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diff --git a/old/drday10.txt b/old/drday10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..daaebf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/drday10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4394 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame* + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + +DREAM DAYS +BY +KENNETH GRAHAME + + + + +Contents + + +THE TWENTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER +DIES IRAE +MUTABILE SEMPER +THE MAGIC RING +ITS WALLS WERE AS OF JASPER +A SAGA OF THE SEAS +THE RELUCTANT DRAGON +A DEPARTURE + + +Dream Days +THE TWENTY-FIRST OF +OCTOBER + +In the matter of general culture and attainments, we youngsters +stood on pretty level ground. True, it was always happening that +one of us would be singled out at any moment, freakishly, and +without regard to his own preferences, to wrestle with the +inflections of some idiotic language long rightly dead; while +another, from some fancied artistic tendency which always failed +to justify itself, might be told off without warning to hammer +out scales and exercises, and to bedew the senseless keys with +tears of weariness or of revolt. But in subjects common to +either sex, and held to be necessary even for him whose +ambition soared no higher than to crack a whip in a circus-ring-- +in geography, for instance, arithmetic, or the weary doings of +kings and queens--each would have scorned to excel. And, indeed, +whatever our individual gifts, a general dogged determination to +shirk and to evade kept us all at much the same dead level,--a +level of ignorance tempered by insubordination. + +Fortunately there existed a wide range of subjects, of healthier +tone than those already enumerated, in which we were free to +choose for ourselves, and which we would have scorned to consider +education; and in these we freely followed each his own +particular line, often attaining an amount of special knowledge +which struck our ignorant elders as simply uncanny. For Edward, +the uniforms, accoutrements, colours, and mottoes of the +regiments composing the British Army had a special glamour. +In the matter of facings he was simply faultless; among chevrons, +badges, medals, and stars, he moved familiarly; he even knew the +names of most of the colonels in command; and he would squander +sunny hours prone on the lawn, heedless of challenge from bird or +beast, poring over a tattered Army List. My own accomplishment +was of another character--took, as it seemed to me, a wider and a +more untrammelled range. Dragoons might have swaggered in +Lincoln green, riflemen might have donned sporrans over tartan +trews, without exciting notice or comment from me. But did you +seek precise information as to the fauna of the American +continent, then you had come to the right shop. Where and why +the bison "wallowed"; how beaver were to be trapped and wild +turkeys stalked; the grizzly and how to handle him, and the +pretty pressing ways of the constrictor,--in fine, the haunts and +the habits of all that burrowed, strutted, roared, or wriggled +between the Atlantic and the Pacific,--all this knowledge I took +for my province. By the others my equipment was fully +recognized. Supposing a book with a bear-hunt in it made its way +into the house, and the atmosphere was electric with excitement; +still, it was necessary that I should first decide whether the +slot had been properly described and properly followed up, ere +the work could be stamped with full approval. A writer might +have won fame throughout the civilized globe for his trappers and +his realistic backwoods, and all went for nothing. If his +pemmican were not properly compounded I damned his achievement, +and it was heard no more of. + +Harold was hardly old enough to possess a special subject of his +own. He had his instincts, indeed, and at bird's-nesting they +almost amounted to prophecy. Where we others only suspected +eggs, surmised possible eggs, hinted doubtfully at eggs in the +neighbourhood, Harold went straight for the right bush, bough, or +hole as if he carried a divining-rod. But this faculty belonged +to the class of mere gifts, and was not to be ranked with +Edward's lore regarding facings, and mine as to the habits of +prairie-dogs, both gained by painful study and extensive travel +in those "realms of gold," the Army List and Ballantyne. + +Selina's subject, quite unaccountably, happened to be naval +history. There is no laying down rules as to subjects; you just +possess them--or rather, they possess you--and their genesis or +protoplasm is rarely to be tracked down. Selina had never so +much as seen the sea; but for that matter neither had I ever +set foot on the American continent, the by-ways of which I knew +so intimately. And just as I, if set down without warning in the +middle of the Rocky Mountains, would have been perfectly at home, +so Selina, if a genie had dropped her suddenly on Portsmouth +Hard, could have given points to most of its frequenters. From +the days of Blake down to the death of Nelson (she never +condescended further) Selina had taken spiritual part in every +notable engagement of the British Navy; and even in the dark days +when she had to pick up skirts and flee, chased by an ungallant +De Ruyter or Van Tromp, she was yet cheerful in the consciousness +that ere long she would be gleefully hammering the fleets of the +world, in the glorious times to follow. When that golden period +arrived, Selina was busy indeed; and, while loving best to stand +where the splinters were flying the thickest. she was also a +careful and critical student of seamanship and of manoeuvre. She +knew the order in which the great line-of-battle ships moved into +action, the vessels they respectively engaged, the moment when +each let go its anchor, and which of them had a spring on its +cable (while not understanding the phrase, she carefully noted +the fact); and she habitually went into an engagement on the +quarter-deck of the gallant ship that reserved its fire the +longest. + +At the time of Selina's weird seizure I was unfortunately away +from home, on a loathsome visit to an aunt; and my account is +therefore feebly compounded from hearsay. It was an absence I +never ceased to regret--scoring it up, with a sense of injury, +against the aunt. There was a splendid uselessness about the +whole performance that specially appealed to my artistic sense. +That it should have been Selina, too, who should break out +this way--Selina, who had just become a regular subscriber to the +"Young Ladies' Journal," and who allowed herself to be taken out +to strange teas with an air of resignation palpably assumed--this +was a special joy, and served to remind me that much of this +dreaded convention that was creeping over us might be, after all, +only veneer. Edward also was absent, getting licked into shape +at school; but to him the loss was nothing. With his stern +practical bent he wouldn't have seen any sense in it--to recall +one of his favourite expressions. To Harold, however, for +whom the gods had always cherished a special tenderness, it was +granted, not only to witness, but also, priestlike, to feed the +sacred fire itself. And if at the time he paid the penalty +exacted by the sordid unimaginative ones who temporarily rule the +roast, he must ever after, one feels sure, have carried +inside him some of the white gladness of the acolyte who, greatly +privileged, has been permitted to swing a censer at the sacring +of the very Mass. + +October was mellowing fast, and with it the year itself; full of +tender hints, in woodland and hedgerow, of a course well-nigh +completed. From all sides that still afternoon you caught the +quick breathing and sob of the runner nearing the goal. +Preoccupied and possessed, Selina had strayed down the garden and +out into the pasture beyond, where, on a bit of rising ground +that dominated the garden on one side and the downs with the old +coach-road on the other, she had cast herself down to chew the +cud of fancy. There she was presently joined by Harold, +breathless and very full of his latest grievance. + +"I asked him not to," he burst out. "I said if he'd only please +wait a bit and Edward would be back soon, and it couldn't +matter to HIM, and the pig wouldn't mind, and Edward'd be +pleased and everybody'd be happy. But he just said he was very +sorry, but bacon didn't wait for nobody. So I told him he was a +regular beast, and then I came away. And--and I b'lieve they're +doing it now!" + +"Yes, he's a beast," agreed Selina, absently. She had forgotten +all about the pig-killing. Harold kicked away a freshly thrown- +up mole-hill, and prodded down the hole with a stick. From the +direction of Farmer Larkin's demesne came a long-drawn note of +sorrow, a thin cry and appeal, telling that the stout soul of a +black Berkshire pig was already faring down the stony track to +Hades. + +"D'you know what day it is?" said Selina presently, in a low +voice, looking far away before her. + +Harold did not appear to know, nor yet to care. He had laid +open his mole-run for a yard or so, and was still grubbing at it +absorbedly. + +"It's Trafalgar Day," went on Selina, trancedly; "Trafalgar Day-- +and nobody cares!" + +Something in her tone told Harold that he was not behaving quite +becomingly. He didn't exactly know in what manner; still, he +abandoned his mole-hunt for a more courteous attitude of +attention. + +"Over there," resumed Selina--she was gazing out in the direction +of the old highroad--"over there the coaches used to go by. +Uncle Thomas was telling me about it the other day. And the +people used to watch for 'em coming, to tell the time by, and +p'r'aps to get their parcels. And one morning--they wouldn't be +expecting anything different--one morning, first there would be a +cloud of dust, as usual, and then the coach would come racing +by, and THEN they would know! For the coach would be dressed +in laurel, all laurel from stem to stern! And the coachman would +be wearing laurel, and the guard would be wearing laurel; and +then they would know, then they would know!" + +Harold listened in respectful silence. He would much rather have +been hunting the mole, who must have been a mile away by this +time if he had his wits about him. But he had all the natural +instincts of a gentleman; of whom it is one of the principal +marks, if not the complete definition, never to show signs of +being bored. + +Selina rose to her feet, and paced the turf restlessly with a +short quarter-deck walk. + +"Why can't we DO something?" she burst out presently. +"HE--he did everything--why can't we do anything for him?" + +"WHO did everything?" inquired Harold, meekly. It was useless +wasting further longings on that mole. Like the dead, he +travelled fast. + +"Why, Nelson, of course," said Selina, shortly, still looking +restlessly around for help or suggestion. + +"But he's--he's DEAD, isn't he?" asked Harold, slightly +puzzled. + +"What's that got to do with it?" retorted his sister, resuming +her caged-lion promenade. + +Harold was somewhat taken aback. In the case of the pig, for +instance, whose last outcry had now passed into stillness, he had +considered the chapter as finally closed. Whatever innocent +mirth the holidays might hold in store for Edward, that +particular pig, at least, would not be a contributor. And now he +was given to understand that the situation had not materially +changed! He would have to revise his ideas, it seemed. +Sitting up on end, he looked towards the garden for assistance in +the task. Thence, even as he gazed, a tiny column of smoke rose +straight up into the still air. The gardener had been sweeping +that afternoon, and now, an unconscious priest, was offering his +sacrifice of autumn leaves to the calm-eyed goddess of changing +hues and chill forebodings who was moving slowly about the land +that golden afternoon. Harold was up and off in a moment, +forgetting Nelson, forgetting the pig, the mole, the Larkin +betrayal, and Selina's strange fever of conscience. Here was +fire, real fire, to play with, and that was even better than +messing with water, or remodelling the plastic surface of the +earth. Of all the toys the world provides for right-minded +persons, the original elements rank easily the first. + +But Selina sat on where she was, her chin on her fists; and +her fancies whirled and drifted, here and there, in curls and +eddies, along with the smoke she was watching. As the quick- +footed dusk of the short October day stepped lightly over the +garden, little red tongues of fire might be seen to leap and +vanish in the smoke. Harold, anon staggering under armfuls of +leaves, anon stoking vigorously, was discernible only at fitful +intervals. It was another sort of smoke that the inner eye of +Selina was looking upon,--a smoke that hung in sullen banks round +the masts and the hulls of the fighting ships; a smoke from +beneath which came thunder and the crash and the splinter-rip, +the shout of the boarding party, the choking sob of the gunner +stretched by his gun; a smoke from out of which at last she saw, +as through a riven pall, the radiant spirit of the Victor, +crowned with the coronal of a perfect death, leap in full +assurance up into the ether that Immortals breathe. The dusk was +glooming towards darkness when she rose and moved slowly down +towards the beckoning fire; something of the priestess in her +stride, something of the devotee in the set purpose of her eye. + +The leaves were well alight by this time, and Harold had just +added an old furze bush, which flamed and crackled stirringly. + +"Go 'n' get some more sticks," ordered Selina, "and shavings, 'n' +chunks of wood, 'n' anything you can find. Look here--in the +kitchen-garden there's a pile of old pea-sticks. Fetch as many +as you can carry, and then go back and bring some more!" + +"But I say,--" began Harold, amazedly, scarce knowing his sister, +and with a vision of a frenzied gardener, pea-stickless and +threatening retribution. + +"Go and fetch 'em quick! " shouted Selina, stamping with +impatience. + +Harold ran off at once, true to the stern system of discipline in +which he had been nurtured. But his eyes were like round O's, +and as he ran he talked fast to himself, in evident disorder of +mind. + +The pea-sticks made a rare blaze, and the fire, no longer +smouldering sullenly, leapt up and began to assume the appearance +of a genuine bonfire. Harold, awed into silence at first, began +to jump round it with shouts of triumph. Selina looked on +grimly, with knitted brow; she was not yet fully satisfied. +"Can't you get any more sticks?" she said presently. "Go and +hunt about. Get some old hampers and matting and things out of +the tool-house. Smash up that old cucumber frame Edward shoved +you into, the day we were playing scouts and Mohicans. Stop +a bit! Hooray! I know. You come along with me." + +Hard by there was a hot-house, Aunt Eliza's special pride and +joy, and even grimly approved of by the gardener. At one end, in +an out-house adjoining, the necessary firing was stored; and to +this sacred fuel, of which we were strictly forbidden to touch a +stick, Selina went straight. Harold followed obediently, +prepared for any crime after that of the pea-sticks, but pinching +himself to see if he were really awake. + +"You bring some coals," said Selina briefly, without any palaver +or pro-and-con discussion. "Here's a basket. I'LL manage the +faggots!" + +In a very few minutes there was little doubt about its being a +genuine bonfire and no paltry makeshift. Selina, a Maenad now, +hatless and tossing disordered locks, all the dross of the young +lady purged out of her, stalked around the pyre of her own +purloining, or prodded it with a pea-stick. And as she prodded +she murmured at intervals, "I KNEW there was something we +could do! It isn't much--but still it's SOMETHING!" + +The gardener had gone home to his tea. Aunt Eliza had driven out +for hers a long way off, and was not expected back till quite +late; and this far end of the garden was not overlooked by any +windows. So the Tribute blazed on merrily unchecked. Villagers +far away, catching sight of the flare, muttered something about +"them young devils at their tricks again," and trudged on beer- +wards. Never a thought of what day it was, never a thought for +Nelson, who preserved their honest pint-pots, to be paid for in +honest pence, and saved them from litres and decimal coinage. +Nearer at hand, frightened rabbits popped up and vanished with a +flick of white tails; scared birds fluttered among the +branches, or sped across the glade to quieter sleeping-quarters; +but never a bird nor a beast gave a thought to the hero to whom +they owed it that each year their little homes of horsehair, +wool, or moss, were safe stablished 'neath the flap of the +British flag; and that Game Laws, quietly permanent, made la +chasse a terror only to their betters. No one seemed to know, +nor to care, nor to sympathise. In all the ecstasy of her burnt- +offering and sacrifice, Selina stood alone. + +And yet--not quite alone! For, as the fire was roaring at its +best, certain stars stepped delicately forth on the surface of +the immensity above, and peered down doubtfully--with wonder at +first, then with interest, then with recognition, with a start of +glad surprise. THEY at least knew all about it, THEY +understood. Among THEM the Name was a daily familiar +word; his story was a part of the music to which they swung, +himself was their fellow and their mate and comrade. So they +peeped, and winked, and peeped again, and called to their laggard +brothers to come quick and see. + + +. . . . . . . + +"The best of life is but intoxication;" and Selina, who during +her brief inebriation had lived in an ecstasy as golden as our +drab existence affords, had to experience the inevitable +bitterness of awakening sobriety, when the dying down of the +flames into sullen embers coincided with the frenzied entrance of +Aunt Eliza on the scene. It was not so much that she was at once +and forever disrated, broke, sent before the mast, and branded as +one on whom no reliance could be placed, even with Edward safe at +school, and myself under the distant vigilance of an aunt; that +her pocket money was stopped indefinitely, and her new Church +Service, the pride of her last birthday, removed from her own +custody and placed under the control of a Trust. She sorrowed +rather because she had dragged poor Harold, against his better +judgment, into a most horrible scrape, and moreover because, when +the reaction had fairly set in, when the exaltation had fizzled +away and the young-lady portion of her had crept timorously back +to its wonted lodging, she could only see herself as a plain +fool, unjustified, undeniable, without a shadow of an excuse or +explanation. + +As for Harold, youth and a short memory made his case less +pitiful than it seemed to his more sensitive sister. True, he +started upstairs to his lonely cot bellowing dismally, before him +a dreary future of pains and penalties, sufficient to last to the +crack of doom. Outside his door, however, he tumbled over +Augustus the cat, and made capture of him; and at once his +mourning was changed into a song of triumph, as he conveyed his +prize into port. For Augustus, who detested above all things +going to bed with little boys, was ever more knave than fool, and +the trapper who was wily enough to ensnare him had achieved +something notable. Augustus, when he realized that his fate was +sealed, and his night's lodging settled, wisely made the best of +things, and listened, with a languorous air of complete +comprehension, to the incoherent babble concerning pigs and +heroes, moles and bonfires, which served Harold for a self-sung +lullaby. Yet it may be doubted whether Augustus was one of those +rare fellows who thoroughly understood. + +But Selina knew no more of this source of consolation than of the +sympathy with which the stars were winking above her; and it was +only after some sad interval oftime, and on a very moist +pillow, that she drifted into that quaint inconsequent country +where you may meet your own pet hero strolling down the road, and +commit what hair-brained oddities you like, and everybody +understands and appreciates. + + +DIES IRAE + +Those memorable days that move in procession, their heads just +out of the mist of years long dead--the most of them are full- +eyed as the dandelion that from dawn to shade has steeped itself +in sunlight. Here and there in their ranks, however, moves a +forlorn one who is blind--blind in the sense of the dulled +window-pane on which the pelting raindrops have mingled and run +down, obscuring sunshine and the circling birds, happy fields, +and storied garden; blind with the spatter of a misery +uncomprehended, unanalysed, only felt as something corporeal in +its buffeting effects. + +Martha began it; and yet Martha was not really to blame. Indeed, +that was half the trouble of it--no solid person stood full +in view, to be blamed and to make atonement. There was only a +wretched, impalpable condition to deal with. Breakfast was just +over; the sun was summoning us, imperious as a herald with +clamour of trumpet; I ran upstairs to her with a broken bootlace +in my hand, and there she was, crying in a corner, her head in +her apron. Nothing could be got from her but the same dismal +succession of sobs that would not have done, that struck and hurt +like a physical beating; and meanwhile the sun was getting +impatient, and I wanted my bootlace. + +Inquiry below stairs revealed the cause. Martha's brother was +dead, it seemed--her sailor brother Billy; drowned in one of +those strange far-off seas it was our dream to navigate one day. +We had known Billy well, and appreciated him. When an +approaching visit of Billy to his sister had been announced, +we had counted the days to it. When his cheery voice was at last +heard in the kitchen and we had descended with shouts, first of +all he had to exhibit his tattooed arms, always a subject for +fresh delight and envy and awe; then he was called upon for +tricks, jugglings, and strange, fearful gymnastics; and lastly +came yarns, and more yarns, and yarns till bedtime. There had +never been any one like Billy in his own particular sphere; and +now he was drowned, they said, and Martha was miserable, and--and +I couldn't get a new bootlace. They told me that Billy would +never come back any more, and I stared out of the window at the +sun which came back, right enough, every day, and their news +conveyed nothing whatever to me. Martha's sorrow hit home a +little, but only because the actual sight and sound of it gave me +a dull, bad sort of pain low down inside--a pain not to be +actually located. Moreover, I was still wanting my bootlace. + +This was a poor sort of a beginning to a day that, so far as +outside conditions went, had promised so well. I rigged up a +sort of jurymast of a bootlace with a bit of old string, and +wandered off to look up the girls, conscious of a jar and a +discordance in the scheme of things. The moment I entered the +schoolroom something in the air seemed to tell me that here, too, +matters were strained and awry. Selina was staring listlessly +out of the window, one foot curled round her leg. When I spoke +to her she jerked a shoulder testily, but did not condescend to +the civility of a reply. Charlotte, absolutely unoccupied, +sprawled in a chair, and there were signs of sniffles about her, +even at that early hour. It was but a trifling matter that had +caused all this electricity in the atmosphere, and the girls' +manner of taking it seemed to me most unreasonable. Within the +last few days the time had come round for the despatch of a +hamper to Edward at school. Only one hamper a term was permitted +him, so its preparation was a sort of blend of revelry and +religious ceremony. After the main corpus of the thing had been +carefully selected and safely bestowed--the pots of jam, the +cake, the sausages, and the apples that filled up corners so +nicely--after the last package had been wedged in, the girls had +deposited their own private and personal offerings on the top. I +forget their precise nature; anyhow, they were nothing of any +particular practical use to a boy. But they had involved some +contrivance and labour, some skimping of pocket money, and much +delightful cloud-building as to the effect on their enraptured +recipient. Well, yesterday there had come a terse +acknowledgment from Edward, heartily commending the cakes and the +jam, stamping the sausages with the seal of Smith major's +approval, and finally hinting that, fortified as he now was, +nothing more was necessary but a remittance of five shillings in +postage stamps to enable him to face the world armed against +every buffet of fate. That was all. Never a word or a hint of +the personal tributes or of his appreciation of them. To us--to +Harold and me, that is--the letter seemed natural and sensible +enough. After all, provender was the main thing, and five +shillings stood for a complete equipment against the most +unexpected turns of luck. The presents were very well in their +way--very nice, and so on--but life was a serious matter, and the +contest called for cakes and half crowns to carry it on, not gew- +gaws and knitted mittens and the like. The girls, however, +in their obstinate way, persisted in taking their own view of the +slight. Hence it was that I received my second rebuff of the +morning. + +Somewhat disheartened, I made my way downstairs and out into the +sunlight, where I found Harold playing conspirators by himself on +the gravel. He had dug a small hole in the walk and had laid an +imaginary train of powder thereto; and, as he sought refuge in +the laurels from the inevitable explosion, I heard him murmur: +"`My God!' said the Czar, `my plans are frustrated!'" It seemed +an excellent occasion for being a black puma. Harold liked black +pumas, on the whole, as well as any animal we were familiar with. + +So I launched myself on him, with the appropriate howl, rolling +him over on the gravel. + +Life may be said to be composed of things that come off and +things that don't come off. This thing, unfortunately, was one +of the things that didn't come off. From beneath me I heard a +shrill cry of, "Oh, it's my sore knee!" And Harold wriggled +himself free from the puma's clutches, bellowing dismally. Now, +I honestly didn't know he had a sore knee, and, what's more, he +knew I didn't know he had a sore knee. According to boy ethics, +therefore, his attitude was wrong, sore knee or not, and no +apology was due from me. I made half-way advances, however, +suggesting we should lie in ambush by the edge of the pond and +cut off the ducks as they waddled down in simple, unsuspecting +single file; then hunt them as bisons flying scattered over the +vast prairie. A fascinating pursuit this, and strictly illicit. +But Harold would none of my overtures, and retreated to the house +wailing with full lungs. + +Things were getting simply infernal. I struck out blindly for +the open country; and even as I made for the gate a shrill voice +from a window bade me keep off the flower-beds. When the gate +had swung to behind me with a vicious click I felt better, and +after ten minutes along the road it began to grow on me that some +radical change was needed, that I was in a blind alley, and that +this intolerable state of things must somehow cease. All that I +could do I had already done. As well-meaning a fellow as ever +stepped was pounding along the road that day, with an exceeding +sore heart; one who only wished to live and let live, in touch +with his fellows, and appreciating what joys life had to offer. +What was wanted now was a complete change of environment. Some +where in the world, I felt sure, justice and sympathy still +resided. There were places called pampas, for instance, that +sounded well. League upon league of grass, with just an +occasional wild horse, and not a relation within the horizon! To +a bruised spirit this seemed a sane and a healing sort of +existence. There were other pleasant corners, again, where you +dived for pearls and stabbed sharks in the stomach with your big +knife. No relations would be likely to come interfering with you +when thus blissfully occupied. And yet I did not wish--just +yet--to have done with relations entirely. They should be made +to feel their position first, to see themselves as they really +were, and to wish--when it was too late--that they had behaved +more properly. + +Of all professions, the army seemed to lend itself the most +thoroughly to the scheme. You enlisted, you followed the drum, +you marched, fought, and ported arms, under strange skies, +through unrecorded years. At last, at long last, +your opportunity would come, when the horrors of war were +flickering through the quiet country-side where you were cradled +and bred, but where the memory of you had long been dim. Folk +would run together, clamorous, palsied with fear; and among the +terror-stricken groups would figure certain aunts. "What hope is +left us?" they would ask themselves, "save in the clemency of the +General, the mysterious, invincible General, of whom men tell +such romantic tales?" And the army would march in, and the guns +would rattle and leap along the village street, and, last of all, +you--you, the General, the fabled hero--you would enter, on your +coal-black charger, your pale set face seamed by an interesting +sabre-cut. And then--but every boy has rehearsed this familiar +piece a score of times. You are magnanimous, in fine--that goes +without saying; you have a coal-black horse, and a sabre-cut, +and you can afford to be very magnanimous. But all the same +you give them a good talking-to. + +This pleasant conceit simply ravished my soul for some twenty +minutes, and then the old sense of injury began to well up +afresh, and to call for new plasters and soothing syrups. This +time I took refuge in happy thoughts of the sea. The sea was my +real sphere, after all. On the sea, in especial, you could +combine distinction with lawlessness, whereas the army seemed to +be always weighted by a certain plodding submission to +discipline. To be sure, by all accounts, the life was at first a +rough one. But just then I wanted to suffer keenly; I wanted to +be a poor devil of a cabin boy, kicked, beaten, and sworn at--for +a time. Perhaps some hint, some inkling of my sufferings might +reach their ears. In due course the sloop or felucca would turn +up--it always did--the rakish-looking craft, black of hull, +low in the water, and bristling with guns; the jolly Roger +flapping overhead, and myself for sole commander. By and by, as +usually happened, an East Indiaman would come sailing along full +of relations--not a necessary relation would be missing. And the +crew should walk the plank, and the captain should dance from his +own yardarm, and then I would take the passengers in hand--that +miserable group of well-known figures cowering on the quarter- +deck!--and then--and then the same old performance: the air thick +with magnanimity. In all the repertory of heroes, none is more +truly magnanimous than your pirate chief. + +When at last I brought myself back from the future to the actual +present, I found that these delectable visions had helped me over +a longer stretch of road than I had imagined; and I looked +around and took my bearings. To the right of me was a long low +building of grey stone, new, and yet not smugly so; new, and yet +possessing distinction, marked with a character that did not +depend on lichen or on crumbling semi-effacement of moulding and +mullion. Strangers might have been puzzled to classify it; to +me, an explorer from earliest years, the place was familiar +enough. Most folk called it "The Settlement"; others, with quite +sufficient conciseness for our neighbourhood, spoke of "them +there fellows up by Halliday's"; others again, with a hint of +derision, named them the "monks." This last title I supposed to +be intended for satire, and knew to be fatuously wrong. I was +thoroughly acquainted with monks--in books--and well knew the cut +of their long frocks, their shaven polls, and their fascinating +big dogs, with brandy-bottles round their necks, incessantly +hauling happy travellers out of the snow. The only dog at the +settlement was an Irish terrier, and the good fellows who owned +him, and were owned by him, in common, wore clothes of the most +nondescript order, and mostly cultivated side-whiskers. I had +wandered up there one day, searching (as usual) for something I +never found, and had been taken in by them and treated as friend +and comrade. They had made me free of their ideal little rooms, +full of books and pictures, and clean of the antimacassar taint; +they had shown me their chapel, high, hushed; and faintly +scented, beautiful with a strange new beauty born both of what it +had and what it had not--that too familiar dowdiness of common +places of worship. They had also fed me in their dining-hall, +where a long table stood on trestles plain to view, and all the +woodwork was natural, unpainted, healthily scrubbed, and +redolent of the forest it came from. I brought away from that +visit, and kept by me for many days, a sense of cleanness, of the +freshness that pricks the senses--the freshness of cool spring +water; and the large swept spaces of the rooms, the red tiles, +and the oaken settles, suggested a comfort that had no connexion +with padded upholstery. + +On this particular morning I was in much too unsociable a mind +for paying friendly calls. Still, something in the aspect of the +place harmonised with my humour, and I worked my way round to the +back, where the ground, after affording level enough for a +kitchen-garden, broke steeply away. Both the word Gothic and the +thing itself were still unknown to me; yet doubtless the +architecture of the place, consistent throughout, accounted for +its sense of comradeship in my hour of disheartenment. As I +mused there, with the low, grey, purposeful-looking building +before me, and thought of my pleasant friends within, and what +good times they always seemed to be having, and how they larked +with the Irish terrier, whose footing was one of a perfect +equality, I thought of a certain look in their faces, as if they +had a common purpose and a business, and were acting under orders +thoroughly recognised and understood. I remembered, too, +something that Martha had told me, about these same fellows doing +"a power o' good," and other hints I had collected vaguely, of +renouncements, rules, self-denials, and the like. Thereupon, out +of the depths of my morbid soul swam up a new and fascinating +idea; and at once the career of arms seemed over-acted and stale, +and piracy, as a profession, flat and unprofitable. This, then, +or something like it, should be my vocation and my revenge. +A severer line of business, perhaps, such as I had read of; +something that included black bread and a hair-shirt. There +should be vows, too--irrevocable, blood curdling vows; and an +iron grating. This iron grating was the most necessary feature +of all, for I intended that on the other side of it my relations +should range themselves--I mentally ran over the catalogue, and +saw that the whole gang was present, all in their proper places-- +a sad-eyed row, combined in tristful appeal. "We see our error +now," they would say; "we were always dull dogs, slow to catch-- +especially in those akin to us--the finer qualities of soul! We +misunderstood you, misappreciated you, and we own up to it. And +now--" "Alas, my dear friends," I would strike in here, waving +towards them an ascetic hand--one of the emaciated sort, that +lets the light shine through at the finger-tips--"Alas, you +come too late! This conduct is fitting and meritorious on your +part, and indeed I always expected it of you, sooner or later; +but the die is cast, and you may go home again and bewail at your +leisure this too tardy repentance of yours. For me, I am vowed +and dedicated, and my relations henceforth are austerity and holy +works. Once a month, should you wish it, it shall be your +privilege to come and gaze at me through this very solid grating; +but--" WHACK! + +A well-aimed clod of garden soil, whizzing just past my ear, +starred on a tree-trunk behind, spattering me with dirt. The +present came back to me in a flash, and I nimbly took cover +behind the trees, realising that the enemy was up and abroad, +with ambuscades, alarms, and thrilling sallies. It was the +gardener's boy, I knew well enough; a red proletariat, who hated +me just because I was a gentleman. Hastily picking up a nice +sticky clod in one hand, with the other I delicately projected my +hat beyond the shelter of the tree-trunk. I had not fought with +Red-skins all these years for nothing. + +As I had expected, another clod, of the first class for size and +stickiness, took my poor hat full in the centre. Then, Ajax- +like, shouting terribly, I issued from shelter and discharged my +ammunition. Woe then for the gardener's boy, who, unprepared, +skipping in premature triumph, took the clod full in his stomach! + +He, the foolish one, witless on whose side the gods were fighting +that day, discharged yet other missiles, wavering and wide of the +mark; for his wind had been taken with the first clod, and he +shot wildly, as one already desperate and in flight. I got +another clod in at short range; we clinched on the brow of the +hill, and rolled down to the bottom together. When he had +shaken himself free and regained his legs, he trotted smartly off +in the direction of his mother's cottage; but over his shoulder +he discharged at me both imprecation and deprecation, menace +mixed up with an under-current of tears. + +But as for me, I made off smartly for the road, my frame +tingling, my head high, with never a backward look at the +Settlement of suggestive aspect, or at my well-planned future +which lay in fragments around it. Life had its jollities, then; +life was action, contest, victory! The present was rosy once +more, surprises lurked on every side, and I was beginning to feel +villainously hungry. + +Just as I gained the road a cart came rattling by, and I rushed +for it, caught the chain that hung below, and swung thrillingly +between the dizzy wheels, choked and blinded with delicious- +smelling dust, the world slipping by me like a streaky ribbon +below, till the driver licked at me with his whip, and I had to +descend to earth again. Abandoning the beaten track, I then +struck homewards through the fields; not that the way was very +much shorter, but rather because on that route one avoided the +bridge, and had to splash through the stream and get refreshingly +wet. Bridges were made for narrow folk, for people with aims and +vocations which compelled abandonment of many of life's highest +pleasures. Truly wise men called on each element alike to +minister to their joy, and while the touch of sun-bathed air, the +fragrance of garden soil, the ductible qualities of mud, and the +spark-whirling rapture of playing with fire, had each their +special charm, they did not overlook the bliss of getting their +feet wet. As I came forth on the common Harold broke out of an +adjoining copse and ran to meet me, the morning rain-clouds +all blown away from his face. He had made a new squirrel-stick, +it seemed. Made it all himself; melted the lead and everything! +I examined the instrument critically, and pronounced it +absolutely magnificent. As we passed in at our gate the girls +were distantly visible, gardening with a zeal in cheerful +contrast to their heartsick lassitude of the morning. "There's +bin another letter come to-day," Harold explained, "and the +hamper got joggled about on the journey, and the presents worked +down into the straw and all over the place. One of 'em turned +up inside the cold duck. And that's why they weren't found at +first. And Edward said, Thanks AWFULLY" +I did not see Martha again until we were all re-assembled at tea- +time, when she seemed red-eyed and strangely silent, neither +scolding nor finding fault with anything. Instead, she was very +kind and thoughtful with jams and things, feverishly pressing +unwonted delicacies on us, who wanted little pressing enough. +Then suddenly, when I was busiest, she disappeared; and Charlotte +whispered me presently that she had heard her go to her room and +lock herself in. This struck me as a funny sort of +proceeding. + + + + +MUTABILE SEMPER + +She stood on the other side of the garden fence, and regarded me +gravely as I came down the road. Then she said, "Hi-o!" and I +responded, "Hullo!" and pulled up somewhat nervously. + +To tell the truth, the encounter was not entirely unexpected on +my part. The previous Sunday I had seen her in church, and after +service it had transpired who she was, this new-comer, and what +aunt she was staying with. That morning a volunteer had been +called for, to take a note to the Parsonage, and rather to my own +surprise I had found myself stepping forward with alacrity, while +the others had become suddenly absorbed in various pursuits, +or had sneaked unobtrusively out of view. Certainly I had not +yet formed any deliberate plan of action; yet I suppose I +recollected that the road to the Parsonage led past her aunt's +garden. + +She began the conversation, while I hopped backwards and forwards +over the ditch, feigning a careless ease. + +"Saw you in church on Sunday," she said; "only you looked +different then. All dressed up, and your hair quite smooth, and +brushed up at the sides, and oh, so shiny! What do they put on +it to make it shine like that? Don't you hate having your hair +brushed?" she ran on, without waiting for an answer. "How your +boots squeaked when you came down the aisle! When mine squeak, I +walk in all the puddles till they stop. Think I'll get over the +fence." + +This she proceeded to do in a businesslike way, while, with +my hands deep in my pockets, I regarded her movements with silent +interest, as those of some strange new animal. + +"I've been gardening," she explained, when she had joined me, +"but I didn't like it. There's so many worms about to-day. I +hate worms. Wish they'd keep out of the way when I'm digging." + +"Oh, I like worms when I'm digging," I replied heartily, "seem to +make things more lively, don't they?" + +She reflected. "Shouldn't mind 'em so much if they were warm and +DRY," she said, "but--" here she shivered, and somehow I liked +her for it, though if it had been my own flesh and blood hoots of +derision would have instantly assailed her. + +From worms we passed, naturally enough, to frogs, and thence to +pigs, aunts, gardeners, rocking-horses, and other fellow-citizens +of our common kingdom. In five minutes we had each other's +confidences, and I seemed to have known her for a lifetime. +Somehow, on the subject of one's self it was easier to be frank +and communicative with her than with one's female kin. It must +be, I supposed, because she was less familiar with one's faulty, +tattered past. + +"I was watching you as you came along the road," she said +presently, "and you had your head down and your hands in your +pockets, and you weren't throwing stones at anything, or +whistling, or jumping over things; and I thought perhaps you'd +bin scolded, or got a stomach-ache." + +"No," I answered shyly, "it wasn't that. Fact is, I was--I +often--but it's a secret." + +There I made an error in tactics. That enkindling word set her +dancing round me, half beseeching, half imperious. "Oh, do +tell it me!" she cried. "You must! I'll never tell anyone else +at all, I vow and declare I won't!" + +Her small frame wriggled with emotion, and with imploring eyes +she jigged impatiently just in front of me. Her hair was tumbled +bewitchingly on her shoulders, and even the loss of a front +tooth--a loss incidental to her age--seemed but to add a piquancy +to her face. + +"You won't care to hear about it," I said, wavering. "Besides, I +can't explain exactly. I think I won't tell you." But all the +time I knew I should have to. + +"But I DO care," she wailed plaintively. "I didn't think +you'd be so unkind!" + +This would never do. That little downward tug at either corner +of the mouth--I knew the symptom only too well! + +"It's like this," I began stammeringly. "This bit of road here-- +up as far as that corner--you know it's a horrid dull bit of +road. I'm always having to go up and down it, and I know it so +well, and I'm so sick of it. So whenever I get to that corner, I +just--well, I go right off to another place!" + +"What sort of a place?" she asked, looking round her gravely. + +"Of course it's just a place I imagine," I went on hurriedly and +rather shamefacedly: "but it's an awfully nice place--the nicest +place you ever saw. And I always go off there in church, or +during joggraphy lessons." + +"I'm sure it's not nicer than my home," she cried patriotically. +"Oh, you ought to see my home--it's lovely! We've got--" + +"Yes it is, ever so much nicer," I interrupted. "I mean"--I went +on apologetically--"of course I know your home's beautiful and +all that. But this MUST be nicer, 'cos if you want +anything at all, you've only GOT to want it, and you can +have it!" + +"That sounds jolly," she murmured. "Tell me more about it, +please. Tell me how you get there, first." + +"I--don't--quite--know--exactly," I replied. "I just go. But +generally it begins by--well, you're going up a broad, clear +river in a sort of a boat. You're not rowing or anything--you're +just moving along. And there's beautiful grass meadows on both +sides, and the river's very full, quite up to the level of the +grass. And you glide along by the edge. And the people are +haymaking there, and playing games, and walking about; and they +shout to you, and you shout back to them, and they bring you +things to eat out of their baskets, and let you drink out of +their bottles; and some of 'em are the nice people you read about +in books. And so at last you come to the Palace steps--great +broad marble steps, reaching right down to the water. And there +at the steps you find every sort of boat you can imagine-- +schooners, and punts, and row-boats, and little men-of-war. And +you have any sort of boating you want to--rowing, or sailing, or +shoving about in a punt!" + +"I'd go sailing," she said decidedly: "and I'd steer. No, +YOU'D have to steer, and I'd sit about on the deck. No, I +wouldn't though; I'd row--at least I'd make you row, and I'd +steer. And then we'd--Oh, no! I'll tell you what we'd do! We'd +just sit in a punt and dabble!" + +"Of course we'll do just what you like," I said hospitably; but +already I was beginning to feel my liberty of action somewhat +curtailed by this exigent visitor I had so rashly admitted into +my sanctum. + +"I don't think we'd boat at all," she finally decided. "It's +always so WOBBLY. Where do you come to next?" + +"You go up the steps," I continued, "and in at the door, and the +very first place you come to is the Chocolate-room!" + +She brightened up at this, and I heard her murmur with gusto, +"Chocolate-room!" + +"It's got every sort of chocolate you can think of," I went on: +"soft chocolate, with sticky stuff inside, white and pink, what +girls like; and hard shiny chocolate, that cracks when you bite +it, and takes such a nice long time to suck!" + +"I like the soft stuff best," she said: "'cos you can eat such a +lot more of it!" + +This was to me a new aspect of the chocolate question, and I +regarded her with interest and some respect. With us, chocolate +was none too common a thing, and, whenever we happened to come +by any, we resorted to the quaintest devices in order to make +it last out. Still, legends had reached us of children who +actually had, from time to time, as much chocolate as they could +possibly eat; and here, apparently, was one of them. + +"You can have all the creams," I said magnanimously, "and I'll +eat the hard sticks, 'cos I like 'em best." + +"Oh, but you mustn't!" she cried impetuously. "You must eat the +same as I do! It isn't nice to want to eat different. I'll tell +you what--you must give ME all the chocolate, and then I'll +give YOU--I'll give you what you ought to have!" + +"Oh, all right," I said, in a subdued sort of way. It seemed a +little hard to be put under a sentimental restriction like this +in one's own Chocolate-room. + +"In the next room you come to," I proceeded, "there's fizzy +drinks! There's a marble-slab business all round the room, +and little silver taps; and you just turn the right tap, and have +any kind of fizzy drink you want." + +"What fizzy drinks are there?" she inquired. + +"Oh, all sorts," I answered hastily, hurrying on. (She might +restrict my eatables, but I'd be hanged if I was going to have +her meddle with my drinks.)" Then you go down the corridor, and +at the back of the palace there's a great big park--the finest +park you ever saw. And there's ponies to ride on, and carriages +and carts; and a little railway, all complete, engine and guard's +van and all; and you work it yourself, and you can go first- +class, or in the van, or on the engine, just whichever you +choose." + +"I'd go on the engine," she murmured dreamily. "No, I wouldn't, +I'd--" + +"Then there's all the soldiers," I struck in. Really the line +had to be drawn somewhere, and I could not have my railway +system disorganised and turned upside down by a mere girl. +"There's any quantity of 'em, fine big soldiers, and they all +belong to me. And a row of brass cannons all along the terrace! +And every now and then I give the order, and they fire off all +the guns!" + +"No, they don't," she interrupted hastily. "I won't have 'em +fire off any guns! You must tell 'em not to. I hate guns, and +as soon as they begin firing I shall run right away!" + +"But--but that's what they're THERE for," I protested, aghast. + +"I don't care," she insisted. "They mustn't do it. They can +walk about behind me if they like, and talk to me, and carry +things. But they mustn't fire off any guns." + +I was sadly conscious by this time that in this brave palace of +mine, wherein I was wont to swagger daily, irresponsible and +unquestioned, I was rapidly becoming--so to speak--a mere lodger. + +The idea of my fine big soldiers being told off to "carry +things"! I was not inclined to tell her any more, though there +still remained plenty more to tell. + +"Any other boys there?" she asked presently, in a casual sort of +way. + +"Oh yes," I unguardedly replied. "Nice chaps, too. We'll have +great--" Then I recollected myself. "We'll play with them, of +course," I went on. "But you are going to be MY friend, +aren't you? And you'll come in my boat, and we'll travel in the +guard's van together, and I'll stop the soldiers firing off their +guns!" + +But she looked mischievously away, and--do what I would--I could +not get her to promise. + +Just then the striking of the village clock awoke within me +another clamorous timepiece, reminding me of mid-day mutton a +good half-mile away, and of penalties and curtailments attaching +to a late appearance. We took a hurried farewell of each other, +and before we parted I got from her an admission that she might +be gardening again that afternoon, if only the worms would be +less aggressive and give her a chance. + +"Remember," I said as I turned to go, "you mustn't tell anybody +about what I've been telling you!" + +She appeared to hesitate, swinging one leg to and fro while she +regarded me sideways with half-shut eyes. + +"It's a dead secret," I said artfully. "A secret between us two, +and nobody knows it except ourselves!" + +Then she promised, nodding violently, big-eyed, her mouth pursed +up small. The delight of revelation, and the bliss of possessing +a secret, run each other very close. But the latter +generally wins--for a time. + +I had passed the mutton stage and was weltering in warm rice +pudding, before I found leisure to pause and take in things +generally; and then a glance in the direction of the window told +me, to my dismay, that it was raining hard. This was annoying in +every way, for, even if it cleared up later, the worms--I knew +well from experience--would be offensively numerous and frisky. +Sulkily I said grace and accompanied the others upstairs to the +schoolroom; where I got out my paint-box and resolved to devote +myself seriously to Art, which of late I had much neglected. +Harold got hold of a sheet of paper and a pencil, retired to a +table in the corner, squared his elbows, and protruded his +tongue. Literature had always been HIS form of artistic +expression. + +Selina had a fit of the fidgets, bred of the unpromising weather, +and, instead of settling down to something on her own account, +must needs walk round and annoy us artists, intent on embodying +our conceptions of the ideal. She had been looking over my +shoulder some minutes before I knew of it; or I would have had a +word or two to say upon the subject. + +"I suppose you call that thing a ship," she remarked +contemptuously. "Who ever heard of a pink ship? Hoo-hoo!" + +I stifled my wrath, knowing that in order to score properly it +was necessary to keep a cool head. + +"There is a pink ship," I observed with forced calmness, "lying +in the toy-shop window now. You can go and look at it if you +like. D'you suppose you know more about ships than the fellows +who make 'em?" + +Selina, baffled for the moment, returned to the charge presently. + +"Those are funny things, too," she observed. "S'pose they're +meant to be trees. But they're BLUE." + +"They ARE trees," I replied with severity; "and they ARE +blue. They've got to be blue, 'cos you stole my gamboge last +week, so I can't mix up any green." + +"DIDN'T steal your gamboge," declared Selina, haughtily, +edging away, however, in the direction of Harold. "And I +wouldn't tell lies, either, if I was you, about a dirty little +bit of gamboge." + +I preserved a discreet silence. After all, I knew SHE knew +she stole my gamboge. + +The moment Harold became conscious of Selina's stealthy approach, +he dropped his pencil and flung himself flat upon the table, +protecting thus his literary efforts from chilling criticism by +the interposed thickness of his person. From somewhere in +his interior proceeded a heart rending compound of squeal and +whistle, as of escaping steam,--long-drawn, ear piercing, +unvarying in note. + +"I only just want to see," protested Selina, struggling to uproot +his small body from the scrawl it guarded. But Harold clung +limpet-like to the table edge, and his shrill protest continued +to deafen humanity and to threaten even the serenities of +Olympus. The time seemed come for a demonstration in force. +Personally I cared little what soul-outpourings of Harold were +pirated by Selina--she was pretty sure to get hold of them sooner +or later--and indeed I rather welcomed the diversion as +favourable to the undisturbed pursuit of Art. But the +clannishness of sex has its unwritten laws. Boys, as such, are +sufficiently put upon, maltreated, trodden under, as it is. +Should they fail to hang together in perilous times, what +disasters, what ignominies, may not be looked for? Possibly even +an extinction of the tribe. I dropped my paint brush and sailed +shouting into the fray. + +The result for a short space hung dubious. There is a period of +life when the difference of a year or two in age far outweighs +the minor advantage of sex. Then the gathers of Selina's frock +came away with a sound like the rattle of distant musketry; and +this calamity it was, rather than mere brute compulsion, that +quelled her indomitable spirit. + +The female tongue is mightier than the sword, as I soon had good +reason to know, when Selina, her riven garment held out at +length, avenged her discomfiture with the Greek-fire of +personalities and abuse. Every black incident in my short, but +not stainless, career--every error, every folly, every penalty +ignobly suffered--were paraded before me as in a magic- +lantern show. The information, however, was not particularly new +to me, and the effect was staled by previous rehearsals. +Besides, a victory remains a victory, whatever the moral +character of the triumphant general. + +Harold chuckled and crowed as he dropped from the table, +revealing the document over which so many gathers had sighed +their short lives out. "YOU can read it if you like," he said +to me gratefully. "It's only a Death-letter." + +It had never been possible to say what Harold's particular +amusement of the hour might turn out to be. One thing only was +certain, that it would be something improbable, unguessable, not +to be foretold. Who, for instance, in search of relaxation, +would ever dream of choosing the drawing-up of a testamentary +disposition of property? Yet this was the form taken by +Harold's latest craze; and in justice this much had to be said +for him, that in the christening of his amusement he had gone +right to the heart of the matter. The words "will" and +"testament" have various meanings and uses; but about the +signification of "death-letter" there can be no manner of doubt. +I smoothed out the crumpled paper and read. In actual form it +deviated considerably from that usually adopted by family +solicitors of standing, the only resemblance, indeed, lying in +the absence of punctuation. + + +"my dear edward (it ran) when I die I leave all my muny to you my +walkin sticks wips my crop my sord and gun bricks forts and all +things i have goodbye my dear charlotte when i die I leave you my +wach and cumpus and pencel case my salors and camperdown my +picteres and evthing goodbye your loving brother armen my dear +Martha I love you very much i leave you my garden my mice and +rabets my plants in pots when I die please take care of them my +dear--" Coetera desunt. + + +"Why, you're not leaving me anything!" exclaimed Selina, +indignantly. "You're a regular mean little boy, and I'll take +back the last birthday present I gave you!" + +"I don't care," said Harold, repossessing himself of the +document. "I was going to leave you something, but I sha'n't +now, 'cos you tried to read my death-letter before I was dead!" + +"Then I'll write a death-letter myself," retorted Selina, +scenting an artistic vengeance: "and I sha'n't leave you a single +thing!" And she went off in search of a pencil. + +The tempest within-doors had kept my attention off the condition +of things without. But now a glance through the window told me +that the rain had entirely ceased, and that everything was +bathed instead in a radiant glow of sunlight, more golden than +any gamboge of mine could possibly depict. Leaving Selina and +Harold to settle their feud by a mutual disinheritance, I slipped +from the room and escaped into the open air, eager to pick up the +loose end of my new friendship just where I had dropped it that +morning. In the glorious reaction of the sunshine after the +downpour, with its moist warm smells, bespanglement of greenery, +and inspiriting touch of rain-washed air, the parks and palaces +of the imagination glowed with a livelier iris, and their blurred +beauties shone out again with fresh blush and palpitation. As I +sped along to the tryst, again I accompanied my new comrade along +the corridors of my pet palace into which I had so hastily +introduced her; and on reflection I began to see that it wouldn't +work properly. I had made a mistake, and those were not the +surroundings in which she was most fitted to shine. However, it +really did not matter much; I had other palaces to place at her +disposal--plenty of 'em; and on a further acquaintance with and +knowledge of her tastes, no doubt I could find something to suit +her. + +There was a real Arabian one, for instance, which I visited but +rarely--only just when I was in the fine Oriental mood for it; a +wonder of silk hangings, fountains of rosewater, pavilions, and +minarets. Hundreds of silent, well-trained slaves thronged the +stairs and alleys of this establishment, ready to fetch and carry +for her all day, if she wished it; and my brave soldiers would be +spared the indignity. Also there were processions through the +bazaar at odd moments--processions with camels, elephants, and +palanquins. Yes, she was more suited for the East, this +imperious young person; and I determined that thither she should +be personally conducted as soon as ever might be. + +I reached the fence and climbed up two bars of it, and leaning +over I looked this way and that for my twin-souled partner of the +morning. It was not long before I caught sight of her, only a +short distance away. Her back was towards me and--well, one can +never foresee exactly how one will find things--she was talking +to a Boy. + +Of course there are boys and boys, and Lord knows I was never +narrow. But this was the parson's son from an adjoining village, +a red-headed boy and as common a little beast as ever stepped. +He cultivated ferrets--his only good point; and it was evidently +through the medium of this art that he was basely supplanting me, +for her head was bent absorbedly over something he carried in his +hands. With some trepidation I called out, "Hi!" But answer +there was none. Then again I called, "Hi!" but this time with a +sickening sense of failure and of doom. She replied only by a +complex gesture, decisive in import if not easily described. A +petulant toss of the head, a jerk of the left shoulder, and a +backward kick of the left foot, all delivered at once--that was +all, and that was enough. The red-headed boy never even +condescended to glance my way. Why, indeed, should he? I +dropped from the fence without another effort, and took my way +homewards along the weary road. + +Little inclination was left to me, at first, for any solitary +visit to my accustomed palace, the pleasures of which I had so +recently tasted in company; and yet after a minute or two I found +myself, from habit, sneaking off there much as usual. Presently +I became aware of a certain solace and consolation in my +newly-recovered independence of action. Quit of all female whims +and fanciful restrictions, I rowed, sailed, or punted, just as I +pleased; in the Chocolate-room I cracked and nibbled the hard +sticks, with a certain contempt for those who preferred the soft, +veneered article; and I mixed and quaffed countless fizzy drinks +without dread of any prohibitionist. Finally, I swaggered into +the park, paraded all my soldiers on the terrace, and, bidding +them take the time from me, gave the order to fire off all the +guns. + + + +THE MAGIC RING + +Grown-up people really ought to be more careful. Among +themselves it may seem but a small thing to give their word and +take back their word. For them there are so many compensations. +Life lies at their feet, a party-coloured india-rubber ball; they +may kick it this way or kick it that, it turns up blue, yellow, +or green, but always coloured and glistening. Thus one sees it +happen almost every day, and, with a jest and a laugh, the thing +is over, and the disappointed one turns to fresh pleasure, lying +ready to his hand. But with those who are below them, whose +little globe is swayed by them, who rush to build star-pointing +alhambras on their most casual word, they really ought to be more +careful. + +In this case of the circus, for instance, it was not as if we had +led up to the subject. It was they who began it entirely-- +prompted thereto by the local newspaper. "What, a circus!" said +they, in their irritating, casual way: "that would be nice to +take the children to. Wednesday would be a good day. Suppose we +go on Wednesday. Oh, and pleats are being worn again, with rows +of deep braid," etc. + +What the others thought I know not; what they said, if they said +anything, I did not comprehend. For me the house was bursting, +walls seemed to cramp and to stifle, the roof was jumping and +lifting. Escape was the imperative thing--to escape into the +open air, to shake off bricks and mortar, and to wander in the +unfrequented places of the earth, the more properly to take in +the passion and the promise of the giddy situation. + +Nature seemed prim and staid that day and the globe gave no +hint that it was flying round a circus ring of its own. Could +they really be true, I wondered, all those bewildering things I +had heard tell of circuses? Did long-tailed ponies really walk +on their hind-legs and fire off pistols? Was it humanly possible +for clowns to perform one-half of the bewitching drolleries +recorded in history? And how, oh, how dare I venture to believe +that, from off the backs of creamy Arab steeds, ladies of more +than earthly beauty discharged themselves through paper hoops? +No, it was not altogether possible, there must have been some +exaggeration. Still, I would be content with very little, I +would take a low percentage--a very small proportion of the +circus myth would more than satisfy me. But again, even +supposing that history were, once in a way, no liar, could it be +that I myself was really fated to look upon this thing in the +flesh and to live through it, to survive the rapture? No, it was +altogether too much. Something was bound to happen, one of us +would develop measles, the world would blow up with a loud +explosion. I must not dare, I must not presume, to entertain the +smallest hope. I must endeavour sternly to think of something +else. + +Needless to say, I thought, I dreamed of nothing else, day or +night. Waking, I walked arm-in-arm with a clown, and cracked a +portentous whip to the brave music of a band. Sleeping, I +pursued--perched astride of a coal-black horse--a princess all +gauze and spangles, who always managed to keep just one +unattainable length ahead. In the early morning Harold and I, +once fully awake, cross-examined each other as to the +possibilities of this or that circus tradition, and exhausted the +lore long ere the first housemaid was stirring. In this +state of exaltation we slipped onward to what promised to be a +day of all white days--which brings me right back to my text, +that grown-up people really ought to be more careful. + +I had known it could never really be; I had said so to myself a +dozen times. The vision was too sweetly ethereal for embodiment. + +Yet the pang of the disillusionment was none the less keen and +sickening, and the pain was as that of a corporeal wound. It +seemed strange and foreboding, when we entered the breakfast- +room, not to find everybody cracking whips, jumping over chairs, +and whooping. In ecstatic rehearsal of the wild reality to come. + +The situation became grim and pallid indeed, when I caught the +expressions "garden-party" and "my mauve tulle," and realized +that they both referred to that very afternoon. And every +minute, as I sat silent and listened, my heart sank lower and +lower, descending relentlessly like a clock-weight into my boot +soles. + +Throughout my agony I never dreamed of resorting to a direct +question, much less a reproach. Even during the period of joyful +anticipation some fear of breaking the spell had kept me from any +bald circus talk in the presence of them. But Harold, who was +built in quite another way, so soon as he discerned the drift of +their conversation and heard the knell of all his hopes, filled +the room with wail and clamour of bereavement. The grinning +welkin rang with "Circus!" "Circus!" shook the window-panes; the +mocking walls re-echoed "Circus!" Circus he would have, and the +whole circus, and nothing but the circus. No compromise for him, +no evasions, no fallacious, unsecured promises to pay. He +had drawn his cheque on the Bank of Expectation, and it had +got to be cashed then and there; else he would yell, and yell +himself into a fit, and come out of it and yell again. Yelling +should be his profession, his art, his mission, his career. He +was qualified, he was resolute, and he was in no hurry to retire +from the business. + +The noisy ones of the world, if they do not always shout +themselves into the imperial purple, are sure at least of +receiving attention. If they cannot sell everything at their own +price, one thing--silence--must, at any cost, be purchased of +them. Harold accordingly had to be consoled by the employment of +every specious fallacy and base-born trick known to those whose +doom it is to handle children. For me their hollow cajolery had +no interest, I could pluck no consolation out of their bankrupt +though prodigal pledges I only waited till that hateful, +well-known "Some other time, dear!" told me that hope was finally +dead. Then I left the room without any remark. It made it +worse--if anything could--to hear that stale, worn-out old +phrase, still supposed by those dullards to have some efficacy. + +To nature, as usual, I drifted by instinct, and there, out of the +track of humanity, under a friendly hedge-row had my black hour +unseen. The world was a globe no longer, space was no more +filled with whirling circuses of spheres. That day the old +beliefs rose up and asserted themselves, and the earth was flat +again--ditch-riddled, stagnant, and deadly flat. The undeviating +roads crawled straight and white, elms dressed themselves stiffly +along inflexible hedges, all nature, centrifugal no longer, +sprawled flatly in lines out to its farthest edge, and I felt +just like walking out to that terminus, and dropping quietly +off. Then, as I sat there, morosely chewing bits of stick, the +recollection came back to me of certain fascinating +advertisements I had spelled out in the papers--advertisements of +great and happy men, owning big ships of tonnage running into +four figures, who yet craved, to the extent of public +supplication, for the sympathetic co-operation of youths as +apprentices. I did not rightly know what apprentices might be, +nor whether I was yet big enough to be styled a youth; but one +thing seemed clear, that, by some such means as this, whatever +the intervening hardships, I could eventually visit all the +circuses of the world--the circuses of merry France and gaudy +Spain, of Holland and Bohemia, of China and Peru. Here was a +plan worth thinking out in all its bearings; for something had +presently to be done to end this intolerable state of things. + +Mid-day, and even feeding-time, passed by gloomily enough, till a +small disturbance occurred which had the effect of releasing some +of the electricity with which the air was charged. Harold, it +should be explained, was of a very different mental mould, and +never brooded, moped, nor ate his heart out over any +disappointment. One wild outburst--one dissolution of a minute +into his original elements of air and water, of tears and +outcry--so much insulted nature claimed. Then he would pull +himself together, iron out his countenance with a smile, and +adjust himself to the new condition of things. + +If the gods are ever grateful to man for anything, it is when he +is so good as to display a short memory. The Olympians were +never slow to recognize this quality of Harold's, in which, +indeed, their salvation lay, and on this occasion their gratitude +had taken the practical form of a fine fat orange, tough- +rinded as oranges of those days were wont to be. This he had +eviscerated in the good old-fashioned manner, by biting out a +hole in the shoulder, inserting a lump of sugar therein, and then +working it cannily till the whole soul and body of the orange +passed glorified through the sugar into his being. Thereupon, +filled full of orange-juice and iniquity, he conceived a deadly +snare. Having deftly patted and squeezed the orange-skin till it +resumed its original shape, he filled it up with water, inserted +a fresh lump of sugar in the orifice, and, issuing forth, blandly +proffered it to me as I sat moodily in the doorway dreaming of +strange wild circuses under tropic skies. + +Such a stale old dodge as this would hardly have taken me in at +ordinary moments. But Harold had reckoned rightly upon the +disturbing effect of ill-humour, and had guessed, perhaps, that I +thirsted for comfort and consolation, and would not criticise +too closely the source from which they came. Unthinkingly I +grasped the golden fraud, which collapsed at my touch, and +squirted its contents into my eyes and over my collar, till the +nethermost parts of me were damp with the water that had run down +my neck. In an instant I had Harold down, and, with all the +energy of which I was capable, devoted myself to grinding his +head into the gravel; while he, realizing that the closure was +applied, and that the time for discussion or argument was past, +sternly concentrated his powers on kicking me in the stomach. + +Some people can never allow events to work themselves out +quietly. At this juncture one of Them swooped down on the scene, +pouring shrill, misplaced abuse on both of us: on me for ill- +treating my younger brother, whereas it was distinctly I who was +the injured and the deceived; on him for the high offence of +assault and battery on a clean collar--a collar which I had +myself deflowered and defaced, shortly before, in sheer desperate +ill-temper. Disgusted and defiant we fled in different +directions, rejoining each other later in the kitchen-garden; and +as we strolled along together, our short feud forgotten, Harold +observed, gloomily: "I should like to be a cave-man, like Uncle +George was tellin' us about: with a flint hatchet and no clothes, +and live in a cave and not know anybody!" + +"And if anyone came to see us we didn't like," I joined in, +catching on to the points of the idea, "we'd hit him on the head +with the hatchet till he dropped down dead." + +"And then," said Harold, warming up, "we'd drag him into the cave +and SKIN HIM!" + +For a space we gloated silently over the fair scene our +imaginations had conjured up. It was BLOOD we felt the +need of just then. We wanted no luxuries, nothing dear-bought +nor far-fetched. Just plain blood, and nothing else, and plenty +of it. + +Blood, however, was not to be had. The time was out of joint, +and we had been born too late. So we went off to the greenhouse, +crawled into the heating arrangement underneath, and played at +the dark and dirty and unrestricted life of cave-men till we were +heartily sick of it. Then we emerged once more into historic +times, and went off to the road to look for something living and +sentient to throw stones at. + +Nature, so often a cheerful ally, sometimes sulks and refuses to +play. When in this mood she passes the word to her underlings, +and all the little people of fur and feather take the hint and +slip home quietly by back streets. In vain we scouted, lurked, +crept, and ambuscaded. Everything that usually scurried, hopped, +or fluttered--the small society of the undergrowth--seemed to +have engagements elsewhere. The horrid thought that perhaps they +had all gone off to the circus occurred to us simultaneously, and +we humped ourselves up on the fence and felt bad. Even the sound +of approaching wheels failed to stir any interest in us. When +you are bent on throwing stones at something, humanity seems +obtrusive and better away. Then suddenly we both jumped off the +fence together, our faces clearing. For our educated ear had +told us that the approaching rattle could only proceed from a +dog-cart, and we felt sure it must be the funny man. + +We called him the funny man because he was sad and serious, and +said little, but gazed right into our souls, and made us tell him +just what was on our minds at the time, and then came out with +some magnificently luminous suggestion that cleared every +cloud away. What was more he would then go off with us at once +and play the thing right out to its finish, earnestly and +devotedly, putting all other things aside. So we called him the +funny man, meaning only that he was different from those others +who thought it incumbent on them to play the painful mummer. The +ideal as opposed to the real man was what we meant, only we were +not acquainted with the phrase. Those others, with their +laboured jests and clumsy contortions, doubtless flattered +themselves that THEY were funny men; we, who had to sit +through and applaud the painful performance, knew better. + +He pulled up to a walk as soon as he caught sight of us, and the +dog-cart crawled slowly along till it stopped just opposite. +Then he leant his chin on his hand and regarded us long and +soulfully, yet said he never a word; while we jigged up and +down in the dust, grinning bashfully but with expectation. For +you never knew exactly what this man might say or do. + +"You look bored," he remarked presently; "thoroughly bored. Or +else--let me see; you're not married, are you?" + +He asked this in such sad earnestness that we hastened to assure +him we were not married, though we felt he ought to have known +that much; we had been intimate for some time. + +"Then it's only boredom," he said. "Just satiety and world- +weariness. Well, if you assure me you aren't married you can +climb into this cart and I'll take you for a drive. I'm bored, +too. I want to do something dark and dreadful and exciting." + +We clambered in, of course, yapping with delight and treading all +over his toes; and as we set off, Harold demanded of him +imperiously whither he was going. + +"My wife," he replied, "has ordered me to go and look up the +curate and bring him home to tea. Does that sound sufficiently +exciting for you?" + +Our faces fell. The curate of the hour was not a success, from +our point of view. He was not a funny man, in any sense of the +word. + +"--but I'm not going to," he added, cheerfully. "Then I was to +stop at some cottage and ask--what was it? There was NETTLE- +RASH mixed up in it, I'm sure. But never mind, I've forgotten, +and it doesn't matter. Look here, we're three desperate young +fellows who stick at nothing. Suppose we go off to the circus?" + +Of certain supreme moments it is not easy to write. The varying +shades and currents of emotion may indeed be put into words by +those specially skilled that way; they often are, at considerable +length. But the sheer, crude article itself--the strong, +live thing that leaps up inside you and swells and strangles you, +the dizziness of revulsion that takes the breath like cold +water--who shall depict this and live? All I knew was that I +would have died then and there, cheerfully, for the funny man; +that I longed for red Indians to spring out from the hedge on the +dog-cart, just to show what I would do; and that, with all this, +I could not find the least little word to say to him. + +Harold was less taciturn. With shrill voice, uplifted in solemn +chant, he sang the great spheral circus-song, and the undying +glory of the Ring. Of its timeless beginning he sang, of its +fashioning by cosmic forces, and of its harmony with the stellar +plan. Of horses he sang, of their strength, their swiftness, and +their docility as to tricks. Of clowns again, of the glory of +knavery, and of the eternal type that shall endure. Lastly +he sang of Her--the Woman of the Ring--flawless, complete, +untrammelled in each subtly curving limb; earth's highest output, +time's noblest expression. At least, he doubtless sang all +these things and more--he certainly seemed to; though all that +was distinguishable was, "We're-goin'-to-the-circus!" and then, +once more, "We're-goin'-to-the-circus!"--the sweet rhythmic +phrase repeated again and again. But indeed I cannot be quite +sure, for I heard confusedly, as in a dream. Wings of fire +sprang from the old mare's shoulders. We whirled on our way +through purple clouds, and earth and the rattle of wheels were +far away below. + +The dream and the dizziness were still in my head when I found +myself, scarce conscious of intermediate steps, seated actually +in the circus at last, and took in the first sniff of that +intoxicating circus smell that will stay by me while this +clay endures. The place was beset by a hum and a glitter and a +mist; suspense brooded large o'er the blank, mysterious arena. +Strung up to the highest pitch of expectation, we knew not from +what quarter, in what divine shape, the first surprise would +come. + +A thud of unseen hoofs first set us aquiver; then a crash of +cymbals, a jangle of bells, a hoarse applauding roar, and Coralie +was in the midst of us, whirling past 'twixt earth and sky, now +erect, flushed, radiant, now crouched to the flowing mane; swung +and tossed and moulded by the maddening dance-music of the band. +The mighty whip of the count in the frock-coat marked time with +pistol-shots; his war-cry, whooping clear above the music, fired +the blood with a passion for splendid deeds, as Coralie, +laughing, exultant, crashed through the paper hoops. We +gripped the red cloth in front of us, and our souls sped round +and round with Coralie, leaping with her, prone with her, swung +by mane or tail with her. It was not only the ravishment of her +delirious feats, nor her cream coloured horse of fairy breed, +long-tailed, roe-footed, an enchanted prince surely, if ever +there was one! It was her more than mortal beauty--displayed, +too, under conditions never vouchsafed to us before--that held us +spell-bound. What princess had arms so dazzlingly white, or went +delicately clothed in such pink and spangles? Hitherto we had +known the outward woman as but a drab thing, hour-glass shaped, +nearly legless, bunched here, constricted there; slow of +movement, and given to deprecating lusty action of limb. Here +was a revelation! From henceforth our imaginations would have to +be revised and corrected up to date. In one of those swift +rushes the mind makes in high-strung moments, I saw myself and +Coralie, close enfolded, pacing the world together, o'er hill and +plain, through storied cities, past rows of applauding +relations,--I in my Sunday knickerbockers, she in her pink and +spangles. + +Summers sicken, flowers fail and die, all beauty but rides round +the ring and out at the portal; even so Coralie passed in her +turn, poised sideways, panting, on her steed; lightly swayed as a +tulip-bloom, bowing on this side and on that as she disappeared; +and with her went my heart and my soul, and all the light and the +glory and the entrancement of the scene. + +Harold woke up with a gasp. "Wasn't she beautiful?" he said, in +quite a subdued way for him. I felt a momentary pang. We had +been friendly rivals before, in many an exploit; but here was +altogether a more serious affair. Was this, then, to be the +beginning of strife and coldness, of civil war on the hearthstone +and the sundering of old ties? Then I recollected the true +position of things, and felt very sorry for Harold; for it was +inexorably written that he would have to give way to me, since I +was the elder. Rules were not made for nothing, in a sensibly +constructed universe. + +There was little more to wait for, now Coralie had gone; yet I +lingered still, on the chance of her appearing again. Next +moment the clown tripped up and fell flat, with magnificent +artifice, and at once fresh emotions began to stir. Love had +endured its little hour, and stern ambition now asserted itself. +Oh, to be a splendid fellow like this, self-contained, ready of +speech, agile beyond conception, braving the forces of society, +his hand against everyone, yet always getting the best of it! +What freshness of humour, what courtesy to dames, what +triumphant ability to discomfit rivals, frock-coated and +moustached though they might be! And what a grand, self- +confident straddle of the legs! Who could desire a finer career +than to go through life thus gorgeously equipped! Success was +his key-note, adroitness his panoply, and the mellow music of +laughter his instant reward. Even Coralie's image wavered and +receded. I would come back to her in the evening, of course; but +I would be a clown all the working hours of the day. + +The short interval was ended: the band, with long-drawn chords, +sounded a prelude touched with significance; and the programme, +in letters overtopping their fellows, proclaimed Zephyrine, the +Bride of the Desert, in her unequalled bareback equestrian +interlude. So sated was I already with beauty and with wit, that +I hardly dared hope for a fresh emotion. Yet her title was +tinged with romance, and Coralie's display had aroused in me +an interest in her sex which even herself had failed to satisfy +entirely. + +Brayed in by trumpets, Zephyrine swung passionately into the +arena. With a bound she stood erect, one foot upon each of her +supple, plunging Arabs; and at once I knew that my fate was +sealed, my chapter closed, and the Bride of the Desert was the +one bride for me. Black was her raiment, great silver stars +shone through it, caught in the dusky twilight of her gauze; +black as her own hair were the two mighty steeds she bestrode. +In a tempest they thundered by, in a whirlwind, a scirocco of +tan; her cheeks bore the kiss of an Eastern sun, and the sand- +storms of her native desert were her satellites. What was +Coralie, with her pink silk, her golden hair and slender limbs, +beside this magnificent, full-figured Cleopatra? In a twinkling +we were scouring the desert--she and I and the two coal- +black horses. Side by side, keeping pace in our swinging gallop, +we distanced the ostrich, we outstrode the zebra; and, as we +went, it seemed the wilderness blossomed like the rose. + + +. . . . . . . + +I know not rightly how we got home that evening. On the road +there were everywhere strange presences, and the thud of phantom +hoofs encircled us. In my nose was the pungent circus-smell; the +crack of the whip and the frank laugh of the clown were in my +ears. The funny man thoughtfully abstained from conversation, +and left our illusion quite alone, sparing us all jarring +criticism and analysis; and he gave me no chance, when he +deposited us at our gate, to get rid of the clumsy expressions of +gratitude I had been laboriously framing. For the rest of the +evening, distraught and silent, I only heard the march-music of +the band, playing on in some corner of my brain. When at +last my head touched the pillow, in a trice I was with Zephyrine, +riding the boundless Sahara, cheek to cheek, the world well lost; +while at times, through the sand-clouds that encircled us, +glimmered the eyes of Coralie, touched, one fancied, with +something of a tender reproach. + + + + +ITS WALLS WERE AS OF JASPER + +In the long winter evenings, when we had the picture-books out on +the floor, and sprawled together over them with elbows deep in +the hearth-rug, the first business to be gone through was the +process of allotment. All the characters in the pictures had to +be assigned and dealt out among us, according to seniority, as +far as they would go. When once that had been satisfactorily +completed, the story was allowed to proceed; and thereafter, in +addition to the excitement of the plot, one always possessed a +personal interest in some particular member of the cast, whose +successes or rebuffs one took as so much private gain or loss. + +For Edward this was satisfactory enough. Claiming his right of +the eldest, he would annex the hero in the very +frontispiece; and for the rest of the story his career, if +chequered at intervals, was sure of heroic episodes and a +glorious close. But his juniors, who had to put up with +characters of a clay more mixed--nay, sometimes with undiluted +villainy--were hard put to it on occasion to defend their other +selves (as it was strict etiquette to do) from ignominy perhaps +only too justly merited. Edward was indeed a hopeless grabber. +In the "Buffalo-book," for instance (so named from the subject of +its principal picture, though indeed it dealt with varied +slaughter in every zone), Edward was the stalwart, bearded +figure, with yellow leggings and a powder-horn, who undauntedly +discharged the fatal bullet into the shoulder of the great bull +bison, charging home to within a yard of his muzzle. To me was +allotted the subsidiary character of the friend who had succeeded +in bringing down a cow; while Harold had to be content to +hold Edward's spare rifle in the background, with evident signs +of uneasiness. Farther on, again, where the magnificent chamois +sprang rigid into mid-air, Edward, crouched dizzily against the +precipice-face, was the sportsman from whose weapon a puff of +white smoke was floating away. A bare-kneed guide was all that +fell to my share, while poor Harold had to take the boy with the +haversack, or abandon, for this occasion at least, all Alpine +ambitions. + +Of course the girls fared badly in this book, and it was not +surprising that they preferred the "Pilgrim's Progress" (for +instance), where women had a fair show, and there was generally +enough of 'em to go round; or a good fairy story, wherein +princesses met with a healthy appreciation. But indeed we were +all best pleased with a picture wherein the characters just +fitted us, in number, sex, and qualifications; and this, to us, +stood for artistic merit. + +All the Christmas numbers, in their gilt frames on the nursery- +wall, had been gone through and allotted long ago; and in these, +sooner or later, each one of us got a chance to figure in some +satisfactory and brightly coloured situation. Few of the other +pictures about the house afforded equal facilities. They were +generally wanting in figures, and even when these were present +they lacked dramatic interest. In this picture that I have to +speak about, although the characters had a stupid way of not +doing anything, and apparently not wanting to do anything, there +was at least a sufficiency of them; so in due course they were +allotted, too. + +In itself the picture, which--in its ebony and tortoise-shell +frame--hung in a corner of the dining-room, had hitherto +possessed no special interest for us, and would probably +never have been dealt with at all but for a revolt of the girls +against a succession of books on sport, in which the illustrator +seemed to have forgotten that there were such things as women in +the world. Selina accordingly made for it one rainy morning, and +announced that she was the lady seated in the centre, whose gown +of rich, flowered brocade fell in such straight, severe lines to +her feet, whose cloak of dark blue was held by a jewelled clasp, +and whose long, fair hair was crowned with a diadem of gold and +pearl. Well, we had no objection to that; it seemed fair enough, +especially to Edward, who promptly proceeded to "grab" the +armour-man who stood leaning on his shield at the lady's right +hand. A dainty and delicate armour-man this! And I confess, +though I knew it was all right and fair and orderly, I felt a +slight pang when he passed out of my reach into Edward's +possession. His armour was just the sort I wanted myself-- +scalloped and fluted and shimmering and spotless; and, though he +was but a boy by his beardless face and golden hair, the +shattered spear-shaft in his grasp proclaimed him a genuine +fighter and fresh from some such agreeable work. Yes, I grudged +Edward the armour-man, and when he said I could have the fellow +on the other side, I hung back and said I'd think about it. + +This fellow had no armour nor weapons, but wore a plain jerkin +with a leather pouch--a mere civilian--and with one hand he +pointed to a wound in his thigh. I didn't care about him, and +when Harold eagerly put in his claim I gave way and let him have +the man. The cause of Harold's anxiety only came out later. It +was the wound he coveted, it seemed. He wanted to have a +big, sore wound of his very own, and go about and show it to +people, and excite their envy or win their respect. Charlotte +was only too pleased to take the child-angel seated at the lady's +feet, grappling with a musical instrument much too big for her. +Charlotte wanted wings badly, and, next to those, a guitar or a +banjo. The angel, besides, wore an amber necklace, which took +her fancy immensely. + +This left the picture allotted, with the exception of two or +three more angels, who peeped or perched behind the main figures +with a certain subdued drollery in their faces, as if the thing +had gone on long enough, and it was now time to upset something +or kick up a row of some sort. We knew these good folk to be +saints and angels, because we had been told they were; otherwise +we should never have guessed it. Angels, as we knew them in +our Sunday books, were vapid, colourless, uninteresting +characters, with straight up-and-down sort of figures, white +nightgowns, white wings, and the same straight yellow hair parted +in the middle. They were serious, even melancholy; and we had no +desire to have any traffic with them. These bright bejewelled +little persons, however, piquant of face and radiant of feather, +were evidently hatched from quite a different egg, and we felt we +might have interests in common with them. Short-nosed, shock +headed, with mouths that went up at the corners and with an +evident disregard for all their fine clothes, they would be the +best of good company, we felt sure, if only we could manage to +get at them. One doubt alone disturbed my mind. In games +requiring agility, those wings of theirs would give them a +tremendous pull. Could they be trusted to play fair? I +asked Selina, who replied scornfully that angels ALWAYS played +fair. But I went back and had another look at the brown-faced +one peeping over the back of the lady's chair, and still I had my +doubts. + +When Edward went off to school a great deal of adjustment and re- +allotment took place, and all the heroes of illustrated +literature were at my call, did I choose to possess them. In +this particular case, however, I made no haste to seize upon the +armour-man. Perhaps it was because I wanted a FRESH saint of +my own, not a stale saint that Edward had been for so long a +time. Perhaps it was rather that, ever since I had elected to be +saintless, I had got into the habit of strolling off into the +background, and amusing myself with what I found there. + +A very fascinating background it was, and held a great deal, +though so tiny. Meadow-land came first, set with flowers, +blue and red, like gems. Then a white road ran, with wilful, +uncalled-for loops, up a steep, conical hill, crowned with +towers, bastioned walls, and belfries; and down the road the +little knights came riding, two and two. The hill on one side +descended to water, tranquil, far-reaching, and blue; and a very +curly ship lay at anchor, with one mast having an odd sort of +crow's-nest at the top of it. + +There was plenty to do in this pleasant land. The annoying thing +about it was, one could never penetrate beyond a certain point. +I might wander up that road as often as I liked, I was bound to +be brought up at the gateway, the funny galleried, top-heavy +gateway, of the little walled town. Inside, doubtless, there +were high jinks going on; but the password was denied to me. I +could get on board a boat and row up as far as the curly ship, +but around the headland I might not go. On the other side, +of a surety, the shipping lay thick. The merchants walked on the +quay, and the sailors sang as they swung out the corded bales. +But as for me, I must stay down in the meadow, and imagine it all +as best I could. + +Once I broached the subject to Charlotte, and found, to my +surprise, that she had had the same joys and encountered the same +disappointments in this delectable country. She, too, had walked +up that road and flattened her nose against that portcullis; and +she pointed out something that I had overlooked--to wit, that if +you rowed off in a boat to the curly ship, and got hold of a +rope, and clambered aboard of her, and swarmed up the mast, and +got into the crow's-nest, you could just see over the headland, +and take in at your ease the life and bustle of the port. She +proceeded to describe all the fun that was going on there, +at such length and with so much particularity that I looked at +her suspiciously. "Why, you talk as if you'd been in that +crow's-nest yourself!" I said. Charlotte answered nothing, but +pursed her mouth up and nodded violently for some minutes; and I +could get nothing more out of her. I felt rather hurt. +Evidently she had managed, somehow or other, to get up into that +crow's-nest. Charlotte had got ahead of me on this occasion. + +It was necessary, no doubt, that grown-up people should dress +themselves up and go forth to pay calls. I don't mean that we +saw any sense in the practice. It would have been so much more +reasonable to stay at home in your old clothes and play. But we +recognized that these folk had to do many unaccountable things, +and after all it was THEIR life, and not ours, and we were not +in a position to criticise. Besides, they had many habits +more objectionable than this one, which to us generally meant a +free and untrammelled afternoon, wherein to play the devil in our +own way. The case was different, however, when the press-gang +was abroad, when prayers and excuses were alike disregarded, and +we were forced into the service, like native levies impelled +toward the foe less by the inherent righteousness of the cause +than by the indisputable rifles of their white allies. This was +unpardonable and altogether detestable. Still, the thing +happened, now and again; and when it did, there was no arguing +about it. The order was for the front, and we just had to shut +up and march. + +Selina, to be sure, had a sneaking fondness for dressing up and +paying calls, though she pretended to dislike it, just to keep on +the soft side of public opinion. So I thought it extremely +mean in her to have the earache on that particular afternoon when +Aunt Eliza ordered the pony-carriage and went on the war-path. I +was ordered also, in the same breath as the pony-carriage; and, +as we eventually trundled off, it seemed to me that the utter +waste of that afternoon, for which I had planned so much, could +never be made up nor atoned for in all the tremendous stretch of +years that still lay before me. + +The house that we were bound for on this occasion was a "big +house;" a generic title applied by us to the class of residence +that had a long carriage-drive through rhododendrons; and a +portico propped by fluted pillars; and a grave butler who bolted +back swing-doors, and came down steps, and pretended to have +entirely forgotten his familiar intercourse with you at less +serious moments; and a big hall, where no boots or shoes or +upper garments were allowed to lie about frankly and easily, as +with us; and where, finally, people were apt to sit about dressed +up as if they were going on to a party. + +The lady who received us was effusive to Aunt Eliza and hollowly +gracious to me. In ten seconds they had their heads together and +were hard at it talking CLOTHES. I was left high and dry on a +straight-backed chair, longing to kick the legs of it, yet not +daring. For a time I was content to stare; there was lots to +stare at, high and low and around. Then the inevitable fidgets +came on, and scratching one's legs mitigated slightly, but did +not entirely disperse them. My two warders were still deep in +clothes; I slipped off my chair and edged cautiously around the +room, exploring, examining, recording. + +Many strange, fine things lay along my route--pictures and +gimcracks on the walls, trinkets and globular old watches and +snuff-boxes on the tables; and I took good care to finger +everything within reach thoroughly and conscientiously. Some +articles, in addition, I smelt. At last in my orbit I happened +on an open door, half concealed by the folds of a curtain. I +glanced carefully around. They were still deep in clothes, both +talking together, and I slipped through. + +This was altogether a more sensible sort of room that I had got +into; for the walls were honestly upholstered with books, though +these for the most part glimmered provokingly through the glass +doors of their tall cases. I read their titles longingly, +breathing on every accessible pane of glass, for I dared not +attempt to open the doors, with the enemy encamped so near. In +the window, though, on a high sort of desk, there lay, all by +itself, a most promising-looking book, gorgeously bound. I +raised the leaves by one corner, and like scent from a pot-pourri +jar there floated out a brief vision of blues and reds, telling +of pictures, and pictures all highly coloured! Here was the +right sort of thing at last, and my afternoon would not be +entirely wasted. I inclined an ear to the door by which I had +entered. Like the brimming tide of a full-fed river the grand, +eternal, inexhaustible clothes-problem bubbled and eddied and +surged along. It seemed safe enough. I slid the book off its +desk with some difficulty, for it was very fine and large, and +staggered with it to the hearthrug--the only fit and proper place +for books of quality, such as this. + +They were excellent hearthrugs in that house; soft and wide, with +the thickest of pile, and one's knees sank into them most +comfortably. When I got the book open there was a difficulty at +first in making the great stiff pages lie down. Most +fortunately the coal-scuttle was actually at my elbow, and it was +easy to find a flat bit of coal to lay on the refractory page. +Really, it was just as if everything had been arranged for me. +This was not such a bad sort of house after all. + +The beginnings of the thing were gay borders--scrolls and strap- +work and diapered backgrounds, a maze of colour, with small +misshapen figures clambering cheerily up and down everywhere. +But first I eagerly scanned what text there was in the middle, in +order to get a hint of what it was all about. Of course I was +not going to waste any time in reading. A clue, a sign-board, a +finger-post was all I required. To my dismay and disgust it was +all in a stupid foreign language! Really, the perversity of some +people made one at times almost despair of the whole race. +However, the pictures remained; pictures never lied, never +shuffled nor evaded; and as for the story, I could invent it +myself. + +Over the page I went, shifting the bit of coal to a new position; +and, as the scheme of the picture disengaged itself from out the +medley of colour that met my delighted eyes, first there was a +warm sense of familiarity, then a dawning recognition, and then-- +O then! along with blissful certainty came the imperious need to +clasp my stomach with both hands, in order to repress the shout +of rapture that struggled to escape--it was my own little city! + +I knew it well enough, I recognized it at once, though I had +never been quite so near it before. Here was the familiar +gateway, to the left that strange, slender tower with its grim, +square head shot far above the walls; to the right, outside the +town, the hill--as of old--broke steeply down to the sea. +But to-day everything was bigger and fresher and clearer, the +walls seemed newly hewn, gay carpets were hung out over them, +fair ladies and long-haired children peeped and crowded on the +battlements. Better still, the portcullis was up--I could even +catch a glimpse of the sunlit square within--and a dainty company +was trooping through the gate on horseback, two and two. Their +horses, in trappings that swept the ground, were gay as +themselves; and THEY were the gayest crew, for dress and +bearing, I had ever yet beheld. It could mean nothing else but a +wedding, I thought, this holiday attire, this festal and solemn +entry; and, wedding or whatever it was, I meant to be there. +This time I would not be balked by any grim portcullis; this time +I would slip in with the rest of the crowd, find out just what my +little town was like, within those exasperating walls that +had so long confronted me, and, moreover, have my share of the +fun that was evidently going on inside. Confident, yet +breathless with expectation, I turned the page. + +Joy! At last I was in it, at last I was on the right side of +those provoking walls; and, needless to say, I looked about me +with much curiosity. A public place, clearly, though not such as +I was used to. The houses at the back stood on a sort of +colonnade, beneath which the people jostled and crowded. The +upper stories were all painted with wonderful pictures. Above +the straight line of the roofs the deep blue of a cloudless sky +stretched from side to side. Lords and ladies thronged the +foreground, while on a dais in the centre a gallant gentleman, +just alighted off his horse, stooped to the fingers of a girl as +bravely dressed out as Selina's lady between the saints; and +round about stood venerable personages, robed in the most +variegated clothing. There were boys, too, in plenty, with tiny +red caps on their thick hair; and their shirts had bunched up and +worked out at the waist, just as my own did so often, after +chasing anybody; and each boy of them wore an odd pair of +stockings, one blue and the other red. This system of attire +went straight to my heart. I had tried the same thing so often, +and had met with so much discouragement; and here, at last, was +my justification, painted deliberately in a grown-up book! I +looked about for my saint-friends--the armour man and the other +fellow--but they were not to be seen. Evidently they were unable +to get off duty, even for a wedding, and still stood on guard in +that green meadow down below. I was disappointed, too, that not +an angel was visible. One or two of them, surely, could easily +have been spared for an hour, to run up and see the show; +and they would have been thoroughly at home here, in the midst of +all the colour and the movement and the fun. + +But it was time to get on, for clearly the interest was only just +beginning. Over went the next page, and there we were, the whole +crowd of us, assembled in a noble church. It was not easy to +make out exactly what was going on; but in the throng I was +delighted to recognize my angels at last, happy and very much at +home. They had managed to get leave off, evidently, and must +have run up the hill and scampered breathlessly through the gate; +and perhaps they cried a little when they found the square empty, +and thought the fun must be all over. Two of them had got hold +of a great wax candle apiece, as much as they could stagger +under, and were tittering sideways at each other as the +grease ran bountifully over their clothes. A third had strolled +in among the company, and was chatting to a young gentleman, with +whom she appeared to be on the best of terms. Decidedly, this +was the right breed of angel for us. None of your sick-bed or +night nursery business for them! + +Well, no doubt they were now being married, He and She, just as +always happened. And then, of course, they were going to live +happily ever after; and THAT was the part I wanted to get to. +Story-books were so stupid, always stopping at the point where +they became really nice; but this picture-story was only in its +first chapters, and at last I was to have a chance of knowing +HOW people lived happily ever after. We would all go home +together, He and She, and the angels, and I; and the armour-man +would be invited to come and stay. And then the story would +really begin, at the point where those other ones always +left off. I turned the page, and found myself free of the dim +and splendid church and once more in the open country. + +This was all right; this was just as it should be. The sky was a +fleckless blue, the flags danced in the breeze, and our merry +bridal party, with jest and laughter, jogged down to the water- +side. I was through the town by this time, and out on the other +side of the hill, where I had always wanted to be; and, sure +enough, there was the harbour, all thick with curly ships. Most +of them were piled high with wedding-presents--bales of silk, and +gold and silver plate, and comfortable-looking bags suggesting +bullion; and the gayest ship of all lay close up to the carpeted +landing-stage. Already the bride was stepping daintily down the +gangway, her ladies following primly, one by one; a few minutes +more and we should all be aboard, the hawsers would splash +in the water, the sails would fill and strain. From the deck I +should see the little walled town recede and sink and grow dim, +while every plunge of our bows brought us nearer to the happy +island--it was an island we were bound for, I knew well! Already +I could see the island-people waving hands on the crowded quay, +whence the little houses ran up the hill to the castle, crowning +all with its towers and battlements. Once more we should ride +together, a merry procession, clattering up the steep street and +through the grim gateway; and then we should have arrived, then +we should all dine together, then we should have reached home! +And then-- + +OW! OW! OW! + +Bitter it is to stumble out of an opalescent dream into the cold +daylight; cruel to lose in a second a sea-voyage, an island, and +a castle that was to be practically your own; but cruellest +and bitterest of all to know, in addition to your loss, that the +fingers of an angry aunt have you tight by the scruff of your +neck. My beautiful book was gone too--ravished from my grasp by +the dressy lady, who joined in the outburst of denunciation as +heartily as if she had been a relative--and naught was left me +but to blubber dismally, awakened of a sudden to the harshness of +real things and the unnumbered hostilities of the actual world. +I cared little for their reproaches, their abuse; but I sorrowed +heartily for my lost ship, my vanished island, my uneaten dinner, +and for the knowledge that, if I wanted any angels to play with, +I must henceforth put up with the anaemic, night-gowned +nonentities that hovered over the bed of the Sunday-school child +in the pages of the Sabbath Improver. + +I was led ignominiously out of the house, in a pulpy, watery +state, while the butler handled his swing doors with a +stony, impassive countenance, intended for the deception of the +very elect, though it did not deceive me. I knew well enough +that next time he was off duty, and strolled around our way, we +should meet in our kitchen as man to man, and I would punch him +and ask him riddles, and he would teach me tricks with corks and +bits of string. So his unsympathetic manner did not add to my +depression. + +I maintained a diplomatic blubber long after we had been packed +into our pony-carriage and the lodge-gate had clicked behind us, +because it served as a sort of armour-plating against heckling +and argument and abuse, and I was thinking hard and wanted to be +let alone. And the thoughts that I was thinking were two. + +First I thought, "I've got ahead of Charlotte THIS time!" + +And next I thought, "When I've grown up big, and have money +of my own, and a full-sized walking-stick, I will set out early +one morning, and never stop till I get to that little walled +town." There ought to be no real difficulty in the task. It +only meant asking here and asking there, and people were very +obliging, and I could describe every stick and stone of it. + +As for the island which I had never even seen, that was not so +easy. Yet I felt confident that somehow, at some time, sooner or +later, I was destined to arrive. + + + +A SAGA OF THE SEAS + +It happened one day that some ladies came to call, who were not +at all the sort I was used to. They suffered from a grievance, +so far as I could gather, and the burden of their plaint was +Man--Men in general and Man in particular. (Though the words +were but spoken, I could clearly discern the capital M in their +acid utterance.) + +Of course I was not present officially, so to speak. Down below, +in my sub-world of chair-legs and hearthrugs and the undersides +of sofas, I was working out my own floor-problems, while they +babbled on far above my head, considering me as but a chair-leg, +or even something lower in the scale. Yet I was listening hard +all the time, with that respectful consideration one gives to +all grown-up people's remarks, so long as one knows no better. + +It seemed a serious indictment enough, as they rolled it out. In +tact, considerateness, and right appreciation, as well as in +taste and aesthetic sensibilities--we failed at every point, we +breeched and bearded prentice-jobs of Nature; and I began to feel +like collapsing on the carpet from sheer spiritual anaemia. But +when one of them, with a swing of her skirt, prostrated a whole +regiment of my brave tin soldiers, and never apologized nor even +offered her aid toward revivifying the battle-line, I could not +help feeling that in tactfulness and consideration for others she +was still a little to seek. And I said as much, with some +directness of language. + +That was the end of me, from a society point of view. Rudeness +to visitors was the unpardonable sin, and in two seconds I +had my marching orders, and was sullenly wending my way to the +St. Elelena of the nursery. As I climbed the stair, my thoughts +reverted somehow to a game we had been playing that very morning. + +It was the good old game of Rafts,--a game that will be played +till all the oceans are dry and all the trees in the world are +felled--and after. And we were all crowded together on the +precarious little platform, and Selina occupied every bit as much +room as I did, and Charlotte's legs didn't dangle over any more +than Harold's. The pitiless sun overhead beat on us all with +tropic impartiality, and the hungry sharks, whose fins scored the +limitless Pacific stretching out on every side, were impelled by +an appetite that made no exceptions as to sex. When we shared +the ultimate biscuit and circulated the last water-keg, the girls +got an absolute fourth apiece, and neither more nor less; and +the only partiality shown was entirely in favour of +Charlotte, who was allowed to perceive and to hail the saviour- +sail on the horizon. And this was only because it was her turn +to do so, not because she happened to be this or that. Surely, +the rules of the raft were the rules of life, and in what, then, +did these visitor-ladies' grievance consist? + +Puzzled and a little sulky, I pushed open the door of the +deserted nursery, where the raft that had rocked beneath so many +hopes and fears still occupied the ocean-floor. To the dull eye, +that merely tarries upon the outsides of things, it might have +appeared unromantic and even unraftlike, consisting only as it +did of a round sponge-bath on a bald deal towel-horse placed flat +on the floor. Even to myself much of the recent raft-glamour +seemed to have departed as I half-mechanically stepped inside and +curled myself up in it for a solitary voyage. Once I was +in, however, the old magic and mystery returned in full flood, +when I discovered that the inequalities of the towel-horse caused +the bath to rock, slightly, indeed, but easily and incessantly. +A few minutes of this delightful motion, and one was fairly +launched. So those women below didn't want us? Well, there were +other women, and other places, that did. And this was going to +be no scrambling raft-affair, but a full-blooded voyage of the +Man, equipped and purposeful, in search of what was his rightful +own. + +Whither should I shape my course, and what sort of vessel should +I charter for the voyage? The shipping of all England was mine +to pick from, and the far corners of the globe were my rightful +inheritance. A frigate, of course, seemed the natural vehicle +for a boy of spirit to set out in. And yet there was something +rather "uppish" in commanding a frigate at the very first +set-off, and little spread was left for the ambition. Frigates, +too, could always be acquired later by sheer adventure; and your +real hero generally saved up a square-rigged ship for the final +achievement and the rapt return. No, it was a schooner that I +was aboard of--a schooner whose masts raked devilishly as the +leaping seas hissed along her low black gunwale. Many +hairbrained youths started out on a mere cutter; but I was +prudent, and besides I had some inkling of the serious affairs +that were ahead. + +I have said I was already on board; and, indeed, on this occasion +I was too hungry for adventure to linger over what would have +been a special delight at a period of more leisure--the dangling +about the harbour, the choosing your craft, selecting your +shipmates, stowing your cargo, and fitting up your private cabin +with everything you might want to put your hand on in any +emergency whatever. I could not wait for that. Out beyond +soundings the big seas were racing westward and calling me, +albatrosses hovered motionless, expectant of a comrade, and a +thousand islands held each of them a fresh adventure, stored up, +hidden away, awaiting production, expressly saved for me. We +were humming, close-hauled, down the Channel, spray in the eyes +and the shrouds thrilling musically, in much less time than the +average man would have taken to transfer his Gladstone bag and +his rugs from the train to a sheltered place on the promenade- +deck of the tame daily steamer. + +So long as we were in pilotage I stuck manfully to the wheel. +The undertaking was mine, and with it all its responsibilities, +and there was some tricky steering to be done as we sped by +headland and bay, ere we breasted the great seas outside and +the land fell away behind us. But as soon as the Atlantic +had opened out I began to feel that it would be rather nice to +take tea by myself in my own cabin, and it therefore became +necessary to invent a comrade or two, to take their turn at the +wheel. + +This was easy enough. A friend or two of my own age, from among +the boys I knew; a friend or two from characters in the books I +knew; and a friend or two from No-man's-land, where every +fellow's a born sailor; and the crew was complete. I addressed +them on the poop, divided them into watches, gave instructions I +should be summoned on the first sign of pirates, whales, or +Frenchmen, and retired below to a well-earned spell of +relaxation. + +That was the right sort of cabin that I stepped into, shutting +the door behind me with a click. Of course, fire-arms were the +first thing I looked for, and there they were, sure enough, +in their racks, dozens of 'em--double-barrelled guns, and +repeating-rifles, and long pistols, and shiny plated revolvers. +I rang up the steward and ordered tea, with scones, and jam in +its native pots--none of your finicking shallow glass dishes; +and, when properly streaked with jam, and blown out with tea, I +went through the armoury, clicked the rifles and revolvers, +tested the edges of the cutlasses with my thumb, and filled the +cartridge-belts chock-full. Everything was there, and of the +best quality, just as if I had spent a whole fortnight knocking +about Plymouth and ordering things. Clearly, if this cruise came +to grief, it would not be for want of equipment. + +Just as I was beginning on the lockers and the drawers, the watch +reported icebergs on both bows--and, what was more to the point, +coveys of Polar bears on the icebergs. I grasped a rifle or two, +and hastened on deck. The spectacle was indeed +magnificent--it generally is, with icebergs on both bows, and +these were exceptionally enormous icebergs. But I hadn't come +there to paint Academy pictures, so the captain's gig was in the +water and manned almost ere the boatswain's whistle had ceased +sounding, and we were pulling hard for the Polar bears--myself +and the rifles in the stern-sheets. + +I have rarely enjoyed better shooting than I got during that +afternoon's tramp over the icebergs. Perhaps I was in specially +good form; perhaps the bears "rose" well. Anyhow, the bag was a +portentous one. In later days, on reading of the growing +scarcity of Polar bears, my conscience has pricked me; but that +afternoon I experienced no compunction. Nevertheless, when the +huge pile of skins had been hoisted on board, and a stiff grog +had been served out to the crew of the captain's gig, I +ordered the schooner's head to be set due south. For icebergs +were played out, for the moment, and it was getting to be time +for something more tropical. + +Tropical was a mild expression of what was to come, as was +shortly proved. It was about three bells in the next day's +forenoon watch when the look-out man first sighted the pirate +brigantine. I disliked the looks of her from the first, and, +after piping all hands to quarters, had the brass carronade on +the fore-deck crammed with grape to the muzzle. + +This proved a wise precaution. For the flagitious pirate craft, +having crept up to us under the colours of the Swiss Republic, a +state with which we were just then on the best possible terms, +suddenly shook out the skull-and-cross-bones at her masthead, and +let fly with round-shot at close quarters, knocking into pieces +several of my crew, who could ill be spared. The sight of +their disconnected limbs aroused my ire to its utmost height, and +I let them have the contents of the brass carronade, with ghastly +effect. Next moment the hulls of the two ships were grinding +together, the cold steel flashed from its scabbard, and the +death-grapple had begun. + +In spite of the deadly work of my grape-gorged carronade, our foe +still outnumbered us, I reckoned, by three to one. Honour +forbade my fixing it at a lower figure--this was the minimum rate +at which one dared to do business with pirates. They were stark +veterans, too, every man seamed with ancient sabre-cuts, whereas +my crew had many of them hardly attained the maturity which is +the gift of ten long summers--and the whole thing was so sudden +that I had no time to invent a reinforcement of riper years. It +was not surprising, therefore, that my dauntless boarding- +party, axe in hand and cutlass between teeth, fought their way to +the pirates' deck only to be repulsed again and yet again, and +that our planks were soon slippery with our own ungrudged and +inexhaustible blood. At this critical point in the conflict, the +bo'sun, grasping me by the arm, drew my attention to a +magnificent British man-of-war, just hove to in the offing, while +the signalman, his glass at his eye, reported that she was +inquiring whether we wanted any assistance or preferred to go +through with the little job ourselves. + +This veiled attempt to share our laurels with us, courteously as +it was worded, put me on my mettle. Wiping the blood out of my +eyes, I ordered the signalman to reply instantly, with the half- +dozen or so of flags that he had at his disposal, that much as we +appreciated the valour of the regular service, and the delicacy +of spirit that animated its commanders, still this was an +orthodox case of the young gentleman-adventurer versus the +unshaved pirate, and Her Majesty's Marine had nothing to do but +to form the usual admiring and applauding background. Then, +rallying round me the remnant of my faithful crew, I selected a +fresh cutlass (I had worn out three already) and plunged once +more into the pleasing carnage. + +The result was not long doubtful. Indeed, I could not allow it +to be, as I was already getting somewhat bored with the pirate +business, and was wanting to get on to something more southern +and sensuous. All serious resistance came to an end as soon as I +had reached the quarter-deck and cut down the pirate chief--a +fine black-bearded fellow in his way, but hardly up to date in +his parry-and-thrust business. Those whom our cutlasses had +spared were marched out along their own plank, in the +approved old fashion; and in time the scuppers relieved the decks +of the blood that made traffic temporarily impossible. And all +the time the British-man-of-war admired and applauded in the +offing. + +As soon as we had got through with the necessary throat-cutting +and swabbing-up all hands set to work to discover treasure; and +soon the deck shone bravely with ingots and Mexican dollars and +church plate. There were ropes of pearls, too, and big stacks of +nougat; and rubies, and gold watches, and Turkish Delight in +tubs. But I left these trifles to my crew, and continued the +search alone. For by this time I had determined that there +should be a Princess on board, carried off to be sold in +captivity to the bold bad Moors, and now with beating heart +awaiting her rescue by me, the Perseus of her dreams. + +I came upon her at last in the big state-cabin in the stern; and +she wore a holland pinafore over her Princess-clothes, and +she had brown wavy hair, hanging down her back, just like--well, +never mind, she had brown wavy hair. When gentle-folk meet, +courtesies pass; and I will not weary other people with relating +all the compliments and counter-compliments that we exchanged, +all in the most approved manner. Occasions like this, when +tongues wagged smoothly and speech flowed free, were always +especially pleasing to me, who am naturally inclined to be +tongue-tied with women. But at last ceremony was over, and we +sat on the table and swung our legs and agreed to be fast +friends. And I showed her my latest knife--one-bladed, horn- +handled, terrific, hung round my neck with string; and she showed +me the chiefest treasures the ship contained, hidden away in a +most private and particular locker--a musical box with a glass +top that let you see the works, and a railway train with +real lines and a real tunnel, and a tin iron-clad that followed a +magnet, and was ever so much handier in many respects than the +real full-sized thing that still lay and applauded in the offing. + +There was high feasting that night in my cabin. We invited the +captain of the man-of-war--one could hardly do less, it seemed to +me--and the Princess took one end of the table and I took the +other, and the captain was very kind and nice, and told us fairy- +stories, and asked us both to come and stay with him next +Christmas, and promised we should have some hunting, on real +ponies. When he left I gave him some ingots and things, and saw +him into his boat; and then I went round the ship and addressed +the crew in several set speeches, which moved them deeply, and +with my own hands loaded up the carronade with grape-shot till it +ran over at the mouth. This done, I retired into the cabin +with the Princess, and locked the door. And first we started the +musical box, taking turns to wind it up; and then we made toffee +in the cabin-stove; and then we ran the train round and round the +room, and through and through the tunnel; and lastly we swam the +tin ironclad in the bath, with the soap-dish for a pirate. + +Next morning the air was rich with spices, porpoises rolled and +gambolled round the bows, and the South Sea Islands lay full in +view (they were the REAL South Sea Islands, of course--not the +badly furnished journeymen-islands that are to be perceived on +the map). As for the pirate brigantine and the man-of-war, I +don't really know what became of them. They had played their +part very well, for the time, but I wasn't going to bother to +account for them, so I just let them evaporate quietly. The +islands provided plenty of fresh occupation. For here were +little bays of silvery sand, dotted with land-crabs; groves +of palm-trees wherein monkeys frisked and pelted each other with +cocoanuts; and caves, and sites for stockades, and hidden +treasures significantly indicated by skulls, in riotous plenty; +while birds and beasts of every colour and all latitudes made +pleasing noises which excited the sporting instinct. + +The islands lay conveniently close together, which necessitated +careful steering as we threaded the devious and intricate +channels that separated them. Of course no one else could be +trusted at the wheel, so it is not surprising that for some time +I quite forgot that there was such a thing as a Princess on +board. This is too much the masculine way, whenever there's any +real business doing. However, I remembered her as soon as the +anchor was dropped, and I went below and consoled her, and we had +breakfast together, and she was allowed to "pour out," which +quite made up for everything. When breakfast was over we ordered +out the captain's gig, and rowed all about the islands, and +paddled, and explored, and hunted bisons and beetles and +butterflies, and found everything we wanted. And I gave her pink +shells and tortoises and great milky pearls and little green +lizards; and she gave me guinea-pigs, and coral to make into +waistcoat-buttons, and tame sea-otters, and a real pirate's +powder-horn. It was a prolific day and a long-lasting one, and +weary were we with all our hunting and our getting and our +gathering, when at last we clambered into the captain's gig and +rowed back to a late tea. + +The following day my conscience rose up and accused me. This was +not what I had come out to do. These triflings with pearls and +parrakeets, these al fresco luncheons off yams and bananas-- +there was no "making of history" about them, I resolved that +without further dallying I would turn to and capture the French +frigate, according to the original programme. So we upped anchor +with the morning tide, and set all sail for San Salvador. + +Of course I had no idea where San Salvador really was. I haven't +now, for that matter. But it seemed a right-sounding sort of +name for a place that was to have a bay that was to hold a French +frigate that was to be cut out; so, as I said, we sailed for San +Salvador, and made the bay about eight bells that evening, and +saw the topmasts of the frigate over the headland that sheltered +her. And forthwith there was summoned a Council of War. + +It is a very serious matter, a Council of War. We had not held +one hitherto, pirates and truck of that sort not calling for such +solemn treatment. But in an affair that might almost be +called international, it seemed well to proceed gravely and by +regular steps. So we met in my cabin--the Princess, and the +bo'sun, and a boy from the real-life lot, and a man from among +the book-men, and a fellow from No-man's-land, and myself in the +chair. + +The bo'sun had taken part in so many cuttings-out during his past +career that practically he did all the talking, and was the +Council of War himself. It was to be an affair of boats, he +explained. A boat's-crew would be told off to cut the cables, +and two boats'-crews to climb stealthily on board and overpower +the sleeping Frenchmen, and two more boats' crews to haul the +doomed vessel out of the bay. This made rather a demand on my +limited resources as to crews; but I was prepared to stretch a +point in a case like this, and I speedily brought my numbers up +to the requisite efficiency. + +The night was both moonless and star-less--I had arranged all +that--when the boats pushed off from the side of our vessel, and +made their way toward the ship that, unfortunately for itself, +had been singled out by Fate to carry me home in triumph. I was +in excellent spirits, and, indeed, as I stepped over the side, a +lawless idea crossed my mind, of discovering another Princess on +board the frigate--a French one this time; I had heard that that +sort was rather nice. But I abandoned the notion at once, +recollecting that the heroes of all history had always been noted +for their unswerving constancy. + +The French captain was snug in bed when I clambered in through +his cabin window and held a naked cutlass to his throat. +Naturally he was surprised and considerably alarmed, till I +discharged one of my set speeches at him, pointing out that my +men already had his crew under hatchways, that his vessel +was even then being towed out of harbour, and that, on his +accepting the situation with a good grace, his person and private +property would be treated with all the respect due to the +representative of a great nation for which I entertained feelings +of the profoundest admiration and regard and all that sort of +thing. It was a beautiful speech. The Frenchman at once +presented me with his parole, in the usual way, and, in a reply +of some power and pathos, only begged that I would retire a +moment while he put on his trousers. This I gracefully consented +to do, and the incident ended. + +Two of my boats were sunk by the fire from the forts on the +shore, and several brave fellows were severely wounded in the +hand-to-hand struggle with the French crew for the possession of +the frigate. But the bo'sun's admirable strategy, and my +own reckless gallantry in securing the French captain at the +outset, had the fortunate result of keeping down the death-rate. +It was all for the sake of the Princess that I had arranged so +comparatively tame a victory. For myself, I rather liked a fair +amount of blood-letting, red-hot shot, and flying splinters. But +when you have girls about the place, they have got to be +considered to a certain extent. + +There was another supper-party that night, in my cabin, as soon +as we had got well out to sea; and the French captain, who was +the guest of the evening, was in the greatest possible form. We +became sworn friends, and exchanged invitations to come and stay +at each other's homes, and really it was quite difficult to +induce him to take his leave. But at last he and his crew were +bundled into their boats; and after I had pressed some pirate +bullion upon them--delicately, of course, but in a pleasant +manner that admitted of no denial--the gallant fellows quite +broke down, and we parted, our bosoms heaving with a full sense +of each other's magnanimity and good-fellowship. + +The next day, which was nearly all taken up with shifting our +quarters into the new frigate, so honourably and easily acquired, +was a very pleasant one, as everyone who has gone up in the world +and moved into a larger house will readily understand. At last I +had grim, black guns all along each side, instead of a rotten +brass carronade; at last I had a square-rigged ship, with real +yards, and a proper quarter-deck. In fact, now that I had soared +as high as could be hoped in a single voyage, it seemed about +time to go home and cut a dash and show off a bit. The worst of +this ocean-theatre was, it held no proper audience. It was +hard, of course, to relinquish all the adventures that still lay +untouched in these Southern seas. Whaling, for instance, had not +yet been entered upon; the joys of exploration, and strange +inland cities innocent of the white man, still awaited me; and +the book of wrecks and rescues was not yet even opened. But I +had achieved a frigate and a Princess, and that was not so bad +for a beginning, and more than enough to show off with before +those dull unadventurous folk who continued on their mill-horse +round at home. + +The voyage home was a record one, so far as mere speed was +concerned, and all adventures were scornfully left behind, as we +rattled along, for other adventurers who had still their laurels +to win. Hardly later than the noon of next day we dropped anchor +in Plymouth Sound, and heard the intoxicating clamour of bells, +the roar of artillery, and the hoarse cheers of an excited +populace surging down to the quays, that told us we were being +appreciated at something like our true merits. The Lord Mayor +was waiting there to receive us, and with him several Admirals of +the Fleet, as we walked down the lane of pushing, enthusiastic +Devonians, the Princess and I, and our war-worn, weather-beaten, +spoil-laden crew. Everybody was very nice about the French +frigate, and the pirate booty, and the scars still fresh on our +young limbs; yet I think what I liked best of all was, that they +all pronounced the Princess to be a duck, and a peerless, brown- +haired darling, and a true mate for a hero, and of the right +Princess-breed. + +The air was thick with invitations and with the smell of civic +banquets in a forward stage; but I sternly waved all festivities +aside. The coaches-and-four I had ordered immediately on +arriving were blocking the whole of the High Street; the +champing of bits and the pawing of gravel summoned us to take our +seats and be off, to where the real performance awaited us, +compared with which all this was but an interlude. I placed the +Princess in the most highly gilded coach of the lot, and mounted +to my place at her side; and the rest of the crew scrambled on +board of the others as best they might. The whips cracked and +the crowd scattered and cheered as we broke into a gallop for +home. The noisy bells burst into a farewell peal-- + +Yes, that was undoubtedly the usual bell for school-room tea. +And high time too, I thought, as I tumbled out of the bath, which +was beginning to feel very hard to the projecting portions of my +frame-work. As I trotted downstairs, hungrier even than usual, +farewells floated up from the front door, and I heard the +departing voices of our angular elderly visitors as they made +their way down the walk. Man was still catching it, apparently-- +Man was getting it hot. And much Man cared! The seas were his, +and their islands; he had his frigates for the taking, his +pirates and their hoards for an unregarded cutlass-stroke or two; +and there were Princesses in plenty waiting for him somewhere-- +Princesses of the right sort. + + + +THE RELUCTANT DRAGON + +Footprints in the snow have been unfailing provokers of sentiment +ever since snow was first a white wonder in this drab-coloured +world of ours. In a poetry-book presented to one of us by an +aunt, there was a poem by one Wordsworth in which they stood out +strongly--with a picture all to themselves, too--but we didn't +think very highly either of the poem or the sentiment. +Footprints in the sand, now, were quite another matter, and we +grasped Crusoe's attitude of mind much more easily than +Wordsworth's. Excitement and mystery, curiosity and suspense-- +these were the only sentiments that tracks, whether in sand or in +snow, were able to arouse in us. + +We had awakened early that winter morning, puzzled at first by +the added light that filled the room. Then, when the truth at +last fully dawned on us and we knew that snow-balling was no +longer a wistful dream, but a solid certainty waiting for us +outside, it was a mere brute fight for the necessary clothes, and +the lacing of boots seemed a clumsy invention, and the buttoning +of coats an unduly tedious form of fastening, with all that snow +going to waste at our very door. + +When dinner-time came we had to be dragged in by the scruff of +our necks. The short armistice over, the combat was resumed; but +presently Charlotte and I, a little weary of contests and of +missiles that ran shudderingly down inside one's clothes, forsook +the trampled battle-field of the lawn and went exploring the +blank virgin spaces of the white world that lay beyond. It +stretched away unbroken on every side of us, this mysterious +soft garment under which our familiar world had so suddenly +hidden itself. Faint imprints showed where a casual bird had +alighted, but of other traffic there was next to no sign; which +made these strange tracks all the more puzzling. + +We came across them first at the corner of the shrubbery, and +pored over them long, our hands on our knees. Experienced +trappers that we knew ourselves to be, it was annoying to be +brought up suddenly by a beast we could not at once identify. + +"Don't you know?" said Charlotte, rather scornfully. "Thought +you knew all the beasts that ever was." + +This put me on my mettle, and I hastily rattled off a string of +animal names embracing both the arctic and the tropic zones, but +without much real confidence. + +"No," said Charlotte, on consideration; "they won't any of +'em quite do. Seems like something LIZARDY. Did you say a +iguanodon? Might be that, p'raps. But that's not British, and +we want a real British beast. _I_ think it's a dragon!" + +"'T isn't half big enough," I objected. + +"Well, all dragons must be small to begin with," said Charlotte: +"like everything else. P'raps this is a little dragon who's got +lost. A little dragon would be rather nice to have. He might +scratch and spit, but he couldn't DO anything really. Let's +track him down!" + +So we set off into the wide snow-clad world, hand in hand, our +hearts big with expectation,--complacently confident that by a +few smudgy traces in the snow we were in a fair way to capture a +half-grown specimen of a fabulous beast. + +We ran the monster across the paddock and along the hedge of the +next field, and then he took to the road like any tame +civilized tax-payer. Here his tracks became blended with +and lost among more ordinary footprints, but imagination and a +fixed idea will do a great deal, and we were sure we knew the +direction a dragon would naturally take. The traces, too, kept +reappearing at intervals--at least Charlotte maintained they did, +and as it was HER dragon I left the following of the slot to +her and trotted along peacefully, feeling that it was an +expedition anyhow and something was sure to come out of it. + +Charlotte took me across another field or two, and through a +copse, and into a fresh road; and I began to feel sure it was +only her confounded pride that made her go on pretending to see +dragon-tracks instead of owning she was entirely at fault, like a +reasonable person. At last she dragged me excitedly through a +gap in a hedge of an obviously private character; the waste, open +world of field and hedge-row disappeared, and we found +ourselves in a garden, well-kept, secluded, most un-dragon- +haunted in appearance. Once inside, I knew where we were. This +was the garden of my friend the circus-man, though I had never +approached it before by a lawless gap, from this unfamiliar side. + +And here was the circus-man himself, placidly smoking a pipe as +he strolled up and down the walks. I stepped up to him and asked +him politely if he had lately seen a Beast. + +"May I inquire," he said, with all civility, "what particular +sort of a Beast you may happen to be looking for?" + +"It's a LIZARDY sort of Beast," I explained. "Charlotte says +it's a dragon, but she doesn't really know much about beasts." + +The circus-man looked round about him slowly. "I don't +THINK," he said, "that I've seen a dragon in these parts +recently. But if I come across one I'll know it belongs to +you, and I'll have him taken round to you at once." + +"Thank you very much," said Charlotte, "but don't TROUBLE +about it, please, 'cos p'raps it isn't a dragon after all. Only +I thought I saw his little footprints in the snow, and we +followed 'em up, and they seemed to lead right in here, but maybe +it's all a mistake, and thank you all the same." + +"Oh, no trouble at all," said the circus-man, cheerfully. "I +should be only too pleased. But of course, as you say, it MAY +be a mistake. And it's getting dark, and he seems to have got +away for the present, whatever he is. You'd better come in and +have some tea. I'm quite alone, and we'll make a roaring fire, +and I've got the biggest Book of Beasts you ever saw. It's got +every beast in the world, and all of 'em coloured; and we'll try +and find YOUR beast in it!" + +We were always ready for tea at any time, and especially when +combined with beasts. There was marmalade, too, and apricot-jam, +brought in expressly for us; and afterwards the beast-book was +spread out, and, as the man had truly said, it contained every +sort of beast that had ever been in the world. + +The striking of six o'clock set the more prudent Charlotte +nudging me, and we recalled ourselves with an effort from Beast- +land, and reluctantly stood up to go. + +"Here, I'm coming along with you," said the circus-man. "I want +another pipe, and a walk'll do me good. You needn't talk to me +unless you like." + +Our spirits rose to their wonted level again. The way had seemed +so long, the outside world so dark and eerie, after the bright +warm room and the highly-coloured beast-book. But a walk with a +real Man--why, that was a treat in itself! We set off +briskly, the Man in the middle. I looked up at him and wondered +whether I should ever live to smoke a big pipe with that careless +sort of majesty! But Charlotte, whose young mind was not set on +tobacco as a possible goal, made herself heard from the other +side. + +"Now, then," she said, "tell us a story, please, won't you?" + +The Man sighed heavily and looked about him. "I knew it," he +groaned. "I KNEW I should have to tell a story. Oh, why did +I leave my pleasant fireside? Well, I WILL tell you a story. +Only let me think a minute." + +So he thought a minute, and then he told us this story. + + +Long ago--might have been hundreds of years ago--in a cottage +half-way between this village and yonder shoulder of the Downs up +there, a shepherd lived with his wife and their little son. +Now the shepherd spent his days--and at certain times of the year +his nights too--up on the wide ocean-bosom of the Downs, with +only the sun and the stars and the sheep for company, and the +friendly chattering world of men and women far out of sight and +hearing. But his little son, when he wasn't helping his father, +and often when he was as well, spent much of his time buried in +big volumes that he borrowed from the affable gentry and +interested parsons of the country round about. And his parents +were very fond of him, and rather proud of him too, though they +didn't let on in his hearing, so he was left to go his own way +and read as much as he liked; and instead of frequently getting a +cuff on the side of the head, as might very well have happened to +him, he was treated more or less as an equal by his parents, who +sensibly thought it a very fair division of labour that they +should supply the practical knowledge, and he the book-learning. +They knew that book-learning often came in useful at a pinch, in +spite of what their neighbours said. What the Boy chiefly +dabbled in was natural history and fairy-tales, and he just took +them as they came, in a sandwichy sort of way, without making any +distinctions; and really his course of reading strikes one as +rather sensible. + +One evening the shepherd, who for some nights past had been +disturbed and preoccupied, and off his usual mental balance, came +home all of a tremble, and, sitting down at the table where his +wife and son were peacefully employed, she with her seam, he in +following out the adventures of the Giant with no Heart in his +Body, exclaimed with much agitation: + +"It's all up with me, Maria! Never no more can I go up on them +there Downs, was it ever so!" + +"Now don't you take on like that," said his wife, who was a +VERY sensible woman: "but tell us all about it first, whatever +it is as has given you this shake-up, and then me and you and the +son here, between us, we ought to be able to get to the bottom of +it!" + +"It began some nights ago," said the shepherd. "You know that +cave up there--I never liked it, somehow, and the sheep never +liked it neither, and when sheep don't like a thing there's +generally some reason for it. Well, for some time past there's +been faint noises coming from that cave--noises like heavy +sighings, with grunts mixed up in them; and sometimes a snoring, +far away down--REAL snoring, yet somehow not HONEST +snoring, like you and me o'nights, you know!" + +"_I_ know," remarked the Boy, quietly. + +"Of course I was terrible frightened," the shepherd went on; "yet +somehow I couldn't keep away. So this very evening, before +I come down, I took a cast round by the cave, quietly. And +there--O Lord! there I saw him at last, as plain as I see you!" + +"Saw WHO?" said his wife, beginning to share in her husband's +nervous terror. + +"Why HIM, I'm a telling you!" said the shepherd. "He was +sticking half-way out of the cave, and seemed to be enjoying of +the cool of the evening in a poetical sort of way. He was as big +as four cart-horses, and all covered with shiny scales--deep-blue +scales at the top of him, shading off to a tender sort o' green +below. As he breathed, there was that sort of flicker over his +nostrils that you see over our chalk roads on a baking windless +day in summer. He had his chin on his paws, and I should say he +was meditating about things. Oh, yes, a peaceable sort o' beast +enough, and not ramping or carrying on or doing anything +but what was quite right and proper. I admit all that. And yet, +what am I to do? SCALES, you know, and claws, and a tail for +certain, though I didn't see that end of him--I ain't USED to +'em, and I don't HOLD with 'em, and that's a fact!" + +The Boy, who had apparently been absorbed in his book during his +father's recital, now closed the volume, yawned, clasped his +hands behind his head, and said sleepily: + +"It's all right, father. Don't you worry. It's only a dragon." + +"Only a dragon?" cried his father. "What do you mean, sitting +there, you and your dragons? ONLY a dragon indeed! And what +do YOU know about it?" + +"'Cos it IS, and 'cos I DO know," replied the Boy, quietly. +"Look here, father, you know we've each of us got our line. +YOU know about sheep, and weather, and things; _I_ know +about dragons. I always said, you know, that that cave up there +was a dragon-cave. I always said it must have belonged to a +dragon some time, and ought to belong to a dragon now, if rules +count for anything. Well, now you tell me it HAS got a +dragon, and so THAT'S all right. I'm not half as much +surprised as when you told me it HADN'T got a dragon. Rules +always come right if you wait quietly. Now, please, just leave +this all to me. And I'll stroll up to-morrow morning--no, in the +morning I can't, I've got a whole heap of things to do--well, +perhaps in the evening, if I'm quite free, I'll go up and have a +talk to him, and you'll find it'll be all right. Only, please, +don't you go worrying round there without me. You don't +understand 'em a bit, and they're very sensitive, you know!" + +"He's quite right, father," said the sensible mother. "As +he says, dragons is his line and not ours. He's wonderful +knowing about book-beasts, as every one allows. And to tell the +truth, I'm not half happy in my own mind, thinking of that poor +animal lying alone up there, without a bit o' hot supper or +anyone to change the news with; and maybe we'll be able to do +something for him; and if he ain't quite respectable our Boy'll +find it out quick enough. He's got a pleasant sort o' way with +him that makes everybody tell him everything." + +Next day, after he'd had his tea, the Boy strolled up the chalky +track that led to the summit of the Downs; and there, sure +enough, he found the dragon, stretched lazily on the sward in +front of his cave. The view from that point was a magnificent +one. To the right and left, the bare and billowy leagues of +Downs; in front, the vale, with its clustered homesteads, +its threads of white roads running through orchards and well- +tilled acreage, and, far away, a hint of grey old cities on the +horizon. A cool breeze played over the surface of the grass and +the silver shoulder of a large moon was showing above distant +junipers. No wonder the dragon seemed in a peaceful and +contented mood; indeed, as the Boy approached he could hear the +beast purring with a happy regularity. "Well, we live and +learn!" he said to himself. "None of my books ever told me that +dragons purred!" + +"Hullo, dragon!" said the Boy, quietly, when he had got up to +him. + +The dragon, on hearing the approaching footsteps, made the +beginning of a courteous effort to rise. But when he saw it was +a Boy, he set his eyebrows severely. + +"Now don't you hit me," he said; "or bung stones, or squirt +water, or anything. I won't have it, I tell you!" + +"Not goin' to hit you," said the Boy wearily, dropping on the +grass beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on +saying `Don't;' I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and +makes me tired. I've simply looked in to ask you how you were +and all that sort of thing; but if I'm in the way I can easily +clear out. I've lots of friends, and no one can say I'm in the +habit of shoving myself in where I'm not wanted!" + +"No, no, don't go off in a huff," said the dragon, hastily; "fact +is,--I'm as happy up here as the day's long; never without an +occupation, dear fellow, never without an occupation! And yet, +between ourselves, it IS a trifle dull at times." + +The Boy bit off a stalk of grass and chewed it. "Going to make a +long stay here?" he asked, politely. + +"Can't hardly say at present," replied the dragon. "It seems a +nice place enough--but I've only been here a short time, and one +must look about and reflect and consider before settling down. +It's rather a serious thing, settling down. Besides--now I'm +going to tell you something! You'd never guess it if you tried +ever so!--fact is, I'm such a confoundedly lazy beggar!" + +"You surprise me," said the Boy, civilly. + +"It's the sad truth," the dragon went on, settling down between +his paws and evidently delighted to have found a listener at +last: "and I fancy that's really how I came to be here. You see +all the other fellows were so active and EARNEST and all that +sort of thing--always rampaging, and skirmishing, and scouring +the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the sea, and chasing +knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and going +on generally--whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then to +prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up +and think of things going on and how they kept going on just the +same, you know! So when it happened I got fairly caught." + +"When WHAT happened, please?" asked the Boy. + +"That's just what I don't precisely know," said the dragon. "I +suppose the earth sneezed, or shook itself, or the bottom dropped +out of something. Anyhow there was a shake and a roar and a +general stramash, and I found myself miles away underground and +wedged in as tight as tight. Well, thank goodness, my wants are +few, and at any rate I had peace and quietness and wasn't always +being asked to come along and DO something. And I've got such +an active mind--always occupied, I assure you! But time went +on, and there was a certain sameness about the life, and at +last I began to think it would be fun to work my way upstairs and +see what you other fellows were doing. So I scratched and +burrowed, and worked this way and that way and at last I came out +through this cave here. And I like the country, and the view, +and the people--what I've seen of 'em--and on the whole I feel +inclined to settle down here." + +"What's your mind always occupied about?" asked the Boy. "That's +what I want to know." + +The dragon coloured slightly and looked away. Presently he said +bashfully: + +"Did you ever--just for fun--try to make up poetry--verses, you +know?" + +"'Course I have," said the Boy. "Heaps of it. And some of it's +quite good, I feel sure, only there's no one here cares about it. + +Mother's very kind and all that, when I read it to her, and so's +father for that matter. But somehow they don't seem to--" + +"Exactly," cried the dragon; "my own case exactly. They don't +seem to, and you can't argue with 'em about it. Now you've got +culture, you have, I could tell it on you at once, and I should +just like your candid opinion about some little things I threw +off lightly, when I was down there. I'm awfully pleased to have +met you, and I'm hoping the other neighbours will be equally +agreeable. There was a very nice old gentleman up here only last +night, but he didn't seem to want to intrude." + +"That was my father," said the boy, "and he IS a nice old +gentleman, and I'll introduce you some day if you like." + +"Can't you two come up here and dine or something to-morrow?" +asked the dragon eagerly. "Only, of course, if you've got +nothing better to do," he added politely. + +"Thanks awfully," said the Boy, "but we don't go out anywhere +without my mother, and, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid she +mightn't quite approve of you. You see there's no getting over +the hard fact that you're a dragon, is there? And when you talk +of settling down, and the neighbours, and so on, I can't help +feeling that you don't quite realize your position. You're an +enemy of the human race, you see!" + +"Haven't got an enemy in the world," said the dragon, cheerfully. + +Too lazy to make 'em, to begin with. And if I DO read other +fellows my poetry, I'm always ready to listen to theirs!" + +"Oh, dear!" cried the boy, "I wish you'd try and grasp the +situation properly. When the other people find you out, they'll +come after you with spears and swords and all sorts of things. +You'll have to be exterminated, according to their way of +looking at it! You're a scourge, and a pest, and a baneful +monster!" + +"Not a word of truth in it," said the dragon, wagging his head +solemnly. "Character'll bear the strictest investigation. And +now, there's a little sonnet-thing I was working on when you +appeared on the scene--" + +"Oh, if you WON'T be sensible," cried the Boy, getting up, +"I'm going off home. No, I can't stop for sonnets; my mother's +sitting up. I'll look you up to-morrow, sometime or other, and +do for goodness' sake try and realize that you're a pestilential +scourge, or you'll find yourself in a most awful fix. Good- +night!" + +The Boy found it an easy matter to set the mind of his parents' +at ease about his new friend. They had always left that branch +to him, and they took his word without a murmur. The shepherd +was formally introduced and many compliments and kind +inquiries were exchanged. His wife, however, though expressing +her willingness to do anything she could--to mend things, or set +the cave to rights, or cook a little something when the dragon +had been poring over sonnets and forgotten his meals, as male +things WILL do, could not be brought to recognize him +formally. The fact that he was a dragon and "they didn't know +who he was" seemed to count for everything with her. She made no +objection, however, to her little son spending his evenings with +the dragon quietly, so long as he was home by nine o'clock: and +many a pleasant night they had, sitting on the sward, while the +dragon told stories of old, old times, when dragons were quite +plentiful and the world was a livelier place than it is now, and +life was full of thrills and jumps and surprises. + +What the Boy had feared, however, soon came to pass. The most +modest and retiring dragon in the world, if he's as big +as four cart-horses and covered with blue scales, cannot keep +altogether out of the public view. And so in the village tavern +of nights the fact that a real live dragon sat brooding in the +cave on the Downs was naturally a subject for talk. Though the +villagers were extremely frightened, they were rather proud as +well. It was a distinction to have a dragon of your own, and it +was felt to be a feather in the cap of the village. Still, all +were agreed that this sort of thing couldn't be allowed to go on. + +The dreadful beast must be exterminated, the country-side must be +freed from this pest, this terror, this destroying scourge. The +fact that not even a hen roost was the worse for the dragon's +arrival wasn't allowed to have anything to do with it. He was a +dragon, and he couldn't deny it, and if he didn't choose to +behave as such that was his own lookout. But in spite of +much valiant talk no hero was found willing to take sword and +spear and free the suffering village and win deathless fame; and +each night's heated discussion always ended in nothing. +Meanwhile the dragon, a happy Bohemian, lolled on the turf, +enjoyed the sunsets, told antediluvian anecdotes to the Boy, and +polished his old verses while meditating on fresh ones. + +One day the Boy, on walking in to the village, found everything +wearing a festal appearance which was not to be accounted for in +the calendar. Carpets and gay-coloured stuffs were hung out of +the windows, the church-bells clamoured noisily, the little +street was flower-strewn, and the whole population jostled each +other along either side of it, chattering, shoving, and ordering +each other to stand back. The Boy saw a friend of his own age in +the crowd and hailed him. + +"What's up?" he cried. "Is it the players, or bears, or a +circus, or what?" + +"It's all right," his friend hailed back. "He's a-coming." + +"WHO'S a-coming?" demanded the Boy, thrusting into the throng. + +"Why, St. George, of course," replied his friend. "He's heard +tell of our dragon, and he's comin' on purpose to slay the deadly +beast, and free us from his horrid yoke. O my! won't there be a +jolly fight!" + +Here was news indeed! The Boy felt that he ought to make quite +sure for himself, and he wriggled himself in between the legs of +his good-natured elders, abusing them all the time for their +unmannerly habit of shoving. Once in the front rank, he +breathlessly awaited the arrival. + +Presently from the far-away end of the line came the sound of +cheering. Next, the measured tramp of a great war-horse +made his heart beat quicker, and then he found himself cheering +with the rest, as, amidst welcoming shouts, shrill cries of +women, uplifting of babies and waving of handkerchiefs, St. +George paced slowly up the street. The Boy's heart stood still +and he breathed with sobs, the beauty and the grace of the hero +were so far beyond anything he had yet seen. His fluted armour +was inlaid with gold, his plumed helmet hung at his saddle-bow, +and his thick fair hair framed a face gracious and gentle beyond +expression till you caught the sternness in his eyes. He drew +rein in front of the little inn, and the villagers crowded round +with greetings and thanks and voluble statements of their wrongs +and grievances and oppressions. The Boy heard the grave gentle +voice of the Saint, assuring them that all would be well +now, and that he would stand by them and see them righted +and free them from their foe; then he dismounted and passed +through the doorway and the crowd poured in after him. But the +Boy made off up the hill as fast as he could lay his legs to the +ground. + +"It's all up, dragon!" he shouted as soon as he was within sight +of the beast. "He's coming! He's here now! You'll have to pull +yourself together and DO something at last!" + +The dragon was licking his scales and rubbing them with a bit of +house-flannel the Boy's mother had lent him, till he shone like a +great turquoise. + +"Don't be VIOLENT, Boy," he said without looking round. "Sit +down and get your breath, and try and remember that the noun +governs the verb, and then perhaps you'll be good enough to tell +me WHO'S coming?" + +"That's right, take it coolly," said the Boy. "Hope you'll be +half as cool when I've got through with my news. It's only St. +George who's coming, that's all; he rode into the village half- +an-hour ago. Of course you can lick him--a great big fellow like +you! But I thought I'd warn you, 'cos he's sure to be round +early, and he's got the longest, wickedest-looking spear you ever +did see!" And the Boy got up and began to jump round in sheer +delight at the prospect of the battle. + +"O deary, deary me," moaned the dragon; "this is too awful. I +won't see him, and that's flat. I don't want to know the fellow +at all. I'm sure he's not nice. You must tell him to go away at +once, please. Say he can write if he likes, but I can't give him +an interview. I'm not seeing anybody at present." + +"Now dragon, dragon," said the Boy imploringly, "don't be +perverse and wrongheaded. You've GOT to fight him some time +or other, you know, 'cos he's St. George and you're the dragon. +Better get it over, and then we can go on with the sonnets. And +you ought to consider other people a little, too. If it's been +dull up here for you, think how dull it's been for me!" + +"My dear little man," said the dragon solemnly, "just understand, +once for all, that I can't fight and I won't fight. I've never +fought in my life, and I'm not going to begin now, just to give +you a Roman holiday. In old days I always let the other +fellows--the EARNEST fellows--do all the fighting, and no +doubt that's why I have the pleasure of being here now." + +"But if you don't fight he'll cut your head off!" gasped the Boy, +miserable at the prospect of losing both his fight and his +friend. + +"Oh, I think not," said the dragon in his lazy way. "You'll be +able to arrange something. I've every confidence in you, you're +such a MANAGER. Just run down, there's a dear chap, and make +it all right. I leave it entirely to you." + +The Boy made his way back to the village in a state of great +despondency. First of all, there wasn't going to be any fight; +next, his dear and honoured friend the dragon hadn't shown up in +quite such a heroic light as he would have liked; and lastly, +whether the dragon was a hero at heart or not, it made no +difference, for St. George would most undoubtedly cut his head +off. "Arrange things indeed!" he said bitterly to himself. "The +dragon treats the whole affair as if it was an invitation to tea +and croquet." + +The villagers were straggling homewards as he passed up the +street, all of them in the highest spirits, and gleefully +discussing the splendid fight that was in store. The Boy pursued +his way to the inn, and passed into the principal chamber, where +St. George now sat alone, musing over the chances of the fight, +and the sad stories of rapine and of wrong that had so lately +been poured into his sympathetic ears. + +"May I come in, St. George?" said the Boy politely, as he paused +at the door. "I want to talk to you about this little matter of +the dragon, if you're not tired of it by this time." + +"Yes, come in, Boy," said the Saint kindly. "Another tale of +misery and wrong, I fear me. Is it a kind parent, then, of whom +the tyrant has bereft you? Or some tender sister or brother? +Well, it shall soon be avenged." + +"Nothing of the sort," said the Boy. "There's a misunderstanding +somewhere, and I want to put it right. The fact is, this is +a GOOD dragon." + +"Exactly," said St. George, smiling pleasantly, "I quite +understand. A good DRAGON. Believe me, I do not in the least +regret that he is an adversary worthy of my steel, and no feeble +specimen of his noxious tribe." + +"But he's NOT a noxious tribe," cried the Boy distressedly. +"Oh dear, oh dear, how STUPID men are when they get an idea +into their heads! I tell you he's a GOOD dragon, and a friend +of mine, and tells me the most beautiful stories you ever heard, +all about old times and when he was little. And he's been so +kind to mother, and mother'd do anything for him. And father +likes him too, though father doesn't hold with art and poetry +much, and always falls asleep when the dragon starts talking +about STYLE. But the fact is, nobody can help liking him when +once they know him. He's so engaging and so trustful, and +as simple as a child!" + +"Sit down, and draw your chair up," said St. George. "I like a +fellow who sticks up for his friends, and I'm sure the dragon has +his good points, if he's got a friend like you. But that's not +the question. All this evening I've been listening, with grief +and anguish unspeakable, to tales of murder, theft, and wrong; +rather too highly coloured, perhaps, not always quite convincing, +but forming in the main a most serious roll of crime. History +teaches us that the greatest rascals often possess all the +domestic virtues; and I fear that your cultivated friend, in +spite of the qualities which have won (and rightly) your regard, +has got to be speedily exterminated." + +"Oh, you've been taking in all the yarns those fellows have been +telling you," said the Boy impatiently. "Why, our villagers +are the biggest story-tellers in all the country round. It's a +known fact. You're a stranger in these parts, or else you'd have +heard it already. All they want is a FIGHT. They're the most +awful beggars for getting up fights--it's meat and drink to them. + +Dogs, bulls, dragons--anything so long as it's a fight. Why, +they've got a poor innocent badger in the stable behind here, at +this moment. They were going to have some fun with him to-day, +but they're saving him up now till YOUR little affair's over. +And I've no doubt they've been telling you what a hero you were, +and how you were bound to win, in the cause of right and justice, +and so on; but let me tell you, I came down the street just now, +and they were betting six to four on the dragon freely!" + +"Six to four on the dragon!" murmured St. George sadly, resting +his cheek on his hand. "This is an evil world, and +sometimes I begin to think that all the wickedness in it is not +entirely bottled up inside the dragons. And yet--may not this +wily beast have misled you as to his real character, in order +that your good report of him may serve as a cloak for his evil +deeds? Nay, may there not be, at this very moment, some hapless +Princess immured within yonder gloomy cavern?" + +The moment he had spoken, St. George was sorry for what he had +said, the Boy looked so genuinely distressed. + +"I assure you, St. George," he said earnestly, "there's nothing +of the sort in the cave at all. The dragon's a real gentleman, +every inch of him, and I may say that no one would be more +shocked and grieved than he would, at hearing you talk in that-- +that LOOSE way about matters on which he has very strong +views!" + +"Well, perhaps I've been over-credulous," said St. George. +"Perhaps I've misjudged the animal. But what are we to do? Here +are the dragon and I, almost face to face, each supposed to be +thirsting for each other's blood. I don't see any way out of it, +exactly. What do you suggest? Can't you arrange things, +somehow?" + +"That's just what the dragon said," replied the Boy, rather +nettled. "Really, the way you two seem to leave everything to +me--I suppose you couldn't be persuaded to go away quietly, could +you?" + +"Impossible, I fear," said the Saint. "Quite against the rules. +YOU know that as well as I do." + +"Well, then, look here," said the Boy, "it's early yet--would you +mind strolling up with me and seeing the dragon and talking it +over? It's not far, and any friend of mine will be most +welcome." + +"Well, it's IRREGULAR," said St. George, rising, "but +really it seems about the most sensible thing to do. You're +taking a lot of trouble on your friend's account," he added, +good-naturedly, as they passed out through the door together. +"But cheer up! Perhaps there won't have to be any fight after +all." + +"Oh, but _I_ hope there will, though!" replied the little +fellow, wistfully. + + +"I've brought a friend to see you, dragon," said the Boy, rather +loud. + +The dragon woke up with a start. "I was just--er--thinking about +things," he said in his simple way. "Very pleased to make your +acquaintance, sir. Charming weather we're having!" + +"This is St George," said the Boy, shortly. "St. George, let me +introduce you to the dragon. We've come up to talk things over +quietly, dragon, and now for goodness' sake do let us have a +little straight common-sense, and come to some practical +business-like arrangement, for I'm sick of views and theories of +life and personal tendencies, and all that sort of thing. I may +perhaps add that my mother's sitting up." + +"So glad to meet you, St. George," began the dragon rather +nervously, "because you've been a great traveller, I hear, and +I've always been rather a stay-at-home. But I can show you many +antiquities, many interesting features of our country-side, if +you're stopping here any time--" + +"I think," said St. George, in his frank, pleasant way, "that +we'd really better take the advice of our young friend here, and +try to come to some understanding, on a business footing, about +this little affair of ours. Now don't you think that after all +the simplest plan would be just to fight it out, according to the +rules, and let the best man win? They're betting on you, I +may tell you, down in the village, but I don't mind that!" + +"Oh, yes, DO, dragon," said the Boy, delightedly; "it'll save +such a lot of bother!" + +"My young friend, you shut up," said the dragon severely. +"Believe me, St. George," he went on, "there's nobody in the +world I'd sooner oblige than you and this young gentleman here. +But the whole thing's nonsense, and conventionality, and popular +thick-headedness. There's absolutely nothing to fight about, +from beginning to end. And anyhow I'm not going to, so that +settles it!" + +"But supposing I make you?" said St. George, rather nettled. + +"You can't," said the dragon, triumphantly. "I should only go +into my cave and retire for a time down the hole I came up. +You'd soon get heartily sick of sitting outside and waiting +for me to come out and fight you. And as soon as you'd really +gone away, why, I'd come up again gaily, for I tell you frankly, +I like this place, and I'm going to stay here!" + +St. George gazed for a while on the fair landscape around them. +"But this would be a beautiful place for a fight," he began again +persuasively. "These great bare rolling Downs for the arena,-- +and me in my golden armour showing up against your big blue scaly +coils! Think what a picture it would make!" + +"Now you're trying to get at me through my artistic +sensibilities," said the dragon. "But it won't work. Not but +what it would make a very pretty picture, as you say," he added, +wavering a little. + +"We seem to be getting rather nearer to BUSINESS," put in the +Boy. "You must see, dragon, that there's got to be a fight +of some sort, 'cos you can't want to have to go down that dirty +old hole again and stop there till goodness knows when." + +"It might be arranged," said St. George, thoughtfully. "I +MUST spear you somewhere, of course, but I'm not bound to hurt +you very much. There's such a lot of you that there must be a +few SPARE places somewhere. Here, for instance, just behind +your foreleg. It couldn't hurt you much, just here!" + +"Now you're tickling, George," said the dragon, coyly. "No, that +place won't do at all. Even if it didn't hurt,--and I'm sure it +would, awfully,--it would make me laugh, and that would spoil +everything." + +"Let's try somewhere else, then," said St. George, patiently. +"Under your neck, for instance,--all these folds of thick skin,-- +if I speared you here you'd never even know I'd done it!" + +"Yes, but are you sure you can hit off the right place?" +asked the dragon, anxiously. + +"Of course I am," said St. George, with confidence. "You leave +that to me!" + +"It's just because I've GOT to leave it to you that I'm +asking," replied the dragon, rather testily. "No doubt you would +deeply regret any error you might make in the hurry of the +moment; but you wouldn't regret it half as much as I should! +However, I suppose we've got to trust somebody, as we go through +life, and your plan seems, on the whole, as good a one as any." + +"Look here, dragon," interrupted the Boy, a little jealous on +behalf of his friend, who seemed to be getting all the worst of +the bargain: "I don't quite see where YOU come in! There's to +be a fight, apparently, and you're to be licked; and what I want +to know is, what are YOU going to get out of it?" + +"St. George," said the dragon, "Just tell him, please,--what will +happen after I'm vanquished in the deadly combat?" + +"Well, according to the rules I suppose I shall lead you in +triumph down to the market-place or whatever answers to it," said +St. George. + +"Precisely," said the dragon. "And then--" + +"And then there'll be shoutings and speeches and things," +continued St. George. "And I shall explain that you're +converted, and see the error of your ways, and so on." + +"Quite so," said the dragon. "And then--?" + +"Oh, and then--" said St. George, "why, and then there will be +the usual banquet, I suppose." + +"Exactly," said the dragon; "and that's where _I_ come in. Look +here," he continued, addressing the Boy, "I'm bored to death +up here, and no one really appreciates me. I'm going into +Society, I am, through the kindly aid of our friend here, who's +taking such a lot of trouble on my account; and you'll find I've +got all the qualities to endear me to people who entertain! So +now that's all settled, and if you don't mind--I'm an old- +fashioned fellow--don't want to turn you out, but--" + +"Remember, you'll have to do your proper share of the fighting, +dragon!" said St. George, as he took the hint and rose to go; "I +mean ramping, and breathing fire, and so on!" + +"I can RAMP all right," replied the dragon, confidently; "as +to breathing fire, it's surprising how easily one gets out of +practice, but I'll do the best I can. Goodnight!" + +They had descended the hill and were almost back in the village +again, when St. George stopped short, "KNEW I had +forgotten something," he said. "There ought to be a Princess. +Terror-stricken and chained to a rock, and all that sort of +thing. Boy, can't you arrange a Princess?" + +The Boy was in the middle of a tremendous yawn. "I'm tired to +death," he wailed, "and I CAN'T arrange a Princess, or +anything more, at this time of night. And my mother's sitting +up, and DO stop asking me to arrange more things till +tomorrow!" + + +Next morning the people began streaming up to the Downs at quite +an early hour, in their Sunday clothes and carrying baskets with +bottle-necks sticking out of them, every one intent on securing +good places for the combat. This was not exactly a simple +matter, for of course it was quite possible that the dragon might +win, and in that case even those who had put their money on +him felt they could hardly expect him to deal with his backers on +a different footing to the rest. Places were chosen, therefore, +with circumspection and with a view to a speedy retreat in case +of emergency; and the front rank was mostly composed of boys who +had escaped from parental control and now sprawled and rolled +about on the grass, regardless of the shrill threats and warnings +discharged at them by their anxious mothers behind. + +The Boy had secured a good front place, well up towards the cave, +and was feeling as anxious as a stage-manager on a first night. +Could the dragon be depended upon? He might change his mind and +vote the whole performance rot; or else, seeing that the affair +had been so hastily planned, without even a rehearsal, he might +be too nervous to show up. The Boy looked narrowly at the cave, +but it showed no sign of life or occupation. Could the +dragon have made a moon-light flitting? + +The higher portions of the ground were now black with sightseers, +and presently a sound of cheering and a waving of handkerchiefs +told that something was visible to them which the Boy, far up +towards the dragon-end of the line as he was, could not yet see. +A minute more and St. George's red plumes topped the hill, as the +Saint rode slowly forth on the great level space which stretched +up to the grim mouth of the cave. Very gallant and beautiful he +looked, on his tall war-horse, his golden armour glancing in the +sun, his great spear held erect, the little white pennon, +crimson-crossed, fluttering at its point. He drew rein and +remained motionless. The lines of spectators began to give back +a little, nervously; and even the boys in front stopped pulling +hair and cuffing each other, and leaned forward expectant. + +"Now then, dragon!" muttered the Boy impatiently, fidgeting where +he sat. He need not have distressed himself, had he only known. +The dramatic possibilities of the thing had tickled the dragon +immensely, and he had been up from an early hour, preparing for +his first public appearance with as much heartiness as if the +years had run backwards, and he had been again a little +dragonlet, playing with his sisters on the floor of their +mother's cave, at the game of saints-and-dragons, in which the +dragon was bound to win. + +A low muttering, mingled with snorts, now made itself heard; +rising to a bellowing roar that seemed to fill the plain. Then a +cloud of smoke obscured the mouth of the cave, and out of the +midst of it the dragon himself, shining, sea-blue, magnificent, +pranced splendidly forth; and everybody said, "Oo-oo-oo!" as if +he had been a mighty rocket! His scales were glittering, +his long spiky tail lashed his sides, his claws tore up the turf +and sent it flying high over his back, and smoke and fire +incessantly jetted from his angry nostrils. "Oh, well done, +dragon!" cried the Boy, excitedly. "Didn't think he had it in +him!" he added to himself. + +St. George lowered his spear, bent his head, dug his heels into +his horse's sides, and came thundering over the turf. The dragon +charged with a roar and a squeal,--a great blue whirling +combination of coils and snorts and clashing jaws and spikes and +fire. + +"Missed!" yelled the crowd. There was a moment's entanglement of +golden armour and blue-green coils, and spiky tail, and then the +great horse, tearing at his bit, carried the Saint, his spear +swung high in the air, almost up to the mouth of the cave. + +The dragon sat down and barked viciously, while St. George +with difficulty pulled his horse round into position. + +"End of Round One!" thought the Boy. "How well they managed it! +But I hope the Saint won't get excited. I can trust the dragon +all right. What a regular play-actor the fellow is!" + +St. George had at last prevailed on his horse to stand steady, +and was looking round him as he wiped his brow. Catching sight +of the Boy, he smiled and nodded, and held up three fingers for +an instant. + +"It seems to be all planned out," said the Boy to himself. +"Round Three is to be the finishing one, evidently. Wish it +could have lasted a bit longer. Whatever's that old fool of a +dragon up to now?" + +The dragon was employing the interval in giving a ramping- +performance for the benefit of the crowd. Ramping, it should be +explained, consists in running round and round in a wide +circle, and sending waves and ripples of movement along the whole +length of your spine, from your pointed ears right down to the +spike at the end of your long tail. When you are covered with +blue scales, the effect is particularly pleasing; and the Boy +recollected the dragon's recently expressed wish to become a +social success. + +St. George now gathered up his reins and began to move forward, +dropping the point of his spear and settling himself firmly in +the saddle. + +"Time!" yelled everybody excitedly; and the dragon, leaving off +his ramping, sat up on end, and began to leap from one side to +the other with huge ungainly bounds, whooping like a Red Indian. +This naturally disconcerted the horse, who swerved violently, the +Saint only just saving himself by the mane; and as they shot past +the dragon delivered a vicious snap at the horse's tail +which sent the poor beast careering madly far over the Downs, so +that the language of the Saint, who had lost a stirrup, was +fortunately inaudible to the general assemblage. + +Round Two evoked audible evidence of friendly feeling towards the +dragon. The spectators were not slow to appreciate a combatant +who could hold his own so well and clearly wanted to show good +sport, and many encouraging remarks reached the ears of our +friend as he strutted to and fro, his chest thrust out and his +tail in the air, hugely enjoying his new popularity. + +St. George had dismounted and was tightening his girths, and +telling his horse, with quite an Oriental flow of imagery, +exactly what he thought of him, and his relations, and his +conduct on the present occasion; so the Boy made his way down to +the Saint's end of the line, and held his spear for him. + +"It's been a jolly fight, St. George!" he said with a sigh. +"Can't you let it last a bit longer?" + +"Well, I think I'd better not," replied the Saint. "The fact is, +your simple-minded old friend's getting conceited, now they've +begun cheering him, and he'll forget all about the arrangement +and take to playing the fool, and there's no telling where he +would stop. I'll just finish him off this round." + +He swung himself into the saddle and took his spear from the Boy. + +"Now don't you be afraid," he added kindly. "I've marked my spot +exactly, and HE'S sure to give me all the assistance in his +power, because he knows it's his only chance of being asked to +the banquet!" + +St. George now shortened his spear, bringing the butt well up +under his arm; and, instead of galloping as before, trotted +smartly towards the dragon, who crouched at his approach, +flicking his tail till it cracked in the air like a great cart- +whip. The Saint wheeled as he neared his opponent and circled +warily round him, keeping his eye on the spare place; while the +dragon, adopting similar tactics, paced with caution round the +same circle, occasionally feinting with his head. So the two +sparred for an opening, while the spectators maintained a +breathless silence. + +Though the round lasted for some minutes, the end was so swift +that all the Boy saw was a lightning movement of the Saint's arm, +and then a whirl and a confusion of spines, claws, tail, and +flying bits of turf. The dust cleared away, the spectators +whooped and ran in cheering, and the Boy made out that the dragon +was down, pinned to the earth by the spear, while St. George had +dismounted, and stood astride of him. + +It all seemed so genuine that the Boy ran in breathlessly, +hoping the dear old dragon wasn't really hurt. As he approached, +the dragon lifted one large eyelid, winked solemnly, and +collapsed again. He was held fast to earth by the neck, but the +Saint had hit him in the spare place agreed upon, and it didn't +even seem to tickle. + +"Bain't you goin' to cut 'is 'ed orf, master?" asked one of the +applauding crowd. He had backed the dragon, and naturally felt a +trifle sore. + +"Well, not TO-DAY, I think," replied St. George, pleasantly. +"You see, that can be done at ANY time. There's no hurry at +all. I think we'll all go down to the village first, and have +some refreshment, and then I'll give him a good talking-to, and +you'll find he'll be a very different dragon!" + +At that magic word REFRESHMENT the whole crowd formed up in +procession and silently awaited the signal to start. The +time for talking and cheering and betting was past, the hour for +action had arrived. St. George, hauling on his spear with both +hands, released the dragon, who rose and shook himself and ran +his eye over his spikes and scales and things, to see that they +were all in order. Then the Saint mounted and led off the +procession, the dragon following meekly in the company of the +Boy, while the thirsty spectators kept at a respectful interval +behind. + +There were great doings when they got down to the village again, +and had formed up in front of the inn. After refreshment St. +George made a speech, in which he informed his audience that he +had removed their direful scourge, at a great deal of trouble and +inconvenience to him-self, and now they weren't to go about +grumbling and fancying they'd got grievances, because they +hadn't. And they shouldn't be so fond of fights, because next +time they might have to do the fighting themselves, which would +not be the same thing at all. And there was a certain badger in +the inn stables which had got to be released at once, and he'd +come and see it done himself. Then he told them that the dragon +had been thinking over things, and saw that there were two sides +to every question, and he wasn't going to do it any more, and if +they were good perhaps he'd stay and settle down there. So they +must make friends, and not be prejudiced and go about fancying +they knew everything there was to be known, because they didn't, +not by a long way. And he warned them against the sin of +romancing, and making up stories and fancying other people would +believe them just because they were plausible and highly- +coloured. Then he sat down, amidst much repentant cheering, +and the dragon nudged the Boy in the ribs and whispered that he +couldn't have done it better himself. Then every one went off to +get ready for the banquet. + +Banquets are always pleasant things, consisting mostly, as they +do, of eating and drinking; but the specially nice thing about a +banquet is, that it comes when something's over, and there's +nothing more to worry about, and to-morrow seems a long way off. +St George was happy because there had been a fight and he hadn't +had to kill anybody; for he didn't really like killing, though he +generally had to do it. The dragon was happy because there had +been a fight, and so far from being hurt in it he had won +popularity and a sure footing in society. The Boy was happy +because there had been a fight, and in spite of it all his two +friends were on the best of terms. And all the others were +happy because there had been a fight, and--well, they didn't +require any other reasons for their happiness. The dragon +exerted himself to say the right thing to everybody, and proved +the life and soul of the evening; while the Saint and the Boy, as +they looked on, felt that they were only assisting at a feast of +which the honour and the glory were entirely the dragon's. But +they didn't mind that, being good fellows, and the dragon was not +in the least proud or forgetful. On the contrary, every ten +minutes or so he leant over towards the Boy and said +impressively: "Look here! you WILL see me home afterwards, +won't you?" And the Boy always nodded, though he had promised +his mother not to be out late. + +At last the banquet was over, the guests had dropped away with +many good-nights and congratulations and invitations, and +the dragon, who had seen the last of them off the premises, +emerged into the street followed by the Boy, wiped his brow, +sighed, sat down in the road and gazed at the stars. "Jolly +night it's been!" he murmured. "Jolly stars! Jolly little place +this! Think I shall just stop here. Don't feel like climbing up +any beastly hill. Boy's promised to see me home. Boy had better +do it then! No responsibility on my part. Responsibility all +Boy's!" And his chin sank on his broad chest and he slumbered +peacefully. + +"Oh, GET up, dragon," cried the Boy, piteously. "You KNEW +my mother's sitting up, and I'm so tired, and you made me promise +to see you home, and I never knew what it meant or I wouldn't +have done it!" And the Boy sat down in the road by the side of +the sleeping dragon, and cried. + +The door behind them opened, a stream of light illumined the +road, and St. George, who had come out for a stroll in the cool +night-air, caught sight of the two figures sitting there--the +great motionless dragon and the tearful little Boy. + +"What's the matter, Boy?" he inquired kindly, stepping to his +side. + +"Oh, it's this great lumbering PIG of a dragon!" sobbed the +Boy. "First he makes me promise to see him home, and then he +says I'd better do it, and goes to sleep! Might as well try to +see a HAYSTACK home! And I'm so tired, and mother's--" here +he broke down again. + +"Now don't take on," said St. George. "I'll stand by you, and +we'll BOTH see him home. Wake up, dragon!" he said sharply, +shaking the beast by the elbow. + +The dragon looked up sleepily. "What a night, George!" he +murmured; "what a--" + +"Now look here, dragon," said the Saint, firmly. "Here's +this little fellow waiting to see you home, and you KNOW he +ought to have been in bed these two hours, and what his mother'll +say _I_ don't know, and anybody but a selfish pig would have +MADE him go to bed long ago--" + +"And he SHALL go to bed!" cried the dragon, starting up. +"Poor little chap, only fancy his being up at this hour! It's a +shame, that's what it is, and I don't think, St. George, you've +been very considerate--but come along at once, and don't let us +have any more arguing or shilly-shallying. You give me hold of +your hand, Boy--thank you, George, an arm up the hill is just +what I wanted!" + +So they set off up the hill arm-in-arm, the Saint, the Dragon, +and the Boy. The lights in the little village began to go out; +but there were stars, and a late moon, as they climbed to the +Downs together. And, as they turned the last corner and +disappeared from view, snatches of an old song were borne +back on the night-breeze. I can't be certain which of them was +singing, but I THINK it was the Dragon! + + +"Here we are at your gate," said the man, abruptly, laying his +hand on it. "Good-night. Cut along in sharp, or you'll catch +it!" + +Could it really be our own gate? Yes, there it was, sure enough, +with the familiar marks on its bottom bar made by our feet when +we swung on it. + +"Oh, but wait a minute!" cried Charlotte. "I want to know a heap +of things. Did the dragon really settle down? And did--" + +"There isn't any more of that story," said the man, kindly but +firmly. "At least, not to-night. Now be off! Good-bye!" + +"Wonder if it's all true?" said Charlotte, as we hurried up the +path. "Sounded dreadfully like nonsense, in parts!" + +"P'raps its true for all that," I replied encouragingly. + +Charlotte bolted in like a rabbit, out of the cold and the dark; +but I lingered a moment in the still, frosty air, for a backward +glance at the silent white world without, ere I changed it for +the land of firelight and cushions and laughter. It was the day +for choir-practice, and carol-time was at hand, and a belated +member was passing homewards down the road, singing as he went:-- + +"Then St. George: ee made rev'rence: in the stable so dim, +Oo vanquished the dragon: so fearful and grim. +So-o grim: and so-o fierce: that now may we say +All peaceful is our wakin': on Chri-istmas Day!" + + +The singer receded, the carol died away. But I wondered, with my +hand on the door-latch, whether that was the song, or something +like it, that the dragon sang as he toddled contentedly up the +hill. + + + +A DEPARTURE + +It is a very fine thing to be a real Prince. There are points +about a Pirate Chief, and to succeed to the Captaincy of a Robber +Band is a truly magnificent thing. But to be an Heir has also +about it something extremely captivating. Not only a long-lost +heir--an heir of the melodrama, strutting into your hitherto +unsuspected kingdom at just the right moment, loaded up with the +consciousness of unguessed merit and of rights so long +feloniously withheld--but even to be a common humdrum domestic +heir is a profession to which few would refuse to be apprenticed. + +To step from leading-strings and restrictions and one glass of +port after dinner, into property and liberty and due +appreciation, saved up, polished and varnished, dusted and +laid in lavender, all expressly for you--why, even the Princedom +and the Robber Captaincy, when their anxieties and +responsibilities are considered, have hardly more to offer. And +so it will continue to be a problem, to the youth in whom +ambition struggles with a certain sensuous appreciation of life's +side-dishes, whether the career he is called upon to select out +of the glittering knick-knacks that strew the counter had better +be that of an heir or an engine-driver. + +In the case of eldest sons, this problem has a way of solving +itself. In childhood, however, the actual heirship is apt to +work on the principle of the "Borough-English" of our happier +ancestors, and in most cases of inheritance it is the youngest +that succeeds. Where the "res" is "angusta," and the weekly +books are simply a series of stiff hurdles at each of which in +succession the paternal legs falter with growing suspicion +of their powers to clear the flight, it is in the affair of +CLOTHES that the right of succession tells, and "the hard heir +strides about the land" in trousers long ago framed for fraternal +limbs--frondes novas et non sua poma. A bitter thing indeed! +Of those pretty silken threads that knit humanity together, high +and low, past and present, none is tougher, more pervading, or +more iridescent, than the honest, simple pleasure of new clothes. + +It tugs at the man as it tugs at the woman; the smirk of the +well-fitted prince is no different from the smirk of the Sunday- +clad peasant; and the veins of the elders tingle with the same +thrill that sets their fresh-frocked grandchildren skipping. +Never trust people who pretend that they have no joy in their new +clothes. + +Let not our souls be wrung, however, at contemplation of the +luckless urchin cut off by parental penury from the rapture +of new clothes. Just as the heroes of his dreams are his +immediate seniors, so his heroes' clothes share the glamour, and +the reversion of them carries a high privilege--a special thing +not sold by Swears and Wells. The sword of Galahad--and of many +another hero--arrived on the scene already hoary with history, +and the boy rather prefers his trousers to be legendary, famous, +haloed by his hero's renown--even though the nap may have +altogether vanished in the process. + +But, putting clothes aside, there are other matters in which this +reversed heirship comes into play. Take the case of Toys. It is +hardly right or fitting--and in this the child quite acquiesces-- +that as he approaches the reverend period of nine or say ten +years, he should still be the unabashed and proclaimed possessor +of a hoop and a Noah's Ark. The child will quite see the +reasonableness of this, and, the goal of his ambition being now a +catapult, a pistol, or even a sword-stick, will be satisfied that +the titular ownership should lapse to his juniors, so far below +him in their kilted or petticoated incompetence. After all, the +things are still there, and if relapses of spirit occur, on wet +afternoons, one can still (nominally) borrow them and be happy on +the floor as of old, without the reproach of being a habitual +baby toy-caresser. Also one can pretend it's being done to amuse +the younger ones. + +None of us, therefore, grumbled when in the natural course of +things the nominal ownership of the toys slipped down to Harold, +and from him in turn devolved upon Charlotte. The toys were +still there; they always had been there and always would be +there, and when the nursery door was fast shut there were no +Kings or Queens or First Estates in that small Republic on +the floor. Charlotte, to be sure, chin-tilted, at last an owner +of real estate, might patronize a little at times; but it was +tacitly understood that her "title " was only a drawing-room one. + +Why does a coming bereavement project no thin faint voice, no +shadow of its woe, to warn its happy, heedless victims? Why +cannot Olympians ever think it worth while to give some hint of +the thunderbolts they are silently forging? And why, oh, why did +it never enter any of our thick heads that the day would come +when even Charlotte would be considered too matronly for toys? +One's so-called education is hammered into one with rulers and +with canes. Each fresh grammar or musical instrument, each new +historical period or quaint arithmetical rule, is impressed on +one by some painful physical prelude. Why does Time, the biggest +Schoolmaster, alone neglect premonitory raps, at each stage +of his curriculum, on our knuckles or our heads? + +Uncle Thomas was at the bottom of it. This was not the first +mine he had exploded under our bows. In his favourite pursuit of +fads he had passed in turn from Psychical Research to the White +Rose and thence to a Children's Hospital, and we were being daily +inundated with leaflets headed by a woodcut depicting Little +Annie (of Poplar) sitting up in her little white cot, surrounded +by the toys of the nice, kind, rich children. The idea caught on +with the Olympians, always open to sentiment of a treacly, +woodcut order; and accordingly Charlotte, on entering one day +dishevelled and panting, having been pursued by yelling Redskins +up to the very threshold of our peaceful home, was curtly +informed that her French lessons would begin on Monday, that she +was henceforth to cease all pretence of being a trapper or a +Redskin on utterly inadequate grounds, and moreover that the +whole of her toys were at that moment being finally packed up in +a box, for despatch to London, to gladden the lives and bring +light into the eyes of London waifs and Poplar Annies. + +Naturally enough, perhaps, we others received no official +intimation of this grave cession of territory. We were not +supposed to be interested. Harold had long ago been promoted to +a knife--a recognized, birthday knife. As for me, it was known +that I was already given over, heart and soul, to lawless +abandoned catapults--catapults which were confiscated weekly for +reasons of international complications, but with which Edward +kept me steadily supplied, his school having a fine old tradition +for excellence in their manufacture. Therefore no one was +supposed to be really affected but Charlotte, and even she +had already reached Miss Yonge, and should therefore have been +more interested in prolific curates and harrowing deathbeds. + +Nothwithstanding, we all felt indignant, betrayed, and sullen to +the verge of mutiny. Though for long we had affected to despise +them, these toys, yet they had grown up with us, shared our joys +and our sorrows, seen us at our worst, and become part of the +accepted scheme of existence. As we gazed at untenanted shelves +and empty, hatefully tidy corners, perhaps for the first time for +long we began to do them a tardy justice. + +There was old Leotard, for instance. Somehow he had come to be +sadly neglected of late years--and yet how exactly he always +responded to certain moods! He was an acrobat, this Leotard, who +lived in a glass-fronted box. His loosejointed limbs were +cardboard, cardboard his slender trunk; and his hands eternally +grasped the bar of a trapeze. You turned the box round swiftly +five or six times; the wonderful unsolved machinery worked, and +Leotard swung and leapt, backwards, forwards, now astride the +bar, now flying free; iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, unceasingly +novel in his invention of new, unguessable attitudes; while +above, below, and around him, a richly-dressed audience, painted +in skilful perspective of stalls, boxes, dress-circle, and +gallery, watched the thrilling performance with a stolidity which +seemed to mark them out as made in Germany. Hardly versatile +enough, perhaps, this Leotard; unsympathetic, not a companion for +all hours; nor would you have chosen him to take to bed with you. + +And yet, within his own limits, how fresh, how engrossing, how +resourceful and inventive! Well, he was gone, it seemed-- +merely gone. Never specially cherished while he tarried +with us, he had yet contrived to build himself a particular niche +of his own. Sunrise and sunset, and the dinner-bell, and the +sudden rainbow, and lessons, and Leotard, and the moon through +the nursery windows--they were all part of the great order of +things, and the displacement of any one item seemed to +disorganize the whole machinery. The immediate point was, not +that the world would continue to go round as of old, but that +Leotard wouldn't. + +Yonder corner, now swept and garnished, had been the stall +wherein the spotty horse, at the close of each laborious day, was +accustomed to doze peacefully the long night through. In days of +old each of us in turn had been jerked thrillingly round the room +on his precarious back, had dug our heels into his unyielding +sides, and had scratched our hands on the tin tacks that +secured his mane to his stiffly-curving neck. Later, with +increasing stature, we came to overlook his merits as a beast of +burden; but how frankly, how good-naturedly, he had recognized +the new conditions, and adapted himself to them without a murmur! + +When the military spirit was abroad, who so ready to be a +squadron of cavalry, a horde of Cossacks, or artillery pounding +into position? He had even served with honour as a gun-boat, +during a period when naval strategy was the only theme; and no +false equine pride ever hindered him from taking the part of a +roaring locomotive, earth-shaking, clangorous, annihilating time +and space. Really it was no longer clear how life, with its +manifold emergencies, was to be carried on at all without a +fellow like the spotty horse, ready to step in at critical +moments and take up just the part required of him. + +In moments of mental depression, nothing is quite so +consoling as the honest smell of a painted animal; and +mechanically I turned towards the shelf that had been so long the +Ararat of our weather-beaten Ark. The shelf was empty, the Ark +had cast off moorings and sailed away to Poplar, and had taken +with it its haunting smell, as well as that pleasant sense of +disorder that the best conducted Ark is always able to impart. +The sliding roof had rarely been known to close entirely. There +was always a pair of giraffe-legs sticking out, or an elephant- +trunk, taking from the stiffness of its outline, and reminding us +that our motley crowd of friends inside were uncomfortably +cramped for room and only too ready to leap in a cascade on the +floor and browse and gallop, flutter and bellow and neigh, and be +their natural selves again. I think that none of us ever really +thought very much of Ham and Shem and Japhet. They were only +there because they were in the story, but nobody really +wanted them. The Ark was built for the animals, of course-- +animals with tails, and trunks, and horns, and at least three +legs apiece, though some unfortunates had been unable to retain +even that number. And in the animals were of course included the +birds--the dove, for instance, grey with black wings, and the +red-crested woodpecker--or was it a hoo-poe?--and the insects, +for there was a dear beetle, about the same size as the dove, +that held its own with any of the mammalia. + +Of the doll-department Charlotte had naturally been sole chief +for a long time; if the staff were not in their places to-day, it +was not I who had any official right to take notice. And yet one +may have been member of a Club for many a year without ever +exactly understanding the use and object of the other members, +until one enters, some Christmas day or other holiday, and, +surveying the deserted armchairs, the untenanted sofas, the +barren hat-pegs, realizes, with depression, that those other +fellows had their allotted functions, after all. Where was old +Jerry? Where were Eugenie, Rosa, Sophy, Esmeralda? We had long +drifted apart, it was true, we spoke but rarely; perhaps, +absorbed in new ambitions, new achievements, I had even come to +look down on these conservative, unprogressive members who were +so clearly content to remain simply what they were. And now that +their corners were unfilled, their chairs unoccupied--well, my +eyes were opened and I wanted 'em back! + +However, it was no business of mine. If grievances were the +question, I hadn't a leg to stand upon. Though my catapults were +officially confiscated, I knew the drawer in which they were +incarcerated, and where the key of it was hidden, and I +could make life a burden, if I chose, to every living thing +within a square-mile radius, so long as the catapult was restored +to its drawer in due and decent time. But I wondered how the +others were taking it. The edict hit them more severely. They +should have my moral countenance at any rate, if not more, in any +protest or countermine they might be planning. And, indeed, +something seemed possible, from the dogged, sullen air with which +the two of them had trotted off in the direction of the +raspberry-canes. Certain spots always had their insensible +attraction for certain moods. In love, one sought the orchard. +Weary of discipline, sick of convention, impassioned for the +road, the mining camp, the land across the border, one made for +the big meadow. Mutinous, sulky, charged with plots and +conspiracies, one always got behind the shelter of the +raspberry-canes. + + +. . . . . . . + +"You can come too if you like," said Harold, in a subdued sort of +way, as soon as he was aware that I was sitting up in bed +watching him. "We didn't think you'd care, 'cos you've got to +catapults. But we're goin' to do what we've settled to do, so +it's no good sayin' we hadn't ought and that sort of thing, 'cos +we're goin' to!" + +The day had passed in an ominous peacefulness. Charlotte and +Harold had kept out of my way, as well as out of everybody +else's, in a purposeful manner that ought to have bred suspicion. + +In the evening we had read books, or fitfully drawn ships and +battles on fly-leaves, apart, in separate corners, void of +conversation or criticism, oppressed by the lowering tidiness of +the universe, till bedtime came, and disrobement, and +prayers even more mechanical than usual, and lastly bed itself +without so much as a giraffe under the pillow. Harold had +grunted himself between the sheets with an ostentatious pretence +of overpowering fatigue; but I noticed that he pulled his pillow +forward and propped his head against the brass bars of his crib, +and, as I was acquainted with most of his tricks and subterfuges, +it was easy for me to gather that a painful wakefulness was his +aim that night. + +I had dozed off, however, and Harold was out and on his feet, +poking under the bed for his shoes, when I sat up and grimly +regarded him. Just as he said I could come if I liked, Charlotte +slipped in, her face rigid and set. And then it was borne in +upon me that I was not on in this scene. These youngsters had +planned it all out, the piece was their own, and the +mounting, and the cast. My sceptre had fallen, my rule had +ceased. In this magic hour of the summer night laws went for +nothing, codes were cancelled, and those who were most in touch +with the moonlight and the warm June spirit and the topsy- +turvydom that reigns when the clock strikes ten, were the true +lords and lawmakers. + +Humbly, almost timidly, I followed without a protest in the wake +of these two remorseless, purposeful young persons, who were +marching straight for the schoolroom. Here in the moonlight the +grim big box stood visible--the box in which so large a portion +of our past and our personality lay entombed, cold, swathed in +paper, awaiting the carrier of the morning who should speed them +forth to the strange, cold, distant Children's Hospital, where +their little failings would all be misunderstood and no one +would make allowances. A dreamy spectator, I stood idly by +while Harold propped up the lid and the two plunged in their arms +and probed and felt and grappled. + +"Here's Rosa," said Harold, suddenly. "I know the feel of her +hair. Will you have Rosa out?" + +"Oh, give me Rosa!" cried Charlotte with a sort of gasp. And +when Rosa had been dragged forth, quite unmoved apparently, +placid as ever in her moonfaced contemplation of this comedy- +world with its ups and downs, Charlotte retired with her to the +window-seat, and there in the moonlight the two exchanged their +private confidences, leaving Harold to his exploration alone. + +"Here's something with sharp corners," said Harold, presently. +"Must be Leotard, I think. Better let HIM go." + +"Oh, yes, we can't save Leotard," assented Charlotte, +limply. + +Poor old Leotard! I said nothing, of course; I was not on in +this piece. But, surely, had Leotard heard and rightly +understood all that was going on above him, he must have sent up +one feeble, strangled cry, one faint appeal to be rescued from +unfamiliar little Annies and retained for an audience certain to +appreciate and never unduly critical. + +"Now I've got to the Noah's Ark," panted Harold, still groping +blindly. + +"Try and shove the lid back a bit," said Charlotte, "and pull out +a dove or a zebra or a giraffe if there's one handy." + +Harold toiled on with grunts and contortions, and presently +produced in triumph a small grey elephant and a large beetle with +a red stomach. + +"They're jammed in too tight," he complained. "Can't get any +more out. But as I came up I'm sure I felt Potiphar!" And down +he dived again. + +Potiphar was a finely modelled bull with a suede skin, rough +and comfortable and warm in bed. He was my own special joy and +pride, and I thrilled with honest emotion when Potiphar emerged +to light once more, stout-necked and stalwart as ever. + +"That'll have to do," said Charlotte, getting up. "We dursn't +take any more, 'cos we'll be found out if we do. Make the box +all right, and bring 'em along." + +Harold rammed down the wads of paper and twists of straw he had +disturbed, replaced the lid squarely and innocently, and picked +up his small salvage; and we sneaked off for the window most +generally in use for prison-breakings and nocturnal escapades. A +few seconds later and we were hurrying silently in single file +along the dark edge of the lawn. + +Oh, the riot, the clamour, the crowding chorus, of all silent +things that spoke by scent and colour and budding thrust and +foison, that moonlit night of June! Under the laurel-shade all +was still ghostly enough, brigand-haunted, crackling, whispering +of night and all its possibilities of terror. But the open +garden, when once we were in it--how it turned a glad new face to +welcome us, glad as of old when the sunlight raked and searched +it, new with the unfamiliar night-aspect that yet welcomed us as +guests to a hall where the horns blew up to a new, strange +banquet! Was this the same grass, could these be the same +familiar flower-beds, alleys, clumps of verdure, patches of +sward? At least this full white light that was flooding them was +new, and accounted for all. It was Moonlight Land, and Past-Ten- +o'clock Land, and we were in it and of it, and all its other +denizens fully understood, and, tongue-free and awakened at last, +responded and comprehended and knew. The other two, doubtless, +hurrying forward full of their mission, noted little of all +this. I, who was only a super, had leisure to take it all in, +and, though the language and the message of the land were not all +clear to me then, long afterwards I remembered and understood. + +Under the farthest hedge, at the loose end of things, where the +outer world began with the paddock, there was darkness once +again--not the blackness that crouched so solidly under the +crowding laurels, but a duskiness hung from far-spread arms of +high-standing elms. There, where the small grave made a darker +spot on the grey, I overtook them, only just in time to see Rosa +laid stiffly out, her cherry cheeks pale in the moonlight, but +her brave smile triumphant and undaunted as ever. It was a tiny +grave and a shallow one, to hold so very much. Rosa once in, +Potiphar, who had hitherto stood erect, stout-necked, through so +many days and such various weather, must needs bow his head +and lie down meekly on his side. The elephant and the beetle, +equal now in a silent land where a vertebra and a red circulation +counted for nothing, had to snuggle down where best they might, +only a little less crowded than in their native Ark. + +The earth was shovelled in and stamped down, and I was glad that +no orisons were said and no speechifying took place. The whole +thing was natural and right and self-explanatory, and needed no +justifying or interpreting to our audience of stars and flowers. +The connexion was not entirely broken now--one link remained +between us and them. The Noah's Ark, with its cargo of sad-faced +emigrants, might be hull down on the horizon, but two of its +passengers had missed the boat and would henceforth be always +near us; and, as we played above them, an elephant would +understand, and a beetle would hear, and crawl again in +spirit along a familiar floor. Henceforth the spotty horse would +scour along far-distant plains and know the homesickness of alien +stables; but Potiphar, though never again would he paw the arena +when bull-fights were on the bill, was spared maltreatment by +town-bred strangers, quite capable of mistaking him for a cow. +Jerry and Esmeralda might shed their limbs and their stuffing, by +slow or swift degrees, in uttermost parts and unguessed corners +of the globe; but Rosa's book was finally closed, and no worse +fate awaited her than natural dissolution almost within touch and +hail of familiar faces and objects that had been friendly to her +since first she opened her eyes on a world where she had never +been treated as a stranger. + +As we turned to go, the man in the moon, tangled in elm-boughs, +caught my eye for a moment, and I thought that never had he +looked so friendly. He was going to see after them, it was +evident; for he was always there, more or less, and it was no +trouble to him at all, and he would tell them how things were +still going, up here, and throw in a story or two of his own +whenever they seemed a trifle dull. It made the going away +rather easier, to know one had left somebody behind on the spot; +a good fellow, too, cheery, comforting, with a fund of anecdote; +a man in whom one had every confidence. + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame + |