Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/249

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE FARM.
237

was removed, the children had brought out Miss Susannah's harp. She began, without affectation, to play and sing to the children, as was her custom of an afternoon, first in their own language, and their national melodies, then in English; but she was soon interrupted by a general call of little voices for "Ouf! di giorno." She complied with the request, and sang the ballad from Paër's Camilla: Un dì carco il mulinaro.[1] The

  1. In this ballad, the terrors of the Black Forest are narrated to an assemblage of domestics and peasants, who, at the end of every stanza, dance in a circle round the narrator. The second stanza is as follows:
    Una notte in un stradotto
    Un incauto s'inoltrò;
    E uno strillo udì di botto
    Che l'orecchio gl'intronò:
    Era l'ombra di sua nonna,
    Che pel naso lo pigliò.
    Ouf! di giorno nè di sera,
    Non passiam la selva nera.
    (Ballano in giro.)