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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16052-8.txt b/16052-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f93789a --- /dev/null +++ b/16052-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5865 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Brownies and Other Tales, by Juliana Horatia Ewing + +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: The Brownies and Other Tales + +Author: Juliana Horatia Ewing + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. Stokes and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE BROWNIES + +AND OTHER TALES. + +BY + +JULIANA HORATIA EWING. + + +LONDON: + +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, + +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + +[Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.] + + +DEDICATED + +TO + +MY VERY DEAR AND HONOURED MOTHER. + +J.H.E. + +1871. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE BROWNIES + +THE LAND OF LOST TOYS + +THREE CHRISTMAS TREES + +AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD + +CHRISTMAS CRACKERS + +AMELIA AND THE DWARFS + + + + +THE BROWNIES. + + +A little girl sat sewing and crying on a garden seat. She had fair +floating hair, which the breeze blew into her eyes, and between the +cloud of hair, and the mist of tears, she could not see her work very +clearly. She neither tied up her locks, nor dried her eyes, however; +for when one is miserable, one may as well be completely so. + +"What is the matter?" said the Doctor, who was a friend of the +Rector's, and came into the garden whenever he pleased. + +The Doctor was a tall stout man, with hair as black as crow's feathers +on the top, and grey underneath, and a bushy beard. When young, he had +been slim and handsome, with wonderful eyes, which were wonderful +still; but that was many years past. He had a great love for children, +and this one was a particular friend of his. + +"What is the matter?" said he. + +"I'm in a row," murmured the young lady through her veil; and the +needle went in damp, and came out with a jerk, which is apt to result +in what ladies called "puckering." + +"You are like London in a yellow fog," said the Doctor, throwing +himself on to the grass, "and it is very depressing to my feelings. +What is the row about, and how came you to get into it?" + +"We're all in it," was the reply; and apparently the fog was +thickening, for the voice grew less and less distinct--"the boys and +everybody. It's all about forgetting, and not putting away, and leaving +about, and borrowing, and breaking, and that sort of thing. I've had +Father's new pocket-handkerchiefs to hem, and I've been out climbing +with the boys, and kept forgetting and forgetting, and Mother says I +always forget; and I can't help it. I forget to tidy his newspapers for +him, and I forget to feed Puss, and I forgot these; besides, they're a +great bore, and Mother gave them to Nurse to do, and this one was lost, +and we found it this morning tossing about in the toy-cupboard." + +"It looks as if it had been taking violent exercise," said the Doctor. +"But what have the boys to do with it?" + +"Why, then there was a regular turn out of the toys," she explained, +"and they're all in a regular mess. You know, we always go on till the +last minute, and then things get crammed in anyhow. Mary and I did tidy +them once or twice; but the boys never put anything away, you know, so +what's the good?" + +"What, indeed!" said the Doctor. "And so you have complained of them?" + +"Oh! no!" answered she. "We don't get them into rows, unless they are +very provoking; but some of the things were theirs, so everybody was +sent for, and I was sent out to finish this, and they are all tidying. +I don't know when it will be done, for I have all this side to hem; and +the soldiers' box is broken, and Noah is lost out of the Noah's Ark, +and so is one of the elephants and a guinea-pig, and so is the +rocking-horse's nose; and nobody knows what has become of Rutlandshire +and the Wash, but they're so small, I don't wonder; only North America +and Europe are gone too." + +The Doctor started up in affected horror. "Europe gone, did you say? +Bless me! what will become of us!" + +"Don't!" said the young lady, kicking petulantly with her dangling +feet, and trying not to laugh. "You know I mean the puzzles; and if +they were yours, you wouldn't like it." + +"I don't half like it as it is," said the Doctor. "I am seriously +alarmed. An earthquake is one thing; you have a good shaking, and +settle down again. But Europe gone--lost--Why, here comes Deordie, I +declare, looking much more cheerful than we do; let us humbly hope that +Europe has been found. At present I feel like Aladdin when his palace +had been transported by the magician; I don't know where I am." + +"You're here, Doctor; aren't you?" asked the slow curly-wigged brother, +squatting himself on the grass. + +"_Is_ Europe found?" said the Doctor tragically. + +"Yes," laughed Deordie. "I found it." + +"You will be a great man," said the Doctor. "And--it is only common +charity to ask--how about North America?" + +"Found too," said Deordie. "But the Wash is completely lost." + +"And my six shirts in it!" said the Doctor. "I sent them last Saturday +as ever was. What a world we live in! Any more news? Poor Tiny here has +been crying her eyes out." + +"I'm so sorry, Tiny," said the brother. "But don't bother about it. +It's all square now, and we're going to have a new shelf put up." + +"Have you found everything?" asked Tiny. + +"Well, not the Wash, you know. And the elephant and the guinea-pig are +gone for good; so the other elephant and the other guinea-pig must walk +together as a pair now. Noah was among the soldiers, and we have put +the cavalry into a night-light box. Europe and North America were +behind the book-case; and, would you believe it? the rocking-horse's +nose has turned up in the nursery oven." + +"I can't believe it," said the Doctor. "The rocking-horse's nose +couldn't turn up, it was the purest Grecian, modelled from the Elgin +marbles. Perhaps it was the heat that did it, though. However, you seem +to have got through your troubles very well, Master Deordie. I wish +poor Tiny were at the end of her task." + +"So do I," said Deordie ruefully. "But I tell you what I've been +thinking, Doctor. Nurse is always nagging at us, and we're always in +rows of one sort or another, for doing this, and not doing that, and +leaving our things about. But, you know, it's a horrid shame, for there +are plenty of servants, and I don't see why we should be always +bothering to do little things, and--" + +"Oh! come to the point, please," said the Doctor; "you do go round the +square so, in telling your stories, Deordie. What have you been +thinking of?" + +"Well," said Deordie, who was as good-tempered as he was slow, "the +other day Nurse shut me up in the back nursery for borrowing her +scissors and losing them; but I'd got 'Grimm' inside one of my +knickerbockers, so when she locked the door, I sat down to read. And I +read the story of the Shoemaker and the little Elves who came and did +his work for him before he got up; and I thought it would be so jolly +if we had some little Elves to do things instead of us." + +"That's what Tommy Trout said," observed the Doctor. + +"Who's Tommy Trout?" asked Deordie. + +"Don't you know, Deor?" said Tiny. "It's the good boy who pulled the +cat out of the what's-his-name. + + 'Who pulled her out? + Little Tommy Trout.' + +Is it the same Tommy Trout, Doctor? I never heard anything else about +him except his pulling the cat out; and I can't think how he did that." + +"Let down the bucket for her, of course," said the Doctor. "But listen +to me. If you will get that handkerchief done, and take it to your +mother with a kiss, and not keep me waiting, I'll have you all to tea, +and tell you the story of Tommy Trout." + +"This very night?" shouted Deordie. + +"This very night." + +"Every one of us?" inquired the young gentleman with rapturous +incredulity. + +"Every one of you.--Now, Tiny, how about that work?" + +"It's just done," said Tiny.--"Oh! Deordie, climb up behind, and hold +back my hair, there's a darling, while I fasten off. Oh! Deor, you're +pulling my hair out. Don't." + +"I want to make a pig-tail," said Deor. + +"You can't," said Tiny, with feminine contempt. "You can't plait. +What's the good of asking boys to do anything? There! it's done at +last. Now go and ask Mother if we may go.--Will you let me come, +Doctor," she inquired, "if I do as you said?" + +"To be sure I will," he answered. "Let me look at you. Your eyes are +swollen with crying. How can you be such a silly little goose?" + +"Did you never cry?" asked Tiny. + +"When I was your age? Well, perhaps so." + +"You've never cried since, surely," said Tiny. + +The Doctor absolutely blushed. + +"What do you think?" said he. + +"Oh, of course not," she answered. "You've nothing to cry about. You're +grown up, and you live all alone in a beautiful house, and you do as +you like, and never get into rows, or have anybody but yourself to +think about; and no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem." + +"Very nice; eh, Deordie?" said the Doctor. + +"Awfully jolly," said Deordie. + +"Nothing else to wish for, eh?" + +"_I_ should keep harriers, and not a poodle, if I were a man," said +Deordie; "but I suppose you could, if you wanted to." + +"Nothing to cry about, at any rate?" + +"I should think not!" said Deordie.--"There's Mother, though; let's go +and ask her about the tea;" and off they ran. + +The Doctor stretched his six feet of length upon the sward, dropped his +grey head on a little heap of newly-mown grass, and looked up into the +sky. + +"Awfully jolly--no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem," said he, +laughing to himself. "Nothing else to wish for; nothing to cry about." + +Nevertheless, he lay still, staring at the sky, till the smile died +away, and tears came into his eyes. Fortunately, no one was there to +see. + +What could this "awfully jolly" Doctor be thinking of to make him cry? +He was thinking of a grave-stone in the churchyard close by, and of a +story connected with this grave-stone which was known to everybody in +the place who was old enough to remember it. This story has nothing to +do with the present story, so it ought not to be told. + +And yet it has to do with the Doctor, and is very +short, so it shall be put in, after all. + + +THE STORY OF A GRAVE-STONE. + +One early spring morning, about twenty years before, a man going to his +work at sunrise through the churchyard, stopped by a flat stone which +he had lately helped to lay down. The day before, a name had been cut +on it, which he stayed to read; and below the name some one had +scrawled a few words in pencil, which he read also--_Pitifully behold +the sorrows of our hearts_. On the stone lay a pencil, and a few feet +from it lay the Doctor, face downwards, as he had lain all night, with +the hoar frost on his black hair. + +Ah! these grave-stones (they were ugly things in those days; not the +light, hopeful, pretty crosses we set up now), how they seem +remorselessly to imprison and keep our dear dead friends away from us! +And yet they do not lie with a feather's weight upon the souls that are +gone, while GOD only knows how heavily they press upon the souls that +are left behind. Did the spirit whose body was with the dead, stand +that morning by the body whose spirit was with the dead, and pity him? +Let us only talk about what we know. + +After this it was said that the Doctor had got a fever, and was dying, +but he got better of it; and then that he was out of his mind, but he +got better of that, and came out looking much as usual, except that his +hair never seemed quite so black again, as if a little of that night's +hoar frost still remained. And no further misfortune happened to him +that I ever heard of; and as time went on he grew a beard, and got +stout, and kept a German poodle, and gave tea-parties to other people's +children. As to the grave-stone story, whatever it was to him at the +end of twenty years, it was a great convenience to his friends; for +when he said anything they didn't agree with, or did anything they +couldn't understand, or didn't say or do what was expected of him, what +could be easier or more conclusive than to shake one's head and say, + +"The fact is, our Doctor has been a little odd, _ever since_--!" + + +THE DOCTOR'S TEA-PARTY. + +There is one great advantage attendant upon invitations to tea with a +doctor. No objections can be raised on the score of health. It is +obvious that it must be fine enough to go out when the Doctor asks you, +and that his tea-cakes may be eaten with perfect impunity. + +Those tea-cakes were always good; to-night they were utterly delicious; +there was a perfect _abandon_ of currants, and the amount of citron +peel was enervating to behold. Then the housekeeper waited in awful +splendour, and yet the Doctor's authority over her seemed as absolute +as if he were an Eastern despot. Deordie must be excused for believing +in the charms of living alone. It certainly has its advantages. The +limited sphere of duty conduces to discipline in the household, demand +does not exceed supply in the article of waiting, and there is not that +general scrimmage of conflicting interests which besets a large family +in the most favoured circumstances. The housekeeper waits in black silk, +and looks as if she had no meaner occupation than to sit in a +rocking-chair, and dream of damson cheese. + +Rustling, hospitable, and subservient, this one retired at last, and-- + +"Now," said the Doctor, "for the verandah; and to look at the moon." + +The company adjourned with a rush, the rear being brought up by the +poodle, who seemed quite used to the proceedings; and there under the +verandah, framed with passion-flowers and geraniums, the Doctor had +gathered mats, rugs, cushions, and arm-chairs, for the party; while far +up in the sky, a yellow-faced harvest moon looked down in awful +benignity. + +"Now!" said the Doctor. "Take your seats. Ladies first, and gentlemen +afterwards. Mary and Tiny, race for the American rocking-chair. Well +done! Of course it will hold both. Now, boys, shake down. No one is to +sit on the stone, or put his feet on the grass: and when you're ready, +I'll begin." + +"We're ready," said the girls. + +The boys shook down in a few minutes more, and the Doctor began the +story of + + +"THE BROWNIES." + +"Bairns are a burden," said the Tailor to himself as he sat at work. He +lived in a village on some of the glorious moors of the north of +England; and by bairns he meant children, as every Northman knows. + +"Bairns are a burden," and he sighed. + +"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady in the window. "It is the +family motto. The Trouts have had large families and good luck for +generations; that is, till your grandfather's time. He had one only +son. I married him. He was a good husband, but he had been a spoilt +child. He had always been used to be waited upon, and he couldn't fash +to look after the farm when it was his own. We had six children. They +are all dead but you, who were the youngest. You were bound to a +tailor. When the farm came into your hands, your wife died, and you +have never looked up since. The land is sold now, but not the house. +No! no! you're right enough there; but you've had your troubles, son +Thomas, and the lads _are_ idle!" + +It was the Tailor's mother who spoke. She was a very old woman, and +helpless. She was not quite so bright in her intellect as she had been, +and got muddled over things that had lately happened; but she had a +clear memory for what was long past, and was very pertinacious in her +opinions. She knew the private history of almost every family in the +place, and who of the Trouts were buried under which old stones in the +churchyard; and had more tales of ghosts, doubles, warnings, fairies, +witches, hobgoblins, and such like, than even her grandchildren had +ever come to the end of. Her hands trembled with age, and she regretted +this for nothing more than for the danger it brought her into of +spilling the salt. She was past housework, but all day she sat knitting +hearth-rugs out of the bits and scraps of cloth that were shred in the +tailoring. How far she believed in the wonderful tales she told, and +the odd little charms she practised, no one exactly knew; but the older +she grew, the stranger were the things she remembered, and the more +testy she was if any one doubted their truth. "Bairns are a blessing!" +said she. "It is the family motto." + +"_Are they_?" said the Tailor emphatically. + +He had a high respect for his mother, and did not like to contradict +her, but he held his own opinion, based upon personal experience; and +not being a metaphysician, did not understand that it is safer to found +opinions on principles than on experience, since experience may alter, +but principles cannot. + +"Look at Tommy," he broke out suddenly. "That boy does nothing but +whittle sticks from morning till night. I have almost to lug him out of +bed o' mornings. If I send him an errand, he loiters; I'd better have +gone myself. If I set him to do anything, I have to tell him +everything; I could sooner do it myself. And if he does work, it's done +so unwillingly, with such a poor grace; better, far better, to do it +myself. What housework do the boys ever do but looking after the baby? +And this afternoon she was asleep in the cradle, and off they went, and +when she awoke, _I_ must leave my work to take her. _I_ gave her her +supper, and put her to bed. And what with what they want and I have to +get, and what they take out to play with and lose, and what they bring +in to play with and leave about, bairns give some trouble, Mother, and +I've not an easy life of it. The pay is poor enough when one can get +the work, and the work is hard enough when one has a clear day to do it +in; but housekeeping and bairn-minding don't leave a man much time for +his trade. No! no! Ma'am, the luck of the Trouts is gone, and 'Bairns +are a burden,' is the motto now. Though they are one's own," he muttered +to himself, "and not bad ones, and I did hope once would have been a +blessing." + +"There's Johnnie," murmured the old lady, dreamily. "He has a face like +an apple." + +"And is about as useful," said the Tailor. "He might have been +different, but his brother leads him by the nose." + +His brother led him in as the Tailor spoke, not literally by his snub, +though, but by the hand. They were a handsome pair, this lazy couple. +Johnnie especially had the largest and roundest of foreheads, the +reddest of cheeks, the brightest of eyes, the quaintest and most +twitchy of chins, and looked altogether like a gutta-percha cherub in a +chronic state of longitudinal squeeze. They were locked together by two +grubby paws, and had each an armful of moss, which they deposited on +the floor as they came in. + +"I've swept this floor once to-day," said the father, "and I'm not +going to do it again. Put that rubbish outside." "Move it, Johnnie!" +said his brother, seating himself on a stool, and taking out his knife +and a piece of wood, at which he cut and sliced; while the +apple-cheeked Johnnie stumbled and stamped over the moss, and scraped +it out on the doorstep, leaving long trails of earth behind him, and +then sat down also. + +"And those chips the same," added the Tailor; "I will _not_ clear up the +litter you lads make." + +"Pick 'em up, Johnnie," said Thomas Trout, junior, with an exasperated +sigh; and the apple tumbled up, rolled after the flying chips, and +tumbled down again. + +"Is there any supper, Father?" asked Tommy. + +"No, there is not, Sir, unless you know how to get it," said the +Tailor; and taking his pipe, he went out of the house. + +"Is there really nothing to eat, Granny?" asked the boy. + +"No, my bairn, only some bread for breakfast to-morrow." + +"What makes Father so cross, Granny?" + +"He's wearied, and you don't help him, my dear." + +"What could I do, Grandmother?" + +"Many little things, if you tried," said the old lady. "He spent +half-an-hour to-day, while you were on the moor, getting turf for the +fire, and you could have got it just as well, and he been at his work." + +"He never told me," said Tommy. + +"You might help me a bit just now, if you would, my laddie," said the +old lady coaxingly; "these bits of cloth want tearing into lengths, and +if you get 'em ready, I can go on knitting. There'll be some food when +this mat is done and sold." + +"I'll try," said Tommy, lounging up with desperate resignation. "Hold +my knife, Johnnie. Father's been cross, and everything has been +miserable, ever since the farm was sold. I wish I were a big man, and +could make a fortune.--Will that do, Granny?" + +The old lady put down her knitting and looked. "My dear, that's too +short. Bless me! I gave the lad a piece to measure by." + +"I thought it was the same length. Oh, dear! I am so tired;" and he +propped himself against the old lady's chair. + +"My dear! don't lean so; you'll tipple me over!" she shrieked. + +"I beg your pardon, Grandmother. Will _that_ do?" + +"It's that much too long." + +"Tear that bit off. Now it's all right." + +"But, my dear, that wastes it. Now that bit is of no use. There goes my +knitting, you awkward lad!" + +"Johnnie, pick it up!--Oh! Grandmother, I _am_ so hungry." The boy's +eyes filled with tears, and the old lady was melted in an +instant. + +"What can I do for you, my poor bairns?" said she. "There, never mind +the scraps, Tommy." + +"Tell us a tale, Granny. If you told us a new one, I shouldn't keep +thinking of that bread in the cupboard.--Come, Johnnie, and sit against +me. Now then!" + +"I doubt if there's one of my old-world cracks I haven't told you," +said the old lady, "unless it's a queer ghost story was told me years +ago of that house in the hollow with the blocked-up windows." + +"Oh! not ghosts!" Tommy broke in; "we've had so many. I know it was a +rattling, or a scratching, or a knocking, or a figure in white; and if +it turns out a tombstone or a white petticoat, I hate it." + +"It was nothing of the sort as a tombstone," said the old lady with +dignity. "It's a good half-mile from the churchyard. And as to white +petticoats, there wasn't a female in the house; he wouldn't have one; +and his victuals came in by the pantry window. But never mind! Though +it's as true as a sermon." + +Johnnie lifted his head from his brother's knee. + +"Let Granny tell what she likes, Tommy. It's a new ghost, and I should +like to know who he was, and why his victuals came in by the window." + +"I don't like a story about victuals," sulked Tommy. "It makes me think +of the bread. O Granny dear! do tell us a fairy story. You never will +tell us about the Fairies, and I know you know." + +"Hush! hush!" said the old lady. "There's Miss Surbiton's Love-letter, +and her Dreadful End." + +"I know Miss Surbiton, Granny. I think she was a goose. Why don't you +tell us about the Fairies?" + +"Hush! hush! my dear. There's the Clerk and the Corpse-candles." + +"I know the Corpse-candles, Granny. Besides, they make Johnnie dream, +and he wakes me to keep him company. _Why_ won't you tell us about +the Fairies?" + +"My dear, they don't like it," said the old lady. + +"O Granny dear, why don't they? Do tell! I shouldn't think of the bread +a bit, if you told us about the Fairies. I know nothing about them." + +"He lived in this house long enough," said the old lady. "But it's not +lucky to name him." + +"O Granny, we are so hungry and miserable, what can it matter?" + +"Well, that's true enough," she sighed. "Trout's luck is gone; it went +with the Brownie, I believe." + +"Was that _he_, Granny?" + +"Yes, my dear, he lived with the Trouts for several generations." + +"What was he like, Granny?" + +"Like a little man, they say, my dear." + +"What did he do?" + +"He came in before the family were up, and swept up the hearth, and +lighted the fire, and set out the breakfast, and tidied the room, and +did all sorts of house-work. But he never would be seen, and was off +before they could catch him. But they could hear him laughing and +playing about the house sometimes." + +"What a darling! Did they give him any wages, Granny?" + +"No! my dear. He did it for love. They set a pancheon of clear water +for him over night, and now and then a bowl of bread-and-milk, or +cream. He liked that, for he was very dainty. Sometimes he left a bit +of money in the water. Sometimes he weeded the garden, or threshed the +corn. He saved endless trouble, both to men and maids." + +"O Granny! why did he go?" + +"The maids caught sight of him one night, my dear, and his coat was so +ragged, that they got a new suit, and a linen shirt for him, and laid +them by the bread-and-milk bowl. But when Brownie saw the things, he +put them on, and dancing round the kitchen, sang, + + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen,' + +and so danced through the door, and never came back again." + +"O Grandmother! But why not? Didn't he like the new clothes?" + +"The Old Owl knows, my dear; I don't." + +"Who's the Old Owl, Granny?" + +"I don't exactly know, my dear. It's what my mother used to say when we +asked anything that puzzled her. It was said that the Old Owl was Nanny +Besom (a witch, my dear!), who took the shape of a bird, but couldn't +change her voice, and that's why the owl sits silent all day for fear +she should betray herself by speaking, and has no singing voice like +other birds. Many people used to go and consult the Old Owl at +moon-rise, in my young days." + +"Did you ever go, Granny?" + +"Once, very nearly, my dear." + +"Oh! tell us, Granny dear.--There are no Corpse-candles, Johnnie; it's +only moonlight," he added consolingly, as Johnnie crept closer to his +knee, and pricked his little red ears. + +"It was when your grandfather was courting me, my dears," said the old +lady, "and I couldn't quite make up my mind. So I went to my mother, +and said, 'He's this on the one side, but then he's that on the other, +and so on. Shall I say yes or no?' And my mother said, 'The Old Owl +knows;' for she was fairly puzzled. So says I, 'I'll go and ask her +to-night, as sure as the moon rises.' + +"So at moon-rise I went, and there in the white light by the gate stood +your grandfather. 'What are you doing here at this time o' night?' says +I. 'Watching your window,' says he. 'What are _you_ doing here at this +time o' night?' 'The Old Owl knows,' said I, and burst out +crying." + +"What for?" said Johnnie. + +"I can't rightly tell you, my dear," said the old lady, "but it gave me +such a turn to see him. And without more ado your grandfather kissed +me. 'How dare you?' said I. 'What do you mean?' 'The Old Owl knows,' +said he. So we never went." + +"How stupid!" said Tommy. + +"Tell us more about Brownie, please," said Johnnie, "Did he ever live +with anybody else?" + +"There are plenty of Brownies," said the old lady, "or used to be in my +mother's young days. Some houses had several." "Oh! I wish ours would +come back!" cried both the boys in chorus. "He'd-- + +"tidy the room," said Johnnie; + +"fetch the turf," said Tommy; + +"pick up the chips," said Johnnie; + +"sort your scraps," said Tommy; + +"and do everything. Oh! I wish he hadn't gone away." + +"What's that?" said the Tailor, coming in at this moment. + +"It's the Brownie, Father," said Tommy. "We are so sorry he went, and +do so wish we had one." + +"What nonsense have you been telling them, Mother?" asked the Tailor. + +"Heighty teighty," said the old lady, bristling. "Nonsense, indeed! As +good men as you, son Thomas, would as soon have jumped off the crags, +as spoken lightly of _them_, in my mother's young days." + +"Well, well," said the Tailor, "I beg their pardon. They never did +aught for me, whatever they did for my forbears; but they're as welcome +to the old place as ever, if they choose to come. There's plenty to +do." + +"Would you mind our setting a pan of water, Father?" asked Tommy very +gently. "There's no bread-and-milk." + +"You may set what you like, my lad," said the Tailor; "and I wish there +were bread-and-milk for your sakes, bairns. You should have it, had I +got it. But go to bed now." + +They lugged out a pancheon, and filled it with more dexterity than +usual, and then went off to bed, leaving the knife in one corner, the +wood in another, and a few splashes of water in their track. + +There was more room than comfort in the ruined old farm-house, and the +two boys slept on a bed of cut heather, in what had been the old +malt-loft. Johnnie was soon in the land of dreams, growing rosier and +rosier as he slept, a tumbled apple among the grey heather. But not so +lazy Tommy. The idea of a domesticated Brownie had taken full +possession of his mind; and whither Brownie had gone, where he might be +found, and what would induce him to return, were mysteries he longed to +solve. "There's an owl living in the old shed by the mere," he thought. +"It may be the Old Owl herself, and she knows, Granny says. When +Father's gone to bed, and the moon rises, I'll go." Meanwhile he lay +down. + + * * * * * + +The moon rose like gold, and went up into the heavens like silver, +flooding the moors with a pale ghostly light, taking the colour out of +the heather, and painting black shadows under the stone walls. Tommy +opened his eyes, and ran to the window. "The moon has risen," said he, +and crept softly down the ladder, through the kitchen, where was the +pan of water, but no Brownie, and so out on to the moor. The air was +fresh, not to say chilly; but it was a glorious night, though +everything but the wind and Tommy seemed asleep. The stones, the walls, +the gleaming lanes, were so intensely still; the church tower in the +valley seemed awake and watching, but silent; the houses in the village +round it had all their eyes shut, that is, their window-blinds down; +and it seemed to Tommy as if the very moors had drawn white sheets over +them, and lay sleeping also. + +"Hoot! hoot!" said a voice from the fir plantation behind him. Somebody +else was awake, then. "It's the Old Owl," said Tommy; and there she +came, swinging heavily across the moor with a flapping stately flight, +and sailed into the shed by the mere. The old lady moved faster than +she seemed to do, and though Tommy ran hard she was in the shed some +time before him. When he got in, no bird was to be seen, but he heard a +crunching sound from above, and looking up, there sat the Old Owl, +pecking and tearing and munching at some shapeless black object, and +blinking at him--Tommy--with yellow eyes. + +"Oh dear!" said Tommy, for he didn't much like it. + +The Old Owl dropped the black mass on to the floor; and Tommy did not +care somehow to examine it. + +"Come up! come up!" said she hoarsely. + +She could speak, then! Beyond all doubt it was _the_ Old Owl, and none +other. Tommy shuddered. + +"Come up here! come up here!" said the Old Owl. + +The Old Owl sat on a beam that ran across the shed. Tommy had often +climbed up for fun; and he climbed up now, and sat face to face with +her, and thought her eyes looked as if they were made of flame. + +"Kiss my fluffy face," said the Owl. + +Her eyes were going round like flaming catherine wheels, but there are +certain requests which one has not the option of refusing. Tommy crept +nearer, and put his lips to the round face out of which the eyes shone. +Oh! it was so downy and warm, so soft, so indescribably soft. Tommy's +lips sank into it, and couldn't get to the bottom. It was unfathomable +feathers and fluffiness. + +"Now, what do you want?" said the Owl. + +"Please," said Tommy, who felt rather re-assured, "can you tell me +where to find the Brownies, and how to get one to come and live with +us?" + +"Oohoo!" said the Owl, "that's it, is it? I know of three Brownies." + +"Hurrah!" said Tommy. "Where do they live?" + +"In your house," said the Owl. + +Tommy was aghast. + +"In our house!" he exclaimed. "Whereabouts? Let me rummage them out. +Why do they do nothing?" + +"One of them is too young," said the Owl. + +"But why don't the others work?" asked Tommy. + +"They are idle, they are idle," said the Old Owl, and she gave herself +such a shake as she said it, that the fluff went flying through the +shed, and Tommy nearly tumbled off the beam in his fright. + +"Then we don't want them," said he. "What is the use of having Brownies +if they do nothing to help us?" + +"Perhaps they don't know how, as no one has told them," said the Owl. + +"I wish you would tell me where to find them," said Tommy; "I could +tell them." + +"Could you?" said the Owl. "Oohoo! oohoo!" and Tommy couldn't tell +whether she were hooting or laughing. + +"Of course I could," he said. "They might be up and sweep the house, +and light the fire, and spread the table, and that sort of thing, +before Father came down. Besides, they could _see_ what was wanted. +The Brownies did all that in Granny's mother's young days. And then +they could tidy the room, and fetch the turf, and pick up my chips, +and sort Granny's scraps. Oh! there's lots to do." + +"So there is," said the Owl. "Oohoo! Well, I can tell you where to find +one of the Brownies; and if you find him, he will tell you where his +brother is. But all this depends upon whether you feel equal to +undertaking it, and whether you will follow my directions." + +"I am quite ready to go," said Tommy, "and I will do as you shall tell +me. I feel sure I could persuade them. If they only knew how every one +would love them if they made themselves useful!" + +"Oohoo! oohoo!" said the Owl. "Now pay attention. You must go to the +north side of the mere when the moon is shining--('I know Brownies like +water,' muttered Tommy)--and turn yourself round three times, saying +this charm: + + + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw--' + +When you have got so far, look into the water, and at the same moment +you will see the Brownie, and think of a word that will fill up the +couplet, and rhyme with the first line. If either you do not see the +Brownie, or fail to think of the word, it will be of no use." + +"Is the Brownie a merman," said Tommy, wriggling himself along the +beam, "that he lives under water?" + +"That depends on whether he has a fish's tail," said the Owl, "and this +you can discover for yourself." + +"Well, the moon is shining, so I shall go," said Tommy. "Good-bye, and +thank you, Ma'am;" and he jumped down and went, saying to himself as he +ran, "I believe he is a merman all the same, or else how could he live +in the mere? I know more about Brownies than Granny does, and I shall +tell her so;" for Tommy was somewhat opinionated, like other young +people. + +The moon shone very brightly on the centre of the mere. Tommy knew the +place well, for there was a fine echo there. Round the edge grew rushes +and water plants, which cast a border of shadow. Tommy went to the +north side, and turning himself three times, as the Old Owl had told +him, he repeated the charm-- + + "Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw--" + +Now for it! He looked in, and saw--the reflection of his own face. + +"Why, there's no one but myself!" said Tommy. "And what can the word +be? I must have done it wrong." + +"Wrong!" said the Echo. + +Tommy was almost surprised to find the echo awake at this time of +night. + +"Hold your tongue!" said he. "Matters are provoking enough of +themselves. Belf! Celf! Delf! Felf! Gelf! Helf! Jelf! What rubbish! +There can't be a word to fit it. And then to look for a Brownie, and +see nothing but myself!" + +"Myself," said the Echo. + +"Will you be quiet?" said Tommy. "If you would tell one the word there +would be some sense in your interference; but to roar 'Myself!' at one, +which neither rhymes nor runs--it does rhyme though, as it happens," he +added; "and how very odd! it runs too-- + + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw myself,' + +which I certainly did. What can it mean? The Old Owl knows, as Granny +would say; so I shall go back and ask her." + +"Ask her!" said the Echo. + +"Didn't I say I should?" said Tommy. "How exasperating you are! It is +very strange. _Myself_ certainly does rhyme, and I wonder I did not +think of it long ago." + +"Go," said the Echo. + +"Will you mind your own business, and go to sleep?" said Tommy. "I am +going; I said I should." + +And back he went. There sat the Old Owl as before. + +"Oohoo!" said she, as Tommy climbed up. "What did you see in the mere?" + +"I saw nothing but myself," said Tommy indignantly. + +"And what did you expect to see?" asked the Owl. + +"I expected to see a Brownie," said Tommy; "you told me so." + +"And what are Brownies like, pray?" inquired the Owl. + +"The one Granny knew was a useful little fellow, something like a +little man," said Tommy. + +"Ah!" said the Owl, "but you know at present this one is an idle little +fellow, something like a little man. Oohoo! oohoo! Are you quite sure +you didn't see him?" + +"Quite," answered Tommy sharply. "I saw no one but myself." + +"Hoot! toot! How touchy we are! And who are you, pray?" + +"I'm not a Brownie," said Tommy. + +"Don't be too sure," said the Owl. "Did you find out the word?" + +"No," said Tommy. "I could find no word with any meaning that would +rhyme but 'myself.'" + +"Well, that runs and rhymes," said the Owl. "What do you want? Where's +your brother now?" + +"In bed in the malt-loft," said Tommy. + +"Then now all your questions are answered," said the Owl, "and you know +what wants doing, so go and do it. Good-night, or rather good-morning, +for it is long past midnight;" and the old lady began to shake her +feathers for a start. + +"Don't go yet, please," said Tommy humbly. "I don't understand it. You +know I'm not a Brownie, am I?" + +"Yes, you are," said the Owl, "and a very idle one too. All children +are Brownies." + +"But I couldn't do work like a Brownie," said Tommy. + +"Why not?" inquired the Owl. "Couldn't you sweep the floor, light the +fire, spread the table, tidy the room, fetch the turf, pick up your own +chips, and sort your grandmother's scraps? You know 'there's lots to +do.'" + +"But I don't think I should like it," said Tommy. "I'd much rather have +a Brownie to do it for me." + +"And what would you do meanwhile?" asked the Owl. "Be idle, I suppose; +and what do you suppose is the use of a man's having children if they +do nothing to help him? Ah! if they only knew how every one would love +them if they made themselves useful!" + +"But is it really and truly so?" asked Tommy, in a dismal voice. "Are +there no Brownies but children?" + +"No, there are not," said the Owl. "And pray do you think that the +Brownies, whoever they may be, come into the house to save trouble for +the idle healthy little boys who live in it? Listen to me, Tommy," said +the old lady, her eyes shooting rays of fire in the dark corner where +she sat. "Listen to me, you are a clever boy, and can understand when +one speaks; so I will tell you the whole history of the Brownies, as it +has been handed down in our family from my grandmother's +great-grandmother, who lived in the Druid's Oak, and was intimate with +the fairies. And when I have done you shall tell me what you think they +are, if they are not children. It's the opinion I have come to at any +rate, and I don't think that wisdom died with our great-grandmothers." + +"I should like to hear if you please," said Tommy. + +The Old Owl shook out a tuft or two of fluff, and set her eyes a-going +and began: + +"The Brownies, or, as they are sometimes called, the Small Folk, the +Little People, or the Good People, are a race of tiny beings who +domesticate themselves in a house of which some grown-up human being +pays the rent and taxes. They are like small editions of men and women, +they are too small and fragile for heavy work; they have not the +strength of a man, but are a thousand times more fresh and nimble. They +can run and jump, and roll and tumble, with marvellous agility and +endurance, and of many of the aches and pains which men and women groan +under, they do not even know the names. They have no trade or +profession, and as they live entirely upon other people, they know +nothing of domestic cares; in fact, they know very little upon any +subject, though they are often intelligent and highly inquisitive. They +love dainties, play, and mischief. They are apt to be greatly beloved, +and are themselves capriciously affectionate. They are little people, +and can only do little things. When they are idle and mischievous, they +are called Boggarts, and are a curse to the house they live in. When +they are useful and considerate, they are Brownies, and are a +much-coveted blessing. Sometimes the Blessed Brownies will take up +their abode with some worthy couple, cheer them with their romps and +merry laughter, tidy the house, find things that have been lost, and +take little troubles out of hands full of great anxieties. Then in time +these Little People are Brownies no longer. They grow up into men and +women. They do not care so much for dainties, play, or mischief. They +cease to jump and tumble, and roll about the house. They know more, and +laugh less. Then, when their heads begin to ache with anxiety, and they +have to labour for their own living, and the great cares of life come +on, other Brownies come and live with them, and take up their little +cares, and supply their little comforts, and make the house merry once +more." + +"How nice!" said Tommy. + +"Very nice," said the Old Owl. "But what"--and she shook herself more +fiercely than ever, and glared so that Tommy expected nothing less than +that her eyes would set fire to her feathers and she would be burnt +alive. "But what must I say of the Boggarts? Those idle urchins who eat +the bread-and-milk, and don't do the work, who lie in bed without an +ache or pain to excuse them, who untidy instead of tidying, cause work +instead of doing it, and leave little cares to heap on big cares, till +the old people who support them are worn out altogether." + +"Don't!" said Tommy. "I can't bear it." + +"I hope when Boggarts grow into men," said the Old Owl, "that their +children will be Boggarts too, and then they'll know what it is!" + +"Don't!" roared Tommy. "I won't be a Boggart. I'll be a Brownie." + +"That's right," nodded the Old Owl. "I said you were a boy who could +understand when one spoke. And remember that the Brownies never are +seen at their work. They get up before the household, and get away +before any one can see them. I can't tell you why. I don't think my +grandmother's great-grandmother knew. Perhaps because all good deeds +are better done in secret." + +"Please," said Tommy, "I should like to go home now, and tell Johnnie. +It's getting cold, and I am so tired!" + +"Very true," said the Old Owl, "and then you will have to be up early +to-morrow. I think I had better take you home." + +"I know the way, thank you," said Tommy. + +"I didn't say _show_ you the way, I said _take_ you--carry you," said +the Owl. "Lean against me." + +"I'd rather not, thank you," said Tommy. + +"Lean against me," screamed the Owl. "Oohoo! how obstinate boys are to +be sure!" + +Tommy crept up very unwillingly. + +"Lean your full weight, and shut your eyes," said the Owl. + +Tommy laid his head against the Old Owl's feathers, had a vague idea +that she smelt of heather, and thought it must be from living on the +moor, shut his eyes, and leant his full weight, expecting that he and +the Owl would certainly fall off the beam together. +Down--feathers--fluff--he sank and sank, could feel nothing solid, +jumped up with a start to save himself, opened his eyes, and found that +he was sitting among the heather in the malt-loft, with Johnnie +sleeping by his side. + +"How quickly we came!" said he; "that is certainly a very clever Old +Owl. I couldn't have counted ten whilst my eyes were shut. How very +odd!" + +But what was odder still was, that it was no longer moonlight, but +early dawn. + +"Get up, Johnnie," said his brother, "I've got a story to tell you." + +And while Johnnie sat up, and rubbed his eyes open, he related his +adventures on the moor. + +"Is all that true?" said Johnnie. "I mean, did it really happen?" + +"Of course it did," said his brother; "don't you believe it?" + +"Oh yes," said Johnnie. "But I thought it was perhaps only a true +story, like Granny's true stories. I believe all those, you know. But +if you were there, you know, it is different--" + +"I was there," said Tommy, "and it's all just as I tell you: and I tell +you what, if we mean to do anything we must get up: though, oh dear! I +should like to stay in bed. I say," he added, after a pause, "suppose +we do. It can't matter being Boggarts for one night more. I mean to be +a Brownie before I grow up, though. I couldn't stand boggarty +children." + +"I won't be a Boggart at all," said Johnnie, "it's horrid. But I don't +see how we can be Brownies, for I'm afraid we can't do the things. I +wish I were bigger!" + +"I can do it well enough," said Tommy, following his brother's example +and getting up. "Don't you suppose I can light a fire? Think of all the +bonfires we have made! And I don't think I should mind having a regular +good tidy-up either. It's that stupid +putting-away-things-when-you've-done-with-them that I hate so!" + +The Brownies crept softly down the ladder and into the kitchen. There +was the blank hearth, the dirty floor, and all the odds and ends lying +about, looking cheerless enough in the dim light. Tommy felt quite +important as he looked round. There is no such cure for untidiness as +clearing up after other people; one sees so clearly where the fault +lies. + +"Look at that door-step, Johnnie," said the Brownie-elect, "what a mess +you made of it! If you had lifted the moss carefully, instead of +stamping and struggling with it, it would have saved us ten minutes' +work this morning." + +This wisdom could not be gainsaid, and Johnnie only looked meek and +rueful. + +"I am going to light the fire," pursued his brother;--"the next turfs, +you know, _we_ must get--you can tidy a bit. Look at that knife I gave +you to hold last night, and that wood--that's my fault though, and so +are those scraps by Granny's chair. What are you grubbing at that +rat-hole for?" + +Johnnie raised his head somewhat flushed and tumbled. + +"What do you think I have found?" said he triumphantly. "Father's +measure that has been lost for a week!" + +"Hurrah!" said Tommy, "put it by his things. That's just a sort of +thing for a Brownie to have done. What will he say? And I say, Johnnie, +when you've tidied, just go and grub up a potato or two in the garden, +and I'll put them to roast for breakfast. I'm lighting such a bonfire!" + +The fire was very successful. Johnnie went after the potatoes, and +Tommy cleaned the door-step, swept the room, dusted the chairs and the +old chest, and set out the table. There was no doubt he could be handy +when he chose. + +"I'll tell you what I've thought of, if we have time," said Johnnie, as +he washed the potatoes in the water that had been set for Brownie. "We +might run down to the South Pasture for some mushrooms. Father said the +reason we found so few was that people go by sunrise for them to take +to market. The sun's only just rising, we should be sure to find some, +and they would do for breakfast." + +"There's plenty of time," said Tommy; so they went. The dew lay heavy +and thick upon the grass by the road-side, and over the miles of +network that the spiders had woven from blossom to blossom of the +heather. The dew is the Sun's breakfast; but he was barely up yet, and +had not eaten it, and the world felt anything but warm. Nevertheless, +it was so sweet and fresh as it is at no later hour of the day, and +every sound was like the returning voice of a long-absent friend. Down +to the pastures, where was more network and more dew, but when one has +nothing to speak of in the way of boots, the state of the ground is of +the less consequence. + +The Tailor had been right, there was no lack of mushrooms at this time +of the morning. All over the pasture they stood, of all sizes, some +like buttons, some like tables; and in the distance one or two ragged +women, stooping over them with baskets, looked like huge fungi also. + +"This is where the fairies feast," said Tommy. "They had a large party +last night. When they go, they take away the dishes and cups, for they +are made of gold; but they leave their tables, and we eat them." + +"I wonder whether giants would like to eat our tables," said Johnnie. + +This was beyond Tommy's capabilities of surmise; so they filled a +handkerchief, and hurried back again, for fear the Tailor should have +come down-stairs. + +They were depositing the last mushroom in a dish on the table, when his +footsteps were heard descending. + +"There he is!" exclaimed Tommy. "Remember, we mustn't be caught. Run +back to bed." + +Johnnie caught up the handkerchief, and smothering their laughter, the +two scrambled back up the ladder, and dashed straight into the heather. + +Meanwhile the poor Tailor came wearily down-stairs. Day after day, +since his wife's death, he had come down every morning to the same +desolate sight--yesterday's refuse and an empty hearth. This morning +task of tidying was always a sad and ungrateful one to the widowed +father. His awkward struggles with the house-work in which _she_ +had been so notable, chafed him. The dirty kitchen was dreary, the +labour lonely, and it was an hour's time lost to his trade. But life +does not stand still while one is wishing, and so the Tailor did that +for which there was neither remedy nor substitute; and came down this +morning as other mornings to the pail and broom. When he came in he +looked round, and started, and rubbed his eyes; looked round again, +and rubbed them harder: then went up to the fire and held out his hand, +(warm certainly)--then up to the table and smelt the mushrooms, +(esculent fungi beyond a doubt)--handled the loaf, stared at the open +door and window, the swept floor, and the sunshine pouring in, and +finally sat down in stunned admiration. Then he jumped up and ran to +the foot of the stairs, shouting, + +"Mother! mother! Trout's luck has come again." "And yet, no!" he +thought, "the old lady's asleep, it's a shame to wake her, I'll tell +those idle rascally lads, they'll be more pleased than they deserve. It +was Tommy after all that set the water and caught him." "Boys! boys!" +he shouted at the foot of the ladder, "the Brownie has come!--and if he +hasn't found my measure!" he added on returning to the kitchen; "this +is as good as a day's work to me." + +There was great excitement in the small household that day. The boys +kept their own counsel. The old Grandmother was triumphant, and tried +not to seem surprised. The Tailor made no such vain effort, and +remained till bed-time in a state of fresh and unconcealed amazement. + +"I've often heard of the Good People," he broke out towards the end of +the evening. "And I've heard folk say they've known those that have +seen them capering round the grey rocks on the moor at midnight: but +this is wonderful! To come and do the work for a pan of cold water! Who +could have believed it?" + +"You might have believed it if you'd believed me, son Thomas," said the +old lady tossily. "I told you so. But young people always know better +than their elders!" + +"I didn't see him," said the Tailor, beginning his story afresh; "but I +thought as I came in I heard a sort of laughing and rustling." + +"My mother said they often heard him playing and laughing about the +house," said the old lady. "I told you so." + +"Well, he sha'n't want for a bowl of bread-and-milk to-morrow, anyhow," +said the Tailor, "if I have to stick to Farmer Swede's waistcoat till +midnight." + +But the waistcoat was finished by bed-time, and the Tailor set the +bread-and-milk-himself, and went to rest. + +"I say," said Tommy, when both the boys were in bed, "the Old Owl was +right, and we must stick to it. But I'll tell you what I don't like, +and that is Father thinking we're idle still. I wish he knew we were +the Brownies." + +"So do I," said Johnnie; and he sighed. + +"I tell you what," said Tommy, with the decisiveness of elder +brotherhood, "we'll keep quiet for a bit for fear we should leave off; +but when we've gone on a good while, I shall tell him. It was only the +Old Owl's grandmother's great-grandmother who said it was to be kept +secret, and the Old Owl herself said grandmothers were not always in +the right." + +"No more they are," said Johnnie; "look at Granny about this." + +"I know," said Tommy. "She's in a regular muddle." + +"So she is," said Johnnie. "But that's rather fun, I think." + +And they went to sleep. + +Day after day went by, and still the Brownies "stuck to it," and did +their work. It is no such very hard matter after all to get up early +when one is young and light-hearted, and sleeps upon heather in a loft +without window-blinds, and with so many broken window-panes that the +air comes freely in. In old times the boys used to play at tents among +the heather, while the Tailor did the house-work; now they came down +and did it for him. + +Size is not everything, even in this material existence. One has heard +of dwarfs who were quite as clever (not to say as powerful) as giants, +and I do not fancy that Fairy Godmothers are ever very large. It is +wonderful what a comfort Brownies may be in the house that is fortunate +enough to hold them! The Tailor's Brownies were the joy of his life; +and day after day they seemed to grow more and more ingenious in +finding little things to do for his good. + +Now-a-days Granny never picked a scrap for herself. One day's shearings +were all neatly arranged the next morning, and laid by her +knitting-pins; and the Tailor's tape and shears were no more absent +without leave. + +One day a message came to him to offer him two or three days' tailoring +in a farm-house some miles up the valley. This was pleasant and +advantageous sort of work; good food, sure pay, and a cheerful change; +but he did not know how he could leave his family, unless, indeed, the +Brownie might be relied upon to "keep the house together," as they say. +The boys were sure that he would, and they promised to set his water, +and to give as little trouble as possible; so, finally, the Tailor took +up his shears and went up the valley, where the green banks sloped up +into purple moor, or broke into sandy rocks, crowned with nodding oak +fern. On to the prosperous old farm, where he spent a very pleasant +time, sitting level with the window geraniums on a table set apart for +him, stitching and gossiping, gossiping and stitching, and feeling +secure of honest payment when his work was done. The mistress of the +house was a kind good creature, and loved a chat; and though the Tailor +kept his own secret as to the Brownies, he felt rather curious to know +if the Good People had any hand in the comfort of this flourishing +household, and watched his opportunity to make a few careless inquiries +on the subject. + +"Brownies?" laughed the dame. "Ay, Master, I have heard of them. When I +was a girl, in service at the old hall, on Cowberry Edge, I heard a +good deal of one they said had lived there in former times. He did +house-work as well as a woman, and a good deal quicker, they said. One +night one of the young ladies (that were then, they're all dead now) +hid herself in a cupboard, to see what he was like." + +"And what was he like?" inquired the Tailor, as composedly as he was +able. + +"A little fellow, they said," answered the Farmer's wife, knitting +calmly on. "Like a dwarf, you know, with a largish head for his body. +Not taller than--why, my Bill, or your eldest boy, perhaps. And he was +dressed in rags, with an old cloak on, and stamping with passion at a +cobweb he couldn't get at with his broom. They've very uncertain +tempers, they say. Tears one minute, and laughing the next." + +"You never had one here, I suppose?" said the Tailor. + +"Not we," she answered; "and I think I'd rather not. They're not canny +after all; and my master and me have always been used to work, and +we've sons and daughters to help us, and that's better than meddling +with the Fairies, to my mind. No! no!" she added, laughing, "if we had +had one you'd have heard of it, whoever didn't, for I should have had +some decent clothes made for him. I couldn't stand rags and old cloaks, +messing and moth-catching, in my house." + +"They say it's not lucky to give them clothes, though," said the +Tailor; "they don't like it." + +"Tell me!" said the dame, "as if any one that liked a tidy room +wouldn't like tidy clothes, if they could get them. No! no! when we +have one, you shall take his measure, I promise you." + +And this was all the Tailor got out of her on the subject. When his +work was finished, the Farmer paid him at once; and the good dame added +half a cheese, and a bottle-green coat. + +"That has been laid by for being too small for the master now he's so +stout," she said; "but except for a stain or two it's good enough, and +will cut up like new for one of the lads." + +The Tailor thanked them, and said farewell, and went home. Down the +valley, where the river, wandering between the green banks and the +sandy rocks, was caught by giant mosses, and bands of fairy fern, and +there choked and struggled, and at last barely escaped with an +existence, and ran away in a diminished stream. On up the purple hills +to the old ruined house. As he came in at the gate he was struck by +some idea of change, and looking again, he saw that the garden had been +weeded, and was comparatively tidy. The truth is, that Tommy and +Johnnie had taken advantage of the Tailor's absence to do some +Brownie's work in the daytime. + +"It's that Blessed Brownie!" said the Tailor. "Has he been as usual?" +he asked, when he was in the house. + +"To be sure," said the old lady; "all has been well, son Thomas." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said the Tailor, after a pause. "I'm a +needy man, but I hope I'm not ungrateful. I can never repay the Brownie +for what he has done for me and mine; but the mistress up yonder has +given me a bottle-green coat that will cut up as good as new; and as +sure as there's a Brownie in this house, I'll make him a suit of it." + +"You'll _what_?" shrieked the old lady. "Son Thomas, son Thomas, you're +mad! Do what you please for the Brownies, but never make them clothes." + +"There's nothing they want more," said the Tailor, "by all accounts. +They're all in rags, as well they may be, doing so much work." + +"If you make clothes for this Brownie, he'll go for good," said the +Grandmother, in a voice of awful warning. + +"Well, I don't know," said her son. "The mistress up at the farm is +clever enough, I can tell you; and as she said to me, fancy any one +that likes a tidy room not liking a tidy coat!" For the Tailor, like +most men, was apt to think well of the wisdom of womankind in other +houses. + +"Well, well," said the old lady, "go your own way. I'm an old woman, +and my time is not long. It doesn't matter much to me. But it was new +clothes that drove the Brownie out before, and Trout's luck went with +him." + +"I know, Mother," said the Tailor, "and I've been thinking of it all +the way home; and I can tell you why it was. Depend upon it, _the +clothes didn't fit_. But I'll tell you what I mean to do. I shall +measure them by Tommy--they say the Brownies are about his size--and if +ever I turned out a well-made coat and waistcoat, they shall be his." + +"Please yourself," said the old lady, and she would say no more. + +"I think you're quite right, Father," said Tommy, "and if I can, I'll +help you to make them." + +Next day the father and son set to work, and Tommy contrived to make +himself so useful, that the Tailor hardly knew how he got through so +much work. + +"It's not like the same thing," he broke out at last, "to have some one +a bit helpful about you; both for the tailoring and for company's sake. +I've not done such a pleasant morning's work since your poor mother +died. I'll tell you what it is, Tommy," he added, "if you were always +like this, I shouldn't much care whether Brownie stayed or went. I'd +give up his help to have yours." + +"I'll be back directly," said Tommy, who burst out of the room in +search of his brother. + +"I've come away," he said, squatting down, "because I can't bear it. I +very nearly let it all out, and I shall soon. I wish the things weren't +going to come to me," he added, kicking a stone in front of him. "I +wish he'd measured you, Johnnie." + +"I'm very glad he didn't," said Johnnie. "I wish he'd kept them +himself." + +"Bottle-green, with brass buttons," murmured Tommy, and therewith fell +into a reverie. + +The next night the suit was finished, and laid by the bread-and-milk. + +"We shall see," said the old lady, in a withering tone. There is not +much real prophetic wisdom in this truism, but it sounds very awful, +and the Tailor went to bed somewhat depressed. + +Next morning the Brownies came down as usual. + +"Don't they look splendid?" said Tommy, feeling the cloth. "When we've +tidied the place I shall put them on." + +But long before the place was tidy, he could wait no longer, and +dressed up. + +"Look at me!" he shouted; "bottle-green and brass buttons! Oh, Johnnie, +I wish you had some." + +"It's a good thing there are two Brownies," said Johnnie, laughing, +"and one of them in rags still. I shall do the work this morning." And +he went flourishing round with a broom, while Tommy jumped madly about +in his new suit. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "I feel just like the Brownie. +What was it Granny said he sang when he got his clothes? Oh, I know-- + + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen.'" + +And on he danced, regardless of the clouds of dust raised by Johnnie, +as he drove the broom indiscriminately over the floor, to the tune of +his own laughter. + +It was laughter which roused the Tailor that morning, laughter coming +through the floor from the kitchen below. He scrambled on his things +and stole down-stairs. + +"It's the Brownie," he thought; "I must look, if it's for the last +time." + +At the door he paused and listened. The laughter was mixed with +singing, and he heard the words-- + + "What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen." + +He pushed in, and this was the sight that met his eyes. + +The kitchen in its primeval condition of chaos, the untidy particulars +of which were the less apparent, as everything was more or less +obscured by the clouds of dust, where Johnnie reigned triumphant, like +a witch with her broomstick; and, to crown all, Tommy capering and +singing in the Brownie's bottle-green suit, brass buttons and all. + +"What's this?" shouted the astonished Tailor, when he could find breath +to speak. + +"It's the Brownies," sang the boys; and on they danced, for they had +worked themselves up into a state of excitement from which it was not +easy to settle down. + +"Where _is_ Brownie?" shouted the father. + +"He's here," said Tommy; "we are the Brownies." + +"Can't you stop that fooling?" cried the Tailor, angrily. "This is past +a joke. Where is the real Brownie, I say?" + +"We are the only Brownies, really, Father," said Tommy, coming to a +full stop, and feeling strongly tempted to run down from laughing to +crying. "Ask the Old Owl. It's true, really." + +The Tailor saw the boy was in earnest, and passed his hand over his +forehead. + +"I suppose I'm getting old," he said; "I can't see daylight through +this. If you are the Brownie, who has been tidying the kitchen lately?" + +"We have," said they. + +"But who found my measure?" + +"I did," said Johnnie. + +"And who sorts your grandmother's scraps?" + +"We do," said they. + +"And who sets breakfast, and puts my things in order?" + +"We do," said they. + +"But when do you do it?" asked the Tailor. + +"Before you come down," said they. + +"But I always have to call you," said the Tailor. + +"We get back to bed again," said the boys. + +"But how was it you never did it before?" asked the Tailor doubtfully. + +"We were idle, we were idle," said Tommy. + +The Tailor's voice rose to a pitch of desperation-- + +"But if you did the work," he shouted, "_where is the Brownie?_" + +"Here!" cried the boys, "and we are very sorry that we were Boggarts so +long." + +With which the father and sons fell into each other's arms and fairly +wept. + + * * * * * + +It will be believed that to explain all this to the Grandmother was not +the work of a moment. She understood it all at last, however, and the +Tailor could not restrain a little good-humoured triumph on the +subject. Before he went to work he settled her down in the window with +her knitting, and kissed her. + +"What do you think of it all, Mother?" he inquired. + +"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady tartly, "_I told you so._" + + * * * * * + +"That's not the end, is it?" asked one of the boys in a tone of dismay, +for the Doctor had paused here. + +"Yes, it is," said he. + +"But couldn't you make a little more end?" asked Deordie, "to tell us +what became of them all?" + +"I don't see what there is to tell," said the Doctor. + +"Why, there's whether they ever saw the Old Owl again, and whether +Tommy and Johnnie went on being Brownies," said the children. + +The Doctor laughed. + +"Well, be quiet for five minutes," he said. + +"We'll be as quiet as mice," said the children. + +And as quiet as mice they were. Very like mice, indeed. Very like mice +behind a wainscot at night, when you have just thrown something to +frighten them away. Death-like stillness for a few seconds, and then +all the rustling and scuffling you please. So the children sat holding +their breath for a moment or two, and then shuffling feet and smothered +bursts of laughter testified to their impatience, and to the difficulty +of understanding the process of story-making as displayed by the +Doctor, who sat pulling his beard, and staring at his boots, as he made +up "a little more end." + +"Well," he said, sitting up suddenly, "the Brownies went on with their +work in spite of the bottle-green suit, and Trout's luck returned to +the old house once more. Before long Tommy began to work for the +farmers, and Baby grew up into a Brownie, and made (as girls are apt to +make) the best house-sprite of all. For, in the Brownie's habits of +self-denial, thoughtfulness, consideration, and the art of little +kindnesses, boys are, I am afraid, as a general rule, somewhat +behindhand with their sisters. Whether this altogether proceeds from +constitutional deficiency on these points in the masculine character, +or is one result among many of the code of bye-laws which obtains in +men's moral education from the cradle, is a question on which everybody +has their own opinion. For the present the young gentlemen may +appropriate whichever theory they prefer, and we will go back to the +story. The Tailor lived to see his boy-Brownies become men, with all +the cares of a prosperous farm on their hands, and his girl-Brownie +carry her fairy talents into another home. For these Brownies--young +ladies!--are much desired as wives, whereas a man might as well marry +an old witch as a young Boggartess." + +"And about the Owl?" clamoured the children, rather resentful of the +Doctor's pausing to take breath. + +"Of course," he continued, "the Tailor heard the whole story, and being +both anxious to thank the Old Owl for her friendly offices, and also +rather curious to see and hear her, he went with the boys one night at +moon-rise to the shed by the mere. It was earlier in the evening than +when Tommy went, for before daylight had vanished, and at the first +appearance of the moon, the impatient Tailor was at the place. There +they found the Owl looking very solemn and stately on the beam. She was +sitting among the shadows with her shoulders up, and she fixed her eyes +so steadily on the Tailor, that he felt quite overpowered. He made her +a civil bow, however, and said, + +"I'm much obliged to you, Ma'am, for your good advice to my Tommy." + +The Owl blinked sharply, as if she grudged shutting her eyes for an +instant, and then stared on, but not a word spoke she. + +"I don't mean to intrude, Ma'am," said the Tailor, "but I was wishful +to pay my respects and gratitude." + +Still the Owl gazed in determined silence. + +"Don't you remember me?" said Tommy pitifully. "I did everything you +told me. Won't you even say good-bye?" and he went up towards her. + +The Owl's eyes contracted, she shuddered a few tufts of fluff into the +shed, shook her wings, and shouting "Oohoo!" at the top of her voice, +flew out upon the moor. The Tailor and his sons rushed out to watch +her. They could see her clearly against the green twilight sky, +flapping rapidly away with her round face to the pale moon. "Good-bye!" +they shouted as she disappeared; first the departing owl, then a +shadowy body with flapping sails, then two wings beating the same +measured time, then two moving lines still to the old tune, then a +stroke, a fancy, and then--the green sky and the pale moon, but the Old +Owl was gone. + +"Did she never come back?" asked Tiny in subdued tones, for the Doctor +had paused again. + +"No," said he; "at least not to the shed by the mere. Tommy saw many +owls after this in the course of his life; but as none of them would +speak, and as most of them were addicted to the unconventional customs +of staring and winking, he could not distinguish his friend, if she +were among them. And now I think that is all." + +"Is that the very very end?" asked Tiny. + +"The very very end," said the Doctor. + +"I suppose there might be more and more ends," speculated +Deordie--"about whether the Brownies had any children when they grew +into farmers, and whether the children were Brownies, and whether +_they_ had other Brownies, and so on and on." And Deordie rocked +himself among the geraniums, in the luxurious imagining of an endless +fairy tale. + +"You insatiable rascal!" said the Doctor. "Not another word. Jump up, +for I am going to see you home. I have to be off early to-morrow." + +"Where?" said Deordie. + +"Never mind. I shall be away all day, and I want to be at home in good +time in the evening, for I mean to attack that crop of groundsel +between the sweet-pea hedges. You know, no Brownies come to my +homestead!" + +And the Doctor's mouth twitched a little till he fixed it into a stiff +smile. + +The children tried hard to extract some more ends out of him on the way +to the Rectory; but he declined to pursue the history of the Trout +family through indefinite generations. It was decided on all hands, +however, that Tommy Trout was evidently one and the same with the Tommy +Trout who pulled the cat out of the well, because "it was just a sort +of thing for a Brownie to do, you know!" and that Johnnie Green (who, +of course, was not Johnnie Trout) was some unworthy village +acquaintance, and "a thorough Boggart." + +"Doctor!" said Tiny, as they stood by the garden-gate, "how long do you +think gentlemen's pocket-handkerchiefs take to wear out?" + +"That, my dear Madam," said the Doctor, "must depend, like other +terrestrial matters, upon circumstances; whether the gentleman bought +fine cambric, or coarse cotton with pink portraits of the reigning +Sovereign, to commence with; whether he catches many colds, has his +pockets picked, takes snuff, or allows his washerwoman to use washing +powders. But why do you want to know?" + +"I sha'n't tell you that," said Tiny, who was spoilt by the Doctor, and +consequently tyrannized in proportion; "but I will tell you what I mean +to do. I mean to tell Mother that when Father wants any more +pocket-handkerchiefs hemmed, she had better put them by the bath in the +nursery, and perhaps some Brownie will come and do them." + +"Kiss my fluffy face!" said the Doctor in sepulchral tones. + +"The owl is too high up," said Tiny, tossing her head. + +The Doctor lifted her four feet or so, obtained his kiss, and set her +down again. + +"You're not fluffy at all," said she in a tone of the utmost contempt; +"you're tickly and bristly. Puss is more fluffy, and Father is scrubby +and scratchy, because he shaves." + +"And which of the three styles do you prefer?" said the Doctor. + +"Not tickly and bristly," said Tiny with firmness; and she strutted up +the walk for a space or two, and then turned round to laugh over her +shoulder. + +"Good-night!" shouted her victim, shaking his fist after her. + +The other children took a noisy farewell, and they all raced into the +house to give joint versions of the fairy tale, first to the parents in +the drawing-room, and then to Nurse in the nursery. + +The Doctor went home also, with his poodle at his heels, but not by the +way he came. He went out of his way, which was odd; but then the Doctor +was "a little odd," and moreover this was always the end of his evening +walk. Through the church-yard, where spreading cedars and stiff yews +rose from the velvet grass, and where among tombstones and crosses of +various devices lay one of older and uglier date, by which he stayed. +It was framed by a border of the most brilliant flowers, and it would +seem as if the Doctor must have been the gardener, for he picked off +some dead ones, and put them absently in his pocket. Then he looked +round as if to see that he was alone. Not a soul was to be seen, and +the moonlight and shadow lay quietly side by side, as the dead do in +their graves. The Doctor stooped down and took off his hat. + +"Good-night, Marcia," he said in a low quiet voice. "Good-night, my +darling!" The dog licked his hand, but there was no voice to answer, +nor any that regarded. + +Poor foolish Doctor! Most foolish to speak to the departed with his +face earthwards. But we are weak mortals, the best of us; and this man +(one of the very best) raised his head at last, and went home like a +lonely owl with his face to the moon and the sky. + + +A BORROWED BROWNIE. + + +"I can't imagine," said the Rector, walking into the drawing-room the +following afternoon; "I can't imagine where Tiny is. I want her to +drive to the other end of the parish with me." + +"There she comes," said his wife, looking out of the window, "by the +garden-gate, with a great basket; what has she been after?" + +The Rector went out to discover, and met his daughter looking decidedly +earthy, and seemingly much exhausted by the weight of a basketful of +groundsel plants. + +"Where have you been?" said he. + +"In the Doctor's garden," said Tiny triumphantly; "and look what I have +done! I've weeded his sweet-peas, and brought away the groundsel; so +when he gets home to-night he'll think a Brownie has been in the +garden, for Mrs. Pickles has promised not to tell him." + +"But look here!" said the Rector, affecting a great appearance of +severity, "you're my Brownie, not his. Supposing Tommy Trout had gone +and weeded Farmer Swede's garden, and brought back his weeds to go to +seed on the Tailor's flower-beds, how do you think he would have liked +it?" + +Tiny looked rather crestfallen. When one has fairly carried through a +splendid benevolence of this kind, it is trying to find oneself in the +wrong. She crept up to the Rector, however, and put her golden head +upon his arm. + +"But, Father dear," she pleaded, "I didn't mean not to be your Brownie; +only, you know, you had got five left at home, and it was only for a +short time, and the Doctor hasn't any Brownie at all. Don't you pity +him?" + +And the Rector, who was old enough to remember that grave-stone story +we wot of, hugged his Brownie in his arms, and answered, + +"My Darling, I do pity him!" + + + + +THE LAND OF LOST TOYS. + +AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE NURSERY. + + +It was certainly an aggravated offence. It is generally understood in +families that "boys will be boys," but there is a limit to the +forbearance implied in the extenuating axiom. Master Sam was condemned +to the back nursery for the rest of the day. + +He always had had the knack of breaking his own toys,--he not +unfrequently broke other people's; but accidents will happen, and his +twin-sister and factotum, Dot, was long-suffering. + +Dot was fat, resolute, hasty, and devotedly unselfish. When Sam scalped +her new doll, and fastened the glossy black curls to a wigwam +improvised with the curtains of the four-post bed in the best bedroom, +Dot was sorely tried. As her eyes passed from the crown-less doll on +the floor to the floss-silk ringlets hanging from the bed-furniture, +her round rosy face grew rounder and rosier, and tears burst from her +eyes. But in a moment more she clenched her little fists, forced back +the tears, and gave vent to her favourite saying, "I don't care." + +That sentence was Dot's bane and antidote; it was her vice and her +virtue. It was her standing consolation, and it brought her into all +her scrapes. It was her one panacea for all the ups and downs of her +life (and in the nursery where Sam developed his organ of +destructiveness there were ups and downs not a few); and it was the +form her naughtiness took when she was naughty. + +"Don't care fell into a goose-pond, Miss Dot," said Nurse, on one +occasion of the kind. + +"I don't care if he did," said Miss Dot; and as Nurse knew no further +feature of the goose-pond adventure which met this view of it, she +closed the subject by putting Dot into the corner. + +In the strength of _Don't care_, and her love for Sam, Dot bore much and +long. Her dolls perished by ingenious but untimely deaths. Her toys were +put to purposes for which they were never intended, and suffered +accordingly. But Sam was penitent and Dot was heroic. Florinda's scalp was +mended with a hot knitting-needle and a perpetual bonnet, and Dot rescued +her paint-brushes from the glue-pot, and smelt her india-rubber as it +boiled down in Sam's waterproof manufactory, with long-suffering +forbearance. + +There are, however, as we have said, limits to everything. An +earthquake celebrated with the whole contents of the toy cupboard is not +to be borne. + +The matter was this. Early one morning Sam announced that he had a +glorious project on hand. He was going to give a grand show and +entertainment, far surpassing all the nursery imitations of circuses, +conjurors, lectures on chemistry, and so forth, with which they had +ever amused themselves. He refused to confide his plans to the faithful +Dot; but he begged her to lend him all the toys she possessed, in +return for which she was to be the sole spectator of the fun. He let +out that the idea had suggested itself to him after the sight of a +Diorama to which they had been taken, but he would not allow that it +was anything of the same kind; in proof of which she was at liberty to +keep back her paint-box. Dot tried hard to penetrate the secret, and to +reserve some of her things from the general conscription. But Sam was +obstinate. He would tell nothing, and he wanted everything. The dolls, +the bricks (especially the bricks), the tea-things, the German farm, +the Swiss cottages, the animals, and all the dolls' furniture. Dot gave +them with a doubtful mind, and consoled herself as she watched Sam +carrying pieces of board and a green table cover into the back nursery, +with the prospect of the show. At last, Sam threw open the door and +ushered her into the nursery rocking-chair. + +The boy had certainly some constructive as well as destructive talent. +Upon a sort of impromptu table covered with green cloth he had arranged +all the toys in rough imitation of a town, with its streets and +buildings. The relative proportion of the parts was certainly not good; +but it was not Sam's fault that the doll's house and the German farm, +his own brick buildings, and the Swiss cottages, were all on totally +different scales of size. He had ingeniously put the larger things in +the foreground, keeping the small farm-buildings from the German box at +the far end of the streets, yet after all the perspective was extreme. +The effect of three large horses from the toy stables in front, with +the cows from the small Noah's Ark in the distance, was admirable; but +the big dolls seated in an unroofed building, made with the wooden +bricks on no architectural principle but that of a pound, and taking +tea out of the new china tea-things, looked simply ridiculous. + +Dot's eyes, however, saw no defects, and she clapped vehemently. + +"Here, ladies and gentlemen," said Sam, waving his hand politely +towards the rocking-chair, "you see the great city of Lisbon, the +capital of Portugal--" + +At this display of geographical accuracy Dot fairly cheered, and rocked +herself to and fro in unmitigated enjoyment. + +"--as it appeared," continued the showman, "on the morning of November +1st, 1755." + +Never having had occasion to apply Mangnall's Questions to the +exigencies of every-day life, this date in no way disturbed Dot's +comfort. + +"In this house," Sam proceeded, "a party of Portuguese ladies of rank +may be seen taking tea together." + +"_Breakfast_, you mean," said Dot, "you said it was in the morning, +you know." + +"Well, they took tea to their breakfast," said Sam. "Don't interrupt +me, Dot. You are the audience, and you mustn't speak. Here you see the +horses of the English ambassador out airing with his groom. There you +see two peasants--no! they are _not_ Noah and his wife, Dot, and +if you go on talking I shall shut up. I say they are peasants +peacefully driving cattle. At this moment a rumbling sound startles +everyone in the city"--here Sam rolled some croquet balls up and down +in a box, but the dolls sat as quiet as before, and Dot alone was +startled,--"this was succeeded by a slight shock"--here he shook the +table, which upset some of the buildings belonging to the German +farm.--"Some houses fell."--Dot began to look anxious.--"This shock was +followed by several others"---"Take care," she begged--"of increasing +magnitude."--"Oh, Sam!" Dot shrieked, jumping up, "you're breaking the +china!"--"The largest buildings shook to their foundations."--"Sam! +Sam! the doll's house is falling," Dot cried, making wild efforts to +save it: but Sam held her back with one arm, while with the other he +began to pull at the boards which formed his table.--"Suddenly the +ground split and opened with a fearful yawn"--Dot's shrieks shamed the +impassive dolls, as Sam jerked out the boards by a dexterous movement, +and doll's house, brick buildings, the farm, the Swiss cottages, and +the whole toy-stock of the nursery sank together in ruins. Quite +unabashed by the evident damage, Sam continued--"and in a moment the +whole magnificent city of Lisbon was swallowed up. Dot! Dot! don't be a +muff! What is the matter? It's splendid fun. Things must be broken some +time, and I'm sure it was exactly like the real thing. Dot! why don't +you speak? Dot! my dear Dot! You don't care, do you? I didn't think +you'd mind it so. It was such a splendid earthquake. Oh! try not to go +on like that!" + +But Dot's feelings were far beyond her own control, much more that of +Master Sam, at this moment. She was gasping and choking, and when at +last she found breath it was only to throw herself on her face upon the +floor with bitter and uncontrollable sobbing. It was certainly a mild +punishment that condemned Master Sam to the back nursery for the rest +of the day. It had, however, this additional severity, that during the +afternoon Aunt Penelope was expected to arrive. + + +AUNT PENELOPE. + +Aunt Penelope was one of those dear, good souls who, single themselves, +have, as real or adopted relatives, the interests of a dozen families, +instead of one, at heart. There are few people whose youth has not +owned the influence of at least one such friend. It may be a good +habit, the first interest in some life-loved pursuit or favourite +author, some pretty feminine art, or delicate womanly counsel enforced +by those narratives of real life that are more interesting than any +fiction: it may be only the periodical return of gifts and kindness, +and the store of family histories that no one else can tell; but we all +owe something to such an aunt or uncle--the fairy godmothers of real +life. + +The benefits which Sam and Dot reaped from Aunt Penelope's visits may +be summed up under the heads of presents and stories, with a general +leaning to indulgence in the matters of punishment, lessons, and going +to bed, which perhaps is natural to aunts and uncles who have no +positive responsibilities in the young people's education, and are not +the daily sufferers by the lack of due discipline. + +Aunt Penelope's presents were lovely. Aunt Penelope's stories were +charming. There was generally a moral wrapped up in them, like the +motto in a cracker-bonbon; but it was quite in the inside, so to speak, +and there was abundance of smart paper and sugar-plums. + +All things considered, it was certainly most proper that the +much-injured Dot should be dressed out in her best, and have access to +dessert, the dining-room, and Aunt Penelope, whilst Sam was kept +up-stairs. And yet it was Dot who (her first burst of grief being over) +fought stoutly for his pardon all the time she was being dressed, and +was afterwards detected in the act of endeavouring to push fragments of +raspberry tart through the nursery keyhole. + +"You GOOD thing!" Sam emphatically exclaimed, as he heard her in fierce +conflict on the other side of the door with the nurse who found +her--"You GOOD thing! leave me alone, for I deserve it." + +He really was very penitent He was too fond of Dot not to regret the +unexpected degree of distress he had caused her; and Dot made much of +his penitence in her intercessions in the drawing-room. + +"Sam is so very sorry," she said; "he says he knows he deserves it. I +think he ought to come down. He is so _very_ sorry!" + +Aunt Penelope, as usual, took the lenient side, joining her entreaties +to Dot's, and it ended in Master Sam's being hurriedly scrubbed and +brushed, and shoved into his black velvet suit, and sent down-stairs, +rather red about the eyelids, and looking very sheepish. + +"Oh, Dot!" he exclaimed, as soon as he could get her into a corner, "I +am so very, very sorry! particularly about the tea-things." + +"Never mind," said Dot, "I don't care; and I've asked for a story, and +we're going into the library." As Dot said this, she jerked her head +expressively in the direction of the sofa, where Aunt Penelope was just +casting on stitches preparatory to beginning a pair of her famous +ribbed socks for Papa, whilst she gave to Mamma's conversation that +sympathy which (like her knitting-needles) was always at the service of +her large circle of friends. Dot anxiously watched the bow on the top +of her cap as it danced and nodded with the force of Mamma's +observations. At last it gave a little chorus of jerks, as one should +say, "Certainly, undoubtedly." And then the story came to an end, and +Dot, who had been slowly creeping nearer, fairly took Aunt Penelope by +the hand, and carried her off, knitting and all, to the library. + +"Now, please," said Dot, when she had struggled into a chair that was +too tall for her. + +"Stop a minute!" cried Sam, who was perched in the opposite one, "the +horse-hair tickles my legs." + +"Put your pocket-handkerchief under them, as I do," said Dot. +"_Now_, Aunt Penelope." + +"No, wait," groaned Sam; "it isn't big enough; it only covers one leg." + +Dot slid down again, and ran to Sam. + +"Take my handkerchief for the other." + +"But what will you do?" said Sam. + +"Oh, I don't care," said Dot, scrambling back into her place. "Now, +Aunty, please." + +And Aunt Penelope began. + + +"THE LAND OF LOST TOYS. + +"I suppose people who have children transfer their childish follies and +fancies to them, and become properly sedate and grown-up. Perhaps it is +because I am an old maid, and have none, that some of my nursery whims +stick to me, and I find myself liking things, and wanting things, quite +out of keeping with my cap and time of life. For instance. Anything in +the shape of a toy-shop (from a London bazaar to a village window, with +Dutch dolls, leather balls, and wooden battledores) quite unnerves me, +so to speak. When I see one of those boxes containing a jar, a churn, a +kettle, a pan, a coffee-pot, a cauldron on three legs, and sundry +dishes, all of the smoothest wood, and with the immemorial red flower +on one side of each vessel, I fairly long for an excuse for playing +with them, and for trying (positively for the last time) if the lids +_do_ come off, and whether the kettle will (literally, as well as +metaphorically) hold water. Then if, by good or ill luck, there is a +child flattening its little nose against the window with longing eyes, +my purse is soon empty; and as it toddles off with a square parcel +under one arm, and a lovely being in black ringlets and white tissue +paper in the other, I wish that I were worthy of being asked to join +the ensuing play. Don't suppose there is any generosity in this. I have +only done what we are all glad to do. I have found an excuse for +indulging a pet weakness. As I said, it is not merely the new and +expensive toys that attract me; I think my weakest corner is where the +penny boxes lie, the wooden tea-things (with the above-named flower in +miniature), the soldiers on their lazy tongs, the nine-pins, and the +tiny farm. + +"I need hardly say that the toy booth in a village fair tries me very +hard. It tried me in childhood, when I was often short of pence, and +when 'the Feast' came once a year. It never tried me more than on one +occasion, lately, when I was re-visiting my old home. + +"It was deep Midsummer, and the Feast. I had children with me of course +(I find children, somehow, wherever I go), and when we got into the +fair, there were children of people whom I had known as children, with +just the same love for a monkey going up one side of a yellow stick and +coming down the other, and just as strong heads for a giddy-go-round on +a hot day and a diet of peppermint lozenges, as their fathers and +mothers before them. There were the very same names--and here and there +it seemed the very same faces--I knew so long ago. A few shillings were +indeed well expended in brightening those familiar eyes: and then there +were the children with me.... Besides, there really did seem to be an +unusually nice assortment of things, and the man was very intelligent +(in reference to his wares):.... Well, well! It was two o'clock P.M. +when we went in at one end of that glittering avenue of drums, dolls, +trumpets, accordions, workboxes, and what not; but what o'clock it was +when I came out at the other end, with a shilling and some coppers in +my pocket, and was cheered, I can't say, though I should like to have +been able to be accurate about the time, because of what followed. + +"I thought the best thing I could do was to get out of the fair at +once, so I went up the village and struck off across some fields into a +little wood that lay near. (A favourite walk in old times.) As I turned +out of the booth, my foot struck against one of the yellow sticks of +the climbing monkeys. The monkey was gone, and the stick broken. It set +me thinking as I walked along. + +"What an untold number of pretty and ingenious things one does (not +wear out in honourable wear and tear, but) utterly lose, and wilfully +destroy, in one's young days--things that would have given pleasure to +so many more young eyes, if they had been kept a little longer--things +that one would so value in later years, if some of them had survived +the dissipating and destructive days of Nurserydom. I recalled a young +lady I knew, whose room was adorned with knick-knacks of a kind I had +often envied. They were not plaster figures, old china, wax-work +flowers under glass, or ordinary ornaments of any kind. They were her +old toys. Perhaps she had not had many of them, and had been the more +careful of those she had. She had certainly been very fond of them, and +had kept more of them than any one I ever knew. A faded doll slept in +its cradle at the foot of her bed. A wooden elephant stood on the +dressing-table, and a poodle that had lost his bark put out a +red-flannel tongue with quixotic violence at a windmill on the opposite +corner of the mantelpiece. Everything had a story of its own. Indeed +the whole room must have been redolent with the sweet story of +childhood, of which the toys were the illustrations, or like a poem of +which the toys were the verses. She used to have children to play with +them sometimes, and this was a high honour. She is married now, and has +children of her own, who on birthdays and holidays will forsake the +newest of their own possessions to play with 'mamma's toys.' + +"I was roused from these recollections by the pleasure of getting into +the wood. + +"If I have a stronger predilection than my love for toys, it is my love +for woods, and, like the other, it dates from childhood. It was born +and bred with me, and I fancy will stay with me till I die. The +soothing scents of leaf-mould, moss, and fern (not to speak of +flowers)--the pale green veil in spring, the rich shade in summer, the +rustle of the dry leaves in autumn, I suppose an old woman may enjoy +all these, my dears, as well as you. But I think I could make 'fairy +jam' of hips and haws in acorn cups now, if any child would be +condescending enough to play with me. "_This_ wood, too, had +associations. + +"I strolled on in leisurely enjoyment, and at last seated myself at the +foot of a tree to rest. I was hot and tired; partly with the mid-day +heat and the atmosphere of the fair, partly with the exertion of +calculating change in the purchase of articles ranging in price from +three farthings upwards. The tree under which I sat was an old friend. +There was a hole at its base that I knew well. Two roots covered with +exquisite moss ran out from each side, like the arms of a chair, and +between them there accumulated year after year a rich, though tiny +store of dark leaf-mould. We always used to say that fairies lived +within, though I never saw anything go in myself but wood-beetles. +There was one going in at that moment. + +"How little the wood was changed! I bent my head for a few seconds, +and, closing my eyes, drank in the delicious and suggestive scents of +earth and moss about the dear old tree. I had been so long parted from +the place that I could hardly believe that I was in the old familiar +spot. Surely it was only one of the many dreams in which I had played +again beneath those trees! But when I re-opened my eyes there was the +same hole, and, oddly enough, the same beetle or one just like it. I +had not noticed till that moment how much larger the hole was than it +used to be in my young days. + +"'I suppose the rain and so forth wears them away in time,' I said +vaguely. + +"'I suppose it does,' said the beetle politely; 'will you walk in?' + +"I don't know why I was not so overpoweringly astonished as you would +imagine. I think I was a good deal absorbed in considering the size of +the hole, and the very foolish wish that seized me to do what I had +often longed to do in childhood, and creep in. I _had_ so much +regard for propriety as to see that there was no one to witness the +escapade. Then I tucked my skirts round me, put my spectacles into my +pocket for fear they should get broken, and in I went. + +"I must say one thing. A wood is charming enough (no one appreciates it +more than myself), but, if you have never been there, you have no idea +how much nicer it is inside than on the surface. Oh, the mosses--the +gorgeous mosses! The fretted lichens! The fungi like flowers for +beauty, and the flowers like nothing you have ever seen! + +"Where the beetle went to I don't know. I could stand up now quite +well, and I wandered on till dusk in unwearied admiration. I was among +some large beeches as it grew dark, and was beginning to wonder how I +should find my way (not that I had lost it, having none to lose), when +suddenly lights burst from every tree, and the whole place was +illuminated. The nearest approach to this scene that I ever witnessed +above ground was in a wood near the Hague in Holland. There, what look +like tiny glass tumblers holding floating wicks, are fastened to the +trunks of the fine old trees, at intervals of sufficient distance to +make the light and shade mysterious, and to give effect to the full +blaze when you reach the spot where hanging chains of lamps illuminate +the 'Pavilion' and the open space where the band plays, and where the +townsfolk assemble by hundreds to drink coffee and enjoy the music. I +was the more reminded of the Dutch 'bosch' because, after wandering +some time among the lighted trees, I heard distant sounds of music, and +came at last upon a glade lit up in a similar manner, except that the +whole effect was incomparably more brilliant. + +"As I stood for a moment doubting whether I should proceed, and a good +deal puzzled about the whole affair, I caught sight of a large spider +crouched up in a corner with his stomach on the ground and his knees +above his head, as some spiders do sit, and looking at me, as I +fancied, through a pair of spectacles. (About the spectacles I do not +feel sure. It may have been two of his bent legs in apparent connection +with his prominent eyes.) I thought of the beetle, and said civilly, +'Can you tell me, sir, if this is Fairyland?' The spider took off his +spectacles (or untucked his legs), and took a sideways run out of his +corner. + +"'Well,' he said, 'it's a Province. The fact is, it's the Land of Lost +Toys. You haven't such a thing as a fly anywhere about you, have you?' + +"'No,' I said, 'I'm sorry to say I have not.' This was not strictly +true, for I was not at all sorry; but I wished to be civil to the old +gentleman, for he projected his eyes at me with such an intense (I had +almost said greedy) gaze, that I felt quite frightened. + +"'How did you pass the sentries?' he inquired. + +"'I never saw any,' I answered. + +"'You couldn't have seen anything if you didn't see them,' he said; +'but perhaps you don't know. They're the glow-worms. Six to each tree, +so they light the road, and challenge the passers-by. Why didn't they +challenge you?' + +"'I don't know,' I began, 'unless the beetle--' + +"'I don't like beetles,' interrupted the spider, stretching each leg in +turn by sticking it up above him, 'all shell, and no flavour. You never +tried walking on anything of that sort, did you?' and he pointed with +one leg to a long thread that fastened a web above his head. + +"'Certainly not,' said I. + +"'I'm afraid it wouldn't bear you,' he observed slowly. + +"'I'm quite sure it wouldn't,' I hastened to reply. I wouldn't try for +worlds. It would spoil your pretty work in a moment. Good-evening.' + +"And I hurried forward. Once I looked back, but the spider was not +following me. He was in his hole again, on his stomach, with his knees +above his head, and looking (apparently through his spectacles) down +the road up which I came. + +"I soon forgot him in the sight before me. I had reached the open place +with the lights and the music; but how shall I describe the spectacle +that I beheld? + +"I have spoken of the effect of a toy-shop on my feelings. Now imagine +a toy-fair, brighter and gayer than the brightest bazaar ever seen, +held in an open glade, where forest-trees stood majestically behind the +glittering stalls, and stretched their gigantic arms above our heads, +brilliant with a thousand hanging lamps. At the moment of my entrance +all was silent and quiet. The toys lay in their places looking so +incredibly attractive that I reflected with disgust that all my ready +cash, except one shilling and some coppers, had melted away amid the +tawdry fascinations of a village booth. I was counting the coppers +(sevenpence halfpenny), when all in a moment a dozen sixpenny fiddles +leaped from their places and began to play, accordions of all sizes +joined them, the drumsticks beat upon the drums, the penny trumpets +sounded, and the yellow flutes took up the melody on high notes, and +bore it away through the trees. It was weird fairy-music, but quite +delightful. The nearest approach to it that I know of above ground is +to hear a wild dreamy air very well whistled to a pianoforte +accompaniment. + +"When the music began, all the toys rose. The dolls jumped down and +began to dance. The poodles barked, the pannier donkeys wagged their +ears, the wind-mills turned, the puzzles put themselves together, the +bricks built houses, the balls flew from side to side, the battledores +and shuttlecocks kept it up among themselves, and the skipping-ropes +went round, the hoops ran off, and the sticks ran after them, the +cobbler's wax at the tails of all the green frogs gave way, and they +jumped at the same moment, whilst an old-fashioned go-cart ran madly +about with nobody inside. It was most exhilarating. + +"I soon became aware that the beetle was once more at my elbow. + +"'There are some beautiful toys here,' I said. + +"'Well, yes,' he replied, 'and some odd-looking ones too. You see, +whatever has been really used by any child as a plaything gets a right +to come down here in the end; and there is some very queer company, I +assure you. Look there.' + +"I looked, and said, 'It seems to be a potato.' + +"'So it is,' said the beetle. 'It belonged to an Irish child in one of +your great cities. But to whom the child belonged I don't know, and I +don't think he knew himself. He lived in the corner of a dirty, +overcrowded room, and into this corner, one day, the potato rolled. It +was the only plaything he ever had. He stuck two cinders into it for +eyes, scraped a nose and mouth, and loved it. He sat upon it during the +day, for fear it should be taken from him, but in the dark he took it +out and played with it. He was often hungry, but he never ate that +potato. When he died it rolled out of the corner, and was swept into +the ashes. Then it came down here.' + +"'What a sad story!' I exclaimed. + +"The beetle seemed in no way affected. + +"'It is a curious thing,' he rambled on, 'that potato takes quite a +good place among the toys. You see, rank and precedence down here is +entirely a question of age; that is, of the length of time that any +plaything has been in the possession of a child; and all kinds of ugly +old things hold the first rank; whereas the most costly and beautiful +works of art have often been smashed or lost by the spoilt children of +rich people in two or three days. If you care for sad stories, there is +another queer thing belonging to a child who died.' + +"It appeared to be a large sheet of canvas with some strange kind of +needlework upon it. + +"'It belonged to a little girl in a rich household,' the beetle +continued; 'she was an invalid, and difficult to amuse. We have lots of +her toys, and very pretty ones too. At last some one taught her to make +caterpillars in wool-work. A bit of work was to be done in a certain +stitch and then cut with scissors, which made it look like a hairy +caterpillar. The child took to this, and cared for nothing else. Wool +of every shade was procured for her, and she made caterpillars of all +colours. Her only complaint was that they did not turn into +butterflies. However, she was a sweet, gentle-tempered child, and she +went on, hoping that they would do so, and making new ones. One day she +was heard talking and laughing in her bed for joy. She said that all +the caterpillars had become butterflies of many colours, and that the +room was full of them. In that happy fancy she died.' + +"'And the caterpillars came down here?' + +"'Not for a long time,' said the beetle; 'her mother kept them while +_she_ lived, and then they were lost and came down. No toys come +down here till they are broken or lost.' + +"'What are those sticks doing here?' I asked. + +"The music had ceased, and all the toys were lying quiet. Up in a +corner leaned a large bundle of walking-sticks. They are often sold in +toy-shops, but I wondered on what grounds they came here. + +"'Did you ever meet with a too benevolent old gentleman wondering where +on earth his sticks go to?' said the beetle. 'Why do they lend them to +their grandchildren? The young rogues use them as hobby-horses and lose +them, and down they come, and the sentinels cannot stop them. The real +hobby-horses won't allow them to ride with them, however. There was a +meeting on the subject. Every stick was put through an examination. +"Where is your nose? Where is your mane? Where are your wheels?" The +last was a poser. Some of them had got noses, but none of them had got +wheels. So they were not true hobby-horses. Something of the kind +occurred with the elder-whistles.' + +"'The what?' I asked. + +"'Whistles that boys make of elder-sticks with the pith scooped out,' +said the beetle. 'The real instruments would not allow them to play +with them. The elder-whistles said they would not have joined had they +been asked. They were amateurs, and never played with professionals. So +they have private concerts with the combs and curl-papers. But, bless +you, toys of this kind are endless here! Teetotums made of old cotton +reels, tea-sets of acorn cups, dinner-sets of old shells, monkeys made +of bits of sponge, all sorts of things made of breastbones and +merrythoughts, old packs of cards that are always building themselves +into houses and getting knocked down when the band begins to play, +feathers, rabbits' tails--' + +"'Ah! I have heard about the rabbits' tails,' I said. + +"'There they are,' the beetle continued; 'and when the band plays you +will see how they skip and run. I don't believe you would find out that +they had no bodies, for my experience of a warren is, that when rabbits +skip and run it is the tails chiefly that you do see. But of all the +amateur toys the most successful are the boats. We have a lake for our +craft, you know, and there's quite a fleet of boats made out of old +cork floats in fishing villages. Then, you see, the old bits of cork +have really been to sea, and seen a good deal of service on the +herring-nets, and so they quite take the lead of the smart shop ships, +that have never been beyond a pond or a tub of water. But that's an +exception. Amateur toys are mostly very dowdy. Look at that box.' + +"I looked, thought I must have seen it before, and wondered why a very +common-looking box without a lid should affect me so strangely, and why +my memory should seem struggling to bring it back out of the past. +Suddenly it came to me--it was our old Toy Box. + +"I had completely forgotten that nursery institution till recalled by +the familiar aspect of the inside, which was papered with proof-sheets +of some old novel on which black stars had been stamped by way of +ornament. Dim memories of how these stars, and the angles of the box, +and certain projecting nails interfered with the letter-press and +defeated all attempts to trace the thread of the nameless narrative, +stole back over my brain; and I seemed once more, with my head in the +Toy Box, to beguile a wet afternoon by apoplectic endeavours to follow +the fortunes of Sir Charles and Lady Belinda, as they took a favourable +turn in the left-hand corner at the bottom of the trunk. + +"'What are you staring at?' said the beetle. + +"'It's my old Toy Box!' I exclaimed. + +"The beetle rolled on to his back, and struggled helplessly with his +legs: I turned him over. (Neither the first nor the last time of my +showing that attention to beetles.) + +"'That's right,' he said, 'set me on my legs. What a turn you gave me! +You don't mean to say you have any toys here? If you have, the sooner +you make your way home the better.' + +"'Why?' I inquired. + +"'Well,' he said, 'there's a very strong feeling in the place. The toys +think that they are ill-treated, and not taken care of by children in +general. And there is some truth in it. Toys come down here by scores +that have been broken the first day. And they are all quite resolved +that if any of their old masters or mistresses come this way they shall +be punished.' + +"'How will they be punished?' I inquired. + +"'Exactly as they did to their toys, their toys will do to them. All is +perfectly fair and regular.' + +"'I don't know that I treated mine particularly badly,' I said; 'but I +think I would rather go.' + +"'I think you'd better,' said the beetle. 'Good-evening!' and I saw him +no more. + +"I turned to go, but somehow I lost the road. At last, as I thought, I +found it, and had gone a few steps when I came on a detachment of +wooden soldiers, drawn up on their lazy tongs. I thought it better to +wait till they got out of the way, so I turned back, and sat down in a +corner in some alarm. As I did so, I heard a click, and the lid of a +small box covered with mottled paper burst open, and up jumped a figure +in a blue striped shirt and a rabbit-skin beard, whose eyes were +intently fixed on me. He was very like my old Jack-in-a-box. My back +began to creep, and I wildly meditated escape, frantically trying at +the same time to recall whether it were I or my brother who originated +the idea of making a small bonfire of our own one 5th of November, and +burning the old Jack-in-a-box for Guy Fawkes, till nothing was left of +him but a twirling bit of red-hot wire and a strong smell of frizzled +fur. At this moment he nodded to me and spoke. + +"'Oh! that's you, is it?' he said. + +"'No, it's not,' I answered hastily; for I was quite demoralized by +fear and the strangeness of the situation. + +"'Who is it, then?' he inquired. + +"'I'm sure I don't know,' I said; and really I was so confused that I +hardly did. + +"'Well, _we_ know,' said the Jack-in-a-box, 'and that's all that's +needed. Now, my friends,' he continued, addressing the toys who had +begun to crowd round us, 'whoever recognizes a mistress and remembers a +grudge--the hour of our revenge has come. Can we any of us forget the +treatment we received at her hands? No! When we think of the ingenious +fancy, the patient skill, that went to our manufacture; that fitted the +delicate joints and springs, laid on the paint and varnish, and gave +back-hair-combs and ear-rings to our smallest dolls, we feel that we +deserved more care than we received. When we reflect upon the kind +friends who bought us with their money, and gave us away in the +benevolence of their hearts, we know that for their sakes we ought to +have been longer kept and better valued. And when we remember that the +sole object of our own existence was to give pleasure and amusement to +our possessors, we have no hesitation in believing that we deserved a +handsomer return than to have had our springs broken, our paint +dirtied, and our earthly careers so untimely shortened by wilful +mischief or fickle neglect. My friends, the prisoner is at the bar.' + +"'I am not,' I said; for I was determined not to give in as long as +resistance was possible. But as I said it I became aware, to my +unutterable amazement, that I was inside the go-cart. How I got there +is to this moment a mystery to me--but there I was. + +"There was a great deal of excitement about the Jack-in-a-box's speech. +It was evident that he was considered an orator, and, indeed, I have +seen counsel in a real court look wonderfully like him. Meanwhile, my +old toys appeared to be getting together. I had no idea that I had had +so many. I had really been very fond of most of them, and my heart beat +as the sight of them recalled scenes long forgotten, and took me back +to childhood and home. There were my little gardening tools, and my +slate, and there was the big doll's bedstead, that had a real mattress, +and real sheets and blankets, all marked with the letter D, and a +work-basket made in the blind school, and a shilling School of Art +paint-box, and a wooden doll we used to call the Dowager, and +innumerable other toys which I had forgotten till the sight of them +recalled them to my memory, but which have again passed from my mind. +Exactly opposite to me stood the Chinese mandarin, nodding as I had +never seen him nod since the day when I finally stopped his +performances by ill-directed efforts to discover how he did it. + +"And what was that familiar figure among the rest, in a yellow silk +dress and maroon velvet cloak and hood trimmed with black lace? How +those clothes recalled the friends who gave them to me! And surely this +was no other than my dear doll Rosa--the beloved companion of five +years of my youth, whose hair I wore in a locket after I was grown up. +No one could say I had ill-treated _her_. Indeed, she fixed her +eyes on me with a most encouraging smile--but then she always smiled, +her mouth was painted so. + +"'All whom it may concern, take notice,' shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at +this point, 'that the rule of this honourable court is tit for tat.' + +"'Tit, tat, tumble two,' muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How +well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit +tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!) + +"'What are you talking about?' said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; 'if you +have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I told +you before.' + +"'---- and five make nine,' added the slate promptly, 'and six are +fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven--there we go again.' I wonder why I +never get up to the top of a line of figures right. It will never prove +at this rate.' + +"'His mind is lost in calculations,' said the Jack-in-a-box, +'besides--between ourselves--he has been "cracky" for some time. Let +some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a +sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her. I +reserve _my_ judgment to the last.' + +"'I know what that will be,' thought I; 'oh dear! oh dear! that a +respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!' + +"'Let the prisoner drink a gallon of iced water at once, and then be +left to die of thirst.' + +"The horrible idea that the speaker might possibly have the power to +enforce his sentence diverted my attention from the slate, and I looked +round. In front of the Jack-in-a-box stood a tiny red flower-pot and +saucer, in which was a miniature cactus. My thoughts flew back to a +bazaar in London where, years ago, a stand of these fairy plants had +excited my warmest longings, and where a benevolent old gentleman whom +I had not seen before, and never saw again, bought this one and gave it +to me. Vague memories of his directions for repotting and tending it +reproached me from the past. My mind misgave me that after all it had +died a dusty death for lack of water. True, the cactus tribe being +succulent plants do not demand much moisture, but I had reason to fear +that, in this instance, the principle had been applied too far, and +that after copious baths of cold spring water in the first days of its +popularity it had eventually perished by drought. I suppose I looked +guilty, for it nodded its prickly head towards me, and said, 'Ah! you +know me. You remember what I was, do you? Did you ever think of what I +might have been? There was a fairy rose which came down here not long +ago--a common rose enough, in a broken pot patched with string and +white paint. It had lived in a street where it was the only pure +beautiful thing your eyes could see. When the girl who kept it died +there were eighteen roses upon it. She was eighteen years old, and they +put the roses in the coffin with her when she was buried. That was +worth living for. Who knows what I might have done? And what right had +you to cut short a life that might have been useful?' + +"Before I could think of a reply to these too just reproaches, the +flower-pot enlarged, the plant shot up, putting forth new branches as +it grew; then buds burst from the prickly limbs, and in a few moments +there hung about it great drooping blossoms of lovely pink, with long +white tassels in their throats. I had been gazing at it some time in +silent and self-reproachful admiration, when I became aware that the +business of this strange court was proceeding, and that the other toys +were pronouncing sentence against me. + +"'Tie a string round her neck and take her out bathing in the brooks,' +I heard an elderly voice say in severe tones. It was the Dowager Doll. +She was inflexibly wooden, and had been in the family for more than one +generation. + +"'It's not fair,' I exclaimed, 'the string was only to keep you from +being carried away by the stream. The current is strong and the bank +steep by the Hollow Oak Pool, and you had no arms or legs. You were old +and ugly, but you would wash, and we loved you better than many waxen +beauties.' + +"'Old and ugly!' shrieked the Dowager. 'Tear her wig off! Scrub the +paint off her face! Flatten her nose on the pavement! Saw off her legs +and give her no crinoline! Take her out bathing, I say, and bring her +home in a wheelbarrow with fern roots on the top of her.' + +"I was about to protest again, when the paint-box came forward, and +balancing itself in an artistic, undecided kind of way on two +camel's-hair brushes which seemed to serve it for feet, addressed the +Jack-in-a-box. + +"'Never dip your paint into the water. Never put your brush into your +mouth--" + +"'That's not evidence,' said the Jack-in-a-box. + +"'Your notions are crude,' said the paint-box loftily; 'it's in print, +and here, all of it, or words to that effect;' with which he touched +the lid, as a gentleman might lay his hand upon his heart. + +"'It's not evidence,' repeated the Jack-in-a-box. 'Let us proceed.' + +"'Take her to pieces and see what she's made of, if you please,' +tittered a pretty German toy that moved to a tinkling musical +accompaniment. 'If her works are available after that it will be an era +in natural science.' + +"The idea tickled me, and I laughed. + +"'Hard-hearted wretch!' growled the Dowager Doll. + +"'Dip her in water and leave her to soak on a white soup-plate,' said +the paint-box; 'if that doesn't soften her feelings, deprive me of my +medal from the School of Art!' + +"'Give her a stiff neck!' muttered the mandarin. 'Ching Fo! give her a +stiff neck.' + +"'Knock her teeth out,' growled the rake in a scratchy voice; and then +the tools joined in chorus. + +"'Take her out when it's fine and leave her out when it's wet, and lose +her in-- + +"'The coal-hole,' said the spade. + +"'The hay-field,' said the rake. + +"'The shrubbery,' said the hoe. + +"This difference of opinion produced a quarrel, which in turn seemed to +affect the general behaviour of the toys, for a disturbance arose which +the Jack-in-a-box vainly endeavoured to quell. A dozen voices shouted +for a dozen different punishments, and (happily for me) each toy +insisted upon its own wrongs being the first to be avenged, and no one +would hear of the claims of any one else being attended to for an +instant. Terrible sentences were passed, which I either failed to hear +through the clamour then, or have forgotten now. I have a vague idea +that several voices cried that I was to be sent to wash in somebody's +pocket; that the work-basket wished to cram my mouth with unfinished +needlework; and that through all the din the thick voice of my old +leather ball monotonously repeated: + +"'Throw her into the dust-hole.' + +"Suddenly a clear voice pierced the confusion, and Rosa tripped up. + +"'My dears,' she began, 'the only chance of restoring order is to +observe method. Let us follow our usual rule of precedence. I claim the +first turn as the prisoner's oldest toy.' + +"'That you are not, Miss,' snapped the Dowager; 'I was in the family +for fifty years.' + +"'In the family. Yes, ma'am; but you were never her doll in particular. +I was her very own, and she kept me longer than any other plaything. My +judgment must be first.' + +"'She is right,' said the Jack-in-a-box; 'and now let us get on. The +prisoner is delivered unreservedly into the hands of our trusty and +well-beloved Rosa--doll of the first class--for punishment according to +the strict law of tit for tat.' + +"'I shall request the assistance of the pewter tea-things,' said Rosa, +with her usual smile. 'And now, my love,' she added, turning to me, 'we +will come and sit down.' + +"Where the go-cart vanished to I cannot remember, nor how I got out of +it; I only know that I suddenly found myself free, and walking away +with my hand in Rosa's. I remember vacantly feeling the rough edge of +the stitches on her flat kid fingers, and wondering what would come +next. + +"'How very oddly you hold your feet, my dear,' she said; 'you stick out +your toes in such an eccentric fashion, and you lean on your legs as if +they were table legs, instead of supporting yourself by my hand. Turn +your heels well out, and bring your toes together. You may even let +them fold over each other a little; it is considered to have a pretty +effect among dolls,' + +"Under one of the big trees Miss Rosa made me sit down, propping me +against the trunk as if I should otherwise have fallen; and in a moment +more a square box of pewter tea-things came tumbling up to our feet, +where the lid burst open, and all the tea-things fell out in perfect +order; the cups on the saucers, the lid on the teapot, and so on. + +"'Take a little tea, my love?' said Miss Rosa, pressing a pewter teacup +to my lips. + +"I made believe to drink, but was only conscious of inhaling a draught +of air with a slight flavour of tin. In taking my second cup I was +nearly choked with the teaspoon, which got into my throat. + +"'What are you doing?' roared the Jack-in-a-box at this moment; 'you +are not punishing her.' + +"'I am treating her as she treated me,' answered Rosa, looking as +severe as her smile would allow. 'I believe that tit for tat is the +rule, and that at present it is my turn.' + +"'It will be mine soon,' growled the Jack-in-a-box, and I thought of +the bonfire with a shudder. However, there was no knowing what might +happen before his turn did come, and meanwhile I was in friendly hands. +It was not the first time my dolly and I had sat together under a tree, +and, truth to say, I do not think she had any injuries to avenge. + +"'When your wig comes off,' murmured Rosa, as she stole a pink kid arm +tenderly round my neck, 'I'll make you a cap with blue and white +rosettes, and pretend that you have had a fever.' + +"I thanked her gratefully, and was glad to reflect that I was not yet +in need of an attention which I distinctly remember having shown to her +in the days of her dollhood. Presently she jumped up. + +"'I think you shall go to bed now, dear,' she said, and, taking my hand +once more, she led me to the big doll's bedstead, which, with its +pretty bed-clothes and white dimity furniture, looked tempting enough +to a sleeper of suitable size. It could not have supported one quarter +of my weight. + +"'I have not made you a night-dress, my love,' Rosa continued; 'I am +not fond of my needle, you know. _You_ were not fond of your needle, I +think, I fear you must go to bed in your clothes, my dear.' + +"'You are very kind,' I said, 'but I am not tired, and--it would not +bear my weight.' + +"'Pooh! pooh!' said Rosa. 'My love! I remember passing one Sunday in it +with the rag-doll, and the Dowager, and the Punch and Judy (the amount +of pillow their two noses took up I shall never forget!), and the old +doll that had nothing on, because her clothes were in the dolls' wash +and did not get ironed on Saturday night, and the Highlander, whose +things wouldn't come off, and who slept in his kilt. Not bear you? +Nonsense! You must go to bed, my dear. I've got other things to do, and +I can't leave you lying about.' + +"'The whole lot of you did not weigh one quarter of what I do,' I cried +desperately. 'I cannot and will not get into that bed; I should break +it all to pieces, and hurt myself into the bargain.' + +"'Well, if you will not go to bed I must put you there,' said Rosa, and +without more ado, she snatched me up in her kid arms, and laid me down. + +"Of course it was just as I expected. I had hardly touched the two +little pillows (they had a meal-baggy smell from being stuffed with +bran), when the woodwork gave way with a crash, and I +fell--fell--fell-- + +"Though I fully believed every bone in my body to be broken, it was +really a relief to get to the ground. As soon as I could, I sat up, and +felt myself all over. A little stiff, but, as it seemed, unhurt. Oddly +enough, I found that I was back again under the tree; and more strange +still, it was not the tree where I sat with Rosa, but the old oak-tree +in the little wood. Was it all a dream? The toys had vanished, the +lights were out, the mosses looked dull in the growing dusk, the +evening was chilly, the hole no larger than it was thirty years ago, +and when I felt in my pocket for my spectacles I found that they were +on my nose. + +"I have returned to the spot many times since, but I never could induce +a beetle to enter into conversation on the subject, the hole remains +obstinately impassable, and I have not been able to repeat my visit to +the Land of Lost Toys. + +"When I recall my many sins against the playthings of my childhood, I +am constrained humbly to acknowledge that perhaps this is just as +well." + + * * * * * + + +SAM SETS UP SHOP. + +"I think you might help me, Dot," cried Sam, in dismal and rather +injured tones. + +It was the morning following the day of the earthquake, and of Aunt +Penelope's arrival. Sam had his back to Dot, and his face to the fire, +over which indeed he had bent for so long that he appeared to be half +roasted. + +"What do you want?" asked Dot, who was working at a doll's night-dress +that had for long been partly finished, and now seemed in a fair way to +completion. + +"It's the glue-pot," Sam continued. "It does take so long to boil. And +I have been stirring at the glue with a stick for ever so long to get +it to melt. It is very hot work. I wish you would take it for a bit. +It's as much for your good as for mine." + +"Is it?" said Dot. + +"Yes, it is, Miss," cried Sam. "You must know I've got a splendid +idea." + +"Not another earthquake, I hope?" said Dot, smiling. + +"Now, Dot, that's truly unkind of you. I thought it was to be +forgotten." + +"So it is," said Dot, getting up. "I was only joking. What is the +idea?" + +"I don't think I shall tell you till I have finished my shop. I want to +get to it now, and I wish you would take a turn at the glue-pot." + +Sam was apt to want a change of occupation. Dot, on the other hand, was +equally averse from leaving what she was about till it was finished, so +they suited each other like Jack Sprat and his wife. It had been an +effort to Dot to leave the night-dress which she had hoped to finish at +a sitting; but when she was fairly set to work on the glue business she +never moved till the glue was in working order, and her face as red as +a ripe tomato. + +By this time Sam had set up business in the window-seat, and was +fastening a large paper inscription over his shop. It ran thus:-- + + * * * * * + + MR. SAM. + +_Dolls' Doctor and Toymender to Her Majesty +the Queen, and all other Potentates_. + + * * * * * + +"Splendid!" shouted Dot, who was serving up the glue as if it had been +a kettle of soup, and who looked herself very like an over-toasted +cook. + +Sam took the glue, and began to bustle about. + +"Now, Dot, get me all the broken toys, and we'll see what we can do. +And here's a second splendid idea. Do you see that box? Into that we +shall put all the toys that are quite spoiled and cannot possibly be +mended. It is to be called the Hospital for Incurables. I've got a +placard for that. At least it's not written yet, but here's the paper, +and perhaps you would write it, Dot, for I am tired of writing, and I +want to begin the mending." + +"For the future," he presently resumed, "when I want a doll to scalp or +behead, I shall apply to the Hospital for Incurables, and the same with +any other toy that I want to destroy. And you will see, my dear Dot, +that I shall be quite a blessing to the nursery; for I shall attend the +dolls gratis, and keep all the furniture in repair." + +Sam really kept his word. He had a natural turn for mechanical work, +and, backed by Dot's more methodical genius, he prolonged the days of +the broken toys by skilful mending, and so acquired an interest in them +which was still more favourable to their preservation. When his +birthday came round, which was some months after these events, Dot +(assisted by Mamma and Aunt Penelope) had prepared for him a surprise +that was more than equal to any of his own "splendid ideas." The whole +force of the toy cupboard was assembled on the nursery table, to +present Sam with a fine box of joiner's tools as a reward for his +services, Papa kindly acting as spokesman on the occasion. + +And certain gaps in the china tea-set, some scars on the dolls' faces, +and a good many new legs, both amongst the furniture and the animals, +are now the only remaining traces of Sam's earthquake. + + * * * * * + + +THREE CHRISTMAS TREES. + +This is a story of Three Christmas Trees. The first was a real one, but +the child we are to speak of did not see it. He saw the other two, but +they were not real; they only existed in his fancy. The plot of the +story is very simple; and, as it has been described so early, it is +easy for those who think it stupid to lay the book down in good time. + +Probably every child who reads this has seen one Christmas tree or +more; but in the small town of a distant colony with which we have to +do, this could not at one time have been said. Christmas-trees were +then by no means so universal, even in England, as they now are, and in +this little colonial town they were unknown. Unknown, that is, till the +Governor's wife gave her great children's party. At which point we will +begin the story. + +The Governor had given a great many parties in his time. He had +entertained big wigs and little wigs, the passing military, and the +local grandees. Everybody who had the remotest claim to attention had +been attended to: the ladies had had their full share of balls and +pleasure parties: only one class of the population had any complaint to +prefer against his hospitality; but the class was a large one--it was +the children. However, he, was a bachelor, and knew little or nothing +about little boys and girls: let us pity rather than blame him. At last +he took to himself a wife; and among the many advantages of this +important step, was a due recognition of the claims of these young +citizens. It was towards happy Christmas-tide that "the Governor's +amiable and admired lady" (as she was styled in the local newspaper) +sent out notes for her first children's party. At the top of the +note-paper was a very red robin, who carried a blue Christmas greeting +in his mouth, and at the bottom--written with A.D.C.'s best +flourish--were the magic words, _A Christmas Tree_. In spite of the +flourishes--partly perhaps because of them--the A.D.C.'s handwriting, +though handsome, was rather illegible. But for all this, most of the +children invited contrived to read these words, and those who could not +do so were not slow to learn the news by hearsay. There was to be a +Christmas Tree! It would be like a birthday party, with this above +ordinary birthdays, that there were to be presents for every one. One +of the children invited lived in a little white house, with a spruce +fir-tree before the door. The spruce fir did this good service to the +little house, that it helped people to find their way to it; and it +was by no means easy for a stranger to find his way to any given house +in this little town, especially if the house were small and white, and +stood in one of the back streets. For most of the houses were small, +and most of them were painted white, and back streets ran parallel with +each other, and had no names, and were all so much alike that it was +very confusing. For instance, if you had asked the way to Mr. +So-and-So's, it is very probable that some friend would have directed +you as follows: "Go straight forward and take the first turning to your +left, and you will find that there are four streets, which run at right +angles to the one you are in, and parallel with each other. Each of +them has got a big pine in it--one of the old forest trees. Take the +last street but one, and the fifth white house you come to is Mr. +So-and-So's. He has green blinds and a coloured servant." You would not +always have got such clear directions as these, but with them you would +probably have found the house at last, partly by accident, partly by the +blinds and coloured servant. Some of the neighbours affirmed that the +little white house had a name; that all the houses and streets had names, +only they were traditional and not recorded anywhere; that very few +people knew them, and nobody made any use of them. The name of the little +white house was said to be Trafalgar Villa, which seemed so inappropriate +to the modest peaceful little home, that the man who lived in it tried to +find out why it had been so called. He thought that his predecessor must +have been in the navy, until he found that he had been the owner of what +is called a "dry-goods store," which seems to mean a shop where things +are sold which are not good to eat or drink--such as drapery. At last +somebody said, that as there was a public-house called the "Duke of +Wellington" at the corner of the street, there probably had been a nearer +one called "The Nelson," which had been burnt down, and that the man who +built "The Nelson" had built the house with the spruce fir before it, +and that so the name had arisen. An explanation which was just so far +probable, that public-houses and fires were of frequent occurrence in +those parts. + +But this has nothing to do with the story. Only we must say, as we said +before, and as we should have said had we been living there then, the +child we speak of lived in the little white house with one spruce fir +just in front of it. + +Of all the children who looked forward to the Christmas tree, he looked +forward to it the most intensely. He was an imaginative child, of a +simple, happy nature, easy to please. His father was an Englishman, and +in the long winter evenings he would tell the child tales of the old +country, to which his mother would listen also. Perhaps the parents +enjoyed these stories the most. To the boy they were new, and +consequently delightful, but to the parents they were old; and as +regards some stories, that is better still. + +"What kind of a bird is this on my letter?" asked the boy on the day +which brought the Governor's lady's note of invitation. "And oh! what +is a Christmas tree?" + +"The bird is an English robin," said his father. "It is quite another +bird to that which is called a robin here: it is smaller and rounder, +and has a redder breast and bright dark eyes, and lives and sings at +home through the winter. A Christmas tree is a fir-tree--just such a +one as that outside the door--brought into the house and covered with +lights and presents. Picture to yourself our fir-tree lighted up with +tapers on all the branches, with dolls, and trumpets, and bon-bons, and +drums, and toys of all kinds hanging from it like fir-cones, and on the +tip-top shoot a figure of a Christmas Angel in white, with a star upon +its head." + +"Fancy!" said the boy. + +And fancy he did. Every day he looked at the spruce fir, and tried to +imagine it laden with presents, and brilliant with tapers, and thought +how wonderful must be that "old country"--_Home_, as it was called, even +by those who had never seen it--where the robins were so very red, and +where at Christmas the fir-trees were hung with toys instead of cones. + +It was certainly a pity that, two days before the party, an original +idea on the subject of snowmen struck one of the children who used to +play together, with their sleds and snow shoes, in the back streets. +The idea was this: That instead of having a commonplace snowman, whose +legs were obliged to be mere stumps, for fear he should be top-heavy, +and who could not walk, even with them; who, in fact, could do nothing +but stand at the corner of the street, holding his impotent stick, and +staring with his pebble eyes, till he was broken to pieces or +ignominiously carried away by a thaw,--that, instead of this, they +should have a real, live snowman, who should walk on competent legs, to +the astonishment, and (happy thought!) perhaps to the alarm of the +passers-by. This delightful novelty was to be accomplished by covering +one of the boys of the party with snow till he looked as like a real +snowman as circumstances would admit. At first everybody wanted to be +the snowman, but, when it came to the point, it was found to be so much +duller to stand still and be covered up than to run about and work, +that no one was willing to act the part. At last it was undertaken by +the little boy from the Fir House. He was somewhat small, but then he +was so good-natured he would always do as he was asked. So he stood +manfully still, with his arms folded over a walking-stick upon his +breast, whilst the others heaped the snow upon him. The plan was not so +successful as they had hoped. The snow would not stick anywhere except +on his shoulders, and when it got into his neck he cried with the cold; +but they were so anxious to carry out their project, that they begged +him to bear it "just a little longer"; and the urchin who had devised +the original idea wiped the child's eyes with his handkerchief, and +(with that hopefulness which is so easy over other people's matters) +"dared say that when all the snow was on, he wouldn't feel it." +However, he did feel it, and that so severely that the children were +obliged to give up the game, and, taking the stick out of his stiff +little arms, to lead him home. + +It appears that it is with snowmen as with some other men in +conspicuous positions. It is easier to find fault with them than to +fill their place. + +The end of this was a feverish cold, and, when the day of the party +came, the ex-snowman was still in bed. It is due to the other children +to say that they felt the disappointment as keenly as he did, and that +it greatly damped the pleasure of the party for them to think that they +had prevented his sharing in the treat. The most penitent of all was +the deviser of the original idea. He had generously offered to stay at +home with the little patient, which was as generously refused; but the +next evening he was allowed to come and sit on his bed, and describe it +all for the amusement of his friend. He was a quaint boy, this urchin, +with a face as broad as an American Indian's, eyes as bright as a +squirrel's, and all the mischief in life lurking about him, till you +could see roguishness in the very folds of his hooded Indian winter +coat of blue and scarlet. In his hand he brought the sick child's +present: a dray with two white horses, and little barrels that took off +and on, and a driver, with wooden joints, a cloth coat, and everything, +in fact, that was suitable to the driver of a brewer's dray, except +that he had blue boots and earrings, and that his hair was painted in +braids like a lady's, which is clearly the fault of the doll +manufacturers, who will persist in making them all of the weaker sex. + +"And what was the Christmas tree like?" asked the invalid. + +"Exactly like the fir outside your door," was the reply. "Just about +that size, and planted in a pot covered with red cloth. It was kept in +another room till after tea, and then when the door was opened it was +like a street fire in the town at night--such a blaze of light--candles +everywhere! And on all the branches the most beautiful presents. I got +a drum and a penwiper." + +"Was there an angel?" the child asked. + +"Oh, yes!" the boy answered. "It was on the tip-top branch, and it was +given to me, and I brought it for you, if you would like it; for, you +know, I am so very, very sorry I thought of a snowman and made you ill, +and I do love you, and beg you to forgive me." + +And the roguish face stooped over the pillow to be kissed; and out of a +pocket in the hooded coat came forth the Christmas Angel. In the face +it bore a strong family likeness to the drayman, but its feet were +hidden in folds of snowy muslin, and on its head glittered a tinsel +star. + +"How lovely!" said the child. "Father told me about this. I like it +best of all. And it is very kind of you, for it is not your fault that +I caught cold. I should have liked it if we could have done it, but I +think to enjoy being a snowman, one should be snow all through." + +They had tea together, and then the invalid was tucked up for the +night. The dray was put away in the cupboard, but he took the angel to +bed with him. + +And so ended the first of the Three Christmas Trees. + + * * * * * + +Except for a warm glow from the wood fire in the stove, the room was +dark; but about midnight it seemed to the child that a sudden blaze of +light filled the chamber. At the same moment the window curtains were +drawn aside, and he saw that the spruce fir had come close up to the +panes and was peeping in. Ah! how beautiful it looked! It had become a +Christmas tree. Lighted tapers shone from every familiar branch, toys +of the most fascinating appearance hung like fruit, and on the tip-top +shoot there stood the Christmas Angel. He tried to count the candles, +but somehow it was impossible. When he looked at them they seemed to +change places--to move--to become like the angel, and then to be +candles again, whilst the flames nodded to each other and repeated the +blue greeting of the robin, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" +Then he tried to distinguish the presents, but, beautiful as the toys +looked, he could not exactly discover what any of them were, or choose +which he would like best. Only the Angel he could see clearly--so +clearly! It was more beautiful than the doll under his pillow; it had a +lovely face like his own mother's, he thought, and on its head gleamed +a star far brighter than tinsel. Its white robes waved with the flames +of the tapers, and it stretched its arms towards him with a smile. + +"I am to go and choose my present," thought the child; and he called +"Mother! Mother dear! please open the window." + +But his mother did not answer. So he thought he must get up himself, +and with an effort he struggled out of bed. + +But when he was on his feet, everything seemed changed! Only the +firelight shone upon the walls, and the curtains were once more firmly +closed before the window. It had been a dream, but so vivid that in his +feverish state he still thought it must be true, and dragged the +curtains back to let in the glorious sight again. The firelight shone +upon a thick coating of frost upon the panes, but no further could he +see, so with all his strength he pushed the window open and leaned out +into the night. + +The spruce fir stood in its old place; but it looked very beautiful in +its Christmas dress. Beneath it lay a carpet of pure white. The snow +was clustered in exquisite shapes upon its plumy branches; wrapping the +tree top with its little cross shoots, as a white robe might wrap a +figure with outstretched arms. + +There were no tapers to be seen, but northern lights shot up into the +dark blue sky, and just over the fir-tree shone a bright, bright star. + +"Jupiter looks well to-night," said the old Professor in the town +observatory, as he fixed his telescope; but to the child it seemed as +the star of the Christmas Angel. + +His mother had really heard him call, and now came and put him back to +bed again. And so ended the second of the Three Christmas Trees. + + * * * * * + +It was enough to have killed him, all his friends said; but it did not. +He lived to be a man, and--what is rarer--to keep the faith, the +simplicity, the tender-heartedness, the vivid fancy of his childhood. +He lived to see many Christmas trees "at home," in that old country +where the robins are redbreasts, and sing in winter. There a heart as +good and gentle as his own became one with his; and once he brought his +young wife across the sea to visit the place where he was born. They +stood near the little white house, and he told her the story of the +Christmas trees. + +"This was when I was a child," he added. + +"But that you are still," said she; and she plucked a bit of the +fir-tree and kissed it, and carried it away. + +He lived to tell the story to his children, and even to his +grandchildren; but he never was able to decide which of the two was +the more beautiful--the Christmas Tree of his dream, or the Spruce Fir +as it stood in the loveliness of that winter night. + +This is told, not that it has anything to do with any of the Three +Christmas Trees, but to show that the story is a happy one, as is right +and proper; that the hero lived, and married, and had children, and was +as prosperous as good people, in books, should always be. + +Of course he died at last. The best and happiest of men must die; and +it is only because some stories stop short in their history, that every +hero is not duly buried before we lay down the book. + +When death came for our hero he was an old man. The beloved wife, some +of his children, and many of his friends had died before him, and of +those whom he had loved there were fewer to leave than to rejoin. He +had had a short illness, with little pain, and was now lying on his +deathbed in one of the big towns in the North of England. His youngest +son, a clergy-man, was with him, and one or two others of his children, +and by the fire sat the doctor. + +The doctor had been sitting by the patient, but now that he could do no +more for him he had moved to the fire; and they had taken the ghastly, +half-emptied medicine bottles from the table by the bedside, and had +spread it with a fair linen cloth, and had set out the silver vessels +of the Supper of the Lord. The old man had been "wandering" somewhat +during the day. He had talked much of going home to the old country, +and with the wide range of dying thoughts he had seemed to mingle +memories of childhood with his hopes of Paradise. At intervals he was +clear and collected--one of those moments had been chosen for his last +sacrament--and he had fallen asleep with the blessing in his ears. + +He slept so long and so peacefully that the son almost began to hope +that there might be a change, and looked towards the doctor, who still +sat by the fire with his right leg crossed over his left. The doctor's +eyes were also on the bed, but at that moment he drew out his watch and +looked at it with an air of professional conviction, which said, "It's +only a question of time." Then he crossed his left leg over his right, +and turned to the fire again. Before the right leg should be tired, all +would be over. The son saw it as clearly as if it had been spoken, and +he too turned away and sighed. + +As they sat, the bells of a church in the town began to chime for +midnight service, for it was Christmas Eve, but they did not wake the +dying man. He slept on and on. + +The doctor dozed. The son read in the Prayer Book on the table, and one +of his sisters read with him. Another, from grief and weariness, slept +with her head upon his shoulder. Except for a warm glow from the fire, +the room was dark. Suddenly the old man sat up in bed, and, in a strong +voice, cried with inexpressible enthusiasm, + +"_How beautiful!_" + +The son held back his sisters, and asked quietly, + +"_What_, my dear Father?" + +"The Christmas Tree!" he said in a low, eager voice. "Draw back the +curtains." + +They were drawn back; but nothing could be seen, and still the old man +gazed as if in ecstasy. + +"Light!" he murmured. "The Angel! the Star!" + +Again there was silence; and then he stretched forth his hands, and +cried passionately, + +"The Angel is beckoning to me! Mother! Mother dear! Please open the +window." + +The sash was thrown open, and all eyes turned involuntarily where those +of the dying man were gazing. There was no Christmas tree--no tree at +all. But over the house-tops the morning star looked pure and pale in +the dawn of Christmas Day. For the night was past, and above the +distant hum of the streets the clear voices of some waits made the +words of an old carol heard--words dearer for their association than +their poetry: + + "While shepherds watched their flocks by night, + All seated on the ground, + The Angel of the Lord came down, + And glory shone around." + +When the window was opened, the soul passed; and when they looked back +to the bed the old man had lain down again, and, like a child, was +smiling in his sleep--his last sleep. + +And this was the Third Christmas Tree. + + * * * * * + + + + +AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD. + + +"Tell us a story," said the children, "a sad one, if you please, and a +little true. But, above all, let it end badly, for we are tired of +people who live happily ever after." + +"I heard one lately," said the old man who lived in the wood; "it is +founded on fact, and is a sad one also; but whether it ends badly or no +I cannot pretend to say. That is a matter of taste: what is a bad +ending?" + +"A story ends badly," said the children with authority, "when people +die, and nobody marries anybody else, especially if it is a prince and +princess." + +"A most lucid explanation," said the old man. "I think my story will +do, for the principal character dies, and there is no wedding." + +"Tell it, tell it!" cried his hearers, "and tell us also where you got +it from." + +"Who knows the riches of a wood in summer?" said the old man. "In +summer, do I say? In spring, in autumn, or in winter either. Who knows +them? You, my children? Well, well. Better than some of your elders, +perchance. You know the wood where I live; the hollow tree that will +hold five children, and Queen Mab knows how many fairies. (What a +castle it makes! And if it had but another floor put into it, with a +sloping ladder--like one of the round towers of Ireland--what a house +for children to live in! With no room for lesson-books, grown-up +people, or beds!) + +"You know the way to the hazel copse, and the place where the wild +strawberries grow. You know where the wren sits on her eggs, and, like +good children, pass by with soft steps and hushed voices, that you may +not disturb that little mother. You know (for I have shown you) where +the rare fern grows--a habitat happily yet unnoted in scientific pages. +_We_ never add its lovely fronds to our nosegays, and if we move a +root it is but to plant it in another part of the wood, with as much +mystery and circumspection as if we were performing some solemn +druidical rite. It is to us as a king in hiding, and the places of its +abode we keep faithfully secret. It will be thus held sacred by us +until, with all the seed its untouched fronds have scattered, and all +the offshoots we have propagated, it shall have become as plentiful as +Heaven intends all beautiful things to be. Every one is not so +scrupulous. There are certain ladies and gentlemen who picnic near my +cottage in the hot weather, and who tell each other that they love a +wood. Most of these good people have nevertheless neither eyes nor ears +for what goes on around them, except that they hear each other, and see +the cold collation. They will picnic there summer after summer, and not +know whether they sit under oaks or ashes, beeches or elms. All birds +sing for them the same song. Tell _them_ that such a plant is rare +in the neighbourhood, that there are but few specimens of it, and it +will not long be their fault if there are any. Does any one direct them +to it, they tear it ruthlessly up and carry it away. If by any chance a +root is left, it is left so dragged and pulled and denuded of earth, +that there is small chance that it will survive. Probably, also, the +ravished clump dies in the garden or pot to which it is transplanted, +either from neglect, or from ignorance of the conditions essential to +its life; and the rare plant becomes yet rarer. Oh! without doubt they +love a wood. It gives more shade than the largest umbrella, and is +cheaper for summer entertainment than a tent: there you get canopy and +carpet, fuel and water, shade and song, and beauty--all gratis; and +these are not small matters when one has invited a large party of one's +acquaintance. There are insects, it is true, which somewhat disturb our +friends; and as they do not know which sting, and which are harmless, +they kill all that come within their reach, as a safe general +principle. The town boys, too! They know the wood--that is to say, they +know where the wild fruits grow, and how to chase the squirrel, and rob +the birds' nests, and snare the birds. Well, well, my children; to know +and love a wood truly, it may be that one must live in it as I have +done; and then a lifetime will scarcely reveal all its beauties, or +exhaust its lessons. But even then, one must have eyes that see, and +ears that hear, or one misses a good deal. It was in the wood that I +heard this story that I shall tell you." + +"How did you hear it?" asked the children. + +"A thrush sang it to me one night." + +"One night?" said the children. "Then you mean a nightingale." + +"I mean a thrush," said the old man. "Do I not know the note of one +bird from another? I tell you that pine-tree by my cottage has a legend +of its own, and the topmost branch is haunted. Must all legends be +about the loves and sorrows of our self-satisfied race alone?" + +"But did you really and truly hear it?" they asked. "I heard it," said +the old man. "But, as I tell you, one hears and one hears. I don't say +that everybody would have heard it, merely by sleeping in my chamber; +but, for the benefit of the least imaginative, I will assure you that +it is founded on fact." + +"Begin! begin!" shouted the children. + +"Once upon a time," said the old man, "there was a young thrush, who +was born in that beautiful dingle where we last planted the ---- fern. +His home-nest was close to the ground, but the lower one is, the less +fear of falling; and in woods, the elevation at which you sleep is a +matter of taste, and not of expense or gentility. He awoke to life when +the wood was dressed in the pale fresh green of early summer; and +believing, like other folk, that his own home was at least the +principal part of the world, earth seemed to him so happy and so +beautiful an abode, that his heart felt ready to burst with joy. The +ecstasy was almost pain, till wings and a voice came to him. Then, one +day, when, after a grey morning, the sun came out at noon, drawing the +scent from the old pine that looks in at my bedroom window, his joy +burst forth, after long silence, into song, and flying upwards, he sat +on the topmost branch of the pine, and sang as loud as he could sing to +the sun and the blue sky. + +"'Joy! joy!' he sang. 'Fresh water and green woods, ambrosial sunshine +and sunflecked shade, chattering brooks and rustling leaves, glade, and +sward, and dell. Lichens and cool mosses, feathered ferns and flowers. +Green leaves! Green leaves! Summer! summer! summer!' + +"It was monotonous, but every word came from the singer's heart, which +is not always the case. Thenceforward, though he slept near the ground, +he went up every day to this pine, as to some sacred high place, and +sang the same song, of which neither he nor I were ever weary. + +"Let one be ever so inoffensive, however, one is not long left in peace +in this world, even in a wood. The thrush sang too loudly of his simple +happiness, and some boys from the town heard him and snared him, and +took him away in a dirty cloth cap, where he was nearly smothered. The +world is certainly not exclusively composed of sunshine, and green +woods, and odorous pines. He became almost senseless during the hot +dusty walk that led to the town. It was a seaport town, about two miles +from the wood, a town of narrow, steep streets, picturesque old houses, +and odours compounded of tar, dead fish, and many other scents less +agreeable than forest perfumes. The thrush was put into a small +wicker-cage in an upper room, in one of the narrowest and steepest of +the streets. "'I shall die to-night,' he piped. But he did not. He +lived that night, and for several nights and days following. The boys +took small care of him, however. He was often left without food, +without water, and always with too little air. Two or three times they +tried to sell him, but he was not bought, for no one could hear him +sing. One day he was hung outside the window, and partly owing to the +sun and fresh air, and partly because a woman was singing in the +street, he began to carol his old song. + +"The woman was a street singer. She was even paler, thinner, and more +destitute-looking than such women usually are. In some past time there +had been beauty and feeling in her face, but the traces of both were +well-nigh gone. An indifference almost amounting to vacancy was there +now, and, except that she sang, you might almost have fancied her a +corpse. In her voice, also, there had once been beauty and feeling, and +here again the traces were small indeed. From time to time, she was +stopped by fits of coughing, when an ill-favoured hunchback, who +accompanied her on a tambourine, swore and scowled at her. She sang a +song of sentiment, with a refrain about + + 'Love and truth, + And joys of youth--' + +on which the melody dwelt and quavered as if in mockery. As she sang, a +sailor came down the street. His collar was very large, his trousers +were very wide, his hat hung on the back of his head more as an +ornament than for shelter; and he had one of the roughest faces and the +gentlest hearts that ever went together since Beauty was entertained by +the Beast. His hands were in his pockets, where he could feel one +shilling and a penny, all the spare cash that remained to him after a +friendly stroll through the town. When he saw the street singer, he +stopped, pulled off his hat, and scratched his head, as was his custom +when he was puzzled or interested. + +"'It's no good keeping an odd penny,' he said to himself; 'poor thing, +she looks bad enough!' And, bringing the penny to the surface out of +the depths of his pocket, he gave it to the woman. The hunchback came +forward to take it, but the sailor passed him with a shove of his +elbow, and gave it to the singer, who handed it over to her companion +without moving a feature, and went on with her song. + +"'I'd like to break every bone in your ugly body,' muttered the sailor, +with a glance at the hunchback, who scowled in return. + +"'I shall die of this close street, and of all I have suffered,' +thought the thrush. + +"'Green leaves! green leaves!' he sang, for it was the only song he +knew. + +"'My voice is gone,' thought the hunchback's companion. 'He'll beat me +again to-night; but it can't last long: + + "Love and truth, + And joys of youth"'-- + +she sang, for that was the song she had learned; and it was not her +fault that it was inappropriate. + +"But the ballad-singer's captivity was nearly at an end. When the +hunchback left her that evening to spend the sailor's penny with the +few others which she had earned, he swore that when he came back he +would make her sing louder than she had done all day. Her face showed +no emotion, less than it did when he saw it hours after, when beauty +and feeling seemed to have returned to it in the peace of death, when +he came back and found the cage empty, and that the long-prisoned +spirit had flown away to seek the face of love and truth indeed. + +"But how about the thrush? + +"The sailor had scarcely swallowed the wrath which the hunchback had +stirred in him, when his ear was caught by the song of the thrush above +him. + +"'You sing uncommon well, pretty one,' he said, stopping and putting +his hat even farther back than usual to look up. He was one of those +good people who stop a dozen times in one street, and look at +everything as they go along; whereby you may see three times as much of +life as other folk, but it is a terrible temptation to spend money. It +was so in this instance. The sailor looked till his kindly eye +perceived that the bird was ill-cared for. + +"'It should have a bit of sod, it _should_,' he said emphatically, +taking his hat off, and scratching his head again; 'and there's not a +crumb of food on board. Maybe, they don't understand the ways of birds +here. It would be a good turn to mention it.' + +"With this charitable intention he entered the house, and when he left +it, his pocket was empty, and the thrush was carried tenderly in his +handkerchief. + +"'The canary died last voyage,' he muttered apologetically to himself, +'and the money always does go somehow or other.' + +"The sailor's hands were about three times as large and coarse as those +of the boy who had carried the thrush before, but they seemed to him +three times more light and tender--they were handy and kind, and this +goes farther than taper fingers. + +"The thrush's new home was not in the narrow streets. It was in a small +cottage in a small garden at the back of the town. The canary's old +cage was comparatively roomy, and food, water, and fresh turf were +regularly supplied to him. He could see green leaves too. There was an +apple-tree in the garden, and two geraniums, a fuchsia, and a tea-rose +in the window. Near the tea-rose an old woman sat in the sunshine. She +was the sailor's mother, and looked very like a tidily-kept +window-plant herself. She had a little money of her own, which gave her +a certain dignity, and her son was very good to her; and so she dwelt +in considerable comfort, dividing her time chiefly between reading in +the big Bible, knitting socks for Jack, and raising cuttings in bottles +of water. She had heard of hothouses and forcing-frames, but she did +not think much of them. She believed a bottle of water to be the most +natural, because it was the oldest method she knew of, and she thought +no good came of new-fangled ways, and trying to outdo Nature. + +"'Slow and sure is best,' she said, and stuck to her own system. + +"'What's that, my dear?' she asked, when the sailor came in and held up +the handkerchief. He told her. + +"'You're always a-laying out your money on something or other,' said +the old lady, who took the privilege of her years to be a little testy. +'What did you give for _that_?' + +"'A shilling, ma'am.' + +"'Tst! tst! tst!' said the old lady, disapprovingly. + +"'Now, Mother, don't shake that cap of yours off your head,' said the +sailor. 'What's a shilling? If I hadn't spent it, I should have changed +it; and once change a shilling, and it all dribbles away in coppers, +and you get nothing for it. But spend it in the lump, and you get +something you want. That's what I say.' + +"'_I_ want no more pets,' said the old lady, stiffly. + +"'Well, you won't be troubled with this one long,' said her son; 'it'll +go with me, and that's soon enough.' + +"Any allusion to his departure always melted the old lady, as Jack well +knew. She became tearful, and begged him to leave the thrush with her. + +"'You know, my dear, I've always looked to your live things as if they +were Christians; and loved them too (unless it was that monkey that I +never _could_ do with!). Leave it with me, my dear. I'd never bother +myself with a bird on board ship, if I was you.' + +"'That's because you've got a handsome son of your own, old lady,' +chuckled the sailor; 'I've neither chick nor child, ma'am, remember, +and a man must have something to look to. The bird'll go with me.' + +"And so it came to pass that just when the thrush was becoming +domesticated, and almost happy at the cottage, one morning the sailor +brought him fresh turf and groundsel, besides his meal-cake, and took +the cage down. And the old woman kissed the wires, and bade the bird +good-bye, and blessed her son, and prayed Heaven to bring him safe home +again; and they went their way. + +"The forecastle of a steam-ship (even of a big one) is a poor exchange +for a snug cottage to any one but a sailor. To Jack, the ship was home. +_He_ had never lived in a wood, and carolled in tree-tops. He preferred +blue to green, and pine masts to pine trees; and he smoked his pipe +very comfortably in the forecastle, whilst the ship rolled to and fro, +and swung the bird's cage above his head. To the thrush it was only an +imprisonment that grew worse as time went on. Each succeeding day made +him pine more bitterly for his native woods--for fresh air and green +leaves, and the rest and quiet, and sweet perfumes, and pleasant sounds +of country life. His turf dried up, his groundsel withered, and no more +could be got. He longed even to be back with the old woman--to see the +apple-tree, and the window-plants, and be still. The shudder of the +screw, the blasts of hot air from the engine and cook's galley, the +ceaseless jangling, clanging, pumping noises, and all the indescribable +smells which haunt a steam-ship, became more wearisome day by day. Even +when the cage was hung outside, the, sea breeze seemed to mock him with +its freshness. The rich blue of the waters gave him no pleasure, his +eyes failed with looking for green, the bitter, salt spray vexed him, +and the wind often chilled him to the bone, whilst the sun shone, and +icebergs gleamed upon the horizon. + +"The sailor had been so kind a master, that the thrush had become +deeply attached to him, as birds will; and while at the cottage he had +scarcely fretted after his beloved wood. But with every hour of the +voyage, home-sickness came more strongly upon him, and his heart went +back to the nest, and the pine-top, and the old home. When one sleeps +soundly, it is seldom that one remembers one's dreams; but when one is +apt to be roused by an unexpected lurch of the ship, by the moan of a +fog-whistle, or the scream of an engine, one becomes a light sleeper, +and the visions of the night have a strange reality, and are easily +recalled. And now the thrush always dreamt of home. + +"One day he was hung outside. It was not a very fine day, but he looked +drooping, and the pitying sailor brought him out, to get some air. His +heart was sore with home-sickness, and he watched the sea-birds +skimming up and down with envious eyes. It seemed all very well for +poor men, who hadn't so much as a wing to carry them over the water, to +build lumbering sea-nests, with bodies to float in the water like fish, +and wings of canvas to carry them along, and to help it out with noisy +steam-engines--and to endure it all. But for him, who could fly over a +hundred tree-tops before a man could climb to one, it was hard to swing +outside a ship, and to watch other birds use their wings, when his, +which quivered to fly homewards, could only flutter against the bars. +As he thought, a roll of the ship threw him forward, the wind shook the +wires of the cage, and loosened the fastening; and, when the vessel +righted, the cage-door swung slowly open. + +"At this moment, a ray of sunshine streaked the deep blue water, and a +gleaming sea bird, which had been sitting like a tuft of foam upon a +wave, rose with outstretched pinions, and soared away. It was too much. +With one shrill pipe of hope, the thrush fluttered from his cage, +spread his wings, and followed him. + +"When the sailor found that the wind was getting up, he came to take +the cage down, and then his grief was sore indeed. + +"'The canary died last voyage,' he said, sadly. 'The cage was bought on +a Friday, and I knew ill luck would come of it. I said so to Mother; +but the old lady says there's no such thing as luck, and she's +Bible-learned, if ever a woman was. "That's very true," says I, "but +if I'd the money for another cage, I wouldn't use this;" and I never +will again. Poor, bird! it was a sweet singer.' And he turned his face +aside. + +"'It may have the sense to come back,' said one of the crew. The sailor +scratched his head, and shook it sadly. + +"'Noah's bird came back to him, when she found no rest,' he said, 'but +I don't think mine will, Tom.' + +"He was right. The thrush returned no more. He did not know how wide +was the difference between his own strength and that of the bird he +followed. The sea-fowl cut the air with wings of tenfold power: he +swooped up and down, he stooped to fish, he rested on the ridges of the +dancing waves, and then, with one steady flight, he disappeared, and +the thrush was left alone. Other birds passed him, and flew about him, +and fished, and rocked upon the waters near him, but he held steadily +on. Ships passed him also, but too far away for him to rest upon; +whales spouted in the distance, and strange fowl screamed; but not a +familiar object broke the expanse of the cold sea. He did not know what +course he was taking. He hoped against hope that he was going home. +Although he was more faint and weary than he had ever yet been, he felt +no pain. The intensity of his hope to reach the old wood made +everything seem light; even at the last, when his wings were almost +powerless, he believed that they would bear him home, and was happy. +Already he seemed to rest upon the trees, the waters sounded in his +ears like the rustling of leaves, and the familiar scent of the +pine-tree seemed to him to come upon the breeze. + +"In this he was not wrong. A country of pine-woods was near; and land +was in sight, though too far away for him to reach it now. Not home, +but yet a land of wondrous summer beauty; of woods, and flowers, and +sun-flecked leaves--of sunshine more glowing than he had ever known--of +larger ferns, and deeper mosses, and clearer skies--a land, of balmy +summer nights, where the stars shine brighter than with us, and where +fireflies appear and vanish, like stars of a lower firmament, amid the +trees. As the sun broke out, the scent of pines came strong upon the +land breeze. A strange land, but the thrush thought it was his own. + +"'I smell woods,' he chirped faintly; 'I see the sun. This is home!' + +"All round him, the noisy crests of the fresh waves seemed to carol the +song he could no longer sing--'Home, home! fresh water and green woods, +ambrosial sunshine and sun-flecked shade, chattering brooks and +rustling leaves, glade and sward and dell, lichens and cool mosses, +feathered ferns and flowers. Green leaves! green leaves! Summer! +summer! summer!' + +"The slackened wings dropped, the dying eyes looked landward, and then +closed. But even as he fell, he believed himself sinking to rest on +Mother Earth's kindly bosom, and he did not know it, when the cold +waves buried him at sea." + +"Oh, then, he _did_ die!" cried the children, who, though they were tired +of stories that end happily, yet, when they heard it, liked a sad ending +no better than other children do (in which, by the bye, we hold them to +be in the right, and can hardly forgive ourselves for chronicling this +"ower true tale"). + +"Yes," said the old man, "he died; but it is said that the sweet +dingle which was his home--forsaken by the nightingale--is regarded by +birds as men regard a haunted house; for that at still summer midnight, +when other thrushes sleep, a shadowy form, more like a skeleton leaf +than a living bird, swings upon the tall tree-tops where he sat of old, +and, rapt in a happy ecstasy, sings a song more sweet and joyous than +thrush ever sang by day." + +"Have you heard it?" asked the children. + +The old man nodded. But not another word would he say. The children, +however, forthwith began to lay plans for getting into the wood some +mid-summer night, to test with their own ears the truth of his story, +and to hear the spectre thrush's song. Whether the authorities +permitted the expedition, and if not, whether the young people baffled +their vigilance--whether they heard the song, and if so, whether they +understood it--we are not empowered to tell here. + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHRISTMAS CRACKERS. + +A FANTASIA. + + +It was Christmas-eve in an old-fashioned country-house, where Christmas +was being kept with old-fashioned form and custom. It was getting late. +The candles swaggered in their sockets, and the yule log glowed +steadily like a red-hot coal. + +"The fire has reached his heart," said the tutor: "he is warm all +through. How red he is! He shines with heat and hospitality like some +warm-hearted old gentleman when a convivial evening is pretty far +advanced. To-morrow he will be as cold and grey as the morning after a +festival, when the glasses are being washed up, and the host is +calculating his expenses. Yes! you know it is so;" and the tutor nodded +to the yule log as he spoke; and the log flared and crackled in return, +till the tutor's face shone like his own. He had no other means of +reply. + +The tutor was grotesque-looking at any time. He was lank and meagre, +with a long body and limbs, and high shoulders. His face was +smooth-shaven, and his skin like old parchment stretched over high +cheek-bones and lantern jaws; but in their hollow sockets his eyes +gleamed with the changeful lustre of two precious gems. In the ruddy +firelight they were like rubies, and when he drew back into the shade +they glared green like the eyes of a cat. It must not be inferred from +the tutor's presence this evening that there were no Christmas holidays +in this house. They had begun some days before; and if the tutor had +had a home to go to, it is to be presumed that he would have gone. + +As the candles got lower, and the log flared less often, weird lights +and shades, such as haunt the twilight, crept about the room. The +tutor's shadow, longer, lanker, and more grotesque than himself, mopped +and mowed upon the wall beside him. The snapdragon burnt blue, and as +the raisin-hunters stirred the flaming spirit, the ghastly light made +the tutor look so hideous that the widow's little boy was on the eve of +howling, and spilled the raisins he had just secured. (He did not like +putting his fingers into the flames, but he hovered near the more +adventurous school-boys and collected the raisins that were scattered +on the table by the hasty _grabs_ of braver hands.) + +The widow was a relative of the house. She had married a Mr. Jones, and +having been during his life his devoted slave, had on his death +transferred her allegiance to his son. The late Mr. Jones was a small +man with a strong temper, a large appetite, and a taste for +drawing-room theatricals. So Mrs. Jones had called her son Macready; +"for," she said, "his poor papa would have made a fortune on the stage, +and I wish to commemorate his talents. Besides, Macready sounds better +with Jones than a commoner Christian name would do." + +But his cousins called him MacGreedy. + +"The apples of the enchanted garden were guarded by dragons. Many +knights went after them. One wished for the apples, but he did not like +to fight the dragons." + +It was the tutor who spoke from the dark corner by the fire-place. His +eyes shone like a cat's, and MacGreedy felt like a half-scared mouse, +and made up his mind to cry. He put his right fist into one eye, and +had just taken it out, and was about to put his left fist into the +other, when he saw that the tutor was no longer looking at him. So he +made up his mind to go on with the raisins, for one can have a peevish +cry at any time, but plums are not scattered broadcast every day. +Several times he had tried to pocket them, but just at the moment the +tutor was sure to look at him, and in his fright he dropped the +raisins, and never could find them again. So this time he resolved to +eat them then and there. He had just put one into his mouth when the +tutor leaned forward, and his eyes, glowing in the firelight, met +MacGreedy's, who had not even the presence of mind to shut his mouth, +but remained spellbound, with a raisin in his cheek. + +Flicker, flack! The school-boys stirred up snapdragon again, and with +the blue light upon his features the tutor made so horrible a grimace +that MacGreedy swallowed the raisin with a start. He had bolted it +whole, and it might have been a bread pill for any enjoyment he had of +the flavour. But the tutor laughed aloud. He certainly was an alarming +object, pulling those grimaces in the blue brandy glare; and +unpleasantly like a picture of Bogy himself with horns and a tail, in a +juvenile volume upstairs. True, there were no horns to speak of among +the tutor's grizzled curls, and his coat seemed to fit as well as most +people's on his long back, so that unless he put his tail in his +pocket, it is difficult to see how he could have had one. But then (as +Miss Letitia said) "With dress one can do anything and hide anything," +and on dress Miss Letitia's opinion was final. + +Miss Letitia was a cousin. She was dark, high-coloured, glossy-haired, +stout, and showy. She was as neat as a new pin, and had a will of her +own. Her hair was firmly fixed by bandoline, her garibaldis by an +arrangement which failed when applied to those of the widow, and her +opinions by the simple process of looking at everything from one point +of view. Her _forte_ was dress and general ornamentation; not that +Miss Letitia was extravagant--far from it. If one may use the +expression, she utilized for ornament a hundred bits and scraps that +most people would have wasted. But, like other artists, she saw +everything through the medium of her own art. She looked at birds with +an eye to hats, and at flowers with reference to evening parties. At +picture exhibitions and concerts she carried away jacket patterns and +bonnets in her head, as other people make mental notes of an aerial +effect, or a bit of fine instrumentation. An enthusiastic +horticulturist once sent Miss Letitia a cut specimen of a new flower. +It was a lovely spray from a lately-imported shrub. A botanist would +have pressed it--an artist must have taken its portrait--a poet might +have written a sonnet in praise of its beauty. Miss Letitia twisted a +piece of wire round its stem, and fastened it on to her black lace +bonnet. It came on the day of a review, when Miss Letitia had to appear +in a carriage, and it was quite a success. As she said to the widow, +"It was so natural that no one could doubt its being Parisian." + +"What a strange fellow that tutor is!" said the visitor. He spoke to +the daughter of the house, a girl with a face like a summer's day, and +hair like a ripe corn-field rippling in the sun. He was a fine young +man, and had a youth's taste for the sports and amusements of his age. +But lately he had changed. He seemed to himself to be living in a +higher, nobler atmosphere than hitherto. He had discovered that he was +poetical--he might prove to be a genius. He certainly was eloquent, he +could talk for hours, and did so--to the young lady with the sunshiny +face. They spoke on the highest subjects, and what a listener she was! +So intelligent and appreciative, and with such an exquisite _pose_ +of the head--it must inspire a block of wood merely to see such a +creature in a listening attitude. As to our young friend, he poured +forth volumes; he was really clever, and for her he became eloquent. +To-night he spoke of Christmas, of time-honoured custom and old +association; and what he said would have made a Christmas article for a +magazine of the first class. He poured scorn on the cold nature that +could not, and the affectation that would not, appreciate the domestic +festivities of this sacred season. What, he asked, could be more +delightful, more perfect than such a gathering as this, of the +family circle round the Christmas hearth? He spoke with feeling, and it +may be said with disinterested feeling, for he had not joined his +family circle himself this Christmas, and there was a vacant place by +the hearth of his own home. + +"He is strange," said the young lady (she spoke of the tutor in answer +to the above remark); "but I am very fond of him. He has been with us +so long he is like one of the family; though we know as little of his +history as we did on the day he came." + +"He looks clever," said the visitor. (Perhaps that is the least one can +say for a fellow-creature who shows a great deal of bare skull, and is +not otherwise good-looking.) + +"He is clever," she answered, "wonderfully clever; so clever and so odd +that sometimes I fancy he is hardly 'canny.' There is something almost +supernatural about his acuteness and his ingenuity, but they are so +kindly used; I wonder he has not brought out any playthings for us +to-night." + +"Playthings?" inquired the young man. + +"Yes; on birthdays or festivals like this he generally brings something +out of those huge pockets of his. He has been all over the world, and +he produces Indian puzzles, Japanese flower-buds that bloom in hot +water, and German toys with complicated machinery, which I suspect him +of manufacturing himself. I call him Godpapa Grosselmayer, after that +delightful old fellow in Hoffman's tale of the Nut Cracker." + +"What's that about crackers?" inquired the tutor, sharply, his eyes +changing colour like a fire opal. + +"I am talking of _Nussnacker und Mausekönig_," laughed the young lady. +"Crackers do not belong to Christmas; fireworks come on the 5th of +November." + +"Tut, tut!" said the tutor; "I always tell your ladyship that you are +still a tom-boy at heart, as when I first came, and you climbed trees +and pelted myself and my young students with horse-chestnuts. You think +of crackers to explode at the heels of timorous old gentlemen in a +November fog; but I mean bonbon crackers, coloured crackers, dainty +crackers--crackers for young people with mottoes of sentiment" (here +the tutor shrugged his high shoulders an inch or two higher, and +turned the palms of his hands outwards with a glance indescribably +comical)--"crackers with paper prodigies, crackers with +sweetmeats--_such_ sweetmeats!" He smacked his lips with a grotesque +contortion, and looked at Master McGreedy, who choked himself with +his last raisin, and forthwith burst into tears. + +The widow tried in vain to soothe him with caresses, but he only +stamped and howled the more. But Miss Letitia gave him some smart +smacks on the shoulders to cure his choking fit, and as she kept up the +treatment with vigour, the young gentleman was obliged to stop and +assure her that the raisin had "gone the right way" at last. "If he +were my child," Miss Letitia had been known to observe, with that +confidence which characterizes the theories of those who are not +parents, "I would, &c., &c., &c.;" in fact, Miss Letitia thought she +would have made a very different boy of him--as, indeed, I believe she +would. + +"Are crackers all that you have for us, sir?" asked one of the two +school-boys, as they hung over the tutor's chair. They were twins, +grand boys, with broad, good-humoured faces, and curly wigs, as like as +two puppy dogs of the same breed. They were only known apart by their +intimate friends, and were always together, romping, laughing, +snarling, squabbling, huffing and helping each other against the world. +Each of them owned a wiry terrier, and in their relations to each other +the two dogs (who were marvellously alike) closely followed the example +of their masters. + +"Do you not care for crackers, Jim?" asked the tutor. + +"Not much, sir. They do for girls: but, as you know, I care for nothing +but military matters. Do you remember that beautiful toy of yours--'The +Besieged City'? Ah! I liked that. Look out, Tom! you're shoving my arm. +Can't you stand straight, man?' + +"R-r-r-r--r-r, snap!" + +Tom's dog was resenting contact with Jim's dog on the hearthrug. There +was a hustle among the four, and then they subsided. + +"The Besieged City was all very well for you, Jim," said Tom, who meant +to be a sailor; "but please to remember that it admitted of no attack +from the sea; and what was there for me to do? Ah, sir! you are so +clever, I often think you could help me to make a swing with ladders +instead of single ropes, so that I could run up and down the rigging +whilst it was in full go." + +"That would be something like your fir-tree prank, Tom," said his +sister. "Can you believe," she added, turning to the visitor, "that Tom +lopped the branches of a tall young fir-tree all the way up, leaving +little bits for foothold, and then climbed up it one day in an awful +storm of wind, and clung on at the top, rocking backwards and forwards? +And when Papa sent word for him to come down, he said parental +authority was superseded at sea by the rules of the service. It was a +dreadful storm, and the tree snapped very soon after he got safe to the +ground." + +"Storm!" sneered Tom, "a capful of wind. Well, it did blow half a gale +at the last. But oh! it was glorious!" + +"Let us see what we can make of the crackers," said the tutor--and he +pulled some out of his pocket. They were put in a dish upon the table, +for the company to choose from; and the terriers jumped and snapped, +and tumbled over each other, for they thought that the plate contained +eatables. Animated by the same idea, but with quieter steps, Master +MacGreedy also approached the table. + +"The dogs are noisy," said the tutor, "too noisy. We must have +quiet--peace and quiet." His lean hand was once more in his pocket, and +he pulled out a box, from which he took some powder, which he scattered +on the burning log. A slight smoke now rose from the hot embers, and +floated into the room. Was the powder one of those strange compounds +that act upon the brain? Was it a magician's powder? Who knows? With it +came a sweet, subtle fragrance. It was strange--every one fancied he +had smelt it before, and all were absorbed in wondering what it was, +and where they had met with it. Even the dogs sat on their haunches +with their noses up, sniffing in a speculative manner. + +"It's not lavender," said the grandmother, slowly, "and it's not +rosemary. There is a something of tansy in it (and a very fine tonic +flavour too, my dears, though it's _not_ in fashion now). Depend upon it, +it's a potpourri, and from an excellent receipt, sir"--and the old lady +bowed courteously towards the tutor. "My mother made the best potpourri +in the county, and it was very much like this. Not quite, +perhaps, but much the same, much the same." + +The grandmother was a fine old gentlewoman "of the old school," as the +phrase is. She was very stately and gracious in her manners, daintily +neat in her person, and much attached to the old parson of the parish, +who now sat near her chair. All her life she had been very proud of her +fine stock of fair linen, both household and personal; and for many +years past had kept her own graveclothes ready in a drawer. They were +bleached as white as snow, and lay amongst bags of dried lavender and +potpourri. Many times had it seemed likely that they would be needed, +for the old lady had had severe illnesses of late, when the good parson +sat by her bedside, and read to her of the coming of the Bridegroom, +and of that "fine linen clean and white," which is "the righteousness +of the saints." It was of that drawer, with its lavender and potpourri +bags, that the scented smoke had reminded her. + +"It has rather an overpowering odour," said the old parson; "it is +suggestive of incense. I am sure I once smelt something like it in the +Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. It is very delicious." + +The parson's long residence in his parish had been marked by one great +holiday. With the savings of many years he had performed a pilgrimage +to the Holy Land; and it was rather a joke against him that he +illustrated a large variety of subjects by reference to his favourite +topic, the holiday of his life. + +"It smells of gunpowder," said Jim, decidedly, "and something else. I +can't tell what." + +"Something one smells in a seaport town," said Tom. + +"Can't be very delicious then," Jim retorted. + +"It's not _quite_ the same," piped the widow; "but it reminds me very +much of an old bottle of attar of roses that was given to me when I +was at school, with a copy of verses, by a young gentleman who was +brother to one of the pupils. I remember Mr. Jones was quite annoyed +when he found it in an old box, where I am sure I had not touched it +for ten years or more; and I never spoke to him but once, on +Examination Day (the young gentleman, I mean). And its like--yes it's +certainly like a hair-wash Mr. Jones used to use. I've forgotten what +it was called, but I know it cost fifteen shillings a bottle; and +Macready threw one over a few weeks before his dear papa's death, and +annoyed him extremely." + +Whilst the company were thus engaged, Master MacGreedy took advantage +of the general abstraction to secure half-a-dozen crackers to his own +share; he retired to a corner with them, where he meant to pick them +quietly to pieces by himself. He wanted the gay paper, and the motto, +and the sweetmeats; but he did not like the report of the cracker. And +then what he did want, he wanted all to himself. + +"Give us a cracker," said Master Jim, dreamily. + +The dogs, after a few dissatisfied snorts, had dropped from their +sitting posture, and were lying close together on the rug, dreaming and +uttering short commenting barks and whines at intervals. The twins were +now reposing lazily at the tutor's feet, and did not feel disposed to +exert themselves even so far as to fetch their own bonbons. + +"There's one," said the tutor, taking a fresh cracker from his pocket. +One end of it was of red and gold paper, the other of transparent green +stuff with silver lines. The boys pulled it. + + * * * * * + +The report was louder than Jim had expected. "The firing has begun," he +murmured, involuntarily; "steady, steady!" these last words were to his +horse, who seemed to be moving under him, not from fear, but from +impatience. What had been the red and gold paper of the cracker was now +the scarlet and gold lace of his own cavalry uniform. He knocked a +speck from his sleeve, and scanned the distant ridge, from which a thin +line of smoke floated solemnly away, with keen, impatient eyes. Were +they to stand inactive all the day? + +Presently the horse erects his head. His eyes sparkle--he pricks his +sensitive ears--his nostrils quiver with a strange delight. It is the +trumpet! Fan farrâ! Fan farrâ! The brazen voice speaks--the horses +move--the plumes wave--the helmets shine. On a summer's day they ride +slowly, gracefully, calmly down a slope, to Death or Glory. Fan farrâ! +Fan farrâ! Fan farrâ! + + * * * * * + +Of all this Master Tom knew nothing. The report of the cracker seemed +to him only an echo in his brain of a sound that had been in his ears +for thirty-six weary hours. The noise of a heavy sea beating against +the ship's side in a gale. It was over now, and he was keeping the +midnight watch on deck, gazing upon the liquid green of the waves, +which, heaving and seething after storm, were lit with phosphoric +light, and as the ship held steadily on her course, poured past at the +rate of twelve knots an hour in a silvery stream. Faster than any ship +can sail his thoughts travelled home; and as old times came back to +him, he hardly knew whether what he looked at was the phosphor-lighted +sea, or green gelatine paper barred with silver. And did the tutor +speak? Or was it the voice of some sea-monster sounding in his ears? + +"The spirits of the storm have gone below to make their report. The +treasure gained from sunk vessels has been reckoned, and the sea is +illuminated in honour of the spoil." + + * * * * * + +The visitor now took a cracker and held it to the young lady. Her end +was of white paper with a raised pattern; his of dark-blue gelatine +with gold stars. It snapped, the bonbon dropped between them, and the +young man got the motto. It was a very bald one-- + + "My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?" + +He was ashamed to show it to her. What could be more meagre? One could +write a hundred better couplets "standing on one leg," as the saying +is. He was trying to improvise just one for the occasion, when he +became aware that the blue sky over his head was dark with the shades +of night, and lighted with stars. A brook rippled near with a soothing +monotony. The evening wind sighed through the trees, and wafted the +fragrance of the sweet bay-leaved willow towards him, and blew a stray +lock of hair against his face. Yes! _She_ also was there, walking beside +him, under the scented willow-bushes. Where, why, and whither he did not +ask to know. She was with him--with him; and he seemed to tread on the +summer air. He had no doubt as to the nature of his own feelings for her, +and here was such an opportunity for declaring them as might never occur +again. Surely now, if ever, he would be eloquent! Thoughts of poetry +clothed in words of fire must spring unbidden to his lips at such a +moment. And yet somehow he could not find a single word to say. He beat +his brains, but not an idea would come forth. Only that idiotic +cracker motto, which haunted him with its meagre couplet: + + "My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?" + +Meanwhile they wandered on. The precious time was passing. He must at +least make a beginning. + +"What a fine night it is!" he observed. But, oh dear! that was a +thousand times balder and more meagre than the cracker motto; and not +another word could he find to say. At this moment the awkward silence +was broken by a voice from a neighbouring copse. It was a nightingale +singing to his mate. There was no lack of eloquence, and of melodious +eloquence, there. The song was as plaintive as old memories, and as +full of tenderness as the eyes of the young girl were full of tears. +They were standing still now, and with her graceful head bent she was +listening to the bird. He stooped his head near hers, and spoke with a +simple natural outburst almost involuntary. + +"Do you ever think of old times? Do you remember the old house, and the +fun we used to have? and the tutor whom you pelted with horse-chestnuts +when you were a little girl? And those cracker bonbons, and the motto +_we_ drew-- + + 'My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?'" + +She smiled, and lifted her eyes ("blue as the sky, and bright as the +stars," he thought) to his, and answered "Yes." + +Then the bonbon motto was avenged, and there was silence. Eloquent, +perfect, complete, beautiful silence! Only the wind sighed through the +fragrant willows, the stream rippled, the stars shone, and in the +neighbouring copse the nightingale sang, and sang, and sang. + + * * * * * + +When the white end of the cracker came into the young lady's hand, she +was full of admiration for the fine raised pattern. As she held it +between her fingers it suddenly struck her that she had discovered what +the tutor's fragrant smoke smelt like. It was like the scent of +orange-flowers, and had certainly a soporific effect upon the senses. +She felt very sleepy, and as she stroked the shiny surface of the +cracker she found herself thinking it was very soft for paper, and then +rousing herself with a start, and wondering at her own folly in +speaking thus of the white silk in which she was dressed, and of which +she was holding up the skirt between her finger and thumb, as if she +were dancing a minuet. + +"It's grandmamma's egg-shell brocade!" she cried. "Oh, Grandmamma! Have +you given it to me? That lovely old thing! But I thought it was the +family wedding-dress, and that I was not to have it till I was a +bride." + +"And so you are, my dear. And a fairer bride the sun never shone on," +sobbed the old lady, who was kissing and blessing her, and wishing her, +in the words of the old formula-- + + "Health to wear it, + Strength to tear it, + And money to buy another." + +"There is no hope for the last two things, you know," said the young +girl; "for I am sure that the flag that braved a thousand years was not +half so strong as your brocade; and as to buying another, there are +none to be bought in these degenerate days." + +The old lady's reply was probably very gracious, for she liked to be +complimented on the virtues of old things in general, and of her +egg-shell brocade in particular. But of what she said her granddaughter +heard nothing. With the strange irregularity of dreams, she found +herself, she knew not how, in the old church. It was true. She was a +bride, standing there with old friends and old associations thick +around her, on the threshold of a new life. The sun shone through the +stained glass of the windows, and illuminated the brocade, whose +old-fashioned stiffness so became her childish beauty, and flung a +thousand new tints over her sunny hair, and drew so powerful a +fragrance from the orange-blossom with which it was twined, that it was +almost overpowering. Yes! It was too sweet--too strong. She certainly +would not be able to bear it much longer without losing her senses. And +the service was going on. A question had been asked of her, and she +must reply. She made a strong effort, and said "Yes," simply and very +earnestly, for it was what she meant. But she had no sooner said it +than she became uneasily conscious that she had not used the right +words. Some one laughed. It was the tutor, and his voice jarred and +disturbed the dream, as a stone troubles the surface of still water. +The vision trembled, and then broke, and the young lady found herself +still sitting by the table and fingering the cracker paper, whilst the +tutor chuckled and rubbed his hands by the fire, and his shadow +scrambled on the wall like an ape upon a tree. But her "Yes" had passed +into the young man's dream without disturbing it, and he dreamt on. + +It was a cracker like the preceding one that the grandmother and the +parson pulled together. The old lady had insisted upon it. The good +rector had shown a tendency to low spirits this evening, and a wish to +withdraw early. But the old lady did not approve of people "shirking" +(as boys say) either their duties or their pleasures; and to keep a +"merry Christmas" in a family circle that had been spared to meet in +health and happiness, seemed to her to be both the one and the other. + +It was his sermon for next day which weighed on the parson's mind. Not +that he was behindhand with that part of his duties. He was far too +methodical in his habits for that, and it had been written before the +bustle of Christmas week began. But after preaching Christmas sermons +from the same pulpit for thirty-five years, he felt keenly how +difficult it is to awaken due interest in subjects that are so +familiar, and to give new force to lessons so often repeated. So he +wanted a quiet hour in his own study before he went to rest, with the +sermon that did not satisfy him, and the subject that should be so +heart-stirring and ever-new,--the Story of Bethlehem. + +He consented, however, to pull one cracker with the grandmother, though +he feared the noise might startle her nerves, and said so. + +"Nerves were not invented in my young days," said the old lady, firmly; +and she took her part in the ensuing explosion without so much as a +wink. + +As the cracker snapped, it seemed to the parson as if the fragrant +smoke from the yule log were growing denser in the room. Through the +mist from time to time the face of the tutor loomed large, and then +disappeared. At last the clouds rolled away, and the parson breathed +clear air. Clear, yes, and how clear! This brilliant freshness, these +intense lights and shadows, this mildness and purity in the night air-- + +"It is not England," he muttered, "it is the East. I have felt no air +like this since I breathed the air of Palestine." + +Over his head, through immeasurable distances, the dark blue space was +lighted by the great multitude of the stars, whose glittering ranks +have in that atmosphere a distinctness and a glory unseen with us. +Perhaps no scene of beauty in the visible creation has proved a more +hackneyed theme for the poet and the philosopher than a starry night. +But not all the superabundance of simile and moral illustration with +which the subject has been loaded can rob the beholder of the freshness +of its grandeur or the force of its teaching; that noblest and most +majestic vision of the handiwork of GOD on which the eye of man is here +permitted to rest. + +As the parson gazed he became conscious that he was not alone. Other +eyes besides his were watching the skies to-night. Dark, profound, +patient, Eastern eyes, used from the cradle to the grave to watch and +wait. The eyes of star-gazers and dream-interpreters; men who believed +the fate of empires to be written in shining characters on the face of +heaven, as the "Mene, Mene," was written in fire on the walls of the +Babylonian palace. The old parson was one of the many men of real +learning and wide reading who pursue their studies in the quiet country +parishes of England, and it was with the keen interest of intelligence +that he watched the group of figures that lay near him. + +"Is this a vision of the past?" he asked himself. "There can be no +doubt as to these men. They are star-gazers, magi, and, from their +dress and bearing, men of high rank; perhaps 'teachers of a higher +wisdom' in one of the purest philosophies of the old heathen world. +When one thinks," he pursued, "of the intense interest, the eager +excitement which the student of history finds in the narrative of the +past as unfolded in dusty records written by the hand of man, one may +realize how absorbing must have been that science which professed to +unveil the future, and to display to the eyes of the wise the fate of +dynasties written with the finger of GOD amid the stars." + +The dark-robed figures were so still that they might almost have been +carved in stone. The air seemed to grow purer and purer; the stars +shone brighter and brighter; suspended in ether the planets seemed to +hang like lamps. Now a shooting meteor passed athwart the sky, and +vanished behind the hill. But not for this did the watchers move; in +silence they watched on--till, on a sudden, how and whence the parson +knew not, across the shining ranks of that immeasurable host, whose +names and number are known to GOD alone, there passed in slow but +obvious motion one brilliant solitary star--a star of such surpassing +brightness that he involuntarily joined in the wild cry of joy and +greeting with which the Men of the East now prostrated themselves with +their faces to the earth. He could not understand the language in which, +with noisy clamour and gesticulation, they broke their former profound +and patient silence, and greeted the portent for which they had watched. +But he knew now that these were the Wise Men of the Epiphany, and that +this was the Star of Bethlehem. In his ears rang the energetic simplicity +of the Gospel narrative, "When they saw the Star, they rejoiced with +exceeding great joy." + +With exceeding great joy! Ah! happy magi, who (more blest than Balaam +the son of Beor) were faithful to the dim light vouchsafed to you; the +Gentile Church may well be proud of your memory. Ye travelled long and +far to bring royal offerings to the King of the Jews, with a faith not +found in Israel. Ye saw Him whom prophets and kings had desired to see, +and were glad. Wise men indeed, and wise with the highest wisdom, in +that ye suffered yourselves to be taught of GOD. + +Then the parson prayed that if this were indeed a dream he might dream +on; might pass, if only in a vision, over the hill, following the +footsteps of the magi, whilst the Star went before them, till he should +see it rest above that city, which, little indeed among the thousands +of Judah, was yet the birthplace of the Lord's Christ. + +"Ah!" he almost sobbed, "let me follow! On my knees let me follow into +the house and see the Holy Child. In the eyes of how many babies I have +seen mind and thought far beyond their powers of communication, every +mother knows. But if at times, with a sort of awe, one sees the +immortal soul shining through the prison-bars of helpless infancy, +what, oh! what must it be to behold the GOD-head veiled in flesh through +the face of a little child!" + +The parson stretched out his arms, but even with the passion of his +words the vision began to break. He dared not move for fear it should +utterly fade, and as he lay still and silent, the wise men roused their +followers, and, led by the Star, the train passed solemnly over the +distant hills. + +Then the clear night became clouded with fragrant vapour, and with a +sigh the parson awoke. + + * * * * * + +When the cracker snapped and the white end was left in the grandmother's +hand, she was astonished to perceive (as she thought) that the white +lace veil which she had worn over her wedding bonnet was still in her +possession, and that she was turning it over in her fingers. "I fancied +I gave it to Jemima when her first baby was born," she muttered +dreamily. It was darned and yellow, but it carried her back all the same, +and recalled happy hours with wonderful vividness. She remembered the +post-chaise and the postillion. "He was such a pert little fellow, and +how we laughed at him! He must be either dead or a very shaky old man +by now," said the old lady. She seemed to smell the scent of meadow-sweet +that was so powerful in a lane through which they drove; and how clearly +she could see the clean little country inn where they spent the +honeymoon! She seemed to be there now, taking off her bonnet and shawl, +in the quaint clean chamber, with the heavy oak rafters, and the jasmine +coming in at the window, and glancing with pardonable pride at the fair +face reflected in the mirror. But as she laid her things on the +patchwork coverlet, it seemed to her that the lace veil became fine white +linen, and was folded about a figure that lay in the bed; and when she +looked round the room again everything was draped in white--white blinds +hung before the windows, and even the old oak chest and the press were +covered with clean white cloths, after the decent custom of the country; +whilst from the church tower without the passing bell tolled slowly. She +had not seen the face of the corpse, and a strange anxiety came over her +to count the strokes of the bell, which tell if it is a man, woman, or +child who has passed away. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! No +more. It was a woman, and when she looked on the face of the dead she +saw her own. But even as she looked the fair linen of the grave-clothes +became the buoyant drapery of another figure, in whose face she found a +strange recognition of the lineaments of the dead with all the +loveliness of the bride. But ah! more, much more! On that face there was +a beauty not doomed to wither, before those happy eyes lay a future +unshadowed by the imperfections of earthly prospects, and the folds of +that robe were white as no fuller on earth can white them. The window +curtain parted, the jasmine flowers bowed their heads, the spirit passed +from the chamber of death, and the old lady's dream was ended. + + * * * * * + +Miss Letitia had shared a cracker with the widow. The widow squeaked +when the cracker went off, and then insisted upon giving up the smart +paper and everything to Miss Letitia. She had always given up +everything to Mr. Jones, she did so now to Master MacGreedy, and was +quite unaccustomed to keep anything for her own share. She did not give +this explanation herself, but so it was. + +The cracker that thus fell into the hands of Miss Letitia was one of +those new-fashioned ones that have a paper pattern of some article of +dress wrapped up in them instead of a bonbon. This one was a paper +bonnet made in the latest _mode_--of green tissue-paper; and Miss Letitia +stuck it on the top of her chignon, with an air that the widow envied +from the bottom of her heart. She had not the gift of "carrying off" +her clothes. But to the tutor, on the contrary, it seemed to afford +the most extreme amusement; and as Miss Letitia bowed gracefully hither +and thither in the energy of her conversation with the widow, the green +paper fluttering with each emphasis, he fairly shook with delight, his +shadow dancing like a maniac beside him. He had scattered some more +powder on the coals, and it may have been that the smoke got into her +eyes, and confused her ideas of colour, but Miss Letitia was struck +with a fervid and otherwise unaccountable admiration for the paper ends +of the cracker, which were most unusually ugly. One was of a sallowish +salmon-colour, and transparent, the other was of brick-red paper with a +fringe. As Miss Letitia turned them over, she saw, to her unspeakable +delight, that there were several yards of each material, and her +peculiar genius instantly seized upon the fact that in the present +rage for double skirts there might be enough of the two kinds to +combine into a fashionable dress. + +It had never struck her before that a dirty salmon went well with +brick-red. "They blend so becomingly, my dear," she murmured; "and I +think the under-skirt will sit well, it is so stiff." + +The widow did not reply. The fumes of the tutor's compound made her +sleepy, and though she nodded to Miss Letitia's observations, it was +less from appreciation of their force, than from inability to hold up +her head. She was dreaming uneasy, horrible dreams, like nightmares; in +which from time to time there mingled expressions of doubt and +dissatisfaction which fell from Miss Letitia's lips. "Just half-a-yard +short--no gores--false hem," (and the melancholy reflection that) +"flounces take so much stuff." Then the tutor's face kept appearing and +vanishing with horrible grimaces through the mist. At last the widow +fell fairly asleep, and dreamed that she was married to the Blue Beard +of nursery annals, and that on his return from his memorable journey he +had caught her in the act of displaying the mysterious cupboard to Miss +Letitia. As he waved his scimitar over her head, he seemed +unaccountably to assume the form and features of the tutor. In her +agitation the poor woman could think of no plea against his severity, +except that the cupboard was already crammed with the corpses of his +previous wives, and there was no room for her. She was pleading this +argument when Miss Letitia's voice broke in upon her dream with +decisive accent: + +"There's enough for two bodies." + +The widow shrieked and awoke. + +"High and low," explained Miss Letitia. "My dear, what _are_ you +screaming about?" + +"I am very sorry indeed," said the widow; "I beg your pardon, I'm sure, +a thousand times. But since Mr. Jones's death I have been so nervous, +and I had such a horrible dream. And, oh dear! oh dear!" she added, +"what is the matter with my precious child? Macready, love, come to +your mamma, my pretty lamb." + +Ugh! ugh! There were groans from the corner where Master MacGreedy sat +on his crackers as if they were eggs, and he hatching them. He had only +touched one, as yet, of the stock he had secured. He had picked it to +pieces, had avoided the snap, and had found a large comfit like an egg +with a rough shell inside. Every one knows that the goodies in crackers +are not of a very superior quality. There is a large amount of white +lead in the outside thinly disguised by a shabby flavour of sugar. But +that outside once disposed of, there lies an almond at the core. Now an +almond is a very delicious thing in itself, and doubly nice when it +takes the taste of white paint and chalk out of one's mouth. But in +spite of all the white lead and sugar and chalk through which he had +sucked his way, MacGreedy could not come to the almond. A dozen times +had he been on the point of spitting out the delusive sweetmeat; but +just as he thought of it he was sure to feel a bit of hard rough edge, +and thinking he had gained the kernel at last, he held valiantly on. It +only proved to be a rough bit of sugar, however, and still the +interminable coating melted copiously in his mouth; and still the +clean, fragrant almond evaded his hopes. At last with a groan he spat +the seemingly undiminished bonbon on to the floor, and turned as white +and trembling as an arrowroot blanc-mange. + +In obedience to the widow's entreaties the tutor opened a window, and +tried to carry MacGreedy to the air; but that young gentleman utterly +refused to allow the tutor to approach him, and was borne howling to +bed by his mamma. + +With the fresh air the fumes of the fragrant smoke dispersed, and the +company roused themselves. + +"Rather oppressive, eh?" said the master of the house, who had had his +dream too, with which we have no concern. + +The dogs had had theirs also, and had testified to the same in their +sleep by low growls and whines. Now they shook themselves, and rubbed +against each other, growling in a warlike manner through their teeth, +and wagging peaceably with their little stumpy tails. + +The twins shook themselves, and fell to squabbling as to whether they +had been to sleep or no; and, if either, which of them had given way to +that weakness. + +Miss Letitia took the paper bonnet from her head with a nervous laugh, +and after looking regretfully at the cracker papers put them in her +pocket. + +The parson went home through the frosty night. In the village street he +heard a boy's voice singing two lines of the Christian hymn-- + + "Trace we the Babe Who hath redeemed our loss + From the poor Manger to the bitter Cross;" + +and his eyes filled with tears. + +The old lady went to bed and slept in peace. + +"In all the thirty-five years we have been privileged to hear you, +sir," she told the rector next day after service, "I never heard such a +Christmas sermon before." + +The visitor carefully preserved the blue paper and the cracker motto. +He came down early next morning to find the white half to put with +them. He did not find it, for the young lady had taken it the night +before. + +The tutor had been in the room before him, wandering round the scene of +the evening's festivities. + +The yule log lay black and cold upon the hearth, and the tutor nodded +to it. "I told you how it would be," he said; "but never mind, you +have had your day, and a merry one too." In the corner lay the heap of +crackers which Master MacGreedy had been too ill to remember when he +retired. The tutor pocketed them with a grim smile. + +As to the comfit, it was eaten by one of the dogs, who had come down +earliest of all. He swallowed it whole, so whether it contained an +almond or not, remains a mystery to the present time. + + * * * * * + + + + +AMELIA AND THE DWARFS. + + +My godmother's grandmother knew a good deal about the fairies. +_Her_ grandmother had seen a fairy rade on a Roodmas Eve, and she +herself could remember a copper vessel of a queer shape which had been +left by the elves on some occasion at an old farm-house among the +hills, The following story came from her, and where she got it I do not +know. She used to say it was a pleasant tale, with a good moral in the +inside of it. My godmother often observed that a tale without a moral +was like a nut without a kernel; not worth the cracking. (We called +fire-side stories "cracks" in our part of the country.) This is the +tale. + + +AMELIA. + +A couple of gentlefolk once lived in a certain part of England. (My +godmother never would tell the name either of the place or the people, +even if she knew it. She said one ought not to expose one's neighbours' +failings more than there was due occasion for.) They had an only child, +a daughter, whose name was Amelia. They were an easy-going, +good-humoured couple; "rather soft," my godmother said, but she was apt +to think anybody "soft" who came from the southern shires, as these +people did. Amelia, who had been born farther north, was by no means +so. She had a strong resolute will, and a clever head of her own, +though she was but a child. She had a way of her own too, and had it +very completely. Perhaps because she was an only child, or perhaps +because they were so easy-going, her parents spoiled her. She was, +beyond question, the most tiresome little girl in that or any other +neighbourhood. From her baby days her father and mother had taken every +opportunity of showing her to their friends, and there was not a friend +who did not dread the infliction. When the good lady visited her +acquaintances, she always took Amelia with her, and if the +acquaintances were fortunate enough to see from the windows who was +coming, they used to snatch up any delicate knick-knacks, or brittle +ornaments lying about, and put them away, crying, "What is to be done? +Here comes Amelia!" + +When Amelia came in, she would stand and survey the room, whilst her +mother saluted her acquaintance; and if anything struck her fancy, she +would interrupt the greetings to draw her mother's attention to it, +with a twitch of her shawl, "Oh, look, Mamma, at that funny bird in the +glass case!" or perhaps, "Mamma, Mamma! There's a new carpet since we +were here last;" for, as her mother said, she was "a very observing +child." + +Then she would wander round the room, examining and fingering +everything, and occasionally coming back with something in her hand to +tread on her mother's dress, and break in upon the ladies' conversation +with--"Mamma! Mamma! What's the good of keeping this old basin? It's +been broken and mended, and some of the pieces are quite loose now. I +can feel them:" or--addressing the lady of the house--"That's not a +real ottoman in the corner. It's a box covered with chintz. I know, for +I've looked." + +Then her mamma would say, reprovingly, "My _dear_ Amelia!" + +And perhaps the lady of the house would beg, "Don't play with that old +china, my love; for though it is mended, it is very valuable;" and her +mother would add, "My dear Amelia, you must not." + +Sometimes the good lady said, "You _must_ not." Sometimes she +tried--"You must _not_" When both these failed, and Amelia was balancing +the china bowl on her finger-ends, her mamma would get flurried, and when +Amelia flurried her, she always rolled her r's, and emphasized her words, +so that it sounded thus: + +"My dear-r-r-r-Ramelia! You must not." + +At which Amelia would not so much as look round, till perhaps the bowl +slipped from her fingers, and was smashed into unmendable fragments. +Then her mamma would exclaim, "Oh, dear-r-r-r, oh, dear-r-Ramelia" and +the lady of the house would try to look as if it did not matter, and +when Amelia and her mother departed, would pick up the bits, and pour +out her complaints to her lady friends, most of whom had suffered many +such damages at the hands of this "very observing child." + +When the good couple received their friends at home, there was no +escaping from Amelia. If it was a dinner-party, she came in with the +dessert, or perhaps sooner. She would take up her position near some +one, generally the person most deeply engaged in conversation, and +either lean heavily against him or her, or climb on to his or her knee, +without being invited. She would break in upon the most interesting +discussion with her own little childish affairs, in the following +style--"I've been out to-day. I walked to the town. I jumped across +three brooks. Can you jump? Papa gave me sixpence to-day. I am saving +up my money to be rich. You may cut me an orange; no, I'll take it to +Mr. Brown, he peels it with a spoon and turns the skin back. Mr. Brown! +Mr. Brown! Don't talk to Mamma, but peel me an orange, please. Mr. +Brown! I'm playing with your finger-glass." + +And when the finger-glass full of cold water had been upset on to Mr. +Brown's shirt-front, Amelia's mamma would cry--"Oh dear, oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and carry her off with the ladies to the drawing-room. + +Here she would scramble on to the ladies' knees, or trample out the +gathers of their dresses, and fidget with their ornaments, startling +some luckless lady by the announcement, "I've got your bracelet undone +at last!" who would find one of the divisions broken open by force, +Amelia not understanding the working of a clasp. + +Or perhaps two young lady friends would get into a quiet corner for a +chat. The observing child would sure to spy them, and run on to them, +crushing their flowers and ribbons, and crying--"You two want to talk +secrets, I know. I can hear what you say. I'm going to listen, I am. +And I shall tell, too;" when perhaps a knock at the door announced the +Nurse to take Miss Amelia to bed, and spread a general rapture of +relief. + +Then Amelia would run to trample and worry her mother, and after much +teasing, and clinging, and complaining, the Nurse would be dismissed, +and the fond mamma would turn to the lady next to her, and say with a +smile--"I suppose I must let her stay up a little. It is such a treat +to her, poor child!" + +But it was no treat to the visitors. + +Besides tormenting her fellow-creatures, Amelia had a trick of teasing +animals. She was really fond of dogs, but she was still fonder of doing +what she was wanted not to do, and of worrying everything and everybody +about her. So she used to tread on the tips of their tails, and pretend +to give them biscuit, and then hit them on the nose, besides pulling at +those few, long, sensitive hairs which thin-skinned dogs wear on the +upper lip. + +Now Amelia's mother's acquaintances were so very well-bred and amiable, +that they never spoke their minds to either the mother or the daughter +about what they endured from the latter's rudeness, wilfulness, and +powers of destruction. But this was not the case with the dogs, and +they expressed their sentiments by many a growl and snap. At last one +day Amelia was tormenting a snow-white bulldog (who was certainly as +well-bred and as amiable as any living creature in the kingdom), and +she did not see that even his patience was becoming worn out. His pink +nose became crimson with increased irritation, his upper lip twitched +over his teeth, behind which he was rolling as many warning R's as +Amelia's mother herself. She finally held out a bun towards him, and +just as he was about to take it, she snatched it away and kicked him +instead. This fairly exasperated the bulldog, and as Amelia would not +let him bite the bun, he bit Amelia's leg. + +Her mamma was so distressed that she fell into hysterics, and hardly +knew what she was saying. She said the bulldog must be shot for fear he +should go mad, and Amelia's wound must be done with a red-hot poker for +fear _she_ should go mad (with hydrophobia). And as of course she +couldn't bear the pain of this, she must have chloroform, and she would +most probably die of that; for as one in several thousands dies +annually under chloroform, it was evident that her chance of life was +very small indeed. So, as the poor lady said, "Whether we shoot Amelia +and burn the bulldog--at least I mean shoot the bulldog and burn Amelia +with a red-hot poker--or leave it alone; and whether Amelia or the +bulldog has chloroform or bears it without--it seems to be death or +madness every way!" + +And as the doctor did not come fast enough, she ran out without her +bonnet to meet him, and Amelia's papa, who was very much distressed +too, ran after her with her bonnet. Meanwhile the doctor came in by +another way, and found Amelia sitting on the dining-room floor with the +bulldog, and crying bitterly. She was telling him that they wanted to +shoot him, but that they should not, for it was all her fault and not +his. But she did not tell him that she was to be burnt with a red-hot +poker, for she thought it might hurt his feelings. And then she wept +afresh, and kissed the bulldog, and the bulldog kissed her with his red +tongue, and rubbed his pink nose against her, and beat his own tail +much harder on the floor than Amelia had ever hit it. She said the same +things to the doctor, but she told him also that she was willing to be +burnt without chloroform if it must be done, and if they would spare +the bulldog. And though she looked very white, she meant what she said. + +But the doctor looked at her leg, and found that it was only a snap, +and not a deep wound; and then he looked at the bulldog, and saw that +so far from looking mad, he looked a great deal more sensible than +anybody in the house. So he only washed Amelia's leg and bound it up, +and she was not burnt with the poker, neither did she get hydrophobia; +but she had got a good lesson on manners, and thenceforward she always +behaved with the utmost propriety to animals, though she tormented her +mother's friends as much as ever. + +Now although Amelia's mamma's acquaintances were too polite to complain +before her face, they made up for it by what they said behind her back. +In allusion to the poor lady's ineffectual remonstrances, one gentleman +said that the more mischief Amelia did, the dearer she seemed to grow +to her mother. And somebody else replied that however dear she might be +as a daughter, she was certainly a very _dear_ friend, and proposed +that they should send in a bill for all the damages she had done in the +course of the year, as a round robin to her parents at Christmas. From +which it may be seen that Amelia was not popular with her parents' +friends, as (to do grown-up people justice) good children almost +invariably are. + +If she was not a favourite in the drawing-room, she was still less so +in the nursery, where, besides all the hardships naturally belonging to +attendance on a spoilt child, the poor Nurse was kept, as she said, "on +the continual go" by Amelia's reckless destruction of her clothes. It +was not fair wear and tear, it was not an occasional fall in the mire, +or an accidental rent or two during a game at "Hunt the Hare," but it +was constant wilful destruction, which Nurse had to repair as best she +might. No entreaties would induce Amelia to "take care" of anything. +She walked obstinately on the muddy side of the road when Nurse pointed +out the clean parts, kicking up the dirt with her feet; if she climbed +a wall she never tried to free her dress if it had caught; on she +rushed, and half a skirt might be left behind for any care she had in +the matter. "They must be mended," or "They must be washed," was all +she thought about it. + +"You seem to think things clean and mend themselves, Miss Amelia," said +poor Nurse one day. + +"No, I don't," said Amelia, rudely. "I think you do them; what are you +here for?" + +But though she spoke in this insolent and unlady-like fashion, Amelia +really did not realize what the tasks were which her carelessness +imposed on other people. When every hour of Nurse's day had been spent +in struggling to keep her wilful young lady regularly fed, decently +dressed, and moderately well behaved (except, indeed, those hours when +her mother was fighting the same battle down-stairs); and when at last, +after the hardest struggle of all, she had been got to bed not more +than two hours later than her appointed time, even then there was no +rest for Nurse. Amelia's mamma could at last lean back in her chair and +have a quiet chat with her husband, which was not broken in upon every +two minutes, and Amelia herself was asleep; but Nurse must sit up for +hours wearing out her eyes by the light of a tallow candle, in +fine-darning great, jagged, and most unnecessary holes in Amelia's +muslin dresses. Or perhaps she had to wash and iron clothes for +Amelia's wear next day. For sometimes she was so very destructive, that +towards the end of the week she had used up all her clothes and had no +clean ones to fall back upon. + +Amelia's meals were another source of trouble. She would not wear a +pinafore; if it had been put on, she would burst the strings, and +perhaps in throwing it away knock her plate of mutton broth over the +tablecloth and her own dress. Then she fancied first one thing and then +another; she did not like this or that; she wanted a bit cut here or +there. Her mamma used to begin by saying, "My dear-r-Ramelia, you must +not be so wasteful," and she used to end by saying, "The dear child has +positively no appetite;" which seemed to be a good reason for not +wasting any more food upon her; but with Amelia's mamma it only meant +that she might try a little cutlet and tomato sauce when she had half +finished her roast beef, and that most of the cutlet and all the mashed +potato might be exchanged for plum tart and custard; and that when she +had spooned up the custard and played with the paste, and put the plum +stones on the tablecloth, she might be tempted with a little Stilton +cheese and celery, and exchange that for anything that caught her fancy +in the dessert dishes. + +The Nurse used to say, "Many a poor child would thank GOD for what you +waste every meal-time, Miss Amelia," and to quote a certain good old +saying, "Waste not, want not." But Amelia's mamma allowed her to send +away on her plates what would have fed another child, day after day. + + +UNDER THE HAYCOCKS. + +It was summer, and haytime. Amelia had been constantly in the hayfield, +and the haymakers had constantly wished that she had been anywhere +else. She mislaid the rakes, nearly killed herself and several other +persons with a fork, and overturned one haycock after another as fast +as they were made. At tea-time it was hoped that she would depart, but +she teased her mamma to have the tea brought into the field, and her +mamma said, "The poor child must have a treat sometimes," and so it was +brought out. + +After this she fell off the haycart, and was a good deal shaken, but +not hurt. So she was taken indoors, and the haymakers worked hard and +cleared the field, all but a few cocks which were left till the +morning. + +The sun set, the dew fell, the moon rose. It was a lovely night. Amelia +peeped from behind the blinds of the drawing-room windows, and saw four +haycocks, each with a deep shadow reposing at its side. The rest of the +field was swept clean, and looked pale in the moonshine. It was a +lovely night. + +"I want to go out," said Amelia. "They will take away those cocks +before I can get at them in the morning, and there will be no more +jumping and tumbling, I shall go out and have some fun now." + +"My dear Amelia, you must not," said her mamma; and her papa added, "I +won't hear of it." So Amelia went up-stairs to grumble to Nurse; but +Nurse only said, "Now, my dear Miss Amelia, do go quietly to bed, like +a dear love. The field is all wet with dew. Besides, it's a moonlight +night, and who knows what's abroad? You might see the fairies--bless us +and sain us!--and what not. There's been a magpie hopping up and +down near the house all day, and that's a sign of ill-luck." + +"I don't care for magpies," said Amelia; "I threw a stone at that one +to-day." + +And she left the nursery, and swung down-stairs on the rail of the +banisters. But she did not go into the drawing-room; she opened the +front door and went out into the moonshine. + +It was a lovely night. But there was something strange about it. +Everything looked asleep, and yet seemed not only awake but watching. +There was not a sound, and yet the air seemed full of half-sounds. The +child was quite alone, and yet at every step she fancied some one +behind her, on one side of her, somewhere, and found it only a rustling +leaf or a passing shadow. She was soon in the hayfield, where it was +just the same; so that when she fancied that something green was moving +near the first haycock she thought very little of it, till, coming +closer, she plainly perceived by the moonlight a tiny man dressed in +green, with a tall, pointed hat, and very, very long tips to his shoes, +tying his shoestring with his foot on a stubble stalk. He had the most +wizened of faces, and when he got angry with his shoe, he pulled so wry +a grimace that it was quite laughable. At last he stood up, stepping +carefully over the stubble, went up to the first haycock, and drawing +out a hollow grass stalk blew upon it till his cheeks were puffed like +footballs. And yet there was no sound, only a half-sound, as of a horn +blown in the far distance, or in a dream. Presently the point of a tall +hat, and finally just such another little wizened face, poked out +through the side of the haycock. + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" asked the little green man. + +"That indeed you cannot," answered the other; "we have hardly room to +turn round as it is, with all Amelia's dirty frocks." + +"Ah, bah!" said the dwarf; and he walked on to the next haycock, Amelia +cautiously following. + +Here he blew again, and a head was put out as before; on which he said, + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" + +"How is it possible," was the reply, "when there is not a place where +one can so much as set down an acorn cup, for Amelia's broken +victuals?" + +"Fie! fie!" said the dwarf, and went on to the third, where all +happened as before; and he asked the old question, + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" + +"Can you dance on glass and crockery sherds?" inquired the other. +"Amelia's broken gimcracks are everywhere." + +"Pshaw!" snorted the dwarf, frowning terribly; and when he came to the +fourth haycock he blew such an angry blast that the grass stalk split +into seven pieces. But he met with no better success than before. Only +the point of a hat came through the hay, and a feeble voice piped in +tones of depression--"The broken threads would entangle our feet. It's +all Amelia's fault. If we could only get hold of her!" + +"If she's wise, she'll keep as far from these haycocks as she can," +snarled the dwarf, angrily; and he shook his fist as much as to say, +"If she did come, I should not receive her very pleasantly." + +Now with Amelia, to hear that she had better not do something, was to +make her wish at once to do it; and as she was not at all wanting in +courage, she pulled the dwarf's little cloak, just as she would have +twitched her mother's shawl, and said (with that sort of snarly whine +in which spoilt children generally speak)--"Why shouldn't I come to the +haycocks if I want to? They belong to my papa, and I shall come if I +like. But you have no business here." + +"Nightshade and hemlock!" ejaculated the little man, "you are not +lacking in impudence. Perhaps your Sauciness is not quite aware how +things are distributed in this world?" saying which he lifted his +pointed shoes and began to dance and sing, + + "All under the sun belongs to men, + And all under the moon to the fairies. + So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho! + All under the moon to the fairies." + +As he sang "Ho, ho, ho!" the little man turned head over heels; and +though by this time Amelia would gladly have got away, she could not, +for the dwarf seemed to dance and tumble round her, and always to cut +off the chance of escape; whilst numberless voices from all around +seemed to join in the chorus, with + + + "So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho! + All under the moon to the fairies." + +"And now," said the little man, "to work! And you have plenty of work +before you, so trip on, to the first haycock." + +"I shan't!" said Amelia. + +"On with you!" repeated the dwarf. + +"I won't!" said Amelia. + +But the little man, who was behind her, pinched her funny-bone with his +lean fingers, and, as everybody knows, that is agony; so Amelia ran on, +and tried to get away. But when she went too fast, the dwarf trod on +her heels with his long-pointed shoe, and if she did not go fast +enough, he pinched her funny-bone. So for once in her life she was +obliged to do as she was told. As they ran, tall hats and wizened faces +were popped out on all sides of the haycocks, like blanched almonds on +a tipsy cake; and whenever the dwarf pinched Amelia, or trod on her +heels, the goblins cried "Ho, ho, ho!" with such horrible contortions +as they laughed, that it was hideous to behold them. + +"Here is Amelia!" shouted the dwarf when they reached the first +haycock. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed all the others, as they poked out here and there +from the hay. + +"Bring a stock," said the dwarf; on which the hay was lifted, and out +ran six or seven dwarfs, carrying what seemed to Amelia to be a little +girl like herself. And when she looked closer, to her horror and +surprise the figure was exactly like her--it was her own face, clothes, +and everything. + +"Shall we kick it into the house?" asked the goblins. + +"No," said the dwarf; "lay it down by the haycock. The father and +mother are coming to seek her now." + +When Amelia heard this she began to shriek for help; but she was pushed +into the haycock, where her loudest cries sounded like the chirruping +of a grasshopper. + +It was really a fine sight to see the inside of the cock. + +Farmers do not like to see flowers in a hayfield, but the fairies do. +They had arranged all the buttercups, &c., in patterns on the haywalls; +bunches of meadow-sweet swung from the roof like censers, and perfumed +the air; and the ox-eye daisies which formed the ceiling gave a light +like stars. But Amelia cared for none of this. She only struggled to +peep through the hay, and she did see her father and mother and nurse +come down the lawn, followed by the other servants, looking for her. +When they saw the stock they ran to raise it with exclamations of pity +and surprise. The stock moaned faintly, and Amelia's mamma wept, and +Amelia herself shouted with all her might. + +"What's that?" said her mamma. (It is not easy to deceive a mother.) + +"Only the grasshoppers, my dear," said Papa. "Let us get the poor child +home." + +The stock moaned again, and the mother said, "Oh dear! oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and followed in tears. + +"Rub her eyes," said the dwarf; on which Amelia's eyes were rubbed with +some ointment, and when she took a last peep, she could see that the +stock was nothing but a hairy imp, with a face like the oldest and most +grotesque of apes. + +"--and send her below," added the dwarf. On which the field opened, and +Amelia was pushed underground. + +She found herself on a sort of open heath, where no houses were to be +seen. Of course there was no moonshine, and yet it was neither daylight +nor dark. There was as the light of early dawn, and every sound was at +once clear and dreamy, like the first sounds of the day coming through +the fresh air before sunrise. Beautiful flowers crept over the heath, +whose tints were constantly changing in the subdued light; and as the +hues changed and blended, the flowers gave forth different perfumes. +All would have been charming but that at every few paces the paths were +blocked by large clothes-baskets full of dirty frocks, And the frocks +were Amelia's. Torn, draggled, wet, covered with sand, mud, and dirt of +all kinds, Amelia recognized them. + +"You've got to wash them all," said the dwarf, who was behind her as +usual; "that's what you've come down for--not because your society is +particularly pleasant. So the sooner you begin the better." + +"I can't," said Amelia (she had already learnt that "I won't" is not an +answer for every one); "send them up to Nurse, and she'll do them. It +is her business." + +"What Nurse can do she has done, and now it's time for you to begin," +said the dwarf. "Sooner or later the mischief done by spoilt children's +wilful disobedience comes back on their own hands. Up to a certain +point we help them, for we love children, and we are wilful ourselves. +But there are limits to everything. If you can't wash your dirty +frocks, it is time you learnt to do so, if only that you may know what +the trouble is you impose on other people. _She_ will teach you." + +The dwarf kicked out his foot in front of him, and pointed with his +long toe to a woman who sat by a fire made upon the heath, where a pot +was suspended from crossed poles. It was like a bit of a gipsy +encampment, and the woman seemed to be a real woman, not a fairy--which +was the case, as Amelia afterwards found. She had lived underground for +many years, and was the dwarfs' servant. + +And this was how it came about that Amelia had to wash her dirty +frocks. Let any little girl try to wash one of her dresses; not to half +wash it, not to leave it stained with dirty water, but to wash it quite +clean. Let her then try to starch and iron it--in short, to make it +look as if it had come from the laundress--and she will have some idea +of what poor Amelia had to learn to do. There was no help for it. When +she was working she very seldom saw the dwarfs; but if she were idle or +stubborn, or had any hopes of getting away, one was sure to start up at +her elbow and pinch her funny-bone, or poke her in the ribs, till she +did her best. Her back ached with stooping over the wash-tub; her hands +and arms grew wrinkled with soaking in hot soapsuds, and sore with +rubbing. Whatever she did not know how to do, the woman of the heath +taught her. At first, whilst Amelia was sulky, the woman of the heath +was sharp and cross; but when Amelia became willing and obedient, she +was good-natured, and even helped her. + +The first time that Amelia felt hungry she asked for some food. + +"By all means," said one of the dwarfs; "there is plenty down here +which belongs to you;" and he led her away till they came to a place +like the first, except that it was covered with plates of broken meats; +all the bits of good meat, pie, pudding, bread-and-butter, &c., that +Amelia had wasted beforetime. + +"I can't eat cold scraps like these," said Amelia, turning away. + +"Then what did you ask for food for before you were hungry?" screamed +the dwarf, and he pinched her and sent her about her business. + +After a while she became so famished that she was glad to beg humbly to +be allowed to go for food; and she ate a cold chop and the remains of a +rice pudding with thankfulness. How delicious they tasted! She was +surprised herself at the good things she had rejected. After a time she +fancied she would like to warm up some of the cold meat in a pan, which +the woman of the heath used to cook her own dinner in, and she asked +for leave to do so. + +"You may do anything you like to make yourself comfortable, if you do +it yourself," said she; and Amelia, who had been watching her for many +times, became quite expert in cooking up the scraps. + +As there was no real daylight underground, so also there was no night. +When the old woman was tired she lay down and had a nap, and when she +thought that Amelia had earned a rest, she allowed her to do the same. +It was never cold, and it never rained, so they slept on the heath +among the flowers. + +They say that "It's a long lane that has no turning," and the hardest +tasks come to an end some time, and Amelia's dresses were clean at +last; but then a more wearisome work was before her. They had to be +mended. Amelia looked at the jagged rents made by the hedges; the great +gaping holes in front where she had put her foot through; the torn +tucks and gathers. First she wept, then she bitterly regretted that she +had so often refused to do her sewing at home that she was very awkward +with her needle. Whether she ever would have got through this task +alone is doubtful, but she had by this time become so well-behaved and +willing that the old woman was kind to her, and, pitying her blundering +attempts, she helped her a great deal; whilst Amelia would cook the old +woman's victuals, or repeat stories and pieces of poetry to amuse her. + +"How glad I am that I ever learnt anything!" thought the poor child: +"everything one learns seems to come in useful some time." + +At last the dresses were finished. + +"Do you think I shall be allowed to go home now?" Amelia asked of the +woman of the heath. + +"Not yet," said she; "you have got to mend the broken gimcracks next." + +"But when I have done all my tasks," Amelia said; "will they let me go +then?" + +"That depends," said the woman, and she sat silent over the fire; but +Amelia wept so bitterly, that she pitied her and said--"Only dry your +eyes, for the fairies hate tears, and I will tell you all I know and do +the best for you I can. You see, when you first came you were--excuse +me!--such an unlicked cub; such a peevish, selfish, wilful, useless, +and ill-mannered little miss, that neither the fairies nor anybody else +were likely to keep you any longer than necessary. But now you are such +a willing, handy, and civil little thing, and so pretty and graceful +withal, that I think it is very likely that they will want to keep you +altogether. I think you had better make up your mind to it. They are +kindly little folk, and will make a pet of you in the end." + +"Oh, no! no!" moaned poor Amelia; "I want to be with my mother, my poor +dear mother! I want to make up for being a bad child so long. Besides, +surely that 'stock,' as they called her, will want to come back to her +own people." + +"As to that," said the woman, "after a time the stock will affect +mortal illness, and will then take possession of the first black cat +she sees, and in that shape leave the house, and come home. But the +figure that is like you will remain lifeless in the bed, and will be +duly buried. Then your people, believing you to be dead, will never +look for you, and you will always remain here. However, as this +distresses you so, I will give you some advice. Can you dance?" + +"Yes," said Amelia; "I did attend pretty well to my dancing lessons. I +was considered rather clever about it." + +"At any spare moments you find," continued the woman, "dance, dance all +your dances, and as well as you can. The dwarfs love dancing." + +"And then?" said Amelia. + +"Then, perhaps some night they will take you up to dance with them in +the meadows above-ground." + +"But I could not get away. They would tread on my heels--oh! I could +never escape them." + +"I know that," said the woman; "your only chance is this. If ever, when +dancing in the meadows, you can find a four-leaved clover, hold it in +your hand, and wish to be at home. Then no one can stop you. Meanwhile +I advise you to seem happy, that they may think you are content, and +have forgotten the world. And dance, above all, dance!" + +And Amelia, not to be behindhand, began then and there to dance some +pretty figures on the heath. As she was dancing the dwarf came by. + +"Ho, ho!" said he, "you can dance, can you?" + +"When I am happy I can," said Amelia, performing several graceful +movements as she spoke. + +"What are you pleased about now?" snapped the dwarf, suspiciously. + +"Have I not reason?" said Amelia. "The dresses are washed and mended." + +"Then up with them!" returned the dwarf. On which half-a-dozen elves +popped the whole lot into a big basket and kicked them up into the +world, where they found their way to the right wardrobes somehow. + +As the woman of the heath had said, Amelia was soon set to a new task. +When she bade the old woman farewell, she asked if she could do nothing +for her if ever she got at liberty herself. + +"Can I do nothing to get you back to your old home?" Amelia cried, for +she thought of others now as well as herself. + +"No, thank you," returned the old woman; "I am used to this, and do not +care to return. I have been here a long time--how long I do not know; +for as there is neither daylight nor dark we have no measure of +time--long, I am sure, very long. The light and noise up yonder would +now be too much for me. But I wish you well, and, above all, remember +to dance!" + +The new scene of Amelia's labours was a more rocky part of the heath, +where grey granite boulders served for seats and tables, and sometimes +for workshops and anvils, as in one place, where a grotesque and grimy +old dwarf sat forging rivets to mend china and glass. A fire in a +hollow of the boulder served for a forge, and on the flatter part was +his anvil. The rocks were covered in all directions with the +knick-knacks, ornaments, &c., that Amelia had at various times +destroyed. + +"If you please, sir," she said to the dwarf, "I am Amelia." + +The dwarf left off blowing at his forge and looked at her. + +"Then I wonder you're not ashamed of yourself," said he. + +"I am ashamed of myself," said poor Amelia, "very much ashamed. I +should like to mend these things if I can." + +"Well, you can't say more than that," said the dwarf, in a mollified +tone, for he was a kindly little creature; "bring that china bowl here, +and I'll show you how to set to work." + +Poor Amelia did not get on very fast, but she tried her best. As to the +dwarf, it was truly wonderful to see how he worked. Things seemed to +mend themselves at his touch, and he was so proud of his skill, and so +particular, that he generally did over again the things which Amelia +had done after her fashion. The first time he gave her a few minutes in +which to rest and amuse herself, she held out her little skirt, and +began one of her prettiest dances. + +"Rivets and trivets!" shrieked the little man, "how you dance! It is +charming! I say it is charming! On with you! Fa, la fa! La, fa la! It +gives me the fidgets in my shoe-points to see you!" and forthwith down +he jumped, and began capering about. + +"I am a good dancer myself," said the little man. "Do you know the +'Hop, Skip, and a Jump' dance?" + +"I do not think I do," said Amelia. + +"It is much admired," said the dwarf, "when I dance it;" and he +thereupon tucked up the little leathern apron in which he worked, and +performed some curious antics on one leg. + +"That is the Hop," he observed, pausing for a moment. "The Skip is +thus. You throw out your left leg as high and as far as you can, and as +you drop on the toe of your left foot you fling out the right leg in +the same manner, and so on. This is the Jump," with which he turned a +somersault and disappeared from view. When Amelia next saw him he was +sitting cross-legged on his boulder. + +"Good, wasn't it?" he said. + +"Wonderful!" Amelia replied. + +"Now it's your turn again," said the dwarf. + +But Amelia cunningly replied--"I'm afraid I must go on with my work." + +"Pshaw!" said the little tinker. "Give me your work. I can do more in a +minute than you in a month, and better to boot. Now dance again." + +"Do you know this?" said Amelia, and she danced a few paces of a polka +mazurka. + +"Admirable!" cried the little man. "Stay"--and he drew an old violin +from behind the rock; "now dance again, and mark the time well, so that +I may catch the measure, and then I will accompany you." + +Which accordingly he did, improvising a very spirited tune, which had, +however, the peculiar subdued and weird effect of all the other sounds +in this strange region. + +"The fiddle came from up yonder," said the little man. "It was smashed +to atoms in the world and thrown away. But, ho, ho, ho! there is +nothing that I cannot mend, and a mended fiddle is an amended fiddle. +It improves the tone. Now teach me that dance, and I will patch up all +the rest of the gimcracks. Is it a bargain?" + +"By all means," said Amelia; and she began to explain the dance to the +best of her ability. + +"Charming, charming!" cried the dwarf. "We have no such dance +ourselves. We only dance hand in hand, and round and round, when we +dance together. Now I will learn the step, and then I will put my arm +round your waist and dance with you." + +Amelia looked at the dwarf. He was very smutty, and old, and wizened. +Truly, a queer partner! But "handsome is that handsome does;" and he +had done her a good turn. So when he had learnt the step, he put his +arm round Amelia's waist, and they danced together. His shoe-points +were very much in the way, but otherwise he danced very well. + +Then he set to work on the broken ornaments, and they were all very +soon "as good as new." But they were not kicked up into the world, for, +as the dwarfs said, they would be sure to break on the road. So they +kept them and used them; and I fear that no benefit came from the +little tinker's skill to Amelia's mamma's acquaintance in this matter. + +"Have I any other tasks?" Amelia inquired. + +"One more," said the dwarfs; and she was led farther on to a smooth +mossy green, thickly covered with what looked like bits of broken +thread. One would think it had been a milliner's work-room from the +first invention of needles and thread. + +"What are these?" Amelia asked. + +"They are the broken threads of all the conversations you have +interrupted," was the reply; "and pretty dangerous work it is to dance +here now, with threads getting round one's shoe-points. Dance a +hornpipe in a herring-net, and you'll know what it is!" + +Amelia began to pick up the threads, but it was tedious work. She had +cleared a yard or two, and her back was aching terribly, when she heard +the fiddle and the mazurka behind her; and looking round she saw the +old dwarf, who was playing away, and making the most hideous grimaces +as his chin pressed the violin. + +"Dance, my lady, dance!" he shouted. + +"I do not think I can," said Amelia; "I am so weary with stooping over +my work." + +"Then rest a few minutes," he answered, "and I will play you a jig. A +jig is a beautiful dance, such life, such spirit! So!" + +And he played faster and faster, his arm, his face, his fiddle-bow all +seemed working together; and as he played, the threads danced +themselves into three heaps. + +"That is not bad, is it?" said the dwarf; "and now for our own dance," +and he played the mazurka. "Get the measure well into your head. Lá, la +fá lâ! lâ, la fá lâ! So!" + +And throwing away his fiddle, he caught Amelia round the waist, and +they danced as before. After which, she had no difficulty in putting +the three heaps of thread into a basket. + +"Where are these to be kicked to?" asked the young goblins. + +"To the four winds of heaven," said the old dwarf. "There are very few +drawing-room conversations worth putting together a second time. They +are not like old china bowls." + + +BY MOONLIGHT. + +Thus Amelia's tasks were ended; but not a word was said of her return +home. The dwarfs were now very kind, and made so much of her that it +was evident that they meant her to remain with them. Amelia often +cooked for them, and she danced and played with them, and never showed +a sign of discontent; but her heart ached for home, and when she was +alone she would bury her face in the flowers and cry for her mother. + +One day she overheard the dwarfs in consultation. + +"The moon is full to-morrow," said one--("Then I have been a month down +here," thought Amelia; "it was full moon that night")--"shall we dance +in the Mary Meads?" + +"By all means," said the old tinker dwarf; "and we will take Amelia, +and dance my dance." + +"Is it safe?" said another. + +"Look how content she is," said the old dwarf; "and, oh! how she +dances; my feet tickle at the bare thought." + +"The ordinary run of mortals do not see us," continued the objector; +"but she is visible to any one. And there are men and women who wander +in the moonlight, and the Mary Meads are near her old home." + +"I will make her a hat of touchwood," said the old dwarf, "so that even +if she is seen it will look like a will-o'-the-wisp bobbing up and +down. If she does not come, I will not. I must dance my dance. You do +not know what it is! We two alone move together with a grace which even +here is remarkable. But when I think that up yonder we shall have +attendant shadows echoing our movements, I long for the moment to +arrive." + +"So be it," said the others; and Amelia wore the touchwood hat, and +went up with them to the Mary Meads. + +Amelia and the dwarf danced the mazurka, and their shadows, now as +short as themselves, then long and gigantic, danced beside them. As the +moon went down, and the shadows lengthened, the dwarf was in raptures. + +"When one sees how colossal one's very shadow is," he remarked, "one +knows one's true worth. You also have a good shadow. We are partners in +the dance, and I think we will be partners for life. But I have not +fully considered the matter, so this is not to be regarded as a formal +proposal." And he continued to dance, singing, "Lâ, la, fá, lâ, +lâ, la, fá, lâ." It was highly admired. + +The Mary Meads lay a little below the house where Amelia's parents +lived, and once during the night her father, who was watching by the +sick bed of the stock, looked out of the window. + +"How lovely the moonlight is!" he murmured; "but, dear me! there is a +will-o'-the-wisp yonder. I had no idea the Mary Meads were so damp." +Then he pulled the blind down and went back into the room. + +As for poor Amelia, she found no four-leaved clover, and at cockcrow +they all went underground. + +"We will dance on Hunch Hill to-morrow," said the dwarfs. + +All went as before; not a clover plant of any kind did Amelia see, and +at cockcrow the revel broke up. + +On the following night they danced in the hayfield. The old stubble was +now almost hidden by green clover. There was a grand fairy dance--a +round dance, which does not mean, as with us, a dance for two partners, +but a dance where all join hands and dance round and round in a circle +with appropriate antics. Round they went, faster and faster, the +pointed shoes now meeting in the centre like the spokes of a wheel, now +kicked out behind like spikes, and then scamper, caper, hurry! They +seemed to fly, when suddenly the ring broke at one corner, and nothing +being stronger than its weakest point, the whole circle were sent +flying over the field. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the dwarfs, for they are good-humoured little +folk, and do not mind a tumble. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Amelia, for she had fallen with her fingers on a +four-leaved clover. + +She put it behind her back, for the old tinker dwarf was coming up to +her, wiping the mud from his face with his leathern apron. + +"Now for our dance!" he shrieked. "And I have made up my mind--partners +now and partners always. You are incomparable. For three hundred years +I have not met with your equal." + +But Amelia held the four-leaved clover above her head, and cried from +her very heart--"I want to go home!" + +The dwarf gave a hideous yell of disappointment, and at this instant +the stock came tumbling head over heels into the midst, crying--"Oh! +the pills, the powders, and the draughts! oh, the lotions and +embrocations! oh, the blisters, the poultices, and the plasters! men +may well be so short-lived!" + +And Amelia found herself in bed in her own home. + + +AT HOME AGAIN. + +By the side of Amelia's bed stood a little table, on which were so many +big bottles of medicine, that Amelia smiled to think of all the stock +must have had to swallow during the month past. There was an open Bible +on it too, in which Amelia's mother was reading, whilst tears trickled +slowly down her pale cheeks. The poor lady looked so thin and ill, so +worn with sorrow and watching, that Amelia's heart smote her, as if +some one had given her a sharp blow. + +"Mamma, Mamma! Mother, my dear, dear Mother!" + +The tender, humble, loving tone of voice was so unlike Amelia's old +imperious snarl, that her mother hardly recognized it; and when she saw +Amelia's eyes full of intelligence instead of the delirium of fever, +and that (though older and thinner and rather pale) she looked +wonderfully well, the poor worn-out lady could hardly restrain herself +from falling into hysterics for very joy. + +"Dear Mamma, I want to tell you all about it," said Amelia, kissing the +kind hand that stroked her brow. + +But it appeared that the doctor had forbidden conversation; and though +Amelia knew it would do her no harm, she yielded to her mother's wish +and lay still and silent. + +"Now, my love, it is time to take your medicine." + +But Amelia pleaded--"Oh, Mamma, indeed I don't want any medicine. I am +quite well, and would like to get up." + +"Ah, my dear child!" cried her mother, "what I have suffered in +inducing you to take your medicine, and yet see what good it has done +you." + +"I hope you will never suffer any more from my wilfulness," said +Amelia; and she swallowed two tablespoonfuls of a mixture labelled "To +be well shaken before taken," without even a wry face. + +Presently the doctor came. + +"You're not so very angry at the sight of me to-day, my little lady, +eh?" he said. + +"I have not seen you for a long time," said Amelia; "but I know you +have been here, attending a stock who looked like me. If your eyes had +been touched with fairy ointment, however, you would have been aware +that it was a fairy imp, and a very ugly one, covered with hair. I have +been living in terror lest it should go back underground in the shape +of a black cat. However, thanks to the four-leaved clover, and the old +woman of the heath, I am at home again." + +On hearing this rhodomontade, Amelia's mother burst into tears, for she +thought the poor child was still raving with fever. But the doctor +smiled pleasantly, and said--"Ay, ay, to be sure," with a little nod, +as one should say, "We know all about it;" and laid two fingers in a +casual manner on Amelia's wrist. + +"But she is wonderfully better, madam," he said afterwards to her +mamma; "the brain has been severely tried, but she is marvellously +improved: in fact, it is an effort of nature, a most favourable effort, +and we can but assist the rally; we will change the medicine." Which he +did, and very wisely assisted nature with a bottle of pure water +flavoured with tincture of roses. + +"And it was so very kind of him to give me his directions in poetry," +said Amelia's mamma; "for I told him my memory, which is never good, +seemed going completely, from anxiety, and if I had done anything wrong +just now, I should never have forgiven myself. And I always found +poetry easier to remember than prose,"--which puzzled everybody, the +doctor included, till it appeared that she had ingeniously discovered a +rhyme in his orders-- + + 'To be kept cool and quiet, + With light nourishing diet.' + +Under which treatment Amelia was soon pronounced to be well. + +She made another attempt to relate her adventures, but she found that +not even Nurse would believe in them. + +"Why you told me yourself I might meet with the fairies," said Amelia, +reproachfully. + +"So I did, my dear," Nurse replied, "and they say that it's that put it +into your head. And I'm sure what you say about the dwarfs and all is +as good as a printed book, though you can't think that ever I would +have let any dirty clothes store up like that, let alone your frocks, +my dear. But for pity's sake, Miss Amelia, don't go on about it to your +mother, for she thinks you'll never get your senses right again, and +she has fretted enough about you, poor lady; and nursed you night and +day till she is nigh worn out. And anybody can see you've been ill, +Miss, you've grown so, and look paler and older like. Well, to be sure, +as you say, if you'd been washing and working for a month in a place +without a bit of sun, or a bed to lie on, and scraps to eat, it would +be enough to do it; and many's the poor child that has to, and gets +worn and old before her time. But, my dear, whatever you think, give in +to your mother; you'll never repent giving in to your mother, my dear, +the longest day you live." + +So Amelia kept her own counsel. But she had one confidant. + +When her parents brought the stock home on the night of Amelia's visit +to the haycocks, the bulldog's conduct had been most strange. His usual +good-humour appeared to have been exchanged for incomprehensible fury, +and he was with difficulty prevented from flying at the stock, who on +her part showed an anger and dislike fully equal to his. + +Finally the bulldog had been confined to the stable, where he remained +the whole month, uttering from time to time such howls, with his snub +nose in the air, that poor Nurse quite gave up hope of Amelia's +recovery. + +"For indeed, my dear, they do say that a howling dog is a sign of +death, and it was more than I could abear." + +But the day after Amelia's return, as Nurse was leaving the room with a +tray which had carried some of the light nourishing diet ordered by the +doctor, she was knocked down, tray and all, by the bulldog, who came +tearing into the room, dragging a chain and dirty rope after him, and +nearly choked by the desperate efforts which had finally effected his +escape from the stable. And he jumped straight on to the end of +Amelia's bed, where he lay, _thudding_ with his tail, and giving +short whines of ecstasy. And as Amelia begged that he might be left, +and as it was evident that he would bite any one who tried to take him +away, he became established as chief nurse. When Amelia's meals were +brought to the bedside on a tray, he kept a fixed eye on the plates, as +if to see if her appetite were improving. And he would even take a +snack himself, with an air of great affability. + +And when Amelia told him her story, she could see by his eyes, and his +nose, and his ears, and his tail, and the way he growled whenever the +stock was mentioned, that he knew all about it. As, on the other hand, +he had no difficulty in conveying to her by sympathetic whines the +sentiment, "Of course I would have helped you if I could; but they tied +me up, and this disgusting old rope has taken me a month to worry +through." + +So, in spite of the past, Amelia grew up good and gentle, unselfish and +considerate for others. She was unusually clever, as those who have +been with the "Little People" are said always to be. + +And she became so popular with her mother's acquaintances that they +said--"We will no longer call her Amelia, for it is a name we learnt to +dislike, but we will call her Amy, that is to say, 'Beloved.'" + + * * * * * + +"And did my godmother's grandmother believe that Amelia had really been +with the fairies, or did she think it was all fever ravings?" + +"That, indeed, she never said, but she always observed that it was a +pleasant tale with a good moral, which was surely enough for anybody." + + + +THE END. + + +_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._ + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following statement was in the edition from which +this copy was acquired.] + +_The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized, +complete, and uniform Edition published. + +It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol., +issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will +appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series +will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was +specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing._ + +_The following is a list of the books included in +the Series_-- + +1. MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES. + +2. MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES. + +3. OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY-TALES. + +4. A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING. + +5. THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES. + +6. SIX TO SIXTEEN. + +7. LOB-LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES. + +8. JAN OF THE WINDMILL. + +9. VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS. + +10. THE PEACE EGG--A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY--HINTS FOR PRIVATE +THEATRICALS, &c. + +11. A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES. + +12. BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN. + +13. WE AND THE WORLD, Part I. + +14. WE AND THE WORLD, Part II. + +15. JACKANAPES--DADDY DARWIN'S DOVECOTE--THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE. + +16. MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS. + +17. MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand--Wonder +Stories--Tales of the Khoja, and other translations. + +18. JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection from Mrs. +Ewing's Letters. + + * * * * * + +S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brownies and Other Tales +by Juliana Horatia Ewing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 16052-8.txt or 16052-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16052/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. Stokes and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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: The Brownies and Other Tales + +Author: Juliana Horatia Ewing + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. Stokes and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<H1>THE BROWNIES<BR> + +AND OTHER TALES.<BR> + +BY<BR> + +JULIANA HORATIA EWING.</H1> + +<CENTER> +<P>LONDON:<BR> + +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,<BR> + +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.<BR> + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO.<BR> + + +[Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.] +</P> + +<P>DEDICATED<BR> + +TO<BR> + +MY VERY DEAR AND HONOURED MOTHER.<BR> + +J.H.E.<BR> + +1871. +</P> +</CENTER> + +<HR> + +<H2>CONTENTS.</H2> + +<P> +<A HREF="#thebrownies">THE BROWNIES</A><BR> + +<A HREF="#thelandoflosttoys">THE LAND OF LOST TOYS</A><BR> + +<A HREF="#threechristmastrees">THREE CHRISTMAS TREES</A><BR> + +<A HREF="#anidyllofthewood">AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD</A><BR> + +<A HREF="#christmascrackers">CHRISTMAS CRACKERS</A><BR> + +<A HREF="#ameliaandthedwarfs">AMELIA AND THE DWARFS</A> +</P> + +<HR> + +<A NAME="thebrownies"></A><H2>THE BROWNIES.</H2> + +<P>A little girl sat sewing and crying on a garden seat. She had fair +floating hair, which the breeze blew into her eyes, and between the +cloud of hair, and the mist of tears, she could not see her work very +clearly. She neither tied up her locks, nor dried her eyes, however; +for when one is miserable, one may as well be completely so. +</P> +<P>"What is the matter?" said the Doctor, who was a friend of the +Rector's, and came into the garden whenever he pleased. +</P> +<P>The Doctor was a tall stout man, with hair as black as crow's feathers +on the top, and grey underneath, and a bushy beard. When young, he had +been slim and handsome, with wonderful eyes, which were wonderful +still; but that was many years past. He had a great love for children, +and this one was a particular friend of his. +</P> +<P>"What is the matter?" said he. +</P> +<P>"I'm in a row," murmured the young lady through her veil; and the +needle went in damp, and came out with a jerk, which is apt to result +in what ladies called "puckering." +</P> +<P>"You are like London in a yellow fog," said the Doctor, throwing +himself on to the grass, "and it is very depressing to my feelings. +What is the row about, and how came you to get into it?" +</P> +<P>"We're all in it," was the reply; and apparently the fog was +thickening, for the voice grew less and less distinct—"the boys and +everybody. It's all about forgetting, and not putting away, and leaving +about, and borrowing, and breaking, and that sort of thing. I've had +Father's new pocket-handkerchiefs to hem, and I've been out climbing +with the boys, and kept forgetting and forgetting, and Mother says I +always forget; and I can't help it. I forget to tidy his newspapers for +him, and I forget to feed Puss, and I forgot these; besides, they're a +great bore, and Mother gave them to Nurse to do, and this one was lost, +and we found it this morning tossing about in the toy-cupboard." +</P> +<P>"It looks as if it had been taking violent exercise," said the Doctor. +"But what have the boys to do with it?" +</P> +<P>"Why, then there was a regular turn out of the toys," she explained, +"and they're all in a regular mess. You know, we always go on till the +last minute, and then things get crammed in anyhow. Mary and I did tidy +them once or twice; but the boys never put anything away, you know, so +what's the good?" +</P> +<P>"What, indeed!" said the Doctor. "And so you have complained of them?" +</P> +<P>"Oh! no!" answered she. "We don't get them into rows, unless they are +very provoking; but some of the things were theirs, so everybody was +sent for, and I was sent out to finish this, and they are all tidying. +I don't know when it will be done, for I have all this side to hem; and +the soldiers' box is broken, and Noah is lost out of the Noah's Ark, +and so is one of the elephants and a guinea-pig, and so is the +rocking-horse's nose; and nobody knows what has become of Rutlandshire +and the Wash, but they're so small, I don't wonder; only North America +and Europe are gone too." +</P> +<P>The Doctor started up in affected horror. "Europe gone, did you say? +Bless me! what will become of us!" +</P> +<P>"Don't!" said the young lady, kicking petulantly with her dangling +feet, and trying not to laugh. "You know I mean the puzzles; and if +they were yours, you wouldn't like it." +</P> +<P>"I don't half like it as it is," said the Doctor. "I am seriously +alarmed. An earthquake is one thing; you have a good shaking, and +settle down again. But Europe gone—lost—Why, here comes Deordie, +I +declare, looking much more cheerful than we do; let us humbly hope that +Europe has been found. At present I feel like Aladdin when his palace +had been transported by the magician; I don't know where I am." +</P> +<P>"You're here, Doctor; aren't you?" asked the slow curly-wigged brother, +squatting himself on the grass. +</P> +<P>"<i>Is</i> Europe found?" said the Doctor tragically. +</P> +<P>"Yes," laughed Deordie. "I found it." +</P> +<P>"You will be a great man," said the Doctor. "And—it is only common +charity to ask—how about North America?" +</P> +<P>"Found too," said Deordie. "But the Wash is completely lost." +</P> +<P>"And my six shirts in it!" said the Doctor. "I sent them last Saturday +as ever was. What a world we live in! Any more news? Poor Tiny here has +been crying her eyes out." +</P> +<P>"I'm so sorry, Tiny," said the brother. "But don't bother about it. +It's all square now, and we're going to have a new shelf put up." +</P> +<P>"Have you found everything?" asked Tiny. +</P> +<P>"Well, not the Wash, you know. And the elephant and the guinea-pig are +gone for good; so the other elephant and the other guinea-pig must walk +together as a pair now. Noah was among the soldiers, and we have put +the cavalry into a night-light box. Europe and North America were +behind the book-case; and, would you believe it? the rocking-horse's +nose has turned up in the nursery oven." +</P> +<P>"I can't believe it," said the Doctor. "The rocking-horse's nose +couldn't turn up, it was the purest Grecian, modelled from the Elgin +marbles. Perhaps it was the heat that did it, though. However, you seem +to have got through your troubles very well, Master Deordie. I wish +poor Tiny were at the end of her task." +</P> +<P>"So do I," said Deordie ruefully. "But I tell you what I've been +thinking, Doctor. Nurse is always nagging at us, and we're always in +rows of one sort or another, for doing this, and not doing that, and +leaving our things about. But, you know, it's a horrid shame, for there +are plenty of servants, and I don't see why we should be always +bothering to do little things, and—" +</P> +<P>"Oh! come to the point, please," said the Doctor; "you do go round the +square so, in telling your stories, Deordie. What have you been +thinking of?" +</P> +<P>"Well," said Deordie, who was as good-tempered as he was slow, "the +other day Nurse shut me up in the back nursery for borrowing her +scissors and losing them; but I'd got 'Grimm' inside one of my +knickerbockers, so when she locked the door, I sat down to read. And I +read the story of the Shoemaker and the little Elves who came and did +his work for him before he got up; and I thought it would be so jolly +if we had some little Elves to do things instead of us." +</P> +<P>"That's what Tommy Trout said," observed the Doctor. +</P> +<P>"Who's Tommy Trout?" asked Deordie. +</P> +<P>"Don't you know, Deor?" said Tiny. "It's the good boy who pulled the +cat out of the what's-his-name. + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'Who pulled her out?<BR> + Little Tommy Trout.' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>Is it the same Tommy Trout, Doctor? I never heard anything else about +him except his pulling the cat out; and I can't think how he did that." +</P> +<P>"Let down the bucket for her, of course," said the Doctor. "But listen +to me. If you will get that handkerchief done, and take it to your +mother with a kiss, and not keep me waiting, I'll have you all to tea, +and tell you the story of Tommy Trout." +</P> +<P>"This very night?" shouted Deordie. +</P> +<P>"This very night." +</P> +<P>"Every one of us?" inquired the young gentleman with rapturous +incredulity. +</P> +<P>"Every one of you.—Now, Tiny, how about that work?" +</P> +<P>"It's just done," said Tiny.—"Oh! Deordie, climb up behind, and hold +back my hair, there's a darling, while I fasten off. Oh! Deor, you're +pulling my hair out. Don't." +</P> +<P>"I want to make a pig-tail," said Deor. +</P> +<P>"You can't," said Tiny, with feminine contempt. "You can't plait. +What's the good of asking boys to do anything? There! it's done at +last. Now go and ask Mother if we may go.—Will you let me come, +Doctor," she inquired, "if I do as you said?" +</P> +<P>"To be sure I will," he answered. "Let me look at you. Your eyes are +swollen with crying. How can you be such a silly little goose?" +</P> +<P>"Did you never cry?" asked Tiny. +</P> +<P>"When I was your age? Well, perhaps so." +</P> +<P>"You've never cried since, surely," said Tiny. +</P> +<P>The Doctor absolutely blushed. +</P> +<P>"What do you think?" said he. +</P> +<P>"Oh, of course not," she answered. "You've nothing to cry about. You're +grown up, and you live all alone in a beautiful house, and you do as +you like, and never get into rows, or have anybody but yourself to +think about; and no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem." +</P> +<P>"Very nice; eh, Deordie?" said the Doctor. +</P> +<P>"Awfully jolly," said Deordie. +</P> +<P>"Nothing else to wish for, eh?" +</P> +<P>"<i>I</i> should keep harriers, and not a poodle, if I were a man," +said Deordie; "but I suppose you could, if you wanted to." +</P> +<P>"Nothing to cry about, at any rate?" +</P> +<P>"I should think not!" said Deordie.—"There's Mother, though; let's go +and ask her about the tea;" and off they ran. +</P> +<P>The Doctor stretched his six feet of length upon the sward, dropped his +grey head on a little heap of newly-mown grass, and looked up into the +sky. +</P> +<P>"Awfully jolly—no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem," said he, +laughing to himself. "Nothing else to wish for; nothing to cry about." +</P> +<P>Nevertheless, he lay still, staring at the sky, till the smile died +away, and tears came into his eyes. Fortunately, no one was there to +see. +</P> +<P>What could this "awfully jolly" Doctor be thinking of to make him cry? +He was thinking of a grave-stone in the churchyard close by, and of a +story connected with this grave-stone which was known to everybody in +the place who was old enough to remember it. This story has nothing to +do with the present story, so it ought not to be told. +</P> +<P>And yet it has to do with the Doctor, and is very +short, so it shall be put in, after all. +</P> + +<H3>THE STORY OF A GRAVE-STONE.</H3> + +<P>One early spring morning, about twenty years before, a man going to his +work at sunrise through the churchyard, stopped by a flat stone which +he had lately helped to lay down. The day before, a name had been cut +on it, which he stayed to read; and below the name some one had +scrawled a few words in pencil, which he read also—<i>Pitifully behold +the sorrows of our hearts</i>. On the stone lay a pencil, and a few +feet from it lay the Doctor, face downwards, as he had lain all night, +with the hoar frost on his black hair. +</P> +<P>Ah! these grave-stones (they were ugly things in those days; not the +light, hopeful, pretty crosses we set up now), how they seem +remorselessly to imprison and keep our dear dead friends away from us! +And yet they do not lie with a feather's weight upon the souls that are +gone, while GOD only knows how heavily they press upon the souls that +are left behind. Did the spirit whose body was with the dead, stand +that morning by the body whose spirit was with the dead, and pity him? +Let us only talk about what we know. +</P> +<P>After this it was said that the Doctor had got a fever, and was dying, +but he got better of it; and then that he was out of his mind, but he +got better of that, and came out looking much as usual, except that his +hair never seemed quite so black again, as if a little of that night's +hoar frost still remained. And no further misfortune happened to him +that I ever heard of; and as time went on he grew a beard, and got +stout, and kept a German poodle, and gave tea-parties to other people's +children. As to the grave-stone story, whatever it was to him at the +end of twenty years, it was a great convenience to his friends; for +when he said anything they didn't agree with, or did anything they +couldn't understand, or didn't say or do what was expected of him, what +could be easier or more conclusive than to shake one's head and say, +</P> +<P>"The fact is, our Doctor has been a little odd, <i>ever since</i>—!" +</P> + +<H3>THE DOCTOR'S TEA-PARTY.</H3> + +<P>There is one great advantage attendant upon invitations to tea with a +doctor. No objections can be raised on the score of health. It is +obvious that it must be fine enough to go out when the Doctor asks you, +and that his tea-cakes may be eaten with perfect impunity. +</P> +<P>Those tea-cakes were always good; to-night they were utterly delicious; +there was a perfect <i>abandon</i> of currants, and the amount of +citron peel was enervating to behold. Then the housekeeper waited in +awful splendour, and yet the Doctor's authority over her seemed as +absolute as if he were an Eastern despot. Deordie must be excused for +believing in the charms of living alone. It certainly has its +advantages. The limited sphere of duty conduces to discipline in the +household, demand does not exceed supply in the article of waiting, and +there is not that general scrimmage of conflicting interests which +besets a large family in the most favoured circumstances. The +housekeeper waits in black silk, and looks as if she had no meaner +occupation than to sit in a rocking-chair, and dream of damson cheese. +</P> +<P>Rustling, hospitable, and subservient, this one retired at last, and— +</P> +<P>"Now," said the Doctor, "for the verandah; and to look at the moon." +</P> +<P>The company adjourned with a rush, the rear being brought up by the +poodle, who seemed quite used to the proceedings; and there under the +verandah, framed with passion-flowers and geraniums, the Doctor had +gathered mats, rugs, cushions, and arm-chairs, for the party; while far +up in the sky, a yellow-faced harvest moon looked down in awful +benignity. +</P> +<P>"Now!" said the Doctor. "Take your seats. Ladies first, and gentlemen +afterwards. Mary and Tiny, race for the American rocking-chair. Well +done! Of course it will hold both. Now, boys, shake down. No one is to +sit on the stone, or put his feet on the grass: and when you're ready, +I'll begin." +</P> +<P>"We're ready," said the girls. +</P> +<P>The boys shook down in a few minutes more, and the Doctor began the +story of +</P> + +<H2>"THE BROWNIES."</H2> + +<P>"Bairns are a burden," said the Tailor to himself as he sat at work. He +lived in a village on some of the glorious moors of the north of +England; and by bairns he meant children, as every Northman knows. +</P> +<P>"Bairns are a burden," and he sighed. +</P> +<P>"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady in the window. "It is the +family motto. The Trouts have had large families and good luck for +generations; that is, till your grandfather's time. He had one only +son. I married him. He was a good husband, but he had been a spoilt +child. He had always been used to be waited upon, and he couldn't fash +to look after the farm when it was his own. We had six children. They +are all dead but you, who were the youngest. You were bound to a +tailor. When the farm came into your hands, your wife died, and you +have never looked up since. The land is sold now, but not the house. +No! no! you're right enough there; but you've had your troubles, son +Thomas, and the lads <i>are</i> idle!" +</P> +<P>It was the Tailor's mother who spoke. She was a very old woman, and +helpless. She was not quite so bright in her intellect as she had been, +and got muddled over things that had lately happened; but she had a +clear memory for what was long past, and was very pertinacious in her +opinions. She knew the private history of almost every family in the +place, and who of the Trouts were buried under which old stones in the +churchyard; and had more tales of ghosts, doubles, warnings, fairies, +witches, hobgoblins, and such like, than even her grandchildren had +ever come to the end of. Her hands trembled with age, and she regretted +this for nothing more than for the danger it brought her into of +spilling the salt. She was past housework, but all day she sat knitting +hearth-rugs out of the bits and scraps of cloth that were shred in the +tailoring. How far she believed in the wonderful tales she told, and +the odd little charms she practised, no one exactly knew; but the older +she grew, the stranger were the things she remembered, and the more +testy she was if any one doubted their truth. "Bairns are a blessing!" +said she. "It is the family motto." +</P> +<P>"<i>Are they</i>?" said the Tailor emphatically. +</P> +<P>He had a high respect for his mother, and did not like to contradict +her, but he held his own opinion, based upon personal experience; and +not being a metaphysician, did not understand that it is safer to found +opinions on principles than on experience, since experience may alter, +but principles cannot. +</P> +<P>"Look at Tommy," he broke out suddenly. "That boy does nothing but +whittle sticks from morning till night. I have almost to lug him out of +bed o' mornings. If I send him an errand, he loiters; I'd better have +gone myself. If I set him to do anything, I have to tell him +everything; I could sooner do it myself. And if he does work, it's done +so unwillingly, with such a poor grace; better, far better, to do it +myself. What housework do the boys ever do but looking after the baby? +And this afternoon she was asleep in the cradle, and off they went, and +when she awoke, <i>I</i> must leave my work to take her. <i>I</i> gave +her her supper, and put her to bed. And what with what they want and I +have to get, and what they take out to play with and lose, and what +they bring in to play with and leave about, bairns give some trouble, +Mother, and I've not an easy life of it. The pay is poor enough when +one can get the work, and the work is hard enough when one has a clear +day to do it in; but housekeeping and bairn-minding don't leave a man +much time for his trade. No! no! Ma'am, the luck of the Trouts is gone, +and 'Bairns are a burden,' is the motto now. Though they are one's +own," he muttered to himself, "and not bad ones, and I did hope once +would have been a blessing." +</P> +<P>"There's Johnnie," murmured the old lady, dreamily. "He has a face like +an apple." +</P> +<P>"And is about as useful," said the Tailor. "He might have been +different, but his brother leads him by the nose." +</P> +<P>His brother led him in as the Tailor spoke, not literally by his snub, +though, but by the hand. They were a handsome pair, this lazy couple. +Johnnie especially had the largest and roundest of foreheads, the +reddest of cheeks, the brightest of eyes, the quaintest and most +twitchy of chins, and looked altogether like a gutta-percha cherub in a +chronic state of longitudinal squeeze. They were locked together by two +grubby paws, and had each an armful of moss, which they deposited on +the floor as they came in. +</P> +<P>"I've swept this floor once to-day," said the father, "and I'm not +going to do it again. Put that rubbish outside." "Move it, Johnnie!" +said his brother, seating himself on a stool, and taking out his knife +and a piece of wood, at which he cut and sliced; while the +apple-cheeked Johnnie stumbled and stamped over the moss, and scraped +it out on the doorstep, leaving long trails of earth behind him, and +then sat down also. +</P> +<P>"And those chips the same," added the Tailor; "I will <i>not</i> clear +up the litter you lads make." +</P> +<P>"Pick 'em up, Johnnie," said Thomas Trout, junior, with an exasperated +sigh; and the apple tumbled up, rolled after the flying chips, and +tumbled down again. +</P> +<P>"Is there any supper, Father?" asked Tommy. +</P> +<P>"No, there is not, Sir, unless you know how to get it," said the +Tailor; and taking his pipe, he went out of the house. +</P> +<P>"Is there really nothing to eat, Granny?" asked the boy. +</P> +<P>"No, my bairn, only some bread for breakfast to-morrow." +</P> +<P>"What makes Father so cross, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"He's wearied, and you don't help him, my dear." +</P> +<P>"What could I do, Grandmother?" +</P> +<P>"Many little things, if you tried," said the old lady. "He spent +half-an-hour to-day, while you were on the moor, getting turf for the +fire, and you could have got it just as well, and he been at his work." +</P> +<P>"He never told me," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"You might help me a bit just now, if you would, my laddie," said the +old lady coaxingly; "these bits of cloth want tearing into lengths, and +if you get 'em ready, I can go on knitting. There'll be some food when +this mat is done and sold." +</P> +<P>"I'll try," said Tommy, lounging up with desperate resignation. "Hold +my knife, Johnnie. Father's been cross, and everything has been +miserable, ever since the farm was sold. I wish I were a big man, and +could make a fortune.—Will that do, Granny?" +</P> +<P>The old lady put down her knitting and looked. "My dear, that's too +short. Bless me! I gave the lad a piece to measure by." +</P> +<P>"I thought it was the same length. Oh, dear! I am so tired;" and he +propped himself against the old lady's chair. +</P> +<P>"My dear! don't lean so; you'll tipple me over!" she shrieked. +</P> +<P>"I beg your pardon, Grandmother. Will <i>that</i> do?" +</P> +<P>"It's that much too long." +</P> +<P>"Tear that bit off. Now it's all right." +</P> +<P>"But, my dear, that wastes it. Now that bit is of no use. There goes my +knitting, you awkward lad!" +</P> +<P>"Johnnie, pick it up!—Oh! Grandmother, I <i>am</i> so hungry." The +boy's eyes filled with tears, and the old lady was melted in an +instant. +</P> +<P>"What can I do for you, my poor bairns?" said she. "There, never mind +the scraps, Tommy." +</P> +<P>"Tell us a tale, Granny. If you told us a new one, I shouldn't keep +thinking of that bread in the cupboard.—Come, Johnnie, and sit against +me. Now then!" +</P> +<P>"I doubt if there's one of my old-world cracks I haven't told you," +said the old lady, "unless it's a queer ghost story was told me years +ago of that house in the hollow with the blocked-up windows." +</P> +<P>"Oh! not ghosts!" Tommy broke in; "we've had so many. I know it was a +rattling, or a scratching, or a knocking, or a figure in white; and if +it turns out a tombstone or a white petticoat, I hate it." +</P> +<P>"It was nothing of the sort as a tombstone," said the old lady with +dignity. "It's a good half-mile from the churchyard. And as to white +petticoats, there wasn't a female in the house; he wouldn't have one; +and his victuals came in by the pantry window. But never mind! Though +it's as true as a sermon." +</P> +<P>Johnnie lifted his head from his brother's knee. +</P> +<P>"Let Granny tell what she likes, Tommy. It's a new ghost, and I should +like to know who he was, and why his victuals came in by the window." +</P> +<P>"I don't like a story about victuals," sulked Tommy. "It makes me think +of the bread. O Granny dear! do tell us a fairy story. You never will +tell us about the Fairies, and I know you know." +</P> +<P>"Hush! hush!" said the old lady. "There's Miss Surbiton's Love-letter, +and her Dreadful End." +</P> +<P>"I know Miss Surbiton, Granny. I think she was a goose. Why don't you +tell us about the Fairies?" +</P> +<P>"Hush! hush! my dear. There's the Clerk and the Corpse-candles." +</P> +<P>"I know the Corpse-candles, Granny. Besides, they make Johnnie dream, +and he wakes me to keep him company. <i>Why</i> won't you tell us about +the Fairies?" +</P> +<P>"My dear, they don't like it," said the old lady. +</P> +<P>"O Granny dear, why don't they? Do tell! I shouldn't think of the bread +a bit, if you told us about the Fairies. I know nothing about them." +</P> +<P>"He lived in this house long enough," said the old lady. "But it's not +lucky to name him." +</P> +<P>"O Granny, we are so hungry and miserable, what can it matter?" +</P> +<P>"Well, that's true enough," she sighed. "Trout's luck is gone; it went +with the Brownie, I believe." +</P> +<P>"Was that <i>he</i>, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"Yes, my dear, he lived with the Trouts for several generations." +</P> +<P>"What was he like, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"Like a little man, they say, my dear." +</P> +<P>"What did he do?" +</P> +<P>"He came in before the family were up, and swept up the hearth, and +lighted the fire, and set out the breakfast, and tidied the room, and +did all sorts of house-work. But he never would be seen, and was off +before they could catch him. But they could hear him laughing and +playing about the house sometimes." +</P> +<P>"What a darling! Did they give him any wages, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"No! my dear. He did it for love. They set a pancheon of clear water +for him over night, and now and then a bowl of bread-and-milk, or +cream. He liked that, for he was very dainty. Sometimes he left a bit +of money in the water. Sometimes he weeded the garden, or threshed the +corn. He saved endless trouble, both to men and maids." +</P> +<P>"O Granny! why did he go?" +</P> +<P>"The maids caught sight of him one night, my dear, and his coat was so +ragged, that they got a new suit, and a linen shirt for him, and laid +them by the bread-and-milk bowl. But when Brownie saw the things, he +put them on, and dancing round the kitchen, sang, +</P> + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten!<BR> + Here will I never more tread nor stampen,' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>and so danced through the door, and never came back again." +</P> +<P>"O Grandmother! But why not? Didn't he like the new clothes?" +</P> +<P>"The Old Owl knows, my dear; I don't." +</P> +<P>"Who's the Old Owl, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"I don't exactly know, my dear. It's what my mother used to say when we +asked anything that puzzled her. It was said that the Old Owl was Nanny +Besom (a witch, my dear!), who took the shape of a bird, but couldn't +change her voice, and that's why the owl sits silent all day for fear +she should betray herself by speaking, and has no singing voice like +other birds. Many people used to go and consult the Old Owl at +moon-rise, in my young days." +</P> +<P>"Did you ever go, Granny?" +</P> +<P>"Once, very nearly, my dear." +</P> +<P>"Oh! tell us, Granny dear.—There are no Corpse-candles, Johnnie; it's +only moonlight," he added consolingly, as Johnnie crept closer to his +knee, and pricked his little red ears. +</P> +<P>"It was when your grandfather was courting me, my dears," said the old +lady, "and I couldn't quite make up my mind. So I went to my mother, +and said, 'He's this on the one side, but then he's that on the other, +and so on. Shall I say yes or no?' And my mother said, 'The Old Owl +knows;' for she was fairly puzzled. So says I, 'I'll go and ask her +tonight, as sure as the moon rises.' +</P> +<P>"So at moon-rise I went, and there in the white light by the gate stood +your grandfather. 'What are you doing here at this time o' night?' says +I. 'Watching your window,' says he. 'What are <i>you</i> doing here at +this time o' night?' 'The Old Owl knows,' said I, and burst out +crying." +</P> +<P>"What for?" said Johnnie. +</P> +<P>"I can't rightly tell you, my dear," said the old lady, "but it gave me +such a turn to see him. And without more ado your grandfather kissed +me. 'How dare you?' said I. 'What do you mean?' 'The Old Owl knows,' +said he. So we never went." +</P> +<P>"How stupid!" said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Tell us more about Brownie, please," said Johnnie, "Did he ever live +with anybody else?" +</P> +<P>"There are plenty of Brownies," said the old lady, "or used to be in my +mother's young days. Some houses had several." "Oh! I wish ours would +come back!" cried both the boys in chorus. "He'd— +</P> +<P>"tidy the room," said Johnnie; +</P> +<P>"fetch the turf," said Tommy; +</P> +<P>"pick up the chips," said Johnnie; +</P> +<P>"sort your scraps," said Tommy; +</P> +<P>"and do everything. Oh! I wish he hadn't gone away." +</P> +<P>"What's that?" said the Tailor, coming in at this moment. +</P> +<P>"It's the Brownie, Father," said Tommy. "We are so sorry he went, and +do so wish we had one." +</P> +<P>"What nonsense have you been telling them, Mother?" asked the Tailor. +</P> +<P>"Heighty teighty," said the old lady, bristling. "Nonsense, indeed! As +good men as you, son Thomas, would as soon have jumped off the crags, +as spoken lightly of <i>them</i>, in my mother's young days." +</P> +<P>"Well, well," said the Tailor, "I beg their pardon. They never did +aught for me, whatever they did for my forbears; but they're as welcome +to the old place as ever, if they choose to come. There's plenty to +do." +</P> +<P>"Would you mind our setting a pan of water, Father?" asked Tommy very +gently. "There's no bread-and-milk." +</P> +<P>"You may set what you like, my lad," said the Tailor; "and I wish there +were bread-and-milk for your sakes, bairns. You should have it, had I +got it. But go to bed now." +</P> +<P>They lugged out a pancheon, and filled it with more dexterity than +usual, and then went off to bed, leaving the knife in one corner, the +wood in another, and a few splashes of water in their track. +</P> +<P>There was more room than comfort in the ruined old farm-house, and the +two boys slept on a bed of cut heather, in what had been the old +malt-loft. Johnnie was soon in the land of dreams, growing rosier and +rosier as he slept, a tumbled apple among the grey heather. But not so +lazy Tommy. The idea of a domesticated Brownie had taken full +possession of his mind; and whither Brownie had gone, where he might be +found, and what would induce him to return, were mysteries he longed to +solve. "There's an owl living in the old shed by the mere," he thought. +"It may be the Old Owl herself, and she knows, Granny says. When +Father's gone to bed, and the moon rises, I'll go." Meanwhile he lay +down. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>The moon rose like gold, and went up into the heavens like silver, +flooding the moors with a pale ghostly light, taking the colour out of +the heather, and painting black shadows under the stone walls. Tommy +opened his eyes, and ran to the window. "The moon has risen," said he, +and crept softly down the ladder, through the kitchen, where was the +pan of water, but no Brownie, and so out on to the moor. The air was +fresh, not to say chilly; but it was a glorious night, though +everything but the wind and Tommy seemed asleep. The stones, the walls, +the gleaming lanes, were so intensely still; the church tower in the +valley seemed awake and watching, but silent; the houses in the village +round it had all their eyes shut, that is, their window-blinds down; +and it seemed to Tommy as if the very moors had drawn white sheets over +them, and lay sleeping also. +</P> +<P>"Hoot! hoot!" said a voice from the fir plantation behind him. Somebody +else was awake, then. "It's the Old Owl," said Tommy; and there she +came, swinging heavily across the moor with a flapping stately flight, +and sailed into the shed by the mere. The old lady moved faster than +she seemed to do, and though Tommy ran hard she was in the shed some +time before him. When he got in, no bird was to be seen, but he heard a +crunching sound from above, and looking up, there sat the Old Owl, +pecking and tearing and munching at some shapeless black object, and +blinking at him—Tommy—with yellow eyes. +</P> +<P>"Oh dear!" said Tommy, for he didn't much like it. +</P> +<P>The Old Owl dropped the black mass on to the floor; and Tommy did not +care somehow to examine it. +</P> +<P>"Come up! come up!" said she hoarsely. +</P> +<P>She could speak, then! Beyond all doubt it was <i>the</i> Old Owl, and +none other. Tommy shuddered. +</P> +<P>"Come up here! come up here!" said the Old Owl. +</P> +<P>The Old Owl sat on a beam that ran across the shed. Tommy had often +climbed up for fun; and he climbed up now, and sat face to face with +her, and thought her eyes looked as if they were made of flame. +</P> +<P>"Kiss my fluffy face," said the Owl. +</P> +<P>Her eyes were going round like flaming catherine wheels, but there are +certain requests which one has not the option of refusing. Tommy crept +nearer, and put his lips to the round face out of which the eyes shone. +Oh! it was so downy and warm, so soft, so indescribably soft. Tommy's +lips sank into it, and couldn't get to the bottom. It was unfathomable +feathers and fluffiness. +</P> +<P>"Now, what do you want?" said the Owl. +</P> +<P>"Please," said Tommy, who felt rather re-assured, "can you tell me +where to find the Brownies, and how to get one to come and live with +us?" +</P> +<P>"Oohoo!" said the Owl, "that's it, is it? I know of three Brownies." +</P> +<P>"Hurrah!" said Tommy. "Where do they live?" +</P> +<P>"In your house," said the Owl. +</P> +<P>Tommy was aghast. +</P> +<P>"In our house!" he exclaimed. "Whereabouts? Let me rummage them out. +Why do they do nothing?" +</P> +<P>"One of them is too young," said the Owl. +</P> +<P>"But why don't the others work?" asked Tommy. +</P> +<P>"They are idle, they are idle," said the Old Owl, and she gave herself +such a shake as she said it, that the fluff went flying through the +shed, and Tommy nearly tumbled off the beam in his fright. +</P> +<P>"Then we don't want them," said he. "What is the use of having Brownies +if they do nothing to help us?" +</P> +<P>"Perhaps they don't know how, as no one has told them," said the Owl. +</P> +<P>"I wish you would tell me where to find them," said Tommy; "I could +tell them." +</P> +<P>"Could you?" said the Owl. "Oohoo! oohoo!" and Tommy couldn't tell +whether she were hooting or laughing. +</P> +<P>"Of course I could," he said. "They might be up and sweep the house, +and light the fire, and spread the table, and that sort of thing, +before Father came down. Besides, they could <i>see</i> what was +wanted. The Brownies did all that in Granny's mother's young days. And +then they could tidy the room, and fetch the turf, and pick up my +chips, and sort Granny's scraps. Oh! there's lots to do." +</P> +<P>"So there is," said the Owl. "Oohoo! Well, I can tell you where to find +one of the Brownies; and if you find him, he will tell you where his +brother is. But all this depends upon whether you feel equal to +undertaking it, and whether you will follow my directions." +</P> +<P>"I am quite ready to go," said Tommy, "and I will do as you shall tell +me. I feel sure I could persuade them. If they only knew how every one +would love them if they made themselves useful!" +</P> +<P>"Oohoo! oohoo!" said the Owl. "Now pay attention. You must go to the +north side of the mere when the moon is shining—('I know Brownies like +water,' muttered Tommy)—and turn yourself round three times, saying +this charm: +</P> + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf—<BR> + I looked in the water, and saw—' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>When you have got so far, look into the water, and at the same moment +you will see the Brownie, and think of a word that will fill up the +couplet, and rhyme with the first line. If either you do not see the +Brownie, or fail to think of the word, it will be of no use." +</P> +<P>"Is the Brownie a merman," said Tommy, wriggling himself along the +beam, "that he lives under water?" +</P> +<P>"That depends on whether he has a fish's tail," said the Owl, "and this +you can discover for yourself." +</P> +<P>"Well, the moon is shining, so I shall go," said Tommy. "Good-bye, and +thank you, Ma'am;" and he jumped down and went, saying to himself as he +ran, "I believe he is a merman all the same, or else how could he live +in the mere? I know more about Brownies than Granny does, and I shall +tell her so;" for Tommy was somewhat opinionated, like other young +people. +</P> +<P>The moon shone very brightly on the centre of the mere. Tommy knew the +place well, for there was a fine echo there. Round the edge grew rushes +and water plants, which cast a border of shadow. Tommy went to the +north side, and turning himself three times, as the Old Owl had told +him, he repeated the charm— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf—<BR> + I looked in the water, and saw—" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>Now for it! He looked in, and saw—the reflection of his own face. +</P> +<P>"Why, there's no one but myself!" said Tommy. "And what can the word +be? I must have done it wrong." +</P> +<P>"Wrong!" said the Echo. +</P> +<P>Tommy was almost surprised to find the echo awake at this time of +night. +</P> +<P>"Hold your tongue!" said he. "Matters are provoking enough of +themselves. Belf! Celf! Delf! Felf! Gelf! Helf! Jelf! What rubbish! +There can't be a word to fit it. And then to look for a Brownie, and +see nothing but myself!" +</P> +<P>"Myself," said the Echo. +</P> +<P>"Will you be quiet?" said Tommy. "If you would tell one the word there +would be some sense in your interference; but to roar 'Myself!' at one, +which neither rhymes nor runs—it does rhyme though, as it happens," he +added; "and how very odd! it runs too— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf— + I looked in the water, and saw myself,' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>which I certainly did. What can it mean? The Old Owl knows, as Granny +would say; so I shall go back and ask her." +</P> +<P>"Ask her!" said the Echo. +</P> +<P>"Didn't I say I should?" said Tommy. "How exasperating you are! It is +very strange. <i>Myself</i> certainly does rhyme, and I wonder I did +not think of it long ago." +</P> +<P>"Go," said the Echo. +</P> +<P>"Will you mind your own business, and go to sleep?" said Tommy. "I am +going; I said I should." +</P> +<P>And back he went. There sat the Old Owl as before. +</P> +<P>"Oohoo!" said she, as Tommy climbed up. "What did you see in the mere?" +</P> +<P>"I saw nothing but myself," said Tommy indignantly. +</P> +<P>"And what did you expect to see?" asked the Owl. +</P> +<P>"I expected to see a Brownie," said Tommy; "you told me so." +</P> +<P>"And what are Brownies like, pray?" inquired the Owl. +</P> +<P>"The one Granny knew was a useful little fellow, something like a +little man," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Ah!" said the Owl, "but you know at present this one is an idle little +fellow, something like a little man. Oohoo! oohoo! Are you quite sure +you didn't see him?" +</P> +<P>"Quite," answered Tommy sharply. "I saw no one but myself." +</P> +<P>"Hoot! toot! How touchy we are! And who are you, pray?" +</P> +<P>"I'm not a Brownie," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Don't be too sure," said the Owl. "Did you find out the word?" +</P> +<P>"No," said Tommy. "I could find no word with any meaning that would +rhyme but 'myself.'" +</P> +<P>"Well, that runs and rhymes," said the Owl. "What do you want? Where's +your brother now?" +</P> +<P>"In bed in the malt-loft," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Then now all your questions are answered," said the Owl, "and you know +what wants doing, so go and do it. Good-night, or rather good-morning, +for it is long past midnight;" and the old lady began to shake her +feathers for a start. +</P> +<P>"Don't go yet, please," said Tommy humbly. "I don't understand it. You +know I'm not a Brownie, am I?" +</P> +<P>"Yes, you are," said the Owl, "and a very idle one too. All children +are Brownies." +</P> +<P>"But I couldn't do work like a Brownie," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Why not?" inquired the Owl. "Couldn't you sweep the floor, light the +fire, spread the table, tidy the room, fetch the turf, pick up your own +chips, and sort your grandmother's scraps? You know 'there's lots to +do.'" +</P> +<P>"But I don't think I should like it," said Tommy. "I'd much rather have +a Brownie to do it for me." +</P> +<P>"And what would you do meanwhile?" asked the Owl. "Be idle, I suppose; +and what do you suppose is the use of a man's having children if they +do nothing to help him? Ah! if they only knew how every one would love +them if they made themselves useful!" +</P> +<P>"But is it really and truly so?" asked Tommy, in a dismal voice. "Are +there no Brownies but children?" +</P> +<P>"No, there are not," said the Owl. "And pray do you think that the +Brownies, whoever they may be, come into the house to save trouble for +the idle healthy little boys who live in it? Listen to me, Tommy," said +the old lady, her eyes shooting rays of fire in the dark corner where +she sat. "Listen to me, you are a clever boy, and can understand when +one speaks; so I will tell you the whole history of the Brownies, as it +has been handed down in our family from my grandmother's +great-grandmother, who lived in the Druid's Oak, and was intimate with +the fairies. And when I have done you shall tell me what you think they +are, if they are not children. It's the opinion I have come to at any +rate, and I don't think that wisdom died with our great-grandmothers." +</P> +<P>"I should like to hear if you please," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>The Old Owl shook out a tuft or two of fluff, and set her eyes a-going +and began: +</P> +<P>"The Brownies, or, as they are sometimes called, the Small Folk, the +Little People, or the Good People, are a race of tiny beings who +domesticate themselves in a house of which some grown-up human being +pays the rent and taxes. They are like small editions of men and women, +they are too small and fragile for heavy work; they have not the +strength of a man, but are a thousand times more fresh and nimble. They +can run and jump, and roll and tumble, with marvellous agility and +endurance, and of many of the aches and pains which men and women groan +under, they do not even know the names. They have no trade or +profession, and as they live entirely upon other people, they know +nothing of domestic cares; in fact, they know very little upon any +subject, though they are often intelligent and highly inquisitive. They +love dainties, play, and mischief. They are apt to be greatly beloved, +and are themselves capriciously affectionate. They are little people, +and can only do little things. When they are idle and mischievous, they +are called Boggarts, and are a curse to the house they live in. When +they are useful and considerate, they are Brownies, and are a +much-coveted blessing. Sometimes the Blessed Brownies will take up +their abode with some worthy couple, cheer them with their romps and +merry laughter, tidy the house, find things that have been lost, and +take little troubles out of hands full of great anxieties. Then in time +these Little People are Brownies no longer. They grow up into men and +women. They do not care so much for dainties, play, or mischief. They +cease to jump and tumble, and roll about the house. They know more, and +laugh less. Then, when their heads begin to ache with anxiety, and they +have to labour for their own living, and the great cares of life come +on, other Brownies come and live with them, and take up their little +cares, and supply their little comforts, and make the house merry once +more." +</P> +<P>"How nice!" said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Very nice," said the Old Owl. "But what"—and she shook herself more +fiercely than ever, and glared so that Tommy expected nothing less than +that her eyes would set fire to her feathers and she would be burnt +alive. "But what must I say of the Boggarts? Those idle urchins who eat +the bread-and-milk, and don't do the work, who lie in bed without an +ache or pain to excuse them, who untidy instead of tidying, cause work +instead of doing it, and leave little cares to heap on big cares, till +the old people who support them are worn out altogether." +</P> +<P>"Don't!" said Tommy. "I can't bear it." +</P> +<P>"I hope when Boggarts grow into men," said the Old Owl, "that their +children will be Boggarts too, and then they'll know what it is!" +</P> +<P>"Don't!" roared Tommy. "I won't be a Boggart. I'll be a Brownie." +</P> +<P>"That's right," nodded the Old Owl. "I said you were a boy who could +understand when one spoke. And remember that the Brownies never are +seen at their work. They get up before the household, and get away +before any one can see them. I can't tell you why. I don't think my +grandmother's great-grandmother knew. Perhaps because all good deeds +are better done in secret." +</P> +<P>"Please," said Tommy, "I should like to go home now, and tell Johnnie. +It's getting cold, and I am so tired!" +</P> +<P>"Very true," said the Old Owl, "and then you will have to be up early +to-morrow. I think I had better take you home." +</P> +<P>"I know the way, thank you," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"I didn't say <i>show</i> you the way, I said <i>take</i> you—carry +you," said the Owl. "Lean against me." +</P> +<P>"I'd rather not, thank you," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>"Lean against me," screamed the Owl. "Oohoo! how obstinate boys are to +be sure!" +</P> +<P>Tommy crept up very unwillingly. +</P> +<P>"Lean your full weight, and shut your eyes," said the Owl. +</P> +<P>Tommy laid his head against the Old Owl's feathers, had a vague idea +that she smelt of heather, and thought it must be from living on the +moor, shut his eyes, and leant his full weight, expecting that he and +the Owl would certainly fall off the beam together. +Down—feathers—fluff—he sank and sank, could feel nothing +solid, +jumped up with a start to save himself, opened his eyes, and found that +he was sitting among the heather in the malt-loft, with Johnnie +sleeping by his side. +</P> +<P>"How quickly we came!" said he; "that is certainly a very clever Old +Owl. I couldn't have counted ten whilst my eyes were shut. How very +odd!" +</P> +<P>But what was odder still was, that it was no longer moonlight, but +early dawn. +</P> +<P>"Get up, Johnnie," said his brother, "I've got a story to tell you." +</P> +<P>And while Johnnie sat up, and rubbed his eyes open, he related his +adventures on the moor. +</P> +<P>"Is all that true?" said Johnnie. "I mean, did it really happen?" +</P> +<P>"Of course it did," said his brother; "don't you believe it?" +</P> +<P>"Oh yes," said Johnnie. "But I thought it was perhaps only a true +story, like Granny's true stories. I believe all those, you know. But +if you were there, you know, it is different—" +</P> +<P>"I was there," said Tommy, "and it's all just as I tell you: and I tell +you what, if we mean to do anything we must get up: though, oh dear! I +should like to stay in bed. I say," he added, after a pause, "suppose +we do. It can't matter being Boggarts for one night more. I mean to be +a Brownie before I grow up, though. I couldn't stand boggarty +children." +</P> +<P>"I won't be a Boggart at all," said Johnnie, "it's horrid. But I don't +see how we can be Brownies, for I'm afraid we can't do the things. I +wish I were bigger!" +</P> +<P>"I can do it well enough," said Tommy, following his brother's example +and getting up. "Don't you suppose I can light a fire? Think of all the +bonfires we have made! And I don't think I should mind having a regular +good tidy-up either. It's that stupid +putting-away-things-when-you've-done-with-them that I hate so!" +</P> +<P>The Brownies crept softly down the ladder and into the kitchen. There +was the blank hearth, the dirty floor, and all the odds and ends lying +about, looking cheerless enough in the dim light. Tommy felt quite +important as he looked round. There is no such cure for untidiness as +clearing up after other people; one sees so clearly where the fault +lies. +</P> +<P>"Look at that door-step, Johnnie," said the Brownie-elect, "what a mess +you made of it! If you had lifted the moss carefully, instead of +stamping and struggling with it, it would have saved us ten minutes' +work this morning." +</P> +<P>This wisdom could not be gainsaid, and Johnnie only looked meek and +rueful. +</P> +<P>"I am going to light the fire," pursued his brother;—"the next turfs, +you know, <i>we</i> must get—you can tidy a bit. Look at that knife I +gave you to hold last night, and that wood—that's my fault though, and +so are those scraps by Granny's chair. What are you grubbing at that +rat-hole for?" +</P> +<P>Johnnie raised his head somewhat flushed and tumbled. +</P> +<P>"What do you think I have found?" said he triumphantly. "Father's +measure that has been lost for a week!" +</P> +<P>"Hurrah!" said Tommy, "put it by his things. That's just a sort of +thing for a Brownie to have done. What will he say? And I say, Johnnie, +when you've tidied, just go and grub up a potato or two in the garden, +and I'll put them to roast for breakfast. I'm lighting such a bonfire!" +</P> +<P>The fire was very successful. Johnnie went after the potatoes, and +Tommy cleaned the door-step, swept the room, dusted the chairs and the +old chest, and set out the table. There was no doubt he could be handy +when he chose. +</P> +<P>"I'll tell you what I've thought of, if we have time," said Johnnie, as +he washed the potatoes in the water that had been set for Brownie. "We +might run down to the South Pasture for some mushrooms. Father said the +reason we found so few was that people go by sunrise for them to take +to market. The sun's only just rising, we should be sure to find some, +and they would do for breakfast." +</P> +<P>"There's plenty of time," said Tommy; so they went. The dew lay heavy +and thick upon the grass by the road-side, and over the miles of +network that the spiders had woven from blossom to blossom of the +heather. The dew is the Sun's breakfast; but he was barely up yet, and +had not eaten it, and the world felt anything but warm. Nevertheless, +it was so sweet and fresh as it is at no later hour of the day, and +every sound was like the returning voice of a long-absent friend. Down +to the pastures, where was more network and more dew, but when one has +nothing to speak of in the way of boots, the state of the ground is of +the less consequence. +</P> +<P>The Tailor had been right, there was no lack of mushrooms at this time +of the morning. All over the pasture they stood, of all sizes, some +like buttons, some like tables; and in the distance one or two ragged +women, stooping over them with baskets, looked like huge fungi also. +</P> +<P>"This is where the fairies feast," said Tommy. "They had a large party +last night. When they go, they take away the dishes and cups, for they +are made of gold; but they leave their tables, and we eat them." +</P> +<P>"I wonder whether giants would like to eat our tables," said Johnnie. +</P> +<P>This was beyond Tommy's capabilities of surmise; so they filled a +handkerchief, and hurried back again, for fear the Tailor should have +come down-stairs. +</P> +<P>They were depositing the last mushroom in a dish on the table, when his +footsteps were heard descending. +</P> +<P>"There he is!" exclaimed Tommy. "Remember, we mustn't be caught. Run +back to bed." +</P> +<P>Johnnie caught up the handkerchief, and smothering their laughter, the +two scrambled back up the ladder, and dashed straight into the heather. +</P> +<P>Meanwhile the poor Tailor came wearily down-stairs. Day after day, +since his wife's death, he had come down every morning to the same +desolate sight—yesterday's refuse and an empty hearth. This morning +task of tidying was always a sad and ungrateful one to the widowed +father. His awkward struggles with the house-work in which <i>she</i> +had been so notable, chafed him. The dirty kitchen was dreary, the +labour lonely, and it was an hour's time lost to his trade. But life +does not stand still while one is wishing, and so the Tailor did that +for which there was neither remedy nor substitute; and came down this +morning as other mornings to the pail and broom. When he came in he +looked round, and started, and rubbed his eyes; looked round again, and +rubbed them harder: then went up to the fire and held out his hand, +(warm certainly)—then up to the table and smelt the mushrooms, +(esculent fungi beyond a doubt)—handled the loaf, stared at the open +door and window, the swept floor, and the sunshine pouring in, and +finally sat down in stunned admiration. Then he jumped up and ran to +the foot of the stairs, shouting, +</P> +<P>"Mother! mother! Trout's luck has come again." "And yet, no!" he +thought, "the old lady's asleep, it's a shame to wake her, I'll tell +those idle rascally lads, they'll be more pleased than they deserve. It +was Tommy after all that set the water and caught him." "Boys! boys!" +he shouted at the foot of the ladder, "the Brownie has come!—and if he +hasn't found my measure!" he added on returning to the kitchen; "this +is as good as a day's work to me." +</P> +<P>There was great excitement in the small household that day. The boys +kept their own counsel. The old Grandmother was triumphant, and tried +not to seem surprised. The Tailor made no such vain effort, and +remained till bed-time in a state of fresh and unconcealed amazement. +</P> +<P>"I've often heard of the Good People," he broke out towards the end of +the evening. "And I've heard folk say they've known those that have +seen them capering round the grey rocks on the moor at midnight: but +this is wonderful! To come and do the work for a pan of cold water! Who +could have believed it?" +</P> +<P>"You might have believed it if you'd believed me, son Thomas," said the +old lady tossily. "I told you so. But young people always know better +than their elders!" +</P> +<P>"I didn't see him," said the Tailor, beginning his story afresh; "but I +thought as I came in I heard a sort of laughing and rustling." +</P> +<P>"My mother said they often heard him playing and laughing about the +house," said the old lady. "I told you so." +</P> +<P>"Well, he sha'n't want for a bowl of bread-and-milk to-morrow, anyhow," +said the Tailor, "if I have to stick to Farmer Swede's waistcoat till +midnight." +</P> +<P>But the waistcoat was finished by bed-time, and the Tailor set the +bread-and-milk-himself, and went to rest. +</P> +<P>"I say," said Tommy, when both the boys were in bed, "the Old Owl was +right, and we must stick to it. But I'll tell you what I don't like, +and that is Father thinking we're idle still. I wish he knew we were +the Brownies." +</P> +<P>"So do I," said Johnnie; and he sighed. +</P> +<P>"I tell you what," said Tommy, with the decisiveness of elder +brotherhood, "we'll keep quiet for a bit for fear we should leave off; +but when we've gone on a good while, I shall tell him. It was only the +Old Owl's grandmother's great-grandmother who said it was to be kept +secret, and the Old Owl herself said grandmothers were not always in +the right." +</P> +<P>"No more they are," said Johnnie; "look at Granny about this." +</P> +<P>"I know," said Tommy. "She's in a regular muddle." +</P> +<P>"So she is," said Johnnie. "But that's rather fun, I think." +</P> +<P>And they went to sleep. +</P> +<P>Day after day went by, and still the Brownies "stuck to it," and did +their work. It is no such very hard matter after all to get up early +when one is young and light-hearted, and sleeps upon heather in a loft +without window-blinds, and with so many broken window-panes that the +air comes freely in. In old times the boys used to play at tents among +the heather, while the Tailor did the house-work; now they came down +and did it for him. +</P> +<P>Size is not everything, even in this material existence. One has heard +of dwarfs who were quite as clever (not to say as powerful) as giants, +and I do not fancy that Fairy Godmothers are ever very large. It is +wonderful what a comfort Brownies may be in the house that is fortunate +enough to hold them! The Tailor's Brownies were the joy of his life; +and day after day they seemed to grow more and more ingenious in +finding little things to do for his good. +</P> +<P>Now-a-days Granny never picked a scrap for herself. One day's shearings +were all neatly arranged the next morning, and laid by her +knitting-pins; and the Tailor's tape and shears were no more absent +without leave. +</P> +<P>One day a message came to him to offer him two or three days' tailoring +in a farm-house some miles up the valley. This was pleasant and +advantageous sort of work; good food, sure pay, and a cheerful change; +but he did not know how he could leave his family, unless, indeed, the +Brownie might be relied upon to "keep the house together," as they say. +The boys were sure that he would, and they promised to set his water, +and to give as little trouble as possible; so, finally, the Tailor took +up his shears and went up the valley, where the green banks sloped up +into purple moor, or broke into sandy rocks, crowned with nodding oak +fern. On to the prosperous old farm, where he spent a very pleasant +time, sitting level with the window geraniums on a table set apart for +him, stitching and gossiping, gossiping and stitching, and feeling +secure of honest payment when his work was done. The mistress of the +house was a kind good creature, and loved a chat; and though the Tailor +kept his own secret as to the Brownies, he felt rather curious to know +if the Good People had any hand in the comfort of this flourishing +household, and watched his opportunity to make a few careless inquiries +on the subject. +</P> +<P>"Brownies?" laughed the dame. "Ay, Master, I have heard of them. When I +was a girl, in service at the old hall, on Cowberry Edge, I heard a +good deal of one they said had lived there in former times. He did +house-work as well as a woman, and a good deal quicker, they said. One +night one of the young ladies (that were then, they're all dead now) +hid herself in a cupboard, to see what he was like." +</P> +<P>"And what was he like?" inquired the Tailor, as composedly as he was +able. +</P> +<P>"A little fellow, they said," answered the Farmer's wife, knitting +calmly on. "Like a dwarf, you know, with a largish head for his body. +Not taller than—why, my Bill, or your eldest boy, perhaps. And he was +dressed in rags, with an old cloak on, and stamping with passion at a +cobweb he couldn't get at with his broom. They've very uncertain +tempers, they say. Tears one minute, and laughing the next." +</P> +<P>"You never had one here, I suppose?" said the Tailor. +</P> +<P>"Not we," she answered; "and I think I'd rather not. They're not canny +after all; and my master and me have always been used to work, and +we've sons and daughters to help us, and that's better than meddling +with the Fairies, to my mind. No! no!" she added, laughing, "if we had +had one you'd have heard of it, whoever didn't, for I should have had +some decent clothes made for him. I couldn't stand rags and old cloaks, +messing and moth-catching, in my house." +</P> +<P>"They say it's not lucky to give them clothes, though," said the +Tailor; "they don't like it." +</P> +<P>"Tell me!" said the dame, "as if any one that liked a tidy room +wouldn't like tidy clothes, if they could get them. No! no! when we +have one, you shall take his measure, I promise you." +</P> +<P>And this was all the Tailor got out of her on the subject. When his +work was finished, the Farmer paid him at once; and the good dame added +half a cheese, and a bottle-green coat. +</P> +<P>"That has been laid by for being too small for the master now he's so +stout," she said; "but except for a stain or two it's good enough, and +will cut up like new for one of the lads." +</P> +<P>The Tailor thanked them, and said farewell, and went home. Down the +valley, where the river, wandering between the green banks and the +sandy rocks, was caught by giant mosses, and bands of fairy fern, and +there choked and struggled, and at last barely escaped with an +existence, and ran away in a diminished stream. On up the purple hills +to the old ruined house. As he came in at the gate he was struck by +some idea of change, and looking again, he saw that the garden had been +weeded, and was comparatively tidy. The truth is, that Tommy and +Johnnie had taken advantage of the Tailor's absence to do some +Brownie's work in the daytime. +</P> +<P>"It's that Blessed Brownie!" said the Tailor. "Has he been as usual?" +he asked, when he was in the house. +</P> +<P>"To be sure," said the old lady; "all has been well, son Thomas." +</P> +<P>"I'll tell you what it is," said the Tailor, after a pause. "I'm a +needy man, but I hope I'm not ungrateful. I can never repay the Brownie +for what he has done for me and mine; but the mistress up yonder has +given me a bottle-green coat that will cut up as good as new; and as +sure as there's a Brownie in this house, I'll make him a suit of it." +</P> +<P>"You'll <i>what</i>?" shrieked the old lady. "Son Thomas, son Thomas, +you're mad! Do what you please for the Brownies, but never make them +clothes." +</P> +<P>"There's nothing they want more," said the Tailor, "by all accounts. +They're all in rags, as well they may be, doing so much work." +</P> +<P>"If you make clothes for this Brownie, he'll go for good," said the +Grandmother, in a voice of awful warning. +</P> +<P>"Well, I don't know," said her son. "The mistress up at the farm is +clever enough, I can tell you; and as she said to me, fancy any one +that likes a tidy room not liking a tidy coat!" For the Tailor, like +most men, was apt to think well of the wisdom of womankind in other +houses. +</P> +<P>"Well, well," said the old lady, "go your own way. I'm an old woman, +and my time is not long. It doesn't matter much to me. But it was new +clothes that drove the Brownie out before, and Trout's luck went with +him." +</P> +<P>"I know, Mother," said the Tailor, "and I've been thinking of it all +the way home; and I can tell you why it was. Depend upon it, <i>the +clothes didn't fit</i>. But I'll tell you what I mean to do. I shall +measure them by Tommy—they say the Brownies are about his +size—and if +ever I turned out a well-made coat and waistcoat, they shall be his." +</P> +<P>"Please yourself," said the old lady, and she would say no more. +</P> +<P>"I think you're quite right, Father," said Tommy, "and if I can, I'll +help you to make them." +</P> +<P>Next day the father and son set to work, and Tommy contrived to make +himself so useful, that the Tailor hardly knew how he got through so +much work. +</P> +<P>"It's not like the same thing," he broke out at last, "to have some one +a bit helpful about you; both for the tailoring and for company's sake. +I've not done such a pleasant morning's work since your poor mother +died. I'll tell you what it is, Tommy," he added, "if you were always +like this, I shouldn't much care whether Brownie stayed or went. I'd +give up his help to have yours." +</P> +<P>"I'll be back directly," said Tommy, who burst out of the room in +search of his brother. +</P> +<P>"I've come away," he said, squatting down, "because I can't bear it. I +very nearly let it all out, and I shall soon. I wish the things weren't +going to come to me," he added, kicking a stone in front of him. "I +wish he'd measured you, Johnnie." +</P> +<P>"I'm very glad he didn't," said Johnnie. "I wish he'd kept them +himself." +</P> +<P>"Bottle-green, with brass buttons," murmured Tommy, and therewith fell +into a reverie. +</P> +<P>The next night the suit was finished, and laid by the bread-and-milk. +</P> +<P>"We shall see," said the old lady, in a withering tone. There is not +much real prophetic wisdom in this truism, but it sounds very awful, +and the Tailor went to bed somewhat depressed. +</P> +<P>Next morning the Brownies came down as usual. +</P> +<P>"Don't they look splendid?" said Tommy, feeling the cloth. "When we've +tidied the place I shall put them on." +</P> +<P>But long before the place was tidy, he could wait no longer, and +dressed up. +</P> +<P>"Look at me!" he shouted; "bottle-green and brass buttons! Oh, Johnnie, +I wish you had some." +</P> +<P>"It's a good thing there are two Brownies," said Johnnie, laughing, +"and one of them in rags still. I shall do the work this morning." And +he went flourishing round with a broom, while Tommy jumped madly about +in his new suit. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "I feel just like the Brownie. +What was it Granny said he sang when he got his clothes? Oh, I know— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten!<BR> + Here will I never more tread nor stampen.'" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>And on he danced, regardless of the clouds of dust raised by Johnnie, +as he drove the broom indiscriminately over the floor, to the tune of +his own laughter. +</P> +<P>It was laughter which roused the Tailor that morning, laughter coming +through the floor from the kitchen below. He scrambled on his things +and stole down-stairs. +</P> +<P>"It's the Brownie," he thought; "I must look, if it's for the last +time." +</P> +<P>At the door he paused and listened. The laughter was mixed with +singing, and he heard the words— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "What have we here? Hemten hamten!<BR> + Here will I never more tread nor stampen." +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>He pushed in, and this was the sight that met his eyes. +</P> +<P>The kitchen in its primeval condition of chaos, the untidy particulars +of which were the less apparent, as everything was more or less +obscured by the clouds of dust, where Johnnie reigned triumphant, like +a witch with her broomstick; and, to crown all, Tommy capering and +singing in the Brownie's bottle-green suit, brass buttons and all. +</P> +<P>"What's this?" shouted the astonished Tailor, when he could find breath +to speak. +</P> +<P>"It's the Brownies," sang the boys; and on they danced, for they had +worked themselves up into a state of excitement from which it was not +easy to settle down. +</P> +<P>"Where <i>is</i> Brownie?" shouted the father. +</P> +<P>"He's here," said Tommy; "we are the Brownies." +</P> +<P>"Can't you stop that fooling?" cried the Tailor, angrily. "This is past +a joke. Where is the real Brownie, I say?" +</P> +<P>"We are the only Brownies, really, Father," said Tommy, coming to a +full stop, and feeling strongly tempted to run down from laughing to +crying. "Ask the Old Owl. It's true, really." +</P> +<P>The Tailor saw the boy was in earnest, and passed his hand over his +forehead. +</P> +<P>"I suppose I'm getting old," he said; "I can't see daylight through +this. If you are the Brownie, who has been tidying the kitchen lately?" +</P> +<P>"We have," said they. +</P> +<P>"But who found my measure?" +</P> +<P>"I did," said Johnnie. +</P> +<P>"And who sorts your grandmother's scraps?" +</P> +<P>"We do," said they. +</P> +<P>"And who sets breakfast, and puts my things in order?" +</P> +<P>"We do," said they. +</P> +<P>"But when do you do it?" asked the Tailor. +</P> +<P>"Before you come down," said they. +</P> +<P>"But I always have to call you," said the Tailor. +</P> +<P>"We get back to bed again," said the boys. +</P> +<P>"But how was it you never did it before?" asked the Tailor doubtfully. +</P> +<P>"We were idle, we were idle," said Tommy. +</P> +<P>The Tailor's voice rose to a pitch of desperation— +</P> +<P>"But if you did the work," he shouted, "<i>where is the Brownie?</i>" +</P> +<P>"Here!" cried the boys, "and we are very sorry that we were Boggarts so +long." +</P> +<P>With which the father and sons fell into each other's arms and fairly +wept. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>It will be believed that to explain all this to the Grandmother was not +the work of a moment. She understood it all at last, however, and the +Tailor could not restrain a little good-humoured triumph on the +subject. Before he went to work he settled her down in the window with +her knitting, and kissed her. +</P> +<P>"What do you think of it all, Mother?" he inquired. +</P> +<P>"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady tartly, "<i>I told you +so.</i>" +</P> +<HR> + +<P>"That's not the end, is it?" asked one of the boys in a tone of dismay, +for the Doctor had paused here. +</P> +<P>"Yes, it is," said he. +</P> +<P>"But couldn't you make a little more end?" asked Deordie, "to tell us +what became of them all?" +</P> +<P>"I don't see what there is to tell," said the Doctor. +</P> +<P>"Why, there's whether they ever saw the Old Owl again, and whether +Tommy and Johnnie went on being Brownies," said the children. +</P> +<P>The Doctor laughed. +</P> +<P>"Well, be quiet for five minutes," he said. +</P> +<P>"We'll be as quiet as mice," said the children. +</P> +<P>And as quiet as mice they were. Very like mice, indeed. Very like mice +behind a wainscot at night, when you have just thrown something to +frighten them away. Death-like stillness for a few seconds, and then +all the rustling and scuffling you please. So the children sat holding +their breath for a moment or two, and then shuffling feet and smothered +bursts of laughter testified to their impatience, and to the difficulty +of understanding the process of story-making as displayed by the +Doctor, who sat pulling his beard, and staring at his boots, as he made +up "a little more end." +</P> +<P>"Well," he said, sitting up suddenly, "the Brownies went on with their +work in spite of the bottle-green suit, and Trout's luck returned to +the old house once more. Before long Tommy began to work for the +farmers, and Baby grew up into a Brownie, and made (as girls are apt to +make) the best house-sprite of all. For, in the Brownie's habits of +self-denial, thoughtfulness, consideration, and the art of little +kindnesses, boys are, I am afraid, as a general rule, somewhat +behindhand with their sisters. Whether this altogether proceeds from +constitutional deficiency on these points in the masculine character, +or is one result among many of the code of bye-laws which obtains in +men's moral education from the cradle, is a question on which everybody +has their own opinion. For the present the young gentlemen may +appropriate whichever theory they prefer, and we will go back to the +story. The Tailor lived to see his boy-Brownies become men, with all +the cares of a prosperous farm on their hands, and his girl-Brownie +carry her fairy talents into another home. For these Brownies—young +ladies!—are much desired as wives, whereas a man might as well marry +an old witch as a young Boggartess." +</P> +<P>"And about the Owl?" clamoured the children, rather resentful of the +Doctor's pausing to take breath. +</P> +<P>"Of course," he continued, "the Tailor heard the whole story, and being +both anxious to thank the Old Owl for her friendly offices, and also +rather curious to see and hear her, he went with the boys one night at +moon-rise to the shed by the mere. It was earlier in the evening than +when Tommy went, for before daylight had vanished, and at the first +appearance of the moon, the impatient Tailor was at the place. There +they found the Owl looking very solemn and stately on the beam. She was +sitting among the shadows with her shoulders up, and she fixed her eyes +so steadily on the Tailor, that he felt quite overpowered. He made her +a civil bow, however, and said, +</P> +<P>"I'm much obliged to you, Ma'am, for your good advice to my Tommy." +</P> +<P>The Owl blinked sharply, as if she grudged shutting her eyes for an +instant, and then stared on, but not a word spoke she. +</P> +<P>"I don't mean to intrude, Ma'am," said the Tailor, "but I was wishful +to pay my respects and gratitude." +</P> +<P>Still the Owl gazed in determined silence. +</P> +<P>"Don't you remember me?" said Tommy pitifully. "I did everything you +told me. Won't you even say good-bye?" and he went up towards her. +</P> +<P>The Owl's eyes contracted, she shuddered a few tufts of fluff into the +shed, shook her wings, and shouting "Oohoo!" at the top of her voice, +flew out upon the moor. The Tailor and his sons rushed out to watch +her. They could see her clearly against the green twilight sky, +flapping rapidly away with her round face to the pale moon. "Good-bye!" +they shouted as she disappeared; first the departing owl, then a +shadowy body with flapping sails, then two wings beating the same +measured time, then two moving lines still to the old tune, then a +stroke, a fancy, and then—the green sky and the pale moon, but the Old +Owl was gone. +</P> +<P>"Did she never come back?" asked Tiny in subdued tones, for the Doctor +had paused again. +</P> +<P>"No," said he; "at least not to the shed by the mere. Tommy saw many +owls after this in the course of his life; but as none of them would +speak, and as most of them were addicted to the unconventional customs +of staring and winking, he could not distinguish his friend, if she +were among them. And now I think that is all." +</P> +<P>"Is that the very very end?" asked Tiny. +</P> +<P>"The very very end," said the Doctor. +</P> +<P>"I suppose there might be more and more ends," speculated +Deordie—"about whether the Brownies had any children when they grew +into farmers, and whether the children were Brownies, and whether +<i>they</i> had other Brownies, and so on and on." And Deordie rocked +himself among the geraniums, in the luxurious imagining of an endless +fairy tale. +</P> +<P>"You insatiable rascal!" said the Doctor. "Not another word. Jump up, +for I am going to see you home. I have to be off early to-morrow." +</P> +<P>"Where?" said Deordie. +</P> +<P>"Never mind. I shall be away all day, and I want to be at home in good +time in the evening, for I mean to attack that crop of groundsel +between the sweet-pea hedges. You know, no Brownies come to my +homestead!" +</P> +<P>And the Doctor's mouth twitched a little till he fixed it into a stiff +smile. +</P> +<P>The children tried hard to extract some more ends out of him on the way +to the Rectory; but he declined to pursue the history of the Trout +family through indefinite generations. It was decided on all hands, +however, that Tommy Trout was evidently one and the same with the Tommy +Trout who pulled the cat out of the well, because "it was just a sort +of thing for a Brownie to do, you know!" and that Johnnie Green (who, +of course, was not Johnnie Trout) was some unworthy village +acquaintance, and "a thorough Boggart." +</P> +<P>"Doctor!" said Tiny, as they stood by the garden-gate, "how long do you +think gentlemen's pocket-handkerchiefs take to wear out?" +</P> +<P>"That, my dear Madam," said the Doctor, "must depend, like other +terrestrial matters, upon circumstances; whether the gentleman bought +fine cambric, or coarse cotton with pink portraits of the reigning +Sovereign, to commence with; whether he catches many colds, has his +pockets picked, takes snuff, or allows his washerwoman to use washing +powders. But why do you want to know?" +</P> +<P>"I sha'n't tell you that," said Tiny, who was spoilt by the Doctor, and +consequently tyrannized in proportion; "but I will tell you what I mean +to do. I mean to tell Mother that when Father wants any more +pocket-handkerchiefs hemmed, she had better put them by the bath in the +nursery, and perhaps some Brownie will come and do them." +</P> +<P>"Kiss my fluffy face!" said the Doctor in sepulchral tones. +</P> +<P>"The owl is too high up," said Tiny, tossing her head. +</P> +<P>The Doctor lifted her four feet or so, obtained his kiss, and set her +down again. +</P> +<P>"You're not fluffy at all," said she in a tone of the utmost contempt; +"you're tickly and bristly. Puss is more fluffy, and Father is scrubby +and scratchy, because he shaves." +</P> +<P>"And which of the three styles do you prefer?" said the Doctor. +</P> +<P>"Not tickly and bristly," said Tiny with firmness; and she strutted up +the walk for a space or two, and then turned round to laugh over her +shoulder. +</P> +<P>"Good-night!" shouted her victim, shaking his fist after her. +</P> +<P>The other children took a noisy farewell, and they all raced into the +house to give joint versions of the fairy tale, first to the parents in +the drawing-room, and then to Nurse in the nursery. +</P> +<P>The Doctor went home also, with his poodle at his heels, but not by the +way he came. He went out of his way, which was odd; but then the Doctor +was "a little odd," and moreover this was always the end of his evening +walk. Through the church-yard, where spreading cedars and stiff yews +rose from the velvet grass, and where among tombstones and crosses of +various devices lay one of older and uglier date, by which he stayed. +It was framed by a border of the most brilliant flowers, and it would +seem as if the Doctor must have been the gardener, for he picked off +some dead ones, and put them absently in his pocket. Then he looked +round as if to see that he was alone. Not a soul was to be seen, and +the moonlight and shadow lay quietly side by side, as the dead do in +their graves. The Doctor stooped down and took off his hat. +</P> +<P>"Good-night, Marcia," he said in a low quiet voice. "Good-night, my +darling!" The dog licked his hand, but there was no voice to answer, +nor any that regarded. +</P> +<P>Poor foolish Doctor! Most foolish to speak to the departed with his +face earthwards. But we are weak mortals, the best of us; and this man +(one of the very best) raised his head at last, and went home like a +lonely owl with his face to the moon and the sky. +</P> + +<H3>A BORROWED BROWNIE.</H3> + +<P>"I can't imagine," said the Rector, walking into the drawing-room the +following afternoon; "I can't imagine where Tiny is. I want her to +drive to the other end of the parish with me." +</P> +<P>"There she comes," said his wife, looking out of the window, "by the +garden-gate, with a great basket; what has she been after?" +</P> +<P>The Rector went out to discover, and met his daughter looking decidedly +earthy, and seemingly much exhausted by the weight of a basketful of +groundsel plants. +</P> +<P>"Where have you been?" said he. +</P> +<P>"In the Doctor's garden," said Tiny triumphantly; "and look what I have +done! I've weeded his sweet-peas, and brought away the groundsel; so +when he gets home to-night he'll think a Brownie has been in the +garden, for Mrs. Pickles has promised not to tell him." +</P> +<P>"But look here!" said the Rector, affecting a great appearance of +severity, "you're my Brownie, not his. Supposing Tommy Trout had gone +and weeded Farmer Swede's garden, and brought back his weeds to go to +seed on the Tailor's flower-beds, how do you think he would have liked +it?" +</P> +<P>Tiny looked rather crestfallen. When one has fairly carried through a +splendid benevolence of this kind, it is trying to find oneself in the +wrong. She crept up to the Rector, however, and put her golden head +upon his arm. +</P> +<P>"But, Father dear," she pleaded, "I didn't mean not to be your Brownie; +only, you know, you had got five left at home, and it was only for a +short time, and the Doctor hasn't any Brownie at all. Don't you pity +him?" +</P> +<P>And the Rector, who was old enough to remember that grave-stone story +we wot of, hugged his Brownie in his arms, and answered, +</P> +<P>"My Darling, I do pity him!" +</P> + +<HR> + +<A NAME="thelandoflosttoys"></A><H2>THE LAND OF LOST TOYS.</H2> + +<H3>AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE NURSERY.</H3> + +<P>It was certainly an aggravated offence. It is generally understood in +families that "boys will be boys," but there is a limit to the +forbearance implied in the extenuating axiom. Master Sam was condemned +to the back nursery for the rest of the day. +</P> +<P>He always had had the knack of breaking his own toys,—he not +unfrequently broke other people's; but accidents will happen, and his +twin-sister and factotum, Dot, was long-suffering. +</P> +<P>Dot was fat, resolute, hasty, and devotedly unselfish. When Sam scalped +her new doll, and fastened the glossy black curls to a wigwam +improvised with the curtains of the four-post bed in the best bedroom, +Dot was sorely tried. As her eyes passed from the crown-less doll on +the floor to the floss-silk ringlets hanging from the bed-furniture, +her round rosy face grew rounder and rosier, and tears burst from her +eyes. But in a moment more she clenched her little fists, forced back +the tears, and gave vent to her favourite saying, "I don't care." +</P> +<P>That sentence was Dot's bane and antidote; it was her vice and her +virtue. It was her standing consolation, and it brought her into all +her scrapes. It was her one panacea for all the ups and downs of her +life (and in the nursery where Sam developed his organ of +destructiveness there were ups and downs not a few); and it was the +form her naughtiness took when she was naughty. +</P> +<P>"Don't care fell into a goose-pond, Miss Dot," said Nurse, on one +occasion of the kind. +</P> +<P>"I don't care if he did," said Miss Dot; and as Nurse knew no further +feature of the goose-pond adventure which met this view of it, she +closed the subject by putting Dot into the corner. +</P> +<P>In the strength of <i>Don't care</i>, and her love for Sam, Dot bore +much and long. Her dolls perished by ingenious but untimely deaths. Her +toys were put to purposes for which they were never intended, and +suffered accordingly. But Sam was penitent and Dot was heroic. +Florinda's scalp was mended with a hot knitting-needle and a perpetual +bonnet, and Dot rescued her paint-brushes from the glue-pot, and smelt +her india-rubber as it boiled down in Sam's waterproof manufactory, +with long-suffering forbearance. +</P> +<P>There are, however, as we have said, limits to everything. An +earthquake celebrated with the whole contents of the toy cupboard is +not to be borne. +</P> +<P>The matter was this. Early one morning Sam announced that he had a +glorious project on hand. He was going to give a grand show and +entertainment, far surpassing all the nursery imitations of circuses, +conjurors, lectures on chemistry, and so forth, with which they had +ever amused themselves. He refused to confide his plans to the faithful +Dot; but he begged her to lend him all the toys she possessed, in +return for which she was to be the sole spectator of the fun. He let +out that the idea had suggested itself to him after the sight of a +Diorama to which they had been taken, but he would not allow that it +was anything of the same kind; in proof of which she was at liberty to +keep back her paint-box. Dot tried hard to penetrate the secret, and to +reserve some of her things from the general conscription. But Sam was +obstinate. He would tell nothing, and he wanted everything. The dolls, +the bricks (especially the bricks), the tea-things, the German farm, +the Swiss cottages, the animals, and all the dolls' furniture. Dot gave +them with a doubtful mind, and consoled herself as she watched Sam +carrying pieces of board and a green table cover into the back nursery, +with the prospect of the show. At last, Sam threw open the door and +ushered her into the nursery rocking-chair. +</P> +<P>The boy had certainly some constructive as well as destructive talent. +Upon a sort of impromptu table covered with green cloth he had arranged +all the toys in rough imitation of a town, with its streets and +buildings. The relative proportion of the parts was certainly not good; +but it was not Sam's fault that the doll's house and the German farm, +his own brick buildings, and the Swiss cottages, were all on totally +different scales of size. He had ingeniously put the larger things in +the foreground, keeping the small farm-buildings from the German box at +the far end of the streets, yet after all the perspective was extreme. +The effect of three large horses from the toy stables in front, with +the cows from the small Noah's Ark in the distance, was admirable; but +the big dolls seated in an unroofed building, made with the wooden +bricks on no architectural principle but that of a pound, and taking +tea out of the new china tea-things, looked simply ridiculous. +</P> +<P>Dot's eyes, however, saw no defects, and she clapped vehemently. +</P> +<P>"Here, ladies and gentlemen," said Sam, waving his hand politely +towards the rocking-chair, "you see the great city of Lisbon, the +capital of Portugal—" +</P> +<P>At this display of geographical accuracy Dot fairly cheered, and rocked +herself to and fro in unmitigated enjoyment. +</P> +<P>"—as it appeared," continued the showman, "on the morning of November +1st, 1755." +</P> +<P>Never having had occasion to apply Mangnall's Questions to the +exigencies of every-day life, this date in no way disturbed Dot's +comfort. +</P> +<P>"In this house," Sam proceeded, "a party of Portuguese ladies of rank +may be seen taking tea together." +</P> +<P>"<i>Breakfast</i>, you mean," said Dot, "you said it was in the +morning, you know." +</P> +<P>"Well, they took tea to their breakfast," said Sam. "Don't interrupt +me, Dot. You are the audience, and you mustn't speak. Here you see the +horses of the English ambassador out airing with his groom. There you +see two peasants—no! they are <i>not</i> Noah and his wife, Dot, and +if you go on talking I shall shut up. I say they are peasants +peacefully driving cattle. At this moment a rumbling sound startles +everyone in the city"—here Sam rolled some croquet balls up and down +in a box, but the dolls sat as quiet as before, and Dot alone was +startled,—"this was succeeded by a slight shock"—here he shook the table, which upset some of the buildings belonging to the German +farm.—"Some houses fell."—Dot began to look anxious.—"This shock was followed by several others"—-"Take care," she begged—"of increasing magnitude."—"Oh, Sam!" Dot shrieked, jumping up, "you're breaking +the china!"—"The largest buildings shook to their foundations."—"Sam! +Sam! the doll's house is falling," Dot cried, making wild efforts to +save it: but Sam held her back with one arm, while with the other he +began to pull at the boards which formed his table.—"Suddenly the +ground split and opened with a fearful yawn"—Dot's shrieks shamed the +impassive dolls, as Sam jerked out the boards by a dexterous movement, +and doll's house, brick buildings, the farm, the Swiss cottages, and +the whole toy-stock of the nursery sank together in ruins. Quite +unabashed by the evident damage, Sam continued—"and in a moment the +whole magnificent city of Lisbon was swallowed up. Dot! Dot! don't be a +muff! What is the matter? It's splendid fun. Things must be broken some +time, and I'm sure it was exactly like the real thing. Dot! why don't +you speak? Dot! my dear Dot! You don't care, do you? I didn't think +you'd mind it so. It was such a splendid earthquake. Oh! try not to go +on like that!" +</P> +<P>But Dot's feelings were far beyond her own control, much more that of +Master Sam, at this moment. She was gasping and choking, and when at +last she found breath it was only to throw herself on her face upon the +floor with bitter and uncontrollable sobbing. It was certainly a mild +punishment that condemned Master Sam to the back nursery for the rest +of the day. It had, however, this additional severity, that during the +afternoon Aunt Penelope was expected to arrive. +</P> + +<H3>AUNT PENELOPE.</H3> + +<P>Aunt Penelope was one of those dear, good souls who, single themselves, +have, as real or adopted relatives, the interests of a dozen families, +instead of one, at heart. There are few people whose youth has not +owned the influence of at least one such friend. It may be a good +habit, the first interest in some life-loved pursuit or favourite +author, some pretty feminine art, or delicate womanly counsel enforced +by those narratives of real life that are more interesting than any +fiction: it may be only the periodical return of gifts and kindness, +and the store of family histories that no one else can tell; but we all +owe something to such an aunt or uncle—the fairy godmothers of real +life. +</P> +<P>The benefits which Sam and Dot reaped from Aunt Penelope's visits may +be summed up under the heads of presents and stories, with a general +leaning to indulgence in the matters of punishment, lessons, and going +to bed, which perhaps is natural to aunts and uncles who have no +positive responsibilities in the young people's education, and are not +the daily sufferers by the lack of due discipline. +</P> +<P>Aunt Penelope's presents were lovely. Aunt Penelope's stories were +charming. There was generally a moral wrapped up in them, like the +motto in a cracker-bonbon; but it was quite in the inside, so to speak, +and there was abundance of smart paper and sugar-plums. +</P> +<P>All things considered, it was certainly most proper that the +much-injured Dot should be dressed out in her best, and have access to +dessert, the dining-room, and Aunt Penelope, whilst Sam was kept +up-stairs. And yet it was Dot who (her first burst of grief being over) +fought stoutly for his pardon all the time she was being dressed, and +was afterwards detected in the act of endeavouring to push fragments of +raspberry tart through the nursery keyhole. +</P> +<P>"You GOOD thing!" Sam emphatically exclaimed, as he heard her in fierce +conflict on the other side of the door with the nurse who found +her—"You GOOD thing! leave me alone, for I deserve it." +</P> +<P>He really was very penitent He was too fond of Dot not to regret the +unexpected degree of distress he had caused her; and Dot made much of +his penitence in her intercessions in the drawing-room. +</P> +<P>"Sam is so very sorry," she said; "he says he knows he deserves it. I +think he ought to come down. He is so <i>very</i> sorry!" +</P> +<P>Aunt Penelope, as usual, took the lenient side, joining her entreaties +to Dot's, and it ended in Master Sam's being hurriedly scrubbed and +brushed, and shoved into his black velvet suit, and sent down-stairs, +rather red about the eyelids, and looking very sheepish. +</P> +<P>"Oh, Dot!" he exclaimed, as soon as he could get her into a corner, "I +am so very, very sorry! particularly about the tea-things." +</P> +<P>"Never mind," said Dot, "I don't care; and I've asked for a story, and +we're going into the library." As Dot said this, she jerked her head +expressively in the direction of the sofa, where Aunt Penelope was just +casting on stitches preparatory to beginning a pair of her famous +ribbed socks for Papa, whilst she gave to Mamma's conversation that +sympathy which (like her knitting-needles) was always at the service of +her large circle of friends. Dot anxiously watched the bow on the top +of her cap as it danced and nodded with the force of Mamma's +observations. At last it gave a little chorus of jerks, as one should +say, "Certainly, undoubtedly." And then the story came to an end, and +Dot, who had been slowly creeping nearer, fairly took Aunt Penelope by +the hand, and carried her off, knitting and all, to the library. +</P> +<P>"Now, please," said Dot, when she had struggled into a chair that was +too tall for her. +</P> +<P>"Stop a minute!" cried Sam, who was perched in the opposite one, "the +horse-hair tickles my legs." +</P> +<P>"Put your pocket-handkerchief under them, as I do," said Dot. +"<i>Now</i>, Aunt Penelope." +</P> +<P>"No, wait," groaned Sam; "it isn't big enough; it only covers one leg." +</P> +<P>Dot slid down again, and ran to Sam. +</P> +<P>"Take my handkerchief for the other." +</P> +<P>"But what will you do?" said Sam. +</P> +<P>"Oh, I don't care," said Dot, scrambling back into her place. "Now, +Aunty, please." +</P> +<P>And Aunt Penelope began. +</P> + +<H2>"THE LAND OF LOST TOYS.</H2> + +<P>"I suppose people who have children transfer their childish follies and +fancies to them, and become properly sedate and grown-up. Perhaps it is +because I am an old maid, and have none, that some of my nursery whims +stick to me, and I find myself liking things, and wanting things, quite +out of keeping with my cap and time of life. For instance. Anything in +the shape of a toy-shop (from a London bazaar to a village window, with +Dutch dolls, leather balls, and wooden battledores) quite unnerves me, +so to speak. When I see one of those boxes containing a jar, a churn, a +kettle, a pan, a coffee-pot, a cauldron on three legs, and sundry +dishes, all of the smoothest wood, and with the immemorial red flower +on one side of each vessel, I fairly long for an excuse for playing +with them, and for trying (positively for the last time) if the lids +<i>do</i> come off, and whether the kettle will (literally, as well as +metaphorically) hold water. Then if, by good or ill luck, there is a +child flattening its little nose against the window with longing eyes, +my purse is soon empty; and as it toddles off with a square parcel +under one arm, and a lovely being in black ringlets and white tissue +paper in the other, I wish that I were worthy of being asked to join +the ensuing play. Don't suppose there is any generosity in this. I have +only done what we are all glad to do. I have found an excuse for +indulging a pet weakness. As I said, it is not merely the new and +expensive toys that attract me; I think my weakest corner is where the +penny boxes lie, the wooden tea-things (with the above-named flower in +miniature), the soldiers on their lazy tongs, the nine-pins, and the +tiny farm. +</P> +<P>"I need hardly say that the toy booth in a village fair tries me very +hard. It tried me in childhood, when I was often short of pence, and +when 'the Feast' came once a year. It never tried me more than on one +occasion, lately, when I was re-visiting my old home. +</P> +<P>"It was deep Midsummer, and the Feast. I had children with me of course +(I find children, somehow, wherever I go), and when we got into the +fair, there were children of people whom I had known as children, with +just the same love for a monkey going up one side of a yellow stick and +coming down the other, and just as strong heads for a giddy-go-round on +a hot day and a diet of peppermint lozenges, as their fathers and +mothers before them. There were the very same names—and here and there +it seemed the very same faces—I knew so long ago. A few shillings were +indeed well expended in brightening those familiar eyes: and then there +were the children with me.... Besides, there really did seem to be an +unusually nice assortment of things, and the man was very intelligent +(in reference to his wares):.... Well, well! It was two o'clock P.M. +when we went in at one end of that glittering avenue of drums, dolls, +trumpets, accordions, workboxes, and what not; but what o'clock it was +when I came out at the other end, with a shilling and some coppers in +my pocket, and was cheered, I can't say, though I should like to have +been able to be accurate about the time, because of what followed. +</P> +<P>"I thought the best thing I could do was to get out of the fair at +once, so I went up the village and struck off across some fields into a +little wood that lay near. (A favourite walk in old times.) As I turned +out of the booth, my foot struck against one of the yellow sticks of +the climbing monkeys. The monkey was gone, and the stick broken. It set +me thinking as I walked along. +</P> +<P>"What an untold number of pretty and ingenious things one does (not +wear out in honourable wear and tear, but) utterly lose, and wilfully +destroy, in one's young days—things that would have given pleasure to +so many more young eyes, if they had been kept a little longer—things +that one would so value in later years, if some of them had survived +the dissipating and destructive days of Nurserydom. I recalled a young +lady I knew, whose room was adorned with knick-knacks of a kind I had +often envied. They were not plaster figures, old china, wax-work +flowers under glass, or ordinary ornaments of any kind. They were her +old toys. Perhaps she had not had many of them, and had been the more +careful of those she had. She had certainly been very fond of them, and +had kept more of them than any one I ever knew. A faded doll slept in +its cradle at the foot of her bed. A wooden elephant stood on the +dressing-table, and a poodle that had lost his bark put out a +red-flannel tongue with quixotic violence at a windmill on the opposite +corner of the mantelpiece. Everything had a story of its own. Indeed +the whole room must have been redolent with the sweet story of +childhood, of which the toys were the illustrations, or like a poem of +which the toys were the verses. She used to have children to play with +them sometimes, and this was a high honour. She is married now, and has +children of her own, who on birthdays and holidays will forsake the +newest of their own possessions to play with 'mamma's toys.' +</P> +<P>"I was roused from these recollections by the pleasure of getting into +the wood. +</P> +<P>"If I have a stronger predilection than my love for toys, it is my love +for woods, and, like the other, it dates from childhood. It was born +and bred with me, and I fancy will stay with me till I die. The +soothing scents of leaf-mould, moss, and fern (not to speak of +flowers)—the pale green veil in spring, the rich shade in summer, the +rustle of the dry leaves in autumn, I suppose an old woman may enjoy +all these, my dears, as well as you. But I think I could make 'fairy +jam' of hips and haws in acorn cups now, if any child would be +condescending enough to play with me. "<i>This</i> wood, too, had +associations. +</P> +<P>"I strolled on in leisurely enjoyment, and at last seated myself at the +foot of a tree to rest. I was hot and tired; partly with the mid-day +heat and the atmosphere of the fair, partly with the exertion of +calculating change in the purchase of articles ranging in price from +three farthings upwards. The tree under which I sat was an old friend. +There was a hole at its base that I knew well. Two roots covered with +exquisite moss ran out from each side, like the arms of a chair, and +between them there accumulated year after year a rich, though tiny +store of dark leaf-mould. We always used to say that fairies lived +within, though I never saw anything go in myself but wood-beetles. +There was one going in at that moment. +</P> +<P>"How little the wood was changed! I bent my head for a few seconds, +and, closing my eyes, drank in the delicious and suggestive scents of +earth and moss about the dear old tree. I had been so long parted from +the place that I could hardly believe that I was in the old familiar +spot. Surely it was only one of the many dreams in which I had played +again beneath those trees! But when I re-opened my eyes there was the +same hole, and, oddly enough, the same beetle or one just like it. I +had not noticed till that moment how much larger the hole was than it +used to be in my young days. +</P> +<P>"'I suppose the rain and so forth wears them away in time,' I said +vaguely. +</P> +<P>"'I suppose it does,' said the beetle politely; 'will you walk in?' +</P> +<P>"I don't know why I was not so overpoweringly astonished as you would +imagine. I think I was a good deal absorbed in considering the size of +the hole, and the very foolish wish that seized me to do what I had +often longed to do in childhood, and creep in. I <i>had</i> so much +regard for propriety as to see that there was no one to witness the +escapade. Then I tucked my skirts round me, put my spectacles into my +pocket for fear they should get broken, and in I went. +</P> +<P>"I must say one thing. A wood is charming enough (no one appreciates it +more than myself), but, if you have never been there, you have no idea +how much nicer it is inside than on the surface. Oh, the mosses—the +gorgeous mosses! The fretted lichens! The fungi like flowers for +beauty, and the flowers like nothing you have ever seen! +</P> +<P>"Where the beetle went to I don't know. I could stand up now quite +well, and I wandered on till dusk in unwearied admiration. I was among +some large beeches as it grew dark, and was beginning to wonder how I +should find my way (not that I had lost it, having none to lose), when +suddenly lights burst from every tree, and the whole place was +illuminated. The nearest approach to this scene that I ever witnessed +above ground was in a wood near the Hague in Holland. There, what look +like tiny glass tumblers holding floating wicks, are fastened to the +trunks of the fine old trees, at intervals of sufficient distance to +make the light and shade mysterious, and to give effect to the full +blaze when you reach the spot where hanging chains of lamps illuminate +the 'Pavilion' and the open space where the band plays, and where the +townsfolk assemble by hundreds to drink coffee and enjoy the music. I +was the more reminded of the Dutch 'bosch' because, after wandering +some time among the lighted trees, I heard distant sounds of music, and +came at last upon a glade lit up in a similar manner, except that the +whole effect was incomparably more brilliant. +</P> +<P>"As I stood for a moment doubting whether I should proceed, and a good +deal puzzled about the whole affair, I caught sight of a large spider +crouched up in a corner with his stomach on the ground and his knees +above his head, as some spiders do sit, and looking at me, as I +fancied, through a pair of spectacles. (About the spectacles I do not +feel sure. It may have been two of his bent legs in apparent connection +with his prominent eyes.) I thought of the beetle, and said civilly, +'Can you tell me, sir, if this is Fairyland?' The spider took off his +spectacles (or untucked his legs), and took a sideways run out of his +corner. +</P> +<P>"'Well,' he said, 'it's a Province. The fact is, it's the Land of Lost +Toys. You haven't such a thing as a fly anywhere about you, have you?' +</P> +<P>"'No,' I said, 'I'm sorry to say I have not.' This was not strictly +true, for I was not at all sorry; but I wished to be civil to the old +gentleman, for he projected his eyes at me with such an intense (I had +almost said greedy) gaze, that I felt quite frightened. +</P> +<P>"'How did you pass the sentries?' he inquired. +</P> +<P>"'I never saw any,' I answered. +</P> +<P>"'You couldn't have seen anything if you didn't see them,' he said; +'but perhaps you don't know. They're the glow-worms. Six to each tree, +so they light the road, and challenge the passers-by. Why didn't they +challenge you?' +</P> +<P>"'I don't know,' I began, 'unless the beetle—' +</P> +<P>"'I don't like beetles,' interrupted the spider, stretching each leg in +turn by sticking it up above him, 'all shell, and no flavour. You never +tried walking on anything of that sort, did you?' and he pointed with +one leg to a long thread that fastened a web above his head. +</P> +<P>"'Certainly not,' said I. +</P> +<P>"'I'm afraid it wouldn't bear you,' he observed slowly. +</P> +<P>"'I'm quite sure it wouldn't,' I hastened to reply. I wouldn't try for +worlds. It would spoil your pretty work in a moment. Good-evening.' +</P> +<P>"And I hurried forward. Once I looked back, but the spider was not +following me. He was in his hole again, on his stomach, with his knees +above his head, and looking (apparently through his spectacles) down +the road up which I came. +</P> +<P>"I soon forgot him in the sight before me. I had reached the open place +with the lights and the music; but how shall I describe the spectacle +that I beheld? +</P> +<P>"I have spoken of the effect of a toy-shop on my feelings. Now imagine +a toy-fair, brighter and gayer than the brightest bazaar ever seen, +held in an open glade, where forest-trees stood majestically behind the +glittering stalls, and stretched their gigantic arms above our heads, +brilliant with a thousand hanging lamps. At the moment of my entrance +all was silent and quiet. The toys lay in their places looking so +incredibly attractive that I reflected with disgust that all my ready +cash, except one shilling and some coppers, had melted away amid the +tawdry fascinations of a village booth. I was counting the coppers +(sevenpence halfpenny), when all in a moment a dozen sixpenny fiddles +leaped from their places and began to play, accordions of all sizes +joined them, the drumsticks beat upon the drums, the penny trumpets +sounded, and the yellow flutes took up the melody on high notes, and +bore it away through the trees. It was weird fairy-music, but quite +delightful. The nearest approach to it that I know of above ground is +to hear a wild dreamy air very well whistled to a pianoforte +accompaniment. +</P> +<P>"When the music began, all the toys rose. The dolls jumped down and +began to dance. The poodles barked, the pannier donkeys wagged their +ears, the wind-mills turned, the puzzles put themselves together, the +bricks built houses, the balls flew from side to side, the battledores +and shuttlecocks kept it up among themselves, and the skipping-ropes +went round, the hoops ran off, and the sticks ran after them, the +cobbler's wax at the tails of all the green frogs gave way, and they +jumped at the same moment, whilst an old-fashioned go-cart ran madly +about with nobody inside. It was most exhilarating. +</P> +<P>"I soon became aware that the beetle was once more at my elbow. +</P> +<P>"'There are some beautiful toys here,' I said. +</P> +<P>"'Well, yes,' he replied, 'and some odd-looking ones too. You see, +whatever has been really used by any child as a plaything gets a right +to come down here in the end; and there is some very queer company, I +assure you. Look there.' +</P> +<P>"I looked, and said, 'It seems to be a potato.' +</P> +<P>"'So it is,' said the beetle. 'It belonged to an Irish child in one of +your great cities. But to whom the child belonged I don't know, and I +don't think he knew himself. He lived in the corner of a dirty, +overcrowded room, and into this corner, one day, the potato rolled. It +was the only plaything he ever had. He stuck two cinders into it for +eyes, scraped a nose and mouth, and loved it. He sat upon it during the +day, for fear it should be taken from him, but in the dark he took it +out and played with it. He was often hungry, but he never ate that +potato. When he died it rolled out of the corner, and was swept into +the ashes. Then it came down here.' +</P> +<P>"'What a sad story!' I exclaimed. +</P> +<P>"The beetle seemed in no way affected. +</P> +<P>"'It is a curious thing,' he rambled on, 'that potato takes quite a +good place among the toys. You see, rank and precedence down here is +entirely a question of age; that is, of the length of time that any +plaything has been in the possession of a child; and all kinds of ugly +old things hold the first rank; whereas the most costly and beautiful +works of art have often been smashed or lost by the spoilt children of +rich people in two or three days. If you care for sad stories, there is +another queer thing belonging to a child who died.' +</P> +<P>"It appeared to be a large sheet of canvas with some strange kind of +needlework upon it. +</P> +<P>"'It belonged to a little girl in a rich household,' the beetle +continued; 'she was an invalid, and difficult to amuse. We have lots of +her toys, and very pretty ones too. At last some one taught her to make +caterpillars in wool-work. A bit of work was to be done in a certain +stitch and then cut with scissors, which made it look like a hairy +caterpillar. The child took to this, and cared for nothing else. Wool +of every shade was procured for her, and she made caterpillars of all +colours. Her only complaint was that they did not turn into +butterflies. However, she was a sweet, gentle-tempered child, and she +went on, hoping that they would do so, and making new ones. One day she +was heard talking and laughing in her bed for joy. She said that all +the caterpillars had become butterflies of many colours, and that the +room was full of them. In that happy fancy she died.' +</P> +<P>"'And the caterpillars came down here?' +</P> +<P>"'Not for a long time,' said the beetle; 'her mother kept them while +<i>she</i> lived, and then they were lost and came down. No toys come +down here till they are broken or lost.' +</P> +<P>"'What are those sticks doing here?' I asked. +</P> +<P>"The music had ceased, and all the toys were lying quiet. Up in a +corner leaned a large bundle of walking-sticks. They are often sold in +toy-shops, but I wondered on what grounds they came here. +</P> +<P>"'Did you ever meet with a too benevolent old gentleman wondering where +on earth his sticks go to?' said the beetle. 'Why do they lend them to +their grandchildren? The young rogues use them as hobby-horses and lose +them, and down they come, and the sentinels cannot stop them. The real +hobby-horses won't allow them to ride with them, however. There was a +meeting on the subject. Every stick was put through an examination. +"Where is your nose? Where is your mane? Where are your wheels?" The +last was a poser. Some of them had got noses, but none of them had got +wheels. So they were not true hobby-horses. Something of the kind +occurred with the elder-whistles.' +</P> +<P>"'The what?' I asked. +</P> +<P>"'Whistles that boys make of elder-sticks with the pith scooped out,' +said the beetle. 'The real instruments would not allow them to play +with them. The elder-whistles said they would not have joined had they +been asked. They were amateurs, and never played with professionals. So +they have private concerts with the combs and curl-papers. But, bless +you, toys of this kind are endless here! Teetotums made of old cotton +reels, tea-sets of acorn cups, dinner-sets of old shells, monkeys made +of bits of sponge, all sorts of things made of breastbones and +merrythoughts, old packs of cards that are always building themselves +into houses and getting knocked down when the band begins to play, +feathers, rabbits' tails—' +</P> +<P>"'Ah! I have heard about the rabbits' tails,' I said. +</P> +<P>"'There they are,' the beetle continued; 'and when the band plays you +will see how they skip and run. I don't believe you would find out that +they had no bodies, for my experience of a warren is, that when rabbits +skip and run it is the tails chiefly that you do see. But of all the +amateur toys the most successful are the boats. We have a lake for our +craft, you know, and there's quite a fleet of boats made out of old +cork floats in fishing villages. Then, you see, the old bits of cork +have really been to sea, and seen a good deal of service on the +herring-nets, and so they quite take the lead of the smart shop ships, +that have never been beyond a pond or a tub of water. But that's an +exception. Amateur toys are mostly very dowdy. Look at that box.' +</P> +<P>"I looked, thought I must have seen it before, and wondered why a very +common-looking box without a lid should affect me so strangely, and why +my memory should seem struggling to bring it back out of the past. +Suddenly it came to me—it was our old Toy Box. +</P> +<P>"I had completely forgotten that nursery institution till recalled by +the familiar aspect of the inside, which was papered with proof-sheets +of some old novel on which black stars had been stamped by way of +ornament. Dim memories of how these stars, and the angles of the box, +and certain projecting nails interfered with the letter-press and +defeated all attempts to trace the thread of the nameless narrative, +stole back over my brain; and I seemed once more, with my head in the +Toy Box, to beguile a wet afternoon by apoplectic endeavours to follow +the fortunes of Sir Charles and Lady Belinda, as they took a favourable +turn in the left-hand corner at the bottom of the trunk. +</P> +<P>"'What are you staring at?' said the beetle. +</P> +<P>"'It's my old Toy Box!' I exclaimed. +</P> +<P>"The beetle rolled on to his back, and struggled helplessly with his +legs: I turned him over. (Neither the first nor the last time of my +showing that attention to beetles.) +</P> +<P>"'That's right,' he said, 'set me on my legs. What a turn you gave me! +You don't mean to say you have any toys here? If you have, the sooner +you make your way home the better.' +</P> +<P>"'Why?' I inquired. +</P> +<P>"'Well,' he said, 'there's a very strong feeling in the place. The toys +think that they are ill-treated, and not taken care of by children in +general. And there is some truth in it. Toys come down here by scores +that have been broken the first day. And they are all quite resolved +that if any of their old masters or mistresses come this way they shall +be punished.' +</P> +<P>"'How will they be punished?' I inquired. +</P> +<P>"'Exactly as they did to their toys, their toys will do to them. All is +perfectly fair and regular.' +</P> +<P>"'I don't know that I treated mine particularly badly,' I said; 'but I +think I would rather go.' +</P> +<P>"'I think you'd better,' said the beetle. 'Good-evening!' and I saw him +no more. +</P> +<P>"I turned to go, but somehow I lost the road. At last, as I thought, I +found it, and had gone a few steps when I came on a detachment of +wooden soldiers, drawn up on their lazy tongs. I thought it better to +wait till they got out of the way, so I turned back, and sat down in a +corner in some alarm. As I did so, I heard a click, and the lid of a +small box covered with mottled paper burst open, and up jumped a figure +in a blue striped shirt and a rabbit-skin beard, whose eyes were +intently fixed on me. He was very like my old Jack-in-a-box. My back +began to creep, and I wildly meditated escape, frantically trying at +the same time to recall whether it were I or my brother who originated +the idea of making a small bonfire of our own one 5th of November, and +burning the old Jack-in-a-box for Guy Fawkes, till nothing was left of +him but a twirling bit of red-hot wire and a strong smell of frizzled +fur. At this moment he nodded to me and spoke. +</P> +<P>"'Oh! that's you, is it?' he said. +</P> +<P>"'No, it's not,' I answered hastily; for I was quite demoralized by +fear and the strangeness of the situation. +</P> +<P>"'Who is it, then?' he inquired. +</P> +<P>"'I'm sure I don't know,' I said; and really I was so confused that I +hardly did. +</P> +<P>"'Well, <i>we</i> know,' said the Jack-in-a-box, 'and that's all that's +needed. Now, my friends,' he continued, addressing the toys who had +begun to crowd round us, 'whoever recognizes a mistress and remembers a +grudge—the hour of our revenge has come. Can we any of us forget the +treatment we received at her hands? No! When we think of the ingenious +fancy, the patient skill, that went to our manufacture; that fitted the +delicate joints and springs, laid on the paint and varnish, and gave +back-hair-combs and ear-rings to our smallest dolls, we feel that we +deserved more care than we received. When we reflect upon the kind +friends who bought us with their money, and gave us away in the +benevolence of their hearts, we know that for their sakes we ought to +have been longer kept and better valued. And when we remember that the +sole object of our own existence was to give pleasure and amusement to +our possessors, we have no hesitation in believing that we deserved a +handsomer return than to have had our springs broken, our paint +dirtied, and our earthly careers so untimely shortened by wilful +mischief or fickle neglect. My friends, the prisoner is at the bar.' +</P> +<P>"'I am not,' I said; for I was determined not to give in as long as +resistance was possible. But as I said it I became aware, to my +unutterable amazement, that I was inside the go-cart. How I got there +is to this moment a mystery to me—but there I was. +</P> +<P>"There was a great deal of excitement about the Jack-in-a-box's speech. +It was evident that he was considered an orator, and, indeed, I have +seen counsel in a real court look wonderfully like him. Meanwhile, my +old toys appeared to be getting together. I had no idea that I had had +so many. I had really been very fond of most of them, and my heart beat +as the sight of them recalled scenes long forgotten, and took me back +to childhood and home. There were my little gardening tools, and my +slate, and there was the big doll's bedstead, that had a real mattress, +and real sheets and blankets, all marked with the letter D, and a +work-basket made in the blind school, and a shilling School of Art +paint-box, and a wooden doll we used to call the Dowager, and +innumerable other toys which I had forgotten till the sight of them +recalled them to my memory, but which have again passed from my mind. +Exactly opposite to me stood the Chinese mandarin, nodding as I had +never seen him nod since the day when I finally stopped his +performances by ill-directed efforts to discover how he did it. +</P> +<P>"And what was that familiar figure among the rest, in a yellow silk +dress and maroon velvet cloak and hood trimmed with black lace? How +those clothes recalled the friends who gave them to me! And surely this +was no other than my dear doll Rosa—the beloved companion of five +years of my youth, whose hair I wore in a locket after I was grown up. +No one could say I had ill-treated <i>her</i>. Indeed, she fixed her +eyes on me with a most encouraging smile—but then she always smiled, +her mouth was painted so. +</P> +<P>"'All whom it may concern, take notice,' shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at +this point, 'that the rule of this honourable court is tit for tat.' +</P> +<P>"'Tit, tat, tumble two,' muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How +well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit +tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!) +</P> +<P>"'What are you talking about?' said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; 'if you +have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I told +you before.' +</P> +<P>"'—— and five make nine,' added the slate promptly, 'and six are +fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven—there we go again.' I wonder why I +never get up to the top of a line of figures right. It will never prove +at this rate.' +</P> +<P>"'His mind is lost in calculations,' said the Jack-in-a-box, +'besides—between ourselves—he has been "cracky" for some time. +Let +some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a +sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her. I +reserve <i>my</i> judgment to the last.' +</P> +<P>"'I know what that will be,' thought I; 'oh dear! oh dear! that a +respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!' +</P> +<P>"'Let the prisoner drink a gallon of iced water at once, and then be +left to die of thirst.' +</P> +<P>"The horrible idea that the speaker might possibly have the power to +enforce his sentence diverted my attention from the slate, and I looked +round. In front of the Jack-in-a-box stood a tiny red flower-pot and +saucer, in which was a miniature cactus. My thoughts flew back to a +bazaar in London where, years ago, a stand of these fairy plants had +excited my warmest longings, and where a benevolent old gentleman whom +I had not seen before, and never saw again, bought this one and gave it +to me. Vague memories of his directions for repotting and tending it +reproached me from the past. My mind misgave me that after all it had +died a dusty death for lack of water. True, the cactus tribe being +succulent plants do not demand much moisture, but I had reason to fear +that, in this instance, the principle had been applied too far, and +that after copious baths of cold spring water in the first days of its +popularity it had eventually perished by drought. I suppose I looked +guilty, for it nodded its prickly head towards me, and said, 'Ah! you +know me. You remember what I was, do you? Did you ever think of what I +might have been? There was a fairy rose which came down here not long +ago—a common rose enough, in a broken pot patched with string and +white paint. It had lived in a street where it was the only pure +beautiful thing your eyes could see. When the girl who kept it died +there were eighteen roses upon it. She was eighteen years old, and they +put the roses in the coffin with her when she was buried. That was +worth living for. Who knows what I might have done? And what right had +you to cut short a life that might have been useful?' +</P> +<P>"Before I could think of a reply to these too just reproaches, the +flower-pot enlarged, the plant shot up, putting forth new branches as +it grew; then buds burst from the prickly limbs, and in a few moments +there hung about it great drooping blossoms of lovely pink, with long +white tassels in their throats. I had been gazing at it some time in +silent and self-reproachful admiration, when I became aware that the +business of this strange court was proceeding, and that the other toys +were pronouncing sentence against me. +</P> +<P>"'Tie a string round her neck and take her out bathing in the brooks,' +I heard an elderly voice say in severe tones. It was the Dowager Doll. +She was inflexibly wooden, and had been in the family for more than one +generation. +</P> +<P>"'It's not fair,' I exclaimed, 'the string was only to keep you from +being carried away by the stream. The current is strong and the bank +steep by the Hollow Oak Pool, and you had no arms or legs. You were old +and ugly, but you would wash, and we loved you better than many waxen +beauties.' +</P> +<P>"'Old and ugly!' shrieked the Dowager. 'Tear her wig off! Scrub the +paint off her face! Flatten her nose on the pavement! Saw off her legs +and give her no crinoline! Take her out bathing, I say, and bring her +home in a wheelbarrow with fern roots on the top of her.' +</P> +<P>"I was about to protest again, when the paint-box came forward, and +balancing itself in an artistic, undecided kind of way on two +camel's-hair brushes which seemed to serve it for feet, addressed the +Jack-in-a-box. +</P> +<P>"'Never dip your paint into the water. Never put your brush into your +mouth—" +</P> +<P>"'That's not evidence,' said the Jack-in-a-box. +</P> +<P>"'Your notions are crude,' said the paint-box loftily; 'it's in print, +and here, all of it, or words to that effect;' with which he touched +the lid, as a gentleman might lay his hand upon his heart. +</P> +<P>"'It's not evidence,' repeated the Jack-in-a-box. 'Let us proceed.' +</P> +<P>"'Take her to pieces and see what she's made of, if you please,' +tittered a pretty German toy that moved to a tinkling musical +accompaniment. 'If her works are available after that it will be an era +in natural science.' +</P> +<P>"The idea tickled me, and I laughed. +</P> +<P>"'Hard-hearted wretch!' growled the Dowager Doll. +</P> +<P>"'Dip her in water and leave her to soak on a white soup-plate,' said +the paint-box; 'if that doesn't soften her feelings, deprive me of my +medal from the School of Art!' +</P> +<P>"'Give her a stiff neck!' muttered the mandarin. 'Ching Fo! give her a +stiff neck.' +</P> +<P>"'Knock her teeth out,' growled the rake in a scratchy voice; and then +the tools joined in chorus. +</P> +<P>"'Take her out when it's fine and leave her out when it's wet, and lose +her in— +</P> +<P>"'The coal-hole,' said the spade. +</P> +<P>"'The hay-field,' said the rake. +</P> +<P>"'The shrubbery,' said the hoe. +</P> +<P>"This difference of opinion produced a quarrel, which in turn seemed to +affect the general behaviour of the toys, for a disturbance arose which +the Jack-in-a-box vainly endeavoured to quell. A dozen voices shouted +for a dozen different punishments, and (happily for me) each toy +insisted upon its own wrongs being the first to be avenged, and no one +would hear of the claims of any one else being attended to for an +instant. Terrible sentences were passed, which I either failed to hear +through the clamour then, or have forgotten now. I have a vague idea +that several voices cried that I was to be sent to wash in somebody's +pocket; that the work-basket wished to cram my mouth with unfinished +needlework; and that through all the din the thick voice of my old +leather ball monotonously repeated: +</P> +<P>"'Throw her into the dust-hole.' +</P> +<P>"Suddenly a clear voice pierced the confusion, and Rosa tripped up. +</P> +<P>"'My dears,' she began, 'the only chance of restoring order is to +observe method. Let us follow our usual rule of precedence. I claim the +first turn as the prisoner's oldest toy.' +</P> +<P>"'That you are not, Miss,' snapped the Dowager; 'I was in the family +for fifty years.' +</P> +<P>"'In the family. Yes, ma'am; but you were never her doll in particular. +I was her very own, and she kept me longer than any other plaything. My +judgment must be first.' +</P> +<P>"'She is right,' said the Jack-in-a-box; 'and now let us get on. The +prisoner is delivered unreservedly into the hands of our trusty and +well-beloved Rosa—doll of the first class—for punishment according to the strict law of tit for tat.' +</P> +<P>"'I shall request the assistance of the pewter tea-things,' said Rosa, +with her usual smile. 'And now, my love,' she added, turning to me, 'we +will come and sit down.' +</P> +<P>"Where the go-cart vanished to I cannot remember, nor how I got out of +it; I only know that I suddenly found myself free, and walking away +with my hand in Rosa's. I remember vacantly feeling the rough edge of +the stitches on her flat kid fingers, and wondering what would come +next. +</P> +<P>"'How very oddly you hold your feet, my dear,' she said; 'you stick out +your toes in such an eccentric fashion, and you lean on your legs as if +they were table legs, instead of supporting yourself by my hand. Turn +your heels well out, and bring your toes together. You may even let +them fold over each other a little; it is considered to have a pretty +effect among dolls,' +</P> +<P>"Under one of the big trees Miss Rosa made me sit down, propping me +against the trunk as if I should otherwise have fallen; and in a moment +more a square box of pewter tea-things came tumbling up to our feet, +where the lid burst open, and all the tea-things fell out in perfect +order; the cups on the saucers, the lid on the teapot, and so on. +</P> +<P>"'Take a little tea, my love?' said Miss Rosa, pressing a pewter teacup +to my lips. +</P> +<P>"I made believe to drink, but was only conscious of inhaling a draught +of air with a slight flavour of tin. In taking my second cup I was +nearly choked with the teaspoon, which got into my throat. +</P> +<P>"'What are you doing?' roared the Jack-in-a-box at this moment; 'you +are not punishing her.' +</P> +<P>"'I am treating her as she treated me,' answered Rosa, looking as +severe as her smile would allow. 'I believe that tit for tat is the +rule, and that at present it is my turn.' +</P> +<P>"'It will be mine soon,' growled the Jack-in-a-box, and I thought of +the bonfire with a shudder. However, there was no knowing what might +happen before his turn did come, and meanwhile I was in friendly hands. +It was not the first time my dolly and I had sat together under a tree, +and, truth to say, I do not think she had any injuries to avenge. +</P> +<P>"'When your wig comes off,' murmured Rosa, as she stole a pink kid arm +tenderly round my neck, 'I'll make you a cap with blue and white +rosettes, and pretend that you have had a fever.' +</P> +<P>"I thanked her gratefully, and was glad to reflect that I was not yet +in need of an attention which I distinctly remember having shown to her +in the days of her dollhood. Presently she jumped up. +</P> +<P>"'I think you shall go to bed now, dear,' she said, and, taking my hand +once more, she led me to the big doll's bedstead, which, with its +pretty bed-clothes and white dimity furniture, looked tempting enough +to a sleeper of suitable size. It could not have supported one quarter +of my weight. +</P> +<P>"'I have not made you a night-dress, my love,' Rosa continued; 'I am +not fond of my needle, you know. <i>You</i> were not fond of your +needle, I think, I fear you must go to bed in your clothes, my dear.' +</P> +<P>"'You are very kind,' I said, 'but I am not tired, and—it would not +bear my weight.' +</P> +<P>"'Pooh! pooh!' said Rosa. 'My love! I remember passing one Sunday in it +with the rag-doll, and the Dowager, and the Punch and Judy (the amount +of pillow their two noses took up I shall never forget!), and the old +doll that had nothing on, because her clothes were in the dolls' wash +and did not get ironed on Saturday night, and the Highlander, whose +things wouldn't come off, and who slept in his kilt. Not bear you? +Nonsense! You must go to bed, my dear. I've got other things to do, and +I can't leave you lying about.' +</P> +<P>"'The whole lot of you did not weigh one quarter of what I do,' I cried +desperately. 'I cannot and will not get into that bed; I should break +it all to pieces, and hurt myself into the bargain.' +</P> +<P>"'Well, if you will not go to bed I must put you there,' said Rosa, and +without more ado, she snatched me up in her kid arms, and laid me down. +</P> +<P>"Of course it was just as I expected. I had hardly touched the two +little pillows (they had a meal-baggy smell from being stuffed with +bran), when the woodwork gave way with a crash, and I +fell—fell—fell— +</P> +<P>"Though I fully believed every bone in my body to be broken, it was +really a relief to get to the ground. As soon as I could, I sat up, and +felt myself all over. A little stiff, but, as it seemed, unhurt. Oddly +enough, I found that I was back again under the tree; and more strange +still, it was not the tree where I sat with Rosa, but the old oak-tree +in the little wood. Was it all a dream? The toys had vanished, the +lights were out, the mosses looked dull in the growing dusk, the +evening was chilly, the hole no larger than it was thirty years ago, +and when I felt in my pocket for my spectacles I found that they were +on my nose. +</P> +<P>"I have returned to the spot many times since, but I never could induce +a beetle to enter into conversation on the subject, the hole remains +obstinately impassable, and I have not been able to repeat my visit to +the Land of Lost Toys. +</P> +<P>"When I recall my many sins against the playthings of my childhood, I +am constrained humbly to acknowledge that perhaps this is just as +well." +</P> +<HR> + + +<H3>SAM SETS UP SHOP.</H3> + +<P>"I think you might help me, Dot," cried Sam, in dismal and rather +injured tones. +</P> +<P>It was the morning following the day of the earthquake, and of Aunt +Penelope's arrival. Sam had his back to Dot, and his face to the fire, +over which indeed he had bent for so long that he appeared to be half +roasted. +</P> +<P>"What do you want?" asked Dot, who was working at a doll's night-dress +that had for long been partly finished, and now seemed in a fair way to +completion. +</P> +<P>"It's the glue-pot," Sam continued. "It does take so long to boil. And +I have been stirring at the glue with a stick for ever so long to get +it to melt. It is very hot work. I wish you would take it for a bit. +It's as much for your good as for mine." +</P> +<P>"Is it?" said Dot. +</P> +<P>"Yes, it is, Miss," cried Sam. "You must know I've got a splendid +idea." +</P> +<P>"Not another earthquake, I hope?" said Dot, smiling. +</P> +<P>"Now, Dot, that's truly unkind of you. I thought it was to be +forgotten." +</P> +<P>"So it is," said Dot, getting up. "I was only joking. What is the +idea?" +</P> +<P>"I don't think I shall tell you till I have finished my shop. I want to +get to it now, and I wish you would take a turn at the glue-pot." +</P> +<P>Sam was apt to want a change of occupation. Dot, on the other hand, was +equally averse from leaving what she was about till it was finished, so +they suited each other like Jack Sprat and his wife. It had been an +effort to Dot to leave the night-dress which she had hoped to finish at +a sitting; but when she was fairly set to work on the glue business she +never moved till the glue was in working order, and her face as red as +a ripe tomato. +</P> +<P>By this time Sam had set up business in the window-seat, and was +fastening a large paper inscription over his shop. It ran thus:— +</P> + +<CENTER> +<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="10" SUMMARY="Sam's paper inscription"> +<TR> +<TD> +<CENTER> +<P>MR. SAM.</P> + +<P><i>Dolls' Doctor and Toymender to Her Majesty<BR> +the Queen, and all other Potentates</i>.</P> +</CENTER> +</TD> +</TR> +</TABLE> +</CENTER> + +<P>"Splendid!" shouted Dot, who was serving up the glue as if it had been +a kettle of soup, and who looked herself very like an over-toasted +cook. +</P> +<P>Sam took the glue, and began to bustle about. +</P> +<P>"Now, Dot, get me all the broken toys, and we'll see what we can do. +And here's a second splendid idea. Do you see that box? Into that we +shall put all the toys that are quite spoiled and cannot possibly be +mended. It is to be called the Hospital for Incurables. I've got a +placard for that. At least it's not written yet, but here's the paper, +and perhaps you would write it, Dot, for I am tired of writing, and I +want to begin the mending." +</P> +<P>"For the future," he presently resumed, "when I want a doll to scalp or +behead, I shall apply to the Hospital for Incurables, and the same with +any other toy that I want to destroy. And you will see, my dear Dot, +that I shall be quite a blessing to the nursery; for I shall attend the +dolls gratis, and keep all the furniture in repair." +</P> +<P>Sam really kept his word. He had a natural turn for mechanical work, +and, backed by Dot's more methodical genius, he prolonged the days of +the broken toys by skilful mending, and so acquired an interest in them +which was still more favourable to their preservation. When his +birthday came round, which was some months after these events, Dot +(assisted by Mamma and Aunt Penelope) had prepared for him a surprise +that was more than equal to any of his own "splendid ideas." The whole +force of the toy cupboard was assembled on the nursery table, to +present Sam with a fine box of joiner's tools as a reward for his +services, Papa kindly acting as spokesman on the occasion. +</P> +<P>And certain gaps in the china tea-set, some scars on the dolls' faces, +and a good many new legs, both amongst the furniture and the animals, +are now the only remaining traces of Sam's earthquake. +</P> +<HR> + + +<A NAME="threechristmastrees"></A><H2>THREE CHRISTMAS TREES.</H2> + +<P>This is a story of Three Christmas Trees. The first was a real one, but +the child we are to speak of did not see it. He saw the other two, but +they were not real; they only existed in his fancy. The plot of the +story is very simple; and, as it has been described so early, it is +easy for those who think it stupid to lay the book down in good time. +</P> +<P>Probably every child who reads this has seen one Christmas tree or +more; but in the small town of a distant colony with which we have to +do, this could not at one time have been said. Christmas-trees were +then by no means so universal, even in England, as they now are, and in +this little colonial town they were unknown. Unknown, that is, till the +Governor's wife gave her great children's party. At which point we will +begin the story. +</P> +<P>The Governor had given a great many parties in his time. He had +entertained big wigs and little wigs, the passing military, and the +local grandees. Everybody who had the remotest claim to attention had +been attended to: the ladies had had their full share of balls and +pleasure parties: only one class of the population had any complaint to +prefer against his hospitality; but the class was a large one—it was +the children. However, he, was a bachelor, and knew little or nothing +about little boys and girls: let us pity rather than blame him. At last +he took to himself a wife; and among the many advantages of this +important step, was a due recognition of the claims of these young +citizens. It was towards happy Christmas-tide that "the Governor's +amiable and admired lady" (as she was styled in the local newspaper) +sent out notes for her first children's party. At the top of the +note-paper was a very red robin, who carried a blue Christmas greeting +in his mouth, and at the bottom—written with A.D.C.'s best +flourish—were the magic words, <i>A Christmas Tree</i>. In spite of +the flourishes—partly perhaps because of them—the A.D.C.'s +handwriting, though handsome, was rather illegible. But for all this, +most of the children invited contrived to read these words, and those +who could not do so were not slow to learn the news by hearsay. There +was to be a Christmas Tree! It would be like a birthday party, with +this above ordinary birthdays, that there were to be presents for every +one. One of the children invited lived in a little white house, with a +spruce fir-tree before the door. The spruce fir did this good service +to the little house, that it helped people to find their way to it; and +it was by no means easy for a stranger to find his way to any given +house in this little town, especially if the house were small and +white, and stood in one of the back streets. For most of the houses +were small, and most of them were painted white, and back streets ran +parallel with each other, and had no names, and were all so much alike +that it was very confusing. For instance, if you had asked the way to +Mr. So-and-So's, it is very probable that some friend would have +directed you as follows: "Go straight forward and take the first +turning to your left, and you will find that there are four streets, +which run at right angles to the one you are in, and parallel with each +other. Each of them has got a big pine in it—one of the old forest +trees. Take the last street but one, and the fifth white house you come +to is Mr. So-and-So's. He has green blinds and a coloured servant." You +would not always have got such clear directions as these, but with them +you would probably have found the house at last, partly by accident, +partly by the blinds and coloured servant. Some of the neighbours +affirmed that the little white house had a name; that all the houses +and streets had names, only they were traditional and not recorded +anywhere; that very few people knew them, and nobody made any use of +them. The name of the little white house was said to be Trafalgar +Villa, which seemed so inappropriate to the modest peaceful little +home, that the man who lived in it tried to find out why it had been so +called. He thought that his predecessor must have been in the navy, +until he found that he had been the owner of what is called a +"dry-goods store," which seems to mean a shop where things are sold +which are not good to eat or drink—such as drapery. At last somebody +said, that as there was a public-house called the "Duke of Wellington" +at the corner of the street, there probably had been a nearer one +called "The Nelson," which had been burnt down, and that the man who +built "The Nelson" had built the house with the spruce fir before it, +and that so the name had arisen. An explanation which was just so far +probable, that public-houses and fires were of frequent occurrence in +those parts. +</P> +<P>But this has nothing to do with the story. Only we must say, as we said +before, and as we should have said had we been living there then, the +child we speak of lived in the little white house with one spruce fir +just in front of it. +</P> +<P>Of all the children who looked forward to the Christmas tree, he looked +forward to it the most intensely. He was an imaginative child, of a +simple, happy nature, easy to please. His father was an Englishman, and +in the long winter evenings he would tell the child tales of the old +country, to which his mother would listen also. Perhaps the parents +enjoyed these stories the most. To the boy they were new, and +consequently delightful, but to the parents they were old; and as +regards some stories, that is better still. +</P> +<P>"What kind of a bird is this on my letter?" asked the boy on the day +which brought the Governor's lady's note of invitation. "And oh! what +is a Christmas tree?" +</P> +<P>"The bird is an English robin," said his father. "It is quite another +bird to that which is called a robin here: it is smaller and rounder, +and has a redder breast and bright dark eyes, and lives and sings at +home through the winter. A Christmas tree is a fir-tree—just such a +one as that outside the door—brought into the house and covered with +lights and presents. Picture to yourself our fir-tree lighted up with +tapers on all the branches, with dolls, and trumpets, and bon-bons, and +drums, and toys of all kinds hanging from it like fir-cones, and on the +tip-top shoot a figure of a Christmas Angel in white, with a star upon +its head." +</P> +<P>"Fancy!" said the boy. +</P> +<P>And fancy he did. Every day he looked at the spruce fir, and tried to +imagine it laden with presents, and brilliant with tapers, and thought +how wonderful must be that "old country"—<i>Home</i>, as it was +called, even by those who had never seen it—where the robins were so +very red, and where at Christmas the fir-trees were hung with toys +instead of cones. +</P> +<P>It was certainly a pity that, two days before the party, an original +idea on the subject of snowmen struck one of the children who used to +play together, with their sleds and snow shoes, in the back streets. +The idea was this: That instead of having a commonplace snowman, whose +legs were obliged to be mere stumps, for fear he should be top-heavy, +and who could not walk, even with them; who, in fact, could do nothing +but stand at the corner of the street, holding his impotent stick, and +staring with his pebble eyes, till he was broken to pieces or +ignominiously carried away by a thaw,—that, instead of this, they +should have a real, live snowman, who should walk on competent legs, to +the astonishment, and (happy thought!) perhaps to the alarm of the +passers-by. This delightful novelty was to be accomplished by covering +one of the boys of the party with snow till he looked as like a real +snowman as circumstances would admit. At first everybody wanted to be +the snowman, but, when it came to the point, it was found to be so much +duller to stand still and be covered up than to run about and work, +that no one was willing to act the part. At last it was undertaken by +the little boy from the Fir House. He was somewhat small, but then he +was so good-natured he would always do as he was asked. So he stood +manfully still, with his arms folded over a walking-stick upon his +breast, whilst the others heaped the snow upon him. The plan was not so +successful as they had hoped. The snow would not stick anywhere except +on his shoulders, and when it got into his neck he cried with the cold; +but they were so anxious to carry out their project, that they begged +him to bear it "just a little longer"; and the urchin who had devised +the original idea wiped the child's eyes with his handkerchief, and +(with that hopefulness which is so easy over other people's matters) +"dared say that when all the snow was on, he wouldn't feel it." +However, he did feel it, and that so severely that the children were +obliged to give up the game, and, taking the stick out of his stiff +little arms, to lead him home. +</P> +<P>It appears that it is with snowmen as with some other men in +conspicuous positions. It is easier to find fault with them than to +fill their place. +</P> +<P>The end of this was a feverish cold, and, when the day of the party +came, the ex-snowman was still in bed. It is due to the other children +to say that they felt the disappointment as keenly as he did, and that +it greatly damped the pleasure of the party for them to think that they +had prevented his sharing in the treat. The most penitent of all was +the deviser of the original idea. He had generously offered to stay at +home with the little patient, which was as generously refused; but the +next evening he was allowed to come and sit on his bed, and describe it +all for the amusement of his friend. He was a quaint boy, this urchin, +with a face as broad as an American Indian's, eyes as bright as a +squirrel's, and all the mischief in life lurking about him, till you +could see roguishness in the very folds of his hooded Indian winter +coat of blue and scarlet. In his hand he brought the sick child's +present: a dray with two white horses, and little barrels that took off +and on, and a driver, with wooden joints, a cloth coat, and everything, +in fact, that was suitable to the driver of a brewer's dray, except +that he had blue boots and earrings, and that his hair was painted in +braids like a lady's, which is clearly the fault of the doll +manufacturers, who will persist in making them all of the weaker sex. +</P> +<P>"And what was the Christmas tree like?" asked the invalid. +</P> +<P>"Exactly like the fir outside your door," was the reply. "Just about +that size, and planted in a pot covered with red cloth. It was kept in +another room till after tea, and then when the door was opened it was +like a street fire in the town at night—such a blaze of light—candles +everywhere! And on all the branches the most beautiful presents. I got +a drum and a penwiper." +</P> +<P>"Was there an angel?" the child asked. +</P> +<P>"Oh, yes!" the boy answered. "It was on the tip-top branch, and it was +given to me, and I brought it for you, if you would like it; for, you +know, I am so very, very sorry I thought of a snowman and made you ill, +and I do love you, and beg you to forgive me." +</P> +<P>And the roguish face stooped over the pillow to be kissed; and out of a +pocket in the hooded coat came forth the Christmas Angel. In the face +it bore a strong family likeness to the drayman, but its feet were +hidden in folds of snowy muslin, and on its head glittered a tinsel +star. +</P> +<P>"How lovely!" said the child. "Father told me about this. I like it +best of all. And it is very kind of you, for it is not your fault that +I caught cold. I should have liked it if we could have done it, but I +think to enjoy being a snowman, one should be snow all through." +</P> +<P>They had tea together, and then the invalid was tucked up for the +night. The dray was put away in the cupboard, but he took the angel to +bed with him. +</P> +<P>And so ended the first of the Three Christmas Trees. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>Except for a warm glow from the wood fire in the stove, the room was +dark; but about midnight it seemed to the child that a sudden blaze of +light filled the chamber. At the same moment the window curtains were +drawn aside, and he saw that the spruce fir had come close up to the +panes and was peeping in. Ah! how beautiful it looked! It had become a +Christmas tree. Lighted tapers shone from every familiar branch, toys +of the most fascinating appearance hung like fruit, and on the tip-top +shoot there stood the Christmas Angel. He tried to count the candles, +but somehow it was impossible. When he looked at them they seemed to +change places—to move—to become like the angel, and then to be +candles again, whilst the flames nodded to each other and repeated the +blue greeting of the robin, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" +Then he tried to distinguish the presents, but, beautiful as the toys +looked, he could not exactly discover what any of them were, or choose +which he would like best. Only the Angel he could see clearly—so +clearly! It was more beautiful than the doll under his pillow; it had a +lovely face like his own mother's, he thought, and on its head gleamed +a star far brighter than tinsel. Its white robes waved with the flames +of the tapers, and it stretched its arms towards him with a smile. +</P> +<P>"I am to go and choose my present," thought the child; and he called +"Mother! Mother dear! please open the window." +</P> +<P>But his mother did not answer. So he thought he must get up himself, +and with an effort he struggled out of bed. +</P> +<P>But when he was on his feet, everything seemed changed! Only the +firelight shone upon the walls, and the curtains were once more firmly +closed before the window. It had been a dream, but so vivid that in his +feverish state he still thought it must be true, and dragged the +curtains back to let in the glorious sight again. The firelight shone +upon a thick coating of frost upon the panes, but no further could he +see, so with all his strength he pushed the window open and leaned out +into the night. +</P> +<P>The spruce fir stood in its old place; but it looked very beautiful in +its Christmas dress. Beneath it lay a carpet of pure white. The snow +was clustered in exquisite shapes upon its plumy branches; wrapping the +tree top with its little cross shoots, as a white robe might wrap a +figure with outstretched arms. +</P> +<P>There were no tapers to be seen, but northern lights shot up into the +dark blue sky, and just over the fir-tree shone a bright, bright star. +</P> +<P>"Jupiter looks well to-night," said the old Professor in the town +observatory, as he fixed his telescope; but to the child it seemed as +the star of the Christmas Angel. +</P> +<P>His mother had really heard him call, and now came and put him back to +bed again. And so ended the second of the Three Christmas Trees. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>It was enough to have killed him, all his friends said; but it did not. +He lived to be a man, and—what is rarer—to keep the faith, the +simplicity, the tender-heartedness, the vivid fancy of his childhood. +He lived to see many Christmas trees "at home," in that old country +where the robins are redbreasts, and sing in winter. There a heart as +good and gentle as his own became one with his; and once he brought his +young wife across the sea to visit the place where he was born. They +stood near the little white house, and he told her the story of the +Christmas trees. +</P> +<P>"This was when I was a child," he added. +</P> +<P>"But that you are still," said she; and she plucked a bit of the +fir-tree and kissed it, and carried it away. +</P> +<P>He lived to tell the story to his children, and even to his +grand-children; but he never was able to decide which of the two was +the more beautiful—the Christmas Tree of his dream, or the Spruce Fir +as it stood in the loveliness of that winter night. +</P> +<P>This is told, not that it has anything to do with any of the Three +Christmas Trees, but to show that the story is a happy one, as is right +and proper; that the hero lived, and married, and had children, and was +as prosperous as good people, in books, should always be. +</P> +<P>Of course he died at last. The best and happiest of men must die; and +it is only because some stories stop short in their history, that every +hero is not duly buried before we lay down the book. +</P> +<P>When death came for our hero he was an old man. The beloved wife, some +of his children, and many of his friends had died before him, and of +those whom he had loved there were fewer to leave than to rejoin. He +had had a short illness, with little pain, and was now lying on his +deathbed in one of the big towns in the North of England. His youngest +son, a clergy-man, was with him, and one or two others of his children, +and by the fire sat the doctor. +</P> +<P>The doctor had been sitting by the patient, but now that he could do no +more for him he had moved to the fire; and they had taken the ghastly, +half-emptied medicine bottles from the table by the bedside, and had +spread it with a fair linen cloth, and had set out the silver vessels +of the Supper of the Lord. The old man had been "wandering" somewhat +during the day. He had talked much of going home to the old country, +and with the wide range of dying thoughts he had seemed to mingle +memories of childhood with his hopes of Paradise. At intervals he was +clear and collected—one of those moments had been chosen for his last +sacrament—and he had fallen asleep with the blessing in his ears. +</P> +<P>He slept so long and so peacefully that the son almost began to hope +that there might be a change, and looked towards the doctor, who still +sat by the fire with his right leg crossed over his left. The doctor's +eyes were also on the bed, but at that moment he drew out his watch and +looked at it with an air of professional conviction, which said, "It's +only a question of time." Then he crossed his left leg over his right, +and turned to the fire again. Before the right leg should be tired, all +would be over. The son saw it as clearly as if it had been spoken, and +he too turned away and sighed. +</P> +<P>As they sat, the bells of a church in the town began to chime for +midnight service, for it was Christmas Eve, but they did not wake the +dying man. He slept on and on. +</P> +<P>The doctor dozed. The son read in the Prayer Book on the table, and one +of his sisters read with him. Another, from grief and weariness, slept +with her head upon his shoulder. Except for a warm glow from the fire, +the room was dark. Suddenly the old man sat up in bed, and, in a strong +voice, cried with inexpressible enthusiasm, +</P> +<P>"<i>How beautiful!</i>" +</P> +<P>The son held back his sisters, and asked quietly, +</P> +<P>"<i>What</i>, my dear Father?" +</P> +<P>"The Christmas Tree!" he said in a low, eager voice. "Draw back the +curtains." +</P> +<P>They were drawn back; but nothing could be seen, and still the old man +gazed as if in ecstasy. +</P> +<P>"Light!" he murmured. "The Angel! the Star!" +</P> +<P>Again there was silence; and then he stretched forth his hands, and +cried passionately, +</P> +<P>"The Angel is beckoning to me! Mother! Mother dear! Please open the +window." +</P> +<P>The sash was thrown open, and all eyes turned involuntarily where those +of the dying man were gazing. There was no Christmas tree—no tree at +all. But over the house-tops the morning star looked pure and pale in +the dawn of Christmas Day. For the night was past, and above the +distant hum of the streets the clear voices of some waits made the +words of an old carol heard—words dearer for their association than +their poetry: +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "While shepherds watched their flocks by night,<BR> + All seated on the ground,<BR> + The Angel of the Lord came down,<BR> + And glory shone around." +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>When the window was opened, the soul passed; and when they looked back +to the bed the old man had lain down again, and, like a child, was +smiling in his sleep—his last sleep. +</P> +<P>And this was the Third Christmas Tree. +</P> +<HR> + + +<A NAME="anidyllofthewood"></A><H2>AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD.</H2> + +<P>"Tell us a story," said the children, "a sad one, if you please, and a +little true. But, above all, let it end badly, for we are tired of +people who live happily ever after." +</P> +<P>"I heard one lately," said the old man who lived in the wood; "it is +founded on fact, and is a sad one also; but whether it ends badly or no +I cannot pretend to say. That is a matter of taste: what is a bad +ending?" +</P> +<P>"A story ends badly," said the children with authority, "when people +die, and nobody marries anybody else, especially if it is a prince and +princess." +</P> +<P>"A most lucid explanation," said the old man. "I think my story will +do, for the principal character dies, and there is no wedding." +</P> +<P>"Tell it, tell it!" cried his hearers, "and tell us also where you got +it from." +</P> +<P>"Who knows the riches of a wood in summer?" said the old man. "In +summer, do I say? In spring, in autumn, or in winter either. Who knows +them? You, my children? Well, well. Better than some of your elders, +perchance. You know the wood where I live; the hollow tree that will +hold five children, and Queen Mab knows how many fairies. (What a +castle it makes! And if it had but another floor put into it, with a +sloping ladder—like one of the round towers of Ireland—what a house for children to live in! With no room for lesson-books, grown-up +people, or beds!) +</P> +<P>"You know the way to the hazel copse, and the place where the wild +strawberries grow. You know where the wren sits on her eggs, and, like +good children, pass by with soft steps and hushed voices, that you may +not disturb that little mother. You know (for I have shown you) where +the rare fern grows—a habitat happily yet unnoted in scientific pages. +<i>We</i> never add its lovely fronds to our nosegays, and if we move a +root it is but to plant it in another part of the wood, with as much +mystery and circumspection as if we were performing some solemn +druidical rite. It is to us as a king in hiding, and the places of its +abode we keep faithfully secret. It will be thus held sacred by us +until, with all the seed its untouched fronds have scattered, and all +the offshoots we have propagated, it shall have become as plentiful as +Heaven intends all beautiful things to be. Every one is not so +scrupulous. There are certain ladies and gentlemen who picnic near my +cottage in the hot weather, and who tell each other that they love a +wood. Most of these good people have nevertheless neither eyes nor ears +for what goes on around them, except that they hear each other, and see +the cold collation. They will picnic there summer after summer, and not +know whether they sit under oaks or ashes, beeches or elms. All birds +sing for them the same song. Tell <i>them</i> that such a plant is rare +in the neighbourhood, that there are but few specimens of it, and it +will not long be their fault if there are any. Does any one direct them +to it, they tear it ruthlessly up and carry it away. If by any chance a +root is left, it is left so dragged and pulled and denuded of earth, +that there is small chance that it will survive. Probably, also, the +ravished clump dies in the garden or pot to which it is transplanted, +either from neglect, or from ignorance of the conditions essential to +its life; and the rare plant becomes yet rarer. Oh! without doubt they +love a wood. It gives more shade than the largest umbrella, and is +cheaper for summer entertainment than a tent: there you get canopy and +carpet, fuel and water, shade and song, and beauty—all gratis; and +these are not small matters when one has invited a large party of one's +acquaintance. There are insects, it is true, which somewhat disturb our +friends; and as they do not know which sting, and which are harmless, +they kill all that come within their reach, as a safe general +principle. The town boys, too! They know the wood—that is to say, they +know where the wild fruits grow, and how to chase the squirrel, and rob +the birds' nests, and snare the birds. Well, well, my children; to know +and love a wood truly, it may be that one must live in it as I have +done; and then a lifetime will scarcely reveal all its beauties, or +exhaust its lessons. But even then, one must have eyes that see, and +ears that hear, or one misses a good deal. It was in the wood that I +heard this story that I shall tell you." +</P> +<P>"How did you hear it?" asked the children. +</P> +<P>"A thrush sang it to me one night." +</P> +<P>"One night?" said the children. "Then you mean a nightingale." +</P> +<P>"I mean a thrush," said the old man. "Do I not know the note of one +bird from another? I tell you that pine-tree by my cottage has a legend +of its own, and the topmost branch is haunted. Must all legends be +about the loves and sorrows of our self-satisfied race alone?" +</P> +<P>"But did you really and truly hear it?" they asked. "I heard it," said +the old man. "But, as I tell you, one hears and one hears. I don't say +that everybody would have heard it, merely by sleeping in my chamber; +but, for the benefit of the least imaginative, I will assure you that +it is founded on fact." +</P> +<P>"Begin! begin!" shouted the children. +</P> +<P>"Once upon a time," said the old man, "there was a young thrush, who +was born in that beautiful dingle where we last planted the —— fern. His home-nest was close to the ground, but the lower one is, the less +fear of falling; and in woods, the elevation at which you sleep is a +matter of taste, and not of expense or gentility. He awoke to life when +the wood was dressed in the pale fresh green of early summer; and +believing, like other folk, that his own home was at least the +principal part of the world, earth seemed to him so happy and so +beautiful an abode, that his heart felt ready to burst with joy. The +ecstasy was almost pain, till wings and a voice came to him. Then, one +day, when, after a grey morning, the sun came out at noon, drawing the +scent from the old pine that looks in at my bedroom window, his joy +burst forth, after long silence, into song, and flying upwards, he sat +on the topmost branch of the pine, and sang as loud as he could sing to +the sun and the blue sky. +</P> +<P>"'Joy! joy!' he sang. 'Fresh water and green woods, ambrosial sunshine +and sunflecked shade, chattering brooks and rustling leaves, glade, and +sward, and dell. Lichens and cool mosses, feathered ferns and flowers. +Green leaves! Green leaves! Summer! summer! summer!' +</P> +<P>"It was monotonous, but every word came from the singer's heart, which +is not always the case. Thenceforward, though he slept near the ground, +he went up every day to this pine, as to some sacred high place, and +sang the same song, of which neither he nor I were ever weary. +</P> +<P>"Let one be ever so inoffensive, however, one is not long left in peace +in this world, even in a wood. The thrush sang too loudly of his simple +happiness, and some boys from the town heard him and snared him, and +took him away in a dirty cloth cap, where he was nearly smothered. The +world is certainly not exclusively composed of sunshine, and green +woods, and odorous pines. He became almost senseless during the hot +dusty walk that led to the town. It was a seaport town, about two miles +from the wood, a town of narrow, steep streets, picturesque old houses, +and odours compounded of tar, dead fish, and many other scents less +agreeable than forest perfumes. The thrush was put into a small +wicker-cage in an upper room, in one of the narrowest and steepest of +the streets. "'I shall die to-night,' he piped. But he did not. He +lived that night, and for several nights and days following. The boys +took small care of him, however. He was often left without food, +without water, and always with too little air. Two or three times they +tried to sell him, but he was not bought, for no one could hear him +sing. One day he was hung outside the window, and partly owing to the +sun and fresh air, and partly because a woman was singing in the +street, he began to carol his old song. +</P> +<P>"The woman was a street singer. She was even paler, thinner, and more +destitute-looking than such women usually are. In some past time there +had been beauty and feeling in her face, but the traces of both were +well-nigh gone. An indifference almost amounting to vacancy was there +now, and, except that she sang, you might almost have fancied her a +corpse. In her voice, also, there had once been beauty and feeling, and +here again the traces were small indeed. From time to time, she was +stopped by fits of coughing, when an ill-favoured hunchback, who +accompanied her on a tambourine, swore and scowled at her. She sang a +song of sentiment, with a refrain about +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'Love and truth,<BR> + And joys of youth—' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>on which the melody dwelt and quavered as if in mockery. As she sang, a +sailor came down the street. His collar was very large, his trousers +were very wide, his hat hung on the back of his head more as an +ornament than for shelter; and he had one of the roughest faces and the +gentlest hearts that ever went together since Beauty was entertained by +the Beast. His hands were in his pockets, where he could feel one +shilling and a penny, all the spare cash that remained to him after a +friendly stroll through the town. When he saw the street singer, he +stopped, pulled off his hat, and scratched his head, as was his custom +when he was puzzled or interested. +</P> +<P>"'It's no good keeping an odd penny,' he said to himself; 'poor thing, +she looks bad enough!' And, bringing the penny to the surface out of +the depths of his pocket, he gave it to the woman. The hunchback came +forward to take it, but the sailor passed him with a shove of his +elbow, and gave it to the singer, who handed it over to her companion +without moving a feature, and went on with her song. +</P> +<P>"'I'd like to break every bone in your ugly body,' muttered the sailor, +with a glance at the hunchback, who scowled in return. +</P> +<P>"'I shall die of this close street, and of all I have suffered,' +thought the thrush. +</P> +<P>"'Green leaves! green leaves!' he sang, for it was the only song he +knew. +</P> +<P>"'My voice is gone,' thought the hunchback's companion. 'He'll beat me +again to-night; but it can't last long: +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "Love and truth,<BR> + And joys of youth"'— +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>she sang, for that was the song she had learned; and it was not her +fault that it was inappropriate. +</P> +<P>"But the ballad-singer's captivity was nearly at an end. When the +hunchback left her that evening to spend the sailor's penny with the +few others which she had earned, he swore that when he came back he +would make her sing louder than she had done all day. Her face showed +no emotion, less than it did when he saw it hours after, when beauty +and feeling seemed to have returned to it in the peace of death, when +he came back and found the cage empty, and that the long-prisoned +spirit had flown away to seek the face of love and truth indeed. +</P> +<P>"But how about the thrush? +</P> +<P>"The sailor had scarcely swallowed the wrath which the hunchback had +stirred in him, when his ear was caught by the song of the thrush above +him. +</P> +<P>"'You sing uncommon well, pretty one,' he said, stopping and putting +his hat even farther back than usual to look up. He was one of those +good people who stop a dozen times in one street, and look at +everything as they go along; whereby you may see three times as much of +life as other folk, but it is a terrible temptation to spend money. It +was so in this instance. The sailor looked till his kindly eye +perceived that the bird was ill-cared for. +</P> +<P>"'It should have a bit of sod, it <i>should</i>,' he said emphatically, +taking his hat off, and scratching his head again; 'and there's not a +crumb of food on board. Maybe, they don't understand the ways of birds +here. It would be a good turn to mention it.' +</P> +<P>"With this charitable intention he entered the house, and when he left +it, his pocket was empty, and the thrush was carried tenderly in his +handkerchief. +</P> +<P>"'The canary died last voyage,' he muttered apologetically to himself, +'and the money always does go somehow or other.' +</P> +<P>"The sailor's hands were about three times as large and coarse as those +of the boy who had carried the thrush before, but they seemed to him +three times more light and tender—they were handy and kind, and this +goes farther than taper fingers. +</P> +<P>"The thrush's new home was not in the narrow streets. It was in a small +cottage in a small garden at the back of the town. The canary's old +cage was comparatively roomy, and food, water, and fresh turf were +regularly supplied to him. He could see green leaves too. There was an +apple-tree in the garden, and two geraniums, a fuchsia, and a tea-rose +in the window. Near the tea-rose an old woman sat in the sunshine. She +was the sailor's mother, and looked very like a tidily-kept +window-plant herself. She had a little money of her own, which gave her +a certain dignity, and her son was very good to her; and so she dwelt +in considerable comfort, dividing her time chiefly between reading in +the big Bible, knitting socks for Jack, and raising cuttings in bottles +of water. She had heard of hothouses and forcing-frames, but she did +not think much of them. She believed a bottle of water to be the most +natural, because it was the oldest method she knew of, and she thought +no good came of new-fangled ways, and trying to outdo Nature. +</P> +<P>"'Slow and sure is best,' she said, and stuck to her own system. +</P> +<P>"'What's that, my dear?' she asked, when the sailor came in and held up +the handkerchief. He told her. +</P> +<P>"'You're always a-laying out your money on something or other,' said +the old lady, who took the privilege of her years to be a little testy. +'What did you give for <i>that</i>?' +</P> +<P>"'A shilling, ma'am.' +</P> +<P>"'Tst! tst! tst!' said the old lady, disapprovingly. +</P> +<P>"'Now, Mother, don't shake that cap of yours off your head,' said the +sailor. 'What's a shilling? If I hadn't spent it, I should have changed +it; and once change a shilling, and it all dribbles away in coppers, +and you get nothing for it. But spend it in the lump, and you get +something you want. That's what I say.' +</P> +<P>"'<i>I</i> want no more pets,' said the old lady, stiffly. +</P> +<P>"'Well, you won't be troubled with this one long,' said her son; 'it'll +go with me, and that's soon enough.' +</P> +<P>"Any allusion to his departure always melted the old lady, as Jack well +knew. She became tearful, and begged him to leave the thrush with her. +</P> +<P>"'You know, my dear, I've always looked to your live things as if they +were Christians; and loved them too (unless it was that monkey that I +never <i>could</i> do with!). Leave it with me, my dear. I'd never +bother myself with a bird on board ship, if I was you.' +</P> +<P>"'That's because you've got a handsome son of your own, old lady,' +chuckled the sailor; 'I've neither chick nor child, ma'am, remember, +and a man must have something to look to. The bird'll go with me.' +</P> +<P>"And so it came to pass that just when the thrush was becoming +domesticated, and almost happy at the cottage, one morning the sailor +brought him fresh turf and groundsel, besides his meal-cake, and took +the cage down. And the old woman kissed the wires, and bade the bird +good-bye, and blessed her son, and prayed Heaven to bring him safe home +again; and they went their way. +</P> +<P>"The forecastle of a steam-ship (even of a big one) is a poor exchange +for a snug cottage to any one but a sailor. To Jack, the ship was home. +<i>He</i> had never lived in a wood, and carolled in tree-tops. He +preferred blue to green, and pine masts to pine trees; and he smoked +his pipe very comfortably in the forecastle, whilst the ship rolled to +and fro, and swung the bird's cage above his head. To the thrush it was +only an imprisonment that grew worse as time went on. Each succeeding +day made him pine more bitterly for his native woods—for fresh air and +green leaves, and the rest and quiet, and sweet perfumes, and pleasant +sounds of country life. His turf dried up, his groundsel withered, and +no more could be got. He longed even to be back with the old woman—to +see the apple-tree, and the window-plants, and be still. The shudder of +the screw, the blasts of hot air from the engine and cook's galley, the +ceaseless jangling, clanging, pumping noises, and all the indescribable +smells which haunt a steam-ship, became more wearisome day by day. Even +when the cage was hung outside, the, sea breeze seemed to mock him with +its freshness. The rich blue of the waters gave him no pleasure, his +eyes failed with looking for green, the bitter, salt spray vexed him, +and the wind often chilled him to the bone, whilst the sun shone, and +icebergs gleamed upon the horizon. +</P> +<P>"The sailor had been so kind a master, that the thrush had become +deeply attached to him, as birds will; and while at the cottage he had +scarcely fretted after his beloved wood. But with every hour of the +voyage, home-sickness came more strongly upon him, and his heart went +back to the nest, and the pine-top, and the old home. When one sleeps +soundly, it is seldom that one remembers one's dreams; but when one is +apt to be roused by an unexpected lurch of the ship, by the moan of a +fog-whistle, or the scream of an engine, one becomes a light sleeper, +and the visions of the night have a strange reality, and are easily +recalled. And now the thrush always dreamt of home. +</P> +<P>"One day he was hung outside. It was not a very fine day, but he looked +drooping, and the pitying sailor brought him out, to get some air. His +heart was sore with home-sickness, and he watched the sea-birds +skimming up and down with envious eyes. It seemed all very well for +poor men, who hadn't so much as a wing to carry them over the water, to +build lumbering sea-nests, with bodies to float in the water like fish, +and wings of canvas to carry them along, and to help it out with noisy +steam-engines—and to endure it all. But for him, who could fly over a +hundred tree-tops before a man could climb to one, it was hard to swing +outside a ship, and to watch other birds use their wings, when his, +which quivered to fly homewards, could only flutter against the bars. +As he thought, a roll of the ship threw him forward, the wind shook the +wires of the cage, and loosened the fastening; and, when the vessel +righted, the cage-door swung slowly open. +</P> +<P>"At this moment, a ray of sunshine streaked the deep blue water, and a +gleaming sea bird, which had been sitting like a tuft of foam upon a +wave, rose with outstretched pinions, and soared away. It was too much. +With one shrill pipe of hope, the thrush fluttered from his cage, +spread his wings, and followed him. +</P> +<P>"When the sailor found that the wind was getting up, he came to take +the cage down, and then his grief was sore indeed. +</P> +<P>"'The canary died last voyage,' he said, sadly. 'The cage was bought on +a Friday, and I knew ill luck would come of it. I said so to Mother; +but the old lady says there's no such thing as luck, and she's +Bible-learned, if ever a woman was. "That's very true," says I, "but +if I'd the money for another cage, I wouldn't use this;" and I never +will again. Poor, bird! it was a sweet singer.' And he turned his face +aside. +</P> +<P>"'It may have the sense to come back,' said one of the crew. The sailor +scratched his head, and shook it sadly. +</P> +<P>"'Noah's bird came back to him, when she found no rest,' he said, 'but +I don't think mine will, Tom.' +</P> +<P>"He was right. The thrush returned no more. He did not know how wide +was the difference between his own strength and that of the bird he +followed. The sea-fowl cut the air with wings of tenfold power: he +swooped up and down, he stooped to fish, he rested on the ridges of the +dancing waves, and then, with one steady flight, he disappeared, and +the thrush was left alone. Other birds passed him, and flew about him, +and fished, and rocked upon the waters near him, but he held steadily +on. Ships passed him also, but too far away for him to rest upon; +whales spouted in the distance, and strange fowl screamed; but not a +familiar object broke the expanse of the cold sea. He did not know what +course he was taking. He hoped against hope that he was going home. +Although he was more faint and weary than he had ever yet been, he felt +no pain. The intensity of his hope to reach the old wood made +everything seem light; even at the last, when his wings were almost +powerless, he believed that they would bear him home, and was happy. +Already he seemed to rest upon the trees, the waters sounded in his +ears like the rustling of leaves, and the familiar scent of the +pine-tree seemed to him to come upon the breeze. +</P> +<P>"In this he was not wrong. A country of pine-woods was near; and land +was in sight, though too far away for him to reach it now. Not home, +but yet a land of wondrous summer beauty; of woods, and flowers, and +sun-flecked leaves—of sunshine more glowing than he had ever known—of larger ferns, and deeper mosses, and clearer skies—a +land, of balmy summer nights, where the stars shine brighter than with us, and +where fireflies appear and vanish, like stars of a lower firmament, amid the +trees. As the sun broke out, the scent of pines came strong upon the +land breeze. A strange land, but the thrush thought it was his own. +</P> +<P>"'I smell woods,' he chirped faintly; 'I see the sun. This is home!' +</P> +<P>"All round him, the noisy crests of the fresh waves seemed to carol the +song he could no longer sing—'Home, home! fresh water and green woods, +ambrosial sunshine and sun-flecked shade, chattering brooks and +rustling leaves, glade and sward and dell, lichens and cool mosses, +feathered ferns and flowers. Green leaves! green leaves! Summer! +summer! summer!' +</P> +<P>"The slackened wings dropped, the dying eyes looked landward, and then +closed. But even as he fell, he believed himself sinking to rest on +Mother Earth's kindly bosom, and he did not know it, when the cold +waves buried him at sea." +</P> +<P>"Oh, then, he <i>did</i> die!" cried the children, who, though they +were tired of stories that end happily, yet, when they heard it, liked +a sad ending no better than other children do (in which, by the bye, we +hold them to be in the right, and can hardly forgive ourselves for +chronicling this "ower true tale"). +</P> +<P>"Yes," said the old man, "he died; but it is said that the sweet +dingle which was his home—forsaken by the nightingale—is +regarded by birds as men regard a haunted house; for that at still summer +midnight, when other thrushes sleep, a shadowy form, more like a skeleton +leaf than a living bird, swings upon the tall tree-tops where he sat of old, +and, rapt in a happy ecstasy, sings a song more sweet and joyous than +thrush ever sang by day." +</P> +<P>"Have you heard it?" asked the children. +</P> +<P>The old man nodded. But not another word would he say. The children, +however, forthwith began to lay plans for getting into the wood some +mid-summer night, to test with their own ears the truth of his story, +and to hear the spectre thrush's song. Whether the authorities +permitted the expedition, and if not, whether the young people baffled +their vigilance—whether they heard the song, and if so, whether they +understood it—we are not empowered to tell here. +</P> +<HR> + + +<A NAME="christmascrackers"></A><H2>CHRISTMAS CRACKERS.<BR> +A FANTASIA.</H2> + +<P>It was Christmas-eve in an old-fashioned country-house, where Christmas +was being kept with old-fashioned form and custom. It was getting late. +The candles swaggered in their sockets, and the yule log glowed +steadily like a red-hot coal. +</P> +<P>"The fire has reached his heart," said the tutor: "he is warm all +through. How red he is! He shines with heat and hospitality like some +warm-hearted old gentleman when a convivial evening is pretty far +advanced. To-morrow he will be as cold and grey as the morning after a +festival, when the glasses are being washed up, and the host is +calculating his expenses. Yes! you know it is so;" and the tutor nodded +to the yule log as he spoke; and the log flared and crackled in return, +till the tutor's face shone like his own. He had no other means of +reply. +</P> +<P>The tutor was grotesque-looking at any time. He was lank and meagre, +with a long body and limbs, and high shoulders. His face was +smooth-shaven, and his skin like old parchment stretched over high +cheek-bones and lantern jaws; but in their hollow sockets his eyes +gleamed with the changeful lustre of two precious gems. In the ruddy +firelight they were like rubies, and when he drew back into the shade +they glared green like the eyes of a cat. It must not be inferred from +the tutor's presence this evening that there were no Christmas holidays +in this house. They had begun some days before; and if the tutor had +had a home to go to, it is to be presumed that he would have gone. +</P> +<P>As the candles got lower, and the log flared less often, weird lights +and shades, such as haunt the twilight, crept about the room. The +tutor's shadow, longer, lanker, and more grotesque than himself, mopped +and mowed upon the wall beside him. The snapdragon burnt blue, and as +the raisin-hunters stirred the flaming spirit, the ghastly light made +the tutor look so hideous that the widow's little boy was on the eve of +howling, and spilled the raisins he had just secured. (He did not like +putting his fingers into the flames, but he hovered near the more +adventurous school-boys and collected the raisins that were scattered +on the table by the hasty <i>grabs</i> of braver hands.) +</P> +<P>The widow was a relative of the house. She had married a Mr. Jones, and +having been during his life his devoted slave, had on his death +transferred her allegiance to his son. The late Mr. Jones was a small +man with a strong temper, a large appetite, and a taste for +drawing-room theatricals. So Mrs. Jones had called her son Macready; +"for," she said, "his poor papa would have made a fortune on the stage, +and I wish to commemorate his talents. Besides, Macready sounds better +with Jones than a commoner Christian name would do." +</P> +<P>But his cousins called him MacGreedy. +</P> +<P>"The apples of the enchanted garden were guarded by dragons. Many +knights went after them. One wished for the apples, but he did not like +to fight the dragons." +</P> +<P>It was the tutor who spoke from the dark corner by the fire-place. His +eyes shone like a cat's, and MacGreedy felt like a half-scared mouse, +and made up his mind to cry. He put his right fist into one eye, and +had just taken it out, and was about to put his left fist into the +other, when he saw that the tutor was no longer looking at him. So he +made up his mind to go on with the raisins, for one can have a peevish +cry at any time, but plums are not scattered broadcast every day. +Several times he had tried to pocket them, but just at the moment the +tutor was sure to look at him, and in his fright he dropped the +raisins, and never could find them again. So this time he resolved to +eat them then and there. He had just put one into his mouth when the +tutor leaned forward, and his eyes, glowing in the firelight, met +MacGreedy's, who had not even the presence of mind to shut his mouth, +but remained spellbound, with a raisin in his cheek. +</P> +<P>Flicker, flack! The school-boys stirred up snapdragon again, and with +the blue light upon his features the tutor made so horrible a grimace +that MacGreedy swallowed the raisin with a start. He had bolted it +whole, and it might have been a bread pill for any enjoyment he had of +the flavour. But the tutor laughed aloud. He certainly was an alarming +object, pulling those grimaces in the blue brandy glare; and +unpleasantly like a picture of Bogy himself with horns and a tail, in a +juvenile volume upstairs. True, there were no horns to speak of among +the tutor's grizzled curls, and his coat seemed to fit as well as most +people's on his long back, so that unless he put his tail in his +pocket, it is difficult to see how he could have had one. But then (as +Miss Letitia said) "With dress one can do anything and hide anything," +and on dress Miss Letitia's opinion was final. +</P> +<P>Miss Letitia was a cousin. She was dark, high-coloured, glossy-haired, +stout, and showy. She was as neat as a new pin, and had a will of her +own. Her hair was firmly fixed by bandoline, her garibaldis by an +arrangement which failed when applied to those of the widow, and her +opinions by the simple process of looking at everything from one point +of view. Her <i>forte</i> was dress and general ornamentation; not that +Miss Letitia was extravagant—far from it. If one may use the +expression, she utilized for ornament a hundred bits and scraps that +most people would have wasted. But, like other artists, she saw +everything through the medium of her own art. She looked at birds with +an eye to hats, and at flowers with reference to evening parties. At +picture exhibitions and concerts she carried away jacket patterns and +bonnets in her head, as other people make mental notes of an aerial +effect, or a bit of fine instrumentation. An enthusiastic +horticulturist once sent Miss Letitia a cut specimen of a new flower. +It was a lovely spray from a lately-imported shrub. A botanist would +have pressed it—an artist must have taken its portrait—a poet might have written a sonnet in praise of its beauty. Miss Letitia twisted a +piece of wire round its stem, and fastened it on to her black lace +bonnet. It came on the day of a review, when Miss Letitia had to appear +in a carriage, and it was quite a success. As she said to the widow, +"It was so natural that no one could doubt its being Parisian." +</P> +<P>"What a strange fellow that tutor is!" said the visitor. He spoke to +the daughter of the house, a girl with a face like a summer's day, and +hair like a ripe corn-field rippling in the sun. He was a fine young +man, and had a youth's taste for the sports and amusements of his age. +But lately he had changed. He seemed to himself to be living in a +higher, nobler atmosphere than hitherto. He had discovered that he was +poetical—he might prove to be a genius. He certainly was eloquent, he +could talk for hours, and did so—to the young lady with the sunshiny +face. They spoke on the highest subjects, and what a listener she was! +So intelligent and appreciative, and with such an exquisite <i>pose</i> +of the head—it must inspire a block of wood merely to see such a +creature in a listening attitude. As to our young friend, he poured +forth volumes; he was really clever, and for her he became eloquent. +To-night he spoke of Christmas, of time-honoured custom and old +association; and what he said would have made a Christmas article for a +magazine of the first class. He poured scorn on the cold nature that +could not, and the affectation that would not, appreciate the domestic +festivities of this sacred season. What, he asked, could be more +delightful, more perfect than such a gathering as this, of the +family circle round the Christmas hearth? He spoke with feeling, and it +may be said with disinterested feeling, for he had not joined his +family circle himself this Christmas, and there was a vacant place by +the hearth of his own home. +</P> +<P>"He is strange," said the young lady (she spoke of the tutor in answer +to the above remark); "but I am very fond of him. He has been with us +so long he is like one of the family; though we know as little of his +history as we did on the day he came." +</P> +<P>"He looks clever," said the visitor. (Perhaps that is the least one can +say for a fellow-creature who shows a great deal of bare skull, and is +not otherwise good-looking.) +</P> +<P>"He is clever," she answered, "wonderfully clever; so clever and so odd +that sometimes I fancy he is hardly 'canny.' There is something almost +supernatural about his acuteness and his ingenuity, but they are so +kindly used; I wonder he has not brought out any playthings for us +to-night." +</P> +<P>"Playthings?" inquired the young man. +</P> +<P>"Yes; on birthdays or festivals like this he generally brings something +out of those huge pockets of his. He has been all over the world, and +he produces Indian puzzles, Japanese flower-buds that bloom in hot +water, and German toys with complicated machinery, which I suspect him +of manufacturing himself. I call him Godpapa Grosselmayer, after that +delightful old fellow in Hoffman's tale of the Nut Cracker." +</P> +<P>"What's that about crackers?" inquired the tutor, sharply, his eyes +changing colour like a fire opal. +</P> +<P>"I am talking of <i>Nussnacker und Mausekönig</i>," laughed the young +lady. "Crackers do not belong to Christmas; fireworks come on the 5th +of November." +</P> +<P>"Tut, tut!" said the tutor; "I always tell your ladyship that you are +still a tom-boy at heart, as when I first came, and you climbed trees +and pelted myself and my young students with horse-chestnuts. You think +of crackers to explode at the heels of timorous old gentlemen in a +November fog; but I mean bonbon crackers, coloured crackers, dainty +crackers—crackers for young people with mottoes of sentiment" (here +the tutor shrugged his high shoulders an inch or two higher, and turned +the palms of his hands outwards with a glance indescribably +comical)—"crackers with paper prodigies, crackers with +sweetmeats—<i>such</i> sweetmeats!" He smacked his lips with a +grotesque contortion, and looked at Master McGreedy, who choked himself +with his last raisin, and forthwith burst into tears. +</P> +<P>The widow tried in vain to soothe him with caresses, but he only +stamped and howled the more. But Miss Letitia gave him some smart +smacks on the shoulders to cure his choking fit, and as she kept up the +treatment with vigour, the young gentleman was obliged to stop and +assure her that the raisin had "gone the right way" at last. "If he +were my child," Miss Letitia had been known to observe, with that +confidence which characterizes the theories of those who are not +parents, "I would, &c., &c., &c.;" in fact, Miss Letitia thought +she would have made a very different boy of him—as, indeed, I believe +she would. +</P> +<P>"Are crackers all that you have for us, sir?" asked one of the two +school-boys, as they hung over the tutor's chair. They were twins, +grand boys, with broad, good-humoured faces, and curly wigs, as like as +two puppy dogs of the same breed. They were only known apart by their +intimate friends, and were always together, romping, laughing, +snarling, squabbling, huffing and helping each other against the world. +Each of them owned a wiry terrier, and in their relations to each other +the two dogs (who were marvellously alike) closely followed the example +of their masters. +</P> +<P>"Do you not care for crackers, Jim?" asked the tutor. +</P> +<P>"Not much, sir. They do for girls: but, as you know, I care for nothing +but military matters. Do you remember that beautiful toy of yours—'The +Besieged City'? Ah! I liked that. Look out, Tom! you're shoving my arm. +Can't you stand straight, man?' +</P> +<P>"R-r-r-r—r-r, snap!" +</P> +<P>Tom's dog was resenting contact with Jim's dog on the hearthrug. There +was a hustle among the four, and then they subsided. +</P> +<P>"The Besieged City was all very well for you, Jim," said Tom, who meant +to be a sailor; "but please to remember that it admitted of no attack +from the sea; and what was there for me to do? Ah, sir! you are so +clever, I often think you could help me to make a swing with ladders +instead of single ropes, so that I could run up and down the rigging +whilst it was in full go." +</P> +<P>"That would be something like your fir-tree prank, Tom," said his +sister. "Can you believe," she added, turning to the visitor, "that Tom +lopped the branches of a tall young fir-tree all the way up, leaving +little bits for foothold, and then climbed up it one day in an awful +storm of wind, and clung on at the top, rocking backwards and forwards? +And when Papa sent word for him to come down, he said parental +authority was superseded at sea by the rules of the service. It was a +dreadful storm, and the tree snapped very soon after he got safe to the +ground." +</P> +<P>"Storm!" sneered Tom, "a capful of wind. Well, it did blow half a gale +at the last. But oh! it was glorious!" +</P> +<P>"Let us see what we can make of the crackers," said the tutor—and he +pulled some out of his pocket. They were put in a dish upon the table, +for the company to choose from; and the terriers jumped and snapped, +and tumbled over each other, for they thought that the plate contained +eatables. Animated by the same idea, but with quieter steps, Master +MacGreedy also approached the table. +</P> +<P>"The dogs are noisy," said the tutor, "too noisy. We must have +quiet—peace and quiet." His lean hand was once more in his pocket, and +he pulled out a box, from which he took some powder, which he scattered +on the burning log. A slight smoke now rose from the hot embers, and +floated into the room. Was the powder one of those strange compounds +that act upon the brain? Was it a magician's powder? Who knows? With it +came a sweet, subtle fragrance. It was strange—every one fancied he +had smelt it before, and all were absorbed in wondering what it was, +and where they had met with it. Even the dogs sat on their haunches +with their noses up, sniffing in a speculative manner. +</P> +<P>"It's not lavender," said the grandmother, slowly, "and it's not +rosemary. There is a something of tansy in it (and a very fine tonic +flavour too, my dears, though it's <i>not</i> in fashion now). Depend +upon it, it's a potpourri, and from an excellent receipt, sir"—and the +old lady bowed courteously towards the tutor. "My mother made the best +potpourri in the county, and it was very much like this. Not quite, +perhaps, but much the same, much the same." +</P> +<P>The grandmother was a fine old gentlewoman "of the old school," as the +phrase is. She was very stately and gracious in her manners, daintily +neat in her person, and much attached to the old parson of the parish, +who now sat near her chair. All her life she had been very proud of her +fine stock of fair linen, both household and personal; and for many +years past had kept her own graveclothes ready in a drawer. They were +bleached as white as snow, and lay amongst bags of dried lavender and +potpourri. Many times had it seemed likely that they would be needed, +for the old lady had had severe illnesses of late, when the good parson +sat by her bedside, and read to her of the coming of the Bridegroom, +and of that "fine linen clean and white," which is "the righteousness +of the saints." It was of that drawer, with its lavender and potpourri +bags, that the scented smoke had reminded her. +</P> +<P>"It has rather an overpowering odour," said the old parson; "it is +suggestive of incense. I am sure I once smelt something like it in the +Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. It is very delicious." +</P> +<P>The parson's long residence in his parish had been marked by one great +holiday. With the savings of many years he had performed a pilgrimage +to the Holy Land; and it was rather a joke against him that he +illustrated a large variety of subjects by reference to his favourite +topic, the holiday of his life. +</P> +<P>"It smells of gunpowder," said Jim, decidedly, "and something else. I +can't tell what." +</P> +<P>"Something one smells in a seaport town," said Tom. +</P> +<P>"Can't be very delicious then," Jim retorted. +</P> +<P>"It's not <i>quite</i> the same," piped the widow; "but it reminds me +very much of an old bottle of attar of roses that was given to me when +I was at school, with a copy of verses, by a young gentleman who was +brother to one of the pupils. I remember Mr. Jones was quite annoyed +when he found it in an old box, where I am sure I had not touched it +for ten years or more; and I never spoke to him but once, on +Examination Day (the young gentleman, I mean). And its like—yes it's +certainly like a hair-wash Mr. Jones used to use. I've forgotten what +it was called, but I know it cost fifteen shillings a bottle; and +Macready threw one over a few weeks before his dear papa's death, and +annoyed him extremely." +</P> +<P>Whilst the company were thus engaged, Master MacGreedy took advantage +of the general abstraction to secure half-a-dozen crackers to his own +share; he retired to a corner with them, where he meant to pick them +quietly to pieces by himself. He wanted the gay paper, and the motto, +and the sweetmeats; but he did not like the report of the cracker. And +then what he did want, he wanted all to himself. +</P> +<P>"Give us a cracker," said Master Jim, dreamily. +</P> +<P>The dogs, after a few dissatisfied snorts, had dropped from their +sitting posture, and were lying close together on the rug, dreaming and +uttering short commenting barks and whines at intervals. The twins were +now reposing lazily at the tutor's feet, and did not feel disposed to +exert themselves even so far as to fetch their own bonbons. +</P> +<P>"There's one," said the tutor, taking a fresh cracker from his pocket. +One end of it was of red and gold paper, the other of transparent green +stuff with silver lines. The boys pulled it. +</P> + +<HR> + +<P>The report was louder than Jim had expected. "The firing has begun," he +murmured, involuntarily; "steady, steady!" these last words were to his +horse, who seemed to be moving under him, not from fear, but from +impatience. What had been the red and gold paper of the cracker was now +the scarlet and gold lace of his own cavalry uniform. He knocked a +speck from his sleeve, and scanned the distant ridge, from which a thin +line of smoke floated solemnly away, with keen, impatient eyes. Were +they to stand inactive all the day? +</P> +<P>Presently the horse erects his head. His eyes sparkle—he pricks his +sensitive ears—his nostrils quiver with a strange delight. It is the +trumpet! Fan farr â! Fan farr â! The brazen voice speaks—the horses +move—the plumes wave—the helmets shine. On a summer's day they ride slowly, gracefully, calmly down a slope, to Death or Glory. Fan farr â! +Fan farr â! Fan farr â! +</P> +<P>Of all this Master Tom knew nothing. The report of the cracker seemed +to him only an echo in his brain of a sound that had been in his ears +for thirty-six weary hours. The noise of a heavy sea beating against +the ship's side in a gale. It was over now, and he was keeping the +midnight watch on deck, gazing upon the liquid green of the waves, +which, heaving and seething after storm, were lit with phosphoric +light, and as the ship held steadily on her course, poured past at the +rate of twelve knots an hour in a silvery stream. Faster than any ship +can sail his thoughts travelled home; and as old times came back to +him, he hardly knew whether what he looked at was the phosphor-lighted +sea, or green gelatine paper barred with silver. And did the tutor +speak? Or was it the voice of some sea-monster sounding in his ears? +</P> +<P>"The spirits of the storm have gone below to make their report. The +treasure gained from sunk vessels has been reckoned, and the sea is +illuminated in honour of the spoil." +</P> +<HR> + +<P>The visitor now took a cracker and held it to the young lady. Her end +was of white paper with a raised pattern; his of dark-blue gelatine +with gold stars. It snapped, the bonbon dropped between them, and the +young man got the motto. It was a very bald one— +</P> + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "My heart is thine.<BR> + Wilt thou be mine?" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>He was ashamed to show it to her. What could be more meagre? One could +write a hundred better couplets "standing on one leg," as the saying +is. He was trying to improvise just one for the occasion, when he +became aware that the blue sky over his head was dark with the shades +of night, and lighted with stars. A brook rippled near with a soothing +monotony. The evening wind sighed through the trees, and wafted the +fragrance of the sweet bay-leaved willow towards him, and blew a stray +lock of hair against his face. Yes! <i>She</i> also was there, walking +beside him, under the scented willow-bushes. Where, why, and whither he +did not ask to know. She was with him—with him; and he seemed to tread +on the summer air. He had no doubt as to the nature of his own feelings +for her, and here was such an opportunity for declaring them as might +never occur again. Surely now, if ever, he would be eloquent! Thoughts +of poetry clothed in words of fire must spring unbidden to his lips at +such a moment. And yet somehow he could not find a single word to say. +He beat his brains, but not an idea would come forth. Only that idiotic +cracker motto, which haunted him with its meagre couplet: +</P> + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "My heart is thine.<BR> + Wilt thou be mine?" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>Meanwhile they wandered on. The precious time was passing. He must at +least make a beginning. +</P> +<P>"What a fine night it is!" he observed. But, oh dear! that was a +thousand times balder and more meagre than the cracker motto; and not +another word could he find to say. At this moment the awkward silence +was broken by a voice from a neighbouring copse. It was a nightingale +singing to his mate. There was no lack of eloquence, and of melodious +eloquence, there. The song was as plaintive as old memories, and as +full of tenderness as the eyes of the young girl were full of tears. +They were standing still now, and with her graceful head bent she was +listening to the bird. He stooped his head near hers, and spoke with a +simple natural outburst almost involuntary. +</P> +<P>"Do you ever think of old times? Do you remember the old house, and the +fun we used to have? and the tutor whom you pelted with horse-chestnuts +when you were a little girl? And those cracker bonbons, and the motto +<i>we</i> drew— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'My heart is thine.<BR> + Wilt thou be mine?'" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>She smiled, and lifted her eyes ("blue as the sky, and bright as the +stars," he thought) to his, and answered "Yes." +</P> +<P>Then the bonbon motto was avenged, and there was silence. Eloquent, +perfect, complete, beautiful silence! Only the wind sighed through the +fragrant willows, the stream rippled, the stars shone, and in the +neighbouring copse the nightingale sang, and sang, and sang. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>When the white end of the cracker came into the young lady's hand, she +was full of admiration for the fine raised pattern. As she held it +between her fingers it suddenly struck her that she had discovered what +the tutor's fragrant smoke smelt like. It was like the scent of +orange-flowers, and had certainly a soporific effect upon the senses. +She felt very sleepy, and as she stroked the shiny surface of the +cracker she found herself thinking it was very soft for paper, and then +rousing herself with a start, and wondering at her own folly in +speaking thus of the white silk in which she was dressed, and of which +she was holding up the skirt between her finger and thumb, as if she +were dancing a minuet. +</P> +<P>"It's grandmamma's egg-shell brocade!" she cried. "Oh, Grandmamma! Have +you given it to me? That lovely old thing! But I thought it was the +family wedding-dress, and that I was not to have it till I was a +bride." +</P> +<P>"And so you are, my dear. And a fairer bride the sun never shone on," +sobbed the old lady, who was kissing and blessing her, and wishing her, +in the words of the old formula— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "Health to wear it, + Strength to tear it, + And money to buy another." +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>"There is no hope for the last two things, you know," said the young +girl; "for I am sure that the flag that braved a thousand years was not +half so strong as your brocade; and as to buying another, there are +none to be bought in these degenerate days." +</P> +<P>The old lady's reply was probably very gracious, for she liked to be +complimented on the virtues of old things in general, and of her +egg-shell brocade in particular. But of what she said her granddaughter +heard nothing. With the strange irregularity of dreams, she found +herself, she knew not how, in the old church. It was true. She was a +bride, standing there with old friends and old associations thick +around her, on the threshold of a new life. The sun shone through the +stained glass of the windows, and illuminated the brocade, whose +old-fashioned stiffness so became her childish beauty, and flung a +thousand new tints over her sunny hair, and drew so powerful a +fragrance from the orange-blossom with which it was twined, that it was +almost overpowering. Yes! It was too sweet—too strong. She certainly +would not be able to bear it much longer without losing her senses. And +the service was going on. A question had been asked of her, and she +must reply. She made a strong effort, and said "Yes," simply and very +earnestly, for it was what she meant. But she had no sooner said it +than she became uneasily conscious that she had not used the right +words. Some one laughed. It was the tutor, and his voice jarred and +disturbed the dream, as a stone troubles the surface of still water. +The vision trembled, and then broke, and the young lady found herself +still sitting by the table and fingering the cracker paper, whilst the +tutor chuckled and rubbed his hands by the fire, and his shadow +scrambled on the wall like an ape upon a tree. But her "Yes" had passed +into the young man's dream without disturbing it, and he dreamt on. +</P> +<P>It was a cracker like the preceding one that the grandmother and the +parson pulled together. The old lady had insisted upon it. The good +rector had shown a tendency to low spirits this evening, and a wish to +withdraw early. But the old lady did not approve of people "shirking" +(as boys say) either their duties or their pleasures; and to keep a +"merry Christmas" in a family circle that had been spared to meet in +health and happiness, seemed to her to be both the one and the other. +</P> +<P>It was his sermon for next day which weighed on the parson's mind. Not +that he was behindhand with that part of his duties. He was far too +methodical in his habits for that, and it had been written before the +bustle of Christmas week began. But after preaching Christmas sermons +from the same pulpit for thirty-five years, he felt keenly how +difficult it is to awaken due interest in subjects that are so +familiar, and to give new force to lessons so often repeated. So he +wanted a quiet hour in his own study before he went to rest, with the +sermon that did not satisfy him, and the subject that should be so +heart-stirring and ever-new,—the Story of Bethlehem. +</P> +<P>He consented, however, to pull one cracker with the grandmother, though +he feared the noise might startle her nerves, and said so. +</P> +<P>"Nerves were not invented in my young days," said the old lady, firmly; +and she took her part in the ensuing explosion without so much as a +wink. +</P> +<P>As the cracker snapped, it seemed to the parson as if the fragrant +smoke from the yule log were growing denser in the room. Through the +mist from time to time the face of the tutor loomed large, and then +disappeared. At last the clouds rolled away, and the parson breathed +clear air. Clear, yes, and how clear! This brilliant freshness, these +intense lights and shadows, this mildness and purity in the night air— +</P> +<P>"It is not England," he muttered, "it is the East. I have felt no air +like this since I breathed the air of Palestine." +</P> +<P>Over his head, through immeasurable distances, the dark blue space was +lighted by the great multitude of the stars, whose glittering ranks +have in that atmosphere a distinctness and a glory unseen with us. +Perhaps no scene of beauty in the visible creation has proved a more +hackneyed theme for the poet and the philosopher than a starry night. +But not all the superabundance of simile and moral illustration with +which the subject has been loaded can rob the beholder of the freshness +of its grandeur or the force of its teaching; that noblest and most +majestic vision of the handiwork of GOD on which the eye of man is here +permitted to rest. +</P> +<P>As the parson gazed he became conscious that he was not alone. Other +eyes besides his were watching the skies to-night. Dark, profound, +patient, Eastern eyes, used from the cradle to the grave to watch and +wait. The eyes of star-gazers and dream-interpreters; men who believed +the fate of empires to be written in shining characters on the face of +heaven, as the "Mene, Mene," was written in fire on the walls of the +Babylonian palace. The old parson was one of the many men of real +learning and wide reading who pursue their studies in the quiet country +parishes of England, and it was with the keen interest of intelligence +that he watched the group of figures that lay near him. +</P> +<P>"Is this a vision of the past?" he asked himself. "There can be no +doubt as to these men. They are star-gazers, magi, and, from their +dress and bearing, men of high rank; perhaps 'teachers of a higher +wisdom' in one of the purest philosophies of the old heathen world. +When one thinks," he pursued, "of the intense interest, the eager +excitement which the student of history finds in the narrative of the +past as unfolded in dusty records written by the hand of man, one may +realize how absorbing must have been that science which professed to +unveil the future, and to display to the eyes of the wise the fate of +dynasties written with the finger of GOD amid the stars." +</P> +<P>The dark-robed figures were so still that they might almost have been +carved in stone. The air seemed to grow purer and purer; the stars +shone brighter and brighter; suspended in ether the planets seemed to +hang like lamps. Now a shooting meteor passed athwart the sky, and +vanished behind the hill. But not for this did the watchers move; in +silence they watched on—till, on a sudden, how and whence the parson +knew not, across the shining ranks of that immeasurable host, whose +names and number are known to GOD alone, there passed in slow but +obvious motion one brilliant solitary star—a star of such surpassing +brightness that he involuntarily joined in the wild cry of joy and +greeting with which the Men of the East now prostrated themselves with +their faces to the earth. He could not understand the language in which, +with noisy clamour and gesticulation, they broke their former profound +and patient silence, and greeted the portent for which they had watched. +But he knew now that these were the Wise Men of the Epiphany, and that +this was the Star of Bethlehem. In his ears rang the energetic simplicity +of the Gospel narrative, "When they saw the Star, they rejoiced with +exceeding great joy." +</P> +<P>With exceeding great joy! Ah! happy magi, who (more blest than Balaam +the son of Beor) were faithful to the dim light vouchsafed to you; the +Gentile Church may well be proud of your memory. Ye travelled long and +far to bring royal offerings to the King of the Jews, with a faith not +found in Israel. Ye saw Him whom prophets and kings had desired to see, +and were glad. Wise men indeed, and wise with the highest wisdom, in +that ye suffered yourselves to be taught of GOD. +</P> +<P>Then the parson prayed that if this were indeed a dream he might dream +on; might pass, if only in a vision, over the hill, following the +footsteps of the magi, whilst the Star went before them, till he should +see it rest above that city, which, little indeed among the thousands +of Judah, was yet the birthplace of the Lord's Christ. +</P> +<P>"Ah!" he almost sobbed, "let me follow! On my knees let me follow into +the house and see the Holy Child. In the eyes of how many babies I have +seen mind and thought far beyond their powers of communication, every +mother knows. But if at times, with a sort of awe, one sees the +immortal soul shining through the prison-bars of helpless infancy, +what, oh! what must it be to behold the GOD-head veiled in flesh through +the face of a little child!" +</P> +<P>The parson stretched out his arms, but even with the passion of his +words the vision began to break. He dared not move for fear it should +utterly fade, and as he lay still and silent, the wise men roused their +followers, and, led by the Star, the train passed solemnly over the +distant hills. +</P> +<P>Then the clear night became clouded with fragrant vapour, and with a +sigh the parson awoke. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>When the cracker snapped and the white end was left in the grandmother's +hand, she was astonished to perceive (as she thought) that the white +lace veil which she had worn over her wedding bonnet was still in her +possession, and that she was turning it over in her fingers. "I fancied +I gave it to Jemima when her first baby was born," she muttered +dreamily. It was darned and yellow, but it carried her back all the same, +and recalled happy hours with wonderful vividness. She remembered the +post-chaise and the postillion. "He was such a pert little fellow, and +how we laughed at him! He must be either dead or a very shaky old man +by now," said the old lady. She seemed to smell the scent of meadow-sweet +that was so powerful in a lane through which they drove; and how clearly +she could see the clean little country inn where they spent the +honeymoon! She seemed to be there now, taking off her bonnet and shawl, +in the quaint clean chamber, with the heavy oak rafters, and the jasmine +coming in at the window, and glancing with pardonable pride at the fair +face reflected in the mirror. But as she laid her things on the +patchwork coverlet, it seemed to her that the lace veil became fine white +linen, and was folded about a figure that lay in the bed; and when she +looked round the room again everything was draped in white—white blinds hung before the windows, and even the old oak chest and the press were +covered with clean white cloths, after the decent custom of the country; +whilst from the church tower without the passing bell tolled slowly. She +had not seen the face of the corpse, and a strange anxiety came over her +to count the strokes of the bell, which tell if it is a man, woman, or +child who has passed away. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! No +more. It was a woman, and when she looked on the face of the dead she +saw her own. But even as she looked the fair linen of the grave-clothes +became the buoyant drapery of another figure, in whose face she found a +strange recognition of the lineaments of the dead with all the +loveliness of the bride. But ah! more, much more! On that face there was +a beauty not doomed to wither, before those happy eyes lay a future +unshadowed by the imperfections of earthly prospects, and the folds of +that robe were white as no fuller on earth can white them. The window +curtain parted, the jasmine flowers bowed their heads, the spirit passed +from the chamber of death, and the old lady's dream was ended. +</P> +<HR> + +<P>Miss Letitia had shared a cracker with the widow. The widow squeaked +when the cracker went off, and then insisted upon giving up the smart +paper and everything to Miss Letitia. She had always given up +everything to Mr. Jones, she did so now to Master MacGreedy, and was +quite unaccustomed to keep anything for her own share. She did not give +this explanation herself, but so it was. +</P> +<P>The cracker that thus fell into the hands of Miss Letitia was one of +those new-fashioned ones that have a paper pattern of some article of +dress wrapped up in them instead of a bonbon. This one was a paper +bonnet made in the latest <i>mode</i>—of green tissue-paper; and Miss +Letitia stuck it on the top of her chignon, with an air that the widow +envied from the bottom of her heart. She had not the gift of "carrying +off" her clothes. But to the tutor, on the contrary, it seemed to +afford the most extreme amusement; and as Miss Letitia bowed gracefully +hither and thither in the energy of her conversation with the widow, +the green paper fluttering with each emphasis, he fairly shook with +delight, his shadow dancing like a maniac beside him. He had scattered +some more powder on the coals, and it may have been that the smoke got +into her eyes, and confused her ideas of colour, but Miss Letitia was +struck with a fervid and otherwise unaccountable admiration for the +paper ends of the cracker, which were most unusually ugly. One was of a +sallowish salmon-colour, and transparent, the other was of brick-red +paper with a fringe. As Miss Letitia turned them over, she saw, to her +unspeakable delight, that there were several yards of each material, +and her peculiar genius instantly seized upon the fact that in the +present rage for double skirts there might be enough of the two kinds +to combine into a fashionable dress. +</P> +<P>It had never struck her before that a dirty salmon went well with +brick-red. "They blend so becomingly, my dear," she murmured; "and I +think the under-skirt will sit well, it is so stiff." +</P> +<P>The widow did not reply. The fumes of the tutor's compound made her +sleepy, and though she nodded to Miss Letitia's observations, it was +less from appreciation of their force, than from inability to hold up +her head. She was dreaming uneasy, horrible dreams, like nightmares; in +which from time to time there mingled expressions of doubt and +dissatisfaction which fell from Miss Letitia's lips. "Just half-a-yard +short—no gores—false hem," (and the melancholy reflection that) +"flounces take so much stuff." Then the tutor's face kept appearing and +vanishing with horrible grimaces through the mist. At last the widow +fell fairly asleep, and dreamed that she was married to the Blue Beard +of nursery annals, and that on his return from his memorable journey he +had caught her in the act of displaying the mysterious cupboard to Miss +Letitia. As he waved his scimitar over her head, he seemed +unaccountably to assume the form and features of the tutor. In her +agitation the poor woman could think of no plea against his severity, +except that the cupboard was already crammed with the corpses of his +previous wives, and there was no room for her. She was pleading this +argument when Miss Letitia's voice broke in upon her dream with +decisive accent: +</P> +<P>"There's enough for two bodies." +</P> +<P>The widow shrieked and awoke. +</P> +<P>"High and low," explained Miss Letitia. "My dear, what <i>are</i> you +screaming about?" +</P> +<P>"I am very sorry indeed," said the widow; "I beg your pardon, I'm sure, +a thousand times. But since Mr. Jones's death I have been so nervous, +and I had such a horrible dream. And, oh dear! oh dear!" she added, +"what is the matter with my precious child? Macready, love, come to +your mamma, my pretty lamb." +</P> +<P>Ugh! ugh! There were groans from the corner where Master MacGreedy sat +on his crackers as if they were eggs, and he hatching them. He had only +touched one, as yet, of the stock he had secured. He had picked it to +pieces, had avoided the snap, and had found a large comfit like an egg +with a rough shell inside. Every one knows that the goodies in crackers +are not of a very superior quality. There is a large amount of white +lead in the outside thinly disguised by a shabby flavour of sugar. But +that outside once disposed of, there lies an almond at the core. Now an +almond is a very delicious thing in itself, and doubly nice when it +takes the taste of white paint and chalk out of one's mouth. But in +spite of all the white lead and sugar and chalk through which he had +sucked his way, MacGreedy could not come to the almond. A dozen times +had he been on the point of spitting out the delusive sweetmeat; but +just as he thought of it he was sure to feel a bit of hard rough edge, +and thinking he had gained the kernel at last, he held valiantly on. It +only proved to be a rough bit of sugar, however, and still the +interminable coating melted copiously in his mouth; and still the +clean, fragrant almond evaded his hopes. At last with a groan he spat +the seemingly undiminished bonbon on to the floor, and turned as white +and trembling as an arrowroot blanc-mange. +</P> +<P>In obedience to the widow's entreaties the tutor opened a window, and +tried to carry MacGreedy to the air; but that young gentleman utterly +refused to allow the tutor to approach him, and was borne howling to +bed by his mamma. +</P> +<P>With the fresh air the fumes of the fragrant smoke dispersed, and the +company roused themselves. +</P> +<P>"Rather oppressive, eh?" said the master of the house, who had had his +dream too, with which we have no concern. +</P> +<P>The dogs had had theirs also, and had testified to the same in their +sleep by low growls and whines. Now they shook themselves, and rubbed +against each other, growling in a warlike manner through their teeth, +and wagging peaceably with their little stumpy tails. +</P> +<P>The twins shook themselves, and fell to squabbling as to whether they +had been to sleep or no; and, if either, which of them had given way to +that weakness. +</P> +<P>Miss Letitia took the paper bonnet from her head with a nervous laugh, +and after looking regretfully at the cracker papers put them in her +pocket. +</P> +<P>The parson went home through the frosty night. In the village street he +heard a boy's voice singing two lines of the Christian hymn— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "Trace we the Babe Who hath redeemed our loss<BR> + From the poor Manger to the bitter Cross;" +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>and his eyes filled with tears. +</P> +<P>The old lady went to bed and slept in peace. +</P> +<P>"In all the thirty-five years we have been privileged to hear you, +sir," she told the rector next day after service, "I never heard such a +Christmas sermon before." +</P> +<P>The visitor carefully preserved the blue paper and the cracker motto. +He came down early next morning to find the white half to put with +them. He did not find it, for the young lady had taken it the night +before. +</P> +<P>The tutor had been in the room before him, wandering round the scene of +the evening's festivities. +</P> +<P>The yule log lay black and cold upon the hearth, and the tutor nodded +to it. "I told you how it would be," he said; "but never mind, you +have had your day, and a merry one too." In the corner lay the heap of +crackers which Master MacGreedy had been too ill to remember when he +retired. The tutor pocketed them with a grim smile. +</P> +<P>As to the comfit, it was eaten by one of the dogs, who had come down +earliest of all. He swallowed it whole, so whether it contained an +almond or not, remains a mystery to the present time. +</P> +<HR> + + + +<A NAME="ameliaandthedwarfs"></A><H2>AMELIA AND THE DWARFS.</H2> + +<P>My godmother's grandmother knew a good deal about the fairies. +<i>Her</i> grandmother had seen a fairy rade on a Roodmas Eve, and she +herself could remember a copper vessel of a queer shape which had been +left by the elves on some occasion at an old farm-house among the +hills, The following story came from her, and where she got it I do not +know. She used to say it was a pleasant tale, with a good moral in the +inside of it. My godmother often observed that a tale without a moral +was like a nut without a kernel; not worth the cracking. (We called +fire-side stories "cracks" in our part of the country.) This is the +tale. +</P> + +<H3>AMELIA.</H3> + +<P>A couple of gentlefolk once lived in a certain part of England. (My +godmother never would tell the name either of the place or the people, +even if she knew it. She said one ought not to expose one's neighbours' +failings more than there was due occasion for.) They had an only child, +a daughter, whose name was Amelia. They were an easy-going, +good-humoured couple; "rather soft," my godmother said, but she was apt +to think anybody "soft" who came from the southern shires, as these +people did. Amelia, who had been born farther north, was by no means +so. She had a strong resolute will, and a clever head of her own, +though she was but a child. She had a way of her own too, and had it +very completely. Perhaps because she was an only child, or perhaps +because they were so easy-going, her parents spoiled her. She was, +beyond question, the most tiresome little girl in that or any other +neighbourhood. From her baby days her father and mother had taken every +opportunity of showing her to their friends, and there was not a friend +who did not dread the infliction. When the good lady visited her +acquaintances, she always took Amelia with her, and if the +acquaintances were fortunate enough to see from the windows who was +coming, they used to snatch up any delicate knick-knacks, or brittle +ornaments lying about, and put them away, crying, "What is to be done? +Here comes Amelia!" +</P> +<P>When Amelia came in, she would stand and survey the room, whilst her +mother saluted her acquaintance; and if anything struck her fancy, she +would interrupt the greetings to draw her mother's attention to it, +with a twitch of her shawl, "Oh, look, Mamma, at that funny bird in the +glass case!" or perhaps, "Mamma, Mamma! There's a new carpet since we +were here last;" for, as her mother said, she was "a very observing +child." +</P> +<P>Then she would wander round the room, examining and fingering +everything, and occasionally coming back with something in her hand to +tread on her mother's dress, and break in upon the ladies' conversation +with—"Mamma! Mamma! What's the good of keeping this old basin? It's +been broken and mended, and some of the pieces are quite loose now. I +can feel them:" or—addressing the lady of the house—"That's not +a real ottoman in the corner. It's a box covered with chintz. I know, for +I've looked." +</P> +<P>Then her mamma would say, reprovingly, "My <i>dear</i> Amelia!" +</P> +<P>And perhaps the lady of the house would beg, "Don't play with that old +china, my love; for though it is mended, it is very valuable;" and her +mother would add, "My dear Amelia, you must not." +</P> +<P>Sometimes the good lady said, "You <i>must</i> not." Sometimes she +tried—"You must <i>not</i>" When both these failed, and Amelia was +balancing the china bowl on her finger-ends, her mamma would get +flurried, and when Amelia flurried her, she always rolled her r's, and +emphasized her words, so that it sounded thus: +</P> +<P>"My dear-r-r-r-Ramelia! You must not." +</P> +<P>At which Amelia would not so much as look round, till perhaps the bowl +slipped from her fingers, and was smashed into unmendable fragments. +Then her mamma would exclaim, "Oh, dear-r-r-r, oh, dear-r-Ramelia" and +the lady of the house would try to look as if it did not matter, and +when Amelia and her mother departed, would pick up the bits, and pour +out her complaints to her lady friends, most of whom had suffered many +such damages at the hands of this "very observing child." +</P> +<P>When the good couple received their friends at home, there was no +escaping from Amelia. If it was a dinner-party, she came in with the +dessert, or perhaps sooner. She would take up her position near some +one, generally the person most deeply engaged in conversation, and +either lean heavily against him or her, or climb on to his or her knee, +without being invited. She would break in upon the most interesting +discussion with her own little childish affairs, in the following +style—"I've been out to-day. I walked to the town. I jumped across +three brooks. Can you jump? Papa gave me sixpence to-day. I am saving +up my money to be rich. You may cut me an orange; no, I'll take it to +Mr. Brown, he peels it with a spoon and turns the skin back. Mr. Brown! +Mr. Brown! Don't talk to Mamma, but peel me an orange, please. Mr. +Brown! I'm playing with your finger-glass." +</P> +<P>And when the finger-glass full of cold water had been upset on to Mr. +Brown's shirt-front, Amelia's mamma would cry—"Oh dear, oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and carry her off with the ladies to the drawing-room. +</P> +<P>Here she would scramble on to the ladies' knees, or trample out the +gathers of their dresses, and fidget with their ornaments, startling +some luckless lady by the announcement, "I've got your bracelet undone +at last!" who would find one of the divisions broken open by force, +Amelia not understanding the working of a clasp. +</P> +<P>Or perhaps two young lady friends would get into a quiet corner for a +chat. The observing child would sure to spy them, and run on to them, +crushing their flowers and ribbons, and crying—"You two want to talk +secrets, I know. I can hear what you say. I'm going to listen, I am. +And I shall tell, too;" when perhaps a knock at the door announced the +Nurse to take Miss Amelia to bed, and spread a general rapture of +relief. +</P> +<P>Then Amelia would run to trample and worry her mother, and after much +teasing, and clinging, and complaining, the Nurse would be dismissed, +and the fond mamma would turn to the lady next to her, and say with a +smile—"I suppose I must let her stay up a little. It is such a treat +to her, poor child!" +</P> +<P>But it was no treat to the visitors. +</P> +<P>Besides tormenting her fellow-creatures, Amelia had a trick of teasing +animals. She was really fond of dogs, but she was still fonder of doing +what she was wanted not to do, and of worrying everything and everybody +about her. So she used to tread on the tips of their tails, and pretend +to give them biscuit, and then hit them on the nose, besides pulling at +those few, long, sensitive hairs which thin-skinned dogs wear on the +upper lip. +</P> +<P>Now Amelia's mother's acquaintances were so very well-bred and amiable, +that they never spoke their minds to either the mother or the daughter +about what they endured from the latter's rudeness, wilfulness, and +powers of destruction. But this was not the case with the dogs, and +they expressed their sentiments by many a growl and snap. At last one +day Amelia was tormenting a snow-white bulldog (who was certainly as +well-bred and as amiable as any living creature in the kingdom), and +she did not see that even his patience was becoming worn out. His pink +nose became crimson with increased irritation, his upper lip twitched +over his teeth, behind which he was rolling as many warning R's as +Amelia's mother herself. She finally held out a bun towards him, and +just as he was about to take it, she snatched it away and kicked him +instead. This fairly exasperated the bulldog, and as Amelia would not +let him bite the bun, he bit Amelia's leg. +</P> +<P>Her mamma was so distressed that she fell into hysterics, and hardly +knew what she was saying. She said the bulldog must be shot for fear he +should go mad, and Amelia's wound must be done with a red-hot poker for +fear <i>she</i> should go mad (with hydrophobia). And as of course she +couldn't bear the pain of this, she must have chloroform, and she would +most probably die of that; for as one in several thousands dies +annually under chloroform, it was evident that her chance of life was +very small indeed. So, as the poor lady said, "Whether we shoot Amelia +and burn the bulldog—at least I mean shoot the bulldog and burn Amelia +with a red-hot poker—or leave it alone; and whether Amelia or the +bulldog has chloroform or bears it without—it seems to be death or +madness every way!" +</P> +<P>And as the doctor did not come fast enough, she ran out without her +bonnet to meet him, and Amelia's papa, who was very much distressed +too, ran after her with her bonnet. Meanwhile the doctor came in by +another way, and found Amelia sitting on the dining-room floor with the +bulldog, and crying bitterly. She was telling him that they wanted to +shoot him, but that they should not, for it was all her fault and not +his. But she did not tell him that she was to be burnt with a red-hot +poker, for she thought it might hurt his feelings. And then she wept +afresh, and kissed the bulldog, and the bulldog kissed her with his red +tongue, and rubbed his pink nose against her, and beat his own tail +much harder on the floor than Amelia had ever hit it. She said the same +things to the doctor, but she told him also that she was willing to be +burnt without chloroform if it must be done, and if they would spare +the bulldog. And though she looked very white, she meant what she said. +</P> +<P>But the doctor looked at her leg, and found that it was only a snap, +and not a deep wound; and then he looked at the bulldog, and saw that +so far from looking mad, he looked a great deal more sensible than +anybody in the house. So he only washed Amelia's leg and bound it up, +and she was not burnt with the poker, neither did she get hydrophobia; +but she had got a good lesson on manners, and thenceforward she always +behaved with the utmost propriety to animals, though she tormented her +mother's friends as much as ever. +</P> +<P>Now although Amelia's mamma's acquaintances were too polite to complain +before her face, they made up for it by what they said behind her back. +In allusion to the poor lady's ineffectual remonstrances, one gentleman +said that the more mischief Amelia did, the dearer she seemed to grow +to her mother. And somebody else replied that however dear she might be +as a daughter, she was certainly a very <i>dear</i> friend, and +proposed that they should send in a bill for all the damages she had +done in the course of the year, as a round robin to her parents at +Christmas. From which it may be seen that Amelia was not popular with +her parents' friends, as (to do grown-up people justice) good children +almost invariably are. +</P> +<P>If she was not a favourite in the drawing-room, she was still less so +in the nursery, where, besides all the hardships naturally belonging to +attendance on a spoilt child, the poor Nurse was kept, as she said, "on +the continual go" by Amelia's reckless destruction of her clothes. It +was not fair wear and tear, it was not an occasional fall in the mire, +or an accidental rent or two during a game at "Hunt the Hare," but it +was constant wilful destruction, which Nurse had to repair as best she +might. No entreaties would induce Amelia to "take care" of anything. +She walked obstinately on the muddy side of the road when Nurse pointed +out the clean parts, kicking up the dirt with her feet; if she climbed +a wall she never tried to free her dress if it had caught; on she +rushed, and half a skirt might be left behind for any care she had in +the matter. "They must be mended," or "They must be washed," was all +she thought about it. +</P> +<P>"You seem to think things clean and mend themselves, Miss Amelia," said +poor Nurse one day. +</P> +<P>"No, I don't," said Amelia, rudely. "I think you do them; what are you +here for?" +</P> +<P>But though she spoke in this insolent and unlady-like fashion, Amelia +really did not realize what the tasks were which her carelessness +imposed on other people. When every hour of Nurse's day had been spent +in struggling to keep her wilful young lady regularly fed, decently +dressed, and moderately well behaved (except, indeed, those hours when +her mother was fighting the same battle down-stairs); and when at last, +after the hardest struggle of all, she had been got to bed not more +than two hours later than her appointed time, even then there was no +rest for Nurse. Amelia's mamma could at last lean back in her chair and +have a quiet chat with her husband, which was not broken in upon every +two minutes, and Amelia herself was asleep; but Nurse must sit up for +hours wearing out her eyes by the light of a tallow candle, in +fine-darning great, jagged, and most unnecessary holes in Amelia's +muslin dresses. Or perhaps she had to wash and iron clothes for +Amelia's wear next day. For sometimes she was so very destructive, that +towards the end of the week she had used up all her clothes and had no +clean ones to fall back upon. +</P> +<P>Amelia's meals were another source of trouble. She would not wear a +pinafore; if it had been put on, she would burst the strings, and +perhaps in throwing it away knock her plate of mutton broth over the +tablecloth and her own dress. Then she fancied first one thing and then +another; she did not like this or that; she wanted a bit cut here or +there. Her mamma used to begin by saying, "My dear-r-Ramelia, you must +not be so wasteful," and she used to end by saying, "The dear child has +positively no appetite;" which seemed to be a good reason for not +wasting any more food upon her; but with Amelia's mamma it only meant +that she might try a little cutlet and tomato sauce when she had half +finished her roast beef, and that most of the cutlet and all the mashed +potato might be exchanged for plum tart and custard; and that when she +had spooned up the custard and played with the paste, and put the plum +stones on the tablecloth, she might be tempted with a little Stilton +cheese and celery, and exchange that for anything that caught her fancy +in the dessert dishes. +</P> +<P>The Nurse used to say, "Many a poor child would thank GOD for what you +waste every meal-time, Miss Amelia," and to quote a certain good old +saying, "Waste not, want not." But Amelia's mamma allowed her to send +away on her plates what would have fed another child, day after day. +</P> + +<H3>UNDER THE HAYCOCKS.</H3> + +<P>It was summer, and haytime. Amelia had been constantly in the hayfield, +and the haymakers had constantly wished that she had been anywhere +else. She mislaid the rakes, nearly killed herself and several other +persons with a fork, and overturned one haycock after another as fast +as they were made. At tea-time it was hoped that she would depart, but +she teased her mamma to have the tea brought into the field, and her +mamma said, "The poor child must have a treat sometimes," and so it was +brought out. +</P> +<P>After this she fell off the haycart, and was a good deal shaken, but +not hurt. So she was taken indoors, and the haymakers worked hard and +cleared the field, all but a few cocks which were left till the +morning. +</P> +<P>The sun set, the dew fell, the moon rose. It was a lovely night. Amelia +peeped from behind the blinds of the drawing-room windows, and saw four +haycocks, each with a deep shadow reposing at its side. The rest of the +field was swept clean, and looked pale in the moonshine. It was a +lovely night. +</P> +<P>"I want to go out," said Amelia. "They will take away those cocks +before I can get at them in the morning, and there will be no more +jumping and tumbling, I shall go out and have some fun now." +</P> +<P>"My dear Amelia, you must not," said her mamma; and her papa added, "I +won't hear of it." So Amelia went up-stairs to grumble to Nurse; but +Nurse only said, "Now, my dear Miss Amelia, do go quietly to bed, like +a dear love. The field is all wet with dew. Besides, it's a moonlight +night, and who knows what's abroad? You might see the fairies—bless us +and sain us!—and what not. There's been a magpie hopping up and +down near the house all day, and that's a sign of ill-luck." +</P> +<P>"I don't care for magpies," said Amelia; "I threw a stone at that one +to-day." +</P> +<P>And she left the nursery, and swung down-stairs on the rail of the +banisters. But she did not go into the drawing-room; she opened the +front door and went out into the moonshine. +</P> +<P>It was a lovely night. But there was something strange about it. +Everything looked asleep, and yet seemed not only awake but watching. +There was not a sound, and yet the air seemed full of half-sounds. The +child was quite alone, and yet at every step she fancied some one +behind her, on one side of her, somewhere, and found it only a rustling +leaf or a passing shadow. She was soon in the hayfield, where it was +just the same; so that when she fancied that something green was moving +near the first haycock she thought very little of it, till, coming +closer, she plainly perceived by the moonlight a tiny man dressed in +green, with a tall, pointed hat, and very, very long tips to his shoes, +tying his shoestring with his foot on a stubble stalk. He had the most +wizened of faces, and when he got angry with his shoe, he pulled so wry +a grimace that it was quite laughable. At last he stood up, stepping +carefully over the stubble, went up to the first haycock, and drawing +out a hollow grass stalk blew upon it till his cheeks were puffed like +footballs. And yet there was no sound, only a half-sound, as of a horn +blown in the far distance, or in a dream. Presently the point of a tall +hat, and finally just such another little wizened face, poked out +through the side of the haycock. +</P> +<P>"Can we hold revel here to-night?" asked the little green man. +</P> +<P>"That indeed you cannot," answered the other; "we have hardly room to +turn round as it is, with all Amelia's dirty frocks." +</P> +<P>"Ah, bah!" said the dwarf; and he walked on to the next haycock, Amelia +cautiously following. +</P> +<P>Here he blew again, and a head was put out as before; on which he said, +</P> +<P>"Can we hold revel here to-night?" +</P> +<P>"How is it possible," was the reply, "when there is not a place where +one can so much as set down an acorn cup, for Amelia's broken +victuals?" +</P> +<P>"Fie! fie!" said the dwarf, and went on to the third, where all +happened as before; and he asked the old question, +</P> +<P>"Can we hold revel here to-night?" +</P> +<P>"Can you dance on glass and crockery sherds?" inquired the other. +"Amelia's broken gimcracks are everywhere." +</P> +<P>"Pshaw!" snorted the dwarf, frowning terribly; and when he came to the +fourth haycock he blew such an angry blast that the grass stalk split +into seven pieces. But he met with no better success than before. Only +the point of a hat came through the hay, and a feeble voice piped in +tones of depression—"The broken threads would entangle our feet. It's +all Amelia's fault. If we could only get hold of her!" +</P> +<P>"If she's wise, she'll keep as far from these haycocks as she can," +snarled the dwarf, angrily; and he shook his fist as much as to say, +"If she did come, I should not receive her very pleasantly." +</P> +<P>Now with Amelia, to hear that she had better not do something, was to +make her wish at once to do it; and as she was not at all wanting in +courage, she pulled the dwarf's little cloak, just as she would have +twitched her mother's shawl, and said (with that sort of snarly whine +in which spoilt children generally speak)—"Why shouldn't I come to the +haycocks if I want to? They belong to my papa, and I shall come if I +like. But you have no business here." +</P> +<P>"Nightshade and hemlock!" ejaculated the little man, "you are not +lacking in impudence. Perhaps your Sauciness is not quite aware how +things are distributed in this world?" saying which he lifted his +pointed shoes and began to dance and sing, +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "All under the sun belongs to men,<BR> + And all under the moon to the fairies.<BR> + So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho!<BR> + All under the moon to the fairies."<BR> +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>As he sang "Ho, ho, ho!" the little man turned head over heels; and +though by this time Amelia would gladly have got away, she could not, +for the dwarf seemed to dance and tumble round her, and always to cut +off the chance of escape; whilst numberless voices from all around +seemed to join in the chorus, with +</P> + +<BLOCKQUOTE> + "So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho! + All under the moon to the fairies." +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>"And now," said the little man, "to work! And you have plenty of work +before you, so trip on, to the first haycock." +</P> +<P>"I shan't!" said Amelia. +</P> +<P>"On with you!" repeated the dwarf. +</P> +<P>"I won't!" said Amelia. +</P> +<P>But the little man, who was behind her, pinched her funny-bone with his +lean fingers, and, as everybody knows, that is agony; so Amelia ran on, +and tried to get away. But when she went too fast, the dwarf trod on +her heels with his long-pointed shoe, and if she did not go fast +enough, he pinched her funny-bone. So for once in her life she was +obliged to do as she was told. As they ran, tall hats and wizened faces +were popped out on all sides of the haycocks, like blanched almonds on +a tipsy cake; and whenever the dwarf pinched Amelia, or trod on her +heels, the goblins cried "Ho, ho, ho!" with such horrible contortions +as they laughed, that it was hideous to behold them. +</P> +<P>"Here is Amelia!" shouted the dwarf when they reached the first +haycock. +</P> +<P>"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed all the others, as they poked out here and there +from the hay. +</P> +<P>"Bring a stock," said the dwarf; on which the hay was lifted, and out +ran six or seven dwarfs, carrying what seemed to Amelia to be a little +girl like herself. And when she looked closer, to her horror and +surprise the figure was exactly like her—it was her own face, clothes, +and everything. +</P> +<P>"Shall we kick it into the house?" asked the goblins. +</P> +<P>"No," said the dwarf; "lay it down by the haycock. The father and +mother are coming to seek her now." +</P> +<P>When Amelia heard this she began to shriek for help; but she was pushed +into the haycock, where her loudest cries sounded like the chirruping +of a grasshopper. +</P> +<P>It was really a fine sight to see the inside of the cock. +</P> +<P>Farmers do not like to see flowers in a hayfield, but the fairies do. +They had arranged all the buttercups, &c., in patterns on the haywalls; +bunches of meadow-sweet swung from the roof like censers, and perfumed +the air; and the ox-eye daisies which formed the ceiling gave a light +like stars. But Amelia cared for none of this. She only struggled to +peep through the hay, and she did see her father and mother and nurse +come down the lawn, followed by the other servants, looking for her. +When they saw the stock they ran to raise it with exclamations of pity +and surprise. The stock moaned faintly, and Amelia's mamma wept, and +Amelia herself shouted with all her might. +</P> +<P>"What's that?" said her mamma. (It is not easy to deceive a mother.) +</P> +<P>"Only the grasshoppers, my dear," said Papa. "Let us get the poor child +home." +</P> +<P>The stock moaned again, and the mother said, "Oh dear! oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and followed in tears. +</P> +<P>"Rub her eyes," said the dwarf; on which Amelia's eyes were rubbed with +some ointment, and when she took a last peep, she could see that the +stock was nothing but a hairy imp, with a face like the oldest and most +grotesque of apes. +</P> +<P>"—and send her below," added the dwarf. On which the field opened, and +Amelia was pushed underground. +</P> +<P>She found herself on a sort of open heath, where no houses were to be +seen. Of course there was no moonshine, and yet it was neither daylight +nor dark. There was as the light of early dawn, and every sound was at +once clear and dreamy, like the first sounds of the day coming through +the fresh air before sunrise. Beautiful flowers crept over the heath, +whose tints were constantly changing in the subdued light; and as the +hues changed and blended, the flowers gave forth different perfumes. +All would have been charming but that at every few paces the paths were +blocked by large clothes-baskets full of dirty frocks, And the frocks +were Amelia's. Torn, draggled, wet, covered with sand, mud, and dirt of +all kinds, Amelia recognized them. +</P> +<P>"You've got to wash them all," said the dwarf, who was behind her as +usual; "that's what you've come down for—not because your society is +particularly pleasant. So the sooner you begin the better." +</P> +<P>"I can't," said Amelia (she had already learnt that "I won't" is not an +answer for every one); "send them up to Nurse, and she'll do them. It +is her business." +</P> +<P>"What Nurse can do she has done, and now it's time for you to begin," +said the dwarf. "Sooner or later the mischief done by spoilt children's +wilful disobedience comes back on their own hands. Up to a certain +point we help them, for we love children, and we are wilful ourselves. +But there are limits to everything. If you can't wash your dirty +frocks, it is time you learnt to do so, if only that you may know what +the trouble is you impose on other people. <i>She</i> will teach you." +</P> +<P>The dwarf kicked out his foot in front of him, and pointed with his +long toe to a woman who sat by a fire made upon the heath, where a pot +was suspended from crossed poles. It was like a bit of a gipsy +encampment, and the woman seemed to be a real woman, not a fairy—which +was the case, as Amelia afterwards found. She had lived underground for +many years, and was the dwarfs' servant. +</P> +<P>And this was how it came about that Amelia had to wash her dirty +frocks. Let any little girl try to wash one of her dresses; not to half +wash it, not to leave it stained with dirty water, but to wash it quite +clean. Let her then try to starch and iron it—in short, to make it +look as if it had come from the laundress—and she will have some idea +of what poor Amelia had to learn to do. There was no help for it. When +she was working she very seldom saw the dwarfs; but if she were idle or +stubborn, or had any hopes of getting away, one was sure to start up at +her elbow and pinch her funny-bone, or poke her in the ribs, till she +did her best. Her back ached with stooping over the wash-tub; her hands +and arms grew wrinkled with soaking in hot soapsuds, and sore with +rubbing. Whatever she did not know how to do, the woman of the heath +taught her. At first, whilst Amelia was sulky, the woman of the heath +was sharp and cross; but when Amelia became willing and obedient, she +was good-natured, and even helped her. +</P> +<P>The first time that Amelia felt hungry she asked for some food. +</P> +<P>"By all means," said one of the dwarfs; "there is plenty down here +which belongs to you;" and he led her away till they came to a place +like the first, except that it was covered with plates of broken meats; +all the bits of good meat, pie, pudding, bread-and-butter, &c., that +Amelia had wasted beforetime. +</P> +<P>"I can't eat cold scraps like these," said Amelia, turning away. +</P> +<P>"Then what did you ask for food for before you were hungry?" screamed +the dwarf, and he pinched her and sent her about her business. +</P> +<P>After a while she became so famished that she was glad to beg humbly to +be allowed to go for food; and she ate a cold chop and the remains of a +rice pudding with thankfulness. How delicious they tasted! She was +surprised herself at the good things she had rejected. After a time she +fancied she would like to warm up some of the cold meat in a pan, which +the woman of the heath used to cook her own dinner in, and she asked +for leave to do so. +</P> +<P>"You may do anything you like to make yourself comfortable, if you do +it yourself," said she; and Amelia, who had been watching her for many +times, became quite expert in cooking up the scraps. +</P> +<P>As there was no real daylight underground, so also there was no night. +When the old woman was tired she lay down and had a nap, and when she +thought that Amelia had earned a rest, she allowed her to do the same. +It was never cold, and it never rained, so they slept on the heath +among the flowers. +</P> +<P>They say that "It's a long lane that has no turning," and the hardest +tasks come to an end some time, and Amelia's dresses were clean at +last; but then a more wearisome work was before her. They had to be +mended. Amelia looked at the jagged rents made by the hedges; the great +gaping holes in front where she had put her foot through; the torn +tucks and gathers. First she wept, then she bitterly regretted that she +had so often refused to do her sewing at home that she was very awkward +with her needle. Whether she ever would have got through this task +alone is doubtful, but she had by this time become so well-behaved and +willing that the old woman was kind to her, and, pitying her blundering +attempts, she helped her a great deal; whilst Amelia would cook the old +woman's victuals, or repeat stories and pieces of poetry to amuse her. +</P> +<P>"How glad I am that I ever learnt anything!" thought the poor child: +"everything one learns seems to come in useful some time." +</P> +<P>At last the dresses were finished. +</P> +<P>"Do you think I shall be allowed to go home now?" Amelia asked of the +woman of the heath. +</P> +<P>"Not yet," said she; "you have got to mend the broken gimcracks next." +</P> +<P>"But when I have done all my tasks," Amelia said; "will they let me go +then?" +</P> +<P>"That depends," said the woman, and she sat silent over the fire; but +Amelia wept so bitterly, that she pitied her and said—"Only dry your +eyes, for the fairies hate tears, and I will tell you all I know and do +the best for you I can. You see, when you first came you were—excuse +me!—such an unlicked cub; such a peevish, selfish, wilful, useless, +and ill-mannered little miss, that neither the fairies nor anybody else +were likely to keep you any longer than necessary. But now you are such +a willing, handy, and civil little thing, and so pretty and graceful +withal, that I think it is very likely that they will want to keep you +altogether. I think you had better make up your mind to it. They are +kindly little folk, and will make a pet of you in the end." +</P> +<P>"Oh, no! no!" moaned poor Amelia; "I want to be with my mother, my poor +dear mother! I want to make up for being a bad child so long. Besides, +surely that 'stock,' as they called her, will want to come back to her +own people." +</P> +<P>"As to that," said the woman, "after a time the stock will affect +mortal illness, and will then take possession of the first black cat +she sees, and in that shape leave the house, and come home. But the +figure that is like you will remain lifeless in the bed, and will be +duly buried. Then your people, believing you to be dead, will never +look for you, and you will always remain here. However, as this +distresses you so, I will give you some advice. Can you dance?" +</P> +<P>"Yes," said Amelia; "I did attend pretty well to my dancing lessons. I +was considered rather clever about it." +</P> +<P>"At any spare moments you find," continued the woman, "dance, dance all +your dances, and as well as you can. The dwarfs love dancing." +</P> +<P>"And then?" said Amelia. +</P> +<P>"Then, perhaps some night they will take you up to dance with them in +the meadows above-ground." +</P> +<P>"But I could not get away. They would tread on my heels—oh! I could +never escape them." +</P> +<P>"I know that," said the woman; "your only chance is this. If ever, when +dancing in the meadows, you can find a four-leaved clover, hold it in +your hand, and wish to be at home. Then no one can stop you. Meanwhile +I advise you to seem happy, that they may think you are content, and +have forgotten the world. And dance, above all, dance!" +</P> +<P>And Amelia, not to be behindhand, began then and there to dance some +pretty figures on the heath. As she was dancing the dwarf came by. +</P> +<P>"Ho, ho!" said he, "you can dance, can you?" +</P> +<P>"When I am happy I can," said Amelia, performing several graceful +movements as she spoke. +</P> +<P>"What are you pleased about now?" snapped the dwarf, suspiciously. +</P> +<P>"Have I not reason?" said Amelia. "The dresses are washed and mended." +</P> +<P>"Then up with them!" returned the dwarf. On which half-a-dozen elves +popped the whole lot into a big basket and kicked them up into the +world, where they found their way to the right wardrobes somehow. +</P> +<P>As the woman of the heath had said, Amelia was soon set to a new task. +When she bade the old woman farewell, she asked if she could do nothing +for her if ever she got at liberty herself. +</P> +<P>"Can I do nothing to get you back to your old home?" Amelia cried, for +she thought of others now as well as herself. +</P> +<P>"No, thank you," returned the old woman; "I am used to this, and do not +care to return. I have been here a long time—how long I do not know; +for as there is neither daylight nor dark we have no measure of +time—long, I am sure, very long. The light and noise up yonder would +now be too much for me. But I wish you well, and, above all, remember +to dance!" +</P> +<P>The new scene of Amelia's labours was a more rocky part of the heath, +where grey granite boulders served for seats and tables, and sometimes +for workshops and anvils, as in one place, where a grotesque and grimy +old dwarf sat forging rivets to mend china and glass. A fire in a +hollow of the boulder served for a forge, and on the flatter part was +his anvil. The rocks were covered in all directions with the +knick-knacks, ornaments, &c., that Amelia had at various times +destroyed. +</P> +<P>"If you please, sir," she said to the dwarf, "I am Amelia." +</P> +<P>The dwarf left off blowing at his forge and looked at her. +</P> +<P>"Then I wonder you're not ashamed of yourself," said he. +</P> +<P>"I am ashamed of myself," said poor Amelia, "very much ashamed. I +should like to mend these things if I can." +</P> +<P>"Well, you can't say more than that," said the dwarf, in a mollified +tone, for he was a kindly little creature; "bring that china bowl here, +and I'll show you how to set to work." +</P> +<P>Poor Amelia did not get on very fast, but she tried her best. As to the +dwarf, it was truly wonderful to see how he worked. Things seemed to +mend themselves at his touch, and he was so proud of his skill, and so +particular, that he generally did over again the things which Amelia +had done after her fashion. The first time he gave her a few minutes in +which to rest and amuse herself, she held out her little skirt, and +began one of her prettiest dances. +</P> +<P>"Rivets and trivets!" shrieked the little man, "how you dance! It is +charming! I say it is charming! On with you! Fa, la fa! La, fa la! It +gives me the fidgets in my shoe-points to see you!" and forthwith down +he jumped, and began capering about. +</P> +<P>"I am a good dancer myself," said the little man. "Do you know the +'Hop, Skip, and a Jump' dance?" +</P> +<P>"I do not think I do," said Amelia. +</P> +<P>"It is much admired," said the dwarf, "when I dance it;" and he +thereupon tucked up the little leathern apron in which he worked, and +performed some curious antics on one leg. +</P> +<P>"That is the Hop," he observed, pausing for a moment. "The Skip is +thus. You throw out your left leg as high and as far as you can, and as +you drop on the toe of your left foot you fling out the right leg in +the same manner, and so on. This is the Jump," with which he turned a +somersault and disappeared from view. When Amelia next saw him he was +sitting cross-legged on his boulder. +</P> +<P>"Good, wasn't it?" he said. +</P> +<P>"Wonderful!" Amelia replied. +</P> +<P>"Now it's your turn again," said the dwarf. +</P> +<P>But Amelia cunningly replied—"I'm afraid I must go on with my work." +</P> +<P>"Pshaw!" said the little tinker. "Give me your work. I can do more in a +minute than you in a month, and better to boot. Now dance again." +</P> +<P>"Do you know this?" said Amelia, and she danced a few paces of a polka +mazurka. +</P> +<P>"Admirable!" cried the little man. "Stay"—and he drew an old violin +from behind the rock; "now dance again, and mark the time well, so that +I may catch the measure, and then I will accompany you." +</P> +<P>Which accordingly he did, improvising a very spirited tune, which had, +however, the peculiar subdued and weird effect of all the other sounds +in this strange region. +</P> +<P>"The fiddle came from up yonder," said the little man. "It was smashed +to atoms in the world and thrown away. But, ho, ho, ho! there is +nothing that I cannot mend, and a mended fiddle is an amended fiddle. +It improves the tone. Now teach me that dance, and I will patch up all +the rest of the gimcracks. Is it a bargain?" +</P> +<P>"By all means," said Amelia; and she began to explain the dance to the +best of her ability. +</P> +<P>"Charming, charming!" cried the dwarf. "We have no such dance +ourselves. We only dance hand in hand, and round and round, when we +dance together. Now I will learn the step, and then I will put my arm +round your waist and dance with you." +</P> +<P>Amelia looked at the dwarf. He was very smutty, and old, and wizened. +Truly, a queer partner! But "handsome is that handsome does;" and he +had done her a good turn. So when he had learnt the step, he put his +arm round Amelia's waist, and they danced together. His shoe-points +were very much in the way, but otherwise he danced very well. +</P> +<P>Then he set to work on the broken ornaments, and they were all very +soon "as good as new." But they were not kicked up into the world, for, +as the dwarfs said, they would be sure to break on the road. So they +kept them and used them; and I fear that no benefit came from the +little tinker's skill to Amelia's mamma's acquaintance in this matter. +</P> +<P>"Have I any other tasks?" Amelia inquired. +</P> +<P>"One more," said the dwarfs; and she was led farther on to a smooth +mossy green, thickly covered with what looked like bits of broken +thread. One would think it had been a milliner's work-room from the +first invention of needles and thread. +</P> +<P>"What are these?" Amelia asked. +</P> +<P>"They are the broken threads of all the conversations you have +interrupted," was the reply; "and pretty dangerous work it is to dance +here now, with threads getting round one's shoe-points. Dance a +hornpipe in a herring-net, and you'll know what it is!" +</P> +<P>Amelia began to pick up the threads, but it was tedious work. She had +cleared a yard or two, and her back was aching terribly, when she heard +the fiddle and the mazurka behind her; and looking round she saw the +old dwarf, who was playing away, and making the most hideous grimaces +as his chin pressed the violin. +</P> +<P>"Dance, my lady, dance!" he shouted. +</P> +<P>"I do not think I can," said Amelia; "I am so weary with stooping over +my work." +</P> +<P>"Then rest a few minutes," he answered, "and I will play you a jig. A +jig is a beautiful dance, such life, such spirit! So!" +</P> +<P>And he played faster and faster, his arm, his face, his fiddle-bow all +seemed working together; and as he played, the threads danced +themselves into three heaps. +</P> +<P>"That is not bad, is it?" said the dwarf; "and now for our own dance," +and he played the mazurka. "Get the measure well into your head. Lâ, la +f[(a] lâ! Lâ, la f[(a] lâ! So!" +</P> +<P>And throwing away his fiddle, he caught Amelia round the waist, and +they danced as before. After which, she had no difficulty in putting +the three heaps of thread into a basket. +</P> +<P>"Where are these to be kicked to?" asked the young goblins. +</P> +<P>"To the four winds of heaven," said the old dwarf. "There are very few +drawing-room conversations worth putting together a second time. They +are not like old china bowls." +</P> + +<H3>BY MOONLIGHT.</H3> + +<P>Thus Amelia's tasks were ended; but not a word was said of her return +home. The dwarfs were now very kind, and made so much of her that it +was evident that they meant her to remain with them. Amelia often +cooked for them, and she danced and played with them, and never showed +a sign of discontent; but her heart ached for home, and when she was +alone she would bury her face in the flowers and cry for her mother. +</P> +<P>One day she overheard the dwarfs in consultation. +</P> +<P>"The moon is full to-morrow," said one—("Then I have been a month down +here," thought Amelia; "it was full moon that night")—"shall we dance +in the Mary Meads?" +</P> +<P>"By all means," said the old tinker dwarf; "and we will take Amelia, +and dance my dance." +</P> +<P>"Is it safe?" said another. +</P> +<P>"Look how content she is," said the old dwarf; "and, oh! how she +dances; my feet tickle at the bare thought." +</P> +<P>"The ordinary run of mortals do not see us," continued the objector; +"but she is visible to any one. And there are men and women who wander +in the moonlight, and the Mary Meads are near her old home." +</P> +<P>"I will make her a hat of touchwood," said the old dwarf, "so that even +if she is seen it will look like a will-o'-the-wisp bobbing up and +down. If she does not come, I will not. I must dance my dance. You do +not know what it is! We two alone move together with a grace which even +here is remarkable. But when I think that up yonder we shall have +attendant shadows echoing our movements, I long for the moment to +arrive." +</P> +<P>"So be it," said the others; and Amelia wore the touchwood hat, and +went up with them to the Mary Meads. +</P> +<P>Amelia and the dwarf danced the mazurka, and their shadows, now as +short as themselves, then long and gigantic, danced beside them. As the +moon went down, and the shadows lengthened, the dwarf was in raptures. +</P> +<P>"When one sees how colossal one's very shadow is," he remarked, "one +knows one's true worth. You also have a good shadow. We are partners in +the dance, and I think we will be partners for life. But I have not +fully considered the matter, so this is not to be regarded as a formal +proposal." And he continued to dance, singing, "Lâ, la, fa´, +lâ, lâ, la, fa´, lâ." It was highly admired. +</P> +<P>The Mary Meads lay a little below the house where Amelia's parents +lived, and once during the night her father, who was watching by the +sick bed of the stock, looked out of the window. +</P> +<P>"How lovely the moonlight is!" he murmured; "but, dear me! there is a +will-o'-the-wisp yonder. I had no idea the Mary Meads were so damp." +Then he pulled the blind down and went back into the room. +</P> +<P>As for poor Amelia, she found no four-leaved clover, and at cockcrow +they all went underground. +</P> +<P>"We will dance on Hunch Hill to-morrow," said the dwarfs. +</P> +<P>All went as before; not a clover plant of any kind did Amelia see, and +at cockcrow the revel broke up. +</P> +<P>On the following night they danced in the hayfield. The old stubble was +now almost hidden by green clover. There was a grand fairy dance—a +round dance, which does not mean, as with us, a dance for two partners, +but a dance where all join hands and dance round and round in a circle +with appropriate antics. Round they went, faster and faster, the +pointed shoes now meeting in the centre like the spokes of a wheel, now +kicked out behind like spikes, and then scamper, caper, hurry! They +seemed to fly, when suddenly the ring broke at one corner, and nothing +being stronger than its weakest point, the whole circle were sent +flying over the field. +</P> +<P>"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the dwarfs, for they are good-humoured little +folk, and do not mind a tumble. +</P> +<P>"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Amelia, for she had fallen with her fingers on a +four-leaved clover. +</P> +<P>She put it behind her back, for the old tinker dwarf was coming up to +her, wiping the mud from his face with his leathern apron. +</P> +<P>"Now for our dance!" he shrieked. "And I have made up my mind—partners +now and partners always. You are incomparable. For three hundred years +I have not met with your equal." +</P> +<P>But Amelia held the four-leaved clover above her head, and cried from +her very heart—"I want to go home!" +</P> +<P>The dwarf gave a hideous yell of disappointment, and at this instant +the stock came tumbling head over heels into the midst, crying—"Oh! +the pills, the powders, and the draughts! oh, the lotions and +embrocations! oh, the blisters, the poultices, and the plasters! men +may well be so short-lived!" +</P> +<P>And Amelia found herself in bed in her own home. +</P> + +<H3>AT HOME AGAIN.</H3> + +<P>By the side of Amelia's bed stood a little table, on which were so many +big bottles of medicine, that Amelia smiled to think of all the stock +must have had to swallow during the month past. There was an open Bible +on it too, in which Amelia's mother was reading, whilst tears trickled +slowly down her pale cheeks. The poor lady looked so thin and ill, so +worn with sorrow and watching, that Amelia's heart smote her, as if +some one had given her a sharp blow. +</P> +<P>"Mamma, Mamma! Mother, my dear, dear Mother!" +</P> +<P>The tender, humble, loving tone of voice was so unlike Amelia's old +imperious snarl, that her mother hardly recognized it; and when she saw +Amelia's eyes full of intelligence instead of the delirium of fever, +and that (though older and thinner and rather pale) she looked +wonderfully well, the poor worn-out lady could hardly restrain herself +from falling into hysterics for very joy. +</P> +<P>"Dear Mamma, I want to tell you all about it," said Amelia, kissing the +kind hand that stroked her brow. +</P> +<P>But it appeared that the doctor had forbidden conversation; and though +Amelia knew it would do her no harm, she yielded to her mother's wish +and lay still and silent. +</P> +<P>"Now, my love, it is time to take your medicine." +</P> +<P>But Amelia pleaded—"Oh, Mamma, indeed I don't want any medicine. I am +quite well, and would like to get up." +</P> +<P>"Ah, my dear child!" cried her mother, "what I have suffered in +inducing you to take your medicine, and yet see what good it has done +you." +</P> +<P>"I hope you will never suffer any more from my wilfulness," said +Amelia; and she swallowed two tablespoonfuls of a mixture labelled "To +be well shaken before taken," without even a wry face. +</P> +<P>Presently the doctor came. +</P> +<P>"You're not so very angry at the sight of me to-day, my little lady, +eh?" he said. +</P> +<P>"I have not seen you for a long time," said Amelia; "but I know you +have been here, attending a stock who looked like me. If your eyes had +been touched with fairy ointment, however, you would have been aware +that it was a fairy imp, and a very ugly one, covered with hair. I have +been living in terror lest it should go back underground in the shape +of a black cat. However, thanks to the four-leaved clover, and the old +woman of the heath, I am at home again." +</P> +<P>On hearing this rhodomontade, Amelia's mother burst into tears, for she +thought the poor child was still raving with fever. But the doctor +smiled pleasantly, and said—"Ay, ay, to be sure," with a little nod, +as one should say, "We know all about it;" and laid two fingers in a +casual manner on Amelia's wrist. +</P> +<P>"But she is wonderfully better, madam," he said afterwards to her +mamma; "the brain has been severely tried, but she is marvellously +improved: in fact, it is an effort of nature, a most favourable effort, +and we can but assist the rally; we will change the medicine." Which he +did, and very wisely assisted nature with a bottle of pure water +flavoured with tincture of roses. +</P> +<P>"And it was so very kind of him to give me his directions in poetry," +said Amelia's mamma; "for I told him my memory, which is never good, +seemed going completely, from anxiety, and if I had done anything wrong +just now, I should never have forgiven myself. And I always found +poetry easier to remember than prose,"—which puzzled everybody, the +doctor included, till it appeared that she had ingeniously discovered a +rhyme in his orders— +</P> +<BLOCKQUOTE> + 'To be kept cool and quiet,<BR> + With light nourishing diet.' +</BLOCKQUOTE> + +<P>Under which treatment Amelia was soon pronounced to be well. +</P> +<P>She made another attempt to relate her adventures, but she found that +not even Nurse would believe in them. +</P> +<P>"Why you told me yourself I might meet with the fairies," said Amelia, +reproachfully. +</P> +<P>"So I did, my dear," Nurse replied, "and they say that it's that put it +into your head. And I'm sure what you say about the dwarfs and all is +as good as a printed book, though you can't think that ever I would +have let any dirty clothes store up like that, let alone your frocks, +my dear. But for pity's sake, Miss Amelia, don't go on about it to your +mother, for she thinks you'll never get your senses right again, and +she has fretted enough about you, poor lady; and nursed you night and +day till she is nigh worn out. And anybody can see you've been ill, +Miss, you've grown so, and look paler and older like. Well, to be sure, +as you say, if you'd been washing and working for a month in a place +without a bit of sun, or a bed to lie on, and scraps to eat, it would +be enough to do it; and many's the poor child that has to, and gets +worn and old before her time. But, my dear, whatever you think, give in +to your mother; you'll never repent giving in to your mother, my dear, +the longest day you live." +</P> +<P>So Amelia kept her own counsel. But she had one confidant. +</P> +<P>When her parents brought the stock home on the night of Amelia's visit +to the haycocks, the bulldog's conduct had been most strange. His usual +good-humour appeared to have been exchanged for incomprehensible fury, +and he was with difficulty prevented from flying at the stock, who on +her part showed an anger and dislike fully equal to his. +</P> +<P>Finally the bulldog had been confined to the stable, where he remained +the whole month, uttering from time to time such howls, with his snub +nose in the air, that poor Nurse quite gave up hope of Amelia's +recovery. +</P> +<P>"For indeed, my dear, they do say that a howling dog is a sign of +death, and it was more than I could abear." +</P> +<P>But the day after Amelia's return, as Nurse was leaving the room with a +tray which had carried some of the light nourishing diet ordered by the +doctor, she was knocked down, tray and all, by the bulldog, who came +tearing into the room, dragging a chain and dirty rope after him, and +nearly choked by the desperate efforts which had finally effected his +escape from the stable. And he jumped straight on to the end of +Amelia's bed, where he lay, <i>thudding</i> with his tail, and giving +short whines of ecstasy. And as Amelia begged that he might be left, +and as it was evident that he would bite any one who tried to take him +away, he became established as chief nurse. When Amelia's meals were +brought to the bedside on a tray, he kept a fixed eye on the plates, as +if to see if her appetite were improving. And he would even take a +snack himself, with an air of great affability. +</P> +<P>And when Amelia told him her story, she could see by his eyes, and his +nose, and his ears, and his tail, and the way he growled whenever the +stock was mentioned, that he knew all about it. As, on the other hand, +he had no difficulty in conveying to her by sympathetic whines the +sentiment, "Of course I would have helped you if I could; but they tied +me up, and this disgusting old rope has taken me a month to worry +through." +</P> +<P>So, in spite of the past, Amelia grew up good and gentle, unselfish and +considerate for others. She was unusually clever, as those who have +been with the "Little People" are said always to be. +</P> +<P>And she became so popular with her mother's acquaintances that they +said—"We will no longer call her Amelia, for it is a name we learnt to +dislike, but we will call her Amy, that is to say, 'Beloved.'" +</P> +<HR> + +<P>"And did my godmother's grandmother believe that Amelia had really been +with the fairies, or did she think it was all fever ravings?" + +"That, indeed, she never said, but she always observed that it was a +pleasant tale with a good moral, which was surely enough for anybody." +</P> + +<H2>THE END.</H2> + +<P> +<i>Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay.</i> +</P> +<HR> + +<P>[Transcriber's Note: The following statement was in the edition from which +this copy was acquired.] +</P> +<P><i>The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized, +complete, and uniform Edition published.</i> +</P> + +<P><i>It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol., +issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will +appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series +will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was +specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing.</i> +</P> +<P><i>The following is a list of the books included in +the Series</i>— +</P> + +<OL> +<LI>MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES.</LI> + +<LI>MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES.</LI> + +<LI>OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY-TALES.</LI> + +<LI>A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING.</LI> + +<LI>THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES.</LI> + +<LI>SIX TO SIXTEEN.</LI> + +<LI>LOB-LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES.</LI> + +<LI>JAN OF THE WINDMILL.</LI> + +<LI>VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS.</LI> + +<LI>THE PEACE EGG—A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY—HINTS FOR PRIVATE THEATRICALS, &c.</LI> + +<LI>A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES.</LI> + +<LI>BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN.</LI> + +<LI>WE AND THE WORLD, Part I.</LI> + +<LI>WE AND THE WORLD, Part II.</LI> + +<LI>JACKANAPES—DADDY DARWIN'S DOVECOTE—THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE.</LI> + +<LI>MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS.</LI> + +<LI>MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand—Wonder +Stories—Tales of the Khoja, and other translations.</LI> + +<LI>JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection from Mrs. +Ewing's Letters.</LI> +</OL> + +<HR> + +<CENTER><P>S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C.</P></CENTER> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brownies and Other Tales +by Juliana Horatia Ewing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 16052-h.htm or 16052-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16052/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. 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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: The Brownies and Other Tales + +Author: Juliana Horatia Ewing + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16052] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. Stokes and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE BROWNIES + +AND OTHER TALES. + +BY + +JULIANA HORATIA EWING. + + +LONDON: + +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, + +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + +[Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.] + + +DEDICATED + +TO + +MY VERY DEAR AND HONOURED MOTHER. + +J.H.E. + +1871. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +THE BROWNIES + +THE LAND OF LOST TOYS + +THREE CHRISTMAS TREES + +AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD + +CHRISTMAS CRACKERS + +AMELIA AND THE DWARFS + + + + +THE BROWNIES. + + +A little girl sat sewing and crying on a garden seat. She had fair +floating hair, which the breeze blew into her eyes, and between the +cloud of hair, and the mist of tears, she could not see her work very +clearly. She neither tied up her locks, nor dried her eyes, however; +for when one is miserable, one may as well be completely so. + +"What is the matter?" said the Doctor, who was a friend of the +Rector's, and came into the garden whenever he pleased. + +The Doctor was a tall stout man, with hair as black as crow's feathers +on the top, and grey underneath, and a bushy beard. When young, he had +been slim and handsome, with wonderful eyes, which were wonderful +still; but that was many years past. He had a great love for children, +and this one was a particular friend of his. + +"What is the matter?" said he. + +"I'm in a row," murmured the young lady through her veil; and the +needle went in damp, and came out with a jerk, which is apt to result +in what ladies called "puckering." + +"You are like London in a yellow fog," said the Doctor, throwing +himself on to the grass, "and it is very depressing to my feelings. +What is the row about, and how came you to get into it?" + +"We're all in it," was the reply; and apparently the fog was +thickening, for the voice grew less and less distinct--"the boys and +everybody. It's all about forgetting, and not putting away, and leaving +about, and borrowing, and breaking, and that sort of thing. I've had +Father's new pocket-handkerchiefs to hem, and I've been out climbing +with the boys, and kept forgetting and forgetting, and Mother says I +always forget; and I can't help it. I forget to tidy his newspapers for +him, and I forget to feed Puss, and I forgot these; besides, they're a +great bore, and Mother gave them to Nurse to do, and this one was lost, +and we found it this morning tossing about in the toy-cupboard." + +"It looks as if it had been taking violent exercise," said the Doctor. +"But what have the boys to do with it?" + +"Why, then there was a regular turn out of the toys," she explained, +"and they're all in a regular mess. You know, we always go on till the +last minute, and then things get crammed in anyhow. Mary and I did tidy +them once or twice; but the boys never put anything away, you know, so +what's the good?" + +"What, indeed!" said the Doctor. "And so you have complained of them?" + +"Oh! no!" answered she. "We don't get them into rows, unless they are +very provoking; but some of the things were theirs, so everybody was +sent for, and I was sent out to finish this, and they are all tidying. +I don't know when it will be done, for I have all this side to hem; and +the soldiers' box is broken, and Noah is lost out of the Noah's Ark, +and so is one of the elephants and a guinea-pig, and so is the +rocking-horse's nose; and nobody knows what has become of Rutlandshire +and the Wash, but they're so small, I don't wonder; only North America +and Europe are gone too." + +The Doctor started up in affected horror. "Europe gone, did you say? +Bless me! what will become of us!" + +"Don't!" said the young lady, kicking petulantly with her dangling +feet, and trying not to laugh. "You know I mean the puzzles; and if +they were yours, you wouldn't like it." + +"I don't half like it as it is," said the Doctor. "I am seriously +alarmed. An earthquake is one thing; you have a good shaking, and +settle down again. But Europe gone--lost--Why, here comes Deordie, I +declare, looking much more cheerful than we do; let us humbly hope that +Europe has been found. At present I feel like Aladdin when his palace +had been transported by the magician; I don't know where I am." + +"You're here, Doctor; aren't you?" asked the slow curly-wigged brother, +squatting himself on the grass. + +"_Is_ Europe found?" said the Doctor tragically. + +"Yes," laughed Deordie. "I found it." + +"You will be a great man," said the Doctor. "And--it is only common +charity to ask--how about North America?" + +"Found too," said Deordie. "But the Wash is completely lost." + +"And my six shirts in it!" said the Doctor. "I sent them last Saturday +as ever was. What a world we live in! Any more news? Poor Tiny here has +been crying her eyes out." + +"I'm so sorry, Tiny," said the brother. "But don't bother about it. +It's all square now, and we're going to have a new shelf put up." + +"Have you found everything?" asked Tiny. + +"Well, not the Wash, you know. And the elephant and the guinea-pig are +gone for good; so the other elephant and the other guinea-pig must walk +together as a pair now. Noah was among the soldiers, and we have put +the cavalry into a night-light box. Europe and North America were +behind the book-case; and, would you believe it? the rocking-horse's +nose has turned up in the nursery oven." + +"I can't believe it," said the Doctor. "The rocking-horse's nose +couldn't turn up, it was the purest Grecian, modelled from the Elgin +marbles. Perhaps it was the heat that did it, though. However, you seem +to have got through your troubles very well, Master Deordie. I wish +poor Tiny were at the end of her task." + +"So do I," said Deordie ruefully. "But I tell you what I've been +thinking, Doctor. Nurse is always nagging at us, and we're always in +rows of one sort or another, for doing this, and not doing that, and +leaving our things about. But, you know, it's a horrid shame, for there +are plenty of servants, and I don't see why we should be always +bothering to do little things, and--" + +"Oh! come to the point, please," said the Doctor; "you do go round the +square so, in telling your stories, Deordie. What have you been +thinking of?" + +"Well," said Deordie, who was as good-tempered as he was slow, "the +other day Nurse shut me up in the back nursery for borrowing her +scissors and losing them; but I'd got 'Grimm' inside one of my +knickerbockers, so when she locked the door, I sat down to read. And I +read the story of the Shoemaker and the little Elves who came and did +his work for him before he got up; and I thought it would be so jolly +if we had some little Elves to do things instead of us." + +"That's what Tommy Trout said," observed the Doctor. + +"Who's Tommy Trout?" asked Deordie. + +"Don't you know, Deor?" said Tiny. "It's the good boy who pulled the +cat out of the what's-his-name. + + 'Who pulled her out? + Little Tommy Trout.' + +Is it the same Tommy Trout, Doctor? I never heard anything else about +him except his pulling the cat out; and I can't think how he did that." + +"Let down the bucket for her, of course," said the Doctor. "But listen +to me. If you will get that handkerchief done, and take it to your +mother with a kiss, and not keep me waiting, I'll have you all to tea, +and tell you the story of Tommy Trout." + +"This very night?" shouted Deordie. + +"This very night." + +"Every one of us?" inquired the young gentleman with rapturous +incredulity. + +"Every one of you.--Now, Tiny, how about that work?" + +"It's just done," said Tiny.--"Oh! Deordie, climb up behind, and hold +back my hair, there's a darling, while I fasten off. Oh! Deor, you're +pulling my hair out. Don't." + +"I want to make a pig-tail," said Deor. + +"You can't," said Tiny, with feminine contempt. "You can't plait. +What's the good of asking boys to do anything? There! it's done at +last. Now go and ask Mother if we may go.--Will you let me come, +Doctor," she inquired, "if I do as you said?" + +"To be sure I will," he answered. "Let me look at you. Your eyes are +swollen with crying. How can you be such a silly little goose?" + +"Did you never cry?" asked Tiny. + +"When I was your age? Well, perhaps so." + +"You've never cried since, surely," said Tiny. + +The Doctor absolutely blushed. + +"What do you think?" said he. + +"Oh, of course not," she answered. "You've nothing to cry about. You're +grown up, and you live all alone in a beautiful house, and you do as +you like, and never get into rows, or have anybody but yourself to +think about; and no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem." + +"Very nice; eh, Deordie?" said the Doctor. + +"Awfully jolly," said Deordie. + +"Nothing else to wish for, eh?" + +"_I_ should keep harriers, and not a poodle, if I were a man," said +Deordie; "but I suppose you could, if you wanted to." + +"Nothing to cry about, at any rate?" + +"I should think not!" said Deordie.--"There's Mother, though; let's go +and ask her about the tea;" and off they ran. + +The Doctor stretched his six feet of length upon the sward, dropped his +grey head on a little heap of newly-mown grass, and looked up into the +sky. + +"Awfully jolly--no nasty pocket-handkerchiefs to hem," said he, +laughing to himself. "Nothing else to wish for; nothing to cry about." + +Nevertheless, he lay still, staring at the sky, till the smile died +away, and tears came into his eyes. Fortunately, no one was there to +see. + +What could this "awfully jolly" Doctor be thinking of to make him cry? +He was thinking of a grave-stone in the churchyard close by, and of a +story connected with this grave-stone which was known to everybody in +the place who was old enough to remember it. This story has nothing to +do with the present story, so it ought not to be told. + +And yet it has to do with the Doctor, and is very +short, so it shall be put in, after all. + + +THE STORY OF A GRAVE-STONE. + +One early spring morning, about twenty years before, a man going to his +work at sunrise through the churchyard, stopped by a flat stone which +he had lately helped to lay down. The day before, a name had been cut +on it, which he stayed to read; and below the name some one had +scrawled a few words in pencil, which he read also--_Pitifully behold +the sorrows of our hearts_. On the stone lay a pencil, and a few feet +from it lay the Doctor, face downwards, as he had lain all night, with +the hoar frost on his black hair. + +Ah! these grave-stones (they were ugly things in those days; not the +light, hopeful, pretty crosses we set up now), how they seem +remorselessly to imprison and keep our dear dead friends away from us! +And yet they do not lie with a feather's weight upon the souls that are +gone, while GOD only knows how heavily they press upon the souls that +are left behind. Did the spirit whose body was with the dead, stand +that morning by the body whose spirit was with the dead, and pity him? +Let us only talk about what we know. + +After this it was said that the Doctor had got a fever, and was dying, +but he got better of it; and then that he was out of his mind, but he +got better of that, and came out looking much as usual, except that his +hair never seemed quite so black again, as if a little of that night's +hoar frost still remained. And no further misfortune happened to him +that I ever heard of; and as time went on he grew a beard, and got +stout, and kept a German poodle, and gave tea-parties to other people's +children. As to the grave-stone story, whatever it was to him at the +end of twenty years, it was a great convenience to his friends; for +when he said anything they didn't agree with, or did anything they +couldn't understand, or didn't say or do what was expected of him, what +could be easier or more conclusive than to shake one's head and say, + +"The fact is, our Doctor has been a little odd, _ever since_--!" + + +THE DOCTOR'S TEA-PARTY. + +There is one great advantage attendant upon invitations to tea with a +doctor. No objections can be raised on the score of health. It is +obvious that it must be fine enough to go out when the Doctor asks you, +and that his tea-cakes may be eaten with perfect impunity. + +Those tea-cakes were always good; to-night they were utterly delicious; +there was a perfect _abandon_ of currants, and the amount of citron +peel was enervating to behold. Then the housekeeper waited in awful +splendour, and yet the Doctor's authority over her seemed as absolute +as if he were an Eastern despot. Deordie must be excused for believing +in the charms of living alone. It certainly has its advantages. The +limited sphere of duty conduces to discipline in the household, demand +does not exceed supply in the article of waiting, and there is not that +general scrimmage of conflicting interests which besets a large family +in the most favoured circumstances. The housekeeper waits in black silk, +and looks as if she had no meaner occupation than to sit in a +rocking-chair, and dream of damson cheese. + +Rustling, hospitable, and subservient, this one retired at last, and-- + +"Now," said the Doctor, "for the verandah; and to look at the moon." + +The company adjourned with a rush, the rear being brought up by the +poodle, who seemed quite used to the proceedings; and there under the +verandah, framed with passion-flowers and geraniums, the Doctor had +gathered mats, rugs, cushions, and arm-chairs, for the party; while far +up in the sky, a yellow-faced harvest moon looked down in awful +benignity. + +"Now!" said the Doctor. "Take your seats. Ladies first, and gentlemen +afterwards. Mary and Tiny, race for the American rocking-chair. Well +done! Of course it will hold both. Now, boys, shake down. No one is to +sit on the stone, or put his feet on the grass: and when you're ready, +I'll begin." + +"We're ready," said the girls. + +The boys shook down in a few minutes more, and the Doctor began the +story of + + +"THE BROWNIES." + +"Bairns are a burden," said the Tailor to himself as he sat at work. He +lived in a village on some of the glorious moors of the north of +England; and by bairns he meant children, as every Northman knows. + +"Bairns are a burden," and he sighed. + +"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady in the window. "It is the +family motto. The Trouts have had large families and good luck for +generations; that is, till your grandfather's time. He had one only +son. I married him. He was a good husband, but he had been a spoilt +child. He had always been used to be waited upon, and he couldn't fash +to look after the farm when it was his own. We had six children. They +are all dead but you, who were the youngest. You were bound to a +tailor. When the farm came into your hands, your wife died, and you +have never looked up since. The land is sold now, but not the house. +No! no! you're right enough there; but you've had your troubles, son +Thomas, and the lads _are_ idle!" + +It was the Tailor's mother who spoke. She was a very old woman, and +helpless. She was not quite so bright in her intellect as she had been, +and got muddled over things that had lately happened; but she had a +clear memory for what was long past, and was very pertinacious in her +opinions. She knew the private history of almost every family in the +place, and who of the Trouts were buried under which old stones in the +churchyard; and had more tales of ghosts, doubles, warnings, fairies, +witches, hobgoblins, and such like, than even her grandchildren had +ever come to the end of. Her hands trembled with age, and she regretted +this for nothing more than for the danger it brought her into of +spilling the salt. She was past housework, but all day she sat knitting +hearth-rugs out of the bits and scraps of cloth that were shred in the +tailoring. How far she believed in the wonderful tales she told, and +the odd little charms she practised, no one exactly knew; but the older +she grew, the stranger were the things she remembered, and the more +testy she was if any one doubted their truth. "Bairns are a blessing!" +said she. "It is the family motto." + +"_Are they_?" said the Tailor emphatically. + +He had a high respect for his mother, and did not like to contradict +her, but he held his own opinion, based upon personal experience; and +not being a metaphysician, did not understand that it is safer to found +opinions on principles than on experience, since experience may alter, +but principles cannot. + +"Look at Tommy," he broke out suddenly. "That boy does nothing but +whittle sticks from morning till night. I have almost to lug him out of +bed o' mornings. If I send him an errand, he loiters; I'd better have +gone myself. If I set him to do anything, I have to tell him +everything; I could sooner do it myself. And if he does work, it's done +so unwillingly, with such a poor grace; better, far better, to do it +myself. What housework do the boys ever do but looking after the baby? +And this afternoon she was asleep in the cradle, and off they went, and +when she awoke, _I_ must leave my work to take her. _I_ gave her her +supper, and put her to bed. And what with what they want and I have to +get, and what they take out to play with and lose, and what they bring +in to play with and leave about, bairns give some trouble, Mother, and +I've not an easy life of it. The pay is poor enough when one can get +the work, and the work is hard enough when one has a clear day to do it +in; but housekeeping and bairn-minding don't leave a man much time for +his trade. No! no! Ma'am, the luck of the Trouts is gone, and 'Bairns +are a burden,' is the motto now. Though they are one's own," he muttered +to himself, "and not bad ones, and I did hope once would have been a +blessing." + +"There's Johnnie," murmured the old lady, dreamily. "He has a face like +an apple." + +"And is about as useful," said the Tailor. "He might have been +different, but his brother leads him by the nose." + +His brother led him in as the Tailor spoke, not literally by his snub, +though, but by the hand. They were a handsome pair, this lazy couple. +Johnnie especially had the largest and roundest of foreheads, the +reddest of cheeks, the brightest of eyes, the quaintest and most +twitchy of chins, and looked altogether like a gutta-percha cherub in a +chronic state of longitudinal squeeze. They were locked together by two +grubby paws, and had each an armful of moss, which they deposited on +the floor as they came in. + +"I've swept this floor once to-day," said the father, "and I'm not +going to do it again. Put that rubbish outside." "Move it, Johnnie!" +said his brother, seating himself on a stool, and taking out his knife +and a piece of wood, at which he cut and sliced; while the +apple-cheeked Johnnie stumbled and stamped over the moss, and scraped +it out on the doorstep, leaving long trails of earth behind him, and +then sat down also. + +"And those chips the same," added the Tailor; "I will _not_ clear up the +litter you lads make." + +"Pick 'em up, Johnnie," said Thomas Trout, junior, with an exasperated +sigh; and the apple tumbled up, rolled after the flying chips, and +tumbled down again. + +"Is there any supper, Father?" asked Tommy. + +"No, there is not, Sir, unless you know how to get it," said the +Tailor; and taking his pipe, he went out of the house. + +"Is there really nothing to eat, Granny?" asked the boy. + +"No, my bairn, only some bread for breakfast to-morrow." + +"What makes Father so cross, Granny?" + +"He's wearied, and you don't help him, my dear." + +"What could I do, Grandmother?" + +"Many little things, if you tried," said the old lady. "He spent +half-an-hour to-day, while you were on the moor, getting turf for the +fire, and you could have got it just as well, and he been at his work." + +"He never told me," said Tommy. + +"You might help me a bit just now, if you would, my laddie," said the +old lady coaxingly; "these bits of cloth want tearing into lengths, and +if you get 'em ready, I can go on knitting. There'll be some food when +this mat is done and sold." + +"I'll try," said Tommy, lounging up with desperate resignation. "Hold +my knife, Johnnie. Father's been cross, and everything has been +miserable, ever since the farm was sold. I wish I were a big man, and +could make a fortune.--Will that do, Granny?" + +The old lady put down her knitting and looked. "My dear, that's too +short. Bless me! I gave the lad a piece to measure by." + +"I thought it was the same length. Oh, dear! I am so tired;" and he +propped himself against the old lady's chair. + +"My dear! don't lean so; you'll tipple me over!" she shrieked. + +"I beg your pardon, Grandmother. Will _that_ do?" + +"It's that much too long." + +"Tear that bit off. Now it's all right." + +"But, my dear, that wastes it. Now that bit is of no use. There goes my +knitting, you awkward lad!" + +"Johnnie, pick it up!--Oh! Grandmother, I _am_ so hungry." The boy's +eyes filled with tears, and the old lady was melted in an +instant. + +"What can I do for you, my poor bairns?" said she. "There, never mind +the scraps, Tommy." + +"Tell us a tale, Granny. If you told us a new one, I shouldn't keep +thinking of that bread in the cupboard.--Come, Johnnie, and sit against +me. Now then!" + +"I doubt if there's one of my old-world cracks I haven't told you," +said the old lady, "unless it's a queer ghost story was told me years +ago of that house in the hollow with the blocked-up windows." + +"Oh! not ghosts!" Tommy broke in; "we've had so many. I know it was a +rattling, or a scratching, or a knocking, or a figure in white; and if +it turns out a tombstone or a white petticoat, I hate it." + +"It was nothing of the sort as a tombstone," said the old lady with +dignity. "It's a good half-mile from the churchyard. And as to white +petticoats, there wasn't a female in the house; he wouldn't have one; +and his victuals came in by the pantry window. But never mind! Though +it's as true as a sermon." + +Johnnie lifted his head from his brother's knee. + +"Let Granny tell what she likes, Tommy. It's a new ghost, and I should +like to know who he was, and why his victuals came in by the window." + +"I don't like a story about victuals," sulked Tommy. "It makes me think +of the bread. O Granny dear! do tell us a fairy story. You never will +tell us about the Fairies, and I know you know." + +"Hush! hush!" said the old lady. "There's Miss Surbiton's Love-letter, +and her Dreadful End." + +"I know Miss Surbiton, Granny. I think she was a goose. Why don't you +tell us about the Fairies?" + +"Hush! hush! my dear. There's the Clerk and the Corpse-candles." + +"I know the Corpse-candles, Granny. Besides, they make Johnnie dream, +and he wakes me to keep him company. _Why_ won't you tell us about +the Fairies?" + +"My dear, they don't like it," said the old lady. + +"O Granny dear, why don't they? Do tell! I shouldn't think of the bread +a bit, if you told us about the Fairies. I know nothing about them." + +"He lived in this house long enough," said the old lady. "But it's not +lucky to name him." + +"O Granny, we are so hungry and miserable, what can it matter?" + +"Well, that's true enough," she sighed. "Trout's luck is gone; it went +with the Brownie, I believe." + +"Was that _he_, Granny?" + +"Yes, my dear, he lived with the Trouts for several generations." + +"What was he like, Granny?" + +"Like a little man, they say, my dear." + +"What did he do?" + +"He came in before the family were up, and swept up the hearth, and +lighted the fire, and set out the breakfast, and tidied the room, and +did all sorts of house-work. But he never would be seen, and was off +before they could catch him. But they could hear him laughing and +playing about the house sometimes." + +"What a darling! Did they give him any wages, Granny?" + +"No! my dear. He did it for love. They set a pancheon of clear water +for him over night, and now and then a bowl of bread-and-milk, or +cream. He liked that, for he was very dainty. Sometimes he left a bit +of money in the water. Sometimes he weeded the garden, or threshed the +corn. He saved endless trouble, both to men and maids." + +"O Granny! why did he go?" + +"The maids caught sight of him one night, my dear, and his coat was so +ragged, that they got a new suit, and a linen shirt for him, and laid +them by the bread-and-milk bowl. But when Brownie saw the things, he +put them on, and dancing round the kitchen, sang, + + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen,' + +and so danced through the door, and never came back again." + +"O Grandmother! But why not? Didn't he like the new clothes?" + +"The Old Owl knows, my dear; I don't." + +"Who's the Old Owl, Granny?" + +"I don't exactly know, my dear. It's what my mother used to say when we +asked anything that puzzled her. It was said that the Old Owl was Nanny +Besom (a witch, my dear!), who took the shape of a bird, but couldn't +change her voice, and that's why the owl sits silent all day for fear +she should betray herself by speaking, and has no singing voice like +other birds. Many people used to go and consult the Old Owl at +moon-rise, in my young days." + +"Did you ever go, Granny?" + +"Once, very nearly, my dear." + +"Oh! tell us, Granny dear.--There are no Corpse-candles, Johnnie; it's +only moonlight," he added consolingly, as Johnnie crept closer to his +knee, and pricked his little red ears. + +"It was when your grandfather was courting me, my dears," said the old +lady, "and I couldn't quite make up my mind. So I went to my mother, +and said, 'He's this on the one side, but then he's that on the other, +and so on. Shall I say yes or no?' And my mother said, 'The Old Owl +knows;' for she was fairly puzzled. So says I, 'I'll go and ask her +to-night, as sure as the moon rises.' + +"So at moon-rise I went, and there in the white light by the gate stood +your grandfather. 'What are you doing here at this time o' night?' says +I. 'Watching your window,' says he. 'What are _you_ doing here at this +time o' night?' 'The Old Owl knows,' said I, and burst out +crying." + +"What for?" said Johnnie. + +"I can't rightly tell you, my dear," said the old lady, "but it gave me +such a turn to see him. And without more ado your grandfather kissed +me. 'How dare you?' said I. 'What do you mean?' 'The Old Owl knows,' +said he. So we never went." + +"How stupid!" said Tommy. + +"Tell us more about Brownie, please," said Johnnie, "Did he ever live +with anybody else?" + +"There are plenty of Brownies," said the old lady, "or used to be in my +mother's young days. Some houses had several." "Oh! I wish ours would +come back!" cried both the boys in chorus. "He'd-- + +"tidy the room," said Johnnie; + +"fetch the turf," said Tommy; + +"pick up the chips," said Johnnie; + +"sort your scraps," said Tommy; + +"and do everything. Oh! I wish he hadn't gone away." + +"What's that?" said the Tailor, coming in at this moment. + +"It's the Brownie, Father," said Tommy. "We are so sorry he went, and +do so wish we had one." + +"What nonsense have you been telling them, Mother?" asked the Tailor. + +"Heighty teighty," said the old lady, bristling. "Nonsense, indeed! As +good men as you, son Thomas, would as soon have jumped off the crags, +as spoken lightly of _them_, in my mother's young days." + +"Well, well," said the Tailor, "I beg their pardon. They never did +aught for me, whatever they did for my forbears; but they're as welcome +to the old place as ever, if they choose to come. There's plenty to +do." + +"Would you mind our setting a pan of water, Father?" asked Tommy very +gently. "There's no bread-and-milk." + +"You may set what you like, my lad," said the Tailor; "and I wish there +were bread-and-milk for your sakes, bairns. You should have it, had I +got it. But go to bed now." + +They lugged out a pancheon, and filled it with more dexterity than +usual, and then went off to bed, leaving the knife in one corner, the +wood in another, and a few splashes of water in their track. + +There was more room than comfort in the ruined old farm-house, and the +two boys slept on a bed of cut heather, in what had been the old +malt-loft. Johnnie was soon in the land of dreams, growing rosier and +rosier as he slept, a tumbled apple among the grey heather. But not so +lazy Tommy. The idea of a domesticated Brownie had taken full +possession of his mind; and whither Brownie had gone, where he might be +found, and what would induce him to return, were mysteries he longed to +solve. "There's an owl living in the old shed by the mere," he thought. +"It may be the Old Owl herself, and she knows, Granny says. When +Father's gone to bed, and the moon rises, I'll go." Meanwhile he lay +down. + + * * * * * + +The moon rose like gold, and went up into the heavens like silver, +flooding the moors with a pale ghostly light, taking the colour out of +the heather, and painting black shadows under the stone walls. Tommy +opened his eyes, and ran to the window. "The moon has risen," said he, +and crept softly down the ladder, through the kitchen, where was the +pan of water, but no Brownie, and so out on to the moor. The air was +fresh, not to say chilly; but it was a glorious night, though +everything but the wind and Tommy seemed asleep. The stones, the walls, +the gleaming lanes, were so intensely still; the church tower in the +valley seemed awake and watching, but silent; the houses in the village +round it had all their eyes shut, that is, their window-blinds down; +and it seemed to Tommy as if the very moors had drawn white sheets over +them, and lay sleeping also. + +"Hoot! hoot!" said a voice from the fir plantation behind him. Somebody +else was awake, then. "It's the Old Owl," said Tommy; and there she +came, swinging heavily across the moor with a flapping stately flight, +and sailed into the shed by the mere. The old lady moved faster than +she seemed to do, and though Tommy ran hard she was in the shed some +time before him. When he got in, no bird was to be seen, but he heard a +crunching sound from above, and looking up, there sat the Old Owl, +pecking and tearing and munching at some shapeless black object, and +blinking at him--Tommy--with yellow eyes. + +"Oh dear!" said Tommy, for he didn't much like it. + +The Old Owl dropped the black mass on to the floor; and Tommy did not +care somehow to examine it. + +"Come up! come up!" said she hoarsely. + +She could speak, then! Beyond all doubt it was _the_ Old Owl, and none +other. Tommy shuddered. + +"Come up here! come up here!" said the Old Owl. + +The Old Owl sat on a beam that ran across the shed. Tommy had often +climbed up for fun; and he climbed up now, and sat face to face with +her, and thought her eyes looked as if they were made of flame. + +"Kiss my fluffy face," said the Owl. + +Her eyes were going round like flaming catherine wheels, but there are +certain requests which one has not the option of refusing. Tommy crept +nearer, and put his lips to the round face out of which the eyes shone. +Oh! it was so downy and warm, so soft, so indescribably soft. Tommy's +lips sank into it, and couldn't get to the bottom. It was unfathomable +feathers and fluffiness. + +"Now, what do you want?" said the Owl. + +"Please," said Tommy, who felt rather re-assured, "can you tell me +where to find the Brownies, and how to get one to come and live with +us?" + +"Oohoo!" said the Owl, "that's it, is it? I know of three Brownies." + +"Hurrah!" said Tommy. "Where do they live?" + +"In your house," said the Owl. + +Tommy was aghast. + +"In our house!" he exclaimed. "Whereabouts? Let me rummage them out. +Why do they do nothing?" + +"One of them is too young," said the Owl. + +"But why don't the others work?" asked Tommy. + +"They are idle, they are idle," said the Old Owl, and she gave herself +such a shake as she said it, that the fluff went flying through the +shed, and Tommy nearly tumbled off the beam in his fright. + +"Then we don't want them," said he. "What is the use of having Brownies +if they do nothing to help us?" + +"Perhaps they don't know how, as no one has told them," said the Owl. + +"I wish you would tell me where to find them," said Tommy; "I could +tell them." + +"Could you?" said the Owl. "Oohoo! oohoo!" and Tommy couldn't tell +whether she were hooting or laughing. + +"Of course I could," he said. "They might be up and sweep the house, +and light the fire, and spread the table, and that sort of thing, +before Father came down. Besides, they could _see_ what was wanted. +The Brownies did all that in Granny's mother's young days. And then +they could tidy the room, and fetch the turf, and pick up my chips, +and sort Granny's scraps. Oh! there's lots to do." + +"So there is," said the Owl. "Oohoo! Well, I can tell you where to find +one of the Brownies; and if you find him, he will tell you where his +brother is. But all this depends upon whether you feel equal to +undertaking it, and whether you will follow my directions." + +"I am quite ready to go," said Tommy, "and I will do as you shall tell +me. I feel sure I could persuade them. If they only knew how every one +would love them if they made themselves useful!" + +"Oohoo! oohoo!" said the Owl. "Now pay attention. You must go to the +north side of the mere when the moon is shining--('I know Brownies like +water,' muttered Tommy)--and turn yourself round three times, saying +this charm: + + + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw--' + +When you have got so far, look into the water, and at the same moment +you will see the Brownie, and think of a word that will fill up the +couplet, and rhyme with the first line. If either you do not see the +Brownie, or fail to think of the word, it will be of no use." + +"Is the Brownie a merman," said Tommy, wriggling himself along the +beam, "that he lives under water?" + +"That depends on whether he has a fish's tail," said the Owl, "and this +you can discover for yourself." + +"Well, the moon is shining, so I shall go," said Tommy. "Good-bye, and +thank you, Ma'am;" and he jumped down and went, saying to himself as he +ran, "I believe he is a merman all the same, or else how could he live +in the mere? I know more about Brownies than Granny does, and I shall +tell her so;" for Tommy was somewhat opinionated, like other young +people. + +The moon shone very brightly on the centre of the mere. Tommy knew the +place well, for there was a fine echo there. Round the edge grew rushes +and water plants, which cast a border of shadow. Tommy went to the +north side, and turning himself three times, as the Old Owl had told +him, he repeated the charm-- + + "Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw--" + +Now for it! He looked in, and saw--the reflection of his own face. + +"Why, there's no one but myself!" said Tommy. "And what can the word +be? I must have done it wrong." + +"Wrong!" said the Echo. + +Tommy was almost surprised to find the echo awake at this time of +night. + +"Hold your tongue!" said he. "Matters are provoking enough of +themselves. Belf! Celf! Delf! Felf! Gelf! Helf! Jelf! What rubbish! +There can't be a word to fit it. And then to look for a Brownie, and +see nothing but myself!" + +"Myself," said the Echo. + +"Will you be quiet?" said Tommy. "If you would tell one the word there +would be some sense in your interference; but to roar 'Myself!' at one, +which neither rhymes nor runs--it does rhyme though, as it happens," he +added; "and how very odd! it runs too-- + + 'Twist me, and turn me, and show me the Elf-- + I looked in the water, and saw myself,' + +which I certainly did. What can it mean? The Old Owl knows, as Granny +would say; so I shall go back and ask her." + +"Ask her!" said the Echo. + +"Didn't I say I should?" said Tommy. "How exasperating you are! It is +very strange. _Myself_ certainly does rhyme, and I wonder I did not +think of it long ago." + +"Go," said the Echo. + +"Will you mind your own business, and go to sleep?" said Tommy. "I am +going; I said I should." + +And back he went. There sat the Old Owl as before. + +"Oohoo!" said she, as Tommy climbed up. "What did you see in the mere?" + +"I saw nothing but myself," said Tommy indignantly. + +"And what did you expect to see?" asked the Owl. + +"I expected to see a Brownie," said Tommy; "you told me so." + +"And what are Brownies like, pray?" inquired the Owl. + +"The one Granny knew was a useful little fellow, something like a +little man," said Tommy. + +"Ah!" said the Owl, "but you know at present this one is an idle little +fellow, something like a little man. Oohoo! oohoo! Are you quite sure +you didn't see him?" + +"Quite," answered Tommy sharply. "I saw no one but myself." + +"Hoot! toot! How touchy we are! And who are you, pray?" + +"I'm not a Brownie," said Tommy. + +"Don't be too sure," said the Owl. "Did you find out the word?" + +"No," said Tommy. "I could find no word with any meaning that would +rhyme but 'myself.'" + +"Well, that runs and rhymes," said the Owl. "What do you want? Where's +your brother now?" + +"In bed in the malt-loft," said Tommy. + +"Then now all your questions are answered," said the Owl, "and you know +what wants doing, so go and do it. Good-night, or rather good-morning, +for it is long past midnight;" and the old lady began to shake her +feathers for a start. + +"Don't go yet, please," said Tommy humbly. "I don't understand it. You +know I'm not a Brownie, am I?" + +"Yes, you are," said the Owl, "and a very idle one too. All children +are Brownies." + +"But I couldn't do work like a Brownie," said Tommy. + +"Why not?" inquired the Owl. "Couldn't you sweep the floor, light the +fire, spread the table, tidy the room, fetch the turf, pick up your own +chips, and sort your grandmother's scraps? You know 'there's lots to +do.'" + +"But I don't think I should like it," said Tommy. "I'd much rather have +a Brownie to do it for me." + +"And what would you do meanwhile?" asked the Owl. "Be idle, I suppose; +and what do you suppose is the use of a man's having children if they +do nothing to help him? Ah! if they only knew how every one would love +them if they made themselves useful!" + +"But is it really and truly so?" asked Tommy, in a dismal voice. "Are +there no Brownies but children?" + +"No, there are not," said the Owl. "And pray do you think that the +Brownies, whoever they may be, come into the house to save trouble for +the idle healthy little boys who live in it? Listen to me, Tommy," said +the old lady, her eyes shooting rays of fire in the dark corner where +she sat. "Listen to me, you are a clever boy, and can understand when +one speaks; so I will tell you the whole history of the Brownies, as it +has been handed down in our family from my grandmother's +great-grandmother, who lived in the Druid's Oak, and was intimate with +the fairies. And when I have done you shall tell me what you think they +are, if they are not children. It's the opinion I have come to at any +rate, and I don't think that wisdom died with our great-grandmothers." + +"I should like to hear if you please," said Tommy. + +The Old Owl shook out a tuft or two of fluff, and set her eyes a-going +and began: + +"The Brownies, or, as they are sometimes called, the Small Folk, the +Little People, or the Good People, are a race of tiny beings who +domesticate themselves in a house of which some grown-up human being +pays the rent and taxes. They are like small editions of men and women, +they are too small and fragile for heavy work; they have not the +strength of a man, but are a thousand times more fresh and nimble. They +can run and jump, and roll and tumble, with marvellous agility and +endurance, and of many of the aches and pains which men and women groan +under, they do not even know the names. They have no trade or +profession, and as they live entirely upon other people, they know +nothing of domestic cares; in fact, they know very little upon any +subject, though they are often intelligent and highly inquisitive. They +love dainties, play, and mischief. They are apt to be greatly beloved, +and are themselves capriciously affectionate. They are little people, +and can only do little things. When they are idle and mischievous, they +are called Boggarts, and are a curse to the house they live in. When +they are useful and considerate, they are Brownies, and are a +much-coveted blessing. Sometimes the Blessed Brownies will take up +their abode with some worthy couple, cheer them with their romps and +merry laughter, tidy the house, find things that have been lost, and +take little troubles out of hands full of great anxieties. Then in time +these Little People are Brownies no longer. They grow up into men and +women. They do not care so much for dainties, play, or mischief. They +cease to jump and tumble, and roll about the house. They know more, and +laugh less. Then, when their heads begin to ache with anxiety, and they +have to labour for their own living, and the great cares of life come +on, other Brownies come and live with them, and take up their little +cares, and supply their little comforts, and make the house merry once +more." + +"How nice!" said Tommy. + +"Very nice," said the Old Owl. "But what"--and she shook herself more +fiercely than ever, and glared so that Tommy expected nothing less than +that her eyes would set fire to her feathers and she would be burnt +alive. "But what must I say of the Boggarts? Those idle urchins who eat +the bread-and-milk, and don't do the work, who lie in bed without an +ache or pain to excuse them, who untidy instead of tidying, cause work +instead of doing it, and leave little cares to heap on big cares, till +the old people who support them are worn out altogether." + +"Don't!" said Tommy. "I can't bear it." + +"I hope when Boggarts grow into men," said the Old Owl, "that their +children will be Boggarts too, and then they'll know what it is!" + +"Don't!" roared Tommy. "I won't be a Boggart. I'll be a Brownie." + +"That's right," nodded the Old Owl. "I said you were a boy who could +understand when one spoke. And remember that the Brownies never are +seen at their work. They get up before the household, and get away +before any one can see them. I can't tell you why. I don't think my +grandmother's great-grandmother knew. Perhaps because all good deeds +are better done in secret." + +"Please," said Tommy, "I should like to go home now, and tell Johnnie. +It's getting cold, and I am so tired!" + +"Very true," said the Old Owl, "and then you will have to be up early +to-morrow. I think I had better take you home." + +"I know the way, thank you," said Tommy. + +"I didn't say _show_ you the way, I said _take_ you--carry you," said +the Owl. "Lean against me." + +"I'd rather not, thank you," said Tommy. + +"Lean against me," screamed the Owl. "Oohoo! how obstinate boys are to +be sure!" + +Tommy crept up very unwillingly. + +"Lean your full weight, and shut your eyes," said the Owl. + +Tommy laid his head against the Old Owl's feathers, had a vague idea +that she smelt of heather, and thought it must be from living on the +moor, shut his eyes, and leant his full weight, expecting that he and +the Owl would certainly fall off the beam together. +Down--feathers--fluff--he sank and sank, could feel nothing solid, +jumped up with a start to save himself, opened his eyes, and found that +he was sitting among the heather in the malt-loft, with Johnnie +sleeping by his side. + +"How quickly we came!" said he; "that is certainly a very clever Old +Owl. I couldn't have counted ten whilst my eyes were shut. How very +odd!" + +But what was odder still was, that it was no longer moonlight, but +early dawn. + +"Get up, Johnnie," said his brother, "I've got a story to tell you." + +And while Johnnie sat up, and rubbed his eyes open, he related his +adventures on the moor. + +"Is all that true?" said Johnnie. "I mean, did it really happen?" + +"Of course it did," said his brother; "don't you believe it?" + +"Oh yes," said Johnnie. "But I thought it was perhaps only a true +story, like Granny's true stories. I believe all those, you know. But +if you were there, you know, it is different--" + +"I was there," said Tommy, "and it's all just as I tell you: and I tell +you what, if we mean to do anything we must get up: though, oh dear! I +should like to stay in bed. I say," he added, after a pause, "suppose +we do. It can't matter being Boggarts for one night more. I mean to be +a Brownie before I grow up, though. I couldn't stand boggarty +children." + +"I won't be a Boggart at all," said Johnnie, "it's horrid. But I don't +see how we can be Brownies, for I'm afraid we can't do the things. I +wish I were bigger!" + +"I can do it well enough," said Tommy, following his brother's example +and getting up. "Don't you suppose I can light a fire? Think of all the +bonfires we have made! And I don't think I should mind having a regular +good tidy-up either. It's that stupid +putting-away-things-when-you've-done-with-them that I hate so!" + +The Brownies crept softly down the ladder and into the kitchen. There +was the blank hearth, the dirty floor, and all the odds and ends lying +about, looking cheerless enough in the dim light. Tommy felt quite +important as he looked round. There is no such cure for untidiness as +clearing up after other people; one sees so clearly where the fault +lies. + +"Look at that door-step, Johnnie," said the Brownie-elect, "what a mess +you made of it! If you had lifted the moss carefully, instead of +stamping and struggling with it, it would have saved us ten minutes' +work this morning." + +This wisdom could not be gainsaid, and Johnnie only looked meek and +rueful. + +"I am going to light the fire," pursued his brother;--"the next turfs, +you know, _we_ must get--you can tidy a bit. Look at that knife I gave +you to hold last night, and that wood--that's my fault though, and so +are those scraps by Granny's chair. What are you grubbing at that +rat-hole for?" + +Johnnie raised his head somewhat flushed and tumbled. + +"What do you think I have found?" said he triumphantly. "Father's +measure that has been lost for a week!" + +"Hurrah!" said Tommy, "put it by his things. That's just a sort of +thing for a Brownie to have done. What will he say? And I say, Johnnie, +when you've tidied, just go and grub up a potato or two in the garden, +and I'll put them to roast for breakfast. I'm lighting such a bonfire!" + +The fire was very successful. Johnnie went after the potatoes, and +Tommy cleaned the door-step, swept the room, dusted the chairs and the +old chest, and set out the table. There was no doubt he could be handy +when he chose. + +"I'll tell you what I've thought of, if we have time," said Johnnie, as +he washed the potatoes in the water that had been set for Brownie. "We +might run down to the South Pasture for some mushrooms. Father said the +reason we found so few was that people go by sunrise for them to take +to market. The sun's only just rising, we should be sure to find some, +and they would do for breakfast." + +"There's plenty of time," said Tommy; so they went. The dew lay heavy +and thick upon the grass by the road-side, and over the miles of +network that the spiders had woven from blossom to blossom of the +heather. The dew is the Sun's breakfast; but he was barely up yet, and +had not eaten it, and the world felt anything but warm. Nevertheless, +it was so sweet and fresh as it is at no later hour of the day, and +every sound was like the returning voice of a long-absent friend. Down +to the pastures, where was more network and more dew, but when one has +nothing to speak of in the way of boots, the state of the ground is of +the less consequence. + +The Tailor had been right, there was no lack of mushrooms at this time +of the morning. All over the pasture they stood, of all sizes, some +like buttons, some like tables; and in the distance one or two ragged +women, stooping over them with baskets, looked like huge fungi also. + +"This is where the fairies feast," said Tommy. "They had a large party +last night. When they go, they take away the dishes and cups, for they +are made of gold; but they leave their tables, and we eat them." + +"I wonder whether giants would like to eat our tables," said Johnnie. + +This was beyond Tommy's capabilities of surmise; so they filled a +handkerchief, and hurried back again, for fear the Tailor should have +come down-stairs. + +They were depositing the last mushroom in a dish on the table, when his +footsteps were heard descending. + +"There he is!" exclaimed Tommy. "Remember, we mustn't be caught. Run +back to bed." + +Johnnie caught up the handkerchief, and smothering their laughter, the +two scrambled back up the ladder, and dashed straight into the heather. + +Meanwhile the poor Tailor came wearily down-stairs. Day after day, +since his wife's death, he had come down every morning to the same +desolate sight--yesterday's refuse and an empty hearth. This morning +task of tidying was always a sad and ungrateful one to the widowed +father. His awkward struggles with the house-work in which _she_ +had been so notable, chafed him. The dirty kitchen was dreary, the +labour lonely, and it was an hour's time lost to his trade. But life +does not stand still while one is wishing, and so the Tailor did that +for which there was neither remedy nor substitute; and came down this +morning as other mornings to the pail and broom. When he came in he +looked round, and started, and rubbed his eyes; looked round again, +and rubbed them harder: then went up to the fire and held out his hand, +(warm certainly)--then up to the table and smelt the mushrooms, +(esculent fungi beyond a doubt)--handled the loaf, stared at the open +door and window, the swept floor, and the sunshine pouring in, and +finally sat down in stunned admiration. Then he jumped up and ran to +the foot of the stairs, shouting, + +"Mother! mother! Trout's luck has come again." "And yet, no!" he +thought, "the old lady's asleep, it's a shame to wake her, I'll tell +those idle rascally lads, they'll be more pleased than they deserve. It +was Tommy after all that set the water and caught him." "Boys! boys!" +he shouted at the foot of the ladder, "the Brownie has come!--and if he +hasn't found my measure!" he added on returning to the kitchen; "this +is as good as a day's work to me." + +There was great excitement in the small household that day. The boys +kept their own counsel. The old Grandmother was triumphant, and tried +not to seem surprised. The Tailor made no such vain effort, and +remained till bed-time in a state of fresh and unconcealed amazement. + +"I've often heard of the Good People," he broke out towards the end of +the evening. "And I've heard folk say they've known those that have +seen them capering round the grey rocks on the moor at midnight: but +this is wonderful! To come and do the work for a pan of cold water! Who +could have believed it?" + +"You might have believed it if you'd believed me, son Thomas," said the +old lady tossily. "I told you so. But young people always know better +than their elders!" + +"I didn't see him," said the Tailor, beginning his story afresh; "but I +thought as I came in I heard a sort of laughing and rustling." + +"My mother said they often heard him playing and laughing about the +house," said the old lady. "I told you so." + +"Well, he sha'n't want for a bowl of bread-and-milk to-morrow, anyhow," +said the Tailor, "if I have to stick to Farmer Swede's waistcoat till +midnight." + +But the waistcoat was finished by bed-time, and the Tailor set the +bread-and-milk-himself, and went to rest. + +"I say," said Tommy, when both the boys were in bed, "the Old Owl was +right, and we must stick to it. But I'll tell you what I don't like, +and that is Father thinking we're idle still. I wish he knew we were +the Brownies." + +"So do I," said Johnnie; and he sighed. + +"I tell you what," said Tommy, with the decisiveness of elder +brotherhood, "we'll keep quiet for a bit for fear we should leave off; +but when we've gone on a good while, I shall tell him. It was only the +Old Owl's grandmother's great-grandmother who said it was to be kept +secret, and the Old Owl herself said grandmothers were not always in +the right." + +"No more they are," said Johnnie; "look at Granny about this." + +"I know," said Tommy. "She's in a regular muddle." + +"So she is," said Johnnie. "But that's rather fun, I think." + +And they went to sleep. + +Day after day went by, and still the Brownies "stuck to it," and did +their work. It is no such very hard matter after all to get up early +when one is young and light-hearted, and sleeps upon heather in a loft +without window-blinds, and with so many broken window-panes that the +air comes freely in. In old times the boys used to play at tents among +the heather, while the Tailor did the house-work; now they came down +and did it for him. + +Size is not everything, even in this material existence. One has heard +of dwarfs who were quite as clever (not to say as powerful) as giants, +and I do not fancy that Fairy Godmothers are ever very large. It is +wonderful what a comfort Brownies may be in the house that is fortunate +enough to hold them! The Tailor's Brownies were the joy of his life; +and day after day they seemed to grow more and more ingenious in +finding little things to do for his good. + +Now-a-days Granny never picked a scrap for herself. One day's shearings +were all neatly arranged the next morning, and laid by her +knitting-pins; and the Tailor's tape and shears were no more absent +without leave. + +One day a message came to him to offer him two or three days' tailoring +in a farm-house some miles up the valley. This was pleasant and +advantageous sort of work; good food, sure pay, and a cheerful change; +but he did not know how he could leave his family, unless, indeed, the +Brownie might be relied upon to "keep the house together," as they say. +The boys were sure that he would, and they promised to set his water, +and to give as little trouble as possible; so, finally, the Tailor took +up his shears and went up the valley, where the green banks sloped up +into purple moor, or broke into sandy rocks, crowned with nodding oak +fern. On to the prosperous old farm, where he spent a very pleasant +time, sitting level with the window geraniums on a table set apart for +him, stitching and gossiping, gossiping and stitching, and feeling +secure of honest payment when his work was done. The mistress of the +house was a kind good creature, and loved a chat; and though the Tailor +kept his own secret as to the Brownies, he felt rather curious to know +if the Good People had any hand in the comfort of this flourishing +household, and watched his opportunity to make a few careless inquiries +on the subject. + +"Brownies?" laughed the dame. "Ay, Master, I have heard of them. When I +was a girl, in service at the old hall, on Cowberry Edge, I heard a +good deal of one they said had lived there in former times. He did +house-work as well as a woman, and a good deal quicker, they said. One +night one of the young ladies (that were then, they're all dead now) +hid herself in a cupboard, to see what he was like." + +"And what was he like?" inquired the Tailor, as composedly as he was +able. + +"A little fellow, they said," answered the Farmer's wife, knitting +calmly on. "Like a dwarf, you know, with a largish head for his body. +Not taller than--why, my Bill, or your eldest boy, perhaps. And he was +dressed in rags, with an old cloak on, and stamping with passion at a +cobweb he couldn't get at with his broom. They've very uncertain +tempers, they say. Tears one minute, and laughing the next." + +"You never had one here, I suppose?" said the Tailor. + +"Not we," she answered; "and I think I'd rather not. They're not canny +after all; and my master and me have always been used to work, and +we've sons and daughters to help us, and that's better than meddling +with the Fairies, to my mind. No! no!" she added, laughing, "if we had +had one you'd have heard of it, whoever didn't, for I should have had +some decent clothes made for him. I couldn't stand rags and old cloaks, +messing and moth-catching, in my house." + +"They say it's not lucky to give them clothes, though," said the +Tailor; "they don't like it." + +"Tell me!" said the dame, "as if any one that liked a tidy room +wouldn't like tidy clothes, if they could get them. No! no! when we +have one, you shall take his measure, I promise you." + +And this was all the Tailor got out of her on the subject. When his +work was finished, the Farmer paid him at once; and the good dame added +half a cheese, and a bottle-green coat. + +"That has been laid by for being too small for the master now he's so +stout," she said; "but except for a stain or two it's good enough, and +will cut up like new for one of the lads." + +The Tailor thanked them, and said farewell, and went home. Down the +valley, where the river, wandering between the green banks and the +sandy rocks, was caught by giant mosses, and bands of fairy fern, and +there choked and struggled, and at last barely escaped with an +existence, and ran away in a diminished stream. On up the purple hills +to the old ruined house. As he came in at the gate he was struck by +some idea of change, and looking again, he saw that the garden had been +weeded, and was comparatively tidy. The truth is, that Tommy and +Johnnie had taken advantage of the Tailor's absence to do some +Brownie's work in the daytime. + +"It's that Blessed Brownie!" said the Tailor. "Has he been as usual?" +he asked, when he was in the house. + +"To be sure," said the old lady; "all has been well, son Thomas." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said the Tailor, after a pause. "I'm a +needy man, but I hope I'm not ungrateful. I can never repay the Brownie +for what he has done for me and mine; but the mistress up yonder has +given me a bottle-green coat that will cut up as good as new; and as +sure as there's a Brownie in this house, I'll make him a suit of it." + +"You'll _what_?" shrieked the old lady. "Son Thomas, son Thomas, you're +mad! Do what you please for the Brownies, but never make them clothes." + +"There's nothing they want more," said the Tailor, "by all accounts. +They're all in rags, as well they may be, doing so much work." + +"If you make clothes for this Brownie, he'll go for good," said the +Grandmother, in a voice of awful warning. + +"Well, I don't know," said her son. "The mistress up at the farm is +clever enough, I can tell you; and as she said to me, fancy any one +that likes a tidy room not liking a tidy coat!" For the Tailor, like +most men, was apt to think well of the wisdom of womankind in other +houses. + +"Well, well," said the old lady, "go your own way. I'm an old woman, +and my time is not long. It doesn't matter much to me. But it was new +clothes that drove the Brownie out before, and Trout's luck went with +him." + +"I know, Mother," said the Tailor, "and I've been thinking of it all +the way home; and I can tell you why it was. Depend upon it, _the +clothes didn't fit_. But I'll tell you what I mean to do. I shall +measure them by Tommy--they say the Brownies are about his size--and if +ever I turned out a well-made coat and waistcoat, they shall be his." + +"Please yourself," said the old lady, and she would say no more. + +"I think you're quite right, Father," said Tommy, "and if I can, I'll +help you to make them." + +Next day the father and son set to work, and Tommy contrived to make +himself so useful, that the Tailor hardly knew how he got through so +much work. + +"It's not like the same thing," he broke out at last, "to have some one +a bit helpful about you; both for the tailoring and for company's sake. +I've not done such a pleasant morning's work since your poor mother +died. I'll tell you what it is, Tommy," he added, "if you were always +like this, I shouldn't much care whether Brownie stayed or went. I'd +give up his help to have yours." + +"I'll be back directly," said Tommy, who burst out of the room in +search of his brother. + +"I've come away," he said, squatting down, "because I can't bear it. I +very nearly let it all out, and I shall soon. I wish the things weren't +going to come to me," he added, kicking a stone in front of him. "I +wish he'd measured you, Johnnie." + +"I'm very glad he didn't," said Johnnie. "I wish he'd kept them +himself." + +"Bottle-green, with brass buttons," murmured Tommy, and therewith fell +into a reverie. + +The next night the suit was finished, and laid by the bread-and-milk. + +"We shall see," said the old lady, in a withering tone. There is not +much real prophetic wisdom in this truism, but it sounds very awful, +and the Tailor went to bed somewhat depressed. + +Next morning the Brownies came down as usual. + +"Don't they look splendid?" said Tommy, feeling the cloth. "When we've +tidied the place I shall put them on." + +But long before the place was tidy, he could wait no longer, and +dressed up. + +"Look at me!" he shouted; "bottle-green and brass buttons! Oh, Johnnie, +I wish you had some." + +"It's a good thing there are two Brownies," said Johnnie, laughing, +"and one of them in rags still. I shall do the work this morning." And +he went flourishing round with a broom, while Tommy jumped madly about +in his new suit. "Hurrah!" he shouted, "I feel just like the Brownie. +What was it Granny said he sang when he got his clothes? Oh, I know-- + + 'What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen.'" + +And on he danced, regardless of the clouds of dust raised by Johnnie, +as he drove the broom indiscriminately over the floor, to the tune of +his own laughter. + +It was laughter which roused the Tailor that morning, laughter coming +through the floor from the kitchen below. He scrambled on his things +and stole down-stairs. + +"It's the Brownie," he thought; "I must look, if it's for the last +time." + +At the door he paused and listened. The laughter was mixed with +singing, and he heard the words-- + + "What have we here? Hemten hamten! + Here will I never more tread nor stampen." + +He pushed in, and this was the sight that met his eyes. + +The kitchen in its primeval condition of chaos, the untidy particulars +of which were the less apparent, as everything was more or less +obscured by the clouds of dust, where Johnnie reigned triumphant, like +a witch with her broomstick; and, to crown all, Tommy capering and +singing in the Brownie's bottle-green suit, brass buttons and all. + +"What's this?" shouted the astonished Tailor, when he could find breath +to speak. + +"It's the Brownies," sang the boys; and on they danced, for they had +worked themselves up into a state of excitement from which it was not +easy to settle down. + +"Where _is_ Brownie?" shouted the father. + +"He's here," said Tommy; "we are the Brownies." + +"Can't you stop that fooling?" cried the Tailor, angrily. "This is past +a joke. Where is the real Brownie, I say?" + +"We are the only Brownies, really, Father," said Tommy, coming to a +full stop, and feeling strongly tempted to run down from laughing to +crying. "Ask the Old Owl. It's true, really." + +The Tailor saw the boy was in earnest, and passed his hand over his +forehead. + +"I suppose I'm getting old," he said; "I can't see daylight through +this. If you are the Brownie, who has been tidying the kitchen lately?" + +"We have," said they. + +"But who found my measure?" + +"I did," said Johnnie. + +"And who sorts your grandmother's scraps?" + +"We do," said they. + +"And who sets breakfast, and puts my things in order?" + +"We do," said they. + +"But when do you do it?" asked the Tailor. + +"Before you come down," said they. + +"But I always have to call you," said the Tailor. + +"We get back to bed again," said the boys. + +"But how was it you never did it before?" asked the Tailor doubtfully. + +"We were idle, we were idle," said Tommy. + +The Tailor's voice rose to a pitch of desperation-- + +"But if you did the work," he shouted, "_where is the Brownie?_" + +"Here!" cried the boys, "and we are very sorry that we were Boggarts so +long." + +With which the father and sons fell into each other's arms and fairly +wept. + + * * * * * + +It will be believed that to explain all this to the Grandmother was not +the work of a moment. She understood it all at last, however, and the +Tailor could not restrain a little good-humoured triumph on the +subject. Before he went to work he settled her down in the window with +her knitting, and kissed her. + +"What do you think of it all, Mother?" he inquired. + +"Bairns are a blessing," said the old lady tartly, "_I told you so._" + + * * * * * + +"That's not the end, is it?" asked one of the boys in a tone of dismay, +for the Doctor had paused here. + +"Yes, it is," said he. + +"But couldn't you make a little more end?" asked Deordie, "to tell us +what became of them all?" + +"I don't see what there is to tell," said the Doctor. + +"Why, there's whether they ever saw the Old Owl again, and whether +Tommy and Johnnie went on being Brownies," said the children. + +The Doctor laughed. + +"Well, be quiet for five minutes," he said. + +"We'll be as quiet as mice," said the children. + +And as quiet as mice they were. Very like mice, indeed. Very like mice +behind a wainscot at night, when you have just thrown something to +frighten them away. Death-like stillness for a few seconds, and then +all the rustling and scuffling you please. So the children sat holding +their breath for a moment or two, and then shuffling feet and smothered +bursts of laughter testified to their impatience, and to the difficulty +of understanding the process of story-making as displayed by the +Doctor, who sat pulling his beard, and staring at his boots, as he made +up "a little more end." + +"Well," he said, sitting up suddenly, "the Brownies went on with their +work in spite of the bottle-green suit, and Trout's luck returned to +the old house once more. Before long Tommy began to work for the +farmers, and Baby grew up into a Brownie, and made (as girls are apt to +make) the best house-sprite of all. For, in the Brownie's habits of +self-denial, thoughtfulness, consideration, and the art of little +kindnesses, boys are, I am afraid, as a general rule, somewhat +behindhand with their sisters. Whether this altogether proceeds from +constitutional deficiency on these points in the masculine character, +or is one result among many of the code of bye-laws which obtains in +men's moral education from the cradle, is a question on which everybody +has their own opinion. For the present the young gentlemen may +appropriate whichever theory they prefer, and we will go back to the +story. The Tailor lived to see his boy-Brownies become men, with all +the cares of a prosperous farm on their hands, and his girl-Brownie +carry her fairy talents into another home. For these Brownies--young +ladies!--are much desired as wives, whereas a man might as well marry +an old witch as a young Boggartess." + +"And about the Owl?" clamoured the children, rather resentful of the +Doctor's pausing to take breath. + +"Of course," he continued, "the Tailor heard the whole story, and being +both anxious to thank the Old Owl for her friendly offices, and also +rather curious to see and hear her, he went with the boys one night at +moon-rise to the shed by the mere. It was earlier in the evening than +when Tommy went, for before daylight had vanished, and at the first +appearance of the moon, the impatient Tailor was at the place. There +they found the Owl looking very solemn and stately on the beam. She was +sitting among the shadows with her shoulders up, and she fixed her eyes +so steadily on the Tailor, that he felt quite overpowered. He made her +a civil bow, however, and said, + +"I'm much obliged to you, Ma'am, for your good advice to my Tommy." + +The Owl blinked sharply, as if she grudged shutting her eyes for an +instant, and then stared on, but not a word spoke she. + +"I don't mean to intrude, Ma'am," said the Tailor, "but I was wishful +to pay my respects and gratitude." + +Still the Owl gazed in determined silence. + +"Don't you remember me?" said Tommy pitifully. "I did everything you +told me. Won't you even say good-bye?" and he went up towards her. + +The Owl's eyes contracted, she shuddered a few tufts of fluff into the +shed, shook her wings, and shouting "Oohoo!" at the top of her voice, +flew out upon the moor. The Tailor and his sons rushed out to watch +her. They could see her clearly against the green twilight sky, +flapping rapidly away with her round face to the pale moon. "Good-bye!" +they shouted as she disappeared; first the departing owl, then a +shadowy body with flapping sails, then two wings beating the same +measured time, then two moving lines still to the old tune, then a +stroke, a fancy, and then--the green sky and the pale moon, but the Old +Owl was gone. + +"Did she never come back?" asked Tiny in subdued tones, for the Doctor +had paused again. + +"No," said he; "at least not to the shed by the mere. Tommy saw many +owls after this in the course of his life; but as none of them would +speak, and as most of them were addicted to the unconventional customs +of staring and winking, he could not distinguish his friend, if she +were among them. And now I think that is all." + +"Is that the very very end?" asked Tiny. + +"The very very end," said the Doctor. + +"I suppose there might be more and more ends," speculated +Deordie--"about whether the Brownies had any children when they grew +into farmers, and whether the children were Brownies, and whether +_they_ had other Brownies, and so on and on." And Deordie rocked +himself among the geraniums, in the luxurious imagining of an endless +fairy tale. + +"You insatiable rascal!" said the Doctor. "Not another word. Jump up, +for I am going to see you home. I have to be off early to-morrow." + +"Where?" said Deordie. + +"Never mind. I shall be away all day, and I want to be at home in good +time in the evening, for I mean to attack that crop of groundsel +between the sweet-pea hedges. You know, no Brownies come to my +homestead!" + +And the Doctor's mouth twitched a little till he fixed it into a stiff +smile. + +The children tried hard to extract some more ends out of him on the way +to the Rectory; but he declined to pursue the history of the Trout +family through indefinite generations. It was decided on all hands, +however, that Tommy Trout was evidently one and the same with the Tommy +Trout who pulled the cat out of the well, because "it was just a sort +of thing for a Brownie to do, you know!" and that Johnnie Green (who, +of course, was not Johnnie Trout) was some unworthy village +acquaintance, and "a thorough Boggart." + +"Doctor!" said Tiny, as they stood by the garden-gate, "how long do you +think gentlemen's pocket-handkerchiefs take to wear out?" + +"That, my dear Madam," said the Doctor, "must depend, like other +terrestrial matters, upon circumstances; whether the gentleman bought +fine cambric, or coarse cotton with pink portraits of the reigning +Sovereign, to commence with; whether he catches many colds, has his +pockets picked, takes snuff, or allows his washerwoman to use washing +powders. But why do you want to know?" + +"I sha'n't tell you that," said Tiny, who was spoilt by the Doctor, and +consequently tyrannized in proportion; "but I will tell you what I mean +to do. I mean to tell Mother that when Father wants any more +pocket-handkerchiefs hemmed, she had better put them by the bath in the +nursery, and perhaps some Brownie will come and do them." + +"Kiss my fluffy face!" said the Doctor in sepulchral tones. + +"The owl is too high up," said Tiny, tossing her head. + +The Doctor lifted her four feet or so, obtained his kiss, and set her +down again. + +"You're not fluffy at all," said she in a tone of the utmost contempt; +"you're tickly and bristly. Puss is more fluffy, and Father is scrubby +and scratchy, because he shaves." + +"And which of the three styles do you prefer?" said the Doctor. + +"Not tickly and bristly," said Tiny with firmness; and she strutted up +the walk for a space or two, and then turned round to laugh over her +shoulder. + +"Good-night!" shouted her victim, shaking his fist after her. + +The other children took a noisy farewell, and they all raced into the +house to give joint versions of the fairy tale, first to the parents in +the drawing-room, and then to Nurse in the nursery. + +The Doctor went home also, with his poodle at his heels, but not by the +way he came. He went out of his way, which was odd; but then the Doctor +was "a little odd," and moreover this was always the end of his evening +walk. Through the church-yard, where spreading cedars and stiff yews +rose from the velvet grass, and where among tombstones and crosses of +various devices lay one of older and uglier date, by which he stayed. +It was framed by a border of the most brilliant flowers, and it would +seem as if the Doctor must have been the gardener, for he picked off +some dead ones, and put them absently in his pocket. Then he looked +round as if to see that he was alone. Not a soul was to be seen, and +the moonlight and shadow lay quietly side by side, as the dead do in +their graves. The Doctor stooped down and took off his hat. + +"Good-night, Marcia," he said in a low quiet voice. "Good-night, my +darling!" The dog licked his hand, but there was no voice to answer, +nor any that regarded. + +Poor foolish Doctor! Most foolish to speak to the departed with his +face earthwards. But we are weak mortals, the best of us; and this man +(one of the very best) raised his head at last, and went home like a +lonely owl with his face to the moon and the sky. + + +A BORROWED BROWNIE. + + +"I can't imagine," said the Rector, walking into the drawing-room the +following afternoon; "I can't imagine where Tiny is. I want her to +drive to the other end of the parish with me." + +"There she comes," said his wife, looking out of the window, "by the +garden-gate, with a great basket; what has she been after?" + +The Rector went out to discover, and met his daughter looking decidedly +earthy, and seemingly much exhausted by the weight of a basketful of +groundsel plants. + +"Where have you been?" said he. + +"In the Doctor's garden," said Tiny triumphantly; "and look what I have +done! I've weeded his sweet-peas, and brought away the groundsel; so +when he gets home to-night he'll think a Brownie has been in the +garden, for Mrs. Pickles has promised not to tell him." + +"But look here!" said the Rector, affecting a great appearance of +severity, "you're my Brownie, not his. Supposing Tommy Trout had gone +and weeded Farmer Swede's garden, and brought back his weeds to go to +seed on the Tailor's flower-beds, how do you think he would have liked +it?" + +Tiny looked rather crestfallen. When one has fairly carried through a +splendid benevolence of this kind, it is trying to find oneself in the +wrong. She crept up to the Rector, however, and put her golden head +upon his arm. + +"But, Father dear," she pleaded, "I didn't mean not to be your Brownie; +only, you know, you had got five left at home, and it was only for a +short time, and the Doctor hasn't any Brownie at all. Don't you pity +him?" + +And the Rector, who was old enough to remember that grave-stone story +we wot of, hugged his Brownie in his arms, and answered, + +"My Darling, I do pity him!" + + + + +THE LAND OF LOST TOYS. + +AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE NURSERY. + + +It was certainly an aggravated offence. It is generally understood in +families that "boys will be boys," but there is a limit to the +forbearance implied in the extenuating axiom. Master Sam was condemned +to the back nursery for the rest of the day. + +He always had had the knack of breaking his own toys,--he not +unfrequently broke other people's; but accidents will happen, and his +twin-sister and factotum, Dot, was long-suffering. + +Dot was fat, resolute, hasty, and devotedly unselfish. When Sam scalped +her new doll, and fastened the glossy black curls to a wigwam +improvised with the curtains of the four-post bed in the best bedroom, +Dot was sorely tried. As her eyes passed from the crown-less doll on +the floor to the floss-silk ringlets hanging from the bed-furniture, +her round rosy face grew rounder and rosier, and tears burst from her +eyes. But in a moment more she clenched her little fists, forced back +the tears, and gave vent to her favourite saying, "I don't care." + +That sentence was Dot's bane and antidote; it was her vice and her +virtue. It was her standing consolation, and it brought her into all +her scrapes. It was her one panacea for all the ups and downs of her +life (and in the nursery where Sam developed his organ of +destructiveness there were ups and downs not a few); and it was the +form her naughtiness took when she was naughty. + +"Don't care fell into a goose-pond, Miss Dot," said Nurse, on one +occasion of the kind. + +"I don't care if he did," said Miss Dot; and as Nurse knew no further +feature of the goose-pond adventure which met this view of it, she +closed the subject by putting Dot into the corner. + +In the strength of _Don't care_, and her love for Sam, Dot bore much and +long. Her dolls perished by ingenious but untimely deaths. Her toys were +put to purposes for which they were never intended, and suffered +accordingly. But Sam was penitent and Dot was heroic. Florinda's scalp was +mended with a hot knitting-needle and a perpetual bonnet, and Dot rescued +her paint-brushes from the glue-pot, and smelt her india-rubber as it +boiled down in Sam's waterproof manufactory, with long-suffering +forbearance. + +There are, however, as we have said, limits to everything. An +earthquake celebrated with the whole contents of the toy cupboard is not +to be borne. + +The matter was this. Early one morning Sam announced that he had a +glorious project on hand. He was going to give a grand show and +entertainment, far surpassing all the nursery imitations of circuses, +conjurors, lectures on chemistry, and so forth, with which they had +ever amused themselves. He refused to confide his plans to the faithful +Dot; but he begged her to lend him all the toys she possessed, in +return for which she was to be the sole spectator of the fun. He let +out that the idea had suggested itself to him after the sight of a +Diorama to which they had been taken, but he would not allow that it +was anything of the same kind; in proof of which she was at liberty to +keep back her paint-box. Dot tried hard to penetrate the secret, and to +reserve some of her things from the general conscription. But Sam was +obstinate. He would tell nothing, and he wanted everything. The dolls, +the bricks (especially the bricks), the tea-things, the German farm, +the Swiss cottages, the animals, and all the dolls' furniture. Dot gave +them with a doubtful mind, and consoled herself as she watched Sam +carrying pieces of board and a green table cover into the back nursery, +with the prospect of the show. At last, Sam threw open the door and +ushered her into the nursery rocking-chair. + +The boy had certainly some constructive as well as destructive talent. +Upon a sort of impromptu table covered with green cloth he had arranged +all the toys in rough imitation of a town, with its streets and +buildings. The relative proportion of the parts was certainly not good; +but it was not Sam's fault that the doll's house and the German farm, +his own brick buildings, and the Swiss cottages, were all on totally +different scales of size. He had ingeniously put the larger things in +the foreground, keeping the small farm-buildings from the German box at +the far end of the streets, yet after all the perspective was extreme. +The effect of three large horses from the toy stables in front, with +the cows from the small Noah's Ark in the distance, was admirable; but +the big dolls seated in an unroofed building, made with the wooden +bricks on no architectural principle but that of a pound, and taking +tea out of the new china tea-things, looked simply ridiculous. + +Dot's eyes, however, saw no defects, and she clapped vehemently. + +"Here, ladies and gentlemen," said Sam, waving his hand politely +towards the rocking-chair, "you see the great city of Lisbon, the +capital of Portugal--" + +At this display of geographical accuracy Dot fairly cheered, and rocked +herself to and fro in unmitigated enjoyment. + +"--as it appeared," continued the showman, "on the morning of November +1st, 1755." + +Never having had occasion to apply Mangnall's Questions to the +exigencies of every-day life, this date in no way disturbed Dot's +comfort. + +"In this house," Sam proceeded, "a party of Portuguese ladies of rank +may be seen taking tea together." + +"_Breakfast_, you mean," said Dot, "you said it was in the morning, +you know." + +"Well, they took tea to their breakfast," said Sam. "Don't interrupt +me, Dot. You are the audience, and you mustn't speak. Here you see the +horses of the English ambassador out airing with his groom. There you +see two peasants--no! they are _not_ Noah and his wife, Dot, and +if you go on talking I shall shut up. I say they are peasants +peacefully driving cattle. At this moment a rumbling sound startles +everyone in the city"--here Sam rolled some croquet balls up and down +in a box, but the dolls sat as quiet as before, and Dot alone was +startled,--"this was succeeded by a slight shock"--here he shook the +table, which upset some of the buildings belonging to the German +farm.--"Some houses fell."--Dot began to look anxious.--"This shock was +followed by several others"---"Take care," she begged--"of increasing +magnitude."--"Oh, Sam!" Dot shrieked, jumping up, "you're breaking the +china!"--"The largest buildings shook to their foundations."--"Sam! +Sam! the doll's house is falling," Dot cried, making wild efforts to +save it: but Sam held her back with one arm, while with the other he +began to pull at the boards which formed his table.--"Suddenly the +ground split and opened with a fearful yawn"--Dot's shrieks shamed the +impassive dolls, as Sam jerked out the boards by a dexterous movement, +and doll's house, brick buildings, the farm, the Swiss cottages, and +the whole toy-stock of the nursery sank together in ruins. Quite +unabashed by the evident damage, Sam continued--"and in a moment the +whole magnificent city of Lisbon was swallowed up. Dot! Dot! don't be a +muff! What is the matter? It's splendid fun. Things must be broken some +time, and I'm sure it was exactly like the real thing. Dot! why don't +you speak? Dot! my dear Dot! You don't care, do you? I didn't think +you'd mind it so. It was such a splendid earthquake. Oh! try not to go +on like that!" + +But Dot's feelings were far beyond her own control, much more that of +Master Sam, at this moment. She was gasping and choking, and when at +last she found breath it was only to throw herself on her face upon the +floor with bitter and uncontrollable sobbing. It was certainly a mild +punishment that condemned Master Sam to the back nursery for the rest +of the day. It had, however, this additional severity, that during the +afternoon Aunt Penelope was expected to arrive. + + +AUNT PENELOPE. + +Aunt Penelope was one of those dear, good souls who, single themselves, +have, as real or adopted relatives, the interests of a dozen families, +instead of one, at heart. There are few people whose youth has not +owned the influence of at least one such friend. It may be a good +habit, the first interest in some life-loved pursuit or favourite +author, some pretty feminine art, or delicate womanly counsel enforced +by those narratives of real life that are more interesting than any +fiction: it may be only the periodical return of gifts and kindness, +and the store of family histories that no one else can tell; but we all +owe something to such an aunt or uncle--the fairy godmothers of real +life. + +The benefits which Sam and Dot reaped from Aunt Penelope's visits may +be summed up under the heads of presents and stories, with a general +leaning to indulgence in the matters of punishment, lessons, and going +to bed, which perhaps is natural to aunts and uncles who have no +positive responsibilities in the young people's education, and are not +the daily sufferers by the lack of due discipline. + +Aunt Penelope's presents were lovely. Aunt Penelope's stories were +charming. There was generally a moral wrapped up in them, like the +motto in a cracker-bonbon; but it was quite in the inside, so to speak, +and there was abundance of smart paper and sugar-plums. + +All things considered, it was certainly most proper that the +much-injured Dot should be dressed out in her best, and have access to +dessert, the dining-room, and Aunt Penelope, whilst Sam was kept +up-stairs. And yet it was Dot who (her first burst of grief being over) +fought stoutly for his pardon all the time she was being dressed, and +was afterwards detected in the act of endeavouring to push fragments of +raspberry tart through the nursery keyhole. + +"You GOOD thing!" Sam emphatically exclaimed, as he heard her in fierce +conflict on the other side of the door with the nurse who found +her--"You GOOD thing! leave me alone, for I deserve it." + +He really was very penitent He was too fond of Dot not to regret the +unexpected degree of distress he had caused her; and Dot made much of +his penitence in her intercessions in the drawing-room. + +"Sam is so very sorry," she said; "he says he knows he deserves it. I +think he ought to come down. He is so _very_ sorry!" + +Aunt Penelope, as usual, took the lenient side, joining her entreaties +to Dot's, and it ended in Master Sam's being hurriedly scrubbed and +brushed, and shoved into his black velvet suit, and sent down-stairs, +rather red about the eyelids, and looking very sheepish. + +"Oh, Dot!" he exclaimed, as soon as he could get her into a corner, "I +am so very, very sorry! particularly about the tea-things." + +"Never mind," said Dot, "I don't care; and I've asked for a story, and +we're going into the library." As Dot said this, she jerked her head +expressively in the direction of the sofa, where Aunt Penelope was just +casting on stitches preparatory to beginning a pair of her famous +ribbed socks for Papa, whilst she gave to Mamma's conversation that +sympathy which (like her knitting-needles) was always at the service of +her large circle of friends. Dot anxiously watched the bow on the top +of her cap as it danced and nodded with the force of Mamma's +observations. At last it gave a little chorus of jerks, as one should +say, "Certainly, undoubtedly." And then the story came to an end, and +Dot, who had been slowly creeping nearer, fairly took Aunt Penelope by +the hand, and carried her off, knitting and all, to the library. + +"Now, please," said Dot, when she had struggled into a chair that was +too tall for her. + +"Stop a minute!" cried Sam, who was perched in the opposite one, "the +horse-hair tickles my legs." + +"Put your pocket-handkerchief under them, as I do," said Dot. +"_Now_, Aunt Penelope." + +"No, wait," groaned Sam; "it isn't big enough; it only covers one leg." + +Dot slid down again, and ran to Sam. + +"Take my handkerchief for the other." + +"But what will you do?" said Sam. + +"Oh, I don't care," said Dot, scrambling back into her place. "Now, +Aunty, please." + +And Aunt Penelope began. + + +"THE LAND OF LOST TOYS. + +"I suppose people who have children transfer their childish follies and +fancies to them, and become properly sedate and grown-up. Perhaps it is +because I am an old maid, and have none, that some of my nursery whims +stick to me, and I find myself liking things, and wanting things, quite +out of keeping with my cap and time of life. For instance. Anything in +the shape of a toy-shop (from a London bazaar to a village window, with +Dutch dolls, leather balls, and wooden battledores) quite unnerves me, +so to speak. When I see one of those boxes containing a jar, a churn, a +kettle, a pan, a coffee-pot, a cauldron on three legs, and sundry +dishes, all of the smoothest wood, and with the immemorial red flower +on one side of each vessel, I fairly long for an excuse for playing +with them, and for trying (positively for the last time) if the lids +_do_ come off, and whether the kettle will (literally, as well as +metaphorically) hold water. Then if, by good or ill luck, there is a +child flattening its little nose against the window with longing eyes, +my purse is soon empty; and as it toddles off with a square parcel +under one arm, and a lovely being in black ringlets and white tissue +paper in the other, I wish that I were worthy of being asked to join +the ensuing play. Don't suppose there is any generosity in this. I have +only done what we are all glad to do. I have found an excuse for +indulging a pet weakness. As I said, it is not merely the new and +expensive toys that attract me; I think my weakest corner is where the +penny boxes lie, the wooden tea-things (with the above-named flower in +miniature), the soldiers on their lazy tongs, the nine-pins, and the +tiny farm. + +"I need hardly say that the toy booth in a village fair tries me very +hard. It tried me in childhood, when I was often short of pence, and +when 'the Feast' came once a year. It never tried me more than on one +occasion, lately, when I was re-visiting my old home. + +"It was deep Midsummer, and the Feast. I had children with me of course +(I find children, somehow, wherever I go), and when we got into the +fair, there were children of people whom I had known as children, with +just the same love for a monkey going up one side of a yellow stick and +coming down the other, and just as strong heads for a giddy-go-round on +a hot day and a diet of peppermint lozenges, as their fathers and +mothers before them. There were the very same names--and here and there +it seemed the very same faces--I knew so long ago. A few shillings were +indeed well expended in brightening those familiar eyes: and then there +were the children with me.... Besides, there really did seem to be an +unusually nice assortment of things, and the man was very intelligent +(in reference to his wares):.... Well, well! It was two o'clock P.M. +when we went in at one end of that glittering avenue of drums, dolls, +trumpets, accordions, workboxes, and what not; but what o'clock it was +when I came out at the other end, with a shilling and some coppers in +my pocket, and was cheered, I can't say, though I should like to have +been able to be accurate about the time, because of what followed. + +"I thought the best thing I could do was to get out of the fair at +once, so I went up the village and struck off across some fields into a +little wood that lay near. (A favourite walk in old times.) As I turned +out of the booth, my foot struck against one of the yellow sticks of +the climbing monkeys. The monkey was gone, and the stick broken. It set +me thinking as I walked along. + +"What an untold number of pretty and ingenious things one does (not +wear out in honourable wear and tear, but) utterly lose, and wilfully +destroy, in one's young days--things that would have given pleasure to +so many more young eyes, if they had been kept a little longer--things +that one would so value in later years, if some of them had survived +the dissipating and destructive days of Nurserydom. I recalled a young +lady I knew, whose room was adorned with knick-knacks of a kind I had +often envied. They were not plaster figures, old china, wax-work +flowers under glass, or ordinary ornaments of any kind. They were her +old toys. Perhaps she had not had many of them, and had been the more +careful of those she had. She had certainly been very fond of them, and +had kept more of them than any one I ever knew. A faded doll slept in +its cradle at the foot of her bed. A wooden elephant stood on the +dressing-table, and a poodle that had lost his bark put out a +red-flannel tongue with quixotic violence at a windmill on the opposite +corner of the mantelpiece. Everything had a story of its own. Indeed +the whole room must have been redolent with the sweet story of +childhood, of which the toys were the illustrations, or like a poem of +which the toys were the verses. She used to have children to play with +them sometimes, and this was a high honour. She is married now, and has +children of her own, who on birthdays and holidays will forsake the +newest of their own possessions to play with 'mamma's toys.' + +"I was roused from these recollections by the pleasure of getting into +the wood. + +"If I have a stronger predilection than my love for toys, it is my love +for woods, and, like the other, it dates from childhood. It was born +and bred with me, and I fancy will stay with me till I die. The +soothing scents of leaf-mould, moss, and fern (not to speak of +flowers)--the pale green veil in spring, the rich shade in summer, the +rustle of the dry leaves in autumn, I suppose an old woman may enjoy +all these, my dears, as well as you. But I think I could make 'fairy +jam' of hips and haws in acorn cups now, if any child would be +condescending enough to play with me. "_This_ wood, too, had +associations. + +"I strolled on in leisurely enjoyment, and at last seated myself at the +foot of a tree to rest. I was hot and tired; partly with the mid-day +heat and the atmosphere of the fair, partly with the exertion of +calculating change in the purchase of articles ranging in price from +three farthings upwards. The tree under which I sat was an old friend. +There was a hole at its base that I knew well. Two roots covered with +exquisite moss ran out from each side, like the arms of a chair, and +between them there accumulated year after year a rich, though tiny +store of dark leaf-mould. We always used to say that fairies lived +within, though I never saw anything go in myself but wood-beetles. +There was one going in at that moment. + +"How little the wood was changed! I bent my head for a few seconds, +and, closing my eyes, drank in the delicious and suggestive scents of +earth and moss about the dear old tree. I had been so long parted from +the place that I could hardly believe that I was in the old familiar +spot. Surely it was only one of the many dreams in which I had played +again beneath those trees! But when I re-opened my eyes there was the +same hole, and, oddly enough, the same beetle or one just like it. I +had not noticed till that moment how much larger the hole was than it +used to be in my young days. + +"'I suppose the rain and so forth wears them away in time,' I said +vaguely. + +"'I suppose it does,' said the beetle politely; 'will you walk in?' + +"I don't know why I was not so overpoweringly astonished as you would +imagine. I think I was a good deal absorbed in considering the size of +the hole, and the very foolish wish that seized me to do what I had +often longed to do in childhood, and creep in. I _had_ so much +regard for propriety as to see that there was no one to witness the +escapade. Then I tucked my skirts round me, put my spectacles into my +pocket for fear they should get broken, and in I went. + +"I must say one thing. A wood is charming enough (no one appreciates it +more than myself), but, if you have never been there, you have no idea +how much nicer it is inside than on the surface. Oh, the mosses--the +gorgeous mosses! The fretted lichens! The fungi like flowers for +beauty, and the flowers like nothing you have ever seen! + +"Where the beetle went to I don't know. I could stand up now quite +well, and I wandered on till dusk in unwearied admiration. I was among +some large beeches as it grew dark, and was beginning to wonder how I +should find my way (not that I had lost it, having none to lose), when +suddenly lights burst from every tree, and the whole place was +illuminated. The nearest approach to this scene that I ever witnessed +above ground was in a wood near the Hague in Holland. There, what look +like tiny glass tumblers holding floating wicks, are fastened to the +trunks of the fine old trees, at intervals of sufficient distance to +make the light and shade mysterious, and to give effect to the full +blaze when you reach the spot where hanging chains of lamps illuminate +the 'Pavilion' and the open space where the band plays, and where the +townsfolk assemble by hundreds to drink coffee and enjoy the music. I +was the more reminded of the Dutch 'bosch' because, after wandering +some time among the lighted trees, I heard distant sounds of music, and +came at last upon a glade lit up in a similar manner, except that the +whole effect was incomparably more brilliant. + +"As I stood for a moment doubting whether I should proceed, and a good +deal puzzled about the whole affair, I caught sight of a large spider +crouched up in a corner with his stomach on the ground and his knees +above his head, as some spiders do sit, and looking at me, as I +fancied, through a pair of spectacles. (About the spectacles I do not +feel sure. It may have been two of his bent legs in apparent connection +with his prominent eyes.) I thought of the beetle, and said civilly, +'Can you tell me, sir, if this is Fairyland?' The spider took off his +spectacles (or untucked his legs), and took a sideways run out of his +corner. + +"'Well,' he said, 'it's a Province. The fact is, it's the Land of Lost +Toys. You haven't such a thing as a fly anywhere about you, have you?' + +"'No,' I said, 'I'm sorry to say I have not.' This was not strictly +true, for I was not at all sorry; but I wished to be civil to the old +gentleman, for he projected his eyes at me with such an intense (I had +almost said greedy) gaze, that I felt quite frightened. + +"'How did you pass the sentries?' he inquired. + +"'I never saw any,' I answered. + +"'You couldn't have seen anything if you didn't see them,' he said; +'but perhaps you don't know. They're the glow-worms. Six to each tree, +so they light the road, and challenge the passers-by. Why didn't they +challenge you?' + +"'I don't know,' I began, 'unless the beetle--' + +"'I don't like beetles,' interrupted the spider, stretching each leg in +turn by sticking it up above him, 'all shell, and no flavour. You never +tried walking on anything of that sort, did you?' and he pointed with +one leg to a long thread that fastened a web above his head. + +"'Certainly not,' said I. + +"'I'm afraid it wouldn't bear you,' he observed slowly. + +"'I'm quite sure it wouldn't,' I hastened to reply. I wouldn't try for +worlds. It would spoil your pretty work in a moment. Good-evening.' + +"And I hurried forward. Once I looked back, but the spider was not +following me. He was in his hole again, on his stomach, with his knees +above his head, and looking (apparently through his spectacles) down +the road up which I came. + +"I soon forgot him in the sight before me. I had reached the open place +with the lights and the music; but how shall I describe the spectacle +that I beheld? + +"I have spoken of the effect of a toy-shop on my feelings. Now imagine +a toy-fair, brighter and gayer than the brightest bazaar ever seen, +held in an open glade, where forest-trees stood majestically behind the +glittering stalls, and stretched their gigantic arms above our heads, +brilliant with a thousand hanging lamps. At the moment of my entrance +all was silent and quiet. The toys lay in their places looking so +incredibly attractive that I reflected with disgust that all my ready +cash, except one shilling and some coppers, had melted away amid the +tawdry fascinations of a village booth. I was counting the coppers +(sevenpence halfpenny), when all in a moment a dozen sixpenny fiddles +leaped from their places and began to play, accordions of all sizes +joined them, the drumsticks beat upon the drums, the penny trumpets +sounded, and the yellow flutes took up the melody on high notes, and +bore it away through the trees. It was weird fairy-music, but quite +delightful. The nearest approach to it that I know of above ground is +to hear a wild dreamy air very well whistled to a pianoforte +accompaniment. + +"When the music began, all the toys rose. The dolls jumped down and +began to dance. The poodles barked, the pannier donkeys wagged their +ears, the wind-mills turned, the puzzles put themselves together, the +bricks built houses, the balls flew from side to side, the battledores +and shuttlecocks kept it up among themselves, and the skipping-ropes +went round, the hoops ran off, and the sticks ran after them, the +cobbler's wax at the tails of all the green frogs gave way, and they +jumped at the same moment, whilst an old-fashioned go-cart ran madly +about with nobody inside. It was most exhilarating. + +"I soon became aware that the beetle was once more at my elbow. + +"'There are some beautiful toys here,' I said. + +"'Well, yes,' he replied, 'and some odd-looking ones too. You see, +whatever has been really used by any child as a plaything gets a right +to come down here in the end; and there is some very queer company, I +assure you. Look there.' + +"I looked, and said, 'It seems to be a potato.' + +"'So it is,' said the beetle. 'It belonged to an Irish child in one of +your great cities. But to whom the child belonged I don't know, and I +don't think he knew himself. He lived in the corner of a dirty, +overcrowded room, and into this corner, one day, the potato rolled. It +was the only plaything he ever had. He stuck two cinders into it for +eyes, scraped a nose and mouth, and loved it. He sat upon it during the +day, for fear it should be taken from him, but in the dark he took it +out and played with it. He was often hungry, but he never ate that +potato. When he died it rolled out of the corner, and was swept into +the ashes. Then it came down here.' + +"'What a sad story!' I exclaimed. + +"The beetle seemed in no way affected. + +"'It is a curious thing,' he rambled on, 'that potato takes quite a +good place among the toys. You see, rank and precedence down here is +entirely a question of age; that is, of the length of time that any +plaything has been in the possession of a child; and all kinds of ugly +old things hold the first rank; whereas the most costly and beautiful +works of art have often been smashed or lost by the spoilt children of +rich people in two or three days. If you care for sad stories, there is +another queer thing belonging to a child who died.' + +"It appeared to be a large sheet of canvas with some strange kind of +needlework upon it. + +"'It belonged to a little girl in a rich household,' the beetle +continued; 'she was an invalid, and difficult to amuse. We have lots of +her toys, and very pretty ones too. At last some one taught her to make +caterpillars in wool-work. A bit of work was to be done in a certain +stitch and then cut with scissors, which made it look like a hairy +caterpillar. The child took to this, and cared for nothing else. Wool +of every shade was procured for her, and she made caterpillars of all +colours. Her only complaint was that they did not turn into +butterflies. However, she was a sweet, gentle-tempered child, and she +went on, hoping that they would do so, and making new ones. One day she +was heard talking and laughing in her bed for joy. She said that all +the caterpillars had become butterflies of many colours, and that the +room was full of them. In that happy fancy she died.' + +"'And the caterpillars came down here?' + +"'Not for a long time,' said the beetle; 'her mother kept them while +_she_ lived, and then they were lost and came down. No toys come +down here till they are broken or lost.' + +"'What are those sticks doing here?' I asked. + +"The music had ceased, and all the toys were lying quiet. Up in a +corner leaned a large bundle of walking-sticks. They are often sold in +toy-shops, but I wondered on what grounds they came here. + +"'Did you ever meet with a too benevolent old gentleman wondering where +on earth his sticks go to?' said the beetle. 'Why do they lend them to +their grandchildren? The young rogues use them as hobby-horses and lose +them, and down they come, and the sentinels cannot stop them. The real +hobby-horses won't allow them to ride with them, however. There was a +meeting on the subject. Every stick was put through an examination. +"Where is your nose? Where is your mane? Where are your wheels?" The +last was a poser. Some of them had got noses, but none of them had got +wheels. So they were not true hobby-horses. Something of the kind +occurred with the elder-whistles.' + +"'The what?' I asked. + +"'Whistles that boys make of elder-sticks with the pith scooped out,' +said the beetle. 'The real instruments would not allow them to play +with them. The elder-whistles said they would not have joined had they +been asked. They were amateurs, and never played with professionals. So +they have private concerts with the combs and curl-papers. But, bless +you, toys of this kind are endless here! Teetotums made of old cotton +reels, tea-sets of acorn cups, dinner-sets of old shells, monkeys made +of bits of sponge, all sorts of things made of breastbones and +merrythoughts, old packs of cards that are always building themselves +into houses and getting knocked down when the band begins to play, +feathers, rabbits' tails--' + +"'Ah! I have heard about the rabbits' tails,' I said. + +"'There they are,' the beetle continued; 'and when the band plays you +will see how they skip and run. I don't believe you would find out that +they had no bodies, for my experience of a warren is, that when rabbits +skip and run it is the tails chiefly that you do see. But of all the +amateur toys the most successful are the boats. We have a lake for our +craft, you know, and there's quite a fleet of boats made out of old +cork floats in fishing villages. Then, you see, the old bits of cork +have really been to sea, and seen a good deal of service on the +herring-nets, and so they quite take the lead of the smart shop ships, +that have never been beyond a pond or a tub of water. But that's an +exception. Amateur toys are mostly very dowdy. Look at that box.' + +"I looked, thought I must have seen it before, and wondered why a very +common-looking box without a lid should affect me so strangely, and why +my memory should seem struggling to bring it back out of the past. +Suddenly it came to me--it was our old Toy Box. + +"I had completely forgotten that nursery institution till recalled by +the familiar aspect of the inside, which was papered with proof-sheets +of some old novel on which black stars had been stamped by way of +ornament. Dim memories of how these stars, and the angles of the box, +and certain projecting nails interfered with the letter-press and +defeated all attempts to trace the thread of the nameless narrative, +stole back over my brain; and I seemed once more, with my head in the +Toy Box, to beguile a wet afternoon by apoplectic endeavours to follow +the fortunes of Sir Charles and Lady Belinda, as they took a favourable +turn in the left-hand corner at the bottom of the trunk. + +"'What are you staring at?' said the beetle. + +"'It's my old Toy Box!' I exclaimed. + +"The beetle rolled on to his back, and struggled helplessly with his +legs: I turned him over. (Neither the first nor the last time of my +showing that attention to beetles.) + +"'That's right,' he said, 'set me on my legs. What a turn you gave me! +You don't mean to say you have any toys here? If you have, the sooner +you make your way home the better.' + +"'Why?' I inquired. + +"'Well,' he said, 'there's a very strong feeling in the place. The toys +think that they are ill-treated, and not taken care of by children in +general. And there is some truth in it. Toys come down here by scores +that have been broken the first day. And they are all quite resolved +that if any of their old masters or mistresses come this way they shall +be punished.' + +"'How will they be punished?' I inquired. + +"'Exactly as they did to their toys, their toys will do to them. All is +perfectly fair and regular.' + +"'I don't know that I treated mine particularly badly,' I said; 'but I +think I would rather go.' + +"'I think you'd better,' said the beetle. 'Good-evening!' and I saw him +no more. + +"I turned to go, but somehow I lost the road. At last, as I thought, I +found it, and had gone a few steps when I came on a detachment of +wooden soldiers, drawn up on their lazy tongs. I thought it better to +wait till they got out of the way, so I turned back, and sat down in a +corner in some alarm. As I did so, I heard a click, and the lid of a +small box covered with mottled paper burst open, and up jumped a figure +in a blue striped shirt and a rabbit-skin beard, whose eyes were +intently fixed on me. He was very like my old Jack-in-a-box. My back +began to creep, and I wildly meditated escape, frantically trying at +the same time to recall whether it were I or my brother who originated +the idea of making a small bonfire of our own one 5th of November, and +burning the old Jack-in-a-box for Guy Fawkes, till nothing was left of +him but a twirling bit of red-hot wire and a strong smell of frizzled +fur. At this moment he nodded to me and spoke. + +"'Oh! that's you, is it?' he said. + +"'No, it's not,' I answered hastily; for I was quite demoralized by +fear and the strangeness of the situation. + +"'Who is it, then?' he inquired. + +"'I'm sure I don't know,' I said; and really I was so confused that I +hardly did. + +"'Well, _we_ know,' said the Jack-in-a-box, 'and that's all that's +needed. Now, my friends,' he continued, addressing the toys who had +begun to crowd round us, 'whoever recognizes a mistress and remembers a +grudge--the hour of our revenge has come. Can we any of us forget the +treatment we received at her hands? No! When we think of the ingenious +fancy, the patient skill, that went to our manufacture; that fitted the +delicate joints and springs, laid on the paint and varnish, and gave +back-hair-combs and ear-rings to our smallest dolls, we feel that we +deserved more care than we received. When we reflect upon the kind +friends who bought us with their money, and gave us away in the +benevolence of their hearts, we know that for their sakes we ought to +have been longer kept and better valued. And when we remember that the +sole object of our own existence was to give pleasure and amusement to +our possessors, we have no hesitation in believing that we deserved a +handsomer return than to have had our springs broken, our paint +dirtied, and our earthly careers so untimely shortened by wilful +mischief or fickle neglect. My friends, the prisoner is at the bar.' + +"'I am not,' I said; for I was determined not to give in as long as +resistance was possible. But as I said it I became aware, to my +unutterable amazement, that I was inside the go-cart. How I got there +is to this moment a mystery to me--but there I was. + +"There was a great deal of excitement about the Jack-in-a-box's speech. +It was evident that he was considered an orator, and, indeed, I have +seen counsel in a real court look wonderfully like him. Meanwhile, my +old toys appeared to be getting together. I had no idea that I had had +so many. I had really been very fond of most of them, and my heart beat +as the sight of them recalled scenes long forgotten, and took me back +to childhood and home. There were my little gardening tools, and my +slate, and there was the big doll's bedstead, that had a real mattress, +and real sheets and blankets, all marked with the letter D, and a +work-basket made in the blind school, and a shilling School of Art +paint-box, and a wooden doll we used to call the Dowager, and +innumerable other toys which I had forgotten till the sight of them +recalled them to my memory, but which have again passed from my mind. +Exactly opposite to me stood the Chinese mandarin, nodding as I had +never seen him nod since the day when I finally stopped his +performances by ill-directed efforts to discover how he did it. + +"And what was that familiar figure among the rest, in a yellow silk +dress and maroon velvet cloak and hood trimmed with black lace? How +those clothes recalled the friends who gave them to me! And surely this +was no other than my dear doll Rosa--the beloved companion of five +years of my youth, whose hair I wore in a locket after I was grown up. +No one could say I had ill-treated _her_. Indeed, she fixed her +eyes on me with a most encouraging smile--but then she always smiled, +her mouth was painted so. + +"'All whom it may concern, take notice,' shouted the Jack-in-a-box, at +this point, 'that the rule of this honourable court is tit for tat.' + +"'Tit, tat, tumble two,' muttered the slate in a cracked voice. (How +well I remembered the fall that cracked it, and the sly games of tit +tat that varied the monotony of our long multiplication sums!) + +"'What are you talking about?' said the Jack-in-a-box, sharply; 'if you +have grievances, state them, and you shall have satisfaction, as I told +you before.' + +"'---- and five make nine,' added the slate promptly, 'and six are +fifteen, and eight are twenty-seven--there we go again.' I wonder why I +never get up to the top of a line of figures right. It will never prove +at this rate.' + +"'His mind is lost in calculations,' said the Jack-in-a-box, +'besides--between ourselves--he has been "cracky" for some time. Let +some one else speak, and observe that no one is at liberty to pass a +sentence on the prisoner heavier than what he has suffered from her. I +reserve _my_ judgment to the last.' + +"'I know what that will be,' thought I; 'oh dear! oh dear! that a +respectable maiden lady should live to be burnt as a Guy Fawkes!' + +"'Let the prisoner drink a gallon of iced water at once, and then be +left to die of thirst.' + +"The horrible idea that the speaker might possibly have the power to +enforce his sentence diverted my attention from the slate, and I looked +round. In front of the Jack-in-a-box stood a tiny red flower-pot and +saucer, in which was a miniature cactus. My thoughts flew back to a +bazaar in London where, years ago, a stand of these fairy plants had +excited my warmest longings, and where a benevolent old gentleman whom +I had not seen before, and never saw again, bought this one and gave it +to me. Vague memories of his directions for repotting and tending it +reproached me from the past. My mind misgave me that after all it had +died a dusty death for lack of water. True, the cactus tribe being +succulent plants do not demand much moisture, but I had reason to fear +that, in this instance, the principle had been applied too far, and +that after copious baths of cold spring water in the first days of its +popularity it had eventually perished by drought. I suppose I looked +guilty, for it nodded its prickly head towards me, and said, 'Ah! you +know me. You remember what I was, do you? Did you ever think of what I +might have been? There was a fairy rose which came down here not long +ago--a common rose enough, in a broken pot patched with string and +white paint. It had lived in a street where it was the only pure +beautiful thing your eyes could see. When the girl who kept it died +there were eighteen roses upon it. She was eighteen years old, and they +put the roses in the coffin with her when she was buried. That was +worth living for. Who knows what I might have done? And what right had +you to cut short a life that might have been useful?' + +"Before I could think of a reply to these too just reproaches, the +flower-pot enlarged, the plant shot up, putting forth new branches as +it grew; then buds burst from the prickly limbs, and in a few moments +there hung about it great drooping blossoms of lovely pink, with long +white tassels in their throats. I had been gazing at it some time in +silent and self-reproachful admiration, when I became aware that the +business of this strange court was proceeding, and that the other toys +were pronouncing sentence against me. + +"'Tie a string round her neck and take her out bathing in the brooks,' +I heard an elderly voice say in severe tones. It was the Dowager Doll. +She was inflexibly wooden, and had been in the family for more than one +generation. + +"'It's not fair,' I exclaimed, 'the string was only to keep you from +being carried away by the stream. The current is strong and the bank +steep by the Hollow Oak Pool, and you had no arms or legs. You were old +and ugly, but you would wash, and we loved you better than many waxen +beauties.' + +"'Old and ugly!' shrieked the Dowager. 'Tear her wig off! Scrub the +paint off her face! Flatten her nose on the pavement! Saw off her legs +and give her no crinoline! Take her out bathing, I say, and bring her +home in a wheelbarrow with fern roots on the top of her.' + +"I was about to protest again, when the paint-box came forward, and +balancing itself in an artistic, undecided kind of way on two +camel's-hair brushes which seemed to serve it for feet, addressed the +Jack-in-a-box. + +"'Never dip your paint into the water. Never put your brush into your +mouth--" + +"'That's not evidence,' said the Jack-in-a-box. + +"'Your notions are crude,' said the paint-box loftily; 'it's in print, +and here, all of it, or words to that effect;' with which he touched +the lid, as a gentleman might lay his hand upon his heart. + +"'It's not evidence,' repeated the Jack-in-a-box. 'Let us proceed.' + +"'Take her to pieces and see what she's made of, if you please,' +tittered a pretty German toy that moved to a tinkling musical +accompaniment. 'If her works are available after that it will be an era +in natural science.' + +"The idea tickled me, and I laughed. + +"'Hard-hearted wretch!' growled the Dowager Doll. + +"'Dip her in water and leave her to soak on a white soup-plate,' said +the paint-box; 'if that doesn't soften her feelings, deprive me of my +medal from the School of Art!' + +"'Give her a stiff neck!' muttered the mandarin. 'Ching Fo! give her a +stiff neck.' + +"'Knock her teeth out,' growled the rake in a scratchy voice; and then +the tools joined in chorus. + +"'Take her out when it's fine and leave her out when it's wet, and lose +her in-- + +"'The coal-hole,' said the spade. + +"'The hay-field,' said the rake. + +"'The shrubbery,' said the hoe. + +"This difference of opinion produced a quarrel, which in turn seemed to +affect the general behaviour of the toys, for a disturbance arose which +the Jack-in-a-box vainly endeavoured to quell. A dozen voices shouted +for a dozen different punishments, and (happily for me) each toy +insisted upon its own wrongs being the first to be avenged, and no one +would hear of the claims of any one else being attended to for an +instant. Terrible sentences were passed, which I either failed to hear +through the clamour then, or have forgotten now. I have a vague idea +that several voices cried that I was to be sent to wash in somebody's +pocket; that the work-basket wished to cram my mouth with unfinished +needlework; and that through all the din the thick voice of my old +leather ball monotonously repeated: + +"'Throw her into the dust-hole.' + +"Suddenly a clear voice pierced the confusion, and Rosa tripped up. + +"'My dears,' she began, 'the only chance of restoring order is to +observe method. Let us follow our usual rule of precedence. I claim the +first turn as the prisoner's oldest toy.' + +"'That you are not, Miss,' snapped the Dowager; 'I was in the family +for fifty years.' + +"'In the family. Yes, ma'am; but you were never her doll in particular. +I was her very own, and she kept me longer than any other plaything. My +judgment must be first.' + +"'She is right,' said the Jack-in-a-box; 'and now let us get on. The +prisoner is delivered unreservedly into the hands of our trusty and +well-beloved Rosa--doll of the first class--for punishment according to +the strict law of tit for tat.' + +"'I shall request the assistance of the pewter tea-things,' said Rosa, +with her usual smile. 'And now, my love,' she added, turning to me, 'we +will come and sit down.' + +"Where the go-cart vanished to I cannot remember, nor how I got out of +it; I only know that I suddenly found myself free, and walking away +with my hand in Rosa's. I remember vacantly feeling the rough edge of +the stitches on her flat kid fingers, and wondering what would come +next. + +"'How very oddly you hold your feet, my dear,' she said; 'you stick out +your toes in such an eccentric fashion, and you lean on your legs as if +they were table legs, instead of supporting yourself by my hand. Turn +your heels well out, and bring your toes together. You may even let +them fold over each other a little; it is considered to have a pretty +effect among dolls,' + +"Under one of the big trees Miss Rosa made me sit down, propping me +against the trunk as if I should otherwise have fallen; and in a moment +more a square box of pewter tea-things came tumbling up to our feet, +where the lid burst open, and all the tea-things fell out in perfect +order; the cups on the saucers, the lid on the teapot, and so on. + +"'Take a little tea, my love?' said Miss Rosa, pressing a pewter teacup +to my lips. + +"I made believe to drink, but was only conscious of inhaling a draught +of air with a slight flavour of tin. In taking my second cup I was +nearly choked with the teaspoon, which got into my throat. + +"'What are you doing?' roared the Jack-in-a-box at this moment; 'you +are not punishing her.' + +"'I am treating her as she treated me,' answered Rosa, looking as +severe as her smile would allow. 'I believe that tit for tat is the +rule, and that at present it is my turn.' + +"'It will be mine soon,' growled the Jack-in-a-box, and I thought of +the bonfire with a shudder. However, there was no knowing what might +happen before his turn did come, and meanwhile I was in friendly hands. +It was not the first time my dolly and I had sat together under a tree, +and, truth to say, I do not think she had any injuries to avenge. + +"'When your wig comes off,' murmured Rosa, as she stole a pink kid arm +tenderly round my neck, 'I'll make you a cap with blue and white +rosettes, and pretend that you have had a fever.' + +"I thanked her gratefully, and was glad to reflect that I was not yet +in need of an attention which I distinctly remember having shown to her +in the days of her dollhood. Presently she jumped up. + +"'I think you shall go to bed now, dear,' she said, and, taking my hand +once more, she led me to the big doll's bedstead, which, with its +pretty bed-clothes and white dimity furniture, looked tempting enough +to a sleeper of suitable size. It could not have supported one quarter +of my weight. + +"'I have not made you a night-dress, my love,' Rosa continued; 'I am +not fond of my needle, you know. _You_ were not fond of your needle, I +think, I fear you must go to bed in your clothes, my dear.' + +"'You are very kind,' I said, 'but I am not tired, and--it would not +bear my weight.' + +"'Pooh! pooh!' said Rosa. 'My love! I remember passing one Sunday in it +with the rag-doll, and the Dowager, and the Punch and Judy (the amount +of pillow their two noses took up I shall never forget!), and the old +doll that had nothing on, because her clothes were in the dolls' wash +and did not get ironed on Saturday night, and the Highlander, whose +things wouldn't come off, and who slept in his kilt. Not bear you? +Nonsense! You must go to bed, my dear. I've got other things to do, and +I can't leave you lying about.' + +"'The whole lot of you did not weigh one quarter of what I do,' I cried +desperately. 'I cannot and will not get into that bed; I should break +it all to pieces, and hurt myself into the bargain.' + +"'Well, if you will not go to bed I must put you there,' said Rosa, and +without more ado, she snatched me up in her kid arms, and laid me down. + +"Of course it was just as I expected. I had hardly touched the two +little pillows (they had a meal-baggy smell from being stuffed with +bran), when the woodwork gave way with a crash, and I +fell--fell--fell-- + +"Though I fully believed every bone in my body to be broken, it was +really a relief to get to the ground. As soon as I could, I sat up, and +felt myself all over. A little stiff, but, as it seemed, unhurt. Oddly +enough, I found that I was back again under the tree; and more strange +still, it was not the tree where I sat with Rosa, but the old oak-tree +in the little wood. Was it all a dream? The toys had vanished, the +lights were out, the mosses looked dull in the growing dusk, the +evening was chilly, the hole no larger than it was thirty years ago, +and when I felt in my pocket for my spectacles I found that they were +on my nose. + +"I have returned to the spot many times since, but I never could induce +a beetle to enter into conversation on the subject, the hole remains +obstinately impassable, and I have not been able to repeat my visit to +the Land of Lost Toys. + +"When I recall my many sins against the playthings of my childhood, I +am constrained humbly to acknowledge that perhaps this is just as +well." + + * * * * * + + +SAM SETS UP SHOP. + +"I think you might help me, Dot," cried Sam, in dismal and rather +injured tones. + +It was the morning following the day of the earthquake, and of Aunt +Penelope's arrival. Sam had his back to Dot, and his face to the fire, +over which indeed he had bent for so long that he appeared to be half +roasted. + +"What do you want?" asked Dot, who was working at a doll's night-dress +that had for long been partly finished, and now seemed in a fair way to +completion. + +"It's the glue-pot," Sam continued. "It does take so long to boil. And +I have been stirring at the glue with a stick for ever so long to get +it to melt. It is very hot work. I wish you would take it for a bit. +It's as much for your good as for mine." + +"Is it?" said Dot. + +"Yes, it is, Miss," cried Sam. "You must know I've got a splendid +idea." + +"Not another earthquake, I hope?" said Dot, smiling. + +"Now, Dot, that's truly unkind of you. I thought it was to be +forgotten." + +"So it is," said Dot, getting up. "I was only joking. What is the +idea?" + +"I don't think I shall tell you till I have finished my shop. I want to +get to it now, and I wish you would take a turn at the glue-pot." + +Sam was apt to want a change of occupation. Dot, on the other hand, was +equally averse from leaving what she was about till it was finished, so +they suited each other like Jack Sprat and his wife. It had been an +effort to Dot to leave the night-dress which she had hoped to finish at +a sitting; but when she was fairly set to work on the glue business she +never moved till the glue was in working order, and her face as red as +a ripe tomato. + +By this time Sam had set up business in the window-seat, and was +fastening a large paper inscription over his shop. It ran thus:-- + + * * * * * + + MR. SAM. + +_Dolls' Doctor and Toymender to Her Majesty +the Queen, and all other Potentates_. + + * * * * * + +"Splendid!" shouted Dot, who was serving up the glue as if it had been +a kettle of soup, and who looked herself very like an over-toasted +cook. + +Sam took the glue, and began to bustle about. + +"Now, Dot, get me all the broken toys, and we'll see what we can do. +And here's a second splendid idea. Do you see that box? Into that we +shall put all the toys that are quite spoiled and cannot possibly be +mended. It is to be called the Hospital for Incurables. I've got a +placard for that. At least it's not written yet, but here's the paper, +and perhaps you would write it, Dot, for I am tired of writing, and I +want to begin the mending." + +"For the future," he presently resumed, "when I want a doll to scalp or +behead, I shall apply to the Hospital for Incurables, and the same with +any other toy that I want to destroy. And you will see, my dear Dot, +that I shall be quite a blessing to the nursery; for I shall attend the +dolls gratis, and keep all the furniture in repair." + +Sam really kept his word. He had a natural turn for mechanical work, +and, backed by Dot's more methodical genius, he prolonged the days of +the broken toys by skilful mending, and so acquired an interest in them +which was still more favourable to their preservation. When his +birthday came round, which was some months after these events, Dot +(assisted by Mamma and Aunt Penelope) had prepared for him a surprise +that was more than equal to any of his own "splendid ideas." The whole +force of the toy cupboard was assembled on the nursery table, to +present Sam with a fine box of joiner's tools as a reward for his +services, Papa kindly acting as spokesman on the occasion. + +And certain gaps in the china tea-set, some scars on the dolls' faces, +and a good many new legs, both amongst the furniture and the animals, +are now the only remaining traces of Sam's earthquake. + + * * * * * + + +THREE CHRISTMAS TREES. + +This is a story of Three Christmas Trees. The first was a real one, but +the child we are to speak of did not see it. He saw the other two, but +they were not real; they only existed in his fancy. The plot of the +story is very simple; and, as it has been described so early, it is +easy for those who think it stupid to lay the book down in good time. + +Probably every child who reads this has seen one Christmas tree or +more; but in the small town of a distant colony with which we have to +do, this could not at one time have been said. Christmas-trees were +then by no means so universal, even in England, as they now are, and in +this little colonial town they were unknown. Unknown, that is, till the +Governor's wife gave her great children's party. At which point we will +begin the story. + +The Governor had given a great many parties in his time. He had +entertained big wigs and little wigs, the passing military, and the +local grandees. Everybody who had the remotest claim to attention had +been attended to: the ladies had had their full share of balls and +pleasure parties: only one class of the population had any complaint to +prefer against his hospitality; but the class was a large one--it was +the children. However, he, was a bachelor, and knew little or nothing +about little boys and girls: let us pity rather than blame him. At last +he took to himself a wife; and among the many advantages of this +important step, was a due recognition of the claims of these young +citizens. It was towards happy Christmas-tide that "the Governor's +amiable and admired lady" (as she was styled in the local newspaper) +sent out notes for her first children's party. At the top of the +note-paper was a very red robin, who carried a blue Christmas greeting +in his mouth, and at the bottom--written with A.D.C.'s best +flourish--were the magic words, _A Christmas Tree_. In spite of the +flourishes--partly perhaps because of them--the A.D.C.'s handwriting, +though handsome, was rather illegible. But for all this, most of the +children invited contrived to read these words, and those who could not +do so were not slow to learn the news by hearsay. There was to be a +Christmas Tree! It would be like a birthday party, with this above +ordinary birthdays, that there were to be presents for every one. One +of the children invited lived in a little white house, with a spruce +fir-tree before the door. The spruce fir did this good service to the +little house, that it helped people to find their way to it; and it +was by no means easy for a stranger to find his way to any given house +in this little town, especially if the house were small and white, and +stood in one of the back streets. For most of the houses were small, +and most of them were painted white, and back streets ran parallel with +each other, and had no names, and were all so much alike that it was +very confusing. For instance, if you had asked the way to Mr. +So-and-So's, it is very probable that some friend would have directed +you as follows: "Go straight forward and take the first turning to your +left, and you will find that there are four streets, which run at right +angles to the one you are in, and parallel with each other. Each of +them has got a big pine in it--one of the old forest trees. Take the +last street but one, and the fifth white house you come to is Mr. +So-and-So's. He has green blinds and a coloured servant." You would not +always have got such clear directions as these, but with them you would +probably have found the house at last, partly by accident, partly by the +blinds and coloured servant. Some of the neighbours affirmed that the +little white house had a name; that all the houses and streets had names, +only they were traditional and not recorded anywhere; that very few +people knew them, and nobody made any use of them. The name of the little +white house was said to be Trafalgar Villa, which seemed so inappropriate +to the modest peaceful little home, that the man who lived in it tried to +find out why it had been so called. He thought that his predecessor must +have been in the navy, until he found that he had been the owner of what +is called a "dry-goods store," which seems to mean a shop where things +are sold which are not good to eat or drink--such as drapery. At last +somebody said, that as there was a public-house called the "Duke of +Wellington" at the corner of the street, there probably had been a nearer +one called "The Nelson," which had been burnt down, and that the man who +built "The Nelson" had built the house with the spruce fir before it, +and that so the name had arisen. An explanation which was just so far +probable, that public-houses and fires were of frequent occurrence in +those parts. + +But this has nothing to do with the story. Only we must say, as we said +before, and as we should have said had we been living there then, the +child we speak of lived in the little white house with one spruce fir +just in front of it. + +Of all the children who looked forward to the Christmas tree, he looked +forward to it the most intensely. He was an imaginative child, of a +simple, happy nature, easy to please. His father was an Englishman, and +in the long winter evenings he would tell the child tales of the old +country, to which his mother would listen also. Perhaps the parents +enjoyed these stories the most. To the boy they were new, and +consequently delightful, but to the parents they were old; and as +regards some stories, that is better still. + +"What kind of a bird is this on my letter?" asked the boy on the day +which brought the Governor's lady's note of invitation. "And oh! what +is a Christmas tree?" + +"The bird is an English robin," said his father. "It is quite another +bird to that which is called a robin here: it is smaller and rounder, +and has a redder breast and bright dark eyes, and lives and sings at +home through the winter. A Christmas tree is a fir-tree--just such a +one as that outside the door--brought into the house and covered with +lights and presents. Picture to yourself our fir-tree lighted up with +tapers on all the branches, with dolls, and trumpets, and bon-bons, and +drums, and toys of all kinds hanging from it like fir-cones, and on the +tip-top shoot a figure of a Christmas Angel in white, with a star upon +its head." + +"Fancy!" said the boy. + +And fancy he did. Every day he looked at the spruce fir, and tried to +imagine it laden with presents, and brilliant with tapers, and thought +how wonderful must be that "old country"--_Home_, as it was called, even +by those who had never seen it--where the robins were so very red, and +where at Christmas the fir-trees were hung with toys instead of cones. + +It was certainly a pity that, two days before the party, an original +idea on the subject of snowmen struck one of the children who used to +play together, with their sleds and snow shoes, in the back streets. +The idea was this: That instead of having a commonplace snowman, whose +legs were obliged to be mere stumps, for fear he should be top-heavy, +and who could not walk, even with them; who, in fact, could do nothing +but stand at the corner of the street, holding his impotent stick, and +staring with his pebble eyes, till he was broken to pieces or +ignominiously carried away by a thaw,--that, instead of this, they +should have a real, live snowman, who should walk on competent legs, to +the astonishment, and (happy thought!) perhaps to the alarm of the +passers-by. This delightful novelty was to be accomplished by covering +one of the boys of the party with snow till he looked as like a real +snowman as circumstances would admit. At first everybody wanted to be +the snowman, but, when it came to the point, it was found to be so much +duller to stand still and be covered up than to run about and work, +that no one was willing to act the part. At last it was undertaken by +the little boy from the Fir House. He was somewhat small, but then he +was so good-natured he would always do as he was asked. So he stood +manfully still, with his arms folded over a walking-stick upon his +breast, whilst the others heaped the snow upon him. The plan was not so +successful as they had hoped. The snow would not stick anywhere except +on his shoulders, and when it got into his neck he cried with the cold; +but they were so anxious to carry out their project, that they begged +him to bear it "just a little longer"; and the urchin who had devised +the original idea wiped the child's eyes with his handkerchief, and +(with that hopefulness which is so easy over other people's matters) +"dared say that when all the snow was on, he wouldn't feel it." +However, he did feel it, and that so severely that the children were +obliged to give up the game, and, taking the stick out of his stiff +little arms, to lead him home. + +It appears that it is with snowmen as with some other men in +conspicuous positions. It is easier to find fault with them than to +fill their place. + +The end of this was a feverish cold, and, when the day of the party +came, the ex-snowman was still in bed. It is due to the other children +to say that they felt the disappointment as keenly as he did, and that +it greatly damped the pleasure of the party for them to think that they +had prevented his sharing in the treat. The most penitent of all was +the deviser of the original idea. He had generously offered to stay at +home with the little patient, which was as generously refused; but the +next evening he was allowed to come and sit on his bed, and describe it +all for the amusement of his friend. He was a quaint boy, this urchin, +with a face as broad as an American Indian's, eyes as bright as a +squirrel's, and all the mischief in life lurking about him, till you +could see roguishness in the very folds of his hooded Indian winter +coat of blue and scarlet. In his hand he brought the sick child's +present: a dray with two white horses, and little barrels that took off +and on, and a driver, with wooden joints, a cloth coat, and everything, +in fact, that was suitable to the driver of a brewer's dray, except +that he had blue boots and earrings, and that his hair was painted in +braids like a lady's, which is clearly the fault of the doll +manufacturers, who will persist in making them all of the weaker sex. + +"And what was the Christmas tree like?" asked the invalid. + +"Exactly like the fir outside your door," was the reply. "Just about +that size, and planted in a pot covered with red cloth. It was kept in +another room till after tea, and then when the door was opened it was +like a street fire in the town at night--such a blaze of light--candles +everywhere! And on all the branches the most beautiful presents. I got +a drum and a penwiper." + +"Was there an angel?" the child asked. + +"Oh, yes!" the boy answered. "It was on the tip-top branch, and it was +given to me, and I brought it for you, if you would like it; for, you +know, I am so very, very sorry I thought of a snowman and made you ill, +and I do love you, and beg you to forgive me." + +And the roguish face stooped over the pillow to be kissed; and out of a +pocket in the hooded coat came forth the Christmas Angel. In the face +it bore a strong family likeness to the drayman, but its feet were +hidden in folds of snowy muslin, and on its head glittered a tinsel +star. + +"How lovely!" said the child. "Father told me about this. I like it +best of all. And it is very kind of you, for it is not your fault that +I caught cold. I should have liked it if we could have done it, but I +think to enjoy being a snowman, one should be snow all through." + +They had tea together, and then the invalid was tucked up for the +night. The dray was put away in the cupboard, but he took the angel to +bed with him. + +And so ended the first of the Three Christmas Trees. + + * * * * * + +Except for a warm glow from the wood fire in the stove, the room was +dark; but about midnight it seemed to the child that a sudden blaze of +light filled the chamber. At the same moment the window curtains were +drawn aside, and he saw that the spruce fir had come close up to the +panes and was peeping in. Ah! how beautiful it looked! It had become a +Christmas tree. Lighted tapers shone from every familiar branch, toys +of the most fascinating appearance hung like fruit, and on the tip-top +shoot there stood the Christmas Angel. He tried to count the candles, +but somehow it was impossible. When he looked at them they seemed to +change places--to move--to become like the angel, and then to be +candles again, whilst the flames nodded to each other and repeated the +blue greeting of the robin, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" +Then he tried to distinguish the presents, but, beautiful as the toys +looked, he could not exactly discover what any of them were, or choose +which he would like best. Only the Angel he could see clearly--so +clearly! It was more beautiful than the doll under his pillow; it had a +lovely face like his own mother's, he thought, and on its head gleamed +a star far brighter than tinsel. Its white robes waved with the flames +of the tapers, and it stretched its arms towards him with a smile. + +"I am to go and choose my present," thought the child; and he called +"Mother! Mother dear! please open the window." + +But his mother did not answer. So he thought he must get up himself, +and with an effort he struggled out of bed. + +But when he was on his feet, everything seemed changed! Only the +firelight shone upon the walls, and the curtains were once more firmly +closed before the window. It had been a dream, but so vivid that in his +feverish state he still thought it must be true, and dragged the +curtains back to let in the glorious sight again. The firelight shone +upon a thick coating of frost upon the panes, but no further could he +see, so with all his strength he pushed the window open and leaned out +into the night. + +The spruce fir stood in its old place; but it looked very beautiful in +its Christmas dress. Beneath it lay a carpet of pure white. The snow +was clustered in exquisite shapes upon its plumy branches; wrapping the +tree top with its little cross shoots, as a white robe might wrap a +figure with outstretched arms. + +There were no tapers to be seen, but northern lights shot up into the +dark blue sky, and just over the fir-tree shone a bright, bright star. + +"Jupiter looks well to-night," said the old Professor in the town +observatory, as he fixed his telescope; but to the child it seemed as +the star of the Christmas Angel. + +His mother had really heard him call, and now came and put him back to +bed again. And so ended the second of the Three Christmas Trees. + + * * * * * + +It was enough to have killed him, all his friends said; but it did not. +He lived to be a man, and--what is rarer--to keep the faith, the +simplicity, the tender-heartedness, the vivid fancy of his childhood. +He lived to see many Christmas trees "at home," in that old country +where the robins are redbreasts, and sing in winter. There a heart as +good and gentle as his own became one with his; and once he brought his +young wife across the sea to visit the place where he was born. They +stood near the little white house, and he told her the story of the +Christmas trees. + +"This was when I was a child," he added. + +"But that you are still," said she; and she plucked a bit of the +fir-tree and kissed it, and carried it away. + +He lived to tell the story to his children, and even to his +grandchildren; but he never was able to decide which of the two was +the more beautiful--the Christmas Tree of his dream, or the Spruce Fir +as it stood in the loveliness of that winter night. + +This is told, not that it has anything to do with any of the Three +Christmas Trees, but to show that the story is a happy one, as is right +and proper; that the hero lived, and married, and had children, and was +as prosperous as good people, in books, should always be. + +Of course he died at last. The best and happiest of men must die; and +it is only because some stories stop short in their history, that every +hero is not duly buried before we lay down the book. + +When death came for our hero he was an old man. The beloved wife, some +of his children, and many of his friends had died before him, and of +those whom he had loved there were fewer to leave than to rejoin. He +had had a short illness, with little pain, and was now lying on his +deathbed in one of the big towns in the North of England. His youngest +son, a clergy-man, was with him, and one or two others of his children, +and by the fire sat the doctor. + +The doctor had been sitting by the patient, but now that he could do no +more for him he had moved to the fire; and they had taken the ghastly, +half-emptied medicine bottles from the table by the bedside, and had +spread it with a fair linen cloth, and had set out the silver vessels +of the Supper of the Lord. The old man had been "wandering" somewhat +during the day. He had talked much of going home to the old country, +and with the wide range of dying thoughts he had seemed to mingle +memories of childhood with his hopes of Paradise. At intervals he was +clear and collected--one of those moments had been chosen for his last +sacrament--and he had fallen asleep with the blessing in his ears. + +He slept so long and so peacefully that the son almost began to hope +that there might be a change, and looked towards the doctor, who still +sat by the fire with his right leg crossed over his left. The doctor's +eyes were also on the bed, but at that moment he drew out his watch and +looked at it with an air of professional conviction, which said, "It's +only a question of time." Then he crossed his left leg over his right, +and turned to the fire again. Before the right leg should be tired, all +would be over. The son saw it as clearly as if it had been spoken, and +he too turned away and sighed. + +As they sat, the bells of a church in the town began to chime for +midnight service, for it was Christmas Eve, but they did not wake the +dying man. He slept on and on. + +The doctor dozed. The son read in the Prayer Book on the table, and one +of his sisters read with him. Another, from grief and weariness, slept +with her head upon his shoulder. Except for a warm glow from the fire, +the room was dark. Suddenly the old man sat up in bed, and, in a strong +voice, cried with inexpressible enthusiasm, + +"_How beautiful!_" + +The son held back his sisters, and asked quietly, + +"_What_, my dear Father?" + +"The Christmas Tree!" he said in a low, eager voice. "Draw back the +curtains." + +They were drawn back; but nothing could be seen, and still the old man +gazed as if in ecstasy. + +"Light!" he murmured. "The Angel! the Star!" + +Again there was silence; and then he stretched forth his hands, and +cried passionately, + +"The Angel is beckoning to me! Mother! Mother dear! Please open the +window." + +The sash was thrown open, and all eyes turned involuntarily where those +of the dying man were gazing. There was no Christmas tree--no tree at +all. But over the house-tops the morning star looked pure and pale in +the dawn of Christmas Day. For the night was past, and above the +distant hum of the streets the clear voices of some waits made the +words of an old carol heard--words dearer for their association than +their poetry: + + "While shepherds watched their flocks by night, + All seated on the ground, + The Angel of the Lord came down, + And glory shone around." + +When the window was opened, the soul passed; and when they looked back +to the bed the old man had lain down again, and, like a child, was +smiling in his sleep--his last sleep. + +And this was the Third Christmas Tree. + + * * * * * + + + + +AN IDYLL OF THE WOOD. + + +"Tell us a story," said the children, "a sad one, if you please, and a +little true. But, above all, let it end badly, for we are tired of +people who live happily ever after." + +"I heard one lately," said the old man who lived in the wood; "it is +founded on fact, and is a sad one also; but whether it ends badly or no +I cannot pretend to say. That is a matter of taste: what is a bad +ending?" + +"A story ends badly," said the children with authority, "when people +die, and nobody marries anybody else, especially if it is a prince and +princess." + +"A most lucid explanation," said the old man. "I think my story will +do, for the principal character dies, and there is no wedding." + +"Tell it, tell it!" cried his hearers, "and tell us also where you got +it from." + +"Who knows the riches of a wood in summer?" said the old man. "In +summer, do I say? In spring, in autumn, or in winter either. Who knows +them? You, my children? Well, well. Better than some of your elders, +perchance. You know the wood where I live; the hollow tree that will +hold five children, and Queen Mab knows how many fairies. (What a +castle it makes! And if it had but another floor put into it, with a +sloping ladder--like one of the round towers of Ireland--what a house +for children to live in! With no room for lesson-books, grown-up +people, or beds!) + +"You know the way to the hazel copse, and the place where the wild +strawberries grow. You know where the wren sits on her eggs, and, like +good children, pass by with soft steps and hushed voices, that you may +not disturb that little mother. You know (for I have shown you) where +the rare fern grows--a habitat happily yet unnoted in scientific pages. +_We_ never add its lovely fronds to our nosegays, and if we move a +root it is but to plant it in another part of the wood, with as much +mystery and circumspection as if we were performing some solemn +druidical rite. It is to us as a king in hiding, and the places of its +abode we keep faithfully secret. It will be thus held sacred by us +until, with all the seed its untouched fronds have scattered, and all +the offshoots we have propagated, it shall have become as plentiful as +Heaven intends all beautiful things to be. Every one is not so +scrupulous. There are certain ladies and gentlemen who picnic near my +cottage in the hot weather, and who tell each other that they love a +wood. Most of these good people have nevertheless neither eyes nor ears +for what goes on around them, except that they hear each other, and see +the cold collation. They will picnic there summer after summer, and not +know whether they sit under oaks or ashes, beeches or elms. All birds +sing for them the same song. Tell _them_ that such a plant is rare +in the neighbourhood, that there are but few specimens of it, and it +will not long be their fault if there are any. Does any one direct them +to it, they tear it ruthlessly up and carry it away. If by any chance a +root is left, it is left so dragged and pulled and denuded of earth, +that there is small chance that it will survive. Probably, also, the +ravished clump dies in the garden or pot to which it is transplanted, +either from neglect, or from ignorance of the conditions essential to +its life; and the rare plant becomes yet rarer. Oh! without doubt they +love a wood. It gives more shade than the largest umbrella, and is +cheaper for summer entertainment than a tent: there you get canopy and +carpet, fuel and water, shade and song, and beauty--all gratis; and +these are not small matters when one has invited a large party of one's +acquaintance. There are insects, it is true, which somewhat disturb our +friends; and as they do not know which sting, and which are harmless, +they kill all that come within their reach, as a safe general +principle. The town boys, too! They know the wood--that is to say, they +know where the wild fruits grow, and how to chase the squirrel, and rob +the birds' nests, and snare the birds. Well, well, my children; to know +and love a wood truly, it may be that one must live in it as I have +done; and then a lifetime will scarcely reveal all its beauties, or +exhaust its lessons. But even then, one must have eyes that see, and +ears that hear, or one misses a good deal. It was in the wood that I +heard this story that I shall tell you." + +"How did you hear it?" asked the children. + +"A thrush sang it to me one night." + +"One night?" said the children. "Then you mean a nightingale." + +"I mean a thrush," said the old man. "Do I not know the note of one +bird from another? I tell you that pine-tree by my cottage has a legend +of its own, and the topmost branch is haunted. Must all legends be +about the loves and sorrows of our self-satisfied race alone?" + +"But did you really and truly hear it?" they asked. "I heard it," said +the old man. "But, as I tell you, one hears and one hears. I don't say +that everybody would have heard it, merely by sleeping in my chamber; +but, for the benefit of the least imaginative, I will assure you that +it is founded on fact." + +"Begin! begin!" shouted the children. + +"Once upon a time," said the old man, "there was a young thrush, who +was born in that beautiful dingle where we last planted the ---- fern. +His home-nest was close to the ground, but the lower one is, the less +fear of falling; and in woods, the elevation at which you sleep is a +matter of taste, and not of expense or gentility. He awoke to life when +the wood was dressed in the pale fresh green of early summer; and +believing, like other folk, that his own home was at least the +principal part of the world, earth seemed to him so happy and so +beautiful an abode, that his heart felt ready to burst with joy. The +ecstasy was almost pain, till wings and a voice came to him. Then, one +day, when, after a grey morning, the sun came out at noon, drawing the +scent from the old pine that looks in at my bedroom window, his joy +burst forth, after long silence, into song, and flying upwards, he sat +on the topmost branch of the pine, and sang as loud as he could sing to +the sun and the blue sky. + +"'Joy! joy!' he sang. 'Fresh water and green woods, ambrosial sunshine +and sunflecked shade, chattering brooks and rustling leaves, glade, and +sward, and dell. Lichens and cool mosses, feathered ferns and flowers. +Green leaves! Green leaves! Summer! summer! summer!' + +"It was monotonous, but every word came from the singer's heart, which +is not always the case. Thenceforward, though he slept near the ground, +he went up every day to this pine, as to some sacred high place, and +sang the same song, of which neither he nor I were ever weary. + +"Let one be ever so inoffensive, however, one is not long left in peace +in this world, even in a wood. The thrush sang too loudly of his simple +happiness, and some boys from the town heard him and snared him, and +took him away in a dirty cloth cap, where he was nearly smothered. The +world is certainly not exclusively composed of sunshine, and green +woods, and odorous pines. He became almost senseless during the hot +dusty walk that led to the town. It was a seaport town, about two miles +from the wood, a town of narrow, steep streets, picturesque old houses, +and odours compounded of tar, dead fish, and many other scents less +agreeable than forest perfumes. The thrush was put into a small +wicker-cage in an upper room, in one of the narrowest and steepest of +the streets. "'I shall die to-night,' he piped. But he did not. He +lived that night, and for several nights and days following. The boys +took small care of him, however. He was often left without food, +without water, and always with too little air. Two or three times they +tried to sell him, but he was not bought, for no one could hear him +sing. One day he was hung outside the window, and partly owing to the +sun and fresh air, and partly because a woman was singing in the +street, he began to carol his old song. + +"The woman was a street singer. She was even paler, thinner, and more +destitute-looking than such women usually are. In some past time there +had been beauty and feeling in her face, but the traces of both were +well-nigh gone. An indifference almost amounting to vacancy was there +now, and, except that she sang, you might almost have fancied her a +corpse. In her voice, also, there had once been beauty and feeling, and +here again the traces were small indeed. From time to time, she was +stopped by fits of coughing, when an ill-favoured hunchback, who +accompanied her on a tambourine, swore and scowled at her. She sang a +song of sentiment, with a refrain about + + 'Love and truth, + And joys of youth--' + +on which the melody dwelt and quavered as if in mockery. As she sang, a +sailor came down the street. His collar was very large, his trousers +were very wide, his hat hung on the back of his head more as an +ornament than for shelter; and he had one of the roughest faces and the +gentlest hearts that ever went together since Beauty was entertained by +the Beast. His hands were in his pockets, where he could feel one +shilling and a penny, all the spare cash that remained to him after a +friendly stroll through the town. When he saw the street singer, he +stopped, pulled off his hat, and scratched his head, as was his custom +when he was puzzled or interested. + +"'It's no good keeping an odd penny,' he said to himself; 'poor thing, +she looks bad enough!' And, bringing the penny to the surface out of +the depths of his pocket, he gave it to the woman. The hunchback came +forward to take it, but the sailor passed him with a shove of his +elbow, and gave it to the singer, who handed it over to her companion +without moving a feature, and went on with her song. + +"'I'd like to break every bone in your ugly body,' muttered the sailor, +with a glance at the hunchback, who scowled in return. + +"'I shall die of this close street, and of all I have suffered,' +thought the thrush. + +"'Green leaves! green leaves!' he sang, for it was the only song he +knew. + +"'My voice is gone,' thought the hunchback's companion. 'He'll beat me +again to-night; but it can't last long: + + "Love and truth, + And joys of youth"'-- + +she sang, for that was the song she had learned; and it was not her +fault that it was inappropriate. + +"But the ballad-singer's captivity was nearly at an end. When the +hunchback left her that evening to spend the sailor's penny with the +few others which she had earned, he swore that when he came back he +would make her sing louder than she had done all day. Her face showed +no emotion, less than it did when he saw it hours after, when beauty +and feeling seemed to have returned to it in the peace of death, when +he came back and found the cage empty, and that the long-prisoned +spirit had flown away to seek the face of love and truth indeed. + +"But how about the thrush? + +"The sailor had scarcely swallowed the wrath which the hunchback had +stirred in him, when his ear was caught by the song of the thrush above +him. + +"'You sing uncommon well, pretty one,' he said, stopping and putting +his hat even farther back than usual to look up. He was one of those +good people who stop a dozen times in one street, and look at +everything as they go along; whereby you may see three times as much of +life as other folk, but it is a terrible temptation to spend money. It +was so in this instance. The sailor looked till his kindly eye +perceived that the bird was ill-cared for. + +"'It should have a bit of sod, it _should_,' he said emphatically, +taking his hat off, and scratching his head again; 'and there's not a +crumb of food on board. Maybe, they don't understand the ways of birds +here. It would be a good turn to mention it.' + +"With this charitable intention he entered the house, and when he left +it, his pocket was empty, and the thrush was carried tenderly in his +handkerchief. + +"'The canary died last voyage,' he muttered apologetically to himself, +'and the money always does go somehow or other.' + +"The sailor's hands were about three times as large and coarse as those +of the boy who had carried the thrush before, but they seemed to him +three times more light and tender--they were handy and kind, and this +goes farther than taper fingers. + +"The thrush's new home was not in the narrow streets. It was in a small +cottage in a small garden at the back of the town. The canary's old +cage was comparatively roomy, and food, water, and fresh turf were +regularly supplied to him. He could see green leaves too. There was an +apple-tree in the garden, and two geraniums, a fuchsia, and a tea-rose +in the window. Near the tea-rose an old woman sat in the sunshine. She +was the sailor's mother, and looked very like a tidily-kept +window-plant herself. She had a little money of her own, which gave her +a certain dignity, and her son was very good to her; and so she dwelt +in considerable comfort, dividing her time chiefly between reading in +the big Bible, knitting socks for Jack, and raising cuttings in bottles +of water. She had heard of hothouses and forcing-frames, but she did +not think much of them. She believed a bottle of water to be the most +natural, because it was the oldest method she knew of, and she thought +no good came of new-fangled ways, and trying to outdo Nature. + +"'Slow and sure is best,' she said, and stuck to her own system. + +"'What's that, my dear?' she asked, when the sailor came in and held up +the handkerchief. He told her. + +"'You're always a-laying out your money on something or other,' said +the old lady, who took the privilege of her years to be a little testy. +'What did you give for _that_?' + +"'A shilling, ma'am.' + +"'Tst! tst! tst!' said the old lady, disapprovingly. + +"'Now, Mother, don't shake that cap of yours off your head,' said the +sailor. 'What's a shilling? If I hadn't spent it, I should have changed +it; and once change a shilling, and it all dribbles away in coppers, +and you get nothing for it. But spend it in the lump, and you get +something you want. That's what I say.' + +"'_I_ want no more pets,' said the old lady, stiffly. + +"'Well, you won't be troubled with this one long,' said her son; 'it'll +go with me, and that's soon enough.' + +"Any allusion to his departure always melted the old lady, as Jack well +knew. She became tearful, and begged him to leave the thrush with her. + +"'You know, my dear, I've always looked to your live things as if they +were Christians; and loved them too (unless it was that monkey that I +never _could_ do with!). Leave it with me, my dear. I'd never bother +myself with a bird on board ship, if I was you.' + +"'That's because you've got a handsome son of your own, old lady,' +chuckled the sailor; 'I've neither chick nor child, ma'am, remember, +and a man must have something to look to. The bird'll go with me.' + +"And so it came to pass that just when the thrush was becoming +domesticated, and almost happy at the cottage, one morning the sailor +brought him fresh turf and groundsel, besides his meal-cake, and took +the cage down. And the old woman kissed the wires, and bade the bird +good-bye, and blessed her son, and prayed Heaven to bring him safe home +again; and they went their way. + +"The forecastle of a steam-ship (even of a big one) is a poor exchange +for a snug cottage to any one but a sailor. To Jack, the ship was home. +_He_ had never lived in a wood, and carolled in tree-tops. He preferred +blue to green, and pine masts to pine trees; and he smoked his pipe +very comfortably in the forecastle, whilst the ship rolled to and fro, +and swung the bird's cage above his head. To the thrush it was only an +imprisonment that grew worse as time went on. Each succeeding day made +him pine more bitterly for his native woods--for fresh air and green +leaves, and the rest and quiet, and sweet perfumes, and pleasant sounds +of country life. His turf dried up, his groundsel withered, and no more +could be got. He longed even to be back with the old woman--to see the +apple-tree, and the window-plants, and be still. The shudder of the +screw, the blasts of hot air from the engine and cook's galley, the +ceaseless jangling, clanging, pumping noises, and all the indescribable +smells which haunt a steam-ship, became more wearisome day by day. Even +when the cage was hung outside, the, sea breeze seemed to mock him with +its freshness. The rich blue of the waters gave him no pleasure, his +eyes failed with looking for green, the bitter, salt spray vexed him, +and the wind often chilled him to the bone, whilst the sun shone, and +icebergs gleamed upon the horizon. + +"The sailor had been so kind a master, that the thrush had become +deeply attached to him, as birds will; and while at the cottage he had +scarcely fretted after his beloved wood. But with every hour of the +voyage, home-sickness came more strongly upon him, and his heart went +back to the nest, and the pine-top, and the old home. When one sleeps +soundly, it is seldom that one remembers one's dreams; but when one is +apt to be roused by an unexpected lurch of the ship, by the moan of a +fog-whistle, or the scream of an engine, one becomes a light sleeper, +and the visions of the night have a strange reality, and are easily +recalled. And now the thrush always dreamt of home. + +"One day he was hung outside. It was not a very fine day, but he looked +drooping, and the pitying sailor brought him out, to get some air. His +heart was sore with home-sickness, and he watched the sea-birds +skimming up and down with envious eyes. It seemed all very well for +poor men, who hadn't so much as a wing to carry them over the water, to +build lumbering sea-nests, with bodies to float in the water like fish, +and wings of canvas to carry them along, and to help it out with noisy +steam-engines--and to endure it all. But for him, who could fly over a +hundred tree-tops before a man could climb to one, it was hard to swing +outside a ship, and to watch other birds use their wings, when his, +which quivered to fly homewards, could only flutter against the bars. +As he thought, a roll of the ship threw him forward, the wind shook the +wires of the cage, and loosened the fastening; and, when the vessel +righted, the cage-door swung slowly open. + +"At this moment, a ray of sunshine streaked the deep blue water, and a +gleaming sea bird, which had been sitting like a tuft of foam upon a +wave, rose with outstretched pinions, and soared away. It was too much. +With one shrill pipe of hope, the thrush fluttered from his cage, +spread his wings, and followed him. + +"When the sailor found that the wind was getting up, he came to take +the cage down, and then his grief was sore indeed. + +"'The canary died last voyage,' he said, sadly. 'The cage was bought on +a Friday, and I knew ill luck would come of it. I said so to Mother; +but the old lady says there's no such thing as luck, and she's +Bible-learned, if ever a woman was. "That's very true," says I, "but +if I'd the money for another cage, I wouldn't use this;" and I never +will again. Poor, bird! it was a sweet singer.' And he turned his face +aside. + +"'It may have the sense to come back,' said one of the crew. The sailor +scratched his head, and shook it sadly. + +"'Noah's bird came back to him, when she found no rest,' he said, 'but +I don't think mine will, Tom.' + +"He was right. The thrush returned no more. He did not know how wide +was the difference between his own strength and that of the bird he +followed. The sea-fowl cut the air with wings of tenfold power: he +swooped up and down, he stooped to fish, he rested on the ridges of the +dancing waves, and then, with one steady flight, he disappeared, and +the thrush was left alone. Other birds passed him, and flew about him, +and fished, and rocked upon the waters near him, but he held steadily +on. Ships passed him also, but too far away for him to rest upon; +whales spouted in the distance, and strange fowl screamed; but not a +familiar object broke the expanse of the cold sea. He did not know what +course he was taking. He hoped against hope that he was going home. +Although he was more faint and weary than he had ever yet been, he felt +no pain. The intensity of his hope to reach the old wood made +everything seem light; even at the last, when his wings were almost +powerless, he believed that they would bear him home, and was happy. +Already he seemed to rest upon the trees, the waters sounded in his +ears like the rustling of leaves, and the familiar scent of the +pine-tree seemed to him to come upon the breeze. + +"In this he was not wrong. A country of pine-woods was near; and land +was in sight, though too far away for him to reach it now. Not home, +but yet a land of wondrous summer beauty; of woods, and flowers, and +sun-flecked leaves--of sunshine more glowing than he had ever known--of +larger ferns, and deeper mosses, and clearer skies--a land, of balmy +summer nights, where the stars shine brighter than with us, and where +fireflies appear and vanish, like stars of a lower firmament, amid the +trees. As the sun broke out, the scent of pines came strong upon the +land breeze. A strange land, but the thrush thought it was his own. + +"'I smell woods,' he chirped faintly; 'I see the sun. This is home!' + +"All round him, the noisy crests of the fresh waves seemed to carol the +song he could no longer sing--'Home, home! fresh water and green woods, +ambrosial sunshine and sun-flecked shade, chattering brooks and +rustling leaves, glade and sward and dell, lichens and cool mosses, +feathered ferns and flowers. Green leaves! green leaves! Summer! +summer! summer!' + +"The slackened wings dropped, the dying eyes looked landward, and then +closed. But even as he fell, he believed himself sinking to rest on +Mother Earth's kindly bosom, and he did not know it, when the cold +waves buried him at sea." + +"Oh, then, he _did_ die!" cried the children, who, though they were tired +of stories that end happily, yet, when they heard it, liked a sad ending +no better than other children do (in which, by the bye, we hold them to +be in the right, and can hardly forgive ourselves for chronicling this +"ower true tale"). + +"Yes," said the old man, "he died; but it is said that the sweet +dingle which was his home--forsaken by the nightingale--is regarded by +birds as men regard a haunted house; for that at still summer midnight, +when other thrushes sleep, a shadowy form, more like a skeleton leaf +than a living bird, swings upon the tall tree-tops where he sat of old, +and, rapt in a happy ecstasy, sings a song more sweet and joyous than +thrush ever sang by day." + +"Have you heard it?" asked the children. + +The old man nodded. But not another word would he say. The children, +however, forthwith began to lay plans for getting into the wood some +mid-summer night, to test with their own ears the truth of his story, +and to hear the spectre thrush's song. Whether the authorities +permitted the expedition, and if not, whether the young people baffled +their vigilance--whether they heard the song, and if so, whether they +understood it--we are not empowered to tell here. + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHRISTMAS CRACKERS. + +A FANTASIA. + + +It was Christmas-eve in an old-fashioned country-house, where Christmas +was being kept with old-fashioned form and custom. It was getting late. +The candles swaggered in their sockets, and the yule log glowed +steadily like a red-hot coal. + +"The fire has reached his heart," said the tutor: "he is warm all +through. How red he is! He shines with heat and hospitality like some +warm-hearted old gentleman when a convivial evening is pretty far +advanced. To-morrow he will be as cold and grey as the morning after a +festival, when the glasses are being washed up, and the host is +calculating his expenses. Yes! you know it is so;" and the tutor nodded +to the yule log as he spoke; and the log flared and crackled in return, +till the tutor's face shone like his own. He had no other means of +reply. + +The tutor was grotesque-looking at any time. He was lank and meagre, +with a long body and limbs, and high shoulders. His face was +smooth-shaven, and his skin like old parchment stretched over high +cheek-bones and lantern jaws; but in their hollow sockets his eyes +gleamed with the changeful lustre of two precious gems. In the ruddy +firelight they were like rubies, and when he drew back into the shade +they glared green like the eyes of a cat. It must not be inferred from +the tutor's presence this evening that there were no Christmas holidays +in this house. They had begun some days before; and if the tutor had +had a home to go to, it is to be presumed that he would have gone. + +As the candles got lower, and the log flared less often, weird lights +and shades, such as haunt the twilight, crept about the room. The +tutor's shadow, longer, lanker, and more grotesque than himself, mopped +and mowed upon the wall beside him. The snapdragon burnt blue, and as +the raisin-hunters stirred the flaming spirit, the ghastly light made +the tutor look so hideous that the widow's little boy was on the eve of +howling, and spilled the raisins he had just secured. (He did not like +putting his fingers into the flames, but he hovered near the more +adventurous school-boys and collected the raisins that were scattered +on the table by the hasty _grabs_ of braver hands.) + +The widow was a relative of the house. She had married a Mr. Jones, and +having been during his life his devoted slave, had on his death +transferred her allegiance to his son. The late Mr. Jones was a small +man with a strong temper, a large appetite, and a taste for +drawing-room theatricals. So Mrs. Jones had called her son Macready; +"for," she said, "his poor papa would have made a fortune on the stage, +and I wish to commemorate his talents. Besides, Macready sounds better +with Jones than a commoner Christian name would do." + +But his cousins called him MacGreedy. + +"The apples of the enchanted garden were guarded by dragons. Many +knights went after them. One wished for the apples, but he did not like +to fight the dragons." + +It was the tutor who spoke from the dark corner by the fire-place. His +eyes shone like a cat's, and MacGreedy felt like a half-scared mouse, +and made up his mind to cry. He put his right fist into one eye, and +had just taken it out, and was about to put his left fist into the +other, when he saw that the tutor was no longer looking at him. So he +made up his mind to go on with the raisins, for one can have a peevish +cry at any time, but plums are not scattered broadcast every day. +Several times he had tried to pocket them, but just at the moment the +tutor was sure to look at him, and in his fright he dropped the +raisins, and never could find them again. So this time he resolved to +eat them then and there. He had just put one into his mouth when the +tutor leaned forward, and his eyes, glowing in the firelight, met +MacGreedy's, who had not even the presence of mind to shut his mouth, +but remained spellbound, with a raisin in his cheek. + +Flicker, flack! The school-boys stirred up snapdragon again, and with +the blue light upon his features the tutor made so horrible a grimace +that MacGreedy swallowed the raisin with a start. He had bolted it +whole, and it might have been a bread pill for any enjoyment he had of +the flavour. But the tutor laughed aloud. He certainly was an alarming +object, pulling those grimaces in the blue brandy glare; and +unpleasantly like a picture of Bogy himself with horns and a tail, in a +juvenile volume upstairs. True, there were no horns to speak of among +the tutor's grizzled curls, and his coat seemed to fit as well as most +people's on his long back, so that unless he put his tail in his +pocket, it is difficult to see how he could have had one. But then (as +Miss Letitia said) "With dress one can do anything and hide anything," +and on dress Miss Letitia's opinion was final. + +Miss Letitia was a cousin. She was dark, high-coloured, glossy-haired, +stout, and showy. She was as neat as a new pin, and had a will of her +own. Her hair was firmly fixed by bandoline, her garibaldis by an +arrangement which failed when applied to those of the widow, and her +opinions by the simple process of looking at everything from one point +of view. Her _forte_ was dress and general ornamentation; not that +Miss Letitia was extravagant--far from it. If one may use the +expression, she utilized for ornament a hundred bits and scraps that +most people would have wasted. But, like other artists, she saw +everything through the medium of her own art. She looked at birds with +an eye to hats, and at flowers with reference to evening parties. At +picture exhibitions and concerts she carried away jacket patterns and +bonnets in her head, as other people make mental notes of an aerial +effect, or a bit of fine instrumentation. An enthusiastic +horticulturist once sent Miss Letitia a cut specimen of a new flower. +It was a lovely spray from a lately-imported shrub. A botanist would +have pressed it--an artist must have taken its portrait--a poet might +have written a sonnet in praise of its beauty. Miss Letitia twisted a +piece of wire round its stem, and fastened it on to her black lace +bonnet. It came on the day of a review, when Miss Letitia had to appear +in a carriage, and it was quite a success. As she said to the widow, +"It was so natural that no one could doubt its being Parisian." + +"What a strange fellow that tutor is!" said the visitor. He spoke to +the daughter of the house, a girl with a face like a summer's day, and +hair like a ripe corn-field rippling in the sun. He was a fine young +man, and had a youth's taste for the sports and amusements of his age. +But lately he had changed. He seemed to himself to be living in a +higher, nobler atmosphere than hitherto. He had discovered that he was +poetical--he might prove to be a genius. He certainly was eloquent, he +could talk for hours, and did so--to the young lady with the sunshiny +face. They spoke on the highest subjects, and what a listener she was! +So intelligent and appreciative, and with such an exquisite _pose_ +of the head--it must inspire a block of wood merely to see such a +creature in a listening attitude. As to our young friend, he poured +forth volumes; he was really clever, and for her he became eloquent. +To-night he spoke of Christmas, of time-honoured custom and old +association; and what he said would have made a Christmas article for a +magazine of the first class. He poured scorn on the cold nature that +could not, and the affectation that would not, appreciate the domestic +festivities of this sacred season. What, he asked, could be more +delightful, more perfect than such a gathering as this, of the +family circle round the Christmas hearth? He spoke with feeling, and it +may be said with disinterested feeling, for he had not joined his +family circle himself this Christmas, and there was a vacant place by +the hearth of his own home. + +"He is strange," said the young lady (she spoke of the tutor in answer +to the above remark); "but I am very fond of him. He has been with us +so long he is like one of the family; though we know as little of his +history as we did on the day he came." + +"He looks clever," said the visitor. (Perhaps that is the least one can +say for a fellow-creature who shows a great deal of bare skull, and is +not otherwise good-looking.) + +"He is clever," she answered, "wonderfully clever; so clever and so odd +that sometimes I fancy he is hardly 'canny.' There is something almost +supernatural about his acuteness and his ingenuity, but they are so +kindly used; I wonder he has not brought out any playthings for us +to-night." + +"Playthings?" inquired the young man. + +"Yes; on birthdays or festivals like this he generally brings something +out of those huge pockets of his. He has been all over the world, and +he produces Indian puzzles, Japanese flower-buds that bloom in hot +water, and German toys with complicated machinery, which I suspect him +of manufacturing himself. I call him Godpapa Grosselmayer, after that +delightful old fellow in Hoffman's tale of the Nut Cracker." + +"What's that about crackers?" inquired the tutor, sharply, his eyes +changing colour like a fire opal. + +"I am talking of _Nussnacker und Mausekoenig_," laughed the young lady. +"Crackers do not belong to Christmas; fireworks come on the 5th of +November." + +"Tut, tut!" said the tutor; "I always tell your ladyship that you are +still a tom-boy at heart, as when I first came, and you climbed trees +and pelted myself and my young students with horse-chestnuts. You think +of crackers to explode at the heels of timorous old gentlemen in a +November fog; but I mean bonbon crackers, coloured crackers, dainty +crackers--crackers for young people with mottoes of sentiment" (here +the tutor shrugged his high shoulders an inch or two higher, and +turned the palms of his hands outwards with a glance indescribably +comical)--"crackers with paper prodigies, crackers with +sweetmeats--_such_ sweetmeats!" He smacked his lips with a grotesque +contortion, and looked at Master McGreedy, who choked himself with +his last raisin, and forthwith burst into tears. + +The widow tried in vain to soothe him with caresses, but he only +stamped and howled the more. But Miss Letitia gave him some smart +smacks on the shoulders to cure his choking fit, and as she kept up the +treatment with vigour, the young gentleman was obliged to stop and +assure her that the raisin had "gone the right way" at last. "If he +were my child," Miss Letitia had been known to observe, with that +confidence which characterizes the theories of those who are not +parents, "I would, &c., &c., &c.;" in fact, Miss Letitia thought she +would have made a very different boy of him--as, indeed, I believe she +would. + +"Are crackers all that you have for us, sir?" asked one of the two +school-boys, as they hung over the tutor's chair. They were twins, +grand boys, with broad, good-humoured faces, and curly wigs, as like as +two puppy dogs of the same breed. They were only known apart by their +intimate friends, and were always together, romping, laughing, +snarling, squabbling, huffing and helping each other against the world. +Each of them owned a wiry terrier, and in their relations to each other +the two dogs (who were marvellously alike) closely followed the example +of their masters. + +"Do you not care for crackers, Jim?" asked the tutor. + +"Not much, sir. They do for girls: but, as you know, I care for nothing +but military matters. Do you remember that beautiful toy of yours--'The +Besieged City'? Ah! I liked that. Look out, Tom! you're shoving my arm. +Can't you stand straight, man?' + +"R-r-r-r--r-r, snap!" + +Tom's dog was resenting contact with Jim's dog on the hearthrug. There +was a hustle among the four, and then they subsided. + +"The Besieged City was all very well for you, Jim," said Tom, who meant +to be a sailor; "but please to remember that it admitted of no attack +from the sea; and what was there for me to do? Ah, sir! you are so +clever, I often think you could help me to make a swing with ladders +instead of single ropes, so that I could run up and down the rigging +whilst it was in full go." + +"That would be something like your fir-tree prank, Tom," said his +sister. "Can you believe," she added, turning to the visitor, "that Tom +lopped the branches of a tall young fir-tree all the way up, leaving +little bits for foothold, and then climbed up it one day in an awful +storm of wind, and clung on at the top, rocking backwards and forwards? +And when Papa sent word for him to come down, he said parental +authority was superseded at sea by the rules of the service. It was a +dreadful storm, and the tree snapped very soon after he got safe to the +ground." + +"Storm!" sneered Tom, "a capful of wind. Well, it did blow half a gale +at the last. But oh! it was glorious!" + +"Let us see what we can make of the crackers," said the tutor--and he +pulled some out of his pocket. They were put in a dish upon the table, +for the company to choose from; and the terriers jumped and snapped, +and tumbled over each other, for they thought that the plate contained +eatables. Animated by the same idea, but with quieter steps, Master +MacGreedy also approached the table. + +"The dogs are noisy," said the tutor, "too noisy. We must have +quiet--peace and quiet." His lean hand was once more in his pocket, and +he pulled out a box, from which he took some powder, which he scattered +on the burning log. A slight smoke now rose from the hot embers, and +floated into the room. Was the powder one of those strange compounds +that act upon the brain? Was it a magician's powder? Who knows? With it +came a sweet, subtle fragrance. It was strange--every one fancied he +had smelt it before, and all were absorbed in wondering what it was, +and where they had met with it. Even the dogs sat on their haunches +with their noses up, sniffing in a speculative manner. + +"It's not lavender," said the grandmother, slowly, "and it's not +rosemary. There is a something of tansy in it (and a very fine tonic +flavour too, my dears, though it's _not_ in fashion now). Depend upon it, +it's a potpourri, and from an excellent receipt, sir"--and the old lady +bowed courteously towards the tutor. "My mother made the best potpourri +in the county, and it was very much like this. Not quite, +perhaps, but much the same, much the same." + +The grandmother was a fine old gentlewoman "of the old school," as the +phrase is. She was very stately and gracious in her manners, daintily +neat in her person, and much attached to the old parson of the parish, +who now sat near her chair. All her life she had been very proud of her +fine stock of fair linen, both household and personal; and for many +years past had kept her own graveclothes ready in a drawer. They were +bleached as white as snow, and lay amongst bags of dried lavender and +potpourri. Many times had it seemed likely that they would be needed, +for the old lady had had severe illnesses of late, when the good parson +sat by her bedside, and read to her of the coming of the Bridegroom, +and of that "fine linen clean and white," which is "the righteousness +of the saints." It was of that drawer, with its lavender and potpourri +bags, that the scented smoke had reminded her. + +"It has rather an overpowering odour," said the old parson; "it is +suggestive of incense. I am sure I once smelt something like it in the +Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. It is very delicious." + +The parson's long residence in his parish had been marked by one great +holiday. With the savings of many years he had performed a pilgrimage +to the Holy Land; and it was rather a joke against him that he +illustrated a large variety of subjects by reference to his favourite +topic, the holiday of his life. + +"It smells of gunpowder," said Jim, decidedly, "and something else. I +can't tell what." + +"Something one smells in a seaport town," said Tom. + +"Can't be very delicious then," Jim retorted. + +"It's not _quite_ the same," piped the widow; "but it reminds me very +much of an old bottle of attar of roses that was given to me when I +was at school, with a copy of verses, by a young gentleman who was +brother to one of the pupils. I remember Mr. Jones was quite annoyed +when he found it in an old box, where I am sure I had not touched it +for ten years or more; and I never spoke to him but once, on +Examination Day (the young gentleman, I mean). And its like--yes it's +certainly like a hair-wash Mr. Jones used to use. I've forgotten what +it was called, but I know it cost fifteen shillings a bottle; and +Macready threw one over a few weeks before his dear papa's death, and +annoyed him extremely." + +Whilst the company were thus engaged, Master MacGreedy took advantage +of the general abstraction to secure half-a-dozen crackers to his own +share; he retired to a corner with them, where he meant to pick them +quietly to pieces by himself. He wanted the gay paper, and the motto, +and the sweetmeats; but he did not like the report of the cracker. And +then what he did want, he wanted all to himself. + +"Give us a cracker," said Master Jim, dreamily. + +The dogs, after a few dissatisfied snorts, had dropped from their +sitting posture, and were lying close together on the rug, dreaming and +uttering short commenting barks and whines at intervals. The twins were +now reposing lazily at the tutor's feet, and did not feel disposed to +exert themselves even so far as to fetch their own bonbons. + +"There's one," said the tutor, taking a fresh cracker from his pocket. +One end of it was of red and gold paper, the other of transparent green +stuff with silver lines. The boys pulled it. + + * * * * * + +The report was louder than Jim had expected. "The firing has begun," he +murmured, involuntarily; "steady, steady!" these last words were to his +horse, who seemed to be moving under him, not from fear, but from +impatience. What had been the red and gold paper of the cracker was now +the scarlet and gold lace of his own cavalry uniform. He knocked a +speck from his sleeve, and scanned the distant ridge, from which a thin +line of smoke floated solemnly away, with keen, impatient eyes. Were +they to stand inactive all the day? + +Presently the horse erects his head. His eyes sparkle--he pricks his +sensitive ears--his nostrils quiver with a strange delight. It is the +trumpet! Fan farra! Fan farra! The brazen voice speaks--the horses +move--the plumes wave--the helmets shine. On a summer's day they ride +slowly, gracefully, calmly down a slope, to Death or Glory. Fan farra! +Fan farra! Fan farra! + + * * * * * + +Of all this Master Tom knew nothing. The report of the cracker seemed +to him only an echo in his brain of a sound that had been in his ears +for thirty-six weary hours. The noise of a heavy sea beating against +the ship's side in a gale. It was over now, and he was keeping the +midnight watch on deck, gazing upon the liquid green of the waves, +which, heaving and seething after storm, were lit with phosphoric +light, and as the ship held steadily on her course, poured past at the +rate of twelve knots an hour in a silvery stream. Faster than any ship +can sail his thoughts travelled home; and as old times came back to +him, he hardly knew whether what he looked at was the phosphor-lighted +sea, or green gelatine paper barred with silver. And did the tutor +speak? Or was it the voice of some sea-monster sounding in his ears? + +"The spirits of the storm have gone below to make their report. The +treasure gained from sunk vessels has been reckoned, and the sea is +illuminated in honour of the spoil." + + * * * * * + +The visitor now took a cracker and held it to the young lady. Her end +was of white paper with a raised pattern; his of dark-blue gelatine +with gold stars. It snapped, the bonbon dropped between them, and the +young man got the motto. It was a very bald one-- + + "My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?" + +He was ashamed to show it to her. What could be more meagre? One could +write a hundred better couplets "standing on one leg," as the saying +is. He was trying to improvise just one for the occasion, when he +became aware that the blue sky over his head was dark with the shades +of night, and lighted with stars. A brook rippled near with a soothing +monotony. The evening wind sighed through the trees, and wafted the +fragrance of the sweet bay-leaved willow towards him, and blew a stray +lock of hair against his face. Yes! _She_ also was there, walking beside +him, under the scented willow-bushes. Where, why, and whither he did not +ask to know. She was with him--with him; and he seemed to tread on the +summer air. He had no doubt as to the nature of his own feelings for her, +and here was such an opportunity for declaring them as might never occur +again. Surely now, if ever, he would be eloquent! Thoughts of poetry +clothed in words of fire must spring unbidden to his lips at such a +moment. And yet somehow he could not find a single word to say. He beat +his brains, but not an idea would come forth. Only that idiotic +cracker motto, which haunted him with its meagre couplet: + + "My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?" + +Meanwhile they wandered on. The precious time was passing. He must at +least make a beginning. + +"What a fine night it is!" he observed. But, oh dear! that was a +thousand times balder and more meagre than the cracker motto; and not +another word could he find to say. At this moment the awkward silence +was broken by a voice from a neighbouring copse. It was a nightingale +singing to his mate. There was no lack of eloquence, and of melodious +eloquence, there. The song was as plaintive as old memories, and as +full of tenderness as the eyes of the young girl were full of tears. +They were standing still now, and with her graceful head bent she was +listening to the bird. He stooped his head near hers, and spoke with a +simple natural outburst almost involuntary. + +"Do you ever think of old times? Do you remember the old house, and the +fun we used to have? and the tutor whom you pelted with horse-chestnuts +when you were a little girl? And those cracker bonbons, and the motto +_we_ drew-- + + 'My heart is thine. + Wilt thou be mine?'" + +She smiled, and lifted her eyes ("blue as the sky, and bright as the +stars," he thought) to his, and answered "Yes." + +Then the bonbon motto was avenged, and there was silence. Eloquent, +perfect, complete, beautiful silence! Only the wind sighed through the +fragrant willows, the stream rippled, the stars shone, and in the +neighbouring copse the nightingale sang, and sang, and sang. + + * * * * * + +When the white end of the cracker came into the young lady's hand, she +was full of admiration for the fine raised pattern. As she held it +between her fingers it suddenly struck her that she had discovered what +the tutor's fragrant smoke smelt like. It was like the scent of +orange-flowers, and had certainly a soporific effect upon the senses. +She felt very sleepy, and as she stroked the shiny surface of the +cracker she found herself thinking it was very soft for paper, and then +rousing herself with a start, and wondering at her own folly in +speaking thus of the white silk in which she was dressed, and of which +she was holding up the skirt between her finger and thumb, as if she +were dancing a minuet. + +"It's grandmamma's egg-shell brocade!" she cried. "Oh, Grandmamma! Have +you given it to me? That lovely old thing! But I thought it was the +family wedding-dress, and that I was not to have it till I was a +bride." + +"And so you are, my dear. And a fairer bride the sun never shone on," +sobbed the old lady, who was kissing and blessing her, and wishing her, +in the words of the old formula-- + + "Health to wear it, + Strength to tear it, + And money to buy another." + +"There is no hope for the last two things, you know," said the young +girl; "for I am sure that the flag that braved a thousand years was not +half so strong as your brocade; and as to buying another, there are +none to be bought in these degenerate days." + +The old lady's reply was probably very gracious, for she liked to be +complimented on the virtues of old things in general, and of her +egg-shell brocade in particular. But of what she said her granddaughter +heard nothing. With the strange irregularity of dreams, she found +herself, she knew not how, in the old church. It was true. She was a +bride, standing there with old friends and old associations thick +around her, on the threshold of a new life. The sun shone through the +stained glass of the windows, and illuminated the brocade, whose +old-fashioned stiffness so became her childish beauty, and flung a +thousand new tints over her sunny hair, and drew so powerful a +fragrance from the orange-blossom with which it was twined, that it was +almost overpowering. Yes! It was too sweet--too strong. She certainly +would not be able to bear it much longer without losing her senses. And +the service was going on. A question had been asked of her, and she +must reply. She made a strong effort, and said "Yes," simply and very +earnestly, for it was what she meant. But she had no sooner said it +than she became uneasily conscious that she had not used the right +words. Some one laughed. It was the tutor, and his voice jarred and +disturbed the dream, as a stone troubles the surface of still water. +The vision trembled, and then broke, and the young lady found herself +still sitting by the table and fingering the cracker paper, whilst the +tutor chuckled and rubbed his hands by the fire, and his shadow +scrambled on the wall like an ape upon a tree. But her "Yes" had passed +into the young man's dream without disturbing it, and he dreamt on. + +It was a cracker like the preceding one that the grandmother and the +parson pulled together. The old lady had insisted upon it. The good +rector had shown a tendency to low spirits this evening, and a wish to +withdraw early. But the old lady did not approve of people "shirking" +(as boys say) either their duties or their pleasures; and to keep a +"merry Christmas" in a family circle that had been spared to meet in +health and happiness, seemed to her to be both the one and the other. + +It was his sermon for next day which weighed on the parson's mind. Not +that he was behindhand with that part of his duties. He was far too +methodical in his habits for that, and it had been written before the +bustle of Christmas week began. But after preaching Christmas sermons +from the same pulpit for thirty-five years, he felt keenly how +difficult it is to awaken due interest in subjects that are so +familiar, and to give new force to lessons so often repeated. So he +wanted a quiet hour in his own study before he went to rest, with the +sermon that did not satisfy him, and the subject that should be so +heart-stirring and ever-new,--the Story of Bethlehem. + +He consented, however, to pull one cracker with the grandmother, though +he feared the noise might startle her nerves, and said so. + +"Nerves were not invented in my young days," said the old lady, firmly; +and she took her part in the ensuing explosion without so much as a +wink. + +As the cracker snapped, it seemed to the parson as if the fragrant +smoke from the yule log were growing denser in the room. Through the +mist from time to time the face of the tutor loomed large, and then +disappeared. At last the clouds rolled away, and the parson breathed +clear air. Clear, yes, and how clear! This brilliant freshness, these +intense lights and shadows, this mildness and purity in the night air-- + +"It is not England," he muttered, "it is the East. I have felt no air +like this since I breathed the air of Palestine." + +Over his head, through immeasurable distances, the dark blue space was +lighted by the great multitude of the stars, whose glittering ranks +have in that atmosphere a distinctness and a glory unseen with us. +Perhaps no scene of beauty in the visible creation has proved a more +hackneyed theme for the poet and the philosopher than a starry night. +But not all the superabundance of simile and moral illustration with +which the subject has been loaded can rob the beholder of the freshness +of its grandeur or the force of its teaching; that noblest and most +majestic vision of the handiwork of GOD on which the eye of man is here +permitted to rest. + +As the parson gazed he became conscious that he was not alone. Other +eyes besides his were watching the skies to-night. Dark, profound, +patient, Eastern eyes, used from the cradle to the grave to watch and +wait. The eyes of star-gazers and dream-interpreters; men who believed +the fate of empires to be written in shining characters on the face of +heaven, as the "Mene, Mene," was written in fire on the walls of the +Babylonian palace. The old parson was one of the many men of real +learning and wide reading who pursue their studies in the quiet country +parishes of England, and it was with the keen interest of intelligence +that he watched the group of figures that lay near him. + +"Is this a vision of the past?" he asked himself. "There can be no +doubt as to these men. They are star-gazers, magi, and, from their +dress and bearing, men of high rank; perhaps 'teachers of a higher +wisdom' in one of the purest philosophies of the old heathen world. +When one thinks," he pursued, "of the intense interest, the eager +excitement which the student of history finds in the narrative of the +past as unfolded in dusty records written by the hand of man, one may +realize how absorbing must have been that science which professed to +unveil the future, and to display to the eyes of the wise the fate of +dynasties written with the finger of GOD amid the stars." + +The dark-robed figures were so still that they might almost have been +carved in stone. The air seemed to grow purer and purer; the stars +shone brighter and brighter; suspended in ether the planets seemed to +hang like lamps. Now a shooting meteor passed athwart the sky, and +vanished behind the hill. But not for this did the watchers move; in +silence they watched on--till, on a sudden, how and whence the parson +knew not, across the shining ranks of that immeasurable host, whose +names and number are known to GOD alone, there passed in slow but +obvious motion one brilliant solitary star--a star of such surpassing +brightness that he involuntarily joined in the wild cry of joy and +greeting with which the Men of the East now prostrated themselves with +their faces to the earth. He could not understand the language in which, +with noisy clamour and gesticulation, they broke their former profound +and patient silence, and greeted the portent for which they had watched. +But he knew now that these were the Wise Men of the Epiphany, and that +this was the Star of Bethlehem. In his ears rang the energetic simplicity +of the Gospel narrative, "When they saw the Star, they rejoiced with +exceeding great joy." + +With exceeding great joy! Ah! happy magi, who (more blest than Balaam +the son of Beor) were faithful to the dim light vouchsafed to you; the +Gentile Church may well be proud of your memory. Ye travelled long and +far to bring royal offerings to the King of the Jews, with a faith not +found in Israel. Ye saw Him whom prophets and kings had desired to see, +and were glad. Wise men indeed, and wise with the highest wisdom, in +that ye suffered yourselves to be taught of GOD. + +Then the parson prayed that if this were indeed a dream he might dream +on; might pass, if only in a vision, over the hill, following the +footsteps of the magi, whilst the Star went before them, till he should +see it rest above that city, which, little indeed among the thousands +of Judah, was yet the birthplace of the Lord's Christ. + +"Ah!" he almost sobbed, "let me follow! On my knees let me follow into +the house and see the Holy Child. In the eyes of how many babies I have +seen mind and thought far beyond their powers of communication, every +mother knows. But if at times, with a sort of awe, one sees the +immortal soul shining through the prison-bars of helpless infancy, +what, oh! what must it be to behold the GOD-head veiled in flesh through +the face of a little child!" + +The parson stretched out his arms, but even with the passion of his +words the vision began to break. He dared not move for fear it should +utterly fade, and as he lay still and silent, the wise men roused their +followers, and, led by the Star, the train passed solemnly over the +distant hills. + +Then the clear night became clouded with fragrant vapour, and with a +sigh the parson awoke. + + * * * * * + +When the cracker snapped and the white end was left in the grandmother's +hand, she was astonished to perceive (as she thought) that the white +lace veil which she had worn over her wedding bonnet was still in her +possession, and that she was turning it over in her fingers. "I fancied +I gave it to Jemima when her first baby was born," she muttered +dreamily. It was darned and yellow, but it carried her back all the same, +and recalled happy hours with wonderful vividness. She remembered the +post-chaise and the postillion. "He was such a pert little fellow, and +how we laughed at him! He must be either dead or a very shaky old man +by now," said the old lady. She seemed to smell the scent of meadow-sweet +that was so powerful in a lane through which they drove; and how clearly +she could see the clean little country inn where they spent the +honeymoon! She seemed to be there now, taking off her bonnet and shawl, +in the quaint clean chamber, with the heavy oak rafters, and the jasmine +coming in at the window, and glancing with pardonable pride at the fair +face reflected in the mirror. But as she laid her things on the +patchwork coverlet, it seemed to her that the lace veil became fine white +linen, and was folded about a figure that lay in the bed; and when she +looked round the room again everything was draped in white--white blinds +hung before the windows, and even the old oak chest and the press were +covered with clean white cloths, after the decent custom of the country; +whilst from the church tower without the passing bell tolled slowly. She +had not seen the face of the corpse, and a strange anxiety came over her +to count the strokes of the bell, which tell if it is a man, woman, or +child who has passed away. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! No +more. It was a woman, and when she looked on the face of the dead she +saw her own. But even as she looked the fair linen of the grave-clothes +became the buoyant drapery of another figure, in whose face she found a +strange recognition of the lineaments of the dead with all the +loveliness of the bride. But ah! more, much more! On that face there was +a beauty not doomed to wither, before those happy eyes lay a future +unshadowed by the imperfections of earthly prospects, and the folds of +that robe were white as no fuller on earth can white them. The window +curtain parted, the jasmine flowers bowed their heads, the spirit passed +from the chamber of death, and the old lady's dream was ended. + + * * * * * + +Miss Letitia had shared a cracker with the widow. The widow squeaked +when the cracker went off, and then insisted upon giving up the smart +paper and everything to Miss Letitia. She had always given up +everything to Mr. Jones, she did so now to Master MacGreedy, and was +quite unaccustomed to keep anything for her own share. She did not give +this explanation herself, but so it was. + +The cracker that thus fell into the hands of Miss Letitia was one of +those new-fashioned ones that have a paper pattern of some article of +dress wrapped up in them instead of a bonbon. This one was a paper +bonnet made in the latest _mode_--of green tissue-paper; and Miss Letitia +stuck it on the top of her chignon, with an air that the widow envied +from the bottom of her heart. She had not the gift of "carrying off" +her clothes. But to the tutor, on the contrary, it seemed to afford +the most extreme amusement; and as Miss Letitia bowed gracefully hither +and thither in the energy of her conversation with the widow, the green +paper fluttering with each emphasis, he fairly shook with delight, his +shadow dancing like a maniac beside him. He had scattered some more +powder on the coals, and it may have been that the smoke got into her +eyes, and confused her ideas of colour, but Miss Letitia was struck +with a fervid and otherwise unaccountable admiration for the paper ends +of the cracker, which were most unusually ugly. One was of a sallowish +salmon-colour, and transparent, the other was of brick-red paper with a +fringe. As Miss Letitia turned them over, she saw, to her unspeakable +delight, that there were several yards of each material, and her +peculiar genius instantly seized upon the fact that in the present +rage for double skirts there might be enough of the two kinds to +combine into a fashionable dress. + +It had never struck her before that a dirty salmon went well with +brick-red. "They blend so becomingly, my dear," she murmured; "and I +think the under-skirt will sit well, it is so stiff." + +The widow did not reply. The fumes of the tutor's compound made her +sleepy, and though she nodded to Miss Letitia's observations, it was +less from appreciation of their force, than from inability to hold up +her head. She was dreaming uneasy, horrible dreams, like nightmares; in +which from time to time there mingled expressions of doubt and +dissatisfaction which fell from Miss Letitia's lips. "Just half-a-yard +short--no gores--false hem," (and the melancholy reflection that) +"flounces take so much stuff." Then the tutor's face kept appearing and +vanishing with horrible grimaces through the mist. At last the widow +fell fairly asleep, and dreamed that she was married to the Blue Beard +of nursery annals, and that on his return from his memorable journey he +had caught her in the act of displaying the mysterious cupboard to Miss +Letitia. As he waved his scimitar over her head, he seemed +unaccountably to assume the form and features of the tutor. In her +agitation the poor woman could think of no plea against his severity, +except that the cupboard was already crammed with the corpses of his +previous wives, and there was no room for her. She was pleading this +argument when Miss Letitia's voice broke in upon her dream with +decisive accent: + +"There's enough for two bodies." + +The widow shrieked and awoke. + +"High and low," explained Miss Letitia. "My dear, what _are_ you +screaming about?" + +"I am very sorry indeed," said the widow; "I beg your pardon, I'm sure, +a thousand times. But since Mr. Jones's death I have been so nervous, +and I had such a horrible dream. And, oh dear! oh dear!" she added, +"what is the matter with my precious child? Macready, love, come to +your mamma, my pretty lamb." + +Ugh! ugh! There were groans from the corner where Master MacGreedy sat +on his crackers as if they were eggs, and he hatching them. He had only +touched one, as yet, of the stock he had secured. He had picked it to +pieces, had avoided the snap, and had found a large comfit like an egg +with a rough shell inside. Every one knows that the goodies in crackers +are not of a very superior quality. There is a large amount of white +lead in the outside thinly disguised by a shabby flavour of sugar. But +that outside once disposed of, there lies an almond at the core. Now an +almond is a very delicious thing in itself, and doubly nice when it +takes the taste of white paint and chalk out of one's mouth. But in +spite of all the white lead and sugar and chalk through which he had +sucked his way, MacGreedy could not come to the almond. A dozen times +had he been on the point of spitting out the delusive sweetmeat; but +just as he thought of it he was sure to feel a bit of hard rough edge, +and thinking he had gained the kernel at last, he held valiantly on. It +only proved to be a rough bit of sugar, however, and still the +interminable coating melted copiously in his mouth; and still the +clean, fragrant almond evaded his hopes. At last with a groan he spat +the seemingly undiminished bonbon on to the floor, and turned as white +and trembling as an arrowroot blanc-mange. + +In obedience to the widow's entreaties the tutor opened a window, and +tried to carry MacGreedy to the air; but that young gentleman utterly +refused to allow the tutor to approach him, and was borne howling to +bed by his mamma. + +With the fresh air the fumes of the fragrant smoke dispersed, and the +company roused themselves. + +"Rather oppressive, eh?" said the master of the house, who had had his +dream too, with which we have no concern. + +The dogs had had theirs also, and had testified to the same in their +sleep by low growls and whines. Now they shook themselves, and rubbed +against each other, growling in a warlike manner through their teeth, +and wagging peaceably with their little stumpy tails. + +The twins shook themselves, and fell to squabbling as to whether they +had been to sleep or no; and, if either, which of them had given way to +that weakness. + +Miss Letitia took the paper bonnet from her head with a nervous laugh, +and after looking regretfully at the cracker papers put them in her +pocket. + +The parson went home through the frosty night. In the village street he +heard a boy's voice singing two lines of the Christian hymn-- + + "Trace we the Babe Who hath redeemed our loss + From the poor Manger to the bitter Cross;" + +and his eyes filled with tears. + +The old lady went to bed and slept in peace. + +"In all the thirty-five years we have been privileged to hear you, +sir," she told the rector next day after service, "I never heard such a +Christmas sermon before." + +The visitor carefully preserved the blue paper and the cracker motto. +He came down early next morning to find the white half to put with +them. He did not find it, for the young lady had taken it the night +before. + +The tutor had been in the room before him, wandering round the scene of +the evening's festivities. + +The yule log lay black and cold upon the hearth, and the tutor nodded +to it. "I told you how it would be," he said; "but never mind, you +have had your day, and a merry one too." In the corner lay the heap of +crackers which Master MacGreedy had been too ill to remember when he +retired. The tutor pocketed them with a grim smile. + +As to the comfit, it was eaten by one of the dogs, who had come down +earliest of all. He swallowed it whole, so whether it contained an +almond or not, remains a mystery to the present time. + + * * * * * + + + + +AMELIA AND THE DWARFS. + + +My godmother's grandmother knew a good deal about the fairies. +_Her_ grandmother had seen a fairy rade on a Roodmas Eve, and she +herself could remember a copper vessel of a queer shape which had been +left by the elves on some occasion at an old farm-house among the +hills, The following story came from her, and where she got it I do not +know. She used to say it was a pleasant tale, with a good moral in the +inside of it. My godmother often observed that a tale without a moral +was like a nut without a kernel; not worth the cracking. (We called +fire-side stories "cracks" in our part of the country.) This is the +tale. + + +AMELIA. + +A couple of gentlefolk once lived in a certain part of England. (My +godmother never would tell the name either of the place or the people, +even if she knew it. She said one ought not to expose one's neighbours' +failings more than there was due occasion for.) They had an only child, +a daughter, whose name was Amelia. They were an easy-going, +good-humoured couple; "rather soft," my godmother said, but she was apt +to think anybody "soft" who came from the southern shires, as these +people did. Amelia, who had been born farther north, was by no means +so. She had a strong resolute will, and a clever head of her own, +though she was but a child. She had a way of her own too, and had it +very completely. Perhaps because she was an only child, or perhaps +because they were so easy-going, her parents spoiled her. She was, +beyond question, the most tiresome little girl in that or any other +neighbourhood. From her baby days her father and mother had taken every +opportunity of showing her to their friends, and there was not a friend +who did not dread the infliction. When the good lady visited her +acquaintances, she always took Amelia with her, and if the +acquaintances were fortunate enough to see from the windows who was +coming, they used to snatch up any delicate knick-knacks, or brittle +ornaments lying about, and put them away, crying, "What is to be done? +Here comes Amelia!" + +When Amelia came in, she would stand and survey the room, whilst her +mother saluted her acquaintance; and if anything struck her fancy, she +would interrupt the greetings to draw her mother's attention to it, +with a twitch of her shawl, "Oh, look, Mamma, at that funny bird in the +glass case!" or perhaps, "Mamma, Mamma! There's a new carpet since we +were here last;" for, as her mother said, she was "a very observing +child." + +Then she would wander round the room, examining and fingering +everything, and occasionally coming back with something in her hand to +tread on her mother's dress, and break in upon the ladies' conversation +with--"Mamma! Mamma! What's the good of keeping this old basin? It's +been broken and mended, and some of the pieces are quite loose now. I +can feel them:" or--addressing the lady of the house--"That's not a +real ottoman in the corner. It's a box covered with chintz. I know, for +I've looked." + +Then her mamma would say, reprovingly, "My _dear_ Amelia!" + +And perhaps the lady of the house would beg, "Don't play with that old +china, my love; for though it is mended, it is very valuable;" and her +mother would add, "My dear Amelia, you must not." + +Sometimes the good lady said, "You _must_ not." Sometimes she +tried--"You must _not_" When both these failed, and Amelia was balancing +the china bowl on her finger-ends, her mamma would get flurried, and when +Amelia flurried her, she always rolled her r's, and emphasized her words, +so that it sounded thus: + +"My dear-r-r-r-Ramelia! You must not." + +At which Amelia would not so much as look round, till perhaps the bowl +slipped from her fingers, and was smashed into unmendable fragments. +Then her mamma would exclaim, "Oh, dear-r-r-r, oh, dear-r-Ramelia" and +the lady of the house would try to look as if it did not matter, and +when Amelia and her mother departed, would pick up the bits, and pour +out her complaints to her lady friends, most of whom had suffered many +such damages at the hands of this "very observing child." + +When the good couple received their friends at home, there was no +escaping from Amelia. If it was a dinner-party, she came in with the +dessert, or perhaps sooner. She would take up her position near some +one, generally the person most deeply engaged in conversation, and +either lean heavily against him or her, or climb on to his or her knee, +without being invited. She would break in upon the most interesting +discussion with her own little childish affairs, in the following +style--"I've been out to-day. I walked to the town. I jumped across +three brooks. Can you jump? Papa gave me sixpence to-day. I am saving +up my money to be rich. You may cut me an orange; no, I'll take it to +Mr. Brown, he peels it with a spoon and turns the skin back. Mr. Brown! +Mr. Brown! Don't talk to Mamma, but peel me an orange, please. Mr. +Brown! I'm playing with your finger-glass." + +And when the finger-glass full of cold water had been upset on to Mr. +Brown's shirt-front, Amelia's mamma would cry--"Oh dear, oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and carry her off with the ladies to the drawing-room. + +Here she would scramble on to the ladies' knees, or trample out the +gathers of their dresses, and fidget with their ornaments, startling +some luckless lady by the announcement, "I've got your bracelet undone +at last!" who would find one of the divisions broken open by force, +Amelia not understanding the working of a clasp. + +Or perhaps two young lady friends would get into a quiet corner for a +chat. The observing child would sure to spy them, and run on to them, +crushing their flowers and ribbons, and crying--"You two want to talk +secrets, I know. I can hear what you say. I'm going to listen, I am. +And I shall tell, too;" when perhaps a knock at the door announced the +Nurse to take Miss Amelia to bed, and spread a general rapture of +relief. + +Then Amelia would run to trample and worry her mother, and after much +teasing, and clinging, and complaining, the Nurse would be dismissed, +and the fond mamma would turn to the lady next to her, and say with a +smile--"I suppose I must let her stay up a little. It is such a treat +to her, poor child!" + +But it was no treat to the visitors. + +Besides tormenting her fellow-creatures, Amelia had a trick of teasing +animals. She was really fond of dogs, but she was still fonder of doing +what she was wanted not to do, and of worrying everything and everybody +about her. So she used to tread on the tips of their tails, and pretend +to give them biscuit, and then hit them on the nose, besides pulling at +those few, long, sensitive hairs which thin-skinned dogs wear on the +upper lip. + +Now Amelia's mother's acquaintances were so very well-bred and amiable, +that they never spoke their minds to either the mother or the daughter +about what they endured from the latter's rudeness, wilfulness, and +powers of destruction. But this was not the case with the dogs, and +they expressed their sentiments by many a growl and snap. At last one +day Amelia was tormenting a snow-white bulldog (who was certainly as +well-bred and as amiable as any living creature in the kingdom), and +she did not see that even his patience was becoming worn out. His pink +nose became crimson with increased irritation, his upper lip twitched +over his teeth, behind which he was rolling as many warning R's as +Amelia's mother herself. She finally held out a bun towards him, and +just as he was about to take it, she snatched it away and kicked him +instead. This fairly exasperated the bulldog, and as Amelia would not +let him bite the bun, he bit Amelia's leg. + +Her mamma was so distressed that she fell into hysterics, and hardly +knew what she was saying. She said the bulldog must be shot for fear he +should go mad, and Amelia's wound must be done with a red-hot poker for +fear _she_ should go mad (with hydrophobia). And as of course she +couldn't bear the pain of this, she must have chloroform, and she would +most probably die of that; for as one in several thousands dies +annually under chloroform, it was evident that her chance of life was +very small indeed. So, as the poor lady said, "Whether we shoot Amelia +and burn the bulldog--at least I mean shoot the bulldog and burn Amelia +with a red-hot poker--or leave it alone; and whether Amelia or the +bulldog has chloroform or bears it without--it seems to be death or +madness every way!" + +And as the doctor did not come fast enough, she ran out without her +bonnet to meet him, and Amelia's papa, who was very much distressed +too, ran after her with her bonnet. Meanwhile the doctor came in by +another way, and found Amelia sitting on the dining-room floor with the +bulldog, and crying bitterly. She was telling him that they wanted to +shoot him, but that they should not, for it was all her fault and not +his. But she did not tell him that she was to be burnt with a red-hot +poker, for she thought it might hurt his feelings. And then she wept +afresh, and kissed the bulldog, and the bulldog kissed her with his red +tongue, and rubbed his pink nose against her, and beat his own tail +much harder on the floor than Amelia had ever hit it. She said the same +things to the doctor, but she told him also that she was willing to be +burnt without chloroform if it must be done, and if they would spare +the bulldog. And though she looked very white, she meant what she said. + +But the doctor looked at her leg, and found that it was only a snap, +and not a deep wound; and then he looked at the bulldog, and saw that +so far from looking mad, he looked a great deal more sensible than +anybody in the house. So he only washed Amelia's leg and bound it up, +and she was not burnt with the poker, neither did she get hydrophobia; +but she had got a good lesson on manners, and thenceforward she always +behaved with the utmost propriety to animals, though she tormented her +mother's friends as much as ever. + +Now although Amelia's mamma's acquaintances were too polite to complain +before her face, they made up for it by what they said behind her back. +In allusion to the poor lady's ineffectual remonstrances, one gentleman +said that the more mischief Amelia did, the dearer she seemed to grow +to her mother. And somebody else replied that however dear she might be +as a daughter, she was certainly a very _dear_ friend, and proposed +that they should send in a bill for all the damages she had done in the +course of the year, as a round robin to her parents at Christmas. From +which it may be seen that Amelia was not popular with her parents' +friends, as (to do grown-up people justice) good children almost +invariably are. + +If she was not a favourite in the drawing-room, she was still less so +in the nursery, where, besides all the hardships naturally belonging to +attendance on a spoilt child, the poor Nurse was kept, as she said, "on +the continual go" by Amelia's reckless destruction of her clothes. It +was not fair wear and tear, it was not an occasional fall in the mire, +or an accidental rent or two during a game at "Hunt the Hare," but it +was constant wilful destruction, which Nurse had to repair as best she +might. No entreaties would induce Amelia to "take care" of anything. +She walked obstinately on the muddy side of the road when Nurse pointed +out the clean parts, kicking up the dirt with her feet; if she climbed +a wall she never tried to free her dress if it had caught; on she +rushed, and half a skirt might be left behind for any care she had in +the matter. "They must be mended," or "They must be washed," was all +she thought about it. + +"You seem to think things clean and mend themselves, Miss Amelia," said +poor Nurse one day. + +"No, I don't," said Amelia, rudely. "I think you do them; what are you +here for?" + +But though she spoke in this insolent and unlady-like fashion, Amelia +really did not realize what the tasks were which her carelessness +imposed on other people. When every hour of Nurse's day had been spent +in struggling to keep her wilful young lady regularly fed, decently +dressed, and moderately well behaved (except, indeed, those hours when +her mother was fighting the same battle down-stairs); and when at last, +after the hardest struggle of all, she had been got to bed not more +than two hours later than her appointed time, even then there was no +rest for Nurse. Amelia's mamma could at last lean back in her chair and +have a quiet chat with her husband, which was not broken in upon every +two minutes, and Amelia herself was asleep; but Nurse must sit up for +hours wearing out her eyes by the light of a tallow candle, in +fine-darning great, jagged, and most unnecessary holes in Amelia's +muslin dresses. Or perhaps she had to wash and iron clothes for +Amelia's wear next day. For sometimes she was so very destructive, that +towards the end of the week she had used up all her clothes and had no +clean ones to fall back upon. + +Amelia's meals were another source of trouble. She would not wear a +pinafore; if it had been put on, she would burst the strings, and +perhaps in throwing it away knock her plate of mutton broth over the +tablecloth and her own dress. Then she fancied first one thing and then +another; she did not like this or that; she wanted a bit cut here or +there. Her mamma used to begin by saying, "My dear-r-Ramelia, you must +not be so wasteful," and she used to end by saying, "The dear child has +positively no appetite;" which seemed to be a good reason for not +wasting any more food upon her; but with Amelia's mamma it only meant +that she might try a little cutlet and tomato sauce when she had half +finished her roast beef, and that most of the cutlet and all the mashed +potato might be exchanged for plum tart and custard; and that when she +had spooned up the custard and played with the paste, and put the plum +stones on the tablecloth, she might be tempted with a little Stilton +cheese and celery, and exchange that for anything that caught her fancy +in the dessert dishes. + +The Nurse used to say, "Many a poor child would thank GOD for what you +waste every meal-time, Miss Amelia," and to quote a certain good old +saying, "Waste not, want not." But Amelia's mamma allowed her to send +away on her plates what would have fed another child, day after day. + + +UNDER THE HAYCOCKS. + +It was summer, and haytime. Amelia had been constantly in the hayfield, +and the haymakers had constantly wished that she had been anywhere +else. She mislaid the rakes, nearly killed herself and several other +persons with a fork, and overturned one haycock after another as fast +as they were made. At tea-time it was hoped that she would depart, but +she teased her mamma to have the tea brought into the field, and her +mamma said, "The poor child must have a treat sometimes," and so it was +brought out. + +After this she fell off the haycart, and was a good deal shaken, but +not hurt. So she was taken indoors, and the haymakers worked hard and +cleared the field, all but a few cocks which were left till the +morning. + +The sun set, the dew fell, the moon rose. It was a lovely night. Amelia +peeped from behind the blinds of the drawing-room windows, and saw four +haycocks, each with a deep shadow reposing at its side. The rest of the +field was swept clean, and looked pale in the moonshine. It was a +lovely night. + +"I want to go out," said Amelia. "They will take away those cocks +before I can get at them in the morning, and there will be no more +jumping and tumbling, I shall go out and have some fun now." + +"My dear Amelia, you must not," said her mamma; and her papa added, "I +won't hear of it." So Amelia went up-stairs to grumble to Nurse; but +Nurse only said, "Now, my dear Miss Amelia, do go quietly to bed, like +a dear love. The field is all wet with dew. Besides, it's a moonlight +night, and who knows what's abroad? You might see the fairies--bless us +and sain us!--and what not. There's been a magpie hopping up and +down near the house all day, and that's a sign of ill-luck." + +"I don't care for magpies," said Amelia; "I threw a stone at that one +to-day." + +And she left the nursery, and swung down-stairs on the rail of the +banisters. But she did not go into the drawing-room; she opened the +front door and went out into the moonshine. + +It was a lovely night. But there was something strange about it. +Everything looked asleep, and yet seemed not only awake but watching. +There was not a sound, and yet the air seemed full of half-sounds. The +child was quite alone, and yet at every step she fancied some one +behind her, on one side of her, somewhere, and found it only a rustling +leaf or a passing shadow. She was soon in the hayfield, where it was +just the same; so that when she fancied that something green was moving +near the first haycock she thought very little of it, till, coming +closer, she plainly perceived by the moonlight a tiny man dressed in +green, with a tall, pointed hat, and very, very long tips to his shoes, +tying his shoestring with his foot on a stubble stalk. He had the most +wizened of faces, and when he got angry with his shoe, he pulled so wry +a grimace that it was quite laughable. At last he stood up, stepping +carefully over the stubble, went up to the first haycock, and drawing +out a hollow grass stalk blew upon it till his cheeks were puffed like +footballs. And yet there was no sound, only a half-sound, as of a horn +blown in the far distance, or in a dream. Presently the point of a tall +hat, and finally just such another little wizened face, poked out +through the side of the haycock. + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" asked the little green man. + +"That indeed you cannot," answered the other; "we have hardly room to +turn round as it is, with all Amelia's dirty frocks." + +"Ah, bah!" said the dwarf; and he walked on to the next haycock, Amelia +cautiously following. + +Here he blew again, and a head was put out as before; on which he said, + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" + +"How is it possible," was the reply, "when there is not a place where +one can so much as set down an acorn cup, for Amelia's broken +victuals?" + +"Fie! fie!" said the dwarf, and went on to the third, where all +happened as before; and he asked the old question, + +"Can we hold revel here to-night?" + +"Can you dance on glass and crockery sherds?" inquired the other. +"Amelia's broken gimcracks are everywhere." + +"Pshaw!" snorted the dwarf, frowning terribly; and when he came to the +fourth haycock he blew such an angry blast that the grass stalk split +into seven pieces. But he met with no better success than before. Only +the point of a hat came through the hay, and a feeble voice piped in +tones of depression--"The broken threads would entangle our feet. It's +all Amelia's fault. If we could only get hold of her!" + +"If she's wise, she'll keep as far from these haycocks as she can," +snarled the dwarf, angrily; and he shook his fist as much as to say, +"If she did come, I should not receive her very pleasantly." + +Now with Amelia, to hear that she had better not do something, was to +make her wish at once to do it; and as she was not at all wanting in +courage, she pulled the dwarf's little cloak, just as she would have +twitched her mother's shawl, and said (with that sort of snarly whine +in which spoilt children generally speak)--"Why shouldn't I come to the +haycocks if I want to? They belong to my papa, and I shall come if I +like. But you have no business here." + +"Nightshade and hemlock!" ejaculated the little man, "you are not +lacking in impudence. Perhaps your Sauciness is not quite aware how +things are distributed in this world?" saying which he lifted his +pointed shoes and began to dance and sing, + + "All under the sun belongs to men, + And all under the moon to the fairies. + So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho! + All under the moon to the fairies." + +As he sang "Ho, ho, ho!" the little man turned head over heels; and +though by this time Amelia would gladly have got away, she could not, +for the dwarf seemed to dance and tumble round her, and always to cut +off the chance of escape; whilst numberless voices from all around +seemed to join in the chorus, with + + + "So, so, so! Ho, ho, ho! + All under the moon to the fairies." + +"And now," said the little man, "to work! And you have plenty of work +before you, so trip on, to the first haycock." + +"I shan't!" said Amelia. + +"On with you!" repeated the dwarf. + +"I won't!" said Amelia. + +But the little man, who was behind her, pinched her funny-bone with his +lean fingers, and, as everybody knows, that is agony; so Amelia ran on, +and tried to get away. But when she went too fast, the dwarf trod on +her heels with his long-pointed shoe, and if she did not go fast +enough, he pinched her funny-bone. So for once in her life she was +obliged to do as she was told. As they ran, tall hats and wizened faces +were popped out on all sides of the haycocks, like blanched almonds on +a tipsy cake; and whenever the dwarf pinched Amelia, or trod on her +heels, the goblins cried "Ho, ho, ho!" with such horrible contortions +as they laughed, that it was hideous to behold them. + +"Here is Amelia!" shouted the dwarf when they reached the first +haycock. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed all the others, as they poked out here and there +from the hay. + +"Bring a stock," said the dwarf; on which the hay was lifted, and out +ran six or seven dwarfs, carrying what seemed to Amelia to be a little +girl like herself. And when she looked closer, to her horror and +surprise the figure was exactly like her--it was her own face, clothes, +and everything. + +"Shall we kick it into the house?" asked the goblins. + +"No," said the dwarf; "lay it down by the haycock. The father and +mother are coming to seek her now." + +When Amelia heard this she began to shriek for help; but she was pushed +into the haycock, where her loudest cries sounded like the chirruping +of a grasshopper. + +It was really a fine sight to see the inside of the cock. + +Farmers do not like to see flowers in a hayfield, but the fairies do. +They had arranged all the buttercups, &c., in patterns on the haywalls; +bunches of meadow-sweet swung from the roof like censers, and perfumed +the air; and the ox-eye daisies which formed the ceiling gave a light +like stars. But Amelia cared for none of this. She only struggled to +peep through the hay, and she did see her father and mother and nurse +come down the lawn, followed by the other servants, looking for her. +When they saw the stock they ran to raise it with exclamations of pity +and surprise. The stock moaned faintly, and Amelia's mamma wept, and +Amelia herself shouted with all her might. + +"What's that?" said her mamma. (It is not easy to deceive a mother.) + +"Only the grasshoppers, my dear," said Papa. "Let us get the poor child +home." + +The stock moaned again, and the mother said, "Oh dear! oh +dear-r-Ramelia!" and followed in tears. + +"Rub her eyes," said the dwarf; on which Amelia's eyes were rubbed with +some ointment, and when she took a last peep, she could see that the +stock was nothing but a hairy imp, with a face like the oldest and most +grotesque of apes. + +"--and send her below," added the dwarf. On which the field opened, and +Amelia was pushed underground. + +She found herself on a sort of open heath, where no houses were to be +seen. Of course there was no moonshine, and yet it was neither daylight +nor dark. There was as the light of early dawn, and every sound was at +once clear and dreamy, like the first sounds of the day coming through +the fresh air before sunrise. Beautiful flowers crept over the heath, +whose tints were constantly changing in the subdued light; and as the +hues changed and blended, the flowers gave forth different perfumes. +All would have been charming but that at every few paces the paths were +blocked by large clothes-baskets full of dirty frocks, And the frocks +were Amelia's. Torn, draggled, wet, covered with sand, mud, and dirt of +all kinds, Amelia recognized them. + +"You've got to wash them all," said the dwarf, who was behind her as +usual; "that's what you've come down for--not because your society is +particularly pleasant. So the sooner you begin the better." + +"I can't," said Amelia (she had already learnt that "I won't" is not an +answer for every one); "send them up to Nurse, and she'll do them. It +is her business." + +"What Nurse can do she has done, and now it's time for you to begin," +said the dwarf. "Sooner or later the mischief done by spoilt children's +wilful disobedience comes back on their own hands. Up to a certain +point we help them, for we love children, and we are wilful ourselves. +But there are limits to everything. If you can't wash your dirty +frocks, it is time you learnt to do so, if only that you may know what +the trouble is you impose on other people. _She_ will teach you." + +The dwarf kicked out his foot in front of him, and pointed with his +long toe to a woman who sat by a fire made upon the heath, where a pot +was suspended from crossed poles. It was like a bit of a gipsy +encampment, and the woman seemed to be a real woman, not a fairy--which +was the case, as Amelia afterwards found. She had lived underground for +many years, and was the dwarfs' servant. + +And this was how it came about that Amelia had to wash her dirty +frocks. Let any little girl try to wash one of her dresses; not to half +wash it, not to leave it stained with dirty water, but to wash it quite +clean. Let her then try to starch and iron it--in short, to make it +look as if it had come from the laundress--and she will have some idea +of what poor Amelia had to learn to do. There was no help for it. When +she was working she very seldom saw the dwarfs; but if she were idle or +stubborn, or had any hopes of getting away, one was sure to start up at +her elbow and pinch her funny-bone, or poke her in the ribs, till she +did her best. Her back ached with stooping over the wash-tub; her hands +and arms grew wrinkled with soaking in hot soapsuds, and sore with +rubbing. Whatever she did not know how to do, the woman of the heath +taught her. At first, whilst Amelia was sulky, the woman of the heath +was sharp and cross; but when Amelia became willing and obedient, she +was good-natured, and even helped her. + +The first time that Amelia felt hungry she asked for some food. + +"By all means," said one of the dwarfs; "there is plenty down here +which belongs to you;" and he led her away till they came to a place +like the first, except that it was covered with plates of broken meats; +all the bits of good meat, pie, pudding, bread-and-butter, &c., that +Amelia had wasted beforetime. + +"I can't eat cold scraps like these," said Amelia, turning away. + +"Then what did you ask for food for before you were hungry?" screamed +the dwarf, and he pinched her and sent her about her business. + +After a while she became so famished that she was glad to beg humbly to +be allowed to go for food; and she ate a cold chop and the remains of a +rice pudding with thankfulness. How delicious they tasted! She was +surprised herself at the good things she had rejected. After a time she +fancied she would like to warm up some of the cold meat in a pan, which +the woman of the heath used to cook her own dinner in, and she asked +for leave to do so. + +"You may do anything you like to make yourself comfortable, if you do +it yourself," said she; and Amelia, who had been watching her for many +times, became quite expert in cooking up the scraps. + +As there was no real daylight underground, so also there was no night. +When the old woman was tired she lay down and had a nap, and when she +thought that Amelia had earned a rest, she allowed her to do the same. +It was never cold, and it never rained, so they slept on the heath +among the flowers. + +They say that "It's a long lane that has no turning," and the hardest +tasks come to an end some time, and Amelia's dresses were clean at +last; but then a more wearisome work was before her. They had to be +mended. Amelia looked at the jagged rents made by the hedges; the great +gaping holes in front where she had put her foot through; the torn +tucks and gathers. First she wept, then she bitterly regretted that she +had so often refused to do her sewing at home that she was very awkward +with her needle. Whether she ever would have got through this task +alone is doubtful, but she had by this time become so well-behaved and +willing that the old woman was kind to her, and, pitying her blundering +attempts, she helped her a great deal; whilst Amelia would cook the old +woman's victuals, or repeat stories and pieces of poetry to amuse her. + +"How glad I am that I ever learnt anything!" thought the poor child: +"everything one learns seems to come in useful some time." + +At last the dresses were finished. + +"Do you think I shall be allowed to go home now?" Amelia asked of the +woman of the heath. + +"Not yet," said she; "you have got to mend the broken gimcracks next." + +"But when I have done all my tasks," Amelia said; "will they let me go +then?" + +"That depends," said the woman, and she sat silent over the fire; but +Amelia wept so bitterly, that she pitied her and said--"Only dry your +eyes, for the fairies hate tears, and I will tell you all I know and do +the best for you I can. You see, when you first came you were--excuse +me!--such an unlicked cub; such a peevish, selfish, wilful, useless, +and ill-mannered little miss, that neither the fairies nor anybody else +were likely to keep you any longer than necessary. But now you are such +a willing, handy, and civil little thing, and so pretty and graceful +withal, that I think it is very likely that they will want to keep you +altogether. I think you had better make up your mind to it. They are +kindly little folk, and will make a pet of you in the end." + +"Oh, no! no!" moaned poor Amelia; "I want to be with my mother, my poor +dear mother! I want to make up for being a bad child so long. Besides, +surely that 'stock,' as they called her, will want to come back to her +own people." + +"As to that," said the woman, "after a time the stock will affect +mortal illness, and will then take possession of the first black cat +she sees, and in that shape leave the house, and come home. But the +figure that is like you will remain lifeless in the bed, and will be +duly buried. Then your people, believing you to be dead, will never +look for you, and you will always remain here. However, as this +distresses you so, I will give you some advice. Can you dance?" + +"Yes," said Amelia; "I did attend pretty well to my dancing lessons. I +was considered rather clever about it." + +"At any spare moments you find," continued the woman, "dance, dance all +your dances, and as well as you can. The dwarfs love dancing." + +"And then?" said Amelia. + +"Then, perhaps some night they will take you up to dance with them in +the meadows above-ground." + +"But I could not get away. They would tread on my heels--oh! I could +never escape them." + +"I know that," said the woman; "your only chance is this. If ever, when +dancing in the meadows, you can find a four-leaved clover, hold it in +your hand, and wish to be at home. Then no one can stop you. Meanwhile +I advise you to seem happy, that they may think you are content, and +have forgotten the world. And dance, above all, dance!" + +And Amelia, not to be behindhand, began then and there to dance some +pretty figures on the heath. As she was dancing the dwarf came by. + +"Ho, ho!" said he, "you can dance, can you?" + +"When I am happy I can," said Amelia, performing several graceful +movements as she spoke. + +"What are you pleased about now?" snapped the dwarf, suspiciously. + +"Have I not reason?" said Amelia. "The dresses are washed and mended." + +"Then up with them!" returned the dwarf. On which half-a-dozen elves +popped the whole lot into a big basket and kicked them up into the +world, where they found their way to the right wardrobes somehow. + +As the woman of the heath had said, Amelia was soon set to a new task. +When she bade the old woman farewell, she asked if she could do nothing +for her if ever she got at liberty herself. + +"Can I do nothing to get you back to your old home?" Amelia cried, for +she thought of others now as well as herself. + +"No, thank you," returned the old woman; "I am used to this, and do not +care to return. I have been here a long time--how long I do not know; +for as there is neither daylight nor dark we have no measure of +time--long, I am sure, very long. The light and noise up yonder would +now be too much for me. But I wish you well, and, above all, remember +to dance!" + +The new scene of Amelia's labours was a more rocky part of the heath, +where grey granite boulders served for seats and tables, and sometimes +for workshops and anvils, as in one place, where a grotesque and grimy +old dwarf sat forging rivets to mend china and glass. A fire in a +hollow of the boulder served for a forge, and on the flatter part was +his anvil. The rocks were covered in all directions with the +knick-knacks, ornaments, &c., that Amelia had at various times +destroyed. + +"If you please, sir," she said to the dwarf, "I am Amelia." + +The dwarf left off blowing at his forge and looked at her. + +"Then I wonder you're not ashamed of yourself," said he. + +"I am ashamed of myself," said poor Amelia, "very much ashamed. I +should like to mend these things if I can." + +"Well, you can't say more than that," said the dwarf, in a mollified +tone, for he was a kindly little creature; "bring that china bowl here, +and I'll show you how to set to work." + +Poor Amelia did not get on very fast, but she tried her best. As to the +dwarf, it was truly wonderful to see how he worked. Things seemed to +mend themselves at his touch, and he was so proud of his skill, and so +particular, that he generally did over again the things which Amelia +had done after her fashion. The first time he gave her a few minutes in +which to rest and amuse herself, she held out her little skirt, and +began one of her prettiest dances. + +"Rivets and trivets!" shrieked the little man, "how you dance! It is +charming! I say it is charming! On with you! Fa, la fa! La, fa la! It +gives me the fidgets in my shoe-points to see you!" and forthwith down +he jumped, and began capering about. + +"I am a good dancer myself," said the little man. "Do you know the +'Hop, Skip, and a Jump' dance?" + +"I do not think I do," said Amelia. + +"It is much admired," said the dwarf, "when I dance it;" and he +thereupon tucked up the little leathern apron in which he worked, and +performed some curious antics on one leg. + +"That is the Hop," he observed, pausing for a moment. "The Skip is +thus. You throw out your left leg as high and as far as you can, and as +you drop on the toe of your left foot you fling out the right leg in +the same manner, and so on. This is the Jump," with which he turned a +somersault and disappeared from view. When Amelia next saw him he was +sitting cross-legged on his boulder. + +"Good, wasn't it?" he said. + +"Wonderful!" Amelia replied. + +"Now it's your turn again," said the dwarf. + +But Amelia cunningly replied--"I'm afraid I must go on with my work." + +"Pshaw!" said the little tinker. "Give me your work. I can do more in a +minute than you in a month, and better to boot. Now dance again." + +"Do you know this?" said Amelia, and she danced a few paces of a polka +mazurka. + +"Admirable!" cried the little man. "Stay"--and he drew an old violin +from behind the rock; "now dance again, and mark the time well, so that +I may catch the measure, and then I will accompany you." + +Which accordingly he did, improvising a very spirited tune, which had, +however, the peculiar subdued and weird effect of all the other sounds +in this strange region. + +"The fiddle came from up yonder," said the little man. "It was smashed +to atoms in the world and thrown away. But, ho, ho, ho! there is +nothing that I cannot mend, and a mended fiddle is an amended fiddle. +It improves the tone. Now teach me that dance, and I will patch up all +the rest of the gimcracks. Is it a bargain?" + +"By all means," said Amelia; and she began to explain the dance to the +best of her ability. + +"Charming, charming!" cried the dwarf. "We have no such dance +ourselves. We only dance hand in hand, and round and round, when we +dance together. Now I will learn the step, and then I will put my arm +round your waist and dance with you." + +Amelia looked at the dwarf. He was very smutty, and old, and wizened. +Truly, a queer partner! But "handsome is that handsome does;" and he +had done her a good turn. So when he had learnt the step, he put his +arm round Amelia's waist, and they danced together. His shoe-points +were very much in the way, but otherwise he danced very well. + +Then he set to work on the broken ornaments, and they were all very +soon "as good as new." But they were not kicked up into the world, for, +as the dwarfs said, they would be sure to break on the road. So they +kept them and used them; and I fear that no benefit came from the +little tinker's skill to Amelia's mamma's acquaintance in this matter. + +"Have I any other tasks?" Amelia inquired. + +"One more," said the dwarfs; and she was led farther on to a smooth +mossy green, thickly covered with what looked like bits of broken +thread. One would think it had been a milliner's work-room from the +first invention of needles and thread. + +"What are these?" Amelia asked. + +"They are the broken threads of all the conversations you have +interrupted," was the reply; "and pretty dangerous work it is to dance +here now, with threads getting round one's shoe-points. Dance a +hornpipe in a herring-net, and you'll know what it is!" + +Amelia began to pick up the threads, but it was tedious work. She had +cleared a yard or two, and her back was aching terribly, when she heard +the fiddle and the mazurka behind her; and looking round she saw the +old dwarf, who was playing away, and making the most hideous grimaces +as his chin pressed the violin. + +"Dance, my lady, dance!" he shouted. + +"I do not think I can," said Amelia; "I am so weary with stooping over +my work." + +"Then rest a few minutes," he answered, "and I will play you a jig. A +jig is a beautiful dance, such life, such spirit! So!" + +And he played faster and faster, his arm, his face, his fiddle-bow all +seemed working together; and as he played, the threads danced +themselves into three heaps. + +"That is not bad, is it?" said the dwarf; "and now for our own dance," +and he played the mazurka. "Get the measure well into your head. La, la +fa la! la, la fa la! So!" + +And throwing away his fiddle, he caught Amelia round the waist, and +they danced as before. After which, she had no difficulty in putting +the three heaps of thread into a basket. + +"Where are these to be kicked to?" asked the young goblins. + +"To the four winds of heaven," said the old dwarf. "There are very few +drawing-room conversations worth putting together a second time. They +are not like old china bowls." + + +BY MOONLIGHT. + +Thus Amelia's tasks were ended; but not a word was said of her return +home. The dwarfs were now very kind, and made so much of her that it +was evident that they meant her to remain with them. Amelia often +cooked for them, and she danced and played with them, and never showed +a sign of discontent; but her heart ached for home, and when she was +alone she would bury her face in the flowers and cry for her mother. + +One day she overheard the dwarfs in consultation. + +"The moon is full to-morrow," said one--("Then I have been a month down +here," thought Amelia; "it was full moon that night")--"shall we dance +in the Mary Meads?" + +"By all means," said the old tinker dwarf; "and we will take Amelia, +and dance my dance." + +"Is it safe?" said another. + +"Look how content she is," said the old dwarf; "and, oh! how she +dances; my feet tickle at the bare thought." + +"The ordinary run of mortals do not see us," continued the objector; +"but she is visible to any one. And there are men and women who wander +in the moonlight, and the Mary Meads are near her old home." + +"I will make her a hat of touchwood," said the old dwarf, "so that even +if she is seen it will look like a will-o'-the-wisp bobbing up and +down. If she does not come, I will not. I must dance my dance. You do +not know what it is! We two alone move together with a grace which even +here is remarkable. But when I think that up yonder we shall have +attendant shadows echoing our movements, I long for the moment to +arrive." + +"So be it," said the others; and Amelia wore the touchwood hat, and +went up with them to the Mary Meads. + +Amelia and the dwarf danced the mazurka, and their shadows, now as +short as themselves, then long and gigantic, danced beside them. As the +moon went down, and the shadows lengthened, the dwarf was in raptures. + +"When one sees how colossal one's very shadow is," he remarked, "one +knows one's true worth. You also have a good shadow. We are partners in +the dance, and I think we will be partners for life. But I have not +fully considered the matter, so this is not to be regarded as a formal +proposal." And he continued to dance, singing, "La, la, fa, la, +la, la, fa, la." It was highly admired. + +The Mary Meads lay a little below the house where Amelia's parents +lived, and once during the night her father, who was watching by the +sick bed of the stock, looked out of the window. + +"How lovely the moonlight is!" he murmured; "but, dear me! there is a +will-o'-the-wisp yonder. I had no idea the Mary Meads were so damp." +Then he pulled the blind down and went back into the room. + +As for poor Amelia, she found no four-leaved clover, and at cockcrow +they all went underground. + +"We will dance on Hunch Hill to-morrow," said the dwarfs. + +All went as before; not a clover plant of any kind did Amelia see, and +at cockcrow the revel broke up. + +On the following night they danced in the hayfield. The old stubble was +now almost hidden by green clover. There was a grand fairy dance--a +round dance, which does not mean, as with us, a dance for two partners, +but a dance where all join hands and dance round and round in a circle +with appropriate antics. Round they went, faster and faster, the +pointed shoes now meeting in the centre like the spokes of a wheel, now +kicked out behind like spikes, and then scamper, caper, hurry! They +seemed to fly, when suddenly the ring broke at one corner, and nothing +being stronger than its weakest point, the whole circle were sent +flying over the field. + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the dwarfs, for they are good-humoured little +folk, and do not mind a tumble. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Amelia, for she had fallen with her fingers on a +four-leaved clover. + +She put it behind her back, for the old tinker dwarf was coming up to +her, wiping the mud from his face with his leathern apron. + +"Now for our dance!" he shrieked. "And I have made up my mind--partners +now and partners always. You are incomparable. For three hundred years +I have not met with your equal." + +But Amelia held the four-leaved clover above her head, and cried from +her very heart--"I want to go home!" + +The dwarf gave a hideous yell of disappointment, and at this instant +the stock came tumbling head over heels into the midst, crying--"Oh! +the pills, the powders, and the draughts! oh, the lotions and +embrocations! oh, the blisters, the poultices, and the plasters! men +may well be so short-lived!" + +And Amelia found herself in bed in her own home. + + +AT HOME AGAIN. + +By the side of Amelia's bed stood a little table, on which were so many +big bottles of medicine, that Amelia smiled to think of all the stock +must have had to swallow during the month past. There was an open Bible +on it too, in which Amelia's mother was reading, whilst tears trickled +slowly down her pale cheeks. The poor lady looked so thin and ill, so +worn with sorrow and watching, that Amelia's heart smote her, as if +some one had given her a sharp blow. + +"Mamma, Mamma! Mother, my dear, dear Mother!" + +The tender, humble, loving tone of voice was so unlike Amelia's old +imperious snarl, that her mother hardly recognized it; and when she saw +Amelia's eyes full of intelligence instead of the delirium of fever, +and that (though older and thinner and rather pale) she looked +wonderfully well, the poor worn-out lady could hardly restrain herself +from falling into hysterics for very joy. + +"Dear Mamma, I want to tell you all about it," said Amelia, kissing the +kind hand that stroked her brow. + +But it appeared that the doctor had forbidden conversation; and though +Amelia knew it would do her no harm, she yielded to her mother's wish +and lay still and silent. + +"Now, my love, it is time to take your medicine." + +But Amelia pleaded--"Oh, Mamma, indeed I don't want any medicine. I am +quite well, and would like to get up." + +"Ah, my dear child!" cried her mother, "what I have suffered in +inducing you to take your medicine, and yet see what good it has done +you." + +"I hope you will never suffer any more from my wilfulness," said +Amelia; and she swallowed two tablespoonfuls of a mixture labelled "To +be well shaken before taken," without even a wry face. + +Presently the doctor came. + +"You're not so very angry at the sight of me to-day, my little lady, +eh?" he said. + +"I have not seen you for a long time," said Amelia; "but I know you +have been here, attending a stock who looked like me. If your eyes had +been touched with fairy ointment, however, you would have been aware +that it was a fairy imp, and a very ugly one, covered with hair. I have +been living in terror lest it should go back underground in the shape +of a black cat. However, thanks to the four-leaved clover, and the old +woman of the heath, I am at home again." + +On hearing this rhodomontade, Amelia's mother burst into tears, for she +thought the poor child was still raving with fever. But the doctor +smiled pleasantly, and said--"Ay, ay, to be sure," with a little nod, +as one should say, "We know all about it;" and laid two fingers in a +casual manner on Amelia's wrist. + +"But she is wonderfully better, madam," he said afterwards to her +mamma; "the brain has been severely tried, but she is marvellously +improved: in fact, it is an effort of nature, a most favourable effort, +and we can but assist the rally; we will change the medicine." Which he +did, and very wisely assisted nature with a bottle of pure water +flavoured with tincture of roses. + +"And it was so very kind of him to give me his directions in poetry," +said Amelia's mamma; "for I told him my memory, which is never good, +seemed going completely, from anxiety, and if I had done anything wrong +just now, I should never have forgiven myself. And I always found +poetry easier to remember than prose,"--which puzzled everybody, the +doctor included, till it appeared that she had ingeniously discovered a +rhyme in his orders-- + + 'To be kept cool and quiet, + With light nourishing diet.' + +Under which treatment Amelia was soon pronounced to be well. + +She made another attempt to relate her adventures, but she found that +not even Nurse would believe in them. + +"Why you told me yourself I might meet with the fairies," said Amelia, +reproachfully. + +"So I did, my dear," Nurse replied, "and they say that it's that put it +into your head. And I'm sure what you say about the dwarfs and all is +as good as a printed book, though you can't think that ever I would +have let any dirty clothes store up like that, let alone your frocks, +my dear. But for pity's sake, Miss Amelia, don't go on about it to your +mother, for she thinks you'll never get your senses right again, and +she has fretted enough about you, poor lady; and nursed you night and +day till she is nigh worn out. And anybody can see you've been ill, +Miss, you've grown so, and look paler and older like. Well, to be sure, +as you say, if you'd been washing and working for a month in a place +without a bit of sun, or a bed to lie on, and scraps to eat, it would +be enough to do it; and many's the poor child that has to, and gets +worn and old before her time. But, my dear, whatever you think, give in +to your mother; you'll never repent giving in to your mother, my dear, +the longest day you live." + +So Amelia kept her own counsel. But she had one confidant. + +When her parents brought the stock home on the night of Amelia's visit +to the haycocks, the bulldog's conduct had been most strange. His usual +good-humour appeared to have been exchanged for incomprehensible fury, +and he was with difficulty prevented from flying at the stock, who on +her part showed an anger and dislike fully equal to his. + +Finally the bulldog had been confined to the stable, where he remained +the whole month, uttering from time to time such howls, with his snub +nose in the air, that poor Nurse quite gave up hope of Amelia's +recovery. + +"For indeed, my dear, they do say that a howling dog is a sign of +death, and it was more than I could abear." + +But the day after Amelia's return, as Nurse was leaving the room with a +tray which had carried some of the light nourishing diet ordered by the +doctor, she was knocked down, tray and all, by the bulldog, who came +tearing into the room, dragging a chain and dirty rope after him, and +nearly choked by the desperate efforts which had finally effected his +escape from the stable. And he jumped straight on to the end of +Amelia's bed, where he lay, _thudding_ with his tail, and giving +short whines of ecstasy. And as Amelia begged that he might be left, +and as it was evident that he would bite any one who tried to take him +away, he became established as chief nurse. When Amelia's meals were +brought to the bedside on a tray, he kept a fixed eye on the plates, as +if to see if her appetite were improving. And he would even take a +snack himself, with an air of great affability. + +And when Amelia told him her story, she could see by his eyes, and his +nose, and his ears, and his tail, and the way he growled whenever the +stock was mentioned, that he knew all about it. As, on the other hand, +he had no difficulty in conveying to her by sympathetic whines the +sentiment, "Of course I would have helped you if I could; but they tied +me up, and this disgusting old rope has taken me a month to worry +through." + +So, in spite of the past, Amelia grew up good and gentle, unselfish and +considerate for others. She was unusually clever, as those who have +been with the "Little People" are said always to be. + +And she became so popular with her mother's acquaintances that they +said--"We will no longer call her Amelia, for it is a name we learnt to +dislike, but we will call her Amy, that is to say, 'Beloved.'" + + * * * * * + +"And did my godmother's grandmother believe that Amelia had really been +with the fairies, or did she think it was all fever ravings?" + +"That, indeed, she never said, but she always observed that it was a +pleasant tale with a good moral, which was surely enough for anybody." + + + +THE END. + + +_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._ + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following statement was in the edition from which +this copy was acquired.] + +_The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized, +complete, and uniform Edition published. + +It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol., +issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will +appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series +will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was +specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing._ + +_The following is a list of the books included in +the Series_-- + +1. MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES. + +2. MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES. + +3. OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY-TALES. + +4. A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING. + +5. THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES. + +6. SIX TO SIXTEEN. + +7. LOB-LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES. + +8. JAN OF THE WINDMILL. + +9. VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS. + +10. THE PEACE EGG--A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY--HINTS FOR PRIVATE +THEATRICALS, &c. + +11. A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES. + +12. BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN. + +13. WE AND THE WORLD, Part I. + +14. WE AND THE WORLD, Part II. + +15. JACKANAPES--DADDY DARWIN'S DOVECOTE--THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE. + +16. MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS. + +17. MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand--Wonder +Stories--Tales of the Khoja, and other translations. + +18. JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection from Mrs. +Ewing's Letters. + + * * * * * + +S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brownies and Other Tales +by Juliana Horatia Ewing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWNIES AND OTHER TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 16052.txt or 16052.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16052/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erika Q. Stokes and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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