A Voice like Music

Dropping her eyes as if she were looking at the printing, Pegeen began to talk rapidly and the teacher caught her breath. For Pegeen’s Irish was not like that of the other children. The words didn’t come hurtling like heavily loaded carts over a cobbled street; they rose and fell like waves, with the sparkle……

Country Autumn

Of course, there were those delightfully crisp autumn mornings, when wagon after wagon came jauntily in from the vineyard, loaded with grapes for the wonderful wine that comes from this country of golden hillsides. All seasons were busy, noisy, filled with laughter and work, punctuated by Sundays, with Mass in the village church, clean coifs……

Thomas’ Road to School

Thomas’ road to school lay through the city itself. Church spires needled upwards between the rooftops. Some of the houses had a rough, animal look, with their uneven red pantiles, or shaggy thatch of straw. They leaned over the street, upper stories jutting out as if trying to touch their neighbor, and signs swung and……

Alcuin of York

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW When Alcuin taught the sons of Charlemagne, In the free schools of Aix, how kings should reign, And with them taught the children of the poor How subjects should be patient and endure, He touched the lips of some, as best befit, With honey from the hives of Holy Writ; Others……

Palace School

In Lombardy the members of the imperial family were all housed in a ducal palace. Their struggle across the mountains at once seemed very far away, for here the spring was very soft on the air, the poplar trees were shaking out leaves so tender and young that they were gold rather than green. It……