Foxholme Hall, and Other TalesKingston, William Henry Giles
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Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Adventure stories; Boys -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
"I want them to sing to you," said he in English; and after some
hesitation, one of them struck up a wild song, which, in spite of the
nasal sound he gave it, was full of beauty. So they glided over the
still waters of the loch, which was--
"All of the dazzling sheen,
Like magic mirror, where slumbering lay
The sun and the sky and the cloudlet grey;
Which heaved and trembled and gently swung;
On every shore they seemed to be hung;
For there they were seen on their downward plain
A thousand times and a thousand again;
In winding lake and placid firth,
Little peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth."
"Where did you learn that, Alice?" inquired Hardy gently, as his wife
concluded these lines, which she murmured rather than pronounced, as she
leaned back in the boat looking down into the water, and rippling it
with her delicate fingers.
"It is in Hogg's `Kilmeny,'" she answered. "You don't know the poem,
Arthur, but we will read it some day. Kilmeny was taken away to the
spirit-land, and allowed to revisit her native Scotland, to show what a
woman can be and what she can do."
"And did she take you with her, Alice?" said her husband.
Mrs Hardy's cheek glowed at the implied compliment.
Soon they entered the little stream which Mr Stewart had pointed out to
them, and truly it was a lovely scene. Although evidently deep, the
water was so transparently clear that each pebble and fibre of weed was
distinctly seen. Trees arched overhead, hanging at times so far across
the stream that it was difficult to manage the oars. Where it widened,
little islands, covered with trees, ferns, and wild-flowers, broke it
into still narrower channels, forming leafy vistas, occasionally
terminating in the blue hills.
"Oh, what is that?" exclaimed Helen, as a large bird rose with heavy
flight from a point of land which they were approaching.
"Hech! yon's ta bhird," commenced one of the rowers, with great
animation; then, checked by the consciousness that, however well he
might be supplied with information regarding the bird, he could not
communicate it in English, he continued in a more subdued tone, "Yon's
ta bhird ye may often see nigh ta wather."
The heron, for such it was, continued to precede them up the stream,
resting on a point of land till they came close to it, and then
majestically and gloomily rising, to alight again. In about an hour the
boat touched a sandy beach, surrounded with magnificent chestnut trees,
amongst which the stream still ran, but so shallow and rocky a's to be
unnavigable.
"And, now, are we in Glen Bogie?" asked Helen.
"Ay, ye may say that," said the man who had before spoken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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