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2. The Child of the Forest
Once, so long ago our great-grandfathers could scarcely have heard it
mentioned, there lived within the great Forest of Burzee a wood-nymph named
Necile. She was closely related to the mighty Queen Zurline, and her home
was beneath the shade of a widespreading oak. Once every year, on Budding
Day, when the trees put forth their new buds, Necile held the Golden Chalice
of Ak to the lips of the Queen, who drank therefrom to the prosperity of the
Forest. So you see she was a nymph of some importance, and, moreover, it is
said she was highly regarded because of her beauty and grace.
When she was created she could not have told; Queen Zurline could not have
told; the great Ak himself could not have told. It was long ago when the world
was new and nymphs were needed to guard the forests and to minister to the
wants of the young trees. Then, on some day not remembered, Necile sprang
into being; radiant, lovely, straight and slim as the sapling she was created to
guard.
Her hair was the color that lines a chestnut-bur; her eyes were blue in the
sunlight and purple in the shade; her cheeks bloomed with the faint pink that
edges the clouds at sunset; her lips were full red, pouting and sweet. For
costume she adopted oak-leaf green; all the wood-nymphs dress in that color
and know no other so desirable. Her dainty feet were sandal-clad, while her
head remained bare of covering other than her silken tresses.
Necile's duties were few and simple. She kept hurtful weeds from growing
beneath her trees and sapping the earth-food required by her charges. She
frightened away the Gadgols, who took evil delight in flying against the tree-
trunks and wounding them so that they drooped and died from the poisonous
contact. In dry seasons she carried water from the brooks and pools and
moistened the roots of her thirsty dependents.
That was in the beginning. The weeds had now learned to avoid the forests
where wood-nymphs dwelt; the loathsome Gadgols no longer dared come nigh;
the trees had become old and sturdy and could bear the drought better than
when fresh-sprouted. So Necile's duties were lessened, and time grew laggard,
while succeeding years became more tiresome and uneventful than the
nymph's joyous spirit loved.
Truly the forest-dwellers did not lack amusement. Each full moon they
danced in the Royal Circle of the Queen. There were also the Feast of Nuts,
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