The Bright Enchantment

CASTLE TOWN is enchanted. Even as it was when the settlers came, bringing beauty and peace and content through the wilderness, so it is today.

The pride of Castle Town is in the pulpit in its church, which is the most beautiful pulpit in Vermont, and in the houses, porticoes, archways, and stairways which Thomas Royal Dake, the carpenter – the artist of yesterday – fashioned. Upon the whole town this man has set his touchmark as surely as Ebenezer Southmayd ever set his upon pewter.

The stranger, passing through, drives more and more slowly, until he stops and says: “There is a spell upon this place!”

Once a year the doors of the homes of Castle Town are opened, and all the beautiful treasures, which the song of the blue cat caused to be fashioned, are shown to strangers who come from far and wide to see them, and to hear the story of Castle Town.

Two things the visitors do not see. One is the teapot of Ebenezer Southmayd. Folk still speak of it, but no one knows what has happened to it, or where it may be hidden. The second treasure that is missing is the carpet which Zeruah Guernsey fashioned. For that carpet, together with the hearth rug of the blue cat, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of the City of New York.

If you doubt this story, you can go and see for yourself. In the daytime the blue cat will give you stare for stare. But at night, when the Museum is quite empty and a blue moon shines through the windows, then the blue cat’s song may be heard echoing down every corridor.

Did not the river say he should live forever?

Arunah?

Scarce a soul remembers him. For his spell over Castle Town was completely vanquished, even as the river had hoped. Though, as the river had likewise promised, Arunah died to the tune of his own song of speed – crushed beneath the wheels of a train. Even today the sound of the train whistle through the valley is a sound to chill one’s bones. It is all that remains of the dark enchantment.

As for the river which flows through the valley, go and sit beside it. And if you should hear it suddenly begin to sing its song, turn quickly. There in the reeds for an instant – if you are quick enough – you will see a small blue shadow. For of course it is hardly to be expected that the blue cat – who was no ordinary cat – stays in the Metropolitan all the time!

Sing your own song. Sing well! Sing well!