King Midas: A Romance | Page 6

when you wrote it, but now the spring has come,
and we must be happy. You have heard the springtime song."
"Yes," said Arthur, "and the streamlet has led me to the beautiful
sight."
"It is beautiful," said Helen, gazing about her with that naive
unconsciousness which "every wise man's son doth know" is one thing
he may never trust in a woman. "It could not be more beautiful," she
added, "and you must write me something about it, instead of
wandering around our pasture-pond on winter nights till your
imagination turns it into a frozen lake."
The young poet put away his papers rather suddenly at that, and Helen,
after gazing at him for a moment, and laughing to herself, sprang up
from the seat.
"Come!" she cried, "why are we sitting here, anyway, talking about all
sorts of things, and forgetting the springtime altogether? I haven't been
half as happy yet as I mean to be."
She seemed to have forgotten her friend's twelve mile walk; but he had
forgotten it too, just as he soon forgot the rather wintry reception of his
little song. It was not possible for him to remain dull very long in the

presence of the girl's glowing energy; for once upon her feet, Helen's
dancing mood seemed to come back to her, if indeed it had ever more
than half left her. The brooklet struck up the measure again, and the
wind shook the trees far above them, to tell that it was still awake, and
the girl was the very spirit of the springtime once more.
"Oh, Arthur," she said as she led him down the path, "just think how
happy I ought to be, to welcome all the old things after so long, and to
find them all so beautiful; it is just as if the country had put on its finest
dress to give me greeting, and I feel as if I were not half gay enough in
return. Just think what this springtime is, how all over the country
everything is growing and rejoicing; that is what I want you to put into
the poem for me."
And so she led him on into the forest, carried on by joy herself, and
taking all things into her song. She did not notice that the young man's
forehead was flushed, or that his hand was burning when she took it in
hers as they walked; if she noticed it, she chose at any rate to pretend
not to. She sang to him about the forest and the flowers, and some more
of the merry song which she had sung before; then she stopped to shake
her head at a saucy adder's tongue that thrust its yellow face up through
the dead leaves at her feet, and to ask that wisest-looking of all flowers
what secrets it knew about the spring-time. Later on they came to a
place where the brook fled faster, sparkling brightly in the sunlight over
its shallow bed of pebbles; it was only her runaway caroling that could
keep pace with that, and so her glee mounted higher, the young man at
her side half in a trance, watching her laughing face and drinking in the
sound of her voice.
How long that might have lasted there is no telling, had it not been that
the woods came to an end, disclosing more open fields and a village
beyond. "We'd better not go any farther," said Helen, laughing; "if any
of the earth creatures should hear us carrying on they would not know it
was 'Trunkenheit ohne Wein.'"
She stretched out her hand to her companion, and led him to a seat
upon a fallen log nearby. "Poor boy," she said, "I forgot that you were
supposed to be tired."
"It does not make any difference," was the reply; "I hadn't thought of
it."
"There's no need to walk farther," said Helen, "for I've seen all that I

wish to see. How dear this walk ought to be to us, Arthur!"
"I do not know about you, Helen," said the young man, "but it has been
dear to me indeed. I could not tell you how many times I have walked
over it, all alone, since you left; and I used to think about the many
times I had walked it with you. You haven't forgotten, Helen, have
you?"
"No," said Helen.
"Not one?"
"Not one."
The young man was resting his head upon his hand and gazing steadily
at the girl.
"Do you remember, Helen--?" He stopped; and she turned with her
bright clear eyes and gazed into his.
"Remember what?" she asked.
"Do you remember the last time we took it, Helen?"
She flushed a trifle, and half involuntarily turned her glance away
again.
"Do you