Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-02

southern sky makes a gentle voice, and the
Spanish tongue has matchless trick of melt.
ing all it touches into melody.
"Ld SeH0ra is most kind, but it is too late
the heart has no second spring. You see the
white line down the mountain side y he ask.
ed, abruptly changing the subject evidently
painful to dwell upon.
eyes, it is q brook rising in u spring, cold
as ice, clear as glass"
Then instead Of my dull, sad story let
tell you the tradition of the Blue Fountain,
the name of the spring, -fOHtdiHe-bleu rs
the French Fathers used to call it,"
by all means story, story !" the la
dies cried in chorus.
"You do me proud" said Orcto with u
sweeping bow, "and since you honor me
with your attention l promise not to weary
it,"
We disposed ourselves in various attitudes
about the speaker The rising generation
gathered in graceful groups under the stunt
ed pines, aud the setting generation sat on
buffalo robes and cushions against the gnarled
and twisted trunks of the piHOnes Little
Rosa was coaXed to her mothers lap, and the
stout lady rccned on the back seat of the
ambulance, loosened her bonnet strings and
made herself extremely comfortable while we
listened to the
LEGEND OF THE BLUE FOUNTAIN.
"Once upon a time" the Spaniard began
with his grave smile away to the North in
the country you call Montana lived young
Indian hunter tall and straighta and very hand
some From boyhood he had heard stories
Of happy hunting grounds where the pdstVras
were always fresh and game was always in
sight SO one bitter cold morning he put on
his suow-shoes and fur mittens wrapped him
self in his warmost bear skin, aud struck
southwrad following tn, stony mountain
ranges till he reached this lonesome region "
Did he travel all alone = asked little
Rosa.
"Only the travelling winds went with him
But he did not know what fear is, though at
night he heard the cayote's cry. the below
ing Of the bison and the howl of the prairie
wolf The sun, which he worslipod, shoue
friendly all the way gradually the breeze
blew softer, the earth grew warmer and
greeuer. After one long days march he drank
deep Of the spring in yon hillside, laid his
bent bow and quiyer Of arrows on the rock,
aud went to sleep IN the soft warm sand by
the Blue Fountain.
AN Indian warrior sleeps lightly, and in
his slumber appeared a form-a womans,
such a shape rs is seen nowhere but in dreams
and Andalusia." The stranger paused and
looked droamily on the ground like one busy
with memory, and in sympathy thought Of
the lost Catalina and the little one lying in
the gloomy vault at Nalladolid We respect
ed his silence, aud after q moment be con
tinuod
THE spirit spoke to the dreamer in words
Of infinite tenderness, and appeared to watch
and guard him. On waking he took long
draught of the cool snow water, and gazed
searchngly into its blue depths"
WAS it really blue = broke in Rosa.
Sky blue and silver said the Castilian,
adding one Of :he eudearing diminutiycs in
which his language is so rich and which did
not quite comprehend. Many times he
tried to catch a glimse of the fairy face which
came into his sleep, making it better than any
waking. Long he gazod into the watery
mirror; it reflected only his tawny face and
the spotlcss sky above it. The white sand
boiled from unknown depths below, bubbles
came to the top and broke on the stony
Irim but the ceaseless gush aud flow Of the
waters was a chime iu>his ears without mean
ing.
"He fingered about this spot, 30 runs the
tale many weeks, praying for the appearance
of the water maiden. She came into his
sleep but never blest his waking eyes and
when the rainy season. which is so very
drcary, set in. the disappointed youth went
back TO his tribe. The vision haunted him
in vain be tried to shake il of the cega, so
lone so dim, so untrodden, was filled with
strange cnchantment. The brook went flow
ing through his memory, glancing now in
sun, now in shadow, it gushed from the
mountain side vanishing at last like fairy
gold in the sun. The laughing girls of the
tribe tried to rouse him from indifTer-
euce, but could not stir him to join in their
songs and games. In the time Of the corn
harvest the present Of blood-red car, the
Indians roS, II am0ur, did not move him to
any feeling, and he turned with glance avert
ed from the flying feet in the bcwitching
cdcAjHd dance.
"''He is mooustruck' said the girls give
him the crooked ear, for the fool is fit for
nothing but to sit in the sun with the very
old men He needed neither jest nor laugh,
and determined to come back to the Blue
Fountain. When he set out an airy figure
seemed to go before and beckou him on, as
the swan madens of the German lakes beck
on young knights into their little boats drawn
by snowy swans harnessed with silver chains.
Southwark southwark he strobe, follow
ing the ancient march of AZatlan, and. in
sight of the beloved spring he climbed the
steep fleet and untired rs the red deer to
find the same sparkling fountain, and the
shining brook below it running into the val
ley as it will run on forever.
Again he lay down on the soft, warm
sand and once more the delicate phantom
appt AIRED to his closed eyes, whispered gent
~ in his ear. and bent above his head as if to
kiss him"
Here the lovers 'changed eyes, leaned
trihe nearer together, and / saw Romeo pick
up blue ribbon dropped from Juliet's sleeve
and slip it into his watch pocket.
Then a frantic love took possession of the
hunter. Day after day, night after night, his
IL 4
cade ever he sighed, murmured, dreamed.
The strength left his limbs, his blood beat
hotly summer waned and cold winds blew
but never cooled the fever of his brow.
Sometimes after a days hunt returning at
evening he fancied he saw Il misty outline
against the dark steep, but it melted away as
lie neared it and instead Of a living woman
he reached out to clasp the empty air Then
the warrior began to understand that this wa
ter spirit was of the race Of Souls, and as
such could not wed a mortal to possess her,
therefore, he must be like her-must die So
one day when the world was all bright and
his soul all dark, while she sung song of
wonderful music he stretched his arms to
reach the shadowy siren and plunged from
the black ledge you see yonder into the
unknown depths below"
And was he never heard of afterward -
asked Juliet while the roses on her cheek
deepened in betrayal of her thoughts.
"Neyer, hermOslFd," said the Spaniard
with an admring gesture, "but old Pueblos
about here say two shapes rise out of the
spring where there used to be but one, float
in the air and hover about it. They are oft
enest seen about dusk in the rainy season. 1
have never seen them myself"
~ wonder if they do show that way" said
Rosa with a puzzled face.
"Quien sd5e," said Oreto mysteriously, at
the same time handing her the kernel of
pil,OH nut which he cracked in his white
front teeth
And here let me record that the words
"Quiea sdbe," ''who knows" are the end of
controversy, the finish of debate, the limit of
human understanding, having very differ
ent meaning according to the persons speak
ing With Orcto it was as much as to say
lhnra il rnnm for arnnmRnt ON hnIh sides