The Cassowary; What Chanced in the Cleft MountainsWaterloo, Stanley
General
The Cassowary; What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains
Waterloo, Stanley
Love stories; Railroad travel -- Fiction; Storytelling -- Fiction
It was four in the morning by the great clock of the Castle when Sir
Gladys stood in the center of the stone-paved courtyard and wound his
horn. At the sound every man in the Castle and its surrounding
buildings, and on the farms about, became astir, and soon Sir Gladys had
his trusty henchmen a dozen deep about him. His words of command sent
them scattering in all directions, and sunrise beheld a sturdy band,
headed by Sir Gladys, leaving the Castle Gate and turned in the
direction of the Black Tarn. With the men marched fifty of the great red
oxen of Rhinestone, and upon their mighty shoulders they bore the heavy
nets and boats of the once lucky fisherman of Ken Water.
Sir Gladys had taken the White Cow's hint, and set the split hoof to do
what the whole hoof could not accomplish.
A messenger was sent to the Moated Grange requesting the Lady Floretta
to visit the shore of the Black Tarn, and thither the procession moved
and soon the Tarn was reached. Then followed a scene of which the story
was told for years, for it was something worth the seeing. The great
tractable oxen, encouraged doubtless by the Enchanted Cow who stood
knee-deep in the oozy margin awaiting them, bore out bravely into the
black waters through reeds and sedge and yielding mud and made a mighty
splashing toward the center of the lake where in a semicircle were
gathered the fishermen with their boats and nets. The waters near the
shore were churned into a foam, and the watchers looking outward could
see the long wakes of the frightened sturgeon as they fled to certain
capture.
And the nets were filled to the overflowing; so heavy were they that the
great oxen could scarcely draw them to firm land. So the great work was
accomplished, the Lady Floretta and her maidens coming in time to see it
all. There were fish enough to furnish caviare enough it would seem for
half the world.
It was well that their two estates joined, for while during the fishing,
the Lady Floretta and Sir Gladys had been sitting on the strand of the
Black Tarn--Sir Gladys' cloak around the Lady, for the day grew
chill--they had declared each to the other their determination to join
their lives and their fortunes together from that hour, and so it came
to pass that, by the time the fish eggs were turned into caviare and
sold and the money was in hand to pay Prince Rugbauer's taxes, Sir
Gladys Rhinestone had made the Lady Floretta Beamish his bride, and
what was good or ill fortune for one was the same for the other.
And this is also told, that, as for the Enchanted Cow, ever afterward
she wandered at will on the moors in summer, and was well cared for at
the castle or the Moated Grange in winter. And ever on the night of the
Witch's sleep, the cow was visited in state by fair Sir Gladys and Lady
Floretta, for nothing is more excellent than gratitude.
CHAPTER XVIII
LOVE AND A ZULU
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