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"Shall we not saddle our horses, and call up our men?" |
Some of the king's counselors wanted him to gather his armies and march at once into the duke's kingdom. |
The king and his counselors were watching and waiting there, and as the sun climbed high and the message did not come, those who wanted war said: |
"Smith, smith, if you love country and king, shoe my horse, and shoe him speedily." |
"Peace and good will to you and yours; And to all a Merry Christmas." |
When the first stroke of the noon hour pealed from the church steeple the king's messenger was in sight, and the last bell had not rung when he stood before the palace gate to deliver the duke's message: |
Then the king sent for fine robes and a golden chain to be brought for the elder brother, and put a purse of gold in his hand, for he was well pleased with what he had done. |
And lo! and behold, as the morning light fell on their faces, each saw that the other was his brother. |
To hammer a shoe from the glowing iron while the red fire roars and the anvil rings--this is the work that I do best, and I shall be a blacksmith, even as my father was before me." |
So when he had spoken the two brothers embraced and bade each other good-bye and went on their ways; nor did they meet again till many a year had come and gone. |
And he was envious of nobody, for always as he worked his hammer seemed to sing to him: |
But some of the king's counselors loved peace, and among these was the elder brother, in whom the king had great trust. |
Once upon a time there lived two brothers, who, when they were children, were so seldom apart that those who saw one always looked for the other at his heels. |
"Choose as you will what you shall do, and God bless your choice; but as for me I shall make haste to the court of the king, for nothing will satisfy me but to serve him and my country." |
"God bless you, brother," and "God speed you, brother," was all that they had time to say, but that was enough to show that love was still warm in their hearts. |
"The hawthorn's white, the sun is bright, And blue the cloudless sky; And not a bird that sings in spring Is happier than I, than I, Is happier than I." |
"The hawthorn's white, the sun is bright, And blue the cloudless sky; And not a bird that sings in spring Is happier than I, than I, Is happier than I." |
And because his land was fair to see, and he was a young king, and his heart was happy, he made a song for himself and sang it loud and merrily: |
Now the king had been so busy about the affairs of his kingdom deciding this question and that, sending messengers here and there, and listening to one and another, as all kings must do, that he had forgotten the song which he had made. |
On the sailor's ship there was a minstrel bound for the king's court to sing on May Day; and the minstrel learned the song from the sailor. |
"I had it from the chapman who travels on the king's highway," said the soldier. |
He was young and happy and as he followed his plough across the dewy field, and thought of the corn that would grow, by and by, in the furrows it made, and of his little black and white pig that would feed and grow fat on the corn, he sang: |
There was already one egg in it and soon there would be more. |
"A right merry song, Robin Ploughboy," called the goose-girl who tended the farmer's geese in the next field; and she leaned on the fence that divided the two, and sang with him, for she was as happy a lass as ever lived in the king's country. |
One day when all the world was gay with spring a king stood at a window of his palace and looked far out over his kingdom. |
"The sailor who rides in yon white ship in your harbor taught it to me." |
Then she would send them to market; and when they were sold she would buy a ribbon for her hair. It was no wonder that she felt like singing: |
"Good minstrel," said he, "ten golden guineas I will give you for your song, and to the ten will add ten more if you will tell me where you learned it." |
"I heard the little goose-girl sing it," said the chapman when they found him. |
But when he heard the minstrel it all came back to him; and then he was puzzled. |
"The soldier who even now stands guard at your majesty's gate gave me the song," said the sailor when he was asked. |
The farmer's wife had given her a goose for her very own that day, and the goose had made a nest in the alder bushes. |
The sailor was going to the far countries, but if all went well with his ship, and with him, he would be at home in time to see the hawthorn bloom in his mother's yard another year and another spring. |
He was a young minstrel and very proud to sing at the king's festival, so when it was his turn and he stood before the throne he could think of no better song to sing than: |
"A fine tree of apples!" called the old woman as soon as she was in speaking distance of him. |
It grew in front of a house as much like her own as if the two were peas in the same pod; and on the porch of the house sat a little old man. |
He would have been as handsome a young man as ever the sun shone on had it not been that his forehead was wrinkled into a terrible frown, and the corners of his mouth drawn down as if he had not a friend left in the whole world. |
"A feather cushion is fit for a king," she said, "and as for me, an apple for a dumpling, or a nosegay from your garden will serve me as well as what I give." |
And sure enough she had not gone a half dozen yards when, right before her, she saw an apple-tree as full of apples as her plum-tree was full of plums. |
The man and the woman had no apples, but they were glad to exchange a nosegay from their garden for a bag of fine feathers, you may be sure. |
She had plenty of flour and plenty of butter, plenty of sugar and plenty of spice for a dozen dumplings, but there was one thing she did not have; and that was an apple. |
"One pleased is better than two disappointed," said the old woman then; and she emptied the plums into the young woman's apron and putting the bag of feathers into her basket trudged on as merrily as before; for she said to herself: |
"Good mother, answer me this: If you were making a cushion for your grandfather's chair would you not stuff it with cotton?" |
She nodded pleasantly to the old woman, and the old woman nodded to her; and soon the two were talking as if they had known each other always. |
"I would not stuff the cushion with straw," said she; and it would have been hard to tell which one was the more cast down by her answers, the man or the woman. |
The old woman did not have the heart to say them nay, so into the basket went the little dog, and very snugly he lay there. |
What a noise they made; and in the midst of them stood a young woman who was feeding them with yellow corn. |
"There is nothing nicer for a cushion than feathers," said the woman. |
But the old woman made haste to take the bag of feathers out of her basket, and give it to them. |
"Little have we to give you," said the mother who was the happiest of all, "for that you have done for us, but here is a little dog, whose barking will keep loneliness from your house, and a blessing goes with it." |
"A bag of feathers for a basket of plums; a nosegay of flowers for a bag of feathers; a golden chain for a nosegay of flowers; a dog and a blessing for a golden chain; all the world is give and take, and who knows but that I may have my apple yet," said the old woman as she hurried on. |
The old woman stopped at the gate to look at the flowers; and as she looked she heard a man and a woman, who sat on the door-step of a house that stood in the garden, quarreling. |
"With this golden chain I might buy all the apples in the king's market, and then have something to spare," she said to herself, as she hurried away toward town as fast as her feet could carry her. |
"Dear me," said the young woman when she heard this, "there is nothing my husband likes better than plum jelly with goose for his Sunday dinner, but unless you will take a bag of feathers for your plums he must do without, for that is the best I can offer you." |
"My mother had one made of them," said the man; and they laughed like children as they hurried into the garden to fill the old woman's basket with the loveliest posies; lilies, lilacs, violets, roses--oh! never was there a sweeter nosegay. |
"What is the matter?" she asked as soon as she reached them. |
There was once upon a time an old woman who wanted an apple dumpling for supper. |
"Fair or foul, good or bad, 'tis all one to me," said he, "when the court jeweler has forgotten to send the ring he promised, and I must go to my lady with empty hands." |
The more the old woman thought of the dumpling the more she wanted it, and at last she dressed herself in her Sunday best and started out to seek an apple. |
Now her way was the king's highway, and as she walked there she met a young lord who was dressed in his finest clothes, for he was going to see his lady love. |
"Matter enough," answered the mother, "when the last crust of bread is eaten and not a farthing in the house to buy more." |
"Straw is the thing, and no need to go farther than the barn for it;" but the old woman shook her head. |
But she had gone no farther than the turn of the road when she came upon a mother and children, standing in a doorway, whose faces were as sorrowful as her own was happy. |
"A good bargain, and not all of it in the basket," said the old woman, for she was pleased to have stopped the quarrel, and when she had wished the two good fortune and a long life, she went upon her way again. |
"Aye, but apple-trees and apples are poor company when a man is growing old," said the old man; "and I would give them all if I had even so much as a little dog to bark on my door-step." |
"If I am no nearer the dumpling than when I left home, I am at least no farther from it; and that feathers are lighter to carry than plums nobody can deny." |
"Here is one who will settle the matter," said the woman then; and she called to the old woman: |
The young woman told the old woman about her fowls and the old woman told the young woman about the dumpling and the basket of plums for which she hoped to get apples. |
Trudge, trudge, up hill and down she went, and presently she came to a garden of sweet flowers; lilies, lilacs, violets, roses--oh, never was there a lovelier garden! |
She had plums, a tree full of them, the roundest and reddest that you can imagine; but, though you can make butter from cream and raisins of grapes, you cannot make an apple dumpling with plums, and there is no use trying. |
She was not out of sight of the house, though, when the mother and children, every one of them laughing and talking as if it were Christmas or Candlemas day, overtook her. |
"It is," they cried, and so it went between them, till they spied the old woman at the gate. |
Before she left home, however, she filled a basket with plums from her plum-tree and, covering it over with a white cloth, hung it on her arm, for she said to herself: "There may be those in the world who have apples, and need plums." |
"Never shall it be said of me that I eat apple dumpling for supper while my neighbors lack bread;" and she put the golden chain into the mother's hands and hurried on without waiting for thanks. |
"A fair day and a good road," said the old woman, stopping to drop him a courtesy. |
Some day they would come again and then she should surely see them, her father said; and already she had begun to look forward to that time. |
Highest of all was the spire of the church that stood in the square where the knights had been; and as Hildegarde watched it change from grey to gold in the sunset glow, she thought of them and wondered where they had gone when their business was done. |
Hildegarde knew herself, without a word from any one, that she could not go; but as she ran about the house to wait on them, she heard her mother and father talking. |
One evening Little Maid Hildegarde's father came home with wonderful news; the knights were coming to town. |
"Aye," said the father, "I would bear my hurt, and more too, willingly, if only she might see the gallant knights." |
He had heard it as he came from the forest where he cut wood all day and he hurried every step of the way home to tell Hildegarde and her mother. |
"It is not for the pain in my face that I grieve," said the good mother; "but for the disappointment of our little maid." |
But as for Hildegarde, she kept the vision in her heart alway; and when as the years went by she had little ones of her own to rock to sleep, she told them of it, and sang to them as her mother had sung to her: |
No, not even a neighbor, for Hildegarde and her mother and father lived apart from every one else, and the wood that is called Enchanted lay between them and the town. |
As silently as the stars shine out at evening they passed the door where the child sat wonder-struck; and as quietly as the sun goes down at the day's end they vanished into the wood again before she could move or call. |
The morning sun had scarcely shone when her mother awoke with a terrible pain in her head, and her father slipped on his way to the barn and sprained his foot so he could not walk. |
Old Grandmother Grey is going to ask them to ride in search of her little lamb that has gone astray; and the mayor will tell them of the wolves that come in the winter. |
One bore a banner blue as the sky on a summer's day, and the next held a wee lamb close within his arms. |
Behind him came another, and another till she had counted five--five brave knights! Yes, there they came with prancing steeds and shining shields, and splendid clothes! |
"Perhaps they will come when the wolves do in the winter," she said to herself; but scarcely had she spoken when through an opening in the wood she spied a horseman riding at a stately pace. |
And yet with all of their great deeds they were merry men, not too proud to sing at a feast or play with a child. |
And when Hildegarde heard what they said she made haste to wipe away the tears that threatened to roll down her cheeks, and went about her work with a pleasant face. |
Now there were those, and Hildegarde's mother and father were among them, who believed that the little maid, tired from her long busy day, had fallen asleep, and dreamed a beautiful dream. |
And now at last she was to have her heart's desire. |
"Just as soon as the cows are taken to the pasture, and the little chicks are fed," said her mother; and the little maid went to bed well satisfied. |
Her father was never tired of telling, or she of hearing, how they fought and killed the fierce dragon that had troubled the people of the border; and put out the forest fires in the time of the great drought and fed the hungry when the famine was in the land. |
And there was no one to take the child to the Church Square. |
"They are on the king's business and will be at the Church Square to-morrow morning at the hour of ten. |
All day long she was busy for there were the cows to take to the pasture, and the little chicks to feed, and the eggs to gather; but at sunset her tasks were done, and with her doll in her arms she sat in the doorway of the house and looked away toward the town, the towers of which just showed above the Enchanted Wood. |
And many an evening, though Hildegarde was growing to be a great girl, her mother sat by her bed to sing a song that she had sung to her when she was a babe in the cradle: |
Subsets and Splits