When she came to the castle gate, There stood her eldest daughter in wait. "Why standest thou here, dear daughter mine? How fares it with brothers and sisters thine?" "Never art thou mother of mine, For my mother was both fair and fine. "My mother was white, with cheeks of red, But thou art pale, and like to the dead." "How should I be fair and fine? I have been dead; pale cheeks are mine. "How should I be white and red, When she came in at the chamber door, One she braided, another she brushed, The fifth she took on her lap and pressed, Then to her eldest daughter said she, "Do thou bid Svend Dyring come hither to me." Into the chamber when he came "I left behind me both ale and bread; "I left behind me the great waxlight; "If I come again unto your hall, As cruel a fate shall you befall! "Now crows the cock with feathers red; Back to the earth must all the dead. "Now crows the cock with feathers swart; The gates of heaven fly wide apart. "Now crows the cock with feathers white; I can abide no longer to-night." Whenever they heard the watch-dogs wail, They gave the children bread and ale. Whenever they heard the watch-dogs bay, They feared lest the dead were on their way. Whenever they heard the watch-dogs bark; I myself was young! They feared the dead out there in the dark. Fair words gladden so many a heart. INTERLUDE OUCHED by the pathos of these rhymes, TOU The Theologian said: "All praise Be to the ballads of old times And to the bards of simple ways, Who walked with Nature hand in hand, Of cockle-shells from Outre-Mer." To whom the Student answered: "Yes; All praise and honor! I confess That bread and ale, home-baked, home-brewed, Of passage; where their instinct leads They range abroad for thoughts and words, To cackle o'er a grain of corn; And, if you shut the horizon down The Theologian said again: And thus the sword of Damocles Plucking up heart, began to tell The Rhyme of one Sir Christopher. |