text stringlengths 3 516 |
|---|
mister morton replied that far from making any claim upon his good opinion his only wish and the sole purpose of his visit was to find out the means of deserving it |
evil to him that thinks otherwise said mister morton or who holds church government and ceremonies as the exclusive gage of christian faith or moral virtue |
mister morton seemed particularly struck with the account of waverley's visit to donald bean lean |
when i was a young man like you mister waverley any such hair brained expedition i beg your pardon for the expression would have had inexpressible charms for me |
he certainly possesses talents beyond the rude sphere in which he moves and being neither destitute of ambition nor encumbered with scruples he will probably attempt by every means to distinguish himself during the period of these unhappy commotions |
mister morton then made a careful memorandum of the various particulars of waverley's interview with donald bean lean and the other circumstances which he had communicated |
he had neither sympathy with my innocence nor with my wretchedness and the petrifying accuracy with which he attended to every form of civility while he tortured me by his questions his suspicions and his inferences was as tormenting as the racks of the inquisition |
they held conventicles in the open fields and being treated with great violence and cruelty by the scottish government more than once took arms during those reigns |
since that time their numbers have gradually diminished but a good many are still to be found in the western counties and several with a better temper than in seventeen o seven have now taken arms for government |
in those very early times there was a man named deucalion and he was the son of prometheus |
after jupiter had bound prometheus on mount caucasus and had sent diseases and cares into the world men became very very wicked |
these men he said to his mighty company are nothing but a source of trouble |
but men kept on fighting and robbing even while the rain was pouring down and the sea was coming up over the land |
no one but deucalion the son of prometheus was ready for such a storm |
the day is coming said prometheus when jupiter will send a flood to destroy mankind from the earth |
but deucalion and pyrrha were very sad for they knew that they were the only persons who were left alive in all the land |
is there anything that you wish he asked |
we should like above all things said deucalion to see this land full of people once more for without neighbors and friends the world is a very lonely place indeed |
go on down the mountain said mercury and as you go cast the bones of your mother over your shoulders behind you and with these words he leaped into the air and was seen no more |
what did he mean asked pyrrha |
surely i do not know said deucalion |
when at last they reached the plain they found themselves at the head of a noble company of human beings all eager to serve them |
when at last the queen gave birth to a daughter the king was so overjoyed that he gave a great christening feast the like of which had never before been known |
one of the young fairies overhearing her and fancying she might work some mischief to the little baby went and hid herself behind the hangings in the hall so as to be able to have the last word and undo any harm the old fairy might wish to work |
the turn of the old fairy had now come and she declared while her head shook with malice that the princess should pierce her hand with a spindle and die of the wound |
it is true i cannot entirely undo what my elder has done |
now fifteen years after the princess was born she was with the king and queen at one of their castles and as she was running about by herself she came to a little chamber at the top of a tower and there sat an honest old woman spinning for she had never heard of the king's edict |
she had no sooner taken up the spindle than being hasty and careless she pierced her hand with the point of it and fainted away |
he knew that she would not awake for a hundred years |
one said it was an enchanted castle another that witches lived there but most believed that it was occupied by a great ogre which carried thither all the children he could catch and ate them up one at a time for nobody could get at him through the wood |
the young prince at these words felt himself on fire |
scarcely had he come to the wood when all the trees and thorns which had made such an impenetrable thicket opened on one side and the other to offer him a path |
he entered a large forecourt and stood still with amazement and awe |
but the faces of the men were rosy and the goblets by them had a few drops of wine left |
he entered the guard room there the guards stood drawn up in line with carbines at their shoulders but they were sound asleep |
he passed through one apartment after another where were ladies and gentlemen asleep in their chairs or standing |
i have waited long for you |
they talked for four hours and had not then said half that was in their heads to say |
meanwhile all the rest of the people in the castle had been wakened at the same moment as the princess and they were now extremely hungry |
the lady in waiting became very impatient and at length announced to the princess that they all waited for her |
then the prince took the princess by the hand she was dressed in great splendour but he did not hint that she looked as he had seen pictures of his great grandmother look he thought her all the more charming for that |
the violins and haut boys played old but excellent pieces of music and after supper to lose no time the grand almoner married the royal lovers in the chapel of the castle |
he turned to show them the castle but behold |
what a fuss is made about you my dear little friends |
you surely cannot suppose that in a natural state you would be forced to climb regularly up one tall bare stick such as i see you upon now |
your cousin the wild convolvulus whom i left in the fields this morning does no such thing i assure you |
my young plants require heat or they would not live and the pots we are kept in protect us from those cruel wire worms who delight to destroy our roots |
why not allow your silver tufts to luxuriate in a natural manner |
still the rose tree stood out that there must be some great advantages in a gardener's care for she could not pretend to be ignorant of her own superiority to all her wild relations in the woods |
then the wind took another frolic round the garden and made up to the large white lily into whose refined ear he whispered a doubt as to the necessity or advantage of her thick powerful stem being propped up against a stupid ugly stick |
he really grieved to see it |
did that lovely creature suppose that nature who had done so much for her that the fame of her beauty extended throughout the world had yet left her so weak and feeble that she could not support herself in the position most calculated to give her ease and pleasure |
indeed not a flower escaped his mischievous suggestions |
echoed the flowers tremulously as with a sort of fearful pleasure they awaited his approach |
making a sort of eddying circuit round the garden he knocked over the convolvulus pole tore the strips from the stick that held up the white lily loosed all the carnation flowers from their fastenings broke the rose tree down and levelled the sweet peas to the ground |
meanwhile how fared it with the flowers |
oh that she were once more climbing up the friendly fir pole |
the honeysuckle escaped no better and the carnation was ready to die of vexation at finding that her coveted freedom had levelled her to the dirt |
before the day closed the gardener came whistling from his farm work to look over his pretty charges |
but for the sight that awaited him he was not prepared at all |
weeds meanwhile sprang up and a dreary confusion reigned in the once orderly and brilliant little garden |
the mistress had returned and the young lady was with her and hurried at once to her favourite garden |
in this position she remained until a gentle hand was laid upon her shoulder |
i am not thinking about the garden mamma replied the young girl without lifting up her face we can plant new flowers and tie up even some of these afresh |
grandfather came down wearing a white shirt and his sunday coat |
morning prayers were longer than usual |
he gave thanks for our food and comfort and prayed for the poor and destitute in great cities where the struggle for life was harder than it was here with us |
because he talked so little his words had a peculiar force they were not worn dull from constant use |
all afternoon he sat in the dining room |
at about four o'clock a visitor appeared mister shimerda wearing his rabbit skin cap and collar and new mittens his wife had knitted |
he sat still and passive his head resting against the back of the wooden rocking chair his hands relaxed upon the arms |
his face had a look of weariness and pleasure like that of sick people when they feel relief from pain |
he made the sign of the cross over me put on his cap and went off in the dark |
they sat about the house most of the day as if it were sunday greasing their boots mending their suspenders plaiting whiplashes |
anyway he would never allow one of his horses to be put to such a strain |
i had wanted to get some picture books for yulka and antonia even yulka was able to read a little now |
she cut squares of cotton cloth and we sewed them together into a book |
on the white pages i grouped sunday school cards and advertising cards which i had brought from my old country |
when he mounted his horse at the door i saw that he had a hatchet slung to his belt and he gave grandmother a meaning look which told me he was planning a surprise for me |
i put on my cap and ran out to meet jake |
he used to help my father cut christmas trees for me in virginia and he had not forgotten how much i liked them |
by the time we had placed the cold fresh smelling little tree in a corner of the sitting room it was already christmas eve |
from under the lining he now produced a collection of brilliantly colored paper figures several inches high and stiff enough to stand alone |
i can see them now exactly as they looked working about the table in the lamplight jake with his heavy features so rudely moulded that his face seemed somehow unfinished otto with his half ear and the savage scar that made his upper lip curl so ferociously under his twisted mustache |
how infinite the wealth of love and hope garnered in these same tiny treasure houses and oh |
what bankrupts in the world we feel when death like some remorseless creditor seizes on all we fondly thought our own the twins |
the ghoul like fever was not to be braved with impunity and baulked of its prey |
the board not so formidable as she had imagined had inquired into her case and instead of sending her to stoke claypole her husband's buckinghamshire parish as she had dreaded had agreed to pay her rent |
margaret met jem wilson several days after his brothers were seriously ill and heard from him the state of things at his home |
she stopped with her hand on the latch of the wilsons door to still her beating heart and listened to the hushed quiet within |
she opened the door softly there sat missus wilson in the old rocking chair with one sick death like boy lying on her knee crying without let or pause but softly gently as fearing to disturb the troubled gasping child while behind her old alice let her fast dropping tears fall down on the dead body of the other twin wh... |
over the child which yet breathed the father bent watching anxiously for some ground of hope where hope there was none |
is there any chance for the other one think you |
but earnest as the father was in watching the yet living he had eyes and ears for all that concerned the dead and sprang gently up and took his dead son on his hard couch in his arms with tender strength and carried him upstairs as if afraid of wakening him |
wishing him said mary in a tone of inquiry |
then the mother lifted up her voice and wept |
her cries brought her husband down to try with his aching heart to comfort hers |
mary and alice drew near the fire and stood in quiet sorrow for some time |
then alice broke the silence by saying |
afore christmas time i was as full as full could be of going home for good and all yo han heard how i've wished it this terrible long time |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.