The Youth of Jefferson Part 51

"Oh, my goodness! just look there!"

"What is it?" asked the company.

"There, through the window," said little Martha, blushing at the attention she excited.

"What?"

"That horse with ribbons!"

The company gazed through the window, and began to laugh. There indeed was the horse of Jacques, splendid in all the colors of the rainbow, pawing and tossing his head as the groom led him away.

"A little romance of mine," said Jacques, smiling; "I trust 'tis not considered in bad taste--I had a crook----"

"A crook?"

"Yes, wreathed with flowers, as was the custom, I believe, in Arcadia; but I feared it would attract attention in the town, and I left it,"

said Jacques, with lamblike innocence.

This sally was greeted with tumultuous applause.

"A crook!" cried the damsels.

"An excellent idea!"

"So sylvan!"

"And so appropriate!"

"We may have as many as we fancy, I believe," said Jacques, smiling; "I have prepared a number as an introduction to the festival: they are in the garden, ladies, already wreathed with flowers!"

The company rose in a ma.s.s to go and get them, and soon they were in the garden; then scattered over the lawn; then every where, laughing, making merry, and behaving like a crowd of children released from school. The damsels acted shepherdesses to perfection, and closely resembled the pictures we are accustomed to see upon the fans which ladies use even to the present day. Their little airs of sylvan simplicity were very pretty; and the gallant gentlemen were not backward in their part. They bowed and simpered until they resembled so many supple-jacks, pulled by the finger of a child.

"Look," said Jacques to Belle-bouche, and sighing slightly as he gazed upon the fresh beauty of her face; "see those lovers yonder----"

"Lovers?" said Belle-bouche, smiling.

"I am not mistaken, I think," said Jacques; "yes, yes, my queen, they are lovers. Do you not think that something like that which I spoke of formerly will come to pa.s.s?"

Belle-bouche, with a delicious little rose-color brightening her cheek, replied, patting her satin-sandalled foot upon the flowery sward:

"Which you spoke of--pray, what did you speak of?"

"Of my wish to be a shepherd----"

"Ah--a shepherd," said Belle-bouche, removing a cherry blossom from her hair, and smiling.

"Yes, my lovely queen," said Jacques, with great readiness; "I wished to be a shepherd and have a crook----"

"Oh, sir!"

"And that my Arcadian love should also have one and draw me--so that pa.s.sing through the fields----"

"Oh, yes----"

"I might kiss her hand----"

"Yes, yes----"

"And pa.s.sing through the forests wrap her in my cloak----"

Belle-bouche laughed.

"And crossing the streams on narrow moss-clad logs, support her with my arm--as the dearest and most blessed treasure upon earth!" cried Jacques, seizing the hand of Belle-bouche, which hung down, and enraptured that she did not withdraw it.

Belle-bouche understood perfectly that Jacques referred to their meeting on that day when she had been reading in the forest, and had fled from him across the stream. Her roseate blush betrayed her.

"If only that bright dream of love could be a reality for me!" he whispered; "if one I love so----"

"Oh, Miss Bel! the girls sent for you--the pyramid is ready!" cried the merry voice of little Martha.

And running toward Belle-bouche, the girl told her that they really must have her in the garden "before the procession commenced."

Poor Jacques drew back groaning.

"There's another chance gone!" he sighed; "what luck I have! I'm always interrupted, and the fates are leagued against me."

Belle-bouche left him with a blush and a smile, and disappeared.

Ten minutes afterwards the company had rea.s.sembled on the lawn, and seemed to be anxiously expecting something.

This something suddenly made its appearance, and advanced into the open s.p.a.ce with merriment and laughter.

It was a party of young girls who, clad in all the colors of the rainbow, bore in their midst a pyramid of silver dishes wreathed with flowers, and overflowing with strawberries and early fruits. It was a revival of the old May-day ceremonies in London, when the milkmaids wreathed their buckets with flowers, and pa.s.sed from door to door, singing and asking presents. Jacques had arranged it all--the philosophic and antiquarian Jacques; and with equal taste he had selected the beautiful verses of Marlow or Shakspeare, for the chorus of maidens.

The maidens approached the company, therefore, merrily singing, in their childlike voices, the song:

"Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, or hills, or fields, Or woods and steepy mountains yields;

"Where we will sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed our flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.

"And I will make thee beds of roses, And then a thousand fragrant posies; A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

"A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Slippers lined choicely for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold;

"A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my love."

As the song ended, little Martha came forth from the throng, and holding in her hand a small crook, went round with a very laughing face asking charity from the applauding company.