Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/67

Rh

To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?

O sweet content!

O sweet, O sweet content!

Chorus.Work apace, apace, apace,

Honest labor bears a lovely face;

Then, hey nonny, nonny! hey nonny, nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crispéd spring?

O sweet content!

Swimm’st thou in wealth, yet sink’st in thine own tears?

O punishment!

Then he that patiently want’s burden bears,

No burden bears, but is a king, a king!

O sweet content!

O sweet, O sweet content!

Chorus.Work apace,” etc.

As the hunting party swept by, Griselda looked up, and noted again, as had happened several mornings before, that the penetrating eyes of the handsome Duke were fixed on her.

“I fear he is angry that we sit so near his path,” mused Griselda. “How his eyes look into one’s soul. His gaze really makes me tremble. I will not sit here on his return, lest it be displeasing to him.”

Before the hunt was fairly out of sight, a gossiping neighbor came to the hut of Janiculo, to tell the good news. Now, indeed, the Duke was really going to wed. He had promised to bring a wife with him when he came back from the hunt. People said he had ridden into the next province, to ask the hand of the Duke’s beautiful daughter in marriage. And it might be depended