FOR THE CHILDREN

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2510, 11 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN

The Legend of Silventine. In the olden days, some two or throe hundred yearn ago or more, tho land of Silventine was governed by King- Luirettu, who was famed for the justice and equity with which ho rulod his kingdom. Ttio kin-; in his youth had married a noble and virtuous lady of royal blood, who presented him with two twin daughters a year after his marriage, but who never lived to see her children grow up. Tho king mourned her loss so deeply that ho caused a palace of black marble to be built for him upon the sea-shore, awav from all other habitations, solitary and desolate. Here he spent all the spare time ho had, only going two or three times a year to Weldane, the capital, to manage his state afl.iirs. His two twin daughters, Clarice aud Sibyline, had been brought up at the Black Palace, as it was called, where the king had procured learned professors, artists and musicians to give them the highest education possible. Clarice, at 18, was a beautiful maiden, very fair, with long, golden hair, reaching almost to her knees, passionately fond of her father, and who cared littlo for the gaiety of the capital, from which she and her sister had been exoluded. Sibyline was a brunnette, both haughty and imperious, and quite the reverse of her sister in character. It was about this time when, their education being quite finished, their father (the king) told them to take their choice between the Black Palace, whore he would always reside, or the Royal Palace at Weldane, in which at present lived their aunt, the Princess Merlee, for their future home. The Prinoess Clarice never hesitated a moment. " My home is ever with you, most royal father," replied she, at which answer her sister Princess Libyline, frowned deeply, for she knew it would find favour in the king's sight. "And you, Sibyline?" said the king, turning towards har. " I think it is time I saw a little of the world, and— "To make a long story short, you prefer tho gaiety of the Court to your father's society," broke in the king. "Very well, it shall be so, I myself shall place you under your aunt's care, leaving to-morrow and returning here the following day.'' The night of their departure, tho Princess Clarice ere she retired to reßt, stepped out on to her balcony which jutted out over the sea. It was a calm moonlight night, with scarcely a ripple upon the glassy surface of the ocean, never a ship in sight, or the faintest sound, save the lap-lap of the waves as they gently broke upon the 3hore beneath her. The Princess feeling somewhat awed by the stillness, was preparing to j return into her apartments, when the sound as of low sweet music reached her ears. She glanced hastily round, in search of any possible musician, but seeing none, she loant over the railings of the baleony and cried : " Who is there ?" For answer, tho music grew louder, as if approaching her, and then a hand cold and wet suddenly seized her arm, and drew her slowly, though surely, into the sea, fain would she have cried for help, but, that icy touch paralysed her. And then a voice clear and bell-like sounded in her ear. "Fear not, fair Princess," it said, "but rather fell joyful and honoured, for the Ocean King would woo thee for his wife, in his Diamond Courts beneath the waves." And though she could not see tho speaker, some 0110 was guiding her in the bed of tho ocean, past coral reefs and pearly sheila, until tho Diamond Courts were reached, where tho Ocean King awaited the arrival of his future wife. And ao the fair and virtaous Princess Clarioa was for ever lost to the world.

though her homo was far more beautiful than any earthly one; and as lie Ocean King's wife, she became Queen of the Mermaids, whom you have doubtless seen sporting in tho water on moonlight nights. And then on King Lauretta's which was hastened by tho lobs of his daughter, her sister Sibyline reigned as Queen, much feared and respected, but never loved, and who died unmarried. Matwjokrita,