United States or Palestine ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then Thomas was sad, and tears streamed from his grey eyes, and he cried, 'Tell me, lady fair, shall I never meet thee more? 'Yea, said the Elf Queen, 'we shall meet again, Thomas. When thou art in thy castle of Ercildoune and hearest of a hart and hind that come out of the forest and pace unafraid through the village, then come thou down to seek for me here, under the Eildon tree.
In a little space came answer from Mrs. Russell, enclosing the letter he had sent: a kindly epistle it was. He was a sort of idol with this same aunt, so she had put many things on paper that were steeped in gentleness and affection ere she said at the end, "I re-enclose your letter. I have seen Miss Ercildoune. She restores it to you; she implores you never to write her again, to forget her.
Sallie was nonplussed by the tone and look, but she comprehended the closing words fully and with delight. "You will take me with you," she cried. "O, how good, how kind you are! how shall I ever be able to thank you?" "Don't thank me at all," said Miss Ercildoune, "at least not now. Wait till I have done something to deserve your gratitude."
"Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with his friends in the tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village.
Being such, we don't intend to disgrace the service by accepting the pay of servants." "That's the kind of talk," bawled Jim from a fence-rail upon which he was balancing. "I'd like to have a shake of that fellow's paw. What's his name, d'ye know?" "Ercildoune." "Hey?" "Ercildoune." "Jemime! Ercildoune, from Philadelphia, you say?" "Yes, do you know him?"
As the men were clambering up the parapet their color-sergeant was shot dead, the colors trailing stained and wet in the dust beside him. Ercildoune, who was just behind, sprang forward, seized the staff from his dying hand, and mounted with it upward. A ball struck his right arm, yet ere it could fall shattered by his side, his left hand caught the flag and carried it onward.
That it is an archaic story of the kind in the Thomas of Ercildoune and so many more fairy-tales, e.g., Kate Crack-a-Nuts, is certain. The "River of Blades" and "The Fighting Warriors" are known from the Eddic Poems. The angelica is like the green birk of that superb fragment, the ballad of the Wife of Usher's Well a little more frankly heathen, of course
He couldn't eat, and he didn't sleep, and I was at my wits' ends to know what to do for him. One day Mrs. Lee, that Mr. Ercildoune's housekeeper, an old English lady she is, and she's lived with him ever since he was married, and before he came here, a real lady, too, came in with some sewing, some fine shirts for Mr. Robert Ercildoune.
Ercildoune," said he, aloud, "you know something of me? of my position and prospects?" "A great deal." "I trust, nothing disparaging or ignoble." "I know nothing for which any one could desire oblivion." "Thanks. Let me speak to you, then, of a matter which should have been long since proposed to you had I been permitted the opportunity. I love your daughter.
So do I; and you say the negro blood is mighty poor stuff, and the race a long way behind ours." "Of course, again." "Now, Captain, just take a sober squint at your own logic. You back Anglo-Saxon against the field; very well! here's Miss Ercildoune, we'll say, one eighth negro, seven eighths Anglo-Saxon.
Word Of The Day