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The King of the Golden River
by
John Ruskin
PREFACE
"The King of the Golden River" is a delightful fairy tale told with all
Ruskin's charm of style, his appreciation of mountain scenery, and with
his usual insistence upon drawing a moral. None the less, it is quite
unlike his other writings. All his life long his pen was busy
interpreting nature and pictures and architecture, or persuading to
better views those whom he believed to be in error, or arousing, with
the white heat of a prophet's zeal, those whom he knew to be
unawakened. There is indeed a good deal of the prophet about John
Ruskin. Though essentially an interpreter with a singularly fine
appreciation of beauty, no man of the nineteenth century felt more
keenly that he had a mission, and none was more loyal to what he
believed that mission to be.
While still in college, what seemed a chance incident gave occasion and
direction to this mission. A certain English reviewer had ridiculed the
work of the artist Turner. Now Ruskin held Turner to be the greatest
landscape painter the world had seen, and he immediately wrote a
notable article in his defense. Slowly this article grew into a
pamphlet, and the pamphlet into a book, the first volume of "Modern
Painters." The young man awoke to find himself famous. In the next
few years four more volumes were added to "Modern Painters," and the
other notable series upon art, "The Stones of Venice" and "The Seven
Lamps of Architecture," were sent forth.
Then, in 1860, when Ruskin was about forty years old, there came a
great change. His heaven-born genius for making the appreciation of
beauty a common possession was deflected from its true field. He had
been asking himself what are the conditions that produce great art, and
the answer he found declared that art cannot be separated from life,
nor life from industry and industrial conditions. A civilization
founded upon unrestricted competition therefore seemed to him
necessarily feeble in appreciation of the beautiful, and unequal to its
creation. In this way loyalty to his mission bred apparent disloyalty.
Delightful discourses upon art gave way to fervid pleas for humanity.
For the rest of his life he became a very earnest, if not always very
wise, social reformer and a passionate pleader for what he believed to
be true economic ideals.
There is nothing of all this in "The King of the Golden River." Unlike
his other works, it was written merely to entertain. Scarcely that,
since it was not written for publication at all, but to meet a
challenge set him by a young girl.
The circumstance is interesting. After taking his degree at Oxford,
Ruskin was threatened with consumption and hurried away from the chill
and damp of England to the south of Europe. After two years of
fruitful travel and study he came back improved in health but not
strong, and often depressed in spirit. It was at this time that the
Guys, Scotch friends of his father and mother, came for a visit to his
home near London, and with them their little daughter Euphemia. The
coming of this beautiful, vivacious, light-hearted child opened a new
chapter in Ruskin's life. Though but twelve years old, she sought to
enliven the melancholy student, absorbed in art and geology, and bade
him leave these and write for her a fairy tale. He accepted, and after
but two sittings, presented her with this charming story. The incident
proved to have awakened in him a greater interest than at first
appeared, for a few years later "Effie" Grey became John Ruskin's wife.
Meantime she had given the manuscript to a friend. Nine years after it
was written, this friend, with John Ruskin's permission, gave the story
to the world.
It was published in London in 1851, with illustrations by the
celebrated Richard Doyle, and at once became a favorite. Three
editions were printed the first year, and soon it had found its way
into German, Italian, and Welsh. Since then countless children have
had cause to be grateful for the young girl's challenge that won the
story of Gluck's golden mug and the highly satisfactory handling of the
Black Brothers by Southwest Wind, Esquire.
For this edition new drawings have been prepared by Mr. Hiram P.
Barnes. They very successfully preserve the spirit of Doyle's
illustrations, which unfortunately are not technically suitable for
reproduction here.
In the original manuscript there was an epilogue bearing the heading
"Charitie"--a morning hymn of Treasure Valley, whither Gluck had
returned to dwell, and where the inheritance lost by cruelty was
regained by love:
The beams of morning are renewed The valley laughs their light to see
And earth is bright with gratitude And heaven with charitie.
R.H. COE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED WITH
BY SOUTHWEST WIND, ESQUIRE
CHAPTER II
OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE THREE BROTHERS AFTER THE VISIT OF SOUTHWEST
WIND, ESQUIRE; AND HOW LITTLE GLUCK HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF
GOLDEN RIVER
CHAPTER III
HOW MR. HANS SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW HE
PROSPERED THEREIN
CHAPTER IV
HOW MR. SCHWARTZ SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED THEREIN
CHAPTER V
HOW LITTLE GLUCK SET OFF ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE GOLDEN RIVER, AND HOW
HE PROSPERED THEREIN, WITH OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER
CHAPTER I
HOW THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE BLACK BROTHERS WAS INTERFERED WITH
BY SOUTHWEST WIND, ESQUIRE
In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria there was in old time a
valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was
surrounded on all sides by steep and rocky mountains rising into peaks
which were always covered with snow and from which a number of torrents
descended in constant cataracts. One of these fell westward over the
face of a crag so high that when the sun had set to everything else,
and all below was darkness, his beams still shone full upon this
waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of gold. It was therefore
called by the people of the neighborhood the Golden River. It was
strange that none of these streams fell into the valley itself. They
all descended on the other side of the mountains and wound away through
broad plains and by populous cities. But the clouds were drawn so
constantly to the snowy hills, and rested so softly in the circular
hollow, that in time of drought and heat, when all the country round
was burned up, there was still rain in the little valley; and its crops
were so heavy, and its hay so high, and its apples so red, and its
grapes so blue, and its wine so rich, and its honey so sweet, that it
was a marvel to everyone who beheld it and was commonly called the
Treasure Valley.
The whole of this little valley belonged to three brothers, called
Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck. Schwartz and Hans, the two elder brothers,
were very ugly men, with overhanging eyebrows and small, dull eyes
which were always half shut, so that you couldn't see into THEM and
always fancied they saw very far into YOU. They lived by farming the
Treasure Valley, and very good farmers they were. They killed
everything that did not pay for its eating. They shot the blackbirds
because they pecked the fruit, and killed the hedgehogs lest they
should suck the cows; they poisoned the crickets for eating the crumbs
in the kitchen, and smothered the cicadas which used to sing all summer
in the lime trees. They worked their servants without any wages till
they would not work any more, and then quarreled with them and turned
them out of doors without paying them. It would have been very odd if
with such a farm and such a system of farming they hadn't got very
rich; and very rich they DID get. They generally contrived to keep
their corn by them till it was very dear, and then sell it for twice
its value; they had heaps of gold lying about on their floors, yet it
was never known that they had given so much as a penny or a crust in
charity; they never went to Mass, grumbled perpetually at paying
tithes, and were, in a word, of so cruel and grinding a temper as to
receive from all those with whom they had any dealings the nickname of
the "Black Brothers."
The youngest brother, Gluck, was as completely opposed, in both
appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly be imagined
or desired. He was not above twelve years old, fair, blue-eyed, and
kind in temper to every living thing. He did not, of course, agree
particularly well with his brothers, or, rather, they did not agree
with HIM. He was usually appointed to the honorable office of
turnspit, when there was anything to roast, which was not often, for,
to do the brothers justice, they were hardly less sparing upon
themselves than upon other people. At other times he used to clean the
shoes, floors, and sometimes the plates, occasionally getting what was
left on them, by way of encouragement, and a wholesome quantity of dry
blows by way of education.
Things went on in this manner for a long time. At last came a very wet
summer, and everything went wrong in the country round. The hay had
hardly been got in when the haystacks were floated bodily down to the
sea by an inundation; the vines were cut to pieces with the hail; the
corn was all killed by a black blight. Only in the Treasure Valley, as
usual, all was safe. As it had rain when there was rain nowhere else,
so it had sun when there was sun nowhere else. Everybody came to buy
corn at the farm and went away pouring maledictions on the Black
Brothers. They asked what they liked and got it, except from the poor
people, who could only beg, and several of whom were starved at their
very door without the slightest regard or notice.
It was drawing towards winter, and very cold weather, when one day the
two elder brothers had gone out, with their usual warning to little
Gluck, who was left to mind the roast, that he was to let nobody in and
give nothing out. Gluck sat down quite close to the fire, for it was
raining very hard and the kitchen walls were by no means dry or
comfortable-looking. He turned and turned, and the roast got nice and
brown. "What a pity," thought Gluck, "my brothers never ask anybody to
dinner. I'm sure, when they've got such a nice piece of mutton as
this, and nobody else has got so much as a piece of dry bread, it would
do their hearts good to have somebody to eat it with them."
Just as he spoke there came a double knock at the house door, yet heavy
and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up--more like a puff than
a knock.
"It must be the wind," said Gluck; "nobody else would venture to knock
double knocks at our door."
No, it wasn't the wind; there it came again very hard, and, what was
particularly astounding, the knocker seemed to be in a hurry and not to
be in the least afraid of the consequences. Gluck went to the window,
opened it, and put his head out to see who it was.
It was the most extraordinary-looking little gentleman he had ever seen
in his life. He had a very large nose, slightly brass-colored; his
cheeks were very round and very red, and might have warranted a
supposition that he had been blowing a refractory fire for the last
eight-and-forty hours; his eyes twinkled merrily through long, silky
eyelashes; his mustaches curled twice round like a corkscrew on each
side of his mouth; and his hair, of a curious mixed pepper-and-salt
color, descended far over his shoulders. He was about four feet six in
height and wore a conical pointed cap of nearly the same altitude,
decorated with a black feather some three feet long. His doublet was
prolonged behind into something resembling a violent exaggeration of
what is now termed a "swallowtail," but was much obscured by the
swelling folds of an enormous black, glossy-looking cloak, which must
have been very much too long in calm weather, as the wind, whistling
round the old house, carried it clear out from the wearer's shoulders
to about four times his own length.
Gluck was so perfectly paralyzed by the singular appearance of his
visitor that he remained fixed without uttering a word, until the old
gentleman, having performed another and a more energetic concerto on
the knocker, turned round to look after his flyaway cloak. In so doing
he caught sight of Gluck's little yellow head jammed in the window,
with its mouth and eyes very wide open indeed.
"Hollo!" said the little gentleman; "that's not the way to answer the
door. I'm wet; let me in."
To do the little gentleman justice, he WAS wet. His feather hung down
between his legs like a beaten puppy's tail, dripping like an umbrella,
and from the ends of his mustaches the water was running into his
waistcoat pockets and out again like a mill stream.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck, "I'm very sorry, but, I really can't."
"Can't what?" said the old gentleman.
"I can't let you in, sir--I can't, indeed; my brothers would beat me to
death, sir, if I thought of such a thing. What do you want, sir?"
"Want?" said the old gentleman petulantly. "I want fire and shelter,
and there's your great fire there blazing, crackling, and dancing on
the walls with nobody to feel it. Let me in, I say; I only want to
warm myself."
Gluck had had his head, by this time, so long out of the window that he
began to feel it was really unpleasantly cold, and when he turned and
saw the beautiful fire rustling and roaring and throwing long, bright
tongues up the chimney, as if it were licking its chops at the savory
smell of the leg of mutton, his heart melted within him that it should
be burning away for nothing. "He does look very wet," said little
Gluck; "I'll just let him in for a quarter of an hour." Round he went
to the door and opened it; and as the little gentleman walked in, there
came a gust of wind through the house that made the old chimneys totter.
"That's a good boy," said the little gentleman. "Never mind your
brothers. I'll talk to them."
"Pray, sir, don't do any such thing," said Gluck. "I can't let you
stay till they come; they'd be the death of me."
"Dear me," said the old gentleman, "I'm very sorry to hear that. How
long may I stay?"
"Only till the mutton's done, sir," replied Gluck, "and it's very
brown."
Then the old gentleman walked into the kitchen and sat himself down on
the hob, with the top of his cap accommodated up the chimney, for it
was a great deal too high for the roof.
"You'll soon dry there, sir," said Gluck, and sat down again to turn
the mutton. But the old gentleman did NOT dry there, but went on drip,
drip, dripping among the cinders, and the fire fizzed and sputtered and
began to look very black and uncomfortable. Never was such a cloak;
every fold in it ran like a gutter.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck at length, after watching the water
spreading in long, quicksilver-like streams over the floor for a
quarter of an hour; "mayn't I take your cloak?"
"No, thank you," said the old gentleman.
"Your cap, sir?"
"I am all right, thank you," said the old gentleman rather gruffly.
"But--sir--I'm very sorry," said Gluck hesitatingly, "but--really,
sir--you're--putting the fire out."
"It'll take longer to do the mutton, then," replied his visitor dryly.
Gluck was very much puzzled by the behavior of his guest; it was such a
strange mixture of coolness and humility. He turned away at the string
meditatively for another five minutes.
"That mutton looks very nice," said the old gentleman at length.
"Can't you give me a little bit?"
"Impossible, sir," said Gluck.
"I'm very hungry," continued the old gentleman. "I've had nothing to
eat yesterday nor to-day. They surely couldn't miss a bit from the
knuckle!"
He spoke in so very melancholy a tone that it quite melted Gluck's
heart. "They promised me one slice to-day, sir," said he; "I can give
you that, but not a bit more."
"That's a good boy," said the old gentleman again.
Then Gluck warmed a plate and sharpened a knife. "I don't care if I do
get beaten for it," thought he. Just as he had cut a large slice out
of the mutton there came a tremendous rap at the door. The old
gentleman jumped off the hob as if it had suddenly become
inconveniently warm. Gluck fitted the slice into the mutton again,
with desperate efforts at exactitude, and ran to open the door.
"What did you keep us waiting in the rain for?" said Schwartz, as he
walked in, throwing his umbrella in Gluck's face.
"Aye! what for, indeed, you little vagabond?" said Hans, administering
an educational box on the ear as he followed his brother into the
kitchen.
"Bless my soul!" said Schwartz when he opened the door.
"Amen," said the little gentleman, who had taken his cap off and was
standing in the middle of the kitchen, bowing with the utmost possible
velocity.
"Who's that?" said Schwartz, catching up a rolling-pin and turning to
Gluck with a fierce frown.
"I don't know, indeed, brother," said Gluck in great terror.
"How did he get in?" roared Schwartz.
"My dear brother," said Gluck deprecatingly, "he was so VERY wet!"
The rolling-pin was descending on Gluck's head, but, at the instant,
the old gentleman interposed his conical cap, on which it crashed with
a shock that shook the water out of it all over the room. What was
very odd, the rolling-pin no sooner touched the cap than it flew out of
Schwartz's hand, spinning like a straw in a high wind, and fell into
the corner at the further end of the room.
"Who are you, sir?" demanded Schwartz, turning upon him. "What's your
business?" snarled Hans.
"I'm a poor old man, sir," the little gentleman began very modestly,
"and I saw your fire through the window and begged shelter for a
quarter of an hour."
"Have the goodness to walk out again, then," said Schwartz. "We've
quite enough water in our kitchen without making it a drying house."
"It is a cold day to turn an old man out in, sir; look at my gray
hairs." They hung down to his shoulders, as I told you before.
"Aye!" said Hans; "there are enough of them to keep you warm. Walk!"
"I'm very, very hungry, sir; couldn't you spare me a bit of bread
before I go?"
"Bread, indeed!" said Schwartz; "do you suppose we've nothing to do
with our bread but to give it to such red-nosed fellows as you?"
"Why don't you sell your feather?" said Hans sneeringly. "Out with you!"
"A little bit," said the old gentleman.
"Be off!" said Schwartz.
"Pray, gentlemen."
"Off, and be hanged!" cried Hans, seizing him by the collar. But he
had no sooner touched the old gentleman's collar than away he went
after the rolling-pin, spinning round and round till he fell into the
corner on the top of it. Then Schwartz was very angry and ran at the
old gentleman to turn him out; but he also had hardly touched him when
away he went after Hans and the rolling-pin, and hit his head against
the wall as he tumbled into the corner. And so there they lay, all
three.
Then the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in the opposite
direction, continued to spin until his long cloak was all wound neatly
about him, clapped his cap on his head, very much on one side (for it
could not stand upright without going through the ceiling), gave an
additional twist to his corkscrew mustaches, and replied with perfect
coolness: "Gentlemen, I wish you a very good morning. At twelve
o'clock tonight I'll call again; after such a refusal of hospitality as
I have just experienced, you will not be surprised if that visit is the
last I ever pay you."
"If ever I catch you here again," muttered Schwartz, coming, half
frightened, out of the corner--but before he could finish his sentence
the old gentleman had shut the house door behind him with a great bang,
and there drove past the window at the same instant a wreath of ragged
cloud that whirled and rolled away down the valley in all manner of
shapes, turning over and over in the air and melting away at last in a
gush of rain.
"A very pretty business, indeed, Mr. Gluck!" said Schwartz. "Dish the
mutton, sir. If ever I catch you at such a trick again--bless me, why,
the mutton's been cut!"
"You promised me one slice, brother, you know," said Gluck.
"Oh! and you were cutting it hot, I suppose, and going to catch all the
gravy. It'll be long before I promise you such a thing again. Leave
the room, sir; and have the kindness to wait in the coal cellar till I
call you."
Gluck left the room melancholy enough. The brothers ate as much mutton
as they could, locked the rest in the cupboard, and proceeded to get
very drunk after dinner.
Such a night as it was! Howling wind and rushing rain, without
intermission. The brothers had just sense enough left to put up all
the shutters and double-bar the door before they went to bed. They
usually slept in the same room. As the clock struck twelve they were
both awakened by a tremendous crash. Their door burst open with a
violence that shook the house from top to bottom.
"What's that?" cried Schwartz, starting up in his bed.
"Only I," said the little gentleman.
The two brothers sat up on their bolster and stared into the darkness.
The room was full of water, and by a misty moonbeam, which found its
way through a hole in the shutter, they could see in the midst of it an
enormous foam globe, spinning round and bobbing up and down like a
cork, on which, as on a most luxurious cushion, reclined the little old
gentleman, cap and all. There was plenty of room for it now, for the
roof was off.
"Sorry to incommode you," said their visitor ironically. "I'm afraid
your beds are dampish. Perhaps you had better go to your brother's
room; I've left the ceiling on there."
They required no second admonition, but rushed into Gluck's room, wet
through and in an agony of terror.
"You'll find my card on the kitchen table," the old gentleman called
after them. "Remember, the LAST visit."
"Pray Heaven it may!" said Schwartz, shuddering. And the foam globe
disappeared.
Dawn came at last, and the two brothers looked out of Gluck's little
window in the morning. The Treasure Valley was one mass of ruin and
desolation. The inundation had swept away trees, crops, and cattle,
and left in their stead a waste of red sand and gray mud. The two
brothers crept shivering and horror-struck into the kitchen. The water
had gutted the whole first floor; corn, money, almost every movable
thing, had been swept away, and there was left only a small white card
on the kitchen table. On it, in large, breezy, long-legged letters,
were engraved the words:
SOUTH WEST WIND, ESQUIRE