Chapter I
Reading edition
"As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May."
It was a long, long time ago that it happened—so long, in fact, that most people have forgotten all about it—but once upon a time, as the old, old stories tell, there lived in the village of Hollowbush an old woman and a little girl.
And other people lived there too; but that does not concern us. The old woman, plain and brown and wrinkled though she was, was the wisest and kindest old lady anywhere to be found, which is reason enough for her being in the story; and as for the little girl, you have already guessed that she is Lady Primrose; but how she came to be Lady Primrose is what makes the story.
The village of Hollowbush was as pretty a place as you would care to see—a quiet, quaint little town, where the grass ran up and down the streets in a wild, free way it had, to which no one thought of objecting; but as year after year went by, and the little girl who lived there grew older without, unfortunately, growing wiser, she became so tired of Hollowbush and its grass-grown streets that she was almost ready to run away.
"If I were only rich," she was constantly saying to herself, "then I might go where I chose."
Now it came to pass that one day in the merry spring-time, when the world is so sweet and fragrant that you can hardly put your nose out-of-doors without feeling as if you had tumbled head-foremost into a huge bouquet, this little girl sat by the open window, wishing and wishing with all her might that she were rich.
"For then," she said to herself, "I could have a diamond necklace; and perhaps," she added, aloud, "I might have a jewelled coronet, like a queen."
Just then the wise old woman of Hollowbush, who had the amiable peculiarity of appearing just when people most needed her, stopped before the window, and said, as she looked up at her young friend, "You were wishing for a diamond necklace, my child. What would you do if I should tell you of a country where diamonds are as plenty as flowers are here?"
"What would I do?"—and the child laughed at the idea of there being but one thing she could do.
"I would go to it at once, and fill my hands with the shining, beautiful things. But you don't mean that there really is such a place," she added, after a pause.
The old lady smiled, and said, "If you really love gems better than anything else in the world, I can tell you where to find all and more than all you want."
"That would be impossible," answered the child. "I could never have more than enough. But what a beautiful country it must be! Do tell me where to find it."
Still smiling, this wonderful old lady, who knew all manner of strange secrets, called the child to her, and having whispered in her ear, pointed in the direction of the woods just beyond the village.
The girl's face looked serious, as if she were perhaps a little frightened at what the old lady had told her; but if she could get all the jewels she wanted, it was worth more than one fright, she thought; so off she started without a word.
The shy little blossoms that hide their faces from the sunlight grew here and there in the woods.
White star-flowers and purple hepaticas nodded on their slender stems, while the crimson and white wood-sorrel fairly ran wild, creeping in and out through bush and brier, like a host of fairies in striped petticoats.
"A nice place enough," said the child, tossing her head, "for those who know of nothing better; but I can't stop to admire such simple things. Gems and jewels are the only flowers I care for."
The shadows were growing longer and deeper all around her, for the sun was almost down, and as she looked up through the trees she could see the pale face of the young moon peeping down at her through the branches.
"Oh, if the wise old woman had only come with me!" said the child, in a whisper. The shadows took on strange, ghostly shapes, and the tall pine-trees, so high that their topmost branches seemed to rest against the sky, sang softly and slowly and all together,
"Take care—take care—oh—oh—ough."
She had never realized before how full of sounds the stillness of the deep woods may be, and it seemed to her as if the rustling of the leaves and the singing of the wind were strange unearthly voices calling out to her and warning her to go back. But in spite of the rustling leaves and the mournful sighing of the pines the little girl hurried on. Perhaps, just because of them, she hurried all the faster, for she felt quite sure that she was nearing the place to which she had been directed. And in a few moments she saw just before her the gray moss-grown rocks piled one above another which the wise old woman of Hollowbush had described, and heard far below the rushing and tumbling of a brook.
Surely I must have been deceived! she thought.
Here was no strange country sown with jewels, but simply a rocky ravine, where ferns waved in the wind, clinging to the rocks, and catching the spray from the water as it bubbled and hissed and fell in a snowy pool below.
"This can't be the place," said the child, as she looked around; "but while I am here I may as well see what it is."
So she clambered over the loose stones and decaying logs till she reached the level of the stream, and there, strangely enough, scattered among broken bits of granite, were small bright stones of a deep wine-color. "These are not diamonds," she said to herself, "but they are too pretty to lie neglected here, whatever they may be."
She gathered them one by one, tying her handkerchief into four knots at the corners for a basket; and so absorbed was she that she had quite forgotten the weird shadows and the strange noises in the wood, until she was startled by a voice close beside her.
Her heart gave a sudden bound, as if it were going to jump away from her without so much as saying by your leave, and turning quickly, she saw, not the old woman—although the voice had sounded curiously like hers—but a quaint pale-faced little man, with small faded-looking blue eyes that blinked in the moonlight as if the brightest of June-day suns had been shining upon him.
"SO YOU ARE FOND OF GEMS, MY LITTLE MAIDEN?"
"So you are fond of gems, my little maiden?" said the small man, in a small thin voice, winking and blinking good-naturedly as he spoke.
The child stood staring at her companion, too much astonished to answer him a word, for she, nor you, nor I, I believe, had ever seen such a curious being before. He was so small that she could have tucked him under her arm and run away with him, but his pale blue eyes had a strange light in them, like nothing seen above the ground, and she might have gone on staring at him from that day to this if her handkerchief had not slipped from her fingers, letting her stones roll here and there over the ground, whereupon she uttered a low cry of disappointment.
"Oh, never mind those," said the little man, smiling; "they are nothing but garnets. Just come with me, and I will show you stones a thousand times more beautiful."
"So you live in the country where gems grow instead of flowers?" said the child, recovering her voice and her self-possession at the same time.
"Yes," he answered; "I am the keeper of the gate, and if you will come with me, I will show you more beautiful things than any you ever dreamed of."
This invitation was just what the child wanted, and she followed the gate-keeper without another word.
What a strange place it was, this country of his into which he was leading her! It was so dark that she could see nothing but gleaming lights shining through the darkness, red and yellow and green and crimson, like tiny magic lanterns hung at intervals high above her head against the wall.
She began to perceive that they were going deep down under the earth, and she shivered, partly with cold and partly with fear, as she stepped carefully and slowly over the uneven path down which she and her guide were descending.
"Is it far we have to go?" she asked at length, rather timidly.
"Oh no," answered her companion. "This is simply a long corridor that runs through the base of the hills, but we have almost reached the end of it. In a few moments I shall lead you into the presence-chamber of the king."
"The king!" echoed the child, hardly knowing whether to be frightened or pleased. "And am I to go before a king?"
"Yes, yes," laughed the little man. "You don't suppose we are a people without a king?"
As he spoke he knocked three times against the wall, and a voice from within called out, "Who's there? who's there? who's there?"
"Aleck the gate-keeper," answered her companion, and immediately a door flew open.