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
You may imagine the faithful Jeannette is not neglected. The sunniest
spot in the cemetery is where a marble cross tells you that Ernest is
sleeping below. And the picture, what is it? It is a glimpse, in brown
and amber tints, of a wretched attic chamber with dilapidated ceiling,
and scant, worn-out furniture, and bare, uneven floor. And the only light
there comes from the face peeping in through a door which stands ajar—a
boyish face, round and merry, with ruddy cheeks, and big, heartful eyes,
and brown bits of curls clustering about the broad forehead—a frank,
open, cheery, winsome face. Now, away from the light which streams from
this face and into the sombre shadows, frightened demons are turning to
flee. And one of the demons whose gloomy features are partly visible, and
whose hand grasps a dagger, you may guess was meant for Despair. This
picture has a name. Ernest painted it underneath, in large letters of
scarlet and gold. This is the name—SUNSHINE.
CZAR AND CARPENTER.
“Dear Rudolph, art thou not well?” asks his mother, in that native
language which she loves. “For some time past thou hast been so very
quiet, and—” there she pauses, not wanting to remind him of how fretful
and ill-natured he has been of late.
“Feel well enough!” he answers gruffly, and then is sorry, and wishes he
had gone to rest ten minutes ago, as he thought of doing.
A tiny cloud of displeasure flits across the sweet, gentle face, and
little Karl, leaning against his mother’s chair, twines an arm about her
neck, and smooths her sunny hair, as if to make amends. As for Rudolph’s
father, stern words spring to his lips; but suspecting what is the
trouble, he withholds them, only glancing up from his book with eyes so
full of unutterable sadness that the boy creeps guiltily out of the room,
and off to his chamber above.
This is the trouble with Rudolph—he is haunted; haunted by a demon whose
name is Discontent. It first appeared to him one evening in a certain
elegant mansion on a certain fashionable avenue, whither he had been
sent with a message; for his father was to do some repairing there. In
the spacious, high-ceiled, oak-paneled library, where he waited to see
the master of the house, this little demon stole up to him and whispered:
“Look at it—at all this splendor! these tall mirrors, and huge
chandeliers, and rich paintings, and carved cases of books! You never saw
the like, did you?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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