Red Axe by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
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page 5 of 421 (01%)
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the shields in the great hall, whither I went often when the great Duke
was not at home, and when old Hanne would be busy cleaning the pavement and scrubbing viciously at the armor of the iron knights who stood on pedestals round about. "One day I shall be a man-at-arms, too," I said once to Hanne, "and ride a-foraying with Duke Ironteeth." But old Hanne only shook her head and answered: "Ill foraying shalt thou make, little shrimp. Such work as thine is not done on horseback--keep wide from me, _toadchen_, touch me not!" For even old Hanne flouted me and would not let me approach her too closely, all because once I had asked her what my father did to witches, and if she were a witch that she crossed herself and trembled whenever she passed him in the court-yard. Now, having little else to do, I loved to look down from the top of the tower at all times. But never more so than when there was snow on the ground, for then the City of Thorn lay apparent beneath me, all spread out like a painted picture, with its white and red roofs and white houses bright in the moonlight--so near that it seemed as though I could pat every child lying asleep in its little bed, and scrape away the snow with my fingers from every red tile off which the house-fires had not already melted it. The town of Thorn was the chief place of arms, and high capital city of all the Wolfmark. It was a thriving place, too, humming with burghers and trades and guilds, when our great Duke Casimir would let them alone; |
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