(In Patrick County, Virginia, little stone crosses
have been found and are yet obtainable. Jewelers
of Roanoke and Martinsville, Va., assure inquirers
that the Virginia “Fairy” or “Lucky” stones,
discovered nowhere else in the world, have been a
puzzle to scientists, and are being worn by some of
the crowned heads of Europe. A bulletin of the
U. S. Geological Survey speaks of them as “the most
curious mineral found in the United States,” and
calls them Staurolite or Fairy Stones.)
In Virginia’s historic hills around a hallowed spot,
There was born a mystic legend which ne’er shall be forgot;
A story true to Nature and to One without a blot—
The divinest story of old!
For glory bright is round it, which has softened many a heart,
A tale of wise and saintly ones, in universal art;
A story mightiest with men now and ever mighty part
It played in the races of old.
We yet believe that angels must have wept and good men sighed,
When Gallilee’s great Son with hateful spite was crucified;
But who would ever dream the fairy spirits were allied
In Heaven’s great scheme of old?
Yet when these blithesome fays were dancing by a mountain spring,
Ere the days of Pocahontas and Powhattan, the fearless King,
In union with the naiads, an elfin, swift of wing,
Came weeping from the East, of old.
The story sad he told of Christ, the Saviour, and His Cross;
Then joy and laughter sudden ceased, and grieving for their loss,
They shed their tears upon the pebbles and on the velvet moss—
A heaven moved grief of old.
And lo, when they had flown from the enchanted spring and ground,
Just where the tears had fallen on the pebbles lying round,
The Fairy stony crosses by the thousand there were found,
Sweet Nature’s crosses of old.
[Illustration: Note the crosses in this clod of earth.