human
Can you continue this poem for me?
  hyphenation inconsistencies have been rationalised.]
"Sic as folk tell ower at a winter ingle"
_A modern version of an old English Chronicle._
The Yule-log Glow      Frontispiece.
In the year of our Lord 1200, when the city of Acon, that in this
But these same princes of Vaws brought with them out of Ind books
Now when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary for salvation of all
But what was done with these gifts, ye shall learn hereafter.
And the Kings were so aghast and so devout and fervent in their
habitation of Prester John that is called lord of Ind, and there
Then, anon, Asso sent privily by his keepers to the Archbishop of
_A French Yeoman's Legend._
"He laughed fit to make the plates rattle, his little brown eyes
twinkling all the while."
"Two truffled turkeys, Garrigou?"
"Holy Virgin! and I, who love truffles as----Hurry; give me my
"What size are the trout, Garrigou?"
"Oh, as big as that! reverend Father. Enormous!"
sacristan, the better to tempt the reverend Father to commit the
"Roasted turkeys; golden carp; trout as large as that!"
"Good-evening, good-evening, Master Arnoton."
"Good-evening, good-evening, my children."
assistant
Sure, a continuation for this poem could be:
  "What a revel we are going to have after Mass!"
"Hurry up, hurry up. We'll soon be done; we'll soon be at table!"
Or, perhaps he saw pass the files of little pages bearing dishes
Drelindin din! Drelindin din!
The second Mass begins, and with it begins also the sin of Dom
Drelindin din! Drelindin din! The third Mass begins.
"Hurry up, hurry up; still faster, still faster!"
Five minutes later the crowd of seigneurs was seated in the grand
"Good-evening, Master Arnoton."
"Good-evening, good-evening, my children."
_A Love-Passage from a Wandering Cossack._
"Dressed in his everlasting blue frock, he sat near the fire
playing cards."
commanded her admiration.
Her mother gazed at her anxiously.
"Do not look at me like that; you will make me cry."
"Sit down here."
"Oh, leave her in peace, Kondratievna," said Natacha. "Run away,
"A handful of corn?" said Micha, laughing.
"Go, go at once," said the old man.
"And you, Fédor, can you give me a piece of chalk?"
"You! Fleas and grasshoppers, you may depend upon it!"
Natacha went on. "Good God! have mercy, have mercy!" she said to
"Sonia, what is this tune?" she said, playing a few notes.
"For some fresh water to finish my drawing."
"You are always busy and I never. Where is Nicolas?"
"Asleep, I think."
"Go and wake him, Sonia. Tell him to come and sing."
drawing-room. Perhaps he came yesterday and I have forgotten."
another--but there was no Prince André.
"Ah, here she is," said her father. "Come and sit down here." But
"Oh, mamma, bring him to me, give him to me soon, very soon," she
After tea Sonia, Natacha, and Nicolas huddled together in their
"He had white teeth and stared at us with his black eyes."
"Do you remember him, Sonia?"
"Yes, yes--but very dimly."
"I do not want it now; send it away again, Polia." said Natacha.
"Yes, we are studying philosophy," said Natacha, and they went on
"May I join the party?" asked Dimmler, coming towards them.
"If we were once angels, how is it that we have fallen lower?"
"Lower? Who says that it is lower? Who knows what I was?" Natacha
The young people had all vanished; but half an hour later an old
"Lead the way, Zakhare!" cried Nicolas, to his father's coachman,
"Why, what is the matter?"
"Nothing," said he, returning to his former position.
"That I believe is Natacha?" said Nicolas. "And that little
Circassian--who is he? I do not know him, but I like his looks
"Better and better," said Nicolas to himself; "now we are in an
"Who is there?" a voice asked within.
"That one, who is she?" she asked the governess, stopping a Kazan
When they had danced all the national dances, ending with the
"Why?" said the eldest girl.
"Oh! you would never dare to do it; you must be very brave."
"Well, I will go," said Sonia.
"But, mamma, you know you wanted to try your fortune too."
"Tell us, mother, what happened to you in the barn."
"Yes, I will go," said Sonia. "Let me go."
"Go by all means if you are not afraid."
"May I, Madame Schoss?" said Sonia to the governess.
observed before.
"I am afraid of nothing," she declared. She rose, asked her way,
"Sonia, are you not cold?"
"You have acted very wisely. Go."
looking-glasses stood.
"You should not laugh," said the maid, very gravely.
Sonia sat down and fixed her eyes on the mirror.
"Did you see him?" asked Natacha.
repeated.
"How? standing up or lying down?"
"And then--Sonia, what then?"
"Then I saw only confusion--red and blue."
_A Wayfarer's Fancy._
"A felicitous combination of the German, the Sclave, and the
Semite, with grand features, brown hair floating in artistic
fashion, and brown eyes in spectacles."
Far behind him, forgotten, lay his home in the dim distance!
Suddenly he saw on the roadside an old man. He was sitting on his
"A rose has bloomed
From a tender root,
Our fathers have sung:
Out of Jesse it came."
"A white-haired, thin-visaged, weather-worn old gentleman in a
blue, Quaker-cut coat."
The shutters of a little spur of warehouses which breaks out into
counting-house fire.
"Hello, Jim! Cold as blazes, ain't it?"
discipline, and so he thought to himself.
"We did, father! Leastwise it was Polly's present," said Molly.
"Not Jacob Tripple! No, no, not good Jake Tripple?" said David,
reprovingly.
"What reminds you, father?" asked the twins, in chorus.
"Why, coming home!" said David, not very intelligibly.
"What coming home?" again from the chorus, in expectant attitude.
And now, while the Little Scout--in fulfilment of her established
Christmas morning had opened brightly with David Dubbs. The sun,
preceded down the court by hustling winds that knocked at every
shop-door and followed them up the creaking stairs.
Polly opened the box and extracted a pasteboard plane with some
unexpected!"
All were duly in their places, and David had, in accordance with
"Tom!" all exclaimed.
"What!" said David, snatching it and reading it aloud to himself,
Never was a turkey enjoyed so much, and never had a turkey better
"Has he gone?" said David, grasping it.
"Yes, father," replied Polly, "right off."
application but was of a general nature--when, to resume, Emanuel
"Can't do what?" exclaimed Mr. Griffin, with surprise and dismay.
"Can't send it out," returned the young man, firmly.
Then asking the price, and answering,--
"That is very high, Cuffy;" to which that young man replied,--
Mr. Griffin paid the bill and hurried out, took a car at the next
He therefore said, in a loud voice,--
"The turkey has not arrived,--that is all."
Mr. Fred was of a similar opinion, and even more violent in his
denunciation of David, as he had set his heart on turkey, and the
All the ladies and gentlemen were of various opinions, but all
"A letter for you, sir, left for me to deliver."
He took it, and David continued tremulously to say,--
"Why, a splendid turkey, with your card kindly----"
"Be off, now!" he cried after him, "you ungrateful, deceitful old
The snow came on thicker and thicker, and had begun to whiten the
A light was streaming out from the windows of the old warehouse,
"Tom, is it so? Is it so, my dear boy?"
"Sir: The connection of my father, David Dubbs, Esq., with your
counting-house, will cease from this day forth.
"Sir, your obedient servant,
"He seemed to be a kind of connecting link between the old times
wide-mouthed gargoyle of a Gothic cathedral.
"The herald's, proclaiming a still Christmas," answered Cicely,
"That were well-nigh impossible," said her sister, laughing; but
"This endris night
I saw a sight,
A star as bright as day;
And ever among
A maiden sung
Lullay, by-by, lullay."
"Not so thought my godfather, kind Master Breton," said Annis,
"Whosoever against holly doth cry,
In a rope shall be hung full high."
carnage, and--so say some ancient writers--from the bite of rabid
bright-brown nuts that seemed to tempt the flames.
throughout the city."
"You are far too young to think of men at all," answered Annis,
"When Christ was born of Mary free,
In Bethlehem, in that fair citie,
Angels sungen with mirth and glee,
"Herdsmen beheld these angels bright
To them appeared with great light,
And said, God's Son is born this night,
"The King is comen to save kind,
Even in Scripture as we find;
Therefore this song have we in mind,
"Then, dear Lord, for thy great grace,
Grant us in bliss to see thy face,
Where we may sing to thee solace,
Welcome now the good cheer of Christmas-night! Welcome the
"Unless what, dear heart?"
"It was not you at all," returned Cicely, "but the mistletoe. We
sanction."
_A Norseman's Saga._
"As he sat there with a sou'wester down over his ears, in a long
pilot coat, his figure appeared to assume quite supernatural
proportions, and you might almost imagine that you had one of the
"Ugh, boy!" Then he added more gently,--"Why, you are not so much
"How fast you are walking!" said Blessom.
"I have a long distance to go in order to get home this evening,"
"Where are you going?"
"To Vaage," answered the man, and walked on.
"You had better hold fast," said the stranger.
"I am," said the man, and the spray whirled about them.
"It seems to me we are moving through the air," said he.
"Yes, so we are," replied the stranger.
"Is not this Vaage?" cried he.
"Thank you for the good ride," said he.
"Dear me! is not this Knud the fiddler?" cried she.
"Now I feel very comfortable; let me rest a little while."
And he was allowed to rest on Thrond's bed.
"Mother," and then he awoke.
"Dear child, you have had bad dreams," said she, and took him up.
And she went in to get it. But one of the men said,--
"_He_ can have that," and he pointed at Thrond.
"Use it as well as _he_ who is now lying _here_," added the other
"What is there in it?" asked he.
"Carry it in and find out," said the mother.
"Take it up," said his mother.
"It cries," said he.
He weighed it and turned it round, he laughed and felt of it.
"Dear me! what is it?" asked he, for it was as light as a toy.
"It is a fiddle."
This was the way that Thrond Alfson got his first violin.
"Will we soon see the church?" he asked over his shoulder.
"As soon as you reach that crag yonder, you will see it."
"Now I must play," thought Thrond, and tried to do so.
He changed the tune that was meant to represent the church into
"We have had many a happy hour together," said he, then paused.
Presently he said, "The strings must be severed, for they are
"A great, long devil of a Spahi in his red burnous."
Garibaldi. Being a bachelor, Dominique was none the less ready to
Mary blushed, and tried to turn the conversation.
"What do they do with themselves all day long?" she asked.
"I presume that monsieur wishes to see as much of the country as
"Does mademoiselle ride?" asked the gallant Capitaine.
"Je vous remercie bien, monsieur."
Then the Capitaine talked of Christmas-day.
We had been twice so shocked and surprised that we had no more
"I have a very humble apartment," he said; "but if monsieur and
breaths.
A hundred yards behind us, his bright-brown body sharply outlined
We had invited the young Lieutenant to drink tea with us at eight
impressive manner.
accomplishments, and then to catechise him on military matters.
"I believe so, mon Général."
between the two. It was very mortifying for the Capitaine and the
"Not a bit of it. We shall have no rain until a fortnight after
"Yes; it would be very _triste_ here without the little thing."
"Do you never go to France, monsieur?"
"Do you like fighting the Arabs in the Desert, then, monsieur?"
picturesqueness of the last few days--for Mary had an artistic
Our host, the Capitaine, had provided a sumptuous feast of Desert
bananas, with the addition of champagne; and we were very merry.
The Général nudged the Commandant.
"And what does our Lieutenant advise monsieur to do?" asked the
"And the Lieutenant,--what did he say?"
"He says nothing," said Mary, looking down; "and,"--here came a
sob,--"and I like him best of all!"
"His state of feeling does not help us much, unless expressed," I
The little thing plucked at the folds of her riding-skirt in the
greatest perplexity.
"I like the Général and I like the Commandant, and I ought not to
I broke the seal of the Général's letter, which ran as follows:
"Monsieur,--This morning at daybreak I received telegraphic
without delay. Judge, monsieur, how more than sorry I am to be
forced to quit the society of your charming sister and yourself
never think of you both without regret.
"I feel it right, under the grave circumstances of the revolt, to
escort to be in readiness for you when you shall require it.
"Meantime, receive, monsieur, the expression of my utmost esteem.
"And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed."
"Bah!" he cries, "it's all play; let 'em pretend to put down
insurrection as often as they please. It is good for trade and
promotion, and the Arabs know how to defend themselves."