Their wedding was the most splendid wedding ever seen in all the world. Altair’s good father and mother were there, Thyrza’s foster mother too, and all the sailors danced hornpipes and sang old pleasant songs of the sea.
And they all lived happily ever after.
THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD
Once upon a time a young knight, named Alois, went to dwell at the court of a mighty King until his coming of age, for he was without kinsmen, and heir to great powers and possessions. A tiny round room in the castle’s topmost tower was given him to be his very own; and from the curving sill of its one great window he could look down on the gardens of the palace, the woodland beyond, and see the older nobles walking two by two behind the King.
Now it came to pass, upon a summer eve, that the knight Alois beheld from his tower a lovely golden light moving about on a hillside in the wood.
“The elves must be dancing on the hill,” said the young knight. “I’ll ride into the wood, and watch them from afar.” And gallop-a-gallop away he rode in the dark. The night was still, the birds had gone to bed, and a young sickle-moon was sinking in the west with the old moon in her arms.
Suddenly the youth beheld the golden light approaching through the trees.
A pretty maiden in a dress of homespun green, a white apron, and a little cap was carrying a golden lantern through the wood. Her eyes were upon the ground, and every once and a while she stooped to gather a flower from the earth and thrust it into a basket by her side. Dismounting from his horse, Alois followed the maid afoot, fearful lest the snapping of a twig reveal his presence in the dark.
And now the maiden came to a little house in a moonlit forest-glade and, entering the dwelling, closed the door gently behind her. A casement window stood open to the night, the beam of the golden lantern filled the room, and presently a voice began to sing a pretty country-tune. Mingled with the lilt of the ballad was a strange sound, a purring treading sound something like the whir of a spinning wheel, but heavier and with a queer wooden click to it every tiny while.
Approaching quietly in the moonlight, Alois rose on tiptoe and gazed within the house.