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+Project Gutenberg's Cross Purposes and The Shadows, by George MacDonald
+
+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: Cross Purposes and The Shadows
+
+Author: George MacDonald
+
+Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROSS PURPOSES AND THE SHADOWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bechard (JaBBechard@aol.com)
+
+
+
+
+
+CROSS PURPOSES
+
+by George MacDonald
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CROSS PURPOSES
+THE SHADOWS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CROSS PURPOSES
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Once upon a time, the Queen of Fairyland, finding her own subjects far
+too well-behaved to be amusing, took a sudden longing to have a mortal
+or two at her Court. So, after looking about her for some time, she
+fixed upon two to bring to Fairyland.
+
+But how were they to be brought?
+
+"Please your majesty," said at last the daughter of the prime-minister,
+"I will bring the girl."
+
+The speaker, whose name was Peaseblossom, after her
+great-great-grandmother, looked so graceful, and hung her head
+so apologetically, that the Queen said at once,--
+
+"How will you manage it, Peaseblossom?"
+
+"I will open the road before her, and close it behind her."
+
+"I have heard that you have pretty ways of doing things; so you may
+try."
+
+The court happened to be held in an open forest-glade of smooth turf,
+upon which there was just one mole-heap. As soon as the Queen had given
+her permission to Peaseblossom, up through the mole-heap came the head
+of a goblin, which cried out,--
+
+"Please your majesty, I will bring the boy."
+
+"You!" exclaimed the Queen. "How will you do it?"
+
+The goblin began to wriggle himself out of the earth, as if he had been
+a snake, and the whole world his skin, till the court was convulsed
+with laughter. As soon as he got free, he began to roll over and over,
+in every possible manner, rotatory and cylindrical, all at once, until
+he reached the wood. The courtiers followed, holding their sides, so
+that the Queen was left sitting upon her throne in solitary state.
+
+When they reached the wood, the goblin, whose name was Toadstool, was
+nowhere to be seen. While they were looking for him, out popped his
+head from the mole-heap again, with the words,--
+
+"So, your majesty."
+
+"You have taken your own time to answer," said the Queen, laughing.
+
+"And my own way too, eh! your majesty?" rejoined Toadstool, grinning.
+
+"No doubt. Well, you may try."
+
+And the goblin, making as much of a bow as he could with only half his
+neck above ground, disappeared under it.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+No mortal, or fairy either, can tell where Fairyland begins and where
+it ends. But somewhere on the borders of Fairyland there was a nice
+country village, in which lived some nice country people.
+
+Alice was the daughter of the squire, a pretty, good-natured girl, whom
+her friends called fairy-like, and others called silly.
+
+One rosy summer evening, when the wall opposite her window was flaked
+all over with rosiness, she threw herself down on her bed, and lay
+gazing at the wall. The rose-colour sank through her eyes and dyed her
+brain, and she began to feel as if she were reading a story-book. She
+thought she was looking at a western sea, with the waves all red with
+sunset. But when the colour died out, Alice gave a sigh to see how
+commonplace the wall grew. "I wish it was always sunset!" she said,
+half aloud. "I don't like gray things."
+
+"I will take you where the sun is always setting, if you like, Alice,"
+said a sweet, tiny voice near her. She looked down on the coverlet of
+the bed, and there, looking up at her, stood a lovely little creature.
+It seemed quite natural that the little lady should be there; for many
+things we never could believe, have only to happen, and then there is
+nothing strange about them. She was dressed in white, with a cloak of
+sunset-red--the colours of the sweetest of sweet-peas. On her head was
+a crown of twisted tendrils, with a little gold beetle in front.
+
+"Are you a fairy?" said Alice.
+
+"Yes. Will you go with me to the sunset?"
+
+"Yes, I will."
+
+When Alice proceeded to rise, she found that she was no bigger than the
+fairy; and when she stood up on the counterpane, the bed looked like a
+great hall with a painted ceiling. As she walked towards Peaseblossom,
+she stumbled several times over the tufts that made the pattern. But
+the fairy took her by the hand and led her towards the foot of the bed.
+Long before they reached it, however, Alice saw that the fairy was a
+tall, slender lady, and that she herself was quite her own size. What
+she had taken for tufts on the counterpane were really bushes of furze,
+and broom, and heather, on the side of a slope.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Alice.
+
+"Going on," answered the fairy.
+
+Alice, not liking the reply, said,--
+
+"I want to go home."
+
+"Good-bye, then!" answered the fairy.
+
+Alice looked round. A wide, hilly country lay all about them. She could
+not even tell from what quarter they had come.
+
+"I must go with you, I see," she said.
+
+Before they reached the bottom, they were walking over the loveliest
+meadow-grass. A little stream went cantering down beside them, without
+channel or bank, sometimes running between the blades, sometimes
+sweeping the grass all one way under it. And it made a great babbling
+for such a little stream and such a smooth course.
+
+Gradually the slope grew gentler, and the stream flowed more softly and
+spread out wider. At length they came to a wood of long, straight
+poplars, growing out of the water, for the stream ran into the wood,
+and there stretched out into a lake. Alice thought they could go no
+farther; but Peaseblossom led her straight on, and they walked through.
+
+It was now dark; but everything under the water gave out a pale, quiet
+light. There were deep pools here and there, but there was no mud, or
+frogs, or water-lizards, or eels. All the bottom was pure, lovely
+grass, brilliantly green. Down the banks of the pools she saw, all
+under water, primroses and violets and pimpernels. Any flower she
+wished to see she had only to look for, and she was sure to find it.
+When a pool came in their way, the fairy swam, and Alice swam by her;
+and when they got out they were quite dry, though the water was as
+delightfully wet as water should be. Besides the trees, tall, splendid
+lilies grew out of it, and hollyhocks and irises and sword-plants, and
+many other long-stemmed flowers. From every leaf and petal of these,
+from every branch-tip and tendril, dropped bright water. It gathered
+slowly at each point, but the points were so many that there was a
+constant musical plashing of diamond rain upon the still surface of the
+lake. As they went on, the moon rose and threw a pale mist of light
+over the whole, and the diamond drops turned to half-liquid pearls, and
+round every tree-top was a halo of moonlight, and the water went to
+sleep, and the flowers began to dream.
+
+"Look," said the fairy; "those lilies are just dreaming themselves into
+a child's sleep. I can see them smiling. This is the place out of which
+go the things that appear to children every night."
+
+"Is this dreamland, then?" asked Alice.
+
+"If you like," answered the fairy.
+
+"How far am I from home?"
+
+"The farther you go, the nearer home you are."
+
+Then the fairy lady gathered a bundle of poppies and gave it to Alice.
+The next deep pool that they came to, she told her to throw it in.
+Alice did so, and following it, laid her head upon it. That moment she
+began to sink. Down and down she went, till at last she felt herself
+lying on the long, thick grass at the bottom of the pool, with the
+poppies under her head and the clear water high over it. Up through it
+she saw the moon, whose bright face looked sleepy too, disturbed only
+by the little ripples of the rain from the tall flowers on the edges of
+the pool.
+
+She fell fast asleep, and all night dreamed about home.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Richard--which is name enough for a fairy story--was the son of a widow
+in Alice's village. He was so poor that he did not find himself
+generally welcome; so he hardly went anywhere, but read books at home,
+and waited upon his mother. His manners, therefore, were shy, and
+sufficiently awkward to give an unfavourable impression to those who
+looked at outsides. Alice would have despised him; but he never came
+near enough for that.
+
+Now Richard had been saving up his few pence in order to buy an
+umbrella for his mother; for the winter would come, and the one she had
+was almost torn to ribands. One bright summer evening, when he thought
+umbrellas must be cheap, he was walking across the market-place to buy
+one: there, in the middle of it, stood an odd-looking little man,
+actually selling umbrellas. Here was a chance for him! When he drew
+nearer, he found that the little man, while vaunting his umbrellas to
+the skies, was asking such absurdly small prices for them, that no one
+would venture to buy one. He had opened and laid them all out at full
+stretch on the market-place--about five-and-twenty of them, stick
+downwards, like little tents--and he stood beside, haranguing the
+people. But he would not allow one of the crowd to touch his umbrellas.
+As soon as his eye fell upon Richard, he changed his tone, and said,
+"Well, as nobody seems inclined to buy, I think, my dear umbrellas, we
+had better be going home." Whereupon the umbrellas got up, with some
+difficulty, and began hobbling away. The people stared at each other
+with open mouths, for they saw that what they had taken for a lot of
+umbrellas, was in reality a flock of black geese. A great turkey-cock
+went gobbling behind them, driving them all down a lane towards the
+forest. Richard thought with himself, "There is more in this than I can
+account for. But an umbrella that could lay eggs would be a very jolly
+umbrella." So by the time the people were beginning to laugh at each
+other, Richard was half-way down the lane at the heels of the geese.
+There he stooped and caught one of them, but instead of a goose he had
+a huge hedgehog in his hands, which he dropped in dismay; whereupon it
+waddled away a goose as before, and the whole of them began cackling
+and hissing in a way that he could not mistake. For the turkey-cock, he
+gobbled and gabbled and choked himself and got right again in the most
+ridiculous manner. In fact, he seemed sometimes to forget that he was a
+turkey, and laughed like a fool. All at once, with a simultaneous
+long-necked hiss, they flew into the wood, and the turkey after them.
+But Richard soon got up with them again, and found them all hanging by
+their feet from the trees, in two rows, one on each side of the path,
+while the turkey was walking on. Him Richard followed; but the moment
+he reached the middle of the suspended geese, from every side arose the
+most frightful hisses, and their necks grew longer and longer, till
+there were nearly thirty broad bills close to his head, blowing in his
+face, in his ears, and at the back of his neck. But the turkey, looking
+round and seeing what was going on, turned and walked back. When he
+reached the place, he looked up at the first and gobbled at him in the
+wildest manner. That goose grew silent and dropped from the tree. Then
+he went to the next, and the next, and so on, till he had gobbled them
+all off the trees, one after another. But when Richard expected to see
+them go after the turkey, there was nothing there but a flock of huge
+mushrooms and puff-balls.
+
+"I have had enough of this," thought Richard. "I will go home again."
+
+"Go home, Richard," said a voice close to him.
+
+Looking down, he saw, instead of the turkey, the most comical-looking
+little man he had ever seen.
+
+"Go home, Master Richard," repeated he, grinning.
+
+"Not for your bidding," answered Richard.
+
+"Come on, then, Master Richard."
+
+"Nor that either, without a good reason."
+
+"I will give you _such_ an umbrella for your mother."
+
+"I don't take presents from strangers."
+
+"Bless you, I'm no stranger here! Oh, no! not at all." And he set off
+in the manner usual with him, rolling every way at once.
+
+Richard could not help laughing and following. At length Toadstool
+plumped into a great hole full of water. "Served him right!" thought
+Richard. "Served him right!" bawled the goblin, crawling out again, and
+shaking the water from him like a spaniel. "This is the very place I
+wanted, only I rolled too fast." However, he went on rolling again
+faster than before, though it was now uphill, till he came to the top
+of a considerable height, on which grew a number of palm-trees.
+
+"Have you a knife, Richard?" said the goblin, stopping all at once, as
+if he had been walking quietly along, just like other people.
+
+Richard pulled out a pocket-knife and gave it to the creature, who
+instantly cut a deep gash in one of the trees. Then he bounded to
+another and did the same, and so on till he had gashed them all.
+Richard, following him, saw that a little stream, clearer than the
+clearest water, began to flow from each, increasing in size the longer
+it flowed. Before he had reached the last there was quite a tinkling
+and rustling of the little rills that ran down the stems of the palms.
+This grew and grew, till Richard saw that a full rivulet was flowing
+down the side of the hill.
+
+"Here is your knife, Richard," said the goblin; but by the time he had
+put it in his pocket, the rivulet had grown to a small torrent.
+
+"Now, Richard, come along," said Toadstool, and threw himself into the
+torrent.
+
+"I would rather have a boat," returned Richard.
+
+"Oh, you stupid!" cried Toadstool crawling up the side of the hill,
+down which the stream had already carried him some distance.
+
+With every contortion that labour and difficulty could suggest, yet
+with incredible rapidity, he crawled to the very top of one of the
+trees, and tore down a huge leaf, which he threw on the ground, and
+himself after it, rebounding like a ball. He then laid the leaf on the
+water, held it by the stem, and told Richard to get upon it. He did so.
+It went down deep in the middle with his weight. Toadstool let it go,
+and it shot down the stream like an arrow. This began the strangest and
+most delightful voyage. The stream rushed careering and curveting down
+the hill-side, bright as a diamond, and soon reached a meadow plain.
+The goblin rolled alongside of the boat like a bundle of weeds; but
+Richard rode in triumph through the low grassy country upon the back of
+his watery steed. It went straight as an arrow, and, strange to tell,
+was heaped up on the ground, like a ridge of water or a wave, only
+rushing on endways. It needed no channel, and turned aside for no
+opposition. It flowed over everything that crossed its path, like a
+great serpent of water, with folds fitting into all the ups and downs
+of the way. If a wall came in its course it flowed against it, heaping
+itself up on itself till it reached the top, whence it plunged to the
+foot on the other side, and flowed on. Soon he found that it was
+running gently up a grassy hill. The waves kept curling back as if the
+wind blew them, or as if they could hardly keep from running down
+again. But still the stream mounted and flowed, and the waves with it.
+It found it difficult, but it could do it. When they reached the top,
+it bore them across a heathy country, rolling over purple heather, and
+blue harebells, and delicate ferns, and tall foxgloves crowded with
+bells purple and white. All the time the palm-leaf curled its edges
+away from the water, and made a delightful boat for Richard, while
+Toadstool tumbled along in the stream like a porpoise. At length the
+water began to run very fast, and went faster and faster, till suddenly
+it plunged them into a deep lake, with a great splash, and stopped
+there. Toadstool went out of sight, and came up gasping and grinning,
+while Richard's boat tossed and heaved like a vessel in a storm at sea;
+but not a drop of water came in. Then the goblin began to swim, and
+pushed and tugged the boat along. But the lake was so still, and the
+motion so pleasant, that Richard fell fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+When he woke he found himself still afloat upon the broad palm-leaf. He
+was alone in the middle of a lake, with flowers and trees growing in
+and out of it everywhere. The sun was just over the tree-tops. A drip
+of water from the flowers greeted him with music; the mists were
+dissolving away, and where the sunlight fell on the lake the water was
+clear as glass. Casting his eyes downward, he saw, just beneath him,
+far down at the bottom, Alice drowned, as he thought. He was in the act
+of plunging in, when he saw her open her eyes, and at the same moment
+begin to float up. He held out his hand, but she repelled it with
+disdain, and swimming to a tree, sat down on a low branch, wondering
+how ever the poor widow's son could have found his way into Fairyland.
+She did not like it. It was an invasion of privilege.
+
+"How did you come here, young Richard?" she asked, from six yards off.
+
+"A goblin brought me."
+
+"Ah! I thought so. A fairy brought me."
+
+"Where is your fairy?"
+
+"Here I am," said Peaseblossom, rising slowly to the surface just by
+the tree on which Alice was seated.
+
+"Where is your goblin?" retorted Alice.
+
+"Here I am," bawled Toadstool, rushing out of the water like a salmon,
+and casting a summersault in the air before he fell in again with a
+tremendous splash. His head rose again close beside Peaseblossom, who
+being used to such creatures only laughed.
+
+"Isn't he handsome?" he grinned.
+
+"Yes, very. He wants polishing, though."
+
+"You could do that for yourself, you know. Shall we change?"
+
+"I don't mind. You'll find her rather silly."
+
+"That's nothing. The boy's too sensible for me."
+
+He dived, and rose at Alice's feet. She shrieked with terror. The fairy
+floated away like a water-lily towards Richard. "What a lovely
+creature!" thought he; but hearing Alice shriek again, he said,
+
+"Don't leave Alice; she's frightened at that queer creature.--I don't
+think there's any harm in him, though, Alice."
+
+"Oh, no! He won't hurt her," said Peaseblossom. "I'm tired of her. He's
+going to take her to the court, and I will take you."
+
+"I don't want to go."
+
+"But you must. You can't go home again. You don't know the way."
+
+"Richard! Richard!" cried Alice, in an agony.
+
+Richard sprang from his boat, and was by her side in a moment.
+
+"He pinched me," cried Alice.
+
+Richard hit the goblin a terrible blow on the head; but it took no more
+effect upon him than if his head had been a round ball of india-rubber.
+He gave Richard a furious look, however, and bawling out, "You'll
+repent that, Dick!" vanished under the water.
+
+"Come along, Richard; make haste; he will murder you," cried the fairy.
+
+"It is all your fault," said Richard. "I won't leave Alice."
+
+Then the fairy saw it was all over with her and Toadstool; for they can
+do nothing with mortals against their will. So she floated away across
+the water in Richard's boat, holding her robe for a sail, and vanished,
+leaving the two alone in the lake.
+
+"You have driven away my fairy!" cried Alice. "I shall never get home
+now. It is all your fault, you naughty young man."
+
+"I drove away the goblin," remonstrated Richard.
+
+"Will you please to sit on the other side of the tree? I wonder what my
+papa would say if he saw me talking to you!"
+
+"Will you come to the next tree, Alice?" said Richard, after a pause.
+
+Alice, who had been crying all the time that Richard was thinking, said
+"I won't." Richard, therefore, plunged into the water without her, and
+swam for the tree. Before he had got half-way, however, he heard Alice
+crying "Richard! Richard!" This was just what he wanted. So he turned
+back, and Alice threw herself into the water. With Richard's help she
+swam pretty well, and they reached the tree. "Now for the next!" said
+Richard; and they swam to the next, and then to the third. Every tree
+they reached was larger than the last, and every tree before them was
+larger still. So they swam from tree to tree, till they came to one
+that was so large that they could not see round it. What was to be
+done? Clearly to climb this tree. It was a dreadful prospect for Alice,
+but Richard proceeded to climb; and by putting her feet where he put his,
+and now and then getting hold of his ankle, she managed to make
+her way up. There were a great many stumps where branches had withered
+off, and the bark was nearly as rough as a hill-side, so there was
+plenty of foothold for them. When they had climbed a long time, and
+were getting very tired indeed, Alice cried out, "Richard, I shall
+drop--I shall. Why did you come this way?" And she began once more to
+cry. But at that moment Richard caught hold of a branch above his head,
+and reaching down his other hand got hold of Alice, and held her till
+she had recovered a little. In a few moments more they reached the fork
+of the tree, and there they sat and rested. "This is capital!" said
+Richard, cheerily.
+
+"What is?" asked Alice, sulkily.
+
+"Why, we have room to rest, and there's no hurry for a minute or two.
+I'm tired."
+
+"You selfish creature!" said Alice. "If you are tired, what must I be!"
+
+"Tired too," answered Richard. "But we've got on bravely. And look!
+what's that?"
+
+By this time the day was gone, and the night so near, that in the
+shadows of the tree all was dusky and dim. But there was still light
+enough to discover that in a niche of the tree sat a huge horned owl,
+with green spectacles on his beak, and a book in one foot. He took no
+heed of the intruders, but kept muttering to himself. And what do you
+think the owl was saying? I will tell you. He was talking about the
+book that he held upside down in his foot.
+
+"Stupid book this-s-s-s! Nothing in it at all! Everything upside down!
+Stupid ass-s-s-s! Says owls can't read! _I_ can read backwards!"
+
+"I think that is the goblin again," said Richard, in a whisper.
+"However, if you ask a plain question, he must give you a plain answer,
+for they are not allowed to tell downright lies in Fairyland."
+
+"Don't ask him, Richard; you know you gave him a dreadful blow."
+
+"I gave him what he deserved, and he owes me the same.--Hallo! which is
+the way out?"
+
+He wouldn't say _if you please_, because then it would not have been a
+plain question.
+
+"Down-stairs," hissed the owl, without ever lifting his eyes from the
+book, which all the time he read upside down, so learned was he.
+
+"On your honour, as a respectable old owl?" asked Richard.
+
+"No," hissed the owl; and Richard was almost sure that he was not
+really an owl. So he stood staring at him for a few moments, when all
+at once, without lifting his eyes from the book, the owl said, "I will
+sing a song," and began:--
+
+ "Nobody knows the world but me.
+  When they're all in bed, I sit up to see
+  I'm a better student than students all,
+  For I never read till the darkness fall;
+  And I never read without my glasses,
+  And that is how my wisdom passes.
+    Howlowlwhoolhoolwoolool.
+
+ "I can see the wind. Now who can do that?
+  I see the dreams that he has in his hat;
+  I see him snorting them out as he goes--
+  Out at his stupid old trumpet-nose.
+  Ten thousand things that you couldn't think
+  I write them down with pen and ink.
+    Howlowlwhooloolwhitit that's wit.
+
+ "You may call it learning--'tis mother-wit.
+  No one else sees the lady-moon sit
+  On the sea, her nest, all night, but the owl,
+  Hatching the boats and the long-legged fowl.
+  When the oysters gape to sing by rote,
+  She crams a pearl down each stupid throat.
+    Howlowlwhitit that's wit, there's a fowl!"
+
+And so singing, he threw the book in Richard's face, spread out his
+great, silent, soft wings, and sped away into the depths of the tree.
+When the book struck Richard, he found that it was only a lump of wet
+moss.
+
+While talking to the owl he had spied a hollow behind one of the
+branches. Judging this to be the way the owl meant, he went to see, and
+found a rude, ill-defined staircase going down into the very heart of
+the trunk. But so large was the tree that this could not have hurt it
+in the least. Down this stair, then, Richard scrambled as best he
+could, followed by Alice--not of her own will, she gave him clearly to
+understand, but because she could do no better. Down, down they went,
+slipping and falling sometimes, but never very far, because the stair
+went round and round. It caught Richard when he slipped, and he caught
+Alice when she did. They had begun to fear that there was no end to the
+stair, it went round and round so steadily, when, creeping through a
+crack, they found themselves in a great hall, supported by thousands of
+pillars of gray stone. Where the little light came from they could not
+tell. This hall they began to cross in a straight line, hoping to reach
+one side, and intending to walk along it till they came to some
+opening. They kept straight by going from pillar to pillar, as they had
+done before by the trees. Any honest plan will do in Fairyland, if you
+only stick to it. And no plan will do if you do not stick to it.
+
+It was very silent, and Alice disliked the silence more than the
+dimness,--so much, indeed, that she longed to hear Richard's voice. But
+she had always been so cross to him when he had spoken, that he thought
+it better to let her speak first; and she was too proud to do that. She
+would not even let him walk alongside of her, but always went slower
+when he wanted to wait for her; so that at last he strode on alone. And
+Alice followed. But by degrees the horror of silence grew upon her, and
+she felt at last as if there was no one in the universe but herself.
+The hall went on widening around her; their footsteps made no noise;
+the silence grew so intense that it seemed on the point of taking
+shape. At last she could bear it no longer. She ran after Richard, got
+up with him, and laid hold of his arm.
+
+He had been thinking for some time what an obstinate, disagreeable girl
+Alice was, and wishing he had her safe home to be rid of her, when,
+feeling a hand, and looking round, he saw that it was the disagreeable
+girl. She soon began to be companionable after a fashion, for she began
+to think, putting everything together, that Richard must have been
+several times in Fairyland before now. "It is very strange," she said
+to herself; "for he is quite a poor boy, I am sure of that. His arms
+stick out beyond his jacket like the ribs of his mother's umbrella. And
+to think of me wandering about Fairyland with _him_!"
+
+The moment she touched his arm, they saw an arch of blackness before
+them. They had walked straight to a door--not a very inviting one, for
+it opened upon an utterly dark passage. Where there was only one door,
+however, there was no difficulty about choosing. Richard walked
+straight through it; and from the greater fear of being left behind,
+Alice faced the lesser fear of going on. In a moment they were in total
+darkness. Alice clung to Richard's arm, and murmured, almost against
+her will, "Dear Richard!" It was strange that fear should speak like
+love; but it was in Fairyland. It was strange, too, that as soon as she
+spoke thus, Richard should fall in love with her all at once. But what
+was more curious still was, that, at the same moment, Richard saw her
+face. In spite of her fear, which had made her pale, she looked very
+lovely.
+
+"Dear Alice!" said Richard, "how pale you look!"
+
+"How can you tell that, Richard, when all is as black as pitch?"
+
+"I can see your face. It gives out light. Now I see your hands. Now I
+can see your feet. Yes, I can see every spot where you are going
+to--No, don't put your foot there. There is an ugly toad just there."
+
+The fact was, that the moment he began to love Alice, his eyes began to
+send forth light. What he thought came from Alice's face, really came
+from his eyes. All about her and her path he could see, and every
+minute saw better; but to his own path he was blind. He could not see
+his hand when he held it straight before his face, so dark was it. But
+he could see Alice, and that was better than seeing the way--ever so
+much.
+
+At length Alice too began to see a face dawning through the darkness.
+It was Richard's face; but it was far handsomer than when she saw it
+last. Her eyes had begun to give light too. And she said to
+herself--"Can it be that I love the poor widow's son?--I suppose that
+must be it," she answered herself, with a smile; for she was not
+disgusted with herself at all. Richard saw the smile, and was glad. Her
+paleness had gone, and a sweet rosiness had taken its place. And now
+she saw Richard's path as he saw hers, and between the two sights they
+got on well.
+
+They were now walking on a path betwixt two deep waters, which never
+moved, shining as black as ebony where the eyelight fell. But they saw
+ere long that this path kept growing narrower and narrower. At last, to
+Alice's dismay, the black waters met in front of them.
+
+"What is to be done now, Richard?" she said.
+
+When they fixed their eyes on the water before them, they saw that it
+was swarming with lizards, and frogs, and black snakes, and all kinds
+of strange and ugly creatures, especially some that had neither heads,
+nor tails, nor legs, nor fins, nor feelers, being, in fact, only living
+lumps. These kept jumping out and in, and sprawling upon the path.
+Richard thought for a few moments before replying to Alice's question,
+as, indeed, well he might. But he came to the conclusion that the path
+could not have gone on for the sake of stopping there; and that it must
+be a kind of finger that pointed on where it was not allowed to go
+itself. So he caught up Alice in his strong arms, and jumped into the
+middle of the horrid swarm. And just as minnows vanish if you throw
+anything amongst them, just so these wretched creatures vanished, right
+and left and every way.
+
+He found the water broader than he had expected; and before he got
+over, he found Alice heavier than he could have believed; but upon a
+firm, rocky bottom, Richard waded through in safety. When he reached
+the other side, he found that the bank was a lofty, smooth,
+perpendicular rock, with some rough steps cut in it. By and by the
+steps led them right into the rock, and they were in a narrow passage
+once more, but, this time, leading up. It wound round and round, like
+the thread of a great screw. At last, Richard knocked his head against
+something, and could go no farther. The place was close and hot. He put
+up his hands, and pushed what felt like a warm stone: it moved a
+little.
+
+"Go down, you brutes!" growled a voice above, quivering with anger.
+"You'll upset my pot and my cat, and my temper too, if you push that
+way. Go down!"
+
+Richard knocked very gently, and said: "Please let us out."
+
+"Oh, yes, I dare say! Very fine and soft-spoken! Go down, you goblin
+brutes! I've had enough of you. I'll scald the hair off your ugly heads
+if you do that again. Go down, I say!"
+
+Seeing fair speech was of no avail, Richard told Alice to go down a
+little, out of the way; and, setting his shoulders to one end of the
+stone, heaved it up; whereupon down came the other end, with a pot, and
+a fire, and a cat which had been asleep beside it. She frightened Alice
+dreadfully as she rushed past her, showing nothing but her green
+lamping eyes.
+
+Richard, peeping up, found that he had turned a hearth-stone upside
+down. On the edge of the hole stood a little crooked old man,
+brandishing a mop-stick in a tremendous rage, and hesitating only where
+to strike him. But Richard put him out of his difficulty by springing
+up and taking the stick from him. Then, having lifted Alice out, he
+returned it with a bow, and, heedless of the maledictions of the old
+man, proceeded to get the stone and the pot up again. For puss, she got
+out of herself.
+
+Then the old man became a little more friendly, and said: "I beg your
+pardon, I thought you were goblins. They never will let me alone. But
+you must allow, it was rather an unusual way of paying a morning call."
+And the creature bowed conciliatingly.
+
+"It was, indeed," answered Richard. "I wish you had turned the door to
+us instead of the hearth-stone." For he did not trust the old man.
+"But," he added, "I hope you will forgive us."
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly, my dear young people! Use your freedom. But
+such young people have no business to be out alone. It is against the
+rules."
+
+"But what is one to do--I mean two to do--when they can't help it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; but now, you know, I must take charge of you. So
+you sit there, young gentleman; and you sit there, young lady."
+
+He put a chair for one at one side of the hearth, and for the other at
+the other side, and then drew his chair between them. The cat got upon
+his hump, and then set up her own. So here was a wall that would let
+through no moonshine. But although both Richard and Alice were very
+much amused, they did not like to be parted in this peremptory manner.
+Still they thought it better not to anger the old man any more--in his
+own house, too.
+
+But he had been once angered, and that was once too often, for he had
+made it a rule never to forgive without taking it out in humiliation.
+
+It was so disagreeable to have him sitting there between them, that
+they felt as if they were far asunder. In order to get the better of
+the fancy, they wanted to hold each other's hand behind the dwarf's
+back. But the moment their hands began to approach, the back of the cat
+began to grow long, and its hump to grow high; and, in a moment more,
+Richard found himself crawling wearily up a steep hill, whose ridge
+rose against the stars, while a cold wind blew drearily over it. Not a
+habitation was in sight; and Alice had vanished from his eyes. He felt,
+however, that she must be somewhere on the other side, and so climbed
+and climbed to get over the brow of the hill, and down to where he
+thought she must be. But the longer he climbed, the farther off the top
+of the hill seemed; till at last he sank quite exhausted, and--must I
+confess it?--very nearly began to cry. To think of being separated from
+Alice all at once, and in such a disagreeable way! But he fell
+a-thinking instead, and soon said to himself: "This must be some trick
+of that wretched old man. Either this mountain is a cat or it is not.
+If it is a mountain, this won't hurt it; if it is a cat, I hope it
+will." With that, he pulled out his pocket-knife, and feeling for a
+soft place, drove it at one blow up to the handle in the side of the
+mountain.
+
+A terrific shriek was the first result; and the second, that Alice and
+he sat looking at each other across the old man's hump, from which the
+cat-a-mountain had vanished. Their host sat staring at the blank
+fireplace, without ever turning round, pretending to know nothing of
+what had taken place.
+
+"Come along, Alice," said Richard, rising. "This won't do. We won't
+stop here."
+
+Alice rose at once, and put her hand in his. They walked towards the
+door. The old man took no notice of them. The moon was shining brightly
+through the window; but instead of stepping out into the moonlight when
+they opened the door, they stepped into a great beautiful hall, through
+the high gothic windows of which the same moon was shining. Out of this
+hall they could find no way, except by a staircase of stone which led
+upwards. They ascended it together. At the top Alice let go Richard's
+hand to peep into a little room, which looked all the colours of the
+rainbow, just like the inside of a diamond. Richard went a step or two
+along a corridor, but finding she had left him, turned and looked into
+the chamber. He could see her nowhere. The room was full of doors; and
+she must have mistaken the door. He heard her voice calling him, and
+hurried in the direction of the sound. But he could see nothing of her.
+"More tricks," he said to himself. "It is of no use to stab this one. I
+must wait till I see what can be done." Still he heard Alice calling
+him, and still he followed, as well as he could. At length he came to a
+doorway, open to the air, through which the moonlight fell. But when he
+reached it, he found that it was high up in the side of a tower, the
+wall of which went straight down from his feet, without stair or
+descent of any kind. Again he heard Alice call him, and lifting his
+eyes, saw her, across a wide castle-court, standing at another door
+just like the one he was at, with the moon shining full upon her.
+
+"All right, Alice!" he cried. "Can you hear me?"
+
+"Yes," answered she.
+
+"Then listen. This is all a trick. It is all a lie of that old wretch
+in the kitchen. Just reach out your hand, Alice dear."
+
+Alice did as Richard asked her; and, although they saw each other many
+yards off across the court, their hands met.
+
+"There! I thought so!" exclaimed Richard triumphantly. "Now, Alice, I
+don't believe it is more than a foot or two down to the court below,
+though it looks like a hundred feet. Keep fast hold of my hand, and
+jump when I count three." But Alice drew her hand from him in sudden
+dismay; whereupon Richard said, "Well, I will try first," and jumped.
+The same moment his cheery laugh came to Alice's ears, and she saw him
+standing safe on the ground, far below.
+
+"Jump, dear Alice, and I will catch you," said he.
+
+"I can't; I am afraid," answered she.
+
+"The old man is somewhere near you. You had better jump," said Richard.
+
+Alice sprang from the wall in terror, and only fell a foot or two into
+Richard's arms. The moment she touched the ground, they found
+themselves outside the door of a little cottage which they knew very
+well, for it was only just within the wood that bordered on their
+village. Hand in hand they ran home as fast as they could. When they
+reached a little gate that led into her father's grounds, Richard bade
+Alice good-bye. The tears came in her eyes. Richard and she seemed to
+have grown quite man and woman in Fairyland, and they did not want to
+part now. But they felt that they must. So Alice ran in the back way,
+and reached her own room before anyone had missed her. Indeed, the last
+of the red had not quite faded from the west.
+
+As Richard crossed the market-place on his way home, he saw an
+umbrella-man just selling the last of his umbrellas. He thought the man
+gave him a queer look as he passed, and felt very much inclined to
+punch his head. But remembering how useless it had been to punch the
+goblin's head, he thought it better not.
+
+In reward of their courage, the Fairy Queen sent them permission to
+visit Fairyland as often as they pleased; and no goblin or fairy was
+allowed to interfere with them.
+
+For Peaseblossom and Toadstool, they were both banished from court, and
+compelled to live together, for seven years, in an old tree that had
+just one green leaf upon it.
+
+Toadstool did not mind it much, but Peaseblossom did.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHADOWS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Old Ralph Rinkelmann made his living by comic sketches, and all but
+lost it again by tragic poems. So he was just the man to be chosen king
+of the fairies, for in Fairyland the sovereignty is elective.
+
+It is no doubt very strange that fairies should desire to have a mortal
+king; but the fact is, that with all their knowledge and power, they
+cannot get rid of the feeling that some men are greater than they are,
+though they can neither fly nor play tricks. So at such times as there
+happens to be twice the usual number of sensible electors, such a man
+as Ralph Rinkelmann gets to be chosen.
+
+They did not mean to insist on his residence; for they needed his
+presence only on special occasions. But they must get hold of him
+somehow, first of all, in order to make him king. Once he was crowned,
+they could get him as often as they pleased; but before this ceremony
+there was a difficulty. For it is only between life and death that the
+fairies have power over grown-up mortals, and can carry them off to
+their country. So they had to watch for an opportunity.
+
+Nor had they to wait long. For old Ralph was taken dreadfully ill; and
+while hovering between life and death, they carried him off, and
+crowned him king of Fairyland. But after he was crowned, it was no
+wonder, considering the state of his health, that he should not be able
+to sit quite upright on the throne of Fairyland; or that, in
+consequence, all the gnomes and goblins, and ugly, cruel things that
+live in the holes and corners of the kingdom, should take advantage of
+his condition, and run quite wild, playing him, king as he was, all
+sorts of tricks; crowding about his throne, climbing up the steps, and
+actually scrambling and quarrelling like mice about his ears and eyes,
+so that he could see and think of nothing else. But I am not going to
+tell anything more about this part of his adventures just at present.
+By strong and sustained efforts, he succeeded, after much trouble and
+suffering, in reducing his rebellious subjects to order. They all
+vanished to their respective holes and corners; and King Ralph, coming
+to himself, found himself in his bed, half propped up with pillows.
+
+But the room was full of dark creatures, which gambolled about in the
+firelight in such a strange, huge, though noiseless fashion, that he
+thought at first that some of his rebellious goblins had not been
+subdued with the rest, but had followed him beyond the bounds of
+Fairyland into his own private house in London. How else could these
+mad, grotesque hippopotamus-calves make their ugly appearance in Ralph
+Rinkelmann's bed-room? But he soon found out that although they were
+like the underground goblins, they were very different as well, and
+would require quite different treatment. He felt convinced that they
+were his subjects too, but that he must have overlooked them somehow at
+his late coronation--if indeed they had been present; for he could not
+recollect that he had seen anything just like them before. He resolved,
+therefore, to pay particular attention to their habits, ways, and
+characters; else he saw plainly that they would soon be too much for
+him; as indeed this intrusion into his chamber, where Mrs. Rinkelmann,
+who must be queen if he was king, sat taking some tea by the fireside,
+evidently foreshadowed. But she, perceiving that he was looking about
+him with a more composed expression than his face had worn for many
+days, started up, and came quickly and quietly to his side, and her
+face was bright with gladness. Whereupon the fire burned up more
+cheerily; and the figures became more composed and respectful in their
+behaviour, retreating towards the wall like well-trained attendants.
+Then the king of Fairyland had some tea and dry toast, and leaning back
+on his pillows, nearly fell asleep; but not quite, for he still watched
+the intruders.
+
+Presently the queen left the room to give some of the young princes and
+princesses their tea; and the fire burned lower, and behold, the
+figures grew as black and as mad in their gambols as ever! Their
+favourite games seemed to be _Hide and Seek_; _Touch and Go_; _Grin and
+Vanish_; and many other such; and all in the king's bed-chamber, too;
+so that it was quite alarming. It was almost as bad as if the house had
+been haunted by certain creatures which shall be nameless in a fairy
+story, because with them Fairyland will not willingly have much to do.
+
+"But it is a mercy that they have their slippers on!" said the king to
+himself; for his head ached.
+
+As he lay back, with his eyes half shut and half open, too tired to pay
+longer attention to their games, but, on the whole, considerably more
+amused than offended with the liberties they took, for they seemed
+good-natured creatures, and more frolicsome than positively
+ill-mannered, he became suddenly aware that two of them had stepped
+forward from the walls, upon which, after the manner of great spiders,
+most of them preferred sprawling, and now stood in the middle of the
+floor at the foot of his majesty's bed, becking and bowing and ducking
+in the most grotesquely obsequious manner; while every now and then
+they turned solemnly round upon one heel, evidently considering that
+motion the highest token of homage they could show.
+
+"What do you want?" said the king.
+
+"That it may please your majesty to be better acquainted with us,"
+answered they. "We are your majesty's subjects."
+
+"I know you are. I shall be most happy," answered the king.
+
+"We are not what your majesty takes us for, though. We are not so
+foolish as your majesty thinks us."
+
+"It is impossible to take you for anything that I know of," rejoined
+the king, who wished to make them talk, and said whatever came
+uppermost;--"for soldiers, sailors, or anything: you will not stand
+still long enough. I suppose you really belong to the fire brigade; at
+least, you keep putting its light out."
+
+"Don't jest, please your majesty." And as they said the words--for they
+both spoke at once throughout the interview--they performed a grave
+somerset towards the king.
+
+"Not jest!" retorted he; "and with you? Why, you do nothing but jest.
+What are you?"
+
+"The Shadows, sire. And when we do jest, sire, we always jest in
+earnest. But perhaps your majesty does not see us distinctly."
+
+"I see you perfectly well," returned the king.
+
+"Permit me, however," rejoined one of the Shadows; and as he spoke he
+approached the king; and lifting a dark forefinger, he drew it lightly
+but carefully across the ridge of his forehead, from temple to temple.
+The king felt the soft gliding touch go, like water, into every hollow,
+and over the top of every height of that mountain-chain of thought. He
+had involuntarily closed his eyes during the operation, and when he
+unclosed them again, as soon as the finger was withdrawn, he found that
+they were opened in more senses than one. The room appeared to have
+extended itself on all sides, till he could not exactly see where the
+walls were; and all about it stood the Shadows motionless. They were
+tall and solemn; rather awful, indeed, in their appearance,
+notwithstanding many remarkable traits of grotesqueness, for they
+looked just like the pictures of Puritans drawn by Cavaliers, with long
+arms, and very long, thin legs, from which hung large loose feet, while
+in their countenances length of chin and nose predominated. The
+solemnity of their mien, however, overcame all the oddity of their
+form, so that they were very _eerie_ indeed to look at, dressed as they
+all were in funereal black. But a single glance was all that the king
+was allowed to have; for the former operator waved his dusky palm
+across his vision, and once more the king saw only the fire-lighted
+walls, and dark shapes flickering about upon them. The two who had
+spoken for the rest seemed likewise to have vanished. But at last the
+king discovered them, standing one on each side of the fireplace. They
+kept close to the chimney-wall, and talked to each other across the
+length of the chimney-piece; thus avoiding the direct rays of the fire,
+which, though light is necessary to their appearing to human eyes, do
+not agree with them at all--much less give birth to them, as the king
+was soon to learn. After a few minutes they again approached the bed,
+and spoke thus:--
+
+"It is now getting dark, please your majesty. We mean, out of doors in
+the snow. Your majesty may see, from where he is lying, the cold light
+of its great winding-sheet--a famous carpet for the Shadows to dance
+upon, your majesty. All our brothers and sisters will be at church now,
+before going to their night's work."
+
+"Do they always go to church before they go to work?"
+
+"They always go to church first."
+
+"Where is the church?"
+
+"In Iceland. Would your majesty like to see it?"
+
+"How can I go and see it, when, as you know very well, I am ill in bed?
+Besides, I should be sure to take cold in a frosty night like this,
+even if I put on the blankets, and took the feather-bed for a muff."
+
+A sort of quivering passed over their faces, which seemed to be their
+mode of laughing. The whole shape of the face shook and fluctuated as
+if it had been some dark fluid; till by slow degrees of gathering calm,
+it settled into its former rest. Then one of them drew aside the
+curtains of the bed, and the window-curtains not having been yet drawn,
+the king beheld the white glimmering night outside, struggling with the
+heaps of darkness that tried to quench it; and the heavens full of
+stars, flashing and sparkling like live jewels. The other Shadow went
+towards the fire and vanished in it.
+
+Scores of Shadows immediately began an insane dance all about the room;
+disappearing, one after the other, through the uncovered window, and
+gliding darkly away over the face of the white snow; for the window
+looked at once on a field of snow. In a few moments, the room was quite
+cleared of them; but instead of being relieved by their absence, the
+king felt immediately as if he were in a dead-house, and could hardly
+breathe for the sense of emptiness and desolation that fell upon him.
+But as he lay looking out on the snow, which stretched blank and wide
+before him, he spied in the distance a long dark line which drew nearer
+and nearer, and showed itself at last to be all the Shadows, walking in
+a double row, and carrying in the midst of them something like a bier.
+They vanished under the window, but soon reappeared, having somehow
+climbed up the wall of the house; for they entered in perfect order by
+the window, as if melting through the transparency of the glass.
+
+They still carried the bier or litter. It was covered with richest
+furs, and skins of gorgeous wild beasts, whose eyes were replaced by
+sapphires and emeralds, that glittered and gleamed in the fire and snow
+light. The outermost skin sparkled with frost, but the inside ones were
+soft and warm and dry as the down under a swan's wing. The Shadows
+approached the bed, and set the litter upon it. Then a number of them
+brought a huge fur robe, and wrapping it round the king, laid him on
+the litter in the midst of the furs. Nothing could be more gentle and
+respectful than the way in which they moved him; and he never thought
+of refusing to go. Then they put something on his head, and, lifting
+the litter, carried him once round the room, to fall into order. As he
+passed the mirror he saw that he was covered with royal ermine, and
+that his head wore a wonderful crown of gold, set with none but red
+stones: rubies and carbuncles and garnets, and others whose names he
+could not tell, glowed gloriously around his head, like the
+salamandrine essence of all the Christmas fires over the world. A
+sceptre lay beside him--a rod of ebony, surmounted by a cone-shaped
+diamond, which, cut in a hundred facets, flashed all the hues of the
+rainbow, and threw coloured gleams on every side, that looked like
+Shadows too, but more ethereal than those that bore him. Then the
+Shadows rose gently to the window, passed through it, and sinking
+slowing upon the field of outstretched snow, commenced an orderly
+gliding rather than march along the frozen surface. They took it by
+turns to bear the king, as they sped with the swiftness of thought, in
+a straight line towards the north. The pole-star rose above their heads
+with visible rapidity; for indeed they moved quite as fast as sad
+thoughts, though not with all the speed of happy desires. England and
+Scotland slid past the litter of the king of the Shadows. Over rivers
+and lakes they skimmed and glided. They climbed the high mountains, and
+crossed the valleys with a fearless bound; till they came to
+John-o'-Groat's house and the Northern Sea. The sea was not frozen; for
+all the stars shone as clear out of the deeps below as they shone out
+of the deeps above; and as the bearers slid along the blue-gray
+surface, with never a furrow in their track, so pure was the water
+beneath that the king saw neither surface, bottom, nor substance to it,
+and seemed to be gliding only through the blue sphere of heaven, with
+the stars above him, and the stars below him, and between the stars and
+him nothing but an emptiness, where, for the first time in his life,
+his soul felt that it had room enough.
+
+At length they reached the rocky shores of Iceland. There they landed,
+still pursuing their journey. All this time the king felt no cold; for
+the red stones in his crown kept him warm, and the emerald and sapphire
+eyes of the wild beasts kept the frosts from settling upon his litter.
+
+Oftentimes upon their way they had to pass through forests, caverns,
+and rock-shadowed paths, where it was so dark that at first the king
+feared he should lose his Shadows altogether. But as soon as they
+entered such places, the diamond in his sceptre began to shine and
+glow, and flash, sending out streams of light of all the colours that
+painter's soul could dream of; in which light the Shadows grew livelier
+and stronger than ever, speeding through the dark ways with an all but
+blinding swiftness. In the light of the diamond, too, some of their
+forms became more simple and human, while others seemed only to break
+out into a yet more untamable absurdity. Once, as they passed through a
+cave, the king actually saw some of their eyes--strange shadow-eyes; he
+had never seen any of their eyes before. But at the same moment when he
+saw their eyes, he knew their faces too, for they turned them full upon
+him for an instant; and the other Shadows, catching sight of these,
+shrank and shivered, and nearly vanished. Lovely faces they were; but
+the king was very thoughtful after he saw them, and continued rather
+troubled all the rest of the journey. He could not account for those
+faces being there, and the faces of Shadows, too, with living eyes.
+
+But he soon found that amongst the Shgadows a man must learn never to
+be surprised at anything; for if he does not, he will soon grow quite
+stupid, in consequence of the endless recurrence of surprises.
+
+At last they climbed up the bed of a little stream, and then, passing
+through a narrow rocky defile, came out suddenly upon the side of a
+mountain, overlooking a blue frozen lake in the very heart of mighty
+hills. Overhead, the _aurora borealis_ was shivering and flashing like
+a battle of ten thousand spears. Underneath, its beams passed faintly
+over the blue ice and the sides of the snow-clad mountains, whose tops
+shot up like huge icicles all about, with here and there a star
+sparkling on the very tip of one. But as the northern lights in the sky
+above, so wavered and quivered, and shot hither and thither, the
+Shadows on the surface of the lake below; now gathering in groups, and
+now shivering asunder; now covering the whole surface of the lake, and
+anon condensed into one dark knot in the centre. Every here and there
+on the white mountains might be seen two or three shooting away towards
+the tops, to vanish beyond them, so that their number was gradually,
+though not visibly, diminishing.
+
+"Please your majesty," said the Shadows, "this is our church--the
+Church of the Shadows."
+
+And so saying, the king's body-guard set down the litter upon a rock,
+and plunged into the multitudes below. They soon returned, however, and
+bore the king down into the middle of the lake. All the Shadows came
+crowding round him, respectfully but fearlessly; and sure never such a
+grotesque assembly revealed itself before to mortal eyes. The king had
+seen all kind of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds at his coronation; but
+they were quite rectilinear figures compared with the insane
+lawlessness of form in which the Shadows rejoiced; and the wildest
+gambols of the former were orderly dances of ceremony beside the
+apparently aimless and wilful contortions of figure, and metamorphoses
+of shape, in which the latter indulged. They retained, however, all the
+time, to the surprise of the king, an identity, each of his own type,
+inexplicably perceptible through every change. Indeed this preservation
+of the primary idea of each form was more wonderful than the
+bewildering and ridiculous alterations to which the form itself was
+every moment subjected.
+
+"What are you?" said the king, leaning on his elbow, and looking around
+him.
+
+"The Shadows, your majesty," answered several voices at once.
+
+"What Shadows?"
+
+"The human Shadows. The Shadows of men, and women, and their children."
+
+"Are you not the shadows of chairs and tables, and pokers and tongs,
+just as well?"
+
+At this question a strange jarring commotion went through the assembly
+with a shock. Several of the figures shot up as high as the aurora, but
+instantly settled down again to human size, as if overmastering their
+feelings, out of respect to him who had roused them. One who had
+bounded to the highest visible icy peak, and as suddenly returned, now
+elbowed his way through the rest, and made himself spokesman for them
+during the remaining part of the dialogue.
+
+"Excuse our agitation, your majesty," said he. "I see your majesty has
+not yet thought proper to make himself acquainted with our nature and
+habits."
+
+"I wish to do so now," replied the king.
+
+"We are the Shadows," repeated the Shadow solemnly.
+
+"Well?" said the king.
+
+"We do not often appear to men."
+
+"Ha!" said the king.
+
+"We do not belong to the sunshine at all. We go through it unseen, and
+only by a passing chill do men recognize an unknown presence."
+
+"Ha!" said the king again.
+
+"It is only in the twilight of the fire, or when one man or woman is
+alone with a single candle, or when any number of people are all
+feeling the same thing at once, making them one, that we show
+ourselves, and the truth of things."
+
+"Can that be true that loves the night?" said the king.
+
+"The darkness is the nurse of light," answered the Shadow.
+
+"Can that be true which mocks at forms?" said the king.
+
+"Truth rides abroad in shapeless storms," answered the Shadow.
+
+"Ha! ha!" thought Ralph Rinkelmann, "it rhymes. The Shadow caps my
+questions with his answers. Very strange!" And he grew thoughtful
+again.
+
+The Shadow was the first to resume.
+
+"Please your majesty, may we present our petition?"
+
+"By all means," replied the king. "I am not well enough to receive it
+in proper state."
+
+"Never mind, your majesty. We do not care for much ceremony; and indeed
+none of us are quite well at present. The subject of our petition
+weighs upon us."
+
+"Go on," said the king.
+
+"Sire," began the Shadow, "our very existence is in danger. The various
+sorts of artificial light, both in houses and in men, women, and
+children, threaten to end our being. The use and the disposition of
+gaslights, especially high in the centres, blind the eyes by which
+alone we can be perceived. We are all but banished from towns. We are
+driven into villages and lonely houses, chiefly old farm-houses, out of
+which, even, our friends the fairies are fast disappearing. We
+therefore petition our king, by the power of his art, to restore us to
+our rights in the house itself, and in the hearts of its inhabitants."
+
+"But," said the king, "you frighten the children."
+
+"Very seldom, your majesty; and then only for their good. We seldom
+seek to frighten anybody. We mostly want to make people silent and
+thoughtful; to awe them a little, your majesty."
+
+"You are much more likely to make them laugh," said the king.
+
+"Are we?" said the Shadow.
+
+And approaching the king one step, he stood quite still for a moment.
+The diamond of the king's sceptre shot out a vivid flame of violet
+light, and the king stared at the Shadow in silence, and his lip
+quivered. He never told what he saw then; but he would say:
+
+"Just fancy what it might be if _some_ flitting thoughts were to
+persist in staying to be looked at."
+
+"It is only," resumed the Shadow, "when our thoughts are not fixed upon
+any particular object, that our bodies are subject to all the vagaries
+of elemental influences. Generally, amongst worldly men and frivolous
+women, we only attach ourselves to some article of furniture or of
+dress; and they never doubt that we are mere foolish and vague results
+of the dashing of the waves of the light against the solid forms of
+which their houses are full. We do not care to tell them the truth, for
+they would never see it. But let the worldly man--or the frivolous
+woman--and then--"
+
+At each of the pauses indicated, the mass of Shadows throbbed and
+heaved with emotion; but they soon settled again into comparative
+stillness. Once more the Shadow addressed himself to speak. But
+suddenly they all looked up, and the king, following their gaze, saw
+that the aurora had begun to pale.
+
+"The moon is rising," said the Shadow. "As soon as she looks over the
+mountains into the valley, we must be gone, for we have plenty to do by
+the moon; we are powerful in her light. But if your majesty will come
+here to-morrow night, your majesty may learn a great deal more about
+us, and judge for himself whether it be fit to accord our petition; for
+then will be our grand annual assembly, in which we report to our
+chiefs the things we have attempted, and the good or bad success we
+have had."
+
+"If you send for me," returned the king, "I will come."
+
+Ere the Shadow could reply, the tip of the moon's crescent horn peeped
+up from behind an icy pinnacle, and one slender ray fell on the lake.
+It shone upon no Shadows. Ere the eye of the king could again seek the
+earth after beholding the first brightness of the moon's resurrection,
+they had vanished; and the surface of the lake glittered gold and blue
+in the pale moonlight.
+
+There the king lay, alone in the midst of the frozen lake, with the
+moon staring at him. But at length he heard from somewhere a voice that
+he knew.
+
+"Will you take another cup of tea, dear?" said Mrs. Rinkelmann.
+
+And Ralph, coming slowly to himself, found that he was lying in his own
+bed.
+
+"Yes, I will," he answered; "and rather a large piece of toast, if you
+please; for I have been a long journey since I saw you last."
+
+"He has not come to himself quite," said Mrs. Rinkelmann, between her
+and herself.
+
+"You would be rather surprised," continued Ralph, "if I told you where
+I had been."
+
+"I dare say I should," responded his wife.
+
+"Then I will tell you," rejoined Ralph.
+
+But at that moment, a great Shadow bounced out of the fire with a
+single huge leap, and covered the whole room. Then it settled in one
+corner, and Ralph saw it shaking its fist at him from the end of a
+preposterous arm. So he took the hint, and held his peace. And it was
+as well for him. For I happen to know something about the Shadows too;
+and I know that if he had told his wife all about it just then, they
+would not have sent for him the following evening.
+
+But as the king, after finishing his tea and toast, lay and looked
+about him, the Shadows dancing in his room seemed to him odder and more
+inexplicable than ever. The whole chamber was full of mystery. So it
+generally was, but now it was more mysterious than ever. After all that
+he had seen in the Shadow-church, his own room and its Shadows were yet
+more wonderful and unintelligible than those.
+
+This made it the more likely that he had seen a true vision; for
+instead of making common things look commonplace, as a false vision
+would have done, it had made common things disclose the wonderful that
+was in them.
+
+"The same applies to all arts as well," thought Ralph Rinkelmann.
+
+The next afternoon, as the twilight was growing dusky, the king lay
+wondering whether or not the Shadows would fetch him again. He wanted
+very much to go, for he had enjoyed the journey exceedingly, and he
+longed, besides, to hear some of the Shadows tell their stories. But
+the darkness grew deeper and deeper, and the shadows did not come. The
+cause was, that Mrs. Rinkelmann sat by the fire in the gloaming; and
+they could not carry off the king while she was there. Some of them
+tried to frighten her away by playing the oddest pranks on the walls,
+and floor, and ceiling; but altogether without effect; the queen only
+smiled, for she had a good conscience. Suddenly, however, a dreadful
+scream was heard from the nursery, and Mrs. Rinkelmann rushed upstairs
+to see what was the matter. No sooner had she gone than the two warders
+of the chimney-corners stepped out into the middle of the room, and
+said, in a low voice,--
+
+"Is your majesty ready?"
+
+"Have you no hearts?" said the king; "or are they as black as your
+faces? Did you not hear the child scream? I must know what is the
+matter with her before I go."
+
+"Your majesty may keep his mind easy on that point," replied the
+warders. "We had tried everything we could think of to get rid of her
+majesty the queen, but without effect. So a young madcap Shadow, half
+against the will of the older ones of us, slipped upstairs into the
+nursery; and has, no doubt, succeeded in appalling the baby, for he is
+very lithe and long-legged.--Now, your majesty."
+
+"I will have no such tricks played in my nursery," said the king,
+rather angrily. "You might put the child beside itself."
+
+"Then there would be twins, your majesty. And we rather like twins."
+
+"None of your miserable jesting! You might put the child out of her
+wits."
+
+"Impossible, sire; for she has not got into them yet."
+
+"Go away," said the king.
+
+"Forgive us, your majesty. Really, it will do the child good; for that
+Shadow will, all her life, be to her a symbol of what is ugly and bad.
+When she feels in danger of hating or envying anyone, that Shadow will
+come back to her mind and make her shudder."
+
+"Very well," said the king. "I like that. Let us go."
+
+The Shadows went through the same ceremonies and preparations as
+before; during which, the young Shadow before-mentioned contrived to
+make such grimaces as kept the baby in terror, and the queen in the
+nursery, till all was ready. Then with a bound that doubled him up
+against the ceiling, and a kick of his legs six feet out behind him, he
+vanished through the nursery door, and reached the king's bed-chamber
+just in time to take his place with the last who were melting through
+the window in the rear of the litter, and settling down upon the snow
+beneath. Away they went as before, a gliding blackness over the white
+carpet. And it was Christmas-eve.
+
+When they came in sight of the mountain-lake, the king saw that it was
+crowded over its whole surface with a changeful intermingling of
+Shadows. They were all talking and listening alternately, in pairs,
+trios, and groups of every size. Here and there large companies were
+absorbed in attention to one elevated above the rest, not in a pulpit,
+or on a platform, but on the stilts of his own legs, elongated for the
+nonce. The aurora, right overhead, lighted up the lake and the sides of
+the mountains, by sending down from the zenith, nearly to the surface
+of the lake, great folded vapours, luminous with all the colours of a
+faint rainbow.
+
+Many, however, as the words were that passed on all sides, not a shadow
+of a sound reached the ears of the king: the shadow-speech could not
+enter his corporeal organs. One of his guides, however, seeing that the
+king wanted to hear and could not, went through a strange manipulation
+of his head and ears; after which he could hear perfectly, though still
+only the voice to which, for the time, he directed his attention. This,
+however, was a great advantage, and one which the king longed to carry
+back with him to the world of men.
+
+The king now discovered that this was not merely the church of the
+Shadows, but their news exchange at the same time. For, as the shadows
+have no writing or printing, the only way in which they can make each
+other acquainted with their doings and thinkings, is to meet and talk
+at this word-mart and parliament of shades. And as, in the world,
+people read their favourite authors, and listen to their favourite
+speakers, so here the Shadows seek their favourite Shadows, listen to
+their adventures, and hear generally what they have to say.
+
+Feeling quite strong, the king rose and walked about amongst them,
+wrapped in his ermine robe, with his red crown on his head, and his
+diamond sceptre in his hand. Every group of Shadows to which he drew
+near, ceased talking as soon as they saw him approach; but at a nod
+they went on again directly, conversing and relating and commenting, as
+if no one was there of other kind or of higher rank than themselves. So
+the king heard a good many stories. At some of them he laughed, and at
+some of them he cried. But if the stories that the Shadows told were
+printed, they would make a book that no publisher could produce fast
+enough to satisfy the buyers. I will record some of the things that the
+king heard, for he told them to me soon after. In fact, I was for some
+time his private secretary.
+
+"I made him confess before a week was over," said a gloomy old Shadow.
+
+"But what was the good of that?" rejoined a pert young one. "That could
+not undo what was done."
+
+"Yes, it could."
+
+"What! bring the dead to life?"
+
+"No; but comfort the murderer. I could not bear to see the pitiable
+misery he was in. He was far happier with the rope round his neck, than
+he was with the purse in his pocket. I saved him from killing himself
+too."
+
+"How did you make him confess?"
+
+"Only by wallowing on the wall a little."
+
+"How could that make him tell?"
+
+"_He_ knows."
+
+The Shadow was silent; and the king turned to another, who was
+preparing to speak.
+
+"I made a fashionable mother repent."
+
+"How?" broke from several voices, in whose sound was mingled a touch of
+incredulity.
+
+"Only by making a little coffin on the wall," was the reply.
+
+"Did the fashionable mother confess too?"
+
+"She had nothing more to confess than everybody knew."
+
+"What did everybody know then?"
+
+"That she might have been kissing a living child, when she followed a
+dead one to the grave.--The next will fare better."
+
+"I put a stop to a wedding," said another.
+
+"Horrid shade!" remarked a poetic imp.
+
+"How?" said others. "Tell us how."
+
+"Only by throwing a darkness, as if from the branch of a sconce, over
+the forehead of a fair girl.--They are not married yet, and I do not
+think they will be. But I loved the youth who loved her. How he
+started! It was a revelation to him."
+
+"But did it not deceive him?"
+
+"Quite the contrary."
+
+"But it was only a shadow from the outside, not a shadow coming through
+from the soul of the girl."
+
+"Yes. You may say so. But it was all that was wanted to make the
+meaning of her forehead manifest--yes, of her whole face, which had now
+and then, in the pauses of his passion, perplexed the youth. All of it,
+curled nostrils, pouting lips, projecting chin, instantly fell into
+harmony with that darkness between her eyebrows. The youth understood
+it in a moment, and went home miserable. And they're not married
+_yet_."
+
+"I caught a toper alone, over his magnum of port," said a very dark
+Shadow; "and didn't I give it him! I made _delirium tremens_ first; and
+then I settled into a funeral, passing slowly along the length of the
+opposite wall. I gave him plenty of plumes and mourning coaches. And
+then I gave him a funeral service, but I could not manage to make the
+surplice white, which was all the better for such a sinner. The wretch
+stared till his face passed from purple to grey, and actually left his
+fifth glass only, unfinished, and took refuge with his wife and
+children in the drawing-room, much to their surprise. I believe he
+actually drank a cup of tea; and although I have often looked in since,
+I have never caught him again, drinking alone at least."
+
+"But does he drink less? Have you done him any good?"
+
+"I hope so; but I am sorry to say I can't feel sure about it."
+
+"Humph! Humph! Humph!" grunted various shadow throats.
+
+"I had such fun once!" cried another. "I made such game of a young
+clergyman!"
+
+"You have no right to make game of anyone."
+
+"Oh yes, I have--when it is for his good. He used to study his
+sermons--where do you think?"
+
+"In his study, of course. Where else should it be?"
+
+"Yes and no. Guess again."
+
+"Out amongst the faces in the streets."
+
+"Guess again."
+
+"In still green places in the country?"
+
+"Guess again."
+
+"In old books?"
+
+"Guess again."
+
+"No, no. Tell us."
+
+"In the looking glass. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"He was fair game; fair shadow game."
+
+"I thought so. And I made such fun of him one night on the wall! He had
+sense enough to see that it was himself, and very like an ape. So he
+got ashamed, turned the mirror with its face to the wall, and thought a
+little more about his people, and a little less about himself. I was
+very glad; for, please your majesty,"--and here the speaker turned
+towards the king--"we don't like the creatures that live in the
+mirrors. You call them ghosts, don't you?"
+
+Before the king could reply, another had commenced. But the story about
+the clergyman had made the king wish to hear one of the shadow-sermons.
+So he turned him towards a long Shadow, who was preaching to a very
+quiet and listening crowd. He was just concluding his sermon.
+
+"Therefore, dear Shadows, it is the more needful that we love one
+another as much as we can, because that is not much. We have no such
+excuse for not loving as mortals have, for we do not die like them. I
+suppose it is the thought of that death that makes them hate so much.
+Then again, we go to sleep all day, most of us, and not in the night,
+as men do. And you know that we forget everything that happened the
+night before; therefore, we ought to love well, for the love is short.
+Ah! dear Shadow, whom I love now with all my shadowy soul, I shall not
+love thee to-morrow eve, I shall not know thee; I shall pass thee in
+the crowd and never dream that the Shadow whom I now love is near me
+then. Happy Shades! for we only remember our tales until we have told
+them here, and then they vanish in the shadow-churchyard, where we bury
+only our dead selves. Ah! brethren, who would be a man and remember?
+Who would be a man and weep? We ought indeed to love one another, for
+we alone inherit oblivion; we alone are renewed with eternal birth; we
+alone have no gathered weight of years. I will tell you the awful fate
+of one Shadow who rebelled against his nature, and sought to remember
+the past. He said, 'I _will_ remember this eve.' He fought with the
+genial influences of kindly sleep when the sun rose on the awful dead
+day of light; and although he could not keep quite awake, he dreamed of
+the foregone eve, and he never forgot his dream. Then he tried again
+the next night, and the next, and the next; and he tempted another
+Shadow to try it with him. But at last their awful fate overtook them;
+for, instead of continuing to be Shadows, they began to cast shadows,
+as foolish men say; and so they thickened and thickened till they
+vanished out of our world. They are now condemned to walk the earth, a
+man and a woman, with death behind them, and memories within them. Ah,
+brother Shades! let us love one another, for we shall soon forget. We
+are not men, but Shadows."
+
+The king turned away, and pitied the poor Shadows far more than they
+pitied men.
+
+"Oh! how we played with a musician one night!" exclaimed a Shadow in
+another group, to which the king had first directed a passing thought,
+and then had stopped to listen.--"Up and down we went, like the hammers
+and dampers on his piano. But he took his revenge on us. For after he
+had watched us for half an hour in the twilight, he rose and went to
+his instrument, and played a shadow-dance that fixed us all in sound
+for ever. Each could tell the very notes meant for him; and as long as
+he played, we could not stop, but went on dancing and dancing after the
+music, just as the magician--I mean the musician--pleased. And he
+punished us well; for he nearly danced us all off our legs and out of
+shape into tired heaps of collapsed and palpitating darkness. We won't
+go near him for some time again, if we can only remember it. He had
+been very miserable all day, he was so poor; and we could not think of
+any way of comforting him except making him laugh. We did not succeed,
+with our wildest efforts; but it turned out better than we had
+expected, after all; for his shadow-dance got him into notice, and he
+is quite popular now, and making money fast.--If he does not take care,
+we shall have other work to do with him by and by, poor fellow!"
+
+"I and some others did the same for a poor play-writer once. He had a
+Christmas piece to write, and [not] being an original genius, it was
+not so easy for him to find a subject as it is for most of his class. I
+saw the trouble he was in, and collecting a few stray Shadows, we
+acted, in dumb-show of course, the funniest bit of nonsense we could
+think of; and it was quite successful. The poor fellow watched every
+motion, roaring with laughter at us, and delight at the ideas we put
+into his head. He turned it all into words, and scenes, and actions;
+and the piece came off with a splendid success."
+
+"But how long we have to look for a chance of doing anything worth
+doing," said a long, thin, especially lugubrious Shadow. "I have only
+done one thing worth telling ever since we met last. But I am proud of
+that."
+
+"What was it? What was it?" rose from twenty voices.
+
+"I crept into a dining-room, one twilight, soon after Christmas-day. I
+had been drawn thither by the glow of a bright fire shining through red
+window-curtains. At first I thought there was no one there, and was on
+the point of leaving the room, and going out again into the snowy
+street, when I suddenly caught the sparkle of eyes. I found that they
+belonged to a little boy who lay very still on a sofa. I crept into a
+dark corner by the sideboard, and watched him. He seemed very sad, and
+did nothing but stare into the fire. At last he sighed out,--'I wish
+mamma would come home.' 'Poor boy!' thought I, 'there is no help for
+that but mamma.' Yet I would try to while away the time for him. So out
+of my corner I stretched a long shadow arm, reaching all across the
+ceiling, and pretended to make a grab at him. He was rather frightened
+at first; but he was a brave boy, and soon saw that it was all a joke.
+So when I did it again, he made a clutch at me; and then we had such
+fun! For though he often sighed and wished mamma would come home, he
+always began again with me; and on we went with the wildest games. At
+last his mother's knock came to the door, and starting up in delight,
+he rushed into the hall to meet her, and forgot all about poor black
+me. But I did not mind that in the least; for when I glided out after
+him into the hall, I was well repaid for my trouble by hearing his
+mother say to him,--'Why, Charlie, my dear, you look ever so much
+better since I left you!' At that moment I slipped through the closing
+door, and as I ran across the snow, I heard the mother say,--'What
+shadow can that be, passing so quickly?' And Charlie answered with a
+merry laugh,--'Oh! mamma, I suppose it must be the funny shadow that
+has been playing such games with me all the time you were out.' As soon
+as the door was shut, I crept along the wall and looked in at the
+dining-room window. And I heard his mamma say, as she led him into the
+room, 'What an imagination the boy has!' Ha! ha! ha! Then she looked at
+him, and the tears came in her eyes; and she stooped down over him, and
+I heard the sounds of a mingling kiss and sob."
+
+"I always look for nurseries full of children," said another; "and this
+winter I have been very fortunate. I am sure children belong especially
+to us. One evening, looking about in a great city, I saw through the
+window into a large nursery, where the odious gas had not yet been
+lighted. Round the fire sat a company of the most delightful children I
+had ever seen. They were waiting patiently for their tea. It was too
+good an opportunity to be lost. I hurried away, and gathering together
+twenty of the best Shadows I could find, returned in a few moments; and
+entering the nursery, we danced on the walls one of our best dances. To
+be sure it was mostly extemporized; but I managed to keep it in harmony
+by singing this song, which I made as we went on. Of course the
+children could not hear it; they only saw the motions that answered to
+it; but with them they seemed to be very much delighted indeed, as I
+shall presently prove to you. This was the song:--
+
+ 'Swing, swang, swingle, swuff,
+  Flicker, flacker, fling, fluff!
+   Thus we go,
+   To and fro;
+   Here and there,
+   Everywhere,
+   Born and bred;
+   Never dead,
+    Only gone.
+
+   'On! Come on.
+   Looming, glooming,
+   Spreading, fuming,
+   Shattering, scattering,
+   Parting, darting,
+   Settling, starting,
+   All our life
+   Is a strife,
+  And a wearying for rest
+  On the darkness' friendly breast.
+
+  'Joining, splitting,
+   Rising, sitting,
+   Laughing, shaking,
+   Sides all aching,
+  Grumbling, grim, and gruff.
+  Swingle, swangle, swuff!
+
+  'Now a knot of darkness;
+    Now dissolved gloom;
+   Now a pall of blackness
+    Hiding all the room.
+  Flicker, flacker, fluff!
+  Black, and black enough!
+
+  'Dancing now like demons;
+    Lying like the dead;
+   Gladly would we stop it,
+    And go down to bed!
+  But our work we still must do,
+  Shadow men, as well as you.
+
+  'Rooting, rising, shooting,
+    Heaving, sinking, creeping;
+   Hid in corners crooning;
+    Splitting, poking, leaping,
+   Gathering, towering, swooning.
+    When we're lurking,
+    Yet we're working,
+  For our labour we must do,
+  Shadow men, as well as you.
+   Flicker, flacker, fling, fluff!
+   Swing, swang, swingle, swuff!'
+
+"'How thick the Shadows are!' said one of the children--a thoughtful
+little girl.
+
+"'I wonder where they come from,' said a dreamy little boy.
+
+"'I think they grow out of the wall,' answered the little girl; 'for I
+have been watching them come; first one and then another, and then a
+whole lot of them. I am sure they grow out of the walls.'
+
+"'Perhaps they have papas and mammas,' said an older boy, with a smile.
+
+"'Yes, yes; and the doctor brings them in his pocket,' said another, a
+consequential little maiden.
+
+"'No; I'll tell you,' said the older boy: 'they're ghosts.'
+
+"'But ghosts are white.'
+
+"'Oh! but these have got black coming down the chimney.'
+
+"'No,' said a curious-looking, white-faced boy of fourteen, who had
+been reading by the firelight, and had stopped to hear the little ones
+talk; 'they're body ghosts; they're not soul ghosts.'
+
+"'A silence followed, broken by the first, the dreamy-eyed boy, who
+said,--
+
+"'I hope they didn't make me;' at which they all burst out laughing.
+Just then the nurse brought in their tea, and when she proceeded to
+light the gas, we vanished."
+
+"I stopped a murder," cried another.
+
+"How? How? How?"
+
+"I will tell you. I had been lurking about a sick-room for some time,
+where a miser lay, apparently dying. I did not like the place at all,
+but I felt as if I should be wanted there. There were plenty of
+lurking-places about, for the room was full of all sorts of old
+furniture, especially cabinets, chests, and presses. I believe he had
+in that room every bit of the property he had spent a long life in
+gathering. I found that he had gold and gold in those places; for one
+night, when his nurse was away, he crept out of bed, mumbling and
+shaking, and managed to open one of his chests, though he nearly fell
+down with the effort. I was peeping over his shoulder, and such a gleam
+of gold fell upon me, that it nearly killed me. But hearing his nurse
+coming, he slammed the lid down, and I recovered.
+
+"I tried very hard, but I could not do him any good. For although I
+made all sorts of shapes on the walls and ceiling, representing evil
+deeds that he had done, of which there were plenty to choose from, I
+could make no shapes on his brain or conscience. He had no eyes for
+anything but gold. And it so happened that his nurse had neither eyes
+nor heart for anything else either.
+
+"'One day, as she was seated beside his bed, but where he could not see
+her, stirring some gruel in a basin, to cool it from him, I saw her
+take a little phial from her bosom, and I knew by the expression of her
+face both what it was and what she was going to do with it. Fortunately
+the cork was a little hard to get out, and this gave me one moment to
+think.
+
+"The room was so crowded with all sorts of things, that although there
+were no curtains on the four-post bed to hide from the miser the sight
+of his precious treasures, there was yet but one small part of the
+ceiling suitable for casting myself upon in the shape I wished to
+assume. And this spot was hard to reach. But having discovered that
+upon this very place lay a dull gleam of firelight thrown from a
+strange old dusty mirror that stood away in some corner, I got in front
+of the fire, spied where the mirror was, threw myself upon it, and
+bounded from its face upon the oval pool of dim light on the ceiling,
+assuming, as I passed, the shape of an old stooping hag, who poured
+something from a phial into a basin. I made the handle of the spoon
+with my own nose, ha! ha!" And the shadow-hand caressed the shadow-tip
+of the shadow-nose, before the shadow-tongue resumed.
+
+"The old miser saw me: he would not taste the gruel that night,
+although his nurse coaxed and scolded till they were both weary. She
+pretended to taste it herself, and to think it very good; but at last
+retired into a corner, and after making as if she were eating it, took
+good care to pour it all out into the ashes."
+
+"But she must either succeed, or starve him, at last," interposed a
+Shadow.
+
+"I will tell you."
+
+"And," interposed a third, "he was not worth saving."
+
+"He might repent," suggested another who was more benevolent.
+
+"No chance of that," returned the former. "Misers never do. The love of
+money has less in it to cure itself than any other wickedness into
+which wretched men can fall. What a mercy it is to be born a Shadow!
+Wickedness does not stick to us. What do we care for gold!--Rubbish!"
+
+"Amen! Amen! Amen!" came from a hundred shadow-voices.
+
+"You should have let her murder him, and so you would have been quit of
+him."
+
+"And besides, how was he to escape at last? He could never get rid of
+her, you know."
+
+"I was going to tell you," resumed the narrator, "only you had so many
+shadow-remarks to make, that you would not let me."
+
+"Go on; go on."
+
+"There was a little grandchild who used to come and see him
+sometimes--the only creature the miser cared for. Her mother was his
+daughter; but the old man would never see her, because she had married
+against his will. Her husband was now dead, but he had not forgiven her
+yet. After the shadow he had seen, however, he said to himself, as he
+lay awake that night--I saw the words on his face--'How shall I get rid
+of that old devil? If I don't eat I shall die; and if I do eat I shall
+be poisoned. I wish little Mary would come. Ah! her mother would never
+have served me so.' He lay awake, thinking such things over and over
+again, all night long, and I stood watching him from a dark corner,
+till the dayspring came and shook me out. When I came back next night,
+the room was tidy and clean. His own daughter, a sad-faced but
+beautiful woman, sat by his bedside; and little Mary was curled up on
+the floor by the fire, imitating us, by making queer shadows on the
+ceiling with her twisted hands. But she could not think how ever they
+got there. And no wonder, for I helped her to some very unaccountable
+ones."
+
+"I have a story about a granddaughter, too," said another, the moment
+that speaker ceased.
+
+"Tell it. Tell it."
+
+"Last Christmas-day," he began, "I and a troop of us set out in the
+twilight to find some house where we could all have something to do;
+for we had made up our minds to act together. We tried several, but
+found objections to them all. At last we espied a large lonely
+country-house, and hastening to it, we found great preparations making
+for the Christmas dinner. We rushed into it, scampered all over it, and
+made up our minds in a moment that it would do. We amused ourselves in
+the nursery first, where there were several children being dressed for
+dinner. We generally do go to the nursery first, your majesty. This
+time we were especially charmed with a little girl about five years
+old, who clapped her hands and danced about with delight at the antics
+we performed; and we said we would do something for her if we had a
+chance. The company began to arrive; and at every arrival we rushed to
+the hall, and cut wonderful capers of welcome. Between times we scudded
+away to see how the dressing went on. One girl about eighteen was
+delightful. She dressed herself as if she did not care much about it,
+but could not help doing it prettily. When she took her last look at
+the phantom in the glass, she half smiled to it.--But _we_ do not like
+those creatures that come into the mirrors at all, your majesty. We
+don't understand them. They are dreadful to us.--She looked rather sad
+and pale, but very sweet and hopeful. So we wanted to know all about
+her, and soon found out that she was a distant relation and a great
+favourite of the gentleman of the house, an old man, in whose face
+benevolence was mingled with obstinacy and a deep shade of the
+tyrannical. We could not admire him much; but we would not make up our
+minds all at once: Shadows never do.
+
+"The dinner-bell rang, and down we hurried. The children all looked
+happy, and we were merry. But there was one cross fellow among the
+servants, and didn't we plague him! and didn't we get fun out of him!
+When he was bringing up dishes, we lay in wait for him at every corner,
+and sprang upon him from the floor, and from over the banisters, and
+down from the cornices. He started and stumbled and blundered so in
+consequence, that his fellow-servants thought he was tipsy. Once he
+dropped a plate, and had to pick up the pieces, and hurry away with
+them; and didn't we pursue him as he went! It was lucky for him his
+master did not see how he went on; but we took care not to let him get
+into any real scrape, though he was quite dazed with the dodging of the
+unaccountable shadows. Sometimes he thought the walls were coming down
+upon him; sometimes that the floor was gaping to swallow him; sometimes
+that he would be knocked to pieces by the hurrying to and fro, or be
+smothered in the black crowd.
+
+"When the blazing plum-pudding was carried in we made a perfect
+shadow-carnival about it, dancing and mumming in the blue flames,
+like mad demons. And how the children screamed with delight!
+
+"The old gentleman, who was very fond of children, was laughing his
+heartiest laugh, when a loud knock came to the hall-door. The fair
+maiden started, turned paler, and then red as the Christmas fire. I saw
+it, and flung my hands across her face. She was very glad, and I know
+she said in her heart, 'You kind Shadow!' which paid me well. Then I
+followed the rest into the hall, and found there a jolly, handsome,
+brown-faced sailor, evidently a son of the house. The old man received
+him with tears in his eyes, and the children with shouts of joy. The
+maiden escaped in the confusion, just in time to save herself from
+fainting. We crowded about the lamp to hide her retreat, and nearly put
+it out; and the butler could not get it to burn up before she had
+glided into her place again, relieved to find the room so dark. The
+sailor only had seen her go, and now he sat down beside her, and,
+without a word, got hold of her hand in the gloom. When we all
+scattered to the walls and the corners, and the lamp blazed up again,
+he let her hand go.
+
+"During the rest of the dinner the old man watched the two, and saw
+that there was something between them, and was very angry. For he was
+an important man in his own estimation, and they had never consulted
+him. The fact was, they had never known their own minds till the sailor
+had gone upon his last voyage, and had learned each other's only this
+moment.--We found out all this by watching them, and then talking
+together about it afterwards.--The old gentleman saw, too, that his
+favourite, who was under such obligation to him for loving her so much,
+loved his son better than him; and he grew by degrees so jealous that
+he overshadowed the whole table with his morose looks and short
+answers. That kind of shadowing is very different from ours; and the
+Christmas dessert grew so gloomy that we Shadows could not bear it, and
+were delighted when the ladies rose to go to the drawing-room. The
+gentlemen would not stay behind the ladies, even for the sake of the
+well-known wine. So the moody host, notwithstanding his hospitality,
+was left alone at the table in the great silent room. We followed the
+company upstairs to the drawing-room, and thence to the nursery for
+snap-dragon; but while they were busy with this most shadowy of games,
+nearly all the Shadows crept downstairs again to the dining-room, where
+the old man still sat, gnawing the bone of his own selfishness. They
+crowded into the room, and by using every kind of expansion--blowing
+themselves out like soap-bubbles--they succeeded in heaping up the
+whole room with shade upon shade. They clustered thickest about the
+fire and the lamp, till at last they almost drowned them in hills of
+darkness.
+
+"Before they had accomplished so much, the children, tired with fun and
+frolic, had been put to bed. But the little girl of five years old,
+with whom we had been so pleased when first we arrived, could not go to
+sleep. She had a little room of her own; and I had watched her to bed,
+and now kept her awake by gambolling in the rays of the night-light.
+When her eyes were once fixed upon me, I took the shape of her
+grandfather, representing him on the wall as he sat in his chair, with
+his head bent down and his arms hanging listlessly by his sides. And
+the child remembered that that was just as she had seen him last; for
+she had happened to peep in at the dining-room door after all the rest
+had gone upstairs. 'What if he should be sitting there still,' thought
+she, 'all alone in the dark!' She scrambled out of bed and crept down.
+
+"Meantime the others had made the room below so dark, that only the
+face and white hair of the old man could be dimly discerned in the
+shadowy crowd. For he had filled his own mind with shadows, which we
+Shadows wanted to draw out of him. Those shadows are very different
+from us, your majesty knows. He was thinking of all the disappointments
+he had had in life, and of all the ingratitude he had met with. And he
+thought far more of the good he had done, than the good others had got.
+'After all I have done for them,' said he, with a sigh of bitterness,
+'not one of them cares a straw for me. My own children will be glad
+when I am gone!'--At that instant he lifted up his eyes and saw,
+standing close by the door, a tiny figure in a long night-gown. The
+door behind her was shut. It was my little friend, who had crept in
+noiselessly. A pang of icy fear shot to the old man's heart, but it
+melted away as fast, for we made a lane through us for a single ray
+from the fire to fall on the face of the little sprite; and he thought
+it was a child of his own that had died when just the age of her
+child-niece, who now stood looking for her grandfather among the
+Shadows. He thought she had come out of her grave in the cold darkness
+to ask why her father was sitting alone on Christmas-day. And he felt
+he had no answer to give his little ghost, but one he would be ashamed
+for her to hear. But his grandchild saw him now, and walked up to him
+with a childish stateliness, stumbling once or twice on what seemed her
+long shroud. Pushing through the crowded shadows, she reached him,
+climbed upon his knee, laid her little long-haired head on his
+shoulders, and said,--'Ganpa! you goomy? Isn't it your Kissy-Day too,
+ganpa?'
+
+"A new fount of love seemed to burst from the clay of the old man's
+heart. He clasped the child to his bosom, and wept. Then, without a
+word, he rose with her in his arms, carried her up to her room, and
+laying her down in her bed, covered her up, kissed her sweet little
+mouth unconscious of reproof, and then went to the drawing-room.
+
+"As soon as he entered, he saw the culprits in a quiet corner alone. He
+went up to them, took a hand of each, and joining them in both his,
+said, 'God bless you!' Then he turned to the rest of the company, and
+'Now,' said he, 'let's have a Christmas carol.'--And well he might; for
+though I have paid many visits to the house, I have never seen him
+cross since; and I am sure that must cost him a good deal of trouble."
+
+"We have just come from a great palace," said another, "where we knew
+there were many children, and where we thought to hear glad voices, and
+see royally merry looks. But as soon as we entered, we became aware
+that one mighty Shadow shrouded the whole; and that Shadow deepened and
+deepened, till it gathered in darkness about the reposing form of a
+wise prince. When we saw him, we could move no more, but clung heavily
+to the walls, and by our stillness added to the sorrow of the hour. And
+when we saw the mother of her people weeping with bowed head for the
+loss of him in whom she had trusted, we were seized with such a longing
+to be Shadows no more, but winged angels, which are the white shadows
+cast in heaven from the Light of Light, so as to gather around her, and
+hover over her with comforting, that we vanished from the walls, and
+found ourselves floating high above the towers of the palace, where we
+met the angels on their way, and knew that our service was not needed."
+
+By this time there was a glimmer of approaching moonlight, and the king
+began to see several of those stranger Shadows, with human faces and
+eyes, moving about amongst the crowd. He knew at once that they did not
+belong to his dominion. They looked at him, and came near him, and
+passed slowly, but they never made any obeisance, or gave sign of
+homage. And what their eyes said to him, the king only could tell. And
+he did not tell.
+
+"What are those other Shadows that move through the crowd?" said he to
+one of his subjects near him.
+
+The Shadow started, looked round, shivered slightly, and laid his
+finger on his lips. Then leading the king a little aside, and looking
+carefully about him once more,--
+
+"I do not know," said he in a low tone, "what they are. I have heard of
+them often, but only once did I ever see any of them before. That was
+when some of us one night paid a visit to a man who sat much alone, and
+was said to think a great deal. We saw two of those sitting in the room
+with him, and he was as pale as they were. We could not cross the
+threshold, but shivered and shook, and felt ready to melt away. Is not
+your majesty afraid of them too?"
+
+But the king made no answer; and before he could speak again, the moon
+had climbed above the mighty pillars of the church of the Shadows, and
+looked in at the great window of the sky.
+
+The shapes had all vanished; and the king, again lifting up his eyes,
+saw but the wall of his own chamber, on which flickered the Shadow of a
+Little Child. He looked down, and there, sitting on a stool by the
+fire, he saw one of his own little ones, waiting to say good-night to
+his father, and go to bed early, that he might rise early too, and be
+very good and happy all Christmas-day.
+
+And Ralph Rinkelmann rejoiced that he was a man, and not a Shadow.
+
+But as the Shadows vanished they left the sense of song in the king's
+brain. And the words of their song must have been something like
+these:--
+
+  "Shadows, Shadows, Shadows all!
+   Shadow birth and funeral!
+   Shadow moons gleam overhead;
+   Over shadow-graves we tread.
+   Shadow-hope lives, grows, and dies.
+   Shadow-love from shadow-eyes
+   Shadow-ward entices on
+   To shadow-words on shadow-stone,
+   Closing up the shadow-tale
+   With a shadow-shadow-wail.
+
+  "Shadow-man, thou art a gloom
+   Cast upon a shadow-tomb
+   Through the endless shadow air,
+   From the shadow sitting there,
+   On a moveless shadow-throne,
+   Glooming through the ages gone;
+   North and south, and in and out,
+   East and west, and all about,
+   Flinging Shadows everywhere
+   On the shadow-painted air
+   Shadow-man, thou hast no story;
+   Nothing but a shadow-glory."
+
+But Ralph Rinkelmann said to himself,--
+
+"They are but Shadows that sing thus; for a Shadow can see but Shadows.
+A man sees a man where a Shadow sees only a Shadow."
+
+And he was comforted in himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Cross Purposes and The Shadows, by George MacDonald
+
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