The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin [little red riding hood ebook .txt] 📗

came in sight of the Treasure Valley, behold, a river, like the

Golden River, was springing from a new cleft of the rocks above

it and was flowing in innumerable streams among the dry heaps of

red sand.

And as Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams,

and creeping plants grew and climbed among the moistening soil.

Young flowers opened suddenly along the riversides, as stars

leap out when twilight is deepening, and thickets of myrtle and

tendrils of vine cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they

grew. And thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and

the inheritance which had been lost by cruelty was regained by

love.

And Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never

driven from his door, so that his barns became full of corn and

his house of treasure. And for him the river had, according to

the dwarf’s promise, become a river of gold.

And to this day the inhabitants of the valley point out the place

where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream, and

trace the course of the Golden River under the ground until it

emerges in the Treasure Valley. And at the top of the cataract

of the Golden River are still to be seen two black stones, round

which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset; and these

stones are still called by the people of the valley

THE BLACK BROTHERS