The Tucson citizen., 1902-11-10
THE MEADOW ORCHID
WHY THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE CALL gT
"THE CUckoo's TEARS"


That Deals With MagAs, Love and
! Happiness and One Re9ult of ths
Fatal Feminine Tongue.
One warm Sunday afternoon the vii
Iage maidens assembled to battle in the
| liver. They took Off their kerchiefs and
| their coronet headdresses, seated them
selves on the bank to cool off and be.
| gan to gossip. One maiden alone sat
! silent, Frosya. an orphan, poor. but
| beautiful, with fair skin and eyes as
| blue as the gentian, which the Rus
SLAMS call ''the fight Of the falcon" So
the other girls began to tease her.
Have you no dearly beloved friend,
Erosinya? Who is he, where is he? Is
| he handsome, is he rich?
"Nhere should a poor girl get rich
and handsome young lover? Yonder
! adder is my husband"
No sooner had she said this than all
the maidens cried, with one accord,
'"The adder" and took to their heels.
| And upon her kerchief, which Frosya
| had thrown upon the grass, behold,
huge black adder lay coiled. She cried
out in fear. But the adder beat its tail
upon the ground and was transformed
| into wonderfully handsome young
man. There he stood before her, with
| a golden cap upon his flowing eurls, his
eyes tlashing fire, and honeyed words
fell fre@n his lips. And he said to her:
"Di9 you mean it when you declared
thai you were ready to marry the ad-
def?"
She knew not what reply to make,
| but gazed at him and thought to her
self, "Whence came such wise and
! handsome youthw And be. divining
her thoughts. replied to them, IL am nc
common man. but the czar of the wa
ters. and my empire is close at hand in
deep pool on golden sands"
And he read in her eyes that she con-
sented to go with him. Then he grasp
ed her with his powerful hand, and to
gether they sank down into the deep
realm Of the waters.
| Great was Frosya's happiness. She
could not believe in it. He was so
good so wise; she had never seen such
| people, and there is none such any
where as the czar Of the waters. But
Frosya was foolish. Seven years did
she dwell with him in the deep pool in
his palace Of crystal, aud the seven
years passed as one day, and there
need not have been any end to her
bliss. A girl and boy had been born
to them. n'hen. all at once, without any
cause, she became sad, longed for the
earth, to behold her native hamlet and
| her friends once more. So be let her
go, with the children. for three days
after having exacted a promise that
neither she nor the children, either by
word or by hint, should reveal the
name of her husband or where she
lived. And all this she promised, with
fearful oaths. Then her husband es-
corted her to the dam. At the end Of
three days she was to come to the same
spot and cry "Cuckoo" thrice, where
her.
She kept her oath. but her friends
coaxed and questioned the children.
The boy to all queries replied simply,
II don't know" But the girl told ev-
erything. This was all the envious gos.
sips wanted. Taey ran and told all to
their husbands and brothers, who inn
mediately ran to the dam and uttered
the magic words. And when the cZar
appeared they beat him to death. But
before he died he contrived to say to
Frosya: 81 have to thank thee. my dear
wife, that am now come to my death
through thee and my daughter. Hence
forth fly thou ever as q gray cuckoo
and repeat thou ever my call. Cuckoo!
In sadness Of heart from early spring
until st. Peters day [St. Peters day.
June 20 Uuly IL. o. S.jl, and from that
day forth may every bird, both great
and small. beat thee and pursue thee.
And mayest thou. my daughter, my be
trayer, be turned into nettle bush.
and may that weed. the fiery, forever
burn thine eyes wheresoever thou may
est be, that thou mayest weep forever,
remembering thy fathers death. But
to my loyal son, who kept bis fathers
command, make this bequest: That
he shall be the bird beloved which
dwells and sings In gardens and amid
shady groves for the Joy OF happy peo-
pie. for the consolation of those who
weep. the nightingale"
And from that day forth the Russian
people have called the meadow orchid
''the cuckoo's tears" [ 1t is also knowr
as ".the cuckoo's slippers "l-Isabel F.
Hapgood In New York Post
Tartly Answered.
The principal Of certain high school
tells joke on himself with much en-
joyment One day during an exami-
nation. when he was visiting the vari
Gus rooms, he stopped to ask very
bright boy sum IN algebra, and, al
| though the problem was comparatively
easy, he could not answer 1t. The prin-
cipal remarked with some show of Sc
verify:
MY boy, you ought to be able to do
that AT your age George Washington
was surveyor"
The boy looked him straight in the