The Saxons: A Drama of Christianity in the North — Reading Companion

That looked up at you when you stooped to drink. You did not see her? Oh, I did. I peeped Like this, softly, over, over the edge, And saw her peeping from the mossy stones Down in the spring. Her hair was loose like mine And brown as buckeyes, and her lips were stained With juice of berries. Then I raised my hand. Thinks I: "I'll drop a beech-nut on his head." Then she raised hers as if to say: "Be still! I'll make the bubbles break against his nose." Was that what made you jump? You scared her so. I saw her hair fly up about her face As I leaped back. She lives down in the spring. This morning as I passed I stooped and said: "I'm going after berries; won't you come?" She beckoned to me, too, and seemed to say: "I can't leave home; my little fish will stray. You come down here; I have some pretty shells." Oh, look! Be still! She's let them come again. See them flash.

OSWALD-- It's the green shell they're after.

SELMA--Why, there's no kernel in it. If there were They could not eat it; it would break their gills, They are so very thin.

OSWALD-- We all do that; We follow shells sometimes.

SELMA-- O Oswald, look! See how the little silver bubbles rise.

OSWALD--And we are like the fishes--

SELMA-- Oh, do look! You are not thinking of the fishes. See! They follow it through the dimples round and round, Paddling the current with their little fins, And poising. They're afraid. They're drawing back. There, by the green stone.

OSWALD-- They are safer there Than in the current.

SELMA-- See, there's one that still Nips at it in the eddies. See its scales. You cannot carve like that. Look out! Oh, oh!

(_She runs down to the outlet of the spring by which the minnow has passed out, and walks up and down, stooping occasionally to feel among the stones of the rill. Oswald goes back and sits down upon the log. After a while Selma rises and looks toward the spring. The trunk is between her and Oswald._)

'Twill grieve her so.

(_In a low chant, abstractedly._)

She's sleeping in the spring Under the dark rock where the white sand pours. The moss is softer in the forest there, And there the wood-doves coo. He's going away; they told me yesterday. The forest heard them moan: He will not come. The chestnut burr shall break; The wild bird, feeding, shake Unpicked the purple hartcrops to the ground, And the hushed forest only hear the sound Of antlers knocking where the wild deer rubs. He's going away--away--away.

(_Staring vacantly into the forest, her back to Oswald, she unconsciously picks the green burrs from the branches above her._)

OSWALD--Selma. (_After a pause._) Come here; will you?

SELMA-- I'm gathering mast. My fawns, they like it so. It makes them sleek.

OSWALD--I want to tell you something.

SELMA-- Tell me here. If I had listened to the forest birds, I'd have no berries. And my fawns must eat.

OSWALD--'Tis something serious.

SELMA-- Ah, you've been to town.

(_As she saunters toward the log she reaches up in the air._)

Gossamers, where do they come from, Oswald? You never are gay when you've heard the bells. We are going to the mountains, _may_ be. Then You will not hear them. Are there berries there? Rudolph said he saw flowers in the ice. Think of that. Blue-bells.--You are like my crow.

(_She takes a berry from her basket and holds it up between her fingers._)

If you will talk, you may.--I must go home.

(_She pulls down a bough and begins to pick the leaves off, one by one._)

OSWALD--I want you to go with me to the bridge.

SELMA--I can't. I must go home. Father will think I have been captured by the villagers.

(_She removes her basket from the sun and lays the leaves upon her berries._)

He said: "You will not find them." But I did.

SELMA-- I can't.--It makes my berries red. Father will say: "You see? They are not ripe."

(_She goes about under the boughs selecting the largest of the leaves._)

It makes them black, then makes them red again.

_I_ heard bells ring last night. I dreamed I did. I called and they called and you would not come. I thought you could not hear me where you were.

OSWALD--In a great forest once two children lived. They used to wander about the wood. One day, Playing among the trees, suddenly they heard Small voices calling: "Ho, children!" At that--

SELMA--Fairies. (_She comes to the log._)