Wyseby

26 wyseby: a legend
CHAPTER VI.
THE FAITHFUL ONE.
Thou hast stood by lowland streams, my fair child,
and seen thy sweet innocent face mirrored in their
glass of waters ; thou hast laughed 'mid lowland
woods, till their many echoes rang with thy glad
Yoice ; and through lowland valleys, in light summer
hours, thou hast bounded, chasing with boisterous
mirth the merry bee : but it has never been thine to
gaze upon the cloud-piercing mountains of the North,
— upon those fearful and enduring monuments of the
might of the God of our fathers. They tower aloft,
stern and alone, awful in their fearful loneliness ; —
around their cloud-curtained brows, as glories, the
lightnings of heaven circle ; and to them the deep-
voiced thunder, terrible to the sons of men, is as the
voice of a friend. To that far mountain land let us
turn, for I must tell thee of the dark-eyed Edith, —
of the faithful one.
Ah, my child, to give complete the web of one
destiny, how we must unravel the web of the desti-
nies of others ! Space serves not to keep them apart.
From north to south the shuttle flies, and on the
woof of Time a mixed design is wrought. Thus the
destiny of a fair daughter of the hills became blend-
ed with the destinies of fierce warriors, and their
names united descend, inseparable, down the path of
years.