CASTLE MARVEL.
“Heigho-ho!” yawned Harry, who had dropped in one evening, and curled himself up in his favorite nook, the chimney-corner. “I wish books had never been invented, or schools either, for that matter. I’ve been digging away at one of Æsop’s fables for the last two hours, and I can’t make any sense out of it at all. It’s a lot of stuff about some doves and hawks that got to fighting; but whether the doves eat up the hawks or not, how’s a fellow going to find out? And I got stuck in my algebra, too, and I sha’n’t have a single decent lesson to-morrow, and then old Williams’ll give me a lecture and a zero, and—well, a fellow gets disgusted with that sort of thing for a steady diet. Oh, I tell you I’ll be glad when once I’m out of school, and the pesky business is done with! What’s the use of it, anyhow? I wish I didn’t have to go another day.”
“But the time would be apt to hang pretty heavily on your hands, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, I’d find plenty to do to fill up the time, never you fear! Now all these splendid days, along back, when I ought to have been down at the rink, skating, and there I had to sit in that stupid old schoolroom, moping over a desk! It makes me mad to think of it. But I came over—I got so tired studying. I thought maybe you’d have some story or other to tell, Lieutenant.”
“A story; what is there you haven’t heard, I wonder? I’m afraid my stock of stories has about run out. Let me see, though,—have you ever heard about Castle Marvel?”
“A castle! that’s the kind I like—about castles! no, I never heard it.”
“Well, this was a famous castle that stood upon a high mountain, and that people sometimes went to see. Among the rest, there went from a certain city a company of youths. Now, their route lay across a sunny plain that was like a very fairy-land; flowers covered it with every hue of the rainbow, and over these hovered clouds of golden-winged butterflies; and in the shady groves zephyrs sang and birds caroled as never sang zephyrs or caroled birds anywhere else.
“And, so, many of the youths tarried, saying, ‘It is pleasant here; let us gather roses;’ or, ‘Let us chase butterflies;’ or, ‘Let us lie down under the wide-spreading branches, and listen to the music overhead.’ The others, hastening onward, reached, at length, the foot of the mountain, and began to ascend. But to climb this mountain was by no means an easy task; for, while in some places it was very steep, in others a perpendicular and seemingly impassable wall would confront the weary traveler; and there were chasms, too, which must be crossed; but over most of these bridges had been built; and where the way was steep and slippery steps had been hewn among the rocks; and up the granite walls places had been cut for hands and feet; and all this had been done by travelers who had previously ascended—aye, with untold hardships, and often at the risk of their lives. But now, in climbing, so had the way been opened before them, these youths met with no peril, only with labor and weariness, here and there. And yet, ever, as they toiled upward, would one and another turn back, discouraged, to rejoin the comrades below, declaring that the sight of the castle was not worth so much pains.
“Now to these pleasure-seekers in the flowery meadows after a time returned the venturesome few who had succeeded in gaining the summit, and they were greeted with loud cries of astonishment—for behold, their faces shone wondrously, flooded as if with light, and they seemed like beings from another world.