ease.
But I seek two others which I have not found. The second opens the eyes
of the blind. And the third,--few may ever find that precious herb,--the
third is the root of life, and at its touch death flees away. Alas!
Fair Sir, I cannot find those two, though some day I feel that I shall
need them both most sorely." Rivanone sighed and two tears stood like
dewdrops in her flower eyes.

But Hyvarnion had now come very close. "Still, you have found the first,
which gives happiness, little Queen," he sang tenderly. "Have you not
happiness to share with me, Rivanone?" Then the maiden looked up in his
eyes and smiled, and held out to him a sprig of the green vervain.

"For my King," she sang, just as he had dreamed. And then he did just
what she had dreamed he would do; but that is a secret which I cannot
tell. For no one knows all that a maiden dreams.

And after this and that they came back to the King's palace hand in
hand, singing a beautiful song which together they had made about
Happiness. So they were married at the court, and the King did them
great honor and made them King and Queen of music and of song.

So, happily they lived and happily they sang in their little Kingdom of
Poesie,--for did they not possess the herb of joy which Rivanone had
found and shared with Hyvarnion, her King?

II.

BUT it was a pity that Rivanone had not also found those other plants
for which she had been seeking, the root which brings light to the
blind, and the root which gives life to the dying. Because Rivanone had
foreseen only too well the need of them which would come to her. For
when, after a year or two, their little son was born, his blue eyes were
sightless and all the colored wonders of the world were secrets which he
could never know. So they named him Herve, which means Bitterness,--the
first bitterness which had come into their lives of joy. But it was not
the last. Not long after the little Herve came, golden-haired Hyvarnion
lay ill and dying. And because on that spring morning, Rivanone had not
found the herb of life, she could not keep him from going away to find
it for himself in that fair country where it is the only plant that
grows, with wonderful blossoms which no living man has ever seen.

So Hyvarnion passed away from his kingdom of music and song, which he
left to be shared by dear Rivanone and Herve his little son. Thus Herve
became a Prince, heir to all the gifts of that royal pair. And of these
th