If the spray-bead be won
The stain of thy wing is washed away,
But another errand must be done
Ere thy crime be lost for aye;
Thy flame-wood lamp is quenched and dark,
Thou must re-illume its spark.
Mount thy steed and spur him high
To the heaven's blue canopy,
And when thou seest a shooting star
Follow it fast and follow it far
The last faint spark of its burning train
Shall light the elfin lamp again.
Upon this sin, and upon this sentence, depends the web of the
narrative, which is now occupied with the elfin difficulties
overcome by the Ouphe in washing away the stain of his wing, and
re-illuming his flame-wood lamp. His soiled pinion having lost its
power, he is under the necessity of wending his way on foot from the
Elfin court upon Cronest to the river beach at its base. His path is
encumbered at every step with "bog and briar," with "brook and
mire," with "beds of tangled fern," with "groves of night-shade,"
and with the minor evils of ant and snake. Happily, however, a spotted
toad coming in sight, our adventurer jumps upon her back, and
"bridling her mouth with a silk-weed twist" bounds merrily along
Till the mountain's magic verge is past
And the beach of sand is reached at last.
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