Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

saint in heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy, though it had been defiled with corpses."

So saying, the dwarf stooped and plucked a lily that grew at his feet. On its white leaves hung three drops of clear dew, and the dwarf shook them into the flask which Gluck held in his hand. "Cast these into the river," he said, "and descend on the other side of the mountains into the Treasure Valley. And so good speed."

As he spoke, the figure of the dwarf became indistinct. The playing colors of his robe formed themselves into a prismatic mist of dewy light; he stood for an instant veiled with them as with the belt of a broad rainbow. The colors grew faint, the mist rose into the air; the monarch had evaporated.

And Gluck climbed to the brink of the Golden River, and its waves were as clear as crystal and as brilliant as the sun. And when he cast the three drops of dew into the stream, there opened where they fell a small circular whirlpool, into which the waters descended with a musical noise.

Gluck stood watching it for some time, very much disappointed, because not only the river was not turned into gold, but its waters seemed much diminished in quantity. Yet he obeyed his friend the dwarf, and descended the other side of the mountains, toward the Treasure Valley; and, as he went, he thought he heard the noise of water working its way under the ground. And when he came in sight of the Treasure Valley, behold, a river, like the Golden River, was springing from a new cleft of the rocks above it, and was flowing in innumerable streams among the dry heaps of red sand.

And as Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams, and creeping plants grew, and climbed among the moistening soil. Young flowers opened suddenly along the river sides, as stars leap out when twilight is deepening, and thickets of myrtle, and tendrils of vine, cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they grew. And thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance, which had been lost by cruelty, was regained by love.

And Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never driven from his door; so that his barns became full of corn, and his house of treasure. And, for him, the river had, according to the dwarf's promise, become a River of Gold.

And to this day the inhabitants of the valley point out the place where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream, and trace the course of the Golden River under the ground, until it emerges in the Treasure Valley. And at the top of the cataract of the Golden River are still to be seen two black stones, round which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset; and these stones are still called, by the people of the valley,

The Black Brothers.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY was born October 25, 1800. His father, Zachary Macaulay, was an earnest advocate in England of the emancipation of slaves in the English colonies in the West Indies, and ardently desired to see his son in public life. Macaulay had a brilliant career in the University of Cambridge, and after graduation he appeared first as a champion of the anti-slavery cause, but quickly turned to literature, and wrote an essay on Milton which brought him renown. He did not forsake the notion of public life, however, and was sent to Parlia ment when he was thirty-two years old. He continued to serve either in Parliament or in office under government from 1832 to 1856.

During that time he made many speeches, and was connected with many great movements, but he left his mark in English history, not as a statesman, but as a splendid writer of prose, and of some striking poems. His essays covered a large array of subjects in English literature, history, and biography, and were as popular as novels. He wrote a History of England, which will be read by many for its attractive style, and its rapid sketches of persons and scenes, even when the readers may think that Macaulay wrote with his mind full of partisan beliefs as to the people about whom he was writing.

He was a remarkable talker. His memory was very capacious, and when any topic was started he could pour

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »