White Myrtles by a Deserted House (verse)
Ray, Louise Crenshaw
December I, I926 THE COMMONWEAL lO3 PRINCESS AND PEDDLER By MARIE GALLAGHER ~'THE Princess is coming I" drawled the two bronze at giraffes at each side of the palace door. "The Princess is...
...The Princess--" began the giraffes, but the Peddler interrupted them with a loud voice, and the giraffes were not angry at all, for rudeness was quite per- missible in a peddler...
...In other Mays Soft eyes gazed from those darkened squares And smiled to see your fluted sprays . . . The villagers can never know As I, of faun and dryad born, What yonder haunted blossoms see Beyond the blinds this summer morn...
...No, I am not," repeated the Peddler before he had half heard what they were saying...
...There are many treasures to be bought, but no other like mine, and I have brought it from the far parts of the world for you," he said to the white curtain...
...But they moved away and eyed him suspiciously over the purple and green screen of their fine tails...
...The sun and the moon and this marble palace are fine, beautiful things," he admitted, "but my treas- ure is more wonderful than any of them...
...shrieked the peacocks, spreading wide their purple and green tails...
...I have an almost priceless treasure for the Princess to buy," he said...
...The peacocks moved haughtily nearer the palace...
...It is the most beautiful treasure in the world, and it is not for sale to any princess but you," explained the Peddler to the curtain which no longer fluttered...
...You must be a prince in disguise," marveled the ivy...
...But the Princess did not appear...
...The Prince is coming l" drawled the two bronze giraffes at each side of the palace door...
...The Princess thinks that you are," reproved the giraffes...
...And he had an easy grace that the wearing of rags must have given him...
...No," replied the Peddler...
...I have an almost prieeless treasure for the Prin- cess to buy," he said with a low bow to the peacocks...
...No, I am not," declared the Peddler...
...The Princess will not buy your treasure," whis-pered the ivy in tones of dismissal...
...What princess would want an almost priceless treasure...
...Only a prince would accept such a drenching with equanimity...
...The Princess is coming...
...December I, I926 THE COMMONWEAL lO3 PRINCESS AND PEDDLER By MARIE GALLAGHER ~'THE Princess is coming I" drawled the two bronze at giraffes at each side of the palace door...
...cried the ivy...
...If it were priceless not even a princess could buy it...
...The giraffes stretched their necks like bronze trump- ets and announced to the palace and all who should care to hear it: "The Peddler has an almost priceless treasure for the Princess to buy...
...Suddenly there was an excited trembling among the ivy, and the giraffes stretched their long necks and cleared their throats...
...Instead, there came sauntering down the garden path between the indignant peacocks, a peddler...
...LoulsE CRENSHAW RAY...
...Go away quickly, the Princess is losing her tem-per...
...There is no princess anywhere who can'buy my treasure but you," he continued, without shaking, him- self free from one single drop of water...
...And there he stood, dripping and looking up at that far-away window, and trying to sell his treasure...
...A faint sigh fluttered out from the palace...
...She is watching from the window," warned the ivy...
...I have a treasure that only a princess can buy," said the Peddler, addressing a white fluttering curtain at a window high up in the palace wail...
...And when he came before the two bronze giraffes, he bowed...
...And I am no prince to be giving gifts to prin-cesses," said the Peddler...
...You are a prince, aren't you...
...q4;hite Myrtles by a Deserted House Why do your pallid faces press Against the pane...
...asked the ivy...
...The Princess thinks that you are a prince in dis- guise," communicated the ivy...
...Do not tell a lie," admonished the giraffes...
...The Princess is coming l" murmured the ivy, in a court whisper, clinging to the palace wall...
...The Prince is coming," murmured the ivy in a court whisper, clinging to the palace wall...
...And he had rags on his body in the form of breeches and doublet and rags on his feet in the form of shoes, and patches of his brown skin showed through them...
...He had rags on his head in the form of a hat, and all his bright hair shone through them...
...No," replied the Peddler...
...Oh, if the Princess thinks so, I am," murmured the Peddler, with a suddenly princelike air...
...The Princess is watching from the window," an-nounced the giraffes...
...tained window high up in the palace wall, came a shower of cold water and it went through all the Peddler's rags and glistened in his bright hair and on his brown patches of skin...
...With a smile that the peacocks did not understand, the Peddler left them and approached nearer the palace...
...And the Peddler entered through the palace door...
...asked the ivy scornfully...
...But it was too late, for down from the white cur...
...The Prince is coming l" shrieked the peacocks, waving their purple and green tails...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 4
