The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
The dropping of the water from the rocks above her new abode, was cold
and grateful to the Brooklet in her fevered state. It made her think of
the spring she came from; and so of the meadow; and the alder-bushes;
and the lovely face a weary way off now she knew, and fenced away from
her return by cruel jagged rocks.
Days passed by; and the sun came out all brightly. And the moon and
stars were seen again; and larger and sweeter birds than she had heard
before, now perched upon the trees about, warbling and chirruping from
day-break to twilight. So the time passed on. The wanderer began to feel
unsettled in her solitude. But there was no return by the path she came;
still were the sharp rocks seen above; and still she felt a twinge of
pain when thinking of her weary journey on that rainy day. Often too she
thought of her ambitious sister, wondering where she was now and what
she was about; and sometimes she almost fancied she would have been
happier had she gone along. It was quite evident to herself that she was
getting discontented.
There was one pleasure she prized much. Following in the train of the
ambitious Brooklet had been a score of fishes, which, frightened by the
leap upon the jagged rocks, had staid behind with the timid wanderer,
until they became part of her family in the new retreat. Overlooking,
and enjoying the gambols of these fish, the discontented Brooklet often
amused herself. Observing how when the sun came slanting through the
sides of the foliage about, they would dart out from their hiding-places
in the old dead leaves at the feet of the Brooklet, and so jump up to
greet the warming rays: or how, when a fly fell down from the
overhanging boughs, and tried to swim away, they would jump to nab a bit
of lunch, scrabbling and tugging as they went; or how, when the largest
fish of all threw off his dignity, and played with them at hide and seek
under the foot-deep bottom of mud, they would all shoot about her
life-blood drops without regard to the angles of pain their fins would
leave behind!
Thus the summer-time came on, and was passing by, when one day the
Brooklet felt a shadow upon her, and looked up to see the cause--when
high upon the rocks above, there stood a bright-eyed boy, with curling
locks that blew about in golden beauty with the breeze. In his hand he
held a little stick, which he turned over from time to time, and would
take up and then lay it down, as if preparing for something wonderful.
The curiosity of the Brooklet was aroused to know what he could mean,
when presently she saw him sit upon the rock, and from the stick drop
down upon her face a worm, which when the fishes saw they darted out to
eat.
"It is a beautiful boy; and a kind boy," said the artless Brook unto
herself; "and he has come to feed the little fishes with a worm. I have
not seen one since I left my little meadow on that rainy day. How like
the lovely face I used to see, is his which now looks down."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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