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Everyone had been eager to see the May-Queen; but there was a general murmur of appreciation when, at the close, the curtain rose upon a beautiful tableau; a shrine glittering with many lights, in the midst of which was enthroned a lovely image of Our Lady, at whose feet the children laid their crowns of flowers a crown to honor each transcendent virtue, and paid their homage to their beautiful Queen of May.
How many a happy assemblage of children and young persons has been, during the past century, repeatedly gathered under its shade, in the sultry noons of summer! How many a young May-queen has been crowned under its roof, when the greensward was just daisied with the early flowers of spring!
And in the evening, when the party were seated in King Gunther's hall, Siegfried, at the command of the May-queen, who was none other than Kriemhild the peerless, amused them by telling the story of Idun and Her Apples. It is a story that Bragi told while at the feast in AEgir's hall. Idun is Bragi's wife.
On came the blushing May-Queen, and Maid Marian both armed with wands wreathed with cowslips followed by a jovial retinue of morrice dancers with drawn swords guisers in many-coloured ribbons and a full train of simple peasants, in white smock-frocks. The May Queen advanced to the carriage, followed by the peasant girls, and timidly dropped a choice wreath into the lap of the bride.
Lou, bound about with flowering vines, captive May-queen in purple chains, sat on the rear seat with Tom; and she was shy in this close touch with the mysterious world from afar off; and her timidity made him timid, this youth whose earliest recollection was the booming of cannon, as he played upon a cavalryman's blanket, waiting for his father to return from the charge.
"What is the trouble now, child?" she asked, gently, taking Abby's hand in hers. "Oh," sobbed Abby, "I feel so dreadfully to think that you and Marion don't speak to each other! And it's all my fault; because from something I said to Marion she thought that, instead of taking one among ourselves, it would be much nicer to choose the Blessed Virgin for our May-Queen."
On past the mossy stone, like an overgrown and illiterate milestone, which marks the boundary between Mershire and Salopshire; and then through a typical English village, noteworthy because the rites of Mayday, with May-queen and May-pole to boot, are still celebrated there exactly as they were celebrated some three hundred years ago.
"Most allegorical lady," I protested, "I take you very clearly when you explain your own fable." And I rubbed my hands, instantly pleased with myself and my nimbleness. But Messer Guido still looked thoughtful. "If the ladies of Florence," he said, slowly, "make Madonna Beatrice their May-queen, that dainty deed does not deliver her to Simone of the Bardi."
She seated herself on a rock, and remained there until Hollingsworth came up; and when he took her hand and led her back to us, she rather resembled my original image of the wan and spiritless Priscilla than the flowery May-queen of a few moments ago.
"O mother!" she exclaimed, tossing off her hat and throwing her books upon the table, "we are to have a lovely drama at our school, and I'm to be the May-Queen!" "Just think, Larry!" said Abby to her brother, when he came home after a game of ball, "I'm to be Queen of May!" "You!" he cried, in a disdainful tone. "Yes, indeed! And why not? I'm sure I don't see why you should look so surprised.
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