For they sing to my very heart,” she said,
“And it sings to them evermore.”
She brought to him her beauty and truth,
But and broad earldoms three,
And he made her queen of the broader lands
He held of his lute in fee.
—James Russell Lowell.
THE CLOCKS OF RONDAINE
Centuries ago there stood on the banks of a river a little town called Rondaine. The river was a long and winding stream which ran through different countries. Sometimes it was narrow and swift and sometimes broad and placid. Sometimes it hurried through mountain passes and again it meandered quietly through fertile plains. In some places it was of a blue color and in others of a dark and sombre hue. And so it changed until it threw itself into the warm, far-spreading sea.