W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
it is very cold outside he said there is a big oak tree on the edge of the fields that has split in the frost and frightened all the little squirrels asleep there next year it will make an even better home for them and see what i found close by he opened his fingers and showed hyacinth a little sparrow lying unruffled in the palm povretta said the dull hyacinth povretta is it then dead he touched it with a gentle forefinger
no answered the strange boy it is not dead we will put it here among the shavings not far from the lamp and it will be well by morning he smiled at hyacinth again and the shambling lad felt dimly as if the scent of the sandalwood had deepened and the lamp flame burned clearer but the stranger's eyes were only quiet quiet
have you come far asked hyacinth it is a bad season for travelling and the wolves are out in the woods a long way said the other a long long way i heard a child cry there is no child here answered hyacinth shaking his head monsieur le royad is not fond of children he says they cost too much money
but if you have come far you must be cold and hungry and i have no food nor fire at the st cateau you will find both the stranger looked at him again with those quiet eyes and hyacinth fancied his face was familiar i will stay here he said you are very late at work and you are unhappy
why as to that answered hyacinth rubbing again at his cheeks and ashamed of his tears most of us are sad at one time or another the good god knows stay here and welcome if it pleases you and you may take a share of my bed though it is no more than a pile of balsam boughs and an old blanket in the loft
but i must work at this cabinet for the drawer must be finished and handles put on and these corners carved all by the holy morning or my wages will be paid with a stick
You have a hard master, put in the other boy, if he would pay you with blows upon the feast of Noël.
He is hard enough, said Hyathent, but once he gave me a dinner of sausages and white wine, and once in the summer, melons.
If my eyes will stay open, I will finish this by morning, but indeed I am sleepy.
Stay with me an hour or so, comrade, and talk to me of your wanderings, so that the time may pass more quickly.
i will tell you of the country where i was a child answered the stranger and while hyacinth worked he told of sunshine and dust of the shadow of vine leaves on the flat white walls of a house of rosy doves on the flat roof
of the flowers that come out in the spring crimson and blue and the white cyclamen in the shadow of the rocks of the olive the myrtle and almond until hyacinth's slow fingers ceased working and his sleepy eyes blinked wonderingly see what you have done comrade he said at last you have told of such pretty things that i have done no work for an hour and now the cabinet will never be finished and i shall be beaten
let me help you smiled the other i also was bred a carpenter at first hyacinth would not fearing to trust the sweet wood out of his own hands but at length he allowed the stranger to fit in one of the little drawers and so deftly was the work done that hyacinth pounded his fists on the bench in admiration
you have a pretty knack he cried it seems as if you did but hold the drawer in your hands a moment and heigho it jumped into its place let me fit in the other little drawers while you go and rest a while said the wanderer so hyacinth curled up among the shavings and the stranger fell to work upon the little cabinet of sandalwood
here begins what the cure will have it is a dream within a dream sweetest of dreams that has ever been dreamed if that is so sometimes i am forced to think with him but again i see as clearly as with old madame's eyes that have not seen the earthly light for twenty years and with her in hyacinth i say credo
hyacinth said that he lay among the shavings in the sweetness of the sandalwood and was very tired he thought of the country where the stranger had been a boy of the flowers on the hills of the laughing leaves of aspen and poplar of the golden flowering anise and the golden sun upon the dusty roads until he was warm
all the time through these pictures as through a painted veil he was aware of that other boy with the quiet eyes at work upon the cabinet smoothing fitting polishing he does better work than i thought hyacinth but he was not jealous and again he thought it is growing towards morning in a little while i will get up and help him
but he did not for the dream of warmth and the smell of the sandalwood held him in a sweet drowse also he said that he thought the stranger was singing as he worked for there seemed to be a sense of some music in the shed though he could not tell whether it came from the other boy's lips or from the shabby old tools as he used them or from the stars
he lay without moving and behind the forest there shone a pale glow of some indescribable colour that was neither green nor blue while in terminaison the church bells began to ring day will soon be here thought hyacinthe immovable in that deep dream of his and with that day will come monsieur lorillard and his stick i must get up and help for even yet the corners are not carved
but he did not get up instead he saw the stranger look at him again smiling as if he loved him and lay his brown finger lightly upon the four empty corners of the cabinet and hyacinth saw the little squares of reddish wood
Showing 221–240 of 684 · page 12 of 35
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