LEGEND OF THE STONE MAIDEN.[*]
“Do you hear the church-bells ringing,
Ringing from the distant mart?
With their metal tongues they’re singing,
“Give the Lord alone thy heart!”
Petronella, take thy mass book,
It is time that we should start.”
“Oh, no, granny, I am going
Where the strawberries are ripe.
Midst the green leaves they are glowing
Like a crimson velvet stripe;
In the forest there are flowers,
Violets, and gipsies pipe.”
“Oh, my child, are you lightheaded?
Why to-day is St. John morn,
Think of him who was beheaded
In his prison cell forlorn.
Be not like that wanton maiden—
Better she was never born!”
“Oh, dear granny, she was skillful,
And could dance with wondrous grace;
But St. John was very willful,
And he did not know his place.
One should leave kings all their pleasures,
And not blame them to their face.”
↑ * This legend is told in Tetschen, in the valley of the Kante, of a mountain that looks like a girl with a basket.—Chronik von Böhmen, Prague, 1852.
