Arrack

“ Master Henry Arkell, after going into the church to practise, couldn't be contented to bring the key back and hang it up, like a Christian, but must dash it on to the kitchen floor, where it split the cat's chaney saucer to pieces, and scattered the milk, a-frighting the cat, who had just got her nose in it, a'most into fits, and my missis too. Well, sir, when I opened my shutters the next morning, who should be a standing at the gate but Arkell, so I fetched him in to see the damage he had done; and it was while he was in the kitchen, a-counting the pieces, that Lewis came to the door. ”

“ So much is the arlak an object of dread, that a native will not willingly go alone in the dark, even a very short distance from his fire, without carrying a light. Some have assured me that they had seen this arlak, and one man showed me wounds said to have been inflicted by its teeth, and I have no doubt of his having firmly believed that they were produced in this manner. ”

“ I do not believe he is alive at all. I believe a troll hides in him and uses his mouth to speak with. I know evil will come of this. Let us leave him." He plucked nervously at Alrek's coat. "Come on!"
Alrek was strung high enough to be irritated by the clutch. "Keep off!" he ordered, jerking himself free. "It is no lie about you that you are cowardly, if you would desert a shipmate!" Then regaining possession of his cloak, he regained possession of his temper, and spoke quietly; "If we get some big branches and make a litter with our mantles, it will not be difficult to get him to the bay. ”

“ Alrek's hands continued to fight from instinct, but his brain became numb. The horror long hovering over him settled lead-like upon him.
"They are trolls!" he told himself; and his strength began to ooze out of him in icy droops.
He did not turn his head when above the din rose a roar even more appalling than the yells. When the creatures around him dropped their weapons to fly frantically this way and that, he remained standing where they had left him, plucking at an arrow which had pierced his arm below his mail. ”

“ But the lark is the most untrustworthy creature under heaven. However much it might freeze at night, the frost was forgotten at the first sunbeam; and the lark soared, singing, high over the heath, until it bethought itself that it was hungry.
Then it sank slowly down in wide circles, singing, and beating time to its song with the flickering of its wings. But a little way from the earth it folded its wings and dropped like a stone down into the heather.
The lapwing tripped with short steps among the hillocks, and nodded its head discreetly. ”

“ They are Aryks; they have much less people than the Murhapas, and are our slaves. Some days ago word was brought to us that a party of white men were making their way up the Xingu. Waggaman and Burkhardt and I set out to learn for ourselves and to stop them. They went down the other side of the river and I came down to the Aryk village. I roused them to kill you before you could pass above the rapids, but we were able to slay only one of them. ”

“ So assured were the Aryks in fact that they showed a disposition to toy for a moment with their victims, as a cat does with a mouse before craunching it in her jaws. They brandished their weapons, danced grotesquely and uttered shrill shrieks audible above the deafening roar of the angry Xingu as it foamed through the rapids. ”

“ Passing Alrek's guard, it opened a red wound upon his brown breast. He accepted it with a grimace as good-humored as his fencing, but his opponent was unwise enough to let fly a cry of triumph. Alrek's expression changed. The next time the Greenlander made use of that thrust, his blade was met with a force that jarred his arm to the shoulder. Under the hurt of it, he struck spitefully. Alrek answered in kind. Slowly, the even beat gave way to jerks of short sharp clatter, separated by pauses during which the two worked around each other with squaring mouths and kindling eyes. ”

“ No doubt much of the pleasure derived from the Lark’s song depends upon association, but independently of circumstances and associations the song of the Lark imparts an elasticity to the mind, elevates the spirits, and suspends for a time the gnawing of corroding care. The carol of the Lark, like the lively fife, excites pure cheerfulness. ”

“ Archer noticed that the hands, in the firelight, were fat, freckled, and immensely powerful, like the hand thrust in at the barroom door. This, then, was the Old Man, and, by the resemblance to the face at which Archer had swung his oar, it was Beaky Lehane's father.
"Oh, go to the devil," he answered, too cold, and tired, and bitter to let any man stare at him so. "This isn't your beach, anyway. It's Mr. Powell's. Go stare at somebody else." ”

“ They left at daybreak. I managed it to pull one arm free [Pg 230] and slide down on the ground and get some sleep, but the thongs are like red-hot irons upon my ankles. Fetch your knife up here as quickly as you can, and free me."
Alrek was taking another step toward him, when the expostulations of his comrades brought him again to a standstill. "If you are not drowned, what is the reason?" he inquired.
The claw-like hands beat the rock fretfully. "One reason is because I never fell into the water. Whether Thorhall told you so or not, I was not with him when he was wrecked on the Cape. ”

“ And the twenty lads, busy settling beltfuls of knives over tunics of deerskin, plunged into such eager anticipation of the joys of the landing that it was no time at all before they were scuffling with [Pg 13] the Red One, whose smarting wounds made him particularly perverse. By the time Alrek had got into his tunic and buckled on the beautiful weapon that gave him his nickname of "the Sword-Bearer," he was obliged to weather a storm of nutshells in order to join the group. ”

“ Surely no mere man could have crossed the humpy threshold without a blissful, instinctive desire to keep on his hat and take off his boots. Alrik knew how to make a room "homeful." Alrik knew everything in the world except grammar. ”

“ I’d lay down my life for her any moment—ay, more than that, I’d give her my pigtail if such a present would do her any good. But you’ll be brought to justice, Captain Lark. Them that acts like you, must be brought to justice in the end!”
“Amen!” answered Lark, ironically, and at that instant his attention was drawn to another quarter by the sudden loud flapping of the ship’s canvas against the masts. ”

“ At the same instant, Brand cried wildly: "It seems to me that they must rise from the dead since no matter how many one kills, there is always the same number confronting him."
Into Alrek's throat came the sense of choking which had seized him in the tree-top when he beheld that dark tide rolling in upon the land. ”

“ The lark, who does nearly all the singing for the Hollow, is not identical in species with the meadowlark of the East, though closely resembling it; richer flowers and skies have inspired him with a better song than was ever known to the Atlantic lark. ”

“ The Partridge Hunter began instantly to beat muffled time with his soft felt slippers. Alrik plunged as usual into a fearfully clever and clattery imitation of an ox shying at a street-car. But what of it? No wakened, sparkling-eyed girl came stealing forth from her corner to cuddle her blazing cheek against the cool, brass-colored jowl of the phonograph horn. An All-Goneness is an amazing thing. It was strange about Alrik's Wife. ”

“ Arkell's custom to give them a gown apiece for Christmas, and the two gowns were this day to be cut out and as much done to them as the dressmaker, and Tring at odd moments, could accomplish. Mary Hughes, naturally obliging, and anxious to stand well with the servants in one of her best places, as Mrs. Arkell's was, arrived at half-past seven, and was immediately set to work in what Tring called her pantry—a comfortable little boarded room, a sort of offshoot of the kitchen.
Mr. Arkell spoke again at breakfast of this expedition of Robert Carr's. ”

“ The next moment the keen short hunting knife, without which Archer never takes the field, had severed at a single stroke the weasand of the gallant brute; the black blood streamed out on the smoking hoar-frost, the full eyes glazed, and, after one sharp fluttering struggle, the life departed from those graceful limbs, which had been but a few short instants previous so full of glorious energy--of fiery vigor.
"Well, that's the strangest thing I ever heard of, let alone seeing," exclaimed Archer, "fancy a buck like that lying in such a mere fringe of coppice, and so near to the road-side, too! ”

“ I can rope and throw Lark any time he gets to horning in where he shouldn't, and I promise you that he isn't going to pull open any hornet's nest just to see how it's made. And Lark's right about one thing, anyway. The best thing to do, now it's pretty well known where we stand, is to ride in and show we aren't ashamed of ourselves. The Willis boys were afraid, Maw. They tried to run, and then when they were caught, they begged like whipped pups. ”

“ Peter Arkell and Henry quitted the deanery, the former turned to the cloisters; for he had an errand to do in the town, and to go through the cloisters was the shortest way. He encountered some of the college boys in the cloisters, whooping, hallooing, shouting; their feet and their tongues a babel of confusion. Mr. Arkell looked back at them with strange interest. It did not seem so very long since he and his cousin William had been college boys themselves, and had shouted and leaped as merrily as these. ”

“ The sheep had gone toward the house, for it was time for them to be milked. Appetite comes quickly on the mountains, and Archag, having a strange feeling of emptiness in his stomach, asked one of the shepherds to give him a glass of milk. He drank it with relish, and then licked off the cream which had formed a thick mustache on his lips.
Next, he ran to look at the horses, for like all Orientals, he had a passion for them. There were about two hundred here; small animals with intelligent eyes and long tails which swept the ground. ”

“ The only thing equally black is the Weathercock's face since he finds that he must put into the Keel harbor after all. And on top of it the wind has failed, and he has commanded all hands to the oars——"
Rising to his fettered feet, Alrek held out his bound hands. "Here are mine! Take your knife to the knots."
The Thick-Skulled gaped over his shoulder. "Why—why—he did not mean you."
"Have I not hands?" the Sword-Bearer demanded. [Pg 43] "With a troll's strength in them this morning! Certainly he meant me." ”

“ In 1836, the year Arkansas became a state in the Union, the present location of the town of DesArc was known as McNulty’s Bluff and was nothing more than a ferry crossing the White River at this point—the most eastern edge of what was then Pulaski County. It wasn’t until the early 1840’s that the townsite was laid out and became known as DesArc. Today the population is about 500. ”

“ As the previous manœuvres were repeated for a third time, poor Alaric, sitting helplessly in his water-logged dinghy, shivered with apprehension. How could he hold on to that cruel line that seemed only fitted to drag him to destruction? This time it took longer to find him, and he was hoarse with shouting before the Fancy again approached.
"He don't know enough to do anything with a line, Cap'n Duff," said Bonny, "So if you'll throw the sloop into the wind and heave her to, I'll bring the boat alongside." ”

“ King Alrek, who lived in Alreksstadir, ruled over Hördaland; he was married to Signy, a king’s daughter from Vörs. One of his hirdmen, Koll, followed him north into Sogn, and told him much of the beauty of Geirhild, Drif’s daughter; he had seen her at the brewing of ale, and said he wanted him to marry her. Hött, who proved to be Odin, went to visit her when she was at her linen, and bargained with her that Alrek should marry her, but that she should invoke him for all things. The king saw her on his way home, and made their wedding the same autumn. ”

“ It is something to have known youth and gayety, enthusiasm and a bravery which flies in the face of day, and now—something to have lost them. The Lark has lived and now dies well, and, to some at least, the time of its irregular appearance will no longer be a red-letter day.”
The Philosopher.—“And now The Lark announces its end. It was the freshest, purest breath of air that ever blew across the atmosphere of letters.”
London Times.—“So unique in literature and illustration, we are sorry to note that its publication is to be suspended. ”

“ His feet protruded from the water, and his open zouboun was floating on the waves. Archag took him in his arms and swam back to the beach where Aram was anxiously waiting. Here, he laid the body down on the sand. The poor man must have been hurled against the rocks, for his face was disfigured by a bad wound on the temple. ”

“ Philadelphia Times.—“The young men who publish The Lark have ideas of their own. The Lark is smart and funny in a way quite its own, and it is also capable of serious flights and of musical notes clear enough to be heard across the continent.” ”

“ Then, with sword drawn, he attacked the other, as he sought to escape without company or escort. When he sees Erec pursuing him, he is so afraid that he knows not what to do: he does not dare to face him, and cannot turn aside; he has to leave his horse, for he has no more trust in him. He throws away his shield and lance, and slips from his horse to earth. When he saw him on his feet, Erec no longer cared to pursue him, but he stooped over for the lance, not wishing to leave that, because of his own which had been broken. ”