Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

HOWARD PYLE: A CHRONICLE
fall on ground rich enough to produce a full-grown fairy
tale or two. As I have some time this Sunday I will j ot
down a couple of them, briefly, if it will not bore thee.
"At an annual fair in Alsace when all was merry with
dancing and gayety, three of the loveliest ~damsels the world
ever saw made their appearance. Soon, each youth bewitched by their beauty left his own sweetheart and crowded
around the fair strangers. One of the fairest of them took
a zither and sang so ravishingly that the listeners held their
very breaths at the enchanted music. When the clock in
the church tower struck the hour of midnight, the three
sisters hurried away through the moonlit forest glades and
were quickly lost to sight. One youth was desperately smitten with love, and accordingly, when the three beautiful
sisters appeared the following night at the village gate, he
secured the glove of the most beautiful while she entered
the dance with one of his comrades. When the hour of
midnight arrived, the damsel cried, 'Where is my glove?'
'I have it,' cried the lucky youth, 'and shall keep it as a
favor from you.' At this the damsel commenced to wail
piteously, at the same time wringing her hands in agony.
In spite of her cries, as the night was advancing, the two
sisters dragged the third off, followed by the youth, who
kept them in sight. At length they arrived at a stream deep
in the midst of the forest, where two of the damsels instantly disappeared, while the third, falling on her knees,
besougaht the youth for her glove, though in vain, for he
still kept it. At that moment the cock crowed and the
damsel instantly vanished with a scream, and imagine the
youth's horror when the brook instantly became filled with
[ 94]1