sitely Mary, the nurse, kept him! his little white frocks always looking fresh, although he ran about in the grass, trying to catch the chickens. Was any one ever more faithful and steady than that English nurse? She would never allow either the little boy or Memie, both of whom she had the care of at meals, to please their fancy at table until they had first eaten their substantial plate of hominy for breakfast, and soup for dinner. She was repaid for her perseverance by their healthy looks; they being as rosy and rugged as the children of the English Isle itself, — the same as when once, in the far-off summer at Lucca, the Grand Duchess herself stopped to admire "Baby Memie's "* chubby limbs. * See the companion-volume. DURING that taste of not fashionable but country"Newport life," the two girls, in their frequent visits to and plays with their cousins, who lived in the pretty cottage a quarter of a mile distant, although not forgetting the fairies they had left in their far home beyond the sea, became acquainted, and were now occupied, with quite another group. There was a wild, narrow stream running through a pleasant, tangled wood,— the very haunts, they believed, of King Oberon and his fairy-troop. Here they spent a good deal of their time imagining him the lord of a magical island: no one could pass that way without his permission, or enter his fairy-castle without some mysterious "Open sesame." His messenger, Puck, I presume, too, was there, playing his mischievous pranks, and performing elfin messages for his master, King Oberon. Puck was such a mimic and hobgoblin, that he would delude and deceive people, making them think that he was somebody or something else than he really was. He said of himself, "I'll follow you; I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier: Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn Sometimes Puck, in his hobgoblin way, made mistakes in the errands his master gave him to do; and then he caused a great deal of mischief. One of our artists* has represented Puck in marble, as like a cherub baby, sitting good natured *Miss Harriet Hosmer. ly in a toad-stool! but he does not seem to have been such an innocent little creature as that. The queen, Titania, was she not also there, with her attendant fairies, Moth and Cobweb, Peasblossom and Mustard-seed? These were her messengers, as Puck was that of her husband, Oberon : they accompanied her on all occasions, and did her bidding. Titania fell in love once with a strange-looking monster, a human being with an ass's head! She doted on him, and thought his rough voice was as charming as an angel's! Now, all this was a deceit which Oberon had played upon her by means of Puck. He had sent him to put the juice of a certain flower upon her eyelids when she was asleep, that she might become enamoured with the first thing her eyes should fall upon when she awoke; and it proved to be this singular creature. He was really a man; but Puck had fastened the head of an ass upon him, and made this curious metamorphosis! But Titania did not know the de ception, and she thought him as beautiful as pos sible. She said to him, "Out of this wood do not desire to go: Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate: The summer still doth tend upon my state. And I do love thee: therefore go with me. I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee; And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, And I will purge thy mortal grossness so, That thou shalt like an airy spirit go." Then she called her attendants, "Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed!" They all answered, "Ready!" "Here!" "Where shall we go? "Be kind and courteous to this gentleman: |