Stories and ballads for young folksAlden, Ellen Tracy
General
Stories and ballads for young folks
Alden, Ellen Tracy
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature; Children's poetry; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature
Not far off a band of red men, their faces bedaubed with paint, and their
hair decked out with plumes, were gliding noiselessly through the dense
woods, thinking to steal upon the cabin unawares and destroy it and its
inmates. But as soon as they saw the silver lamp upon the window-sill,
they turned away, saying: “Moonshine is there! She would give warning of
our approach.”
Moonshine, seeing that the dreaded enemy had turned aside, passed on
and left the mother and her child sleeping peacefully. As swift she
glided through valley and over hill, and across river and lake and
village-dotted plain, the rays of her glittering lamp reached far and
wide through the darkness, making the trees and gardens and rippling
corn-fields glad, pointing the shortest route to a weary boatman,
revealing to a belated traveler the robbers who stealthily pursued,
looking in upon three rosy children who slumbered cosily in one couch
together—stooping to kiss their shining curls and happy faces, and to
whisper something pleasant in their ears. Nor did she pause when she came
to the great sea, but glided on over the foaming billows. A white-sailed
ship the winds were driving towards an unknown reef. Quickly she set her
silver lamp upon the perilous rock. Far over the angry waters shone the
beacon light, and the mariners, seeing danger ahead, shifted their sails
and changed the vessel’s course.
The wanderer reached, at length, a distant coast, and, holding her
lamp aloft, passed on from town to town. A student sat at midnight,
wakeful among his books. Moonshine glanced over his shoulder at the
closely-printed page, and the light of her silver lamp so put to shame
his miserable taper that he extinguished it, and began to write some
verses in her praise.
At last, Moonshine peered down into a deep, dark dungeon, and saw a
hapless human creature bound with chains. Pale and wan he was, from long
years of imprisonment. For hours she remained to speak to him comforting
words.
In the morning the pioneer came to his home on the mountain side, and
told how he had been rescued by Moonshine from highwaymen who pursued him
as he journeyed. “Ah, bless her,” said the wife; “for she also watched
over us, and guarded us while we slept.” The three rosy children awakened
smiling, and told one another their dreams; they had all dreamed of
fairy-land. The storm-tossed ship sailed into port, and the grateful
mariners declared that, but for Moonshine, they would have gone to the
bottom of the sea. The student went about with such a beaming countenance
that people questioned, Was he moonstruck? A jailer, descending into a
deep, dark dungeon, found the fettered captive lying silent, with closed
eyes; and the sad soul that had gazed out of those eyes—who had set it
free? Moonshine?
SUNSHINE.
“_Voila, Jeannette! voila!_”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account