you, but--you must promise---- + +"What must I promise?" interrupted the young prince, reddening with +anger and impatience. + +"That you will only look at it, and not touch it, even with your little +finger," returned Fritz, now speaking firmly, "else the old birds will +never come back again, and the young ones will die." + +"Yes, I know that," said the fair-haired Meta. "Mamma once told me that +the young birds would die if the old ones did not attend to them," and +she looked very sorrowful; "but you will not touch it, will you, Hugo?" + +"Upon my honour. I will not!" declared the young cavalier so earnestly +that Fritz was ready to venture, and led him to a low fir-tree which +stood in some thick plantations, where lay between the boughs a little +nest, in which were five lovely greenish-speckled eggs. He lifted up +Meta, so that she could peep in, and both children were delighted at the +sight. + +"But the next time we must not come so near," said Fritz, "the little +hen-bird is sitting; but we may come every day and see it from a +distance, till the young birds are hatched." + +In this joyful hope the four children became good friends, although Hugo +had a something of princely pride in his bearing which did not quite +harmonize with the liberal turn of Fritz's mind. The boys rambled +together from the garden into the deer-park, visited the old keeper who +lived there, and learned to shoot under his instructions; nay, they even +one day brought home a hare which had been shot, though it could not +exactly be ascertained by whom. Still more delightful was the +entertainment which the two girls found together. Meta had a very +wonderful doll, beautiful beyond anything which Mina had conceived +possible. It had a lovely waxen face, and could shut its eyes; it slept +upon a cushion trimmed with lace, and had a little bassinet lined with +blue silk; it wore the daintiest little cap and a little knitted jacket. +Mina, it is true, had quite grown out of dolls, and at home only brought +out hers, which had a shining face of papier-maché, and wore a plain +pink cotton frock, when her little friend Matilda came to see her; but +she would not have been a girl if she had not been delighted with this +miracle of a baby. It had, however, no name, and Mina assisted in the +choice of one, which, after long deliberation, it was decided should be +Rosalinde, because it was so beautiful. Meta was regarded as the mother +of the little Rosalinde, and Mina acted as nurse-maid, but was called +the Bonne, and she fondled, and carried, and rocked, and fed the darling +baby to her heart's delight. The little Rosalinde was a very +quick-growing child, however, and already on the second day wore her +short frocks, and on the fourth a little dress and socks of Mina's +making from some splendid material which Mrs. Dote produced from her +wonderful old stores, and which had, once upon a time, been a part of a +grand court dress. Now and then, however, again the little one became a +baby, and was laid upon its cushion, and as such carried about. Many +lovely little nooks, too, there were in the garden, on the green sward, +and amongst the bushes, which were exactly suitable for nurseries; then, +too, Meta took many great journeys with her little daughter through the +gardens, Mina, in the meantime, decorating the green nursery with +flowers, and setting out a pretty little feast of summer fruit in little +baskets which she wove of rushes; whilst Meta, on her return, brought, +from her mother, in fact, a pretty ribbon or a nice little bag as a +present to her faithful Bonne. + +Lightly and softly, as a sunbeam, the Princess Clotilde glided in her +grey silk dresses here and there through the garden, appearing to the +country children almost like a being from some higher world. She had +kept a much stricter supervision over them than they had any idea of, in +order that she might ascertain whether they were fitting companions for +her children. Her children had hitherto lived in such deep retirement +and seclusion, that now, finding these young strangers so admirable in +every respect, she rejoiced that her children should become acquainted +through them with other relationships and other classes in life, and +happy in the thought that they could thus thoroughly enjoy their golden +freedom before the return of the governess and tutor. The castle +housekeeper, Mrs. Dote, was therefore on the very pinnacle of bliss +because of the honour which was done to her young guests. + + + + +CHAPTER VII.--THE DEPARTURE. + + +Mrs. Dote had already twice obtained a prolongation of the holiday term, +but now the father wrote that it could be no further extended; it was +high time, he said, for Fritz to recommence his studies. Mina, also, was +not only required in the school, but was indispensable to her mother. +Therefore a definite day was fixed by him for their return home. + +The children, who knew perfectly well that such a time of festal +enjoyment could not last for ever, prepared themselves without +opposition for their departure. And then, what a great deal they would +have to tell at home; how their father and mother would be astonished, +and the clergyman's Carl, and the bailiff's Matilda! And then, it +sounded so very nice in the diary which Fritz had kept, "I and the +prince." + +Meta and Hugo were almost more cast down about the parting than their +friends, and the tutor and the governess seemed to them anything but a +compensation for the loss of such pleasant companions. + +On the day before they left, Hugo wished to perform an especial deed of +heroism. The old keeper had betrayed to him that in a cleft of a +tolerably lofty rock in the deer-park a screech-owl had built a nest. + +"Oh, a living owl!" exclaimed Hugo; "we must have him!" + +"Don't you trouble yourself about that, noble sir," said the keeper; +"besides, it is more dangerous than it seems; the rock is steep and +crumbly, and just below is a stony hollow, where, in ancient times, they +got stone. Wait, sir, till I've got rid of the rheumatism in my feet, +and then I myself will try to catch the creature for you. You must not +run such a risk." + +"Listen, Fritz," said Hugo to him after this conversation, "we'll get +the beast ourselves, spite of everything!" + +"No," returned Fritz thoughtfully, "we'd better not; think how +distressed your mother would be if anything happened to you, and my +godmother would be shockingly angry with me if I should let you go." + +"I don't care for your godmother, not I!" exclaimed Hugo in a tone of +defiance, for he could very ill brook contradiction, and without another +word he walked down towards the castle. + +Early the next morning, Hugo stole away quietly by himself towards the +cliff in the park; he did not find it very difficult to clamber up so as +to bring himself near to the cleft in the rock, which contained the +coveted nest; when, all at once, away went a piece of rock from under +his foot; he held himself fast, however, by a small bush, but there he +hung, like the Emperor Maximilian of old, on the Martinswand, below him +the deep stony hollow, and feeling it impossible to advance a single +step forward. There was an end now of all his defiant courage and +princely pride, and he uttered a loud piercing cry for help; but, ah! he +then remembered with horror that the old keeper, the only person who +lived near, was a most totally deaf. + +The next moment the cry of "Hugo!" sounded from the wood. + +"Fritz, Fritz!" shouted he, overjoyed; "make haste, Fritz, and help me!" + +And Fritz, who had been for some time seeking for the prince in vain, +rushed forth out of the wood, and though he was naturally of a +deliberative character, and one which did not inconsiderately rush into +danger, yet he now climbed up, and with all that courage and agility +which a sudden sense of danger often gives birth to, seized hold of +Hugo, and half-scrambling and half-tumbling, down they both came to the +ground, with torn hands and trousers, yet holding still firmly together. + +Hugo, whose haughty bravery was considerably damped by the terror he had +felt, and the danger he had been exposed to, lay half-fainting on the +ground and gazed with emotion at Fritz, who, well pleased with the +result of his intervention, yet seemed to regard it as nothing very +remarkable. + +"Fritz," said he at length, "I should not much like to tell my mother, +because she is often so sorrowful, and she will weep so bitterly over a +misfortune which might have happened, just as if it had happened; but I +shall not forget you!" and with a princely bearing he drew a beautiful +ring, in which was set a red stone, from his finger, saying, "There, +take this ring from me, it belonged to my father; and if you show me +again this ring, whether it be soon or in years to come, it will remind +me how you have helped me to-day." + +Fritz, who, as I said, did not regard the affair as one of such grave +importance, nevertheless was delighted with the gift, until an idea +suddenly occurring to him, he said, "But if your mother should make +inquiries after the ring?" + +"Then I will tell her what you have done for me," replied Hugo, who had +now recovered his self-possession, "and she will say it was right." + +The gentle, warm-hearted Meta took a tearful leave of Mina; she wished +very much to give her, as a parting present, her beloved Rosalinde, but +Mina would, on no account, allow of so great a sacrifice, and the +Princess Clotilde gave her instead a pretty silk apron and a beautiful +book. Fritz also received presents of books and handsome +writing-apparatus from Hugo. Mrs. Dote, who had conceived a cordial +affection for the children, did not know how to give them enough for +themselves and as presents to carry home to their parents. She was, +however, raised to the very summit of felicity, when the princess +ordered the carriage to be got ready, in order that her children might +accompany their young friends at least half-way home. Fritz and Mina had +not the slightest objection to be driven back in so stately and +agreeable a manner, in a comfortable carriage, along the very road which +they had traversed thither so timidly and humbly with their knapsack and +basket. + +Of course, these glories also came to an end, although the kind coachman +drove much farther than the half-way, so that they could now see the +hospitable farm-house in the fields below them. Then came the +leave-taking, which, as a rule with children, consists of not many +words. Hugo pressed significantly the hand upon which Fritz wore the +ring, and Meta kissed Mina with tears in her eyes. The princely children +drove back to the castle, and the schoolmaster's children went on foot +to their modest home, but warm hearts and kind greetings they knew +awaited them there, and they walked forward with cheerful steps, without +lamenting over the glories which were departed. + + +CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, La Belle Sauvage Works, London, E. C. +50,288. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43245 *** |