A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales

day of the month of May, to all who ma

ers, true or false. Secondly, that the facts herein set down be true facts; none the less true that they are stran

ord Robert, and my lady and his lordship had quarrelled-Marian saith, with a great cause, but I cannot herein forbear also expressing my opinion, which is to the effect that for

Lady Margaret's night-gown. On the second occasion, she fled along the kitchen hall, shrieking piteously, and preceded by Doll, the kitchen wench, the latter having in her seeming a certain ghostly appearance, as she was clad only in her shift, which the draughts in the hall inflated to a great size. The poor maid fled affrighted into her room and locked the door behind her; yet when I did essay to assuage the terror of Mistress Butter, identifying Doll and the blue-room ghost as one and the same, she thanked me not, but belabored me in her frenzy with the yet warm iron, which she had instinctively snatched up in her flight; demanding of me at the same time if I had ever seen Doll's nose spout fire, and her eyes spit in her head like hot coals. I being of a necessity compelled to reply "No," Marian further told me that it was thus that the g

transgressed in the matter o' length;

lord, being a flighty lad, although a marvellous fine scholar and well-disposed, did ag

oulder. (My lady was never one for wearing gloves, yet the sun seemed no more to think o' scorching her fair hands than the leaves of a day-lily.) She come

th

thou believe i

ch things, should they wish me harm? O' my word, my brain is no more troubled with ghosts, black or white, than our graciou

all the long black hairs on them stood straight out, like the fring

st thou mean, m

a-holding of her hand level below her eyes, so that sh

or I was somewhat

slug; is

elly, and therewith I drew a pebble over him with my foot, that

to her discourse. "How wouldst thou like that, excellent Master Butter?" But somehow, as I looked at her foot, my mouth, for all I could do, went into a s

that she was making up a face at me, "thou

t tip of her frowzed curls towards the house-"thou knowest also this, Butter, that his lor

ndle, and say I, "My l

I' fecks, Butter," saith she, "'tis a most lustick plot. But I would not thy mome heard us;" and with that she makes me send away Joe, the under-gardener. He being gone, she whispers in my ear how she hath plotted to fright his lordship and Marian into very convulsions of further

that night did I do the bidding o' my young mistress, and-loath am I to speak of it, even at this l

ound, she laid her hands about his feet and wept; and between every sob it was, "Go not, brother, for my fault! Go not, brother, for my fault!" or else, "Robin, Robin, dost not love me enough to forgive me so

, as should all men, an eye to my posterity. It was a great cross to me, as may be thought, to find that all my forethought had been in vain, and that while Turnip, the farrier, had eight as fine lads as one would care to father, of a puny

hat I sate on the threshold), and says she, putting

Marian; "it is I, th

d, my lady sate up on the day-bed and caught hold of her short curls, and cried out, "I have banished

t did the heady boy find some such cause of disagreement with his sister to abide apart from her. But when we saw that in truth he came not back, and that

llop on Robin Hood, and be no more a-weary, come eventide, than myself from a trip 'round the gardens. She swam like a sea-maid, she had fenced even better than her brother, and methinks she was the bonniest shot with a long-bow of any woman in all England. She was but fifteen when my lord left Amhurste for aye, and in the years since she had grown mightily, and was waxed as strong as Marian, and full a h

coldness towards them; speeding them away out o' the sight o' mankind (as they thought), and casting the

eedwell eyes, and a smile to win the love o' any maid in her reason (though, to be sure, my lady was in her reas

that she shall be the richest lady in all England, and maid of honor to th

thou shalt win the Lady Margaret. She careth no more for jewels than she doth for the beads in a rainbow; nor doth she care for riches. And methinks a

er, dost thou believ

t, albeit I was not ignorant in all matters. And he exp

good brew, likewise sage, and some flax is soothi

ear; but being mindful of my station, I laid them aside for the sake o' th' poor lad, and yesterday Marian did bring them to me, with her ten fingers through as many moth-holes. Whereupo

e return of one Lord Denbeigh to Warwickshire-by report as wild a cavalier as ever fought, and a godless body to boot. Marian, who, as I

smuch as 'tis a family name, and he a fire

my lady, with her riding-whip stuck in her glove, and her blood-hound Hearn in a leash. She was much wrought, either with riding or rage, for there was a quick red in h

"'tis not in your mi

and her lips went tighter,

, and let swing her whip. Then did I bid Marian that she leave the room. As for me, it was my duty to stay, though, as I ha

sought'st to bite!" and the hound slunk out. Then turned my mistress to me, and-"Butter," saith she, "yon beast sought to bite an old beggar as we came through the park, so I whipped him. But for naught save cruelty or disobedien

thy fingers." So we heaped the settle with the skins o' white bears, and thereon my lady cast herself, like a flower blown down upon

as I have said, and her pretty head was sleek and yellow, like a butterfly's wing. She was so sound that it appeared to me and Marian as though one longer breath might transform the mimicry into th

t, wife, may not malic

lived-as bloody a rogue as ever lived. They do say as how he'll set

I, "may he no

'll jump at a body's head, and cleave

the poor man is most surely maligned." Where

hat bloody beast o' my lady's, now this bloody villain o' th' devil's. I do wonder

y?" quo

e would have cast her joint-stool at me, had she not been sitting on 't, and my lady's head against her

back we come t

wife, "that causes all Christian folk to abhor him, but he conso

this earl no longer a man, but a swine, and not f

s so pleased withal at having got me to call Lord Denbei

rough the rain to glimpse at, and a brave and a learned; but that he wed a Spani

hou see

to me by the wife o' Humfrey Lem

ked nose be as bad signs in a man as they be in a hor

e is," af

somewhere in me a somet

elieve, Master Butter, that thou'dst

with a great calmness, for I saw

ted she, "for my mistress i

ady, a-rising u

he would hear all the stories concernin