ed
to it. Ruskin wrote the story in 1841, at a
"couple of sittings," though it was not
published until ten years later. Speaking of it
later in life, he said that it "was written to
amuse a little girl; and being a fairly good
imitation of Grimm and Dickens, mixed with a
little true Alpine feeling of my own, it has
been rightly pleasing to nice children, and
good for them. But it is totally valueless, for
all that. I can no more write a story than
compose a picture." The final statement may be
taken for what it is worth, written as it was
at a time of disillusionment. The first part of
Ruskin's analysis is certainly true and has
been thus expanded by his biographer, Sir E. T.
Cook: "The grotesque and the German setting of
the tale were taken from Grimm; from Dickens it
took its tone of pervading kindliness and
geniality. The Alpine ecstasy and the eager
pressing of the moral were Ruskin's own; and so
also is the style, delicately poised between
poetry and comedy."

THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER OR THE BLACK BROTHERS

JOHN RUSKIN

CHAPTER I

HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED WITH BY
SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQUIRE

In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria there was, in old time, a
valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was
surrounded, on all sides, by steep and rocky mountains, rising into
peaks, which were always covered with snow, and from which a number of
torrents descended in constant cataracts. One of these fell westward,
over the face of a crag so high, that, when the sun had set to
everything else, and all below was darkness, his beams still shone full
upon this waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of gold. It was,
therefore, called by the people of the neighborhood, the Golden River.
It was strange that none of these streams fell into the valley itself.
They all descended on the other side of the mountains, and wound away
through broad plains and by populous cities. But the clouds were drawn
so constantly to the snowy hills, and rested so softly in the circular
hollow, that in time of drought and heat, when all the country round was
burnt up, there was still rain in the little valley; and its crops were
so heavy, and its hay so high, and its apples so red, and its grapes