Poems (Piatt)/Volume 2/The Fairy's Gift
THE FAIRY'S GIFT.A STORY TOLD TO A LITTLE BOY.
Above his cradle such a glimmer of green As might be worn in May by elfin folkHis mother in the dew had sometimes seen, And in her heart she knew their threshold oak Held some leaf-coloured eerie hood and cloak.
For once, when in a wood at dusk she found And cared with tears for the forlornest bird,That sang the sweeter through the huntsman's wound, A promise made of music she had heard— Too fine to trust to any mortal word.
But through the window of a dream, alack! Her brooding secret flew at last; and whenCould any woman call a secret back? Her peasant husband lordliest of men Grew, as he whispered the weird story, then.
He talked of days when under his own vine (The fig-tree did not grow in that North land)He should sit down and drink a baron's wine, Or climb his feudal stairs, you understand, With gold to scatter from his gracious hand.
Meanwhile he folded his strong arms and swore The earth might all run wild, he did not care;For he had seen, just three times and no more, Under the moon, around his baby's hair A coil of gold such as a king might wear
And the young Princess Beautiful (even she, The one you know!) would certainly come downFrom her dim palace, in the time to be, And kindly offer him her father's crown; Spite of that aged man's imperial frown.
So year by year, as blacker grew the bread, The growing boy seemed stronger, I confess;Though with what fare the gentle child was fed The wisest of the people could not guess. (Did honey-dews drop in that wilderness?)
Oh, much the women wondered that they found So little beauty in his brown, shy face.How should a head like his be ever crowned When there were brighter almost any place? (True, he was half a bird in voice and grace.)
Yet if he only touched the wildest rose The blossom seemed enchanted by his hand.. . . And still the Princess came not. I suppose She feared her greybeard father, whose command Had bound the wrong ring on her hapless hand.
But once in a rude chapel there had been A wedding. He was not the groom that day.The loveliest maiden that was ever seen Lifted her eyes, and as he looked away His face flushed like a flower, the old people say.
What did he do? As years and years went by He tended sheep for some small insolent lord(And loved the lambs), until there went a cry That said: "There is no help—take up the sword." Was he a General, too? No, on my word!
And in the fight, with his last breath he sent The water that his mouth had burned for soUnto another soldier. Oh, I meant Sir Philip Sidney? But I did not, though:— I meant a greater with no name, you know.
The people murmured after he was dead, Saying, "He helped us. Did the Fairy, then,Forget to help him?" But a faint voice said, Out of his mother's lips, "I say again, Never did Fairy break an oath to men.
"The sweetest gift she promised him—and, oh! The sweetest gift she gave him upon earth.Could this be gold or glory? Surely, no; Your king could tell you what these things are worth, Shivering to-night beside his lonesome hearth."
What can it be, then, if it was not gold, Nor pearl, nor anything,—you ask of me?The sweetest thing on earth you cannot hold Out in your hand for all the world to see. He hid it in his heart. What could it be?