. Midsummer Eve : a fairy tale of loving and being loved . ns, half-way to the top of the pointed gableAvhich rose above it. Such a magazine of animated nature as bothporch and gable had become !—the dear old gable!—which people saidhad been a tower, a castle, or something of an abbey—once. It wastruly a most beautiful half-saved ruin ! Itsprojecting stones covered with moss a footdeep—the green triumphant ivy trailing aroundwhat had been a buttress—the wall-flowerand snap-dragon nodding to each other fromtheir several nooks; the lichens and maiden-hair, and golden-cupped flowers, with broadsh
. Midsummer Eve : a fairy tale of loving and being loved . ns, half-way to the top of the pointed gableAvhich rose above it. Such a magazine of animated nature as bothporch and gable had become !—the dear old gable!—which people saidhad been a tower, a castle, or something of an abbey—once. It wastruly a most beautiful half-saved ruin ! Itsprojecting stones covered with moss a footdeep—the green triumphant ivy trailing aroundwhat had been a buttress—the wall-flowerand snap-dragon nodding to each other fromtheir several nooks; the lichens and maiden-hair, and golden-cupped flowers, with broadshining leaves, and the delightful tone of thesage-green moss, that clings closely to oldstones, so lovingly anxious for their preserva-tion, adding by contrast to the natural har-mony of the whole—overgrowing the nest ofthe restless martin ; while, a little higher up,the swallow — his toilsome journey over — knew that his home was ready. In a small niche-like nook an agedowl had dwelt for more than half a century; for men as old remembered. 28 MIDSUMMER EVE him so long, looking out at twilight, with the same air and manner—ifnot wiso, at least contemplative and sedate. But, after all, the gloryof the old gable was the weathercock; there were old, veiy old, people,in Cloghreen, who remembered when the weathercock was not there,but none who could tell when it was put up, or by whom ; in short, therewas a mystery—a story about it that was growing into a legend to tryfaith hereafter. Everybody said the weathercock -was too large forthe gable—too heavy for the old wall; but the wall bore up bravely;gloried in the distinction; and did not at all mind the long massivebar of iron that was passed through it, but seemed rather proud thanotherwise of the curiously-wrought cross that stood out so clearly againstthe sky. Surmounting the whole, beneath this symbol of Faith, -werecrossed arrows, depending from either end of which originally hungthe iron letters that desig
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidmidsummereve, bookyear1870
