Puck of Pook's Hill

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Doubleday, Page, 1906 - Great Britain - 277 pages
Tells the story of Dan and Una and their adventures with Puck as he introduces them to the nearly forgotten pages of Old England's history and to the people who had lived near Pook's Hill and helped make that history from the time of Hadrian's Wall to the signing of Magna Carta and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Includes stories and poems.

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Page 126 - Verbenna down to Ostia Hath wasted all the plain ; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout guards are slain. I wis in all the Senate There was no heart so bold But sore it ached and fast it beat When that ill news was told. Forthwith up rose the consul, Up rose the Fathers all ; In haste they girded up their gowns And hied them to the wall.
Page 277 - Teach us the Strength that cannot seek, By deed or thought, to hurt the weak ; That, under Thee, we may possess Man's strength to comfort man's distress. Teach us Delight in simple things, And Mirth that has no bitter springs ; Forgiveness free of evil done, And Love to all men 'neath the sun ! Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride, For whose dear sake our fathers died ; O Motherland, we pledge to thee, Head, heart, and hand through the years to be!
Page 227 - IF you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen goby! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark — Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk ; Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by...
Page 125 - The horsemen and the footmen Are pouring in amain From many a stately market-place, From many a fruitful plain, From many a lonely hamlet, Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest Of purple Apennine; From lordly Volaterrae Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For godlike kings of old...
Page 59 - You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables, The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables To pitch her sides and go over her cables! Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow: And the sound of your oar-blades falling hollow Is all we have left through the months to follow. Ah, what is a Woman that you forsake her, And the hearth-fire and the home-acre, To go with the old grey Widow-maker?
Page 120 - THE RUNES ON WELAND'S SWORD A Smith makes me To betray my Man In my first fight. To gather Gold At the world's end I am sent. The Gold I gather Comes into England Out of deep Water. Like a shining Fish Then it descends Into deep Water. It is not given For goods or gear. But for The Thing The Gold I gather A King covets For an ill use.
Page 173 - MITHRAS, God of the Morning, our trumpets waken the Wall! "Rome is above the Nations, but Thou art over all! " Now as the names are answered, and the guards are marched away, Mithras, also a soldier, give us strength for the day! Mithras, God of the Noontide, the heather swims in the heat. Our helmets scorch our foreheads, our sandals burn our feet. Now in the ungirt hour— now lest we blink and drowse, Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows!
Page 123 - Cities and Thrones and Powers, Stand in Time's eye, Almost as long as flowers, Which daily die: But, as new buds put forth, To glad new men, Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth, The Cities rise again. This season's Daffodil, She never hears, What change, what chance, what chill, Cut down last year's ; But with bold countenance, And knowledge small, \ \ Esteems her seven days' continuance] ^ To be perpetual.
Page 55 - But now I sing in another manner — But now England hath taken me! As for my Father in his tower, Asking news of my ship at sea; He will remember his own hour — Tell him England hath taken me! As for my...

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