Once upon a time a company of jugglers, acrobats, and other strays,
traveling afoot to the Fair of the Golden Bear, arrived at twilight
in a glen close by a village and encamped there for the night. From
eventide till late into the dark, the watchful villagers beheld their
huge fire blazing behind the dark columns of the trees; but at dawn all
was still, for the wanderers had risen by the glow of the morning star,
and fared away toward the sea.
Now it came to pass that an old villager, whose lands lay beyond the
glen, rose early that morn, and with his hoe on his shoulder walked to
his labor through the sunrise, the quiet, and the dew. Arriving at the
glen, he turned aside for a moment from the path and out of curiosity
wandered in to gaze at the trampled grass and the burned circle of the
fire. Suddenly he caught his breath with a start. Two little children,
a boy in tattered leather and a girl in a ragged frock of blue, were
lying fast asleep on a pile of yellow straw.
And now the two children stood, hand in hand, in the house of the
Master Villager, gazing up into the faces of a dozen gathered there
to see them and to question. The little boy, who was brown-haired and
brown-eyed, bore himself bravely and appeared sturdy and strong, whilst
the tiny girl, whose blue eyes were full of frightened tears, seemed
very gentle and shy. Of who their parents were, and of how it had
fortuned that they had been thus forsaken, neither the little boy nor
the girl could tell; indeed the most that could be gathered from them
was that they were not brother and sister, and that the lad’s name was
Aileel and the girl’s, Ailinda.
Forlorn, forsaken, and unknown, the children of the wanderers remained
in the village and were given to certain villagers to house and to
keep. It was the lot of Aileel to become the foster son and little
apprentice of Braulio, the good smith, whilst tiny Ailinda fell into
the hands of Tharbis, the grudging and envious miser of the town.
And now passed many years; and Aileel, of whom you first must hear,
grew to be a comely young smith, wise in the lore of iron and of
fire. Tall was he, broad-shouldered and very strong, yet so lithe and
swift-moving withal that none in his wide land of the Blue Hills could
master him in a trial of strength or speed. His favorite pastime was
country wrestling, and on holiday morns you were sure to see him and
his good foster father wandering down the village lanes to the day’s
wrestling-match, each tricked out in his best, each with a fine blue
kerchief knotted at the throat. And when Aileel, after a stirring
battle of catch and turn and tug and strain would hold his rival’s
shoulders to the straw and then leap up, light as air, joyful and
victorious, how honest Braulio would shout and pound together his huge
hands!
Their smithy stood by the village brook; of gray-green stone its
walls were made, and its roof of heart-of-oak turned silvery brown.
It was a brave sight, I can tell you, to see the fire rising hot and
violet-white from the forge, brightening Aileel’s face as he bent to
it and gazed within it at the iron turning ruddy gold; and there was a
brave music, too, in the clang-clanging of the anvil ’neath his blows.
Far otherwise, alas, were the fortunes of Ailinda! Scolded to work
at the earliest dawn and kept at some task till well into the night,
the poor maiden had hardly a moment’s time to call her own. Whenever
he could and as often, Aileel came to help her with her toil; he drew
water from the well, carried in the wood, and aided her in the garden
in the cool of the golden day.
In spite of this hard life, I am glad to tell you, Ailinda grew up to
be as fine a lass as Aileel a lad. Her eyes were as blue as the waters
of the bright September sea, the glance they gave was full of patience
and courage, her long golden hair was as splendid as a queen’s.
Everybody loved her and helped her--all save Tharbis’s only son, her
jealous foster-brother, Potpan.
Squat, round-nosed, and leering-eyed, there was no spiteful trick in
all the world which this wretch was not prepared to try. He would slyly
nip the buds from flowers Ailinda had planted, so that they might not
bloom; he would drive the cows at twilight back into the fields; he
would roll the clean milk-pans in the mire. Left to his own counsel,
Aileel would soon have taught the wretch a lasting lesson, but as
Ailinda feared lest after such a battle Aileel be forbidden the house,
she endured much, saying naught.
But presently came matters to a head.
Now it chanced upon a May Day, that a fair blue kerchief had been
chosen as the wrestler’s prize, and this prize Aileel won gallantly,
and offered to Ailinda. Gathering the kerchief together again in the
folds in which it had already lain, the maiden, for fear of Potpan,
hid the kerchief in a cranny of a room. Presently arrived the sunny
morn of the year’s midsummer holiday. At high noon, her thankless toil
for a moment o’er, Ailinda went to take the kerchief from its nook.
The kerchief was no longer there!
Suddenly she heard a loud ill-natured guffaw, and turning, found Potpan
at a window, watching all. He was dressed in his best festival finery,
and Ailinda’s pretty kerchief was knotted at his neck. The maiden’s
heart sank; her brave eyes filled with tears, yet she ran forth and
confronted the robber face to face.
“Give me my kerchief, Potpan,” said she, “Oh, give me my kerchief,
Potpan!”
“Your kerchief?” answered Potpan with another rude guffaw. “Ha! Ha!
That’s a good one! Your kerchief, indeed! I found this kerchief myself,
and I mean to keep it, too.”
“It is mine, Potpan,” replied poor Ailinda. “Give me my kerchief,
Potpan.”
“I suppose you would wear it at the festival,” jeered Potpan. “The
notion of your going to the festival! Go back to your kettles and
pails!”
A pause of quiet now followed, and all at once Ailinda heard through
the stillness the sound of a closing gate. Suddenly Aileel came
striding swiftly to her side.
“Come, Potpan,” said Aileel sternly, “Give Ailinda my kerchief!”
“At your command, you wanderers’ brat?” cried Potpan, furious with
rage. “Be off or I’ll teach you how I--” but here his speech came to an
end; Aileel, turning swiftly as the wind, caught him in a wrestler’s
grasp, held him fast, and undid the kerchief from his neck. This done,
the young smith freed him and pushed him contemptuously aside. Hardly
had he done this, however, when Potpan caught up a great stone and
flung it, striking Aileel with it upon the hand.
And now there came a real tussle, for Potpan, though squat, was no
mean antagonist. A real tussle it was, but a short one, for suddenly
Aileel’s handsome face cleared, he laughed a little merry laugh even,
and catching up Potpan in all his finery, held him high for all his
kicking, walked with him a little space, and tossed him splash into the
duck pond! You should have heard the squawking and the quacking of the
ducks, and seen the scrambling, and the paddling, and the indignant
tail-feather-shaking as Potpan fell into the mud-brown pool. One yellow
duckling with cold wet feet walked on his ear.
But what an uproar awaited Aileel and Ailinda on their return from the
festival!
Telling a wicked and lying story, Tharbis and Potpan had gone about
among the villagers, picturing Aileel as a violent and dangerous
ruffian whom it was unsafe to have about, and urging that the
wanderers’ lad be sent away from the village. Now Tharbis was very
rich, and there were many in his debt who dared not disagree with him;
a dispute arose, the village took sides, and the partisans of Tharbis
and Potpan snatched the victory. At the head of a crew of hangers-on
armed with sticks and scythes, Tharbis and Potpan came in triumph to
the smithy, held Braulio and his foster son to the wall, and bade the
latter leave the village at once, never to return.
“I go, Potpan,” replied Aileel, the same strange little smile on his
lips, “but I shall return some day, and I shall toss you into the duck
pond once again.”
“Enough! Be off, wanderers’ brat!” cried Potpan’s crew. “Begone, and
never let us see your face again!”
So now Aileel bade his dear foster-father farewell, entrusted Ailinda
to his care, and fared over hill, over dale, to the Kingdom of Iron in
the Land of the Fiery Mountains.
When Aileel arrived there, it was twilight; the east behind him was
already dark and blossoming with stars, and the immense plain at his
feet lay full of earthy vapor and vague gloom. Night was gathering
behind, night was gathering below, but beyond the vast sweep of dark
the western sky was still aglow with a great splendor of the purest
emerald-green. Rising steep and solitary, each one, from the dark of
the plain, a thousand black mountains towered to the green light,
their heads crowned with rosy glows of fire. Some from their burning
craters tossed great showers of golden sparks; some were crowned with
huge tongues of many-colored flames; some poured forth rolling smoke;
and over others hung clouds illumined with the red of fire deep below.
Presently the green of the sky deepened and died, and night came to the
Land of Fire.
These Fiery Mountains, I must tell you, were the forges of the people
of the kingdom, who were sturdy smiths, armorers, and artificers, one
and all. Their royal city stood half upon the plain, half upon the
slope of the greatest of the burning heights, and everything within
it was of iron made. Of iron were the king’s palace and his throne, of
iron the royal crown, of iron the money, of iron the houses, of iron
the walls and towers, and of iron the motionless and shrill-tongued
trees along the way.
And now Aileel took service with the Lord of the Royal Forge that he
might learn from him all the world’s wisdom of iron and of fire. The
great iron halls of the royal forge were built in the caves of the
Fiery Mountains, and within them toiled Aileel from daylight to the
dark, his ears half deafened with the music of a thousand anvils, and
the rumbling-grumbling of the great forge-fire. Presently the Lord of
the Forge became so pleased with the skill, the industry, and the good
spirit of the comely young smith, that he took him to lodge in his huge
iron house.
One morn Aileel said to his friend and master, “Honored sir, it is in
my mind to fashion something never yet seen in the Kingdom of Iron.
Grant me, I pray, the great chamber beyond the black cave to be my
very own.”
“It shall be yours, worthy Aileel,” replied the Lord of the Royal
Forge. “Here is the key.”
From morn till night, behind the locked door, the people of the royal
forge heard Aileel toiling at his secret task. Now they heard him at
his anvil, now they heard him carrying his iron to melt in the fires of
the mountain, now they heard him whistling snatches of a tune.
“What can he be making?” said they, and they peeked through the
keyhole, but could see nothing at all.
But now you must hear of Potpan and Ailinda.
* * * * *
At first, with Aileel driven from the village and venturing afar, the
poor maiden had gone about in deadly fear of Potpan and Tharbis; but
as both of them had a wholesome respect for Braulio, it had fortuned
that her lot was neither worse nor better than before. Tharbis still
scolded her to work, shirking Potpan gave her oft a heavy task, yet day
by day, in spite of all their ugly tricks, brave and patient Ailinda
grew to be quite the loveliest maid in all the land. Finally even
Potpan himself began to see her loveliness, and told her one evening
that they were to be married in a fortnight’s time! Wild with anxiety
and determined to run away rather than enter into any such hateful
alliance, Ailinda sought out Braulio and told him of her plight.
“Fear not, Ailinda,” said the brave smith. “Though a fortnight be but a
little time, and the Kingdom of Iron a week’s journey down the world,
yet shall Aileel be here before this wedding comes to pass. I will
fetch him myself and at once!”
And now Braulio climbed to the saddle of his huge white horse, and
galloped off on the road to the Fiery Mountains. Alas, just as the
smith was descending the slope to a glass bridge over a river, the
white horse stumbled and fell, throwing Braulio over his head and
laming him severely. Hobbling along, lame horse, lame master, the pair
made so slow an advance to the Kingdom of Iron, that it was not until
midnight of the thirteenth day that Braulio knocked at the iron door of
the Lord of the Royal Forge.
Seated in a great chair of wrought black iron, Braulio poured forth his
unhappy story to Aileel, the Lord of the Royal Forge, and the latter’s
good wife. Strange to say, an odd little smile gathered on Aileel’s
lips as he heard the tale, even such a smile as he had worn when he had
tossed Potpan in the pool.
“The wedding morn of Potpan and Ailinda?” said Aileel. “That shall
never be! Come, take heart, good friends, and quick, all of us to the
chamber in the cave!”
The night was clear and windless, but only the brightest stars were to
be seen, for the great Fire Mountain above the city was crowned with an
immense whirl of gold and orange flame which flooded town and sky with
flaring light. Up a broad iron stair, along the slope, and into the
mountain through a mighty iron portal, fled the little company. Bright
torches gleamed in the iron halls and caves, the roar of the great
forge shook the earth, and the iron floors were warm beneath their
feet. And now as Aileel unlocked his door and flung it open wide, his
friends uttered together a great cry of joy and surprise.
The young smith had fashioned a wonderful flying bird of iron! Its
wings, which it flapped like a real bird, were of iron tempered a
lovely jewel-blue, its breast was of iron forged to a silver-gray, and
its beak and claws and living round eyes were of iron as red as fire.
Within it a spring of iron lay, which one wound up with a huge black
key; one steered it by pulling shiny iron chains attached to a collar
round its neck. And there was a great comfortable seat, too, in the
body between the wings--a seat with a huge high back in the fashion of
a splendid sleigh, cushions of sunniest larkspur-blue, and just enough
room for three.
So Aileel wound up the spring, clickety clack, clickety clack, clickety
clack, bundled Braulio into the seat, swung back a lofty door he had
opened in the side of the mountain, waved farewell, and flew out into
the golden glow of the fiery night. Over the forges of iron he fled,
and saw their flaming deeps and felt their hot breath; he winged
his way over woodlands and mountains and rivers and gleaming lakes.
Braulio, beside him, hung on to his hat all the time, and only once in
a while looked over the side. On and on went Aileel and Braulio, yet
the sunrise found them far away from the land of the Blue Hills.
* * * * *
And now it was the wedding morn and the wedding hour; the sun was
shining, bells were ringing, and music was sounding in the street.
Fearful of her running away, Potpan had locked Ailinda in her chamber,
first advising her to put on a merry countenance lest she be well
slapped. Presently women of the village came to attire her in wedding
finery, and Ailinda, her heart sunken in a despairing dream, suffered
them to do their will.
The bells were ringing now their loudest peals, and presently Potpan
pushed Ailinda rudely up to a place on the seat of the gay cart which
was to carry them to the wedding festival. This bridal cart was painted
a fine bright blue, its sides and the spokes of its two great wheels
were garlanded with flowers, an arch of flowers had been built over the
seat, and the two snow-white oxen who drew it brandished horns gilded
with bright gold.
Clang! clang! ding dong dong! went the village bells. Swaying their
huge heads from side to side, and ringing golden bells upon their yoke,
the white oxen slowly drew Potpan and Ailinda down the village street.
And now all at once there were cries and shouts of alarm. “Run! run,
everybody! Run! Run! The bird! Oh, see the bird!” Soon one and all were
scrambling here and there into houses, down cellars, under tables,
into clothes-closets and up trees till there was not a soul in sight.
Never stopping to take thought of Ailinda, cowardly Potpan leaped from
his seat at her side, and ran and hid in a plum tree.
All, all alone stood the gay cart in the deserted street, all, all
alone sat the deserted bride. The oxen came to a halt. A bell somewhere
on their harness jangled, and then the world was very still.
Nearer and nearer and lower and lower through the sky came the giant
bird, flapping its shining wings. Suddenly its shadow fell across the
cart. Ailinda sank in a swoon against the arch of flowers. But now the
great bird settled to earth on its claws of red iron, and tall Aileel,
leaping forth, gathered Ailinda in his strong arms, and waked her from
her sleep. Closed now were the gates of unhappiness; open were the
gates of joy.
“Where is Potpan?” said Aileel sternly. Ailinda, recovering from her
swoon, made faint motions in the direction of the plum tree.
[Illustration: _And now, all at once, there were cries and shouts of
alarm. “Run! Run, everybody! The bird! Oh, see the bird!”_]
And now Aileel disappeared for a little while, and all at once there
was a yell, a terrible splash, and a loud chorus of the most indignant
squawking and quacking. Aileel had tossed Potpan once more into the
duck pond!
Then Aileel came back, tall and handsome as could be, and lifted pretty
Ailinda to the seat in the iron bird. Then he got in himself, set the
wings to flapping, and guided the iron bird into the air and home to
the wonderful Kingdom of Iron.
And there, in the house of the Lord of the Royal Forge and amid great
rejoicing, Aileel and Ailinda were wed. Good Braulio, I am glad to say,
remained with them, and all three lived happily together all their
days.