The Bride of the Mistletoe

Bride of the Mistletoe, The

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Title: Bride of the Mistletoe
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THE BRIDE OF THE MISTLETOE
BY
JAMES LANE ALLEN
AUTHOR OF "FLUTE AND VIOLIN," "A KENTUCKY
CARDINAL," "AFTERMATH," ETC.

TO ONE WHO KNOWS
Je crois que pour produire il ne faut pas trop raissoner. Mais il faut
regarder beaucoup et songer à ce qu'on a vu. Voir: tout est là, et voir
juste. J'entends, par voir juste, voir avec ses propres yeux et non avec
ceux des maîtres. L'originalité d'un artiste s'indique d'abord dans les
petites choses et non dans les grandes.
Il faut trouver aux choses une signification qui n'a pas encore
découverte et tâcher de l'exprimer d'une façon personelle.
--GUY DE MAUPASSANT.

PREFACE
Any one about to read this work of fiction might properly be apprised
beforehand that it is not a novel: it has neither the structure nor the
purpose of The Novel.
It is a story. There are two characters--a middle-aged married couple
living in a plain farmhouse; one point on the field of human nature is
located; at that point one subject is treated; in the treatment one
movement is directed toward one climax; no external event whatsoever
is introduced; and the time is about forty hours.
A second story of equal length, laid in the same house, is expected to
appear within a twelvemonth. The same father and mother are
characters, and the family friend the country doctor; but subordinately
all. The main story concerns itself with the four children of the two
households.
It is an American children's story:
"A Brood of The Eagle."
During the year a third work, not fiction, will be published, entitled:
"The Christmas Tree: An Interpretation."
The three works will serve to complete each other, and they complete a
cycle of the theme.

CONTENTS
EARTH SHIELD AND EARTH FESTIVAL
I. THE MAN AND THE SECRET
II. THE TREE AND THE SUNSET

III. THE LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES
IV. THE WANDERING TALE
V. THE ROOM OF THE SILENCES
VI. THE WHITE DAWN

EARTH SHIELD AND EARTH FESTIVAL
A mighty table-land lies southward in a hardy region of our country. It
has the form of a colossal Shield, lacking and broken in some of its
outlines and rough and rude of make. Nature forged it for some crisis in
her long warfare of time and change, made use of it, and so left it lying
as one of her ancient battle-pieces--Kentucky.
The great Shield is raised high out of the earth at one end and sunk
deep into it at the other. It is tilted away from the dawn toward the
sunset. Where the western dip of it reposes on the planet, Nature,
cunning artificer, set the stream of ocean flowing past with restless
foam--the Father of Waters. Along the edge for a space she bound a
bright river to the rim of silver. And where the eastern part rises loftiest
on the horizon, turned away from the reddening daybreak, she piled
shaggy mountains wooded with trees that loose their leaves ere
snowflakes fly and with steadfast evergreens which hold to theirs
through the gladdening and the saddening year. Then crosswise over
the middle of the Shield, northward and southward upon the breadth of
it, covering the life-born rock of many thicknesses, she drew a tough
skin of verdure--a broad strip of hide of the ever growing grass. She
embossed noble forests on this greensward and under the forests drew
clear waters.
This she did in a time of which we know nothing--uncharted