"I wish you were at home, whoever you happer to be!" 64 Upon my word, a vastly pretty speech! Sir, am the Fairy Corva!" "Indeed! Well, anyhow, you are quite as black as you're painted!" "What! fresh insults? At all events I was not born at the top of a steeple." "No, madam," replied Clochetto; "you never could aspire to be born so high in the world!” "Bah! I have frequently perched on the towervane to-" "Which accounts for sudden bad weather we get now and then!" observed the youth. "Person!" ejaculated Corva. "I beg that you will not crow over us!" said the cavalier. "Good evening," said the black fairy. "I have not the least doubt that you will hear from me again, and when you do, you will know it! When I begin to peck, I peck to the bone! Caw!" Thereupon she flapped away like a funereal fate. And now the singing spring piped up still more charmingly than before. Suddenly Ivy cried out: "Oh, look-look, Clochetto! the vapor from the "You! I should like to see you try and do it! spring is taking form. See; two fair arms are held Pray, who are you!" "I am Cavalier Clochetto." "Indeed! And pray, among other things, do you know where you were born!" "I was found in a belfry." "Um! With brass-colored hair, I believe?" "As you see." "And a capacity for clappering which has never been excelled. You would talk down a regiment of women!" toward us, the drapery envelops a form, and-see; there are two soft eyes looking at us!" That which Ivy and Clochetto saw was a delicate form, and of a woman, transparent, robed in a drapery of mist, embroidered with gossamer and dewdrops. As the figure appeared, the singing spring was heard humming more exquisitely than ever. Clochetto took off his hat, and made a very handsome bow. "To whom have I the honor of speaking?" ask"By your leave, never have I sought to talked he. "To a lady, I am sure, of the most delightdown anybody. I repeat, what have we said to ful presence, and both myself and Ivy are delightannoy you?" ed with the opportunity of making your highness's supernatural acquaintance!" "You make no inconsiderable noise with your prattle! What with you, the nightingales, and the intolerable wood-doves, life is scarcely worth a feather! You considerably annoy the young brood of my twenty-seventh cousin on the mother's side." "But, madam," urged the cavalier, "when you yourself give it mouth, there is no small amount of riot as the result." "Insolent!" cried Corva. "Are you aware to whom you are speaking? It may be that my voice is just the least bit cracked-" "Just a trifle," said Clochetto. "But," said Corva, in a remarkable quick hurry, "it is worth, even now, a dozen wheezing fountains, a score of Ivys, two hundred nightingales, and one thousand wood-doves!" "You seem, madam," said the young man, "to have a great deal to say." "And I have always said it!" replied the bird of evil omen, now scratching her head with the other claw, and pluming herself viciously. "Pray, madam, do not let me detain you, or SEE ENGRAVING. "Bless me! bless me!" said a silvery voice; "how you do run on, to be sure! Certainly, I never heard any one who more thoroughly possessed the family qualification of chattering." Madam," said Clochetto, "I am aware that I am given to talking. I am sorry if it is a fault; but, to confess the truth, if once I am set going, I am very much like the next well-regulated clock, and take a very long while to run down. I am much honored to meet you, madam." "Sir," said the diaphanous creature, "when you use your silvery tongue after the fashion of the last sentence, it is a pleasure to hear you. But the manner in which you addressed my distant relative, Corva, was an exceedingly painful experience. I almost had to scream." "Madam," said the gentleman, "if I have caused you a moment's discomfort, command my penitence. You see my family neglected my breeding. In fact, I never knew my family, or heard of then.. But to act, say, do, think, or suggest anything that is, hump-backed, ailed, cross-eyed wed from a neigh have!" said the gravely assure e rude to a fairy, n the Fairy Cor ." e, beg-" appe-like tongue lace who do you to. live a thousand rising out of its my very deather expect a lady -I am the Fairy lochetto strikes by your admirvy here is my cease to love, il I am incapaIf and my fama. I was born brought up by two, and could n before I was world seeking, here I have ver, never quit > us." ?" asked the e fact is, that or without me ice. Without een, my dear you could not Le clay out of inform you, Clochetto. I were once bell, and in 1 were very prince, who hey brought sun, to the uried him." i a drop of rim which tear; and ondition of Madame ns, but the › bell-ringope, found "But what, Aquafresca, is to become of me?" "We shall see. As for you, Ivy-" Ivy made a deep reverence. You were once a branch of real ivy. One day a human child was wandering near you as you danced in the wind, when an angry serpent suddenly prepared to leap upon him. You tangled yourself round and round the reptile, who turned upon and bit you instead. As you died, poisoned by the cruel fangs, the little human Ivy was born, and I myself carried you to the hut of Baucisone, where you have lived happily ever since. And now you two have met." "And we never mean to part again," rattled Clochetto. "Do we, dearest ?" "Never, never, never!" replied Ivy. "I only want to cling closer and closer to the one I love, and keep him warm and happy with my loving arms." "Go both to the house of Baucisone," said Aquafresca. "Give me time to think what is to be done. Even fairies require thinking time now and again. But be on your guard; the Fairy Corva never forgets a bad cause, and she will punish us for our rudeness. Unfortunately, the moment a well-bred man is rude, the bad fairies begin to have】 power over him. However, I shall watch over younever fear. Good day!" So Ivy and Clochetto went home to the house of Baucisone, who welcomed them in her usual kindly way. Clochetto rose early the next morning, and garlanded the door with roses, and as daylight came he played upon the pipe, and so gently awoke his fair Ivy to the beginning of another happy day. Alas! how it ended! How very natural it was that they should wander to the neighborhood of the singing spring. Evidently Aquafresca was out about business, for the water was as quiet as a watching mouse. "Look!" suddenly cried Ivy. "See [the fruit half-hidden under the great stone of the spring." "Never saw I such wondrous ugly fruit!" replied Clochetto, observing it. "Let me pluck it!" said Ivy, and she did so. "Nay, it seems to me that it is rather sickly." “Nay. We have eaten oaten cake and wild honey-we have drank fresh milk_andpure water -what more do we want?" "But this fruit is rare, such as I have never seen. And what is grown must be good for man." "Enough and love are enough," said the youth. "But it looks unlike other fruit, and has no perfume that I know. Will you not eat of it?" No; for I know not what it is." "Are you afraid?” "No; but I am a little wise, my Ivy." "Then I am ignorant!" cried Ivy. "Of what avail is the fruit if it is not eaten? It is clear that "Well, my Ivy ?" "It is not so pleasant as I thought, and has a rank, hard, hot taste. Will you not taste of it?" "What you do, Ivy, I must also imitate, because I love you. Give me some." fruit? The orchard of Baucisone was bountiful and the grapes hung in clusters. Why have you sought death? I can do naught for you now; the powers of evil have command over you. But your love and your repentance shall absolve you. You So he took one of the dark, dull, faint fruits, and shall meet again; and when you do, lo! you shall tore it apart with his teeth. fear Corva and her adherents no more. Goodbye!" ""Tis sickly," he said. And, at that moment, there came such a cawing and shrieking that the nightingales flew away and never returned to the spot for seven long years. "Ho, ho! Caw! caw! Ha! ha! Dead Sea apples -Dead Sea apples! and away flies love and light out of the window!" Here Madame Corva came flop upon the edge of the singing spring. "And a very pretty business you have made of it!" she said, her black feathers lying all manner of ways, and her beak chopping like the hopper of a mill. "So-ho! You were rude to a lady yesterday, were you, my fine peacock, with your brazen airs and your brassy graces? That was the beginning of it, and here is the end! Dead Sea fruit eaten, and the marketing has to be paid for!" "Madam," said Clochetto, "I trust that too much clapper yesterday on my part will not be the ruin of both of us to-day." "Hoot! Caw!" cried Madame Corva. "Lady," said Ivy, "I pray you be merciful. The Dead Sea apples looked as if they were good to eat " "You were most impolite, and I never forgive it. I have power over you, and I use it. See if you can find friends. You will return to your primitive styles, whatever they were-I know not, neither do I care. But 'tis certain you never will meet again." "I will creep over the whole world after Clochetto," murmured Ivy. "And I-I will call out her name so that she may come to me; and we will meet sooner or later." "Then you will be very clever, for Ivy must climb a hundred feet of high water mark before she touch you, and yet her feet never must quit the ground. Meanwhile, you shall never be nearer the level of the sea than that same one hundred feet." "Alas!" said Clochetto. But Ivy smiled quietly. "How, then, shall ye meet?" croaked Corva. "Can she grow hundred feet high? Can you, my saucy one, stoop adown the same distance? No, no, no; ye will never meet again!" "And if we do meet ?" asked Ivy. "Ho, ho!" cried Corva; "if you do meet, I decree that you shall become human again. I have said." "And I," cried Aquafresca, suddenly appearing above the spring, "I bring the message that when they meet again, they shall be more than mortal." "Let them strive," cawed the crow. When Corva, black queen of the situation, looked about her, after she had spruced her ruffled feathers, she was surprised to find the lovers had vanished. There was nothing near the fountain to be seen but a trailing piece of ivy, wet with dew-just where Ivy had stood. As for the mocking Clochetto, he was gone; and even Aquafresca had disappeared. "And a very good day's work done!" grumbled Corva. "These mortals are really becoming too presumptuous. Meet again, forsooth-when she cannot take her foot from the ground, and he must exist a hundred feet above the level of the sea! Meet again, forsooth! Caw! caw! caw!" That same evening the bell-ringer, the sexton, and the parish clerk of a certain village in Arcadia were going home from an ambrosial pipe and cup of nectar in the next township, when the bell-ringer, as they trampled through the forest, tripped over something. The bell-ringer used some Arcadian language, and then turned his lantern upon the object in question. Such strange gurglings were never heard before. "Amantis! Serabeus! Put your eyes this way. Here is our lost bell-the bell that was stolen eighteen years since, on the night when we found the strange babe in the belfry, and named him after the stolen tintinabulator, dubbing him Clochetto. Do ye recall-he who ran away from Arcadia a few weeks since, and turned his steps to Boeotia?" My faith! I recognize the very inscription." "So 'tis," said the third; and he spelt out: "Hang me high, and swing me well, You'll say there ne'er was better bell." "The gods are good!" cried the bell-ringer. "Here we have been silent near a score of years, and now we shall ring out over all Arcadia!" So, when the day of Rays came, the bell rang out, and who among them knew it was poor Clochetto, changed back to its original existence by the will of the Fairy Corva ? So it came to pass that, though Corva knew nothing of the pre-existence of the two humans who offended her, and whom she punished, she had her way; for Clochetto was a hundred feet above the she would die. earth, and Ivy must have her feet on the ground or Slowly, very slowly, little inch by little inch, the tender, clinging ivy crept over the ground towards the tower. Roads had to be avoided, rivers passed by way of bridges, towns to be skirted, and the foot of man to be borne with. But the ivy never halted, "They will meet again, my gossip," replied though to all human eyes it never seemed to move Aquafresca; "that I promise you!" forward. Sometimes it was nearly uprooted and R 4 Cow! how "" on, and at last climb slowly but oke off the highether which she maiden was marw was reached. long before the idow had joined e second window ildren were aged her gentle head, It must have been a very hard-hearted boy that could have withstood that second appeal; it was not Robbie, for suddenly he turned and dropped a generous quarter in the pleading hand. Such a look as those blue eyes gave, as like magic, the crisp morsel disappeared. Promptly Robbie adds another quarter, wondering at himself, yet continuing till not a crumb of the rosestamped marvel remained. The consumer blinked as though all the little caraways had somehow got up into his eyes. "I's so full!" he exclaimed. "Oh, it's so nice to rung, Clochetto hful Ivy. and a crash, elves standing s if scarcely a re before. ring. test voice. "I ou would meet ngratulations. a bride. Be evil fairy can this you are , and lived at R CAKE. ow; as pretty ed to make. d, that New ped marble, uy. cht. "I wonnd he glancbelow. But were settlers; ed from the but with the this was to ingering its 's that pop> snuffing it, raised it to this crisis d to find its ind a look "Oh, Nunkie," he cried, "the funniest thing has happened!" and hurriedly he told the story, concluding: "Now, what does it mean? I ain't had a crumb of cake, yet I'm so fat I can hardly breathe. I thought I'd give that boy one piece, and I gave him every bit; and the faster he eat the fatter I got. What does it mean, Nunkie?" Uncle Job chuckled approvingly. "Robbie," he said, "it isn't always what we get that fills us up. If that cake was in your stomach, now, you'd feel thin as a rail. Folks always do when they act meanly; so when they do generous things they grow sensibly fat. That's what it means, my boy. I tell you, that New Year cake wasn't baked in vain; it had a mission to fulfil, Robbie." And Robbie thought so, too. NEVER LOOK SAD. Never look sad-nothing's so bad And he'll seek other quarters to-morrow. When chilling your hopes with denial. Let the sad day carry away It's own little burthen of sorrow; That comes in the lap of to-morrow. When hope is wrecked, pause and reflect How to steer to the harbor of gladness. -By the sad sea waves: Bather (thrusting his head despairingly out of his box)-Hi, boy, bo-oy! Boy-Sir? Bather-Where are my pants? I left them here |