Gold Beauty. 



129 



fined the longest, and this soon brought 

 her to Gold Beauty, who lay despairing in 

 her gloomy cell all unconscious that free- 

 dom was so near at hand. 



But one day, while brooding over her 

 woes, she suddenly felt that the whole world 

 was full of wonderful music; this was the 

 magic song of the beautiful spirit that had 

 penetrated her darkened prison house, and 

 already begun its work of deliverance. 



For, as Gold Beauty listened, it seemed 

 to her that the song was calling her out- 

 side, and wooing her to hope again with a 

 powerful but delicious charm. She lis- 

 tened in rapture, for the music seemed filled 

 with sweet remembrances of her former 

 happy life. Again she heard the robins' 

 notes up among the apple boughs, and 

 again she saw the flash of bright wings in 

 the air, while she felt the summer wind 

 once more laden with the perfume of 

 violets. 



Her heart filled with wild longing to be 

 free and she struggled to break the chains 

 that she had wound herself in while under 

 the wicked fairy's spell. 



And still the song went on calling her 

 to sunshine and freedom in the glad world 

 outside. 



Gold Beauty never knew how it came 

 about, but suddenly her whole body was 

 filled with wonderful strength, and her 

 heart endowed with such courage, that she 

 felt she could accomplish anything. One 

 by one she broke her chains, and slowly 

 and with much toil made an opening in the 

 gray wall of her prison. Each new move- 

 ment toward freedom brought greater 

 hope, and, as she worked, the magic song 

 grew louder and sweeter, until it seemed 

 that there was nothing but music every- 

 where. 



At last the gray wall gave way, and the 

 poor capcive once more crept out into the 



bright sunlight, and then the song died 

 softly away until it seemed only like the 

 faint trilling of a far off bird, and the 

 beautiful spirit flew away with a happy 

 smile to carry deliverance to some prisoner 

 in another sealed tower. 



Gold Beauty lay quiet for a long time 

 after she came out of her prison, for she 

 felt quite worn out with her unusual exer- 

 tion, but at last the fresh air, and the bright 

 sun, and the sense of freedom made her 

 feel like moving about and visiting some 

 of her former haunts. 



And then oh, joy of joys! what did she 

 find out? That the spirit had not only been 

 the means of her deliverance, but that she 

 had also given her wings. And such 

 wings! Golden as the sun, and marked 

 with spots of velvety black. 



Gold Beauty lifted them up and down 

 softly, and then spread them with delight. 

 Large wings they were too, and strong, 

 and she knew they would bear her through 

 many a dizzy flight; and, as she tried their 

 power for the first time she discovered 

 something else that gave her pleasure, for 

 she found that she was a low-flyer instead 

 of a high-flyer, and this is just what she 

 would have wished had she been given her 

 choice. 



And so all things turned out well at last 

 for Gold Beauty, and in the joy of her new 

 existence she almost forgot that she had 

 ever been a creeper or confined in a gloomy 

 prison. 



Gaily she flew from place to place dis- 

 covering such fresh beauties everywhere 

 that the old garden seemed like a new 

 world — not more beautiful, but different; 

 and filled with an ever deepening charm 

 of which she herself was a part, together 

 with the songs and the flowers, and all the 

 fair things that contributed to render the 

 garden an earthly paradise. 



Henrietta Christian Wright. 



