The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-12-25
NARCISSUS.

| the kingdom because the daughter Of the
! king was dying Of hunger What? OF
hungers A princessl We're there no more
cattle in the fields game in the forests,
| vegetables in the garden or fruit in the
orchards? We're there no more cooks in
! ihe kitchcns What catastrophe had hap
! pened? How had it come to pass that such
noble and rich person did not have that
! which was rarely wanting to the peasant
in his cottage, to the beggar in his hut-a
| bit Of bread! Well if there was not as
much bread as she wished she could have
the sweetest cake in the world 1t needed
only sign and there would be placed up
on the table before her the most savory
meat, the most delicate venison peas,
strawberries like drops of dew peaches of
violet velvet and oranges of gold.
But this little princess could not eat
food that sustained other men and women
The fairies that leaned over her cradle at
birth bad decided that she should only be
nourished by newly opened flowers or the
butterflies poised thereon. Now, for two
weeks a hurricane had ragged in tho king
dom, had ravaged the gardens, broken and
destroyed the bushes, so it was actually
a chalice of cactus.
So the princess was in the most pitiable
state imaginable She was paler than the
palest flowers, one alone of which would
have been enough to save her She would
certainly die if her fast were prolonged for
few hours, and as she had rather a diff
cult disposition, even when she had
enough to eat, you can imagine the rage
into which she flew when the ladies Of
honor entered the royal cham Der without
bringing her the least little 1loweret from
the fields or the forest.
l said-and l had reason to say-that
the whole kingdom was in despair on &C
count of the approaching death of the
princess. You would not have recognized
the king, he had grown SO gray in a few
days, and the ministers, the chamberlains
the major domos were pitiful to see be-
cause 1t would have been truly unbecom-
ing for the major domos and the cham
berlains and the ministers to be in a good
humor when the head OF the government
was so sad.
But the sincerest, the greatest, desolation
was in the heart of little page. For a
long time he had hopelcssly adored the
princess. The thought that she must die
plunged him into such despair that the
tigers in the forest and the rocks in the
mountains would have sympathized with
his misery if the tigers ana the rocks had
been there to see it. 1t was not that he
had any clemency from the princess to be
grateful for. Quite the contrary No
words could give any idea of the cruelty
she had shown this little page who was in
her service. When he sighed, she smiled;
when he approached her in the evening to
be of assistance to her she did not turn
away, rs would have been charitable, but
She looked him in the eyes and said to
him:
'Well, WE'LL Come, it is time to go to
sleep. Draw off my stockings, l pray
you"
Then she went away hooking at him
with her ladies', who were cruel also. But
they wcro excusable, not being beloved by
the poor boy.
Such barbarity did not hinder him from
being the tenderest lover in the world. If
you had said to him the princess was not
as sweet as the lambs in tho meadows, he
would have been furious and you would
have had m affair with him.
When he learned that the kings daueh-
ter was perishing because of the hurricas
which had carried off all the flowers with
ment He began to run through the king
dom seeking roses, lilies, daisies, no mat
ter what, for the ropast of her he loved
But he did not find them. He continued
to seek When some one said to the priIf-
cess, docs your hghncss know that the
little page has gone out hoping to gather
you a breakfast" she smiled disdainfully.
1t seemed she would.breaklast with regret
ON the flowers the poor boy brought her,
and she said:
"Ah, how hungry l ami"
Nevertheless he secured the whole coun-
try in search of blossoms He descended
into the valleys, he climbed the steepest
hills, hoping that perhaps he would find
between two rocks near the glaciers the
little blue, mysterious flowers of the Alps
which would have kept from death the one
he loved SO much. But no; even on tho (
highest mountains, even in the deepest |
valleys, was not one flower, so fierce and de- |
st"uctive had been the tempest. He re- |
turned from each attempt in the anguish
of failure
Il foresaw it, " said the princess. at
is really ridiculous to confide to such chill |
dreu the care of royal persons"
When the little page learned that she |
had uttered these cruel words, he felt his |
heart clutched and torn as if vulture had |
cast itself with opened claws upon this lit |
tie red bird Since She had the double !
misfortune Of being i'll and not being |
grateful for the care OF those who wished |
to cure her, he resolved to live no longer,
as she was dying. He ran to a neighbor-
ing stream, very. clear and very Deep de-
terminod to cast himself into it, He soon
came to the border of the stream. After
looking carefully to see if not single To-
tus remained, for a lotus would have been
enough for "a luncheon for the princess, he
leaned over, wishing to fall Then he hest
tated, for it is sad to die whom one is so
young and there are so many beautiful
things in the world
A thought came to him
He had read in an old book that young
man admiring himself in the waves had
become flower Why should not such
fate be permitted to him? AS flower he
would be eaten by the princess and the
princess would I've saved
lie leaned over the brook and gazed long
at his image. He looked and looked, and
at last he fell in
He lpad hardly fallen into the water
when one of the princess maidens, who
was wandering about and Watching,
picked a narCissuS upon the bank n mar