Part 10 (2/2)
Two hors.e.m.e.n, with their swords in hand, came storming up the stairway, And with one swoop of their good swords they cut off Blue-beard's head!
Down fell his cruel arm, the heavy cutla.s.s falling with it, And, instead of its old, ugly blue, his beard was b.l.o.o.d.y red!
Of course, the tyrant dead, his wife had all his vast possessions; She gave her sister Anne a dower to marry where she would; The brothers were rewarded with commissions in the army; And as for Blue-beard's wife, she did exactly as she should,-- She wore no weeds, she shed no tears; but very shortly after Married a man as fair to look at as his heart was good.
[Color Plate:]
The little brown owl sits up in the Tree, And if you look well His big eyes you may see.
He says Whit a whoo, when the night grows dark, And he hears the dogs and the little foxes bark.
THE SLEEPING PRINCESS
Versified by Clara Doty Bates
The ringing bells and the booming cannon Proclaimed on a summer morn That in the good king's royal palace A Princess had been born.
The towers flung out their brightest banners, The s.h.i.+ps their streamers gay, And every one, from lord to peasant, Made joyful holiday.
Great plans for feasting and merry-making Were made by the happy king; And, to bring good fortune, seven fairies Were bid to the christening.
And for them the king had seven dishes Made out of the best red gold, Set thickly round on the sides and covers With jewels of price untold.
When the day of the christening came, the bugles Blew forth their shrillest notes; Drums throbbed, and endless lines of soldiers Filed past in scarlet coats.
And the fairies were there the king had bidden, Bearing their gifts of good-- But right in the midst a strange old woman Surly and scowling stood.
They knew her to be the old, old fairy, All nose and eyes and ears, Who had not peeped, till now, from her dungeon For more than fifty years.
Angry she was to have been forgotten Where others were guests, and to find That neither a seat nor a dish at the banquet To her had been a.s.signed.
Now came the hour for the gift-bestowing; And the fairy first in place Touched with her wand the child and gave her ”Beauty of form and face!”
Fairy the second bade, ”Be witty!”
The third said, ”Never fail!”
The fourth, ”Dance well!” and the fifth, ”O Princess, Sing like the nightingale!”
The sixth gave, ”Joy in the heart forever!”
But before the seventh could speak, The crooked, black old Dame came forward, And, tapping the baby's cheek,
”You shall p.r.i.c.k your finger upon a spindle, And die of it!” she cried.
All trembling were the lords and ladies, And the king and queen beside.
But the seventh fairy interrupted, ”Do not tremble nor weep!
That cruel curse I can change and soften, And instead of death give sleep!
”But the sleep, though I do my best and kindest, Must last for an hundred years!”
On the king's stern face was a dreadful pallor, In the eyes of the queen were tears.
”Yet after the hundred years are vanished,”-- The fairy added beside,-- ”A Prince of a n.o.ble line shall find her, And take her for his bride.”
But the king, with a hope to change the future, Proclaimed this law to be: That, if in all the land there was kept one spindle, Sure death was the penalty.
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