THE PHANTOM DEER
“Do you hunt alone to-day, O Red Richard!
Pray you tell me, do you hunt all your lone?”
“Ay, I am for the chase, little cousin,
And wish no other spearing save my own.”
“And whither are you going, O Red Richard!
That I may from the terrace watch your way?”
“All deep within the magic woods of Toonagh,
It is there that my hunting is to-day.”
He vaulted to the saddle of his palfrey,
And laid across his arm the bridle-rein;
And he drew her to his knee, all fair and rosy,
Laughed—“A kiss, child, to bring me home again.”
Then he rode on all so gay, so forgetting,
His light kiss as a flame upon her cheek;
But she went back alone into her chamber,
There to weep like her tender heart would break.
“O my love! though you love me not, Red Richard,
As you ride with your heart all whole and gay”—
She drew from her breast a magic potion,
Saying, “Sweet will your hunting be to-day.”
“Three drops for you I drink, O Cousin Richard!
Three drops that you may have your heart's desire;
As a white deer I shall spring the glades before you.
Right merry shall you follow till you tire.”
