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diff --git a/old/1288.txt b/old/1288.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b895483 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1288.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4143 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dream Days + Sequel to "The Golden Age" + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Posting Date: August 16, 2008 [EBook #1288] +Release Date: April, 1998 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DREAM DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +DREAM DAYS + +by Kenneth Grahame + + + + +Contents: + + THE TWENTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER + DIES IRAE + MUTABILE SEMPER + THE MAGIC RING + ITS WALLS WERE AS OF JASPER + A SAGA OF THE SEAS + THE RELUCTANT DRAGON + A DEPARTURE + + + + +THE TWENTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER + + +In the matter of general culture and attainments, we youngsters stood on +pretty level ground. True, it was always happening that one of us would +be singled out at any moment, freakishly, and without regard to his own +preferences, to wrestle with the inflections of some idiotic language +long rightly dead; while another, from some fancied artistic tendency +which always failed to justify itself, might be told off without warning +to hammer out scales and exercises, and to bedew the senseless keys with +tears of weariness or of revolt. But in subjects common to either sex, +and held to be necessary even for him whose ambition soared no higher +than to crack a whip in a circus-ring--in geography, for instance, +arithmetic, or the weary doings of kings and queens--each would have +scorned to excel. And, indeed, whatever our individual gifts, a general +dogged determination to shirk and to evade kept us all at much the same +dead level,--a level of Ignorance tempered by insubordination. + +Fortunately there existed a wide range of subjects, of healthier tone +than those already enumerated, in which we were free to choose for +ourselves, and which we would have scorned to consider education; and in +these we freely followed each his own particular line, often attaining +an amount of special knowledge which struck our ignorant elders as +simply uncanny. For Edward, the uniforms, accoutrements, colours, +and mottoes of the regiments composing the British Army had a special +glamour. In the matter of facings he was simply faultless; among +chevrons, badges, medals, and stars, he moved familiarly; he even knew +the names of most of the colonels in command; and he would squander +sunny hours prone on the lawn, heedless of challenge from bird or beast, +poring over a tattered Army List. My own accomplishment was of another +character--took, as it seemed to me, a wider and a more untrammelled +range. Dragoons might have swaggered in Lincoln green, riflemen might +have donned sporrans over tartan trews, without exciting notice or +comment from me. But did you seek precise information as to the fauna of +the American continent, then you had come to the right shop. Where and +why the bison "wallowed"; how beaver were to be trapped and wild turkeys +stalked; the grizzly and how to handle him, and the pretty pressing +ways of the constrictor,--in fine, the haunts and the habits of all that +burrowed, strutted, roared, or wriggled between the Atlantic and the +Pacific,--all this knowledge I took for my province. By the others my +equipment was fully recognized. Supposing a book with a bear-hunt in +it made its way into the house, and the atmosphere was electric with +excitement; still, it was necessary that I should first decide whether +the slot had been properly described and properly followed up, ere the +work could be stamped with full approval. A writer might have won +fame throughout the civilized globe for his trappers and his realistic +backwoods, and all went for nothing. If his pemmican were not properly +compounded I damned his achievement, and it was heard no more of. + +Harold was hardly old enough to possess a special subject of his own. He +had his instincts, indeed, and at bird's-nesting they almost amounted to +prophecy. Where we others only suspected eggs, surmised possible eggs, +hinted doubtfully at eggs in the neighbourhood, Harold went straight for +the right bush, bough, or hole as if he carried a divining-rod. But this +faculty belonged to the class of mere gifts, and was not to be ranked +with Edward's lore regarding facings, and mine as to the habits of +prairie-dogs, both gained by painful study and extensive travel in those +"realms of gold," the Army List and Ballantyne. + +Selina's subject, quite unaccountably, happened to be naval history. +There is no laying down rules as to subjects; you just possess them--or +rather, they possess you--and their genesis or protoplasm is rarely to +be tracked down. Selina had never so much as seen the sea; but for +that matter neither had I ever set foot on the American continent, +the by-ways of which I knew so intimately. And just as I, if set down +without warning in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, would have been +perfectly at home, so Selina, if a genie had dropped her suddenly on +Portsmouth Hard, could have given points to most of its frequenters. +From the days of Blake down to the death of Nelson (she never +condescended further) Selina had taken spiritual part in every notable +engagement of the British Navy; and even in the dark days when she had +to pick up skirts and flee, chased by an ungallant De Ruyter or Van +Tromp, she was yet cheerful in the consciousness that ere long she would +be gleefully hammering the fleets of the world, in the glorious times +to follow. When that golden period arrived, Selina was busy indeed; and, +while loving best to stand where the splinters were flying the thickest, +she was also a careful and critical student of seamanship and of +maneuver. She knew the order in which the great line-of-battle ships +moved into action, the vessels they respectively engaged, the moment +when each let go its anchor, and which of them had a spring on its cable +(while not understanding the phrase, she carefully noted the fact); +and she habitually went into an engagement on the quarter-deck of the +gallant ship that reserved its fire the longest. + +At the time of Selina's weird seizure I was unfortunately away from +home, on a loathsome visit to an aunt; and my account is therefore +feebly compounded from hearsay. It was an absence I never ceased to +regret--scoring it up, with a sense of injury, against the aunt. There +was a splendid uselessness about the whole performance that specially +appealed to my artistic sense. That it should have been Selina, too, +who should break out this way--Selina, who had just become a regular +subscriber to the "Young Ladies' Journal," and who allowed herself to +be taken out to strange teas with an air of resignation palpably +assumed--this was a special joy, and served to remind me that much of +this dreaded convention that was creeping over us might be, after +all, only veneer. Edward also was absent, getting licked into shape at +school; but to him the loss was nothing. With his stern practical bent +he wouldn't have seen any sense in it--to recall one of his favourite +expressions. To Harold, however, for whom the gods had always cherished +a special tenderness, it was granted, not only to witness, but also, +priestlike, to feed the sacred fire itself. And if at the time he paid +the penalty exacted by the sordid unimaginative ones who temporarily +rule the roast, he must ever after, one feels sure, have carried inside +him some of the white gladness of the acolyte who, greatly privileged, +has been permitted to swing a censer at the sacring of the very Mass. + +October was mellowing fast, and with it the year itself; full of tender +hints, in woodland and hedgerow, of a course well-nigh completed. From +all sides that still afternoon you caught the quick breathing and sob +of the runner nearing the goal. Preoccupied and possessed, Selina had +strayed down the garden and out into the pasture beyond, where, on a +bit of rising ground that dominated the garden on one side and the downs +with the old coach-road on the other, she had cast herself down to chew +the cud of fancy. There she was presently joined by Harold, breathless +and very full of his latest grievance. + +"I asked him not to," he burst out. "I said if he'd only please wait a +bit and Edward would be back soon, and it couldn't matter to him, and +the pig wouldn't mind, and Edward'd be pleased and everybody'd be happy. +But he just said he was very sorry, but bacon didn't wait for nobody. +So I told him he was a regular beast, and then I came away. And--and I +b'lieve they're doing it now!" + +"Yes, he's a beast," agreed Selina, absently. She had forgotten all +about the pig-killing. Harold kicked away a freshly thrown-up mole-hill, +and prodded down the hole with a stick. From the direction of Farmer +Larkin's demesne came a long-drawn note of sorrow, a thin cry and +appeals telling that the stout soul of a black Berkshire pig was already +faring down the stony track to Hades. + +"D' you know what day it is?" said Selina presently, in a low voice, +looking far away before her. + +Harold did not appear to know, nor yet to care. He had laid open his +mole-run for a yard or so, and was still grubbing at it absorbedly. + +"It's Trafalgar Day," went on Selina, trancedly; "Trafalgar Day--and +nobody cares!" + +Something in her tone told Harold that he was not behaving quite +becomingly. He didn't exactly know in what manner; still, he abandoned +his mole-hunt for a more courteous attitude of attention. + +"Over there," resumed Selina--she was gazing out in the direction of the +old highroad--"over there the coaches used to go by. Uncle Thomas was +telling me about it the other day. And the people used to watch for 'em +coming, to tell the time by, and p'r'aps to get their parcels. And one +morning--they wouldn't be expecting anything different--one morning, +first there would be a cloud of dust, as usual, and then the coach would +come racing by, and then they would know! For the coach would be dressed +in laurel, all laurel from stem to stern! And the coachman would be +wearing laurel, and the guard would be wearing laurel; and then they +would know, then they would know!" + +Harold listened in respectful silence. He would much rather have been +hunting the mole, who must have been a mile away by this time if he had +his wits about him. But he had all the natural instincts of a +gentleman; of whom it is one of the principal marks, if not the complete +definition, never to show signs of being bored. + +Selina rose to her feet, and paced the turf restlessly with a short +quarter-deck walk. + +"Why can't we do something?" she burst out presently. "He--he did +everything--why can't we do anything for him?" + +"Who did everything?" inquired Harold, meekly. It was useless wasting +further longings on that mole. Like the dead, he travelled fast. + +"Why, Nelson, of course," said Selina, shortly, still looking restlessly +around for help or suggestion. + +"But he's--he's dead, isn't he?" asked Harold, slightly puzzled. + +"What's that got to do with it?" retorted his sister, resuming her +caged-lion promenade. + +Harold was somewhat taken aback. In the case of the pig, for instance, +whose last outcry had now passed into stillness, he had considered the +chapter as finally closed. Whatever innocent mirth the holidays might +hold in store for Edward, that particular pig, at least, would not be a +contributor. And now he was given to understand that the situation had +not materially changed! He would have to revise his ideas, it seemed. +Sitting up on end, he looked towards the garden for assistance in the +task. Thence, even as he gazed, a tiny column of smoke rose straight up +into the still air. The gardener had been sweeping that afternoon, and +now, an unconscious priest, was offering his sacrifice of autumn leaves +to the calm-eyed goddess of changing hues and chill forebodings who was +moving slowly about the land that golden afternoon. Harold was up and +off in a moment, forgetting Nelson, forgetting the pig, the mole, the +Larkin betrayal, and Selina's strange fever of conscience. Here was +fire, real fire, to play with, and that was even better than messing +with water, or remodelling the plastic surface of the earth. Of all the +toys the world provides for right-minded persons, the original elements +rank easily the first. + +But Selina sat on where she was, her chin on her fists; and her fancies +whirled and drifted, here and there, in curls and eddies, along with the +smoke she was watching. As the quick-footed dusk of the short October +day stepped lightly over the garden, little red tongues of fire might +be seen to leap and vanish in the smoke. Harold, anon staggering under +armfuls of leaves, anon stoking vigorously, was discernible only at +fitful intervals. It was another sort of smoke that the inner eye of +Selina was looking upon,--a smoke that hung in sullen banks round the +masts and the hulls of the fighting ships; a smoke from beneath which +came thunder and the crash and the splinter-rip, the shout of the +boarding-party, the choking sob of the gunner stretched by his gun; a +smoke from out of which at last she saw, as through a riven pall, the +radiant spirit of the Victor, crowned with the coronal of a perfect +death, leap in full assurance up into the ether that Immortals breathe. +The dusk was glooming towards darkness when she rose and moved slowly +down towards the beckoning fire; something of the priestess in her +stride, something of the devotee in the set purpose of her eye. + +The leaves were well alight by this time, and Harold had just added an +old furze bush, which flamed and crackled stirringly. + +"Go 'n' get some more sticks," ordered Selina, "and shavings, 'n' chunks +of wood, 'n' anything you can find. Look here--in the kitchen-garden +there 's a pile of old pea-sticks. Fetch as many as you can carry, and +then go back and bring some more!" + +"But I say,--" began Harold, amazedly, scarce knowing his sister, and +with a vision of a frenzied gardener, pea-stickless and threatening +retribution. + +"Go and fetch 'em quick!" shouted Selina, stamping with impatience. + +Harold ran off at once, true to the stern system of discipline in which +he had been nurtured. But his eyes were like round O's, and as he ran he +talked fast to himself, in evident disorder of mind. + +The pea-sticks made a rare blaze, and the fire, no longer smouldering +sullenly, leapt up and began to assume the appearance of a genuine +bonfire. Harold, awed into silence at first, began to jump round it with +shouts of triumph. Selina looked on grimly, with knitted brow; she +was not yet fully satisfied. "Can't you get any more sticks?" she said +presently. "Go and hunt about. Get some old hampers and matting and +things out of the tool-house. Smash up that old cucumber frame Edward +shoved you into, the day we were playing scouts and Mohicans. Stop a +bit! Hooray! I know. You come along with me." + +Hard by there was a hot-house, Aunt Eliza's special pride and joy, and +even grimly approved of by the gardener. At one end, in an out-house +adjoining, the necessary firing was stored; and to this sacred fuel, of +which we were strictly forbidden to touch a stick, Selina went straight. +Harold followed obediently, prepared for any crime after that of the +pea-sticks, but pinching himself to see if he were really awake. + +"You bring some coals," said Selina briefly, without any palaver or +pro-and-con discussion. "Here's a basket. I'll manage the faggots!" + +In a very few minutes there was little doubt about its being a genuine +bonfire and no paltry makeshift. Selina, a Maenad now, hatless and +tossing disordered locks, all the dross of the young lady purged out of +her, stalked around the pyre of her own purloining, or prodded it with +a pea-stick. And as she prodded she murmured at intervals, "I knew there +was something we could do! It isn't much--but still it 's something!" + +The gardener had gone home to his tea. Aunt Eliza had driven out for +hers a long way off, and was not expected back till quite late; and this +far end of the garden was not overlooked by any windows. So the Tribute +blazed on merrily unchecked. Villagers far away, catching sight of +the flare, muttered something about "them young devils at their tricks +again," and trudged on beerwards. Never a thought of what day it was, +never a thought for Nelson, who preserved their honest pint-pots, to +be paid for in honest pence, and saved them from litres and decimal +coinage. Nearer at hand, frightened rabbits popped up and vanished with +a flick of white tails; scared birds fluttered among the branches, or +sped across the glade to quieter sleeping-quarters; but never a bird nor +a beast gave a thought to the hero to whom they owed it that each year +their little homes of horsehair, wool, or moss, were safe stablished +'neath the flap of the British flag; and that Game Laws, quietly +permanent, made la chasse a terror only to their betters. No one seemed +to know, nor to care, nor to sympathise. In all the ecstasy of her +burnt-offering and sacrifice, Selina stood alone. + +And yet--not quite alone! For, as the fire was roaring at its best, +certain stars stepped delicately forth on the surface of the immensity +above, and peered down doubtfully--with wonder at first, then with +interest, then with recognition, with a start of glad surprise. They +at least knew all about it, they understood. Among them the Name was +a daily familiar word; his story was a part of the music to which they +swung, himself was their fellow and their mate and comrade. So they +peeped, and winked, and peeped again, and called to their laggard +brothers to come quick and see. + +***** + +The best of life is but intoxication, and Selina, who during her brief +inebriation had lived in an ecstasy as golden as our drab existence +affords, had to experience the inevitable bitterness of awakening +sobriety, when the dying down of the flames into sullen embers coincided +with the frenzied entrance of Aunt Eliza on the scene. It was not so +much that she was at once and forever disrated, broke, sent before the +mast, and branded as one on whom no reliance could be placed, even with +Edward safe at school, and myself under the distant vigilance of an +aunt; that her pocket money was stopped indefinitely, and her new Church +Service, the pride of her last birthday, removed from her own custody +and placed under the control of a Trust. She sorrowed rather because +she had dragged poor Harold, against his better judgment, into a most +horrible scrape, and moreover because, when the reaction had fairly set +in, when the exaltation had fizzled away and the young-lady portion of +her had crept timorously back to its wonted lodging, she could only see +herself as a plain fool, unjustified, undeniable, without a shadow of an +excuse or explanation. + +As for Harold, youth and a short memory made his case less pitiful than +it seemed to his more sensitive sister. True, he started upstairs to his +lonely cot bellowing dismally, before him a dreary future of pains and +penalties, sufficient to last to the crack of doom. Outside his door, +however, he tumbled over Augustus the cat, and made capture of him; and +at once his mourning was changed into a song of triumph, as he conveyed +his prize into port. For Augustus, who detested above all things going +to bed with little boys, was ever more knave than fool, and the trapper +who was wily enough to ensnare him had achieved something notable. +Augustus, when he realized that his fate was sealed, and his night's +lodging settled, wisely made the best of things, and listened, with +a languorous air of complete comprehension, to the incoherent babble +concerning pigs and heroes, moles and bonfires, which served Harold for +a self-sung lullaby. Yet it may be doubted whether Augustus was one of +those rare fellows who thoroughly understood. + +But Selina knew no more of this source of consolation than of the +sympathy with which the stars were winking above her; and it was only +after some sad interval of time, and on a very moist pillow, that she +drifted into that quaint inconsequent country where you may meet your +own pet hero strolling down the road, and commit what hair-brained +oddities you like, and everybody understands and appreciates. + + + + +DIES IRAE + +Those memorable days that move in procession, their heads just out +of the mist of years long dead--the most of them are full-eyed as the +dandelion that from dawn to shade has steeped itself in sunlight. +Here and there in their ranks, however, moves a forlorn one who is +blind--blind in the sense of the dulled window-pane on which the pelting +raindrops have mingled and run down, obscuring sunshine and the circling +birds, happy fields, and storied garden; blind with the spatter of a +misery uncomprehended, unanalysed, only felt as something corporeal in +its buffeting effects. + +Martha began it; and yet Martha was not really to blame. Indeed, that +was half the trouble of it--no solid person stood full in view, to be +blamed and to make atonement. There was only a wretched, impalpable +condition to deal with. Breakfast was just over; the sun was summoning +us, imperious as a herald with clamour of trumpet; I ran upstairs to +her with a broken bootlace in my hand, and there she was, crying in a +corner, her head in her apron. Nothing could be got from her but the +same dismal succession of sobs that would not have done, that struck +and hurt like a physical beating; and meanwhile the sun was getting +impatient, and I wanted my bootlace. + +Inquiry below stairs revealed the cause. Martha's brother was dead, +it seemed--her sailor brother Billy; drowned in one of those strange +far-off seas it was our dream to navigate one day. We had known Billy +well, and appreciated him. When an approaching visit of Billy to his +sister had been announced, we had counted the days to it. When his +cheery voice was at last heard in the kitchen and we had descended +with shouts, first of all he had to exhibit his tattooed arms, always a +subject for fresh delight and envy and awe; then he was called upon +for tricks, jugglings, and strange, fearful gymnastics; and lastly came +yarns, and more yarns, and yarns till bedtime. There had never been any +one like Billy in his own particular sphere; and now he was drowned, +they said, and Martha was miserable, and--and I couldn't get a new +bootlace. They told me that Billy would never come back any more, and I +stared out of the window at the sun which came back, right enough, every +day, and their news conveyed nothing whatever to me. Martha's sorrow hit +home a little, but only because the actual sight and sound of it gave +me a dull, bad sort of pain low down inside--a pain not to be actually +located. Moreover, I was still wanting my bootlace. + +This was a poor sort of a beginning to a day that, so far as outside +conditions went, had promised so well. I rigged up a sort of jurymast +of a bootlace with a bit of old string, and wandered off to look up the +girls, conscious of a jar and a discordance in the scheme of things. The +moment I entered the schoolroom something in the air seemed to tell +me that here, too, matters were strained and awry. Selina was staring +listlessly out of the window, one foot curled round her leg. When I +spoke to her she jerked a shoulder testily, but did not condescend to +the civility of a reply. Charlotte, absolutely unoccupied, sprawled in +a chair, and there were signs of sniffles about her, even at that early +hour. It was but a trifling matter that had caused all this electricity +in the atmosphere, and the girls' manner of taking it seemed to me most +unreasonable. Within the last few days the time had come round for the +despatch of a hamper to Edward at school. Only one hamper a term was +permitted him, so its preparation was a sort of blend of revelry +and religious ceremony. After the main corpus of the thing had been +carefully selected and safely bestowed--the pots of jam, the cake, the +sausages, and the apples that filled up corners so nicely--after the +last package had been wedged in, the girls had deposited their own +private and personal offerings on the top. I forget their precise +nature; anyhow, they were nothing of any particular practical use to a +boy. But they had involved some contrivance and labour, some skimping +of pocket money, and much delightful cloud-building as to the effect +on their enraptured recipient. Well, yesterday there had come a terse +acknowledgment from Edward, heartily commending the cakes and the jam, +stamping the sausages with the seal of Smith major's approval, and +finally hinting that, fortified as he now was, nothing more was +necessary but a remittance of five shillings in postage stamps to enable +him to face the world armed against every buffet of fate. That was all. +Never a word or a hint of the personal tributes or of his appreciation +of them. To us--to Harold and me, that is--the letter seemed natural +and sensible enough. After all, provender was the main thing, and five +shillings stood for a complete equipment against the most unexpected +turns of luck. The presents were very well in their way--very nice, and +so on--but life was a serious matter, and the contest called for cakes +and half-crowns to carry it on, not gew-gaws and knitted mittens and the +like. The girls, however, in their obstinate way, persisted in taking +their own view of the slight. Hence it was that I received my second +rebuff of the morning. + +Somewhat disheartened, I made my way downstairs and out into the +sunlight, where I found Harold playing conspirators by himself on the +gravel. He had dug a small hole in the walk and had laid an imaginary +train of powder thereto; and, as he sought refuge in the laurels from +the inevitable explosion, I heard him murmur: "'My God!' said the Czar, +'my plans are frustrated!'" It seemed an excellent occasion for being +a black puma. Harold liked black pumas, on the whole, as well as any +animal we were familiar with. So I launched myself on him, with the +appropriate howl, rolling him over on the gravel. + +Life may be said to be composed of things that come off and things that +don't come off. This thing, unfortunately, was one of the things that +didn't come off. From beneath me I heard a shrill cry of, "Oh, it's my +sore knee!" And Harold wriggled himself free from the puma's clutches, +bellowing dismally. Now, I honestly didn't know he had a sore knee, +and, what's more, he knew I didn't know he had a sore knee. According to +boy-ethics, therefore, his attitude was wrong, sore knee or not, and no +apology was due from me. I made half-way advances, however, suggesting +we should lie in ambush by the edge of the pond and cut off the ducks as +they waddled down in simple, unsuspecting single file; then hunt them +as bisons flying scattered over the vast prairie. A fascinating pursuit +this, and strictly illicit. But Harold would none of my overtures, and +retreated to the house wailing with full lungs. + +Things were getting simply infernal. I struck out blindly for the open +country; and even as I made for the gate a shrill voice from a window +bade me keep off the flower-beds. When the gate had swung to behind me +with a vicious click I felt better, and after ten minutes along the road +it began to grow on me that some radical change was needed, that I was +in a blind alley, and that this intolerable state of things must somehow +cease. All that I could do I had already done. As well-meaning a fellow +as ever stepped was pounding along the road that day, with an exceeding +sore heart; one who only wished to live and let live, in touch with his +fellows, and appreciating what joys life had to offer. What was wanted +now was a complete change of environment. Somewhere in the world, I +felt sure, justice and sympathy still resided. There were places called +pampas, for instance, that sounded well. League upon league of grass, +with just an occasional wild horse, and not a relation within the +horizon! To a bruised spirit this seemed a sane and a healing sort of +existence. There were other pleasant corners, again, where you dived +for pearls and stabbed sharks in the stomach with your big knife. +No relations would be likely to come interfering with you when thus +blissfully occupied. And yet I did not wish--just yet--to have done with +relations entirely. They should be made to feel their position first, +to see themselves as they really were, and to wish--when it was too +late--that they had behaved more properly. + +Of all professions, the army seemed to lend itself the most thoroughly +to the scheme. You enlisted, you followed the drum, you marched, fought, +and ported arms, under strange skies, through unrecorded years. At last, +at long last, your opportunity would come, when the horrors of war were +flickering through the quiet country-side where you were cradled and +bred, but where the memory of you had long been dim. Folk would run +together, clamorous, palsied with fear; and among the terror-stricken +groups would figure certain aunts. "What hope is left us?" they would +ask themselves, "save in the clemency of the General, the mysterious, +invincible General, of whom men tell such romantic tales?" And the army +would march in, and the guns would rattle and leap along the village +street, and, last of all, you--you, the General, the fabled hero--you +would enter, on your coal-black charger, your pale set face seamed by +an interesting sabre-cut. And then--but every boy has rehearsed this +familiar piece a score of times. You are magnanimous, in fine--that goes +without saying; you have a coal-black horse, and a sabre-cut, and you +can afford to be very magnanimous. But all the same you give them a good +talking-to. + +This pleasant conceit simply ravished my soul for some twenty minutes, +and then the old sense of injury began to well up afresh, and to call +for new plasters and soothing syrups. This time I took refuge in happy +thoughts of the sea. The sea was my real sphere, after all. On the sea, +in especial, you could combine distinction with lawlessness, whereas the +army seemed to be always weighted by a certain plodding submission to +discipline. To be sure, by all accounts, the life was at first a rough +one. But just then I wanted to suffer keenly; I wanted to be a poor +devil of a cabin boy, kicked, beaten, and sworn at--for a time. Perhaps +some hint, some inkling of my sufferings might reach their ears. In +due course the sloop or felucca would turn up--it always did--the +rakish-looking craft, black of hull, low in the water, and bristling +with guns; the jolly Roger flapping overhead, and myself for sole +commander. By and by, as usually happened, an East Indiaman would come +sailing along full of relations--not a necessary relation would be +missing. And the crew should walk the plank, and the captain should +dance from his own yardarm, and then I would take the passengers +in hand--that miserable group of well-known figures cowering on the +quarterdeck!--and then--and then the same old performance: the air thick +with magnanimity. In all the repertory of heroes, none is more truly +magnanimous than your pirate chief. + +When at last I brought myself back from the future to the actual +present, I found that these delectable visions had helped me over a +longer stretch of road than I had imagined; and I looked around and took +my bearings. To the right of me was a long low building of grey stone, +new, and yet not smugly so; new, and yet possessing distinction, +marked with a character that did not depend on lichen or on crumbling +semi-effacement of moulding and mullion. Strangers might have been +puzzled to classify it; to me, an explorer from earliest years, the +place was familiar enough. Most folk called it "The Settlement"; others, +with quite sufficient conciseness for our neighbourhood, spoke of "them +there fellows up by Halliday's"; others again, with a hint of derision, +named them the "monks." This last title I supposed to be intended for +satire, and knew to be fatuously wrong. I was thoroughly acquainted +with monks--in books--and well knew the cut of their long frocks, their +shaven polls, and their fascinating big dogs, with brandy-bottles round +their necks, incessantly hauling happy travellers out of the snow. The +only dog at the settlement was an Irish terrier, and the good fellows +who owned him, and were owned by him, in common, wore clothes of the +most nondescript order, and mostly cultivated side-whiskers. I had +wandered up there one day, searching (as usual) for something I never +found, and had been taken in by them and treated as friend and comrade. +They had made me free of their ideal little rooms, full of books and +pictures, and clean of the antimacassar taint; they had shown me their +chapel, high, hushed, and faintly scented, beautiful with a strange new +beauty born both of what it had and what it had not--that too familiar +dowdiness of common places of worship. They had also fed me in their +dining-hall, where a long table stood on trestles plain to view, and all +the woodwork was natural, unpainted, healthily scrubbed, and redolent of +the forest it came from. I brought away from that visit, and kept by me +for many days, a sense of cleanness, of the freshness that pricks the +senses--the freshness of cool spring water; and the large swept spaces +of the rooms, the red tiles, and the oaken settles, suggested a comfort +that had no connection with padded upholstery. + +On this particular morning I was in much too unsociable a mind for +paying friendly calls. Still, something in the aspect of the place +harmonized with my humour, and I worked my way round to the back, where +the ground, after affording level enough for a kitchen-garden, broke +steeply away. Both the word Gothic and the thing itself were still +unknown to me, yet doubtless the architecture of the place, consistent +throughout, accounted for its sense of comradeship in my hour of +disheartenment. As I mused there, with the low, grey, Purposeful-looking +building before me, and thought of my pleasant friends within, and what +good times they always seemed to be having, and how they larked with the +Irish terrier, whose footing was one of a perfect equality, I thought +of a certain look in their faces, as if they had a common purpose and +a business, and were acting under orders thoroughly recognized and +understood. I remembered, too, something that Martha had told me, +about these same fellows doing "a power o' good," and other hints I had +collected vaguely, of renouncements, rules, self-denials, and the +like. Thereupon, out of the depths of my morbid soul swam up a new and +fascinating idea; and at once the career of arms seemed over-acted and +stale, and piracy, as a profession, flat and unprofitable. This, then, +or something like it, should be my vocation and my revenge. A severer +line of business, perhaps, such as I had read of; something that +included black bread and a hair-shirt. There should be vows, +too--irrevocable, blood-curdling vows; and an iron grating. This iron +grating was the most necessary feature of all, for I intended that on +the other side of it my relations should range themselves--I mentally +ran over the catalogue, and saw that the whole gang was present, all in +their proper places--a sad-eyed row, combined in tristful appeal. "We +see our error now," they would say; "we were always dull dogs, slow to +catch--especially in those akin to us--the finer qualities of soul! +We misunderstood you, misappreciated you, and we own up to it. And now--" +"Alas, my dear friends," I would strike in here, waving towards them +an ascetic hand--one of the emaciated sort, that lets the light shine +through at the fingertips--"Alas, you come too late! This conduct is +fitting and meritorious on your part, and indeed I always expected it of +you, sooner or later; but the die is cast, and you may go home again and +bewail at your leisure this too tardy repentance of yours. For me, I am +vowed and dedicated, and my relations henceforth are austerity and holy +works. Once a month, should you wish it, it shall be your privilege to +come and gaze at me through this very solid grating; but--" Whack! A +well-aimed clod of garden soil, whizzing just past my ear, starred on a +tree-trunk behind, spattering me with dirt, The present came back to me +in a flash, and I nimbly took cover behind the trees, realizing that the +enemy was up and abroad, with ambuscades, alarms, and thrilling sallies. +It was the gardener's boy, I knew well enough; a red proletariat, who +hated me just because I was a gentleman. Hastily picking up a nice +sticky clod in one hand, with the other I delicately projected my hat +beyond the shelter of the tree-trunk. I had not fought with Red-skins +all these years for nothing. As I had expected, another clod, of the +first class for size and stickiness, took my poor hat full in the +centre. Then, Ajax-like, shouting terribly, I issued from shelter +and discharged my ammunition. Woe then for the gardener's boy, who, +unprepared, skipping in premature triumph, took the clod full in his +stomach! He, the foolish one, witless on whose side the gods were +fighting that day, discharged yet other missiles, wavering and wide of +the mark; for his wind had been taken with the first clod, and he shot +wildly, as one already desperate and in flight. I got another clod in at +short range; we clinched on the brow of the hill, and rolled down to the +bottom together. When he had shaken himself free and regained his legs, +he trotted smartly off in the direction of his mother's cottage; but +over his shoulder he discharged at me both imprecation and deprecation, +menace mixed up with an under-current of tears. + +But as for me, I made off smartly for the road, my frame tingling, my +head high, with never a backward look at the Settlement of suggestive +aspect, or at my well-planned future which lay in fragments around it. +Life had its jollities, then; life was action, contest, victory! The +present was rosy once more, surprises lurked on every side, and I was +beginning to feel villainously hungry. + +Just as I gained the road a cart came rattling by, and I rushed for +it, caught the chain that hung below, and swung thrillingly between the +dizzy wheels, choked and blinded with delicious-smelling dust, the world +slipping by me like a streaky ribbon below, till the driver licked at +me with his whip, and I had to descend to earth again. Abandoning the +beaten track, I then struck homewards through the fields; not that the +way was very much shorter, but rather because on that route one avoided +the bridge, and had to splash through the stream and get refreshingly +wet. Bridges were made for narrow folk, for people with aims and +vocations which compelled abandonment of many of life's highest +pleasures. Truly wise men called on each element alike to minister +to their joy, and while the touch of sun-bathed air, the fragrance +of garden soil, the ductible qualities of mud, and the spark-whirling +rapture of playing with fire, had each their special charm, they did +not overlook the bliss of getting their feet wet. As I came forth on the +common Harold broke out of an adjoining copse and ran to meet me, the +morning rain-clouds all blown away from his face. He had made a new +squirrel-stick, it seemed. Made it all himself; melted the lead and +everything! I examined the instrument critically, and pronounced it +absolutely magnificent. As we passed in at our gate the girls were +distantly visible, gardening with a zeal in cheerful contrast to their +heartsick lassitude of the morning. + +"There's bin another letter come today," Harold explained, "and the +hamper got joggled about on the journey, and the presents worked down +into the straw and all over the place. One of 'em turned up inside the +cold duck. And that's why they weren't found at first. And Edward said, +Thanks awfully!" + +I did not see Martha again until we were all re-assembled at tea-time, +when she seemed red-eyed and strangely silent, neither scolding nor +finding fault with anything. Instead, she was very kind and thoughtful +with jams and things, feverishly pressing unwonted delicacies on us, who +wanted little pressing enough. Then suddenly, when I was busiest, she +disappeared; and Charlotte whispered me presently that she had heard her +go to her room and lock herself in. This struck me as a funny sort of +proceeding. + + + + +MUTABILE SEMPER + + +She stood on the other side of the garden fence, and regarded me gravely +as I came down the road. Then she said, "Hi--o!" and I responded, +"Hullo!" and pulled up somewhat nervously. + +To tell the truth, the encounter was not entirely unexpected on my part. +The previous Sunday I had seen her in church, and after service it had +transpired who she was, this new-comer, and what aunt she was staying +with. That morning a volunteer had been called for, to take a note to +the Parsonage, and rather to my own surprise I had found myself stepping +forward with alacrity, while the others had become suddenly absorbed in +various pursuits, or had sneaked unobtrusively out of view. Certainly +I had not yet formed any deliberate plan of action; yet I suppose I +recollected that the road to the Parsonage led past her aunt's garden. + +She began the conversation, while I hopped backwards and forwards over +the ditch, feigning a careless ease. + +"Saw you in church on Sunday," she said; "only you looked different +then. All dressed up, and your hair quite smooth, and brushed up at the +sides, and oh, so shiny! What do they put on it to make it shine like +that? Don't you hate having your hair brushed?" she ran on, without +waiting for an answer. "How your boots squeaked when you came down the +aisle! When mine squeak, I walk in all the puddles till they stop. Think +I'll get over the fence." + +This she proceeded to do in a businesslike way, while, with my hands +deep In my pockets, I regarded her movements with silent interest, as +those of some strange new animal. + +"I've been gardening," she explained, when she had joined me, "but I +didn't like it. There's so many worms about to-day. I hate worms. Wish +they'd keep out of the way when I'm digging." + +"Oh, I like worms when I'm digging," I replied heartily, "seem to make +things more lively, don't they?" + +She reflected. "Shouldn't mind 'em so much if they were warm and dry," +she said, "but--" here she shivered, and somehow I liked her for it, +though if it had been my own flesh and blood hoots of derision would +have instantly assailed her. + +From worms we passed, naturally enough, to frogs, and thence to pigs, +aunts, gardeners, rocking-horses, and other fellow-citizens of our +common kingdom. In five minutes we had each other's confidences, and +I seemed to have known her for a lifetime. Somehow, on the subject of +one's self it was easier to be frank and communicative with her than +with one's female kin. It must be, I supposed, because she was less +familiar with one's faulty, tattered past. + +"I was watching you as you came along the road," she said presently, +"and you had your head down and your hands in your pockets, and you +weren't throwing stones at anything, or whistling, or jumping over +things; and I thought perhaps you'd bin scolded, or got a stomachache." + +"No," I answered shyly, "it wasn't that. Fact is, I was--I often--but +it's a secret." + +There I made an error in tactics. That enkindling word set her dancing +round me, half beseeching, half imperious. "Oh, do tell it me!" she +cried. "You must! I'll never tell anyone else at all, I vow and declare +I won't!" + +Her small frame wriggled with emotion, and with imploring eyes +she jigged impatiently just in front of me. Her hair was tumbled +bewitchingly on her shoulders, and even the loss of a front tooth--a +loss incidental to her age--seemed but to add a piquancy to her face. + +"You won't care to hear about it," I said, wavering. "Besides, I can't +explain exactly. I think I won't tell you." But all the time I knew I +should have to. + +"But I do care," she wailed plaintively. "I didn't think you'd be so +unkind!" + +This would never do. That little downward tug at either corner of the +mouth--I knew the symptom only too well! + +"It 's like this," I began stammeringly. "This bit of road here--up as +far as that corner--you know it 's a horrid dull bit of road. I'm always +having to go up and down it, and I know it so well, and I'm so sick of +it. So whenever I get to that corner, I just--well, I go right off to +another place!" + +"What sort of a place?" she asked, looking round her gravely. + +"Of course it's just a place I imagine," I went on hurriedly and rather +shamefacedly: "but it's an awfully nice place--the nicest place you ever +saw. And I always go off there in church, or during joggraphy lessons." + +"I'm sure it's not nicer than my home," she cried patriotically. "Oh, +you ought to see my home--it 's lovely! We've got--" + +"Yes it is, ever so much nicer," I interrupted. "I mean"--I went on +apologetically--"of course I know your home's beautiful and all that. +But this must be nicer, 'cos if you want anything at all, you've only +got to want it, and you can have it!" + +"That sounds jolly," she murmured. "Tell me more about it, please. Tell +me how you get there, first." + +"I--don't--quite--know--exactly," replied. "I just go. But generally +it begins by--well, you're going up a broad, clear river in a sort of +a boat. You're not rowing or anything--you're just moving along. And +there's beautiful grass meadows on both sides, and the river's very +full, quite up to the level of the grass. And you glide along by the +edge. And the people are haymaking there, and playing games, and walking +about; and they shout to you, and you shout back to them, and they bring +you things to eat out of their baskets, and let you drink out of their +bottles; and some of 'em are the nice people you read about in books. +And so at last you come to the Palace steps--great broad marble steps, +reaching right down to the water. And there at the steps you find every +sort of boat you can imagine--schooners, and punts, and row-boats, and +little men-of-war. And you have any sort of boating you want to--rowing, +or sailing, or shoving about in a punt!" + +"I'd go sailing," she said decidedly: "and I 'd steer. No, you'd have to +steer, and I'd sit about on the deck. No, I wouldn't though; I'd row--at +least I'd make you row, and I'd steer. And then we'd--Oh, no! I'll tell +you what we do! We'd just sit in a punt and dabble!" + +"Of course we'll do just what you like," I said hospitably; but already +I was beginning to feel my liberty of action somewhat curtailed by this +exigent visitor I had so rashly admitted into my sanctum. + +"I don't think we'd boat at all," she finally decided. "It's always so +wobbly. Where do you come to next?" + +"You go up the steps," I continued, "and in at the door, and the very +first place you come to is the Chocolate-room!" + +She brightened up at this, and I heard her murmur with gusto, +"Chocolate-room!" + +"It's got every sort of chocolate you can think of," I went on: "soft +chocolate, with sticky stuff inside, white and pink, what girls like; +and hard shiny chocolate, that cracks when you bite it, and takes such a +nice long time to suck!" + +"I like the soft stuff best," she said: "'cos you can eat such a lot +more of it!" This was to me a new aspect of the chocolate question, and +I regarded her with interest and some respect. With us, chocolate was +none too common a thing, and, whenever we happened to come by any, we +resorted to the quaintest devices in order to make it last out. Still, +legends had reached us of children who actually had, from time to time, +as much chocolate as they could possibly eat; and here, apparently, was +one of them. + +"You can have all the creams," I said magnanimously, "and I'll eat the +hard sticks, 'cos I like 'em best." + +"Oh, but you mustn't!" she cried impetuously. "You must eat the same as +I do! It isn't nice to want to eat different. I'll tell you what--you +must give me all the chocolate, and then I'll give you--I'll give you +what you ought to have!" + +"Oh, all right," I said, in a subdued sort of way. It seemed a little +hard to be put under a sentimental restriction like this in one s own +Chocolate-room. + +"In the next room you come to," I proceeded, "there's fizzy drinks! +There's a marble-slab business all round the room, and little silver +taps; and you just turn the right tap, and have any kind of fizzy drink +you want." + +"What fizzy drinks are there?" she inquired. + +"Oh, all sorts," I answered hastily, hurrying on. (She might restrict +my eatables, but I'd be hanged if I was going to have her meddle with my +drinks.) "Then you go down the corridor, and at the back of the palace +there's a great big park--the finest park you ever saw. And there's +ponies to ride on, and carriages and carts; and a little railway, all +complete, engine and guard's van and all; and you work it yourself, and +you can go first-class, or in the van, or on the engine, just whichever +you choose." + +"I'd go on the engine," she murmured dreamily. "No, I wouldn't, I'd--" + +"Then there 's all the soldiers," I struck in. Really the line had to be +drawn somewhere, and I could not have my railway system disorganized and +turned upside down by a mere girl. "There's any quantity of 'em, fine +big soldiers, and they all belong to me. And a row of brass cannons all +along the terrace! And every now and then I give the order, and they +fire off all the guns!" + +"No, they don't," she interrupted hastily. "I won't have 'em fire off +any guns You must tell 'em not to. I hate guns, and as soon as they +begin firing I shall run right away!" + +"But--but that 's what they're there for," I protested, aghast + +"I don't care," she insisted. "They mustn't do it. They can walk about +behind me if they like, and talk to me, and carry things. But they +mustn't fire off any guns." + +I was sadly conscious by this time that in this brave palace of mine, +wherein I was wont to swagger daily, irresponsible and unquestioned, I +was rapidly becoming--so to speak--a mere lodger. The idea of my fine +big soldiers being told off to "carry things"! I was not inclined to +tell her any more, though there still remained plenty more to tell. + +"Any other boys there?" she asked presently, in a casual sort of way. +"Oh yes," I unguardedly replied. "Nice chaps, too. We'll have great--" +Then I recollected myself. "We'll play with them, of course," I went on. +"But you are going to be my friend, aren't you? And you'll come in my +boat, and we'll travel in the guard's van together, and I'll stop the +soldiers firing off their guns!" But she looked mischievously away, +and--do what I would--I could not get her to promise. + +Just then the striking of the village clock awoke within me another +clamorous timepiece, reminding me of mid-day mutton a good half-mile +away, and of penalties and curtailments attaching to a late appearance. +We took a hurried farewell of each other, and before we parted I got +from her an admission that she might be gardening again that afternoon, +if only the worms would be less aggressive and give her a chance. + +"Remember," I said as I turned to go, "you mustn't tell anybody about +what I've been telling you!" + +She appeared to hesitate, swinging one leg to and fro while she regarded +me sideways with half-shut eyes. + +"It's a dead secret," I said artfully. "A secret between us two, and +nobody knows it except ourselves!" + +Then she promised, nodding violently, big-eyed, her mouth pursed up +small. The delight of revelation, and the bliss of possessing a secret, +run each other very close. But the latter generally wins--for a time. + +I had passed the mutton stage and was weltering in warm rice pudding, +before I found leisure to pause and take in things generally; and then a +glance in the direction of the window told me, to my dismay, that it was +raining hard. This was annoying in every way, for, even if it cleared +up later, the worms--I knew well from experience--would be offensively +numerous and frisky. Sulkily I said grace and accompanied the others +upstairs to the schoolroom; where I got out my paint-box and resolved +to devote myself seriously to Art, which of late I had much neglected. +Harold got hold of a sheet of paper and a pencil, retired to a table in +the corner, squared his elbows, and protruded his tongue. Literature had +always been his form of artistic expression. + +Selina had a fit of the fidgets, bred of the unpromising weather, and, +instead of settling down to something on her own account, must needs +walk round and annoy us artists, intent on embodying our conceptions of +the ideal. She had been looking over my shoulder some minutes before I +knew of it; or I would have had a word or two to say upon the subject. + +"I suppose you call that thing a ship," she remarked contemptuously. +"Who ever heard of a pink ship? Hoo-hoo!" + +I stifled my wrath, knowing that in order to score properly it was +necessary to keep a cool head. + +"There is a pink ship," I observed with forced calmness, "lying in +the toyshop window now. You can go and look at it if you like. D' you +suppose you know more about ships than the fellows who make 'em?" + +Selina, baffled for the moment, returned to the charge presently. + +"Those are funny things, too," she observed. "S'pose they 're meant to +be trees. But they're blue." + +"They are trees," I replied with severity; "and they are blue. They've +got to be blue, 'cos you stole my gamboge last week, so I can't mix up +any green." + +"Didn't steal your gamboge," declared Selina, haughtily, edging away, +however, in the direction of Harold. "And I wouldn't tell lies, either, +if I was you, about a dirty little bit of gainboge." + +I preserved a discreet silence. After all, I knew she knew she stole my +gainboge. + +The moment Harold became conscious of Selina's stealthy approach, he +dropped his pencil and flung himself flat upon the table, protecting +thus his literary efforts from chilling criticism by the interposed +thickness of his person. From some-where in his interior proceeded +a heart-rending compound of squeal and whistle, as of escaping +steam,--long-drawn, ear-piercing, unvarying in note. + +"I only just wanted to see," protested Selina, struggling to uproot his +small body from the scrawl it guarded. But Harold clung limpet-like to +the table edge, and his shrill protest continued to deafen humanity and +to threaten even the serenities of Olympus. The time seemed come for a +demonstration in force. Personally I cared little what soul-outpourings +of Harold were priated by Selina--she was pretty sure to get hold of +them sooner or later--and indeed I rather welcomed the diversion as +favourable to the undisturbed pursuit of Art. But the clannishness of +sex has its unwritten laws. Boys, as such, are sufficiently put upon, +maltreated, trodden under, as it is. Should they fail to hang together +in perilous times, what disasters, what ignominies may not be looked +for? Possibly even an extinction of the tribe. I dropped my paint brush +and sailed shouting into the fray. + +The result for a short space hung dubious. There is a period of life +when the difference of a year or two in age far outweighs the minor +advantage of sex. Then the gathers of Selina's frock came away with a +sound like the rattle of distant musketry; and this calamity it was, +rather than mere brute compulsion, that quelled her indomitable spirit. + +The female tongue is mightier than the sword, as I soon had good reason +to know, when Selina, her riven garment held out at length, avenged her +discomfiture with the Greek-fire of personalities and abuse. Every black +incident in my short, but not stainless, career--every error, every +folly, every penalty ignobly suffered--were paraded before me as in a +magic-lantern show. The information, however, was not particularly new +to me, and the effect was staled by previous rehearsals. Besides, +a victory remains a victory, whatever the moral character of the +triumphant general. + +Harold chuckled and crowed as he dropped from the table, revealing the +document over which so many gathers had sighed their short lives out. +"You can read it if you like," he said to me gratefully. "It's only a +Death-letter." + +It had never been possible to say what Harold's particular amusement of +the hour might turn out to be. One thing only was certain, that it +would be something improbable, unguessable, not to be foretold. Who, +for instance, in search of relaxation, would ever dream of choosing the +drawing-up of a testamentary disposition of property? Yet this was the +form taken by Harold's latest craze; and in justice this much had to be +said for him, that in the christening of his amusement he had gone +right to the heart of the matter. The words "will" and "testament" have +various meanings and uses; but about the signification of "death-letter" +there can be no manner of doubt. I smoothed out the crumpled paper and +read. In actual form it deviated considerably from that usually adopted +by family solicitors of standing, the only resemblance, indeed, lying in +the absence of punctuation. + + +"my dear edward (it ran) when I die I leave all my muny to you my walkin +sticks wips my crop my sord and gun bricks forts and all things i have +goodbye my dear charlotte when die I leave you my wach and cumpus and +pencel case my salors and camperdown my picteres and evthing goodbye +your loving brother armen my dear Martha I love you very much i leave +you my garden my mice and rabets my plants in pots when I die please +take care of them my dear--" Catera desunt. + + +"Why, you 're not leaving me anything!" exclaimed Selina, indignantly. +"You're a regular mean little boy, and I'll take back the last birthday +present I gave you!" + +"I don't care," said Harold, repossessing himself of the document. "I +was going to leave you something, but I sha'n't now, 'cos you tried to +read my death-letter before I was dead!" + +"Then I'II write a death-letter myself," retorted Selina, scenting an +artistic vengeance: "and I sha'n't leave you a single thing!" And she +went off in search of a pencil. + +The tempest within-doors had kept my attention off the condition of +things without. But now a glance through the window told me that the +rain had entirely ceased, and that everything was bathed instead in a +radiant glow of sunlight, more golden than any gamboge of mine could +possibly depict. Leaving Selina and Harold to settle their feud by a +mutual disinheritance, I slipped from the room and escaped into the open +air, eager to pick up the loose end of my new friendship just where I +had dropped it that morning. In the glorious reaction of the sunshine +after the downpour, with its moist warm smells, bespanglement of +greenery, and inspiriting touch of rain-washed air, the parks and +palaces of the imagination glowed with a livelier iris, and their +blurred beauties shone out again with fresh blush and palpitation. As +I sped along to the tryst, again I accompanied my new comrade along the +corridors of my pet palace into which I had so hastily introduced her; +and on reflection I began to see that it wouldn't work properly. I had +made a mistake, and those were not the surroundings in which she was +most fitted to shine. However, it really did not matter much; I had +other palaces to place at her disposal--plenty of 'em; and on a further +acquaintance with and knowledge of her tastes, no doubt I could find +something to suit her. + +There was a real Arabian one, for instance, which I visited but +rarely--only just when I was in the fine Oriental mood for it; a wonder +of silk hangings, fountains of rosewater, pavilions, and minarets. +Hundreds of silent, well-trained slaves thronged the stairs and alleys +of this establishment, ready to fetch and carry for her all day, if she +wished it; and my brave soldiers would be spared the indignity. Also +there were processions through the bazaar at odd moments--processions +with camels, elephants, and palanquins. Yes, she was more suited for +the East, this imperious young person; and I determined that thither she +should be personally conducted as soon as ever might be. + +I reached the fence and climbed up two bars of it, and leaning over I +looked this way and that for my twin-souled partner of the morning. It +was not long before I caught sight of her, only a short distance away. +Her back was towards me and--well, one can never foresee exactly how one +will find things--she was talking to a Boy. + +Of course there are boys and boys, and Lord knows I was never narrow. +But this was the parson's son from an adjoining village, a red-headed +boy and as common a little beast as ever stepped. He cultivated +ferrets--his only good point; and it was evidently through the medium +of this art that he was basely supplanting me, for her head was bent +absorbedly over something he carried in his hands. With some trepidation +I called out, "Hi!" But answer there was none. Then again I called, "Hi!" +but this time with a sickening sense of failure and of doom. She replied +only by a complex gesture, decisive in import if not easily described. +A petulant toss of the head, a jerk of the left shoulder, and a backward +kick of the left foot, all delivered at once--that was all, and that +was enough. The red-headed boy never even condescended to glance my way. +Why, indeed, should he? I dropped from the fence without another effort, +and took my way homewards along the weary road. + +Little inclination was left to me, at first, for any solitary visit to +my accustomed palace, the pleasures of which I had so recently tasted +in company; and yet after a minute or two I found myself, from habit, +sneaking off there much as usual. Presently I became aware of a certain +solace and consolation in my newly-recovered independence of action. +Quit of all female whims and fanciful restrictions, I rowed, sailed, or +punted, just as I pleased; in the Chocolate-room I cracked and nibbled +the hard sticks, with a certain contempt for those who preferred the +soft, veneered article; and I mixed and quaffed countless fizzy drinks +without dread of any prohibitionist. Finally, I swaggered into the park, +paraded all my soldiers on the terrace, and, bidding them take the time +from me, gave the order to fire off all the guns. + + + + +THE MAGIC RING + + +Grown-up people really ought to be more careful. Among themselves it may +seem but a small thing to give their word and take back their word. +For them there are so many compensations. Life lies at their feet, a +party-coloured india-rubber ball; they may kick it this way or kick +it that, it turns up blue, yellow, or green, but always coloured and +glistenning. Thus one sees it happen almost every day, and, with a jest +and a laugh, the thing is over, and the disappointed one turns to fresh +pleasure, lying ready to his hand. But with those who are below them, +whose little globe is swayed by them, who rush to build star-pointing +alhambras on their most casual word, they really ought to be more +careful. + +In this case of the circus, for instance, it was not as if we had led up +to the subject. It was they who began it entirely--prompted thereto by +the local newspaper. "What, a circus!" said they, in their irritating, +casual way: "that would be nice to take the children to. Wednesday would +be a good day. Suppose we go on Wednesday. Oh, and pleats are being worn +again, with rows of deep braid," etc. + +What the others thought I know not: what they said, if they said +anything, I did not comprehend. For me the house was bursting, walls +seemed to cramp and to stifle, the roof was jumping and lifting. Escape +was the imperative thing--to escape into the open air, to shake off +bricks and mortar, and to wander in the unfrequented places of the +earth, the more properly to take in the passion and the promise of the +giddy situation. + +Nature seemed prim and staid that day, and the globe gave no hint that +it was flying round a circus ring of its own. Could they really be true. +I wondered, all those bewildering things I had heard tell of circuses? +Did long-tailed ponies really walk on their hind-legs and fire off +pistols? Was it humanly possible for clowns to perform one-half of +the bewitching drolleries recorded in history? And how, oh, how dare +I venture to believe that, from off the backs of creamy Arab steeds, +ladies of more than earthly beauty discharged themselves through paper +hoops? No, it was not altogether possible, there must have been some +exaggeration. Still, I would be content with very little, I would take +a low percentage--a very small proportion of the circus myth would more +than satisfy me. But again, even supposing that history were, once in +a way, no liar, could it be that I myself was really fated to look upon +this thing in the flesh and to live through it, to survive the rapture? +No, it was altogether too much. Something was bound to happen, one of us +would develop measles, the world would blow up with a loud explosion. +I must not dare, I must not presume, to entertain the smallest hope. I +must endeavour sternly to think of something else. + +Needless to say, I thought, I dreamed of nothing else, day or night. +Waking, I walked arm-in-arm with a clown, and cracked a portentous whip +to the brave music of a band. Sleeping, I pursued--perched astride of a +coal-black horse--a princess all gauze and spangles, who always managed +to keep just one unattainable length ahead. In the early morning Harold +and I, once fully awake, crossexammed each other as to the possibilities +of this or that circus tradition, and exhausted the lore long ere the +first housemaid was stirring. In this state of exaltation we slipped +onward to what promised to be a day of all white days--which brings +me right back to my text, that grown-up people really ought to be more +careful. I had known it could never really be; I had said so to myself a +dozen times. The vision was too sweetly ethereal for embodiment. Yet the +pang of the disillusionment was none the less keen and sickening, +and the pain was as that of a corporeal wound. It seemed strange and +foreboding, when we entered the breakfast-room, not to find everybody +cracking whips, jumping over chairs, and whooping In ecstatic rehearsal +of the wild reality to come. The situation became grim and pallid +indeed, when I caught the expressions "garden-party" and "my mauve +tulle," and realized that they both referred to that very afternoon. +And every minute, as I sat silent and listened, my heart sank lower and +lower, descending relentlessly like a clock-weight into my boot soles. + +Throughout my agony I never dreamed of resorting to a direct question, +much less a reproach. Even during the period of joyful anticipation some +fear of breaking the spell had kept me from any bald circus talk in the +presence of them. But Harold, who was built in quite another way, so +soon as he discerned the drift of their conversation and heard the knell +of all his hopes, filled the room with wail and clamour of bereavement. +The grinning welkin rang with "Circus!" "Cir-cus!" shook the +window-panes; the mocking walls re-echoed "Circus!" Circus he would +have, and the whole circus, and nothing but the circus. No compromise +for him, no evasions, no fallacious, unsecured promises to pay. He had +drawn his cheque on the Bank of Expectation, and it had got to be cashed +then and there; else he would yell, and yell himself into a fit, and +come out of it and yell again. Yelling should be his profession, his +art, his mission, his career. He was qualified, he was resolute, and he +was in no hurry to retire from the business. + +The noisy ones of the world, if they do not always shout themselves into +the imperial purple, are sure at least of receiving attention. If they +cannot sell everything at their own price, one thing--silence--must, at +any cost, be purchased of them. Harold accordingly had to be consoled +by the employment of every specious fallacy and base-born trick known to +those whose doom it is to handle children. For me their hollow cajolery +had no interest, I could pluck no consolation out of their bankrupt +though prodigal pledges. I only waited till that hateful, well-known +"Some other time, dear!" told me that hope was finally dead. Then I left +the room without any remark. It made it worse--if anything could--to +hear that stale, worn-out old phrase, still supposed by those dullards +to have some efficacy. + +To nature, as usual, I drifted by instinct, and there, out of the track +of humanity, under a friendly hedge-row had my black hour unseen. The +world was a globe no longer, space was no more filled with whirling +circuses of spheres. That day the old beliefs rose up and asserted +themselves, and the earth was flat again--ditch-riddled, stagnant, and +deadly flat. The undeviating roads crawled straight and white, elms +dressed themselves stiffly along inflexible hedges, all nature, +centrifugal no longer, sprawled flatly in lines out to its farthest +edge, and I felt just like walking out to that terminus, and dropping +quietly off. Then, as I sat there, morosely chewing bits of stick, the +recollection came back to me of certain fascinating advertisements I had +spelled out in the papers--advertisements of great and happy men, owning +big ships of tonnage running into four figures, who yet craved, to +the extent of public supplication, for the sympathetic co-operation of +youths as apprentices. I did not rightly know what apprentices might +be, nor whether I was yet big enough to be styled a youth; but one thing +seemed clear, that, by some such means as this, whatever the intervening +hardships, I could eventually visit all the circuses of the world--the +circuses of merry France and gaudy Spain, of Holland and Bohemia, of +China and Peru. Here was a plan worth thinking out in all its bearings; +for something had presently to be done to end this intolerable state of +things. + +Mid-day, and even feeding-time, passed by gloomily enough, till a small +disturbance occurred which had the effect of releasing some of the +electricity with which the air was charged. Harold, it should be +explained, was of a very different mental mould, and never brooded, +moped, nor ate his heart out over any disappointment. One wild +outburst--one dissolution of a minute into his original elements of air +and water, of tears and outcry--so much insulted nature claimed. Then he +would pull himself together, iron out his countenance with a smile, and +adjust himself to the new condition of things. + +If the gods are ever grateful to man for anything, it is when he is +so good as to display a short memory. The Olympians were never slow to +recognize this quality of Harold's, in which, indeed, their salvation +lay, and on this occasion their gratitude had taken the practical form +of a fine fat orange, tough-rinded as oranges of those days were wont to +be. This he had eviscerated in the good old-fashioned manner, by biting +out a hole in the shoulder, inserting a lump of sugar therein, and then +working it cannily till the whole soul and body of the orange passed +glorified through the sugar into his being. Thereupon, filled full of +orange-juice and iniquity, he conceived a deadly snare. Having deftly +patted and squeezed the orange-skin till it resumed its original shape, +he filled it up with water, inserted a fresh lump of sugar in the +orifice, and, issuing forth, blandly proffered it to me as I sat moodily +in the doorway dreaming of strange wild circuses under tropic skies. + +Such a stale old dodge as this would hardly have taken me in at ordinary +moments. But Harold had reckoned rightly upon the disturbing effect of +ill-humour, and had guessed, perhaps, that I thirsted for comfort and +consolation, and would not criticize too closely the source from which +they came. Unthinkingly I grasped the golden fraud, which collapsed at +my touch, and squirted its contents, into my eyes and over my collar, +till the nethermost parts of me were damp with the water that had run +down my neck. In an instant I had Harold down, and, with all the energy +of which I was capable, devoted myself to grinding his head into the +gravel; while he, realizing that the closure was applied, and that +the time for discussion or argument was past, sternly concentrated his +powers on kicking me in the stomach. + +Some people can never allow events to work themselves out quietly. At +this juncture one of Them swooped down on the scene, pouring shrill, +misplaced abuse on both of us: on me for ill-treating my younger +brother, whereas it was distinctly I who was the injured and the +deceived; on him for the high offense of assault and battery on a clean +collar--a collar which I had myself deflowered and defaced, shortly +before, in sheer desperate ill-temper. Disgusted and defiant we fled in +different directions, rejoining each other later in the kitchen-garden; +and as we strolled along together, our short feud forgotten, Harold +observed, gloomily: "I should like to be a cave-man, like Uncle George +was tellin' us about: with a flint hatchet and no clothes, and live in a +cave and not know anybody!" + +"And if anyone came to see us we didn't like," I joined in, catching on +to the points of the idea, "we'd hit him on the head with the hatchet +till he dropped down dead." + +"And then," said Harold, warming up, "we'd drag him into the cave and +skin him!" + +For a space we gloated silently over the fair scene our imaginations had +conjured up. It was blood we felt the need of just then. We wanted no +luxuries, nothing dear-bought nor far-fetched. Just plain blood, and +nothing else, and plenty of it. + +Blood, however, was not to be had. The time was out of joint, and we had +been born too late. So we went off to the greenhouse, crawled into the +heating arrangement underneath, and played at the dark and dirty and +unrestricted life of cave-men till we were heartily sick of it. Then we +emerged once more into historic times, and went off to the road to look +for something living and sentient to throw stones at. + +Nature, so often a cheerful ally, sometimes sulks and refuses to play. +When in this mood she passes the word to her underlings, and all the +little people of fur and feather take the hint and slip home quietly +by back streets. In vain we scouted, lurked, crept, and ambuscaded. +Everything that usually scurried, hopped, or fluttered--the small +society of the undergrowth--seemed to have engagements elsewhere. The +horrid thought that perhaps they had all gone off to the circus occurred +to us simultaneously, and we humped ourselves up on the fence and felt +bad. Even the sound of approaching wheels failed to stir any interest +in us. When you are bent on throwing stones at something, humanity seems +obtrusive and better away. Then suddenly we both jumped off the fence +together, our faces clearing. For our educated ear had told us that the +approaching rattle could only proceed from a dog-cart, and we felt sure +it must be the funny man. + +We called him the funny man because he was sad and serious, and said +little, but gazed right into our souls, and made us tell him just what +was on our minds at the time, and then came out with some magnificently +luminous suggestion that cleared every cloud away. What was more, he +would then go off with us at once and pay the thing right out to its +finish, earnestly and devotedly, putting all other things aside. So we +called him the funny man, meaning only that he was different from those +others who thought it incumbent on them to play the painful mummer. The +ideal as opposed to the real man was what we meant, only we were not +acquainted with the phrase. Those others, with their laboured jests and +clumsy contortions, doubtless flattered themselves that they were funny +men; we, who had to sit through and applaud the painful performance, +knew better. + +He pulled up to a walk as soon as he caught sight of us, and the +dog-cart crawled slowly along till it stopped just opposite. Then he +leant his chin on his hand and regarded us long and soulfully, yet +said he never a word; while we jigged up and down in the dust, grinning +bashfully but with expectation. For you never knew exactly what this man +might say or do. + +"You look bored," he remarked presently; "thoroughly bored. Or else--let +me see; you're not married, are you?" + +He asked this in such sad earnestness that we hastened to assure him we +were not married, though we felt he ought to have known that much; we +had been intimate for some time. + +"Then it's only boredom," he said. "Just satiety and world-weariness. +Well, if you assure me you aren't married you can climb into this cart +and I'll take you for a drive. I'm bored, too. I want to do something +dark and dreadful and exciting." + +We clambered in, of course, yapping with delight and treading all over +his toes; and as we set off, Harold demanded of him imperiously whither +he was going. + +"My wife," he replied, "has ordered me to go and look up the curate and +bring him home to tea. Does that sound sufficiently exciting for you?" + +Our faces fell. The curate of the hour was not a success, from our point +of view. He was not a funny man, in any sense of the word. + +"--but I'm not going to," he added, cheerfully. "Then I was to stop at +some cottage and ask--what was it? There was nettle-rash mixed up in it, +I'm sure. But never mind, I've forgotten, and it doesn't matter. Look +here, we're three desperate young fellows who stick at nothing. Suppose +we go off to the circus?" + +Of certain supreme moments it is not easy to write. The varying shades +and currents of emotion may indeed be put into words by those specially +skilled that way; they often are, at considerable length. But the sheer, +crude article itself--the strong, live thing that leaps up inside you +and swells and strangles you, the dizziness of revulsion that takes the +breath like cold water--who shall depict this and live? All I knew was +that I would have died then and there, cheerfully, for the funny man; +that I longed for red Indians to spring out from the hedge on the +dog-cart, just to show what I would do; and that, with all this, I could +not find the least little word to say to him. + +Harold was less taciturn. With shrill voice, uplifted in solemn chant, +he sang the great spheral circus-song, and the undying glory of the +Ring. Of its timeless beginning he sang, of its fashioning by cosmic +forces, and of its harmony with the stellar plan. Of horses he sang, +of their strength, their swiftness, and their docility as to tricks. +Of clowns again, of the glory of knavery, and of the eternal type that +shall endure. Lastly he sang of Her--the Woman of the Ring--flawless, +complete, untrammelled in each subtly curving limb; earth's highest +output, time's noblest expression. At least, he doubtless sang all +these things and more--he certainly seemed to; though all that was +distinguishable was, "We're-goin'-to-the-circus!" and then, once more, +"We're-goin'-to-the-circus!"--the sweet rhythmic phrase repeated again +and again. But indeed I cannot be quite sure, for I heard confusedly, +as in a dream. Wings of fire sprang from the old mare's shoulders. We +whirled on our way through purple clouds, and earth and the rattle of +wheels were far away below. + +The dream and the dizziness were still in my head when I found myself, +scarce conscious of intermediate steps, seated actually in the circus at +last, and took in the first sniff of that intoxicating circus smell that +will stay by me while this clay endures. The place was beset by a +hum and a glitter and a mist; suspense brooded large o'er the blank, +mysterious arena. Strung up to the highest pitch of expectation, we knew +not from what quarter, in what divine shape, the first surprise would +come. + +A thud of unseen hoofs first set us aquiver; then a crash of cymbals, a +jangle of bells, a hoarse applauding roar, and Coralie was in the midst +of us, whirling past 'twixt earth and sky, now erect, flushed, radiant, +now crouched to the flowing mane; swung and tossed and moulded by the +maddening dance-music of the band. The mighty whip of the count in the +frock-coat marked time with pistol-shots; his war-cry, whooping clear +above the music, fired the blood with a passion for splendid deeds, as +Coralie, laughing, exultant, crashed through the paper hoops. We gripped +the red cloth in front of us, and our souls sped round and round with +Coralie, leaping with her, prone with her, swung by mane or tail with +her. It was not only the ravishment of her delirious feats, nor her +cream-coloured horse of fairy breed, long-tailed, roe-footed, an +enchanted prince surely, if ever there was one! It was her more than +mortal beauty--displayed, too, under conditions never vouchsafed to us +before--that held us spell-bound. What princess had arms so dazzlingly +white, or went delicately clothed in such pink and spangles? Hitherto +we had known the outward woman as but a drab thing, hour-glass shaped, +nearly legless, bunched here, constricted there; slow of movement, and +given to deprecating lusty action of limb. Here was a revelation! From +henceforth our imaginations would have to be revised and corrected up +to date. In one of those swift rushes the mind makes in high-strung +moments, I saw myself and Coralie, close enfolded, pacing the world +together, o'er hill and plain, through storied cities, past rows of +applauding relations,--I in my Sunday knickerbockers, she in her pink +and spangles. + +Summers sicken, flowers fail and die, all beauty but rides round the +ring and out at the portal; even so Coralie passed in her turn, poised +sideways, panting, on her steed; lightly swayed as a tulip-bloom, bowing +on this side and on that as she disappeared; and with her went my heart +and my soul, and all the light and the glory and the entrancement of the +scene. + +Harold woke up with a gasp. "Wasn't she beautiful?" he said, in quite +a subdued way for him. I felt a momentary pang. We had been friendly +rivals before, in many an exploit; but here was altogether a more +serious affair. Was this, then, to be the beginning of strife and +coldness, of civil war on the hearthstone and the sundering of old ties? +Then I recollected the true position of things, and felt very sorry for +Harold; for it was inexorably written that he would have to give way +to me, since I was the elder. Rules were not made for nothing, in a +sensibly constructed universe. + +There was little more to wait for, now Coralie had gone; yet I lingered +still, on the chance of her appearing again. Next moment the clown +tripped up and fell flat, with magnificent artifice, and at once fresh +emotions began to stir. Love had endured its little hour, and stern +ambition now asserted itself. Oh, to be a splendid fellow like this, +self-contained, ready of speech, agile beyond conception, braving the +forces of society, his hand against everyone, yet always getting the +best of it! What freshness of humour, what courtesy to dames, what +triumphant ability to discomfit rivals, frock-coated and moustached +though they might be! And what a grand, self-confident straddle of +the legs! Who could desire a finer career than to go through life thus +gorgeously equipped! Success was his key-note, adroitness his panoply, +and the mellow music of laughter his instant reward. Even Coralie's +image wavered and receded. I would come back to her in the evening, of +course; but I would be a clown all the working hours of the day. + +The short interval was ended: the band, with long-drawn chords, sounded +a prelude touched with significance; and the programme, in letters +overtopping their fellows, proclaimed Zephyrine, the Bride of the +Desert, in her unequalled bareback equestrian interlude. So sated was I +already with beauty and with wit, that I hardly dared hope for a fresh +emotion. Yet her title was tinged with romance, and Coralie's display +had aroused in me an interest in her sex which even herself had failed +to satisfy entirely. + +Brayed in by trumpets, Zephyrine swung passionately into the arena. +With a bound she stood erect, one foot upon each of her supple, plunging +Arabs; and at once I knew that my fate was sealed, my chapter closed, +and the Bride of the Desert was the one bride for me. Black was her +raiment, great silver stars shone through it, caught in the dusky +twilight of her gauze; black as her own hair were the two mighty steeds +she bestrode. In a tempest they thundered by, in a whirlwind, a scirocco +of tan; her cheeks bore the kiss of an Eastern sun, and the sand-storms +of her native desert were her satellites. What was Coralie, with her +pink silk, her golden hair and slender limbs, beside this magnificent, +full-figured Cleopatra? In a twinkling we were scouring the desert--she +and I and the two coal-black horses. Side by side, keeping pace in our +swinging gallop, we distanced the ostrich, we outstrode the zebra; and, +as we went, it seemed the wilderness blossomed like the rose. + +***** + +I know not rightly how we got home that evening. On the road there were +everywhere strange presences, and the thud of phantom hoofs encircled +us. In my nose was the pungent circus-smell; the crack of the whip and +the frank laugh of the clown were in my ears. The funny man thoughtfully +abstained from conversation, and left our illusion quite alone, sparing +us all jarring criticism and analysis; and he gave me no chance, when +he deposited us at our gate, to get rid of the clumsy expressions of +gratitude I had been laboriously framing. For the rest of the evening, +distraught and silent, I only heard the march-music of the band, playing +on in some corner of my brain. When at last my head touched the pillow, +in a trice I was with Zephyrine, riding the boundless Sahara, cheek to +cheek, the world well lost; while at times, through the sand-clouds that +encircled us, glimmered the eyes of Coralie, touched, one fancied, with +something of a tender reproach. + + + + +ITS WALLS WERE AS OF JASPER + + +In the long winter evenings, when we had the picture-books out on +the floor, and sprawled together over them with elbows deep in the +hearth-rug, the first business to be gone through was the process of +allotment. All the characters in the pictures had to be assigned and +dealt out among us, according to seniority, as far as they would go. +When once that had been satisfactorily completed, the story was allowed +to proceed; and thereafter, in addition to the excitement of the plot, +one always possessed a personal interest in some particular member of +the cast, whose successes or rebuffs one took as so much private gain or +loss. + +For Edward this was satisfactory enough. Claiming his right of the +eldest, he would annex the hero in the very frontispiece; and for the +rest of the story his career, if chequered at intervals, was sure of +heroic episodes and a glorious close. But his juniors, who had to put +up with characters of a clay more mixed--nay, sometimes with undiluted +villany--were hard put to it on occasion to defend their other selves +(as it was strict etiquette to do) from ignominy perhaps only too justly +merited. + +Edward was indeed a hopeless grabber. In the "Buffalo-book," for +instance (so named from the subject of its principal picture, though +indeed it dealt with varied slaughter in every zone), Edward was the +stalwart, bearded figure, with yellow leggings and a powder-horn, who +undauntedly discharged the fatal bullet into the shoulder of the great +bull bison, charging home to within a yard of his muzzle. To me was +allotted the subsidiary character of the friend who had succeeded in +bringing down a cow; while Harold had to be content to hold Edward's +spare rifle in the background, with evident signs of uneasiness. Farther +on, again, where the magnificent chamois sprang rigid into mid-air. +Edward, crouched dizzily against the precipice-face, was the sportsman +from whose weapon a puff of white smoke was floating away. A bare-kneed +guide was all that fell to my share, while poor Harold had to take the +boy with the haversack, or abandon, for this occasion at least, all +Alpine ambitions. + +Of course the girls fared badly in this book, and it was not surprising +that they preferred the "Pilgrim's Progress" (for instance), where women +had a fair show, and there was generally enough of 'em to go round; or +a good fairy story, wherein princesses met with a healthy appreciation. +But indeed we were all best pleased with a picture wherein the +characters just fitted us, in number, sex, and qualifications; and this, +to us, stood for artistic merit. + +All the Christmas numbers, in their gilt frames on the nursery-wall, had +been gone through and allotted long ago; and in these, sooner or later, +each one of us got a chance to figure in some satisfactory and brightly +coloured situation. Few of the other pictures about the house afforded +equal facilities. They were generally wanting in figures, and even when +these were present they lacked dramatic interest. In this picture that +I have to speak about, although the characters had a stupid way of not +doing anything, and apparently not wanting to do anything, there was at +least a sufficiency of them; so in due course they were allotted, too. + +In itself the picture, which--in its ebony and tortoise-shell +frame--hung in a corner of the dining-room, had hitherto possessed no +special interest for us, and would probably never have been dealt with +at all but for a revolt of the girls against a succession of books on +sport, in which the illustrator seemed to have forgotten that there were +such things as women in the world. Selina accordingly made for it one +rainy morning, and announced that she was the lady seated in the centre, +whose gown of rich, flowered brocade fell in such straight, severe lines +to her feet, whose cloak of dark blue was held by a jewelled clasp, and +whose long, fair hair was crowned with a diadem of gold and pearl. +Well, we had no objection to that; it seemed fair enough, especially +to Edward, who promptly proceeded to "grab" the armour-man who stood +leaning on his shield at the lady's right hand. A dainty and delicate +armour-man this! And I confess, though I knew it was all right and fair +and orderly, I felt a slight pang when he passed out of my reach +into Edward's possession. His armour was just the sort I wanted +myself--scalloped and fluted and shimmering and spotless; and, though +he was but a boy by his beardless face and golden hair, the shattered +spear-shaft in his grasp proclaimed him a genuine fighter and fresh from +some such agreeable work. Yes, I grudged Edward the armour-man, and when +he said I could have the fellow on the other side, I hung back and said +I'd think about it. + +This fellow had no armour nor weapons, but wore a plain jerkin with a +leather pouch--a mere civilian--and with one hand he pointed to a wound +in his thigh. I didn't care about him, and when Harold eagerly put in +his claim I gave way and let him have the man. The cause of Harold's +anxiety only came out later. It was the wound he coveted, it seemed. He +wanted to have a big, sore wound of his very own, and go about and show +it to people, and excite their envy or win their respect. Charlotte +was only too pleased to take the child-angel seated at the lady's feet, +grappling with a musical instrument much too big for her. Charlotte +wanted wings badly, and, next to those, a guitar or a banjo. The angel, +besides, wore an amber necklace, which took her fancy immensely. + +This left the picture allotted, with the exception of two or three more +angels, who peeped or perched behind the main figures with a certain +subdued drollery in their faces, as if the thing had gone on long +enough, and it was now time to upset something or kick up a row of some +sort. We knew these good folk to be saints and angels, because we had +been told they were; otherwise we should never have guessed it. +Angels, as we knew them in our Sunday books, were vapid, colourless, +uninteresting characters, with straight up-and-down sort of figures, +white nightgowns, white wings, and the same straight yellow hair parted +in the middle. They were serious, even melancholy; and we had no desire +to have any traffic with them. These bright bejewelled little persons, +however, piquant of face and radiant of feather, were evidently hatched +from quite a different egg, and we felt we might have interests in +common with them. Short-nosed, shock-headed, with mouths that went up +at the corners and with an evident disregard for all their fine clothes, +they would be the best of good company, we felt sure, if only we could +manage to get at them. One doubt alone disturbed my mind. In games +requiring agility, those wings of theirs would give them a tremendous +pull. Could they be trusted to play fair? I asked Selina, who replied +scornfully that angels always played fair. But I went back and had +another look at the brown-faced one peeping over the back of the lady's +chair, and still I had my doubts. + +When Edward went off to school a great deal of adjustment and +re-allotment took place, and all the heroes of illustrated literature +were at my call, did I choose to possess them. In this particular case, +however, I made no haste to seize upon the armour-man. Perhaps it was +because I wanted a fresh saint of my own, not a stale saint that Edward +had been for so long a time. Perhaps it was rather that, ever since I +had elected to be saintless, I had got into the habit of strolling off +into the background, and amusing myself with what I found there. A very +fascinating background it was, and held a great deal, though so +tiny. Blue and red, like gems. Then a white road ran, with wilful, +uncalled-for loops, up a steep, conical hill, crowned with towers, +bastioned walls, and belfries; and down the road the little knights came +riding, two and two. The hill on one side descended to water, tranquil, +farreaching, and blue; and a very curly ship lay at anchor, with one +mast having an odd sort of crow's-nest at the top of it. + +There was plenty to do in this pleasant land. The annoying thing about +it was, one could never penetrate beyond a certain point. I might wander +up that road as often as I liked, I was bound to be brought up at the +gateway, the funny galleried, top-heavy gateway, of the little walled +town. Inside, doubtless, there were high jinks going on; but the +password was denied to me. I could get on board a boat and row up as far +as the curly ship, but around the headland I might not go. On the other +side, of a surety, the shipping lay thick. The merchants walked on the +quay, and the sailors sang as they swung out the corded bales. But as +for me, I must stay down in the meadow, and imagine it all as best I +could. + +Once I broached the subject to Charlotte, and found, to my surprise, +that she had had the same joys and encountered the same disappointments +in this delectable country. She, too, had walked up that road and +flattened her nose against that portcullis; and she pointed out +something that I had overlooked--to wit, that if you rowed off in a boat +to the curly ship, and got hold of a rope, and clambered aboard of her, +and swarmed up the mast, and got into the crow's-nest, you could just +see over the headland, and take in at your ease the life and bustle of +the port. She proceeded to describe all the fun that was going on there, +at such length and with so much particularity that I looked at her +suspiciously. "Why, you talk as if you'd been in that crow's-nest +yourself!" I said. Charlotte answered nothing, but pursed her mouth up +and nodded violently for some minutes; and I could get nothing more out +of her. I felt rather hurt. Evidently she had managed, somehow or other, +to get up into that crow's-nest. Charlotte had got ahead of me on this +occasion. + +It was necessary, no doubt, that grownup people should dress themselves +up and go forth to pay calls. I don't mean that we saw any sense in the +practice. It would have been so much more reasonable to stay at home in +your old clothes and play. But we recognized that these folk had to +do many unaccountable things, and after all it was their life, and not +ours, and we were not in a position to criticize. Besides, they had many +habits more objectionable than this one, which to us generally meant a +free and untrammelled afternoon, wherein to play the devil in our own +way. The case was different, however, when the press-gang was abroad, +when prayers and excuses were alike disregarded, and we were forced +into the service, like native levies impelled toward the foe less by the +inherent righteousness of the cause than by the indisputable rifles of +their white allies. This was unpardonable and altogether detestable. +Still, the thing happened, now and again; and when it did, there was no +arguing about it. The order was for the front, and we just had to shut +up and march. + +Selina, to be sure, had a sneaking fondness for dressing up and paying +calls, though she pretended to dislike it, just to keep on the soft side +of public opinion. So I thought it extremely mean in her to have +the earache on that particular afternoon when Aunt Eliza ordered the +pony-carriage and went on the war-path. I was ordered also, in the same +breath as the pony-carriage; and, as we eventually trundled off, it +seemed to me that the utter waste of that afternoon, for which I had +planned so much, could never be made up nor atoned for in all the +tremendous stretch of years that still lay before me. + +The house that we were bound for on this occasion was a "big house;" a +generic title applied by us to the class of residence that had a long +carriage-drive through rhododendrons; and a portico propped by fluted +pillars; and a grave butler who bolted back swing-doors, and came down +steps, and pretended to have entirely forgotten his familiar intercourse +with you at less serious moments; and a big hall, where no boots or +shoes or upper garments were allowed to lie about frankly and easily, as +with us; and where, finally, people were apt to sit about dressed up as +if they were going on to a party. + +The lady who received us was effusive to Aunt Eliza and hollowly +gracious to me. In ten seconds they had their heads together and were +hard at it talking clothes. I was left high and dry on a straight-backed +chair, longing to kick the legs of it, yet not daring. For a time I was +content to stare; there was lots to stare at, high and low and around. +Then the inevitable fidgets came on, and scratching one's legs mitigated +slightly, but did not entirely disperse them. My two warders were still +deep in clothes; I slipped off my chair and edged cautiously around the +room, exploring, examining, recording. + +Many strange, fine things lay along my route--pictures and gimcracks +on the walls, trinkets and globular old watches and snuff-boxes on +the tables; and I took good care to finger everything within reach +thoroughly and conscientiously. Some articles, in addition, I smelt. At +last in my orbit I happened on an open door, half concealed by the +folds of a curtain. I glanced carefully around. They were still deep in +clothes, both talking together, and I slipped through. + +This was altogether a more sensible sort of room that I had got into; +for the walls were honestly upholstered with books, though these for the +most part glimmered provokingly through the glass doors of their tall +cases. I read their titles longingly, breathing on every accessible +pane of glass, for I dared not attempt to open the doors, with the enemy +encamped so near. In the window, though, on a high sort of desk, there +lay, all by itself, a most promising-looking book, gorgeously bound. I +raised the leaves by one corner, and like scent from a pot-pourri jar +there floated out a brief vision of blues and reds, telling of pictures, +and pictures all highly coloured! Here was the right sort of thing at +last, and my afternoon would not be entirely wasted. I inclined an ear +to the door by which I had entered. Like the brimming tide of a full-fed +river the grand, eternal, inexhaustible clothes-problem bubbled and +eddied and surged along. It seemed safe enough. I slid the book off its +desk with some difficulty, for it was very fine and large, and staggered +with it to the hearthrug--the only fit and proper place for books of +quality, such as this. + +They were excellent hearthrugs in that house; soft and wide, with the +thickest of pile, and one's knees sank into them most comfortably. When +I got the book open there was a difficulty at first in making the great +stiff pages lie down. Most fortunately the coal-scuttle was actually +at my elbow, and it was easy to find a flat bit of coal to lay on the +refractory page. Really, it was just as if everything had been arranged +for me. This was not such a bad sort of house after all. + +The beginnings of the thing were gay borders--scrolls and strap-work +and diapered backgrounds, a maze of colour, with small misshapen figures +clambering cheerily up and down everywhere. But first I eagerly scanned +what text there was in the middle, in order to get a hint of what it +was all about. Of course I was not going to waste any time in reading. +A clue, a sign-board, a finger-post was all I required. To my dismay and +disgust it was all in a stupid foreign language! Really, the perversity +of some people made one at times almost despair of the whole race. +However, the pictures remained; pictures never lied, never shuffled nor +evaded; and as for the story, I could invent it myself. + +Over the page I went, shifting the bit of coal to a new position; and, +as the scheme of the picture disengaged itself from out the medley +of colour that met my delighted eyes, first there was a warm sense of +familiarity, then a dawning recognition, and then--O then! along with +blissful certainty came the imperious need to clasp my stomach with +both hands, in order to repress the shout of rapture that struggled to +escape--it was my own little city! + +I knew it well enough, I recognized it at once, though I had never been +quite so near it before. Here was the familiar gateway, to the left that +strange, slender tower with its grim, square head shot far above the +walls; to the right, outside the town, the hill--as of old--broke +steeply down to the sea. But to-day everything was bigger and fresher +and clearer, the walls seemed newly hewn, gay carpets were hung out over +them, fair ladies and long-haired children peeped and crowded on the +battlements. Better still, the portcullis was up--I could even catch a +glimpse of the sunlit square within--and a dainty company was trooping +through the gate on horseback, two and two. Their horses, in trappings +that swept the ground, were gay as themselves; and they were the gayest +crew, for dress and bearing, I had ever yet beheld. It could mean +nothing else but a wedding, I thought, this holiday attire, this festal +and solemn entry; and, wedding or whatever it was, I meant to be there. +This time I would not be balked by any grim portcullis; this time I +would slip in with the rest of the crowd, find out just what my +little town was like, within those exasperating walls that had so +long confronted me, and, moreover, have my share of the fun that was +evidently going on inside. Confident, yet breathless with expectation, I +turned the page. + +Joy! At last I was in it, at last I was on the right side of those +provoking walls; and, needless to say, I looked about me with much +curiosity. A public place, clearly, though not such as I was used to. +The houses at the back stood on a sort of colonnade, beneath which the +people jostled and crowded. The upper stories were all painted with +wonderful pictures. Above the straight line of the roofs the deep +blue of a cloudless sky stretched from side to side. Lords and ladies +thronged the foreground, while on a dais in the centre a gallant +gentleman, just alighted off his horse, stooped to the fingers of a girl +as bravely dressed out as Selina's lady between the saints; and round +about stood venerable personages, robed in the most variegated clothing. +There were boys, too, in plenty, with tiny red caps on their thick hair; +and their shirts had bunched up and worked out at the waist, just as my +own did so often, after chasing anybody; and each boy of them wore an +odd pair of stockings, one blue and the other red. This system of attire +went straight to my heart. I had tried the same thing so often, and +had met with so much discouragement; and here, at last, was my +justification, painted deliberately in a grown-up book! I looked about +for my saint-friends--the armour-man and the other fellow--but they were +not to be seen--Evidently they were unable to get off duty, even for a +wedding, and still stood on guard in that green meadow down below. I was +disappointed, too, that not an angel was visible. One or two of them, +surely, could easily have been spared for an hour, to run up and see the +show; and they would have been thoroughly at home here, in the midst of +all the colour and the movement and the fun. + +But it was time to get on, for clearly the interest was only just +beginning. Over went the next page, and there we were, the whole crowd +of us, assembled in a noble church. It was not easy to make out exactly +what was going on; but in the throng I was delighted to recognize my +angels at last, happy and very much at home. They had managed to get +leave off, evidently, and must have run up the hill and scampered +breathlessly through the gate; and perhaps they cried a little when they +found the square empty, and thought the fun must be all over. Two of +them had got hold of a great wax candle apiece, as much as they could +stagger under, and were tittering sideways at each other as the grease +ran bountifully over their clothes. A third had strolled in among the +company, and was chatting to a young gentleman, with whom she appeared +to be on the best of terms. Decidedly, this was the right breed of angel +for us. None of your sick-bed or night nursery business for them! + +Well, no doubt they were now being married, He and She, just as always +happened. And then, of course, they were going to live happily ever +after; and that was the part I wanted to get to. Storybooks were so +stupid, always stopping at the point where they became really nice; but +this picture-story was only in its first chapters, and at last I was to +have a chance of knowing how people lived happily ever after. We +would all go home together, He and She, and the angels, and I; and the +armour-man would be invited to come and stay. And then the story would +really begin, at the point where those other ones always left off. I +turned the page, and found myself free of the dim and splendid church +and once more in the open country. + +This was all right; this was just as it should be. The sky was a +fleckless blue, the flags danced in the breeze, and our merry bridal +party, with jest and laughter, jogged down to the water-side. I was +through the town by this time, and out on the other side of the hill, +where I had always wanted to be; and, sure enough, there was the +harbour, all thick with curly ships. Most of them were piled high +with wedding-presents--bales of silk, and gold and silver plate, and +comfortable-looking bags suggesting bullion; and the gayest ship of +all lay close up to the carpeted landing-stage. Already the bride was +stepping daintily down the gangway, her ladies following primly, one by +one; a few minutes more and we should all be aboard, the hawsers would +splash in the water, the sails would fill and strain. From the deck I +should see the little walled town recede and sink and grow dim, while +every plunge of our bows brought us nearer to the happy island--it +was an island we were bound for, I knew well! Already I could see the +island-people waving hands on the crowded quay, whence the little +houses ran up the hill to the castle, crowning all with its towers and +battlements. Once more we should ride together, a merry procession, +clattering up the steep street and through the grim gateway; and then +we should have arrived, then we should all dine together, then we should +have reached home! And then--Ow! Ow! Ow! + +Bitter it is to stumble out of an opalescent dream into the cold +daylight; cruel to lose in a second a sea-voyage, an island, and a +castle that was to be practically your own; but cruellest and bitterest +of all to know, in addition to your loss, that the fingers of an angry +aunt have you tight by the scruff of your neck. My beautiful book was +gone too--ravished from my grasp by the dressy lady, who joined in the +outburst of denunciation as heartily as if she had been a relative--and +naught was left me but to blubber dismally, awakened of a sudden to the +harshness of real things and the unnumbered hostilities of the actual +world. I cared little for their reproaches, their abuse; but I sorrowed +heartily for my lost ship, my vanished island, my uneaten dinner, and +for the knowledge that, if I wanted any angels to play with, I must +henceforth put up with the anaemic, night-gowned nonentities that +hovered over the bed of the Sunday-school child in the pages of the +Sabbath Improver. + +I was led ignominiously out of the house, in a pulpy, watery state, +while the butler handled his swing doors with a stony, impassive +countenance, intended for the deception of the very elect, though it did +not deceive me. I knew well enough that next time he was off duty, and +strolled around our way, we should meet in our kitchen as man to man, +and I would punch him and ask him riddles, and he would teach me tricks +with corks and bits of string. So his unsympathetic manner did not add +to my depression. + +I maintained a diplomatic blubber long after we had been packed into +our pony-carriage and the lodge-gate had clicked behind us, because it +served as a sort of armour-plating against heckling and argument and +abuse, and I was thinking hard and wanted to be let alone. And the +thoughts that I was thinking were two. + +First I thought, "I've got ahead of Charlotte this time!" + +And next I thought, "When I've grown up big, and have money of my own, +and a full-sized walking-stick, I will set out early one morning, and +never stop till I get to that little walled town." There ought to be no +real difficulty in the task. It only meant asking here and asking there, +and people were very obliging, and I could describe every stick and +stone of it. + +As for the island which I had never even seen, that was not so easy. +Yet I felt confident that somehow, at some time, sooner or later, I was +destined to arrive. + + + + +A SAGA OF THE SEAS + + +It happened one day that some ladies came to call, who were not at all +the sort I was used to. They suffered from a grievance, so far as I +could gather, and the burden of their plaint was Man--Men in general and +Man in particular. (Though the words were but spoken, I could clearly +discern the capital M in their acid utterance.) + +Of course I was not present officially, so to speak. Down below, in my +sub-world of chair-legs and hearthrugs and the undersides of sofas, I +was working out my own floor-problems, while they babbled on far above +my head, considering me as but a chair-leg, or even something lower in +the scale. Yet I was listening hard all the time, with that respectful +consideration one gives to all grown-up people's remarks, so long as one +knows no better. + +It seemed a serious indictment enough, as they rolled it out. In +tact, considerateness, and right appreciation, as well as in taste +and aesthetic sensibilities--we failed at every point, we breeched and +bearded prentice-jobs of Nature; and I began to feel like collapsing on +the carpet from sheer spiritual anaemia. But when one of them, with +a swing of her skirt, prostrated a whole regiment of my brave tin +soldiers, and never apologized nor even offered her aid toward +revivifying the battle-line, I could not help feeling that in +tactfulness and consideration for others she was still a little to seek. +And I said as much, with some directness of language. + +That was the end of me, from a society point of view. Rudeness to +visitors was the unpardonable sin, and in two seconds I had my marching +orders, and was sullenly wending my way to the St. Helena of the +nursery. As I climbed the stair, my thoughts reverted somehow to a +game we had been playing that very morning. It was the good old game of +Rafts,--a game that will be played till all the oceans are dry and all +the trees in the world are felled--and after. And we were all crowded +together on the precarious little platform, and Selina occupied every +bit as much room as I did, and Charlotte's legs didn't dangle over any +more than Harold's. The pitiless sun overhead beat on us all with tropic +impartiality, and the hungry sharks, whose fins scored the limitless +Pacific stretching out on every side, were impelled by an appetite that +made no exceptions as to sex. When we shared the ultimate biscuit and +circulated the last water-keg, the girls got an absolute fourth apiece, +and neither more nor less; and the only partiality shown was entirely +in favour of Charlotte, who was allowed to perceive and to hail the +saviour-sail on the horizon. And this was only because it was her turn +to do so, not because she happened to be this or that. Surely, the +rules of the raft were the rules of life, and in what, then, did these +visitor-ladies' grievance consist? + +Puzzled and a little sulky, I pushed open the door of the deserted +nursery, where the raft that had rocked beneath so many hopes and fears +still occupied the ocean-floor. To the dull eye, that merely tarries +upon the outsides of things, it might have appeared unromantic and even +unraftlike, consisting only as it did of a round sponge-bath on a bald +deal towel-horse placed flat on the floor. Even to myself much of the +recent raft-glamour seemed to have departed as I half-mechanically +stepped inside and curled myself up in it for a solitary voyage. Once I +was in, however, the old magic and mystery returned in full flood, when +I discovered that the inequalities of the towel-horse caused the bath +to rock, slightly, indeed, but easily and incessantly. A few minutes +of this delightful motion, and one was fairly launched. So those women +below didn't want us? Well, there were other women, and other places, +that did. And this was going to be no scrambling raft-affair, but a +full-blooded voyage of the Man, equipped and purposeful, in search of +what was his rightful own. + +Whither should I shape my course, and what sort of vessel should I +charter for the voyage? The shipping of all England was mine to pick +from, and the far corners of the globe were my rightful inheritance. A +frigate, of course, seemed the natural vehicle for a boy of spirit to +set out in. And yet there was something rather "uppish" in commanding +a frigate at the very first set-off, and little spread was left for +the ambition. Frigates, too, could always be acquired later by sheer +adventure; and your real hero generally saved up a square-rigged ship +for the final achievement and the rapt return. No, it was a schooner +that I was aboard of--a schooner whose masts raked devilishly as the +leaping seas hissed along her low black gunwale. Many hairbrained youths +started out on a mere cutter; but I was prudent, and besides I had some +inkling of the serious affairs that were ahead. + +I have said I was already on board; and, indeed, on this occasion I was +too hungry for adventure to linger over what would have been a special +delight at a period of more leisure--the dangling about the harbour, the +choosing your craft, selecting your shipmates, stowing your cargo, and +fitting up your private cabin with everything you might want to put your +hand on in any emergency whatever. I could not wait for that. Out beyond +soundings the big seas were racing westward and calling me, albatrosses +hovered motionless, expectant of a comrade, and a thousand islands +held each of them a fresh adventure, stored up, hidden away, awaiting +production, expressly saved for me. We were humming, close-hauled, down +the Channel, spray in the eyes and the shrouds thrilling musically, in +much less time than the average man would have taken to transfer his +Gladstone bag and his rugs from the train to a sheltered place on the +promenade-deck of the tame daily steamer. + +So long as we were in pilotage I stuck manfully to the wheel. The +undertaking was mine, and with it all its responsibilities, and there +was some tricky steering to be done as we sped by headland and bay, ere +we breasted the great seas outside and the land fell away behind us. But +as soon as the Atlantic had opened out I began to feel that it would +be rather nice to take tea by myself in my own cabin, and it therefore +became necessary to invent a comrade or two, to take their turn at the +wheel. + +This was easy enough. A friend or two of my own age, from among the +boys I knew; a friend or two from characters in the books I knew; and +a friend or two from No-man's-land, where every fellow's a born sailor; +and the crew was complete. I addressed them on the poop, divided them +into watches, gave instructions I should be summoned on the first sign +of pirates, whales, or Frenchmen, and retired below to a well-earned +spell of relaxation. + +That was the right sort of cabin that I stepped into, shutting the door +behind me with a click. Of course, fire-arms were the first thing I +looked for, and there they were, sure enough, in their racks, dozens of +'em--double-barrelled guns, and repeating-rifles, and long pistols, +and shiny plated revolvers. I rang up the steward and ordered tea, with +scones, and jam in its native pots--none of your finicking shallow glass +dishes; and, when properly streaked with jam, and blown out with tea, I +went through the armoury, clicked the rifles and revolvers, tested the +edges of the cutlasses with my thumb, and filled the cartridge-belts +chock-full. Everything was there, and of the best quality, just as if I +had spent a whole fortnight knocking about Plymouth and ordering things. +Clearly, if this cruise came to grief, it would not be for want of +equipment. + +Just as I was beginning on the lockers and the drawers, the watch +reported icebergs on both bows--and, what was more to the point, coveys +of Polar bears on the icebergs. I grasped a rifle or two, and hastened +on deck. The spectacle was indeed magnificent--it generally is, with +icebergs on both bows, and these were exceptionally enormous icebergs. +But I hadn't come there to paint Academy pictures, so the captain's +gig was in the water and manned almost ere the boatswain's whistle had +ceased sounding, and we were pulling hard for the Polar bears--myself +and the rifles in the stern-sheets. + +I have rarely enjoyed better shooting than I got during that afternoon's +tramp over the icebergs. Perhaps I was in specially good form; perhaps +the bears "rose" well. Anyhow, the bag was a portentous one. In later +days, on reading of the growing scarcity of Polar bears, my conscience +has pricked me; but that afternoon I experienced no compunction. +Nevertheless, when the huge pile of skins had been hoisted on board, +and a stiff grog had been served out to the crew of the captain's gig, +I ordered the schooner's head to be set due south. For icebergs were +played out, for the moment, and it was getting to be time for something +more tropical. + +Tropical was a mild expression of what was to come, as was shortly +proved. It was about three bells in the next day's forenoon watch when +the look-out man first sighted the pirate brigantine. I disliked the +looks of her from the first, and, after piping all hands to quarters, +had the brass carronade on the fore-deck crammed with grape to the +muzzle. + +This proved a wise precaution. For the flagitious pirate craft, having +crept up to us under the colours of the Swiss Republic, a state with +which we were just then on the best possible terms, suddenly shook out +the skull-and-cross-bones at her masthead, and let fly with round-shot +at close quarters, knocking into pieces several of my crew, who could +ill be spared. The sight of their disconnected limbs aroused my ire +to its utmost height, and I let them have the contents of the brass +carronade, with ghastly effect. Next moment the hulls of the two ships +were grinding together, the cold steel flashed from its scabbard, and +the death-grapple had begun. + +In spite of the deadly work of my grape-gorged carronade, our foe still +outnumbered us, I reckoned, by three to one. Honour forbade my fixing +it at a lower figure--this was the minimum rate at which one dared to do +business with pirates. They were stark veterans, too, every man seamed +with ancient sabre-cuts, whereas my crew had many of them hardly +attained the maturity which is the gift of ten long summers--and the +whole thing was so sudden that I had no time to invent a reinforcement +of riper years. It was not surprising, therefore, that my dauntless +boarding-party, axe in hand and cutlass between teeth, fought their way +to the pirates' deck only to be repulsed again and yet again, and that +our planks were soon slippery with our own ungrudged and inexhaustible +blood. At this critical point in the conflict, the bo'sun, grasping me +by the arm, drew my attention to a magnificent British man-of-war, +just hove to in the offing, while the signalman, his glass at his eye, +reported that she was inquiring whether we wanted any assistance or +preferred to go through with the little job ourselves. + +This veiled attempt to share our laurels with us, courteously as it was +worded, put me on my mettle. Wiping the blood out of my eyes, I ordered +the signalman to reply instantly, with the half-dozen or so of flags +that he had at his disposal, that much as we appreciated the valour +of the regular service, and the delicacy of spirit that animated +its commanders, still this was an orthodox case of young +gentleman-adventurer versus the unshaved pirate, and Her Majesty's +Marine had nothing to do but to form the usual admiring and applauding +background. Then, rallying round me the remnant of my faithful crew, I +selected a fresh cutlass (I had worn out three already) and plunged once +more into the pleasing carnage. + +The result was not long doubtful. Indeed, I could not allow it to be, as +I was already getting somewhat bored with the pirate business, and was +wanting to get on to something more southern and sensuous. All serious +resistance came to an end as soon as I had reached the quarter-deck and +cut down the pirate chief--a fine black-bearded fellow in his way, +but hardly up to date in his parry-and-thrust business. Those whom our +cutlasses had spared were marched out along their own plank, in the +approved old fashion; and in tune the scuppers relieved the decks of +the blood that made traffic temporarily impossible. And all the time the +British-man-of-war admired and applauded in the offing. + +As soon as we had got through with the necessary throat-cutting and +swabbing-up all hands set to work to discover treasure; and soon the +deck shone bravely with ingots and Mexican dollars and church plate. +There were ropes of pearls, too, and big stacks of nougat; and rubies, +and gold watches, and Turkish Delight in tubs. But I left these trifles +to my crew, and continued the search alone. For by this time I had +determined that there should be a Princess on board, carried off to +be sold in captivity to the bold bad Moors, and now with beating heart +awaiting her rescue by me, the Perseus of her dreams. + +I came upon her at last in the big state-cabin in the stern; and she +wore a holland pinafore over her Princess-clothes, and she had brown +wavy hair, hanging down her back, just like--well, never mind, she had +brown wavy hair. When gentle-folk meet, courtesies pass; and I will +not weary other people with relating all the compliments and +counter-compliments that we exchanged, all in the most approved manner. +Occasions like this, when tongues wagged smoothly and speech flowed +free, were always especially pleasing to me, who am naturally inclined +to be tongue-tied with women. But at last ceremony was over, and we sat +on the table and swung our legs and agreed to be fast friends. And I +showed her my latest knife--one-bladed, horn-handled, terrific, hung +round my neck with string; and she showed me the chiefest treasures the +ship contained, hidden away in a most private and particular locker--a +musical box with a glass top that let you see the works, and a railway +train with real lines and a real tunnel, and a tin iron-clad that +followed a magnet, and was ever so much handier in many respects than +the real full-sized thing that still lay and applauded in the offing. + +There was high feasting that night in my cabin. We invited the captain +of the man-of-war--one could hardly do less, it seemed to me--and the +Princess took one end of the table and I took the other, and the captain +was very kind and nice, and told us fairy-stories, and asked us both to +come and stay with him next Christmas, and promised we should have some +hunting, on real ponies. When he left I gave him some ingots and things, +and saw him into his boat; and then I went round the ship and addressed +the crew in several set speeches, which moved them deeply, and with my +own hands loaded up the carronade with grape-shot till it ran over at +the mouth. This done, I retired into the cabin with the Princess, and +locked the door. And first we started the musical box, taking turns to +wind it up; and then we made toffee in the cabin-stove; and then we ran +the train round and round the room, and through and through the tunnel; +and lastly we swam the tin ironclad in the bath, with the soap-dish for +a pirate. + +Next morning the air was rich with spices, porpoises rolled and +gambolled round the bows, and the South Sea Islands lay full in +view (they were the real South Sea Islands, of course--not the badly +furnished journeymen-islands that are to be perceived on the map). As +for the pirate brigantine and the man-of-war, I don't really know what +became of them. They had played their part very well, for the time, +but I wasn't going to bother to account for them, so I just let them +evaporate quietly. The islands provided plenty of fresh occupation. For +here were little bays of silvery sand, dotted with land-crabs; groves of +palm-trees wherein monkeys frisked and pelted each other with cocoanuts; +and caves, and sites for stockades, and hidden treasures significantly +indicated by skulls, in riotous plenty; while birds and beasts of every +colour and all latitudes made pleasing noises which excited the sporting +instinct. + +The islands lay conveniently close together, which necessitated +careful steering as we threaded the devious and intricate channels that +separated them. Of course no one else could be trusted at the wheel, so +it is not surprising that for some time I quite forgot that there was +such a thing as a Princess on board. This is too much the masculine way, +whenever there's any real business doing. However, I remembered her as +soon as the anchor was dropped, and I went below and consoled her, and +we had breakfast together, and she was allowed to "pour out," which +quite made up for everything. When breakfast was over we ordered out +the captain's gig, and rowed all about the islands, and paddled, and +explored, and hunted bisons and beetles and butterflies, and found +everything we wanted. And I gave her pink shells and tortoises and great +milky pearls and little green lizards; and she gave me guineapigs, and +coral to make into, waistcoat-buttons; and tame sea-otters, and a real +pirate's powder-horn. It was a prolific day and a long-lasting one, and +weary were we with all our hunting and our getting and our gathering, +when at last we clambered into the captain's gig and rowed back to a +late tea. + +The following day my conscience rose up and accused me. This was not +what I had come out to do. These triflings with pearls and parrakeets, +these al fresco luncheons off yams and bananas--there was no "making of +history" about them. I resolved that without further dallying I would +turn to and capture the French frigate, according to the original +programme. So we upped anchor with the morning tide, and set all sail +for San Salvador. + +Of course I had no idea where San Salvador really was. I haven't now, +for that matter. But it seemed a right-sounding sort of name for a place +that was to have a bay that was to hold a French frigate that was to +be cut out; so, as I said, we sailed for San Salvador, and made the bay +about eight bells that evening, and saw the top-masts of the frigate +over the headland that sheltered her. And forthwith there was summoned +a Council of War. + +It is a very serious matter, a Council of War. We had not held one +hitherto, pirates and truck of that sort not calling for such solemn +treatment. But in an affair that might almost be called international, +it seemed well to proceed gravely and by regular steps. So we met in my +cabin--the Princess, and the bo'sun, and a boy from the real-life lot, +and a man from among the book-men, and a fellow from No-man's-land, and +myself in the chair. The bo'sun had taken part in so many cuttings-out +during his past career that practically he did all the talking, and +was the Council of War himself. It was to be an affair of boats, he +explained. A boat's-crew would be told off to cut the cables, and two +boats'-crews to climb stealthily on board and overpower the sleeping +Frenchmen, and two more boats'-crews to haul the doomed vessel out of +the bay. This made rather a demand on my limited resources as to +crews; but I was prepared to stretch a point in a case like this, and I +speedily brought my numbers up to the requisite efficiency. + +The night was both moonless and starless--I had arranged all that--when +the boats pushed off from the side of our vessel, and made their way +toward the ship that, unfortunately for itself, had been singled out +by Fate to carry me home in triumph. I was in excellent spirits, and, +indeed, as I stepped over the side, a lawless idea crossed my mind, of +discovering another Princess on board the frigate--a French one this +time; I had heard that that sort was rather nice. But I abandoned the +notion at once, recollecting that the heroes of all history had always +been noted for their unswerving constancy. The French captain was snug +in bed when I clambered in through his cabin window and held a naked +cutlass to his throat. Naturally he was surprised and considerably +alarmed, till I discharged one of my set speeches at him, pointing out +that my men already had his crew under hatchways, that his vessel was +even then being towed out of harbour, and that, on his accepting the +situation with a good grace, his person and private property would be +treated with all the respect due to the representative of a great nation +for which I entertained feelings of the profoundest admiration and +regard and all that sort of thing. It was a beautiful speech. The +Frenchman at once presented me with his parole, in the usual way, and, +in a reply of some power and pathos, only begged that I would retire a +moment while he put on his trousers. This I gracefully consented to do, +and the incident ended. + +Two of my boats were sunk by the fire from the forts on the shore, and +several brave fellows were severely wounded in the hand-to-hand struggle +with the French crew for the possession of the frigate. But the bo'sun's +admirable strategy, and my own reckless gallantry in securing the French +captain at the outset, had the fortunate result of keeping down the +death-rate. It was all for the sake of the Princess that I had arranged +so comparatively tame a victory. For myself, I rather liked a fair +amount of blood-letting, red-hot shot, and flying splinters. But when +you have girls about the place, they have got to be considered to a +certain extent. + +There was another supper-party that night, in my cabin, as soon as we +had got well out to sea; and the French captain, who was the guest of +the evening, was in the greatest possible form. We became sworn friends, +and exchanged invitations to come and stay at each other's homes, and +really it was quite difficult to induce him to take his leave. But at +last he and his crew were bundled into their boats; and after I had +pressed some pirate bullion upon them--delicately, of course, but in a +pleasant manner that admitted of no denial--the gallant fellows quite +broke down, and we parted, our bosoms heaving with a full sense of each +other's magnanimity and good fellowship. + +The next day, which was nearly all taken up with shifting our quarters +into the new frigate, so honourably and easily acquired, was a very +pleasant one, as everyone who has gone up in the world and moved into a +larger house will readily understand. At last I had grim, black guns all +along each side, instead of a rotten brass carronade: at last I had a +square-rigged ship, with real yards, and a proper quarter-deck. In fact, +now that I had soared as high as could be hoped in a single voyage, +it seemed about time to go home and cut a dash and show off a bit. The +worst of this ocean-theatre was, it held no proper audience. It was +hard, of course, to relinquish all the adventures that still lay +untouched in these Southern seas. Whaling, for instance, had not yet +been entered upon; the joys of exploration, and strange inland cities +innocent of the white man, still awaited me; and the book of wrecks +and rescues was not yet even opened. But I had achieved a frigate and a +Princess, and that was not so bad for a beginning, and more than enough +to show off with before those dull unadventurous folk who continued on +their mill-horse round at home. + +The voyage home was a record one, so far as mere speed was concerned, +and all adventures were scornfully left behind, as we rattled along, for +other adventurers who had still their laurels to win. Hardly later than +the noon of next day we dropped anchor in Plymouth Sound, and heard the +intoxicating clamour of bells, the roar of artillery, and the hoarse +cheers of an excited populace surging down to the quays, that told us we +were being appreciated at something like our true merits. The Lord Mayor +was waiting there to receive us, and with him several Admirals of the +Fleet, as we walked down the lane of pushing, enthusiastic Devonians, +the Princess and I, and our war-worn, weather-beaten, spoil-laden crew. +Everybody was very nice about the French frigate, and the pirate booty, +and the scars still fresh on our young limbs; yet I think what I liked +best of all was, that they all pronounced the Princess to be a duck, and +a peerless, brown-haired darling, and a true mate for a hero, and of the +right Princess-breed. + +The air was thick with invitations and with the smell of civic banquets +in a forward stage; but I sternly waved all festivities aside. The +coaches-and-four I had ordered immediately on arriving were blocking the +whole of the High Street; the champing of bits and the pawing of gravel +summoned us to take our seats and be off, to where the real performance +awaited us, compared with which all this was but an interlude. I placed +the Princess in the most highly gilded coach of the lot, and mounted to +my place at her side; and the rest of the crew scrambled on board of the +others as best they might. The whips cracked and the crowd scattered and +cheered as we broke into a gallop for home. The noisy bells burst into a +farewell peal-- + +Yes, that was undoubtedly the usual bell for school-room tea. And high +time too, I thought, as I tumbled out of the bath, which was beginning +to feel very hard to the projecting portions of my frame-work. As I +trotted downstairs, hungrier even than usual, farewells floated up from +the front door, and I heard the departing voices of our angular elderly +visitors as they made their way down the walk. Man was still catching +it, apparently--Man was getting it hot. And much Man cared! The seas +were his, and their islands; he had his frigates for the taking, his +pirates and their hoards for an unregarded cutlass-stroke or two; and +there were Princesses in plenty waiting for him somewhere--Princesses of +the right sort. + + + + +THE RELUCTANT DRAGON + + +Footprints in the snow have been unfailing provokers of sentiment ever +since snow was first a white wonder in this drab-coloured world of ours. +In a poetry-book presented to one of us by an aunt, there was a poem by +one Wordsworth in which they stood out strongly with a picture all to +themselves, too--but we didn't think very highly either of the poem or +the sentiment. Footprints in the sand, now, were quite another +matter, and we grasped Crusoe's attitude of mind much more easily than +Wordsworth's. Excitement and mystery, curiosity and suspense--these were +the only sentiments that tracks, whether in sand or in snow, were able +to arouse in us. + +We had awakened early that winter morning, puzzled at first by the added +light that filled the room. Then, when the truth at last fully dawned +on us and we knew that snow-balling was no longer a wistful dream, but +a solid certainty waiting for us outside, it was a mere brute fight +for the necessary clothes, and the lacing of boots seemed a clumsy +invention, and the buttoning of coats an unduly tedious form of +fastening, with all that snow going to waste at our very door. + +When dinner-time came we had to be dragged in by the scruff of our +necks. The short armistice over, the combat was resumed; but presently +Charlotte and I, a little weary of contests and of missiles that +ran shudderingly down inside one's clothes, forsook the trampled +battle-field of the lawn and went exploring the blank virgin spaces of +the white world that lay beyond. It stretched away unbroken on every +side of us, this mysterious soft garment under which our familiar world +had so suddenly hidden itself. Faint imprints showed where a casual bird +had alighted, but of other traffic there was next to no sign; which made +these strange tracks all the more puzzling. + +We came across them first at the corner of the shrubbery, and pored over +them long, our hands on our knees. Experienced trappers that we knew +ourselves to be, it was annoying to be brought up suddenly by a beast we +could not at once identify. + +"Don't you know?" said Charlotte, rather scornfully. "Thought you knew +all the beasts that ever was." + +This put me on my mettle, and I hastily rattled off a string of animal +names embracing both the arctic and the tropic zones, but without much +real confidence. + +"No," said Charlotte, on consideration; "they won't any of 'em quite do. +Seems like something lizardy. Did you say a iguanodon? Might be that, +p'raps. But that's not British, and we want a real British beast. I +think it's a dragon!" + +"'T isn't half big enough," I objected. + +"Well, all dragons must be small to begin with," said Charlotte: "like +everything else. P'raps this is a little dragon who's got lost. A little +dragon would be rather nice to have. He might scratch and spit, but he +couldn't do anything really. Let's track him down!" + +So we set off into the wide snow-clad world, hand in hand, our hearts +big with expectation,--complacently confident that by a few smudgy +traces in the snow we were in a fair way to capture a half-grown +specimen of a fabulous beast. + +We ran the monster across the paddock and along the hedge of the next +field, and then he took to the road like any tame civilized tax-payer. +Here his tracks became blended with and lost among more ordinary +footprints, but imagination and a fixed idea will do a great deal, and +we were sure we knew the direction a dragon would naturally take. +The traces, too, kept reappearing at intervals--at least Charlotte +maintained they did, and as it was her dragon I left the following of +the slot to her and trotted along peacefully, feeling that it was an +expedition anyhow and something was sure to come out of it. + +Charlotte took me across another field or two, and through a copse, and +into a fresh road; and I began to feel sure it was only her confounded +pride that made her go on pretending to see dragon-tracks instead of +owning she was entirely at fault, like a reasonable person. At last she +dragged me excitedly through a gap in a hedge of an obviously private +character; the waste, open world of field and hedge row disappeared, +and we found ourselves in a garden, well-kept, secluded, most +undragon-haunted in appearance. Once inside, I knew where we were. +This was the garden of my friend the circus-man, though I had never +approached it before by a lawless gap, from this unfamiliar side. And +here was the circus-man himself, placidly smoking a pipe as he strolled +up and down the walks. I stepped up to him and asked him politely if he +had lately seen a Beast. + +"May I inquire," he said, with all civility, "what particular sort of a +Beast you may happen to be looking for?" + +"It's a lizardy sort of Beast," I explained. "Charlotte says it 's a +dragon, but she doesn't really know much about beasts." + +The circus-man looked round about him slowly. "I don't think," he said, +"that I've seen a dragon in these parts recently. But if I come across +one I'll know it belongs to you, and I'll have him taken round to you at +once." + +"Thank you very much," said Charlotte, "but don't trouble about it, +please, 'cos p'raps it isn't a dragon after all. Only I thought I saw +his little footprints in the snow, and we followed 'em up, and they +seemed to lead right in here, but maybe it's all a mistake, and thank +you all the same." + +"Oh, no trouble at all," said the circus-man, cheerfully. "I should be +only too pleased. But of course, as you say, it may be a mistake. +And it's getting dark, and he seems to have got away for the present, +whatever he is. You'd better come in and have some tea. I'm quite alone, +and we'll make a roaring fire, and I've got the biggest Book of +Beasts you ever saw. It's got every beast in the world, and all of 'em +coloured; and we'll try and find your beast in it!" + +We were always ready for tea at any time, and especially when combined +with beasts. There was marmalade, too, and apricot-jam, brought in +expressly for us; and afterwards the beast-book was spread out, and, as +the man had truly said, it contained every sort of beast that had ever +been in the world. + +The striking of six o'clock set the more prudent Charlotte nudging me, +and we recalled ourselves with an effort from Beastland, and reluctantly +stood up to go. + +"Here, I 'm coming along with you," said the circus-man. "I want another +pipe, and a walk'll do me good. You needn't talk to me unless you like." + +Our spirits rose to their wonted level again. The way had seemed so +long, the outside world so dark and eerie, after the bright warm room +and the highly-coloured beast-book. But a walk with a real Man--why, +that was a treat in itself! We set off briskly, the Man in the middle. I +looked up at him and wondered whether I should ever live to smoke a big +pipe with that careless sort of majesty! But Charlotte, whose young mind +was not set on tobacco as a possible goal, made herself heard from the +other side. + +"Now, then," she said, "tell us a story, please, won't you?" + +The Man sighed heavily and looked about him. "I knew it," he groaned. +"I knew I should have to tell a story. Oh, why did I leave my pleasant +fireside? Well, I will tell you a story. Only let me think a minute." + +So he thought a minute, and then he told us this story. + + +Long ago--might have been hundreds of years ago--in a cottage half-way +between this village and yonder shoulder with his wife and their little +son. Now the shepherd spent his days--and at certain times of the year +his nights too--up on the wide ocean-bosom of the Downs, with only the +sun and the stars and the sheep for company, and the friendly chattering +world of men and women far out of sight and hearing. But his little son, +when he wasn't helping his father, and often when he was as well, spent +much of his time buried in big volumes that he borrowed from the affable +gentry and interested parsons of the country round about. And his +parents were very fond of him, and rather proud of him too, though they +didn't let on in his hearing, so he was left to go his own way and read +as much as he liked; and instead of frequently getting a cuff on the +side of the head, as might very well have happened to him, he was +treated more or less as an equal by his parents, who sensibly thought +it a very fair division of labour that they should supply the practical +knowledge, and he the book-learning. They knew that book-learning often +came in useful at a pinch, in spite of what their neighbours said. What +the Boy chiefly dabbled in was natural history and fairy-tales, and he +just took them as they came, in a sandwichy sort of way, without making +any distinctions; and really his course of reading strikes one as rather +sensible. + +One evening the shepherd, who for some nights past had been disturbed +and preoccupied, and off his usual mental balance, came home all of +a tremble, and, sitting down at the table where his wife and son +were peacefully employed, she with her seam, he in following out the +adventures of the Giant with no Heart in his Body, exclaimed with much +agitation: + +"It's all up with me, Maria! Never no more can I go up on them there +Downs, was it ever so!" + +"Now don't you take on like that," said his wife, who was a very +sensible woman: "but tell us all about it first, whatever it is as has +given you this shake-up, and then me and you and the son here, between +us, we ought to be able to get to the bottom of it!" + +"It began some nights ago," said the shepherd. "You know that cave up +there--I never liked it, somehow, and the sheep never liked it neither, +and when sheep don't like a thing there's generally some reason for +it. Well, for some time past there's been faint noises coming from that +cave--noises like heavy sighings, with grunts mixed up in them; and +sometimes a snoring, far away down--real snoring, yet somehow not honest +snoring, like you and me o'nights, you know!" + +"I know," remarked the Boy, quietly. + +"Of course I was terrible frightened," the shepherd went on; "yet +somehow I couldn't keep away. So this very evening, before I come down, +I took a cast round by the cave, quietly. And there--O Lord! there I saw +him at last, as plain as I see you!" + +"Saw who?" said his wife, beginning to share in her husband's nervous +terror. + +"Why him, I 'm a telling you!" said the shepherd. "He was sticking +half-way out of the cave, and seemed to be enjoying of the cool of the +evening in a poetical sort of way. He was as big as four cart-horses, +and all covered with shiny scales--deep-blue scales at the top of him, +shading off to a tender sort o' green below. As he breathed, there was +that sort of flicker over his nostrils that you see over our chalk roads +on a baking windless day in summer. He had his chin on his paws, and I +should say he was meditating about things. Oh, yes, a peaceable sort o +beast enough, and not ramping or carrying on or doing anything but what +was quite right and proper. I admit all that. And yet, what am I to do? +Scales, you know, and claws, and a tail for certain, though I didn't +see that end of him--I ain't used to 'em, and I don't hold with 'em, and +that 's a fact!" + +The Boy, who had apparently been absorbed in his book during his father +s recital, now closed the volume, yawned, clasped his hands behind his +head, and said sleepily: + +"It's all right, father. Don't you worry. It's only a dragon." + +"Only a dragon?" cried his father. "What do you mean, sitting there, you +and your dragons? Only a dragon indeed! And what do you know about it?" + +"'Cos it is, and 'cos I do know," replied the Boy, quietly. "Look here, +father, you know we've each of us got our line. You know about sheep, +and weather, and things; I know about dragons. I always said, you know, +that that cave up there was a dragon-cave. I always said it must have +belonged to a dragon some time, and ought to belong to a dragon now, if +rules count for anything. Well, now you tell me it has got a dragon, and +so that's all right. I'm not half as much surprised as when you told +me it hadn't got a dragon. Rules always come right if you wait quietly. +Now, please, just leave this all to me. And I'll stroll up to-morrow +morning--no, in the morning I can't, I've got a whole heap of things to +do--well, perhaps in the evening, if I'm quite free, I'll go up and have +a talk to him, and you'll find it'll be all right. Only, please, don't +you go worrying round there without me. You don't understand 'em a bit, +and they're very sensitive, you know!" + +"He's quite right, father," said the sensible mother. "As he says, +dragons is his line and not ours. He's wonderful knowing about +book-beasts, as every one allows. And to tell the truth, I'm not half +happy in my own mind, thinking of that poor animal lying alone up there, +without a bit o' hot supper or anyone to change the news with; and maybe +we'll be able to do something for him; and if he ain't quite respectable +our Boy'll find it out quick enough. He's got a pleasant sort o' way +with him that makes everybody tell him everything." + +Next day, after he'd had his tea, the Boy strolled up the chalky track +that led to the summit of the Downs; and there, sure enough, he found +the dragon, stretched lazily on the sward in front of his cave. The view +from that point was a magnificent one. To the right and left, the bare +and billowy leagues of Downs; in front, the vale, with its clustered +homesteads, its threads of white roads running through orchards and +well-tilled acreage, and, far away, a hint of grey old cities on the +horizon. A cool breeze played over the surface of the grass and the +silver shoulder of a large moon was showing above distant junipers. No +wonder the dragon seemed in a peaceful and contented mood; indeed, +as the Boy approached he could hear the beast purring with a happy +regularity. "Well, we live and learn!" he said to himself. "None of my +books ever told me that dragons purred! + +"Hullo, dragon!" said the Boy, quietly, when he had got up to him. + +The dragon, on hearing the approaching footsteps, made the beginning +of a courteous effort to rise. But when he saw it was a Boy, he set his +eyebrows severely. + +"Now don't you hit me," he said; "or bung stones, or squirt water, or +anything. I won't have it, I tell you!" + +"Not goin' to hit you," said the Boy wearily, dropping on the grass +beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on saying +'Don't;' I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and makes me tired. +I've simply looked in to ask you how you were and all that sort of +thing; but if I'm in the way I can easily clear out. I've lots of +friends, and no one can say I'm in the habit of shoving myself in where +I'm not wanted!" + +"No, no, don't go off in a huff," said the dragon, hastily; "fact is,--I +'m as happy up here as the day's long; never without an occupation, dear +fellow, never without an occupation! And yet, between ourselves, it is a +trifle dull at times." + +The Boy bit off a stalk of grass and chewed it. "Going to make a long +stay here?" he asked, politely. + +"Can't hardly say at present," replied the dragon. "It seems a nice +place enough--but I've only been here a short time, and one must look +about and reflect and consider before settling down. It's rather a +serious thing, settling down. Besides--now I 'm going to tell you +something! You'd never guess it if you tried ever so!--fact is, I'm such +a confoundedly lazy beggar!" + +"You surprise me," said the Boy, civilly. + +"It's the sad truth," the dragon went on, settling down between his paws +and evidently delighted to have found a listener at last: "and I fancy +that's really how I came to be here. You see all the other fellows were +so active and earnest and all that sort of thing--always rampaging, and +skirmishing, and scouring the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the +sea, and chasing knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and +going on generally--whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then +to prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up and +think of things going on and how they kept going on just the same, you +know! So when it happened I got fairly caught." + +"When what happened, please?" asked the Boy. + +"That's just what I don't precisely know," said the dragon. "I suppose +the earth sneezed, or shook itself, or the bottom dropped out of +something. Anyhow there was a shake and a roar and a general stramash, +and I found myself miles away underground and wedged in as tight as +tight. Well, thank goodness, my wants are few, and at any rate I had +peace and quietness and wasn't always being asked to come along and do +something. And I've got such an active mind--always occupied, I assure +you! But time went on, and there was a certain sameness about the life, +and at last I began to think it would be fun to work my way upstairs and +see what you other fellows were doing. So I scratched and burrowed, and +worked this way and that way and at last I came out through this cave +here. And I like the country, and the view, and the people--what I've +seen of 'em--and on the whole I feel inclined to settle down here." + +"What's your mind always occupied about?" asked the Boy. "That's what I +want to know." + +The dragon coloured slightly and looked away. Presently he said +bashfully: + +"Did you ever--just for fun--try to make up poetry--verses, you know?" + +"'Course I have," said the Boy. "Heaps of it. And some of it's quite +good, I feel sure, only there's no one here cares about it. Mother's +very kind and all that, when I read it to her, and so's father for that +matter. But somehow they don't seem to--" + +"Exactly," cried the dragon; "my own case exactly. They don't seem to, +and you can't argue with 'em about it. Now you've got culture, you +have, I could tell it on you at once, and I should just like your candid +opinion about some little things I threw off lightly, when I was down +there. I'm awfully pleased to have met you, and I'm hoping the other +neighbours will be equally agreeable. There was a very nice old +gentleman up here only last night, but he didn't seem to want to +intrude." + +"That was my father," said the boy, "and he is a nice old gentleman, and +I'll introduce you some day if you like." + +"Can't you two come up here and dine or something to-morrow?" asked the +dragon eagerly. "Only, of course, if you 'ye got nothing better to do," +he added politely. + +"Thanks awfully," said the Boy, "but we don't go out anywhere without +my mother, and, to tell you the truth, I 'm afraid she mightn't quite +approve of you. You see there's no getting over the hard fact that +you're a dragon, is there? And when you talk of settling down, and the +neighbours, and so on, I can't help feeling that you don't quite realize +your position. You 're an enemy of the human race, you see! + +"Haven't got an enemy in the world," said the dragon, cheerfully. "Too +lazy to make 'em, to begin with. And if I do read other fellows my +poetry, I'm always ready to listen to theirs!" + +"Oh, dear!" cried the boy, "I wish you'd try and grasp the situation +properly. When the other people find you out, they'll come after you +with spears and swords and all sorts of things. You'll have to be +exterminated, according to their way of looking at it! You 're a +scourge, and a pest, and a baneful monster!" + +"Not a word of truth in it," said the dragon, wagging his head solemnly. +"Character'll bear the strictest investigation. And now, there's a +little sonnet-thing I was working on when you appeared on the scene--" + +"Oh, if you won't be sensible," cried the Boy, getting up, "I'm going +off home. No, I can't stop for sonnets; my mother's sitting up. I'II +look you up to-morrow, sometime or other, and do for goodness' sake try +and realize that you're a pestilential scourge, or you'll find yourself +in a most awful fix. Good-night!" + +The Boy found it an easy matter to set the mind of his parents' at ease +about his new friend. They had always left that branch to him, and they +took his word without a murmur. The shepherd was formally introduced and +many compliments and kind inquiries were exchanged. His wife, however, +though expressing her willingness to do anything she could--to mend +things, or set the cave to rights, or cook a little something when the +dragon had been poring over sonnets and forgotten his meals, as male +things will do, could not be brought to recognize him formally. The fact +that he was a dragon and "they didn't know who he was" seemed to count +for everything with her. She made no objection, however, to her little +son spending his evenings with the dragon quietly, so long as he was +home by nine o'clock: and many a pleasant night they had, sitting on the +swan, while the dragon told stories of old, old times, when dragons were +quite plentiful and the world was a livelier place than it is now, and +life was full of thrills and jumps and surprises. + +What the Boy had feared, however, soon came to pass. The most modest +and retiring dragon in the world, if he's as big as four cart-horses and +covered with blue scales, cannot keep altogether out of the public view. +And so in the village tavern of nights the fact that a real live dragon +sat brooding in the cave on the Downs was naturally a subject for talk. +Though the villagers were extremely frightened, they were rather proud +as well. It was a distinction to have a dragon of your own, and it was +felt to be a feather in the cap of the village. Still, all were agreed +that this sort of thing couldn't be allowed to go on. The dreadful beast +must be exterminated, the country-side must be freed from this pest, +this terror, this destroying scourge. The fact that not even a hen-roost +was the worse for the dragon's arrival wasn't allowed to have anything +to do with it. He was a dragon, and he couldn't deny it, and if he +didn't choose to behave as such that was his own lookout. But in spite +of much valiant talk no hero was found willing to take sword and spear +and free the suffering village and win deathless fame; and each night's +heated discussion always ended in nothing. Meanwhile the dragon, a happy +Bohemian, lolled on the turf, enjoyed the sunsets, told antediluvian +anecdotes to the Boy, and polished his old verses while meditating on +fresh ones. + +One day the Boy, on walking in to the village, found everything wearing +a festal appearance which was not to be accounted for in the calendar. +Carpets and gay-coloured stuffs were hung out of the windows, the +church-bells clamoured noisily, the little street was flower-strewn, +and the whole population jostled each other along either side of it, +chattering, shoving, and ordering each other to stand back. The Boy saw +a friend of his own age in the crowd and hailed. + +"What's up?" he cried. "Is it the players, or bears, or a circus, or +what?" "It's all right," his friend hailed back. "He's a-coming." + +"Who's a-coming?" demanded the Boy, thrusting into the throng. + +"Why, St. George, of course," replied his friend. "He's heard tell of +our dragon, and he's comm' on purpose to slay the deadly beast, and free +us from his horrid yoke. O my! won't there be a jolly fight!" + +Here was news indeed! The Boy felt that he ought to make quite sure for +himself, and he wriggled himself in between the legs of his good-natured +elders, abusing them all the time for their unmannerly habit of shoving. +Once in the front rank, he breathlessly awaited the arrival. + +Presently from the far-away end of the line came the sound of cheering. +Next, the measured tramp of a great war-horse made his heart beat +quicker, and then he found himself cheering with the rest, as, amidst +welcoming shouts, shrill cries of women, uplifting of babies and waving +of handkerchiefs, St. George paced slowly up the street. The Boy's heart +stood still and he breathed with sobs, the beauty and the grace of the +hero were so far beyond anything he had yet seen. His fluted armour +was inlaid with gold, his plumed helmet hung at his saddle-bow, and his +thick fair hair framed a face gracious and gentle beyond expression +till you caught the sternness in his eyes. He drew rein in front of the +little inn, and the villagers crowded round with greetings and thanks +and voluble statements of their wrongs and grievances and oppressions. +The Boy, heard the grave gentle voice of the Saint, assuring them that +all would be well now, and that he would stand by them and see them +righted and free them from their foe; then he dismounted and passed +through the doorway and the crowd poured in after him. But the Boy made +off up the hill as fast as he could lay his legs to the ground. + +"It's all up, dragon!" he shouted as soon as he was within sight of +the beast. "He's coming! He's here now! You'll have to pull yourself +together and do something at last!" + +The dragon was licking his scales and rubbing them with a bit of +house-flannel the Boy's mother had lent him, till he shone like a great +turquoise. + +"Don't be violent, Boy," he said without looking round. "Sit down and +get your breath, and try and remember that the noun governs the verb, +and then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell me who's coming?" + +"That's right, take it coolly," said the Boy. "Hope you'll be half as +cool when I've got through with my news. It's only St. George who's +coming, that's all; he rode into the village half-an-hour ago. Of course +you can lick him--a great big fellow like you! But I thought I'd +warn you, 'cos he's sure to be round early, and he's got the longest, +wickedest-looking spear you ever did see!" And the Boy got up and began +to jump round in sheer delight at the prospect of the battle. + +"O deary, deary me," moaned the dragon; "this is too awful. I won't see +him, and that's flat. I don't want to know the fellow at all. I'm sure +he's not nice. You must tell him to go away at once, please. Say he can +write if he likes, but I can't give him an interview. I'm not seeing +anybody at present." + +"Now dragon, dragon," said the Boy imploringly, "don't be perverse and +wrongheaded. You've got to fight him some time or other, you know, 'cos +he's St. George and you're the dragon. Better get it over, and then we +can go on with the sonnets. And you ought to consider other people a +little, too. If it's been dull up here for you, think how dull it's been +for me!" + +"My dear little man," said the dragon solemnly, "just understand, once +for all, that I can't fight and I won't fight. I've never fought in my +life, and I'm not going to begin now, just to give you a Roman holiday. +In old days I always let the other fellows--the earnest fellows--do all +the fighting, and no doubt that's why I have the pleasure of being here +now." + +"But if you don't fight he'll cut your head off!" gasped the Boy, +miserable at the prospect of losing both his fight and his friend. + +"Oh, I think not," said the dragon in his lazy way. "You'll be able to +arrange something. I've every confidence in you, you're such a manager. +Just run down, there's a dear chap, and make it all right. I leave it +entirely to you." + +The Boy made his way back to the village in a state of great +despondency. First of all, there wasn't going to be any fight; next, +his dear and honoured friend the dragon hadn't shown up in quite such a +heroic light as he would have liked; and lastly, whether the dragon was +a hero at heart or not, it made no difference, for St. George would most +undoubtedly cut his head off. "Arrange things indeed!" he said bitterly +to himself. "The dragon treats the whole affair as if it was an +invitation to tea and croquet." + +The villagers were straggling homewards as he passed up the street, all +of them in the highest spirits, and gleefully discussing the splendid +fight that was in store. The Boy pursued his way to the inn, and passed +into the principal chamber, where St. George now sat alone, musing over +the chances of the fight, and the sad stories of rapine and of wrong +that had so lately been poured into his sympathetic ear. + +"May I come in, St. George?" said the Boy politely, as he paused at the +door. "I want to talk to you about this little matter of the dragon, if +you're not tired of it by this time." + +"Yes, come in, Boy," said the Saint kindly. "Another tale of misery +and wrong, I fear me. Is it a kind parent, then, of whom the tyrant has +bereft you? Or some tender sister or brother? Well, it shall soon be +avenged." + +"Nothing of the sort," said the Boy. "There's a misunderstanding +somewhere, and I want to put it right. The fact is, this is a good +dragon." + +"Exactly," said St. George, smiling pleasantly, "I quite understand. +A good dragon. Believe me, I do not in the least regret that he is an +adversary worthy of my steel, and no feeble specimen of his noxious +tribe." + +"But he's not a noxious tribe," cried the Boy distressedly. "Oh dear, oh +dear, how stupid men are when they get an idea into their heads! I tell +you he's a good dragon, and a friend of mine, and tells me the most +beautiful stories you ever heard, all about old times and when he was +little. And he's been so kind to mother, and mother'd do anything for +him. And father likes him too, though father doesn't hold with art and +poetry much, and always falls asleep when the dragon starts talking +about style. But the fact is, nobody can help liking him when once they +know him. He's so engaging and so trustful, and as simple as a child!" + +"Sit down, and draw your chair up," said St. George. "I like a fellow +who sticks up for his friends, and I'm sure the dragon has his good +points, if he's got a friend like you. But that's not the question. All +this evening I've been listening, with grief and anguish unspeakable, to +tales of murder, theft, and wrong; rather too highly coloured, perhaps, +not always quite convincing, but forming in the main a most serious roll +of crime. History teaches us that the greatest rascals often possess all +the domestic virtues; and I fear that your cultivated friend, in spite +of the qualities which have won (and rightly) your regard, has got to be +speedily exterminated." + +"Oh, you've been taking in all the yarns those fellows have been telling +you," said the Boy impatiently. "Why, our villagers are the biggest +story-tellers in all the country round. It's a known fact. You're a +stranger in these parts, or else you'd have heard it already. All +they want is a fight. They're the most awful beggars for getting up +fights--it 's meat and drink to them. Dogs, bulls, dragons--anything +so long as it's a fight. Why, they've got a poor innocent badger in the +stable behind here, at this moment. They were going to have some fun +with him to-day, but they're saving him up now till your little affair's +over. And I've no doubt they've been telling you what a hero you were, +and how you were bound to win, in the cause of right and justice, and so +on; but let me tell you, I came down the street just now, and they were +betting six to four on the dragon freely!" + +"Six to four on the dragon!" murmured St. George sadly, resting his +cheek on his hand. "This is an evil world, and sometimes I begin to +think that all the wickedness in it is not entirely bottled up inside +the dragons. And yet--may not this wily beast have misled you as to his +real character, in order that your good report of him may serve as a +cloak for his evil deeds? Nay, may there not be, at this very moment, +some hapless Princess immured within yonder gloomy cavern?" + +The moment he had spoken, St. George was sorry for what he had said, the +Boy looked so genuinely distressed. + +"I assure you, St. George," he said earnestly, "there's nothing of the +sort in the cave at all. The dragon's a real gentleman, every inch of +him, and I may say that no one would be more shocked and grieved than +he would, at hearing you talk in that--that loose way about matters on +which he has very strong views!" + +"Well, perhaps I've been over-credulous," said St. George. "Perhaps I've +misjudged the animal. But what are we to do? Here are the dragon and +I, almost face to face, each supposed to be thirsting for each other's +blood. I don't see any way out of it, exactly. What do you suggest? +Can't you arrange things, somehow?" + +"That's just what the dragon said," replied the Boy, rather nettled. +"Really, the way you two seem to leave everything to me--I suppose you +couldn't be persuaded to go away quietly, could you?" + +"Impossible, I fear," said the Saint. "Quite against the rules. You know +that as well as I do." + +"Well, then, look here," said the Boy, "it's early yet--would you mind +strolling up with me and seeing the dragon and talking it over? It's not +far, and any friend of mine will be most welcome." + +"Well, it's irregular," said St. George, rising, "but really it seems +about the most sensible thing to do. You're taking a lot of trouble on +your friend's account," he added, good-naturedly, as they passed out +through the door together. "But cheer up! Perhaps there won't have to be +any fight after all." + +"Oh, but I hope there will, though!" replied the little fellow, +wistfully. + + +"I've brought a friend to see you, dragon," said the Boy, rather loud. + +The dragon woke up with a start. "I was just--er--thinking about +things," he said in his simple way. "Very pleased to make your +acquaintance, sir. Charming weather we're having!" + +"This is St. George," said the Boy, shortly. "St. George, let me +introduce you to the dragon. We've come up to talk things over quietly, +dragon, and now for goodness' sake do let us have a little straight +common-sense, and come to some practical business-like arrangement, for +I'm sick of views and theories of life and personal tendencies, and all +that sort of thing. I may perhaps add that my mother's sitting up." + +"So glad to meet you, St. George," began the dragon rather nervously, +"because you've been a great traveller, I hear, and I've always been +rather a stay-at-home. But I can show you many antiquities, many +interesting features of our country-side, if you're stopping here any +time--" + +"I think," said St. George, in his frank, pleasant way, "that we'd +really better take the advice of our young friend here, and try to come +to some understanding, on a business footing, about this little affair +of ours. Now don't you think that after all the simplest plan would be +just to fight it out, according to the rules, and let the best man win? +They're betting on you, I may tell you, down in the village, but I don't +mind that!" + +"Oh, yes, do, dragon," said the Boy, delightedly; "it'll save such a lot +of bother! + +"My young friend, you shut up," said the dragon severely. "Believe me, +St. George," he went on, "there's nobody in the world I'd sooner oblige +than you and this young gentleman here. But the whole thing's nonsense, +and conventionality, and popular thick-headedness. There's absolutely +nothing to fight about, from beginning to end. And anyhow I'm not going +to, so that settles it!" + +"But supposing I make you?" said St. George, rather nettled. + +"You can't," said the dragon, triumphantly. "I should only go into +my cave and retire for a time down the hole I came up. You'd soon get +heartily sick of sitting outside and waiting for me to come out and +fight you. And as soon as you'd really gone away, why, I'd come up again +gaily, for I tell you frankly, I like this place, and I'm going to stay +here!" + +St. George gazed for a while on the fair landscape around them. +"But this would be a beautiful place for a fight," he began again +persuasively. "These great bare rolling Downs for the arena,--and me +in my golden armour showing up against your big blue scaly coils! Think +what a picture it would make!" + +"Now you're trying to get at me through my artistic sensibilities," said +the dragon. "But it won't work. Not but what it would make a very pretty +picture, as you say," he added, wavering a little. + +"We seem to be getting rather nearer to business," put in the Boy. "You +must see, dragon, that there 's got to be a fight of some sort, 'cos you +can't want to have to go down that dirty old hole again and stop there +till goodness knows when." + +"It might be arranged," said St. George, thoughtfully. "I must spear you +somewhere, of course, but I'm not bound to hurt you very much. There's +such a lot of you that there must be a few spare places somewhere. Here, +for instance, just behind your foreleg. It couldn't hurt you much, just +here!" + +"Now you 're tickling, George," said the dragon, coyly. "No, that +place won't do at all. Even if it didn't hurt,--and I'm sure it would, +awfully,--it would make me laugh, and that would spoil everything." + +"Let's try somewhere else, then," said St. George, patiently. "Under +your neck, for instance,--all these folds of thick skin,--if I speared +you here you 'd never even know I 'd done it!" + +"Yes, but are you sure you can hit off the right place?" asked the +dragon, anxiously. + +"Of course I am," said St. George, with confidence. "You leave that to +me!" + +"It's just because I've got to leave it to you that I'm asking," replied +the dragon, rather testily. "No doubt you would deeply regret any error +you might make in the hurry of the moment; but you wouldn't regret +it half as much as I should! However, I suppose we've got to trust +somebody, as we go through life, and your plan seems, on the whole, as +good a one as any." + +"Look here, dragon," interrupted the Boy, a little jealous on behalf of +his friend, who seemed to be getting all the worst of the bargain: "I +don't quite see where you come in! There's to be a fight, apparently, +and you're to be licked; and what I want to know is, what are you going +to get out of it?" + +"St. George," said the dragon, "Just tell him, please,--what will happen +after I'm vanquished in the deadly combat?" + +"Well, according to the rules I suppose I shall lead you in triumph down +to the market-place or whatever answers to it," said St. George. + +"Precisely," said the dragon. "And then--" + +"And then there'll be shoutings and speeches and things," continued St. +George. "And I shall explain that you're converted, and see the error of +your ways, and so on." + +"Quite so," said the dragon. "And then--?" + +"Oh, and then--" said St. George, "why, and then there will be the usual +banquet, I suppose." + +"Exactly," said the dragon; "and that's where I come in. Look here," he +continued, addressing the Boy, "I'm bored to death up here, and no one +really appreciates me. I'm going into Society, I am, through the +kindly aid of our friend here, who's taking such a lot of trouble on +my account; and you'll find I've got all the qualities to endear me +to people who entertain! So now that's all settled, and if you don't +mind--I 'm an old-fashioned fellow--don't want to turn you out, but--" + +"Remember, you'll have to do your proper share of the fighting, dragon!" +said St. George, as he took the hint and rose to go; "I mean ramping, +and breathing fire, and so on!" + +"I can ramp all right," replied the dragon, confidently; "as to +breathing fire, it's surprising how easily one gets out of practice, but +I'll do the best I can. Good-night!" + +They had descended the hill and were almost back in the village again, +when St. George stopped short, "Knew I had forgotten something," he +said. "There ought to be a Princess. Terror-stricken and chained to a +rock, and all that sort of thing. Boy, can't you arrange a Princess?" + +The Boy was in the middle of a tremendous yawn. "I'm tired to death," he +wailed, "and I can't arrange a Princess, or anything more, at this time +of night. And my mother's sitting up, and do stop asking me to arrange +more things till to-morrow!" + + +Next morning the people began streaming up to the Downs at quite +an early hour, in their Sunday clothes and carrying baskets with +bottle-necks sticking out of them, every one intent on securing good +places for the combat. This was not exactly a simple matter, for of +course it was quite possible that the dragon might win, and in that case +even those who had put their money on him felt they could hardly expect +him to deal with his backers on a different footing to the rest. Places +were chosen, therefore, with circumspection and with a view to a speedy +retreat in case of emergency; and the front rank was mostly composed of +boys who had escaped from parental control and now sprawled and rolled +about on the grass, regardless of the shrill threats and warnings +discharged at them by their anxious mothers behind. + +The Boy had secured a good front place, well up towards the cave, and +was feeling as anxious as a stage-manager on a first night. Could the +dragon be depended upon? He might change his mind and vote the whole +performance rot; or else, seeing that the affair had been so hastily +planned, without even a rehearsal, he might be too nervous to show up. +The Boy looked narrowly at the cave, but it showed no sign of life or +occupation. Could the dragon have made a moon-light flitting? + +The higher portions of the ground were now black with sightseers, and +presently a sound of cheering and a waving of handkerchiefs told +that something was visible to them which the Boy, far up towards the +dragon-end of the line as he was, could not yet see. A minute more and +St. George's red plumes topped the hill, as the Saint rode slowly forth +on the great level space which stretched up to the grim mouth of the +cave. Very gallant and beautiful he looked, on his tall war-horse, +his golden armour glancing in the sun, his great spear held erect, the +little white pennon, crimson-crossed, fluttering at its point. He drew +rein and remained motionless. The lines of spectators began to give back +a little, nervously; and even the boys in front stopped pulling hair and +cuffing each other, and leaned forward expectant. + +"Now then, dragon!" muttered the Boy impatiently, fidgeting where +he sat. He need not have distressed himself, had he only known. The +dramatic possibilities of the thing had tickled the dragon immensely, +and he had been up from an early hour, preparing for his first public +appearance with as much heartiness as if the years had run backwards, +and he had been again a little dragonlet, playing with his sisters on +the floor of their mother's cave, at the game of saints-and-dragons, in +which the dragon was bound to win. + +A low muttering, mingled with snorts, now made itself heard; rising to +a bellowing roar that seemed to fill the plain. Then a cloud of smoke +obscured the mouth of the cave, and out of the midst of it the dragon +himself, shining, sea-blue, magnificent, pranced splendidly forth; +and everybody said, "Oo-oo-oo!" as if he had been a mighty rocket! His +scales were glittering, his long spiky tail lashed his sides, his claws +tore up the turf and sent it flying high over his back, and smoke +and fire incessantly jetted from his angry nostrils. "Oh, well done, +dragon!" cried the Boy, excitedly. "Didn't think he had it in him!" he +added to himself. + +St. George lowered his spear, bent his head, dug his heels into his +horse's sides, and came thundering over the turf. The dragon charged +with a roar and a squeal,--a great blue whirling combination of coils +and snorts and clashing jaws and spikes and fire. + +"Missed!" yelled the crowd. There was a moment's entanglement of golden +armour and blue-green coils, and spiky tail, and then the great horse, +tearing at his bit, carried the Saint, his spear swung high in the air, +almost up to the mouth of the cave. + +The dragon sat down and barked viciously, while St. George with +difficulty pulled his horse round into position. + +"End of Round One!" thought the Boy. "How well they managed it! But I +hope the Saint won't get excited. I can trust the dragon all right. What +a regular play-actor the fellow is!" + +St. George had at last prevailed on his horse to stand steady, and was +looking round him as he wiped his brow. Catching sight of the Boy, he +smiled and nodded, and held up three fingers for an instant. + +"It seems to be all planned out," said the Boy to himself. "Round Three +is to be the finishing one, evidently. Wish it could have lasted a bit +longer. Whatever's that old fool of a dragon up to now?" + +The dragon was employing the interval in giving a ramping-performance +for the benefit of the crowd. Ramping, it should be explained, consists +in running round and round in a wide circle, and sending waves and +ripples of movement along the whole length of your spine, from your +pointed ears right down to the spike at the end of your long tail. When +you are covered with blue scales, the effect is particularly pleasing; +and the Boy recollected the dragon's recently expressed wish to become a +social success. + +St. George now gathered up his reins and began to move forward, dropping +the point of his spear and settling himself firmly in the saddle. + +"Time!" yelled everybody excitedly; and the dragon, leaving off his +ramping sat up on end, and began to leap from one side to the other +with huge ungainly bounds, whooping like a Red Indian. This naturally +disconcerted the horse, who swerved violently, the Saint only just +saving himself by the mane; and as they shot past the dragon delivered +a vicious snap at the horse's tail which sent the poor beast careering +madly far over the Downs, so that the language of the Saint, who had +lost a stirrup, was fortunately inaudible to the general assemblage. + +Round Two evoked audible evidence of friendly feeling towards the +dragon. The spectators were not slow to appreciate a combatant who could +hold his own so well and clearly wanted to show good sport; and many +encouraging remarks reached the ears of our friend as he strutted to and +fro, his chest thrust out and his tail in the air, hugely enjoying his +new popularity. + +St. George had dismounted and was tightening his girths, and telling his +horse, with quite an Oriental flow of imagery, exactly what he thought +of him, and his relations, and his conduct on the present occasion; so +the Boy made his way down to the Saint's end of the line, and held his +spear for him. + +"It's been a jolly fight, St. George!" he said with a sigh. "Can't you +let it last a bit longer?" + +"Well, I think I'd better not," replied the Saint. "The fact is, your +simple-minded old friend's getting conceited, now they've begun cheering +him, and he'll forget all about the arrangement and take to playing the +fool, and there's no telling where he would stop. I'll just finish him +off this round." + +He swung himself into the saddle and took his spear from the Boy. "Now +don't you be afraid," he added kindly. "I've marked my spot exactly, and +he's sure to give me all the assistance in his power, because he knows +it's his only chance of being asked to the banquet!" + +St. George now shortened his spear, bringing the butt well up under his +arm; and, instead of galloping as before, trotted smartly towards the +dragon, who crouched at his approach, flicking his tail till it cracked +in the air like a great cart-whip. The Saint wheeled as he neared his +opponent and circled warily round him, keeping his eye on the spare +place; while the dragon, adopting similar tactics, paced with caution +round the same circle, occasionally feinting with his head. So the two +sparred for an opening, while the spectators maintained a breathless +silence. + +Though the round lasted for some minutes, the end was so swift that +all the Boy saw was a lightning movement of the Saint's arm, and then a +whirl and a confusion of spines, claws, tail, and flying bits of turf. +The dust cleared away, the spectators whooped and ran in cheering, and +the Boy made out that the dragon was down, pinned to the earth by the +spear, while St. George had dismounted, and stood astride of him. + +It all seemed so genuine that the Boy ran in breathlessly, hoping the +dear old dragon wasn't really hurt. As he approached, the dragon lifted +one large eyelid, winked solemnly, and collapsed again. He was held +fast to earth by the neck, but the Saint had hit him in the spare place +agreed upon, and it didn't even seem to tickle. + +"Bain't you goin' to cut 'is 'ed orf, master?" asked one of the +applauding crowd. He had backed the dragon, and naturally felt a trifle +sore. + +"Well, not to-day, I think," replied St. George, pleasantly. "You see, +that can be done at any time. There's no hurry at all. I think we'll all +go down to the village first, and have some refreshment, and then I'll +give him a good talking-to, and you'll find he'll be a very different +dragon!" + +At that magic word refreshment the whole crowd formed up in procession +and silently awaited the signal to start. The time for talking and +cheering and betting was past, the hour for action had arrived. St. +George, hauling on his spear with both hands, released the dragon, who +rose and shook himself and ran his eye over his spikes and scales and +things, to see that they were all in order. Then the Saint mounted and +led off the procession, the dragon following meekly in the company of +the Boy, while the thirsty spectators kept at a respectful interval +behind. + +There were great doings when they got down to the village again, and +had formed up in front of the inn. After refreshment St. George made +a speech, in which he informed his audience that he had removed their +direful scourge, at a great deal of trouble and inconvenience to +himself, and now they weren't to go about grumbling and fancying they'd +got grievances, because they hadn't. And they shouldn't be so fond of +fights, because next time they might have to do the fighting themselves, +which would not be the same thing at all. And there was a certain badger +in the inn stables which had got to be released at once, and he'd come +and see it done himself. Then he told them that the dragon had been +thinking over things, and saw that there were two sides to every +question, and he wasn't going to do it any more, and if they were good +perhaps he'd stay and settle down there. So they must make friends, and +not be prejudiced; and go about fancying they knew everything there was +to be known, because they didn't, not by a long way. And he warned them +against the sin of romancing, and making up stories and fancying +other people would believe them just because they were plausible and +highly-coloured. Then he sat down, amidst much repentant cheering, and +the dragon nudged the Boy in the ribs and whispered that he couldn't +have done it better himself. Then every one went off to get ready for +the banquet. + +Banquets are always pleasant things, consisting mostly, as they do, of +eating and drinking; but the specially nice thing about a banquet is, +that it comes when something's over, and there's nothing more to worry +about, and to-morrow seems a long way off. St George was happy because +there had been a fight and he hadn't had to kill anybody; for he didn't +really like killing, though he generally had to do it. The dragon was +happy because there had been a fight, and so far from being hurt in it +he had won popularity and a sure footing in society. The Boy was happy +because there had been a fight, and in spite of it all his two friends +were on the best of terms. And all the others were happy because there +had been a fight, and--well, they didn't require any other reasons for +their happiness. The dragon exerted himself to say the right thing to +everybody, and proved the life and soul of the evening; while the Saint +and the Boy, as they looked on, felt that they were only assisting at a +feast of which the honour and the glory were entirely the dragon's. But +they didn't mind that, being good fellows, and the dragon was not in the +least proud or forgetful. On the contrary, every ten minutes or so he +leant over towards the Boy and said impressively: "Look here! you will +see me home afterwards, won't you?" And the Boy always nodded, though he +had promised his mother not to be out late. + +At last the banquet was over, the guests had dropped away with many +good-nights and congratulations and invitations, and the dragon, who had +seen the last of them off the premises, emerged into the street followed +by the Boy, wiped his brow, sighed, sat down in the road and gazed at +the stars. "Jolly night it's been!" he murmured. "Jolly stars! Jolly +little place this! Think I shall just stop here. Don't feel like +climbing up any beastly hill. Boy's promised to see me home. Boy had +better do it then! No responsibility on my part. Responsibility +all Boy's!" And his chin sank on his broad chest and he slumbered +peacefully. + +"Oh, get up, dragon," cried the Boy, piteously. "You know my mother's +sitting up, and I 'm so tired, and you made me promise to see you home, +and I never knew what it meant or I wouldn't have done it!" And the Boy +sat down in the road by the side of the sleeping dragon, and cried. + +The door behind them opened, a stream of light illumined the road, and +St. George, who had come out for a stroll in the cool night-air, caught +sight of the two figures sitting there--the great motionless dragon and +the tearful little Boy. + +"What's the matter, Boy?" he inquired kindly, stepping to his side. + +"Oh, it's this great lumbering pig of a dragon!" sobbed the Boy. "First +he makes me promise to see him home, and then he says I'd better do it, +and goes to sleep! Might as well try to see a haystack home! And I'm so +tired, and mother's--" here he broke down again. + +"Now don't take on," said St. George. "I'll stand by you, and we'll both +see him home. Wake up, dragon!" he said sharply, shaking the beast by +the elbow. + +The dragon looked up sleepily. "What a night, George!" he murmured; +"what a--" + +"Now look here, dragon," said the Saint, firmly. "Here's this little +fellow waiting to see you home, and you know he ought to have been +in bed these two hours, and what his mother'll say I don't know, and +anybody but a selfish pig would have made him go to bed long ago--" + +"And he shall go to bed!" cried the dragon, starting up. "Poor little +chap, only fancy his being up at this hour! It's a shame, that's what +it is, and I don't think, St. George, you've been very considerate--but +come along at once, and don't let us have any more arguing or +shilly-shallying. You give me hold of your hand, Boy--thank you, George, +an arm up the hill is just what I wanted!" + +So they set off up the hill arm-in-arm, the Saint, the Dragon, and the +Boy. The lights in the little village began to go out; but there were +stars, and a late moon, as they climbed to the Downs together. And, as +they turned the last corner and disappeared from view, snatches of an +old song were borne back on the night-breeze. I can't be certain which +of them was singing, but I think it was the Dragon! + + +"Here we are at your gate," said the man, abruptly, laying his hand on +it. "Good-night. Cut along in sharp, or you'll catch it!" + +Could it really be our own gate? Yes, there it was, sure enough, with +the familiar marks on its bottom bar made by our feet when we swung on +it + +"Oh, but wait a minute!" cried Charlotte. "I want to know a heap of +things. Did the dragon really settle down? And did--" + +"There isn't any more of that story," said the man, kindly but firmly. +"At least, not to-night. Now be off! Good-bye!" + +"Wonder if it's all true?" said Charlotte, as we hurried up the path. +"Sounded dreadfully like nonsense, in parts!" + +"P'raps its true for all that," I replied encouragingly. + +Charlotte bolted in like a rabbit, out of the cold and the dark; but I +lingered a moment in the still, frosty air, for a backward glance at the +silent white world without, ere I changed it for the land of firelight +and cushions and laughter. It was the day for choir-practice, and +carol-time was at hand, and a belated member was passing homewards down +the road, singing as he went:-- + + +"Then St. George: ee made rev'rence: in the stable so dim, Oo vanquished +the dragon: so fearful and grim. So-o grim: and so-o fierce: that now +may we say All peaceful is our wakin': on Chri-istmas Day!" + + +The singer receded, the carol died away. But I wondered, with my hand +on the door-latch, whether that was the song, or something like it, that +the dragon sang as he toddled contentedly up the hill. + + + + +A DEPARTURE + + +It is a very fine thing to be a real Prince. There are points about +a Pirate Chief, and to succeed to the Captaincy of a Robber Band is a +truly magnificent thing. But to be an Heir has also about it something +extremely captivating. Not only a long-lost heir--an heir of the +melodrama, strutting into your hitherto unsuspected kingdom at just the +right moment, loaded up with the consciousness of unguessed merit and +of rights so long feloniously withheld--but even to be a common +humdrum domestic heir is a profession to which few would refuse to be +apprenticed. To step from leading-strings and restrictions and one glass +of port after dinner, into property and liberty and due appreciation, +saved up, polished and varnished, dusted and laid in lavender, all +expressly for you--why, even the Princedom and the Robber Captaincy, +when their anxieties and responsibilities are considered, have hardly +more to offer. And so it will continue to be a problem, to the youth in +whom ambition struggles with a certain sensuous appreciation of life's +side-dishes, whether the career he is called upon to select out of the +glittering knick-knacks that strew the counter had better be that of an +heir or an engine-driver. + +In the case of eldest sons, this problem has a way of solving itself. In +childhood, however, the actual heirship is apt to work on the principle +of the "Borough-English" of our happier ancestors, and in most cases +of inheritance it is the youngest that succeeds. Where the "res" is +"angusta," and the weekly books are simply a series of stiff hurdles +at each of which in succession the paternal legs falter with growing +suspicion of their powers to clear the flight, it is in the affair of +clothes that the right of succession tells, and "the hard heir strides +about the land" in trousers long ago framed for fraternal limbs--frondes +novas et non sua poma. A bitter thing indeed! Of those pretty silken +threads that knit humanity together, high and low, past and present, +none is tougher, more pervading, or more iridescent, than the honest, +simple pleasure of new clothes. It tugs at the man as it tugs at the +woman; the smirk of the well-fitted prince is no different from the +smirk of the Sunday-clad peasant; and the veins of the elders tingle +with the same thrill that sets their fresh-frocked grandchildren +skipping. Never trust people who pretend that they have no joy in their +new clothes. + +Let not our souls be wrung, however, at contemplation of the luckless +urchin cut off by parental penury from the rapture of new clothes. Just +as the heroes of his dreams are his immediate seniors, so his heroes' +clothes share the glamour, and the reversion of them carries a high +privilege--a special thing not sold by Swears and Wells. The sword of +Galahad--and of many another hero--arrived on the scene already hoary +with history, and the boy rather prefers his trousers to be legendary, +famous, haloed by his hero's renown--even though the nap may have +altogether vanished in the process. + +But, putting clothes aside, there are other matters in which this +reversed heirship comes into play. Take the case of Toys. It is hardly +right or fitting--and in this the child quite acquiesces--that as he +approaches the reverend period of nine or say ten years, he should still +be the unabashed and proclaimed possessor of a hoop and a Noah's Ark. +The child will quite see the reasonableness of this, and, the goal of +his ambition being now a catapult, a pistol, or even a sword-stick, will +be satisfied that the titular ownership should lapse to his juniors, so +far below him in their kilted or petticoated incompetence. After all, +the things are still there, and if relapses of spirit occur, on wet +afternoons, one can still (nominally) borrow them and be happy on +the floor as of old, without the reproach of being a habitual baby +toy-caresser. Also one can pretend it's being done to amuse the younger +ones. + +None of us, therefore, grumbled when in the natural course of things the +nominal ownership of the toys slipped down to Harold, and from him in +turn devolved upon Charlotte. The toys were still there; they always had +been there and always would be there, and when the nursery door was +fast shut there were no Kings or Queens or First Estates in that small +Republic on the floor. Charlotte, to be sure, chin-tilted, at last an +owner of real estate, might patronize a little at times; but it was +tacitly understood that her "title" was only a drawing-room one. + +Why does a coming bereavement project no thin faint voice, no shadow of +its woe, to warn its happy, heedless victims? Why cannot Olympians ever +think it worth while to give some hint of the thunderbolts they are +silently forging? And why, oh, why did it never enter any of our thick +heads that the day would come when even Charlotte would be considered +too matronly for toys? One's so called education is hammered into one +with rulers and with canes. Each fresh grammar or musical instrument, +each new historical period or quaint arithmetical rule, is impressed +on one by some painful physical prelude. Why does Time, the biggest +Schoolmaster, alone neglect premonitory raps, at each stage of his +curriculum, on our knuckles or our heads? + +Uncle Thomas was at the bottom of it. This was not the first mine he had +exploded under our bows. In his favourite pursuit of fads he had passed +in turn from Psychical Research to the White Rose and thence to a +Children's Hospital, and we were being daily inundated with leaflets +headed by a woodcut depicting Little Annie (of Poplar) sitting up in +her little white cot, surrounded by the toys of the nice, kind, +rich children. The idea caught on with the Olympians, always open to +sentiment of a treacly, woodcut order; and accordingly Charlotte, on +entering one day dishevelled and panting, having been pursued by yelling +Redskins up to the very threshold of our peaceful home, was curtly +informed that her French lessons would begin on Monday, that she was +henceforth to cease all pretence of being a trapper or a Redskin on +utterly inadequate grounds, and moreover that the whole of her toys were +at that moment being finally packed up in a box, for despatch to London, +to gladden the lives and bring light into the eyes of London waifs and +Poplar Annies. + +Naturally enough, perhaps, we others received no official intimation of +this grave cession of territory. We were not supposed to be interested. +Harold had long ago been promoted to a knife--a recognized, birthday +knife. As for me, it was known that I was already given over, heart and +soul, to lawless abandoned catapults--catapults which were confiscated +weekly for reasons of international complications, but with which Edward +kept me steadily supplied, his school having a fine old tradition for +excellence in their manufacture. Therefore no one was supposed to be +really affected but Charlotte, and even she had already reached Miss +Yonge, and should therefore have been more interested in prolific +curates and harrowing deathbeds. + +Notwithstanding, we all felt indignant, betrayed, and sullen to the +verge of mutiny. Though for long we had affected to despise them, these +toys, yet they had grown up with us, shared our joys and our sorrows, +seen us at our worst, and become part of the accepted scheme of +existence. As we gazed at untenanted shelves and empty, hatefully tidy +corners, perhaps for the first time for long we began to do them a tardy +justice. + +There was old Leotard, for instance. Somehow he had come to be sadly +neglected of late years--and yet how exactly he always responded +to certain moods! He was an acrobat, this Leotard, who lived in a +glass-fronted box. His loose-jointed limbs were cardboard, cardboard his +slender trunk; and his hands eternally grasped the bar of a trapeze. You +turned the box round swiftly five or six times; the wonderful unsolved +machinery worked, and Leotard swung and leapt, backwards, forwards, +now astride the bar, now flying free; iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, +unceasingly novel in his invention of new, unguessable attitudes; while +above, below, and around him, a richly-dressed audience, painted in +skilful perspective of stalls, boxes, dress-circle, and gallery, watched +the thrilling performance with a stolidity which seemed to mark them +out as made in Germany. Hardly versatile enough, perhaps, this Leotard; +unsympathetic, not a companion for all hours; nor would you have chosen +him to take to bed with you. And yet, within his own limits, how fresh, +how engrossing, how resourceful and inventive! Well, he was gone, it +seemed--merely gone. Never specially cherished while he tarried with +us, he had yet contrived to build himself a particular niche of his own. +Sunrise and sunset, and the dinner-bell, and the sudden rainbow, and +lessons, and Leotard, and the moon through the nursery windows--they +were all part of the great order of things, and the displacement of any +one item seemed to disorganize the whole machinery. The immediate point +was, not that the world would continue to go round as of old, but that +Leotard wouldn't. + +Yonder corner, now swept and garnished, had been the stall wherein the +spotty horse, at the close of each laborious day, was accustomed to doze +peacefully the long night through. In days of old each of us in turn had +been jerked thrillingly round the room on his precarious back, had dug +our heels into his unyielding sides, and had scratched our hands on the +tin tacks that secured his mane to his stiffly-curving neck. Later, with +increasing stature, we came to overlook his merits as a beast of +burden; but how frankly, how good-naturedly, he had recognized the +new conditions, and adapted himself to them without a murmur! When the +military spirit was abroad, who so ready to be a squadron of cavalry, +a horde of Cossacks, or artillery pounding into position? He had even +served with honour as a gun-boat, during a period when naval strategy +was the only theme; and no false equine pride ever hindered him from +taking the part of a roaring locomotive, earth-shaking, clangorous, +annihilating time and space. Really it was no longer clear how life, +with its manifold emergencies, was to be carried on at all without a +fellow like the spotty horse, ready to step in at critical moments and +take up just the part required of him. In moments of mental depression, +nothing is quite so consoling as the honest smell of a painted animal; +and mechanically I turned towards the shelf that had been so long the +Ararat of our weather-beaten Ark. The shelf was empty, the Ark had +cast off moorings and sailed away to Poplar, and had taken with it its +haunting smell, as well as that pleasant sense of disorder that the best +conducted Ark is always able to impart. The sliding roof had rarely +been known to close entirely. There was always a pair of giraffe-legs +sticking out, or an elephant-trunk, taking from the stiffness of its +outline, and reminding us that our motley crowd of friends inside were +uncomfortably cramped for room and only too ready to leap in a cascade +on the floor and browse and gallop, flutter and bellow and neigh, and be +their natural selves again. I think that none of us ever really thought +very much of Ham and Shem and Japhet. They were only there because they +were in the story, but nobody really wanted them. The Ark was built for +the animals, of course--animals with tails, and trunks, and horns, and +at least three legs apiece, though some unfortunates had been unable to +retain even that number. And in the animals were of course included +the birds--the dove, for instance, grey with black wings, and the +red-crested woodpecker--or was it a hoopoe?--and the insects, for there +was a dear beetle, about the same size as the dove, that held its own +with any of the mammalia. + +Of the doll-department Charlotte had naturally been sole chief for a +long time; if the staff were not in their places to-day, it was not I +who had any official right to take notice. And yet one may have been +member of a Club for many a year without ever exactly understanding the +use and object of the other members, until one enters, some Christmas +day or other holiday, and, surveying the deserted armchairs, the +untenanted sofas, the barren hat-pegs, realizes, with depression, that +those other fellows had their allotted functions, after all. Where +was old Jerry? Where were Eugenie, Rosa, Sophy, Esmeralda? We had long +drifted apart, it was true, we spoke but rarely; perhaps, absorbed in +new ambitions, new achievements, I had even come to look down on these +conservative, unprogressive members who were so clearly content to +remain simply what they were. And now that their corners were unfilled, +their chairs unoccupied--well, my eyes were opened and I wanted 'em +back! + +However, it was no business of mine. If grievances were the question, +I hadn't a leg to stand upon. Though my catapults were officially +confiscated, I knew the drawer in which they were incarcerated, and +where the key of it was hidden, and I could make life a burden, if I +chose, to every living thing within a square-mile radius, so long as +the catapult was restored to its drawer in due and decent time. But +I wondered how the others were taking it. The edict hit them more +severely. They should have my moral countenance at any rate, if not +more, in any protest or countermine they might be planning. And, indeed, +something seemed possible, from the dogged, sullen air with which the +two of them had trotted off in the direction of the raspberry-canes. +Certain spots always had their insensible attraction for certain +moods. In love, one sought the orchard. Weary of discipline, sick of +convention, impassioned for the road, the mining-camp, the land across +the border, one made for the big meadow. Mutinous, sulky, charged +with plots and conspiracies, one always got behind the shelter of the +raspberry-canes. + +***** + +"You can come too if you like," said Harold, in a subdued sort of way, +as soon as he was aware that I was sitting up in bed watching him. "We +didn't think you'd care, 'cos you've got to catapults. But we're goin' +to do what we've settled to do, so it's no good sayin' we hadn't ought +and that sort of thing, 'cos we're goin' to!" + +The day had passed in an ominous peacefulness. Charlotte and Harold had +kept out of my way, as well as out of everybody else's, in a purposeful +manner that ought to have bred suspicion. In the evening we had read +books, or fitfully drawn ships and battles on fly-leaves, apart, in +separate corners, void of conversation or criticism, oppressed by the +lowering tidiness of the universe, till bedtime came, and disrobement, +and prayers even more mechanical than usual, and lastly bed itself +without so much as a giraffe under the pillow. Harold had grunted +himself between the sheets with an ostentatious pretence of overpowering +fatigue; but I noticed that he pulled his pillow forward and propped his +head against the brass bars of his crib, and, as I was acquainted with +most of his tricks and subterfuges, it was easy for me to gather that a +painful wakefulness was his aim that night. + +I had dozed off, however, and Harold was out and on his feet, poking +under the bed for his shoes, when I sat up and grimly regarded him. Just +as he said I could come if I liked, Charlotte slipped in, her face rigid +and set. And then it was borne in upon me that I was not on in this +scene. These youngsters had planned it all out, the piece was their +own, and the mounting, and the cast. My sceptre had fallen, my rule had +ceased. In this magic hour of the summer night laws went for nothing, +codes were cancelled, and those who were most in touch with the +moonlight and the warm June spirit and the topsy-turvydom that reigns +when the clock strikes ten, were the true lords and lawmakers. + +Humbly, almost timidly, I followed without a protest in the wake of +these two remorseless, purposeful young persons, who were marching +straight for the schoolroom. Here in the moonlight the grim big box +stood visible--the box in which so large a portion of our past and our +personality lay entombed, cold, swathed in paper, awaiting the carrier +of the morning who should speed them forth to the strange, cold, +distant Children s Hospital, where their little failings would all be +misunderstood and no one would make allowances. A dreamy spectator, I +stood idly by while Harold propped up the lid and the two plunged in +their arms and probed and felt and grappled. + +"Here's Rosa," said Harold, suddenly. "I know the feel of her hair. Will +you have Rosa out?" + +"Oh, give me Rosa!" cried Charlotte with a sort of gasp. And when Rosa +had been dragged forth, quite unmoved apparently, placid as ever in her +moonfaced contemplation of this comedy-world with its ups and downs, +Charlotte retired with her to the window-seat, and there in the +moonlight the two exchanged their private confidences, leaving Harold to +his exploration alone. + +"Here's something with sharp corners," said Harold, presently. "Must be +Leotard, I think. Better let him go." + +"Oh, yes, we can't save Leotard," assented Charlotte, limply. + +Poor old Leotard! I said nothing, of course; I was not on in this piece. +But, surely, had Leotard heard and rightly understood all that was going +on above him, he must have sent up one feeble, strangled cry, one faint +appeal to be rescued from unfamiliar little Annies and retained for an +audience certain to appreciate and never unduly critical. + +"Now I've got to the Noah's Ark," panted Harold, still groping blindly. + +"Try and shove the lid back a bit," said Charlotte, "and pull out a dove +or a zebra or a giraffe if there's one handy." + +Harold toiled on with grunts and contortions, and presently produced in +triumph a small grey elephant and a large beetle with a red stomach. + +"They're jammed in too tight," he complained. "Can't get any more out. +But as I came up I'm sure I felt Potiphar!" And down he dived again. + +Potiphar was a finely modelled bull with a suede skin, rough and +comfortable and warm in bed. He was my own special joy and pride, and I +thrilled with honest emotion when Potiphar emerged to light once more, +stout-necked and stalwart as ever. + +"That'll have to do," said Charlotte, getting up. "We dursn't take any +more, 'cos we'll be found out if we do. Make the box all right, and +bring 'em along." + +Harold rammed down the wads of paper and twists of straw he had +disturbed, replaced the lid squarely and innocently, and picked up his +small salvage; and we sneaked off for the window most generally in use +for prison-breakings and nocturnal escapades. A few seconds later and we +were hurrying silently in single file along the dark edge of the lawn. + +Oh, the riot, the clamour, the crowding chorus, of all silent things +that spoke by scent and colour and budding thrust and foison, that +moonlit night of June! Under the laurel-shade all was still ghostly +enough, brigand-haunted, crackling, whispering of night and all its +possibilities of terror. But the open garden, when once we were in +it--how it turned a glad new face to welcome us, glad as of old when +the sunlight raked and searched it, new with the unfamiliar night-aspect +that yet welcomed us as guests to a hall where the horns blew up to a +new, strange banquet! Was this the same grass, could these be the same +familiar flower-beds, alleys, clumps of verdure, patches of sward? +At least this full white light that was flooding them was new, and +accounted for all. It was Moonlight Land, and Past-Ten-o'clock Land, and +we were in it and of it, and all its other denizens fully understood, +and, tongue-free and awakened at last, responded and comprehended and +knew. The other two, doubtless, hurrying forward full of their mission, +noted little of all this. I, who was only a super, had leisure to take +it all in, and, though the language and the message of the land were not +all clear to me then, long afterwards I remembered and understood. + +Under the farthest hedge, at the loose end of things, where the outer +world began with the paddock, there was darkness once again--not the +blackness that crouched so solidly under the crowding laurels, but a +duskiness hung from far-spread arms of high-standing elms. There, where +the small grave made a darker spot on the grey, I overtook them, only +just in time to see Rosa laid stiffly out, her cherry cheeks pale in the +moonlight, but her brave smile triumphant and undaunted as ever. It +was a tiny grave and a shallow one, to hold so very much. Rosa once in, +Potiphar, who had hitherto stood erect, stout-necked, through so many +days and such various weather, must needs bow his head and lie down +meekly on his side. The elephant and the beetle, equal now in a silent +land where a vertebra and a red circulation counted for nothing, had to +snuggle down where best they might, only a little less crowded than in +their native Ark. + +The earth was shovelled in and stamped down, and I was glad that no +orisons were said and no speechifying took place. The whole thing was +natural and right and self-explanatory, and needed no justifying or +interpreting to our audience of stars and flowers. The connection was +not entirely broken now--one link remained between us and them. The +Noah's Ark, with its cargo of sad-faced emigrants, might be hull down +on the horizon, but two of its passengers had missed the boat and would +henceforth be always near us; and, as we played above them, an elephant +would understand, and a beetle would hear, and crawl again in spirit +along a familiar floor. Henceforth the spotty horse would scour along +far-distant plains and know the homesickness of alien stables; but +Potiphar, though never again would he paw the arena when bull-fights +were on the bill, was spared maltreatment by town-bred strangers, quite +capable of mistaking him for a cow. Jerry and Esmeralda might shed their +limbs and their stuffing, by slow or swift degrees, in uttermost parts +and unguessed corners of the globe; but Rosa's book was finally closed, +and no worse fate awaited her than natural dissolution almost within +touch and hail of familiar faces and objects that had been friendly to +her since first she opened her eyes on a world where she had never been +treated as a stranger. + +As we turned to go, the man in the moon, tangled in elm-boughs, caught +my eye for a moment, and I thought that never had he looked so friendly. +He was going to see after them, it was evident; for he was always there, +more or less, and it was no trouble to him at all, and he would tell +them how things were still going, up here, and throw in a story or two +of his own whenever they seemed a trifle dull. It made the going away +rather easier, to know one had left somebody behind on the spot; a good +fellow, too, cheery, comforting, with a fund of anecdote; a man in whom +one had every confidence. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DREAM DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 1288.txt or 1288.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/1288/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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