cover that your interest had been chiefly attracted by her large, dark eyes. So wonderful were Pippa's eyes that you could never find all that they expressed. If you tried to read their meaning they would tell you much of the play-dreams with which the little girl relieved the long, monotonous hours spent in the silk-mills. In these games of the fancy, you could well believe, Pippa's thoughts would wander far away from the work of her deft fingers, and she would then become her own little mistress, free to take her pleasure where she chose. Sometimes, perhaps, she would steal away in imagination from the "wearisome silk-winding, coil on coil," far into the depths of the silent woods, where she could close her eyes, and rest under the shelter of the friendly trees. Probably a favorite game was to pretend that she was rich old Luca, owner of ten silk-mills. She would not be hardhearted like Luca, though, but would go about among the silk-workers giving freely of her plenty and even more bountifully of kindly words and looks. At such times her eyes would shine with the soft radiance that never quite left them. Yet Pippa was not a mere dreamer. She could not afford to be idle-minded, for she needed to make her own way in the world. Indeed, in thus providing for herself she must have become more practical than many other girls. However, if she seems to be unusually fanciful and old-fashioned, remember that she lived alone and had to make her own thoughts take the place of friends and teachers. INTRODUCTORY SCENE T is scarcely an hour past dawn on New Year's Day3 in Asolo. Pippa springs lightly from her bed and, as she dresses, gazes with eager interest through the window that opens toward the east. There, far across the valley that lies between, for Asolo is built on a hillside, the sun is mounting above a somber cloud and filling the world with its brightness. So clear is the air that were you looking straight to the southward you could see the city of Padua, lying twenty-five miles distant; and so blue is the sky that you can think only of the blue of deep waters, softened of all its glare. Across a corner of the window extends a branch of a mulberry tree swaying so slightly that it flutters the leaves with a gentle beckoning motion, as if it were calling Pippa into the gladness of the out-of-door world. On the window sill is blooming a flame-red martagon* that glows in the brilliance of the sunshine. By contrast with the cheerful scene outside, the great, bare room that Pippa calls her home seems more than usually plain and dingy. It is an uncarpeted attic, and meagerly furnished with scarcely more than a cheap little bed, an unsteady table bearing a pitcher and a basin, an old cupboard in one corner, and a battered chair or two. Yet not even the dreariness of these surroundings nor the 3. New Year's Day in Italy, it must be remembered, may be like a warm spring day in the more northerly latitudes of the United States. 4. A martagon is a kind of lily. scantiness of the meal of bread and milk, which is all that the nearly empty cupboard shelves afford, can take away the least part of the joy she feels in this day's freedom, for is it not her only holiday, the one brief vacation allowed the silk-workers through all the long twelve months? This day is her own, to do with as she likes. Not one of the bright hours shall be wasted, not precious moments shall be lost. herself, Pippa welcomes her New Year's Day: even one of the Thus musing to "Thy long blue solemn hours serenely flowing, Whence earth, we feel, gets steady help and good Thy fitful sunshine-minutes, coming, going, In which earth turns from work in gamesome mood All shall be mine! But thou must treat me not 5. "Make general plenty cure particular dearth"-that is, "let particular loss or disappointment be forgotten in enjoying the many opportunities of pleasure that come to one." What were all earth else with a feel of heaven; Sole light that helps me through the year, thy sun's! Try, now! Take Asolo's Four Happiest Ones- And, morning past, if midday shed a gloom Q'er Jules and Phene, what care bride and groom Save for their dear selves? 'Tis their marriageday; And while they leave church, and go home their way Hand clasping hand, within each breast would be With mist, will Luigi and his mother grieve- For true content? The cheerful town, warm, close, And safe, the sooner that thou art morose, Receives them! And yet once again, outbreak In storm at night on Monsignor they make Such stir about-whom they expect from Rome To visit Asolo, his brother's home, And say here masses proper to release A soul from pain-what storm dares hurt his peace? 6. Feel here means feeling. Calm would he pray, with his own thoughts to ward Thy thunder off, nor want the angels' guard. But Pippa-just one such mischance would spoil Her day that lightens the next twelvemonth's toil At wearisome silk-winding, coil on coil! "And here I let time slip for nought! One splash of water ruins you asleep, Whoever it was quenched fire first, hoped to see As merrily, as giddily— Meantime, what lights my sunbeam on? New-blown and ruddy as Saint Agnes"" nipple, Plump as the flesh-bunch on some Turk bird's poll!10 7. A ewer is a water pitcher, especially one used to provide water for the toilet. 8. Radiant cripple, the broken sunbeam. 9. Saint Agnes, a Christian martyr, beheaded in the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Her great beauty brought her many suitors, all of whom, however, she refused because of her consecration to the Christian life. 10. The flesh-bunch on some Turk bird's poll, the crest on the bird's head. |