Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-12-25
THE LEGEND OF ST. NICHOLAS.

Dante's day,
A certain knight, IN hard-fought fight, WAS
captured by his foe,
] Who swore a fierce, unknightly cath he wsuld
! not Let him so
Without a ransom such as might a king or
prince set free
Ten thousand golden crowns paid down-and
that right speedily.
The knight refused these cruel terms; they
cast him then straightway
Into the castles oubliette, wher. one poor
loaf a day
And draught of water-less and less-were
let down by a cord,
While a hoarse voice above exclaimed: BY
order of my lord
Again ] ask, wilt thou, sir knight, make
terms for thy released
If not to- orrow-any d~ay-thy dole Of feed
may cease"
81 will not cast my children's bread to dogs"
the answer came.
81 will net bring ray babes and wife to beg
gary and shame.
| cannot raise ten thousand crowns-nor
would if could,
Far better that my enemy should triumph in
my blesd
Than PA with her we sad eyes, and Nela
with her SMILES,
Aud sweet Costanza, rosy-lipped, AL kisses
and all wiles,
Should come to poverty through me; for who
is there but knows
The hardsnips that IA maid Of rank, undower-
ed, uudersoes!"
Bat his lady fair discovered where her lord
was held in prison.
In her wonsn's might, for her own true
knight, to the rescue she has risen.
She has mortsaged their castle stern and
grim, and all she cia sell has sold;
She has pledged the dover she brought 10
him for three thousand pounds in gold;
She has pavucS her tapestries, lace and plate,
her jewels and robes spd furS-
There is nothing in all her Golfers left Of the
treasures that ONCE were hers.
Still, lands and stuff were not enough to set
the captive free;
A thousand golden crowns she lacks to buy
his liberty.
She has taken her three little girls 10y the
HANDS, Costanza, Nslla and Pia,
And she stands with shame on her glowing
face. in Spcu day In the market place,
She holds out her hand with a piteous grace,
and aiJss drop Town AT her feet space,
For her wtfely courage and woful face melt
the hearts of all who see her.
The ransom was completed thus by public
charity.
They weighed the gold, Its tale they told; they
set the captive free.
A gallant knight in armor bright he to the
fight had sped;
A broken cripple he came back with bowed
and silyelcd head.
He entered his court yard still and bare; no
wife came forth with greeting;
Costanza, Pia and Nella were there, with
fearful eyes ana il frightened stare.
Where is your mother, children-wherc is
this our longed-f for m~eeting3"
'Oh! father, come; you must make her wake
she lies all white on her bed"
They took his hand and they led him UP to
the chamber of the dead.
A dull despair came over him there, and it
lasted many a day.
The damp, the mould, the cruel cold OF that
fatal cell on his life had told:
They had made him a man prematurelv old,
and turned his black locks gray.
Ne far from the good knights garden wall a
little low hut there stood,
Where he whom we call Saint Nicholas dwelt,
then only known as the Good.
We know how he looks from our story books
RS he travels our lands of snow.
But he was a Florentine cobbler once in the
far-otr Long Ago.
He was Old and gray, aud merry, they say,
and his checks, though wlthered, were
red.
His dress wac leather, whatever the weather,
with a hood to pull over his head.
He saw the knight SIT night after nigAt alone
in a big straw char;
He could hear him cream as he watched alsn-,
and wrestlcd with dumb despair.
II shall die; | ON dying" was ever his plant;
"and alas when / am gone,
Ny three poor portionless maids win be left
in the world alone.
Three poor little feeble creatures, left to the
cruel mercies of men
Costanza seven, and Nella eight, and Pla,
the eldest, ten.
] cannot even provide the fee each convent
asks with a nun,
Q Father, strengthen my heart for me till Z
say, Thy will be done!'
"Alas! alas ~ good Nicholas cried, when. he
heard the ead knights, words,
81 sec it needs hope to prop up faith, and to-
bend our wills To the Lords.
Last night | saw CostanZa sweet feed a biga
with her scanty bread,
And blithe little Nella blew me a kiss as she
mounted the stairs to bed;
And motherly, patient, Yious and good, is the
eldest of all of them-Pia
| think the angels must love thai child as
they bend from their throner and see
her
Patiently sewing and m~ending by night, and
hearing her sisters prayers,
And folding their clothes and making them
neat with her little ~notheriy airs.
/ have COLA in my chest; the Lord has blessed
my labOrs from Gay TO day;