FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   >>  
in a brown crock; "there is no town near us." "But there must be!" she persisted; "you are teasing me. There are always towns, and they are never far from each other in these parts." "I do not know them, then," said the Dame, gathering her keys and leaving the dairy, "though in truth, my dear, I am a poor judge of such matters, for beyond the Farm--and it is large--I do not go, being too busy always." "Do you mean," she cried, following through the barnyard, "that you spend all the seasons on this Farm? It is not possible!" "And why is it not possible?" the Dame asked, looking at her for the first time a little sternly, and she saw that in spite of her smooth country skin she was a woman of middle age; "the seasons are all full. In the spring there is planting, in the summer there is picking, in the autumn there is storing, in the winter there is spinning." Now these were simple words and plain to understand, and yet something about them troubled her greatly and she felt that she must find an answer for them or know no peace at all. "That is all very well," she said quickly, "but you are leaving out something without which all the seasons are empty and the year a dull affair." "And what is that, then?" asked the Dame. "Pleasure," she said. "I find pleasure in them all," the Dame said, "and so do those about me." "But they are all work--they are things that must be done!" she cried, tugging at the Dame's sleeve as she crossed the kitchen threshold; "true pleasure is a thing apart--we must have both, surely." The Dame blew a little silver whistle hanging among her keys and at once there was a bustle and a running and some dozen maids came hurrying from all parts of the rambling farm-house to hear her orders. But before she busied herself with these she spoke to her guest. "My dear," she said, "if you come to my time of life and have not found your pleasure in your work, you will never find it in this world. Sit down and think of this." She sat down upon a carven chest by the open window, where the asters sent out a spicy odour and the hum of bees was not too far distant, and dropped her chin into the cup of her hands and thought. Meantime, the Dame laid out for each girl her task, not hurried nor yet slow, but so that each was started fairly. "You, Lotte, order the cordial-room so that there is room for the new bottles and write them down in the store-book. Remember to leave no drippings
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   >>  



Top keywords:

pleasure

 

seasons

 
leaving
 
orders
 
silver
 

drippings

 

busied

 

Remember

 

whistle

 

surely


hanging

 

running

 

bustle

 

hurrying

 

rambling

 
thought
 

Meantime

 
distant
 

dropped

 
cordial

fairly

 

started

 
hurried
 

bottles

 

carven

 

threshold

 

window

 

asters

 

greatly

 

barnyard


country

 
middle
 

smooth

 

sternly

 

persisted

 

teasing

 

gathering

 

matters

 

quickly

 

affair


sleeve

 

crossed

 

tugging

 

Pleasure

 

things

 

autumn

 
storing
 
winter
 
spinning
 

picking