Martin Pippin in the Apple OrchardFarjeon, Eleanor
General
Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard
Farjeon, Eleanor
Fairy tales; Minstrels -- Fiction
"It is called Open Winkins," said she, and at the name he started to
his feet, remembering much that he had forgotten. She looked at him
anxiously and cajolingly and said, "You are not going away?" But he
hardly heard her question. "Margaret," he said, "I have come from a
place that may be far or near, for I do not know how I came; but I
think it must be far, since I never saw this forest, or even heard of
it, till a moment before my coming. But I am seeking a clue to a
trouble that has come upon me this year, and I think the clue may be
here. And now tell me, have you in these last four months seen in these
woods anything of your people that are my brothers?--a child that once
was merry, and a boy that once was brave, and a youth that once was
beautiful, and a young man that once was wise? Have these ever been to
Open Winkins?"
Margaret looked at him thoughtfully and said, "If they have, I have not
seen them here. And I think they could not have been here without my
knowledge. For no one lives here but I, and I live nowhere else."
Hobb sighed and said, "I had hoped otherwise. For, dear, I cannot rest
until I have helped them." Then he told her as much as he knew of his
four brothers; and her face clouded as he spoke, and her eyes looked
hurt and angry by turns, and her beautiful mouth turned sulky. So then
Hobb put his arm round her and said, "Do not be too troubled, for I
know I shall presently find the cause and cure of these boys' ills."
But Margaret pushed his arm away and rose restlessly to her feet, and
paced up and down, muttering, "What do I care for these boys? It is not
for them I am troubled, but for myself and you."
"For us?" said Hobb. "How can trouble touch us who love each other?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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