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06 - Hartley's Glen · Queen Hildegarde

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six of Queen Hildegard. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information not to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Queen
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  Speaker 1: Hildegard by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards, Chapter six, Hartley's Glen.
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  Speaker 1: How many girls, among all the girls who read this
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  Speaker 1: little book have seen with their own eyes Hartley's Glen,
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  Speaker 1: Not one, perhaps, save Brinehild and the Rosi Crucian, for
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  Speaker 1: whom the book is written. But the others must try
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  Speaker 1: to see it with my eyes. For it is a
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  Speaker 1: fair place, and as sweet as any on earth. Behind
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  Speaker 1: the house, and just under the brow of the little
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  Speaker 1: hill that shelters it, a narrow path dips down to
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  Speaker 1: the right and goes along for a bit, with a
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  Speaker 1: dimple clover meadow on the one hand, and a stone
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  Speaker 1: wall all warm with golden and red brown lichens on
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  Speaker 1: the other. Follow this, and you come to a little
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  Speaker 1: gateway beyond which is a thick plantation of latches, which
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  Speaker 1: one grim old red cedar keeping watch over them. If
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  Speaker 1: he regards you favorably, you may pass on down the
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  Speaker 1: narrow path that winds among the latches, whose feathery finger
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  Speaker 1: tips brush your cheek and try to hold you back,
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  Speaker 1: as if they willed, not that you should go farther
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  Speaker 1: to see the wonders which they can never behold. But
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  Speaker 1: you leave them behind and come out into the sunshine
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  Speaker 1: in a little green glade which might be the ballroom
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  Speaker 1: of the fairy queen. On your right, gleaming through clumps
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  Speaker 1: of alder and black bart is a pond, the home
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  Speaker 1: of cardinal flowers and gleaming jewel wheat. A little farther
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  Speaker 1: on a thicket of back and maple, from which comes
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  Speaker 1: a musical sound of falling water. Follow this sound, keeping
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  Speaker 1: to the path which winds away to the left. Stop
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  Speaker 1: now you may step aside for a moment and pat
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  Speaker 1: the heavy hanging branches, and look where the water falls
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  Speaker 1: over a high black wall into a somber pool, shut
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  Speaker 1: in by fantastic rocks and shaded from all sunshine by
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  Speaker 1: a dense fringe of trees. This is the mill dam,
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  Speaker 1: and the pond above is no natural one, but the
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  Speaker 1: enforced repose and outspreading of a merry brown brook, which
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  Speaker 1: now shows its true nature, and escaping from the gloomy pool,
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  Speaker 1: runs scolding and forming down through a wilderness of rocks
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  Speaker 1: and trees. You cannot follow it there, though I have
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  Speaker 1: often done so in my bare foot days. So come
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  Speaker 1: back to the path again. There are pines overhead now,
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  Speaker 1: and the ground is slippery with the fallen needles, and
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  Speaker 1: the air is sweet, ah, how sweet with their warm fragrance.
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  Speaker 1: See here is the old mill itself, now disused and
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  Speaker 1: falling to decay. Here the path becomes a little precipice,
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  Speaker 1: and you must scramble as best you can down two
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  Speaker 1: or three rough steps and round the corner of the
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  Speaker 1: ruined mill. This is a millstone, this great round thing
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  Speaker 1: like a granite cheese, half buried in the ground. And
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  Speaker 1: here is another which makes a comfortable seat. Fere tired,
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  Speaker 1: but there's a fair resting place beyond. Round this one
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  Speaker 1: more corner now, and down, carefully, carefully, down this long
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  Speaker 1: stairway formed of rough slabs of stone laid one below
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  Speaker 1: the other. Shut your eyes now for a moment, and
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  Speaker 1: let me lead you forward by the hand. Now, now
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  Speaker 1: open the eyes wide wide, and look about you. In
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  Speaker 1: front and under the windows of the old mill. The
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  Speaker 1: water comes foraming and rushing down over a rocky fall.
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  Speaker 1: Some sixty feet high, and leaps merrily into a second pool.
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  Speaker 1: No somber black gulf is like the above one, but
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  Speaker 1: a lovely open circle, half in broad sunshine, half dupled
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  Speaker 1: with the faery shadows of their boughs and fans that
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  Speaker 1: bend lovingly over it. So the little brook is no
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  Speaker 1: longer angry, but mingles lovingly with the deep water of
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  Speaker 1: the pool, and then runs laughing and singing along the
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  Speaker 1: glen on its way down to the sea. On one
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  Speaker 1: side of this glen, the bank rises abruptly some eighty
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  Speaker 1: feet its eyes clothed with sturdy birches, which clings as
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  Speaker 1: best they may to the rocky step. On the other
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  Speaker 1: stretches the little valley, a narrow strip of land, but
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  Speaker 1: with tough as fine as the Queen's lawn, and trees
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  Speaker 1: that would proudly grace Her Majesty's park. Tall Norway firs,
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  Speaker 1: raising their stately forms and pointing their long, dark fingers
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  Speaker 1: sternly the intruders on their solitude graceful batches, and here
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  Speaker 1: and there a whispering latch or a nodding pine. The
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  Speaker 1: other wall of the valley of glen is less precipitous,
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  Speaker 1: and its sides are densely wooded and fringed with barberry
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  Speaker 1: bushes and climbing egglantine. And between these two banks, and
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  Speaker 1: over this great velvet carpet, and among these dark far
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  Speaker 1: trees are how the sun shines. Nowhere else in the
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  Speaker 1: whole land does he shine so sweetly, For he knows
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  Speaker 1: that his time here is shot, and that the high
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  Speaker 1: banks will shut him out from that green, pleasant place
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  Speaker 1: long before he must say good night to the more
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  Speaker 1: commonplace fields and hillsides. So here his beams rest right lovingly,
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  Speaker 1: making royal show of gold on the smooth grass, and
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  Speaker 1: of diamonds on the running water, and of opals and
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  Speaker 1: topasses in beryls, where the wave comes curling over the
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  Speaker 1: little fall. And now amid all this pomp and play
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  Speaker 1: of sun and of summer, what is this dash of
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  Speaker 1: blue that makes strange, though not a discordant, not in
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  Speaker 1: a harmony of golden green. And what is that round
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  Speaker 1: whitish object which is bobbing up and down with such
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  Speaker 1: singular energy. Why the blue is Hildegard's dress, if you
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  Speaker 1: must know. And the whitish object is the head of
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  Speaker 1: Zeruba bell chalk scholar and devotee and the energy with
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  Speaker 1: which sade head is bobbing at the energy of determination
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  Speaker 1: and of sturdy. Hilda and Bubble have made themselves extremely
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  Speaker 1: comfortable under the great ash tree which stands in the
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  Speaker 1: center of the glen. The teacher has curled herself up
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  Speaker 1: against the roots of the tree and has a piece
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  Speaker 1: of work in her hands, but her eyes are wandering
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  Speaker 1: dreamily over the lovely scene before her, and she looks
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  Speaker 1: as if she were really too comfortable to move even
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  Speaker 1: a finger. The scholar lies at her feet, faced downwards,
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  Speaker 1: his chin propped on his hands, his head bobbing up
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  Speaker 1: and down. The silence is only broken by the noise
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  Speaker 1: of the waterfall and the persistent chapping of some very
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  Speaker 1: cheerful little bird. Presently, the boy raised his head and
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  Speaker 1: cried joyfully, I fetched him, Miss Hildy, I know it now,
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  Speaker 1: just like pie. Whereupon he stood up, and, assuming a
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  Speaker 1: military attitude, submitted to a severe geographical catechising, and came
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  Speaker 1: off with flying colors. That was a very good recitation,
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  Speaker 1: said Hilda approvingly, as she laid the book down. We
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  Speaker 1: shall have another ballad to day as a reward. But bable,
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  Speaker 1: she added, rather seriously, I do wish you would not
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  Speaker 1: use so much slang. It is so senseless. Now what
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  Speaker 1: did you mean by saying just like pie in speaking
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  Speaker 1: of your lesson? Just now, Oh, come now, miss Hildy,
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  Speaker 1: said Babo bashfully. There ain't no use in your telling
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  Speaker 1: me you don't know what pie is. Of course I
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  Speaker 1: know what pie is, you silly boy, said Hilda, laughing.
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  Speaker 1: But what has pie to do with the geography lesson?
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  Speaker 1: That's so, murmured the boy apologetically. That's a fact, ain't it.
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  Speaker 1: I won't say like pie no more. I'll say like
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  Speaker 1: blazes instead. You needn't say like anything, cried Hilda, laughing again.
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  Speaker 1: Just say I know my lesson well thoroughly. There are
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  Speaker 1: plenty of real words, Babo, that have as much meaning
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  Speaker 1: as the slang one's, and often a great deal more.
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  Speaker 1: That's so, said Babo, with an air of deep conviction.
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  Speaker 1: I'll try not to talk no more slang, Miss Hildy.
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  Speaker 1: I will I swan, but bable you must not say
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  Speaker 1: I swan either. That is abominable slang. Babo looked very blank.
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  Speaker 1: Why what shall I say? He asked, simply, pink won't
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  Speaker 1: let me say I swove because it's vulgar and if
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  Speaker 1: I say by anything, mersays it's wearing and I can't
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  Speaker 1: swear nohow, of course not, said Hilda. But I must
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  Speaker 1: to say anything babble, anything of that sort. I mean, oh,
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  Speaker 1: said the boy. I'd no sih king say exactly why,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Silde. But but well, I swar na mean I
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  Speaker 1: I don't mean I swan But there now you see
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  Speaker 1: how tis Miss Sildy. Things don't seem to have noticed
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  Speaker 1: to him without you say something. Let me think, said Hilda.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps I can think of something that will sound better.
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  Speaker 1: I might say Gee Whitakers, suggested Babo, brightening up a little.
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  Speaker 1: I know some fellows I say that. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: that will do, replied Hilda decidedly. What does it mean?
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  Speaker 1: Don't mean nothing as I know's known, said the boy.
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  Speaker 1: But it sounds kind of handsome, don't it. Hilda shook
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  Speaker 1: her head with a smile. She did not think g
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  Speaker 1: Whittaker's a handsome expression. Bubble, she said, after a few
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  Speaker 1: moments reflection, during which her scholar watched her anxiously, I
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  Speaker 1: have an idea. If you must say something beside what
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  Speaker 1: you actually have to say, let it be something that
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  Speaker 1: will remind you of your lessons, then it may help
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  Speaker 1: you to remember them. Instead of G what is it
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  Speaker 1: g Whittakers say geography or spelling or arithmetic, and instead
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  Speaker 1: of icewan say I study. What do you think of
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  Speaker 1: this plan? Fast rate? Exclaimed Bubble, nodding his head enthusiastically.
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  Speaker 1: I like fast rate geography. Why that's sounds just like
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  Speaker 1: pie ay. I don't mean that, miss yeldy. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: mean to say it. Nohow, it kind of slipped out,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Bubble paused and hung his head in much confusion.
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  Speaker 1: Never mind, said Hilda kindly. Of course you cannot make
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  Speaker 1: the change all at once, Bubble, but little by little,
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  Speaker 1: if you really think about it, we will bring it
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  Speaker 1: about next week. She added, I think we must begin
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  Speaker 1: pop upon grammar. You are doing very well, indeed in
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  Speaker 1: spelling and geography, and pretty well in arithmetic. But your grammar,
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  Speaker 1: Bubble is simply frightful, be it? Said Babo resignedly. I
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  Speaker 1: want to know and now, said the young instructress, rising
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  Speaker 1: and shaking out her crumpled frock. That is enough for
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  Speaker 1: to day, Babble. We must be going home soon, but
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  Speaker 1: first I want to take a pip at the lower
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  Speaker 1: part of the old mill that you told me about yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: You have been in there, you say, and how did
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  Speaker 1: you get in? I'll show ye, cried Babo, springing up
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  Speaker 1: with alacrity and leading the way towards the mill. I'll
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  Speaker 1: show ye the very place, Miss Silde twenty easy to
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  Speaker 1: get in and tainting, no place for a lady, no how,
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  Speaker 1: but I can get in. Jislike like rithmetic. Bravo, Babo,
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  Speaker 1: said Hilda, laughing merrily. That is very well for a beginning.
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  Speaker 1: How long is it since the mill was used, she asked,
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  Speaker 1: looking up at the frowning walls of rough dark stone
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  Speaker 1: covered with moss and lichens. From a heartless grandfather was
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  Speaker 1: the last meal, replied bubble Chuck. My father used to say,
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  Speaker 1: could just remember him standing at the mill door, all
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  Speaker 1: white with flour and rubbing his hands and laughing just
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  Speaker 1: the way far madas he was a good miller, father said,
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  Speaker 1: and made the mill pay well. But his elder son
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  Speaker 1: that came after him warrn't no great shakes, and he
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  Speaker 1: let the mill go to rock and Rin and just
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  Speaker 1: stayed on the farm. And then he died, and Captain
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  Speaker 1: Hartley came as the farmer's father. You know, and he
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  Speaker 1: was kind of crazy and didn't care about the meal either,
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  Speaker 1: And so there it stayed this way, Miss Hildey added,
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  Speaker 1: the boy breaking off suddenly and plunging into the tangled
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  Speaker 1: thicket of shrubs and brambles that hit the base of
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  Speaker 1: the meal. Ah Ye, see that hole. That's why I
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  Speaker 1: get in way till I clear away the briers a bit.
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  Speaker 1: Now he can look in. The hole was a square opening,
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  Speaker 1: a couple of feet from the ground and large enough
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  Speaker 1: for a person of moderate size to creep through. Hildegrad
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  Speaker 1: stooped down and looked in. At first she saw nothing
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  Speaker 1: but at her blackness. But presently her eyes became accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to the place, and the feeble light which struggled in
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  Speaker 1: passed her through the opening, revealed to range objects which
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  Speaker 1: rose here and there from the vast bit of darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Fragments of rusty iron, bent and twisted into unearthy shapes,
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  Speaker 1: broken beams, their jagged ends sticking out like stiffly pointing fingers,
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  Speaker 1: cranks and bits of hanging chain. And on the side
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  Speaker 1: next the water, a huge will rising apparently out of
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  Speaker 1: the bowels of the earth, since the lower part of
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  Speaker 1: it was invisible. A cold, damp air seemed to rise
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  Speaker 1: from the earth. Elder shivered and drew back, looking rather pale.
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  Speaker 1: What a dreadful place, she cried. It looks like a
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  Speaker 1: dungeon of the inquisition. I think you are very brave
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  Speaker 1: to go in there, Bubble. I am sure I should
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  Speaker 1: not dare to go. It looks so spectral and frightful.
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  Speaker 1: Hi Peter stumped me to go, said Bubble, simply so
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  Speaker 1: coarse I went. Most of the boys doesn't and retained
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  Speaker 1: bad after the first time. They do say it's haunted,
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  Speaker 1: but I ain't never seen nothing haunted, cried Hilda, drawing
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  Speaker 1: back still further from the black opening. By by what, Buble?
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  Speaker 1: Captain Ghost replied the boy you used to go rockling
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  Speaker 1: grounding there when he was alive, Fox say, and some
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  Speaker 1: things his spirit haunts there? Now? Oh nonsense, said Hildegard,
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  Speaker 1: with a laugh which did not sound quite natural. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: you don't believe any such foolishness as that, Bubble. But
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  Speaker 1: what did the old old gentleman wance there when he
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  Speaker 1: was alive. I can't imagine any one going in there
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  Speaker 1: for pleasure. Darno, I'm sure, replied Babo. Father. He came
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  Speaker 1: down here one day after blackberries, when he was a boy,
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  Speaker 1: he heard a noise in there, went and picked in,
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  Speaker 1: and there was all cap and poking about with his
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  Speaker 1: big stick in the dart. He looked upon so father
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  Speaker 1: and came at him with his stick up, roaring like
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  Speaker 1: a mad bull. Father said, and he cut and ran.
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  Speaker 1: Father did, and he hung the old cap, and laughing
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  Speaker 1: after him as if he'd have a fit. Crazy as alone,
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  Speaker 1: I reckon the cap'n was, though none of his folks
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  Speaker 1: thought so. Mercies. He let the wild prayers fly back
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  Speaker 1: about the gloomy opening, and they stepped back on the
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  Speaker 1: smooth greensward again. Ah, how bright and rome the sunshine
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  Speaker 1: was after that horrible black pit. Hilda shivered again at
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  Speaker 1: the thought of it, and then laughed at her own cowardice.
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  Speaker 1: She turned and gazed at the waterfall, creaming and curling
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  Speaker 1: over the rocks and making such a merry, musical jest
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  Speaker 1: of its tumbled into the pool. Oh lovely, lovely, she cried,
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  Speaker 1: kissing her hand into it. Bubble, do know that Hartly
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  Speaker 1: Glen is, without exception the most beautiful place in the world? No,
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  Speaker 1: miss be it, really, asked the ruber bell seriously, I
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  Speaker 1: always thought twas kind of a sightly gourgerly, and I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know was all that. Well it is, said Hilda.
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  Speaker 1: It is all that and more and I love it.
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  Speaker 1: But now, bable, she added, we must make haste, for
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  Speaker 1: the farmer will be wanting you, and I have a
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  Speaker 1: dozen things to do before tea. Yes, miss, said Babo,
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  Speaker 1: but without his usual alacrity. Hilda saw a look of
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  Speaker 1: disappointment in his honest blue eyes and asked, what was
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  Speaker 1: the matter. I ain't had my ballad, said the ruber
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  Speaker 1: bell sadly, Why you poor lad? So you haven't, said Hildegard.
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  Speaker 1: But you shall have it. I will tell it to
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  Speaker 1: you as we walk back to the farm. Which one
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  Speaker 1: will you have? Or shall I tell you a new one?
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  Speaker 1: The blue eyes sparkled with the delight of anticipation. Oh please,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, the one about the bold Buckolo, Hilda laughed merrily.
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  Speaker 1: The bold Backley, she repeated, Oh you mean kin Mount Willie. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: indeed you shall have that. It is one of my
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  Speaker 1: favorite ballads, and I am glad you like it. Oh
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  Speaker 1: I tell yer, cried Babo. When he hangs the table
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  Speaker 1: and says, do they think his helmet's an old woman's
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  Speaker 1: burnt and all the rest of it. I tell ye
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  Speaker 1: that's some Miss Hildy. You have the spirit of the
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  Speaker 1: vast bubble, said Hilda, laughing softly. But the words are
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  Speaker 1: not quite right, and she repeated the splendid ringing words
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  Speaker 1: of Buckley, indignant outcry, Oh is my basnet a widow's cratch,
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  Speaker 1: or my lance a wand o the willow tree, or
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  Speaker 1: my arm a lady's lily hand that an English lord
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  Speaker 1: shall likely me? And have they tying him kinmunt Willie
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  Speaker 1: against the truce of Boderchide and forgotten the ball? Berckley
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  Speaker 1: is warden here o'er the Scottish side, And have they
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  Speaker 1: er tack and him kin mount Willie without an either
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  Speaker 1: dread or fear and forgotten of the ball? Berkeley came back,
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  Speaker 1: as did or Shaker's peer, the ruberbil Chuck fairly danced
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  Speaker 1: up and down in his excitement. Oh but begin again
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning, please, miss Shilde, he cried, So Hilda,
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  Speaker 1: nothing lost began at the beginning, And as they walked
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  Speaker 1: homeward recited the whole of the noble old ballad, which
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  Speaker 1: if any girl reader does not know, she may find
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  Speaker 1: it in any collection of Scottish ballads, and the best
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  Speaker 1: of it is babble, said Hilda. That it is all true,
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  Speaker 1: every word of it, or nearly every word, Albert, it
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  Speaker 1: is cried bable, still much excited. They couldn't make lies
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  Speaker 1: sound like that. You know, you kind know it's true,
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  Speaker 1: and it goes right through here somehow. When did it happen,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Hildy, Oh, A long time ago, said Hildegard, near
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  Speaker 1: the end of the sixteenth century. I forget just the
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  Speaker 1: very year. But it was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
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  Speaker 1: She was very angry at Berkeley's breaking into Carlyle Castle,
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  Speaker 1: which was an English castle, you see, and carrying off
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  Speaker 1: Lord Scrook's prisoner, and she sent word to King James
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  Speaker 1: of Scotland that he must give at Berkeley to her
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  Speaker 1: to punish as she saw fit. King James refused at first,
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  Speaker 1: for he say that Lord Scroop had been the first
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  Speaker 1: to break the truce by carrying off kinmunt Willie in
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  Speaker 1: time of peace. But at length he was obliged to yield,
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  Speaker 1: for Queen Elizabeth was very powerful and always would have
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  Speaker 1: her own way. So the bold Bercklew was sent to
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  Speaker 1: London and brought before the great haughty English Queen. But
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: he was just as haughty as she, and was not
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a bit afraid of her. She looked down on him
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: from her throne. She was very stately, you know, and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: she wore a crown and a great stiff ruff, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: her dress was all covered with gold and precious stones.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And asked him how he dared to undertake such a
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: desperate and presumptuous enterprise. And Berkeley, oh bable, I always
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: liked this so much. Berkeley just looked her full in
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the face and said, what is it a man dare
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: not do? Now? Queen Elizabeth liked nothing so much as
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: a brave man, and this bold answer pleased her. She
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: turned to one of the ministers and said, with ten
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: thousand such men, our brother in Scotland might shake the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: famier's throne in Europe. And so she let him go,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: just because he was so brave and so handsome. Babochak
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: drew a long breath, and his eyes flashed. I wished
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I'd been alive. Then he said why Babo asked Tilda
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: much amused, what would you have done? I'd her till
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Lord's croup. He cried him and the hull kit of em. Besides,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: he added, I'd like to lived then, just to see him,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: just to see the bold buccolo. That's what I call
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: a man, and Queen hildegardis fully agreed with him. They
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: had nearly reached the house when the boy asked, if
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: that king was her brother, why did she teach him
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: so kind or ugly? My sister don't act that way.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: What oh you mean, Queen Elizabeth, said Hilda, laughing. King
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: James was not her brother, Babo. They were cousins, but
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: nothing more, you said, she said, brother, persisted the boy,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So I did, replied. You see, it was the fashion
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and still for kings and queens to call each other
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: brother and sister, whether they were really related to each
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: other or not. But I thought they were always fighting,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: objected Babo. I've got a history book to whom, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: in that it says they fit like time when never
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: they got a chance. So they did, said Hilda. But
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: they called each other our royal brother and our beloved sister,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and they were always paying each other fine compliments and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: saying how much they loved each other, even in the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: middle of our war, when they were fighting as hard
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: as they could, Hamps said, Babo. Nice kind of oaks,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: they must have been. Well, I must go, Miss Hilda,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: he added reluctantly. I've had a splendid time, and I'm
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: real obliged to ye. I shall try to learn that
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: story by heart. But the bull Backloo. I want to
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: tell it to Pink. She'd like it. Oh my, wouldn't
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: she like it? Just like I mean, just like spelling.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Good Bye, Miss Hilde, and Babo ran off to bring
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: home the cows, his little heart swelling high the scorn
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of kings and queen's and with the father of devotion
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: to Walter Scott, First Lord of Barclow. End of chapter
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: six