Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Busy with breaking the glebe, and mowing the grass in the

meadows,

5

Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the deer in the

forest.

All in the village was peace; but at times the rumor of warfare

Filled the air with alarm, and the apprehension of danger. Bravely the stalwart Standish was scouring the land with his

forces,

10

Waxing valiant in fight and defeating the alien armies,1
Till his name had become a sound of fear to the nations.
Anger was still in his heart, but at times the remorse and con-

trition

Which in all noble natures succeed the passionate outbreak, Came like a rising tide, that encounters the rush of a river, Staying its current a while, but making it bitter and brack

ish.

15

Meanwhile Alden at home had built him a new habitation, Solid, substantial, of timber rough-hewn from the firs of the

forest.

Wooden-barred was the door, and the roof was covered with rushes;

Latticed the windows were, and the window-panes were of paper,

20

Oiled to admit the light, while wind and rain were ex-
cluded.
There too he dug a well, and around it planted an orchard:
Still may be seen to this day some trace of the well and the

orchard.

Close to the house was the stall, where, safe and secure from annoyance,

1 Hebrews, xi. 34.

2 On the present site of Duxbury, situated on the coast about thirty miles southeast of Boston. The homestead is still owned by descendants of Alden.

Raghorn, the snow-white bull, that had fallen to Alden's allotment

In the division of cattle, might ruminate in the night-time 25 Over the pastures he cropped, made fragrant by sweet penny

royal.

Oft when his labor was finished, with eager feet would the dreamer

Follow the pathway that ran through the woods to the house of Priscilla,

Led by illusions romantic and subtle deceptions of fancy, Pleasure disguised as duty, and love in the semblance of

friendship.

30

Ever of her he thought, when he fashioned the walls of his dwelling;

Ever of her he thought, when he delved in the soil of his garden;

Ever of her he thought, when he read in his Bible on Sunday Praise of the virtuous woman, as she is described in the Prov

erbs,1

How the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her always, 35 How all the days of her life she will do him good, and not evil,

How she seeketh the wool and the flax and worketh with gladness,

How she layeth her hand to the spindle and holdeth the distaff, How she is not afraid of the snow for herself or her household, Knowing her household are clothed with the scarlet cloth of her weaving!

40

So as she sat at her wheel one afternoon in the Autumn, Alden, who opposite sat, and was watching her dexterous fingers,

1 Proverbs, xxxi. 10-31.

As if the thread she was spinning were that of his life and his

fortune,

After a pause in their talk, thus spake to the sound of the

45

spindle. "Truly, Priscilla," he said, "when I see you spinning and spinning, Never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others, Suddenly you are transformed, are visibly changed in a mo

ment;

You are no longer Priscilla, but Bertha the Beautiful Spinner."

Here the light foot on the treadle grew swifter and swifter; the spindle Uttered an angry snarl, and the thread snapped short in her fingers; 50

While the impetuous speaker, not heeding the mischief, continued:

"You are the beautiful Bertha, the spinner, the queen of Helvetia;*

She whose story I read at a stall in the streets of Southampton, Who, as she rode on her palfrey, o'er valley and meadow and

mountain, Ever was spinning her thread from a distaff fixed to her saddle. 55

She was so thrifty and good, that her name passed into a proverb.

So shall it be with your own, when the spinning-wheel shall no longer

Hum in the house of the farmer, and fill its chambers with music.

Then shall the mothers, reproving, relate how it was in their childhood,

1 Karl Joseph Simrock's monograph, Bertha die Spinnerin (Frankfort, 1853), contains the legend of Bertha.

2 The ancient name of Switzerland.

Praising the good old times, and the days of Priscilla the

spinner!"

60

Straight uprose from her wheel the beautiful Puritan maiden, Pleased with the praise of her thrift from him whose praise

was the sweetest,

Drew from the reel on the table a snowy skein of her spinning,

Thus making answer, meanwhile, to the flattering phrases of Alden:

65

"Come, you must not be idle; if I am a pattern for housewives, Show yourself equally worthy of being the model of husbands. Hold this skein on your hands, while I wind it, ready for

knitting;

Then who knows but hereafter, when fashions have changed and the manners,

Fathers may talk to their sons of the good old times of John Alden!"

Thus, with a jest and a laugh, the skein on his hands she adjusted,

70

He sitting awkwardly there, with his arms extended before him,

She standing graceful, erect, and winding the thread from his

fingers,

Sometimes chiding a little his clumsy manner of holding, Sometimes touching his hands, as she disentangled expertly Twist or knot in the yarn, unawares for how could she help

it?

Sending electrical thrills through every nerve in his body.

75

Lo! in the midst of this scene, a breathless messenger entered,

Bringing in hurry and heat the terrible news from the village. Yes; Miles Standish was dead!-an Indian had brought them the tidings,

Slain by a poisoned arrow, shot down in the front of the

battle, Into an ambush beguiled, cut off with the whole of his forces;

80

All the town would be burned, and all the people be murdered!

Such were the tidings of evil that burst on the hearts of the hearers.

Silent and statue-like stood Priscilla, her face looking backward

Still at the face of the speaker, her arms uplifted in hor85

ror;

But John Alden, upstarting, as if the barb of the arrow Piercing the heart of his friend had struck his own, and had

sundered

Once and forever the bonds that held him bound as a captive, Wild with excess of sensation, the awful delight of his freedom, Mingled with pain and regret, unconscious of what he was

doing,

90

Clasped, almost with a groan, the motionless form of Priscilla, Pressing her close to his heart, as forever his own, and ex

claiming:

"Those whom the Lord hath united, let no man put them asunder!"

Even as rivulets twain, from distant and separate sources, Seeing each other afar, as they leap from the rocks, and pur

suing

95

Each one its devious path, but drawing nearer and nearer,
Rush together at last, at their trysting-place in the forest;
So these lives that had run thus far in separate channels,
Coming in sight of each other, then swerving and flowing

asunder,

Parted by barriers strong, but drawing nearer and nearer, 100 Rushed together at last, and one was lost in the other.

« ПредишнаНапред »