The Rose of Dawn | Page 4

this touch were very flame,?Then slowly, slowly turned, and in her eyes?Gave up his heart's desire. No word was said.?She knew not that she loved, he only knew?She was the moon of women; but their hearts,?Wiser than they, had flowered into one.?Then as she passed beneath the swinging leaves,?He caught the wreath wherewith on Tonga's shore?The maids had crowned him "King of Love and Beauty,"?And cast it from him with a high disdain?Of token other than from Taka's hand.?She laughed to see it, and her step was light?Along the flowery way.
Love in this land?Grows into perfect stature as the swift?Sweet growth of nature. In these gracious souls?Love stood full-armed, godlike, from birth. Their lips?Whispered of life and laughter, but their hearts,?Singing together, told each other clear:
"Ah, Love, dear Love, there is no need to say,?Catch up life's song, its lightest, merriest word,?Pledge deep the golden sun, the breeze and bird,?Draw down long lashes over happy eyes,?That none may guess the light that in them lies,?Nor with what secret smile your lips are stirred.?The moonlight is so short, so long the day,?Nay, Love, dear Love, there is no need to say."
The whole world laughed with flowers overhead,?The sky a hollow sapphire ached with blue,?The green bright sea gave jewels to the sun,?And all the air was love that doting earth?Breathed to the sun, her lover.
In the midst?Two radiant gods with brave, wide eyes, and hair?Crowned with the beatific spring, they stood,--?Taka, the fair, and young Malua, fierce,?Passionate-hearted youth, and passionate youth;?Faltering before her innocent gaze, he cried,?"Dare I adore?" so crystal clear she seemed?A silver dewdrop in the rose of dawn.?And Taka, trembling: "How can he be mine,?So strong, so fair, a god with heart of flame!"?And so they strove against their hearts and lived?Long lives of hope and fear and love's sweet pain?Within a heart-beat. But the time was near!
There in mid-forest, rimmed with leaves jade green,?All singing in the sun,--as deep and brown?As Taka's eyes,--the pool disclosed itself.?Across the clear light of the morning, showers?Of fiery jewels shone against the trees,--?Rubies, bright sapphires, purple amethyst,?Topaz, fierce opal, grass-green emeralds?Flitting and darting;--were they only birds!?Flower made bird or bird made flower, they seemed?To eyes newborn upon a world of love.?The air was heavy with strange scents, the old?Familiar perfumes seemed so rarely sweet,?The jasmine was the very breath of love.?And when they rested on a flowery bank,?And Taka wove the red hibiscus wreath?To crown Malua, as he gazed at her,?Stretched at her feet, his chin upon his hand,?The whole long world had waited but for this.
(_Weaving the rosy wreath._)?"My dream was of thee at sunrise?With light steps over the sea.?Lonely upon the mountain,?I woke from my sleep for thee."
(_Weaving the rosy wreath._)?"The wild dark rocks were round me,?The flowery maids were gone;?I woke, thou--bright as lightning?Beside me--waited the dawn.
"Weaving the rosy wreath,?I weave my life in a dream.?Thou camest through dawn on the sea,?Red flower on a sunlit stream."?(_Weaving the rosy wreath._)
She laid the scarlet wreath upon his hair.?"My King," she whispered, and Malua's eyes--?Boy, spite of all his battles--filled with tears?Wrung from his burdened heart. He caught her hand;?The lake was hushed with noon-tide, far away?A fond bird starred the forest with a cry.?Then Taka turned, and in her eyes a light--?The light of summer moon in water still--?And in her face the glamour of moon and star,?On which the crimson petals of her lips?Lay trembling, eager wings to her new soul,?Love was confessed.
The day went swiftly on.?Malua left her side to gather fruits?For a love feast together. In a dream?His heart had moved, and like a child he longed?To prove it real by sweet familiar ways,?Serving his fairest lady while their laughter?Fell on the air like music. Taka, waiting?On the green bank his coming, told her heart:?"Not for his beauty only, tho' his eyes?Burn into mine more beautiful than the night,?Not for the corded muscle in his arm?Which broke a great branch that would stay my path,?Not for his voice, a murmur of soft seas,?Nor all the gracious ways he knows so well,?Not for his love that breaks within his eyes,--?All these are dear, are dearer than my life,?But for himself I love him," Taka dreamed.?"To be his sister, nay, his mother then,?To welcome him from hunting with my eyes,?To fight his battles with the other women,?To triumph in his triumphs, yet perchance?Be happier if when vanquished he would come?Safe in my arms for shelter. If I might?But suffer for his sake and see him stand?Stronger and happier--he should never guess--?But I might sometimes touch his hair and know?The curls that clung around my fingers mine,?Bought by my pain as he, Malua, mine.?Just so the heaven belongs to each small star?Fixed by its gracious power eternally."
Thro' the late afternoon Uhila came.?The Earth was idle, on her knees her