Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/182

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
164
THE STEALING

grims journeying to the fountain of beauty, and impelled with no leſs devotion than the Turkiſh caravan, when it repairs to the prophet’s grave at Mecca. The daughters of the town would likewiſe go forth with pitchers on their ſhoulders to draw the precious water, and as little miſs ſuch an opportunity of carrying on the trade of matrimony, as the daughters of Nahor in days of yore[1]. But neither are the ſkirts of every cloud gilded by the ſun; nor is every flower that drinks the refreſhing dew of the morning arrayed in ſplendid apparel, nor does every pearl, after being clouded with ſweat, regain its firſt water, when ſoaked in lemon-juice—but on the contrary, the action of the rays of the fertilizing dew, and the acid, ſtill remaining the ſame, a different effect is produced by the intruſion of certain circumſtances; ſo, without diſparagement to its ſovereign virtue, neither would the Zwikow ſpring faſten the flower of youth and beauty upon every

  1. Geneſis, xxiv. 15.——T.

ſtock