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10 - A Party of Pleasure · Queen Hildegarde

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of Gwen Hildegard by Laura Elizabeth Harvey Richards.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter ten
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  Speaker 1: A party of pleasure. On a certain lovely afternoon, the
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  Speaker 1: three happiest people in the world, so they style themselves,
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  Speaker 1: and they ought to know, were gathered together in a
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  Speaker 1: certain spot which was next to the prettiest spot in
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  Speaker 1: the world. You shall have the prettiest, Pink, said Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: But could not get your chair down into the glen.
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  Speaker 1: You know, my poor dear Pink, you have never seen
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  Speaker 1: the glen, have you, no, answered Pink, chucked cheerily. But
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  Speaker 1: I have heard so much about it. I really feel
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  Speaker 1: as if I had seen it almost And indeed I
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  Speaker 1: don't think it can be much lovelier than this place,
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  Speaker 1: however that might be. The place they had chosen was
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  Speaker 1: certainly pretty enough to satisfy anyone. Not far from missus
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  Speaker 1: Chuck's cottage was a little pine grove, easy of access
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  Speaker 1: and with trees far enough apart to allow the wheelchair
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  Speaker 1: to pass between them. And in the grove, just in
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  Speaker 1: a little open space where two or three trees had
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  Speaker 1: been cut away, was a great black rock with ferns
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  Speaker 1: growing in all its cracks and crannies, and a tiny
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  Speaker 1: bark tree waving like a green and white plume on
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  Speaker 1: its top. And at the foot of the rock, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: what a wonderful thing, a slender thread of crystal water
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  Speaker 1: came trickling out, as cold as eyes and as clear
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  Speaker 1: as as itself, for nothing else could be so clear.
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  Speaker 1: Bubble made a little wooden trough to hold this fairy stream,
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  Speaker 1: and it gurgled along the trough and tumbled over the
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  Speaker 1: end of it with as much agitation and consequence as
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  Speaker 1: if it were the Niagara River in person. And under
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  Speaker 1: the rock, and beside the stream was a bank of
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  Speaker 1: moss and fans, most lovely to behold, most luxurious to
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  Speaker 1: sit upon. On this bank sat Queen Hildegard, with babble
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  Speaker 1: at her feet as usual, and beside her in her
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  Speaker 1: chair sat sweet Pink, looking more like a white rose
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  Speaker 1: than ever, with her fresh white dimity gown on her
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  Speaker 1: pretty hat. Hilda was very busy over her mysterious looking basket,
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  Speaker 1: from whose depths she now drew a large knapkin, which
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  Speaker 1: she spread on the smooth green moss. A plate of
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  Speaker 1: sandwiches came next, and some cold chicken, and six of
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  Speaker 1: them at least wonderful apple turnovers. Now, Babo said Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: where are those back back caps that you made for us?
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  Speaker 1: I have brought nothing to drink out of. I'll fetch
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  Speaker 1: your mister, Hilda, cried Babo, springing up with alacrity. I
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  Speaker 1: thing forgotten, said Pink, shall I would you? And he
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  Speaker 1: made sundry enigmatical signs to his sister. Yes, certainly, said Pink.
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  Speaker 1: Of course. The boy ran off, and Hilda fell to
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  Speaker 1: twisting pine tassels together into a kind of fantastic garland,
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  Speaker 1: while Pink looked on with beaming eyes. Pink said, Hilda, presently,
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  Speaker 1: how is it that you speak so differently from Babo
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  Speaker 1: and your mother so much better English? I mean, have
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  Speaker 1: you but know told me you never went to school.
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  Speaker 1: It was Faith, said Pink, with a look of tender sadness.
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  Speaker 1: Faith Hatily, she wanted to be a teacher, and we
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  Speaker 1: studied together always. Dear Faith, I wish you had known her,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Graham. You promise not to call me miss Graham again, Pink,
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  Speaker 1: said hildeg reproachfully, it is absurd and I won't have it. Well. Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: then said Pink, shyly. I wish you had known faith, Hilda.
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  Speaker 1: You'd have loved her very much. I know, I am
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  Speaker 1: sure I should, said Hilda warmly. Tell me more about her.
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  Speaker 1: Why did she want to teach when she was so
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  Speaker 1: happy at home? She loved children very much, said Pink,
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  Speaker 1: and liked to be with them. She thought that if
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  Speaker 1: she studied hard, she could teach them more than the
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  Speaker 1: district school teachers about here generally do, and in a
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  Speaker 1: better way. I think she'll have done a great deal
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  Speaker 1: of good, she added softly. Why did she die, cried Hilda.
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  Speaker 1: She was so much needed. It broke her father's heart
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  Speaker 1: and her mother's, and almost to yours, my Pink, Why
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  Speaker 1: was it right for her to die? It was right, dear,
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  Speaker 1: said Pink gently. That is all we can know. Why
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  Speaker 1: isn't answered in this world? My Grannie used to say,
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  Speaker 1: never lie, never pry, never ask the reason. Lie. Hilda
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  Speaker 1: shook her head and was about to reply earnestly, But
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  Speaker 1: at this moment Babo came bounding back with something in
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  Speaker 1: his arms, something covered with an old shawl, something alive,
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  Speaker 1: which did not like the shawl, and which struggled and
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  Speaker 1: made plaintive little noises. Which the boy tried vainly to replace.
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  Speaker 1: Say miss Hildy, he cried, eagerly, do you like bee? Still,
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  Speaker 1: ye creator, hush utterly? Do you like pups? Pups? Babo,
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  Speaker 1: repeated Hilda, wonderingly. What are they? And what have you there?
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  Speaker 1: You poor old cart? Let her go for shape. You're
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  Speaker 1: not a boy. Puppies, he means, whispered pink, cause if
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  Speaker 1: he do, cry the bathless Bubble, still struggling with his
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  Speaker 1: shuddered captive. I've got one here as a while, the
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  Speaker 1: go long, ye pesky crator, if he will, for the
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  Speaker 1: poor puppy, had made one frantic effort and leaped from
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  Speaker 1: his arms to the ground were a roll over and
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  Speaker 1: over a red and green plaid mass, well a white
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  Speaker 1: tail sticking out of one end. On being unrolled, it
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  Speaker 1: proved to be a little snow white, caly creature with
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  Speaker 1: long ears and large liquid eyes, whose pathetic glance went
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  Speaker 1: straight to Hilda's heart. Oh, the little darling, she cried,
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  Speaker 1: taking up in her arms. The pretty pretty creature is
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  Speaker 1: the really for me, Bubble, Thank you very much, I
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  Speaker 1: shall have him dearly. I know I'm glad you like him,
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  Speaker 1: said Buble, looking highly gratified OSSI grobbed give him and
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  Speaker 1: another one to me. Yesterday over the village. He was
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  Speaker 1: going to drown them and I wouldn't let him, and
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  Speaker 1: he said I might have em if I wanted him.
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  Speaker 1: I knew Pink would like to have one, and I thought,
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  Speaker 1: maybe you'll liked creatures. And so good, Bubble, said Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: stroking the little dog's cly head. And what shall I
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  Speaker 1: call him? Pink? Let us each think of her name
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  Speaker 1: and then choose the best. There was a pose, and
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  Speaker 1: then Babble said, call him Scott after the ball buccaloo
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  Speaker 1: oh will for the willy belted Will, said Pink, who
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  Speaker 1: was an inveterate a ballad lover as her brother. I
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  Speaker 1: think Jock is a good name, said Hildegard jock O Halseldin.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think I'll call him Jock. The others assented,
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  Speaker 1: and the puppy were solemnly informed of the fact, and
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  Speaker 1: received a chicken bone in honor of the occasion. Then
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  Speaker 1: the three friends ate their dinner, and very merry they
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  Speaker 1: were over it. Hildergard crowned Pink with a pine tassel
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  Speaker 1: wreath and declared that she looked like a priestess of Diana.
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  Speaker 1: No she don't, said Babo, looking up from his cold chicken.
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  Speaker 1: She looks like glass Porsenna of classroom short in his
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  Speaker 1: ivor's chair. Only she ain't fierce enough. Hold up her head, Pinky,
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  Speaker 1: and look real savage, and I'll do gracious. At the bridge,
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  Speaker 1: Pink did her best look savage, and the ruber bell
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  Speaker 1: stood up and delivered horatious with much energy and appropriate action,
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  Speaker 1: to the great amusement of his audience. A stout stick
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  Speaker 1: cut from a neighboring thicket saw for the good Roman still,
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  Speaker 1: and with this he cut and slashed and stubbed with
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  Speaker 1: furious energy, reciting the line's Meanwhile, with breath less ferocity,
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  Speaker 1: he slew the great Lord of Lunar, and on the
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  Speaker 1: imaginary body he right firmly pressed his heel and thriced,
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  Speaker 1: and four times sturred amain. Here he wrenched out the still.
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  Speaker 1: But when he cried, what noble lucomo come next to
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  Speaker 1: taste our Roman cheer, the puppy, who had been watching
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  Speaker 1: the scene with kindling eyes and ears and tale of
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  Speaker 1: eager inquiry, quld beere it no longer, but flung himself
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  Speaker 1: valiantly into the breach and barked defiance, dancing about in
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  Speaker 1: front of a ration and snapping furiously at his legs.
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  Speaker 1: Alas poor puppy. He was hailed as sextress and bade
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  Speaker 1: welcome by the bull Drooman, who forthwith charged upon him
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  Speaker 1: and drove him round and round the grove till he
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  Speaker 1: sought safety and protection. In the lapse of Last Persenna herself,
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  Speaker 1: the bridge came down, and horatious, climbing nimbly to the
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  Speaker 1: top of the rock, apostrophised his father Tibar, sheathed his
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  Speaker 1: good sword by his side, I rammed his stick into
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  Speaker 1: and threw his breech his pocket, and with his jacket
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  Speaker 1: on his back, plunged headlong in the tide and swung
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  Speaker 1: valiantly across the pine strewn surface of the little glade.
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  Speaker 1: Babo's performance was much applauded by the two girls, who,
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  Speaker 1: in the characters of Last Personna and Mamilius, Prince of
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  Speaker 1: the Latian name, had surveyed the hole with dignified amazement,
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  Speaker 1: and when the boy, exhausted with his zeroic excussions, threw
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  Speaker 1: himself down on the pine needles and bed Miss Sildy
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  Speaker 1: to sing them. She readily consented, and sang jack oh
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  Speaker 1: hazzled him, and come o'er the stream, Charlie so sweetly
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  Speaker 1: that the little fat bird sat still on the branches
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  Speaker 1: to listen. A faint glows stalled into Pink's one chip,
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  Speaker 1: and her blue eyes sparkled with pleasure. Oil Babble bobbed
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  Speaker 1: his head and testified his delight by drumming with his
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  Speaker 1: heels on the ground and begging for more. A ballad, now,
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  Speaker 1: miss Sildy, please, he cried, Well, said Hildegard, nothing loth.
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  Speaker 1: What shall it be? One with some fighting in it,
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  Speaker 1: replied Babo promptly. So Hildegard began down. Dessert came in
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  Speaker 1: very whistling and playing is lighted at Brucktly Gates at
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  Speaker 1: the day's dawn, and went on to tell of the
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  Speaker 1: murder of Bonnie Brackly and of the treachery of his
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  Speaker 1: young wife. There's grief in the kitchen and marth in
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  Speaker 1: the hall, but the Baron of Bruptly is dead under war.
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  Speaker 1: So the ballad ended, leaving bable full of sanguinary desires,
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  Speaker 1: and end the descendants of the false invary. I I'd
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  Speaker 1: like just to get hold or some of them fellers,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, they wouldn't go flattering round no great amount.
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  Speaker 1: When I had finished with them, I tell you. And
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  Speaker 1: he flourished his stick and looked so fierce that the
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  Speaker 1: puppy helped, piteously, expecting another onslaught. And now Pink said, Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: we have just time for a story before we go home.
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  Speaker 1: Babo has told me about his stories, and I want
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  Speaker 1: very much to hear one. Oh Hilda, they're not worth telling, twice,
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  Speaker 1: protested Pink. I just make them for Bubble when he
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  Speaker 1: takes me out on Sunday. It's all I can do
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  Speaker 1: for the dear lad. Don't you mind her, missie, They
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  Speaker 1: said Babo, they're frustrate stories, and she tells them just
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  Speaker 1: like a rithmetic Go ahead, Pink, tell the one about
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  Speaker 1: the princess What looked in the glass all the time.
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  Speaker 1: So Pink, in a low, sweet voice, told the story
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  Speaker 1: of the vain Princess. Once upon a time there lived
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  Speaker 1: a princess who was so beautiful that it was a
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  Speaker 1: wonder to look at her. But she was also very vain,
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  Speaker 1: and her beauty was of no use or pleasure to anybody,
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  Speaker 1: for she sat and looked in her mirror all day long,
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  Speaker 1: and never thought of doing anything else. The mirror was
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  Speaker 1: framed in bitn gold, but the gold was not so
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  Speaker 1: bright as her shining locks, and all about its rim
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  Speaker 1: great sapphires were set, but they were dim and gray
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  Speaker 1: compared with the blue of her lovely eyes. So there
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  Speaker 1: she sat all day in a velvet chair, clad in
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  Speaker 1: a satin gown with fringes of silver and pearl, and
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  Speaker 1: nobody in the world was one bait the better for
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  Speaker 1: her or her beauty. Now, one day the princess looked
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  Speaker 1: at herself so long and so earnestly, that she fell
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  Speaker 1: fast asleep in her velvet chair, with a golden mirror
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  Speaker 1: in her lap. While she slept, a gust of wind
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  Speaker 1: blew the casement window open, and a rose that was
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  Speaker 1: growing on the wall outside peeped in. It was a poor, little, feeble,
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  Speaker 1: white rose, which had climbed up the wall in a
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  Speaker 1: struggling fashion, and had no particular strength of beauty or sweetness.
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  Speaker 1: Every One who saw it from out from the outside said,
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  Speaker 1: what a wretched little plant? Why is it not cut down?
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  Speaker 1: And the rose trembled when it had this, for it
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  Speaker 1: was as fond of life as if it were beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: and it still looked for better days inside. No one
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  Speaker 1: thought about it at all, for the beautiful princess never
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  Speaker 1: left her chair to open the window. Now, when the
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  Speaker 1: rod saw the princess, it was greatly delighted, for it
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  Speaker 1: had often heard of her maveless beauty. It crept nearer
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  Speaker 1: and nearer, and gazed at the golden wind of her hair,
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  Speaker 1: her ivory skin, under which the blushes came and went
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  Speaker 1: as she slept, and her smiling lips. Ah sighed the rose.
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  Speaker 1: If I had only a chinge of that lovely red,
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  Speaker 1: I should be finer than all the other roses. And
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  Speaker 1: as it gazed, the thought came into its mind, why
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  Speaker 1: should I not steal a little of this wondrous beauty here?
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  Speaker 1: It is of no use to anybody. If I heard it,
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  Speaker 1: I will delight every one who passed by with my
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  Speaker 1: freshness and sweetness. And people would be the better for
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  Speaker 1: seeing a thing so lovely. So the rose crept up
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  Speaker 1: to the princess's feet, and climbed up over her satin gowl,
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  Speaker 1: and twined about her neck and arms, and about her
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  Speaker 1: lovely golden head, And it stole the blush from her cheek,
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  Speaker 1: and the crimson from her lips and the gold from
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  Speaker 1: her hair, and the princess grew pale and paler. But
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  Speaker 1: the rose blushed red and redder, and its golden hat
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  Speaker 1: made the room bright, and its sweetness filled the air.
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  Speaker 1: It grew and grew, and now new birds and leaves
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  Speaker 1: and blossoms appeared. And when at last it left the
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  Speaker 1: velvet chair and climbed out of the casement again, it
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  Speaker 1: was a glorious plant, such as had never before been seen.
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  Speaker 1: All the passers by stopped to look at it, and
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  Speaker 1: admired little children reached up to pluck the glowing blossoms,
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  Speaker 1: and sick and weary people gain strength or courage from
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  Speaker 1: breathing their delicious perfume. The world was better, unhappier for
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  Speaker 1: the rose, and the rose knew it and was glad.
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  Speaker 1: But when the princess awoke, she took up her golden
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  Speaker 1: mirror again, and looking in it so a pale and
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  Speaker 1: wrinkled and gray haired woman looking at her. Then she
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  Speaker 1: shrieked and flung the mirror on the ground, and rushed
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  Speaker 1: out of her palace into the wide world. And wherever
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  Speaker 1: she went she cried, I am the beautiful Princess. Look
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  Speaker 1: at me and see my beauty, for I will show
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  Speaker 1: it to you now. But nobody looked at her, for
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  Speaker 1: she was withered and ugly, and nobody cared for her
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  Speaker 1: because she was selfish and vain. So she made no
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  Speaker 1: more difference in the world than she had made before.
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  Speaker 1: But the rose is blossoming still and fills the air
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  Speaker 1: with its sweetness. My Pink, said Hildergard tenderly, as she
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  Speaker 1: walked beside her friend's chair on their homeward way. You
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  Speaker 1: are shut up like the princess, but instead of the
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  Speaker 1: rose stealing the sweetness, you have stolen the sweetness of
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  Speaker 1: all the roses and taken it into your prison with you. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: shut up, Hilda cried Pink, opening wide eyes of wonderant reproach.
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  Speaker 1: Do you call this being shut up? See what I
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  Speaker 1: have had to day, enough pleasure to think about for
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  Speaker 1: a year, and even without it, even before you came, Hilda, Why,
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  Speaker 1: I am the happiest girl in the world, and I
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  Speaker 1: ought to be. Hilderggard stook and kassed the pale forehead. Yes, dear,
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  Speaker 1: I think you are, she said, But I should like
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  Speaker 1: you to have all the pleasant and bright and lovely
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  Speaker 1: things in the world, my Pink, Well, well I have
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  Speaker 1: the best of them, said Pink Chunk, smiling brightly. Home
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  Speaker 1: and love and friends and flowers. And as for the rest, why,
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  Speaker 1: dear Hilda, what is the use in thinking about things
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  Speaker 1: one has not? After this, which was part of Pink's
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  Speaker 1: little code of philosophy, she felt amusing happy, while Hilda
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  Speaker 1: walked beside her in a kind of silent rage, almost
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  Speaker 1: dating herself for the fullness of vigor, the superabundant health
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  Speaker 1: and buoyancy which she felt in every limb. She looked
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  Speaker 1: sidelong at the transparent cheek, the wasted frame, then earthly
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  Speaker 1: radiance of the blue eyes. This girl was just her
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  Speaker 1: own age and had never walked. It could not, it
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  Speaker 1: must not be so. Always thoughts thronged into her mind
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  Speaker 1: of the great New York physicians and the wonders they
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  Speaker 1: had drought. Might it not be possible? Could not something
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  Speaker 1: be done? The blood cursed more quickly through her veins,
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  Speaker 1: and she laid her hand on that of the peopled
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  Speaker 1: girl with a sudden impulse of protection and tenderness. Pink
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  Speaker 1: Chak looked up with a wondering smile. Why Hildergard she said,
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  Speaker 1: you look like the British warrior queen you told me
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  Speaker 1: about yesterday. I was just thinking what a comfort it
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  Speaker 1: is to live now, instead of in those dreadful, murdering
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  Speaker 1: times the Ballard's tale off I'd rather live than, cried
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  Speaker 1: Babo from behind the chair, if I had had her
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  Speaker 1: got hold of the invery fellow end of chapter ten,