The Virgin of the Sun (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, FB2, TEXT)
e worn Elizabethan spoon, who have sat at the
rickety oak table found in a kitchen or an out-house, or upon the
broken, ancient chair. They love to think of the little children whose
skilful, tired hands wrought the faded sampler and whose bright eyes
smarted over its innumerable stitches.
Who, for instance, was the May Shore ("Fairy" broidered in a bracket
underneath, was her pet name), who finished yonder elaborate example
on her tenth birthday, the 1st of May--doubtless that is where she got
her name--in the year 1702, and on what far shore does she keep her
birthdays now? None will ever know. She has vanished into the great
sea of mystery whence she came, and there she lives and has her being,
forgotten upon earth, or sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. Did she die
young or old, married or single? Did she ever set /her/ children to
work other samplers, or had she none? was she happy or unhappy, was
she homely or beautiful? Was she a sinner or a saint? Again none will
ever know. She was born on the 1st of May