WEBVTT
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The Green Mist
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In the fens and marshlands of Eastern England,
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folk held onto the old ways to keep bad luck at bay.
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During the winter nothing grew so the spirits had nothing but evil to do.
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During the short dark days and long dark nights,
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clammy fingers scratched at the windows and doors.
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The people inside spoke spells, whose meanings had been forgotten,
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in the hope that these chants would keep the spirits away.
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Every morning at dawn they would sprinkle salt and bread,
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hoping that the green mist would come –
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because with the green mist came the Spring,
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and the Spring meant the retreat of the darkness.
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A family had done what could be done yet, for all that,
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one winter heavy sorrow was on them.
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Their daughter, the prettiest lass in the village,
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withered and shrivelled.
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Now she could barely stand.
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She asked for her bed to be moved to the window.
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She watched the silent world outside and said to her mother,
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‘If I can just outlive the winter,
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perhaps the green mist would make me straight and strong again,
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like the trees and the flowers and the corn in the fields.’
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Down in the village, a young lad had always had a corner for her.
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He’d see her at market.
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When she became weak and rarely ventured from her cottage,
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he even went to church in the hope of glimpsing her.
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Time passed;
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the green mist didn’t come.
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She grew more gaunt and more weak.
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One day she said to her mother,
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‘If I could live as long as those cowslips that grow by the door,
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I swear I’d be content.’
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‘Shh,’ said her mother,
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‘The spirits might be listening.’
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The very next morning,
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the green mist came and the girl rallied.
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She sat in the sun and laughed with joy.
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She grew stronger and prettier whenever the sun shone,
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though a cold day would make her white and weak.
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When the cowslips flowered,
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she grew so beautiful they were almost afraid of her.
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The young man was filled with relief.
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‘What a blessing,’ he said to himself.
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‘While she is well,
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I’d best go to her, tell her my feelings.’
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So he walked to her house.
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He stopped outside the door,
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shifting from foot to foot.
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If only he had something to give her.
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There – those flowers.
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In the cottage, they heard a knock.
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She opened the door.
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There stood the young man,
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the cowslips in his hand.
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She looked at them,
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gave a cry and fainted.
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As the flowers wilted, so did she.
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She was gone within a week.