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01 - The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus - L Frank Baum · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one, Bursy. Have you ever heard of the great
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  Speaker 1: forest of Burzy? Nurse used to sing of it when
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  Speaker 1: I was a child. She sang of the big tree
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  Speaker 1: trunks standing close together, with their roots intertwining below the earth,
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  Speaker 1: and their branches intertwining above it, of their rough coating
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  Speaker 1: of bark, and queer gnarled limbs, of the bushy foliage
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  Speaker 1: that roofed the entire forest, save where the sunbeams found
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  Speaker 1: a path through which to touch the ground in little spots,
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  Speaker 1: and to cast weird and curious shadows over the mosses,
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  Speaker 1: the lichens, and the drifts of dried leaves. The forest
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  Speaker 1: of Burzy is mighty and grand and awesome to those
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  Speaker 1: who steal beneath its shade. Coming from the sunlit meadows
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  Speaker 1: into its mazes, it seems at first gloomy, then pleasant,
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  Speaker 1: and afterwards filled with never ending delights. For hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: years it has flourished in all its magnificence, the silence
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  Speaker 1: of its enclosure unbroken save by the chirp of busy chipmunks,
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  Speaker 1: the growl of wild beasts, and the songs of birds.
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  Speaker 1: Yet Burzy has its inhabitants. For all this nature peopled
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  Speaker 1: it in the beginning with fairies, nooks, rills, and nymphs.
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  Speaker 1: As long as the forest stands, it will be a home,
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  Speaker 1: a refuge, and a playground to these sweet immortals who
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  Speaker 1: revel undisturbed in its depths. Civilization has never yet reached Burzy,
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  Speaker 1: will it ever? I wonder? End of chapter one, chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: the child of the forest. Once so long ago our
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  Speaker 1: great grandfathers could scarcely have heard it mentioned. There lived
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  Speaker 1: within the great forest of Birzy a wood nymph named Nasill.
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  Speaker 1: She was closely related to the mighty Queen Zerline, and
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  Speaker 1: her home was beneath the shade of a wide spreading oak.
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  Speaker 1: Once every year, on budding Day, when the trees put
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  Speaker 1: forth their new Budsncille held the golden chalice of Ac
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  Speaker 1: to the lips of the Queen, who drank therefrom to
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  Speaker 1: the prosperity of the forest. So you see, she was
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  Speaker 1: a nymph of some importance. And moreover, it is said
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  Speaker 1: she was highly regarded because of her beauty and grace
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  Speaker 1: when she was created. She could not have told Queen Zurline,
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  Speaker 1: could not have told. The Great Ac himself could not
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  Speaker 1: have told. It was long ago, when the world was
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  Speaker 1: new and nymphs were needed to guard the forests and
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  Speaker 1: to minister to the wants of the young trees. Then
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  Speaker 1: on some day not remembered, Nasille sprang into being radiant, lovely, straight,
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  Speaker 1: and slim as the sapling she was created to guard. Her.
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  Speaker 1: He was the color that lines a chestnut burr. Her
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  Speaker 1: eyes were blue in the sunlight and purple in the shade.
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  Speaker 1: Her cheeks bloomed with a faint pink that edges the
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  Speaker 1: clouds at sunset. Her lips were full, red, pouting, and sweet.
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  Speaker 1: For costumes, she adopted oak leaf green. All the wood
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  Speaker 1: nymphs dress in that color and know no other so desirable.
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  Speaker 1: Her dainty feet were sandal clad, while her head remained
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  Speaker 1: bare of covering other than her silken tresses. Nessil's duties
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  Speaker 1: were few and simple. She kept hurtful weeds from growing
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  Speaker 1: beneath her trees and sapping the earth food required by
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  Speaker 1: her charges. She frightened away the gadgeles, who took evil
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  Speaker 1: delight in flying against the tree trunks and wounding them
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  Speaker 1: so that they dropped and died from the poisonous contact.
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  Speaker 1: In dry season, she carried water from the brooks and pools,
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  Speaker 1: and moistened the roots of her thirsty dependants. That was
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  Speaker 1: in the beginning. The weeds had now learned to avoid
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  Speaker 1: the forests where the wood nymphs dwelt. The loathsome gagules
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  Speaker 1: no longer dared come nigh. The trees had become old
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  Speaker 1: and sturdy, and could bear the drought better than when
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  Speaker 1: fresh sprouted. So Nesile's duties were lessened and time grew laggered,
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  Speaker 1: while succeeding years became more tiresome and uneventful than the
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  Speaker 1: nymph's joyous spirit. Loved truly, the forest dwellers did not
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  Speaker 1: lack amusement. Each full moon they danced in the royal
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  Speaker 1: circle of the Queen. There were also the feast of nuts,
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  Speaker 1: the jubilee of autumn tintings, the solemn ceremony of leaf shedding,
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  Speaker 1: and the revelry of budding day. But these periods of
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  Speaker 1: enjoyment were far apart and left many weary hours between.
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  Speaker 1: That a wood nymph should grow discontented was not thought
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  Speaker 1: of by Nicille's sisters. It came upon her only after
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  Speaker 1: many years of brooding. But when once she had settled
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  Speaker 1: in her mind that life was irksome. She had no
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  Speaker 1: patience with her condition, and longed to do something of
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  Speaker 1: real interest, and to pass her days in ways hitherto
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  Speaker 1: undreamed of by forest nymphs. The law of the forest
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  Speaker 1: alone restrained her from going forth in search of adventure.
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  Speaker 1: While this mood lay heavy upon pretty Nasile, it chanced
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  Speaker 1: that the Great Ak visited the forest of Burzee and
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  Speaker 1: allowed the wood nymphs, as was their wont, to lie
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  Speaker 1: at his feet and listen to the words of wisdom
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  Speaker 1: that fell from his lips. Ak is the master woodsman
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  Speaker 1: of the world. He sees everything and knows more than
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  Speaker 1: the sons of men. That night he held the queen's hand,
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  Speaker 1: for he loved the nymphs as a father loves his children.
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  Speaker 1: And Nasile lay at his feet with many of her sisters,
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  Speaker 1: and earnestly hearkened as he spoke. We live so happily,
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  Speaker 1: my fair ones, in our forest glades, said Ax, stroking
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  Speaker 1: his grizzled beard, thoughtfully, that we know nothing of the
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and misery that fall to the lot of those
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  Speaker 1: poor mortals who inhabit the open spaces of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: They are not of our race. It is true, yet,
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  Speaker 1: compassion well befits being so fairly favored as ourselves. Often,
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  Speaker 1: as I pass by the dwelling of some suffering mortal,
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  Speaker 1: I am tempted to stop and banish the poor thing's misery.
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  Speaker 1: Yet suffering in moderation is the natural lot of mortals,
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  Speaker 1: and it is not our place to interfere with the
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  Speaker 1: laws of nature. Nevertheless, said the fair Queen, nodding her
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  Speaker 1: golden head at the master woodsman. It would not be
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  Speaker 1: a vain guess that AK has often assisted these hapless mortals.
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  Speaker 1: Ac smiled. Sometimes, he replied, when they are very young children,
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  Speaker 1: the mortals call them. I have stopped to rescue them
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  Speaker 1: from misery. The men and women I dare not interfere
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  Speaker 1: with they must bear the burdens nature has imposed upon them.
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  Speaker 1: But the helpless infants, the innocent children of men, have
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  Speaker 1: a right to be happy until they become full grown
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  Speaker 1: and able to bear the trials of humanity. So I
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  Speaker 1: feel I am justified in assisting them. Not long ago,
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  Speaker 1: a year maybe, I found four poor children huddled in
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  Speaker 1: a wooden hut, slowly freezing to death. Their parents had
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  Speaker 1: gone to a neighboring village for food and had left
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  Speaker 1: a fire to warm their little ones while they were absent.
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  Speaker 1: But a storm arose and drifted the snow in their path,
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  Speaker 1: so they were long on the road. Meantime, the fire
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  Speaker 1: went out, and the frost crept into the bones of
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  Speaker 1: the waiting children. Poor things, murmured the queen softly. What
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  Speaker 1: did you do? I called Nelko, bidding him fetch wood
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  Speaker 1: from my forests, and breathe upon it until the fire
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  Speaker 1: blazed again and warmed the little room where the children lay.
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  Speaker 1: Then they ceased shivering and fell asleep until their parents came.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad you did, thus said the good Queen,
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  Speaker 1: beaming upon the master, and the Zil, who had eagerly
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  Speaker 1: listened to every word, echoed in a whisper. I too,
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  Speaker 1: am glad. And this very night continued ac as I
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  Speaker 1: came to the edge of Berzi, I heard a feeble cry,
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  Speaker 1: which I judged came from a human infant. I looked
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  Speaker 1: about me and found close to the forest a helpless babe,
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  Speaker 1: lying quite naked upon the grasses and wailing piteously. Not
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  Speaker 1: far away, screened by the forest, crouched Chiagra, the lioness,
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  Speaker 1: intent upon devouring the infant for her evening meal. And
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  Speaker 1: what did you do, act, asked the queen, breathlessly, not
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  Speaker 1: much being in a hurry to greet my nymphs. But
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  Speaker 1: I commanded Chiagra to lie close to the babe and
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  Speaker 1: to give it her milk, and to quiet its hunger.
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  Speaker 1: And I told her to send word throughout the forest
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  Speaker 1: to all beasts and reptiles that the child should not
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  Speaker 1: be harmed. I am glad you did, thus, said the
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  Speaker 1: good Queen again, in a tone of relief. But this
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  Speaker 1: time Nasile did not echo her words, for the nymph,
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  Speaker 1: filled with a strained resolve, had suddenly stolen away from
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  Speaker 1: the group. Swiftly, her lithe form darted through the forest
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  Speaker 1: paths until she reached the edge of mighty Burzee, when
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  Speaker 1: she paused to gaze curiously about her. Never until now
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  Speaker 1: had she ventured so far, for the law of the
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  Speaker 1: forest had placed the nymphs in its inmost depths. Nasil
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  Speaker 1: knew she was breaking the law, but the thought did
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  Speaker 1: not give pause to her dainty feet. She had decided
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  Speaker 1: to see with her own eyes this infant act had
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  Speaker 1: told of, for she had never yet beheld a child
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  Speaker 1: of man. All the immortals are full grown. There are
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  Speaker 1: no children among them. Peering through the trees, and a
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  Speaker 1: seal saw the child lying on the grass. But now
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  Speaker 1: it was sweetly sleeping, having been comforted by the milk
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  Speaker 1: drawn from chiagra. It was not old enough to know
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  Speaker 1: what peril means. If it did not feel hunger, it
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  Speaker 1: was content softly. The nymph stole to the side of
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  Speaker 1: the babe and knelt upon the sward, her long robe
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  Speaker 1: of rose leaf color spreading about her like a gossamer cloud.
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  Speaker 1: Her lovely countenance expressed curiosity and surprise, but most of
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  Speaker 1: all a tender, womanly pity. The babe was newborn, chubby
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  Speaker 1: and pink. It was entirely helpless. While the nymph gazed,
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  Speaker 1: the infant opened its eyes, smiled upon her, and stretched
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  Speaker 1: out two dimpled arms. In another instant, nesile had caught
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  Speaker 1: it to her breast and was hurrying with it through
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  Speaker 1: the forest paths. End of Chapter two.