The Golden Spears Part 1

The Golden Spears.

by Edmund Leamy.

PREFACE

It comes to me as a very welcome piece of news, and yet a piece of news which I have been long expecting, that a special American edition of Edmund Leamy's Irish fairy tales is about to be published. This, then, will be the third issue of the little book. I venture to predict that it will not be the last; and I fancy the American publisher who has had the judgment to take the matter up will soon be rewarded for his enterprise.

For I believe the book to be a little cla.s.sic in its way, and that it will go on making for itself a place in the libraries of those who understand children, and will hold that place permanently.

This is the verdict of competent literary judges. I am spared the necessity of attempting a discussion of the grounds on which so strong an opinion of Leamy's fairy tales is based by the fact that this is already done in Mr. T. P. Gill's Introductory Note. Mr. Gill, though he was, like myself, one of Leamy's intimate friends, is a conscientious critic, and to his a.n.a.lysis not merely of the "Tales," but of that attractive personality which Leamy infused into all he said or wrote I can safely refer the reader. I think no one of taste and judgment who reads these Tales will fail to agree with the view which is expressed in that Note and which I here, with some confidence, venture to reiterate.

My chief hope with regard to this American edition is that when it has made its mark with the general public, as it is sure to do, it will be taken note of by those who are specially concerned with education.

Leamy, while a public man, a patriot steeped in the lore of Ireland's past and ever weaving generous visions for her future, was before all things else a child-lover. That was his own, his peculiar endowment.

He had an exquisite gift with children and seemed always able to speak directly with the higher parts of their nature. It is this, I think, which is evident in every page of these Tales, and which gives the book its unique character. One to whose judgment on an educational matter I attach the greatest value writes to me these words: "For refining influence, for power to stimulate the sense of beauty, the tenderness, the sentiment of n.o.bleness of the child-soul, I can imagine no volume more worthy of a place on the book-shelf of the people's schools."

Having myself often witnessed this influence at work, I can emphatically indorse this opinion. I say I hope American educators may agree with it, for if they do our educators here at home will follow so distinguished a lead.

Of Edmund Leamy, in his personal aspect, I have already said something in my preface to the Dublin edition. I need only add here that this true-hearted Irishman had many friends on the American continent, and that to them this little flower of his genius will be a vivid and abiding souvenir of one of the most lovable of men.

If this book have the success in America which it deserves--and I hope that success may be extended to Canada and the Australias--I believe a charming and enn.o.bling boon will have been conferred upon the child-life of these great communities; and it will be a source of gratification to those who were the author's friends and colleagues to think that that gift came from one by whose side we had the honor to serve in Ireland's struggles.

J. E. REDMOND.

Aughavannagh, _June, 1911_.

THE GOLDEN SPEARS

Once upon a time there lived in a little house under a hill a little old woman and her two children, whose names were Connla and Nora. Right in front of the door of the little house lay a pleasant meadow, and beyond the meadow rose up to the skies a mountain whose top was sharp-pointed like a spear. For more than halfway up it was clad with heather, and when the heather was in bloom it looked like a purple robe falling from the shoulders of the mountain down to its feet. Above the heather it was bare and gray, but when the sun was sinking in the sea, its last rays rested on the bare mountain top and made it gleam like a spear of gold, and so the children always called it the "Golden Spear."

In summer days they gamboled in the meadow, plucking the sweet wild gra.s.ses--and often and often they clambered up the mountain side, knee deep in the heather, searching for frechans and wild honey, and sometimes they found a bird's nest--but they only peeped into it, they never touched the eggs or allowed their breath to fall upon them, for next to their little mother they loved the mountain, and next to the mountain they loved the wild birds who made the spring and summer weather musical with their songs.

Sometimes the soft white mist would steal through the glen, and creeping up the mountain would cover it with a veil so dense that the children could not see it, and then they would say to each other: "Our mountain is gone away from us." But when the mist would lift and float off into the skies, the children would clap their hands, and say: "Oh, there's our mountain back again."

In the long nights of winter they babbled of the spring and summertime to come, when the birds would once more sing for them, and never a day pa.s.sed that they didn't fling crumbs outside their door, and on the borders of the wood that stretched away towards the glen.

When the spring days came they awoke with the first light of the morning, and they knew the very minute when the lark would begin to sing, and when the thrush and the blackbird would pour out their liquid notes, and when the robin would make the soft, green, tender leaves tremulous at his song.

It chanced one day that when they were resting in the noontide heat, under the perfumed shade of a hawthorn in bloom, they saw on the edge of the meadow, spread out before them, a speckled thrush cowering in the gra.s.s.

"Oh, Connla! Connla! Look at the thrush--and, look, look up in the sky, there is a hawk!" cried Nora.

Connla looked up, and he saw the hawk with quivering wings, and he knew that in a second it would pounce down on the frightened thrush.

He jumped to his feet, fixed a stone in his sling, and before the whir of the stone shooting through the air was silent, the stricken hawk tumbled headlong in the gra.s.s.

The thrush, shaking its wings, rose joyously in the air, and perching upon an elm-tree in sight of the children, he sang a song so sweet that they left the hawthorn shade and walked along together until they stood under the branches of the elm; and they listened and listened to the thrush's song, and at last Nora said:

"Oh, Connla! did you ever hear a song so sweet as this?"

"No," said Connla, "and I do believe sweeter music was never heard before."

"Ah," said the thrush, "that's because you never heard the nine little pipers playing. And now, Connla and Nora, you saved my life to-day."

"It was Nora saved it," said Connla, "for she pointed you out to me, and also pointed out the hawk which was about to pounce on you."

"It was Connla saved you," said Nora, "for he slew the hawk with his sling."

"I owe my life to both of you," said the thrush. "You like my song, and you say you have never heard anything so sweet; but wait till you hear the nine little pipers playing."

"And when shall we hear them?" said the children.

"Well," said the thrush, "sit outside your door to-morrow evening, and wait and watch until the shadows have crept up the heather, and then, when the mountain top is gleaming like a golden spear, look at the line where the shadow on the heather meets the sunshine, and you shall see what you shall see."

And having said this, the thrush sang another song sweeter than the first, and then saying "good-by," he flew away into the woods.

The children went home, and all night long they were dreaming of the thrush and the nine little pipers; and when the birds sang in the morning, they got up and went out into the meadow to watch the mountain.

The sun was shining in a cloudless sky, and no shadows lay on the mountain, and all day long they watched and waited, and at last, when the birds were singing their farewell song to the evening star, the children saw the shadows marching from the glen, trooping up the mountain side and dimming the purple of the heather.

And when the mountain top gleamed like a golden spear, they fixed their eyes on the line between the shadow and the sunshine.

"Now," said Connla, "the time has come."

"Oh, look! look!" said Nora, and as she spoke, just above the line of shadow a door opened out, and through its portals came a little piper dressed in green and gold. He stepped down, followed by another and another, until they were nine in all, and then the door slung back again. Down through the heather marched the pipers in single file, and all the time they played a music so sweet that the birds, who had gone to sleep in their nests, came out upon the branches to listen to them, and then they crossed the meadow, and they went on and on until they disappeared in the leafy woods.

While they were pa.s.sing the children were spellbound, and couldn't speak, but when the music had died away in the woods, they said:

"The thrush is right, that is the sweetest music that was ever heard in all the world."

And when the children went to bed that night the fairy music came to them in their dreams. But when the morning broke, and they looked out upon their mountain and could see no trace of the door above the heather, they asked each other whether they had really seen the little pipers, or only dreamt of them.

That day they went out into the woods, and they sat beside a stream that pattered along beneath the trees, and through the leaves tossing in the breeze the sun flashed down upon the streamlet, and shadow and sunshine danced upon it. As the children watched the water sparkling where the sunlight fell, Nora said:

"Oh, Connla, did you ever see anything so bright and clear and glancing as that?"

"No," said Connla, "I never did."

"That's because you never saw the crystal hall of the fairy of the mountains," said a voice above the heads of the children.

And when they looked up, who should they see perched on a branch but the thrush.

"And where is the crystal hall of the fairy?" said Connla.

"Oh, it is where it always was, and where it always will be," said the thrush. "And you can see it if you like."

"We would like to see it," said the children.