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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:02:54 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35029-8.txt b/35029-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21a738c --- /dev/null +++ b/35029-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5632 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Half-Past Bedtime, by H. H. Bashford + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Half-Past Bedtime + +Author: H. H. Bashford + +Release Date: January 21, 2011 [EBook #35029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-PAST BEDTIME *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + + + + +HALF-PAST BEDTIME + + + + +_By the Same Author_ + + THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET + PITY THE POOR BLIND + VAGABONDS IN PÉRIGORD + SONGS OUT OF SCHOOL + THE PLAIN GIRL'S TALE + + + + +[Illustration: HALF-PAST BEDTIME] + + + + +HALF-PAST +BEDTIME + + +_BY_ +H. H. BASHFORD + +AUTHOR OF +"THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET" ETC. + + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ + + +[Illustration] + + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO + + + + +TO +JOE & ADA MAGGS +AND THE CHILDREN THAT LOVE THEM + + + + + When Farmer Sun with rosy wink + Says good-bye all, and drives away, + When safe in fold the sheep-bells clink, + And hard-worked horses munch their hay, + + When brown and blue eyes sleepy grow, + And Nurse downstairs clears up the crumbs, + When God pulls down His blind, and so + What people call the twilight comes, + + Then lazy Moon lifts up her arm, + Shakes back her hair and smooths her beams, + And softly over field and farm + Scatters the milk-white seed of dreams. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. MR JUGG 13 + II. GWENDOLEN 29 + III. THE LITTLE ICE-MEN 45 + IV. UNCLE JOE'S STORY 61 + V. BEARDY NED 75 + VI. THE MAGIC SONG 89 + VII. THE IMAGINARY BOY 105 + VIII. THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED 121 + IX. ST UNCUS 137 + X. OLD MOTHER HUBBARD 151 + XI. MARIAN'S PARTY 167 + XII. THE SORROWFUL PICTURE 183 + XIII. THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND 199 + XIV. THE CHRISTMAS TREE 215 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + HALF-PAST BEDTIME _Frontispiece_ + MARIAN AND MR JUGG 12 + MONKEY ISLAND 28 + CUTHBERT AND DORIS 44 + BELLA AT EDEN 60 + BEARDY NED'S FIRE 74 + THE MAGIC SONG 88 + THE HAUNTED WOOD 104 + CÆSAR'S CAMP 120 + DORIS AND ST UNCUS 136 + MOTHER HUBBARD'S 150 + THE LITTLE TEMPLE 166 + PORTO BLANCO 182 + THE LAGOON 198 + STILL TALKING 214 + + + + +MR JUGG + + + + +[Illustration: Marian and Mr. Jugg] + + + + +I + +MR JUGG + + +The name of the town doesn't really matter; but it was a big town in the +middle of the country; and the first of these adventures happened to a +little girl whose Christian name was Marian. She was only seven when it +happened to her, so that it was rather a young sort of adventure; but +the older ones happened later on, and this is the best, perhaps, to +begin with. + +Marian's house was in a street called Peter Street, because there was a +church in it called St Peter's Church; and some people liked this +church, because it had a great spire soaring up into the sky. But +Marian's daddy didn't like spires, because they were so sharp and so +slippery. He liked towers better, because the old church towers, he +said, were like little laps, ready to catch God's blessing. But Marian's +daddy was a queer sort of man, and nobody took much notice of what he +said. + +At the other end of Peter Street there was a field in which some people +were beginning to build houses, and Marian used to love going into this +field to watch the builders at work. But one afternoon she became tired +of watching them, and so she climbed over a gate into the next field. +Here the grass was so tall that it tickled Marian's chin. There were +great daisies in it, taller than the grass, and they looked into +Marian's eyes. They had calm faces like Marian's mummy's nurney's face, +and they didn't mind a bit when Marian picked them. There were also +buttercups, shiny and fat, like the man in the butcher's shop who was +always smiling. + +This was such a big field that when Marian came to the middle of it the +voices of the builders were quite faint, and the tinkle of their trowels +on the edges of the bricks sounded like sheep-bells a long way off. When +she turned round she could see the roofs of the houses, and the tops of +the chimneys, and the spires of the churches all trembly because of the +heat, as if they were tired and wanted to lie down. But they couldn't +lie down, although they were so much older and bigger and stronger than +Marian. "I'd rather be me," thought Marian, and when she had picked a +bundle of flowers she lay down in the deep grass. + +It was so hot that, when once they had become used to her, the stalks of +the grasses stood quite still. She could see hundreds and hundreds of +them, like trees in a forest, or people in church waiting for the +anthem. Up in the hills it was different. There the grasses were always +moving--not running about, of course, but standing in the same place and +bending to and fro, to and fro. Some of them would move, so her father +had once told her, as much as four miles in a single day, just as far as +it was from Marian's house to the top of Fairbarrow Down. + +But here in the valley they weren't moving at all. They weren't even +whispering. They were holding their breath; and if they were listening +to anything, it was to something that a little girl couldn't hear. She +stared into the sky, but it was so blue that it made her eyes ache +trying to see how blue it was; and when she closed them, to give them a +rest, she could see little patterns on her eyelids. Then she opened them +again, and the green of the grass, as she looked between the grass +blades, was cool like an ointment. + +"And nobody in the world," she thought, "knows where I am." + +She felt a sort of tickle in the middle of her stomach. + +"How do you do?" said a voice. + +Marian gave a jump. She saw a little man looking up at her. He was not +even as tall as an afternoon tea-table. + +"What's your name?" he asked. He was very polite. He held his hat in his +right hand. Marian told him her name. She wasn't a bit frightened. + +"What's yours?" she asked. + +"I'm Mr Jugg," he said. + +"And who are you, Mr Jugg?" she inquired. + +"I'm the King of the Bumpies," he replied. + +When Marian was puzzled there came a little straight line, exactly in +the middle, between her two eyebrows. + +"What are bumpies?" she said. + +"My hat!" he gasped. "Haven't you ever heard of bumpies?" + +Marian shook her head. + +"Oh dear, oh dear!" he sighed. "Have you ever heard of angels?" + +"Well, of course," said Marian. "Everybody's heard of angels." + +"Well then, bumpies," said Mr Jugg, "are baby angels. They're called +bumpies till they've learned to fly." + +"I see," said Marian, "but why are they called bumpies?" + +"Because they bump," said Mr Jugg, "not knowing how." + +Marian laughed. + +"Where do you live?" she asked. + +"If you'd care to come with me," he said, "I could show you." + +"Oh, I should love to!" said Marian. "May I?" + +He put on his hat and gave her his hand, and helped her to stand up with +her bunch of daisies. + +"Come along," he said, and he took her across the field, and through a +hole in the hedge into the next one. This was a smaller field with some +cows in it, and the grass in it was quite short. He led her across it, +and helped her over a gate into the field beyond, where the grass was +shorter still. + +"How old are you?" he asked. + +"I'm seven," said Marian. + +"That's very young," he replied. "I'm seven million." + +"Good gracious!" said Marian. "And how old is Mrs Jugg?" + +"She's as old as I am," he said, "but she looks younger." + +When they came to the middle of this field he stood still and stamped +with his foot three and a half times--three big stamps and a little +stamp--and then the field suddenly opened. Marian saw a hole at her feet +with a lot of steps in it going down, down, down. + +"This is where I live," he said. "You needn't be frightened. It's quite +safe. I'll lead the way." + +He was still holding her hand, and he went down before her, a step at a +time, very carefully. + +"Isn't it rather dark?" said Marian. + +"Wait till I've shut the door," he said, "and then you'll get a +surprise." + +When both their heads were well below the ground, he tapped twice on the +wall; and then the hole was shut so that they couldn't see the sky, and +a most wonderful thing happened. They were at the beginning of a long +passage, almost a mile long, with a lovely slope in it; and on each side +of it there were hundreds of little lights, all of different colours. +There were blue lights, and green lights, and yellow lights, and crimson +lights, and lights of all sorts of other colours that Marian had never +seen or even imagined. Both the walls and the floor of the passage were +quite smooth, and just where they stood there was a little cupboard. +"This is where I keep my scooter," he said. "It saves time, and there's +lots of room on it for two." + +He opened the cupboard door and took out a scooter. + +"Now put your hands," he said, "on my shoulders." + +"Oh, what fun!" said Marian, and she suddenly noticed that he seemed to +have grown taller. + +She climbed on to the scooter behind him. He gave it a little push and +they began to glide down the passage. At first they went quite slowly, +because the slope was so gentle. But soon they were going faster and +faster; and presently they went so fast that all the coloured lights +became two streaks of light, one on each side of them. Marian could +hardly breathe. + +"What's going to happen at the end?" she thought. But about half-way +along the passage began to go uphill again. The coloured streaks became +separate lights. The scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped +just in front of a closed door, and there, in the wall, was another +little cupboard. + +"Here we are," said Mr Jugg, putting the scooter away. "I expect they're +all having tea." + +Then he opened the door, and Marian almost lost her breath again, for +what she saw was a great long room, with lots and lots of little tables +in it, and bumpies sitting on chairs round every table. Hanging from the +ceiling of this room were hundreds of coloured lights just like the +lights that she had seen in the passage--blue lights, and green lights, +and yellow lights, and crimson lights, and lights of all sorts of other +colours of which she didn't even know the name. And there was such a +clamour of talking and laughing, and spoon-clinking and plate-clinking, +and chair-creaking and table-creaking, that Marian could hardly hear +what Mr Jugg was saying, although he was shouting in her ear. + +"That's my wife," he said. "That's Mrs Jugg, that lady over there, just +coming toward us." + +Marian looked where he was pointing, and saw a stout little lady with a +smiling face. + +She was exactly as tall as Mr Jugg, but she weighed two and a half +pounds more. As for the bumpies, they were of all sorts of sizes, but +they all wore the same kind of clothes--little dark green jackets over +little dark green vests, little dark green knickers, and little dark +green socks. Fastened to each jacket were two little hooks, one behind +each shoulder--these were for their wings. But they only wore wings when +they were having their flying lessons. Suddenly they all stopped talking +and stared at Marian. Some of them stood on their chairs in order to see +her better. She felt very shy, and began to blush. + +Mrs Jugg came and gave her a kiss. + +"This is Marian," said Mr Jugg. "Can you give her some tea?" + +"Why, of course I can," said Mrs Jugg, giving Marian two more kisses. +"Come with me, my dear. You shall have tea at my table." + +She introduced Marian to all the bumpies. + +They gave her three cheers, and then went on with their tea, and soon +Marian was having tea herself--such a tea as she had never had before, +not even at her Uncle Joe's. There was bread and butter with bumpy jam +on it and bumpy Devonshire cream on the top of the jam, and there was +bumpy cake with bumpy cherries in it, and there were bumpy meringues, +and there was bumpy honey. + +"Why, it's just like a birthday tea!" said Marian. + +"That's because it is one," said Mr Jugg. "Every tea's a birthday tea +down here. There are so many bumpies, you see, that it's always +somebody's birthday." + +"Dear me!" said Marian; "but isn't that rather a bother--I mean for you +and Mrs Jugg?" + +Mrs Jugg gave her another meringue. + +"There aren't any bothers," she said, "in Heaven." + +"But this isn't Heaven," said Marian, "is it?" + +"Well, of course it is," said Mrs Jugg--"part of it." + +"But it's under the ground," said Marian. + +"Well, never mind. Heaven's everywhere, only most people don't know it." + +Marian was surprised, but she felt all lovely and shivery. Fancy Heaven +being so near home! What a thing to be able to tell Mummy! Mrs Jugg gave +her some more cake. Some of the bumpies had finished now, and were +getting impatient. Presently Mr Jugg clapped his hands. Then they all +stood up, and Mrs Jugg said grace, and then they all rushed toward the +door. + +This wasn't the door by which Marian had come in, but a door that opened +into another room--a great big room with even more lights in it, and +hundreds of swings and all sorts of rocking-horses. In less than a +minute there were bumpies upon every one of them, and two of the bumpies +took charge of Marian. She had a lovely swing and a ride on a +rocking-horse, and then they all began to play games. They played +ring-a-ring o' roses, and bumpy in the corner, and bumpy hide-and-seek, +and angel's buff; and then Mr Jugg took her into the flying school to +see some of the older bumpies fly. + +This was like a big gymnasium, with lots and lots of pegs in it, and a +pair of wings hanging from each peg; and on the floor there were great +soft mattresses so that the bumpies shouldn't hurt themselves if they +fell down. But the bumpies that Marian saw had almost learned to fly. +They would soon be proper angels and able to fly anywhere. + +"And then," said Mr Jugg, "they'll be going into the upper school to +learn history and geography and all about dreams and things." + +"Where's the upper school?" asked Marian. + +"Oh, it's all over the place," said Mr Jugg; "there are ever so many +class-rooms, you see. And then they go to college." + +"And what happens then?" asked Marian. + +"Well, then they're able to begin to work. There's always heaps for them +to do." + +"I see," said Marian; "and now I really think that I ought to be going +home." + +"Perhaps you ought," said Mr Jugg. He led her back into the playroom, +and then into the room where they had all had tea. The tables had been +cleared now, but Mrs Jugg came toward them with a big box of bumpy +chocolates. Marian took one, and Mrs Jugg kissed her and told her that +she must be sure to come again. + +"You haven't seen half the place," she said, "nor a quarter of it. There +are miles and miles of it. Have another chocolate." + +Then Marian thanked her and gave her a kiss, and Mr Jugg opened the door +and they went into the passage. When they had come this part of the +passage had been uphill, but going back, of course, it was downhill. He +opened the cupboard and took out the scooter, and Marian stood behind +him with her hands on his shoulders. Just as before, they began to go +quite slowly, but soon they were going as fast as ever. Just as before, +the coloured lights became two streaks of light, one on each side of +them. But Marian knew now what was going to happen, and presently the +scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped just at the foot of +the steps, and Mr Jugg put it away in the cupboard. He hit the wall +twice, and there, at the top of the steps, Marian saw the hole open, and +the sky above it. + +"Goodness me!" she said. "How late it is!" + +The sky was quite dark, and the stars were shining. + +Mr Jugg blew his nose. + +"Poor Mummy!" she said; "she will be so frightened." + +"Where do you live?" asked Mr Jugg. + +Marian told him. + +"I'd better fly you there," he said. "Half a tick." + +He went down the steps again, and opened the little cupboard, and came +back with a pair of wings. + +"Now, if you can get on my back," he said, "we'll be home in half a +minute." + +She climbed on to his shoulders, just as if she were going to ride +pick-a-back, and then he gave a little jump and they were up in the air. +They skimmed across the fields and down Peter Street just as fast as an +express train. At Marian's door he put her down. + +"Which is your bedroom window?" he asked. + +She told him. + +"Now I must be saying good-night," he said. "No, I won't come in. It's +against the rules for the King of the Bumpies." So he took off his hat +and made her a little bow, and before she could wink almost, he had +gone. Then she knocked at the door, and next moment Mummy was hugging +her as tight as tight. Then Daddy came and hugged her too, and Cuthbert, +who had gone to bed, looked over the landing banisters. + +"Where have you been?" he asked. + +"Why, where _haven't_ I been?" said Marian, and then she told them all +about it. Cuthbert didn't believe her. But Cuthbert didn't believe +anything. He was nine years old, and was beginning to learn French. But +Mummy believed her, and Daddy believed her; and I'll tell you another +thing that happened. + +Late that night, when everybody was asleep, Mr Jugg flew to Marian's +window. Marian's angel--everybody has a guardian angel--was smoking a +quiet cigarette on the sill outside. + +"Hullo!" he said; "fancy seeing you here!" + +He had once been a bumpy, you see, and Mr Jugg had taught him to fly. + +"Good evening," said Mr Jugg; "what do you think of this?" + +It was a little dream that he had brought for Marian. + +"By George!" said the angel, "that's a beauty." + +He slipped it very softly under Marian's pillow. + +She must have dreamed it too, for next morning when Mummy made her bed +it wasn't there. But, alas! the loveliest dreams of all are the ones +that we never remember. + + + + + Like the jungle he lives in, + Tiger wears a dappled skin. + Foxes on the plains of snow + White as their surroundings go. + + So do fishes lose their sight, + Buried in the ocean's night, + Little knowing lovely day + Lies but half a mile away. + + For the truth is plain to see, + As our haunts are, so are we; + And in cities you will find + Busy blind men just as blind. + + Long ago they lost their eyes + Under bags of merchandise; + And they know not there are still + Angels on the window-sill. + + + + +GWENDOLEN + + + + +[Illustration: Monkey Island] + + + + +II + +GWENDOLEN + + +Living in the same town as Marian there was a little girl called +Gwendolen. Marian didn't know her very well, though they went to the +same school and sometimes smiled at each other in church. Her father and +mother were always climbing mountains and lecturing about them +afterward, so Gwendolen had to live with her aunt, who was very rich and +wore a lot of rings. + +In many ways Gwendolen was a nice girl, but she had an exceptionally +large tummy. Some people said that it was her own fault, because she was +always sitting about eating marzipan. But some people said that she +couldn't help her tummy, and had to eat a lot to keep it full. There +were also people who said that her aunt spoiled her, being so greedy +herself and always eating buttered toast. + +Gwendolen's aunt had a pale, proud face, deeply lined by indigestion, +and she lived in a big house on the right-hand side of Bellington +Square. The colour of this house was a yellowish cream, and it had two +pillars in front of the front door. There were eleven steps leading up +to it, and there was a boy to open it who wore twelve brass buttons. + +In the middle of this Square there was a sort of garden with tall iron +railings all round it, and each of the people living in the Square had a +key to open the gate of it. It was the tidiest garden in the whole +world, and all the flowers in it stood in rows; and the people in the +Square paid for a gardener to shave the grass every day. One of the +reasons why the people in the Square were so rich was that they had so +few children; and the children that they did have had to be very careful +not to make foot-marks on the grass. Gwendolen's aunt sometimes went +there when she had a headache and wanted to throw it off; and Gwendolen +went there to eat marzipan and read about Princes and Princesses. She +generally sat on a painted iron seat in front of a flower-bed shaped +like a lozenge, and once she was sick behind a bush called _B. +stenophylla_ on a tin label. + +One day she was sitting on this seat when she heard a curious sort of +sound. At first it was rather faint, so that she didn't take much notice +of it, but gradually it became louder and louder. Her aunt was sitting +on the same seat wondering which of her medicines to take before dinner, +and Gwendolen noticed that she began to look annoyed, because the noise +was the sound of a harmonium. Some people like harmoniums, and have them +in their houses, and play hymns on them on Sunday afternoons. But this +was a harmonium that went on wheels, with a man to push it, and a woman +walking beside him. After he had pushed it for a few yards he would sit +down and play a tune on it, while the woman walked up and down, looking +at people's windows and trying to catch their eye. If she saw anybody +she would say "Kind lady," or "Kind gentleman," as the case might be, +and perhaps the kind lady or the kind gentleman would throw her some +money, and then she would say "God bless you." But people like that, +with travelling harmoniums, weren't allowed to come into Bellington +Square, and Gwendolen's aunt said, "Dear me, just when I wanted a little +peace and quiet!" + +If there had been anybody near, such as a policeman or a gardener, she +would have told him to send the musicians away. But it was very hot, and +there was nobody about, and so the people went on playing. Gwendolen +watched them for a while through the railings, and the butler at Number +Ten gave the woman a sixpence. Her aunt was very angry about it when +Gwendolen told her, for what was the good of making rules, she said, if +you encouraged people to break them? + +The people with the harmonium came a little nearer, and then Gwendolen +could see what they looked like. The woman was stout, with a hard brown +face and rolling eyes like dark-coloured pebbles. When she smiled it was +as if she had pinned it on, and as if the smile didn't really belong to +her. The man had pale eyes, like those of ferrets in a hutch, and he +watched the woman all the time he was playing. Gwendolen noticed that +there was a long string fastened to one of the handles of the harmonium. +She heard a little voice close to her knees. + +"Oh, Gwendolen," it said, "save me." + +Gwendolen looked down and saw the unhappiest little face that she had +ever seen in her life. It belonged to a small brown monkey wearing a red +jacket and a blue sailor hat. He was staring up at her with timid dark +eyes. + +"I heard your aunt speak to you," he said. "So I know your name." + +He looked over his shoulder at the man and the woman. But the woman was +looking at the houses, and the man was watching her. + +"What's the matter?" said Gwendolen. + +He was holding on to the garden railings. + +"Lift up my jacket," he said, "and you'll see." + +Gwendolen stooped down and lifted up his jacket. There were three great +wounds across his back. + +"Oh dear!" she cried; "how did you get those?" + +"They beat me," he said. "They're always beating me." + +Gwendolen may have been lazy, and she may have been greedy, but she had +a soft heart, and the monkey had seen this. + +"Oh, how dreadful!" she said. "But when did you learn to talk?" + +The monkey shivered a little. + +"Hush, they don't know," he replied. "I've lived with them so long that +I've learned their language." + +"But why don't you run away?" asked Gwendolen. + +"How can I? They keep me on this string and beat me every night." + +Gwendolen thought for a moment. + +"Oh, Gwendolen," he said, "do save me if you can!" + +From where she was kneeling Gwendolen could see the woman going up the +steps to one of the houses. The man was watching her as usual. Gwendolen +was half hidden from them by a bush. + +"But there's my aunt," she said. "I don't know what my aunt would say." + +"Listen," said the monkey. "I could take you to a lovely island." + +Gwendolen frowned a little. + +"But I don't know," she said, "that my aunt's very fond of islands." + +"She would be of this," said the monkey. "What's your aunt fondest of?" + +Gwendolen thought for a moment. + +"Buttered toast," she said. + +"Well, it's ever so much nicer," said the monkey, "than buttered toast." + +Gwendolen looked at her aunt and then at the monkey, with his sad eyes +and shaking limbs. There wasn't much time. In another minute the man and +the woman would be moving on. Close beside her, in a little green box, +she could see the tops of the handles of the gardener's shears. She took +a deep breath. Then she made up her mind. + +"All right," she said. "I'll see what I can do." + +She crept to the box and took out the shears. The monkey squeezed +himself through the railings. With a beating heart Gwendolen cut the +string, caught up the monkey, and ran to her aunt. Her aunt looked up. + +"Why, what have you got here?" she asked. + +"He belongs to those people," said Gwendolen, "with the harmonium." + +"Oh, save me!" said the monkey. "Save me!" + +"Look what they've done to him," said Gwendolen. She lifted the monkey's +jacket. Gwendolen's aunt put on her spectacles. + +"Dear me!" she said; "but the monkey talks!" + +"Yes," said Gwendolen. "He's been learning for a long time." + +The monkey clasped his hands and looked into Gwendolen's aunt's face. He +saw deep down into her, where her good nature was. + +"If you let me go back to them," he said, "they'll kill me. Oh, lady +dear, please help me!" + +Gwendolen's aunt was rather disturbed. Nothing like this had happened to +her before. If she took the monkey away, people would call her a thief. +But if she let him go back, perhaps he would be beaten to death. + +"Where do you live?" she asked. + +"On Monkey Island; it's the loveliest island in the world." + +"But how did you come here?" she said. + +The monkey began to tremble again. + +"They stole me away," he said, "from my wife and children." + +"Oh, Auntie," said Gwendolen, "can't we take him back there? He says +it's ever so much nicer than buttered toast." + +Her aunt stood up. + +"Oh, bother the buttered toast," she said. "It's his wife and babies +that I'm thinking about." + +Then the harmonium suddenly stopped, and they heard the man cry out. + +"Why, where's that monkey?" he said. He began to swear. They saw the +woman run down the steps. The monkey gave a little cry and jumped into +Gwendolen's aunt's arms. Then they saw the man and the woman rush toward +the railings. Both their faces were dark as night. + +"Come on," said Gwendolen's aunt. "We'll have to run for it. Make for +the gate." + +Fortunately, the gate was on the opposite side of the garden, and their +own house was opposite the gate. The man and the woman would have to run +right round the Square. + +"We ought to beat them," said Gwendolen's aunt. + +Oh, how sorry Gwendolen was then that her tummy was so large! But she +ran as fast as ever she could, and almost kept up with her aunt. The man +and the woman had started to run too, shouting aloud at the tops of +their voices. + +"We shan't be safe," said her aunt, "till we've got to the island; +because we shall really be thieves till we've taken the monkey home." + +They dashed across the grass and through the gate, and, just as they +were running up their own front steps, they saw the man and the woman +coming into sight round the corner of the railings. They had found a +policeman, and he was running with them. + +"Luckily the servants are out," said Gwendolen's aunt. + +She was quite excited, and her eyes were shining. Gwendolen had never +seen her looking so young. As soon as they were safely in the house, she +shut the front door and bolted it. + +"That'll give us another five minutes," she said. "Run upstairs and get +your hat and overcoat." + +Gwendolen ran upstairs, panting and puffing, and fetched her hat and +overcoat and her doll David. Meanwhile her aunt ran into the study, +opened her cash-box, and took out a hundred pounds. A minute later there +came a thunder of knocks and two or three peals of the front-door bell. + +"We'll get away," said her aunt, "through the back garden." + +She had packed up a knapsack and slipped into a rain-coat. The knocks +were repeated--rat-a-tat-_tat_. They heard angry voices shouting through +the letter-box. Gwendolen's aunt laughed and shook her fist at them. + +"Come along," she said; "now for the back garden." + +From the back garden there was a little door leading into a street +behind. Here there was a cab-stand, and Gwendolen's aunt told the +cab-driver to drive to the station. + +"We shall just be in time," she said, "to catch the 3.40 train." + +It was only a horse-cab, but the horse galloped, and they arrived at the +station just as the train came in. There was hardly a moment to take +their tickets in. But the guard waited for them, and they just managed +it. The engine whistled, the porter slammed the door, and the next +moment they were off. The monkey, who had been hiding under Gwendolen's +aunt's coat, poked his head out, and looked about him. Fortunately they +had the carriage all to themselves. + +"Oh dear!" said Gwendolen. "How splendid!" + +It was an express train, and it didn't stop for an hour, and then +Gwendolen's aunt thought that they had better get out. + +"We'll hire a motor-car," she said, "and go to Lullington Bay and find +my old friend Captain Jeremy. When I was young he wanted to marry me. +But I was too proud and wouldn't let him." + +So they got out and hired a motor-car, and drove at full speed to +Lullington Bay. It was a long drive, and when they arrived at the +Captain's cottage the stars were shining and the Captain was in his +garden. Deep below them they could see the ocean, dark as bronze and +knocking at the shore. Captain Jeremy was looking through a telescope. A +stout little sailing-ship was anchored in the bay. + +"Why, Josina," he said--that was Gwendolen's aunt's name--"fancy seeing +you here after all these years!" + +He was a sunburnt man with blue eyes, and Gwendolen liked him because he +looked so kind. They told him what had happened, and he looked very +grave. + +"We must be off at once," he said. "I know that man and woman." + +"Why, who are they?" asked Gwendolen. + +"Smugglers," he said. "They're two of the most dangerous people I know. +Luckily my ship is all ready to sail. We'll put off at once for Monkey +Island." + +The Captain lived alone. He had never been married. So he had only to +lock up his cottage and put the key in his pocket. + +"We ought to get there," he said, "in a couple of months' time if the +wind holds fair." + +It was the first time that Gwendolen had been on the sea, and for two or +three days she was rather sea-sick. But after that she began to enjoy +the voyage and the smell of the spray and the sight of the waves. It was +lovely weather, and as they drew near the equator a great yellow moon +shone on them all night. It was so hot that she hardly wore any clothes, +and used to go barefooted just like the sailors; and she grew so brown +and so graceful that she scarcely looked like the same girl. As for her +tummy--well, there was no marzipan on board, and she soon began to lose +all her love for it. She would ever so much rather be up in the rigging +with David her doll and Captain Jeremy's telescope. + +One day she suddenly noticed a sort of little cloud on the horizon. But +it didn't move, and as the ship drew nearer she saw that the cloud was +really an island. She called to the monkey, and he ran up the rigging +beside her, and after one look he could hardly contain himself. + +"That's the island," he cried, "my beautiful island, with my wife on it +and my children." + +Presently they came so close that they could see the golden sand and the +tall trees with their clusters of fruit; and soon the ship was +anchored, and Captain Jeremy gave orders for a boat to be lowered. +Captain Jeremy himself, with two of his sailors, and Gwendolen, and +Gwendolen's aunt all got into it; and in another five minutes they were +standing on dry land again, with the happy monkey dancing beside them. +Captain Jeremy and the sailors stayed by the boat, but Gwendolen and her +aunt and the monkey began to explore the island. There were flowers +everywhere, not planted in rows like the flowers in Bellington Square, +but growing where they liked, and rejoicing in their freedom and +praising God with their beautiful colours. Some of the trees were +smooth, with curious flat leaves and knobbly brown berries that tasted +like buttered toast. But Gwendolen's aunt had made a resolve to give up +eating buttered toast. Since she had helped Gwendolen to rescue the +monkey all her indigestion had disappeared; and she felt as fresh, and +looked as pretty, as if she were only half her age. + +Some of the trees were different, with twisted trunks, and pale red +blossoms dripping with juice; and this juice tasted like marzipan, but +Gwendolen had resolved to give up marzipan. + +But it was a lovelier island than they had ever imagined, and soon the +little monkey gave a cry of joy, and the next moment he was hugging in +his arms another little monkey that had dashed to meet him. It was his +wife, and just behind her there were two smaller monkeys waiting to be +kissed; and Gwendolen and her aunt could almost have cried to see how +happy they all were. + +For nearly a month they stayed at the island, sleeping on board, but +landing every morning; and Gwendolen learned to swim almost as well as a +fish and to climb trees almost as well as a monkey. But Captain Jeremy +wasn't really happy until a big steamer happened to come by with news +that the man and the woman had been drowned in a storm on their way to +try and catch Gwendolen and her aunt. It was now October, and by the +time that they arrived home Gwendolen would have been away from school +for a term and a half. So they said good-bye to the monkey and his +family, and set sail from the island. Gwendolen cried a little, and so +did her aunt; but on the way home an odd thing happened, for Captain +Jeremy asked her aunt to marry him, and they had to think a lot about +the wedding. They decided to get married on Christmas Day, and when +Gwendolen's school-friends saw her as a bridesmaid she had grown so tall +and straight and happy-looking that they wondered what on earth could +possibly have happened to her. + + + + + "Sailor, sailor, + What's the song + That you sing + The whole day long?" + + And the sailor + Said to me: + "Birth's the jetty, + Time's the sea, + + "Death's the harbour, + Life's the trip, + Hope's the pilot, + You're the ship." + + "Sailor, sailor, + Tell me true, + What's beyond + Those waters blue?" + + But the sailor + Shook his head; + "That's a secret, + Sir," he said. + + + + +THE LITTLE ICE-MEN + + + + +[Illustration: Cuthbert and Doris] + + + + +III + +THE LITTLE ICE-MEN + + +Marian's daddy was very glad when Captain Jeremy married Gwendolen's +aunt, because he and Captain Jeremy had been boys at school together, +and he had always been very fond of him; and he was gladder still when +Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt left Bellington Square. This they +did a week after the wedding, because Captain Jeremy hated Bellington +Square; and they went to live in an old farmhouse, two miles out of the +town. + +It was a beautiful old house, with a gabled roof and golden-red bricks +like a winter sunset; and the hall and passages of it were dark and +velvety, and the rooms upstairs smelt of lavender. Leading from the road +to the front door was a cobbly path, with lawns on each side of it, and +big trees standing on the lawns, with low-spreading branches that +touched the grass. Behind the house was a kitchen-garden full of +cucumber-frames and vegetables, and behind that was an orchard, with a +gate leading into the fields. These were all hard and crinkly with +frost, and the fruit-trees were bare, because it was the second of +January, but that made the house seem all the snugger, with its low +panelled walls and log fires. + +When they had been in this house a week, Gwendolen's aunt gave a +children's party, and Marian and Cuthbert were asked to go, because +their daddy was Captain Jeremy's friend. Marian was very pleased, +because she had always liked Gwendolen, although she had never known her +very well, but Cuthbert said that he didn't like her and that he'd +rather stay at home. Marian told him how much she had improved since her +voyage to Monkey Island, but Cuthbert said that he didn't care, and that +she was a silly sort of girl anyhow. He was only pretending, however, +because just after Christmas he had been in hospital having his tonsils +out, and he had already missed two or three parties and didn't mean to +miss another. + +So they went to the party, and Cuthbert was rather glad, because one of +the girls there was a girl called Doris, who had been in hospital having +her tonsils out just at the same time as he. She was rather a decent +girl, ten years old, with dark-coloured eyes and brown hair, and one of +her thumbs was double-jointed, and she had been eight times to the +seaside. Just at present she was a little pale, and so was Cuthbert +himself; and Gwendolen was so brown that, when they stood near her, they +looked paler still. + +Captain Jeremy came and shook hands with them. + +"Hullo," he said, "what's the matter with you?" + +"It's their tonsils," said Marian. "They've just had them out, and of +course they're a little pulled down." + +Captain Jeremy examined them thoughtfully. + +Cuthbert liked him, and so did Doris. + +"What you want," he said, "is a trip with me. That would soon set you up +again." + +Gwendolen and Marian had gone off to play, so Cuthbert and Doris had him +to themselves. + +"I should like it very much," said Cuthbert. + +"So should I," said Doris, "but I'm afraid Mummy wouldn't let me go." + +"I see," said the Captain. "Well, I'm off next week to Port Jacobson in +the Arctic Circle. But you wouldn't be able to go to school next term if +you came with me, because I shan't be back till the middle of May." + +Cuthbert put his hand up and pinched his throat. + +"It's still rather sore," he said. + +"So is mine," said Doris. + +Captain Jeremy laughed. + +"Well, there's nothing like the Arctic Circle," he said, "for people +who've just had their tonsils out." + +Then he spoke to Doris. + +"Let me see," he said: "I know where Cuthbert lives, but where do you +live?" + +Doris told him that she lived in John Street, which was the next street +to Cuthbert's. Her father was dead, and her mummy was rather poor, as +she had five other children besides Doris. + +Captain Jeremy nodded. + +"Then perhaps I shall be able to persuade her," he said, "to let me take +you off her hands for a bit." + +Doris danced up and down. + +"Oh, I wish you would!" she cried. "I'd simply love to see the Arctic +Circle!" + +"So should I," said Cuthbert, and they were both so excited that they +could hardly eat any tea. When Marian heard about it, she wished that +she was pale too, and she wished it ever so much more the next morning +when Captain Jeremy called on her father and mother and persuaded them +to let Cuthbert go. Then he went to John Street and talked to Doris's +mother, and he looked so commanding and yet so gentle that Doris's +mother said she would be very glad to let Doris go with him to Port +Jacobson. + +"Of course, it'll be very cold," he said, "and they'll have to wear +furs, but we can easily get those when we arrive, and all they'll want +for the voyage is plenty of underclothing and their oldest clothes." + +For a voyage like that, all among the ice, Captain Jeremy's sailing-ship +wasn't quite suitable, so he had hired a little steamer with very thick +sides, and a trusty pilot. Port Jacobson was in a sort of bay just under +the shelter of Cape Fury, and beyond Cape Fury the coast had hardly been +explored, it was all so bare and bleak and rocky. The only people who +lived there were a few fishermen, a clergyman called Mr Smith, and a +couple of engineers, who had been there for a year and had just found a +coal-mine. It was the engineers who had written to Captain Jeremy, +because they wanted him to bring them some machinery, and also because +they wanted him to take back some of the coal that they had already dug +up. That was how Captain Jeremy made his living, fetching and carrying +things across the sea. + +Neither Cuthbert nor Doris was the least bit sea-sick, and they loved +to stand on the bridge beside Captain Jeremy and see the great billows +rushing toward the steamer, one after another, in the bright sunshine. +Sometimes they went below into the dark engine-room, where they had to +shout to make themselves heard, and where the pistons of the engines +slid to and fro like the arms of boxers that never got tired. How they +loved the cabin, too, at meal-times, when the cook rolled in with the +steaming dishes, and what meals they ate, in spite of the lurching table +and the water slamming against the port-holes! + +In a couple of days' time they had forgotten all about their tonsils, +and two days after that they had almost forgotten their homes, and a +week later they saw something in the distance like the grey ghost of a +cathedral. It was an iceberg--the first that they had seen; but soon +they began to see them every day, sometimes pale, in mournful groups, +like broken statues in a cemetery, and sometimes sparkling in the sun as +though they were crusted with a million diamonds. + +One day they came on deck just after breakfast and saw miles and miles +of ice, all jumbled together, and three hours later they saw a great +cliff, covered with snow, standing out to sea. That was Cape Fury, and +as they drew nearer they could see a little cluster of dark houses, with +spires of smoke rising from their chimneys, and that was Port Jacobson. +The pilot was on deck now, shouting all the time, and the steamer was +going very slowly, with ice on each side of it, and they could see some +men coming toward them, with rough-haired dogs pulling sledges. At last +the steamer could get no farther, although it was still about a mile +from the town, and they cast out anchors and a long cable that they +began to carry toward the shore. It seemed very funny to Cuthbert and +Doris to feel their feet again on something steady, even though this was +only the rough surface of the frozen bay in front of the port. The days +were so short here that the sun was already low, and the great cape +stood dark and menacing, while far inland they could see the peaks of +mountains slowly fading against the sky. + +Among the men who had come to meet them were the two engineers and Mr +Smith, and they were very surprised to see Cuthbert and Doris running +about on the ice and trying to make snowballs. Then they all set off +toward the little town, with the lights shining in its windows, and Mr +Smith said that they must stay with him, because he and Mrs Smith had no +children. Captain Jeremy was to stay with the two engineers, who had +built a little house of their own, but they all came in to supper with +the Smiths, and Cuthbert and Doris were allowed to sit up. + +"To-morrow," said Mr Smith, "we'll get you some furs, and then you'll be +able to go tobogganing with the other children," and Cuthbert and Doris +said "Hooray!" because they had learned to toboggan on Fairbarrow Down. +Just before they went to bed they saw a wonderful thing, for the whole +of the sky began to quiver, and beautiful colours went dancing across +it, melting away and then coming back again. These were the Northern +Lights, or the Aurora Borealis, and Cuthbert and Doris could have +watched them all night. + +But they soon fell asleep; and most of the next day they were out +tobogganing with the other children, and they soon became so good at it +that they could go as fast as any of them, and hardly ever had a spill. +By the end of the week they had got into the habit of climbing on to the +top of Cape Fury and tobogganing back again, more than a mile and a +half, right down to Mr Smith's house. The first time they climbed up +there the slope had looked so steep, and the roofs of the houses so far +below them, that they had stood for nearly ten minutes before they could +make up their minds to start. But some of the other children had done +it, and at last Doris had said, "Well, come on, Cuthbert, we mustn't be +afraid," and Cuthbert had told her to hold on tight, and so they had +pushed off over the frozen snow. + +By the time they had got half-way, they were going so fast that the air +was roaring in their ears, but the track was straight, and they had kept +in the middle of it, and ran safely into the town. After that it didn't +seem worth while to go tobogganing on any of the lower hills, and that +was how it came about that the following Wednesday they found themselves +as usual on the top of Cape Fury. + +It was a still, cold day, and the air was so clear that they could see +the coast for miles and miles, and the tops of mountains far inland that +they had never seen before. Below them in the bay, stuck in the ice, +they could see the little steamer, with the sailors on the deck, and +beyond the ice a strip of blue water, and beyond that again more ice +still. That was on one side of them, and on the other they saw the +farther slope of Cape Fury, slanting down and down and down to the +unexplored regions toward the north. It was a gentler slope than the +slope toward the town, and suddenly Cuthbert had a great idea. + +"I say," he said, "why shouldn't we toboggan down there? I don't suppose +anybody has ever done it." + +What with the wind and the sun and the snow, the cheeks of both of them +were like ripe chestnuts, and Doris's eyes began to sparkle as she +listened to Cuthbert's great idea. When he was at home Cuthbert didn't +get many ideas, and he generally used to laugh at other people's, so he +was very pleased when he got this one and Doris said that she thought it +ripping. + +"We won't go too fast," he said, "so that, if we see a precipice or +anything, we shall be able to stop ourselves in time." + +They had a stout little toboggan, just big enough for two, and so they +started off down this new slope, with the sun shining and the snow +glittering. At first they moved quite slowly, but lower down the side of +the hill became steeper, and soon they were going so fast that, even if +they had wanted to, they would have found it pretty hard to stop +themselves. And then an awful thing happened, for suddenly, just in +front of them, they saw a deep cleft in the snow sliding down, at a +terrific angle, into a sort of tunnel under the hillside. + +Almost before they could breathe, they had plunged into this, and now +there was nothing to do but to hold on. They saw the tunnel's mouth +leaping toward them, and the next moment they were in darkness. Neither +Cuthbert nor Doris had ever been so frightened before. In the pitchy +blackness they could see nothing. They could only feel themselves +shooting deeper and deeper into the very heart of the frozen earth. +Sometimes a bump on the floor of the tunnel would send them careering +toward the roof, and then they would come down again with a thud that +almost pitched them off the toboggan. Every moment they expected to be +killed. There came another tremendous bump. And then they felt their +toboggan springing through the air and dropping like a stone into some +fearful well. They shut their eyes, waiting for death, and then went +rolling over and over, with something strange and soft and feathery +wrapping them round like a bedroom quilt. For a minute or two they could +only gasp, and then Cuthbert sat up and called to Doris. + +"Hullo, Doris!" he said; "are you all right?" + +"Yes, I think so," said Doris. "Are you?" + +Cuthbert told her that he was; and now that they could look about, they +saw that they were on the floor of an immense cave, and that they had +pitched down from somewhere near the top of it on to a huge mass of +feathers. These were evidently the feathers of thousands and thousands +of sea-birds; but who could have plucked them and stored them here so +carefully? + +Then they heard a strange sort of coughing and grunting and spluttering, +and they saw the oddest of little men. He was about three feet high, +with a red beard and a very cheerful sort of face, and he had evidently +been asleep in among the feathers, for he was rubbing his eyes and +staring at them in astonishment. Then they heard some more grunting and +coughing, and at last they saw a dozen of these little men standing all +round them, dressed in the skins of animals, and with feathers sticking +to their beards. They were all looking rather disturbed, but when +Cuthbert and Doris smiled they began to smile too and come toward them. +Then they began to talk, and, though at first the sounds that they made +seemed very queer, Cuthbert and Doris, rather to their surprise, found +that they could understand them perfectly well. That was because the +language in which the little men spoke was the oldest language in the +world, the father and mother of all the other languages, and so of +course the children soon understood it. They also found that in a very +little while they could talk in this language themselves, and soon they +were all chattering together about what had happened, as if they had +known each other all their lives. + +Now that they had become used to the dim light, they could see that this +great cave had walls of rock, with long icicles hanging from the roof +and the sticking-out pieces of the walls. Most of the floor of it was of +smooth ice, but in the middle there was a flat rock; and on this rock +there was a little fire burning, a little fire made of coal. The leader +of the men was a man called Marmaduke, and he told the children that +they had all been asleep, and that they had lived in this cave for +hundreds of thousands of years, and that the great pile of feathers was +where they went to bed. + +"But it's day-time," said Cuthbert. "Why do you go to bed in day-time?" + +Marmaduke laughed, and so did all the other men. + +"Because at night," he said, "we go out and hunt to get our wolf-and +seal-meat, when no one can see us." + +But they were all so excited at the appearance of Cuthbert and Doris +that they led them to the fire, where they sat and talked to them, and +presently they cooked a delicious meal for them of seal-soup and +wolf-chops. The coal that they burnt they had found in a deep hole in +one corner of the cave, and at the other corner there was a little +crack, down which they presently led the children. This opened upon a +ledge of ice, five or six feet above the shore, but now they could +hardly see anything, because the air was full of snow, driving fiercely +into their faces. The little ice-men looked grave. + +"It's a blizzard," they said, "and very likely it'll go on for a week. +But luckily we've got plenty of meat, so that we shan't be in want of +food." + +"But how shall we get back?" said Doris. "They won't know where we are, +and they'll think that we're both dead." + +Marmaduke shook his head. + +"I don't exactly know," he replied, "how you'd get back in any case. You +could never climb up the way you came, and it's very difficult to get +round the coast." + +"But we'll have to get back somehow," said Cuthbert, "because of our +relations at home." + +Marmaduke looked puzzled. + +"What are relations?" he said. "And why should you want to go back?" + +So Cuthbert had to tell them all about his father and mother and his +Uncle Joe and his sister Marian; and Doris had to tell them all about +her mummy and her five little brothers and her aunts and cousins. They +were very interested, but it was quite clear that Cuthbert and Doris +couldn't leave that night; and so presently they crept in among the +feathers, and were soon very comfy and fast asleep. The next morning it +was still snowing, but it was rather fun helping to cook the meals, and +the little men showed them some lovely dances that were almost as old as +the world itself. + +For a whole week they had to stay in the cave, with the blizzard raging +outside, but one morning when they crept down the crack they found the +sky clear and the sun shining. They could now see, towering straight +above them, tremendous precipices of rock, and miles of boulders and +broken ice, stretching out toward the horizon. + +"Our only hope," said Cuthbert, "is that Captain Jeremy and some of the +fishermen will come exploring for us," and just as he said that far in +the distance they heard the report of a gun. Then a long way off they +saw some little figures and a tiny sledge drawn by dogs; and they stood +on tiptoe and waved and waved, hoping that Captain Jeremy might see them +through his telescope. + +The little ice-men never came out by daylight, and when they heard what +the children had seen they made them promise on their dying oath not to +tell anybody the way to the cave. Once before, they said, a learned man +had discovered them, and he had tried to measure them with a pair of +compasses, so they had had to kill him, as gently as they could, by +putting him in the middle of the pile of feathers. Then they said +good-bye, and all the little men kissed them and sent their love to +everybody at home, and Cuthbert and Doris began to scramble over the ice +toward the sledge-party that was now much nearer. + +When Captain Jeremy met them, you can guess how pleased he was, because +he had made up his mind that they must have been killed; and good Mr +Smith had tears in his eyes, but they were tears of joy. Everybody at +Port Jacobson, too, was so pleased that they made a big bonfire to +celebrate the occasion, and they all drank the healths of the little +ice-men and ate a lot of sweets in their honour. + +When the children arrived home, however, early in May, and Cuthbert told +Marian all about them, she said at first that she wouldn't believe in +them, because Cuthbert hadn't believed in Mr Jugg. But Cuthbert had +grown wiser and less conceited, and he told Marian that he had changed +his mind. So Marian believed in them, and her daddy was rather pleased, +because there were more things under the earth, he said, than most +people imagined. + + + + + Not a twig that learned to climb + In the babyhood of time, + + Not a bud that broke the air + In the days before men were, + + Not a bird that tossed in flight + Ere the first man walked upright, + + Nor a bee with craftier cell + Than a Roman citadel, + + But, with all its pride and pain, + Into dust crept back again. + + Oh, what wisdom there must be + Hidden in the earth and me! + + + + +UNCLE JOE'S STORY + + + + +[Illustration: Bella at Eden] + + + + +IV + +UNCLE JOE'S STORY + + +Marian's mummy used to read the Bible to her, so that she knew all about +Adam and Eve; but she never knew that Eve had a little daughter until +Uncle Joe told her this story. Next to her mummy and daddy, Marian loved +Uncle Joe better than anybody in the whole world. He lived in a little +house tucked into a sort of dimple on the side of Fairbarrow Down, and a +man called Mr Parker lived with him and helped to keep the place tidy. +Uncle Joe had been a soldier in a lot of queer countries a long way off; +and when Marian and Cuthbert asked him what he had fought for, he +generally used to tell them that it was for lost causes. In between wars +he had done lots of other things, such as trying to find out what caused +diseases, or whether plants that grew in some places could be made to +grow in others. Mr Parker had been a soldier too--a soldier of +misfortune, he used to say--and he had saved Uncle Joe's life three +times, and Uncle Joe had saved his life twice. + +Uncle Joe's face was yellowish brown, because he had been in the sun so +much and had fever; but Mr Parker's face was red, and one of his eyes +was made of glass. Mr Parker used to call himself a lone, lorn orphan, +though he was much fatter than Uncle Joe, and afterward he used to spit +and say that it was rough weather in the Baltic. + +It was about a fortnight after Cuthbert and Doris had come back from the +Arctic Circle that Uncle Joe told Marian this story, while they were +sitting under one of his apple-trees. Some of the apple-petals had begun +to drop, leaving the tiny, weeny, baby apples behind them, and the only +really ripe apples in Uncle Joe's garden were the two apples in Marian's +cheeks. + +"But those aren't real apples," said Marian. + +"Well, it all depends," said Uncle Joe, "on what you mean by real." + +"You see," said Mr Parker, who had just come out to mow the lawn, +"there's more kinds of apples than a few. There's eating apples and +cooking apples and pineapples and crab-apples; and there's oak-apples +and Adam's apples and the apples what you sees in little girls' cheeks." + +"Kissing apples," said Uncle Joe. "They're one of the most important +kinds." + +He began to fill his pipe. + +"And now that I come to think of it," he said, "they're one of the +oldest kinds too." + +"As old as Mr Jugg," asked Marian, "or the little ice-men?" + +"Well," said Uncle Joe, "I don't know about that. But they're certainly +as old as Eve's little girl," and then he began to tell Marian all about +her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he said, "what her name was. It might have been +Gretchen or Olga, or it might have been Seraphine or Marie-Louise, but I +rather think that it was Bella. Of course you remember what happened in +the Garden of Eden, and how Adam and Eve had to leave it, not because +the good Lord God wanted to turn them out, but because He knew that they +could never be happy there any more. Every hour that they stayed they +would have become more and more miserable; and if they had come back it +would have broken their hearts, so He had to put two angels to guard the +gate. You see, He had wanted them to be sort of grown-up babies in the +loveliest nursery ever imagined, and to be able to go there and play +games with them whenever He was tired of ruling the universe. But when +once they had heard about growing up, and choosing for themselves, and +things of that sort, they could never have been babies any more, and it +would have been cruel to keep them in the nursery. + +"Of course, they didn't understand that, and they thought it very hard, +and very often they used to grumble; and when they had learned to write +they used to send Him angry letters and say bad things about Him in +books. That was chiefly because they had to work and learn to look after +themselves; but that was the only way, as the good Lord God saw, in +which they could ever be happy again. 'They weren't content,' He +thought, 'just to be My playthings, so now they must learn to be My +comrades; and perhaps in the end that'll be the best for everybody, +though it'll be a long, long time before they've learnt how.' And then +He sighed as He saw the empty nursery and all the animals that they used +to play with, just as fathers and mothers sigh now when their babies +grow up and have to go to school. So Adam and Eve had to leave the +Garden, and just outside it there was a big town, full of houses and +factories and chimneys, and men and women who worked all day long. Who +were those men and women, and where did they come from? Well, it's +rather hard to explain. You see, Adam and Eve, through never having +grown up, had been in the Garden for thousands and thousands of years. +But outside the Garden there were seas and deserts and thick, hot +jungles full of wild animals. Some of these animals had looked through +the railings and been very struck with Adam and Eve, and sort of wished +in the bottoms of their hearts that they could have children just like +them. Some of them wished so hard that their next lot of children +actually did become a little like them, and their grandchildren became +liker still, and at last their great-great-grandchildren became real men +and women. Of course they weren't Garden men and women, like Adam and +Eve; they were just jungle men and women, running wild. + +"Well, after thousands of years these jungle men and women became so +clever that they cleared away the jungle, and then they dug fields and +planted hedges and sowed corn and built towns; and those were the people +that Adam and Eve found when they left the Garden and began to look for +work. Later on Adam and Eve's children married the children of the +jungle people; so that now all the people in the world are half Garden +and half jungle." + +"Even clergymen?" asked Marian. + +Uncle Joe nodded. + +"Yes, and policemen and postmen too." + +"And lone, lorn orphans," said Mr Parker, "and the man what comes to +mend the bath." + +"But that's jumping forward," said Uncle Joe, "a long time, for when +Adam and Eve left the Garden they didn't even know what children were, +and their hearts were full of bitterness against the good Lord God. That +was one of the reasons why He thought it would be so nice for them to +have a little girl of their own, because then in time they might begin +to guess, He thought, something of what He felt toward themselves. + +"So about a year after they had left the Garden little Bella was born, +and they both thought that she was the loveliest baby that had ever been +seen since the world began. Poor Adam and Eve were then living in a dark +street on the outskirts of the town, and all that they could afford was +one room on the top floor at the back. + +"Adam had got work at one of the factories where they made boots and +shoes, but he was only a beginner, of course, and hadn't learnt much, +and so his wages were very small. Sometimes Eve took in a little +washing, or got a job from somebody of darning socks, but she did her +best to keep their home tidy and some fresh flowers on the mantelpiece. +Every day, too, she put crumbs on the window-sill, and soon she had made +friends with the birds that came and ate them, and sometimes a bird +would fly from the Garden, and feed from her hand, and tell her the +news. Both Adam and Eve, you see, knew the birds' language through +having lived with them for so long. But they were never able to teach it +to their children, and since they died no one has ever learnt it. + +"Soon after Bella was born Adam got a rise in wages, but soon after that +Eve had another baby; and then she had some more, and though they rented +another room or two they were always poor and often hungry. But after a +while they began to think less often of their old life in the Garden of +Eden, and sometimes they would even wonder whether they would go back +there if the good Lord God gave them the chance. You see, in spite of +their poverty and their hard work and the noise and smells of the great +town, they had learnt what it meant to have children, and to bend over +their cots and kiss them good-night. + +"When Bella was eight she was rather a fat little girl, with dark eyes +and an impudent mouth, and she wore her hair in a long pigtail, and her +nose was ever so slightly turned up. Adam and Eve thought that she was +very beautiful, but everybody else thought her quite ordinary, and she +spent most of her time in the streets, though she was always punctual +for meals. She had lots of friends, most of them boys, but every now and +then she would get tired of them all; and those were the times when she +would go exploring and generally end up by hurting herself. Eve was too +busy ever to bother much about what Bella did or where she went, and the +Garden of Eden was the only place that she had strictly forbidden her +to go near. It was one of the rules, of course, that nobody was to go +near it, and there were angels at the gate with swords of flame; and +this was a rule, Eve thought, that it would be very much worse for one +of _her_ children to break than for anybody else. + +"So she had always told Bella never even to go up the street that led +into the fields just outside the Garden; and if Bella hadn't been +feeling bored on this particular day--it was just a week after her +birthday--and if it hadn't been so hot, and the sun so scorching, and +the streets so dusty, and everybody so cross, and if Bella hadn't been +inquisitive just like her mother used to be, and if she hadn't sort of +happened to be walking up that street, and if the fields at the end of +it hadn't seemed so cool and so inviting, and if Bobby Gee, who was a +great friend of hers, hadn't dared her to do it--well, there's no +saying, but perhaps after all Bella wouldn't have stood looking at those +dreadful gates. + +"There was now only a strip of grass between her and the Garden, and she +could see it stretched there beyond the railings. It was the middle of +the afternoon, and so heavy was the sunshine that the leaves of the +trees were all pressed down by it. None of them stirred. There was no +sound. The lawns beneath them looked like wax. And where were the +angels? Bella held her breath. There were none to be seen. There were +only the sentry-boxes. + +"Very cautiously she took a step or two forward. Her bare feet made no +noise. The bars of the gate quivered in the heat. Then she stopped again +and listened. At first she heard nothing, but then, very, very faint, +there came to her ears the ghost of a sound. It came and died, and came +and died, like the waves of a sea hundreds of miles off. She crept +nearer and listened again, and now there were two sounds, rising and +falling. They came from the sentry-boxes, one on each side of the gate. +The angels inside were fast asleep. Bella bit her lip and crept forward. +She could feel her heart jumping like a mouse in a cage. The scents of +the Garden came to meet her. She could see its curved and vanishing +pathways. + +"But what caught her eyes and made them grow round was a bending tree +just inside the gate. With her hands on the bars she stood looking at +it, and presently her mouth began to water. For from every branch of it +there hung such apples as she had never seen in all her life, and from +the lowest bough there hung an apple that was the biggest and most +beautiful of them all. And then another thing happened, for as she +pressed against the bars the great gate began to move. Very slowly it +swung open, and still the angels were fast asleep. Her heart was beating +now like two clocks at once--what an apple it would be to eat! A +bright-coloured bird hopped across the grass, and stood looking up at +her with an inquiring eye. She glanced round about her and over her +shoulder, but there was nobody in sight. Dared she go in? She thought +about the rules, and what her mother had said, and then she remembered +Bobby Gee. The angels were still breathing lightly and regularly. The +bright-coloured bird had flown away. + +"Then she took a bold step and went into the Garden and tiptoed softly +up to the tree. The apple was so ripe that it was nearly ready to drop, +and it was just on a level with the tip of her nose. It smelt like +honey, and when she touched it it was as cool as marble. Then she +touched it again, and caught hold of it, and somehow or other it came +off the tree. She lifted it to her lips, and it felt like a kiss; and +then a Voice behind her said-- + +"'Well?' + +"She jumped round, almost dropping the apple. It was the good Lord God +who stood looking at her. + +"'What are you doing?' + +"She hid the apple behind her, but His eyes shone through her, like +light through a window. She hung her head. + +"'Are you Eve's little girl?' He asked. + +"Bella nodded. She couldn't say a word. + +"'I thought you must be,' He said. He put His finger under her chin. +There came a sound like the rushing of a great wind. The two angels had +heard His voice, and drawn their swords, and leapt into the Garden. In +another moment, Bella thought, they would have killed her. But the good +Lord God held up His hand. The two angels stood one on each side of Him, +leaning on their swords and looking rather downcast. Bella held out her +hand. The good Lord God bent forward and took the apple away from her. + +"'Well, what excuse have you,' He said, 'for stealing My apples?' + +"Bella considered for a moment. Then she thought of one. + +"'Please, sir, mother did it. She told me so.' + +"'But you knew the rules,' said the good Lord God. + +"Bella hung her head again. She knew them quite well. + +"'And the rules must be obeyed,' He said. + +"Bella began to tremble. + +"There was a moment's silence. The two angels stood like statues, still +leaning on their swords. Then the good Lord God spoke again. + +"'Look at Me,' He said. + +"Bella lifted her eyes and saw the World without End. He gave her back +the apple. + +"'Well, you may keep it,' He went on, 'on condition that you give half +of it to Bobby Gee.' + +"Bella said, 'Thank you, sir.' + +"'But that's not all,' He continued. + +"He bent forward and touched her cheeks. + +"'For I hereby ordain,' He said, 'that now and for ever every little +girl and every little boy shall wear apples in their cheeks in +remembrance of what you have done. They shall be known as the brand of +Eden--the brand of Eden for little thieves--and their parents must see +to it, on pain of My displeasure, that they shall never be allowed to +fade away.' + +"Then He bent still lower and gave Bella a kiss, and the tall angels led +her outside the gate; and that's why it is that the apples in little +girls' cheeks are almost the oldest kind in the world." + +Uncle Joe lit his pipe. From where they were sitting they could see the +country for miles and miles. Down below them the town looked quite +small, and the spire of St Peter's Church just like a toy spire. Far +behind it, beyond the level cornlands, the sun was dropping into the +evening mists. It grew rosier and rosier, until it almost looked like an +apple itself. Mr Parker winked at Marian. + +"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic." + +Then he spat in his hands and rubbed them together. + +"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "with this here lawn-mowing." + + + + + Eden had an apple-tree, + Eve a little daughter, + Tried to do as mother did, + But the Good Lord caught her. + + "Wherefore 'tis ordained," He said, + "Here and in all places, + Children shall henceforward wear + Apples in their faces." + + + + +BEARDY NED + + + + +[Illustration: Beardy Ned's Fire] + + + + +V + +BEARDY NED + + +Near Uncle Joe's house there was a small pool which was really the +beginning of a river; and this river ran into a bigger one that flowed +through the town in which Marian and Cuthbert lived. The big river was +rather muddy, but the little one was nearly always clear, and it was +quite easy to paddle across it, though there were some pools in it six +feet deep. + +Up in the downs, where it began, it was hardly more than a bubbly +trickle, but lower down it grew wider and wider, and ran between the +reeds at the edges of the meadows. Close to Captain Jeremy's farmhouse, +where it joined the big river that flowed through the town, it ran for +almost a quarter of a mile through the middle of a sort of wood. It was +under the roots of some of these trees, as they pushed through the water +into the soil beneath, that the biggest of the trout had their nests, +where fishermen with flies couldn't reach them. But there were some big +trout, too, that lived under the meadow banks, and used to put up their +noses in the summer evenings, and suck down the flies that fell on the +water when they were tired of dancing in the air. + +Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and Gwendolen were all very fond of this +river, and when they had finished paddling or bathing in the pools (for +they had all learnt to swim) they used to lie on the bank and keep very +still and watch the trout having their evening meal. They would see an +orange-coloured fly or a blue fly or a fly with pale wings like a +distant rain-cloud floating down on the top of the water and probably +wondering where it had got to; and then they would hear a little noise +like grown-up people make with the tips of their tongues against the +roofs of their mouths; and then the fly would be gone, and there would +be a tiny wave on the water, shaped like a ring, and growing bigger and +bigger. That meant that a trout had been lying in wait, with his eye +cocked on the surface of the stream, and had seen the fly, and liked the +look of him, and suddenly decided to swallow him up. + +Sometimes a fisherman would come quietly along and kneel down on one +knee, and, after he had seen a trout rise, would open a little box and +take out a fly like the one that the trout had eaten. But this would be +a sham fly, made of feathers and silk, cunningly tied round a sharp +hook, and he would thread it on to a piece of gut so thin that they +could hardly see it. Then he would tie the gut to a sort of string that +was hanging down from the point of his fishing-rod; and then he would +swish his rod until the fly flew out straight and fell upon the stream, +just as the real one had done. + +Sometimes they could see a trout come up and look at this fly and shake +his head, and go down again; but once or twice they had seen a big trout +rise and swallow it just as if it had been a real one. Then the trout +had found himself caught, and they had seen the fisherman's rod bent +almost double as the trout dashed to and fro; and at last they had seen +the fisherman slip a net into the water, and lift the trout on to the +bank, all curved and shining. But very often there would be no fishermen +at all, and they would see nobody for hours and hours, and hear nothing +but the cries of the river-birds and the suck, suck, of the feeding +trout. + +The man that they saw most often was a man called Beardy Ned, because, +though he was only a youngish man, he had a sandy-coloured beard; and +they were always very sorry for him, because he had lost his wife in a +terrible railway accident soon after he had married her. She had left +him with a little girl only ten months old, and that was why Ned had let +his beard grow. He hadn't time, he said, to look after the little girl +and shave his face every day as well. When he had married, Ned had been +a postman, but after his wife had been killed he had given that up; and +he had wandered about ever since, doing all sorts of odd jobs. + +Sometimes he helped the farmers get their hay in, or the gamekeepers +trap stoats, and sometimes he would chop wood, and sometimes he would go +far away and not come back for weeks and weeks. But wherever he went he +would take his little girl, whom he had called Liz after her mother; and +sooner or later he would always come back to this river, because that +was where he had first met his dead wife. He had lived so much in the +open air that his skin was as dark as a Red Indian's, and when he +laughed his teeth were like snow, and his eyes like the sea on a sunny +day. People like clergymen and large employers often used to tell him +that he ought to settle down. But why should he settle down, he asked, +so long as there was only Liz, and she could sleep in his arms as snug +as snug? + +Liz was four years old now, and as brown as her father, and her hair was +short and curly like a boy's; and Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and +Gwendolen loved her almost as much as they loved Beardy Ned. For Beardy +Ned, in spite of his great trouble, was always full of a secret +happiness, and he had made this little song out of his own head that he +used to sing every two or three hours: + + The wickedest girl there was, + The wickedest girl there is, + The wickedest girl there ever will be + Is my young daughter Liz. + +He only meant it in fun, of course, and when Liz was running about he +would shout it at the top of his voice, but when she was sleepy he would +only croon it until her eyelids began to drop. + +Of course Cuthbert couldn't always be bothered to go up the river with +the girls, and on the same evening that Uncle Joe told Marian about the +apples he went by himself to have a bathe in a big pool called +Kingfisher Pool. It was still only May, so that the water was cold, but +the air above it was warm and still, and he was lying on the bank +without anything on, when he suddenly heard a splash and a gurgling cry. +He sat bolt upright, and then, looking across the pool, he saw a little +form struggling in the deep water, and rolling over in it, head +downward, and then beginning to slip out of sight. It was Liz, with all +her clothes on. She had evidently slipped down the steep bank, and if +Cuthbert couldn't save her she would be sure to drown, because Beardy +Ned was nowhere in sight. + +It was so awful to see her that at first Cuthbert couldn't move; but a +moment later he was in the water and swimming across the pool as fast as +he could, and faster than he had ever swum before. He prayed to God that +he might be in time. The pool had never looked so wide. But at last he +had swum across it and made a grab at a piece of Liz's frock just under +the surface. He pulled this hard, and tried to go on swimming with his +other arm and both legs; and then it was only a second or two before his +toes touched the bottom of the river, and he was able to stand up and +lift her out of the pool. + +She was quite pale, and the water was pouring from her mouth, and her +eyes were staring as if they couldn't see anything. He scrambled up the +bank, grazing his knees, and then she began to choke and take deep +breaths. Just then, too, Beardy Ned came crashing through the reeds with +great strides, for Cuthbert had shouted as loud as he could just before +he plunged into the pool. Ned's face had turned grey, and there was a +look in his eyes that made Cuthbert feel almost frightened. But when he +saw Liz sitting up and crying he gave a shout and caught her in his +arms. Then he gripped Cuthbert by the wrist, and Cuthbert could feel +that he was shaking all over; and then Beardy Ned began to cry too, so +that Cuthbert had to look the other way. But next moment both he and Liz +were laughing, and Cuthbert swam back again to put on his clothes; and +then he crossed the river upon a plank lower down, where he found Beardy +Ned and Liz waiting for him. + +Beardy Ned took him by the shoulder. + +"Come along," he said, "and have supper with us." + +He was carrying Liz, and sticking out of one of his pockets Cuthbert +could see the tails of a brace of trout; and presently they came to a +bend of the stream, where the bank was high and there was a little +beach. From the top of the bank a great tree had fallen, with its roots +sticking up in the air, and under the trunk there was just room enough +for Beardy Ned and Liz to sleep. He had put a couple of blankets there +and an old waterproof, and standing on the beach were a cup and kettle; +and soon he had made a fire with some dry sticks, and was showing +Cuthbert how to cook trout. + +It was beginning to get dark now, and the stars were shining, and the +flames of the fire made the river look like ink. But they were so +sheltered under the high bank that they might almost have been at home. +They had trout for supper, and drank tea, and Liz, who was almost +asleep, had a cup of milk; and then they ate biscuits, and jam out of a +pot, and Beardy Ned filled his pipe. He had made Liz take off her wet +clothes, of course, and these were hanging from sticks on either side of +the fire, and he had wrapped her in a blanket, and soon she was fast +asleep, lying on his knees as he sat and smoked. + +He seemed to be thinking a lot, but at last he looked at Cuthbert. + +"You've saved my little girl's life," he said, "and I can never pay you +back. But I'll show you a secret that no one else in the whole world +knows." + +Cuthbert liked secrets, so he was rather pleased. But Beardy Ned changed +the subject. + +"It was just here," he said, "just where we're sitting, that I first saw +my Liz--I mean her mother. Perhaps, in a manner of speaking, it was +where I first saw this one too, but that's neither here nor there. She +was just nineteen. She'd been paddling in the stream. I called out to +her, and she turned and looked at me. She was in an old frock, but she +looked quite the lady. Her eyes was dark, and she was smiling." + +He moved his head a little. + +"There goes a fox," he said. + +He sucked his pipe for a moment in silence. The sound of the fire was +like somebody talking to them. But the sound of the river was like +something talking to itself. + +Then Beardy Ned felt in his pocket and pulled out the end of a candle. +It looked like an ordinary candle, with an ordinary wick, and it was +just about an inch long. + +"This was give me," he said, "by an old feller--James Parkins, that was +his name--and there's not another like it in the whole world, and there +never won't be again." + +Beardy Ned held it in the palm of his hand, as though he were weighing +it, while he looked at Cuthbert. + +"Have you ever wondered," he said, "where candles goes to--where they +goes to when they goes out?" + +"No, I don't think so," said Cuthbert. "Where _do_ they go to?" + +Liz stirred a little, and Beardy Ned bent over her. + +"Well, I'll tell you," he said. "They goes into the In-between Land--the +place as is in between everything you can see. How do I know? Because +I've been there. Because James Parkins showed me how." + +"That's very interesting," said Cuthbert politely, but Beardy Ned didn't +seem to hear. + +"The trouble is, you see," Beardy Ned continued, "that candles, when +they goes out, can't take people with them. But James Parkins, he'd +found a candle that could take a person with it, and this is the candle. +When he first gave it me, two year ago, it was about eight inches long. +But I've used it a lot, and after you've blowed it out, and it's taken +you with it, it goes on burning. When you come back, it's an inch +shorter--an inch shorter every time. And this here bit is the last bit +as'll ever take anyone to In-between Land." + +He gave it to Cuthbert. + +"Do you want to go there?" he said. "You've saved my little girl's life, +and you've only to say the word." + +"But it's the last bit," said Cuthbert. + +"Never mind. I know what's there. That's the chief thing." + +"Is it quite safe?" asked Cuthbert. "It seems rather queer." + +"I'll tell you what it's like," said Beardy Ned. "It's like a dream. Or +rather it's not like a dream so much as waking up from a dream. You sees +the trees and things, all kind of misty, and the houses in the towns, +and the people in the houses. And you sees 'em quarrelling and the like, +and grieving, and you wants to tell 'em as it's only a dream. You wants +to tell 'em they're just going to wake up. That's what it seems like in +In-between Land." + +Liz stirred again, and he shifted her on his knees a little. + +"You see, in a manner of speaking," he went on, "there ain't no time +there, not as we reckons time. But once you've been there--well, you'll +see for yourself if you'd like to go." + +Cuthbert held out the candle. + +"Yes, I'd like to," he said. "It would be rather exciting." + +Beardy Ned bent forward and took a stick from the fire. He lit the end +of the candle between Cuthbert's fingers. + +"Now blow it out," he said, "and you'll go out with it. It'll be all +right. You'll be back in a tick." + +Cuthbert's hand was shaking a little, but he blew out the candle, and +then, for a moment, he saw nothing at all. But he felt something. He +felt as if he'd been asleep for ever and ever and had suddenly opened +his eyes. He felt as if he could do anything, he was so strong. He felt +as if he could jump over the highest star. Toothache, and school, and +taking medicine--they all seemed too stupid even to bother about. He +felt like a prisoner just set free. He knew that he was really free, and +that nothing could ever hurt him. Then he began to see things--the fire +of sticks, the stream beyond, and the dusky meadows. But they looked +just like dream-sticks, and a dream-fire, and there were real things +beyond them whose names he didn't know. Then he looked round and saw +Beardy Ned with little Liz upon his knees; and it was just then that he +saw something else that was perhaps the most wonderful thing of all. For +beside Beardy Ned stood a girl of nineteen, who had been paddling in the +stream. She was in an old frock, but she looked quite the lady, and her +eyes were dark, and she was smiling. + +Then she was gone. The candle had burnt away. Cuthbert was back again in +the ordinary world. He saw Beardy Ned looking at him gravely. + +"Now you know," he said, "why I'm happy." + +Cuthbert rose to his feet. + +"I must be going home," he said. "They'll be wondering where I've been." + +Beardy Ned nodded. + +"Well, good night," he said. + +"Good night," said Cuthbert. + +He climbed the bank. + +But on the top of the bank he turned round for a moment and looked down +again at Beardy Ned. He was still sitting there with Liz on his knees, +and Cuthbert saw him stoop and give her a kiss. Then he began to sing +very softly the queer song that he had made up: + + The wickedest girl there was, + The wickedest girl there is, + The wickedest girl there ever will be + Is my young daughter Liz. + + + + + In between the things we know, + Touch and handle, taste and see, + Lies the land where lovers go + At their life's end quietly. + + There, in that untroubled place, + There, with eyes amused, they scan, + Cradled still in time and space, + This, the infant world of man. + + + + +THE MAGIC SONG + + + + +[Illustration: The Magic Song] + + + + +VI + +THE MAGIC SONG + + +About a month after Cuthbert had been lucky enough to save Beardy Ned's +little girl, the weather grew so hot that all the people in the town +became rather discontented. It is always easier for people in towns to +become discontented than it is for other people, because instead of +fields to walk on they have only pavements; and instead of hills to look +at they have only chimneys; and instead of bean-flowers to smell they +have only dust-bins and the stale air that trickles down the streets. So +the men in the ironworks were discontented because they thought that the +men who owned the ironworks didn't give them enough money; and the men +in the cotton-mills were discontented because they thought that the men +who owned the cotton-mills made them work too hard; and the girls in Mr +Joseph's refreshment shops thought him a cruel old beast; and the +policemen thought that nobody loved them. + +Also, the men who owned the ironworks thought that their men were +greedy; and the men who owned the cotton-mills were afraid of becoming +poor; and Mr Joseph was feeling depressed; and the policemen still +thought that nobody loved them. Even dear Miss Plum, the head of the +school, had a frown on her forehead, and the French mistress slapped +Doris so hard that she left a red mark on Doris's cheek. Of course Doris +was very angry about it, and her little brothers wanted to know exactly +where the mark was. But it had faded away by the time she arrived home, +and her mother only said that it had probably served her right. Doris +was rather fond, you see, of cheeking the French mistress, and asking +her silly questions to make the other girls laugh; and since she had had +her hair bobbed the week before, she was even cheekier than usual. + +Doris, as you may remember, lived in John Street, which was the next +street to Peter Street, where Marian and Cuthbert lived. But the houses +in it were smaller than the houses in Peter Street, and most of the +people in them were rather poor. Doris's mother was poor, because +Doris's daddy was dead, and Doris had five little brothers--Teddy and +George, who were the twins, and Jimmy and Jocko and Christopher Mark. +They were much too poor to be able to have a maid, and so Doris's mother +had to do most of the work. She had to be cook and housemaid and nurse +and governess and Mummy darling all in one. Now that Doris was ten she +was able to help her mother sometimes, and she used to take Christopher +Mark out in his push-cart; and since she had been to the Arctic Circle +with Cuthbert and Captain Jeremy her mother had begun to lean upon her a +little more. + +But oh, it was hot! The people in the streets lagged along with pale +faces. They talked about the trouble in the ironworks, and the trouble +in the cotton-mills, and what would Mr Joseph do if his girls went on +strike, and didn't the policemen look ill-tempered? And Miss Plum +couldn't make her accounts come right; and the French mistress went home +to her boarding-house; and there she told everybody that she was going +to be ill, and that the ham was tepid and the milk-pudding sour. + +Even in John Street it was almost as bad, though it was a quiet street +with a field at the other end of it. For the sun poured right into it, +so that there wasn't any shade, and the stones of the pavement shone +like martyrs, and the drains at Number Fifteen were out of order, and +there was half a haddock lying in the middle of the road. So Doris went +into the garden when they had all finished tea, but it was as hot in the +garden as it was anywhere else; and the lady next door was grumbling to +the lady beyond about one of her husband's collars that had been spoilt +in the wash. Doris played about a bit and made Jocko cry, because he was +silly and wanted to read a book; and then she went round to Peter Street +to see Cuthbert and Marian, and found that they had gone into the +country to see their Uncle Joe. + +So she came back and teased the twins, and at last it was time to go to +bed; and it was almost as hot after the sun had gone down as it had been +in the middle of the day. She slept in the same room with Jimmy and +Jocko, and they all turned and twisted and kicked off their bedclothes; +and as the daylight faded the moonlight grew, so that it was past ten +before they fell asleep. That was when their mother came and kissed +them, and she was so tired that she could hardly stand; and then she +went to bed and fell asleep too, and the church clock struck eleven +times. Happy was Beardy Ned then, sleeping by the stream, with little +Liz and his beautiful secret; and happy was Gwendolen in her farmhouse +bedroom smelling of lavender and last year's apples. But sorrowful and +sticky were the people of the town, and troubled were their slumbers. + +Then Doris sat up suddenly, for out in the street was the biggest din +that she had ever heard. She jumped from her bed and ran to the window, +and there she saw nine of the strangest-looking people. There was a big +sailor with a concertina, and a stout lady with a tambourine, and a +soldier with a pair of cymbals, and an elderly greengrocer, who was very +thin. They were standing in a row, and sitting on the ground behind them +were five men, each with a drum. Doris leaned out, and when they saw her +they all sang louder than ever; but the funny thing was that nobody else +in the whole street seemed to hear them. The blinds were all down, the +moonlight lay on the road, and there wasn't a head at anybody's window. + +When Doris first listened they had been singing about the lady, but now +they began to sing about the sailor, and the sailor stepped forward, +playing his concertina, and singing the loudest of them all. He had a +tenor voice with a great smack in it, like the smack of a wave against a +jetty, and when he sang softly without taking a breath it was like water +running through seaweed. The soldier sang bass, like a motor-lorry in a +hurry to get home over a rough road, and the stout lady sang soprano, +and the elderly greengrocer only squeaked. This is what they sang: + + Here's a sailor come home from the Guineas, + His face is as black as a leaf, + His eyes are like forests of darkness, + His heart is a hotbed of grief, + His arms are like roots of the jungle, + He has ladies tattooed on his skin, + And his clothes smell of cinnamon--cardamom--tar. + Oh, mother, must I let him in? + Bang! Bang! [went the drums], + Oh, mother, must I let him in? + +Then there was a chorus and the queerest sort of dance, and it all +seemed somehow to be just wrong; and when they stopped and looked up at +her window Doris really didn't know what to make of them. Then the +sailor coughed, and scratched the back of his head, and said, "Beg +pardon, miss, but are you ten years old?" + +Doris said that she was. + +"And have you five brothers younger than yourself?" + +Doris said that she had. + +"And have you five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot?" + +Doris laughed and said that they could come and count them if they +didn't believe her word. + +They looked at one another with a peculiar expression, while the five +drummers stared at the ground; and then the stout lady asked her if she +would come downstairs and let them count her eyelashes. + +"Why do you want to count my eyelashes?" asked Doris. + +"It's most important," said the greengrocer. + +"If you'll come downstairs," said the soldier, "we shall be most happy +to tell you why." + +Doris pulled her head in and glanced round the bedroom. Jimmy and Jocko +were still fast asleep. She put on her dressing-gown, but not her +slippers, in case they should want to count her toes. Then she opened +the door and ran softly downstairs, and drew back the bolts, and went +into the street. + +"Wouldn't it be better," said the stout lady, "if we went to a quieter +place?" + +"Well, there's a field," said Doris, "at the end of the street. Of +course, we might go along there." + +"You're sure you're not frightened?" asked the sailor. + +The five drummers still stared at the ground. + +"Not very much," said Doris. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you?" + +"God forbid!" said the elderly greengrocer. + +So they went up the street to the field at the end, and there they all +crouched under the hedge; and the sailor, whose name was Lancelot, did +most of the talking, because he was the biggest. + +"You see, we've all lost something," he said, "so we went to see an old +man as lives in the middle of Brazil. He's the wisest old geezer as ever +lived, and we all of us told him what we had lost. This here lady has +lost her husband and has been trying to find him for years and years; +and this here soldier has lost his character and can't find a general to +give him a job; and this here greengrocer has lost his appetite and is +getting thinner and thinner; and as for me, I've lost my temper and +can't find a ship to sail in." + +"That's very sad," said Doris. "And what have these drummers lost?" + +"Their senses," said Lancelot. "Each of these here drummers has been and +lost one of his senses. The first can't see, and the second can't hear, +and the third can't smell, and the fourth can't taste, and the fifth +can't feel." + +"I see," said Doris. "And what did the old man tell you?" + +"Well," said Lancelot, "that's just what I'm coming to. He told us he'd +thought of a magic song. There was four verses to it, and the words +didn't matter, he said, so long as they was each sung by somebody as had +lost something. After each verse there was a chorus, and in between the +verses there was a dance. When we'd told him our troubles, he made up +some words for us, and then he lent us these here drummers. But what +you've got to find, he said, is a little girl as can play this here +flute, for until you've found her you can sing as loud as you like, but +you won't sing right, and nobody won't hear you. But when you've found +her--that's what the old man said--she'll be able to blow this here +flute, for this here flute can play by itself if you find the right +little girl to blow it. Well, of course we was interested, so we asked +him to go on, and he said that it would play for just about an hour, and +by the end of that time, he said, it would have settled all our troubles +and all the troubles of the people as heard it. Only, first of all, he +said, you must find the right little girl, and the time must be +midnight, and the moon must be full." + +"Dear me!" said Doris, "that sounds rather odd." + +"That's what _we_ thought," said the stout lady. + +"Well," said Lancelot, "naturally we asked him where this here girl was +to be found. But he shook his head, and he said as he didn't know, and +that all we could do was to go and look for her. You must travel about, +he said, and sing this here music, but the only people as'll be able to +hear you will be little girls twice five years old, with five brothers +younger than theirselves, and with five fingers on each hand, and five +toes on each foot. And of them, he says, the only little girl as'll be +able to play this here flute must have a hundred and five eyelashes on +her right upper eyelid." + +He felt in his pocket and pulled out a magnifying glass. + +"So that's why we want to count your eyelashes." + +They looked at her anxiously, all except the drummers, and they were +still looking at the ground. + +"All right," said Doris, "count away. I'm sure I don't know how many +I've got." + +She closed her eyes, and they stared through the magnifying glass, and +began to count her right upper eyelashes. She became quite excited as +they went on. + +"A hundred and three," they said, "a hundred and four, a hundred and +five," and then they gave a great shout. + +"You're the one," they cried, "you're the very one! You've exactly a +hundred and five!" + +She opened her eyes again and saw them dancing about. + +"Where's the flute?" she asked. + +The soldier gave it to her. + +"And the moon's full," said the greengrocer, "and it's a quarter to +twelve. Perhaps we shall soon find my appetite." + +"And my character," said the soldier. + +"And my husband," said the stout lady. + +"And my temper," said Lancelot. + +But the drummers had lost hope, and still stared at the ground. + +"Now," said Lancelot, "we'd better go to the market-place. This here +little girl will show us the way. And when the clocks have struck twelve +we'll sing our song and see what happens." + +So they went to the market-place, where the Town Hall was, and where all +the tram-lines criss-crossed; and the policeman on duty outside the Bank +stared at them sleepily, but didn't say anything. There were also two +dustmen with a cart clearing up rubbish and bits of newspaper, and a +water-man watering the asphalt, and some postmen outside the Post Office +loading a mail-van. Then the deep bell in the old abbey tower began to +toll the hour of midnight, and the moon looked down on them with her +silver face, and they stood in a row and began their song. + +Doris's hands were shaky, as you can imagine, when she lifted the flute +to her lips. But when she began to blow, the flute began to play; and +oh, the difference it made to the song! For it was now a song with the +maddest and sweetest and most beguiling melody that anybody in the world +had ever imagined, or ever imagined that anybody could imagine. It began +very softly, like a boy whistling, and the cracking of sticks in a deep +wood, and then it sounded like birds singing, and water falling, and +ripe fruit dropping from trees. Then it grew louder, until it sounded +like thunder and sea-waves shattering on the beach; and then it grew +softer again, like leaves rustling, and crickets chirping in the grass. + +Before the stout lady had sung half the first verse, Doris could hardly +stand still enough to play the flute. She could scarcely believe that it +was possible for anybody in the world to feel so happy. She saw the +policeman running toward them, and the postmen, and the man from the +water-cart; and she saw the windows above the shops in the market-place +thrown up, and people looking out. Then came the chorus, like the +pealing of great bells, and the policeman and the postmen began to join +in, and people in their nightdresses and pyjamas came running out of +their front doors, singing at the tops of their voices. + +Before the chorus was over there were nearly a hundred people singing +and shouting and beating time, and the cymbals were clashing, and the +concertina was groaning, and the five drummers were hitting like mad. +But it was the flute, it was Doris's flute, that soared up and up and +led the whole music; and when the dance came, it was the magic of +Doris's flute that stole into the feet of all who heard it. + +Most of them were bare feet, like Doris's own, but some were in slippers +and some in boots, and soon they were all whirling and twisting and +hopping, as the people that they belonged to danced and sang. The news +had spread abroad now, and by the end of the second verse the whole of +the market-place was simply crammed, and by the end of the third verse +all the streets that led into it were bubbling over with people dancing. +There were the ironworks men dancing with their employers, and Mr Joseph +dancing with his girls, and the heads of the cotton-mills dancing in +their pyjamas, arm-in-arm with the people that worked for them. And +there was the French mistress dancing with the two dustmen, and there +was Miss Plum dancing with the chimney-sweep, and there was the +policeman trying to dance with everybody, and everybody trying to dance +with him. + +Then a little man with a carroty moustache pushed through the crowd and +caught hold of the stout lady; and she nearly dropped her tambourine, +because he was her long-lost husband. As for the greengrocer, he became +so hungry that he danced into one of Mr Joseph's shops, and Mr Joseph +gave him permission to eat everything that he could see. Funnily enough, +too, both Uncle Joe and Captain Jeremy happened to be in town; and when +Uncle Joe caught sight of the soldier he was so struck with his honest +appearance that he gave him the names of three or four generals who +would be only too glad to have him in their armies. It was the same, +too, with Lancelot, for when Captain Jeremy spoke to him his face became +so gentle that Captain Jeremy resolved at once to give him a job as +bosun's mate. + +Then the French mistress came and kissed Doris, and then everybody +cheered everybody else; and the five drummers shouted with joy, because +each of them had found the sense that he had lost. The blind one could +see; and the deaf one could hear; and the one that couldn't feel felt +somebody squeezing him; and the one that couldn't smell suddenly smelt +somebody's tooth powder; and the one that couldn't taste had the biggest +surprise of all. For one of Mr Joseph's girls gave him a box of +chocolates, and it was the loveliest thing that had ever happened to +him; and after that, when she gave him some almond rock, he asked her if +she would marry him, and she said that she would. + +For a whole hour Doris played her flute, and then it stopped, and +everybody looked at everybody else; and everybody else looked so queer +and funny that everybody began to shout with laughter. Even the moon +laughed, and the end of it was that they all resolved to make up their +quarrels, because after what had happened it seemed so silly to go on +quarrelling about anything. But what the tune of the song was no one +remembered; and next morning when Doris took the flute to school, none +of the girls could make it play anything, not even Gwendolen, who had a +flute at home. + + + + + "_H'shh_," said the man in the moon, + Full-faced and white, + And I listened, + I listened so hard that I heard through the night, + + Faint through a crack + In the ice of the whiteness, I heard + Somebody whisper my name + With a magical word. + + And the moon and the stars and the sky, + And the roofs of the street, + Fell in fragments of darkness and silver + That danced at my feet. + + And we danced, and we danced, and we danced, + And oh! tired was I + When, full-faced and white, the cold moon + Shone again in the sky. + + + + +THE IMAGINARY BOY + + + + +[Illustration: The Haunted Wood] + + + + +VII + +THE IMAGINARY BOY + + +Soon after Doris's adventure with the flute, Marian and Gwendolen made a +most solemn vow. Marian pricked her finger with a needle and made a tiny +drop of blood come, and then she rubbed it into the palm of Gwendolen's +hand and promised to be faithful to her for ever. Then Gwendolen pricked +her own finger and rubbed it into the palm of Marian's hand, and took +her dying oath that Marian should always be her greatest friend. Then +they washed their hands under the nursery tap and cleaned the needle and +put it back in the workbox, and Marian was very pleased, and so was +Gwendolen, and when they told Cuthbert he said that he didn't mind much. + +Marian was pleased, because she knew that Gwendolen would ask her to tea +pretty often at the old farmhouse; and Gwendolen was pleased, because +that was the first time that she had ever had a greatest friend; and +Cuthbert didn't mind much, because he had gone to a new school, where +there was a boy called Edward Goldsmith, who was wonderfully strong, and +could dive into the water backward from the top diving-board at the town +baths. He was going to be a barrister like Mr Jenkins, who took the +plate round at St Peter's Church, and after that he was going to be +Lord Chief Justice, like the great Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park. + +Gwendolen's aunt was pleased too, and so was Captain Jeremy when +Gwendolen told him, and so were her father and mother, who were climbing +the Himalaya Mountains and writing a book called _Two Above the +Snowline_. But Gwendolen didn't know, of course, about her father and +mother being glad till she got a letter from them; and by then she had +become quite used to having Marian for her greatest friend. + +This letter came during the first week of the holidays, while Marian was +staying for a few days with Gwendolen. Both Gwendolen's aunt and Captain +Jeremy were away on a short voyage, and Marian and Gwendolen had the +house to themselves, except for Mrs Robertson, the cook, Amy and Agnes, +the two maids, and Percy, the boot-and-garden boy. + +Percy was the boy that used to open the door when Gwendolen's aunt lived +in Bellington Square, and his father was a gamekeeper, called Mr +Williams, who worked for Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park. Percy was +sixteen, and was going to marry Agnes as soon as he had saved enough +money, and though he was rather proud, Marian and Gwendolen liked him, +but not so much as they liked his father. + +They liked Mr Williams, because he knew all about rabbits, and used to +take them through places marked PRIVATE; and they liked Mrs Williams, +because she gave them peppermints and never minded how many questions +they asked. Mr Williams was tall, with a grey moustache, and his +clothes smelt of tobacco, and he wore gaiters; and Mrs Williams was +short, and her arms smelt of soap, and she was always popping upstairs +to change her apron. They lived in a little cottage near the Park gates, +and they had six children besides Percy, but Mr Williams was nearly +always out, setting traps or counting the young partridges. + +Fairbarrow Park was about three miles round, and was half-way to +Fairbarrow Down; and in the middle of it was Lord Barrington's house, +with its thirty bedrooms and all its gardens. There was an Italian +garden and a Dutch garden and a rose-garden and a water-garden; and +there were lawns as smooth as a ballroom floor, over which the peacocks +cried and strutted. But besides all these, and the Park in which they +nestled, most of the country round belonged to Lord Barrington; and it +was in the woods and fields which he let to different farmers that the +pheasants and partridges made their homes. + +When they had finished reading Gwendolen's letter, which came just after +their middle-day dinner, Marian and Gwendolen thought that they would go +and see Mr Williams, and watch the young partridges that he was bringing +up by hand. So they set off, and presently they found him just at the +farther edge of Lord Barrington's estate, where there was a little wood +climbing up the side of Fairbarrow Down. There was a sort of grassy +hollow near the wood, and here Mr Williams had placed half a dozen +hen-coops; and in front of these he had built a little mound, made of +lumps of turf dug from the Down. In among these lumps of turf there +were thousands of ants and several ants' nests full of eggs; and a score +of young partridges were scrambling over them, finding their afternoon +meal. + +Usually Mr Williams was glad to see the girls, and to let them play with +the young partridges, but this afternoon he only nodded to them and went +on smoking in silence. They were a little surprised, because it was such +a lovely afternoon, with the sky bluer than any ocean, and the fields +all glittering with the leaves of the root crops, or hidden away under +the golden wheat. Here and there the reapers were already at work +cutting the first of the oats and barley, and about a mile away they +could see the chimneys of the great house shining in groups between the +tree-tops. + +The only dark spot was the thick and tangled pinewood, known as the +Haunted Wood, into which Lord Barrington never allowed anybody besides +himself to go. It was inside the Park, and round two sides of it ran the +Park wall, with sharp iron spikes on the top; and round the other two +sides there was a barbed-wire fence, with a small gate in it, heavily +padlocked. For twenty years it had never been touched. When a tree fell +over, it lay where it had fallen; between the trunks of the trees there +had grown a jungle of undergrowth; and only Lord Barrington had the key +of the gate. + +Mr Williams was still sitting down, staring moodily in front of him, +when Marian asked him what was the matter, and was he angry with them +for coming? + +"No, no, it's not that," he said, "but I've just got the push. His +lordship has given me a month's notice. I'm got to quit and find a new +job, after forty-two years here, man and boy." + +Marian and Gwendolen stared at him in astonishment. + +"Why, whatever have you been doing?" Gwendolen asked. + +He took his pipe from his mouth and pointed to the Haunted Wood. + +"See that wood there," he said, "the Haunted Wood? Well, last night one +of these here dogs, he bolted into it, and I couldn't get him out, so I +went in to hunt for him. I was only in there for about five minutes, but +just as I was coming out I met his lordship. He stared at me as if I was +a criminal in the dock, and give me a month's notice to leave his +service. + +"'You know my rules,' he says, 'and you've broken them. It's no good +arguing,' he says, 'you've got to go.'" + +Marian and Gwendolen felt very angry, angrier than they had ever felt +before. + +"What a beast!" they said. "But p'raps he'll think better of it." + +Mr Williams shook his head. + +"Not he," he said. "I've seen him this morning. 'I'll give you a +pension,' he says, 'and I'll give you a good character. But that wood's +forbidden ground,' he says, 'and I'll have nobody going into it.'" + +Mr Williams rose and began to collect the young partridges, and put them +away into the various hen-coops. + +"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "and next month you'll have to +make friends with a new keeper." + +After he had gone, Marian and Gwendolen sat thinking of all the good +times that they had had with him, and of poor Mrs Williams, who would +have to turn out of her cottage--the gay little cottage that she was so +proud of. Their cheeks were quite red, and there was a hot sort of +prickly feeling at the backs of their noses, and they felt as if they +would like to go to the great house and shoot Lord Barrington dead. + +"Dog in the manger," said Gwendolen, "that's what he is, with that great +big house and no wife or children. And he's always going into his old +wood himself. I know he is, because Percy told me." + +"Yes, I know," said Marian, "and half his time he never lives at the +Park at all. He's judging people and sending them to prison, or +travelling about and enjoying himself." + +"P'raps he doesn't know," said Gwendolen, "what a nice man Mr Williams +really is." + +Then she suddenly thought of something. + +"Suppose we go and find him," she said, "and ask him to let Mr Williams +off." + +Marian was a little frightened. She had never seen Lord Barrington, but +she had once seen his picture in a magazine; and she remembered the grim +look of his eyes and his high-bridged, hawk-like nose. But the thought +of Mr Williams and his sad face soon gave her fresh courage; and as they +drew near the Park wall she was much too excited to feel afraid. + +Gwendolen was excited too, but they both knew how important it was to +keep cool; and before they climbed the wall they looked carefully round +to see that nobody was watching them. Then they found a couple of niches +to put their toes in, and they hoisted themselves up till they could see +over the wall; and there they stopped for a moment, holding on to the +spikes, and studying the lie of the land. Just to their right was the +corner of the Haunted Wood, but spreading in front of them was the open +park-land, with its great trees casting their blue shadows, and the +delicate-limbed deer nibbling the grass tips. Beyond these were the +gardens, and the broad terrace in front of the house; and the only +person in sight was a distant gardener with a watering-can. + +Then they almost fell down, for round the corner of the wood came the +tall figure of Lord Barrington himself. Marian recognized him at once, +though he was not wearing a wig as he had been in the magazine picture, +and was dressed in a grey flannel suit, carefully pressed, and +russet-brown boots. Luckily he didn't see them, and they crouched behind +the wall, holding on to the edge with their finger-tips; and when they +next peeped over they could see him unlocking the padlock of the little +gate that led into the wood. He went inside and locked it again behind +him, and they saw him begin to push his way between the branches of the +trees. + +"Come along," whispered Gwendolen, "let's follow him"; so they climbed +over the wall and dropped into the park. Then they ran across the grass +to the little gate, where they stooped down for a moment and listened. +They could hear Lord Barrington still moving through the wood. And then +very quietly they squeezed through the fence. They both tore their +frocks on the barbed wire, and Marian scratched her arm, but she didn't +mind. And then they began to glide, as softly as possible, deeper and +deeper into the forbidden wood. + +Soon it was so dark, owing to the thick-spreading branches and the +overgrown weeds and bushes, that they found themselves creeping through +a sort of twilight, smelling of pine-resin and crushed herbage. But +always, just in front of them, they could hear Lord Barrington's +footsteps, and sometimes they caught a glimpse of his side or back. +Tripping over roots, and stung by nettles, they followed in the track +that he had beaten down; and presently the brushwood began to grow +thinner and the trunks of the trees farther apart. + +He was walking more quickly now, and in another three or four minutes +they saw him come out into a sort of clearing, where the ground was +smooth, with a thin growth of grass, and the sun pouring down upon it as +upon a little circus. Here he stopped, and they bent down, each behind +the trunk of a great pine tree; and then, to their surprise, they saw +him take his coat off and fold it carefully and put it on the ground. +Then from under a bush he drew out three wickets, and set them up on the +other side of the clearing, and put the bails on them, and laid down a +bat beside them, and came back tossing a cricket-ball. They could see +his face, still rather stern-looking, but not so stern as it had been +before; and then they heard him say "Ready?" and saw him bowl the ball, +which bounced over the wickets and hit a tree behind. They crept nearer, +until they were almost on the edge of the clearing. + +"You ought to have stopped that one," they heard him say; and still the +bat lay in front of the wickets, and there wasn't a sound but the murmur +of the trees. + +For a long time--almost ten minutes, they thought--he went on bowling +and fetching back the ball; and every now and then he spoke a few words +as if there were somebody really batting. And then a strange thing +happened, for slowly, as they watched, they saw the bat rise from the +ground; and then they saw the figure of a little boy taking guard with +it in front of the wickets. + +He was about fourteen, with short fair hair, and he was dressed in a +flannel shirt and trousers; and the shirt was unbuttoned, showing the +upper part of his chest, and its sleeves were rolled back over his +sturdy arms. They looked at the judge and saw that his whole face had +altered, as if the sun had come down and were shining through it; and +the boy smiled at him, and then tucked his lips in, as the judge bowled +him a difficult ball. + +"Well played," said the judge, and they saw the boy look up and begin to +colour a little at the words of praise; and then Gwendolen got a cramp +in her foot and couldn't help moving and making a sound. + +Lord Barrington turned sharply toward her. + +"Who's there?" he asked in a terrible voice. + +Gwendolen stood up, and so did Marian. It was no good hiding. They were +both too frightened to speak. + +When he saw them, he stood quite still. A wood-pigeon flew across the +clearing. The little boy was no longer there. + +"Come here," he said, and they had to obey him. + +He stood looking at them. His face was like marble, and his eyes +searched them through and through. + +"Well," he said, "what have you got to say for yourselves?" + +They hung their heads and said nothing. + +Then Marian tried to speak, though her voice sounded funny. + +"Please, sir," she said, "we wanted to ask you something, but you were +playing with the boy." + +"The boy?" he said: "did you see the boy?" + +They lifted their eyes to him. + +"Why, of course," they answered. + +For a moment he was silent. Then his voice changed a little. + +"Come and sit down," he said, "and tell me what you saw." + +When they had told him, he just nodded, and sat, as Mr Williams had +done, staring in front of him. + +"Well, now you know," he said, "why this wood is private, and why I +never allow anybody to come into it." + +"Because of the boy?" asked Marian. + +"Because of the boy," he said. "I'll try to explain to you, but I doubt +if you'll understand. You see, I had a notion that if we human beings +could only imagine anything hard enough, the thing that we imagined +might become actually real, if only just for a minute or two." + +He moved his hand, with its heavy gold signet-ring. + +"This is the place," he said, "where I come to imagine." + +"I see," said Marian. "But why do you imagine the boy?" + +He reached for his coat and took something out of a pocket-book. + +"This is his photograph," he said. "He was my only son." + +The two children looked at it, and then gave it back to him. + +"He was fond of cricket," he said. "He died at school." + +Then he rose to his feet, and they followed him out of the wood. + +"Well, what was it," he said, "that you wanted to ask me?" + +They told him, and his face became stern again. + +"But he knew the rule," he said, "and he was older than you; and rules +are made to be kept, you know. I can't have them broken." + +They were silent for a moment, and then Gwendolen had a rather awful and +irreverent idea. + +"But p'raps if God hadn't broken one of His rules," she said, "you might +never have seen the boy." + +He stood looking at her for a long time, or at least it seemed long, +though it was only twelve seconds. Then he glanced at his watch. + +"What are your names?" he asked. + +They told him their names, and he held out his hand. + +"Well, good-bye, Marian and Gwendolen," he said; "and you can tell Mr +Williams that I've changed my mind." + + + + + Deep within the wood I know, + There's a place where mourners go, + Just as, in the twilight cool, + Crept they to Siloam's pool. + + There, with one accord, they bring + Sorrows for a healing wing; + And each hushed and stooping leaf + Lays its hand on their heart's grief. + + + + +THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED + + + + +[Illustration: Cæsar's Camp] + + + + +VIII + +THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED + + +Cuthbert's friend, Edward Goldsmith, was six months older than Cuthbert, +but they were in the same form, which was the lowest but one, in Mr +Pendring's school. Most of the other boys thought him conceited, and so +did Cuthbert, and so he was. But Cuthbert had once been conceited +himself, and so he was able to sympathize with him. Besides being strong +too, and able to dive backward, Edward had given Cuthbert his +second-best pocket-knife; and that was why Cuthbert resolved at last to +introduce him to Tod the Gipsy. + +That was rather a special thing to do, because Tod was rather a special +sort of gipsy; and Cuthbert had never introduced him to anybody, not +even to Doris, although she had asked him to. It was in the hospital, +just before he had had his tonsils out, that Cuthbert had first met Tod; +and Tod had told him not to be frightened, because there was no need to +be, and it wouldn't do any good. Tod himself was often in hospital, +because he had consumption and had lost one of his lungs; and besides +that he was always getting knocked down or run over, through being +absent-minded. He was tall and thin, with a lot of black hair that kept +tumbling over his eyes, and his eyes were brown, like a dog's eyes, only +they were brighter and always laughing. + +When Cuthbert next met Tod, he had been living in his little tent on the +other side of Fairbarrow Down; and Cuthbert had stayed there all night +with him, and Tod had told him the names of the stars. Very early in the +morning, when Cuthbert woke up, he had seen Tod kneeling in the dew, and +a couple of wild rabbits nestling in his arms and smelling his clothes, +just as if they had been tame ones. + +Then Tod had beckoned him with his head and whistled a peculiar sweet +whistle, and a hare near by had pricked up her ears and come through the +grass to have her back stroked. That whistle was one of Tod's secrets, +and he knew lots more, and was always learning new ones; and when +Cuthbert had told him about In-between Land he said that he had been +there too, by another way. + +So it was rather a great thing for Cuthbert to promise Edward that he +would introduce him to Tod the Gipsy; and Edward was naturally rather +impatient to go and find him, and talk to him. But the difficulty was +that Tod was always travelling about, and Cuthbert never knew where he +was likely to be; and it wasn't until tea-time on the third Monday of +October that at last they found him, quite by accident. + +Owing to one of Mr Pendring's boys having won a medal for helping to +save somebody's life, the whole school had been given an extra +half-holiday, and Cuthbert and Edward had gone for a country walk. +Already in the town most of the leaves had fallen, and were lying in +dirty heaps by the roadside, and the scraps of gardens in front of the +houses were sodden and empty of flowers. But out in the country, where +the harvest was stacked, and men were drilling seed into the +moist-smelling earth, the oaks and elms were still glowing with coppery +or rusty-red leaves. The cottage gardens, too, were full of +flowers--clumps of starry Michaelmas daisies, and sheaves of dark-eyed +golden sunflowers, like bumble-bees on fire. But there were real fires +about also, as there always are when summer is over--fires of weeds at +the ends of the plough-furrows, and fires of potato stems in the +kitchen-gardens; and it was over a little fire of sticks and dead leaves +that they suddenly came upon Tod the Gipsy. + +They were now about six miles from home, at the foot of the long range +of hills, of which Fairbarrow Down, with its close-cropped turf, was the +nearest to the town. Behind this the ground dipped a little, and then +became a hill called Simon's Nob, and behind Simon's Nob rose the +highest hill of all, known as Cæsar's Camp. From Cæsar's Camp, on a very +clear day, it was just possible to see the sea; and battles had been +fought on all these hills hundreds and thousands of years before. +Sometimes they had been held by the ancient Britons when they were +fighting against each other; and sometimes they had been held by the +ancient Britons when they were fighting against the Romans. Sometimes +the Romans had held them when they were attacked by the Britons, and +once the Britons had held them against the Saxons; and then in their +turn the Saxons had held them when they had been attacked by the Danes. +After that they had slept for hundreds of years, with only the sheep to +nibble their grass, and an occasional shepherd shouting across them to +his shaggy and wise-eyed sheep-dog. + +The fiercest battle of all had been fought on Cæsar's Camp, from which +the Romans had driven away the Britons, and there was a great mound on +it, covered with grass, in which the dead soldiers had been buried. But +that was nearly two thousand years ago, and it had never looked more +peaceful than on this autumn afternoon, with the baby moon peeping above +it and growing brighter as the daylight faded. It was a steep climb to +the top of Cæsar's Camp, and the hill was guarded at the bottom by a +fringe of elm trees; and in front of these elm trees there was a belt of +bracken, reddening with decay, and reaching to the boys' shoulders. It +had been rather fun to push their way through it, startling the rabbits, +and listening to the rooks; and it was in a little quarry among the elms +that Tod the Gipsy had made his fire. + +Close to the fire he had spread some branches and a heap of bracken to +make a mattress, and over this he had thrown his blanket and the little +tarpaulin that made his tent. When they first caught sight of him, he +was humming a song and beating an accompaniment to himself on an empty +biscuit-box: + + Where do the gipsies come from? + The gipsies come from Egypt. + The fiery sun begot them, + Their dam was the desert dry. + She lay there stripped and basking, + And gave them suck for the asking, + And an emperor's bone to play with, + Whenever she heard them cry. + +Cuthbert introduced him to Edward Goldsmith, and Tod held out a bony +hand. + +"Glad to meet you," he said. "You're just in time for tea. You'll have +to share a mug, but there's lots of bread and jam." + +He was thinner than ever, but he had the same old trick of tossing his +hair back from his eyes; and his eyes were as bright and gay and +piercing as if they had just come back from some magic wash. While they +were eating, he sipped his tea and filled his pipe and went on singing: + + What did the gipsies do there? + They built a tomb for Pharaoh, + They built a tomb for Pharaoh, + So tall it touched the sky. + They buried him deep inside it, + Then let what would betide it, + They saddled their lean-ribbed ponies + And left him there to die. + +He nodded his head toward the sides of the quarry, the overhanging +trees, and the hill beyond. + +"And this is where they've left me," he said. + +Cuthbert stared at him. + +"But you're not going to die, are you?" + +"Pretty soon," said Tod. He tapped his chest. "There's not much left, +you know, in this old box of mine." + +"Well, you don't seem to mind much," said Edward. + +"I don't," said Tod, "and I'll tell you why. I've just found out +something that I've been looking for very nearly all my life." + +He lit his pipe and leaned forward, with the fire shining in his eyes. +The days were so short now that the dusk had already come, and the +firelight cast strange shadows over the little quarry. The boys drew +closer to him, and he took from his waistcoat pocket a small box, with a +pinch of red powder in it. + +"For twenty years," he said, "I've been trying to make this powder; and +at last I've succeeded--just in time." + +They bent over his hand and examined the powder. It was as light as +thistle-down, and smelt like cloves. + +"Now look," he said. + +He threw some on the fire. But the boys could see nothing except the +crumbling leaves. + +Tod laughed. + +"Look a little higher," he said; and then, in the smoke, they suddenly +saw a bird hovering, and then another bird and another, and a couple of +nests hanging faintly in the air. + +"Now listen," said Tod; and above the whisper of the flames they could +hear the soft sharpening of tiny beaks, and the sound of wings, and the +ghosts of cheepings and chirpings, as if they had been hundreds of miles +away. Then they faded, and Tod leaned back, looking triumphantly at the +two boys. + +"But what were they?" said Cuthbert. + +"They were memories," said Tod. "They were the memories of those dead +leaves." + +"But do leaves remember?" asked Edward. + +"Everything remembers," said Tod, "only nobody's been able to prove it. +The ground we're sitting on, the fields you've come across, the hills +above us, they're crammed with memories. And when they die, if they ever +do die, these memories come crowding back to them, just like they do to +a dying man; and it's this powder that makes them visible." + +He rose to his feet and looked about him. + +"Of course, those leaves," he said, "were only a year old, and all that +they remembered was just those birds. But look at this,"--he picked up a +piece of wood--"this is the core of an old tree. This was a sapling +three hundred years ago." He sprinkled the rest of the powder on it and +threw it on the fire. + +For a minute or two nothing happened, and then, high up, they saw some +more birds hovering; but presently, as they looked, they saw the figure +of a man, with his hair in ringlets hanging down over his shoulders. He +wore a plumed hat, and his sleeves were frilled, and there was a sword +at his belt, and he wore knee-breeches and stockings and jewelled +buckles upon his shoes. He stood in mid-air, looking about him, and then +he was joined by the figure of a girl. He took her in his arms, and then +they faded away; and there instead was a peasant in a smock. + +They saw him lean forward and carve something in the air, as though he +were cutting somebody's name upon a tree-trunk; and then he too was +gone, and there were two children playing hide-and-seek in the wreathing +smoke. One was a little girl, and she wore a mob cap and a long skirt +dropping almost to her ankles; and the other was a boy with a very short +jacket and trousers that looked as if they had shrunk. + +Then they saw a fox, with his ears pricked, and one of his front paws +lifted; and then there was nothing again but the sides of the quarry and +the deepening shadows of the elms. + +"That's all," said Tod, "because I've no more powder. All the rest's up +there." + +He jerked his thumb toward the top of the hill, hidden away from them by +the trees. + +"Why is it up there?" asked Cuthbert. + +Tod stared at them as if he were trying to read their hearts. + +"Have you courage?" he asked. + +It was a difficult question. They told him that they hoped so, but that +they weren't quite sure. + +"Well, if you have," he said, "and you'd like to come back here +to-night, just about half-past twelve, you'll be able to see something +that nobody alive has ever seen or will see again." + +Cuthbert and Edward looked at one another. It would be a six-mile walk, +and they would have to start about eleven o'clock, and they would have +to go to bed first and creep out of their houses without anybody +knowing. The moon would have sunk, too, so that it would be quite dark. +They both felt a little queer inside. But they promised to come, and +agreed to meet at eleven o'clock near St Peter's Church. + +Cuthbert was there first, just before the clock struck. Everybody was in +bed, and he had slipped out unnoticed. But his heart sank a little as he +ran down the empty street and saw no Edward at the corner waiting for +him. But Edward came just as the clock struck, and the night seemed less +dark now that there were two of them, and soon they were out of the town +and running close together between the hedges of the country road. Once +a motor-car came travelling toward them, almost blinding them with the +glare of its head-lamps; but after they had left the road and struck +across the fields the night was so still that they could almost have +heard a star drop. + +It was so still that they spoke in whispers, and so dark that they +sometimes tripped; and once when they stopped for a moment to take +breath, a star did drop, and they almost heard it. Presently, when their +eyes became used to the darkness, they could see the dim outline of the +hills, and the faint ribbon of the Milky Way rising like smoke from +Cæsar's Camp. At the edge of the bracken they found Tod waiting for +them. + +"Come along," he said, "only don't go too fast," and they began to climb +through the belt of trees out on to the hillside beyond. The grass was +short here and slippery with dew, with glimmers of chalk beneath it +where the turf was broken; and it was so steep that half-way up Tod +stopped to fight for his breath. + +"It's all right," he said. "I'll be better in a moment," and as they +stood waiting for him and looking back, the country behind them seemed +to have vanished into a lake of darkness. Then they began to climb +again, their boots slipping, and suddenly as they climbed they smelt a +new smell--a strange sort of acrid, sweet smell, as of turf-fires +burning above them. + +"Yes," said Tod. "I was up there an hour ago. I've lit half a dozen +fires." + +At the top of the hill he dropped down for a moment close to a large +white stone. He lit a match and looked at his watch. + +"Ten minutes to one," he said. "We're just in time." + +They were now in a sort of trench or grassy moat that encircled the +great mound, and they had climbed into this over a smaller mound that +had once been a barricade. In this trench Tod had dug half a dozen +holes, and in each of these holes there was a turf-fire smouldering; and +now he turned and lifted the white stone, and took from under it a +little bag. + +"This is the rest of the powder," he said, "all there is, and all there +ever will be, for the secret will die with me." + +He rose to his feet and began to sprinkle it thickly over the burning +turf in each of the little holes. Then he came back and spoke to the two +boys. + +"There are great memories," he said, "stored in this hill, but they are +fierce ones, and you'll need all your courage." + +Then he moved away from them toward the farthest of the fires, and +Cuthbert felt a sort of change coming over the hill. He could see +nothing, but it felt different, as if it were surrounded by a different +sort of country--a savage country, with no railways in it, or roads, or +parliaments, or policemen. Even the stars seemed to have grown younger, +and nearer the earth, and more lawless; and then he heard voices filling +the air about him, and a man shouting hoarse commands. + +He turned with a start and found himself among a crowd of naked and +half-naked men--small men, with hair hanging over their shoulders, and +bearded chins, and glittering eyes. Some of them were painted with +curious patterns, shining in dull colours from their skins; and they +were all pointing toward the darkness that lay like a sea round the +sides of the hill. Then some of them spoke to him and asked him who he +was, and he found that he understood them and could answer them; and the +man who had been shouting, and who seemed to be their leader, came and +looked into his eyes. He laid his hands on Cuthbert's shoulders. + +"Son of my sons," he said, "are you ready to fight with us?" And +Cuthbert suddenly felt himself burning with anger, because he knew that +they were going to be attacked. + +"Of course I am," he said, and then there was a great shout, and +everybody rushed to the barricade; and there all round them, pricking +out of the darkness, they could see helmets and the rims of shields. + +Cuthbert somehow knew that these belonged to the Romans, and that he +hated them for invading his country; and he was so excited that he had +forgotten to notice what had happened to Edward Goldsmith. He only knew +that he had disappeared. + +As for Edward, he had forgotten all about Cuthbert. For he had suddenly +noticed that there were now trees growing half-way up the hillside, and +he had jumped over the barricade and run down to explore them. When he +got there, he had found himself among an army of men marching up the +hill behind locked shields, and a young centurion with merry eyes had +stooped and gripped him by the arm. + +"Hullo!" he said; "son of my sons, are you going to fight with us +against these barbarians?" And Edward tingled all over with pride, and +said, "Rather, you bet I am." Then a great stone from the top of the +barricade came leaping down the hillside and crushed one of the men in +the front rank, but the others closed together and never stopped +marching. + +When Cuthbert saw them he was blind with anger, but he knew in his heart +that they were bound to win; and next moment they were over the parapet +like a wave of hot and breathing iron. He heard groans and cries and the +shouts of the British chief, and his eyes were full of tears as he beat +at the Roman shields; and then he saw Edward and hit him in the face, +and made his nose bleed, and knocked out two of his teeth. Edward struck +back, and gave Cuthbert a black eye, and the night was full of hewings +and the flashings of swords; and then everything was still again, and +the hill was empty, and the stars were the same stars that they had +always known. + +Squatting on the barricade, with his arms round his knees, they saw Tod +the Gipsy laughing at them; and Cuthbert rubbed his eye, and Edward +sniffed hard to try and stop the blood running from his nose. Tod rose +and stretched himself. + +"Well, you've had it out," he said, "and so has the hill, and now you'd +better be off home." + +So they said good-bye to him, and they never saw him again; and next +morning when Edward came down to breakfast, his father scolded him for +explaining that an ancient Briton had hit him on the nose. But +Cuthbert's daddy only stroked his chin when he heard that the Romans had +given Cuthbert a black eye, because that was just the sort of thing, he +said, that the Romans sometimes did, though they had many good +qualities. + + + + + Down the dead centurions' way, + Tod the Gipsy drives his shay. + + Roman, Briton, Saxon, Dane, + Tod the Gipsy hears them plain. + + Faint beneath the noonday chalk, + Tod can overhear them talk. + + Fiercer than the stars at night, + Chin to chin, he sees them fight. + + + + +ST UNCUS + + + + +[Illustration: Doris and St Uncus] + + + + +IX + +ST UNCUS + + +It was now November, and even in the country the last of the leaves had +fallen from the trees, and the bushy hollows between the roots of the +downs were grey with old man's beard. Some people like November, because +it is the quietest month of the year--as quiet as somebody tired, who +has just fallen asleep--and they love to see the fields lying dark and +still, and the empty branches against the sky. But some people hate it, +especially people who live in towns, because of its fogs and falling +rains, and they turn up their coat-collars, and blow their noses, and +call it the worst month of the year. + +Doris hated it too, and she hated this particular November more than any +other that she could recall, because it had rained and rained and +rained, and because her mummy was so ill that she had had to go to +hospital. She was also angry with Cuthbert, because she thought that it +wasn't fair for him to have taken Edward to see Tod the Gipsy, and never +even have offered to take her, although she had asked him to over and +over again. + +So she hadn't spoken to him for nearly a month, not even after her mummy +had been taken to the hospital; and she hated Auntie Kate, who had come +to look after the home, because she kept asking her how her little +boy-friend was. Auntie Kate had a face like a hen's, with a beaky nose +and bobbly eyes, and she always counted people's pieces of bread and +butter, and wondered what income their father and mother had. Her +husband was a clergyman, so she went to church a lot, on week-days as +well as on Sundays; and now she had gone to a bazaar at St Peter's +Church, just when Doris had meant to go to tea with Gwendolen. + +So Doris was very angry, because she had to stay at home and take care +of her five brothers; and the only happy thing that she had to think +about was that Mummy would be home next week. But at half-past three on +a wet Saturday afternoon next week seems a horribly long way off, and +Jimmy and Jocko were being as naughty as ever they knew how. Jimmy was +six and Jocko was five, and they were playing water games in the +bathroom; and Doris knew that they would be soaking their clothes and +making an awful mess, but she didn't care. + +"At any rate they're quiet," she thought to herself, "and I don't see +why I should fight with them any more," and then she pressed her nose +against the front-door glass and looked dismally into the street. + +But there was nothing to see except the falling rain, and the dirty +brown fronts of the opposite houses, and a strip of mud-coloured sky, +and the milkman's cart with its yellow pony. Behind her, in a dark +cupboard under the stairs, Teddy and George, the twins, were playing at +Hell; and every now and then she could hear a faint clicking sound, as +they practised gnashing their teeth. As for Christopher Mark, who was +three and a half, she had forgotten all about him; and by now, if it +hadn't been for Auntie Kate, she might have been playing in Gwendolen's +big barn. Then she thought of Cuthbert again and of his exciting +adventure on the top of Cæsar's Camp, and she breathed on the glass, and +drew a picture of Cuthbert, making him as ugly as she could. + +"I hate him," she thought, "and I hate Auntie Kate, and I hate the +twins, and I hate everybody," and then she turned round, and her heart +stood still--or at least she felt as if it did--and her cheeks became +white. For there was Christopher Mark at the top of the stairs, with a +rabbit under one arm and an engine under the other; and she suddenly saw +him slip and begin to pitch head-long down, with a sickening thud, thud, +thud. + +For a moment she was so frightened that she could hardly breathe, but +just as she sprang forward an odd thing happened, for he stopped short, +almost as if somebody had caught him, and didn't even begin to cry. + +"My goodness!" she said, and then she stopped short too, for squatting +down on the topmost stair was the strangest little man that she had ever +seen, hanging on to Christopher Mark. He was a little man with a bald +head and a big mouth and a crooked back; and his right arm was only a +stump, with a very long hook at the end of it. His left arm was odd too, +almost as crooked as his back, and he had curled it round one of the +banisters, while he hooked Christopher Mark up with the other. + +"Good afternoon," he said. "I see you have recognized me. That's very +clever of you. Most people don't." + +Doris was too surprised at first to be able to answer him. But he didn't +seem to mind, and went on smiling; while as for Christopher Mark, he +climbed upstairs again, just as if the little man hadn't been there. + +"I'm afraid I don't recognize you," said Doris at last; "but I'm +frightfully obliged to you for saving Christopher Mark." + +"Not at all," he said. "That's what I'm for. I'm St Uncus." + +Doris frowned a little. + +"St Uncus?" she asked. + +"Latin for hook," he said. "Excuse me half a moment." + +For a flicker of an eyelid he disappeared. + +"Just been to China," he said, "to hook another one." + +Doris opened her eyes. + +"But are you a _real_ saint?" she asked. + +The little man flushed. + +"Why, of course I am. I'm a patron saint. I'm the patron saint of +staircases." + +"But I didn't know," said Doris, "that staircases had patron saints." + +"They don't," he said. "They have only one." + +"I mean," said Doris--"it's frightfully rude, I'm afraid--but I didn't +know that they had even one." + +He smiled again. + +"Very likely not," he said. "Lots of people don't. But they have." + +He disappeared once more. + +"Baby in Jamaica," he said, "just beginning to fall from the top +landing." + +Then he stroked his chin and looked at her thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you've been left here," he said, "to look after the +children." + +Doris nodded. + +"Well, then, you ought to know," he said, "that there are two things +that children love more than anything else. One of them's water and the +other's staircases. And they're both a bit dangerous. So they each have +a patron saint." + +"I see," said Doris. "And who's the patron saint of water?" + +"Fellow called Fat Bill," he said. "He's my younger brother." + +"That seems a queer name," said Doris, "for a saint." + +"Well, he's a queer fellow," said St Uncus, "but we've both been lucky." + +Doris couldn't help looking at his crooked back, and his deformed left +arm, and his right stump. + +"Ah, yes," he said; "but you mustn't judge by those. That's the very +mistake that I made. You see, I once fell down a staircase myself, two +or three years after staircases were invented." + +He looked at Doris and nodded his head. + +"It was when I was a small boy," he said, "as small as your little +brother; and that's why I grew up crooked and deformed. I was very +unhappy about it. It was thousands of years ago. But I can still +remember how unhappy I was. I used to watch the other children playing +games, and when I grew up I watched the men go hunting. And I had to +stay at home, and the women despised me; and at last I died, and then I +saw how silly I had been." + +"Why had you been silly?" asked Doris. + +"Well, I'd wasted the whole of my life, you see, thinking about the +staircase and how miserable I was; and so when the good Lord God asked +me what I wanted to do next, there was hardly anything that I could turn +my hand to. But I told you I was lucky, and so I was, for as it happened +I had a great idea; and that was to try and save as many children as I +could from being as miserable as I had been. Of course, I couldn't +expect much of a job, seeing how I'd thrown away all my chances, so I +asked the good Lord God if He would allow me to look after the world's +staircases." + +He disappeared again. + +"Been to Port Jacobson," he said. "Well, the good Lord God thought that +it was rather a fine idea; and so He laid His hand upon me and gave me a +new name; and my new name was St Uncus." + +"Shall I have a new name too?" asked Doris. + +St Uncus beamed. + +"Why, of course," he said. "Everybody has a new name, only it generally +depends, to a certain extent, upon what they did with their old ones." + +Doris thought for a moment. + +"But wouldn't you rather be in Heaven," she said, "than sitting about on +these silly old staircases?" + +St Uncus laughed. + +"But Heaven's not a place, my dear. Heaven's being employed by the good +Lord God." + +Then he looked at his watch. + +"And now I wonder," he said, "if you'd mind doing me a good turn?" + +"Oh, I should love to!" said Doris; "but how can I?" + +"Well, you see," he said, "the worst of my job is that I can never get a +chance of seeing my brother Bill. He's always busy by the edges of ponds +and things, and I'm always stuck on somebody's staircase; and I thought +perhaps, if you wouldn't mind taking my hook for a bit, I could slip off +for a moment and have a talk to him." + +Doris felt a little shy. + +"But should I be able to use it?" she asked. "And how could I tell +whether somebody wanted me?" + +"Oh, that'll be all right," he said, "as soon as you catch hold of the +hook; and perhaps you won't be wanted at all. The only trouble is when +two children are falling at once, and then you have to decide which +you'll go for. But that doesn't happen very often, considering how many +children there are." + +So Doris went upstairs, and he unbuttoned the hook, and when she caught +hold of it she felt a strange sort of thrill. She felt like Cuthbert had +felt when he went into In-between Land; and indeed that was where she +really was. St Uncus had vanished, and she saw Christopher Mark like a +little fat ghost, with his soul shining inside him. Then she suddenly +heard a cry in a strange foreign language, and she saw a dark-eyed +mother at the bottom of some stone steps, and a small round baby, with +an olive-coloured skin, tumbling down them one by one. She felt a hot +wind, full of the odour of spices, blowing faintly against her cheek; +and then she bent forward and hooked up the baby, and saw the look of +terror die out of the mother's face. + +Never in her life had Doris felt so pleased. She felt as if she could +shout and sing with joy. No wonder, she thought, that St Uncus looked so +happy. She began to understand what being in Heaven meant. And then she +heard a shout, and smelt a smell of herrings, and she saw a man in a +blue jersey, and a curly-headed boy, about four years old, pitching head +first down a dark staircase. Through a dirty window-pane she could see +the mouth of a river, full of fishing-smacks floating side by side; and +she saw a woman, with rolled-up sleeves, run out of a kitchen and stand +beside the man. + +Then she hooked up the boy, and she heard the woman say "Thank God!" and +the man say "You little rascal, you!" and then she was back again, and +there was St Uncus sitting beside her and rubbing his hands. + +"Ever so many thanks," he said. "I haven't seen old Bill for nearly +three hundred years. He says he'd like to meet you, but of course it's +only now and again that anybody like you is able to see us." + +Then he said good-bye to her, and she never saw him again, but she knew +that he was there, and once she actually heard him; and that was very +late on this same evening, long after everyone had gone to bed. For soon +after midnight, when Auntie Kate was dreaming about clergymen and +bazaars, and when Teddy and George were dreaming about bears, and Jimmy +and Jocko about bathrooms, and when Christopher Mark was dreaming about +rabbits, and Doris wasn't dreaming at all--soon after midnight a little +red-hot cinder suddenly popped out of the kitchen grate. + +It fell on a bit of matting, and burnt its way through to the +floor-boards below; and presently a wisp of smoke, with a wicked pungent +smell, began to twist upward and flatten against the ceiling. Fuller and +fuller grew the kitchen of smoke, and Teddy and George began to dream of +camp-fires, but Auntie Kate still dreamt of bazaars and pincushions +marked tenpence halfpenny. Teddy and George were sleeping by themselves, +and Christopher Mark slept in a little room turning out of Auntie +Kate's. These rooms were above the sitting-room in the front of the +house, and it was Teddy and George who slept over the kitchen; while +Doris herself and Jimmy and Jocko shared a little room under the roof. + +The floor of the kitchen was now blazing fiercely, with the boards +crackling in the flames, and Teddy and George began to dream about guns, +but still they didn't wake up. They only moved a little uneasily, and it +was somebody shouting that finally woke them, just as it was a neighbour +banging at the front door that roused Auntie Kate from her dreams. + +"Hurry up!" cried the neighbour, "your house is on fire!" and Auntie +Kate was so flustered that she quite forgot where she had put her +clothes, and rushed downstairs in her nightdress. As for Teddy and +George, their room was full of smoke, and they bolted out of it, +coughing and spluttering, and met Doris coming down from the attic, +pushing Jimmy and Jocko in front of her. + +The kitchen door had now swung open, and the flames were darting across +the hall; and clouds of smoke were rolling upstairs like a sour and +suffocating fog. + +"Never mind," said Doris. "Hold your breath, and run downstairs as quick +as you can," and soon they were all standing together in the street, +while some of the neighbours were running for the fire-engine. + +It had stopped raining, but the pavement felt all cold and clammy as +they stood upon it with their bare feet, and it seemed funny to be out +in the dark with nothing on but their nightgowns. Auntie Kate had fled +into an opposite house, because she couldn't bear that so many people +should see her; but Teddy and George were rather enjoying themselves, +though Jimmy and Jocko had begun to cry. Then Doris looked round, +"Where's Christopher Mark?" she cried, and everybody looked at everybody +else, and Doris knew that he must be still asleep in his little +dressing-room upstairs. She rushed into the house, but the leaping +flames had already begun to curl round the banisters; and the lady next +door caught hold of her arm and told her that it would be madness to try +and rescue him. But Doris shook her off and ran across the hall, and +dashed blindly up the burning staircase. + +"Oh, St Uncus!" she said, "come and help me; come and help me to save +Christopher Mark." + +The sound of the flames was like the roar of an engine, and the smoke +was thicker than the blackest night. But at the top of the stairs she +suddenly heard a whisper, "It's all right, my dear, I'm here." + +And then she laughed, and found Christopher Mark fast asleep, hugging +his white rabbit; and in another few seconds she was out in the street +again, with Christopher Mark safe in her arms. + +Some of the people cheered her and patted her on the back, and began to +tell her how brave she had been; and she was rather pleased, of course, +especially when she thought of Mummy, who would be sure to hear about it +in hospital. But she wasn't conceited, because she knew that she had +been helped by a little saint with a crooked back, who served God by +keeping an eye on all the staircases in the world. + + + + + Never a babe in Port of Spain, + Peabody Buildings, Portland Maine, + + Limerick, Lima, Boston, York, + Nottingham, Naples, Cairo, Cork, + + Milton of Campsie, Moscow, Mull, + Halifax, Hampstead, Hobart, Hull, + + Never a baby climbs a stair + But little St Hook is waiting there. + + + + +OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + + + +[Illustration: Mother Hubbard's] + + + + +X + +OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + +Cuthbert was very sorry when he heard about the fire at Doris's house, +and when he next saw her in the street, he almost crossed the road to +speak to her. But she hadn't spoken to him for so long that he had +resolved not to talk to her unless she spoke to him first. Doris and +Jimmy and Jocko were now staying with some people called Brown; and +Doris's mother and the twins and Christopher Mark were staying with +Gwendolen's aunt and Captain Jeremy. It was rather fun staying with the +Browns, but on the whole Doris was rather sad, because it would be two +months, so the builders said, before they could all be at home together +again. + +Cuthbert knew about this, because Marian had told him; and that was why +he nearly crossed the road. But he decided not to, and he didn't see +Doris again until the second day of the holidays. That was the Thursday +before Christmas, and it was a grey day and very cold, with a strong +wind blowing out of the north-east, and all the houses looking huddled +and shrunken. It was early in the afternoon, and he had just been to +call for Edward, but Edward had gone out to sit by the railway. He was +collecting the numbers on engines, and had already got thirty-seven. + +Cuthbert was collecting too, but he was collecting the dates on pennies, +so he didn't feel inclined to go and sit with Edward; and it was just as +he was wondering what to do that he saw Doris turn the corner. For a +moment he thought that he would pretend not to see her, but she was all +alone, and it suddenly occurred to him that it would be rather a good +idea to take her out to tea at Uncle Joe's. + +So he stopped and asked her, and she was very glad, because she had +nothing particular to do; and she told him all about St Uncus and the +fire and what it was like being nearly burnt to death. + +"Let's cut across the fields," she said, "past old Mother Hubbard's. +It's jolly cold. I think it's going to snow." + +"I hope it is," said Cuthbert. "But it's not so cold as the day on which +we found the ice-men." + +But it was quite cold enough, with the horses in the fields standing +dismally under the naked hedges, and the black north-easter crumbling +the ridges of the plough-lands until they looked like pale-coloured +powdered chocolate. + +"I shall be jolly glad," said Cuthbert, "when we get to Uncle Joe's," +and just then they passed Mother Hubbard's--a melancholy house standing +by itself, with all its blinds and curtains drawn. + +It was always like that, and behind it were some ruined stables, with a +tin roof that flapped up and down; and a big yellow dog on a long chain +ran out and yelped at them as they passed. This was called Mother +Hubbard's house, because it belonged to a Miss Hubbard who lived there +all by herself, and who had allowed nobody to enter the door since her +father had died fifty years ago. + +He had been a proud old general with a bad temper; and some people said +that he had driven Miss Hubbard mad, but other people said that she was +only queer, and hated everybody except her dog. Occasionally she could +be seen peering round one of the blinds, or feeding her dog in the +ruined stables; and once a week she went into the town with a big bag to +do her shopping. The shop-people said that she was very polite, and so +did the postman, who sometimes took her a letter. But she always kept +her own counsel, and nobody could ever make her talk. Why she lived like +that, nobody knew. Some people said that it was because she was so poor, +and because her father had made her promise never to let people know how +poor she was. But other people said that she was really rather rich, and +that she must have had some great trouble. She was very old--nearly +eighty--although her eyes were clear and so were her cheeks; but there +were still a few people who remembered her as a girl galloping on +horseback over the fields. + +"Silly old thing," said Doris, as they left her house behind them. "I +shouldn't be surprised if she was a witch." + +But Cuthbert said that there weren't any such things, and perhaps she +had killed somebody and had a guilty conscience. + +Then they crossed a road, and climbed over a stile, and skirted a great +field pricked with tiny wheat-blades; and then they slipped down a +rather steep bank into a sheltered lane still wet with mud. They had +already forgotten old Mother Hubbard, and the next moment they forgot +her still more; for just then there came clattering down the lane a +young man on horseback, splashed to his eyes. His bowler hat was crammed +down on his head, and he shouted at them as he galloped by. "Which way +have they gone?" he cried, but he never stopped for an answer, and soon +there came some more riders, both men and women. They had evidently come +down the lane to avoid a big ploughed field that lay between high hedges +on the other side of it, for Cuthbert and Doris presently saw them turn +sharply to the right into a grass meadow where it was easier to gallop. + +"It's the hunt," said Doris. "Let's run after them," so they turned and +ran down the lane, and saw the riders, one by one, jumping over a gate +on the far side of the meadow. Then they crossed the meadow and +scrambled over the gate just in time to see the last of the horsemen +disappearing over another hedge a couple of hundred yards away. + +"We shall never catch them," said Cuthbert, but just then they heard a +horn blowing. "It's the fox," cried Doris. "They've seen the fox," and +half a minute later, from a little rise in the ground, they saw the +whole hunt streaming away from them. + +They were so hot now that they had forgotten all about the wind and the +grey clouds gathering over the downs, and their only thought was to be +up among the horses and their jolly, red-cheeked riders. So they ran +down the rise and across another road and over some more fields and past +a wood, until they came at last to a stream, running rather sluggishly +between some pollarded willows. On one of these there was a man +standing, and he waved his hand to them as they came up. + +"They're coming back," he said. "Keep along the stream, and I'll lay a +dollar you'll see some fun." + +It was now nearly four, and the light was beginning to fade, and they +were ever so far from Uncle Joe's; but they pushed their way through the +tangled grass until they came to a plank across the stream. This led +them out beside a hazel copse, and just as they were wondering which way +to go they heard the horn again, not very far away, and the clear, deep +calling of the hounds. Something cold fell on Cuthbert's cheek. + +"Hullo!" he said, "it's beginning to snow." And then a burly man on a +big grey mare came crashing through the undergrowth on the other side of +the stream. He gave a shout, and they jumped aside as his horse rose to +clear the water; but the next moment he was sprawling on the ground in +front of them, with his scarlet coat about his ears. + +They heard him swear, but as he picked himself up and helped his horse +out of the stream he began to laugh, and soon he was in the saddle again +and vanishing into the dusk. For a minute or two they waited, but nobody +else came. An old cock pheasant rattled out of the hazel copse. The horn +blew once more, and then all was still. Their breath stood like smoke +upon the air. + +Then Doris suddenly stooped and picked up a coin that had been half +trampled into the bank. + +"Hullo!" she said, "he's dropped a penny. You'd better add the date of +it to your collection." + +Cuthbert took it from her, but the penny was an old one, and the date +was difficult to see. The snow began to fall upon them in heavy flakes. +Cuthbert took out his handkerchief and polished the coin. And then an +odd thing happened, for suddenly, as he polished, the stream and the +hazel copse seemed to fade away; and it was another girl--a grown-up +girl--who had just given him the penny. + +"A penny for your thoughts," she said, and Cuthbert knew that she wasn't +speaking to him, but to somebody else; and the thoughts that came into +his head weren't his own, but a grown-up man's. He knew that they were +somebody else's thoughts, because he was thinking his own thoughts too; +and the other person's thoughts were of two kinds--the weak thoughts +that he decided to tell the girl, and the strong thoughts that went into +the penny. + +The thoughts that he told the girl were that, when he got to South +America, he was going to spend his spare time studying the birds there. +He was going to write a book about them, and perhaps, when he had +written his book, he would get a job looking after a museum. But his +strong thoughts, that he didn't tell her, were "I love you and want to +marry you; but I mustn't tell you that, because I'm only a carpenter, +and you're a lady, and ever so far above me." + +"What's the matter?" said Doris. + +Cuthbert gave her the penny. + +"It's a queer sort of penny," he said. "Catch hold of it." + +Doris took it. + +"I don't see anything queer in it," she said. So Cuthbert polished it +once more. This time he polished it harder, so that when he gave it to +Doris again it was quite warm from the polishing; and Doris seemed to be +standing in a strange sort of room, full of old-fashioned furniture and +heavy ornaments. The same girl said, "A penny for your thoughts," and +the same thoughts came to her as had come to Cuthbert. The day drew in. +It was almost dark now, and the snow was glistening on their shoulders. + +"I know what's happened," she said. "His real thoughts were so strong +that they all went into the penny." + +Cuthbert nodded. + +"That's what I thought," he said. "And when you rub the penny they all +come out." + +"Did you notice the girl's dress?" asked Doris, "and the way her hair +was done, and the blue china dog on the mantelpiece?" + +Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Let's have another go," he said, and he rubbed the penny again as hard +as he could. + +This time he noticed the room, with its queer high-backed piano, and a +picture of people hunting hanging on the wall, and the blue china dog, +and the girl's dress, and the curious way in which she had done her +hair. It was pulled back from her forehead into a smooth sort of bundle +behind her head; and her dress was all in terraces, like a wedding-cake, +or a theatre turned upside down. + +"It must have been a good long time," said Cuthbert, "since she gave him +the penny. Do you think he was the man who fell off the horse?" + +"Oh, he couldn't have been," said Doris. "He was much too young; and +besides I'm sure that he was never a carpenter." + +She shivered a little. + +"We ought to be getting home," she said, but Cuthbert lingered for a +moment, looking at the penny. + +"I expect hundreds of people," he said, "have had it in their pockets +and never known what was inside it." + +"I daresay," said Doris, "but I know I'm jolly hungry, and we must be +miles away from anywhere." + +Nor were they quite sure where anywhere was, but they crossed the plank +again and started for home, with the snow driving past their ears and +piling up in front of their feet. Grey-capped hedges loomed up before +them, rising unexpectedly out of the darkness; and so thick lay the snow +that they were never able to tell whether the next field was a ploughed +one. But they passed the tree--or they thought that they did--on which +the man had been standing; and they crossed the road--or they thought +that they did--that they had crossed after running down the rise. But +the hours went by, and they felt emptier and emptier, and several times +they stumbled into snow-filled ditches; and the snow roared past them +in angry whiteness, and melted upon their necks and trickled down their +backs. + +Longingly they thought then of Uncle Joe's and of plates of hot muffins +before the fire, and even more longingly of supper at home, with bowls +of steaming bread and milk. But every field seemed endlesser than the +last, and the snow grew deeper and ever more deep; and the night closed +down upon them like a lid, and their feet felt heavier than ten-pound +weights. + +"I believe we're lost," said Cuthbert, but Doris didn't seem to hear, +and so they toiled on with sinking hearts, and then at last, just as +they were almost spent, they suddenly knocked their knees against a +little gate. It was the sort of gate that leads into a garden path; and +though they could see no sign of this, or even of a light, they pushed +it open with a great effort, and went plunging into the snow beyond. + +Sometimes people have been frozen close to a house, but in a little +while they saw a great dark shadow; and then to their joy they found +themselves in front of a door, with a gleam of light shining through the +letter-box. For a long time they knocked, but nobody came; and several +times they shouted through the letter-box. But still nobody came, and +then from behind the house they heard the barking of a dog. + +Doris gripped Cuthbert's arm. + +"It's old Mother Hubbard's," she said. "That's her dog. I know it's +bark." + +"Then we'll never get in," said Cuthbert, but just as he said that they +heard footsteps coming down the hall. + +"Who's there?" said a voice. It had an odd sort of creak in it, like the +creak of a drawer that is seldom opened. Cuthbert told her; and then, +after a long pause, the door moved a little on its hinges. An eddy of +snow whirled in in front of them, and the door swung back an inch or two +more. + +"You'd better come inside," said Miss Hubbard, and they went into the +hall, her first guests for fifty years. She stood looking at them over a +flickering candle. Her eyes were frostier than the wind outside. The air +of the house smelt like a tomb. They could hear the ticking of several +clocks. + +"You'd better come into the scullery," she said, "and shake the snow +off," and she led them in silence to the back of the house, where she +left them alone for nearly twenty minutes before she came back to ask +them in to tea. + +"It's in the drawing-room," she said, "and I hope you won't talk. I'm +very strong and I have a big dog." + +So they followed her into the drawing-room, and then a second, and even +more wonderful, thing happened. Cuthbert stopped short, and so did +Doris, and old Miss Hubbard switched round and stared at them. + +"What's the matter?" she asked. "What are you gaping at?" + +"Why, it's the penny room!" said Cuthbert; and so it was. For there was +the queer high-backed piano; and there was the picture of people +hunting; and there were the old-fashioned heavy ornaments. + +"But where's the dog," said Doris, "the blue china dog that used to +stand on the mantelpiece?" + +Old Miss Hubbard had turned quite white. + +"The blue china dog?" she asked. "What do you know about that? It was +broken thirty years ago." + +"But it's the same room," said Cuthbert, "and there was a girl in it, +and she gave a man a penny for his thoughts." + +Old Miss Hubbard began to tremble. She sat down heavily, and her eyes +looked frightened. + +"But how do you know?" she asked. "You're only children; and that was +more than fifty years ago." + +Cuthbert felt in his pocket and pulled out the penny. + +"This is the penny," he said, "that the girl gave him. We've just found +it, quite by accident. And he didn't tell her all of his thoughts. He +only told her some of them. The rest are in here, and we made them come +out." + +He began to polish it again with his handkerchief; and then he gave it +to her, and they stood watching her. For about five minutes she sat +quite still; and then she looked up, and her voice had changed a little. + +"If I tell you a story," she said, "will you let me keep it?" + +Cuthbert looked at Doris, and Doris nodded her head. + +"Why, of course," said Cuthbert. "We should be very pleased." + +So while they were having tea she told them that long ago a girl had +lived in that house, and that she fell in love with a young man, who was +a carpenter by trade. But he was also a naturalist, and especially fond +of birds, and he wanted to discover all sorts of things about them; and +one day he told the girl that he was just going away to work on a +railway in South America. Then he hesitated, as if he wanted to tell her +something else, and she gave him a penny for his thoughts; and then he +left the house, and was drowned at sea, and the girl never knew whether +he had loved her or not. + +"It was very silly of him," said Miss Hubbard, "not to have told her. +But perhaps the girl was sillier still. For she was so sad that she +wasted her whole life; and now it seems that he loved her after all." + +Then she went to the window and pulled up the blind. The storm had died +down, and it had stopped snowing. Brighter than eyes at a Christmas +party, the stars in their thousands shone in the sky. Cuthbert and Doris +said that they must be going; and old Miss Hubbard took them to the +front door. + +"You must come and see me again," she said. "Come as often as you like; +and perhaps next time you'll bring some of your friends." + +"But she never told us," said Cuthbert, "who the girl was." + +"Why, you silly," said Doris, "it was Miss Hubbard herself." + + + + + Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard + To fetch her poor dog a bone, + But this Mother Hubbard in her heart's cupboard + Lives in the dark alone. + + Sorrow's grey dust on the chandelier + Never a sun-ray sees, + Never a finger stirs the blind, + Nor the harpsichord's yellow keys. + + Dumb is the clock with the china face, + The carpet moulds on the floor; + Oh, won't you come down to her house with me + And open Miss Hubbard's door? + + + + +MARIAN'S PARTY + + + + +[Illustration: The Little Temple] + + + + +XI + +MARIAN'S PARTY + + +For a whole month after Cuthbert and Doris had had tea with old Miss +Hubbard the snow lay white upon the ground, and the ice grew thick over +the ponds. Day after day during the Christmas holidays the children went +skating or tobogganing; and Cuthbert and Doris learnt to waltz on +skates, and even Marian learnt to cut threes. And then the frost broke, +and it rained all through February, and then came March with its +blustering winds. Sometimes it was an east wind, drying the wet fields +or powdering them over with tiny snowflakes; and sometimes it was a west +wind, shouting in the tree-tops, with its arms full of sunshine and +golden clouds; and the week before Marian's birthday, which was on the +27th, was the windiest week of all, chasing people's hats across the +tram-lines, and blowing the chimney-smoke down into their sitting-rooms. + +Marian always had a party on her birthday, and this year it was going to +be a specially nice one. Twelve of her friends were coming, and so was +Uncle Joe, and so were Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt. So was Mr +Parker, who lived with Uncle Joe, and so was Lancelot, the bosun's mate; +and the most wonderful thing of all, so was old Miss Hubbard. + +It had been Cuthbert's idea to ask Miss Hubbard, and she had promised to +come on one condition--that she might be allowed to bring the +birthday-cake and the nine candles to stick into it. For Marian was +going to be nine, and it was nearly two years since she had met Mr Jugg; +and she sometimes wondered--it seemed so long ago--if she had ever seen +him at all. Cuthbert used to tease her by pretending that she hadn't, +and that Mr Jugg was only a dream, just as he used to tease her by +telling her that the 27th of March was a silly sort of day on which to +have a birthday. That was because his own birthday came in April, so +that it was always in the holidays; but Uncle Joe, who knew a lot about +birthdays, used to take Marian's side. March was the soldier's month, he +said, full of bugles, and one of the best months to be born in; while, +as for Cuthbert, anyone could tell by listening to him that he had come +in April with all the other cuckoos. + +So Marian was naturally rather excited; and then, on the very morning of +her birthday, Cuthbert woke up with a strawberry-coloured tongue and a +chest as red as a cooked lobster. That was just the sort of thing, +Marian thought, that Cuthbert would do, although she knew that she ought +to feel sorry for him; and then the doctor came and said that he had +scarlet fever, and that was the end of Marian's party. For Mummy had to +put on an overall and begin to nurse Cuthbert, and a big sheet was hung +across the bedroom door, and Mummy had to sprinkle it with carbolic +acid, and of course Marian wasn't allowed to go to school. But she could +go for walks, said the doctor, as long as she went by herself and +didn't go near anybody, or travel in trams and things; and so she spent +the morning in taking notes to her friends, telling them that there +wasn't to be a party after all. As for Uncle Joe, Mummy sent him a +message by a carrier who passed near his house. "And the first thing in +the afternoon," she said to Marian, "you must slip across the fields to +old Miss Hubbard's." + +Now a little girl whose only brother has just been silly enough to get +scarlet fever is one of the loneliest people in the world; and that was +just how Marian felt. Even her mummy tried to keep away from her, +because she was nursing Cuthbert, who was so infectious; and she had had +strict orders when she arrived at Mother Hubbard's not to go inside her +house. + +"Everybody's happy," said Marian, "except me," as she saw the people +laughing in the country roads, and the horses biting at each other's +manes, and the birds circling together in the soft air. For, as if +Somebody had known that it was going to be her birthday and waved a wand +during the night, the wind had dropped and the clouds vanished, and the +air was full of a thousand scents. There were earth-scents, warm and +wet, and hedge-scents of primroses and growing weeds, and the scents of +small animals, and cow-scents and lamb-scents, and tree-scents of bark +and cracking buds. Invisibly they rose and spread and mingled, like +children flocking upstairs in their party frocks; and the sun beamed +down on them like some gay old admiral who had just spied summer on the +horizon. + +But Marian was still unhappy and disappointed, and when she had given +her message to old Miss Hubbard she wandered across the fields, not very +much caring where she went or what might happen to her. That was how she +was feeling when she came at last to a small wood, called the Pirate's +Wood because it was shaped rather like a ship, with a lot of masts in +it, easy to climb. It was Cuthbert who had christened this wood, because +he had climbed higher than the others--almost to the top of the tallest +tree. But Doris had climbed nearly as high, and they both laughed at +Marian, because she would only climb half-way up. It occurred to her +this afternoon, however, that she would climb higher than either of +them; and she didn't care, she said, if she fell from the top. + +So she swung herself up on to the lowest branch of the big elm-tree near +the middle of the wood; and presently she saw above her the fork between +two boughs that Cuthbert had christened the crow's-nest. Level with her +nose, cut in the bark of the trunk, was a big D, standing for Doris, so +that already she had climbed as high as Doris had climbed, and was able +to look out over the other trees. But now she had come to the hardest +part of the climb, for in order to reach the crow's-nest she would have +to swarm up a piece of the elm-trunk from which there were no branches +sticking out to help her. There were only roughnesses in the bark, into +which she would have to dig her fingers, and first of all she had to +pull up her skirt and tuck it down inside her knickers. For a moment or +two she began to be frightened. But then she told herself that she +didn't care; and soon she had swarmed high enough to reach one of the +forking boughs, and had swung herself up into the crow's-nest. + +She was now as high as Cuthbert had climbed, and rippling away below her +she could see the fields and farm-lands stretching into the distance. +Two or three miles to her right lay the spires and chimneys and crinkled +roof-tops of the town, and two or three miles to her left, golden in the +sunlight, the hills lay strung along the sky. Then she saw yet another +fork between two slender boughs, just about a foot above her head, and +in a minute or two she had climbed higher even than Cuthbert had done, +and was safely perched in the top of the tree. If only the others had +been there she could have sighted imaginary ships for them sooner than +any of them had done before; and then she remembered again how sad and +lonely she was, and that nothing really mattered after all. + +So she stuffed her handkerchief into a crack in the tree just to prove +that she had really climbed there; and it was just then that she saw a +young man swinging across the fields toward the wood. He was wearing an +old shooting-jacket and grey flannel trousers; and he was singing a +song, of which she couldn't hear the words. She saw him climb a +gate--rather cautiously, she thought; she had expected from his general +air that he would vault it; and then he disappeared under the trees just +as she began to climb down. + +But climbing down anything is often more difficult than climbing up, as +Marian found; and half-way down she suddenly discovered that she had +somehow worked herself to the wrong side of the tree. Below her were two +or three branches that she thought would bear her, but there were long +gaps yawning between them; and the main trunk was growing broader and +broader, so that she could no longer span it with her arms. Once a piece +of bark broke in her fingers, and she slithered down a yard or more and +nearly fell; and she could feel her heart jumping against her ribs, as +she stood with both feet on a bending bough. Then she heard the young +man singing again in a cheerful voice, and she thought of shouting to +him, but she felt too shy; and then she began to lower herself very +carefully until she touched the branch below her with the tips of her +toes. + +The young man stopped singing. + +"Steady on," he cried. "You're touching a rotten branch." + +Marian pulled herself up again. + +"But it's the only one there is," she said. "I can't reach any other." + +She heard him whistle. + +"Hold on," he said. "I'm trying to find you--half a tick." + +He came to the bottom of the tree and looked up. + +"Where are you now?" he asked. Marian thought it a silly question. + +"Why, just here," she said. + +"Well, why don't you come down," he asked, "the same way that you got +up?" + +"I don't know," she said. "I wish I could. But I've got wrong somehow. +I'm stuck." + +She saw him touching the elm-trunk with his hands, running his fingers +lightly and quickly over it. Then he swung himself up on to the lowest +bough, and soon he was near enough to touch her hand. + +"Now catch hold," he said, "and jump toward me. Don't be frightened. I'm +as firm as a rock." + +Marian jumped, and he caught and steadied her. + +"Now you're all right," he said. "You'd better go down first." + +In another moment or two he was on the ground beside her, looking down +at her with a smile. He was about six feet high, she thought, with +queer-looking eyes and curly brown hair and a skin like a gipsy's. + +"Well, what are you doing here," he asked, "climbing all alone?" + +Marian told him about her party, and how she had had to put it off. "And +it'll be seven or eight weeks," she said, "before Cuthbert's well again, +so that I shan't have one at all." + +"Yes, I see," he said. "That's jolly bad luck. What about having some +tea with me?" + +Marian looked at him a little doubtfully. + +"But where do you live?" she asked. "Do you live near here?" + +"Well, just at present," he said, "I'm staying with Lord Barrington. But +I have a flask in my pocket full of hot tea, and I stole some cakes +before I came out." + +So they sat down together between the roots of the elm-tree, and the +sun poured down upon them, almost as if it had been summer. + +"But why did you come here," said Marian--"to this wood I mean?" + +"Oh, just by accident," he said, "if there's any such thing." + +Marian looked him up and down again. She wondered what he was. Perhaps +it was rude, but she ventured to ask him. + +"Well, I used to be a painter," he said, "once upon a time. I was rather +a successful one. So I saved a little money." + +"But you're quite young," she said. "Why aren't you one now?" + +"Because I had a disappointment," he said, "just like you have had." + +Marian began to like him. + +"Was it a bad one?" she asked. + +"Pretty bad," he said. "I became blind." + +For a moment Marian was so surprised that she couldn't say anything at +all; and then she felt such a pig that she didn't want to say anything. +For what was a silly little disappointment like hers beside so dreadful +a thing as becoming blind? But he looked so contented and was humming so +cheerfully as he counted out the cakes and began to divide them that her +curiosity got the better of her, and she spoke to him once more. + +"But how did you know," she asked, "that I was up the tree?" + +"Quite simple," he said. "I heard you." + +"And how could you tell that that was a rotten branch?" + +"Because I heard the sound of it when your toes touched it." + +Marian was silent for a moment. + +"You must have awfully good hearing," she said. "But I suppose you've +practised rather a lot." + +"Well, a good deal," he admitted. "You see, I was in the middle of Asia +when I first lost my sight. I was camping out, and painting pictures, +and shooting an occasional buck for my breakfast and dinner. Then a gun +went off while somebody was cleaning it, and the next moment I was +blind; and for a couple of months there was only one thing I wanted, and +that was to die as soon as I could." + +He poured out some tea for her and dropped a lump of sugar into it. + +"And then one day," he said, "there came a man to see me, and he told me +that I oughtn't to be discouraged. He was an old priest of some queer +sort of religion that the people of those parts believed in; and he was +sorry for me, and took me to stay with him in a little temple up in the +mountains. I never knew his name, we were just father and son to each +other, and I suppose that most people would have called him a heathen. +But he had lived all his life up among the mountains, studying nature +and praying to God. Well, I stayed with him for more than a year, and he +used to talk to me about the things he knew. I was a bad pupil, I'm +afraid, but he was infinitely patient; and after a time I began to +learn a little. 'You are blind, my son,' he used to tell me, 'but only a +little less blind than other people. And you have ears that are still +almost deaf. Why not stay with me and learn to hear?' I told him that I +_could_ hear, but he only smiled--it's a lovely thing to hear people +smile--and then he began to teach me, just as he would have taught a +child, the ABC of hearing." + +He finished his cake and filled his pipe. + +"Did you know," he went on, "that everything has a sound, just as it has +a shape and colour of its own? Well, it has; and presently I seemed to +be living in a strange new world, all full of music. Of course it wasn't +really new. It was the same old world. Only, like most people, I had +been almost deaf to it; and when I first heard it, up in that little +temple, I nearly went mad with joy. Day after day and night after night +I went out by myself and listened, and gradually I began to distinguish +the separate sounds of things, like the notes of instruments in an +orchestra." + +He stopped for a moment. + +"Just behind us, for instance, there's a clump of anemones singing next +to some primroses." + +Marian turned and saw them, just as he had said. + +"Oh, I wish," she cried, "that I could hear them too." + +The painter smiled. + +"Wait for a moment," he said. "Well, then once more I began to grow +miserable. For I was an artist, you see, and every artist wants to make +other people see what he sees. That was why I had painted my pictures. +But how could I make people hear what I heard? So I told the old priest +about it, and he said that, if I were a real artist, the power would +come back to me somehow. 'Wait a little,' he said, 'Stay a little +longer. You've hardly begun yet to hear for yourself.'" + +He paused again and lit his pipe. + +"And at last it came to me," he said. "Hold my hand." + +Marian slipped her hand into his. + +"Now close your eyes," he told her, "and listen." + +For a moment she could hear nothing but a ploughman shouting to his +horses and the tap-tapping of a woodpecker; but slowly as she listened +sounds began to come to her, as of a hidden band far in the distance. +Presently they drew nearer, and at first they were confused, like +hundreds of people gently humming through closed lips; but at last she +began to recognize different notes, like tiny drums and flutes and +fifes. All the time, too, close at hand, there was a faint persistent +ringing of bells; and these were the anemones swaying on their stems; +and the little trumpet-sounds came from the primroses. Then there was a +rough sort of scraping sound; and that was a mole, he said, burrowing in +the earth two or three yards away. And there was a sound like a chant on +one full note from a big field of grass just in front of the wood. Those +were the distincter notes; but there was a continuous sharp undertone, +like millions of finger-tips tapping on stretched parchment; and those +were the buds opening all along the hedges and upon the leaf-twigs up +above them. But deeper than all, deeper and softer than the softest +organ, there was a great sound; and that was the sap, he told her, +rising like a flood in all things living for miles around them. + +Then she opened her eyes and dropped his hand, and it was as if she had +suddenly become almost deaf. She lifted her fingers and put them in her +ears. + +"It's as if they were stopped up," she said. "Hold my hand again." + +But he turned and smiled at her. + +"Are you still unhappy?" he asked. + +Marian shook her head. + +"No, not now," she answered. + +"That's right," he said. "The world's much too good a place for a little +girl like you to be unhappy in." + +Then he held her hand again, and as the sounds of the world came back to +her there happened the oddest thing of all. For now there came other +sounds, clearer and nearer, lighter than breath and closer than her +heart. They said "Marian" to her, "Marian, Marian"; and the strange +thing was that she seemed to remember them--just as if their names were +on the tip of her tongue, like the names of old friends, stupidly +forgotten. + +"That's what they are," he said. "They're the voices of the friends that +we left behind us when we were born. Whenever we go back, and whenever +we have a birthday, they come flocking down to greet us." + +He stood up and stretched himself, and Marian rose to her feet. + +"So you've had a party," he said, "after all." + + + + + Could we, down the road to school, + Run but with undeafened ears, + Then what joy in this sweet spring + Just to hear the gardens sing, + + Scilla with her drooping bells + Playing her enchanted peal, + Primrose with his golden throat + Shouting his triumphant note. + + + + +THE SORROWFUL PICTURE + + + + +[Illustration: Porto Blanco] + + + + +XII + +THE SORROWFUL PICTURE + + +Marian never told anybody, not even Gwendolen, about that strange party +of hers under the elm-tree; and the blind painter faithfully promised +that he would keep it a secret too. But a fortnight later, when the +doctor said that it was quite safe, she introduced him to Gwendolen; and +Gwendolen was rather excited, because he was the very man who had +painted her favourite picture. + +This was a picture, only half finished, that her aunt had bought when +Gwendolen was quite little and when she used to play games all by +herself in the big house in Bellington Square. One of these games was a +queer sort of game, in which she would shut herself up in a room, and +imagine herself climbing into the pictures on the wall and having +adventures with the people inside them. If the picture had a tower in +it, she would climb up the tower and peep down over the other side; or +if there were ships in it she would go on board and talk to the sailors +down below. But her favourite picture she called the "sorrowful +picture," because though she loved it, it made her feel sad. + +It was really little more than a sketch, rapidly painted in a few +strokes, and Gwendolen's aunt had only bought it because she had been +told that the artist was famous. But it was full of sunlight, of a hot, +foreign sunlight, through which an old house had stared at the painter, +a yellow-walled house with latticed windows and violet shadows under its +broken roof. In a crooked pot near the front door a dead palm stretched +its withered fingers; and the front door itself was a cave of darkness, +with a jutting eave above it like a frowning eyebrow. + +But what made it so sorrowful, at any rate to Gwendolen, was a little +window up in the right-hand corner--an unlatticed window, as dark as the +front door, but with a different sort of darkness. For the darkness of +the front door was an angry darkness. When Gwendolen was little, it had +made her feel frightened. But the darkness of the window was like a +wound. She wanted to kiss it and make it well. After she had played with +the other pictures, and climbed the mountains in them, and gone paddling +in the streams, she always came to this one and stood on its threshold +and wondered why it was so different from the others. She never played +with it. It seemed too real. "I believe there's something sad," she +said, "that the window wants to tell me." + +But she loved it too, better than all the other pictures, because nobody +else seemed to understand it; and when her aunt had married Captain +Jeremy, and they had left Bellington Square, and most of the other +pictures had been sold, her aunt had allowed her to take this one with +her and hang it in her bedroom in the old farmhouse. So she was rather +excited when Marian introduced her to the blind painter; and when he +came to tea with them in the middle of April she took him upstairs and +told him all about it, because, of course, he could no longer see it. + +But he couldn't remember it, or even where he had painted it, though +there was a date on it which showed that it was six years old, because +that was a year, he said, in which he was travelling all over the world +and making little sketches almost every day. But he didn't laugh at her +as her nurse had done, because pictures, he said, were queer things; and +nothing was more likely than that there should be something in this one +that only Gwendolen could feel. + +"You see, a picture," he said, "if you look at it properly, is just like +a conversation painted on canvas; and you can see what the artist said +to his subject as well as what his subject said to him. Of course, in +most pictures, just as in most conversations, all that happened is +something like this: 'Good morning,' said the artist, 'fine weather +we're having,' and whatever he was painting just nodded its head. That's +because he was really thinking about something else--his indigestion or +the money that he hoped to make; and nobody ever tells their inmost +thoughts to people who talk to them like that. But if he has tried to be +a real artist, loving and understanding, and not thinking about himself +at all, the hills and the trees, or whatever he was painting, have begun +to tell him all about themselves. They've swopped secrets with him just +like old friends; and there they are for you to see. Sometimes they have +even told him things that he didn't understand himself. But he has +painted them so faithfully that other people have; and that's the most +wonderful thing that can happen to an artist--better than finding a +hundred pounds." + +He lit a cigarette. + +"And I shouldn't be surprised," he said, "if that little window wasn't +giving me a message. Only it was a message that I never understood; and +perhaps Gwendolen does." + +But Gwendolen shook her head. + +"Not very well," she said. "I only know that it makes me feel sad." + +And then Gwendolen's aunt came to tell them that tea was ready, and in a +couple of minutes they had forgotten all about the picture; and a +quarter of an hour later they forgot it still more, for in came Captain +Jeremy and Lancelot, the bosun's mate. They were both in high spirits, +because they had had an order to put to sea again for Porto Blanco, to +fetch a cargo of fruit from the Gulf of Oranges, on the shores of which +Porto Blanco was the principal town. + +"A matter of three months," said Captain Jeremy, "out and home." He gave +Marian a kiss and pulled Gwendolen's pigtail. "You'd better come with +us. What do you say, Lancelot? Or do you think they'd bring us bad +luck?" + +But Lancelot only grinned and made a husky noise--not because he was +naturally shy, but because he was always afraid of having tea in the +drawing-room, in case he should spill something on the carpet. He would +much have preferred, in fact, to have tea in the kitchen with Mrs +Robertson, the housekeeper, because he was very fond of Mrs Robertson, +and wanted to marry her, and had told her so several times. But Mrs +Robertson couldn't make up her mind. Her first husband had been rather a +nuisance; and though he had been dead for nine and a half years, she was +still a little doubtful about taking a second one. But Marian and +Gwendolen couldn't help jumping up and down, and the blind painter said +that they ought to go, and Captain Jeremy promised to go round to Peter +Street and see what Marian's mother had to say about it. + +"But you'll have to talk to her," said Marian, "through the window, +because she's still nursing Cuthbert." + +"Then that's all the more reason," said Captain Jeremy, "why she'll be +glad to let you go." + +Then he asked the blind painter if he would like to come as well, but he +shook his head and said that he would be unable to, though he had +several times visited the Gulf of Oranges, and would much have liked to +go there once more. But after a little persuasion Marian's mother said +that Marian could go if Gwendolen went; and a week later they were +climbing on board the schooner as she lay at anchor in Lullington Bay. + +That was the first time that Marian had been aboard her, and everything +seemed strange to her, smelling so fresh and salt. But of course +Gwendolen knew all about the ship, and soon she was busy taking Marian +round. She showed her the big hold, dark and empty, in which they would +bring back the cases of fruit, and the cook's galley, and the sailors' +bunks, and Captain Jeremy's neat little cabin. And then, just after +tea, the anchor was pulled up, and the sails were shaken out, and the +wind began to fill them; and presently there were little waves slapping +against the bow, and the land was fading into the dusk behind them. + +Both of them were sea-sick during the night, and felt rather queer most +of the next day. But the day after that they were as hungry as they +could be, and were soon on deck talking to the sailors. Most of these +were the same sailors that had been to Monkey Island, and so Gwendolen +knew them already; and she introduced Marian to them, who very soon felt +as if they had been friends of hers all her life. But Lancelot was her +favourite, just as he was Gwendolen's, and when he was off duty and +smoking his pipe, they would sit on either side of him and listen to his +stories as the deck beneath them rose and fell. As for Porto Blanco and +the Gulf of Oranges, he had been there more times, he said, than he +could remember; and once he had been stranded there for such a long time +that he had learned to talk the language as well as any of the +inhabitants. + +"But it's a queer place," he said, "and they're queer people, sort of +half-way between black and white, and the sun's in the bones of them, +and half the time they're fighting, and the other half they're snoozing +in the shadders." But for the most part, he said, they were kindly +people and very indulgent to each other's faults; and the women all went +barefooted and smoked cigarettes, and the men sang love-songs together +when they weren't quarrelling. + +"And up in the hills," said Lancelot, "back of the town, you can see +such flowers as you never saw anywhere, and great big oranges hanging +off of the trees, and corn-cobs taller than your head. And back of the +orange-trees there's great big forests, full of little Injuns with long +beards, and nasty yeller snakes, and birds of paradise, and parrots and +monkeys and inji-rubber trees," and sometimes he would go on talking +till they forgot all about supper-time, and the stars would open above +their heads, and far away, perhaps, like a little chain of beads, they +would see the port-lights of some great liner. + +The wind held so fair that by the end of a month they were nearly four +thousand miles from home, and a week later when they came on deck they +found the sea dotted with little islands. So lovely were they in their +wet colours that they might have been enamelled there during the night, +and Marian and Gwendolen almost gasped with joy as the ship slid past +them in the early morning. For a long time now the weather had been so +hot that awnings had been stretched over the deck; and Marian and +Gwendolen wore as little as they could--the thinnest of white jerseys +and the shortest of skirts. For nearly three weeks they had worn no +shoes or stockings, and their feet and legs were the colour of copper; +and for two or three hours in the middle of the day Captain Jeremy had +made them go to sleep. + +But to-day they were much too excited to stay in their hammocks; and +presently, as they hung over the schooner's bow, they could see the +horizon beginning to creep closer, and the hill-tops and forests of the +mainland. The wind had dropped now, and the sea was like glass, and +sometimes the ship scarcely seemed to move, but early in the afternoon +they began to see the roofs of the town and the tower of the cathedral +and the white-walled quay. Slowly they drew nearer until they could see +the people on the shore or lounging in the other ships at anchor in the +harbour; and just before sunset they had come to their moorings and were +lying securely against the quay. + +Down in the cabin, Captain Jeremy was talking business with two of the +fruit-merchants--dark-skinned men in white linen suits, smoking +pale-coloured long cigars. But Marian and Gwendolen stayed up on deck, +watching the night coming down like a shutter, and the lamps beginning +to shine in the crooked streets and behind the windows of the houses. +Now that it was cooler the people were taking the air, and gaily-dressed +women sauntered up and down; and in front of a cafe, where there were a +lot of little tables, some men were singing and playing guitars. It was +all so strange, it was like being in a theatre, and the air was full of +spice-scents and the scent of oranges; and it was hard to believe that +they were even in the same world with school and Peter Street and +Fairbarrow Down. + +But next morning it all seemed more real again, and Captain Jeremy took +them round the town; and they had lunch with one of the fruit-merchants +in a low-walled house built round a courtyard. After lunch they slept in +long armchairs, and when they woke up queer sorts of drinks were brought +to them; and then it was time to go back to the ship again and watch +the cases of fruit being packed in the hold. After a day or two, when +they had learned their way about, Captain Jeremy let them go ashore +alone; and by the end of the week they had explored every corner of the +town, and even gone for walks along the country roads. Some of these +were broad roads leading to other towns, but most of them became +mule-tracks after a mile or two; and they seldom went very far up these +because of the heat, which was greater then even the inhabitants had +ever known. + +Day after day, through the still air, the great sun emptied itself into +the town; and the streets cracked, and the barometer fell, and Captain +Jeremy looked anxiously at the weather; and it was upon the hottest day +of all--the day before they were leaving--that Gwendolen suddenly +gripped Marian's arm. + +It was early in the morning, before the sun was at its steepest, and +they had wandered past the cathedral into the outskirts of the town, +where a little track between two high garden walls had tempted them to +explore it. It had led them into a sort of garden, untidy and deserted, +and on the other side of this there stood a house--a yellow-walled house +with latticed windows and violet shadows under its broken roof. Beside +the front door stood a crooked pot, and the front door itself was a cave +of darkness, and up in the right-hand corner, under the roof, was a +little window standing open. Gwendolen found herself shaking all over. + +"Why, it's the very house," she said, "of the sorrowful picture." + +And so it was, and as they stood looking up at it, it seemed more +sorrowful to Gwendolen than ever. For there was the little window almost +beseeching her in actual words to go and comfort it; and she even had a +feeling that for all these years it had been crying in vain to her +across half the world. But there was the front door too, dark with +anger, and before they could move a man came out of it. He was a big man +with a fat face, and he stood blinking for a moment in the sunshine; and +then they saw him frown as he caught sight of them; and he shouted words +at them that they didn't understand. + +But it was evident that he wanted them to go away, and they saw him +touch a knife that he wore in his belt; and so they ran back again up +the little track, and there in the street they met Lancelot. He was +grinning as usual, and he looked so big and strong that they could +almost have hugged him on the spot; but his face grew serious when they +told him what had happened, and he stroked his chin and became +thoughtful. + +"Well, it's a good thing," he said, "that you come away. In this here +town you have to be careful. But I'll have a turn round and see if I can +find anything out about this here house and the feller as lives in it." + +Then he mopped his face and looked at the sky and told them to go back +again to the ship; and a couple of hours later he came aboard and +beckoned them to talk to him while he smoked his pipe. Everything was +ready now for the ship to sail next morning, and most of the other +sailors were asleep, and Captain Jeremy had gone to lunch again with the +fruit-merchant in the town. + +"Well, this here feller," said Lancelot, "seems a queer sort of cove, +with a bad name, and he lives all alone; and his wife ran away from him +six years ago, taking their only little girl along with her. But there's +some folks believe that he went after her and killed her--anyway, she +was found dead in the forest--but what happened to Pepita, who was three +years old at the time, nobody knows, for she's never been seen." + +Then he smoked his pipe for a minute. "But I tell you what," he said. +"He's pretty sure to be asleep just now. And if you like I'll go and +have a look at the house, and see what there is to it, and come and tell +you." + +"But I must come too," said Gwendolen. "I really must." + +"And so must I," said Marian. "We must both come," and after a while +they persuaded him to take them, and they set off again through the +town. It was now so hot that it seemed as if the very earth must begin +to melt and crumble away; and when they came to the house there were no +signs of life--there was only that little window, dark and aching. For a +moment they stood listening at the front door, and then they cautiously +stepped inside; and there, in a lower room, asleep on the floor, they +saw the big man with the fat face. Then they stole upstairs until they +came to the little room under the roof to which the window belonged; and +then, as they pushed the door open, the tears sprang to their eyes, and +Lancelot swore a great oath. + +For there they saw, tied to a staple in the wall, a little girl of about +nine years old, ragged and scarred, with timid dark eyes and cheeks +like a flower that has never seen the sun. Tied across her mouth was a +dirty cloth, and when she first saw them she shrank away; but as +Gwendolen went up to her with outstretched arms, her eyes widened in +sheer astonishment. Then Lancelot stooped and cut the rope that bound +her, and pulled away the cloth that was gagging her mouth; and then he +jumped round just as the little girl's father came stumbling fiercely +into the room. + +Gwendolen heard him shouting something and using the word Pepita; and as +she clasped the little girl in her arms she knew why it was that all +these years the sorrowful picture seemed to have been calling to her. It +was because the little girl's pain and longing for freedom had somehow +stolen into the painter's brush. Then she saw Lancelot's fist shoot out +like a bullet, and Pepita's father tumble to the floor; and then +Lancelot shouted to them to hurry away, and picking up Pepita, he ran +down the stairs. In less than a minute they were in the little track +between the high garden walls; and in a few seconds more they were out +in the street, and then a most strange and awful thing happened. For +Marian stopped short and pointed with her finger. + +"Why, what's the matter," she cried, "with the cathedral tower?" + +They all stared at it, and saw it rock to and fro; and then Lancelot +swung round toward the open country. + +"Run for your lives," he said, and then, as they followed him, they felt +the ground beneath them rise and fall. Then they heard a crash, and +people shouting, and then all was still again, and they stopped +running. Lancelot wiped his forehead. + +"Well, now you know," he said, "what an earthquake's like. Lucky it +wasn't a worse one." + +And there was the cathedral tower still standing on its foundations, but +when they looked for Pepita's house it had fallen down like a pack of +cards, a fitting grave for Pepita's father. For they heard in the +evening that he had been killed; and Pepita afterward told them how he +had killed her mother, and how he had kept her for all those years tied +to the wall in that dark upper room. As for Captain Jeremy, he was so +rejoiced at seeing Marian and Gwendolen safe that he told Lancelot he +would have forgiven him if he had brought fifty Pepitas on board. +Lancelot was very pleased about that, because, in his heart of hearts, +he knew that he ought never to have let them come with him. But, as he +told Gwendolen, all was well that ended well, and he hoped that she +would allow him to take care of Pepita. + +Gwendolen wasn't quite sure at first, but when they arrived home her +aunt and Mrs Robertson thought it a good idea. For Mrs Robertson had +made up her mind to marry Lancelot, and Pepita was just the little girl, +she said, that she had always wanted. + + + + + We're going the way that Drake went, + We shall see what Drake's men saw, + A coppery curly cobra-snake, + And a scarlet-cloaked macaw. + + For we're going the way that Drake went, + We're taking the jungle trail, + And we'll bring you a dark-eyed damsel home, + And a cock with a golden tail. + + + + +THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND + + + + +[Illustration: The Lagoon] + + + + +XIII + +THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND + + +It was about a week after Marian and Gwendolen had arrived home from +Porto Blanco that Uncle Joe suddenly asked Cuthbert and Doris to spend a +fortnight with him at Redington-on-Sea. It was not the sort of town that +Uncle Joe liked, because it was full of big houses and glittering +hotels; and most of the people in it wore expensive clothes, and it had +a long pier, with a theatre at the end. But he always went there in the +first week of August, when Mr Parker took his annual holiday, so that he +could visit an old friend of his, who had lodgings on the Marine Parade. + +This old friend was called Colonel Stookley, and he had lost both his +legs as the result of wounds; and Uncle Joe generally took rooms next +door and played chess with him every evening. He had been very brave, +but was now rather wheezy, besides having something wrong with his +liver; and as he had lost most of his friends he was always glad to see +Uncle Joe. Generally Uncle Joe went to see him alone, so that he could +be with him most of the day; but this year he thought that Cuthbert +needed a change, and he asked Doris, because Marian had just had a +voyage. At first they were afraid that they would have to take their +best clothes, but Uncle Joe said that he didn't mind. So long as they +brushed their teeth every day they could wear what they liked, he said, +and they could paddle and swim as much as they pleased. + +So they met Uncle Joe at the station at eleven o'clock on the 3rd of +August, and a couple of hours later they were having lunch with him in +the big dining-car of the express. Through the windows, as they rocked +along, trying their best not to spill their soup, they could see the +harvesters at work in the fields, and ribbons of flowers as they crashed +through the little stations; and a couple of hours after that, where +some hills had broken apart, Doris was the first of them to see a stitch +of blue; and by half-past four they were talking to the landlady of +number 70 Marine Parade. + +This was next door to where Colonel Stookley lodged, and the landlady's +name was Mrs Bodkin; and she gave Doris a kiss, and said that she was +tall for her age and that Cuthbert's cheeks would soon have some roses +in them. Then she showed them their bedrooms, which were at the top of +the house, looking out to sea over the esplanade; and they found that +they could talk to each other out of the windows and watch the people in +the gardens below. + +These were very trim gardens, like the garden in Bellington Square, +separated by railings from the flagged esplanade; and beyond the +esplanade there were terraces of pebbles, crumbling into a stretch of +hard, wet sand. + +As it was tea-time there were not many people about; but by six o'clock +there were people everywhere--people in the gardens, listening to the +band, and looking sideways at each other's clothes; people on the +esplanade, sauntering up and down, and saying how-do-you-do to their +friends; people on the pier staring through telescopes, and people on +the beach reading magazines, and people on the sands building castles or +paddling with their children on the fringe of the sea. The tide was so +low that nobody was bathing, and weed-capped rocks stood out of the +water; and after they had paddled a little Doris suggested that they +should go and listen to the pierrots. + +This was the hour--just before the children's bedtime, and before the +grown-up people went home to dinner--when the pierrots and +beach-entertainers were all at their busiest, trying to earn money. Upon +a wooden platform, with three chairs and a piano, two men and two girls +were singing and dancing; and a hundred yards away from them, on a +similar sort of stand, there were three banjo-players with blackened +faces. But there were such crowds round each of these platforms that +Cuthbert and Doris couldn't get near them; and there was a conjurer, a +little farther on, who seemed to be even more popular. They watched him +for a minute or two, and saw the people raining pennies on him, but they +were too far away to be able to see his tricks; and then they saw a +clown, farther along still, turning somersaults on the sand. + +There were a few children round him, some of them with nurses, but the +people on the esplanade were taking very little notice of him; and by +the time that Cuthbert and Doris reached him, he had stopped +somersaulting and was wiping his forehead. Standing near him, dressed +like a gipsy, was a woman, who was evidently his wife, and sitting on +the sand was a queer-looking boy about fourteen who seemed to be their +son. The clown was dressed in a baggy sort of smock, tied round his +ankles with pink ribbon, and his face was white, with a crimson diamond +painted on the middle of each cheek. His lips had been coloured to make +them seem smiling, and he wore a wig of carroty hair, but his eyes were +tired, and underneath his wig they could see some of his own hair, which +was quite grey. + +Then his wife brought a little box round, but none of the children +seemed to have any pennies, and the two or three grown-up people who had +been watching the performance turned aside without giving anything. +Cuthbert and Doris heard one of them say that it was a rotten show and +not worth a farthing; and then the old clown began to sing a song about +a cheese that climbed out of the window. Some of the nurses laughed a +little, but the children didn't understand it, and Cuthbert and Doris +thought it rather stupid, but the woman had noticed them and brought +them the box, and they each put a penny in it, though they didn't much +want to. Then the old clown and his wife pretended to have a quarrel, +and she kept knocking him down with an umbrella; but what interested +them most was the queer-looking boy, who kept laughing to himself and +playing with his fingers. Once or twice he got up and went straying +among the audience, and they could see his mother watching him rather +anxiously; and presently he came and talked to them and told them that +he was a moon-boy and that his name was Albert Hezekiah. + +It was now nearly seven, and the tide was coming in, and there was +nobody left to watch the old clown, so his wife stopped hitting him with +the umbrella and helped him on with a shabby blue overcoat. Then they +emptied the pennies out of the box, and the old clown counted them in +the palm of his hand. + +"Ten and a half," he said, "not much of a catch, old lady," and then +they looked round for Albert Hezekiah. + +He was still talking to Cuthbert and Doris, and the old clown and his +wife came up to them. The woman spoke to Doris. + +"Don't you be frightened," she said, and the old clown tapped his +forehead. + +"He's a little bit touched," he said, "that's all, my dear. But he's a +good lad and he's quite harmless." + +Then they said good-night, and the moon-boy shook hands with them and +told them that he liked them, because they had nice faces; and two or +three times during the next few days they saw him playing about near his +father and mother. Then one day they saw him alone, and he told them +that his father was ill in bed, and that his mother had sent for the +doctor, and that they had no money to pay the rent with. It seemed +rather funny to think of a clown being ill, but Doris and Cuthbert each +gave him sixpence, and he ran off singing, and they didn't see him +again till the last day of their holiday. + +This was a bright hot day, and they had bathed in the morning, and then +Mrs Bodkin had cut them some sandwiches, and they had had their lunch on +the top of Capstan Beacon, which was a high hill about five miles away. +Then they had walked inland and had tea at a little village; and it was +toward dusk, just as they were reaching the town, that they saw the +moon-boy in the middle of a group of boys on a piece of waste land near +the gas-works. He was waving his arms and looking rather bewildered, and +the other boys were mocking him and singing a sort of song, "Loony, +loony, moon-boy; loony, loony, loo"; and when they came nearer they saw +that he was crying, and that one of the bigger boys was throwing stones +at him. + +Doris was so angry that she could hardly speak, but she caught hold of +the boy who was throwing stones, and when he tried to hit her she +slapped his face and told him that he was the biggest coward that she +had ever seen. Then he tried to hit her again, but Cuthbert jumped in +front of her, and after a minute or two Cuthbert knocked him down; and +then the other boys ran away, after throwing stones at them and calling +them names. + +"Little beasts," said Doris, "look what they've done," and Cuthbert saw +that they had cut the moon-boy's cheek. So Doris took out her +handkerchief and stopped the bleeding, and then they both took the +moon-boy home. He was so excited at first that he lost the way, but at +last he stopped in front of a little house; and in a back room they +found the old clown, sitting up in bed and trying to shave himself. His +wife was at the fireplace, frying some fish; and when they heard what +had happened to their son, they shook hands with Cuthbert and Doris and +thanked them over and over again. + +"Luck's against us, you see," said the old clown. "We're getting past +work, and the people won't laugh at us. And this here boy of ours is all +that we have, and there's nobody else to look after him." + +"Excepting one," said the moon-boy, and the old clown began to laugh. + +"That's one of his crazes," he said. "He says that he has a friend who +comes and talks to him once a week." + +"Out of the sea," said the boy. "He comes out of the sea. I never see +him except by the sea." + +"Nor there either," said his mother, "if the truth was known." But when +Cuthbert and Doris said good-bye the moon-boy followed them into the +street and began speaking to them in a whisper. + +"I tell you what," he said. "If you'll meet me to-night at ten o'clock +just by the lighthouse I'll show him to you, if you'll promise not to +laugh. Because if you laugh, he won't come." + +For a moment they hesitated because they were pretty sure that Uncle Joe +wouldn't allow it; but then they decided that they needn't ask him, as +he would be sure to be playing chess with Colonel Stookley. So they +promised to be there, though they thought it very likely that the +moon-boy wouldn't come; and just before ten they were on the little +path that led from the town toward the lighthouse. + +This was about a mile from the end of the esplanade, under a great cliff +called Gannet Head, and at low tide it was possible to reach the +lighthouse by climbing over some fifty yards of rocks. But the tide was +high to-night, and the little path that slanted down across the face of +the cliff came to an end upon a slab of rock not more than a foot above +the water. There was no moon, but the stars were so bright that the air +was full of a sort of sparkle; and the sea was so still that the water +beneath them hardly seemed to rise and fall. _Clup, clup_ it went, with +a lazy sort of sticky sound, like a piece of gum-paper flapping against +a post, and then slowly becoming unstuck again before doing it all once +more. + +At first they could see nobody, but as they stood looking about them +they heard a soft whistle a little farther on; and there was the +moon-boy, with his arms round his knees, squatting on another ledge of +rock. This was broader and flatter than the one at the bottom of the +path, and a little higher above the water; and Cuthbert and Doris were +soon sitting beside him and wondering what was going to happen. + +"Where's your friend?" asked Cuthbert. + +The moon-boy touched his lips. + +"_H'shh_," he said. "He'll be here in a minute. He was here half an hour +ago, and I told him all about you." + +"But where's he gone?" said Doris. + +The moon-boy shook his head. + +"I don't know," he said. "He might be anywhere. He spends his life +pulling children out of the water. But nobody ever sees him except me." + +Doris suddenly felt her heart beginning to beat quicker. + +"Why, I believe I know him!" she said. "Is he a saint?" + +The moon-boy nodded. + +"Yes, he's a patron saint," he said. "He's the patron saint of water." + +"Then I do know him," said Doris. "At least, I've heard of him, and I've +met his brother, St Uncus." + +"This one's St William," said the moon-boy, "but he's generally known as +Fat Bill." + +And then they heard a pant, and there, sitting beside them, was an +enormous man with a red face. Like his brother, he was nearly bald, but +he was about seven times as large, and he had blue eyes and a double +chin, and there was a big landing-net in his right hand. + +"Good evening," he said, "pleased to meet you. I've heard about the girl +of you from my brother Uncus. And the boy of you I saw last year, +pulling a little nipper out of a stream." + +Cuthbert blushed. + +"That was young Liz," he said, "Beardy Ned's kid, but it was quite +easy." + +"Maybe it was," said Fat Bill, "but, as it happened, you really helped +to save two nippers. You see, there was a kid, just at the same moment, +fell into a lagoon off Hotoneeta." + +"What's Hotoneeta?" asked Cuthbert. + +"Bit of an island," he said, "a hundred miles south of the equator." + +He cleared his throat. + +"Well, I couldn't save 'em both, because I was pulling a boy out of Lake +Windermere; and I was just going for Liz when I saw that you were after +her, so that I was able to land Blossom-blossom just in time." + +"Was that her name?" asked Doris. + +Fat Bill nodded. + +"That's the English of it," he said. "But her people are savages." + +Then he disappeared for a moment, and there was nothing but the +starlight and the _clup, clup_ of the water; and it was while he was +gone that there came into Doris's mind a wild but just possible idea. +She turned to Cuthbert. + +"I tell you what," she said. "Why shouldn't he take us to Hotoneeta? I +expect he could somehow, if he really wanted to; and you _did_ help to +save Blossom-blossom." + +Cuthbert considered. + +"Well, of course he _might_," he said, and then Fat Bill was sitting +beside them again. + +"Just been to Ohio," he said, "to a place called Columbus--kid fell into +a lake there--nobody by." + +He laid down his landing-net and rubbed his hands. + +"It's a hard life," he said, "being a saint." + +But he looked so comfortable, sitting on the rock, with his fat thighs +spread out beneath him, that Doris was almost sure that he wouldn't +mind, and so she asked him if he would take them. He stroked his chin +for a moment and looked at her thoughtfully. + +"Well, of course I _could_," he said, "though it would be rather +irregular. But Albert Hezekiah here would have to look after my +landing-net, because I've only got two hands." + +So they all three of them looked at the moon-boy, and he promised to +take care of the landing-net; and then Fat Bill held out his hands, and +Cuthbert and Doris each took one of them. The moment they did so they +were, of course, in In-between Land, because that was where Fat Bill and +his brother lived; and the rocks looked ghostly, just like dream-rocks, +and they could see the moon-boy's soul, like a tiny flame. But the next +moment they were alone on a shore of the whitest sand that they had ever +seen, and the dawn was coming up over an enormous sea, stiller than +stillness and breathlessly blue. At their feet lay a shallow lagoon--or +at least it looked shallow--trembling with colour; and strange-petalled +weeds swung to and fro in it, and the silver-scaled fishes slid between +them. + +It was so hot that they wanted to throw their clothes away, and the +jungle behind them was full of odours--sleepy odours, like the odours of +a medicine-chest--and nodding, red-lipped flowers. Leading from the +shore, between the walls of the jungle, was a narrow path of grass and +sand; and standing in the middle of it, still as an idol, was a little +dark-brown naked girl. Fat Bill had gone, but they knew that it was +Blossom-blossom, and then she gave a yell and fled from sight; and +Cuthbert and Doris couldn't help laughing as they began to explore the +rim of the lagoon. + +But a minute or two later, as they were kneeling on the shore and +peering down into that wonderful water, something happened that made +them think of Blossom-blossom in rather a different sort of way. For +just as Doris had made up her mind to take off her shoes and stockings, +they heard a little sound, and the next moment a spear was quivering in +the sand between them. They sprang to their feet just in time to avoid +another one and to see a man crouching at the edge of the jungle; and +then they were snatched up, and there they were on the rock again, with +Gannet Head towering above them. The moon-boy was laughing, but Fat Bill +looked serious. + +"Narrow squeak," he said. "That was Blossom-blossom's father. I thought +he was asleep in his hut." + +Then he shook hands with them and said good-bye, and they climbed up the +path again and went home to bed; and when Uncle Joe came up to look at +them, they confessed to him what they had been doing. He was rather +angry, of course, but he didn't laugh at them, and as for Fat Bill, he +said that he had heard of him; and as for the old clown, he promised to +see what he could do for him before they left the town next morning. + +"But don't you think it was rough," said Cuthbert, "after I had helped +to save Blossom-blossom, to have her father throwing spears at me?" + +But that was just the sort of thing, said Uncle Joe, that saviours had +to be prepared for. + + + + + The candle's finger shakes. + My story's done. + "No more," says Father Time, "or shall we say + Just one?" + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS TREE + + + + +[Illustration: Still Talking] + + + + +XIV + +THE CHRISTMAS TREE + + +The worst of discovering anybody like Fat Bill at the very beginning of +the summer holidays is that it makes the rest of the holidays seem a +little dull; and that was just what Cuthbert and Doris felt. So they +were really rather glad when the winter term at school began; and so +were Gwendolen and Marian, who hadn't been to school since the spring. + +It was an important term, too, for they were all moved up; and Marian +had to buy her first hockey-stick; and Doris and Gwendolen began to +learn Latin; and Cuthbert's homework became really unbearable. But he +managed to survive, and they were all so busy that the term was over +almost before it had begun; and here was Christmas close at hand again, +and everybody rushing about buying presents. + +As for Cuthbert and Marian, they had so much to do in the three or four +days before Christmas that they were half afraid they would never be +able to do it, because on Christmas Eve they were going to have a party. +It was to be rather a special party, because neither Cuthbert nor Marian +had been able that year to have a birthday party; and all the people +that they had invited had sent replies saying that they were coming. + +Old Miss Hubbard was coming, and so was Uncle Joe, and Mr Parker was +coming with him; and Doris's mummy was coming with Doris and her five +brothers; and Beardy Ned was bringing little Liz. Then there was +Gwendolen, of course, who was coming too, with her aunt and Captain +Jeremy; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson were bringing Pepita; and Percy +the gamekeeper's son was bringing Agnes. Just at the last minute, too, +they had a letter from the blind painter saying that he was bringing +Lord Barrington. And Mr and Mrs Williams were coming, and so was Mummy's +nurney, and so was Edward Goldsmith. + +"Goodness knows," said Mummy, "where we shall put them all. I hope they +won't mind sitting on the floor." + +But Cuthbert and Marian said that it would be all right, and that they +would have the Christmas tree in the hall. + +"Then we can have the doors open," said Cuthbert, "and people can sit on +the stairs; and Marian and I will make the paper festoons." + +So Mummy and Mummy's nurney and the cook spent hours and hours making +cakes and pastries; and just as it seemed as if they would never be +ready, they suddenly found that there was nothing to do except to keep a +lookout for old Jacob Parsley, who came every year selling Christmas +trees. + +That was on the morning of the 23rd of December, with a fine rain +falling outside; and as they sat at the window both Cuthbert and Marian +felt a little stale and out of temper. In spite of all the excitements +of the term and the preparations for the party, it suddenly seemed to +them a very long time since they had had a real proper adventure. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Marian, "if we never have another." + +"Perhaps we shan't," said Cuthbert, "but it'll be an awful bore," and +then, at that very moment, they heard a familiar voice; and there was +Jacob Parsley in the street below. + +Where he came from nobody knew; but every year on the 23rd of December +he limped into the town with his old white horse and a ramshackle cart +full of Christmas trees. There they were, year after year, shining and +crisp and neatly potted; and people used to say that he had dug them up +at night from rich men's plantations in other parts of the country. As +for himself, he was a red-faced old man, with a stubbly grey beard and a +scar on his chin, and a pair of bright eyes that used to work +separately, so that nobody could tell which he was looking with. + +"Ker-rismus trees," he would shout, "all in per-hots. All in per-hots, +Ker-rismus-trees," and whenever he sold one he would spit in the road, +and wish the buyer the compliments of the season. Also, if there were +any change he would generally try to keep it, to buy some cough mixture, +he would explain, for his bronchial tubes; and most people let him, +because they were afraid that he would slue one of his eyes round and +pierce their hearts with a reproachful glance. + +But to-day for the first time his cart seemed empty, though he was +still shouting; and when they ran downstairs and opened the front door +they saw that he had only one tree left. It was a queer little tree with +silvery-grey leaves; and that was the reason, he said, why nobody had +bought it. All the others he had sold at once--almost as soon as he had +entered the town. + +"Wish I'd 'ad more," he said, "but this here tree, it ain't folk's +notion of a Ker-rismus tree. Not but what it ain't a good tree, though +it's a little 'un, and the feller I bought it off a queer sort of +feller." + +He stood looking at it, or as nearly looking at it as he ever seemed to +look at anything; and then he coughed for rather a long time and hit +himself on the chest and wished them a happy Christmas. + +"It's this here rain," he said. "It gets into the bronchial tubes. Five +shillings--that's all I'll ask you for it. And it's a good tree. You can +take my word for it. And them as buys it won't regret it." + +Cuthbert and Marian touched its leaves. Just behind them stood their +guardian angels. Even more intently than Cuthbert and Marian they bent +their gaze on the little tree. + +"But what kind of a tree is it?" asked Cuthbert. + +Jacob spat in the road. + +"Well, they tell me," he said, "as it's a olive. And they tell me as +it's the seedling of the great-great-grandson of the first Ker-rismus +tree of all." + +He spat in the road again. + +"Aye, of the very tree," he said, "as held Love's Innocence atween two +thieves." + +"I like the leaves of it," said Marian. "It's got wonderful leaves." + +The two angels drew a little closer. The old horse began to shake his +blinkers. So they bought the tree and carried it indoors. + +Round the pot they bound some scarlet paper, and round the paper they +twined a wreath of holly; and they placed the tree on a little table +near the foot of the stairs in the front hall. + +Said Cuthbert's angel, "This is a queer go." + +Marian's angel smiled as he lit his evening pipe. + +"And they were just grumbling," he said, "because they never had any +adventures. What do you suppose will happen when the guests have +assembled?" + +But Cuthbert's angel shook his head. + +"That's hard to tell," he said. "There's no precedent. Not since the +Great Day has a tree of that line ever been used as a children's +Christmas tree." + +The rain had stopped by then and the moon was shining, and soon after +midnight the thermometer fell. A hoar frost crept over the roof-tops. +The sun's rim rose out of a well of vapour. At eleven o'clock Cuthbert +went to play football, and Marian and Doris went to see Gwendolen. + +The sun had climbed free by then, but the wind was in the north, and as +the day went on the frost deepened. During the afternoon the children +went to some friends' houses to borrow chairs for the party. When they +came back Mummy was stooping over the Christmas-tree, fixing candles to +its slender twigs. In her eyes there was a curious look. Cuthbert +kissed her and asked her what was the matter. + +"Nothing," said Mummy, "but wouldn't it be wonderful if what Jacob said +about this tree were true?" + +Marian bent her lips to one of the leaves. + +"I believe it is," she said. "It makes me feel funny." + +Old Mother Hubbard was the first guest to come, and she brought a hamper +with her full of presents. Some of them were new, but some of them were +trinkets that she had kept ever since she was a girl. + +"And now I want to give them away," she said, "because for fifty years I +have never known what giving was like." + +Soon after that came Uncle Joe, driving in his little pony-cart with Mr +Parker; and Mr Parker took the pony-cart to the stables at the end of +the street. Uncle Joe was wearing an overcoat, with poacher's pockets in +its lining; and the pockets were bulging with middling-sized parcels to +be placed on the floor round the Christmas tree. Then came Captain +Jeremy and Gwendolen and Gwendolen's aunt, with the frosty air still in +their faces; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson brought Pepita, well wrapped +up and a little shy. + +Then a great car hummed down the street bringing Lord Barrington and the +blind painter, with Mr and Mrs Williams in their Sunday clothes, and a +big round cheese that they had brought for a present. Percy, their son, +and his sweetheart Agnes were the next to knock at the front door; and +they had hardly stepped inside before Doris and her mummy arrived with +the five boys. Then came Edward, looking very smart, with a hot-house +flower in his button-hole; and the last to appear was Beardy Ned, as +shabby as usual, with Liz on his shoulder. + +Most of the others were having tea by now round the dining-room table, +or in the drawing-room, or sitting on the stairs, or standing in the +hall, or leaning against the banisters. And there, in the middle of +them, still unlit and waiting till the feasting should be over, stood +the little olive tree, hushed and inconspicuous, with the scarlet paper +round its pot. + +Mr Parker came back from the stables. + +"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic. That's a rum-looking tree +you've got for a Christmas tree," and the blind painter heard him and +turned round. + +"Where is it?" he asked. "Will you take me to it?" And Marian led him to +the little table. He bent his head for a moment, and there crept into +his eyes the same odd look that Marian had seen in Mummy's. + +Said Cuthbert's angel, "He's beginning to hear something. What do you +suppose will happen when they have lit the candles?" + +But Marian's angel shook his head. + +"The others will hear nothing," he said. "But will they see?" + +Said Doris's angel, "Can they see and live?" + +"Look," said Gwendolen's angel. "They're lighting the candles." And it +was just at that moment that a young man, shabbier even than Beardy Ned, +turned into Peter Street. But for his presence the street was empty. +Doris's angel was the first to see him. He lifted his head and spoke a +Name, and slowly the others filed out after him. Down the front steps +and along the pavement they made a lane of angels. But the door was +shut, and deep in their hearts was the dreadful fear that it mightn't be +opened. + +Then Uncle Joe struck another match and lit the last candle on the tree, +and Marian's daddy picked up one of the parcels and turned it over to +find the name on it. Smiling in her chair, old Miss Hubbard envied the +luckier women who had had children. Half in shadow, between Marian and +Gwendolen, stood Lord Barrington with his hawk-like face. There came a +knock at the front door. Cuthbert, who was nearest to it, turned and +opened it. He saw a young man in shabby clothes, and there was no beauty +in him that he should desire him. He stood there smiling in the outside +darkness. + +"May I come in?" he asked, and Cuthbert changed his mind. Everything +beautiful that he had ever seen shone into his heart from the young +man's eyes. + +"Yes, rather," said Cuthbert. "We're having a party." + +His eyes sought his mother's. + +"Mummy, here's somebody else." + +Everybody turned round as the young man entered. The candles on the +olive tree shed their light upon him. All but the blind painter looked +into his eyes. Each saw the thing in them that he wanted most. Marian +and Gwendolen and Cuthbert and Doris, not wanting anything in +particular, only saw vaguely all that they hoped to be when they should +have become grown-up men and women. So did Edward and so did Pepita; +but Christopher Mark saw a celestial rabbit; and Percy and Agnes, +holding each other's hand, saw the darlingest of babies. What Beardy Ned +saw you can guess, and what Lord Barrington saw was Truth; and the blind +painter heard the angels singing the song that explains every other +song. + +Then the young man stooped for a moment over the little olive-tree. + +"Make them happy," he said, and then he was gone; and though nobody saw +them, of course, the guardian angels came and stood again in their +accustomed places. Marian turned impulsively to Lord Barrington. + +"Oh, who was he?" she said. "Tell me his name." + +Lord Barrington kissed her. + +"The loveliest present," he said, "that ever hung upon a tree." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Half-Past Bedtime, by H. H. Bashford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-PAST BEDTIME *** + +***** This file should be named 35029-8.txt or 35029-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/2/35029/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire. 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H. Bashford. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Half-Past Bedtime, by H. H. Bashford + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Half-Past Bedtime + +Author: H. H. Bashford + +Release Date: January 21, 2011 [EBook #35029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-PAST BEDTIME *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>HALF-PAST BEDTIME</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i><span class="u">By the Same Author</span></i></h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>PITY THE POOR BLIND</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VAGABONDS IN PÉRIGORD</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>SONGS OUT OF SCHOOL</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>THE PLAIN GIRL'S TALE</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"><a name="ILL_001" id="ILL_001"></a> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="416" height="600" alt="HALF-PAST BEDTIME" title="" /> +<span class="caption">HALF-PAST BEDTIME</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HALF-PAST</h2> + +<h2>BEDTIME</h2> + +<h3><i>BY</i></h3> + +<h2>H. H. BASHFORD</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF</p> + +<p class="center">"THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET" ETC.</p> + +<h3><i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 127px;"> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="127" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</h4> + +<h4>BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>TO</h4> + +<h4>JOE & ADA MAGGS</h4> + +<h4>AND THE CHILDREN THAT LOVE THEM</h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">When Farmer Sun with rosy wink</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Says good-bye all, and drives away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">When safe in fold the sheep-bells clink,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And hard-worked horses munch their hay,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">When brown and blue eyes sleepy grow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And Nurse downstairs clears up the crumbs,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">When God pulls down His blind, and so</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">What people call the twilight comes,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Then lazy Moon lifts up her arm,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Shakes back her hair and smooths her beams,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">And softly over field and farm</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Scatters the milk-white seed of dreams.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href="#I"><b>MR JUGG</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href="#II"><b>GWENDOLEN</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href="#III"><b>THE LITTLE ICE-MEN</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#IV"><b>UNCLE JOE'S STORY</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href="#V"><b>BEARDY NED</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#VI"><b>THE MAGIC SONG</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#VII"><b>THE IMAGINARY BOY</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#VIII"><b>THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#IX"><b>ST UNCUS</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><a href="#X"><b>OLD MOTHER HUBBARD</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#XI"><b>MARIAN'S PARTY</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#XII"><b>THE SORROWFUL PICTURE</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#XIII"><b>THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#XIV"><b>THE CHRISTMAS TREE</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_001"><b><span class="smcap">Half-past Bedtime</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_003"><b><span class="smcap">Marian and Mr Jugg</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_004"><b><span class="smcap">Monkey Island</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_005"><b><span class="smcap">Cuthbert and Doris</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_006"><b><span class="smcap">Bella at Eden</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_007"><b><span class="smcap">Beardy Ned's Fire</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_008"><b><span class="smcap">The Magic Song</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_009"><b><span class="smcap">The Haunted Wood</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_010"><b><span class="smcap">Cæsar's Camp</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_011"><b><span class="smcap">Doris and St Uncus</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_012"><b><span class="smcap">Mother Hubbard's</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_013"><b><span class="smcap">The Little Temple</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_014"><b><span class="smcap">Porto Blanco</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_015"><b><span class="smcap">The Lagoon</span></b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ILL_016"><b><span class="smcap">Still Talking</span></b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>MR JUGG</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="ILL_003" id="ILL_003"></a> +<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="400" height="308" alt="Marian and Mr. Jugg" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Marian and Mr. Jugg</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>MR JUGG</h3> + +<p>The name of the town doesn't really matter; but it was a big town in the +middle of the country; and the first of these adventures happened to a +little girl whose Christian name was Marian. She was only seven when it +happened to her, so that it was rather a young sort of adventure; but +the older ones happened later on, and this is the best, perhaps, to +begin with.</p> + +<p>Marian's house was in a street called Peter Street, because there was a +church in it called St Peter's Church; and some people liked this +church, because it had a great spire soaring up into the sky. But +Marian's daddy didn't like spires, because they were so sharp and so +slippery. He liked towers better, because the old church towers, he +said, were like little laps, ready to catch God's blessing. But Marian's +daddy was a queer sort of man, and nobody took much notice of what he +said.</p> + +<p>At the other end of Peter Street there was a field in which some people +were beginning to build houses, and Marian used to love going into this +field to watch the builders at work. But one afternoon she became tired +of watching them, and so she climbed over a gate into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> next field. +Here the grass was so tall that it tickled Marian's chin. There were +great daisies in it, taller than the grass, and they looked into +Marian's eyes. They had calm faces like Marian's mummy's nurney's face, +and they didn't mind a bit when Marian picked them. There were also +buttercups, shiny and fat, like the man in the butcher's shop who was +always smiling.</p> + +<p>This was such a big field that when Marian came to the middle of it the +voices of the builders were quite faint, and the tinkle of their trowels +on the edges of the bricks sounded like sheep-bells a long way off. When +she turned round she could see the roofs of the houses, and the tops of +the chimneys, and the spires of the churches all trembly because of the +heat, as if they were tired and wanted to lie down. But they couldn't +lie down, although they were so much older and bigger and stronger than +Marian. "I'd rather be me," thought Marian, and when she had picked a +bundle of flowers she lay down in the deep grass.</p> + +<p>It was so hot that, when once they had become used to her, the stalks of +the grasses stood quite still. She could see hundreds and hundreds of +them, like trees in a forest, or people in church waiting for the +anthem. Up in the hills it was different. There the grasses were always +moving—not running about, of course, but standing in the same place and +bending to and fro, to and fro. Some of them would move, so her father +had once told her, as much as four miles in a single day, just as far as +it was from Marian's house to the top of Fairbarrow Down.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>But here in the valley they weren't moving at all. They weren't even +whispering. They were holding their breath; and if they were listening +to anything, it was to something that a little girl couldn't hear. She +stared into the sky, but it was so blue that it made her eyes ache +trying to see how blue it was; and when she closed them, to give them a +rest, she could see little patterns on her eyelids. Then she opened them +again, and the green of the grass, as she looked between the grass +blades, was cool like an ointment.</p> + +<p>"And nobody in the world," she thought, "knows where I am."</p> + +<p>She felt a sort of tickle in the middle of her stomach.</p> + +<p>"How do you do?" said a voice.</p> + +<p>Marian gave a jump. She saw a little man looking up at her. He was not +even as tall as an afternoon tea-table.</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" he asked. He was very polite. He held his hat in his +right hand. Marian told him her name. She wasn't a bit frightened.</p> + +<p>"What's yours?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm Mr Jugg," he said.</p> + +<p>"And who are you, Mr Jugg?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"I'm the King of the Bumpies," he replied.</p> + +<p>When Marian was puzzled there came a little straight line, exactly in +the middle, between her two eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"What are bumpies?" she said.</p> + +<p>"My hat!" he gasped. "Haven't you ever heard of bumpies?"</p> + +<p>Marian shook her head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh dear, oh dear!" he sighed. "Have you ever heard of angels?"</p> + +<p>"Well, of course," said Marian. "Everybody's heard of angels."</p> + +<p>"Well then, bumpies," said Mr Jugg, "are baby angels. They're called +bumpies till they've learned to fly."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Marian, "but why are they called bumpies?"</p> + +<p>"Because they bump," said Mr Jugg, "not knowing how."</p> + +<p>Marian laughed.</p> + +<p>"Where do you live?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"If you'd care to come with me," he said, "I could show you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I should love to!" said Marian. "May I?"</p> + +<p>He put on his hat and gave her his hand, and helped her to stand up with +her bunch of daisies.</p> + +<p>"Come along," he said, and he took her across the field, and through a +hole in the hedge into the next one. This was a smaller field with some +cows in it, and the grass in it was quite short. He led her across it, +and helped her over a gate into the field beyond, where the grass was +shorter still.</p> + +<p>"How old are you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm seven," said Marian.</p> + +<p>"That's very young," he replied. "I'm seven million."</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" said Marian. "And how old is Mrs Jugg?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She's as old as I am," he said, "but she looks younger."</p> + +<p>When they came to the middle of this field he stood still and stamped +with his foot three and a half times—three big stamps and a little +stamp—and then the field suddenly opened. Marian saw a hole at her feet +with a lot of steps in it going down, down, down.</p> + +<p>"This is where I live," he said. "You needn't be frightened. It's quite +safe. I'll lead the way."</p> + +<p>He was still holding her hand, and he went down before her, a step at a +time, very carefully.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it rather dark?" said Marian.</p> + +<p>"Wait till I've shut the door," he said, "and then you'll get a +surprise."</p> + +<p>When both their heads were well below the ground, he tapped twice on the +wall; and then the hole was shut so that they couldn't see the sky, and +a most wonderful thing happened. They were at the beginning of a long +passage, almost a mile long, with a lovely slope in it; and on each side +of it there were hundreds of little lights, all of different colours. +There were blue lights, and green lights, and yellow lights, and crimson +lights, and lights of all sorts of other colours that Marian had never +seen or even imagined. Both the walls and the floor of the passage were +quite smooth, and just where they stood there was a little cupboard. +"This is where I keep my scooter," he said. "It saves time, and there's +lots of room on it for two."</p> + +<p>He opened the cupboard door and took out a scooter.</p> + +<p>"Now put your hands," he said, "on my shoulders."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, what fun!" said Marian, and she suddenly noticed that he seemed to +have grown taller.</p> + +<p>She climbed on to the scooter behind him. He gave it a little push and +they began to glide down the passage. At first they went quite slowly, +because the slope was so gentle. But soon they were going faster and +faster; and presently they went so fast that all the coloured lights +became two streaks of light, one on each side of them. Marian could +hardly breathe.</p> + +<p>"What's going to happen at the end?" she thought. But about half-way +along the passage began to go uphill again. The coloured streaks became +separate lights. The scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped +just in front of a closed door, and there, in the wall, was another +little cupboard.</p> + +<p>"Here we are," said Mr Jugg, putting the scooter away. "I expect they're +all having tea."</p> + +<p>Then he opened the door, and Marian almost lost her breath again, for +what she saw was a great long room, with lots and lots of little tables +in it, and bumpies sitting on chairs round every table. Hanging from the +ceiling of this room were hundreds of coloured lights just like the +lights that she had seen in the passage—blue lights, and green lights, +and yellow lights, and crimson lights, and lights of all sorts of other +colours of which she didn't even know the name. And there was such a +clamour of talking and laughing, and spoon-clinking and plate-clinking, +and chair-creaking and table-creaking, that Marian could hardly hear +what Mr Jugg was saying, although he was shouting in her ear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's my wife," he said. "That's Mrs Jugg, that lady over there, just +coming toward us."</p> + +<p>Marian looked where he was pointing, and saw a stout little lady with a +smiling face.</p> + +<p>She was exactly as tall as Mr Jugg, but she weighed two and a half +pounds more. As for the bumpies, they were of all sorts of sizes, but +they all wore the same kind of clothes—little dark green jackets over +little dark green vests, little dark green knickers, and little dark +green socks. Fastened to each jacket were two little hooks, one behind +each shoulder—these were for their wings. But they only wore wings when +they were having their flying lessons. Suddenly they all stopped talking +and stared at Marian. Some of them stood on their chairs in order to see +her better. She felt very shy, and began to blush.</p> + +<p>Mrs Jugg came and gave her a kiss.</p> + +<p>"This is Marian," said Mr Jugg. "Can you give her some tea?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course I can," said Mrs Jugg, giving Marian two more kisses. +"Come with me, my dear. You shall have tea at my table."</p> + +<p>She introduced Marian to all the bumpies.</p> + +<p>They gave her three cheers, and then went on with their tea, and soon +Marian was having tea herself—such a tea as she had never had before, +not even at her Uncle Joe's. There was bread and butter with bumpy jam +on it and bumpy Devonshire cream on the top of the jam, and there was +bumpy cake with bumpy cherries in it, and there were bumpy meringues, +and there was bumpy honey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, it's just like a birthday tea!" said Marian.</p> + +<p>"That's because it is one," said Mr Jugg. "Every tea's a birthday tea +down here. There are so many bumpies, you see, that it's always +somebody's birthday."</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said Marian; "but isn't that rather a bother—I mean for you +and Mrs Jugg?"</p> + +<p>Mrs Jugg gave her another meringue.</p> + +<p>"There aren't any bothers," she said, "in Heaven."</p> + +<p>"But this isn't Heaven," said Marian, "is it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, of course it is," said Mrs Jugg—"part of it."</p> + +<p>"But it's under the ground," said Marian.</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind. Heaven's everywhere, only most people don't know it."</p> + +<p>Marian was surprised, but she felt all lovely and shivery. Fancy Heaven +being so near home! What a thing to be able to tell Mummy! Mrs Jugg gave +her some more cake. Some of the bumpies had finished now, and were +getting impatient. Presently Mr Jugg clapped his hands. Then they all +stood up, and Mrs Jugg said grace, and then they all rushed toward the +door.</p> + +<p>This wasn't the door by which Marian had come in, but a door that opened +into another room—a great big room with even more lights in it, and +hundreds of swings and all sorts of rocking-horses. In less than a +minute there were bumpies upon every one of them, and two of the bumpies +took charge of Marian. She had a lovely swing and a ride on a +rocking-horse, and then they all began to play games. They played +ring-a-ring o' roses, and bumpy in the corner, and bumpy hide-and-seek,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +and angel's buff; and then Mr Jugg took her into the flying school to +see some of the older bumpies fly.</p> + +<p>This was like a big gymnasium, with lots and lots of pegs in it, and a +pair of wings hanging from each peg; and on the floor there were great +soft mattresses so that the bumpies shouldn't hurt themselves if they +fell down. But the bumpies that Marian saw had almost learned to fly. +They would soon be proper angels and able to fly anywhere.</p> + +<p>"And then," said Mr Jugg, "they'll be going into the upper school to +learn history and geography and all about dreams and things."</p> + +<p>"Where's the upper school?" asked Marian.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all over the place," said Mr Jugg; "there are ever so many +class-rooms, you see. And then they go to college."</p> + +<p>"And what happens then?" asked Marian.</p> + +<p>"Well, then they're able to begin to work. There's always heaps for them +to do."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Marian; "and now I really think that I ought to be going +home."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you ought," said Mr Jugg. He led her back into the playroom, +and then into the room where they had all had tea. The tables had been +cleared now, but Mrs Jugg came toward them with a big box of bumpy +chocolates. Marian took one, and Mrs Jugg kissed her and told her that +she must be sure to come again.</p> + +<p>"You haven't seen half the place," she said, "nor a quarter of it. There +are miles and miles of it. Have another chocolate."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then Marian thanked her and gave her a kiss, and Mr Jugg opened the door +and they went into the passage. When they had come this part of the +passage had been uphill, but going back, of course, it was downhill. He +opened the cupboard and took out the scooter, and Marian stood behind +him with her hands on his shoulders. Just as before, they began to go +quite slowly, but soon they were going as fast as ever. Just as before, +the coloured lights became two streaks of light, one on each side of +them. But Marian knew now what was going to happen, and presently the +scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped just at the foot of +the steps, and Mr Jugg put it away in the cupboard. He hit the wall +twice, and there, at the top of the steps, Marian saw the hole open, and +the sky above it.</p> + +<p>"Goodness me!" she said. "How late it is!"</p> + +<p>The sky was quite dark, and the stars were shining.</p> + +<p>Mr Jugg blew his nose.</p> + +<p>"Poor Mummy!" she said; "she will be so frightened."</p> + +<p>"Where do you live?" asked Mr Jugg.</p> + +<p>Marian told him.</p> + +<p>"I'd better fly you there," he said. "Half a tick."</p> + +<p>He went down the steps again, and opened the little cupboard, and came +back with a pair of wings.</p> + +<p>"Now, if you can get on my back," he said, "we'll be home in half a +minute."</p> + +<p>She climbed on to his shoulders, just as if she were going to ride +pick-a-back, and then he gave a little jump and they were up in the air. +They skimmed across the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> fields and down Peter Street just as fast as an +express train. At Marian's door he put her down.</p> + +<p>"Which is your bedroom window?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She told him.</p> + +<p>"Now I must be saying good-night," he said. "No, I won't come in. It's +against the rules for the King of the Bumpies." So he took off his hat +and made her a little bow, and before she could wink almost, he had +gone. Then she knocked at the door, and next moment Mummy was hugging +her as tight as tight. Then Daddy came and hugged her too, and Cuthbert, +who had gone to bed, looked over the landing banisters.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, where <i>haven't</i> I been?" said Marian, and then she told them all +about it. Cuthbert didn't believe her. But Cuthbert didn't believe +anything. He was nine years old, and was beginning to learn French. But +Mummy believed her, and Daddy believed her; and I'll tell you another +thing that happened.</p> + +<p>Late that night, when everybody was asleep, Mr Jugg flew to Marian's +window. Marian's angel—everybody has a guardian angel—was smoking a +quiet cigarette on the sill outside.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" he said; "fancy seeing you here!"</p> + +<p>He had once been a bumpy, you see, and Mr Jugg had taught him to fly.</p> + +<p>"Good evening," said Mr Jugg; "what do you think of this?"</p> + +<p>It was a little dream that he had brought for Marian.</p> + +<p>"By George!" said the angel, "that's a beauty."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>He slipped it very softly under Marian's pillow.</p> + +<p>She must have dreamed it too, for next morning when Mummy made her bed +it wasn't there. But, alas! the loveliest dreams of all are the ones +that we never remember.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Like the jungle he lives in,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Tiger wears a dappled skin.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Foxes on the plains of snow</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">White as their surroundings go.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">So do fishes lose their sight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Buried in the ocean's night,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Little knowing lovely day</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Lies but half a mile away.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">For the truth is plain to see,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">As our haunts are, so are we;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And in cities you will find</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Busy blind men just as blind.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Long ago they lost their eyes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Under bags of merchandise;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And they know not there are still</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Angels on the window-sill.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>GWENDOLEN</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;"><a name="ILL_004" id="ILL_004"></a> +<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="425" height="500" alt="Monkey Island" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Monkey Island</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h3>GWENDOLEN</h3> + +<p>Living in the same town as Marian there was a little girl called +Gwendolen. Marian didn't know her very well, though they went to the +same school and sometimes smiled at each other in church. Her father and +mother were always climbing mountains and lecturing about them +afterward, so Gwendolen had to live with her aunt, who was very rich and +wore a lot of rings.</p> + +<p>In many ways Gwendolen was a nice girl, but she had an exceptionally +large tummy. Some people said that it was her own fault, because she was +always sitting about eating marzipan. But some people said that she +couldn't help her tummy, and had to eat a lot to keep it full. There +were also people who said that her aunt spoiled her, being so greedy +herself and always eating buttered toast.</p> + +<p>Gwendolen's aunt had a pale, proud face, deeply lined by indigestion, +and she lived in a big house on the right-hand side of Bellington +Square. The colour of this house was a yellowish cream, and it had two +pillars in front of the front door. There were eleven steps leading up +to it, and there was a boy to open it who wore twelve brass buttons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the middle of this Square there was a sort of garden with tall iron +railings all round it, and each of the people living in the Square had a +key to open the gate of it. It was the tidiest garden in the whole +world, and all the flowers in it stood in rows; and the people in the +Square paid for a gardener to shave the grass every day. One of the +reasons why the people in the Square were so rich was that they had so +few children; and the children that they did have had to be very careful +not to make foot-marks on the grass. Gwendolen's aunt sometimes went +there when she had a headache and wanted to throw it off; and Gwendolen +went there to eat marzipan and read about Princes and Princesses. She +generally sat on a painted iron seat in front of a flower-bed shaped +like a lozenge, and once she was sick behind a bush called <i>B. +stenophylla</i> on a tin label.</p> + +<p>One day she was sitting on this seat when she heard a curious sort of +sound. At first it was rather faint, so that she didn't take much notice +of it, but gradually it became louder and louder. Her aunt was sitting +on the same seat wondering which of her medicines to take before dinner, +and Gwendolen noticed that she began to look annoyed, because the noise +was the sound of a harmonium. Some people like harmoniums, and have them +in their houses, and play hymns on them on Sunday afternoons. But this +was a harmonium that went on wheels, with a man to push it, and a woman +walking beside him. After he had pushed it for a few yards he would sit +down and play a tune on it, while the woman walked up and down, looking +at people's windows and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> trying to catch their eye. If she saw anybody +she would say "Kind lady," or "Kind gentleman," as the case might be, +and perhaps the kind lady or the kind gentleman would throw her some +money, and then she would say "God bless you." But people like that, +with travelling harmoniums, weren't allowed to come into Bellington +Square, and Gwendolen's aunt said, "Dear me, just when I wanted a little +peace and quiet!"</p> + +<p>If there had been anybody near, such as a policeman or a gardener, she +would have told him to send the musicians away. But it was very hot, and +there was nobody about, and so the people went on playing. Gwendolen +watched them for a while through the railings, and the butler at Number +Ten gave the woman a sixpence. Her aunt was very angry about it when +Gwendolen told her, for what was the good of making rules, she said, if +you encouraged people to break them?</p> + +<p>The people with the harmonium came a little nearer, and then Gwendolen +could see what they looked like. The woman was stout, with a hard brown +face and rolling eyes like dark-coloured pebbles. When she smiled it was +as if she had pinned it on, and as if the smile didn't really belong to +her. The man had pale eyes, like those of ferrets in a hutch, and he +watched the woman all the time he was playing. Gwendolen noticed that +there was a long string fastened to one of the handles of the harmonium. +She heard a little voice close to her knees.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gwendolen," it said, "save me."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen looked down and saw the unhappiest little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> face that she had +ever seen in her life. It belonged to a small brown monkey wearing a red +jacket and a blue sailor hat. He was staring up at her with timid dark +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I heard your aunt speak to you," he said. "So I know your name."</p> + +<p>He looked over his shoulder at the man and the woman. But the woman was +looking at the houses, and the man was watching her.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" said Gwendolen.</p> + +<p>He was holding on to the garden railings.</p> + +<p>"Lift up my jacket," he said, "and you'll see."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen stooped down and lifted up his jacket. There were three great +wounds across his back.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear!" she cried; "how did you get those?"</p> + +<p>"They beat me," he said. "They're always beating me."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen may have been lazy, and she may have been greedy, but she had +a soft heart, and the monkey had seen this.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how dreadful!" she said. "But when did you learn to talk?"</p> + +<p>The monkey shivered a little.</p> + +<p>"Hush, they don't know," he replied. "I've lived with them so long that +I've learned their language."</p> + +<p>"But why don't you run away?" asked Gwendolen.</p> + +<p>"How can I? They keep me on this string and beat me every night."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gwendolen," he said, "do save me if you can!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>From where she was kneeling Gwendolen could see the woman going up the +steps to one of the houses. The man was watching her as usual. Gwendolen +was half hidden from them by a bush.</p> + +<p>"But there's my aunt," she said. "I don't know what my aunt would say."</p> + +<p>"Listen," said the monkey. "I could take you to a lovely island."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen frowned a little.</p> + +<p>"But I don't know," she said, "that my aunt's very fond of islands."</p> + +<p>"She would be of this," said the monkey. "What's your aunt fondest of?"</p> + +<p>Gwendolen thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Buttered toast," she said.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's ever so much nicer," said the monkey, "than buttered toast."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen looked at her aunt and then at the monkey, with his sad eyes +and shaking limbs. There wasn't much time. In another minute the man and +the woman would be moving on. Close beside her, in a little green box, +she could see the tops of the handles of the gardener's shears. She took +a deep breath. Then she made up her mind.</p> + +<p>"All right," she said. "I'll see what I can do."</p> + +<p>She crept to the box and took out the shears. The monkey squeezed +himself through the railings. With a beating heart Gwendolen cut the +string, caught up the monkey, and ran to her aunt. Her aunt looked up.</p> + +<p>"Why, what have you got here?" she asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He belongs to those people," said Gwendolen, "with the harmonium."</p> + +<p>"Oh, save me!" said the monkey. "Save me!"</p> + +<p>"Look what they've done to him," said Gwendolen. She lifted the monkey's +jacket. Gwendolen's aunt put on her spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" she said; "but the monkey talks!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Gwendolen. "He's been learning for a long time."</p> + +<p>The monkey clasped his hands and looked into Gwendolen's aunt's face. He +saw deep down into her, where her good nature was.</p> + +<p>"If you let me go back to them," he said, "they'll kill me. Oh, lady +dear, please help me!"</p> + +<p>Gwendolen's aunt was rather disturbed. Nothing like this had happened to +her before. If she took the monkey away, people would call her a thief. +But if she let him go back, perhaps he would be beaten to death.</p> + +<p>"Where do you live?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"On Monkey Island; it's the loveliest island in the world."</p> + +<p>"But how did you come here?" she said.</p> + +<p>The monkey began to tremble again.</p> + +<p>"They stole me away," he said, "from my wife and children."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Auntie," said Gwendolen, "can't we take him back there? He says +it's ever so much nicer than buttered toast."</p> + +<p>Her aunt stood up.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, bother the buttered toast," she said. "It's his wife and babies +that I'm thinking about."</p> + +<p>Then the harmonium suddenly stopped, and they heard the man cry out.</p> + +<p>"Why, where's that monkey?" he said. He began to swear. They saw the +woman run down the steps. The monkey gave a little cry and jumped into +Gwendolen's aunt's arms. Then they saw the man and the woman rush toward +the railings. Both their faces were dark as night.</p> + +<p>"Come on," said Gwendolen's aunt. "We'll have to run for it. Make for +the gate."</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the gate was on the opposite side of the garden, and their +own house was opposite the gate. The man and the woman would have to run +right round the Square.</p> + +<p>"We ought to beat them," said Gwendolen's aunt.</p> + +<p>Oh, how sorry Gwendolen was then that her tummy was so large! But she +ran as fast as ever she could, and almost kept up with her aunt. The man +and the woman had started to run too, shouting aloud at the tops of +their voices.</p> + +<p>"We shan't be safe," said her aunt, "till we've got to the island; +because we shall really be thieves till we've taken the monkey home."</p> + +<p>They dashed across the grass and through the gate, and, just as they +were running up their own front steps, they saw the man and the woman +coming into sight round the corner of the railings. They had found a +policeman, and he was running with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Luckily the servants are out," said Gwendolen's aunt.</p> + +<p>She was quite excited, and her eyes were shining. Gwendolen had never +seen her looking so young. As soon as they were safely in the house, she +shut the front door and bolted it.</p> + +<p>"That'll give us another five minutes," she said. "Run upstairs and get +your hat and overcoat."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen ran upstairs, panting and puffing, and fetched her hat and +overcoat and her doll David. Meanwhile her aunt ran into the study, +opened her cash-box, and took out a hundred pounds. A minute later there +came a thunder of knocks and two or three peals of the front-door bell.</p> + +<p>"We'll get away," said her aunt, "through the back garden."</p> + +<p>She had packed up a knapsack and slipped into a rain-coat. The knocks +were repeated—rat-a-tat-<i>tat</i>. They heard angry voices shouting through +the letter-box. Gwendolen's aunt laughed and shook her fist at them.</p> + +<p>"Come along," she said; "now for the back garden."</p> + +<p>From the back garden there was a little door leading into a street +behind. Here there was a cab-stand, and Gwendolen's aunt told the +cab-driver to drive to the station.</p> + +<p>"We shall just be in time," she said, "to catch the 3.40 train."</p> + +<p>It was only a horse-cab, but the horse galloped, and they arrived at the +station just as the train came in. There was hardly a moment to take +their tickets in. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> guard waited for them, and they just managed +it. The engine whistled, the porter slammed the door, and the next +moment they were off. The monkey, who had been hiding under Gwendolen's +aunt's coat, poked his head out, and looked about him. Fortunately they +had the carriage all to themselves.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear!" said Gwendolen. "How splendid!"</p> + +<p>It was an express train, and it didn't stop for an hour, and then +Gwendolen's aunt thought that they had better get out.</p> + +<p>"We'll hire a motor-car," she said, "and go to Lullington Bay and find +my old friend Captain Jeremy. When I was young he wanted to marry me. +But I was too proud and wouldn't let him."</p> + +<p>So they got out and hired a motor-car, and drove at full speed to +Lullington Bay. It was a long drive, and when they arrived at the +Captain's cottage the stars were shining and the Captain was in his +garden. Deep below them they could see the ocean, dark as bronze and +knocking at the shore. Captain Jeremy was looking through a telescope. A +stout little sailing-ship was anchored in the bay.</p> + +<p>"Why, Josina," he said—that was Gwendolen's aunt's name—"fancy seeing +you here after all these years!"</p> + +<p>He was a sunburnt man with blue eyes, and Gwendolen liked him because he +looked so kind. They told him what had happened, and he looked very +grave.</p> + +<p>"We must be off at once," he said. "I know that man and woman."</p> + +<p>"Why, who are they?" asked Gwendolen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Smugglers," he said. "They're two of the most dangerous people I know. +Luckily my ship is all ready to sail. We'll put off at once for Monkey +Island."</p> + +<p>The Captain lived alone. He had never been married. So he had only to +lock up his cottage and put the key in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"We ought to get there," he said, "in a couple of months' time if the +wind holds fair."</p> + +<p>It was the first time that Gwendolen had been on the sea, and for two or +three days she was rather sea-sick. But after that she began to enjoy +the voyage and the smell of the spray and the sight of the waves. It was +lovely weather, and as they drew near the equator a great yellow moon +shone on them all night. It was so hot that she hardly wore any clothes, +and used to go barefooted just like the sailors; and she grew so brown +and so graceful that she scarcely looked like the same girl. As for her +tummy—well, there was no marzipan on board, and she soon began to lose +all her love for it. She would ever so much rather be up in the rigging +with David her doll and Captain Jeremy's telescope.</p> + +<p>One day she suddenly noticed a sort of little cloud on the horizon. But +it didn't move, and as the ship drew nearer she saw that the cloud was +really an island. She called to the monkey, and he ran up the rigging +beside her, and after one look he could hardly contain himself.</p> + +<p>"That's the island," he cried, "my beautiful island, with my wife on it +and my children."</p> + +<p>Presently they came so close that they could see the golden sand and the +tall trees with their clusters of fruit;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> and soon the ship was +anchored, and Captain Jeremy gave orders for a boat to be lowered. +Captain Jeremy himself, with two of his sailors, and Gwendolen, and +Gwendolen's aunt all got into it; and in another five minutes they were +standing on dry land again, with the happy monkey dancing beside them. +Captain Jeremy and the sailors stayed by the boat, but Gwendolen and her +aunt and the monkey began to explore the island. There were flowers +everywhere, not planted in rows like the flowers in Bellington Square, +but growing where they liked, and rejoicing in their freedom and +praising God with their beautiful colours. Some of the trees were +smooth, with curious flat leaves and knobbly brown berries that tasted +like buttered toast. But Gwendolen's aunt had made a resolve to give up +eating buttered toast. Since she had helped Gwendolen to rescue the +monkey all her indigestion had disappeared; and she felt as fresh, and +looked as pretty, as if she were only half her age.</p> + +<p>Some of the trees were different, with twisted trunks, and pale red +blossoms dripping with juice; and this juice tasted like marzipan, but +Gwendolen had resolved to give up marzipan.</p> + +<p>But it was a lovelier island than they had ever imagined, and soon the +little monkey gave a cry of joy, and the next moment he was hugging in +his arms another little monkey that had dashed to meet him. It was his +wife, and just behind her there were two smaller monkeys waiting to be +kissed; and Gwendolen and her aunt could almost have cried to see how +happy they all were.</p> + +<p>For nearly a month they stayed at the island, sleeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> on board, but +landing every morning; and Gwendolen learned to swim almost as well as a +fish and to climb trees almost as well as a monkey. But Captain Jeremy +wasn't really happy until a big steamer happened to come by with news +that the man and the woman had been drowned in a storm on their way to +try and catch Gwendolen and her aunt. It was now October, and by the +time that they arrived home Gwendolen would have been away from school +for a term and a half. So they said good-bye to the monkey and his +family, and set sail from the island. Gwendolen cried a little, and so +did her aunt; but on the way home an odd thing happened, for Captain +Jeremy asked her aunt to marry him, and they had to think a lot about +the wedding. They decided to get married on Christmas Day, and when +Gwendolen's school-friends saw her as a bridesmaid she had grown so tall +and straight and happy-looking that they wondered what on earth could +possibly have happened to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"Sailor, sailor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">What's the song</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">That you sing</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">The whole day long?"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And the sailor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Said to me:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"Birth's the jetty,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Time's the sea,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"Death's the harbour,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Life's the trip,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Hope's the pilot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">You're the ship."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"Sailor, sailor,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Tell me true,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">What's beyond</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Those waters blue?"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">But the sailor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Shook his head;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"That's a secret,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Sir," he said.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>THE LITTLE ICE-MEN</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="ILL_005" id="ILL_005"></a> +<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="400" height="356" alt="Cuthbert and Doris" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Cuthbert and Doris</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h3>THE LITTLE ICE-MEN</h3> + +<p>Marian's daddy was very glad when Captain Jeremy married Gwendolen's +aunt, because he and Captain Jeremy had been boys at school together, +and he had always been very fond of him; and he was gladder still when +Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt left Bellington Square. This they +did a week after the wedding, because Captain Jeremy hated Bellington +Square; and they went to live in an old farmhouse, two miles out of the +town.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful old house, with a gabled roof and golden-red bricks +like a winter sunset; and the hall and passages of it were dark and +velvety, and the rooms upstairs smelt of lavender. Leading from the road +to the front door was a cobbly path, with lawns on each side of it, and +big trees standing on the lawns, with low-spreading branches that +touched the grass. Behind the house was a kitchen-garden full of +cucumber-frames and vegetables, and behind that was an orchard, with a +gate leading into the fields. These were all hard and crinkly with +frost, and the fruit-trees were bare, because it was the second of +January, but that made the house seem all the snugger, with its low +panelled walls and log fires.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>When they had been in this house a week, Gwendolen's aunt gave a +children's party, and Marian and Cuthbert were asked to go, because +their daddy was Captain Jeremy's friend. Marian was very pleased, +because she had always liked Gwendolen, although she had never known her +very well, but Cuthbert said that he didn't like her and that he'd +rather stay at home. Marian told him how much she had improved since her +voyage to Monkey Island, but Cuthbert said that he didn't care, and that +she was a silly sort of girl anyhow. He was only pretending, however, +because just after Christmas he had been in hospital having his tonsils +out, and he had already missed two or three parties and didn't mean to +miss another.</p> + +<p>So they went to the party, and Cuthbert was rather glad, because one of +the girls there was a girl called Doris, who had been in hospital having +her tonsils out just at the same time as he. She was rather a decent +girl, ten years old, with dark-coloured eyes and brown hair, and one of +her thumbs was double-jointed, and she had been eight times to the +seaside. Just at present she was a little pale, and so was Cuthbert +himself; and Gwendolen was so brown that, when they stood near her, they +looked paler still.</p> + +<p>Captain Jeremy came and shook hands with them.</p> + +<p>"Hullo," he said, "what's the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"It's their tonsils," said Marian. "They've just had them out, and of +course they're a little pulled down."</p> + +<p>Captain Jeremy examined them thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert liked him, and so did Doris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What you want," he said, "is a trip with me. That would soon set you up +again."</p> + +<p>Gwendolen and Marian had gone off to play, so Cuthbert and Doris had him +to themselves.</p> + +<p>"I should like it very much," said Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"So should I," said Doris, "but I'm afraid Mummy wouldn't let me go."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the Captain. "Well, I'm off next week to Port Jacobson in +the Arctic Circle. But you wouldn't be able to go to school next term if +you came with me, because I shan't be back till the middle of May."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert put his hand up and pinched his throat.</p> + +<p>"It's still rather sore," he said.</p> + +<p>"So is mine," said Doris.</p> + +<p>Captain Jeremy laughed.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's nothing like the Arctic Circle," he said, "for people +who've just had their tonsils out."</p> + +<p>Then he spoke to Doris.</p> + +<p>"Let me see," he said: "I know where Cuthbert lives, but where do you +live?"</p> + +<p>Doris told him that she lived in John Street, which was the next street +to Cuthbert's. Her father was dead, and her mummy was rather poor, as +she had five other children besides Doris.</p> + +<p>Captain Jeremy nodded.</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps I shall be able to persuade her," he said, "to let me take +you off her hands for a bit."</p> + +<p>Doris danced up and down.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish you would!" she cried. "I'd simply love to see the Arctic +Circle!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So should I," said Cuthbert, and they were both so excited that they +could hardly eat any tea. When Marian heard about it, she wished that +she was pale too, and she wished it ever so much more the next morning +when Captain Jeremy called on her father and mother and persuaded them +to let Cuthbert go. Then he went to John Street and talked to Doris's +mother, and he looked so commanding and yet so gentle that Doris's +mother said she would be very glad to let Doris go with him to Port +Jacobson.</p> + +<p>"Of course, it'll be very cold," he said, "and they'll have to wear +furs, but we can easily get those when we arrive, and all they'll want +for the voyage is plenty of underclothing and their oldest clothes."</p> + +<p>For a voyage like that, all among the ice, Captain Jeremy's sailing-ship +wasn't quite suitable, so he had hired a little steamer with very thick +sides, and a trusty pilot. Port Jacobson was in a sort of bay just under +the shelter of Cape Fury, and beyond Cape Fury the coast had hardly been +explored, it was all so bare and bleak and rocky. The only people who +lived there were a few fishermen, a clergyman called Mr Smith, and a +couple of engineers, who had been there for a year and had just found a +coal-mine. It was the engineers who had written to Captain Jeremy, +because they wanted him to bring them some machinery, and also because +they wanted him to take back some of the coal that they had already dug +up. That was how Captain Jeremy made his living, fetching and carrying +things across the sea.</p> + +<p>Neither Cuthbert nor Doris was the least bit sea-sick,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> and they loved +to stand on the bridge beside Captain Jeremy and see the great billows +rushing toward the steamer, one after another, in the bright sunshine. +Sometimes they went below into the dark engine-room, where they had to +shout to make themselves heard, and where the pistons of the engines +slid to and fro like the arms of boxers that never got tired. How they +loved the cabin, too, at meal-times, when the cook rolled in with the +steaming dishes, and what meals they ate, in spite of the lurching table +and the water slamming against the port-holes!</p> + +<p>In a couple of days' time they had forgotten all about their tonsils, +and two days after that they had almost forgotten their homes, and a +week later they saw something in the distance like the grey ghost of a +cathedral. It was an iceberg—the first that they had seen; but soon +they began to see them every day, sometimes pale, in mournful groups, +like broken statues in a cemetery, and sometimes sparkling in the sun as +though they were crusted with a million diamonds.</p> + +<p>One day they came on deck just after breakfast and saw miles and miles +of ice, all jumbled together, and three hours later they saw a great +cliff, covered with snow, standing out to sea. That was Cape Fury, and +as they drew nearer they could see a little cluster of dark houses, with +spires of smoke rising from their chimneys, and that was Port Jacobson. +The pilot was on deck now, shouting all the time, and the steamer was +going very slowly, with ice on each side of it, and they could see some +men coming toward them, with rough-haired dogs pulling sledges. At last +the steamer could get no farther, although it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> still about a mile +from the town, and they cast out anchors and a long cable that they +began to carry toward the shore. It seemed very funny to Cuthbert and +Doris to feel their feet again on something steady, even though this was +only the rough surface of the frozen bay in front of the port. The days +were so short here that the sun was already low, and the great cape +stood dark and menacing, while far inland they could see the peaks of +mountains slowly fading against the sky.</p> + +<p>Among the men who had come to meet them were the two engineers and Mr +Smith, and they were very surprised to see Cuthbert and Doris running +about on the ice and trying to make snowballs. Then they all set off +toward the little town, with the lights shining in its windows, and Mr +Smith said that they must stay with him, because he and Mrs Smith had no +children. Captain Jeremy was to stay with the two engineers, who had +built a little house of their own, but they all came in to supper with +the Smiths, and Cuthbert and Doris were allowed to sit up.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," said Mr Smith, "we'll get you some furs, and then you'll be +able to go tobogganing with the other children," and Cuthbert and Doris +said "Hooray!" because they had learned to toboggan on Fairbarrow Down. +Just before they went to bed they saw a wonderful thing, for the whole +of the sky began to quiver, and beautiful colours went dancing across +it, melting away and then coming back again. These were the Northern +Lights, or the Aurora Borealis, and Cuthbert and Doris could have +watched them all night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>But they soon fell asleep; and most of the next day they were out +tobogganing with the other children, and they soon became so good at it +that they could go as fast as any of them, and hardly ever had a spill. +By the end of the week they had got into the habit of climbing on to the +top of Cape Fury and tobogganing back again, more than a mile and a +half, right down to Mr Smith's house. The first time they climbed up +there the slope had looked so steep, and the roofs of the houses so far +below them, that they had stood for nearly ten minutes before they could +make up their minds to start. But some of the other children had done +it, and at last Doris had said, "Well, come on, Cuthbert, we mustn't be +afraid," and Cuthbert had told her to hold on tight, and so they had +pushed off over the frozen snow.</p> + +<p>By the time they had got half-way, they were going so fast that the air +was roaring in their ears, but the track was straight, and they had kept +in the middle of it, and ran safely into the town. After that it didn't +seem worth while to go tobogganing on any of the lower hills, and that +was how it came about that the following Wednesday they found themselves +as usual on the top of Cape Fury.</p> + +<p>It was a still, cold day, and the air was so clear that they could see +the coast for miles and miles, and the tops of mountains far inland that +they had never seen before. Below them in the bay, stuck in the ice, +they could see the little steamer, with the sailors on the deck, and +beyond the ice a strip of blue water, and beyond that again more ice +still. That was on one side of them, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> on the other they saw the +farther slope of Cape Fury, slanting down and down and down to the +unexplored regions toward the north. It was a gentler slope than the +slope toward the town, and suddenly Cuthbert had a great idea.</p> + +<p>"I say," he said, "why shouldn't we toboggan down there? I don't suppose +anybody has ever done it."</p> + +<p>What with the wind and the sun and the snow, the cheeks of both of them +were like ripe chestnuts, and Doris's eyes began to sparkle as she +listened to Cuthbert's great idea. When he was at home Cuthbert didn't +get many ideas, and he generally used to laugh at other people's, so he +was very pleased when he got this one and Doris said that she thought it +ripping.</p> + +<p>"We won't go too fast," he said, "so that, if we see a precipice or +anything, we shall be able to stop ourselves in time."</p> + +<p>They had a stout little toboggan, just big enough for two, and so they +started off down this new slope, with the sun shining and the snow +glittering. At first they moved quite slowly, but lower down the side of +the hill became steeper, and soon they were going so fast that, even if +they had wanted to, they would have found it pretty hard to stop +themselves. And then an awful thing happened, for suddenly, just in +front of them, they saw a deep cleft in the snow sliding down, at a +terrific angle, into a sort of tunnel under the hillside.</p> + +<p>Almost before they could breathe, they had plunged into this, and now +there was nothing to do but to hold on. They saw the tunnel's mouth +leaping toward them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> and the next moment they were in darkness. Neither +Cuthbert nor Doris had ever been so frightened before. In the pitchy +blackness they could see nothing. They could only feel themselves +shooting deeper and deeper into the very heart of the frozen earth. +Sometimes a bump on the floor of the tunnel would send them careering +toward the roof, and then they would come down again with a thud that +almost pitched them off the toboggan. Every moment they expected to be +killed. There came another tremendous bump. And then they felt their +toboggan springing through the air and dropping like a stone into some +fearful well. They shut their eyes, waiting for death, and then went +rolling over and over, with something strange and soft and feathery +wrapping them round like a bedroom quilt. For a minute or two they could +only gasp, and then Cuthbert sat up and called to Doris.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Doris!" he said; "are you all right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think so," said Doris. "Are you?"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert told her that he was; and now that they could look about, they +saw that they were on the floor of an immense cave, and that they had +pitched down from somewhere near the top of it on to a huge mass of +feathers. These were evidently the feathers of thousands and thousands +of sea-birds; but who could have plucked them and stored them here so +carefully?</p> + +<p>Then they heard a strange sort of coughing and grunting and spluttering, +and they saw the oddest of little men. He was about three feet high, +with a red beard and a very cheerful sort of face, and he had evidently +been asleep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> in among the feathers, for he was rubbing his eyes and +staring at them in astonishment. Then they heard some more grunting and +coughing, and at last they saw a dozen of these little men standing all +round them, dressed in the skins of animals, and with feathers sticking +to their beards. They were all looking rather disturbed, but when +Cuthbert and Doris smiled they began to smile too and come toward them. +Then they began to talk, and, though at first the sounds that they made +seemed very queer, Cuthbert and Doris, rather to their surprise, found +that they could understand them perfectly well. That was because the +language in which the little men spoke was the oldest language in the +world, the father and mother of all the other languages, and so of +course the children soon understood it. They also found that in a very +little while they could talk in this language themselves, and soon they +were all chattering together about what had happened, as if they had +known each other all their lives.</p> + +<p>Now that they had become used to the dim light, they could see that this +great cave had walls of rock, with long icicles hanging from the roof +and the sticking-out pieces of the walls. Most of the floor of it was of +smooth ice, but in the middle there was a flat rock; and on this rock +there was a little fire burning, a little fire made of coal. The leader +of the men was a man called Marmaduke, and he told the children that +they had all been asleep, and that they had lived in this cave for +hundreds of thousands of years, and that the great pile of feathers was +where they went to bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But it's day-time," said Cuthbert. "Why do you go to bed in day-time?"</p> + +<p>Marmaduke laughed, and so did all the other men.</p> + +<p>"Because at night," he said, "we go out and hunt to get our wolf-and +seal-meat, when no one can see us."</p> + +<p>But they were all so excited at the appearance of Cuthbert and Doris +that they led them to the fire, where they sat and talked to them, and +presently they cooked a delicious meal for them of seal-soup and +wolf-chops. The coal that they burnt they had found in a deep hole in +one corner of the cave, and at the other corner there was a little +crack, down which they presently led the children. This opened upon a +ledge of ice, five or six feet above the shore, but now they could +hardly see anything, because the air was full of snow, driving fiercely +into their faces. The little ice-men looked grave.</p> + +<p>"It's a blizzard," they said, "and very likely it'll go on for a week. +But luckily we've got plenty of meat, so that we shan't be in want of +food."</p> + +<p>"But how shall we get back?" said Doris. "They won't know where we are, +and they'll think that we're both dead."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I don't exactly know," he replied, "how you'd get back in any case. You +could never climb up the way you came, and it's very difficult to get +round the coast."</p> + +<p>"But we'll have to get back somehow," said Cuthbert, "because of our +relations at home."</p> + +<p>Marmaduke looked puzzled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What are relations?" he said. "And why should you want to go back?"</p> + +<p>So Cuthbert had to tell them all about his father and mother and his +Uncle Joe and his sister Marian; and Doris had to tell them all about +her mummy and her five little brothers and her aunts and cousins. They +were very interested, but it was quite clear that Cuthbert and Doris +couldn't leave that night; and so presently they crept in among the +feathers, and were soon very comfy and fast asleep. The next morning it +was still snowing, but it was rather fun helping to cook the meals, and +the little men showed them some lovely dances that were almost as old as +the world itself.</p> + +<p>For a whole week they had to stay in the cave, with the blizzard raging +outside, but one morning when they crept down the crack they found the +sky clear and the sun shining. They could now see, towering straight +above them, tremendous precipices of rock, and miles of boulders and +broken ice, stretching out toward the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Our only hope," said Cuthbert, "is that Captain Jeremy and some of the +fishermen will come exploring for us," and just as he said that far in +the distance they heard the report of a gun. Then a long way off they +saw some little figures and a tiny sledge drawn by dogs; and they stood +on tiptoe and waved and waved, hoping that Captain Jeremy might see them +through his telescope.</p> + +<p>The little ice-men never came out by daylight, and when they heard what +the children had seen they made them promise on their dying oath not to +tell anybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> the way to the cave. Once before, they said, a learned man +had discovered them, and he had tried to measure them with a pair of +compasses, so they had had to kill him, as gently as they could, by +putting him in the middle of the pile of feathers. Then they said +good-bye, and all the little men kissed them and sent their love to +everybody at home, and Cuthbert and Doris began to scramble over the ice +toward the sledge-party that was now much nearer.</p> + +<p>When Captain Jeremy met them, you can guess how pleased he was, because +he had made up his mind that they must have been killed; and good Mr +Smith had tears in his eyes, but they were tears of joy. Everybody at +Port Jacobson, too, was so pleased that they made a big bonfire to +celebrate the occasion, and they all drank the healths of the little +ice-men and ate a lot of sweets in their honour.</p> + +<p>When the children arrived home, however, early in May, and Cuthbert told +Marian all about them, she said at first that she wouldn't believe in +them, because Cuthbert hadn't believed in Mr Jugg. But Cuthbert had +grown wiser and less conceited, and he told Marian that he had changed +his mind. So Marian believed in them, and her daddy was rather pleased, +because there were more things under the earth, he said, than most +people imagined.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Not a twig that learned to climb</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">In the babyhood of time,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Not a bud that broke the air</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">In the days before men were,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Not a bird that tossed in flight</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Ere the first man walked upright,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Nor a bee with craftier cell</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Than a Roman citadel,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">But, with all its pride and pain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Into dust crept back again.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Oh, what wisdom there must be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">Hidden in the earth and me!</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>UNCLE JOE'S STORY</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"><a name="ILL_006" id="ILL_006"></a> +<img src="images/ill_006.jpg" width="428" height="500" alt="Bella at Eden" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Bella at Eden</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h3>UNCLE JOE'S STORY</h3> + +<p>Marian's mummy used to read the Bible to her, so that she knew all about +Adam and Eve; but she never knew that Eve had a little daughter until +Uncle Joe told her this story. Next to her mummy and daddy, Marian loved +Uncle Joe better than anybody in the whole world. He lived in a little +house tucked into a sort of dimple on the side of Fairbarrow Down, and a +man called Mr Parker lived with him and helped to keep the place tidy. +Uncle Joe had been a soldier in a lot of queer countries a long way off; +and when Marian and Cuthbert asked him what he had fought for, he +generally used to tell them that it was for lost causes. In between wars +he had done lots of other things, such as trying to find out what caused +diseases, or whether plants that grew in some places could be made to +grow in others. Mr Parker had been a soldier too—a soldier of +misfortune, he used to say—and he had saved Uncle Joe's life three +times, and Uncle Joe had saved his life twice.</p> + +<p>Uncle Joe's face was yellowish brown, because he had been in the sun so +much and had fever; but Mr Parker's face was red, and one of his eyes +was made of glass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> Mr Parker used to call himself a lone, lorn orphan, +though he was much fatter than Uncle Joe, and afterward he used to spit +and say that it was rough weather in the Baltic.</p> + +<p>It was about a fortnight after Cuthbert and Doris had come back from the +Arctic Circle that Uncle Joe told Marian this story, while they were +sitting under one of his apple-trees. Some of the apple-petals had begun +to drop, leaving the tiny, weeny, baby apples behind them, and the only +really ripe apples in Uncle Joe's garden were the two apples in Marian's +cheeks.</p> + +<p>"But those aren't real apples," said Marian.</p> + +<p>"Well, it all depends," said Uncle Joe, "on what you mean by real."</p> + +<p>"You see," said Mr Parker, who had just come out to mow the lawn, +"there's more kinds of apples than a few. There's eating apples and +cooking apples and pineapples and crab-apples; and there's oak-apples +and Adam's apples and the apples what you sees in little girls' cheeks."</p> + +<p>"Kissing apples," said Uncle Joe. "They're one of the most important +kinds."</p> + +<p>He began to fill his pipe.</p> + +<p>"And now that I come to think of it," he said, "they're one of the +oldest kinds too."</p> + +<p>"As old as Mr Jugg," asked Marian, "or the little ice-men?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Uncle Joe, "I don't know about that. But they're certainly +as old as Eve's little girl," and then he began to tell Marian all about +her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm not quite sure," he said, "what her name was. It might have been +Gretchen or Olga, or it might have been Seraphine or Marie-Louise, but I +rather think that it was Bella. Of course you remember what happened in +the Garden of Eden, and how Adam and Eve had to leave it, not because +the good Lord God wanted to turn them out, but because He knew that they +could never be happy there any more. Every hour that they stayed they +would have become more and more miserable; and if they had come back it +would have broken their hearts, so He had to put two angels to guard the +gate. You see, He had wanted them to be sort of grown-up babies in the +loveliest nursery ever imagined, and to be able to go there and play +games with them whenever He was tired of ruling the universe. But when +once they had heard about growing up, and choosing for themselves, and +things of that sort, they could never have been babies any more, and it +would have been cruel to keep them in the nursery.</p> + +<p>"Of course, they didn't understand that, and they thought it very hard, +and very often they used to grumble; and when they had learned to write +they used to send Him angry letters and say bad things about Him in +books. That was chiefly because they had to work and learn to look after +themselves; but that was the only way, as the good Lord God saw, in +which they could ever be happy again. 'They weren't content,' He +thought, 'just to be My playthings, so now they must learn to be My +comrades; and perhaps in the end that'll be the best for everybody, +though it'll be a long, long time before they've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> learnt how.' And then +He sighed as He saw the empty nursery and all the animals that they used +to play with, just as fathers and mothers sigh now when their babies +grow up and have to go to school. So Adam and Eve had to leave the +Garden, and just outside it there was a big town, full of houses and +factories and chimneys, and men and women who worked all day long. Who +were those men and women, and where did they come from? Well, it's +rather hard to explain. You see, Adam and Eve, through never having +grown up, had been in the Garden for thousands and thousands of years. +But outside the Garden there were seas and deserts and thick, hot +jungles full of wild animals. Some of these animals had looked through +the railings and been very struck with Adam and Eve, and sort of wished +in the bottoms of their hearts that they could have children just like +them. Some of them wished so hard that their next lot of children +actually did become a little like them, and their grandchildren became +liker still, and at last their great-great-grandchildren became real men +and women. Of course they weren't Garden men and women, like Adam and +Eve; they were just jungle men and women, running wild.</p> + +<p>"Well, after thousands of years these jungle men and women became so +clever that they cleared away the jungle, and then they dug fields and +planted hedges and sowed corn and built towns; and those were the people +that Adam and Eve found when they left the Garden and began to look for +work. Later on Adam and Eve's children married the children of the +jungle people; so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> that now all the people in the world are half Garden +and half jungle."</p> + +<p>"Even clergymen?" asked Marian.</p> + +<p>Uncle Joe nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and policemen and postmen too."</p> + +<p>"And lone, lorn orphans," said Mr Parker, "and the man what comes to +mend the bath."</p> + +<p>"But that's jumping forward," said Uncle Joe, "a long time, for when +Adam and Eve left the Garden they didn't even know what children were, +and their hearts were full of bitterness against the good Lord God. That +was one of the reasons why He thought it would be so nice for them to +have a little girl of their own, because then in time they might begin +to guess, He thought, something of what He felt toward themselves.</p> + +<p>"So about a year after they had left the Garden little Bella was born, +and they both thought that she was the loveliest baby that had ever been +seen since the world began. Poor Adam and Eve were then living in a dark +street on the outskirts of the town, and all that they could afford was +one room on the top floor at the back.</p> + +<p>"Adam had got work at one of the factories where they made boots and +shoes, but he was only a beginner, of course, and hadn't learnt much, +and so his wages were very small. Sometimes Eve took in a little +washing, or got a job from somebody of darning socks, but she did her +best to keep their home tidy and some fresh flowers on the mantelpiece. +Every day, too, she put crumbs on the window-sill, and soon she had made +friends with the birds that came and ate them, and sometimes a bird +would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> fly from the Garden, and feed from her hand, and tell her the +news. Both Adam and Eve, you see, knew the birds' language through +having lived with them for so long. But they were never able to teach it +to their children, and since they died no one has ever learnt it.</p> + +<p>"Soon after Bella was born Adam got a rise in wages, but soon after that +Eve had another baby; and then she had some more, and though they rented +another room or two they were always poor and often hungry. But after a +while they began to think less often of their old life in the Garden of +Eden, and sometimes they would even wonder whether they would go back +there if the good Lord God gave them the chance. You see, in spite of +their poverty and their hard work and the noise and smells of the great +town, they had learnt what it meant to have children, and to bend over +their cots and kiss them good-night.</p> + +<p>"When Bella was eight she was rather a fat little girl, with dark eyes +and an impudent mouth, and she wore her hair in a long pigtail, and her +nose was ever so slightly turned up. Adam and Eve thought that she was +very beautiful, but everybody else thought her quite ordinary, and she +spent most of her time in the streets, though she was always punctual +for meals. She had lots of friends, most of them boys, but every now and +then she would get tired of them all; and those were the times when she +would go exploring and generally end up by hurting herself. Eve was too +busy ever to bother much about what Bella did or where she went, and the +Garden of Eden was the only place that she had strictly forbidden her +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> go near. It was one of the rules, of course, that nobody was to go +near it, and there were angels at the gate with swords of flame; and +this was a rule, Eve thought, that it would be very much worse for one +of <i>her</i> children to break than for anybody else.</p> + +<p>"So she had always told Bella never even to go up the street that led +into the fields just outside the Garden; and if Bella hadn't been +feeling bored on this particular day—it was just a week after her +birthday—and if it hadn't been so hot, and the sun so scorching, and +the streets so dusty, and everybody so cross, and if Bella hadn't been +inquisitive just like her mother used to be, and if she hadn't sort of +happened to be walking up that street, and if the fields at the end of +it hadn't seemed so cool and so inviting, and if Bobby Gee, who was a +great friend of hers, hadn't dared her to do it—well, there's no +saying, but perhaps after all Bella wouldn't have stood looking at those +dreadful gates.</p> + +<p>"There was now only a strip of grass between her and the Garden, and she +could see it stretched there beyond the railings. It was the middle of +the afternoon, and so heavy was the sunshine that the leaves of the +trees were all pressed down by it. None of them stirred. There was no +sound. The lawns beneath them looked like wax. And where were the +angels? Bella held her breath. There were none to be seen. There were +only the sentry-boxes.</p> + +<p>"Very cautiously she took a step or two forward. Her bare feet made no +noise. The bars of the gate quivered in the heat. Then she stopped again +and listened. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> first she heard nothing, but then, very, very faint, +there came to her ears the ghost of a sound. It came and died, and came +and died, like the waves of a sea hundreds of miles off. She crept +nearer and listened again, and now there were two sounds, rising and +falling. They came from the sentry-boxes, one on each side of the gate. +The angels inside were fast asleep. Bella bit her lip and crept forward. +She could feel her heart jumping like a mouse in a cage. The scents of +the Garden came to meet her. She could see its curved and vanishing +pathways.</p> + +<p>"But what caught her eyes and made them grow round was a bending tree +just inside the gate. With her hands on the bars she stood looking at +it, and presently her mouth began to water. For from every branch of it +there hung such apples as she had never seen in all her life, and from +the lowest bough there hung an apple that was the biggest and most +beautiful of them all. And then another thing happened, for as she +pressed against the bars the great gate began to move. Very slowly it +swung open, and still the angels were fast asleep. Her heart was beating +now like two clocks at once—what an apple it would be to eat! A +bright-coloured bird hopped across the grass, and stood looking up at +her with an inquiring eye. She glanced round about her and over her +shoulder, but there was nobody in sight. Dared she go in? She thought +about the rules, and what her mother had said, and then she remembered +Bobby Gee. The angels were still breathing lightly and regularly. The +bright-coloured bird had flown away.</p> + +<p>"Then she took a bold step and went into the Garden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> and tiptoed softly +up to the tree. The apple was so ripe that it was nearly ready to drop, +and it was just on a level with the tip of her nose. It smelt like +honey, and when she touched it it was as cool as marble. Then she +touched it again, and caught hold of it, and somehow or other it came +off the tree. She lifted it to her lips, and it felt like a kiss; and +then a Voice behind her said—</p> + +<p>"'Well?'</p> + +<p>"She jumped round, almost dropping the apple. It was the good Lord God +who stood looking at her.</p> + +<p>"'What are you doing?'</p> + +<p>"She hid the apple behind her, but His eyes shone through her, like +light through a window. She hung her head.</p> + +<p>"'Are you Eve's little girl?' He asked.</p> + +<p>"Bella nodded. She couldn't say a word.</p> + +<p>"'I thought you must be,' He said. He put His finger under her chin. +There came a sound like the rushing of a great wind. The two angels had +heard His voice, and drawn their swords, and leapt into the Garden. In +another moment, Bella thought, they would have killed her. But the good +Lord God held up His hand. The two angels stood one on each side of Him, +leaning on their swords and looking rather downcast. Bella held out her +hand. The good Lord God bent forward and took the apple away from her.</p> + +<p>"'Well, what excuse have you,' He said, 'for stealing My apples?'</p> + +<p>"Bella considered for a moment. Then she thought of one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Please, sir, mother did it. She told me so.'</p> + +<p>"'But you knew the rules,' said the good Lord God.</p> + +<p>"Bella hung her head again. She knew them quite well.</p> + +<p>"'And the rules must be obeyed,' He said.</p> + +<p>"Bella began to tremble.</p> + +<p>"There was a moment's silence. The two angels stood like statues, still +leaning on their swords. Then the good Lord God spoke again.</p> + +<p>"'Look at Me,' He said.</p> + +<p>"Bella lifted her eyes and saw the World without End. He gave her back +the apple.</p> + +<p>"'Well, you may keep it,' He went on, 'on condition that you give half +of it to Bobby Gee.'</p> + +<p>"Bella said, 'Thank you, sir.'</p> + +<p>"'But that's not all,' He continued.</p> + +<p>"He bent forward and touched her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"'For I hereby ordain,' He said, 'that now and for ever every little +girl and every little boy shall wear apples in their cheeks in +remembrance of what you have done. They shall be known as the brand of +Eden—the brand of Eden for little thieves—and their parents must see +to it, on pain of My displeasure, that they shall never be allowed to +fade away.'</p> + +<p>"Then He bent still lower and gave Bella a kiss, and the tall angels led +her outside the gate; and that's why it is that the apples in little +girls' cheeks are almost the oldest kind in the world."</p> + +<p>Uncle Joe lit his pipe. From where they were sitting they could see the +country for miles and miles. Down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> below them the town looked quite +small, and the spire of St Peter's Church just like a toy spire. Far +behind it, beyond the level cornlands, the sun was dropping into the +evening mists. It grew rosier and rosier, until it almost looked like an +apple itself. Mr Parker winked at Marian.</p> + +<p>"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic."</p> + +<p>Then he spat in his hands and rubbed them together.</p> + +<p>"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "with this here lawn-mowing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Eden had an apple-tree,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Eve a little daughter,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Tried to do as mother did,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">But the Good Lord caught her.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"Wherefore 'tis ordained," He said,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">"Here and in all places,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Children shall henceforward wear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Apples in their faces."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>BEARDY NED</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 419px;"><a name="ILL_007" id="ILL_007"></a> +<img src="images/ill_007.jpg" width="419" height="500" alt="Beardy Ned's Fire" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Beardy Ned's Fire</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h3>BEARDY NED</h3> + +<p>Near Uncle Joe's house there was a small pool which was really the +beginning of a river; and this river ran into a bigger one that flowed +through the town in which Marian and Cuthbert lived. The big river was +rather muddy, but the little one was nearly always clear, and it was +quite easy to paddle across it, though there were some pools in it six +feet deep.</p> + +<p>Up in the downs, where it began, it was hardly more than a bubbly +trickle, but lower down it grew wider and wider, and ran between the +reeds at the edges of the meadows. Close to Captain Jeremy's farmhouse, +where it joined the big river that flowed through the town, it ran for +almost a quarter of a mile through the middle of a sort of wood. It was +under the roots of some of these trees, as they pushed through the water +into the soil beneath, that the biggest of the trout had their nests, +where fishermen with flies couldn't reach them. But there were some big +trout, too, that lived under the meadow banks, and used to put up their +noses in the summer evenings, and suck down the flies that fell on the +water when they were tired of dancing in the air.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and Gwendolen were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> all very fond of this +river, and when they had finished paddling or bathing in the pools (for +they had all learnt to swim) they used to lie on the bank and keep very +still and watch the trout having their evening meal. They would see an +orange-coloured fly or a blue fly or a fly with pale wings like a +distant rain-cloud floating down on the top of the water and probably +wondering where it had got to; and then they would hear a little noise +like grown-up people make with the tips of their tongues against the +roofs of their mouths; and then the fly would be gone, and there would +be a tiny wave on the water, shaped like a ring, and growing bigger and +bigger. That meant that a trout had been lying in wait, with his eye +cocked on the surface of the stream, and had seen the fly, and liked the +look of him, and suddenly decided to swallow him up.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a fisherman would come quietly along and kneel down on one +knee, and, after he had seen a trout rise, would open a little box and +take out a fly like the one that the trout had eaten. But this would be +a sham fly, made of feathers and silk, cunningly tied round a sharp +hook, and he would thread it on to a piece of gut so thin that they +could hardly see it. Then he would tie the gut to a sort of string that +was hanging down from the point of his fishing-rod; and then he would +swish his rod until the fly flew out straight and fell upon the stream, +just as the real one had done.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they could see a trout come up and look at this fly and shake +his head, and go down again; but once or twice they had seen a big trout +rise and swallow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> it just as if it had been a real one. Then the trout +had found himself caught, and they had seen the fisherman's rod bent +almost double as the trout dashed to and fro; and at last they had seen +the fisherman slip a net into the water, and lift the trout on to the +bank, all curved and shining. But very often there would be no fishermen +at all, and they would see nobody for hours and hours, and hear nothing +but the cries of the river-birds and the suck, suck, of the feeding +trout.</p> + +<p>The man that they saw most often was a man called Beardy Ned, because, +though he was only a youngish man, he had a sandy-coloured beard; and +they were always very sorry for him, because he had lost his wife in a +terrible railway accident soon after he had married her. She had left +him with a little girl only ten months old, and that was why Ned had let +his beard grow. He hadn't time, he said, to look after the little girl +and shave his face every day as well. When he had married, Ned had been +a postman, but after his wife had been killed he had given that up; and +he had wandered about ever since, doing all sorts of odd jobs.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he helped the farmers get their hay in, or the gamekeepers +trap stoats, and sometimes he would chop wood, and sometimes he would go +far away and not come back for weeks and weeks. But wherever he went he +would take his little girl, whom he had called Liz after her mother; and +sooner or later he would always come back to this river, because that +was where he had first met his dead wife. He had lived so much in the +open air that his skin was as dark as a Red Indian's, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> when he +laughed his teeth were like snow, and his eyes like the sea on a sunny +day. People like clergymen and large employers often used to tell him +that he ought to settle down. But why should he settle down, he asked, +so long as there was only Liz, and she could sleep in his arms as snug +as snug?</p> + +<p>Liz was four years old now, and as brown as her father, and her hair was +short and curly like a boy's; and Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and +Gwendolen loved her almost as much as they loved Beardy Ned. For Beardy +Ned, in spite of his great trouble, was always full of a secret +happiness, and he had made this little song out of his own head that he +used to sing every two or three hours:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there was,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there is,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there ever will be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Is my young daughter Liz.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He only meant it in fun, of course, and when Liz was running about he +would shout it at the top of his voice, but when she was sleepy he would +only croon it until her eyelids began to drop.</p> + +<p>Of course Cuthbert couldn't always be bothered to go up the river with +the girls, and on the same evening that Uncle Joe told Marian about the +apples he went by himself to have a bathe in a big pool called +Kingfisher Pool. It was still only May, so that the water was cold, but +the air above it was warm and still, and he was lying on the bank +without anything on, when he suddenly heard a splash and a gurgling cry. +He sat bolt upright, and then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> looking across the pool, he saw a little +form struggling in the deep water, and rolling over in it, head +downward, and then beginning to slip out of sight. It was Liz, with all +her clothes on. She had evidently slipped down the steep bank, and if +Cuthbert couldn't save her she would be sure to drown, because Beardy +Ned was nowhere in sight.</p> + +<p>It was so awful to see her that at first Cuthbert couldn't move; but a +moment later he was in the water and swimming across the pool as fast as +he could, and faster than he had ever swum before. He prayed to God that +he might be in time. The pool had never looked so wide. But at last he +had swum across it and made a grab at a piece of Liz's frock just under +the surface. He pulled this hard, and tried to go on swimming with his +other arm and both legs; and then it was only a second or two before his +toes touched the bottom of the river, and he was able to stand up and +lift her out of the pool.</p> + +<p>She was quite pale, and the water was pouring from her mouth, and her +eyes were staring as if they couldn't see anything. He scrambled up the +bank, grazing his knees, and then she began to choke and take deep +breaths. Just then, too, Beardy Ned came crashing through the reeds with +great strides, for Cuthbert had shouted as loud as he could just before +he plunged into the pool. Ned's face had turned grey, and there was a +look in his eyes that made Cuthbert feel almost frightened. But when he +saw Liz sitting up and crying he gave a shout and caught her in his +arms. Then he gripped Cuthbert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> by the wrist, and Cuthbert could feel +that he was shaking all over; and then Beardy Ned began to cry too, so +that Cuthbert had to look the other way. But next moment both he and Liz +were laughing, and Cuthbert swam back again to put on his clothes; and +then he crossed the river upon a plank lower down, where he found Beardy +Ned and Liz waiting for him.</p> + +<p>Beardy Ned took him by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Come along," he said, "and have supper with us."</p> + +<p>He was carrying Liz, and sticking out of one of his pockets Cuthbert +could see the tails of a brace of trout; and presently they came to a +bend of the stream, where the bank was high and there was a little +beach. From the top of the bank a great tree had fallen, with its roots +sticking up in the air, and under the trunk there was just room enough +for Beardy Ned and Liz to sleep. He had put a couple of blankets there +and an old waterproof, and standing on the beach were a cup and kettle; +and soon he had made a fire with some dry sticks, and was showing +Cuthbert how to cook trout.</p> + +<p>It was beginning to get dark now, and the stars were shining, and the +flames of the fire made the river look like ink. But they were so +sheltered under the high bank that they might almost have been at home. +They had trout for supper, and drank tea, and Liz, who was almost +asleep, had a cup of milk; and then they ate biscuits, and jam out of a +pot, and Beardy Ned filled his pipe. He had made Liz take off her wet +clothes, of course, and these were hanging from sticks on either side of +the fire, and he had wrapped her in a blanket,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> and soon she was fast +asleep, lying on his knees as he sat and smoked.</p> + +<p>He seemed to be thinking a lot, but at last he looked at Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"You've saved my little girl's life," he said, "and I can never pay you +back. But I'll show you a secret that no one else in the whole world +knows."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert liked secrets, so he was rather pleased. But Beardy Ned changed +the subject.</p> + +<p>"It was just here," he said, "just where we're sitting, that I first saw +my Liz—I mean her mother. Perhaps, in a manner of speaking, it was +where I first saw this one too, but that's neither here nor there. She +was just nineteen. She'd been paddling in the stream. I called out to +her, and she turned and looked at me. She was in an old frock, but she +looked quite the lady. Her eyes was dark, and she was smiling."</p> + +<p>He moved his head a little.</p> + +<p>"There goes a fox," he said.</p> + +<p>He sucked his pipe for a moment in silence. The sound of the fire was +like somebody talking to them. But the sound of the river was like +something talking to itself.</p> + +<p>Then Beardy Ned felt in his pocket and pulled out the end of a candle. +It looked like an ordinary candle, with an ordinary wick, and it was +just about an inch long.</p> + +<p>"This was give me," he said, "by an old feller—James Parkins, that was +his name—and there's not another like it in the whole world, and there +never won't be again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>Beardy Ned held it in the palm of his hand, as though he were weighing +it, while he looked at Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever wondered," he said, "where candles goes to—where they +goes to when they goes out?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think so," said Cuthbert. "Where <i>do</i> they go to?"</p> + +<p>Liz stirred a little, and Beardy Ned bent over her.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you," he said. "They goes into the In-between Land—the +place as is in between everything you can see. How do I know? Because +I've been there. Because James Parkins showed me how."</p> + +<p>"That's very interesting," said Cuthbert politely, but Beardy Ned didn't +seem to hear.</p> + +<p>"The trouble is, you see," Beardy Ned continued, "that candles, when +they goes out, can't take people with them. But James Parkins, he'd +found a candle that could take a person with it, and this is the candle. +When he first gave it me, two year ago, it was about eight inches long. +But I've used it a lot, and after you've blowed it out, and it's taken +you with it, it goes on burning. When you come back, it's an inch +shorter—an inch shorter every time. And this here bit is the last bit +as'll ever take anyone to In-between Land."</p> + +<p>He gave it to Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to go there?" he said. "You've saved my little girl's life, +and you've only to say the word."</p> + +<p>"But it's the last bit," said Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"Never mind. I know what's there. That's the chief thing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Is it quite safe?" asked Cuthbert. "It seems rather queer."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it's like," said Beardy Ned. "It's like a dream. Or +rather it's not like a dream so much as waking up from a dream. You sees +the trees and things, all kind of misty, and the houses in the towns, +and the people in the houses. And you sees 'em quarrelling and the like, +and grieving, and you wants to tell 'em as it's only a dream. You wants +to tell 'em they're just going to wake up. That's what it seems like in +In-between Land."</p> + +<p>Liz stirred again, and he shifted her on his knees a little.</p> + +<p>"You see, in a manner of speaking," he went on, "there ain't no time +there, not as we reckons time. But once you've been there—well, you'll +see for yourself if you'd like to go."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert held out the candle.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'd like to," he said. "It would be rather exciting."</p> + +<p>Beardy Ned bent forward and took a stick from the fire. He lit the end +of the candle between Cuthbert's fingers.</p> + +<p>"Now blow it out," he said, "and you'll go out with it. It'll be all +right. You'll be back in a tick."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert's hand was shaking a little, but he blew out the candle, and +then, for a moment, he saw nothing at all. But he felt something. He +felt as if he'd been asleep for ever and ever and had suddenly opened +his eyes. He felt as if he could do anything, he was so strong. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> felt +as if he could jump over the highest star. Toothache, and school, and +taking medicine—they all seemed too stupid even to bother about. He +felt like a prisoner just set free. He knew that he was really free, and +that nothing could ever hurt him. Then he began to see things—the fire +of sticks, the stream beyond, and the dusky meadows. But they looked +just like dream-sticks, and a dream-fire, and there were real things +beyond them whose names he didn't know. Then he looked round and saw +Beardy Ned with little Liz upon his knees; and it was just then that he +saw something else that was perhaps the most wonderful thing of all. For +beside Beardy Ned stood a girl of nineteen, who had been paddling in the +stream. She was in an old frock, but she looked quite the lady, and her +eyes were dark, and she was smiling.</p> + +<p>Then she was gone. The candle had burnt away. Cuthbert was back again in +the ordinary world. He saw Beardy Ned looking at him gravely.</p> + +<p>"Now you know," he said, "why I'm happy."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"I must be going home," he said. "They'll be wondering where I've been."</p> + +<p>Beardy Ned nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, good night," he said.</p> + +<p>"Good night," said Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>He climbed the bank.</p> + +<p>But on the top of the bank he turned round for a moment and looked down +again at Beardy Ned. He was still sitting there with Liz on his knees, +and Cuthbert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> saw him stoop and give her a kiss. Then he began to sing +very softly the queer song that he had made up:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there was,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there is,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The wickedest girl there ever will be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Is my young daughter Liz.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">In between the things we know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Touch and handle, taste and see,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Lies the land where lovers go</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">At their life's end quietly.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">There, in that untroubled place,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">There, with eyes amused, they scan,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Cradled still in time and space,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">This, the infant world of man.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>THE MAGIC SONG</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 515px;"><a name="ILL_008" id="ILL_008"></a> +<img src="images/ill_008.jpg" width="515" height="600" alt="The Magic Song" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Magic Song</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h3>THE MAGIC SONG</h3> + +<p>About a month after Cuthbert had been lucky enough to save Beardy Ned's +little girl, the weather grew so hot that all the people in the town +became rather discontented. It is always easier for people in towns to +become discontented than it is for other people, because instead of +fields to walk on they have only pavements; and instead of hills to look +at they have only chimneys; and instead of bean-flowers to smell they +have only dust-bins and the stale air that trickles down the streets. So +the men in the ironworks were discontented because they thought that the +men who owned the ironworks didn't give them enough money; and the men +in the cotton-mills were discontented because they thought that the men +who owned the cotton-mills made them work too hard; and the girls in Mr +Joseph's refreshment shops thought him a cruel old beast; and the +policemen thought that nobody loved them.</p> + +<p>Also, the men who owned the ironworks thought that their men were +greedy; and the men who owned the cotton-mills were afraid of becoming +poor; and Mr Joseph was feeling depressed; and the policemen still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +thought that nobody loved them. Even dear Miss Plum, the head of the +school, had a frown on her forehead, and the French mistress slapped +Doris so hard that she left a red mark on Doris's cheek. Of course Doris +was very angry about it, and her little brothers wanted to know exactly +where the mark was. But it had faded away by the time she arrived home, +and her mother only said that it had probably served her right. Doris +was rather fond, you see, of cheeking the French mistress, and asking +her silly questions to make the other girls laugh; and since she had had +her hair bobbed the week before, she was even cheekier than usual.</p> + +<p>Doris, as you may remember, lived in John Street, which was the next +street to Peter Street, where Marian and Cuthbert lived. But the houses +in it were smaller than the houses in Peter Street, and most of the +people in them were rather poor. Doris's mother was poor, because +Doris's daddy was dead, and Doris had five little brothers—Teddy and +George, who were the twins, and Jimmy and Jocko and Christopher Mark. +They were much too poor to be able to have a maid, and so Doris's mother +had to do most of the work. She had to be cook and housemaid and nurse +and governess and Mummy darling all in one. Now that Doris was ten she +was able to help her mother sometimes, and she used to take Christopher +Mark out in his push-cart; and since she had been to the Arctic Circle +with Cuthbert and Captain Jeremy her mother had begun to lean upon her a +little more.</p> + +<p>But oh, it was hot! The people in the streets lagged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> along with pale +faces. They talked about the trouble in the ironworks, and the trouble +in the cotton-mills, and what would Mr Joseph do if his girls went on +strike, and didn't the policemen look ill-tempered? And Miss Plum +couldn't make her accounts come right; and the French mistress went home +to her boarding-house; and there she told everybody that she was going +to be ill, and that the ham was tepid and the milk-pudding sour.</p> + +<p>Even in John Street it was almost as bad, though it was a quiet street +with a field at the other end of it. For the sun poured right into it, +so that there wasn't any shade, and the stones of the pavement shone +like martyrs, and the drains at Number Fifteen were out of order, and +there was half a haddock lying in the middle of the road. So Doris went +into the garden when they had all finished tea, but it was as hot in the +garden as it was anywhere else; and the lady next door was grumbling to +the lady beyond about one of her husband's collars that had been spoilt +in the wash. Doris played about a bit and made Jocko cry, because he was +silly and wanted to read a book; and then she went round to Peter Street +to see Cuthbert and Marian, and found that they had gone into the +country to see their Uncle Joe.</p> + +<p>So she came back and teased the twins, and at last it was time to go to +bed; and it was almost as hot after the sun had gone down as it had been +in the middle of the day. She slept in the same room with Jimmy and +Jocko, and they all turned and twisted and kicked off their bedclothes; +and as the daylight faded the moonlight grew, so that it was past ten +before they fell asleep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> That was when their mother came and kissed +them, and she was so tired that she could hardly stand; and then she +went to bed and fell asleep too, and the church clock struck eleven +times. Happy was Beardy Ned then, sleeping by the stream, with little +Liz and his beautiful secret; and happy was Gwendolen in her farmhouse +bedroom smelling of lavender and last year's apples. But sorrowful and +sticky were the people of the town, and troubled were their slumbers.</p> + +<p>Then Doris sat up suddenly, for out in the street was the biggest din +that she had ever heard. She jumped from her bed and ran to the window, +and there she saw nine of the strangest-looking people. There was a big +sailor with a concertina, and a stout lady with a tambourine, and a +soldier with a pair of cymbals, and an elderly greengrocer, who was very +thin. They were standing in a row, and sitting on the ground behind them +were five men, each with a drum. Doris leaned out, and when they saw her +they all sang louder than ever; but the funny thing was that nobody else +in the whole street seemed to hear them. The blinds were all down, the +moonlight lay on the road, and there wasn't a head at anybody's window.</p> + +<p>When Doris first listened they had been singing about the lady, but now +they began to sing about the sailor, and the sailor stepped forward, +playing his concertina, and singing the loudest of them all. He had a +tenor voice with a great smack in it, like the smack of a wave against a +jetty, and when he sang softly without taking a breath it was like water +running through seaweed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> The soldier sang bass, like a motor-lorry in a +hurry to get home over a rough road, and the stout lady sang soprano, +and the elderly greengrocer only squeaked. This is what they sang:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Here's a sailor come home from the Guineas,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">His face is as black as a leaf,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">His eyes are like forests of darkness,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">His heart is a hotbed of grief,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">His arms are like roots of the jungle,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">He has ladies tattooed on his skin,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And his clothes smell of cinnamon—cardamom—tar.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Oh, mother, must I let him in?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 28em;">Bang! Bang! [went the drums],</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Oh, mother, must I let him in?</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Then there was a chorus and the queerest sort of dance, and it all +seemed somehow to be just wrong; and when they stopped and looked up at +her window Doris really didn't know what to make of them. Then the +sailor coughed, and scratched the back of his head, and said, "Beg +pardon, miss, but are you ten years old?"</p> + +<p>Doris said that she was.</p> + +<p>"And have you five brothers younger than yourself?"</p> + +<p>Doris said that she had.</p> + +<p>"And have you five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot?"</p> + +<p>Doris laughed and said that they could come and count them if they +didn't believe her word.</p> + +<p>They looked at one another with a peculiar expression, while the five +drummers stared at the ground; and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> the stout lady asked her if she +would come downstairs and let them count her eyelashes.</p> + +<p>"Why do you want to count my eyelashes?" asked Doris.</p> + +<p>"It's most important," said the greengrocer.</p> + +<p>"If you'll come downstairs," said the soldier, "we shall be most happy +to tell you why."</p> + +<p>Doris pulled her head in and glanced round the bedroom. Jimmy and Jocko +were still fast asleep. She put on her dressing-gown, but not her +slippers, in case they should want to count her toes. Then she opened +the door and ran softly downstairs, and drew back the bolts, and went +into the street.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be better," said the stout lady, "if we went to a quieter +place?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's a field," said Doris, "at the end of the street. Of +course, we might go along there."</p> + +<p>"You're sure you're not frightened?" asked the sailor.</p> + +<p>The five drummers still stared at the ground.</p> + +<p>"Not very much," said Doris. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you?"</p> + +<p>"God forbid!" said the elderly greengrocer.</p> + +<p>So they went up the street to the field at the end, and there they all +crouched under the hedge; and the sailor, whose name was Lancelot, did +most of the talking, because he was the biggest.</p> + +<p>"You see, we've all lost something," he said, "so we went to see an old +man as lives in the middle of Brazil. He's the wisest old geezer as ever +lived, and we all of us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> told him what we had lost. This here lady has +lost her husband and has been trying to find him for years and years; +and this here soldier has lost his character and can't find a general to +give him a job; and this here greengrocer has lost his appetite and is +getting thinner and thinner; and as for me, I've lost my temper and +can't find a ship to sail in."</p> + +<p>"That's very sad," said Doris. "And what have these drummers lost?"</p> + +<p>"Their senses," said Lancelot. "Each of these here drummers has been and +lost one of his senses. The first can't see, and the second can't hear, +and the third can't smell, and the fourth can't taste, and the fifth +can't feel."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Doris. "And what did the old man tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lancelot, "that's just what I'm coming to. He told us he'd +thought of a magic song. There was four verses to it, and the words +didn't matter, he said, so long as they was each sung by somebody as had +lost something. After each verse there was a chorus, and in between the +verses there was a dance. When we'd told him our troubles, he made up +some words for us, and then he lent us these here drummers. But what +you've got to find, he said, is a little girl as can play this here +flute, for until you've found her you can sing as loud as you like, but +you won't sing right, and nobody won't hear you. But when you've found +her—that's what the old man said—she'll be able to blow this here +flute, for this here flute can play by itself if you find the right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +little girl to blow it. Well, of course we was interested, so we asked +him to go on, and he said that it would play for just about an hour, and +by the end of that time, he said, it would have settled all our troubles +and all the troubles of the people as heard it. Only, first of all, he +said, you must find the right little girl, and the time must be +midnight, and the moon must be full."</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said Doris, "that sounds rather odd."</p> + +<p>"That's what <i>we</i> thought," said the stout lady.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lancelot, "naturally we asked him where this here girl was +to be found. But he shook his head, and he said as he didn't know, and +that all we could do was to go and look for her. You must travel about, +he said, and sing this here music, but the only people as'll be able to +hear you will be little girls twice five years old, with five brothers +younger than theirselves, and with five fingers on each hand, and five +toes on each foot. And of them, he says, the only little girl as'll be +able to play this here flute must have a hundred and five eyelashes on +her right upper eyelid."</p> + +<p>He felt in his pocket and pulled out a magnifying glass.</p> + +<p>"So that's why we want to count your eyelashes."</p> + +<p>They looked at her anxiously, all except the drummers, and they were +still looking at the ground.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Doris, "count away. I'm sure I don't know how many +I've got."</p> + +<p>She closed her eyes, and they stared through the magnifying glass, and +began to count her right upper eyelashes. She became quite excited as +they went on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A hundred and three," they said, "a hundred and four, a hundred and +five," and then they gave a great shout.</p> + +<p>"You're the one," they cried, "you're the very one! You've exactly a +hundred and five!"</p> + +<p>She opened her eyes again and saw them dancing about.</p> + +<p>"Where's the flute?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The soldier gave it to her.</p> + +<p>"And the moon's full," said the greengrocer, "and it's a quarter to +twelve. Perhaps we shall soon find my appetite."</p> + +<p>"And my character," said the soldier.</p> + +<p>"And my husband," said the stout lady.</p> + +<p>"And my temper," said Lancelot.</p> + +<p>But the drummers had lost hope, and still stared at the ground.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Lancelot, "we'd better go to the market-place. This here +little girl will show us the way. And when the clocks have struck twelve +we'll sing our song and see what happens."</p> + +<p>So they went to the market-place, where the Town Hall was, and where all +the tram-lines criss-crossed; and the policeman on duty outside the Bank +stared at them sleepily, but didn't say anything. There were also two +dustmen with a cart clearing up rubbish and bits of newspaper, and a +water-man watering the asphalt, and some postmen outside the Post Office +loading a mail-van. Then the deep bell in the old abbey tower began to +toll the hour of midnight, and the moon looked down on them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> with her +silver face, and they stood in a row and began their song.</p> + +<p>Doris's hands were shaky, as you can imagine, when she lifted the flute +to her lips. But when she began to blow, the flute began to play; and +oh, the difference it made to the song! For it was now a song with the +maddest and sweetest and most beguiling melody that anybody in the world +had ever imagined, or ever imagined that anybody could imagine. It began +very softly, like a boy whistling, and the cracking of sticks in a deep +wood, and then it sounded like birds singing, and water falling, and +ripe fruit dropping from trees. Then it grew louder, until it sounded +like thunder and sea-waves shattering on the beach; and then it grew +softer again, like leaves rustling, and crickets chirping in the grass.</p> + +<p>Before the stout lady had sung half the first verse, Doris could hardly +stand still enough to play the flute. She could scarcely believe that it +was possible for anybody in the world to feel so happy. She saw the +policeman running toward them, and the postmen, and the man from the +water-cart; and she saw the windows above the shops in the market-place +thrown up, and people looking out. Then came the chorus, like the +pealing of great bells, and the policeman and the postmen began to join +in, and people in their nightdresses and pyjamas came running out of +their front doors, singing at the tops of their voices.</p> + +<p>Before the chorus was over there were nearly a hundred people singing +and shouting and beating time, and the cymbals were clashing, and the +concertina was groaning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> and the five drummers were hitting like mad. +But it was the flute, it was Doris's flute, that soared up and up and +led the whole music; and when the dance came, it was the magic of +Doris's flute that stole into the feet of all who heard it.</p> + +<p>Most of them were bare feet, like Doris's own, but some were in slippers +and some in boots, and soon they were all whirling and twisting and +hopping, as the people that they belonged to danced and sang. The news +had spread abroad now, and by the end of the second verse the whole of +the market-place was simply crammed, and by the end of the third verse +all the streets that led into it were bubbling over with people dancing. +There were the ironworks men dancing with their employers, and Mr Joseph +dancing with his girls, and the heads of the cotton-mills dancing in +their pyjamas, arm-in-arm with the people that worked for them. And +there was the French mistress dancing with the two dustmen, and there +was Miss Plum dancing with the chimney-sweep, and there was the +policeman trying to dance with everybody, and everybody trying to dance +with him.</p> + +<p>Then a little man with a carroty moustache pushed through the crowd and +caught hold of the stout lady; and she nearly dropped her tambourine, +because he was her long-lost husband. As for the greengrocer, he became +so hungry that he danced into one of Mr Joseph's shops, and Mr Joseph +gave him permission to eat everything that he could see. Funnily enough, +too, both Uncle Joe and Captain Jeremy happened to be in town; and when +Uncle Joe caught sight of the soldier he was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> struck with his honest +appearance that he gave him the names of three or four generals who +would be only too glad to have him in their armies. It was the same, +too, with Lancelot, for when Captain Jeremy spoke to him his face became +so gentle that Captain Jeremy resolved at once to give him a job as +bosun's mate.</p> + +<p>Then the French mistress came and kissed Doris, and then everybody +cheered everybody else; and the five drummers shouted with joy, because +each of them had found the sense that he had lost. The blind one could +see; and the deaf one could hear; and the one that couldn't feel felt +somebody squeezing him; and the one that couldn't smell suddenly smelt +somebody's tooth powder; and the one that couldn't taste had the biggest +surprise of all. For one of Mr Joseph's girls gave him a box of +chocolates, and it was the loveliest thing that had ever happened to +him; and after that, when she gave him some almond rock, he asked her if +she would marry him, and she said that she would.</p> + +<p>For a whole hour Doris played her flute, and then it stopped, and +everybody looked at everybody else; and everybody else looked so queer +and funny that everybody began to shout with laughter. Even the moon +laughed, and the end of it was that they all resolved to make up their +quarrels, because after what had happened it seemed so silly to go on +quarrelling about anything. But what the tune of the song was no one +remembered; and next morning when Doris took the flute to school, none +of the girls could make it play anything, not even Gwendolen, who had a +flute at home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">"<i>H'shh</i>," said the man in the moon,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Full-faced and white,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And I listened,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">I listened so hard that I heard through the night,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Faint through a crack</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">In the ice of the whiteness, I heard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Somebody whisper my name</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">With a magical word.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And the moon and the stars and the sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And the roofs of the street,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Fell in fragments of darkness and silver</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">That danced at my feet.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And we danced, and we danced, and we danced,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And oh! tired was I</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">When, full-faced and white, the cold moon</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Shone again in the sky.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>THE IMAGINARY BOY</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;"><a name="ILL_009" id="ILL_009"></a> +<img src="images/ill_009.jpg" width="423" height="500" alt="The Haunted Wood" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Haunted Wood</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE IMAGINARY BOY</h3> + +<p>Soon after Doris's adventure with the flute, Marian and Gwendolen made a +most solemn vow. Marian pricked her finger with a needle and made a tiny +drop of blood come, and then she rubbed it into the palm of Gwendolen's +hand and promised to be faithful to her for ever. Then Gwendolen pricked +her own finger and rubbed it into the palm of Marian's hand, and took +her dying oath that Marian should always be her greatest friend. Then +they washed their hands under the nursery tap and cleaned the needle and +put it back in the workbox, and Marian was very pleased, and so was +Gwendolen, and when they told Cuthbert he said that he didn't mind much.</p> + +<p>Marian was pleased, because she knew that Gwendolen would ask her to tea +pretty often at the old farmhouse; and Gwendolen was pleased, because +that was the first time that she had ever had a greatest friend; and +Cuthbert didn't mind much, because he had gone to a new school, where +there was a boy called Edward Goldsmith, who was wonderfully strong, and +could dive into the water backward from the top diving-board at the town +baths. He was going to be a barrister like Mr Jenkins, who took the +plate round at St Peter's Church, and after that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> was going to be +Lord Chief Justice, like the great Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park.</p> + +<p>Gwendolen's aunt was pleased too, and so was Captain Jeremy when +Gwendolen told him, and so were her father and mother, who were climbing +the Himalaya Mountains and writing a book called <i>Two Above the +Snowline</i>. But Gwendolen didn't know, of course, about her father and +mother being glad till she got a letter from them; and by then she had +become quite used to having Marian for her greatest friend.</p> + +<p>This letter came during the first week of the holidays, while Marian was +staying for a few days with Gwendolen. Both Gwendolen's aunt and Captain +Jeremy were away on a short voyage, and Marian and Gwendolen had the +house to themselves, except for Mrs Robertson, the cook, Amy and Agnes, +the two maids, and Percy, the boot-and-garden boy.</p> + +<p>Percy was the boy that used to open the door when Gwendolen's aunt lived +in Bellington Square, and his father was a gamekeeper, called Mr +Williams, who worked for Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park. Percy was +sixteen, and was going to marry Agnes as soon as he had saved enough +money, and though he was rather proud, Marian and Gwendolen liked him, +but not so much as they liked his father.</p> + +<p>They liked Mr Williams, because he knew all about rabbits, and used to +take them through places marked <span class="smcap">Private</span>; and they liked Mrs Williams, +because she gave them peppermints and never minded how many questions +they asked. Mr Williams was tall, with a grey moustache,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> and his +clothes smelt of tobacco, and he wore gaiters; and Mrs Williams was +short, and her arms smelt of soap, and she was always popping upstairs +to change her apron. They lived in a little cottage near the Park gates, +and they had six children besides Percy, but Mr Williams was nearly +always out, setting traps or counting the young partridges.</p> + +<p>Fairbarrow Park was about three miles round, and was half-way to +Fairbarrow Down; and in the middle of it was Lord Barrington's house, +with its thirty bedrooms and all its gardens. There was an Italian +garden and a Dutch garden and a rose-garden and a water-garden; and +there were lawns as smooth as a ballroom floor, over which the peacocks +cried and strutted. But besides all these, and the Park in which they +nestled, most of the country round belonged to Lord Barrington; and it +was in the woods and fields which he let to different farmers that the +pheasants and partridges made their homes.</p> + +<p>When they had finished reading Gwendolen's letter, which came just after +their middle-day dinner, Marian and Gwendolen thought that they would go +and see Mr Williams, and watch the young partridges that he was bringing +up by hand. So they set off, and presently they found him just at the +farther edge of Lord Barrington's estate, where there was a little wood +climbing up the side of Fairbarrow Down. There was a sort of grassy +hollow near the wood, and here Mr Williams had placed half a dozen +hen-coops; and in front of these he had built a little mound, made of +lumps of turf dug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> from the Down. In among these lumps of turf there +were thousands of ants and several ants' nests full of eggs; and a score +of young partridges were scrambling over them, finding their afternoon +meal.</p> + +<p>Usually Mr Williams was glad to see the girls, and to let them play with +the young partridges, but this afternoon he only nodded to them and went +on smoking in silence. They were a little surprised, because it was such +a lovely afternoon, with the sky bluer than any ocean, and the fields +all glittering with the leaves of the root crops, or hidden away under +the golden wheat. Here and there the reapers were already at work +cutting the first of the oats and barley, and about a mile away they +could see the chimneys of the great house shining in groups between the +tree-tops.</p> + +<p>The only dark spot was the thick and tangled pinewood, known as the +Haunted Wood, into which Lord Barrington never allowed anybody besides +himself to go. It was inside the Park, and round two sides of it ran the +Park wall, with sharp iron spikes on the top; and round the other two +sides there was a barbed-wire fence, with a small gate in it, heavily +padlocked. For twenty years it had never been touched. When a tree fell +over, it lay where it had fallen; between the trunks of the trees there +had grown a jungle of undergrowth; and only Lord Barrington had the key +of the gate.</p> + +<p>Mr Williams was still sitting down, staring moodily in front of him, +when Marian asked him what was the matter, and was he angry with them +for coming?</p> + +<p>"No, no, it's not that," he said, "but I've just got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the push. His +lordship has given me a month's notice. I'm got to quit and find a new +job, after forty-two years here, man and boy."</p> + +<p>Marian and Gwendolen stared at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Why, whatever have you been doing?" Gwendolen asked.</p> + +<p>He took his pipe from his mouth and pointed to the Haunted Wood.</p> + +<p>"See that wood there," he said, "the Haunted Wood? Well, last night one +of these here dogs, he bolted into it, and I couldn't get him out, so I +went in to hunt for him. I was only in there for about five minutes, but +just as I was coming out I met his lordship. He stared at me as if I was +a criminal in the dock, and give me a month's notice to leave his +service.</p> + +<p>"'You know my rules,' he says, 'and you've broken them. It's no good +arguing,' he says, 'you've got to go.'"</p> + +<p>Marian and Gwendolen felt very angry, angrier than they had ever felt +before.</p> + +<p>"What a beast!" they said. "But p'raps he'll think better of it."</p> + +<p>Mr Williams shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Not he," he said. "I've seen him this morning. 'I'll give you a +pension,' he says, 'and I'll give you a good character. But that wood's +forbidden ground,' he says, 'and I'll have nobody going into it.'"</p> + +<p>Mr Williams rose and began to collect the young partridges, and put them +away into the various hen-coops.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "and next month you'll have to +make friends with a new keeper."</p> + +<p>After he had gone, Marian and Gwendolen sat thinking of all the good +times that they had had with him, and of poor Mrs Williams, who would +have to turn out of her cottage—the gay little cottage that she was so +proud of. Their cheeks were quite red, and there was a hot sort of +prickly feeling at the backs of their noses, and they felt as if they +would like to go to the great house and shoot Lord Barrington dead.</p> + +<p>"Dog in the manger," said Gwendolen, "that's what he is, with that great +big house and no wife or children. And he's always going into his old +wood himself. I know he is, because Percy told me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," said Marian, "and half his time he never lives at the +Park at all. He's judging people and sending them to prison, or +travelling about and enjoying himself."</p> + +<p>"P'raps he doesn't know," said Gwendolen, "what a nice man Mr Williams +really is."</p> + +<p>Then she suddenly thought of something.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we go and find him," she said, "and ask him to let Mr Williams +off."</p> + +<p>Marian was a little frightened. She had never seen Lord Barrington, but +she had once seen his picture in a magazine; and she remembered the grim +look of his eyes and his high-bridged, hawk-like nose. But the thought +of Mr Williams and his sad face soon gave her fresh courage; and as they +drew near the Park wall she was much too excited to feel afraid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gwendolen was excited too, but they both knew how important it was to +keep cool; and before they climbed the wall they looked carefully round +to see that nobody was watching them. Then they found a couple of niches +to put their toes in, and they hoisted themselves up till they could see +over the wall; and there they stopped for a moment, holding on to the +spikes, and studying the lie of the land. Just to their right was the +corner of the Haunted Wood, but spreading in front of them was the open +park-land, with its great trees casting their blue shadows, and the +delicate-limbed deer nibbling the grass tips. Beyond these were the +gardens, and the broad terrace in front of the house; and the only +person in sight was a distant gardener with a watering-can.</p> + +<p>Then they almost fell down, for round the corner of the wood came the +tall figure of Lord Barrington himself. Marian recognized him at once, +though he was not wearing a wig as he had been in the magazine picture, +and was dressed in a grey flannel suit, carefully pressed, and +russet-brown boots. Luckily he didn't see them, and they crouched behind +the wall, holding on to the edge with their finger-tips; and when they +next peeped over they could see him unlocking the padlock of the little +gate that led into the wood. He went inside and locked it again behind +him, and they saw him begin to push his way between the branches of the +trees.</p> + +<p>"Come along," whispered Gwendolen, "let's follow him"; so they climbed +over the wall and dropped into the park. Then they ran across the grass +to the little gate, where they stooped down for a moment and listened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +They could hear Lord Barrington still moving through the wood. And then +very quietly they squeezed through the fence. They both tore their +frocks on the barbed wire, and Marian scratched her arm, but she didn't +mind. And then they began to glide, as softly as possible, deeper and +deeper into the forbidden wood.</p> + +<p>Soon it was so dark, owing to the thick-spreading branches and the +overgrown weeds and bushes, that they found themselves creeping through +a sort of twilight, smelling of pine-resin and crushed herbage. But +always, just in front of them, they could hear Lord Barrington's +footsteps, and sometimes they caught a glimpse of his side or back. +Tripping over roots, and stung by nettles, they followed in the track +that he had beaten down; and presently the brushwood began to grow +thinner and the trunks of the trees farther apart.</p> + +<p>He was walking more quickly now, and in another three or four minutes +they saw him come out into a sort of clearing, where the ground was +smooth, with a thin growth of grass, and the sun pouring down upon it as +upon a little circus. Here he stopped, and they bent down, each behind +the trunk of a great pine tree; and then, to their surprise, they saw +him take his coat off and fold it carefully and put it on the ground. +Then from under a bush he drew out three wickets, and set them up on the +other side of the clearing, and put the bails on them, and laid down a +bat beside them, and came back tossing a cricket-ball. They could see +his face, still rather stern-looking, but not so stern as it had been +before; and then they heard him say "Ready?" and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> saw him bowl the ball, +which bounced over the wickets and hit a tree behind. They crept nearer, +until they were almost on the edge of the clearing.</p> + +<p>"You ought to have stopped that one," they heard him say; and still the +bat lay in front of the wickets, and there wasn't a sound but the murmur +of the trees.</p> + +<p>For a long time—almost ten minutes, they thought—he went on bowling +and fetching back the ball; and every now and then he spoke a few words +as if there were somebody really batting. And then a strange thing +happened, for slowly, as they watched, they saw the bat rise from the +ground; and then they saw the figure of a little boy taking guard with +it in front of the wickets.</p> + +<p>He was about fourteen, with short fair hair, and he was dressed in a +flannel shirt and trousers; and the shirt was unbuttoned, showing the +upper part of his chest, and its sleeves were rolled back over his +sturdy arms. They looked at the judge and saw that his whole face had +altered, as if the sun had come down and were shining through it; and +the boy smiled at him, and then tucked his lips in, as the judge bowled +him a difficult ball.</p> + +<p>"Well played," said the judge, and they saw the boy look up and begin to +colour a little at the words of praise; and then Gwendolen got a cramp +in her foot and couldn't help moving and making a sound.</p> + +<p>Lord Barrington turned sharply toward her.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he asked in a terrible voice.</p> + +<p>Gwendolen stood up, and so did Marian. It was no good hiding. They were +both too frightened to speak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>When he saw them, he stood quite still. A wood-pigeon flew across the +clearing. The little boy was no longer there.</p> + +<p>"Come here," he said, and they had to obey him.</p> + +<p>He stood looking at them. His face was like marble, and his eyes +searched them through and through.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "what have you got to say for yourselves?"</p> + +<p>They hung their heads and said nothing.</p> + +<p>Then Marian tried to speak, though her voice sounded funny.</p> + +<p>"Please, sir," she said, "we wanted to ask you something, but you were +playing with the boy."</p> + +<p>"The boy?" he said: "did you see the boy?"</p> + +<p>They lifted their eyes to him.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," they answered.</p> + +<p>For a moment he was silent. Then his voice changed a little.</p> + +<p>"Come and sit down," he said, "and tell me what you saw."</p> + +<p>When they had told him, he just nodded, and sat, as Mr Williams had +done, staring in front of him.</p> + +<p>"Well, now you know," he said, "why this wood is private, and why I +never allow anybody to come into it."</p> + +<p>"Because of the boy?" asked Marian.</p> + +<p>"Because of the boy," he said. "I'll try to explain to you, but I doubt +if you'll understand. You see, I had a notion that if we human beings +could only imagine anything hard enough, the thing that we imagined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +might become actually real, if only just for a minute or two."</p> + +<p>He moved his hand, with its heavy gold signet-ring.</p> + +<p>"This is the place," he said, "where I come to imagine."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Marian. "But why do you imagine the boy?"</p> + +<p>He reached for his coat and took something out of a pocket-book.</p> + +<p>"This is his photograph," he said. "He was my only son."</p> + +<p>The two children looked at it, and then gave it back to him.</p> + +<p>"He was fond of cricket," he said. "He died at school."</p> + +<p>Then he rose to his feet, and they followed him out of the wood.</p> + +<p>"Well, what was it," he said, "that you wanted to ask me?"</p> + +<p>They told him, and his face became stern again.</p> + +<p>"But he knew the rule," he said, "and he was older than you; and rules +are made to be kept, you know. I can't have them broken."</p> + +<p>They were silent for a moment, and then Gwendolen had a rather awful and +irreverent idea.</p> + +<p>"But p'raps if God hadn't broken one of His rules," she said, "you might +never have seen the boy."</p> + +<p>He stood looking at her for a long time, or at least it seemed long, +though it was only twelve seconds. Then he glanced at his watch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What are your names?" he asked.</p> + +<p>They told him their names, and he held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, good-bye, Marian and Gwendolen," he said; "and you can tell Mr +Williams that I've changed my mind."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Deep within the wood I know,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">There's a place where mourners go,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Just as, in the twilight cool,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Crept they to Siloam's pool.</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">There, with one accord, they bring</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Sorrows for a healing wing;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And each hushed and stooping leaf</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Lays its hand on their heart's grief.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 508px;"><a name="ILL_010" id="ILL_010"></a> +<img src="images/ill_010.jpg" width="508" height="600" alt="Cæsar's Camp" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Cæsar's Camp</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED</h3> + +<p>Cuthbert's friend, Edward Goldsmith, was six months older than Cuthbert, +but they were in the same form, which was the lowest but one, in Mr +Pendring's school. Most of the other boys thought him conceited, and so +did Cuthbert, and so he was. But Cuthbert had once been conceited +himself, and so he was able to sympathize with him. Besides being strong +too, and able to dive backward, Edward had given Cuthbert his +second-best pocket-knife; and that was why Cuthbert resolved at last to +introduce him to Tod the Gipsy.</p> + +<p>That was rather a special thing to do, because Tod was rather a special +sort of gipsy; and Cuthbert had never introduced him to anybody, not +even to Doris, although she had asked him to. It was in the hospital, +just before he had had his tonsils out, that Cuthbert had first met Tod; +and Tod had told him not to be frightened, because there was no need to +be, and it wouldn't do any good. Tod himself was often in hospital, +because he had consumption and had lost one of his lungs; and besides +that he was always getting knocked down or run over, through being +absent-minded. He was tall and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> thin, with a lot of black hair that kept +tumbling over his eyes, and his eyes were brown, like a dog's eyes, only +they were brighter and always laughing.</p> + +<p>When Cuthbert next met Tod, he had been living in his little tent on the +other side of Fairbarrow Down; and Cuthbert had stayed there all night +with him, and Tod had told him the names of the stars. Very early in the +morning, when Cuthbert woke up, he had seen Tod kneeling in the dew, and +a couple of wild rabbits nestling in his arms and smelling his clothes, +just as if they had been tame ones.</p> + +<p>Then Tod had beckoned him with his head and whistled a peculiar sweet +whistle, and a hare near by had pricked up her ears and come through the +grass to have her back stroked. That whistle was one of Tod's secrets, +and he knew lots more, and was always learning new ones; and when +Cuthbert had told him about In-between Land he said that he had been +there too, by another way.</p> + +<p>So it was rather a great thing for Cuthbert to promise Edward that he +would introduce him to Tod the Gipsy; and Edward was naturally rather +impatient to go and find him, and talk to him. But the difficulty was +that Tod was always travelling about, and Cuthbert never knew where he +was likely to be; and it wasn't until tea-time on the third Monday of +October that at last they found him, quite by accident.</p> + +<p>Owing to one of Mr Pendring's boys having won a medal for helping to +save somebody's life, the whole school had been given an extra +half-holiday, and Cuthbert and Edward had gone for a country walk. +Already in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> the town most of the leaves had fallen, and were lying in +dirty heaps by the roadside, and the scraps of gardens in front of the +houses were sodden and empty of flowers. But out in the country, where +the harvest was stacked, and men were drilling seed into the +moist-smelling earth, the oaks and elms were still glowing with coppery +or rusty-red leaves. The cottage gardens, too, were full of +flowers—clumps of starry Michaelmas daisies, and sheaves of dark-eyed +golden sunflowers, like bumble-bees on fire. But there were real fires +about also, as there always are when summer is over—fires of weeds at +the ends of the plough-furrows, and fires of potato stems in the +kitchen-gardens; and it was over a little fire of sticks and dead leaves +that they suddenly came upon Tod the Gipsy.</p> + +<p>They were now about six miles from home, at the foot of the long range +of hills, of which Fairbarrow Down, with its close-cropped turf, was the +nearest to the town. Behind this the ground dipped a little, and then +became a hill called Simon's Nob, and behind Simon's Nob rose the +highest hill of all, known as Cæsar's Camp. From Cæsar's Camp, on a very +clear day, it was just possible to see the sea; and battles had been +fought on all these hills hundreds and thousands of years before. +Sometimes they had been held by the ancient Britons when they were +fighting against each other; and sometimes they had been held by the +ancient Britons when they were fighting against the Romans. Sometimes +the Romans had held them when they were attacked by the Britons, and +once the Britons had held them against the Saxons; and then in their +turn the Saxons had held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> them when they had been attacked by the Danes. +After that they had slept for hundreds of years, with only the sheep to +nibble their grass, and an occasional shepherd shouting across them to +his shaggy and wise-eyed sheep-dog.</p> + +<p>The fiercest battle of all had been fought on Cæsar's Camp, from which +the Romans had driven away the Britons, and there was a great mound on +it, covered with grass, in which the dead soldiers had been buried. But +that was nearly two thousand years ago, and it had never looked more +peaceful than on this autumn afternoon, with the baby moon peeping above +it and growing brighter as the daylight faded. It was a steep climb to +the top of Cæsar's Camp, and the hill was guarded at the bottom by a +fringe of elm trees; and in front of these elm trees there was a belt of +bracken, reddening with decay, and reaching to the boys' shoulders. It +had been rather fun to push their way through it, startling the rabbits, +and listening to the rooks; and it was in a little quarry among the elms +that Tod the Gipsy had made his fire.</p> + +<p>Close to the fire he had spread some branches and a heap of bracken to +make a mattress, and over this he had thrown his blanket and the little +tarpaulin that made his tent. When they first caught sight of him, he +was humming a song and beating an accompaniment to himself on an empty +biscuit-box:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Where do the gipsies come from?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The gipsies come from Egypt.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The fiery sun begot them,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 26em;">Their dam was the desert dry.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">She lay there stripped and basking,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And gave them suck for the asking,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And an emperor's bone to play with,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Whenever she heard them cry.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Cuthbert introduced him to Edward Goldsmith, and Tod held out a bony +hand.</p> + +<p>"Glad to meet you," he said. "You're just in time for tea. You'll have +to share a mug, but there's lots of bread and jam."</p> + +<p>He was thinner than ever, but he had the same old trick of tossing his +hair back from his eyes; and his eyes were as bright and gay and +piercing as if they had just come back from some magic wash. While they +were eating, he sipped his tea and filled his pipe and went on singing:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">What did the gipsies do there?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">They built a tomb for Pharaoh,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">They built a tomb for Pharaoh,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">So tall it touched the sky.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">They buried him deep inside it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Then let what would betide it,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">They saddled their lean-ribbed ponies</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And left him there to die.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>He nodded his head toward the sides of the quarry, the overhanging +trees, and the hill beyond.</p> + +<p>"And this is where they've left me," he said.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert stared at him.</p> + +<p>"But you're not going to die, are you?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty soon," said Tod. He tapped his chest. "There's not much left, +you know, in this old box of mine."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, you don't seem to mind much," said Edward.</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Tod, "and I'll tell you why. I've just found out +something that I've been looking for very nearly all my life."</p> + +<p>He lit his pipe and leaned forward, with the fire shining in his eyes. +The days were so short now that the dusk had already come, and the +firelight cast strange shadows over the little quarry. The boys drew +closer to him, and he took from his waistcoat pocket a small box, with a +pinch of red powder in it.</p> + +<p>"For twenty years," he said, "I've been trying to make this powder; and +at last I've succeeded—just in time."</p> + +<p>They bent over his hand and examined the powder. It was as light as +thistle-down, and smelt like cloves.</p> + +<p>"Now look," he said.</p> + +<p>He threw some on the fire. But the boys could see nothing except the +crumbling leaves.</p> + +<p>Tod laughed.</p> + +<p>"Look a little higher," he said; and then, in the smoke, they suddenly +saw a bird hovering, and then another bird and another, and a couple of +nests hanging faintly in the air.</p> + +<p>"Now listen," said Tod; and above the whisper of the flames they could +hear the soft sharpening of tiny beaks, and the sound of wings, and the +ghosts of cheepings and chirpings, as if they had been hundreds of miles +away. Then they faded, and Tod leaned back, looking triumphantly at the +two boys.</p> + +<p>"But what were they?" said Cuthbert.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They were memories," said Tod. "They were the memories of those dead +leaves."</p> + +<p>"But do leaves remember?" asked Edward.</p> + +<p>"Everything remembers," said Tod, "only nobody's been able to prove it. +The ground we're sitting on, the fields you've come across, the hills +above us, they're crammed with memories. And when they die, if they ever +do die, these memories come crowding back to them, just like they do to +a dying man; and it's this powder that makes them visible."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet and looked about him.</p> + +<p>"Of course, those leaves," he said, "were only a year old, and all that +they remembered was just those birds. But look at this,"—he picked up a +piece of wood—"this is the core of an old tree. This was a sapling +three hundred years ago." He sprinkled the rest of the powder on it and +threw it on the fire.</p> + +<p>For a minute or two nothing happened, and then, high up, they saw some +more birds hovering; but presently, as they looked, they saw the figure +of a man, with his hair in ringlets hanging down over his shoulders. He +wore a plumed hat, and his sleeves were frilled, and there was a sword +at his belt, and he wore knee-breeches and stockings and jewelled +buckles upon his shoes. He stood in mid-air, looking about him, and then +he was joined by the figure of a girl. He took her in his arms, and then +they faded away; and there instead was a peasant in a smock.</p> + +<p>They saw him lean forward and carve something in the air, as though he +were cutting somebody's name upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> a tree-trunk; and then he too was +gone, and there were two children playing hide-and-seek in the wreathing +smoke. One was a little girl, and she wore a mob cap and a long skirt +dropping almost to her ankles; and the other was a boy with a very short +jacket and trousers that looked as if they had shrunk.</p> + +<p>Then they saw a fox, with his ears pricked, and one of his front paws +lifted; and then there was nothing again but the sides of the quarry and +the deepening shadows of the elms.</p> + +<p>"That's all," said Tod, "because I've no more powder. All the rest's up +there."</p> + +<p>He jerked his thumb toward the top of the hill, hidden away from them by +the trees.</p> + +<p>"Why is it up there?" asked Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>Tod stared at them as if he were trying to read their hearts.</p> + +<p>"Have you courage?" he asked.</p> + +<p>It was a difficult question. They told him that they hoped so, but that +they weren't quite sure.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you have," he said, "and you'd like to come back here +to-night, just about half-past twelve, you'll be able to see something +that nobody alive has ever seen or will see again."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert and Edward looked at one another. It would be a six-mile walk, +and they would have to start about eleven o'clock, and they would have +to go to bed first and creep out of their houses without anybody +knowing. The moon would have sunk, too, so that it would be quite dark. +They both felt a little queer inside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> But they promised to come, and +agreed to meet at eleven o'clock near St Peter's Church.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert was there first, just before the clock struck. Everybody was in +bed, and he had slipped out unnoticed. But his heart sank a little as he +ran down the empty street and saw no Edward at the corner waiting for +him. But Edward came just as the clock struck, and the night seemed less +dark now that there were two of them, and soon they were out of the town +and running close together between the hedges of the country road. Once +a motor-car came travelling toward them, almost blinding them with the +glare of its head-lamps; but after they had left the road and struck +across the fields the night was so still that they could almost have +heard a star drop.</p> + +<p>It was so still that they spoke in whispers, and so dark that they +sometimes tripped; and once when they stopped for a moment to take +breath, a star did drop, and they almost heard it. Presently, when their +eyes became used to the darkness, they could see the dim outline of the +hills, and the faint ribbon of the Milky Way rising like smoke from +Cæsar's Camp. At the edge of the bracken they found Tod waiting for +them.</p> + +<p>"Come along," he said, "only don't go too fast," and they began to climb +through the belt of trees out on to the hillside beyond. The grass was +short here and slippery with dew, with glimmers of chalk beneath it +where the turf was broken; and it was so steep that half-way up Tod +stopped to fight for his breath.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," he said. "I'll be better in a moment," and as they +stood waiting for him and looking back, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> country behind them seemed +to have vanished into a lake of darkness. Then they began to climb +again, their boots slipping, and suddenly as they climbed they smelt a +new smell—a strange sort of acrid, sweet smell, as of turf-fires +burning above them.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tod. "I was up there an hour ago. I've lit half a dozen +fires."</p> + +<p>At the top of the hill he dropped down for a moment close to a large +white stone. He lit a match and looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"Ten minutes to one," he said. "We're just in time."</p> + +<p>They were now in a sort of trench or grassy moat that encircled the +great mound, and they had climbed into this over a smaller mound that +had once been a barricade. In this trench Tod had dug half a dozen +holes, and in each of these holes there was a turf-fire smouldering; and +now he turned and lifted the white stone, and took from under it a +little bag.</p> + +<p>"This is the rest of the powder," he said, "all there is, and all there +ever will be, for the secret will die with me."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet and began to sprinkle it thickly over the burning +turf in each of the little holes. Then he came back and spoke to the two +boys.</p> + +<p>"There are great memories," he said, "stored in this hill, but they are +fierce ones, and you'll need all your courage."</p> + +<p>Then he moved away from them toward the farthest of the fires, and +Cuthbert felt a sort of change coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> over the hill. He could see +nothing, but it felt different, as if it were surrounded by a different +sort of country—a savage country, with no railways in it, or roads, or +parliaments, or policemen. Even the stars seemed to have grown younger, +and nearer the earth, and more lawless; and then he heard voices filling +the air about him, and a man shouting hoarse commands.</p> + +<p>He turned with a start and found himself among a crowd of naked and +half-naked men—small men, with hair hanging over their shoulders, and +bearded chins, and glittering eyes. Some of them were painted with +curious patterns, shining in dull colours from their skins; and they +were all pointing toward the darkness that lay like a sea round the +sides of the hill. Then some of them spoke to him and asked him who he +was, and he found that he understood them and could answer them; and the +man who had been shouting, and who seemed to be their leader, came and +looked into his eyes. He laid his hands on Cuthbert's shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Son of my sons," he said, "are you ready to fight with us?" And +Cuthbert suddenly felt himself burning with anger, because he knew that +they were going to be attacked.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am," he said, and then there was a great shout, and +everybody rushed to the barricade; and there all round them, pricking +out of the darkness, they could see helmets and the rims of shields.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert somehow knew that these belonged to the Romans, and that he +hated them for invading his country; and he was so excited that he had +forgotten to notice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> what had happened to Edward Goldsmith. He only knew +that he had disappeared.</p> + +<p>As for Edward, he had forgotten all about Cuthbert. For he had suddenly +noticed that there were now trees growing half-way up the hillside, and +he had jumped over the barricade and run down to explore them. When he +got there, he had found himself among an army of men marching up the +hill behind locked shields, and a young centurion with merry eyes had +stooped and gripped him by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" he said; "son of my sons, are you going to fight with us +against these barbarians?" And Edward tingled all over with pride, and +said, "Rather, you bet I am." Then a great stone from the top of the +barricade came leaping down the hillside and crushed one of the men in +the front rank, but the others closed together and never stopped +marching.</p> + +<p>When Cuthbert saw them he was blind with anger, but he knew in his heart +that they were bound to win; and next moment they were over the parapet +like a wave of hot and breathing iron. He heard groans and cries and the +shouts of the British chief, and his eyes were full of tears as he beat +at the Roman shields; and then he saw Edward and hit him in the face, +and made his nose bleed, and knocked out two of his teeth. Edward struck +back, and gave Cuthbert a black eye, and the night was full of hewings +and the flashings of swords; and then everything was still again, and +the hill was empty, and the stars were the same stars that they had +always known.</p> + +<p>Squatting on the barricade, with his arms round his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> knees, they saw Tod +the Gipsy laughing at them; and Cuthbert rubbed his eye, and Edward +sniffed hard to try and stop the blood running from his nose. Tod rose +and stretched himself.</p> + +<p>"Well, you've had it out," he said, "and so has the hill, and now you'd +better be off home."</p> + +<p>So they said good-bye to him, and they never saw him again; and next +morning when Edward came down to breakfast, his father scolded him for +explaining that an ancient Briton had hit him on the nose. But +Cuthbert's daddy only stroked his chin when he heard that the Romans had +given Cuthbert a black eye, because that was just the sort of thing, he +said, that the Romans sometimes did, though they had many good +qualities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Down the dead centurions' way,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Tod the Gipsy drives his shay.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Roman, Briton, Saxon, Dane,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Tod the Gipsy hears them plain.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Faint beneath the noonday chalk,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Tod can overhear them talk.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Fiercer than the stars at night,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Chin to chin, he sees them fight.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>ST UNCUS</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"><a name="ILL_011" id="ILL_011"></a> +<img src="images/ill_011.jpg" width="418" height="500" alt="Doris and St Uncus" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Doris and St Uncus</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h3>ST UNCUS</h3> + +<p>It was now November, and even in the country the last of the leaves had +fallen from the trees, and the bushy hollows between the roots of the +downs were grey with old man's beard. Some people like November, because +it is the quietest month of the year—as quiet as somebody tired, who +has just fallen asleep—and they love to see the fields lying dark and +still, and the empty branches against the sky. But some people hate it, +especially people who live in towns, because of its fogs and falling +rains, and they turn up their coat-collars, and blow their noses, and +call it the worst month of the year.</p> + +<p>Doris hated it too, and she hated this particular November more than any +other that she could recall, because it had rained and rained and +rained, and because her mummy was so ill that she had had to go to +hospital. She was also angry with Cuthbert, because she thought that it +wasn't fair for him to have taken Edward to see Tod the Gipsy, and never +even have offered to take her, although she had asked him to over and +over again.</p> + +<p>So she hadn't spoken to him for nearly a month, not even after her mummy +had been taken to the hospital;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> and she hated Auntie Kate, who had come +to look after the home, because she kept asking her how her little +boy-friend was. Auntie Kate had a face like a hen's, with a beaky nose +and bobbly eyes, and she always counted people's pieces of bread and +butter, and wondered what income their father and mother had. Her +husband was a clergyman, so she went to church a lot, on week-days as +well as on Sundays; and now she had gone to a bazaar at St Peter's +Church, just when Doris had meant to go to tea with Gwendolen.</p> + +<p>So Doris was very angry, because she had to stay at home and take care +of her five brothers; and the only happy thing that she had to think +about was that Mummy would be home next week. But at half-past three on +a wet Saturday afternoon next week seems a horribly long way off, and +Jimmy and Jocko were being as naughty as ever they knew how. Jimmy was +six and Jocko was five, and they were playing water games in the +bathroom; and Doris knew that they would be soaking their clothes and +making an awful mess, but she didn't care.</p> + +<p>"At any rate they're quiet," she thought to herself, "and I don't see +why I should fight with them any more," and then she pressed her nose +against the front-door glass and looked dismally into the street.</p> + +<p>But there was nothing to see except the falling rain, and the dirty +brown fronts of the opposite houses, and a strip of mud-coloured sky, +and the milkman's cart with its yellow pony. Behind her, in a dark +cupboard under the stairs, Teddy and George, the twins, were playing at +Hell; and every now and then she could hear a faint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> clicking sound, as +they practised gnashing their teeth. As for Christopher Mark, who was +three and a half, she had forgotten all about him; and by now, if it +hadn't been for Auntie Kate, she might have been playing in Gwendolen's +big barn. Then she thought of Cuthbert again and of his exciting +adventure on the top of Cæsar's Camp, and she breathed on the glass, and +drew a picture of Cuthbert, making him as ugly as she could.</p> + +<p>"I hate him," she thought, "and I hate Auntie Kate, and I hate the +twins, and I hate everybody," and then she turned round, and her heart +stood still—or at least she felt as if it did—and her cheeks became +white. For there was Christopher Mark at the top of the stairs, with a +rabbit under one arm and an engine under the other; and she suddenly saw +him slip and begin to pitch head-long down, with a sickening thud, thud, +thud.</p> + +<p>For a moment she was so frightened that she could hardly breathe, but +just as she sprang forward an odd thing happened, for he stopped short, +almost as if somebody had caught him, and didn't even begin to cry.</p> + +<p>"My goodness!" she said, and then she stopped short too, for squatting +down on the topmost stair was the strangest little man that she had ever +seen, hanging on to Christopher Mark. He was a little man with a bald +head and a big mouth and a crooked back; and his right arm was only a +stump, with a very long hook at the end of it. His left arm was odd too, +almost as crooked as his back, and he had curled it round one of the +banisters, while he hooked Christopher Mark up with the other.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," he said. "I see you have recognized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> me. That's very +clever of you. Most people don't."</p> + +<p>Doris was too surprised at first to be able to answer him. But he didn't +seem to mind, and went on smiling; while as for Christopher Mark, he +climbed upstairs again, just as if the little man hadn't been there.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I don't recognize you," said Doris at last; "but I'm +frightfully obliged to you for saving Christopher Mark."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," he said. "That's what I'm for. I'm St Uncus."</p> + +<p>Doris frowned a little.</p> + +<p>"St Uncus?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Latin for hook," he said. "Excuse me half a moment."</p> + +<p>For a flicker of an eyelid he disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Just been to China," he said, "to hook another one."</p> + +<p>Doris opened her eyes.</p> + +<p>"But are you a <i>real</i> saint?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The little man flushed.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course I am. I'm a patron saint. I'm the patron saint of +staircases."</p> + +<p>"But I didn't know," said Doris, "that staircases had patron saints."</p> + +<p>"They don't," he said. "They have only one."</p> + +<p>"I mean," said Doris—"it's frightfully rude, I'm afraid—but I didn't +know that they had even one."</p> + +<p>He smiled again.</p> + +<p>"Very likely not," he said. "Lots of people don't. But they have."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<p>He disappeared once more.</p> + +<p>"Baby in Jamaica," he said, "just beginning to fall from the top +landing."</p> + +<p>Then he stroked his chin and looked at her thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've been left here," he said, "to look after the +children."</p> + +<p>Doris nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you ought to know," he said, "that there are two things +that children love more than anything else. One of them's water and the +other's staircases. And they're both a bit dangerous. So they each have +a patron saint."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Doris. "And who's the patron saint of water?"</p> + +<p>"Fellow called Fat Bill," he said. "He's my younger brother."</p> + +<p>"That seems a queer name," said Doris, "for a saint."</p> + +<p>"Well, he's a queer fellow," said St Uncus, "but we've both been lucky."</p> + +<p>Doris couldn't help looking at his crooked back, and his deformed left +arm, and his right stump.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," he said; "but you mustn't judge by those. That's the very +mistake that I made. You see, I once fell down a staircase myself, two +or three years after staircases were invented."</p> + +<p>He looked at Doris and nodded his head.</p> + +<p>"It was when I was a small boy," he said, "as small as your little +brother; and that's why I grew up crooked and deformed. I was very +unhappy about it. It was thousands of years ago. But I can still +remember how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> unhappy I was. I used to watch the other children playing +games, and when I grew up I watched the men go hunting. And I had to +stay at home, and the women despised me; and at last I died, and then I +saw how silly I had been."</p> + +<p>"Why had you been silly?" asked Doris.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd wasted the whole of my life, you see, thinking about the +staircase and how miserable I was; and so when the good Lord God asked +me what I wanted to do next, there was hardly anything that I could turn +my hand to. But I told you I was lucky, and so I was, for as it happened +I had a great idea; and that was to try and save as many children as I +could from being as miserable as I had been. Of course, I couldn't +expect much of a job, seeing how I'd thrown away all my chances, so I +asked the good Lord God if He would allow me to look after the world's +staircases."</p> + +<p>He disappeared again.</p> + +<p>"Been to Port Jacobson," he said. "Well, the good Lord God thought that +it was rather a fine idea; and so He laid His hand upon me and gave me a +new name; and my new name was St Uncus."</p> + +<p>"Shall I have a new name too?" asked Doris.</p> + +<p>St Uncus beamed.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," he said. "Everybody has a new name, only it generally +depends, to a certain extent, upon what they did with their old ones."</p> + +<p>Doris thought for a moment.</p> + +<p>"But wouldn't you rather be in Heaven," she said, "than sitting about on +these silly old staircases?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>St Uncus laughed.</p> + +<p>"But Heaven's not a place, my dear. Heaven's being employed by the good +Lord God."</p> + +<p>Then he looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"And now I wonder," he said, "if you'd mind doing me a good turn?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I should love to!" said Doris; "but how can I?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see," he said, "the worst of my job is that I can never get a +chance of seeing my brother Bill. He's always busy by the edges of ponds +and things, and I'm always stuck on somebody's staircase; and I thought +perhaps, if you wouldn't mind taking my hook for a bit, I could slip off +for a moment and have a talk to him."</p> + +<p>Doris felt a little shy.</p> + +<p>"But should I be able to use it?" she asked. "And how could I tell +whether somebody wanted me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that'll be all right," he said, "as soon as you catch hold of the +hook; and perhaps you won't be wanted at all. The only trouble is when +two children are falling at once, and then you have to decide which +you'll go for. But that doesn't happen very often, considering how many +children there are."</p> + +<p>So Doris went upstairs, and he unbuttoned the hook, and when she caught +hold of it she felt a strange sort of thrill. She felt like Cuthbert had +felt when he went into In-between Land; and indeed that was where she +really was. St Uncus had vanished, and she saw Christopher Mark like a +little fat ghost, with his soul shining inside him. Then she suddenly +heard a cry in a strange foreign language, and she saw a dark-eyed +mother at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> bottom of some stone steps, and a small round baby, with +an olive-coloured skin, tumbling down them one by one. She felt a hot +wind, full of the odour of spices, blowing faintly against her cheek; +and then she bent forward and hooked up the baby, and saw the look of +terror die out of the mother's face.</p> + +<p>Never in her life had Doris felt so pleased. She felt as if she could +shout and sing with joy. No wonder, she thought, that St Uncus looked so +happy. She began to understand what being in Heaven meant. And then she +heard a shout, and smelt a smell of herrings, and she saw a man in a +blue jersey, and a curly-headed boy, about four years old, pitching head +first down a dark staircase. Through a dirty window-pane she could see +the mouth of a river, full of fishing-smacks floating side by side; and +she saw a woman, with rolled-up sleeves, run out of a kitchen and stand +beside the man.</p> + +<p>Then she hooked up the boy, and she heard the woman say "Thank God!" and +the man say "You little rascal, you!" and then she was back again, and +there was St Uncus sitting beside her and rubbing his hands.</p> + +<p>"Ever so many thanks," he said. "I haven't seen old Bill for nearly +three hundred years. He says he'd like to meet you, but of course it's +only now and again that anybody like you is able to see us."</p> + +<p>Then he said good-bye to her, and she never saw him again, but she knew +that he was there, and once she actually heard him; and that was very +late on this same evening, long after everyone had gone to bed. For soon +after midnight, when Auntie Kate was dreaming about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> clergymen and +bazaars, and when Teddy and George were dreaming about bears, and Jimmy +and Jocko about bathrooms, and when Christopher Mark was dreaming about +rabbits, and Doris wasn't dreaming at all—soon after midnight a little +red-hot cinder suddenly popped out of the kitchen grate.</p> + +<p>It fell on a bit of matting, and burnt its way through to the +floor-boards below; and presently a wisp of smoke, with a wicked pungent +smell, began to twist upward and flatten against the ceiling. Fuller and +fuller grew the kitchen of smoke, and Teddy and George began to dream of +camp-fires, but Auntie Kate still dreamt of bazaars and pincushions +marked tenpence halfpenny. Teddy and George were sleeping by themselves, +and Christopher Mark slept in a little room turning out of Auntie +Kate's. These rooms were above the sitting-room in the front of the +house, and it was Teddy and George who slept over the kitchen; while +Doris herself and Jimmy and Jocko shared a little room under the roof.</p> + +<p>The floor of the kitchen was now blazing fiercely, with the boards +crackling in the flames, and Teddy and George began to dream about guns, +but still they didn't wake up. They only moved a little uneasily, and it +was somebody shouting that finally woke them, just as it was a neighbour +banging at the front door that roused Auntie Kate from her dreams.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up!" cried the neighbour, "your house is on fire!" and Auntie +Kate was so flustered that she quite forgot where she had put her +clothes, and rushed downstairs in her nightdress. As for Teddy and +George,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> their room was full of smoke, and they bolted out of it, +coughing and spluttering, and met Doris coming down from the attic, +pushing Jimmy and Jocko in front of her.</p> + +<p>The kitchen door had now swung open, and the flames were darting across +the hall; and clouds of smoke were rolling upstairs like a sour and +suffocating fog.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Doris. "Hold your breath, and run downstairs as quick +as you can," and soon they were all standing together in the street, +while some of the neighbours were running for the fire-engine.</p> + +<p>It had stopped raining, but the pavement felt all cold and clammy as +they stood upon it with their bare feet, and it seemed funny to be out +in the dark with nothing on but their nightgowns. Auntie Kate had fled +into an opposite house, because she couldn't bear that so many people +should see her; but Teddy and George were rather enjoying themselves, +though Jimmy and Jocko had begun to cry. Then Doris looked round, +"Where's Christopher Mark?" she cried, and everybody looked at everybody +else, and Doris knew that he must be still asleep in his little +dressing-room upstairs. She rushed into the house, but the leaping +flames had already begun to curl round the banisters; and the lady next +door caught hold of her arm and told her that it would be madness to try +and rescue him. But Doris shook her off and ran across the hall, and +dashed blindly up the burning staircase.</p> + +<p>"Oh, St Uncus!" she said, "come and help me; come and help me to save +Christopher Mark."</p> + +<p>The sound of the flames was like the roar of an engine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> and the smoke +was thicker than the blackest night. But at the top of the stairs she +suddenly heard a whisper, "It's all right, my dear, I'm here."</p> + +<p>And then she laughed, and found Christopher Mark fast asleep, hugging +his white rabbit; and in another few seconds she was out in the street +again, with Christopher Mark safe in her arms.</p> + +<p>Some of the people cheered her and patted her on the back, and began to +tell her how brave she had been; and she was rather pleased, of course, +especially when she thought of Mummy, who would be sure to hear about it +in hospital. But she wasn't conceited, because she knew that she had +been helped by a little saint with a crooked back, who served God by +keeping an eye on all the staircases in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Never a babe in Port of Spain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Peabody Buildings, Portland Maine,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Limerick, Lima, Boston, York,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Nottingham, Naples, Cairo, Cork,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Milton of Campsie, Moscow, Mull,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Halifax, Hampstead, Hobart, Hull,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Never a baby climbs a stair</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">But little St Hook is waiting there.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>OLD MOTHER HUBBARD</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 430px;"><a name="ILL_012" id="ILL_012"></a> +<img src="images/ill_012.jpg" width="430" height="500" alt="Mother Hubbard's" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Mother Hubbard's</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>X</h2> + +<h3>OLD MOTHER HUBBARD</h3> + +<p>Cuthbert was very sorry when he heard about the fire at Doris's house, +and when he next saw her in the street, he almost crossed the road to +speak to her. But she hadn't spoken to him for so long that he had +resolved not to talk to her unless she spoke to him first. Doris and +Jimmy and Jocko were now staying with some people called Brown; and +Doris's mother and the twins and Christopher Mark were staying with +Gwendolen's aunt and Captain Jeremy. It was rather fun staying with the +Browns, but on the whole Doris was rather sad, because it would be two +months, so the builders said, before they could all be at home together +again.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert knew about this, because Marian had told him; and that was why +he nearly crossed the road. But he decided not to, and he didn't see +Doris again until the second day of the holidays. That was the Thursday +before Christmas, and it was a grey day and very cold, with a strong +wind blowing out of the north-east, and all the houses looking huddled +and shrunken. It was early in the afternoon, and he had just been to +call for Edward, but Edward had gone out to sit by the railway. He was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +collecting the numbers on engines, and had already got thirty-seven.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert was collecting too, but he was collecting the dates on pennies, +so he didn't feel inclined to go and sit with Edward; and it was just as +he was wondering what to do that he saw Doris turn the corner. For a +moment he thought that he would pretend not to see her, but she was all +alone, and it suddenly occurred to him that it would be rather a good +idea to take her out to tea at Uncle Joe's.</p> + +<p>So he stopped and asked her, and she was very glad, because she had +nothing particular to do; and she told him all about St Uncus and the +fire and what it was like being nearly burnt to death.</p> + +<p>"Let's cut across the fields," she said, "past old Mother Hubbard's. +It's jolly cold. I think it's going to snow."</p> + +<p>"I hope it is," said Cuthbert. "But it's not so cold as the day on which +we found the ice-men."</p> + +<p>But it was quite cold enough, with the horses in the fields standing +dismally under the naked hedges, and the black north-easter crumbling +the ridges of the plough-lands until they looked like pale-coloured +powdered chocolate.</p> + +<p>"I shall be jolly glad," said Cuthbert, "when we get to Uncle Joe's," +and just then they passed Mother Hubbard's—a melancholy house standing +by itself, with all its blinds and curtains drawn.</p> + +<p>It was always like that, and behind it were some ruined stables, with a +tin roof that flapped up and down; and a big yellow dog on a long chain +ran out and yelped at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> them as they passed. This was called Mother +Hubbard's house, because it belonged to a Miss Hubbard who lived there +all by herself, and who had allowed nobody to enter the door since her +father had died fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>He had been a proud old general with a bad temper; and some people said +that he had driven Miss Hubbard mad, but other people said that she was +only queer, and hated everybody except her dog. Occasionally she could +be seen peering round one of the blinds, or feeding her dog in the +ruined stables; and once a week she went into the town with a big bag to +do her shopping. The shop-people said that she was very polite, and so +did the postman, who sometimes took her a letter. But she always kept +her own counsel, and nobody could ever make her talk. Why she lived like +that, nobody knew. Some people said that it was because she was so poor, +and because her father had made her promise never to let people know how +poor she was. But other people said that she was really rather rich, and +that she must have had some great trouble. She was very old—nearly +eighty—although her eyes were clear and so were her cheeks; but there +were still a few people who remembered her as a girl galloping on +horseback over the fields.</p> + +<p>"Silly old thing," said Doris, as they left her house behind them. "I +shouldn't be surprised if she was a witch."</p> + +<p>But Cuthbert said that there weren't any such things, and perhaps she +had killed somebody and had a guilty conscience.</p> + +<p>Then they crossed a road, and climbed over a stile,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> and skirted a great +field pricked with tiny wheat-blades; and then they slipped down a +rather steep bank into a sheltered lane still wet with mud. They had +already forgotten old Mother Hubbard, and the next moment they forgot +her still more; for just then there came clattering down the lane a +young man on horseback, splashed to his eyes. His bowler hat was crammed +down on his head, and he shouted at them as he galloped by. "Which way +have they gone?" he cried, but he never stopped for an answer, and soon +there came some more riders, both men and women. They had evidently come +down the lane to avoid a big ploughed field that lay between high hedges +on the other side of it, for Cuthbert and Doris presently saw them turn +sharply to the right into a grass meadow where it was easier to gallop.</p> + +<p>"It's the hunt," said Doris. "Let's run after them," so they turned and +ran down the lane, and saw the riders, one by one, jumping over a gate +on the far side of the meadow. Then they crossed the meadow and +scrambled over the gate just in time to see the last of the horsemen +disappearing over another hedge a couple of hundred yards away.</p> + +<p>"We shall never catch them," said Cuthbert, but just then they heard a +horn blowing. "It's the fox," cried Doris. "They've seen the fox," and +half a minute later, from a little rise in the ground, they saw the +whole hunt streaming away from them.</p> + +<p>They were so hot now that they had forgotten all about the wind and the +grey clouds gathering over the downs, and their only thought was to be +up among the horses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> and their jolly, red-cheeked riders. So they ran +down the rise and across another road and over some more fields and past +a wood, until they came at last to a stream, running rather sluggishly +between some pollarded willows. On one of these there was a man +standing, and he waved his hand to them as they came up.</p> + +<p>"They're coming back," he said. "Keep along the stream, and I'll lay a +dollar you'll see some fun."</p> + +<p>It was now nearly four, and the light was beginning to fade, and they +were ever so far from Uncle Joe's; but they pushed their way through the +tangled grass until they came to a plank across the stream. This led +them out beside a hazel copse, and just as they were wondering which way +to go they heard the horn again, not very far away, and the clear, deep +calling of the hounds. Something cold fell on Cuthbert's cheek.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" he said, "it's beginning to snow." And then a burly man on a +big grey mare came crashing through the undergrowth on the other side of +the stream. He gave a shout, and they jumped aside as his horse rose to +clear the water; but the next moment he was sprawling on the ground in +front of them, with his scarlet coat about his ears.</p> + +<p>They heard him swear, but as he picked himself up and helped his horse +out of the stream he began to laugh, and soon he was in the saddle again +and vanishing into the dusk. For a minute or two they waited, but nobody +else came. An old cock pheasant rattled out of the hazel copse. The horn +blew once more, and then all was still. Their breath stood like smoke +upon the air.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then Doris suddenly stooped and picked up a coin that had been half +trampled into the bank.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" she said, "he's dropped a penny. You'd better add the date of +it to your collection."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert took it from her, but the penny was an old one, and the date +was difficult to see. The snow began to fall upon them in heavy flakes. +Cuthbert took out his handkerchief and polished the coin. And then an +odd thing happened, for suddenly, as he polished, the stream and the +hazel copse seemed to fade away; and it was another girl—a grown-up +girl—who had just given him the penny.</p> + +<p>"A penny for your thoughts," she said, and Cuthbert knew that she wasn't +speaking to him, but to somebody else; and the thoughts that came into +his head weren't his own, but a grown-up man's. He knew that they were +somebody else's thoughts, because he was thinking his own thoughts too; +and the other person's thoughts were of two kinds—the weak thoughts +that he decided to tell the girl, and the strong thoughts that went into +the penny.</p> + +<p>The thoughts that he told the girl were that, when he got to South +America, he was going to spend his spare time studying the birds there. +He was going to write a book about them, and perhaps, when he had +written his book, he would get a job looking after a museum. But his +strong thoughts, that he didn't tell her, were "I love you and want to +marry you; but I mustn't tell you that, because I'm only a carpenter, +and you're a lady, and ever so far above me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" said Doris.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert gave her the penny.</p> + +<p>"It's a queer sort of penny," he said. "Catch hold of it."</p> + +<p>Doris took it.</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything queer in it," she said. So Cuthbert polished it +once more. This time he polished it harder, so that when he gave it to +Doris again it was quite warm from the polishing; and Doris seemed to be +standing in a strange sort of room, full of old-fashioned furniture and +heavy ornaments. The same girl said, "A penny for your thoughts," and +the same thoughts came to her as had come to Cuthbert. The day drew in. +It was almost dark now, and the snow was glistening on their shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I know what's happened," she said. "His real thoughts were so strong +that they all went into the penny."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert nodded.</p> + +<p>"That's what I thought," he said. "And when you rub the penny they all +come out."</p> + +<p>"Did you notice the girl's dress?" asked Doris, "and the way her hair +was done, and the blue china dog on the mantelpiece?"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Let's have another go," he said, and he rubbed the penny again as hard +as he could.</p> + +<p>This time he noticed the room, with its queer high-backed piano, and a +picture of people hunting hanging on the wall, and the blue china dog, +and the girl's dress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> and the curious way in which she had done her +hair. It was pulled back from her forehead into a smooth sort of bundle +behind her head; and her dress was all in terraces, like a wedding-cake, +or a theatre turned upside down.</p> + +<p>"It must have been a good long time," said Cuthbert, "since she gave him +the penny. Do you think he was the man who fell off the horse?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he couldn't have been," said Doris. "He was much too young; and +besides I'm sure that he was never a carpenter."</p> + +<p>She shivered a little.</p> + +<p>"We ought to be getting home," she said, but Cuthbert lingered for a +moment, looking at the penny.</p> + +<p>"I expect hundreds of people," he said, "have had it in their pockets +and never known what was inside it."</p> + +<p>"I daresay," said Doris, "but I know I'm jolly hungry, and we must be +miles away from anywhere."</p> + +<p>Nor were they quite sure where anywhere was, but they crossed the plank +again and started for home, with the snow driving past their ears and +piling up in front of their feet. Grey-capped hedges loomed up before +them, rising unexpectedly out of the darkness; and so thick lay the snow +that they were never able to tell whether the next field was a ploughed +one. But they passed the tree—or they thought that they did—on which +the man had been standing; and they crossed the road—or they thought +that they did—that they had crossed after running down the rise. But +the hours went by, and they felt emptier and emptier, and several times +they stumbled into snow-filled ditches; and the snow roared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> past them +in angry whiteness, and melted upon their necks and trickled down their +backs.</p> + +<p>Longingly they thought then of Uncle Joe's and of plates of hot muffins +before the fire, and even more longingly of supper at home, with bowls +of steaming bread and milk. But every field seemed endlesser than the +last, and the snow grew deeper and ever more deep; and the night closed +down upon them like a lid, and their feet felt heavier than ten-pound +weights.</p> + +<p>"I believe we're lost," said Cuthbert, but Doris didn't seem to hear, +and so they toiled on with sinking hearts, and then at last, just as +they were almost spent, they suddenly knocked their knees against a +little gate. It was the sort of gate that leads into a garden path; and +though they could see no sign of this, or even of a light, they pushed +it open with a great effort, and went plunging into the snow beyond.</p> + +<p>Sometimes people have been frozen close to a house, but in a little +while they saw a great dark shadow; and then to their joy they found +themselves in front of a door, with a gleam of light shining through the +letter-box. For a long time they knocked, but nobody came; and several +times they shouted through the letter-box. But still nobody came, and +then from behind the house they heard the barking of a dog.</p> + +<p>Doris gripped Cuthbert's arm.</p> + +<p>"It's old Mother Hubbard's," she said. "That's her dog. I know it's +bark."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll never get in," said Cuthbert, but just as he said that they +heard footsteps coming down the hall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who's there?" said a voice. It had an odd sort of creak in it, like the +creak of a drawer that is seldom opened. Cuthbert told her; and then, +after a long pause, the door moved a little on its hinges. An eddy of +snow whirled in in front of them, and the door swung back an inch or two +more.</p> + +<p>"You'd better come inside," said Miss Hubbard, and they went into the +hall, her first guests for fifty years. She stood looking at them over a +flickering candle. Her eyes were frostier than the wind outside. The air +of the house smelt like a tomb. They could hear the ticking of several +clocks.</p> + +<p>"You'd better come into the scullery," she said, "and shake the snow +off," and she led them in silence to the back of the house, where she +left them alone for nearly twenty minutes before she came back to ask +them in to tea.</p> + +<p>"It's in the drawing-room," she said, "and I hope you won't talk. I'm +very strong and I have a big dog."</p> + +<p>So they followed her into the drawing-room, and then a second, and even +more wonderful, thing happened. Cuthbert stopped short, and so did +Doris, and old Miss Hubbard switched round and stared at them.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" she asked. "What are you gaping at?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's the penny room!" said Cuthbert; and so it was. For there was +the queer high-backed piano; and there was the picture of people +hunting; and there were the old-fashioned heavy ornaments.</p> + +<p>"But where's the dog," said Doris, "the blue china dog that used to +stand on the mantelpiece?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>Old Miss Hubbard had turned quite white.</p> + +<p>"The blue china dog?" she asked. "What do you know about that? It was +broken thirty years ago."</p> + +<p>"But it's the same room," said Cuthbert, "and there was a girl in it, +and she gave a man a penny for his thoughts."</p> + +<p>Old Miss Hubbard began to tremble. She sat down heavily, and her eyes +looked frightened.</p> + +<p>"But how do you know?" she asked. "You're only children; and that was +more than fifty years ago."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert felt in his pocket and pulled out the penny.</p> + +<p>"This is the penny," he said, "that the girl gave him. We've just found +it, quite by accident. And he didn't tell her all of his thoughts. He +only told her some of them. The rest are in here, and we made them come +out."</p> + +<p>He began to polish it again with his handkerchief; and then he gave it +to her, and they stood watching her. For about five minutes she sat +quite still; and then she looked up, and her voice had changed a little.</p> + +<p>"If I tell you a story," she said, "will you let me keep it?"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert looked at Doris, and Doris nodded her head.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," said Cuthbert. "We should be very pleased."</p> + +<p>So while they were having tea she told them that long ago a girl had +lived in that house, and that she fell in love with a young man, who was +a carpenter by trade. But he was also a naturalist, and especially fond +of birds, and he wanted to discover all sorts of things about them;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> and +one day he told the girl that he was just going away to work on a +railway in South America. Then he hesitated, as if he wanted to tell her +something else, and she gave him a penny for his thoughts; and then he +left the house, and was drowned at sea, and the girl never knew whether +he had loved her or not.</p> + +<p>"It was very silly of him," said Miss Hubbard, "not to have told her. +But perhaps the girl was sillier still. For she was so sad that she +wasted her whole life; and now it seems that he loved her after all."</p> + +<p>Then she went to the window and pulled up the blind. The storm had died +down, and it had stopped snowing. Brighter than eyes at a Christmas +party, the stars in their thousands shone in the sky. Cuthbert and Doris +said that they must be going; and old Miss Hubbard took them to the +front door.</p> + +<p>"You must come and see me again," she said. "Come as often as you like; +and perhaps next time you'll bring some of your friends."</p> + +<p>"But she never told us," said Cuthbert, "who the girl was."</p> + +<p>"Why, you silly," said Doris, "it was Miss Hubbard herself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">To fetch her poor dog a bone,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">But this Mother Hubbard in her heart's cupboard</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Lives in the dark alone.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Sorrow's grey dust on the chandelier</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Never a sun-ray sees,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Never a finger stirs the blind,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">Nor the harpsichord's yellow keys.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Dumb is the clock with the china face,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">The carpet moulds on the floor;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Oh, won't you come down to her house with me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And open Miss Hubbard's door?</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>MARIAN'S PARTY</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 431px;"><a name="ILL_013" id="ILL_013"></a> +<img src="images/ill_013.jpg" width="431" height="500" alt="The Little Temple" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Little Temple</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h3>MARIAN'S PARTY</h3> + +<p>For a whole month after Cuthbert and Doris had had tea with old Miss +Hubbard the snow lay white upon the ground, and the ice grew thick over +the ponds. Day after day during the Christmas holidays the children went +skating or tobogganing; and Cuthbert and Doris learnt to waltz on +skates, and even Marian learnt to cut threes. And then the frost broke, +and it rained all through February, and then came March with its +blustering winds. Sometimes it was an east wind, drying the wet fields +or powdering them over with tiny snowflakes; and sometimes it was a west +wind, shouting in the tree-tops, with its arms full of sunshine and +golden clouds; and the week before Marian's birthday, which was on the +27th, was the windiest week of all, chasing people's hats across the +tram-lines, and blowing the chimney-smoke down into their sitting-rooms.</p> + +<p>Marian always had a party on her birthday, and this year it was going to +be a specially nice one. Twelve of her friends were coming, and so was +Uncle Joe, and so were Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt. So was Mr +Parker, who lived with Uncle Joe, and so was Lancelot, the bosun's mate; +and the most wonderful thing of all, so was old Miss Hubbard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>It had been Cuthbert's idea to ask Miss Hubbard, and she had promised to +come on one condition—that she might be allowed to bring the +birthday-cake and the nine candles to stick into it. For Marian was +going to be nine, and it was nearly two years since she had met Mr Jugg; +and she sometimes wondered—it seemed so long ago—if she had ever seen +him at all. Cuthbert used to tease her by pretending that she hadn't, +and that Mr Jugg was only a dream, just as he used to tease her by +telling her that the 27th of March was a silly sort of day on which to +have a birthday. That was because his own birthday came in April, so +that it was always in the holidays; but Uncle Joe, who knew a lot about +birthdays, used to take Marian's side. March was the soldier's month, he +said, full of bugles, and one of the best months to be born in; while, +as for Cuthbert, anyone could tell by listening to him that he had come +in April with all the other cuckoos.</p> + +<p>So Marian was naturally rather excited; and then, on the very morning of +her birthday, Cuthbert woke up with a strawberry-coloured tongue and a +chest as red as a cooked lobster. That was just the sort of thing, +Marian thought, that Cuthbert would do, although she knew that she ought +to feel sorry for him; and then the doctor came and said that he had +scarlet fever, and that was the end of Marian's party. For Mummy had to +put on an overall and begin to nurse Cuthbert, and a big sheet was hung +across the bedroom door, and Mummy had to sprinkle it with carbolic +acid, and of course Marian wasn't allowed to go to school. But she could +go for walks, said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> doctor, as long as she went by herself and +didn't go near anybody, or travel in trams and things; and so she spent +the morning in taking notes to her friends, telling them that there +wasn't to be a party after all. As for Uncle Joe, Mummy sent him a +message by a carrier who passed near his house. "And the first thing in +the afternoon," she said to Marian, "you must slip across the fields to +old Miss Hubbard's."</p> + +<p>Now a little girl whose only brother has just been silly enough to get +scarlet fever is one of the loneliest people in the world; and that was +just how Marian felt. Even her mummy tried to keep away from her, +because she was nursing Cuthbert, who was so infectious; and she had had +strict orders when she arrived at Mother Hubbard's not to go inside her +house.</p> + +<p>"Everybody's happy," said Marian, "except me," as she saw the people +laughing in the country roads, and the horses biting at each other's +manes, and the birds circling together in the soft air. For, as if +Somebody had known that it was going to be her birthday and waved a wand +during the night, the wind had dropped and the clouds vanished, and the +air was full of a thousand scents. There were earth-scents, warm and +wet, and hedge-scents of primroses and growing weeds, and the scents of +small animals, and cow-scents and lamb-scents, and tree-scents of bark +and cracking buds. Invisibly they rose and spread and mingled, like +children flocking upstairs in their party frocks; and the sun beamed +down on them like some gay old admiral who had just spied summer on the +horizon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Marian was still unhappy and disappointed, and when she had given +her message to old Miss Hubbard she wandered across the fields, not very +much caring where she went or what might happen to her. That was how she +was feeling when she came at last to a small wood, called the Pirate's +Wood because it was shaped rather like a ship, with a lot of masts in +it, easy to climb. It was Cuthbert who had christened this wood, because +he had climbed higher than the others—almost to the top of the tallest +tree. But Doris had climbed nearly as high, and they both laughed at +Marian, because she would only climb half-way up. It occurred to her +this afternoon, however, that she would climb higher than either of +them; and she didn't care, she said, if she fell from the top.</p> + +<p>So she swung herself up on to the lowest branch of the big elm-tree near +the middle of the wood; and presently she saw above her the fork between +two boughs that Cuthbert had christened the crow's-nest. Level with her +nose, cut in the bark of the trunk, was a big D, standing for Doris, so +that already she had climbed as high as Doris had climbed, and was able +to look out over the other trees. But now she had come to the hardest +part of the climb, for in order to reach the crow's-nest she would have +to swarm up a piece of the elm-trunk from which there were no branches +sticking out to help her. There were only roughnesses in the bark, into +which she would have to dig her fingers, and first of all she had to +pull up her skirt and tuck it down inside her knickers. For a moment or +two she began to be frightened. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> then she told herself that she +didn't care; and soon she had swarmed high enough to reach one of the +forking boughs, and had swung herself up into the crow's-nest.</p> + +<p>She was now as high as Cuthbert had climbed, and rippling away below her +she could see the fields and farm-lands stretching into the distance. +Two or three miles to her right lay the spires and chimneys and crinkled +roof-tops of the town, and two or three miles to her left, golden in the +sunlight, the hills lay strung along the sky. Then she saw yet another +fork between two slender boughs, just about a foot above her head, and +in a minute or two she had climbed higher even than Cuthbert had done, +and was safely perched in the top of the tree. If only the others had +been there she could have sighted imaginary ships for them sooner than +any of them had done before; and then she remembered again how sad and +lonely she was, and that nothing really mattered after all.</p> + +<p>So she stuffed her handkerchief into a crack in the tree just to prove +that she had really climbed there; and it was just then that she saw a +young man swinging across the fields toward the wood. He was wearing an +old shooting-jacket and grey flannel trousers; and he was singing a +song, of which she couldn't hear the words. She saw him climb a +gate—rather cautiously, she thought; she had expected from his general +air that he would vault it; and then he disappeared under the trees just +as she began to climb down.</p> + +<p>But climbing down anything is often more difficult than climbing up, as +Marian found; and half-way down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> she suddenly discovered that she had +somehow worked herself to the wrong side of the tree. Below her were two +or three branches that she thought would bear her, but there were long +gaps yawning between them; and the main trunk was growing broader and +broader, so that she could no longer span it with her arms. Once a piece +of bark broke in her fingers, and she slithered down a yard or more and +nearly fell; and she could feel her heart jumping against her ribs, as +she stood with both feet on a bending bough. Then she heard the young +man singing again in a cheerful voice, and she thought of shouting to +him, but she felt too shy; and then she began to lower herself very +carefully until she touched the branch below her with the tips of her +toes.</p> + +<p>The young man stopped singing.</p> + +<p>"Steady on," he cried. "You're touching a rotten branch."</p> + +<p>Marian pulled herself up again.</p> + +<p>"But it's the only one there is," she said. "I can't reach any other."</p> + +<p>She heard him whistle.</p> + +<p>"Hold on," he said. "I'm trying to find you—half a tick."</p> + +<p>He came to the bottom of the tree and looked up.</p> + +<p>"Where are you now?" he asked. Marian thought it a silly question.</p> + +<p>"Why, just here," she said.</p> + +<p>"Well, why don't you come down," he asked, "the same way that you got +up?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said. "I wish I could. But I've got wrong somehow. +I'm stuck."</p> + +<p>She saw him touching the elm-trunk with his hands, running his fingers +lightly and quickly over it. Then he swung himself up on to the lowest +bough, and soon he was near enough to touch her hand.</p> + +<p>"Now catch hold," he said, "and jump toward me. Don't be frightened. I'm +as firm as a rock."</p> + +<p>Marian jumped, and he caught and steadied her.</p> + +<p>"Now you're all right," he said. "You'd better go down first."</p> + +<p>In another moment or two he was on the ground beside her, looking down +at her with a smile. He was about six feet high, she thought, with +queer-looking eyes and curly brown hair and a skin like a gipsy's.</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you doing here," he asked, "climbing all alone?"</p> + +<p>Marian told him about her party, and how she had had to put it off. "And +it'll be seven or eight weeks," she said, "before Cuthbert's well again, +so that I shan't have one at all."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see," he said. "That's jolly bad luck. What about having some +tea with me?"</p> + +<p>Marian looked at him a little doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"But where do you live?" she asked. "Do you live near here?"</p> + +<p>"Well, just at present," he said, "I'm staying with Lord Barrington. But +I have a flask in my pocket full of hot tea, and I stole some cakes +before I came out."</p> + +<p>So they sat down together between the roots of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> elm-tree, and the +sun poured down upon them, almost as if it had been summer.</p> + +<p>"But why did you come here," said Marian—"to this wood I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, just by accident," he said, "if there's any such thing."</p> + +<p>Marian looked him up and down again. She wondered what he was. Perhaps +it was rude, but she ventured to ask him.</p> + +<p>"Well, I used to be a painter," he said, "once upon a time. I was rather +a successful one. So I saved a little money."</p> + +<p>"But you're quite young," she said. "Why aren't you one now?"</p> + +<p>"Because I had a disappointment," he said, "just like you have had."</p> + +<p>Marian began to like him.</p> + +<p>"Was it a bad one?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Pretty bad," he said. "I became blind."</p> + +<p>For a moment Marian was so surprised that she couldn't say anything at +all; and then she felt such a pig that she didn't want to say anything. +For what was a silly little disappointment like hers beside so dreadful +a thing as becoming blind? But he looked so contented and was humming so +cheerfully as he counted out the cakes and began to divide them that her +curiosity got the better of her, and she spoke to him once more.</p> + +<p>"But how did you know," she asked, "that I was up the tree?"</p> + +<p>"Quite simple," he said. "I heard you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And how could you tell that that was a rotten branch?"</p> + +<p>"Because I heard the sound of it when your toes touched it."</p> + +<p>Marian was silent for a moment.</p> + +<p>"You must have awfully good hearing," she said. "But I suppose you've +practised rather a lot."</p> + +<p>"Well, a good deal," he admitted. "You see, I was in the middle of Asia +when I first lost my sight. I was camping out, and painting pictures, +and shooting an occasional buck for my breakfast and dinner. Then a gun +went off while somebody was cleaning it, and the next moment I was +blind; and for a couple of months there was only one thing I wanted, and +that was to die as soon as I could."</p> + +<p>He poured out some tea for her and dropped a lump of sugar into it.</p> + +<p>"And then one day," he said, "there came a man to see me, and he told me +that I oughtn't to be discouraged. He was an old priest of some queer +sort of religion that the people of those parts believed in; and he was +sorry for me, and took me to stay with him in a little temple up in the +mountains. I never knew his name, we were just father and son to each +other, and I suppose that most people would have called him a heathen. +But he had lived all his life up among the mountains, studying nature +and praying to God. Well, I stayed with him for more than a year, and he +used to talk to me about the things he knew. I was a bad pupil, I'm +afraid, but he was infinitely patient; and after a time I began to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +learn a little. 'You are blind, my son,' he used to tell me, 'but only a +little less blind than other people. And you have ears that are still +almost deaf. Why not stay with me and learn to hear?' I told him that I +<i>could</i> hear, but he only smiled—it's a lovely thing to hear people +smile—and then he began to teach me, just as he would have taught a +child, the ABC of hearing."</p> + +<p>He finished his cake and filled his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Did you know," he went on, "that everything has a sound, just as it has +a shape and colour of its own? Well, it has; and presently I seemed to +be living in a strange new world, all full of music. Of course it wasn't +really new. It was the same old world. Only, like most people, I had +been almost deaf to it; and when I first heard it, up in that little +temple, I nearly went mad with joy. Day after day and night after night +I went out by myself and listened, and gradually I began to distinguish +the separate sounds of things, like the notes of instruments in an +orchestra."</p> + +<p>He stopped for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Just behind us, for instance, there's a clump of anemones singing next +to some primroses."</p> + +<p>Marian turned and saw them, just as he had said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish," she cried, "that I could hear them too."</p> + +<p>The painter smiled.</p> + +<p>"Wait for a moment," he said. "Well, then once more I began to grow +miserable. For I was an artist, you see, and every artist wants to make +other people see what he sees. That was why I had painted my pictures. +But how could I make people hear what I heard? So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> I told the old priest +about it, and he said that, if I were a real artist, the power would +come back to me somehow. 'Wait a little,' he said, 'Stay a little +longer. You've hardly begun yet to hear for yourself.'"</p> + +<p>He paused again and lit his pipe.</p> + +<p>"And at last it came to me," he said. "Hold my hand."</p> + +<p>Marian slipped her hand into his.</p> + +<p>"Now close your eyes," he told her, "and listen."</p> + +<p>For a moment she could hear nothing but a ploughman shouting to his +horses and the tap-tapping of a woodpecker; but slowly as she listened +sounds began to come to her, as of a hidden band far in the distance. +Presently they drew nearer, and at first they were confused, like +hundreds of people gently humming through closed lips; but at last she +began to recognize different notes, like tiny drums and flutes and +fifes. All the time, too, close at hand, there was a faint persistent +ringing of bells; and these were the anemones swaying on their stems; +and the little trumpet-sounds came from the primroses. Then there was a +rough sort of scraping sound; and that was a mole, he said, burrowing in +the earth two or three yards away. And there was a sound like a chant on +one full note from a big field of grass just in front of the wood. Those +were the distincter notes; but there was a continuous sharp undertone, +like millions of finger-tips tapping on stretched parchment; and those +were the buds opening all along the hedges and upon the leaf-twigs up +above them. But deeper than all, deeper and softer than the softest +organ, there was a great sound; and that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the sap, he told her, +rising like a flood in all things living for miles around them.</p> + +<p>Then she opened her eyes and dropped his hand, and it was as if she had +suddenly become almost deaf. She lifted her fingers and put them in her +ears.</p> + +<p>"It's as if they were stopped up," she said. "Hold my hand again."</p> + +<p>But he turned and smiled at her.</p> + +<p>"Are you still unhappy?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Marian shook her head.</p> + +<p>"No, not now," she answered.</p> + +<p>"That's right," he said. "The world's much too good a place for a little +girl like you to be unhappy in."</p> + +<p>Then he held her hand again, and as the sounds of the world came back to +her there happened the oddest thing of all. For now there came other +sounds, clearer and nearer, lighter than breath and closer than her +heart. They said "Marian" to her, "Marian, Marian"; and the strange +thing was that she seemed to remember them—just as if their names were +on the tip of her tongue, like the names of old friends, stupidly +forgotten.</p> + +<p>"That's what they are," he said. "They're the voices of the friends that +we left behind us when we were born. Whenever we go back, and whenever +we have a birthday, they come flocking down to greet us."</p> + +<p>He stood up and stretched himself, and Marian rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"So you've had a party," he said, "after all."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Could we, down the road to school,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Run but with undeafened ears,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Then what joy in this sweet spring</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Just to hear the gardens sing,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Scilla with her drooping bells</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Playing her enchanted peal,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Primrose with his golden throat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">Shouting his triumphant note.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>THE SORROWFUL PICTURE</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"><a name="ILL_014" id="ILL_014"></a> +<img src="images/ill_014.jpg" width="429" height="500" alt="Porto Blanco" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Porto Blanco</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>XII</h2> + +<h3>THE SORROWFUL PICTURE</h3> + +<p>Marian never told anybody, not even Gwendolen, about that strange party +of hers under the elm-tree; and the blind painter faithfully promised +that he would keep it a secret too. But a fortnight later, when the +doctor said that it was quite safe, she introduced him to Gwendolen; and +Gwendolen was rather excited, because he was the very man who had +painted her favourite picture.</p> + +<p>This was a picture, only half finished, that her aunt had bought when +Gwendolen was quite little and when she used to play games all by +herself in the big house in Bellington Square. One of these games was a +queer sort of game, in which she would shut herself up in a room, and +imagine herself climbing into the pictures on the wall and having +adventures with the people inside them. If the picture had a tower in +it, she would climb up the tower and peep down over the other side; or +if there were ships in it she would go on board and talk to the sailors +down below. But her favourite picture she called the "sorrowful +picture," because though she loved it, it made her feel sad.</p> + +<p>It was really little more than a sketch, rapidly painted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> in a few +strokes, and Gwendolen's aunt had only bought it because she had been +told that the artist was famous. But it was full of sunlight, of a hot, +foreign sunlight, through which an old house had stared at the painter, +a yellow-walled house with latticed windows and violet shadows under its +broken roof. In a crooked pot near the front door a dead palm stretched +its withered fingers; and the front door itself was a cave of darkness, +with a jutting eave above it like a frowning eyebrow.</p> + +<p>But what made it so sorrowful, at any rate to Gwendolen, was a little +window up in the right-hand corner—an unlatticed window, as dark as the +front door, but with a different sort of darkness. For the darkness of +the front door was an angry darkness. When Gwendolen was little, it had +made her feel frightened. But the darkness of the window was like a +wound. She wanted to kiss it and make it well. After she had played with +the other pictures, and climbed the mountains in them, and gone paddling +in the streams, she always came to this one and stood on its threshold +and wondered why it was so different from the others. She never played +with it. It seemed too real. "I believe there's something sad," she +said, "that the window wants to tell me."</p> + +<p>But she loved it too, better than all the other pictures, because nobody +else seemed to understand it; and when her aunt had married Captain +Jeremy, and they had left Bellington Square, and most of the other +pictures had been sold, her aunt had allowed her to take this one with +her and hang it in her bedroom in the old farmhouse. So she was rather +excited when Marian introduced her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> to the blind painter; and when he +came to tea with them in the middle of April she took him upstairs and +told him all about it, because, of course, he could no longer see it.</p> + +<p>But he couldn't remember it, or even where he had painted it, though +there was a date on it which showed that it was six years old, because +that was a year, he said, in which he was travelling all over the world +and making little sketches almost every day. But he didn't laugh at her +as her nurse had done, because pictures, he said, were queer things; and +nothing was more likely than that there should be something in this one +that only Gwendolen could feel.</p> + +<p>"You see, a picture," he said, "if you look at it properly, is just like +a conversation painted on canvas; and you can see what the artist said +to his subject as well as what his subject said to him. Of course, in +most pictures, just as in most conversations, all that happened is +something like this: 'Good morning,' said the artist, 'fine weather +we're having,' and whatever he was painting just nodded its head. That's +because he was really thinking about something else—his indigestion or +the money that he hoped to make; and nobody ever tells their inmost +thoughts to people who talk to them like that. But if he has tried to be +a real artist, loving and understanding, and not thinking about himself +at all, the hills and the trees, or whatever he was painting, have begun +to tell him all about themselves. They've swopped secrets with him just +like old friends; and there they are for you to see. Sometimes they have +even told him things that he didn't understand himself. But he has +painted them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> so faithfully that other people have; and that's the most +wonderful thing that can happen to an artist—better than finding a +hundred pounds."</p> + +<p>He lit a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"And I shouldn't be surprised," he said, "if that little window wasn't +giving me a message. Only it was a message that I never understood; and +perhaps Gwendolen does."</p> + +<p>But Gwendolen shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Not very well," she said. "I only know that it makes me feel sad."</p> + +<p>And then Gwendolen's aunt came to tell them that tea was ready, and in a +couple of minutes they had forgotten all about the picture; and a +quarter of an hour later they forgot it still more, for in came Captain +Jeremy and Lancelot, the bosun's mate. They were both in high spirits, +because they had had an order to put to sea again for Porto Blanco, to +fetch a cargo of fruit from the Gulf of Oranges, on the shores of which +Porto Blanco was the principal town.</p> + +<p>"A matter of three months," said Captain Jeremy, "out and home." He gave +Marian a kiss and pulled Gwendolen's pigtail. "You'd better come with +us. What do you say, Lancelot? Or do you think they'd bring us bad +luck?"</p> + +<p>But Lancelot only grinned and made a husky noise—not because he was +naturally shy, but because he was always afraid of having tea in the +drawing-room, in case he should spill something on the carpet. He would +much have preferred, in fact, to have tea in the kitchen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> with Mrs +Robertson, the housekeeper, because he was very fond of Mrs Robertson, +and wanted to marry her, and had told her so several times. But Mrs +Robertson couldn't make up her mind. Her first husband had been rather a +nuisance; and though he had been dead for nine and a half years, she was +still a little doubtful about taking a second one. But Marian and +Gwendolen couldn't help jumping up and down, and the blind painter said +that they ought to go, and Captain Jeremy promised to go round to Peter +Street and see what Marian's mother had to say about it.</p> + +<p>"But you'll have to talk to her," said Marian, "through the window, +because she's still nursing Cuthbert."</p> + +<p>"Then that's all the more reason," said Captain Jeremy, "why she'll be +glad to let you go."</p> + +<p>Then he asked the blind painter if he would like to come as well, but he +shook his head and said that he would be unable to, though he had +several times visited the Gulf of Oranges, and would much have liked to +go there once more. But after a little persuasion Marian's mother said +that Marian could go if Gwendolen went; and a week later they were +climbing on board the schooner as she lay at anchor in Lullington Bay.</p> + +<p>That was the first time that Marian had been aboard her, and everything +seemed strange to her, smelling so fresh and salt. But of course +Gwendolen knew all about the ship, and soon she was busy taking Marian +round. She showed her the big hold, dark and empty, in which they would +bring back the cases of fruit, and the cook's galley, and the sailors' +bunks, and Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> Jeremy's neat little cabin. And then, just after +tea, the anchor was pulled up, and the sails were shaken out, and the +wind began to fill them; and presently there were little waves slapping +against the bow, and the land was fading into the dusk behind them.</p> + +<p>Both of them were sea-sick during the night, and felt rather queer most +of the next day. But the day after that they were as hungry as they +could be, and were soon on deck talking to the sailors. Most of these +were the same sailors that had been to Monkey Island, and so Gwendolen +knew them already; and she introduced Marian to them, who very soon felt +as if they had been friends of hers all her life. But Lancelot was her +favourite, just as he was Gwendolen's, and when he was off duty and +smoking his pipe, they would sit on either side of him and listen to his +stories as the deck beneath them rose and fell. As for Porto Blanco and +the Gulf of Oranges, he had been there more times, he said, than he +could remember; and once he had been stranded there for such a long time +that he had learned to talk the language as well as any of the +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>"But it's a queer place," he said, "and they're queer people, sort of +half-way between black and white, and the sun's in the bones of them, +and half the time they're fighting, and the other half they're snoozing +in the shadders." But for the most part, he said, they were kindly +people and very indulgent to each other's faults; and the women all went +barefooted and smoked cigarettes, and the men sang love-songs together +when they weren't quarrelling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And up in the hills," said Lancelot, "back of the town, you can see +such flowers as you never saw anywhere, and great big oranges hanging +off of the trees, and corn-cobs taller than your head. And back of the +orange-trees there's great big forests, full of little Injuns with long +beards, and nasty yeller snakes, and birds of paradise, and parrots and +monkeys and inji-rubber trees," and sometimes he would go on talking +till they forgot all about supper-time, and the stars would open above +their heads, and far away, perhaps, like a little chain of beads, they +would see the port-lights of some great liner.</p> + +<p>The wind held so fair that by the end of a month they were nearly four +thousand miles from home, and a week later when they came on deck they +found the sea dotted with little islands. So lovely were they in their +wet colours that they might have been enamelled there during the night, +and Marian and Gwendolen almost gasped with joy as the ship slid past +them in the early morning. For a long time now the weather had been so +hot that awnings had been stretched over the deck; and Marian and +Gwendolen wore as little as they could—the thinnest of white jerseys +and the shortest of skirts. For nearly three weeks they had worn no +shoes or stockings, and their feet and legs were the colour of copper; +and for two or three hours in the middle of the day Captain Jeremy had +made them go to sleep.</p> + +<p>But to-day they were much too excited to stay in their hammocks; and +presently, as they hung over the schooner's bow, they could see the +horizon beginning to creep closer, and the hill-tops and forests of the +mainland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> The wind had dropped now, and the sea was like glass, and +sometimes the ship scarcely seemed to move, but early in the afternoon +they began to see the roofs of the town and the tower of the cathedral +and the white-walled quay. Slowly they drew nearer until they could see +the people on the shore or lounging in the other ships at anchor in the +harbour; and just before sunset they had come to their moorings and were +lying securely against the quay.</p> + +<p>Down in the cabin, Captain Jeremy was talking business with two of the +fruit-merchants—dark-skinned men in white linen suits, smoking +pale-coloured long cigars. But Marian and Gwendolen stayed up on deck, +watching the night coming down like a shutter, and the lamps beginning +to shine in the crooked streets and behind the windows of the houses. +Now that it was cooler the people were taking the air, and gaily-dressed +women sauntered up and down; and in front of a cafe, where there were a +lot of little tables, some men were singing and playing guitars. It was +all so strange, it was like being in a theatre, and the air was full of +spice-scents and the scent of oranges; and it was hard to believe that +they were even in the same world with school and Peter Street and +Fairbarrow Down.</p> + +<p>But next morning it all seemed more real again, and Captain Jeremy took +them round the town; and they had lunch with one of the fruit-merchants +in a low-walled house built round a courtyard. After lunch they slept in +long armchairs, and when they woke up queer sorts of drinks were brought +to them; and then it was time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> to go back to the ship again and watch +the cases of fruit being packed in the hold. After a day or two, when +they had learned their way about, Captain Jeremy let them go ashore +alone; and by the end of the week they had explored every corner of the +town, and even gone for walks along the country roads. Some of these +were broad roads leading to other towns, but most of them became +mule-tracks after a mile or two; and they seldom went very far up these +because of the heat, which was greater then even the inhabitants had +ever known.</p> + +<p>Day after day, through the still air, the great sun emptied itself into +the town; and the streets cracked, and the barometer fell, and Captain +Jeremy looked anxiously at the weather; and it was upon the hottest day +of all—the day before they were leaving—that Gwendolen suddenly +gripped Marian's arm.</p> + +<p>It was early in the morning, before the sun was at its steepest, and +they had wandered past the cathedral into the outskirts of the town, +where a little track between two high garden walls had tempted them to +explore it. It had led them into a sort of garden, untidy and deserted, +and on the other side of this there stood a house—a yellow-walled house +with latticed windows and violet shadows under its broken roof. Beside +the front door stood a crooked pot, and the front door itself was a cave +of darkness, and up in the right-hand corner, under the roof, was a +little window standing open. Gwendolen found herself shaking all over.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's the very house," she said, "of the sorrowful picture."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so it was, and as they stood looking up at it, it seemed more +sorrowful to Gwendolen than ever. For there was the little window almost +beseeching her in actual words to go and comfort it; and she even had a +feeling that for all these years it had been crying in vain to her +across half the world. But there was the front door too, dark with +anger, and before they could move a man came out of it. He was a big man +with a fat face, and he stood blinking for a moment in the sunshine; and +then they saw him frown as he caught sight of them; and he shouted words +at them that they didn't understand.</p> + +<p>But it was evident that he wanted them to go away, and they saw him +touch a knife that he wore in his belt; and so they ran back again up +the little track, and there in the street they met Lancelot. He was +grinning as usual, and he looked so big and strong that they could +almost have hugged him on the spot; but his face grew serious when they +told him what had happened, and he stroked his chin and became +thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a good thing," he said, "that you come away. In this here +town you have to be careful. But I'll have a turn round and see if I can +find anything out about this here house and the feller as lives in it."</p> + +<p>Then he mopped his face and looked at the sky and told them to go back +again to the ship; and a couple of hours later he came aboard and +beckoned them to talk to him while he smoked his pipe. Everything was +ready now for the ship to sail next morning, and most of the other +sailors were asleep, and Captain Jeremy had gone to lunch again with the +fruit-merchant in the town.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, this here feller," said Lancelot, "seems a queer sort of cove, +with a bad name, and he lives all alone; and his wife ran away from him +six years ago, taking their only little girl along with her. But there's +some folks believe that he went after her and killed her—anyway, she +was found dead in the forest—but what happened to Pepita, who was three +years old at the time, nobody knows, for she's never been seen."</p> + +<p>Then he smoked his pipe for a minute. "But I tell you what," he said. +"He's pretty sure to be asleep just now. And if you like I'll go and +have a look at the house, and see what there is to it, and come and tell +you."</p> + +<p>"But I must come too," said Gwendolen. "I really must."</p> + +<p>"And so must I," said Marian. "We must both come," and after a while +they persuaded him to take them, and they set off again through the +town. It was now so hot that it seemed as if the very earth must begin +to melt and crumble away; and when they came to the house there were no +signs of life—there was only that little window, dark and aching. For a +moment they stood listening at the front door, and then they cautiously +stepped inside; and there, in a lower room, asleep on the floor, they +saw the big man with the fat face. Then they stole upstairs until they +came to the little room under the roof to which the window belonged; and +then, as they pushed the door open, the tears sprang to their eyes, and +Lancelot swore a great oath.</p> + +<p>For there they saw, tied to a staple in the wall, a little girl of about +nine years old, ragged and scarred, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> timid dark eyes and cheeks +like a flower that has never seen the sun. Tied across her mouth was a +dirty cloth, and when she first saw them she shrank away; but as +Gwendolen went up to her with outstretched arms, her eyes widened in +sheer astonishment. Then Lancelot stooped and cut the rope that bound +her, and pulled away the cloth that was gagging her mouth; and then he +jumped round just as the little girl's father came stumbling fiercely +into the room.</p> + +<p>Gwendolen heard him shouting something and using the word Pepita; and as +she clasped the little girl in her arms she knew why it was that all +these years the sorrowful picture seemed to have been calling to her. It +was because the little girl's pain and longing for freedom had somehow +stolen into the painter's brush. Then she saw Lancelot's fist shoot out +like a bullet, and Pepita's father tumble to the floor; and then +Lancelot shouted to them to hurry away, and picking up Pepita, he ran +down the stairs. In less than a minute they were in the little track +between the high garden walls; and in a few seconds more they were out +in the street, and then a most strange and awful thing happened. For +Marian stopped short and pointed with her finger.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the matter," she cried, "with the cathedral tower?"</p> + +<p>They all stared at it, and saw it rock to and fro; and then Lancelot +swung round toward the open country.</p> + +<p>"Run for your lives," he said, and then, as they followed him, they felt +the ground beneath them rise and fall. Then they heard a crash, and +people shouting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and then all was still again, and they stopped +running. Lancelot wiped his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Well, now you know," he said, "what an earthquake's like. Lucky it +wasn't a worse one."</p> + +<p>And there was the cathedral tower still standing on its foundations, but +when they looked for Pepita's house it had fallen down like a pack of +cards, a fitting grave for Pepita's father. For they heard in the +evening that he had been killed; and Pepita afterward told them how he +had killed her mother, and how he had kept her for all those years tied +to the wall in that dark upper room. As for Captain Jeremy, he was so +rejoiced at seeing Marian and Gwendolen safe that he told Lancelot he +would have forgiven him if he had brought fifty Pepitas on board. +Lancelot was very pleased about that, because, in his heart of hearts, +he knew that he ought never to have let them come with him. But, as he +told Gwendolen, all was well that ended well, and he hoped that she +would allow him to take care of Pepita.</p> + +<p>Gwendolen wasn't quite sure at first, but when they arrived home her +aunt and Mrs Robertson thought it a good idea. For Mrs Robertson had +made up her mind to marry Lancelot, and Pepita was just the little girl, +she said, that she had always wanted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">We're going the way that Drake went,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">We shall see what Drake's men saw,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">A coppery curly cobra-snake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And a scarlet-cloaked macaw.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">For we're going the way that Drake went,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">We're taking the jungle trail,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;">And we'll bring you a dark-eyed damsel home,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">And a cock with a golden tail.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"><a name="ILL_015" id="ILL_015"></a> +<img src="images/ill_015.jpg" width="428" height="500" alt="The Lagoon" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Lagoon</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND</h3> + +<p>It was about a week after Marian and Gwendolen had arrived home from +Porto Blanco that Uncle Joe suddenly asked Cuthbert and Doris to spend a +fortnight with him at Redington-on-Sea. It was not the sort of town that +Uncle Joe liked, because it was full of big houses and glittering +hotels; and most of the people in it wore expensive clothes, and it had +a long pier, with a theatre at the end. But he always went there in the +first week of August, when Mr Parker took his annual holiday, so that he +could visit an old friend of his, who had lodgings on the Marine Parade.</p> + +<p>This old friend was called Colonel Stookley, and he had lost both his +legs as the result of wounds; and Uncle Joe generally took rooms next +door and played chess with him every evening. He had been very brave, +but was now rather wheezy, besides having something wrong with his +liver; and as he had lost most of his friends he was always glad to see +Uncle Joe. Generally Uncle Joe went to see him alone, so that he could +be with him most of the day; but this year he thought that Cuthbert +needed a change, and he asked Doris, because Marian had just had a +voyage. At first they were afraid that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> they would have to take their +best clothes, but Uncle Joe said that he didn't mind. So long as they +brushed their teeth every day they could wear what they liked, he said, +and they could paddle and swim as much as they pleased.</p> + +<p>So they met Uncle Joe at the station at eleven o'clock on the 3rd of +August, and a couple of hours later they were having lunch with him in +the big dining-car of the express. Through the windows, as they rocked +along, trying their best not to spill their soup, they could see the +harvesters at work in the fields, and ribbons of flowers as they crashed +through the little stations; and a couple of hours after that, where +some hills had broken apart, Doris was the first of them to see a stitch +of blue; and by half-past four they were talking to the landlady of +number 70 Marine Parade.</p> + +<p>This was next door to where Colonel Stookley lodged, and the landlady's +name was Mrs Bodkin; and she gave Doris a kiss, and said that she was +tall for her age and that Cuthbert's cheeks would soon have some roses +in them. Then she showed them their bedrooms, which were at the top of +the house, looking out to sea over the esplanade; and they found that +they could talk to each other out of the windows and watch the people in +the gardens below.</p> + +<p>These were very trim gardens, like the garden in Bellington Square, +separated by railings from the flagged esplanade; and beyond the +esplanade there were terraces of pebbles, crumbling into a stretch of +hard, wet sand.</p> + +<p>As it was tea-time there were not many people about;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> but by six o'clock +there were people everywhere—people in the gardens, listening to the +band, and looking sideways at each other's clothes; people on the +esplanade, sauntering up and down, and saying how-do-you-do to their +friends; people on the pier staring through telescopes, and people on +the beach reading magazines, and people on the sands building castles or +paddling with their children on the fringe of the sea. The tide was so +low that nobody was bathing, and weed-capped rocks stood out of the +water; and after they had paddled a little Doris suggested that they +should go and listen to the pierrots.</p> + +<p>This was the hour—just before the children's bedtime, and before the +grown-up people went home to dinner—when the pierrots and +beach-entertainers were all at their busiest, trying to earn money. Upon +a wooden platform, with three chairs and a piano, two men and two girls +were singing and dancing; and a hundred yards away from them, on a +similar sort of stand, there were three banjo-players with blackened +faces. But there were such crowds round each of these platforms that +Cuthbert and Doris couldn't get near them; and there was a conjurer, a +little farther on, who seemed to be even more popular. They watched him +for a minute or two, and saw the people raining pennies on him, but they +were too far away to be able to see his tricks; and then they saw a +clown, farther along still, turning somersaults on the sand.</p> + +<p>There were a few children round him, some of them with nurses, but the +people on the esplanade were taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> very little notice of him; and by +the time that Cuthbert and Doris reached him, he had stopped +somersaulting and was wiping his forehead. Standing near him, dressed +like a gipsy, was a woman, who was evidently his wife, and sitting on +the sand was a queer-looking boy about fourteen who seemed to be their +son. The clown was dressed in a baggy sort of smock, tied round his +ankles with pink ribbon, and his face was white, with a crimson diamond +painted on the middle of each cheek. His lips had been coloured to make +them seem smiling, and he wore a wig of carroty hair, but his eyes were +tired, and underneath his wig they could see some of his own hair, which +was quite grey.</p> + +<p>Then his wife brought a little box round, but none of the children +seemed to have any pennies, and the two or three grown-up people who had +been watching the performance turned aside without giving anything. +Cuthbert and Doris heard one of them say that it was a rotten show and +not worth a farthing; and then the old clown began to sing a song about +a cheese that climbed out of the window. Some of the nurses laughed a +little, but the children didn't understand it, and Cuthbert and Doris +thought it rather stupid, but the woman had noticed them and brought +them the box, and they each put a penny in it, though they didn't much +want to. Then the old clown and his wife pretended to have a quarrel, +and she kept knocking him down with an umbrella; but what interested +them most was the queer-looking boy, who kept laughing to himself and +playing with his fingers. Once or twice he got up and went straying +among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> audience, and they could see his mother watching him rather +anxiously; and presently he came and talked to them and told them that +he was a moon-boy and that his name was Albert Hezekiah.</p> + +<p>It was now nearly seven, and the tide was coming in, and there was +nobody left to watch the old clown, so his wife stopped hitting him with +the umbrella and helped him on with a shabby blue overcoat. Then they +emptied the pennies out of the box, and the old clown counted them in +the palm of his hand.</p> + +<p>"Ten and a half," he said, "not much of a catch, old lady," and then +they looked round for Albert Hezekiah.</p> + +<p>He was still talking to Cuthbert and Doris, and the old clown and his +wife came up to them. The woman spoke to Doris.</p> + +<p>"Don't you be frightened," she said, and the old clown tapped his +forehead.</p> + +<p>"He's a little bit touched," he said, "that's all, my dear. But he's a +good lad and he's quite harmless."</p> + +<p>Then they said good-night, and the moon-boy shook hands with them and +told them that he liked them, because they had nice faces; and two or +three times during the next few days they saw him playing about near his +father and mother. Then one day they saw him alone, and he told them +that his father was ill in bed, and that his mother had sent for the +doctor, and that they had no money to pay the rent with. It seemed +rather funny to think of a clown being ill, but Doris and Cuthbert each +gave him sixpence, and he ran off singing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> and they didn't see him +again till the last day of their holiday.</p> + +<p>This was a bright hot day, and they had bathed in the morning, and then +Mrs Bodkin had cut them some sandwiches, and they had had their lunch on +the top of Capstan Beacon, which was a high hill about five miles away. +Then they had walked inland and had tea at a little village; and it was +toward dusk, just as they were reaching the town, that they saw the +moon-boy in the middle of a group of boys on a piece of waste land near +the gas-works. He was waving his arms and looking rather bewildered, and +the other boys were mocking him and singing a sort of song, "Loony, +loony, moon-boy; loony, loony, loo"; and when they came nearer they saw +that he was crying, and that one of the bigger boys was throwing stones +at him.</p> + +<p>Doris was so angry that she could hardly speak, but she caught hold of +the boy who was throwing stones, and when he tried to hit her she +slapped his face and told him that he was the biggest coward that she +had ever seen. Then he tried to hit her again, but Cuthbert jumped in +front of her, and after a minute or two Cuthbert knocked him down; and +then the other boys ran away, after throwing stones at them and calling +them names.</p> + +<p>"Little beasts," said Doris, "look what they've done," and Cuthbert saw +that they had cut the moon-boy's cheek. So Doris took out her +handkerchief and stopped the bleeding, and then they both took the +moon-boy home. He was so excited at first that he lost the way, but at +last he stopped in front of a little house; and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> a back room they +found the old clown, sitting up in bed and trying to shave himself. His +wife was at the fireplace, frying some fish; and when they heard what +had happened to their son, they shook hands with Cuthbert and Doris and +thanked them over and over again.</p> + +<p>"Luck's against us, you see," said the old clown. "We're getting past +work, and the people won't laugh at us. And this here boy of ours is all +that we have, and there's nobody else to look after him."</p> + +<p>"Excepting one," said the moon-boy, and the old clown began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"That's one of his crazes," he said. "He says that he has a friend who +comes and talks to him once a week."</p> + +<p>"Out of the sea," said the boy. "He comes out of the sea. I never see +him except by the sea."</p> + +<p>"Nor there either," said his mother, "if the truth was known." But when +Cuthbert and Doris said good-bye the moon-boy followed them into the +street and began speaking to them in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"I tell you what," he said. "If you'll meet me to-night at ten o'clock +just by the lighthouse I'll show him to you, if you'll promise not to +laugh. Because if you laugh, he won't come."</p> + +<p>For a moment they hesitated because they were pretty sure that Uncle Joe +wouldn't allow it; but then they decided that they needn't ask him, as +he would be sure to be playing chess with Colonel Stookley. So they +promised to be there, though they thought it very likely that the +moon-boy wouldn't come; and just before ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> they were on the little +path that led from the town toward the lighthouse.</p> + +<p>This was about a mile from the end of the esplanade, under a great cliff +called Gannet Head, and at low tide it was possible to reach the +lighthouse by climbing over some fifty yards of rocks. But the tide was +high to-night, and the little path that slanted down across the face of +the cliff came to an end upon a slab of rock not more than a foot above +the water. There was no moon, but the stars were so bright that the air +was full of a sort of sparkle; and the sea was so still that the water +beneath them hardly seemed to rise and fall. <i>Clup, clup</i> it went, with +a lazy sort of sticky sound, like a piece of gum-paper flapping against +a post, and then slowly becoming unstuck again before doing it all once +more.</p> + +<p>At first they could see nobody, but as they stood looking about them +they heard a soft whistle a little farther on; and there was the +moon-boy, with his arms round his knees, squatting on another ledge of +rock. This was broader and flatter than the one at the bottom of the +path, and a little higher above the water; and Cuthbert and Doris were +soon sitting beside him and wondering what was going to happen.</p> + +<p>"Where's your friend?" asked Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>The moon-boy touched his lips.</p> + +<p>"<i>H'shh</i>," he said. "He'll be here in a minute. He was here half an hour +ago, and I told him all about you."</p> + +<p>"But where's he gone?" said Doris.</p> + +<p>The moon-boy shook his head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't know," he said. "He might be anywhere. He spends his life +pulling children out of the water. But nobody ever sees him except me."</p> + +<p>Doris suddenly felt her heart beginning to beat quicker.</p> + +<p>"Why, I believe I know him!" she said. "Is he a saint?"</p> + +<p>The moon-boy nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's a patron saint," he said. "He's the patron saint of water."</p> + +<p>"Then I do know him," said Doris. "At least, I've heard of him, and I've +met his brother, St Uncus."</p> + +<p>"This one's St William," said the moon-boy, "but he's generally known as +Fat Bill."</p> + +<p>And then they heard a pant, and there, sitting beside them, was an +enormous man with a red face. Like his brother, he was nearly bald, but +he was about seven times as large, and he had blue eyes and a double +chin, and there was a big landing-net in his right hand.</p> + +<p>"Good evening," he said, "pleased to meet you. I've heard about the girl +of you from my brother Uncus. And the boy of you I saw last year, +pulling a little nipper out of a stream."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert blushed.</p> + +<p>"That was young Liz," he said, "Beardy Ned's kid, but it was quite +easy."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it was," said Fat Bill, "but, as it happened, you really helped +to save two nippers. You see, there was a kid, just at the same moment, +fell into a lagoon off Hotoneeta."</p> + +<p>"What's Hotoneeta?" asked Cuthbert.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Bit of an island," he said, "a hundred miles south of the equator."</p> + +<p>He cleared his throat.</p> + +<p>"Well, I couldn't save 'em both, because I was pulling a boy out of Lake +Windermere; and I was just going for Liz when I saw that you were after +her, so that I was able to land Blossom-blossom just in time."</p> + +<p>"Was that her name?" asked Doris.</p> + +<p>Fat Bill nodded.</p> + +<p>"That's the English of it," he said. "But her people are savages."</p> + +<p>Then he disappeared for a moment, and there was nothing but the +starlight and the <i>clup, clup</i> of the water; and it was while he was +gone that there came into Doris's mind a wild but just possible idea. +She turned to Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>"I tell you what," she said. "Why shouldn't he take us to Hotoneeta? I +expect he could somehow, if he really wanted to; and you <i>did</i> help to +save Blossom-blossom."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert considered.</p> + +<p>"Well, of course he <i>might</i>," he said, and then Fat Bill was sitting +beside them again.</p> + +<p>"Just been to Ohio," he said, "to a place called Columbus—kid fell into +a lake there—nobody by."</p> + +<p>He laid down his landing-net and rubbed his hands.</p> + +<p>"It's a hard life," he said, "being a saint."</p> + +<p>But he looked so comfortable, sitting on the rock, with his fat thighs +spread out beneath him, that Doris was almost sure that he wouldn't +mind, and so she asked him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> if he would take them. He stroked his chin +for a moment and looked at her thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Well, of course I <i>could</i>," he said, "though it would be rather +irregular. But Albert Hezekiah here would have to look after my +landing-net, because I've only got two hands."</p> + +<p>So they all three of them looked at the moon-boy, and he promised to +take care of the landing-net; and then Fat Bill held out his hands, and +Cuthbert and Doris each took one of them. The moment they did so they +were, of course, in In-between Land, because that was where Fat Bill and +his brother lived; and the rocks looked ghostly, just like dream-rocks, +and they could see the moon-boy's soul, like a tiny flame. But the next +moment they were alone on a shore of the whitest sand that they had ever +seen, and the dawn was coming up over an enormous sea, stiller than +stillness and breathlessly blue. At their feet lay a shallow lagoon—or +at least it looked shallow—trembling with colour; and strange-petalled +weeds swung to and fro in it, and the silver-scaled fishes slid between +them.</p> + +<p>It was so hot that they wanted to throw their clothes away, and the +jungle behind them was full of odours—sleepy odours, like the odours of +a medicine-chest—and nodding, red-lipped flowers. Leading from the +shore, between the walls of the jungle, was a narrow path of grass and +sand; and standing in the middle of it, still as an idol, was a little +dark-brown naked girl. Fat Bill had gone, but they knew that it was +Blossom-blossom, and then she gave a yell and fled from sight; and +Cuthbert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and Doris couldn't help laughing as they began to explore the +rim of the lagoon.</p> + +<p>But a minute or two later, as they were kneeling on the shore and +peering down into that wonderful water, something happened that made +them think of Blossom-blossom in rather a different sort of way. For +just as Doris had made up her mind to take off her shoes and stockings, +they heard a little sound, and the next moment a spear was quivering in +the sand between them. They sprang to their feet just in time to avoid +another one and to see a man crouching at the edge of the jungle; and +then they were snatched up, and there they were on the rock again, with +Gannet Head towering above them. The moon-boy was laughing, but Fat Bill +looked serious.</p> + +<p>"Narrow squeak," he said. "That was Blossom-blossom's father. I thought +he was asleep in his hut."</p> + +<p>Then he shook hands with them and said good-bye, and they climbed up the +path again and went home to bed; and when Uncle Joe came up to look at +them, they confessed to him what they had been doing. He was rather +angry, of course, but he didn't laugh at them, and as for Fat Bill, he +said that he had heard of him; and as for the old clown, he promised to +see what he could do for him before they left the town next morning.</p> + +<p>"But don't you think it was rough," said Cuthbert, "after I had helped +to save Blossom-blossom, to have her father throwing spears at me?"</p> + +<p>But that was just the sort of thing, said Uncle Joe, that saviours had +to be prepared for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">The candle's finger shakes.</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">My story's done.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">"No more," says Father Time, "or shall we say</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;">Just one?"</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>THE CHRISTMAS TREE</h2> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"><a name="ILL_016" id="ILL_016"></a> +<img src="images/ill_016.jpg" width="447" height="500" alt="Still Talking" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Still Talking</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE CHRISTMAS TREE</h3> + +<p>The worst of discovering anybody like Fat Bill at the very beginning of +the summer holidays is that it makes the rest of the holidays seem a +little dull; and that was just what Cuthbert and Doris felt. So they +were really rather glad when the winter term at school began; and so +were Gwendolen and Marian, who hadn't been to school since the spring.</p> + +<p>It was an important term, too, for they were all moved up; and Marian +had to buy her first hockey-stick; and Doris and Gwendolen began to +learn Latin; and Cuthbert's homework became really unbearable. But he +managed to survive, and they were all so busy that the term was over +almost before it had begun; and here was Christmas close at hand again, +and everybody rushing about buying presents.</p> + +<p>As for Cuthbert and Marian, they had so much to do in the three or four +days before Christmas that they were half afraid they would never be +able to do it, because on Christmas Eve they were going to have a party. +It was to be rather a special party, because neither Cuthbert nor Marian +had been able that year to have a birthday party; and all the people +that they had invited had sent replies saying that they were coming.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>Old Miss Hubbard was coming, and so was Uncle Joe, and Mr Parker was +coming with him; and Doris's mummy was coming with Doris and her five +brothers; and Beardy Ned was bringing little Liz. Then there was +Gwendolen, of course, who was coming too, with her aunt and Captain +Jeremy; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson were bringing Pepita; and Percy +the gamekeeper's son was bringing Agnes. Just at the last minute, too, +they had a letter from the blind painter saying that he was bringing +Lord Barrington. And Mr and Mrs Williams were coming, and so was Mummy's +nurney, and so was Edward Goldsmith.</p> + +<p>"Goodness knows," said Mummy, "where we shall put them all. I hope they +won't mind sitting on the floor."</p> + +<p>But Cuthbert and Marian said that it would be all right, and that they +would have the Christmas tree in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Then we can have the doors open," said Cuthbert, "and people can sit on +the stairs; and Marian and I will make the paper festoons."</p> + +<p>So Mummy and Mummy's nurney and the cook spent hours and hours making +cakes and pastries; and just as it seemed as if they would never be +ready, they suddenly found that there was nothing to do except to keep a +lookout for old Jacob Parsley, who came every year selling Christmas +trees.</p> + +<p>That was on the morning of the 23rd of December, with a fine rain +falling outside; and as they sat at the window both Cuthbert and Marian +felt a little stale and out of temper. In spite of all the excitements +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> term and the preparations for the party, it suddenly seemed to +them a very long time since they had had a real proper adventure.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't be surprised," said Marian, "if we never have another."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we shan't," said Cuthbert, "but it'll be an awful bore," and +then, at that very moment, they heard a familiar voice; and there was +Jacob Parsley in the street below.</p> + +<p>Where he came from nobody knew; but every year on the 23rd of December +he limped into the town with his old white horse and a ramshackle cart +full of Christmas trees. There they were, year after year, shining and +crisp and neatly potted; and people used to say that he had dug them up +at night from rich men's plantations in other parts of the country. As +for himself, he was a red-faced old man, with a stubbly grey beard and a +scar on his chin, and a pair of bright eyes that used to work +separately, so that nobody could tell which he was looking with.</p> + +<p>"Ker-rismus trees," he would shout, "all in per-hots. All in per-hots, +Ker-rismus-trees," and whenever he sold one he would spit in the road, +and wish the buyer the compliments of the season. Also, if there were +any change he would generally try to keep it, to buy some cough mixture, +he would explain, for his bronchial tubes; and most people let him, +because they were afraid that he would slue one of his eyes round and +pierce their hearts with a reproachful glance.</p> + +<p>But to-day for the first time his cart seemed empty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> though he was +still shouting; and when they ran downstairs and opened the front door +they saw that he had only one tree left. It was a queer little tree with +silvery-grey leaves; and that was the reason, he said, why nobody had +bought it. All the others he had sold at once—almost as soon as he had +entered the town.</p> + +<p>"Wish I'd 'ad more," he said, "but this here tree, it ain't folk's +notion of a Ker-rismus tree. Not but what it ain't a good tree, though +it's a little 'un, and the feller I bought it off a queer sort of +feller."</p> + +<p>He stood looking at it, or as nearly looking at it as he ever seemed to +look at anything; and then he coughed for rather a long time and hit +himself on the chest and wished them a happy Christmas.</p> + +<p>"It's this here rain," he said. "It gets into the bronchial tubes. Five +shillings—that's all I'll ask you for it. And it's a good tree. You can +take my word for it. And them as buys it won't regret it."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert and Marian touched its leaves. Just behind them stood their +guardian angels. Even more intently than Cuthbert and Marian they bent +their gaze on the little tree.</p> + +<p>"But what kind of a tree is it?" asked Cuthbert.</p> + +<p>Jacob spat in the road.</p> + +<p>"Well, they tell me," he said, "as it's a olive. And they tell me as +it's the seedling of the great-great-grandson of the first Ker-rismus +tree of all."</p> + +<p>He spat in the road again.</p> + +<p>"Aye, of the very tree," he said, "as held Love's Innocence atween two +thieves."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I like the leaves of it," said Marian. "It's got wonderful leaves."</p> + +<p>The two angels drew a little closer. The old horse began to shake his +blinkers. So they bought the tree and carried it indoors.</p> + +<p>Round the pot they bound some scarlet paper, and round the paper they +twined a wreath of holly; and they placed the tree on a little table +near the foot of the stairs in the front hall.</p> + +<p>Said Cuthbert's angel, "This is a queer go."</p> + +<p>Marian's angel smiled as he lit his evening pipe.</p> + +<p>"And they were just grumbling," he said, "because they never had any +adventures. What do you suppose will happen when the guests have +assembled?"</p> + +<p>But Cuthbert's angel shook his head.</p> + +<p>"That's hard to tell," he said. "There's no precedent. Not since the +Great Day has a tree of that line ever been used as a children's +Christmas tree."</p> + +<p>The rain had stopped by then and the moon was shining, and soon after +midnight the thermometer fell. A hoar frost crept over the roof-tops. +The sun's rim rose out of a well of vapour. At eleven o'clock Cuthbert +went to play football, and Marian and Doris went to see Gwendolen.</p> + +<p>The sun had climbed free by then, but the wind was in the north, and as +the day went on the frost deepened. During the afternoon the children +went to some friends' houses to borrow chairs for the party. When they +came back Mummy was stooping over the Christmas-tree, fixing candles to +its slender twigs. In her eyes there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> a curious look. Cuthbert +kissed her and asked her what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Mummy, "but wouldn't it be wonderful if what Jacob said +about this tree were true?"</p> + +<p>Marian bent her lips to one of the leaves.</p> + +<p>"I believe it is," she said. "It makes me feel funny."</p> + +<p>Old Mother Hubbard was the first guest to come, and she brought a hamper +with her full of presents. Some of them were new, but some of them were +trinkets that she had kept ever since she was a girl.</p> + +<p>"And now I want to give them away," she said, "because for fifty years I +have never known what giving was like."</p> + +<p>Soon after that came Uncle Joe, driving in his little pony-cart with Mr +Parker; and Mr Parker took the pony-cart to the stables at the end of +the street. Uncle Joe was wearing an overcoat, with poacher's pockets in +its lining; and the pockets were bulging with middling-sized parcels to +be placed on the floor round the Christmas tree. Then came Captain +Jeremy and Gwendolen and Gwendolen's aunt, with the frosty air still in +their faces; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson brought Pepita, well wrapped +up and a little shy.</p> + +<p>Then a great car hummed down the street bringing Lord Barrington and the +blind painter, with Mr and Mrs Williams in their Sunday clothes, and a +big round cheese that they had brought for a present. Percy, their son, +and his sweetheart Agnes were the next to knock at the front door; and +they had hardly stepped inside before Doris and her mummy arrived with +the five boys. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> came Edward, looking very smart, with a hot-house +flower in his button-hole; and the last to appear was Beardy Ned, as +shabby as usual, with Liz on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Most of the others were having tea by now round the dining-room table, +or in the drawing-room, or sitting on the stairs, or standing in the +hall, or leaning against the banisters. And there, in the middle of +them, still unlit and waiting till the feasting should be over, stood +the little olive tree, hushed and inconspicuous, with the scarlet paper +round its pot.</p> + +<p>Mr Parker came back from the stables.</p> + +<p>"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic. That's a rum-looking tree +you've got for a Christmas tree," and the blind painter heard him and +turned round.</p> + +<p>"Where is it?" he asked. "Will you take me to it?" And Marian led him to +the little table. He bent his head for a moment, and there crept into +his eyes the same odd look that Marian had seen in Mummy's.</p> + +<p>Said Cuthbert's angel, "He's beginning to hear something. What do you +suppose will happen when they have lit the candles?"</p> + +<p>But Marian's angel shook his head.</p> + +<p>"The others will hear nothing," he said. "But will they see?"</p> + +<p>Said Doris's angel, "Can they see and live?"</p> + +<p>"Look," said Gwendolen's angel. "They're lighting the candles." And it +was just at that moment that a young man, shabbier even than Beardy Ned, +turned into Peter Street. But for his presence the street was empty. +Doris's angel was the first to see him. He lifted his head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> and spoke a +Name, and slowly the others filed out after him. Down the front steps +and along the pavement they made a lane of angels. But the door was +shut, and deep in their hearts was the dreadful fear that it mightn't be +opened.</p> + +<p>Then Uncle Joe struck another match and lit the last candle on the tree, +and Marian's daddy picked up one of the parcels and turned it over to +find the name on it. Smiling in her chair, old Miss Hubbard envied the +luckier women who had had children. Half in shadow, between Marian and +Gwendolen, stood Lord Barrington with his hawk-like face. There came a +knock at the front door. Cuthbert, who was nearest to it, turned and +opened it. He saw a young man in shabby clothes, and there was no beauty +in him that he should desire him. He stood there smiling in the outside +darkness.</p> + +<p>"May I come in?" he asked, and Cuthbert changed his mind. Everything +beautiful that he had ever seen shone into his heart from the young +man's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, rather," said Cuthbert. "We're having a party."</p> + +<p>His eyes sought his mother's.</p> + +<p>"Mummy, here's somebody else."</p> + +<p>Everybody turned round as the young man entered. The candles on the +olive tree shed their light upon him. All but the blind painter looked +into his eyes. Each saw the thing in them that he wanted most. Marian +and Gwendolen and Cuthbert and Doris, not wanting anything in +particular, only saw vaguely all that they hoped to be when they should +have become grown-up men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> and women. So did Edward and so did Pepita; +but Christopher Mark saw a celestial rabbit; and Percy and Agnes, +holding each other's hand, saw the darlingest of babies. What Beardy Ned +saw you can guess, and what Lord Barrington saw was Truth; and the blind +painter heard the angels singing the song that explains every other +song.</p> + +<p>Then the young man stooped for a moment over the little olive-tree.</p> + +<p>"Make them happy," he said, and then he was gone; and though nobody saw +them, of course, the guardian angels came and stood again in their +accustomed places. Marian turned impulsively to Lord Barrington.</p> + +<p>"Oh, who was he?" she said. "Tell me his name."</p> + +<p>Lord Barrington kissed her.</p> + +<p>"The loveliest present," he said, "that ever hung upon a tree."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Half-Past Bedtime, by H. H. 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H. Bashford + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Half-Past Bedtime + +Author: H. H. Bashford + +Release Date: January 21, 2011 [EBook #35029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-PAST BEDTIME *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + + + + +HALF-PAST BEDTIME + + + + +_By the Same Author_ + + THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET + PITY THE POOR BLIND + VAGABONDS IN PERIGORD + SONGS OUT OF SCHOOL + THE PLAIN GIRL'S TALE + + + + +[Illustration: HALF-PAST BEDTIME] + + + + +HALF-PAST +BEDTIME + + +_BY_ +H. H. BASHFORD + +AUTHOR OF +"THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET" ETC. + + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ + + +[Illustration] + + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO + + + + +TO +JOE & ADA MAGGS +AND THE CHILDREN THAT LOVE THEM + + + + + When Farmer Sun with rosy wink + Says good-bye all, and drives away, + When safe in fold the sheep-bells clink, + And hard-worked horses munch their hay, + + When brown and blue eyes sleepy grow, + And Nurse downstairs clears up the crumbs, + When God pulls down His blind, and so + What people call the twilight comes, + + Then lazy Moon lifts up her arm, + Shakes back her hair and smooths her beams, + And softly over field and farm + Scatters the milk-white seed of dreams. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. MR JUGG 13 + II. GWENDOLEN 29 + III. THE LITTLE ICE-MEN 45 + IV. UNCLE JOE'S STORY 61 + V. BEARDY NED 75 + VI. THE MAGIC SONG 89 + VII. THE IMAGINARY BOY 105 + VIII. THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED 121 + IX. ST UNCUS 137 + X. OLD MOTHER HUBBARD 151 + XI. MARIAN'S PARTY 167 + XII. THE SORROWFUL PICTURE 183 + XIII. THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND 199 + XIV. THE CHRISTMAS TREE 215 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + HALF-PAST BEDTIME _Frontispiece_ + MARIAN AND MR JUGG 12 + MONKEY ISLAND 28 + CUTHBERT AND DORIS 44 + BELLA AT EDEN 60 + BEARDY NED'S FIRE 74 + THE MAGIC SONG 88 + THE HAUNTED WOOD 104 + CAESAR'S CAMP 120 + DORIS AND ST UNCUS 136 + MOTHER HUBBARD'S 150 + THE LITTLE TEMPLE 166 + PORTO BLANCO 182 + THE LAGOON 198 + STILL TALKING 214 + + + + +MR JUGG + + + + +[Illustration: Marian and Mr. Jugg] + + + + +I + +MR JUGG + + +The name of the town doesn't really matter; but it was a big town in the +middle of the country; and the first of these adventures happened to a +little girl whose Christian name was Marian. She was only seven when it +happened to her, so that it was rather a young sort of adventure; but +the older ones happened later on, and this is the best, perhaps, to +begin with. + +Marian's house was in a street called Peter Street, because there was a +church in it called St Peter's Church; and some people liked this +church, because it had a great spire soaring up into the sky. But +Marian's daddy didn't like spires, because they were so sharp and so +slippery. He liked towers better, because the old church towers, he +said, were like little laps, ready to catch God's blessing. But Marian's +daddy was a queer sort of man, and nobody took much notice of what he +said. + +At the other end of Peter Street there was a field in which some people +were beginning to build houses, and Marian used to love going into this +field to watch the builders at work. But one afternoon she became tired +of watching them, and so she climbed over a gate into the next field. +Here the grass was so tall that it tickled Marian's chin. There were +great daisies in it, taller than the grass, and they looked into +Marian's eyes. They had calm faces like Marian's mummy's nurney's face, +and they didn't mind a bit when Marian picked them. There were also +buttercups, shiny and fat, like the man in the butcher's shop who was +always smiling. + +This was such a big field that when Marian came to the middle of it the +voices of the builders were quite faint, and the tinkle of their trowels +on the edges of the bricks sounded like sheep-bells a long way off. When +she turned round she could see the roofs of the houses, and the tops of +the chimneys, and the spires of the churches all trembly because of the +heat, as if they were tired and wanted to lie down. But they couldn't +lie down, although they were so much older and bigger and stronger than +Marian. "I'd rather be me," thought Marian, and when she had picked a +bundle of flowers she lay down in the deep grass. + +It was so hot that, when once they had become used to her, the stalks of +the grasses stood quite still. She could see hundreds and hundreds of +them, like trees in a forest, or people in church waiting for the +anthem. Up in the hills it was different. There the grasses were always +moving--not running about, of course, but standing in the same place and +bending to and fro, to and fro. Some of them would move, so her father +had once told her, as much as four miles in a single day, just as far as +it was from Marian's house to the top of Fairbarrow Down. + +But here in the valley they weren't moving at all. They weren't even +whispering. They were holding their breath; and if they were listening +to anything, it was to something that a little girl couldn't hear. She +stared into the sky, but it was so blue that it made her eyes ache +trying to see how blue it was; and when she closed them, to give them a +rest, she could see little patterns on her eyelids. Then she opened them +again, and the green of the grass, as she looked between the grass +blades, was cool like an ointment. + +"And nobody in the world," she thought, "knows where I am." + +She felt a sort of tickle in the middle of her stomach. + +"How do you do?" said a voice. + +Marian gave a jump. She saw a little man looking up at her. He was not +even as tall as an afternoon tea-table. + +"What's your name?" he asked. He was very polite. He held his hat in his +right hand. Marian told him her name. She wasn't a bit frightened. + +"What's yours?" she asked. + +"I'm Mr Jugg," he said. + +"And who are you, Mr Jugg?" she inquired. + +"I'm the King of the Bumpies," he replied. + +When Marian was puzzled there came a little straight line, exactly in +the middle, between her two eyebrows. + +"What are bumpies?" she said. + +"My hat!" he gasped. "Haven't you ever heard of bumpies?" + +Marian shook her head. + +"Oh dear, oh dear!" he sighed. "Have you ever heard of angels?" + +"Well, of course," said Marian. "Everybody's heard of angels." + +"Well then, bumpies," said Mr Jugg, "are baby angels. They're called +bumpies till they've learned to fly." + +"I see," said Marian, "but why are they called bumpies?" + +"Because they bump," said Mr Jugg, "not knowing how." + +Marian laughed. + +"Where do you live?" she asked. + +"If you'd care to come with me," he said, "I could show you." + +"Oh, I should love to!" said Marian. "May I?" + +He put on his hat and gave her his hand, and helped her to stand up with +her bunch of daisies. + +"Come along," he said, and he took her across the field, and through a +hole in the hedge into the next one. This was a smaller field with some +cows in it, and the grass in it was quite short. He led her across it, +and helped her over a gate into the field beyond, where the grass was +shorter still. + +"How old are you?" he asked. + +"I'm seven," said Marian. + +"That's very young," he replied. "I'm seven million." + +"Good gracious!" said Marian. "And how old is Mrs Jugg?" + +"She's as old as I am," he said, "but she looks younger." + +When they came to the middle of this field he stood still and stamped +with his foot three and a half times--three big stamps and a little +stamp--and then the field suddenly opened. Marian saw a hole at her feet +with a lot of steps in it going down, down, down. + +"This is where I live," he said. "You needn't be frightened. It's quite +safe. I'll lead the way." + +He was still holding her hand, and he went down before her, a step at a +time, very carefully. + +"Isn't it rather dark?" said Marian. + +"Wait till I've shut the door," he said, "and then you'll get a +surprise." + +When both their heads were well below the ground, he tapped twice on the +wall; and then the hole was shut so that they couldn't see the sky, and +a most wonderful thing happened. They were at the beginning of a long +passage, almost a mile long, with a lovely slope in it; and on each side +of it there were hundreds of little lights, all of different colours. +There were blue lights, and green lights, and yellow lights, and crimson +lights, and lights of all sorts of other colours that Marian had never +seen or even imagined. Both the walls and the floor of the passage were +quite smooth, and just where they stood there was a little cupboard. +"This is where I keep my scooter," he said. "It saves time, and there's +lots of room on it for two." + +He opened the cupboard door and took out a scooter. + +"Now put your hands," he said, "on my shoulders." + +"Oh, what fun!" said Marian, and she suddenly noticed that he seemed to +have grown taller. + +She climbed on to the scooter behind him. He gave it a little push and +they began to glide down the passage. At first they went quite slowly, +because the slope was so gentle. But soon they were going faster and +faster; and presently they went so fast that all the coloured lights +became two streaks of light, one on each side of them. Marian could +hardly breathe. + +"What's going to happen at the end?" she thought. But about half-way +along the passage began to go uphill again. The coloured streaks became +separate lights. The scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped +just in front of a closed door, and there, in the wall, was another +little cupboard. + +"Here we are," said Mr Jugg, putting the scooter away. "I expect they're +all having tea." + +Then he opened the door, and Marian almost lost her breath again, for +what she saw was a great long room, with lots and lots of little tables +in it, and bumpies sitting on chairs round every table. Hanging from the +ceiling of this room were hundreds of coloured lights just like the +lights that she had seen in the passage--blue lights, and green lights, +and yellow lights, and crimson lights, and lights of all sorts of other +colours of which she didn't even know the name. And there was such a +clamour of talking and laughing, and spoon-clinking and plate-clinking, +and chair-creaking and table-creaking, that Marian could hardly hear +what Mr Jugg was saying, although he was shouting in her ear. + +"That's my wife," he said. "That's Mrs Jugg, that lady over there, just +coming toward us." + +Marian looked where he was pointing, and saw a stout little lady with a +smiling face. + +She was exactly as tall as Mr Jugg, but she weighed two and a half +pounds more. As for the bumpies, they were of all sorts of sizes, but +they all wore the same kind of clothes--little dark green jackets over +little dark green vests, little dark green knickers, and little dark +green socks. Fastened to each jacket were two little hooks, one behind +each shoulder--these were for their wings. But they only wore wings when +they were having their flying lessons. Suddenly they all stopped talking +and stared at Marian. Some of them stood on their chairs in order to see +her better. She felt very shy, and began to blush. + +Mrs Jugg came and gave her a kiss. + +"This is Marian," said Mr Jugg. "Can you give her some tea?" + +"Why, of course I can," said Mrs Jugg, giving Marian two more kisses. +"Come with me, my dear. You shall have tea at my table." + +She introduced Marian to all the bumpies. + +They gave her three cheers, and then went on with their tea, and soon +Marian was having tea herself--such a tea as she had never had before, +not even at her Uncle Joe's. There was bread and butter with bumpy jam +on it and bumpy Devonshire cream on the top of the jam, and there was +bumpy cake with bumpy cherries in it, and there were bumpy meringues, +and there was bumpy honey. + +"Why, it's just like a birthday tea!" said Marian. + +"That's because it is one," said Mr Jugg. "Every tea's a birthday tea +down here. There are so many bumpies, you see, that it's always +somebody's birthday." + +"Dear me!" said Marian; "but isn't that rather a bother--I mean for you +and Mrs Jugg?" + +Mrs Jugg gave her another meringue. + +"There aren't any bothers," she said, "in Heaven." + +"But this isn't Heaven," said Marian, "is it?" + +"Well, of course it is," said Mrs Jugg--"part of it." + +"But it's under the ground," said Marian. + +"Well, never mind. Heaven's everywhere, only most people don't know it." + +Marian was surprised, but she felt all lovely and shivery. Fancy Heaven +being so near home! What a thing to be able to tell Mummy! Mrs Jugg gave +her some more cake. Some of the bumpies had finished now, and were +getting impatient. Presently Mr Jugg clapped his hands. Then they all +stood up, and Mrs Jugg said grace, and then they all rushed toward the +door. + +This wasn't the door by which Marian had come in, but a door that opened +into another room--a great big room with even more lights in it, and +hundreds of swings and all sorts of rocking-horses. In less than a +minute there were bumpies upon every one of them, and two of the bumpies +took charge of Marian. She had a lovely swing and a ride on a +rocking-horse, and then they all began to play games. They played +ring-a-ring o' roses, and bumpy in the corner, and bumpy hide-and-seek, +and angel's buff; and then Mr Jugg took her into the flying school to +see some of the older bumpies fly. + +This was like a big gymnasium, with lots and lots of pegs in it, and a +pair of wings hanging from each peg; and on the floor there were great +soft mattresses so that the bumpies shouldn't hurt themselves if they +fell down. But the bumpies that Marian saw had almost learned to fly. +They would soon be proper angels and able to fly anywhere. + +"And then," said Mr Jugg, "they'll be going into the upper school to +learn history and geography and all about dreams and things." + +"Where's the upper school?" asked Marian. + +"Oh, it's all over the place," said Mr Jugg; "there are ever so many +class-rooms, you see. And then they go to college." + +"And what happens then?" asked Marian. + +"Well, then they're able to begin to work. There's always heaps for them +to do." + +"I see," said Marian; "and now I really think that I ought to be going +home." + +"Perhaps you ought," said Mr Jugg. He led her back into the playroom, +and then into the room where they had all had tea. The tables had been +cleared now, but Mrs Jugg came toward them with a big box of bumpy +chocolates. Marian took one, and Mrs Jugg kissed her and told her that +she must be sure to come again. + +"You haven't seen half the place," she said, "nor a quarter of it. There +are miles and miles of it. Have another chocolate." + +Then Marian thanked her and gave her a kiss, and Mr Jugg opened the door +and they went into the passage. When they had come this part of the +passage had been uphill, but going back, of course, it was downhill. He +opened the cupboard and took out the scooter, and Marian stood behind +him with her hands on his shoulders. Just as before, they began to go +quite slowly, but soon they were going as fast as ever. Just as before, +the coloured lights became two streaks of light, one on each side of +them. But Marian knew now what was going to happen, and presently the +scooter went slower and slower. At last it stopped just at the foot of +the steps, and Mr Jugg put it away in the cupboard. He hit the wall +twice, and there, at the top of the steps, Marian saw the hole open, and +the sky above it. + +"Goodness me!" she said. "How late it is!" + +The sky was quite dark, and the stars were shining. + +Mr Jugg blew his nose. + +"Poor Mummy!" she said; "she will be so frightened." + +"Where do you live?" asked Mr Jugg. + +Marian told him. + +"I'd better fly you there," he said. "Half a tick." + +He went down the steps again, and opened the little cupboard, and came +back with a pair of wings. + +"Now, if you can get on my back," he said, "we'll be home in half a +minute." + +She climbed on to his shoulders, just as if she were going to ride +pick-a-back, and then he gave a little jump and they were up in the air. +They skimmed across the fields and down Peter Street just as fast as an +express train. At Marian's door he put her down. + +"Which is your bedroom window?" he asked. + +She told him. + +"Now I must be saying good-night," he said. "No, I won't come in. It's +against the rules for the King of the Bumpies." So he took off his hat +and made her a little bow, and before she could wink almost, he had +gone. Then she knocked at the door, and next moment Mummy was hugging +her as tight as tight. Then Daddy came and hugged her too, and Cuthbert, +who had gone to bed, looked over the landing banisters. + +"Where have you been?" he asked. + +"Why, where _haven't_ I been?" said Marian, and then she told them all +about it. Cuthbert didn't believe her. But Cuthbert didn't believe +anything. He was nine years old, and was beginning to learn French. But +Mummy believed her, and Daddy believed her; and I'll tell you another +thing that happened. + +Late that night, when everybody was asleep, Mr Jugg flew to Marian's +window. Marian's angel--everybody has a guardian angel--was smoking a +quiet cigarette on the sill outside. + +"Hullo!" he said; "fancy seeing you here!" + +He had once been a bumpy, you see, and Mr Jugg had taught him to fly. + +"Good evening," said Mr Jugg; "what do you think of this?" + +It was a little dream that he had brought for Marian. + +"By George!" said the angel, "that's a beauty." + +He slipped it very softly under Marian's pillow. + +She must have dreamed it too, for next morning when Mummy made her bed +it wasn't there. But, alas! the loveliest dreams of all are the ones +that we never remember. + + + + + Like the jungle he lives in, + Tiger wears a dappled skin. + Foxes on the plains of snow + White as their surroundings go. + + So do fishes lose their sight, + Buried in the ocean's night, + Little knowing lovely day + Lies but half a mile away. + + For the truth is plain to see, + As our haunts are, so are we; + And in cities you will find + Busy blind men just as blind. + + Long ago they lost their eyes + Under bags of merchandise; + And they know not there are still + Angels on the window-sill. + + + + +GWENDOLEN + + + + +[Illustration: Monkey Island] + + + + +II + +GWENDOLEN + + +Living in the same town as Marian there was a little girl called +Gwendolen. Marian didn't know her very well, though they went to the +same school and sometimes smiled at each other in church. Her father and +mother were always climbing mountains and lecturing about them +afterward, so Gwendolen had to live with her aunt, who was very rich and +wore a lot of rings. + +In many ways Gwendolen was a nice girl, but she had an exceptionally +large tummy. Some people said that it was her own fault, because she was +always sitting about eating marzipan. But some people said that she +couldn't help her tummy, and had to eat a lot to keep it full. There +were also people who said that her aunt spoiled her, being so greedy +herself and always eating buttered toast. + +Gwendolen's aunt had a pale, proud face, deeply lined by indigestion, +and she lived in a big house on the right-hand side of Bellington +Square. The colour of this house was a yellowish cream, and it had two +pillars in front of the front door. There were eleven steps leading up +to it, and there was a boy to open it who wore twelve brass buttons. + +In the middle of this Square there was a sort of garden with tall iron +railings all round it, and each of the people living in the Square had a +key to open the gate of it. It was the tidiest garden in the whole +world, and all the flowers in it stood in rows; and the people in the +Square paid for a gardener to shave the grass every day. One of the +reasons why the people in the Square were so rich was that they had so +few children; and the children that they did have had to be very careful +not to make foot-marks on the grass. Gwendolen's aunt sometimes went +there when she had a headache and wanted to throw it off; and Gwendolen +went there to eat marzipan and read about Princes and Princesses. She +generally sat on a painted iron seat in front of a flower-bed shaped +like a lozenge, and once she was sick behind a bush called _B. +stenophylla_ on a tin label. + +One day she was sitting on this seat when she heard a curious sort of +sound. At first it was rather faint, so that she didn't take much notice +of it, but gradually it became louder and louder. Her aunt was sitting +on the same seat wondering which of her medicines to take before dinner, +and Gwendolen noticed that she began to look annoyed, because the noise +was the sound of a harmonium. Some people like harmoniums, and have them +in their houses, and play hymns on them on Sunday afternoons. But this +was a harmonium that went on wheels, with a man to push it, and a woman +walking beside him. After he had pushed it for a few yards he would sit +down and play a tune on it, while the woman walked up and down, looking +at people's windows and trying to catch their eye. If she saw anybody +she would say "Kind lady," or "Kind gentleman," as the case might be, +and perhaps the kind lady or the kind gentleman would throw her some +money, and then she would say "God bless you." But people like that, +with travelling harmoniums, weren't allowed to come into Bellington +Square, and Gwendolen's aunt said, "Dear me, just when I wanted a little +peace and quiet!" + +If there had been anybody near, such as a policeman or a gardener, she +would have told him to send the musicians away. But it was very hot, and +there was nobody about, and so the people went on playing. Gwendolen +watched them for a while through the railings, and the butler at Number +Ten gave the woman a sixpence. Her aunt was very angry about it when +Gwendolen told her, for what was the good of making rules, she said, if +you encouraged people to break them? + +The people with the harmonium came a little nearer, and then Gwendolen +could see what they looked like. The woman was stout, with a hard brown +face and rolling eyes like dark-coloured pebbles. When she smiled it was +as if she had pinned it on, and as if the smile didn't really belong to +her. The man had pale eyes, like those of ferrets in a hutch, and he +watched the woman all the time he was playing. Gwendolen noticed that +there was a long string fastened to one of the handles of the harmonium. +She heard a little voice close to her knees. + +"Oh, Gwendolen," it said, "save me." + +Gwendolen looked down and saw the unhappiest little face that she had +ever seen in her life. It belonged to a small brown monkey wearing a red +jacket and a blue sailor hat. He was staring up at her with timid dark +eyes. + +"I heard your aunt speak to you," he said. "So I know your name." + +He looked over his shoulder at the man and the woman. But the woman was +looking at the houses, and the man was watching her. + +"What's the matter?" said Gwendolen. + +He was holding on to the garden railings. + +"Lift up my jacket," he said, "and you'll see." + +Gwendolen stooped down and lifted up his jacket. There were three great +wounds across his back. + +"Oh dear!" she cried; "how did you get those?" + +"They beat me," he said. "They're always beating me." + +Gwendolen may have been lazy, and she may have been greedy, but she had +a soft heart, and the monkey had seen this. + +"Oh, how dreadful!" she said. "But when did you learn to talk?" + +The monkey shivered a little. + +"Hush, they don't know," he replied. "I've lived with them so long that +I've learned their language." + +"But why don't you run away?" asked Gwendolen. + +"How can I? They keep me on this string and beat me every night." + +Gwendolen thought for a moment. + +"Oh, Gwendolen," he said, "do save me if you can!" + +From where she was kneeling Gwendolen could see the woman going up the +steps to one of the houses. The man was watching her as usual. Gwendolen +was half hidden from them by a bush. + +"But there's my aunt," she said. "I don't know what my aunt would say." + +"Listen," said the monkey. "I could take you to a lovely island." + +Gwendolen frowned a little. + +"But I don't know," she said, "that my aunt's very fond of islands." + +"She would be of this," said the monkey. "What's your aunt fondest of?" + +Gwendolen thought for a moment. + +"Buttered toast," she said. + +"Well, it's ever so much nicer," said the monkey, "than buttered toast." + +Gwendolen looked at her aunt and then at the monkey, with his sad eyes +and shaking limbs. There wasn't much time. In another minute the man and +the woman would be moving on. Close beside her, in a little green box, +she could see the tops of the handles of the gardener's shears. She took +a deep breath. Then she made up her mind. + +"All right," she said. "I'll see what I can do." + +She crept to the box and took out the shears. The monkey squeezed +himself through the railings. With a beating heart Gwendolen cut the +string, caught up the monkey, and ran to her aunt. Her aunt looked up. + +"Why, what have you got here?" she asked. + +"He belongs to those people," said Gwendolen, "with the harmonium." + +"Oh, save me!" said the monkey. "Save me!" + +"Look what they've done to him," said Gwendolen. She lifted the monkey's +jacket. Gwendolen's aunt put on her spectacles. + +"Dear me!" she said; "but the monkey talks!" + +"Yes," said Gwendolen. "He's been learning for a long time." + +The monkey clasped his hands and looked into Gwendolen's aunt's face. He +saw deep down into her, where her good nature was. + +"If you let me go back to them," he said, "they'll kill me. Oh, lady +dear, please help me!" + +Gwendolen's aunt was rather disturbed. Nothing like this had happened to +her before. If she took the monkey away, people would call her a thief. +But if she let him go back, perhaps he would be beaten to death. + +"Where do you live?" she asked. + +"On Monkey Island; it's the loveliest island in the world." + +"But how did you come here?" she said. + +The monkey began to tremble again. + +"They stole me away," he said, "from my wife and children." + +"Oh, Auntie," said Gwendolen, "can't we take him back there? He says +it's ever so much nicer than buttered toast." + +Her aunt stood up. + +"Oh, bother the buttered toast," she said. "It's his wife and babies +that I'm thinking about." + +Then the harmonium suddenly stopped, and they heard the man cry out. + +"Why, where's that monkey?" he said. He began to swear. They saw the +woman run down the steps. The monkey gave a little cry and jumped into +Gwendolen's aunt's arms. Then they saw the man and the woman rush toward +the railings. Both their faces were dark as night. + +"Come on," said Gwendolen's aunt. "We'll have to run for it. Make for +the gate." + +Fortunately, the gate was on the opposite side of the garden, and their +own house was opposite the gate. The man and the woman would have to run +right round the Square. + +"We ought to beat them," said Gwendolen's aunt. + +Oh, how sorry Gwendolen was then that her tummy was so large! But she +ran as fast as ever she could, and almost kept up with her aunt. The man +and the woman had started to run too, shouting aloud at the tops of +their voices. + +"We shan't be safe," said her aunt, "till we've got to the island; +because we shall really be thieves till we've taken the monkey home." + +They dashed across the grass and through the gate, and, just as they +were running up their own front steps, they saw the man and the woman +coming into sight round the corner of the railings. They had found a +policeman, and he was running with them. + +"Luckily the servants are out," said Gwendolen's aunt. + +She was quite excited, and her eyes were shining. Gwendolen had never +seen her looking so young. As soon as they were safely in the house, she +shut the front door and bolted it. + +"That'll give us another five minutes," she said. "Run upstairs and get +your hat and overcoat." + +Gwendolen ran upstairs, panting and puffing, and fetched her hat and +overcoat and her doll David. Meanwhile her aunt ran into the study, +opened her cash-box, and took out a hundred pounds. A minute later there +came a thunder of knocks and two or three peals of the front-door bell. + +"We'll get away," said her aunt, "through the back garden." + +She had packed up a knapsack and slipped into a rain-coat. The knocks +were repeated--rat-a-tat-_tat_. They heard angry voices shouting through +the letter-box. Gwendolen's aunt laughed and shook her fist at them. + +"Come along," she said; "now for the back garden." + +From the back garden there was a little door leading into a street +behind. Here there was a cab-stand, and Gwendolen's aunt told the +cab-driver to drive to the station. + +"We shall just be in time," she said, "to catch the 3.40 train." + +It was only a horse-cab, but the horse galloped, and they arrived at the +station just as the train came in. There was hardly a moment to take +their tickets in. But the guard waited for them, and they just managed +it. The engine whistled, the porter slammed the door, and the next +moment they were off. The monkey, who had been hiding under Gwendolen's +aunt's coat, poked his head out, and looked about him. Fortunately they +had the carriage all to themselves. + +"Oh dear!" said Gwendolen. "How splendid!" + +It was an express train, and it didn't stop for an hour, and then +Gwendolen's aunt thought that they had better get out. + +"We'll hire a motor-car," she said, "and go to Lullington Bay and find +my old friend Captain Jeremy. When I was young he wanted to marry me. +But I was too proud and wouldn't let him." + +So they got out and hired a motor-car, and drove at full speed to +Lullington Bay. It was a long drive, and when they arrived at the +Captain's cottage the stars were shining and the Captain was in his +garden. Deep below them they could see the ocean, dark as bronze and +knocking at the shore. Captain Jeremy was looking through a telescope. A +stout little sailing-ship was anchored in the bay. + +"Why, Josina," he said--that was Gwendolen's aunt's name--"fancy seeing +you here after all these years!" + +He was a sunburnt man with blue eyes, and Gwendolen liked him because he +looked so kind. They told him what had happened, and he looked very +grave. + +"We must be off at once," he said. "I know that man and woman." + +"Why, who are they?" asked Gwendolen. + +"Smugglers," he said. "They're two of the most dangerous people I know. +Luckily my ship is all ready to sail. We'll put off at once for Monkey +Island." + +The Captain lived alone. He had never been married. So he had only to +lock up his cottage and put the key in his pocket. + +"We ought to get there," he said, "in a couple of months' time if the +wind holds fair." + +It was the first time that Gwendolen had been on the sea, and for two or +three days she was rather sea-sick. But after that she began to enjoy +the voyage and the smell of the spray and the sight of the waves. It was +lovely weather, and as they drew near the equator a great yellow moon +shone on them all night. It was so hot that she hardly wore any clothes, +and used to go barefooted just like the sailors; and she grew so brown +and so graceful that she scarcely looked like the same girl. As for her +tummy--well, there was no marzipan on board, and she soon began to lose +all her love for it. She would ever so much rather be up in the rigging +with David her doll and Captain Jeremy's telescope. + +One day she suddenly noticed a sort of little cloud on the horizon. But +it didn't move, and as the ship drew nearer she saw that the cloud was +really an island. She called to the monkey, and he ran up the rigging +beside her, and after one look he could hardly contain himself. + +"That's the island," he cried, "my beautiful island, with my wife on it +and my children." + +Presently they came so close that they could see the golden sand and the +tall trees with their clusters of fruit; and soon the ship was +anchored, and Captain Jeremy gave orders for a boat to be lowered. +Captain Jeremy himself, with two of his sailors, and Gwendolen, and +Gwendolen's aunt all got into it; and in another five minutes they were +standing on dry land again, with the happy monkey dancing beside them. +Captain Jeremy and the sailors stayed by the boat, but Gwendolen and her +aunt and the monkey began to explore the island. There were flowers +everywhere, not planted in rows like the flowers in Bellington Square, +but growing where they liked, and rejoicing in their freedom and +praising God with their beautiful colours. Some of the trees were +smooth, with curious flat leaves and knobbly brown berries that tasted +like buttered toast. But Gwendolen's aunt had made a resolve to give up +eating buttered toast. Since she had helped Gwendolen to rescue the +monkey all her indigestion had disappeared; and she felt as fresh, and +looked as pretty, as if she were only half her age. + +Some of the trees were different, with twisted trunks, and pale red +blossoms dripping with juice; and this juice tasted like marzipan, but +Gwendolen had resolved to give up marzipan. + +But it was a lovelier island than they had ever imagined, and soon the +little monkey gave a cry of joy, and the next moment he was hugging in +his arms another little monkey that had dashed to meet him. It was his +wife, and just behind her there were two smaller monkeys waiting to be +kissed; and Gwendolen and her aunt could almost have cried to see how +happy they all were. + +For nearly a month they stayed at the island, sleeping on board, but +landing every morning; and Gwendolen learned to swim almost as well as a +fish and to climb trees almost as well as a monkey. But Captain Jeremy +wasn't really happy until a big steamer happened to come by with news +that the man and the woman had been drowned in a storm on their way to +try and catch Gwendolen and her aunt. It was now October, and by the +time that they arrived home Gwendolen would have been away from school +for a term and a half. So they said good-bye to the monkey and his +family, and set sail from the island. Gwendolen cried a little, and so +did her aunt; but on the way home an odd thing happened, for Captain +Jeremy asked her aunt to marry him, and they had to think a lot about +the wedding. They decided to get married on Christmas Day, and when +Gwendolen's school-friends saw her as a bridesmaid she had grown so tall +and straight and happy-looking that they wondered what on earth could +possibly have happened to her. + + + + + "Sailor, sailor, + What's the song + That you sing + The whole day long?" + + And the sailor + Said to me: + "Birth's the jetty, + Time's the sea, + + "Death's the harbour, + Life's the trip, + Hope's the pilot, + You're the ship." + + "Sailor, sailor, + Tell me true, + What's beyond + Those waters blue?" + + But the sailor + Shook his head; + "That's a secret, + Sir," he said. + + + + +THE LITTLE ICE-MEN + + + + +[Illustration: Cuthbert and Doris] + + + + +III + +THE LITTLE ICE-MEN + + +Marian's daddy was very glad when Captain Jeremy married Gwendolen's +aunt, because he and Captain Jeremy had been boys at school together, +and he had always been very fond of him; and he was gladder still when +Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt left Bellington Square. This they +did a week after the wedding, because Captain Jeremy hated Bellington +Square; and they went to live in an old farmhouse, two miles out of the +town. + +It was a beautiful old house, with a gabled roof and golden-red bricks +like a winter sunset; and the hall and passages of it were dark and +velvety, and the rooms upstairs smelt of lavender. Leading from the road +to the front door was a cobbly path, with lawns on each side of it, and +big trees standing on the lawns, with low-spreading branches that +touched the grass. Behind the house was a kitchen-garden full of +cucumber-frames and vegetables, and behind that was an orchard, with a +gate leading into the fields. These were all hard and crinkly with +frost, and the fruit-trees were bare, because it was the second of +January, but that made the house seem all the snugger, with its low +panelled walls and log fires. + +When they had been in this house a week, Gwendolen's aunt gave a +children's party, and Marian and Cuthbert were asked to go, because +their daddy was Captain Jeremy's friend. Marian was very pleased, +because she had always liked Gwendolen, although she had never known her +very well, but Cuthbert said that he didn't like her and that he'd +rather stay at home. Marian told him how much she had improved since her +voyage to Monkey Island, but Cuthbert said that he didn't care, and that +she was a silly sort of girl anyhow. He was only pretending, however, +because just after Christmas he had been in hospital having his tonsils +out, and he had already missed two or three parties and didn't mean to +miss another. + +So they went to the party, and Cuthbert was rather glad, because one of +the girls there was a girl called Doris, who had been in hospital having +her tonsils out just at the same time as he. She was rather a decent +girl, ten years old, with dark-coloured eyes and brown hair, and one of +her thumbs was double-jointed, and she had been eight times to the +seaside. Just at present she was a little pale, and so was Cuthbert +himself; and Gwendolen was so brown that, when they stood near her, they +looked paler still. + +Captain Jeremy came and shook hands with them. + +"Hullo," he said, "what's the matter with you?" + +"It's their tonsils," said Marian. "They've just had them out, and of +course they're a little pulled down." + +Captain Jeremy examined them thoughtfully. + +Cuthbert liked him, and so did Doris. + +"What you want," he said, "is a trip with me. That would soon set you up +again." + +Gwendolen and Marian had gone off to play, so Cuthbert and Doris had him +to themselves. + +"I should like it very much," said Cuthbert. + +"So should I," said Doris, "but I'm afraid Mummy wouldn't let me go." + +"I see," said the Captain. "Well, I'm off next week to Port Jacobson in +the Arctic Circle. But you wouldn't be able to go to school next term if +you came with me, because I shan't be back till the middle of May." + +Cuthbert put his hand up and pinched his throat. + +"It's still rather sore," he said. + +"So is mine," said Doris. + +Captain Jeremy laughed. + +"Well, there's nothing like the Arctic Circle," he said, "for people +who've just had their tonsils out." + +Then he spoke to Doris. + +"Let me see," he said: "I know where Cuthbert lives, but where do you +live?" + +Doris told him that she lived in John Street, which was the next street +to Cuthbert's. Her father was dead, and her mummy was rather poor, as +she had five other children besides Doris. + +Captain Jeremy nodded. + +"Then perhaps I shall be able to persuade her," he said, "to let me take +you off her hands for a bit." + +Doris danced up and down. + +"Oh, I wish you would!" she cried. "I'd simply love to see the Arctic +Circle!" + +"So should I," said Cuthbert, and they were both so excited that they +could hardly eat any tea. When Marian heard about it, she wished that +she was pale too, and she wished it ever so much more the next morning +when Captain Jeremy called on her father and mother and persuaded them +to let Cuthbert go. Then he went to John Street and talked to Doris's +mother, and he looked so commanding and yet so gentle that Doris's +mother said she would be very glad to let Doris go with him to Port +Jacobson. + +"Of course, it'll be very cold," he said, "and they'll have to wear +furs, but we can easily get those when we arrive, and all they'll want +for the voyage is plenty of underclothing and their oldest clothes." + +For a voyage like that, all among the ice, Captain Jeremy's sailing-ship +wasn't quite suitable, so he had hired a little steamer with very thick +sides, and a trusty pilot. Port Jacobson was in a sort of bay just under +the shelter of Cape Fury, and beyond Cape Fury the coast had hardly been +explored, it was all so bare and bleak and rocky. The only people who +lived there were a few fishermen, a clergyman called Mr Smith, and a +couple of engineers, who had been there for a year and had just found a +coal-mine. It was the engineers who had written to Captain Jeremy, +because they wanted him to bring them some machinery, and also because +they wanted him to take back some of the coal that they had already dug +up. That was how Captain Jeremy made his living, fetching and carrying +things across the sea. + +Neither Cuthbert nor Doris was the least bit sea-sick, and they loved +to stand on the bridge beside Captain Jeremy and see the great billows +rushing toward the steamer, one after another, in the bright sunshine. +Sometimes they went below into the dark engine-room, where they had to +shout to make themselves heard, and where the pistons of the engines +slid to and fro like the arms of boxers that never got tired. How they +loved the cabin, too, at meal-times, when the cook rolled in with the +steaming dishes, and what meals they ate, in spite of the lurching table +and the water slamming against the port-holes! + +In a couple of days' time they had forgotten all about their tonsils, +and two days after that they had almost forgotten their homes, and a +week later they saw something in the distance like the grey ghost of a +cathedral. It was an iceberg--the first that they had seen; but soon +they began to see them every day, sometimes pale, in mournful groups, +like broken statues in a cemetery, and sometimes sparkling in the sun as +though they were crusted with a million diamonds. + +One day they came on deck just after breakfast and saw miles and miles +of ice, all jumbled together, and three hours later they saw a great +cliff, covered with snow, standing out to sea. That was Cape Fury, and +as they drew nearer they could see a little cluster of dark houses, with +spires of smoke rising from their chimneys, and that was Port Jacobson. +The pilot was on deck now, shouting all the time, and the steamer was +going very slowly, with ice on each side of it, and they could see some +men coming toward them, with rough-haired dogs pulling sledges. At last +the steamer could get no farther, although it was still about a mile +from the town, and they cast out anchors and a long cable that they +began to carry toward the shore. It seemed very funny to Cuthbert and +Doris to feel their feet again on something steady, even though this was +only the rough surface of the frozen bay in front of the port. The days +were so short here that the sun was already low, and the great cape +stood dark and menacing, while far inland they could see the peaks of +mountains slowly fading against the sky. + +Among the men who had come to meet them were the two engineers and Mr +Smith, and they were very surprised to see Cuthbert and Doris running +about on the ice and trying to make snowballs. Then they all set off +toward the little town, with the lights shining in its windows, and Mr +Smith said that they must stay with him, because he and Mrs Smith had no +children. Captain Jeremy was to stay with the two engineers, who had +built a little house of their own, but they all came in to supper with +the Smiths, and Cuthbert and Doris were allowed to sit up. + +"To-morrow," said Mr Smith, "we'll get you some furs, and then you'll be +able to go tobogganing with the other children," and Cuthbert and Doris +said "Hooray!" because they had learned to toboggan on Fairbarrow Down. +Just before they went to bed they saw a wonderful thing, for the whole +of the sky began to quiver, and beautiful colours went dancing across +it, melting away and then coming back again. These were the Northern +Lights, or the Aurora Borealis, and Cuthbert and Doris could have +watched them all night. + +But they soon fell asleep; and most of the next day they were out +tobogganing with the other children, and they soon became so good at it +that they could go as fast as any of them, and hardly ever had a spill. +By the end of the week they had got into the habit of climbing on to the +top of Cape Fury and tobogganing back again, more than a mile and a +half, right down to Mr Smith's house. The first time they climbed up +there the slope had looked so steep, and the roofs of the houses so far +below them, that they had stood for nearly ten minutes before they could +make up their minds to start. But some of the other children had done +it, and at last Doris had said, "Well, come on, Cuthbert, we mustn't be +afraid," and Cuthbert had told her to hold on tight, and so they had +pushed off over the frozen snow. + +By the time they had got half-way, they were going so fast that the air +was roaring in their ears, but the track was straight, and they had kept +in the middle of it, and ran safely into the town. After that it didn't +seem worth while to go tobogganing on any of the lower hills, and that +was how it came about that the following Wednesday they found themselves +as usual on the top of Cape Fury. + +It was a still, cold day, and the air was so clear that they could see +the coast for miles and miles, and the tops of mountains far inland that +they had never seen before. Below them in the bay, stuck in the ice, +they could see the little steamer, with the sailors on the deck, and +beyond the ice a strip of blue water, and beyond that again more ice +still. That was on one side of them, and on the other they saw the +farther slope of Cape Fury, slanting down and down and down to the +unexplored regions toward the north. It was a gentler slope than the +slope toward the town, and suddenly Cuthbert had a great idea. + +"I say," he said, "why shouldn't we toboggan down there? I don't suppose +anybody has ever done it." + +What with the wind and the sun and the snow, the cheeks of both of them +were like ripe chestnuts, and Doris's eyes began to sparkle as she +listened to Cuthbert's great idea. When he was at home Cuthbert didn't +get many ideas, and he generally used to laugh at other people's, so he +was very pleased when he got this one and Doris said that she thought it +ripping. + +"We won't go too fast," he said, "so that, if we see a precipice or +anything, we shall be able to stop ourselves in time." + +They had a stout little toboggan, just big enough for two, and so they +started off down this new slope, with the sun shining and the snow +glittering. At first they moved quite slowly, but lower down the side of +the hill became steeper, and soon they were going so fast that, even if +they had wanted to, they would have found it pretty hard to stop +themselves. And then an awful thing happened, for suddenly, just in +front of them, they saw a deep cleft in the snow sliding down, at a +terrific angle, into a sort of tunnel under the hillside. + +Almost before they could breathe, they had plunged into this, and now +there was nothing to do but to hold on. They saw the tunnel's mouth +leaping toward them, and the next moment they were in darkness. Neither +Cuthbert nor Doris had ever been so frightened before. In the pitchy +blackness they could see nothing. They could only feel themselves +shooting deeper and deeper into the very heart of the frozen earth. +Sometimes a bump on the floor of the tunnel would send them careering +toward the roof, and then they would come down again with a thud that +almost pitched them off the toboggan. Every moment they expected to be +killed. There came another tremendous bump. And then they felt their +toboggan springing through the air and dropping like a stone into some +fearful well. They shut their eyes, waiting for death, and then went +rolling over and over, with something strange and soft and feathery +wrapping them round like a bedroom quilt. For a minute or two they could +only gasp, and then Cuthbert sat up and called to Doris. + +"Hullo, Doris!" he said; "are you all right?" + +"Yes, I think so," said Doris. "Are you?" + +Cuthbert told her that he was; and now that they could look about, they +saw that they were on the floor of an immense cave, and that they had +pitched down from somewhere near the top of it on to a huge mass of +feathers. These were evidently the feathers of thousands and thousands +of sea-birds; but who could have plucked them and stored them here so +carefully? + +Then they heard a strange sort of coughing and grunting and spluttering, +and they saw the oddest of little men. He was about three feet high, +with a red beard and a very cheerful sort of face, and he had evidently +been asleep in among the feathers, for he was rubbing his eyes and +staring at them in astonishment. Then they heard some more grunting and +coughing, and at last they saw a dozen of these little men standing all +round them, dressed in the skins of animals, and with feathers sticking +to their beards. They were all looking rather disturbed, but when +Cuthbert and Doris smiled they began to smile too and come toward them. +Then they began to talk, and, though at first the sounds that they made +seemed very queer, Cuthbert and Doris, rather to their surprise, found +that they could understand them perfectly well. That was because the +language in which the little men spoke was the oldest language in the +world, the father and mother of all the other languages, and so of +course the children soon understood it. They also found that in a very +little while they could talk in this language themselves, and soon they +were all chattering together about what had happened, as if they had +known each other all their lives. + +Now that they had become used to the dim light, they could see that this +great cave had walls of rock, with long icicles hanging from the roof +and the sticking-out pieces of the walls. Most of the floor of it was of +smooth ice, but in the middle there was a flat rock; and on this rock +there was a little fire burning, a little fire made of coal. The leader +of the men was a man called Marmaduke, and he told the children that +they had all been asleep, and that they had lived in this cave for +hundreds of thousands of years, and that the great pile of feathers was +where they went to bed. + +"But it's day-time," said Cuthbert. "Why do you go to bed in day-time?" + +Marmaduke laughed, and so did all the other men. + +"Because at night," he said, "we go out and hunt to get our wolf-and +seal-meat, when no one can see us." + +But they were all so excited at the appearance of Cuthbert and Doris +that they led them to the fire, where they sat and talked to them, and +presently they cooked a delicious meal for them of seal-soup and +wolf-chops. The coal that they burnt they had found in a deep hole in +one corner of the cave, and at the other corner there was a little +crack, down which they presently led the children. This opened upon a +ledge of ice, five or six feet above the shore, but now they could +hardly see anything, because the air was full of snow, driving fiercely +into their faces. The little ice-men looked grave. + +"It's a blizzard," they said, "and very likely it'll go on for a week. +But luckily we've got plenty of meat, so that we shan't be in want of +food." + +"But how shall we get back?" said Doris. "They won't know where we are, +and they'll think that we're both dead." + +Marmaduke shook his head. + +"I don't exactly know," he replied, "how you'd get back in any case. You +could never climb up the way you came, and it's very difficult to get +round the coast." + +"But we'll have to get back somehow," said Cuthbert, "because of our +relations at home." + +Marmaduke looked puzzled. + +"What are relations?" he said. "And why should you want to go back?" + +So Cuthbert had to tell them all about his father and mother and his +Uncle Joe and his sister Marian; and Doris had to tell them all about +her mummy and her five little brothers and her aunts and cousins. They +were very interested, but it was quite clear that Cuthbert and Doris +couldn't leave that night; and so presently they crept in among the +feathers, and were soon very comfy and fast asleep. The next morning it +was still snowing, but it was rather fun helping to cook the meals, and +the little men showed them some lovely dances that were almost as old as +the world itself. + +For a whole week they had to stay in the cave, with the blizzard raging +outside, but one morning when they crept down the crack they found the +sky clear and the sun shining. They could now see, towering straight +above them, tremendous precipices of rock, and miles of boulders and +broken ice, stretching out toward the horizon. + +"Our only hope," said Cuthbert, "is that Captain Jeremy and some of the +fishermen will come exploring for us," and just as he said that far in +the distance they heard the report of a gun. Then a long way off they +saw some little figures and a tiny sledge drawn by dogs; and they stood +on tiptoe and waved and waved, hoping that Captain Jeremy might see them +through his telescope. + +The little ice-men never came out by daylight, and when they heard what +the children had seen they made them promise on their dying oath not to +tell anybody the way to the cave. Once before, they said, a learned man +had discovered them, and he had tried to measure them with a pair of +compasses, so they had had to kill him, as gently as they could, by +putting him in the middle of the pile of feathers. Then they said +good-bye, and all the little men kissed them and sent their love to +everybody at home, and Cuthbert and Doris began to scramble over the ice +toward the sledge-party that was now much nearer. + +When Captain Jeremy met them, you can guess how pleased he was, because +he had made up his mind that they must have been killed; and good Mr +Smith had tears in his eyes, but they were tears of joy. Everybody at +Port Jacobson, too, was so pleased that they made a big bonfire to +celebrate the occasion, and they all drank the healths of the little +ice-men and ate a lot of sweets in their honour. + +When the children arrived home, however, early in May, and Cuthbert told +Marian all about them, she said at first that she wouldn't believe in +them, because Cuthbert hadn't believed in Mr Jugg. But Cuthbert had +grown wiser and less conceited, and he told Marian that he had changed +his mind. So Marian believed in them, and her daddy was rather pleased, +because there were more things under the earth, he said, than most +people imagined. + + + + + Not a twig that learned to climb + In the babyhood of time, + + Not a bud that broke the air + In the days before men were, + + Not a bird that tossed in flight + Ere the first man walked upright, + + Nor a bee with craftier cell + Than a Roman citadel, + + But, with all its pride and pain, + Into dust crept back again. + + Oh, what wisdom there must be + Hidden in the earth and me! + + + + +UNCLE JOE'S STORY + + + + +[Illustration: Bella at Eden] + + + + +IV + +UNCLE JOE'S STORY + + +Marian's mummy used to read the Bible to her, so that she knew all about +Adam and Eve; but she never knew that Eve had a little daughter until +Uncle Joe told her this story. Next to her mummy and daddy, Marian loved +Uncle Joe better than anybody in the whole world. He lived in a little +house tucked into a sort of dimple on the side of Fairbarrow Down, and a +man called Mr Parker lived with him and helped to keep the place tidy. +Uncle Joe had been a soldier in a lot of queer countries a long way off; +and when Marian and Cuthbert asked him what he had fought for, he +generally used to tell them that it was for lost causes. In between wars +he had done lots of other things, such as trying to find out what caused +diseases, or whether plants that grew in some places could be made to +grow in others. Mr Parker had been a soldier too--a soldier of +misfortune, he used to say--and he had saved Uncle Joe's life three +times, and Uncle Joe had saved his life twice. + +Uncle Joe's face was yellowish brown, because he had been in the sun so +much and had fever; but Mr Parker's face was red, and one of his eyes +was made of glass. Mr Parker used to call himself a lone, lorn orphan, +though he was much fatter than Uncle Joe, and afterward he used to spit +and say that it was rough weather in the Baltic. + +It was about a fortnight after Cuthbert and Doris had come back from the +Arctic Circle that Uncle Joe told Marian this story, while they were +sitting under one of his apple-trees. Some of the apple-petals had begun +to drop, leaving the tiny, weeny, baby apples behind them, and the only +really ripe apples in Uncle Joe's garden were the two apples in Marian's +cheeks. + +"But those aren't real apples," said Marian. + +"Well, it all depends," said Uncle Joe, "on what you mean by real." + +"You see," said Mr Parker, who had just come out to mow the lawn, +"there's more kinds of apples than a few. There's eating apples and +cooking apples and pineapples and crab-apples; and there's oak-apples +and Adam's apples and the apples what you sees in little girls' cheeks." + +"Kissing apples," said Uncle Joe. "They're one of the most important +kinds." + +He began to fill his pipe. + +"And now that I come to think of it," he said, "they're one of the +oldest kinds too." + +"As old as Mr Jugg," asked Marian, "or the little ice-men?" + +"Well," said Uncle Joe, "I don't know about that. But they're certainly +as old as Eve's little girl," and then he began to tell Marian all about +her. + +"I'm not quite sure," he said, "what her name was. It might have been +Gretchen or Olga, or it might have been Seraphine or Marie-Louise, but I +rather think that it was Bella. Of course you remember what happened in +the Garden of Eden, and how Adam and Eve had to leave it, not because +the good Lord God wanted to turn them out, but because He knew that they +could never be happy there any more. Every hour that they stayed they +would have become more and more miserable; and if they had come back it +would have broken their hearts, so He had to put two angels to guard the +gate. You see, He had wanted them to be sort of grown-up babies in the +loveliest nursery ever imagined, and to be able to go there and play +games with them whenever He was tired of ruling the universe. But when +once they had heard about growing up, and choosing for themselves, and +things of that sort, they could never have been babies any more, and it +would have been cruel to keep them in the nursery. + +"Of course, they didn't understand that, and they thought it very hard, +and very often they used to grumble; and when they had learned to write +they used to send Him angry letters and say bad things about Him in +books. That was chiefly because they had to work and learn to look after +themselves; but that was the only way, as the good Lord God saw, in +which they could ever be happy again. 'They weren't content,' He +thought, 'just to be My playthings, so now they must learn to be My +comrades; and perhaps in the end that'll be the best for everybody, +though it'll be a long, long time before they've learnt how.' And then +He sighed as He saw the empty nursery and all the animals that they used +to play with, just as fathers and mothers sigh now when their babies +grow up and have to go to school. So Adam and Eve had to leave the +Garden, and just outside it there was a big town, full of houses and +factories and chimneys, and men and women who worked all day long. Who +were those men and women, and where did they come from? Well, it's +rather hard to explain. You see, Adam and Eve, through never having +grown up, had been in the Garden for thousands and thousands of years. +But outside the Garden there were seas and deserts and thick, hot +jungles full of wild animals. Some of these animals had looked through +the railings and been very struck with Adam and Eve, and sort of wished +in the bottoms of their hearts that they could have children just like +them. Some of them wished so hard that their next lot of children +actually did become a little like them, and their grandchildren became +liker still, and at last their great-great-grandchildren became real men +and women. Of course they weren't Garden men and women, like Adam and +Eve; they were just jungle men and women, running wild. + +"Well, after thousands of years these jungle men and women became so +clever that they cleared away the jungle, and then they dug fields and +planted hedges and sowed corn and built towns; and those were the people +that Adam and Eve found when they left the Garden and began to look for +work. Later on Adam and Eve's children married the children of the +jungle people; so that now all the people in the world are half Garden +and half jungle." + +"Even clergymen?" asked Marian. + +Uncle Joe nodded. + +"Yes, and policemen and postmen too." + +"And lone, lorn orphans," said Mr Parker, "and the man what comes to +mend the bath." + +"But that's jumping forward," said Uncle Joe, "a long time, for when +Adam and Eve left the Garden they didn't even know what children were, +and their hearts were full of bitterness against the good Lord God. That +was one of the reasons why He thought it would be so nice for them to +have a little girl of their own, because then in time they might begin +to guess, He thought, something of what He felt toward themselves. + +"So about a year after they had left the Garden little Bella was born, +and they both thought that she was the loveliest baby that had ever been +seen since the world began. Poor Adam and Eve were then living in a dark +street on the outskirts of the town, and all that they could afford was +one room on the top floor at the back. + +"Adam had got work at one of the factories where they made boots and +shoes, but he was only a beginner, of course, and hadn't learnt much, +and so his wages were very small. Sometimes Eve took in a little +washing, or got a job from somebody of darning socks, but she did her +best to keep their home tidy and some fresh flowers on the mantelpiece. +Every day, too, she put crumbs on the window-sill, and soon she had made +friends with the birds that came and ate them, and sometimes a bird +would fly from the Garden, and feed from her hand, and tell her the +news. Both Adam and Eve, you see, knew the birds' language through +having lived with them for so long. But they were never able to teach it +to their children, and since they died no one has ever learnt it. + +"Soon after Bella was born Adam got a rise in wages, but soon after that +Eve had another baby; and then she had some more, and though they rented +another room or two they were always poor and often hungry. But after a +while they began to think less often of their old life in the Garden of +Eden, and sometimes they would even wonder whether they would go back +there if the good Lord God gave them the chance. You see, in spite of +their poverty and their hard work and the noise and smells of the great +town, they had learnt what it meant to have children, and to bend over +their cots and kiss them good-night. + +"When Bella was eight she was rather a fat little girl, with dark eyes +and an impudent mouth, and she wore her hair in a long pigtail, and her +nose was ever so slightly turned up. Adam and Eve thought that she was +very beautiful, but everybody else thought her quite ordinary, and she +spent most of her time in the streets, though she was always punctual +for meals. She had lots of friends, most of them boys, but every now and +then she would get tired of them all; and those were the times when she +would go exploring and generally end up by hurting herself. Eve was too +busy ever to bother much about what Bella did or where she went, and the +Garden of Eden was the only place that she had strictly forbidden her +to go near. It was one of the rules, of course, that nobody was to go +near it, and there were angels at the gate with swords of flame; and +this was a rule, Eve thought, that it would be very much worse for one +of _her_ children to break than for anybody else. + +"So she had always told Bella never even to go up the street that led +into the fields just outside the Garden; and if Bella hadn't been +feeling bored on this particular day--it was just a week after her +birthday--and if it hadn't been so hot, and the sun so scorching, and +the streets so dusty, and everybody so cross, and if Bella hadn't been +inquisitive just like her mother used to be, and if she hadn't sort of +happened to be walking up that street, and if the fields at the end of +it hadn't seemed so cool and so inviting, and if Bobby Gee, who was a +great friend of hers, hadn't dared her to do it--well, there's no +saying, but perhaps after all Bella wouldn't have stood looking at those +dreadful gates. + +"There was now only a strip of grass between her and the Garden, and she +could see it stretched there beyond the railings. It was the middle of +the afternoon, and so heavy was the sunshine that the leaves of the +trees were all pressed down by it. None of them stirred. There was no +sound. The lawns beneath them looked like wax. And where were the +angels? Bella held her breath. There were none to be seen. There were +only the sentry-boxes. + +"Very cautiously she took a step or two forward. Her bare feet made no +noise. The bars of the gate quivered in the heat. Then she stopped again +and listened. At first she heard nothing, but then, very, very faint, +there came to her ears the ghost of a sound. It came and died, and came +and died, like the waves of a sea hundreds of miles off. She crept +nearer and listened again, and now there were two sounds, rising and +falling. They came from the sentry-boxes, one on each side of the gate. +The angels inside were fast asleep. Bella bit her lip and crept forward. +She could feel her heart jumping like a mouse in a cage. The scents of +the Garden came to meet her. She could see its curved and vanishing +pathways. + +"But what caught her eyes and made them grow round was a bending tree +just inside the gate. With her hands on the bars she stood looking at +it, and presently her mouth began to water. For from every branch of it +there hung such apples as she had never seen in all her life, and from +the lowest bough there hung an apple that was the biggest and most +beautiful of them all. And then another thing happened, for as she +pressed against the bars the great gate began to move. Very slowly it +swung open, and still the angels were fast asleep. Her heart was beating +now like two clocks at once--what an apple it would be to eat! A +bright-coloured bird hopped across the grass, and stood looking up at +her with an inquiring eye. She glanced round about her and over her +shoulder, but there was nobody in sight. Dared she go in? She thought +about the rules, and what her mother had said, and then she remembered +Bobby Gee. The angels were still breathing lightly and regularly. The +bright-coloured bird had flown away. + +"Then she took a bold step and went into the Garden and tiptoed softly +up to the tree. The apple was so ripe that it was nearly ready to drop, +and it was just on a level with the tip of her nose. It smelt like +honey, and when she touched it it was as cool as marble. Then she +touched it again, and caught hold of it, and somehow or other it came +off the tree. She lifted it to her lips, and it felt like a kiss; and +then a Voice behind her said-- + +"'Well?' + +"She jumped round, almost dropping the apple. It was the good Lord God +who stood looking at her. + +"'What are you doing?' + +"She hid the apple behind her, but His eyes shone through her, like +light through a window. She hung her head. + +"'Are you Eve's little girl?' He asked. + +"Bella nodded. She couldn't say a word. + +"'I thought you must be,' He said. He put His finger under her chin. +There came a sound like the rushing of a great wind. The two angels had +heard His voice, and drawn their swords, and leapt into the Garden. In +another moment, Bella thought, they would have killed her. But the good +Lord God held up His hand. The two angels stood one on each side of Him, +leaning on their swords and looking rather downcast. Bella held out her +hand. The good Lord God bent forward and took the apple away from her. + +"'Well, what excuse have you,' He said, 'for stealing My apples?' + +"Bella considered for a moment. Then she thought of one. + +"'Please, sir, mother did it. She told me so.' + +"'But you knew the rules,' said the good Lord God. + +"Bella hung her head again. She knew them quite well. + +"'And the rules must be obeyed,' He said. + +"Bella began to tremble. + +"There was a moment's silence. The two angels stood like statues, still +leaning on their swords. Then the good Lord God spoke again. + +"'Look at Me,' He said. + +"Bella lifted her eyes and saw the World without End. He gave her back +the apple. + +"'Well, you may keep it,' He went on, 'on condition that you give half +of it to Bobby Gee.' + +"Bella said, 'Thank you, sir.' + +"'But that's not all,' He continued. + +"He bent forward and touched her cheeks. + +"'For I hereby ordain,' He said, 'that now and for ever every little +girl and every little boy shall wear apples in their cheeks in +remembrance of what you have done. They shall be known as the brand of +Eden--the brand of Eden for little thieves--and their parents must see +to it, on pain of My displeasure, that they shall never be allowed to +fade away.' + +"Then He bent still lower and gave Bella a kiss, and the tall angels led +her outside the gate; and that's why it is that the apples in little +girls' cheeks are almost the oldest kind in the world." + +Uncle Joe lit his pipe. From where they were sitting they could see the +country for miles and miles. Down below them the town looked quite +small, and the spire of St Peter's Church just like a toy spire. Far +behind it, beyond the level cornlands, the sun was dropping into the +evening mists. It grew rosier and rosier, until it almost looked like an +apple itself. Mr Parker winked at Marian. + +"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic." + +Then he spat in his hands and rubbed them together. + +"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "with this here lawn-mowing." + + + + + Eden had an apple-tree, + Eve a little daughter, + Tried to do as mother did, + But the Good Lord caught her. + + "Wherefore 'tis ordained," He said, + "Here and in all places, + Children shall henceforward wear + Apples in their faces." + + + + +BEARDY NED + + + + +[Illustration: Beardy Ned's Fire] + + + + +V + +BEARDY NED + + +Near Uncle Joe's house there was a small pool which was really the +beginning of a river; and this river ran into a bigger one that flowed +through the town in which Marian and Cuthbert lived. The big river was +rather muddy, but the little one was nearly always clear, and it was +quite easy to paddle across it, though there were some pools in it six +feet deep. + +Up in the downs, where it began, it was hardly more than a bubbly +trickle, but lower down it grew wider and wider, and ran between the +reeds at the edges of the meadows. Close to Captain Jeremy's farmhouse, +where it joined the big river that flowed through the town, it ran for +almost a quarter of a mile through the middle of a sort of wood. It was +under the roots of some of these trees, as they pushed through the water +into the soil beneath, that the biggest of the trout had their nests, +where fishermen with flies couldn't reach them. But there were some big +trout, too, that lived under the meadow banks, and used to put up their +noses in the summer evenings, and suck down the flies that fell on the +water when they were tired of dancing in the air. + +Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and Gwendolen were all very fond of this +river, and when they had finished paddling or bathing in the pools (for +they had all learnt to swim) they used to lie on the bank and keep very +still and watch the trout having their evening meal. They would see an +orange-coloured fly or a blue fly or a fly with pale wings like a +distant rain-cloud floating down on the top of the water and probably +wondering where it had got to; and then they would hear a little noise +like grown-up people make with the tips of their tongues against the +roofs of their mouths; and then the fly would be gone, and there would +be a tiny wave on the water, shaped like a ring, and growing bigger and +bigger. That meant that a trout had been lying in wait, with his eye +cocked on the surface of the stream, and had seen the fly, and liked the +look of him, and suddenly decided to swallow him up. + +Sometimes a fisherman would come quietly along and kneel down on one +knee, and, after he had seen a trout rise, would open a little box and +take out a fly like the one that the trout had eaten. But this would be +a sham fly, made of feathers and silk, cunningly tied round a sharp +hook, and he would thread it on to a piece of gut so thin that they +could hardly see it. Then he would tie the gut to a sort of string that +was hanging down from the point of his fishing-rod; and then he would +swish his rod until the fly flew out straight and fell upon the stream, +just as the real one had done. + +Sometimes they could see a trout come up and look at this fly and shake +his head, and go down again; but once or twice they had seen a big trout +rise and swallow it just as if it had been a real one. Then the trout +had found himself caught, and they had seen the fisherman's rod bent +almost double as the trout dashed to and fro; and at last they had seen +the fisherman slip a net into the water, and lift the trout on to the +bank, all curved and shining. But very often there would be no fishermen +at all, and they would see nobody for hours and hours, and hear nothing +but the cries of the river-birds and the suck, suck, of the feeding +trout. + +The man that they saw most often was a man called Beardy Ned, because, +though he was only a youngish man, he had a sandy-coloured beard; and +they were always very sorry for him, because he had lost his wife in a +terrible railway accident soon after he had married her. She had left +him with a little girl only ten months old, and that was why Ned had let +his beard grow. He hadn't time, he said, to look after the little girl +and shave his face every day as well. When he had married, Ned had been +a postman, but after his wife had been killed he had given that up; and +he had wandered about ever since, doing all sorts of odd jobs. + +Sometimes he helped the farmers get their hay in, or the gamekeepers +trap stoats, and sometimes he would chop wood, and sometimes he would go +far away and not come back for weeks and weeks. But wherever he went he +would take his little girl, whom he had called Liz after her mother; and +sooner or later he would always come back to this river, because that +was where he had first met his dead wife. He had lived so much in the +open air that his skin was as dark as a Red Indian's, and when he +laughed his teeth were like snow, and his eyes like the sea on a sunny +day. People like clergymen and large employers often used to tell him +that he ought to settle down. But why should he settle down, he asked, +so long as there was only Liz, and she could sleep in his arms as snug +as snug? + +Liz was four years old now, and as brown as her father, and her hair was +short and curly like a boy's; and Cuthbert and Marian and Doris and +Gwendolen loved her almost as much as they loved Beardy Ned. For Beardy +Ned, in spite of his great trouble, was always full of a secret +happiness, and he had made this little song out of his own head that he +used to sing every two or three hours: + + The wickedest girl there was, + The wickedest girl there is, + The wickedest girl there ever will be + Is my young daughter Liz. + +He only meant it in fun, of course, and when Liz was running about he +would shout it at the top of his voice, but when she was sleepy he would +only croon it until her eyelids began to drop. + +Of course Cuthbert couldn't always be bothered to go up the river with +the girls, and on the same evening that Uncle Joe told Marian about the +apples he went by himself to have a bathe in a big pool called +Kingfisher Pool. It was still only May, so that the water was cold, but +the air above it was warm and still, and he was lying on the bank +without anything on, when he suddenly heard a splash and a gurgling cry. +He sat bolt upright, and then, looking across the pool, he saw a little +form struggling in the deep water, and rolling over in it, head +downward, and then beginning to slip out of sight. It was Liz, with all +her clothes on. She had evidently slipped down the steep bank, and if +Cuthbert couldn't save her she would be sure to drown, because Beardy +Ned was nowhere in sight. + +It was so awful to see her that at first Cuthbert couldn't move; but a +moment later he was in the water and swimming across the pool as fast as +he could, and faster than he had ever swum before. He prayed to God that +he might be in time. The pool had never looked so wide. But at last he +had swum across it and made a grab at a piece of Liz's frock just under +the surface. He pulled this hard, and tried to go on swimming with his +other arm and both legs; and then it was only a second or two before his +toes touched the bottom of the river, and he was able to stand up and +lift her out of the pool. + +She was quite pale, and the water was pouring from her mouth, and her +eyes were staring as if they couldn't see anything. He scrambled up the +bank, grazing his knees, and then she began to choke and take deep +breaths. Just then, too, Beardy Ned came crashing through the reeds with +great strides, for Cuthbert had shouted as loud as he could just before +he plunged into the pool. Ned's face had turned grey, and there was a +look in his eyes that made Cuthbert feel almost frightened. But when he +saw Liz sitting up and crying he gave a shout and caught her in his +arms. Then he gripped Cuthbert by the wrist, and Cuthbert could feel +that he was shaking all over; and then Beardy Ned began to cry too, so +that Cuthbert had to look the other way. But next moment both he and Liz +were laughing, and Cuthbert swam back again to put on his clothes; and +then he crossed the river upon a plank lower down, where he found Beardy +Ned and Liz waiting for him. + +Beardy Ned took him by the shoulder. + +"Come along," he said, "and have supper with us." + +He was carrying Liz, and sticking out of one of his pockets Cuthbert +could see the tails of a brace of trout; and presently they came to a +bend of the stream, where the bank was high and there was a little +beach. From the top of the bank a great tree had fallen, with its roots +sticking up in the air, and under the trunk there was just room enough +for Beardy Ned and Liz to sleep. He had put a couple of blankets there +and an old waterproof, and standing on the beach were a cup and kettle; +and soon he had made a fire with some dry sticks, and was showing +Cuthbert how to cook trout. + +It was beginning to get dark now, and the stars were shining, and the +flames of the fire made the river look like ink. But they were so +sheltered under the high bank that they might almost have been at home. +They had trout for supper, and drank tea, and Liz, who was almost +asleep, had a cup of milk; and then they ate biscuits, and jam out of a +pot, and Beardy Ned filled his pipe. He had made Liz take off her wet +clothes, of course, and these were hanging from sticks on either side of +the fire, and he had wrapped her in a blanket, and soon she was fast +asleep, lying on his knees as he sat and smoked. + +He seemed to be thinking a lot, but at last he looked at Cuthbert. + +"You've saved my little girl's life," he said, "and I can never pay you +back. But I'll show you a secret that no one else in the whole world +knows." + +Cuthbert liked secrets, so he was rather pleased. But Beardy Ned changed +the subject. + +"It was just here," he said, "just where we're sitting, that I first saw +my Liz--I mean her mother. Perhaps, in a manner of speaking, it was +where I first saw this one too, but that's neither here nor there. She +was just nineteen. She'd been paddling in the stream. I called out to +her, and she turned and looked at me. She was in an old frock, but she +looked quite the lady. Her eyes was dark, and she was smiling." + +He moved his head a little. + +"There goes a fox," he said. + +He sucked his pipe for a moment in silence. The sound of the fire was +like somebody talking to them. But the sound of the river was like +something talking to itself. + +Then Beardy Ned felt in his pocket and pulled out the end of a candle. +It looked like an ordinary candle, with an ordinary wick, and it was +just about an inch long. + +"This was give me," he said, "by an old feller--James Parkins, that was +his name--and there's not another like it in the whole world, and there +never won't be again." + +Beardy Ned held it in the palm of his hand, as though he were weighing +it, while he looked at Cuthbert. + +"Have you ever wondered," he said, "where candles goes to--where they +goes to when they goes out?" + +"No, I don't think so," said Cuthbert. "Where _do_ they go to?" + +Liz stirred a little, and Beardy Ned bent over her. + +"Well, I'll tell you," he said. "They goes into the In-between Land--the +place as is in between everything you can see. How do I know? Because +I've been there. Because James Parkins showed me how." + +"That's very interesting," said Cuthbert politely, but Beardy Ned didn't +seem to hear. + +"The trouble is, you see," Beardy Ned continued, "that candles, when +they goes out, can't take people with them. But James Parkins, he'd +found a candle that could take a person with it, and this is the candle. +When he first gave it me, two year ago, it was about eight inches long. +But I've used it a lot, and after you've blowed it out, and it's taken +you with it, it goes on burning. When you come back, it's an inch +shorter--an inch shorter every time. And this here bit is the last bit +as'll ever take anyone to In-between Land." + +He gave it to Cuthbert. + +"Do you want to go there?" he said. "You've saved my little girl's life, +and you've only to say the word." + +"But it's the last bit," said Cuthbert. + +"Never mind. I know what's there. That's the chief thing." + +"Is it quite safe?" asked Cuthbert. "It seems rather queer." + +"I'll tell you what it's like," said Beardy Ned. "It's like a dream. Or +rather it's not like a dream so much as waking up from a dream. You sees +the trees and things, all kind of misty, and the houses in the towns, +and the people in the houses. And you sees 'em quarrelling and the like, +and grieving, and you wants to tell 'em as it's only a dream. You wants +to tell 'em they're just going to wake up. That's what it seems like in +In-between Land." + +Liz stirred again, and he shifted her on his knees a little. + +"You see, in a manner of speaking," he went on, "there ain't no time +there, not as we reckons time. But once you've been there--well, you'll +see for yourself if you'd like to go." + +Cuthbert held out the candle. + +"Yes, I'd like to," he said. "It would be rather exciting." + +Beardy Ned bent forward and took a stick from the fire. He lit the end +of the candle between Cuthbert's fingers. + +"Now blow it out," he said, "and you'll go out with it. It'll be all +right. You'll be back in a tick." + +Cuthbert's hand was shaking a little, but he blew out the candle, and +then, for a moment, he saw nothing at all. But he felt something. He +felt as if he'd been asleep for ever and ever and had suddenly opened +his eyes. He felt as if he could do anything, he was so strong. He felt +as if he could jump over the highest star. Toothache, and school, and +taking medicine--they all seemed too stupid even to bother about. He +felt like a prisoner just set free. He knew that he was really free, and +that nothing could ever hurt him. Then he began to see things--the fire +of sticks, the stream beyond, and the dusky meadows. But they looked +just like dream-sticks, and a dream-fire, and there were real things +beyond them whose names he didn't know. Then he looked round and saw +Beardy Ned with little Liz upon his knees; and it was just then that he +saw something else that was perhaps the most wonderful thing of all. For +beside Beardy Ned stood a girl of nineteen, who had been paddling in the +stream. She was in an old frock, but she looked quite the lady, and her +eyes were dark, and she was smiling. + +Then she was gone. The candle had burnt away. Cuthbert was back again in +the ordinary world. He saw Beardy Ned looking at him gravely. + +"Now you know," he said, "why I'm happy." + +Cuthbert rose to his feet. + +"I must be going home," he said. "They'll be wondering where I've been." + +Beardy Ned nodded. + +"Well, good night," he said. + +"Good night," said Cuthbert. + +He climbed the bank. + +But on the top of the bank he turned round for a moment and looked down +again at Beardy Ned. He was still sitting there with Liz on his knees, +and Cuthbert saw him stoop and give her a kiss. Then he began to sing +very softly the queer song that he had made up: + + The wickedest girl there was, + The wickedest girl there is, + The wickedest girl there ever will be + Is my young daughter Liz. + + + + + In between the things we know, + Touch and handle, taste and see, + Lies the land where lovers go + At their life's end quietly. + + There, in that untroubled place, + There, with eyes amused, they scan, + Cradled still in time and space, + This, the infant world of man. + + + + +THE MAGIC SONG + + + + +[Illustration: The Magic Song] + + + + +VI + +THE MAGIC SONG + + +About a month after Cuthbert had been lucky enough to save Beardy Ned's +little girl, the weather grew so hot that all the people in the town +became rather discontented. It is always easier for people in towns to +become discontented than it is for other people, because instead of +fields to walk on they have only pavements; and instead of hills to look +at they have only chimneys; and instead of bean-flowers to smell they +have only dust-bins and the stale air that trickles down the streets. So +the men in the ironworks were discontented because they thought that the +men who owned the ironworks didn't give them enough money; and the men +in the cotton-mills were discontented because they thought that the men +who owned the cotton-mills made them work too hard; and the girls in Mr +Joseph's refreshment shops thought him a cruel old beast; and the +policemen thought that nobody loved them. + +Also, the men who owned the ironworks thought that their men were +greedy; and the men who owned the cotton-mills were afraid of becoming +poor; and Mr Joseph was feeling depressed; and the policemen still +thought that nobody loved them. Even dear Miss Plum, the head of the +school, had a frown on her forehead, and the French mistress slapped +Doris so hard that she left a red mark on Doris's cheek. Of course Doris +was very angry about it, and her little brothers wanted to know exactly +where the mark was. But it had faded away by the time she arrived home, +and her mother only said that it had probably served her right. Doris +was rather fond, you see, of cheeking the French mistress, and asking +her silly questions to make the other girls laugh; and since she had had +her hair bobbed the week before, she was even cheekier than usual. + +Doris, as you may remember, lived in John Street, which was the next +street to Peter Street, where Marian and Cuthbert lived. But the houses +in it were smaller than the houses in Peter Street, and most of the +people in them were rather poor. Doris's mother was poor, because +Doris's daddy was dead, and Doris had five little brothers--Teddy and +George, who were the twins, and Jimmy and Jocko and Christopher Mark. +They were much too poor to be able to have a maid, and so Doris's mother +had to do most of the work. She had to be cook and housemaid and nurse +and governess and Mummy darling all in one. Now that Doris was ten she +was able to help her mother sometimes, and she used to take Christopher +Mark out in his push-cart; and since she had been to the Arctic Circle +with Cuthbert and Captain Jeremy her mother had begun to lean upon her a +little more. + +But oh, it was hot! The people in the streets lagged along with pale +faces. They talked about the trouble in the ironworks, and the trouble +in the cotton-mills, and what would Mr Joseph do if his girls went on +strike, and didn't the policemen look ill-tempered? And Miss Plum +couldn't make her accounts come right; and the French mistress went home +to her boarding-house; and there she told everybody that she was going +to be ill, and that the ham was tepid and the milk-pudding sour. + +Even in John Street it was almost as bad, though it was a quiet street +with a field at the other end of it. For the sun poured right into it, +so that there wasn't any shade, and the stones of the pavement shone +like martyrs, and the drains at Number Fifteen were out of order, and +there was half a haddock lying in the middle of the road. So Doris went +into the garden when they had all finished tea, but it was as hot in the +garden as it was anywhere else; and the lady next door was grumbling to +the lady beyond about one of her husband's collars that had been spoilt +in the wash. Doris played about a bit and made Jocko cry, because he was +silly and wanted to read a book; and then she went round to Peter Street +to see Cuthbert and Marian, and found that they had gone into the +country to see their Uncle Joe. + +So she came back and teased the twins, and at last it was time to go to +bed; and it was almost as hot after the sun had gone down as it had been +in the middle of the day. She slept in the same room with Jimmy and +Jocko, and they all turned and twisted and kicked off their bedclothes; +and as the daylight faded the moonlight grew, so that it was past ten +before they fell asleep. That was when their mother came and kissed +them, and she was so tired that she could hardly stand; and then she +went to bed and fell asleep too, and the church clock struck eleven +times. Happy was Beardy Ned then, sleeping by the stream, with little +Liz and his beautiful secret; and happy was Gwendolen in her farmhouse +bedroom smelling of lavender and last year's apples. But sorrowful and +sticky were the people of the town, and troubled were their slumbers. + +Then Doris sat up suddenly, for out in the street was the biggest din +that she had ever heard. She jumped from her bed and ran to the window, +and there she saw nine of the strangest-looking people. There was a big +sailor with a concertina, and a stout lady with a tambourine, and a +soldier with a pair of cymbals, and an elderly greengrocer, who was very +thin. They were standing in a row, and sitting on the ground behind them +were five men, each with a drum. Doris leaned out, and when they saw her +they all sang louder than ever; but the funny thing was that nobody else +in the whole street seemed to hear them. The blinds were all down, the +moonlight lay on the road, and there wasn't a head at anybody's window. + +When Doris first listened they had been singing about the lady, but now +they began to sing about the sailor, and the sailor stepped forward, +playing his concertina, and singing the loudest of them all. He had a +tenor voice with a great smack in it, like the smack of a wave against a +jetty, and when he sang softly without taking a breath it was like water +running through seaweed. The soldier sang bass, like a motor-lorry in a +hurry to get home over a rough road, and the stout lady sang soprano, +and the elderly greengrocer only squeaked. This is what they sang: + + Here's a sailor come home from the Guineas, + His face is as black as a leaf, + His eyes are like forests of darkness, + His heart is a hotbed of grief, + His arms are like roots of the jungle, + He has ladies tattooed on his skin, + And his clothes smell of cinnamon--cardamom--tar. + Oh, mother, must I let him in? + Bang! Bang! [went the drums], + Oh, mother, must I let him in? + +Then there was a chorus and the queerest sort of dance, and it all +seemed somehow to be just wrong; and when they stopped and looked up at +her window Doris really didn't know what to make of them. Then the +sailor coughed, and scratched the back of his head, and said, "Beg +pardon, miss, but are you ten years old?" + +Doris said that she was. + +"And have you five brothers younger than yourself?" + +Doris said that she had. + +"And have you five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot?" + +Doris laughed and said that they could come and count them if they +didn't believe her word. + +They looked at one another with a peculiar expression, while the five +drummers stared at the ground; and then the stout lady asked her if she +would come downstairs and let them count her eyelashes. + +"Why do you want to count my eyelashes?" asked Doris. + +"It's most important," said the greengrocer. + +"If you'll come downstairs," said the soldier, "we shall be most happy +to tell you why." + +Doris pulled her head in and glanced round the bedroom. Jimmy and Jocko +were still fast asleep. She put on her dressing-gown, but not her +slippers, in case they should want to count her toes. Then she opened +the door and ran softly downstairs, and drew back the bolts, and went +into the street. + +"Wouldn't it be better," said the stout lady, "if we went to a quieter +place?" + +"Well, there's a field," said Doris, "at the end of the street. Of +course, we might go along there." + +"You're sure you're not frightened?" asked the sailor. + +The five drummers still stared at the ground. + +"Not very much," said Doris. "You aren't going to hurt me, are you?" + +"God forbid!" said the elderly greengrocer. + +So they went up the street to the field at the end, and there they all +crouched under the hedge; and the sailor, whose name was Lancelot, did +most of the talking, because he was the biggest. + +"You see, we've all lost something," he said, "so we went to see an old +man as lives in the middle of Brazil. He's the wisest old geezer as ever +lived, and we all of us told him what we had lost. This here lady has +lost her husband and has been trying to find him for years and years; +and this here soldier has lost his character and can't find a general to +give him a job; and this here greengrocer has lost his appetite and is +getting thinner and thinner; and as for me, I've lost my temper and +can't find a ship to sail in." + +"That's very sad," said Doris. "And what have these drummers lost?" + +"Their senses," said Lancelot. "Each of these here drummers has been and +lost one of his senses. The first can't see, and the second can't hear, +and the third can't smell, and the fourth can't taste, and the fifth +can't feel." + +"I see," said Doris. "And what did the old man tell you?" + +"Well," said Lancelot, "that's just what I'm coming to. He told us he'd +thought of a magic song. There was four verses to it, and the words +didn't matter, he said, so long as they was each sung by somebody as had +lost something. After each verse there was a chorus, and in between the +verses there was a dance. When we'd told him our troubles, he made up +some words for us, and then he lent us these here drummers. But what +you've got to find, he said, is a little girl as can play this here +flute, for until you've found her you can sing as loud as you like, but +you won't sing right, and nobody won't hear you. But when you've found +her--that's what the old man said--she'll be able to blow this here +flute, for this here flute can play by itself if you find the right +little girl to blow it. Well, of course we was interested, so we asked +him to go on, and he said that it would play for just about an hour, and +by the end of that time, he said, it would have settled all our troubles +and all the troubles of the people as heard it. Only, first of all, he +said, you must find the right little girl, and the time must be +midnight, and the moon must be full." + +"Dear me!" said Doris, "that sounds rather odd." + +"That's what _we_ thought," said the stout lady. + +"Well," said Lancelot, "naturally we asked him where this here girl was +to be found. But he shook his head, and he said as he didn't know, and +that all we could do was to go and look for her. You must travel about, +he said, and sing this here music, but the only people as'll be able to +hear you will be little girls twice five years old, with five brothers +younger than theirselves, and with five fingers on each hand, and five +toes on each foot. And of them, he says, the only little girl as'll be +able to play this here flute must have a hundred and five eyelashes on +her right upper eyelid." + +He felt in his pocket and pulled out a magnifying glass. + +"So that's why we want to count your eyelashes." + +They looked at her anxiously, all except the drummers, and they were +still looking at the ground. + +"All right," said Doris, "count away. I'm sure I don't know how many +I've got." + +She closed her eyes, and they stared through the magnifying glass, and +began to count her right upper eyelashes. She became quite excited as +they went on. + +"A hundred and three," they said, "a hundred and four, a hundred and +five," and then they gave a great shout. + +"You're the one," they cried, "you're the very one! You've exactly a +hundred and five!" + +She opened her eyes again and saw them dancing about. + +"Where's the flute?" she asked. + +The soldier gave it to her. + +"And the moon's full," said the greengrocer, "and it's a quarter to +twelve. Perhaps we shall soon find my appetite." + +"And my character," said the soldier. + +"And my husband," said the stout lady. + +"And my temper," said Lancelot. + +But the drummers had lost hope, and still stared at the ground. + +"Now," said Lancelot, "we'd better go to the market-place. This here +little girl will show us the way. And when the clocks have struck twelve +we'll sing our song and see what happens." + +So they went to the market-place, where the Town Hall was, and where all +the tram-lines criss-crossed; and the policeman on duty outside the Bank +stared at them sleepily, but didn't say anything. There were also two +dustmen with a cart clearing up rubbish and bits of newspaper, and a +water-man watering the asphalt, and some postmen outside the Post Office +loading a mail-van. Then the deep bell in the old abbey tower began to +toll the hour of midnight, and the moon looked down on them with her +silver face, and they stood in a row and began their song. + +Doris's hands were shaky, as you can imagine, when she lifted the flute +to her lips. But when she began to blow, the flute began to play; and +oh, the difference it made to the song! For it was now a song with the +maddest and sweetest and most beguiling melody that anybody in the world +had ever imagined, or ever imagined that anybody could imagine. It began +very softly, like a boy whistling, and the cracking of sticks in a deep +wood, and then it sounded like birds singing, and water falling, and +ripe fruit dropping from trees. Then it grew louder, until it sounded +like thunder and sea-waves shattering on the beach; and then it grew +softer again, like leaves rustling, and crickets chirping in the grass. + +Before the stout lady had sung half the first verse, Doris could hardly +stand still enough to play the flute. She could scarcely believe that it +was possible for anybody in the world to feel so happy. She saw the +policeman running toward them, and the postmen, and the man from the +water-cart; and she saw the windows above the shops in the market-place +thrown up, and people looking out. Then came the chorus, like the +pealing of great bells, and the policeman and the postmen began to join +in, and people in their nightdresses and pyjamas came running out of +their front doors, singing at the tops of their voices. + +Before the chorus was over there were nearly a hundred people singing +and shouting and beating time, and the cymbals were clashing, and the +concertina was groaning, and the five drummers were hitting like mad. +But it was the flute, it was Doris's flute, that soared up and up and +led the whole music; and when the dance came, it was the magic of +Doris's flute that stole into the feet of all who heard it. + +Most of them were bare feet, like Doris's own, but some were in slippers +and some in boots, and soon they were all whirling and twisting and +hopping, as the people that they belonged to danced and sang. The news +had spread abroad now, and by the end of the second verse the whole of +the market-place was simply crammed, and by the end of the third verse +all the streets that led into it were bubbling over with people dancing. +There were the ironworks men dancing with their employers, and Mr Joseph +dancing with his girls, and the heads of the cotton-mills dancing in +their pyjamas, arm-in-arm with the people that worked for them. And +there was the French mistress dancing with the two dustmen, and there +was Miss Plum dancing with the chimney-sweep, and there was the +policeman trying to dance with everybody, and everybody trying to dance +with him. + +Then a little man with a carroty moustache pushed through the crowd and +caught hold of the stout lady; and she nearly dropped her tambourine, +because he was her long-lost husband. As for the greengrocer, he became +so hungry that he danced into one of Mr Joseph's shops, and Mr Joseph +gave him permission to eat everything that he could see. Funnily enough, +too, both Uncle Joe and Captain Jeremy happened to be in town; and when +Uncle Joe caught sight of the soldier he was so struck with his honest +appearance that he gave him the names of three or four generals who +would be only too glad to have him in their armies. It was the same, +too, with Lancelot, for when Captain Jeremy spoke to him his face became +so gentle that Captain Jeremy resolved at once to give him a job as +bosun's mate. + +Then the French mistress came and kissed Doris, and then everybody +cheered everybody else; and the five drummers shouted with joy, because +each of them had found the sense that he had lost. The blind one could +see; and the deaf one could hear; and the one that couldn't feel felt +somebody squeezing him; and the one that couldn't smell suddenly smelt +somebody's tooth powder; and the one that couldn't taste had the biggest +surprise of all. For one of Mr Joseph's girls gave him a box of +chocolates, and it was the loveliest thing that had ever happened to +him; and after that, when she gave him some almond rock, he asked her if +she would marry him, and she said that she would. + +For a whole hour Doris played her flute, and then it stopped, and +everybody looked at everybody else; and everybody else looked so queer +and funny that everybody began to shout with laughter. Even the moon +laughed, and the end of it was that they all resolved to make up their +quarrels, because after what had happened it seemed so silly to go on +quarrelling about anything. But what the tune of the song was no one +remembered; and next morning when Doris took the flute to school, none +of the girls could make it play anything, not even Gwendolen, who had a +flute at home. + + + + + "_H'shh_," said the man in the moon, + Full-faced and white, + And I listened, + I listened so hard that I heard through the night, + + Faint through a crack + In the ice of the whiteness, I heard + Somebody whisper my name + With a magical word. + + And the moon and the stars and the sky, + And the roofs of the street, + Fell in fragments of darkness and silver + That danced at my feet. + + And we danced, and we danced, and we danced, + And oh! tired was I + When, full-faced and white, the cold moon + Shone again in the sky. + + + + +THE IMAGINARY BOY + + + + +[Illustration: The Haunted Wood] + + + + +VII + +THE IMAGINARY BOY + + +Soon after Doris's adventure with the flute, Marian and Gwendolen made a +most solemn vow. Marian pricked her finger with a needle and made a tiny +drop of blood come, and then she rubbed it into the palm of Gwendolen's +hand and promised to be faithful to her for ever. Then Gwendolen pricked +her own finger and rubbed it into the palm of Marian's hand, and took +her dying oath that Marian should always be her greatest friend. Then +they washed their hands under the nursery tap and cleaned the needle and +put it back in the workbox, and Marian was very pleased, and so was +Gwendolen, and when they told Cuthbert he said that he didn't mind much. + +Marian was pleased, because she knew that Gwendolen would ask her to tea +pretty often at the old farmhouse; and Gwendolen was pleased, because +that was the first time that she had ever had a greatest friend; and +Cuthbert didn't mind much, because he had gone to a new school, where +there was a boy called Edward Goldsmith, who was wonderfully strong, and +could dive into the water backward from the top diving-board at the town +baths. He was going to be a barrister like Mr Jenkins, who took the +plate round at St Peter's Church, and after that he was going to be +Lord Chief Justice, like the great Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park. + +Gwendolen's aunt was pleased too, and so was Captain Jeremy when +Gwendolen told him, and so were her father and mother, who were climbing +the Himalaya Mountains and writing a book called _Two Above the +Snowline_. But Gwendolen didn't know, of course, about her father and +mother being glad till she got a letter from them; and by then she had +become quite used to having Marian for her greatest friend. + +This letter came during the first week of the holidays, while Marian was +staying for a few days with Gwendolen. Both Gwendolen's aunt and Captain +Jeremy were away on a short voyage, and Marian and Gwendolen had the +house to themselves, except for Mrs Robertson, the cook, Amy and Agnes, +the two maids, and Percy, the boot-and-garden boy. + +Percy was the boy that used to open the door when Gwendolen's aunt lived +in Bellington Square, and his father was a gamekeeper, called Mr +Williams, who worked for Lord Barrington at Fairbarrow Park. Percy was +sixteen, and was going to marry Agnes as soon as he had saved enough +money, and though he was rather proud, Marian and Gwendolen liked him, +but not so much as they liked his father. + +They liked Mr Williams, because he knew all about rabbits, and used to +take them through places marked PRIVATE; and they liked Mrs Williams, +because she gave them peppermints and never minded how many questions +they asked. Mr Williams was tall, with a grey moustache, and his +clothes smelt of tobacco, and he wore gaiters; and Mrs Williams was +short, and her arms smelt of soap, and she was always popping upstairs +to change her apron. They lived in a little cottage near the Park gates, +and they had six children besides Percy, but Mr Williams was nearly +always out, setting traps or counting the young partridges. + +Fairbarrow Park was about three miles round, and was half-way to +Fairbarrow Down; and in the middle of it was Lord Barrington's house, +with its thirty bedrooms and all its gardens. There was an Italian +garden and a Dutch garden and a rose-garden and a water-garden; and +there were lawns as smooth as a ballroom floor, over which the peacocks +cried and strutted. But besides all these, and the Park in which they +nestled, most of the country round belonged to Lord Barrington; and it +was in the woods and fields which he let to different farmers that the +pheasants and partridges made their homes. + +When they had finished reading Gwendolen's letter, which came just after +their middle-day dinner, Marian and Gwendolen thought that they would go +and see Mr Williams, and watch the young partridges that he was bringing +up by hand. So they set off, and presently they found him just at the +farther edge of Lord Barrington's estate, where there was a little wood +climbing up the side of Fairbarrow Down. There was a sort of grassy +hollow near the wood, and here Mr Williams had placed half a dozen +hen-coops; and in front of these he had built a little mound, made of +lumps of turf dug from the Down. In among these lumps of turf there +were thousands of ants and several ants' nests full of eggs; and a score +of young partridges were scrambling over them, finding their afternoon +meal. + +Usually Mr Williams was glad to see the girls, and to let them play with +the young partridges, but this afternoon he only nodded to them and went +on smoking in silence. They were a little surprised, because it was such +a lovely afternoon, with the sky bluer than any ocean, and the fields +all glittering with the leaves of the root crops, or hidden away under +the golden wheat. Here and there the reapers were already at work +cutting the first of the oats and barley, and about a mile away they +could see the chimneys of the great house shining in groups between the +tree-tops. + +The only dark spot was the thick and tangled pinewood, known as the +Haunted Wood, into which Lord Barrington never allowed anybody besides +himself to go. It was inside the Park, and round two sides of it ran the +Park wall, with sharp iron spikes on the top; and round the other two +sides there was a barbed-wire fence, with a small gate in it, heavily +padlocked. For twenty years it had never been touched. When a tree fell +over, it lay where it had fallen; between the trunks of the trees there +had grown a jungle of undergrowth; and only Lord Barrington had the key +of the gate. + +Mr Williams was still sitting down, staring moodily in front of him, +when Marian asked him what was the matter, and was he angry with them +for coming? + +"No, no, it's not that," he said, "but I've just got the push. His +lordship has given me a month's notice. I'm got to quit and find a new +job, after forty-two years here, man and boy." + +Marian and Gwendolen stared at him in astonishment. + +"Why, whatever have you been doing?" Gwendolen asked. + +He took his pipe from his mouth and pointed to the Haunted Wood. + +"See that wood there," he said, "the Haunted Wood? Well, last night one +of these here dogs, he bolted into it, and I couldn't get him out, so I +went in to hunt for him. I was only in there for about five minutes, but +just as I was coming out I met his lordship. He stared at me as if I was +a criminal in the dock, and give me a month's notice to leave his +service. + +"'You know my rules,' he says, 'and you've broken them. It's no good +arguing,' he says, 'you've got to go.'" + +Marian and Gwendolen felt very angry, angrier than they had ever felt +before. + +"What a beast!" they said. "But p'raps he'll think better of it." + +Mr Williams shook his head. + +"Not he," he said. "I've seen him this morning. 'I'll give you a +pension,' he says, 'and I'll give you a good character. But that wood's +forbidden ground,' he says, 'and I'll have nobody going into it.'" + +Mr Williams rose and began to collect the young partridges, and put them +away into the various hen-coops. + +"Well, I must be getting along," he said, "and next month you'll have to +make friends with a new keeper." + +After he had gone, Marian and Gwendolen sat thinking of all the good +times that they had had with him, and of poor Mrs Williams, who would +have to turn out of her cottage--the gay little cottage that she was so +proud of. Their cheeks were quite red, and there was a hot sort of +prickly feeling at the backs of their noses, and they felt as if they +would like to go to the great house and shoot Lord Barrington dead. + +"Dog in the manger," said Gwendolen, "that's what he is, with that great +big house and no wife or children. And he's always going into his old +wood himself. I know he is, because Percy told me." + +"Yes, I know," said Marian, "and half his time he never lives at the +Park at all. He's judging people and sending them to prison, or +travelling about and enjoying himself." + +"P'raps he doesn't know," said Gwendolen, "what a nice man Mr Williams +really is." + +Then she suddenly thought of something. + +"Suppose we go and find him," she said, "and ask him to let Mr Williams +off." + +Marian was a little frightened. She had never seen Lord Barrington, but +she had once seen his picture in a magazine; and she remembered the grim +look of his eyes and his high-bridged, hawk-like nose. But the thought +of Mr Williams and his sad face soon gave her fresh courage; and as they +drew near the Park wall she was much too excited to feel afraid. + +Gwendolen was excited too, but they both knew how important it was to +keep cool; and before they climbed the wall they looked carefully round +to see that nobody was watching them. Then they found a couple of niches +to put their toes in, and they hoisted themselves up till they could see +over the wall; and there they stopped for a moment, holding on to the +spikes, and studying the lie of the land. Just to their right was the +corner of the Haunted Wood, but spreading in front of them was the open +park-land, with its great trees casting their blue shadows, and the +delicate-limbed deer nibbling the grass tips. Beyond these were the +gardens, and the broad terrace in front of the house; and the only +person in sight was a distant gardener with a watering-can. + +Then they almost fell down, for round the corner of the wood came the +tall figure of Lord Barrington himself. Marian recognized him at once, +though he was not wearing a wig as he had been in the magazine picture, +and was dressed in a grey flannel suit, carefully pressed, and +russet-brown boots. Luckily he didn't see them, and they crouched behind +the wall, holding on to the edge with their finger-tips; and when they +next peeped over they could see him unlocking the padlock of the little +gate that led into the wood. He went inside and locked it again behind +him, and they saw him begin to push his way between the branches of the +trees. + +"Come along," whispered Gwendolen, "let's follow him"; so they climbed +over the wall and dropped into the park. Then they ran across the grass +to the little gate, where they stooped down for a moment and listened. +They could hear Lord Barrington still moving through the wood. And then +very quietly they squeezed through the fence. They both tore their +frocks on the barbed wire, and Marian scratched her arm, but she didn't +mind. And then they began to glide, as softly as possible, deeper and +deeper into the forbidden wood. + +Soon it was so dark, owing to the thick-spreading branches and the +overgrown weeds and bushes, that they found themselves creeping through +a sort of twilight, smelling of pine-resin and crushed herbage. But +always, just in front of them, they could hear Lord Barrington's +footsteps, and sometimes they caught a glimpse of his side or back. +Tripping over roots, and stung by nettles, they followed in the track +that he had beaten down; and presently the brushwood began to grow +thinner and the trunks of the trees farther apart. + +He was walking more quickly now, and in another three or four minutes +they saw him come out into a sort of clearing, where the ground was +smooth, with a thin growth of grass, and the sun pouring down upon it as +upon a little circus. Here he stopped, and they bent down, each behind +the trunk of a great pine tree; and then, to their surprise, they saw +him take his coat off and fold it carefully and put it on the ground. +Then from under a bush he drew out three wickets, and set them up on the +other side of the clearing, and put the bails on them, and laid down a +bat beside them, and came back tossing a cricket-ball. They could see +his face, still rather stern-looking, but not so stern as it had been +before; and then they heard him say "Ready?" and saw him bowl the ball, +which bounced over the wickets and hit a tree behind. They crept nearer, +until they were almost on the edge of the clearing. + +"You ought to have stopped that one," they heard him say; and still the +bat lay in front of the wickets, and there wasn't a sound but the murmur +of the trees. + +For a long time--almost ten minutes, they thought--he went on bowling +and fetching back the ball; and every now and then he spoke a few words +as if there were somebody really batting. And then a strange thing +happened, for slowly, as they watched, they saw the bat rise from the +ground; and then they saw the figure of a little boy taking guard with +it in front of the wickets. + +He was about fourteen, with short fair hair, and he was dressed in a +flannel shirt and trousers; and the shirt was unbuttoned, showing the +upper part of his chest, and its sleeves were rolled back over his +sturdy arms. They looked at the judge and saw that his whole face had +altered, as if the sun had come down and were shining through it; and +the boy smiled at him, and then tucked his lips in, as the judge bowled +him a difficult ball. + +"Well played," said the judge, and they saw the boy look up and begin to +colour a little at the words of praise; and then Gwendolen got a cramp +in her foot and couldn't help moving and making a sound. + +Lord Barrington turned sharply toward her. + +"Who's there?" he asked in a terrible voice. + +Gwendolen stood up, and so did Marian. It was no good hiding. They were +both too frightened to speak. + +When he saw them, he stood quite still. A wood-pigeon flew across the +clearing. The little boy was no longer there. + +"Come here," he said, and they had to obey him. + +He stood looking at them. His face was like marble, and his eyes +searched them through and through. + +"Well," he said, "what have you got to say for yourselves?" + +They hung their heads and said nothing. + +Then Marian tried to speak, though her voice sounded funny. + +"Please, sir," she said, "we wanted to ask you something, but you were +playing with the boy." + +"The boy?" he said: "did you see the boy?" + +They lifted their eyes to him. + +"Why, of course," they answered. + +For a moment he was silent. Then his voice changed a little. + +"Come and sit down," he said, "and tell me what you saw." + +When they had told him, he just nodded, and sat, as Mr Williams had +done, staring in front of him. + +"Well, now you know," he said, "why this wood is private, and why I +never allow anybody to come into it." + +"Because of the boy?" asked Marian. + +"Because of the boy," he said. "I'll try to explain to you, but I doubt +if you'll understand. You see, I had a notion that if we human beings +could only imagine anything hard enough, the thing that we imagined +might become actually real, if only just for a minute or two." + +He moved his hand, with its heavy gold signet-ring. + +"This is the place," he said, "where I come to imagine." + +"I see," said Marian. "But why do you imagine the boy?" + +He reached for his coat and took something out of a pocket-book. + +"This is his photograph," he said. "He was my only son." + +The two children looked at it, and then gave it back to him. + +"He was fond of cricket," he said. "He died at school." + +Then he rose to his feet, and they followed him out of the wood. + +"Well, what was it," he said, "that you wanted to ask me?" + +They told him, and his face became stern again. + +"But he knew the rule," he said, "and he was older than you; and rules +are made to be kept, you know. I can't have them broken." + +They were silent for a moment, and then Gwendolen had a rather awful and +irreverent idea. + +"But p'raps if God hadn't broken one of His rules," she said, "you might +never have seen the boy." + +He stood looking at her for a long time, or at least it seemed long, +though it was only twelve seconds. Then he glanced at his watch. + +"What are your names?" he asked. + +They told him their names, and he held out his hand. + +"Well, good-bye, Marian and Gwendolen," he said; "and you can tell Mr +Williams that I've changed my mind." + + + + + Deep within the wood I know, + There's a place where mourners go, + Just as, in the twilight cool, + Crept they to Siloam's pool. + + There, with one accord, they bring + Sorrows for a healing wing; + And each hushed and stooping leaf + Lays its hand on their heart's grief. + + + + +THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED + + + + +[Illustration: Caesar's Camp] + + + + +VIII + +THE HILL THAT REMEMBERED + + +Cuthbert's friend, Edward Goldsmith, was six months older than Cuthbert, +but they were in the same form, which was the lowest but one, in Mr +Pendring's school. Most of the other boys thought him conceited, and so +did Cuthbert, and so he was. But Cuthbert had once been conceited +himself, and so he was able to sympathize with him. Besides being strong +too, and able to dive backward, Edward had given Cuthbert his +second-best pocket-knife; and that was why Cuthbert resolved at last to +introduce him to Tod the Gipsy. + +That was rather a special thing to do, because Tod was rather a special +sort of gipsy; and Cuthbert had never introduced him to anybody, not +even to Doris, although she had asked him to. It was in the hospital, +just before he had had his tonsils out, that Cuthbert had first met Tod; +and Tod had told him not to be frightened, because there was no need to +be, and it wouldn't do any good. Tod himself was often in hospital, +because he had consumption and had lost one of his lungs; and besides +that he was always getting knocked down or run over, through being +absent-minded. He was tall and thin, with a lot of black hair that kept +tumbling over his eyes, and his eyes were brown, like a dog's eyes, only +they were brighter and always laughing. + +When Cuthbert next met Tod, he had been living in his little tent on the +other side of Fairbarrow Down; and Cuthbert had stayed there all night +with him, and Tod had told him the names of the stars. Very early in the +morning, when Cuthbert woke up, he had seen Tod kneeling in the dew, and +a couple of wild rabbits nestling in his arms and smelling his clothes, +just as if they had been tame ones. + +Then Tod had beckoned him with his head and whistled a peculiar sweet +whistle, and a hare near by had pricked up her ears and come through the +grass to have her back stroked. That whistle was one of Tod's secrets, +and he knew lots more, and was always learning new ones; and when +Cuthbert had told him about In-between Land he said that he had been +there too, by another way. + +So it was rather a great thing for Cuthbert to promise Edward that he +would introduce him to Tod the Gipsy; and Edward was naturally rather +impatient to go and find him, and talk to him. But the difficulty was +that Tod was always travelling about, and Cuthbert never knew where he +was likely to be; and it wasn't until tea-time on the third Monday of +October that at last they found him, quite by accident. + +Owing to one of Mr Pendring's boys having won a medal for helping to +save somebody's life, the whole school had been given an extra +half-holiday, and Cuthbert and Edward had gone for a country walk. +Already in the town most of the leaves had fallen, and were lying in +dirty heaps by the roadside, and the scraps of gardens in front of the +houses were sodden and empty of flowers. But out in the country, where +the harvest was stacked, and men were drilling seed into the +moist-smelling earth, the oaks and elms were still glowing with coppery +or rusty-red leaves. The cottage gardens, too, were full of +flowers--clumps of starry Michaelmas daisies, and sheaves of dark-eyed +golden sunflowers, like bumble-bees on fire. But there were real fires +about also, as there always are when summer is over--fires of weeds at +the ends of the plough-furrows, and fires of potato stems in the +kitchen-gardens; and it was over a little fire of sticks and dead leaves +that they suddenly came upon Tod the Gipsy. + +They were now about six miles from home, at the foot of the long range +of hills, of which Fairbarrow Down, with its close-cropped turf, was the +nearest to the town. Behind this the ground dipped a little, and then +became a hill called Simon's Nob, and behind Simon's Nob rose the +highest hill of all, known as Caesar's Camp. From Caesar's Camp, on a very +clear day, it was just possible to see the sea; and battles had been +fought on all these hills hundreds and thousands of years before. +Sometimes they had been held by the ancient Britons when they were +fighting against each other; and sometimes they had been held by the +ancient Britons when they were fighting against the Romans. Sometimes +the Romans had held them when they were attacked by the Britons, and +once the Britons had held them against the Saxons; and then in their +turn the Saxons had held them when they had been attacked by the Danes. +After that they had slept for hundreds of years, with only the sheep to +nibble their grass, and an occasional shepherd shouting across them to +his shaggy and wise-eyed sheep-dog. + +The fiercest battle of all had been fought on Caesar's Camp, from which +the Romans had driven away the Britons, and there was a great mound on +it, covered with grass, in which the dead soldiers had been buried. But +that was nearly two thousand years ago, and it had never looked more +peaceful than on this autumn afternoon, with the baby moon peeping above +it and growing brighter as the daylight faded. It was a steep climb to +the top of Caesar's Camp, and the hill was guarded at the bottom by a +fringe of elm trees; and in front of these elm trees there was a belt of +bracken, reddening with decay, and reaching to the boys' shoulders. It +had been rather fun to push their way through it, startling the rabbits, +and listening to the rooks; and it was in a little quarry among the elms +that Tod the Gipsy had made his fire. + +Close to the fire he had spread some branches and a heap of bracken to +make a mattress, and over this he had thrown his blanket and the little +tarpaulin that made his tent. When they first caught sight of him, he +was humming a song and beating an accompaniment to himself on an empty +biscuit-box: + + Where do the gipsies come from? + The gipsies come from Egypt. + The fiery sun begot them, + Their dam was the desert dry. + She lay there stripped and basking, + And gave them suck for the asking, + And an emperor's bone to play with, + Whenever she heard them cry. + +Cuthbert introduced him to Edward Goldsmith, and Tod held out a bony +hand. + +"Glad to meet you," he said. "You're just in time for tea. You'll have +to share a mug, but there's lots of bread and jam." + +He was thinner than ever, but he had the same old trick of tossing his +hair back from his eyes; and his eyes were as bright and gay and +piercing as if they had just come back from some magic wash. While they +were eating, he sipped his tea and filled his pipe and went on singing: + + What did the gipsies do there? + They built a tomb for Pharaoh, + They built a tomb for Pharaoh, + So tall it touched the sky. + They buried him deep inside it, + Then let what would betide it, + They saddled their lean-ribbed ponies + And left him there to die. + +He nodded his head toward the sides of the quarry, the overhanging +trees, and the hill beyond. + +"And this is where they've left me," he said. + +Cuthbert stared at him. + +"But you're not going to die, are you?" + +"Pretty soon," said Tod. He tapped his chest. "There's not much left, +you know, in this old box of mine." + +"Well, you don't seem to mind much," said Edward. + +"I don't," said Tod, "and I'll tell you why. I've just found out +something that I've been looking for very nearly all my life." + +He lit his pipe and leaned forward, with the fire shining in his eyes. +The days were so short now that the dusk had already come, and the +firelight cast strange shadows over the little quarry. The boys drew +closer to him, and he took from his waistcoat pocket a small box, with a +pinch of red powder in it. + +"For twenty years," he said, "I've been trying to make this powder; and +at last I've succeeded--just in time." + +They bent over his hand and examined the powder. It was as light as +thistle-down, and smelt like cloves. + +"Now look," he said. + +He threw some on the fire. But the boys could see nothing except the +crumbling leaves. + +Tod laughed. + +"Look a little higher," he said; and then, in the smoke, they suddenly +saw a bird hovering, and then another bird and another, and a couple of +nests hanging faintly in the air. + +"Now listen," said Tod; and above the whisper of the flames they could +hear the soft sharpening of tiny beaks, and the sound of wings, and the +ghosts of cheepings and chirpings, as if they had been hundreds of miles +away. Then they faded, and Tod leaned back, looking triumphantly at the +two boys. + +"But what were they?" said Cuthbert. + +"They were memories," said Tod. "They were the memories of those dead +leaves." + +"But do leaves remember?" asked Edward. + +"Everything remembers," said Tod, "only nobody's been able to prove it. +The ground we're sitting on, the fields you've come across, the hills +above us, they're crammed with memories. And when they die, if they ever +do die, these memories come crowding back to them, just like they do to +a dying man; and it's this powder that makes them visible." + +He rose to his feet and looked about him. + +"Of course, those leaves," he said, "were only a year old, and all that +they remembered was just those birds. But look at this,"--he picked up a +piece of wood--"this is the core of an old tree. This was a sapling +three hundred years ago." He sprinkled the rest of the powder on it and +threw it on the fire. + +For a minute or two nothing happened, and then, high up, they saw some +more birds hovering; but presently, as they looked, they saw the figure +of a man, with his hair in ringlets hanging down over his shoulders. He +wore a plumed hat, and his sleeves were frilled, and there was a sword +at his belt, and he wore knee-breeches and stockings and jewelled +buckles upon his shoes. He stood in mid-air, looking about him, and then +he was joined by the figure of a girl. He took her in his arms, and then +they faded away; and there instead was a peasant in a smock. + +They saw him lean forward and carve something in the air, as though he +were cutting somebody's name upon a tree-trunk; and then he too was +gone, and there were two children playing hide-and-seek in the wreathing +smoke. One was a little girl, and she wore a mob cap and a long skirt +dropping almost to her ankles; and the other was a boy with a very short +jacket and trousers that looked as if they had shrunk. + +Then they saw a fox, with his ears pricked, and one of his front paws +lifted; and then there was nothing again but the sides of the quarry and +the deepening shadows of the elms. + +"That's all," said Tod, "because I've no more powder. All the rest's up +there." + +He jerked his thumb toward the top of the hill, hidden away from them by +the trees. + +"Why is it up there?" asked Cuthbert. + +Tod stared at them as if he were trying to read their hearts. + +"Have you courage?" he asked. + +It was a difficult question. They told him that they hoped so, but that +they weren't quite sure. + +"Well, if you have," he said, "and you'd like to come back here +to-night, just about half-past twelve, you'll be able to see something +that nobody alive has ever seen or will see again." + +Cuthbert and Edward looked at one another. It would be a six-mile walk, +and they would have to start about eleven o'clock, and they would have +to go to bed first and creep out of their houses without anybody +knowing. The moon would have sunk, too, so that it would be quite dark. +They both felt a little queer inside. But they promised to come, and +agreed to meet at eleven o'clock near St Peter's Church. + +Cuthbert was there first, just before the clock struck. Everybody was in +bed, and he had slipped out unnoticed. But his heart sank a little as he +ran down the empty street and saw no Edward at the corner waiting for +him. But Edward came just as the clock struck, and the night seemed less +dark now that there were two of them, and soon they were out of the town +and running close together between the hedges of the country road. Once +a motor-car came travelling toward them, almost blinding them with the +glare of its head-lamps; but after they had left the road and struck +across the fields the night was so still that they could almost have +heard a star drop. + +It was so still that they spoke in whispers, and so dark that they +sometimes tripped; and once when they stopped for a moment to take +breath, a star did drop, and they almost heard it. Presently, when their +eyes became used to the darkness, they could see the dim outline of the +hills, and the faint ribbon of the Milky Way rising like smoke from +Caesar's Camp. At the edge of the bracken they found Tod waiting for +them. + +"Come along," he said, "only don't go too fast," and they began to climb +through the belt of trees out on to the hillside beyond. The grass was +short here and slippery with dew, with glimmers of chalk beneath it +where the turf was broken; and it was so steep that half-way up Tod +stopped to fight for his breath. + +"It's all right," he said. "I'll be better in a moment," and as they +stood waiting for him and looking back, the country behind them seemed +to have vanished into a lake of darkness. Then they began to climb +again, their boots slipping, and suddenly as they climbed they smelt a +new smell--a strange sort of acrid, sweet smell, as of turf-fires +burning above them. + +"Yes," said Tod. "I was up there an hour ago. I've lit half a dozen +fires." + +At the top of the hill he dropped down for a moment close to a large +white stone. He lit a match and looked at his watch. + +"Ten minutes to one," he said. "We're just in time." + +They were now in a sort of trench or grassy moat that encircled the +great mound, and they had climbed into this over a smaller mound that +had once been a barricade. In this trench Tod had dug half a dozen +holes, and in each of these holes there was a turf-fire smouldering; and +now he turned and lifted the white stone, and took from under it a +little bag. + +"This is the rest of the powder," he said, "all there is, and all there +ever will be, for the secret will die with me." + +He rose to his feet and began to sprinkle it thickly over the burning +turf in each of the little holes. Then he came back and spoke to the two +boys. + +"There are great memories," he said, "stored in this hill, but they are +fierce ones, and you'll need all your courage." + +Then he moved away from them toward the farthest of the fires, and +Cuthbert felt a sort of change coming over the hill. He could see +nothing, but it felt different, as if it were surrounded by a different +sort of country--a savage country, with no railways in it, or roads, or +parliaments, or policemen. Even the stars seemed to have grown younger, +and nearer the earth, and more lawless; and then he heard voices filling +the air about him, and a man shouting hoarse commands. + +He turned with a start and found himself among a crowd of naked and +half-naked men--small men, with hair hanging over their shoulders, and +bearded chins, and glittering eyes. Some of them were painted with +curious patterns, shining in dull colours from their skins; and they +were all pointing toward the darkness that lay like a sea round the +sides of the hill. Then some of them spoke to him and asked him who he +was, and he found that he understood them and could answer them; and the +man who had been shouting, and who seemed to be their leader, came and +looked into his eyes. He laid his hands on Cuthbert's shoulders. + +"Son of my sons," he said, "are you ready to fight with us?" And +Cuthbert suddenly felt himself burning with anger, because he knew that +they were going to be attacked. + +"Of course I am," he said, and then there was a great shout, and +everybody rushed to the barricade; and there all round them, pricking +out of the darkness, they could see helmets and the rims of shields. + +Cuthbert somehow knew that these belonged to the Romans, and that he +hated them for invading his country; and he was so excited that he had +forgotten to notice what had happened to Edward Goldsmith. He only knew +that he had disappeared. + +As for Edward, he had forgotten all about Cuthbert. For he had suddenly +noticed that there were now trees growing half-way up the hillside, and +he had jumped over the barricade and run down to explore them. When he +got there, he had found himself among an army of men marching up the +hill behind locked shields, and a young centurion with merry eyes had +stooped and gripped him by the arm. + +"Hullo!" he said; "son of my sons, are you going to fight with us +against these barbarians?" And Edward tingled all over with pride, and +said, "Rather, you bet I am." Then a great stone from the top of the +barricade came leaping down the hillside and crushed one of the men in +the front rank, but the others closed together and never stopped +marching. + +When Cuthbert saw them he was blind with anger, but he knew in his heart +that they were bound to win; and next moment they were over the parapet +like a wave of hot and breathing iron. He heard groans and cries and the +shouts of the British chief, and his eyes were full of tears as he beat +at the Roman shields; and then he saw Edward and hit him in the face, +and made his nose bleed, and knocked out two of his teeth. Edward struck +back, and gave Cuthbert a black eye, and the night was full of hewings +and the flashings of swords; and then everything was still again, and +the hill was empty, and the stars were the same stars that they had +always known. + +Squatting on the barricade, with his arms round his knees, they saw Tod +the Gipsy laughing at them; and Cuthbert rubbed his eye, and Edward +sniffed hard to try and stop the blood running from his nose. Tod rose +and stretched himself. + +"Well, you've had it out," he said, "and so has the hill, and now you'd +better be off home." + +So they said good-bye to him, and they never saw him again; and next +morning when Edward came down to breakfast, his father scolded him for +explaining that an ancient Briton had hit him on the nose. But +Cuthbert's daddy only stroked his chin when he heard that the Romans had +given Cuthbert a black eye, because that was just the sort of thing, he +said, that the Romans sometimes did, though they had many good +qualities. + + + + + Down the dead centurions' way, + Tod the Gipsy drives his shay. + + Roman, Briton, Saxon, Dane, + Tod the Gipsy hears them plain. + + Faint beneath the noonday chalk, + Tod can overhear them talk. + + Fiercer than the stars at night, + Chin to chin, he sees them fight. + + + + +ST UNCUS + + + + +[Illustration: Doris and St Uncus] + + + + +IX + +ST UNCUS + + +It was now November, and even in the country the last of the leaves had +fallen from the trees, and the bushy hollows between the roots of the +downs were grey with old man's beard. Some people like November, because +it is the quietest month of the year--as quiet as somebody tired, who +has just fallen asleep--and they love to see the fields lying dark and +still, and the empty branches against the sky. But some people hate it, +especially people who live in towns, because of its fogs and falling +rains, and they turn up their coat-collars, and blow their noses, and +call it the worst month of the year. + +Doris hated it too, and she hated this particular November more than any +other that she could recall, because it had rained and rained and +rained, and because her mummy was so ill that she had had to go to +hospital. She was also angry with Cuthbert, because she thought that it +wasn't fair for him to have taken Edward to see Tod the Gipsy, and never +even have offered to take her, although she had asked him to over and +over again. + +So she hadn't spoken to him for nearly a month, not even after her mummy +had been taken to the hospital; and she hated Auntie Kate, who had come +to look after the home, because she kept asking her how her little +boy-friend was. Auntie Kate had a face like a hen's, with a beaky nose +and bobbly eyes, and she always counted people's pieces of bread and +butter, and wondered what income their father and mother had. Her +husband was a clergyman, so she went to church a lot, on week-days as +well as on Sundays; and now she had gone to a bazaar at St Peter's +Church, just when Doris had meant to go to tea with Gwendolen. + +So Doris was very angry, because she had to stay at home and take care +of her five brothers; and the only happy thing that she had to think +about was that Mummy would be home next week. But at half-past three on +a wet Saturday afternoon next week seems a horribly long way off, and +Jimmy and Jocko were being as naughty as ever they knew how. Jimmy was +six and Jocko was five, and they were playing water games in the +bathroom; and Doris knew that they would be soaking their clothes and +making an awful mess, but she didn't care. + +"At any rate they're quiet," she thought to herself, "and I don't see +why I should fight with them any more," and then she pressed her nose +against the front-door glass and looked dismally into the street. + +But there was nothing to see except the falling rain, and the dirty +brown fronts of the opposite houses, and a strip of mud-coloured sky, +and the milkman's cart with its yellow pony. Behind her, in a dark +cupboard under the stairs, Teddy and George, the twins, were playing at +Hell; and every now and then she could hear a faint clicking sound, as +they practised gnashing their teeth. As for Christopher Mark, who was +three and a half, she had forgotten all about him; and by now, if it +hadn't been for Auntie Kate, she might have been playing in Gwendolen's +big barn. Then she thought of Cuthbert again and of his exciting +adventure on the top of Caesar's Camp, and she breathed on the glass, and +drew a picture of Cuthbert, making him as ugly as she could. + +"I hate him," she thought, "and I hate Auntie Kate, and I hate the +twins, and I hate everybody," and then she turned round, and her heart +stood still--or at least she felt as if it did--and her cheeks became +white. For there was Christopher Mark at the top of the stairs, with a +rabbit under one arm and an engine under the other; and she suddenly saw +him slip and begin to pitch head-long down, with a sickening thud, thud, +thud. + +For a moment she was so frightened that she could hardly breathe, but +just as she sprang forward an odd thing happened, for he stopped short, +almost as if somebody had caught him, and didn't even begin to cry. + +"My goodness!" she said, and then she stopped short too, for squatting +down on the topmost stair was the strangest little man that she had ever +seen, hanging on to Christopher Mark. He was a little man with a bald +head and a big mouth and a crooked back; and his right arm was only a +stump, with a very long hook at the end of it. His left arm was odd too, +almost as crooked as his back, and he had curled it round one of the +banisters, while he hooked Christopher Mark up with the other. + +"Good afternoon," he said. "I see you have recognized me. That's very +clever of you. Most people don't." + +Doris was too surprised at first to be able to answer him. But he didn't +seem to mind, and went on smiling; while as for Christopher Mark, he +climbed upstairs again, just as if the little man hadn't been there. + +"I'm afraid I don't recognize you," said Doris at last; "but I'm +frightfully obliged to you for saving Christopher Mark." + +"Not at all," he said. "That's what I'm for. I'm St Uncus." + +Doris frowned a little. + +"St Uncus?" she asked. + +"Latin for hook," he said. "Excuse me half a moment." + +For a flicker of an eyelid he disappeared. + +"Just been to China," he said, "to hook another one." + +Doris opened her eyes. + +"But are you a _real_ saint?" she asked. + +The little man flushed. + +"Why, of course I am. I'm a patron saint. I'm the patron saint of +staircases." + +"But I didn't know," said Doris, "that staircases had patron saints." + +"They don't," he said. "They have only one." + +"I mean," said Doris--"it's frightfully rude, I'm afraid--but I didn't +know that they had even one." + +He smiled again. + +"Very likely not," he said. "Lots of people don't. But they have." + +He disappeared once more. + +"Baby in Jamaica," he said, "just beginning to fall from the top +landing." + +Then he stroked his chin and looked at her thoughtfully. + +"I suppose you've been left here," he said, "to look after the +children." + +Doris nodded. + +"Well, then, you ought to know," he said, "that there are two things +that children love more than anything else. One of them's water and the +other's staircases. And they're both a bit dangerous. So they each have +a patron saint." + +"I see," said Doris. "And who's the patron saint of water?" + +"Fellow called Fat Bill," he said. "He's my younger brother." + +"That seems a queer name," said Doris, "for a saint." + +"Well, he's a queer fellow," said St Uncus, "but we've both been lucky." + +Doris couldn't help looking at his crooked back, and his deformed left +arm, and his right stump. + +"Ah, yes," he said; "but you mustn't judge by those. That's the very +mistake that I made. You see, I once fell down a staircase myself, two +or three years after staircases were invented." + +He looked at Doris and nodded his head. + +"It was when I was a small boy," he said, "as small as your little +brother; and that's why I grew up crooked and deformed. I was very +unhappy about it. It was thousands of years ago. But I can still +remember how unhappy I was. I used to watch the other children playing +games, and when I grew up I watched the men go hunting. And I had to +stay at home, and the women despised me; and at last I died, and then I +saw how silly I had been." + +"Why had you been silly?" asked Doris. + +"Well, I'd wasted the whole of my life, you see, thinking about the +staircase and how miserable I was; and so when the good Lord God asked +me what I wanted to do next, there was hardly anything that I could turn +my hand to. But I told you I was lucky, and so I was, for as it happened +I had a great idea; and that was to try and save as many children as I +could from being as miserable as I had been. Of course, I couldn't +expect much of a job, seeing how I'd thrown away all my chances, so I +asked the good Lord God if He would allow me to look after the world's +staircases." + +He disappeared again. + +"Been to Port Jacobson," he said. "Well, the good Lord God thought that +it was rather a fine idea; and so He laid His hand upon me and gave me a +new name; and my new name was St Uncus." + +"Shall I have a new name too?" asked Doris. + +St Uncus beamed. + +"Why, of course," he said. "Everybody has a new name, only it generally +depends, to a certain extent, upon what they did with their old ones." + +Doris thought for a moment. + +"But wouldn't you rather be in Heaven," she said, "than sitting about on +these silly old staircases?" + +St Uncus laughed. + +"But Heaven's not a place, my dear. Heaven's being employed by the good +Lord God." + +Then he looked at his watch. + +"And now I wonder," he said, "if you'd mind doing me a good turn?" + +"Oh, I should love to!" said Doris; "but how can I?" + +"Well, you see," he said, "the worst of my job is that I can never get a +chance of seeing my brother Bill. He's always busy by the edges of ponds +and things, and I'm always stuck on somebody's staircase; and I thought +perhaps, if you wouldn't mind taking my hook for a bit, I could slip off +for a moment and have a talk to him." + +Doris felt a little shy. + +"But should I be able to use it?" she asked. "And how could I tell +whether somebody wanted me?" + +"Oh, that'll be all right," he said, "as soon as you catch hold of the +hook; and perhaps you won't be wanted at all. The only trouble is when +two children are falling at once, and then you have to decide which +you'll go for. But that doesn't happen very often, considering how many +children there are." + +So Doris went upstairs, and he unbuttoned the hook, and when she caught +hold of it she felt a strange sort of thrill. She felt like Cuthbert had +felt when he went into In-between Land; and indeed that was where she +really was. St Uncus had vanished, and she saw Christopher Mark like a +little fat ghost, with his soul shining inside him. Then she suddenly +heard a cry in a strange foreign language, and she saw a dark-eyed +mother at the bottom of some stone steps, and a small round baby, with +an olive-coloured skin, tumbling down them one by one. She felt a hot +wind, full of the odour of spices, blowing faintly against her cheek; +and then she bent forward and hooked up the baby, and saw the look of +terror die out of the mother's face. + +Never in her life had Doris felt so pleased. She felt as if she could +shout and sing with joy. No wonder, she thought, that St Uncus looked so +happy. She began to understand what being in Heaven meant. And then she +heard a shout, and smelt a smell of herrings, and she saw a man in a +blue jersey, and a curly-headed boy, about four years old, pitching head +first down a dark staircase. Through a dirty window-pane she could see +the mouth of a river, full of fishing-smacks floating side by side; and +she saw a woman, with rolled-up sleeves, run out of a kitchen and stand +beside the man. + +Then she hooked up the boy, and she heard the woman say "Thank God!" and +the man say "You little rascal, you!" and then she was back again, and +there was St Uncus sitting beside her and rubbing his hands. + +"Ever so many thanks," he said. "I haven't seen old Bill for nearly +three hundred years. He says he'd like to meet you, but of course it's +only now and again that anybody like you is able to see us." + +Then he said good-bye to her, and she never saw him again, but she knew +that he was there, and once she actually heard him; and that was very +late on this same evening, long after everyone had gone to bed. For soon +after midnight, when Auntie Kate was dreaming about clergymen and +bazaars, and when Teddy and George were dreaming about bears, and Jimmy +and Jocko about bathrooms, and when Christopher Mark was dreaming about +rabbits, and Doris wasn't dreaming at all--soon after midnight a little +red-hot cinder suddenly popped out of the kitchen grate. + +It fell on a bit of matting, and burnt its way through to the +floor-boards below; and presently a wisp of smoke, with a wicked pungent +smell, began to twist upward and flatten against the ceiling. Fuller and +fuller grew the kitchen of smoke, and Teddy and George began to dream of +camp-fires, but Auntie Kate still dreamt of bazaars and pincushions +marked tenpence halfpenny. Teddy and George were sleeping by themselves, +and Christopher Mark slept in a little room turning out of Auntie +Kate's. These rooms were above the sitting-room in the front of the +house, and it was Teddy and George who slept over the kitchen; while +Doris herself and Jimmy and Jocko shared a little room under the roof. + +The floor of the kitchen was now blazing fiercely, with the boards +crackling in the flames, and Teddy and George began to dream about guns, +but still they didn't wake up. They only moved a little uneasily, and it +was somebody shouting that finally woke them, just as it was a neighbour +banging at the front door that roused Auntie Kate from her dreams. + +"Hurry up!" cried the neighbour, "your house is on fire!" and Auntie +Kate was so flustered that she quite forgot where she had put her +clothes, and rushed downstairs in her nightdress. As for Teddy and +George, their room was full of smoke, and they bolted out of it, +coughing and spluttering, and met Doris coming down from the attic, +pushing Jimmy and Jocko in front of her. + +The kitchen door had now swung open, and the flames were darting across +the hall; and clouds of smoke were rolling upstairs like a sour and +suffocating fog. + +"Never mind," said Doris. "Hold your breath, and run downstairs as quick +as you can," and soon they were all standing together in the street, +while some of the neighbours were running for the fire-engine. + +It had stopped raining, but the pavement felt all cold and clammy as +they stood upon it with their bare feet, and it seemed funny to be out +in the dark with nothing on but their nightgowns. Auntie Kate had fled +into an opposite house, because she couldn't bear that so many people +should see her; but Teddy and George were rather enjoying themselves, +though Jimmy and Jocko had begun to cry. Then Doris looked round, +"Where's Christopher Mark?" she cried, and everybody looked at everybody +else, and Doris knew that he must be still asleep in his little +dressing-room upstairs. She rushed into the house, but the leaping +flames had already begun to curl round the banisters; and the lady next +door caught hold of her arm and told her that it would be madness to try +and rescue him. But Doris shook her off and ran across the hall, and +dashed blindly up the burning staircase. + +"Oh, St Uncus!" she said, "come and help me; come and help me to save +Christopher Mark." + +The sound of the flames was like the roar of an engine, and the smoke +was thicker than the blackest night. But at the top of the stairs she +suddenly heard a whisper, "It's all right, my dear, I'm here." + +And then she laughed, and found Christopher Mark fast asleep, hugging +his white rabbit; and in another few seconds she was out in the street +again, with Christopher Mark safe in her arms. + +Some of the people cheered her and patted her on the back, and began to +tell her how brave she had been; and she was rather pleased, of course, +especially when she thought of Mummy, who would be sure to hear about it +in hospital. But she wasn't conceited, because she knew that she had +been helped by a little saint with a crooked back, who served God by +keeping an eye on all the staircases in the world. + + + + + Never a babe in Port of Spain, + Peabody Buildings, Portland Maine, + + Limerick, Lima, Boston, York, + Nottingham, Naples, Cairo, Cork, + + Milton of Campsie, Moscow, Mull, + Halifax, Hampstead, Hobart, Hull, + + Never a baby climbs a stair + But little St Hook is waiting there. + + + + +OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + + + +[Illustration: Mother Hubbard's] + + + + +X + +OLD MOTHER HUBBARD + + +Cuthbert was very sorry when he heard about the fire at Doris's house, +and when he next saw her in the street, he almost crossed the road to +speak to her. But she hadn't spoken to him for so long that he had +resolved not to talk to her unless she spoke to him first. Doris and +Jimmy and Jocko were now staying with some people called Brown; and +Doris's mother and the twins and Christopher Mark were staying with +Gwendolen's aunt and Captain Jeremy. It was rather fun staying with the +Browns, but on the whole Doris was rather sad, because it would be two +months, so the builders said, before they could all be at home together +again. + +Cuthbert knew about this, because Marian had told him; and that was why +he nearly crossed the road. But he decided not to, and he didn't see +Doris again until the second day of the holidays. That was the Thursday +before Christmas, and it was a grey day and very cold, with a strong +wind blowing out of the north-east, and all the houses looking huddled +and shrunken. It was early in the afternoon, and he had just been to +call for Edward, but Edward had gone out to sit by the railway. He was +collecting the numbers on engines, and had already got thirty-seven. + +Cuthbert was collecting too, but he was collecting the dates on pennies, +so he didn't feel inclined to go and sit with Edward; and it was just as +he was wondering what to do that he saw Doris turn the corner. For a +moment he thought that he would pretend not to see her, but she was all +alone, and it suddenly occurred to him that it would be rather a good +idea to take her out to tea at Uncle Joe's. + +So he stopped and asked her, and she was very glad, because she had +nothing particular to do; and she told him all about St Uncus and the +fire and what it was like being nearly burnt to death. + +"Let's cut across the fields," she said, "past old Mother Hubbard's. +It's jolly cold. I think it's going to snow." + +"I hope it is," said Cuthbert. "But it's not so cold as the day on which +we found the ice-men." + +But it was quite cold enough, with the horses in the fields standing +dismally under the naked hedges, and the black north-easter crumbling +the ridges of the plough-lands until they looked like pale-coloured +powdered chocolate. + +"I shall be jolly glad," said Cuthbert, "when we get to Uncle Joe's," +and just then they passed Mother Hubbard's--a melancholy house standing +by itself, with all its blinds and curtains drawn. + +It was always like that, and behind it were some ruined stables, with a +tin roof that flapped up and down; and a big yellow dog on a long chain +ran out and yelped at them as they passed. This was called Mother +Hubbard's house, because it belonged to a Miss Hubbard who lived there +all by herself, and who had allowed nobody to enter the door since her +father had died fifty years ago. + +He had been a proud old general with a bad temper; and some people said +that he had driven Miss Hubbard mad, but other people said that she was +only queer, and hated everybody except her dog. Occasionally she could +be seen peering round one of the blinds, or feeding her dog in the +ruined stables; and once a week she went into the town with a big bag to +do her shopping. The shop-people said that she was very polite, and so +did the postman, who sometimes took her a letter. But she always kept +her own counsel, and nobody could ever make her talk. Why she lived like +that, nobody knew. Some people said that it was because she was so poor, +and because her father had made her promise never to let people know how +poor she was. But other people said that she was really rather rich, and +that she must have had some great trouble. She was very old--nearly +eighty--although her eyes were clear and so were her cheeks; but there +were still a few people who remembered her as a girl galloping on +horseback over the fields. + +"Silly old thing," said Doris, as they left her house behind them. "I +shouldn't be surprised if she was a witch." + +But Cuthbert said that there weren't any such things, and perhaps she +had killed somebody and had a guilty conscience. + +Then they crossed a road, and climbed over a stile, and skirted a great +field pricked with tiny wheat-blades; and then they slipped down a +rather steep bank into a sheltered lane still wet with mud. They had +already forgotten old Mother Hubbard, and the next moment they forgot +her still more; for just then there came clattering down the lane a +young man on horseback, splashed to his eyes. His bowler hat was crammed +down on his head, and he shouted at them as he galloped by. "Which way +have they gone?" he cried, but he never stopped for an answer, and soon +there came some more riders, both men and women. They had evidently come +down the lane to avoid a big ploughed field that lay between high hedges +on the other side of it, for Cuthbert and Doris presently saw them turn +sharply to the right into a grass meadow where it was easier to gallop. + +"It's the hunt," said Doris. "Let's run after them," so they turned and +ran down the lane, and saw the riders, one by one, jumping over a gate +on the far side of the meadow. Then they crossed the meadow and +scrambled over the gate just in time to see the last of the horsemen +disappearing over another hedge a couple of hundred yards away. + +"We shall never catch them," said Cuthbert, but just then they heard a +horn blowing. "It's the fox," cried Doris. "They've seen the fox," and +half a minute later, from a little rise in the ground, they saw the +whole hunt streaming away from them. + +They were so hot now that they had forgotten all about the wind and the +grey clouds gathering over the downs, and their only thought was to be +up among the horses and their jolly, red-cheeked riders. So they ran +down the rise and across another road and over some more fields and past +a wood, until they came at last to a stream, running rather sluggishly +between some pollarded willows. On one of these there was a man +standing, and he waved his hand to them as they came up. + +"They're coming back," he said. "Keep along the stream, and I'll lay a +dollar you'll see some fun." + +It was now nearly four, and the light was beginning to fade, and they +were ever so far from Uncle Joe's; but they pushed their way through the +tangled grass until they came to a plank across the stream. This led +them out beside a hazel copse, and just as they were wondering which way +to go they heard the horn again, not very far away, and the clear, deep +calling of the hounds. Something cold fell on Cuthbert's cheek. + +"Hullo!" he said, "it's beginning to snow." And then a burly man on a +big grey mare came crashing through the undergrowth on the other side of +the stream. He gave a shout, and they jumped aside as his horse rose to +clear the water; but the next moment he was sprawling on the ground in +front of them, with his scarlet coat about his ears. + +They heard him swear, but as he picked himself up and helped his horse +out of the stream he began to laugh, and soon he was in the saddle again +and vanishing into the dusk. For a minute or two they waited, but nobody +else came. An old cock pheasant rattled out of the hazel copse. The horn +blew once more, and then all was still. Their breath stood like smoke +upon the air. + +Then Doris suddenly stooped and picked up a coin that had been half +trampled into the bank. + +"Hullo!" she said, "he's dropped a penny. You'd better add the date of +it to your collection." + +Cuthbert took it from her, but the penny was an old one, and the date +was difficult to see. The snow began to fall upon them in heavy flakes. +Cuthbert took out his handkerchief and polished the coin. And then an +odd thing happened, for suddenly, as he polished, the stream and the +hazel copse seemed to fade away; and it was another girl--a grown-up +girl--who had just given him the penny. + +"A penny for your thoughts," she said, and Cuthbert knew that she wasn't +speaking to him, but to somebody else; and the thoughts that came into +his head weren't his own, but a grown-up man's. He knew that they were +somebody else's thoughts, because he was thinking his own thoughts too; +and the other person's thoughts were of two kinds--the weak thoughts +that he decided to tell the girl, and the strong thoughts that went into +the penny. + +The thoughts that he told the girl were that, when he got to South +America, he was going to spend his spare time studying the birds there. +He was going to write a book about them, and perhaps, when he had +written his book, he would get a job looking after a museum. But his +strong thoughts, that he didn't tell her, were "I love you and want to +marry you; but I mustn't tell you that, because I'm only a carpenter, +and you're a lady, and ever so far above me." + +"What's the matter?" said Doris. + +Cuthbert gave her the penny. + +"It's a queer sort of penny," he said. "Catch hold of it." + +Doris took it. + +"I don't see anything queer in it," she said. So Cuthbert polished it +once more. This time he polished it harder, so that when he gave it to +Doris again it was quite warm from the polishing; and Doris seemed to be +standing in a strange sort of room, full of old-fashioned furniture and +heavy ornaments. The same girl said, "A penny for your thoughts," and +the same thoughts came to her as had come to Cuthbert. The day drew in. +It was almost dark now, and the snow was glistening on their shoulders. + +"I know what's happened," she said. "His real thoughts were so strong +that they all went into the penny." + +Cuthbert nodded. + +"That's what I thought," he said. "And when you rub the penny they all +come out." + +"Did you notice the girl's dress?" asked Doris, "and the way her hair +was done, and the blue china dog on the mantelpiece?" + +Cuthbert shook his head. + +"Let's have another go," he said, and he rubbed the penny again as hard +as he could. + +This time he noticed the room, with its queer high-backed piano, and a +picture of people hunting hanging on the wall, and the blue china dog, +and the girl's dress, and the curious way in which she had done her +hair. It was pulled back from her forehead into a smooth sort of bundle +behind her head; and her dress was all in terraces, like a wedding-cake, +or a theatre turned upside down. + +"It must have been a good long time," said Cuthbert, "since she gave him +the penny. Do you think he was the man who fell off the horse?" + +"Oh, he couldn't have been," said Doris. "He was much too young; and +besides I'm sure that he was never a carpenter." + +She shivered a little. + +"We ought to be getting home," she said, but Cuthbert lingered for a +moment, looking at the penny. + +"I expect hundreds of people," he said, "have had it in their pockets +and never known what was inside it." + +"I daresay," said Doris, "but I know I'm jolly hungry, and we must be +miles away from anywhere." + +Nor were they quite sure where anywhere was, but they crossed the plank +again and started for home, with the snow driving past their ears and +piling up in front of their feet. Grey-capped hedges loomed up before +them, rising unexpectedly out of the darkness; and so thick lay the snow +that they were never able to tell whether the next field was a ploughed +one. But they passed the tree--or they thought that they did--on which +the man had been standing; and they crossed the road--or they thought +that they did--that they had crossed after running down the rise. But +the hours went by, and they felt emptier and emptier, and several times +they stumbled into snow-filled ditches; and the snow roared past them +in angry whiteness, and melted upon their necks and trickled down their +backs. + +Longingly they thought then of Uncle Joe's and of plates of hot muffins +before the fire, and even more longingly of supper at home, with bowls +of steaming bread and milk. But every field seemed endlesser than the +last, and the snow grew deeper and ever more deep; and the night closed +down upon them like a lid, and their feet felt heavier than ten-pound +weights. + +"I believe we're lost," said Cuthbert, but Doris didn't seem to hear, +and so they toiled on with sinking hearts, and then at last, just as +they were almost spent, they suddenly knocked their knees against a +little gate. It was the sort of gate that leads into a garden path; and +though they could see no sign of this, or even of a light, they pushed +it open with a great effort, and went plunging into the snow beyond. + +Sometimes people have been frozen close to a house, but in a little +while they saw a great dark shadow; and then to their joy they found +themselves in front of a door, with a gleam of light shining through the +letter-box. For a long time they knocked, but nobody came; and several +times they shouted through the letter-box. But still nobody came, and +then from behind the house they heard the barking of a dog. + +Doris gripped Cuthbert's arm. + +"It's old Mother Hubbard's," she said. "That's her dog. I know it's +bark." + +"Then we'll never get in," said Cuthbert, but just as he said that they +heard footsteps coming down the hall. + +"Who's there?" said a voice. It had an odd sort of creak in it, like the +creak of a drawer that is seldom opened. Cuthbert told her; and then, +after a long pause, the door moved a little on its hinges. An eddy of +snow whirled in in front of them, and the door swung back an inch or two +more. + +"You'd better come inside," said Miss Hubbard, and they went into the +hall, her first guests for fifty years. She stood looking at them over a +flickering candle. Her eyes were frostier than the wind outside. The air +of the house smelt like a tomb. They could hear the ticking of several +clocks. + +"You'd better come into the scullery," she said, "and shake the snow +off," and she led them in silence to the back of the house, where she +left them alone for nearly twenty minutes before she came back to ask +them in to tea. + +"It's in the drawing-room," she said, "and I hope you won't talk. I'm +very strong and I have a big dog." + +So they followed her into the drawing-room, and then a second, and even +more wonderful, thing happened. Cuthbert stopped short, and so did +Doris, and old Miss Hubbard switched round and stared at them. + +"What's the matter?" she asked. "What are you gaping at?" + +"Why, it's the penny room!" said Cuthbert; and so it was. For there was +the queer high-backed piano; and there was the picture of people +hunting; and there were the old-fashioned heavy ornaments. + +"But where's the dog," said Doris, "the blue china dog that used to +stand on the mantelpiece?" + +Old Miss Hubbard had turned quite white. + +"The blue china dog?" she asked. "What do you know about that? It was +broken thirty years ago." + +"But it's the same room," said Cuthbert, "and there was a girl in it, +and she gave a man a penny for his thoughts." + +Old Miss Hubbard began to tremble. She sat down heavily, and her eyes +looked frightened. + +"But how do you know?" she asked. "You're only children; and that was +more than fifty years ago." + +Cuthbert felt in his pocket and pulled out the penny. + +"This is the penny," he said, "that the girl gave him. We've just found +it, quite by accident. And he didn't tell her all of his thoughts. He +only told her some of them. The rest are in here, and we made them come +out." + +He began to polish it again with his handkerchief; and then he gave it +to her, and they stood watching her. For about five minutes she sat +quite still; and then she looked up, and her voice had changed a little. + +"If I tell you a story," she said, "will you let me keep it?" + +Cuthbert looked at Doris, and Doris nodded her head. + +"Why, of course," said Cuthbert. "We should be very pleased." + +So while they were having tea she told them that long ago a girl had +lived in that house, and that she fell in love with a young man, who was +a carpenter by trade. But he was also a naturalist, and especially fond +of birds, and he wanted to discover all sorts of things about them; and +one day he told the girl that he was just going away to work on a +railway in South America. Then he hesitated, as if he wanted to tell her +something else, and she gave him a penny for his thoughts; and then he +left the house, and was drowned at sea, and the girl never knew whether +he had loved her or not. + +"It was very silly of him," said Miss Hubbard, "not to have told her. +But perhaps the girl was sillier still. For she was so sad that she +wasted her whole life; and now it seems that he loved her after all." + +Then she went to the window and pulled up the blind. The storm had died +down, and it had stopped snowing. Brighter than eyes at a Christmas +party, the stars in their thousands shone in the sky. Cuthbert and Doris +said that they must be going; and old Miss Hubbard took them to the +front door. + +"You must come and see me again," she said. "Come as often as you like; +and perhaps next time you'll bring some of your friends." + +"But she never told us," said Cuthbert, "who the girl was." + +"Why, you silly," said Doris, "it was Miss Hubbard herself." + + + + + Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard + To fetch her poor dog a bone, + But this Mother Hubbard in her heart's cupboard + Lives in the dark alone. + + Sorrow's grey dust on the chandelier + Never a sun-ray sees, + Never a finger stirs the blind, + Nor the harpsichord's yellow keys. + + Dumb is the clock with the china face, + The carpet moulds on the floor; + Oh, won't you come down to her house with me + And open Miss Hubbard's door? + + + + +MARIAN'S PARTY + + + + +[Illustration: The Little Temple] + + + + +XI + +MARIAN'S PARTY + + +For a whole month after Cuthbert and Doris had had tea with old Miss +Hubbard the snow lay white upon the ground, and the ice grew thick over +the ponds. Day after day during the Christmas holidays the children went +skating or tobogganing; and Cuthbert and Doris learnt to waltz on +skates, and even Marian learnt to cut threes. And then the frost broke, +and it rained all through February, and then came March with its +blustering winds. Sometimes it was an east wind, drying the wet fields +or powdering them over with tiny snowflakes; and sometimes it was a west +wind, shouting in the tree-tops, with its arms full of sunshine and +golden clouds; and the week before Marian's birthday, which was on the +27th, was the windiest week of all, chasing people's hats across the +tram-lines, and blowing the chimney-smoke down into their sitting-rooms. + +Marian always had a party on her birthday, and this year it was going to +be a specially nice one. Twelve of her friends were coming, and so was +Uncle Joe, and so were Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt. So was Mr +Parker, who lived with Uncle Joe, and so was Lancelot, the bosun's mate; +and the most wonderful thing of all, so was old Miss Hubbard. + +It had been Cuthbert's idea to ask Miss Hubbard, and she had promised to +come on one condition--that she might be allowed to bring the +birthday-cake and the nine candles to stick into it. For Marian was +going to be nine, and it was nearly two years since she had met Mr Jugg; +and she sometimes wondered--it seemed so long ago--if she had ever seen +him at all. Cuthbert used to tease her by pretending that she hadn't, +and that Mr Jugg was only a dream, just as he used to tease her by +telling her that the 27th of March was a silly sort of day on which to +have a birthday. That was because his own birthday came in April, so +that it was always in the holidays; but Uncle Joe, who knew a lot about +birthdays, used to take Marian's side. March was the soldier's month, he +said, full of bugles, and one of the best months to be born in; while, +as for Cuthbert, anyone could tell by listening to him that he had come +in April with all the other cuckoos. + +So Marian was naturally rather excited; and then, on the very morning of +her birthday, Cuthbert woke up with a strawberry-coloured tongue and a +chest as red as a cooked lobster. That was just the sort of thing, +Marian thought, that Cuthbert would do, although she knew that she ought +to feel sorry for him; and then the doctor came and said that he had +scarlet fever, and that was the end of Marian's party. For Mummy had to +put on an overall and begin to nurse Cuthbert, and a big sheet was hung +across the bedroom door, and Mummy had to sprinkle it with carbolic +acid, and of course Marian wasn't allowed to go to school. But she could +go for walks, said the doctor, as long as she went by herself and +didn't go near anybody, or travel in trams and things; and so she spent +the morning in taking notes to her friends, telling them that there +wasn't to be a party after all. As for Uncle Joe, Mummy sent him a +message by a carrier who passed near his house. "And the first thing in +the afternoon," she said to Marian, "you must slip across the fields to +old Miss Hubbard's." + +Now a little girl whose only brother has just been silly enough to get +scarlet fever is one of the loneliest people in the world; and that was +just how Marian felt. Even her mummy tried to keep away from her, +because she was nursing Cuthbert, who was so infectious; and she had had +strict orders when she arrived at Mother Hubbard's not to go inside her +house. + +"Everybody's happy," said Marian, "except me," as she saw the people +laughing in the country roads, and the horses biting at each other's +manes, and the birds circling together in the soft air. For, as if +Somebody had known that it was going to be her birthday and waved a wand +during the night, the wind had dropped and the clouds vanished, and the +air was full of a thousand scents. There were earth-scents, warm and +wet, and hedge-scents of primroses and growing weeds, and the scents of +small animals, and cow-scents and lamb-scents, and tree-scents of bark +and cracking buds. Invisibly they rose and spread and mingled, like +children flocking upstairs in their party frocks; and the sun beamed +down on them like some gay old admiral who had just spied summer on the +horizon. + +But Marian was still unhappy and disappointed, and when she had given +her message to old Miss Hubbard she wandered across the fields, not very +much caring where she went or what might happen to her. That was how she +was feeling when she came at last to a small wood, called the Pirate's +Wood because it was shaped rather like a ship, with a lot of masts in +it, easy to climb. It was Cuthbert who had christened this wood, because +he had climbed higher than the others--almost to the top of the tallest +tree. But Doris had climbed nearly as high, and they both laughed at +Marian, because she would only climb half-way up. It occurred to her +this afternoon, however, that she would climb higher than either of +them; and she didn't care, she said, if she fell from the top. + +So she swung herself up on to the lowest branch of the big elm-tree near +the middle of the wood; and presently she saw above her the fork between +two boughs that Cuthbert had christened the crow's-nest. Level with her +nose, cut in the bark of the trunk, was a big D, standing for Doris, so +that already she had climbed as high as Doris had climbed, and was able +to look out over the other trees. But now she had come to the hardest +part of the climb, for in order to reach the crow's-nest she would have +to swarm up a piece of the elm-trunk from which there were no branches +sticking out to help her. There were only roughnesses in the bark, into +which she would have to dig her fingers, and first of all she had to +pull up her skirt and tuck it down inside her knickers. For a moment or +two she began to be frightened. But then she told herself that she +didn't care; and soon she had swarmed high enough to reach one of the +forking boughs, and had swung herself up into the crow's-nest. + +She was now as high as Cuthbert had climbed, and rippling away below her +she could see the fields and farm-lands stretching into the distance. +Two or three miles to her right lay the spires and chimneys and crinkled +roof-tops of the town, and two or three miles to her left, golden in the +sunlight, the hills lay strung along the sky. Then she saw yet another +fork between two slender boughs, just about a foot above her head, and +in a minute or two she had climbed higher even than Cuthbert had done, +and was safely perched in the top of the tree. If only the others had +been there she could have sighted imaginary ships for them sooner than +any of them had done before; and then she remembered again how sad and +lonely she was, and that nothing really mattered after all. + +So she stuffed her handkerchief into a crack in the tree just to prove +that she had really climbed there; and it was just then that she saw a +young man swinging across the fields toward the wood. He was wearing an +old shooting-jacket and grey flannel trousers; and he was singing a +song, of which she couldn't hear the words. She saw him climb a +gate--rather cautiously, she thought; she had expected from his general +air that he would vault it; and then he disappeared under the trees just +as she began to climb down. + +But climbing down anything is often more difficult than climbing up, as +Marian found; and half-way down she suddenly discovered that she had +somehow worked herself to the wrong side of the tree. Below her were two +or three branches that she thought would bear her, but there were long +gaps yawning between them; and the main trunk was growing broader and +broader, so that she could no longer span it with her arms. Once a piece +of bark broke in her fingers, and she slithered down a yard or more and +nearly fell; and she could feel her heart jumping against her ribs, as +she stood with both feet on a bending bough. Then she heard the young +man singing again in a cheerful voice, and she thought of shouting to +him, but she felt too shy; and then she began to lower herself very +carefully until she touched the branch below her with the tips of her +toes. + +The young man stopped singing. + +"Steady on," he cried. "You're touching a rotten branch." + +Marian pulled herself up again. + +"But it's the only one there is," she said. "I can't reach any other." + +She heard him whistle. + +"Hold on," he said. "I'm trying to find you--half a tick." + +He came to the bottom of the tree and looked up. + +"Where are you now?" he asked. Marian thought it a silly question. + +"Why, just here," she said. + +"Well, why don't you come down," he asked, "the same way that you got +up?" + +"I don't know," she said. "I wish I could. But I've got wrong somehow. +I'm stuck." + +She saw him touching the elm-trunk with his hands, running his fingers +lightly and quickly over it. Then he swung himself up on to the lowest +bough, and soon he was near enough to touch her hand. + +"Now catch hold," he said, "and jump toward me. Don't be frightened. I'm +as firm as a rock." + +Marian jumped, and he caught and steadied her. + +"Now you're all right," he said. "You'd better go down first." + +In another moment or two he was on the ground beside her, looking down +at her with a smile. He was about six feet high, she thought, with +queer-looking eyes and curly brown hair and a skin like a gipsy's. + +"Well, what are you doing here," he asked, "climbing all alone?" + +Marian told him about her party, and how she had had to put it off. "And +it'll be seven or eight weeks," she said, "before Cuthbert's well again, +so that I shan't have one at all." + +"Yes, I see," he said. "That's jolly bad luck. What about having some +tea with me?" + +Marian looked at him a little doubtfully. + +"But where do you live?" she asked. "Do you live near here?" + +"Well, just at present," he said, "I'm staying with Lord Barrington. But +I have a flask in my pocket full of hot tea, and I stole some cakes +before I came out." + +So they sat down together between the roots of the elm-tree, and the +sun poured down upon them, almost as if it had been summer. + +"But why did you come here," said Marian--"to this wood I mean?" + +"Oh, just by accident," he said, "if there's any such thing." + +Marian looked him up and down again. She wondered what he was. Perhaps +it was rude, but she ventured to ask him. + +"Well, I used to be a painter," he said, "once upon a time. I was rather +a successful one. So I saved a little money." + +"But you're quite young," she said. "Why aren't you one now?" + +"Because I had a disappointment," he said, "just like you have had." + +Marian began to like him. + +"Was it a bad one?" she asked. + +"Pretty bad," he said. "I became blind." + +For a moment Marian was so surprised that she couldn't say anything at +all; and then she felt such a pig that she didn't want to say anything. +For what was a silly little disappointment like hers beside so dreadful +a thing as becoming blind? But he looked so contented and was humming so +cheerfully as he counted out the cakes and began to divide them that her +curiosity got the better of her, and she spoke to him once more. + +"But how did you know," she asked, "that I was up the tree?" + +"Quite simple," he said. "I heard you." + +"And how could you tell that that was a rotten branch?" + +"Because I heard the sound of it when your toes touched it." + +Marian was silent for a moment. + +"You must have awfully good hearing," she said. "But I suppose you've +practised rather a lot." + +"Well, a good deal," he admitted. "You see, I was in the middle of Asia +when I first lost my sight. I was camping out, and painting pictures, +and shooting an occasional buck for my breakfast and dinner. Then a gun +went off while somebody was cleaning it, and the next moment I was +blind; and for a couple of months there was only one thing I wanted, and +that was to die as soon as I could." + +He poured out some tea for her and dropped a lump of sugar into it. + +"And then one day," he said, "there came a man to see me, and he told me +that I oughtn't to be discouraged. He was an old priest of some queer +sort of religion that the people of those parts believed in; and he was +sorry for me, and took me to stay with him in a little temple up in the +mountains. I never knew his name, we were just father and son to each +other, and I suppose that most people would have called him a heathen. +But he had lived all his life up among the mountains, studying nature +and praying to God. Well, I stayed with him for more than a year, and he +used to talk to me about the things he knew. I was a bad pupil, I'm +afraid, but he was infinitely patient; and after a time I began to +learn a little. 'You are blind, my son,' he used to tell me, 'but only a +little less blind than other people. And you have ears that are still +almost deaf. Why not stay with me and learn to hear?' I told him that I +_could_ hear, but he only smiled--it's a lovely thing to hear people +smile--and then he began to teach me, just as he would have taught a +child, the ABC of hearing." + +He finished his cake and filled his pipe. + +"Did you know," he went on, "that everything has a sound, just as it has +a shape and colour of its own? Well, it has; and presently I seemed to +be living in a strange new world, all full of music. Of course it wasn't +really new. It was the same old world. Only, like most people, I had +been almost deaf to it; and when I first heard it, up in that little +temple, I nearly went mad with joy. Day after day and night after night +I went out by myself and listened, and gradually I began to distinguish +the separate sounds of things, like the notes of instruments in an +orchestra." + +He stopped for a moment. + +"Just behind us, for instance, there's a clump of anemones singing next +to some primroses." + +Marian turned and saw them, just as he had said. + +"Oh, I wish," she cried, "that I could hear them too." + +The painter smiled. + +"Wait for a moment," he said. "Well, then once more I began to grow +miserable. For I was an artist, you see, and every artist wants to make +other people see what he sees. That was why I had painted my pictures. +But how could I make people hear what I heard? So I told the old priest +about it, and he said that, if I were a real artist, the power would +come back to me somehow. 'Wait a little,' he said, 'Stay a little +longer. You've hardly begun yet to hear for yourself.'" + +He paused again and lit his pipe. + +"And at last it came to me," he said. "Hold my hand." + +Marian slipped her hand into his. + +"Now close your eyes," he told her, "and listen." + +For a moment she could hear nothing but a ploughman shouting to his +horses and the tap-tapping of a woodpecker; but slowly as she listened +sounds began to come to her, as of a hidden band far in the distance. +Presently they drew nearer, and at first they were confused, like +hundreds of people gently humming through closed lips; but at last she +began to recognize different notes, like tiny drums and flutes and +fifes. All the time, too, close at hand, there was a faint persistent +ringing of bells; and these were the anemones swaying on their stems; +and the little trumpet-sounds came from the primroses. Then there was a +rough sort of scraping sound; and that was a mole, he said, burrowing in +the earth two or three yards away. And there was a sound like a chant on +one full note from a big field of grass just in front of the wood. Those +were the distincter notes; but there was a continuous sharp undertone, +like millions of finger-tips tapping on stretched parchment; and those +were the buds opening all along the hedges and upon the leaf-twigs up +above them. But deeper than all, deeper and softer than the softest +organ, there was a great sound; and that was the sap, he told her, +rising like a flood in all things living for miles around them. + +Then she opened her eyes and dropped his hand, and it was as if she had +suddenly become almost deaf. She lifted her fingers and put them in her +ears. + +"It's as if they were stopped up," she said. "Hold my hand again." + +But he turned and smiled at her. + +"Are you still unhappy?" he asked. + +Marian shook her head. + +"No, not now," she answered. + +"That's right," he said. "The world's much too good a place for a little +girl like you to be unhappy in." + +Then he held her hand again, and as the sounds of the world came back to +her there happened the oddest thing of all. For now there came other +sounds, clearer and nearer, lighter than breath and closer than her +heart. They said "Marian" to her, "Marian, Marian"; and the strange +thing was that she seemed to remember them--just as if their names were +on the tip of her tongue, like the names of old friends, stupidly +forgotten. + +"That's what they are," he said. "They're the voices of the friends that +we left behind us when we were born. Whenever we go back, and whenever +we have a birthday, they come flocking down to greet us." + +He stood up and stretched himself, and Marian rose to her feet. + +"So you've had a party," he said, "after all." + + + + + Could we, down the road to school, + Run but with undeafened ears, + Then what joy in this sweet spring + Just to hear the gardens sing, + + Scilla with her drooping bells + Playing her enchanted peal, + Primrose with his golden throat + Shouting his triumphant note. + + + + +THE SORROWFUL PICTURE + + + + +[Illustration: Porto Blanco] + + + + +XII + +THE SORROWFUL PICTURE + + +Marian never told anybody, not even Gwendolen, about that strange party +of hers under the elm-tree; and the blind painter faithfully promised +that he would keep it a secret too. But a fortnight later, when the +doctor said that it was quite safe, she introduced him to Gwendolen; and +Gwendolen was rather excited, because he was the very man who had +painted her favourite picture. + +This was a picture, only half finished, that her aunt had bought when +Gwendolen was quite little and when she used to play games all by +herself in the big house in Bellington Square. One of these games was a +queer sort of game, in which she would shut herself up in a room, and +imagine herself climbing into the pictures on the wall and having +adventures with the people inside them. If the picture had a tower in +it, she would climb up the tower and peep down over the other side; or +if there were ships in it she would go on board and talk to the sailors +down below. But her favourite picture she called the "sorrowful +picture," because though she loved it, it made her feel sad. + +It was really little more than a sketch, rapidly painted in a few +strokes, and Gwendolen's aunt had only bought it because she had been +told that the artist was famous. But it was full of sunlight, of a hot, +foreign sunlight, through which an old house had stared at the painter, +a yellow-walled house with latticed windows and violet shadows under its +broken roof. In a crooked pot near the front door a dead palm stretched +its withered fingers; and the front door itself was a cave of darkness, +with a jutting eave above it like a frowning eyebrow. + +But what made it so sorrowful, at any rate to Gwendolen, was a little +window up in the right-hand corner--an unlatticed window, as dark as the +front door, but with a different sort of darkness. For the darkness of +the front door was an angry darkness. When Gwendolen was little, it had +made her feel frightened. But the darkness of the window was like a +wound. She wanted to kiss it and make it well. After she had played with +the other pictures, and climbed the mountains in them, and gone paddling +in the streams, she always came to this one and stood on its threshold +and wondered why it was so different from the others. She never played +with it. It seemed too real. "I believe there's something sad," she +said, "that the window wants to tell me." + +But she loved it too, better than all the other pictures, because nobody +else seemed to understand it; and when her aunt had married Captain +Jeremy, and they had left Bellington Square, and most of the other +pictures had been sold, her aunt had allowed her to take this one with +her and hang it in her bedroom in the old farmhouse. So she was rather +excited when Marian introduced her to the blind painter; and when he +came to tea with them in the middle of April she took him upstairs and +told him all about it, because, of course, he could no longer see it. + +But he couldn't remember it, or even where he had painted it, though +there was a date on it which showed that it was six years old, because +that was a year, he said, in which he was travelling all over the world +and making little sketches almost every day. But he didn't laugh at her +as her nurse had done, because pictures, he said, were queer things; and +nothing was more likely than that there should be something in this one +that only Gwendolen could feel. + +"You see, a picture," he said, "if you look at it properly, is just like +a conversation painted on canvas; and you can see what the artist said +to his subject as well as what his subject said to him. Of course, in +most pictures, just as in most conversations, all that happened is +something like this: 'Good morning,' said the artist, 'fine weather +we're having,' and whatever he was painting just nodded its head. That's +because he was really thinking about something else--his indigestion or +the money that he hoped to make; and nobody ever tells their inmost +thoughts to people who talk to them like that. But if he has tried to be +a real artist, loving and understanding, and not thinking about himself +at all, the hills and the trees, or whatever he was painting, have begun +to tell him all about themselves. They've swopped secrets with him just +like old friends; and there they are for you to see. Sometimes they have +even told him things that he didn't understand himself. But he has +painted them so faithfully that other people have; and that's the most +wonderful thing that can happen to an artist--better than finding a +hundred pounds." + +He lit a cigarette. + +"And I shouldn't be surprised," he said, "if that little window wasn't +giving me a message. Only it was a message that I never understood; and +perhaps Gwendolen does." + +But Gwendolen shook her head. + +"Not very well," she said. "I only know that it makes me feel sad." + +And then Gwendolen's aunt came to tell them that tea was ready, and in a +couple of minutes they had forgotten all about the picture; and a +quarter of an hour later they forgot it still more, for in came Captain +Jeremy and Lancelot, the bosun's mate. They were both in high spirits, +because they had had an order to put to sea again for Porto Blanco, to +fetch a cargo of fruit from the Gulf of Oranges, on the shores of which +Porto Blanco was the principal town. + +"A matter of three months," said Captain Jeremy, "out and home." He gave +Marian a kiss and pulled Gwendolen's pigtail. "You'd better come with +us. What do you say, Lancelot? Or do you think they'd bring us bad +luck?" + +But Lancelot only grinned and made a husky noise--not because he was +naturally shy, but because he was always afraid of having tea in the +drawing-room, in case he should spill something on the carpet. He would +much have preferred, in fact, to have tea in the kitchen with Mrs +Robertson, the housekeeper, because he was very fond of Mrs Robertson, +and wanted to marry her, and had told her so several times. But Mrs +Robertson couldn't make up her mind. Her first husband had been rather a +nuisance; and though he had been dead for nine and a half years, she was +still a little doubtful about taking a second one. But Marian and +Gwendolen couldn't help jumping up and down, and the blind painter said +that they ought to go, and Captain Jeremy promised to go round to Peter +Street and see what Marian's mother had to say about it. + +"But you'll have to talk to her," said Marian, "through the window, +because she's still nursing Cuthbert." + +"Then that's all the more reason," said Captain Jeremy, "why she'll be +glad to let you go." + +Then he asked the blind painter if he would like to come as well, but he +shook his head and said that he would be unable to, though he had +several times visited the Gulf of Oranges, and would much have liked to +go there once more. But after a little persuasion Marian's mother said +that Marian could go if Gwendolen went; and a week later they were +climbing on board the schooner as she lay at anchor in Lullington Bay. + +That was the first time that Marian had been aboard her, and everything +seemed strange to her, smelling so fresh and salt. But of course +Gwendolen knew all about the ship, and soon she was busy taking Marian +round. She showed her the big hold, dark and empty, in which they would +bring back the cases of fruit, and the cook's galley, and the sailors' +bunks, and Captain Jeremy's neat little cabin. And then, just after +tea, the anchor was pulled up, and the sails were shaken out, and the +wind began to fill them; and presently there were little waves slapping +against the bow, and the land was fading into the dusk behind them. + +Both of them were sea-sick during the night, and felt rather queer most +of the next day. But the day after that they were as hungry as they +could be, and were soon on deck talking to the sailors. Most of these +were the same sailors that had been to Monkey Island, and so Gwendolen +knew them already; and she introduced Marian to them, who very soon felt +as if they had been friends of hers all her life. But Lancelot was her +favourite, just as he was Gwendolen's, and when he was off duty and +smoking his pipe, they would sit on either side of him and listen to his +stories as the deck beneath them rose and fell. As for Porto Blanco and +the Gulf of Oranges, he had been there more times, he said, than he +could remember; and once he had been stranded there for such a long time +that he had learned to talk the language as well as any of the +inhabitants. + +"But it's a queer place," he said, "and they're queer people, sort of +half-way between black and white, and the sun's in the bones of them, +and half the time they're fighting, and the other half they're snoozing +in the shadders." But for the most part, he said, they were kindly +people and very indulgent to each other's faults; and the women all went +barefooted and smoked cigarettes, and the men sang love-songs together +when they weren't quarrelling. + +"And up in the hills," said Lancelot, "back of the town, you can see +such flowers as you never saw anywhere, and great big oranges hanging +off of the trees, and corn-cobs taller than your head. And back of the +orange-trees there's great big forests, full of little Injuns with long +beards, and nasty yeller snakes, and birds of paradise, and parrots and +monkeys and inji-rubber trees," and sometimes he would go on talking +till they forgot all about supper-time, and the stars would open above +their heads, and far away, perhaps, like a little chain of beads, they +would see the port-lights of some great liner. + +The wind held so fair that by the end of a month they were nearly four +thousand miles from home, and a week later when they came on deck they +found the sea dotted with little islands. So lovely were they in their +wet colours that they might have been enamelled there during the night, +and Marian and Gwendolen almost gasped with joy as the ship slid past +them in the early morning. For a long time now the weather had been so +hot that awnings had been stretched over the deck; and Marian and +Gwendolen wore as little as they could--the thinnest of white jerseys +and the shortest of skirts. For nearly three weeks they had worn no +shoes or stockings, and their feet and legs were the colour of copper; +and for two or three hours in the middle of the day Captain Jeremy had +made them go to sleep. + +But to-day they were much too excited to stay in their hammocks; and +presently, as they hung over the schooner's bow, they could see the +horizon beginning to creep closer, and the hill-tops and forests of the +mainland. The wind had dropped now, and the sea was like glass, and +sometimes the ship scarcely seemed to move, but early in the afternoon +they began to see the roofs of the town and the tower of the cathedral +and the white-walled quay. Slowly they drew nearer until they could see +the people on the shore or lounging in the other ships at anchor in the +harbour; and just before sunset they had come to their moorings and were +lying securely against the quay. + +Down in the cabin, Captain Jeremy was talking business with two of the +fruit-merchants--dark-skinned men in white linen suits, smoking +pale-coloured long cigars. But Marian and Gwendolen stayed up on deck, +watching the night coming down like a shutter, and the lamps beginning +to shine in the crooked streets and behind the windows of the houses. +Now that it was cooler the people were taking the air, and gaily-dressed +women sauntered up and down; and in front of a cafe, where there were a +lot of little tables, some men were singing and playing guitars. It was +all so strange, it was like being in a theatre, and the air was full of +spice-scents and the scent of oranges; and it was hard to believe that +they were even in the same world with school and Peter Street and +Fairbarrow Down. + +But next morning it all seemed more real again, and Captain Jeremy took +them round the town; and they had lunch with one of the fruit-merchants +in a low-walled house built round a courtyard. After lunch they slept in +long armchairs, and when they woke up queer sorts of drinks were brought +to them; and then it was time to go back to the ship again and watch +the cases of fruit being packed in the hold. After a day or two, when +they had learned their way about, Captain Jeremy let them go ashore +alone; and by the end of the week they had explored every corner of the +town, and even gone for walks along the country roads. Some of these +were broad roads leading to other towns, but most of them became +mule-tracks after a mile or two; and they seldom went very far up these +because of the heat, which was greater then even the inhabitants had +ever known. + +Day after day, through the still air, the great sun emptied itself into +the town; and the streets cracked, and the barometer fell, and Captain +Jeremy looked anxiously at the weather; and it was upon the hottest day +of all--the day before they were leaving--that Gwendolen suddenly +gripped Marian's arm. + +It was early in the morning, before the sun was at its steepest, and +they had wandered past the cathedral into the outskirts of the town, +where a little track between two high garden walls had tempted them to +explore it. It had led them into a sort of garden, untidy and deserted, +and on the other side of this there stood a house--a yellow-walled house +with latticed windows and violet shadows under its broken roof. Beside +the front door stood a crooked pot, and the front door itself was a cave +of darkness, and up in the right-hand corner, under the roof, was a +little window standing open. Gwendolen found herself shaking all over. + +"Why, it's the very house," she said, "of the sorrowful picture." + +And so it was, and as they stood looking up at it, it seemed more +sorrowful to Gwendolen than ever. For there was the little window almost +beseeching her in actual words to go and comfort it; and she even had a +feeling that for all these years it had been crying in vain to her +across half the world. But there was the front door too, dark with +anger, and before they could move a man came out of it. He was a big man +with a fat face, and he stood blinking for a moment in the sunshine; and +then they saw him frown as he caught sight of them; and he shouted words +at them that they didn't understand. + +But it was evident that he wanted them to go away, and they saw him +touch a knife that he wore in his belt; and so they ran back again up +the little track, and there in the street they met Lancelot. He was +grinning as usual, and he looked so big and strong that they could +almost have hugged him on the spot; but his face grew serious when they +told him what had happened, and he stroked his chin and became +thoughtful. + +"Well, it's a good thing," he said, "that you come away. In this here +town you have to be careful. But I'll have a turn round and see if I can +find anything out about this here house and the feller as lives in it." + +Then he mopped his face and looked at the sky and told them to go back +again to the ship; and a couple of hours later he came aboard and +beckoned them to talk to him while he smoked his pipe. Everything was +ready now for the ship to sail next morning, and most of the other +sailors were asleep, and Captain Jeremy had gone to lunch again with the +fruit-merchant in the town. + +"Well, this here feller," said Lancelot, "seems a queer sort of cove, +with a bad name, and he lives all alone; and his wife ran away from him +six years ago, taking their only little girl along with her. But there's +some folks believe that he went after her and killed her--anyway, she +was found dead in the forest--but what happened to Pepita, who was three +years old at the time, nobody knows, for she's never been seen." + +Then he smoked his pipe for a minute. "But I tell you what," he said. +"He's pretty sure to be asleep just now. And if you like I'll go and +have a look at the house, and see what there is to it, and come and tell +you." + +"But I must come too," said Gwendolen. "I really must." + +"And so must I," said Marian. "We must both come," and after a while +they persuaded him to take them, and they set off again through the +town. It was now so hot that it seemed as if the very earth must begin +to melt and crumble away; and when they came to the house there were no +signs of life--there was only that little window, dark and aching. For a +moment they stood listening at the front door, and then they cautiously +stepped inside; and there, in a lower room, asleep on the floor, they +saw the big man with the fat face. Then they stole upstairs until they +came to the little room under the roof to which the window belonged; and +then, as they pushed the door open, the tears sprang to their eyes, and +Lancelot swore a great oath. + +For there they saw, tied to a staple in the wall, a little girl of about +nine years old, ragged and scarred, with timid dark eyes and cheeks +like a flower that has never seen the sun. Tied across her mouth was a +dirty cloth, and when she first saw them she shrank away; but as +Gwendolen went up to her with outstretched arms, her eyes widened in +sheer astonishment. Then Lancelot stooped and cut the rope that bound +her, and pulled away the cloth that was gagging her mouth; and then he +jumped round just as the little girl's father came stumbling fiercely +into the room. + +Gwendolen heard him shouting something and using the word Pepita; and as +she clasped the little girl in her arms she knew why it was that all +these years the sorrowful picture seemed to have been calling to her. It +was because the little girl's pain and longing for freedom had somehow +stolen into the painter's brush. Then she saw Lancelot's fist shoot out +like a bullet, and Pepita's father tumble to the floor; and then +Lancelot shouted to them to hurry away, and picking up Pepita, he ran +down the stairs. In less than a minute they were in the little track +between the high garden walls; and in a few seconds more they were out +in the street, and then a most strange and awful thing happened. For +Marian stopped short and pointed with her finger. + +"Why, what's the matter," she cried, "with the cathedral tower?" + +They all stared at it, and saw it rock to and fro; and then Lancelot +swung round toward the open country. + +"Run for your lives," he said, and then, as they followed him, they felt +the ground beneath them rise and fall. Then they heard a crash, and +people shouting, and then all was still again, and they stopped +running. Lancelot wiped his forehead. + +"Well, now you know," he said, "what an earthquake's like. Lucky it +wasn't a worse one." + +And there was the cathedral tower still standing on its foundations, but +when they looked for Pepita's house it had fallen down like a pack of +cards, a fitting grave for Pepita's father. For they heard in the +evening that he had been killed; and Pepita afterward told them how he +had killed her mother, and how he had kept her for all those years tied +to the wall in that dark upper room. As for Captain Jeremy, he was so +rejoiced at seeing Marian and Gwendolen safe that he told Lancelot he +would have forgiven him if he had brought fifty Pepitas on board. +Lancelot was very pleased about that, because, in his heart of hearts, +he knew that he ought never to have let them come with him. But, as he +told Gwendolen, all was well that ended well, and he hoped that she +would allow him to take care of Pepita. + +Gwendolen wasn't quite sure at first, but when they arrived home her +aunt and Mrs Robertson thought it a good idea. For Mrs Robertson had +made up her mind to marry Lancelot, and Pepita was just the little girl, +she said, that she had always wanted. + + + + + We're going the way that Drake went, + We shall see what Drake's men saw, + A coppery curly cobra-snake, + And a scarlet-cloaked macaw. + + For we're going the way that Drake went, + We're taking the jungle trail, + And we'll bring you a dark-eyed damsel home, + And a cock with a golden tail. + + + + +THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND + + + + +[Illustration: The Lagoon] + + + + +XIII + +THE MOON-BOY'S FRIEND + + +It was about a week after Marian and Gwendolen had arrived home from +Porto Blanco that Uncle Joe suddenly asked Cuthbert and Doris to spend a +fortnight with him at Redington-on-Sea. It was not the sort of town that +Uncle Joe liked, because it was full of big houses and glittering +hotels; and most of the people in it wore expensive clothes, and it had +a long pier, with a theatre at the end. But he always went there in the +first week of August, when Mr Parker took his annual holiday, so that he +could visit an old friend of his, who had lodgings on the Marine Parade. + +This old friend was called Colonel Stookley, and he had lost both his +legs as the result of wounds; and Uncle Joe generally took rooms next +door and played chess with him every evening. He had been very brave, +but was now rather wheezy, besides having something wrong with his +liver; and as he had lost most of his friends he was always glad to see +Uncle Joe. Generally Uncle Joe went to see him alone, so that he could +be with him most of the day; but this year he thought that Cuthbert +needed a change, and he asked Doris, because Marian had just had a +voyage. At first they were afraid that they would have to take their +best clothes, but Uncle Joe said that he didn't mind. So long as they +brushed their teeth every day they could wear what they liked, he said, +and they could paddle and swim as much as they pleased. + +So they met Uncle Joe at the station at eleven o'clock on the 3rd of +August, and a couple of hours later they were having lunch with him in +the big dining-car of the express. Through the windows, as they rocked +along, trying their best not to spill their soup, they could see the +harvesters at work in the fields, and ribbons of flowers as they crashed +through the little stations; and a couple of hours after that, where +some hills had broken apart, Doris was the first of them to see a stitch +of blue; and by half-past four they were talking to the landlady of +number 70 Marine Parade. + +This was next door to where Colonel Stookley lodged, and the landlady's +name was Mrs Bodkin; and she gave Doris a kiss, and said that she was +tall for her age and that Cuthbert's cheeks would soon have some roses +in them. Then she showed them their bedrooms, which were at the top of +the house, looking out to sea over the esplanade; and they found that +they could talk to each other out of the windows and watch the people in +the gardens below. + +These were very trim gardens, like the garden in Bellington Square, +separated by railings from the flagged esplanade; and beyond the +esplanade there were terraces of pebbles, crumbling into a stretch of +hard, wet sand. + +As it was tea-time there were not many people about; but by six o'clock +there were people everywhere--people in the gardens, listening to the +band, and looking sideways at each other's clothes; people on the +esplanade, sauntering up and down, and saying how-do-you-do to their +friends; people on the pier staring through telescopes, and people on +the beach reading magazines, and people on the sands building castles or +paddling with their children on the fringe of the sea. The tide was so +low that nobody was bathing, and weed-capped rocks stood out of the +water; and after they had paddled a little Doris suggested that they +should go and listen to the pierrots. + +This was the hour--just before the children's bedtime, and before the +grown-up people went home to dinner--when the pierrots and +beach-entertainers were all at their busiest, trying to earn money. Upon +a wooden platform, with three chairs and a piano, two men and two girls +were singing and dancing; and a hundred yards away from them, on a +similar sort of stand, there were three banjo-players with blackened +faces. But there were such crowds round each of these platforms that +Cuthbert and Doris couldn't get near them; and there was a conjurer, a +little farther on, who seemed to be even more popular. They watched him +for a minute or two, and saw the people raining pennies on him, but they +were too far away to be able to see his tricks; and then they saw a +clown, farther along still, turning somersaults on the sand. + +There were a few children round him, some of them with nurses, but the +people on the esplanade were taking very little notice of him; and by +the time that Cuthbert and Doris reached him, he had stopped +somersaulting and was wiping his forehead. Standing near him, dressed +like a gipsy, was a woman, who was evidently his wife, and sitting on +the sand was a queer-looking boy about fourteen who seemed to be their +son. The clown was dressed in a baggy sort of smock, tied round his +ankles with pink ribbon, and his face was white, with a crimson diamond +painted on the middle of each cheek. His lips had been coloured to make +them seem smiling, and he wore a wig of carroty hair, but his eyes were +tired, and underneath his wig they could see some of his own hair, which +was quite grey. + +Then his wife brought a little box round, but none of the children +seemed to have any pennies, and the two or three grown-up people who had +been watching the performance turned aside without giving anything. +Cuthbert and Doris heard one of them say that it was a rotten show and +not worth a farthing; and then the old clown began to sing a song about +a cheese that climbed out of the window. Some of the nurses laughed a +little, but the children didn't understand it, and Cuthbert and Doris +thought it rather stupid, but the woman had noticed them and brought +them the box, and they each put a penny in it, though they didn't much +want to. Then the old clown and his wife pretended to have a quarrel, +and she kept knocking him down with an umbrella; but what interested +them most was the queer-looking boy, who kept laughing to himself and +playing with his fingers. Once or twice he got up and went straying +among the audience, and they could see his mother watching him rather +anxiously; and presently he came and talked to them and told them that +he was a moon-boy and that his name was Albert Hezekiah. + +It was now nearly seven, and the tide was coming in, and there was +nobody left to watch the old clown, so his wife stopped hitting him with +the umbrella and helped him on with a shabby blue overcoat. Then they +emptied the pennies out of the box, and the old clown counted them in +the palm of his hand. + +"Ten and a half," he said, "not much of a catch, old lady," and then +they looked round for Albert Hezekiah. + +He was still talking to Cuthbert and Doris, and the old clown and his +wife came up to them. The woman spoke to Doris. + +"Don't you be frightened," she said, and the old clown tapped his +forehead. + +"He's a little bit touched," he said, "that's all, my dear. But he's a +good lad and he's quite harmless." + +Then they said good-night, and the moon-boy shook hands with them and +told them that he liked them, because they had nice faces; and two or +three times during the next few days they saw him playing about near his +father and mother. Then one day they saw him alone, and he told them +that his father was ill in bed, and that his mother had sent for the +doctor, and that they had no money to pay the rent with. It seemed +rather funny to think of a clown being ill, but Doris and Cuthbert each +gave him sixpence, and he ran off singing, and they didn't see him +again till the last day of their holiday. + +This was a bright hot day, and they had bathed in the morning, and then +Mrs Bodkin had cut them some sandwiches, and they had had their lunch on +the top of Capstan Beacon, which was a high hill about five miles away. +Then they had walked inland and had tea at a little village; and it was +toward dusk, just as they were reaching the town, that they saw the +moon-boy in the middle of a group of boys on a piece of waste land near +the gas-works. He was waving his arms and looking rather bewildered, and +the other boys were mocking him and singing a sort of song, "Loony, +loony, moon-boy; loony, loony, loo"; and when they came nearer they saw +that he was crying, and that one of the bigger boys was throwing stones +at him. + +Doris was so angry that she could hardly speak, but she caught hold of +the boy who was throwing stones, and when he tried to hit her she +slapped his face and told him that he was the biggest coward that she +had ever seen. Then he tried to hit her again, but Cuthbert jumped in +front of her, and after a minute or two Cuthbert knocked him down; and +then the other boys ran away, after throwing stones at them and calling +them names. + +"Little beasts," said Doris, "look what they've done," and Cuthbert saw +that they had cut the moon-boy's cheek. So Doris took out her +handkerchief and stopped the bleeding, and then they both took the +moon-boy home. He was so excited at first that he lost the way, but at +last he stopped in front of a little house; and in a back room they +found the old clown, sitting up in bed and trying to shave himself. His +wife was at the fireplace, frying some fish; and when they heard what +had happened to their son, they shook hands with Cuthbert and Doris and +thanked them over and over again. + +"Luck's against us, you see," said the old clown. "We're getting past +work, and the people won't laugh at us. And this here boy of ours is all +that we have, and there's nobody else to look after him." + +"Excepting one," said the moon-boy, and the old clown began to laugh. + +"That's one of his crazes," he said. "He says that he has a friend who +comes and talks to him once a week." + +"Out of the sea," said the boy. "He comes out of the sea. I never see +him except by the sea." + +"Nor there either," said his mother, "if the truth was known." But when +Cuthbert and Doris said good-bye the moon-boy followed them into the +street and began speaking to them in a whisper. + +"I tell you what," he said. "If you'll meet me to-night at ten o'clock +just by the lighthouse I'll show him to you, if you'll promise not to +laugh. Because if you laugh, he won't come." + +For a moment they hesitated because they were pretty sure that Uncle Joe +wouldn't allow it; but then they decided that they needn't ask him, as +he would be sure to be playing chess with Colonel Stookley. So they +promised to be there, though they thought it very likely that the +moon-boy wouldn't come; and just before ten they were on the little +path that led from the town toward the lighthouse. + +This was about a mile from the end of the esplanade, under a great cliff +called Gannet Head, and at low tide it was possible to reach the +lighthouse by climbing over some fifty yards of rocks. But the tide was +high to-night, and the little path that slanted down across the face of +the cliff came to an end upon a slab of rock not more than a foot above +the water. There was no moon, but the stars were so bright that the air +was full of a sort of sparkle; and the sea was so still that the water +beneath them hardly seemed to rise and fall. _Clup, clup_ it went, with +a lazy sort of sticky sound, like a piece of gum-paper flapping against +a post, and then slowly becoming unstuck again before doing it all once +more. + +At first they could see nobody, but as they stood looking about them +they heard a soft whistle a little farther on; and there was the +moon-boy, with his arms round his knees, squatting on another ledge of +rock. This was broader and flatter than the one at the bottom of the +path, and a little higher above the water; and Cuthbert and Doris were +soon sitting beside him and wondering what was going to happen. + +"Where's your friend?" asked Cuthbert. + +The moon-boy touched his lips. + +"_H'shh_," he said. "He'll be here in a minute. He was here half an hour +ago, and I told him all about you." + +"But where's he gone?" said Doris. + +The moon-boy shook his head. + +"I don't know," he said. "He might be anywhere. He spends his life +pulling children out of the water. But nobody ever sees him except me." + +Doris suddenly felt her heart beginning to beat quicker. + +"Why, I believe I know him!" she said. "Is he a saint?" + +The moon-boy nodded. + +"Yes, he's a patron saint," he said. "He's the patron saint of water." + +"Then I do know him," said Doris. "At least, I've heard of him, and I've +met his brother, St Uncus." + +"This one's St William," said the moon-boy, "but he's generally known as +Fat Bill." + +And then they heard a pant, and there, sitting beside them, was an +enormous man with a red face. Like his brother, he was nearly bald, but +he was about seven times as large, and he had blue eyes and a double +chin, and there was a big landing-net in his right hand. + +"Good evening," he said, "pleased to meet you. I've heard about the girl +of you from my brother Uncus. And the boy of you I saw last year, +pulling a little nipper out of a stream." + +Cuthbert blushed. + +"That was young Liz," he said, "Beardy Ned's kid, but it was quite +easy." + +"Maybe it was," said Fat Bill, "but, as it happened, you really helped +to save two nippers. You see, there was a kid, just at the same moment, +fell into a lagoon off Hotoneeta." + +"What's Hotoneeta?" asked Cuthbert. + +"Bit of an island," he said, "a hundred miles south of the equator." + +He cleared his throat. + +"Well, I couldn't save 'em both, because I was pulling a boy out of Lake +Windermere; and I was just going for Liz when I saw that you were after +her, so that I was able to land Blossom-blossom just in time." + +"Was that her name?" asked Doris. + +Fat Bill nodded. + +"That's the English of it," he said. "But her people are savages." + +Then he disappeared for a moment, and there was nothing but the +starlight and the _clup, clup_ of the water; and it was while he was +gone that there came into Doris's mind a wild but just possible idea. +She turned to Cuthbert. + +"I tell you what," she said. "Why shouldn't he take us to Hotoneeta? I +expect he could somehow, if he really wanted to; and you _did_ help to +save Blossom-blossom." + +Cuthbert considered. + +"Well, of course he _might_," he said, and then Fat Bill was sitting +beside them again. + +"Just been to Ohio," he said, "to a place called Columbus--kid fell into +a lake there--nobody by." + +He laid down his landing-net and rubbed his hands. + +"It's a hard life," he said, "being a saint." + +But he looked so comfortable, sitting on the rock, with his fat thighs +spread out beneath him, that Doris was almost sure that he wouldn't +mind, and so she asked him if he would take them. He stroked his chin +for a moment and looked at her thoughtfully. + +"Well, of course I _could_," he said, "though it would be rather +irregular. But Albert Hezekiah here would have to look after my +landing-net, because I've only got two hands." + +So they all three of them looked at the moon-boy, and he promised to +take care of the landing-net; and then Fat Bill held out his hands, and +Cuthbert and Doris each took one of them. The moment they did so they +were, of course, in In-between Land, because that was where Fat Bill and +his brother lived; and the rocks looked ghostly, just like dream-rocks, +and they could see the moon-boy's soul, like a tiny flame. But the next +moment they were alone on a shore of the whitest sand that they had ever +seen, and the dawn was coming up over an enormous sea, stiller than +stillness and breathlessly blue. At their feet lay a shallow lagoon--or +at least it looked shallow--trembling with colour; and strange-petalled +weeds swung to and fro in it, and the silver-scaled fishes slid between +them. + +It was so hot that they wanted to throw their clothes away, and the +jungle behind them was full of odours--sleepy odours, like the odours of +a medicine-chest--and nodding, red-lipped flowers. Leading from the +shore, between the walls of the jungle, was a narrow path of grass and +sand; and standing in the middle of it, still as an idol, was a little +dark-brown naked girl. Fat Bill had gone, but they knew that it was +Blossom-blossom, and then she gave a yell and fled from sight; and +Cuthbert and Doris couldn't help laughing as they began to explore the +rim of the lagoon. + +But a minute or two later, as they were kneeling on the shore and +peering down into that wonderful water, something happened that made +them think of Blossom-blossom in rather a different sort of way. For +just as Doris had made up her mind to take off her shoes and stockings, +they heard a little sound, and the next moment a spear was quivering in +the sand between them. They sprang to their feet just in time to avoid +another one and to see a man crouching at the edge of the jungle; and +then they were snatched up, and there they were on the rock again, with +Gannet Head towering above them. The moon-boy was laughing, but Fat Bill +looked serious. + +"Narrow squeak," he said. "That was Blossom-blossom's father. I thought +he was asleep in his hut." + +Then he shook hands with them and said good-bye, and they climbed up the +path again and went home to bed; and when Uncle Joe came up to look at +them, they confessed to him what they had been doing. He was rather +angry, of course, but he didn't laugh at them, and as for Fat Bill, he +said that he had heard of him; and as for the old clown, he promised to +see what he could do for him before they left the town next morning. + +"But don't you think it was rough," said Cuthbert, "after I had helped +to save Blossom-blossom, to have her father throwing spears at me?" + +But that was just the sort of thing, said Uncle Joe, that saviours had +to be prepared for. + + + + + The candle's finger shakes. + My story's done. + "No more," says Father Time, "or shall we say + Just one?" + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS TREE + + + + +[Illustration: Still Talking] + + + + +XIV + +THE CHRISTMAS TREE + + +The worst of discovering anybody like Fat Bill at the very beginning of +the summer holidays is that it makes the rest of the holidays seem a +little dull; and that was just what Cuthbert and Doris felt. So they +were really rather glad when the winter term at school began; and so +were Gwendolen and Marian, who hadn't been to school since the spring. + +It was an important term, too, for they were all moved up; and Marian +had to buy her first hockey-stick; and Doris and Gwendolen began to +learn Latin; and Cuthbert's homework became really unbearable. But he +managed to survive, and they were all so busy that the term was over +almost before it had begun; and here was Christmas close at hand again, +and everybody rushing about buying presents. + +As for Cuthbert and Marian, they had so much to do in the three or four +days before Christmas that they were half afraid they would never be +able to do it, because on Christmas Eve they were going to have a party. +It was to be rather a special party, because neither Cuthbert nor Marian +had been able that year to have a birthday party; and all the people +that they had invited had sent replies saying that they were coming. + +Old Miss Hubbard was coming, and so was Uncle Joe, and Mr Parker was +coming with him; and Doris's mummy was coming with Doris and her five +brothers; and Beardy Ned was bringing little Liz. Then there was +Gwendolen, of course, who was coming too, with her aunt and Captain +Jeremy; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson were bringing Pepita; and Percy +the gamekeeper's son was bringing Agnes. Just at the last minute, too, +they had a letter from the blind painter saying that he was bringing +Lord Barrington. And Mr and Mrs Williams were coming, and so was Mummy's +nurney, and so was Edward Goldsmith. + +"Goodness knows," said Mummy, "where we shall put them all. I hope they +won't mind sitting on the floor." + +But Cuthbert and Marian said that it would be all right, and that they +would have the Christmas tree in the hall. + +"Then we can have the doors open," said Cuthbert, "and people can sit on +the stairs; and Marian and I will make the paper festoons." + +So Mummy and Mummy's nurney and the cook spent hours and hours making +cakes and pastries; and just as it seemed as if they would never be +ready, they suddenly found that there was nothing to do except to keep a +lookout for old Jacob Parsley, who came every year selling Christmas +trees. + +That was on the morning of the 23rd of December, with a fine rain +falling outside; and as they sat at the window both Cuthbert and Marian +felt a little stale and out of temper. In spite of all the excitements +of the term and the preparations for the party, it suddenly seemed to +them a very long time since they had had a real proper adventure. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Marian, "if we never have another." + +"Perhaps we shan't," said Cuthbert, "but it'll be an awful bore," and +then, at that very moment, they heard a familiar voice; and there was +Jacob Parsley in the street below. + +Where he came from nobody knew; but every year on the 23rd of December +he limped into the town with his old white horse and a ramshackle cart +full of Christmas trees. There they were, year after year, shining and +crisp and neatly potted; and people used to say that he had dug them up +at night from rich men's plantations in other parts of the country. As +for himself, he was a red-faced old man, with a stubbly grey beard and a +scar on his chin, and a pair of bright eyes that used to work +separately, so that nobody could tell which he was looking with. + +"Ker-rismus trees," he would shout, "all in per-hots. All in per-hots, +Ker-rismus-trees," and whenever he sold one he would spit in the road, +and wish the buyer the compliments of the season. Also, if there were +any change he would generally try to keep it, to buy some cough mixture, +he would explain, for his bronchial tubes; and most people let him, +because they were afraid that he would slue one of his eyes round and +pierce their hearts with a reproachful glance. + +But to-day for the first time his cart seemed empty, though he was +still shouting; and when they ran downstairs and opened the front door +they saw that he had only one tree left. It was a queer little tree with +silvery-grey leaves; and that was the reason, he said, why nobody had +bought it. All the others he had sold at once--almost as soon as he had +entered the town. + +"Wish I'd 'ad more," he said, "but this here tree, it ain't folk's +notion of a Ker-rismus tree. Not but what it ain't a good tree, though +it's a little 'un, and the feller I bought it off a queer sort of +feller." + +He stood looking at it, or as nearly looking at it as he ever seemed to +look at anything; and then he coughed for rather a long time and hit +himself on the chest and wished them a happy Christmas. + +"It's this here rain," he said. "It gets into the bronchial tubes. Five +shillings--that's all I'll ask you for it. And it's a good tree. You can +take my word for it. And them as buys it won't regret it." + +Cuthbert and Marian touched its leaves. Just behind them stood their +guardian angels. Even more intently than Cuthbert and Marian they bent +their gaze on the little tree. + +"But what kind of a tree is it?" asked Cuthbert. + +Jacob spat in the road. + +"Well, they tell me," he said, "as it's a olive. And they tell me as +it's the seedling of the great-great-grandson of the first Ker-rismus +tree of all." + +He spat in the road again. + +"Aye, of the very tree," he said, "as held Love's Innocence atween two +thieves." + +"I like the leaves of it," said Marian. "It's got wonderful leaves." + +The two angels drew a little closer. The old horse began to shake his +blinkers. So they bought the tree and carried it indoors. + +Round the pot they bound some scarlet paper, and round the paper they +twined a wreath of holly; and they placed the tree on a little table +near the foot of the stairs in the front hall. + +Said Cuthbert's angel, "This is a queer go." + +Marian's angel smiled as he lit his evening pipe. + +"And they were just grumbling," he said, "because they never had any +adventures. What do you suppose will happen when the guests have +assembled?" + +But Cuthbert's angel shook his head. + +"That's hard to tell," he said. "There's no precedent. Not since the +Great Day has a tree of that line ever been used as a children's +Christmas tree." + +The rain had stopped by then and the moon was shining, and soon after +midnight the thermometer fell. A hoar frost crept over the roof-tops. +The sun's rim rose out of a well of vapour. At eleven o'clock Cuthbert +went to play football, and Marian and Doris went to see Gwendolen. + +The sun had climbed free by then, but the wind was in the north, and as +the day went on the frost deepened. During the afternoon the children +went to some friends' houses to borrow chairs for the party. When they +came back Mummy was stooping over the Christmas-tree, fixing candles to +its slender twigs. In her eyes there was a curious look. Cuthbert +kissed her and asked her what was the matter. + +"Nothing," said Mummy, "but wouldn't it be wonderful if what Jacob said +about this tree were true?" + +Marian bent her lips to one of the leaves. + +"I believe it is," she said. "It makes me feel funny." + +Old Mother Hubbard was the first guest to come, and she brought a hamper +with her full of presents. Some of them were new, but some of them were +trinkets that she had kept ever since she was a girl. + +"And now I want to give them away," she said, "because for fifty years I +have never known what giving was like." + +Soon after that came Uncle Joe, driving in his little pony-cart with Mr +Parker; and Mr Parker took the pony-cart to the stables at the end of +the street. Uncle Joe was wearing an overcoat, with poacher's pockets in +its lining; and the pockets were bulging with middling-sized parcels to +be placed on the floor round the Christmas tree. Then came Captain +Jeremy and Gwendolen and Gwendolen's aunt, with the frosty air still in +their faces; and Lancelot and Mrs Robertson brought Pepita, well wrapped +up and a little shy. + +Then a great car hummed down the street bringing Lord Barrington and the +blind painter, with Mr and Mrs Williams in their Sunday clothes, and a +big round cheese that they had brought for a present. Percy, their son, +and his sweetheart Agnes were the next to knock at the front door; and +they had hardly stepped inside before Doris and her mummy arrived with +the five boys. Then came Edward, looking very smart, with a hot-house +flower in his button-hole; and the last to appear was Beardy Ned, as +shabby as usual, with Liz on his shoulder. + +Most of the others were having tea by now round the dining-room table, +or in the drawing-room, or sitting on the stairs, or standing in the +hall, or leaning against the banisters. And there, in the middle of +them, still unlit and waiting till the feasting should be over, stood +the little olive tree, hushed and inconspicuous, with the scarlet paper +round its pot. + +Mr Parker came back from the stables. + +"Rough weather," he said, "in the Baltic. That's a rum-looking tree +you've got for a Christmas tree," and the blind painter heard him and +turned round. + +"Where is it?" he asked. "Will you take me to it?" And Marian led him to +the little table. He bent his head for a moment, and there crept into +his eyes the same odd look that Marian had seen in Mummy's. + +Said Cuthbert's angel, "He's beginning to hear something. What do you +suppose will happen when they have lit the candles?" + +But Marian's angel shook his head. + +"The others will hear nothing," he said. "But will they see?" + +Said Doris's angel, "Can they see and live?" + +"Look," said Gwendolen's angel. "They're lighting the candles." And it +was just at that moment that a young man, shabbier even than Beardy Ned, +turned into Peter Street. But for his presence the street was empty. +Doris's angel was the first to see him. He lifted his head and spoke a +Name, and slowly the others filed out after him. Down the front steps +and along the pavement they made a lane of angels. But the door was +shut, and deep in their hearts was the dreadful fear that it mightn't be +opened. + +Then Uncle Joe struck another match and lit the last candle on the tree, +and Marian's daddy picked up one of the parcels and turned it over to +find the name on it. Smiling in her chair, old Miss Hubbard envied the +luckier women who had had children. Half in shadow, between Marian and +Gwendolen, stood Lord Barrington with his hawk-like face. There came a +knock at the front door. Cuthbert, who was nearest to it, turned and +opened it. He saw a young man in shabby clothes, and there was no beauty +in him that he should desire him. He stood there smiling in the outside +darkness. + +"May I come in?" he asked, and Cuthbert changed his mind. Everything +beautiful that he had ever seen shone into his heart from the young +man's eyes. + +"Yes, rather," said Cuthbert. "We're having a party." + +His eyes sought his mother's. + +"Mummy, here's somebody else." + +Everybody turned round as the young man entered. The candles on the +olive tree shed their light upon him. All but the blind painter looked +into his eyes. Each saw the thing in them that he wanted most. Marian +and Gwendolen and Cuthbert and Doris, not wanting anything in +particular, only saw vaguely all that they hoped to be when they should +have become grown-up men and women. So did Edward and so did Pepita; +but Christopher Mark saw a celestial rabbit; and Percy and Agnes, +holding each other's hand, saw the darlingest of babies. What Beardy Ned +saw you can guess, and what Lord Barrington saw was Truth; and the blind +painter heard the angels singing the song that explains every other +song. + +Then the young man stooped for a moment over the little olive-tree. + +"Make them happy," he said, and then he was gone; and though nobody saw +them, of course, the guardian angels came and stood again in their +accustomed places. Marian turned impulsively to Lord Barrington. + +"Oh, who was he?" she said. "Tell me his name." + +Lord Barrington kissed her. + +"The loveliest present," he said, "that ever hung upon a tree." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Half-Past Bedtime, by H. H. Bashford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-PAST BEDTIME *** + +***** This file should be named 35029.txt or 35029.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/2/35029/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire. 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