The Pot of Gold | Page 4

foot on the dark
green hill?"
Flax heard the maple leaves inquire. And the pine-leaves answered
back:
"'Tis the Pot of Gold, that for many a year Has shone, and is shining
and dazzling still."
Then the maple-leaves asked:
"And whom is it for, O Pilgrim, pray?"
And the pine-leaves answered:
"For thee, Sweetheart, should'st thou go that way."

Flax did not exactly understand the sense of the last question and
answer between maple and pine-leaves. But they kept on saying it over
and over as she ran along. She was going straight to the tall pine-tree.
She knew just where it was, for she had often been there. Now the
rain-drops began to splash through the green boughs, and the thunder
rolled along the sky. The leaves all tossed about in a strong wind and
their soft rustles grew into a roar, and the branches and the whole tree
caught it up and called out so loud as they writhed and twisted about
that Flax was almost deafened, the words of the song:
"O what is it shineth so golden-clear?"
Flax sped along through the wind and the rain and the thunder. She was
very much afraid that she should not reach the tall pine which was quite
a way distant before the sun shone out, and the rainbow came.
The sun was already breaking through the clouds when she came in
sight of it, way up above her on a rock. The rain-drops on the trees
began to shine like diamonds, and the words of the song rushed out
from their midst, louder and sweeter:
"O what is it shineth so golden-clear?"
Flax climbed for dear life. Red and green and golden rays were already
falling thick around her, and at the foot of the pine-tree something was
shining wonderfully clear and bright.
At last she reached it, and just at that instant the rainbow became a
perfect one, and there at the foot of the wonderful arch of glory was the
Pot of Gold. Flax could see it brighter than all the brightness of the
rainbow. She sank down beside it and put her hand on it, then she
closed her eyes and sat still, bathed in red and green and violet
light--that, and the golden light from the Pot, made her blind and dizzy.
As she sat there with her hand on the Pot of Gold at the foot of the
rainbow, she could hear the leaves over her singing louder and louder,
till the tones fairly rushed like a wind through her ears. But this time
they only sang the last words of the song:

"And whom is it for, O Pilgrim, pray? For thee, Sweetheart, should'st
thou go that way."
At last she ventured to open her eyes. The rainbow had faded almost
entirely away, only a few tender rose and green shades were arching
over her; but the Pot of Gold under her hand was still there, and shining
brighter than ever. All the pine needles with which the ground around it
was thickly spread, were turned to needles of gold, and some stray
couplets of leaves which were springing up through them were all
gilded.
Flax bent over it trembling and lifted the lid off the pot. She expected,
of course, to find it full of gold pieces that would buy the grand house
and the gardener and the maid that her father had spoken about. But to
her astonishment, when she had lifted the lid off and bent over the Pot
to look into it, the first thing she saw was the face of her mother
looking out of it at her. It was smaller of course, but just the same
loving, kindly face she had left at home. Then, as she looked longer,
she saw her father smiling gently up at her, then came Poppy and the
baby and all the rest of her dear little brothers and sisters smiling up at
her out of the golden gloom inside the Pot. At last she actually saw the
garden and her father in it tying up the roses, and the pretty little
vine-covered house, and, finally, she could see right into the dear little
room where her mother sat with the baby in her lap, and all the others
around her.
Flax jumped up. "I will run home," said she, "it is late, and I do want to
see them all dreadfully."
So she left the Golden Pot shining all alone under the pine-tree, and ran
home as fast as she could.
When she reached the house it was almost twilight, but her father was
still in the garden. Every rose and lily had to be tied up after the shower,
and he was but just finishing. He had the tin milk pan