BLUE.
BEARD

ments of the tower, and looked away in the direc-
tion of her home. The poor trembling and
weeping bride called to her after a few. minutes:
‘Sister Anne! sister Anne! is there any one
coming P’
‘I see nothing,’ answered her sister, ‘but the sun’s
beams glancing, and the motes dancing, and the
grass is green and growing, oh!’
Blue-beard in the meanwhile had got a great
cutlass from the armoury, and he called to his
wife: ‘Come down, come down, or I'll draw you
by the golden locks of your crown.’
‘Grant me one moment longer!’ answered his
wife. She cried again to her sister: ‘Sister Anne!
sister Anne! is there any one coming?’
‘I see nothing,’ answered her sister, ‘but the sun’s
beams glancing, and the motes dancing, and the
grass is green and growing, oh!’
‘Come down, come down this very moment,’
shouted Blue-beard. ‘Time is up, come down,
come down, or I’ll draw you by the golden locks of
your crown.’
‘I am coming directly. Suffer me to pull on my
shoe,’ said the unhappy wife. Then again she
called to her sister: ‘Sister Anne! sister Anne!
do you see any one coming ?’
‘I see,’ said the sister, ‘I see a cloud of dust
springing, and I hear harness ringing, and the
grass is green and growing, oh!’
Then Blue-beard roared forth: ‘If you do not
come down at once I shall come up and fetch you.’
But his wife said: ‘Suffer me to pull on the other
shoe, and then I will come down.’ And now again
she called: ‘Sister Anne! sister Anne! is there
any one coming.’
Sister Anne replied: ‘I see armour glancing, and
two horses prancing, and your brothers ride fast
to the castle, oh!’
ee eee would not tarry any longer, and his
I