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"The. i REFERENCE J 33A. fAlRY TALFS NY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES 3 3333 08088 8650

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* The palm-leaf curled its fi/^es msa\ from the water, am! made a delightful boat for Richard." — Cross J'urposes. Page 152.

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TTbe Xigbt flbrtncess AND OTHER FAIRY TALES BY GEORGE MACDONALD ILLUSTRATED BY MAUD HUMPHREY -••'".':'• , JF*"*"1 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET LONDON 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND je linulurbockn press

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COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Ubc Iknicfeerbocher iprcss, DAcw G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

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J-/M PROPERTY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK CH HAT we have in English no word o corresponding to the German Mahrchen, drives us to use the word Fairytale, regardless of the fact that the tale may have nothing to do with any sort of fairy. The old use of the word Fairy, by Spenser at least, might, however, well be adduced, were justification or excuse necessary where need must. Were I asked, what is a fairytale ? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale; then read this and that as iv ell, and you will see what is a fairytale. Were I further begged to describe the fairytale, or define what it is, I would make answer, that I should as soon think of describing the abstract human face, or stating what must go to constitute a human being. A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. Many a man, however, who would not attempt to define a man, might venture to say something as to

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iv Preface what a man ought to be: even so much I will not in this place venture with regard to the fairytale, for my long-past work in that kind here reprinted, might but poorly instance or illustrate my no\v more matured judgment. I will but say some things helpful to the reading;, in right-minded fashion, of such tales as O' O follow. Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws O of the world of the senses ; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law. Nothing lawless can show the least o ™ ' reason why it should exist, or could at best have more than an appearance of life. The natural world has its laws, and no man must interfere with them in the way of presentment any more than in the way of use, but they themselves may suggest laws of other kinds, and man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms — which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation. When such forms are new embodiments of old truths, we call them products of the Imagination ; when they are mere inventions, however lovely, I should call them the work of the Fancy : in either case, Law has been diligently at work. His world once invented, the highest law that comes next into play is, that there shall be harmony

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Preface v between the laws by which the new world has begun to exist; and in the process of his creation, the inventor must hold by those laws. The moment he forgets one of them, he makes the story, by its own postulates, incredible. To be able to live a moment in an imagined world, we must see the laws of its O existence obeyed. Those broken, we fall out of it. The imagination in us, whose exercise is essential to O the most temporary submission to the imagination of another, immediately, with the disappearance of Law, ceases to act. Imagine the gracious creatures of some childlike region of Fairyland talking either cockney or Gascon ! Would not the tale, however lovelily begun, sink at once to the level of the Burlesque — of all forms of literature the least worthy ? A man's inventions may be stupid or clever, but if he do not hold by the laws of them, or if he make one law jar with another, he contradicts himself as an inventor, he is no artist. He does not rightly consort his instruments, or he tunes them in different keys. The mind of man is the product of live Law ; it thinks by law, it dwells in the midst of law, it gathers from law its growth ; with law, therefore, can it alone work to any result. Inharmonious, unconsorting ideas will come to a man, but if he try to use one of such, his work will grow dull, and he will drop it for mere lack of interest. Law is the soil in which alone beauty will grow ; beauty is the only stuff in which Truth can be clothed; and you may, if you will, call Imagination the tailor that cuts her garments to fit her, and

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vi Preface Fancy his journeyman that puts the pieces of them together, or perhaps at most works their button-holes. Obeying law, the maker works like his creator; not obeying law, he is such a fool as heaps a pile of stones and calls it a church. In the moral world it is different : there a man may clothe in newr forms, and for this employ his imagination freely, but he must invent nothing. He may not, for any purpose, turn its laws upside down. He must not meddle with the relations of live souls. The laws of the spirit of man must hold, alike in this world and in any world he may invent. It were no offence to suppose a world in which everything repelled instead of attracted the things around it ; it would be wicked to write a tale representing a man it called good as always doing bad things, or a man it called bad as always doing good things : the notion itself is absolutely lawless. In physical things a man may invent ; in moral things he must obey — and take their laws with him. into his invented world as well. "You write as if a fairytale were a thing of importance : must it have a meaning ? " It cannot help having some meaning; if it have proportion and harmony it has vitality, and vitality is truth. The beauty may be plainer in it than the truth, but without the truth the beauty could not be, and the fairytale would give no delight. Every one, however, who feels the story, will read its meaning after his owrn nature and development : one man will read one meaning in it, another will read another.

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Preface vii " If so, how am I to assure myself that I am. not reading my own meaning into it, but yours out of it?" Why should you be so assured ? It may be better that you should read your meaning into it. That may be a higher operation of your intellect than the mere reading of mine out of it : your meaning may be superior to mine. " Suppose my child ask me what the fairytale means, what am I to say ? r If you do not know what it means, what is easier than to say so '{ If you do see a meaning in it, there it is for you to give him. A genuine work of art must mean many things ; the truer its art, the more things it will mean. If my drawing, on the other hand, is so far from beino- a work of art that it needs THIS is A O HOESE written under it, what can it matter that neither you nor your child should know what it means ? It is there not so much to convey a meaning as to wake a meaning. If it do not even wake an interest, throw O it aside. A meaning may be there, but it is not for you. If, again, you do not know a horse when you see it, the name written under it will not serve you much. At all events, the business of the painter is not to teach zoology. But indeed your children are not likely to trouble you about the meaning. They find what they are capable of finding, and more would be too much. For my part I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.

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viii Preface A fairytale is not an allegory. There may be allegory in it, but it is not an allegory. lie must beau artist indeed who can, in any mode, produce a strict allegory that is not a weariness to the spirit. An allegory must be Mastery or Moorditch. A fairytale, like a butterfly or a bee, helps itself on all sides, sips at every wholesome flower, and spoils not one. The true fairytale is, to my mind, very like the sonata. We all know that a sonata means something ; and where there is the faculty of talking with suitable vagueness, and choosing metaphor sufficiently loose, "mind may approach mind, in the interpretation of a sonata, with the result of a more or less contenting consciousness of sympathy. But if two or three men sat down to write each what the sonata meant to him, what approximation of definite idea would be the result ? Little enough — and that little o more than needful. We should find it had roused related if not identical feelings, but probably not one common thought. Has the sonata therefore failed ? O Had it undertaken to convey, or ou^ht it to be ex•I * O pected to impart anything defined, anything notionally recognizable ? " But words are not music ; words at least are meant and fitted to carry a precise meaning ! " It is very seldom indeed that they carry the exact meaning of any user of them ! And if they can be so used as to convey definite meaning, it does not follow that they ought never to carry anything else. Words are live things that may be variously employed to

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Preface ix various ends. They can convey a scientific fact, or throw a shadow of her child's dream on the heart of a mother. They are things to put together like the pieces of a dissected map, or to arrange like the notes on a stave. Is the music in them, to go for nothing ? It can hardly help the definiteness of a meaning: is it therefore to be disregarded ? They have length and breadth and outline : have they nothing to do with depth ? Have they only to describe, never to impress? Has nothing any claim to their use but the definite ? The cause of a child's tears mav be altogether */ O uudefinable ; has the mother therefore no word for his vague misery ? That may be strong in colour which has no evident outline. A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away : do you begin at once to wrestle with it and ask whence its power over you, whither it is carrying you ? The law of each is in the mind of its composer ; that law makes one man feel this way, another man feel i/ ' that way. To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness. To one the cloudy rendezvous is a wild dance, with a terror at its heart ; to another, a majestic march of heavenly hosts, with Truth in their centre pointing their course, but as yet restraining her voice. The grestest forces lie in the region of the imcornprehended. I will go farther.— -The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him ; or say, to make him think

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Preface things for himself. The best Nature does for us is to work in us such moods in which thoughts of hi

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Preface xi purposes, for the expression of his thoughts ; therefore he cannot help his words and figures falling into such combinations in the mind of another as he had himself not foreseen, so many are the thoughts allied to every other thought, so many are the relations involved in every figure, so many the facts hinted in every symbol. A man may well himself discover truth in what he wrote ; for he was dealing all the time with things that came from thoughts beyond his own. "But surely you would explain your idea to one who asked you ? '' I say again, if I cannot draw a horse, I will not write THIS is A HORSE under what I foolishly meant for one. Any key to a work of imagination would be nearly, if not quite, as absurd. The tale is there, not to hide, but to show : if it show nothing at your window, do not open your door to it ; leave it out in the cold. To ask me to explain, is to say, " Roses ! Boil them, or we won't have them ! '' My tales may not be roses, but I will not boil them. So long as I think my dog can bark, I will not sit up to bark for him. If a writer's aim be logical conviction, he must O spare no logical pains, not merely to be understood, but to escape being misunderstood ; where his object is to move by suggestion, to cause to imagine, then let him assail the soul of his reader as the wind assails an seolian harp. If there be music in my reader, I would gladly wake it. Let fairytale of mine go for

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xii Preface a firefly that now flashes, no\v is dark, but may flash airain. Caught in a hand which does not love its kind, O o it will turn into an insignificant, ugly thing, that can neither flash nor fly. The best way with music, I imagine, is not to bring the forces of our intellect to bear upon it, but to be still and let it work on that part of us for whose sake it exists. We spoil countless precious things by intellectual greed. He who will be a man and will not be a child, must, he cannot help himself, become a little man, that is, a dwarf. He will, however, need no consolation, for he is sure to think himself a very large creature indeed. If any strain of my "broken music" make a child's eyes flash, or his mother's grow for a moment dim, my labour will not have been in vain.

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CONTENTS. PREFACE . THE LIGHT PRINCESS I. WHAT ! NO CHILDREN ? . II. WON'T I, JUST? HI. SHE CAN'T BE OURS IV. WHERE IS SHE ? V. WHAT IS TO BE DONE ? . VI. SHE LAUGHS TOO MUCH . VII. TRY METAPHYSICS . VIII. TRY A DROP OF WATER . IX. PUT ME IN AGAIN . X. LOOK AT THE MOON XI. HISS !..... XII. WHERE IS THE PRINCE? . XIII. HERE I AM .... XIV. THIS IS VERY KIND OF YOU XV. LOOK AT THE RAIN ! THE GIANT'S HEART .... THE SHADOWS ..... CROSS PURPOSES ..... THE GOLDEN KEY . ... THE CARASOYN .... I. THE MOUNTAIN STREAM . II. THE FAIRY FLEET . III. THE OLD WOMAN AND HER HEN Xiii PAGE iii I I 2 5 7 ii 15 18 24 29 37 42 47 50 54 63 67 97 141 172 216 216 221 223

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xiv Contents PACK IV. THK (10BLIN BLACKSMITH . . . 234 V. THE MOSS VINEYARD . . . 242 VI. THE CONSEQUENCES . 245 VII. THE BANISHED FAIRIES ...... . 25! VIII. THEIR REVENGE 255 IX. THE FAIRY 1-TDDLER .... . . 2$8 X. THE OLD WOMAN AND HER HEN .... . 2&I XI. THE GOBLIN COBBLER . . . . 265 XII. THE WAX AND THE AWL . . 2JO LITTLE DAYLIGHT ... 278

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THE LIGHT PRINCESS. i. What! No Children? NCE upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children. And the king said to himself, "All the queens of rny acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve ; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used." So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it. But she bore it all like a good patient queen as she was. Then the king grew very cross indeed. But the queen pretended to take it all as a joke, and a very good one too. " Why don't you have any daughters, at least ? ' said he. "I don't say sons; that might be too much to expect."

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The Lii'ht Princess " I am sure, dear king, I am very sorry,'1 said the queen. " So you ought to be," retorted the king; " you are not going to make a virtue of tliat, surely." But he was not an ill-tempered king, and in any matter of less moment would have let the queen have her own way with all his heart. This, however, was an affair of state. The queen smiled. "You must have patience with a lady, you kno\\-, dear king," said she. She was, indeed, a very nice queen, and heartily sorry that she could not oblige the king immediately. The king tried to have patience, but he succeeded very badly. It was more than he deserved, therefore, when, at last, the queen gave him a daughter — as lovely a little princess as ever cried. II. Won't I, Just? HE day grew near when the infant must be christened. The king wrote all the invitations with his own hand. Of course somebody was forgotten. Now it does not generally matter if somebody is forgotten, only you must mind who. Unfortunately, the king forgot without intending to forget ; and so the chance fell upon the Princess

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The Light Princess Makemnojt, which was awkward. For the princess was the kind's own sister ; and he onsrht not to have O O forgotten her. But she had made herself so disagreeable to the old king, their father, that he had forgotten her in making his will ; and so it was no wonder that her brother forgot her in writing his invitations. But O o poor relations don't do anything to keep you in rniiid of them. Why don't they ? The king could not see into the Barrett she lived in, could he? O ' She was a sour, spiteful creature. The wrinkles of contempt crossed the wrinkles of peevishness, and made her face as full of wrinkles as a pat of butter. If ever a king could be justified in forgetting anybody, this king was justified in forgetting his sister, even at a christening. She looked very odd, too. Her forehead was as large as all the rest of her face, and O ' projected over it like a precipice. When she was angry, her little eyes flashed blue. When she hated anybody, they shone yellow and green. What they looked like when she loved anybody, I do not know ; for I never heard of her loving anybody but herself, and I do not think she could have managed that if she had not somehow got used to herself. But what made it highly imprudent in the king to forget her was — that she was awfully clever. In fact, she was a witch ; and when she bewitched anybody, he very soon had enough of it ; for she beat all the wicked fairies in wickedness, and all the clever ones in cleverness. She despised all the modes we read of in history, in which offended fairies and witches have taken their revenges ;

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The Light Princess and therefore, after waiting and waiting in vain for an O O invitation, she made up her mind at last to go without one, and make the whole family miserable, like a princess as she was. So she put on her best gown, went to the palace, was kindly received by the happy monarch, who forgot that he had forgotten her, and took her place in the procession to the royal chapel. When they were all gathered about the font, she contrived to get next to it, and throw something into the water ; after which she maintained a very respectful demeanour till the water was applied to the child's face. But at that moment she turned round in her place three times, and muttered the following words, loud enough for those beside her to hear :— " Light of spirit, by my charms, Light of body, every part, Never weary human arms — Only crush thy parents' heart ! " They all thought she Lad lost her wits, and was repeating some foolish nursery rhyme ; but a shudder went through the whole of them notwithstanding. The baby, on the contrary, began to laugh and crow ; while the nurse gave a start and a smothered cry, for she thought she was struck with paralysis : she could not feel the baby in her arms. But she clasped it tight and said nothing. The mischief was done.

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The Light Princess 5 III. She Can't Be Ours. *\ [ER atrocious aunt had deprived the child of all her gravity. If you ask me how this was effected, I answer, "In the easiest way in the world. She had only to destroy gravitation." For the princess was a philosopher, and knew all the ins and outs of the laws of gravitation as well as the ins and outs of her boot-lace. And being a witch as well, she could abrogate those laws in a moment ; or at least so clog their wheels and rust their bearings, that they would not work at all. But we have more to do with what followed than with how it was done. The first awkwardness that resulted from this unhappy privation was, that the moment the nurse began to float the baby up and down, she flew from her arms towards the ceiling. Happily, the resistance of the air brought her ascending career to a close within a foot O O of it. There she remained, horizontal as when she left her nurse's arms, kicking and laughing amazingly. The nurse in terror flew to the bell, and begged the footman, who answered it, to bring up the house-steps directly. Trembling in every limb, she climbed upon the steps, and had to stand upon the very top, and reach up, before she could catch the floating tail of the baby's long clothes.

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6 The Light Princess "When the strange fact came to be known, there was a terrible commotion in the palace. The occasion of its discovery by the king was naturally a repetition of the nurse's experience. Astonished that he felt no weight when the child was laid in his arms, he began to wave her up and — not down ; for she slowly ascended to the ceiling as before, and there remained floating in perfect comfort and satisfaction, as was testified by her peals of tiny laughter. The king stood staring up in speechless amazement, and trembled so that his beard shook like grass in the wind. At last, turning to the queen, who was just as horror-struck as himself, he said, gasping, staring, and stammering,— "She can't be ours, queen ! ' Now the queen was much cleverer than the king, and had begun already to suspect that " this effect defective came bv cause." «/ " I am sure she is ours," answered she. " But we ouo;ht to have taken better care of her at the christenO ing. People who were never invited ought not to have been present.1' "Oh, ho !" said the king, tapping his forehead with his forefinger, "I have it all. I Ve found her out. Don't O ? you see it, queen ? Princess Makemnoit has bewitched her." "That 's just what I say," answered the queen. " I beg your pardon, my love ; I did not hear you. — John ! bring the steps I get on my throne with." For he was a little king with a great throne, like many other kings.

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The Light Princess The tlirone-steps were brought, and set upon the dining-table, and John got upon the top of them. But he could not reach the little princess, who lay like a baby-laughter-cloud in the air, exploding continuously. " Take the tongs, John," said his Majesty ; and getting up on the table, he handed them to him. John could reach the baby now, and the little princess was handed down by the tongs. IV. Where Is She ? 1STE fine summer day, a month after these her first adventures, during which time she had been very carefully watched, the princess was lying on the bed in the queen's own chamber, fast asleep. One of the windows was open, for it was noon, and the day was so sultry that the little girl was wrapped in nothing less ethereal than slumber itself. The queen came into the room, and not observing that the baby was on the bed, opened another window. A frolicsome fairy wind, which had been watching for a chance of mischief, rushed in at the one O ' window, and taking its way over the bed where the child was lying, caught her up, and rolling and floating her along like a piece of flue, or a dandelion seed, car 

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8 The Light Princess ried her with it through the opposite window, and away. The queen went down-stairs, quite ignorant of the loss she had herself occasioned. AVheu the nurse returned, she supposed that her Majesty had carried her off, and, dreading a scolding, delayed making inquiry about her. But hearing nothing, she grew uneasy, and went at length to the queen's boudoir, where she found her Majesty. " Please, your Majesty, shall I take the baby ? " said she. " Where is she ? " asked the queen. " Please forgive me. I know it was wrong." " What do you mean ? " said the queen, looking grave. " Oh ! don't frighten me, your Majesty ! " exclaimed the nurse, clasping her hands. The queen saw that something was amiss, and fell down in a faint. The nurse rushed about the palace, screaming, " My baby ! my baby ! " Every one ran to the queen's room. But the queen could give no orders. They soon found out, however, that the princess was missing, and in a moment the palace was like a beehive in a garden ; and in one minute more the queen was brought to herself by a great shout and a clapping of hands. They had found the princess fast asleep under a rose-bush, to which the elvish little wind-puff had carried her, finishing its mischief by shaking a shower of red rose-leaves all over the little white sleeper. Startled by the noise the servants made, she woke, and, furious with glee,

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io The Light Princess scattered the rose-leaves in all directions, like a shower of spray in the sunset. She was watched more carefully after this, no doubt ; yet it would be endless to relate all the odd incidents resulting from this peculiarity of the young princess. But there never was a baby in a house, not to say a palace, that kept the household in such constant good humour, at least below-stairs. If it was not easy for her nurses to hold her, at least she made neither their arms nor their hearts ache. And she was so nice to play at ball with ! There was positively no danger of letting her fall. They might throw her down, or knock her down, or push her down, but could n't let her down. It is true, they might let her fly into the fire or the coal-hole, or through the window ; but none of these accidents had happened as yet. If you heard peals of laughter resounding from some unknown region, you might be sure enough of the cause. Going down into the kitchen, or the room, you would find Jane and Thomas, and Robert and Susan, all and sum, playing at ball with the little princess. She was the ball herself, and did not enjoy it the less for that. Away she went, flying from one to another, screeching with laughter. And the servants loved the ball itself better even than the game. But they had to take some care how they threw her, for if she received an upward direction, she would never come down again without being fetched.

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The Light Princess 1 1 V. What Is To Be Done ? UT above-stairs it was different. One day, for instance, after breakfast, the king went into bis conn ting-house, and counted out his money. The operation gave him no pleasure. " To think," said he to himself, " that every one of these gold sovereigns weighs a quarter of an ounce, and my real, live, flesh-and-blood princess weighs nothiuo- at all ! " O And he hated his gold sovereigns, as they lay with a broad smile of self-satisfaction all over their yellow faces. The queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey. But at the second mouthful she burst out crying, and could not swallow it. The king heard her sobbing. Glad of anybody, but especially of his queen, to quarrel with, he clashed his gold sovereigns into his money-box, clapped his crown on his head, and rushed into the parlour. " What is all this about ? "' exclaimed he. " What are you crying for, queen ? r " I can't eat it," said the queen, looking ruefully at the honey-pot. " No wonder ! " retorted the king. " You Ve just

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1 2 The Light Princess eaten your breakfast — two turkey eggs, and three anchovies." " Oh, that 's not it ! " sobbed her Majesty. " It 's rny child, my child ! " " Well, what 's the matter with your child ? She 's neither up the chimney nor clown the draw-well. Just hear her laughing." Yet the king could not help a sigh, which he tried to turn into a cough, saying,— "It is a good thing to be light-hearted, I am sure, whether she be ours or not." " It is a bad thing to be light-headed," answered the queen, looking with prophetic soul far into the future. " 'T is a good thing to be light-handed," said the king. " 'T is a bad thing to be light-fingered," answered the queen. "'T is a good thing to be light-footed," said the king. " 'T is a bad thing — " began the queen ; but the king interrupted her. " In fact," said he, with the tone of one who concludes an argument in which he has had only imaginary opponents, and in which, therefore, he has conie off triumphant — "in fact, it is good thing altogether to be light-bodied." " But it is a bad thing altogether to be light-minded," retorted the queen, who was beginning to lose her temper.

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The Light Princess 13 This last answer quite discomfited his Majesty, who turned on his heel, and betook himself to his countinghouse again. But he was not half-way towards it, when the voice of his queen overtook him. "And it 's a bad thins; to be light-haired," screamed O O she, determined to have more last words, now that her spirit was roused. The queen's hair was black as night ; and the king's had been, and his daughter's was, golden as morning. But it was not this reflection on his hair that arrested him ; it was the double use of the word light. For the king hated all witticisms, and punning especially. And besides, he could not tell whether the queen meant light-haired or \ight-heired; for why might she not aspirate her vowels when she was exasperated herself ? He turned upon his other heel, and rejoined her. She looked angry still, because she knew that she was guilty, or, what was much the same, knew that he thought so. " My dear queen," said he, " duplicity of any sort is exceedingly objectionable between married people of any rank, not to say kings and queens ; and the most objectionable form duplicity can assume is that of punning." " There ! " said the queen, " I never made a jest, but I broke it in the making. I am the most unfortunate woman in the world ! " She looked so rueful that the kino; took her in his O arms ; and they sat down to consult.

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14 The Light Princess " Can you bear this ? " said the king. " No, I can't," said the queen. " Well, what 's to be done ? " said the king. " I 'rn sure I don't know," said the queen. " But might you not try an apology ? r " To my old sister, I suppose you mean ? " said the kino;. O " Yes," said the queen. " Well, I don't mind," said the king. So he went the next morning to the house of the O princess, and, making a very humble apology, begged her to undo the spell. But the princess declared, with a grave face, that she knew nothing at all about it. Her eyes, however, shone pink, which was a sign that she was happy. She advised the king and queen to have patience, and to mend their ways. The king returned disconsolate. The queen tried to comfort him. "We will wait till she is older. She may then be able to suowest something herself. She will know at OO O least how she feels, and explain things to us." "But what if she should marry?' exclaimed the king, in sudden consternation at the idea. " Well, what of that ? " rejoined the queen. "Just think! If she were to have children! In the course of a hundred years the air might be as full of floating children as of gossamers in autumn." "That is no business of ours," replied the queen. " Besides, by that time they will have learned to take care of themselves."

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The Light Princess 15 A sigh was the king's only answer. He would have consulted the court physicians ; but he was afraid they would try experiments upon her. VI. She Laughs Too Much. |EANTIME, notwithstanding awkward occurrences, and griefs that she brought upon her parents, the little princess laughed and grew — not fat, but plump and tall. She reached the age of seventeen, without having fallen into any worse scrape than a chimney ; by rescuing her from which, a little bird-nesting urchin got fame and a black face. Nor, thoughtless as she was, had she committed anything worse than laughter at everybody and everything that came in her way. When she was told, for the sake of experiment, that General Clanrunfort was cut to pieces with all his troops, she laughed ; when she heard that the enemy was on his way to besiege her papa's capital, she laughed hugely; but when she was told that the city would certainly be abandoned to the mercy of the enemy's soldiery — why, then she laughed immoderately. She never could be brought to see the serious side of o anything. When her mother cried, she said,—

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1 6 The Light Princess " What queer faces mamma makes ! And she squeezes water out of her cheeks ! Funny mamma ! " And when her papa stormed at her, she laughed, and danced round and round him, clapping her hands, and crying— " Do it again, papa. Do it again ! It 's such fun ! Dear, funny papa ! ' And if he tried to catch her, she glided from him in an instant, not in the least afraid of him, but thinking it part of the game not to be caught. With one push of her foot, she would be floating in the air above his head ; or she would 2:0 dancing backwards and forwards O ^ and sideways, like a great butterfly. It happened several times, when her father and mother were holding a consultation about her in private, that they were interrupted by vainly repressed outbursts of laughter over their heads ; and looking up with indignation, saw her floating at full length in the air above them, whence she regarded them with the most comical appreciation of the position. One day an awkward accident happened. The princess had come out upon the lawn with one of her attendants, who held her by the hand. Spying her father at the other side of the lawn, she snatched her hand from the maid's, and sped across to him. Now when she wanted to run alone, her custom wras to catch up a stone in each hand, so that she might come down again after a bound. Whatever she wore as part of her attire had no effect in this way : even gold, when it thus became as it were a part of herself, lost all its weight for the

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The Light Princess 17 time. But whatever she only held in her hands retained its downward tendency. On this occasion she could see nothing to catch up but a huge toad, that was walking across the lawn as if he had a hundred years to do it in. Not knowing what disgust meant, for this was one of her peculiarities, she snatched up the toad and bounded away. She had almost reached her father, and he was holding out his arms to receive her, and take from her lips the kiss which hovered on them, like a butterfly on a rosebud, when a puff of wind blew her aside into the arms of a young page, who had just been receiving a message from his Majesty. Now it was no great peculiarity in the princess that, once she was set agoing, it always cost her time and trouble to check herself. On this occasion there was no time. She must kiss — and she kissed the page. She did not mind it much ; for she had no shyness in her composition ; - and she knew, besides, that she could not help it. So she only laughed, like a musical box. The poor page fared the worst. For the princess, trying to correct the unfortunate tendency of the kiss, put out her hands to keep her off the page ; so that, along with the kiss, he received, on the other cheek, a slap with the huge black toad, which she poked right into his eye. He tried to laugh, too, but the attempt resulted in such an odd contortion of countenance, as showed that there was no danger of his pluming himself on the kiss. As for the king, his dignity was greatly hurt, and he did not speak to the page for a whole month. I may here remark that it was very amusing to see

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1 8 The Light Princess her run, if her mode of progression could properly be called running. For first she would make a bound ; o then, having alighted, she would rim a few steps, and make another bound. Sometimes she would fancy she had reached the ground before she actually had, and her feet would go backwards and forwards, running upon nothing at all, like those of a chicken on its back. Then she would laugh like the very spirit of fun ; only in her laugh there was something missing. What it was, I find myself unable to describe. I think it was a certain tone, depending upon the possibility of sorrow -mo?*bidezza, perhaps. She never smiled. VII. Try Metaphysics. FTER a long avoidance of the painful subject, the king and queen resolved to hold a council of three upon it; and so they sent for the princess. In she came, sliding and flitting and gliding from one piece of furniture to another, and put herself at last in an arm-chair, in a sitting posture. Whether she could be said to sit, seeing she received no support from the seat of the chair, I do not pretend to determine. "My dear child," said the king, "you must be aware by this time that you are not exactly like other people."

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The Light Princess 19 " Ob, you dear funny papa ! I have got a nose, and two eyes, and all the rest. So have you. So has mamma.1 " Now be serious, my dear, for once," said the queen. " No, thank you, mamma ; I had rather not." " Would you not like to be able to walk like other people ? " said the king. " No indeed, I should think not. You only crawl. You are such slow coaches ! '' " How do you feel, my child ? '' he resumed, after a pause of discomfiture. " Quite well, thank you." " I mean, what do you feel like ? ' " Like nothing at all, that I know of." O "You must feel like something." " I feel like a princess with such a funny papa, and such a dear pet of a queen-mamma ! " " Now really ! " began the queen ; but the princess interrupted her. " Oh, yes," she added, " I remember. I have a curious feeling sometimes, as if I were the only person that had any sense in the whole world." She had been trying to behave herself with dignity ; but now she burst into a violent fit of laughter, threw herself backwards over the chair, and went rolling about the floor in an ecstasy of enjoyment. The king picked her up easier than one does a down quilt, and replaced her in her former relation to the chair. The exact preposition expressing this relation I do not happen to know.

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2O The Light Princess " Is their nothing you wish for ? " resumed the kin

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The Light Princess 21 Now at the head of this college were two very wise Chinese philosophers — by name Hum-Drum, and KopyKeck. For them the king sent ; and straightway they came. In a long speech he communicated to them what they knew very well already — as who did not ?— namely, the peculiar condition of his daughter in relation to the globe on which she dwelt; and requested them to consult together as to what mi^ht be the cause O o and probable cure of her infirmity. The king laid stress upon the word, but failed to discover his own pun. The queen laughed ; but Hum-Drum and KopyKeck heard with humility and retired in silence. Their consultation consisted chiefly in propounding and supporting, for the thousandth time, each his favourite theories. For the condition of the princess afforded delightful scope for the discussion of every question arising from the division of thought — in fact, of all the Metaphysics of the Chinese Empire. But it is only justice to say that they did not altogether neglect the discussion of the practical question, what was to be done. Hum-Drum was a Materialist, and Kopy-Keck was a Spiritualist. The former was slow and sententious; the latter was quick and flighty : the latter had generally the first word ; the former the last. " I reassert my former assertion," began Kopy-Keck, with a plunge. "There is not a fault in the princess, body or soul ; only they are wrong put together. Listen to me now, Hum-Drum, and I will tell you in brief what I think. Don't speak. Don't answer me.

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22 The Light Princess I won't hear you till I have done. — At that decisive moment, when souls seek their appointed habitations, two eager souls met, struck, rebounded, lost their way, and arrived each at the wrong place. The soul of the princess was one of those, and she went far astray. She does not belong by rights to this world at all, but to some other planet, probably Mercury. Her proclivity to her true sphere destroys all the natural influence which this orb would otherwise possess over her corporeal frame. She cares for nothing here. There is no relation between her and this world. " She must therefore be taught, by the sternest compulsion, to take an interest in the earth as the earth. She must study every department of its history — its animal history ; its vegetable history ; its mineral history ; its social history ; its moral history ; its political history ; its scientific history ; its literary history ; its musical history ; its artistical history ; above all, its metaphysical history. She must begin with the Chinese dynasty and end with Japan. But first of all she must study geology, and especially the history of the extinct races of animals — their natures, their habits, their loves, their hates, their revenges. She must" Hold, h-o-o-old ! ' roared Hum-Drum. " It is certainly my turn now. My rooted and insubvertible conviction is, that the causes of the anomalies evident in the princess's condition are strictly and solely physical. But that is only tantamount to acknowledging that they exist. Hear my opinion. — From some cause or other, of no importance to our inquiry, the motion of

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The Light Princess 23 her heart has been reversed. That remarkable combination of the suction and the force-pump works the wrong way — I mean in the case of the unfortunate princess, it draws in where it should force out, and forces out where it should draw in. The offices of the auricles and the ventricles are subverted. The blood is sent forth by the veins, and returns by the arteries. Consequently it is running the wrong way through all her corporeal organism— lungs and all. Is it then at all mysterious, seeing that such is the case, that on the other particular of gravitation as well, she should differ from normal humanity? My proposal for the cure is this : — " Phlebotomize until she is reduced to the last point of safety. Let it be effected, if necessary, in a warm bath. When she is reduced to a state of perfect asphyxy, apply a ligature to the left ankle, drawing it as tight as the bone will bear. Apply, at the same moment, another of equal tension around the right wrist. By means of plates constructed for the purpose, place the other foot and hand under the receivers of two air-pumps. Exhaust the receivers. Exhibit a pint of French brandy, and await the result." " Which would presently arrive in the form of grim Death," said Kopy-Keck. " If it should, she would yet die in doing our duty," retorted Hum-Drum. But their Majesties had too much tenderness for their volatile offspring to subject her to either of the schemes of the equally unscrupulous philosophers.

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24 The Light Princess Indeed, the most complete knowledge of the laws of nature would have been unserviceable in her case ; for it was impossible to classify her. She was a fifth imponderable body, sharing all the other properties of the ponderable. VIII. Try a Drop of Water. ERHAPS the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love. But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty — perhaps the difficulty. As for her own feelings on the subject, she did not even know that there was sucli a beehive of honey and stings to be fallen into. But now I come to mention another curious fact about her. The palace was built on the shores of the loveliest lake in the world ; and the princess loved this lake more than father or mother. The root of this preference no doubt, although the princess did not recognize it as such, was, that the moment she got into it, she recovered the natural riovht of which she had been so ^j wickedly deprived — namely, gravity. Whether this was owing to the fact that water had been employed as the means of conveying the injury, I do not know. But it is certain that she could swim and dive like the

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The Light Princess 25 duck that her old nurse said she was. The manner in which this alleviation of her misfortune was discovered was as follows. One summer evening, during the carnival of the country, she had been taken upon the lake by the king and queen, in the royal barge. They were accompanied by many of the courtiers in a fleet of little boats. In the middle of the lake she wanted to get into the lord chancellor's barge, for his daughter, who was a great favourite with her, was in it with her father. Now though the old king rarely condescended to make light of his misfortune, yet, happening on this occasion to be in a particularly good humour, as the barges approached each other, he caught up the princess to throw her into the chancellor's barge. He lost his balance, however, and, dropping into the bottom of the barge lost his hold of his daughter ; not, however, before imparting to her the downward tendency of his own person, though in a somewhat different direction ; for, as the king fell into the boat, she fell into the water. With a burst of delighted laughter she disappeared into the lake. A cry of horror ascended from the boats. They had never seen the princess go down before. Half the men were under water in a moment ; but they had all, one after another come up to the surface again for breath, when — tinkle, tinkle, babble, and gush ! came the princess's laugh over the water from far away. There she was, swimmin^ like a swan. Nor would she come out for O king or queen, chancellor or daughter. She was perfectly obstinate.

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26 The Light Princess But at the same time she seemed more sedate than usual. Perhaps that was because a great pleasure spoils laughing. At all events, after this, the passion of her life was to get into the water, and she was always the better behaved and the more beautiful the more she had of it. Summer and winter it was quite the same ; only she could not stay so long in the water when they had to break the ice to let her in. Any day, from morning to evening in summer, she mi^ht be descried O O O —a streak of white in the blue water — lying as still as the shadow of a cloud, or shooting along like a dolphin ; disappearing, and coming up again far off, just where one did not expect her. She would have been in the lake of a night too, if she could have had her way ; for the balcony of her window overhung a deep pool in it ; and through a shallow reedy passage she could have swum out into the wide wet water, and no one would have been any the wiser. Indeed, when she happened to wake in the moonlight she could hardly resist the temptation. But there was the sad difficulty of getting into it. She had as great a dread of the air as some children have of the water. For the slightest O gust of wind would blow her away ; and a gust might arise in the stillest moment. And if she gave herself a push towards the water and just failed of reaching it, her situation would be dreadfully awkward, irre«/ spective of the wind ; for at best there she would have to remain, suspended in her night-gown, till she was seen and angled for by somebody from the window. " Oh ! if I had my gravity,'' thought she, contemplat 

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The Light Princess 27 ing the water, " I would flash oft' this balcony like a long white sea-bird, headlong into the darling wetness. Heigh-ho ! " This was the only consideration that made her wish to be like other people. Another reason for her being fond of the water was that in it alone she enjoyed any freedom. For she could not walk out without a cortege, consisting in part of a troop of light-horse, for fear of the liberties which the wind might take with her. And the king grew more apprehensive with increasing years, till at last he would not allow her to walk abroad at all without some twenty silken cords fastened to as many parts of her dress, and held by twenty noblemen. Of course horseback was out of the question. But she bade good-bye to all this ceremony when she got into the water. And so remarkable were its effects upon her, especially in restoring her for the time to the ordinary human gravity, that Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck agreed in recommending the king to bury her alive for three years ; in the hope that, as the water did her so much good, the earth would do her yet more. But the king had some vulgar prejudices against the experiment, and would not give his consent. Foiled in this, they yet agreed in another recommendation ; which, seeing that one imported his opinions from China and the other from Thibet, was very remarkable indeed. They argued that, if water of external origin and application could be so efficacious, water from, a deeper source might work a perfect cure ; in short, that if the poor afflicted prin 

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28 The Light Princess cess could by any means be made to cry, she might recover her lost gravity. But how was this to be brought about ? Therein lay all the difficulty — to meet which the philosophers were not wrise enough. To make the princess cry was as impossible as to make her weigh. They sent for a professional beggar ; commanded him to prepare his most touching oracle of woe ; helped him out of the court charade box, to whatever he wanted for dressing up, and promised great rewards in the event of his success. But it was all in vain. She listened to the mendicant artist's story, and gazed at his marvellous make up, till she could contain herself no longer, and went into the most undignified contortions for relief, shrieking, positively screeching with laughter. When she had a little recovered herself, she ordered her attendants to drive him away, and not give him a single copper ; whereupon his look of mortified discomfiture wrought her punishment and his revenge, for it sent her into violent hysterics, from which she was with difficulty recovered. But so anxious was the king that the suggestion should have a fair trial, that he put himself in a rage one day, and, rushing up to her room, gave her an awful whipping. Yet not a tear would flow. She looked grave, and her laughing sounded uncommonly like screaming — that was all. The good old tyrant, though he put on his best gold spectacles to look, could not discover the smallest cloud in the serene blue of her eyes.

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The Light Princess 29 IX. Put Me In Again. must have been about this time that the son of a king, who lived a thousand miles from Lasrobel, set out to look for O ? V^ •""* the daughter of a queen. He travelled . far and wide, but as sure as he found a princess, he found some fault in her. Of course he could not marry a mere woman, however beautiful ; and there was no princess to be found worthy of him. Whether the prince was so near perfection that he had a right to demand perfection itself, I cannot pretend to say. All I know is, that he was a fine, handsome, brave, generous, well-bred, and well-behaved youth, as all princes are. In his wanderings he had come across some reports about our princess; but as everybody said she was bewitched, he never dreamed that she could bewitch him. For what indeed could a prince do with a princess that had lost her gravity ? Who could tell what she might not lose next ? She might lose her visibility, or her tangibility ; or, in short, the power of making impressions upon the radical sensorium ; so that he should never be able to tell whether she was dead or alive. Of course he made no further inquiries about her.

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30 The Light Princess One day he lost sight of his retinue in a great forest. These forests are very useful in delivering princes from their courtiers, like a sieve that keeps back the bran. Then the princes get away to follow their fortunes. In this they have the advantage of the princesses, who are forced to marry before they have had a bit of fun. I wish our princesses got lost in a forest sometimes. One lovely evening, after wandering about for many days, he found that he was approaching the outskirts of this forest ; for the trees had got so thin that he could see the sunset through them ; and he soon came O upon a kind of heath. Next he came upon signs of human neighbourhood ; but by this time it was getting late, and there was nobody in the fields to direct him. After travelling for another hour, his horse, quite worn out with long labour and lack of food, fell, and was unable to rise again. So he continued his journey on foot. At leuo-th he entered another wood — not a O wild forest, but a civilized wood, through which a footpath led him to the side of a lake. Along this path the prince pursued his way through the gathering darkness. Suddenly he paused, and listened. Strange sounds came across the water. It was, in fact, the princess laughing. Now there was something odd in her laugh, as I have already hinted ; for the hatching of a real hearty laugh requires the incubation of gravity ; and perhaps this was how the prince mistook the laughter for screaming. Looking over the lake, he

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The Light Princess 3 i lie had torn off his tunic, kicked off his sandals, and plunged in. He soon reached the white object, and found that it was a woman. There was not light enough to show that she was a princess, but quite enough to show that she was a lady, for it does not want much light to see that. Now I cannot tell how it canie about, — whether she pretended to be drowning, or whether he frightened her, or caught her so as to embarrass her, — but certainly he brought her to shore in a fashion ignominious to a swimmer, and more nearly drowned than she had ever expected to be ; for the water had got into her throat as often as she had tried to speak. At the place to which he bore her, the bank was only a foot or two above the water ; so he gave her a strong lift out of the water, to lay her on the bank. But, her gravitation ceasing the moment she left the water, away she went up into the air, scolding and screaming. "You naughty, naughty, NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY man !" she cried. No one had ever succeeded in putting her into a passion before. When the prince saw her ascend, he thought he must have been bewitched, and have misO ' taken a great swan for a lady. But the princess caught hold of the topmost cone upon a lofty fir. This came off ; but she caught at another ; and, in fact, stopped herself by gathering cones, dropping them as the stalks gave way. The prince, meantime, stood in the water, staring, and forgetting to get out. But the princess

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The Liirht Princess I lisappearing, lie scrambled on shore, and wont in the direction of the tree. There lie found her climbing O do\\n one of the branches towards the stem. But in the darkness of the wood, the prince continued in some bewilderment as to what the phenomenon could be; until, reaching the ground, and seeing him standing there, she caught hold of him, and said,— « I '11 tell papa." "Oh no, you won't ! " returned the prince. " Yes, I will," she persisted. " What business had you to pull me down out of the water, and throw me to the bottom of the air ? I never did you any harm." " Pardon rue. I did not mean to hurt you." " I don't believe you have any brains ; and that is a worse loss than your wretched gravity. I pity you." The prince now saw that he had come upon the bewitched princess, and had already offended her. But before he could think what to say next, she burst out angrily, giving a stamp with her foot that would have sent her aloft airaiu but for the hold she had of his arm, — O " Put me up directly." " Put you up where, you beauty ? " asked the prince. He had fallen in love with her almost, already ; for her auger made her more charming than any one else had ever beheld her ; and, as far as he could see, which certainly was not far, she had not a single fault about her, except, of course, that she had not any gravity. No prince, however, would judge of a princess by weight. The loveliness of her foot he would hardly estimate by the depth of the impression it could make in mud.

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33

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34 The Light Princess "Put Y<>II up where, you beauty?" asked the prince. "In the water, you stupid !" answered the princess. " Come, then," said the prince. The condition of her dress, increasing her usual difficulty in walking, compelled her to cling to him ; and he could hardly persuade himself that he was not in a delightful dream, notwithstanding the torrent of musical abuse with which she overwhelmed him. The prince being therefore in no hurry, they came upon the lake at quite another part, where the bank was twentyfive feet high at least ; and when they had reached the edge, he turned towards the princess, and said, — " How am I to put you in ? r " That is your business," she answered, quite snappishly. " You took me out — put me in again." " Very well," said the prince ; and, catching her up in his arms, he sprang with her from the rock. The princess had just time to give one delighted shriek of laughter before the water closed over them. When O they came to the surface, she found that, for a moment or two, she could not even laugh, for she had gone down wTith such a rush, that it was with difficulty she recovered her breath. The instant they reached the surface— " How do you like falling in ? " said the prince. After some effort the princess panted out, — " Is that what you call falling in ? ' " Yes," answered the prince, " I should think it a very tolerable specimen." " It seemed to me like going up," rejoined she.

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The Light Princess 35 " My feeling was certainly one of elevation too," the prince conceded. The princess did not appear to understand him, for she retorted his question :— " How do you like falling in ? " said the princess. " Beyond everything," answered he ; " for I have fallen in with the only perfect creature I ever saw." " No more of that : I am tired of it," said the princess. Perhaps she shared her father's aversion to punning. " Don't you like falling in, then ? " said the prince. " It is the most delightful fun I ever had in my life," answered she. " I never fell before. I wish I could learn. To think I am the only person in my father's kingdom that can't fall ! " O Here the poor princess looked almost sad. " I shall be most happy to fall in with you any time you like," said the prince, devotedly. " Thank you. I don't know. Perhaps it would not be proper. But I don't care. At all events, as we have fallen in, let us have a swim together." f O " With all my heart," responded the prince. And away they went, swimming, and diving, and floating, until at last they heard cries along the shore, and saw lights fflaucino; in all directions. It was now O O O quite late, and there was no moon. " I must go home," said the princess. " I am very sorry, for this is delightful." " So am I," returned the prince. " But I am glad I have n't a home to go to — at least, I don't exactly know where it is."

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36 The Light Princess "I wish I bad n't one either," rejoined the princess; "it is so stupid ! I have a great mind," she continued, "to play them all a trick. Why could n't they leave me alone ? They won't trust me in the lake for a single night ! — You see where that green light is burning? That is the window of my room. Now if you would just swim there with me very quietly, and when we are all but under the balcony, give me such a push — up you call it — as you did a little while ago, I should be able to catcli hold of the balcony, and get in at the window ; and then they may look for me till to-morrow morning ! '' O " With more obedience than pleasure," said the prince, gallantly ; and away they swam, very gently. " "Will you be in the lake to-morrow night ? " the prince ventured to ask. " To be sure I will. I don't think so. Perhaps," was the princess's somewhat strange answer. But the prince wTas intelligent enough not to press her further ; and merely whispered, as he gave her the parting lift, "Don't tell." The only answer the princess returned was a roguish look. She was already a yard above his head. The look seemed to say, " Never fear. It is too good fun to spoil that way." So perfectly like other people had she been in the water, that even yet the prince could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw her ascend slowly, grasp the balcony, and disappear through the window. He turned, almost expecting to see her still by his side. But he was alone in the water. So he swani away

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The Light Princess 37 quietly, and watched the lights roving about the shore for hours after the princess was safe in her chamber. As soon as they disappeared, he landed in search of his tunic and sword, and, after some trouble, found them again. Then he made the best of his way round the lake to the other side. There the wood was wilder, and the shore steeper — rising more immediately towards the mountains which surrounded the lake on all sides, and kept sending it messages of silvery streams from morning to night, and all night long. He soon found a spot where he could see the green light in the princess's room, and where, even in the broad daylight, he would be in no danger of being discovered from the opposite shore. It was a sort of cave in the rock, where he provided himself a bed of withered leaves, and lay down too tired for hunger to keep him awake. All night long he dreamed that he was swimming with the princess. X. Look at the Moon. a ARLY the next morning the prince set out to look for something to eat, which O he soon found at a forester's hut, where for many following days he was supplied with all that a brave prince could consider necessary. And having plenty to keep him alive for the present, he would not think of wants not yet

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38 The Light Princess in existence. Whenever Care intruded, this prince always bowed him out in the most princely manner. When lie returned from his breakfast to his watchcave, he saw the princess already floating about in the lake, attended by the king and queen — whom lie knew by their crowns — and a great company in lovely little boats, with canopies of all the colours of the rainbow, and flags and streamers of a great many more. It was a very bright day, and soon the prince, burned up with the heat, began to long for the cold water and the cool princess. But he had to endure till twilight ; for the boats had provisions on board, and it was not till the sun went clown that the gay party began to vanish. Boat after boat drew away to the shore, following that of the king and queen, till only one, apparently the princess's own boat, remained. But she did not want to go home even yet, and the prince thought he saw her order the boat to the shore without her. At all events, it rowed away ; and now, of all the radiant company, only one white speck remained. Then the prince began to sing. And this is what he sung :— " Lady fair, Swan-white, Lift thine eyes, Banish night By the might Of thine eyes. " Snowy arms, Oars of snow, Oar her hither,

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The Light Princess 39 Plashing low. Soft and slow, Oar her hither. " Stream behind her O'er the lake, Radiant whiteness ! In her wake Following, following for her sake, Radiant whiteness ! " Cling about her, Waters blue ; Part not from her, But renew Cold and true Kisses round her. " Lap me round, Waters sad That have left her Make me glad, For ye had Kissed her ere ye left her." Before be had finished his soDg, the princess was just under the place where he sat, and looking up to find him. Her ears had led her truly. " Would you like a fall, princess ? " said the prince, looking down. O " Ah ! there you are ! Yes, if you please, prince," said the princess, looking up. " How do you know I am a prince, princess ? " said the prince.

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zj.o The Light Princess " Because you are a very nice young man, prince," said the princess. " Come up then, princess." "Fetch me, princr/1 The prince took oft' his scarf, then his swordbelt, then his tunic, and tied them all together, and let them down. But the line was far too short. He unwound his turban, and added it to the rest, when it was all but long enough ; and his purse completed it. The princess just managed to lay hold of the knot of money, and was beside him in a moment. This rock was much higher than the other, and the splash and the dive were tremendous. The princess was in ecstasies of delight, and their swim was delicious. Night after night they met, and swain about in the dark clear lake ; where such was the prince's gladness, that (whether the princess's way of looking at things infected him, or he was actually getting lightheaded) he often fancied that he was swimming in the sky instead of the lake. But when he talked about being in heaven, the princess laughed at him dreadfully. AVhen the moon came, she brought them fresh pleasure. Everything looked strange and new in her light, with an old, withered, yet unfading newness. When the moon was nearly full, one of their great delights was, to dive deep in the water, and then, turning round, look up through it at the great blot of light close above them, shimmering and trembling and wavering, spreading and contracting, seeming to melt away,

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The Light Princess 41 and again grow solid. Then they would shoot up through the blot ; and lo ! there was the rnoon, far off, clear and steady and cold, and very lovely, at the bottom of a deeper and bluer lake than theirs, as the princess said. The prince soon found out that while in the water the princess was very like other people. And besides this, she was not so forward in her questions or pert in her replies at sea as on shore. Neither did she laugh so much ; and when she did laugh, it was more gently. She seemed altogether more modest and maidenly in the water than out of it. But when the prince, who had really fallen in love when he fell in the lake, began to talk to her about love, she always turned her head towards him and laughed. After a while she began to look puzzled, as if she were trying to understand what he meant, but could not — revealing a notion that he meant something. But as soon as ever she left C7 the lake, she was so altered, that the prince said to himself, " If I marry her, I see no help for it : we must turn merman and mermaid, and go out to sea at once."

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The Lieht Princess XI. Hiss! HE princess's pleasure in the lake had grown to a passion, and she could scarcely bear to be out of it for an hour. Imagine then her consternaO tiou, when, diving with the prince one night, a sudden suspicion seized her that the lake was not so deep as it used to be. The prince could not imagine what had happened. She shot to the surface, and, without a word, swam at full speed towards the higher side of the lake. He followed, begging to know if she was ill, or what was the matter. She never turned her head, or took the smallest notice of his question. Arrived at the shore, she coasted the rocks with minute inspection. But she was not able to come to a conclusion, for the moon was very small, and so she could not see well. She turned therefore and swam home, without saying a word to explain her conduct to the prince, of whose presence she seemed no longer conscious. He withdrew to his o cave, in great perplexity and distress. Next day she made many observations, which, alas ! strengthened her fears. She saw that the banks were O too dry ; and that the grass on the shore, and the trailing plants on the rocks, were withering away. She

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The Light Princess 43 caused marks to be made along the borders, and O examined them, day after day, in all directions of the wind ; till at last the horrible idea became a certain fact— that the surface of the lake was slowly sinking. O The poor princess nearly went out of the little mind she had. It was awful to her to see the lake, which she loved more than any living thing, lie dying before her eyes. It sank away, slowly vanishing. The tops of rocks that had never been seen till now, began to appear far down in the clear water. Before long they were dry in the sun. It was fearful to think of the mud that would soon lie there baking and festering full of lovely creatures dying, and ugly creatures coming to life, like the unmaking of a world. And how hot the sun would be without any lake ! She could not «/ bear to swim in it any more, and began to pine away. Her life seemed bound up with it ; and ever as the lake sank, she pined. People said she would not live an hour after the lake was gone. But she never cried. Proclamation was made to all the kingdom, that whosoever should discover the cause of the lake's decrease, would be rewarded after a princely fashion. Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck applied themselves to their physics and metaphysics ; but in vain. Not even they could suggest a cause. Now the fact was that the old princess was at the root of the mischief. When she heard that her niece found more pleasure in the water than anyone else had

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44 The Light Princess out of it, she went into a rage, and cursed herself for her want of foresight. O "But," said she, " I will soon set all right. The king and the people shall die of thirst ; their brains shall boil and frizzle in their skulls before I will lose my revenge." And she laughed a ferocious lausrh, that made the O O 7 hairs on the back of her black cat stand erect with terror. Then she went to an old chest in the room, and opening it, took out what looked like a piece of dried seaweed. This she threw into a tub of water. Then she threw some powder into the water, and stirred it with her bare arm, muttering over it words of hideous sound, and yet more hideous import. Then she set the tub aside, and took from the chest a hu2;e bunch of a ' O hundred rusty keys, that clattered in her shaking hands. Then she sat down and proceeded to oil them all. Before she had finished, out from the tub, the water of which had kept on a slow motion ever since she had ceased Stirling it, came the head and half the body of a huge gray snake. But the witch did not look round. It grew out of the tub, waving itself backwards and forwards with a slow horizontal motion, till it reached the princess, when it laid its head upon her shoulder, and gave a low hiss in her ear. She started — but with joy ; and seeing the head resting on her shoulder, drew it towards her and kissed it. Then she drew it all out of the tub, and wound it round her body. It was one of those dreadful creatures which few have ever beheld— the White Snakes of Darkness.

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The Light Princess 45 Then she took the keys and went down to her cellar ; and as she unlocked the door she said to herself,— " This is worth living for ! " Locking the door behind her, she descended a few O ' steps into the cellar, and crossing it, unlocked another door into a dark, narrow passage. She locked this also behind her, and descended a few more steps. If any one had followed the witch-princess, he \vould have heard her unlock exactly one hundred doors, and descend a few steps after unlocking each. When she had unlocked the last, she entered a vast cave, the roof of which was supported by huge natural pillars of rock. Now this roof was the under side of the bottom of the lake. She then untwined the snake from her body, and held it by the tail high above her. The. hideous creature stretched up its head towards the roof of the cavern, which it was just able to reach. It then began to move its head backwards and forwards, with a slow oscillating: motion, as if looking for something. At ^j ' CJ *— ' the same moment the witch beo;an to walk round and O round the cavern, corning nearer to the centre every O •/ circuit ; while the head of the snake described the same path over the roof that she did over the floor, for she kept holding it up. And still it kept slowly oscillating. Round and round the cavern they went, ever lessening the circuit, till at last the snake made a sudden dart, and clung to the roof with its mouth. " That 's right, my beauty ! " cried the princess ; " drain it dry."

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46 The Light Princess She let it go, left it hanging, and sat down on a great stone, with her black cat, which had followed her O all round the cave, by her side. Then she began to knit and mutter awful words. The snake linns' like a O huge leech, sucking at the stone ; the cat stood with O O his back arched, and his tail like a piece of cable, looking up at the snake ; and the old woman sat and knitted and muttered. Seven days and seven nights they remained thus ; when suddenly the serpent dropped from the roof as if exhausted, and shrivelled up till it was again like a piece of dried seaweed. The witch started to her feet, picked it up, put it in her pocket, and looked up at the roof. One drop of water was trembling on the spot where the snake had been sucking. As soon as she saw that, she turned and fled, followed by her cat. Shutting the door in a terrible hurry, she locked it, and having muttered some frightful words, sped to the next, which also she locked and muttered over; and so with all the hundred doors, till she arrived in her own cellar. Then she sat down on the floor ready to faint, but listening with malicious delight to the rushing of the water, which she could O O hear distinctly through all the hundred doors. But this was not enough. Now that she had tasted O revenge, she lost her patience. Without further measures, the lake would be too long in disappearing. So the next night, with the last shred of the dying old moon rising, she took some of the water in which she had revived the snake, put it in a bottle, and set out, accompanied by her cat. Before morning she had

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The Light Princess 47 made the entire circuit of the lake, muttering fearful 7 O words as she crossed every stream, and casting into it some of the water out of her bottle. When she had finished the circuit she muttered yet again, and flung a handful of water towards the moon. Thereupon every spring in the country ceased to throb and bubble, dying away like the pulse of a dying man. The next day there was no sound of falling water to be heard along the borders of the lake. The very courses were dry ; and the mountains showed no silvery streaks down their dark sides. And not alone had the fountains of mother Earth ceased to flow; for all the babies throughout the country were crying dreadfully— only without tears. XII. Where is the Prince ? EVER since the night when the princess left him so abruptly had the prince had a single interview with her. He had seen her once or twice in the lake ; but ;; as far as he could discover, she had not been in it any more at night. He had sat and sung, and looked in vain for his Nereid ; while she, like a true Nereid, was wasting away with her lake, sinking as it sank, withering as it dried. When at length he discovered the change that was

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48 The Light Princess taking place in the level of the water, he was in great alarm and perplexity. He could not tell whether the lake was dying because the lady had forsaken it; or whether the lady would not come because the lake had beinin to sink. But he resolved to know so much O at least. He disguised himself, and, going to the palace, requested to see the lord chamberlain. His appearance at once gained his request ; and the lord chamberlain, being a man of some insight, perceived that there was more in the prince's solicitation than met the ear. He felt likewise that no one could tell whence a solution of the present difficulties might arise. So he granted the prince's prayer to be made shoeblack to the princess. It was rather cunning in the prince to request such an easy post, for the princess could not possibly soil as many shoes as other princesses. He soon learned all that could be told about the princess. He went nearly distracted ; but after roaming about the lake for days, and diving in every depth that remained, all that he could do was to put an extra polish on the dainty pair of boots that was never called for. For the princess kept her room, with the curtains drawn to shut out the dying lake. But could not shut it out of her mind for a moment. It haunted her imagination so that she felt as if the lake were her O soul, drying up within her, first to mud, then to madness and death. She thus brooded over the change, O 7 with all its dreadful accompaniments, till she was

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The Light Princess 49 nearly distracted. As for the prince, she had forgotten him. However much she had enjoyed his company in the water, she did not care for him without it. But she seemed to have forgotten her father and mother too. The lake went on sinking. Small slimy spots began i to appear, which glittered steadily amidst the changeful shine of the water. These grew to broad patches of mud, which widened and spread, with rocks here and there, and floundering fishes and crawling eels swarming. The people went everywhere catching these, and looking for anything that might have dropped from the royal boats. At length the lake was all but gone, only a few of the deepest pools remaining unexhausted. It happened one day that a party of youngsters found themselves on the brink of one of these pools in the very centre of the lake. It was a rocky basin of considerable depth. Looking in, they saw at the bottom something that shone yellow in the sun. A little boy jumped in and dived for it. It was a plate of gold covered with wTiting. They carried it to the king. On one side of it stood these words:— " Death alone from death can save. Love is death, and so is brave Love can fill the deepest grave. Love loves on beneath the wave." Now this was enigmatical enough to the king and courtiers. But the reverse of the plate explained it a little. Its writing amounted to this : —

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5O The Light Princess "If the lake should disappear, they must find the hole through which the water ran. But it would be O useless to try to stop it by any ordinary means. There was but one effectual mode. The body of a living man could alone stanch the flow. The man must give himself of his own will ; and the lake must take his life as it filled. Otherwise the offering would be of O no avail. If the nation could not provide one hero, it was time it should perish." XIII. Here I Am. :HIS was a very disheartening revelation to the king — not that he was unwilling to sacrifice a subject, but that he was hopeless of finding a man willing to sacrifice himself. No time was to be lost, however, for the princess was lying motionless on her bed, and taking no nourishment but lake-water, which was now none of the best. Therefore the king caused the contents of the wonderful plate of gold to be published throughout the country. No one, however, came forward. The prince, having gone several days' journey into the forest, to consult a hermit whom he had met there on his way to Lagobel, knew nothing of the oracle till his return.

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The Light Princess 5 i When he had acquainted himself with all the particulars, he sat down and thought,— " She will die if I don't do it, and life would be nothing to me without her; so I shall lose nothing by doing it. And life will be as pleasant to her as ever, for she will soon forget me. And there will be so much more beauty and happiness in the world ! — To be sure, I shall not see it." (Here the poor prince gave a sigh.) " How lovely the lake will be in the moonlight, with that glorious creature sporting in it like a wild goddess ! — It is rather hard to be drowned by inches, though. Let me see — that will be seventy inches of me to drown." (Here he tried to laugh, but could not.) " The longer the better, however," he resumed ; " for can I not bargain that the princess shall be beside me all the time ? So I shall see her once more, kiss her perhaps, — who knows ? and die looking in her eyes. It will be no death. At least, I shall not feel it. And to see the lake filling for the beauty again ! — All right ! I am ready." He kissed the princess's boot, laid it down, and hurried to the king's apartment. But feeling, as he went, that anything sentimental would be disagreeable, he resolved to carry off the whole affair with nonchalance. So he knocked at the door of the king's counting-house, where it was all but a capital crime to disturb him. When the king heard the knock he started up, and opened the door in a rage. Seeing only the shoeblack, he drew his sword. This, I am sorry to say, was his usual mode of asserting his regality when he thought

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52 The Light Princess his dignity was in danger. But the prince was not in the least alarmed. " Please your majesty, I 'm your butler," said he. " My butler ! you lying rascal ! What do you mean." "I mean, I will cork your big bottle." " Is the fellow mad ? '; bawled the king, raising the point of his sword. "I will put the stopper — plug — what you call it, in your leaky lake, grand monarch," said the prince. The king was in such a rage that before he could speak he had time to cool, and to reflect that it would be great waste to kill the only man who was willing to be useful in the present emergency, seeing that in the end the insolent fellow would be as dead as if he had died by his majesty's own hand. " Oh ! " said he at last, putting up his sword with difficulty, it was so long ; " I am obliged to you, you young fool ! Take a glass of wine ? " " No, thank you," replied the prince. " Very well," said the king. " Would you like to run and see your parents before you make your experiment ? " " No, thank you," said the prince. " Then we will go and look for the hole at once," said his majesty, and proceeded to call some attendants. " Stop, please your majesty ; I have a condition to make," interposed the prince. " What !" exclaimed the king, "a condition! and with me ! How dare you ? '

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The Light Princess 53 " As you please," returned the prince, coolly. " I wish your majesty a good morning." " You wretch ! I will have you put in a sack, and stuck in the hole." " Very well, your majesty," replied the prince, becoming a little more respectful, lest the wrath of the king should deprive him of the pleasure of dying for the princess. " But what good will that do your majesty ? Please to remember that the oracle says the victim must offer himself." " Well, you have offered yourself," retorted the king. " Yes, upon one condition." " Condition again ! ': roared the king, once more drawing his sword. "Begone! Somebody else will be glad enough to take the honour off your shoulders." "Your majesty knows it will not be easy to get another to take my place." " Well, what is your condition ? r growled the king, feeling that the prince was right. " Only this," replied the prince ; " that, as I must on no account die before I am fairly drowned, and the waiting will be rather wearisome, the princess, your daughter, shall go with me, feed me with her own hands, and look at me now and then to comfort me ; for you must confess it is rather hard. As soon as the water is up to my eyes, she may go and be happy, and forget her poor shoeblack." Here the prince's voice faltered, and he very nearly grew sentimental, in spite of his resolution. " Why did n't you tell me before what your condi 

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54 The Light Princess \\.-is? Suc-li a i'uss about nothing !" exclaimed the king. "Do v

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The Light Princess 55 if only a man would do, why, take one. In an hour or two more everything was ready. Her maid dressed her in haste, and they carried her to the side of the lake. When she saw it she shrieked, and covered her face with her hands. They bore her across to the stone, where they had already placed a little boat for her. The water was not deep enough to float it, but they hoped it would be, before long. They laid her on cushions, placed in the boat wines and fruits and other nice things, and stretched a canopy over all. In a few minutes the prince appeared. The princess recognized him at once, but did not think it worth O while to acknowledge him. u Here I am," said the prince. " Put me in." " They told me it was a shoeblack," said the princess. " So I ani," said the prince. " I blacked your little boots three times a day, because they were all I could get of you. Put me in." The courtiers did not resent his bluntness, except by saying to each other that he was taking it out in impudence. But how was he to be put in ? The golden plate contained no instructions on this point. The prince looked at the hole, and saw but one way. He put both his legs into it, sitting on the stone, and, stooping forward, covered the corner that remained open with his two hands. In this uncomfortable position he resolved to abide his fate, and turning to the people, said," Now you can go."

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56 The Light Princess The kin"1 had already gone hoiiu- to dinner. */ O "Now you can a world without the glance Of the ocean's fair expanse ; As a world where never rain Glittered on the sunny plain : — Such, my heart, thy world would be, If no love did flow in thee. " As a world without the sound Of the rivulets underground ; Or the bubbling of the spring Out of darkness wandering ; Or the mighty rush and flowing Of the river's downward going ; Or the music-showers that drop On the outspread beech's top ; Or the ocean's mighty voice, When his lifted waves rejoice ; — Such, my soul, thy world would be, If no love did sing in thee. " Lady, keep thy world's delight Keep the waters in thy sight.

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The Light Princess 57 Love hath made me strong to go, For thy sake, to realms below, Where the water's shine and hum Through the darkness never come : Let, I pray, one thought of me Spring, a little well, in thee ; Lest thy loveless soul be found Like a dry and thirsty ground." " Sing again, prince. It makes it less tedious," said the princess. But the prince was too much overcome to sing any more, and a long pause followed. "This is very kind of you, prince," said the princess at last, quite coolly, as she lay in the boat with her eyes shut. "I am sorry I can't return the compliment," thought the prince ; " but you are worth dying for, after all." Attain a wavelet, and another, and another flowed O ' over the stone, and wetted both the prince's knees ; but he did not speak or move. Two — three — four hours passed in this way, the princess apparently asleep, and the prince very patient. But he was much disappointed in his position, for he had none of the consolation he had hoped for. At last he could bear it no longer. " Princess ! " said he. But at the moment up started the princess, crying, — " I 'm afloat ! I 'm afloat ! " And the little boat bumped against the stone. " Princess ! " repeated the prince, encouraged by seeing her wide awake and looking eagerly at the water.

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5

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59

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60 The Li^ht Princess < * "Now, for your own sake, princess," said lie, "I cannot let you go to sleep. You must sit and look at me, else I shall not be able to keep up." "Well, I will do anything to oblige you," answered she, with condescension; and, sitting down, she did look at him, and kept looking at him with wonderful steadiness, considering all things. The sun went down, and the moon rose, and, gush after gush, the waters were rising up the prince's body. They were up to his waist now. " Why can't we go and have a swiui ? " said the princess. "There seems to be water enough just about here." " I shall never swim more," said the prince. " Oh, I forgot," said the princess, and was silent. So the water grew and grew, and rose up and up on the prince. And the princess sat and looked at him. She fed him now and then. The ni

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The Light Princess 61 rose and rose. It touched his chin. It touched his lower lip. It touched between his lips. He shut them hard to keep it out. The princess began to feel strange. It touched his upper lip. He breathed through his nostrils. The princess looked wild. It covered his nostrils. Her eyes looked scared, and shone strange in the moonlight. His head fell back; the water closed over it, and the bubbles of his last breath bubbled up through the water. The princess gave a shriek, and sprang into the lake. She laid hold first of one leg, and then of the other, and pulled and tugged, but she could not move either. She stopped to take breath, and that made her think that he could not get any breath. She was frantic. She got hold of him, and held his head above the water, which was possible now his hands were no longer on the hole. But it was of no use, for he was past breathing. Love and water brought back all her strength. She got under the water, and pulled and pulled with her whole might, till at last she got one leg out. The other easily followed. How she got him into the boat she never could tell : but when she did, she fainted awav. *J Coming to herself, she seized the oars, kept herself steady as best she could, and rowed and rowed, though she had never rowed before. Hound rocks, and over shallows, and through mud she rowed, till she got to the landing-stairs of the palace. By this time her people were on the shore, for they had heard her shriek. She made them carry the prince to her own

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62 The Light Princess o room, and lay him in her bed, and light a fire, and send for the doctors. " Hut the lake, your highness!" said the chamberlain, who, roused by the noise, came in, in his nightcap. " Go and drown yourself in it ! " she said. This was the last rudeness of which the princess was ever guilty ; and one must allow that she had good cause to feel provoked with the lord chamberlain. Had it been the king himself, he would have fared no better. But both he and the queen were fast asleep. And the chamberlain went back to his bed. Somehow, the doctors never came. So the princess and her old nurse were left with the prince. But the old nurse was a wise woman, and knew \vhat to do. They tried everything for a long time without success. The princess was nearly distracted between hope and fear, but she tried on and on, one thing after another, and everything over and over again. At last, when they had all but given it up, just as the sun rose, the prince opened his eyes. 

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The Light Princess 63 XV. Look At The Rain ! HE princess burst into a passion of tears and fell on the floor. There she lay for an hour, and her tears never ceased. All the pent-up crying of her life was spent now. And a rain came on, such as had never been seen in that country. The sun shone all the time, and the great drops, which fell straight to the earth, shone likewise. The palace was in the heart of a rainbow. It was a rain of rubies, and sapphires, and emeralds, and topazes. The torrents poured from the mountains like molten gold ; and if it had not been for its subterraneous outlet, the lake would have overflowed and inundated the country. It was full from shore to shore. But the princess did not heed the lake. She lay on the floor and wept. And this rain within doors was far more wonderful than the rain out of doors. For when it abated a little, and she proceeded to rise, she found, to her astonishment, that she could not. At length, after many efforts, she succeeded in getting upon her feet. But she tumbled down again directly. Hearing her fall, her old nurse uttered a yell of delight, and ran to her, screaming,—

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64 The Light Princess " My darling child ! she 's found her gravity !" " Oh, that 's it ! is it ? " said the princess, rubbing her shoulder and her knee alternately. "I consider it very unpleasant. I feel as if I should be crushed to pieces." " Hurrah ! " cried the prince from the bed. " If you Ve come round, princess, so have I. How 's the lake ? " " Brimful," answered the nurse. " Then wTe 're all happy." " That we are indeed ! " answered the princess, sobbing. And there was rejoicing all over the country that rainy day. Even the babies forgot their past troubles, and danced and crowed amazingly. And the king told stories, and the queen listened to them. And he divided the money in his box, and she the honey in her pot, among all the children. And there was such jubilation as was never heard of before. Of course the prince and princess were betrothed at once. But the princess had to learn to walk, before they could be married with any propriety. And this was not so easy at her time of life, for she could walk no more than a baby. She was always falling down and hurting herself. " Is this the gravity you used to make so much of ? " said she one day to the prince, as he raised her from the floor. " For my part, I was a great deal more comfortable without it." " No, no, that 's not it. This is it," replied the prince,

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The Light Princess 65 as lie took her up, and carried her about like a baby, kissing her all the time. " This is gravity.1' " That 's better," said she. " I don't mind that so much." And she smiled the sweetest, loveliest smile in the prince's face. And she gave him one little kiss in return for all his ; and he thought them overpaid, for he was beside himself with delight. I fear she complained of her gravity more than once after this, notwithstanding. It was a long time before she got reconciled to walking. But the pain of learning it was quite counterbalanced by two things, either of which would have been sufficient consolation. The first was, that the prince himself was her teacher ; and the second, that she could tumble into the lake as often as she pleased. Still, she preferred to have the prince jump in with her ; and the splash they made before was nothing to the splash they made now. The lake never sank again. In process of time, it wore the roof of the cavern quite through, and was twice as deep as before. The only revenge the princess took upon her aunt was to tread pretty hard on her gouty toe the next time she saw her. But she was sorry for it the very next day, when she heard that the water had undermined her house, and that it had fallen in the night, burying her in its ruins ; whence no one ever ventured to dig up her body. There she lies to this day.

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66 The Light Princess So the prince and princess lived and were happy; and had crowns of gold, and clothes of cloth, and shoes of leather, and children of boys and girls, not one of whom was ever known, on the most critical occasion, to lose the smallest atom of his or her due proportion of gravity.

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THE GIANT'S HEART. HERE once was a giant who lived on the borders of Giantland where it touched on the country of common people. Everything in Giantland was so big that the common people saw only a mass of awful mountains and clouds ; and no living man had ever come from it, as far as anybody knew, to tell what he had seen in it. Somewhere near the borders, on the other side, by the edge of a great forest, lived a labourer with his wife and a great many children. One day Tricksey-Wee, as they called her, teased her brother Buft'y-Bob, till he could not bear it any longer, and gave her a box on the ear. Tricksey-Wee cried ; and Buffy-Bob was so sorry and so ashamed of himself that he cried too, and ran off into the wood. He was so lone; s;one that O O Tricksey-Wee began to be frightened, for she was very fond of her brother ; and she was so distressed that 67

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6S The Giant's Heart had first teased him and then cried, that at last she ran into the wood to look for him, though there was more chance of losing herself than of finding him. And, indeed, so it seemed likely to turn out ; for, running on without looking, she at length found herself ina valley she knew nothing about. And no wonder ; for what she thought was a valley with round, rocky sides, was no other than the space between two of the roots of a great tree that grew on the borders of Giantland. She climbed over the side of it, and went towards what she took for a black, round-topped mountain, far away ; but which she soon discovered to be close to her, and to be a hollow place so great that she could not tell what it was hollowed out of. Staring at it, she found that it was a doorway ; and O going nearer and staring harder, she saw the door, far in, with a knocker of iron upon it, a great many yards above her head, and as large as the anchor of a big ship. Now nobody had ever been unkind to TrickseyWee, and therefore she was not afraid of anybody. For Buffy- Bob's box on the ear she did not think worth considering. So spying a little hole at the bottom of the door which had been nibbled by some giant mouse, she crept through it, and found herself in an enormous hall. She could not have seen the other end of it at all, except for the great fire that was burning there, diminished to a spark in the distance. Towards this fire she ran as fast as she could, and was not far from it when something fell before her with a great clatter, over which she tumbled, and went rolling on

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The Giant's Heart 69 the floor. She was not much hurt, however, and got up in a moment. Then she saw that what she had fallen over was not unlike a great iron bucket. When she examined it more closely, she discovered that it was a thimble ; and looking up to see who had dropped it, beheld a huge face, with spectacles as big as the round windows in a church, bending over her, and looking everywhere for the thimble. Tricksey-Wee immediately laid hold of it in both her arms, and lifted it about an inch nearer to the nose of the peering giantess. This movement made the old lady see where it was, and, her finger popping into it, it vanished from the eyes of Tricksey-Wee, buried in the folds of a white stocking like a cloud in the sky, which Mrs. Giant was busy darning. For it was Saturday night, and her husband would wear nothing but white stockO ings on Sunday. To be sure, he did eat little children, but only very little ones; and if ever it crossed his mind that it was wrong to do so, he always said to himself that he wore whiter stockings on Sunday than any other giant in all Giantland. At the same instant Tricksey-Wee heard a sound like the wind in a tree full of leaves, and could not think what it could be ; till, looking up, she found that it was the giantess whispering to her ; and when she tried very hard she could hear what she said well enough. O " Run away, dear little girl," she said, " as fast as you can ; for my husband will be home in a few minutes." "But I've never been naughty to your husband," said Tricksy- Wee, looking up in the giantess's face.

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yo The Giant's Heart " That does n't matter. You bad better go. He is fond of little children, particularly little girls/1 " Oh, then he won't hurt me." "I am not sure of that. He is so fond of them that he eats them up; and I am afraid he could n't help hurting you a little. He 's a very good man, though." " Oh ! then- began Tricksey-Wee, feeling rather frightened ; but before she could finish her sentence O she heard the sound of footsteps very far apart and very heavy. The next moment, who should come running towards her, full speed, and as pale as death, but Buffy-Bob. She held out her arms, and he ran into them. But when she tried to kiss him, she only kissed the back of his head ; for his white face and round eyes were turned to the door. "Run, children ; run and hide," said the giantess. " Come, Buffy," said Tricksey ; " yonder 's a great brake; we '11 hide in it." The brake was a big broom ; and they had just got into the bristles of it when they heard the door open with a sound of thunder, and in stalked the ffiant. 7 O You would have thought you saw the whole earth through the door when he opened it, so wide was it; and when he closed it, it was like nightfall. ' O "Where is that little boy?" he cried, with a voice like the bellowing of a cannon. " He looked a very nice boy indeed. I am almost sure he crept through the mousehole at the bottom of the door. Where is he, my dear?" " I don't know," answered the giantess.

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The Giant's Heart 71 "But you know it is wicked to tell lies; don't you, my dear ? " retorted the giant. " Now, you ridiculous old Thunderthump ! " said his wife, with a smile as broad as the sea in the sun, " how can I mend your white stockings and look after little boys ? You have got plenty to last you over Sunday, I am sure. Just look what good little boys they are ! " Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob peered through the bristles, and discovered a row of little boys, about a dozen, with very fat faces and goggle eyes, sitting before the fire, and looking stupidly into it. Thunderthump intended the most of these for pickling, and was feeding them well before salting them. Now and then, however, he could not keep his teeth off them, and would eat one, by the bye, without salt. He strode up to the wretched children. Now what made them very wretched indeed was, that they knew if they could only keep from eating, and grow thin,, the giant would dislike them, and turn them out to find their way home ; but notwithstanding this, so greedy were they, that they ate as much as ever they could hold. The giantess, who fed them, comforted herself with thinking that they were not real boys and girls, but only little pigs pretending to be boys and girls. " Now tell me the truth," cried the giant, bending his face down over them. They shook with terror, and every one hoped it was sombody else the giant liked best. " Where is the little boy that ran into the

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/ 2 The Giant's Heart hall just now? Whoever tells me a lie shall be instantly boiled." "He's in the broom," cried one dough-faced 1><>\. "He 's in there, and a little girl with him." "The naughty children," cried the giant, "to hide from me!"1 And he made a stride towards the broom. " Catch hold of the bristles, Bobby. Get right into a tuft, and hold on," cried Tricksey-Wee, just in time. The giant caught up the broom, and seeing nothing under it, set it down again with a force that threw them both on the floor. He then made two strides to the boys, caught the dough-faced one by the neck, took the lid off a great pot that was boiling on the fire, popped him in as if he had been a trussed chicken, put the lid on again, and saying, " There, boys ! See what comes of lying ! " asked no more questions ; for, as he always kept his word, he was afraid he might have to do the same to them all ; and he did not like boiled boys. He liked to eat them crisp, as radishes, whether forked or not, ought to be eaten. He then sat down, and asked his wife if his supper was ready. She looked into the pot, and throwing the boy out with the ladle, as if he had been a black beetle that had tumbled in and had had the worst of it, answered that she thought it was. Whereupon he rose to help her; and taking the pot from the fire, poured the whole contents, bubbling and splashing, into a dish like a vat. Then they sat down to supper. The chil 

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The Giant's Heart 73 dreu in the broom could not see what they had ; but it seemed to agree with them ; for the giant talked like thunder, and the giantess answered like the sea, and they grew chattier and chattier. At length the giant said," I don't feel quite comfortable about that heart of mine." And as he spoke, instead of laying his hand on his bosom, he waved it away towards the corner where the children were peeping from the broom bristles, like frightened little mice. O " Well, you know, my darling Thunderthunip," answered his wife, " I always thought it ought to be nearer home. But you know best, of course." " Ha ! ha ! You don't know where it is, wife. I moved it a month ago." " What a man you are, Thunderthump ! You trust any creature alive rather than your own wife." Here the giantess gave a sob which sounded exactly like a wave going flop into the mouth of a cave up to the roof. " Where have you got it now ? " she resumed, checking her emotion. " Well, Doodlem, I don't mind telling you" answered the giant, soothingly. " The great she-eagle has got it for a nest egg. She sits on it night and day, and thinks she will bring the greatest eagle out of it that ever sharpened his beak on the rocks of Mount Skycrack. I can warrant no one else will touch it while she has got it. But she is rather capricious, and I confess I am not easy about it ; for the least scratch of

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74 The Giant's Heart one of her claws would do for me at once. And she has claws." I refer any one who doubts this part of my story to certain chronicles of Giantland preserved among the Celtic nations. It was quite a common thing for a giant to put his heart out to nurse, because he did not like the trouble and responsibility of doing it himself ; although I must confess it was a dangerous sort of o o plan to take, especially with such a delicate viscus as the heart. All this time Buffy-Bob and Tricksey-Wee were listening with long ears. "Oh!" thought Tricksey-Wee, "if I could but find the giant's cruel heart, would n't I give it a squeeze ! " The giant and giantess went on talking for a long time. The giantess kept advising the giant to hide his heart somewhere in the house ; but he seemed afraid of the advantage it would give her over him. " You could hide it at the bottom of the flour-barrel," said she. " That would make me feel chokey," answered he. "Well, in the coal-cellar. Or in the dust-hole— that 's the place ! No one would think of looking for your heart in the dust-hole." " Worse and worse ! :' cried the giant. " Well, the water-butt," suggested she. "No, no; it would grow spongy there," said he. " Well, what will you do with it ? " "I will leave it a month longer where it is, and then I will give it to the Queen of the Kangaroos, and she

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The Giant's Heart 75 will carry it in her pouch for me. It is best to change its place, you know, lest nay enemies should scent it out. But, dear Doodlem, it 's a fretting care to have a heart of one's own to look after. The responsibility is too much for me. If it were not for a bite of a radish now and then, I never could bear it." Here the giant looked lovingly towards the row of little boys by the fire, all of whom were nodding, or asleep on the floor. " Why don't you trust it to me, dear Thimderthump ?" said his wife. " I would take the best possible care of it." " I don't doubt it, niy love. But the responsibility would be too much for you. You would no longer be my darling, light-hearted, airy, laughing Doodlem. It would transform you into a heavy, oppressed woman, weary of life — as I am." The giant closed his eyes and pretended to go to sleep. His wife got his stockings, and went on with her darning. Soon the giant's pretence became reality, and the giantess began to nod over her work. " Now, Buffy," whispered Tricksey- Wee, " now 's our time. I think it's moonlight, and we had better be off. There 's a door with a hole for the cat just behind us." " All right," said Bob ; " I 'm ready." So they got out of the broom-brake and crept to the door. But to their great disappointment, when they got through it, they found themselves in a sort of shed. It was full of tubs and things, and, though it was built of wood only, they could not find a crack.

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The Giant's Heart " Let us try this hole," said Tricksey ; for the giant and giantess were sleeping behind them, and they dared not go back. " All right," said Bob. lie seldom said anything else than All right. Now this hole was in a mound that came in through the wall of the shed, and went along the floor for some distance. They crawled into it, and found it very dark. But groping their way along, they soon came to a small crack, through which they saw grass, pale in the moonshine. As they crept on, they found the hole began to get wider and lead upwards. " What is that noise of rushing?" said Buffy-Bob. "I can't tell," replied Tricksey; "for, you see, I don't know what we are in." The fact was, they were creeping along a channel in the heart of a giant tree ; and the noise they heard was the noise of the sap rushing along in its wooden pipes. When they laid their ears to the wall, they heard it gurgling along with a pleasant noise. " It sounds kind and good," said Tricksey. " It is water running;. Now it must be running; from someo o where to somewhere. I think we had better go on, and we shall come somewhere. It was now rather difficult to go on, for they had to climb as if they were climbing a hill ; and now the passage was wide. Nearly worn out, they saw light overhead at last, and creeping through a crack into the open air, found themselves on the fork of a huge tree. A great, broad, uneven space lay around them, out of which spread boughs in every direction, the

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The Giant's Heart 77 smallest of them as big as the biggest tree in the country of common people. Overhead were leaves enough to supply all the trees they had ever seen. Not much moonlight could come through, but the leaves would glimmer white in the wind at times. The tree was full of giant birds. Every now and then, one would sweep through, with a great noise. But, except an occasional chirp, sounding like a shrill pipe in a great organ, they made no noise. All at once an owl began to hoot. He thought he was singing. As soon as he began, other birds replied, making rare game of him. To their astonishment, the children found they could understand every word they sang. And what they sang was something like this : " ' I will sing a song. I 'm the owl.' ' Sing a song, you sing-song Ugly fowl ! What will you sing about, Night in and Day out ? ' " ' Sing about the night ; I 'ni the owl.' ' You could not see for the light, Stupid fowl ! ' ' Oh ! the moon ! and the dew ! And the shadows ! — tu-whoo ! ' The owl spread out his silent, soft, sly wings, and lighting between Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob, nearly smothered them, closing up one under each wing. It was like bein^ buried in a down bed. But the owl O did not like anything between his sides and his wings,

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The Giant's Heart so he opened his wings again, and the children made haste to get out. Tricksey-AVee immediately went in front of the bird, and looking up into his huge face, which was as round as the eyes of the giantess's spectacles, and much bigger, dropped a pretty courtesy, and said,— " Please, Mr. Owl, I want to whisper to you." " Very well, small child," answered the owl, looking important, and stooping his ear towards her. " What is it ? "

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The Giant's Heart 79 "Please tell me where the eagle lives that sits on the giant's heart." " Oh, you naughty child ! That 's a secret. For shame ! " And with a great hiss that terrified them, the owl flew into the tree. All birds are fond of secrets ; but not many of them can keep them so well as the owl. So the children went on because they did not know what else to do. They found the way very rough and difficult, the tree was so full of humps and hollows. Now and then they plashed into a pool of rain ; now and then they came upon twigs growing out of the trunk where they had no business, and they were as large as full-grown poplars. Sometimes they came upon great cushions of soft moss, and on one of them they lay down and rested. But they had not lain long before they spied a large nightingale sitting on a branch, with its bright eyes looking up at the moon. In a moment more he began to sing, and the birds about him began to reply, but in a very different tone from that in which they had replied to the owl. Oh, the birds did call the nightingale such pretty names ! The nightingale sang, and the birds replied like this : — " I will sing a song. I 'm the nightingale." "Sing a song, long, long, Little Neverfail ! What will you sing about, Light in or light out ?"

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80 The Giant's Heart "Sing about the light Gone away ; Down, away, and out of sightPoor lost day ! Mourning for the day dead, O'er his dim bed." The nightingale sang so sweetly, that the children would have fallen asleep but for fear of losing any of the song. When the nightingale stopped they got up and wandered on. They did not know where they were going, but they thought it best to keep going on, because then they might come upon something or other. They were very sorry they had forgotten to ask the nightingale about the eagle's nest, but his music had put everything else out of their heads. They resolved, however, not to forget the next time they had a chance. So they went on and on, till they were both tired, and Tricksey-Wee said at last, trying to laugh, " I declare my legs feel just like a Dutch doll's." " Then here 's the place to go to bed in," said Buffy-Bob. They stood at the edge of a last year's nest, and looked down with delight into the round, mossy cave. Then they crept gently in, and, lying down in each other's arms, found it so deep, and warm, and comfortable, and soft, that they were soon fast asleep. Now close beside them, in a hollow, was another nest, in which lay a lark and his wife ; and the chil 

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The Giant's Heart 81 dren were awakened, very early in the morning, by a dispute between Mr. and Mrs. Lark. " Let me up," said the lark. " It is not time," said the lark's wife. " It is," said the lark, rather rudely. " The darkness is quite thin. I can almost see my own beak." " Nonsense ! " said the lark's wife. "You know you came home yesterday morning quite worn out — you had to fly so very high before you saw him. I am sure he would not mind if you took it a little easier. Do be quiet and go to sleep again." a That 's not it at all," said the lark. " He does n't want me. I want him. Let me up, I say." He began to sing; and Tricksey-Wee and BuffyBob, having now learned the way, answered him : — " I will sing a song, I 'm the Lark." " Sing, sing, Throat-song, Little Kill-the-dark. What will you sing about, Now the night is out ? " " I can only call ; I can't think. Let me up — that 's all. Let me drink ! Thirsting all the long night For a drink of light." By this time the lark was standing on the edge of his nest and looking at the children. " Poor little things ! You can't fly," said the lark.

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82 The Giant's Heart "No; but we can look up," said Tricksey. "Ah, you don't know what it is to see the very first of the sun." " But we know what it is to wait till he comes. He 's no worse for your seeing him first, is lie ?': "Oh no, certainly not," answered the lark, with condescension ; and then, bursting into his Jubilate, he sprang aloft, clapping bis wings like a clock running down. " Tell us where- began Bnffy-Bob. But the lark was out of sight. His song was all that was left of him. That was everywhere, and he was nowhere. " Selfish bird ! " said Buffy. " It 's all very well for larks to go hunting the sun, but they have no business to despise their neighbours, for all that." " Can I be of any service to you ? " said a sweet birdvoice out of the nest. This was the lark's wife, who stayed at home with the young larks while her husband went to church. " Oh ! thank you. If you please," answered TrickseyWee. And up popped a pretty brown head ; and then up came a brown feathery body ; and last of all came the slender legs on to the edge of the nest. There she turned, and, looking down into the nest, from which came a whole litany of chirpings for breakfast, said, " Lie still, little ones." Then she turned to the children. " My husband is King of the Larks," she said.

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The Giant's Heart 83 Buffy-Bob took off bis cap, and Tricksey-Wee courtesied very low. " Oh, it 's not me," said the bird, looking very shy. " I ani only his wife. It 's my husband." And she looked up after him into the sky, whence his song was still falling like a shower of musical hailstones. Perhaps she could see him. "He 's a splendid bird," said Buffy-Bob ; "only you know he will get up a little too early." " Oh, no ! he does n't. It 's only his way, you know. But tell me what I can do for you." " Tell us, please, Lady Lark, where the she-eagle lives that sits on Giant Thunderthump's heart." " Oh ! that is a secret." " Did you promise not to tell ? " " No ; but larks ought to be discreet. They see more than other birds." "But you don't fly up high like your husband, do you ? " " Not often. But it 's no matter. I come to know things for. all that." "Do tell me, and I will sing you a song," said Tricksey-Wee. " Can you sing too ? — You have got no wings ! ' "Yes. And I will sing you a song I learned the other day about a lark and his wife." " Please do," said the lark's wife. " Be quiet, children, and listen." Tricksey-Wee was very glad she happened to know a song which would please the lark's wife, at least,

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The Giant's Heart whatever the lark himself mi^ht have thought of it *-^ o / if lie had heard it. So she san

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The Giant's Heart 85 11 Did I say alone ? Ah, no such thing ! Full in her face was shining the king. ' Welcome, Sir Lark ! You look tired,' said he : lUp is not always the best way to me. While you have been singing so high and away, I 've been shining to your little wife all day.' " He had set his crown all about the nest, And out of the midst shone her little brown breast ; And so glorious was she in russet gold, That for wonder and awe Sir Lark grew cold. He popped his head under her wing, and lay As still as a stone, till the king was away." As soon as Tricksey-Wee had finished her song, the lark's wrife began a low, sweet, modest little song of her own ; and after she had piped away for two or three minutes, she said,— " You dear children, what can I do for you ? " " Tell us where the she-eagle lives, please," said Tricksey-Wee. " Well, I don't think there can be much harm in telling such wise, good children," said Lady Lark ; " I am sure you don't want to do any mischief." " Oh, no ; quite the contrary," said Buffy-Bob. " Then I '11 tell you. She lives on the very topmost peak of Mount Skycrack ; and the only way to get up is to climb on the spider's webs that cover it from top to bottom." "That 's rather serious," said Tricksey-Wee. " But you don't want to go up, you foolish little thing ! You can't go. And what do you want to go up for ? '

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86 The Giant's Heart " That is a secret," said Tricksey-Wee. " Well, it 's no business of mine," rejoined Lady Lark, a little offended, and quite vexed that she had told them. So she flew away to find some breakfast for her little ones, who by this time were chirping very impatiently. The children looked at each other, joined hands, and walked off. In a minute more the sun was up, and they soon reached the outside of the tree. The bark was so knobby and rough, and full of twigs, that they managed to get down, though not without great difficulty. Then, far away to the north they sa\v a huge peak, like the spire of a church, going right up into the sky. They thought this must be Mount Sky crack, and turned their faces towards it. As they \ven t on, they saw a giant or two, now and then, striding about the fields or through the woods, but they kept out of their way. Nor were they in much danger ; for it was only one or two of the border giants that were so very fond of children. At last they came to the foot of Mount Skycrack. It stood in a plain alone, and shot right up, I don't know how many thousand feet, into the air, a long, narrow, spearlike mountain. The whole face of it, from top to bottom, was covered with a network of spiders' webs, the threads of various sizes, from that of silk to that of whipcord. The webs shook, and quivered, and waved in the sun, glittering like silver. All about ran huge greedy spiders, catching huge silly flies, and devouring them.

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The Giant's Heart 87 Here they sat down to consider what could be done. The spiders did not heed them, but ate away at the flies. — Now at the foot of the mountain, and all around it, was a ring of water, not very broad, but very deep. As they sat watching them, one of the spiders, whose web was woven across this water, somehow or other lost his hold, and fell in on his back. Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob ran to his assistance, and laying hold each of one of his legs, succeeded, with the help of the other legs, which struggled spiderfully, in getting him out upon dry land. As soon as he had shaken himself, and dried himself a little, the spider turned to the children, saying,— " And now, what can I do for you ? " " Tell us, please," said they, " how we can get up the mountain to the she-eagle's nest." O u Nothing is easier," answered the spider. " Just run up there, and tell them all I sent you, and nobody will mind you." " But we have n't got claws like you, Mr. Spider," said Buffy. u Ah ! no more you have, poor unprovided creatures ! Still, I think we can manage it. Come home with me." " You won't eat us, will you ? " said Buffy. " My dear child," answered the spider, in a tone of injured dignity, " I eat nothing but what is mischievous or useless. You have helped me, and now I will help you." The children rose at once, and climbing as well as they could, reached the spider's nest in the centre of

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S.S The Giant's Heart the \veb. Nor dul they find it very difficult ; for whenever too great a gap came, the spider spinning a strong cord stretched it just where they would have chosen to put their feet next. He left them in his nest, after bringing them two enormous honey-bags, taken from bees that he had caught ; but presently about six of the wisest of the spiders came back with him. It was rather horrible to look up and see them all around the mouth of the nest, looking down on them in contemplation, as if wondering whether they would be nice eating. At length one of them said, — " Tell us truly what you want with the eagle, and we will try to help you." Then Tricksey- Wee told them that there was a giant on the borders who treated little children no better than radishes, and that they had narrowly escaped being eaten by him ; that they had found out that the great she-eagle of Mount Skycrack was at present sitting on his heart ; and that, if they could only get hold of the heart, they would soon teach the giant better behaviour." " But," said their host, " if you get at the heart of the giant, you will find it as large as one of your elephants. What can you do with it ? " " The least scratch will kill," replied Buffy-Bob. " Ah ! but you might do better than that," said the spider. — " Now we have resolved to help you. Here is a little bag of spider-juice. The giants cannot bear spiders, and this juice is dreadful poison to them. We are all ready to go up with you, and drive the eagle away. Then you must put the heart into this other

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The Giant's Heart 89 bag, and bring it clown with you ; for then the giant will be in your power." " But how can we do that ? " said Buffy. " The bag is not much bigger than a pudding-bag." " But it is as large as you will be able to carry." " Yes ; but what are we to do with the heart ? " " Put it into the bag, to be sure. Only, first, you must squeeze a drop out of the other bag upon it. You will see what will happen." " Very well ; we will do as you tell us," said Tricksey-Wee. " And now, if you please, how shall we go ? " " Oh, that 's our business," said the first spider. " You come with me, and my grandfather will take your brother. Get up." So Tricksey-Wee mounted on the narrow part of the spider's back, and held fast. And Buify-Bob got on the grandfather's back. And up they scrambled, over one web after another, up and up — so fast ! And every spider followed ; so that when Tricksey-Wee looked back, she saw a whole army of spiders scrambling after them. O " What can we want with so many ? " she thought ; but she said nothing. The moon was now up, and it was a splendid sight below and around them. All Giantland was spread out under them, with its great hills, lakes, trees, and animals. And all above them was the clear heaven, and Mount Skycrack rising into it, with its endless ladders of spider-webs, glittering like cords made of moon 

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90 The Giant's Heart beams. And up the moonbeams went, crawling and scrambling, and racing, a huge army of huge spiders. At length they reached all but the very summit, where they stopped. Tricksey-Wee and Buft'y-Bob could see above them a great globe of feathers, that finished off the mountain like an ornamental knob. " But how shall we drive her off ? " said Buffy. " We '11 soon manage that," answered the grandfather-spider. " Come on, you down there." Up rushed the whole army, past the children, over the edire of the nest, on to the she-ea^le, and buried O O ' themselves in her feathers. In a moment she became very restless, and went pecking about with her beak. All at once she spread out her wings, with a sound like a whirlwind, and flew off to bathe in the sea ; and then the spiders began to drop from her in all directions on their gossamer wings. The children had to hold fast to keep the wind of the eagle's flight from blowing them off. As soon as it was over, they looked into the nest, and there lay the giant's heart — an awful and ugly thing. " Make haste, child ! " said Tricksey's spider. So Tricksey took her bag, and squeezed a drop out of it upon the heart. She thought she heard the giant give a far-off roar of pain, and she nearly fell from her seat with terror. The heart instantly began to shrink. It shrunk and shrivelled till it was nearly gone ; and Buffy-Bob caught it up and put it into his bag. Then the two spiders turned and went down again as fast as they could. Before they got to the

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The Giant's Heart bottom, they heard the shrieks of the she-eagle over the loss of her egg; but the spiders told them not to be alarmed, for her eyes were too big to see them.— By the time they reached the foot of the mountain, all the spiders had got home, and were busy again catching flies, as if nothing had happened. After renewed thanks to their friends, the children set off, carrying the giant's heart with them. " If you should find it at all troublesome, just give it a little more spider-juice directly," said the grandfather, as they took their leave. Now the giant had given an awful roar of pain the moment they anointed his heart, and had fallen down in a fit, in which he lay so long that all the boys might have escaped if they had not been so fat. One did, and got home in safety. For days the giant was unable to speak. The first words he uttered were, — " Oh, my heart ! my heart ! " "Your heart is safe enough, dear Thunderthump," said his wife. " Really, a man of your size ought not to be so nervous and apprehensive. I am ashamed of you.11 "You have no heart, Doodlem," answered he. " I assure you at this moment mine is in the greatest danger. It has fallen into the hands of foes, though who they are I cannot tell." Here he fainted again ; for Tricksey-Wee, finding the heart beginning to swell a little, had given it the least touch of spider-juice. Again he recovered, and said,—

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The Giant's Heart 93 "Dear Doodlem, my heart is coming back to me. is coming nearer and nearer." O After lying silent for hours, he exclaimed, — " It is in the house, I know ! " It And he jumped up and walked about, looking in every corner. As he arose, Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob came out of the hole in the tree-root, and through the cat-hole in the door, and walked boldly towards the giant. Both kept their eyes busy watching him. Led by the

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94 The Giant's Heart love of his own heart, the giant soon spied them, and staggered furiously towards them. OO v " I will eat you, you vermin ! " he cried. " Here with my heart ! ' Tricksey gave the heart a sharp pinch. Down fell the giant on his knees, blubbering, and crying, and begging for his heart. " You shall have it, if you behave yourself properly," said Tricksey. " How shall I behave myself properly ? " asked he, whimpering. " Take all those boys and girls, and carry them home at once." " I 'm not able ; I 'm too ill. I should fall down." "Take them up directly." " I can't, till you give me my heart." " Very well ! " said Tricksey ; and she gave the heart another pinch. The giant jumped to his feet, and catching up all the children, thrust some into his waistcoat-pockets, some into his breast-pocket, put two or three into his hat, and took a bundle of them under each arm. Then he staggered to the door. OO All this time poor Doodlem was sitting in her armchair, crying, and mending a white stocking. The giant led the way to the borders. He could not go so fast but that Buffy and Tricksey managed to keep up with him. When they reached the borders, they thought it would be safer to let the children find their own way home. So they told him to set them down. He obeyed.

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The Giant's Heart 95 " Have you put them all down, Mr. Thunderthuinp ? " asked Tricksey-Wee. "Yes," said the giant. " That 's a lie ! " squeaked a little voice ; and out came a head from his waistcoat pocket. Tricksey-Wee pinched the heart till the giant roared with pain. " You 're not a gentleman. You tell stories," she O ' said. " He was the thinnest of the lot," said Thunderthump, crying. " Are you all there now, children ? " asked Tricksey. "Yes, ma'am," returned they, after counting themselves very carefully, and with some difficulty; for they were all stupid children. " Now," said Tricksey-Wee to the giant, " will you promise to carry off no more children, and never to eat a child again all your life ? " " Yes, yes ! I promise," answered Thunderthunip, sobbing. o "And you will never cross the borders of Giantland ? " " Never." " And you will never again wear white stockings on a Sunday, all your life long. — Do you promise ? ' The giant hesitated at this, and began to expostulate ; but Tricksey-Wee, believing it would be good for his morals, insisted ; and the giant promised. Then she required of him, that, when she gave him back his heart, he should give it to his wife to take care of for him forever after. The poor giant fell

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96 The Giant's Heart on bis knees, and began again to beg. But TrickseyAYre giving the heart a slight pinch, he bawled out,— " Yes, yes ! Doodlem shall have it, I swear. Only she must not put it in the flour barrel, or in the dust-hole." " Certainly not. Make your own bargain with her. -And you promise not to interfere with my brother and me, or to take any revenge for what we have done ? " " Yes, yes, my dear children ; I promise everything. Do, pray, make haste and give me back my poor heart." " Wait there, then, till I bring it to you." " Yes, yes. Only make haste, for I feel very faint." Tricksey-Wee began to undo the mouth of the bag. But Buffy-Bob, who had got very knowing on his travels, took out his knife with the pretence of cutting the string ; but, in reality, to be prepared for any emergency." No sooner was the heart out of the bag, than it expanded to the size of a bullock ; and the giant, with a yell of rage and vengeance, rushed on the two children, who had stepped sideways from the terrible heart. But Buffy-Bob was too quick for Thunderthump. He sprang to the heart, and buried his knife in it, up to the hilt. A fountain of blood spouted from it ; and with a dreadful groan the giant fell dead at the feet of little Tricksey-Wee, who could not help being sorry for him, after all.

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THE SHADOWS. LD Ralph Rinkelmann made his living by comic sketches, and all but lost it again by tragic poems. So he was just the man to be chosen king of the fairies, for in Fairyland the sovereignty is elective. It is no doubt very strange that fairies should desire to have a mortal king ; but the fact is, that with all their knowledge and power, they cannot get rid of the feeling that some men are greater than they are, though they can neither fly nor play tricks. So at such times as there happens to be twice the usual number of sensible electors, such a man as Ralph Rinkelmanu gets to be chosen. They did not mean to insist on his residence ; for they needed his presence only on special occasions. 7 97

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98 The Shadows But they must get hold of him somehow, first of all, in order to make him kinir. Once he was crowned, O they could get him as often as they pleased ; but before this ceremony, there was a difficulty. For it is only between life and death that the fairies have power over grown-up mortals, and can carry them off to their country. So they had to watch for an opportunity. Nor had they to wait long. For old Ralph was taken dreadfully ill ; and while hovering between life and death, they carried him off, and crowned him King of Fairyland. But after he was crowned, it was no wonder, considering the state of his health, that he should not be able to sit quite upright on the throne of Fairyland ; or that, in consequence, all the gnomes and goblins, and ugly, cruel things that live in the holes and corners of the kingdom, should take advanO tage of his condition, and run quite wild, playing him, king as he was, all sorts of tricks ; crowding about his throne, climbing up the steps, and actually scrambling and quarrelling like mice about his ears and eyes, so that he could see and think of nothing else. But I am not going to tell anything more about this part of his adventures just at present. By strong and sustained efforts he succeeded, after much trouble and suffering, in reducing his rebellious subjects to order. They all vanished to their respective holes and corners ; and King Ralph, coming to himself, found himself in his bed, half propped up with pillows. But the room was full of dark creatures, which

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The Shadows 99 gambolled about in the firelight in such a strange, huge, though noiseless fashion, that he thought at first that some of his rebellious goblins had not been subdued with the rest, but had followed him beyond the bounds of Fairyland into his own private house in London. How else could these inad, grotesque hippopotamus-calves make their ugly appearance in Ralph Rinkelmauu's bedroom ? But he soon found out that although they were like the underground goblins, they were very different as well, and would require quite different treatment. He felt convinced that they were his subjects too, but that he must have overlooked them somehow at his late coronation — if indeed they had been present ; for he could not recollect that he had seen anything just like them before. He resolved, therefore, to pay particular attention to their habits, ways, and characters ; else he saw plainly that they would soon be too much for him ; as indeed this intrusion into his chamber, where Mrs. Rinkelmann, who must be queen if he was king, sat taking some tea by the fireside, evidently foreshadowed. But she, perceiving that he was looking about him with a more composed expression than his face had worn for many days, started up, and came quickly and quietly to hisside, and her face was bright with gladness. Whereupon the fire burned up more cheerily ; and the figures became more composed and respectful in their behaviour, retreating towards the wall like well-trained attendants. Then the king of Fairyland had some tea and dry toast, and leaning back on his pillows,

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ioo The Shadows nearly fell asleep; but not quite, for he still watched the intruders. Presently the queen left the room to give some of the young princes and princesses their tea; and the fire burned lower, and behold, the figures grew as black and as mad in their gambols as ever ! Their favourite games seemed to be Hide and Seek; Touch and Go,' Grin and Vanish : and many other such ; and all in the king's bed-chamber, too ; so that it was quite alarming. It was almost as bad as if the house had been haunted by certain creatures which shall be nameless in a fairy story, because with them Fairyland will not willingly have much to do. "But it is a mercy that they have their slippers on !" said the kins; to himself; for his head ached. O 7 As he lay back, with his eyes half shut and half open, too tired to pay longer attention to their games, but, on the whole, considerably more amused than offended with the liberties they took, for they seemed good-natured creatures, and more frolicsome and positively ill-mannered, he became suddenly aware that two of them had stepped forward from the walls, upon which, after the manner of great spiders, most of them preferred sprawling, and now stood in the middle of the floor at the foot of his majesty's bed, becking and bowling and ducking in the most grotesquely obsequious manner ; while every now and then they turned solemnly round upon one heel, evidently considering that motion the highest token of homage they could show. " What do you want ? " said the king.

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The Shadows 101 "That it may please your majesty to be better acquainted with us," answered they. " We are your majesty's subjects." " I know you are. I shall be most happy," answered the king. "We are not what your majesty takes us for, though. We are not so foolish as your majesty thinks us." " It is impossible to take you for anything that I know of," rejoined the king, who wished to make them talk, and said whatever came uppermost; — "for soldiers, sailors, or anything: you will not stand still long enough. I suppose you really belong to the fire brigade ; at least, you keep putting its light out." " Don't jest, please your majesty." And as they said the words — for they both spoke at once throughout the interview — they performed a grave somerset towards the king. "Not jest!" retorted he; "and with you? Why, you do nothing but jest. What are you ? " "The Shadows, sire. And when we do jest, sire, we always jest in earnest. But perhaps your majesty does not see us distinctly." " I see you perfectly well," returned the king. " Permit me, however," rejoined one of the Shadows ; and as he spoke he approached the king ; and lifting a dark forefinger, he drew it lightly but carefully across the ridge of his forehead, from temple to temple. The king felt the soft gliding touch go, like water, into every hollow, and over the top of every height of that mountain-chain of thought. He had involuntarily

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102 The Shadows closed his eyes during the operation, and when he unclosed them again, as soon as the finger was withdrawn, he found that they were opened in more senses than one. The room appeared to have extended itself on all sides, till he could not exactly see where the walls were ; and all about it stood the Shadows, motionless. They were tall and solemn ; rather awful, indeed, in their appearance, notwithstanding many remarkable traits of grotesqueness, for they looked just like the pictures of Puritans drawn by Cavaliers, with long 'arms, and very long, thin legs, from which hung large loose feet, while in their countenances length of chin and nose predominated. The solemnity of their mien, however, overcame all the oddity of their form, so that they were very eerie indeed to look at, dressed as they all were in funereal black. But a single glance was all that the kino; was allowed to have ; for the former O operator waved his dusky palm across his vision, and once more the king saw only the fire-lighted walls, and dark shapes flickering about upon them. The two who had spoken for the rest seemed likewise to have vanished. But at last the king discovered them, standing one on each side of the fireplace. They kept close to the chimney-wall, and talked to each other across the length of the chimney-piece; thus avoiding the direct rays of the fire, which, though light is necessary to their appearing to human eyes, do not agree with them at all — much less give birth to them, as the king was soon to learn. After a few minutes they again approached the bed, and spoke thus :

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The Shadows 103 " It is now getting dark, please your majesty. We mean, out of doors in the snow. Your majesty may see, from where he is lying, the cold light of its great winding-sheet — a famous carpet for the Shadows to dance upon, your majesty. All our brothers and sisters will be at church now, before going to their night's work." o " Do they always go to church before they go to work ? " " They always go to church first." " Where is the church ? " " In Iceland. Would your majesty like to see it ? '' " How can I go and see it, when, as you know very well, I am ill in bed? Besides, I should be sure to take cold in a frosty night like this, even if I put on the blankets, and took the feather-bed for a muff." A sort of quivering passed over their faces, which seemed to be their mode of laughing. The whole shape of the face shook and fluctuated as if it had been some dark fluid ; till, by slow degrees of gathering calm, it settled into its former rest. Then one of them drew aside the curtains of the bed, and the window-curtains not having been yet drawn, the king beheld the white glimmering night outside, struggling with the heaps of darkness that tried to quench it ; and the heavens full of stars, flashing and sparkling like live jewels. The other Shadow went towards the fire and vanished in it. Scores of Shadows immediately began an insane dance all about the room ; disappearing, one after the other, through the uncovered window, and gliding

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The Shadows darkly a\\av over the face of the white slum; for the window looked at once on a field of snow. In a few moments the room was quite cleared of them; but instead of being relieved by their absence, the king felt immediately as if he were in a dead-house, and could hardly breathe for the sense of emptiness and desolation that fell upon him. But as lie lay looking out on the snow, which stretched blank and wide before him, he spied in the distance a long dark line which drew nearer and nearer, and showed itself at last to be all the Shadows, walking in a double row, and carrying in the midst of them something like a bier. They vanished under the window, but soon reappeared, having sonichow climbed up the wall of the house ; for they entered in perfect order by the window, as if melting through the transparency of the glass. They still carried the bier or litter. It was covered with richest furs, and skins of gorgeous wild beasts, whose eyes were replaced by sapphires and emeralds, that glittered and gleamed in the fire and snow light. The outermost skin sparkled with frost, but the inside ones were soft and warm and dry as the down under a swan's wing. The Shadows approached the bed, and set the litter upon it. Then a number of them brought a huge fur robe, and wrapping it round the king, laid him on the litter in the midst of the furs. Nothing could be more gentle and respectful than the way in which they moved him ; and he never thought of refusing to go. Then they put something on his head, and, lifting the litter, carried him once round the room, to

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The Shadows 105 fall into order. As be passed the mirror be saw tbat be was covered with royal ermine, and that bis bead wore a wonderful crown of gold, set witb none but red stones : rubies and carbuncles and garnets, and others whose names he could not tell, glowed gloriously around his head, like the salamandrine essence of all the Christmas fires over the world. A sceptre lay beside birn — a rod of ebony, surmounted by a coneshaped diamond, which, cut in a hundred facets, flashed all the hues of the rainbow, and threw coloured gleams on every side, tbat looked like Shadows too, but more ethereal than those that bore him. Then the Shadows rose gently to the window, passed through it, and sinking slowly upon the field of outstretched snow, commenced an orderly gliding rather than march along the frozen surface. They took it by turns to bear the king, as they sped witb the swiftness of thought, in a straight line towards the north. The pole-star rose above their heads with visible rapidity; for indeed they moved quite as fast as sad thoughts, though not with all the speed of happy desires. England and Scotland slid past the litter of the king of the Shadows. Over rivers and lakes they skimmed and glided. They climbed the high mountains, and crossed the valleys with a fearless bound ; till they came to John-o'-Groafs bouse and the Northern Sea. The sea was not frozen; for all the stars shone as clear out of the deeps below as they shone out of the deeps above ; and as the bearers slid along the blue-gray surface, with never a furrow in their track, so pure was the water beneath,

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106 The Shadows that the king saw neither surface, bottom, nor substance to it, and seemed to be gliding only through the blue sphere of heaven, with the stars above him, and the stars below him, and between the stars and him nothing but an emptiness, where, for the first time in his life, his soul felt that it had room enough. At length they reached the rocky shores of Iceland. There they landed, still pursuing their journey. All this time the kino; felt no cold ; for the red stones in O 7 his crown kept him warm, and the emerald and sapphire eyes of the wild beasts kept the frosts from settling upon his litter. Oftentimes upon their way they had to pass through forests, caverns, and rock-shadowed paths, where it was so dark that at first the king feared he should lose his Shadows altogether. But as soon as they entered such places, the diamond in his sceptre began to shine, and fflow, and flash, sending- out streams of lio-ht of all O O O the colours that the painter's soul could dream of ; in which light the Shadows grew livelier and stronger than ever, speeding through the dark ways with an all but blinding swiftness. In the light of the diamond, too, some of their forms became more simple and human, while others seemed only to break out into a yet more untamable absurdity. Once, as they passed through a cave, the king actually saw some of their eyes — strange shadow-eyes : he had never seen any of their eyes before. But at the same moment when he saw their eyes, he knew their faces too, for they turned them full upon him for an instant; and the

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The Shadows 107 other Shadows, catching sight of these, shrank and shivered, and nearly vanished. Lovely faces they were ; but the king was very thoughtful after he saw them, and continued rather troubled all the rest of the journey. He could not account for those faces beinsr there, and the faces of Shadows, too, with O ' / living eyes. But he soon found that amongst the Shadows a man must learn never to be surprised at anything; for if he does not, he will soon grow quite stupid, in consequence of the endless recurrence of surprises. At last they climbed up the bed of a little stream, and then, passing through a narrow rocky defile, came out suddenly upon the side of a mountain, overlooking a blue frozen lake in the very heart of mighty hills. Overhead, the aurora borealis was shivering and flashing like a battle of ten thousand spears. Underneath, its beams passed faintly over the blue ice and the sides of the snow-clad mountains, whose tops shot up like huge icicles all about, with here and there a star sparkling on the very tip of one. But as the northern lights in the sky above, so wavered and quivered, and shot hither and thither, the Shadows on the surface of the lake below ; now gathering in groups, and now shivering asunder ; now covering the whole surface of the O O lake, and anon condensed into one dark knot in the centre. Every here and there on the white mountains might be seen two or three shooting away towards the tops, to vanish beyond them, so that their number was gradually, though not visibly, diminishing.

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icS The Shadows "Please your majesi \," said the Shadows, " this is our church — the Cliinvli of the Shadows." And so saving, the king's body-guard set down the litter upon a rock, and plunged into the multitudes below. They soon returned, however, and bore the kino: down into the middle of the lake. All the O Shadows came crowding round him, respectfully but fearlessly ; and sure never such a grotesque assembly revealed itself before to mortal eyes. The king had seen all kinds of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds at his coronation ; but they were quite rectilinear figures compared with the insane lawlessness of form in which the Shadows rejoiced ; and the wildest gambols of the former were orderly dances of ceremony beside the apparently aimless and wilful contortions of figure, and metamorphoses of shape, in which the latter indulged. They retained, however, all the time, to the surprise of the king, an identity, each of his own type, inexplicably perceptible through every change. Indeed, this preservation of the primary idea of each form was more wonderful than the bewildering and ridiculous alterations to which the form itself was every moment subjected. " What are you ? " said the king, leaning on his elbow, and looking around him. "The Shadows, your majesty," answered several voices at once. "What Shadows?" "The human Shadows. The Shadows of men, and women, and their children."

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The Shadows 109 " Are you not the shadows of chairs and tables, and pokers and tongs, just as well ? '' At this question a strange jarring commotion went through the assembly with a shock. Several of the figures shot up as bigh as the aurora, but instantly settled down again to human size, as if overmastering their feelings, out of respect to him who had roused them. One who had bounded to the highest visible icy peak, and as suddenly returned, now elbowed his way through the rest, and made himself spokesman for them during the remaining part of the dialogue. "Excuse our agitation, your majesty," said he. "I see your majesty has not yet thought proper to make himself acquainted with our nature and habits." " I wish to do so now," replied the king. "We are the Shadows," repeated the Shadow, solemnly. " Well ? " said the king. " We do not often appear to men." " Ha ! " said the king. " We do not belong to the sunshine at all. We go through it unseen, and only by a passing chill do men recognise an unknown presence." " Ha ! " said the king again. " It is only in the twilight of the fire, or when one man or woman is alone with a single candle, or when any number of people are all feeling the same thing at once, making them one, that we show ourselves, and the truth of things." " Can that be true that loves the night ? " said the king.

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i I o The Shadows uThe darkness is the nurse of liirht" answered the C2 ' Shadow. "Can that be true which mocks at forms?" said the king. " Truth rides abroad in shapeless storms," answered the Shadow. " Ha ! ha ! " thought Ralph Rinkelmanu, " it rhymes. The Shadow caps my questions with his answers. Very strange !" And he grew thoughtful again. The Shadow was the first to resume. " Please your majesty, may we present our petition ? " " By all means," replied the king. " I am not w^ell enough to receive it in proper state." " Never mind, your majesty. We do not care for much ceremony ; and indeed none of us are quite well at present. The subject of our petition weighs upon us." "Go on," said the king. "Sire," began the Shadow, "our very existence is in danger. The various sorts of artificial light, both in houses and in men, women, and children, threaten to end our being. The use and the disposition of gaslights, especially high in the centres, blind the eyes by which alone we can be perceived. We are all but banished from towns. We are driven into villages and lonely houses, chiefly old farm-houses, out of which even our friends the fairies are fast disappearing. We therefore petition our king, by the power of his art to restore us to our rights in the house itself, and in the hearts of its inhabitants."

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The Shadows i i i " But," said the king, " you frighten the children." " Very seldom, your majesty ; and then only for their good. We seldom seek to frighten anybody. We mostly want to make people silent and thoughtful ; to awe them a little, your majesty." " You are much more likely to make them laugh," said the king. " Are we ? " said the Shadow. And approaching the king one step, he stood quite still for a moment. The diamond of the king's sceptre shot out a vivid flame of violet light, and the king stared at the Shadow in silence, and his lip quivered. He never told what he saw then ; but he would say : " Just fancy what it might be if some flitting thoughts were to persist in staying to be looked at." " It is only," resumed the Shadow, " when our thoughts are not fixed upon any particular object, that our bodies are subject to all the vagaries of elemental influences. Generally, amongst worldly men and frivolous women, we only attach ourselves to some article of furniture or of dress ; and they never doubt that we are mere foolish and vague results of the dashing of the waves of the lio;ht against the solid forms of which ^ O their houses are full. We do not care to tell them the truth, for they would never see it. But let the worldly man- -or the frivolous woman and thenAt each of the pauses indicated, the mass of Shadows throbbed and heaved with emotion ; but they soon settled again into comparative stillness. Once more the Shadow addressed himself to speak. But

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I I 2 The Shadows suddenly they all looked up, and the king, following their o-a/e, saw that the aurora had bemin to pale. O ' O -L " The moon is rising," said the Shadow. " As soon as she looks over the mountains into the valley, we must be gone, for we have plenty to do by the moon : we are powerful in her light. But if your majesty will come here to-morrow night, your majesty may learn a great deal more about us, and judge for himself whether it be fit to accord our petition ; for then will be our grand annual assembly, in which we report to our chiefs the things we have attempted, and the good or bad success we have had." "If you send for me," returned the king, "I will come." Ere the Shadow could reply, the tip of the moon's crescent horn peeped up from behind an icy pinnacle, and one slender ray fell on the lake. It shone upon no Shadows. Ere the eye of the king could again seek the earth after beholding the first brightness of the o ~ moon's resurrection, they had vanished ; and the surface of the lake glittered cold and blue in the pale moonlight. There the king lay, alone in the midst of the frozen lake, with the moon staring at him. But at length he heard from somewhere a voice that he knew. " Will you take another cup of tea, dear ? " said Mrs. Riukelmaun. And Ralph, coming slowly to himself, found that he was lying in his own bed. " Yes, I will," lie answered ; " and rather a large

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The Shadows 1 13 piece of toast, if you please ; for I have been a long journey since I saw you last." " He lias not come to himself quite," said Mrs. Rinkelmanu, between her and herself. " You would be rather surprised," continued Ralph, " if I told you where I had been." " I dare say I should," responded his wife. "Then I will tell you," rejoined Ralph. But at that moment, a great Shadow bounced out of the fire with a single huge leap, and covered the whole room. Then it settled in one corner, and Ralph saw it shaking its fist at him from the end of a preposterous arm. So he took the hint, and held his peace. And it was as well for him. For I happen to know something about the Shadows too ; and I know that if he had told his wife all about it just then, they would not have sent for him the following evening. But as the king, after finishing his tea and toast, lay and looked about him, the shadows dancing in his room seemed to him odder and more inexplicable than ever. The whole chamber was full of mystery. So it generally was, but now it was more mysterious than ever. After all that he had seen in the Shadow-church, his own room and its shadows were yet more wonderful and unintelligible than those. This made it the more likely that he had seen a true vision ; for instead of making common things look commonplace, as a false vision would have done, it had made common things disclose the wonderful that was in them.

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i 14 The Shadows "The same applies to all art as well,"1 thought Ualph Rinkelmann. The next afternoon, as the twilight was growing dusky, the king lay wondering whether or not the Shadows would fetch him again. He wanted very much to go, for he had enjoyed the journey exceedingly, and he longed, besides, to hear some of the Shadows tell their stories. But the darkness grew deeper and deeper, and the Shadows did not come. The cause was, that Mrs. Rinkelmann sat by the fire in the gloaming ; and they could not carry off the king while she was there. Some of them tried to frighten her away by playing the oddest pranks on the walls, the floor, and ceiling • but altogether without effect : O 7 O the queen only smiled, for she had a good conscience. Suddenly, however, a dreadful scream was heard from the nursery, and Mrs. Rinkelmann rushed up-stairs to see what was the matter. No sooner had she gone than the two warders of the chimney-corners stepped out into the middle of the room, and said, in a low voice, " Is your majesty ready ? " " Have you no hearts ? " said the king ; " or are they as black as your faces ? Did you not hear the child scream? I must know what is the matter with her before I o;o." o "Your majesty may keep his mind easy on that point," replied the warders. "We had tried everything we could think of to get rid of her majesty the queen, but without effect. So a young madcap

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The Shadows i i 5 Shadow, half against the will of the older ones of us, slipped up-stairs into the nursery ; and has, no doubt, succeeded in appalling the baby, for he is very lithe and long-legged. — Now, your majesty." " I will have no such tricks played in my nursery," said the king, rather angrily. "You might put the child beside itself." " Theu there would be twins, your majesty. And we rather like twins." u None of your miserable jesting ! You might put the child out of her wits." " Impossible, sire ; for she has not got into them yet." " Go away," said the king. " Forgive us, your majesty. Really, it will do the child good ; for that Shadow will, all her life, be to her a symbol of what is ugly and bad. When she feels in danger of hating or envying any one, that Shadow will come back to her mind and make her shudder." " Very well," said the king. " I like that. Let us go." The Shadows went through the same ceremonies and preparations as before ; during which, the young Shadow before-mentioned contrived to make such grimaces as kept the baby in terror, and the queen in the nursery, till all was ready. Then with a bound that doubled him up against the ceiling, and a kick of his legs six feet out behind him, he vanished through the nursery door, and reached the king's bed-chamber

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i 1 6 The Shadows just iii time to take his place with the last who were melting through the window in the rear of the litter, O O 7 and settling down upon the snow beneath. Away they went as before, a gliding blackness over the white carpet. And it was Christmas-eve. \Vben they came in sight of the mountain-lake, the king saw that it was crowded over its whole surface O with a changeful intermingling of Shadows. They were all talking and listening alternately, in pairs, trios, and groups of every size. Here and there, large companies were absorbed in attention to one elevated above the rest, not in a pulpit, or on a platform, but on the stilts of his own legs, elongated for the nonce. The aurora, right overhead, lighted up the lake and the sides of the mountains, by sending down from the zenith, nearly to the surface of the lake, great folded vapours, luminous with all the colours of a faint rainbow. Many, however, as the words were that passed on all sides, not a shadow of a sound reached the ears of the king : the shadow-speech could not enter his corporeal organs. One of his guides, however, seeing that the king wanted to hear and could not, went through a strange manipulation of his head and ears ; after which he could hear perfectly, though still only the voice to which, for the time, he directed his attention. This, however, was a great advantage, and one which the king longed to carry back with him to the world of men. The king now discovered that this was not merely

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The Shadows 1 1 7 the church of the Shadows, but their news-exchange at the same time. For, as the Shadows have no writing or printing, the only way in which they can make each other acquainted with their doings and thinkings, is to meet and talk at this word-mart and parliament of shades. And as, in the world, people read their favourite authors, and listen to their favourite speakers, so here the Shadows seek their favourite Shadows, listen to their adventures, and hear generally what they have to say. Feeling quite strong, the king rose and walked about amongst them, wrapped in his ermine robe, with his red crown on his head, and his diamond sceptre in his hand. Every group of Shadows to which he drew near, ceased talking as soon as they saw him approach : but at a nod they went on again directly, conversing and relating and commenting, as if no one was there of other kind or of higher rank than themselves. So the king heard a good many stories. At some of them he laughed, and at some of them he cried. But if the stories that the Shadows told were printed, they wTould make a book that no publisher could produce fast enough to satisfy the buyers. I will record some of the things that the king heard, for he told them to me soon after. In fact, I was for some time his private secretary. " I made him confess before a week was over," said a gloomy old Shadow. " But what was the good of that ? " rejoined a pert young one. " That could not undo what was done."

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i i S The Shadows "Yes, it could." " What ! bring the dead back to life ? " "No; but comfort the murderer. I could not bear to see the pitiable misery he was in. He was far happier with the rope round his neck, than he was with the purse in his pocket. I saved him from killing himself too." " How did you make him confess ? " " Only by wallowing on the wall a little." "How could that make him tell ? r " He knows." The Shadow was silent ; and the king turned to another, who was preparing to speak. "I made a fashionable mother repent." " How?" broke from several voices, in whose sound was mingled a touch of incredulity. " Only by making a little coffin on the wall," was the reply. "Did the fashionable mother confess too ? ' " She had nothing more to confess than everybody knew." " What did everybody know then ? " " That she might have been kissing a living child, when she followed a dead one to the grave.- -The next will fare better." " I put a stop to a wedding," said another. " Horrid shade ! " remarked a poetic imp. " How ? " said others. " Tell us how." " Only by throwing a darkness, as if from the branch of a sconce, over the forehead of a fair girl. — They are

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The Shadows 119 not married yet, and I do not think they will be. But I loved the youth who loved her. How he started ! It was a revelation to him." " But did it not deceive him? '' " Quite the contrary." " But it was only a shadow from the outside, not a shadow coming through from the soul of the girl." " Yes. You may say so. But it was all that was wanted to make the meaning of her forehead manifest -yes, of her whole face, which had now and then, in the pauses of his passion, perplexed the youth. All of it, curled nostrils, pouting lips, projecting chin, instantly fell into harmony with that darkness between her eyebrows. The youth understood it in a moment, and went home miserable. And they 're not married yet" " I caught a toper alone, over his magnum of port," said a very dark Shadow ; " and did n't I give it him ! I made delirium tremens first ; and then I settled into a funeral, passing slowly along the length of the opposite wall. I gave him plenty of plumes and mourning coaches. And then I gave him a funeral service, but I could not manage to make the surplice white, which was all the better for such a sinner. The wretch stared till his face passed from purple to grey, and actually left his fifth glass only, unfinished, and took refuge with his wife and children in the drawing-room, much to their surprise. I believe he actually drank a cup of tea; and although I have often looked in since, I have never caught him again, drinking alone at least."

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120 The Shadows "But does lie drink less? Have you done him any good ? " "I hope so ; but I am sorry to say I can't feel sure about it." "Humph! Humph! Humph!1' grunted various shadow throats. " I had such fun once ! " cried another. " I made such game of a young clergyman ! '' " You have no right to make game of any one." " Oh, yes, I have — when it is for his good. He used to study his sermons — where do you think ? '' " In his study, of course. Where else should it be?" " Yes and no. Guess asrain." O " Out amongst the faces in the streets ? " " Guess again." " In still green places in the country ? " " Guess again." " In old books ? " " Guess again." " No, no. ^ Tell us." " In the lookino-.o-lass. Ha ! ha ! ha ! " O O " He was fair game ; fair shadow game." " I thought so. And I made such fun of him one o night on the wall ! He had sense enough to see that it was himself, and very like an ape. So he got ashamed, turned the mirror with its face to the wall, and thought a little more about his people, and a little less about himself. I was very glad ; for, please your majesty,"- —and here the speaker turned towards the

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The Shadows i 2 i king — " we don't like the creatures that live in the mirrors. You call them ghosts, don't you ? " Before the king could reply, another had commenced. But the story about the clergyman had made the king wish to hear one of the shadow-sermons. So he turned him towards a long Shadow, who was preaching to a very quiet and listening crowd. He was just concluding his sermon. " Therefore, dear Shadows, it is the more needful that we love one another as much as we can, because that is not much. We have no such excuse for not lovino- as mortals have, for we do not die like them. I O suppose it is the thought of that death that makes them hate so much. Then again, we go to sleep all day, most of us, and not in the night, as men do. And you know that we forget everything that happened the night before ; therefore, we ought to love well, for the love is short. Ah ! dear Shadow, whom I love now with all my shadowy soul, I shall not love thee to-morrow eve, I shall not know thee ; I shall pass thee in the crowd and never dream that the Shadow whom I now love is near me then. Happy Shades ! for we only remember our tales until we have told them here, and then they vanish in the shadow-churchyard, where we bury only our dead selves. Ah ! brethren, who would be a man and remember ? Who would be a man and weep ? We ought indeed to love one another, for we alone inherit oblivion ; we alone are renewed with eternal birth ; we alone have no gathered weight of years. I will tell you the awful fate of one Shadow who rebelled against his

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122 The Shadows nature, and sought to remember the past. He said, "I //'/// ivinrinber this eve." He fought with the genial influences of kindly sleep when the sun rose on the awful dead day of light; and although he could not keep quite awake, he dreamed of the foregone eve, and he never forgot his dream. Then he tried ao;aiii the O o next night, and the next, and the next ; and lie tempted another Shadow to try it with him. But at last their awful fate overtook them ; for, instead of continuing to be Shadows, they began to cast shadows, as foolish men say ; and so they thickened and thickened till they vanished out of our world. They are now condemned to walk the earth a man and a woman, with death behind them, and memories within them. Ah, brother Shades ! let us love one another, for we shall soon forget. We are not men, but Shadows." The king turned away, and pitied the poor Shadows far more than they pitied men. " Oh ! how we played with a musician one night," exclaimed a Shadow in another group, to which the king had first directed a passing thought, and then had stopped to listen. — " Up and down we went, like the hammers and dampers on his piano. But he took his revenue on us. For after he had watched us for half o an hour in the twilight, he rose and went to his instruO ' rnent and played a shadow-dance that fixed us all in sound for ever. Each could tell the very notes meant for him ; and as long as he played we could not stop, but went on dancing and dancing after the music, just as the magician — I mean the musician — pleased. And

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The Shadows 123 he punished us well ; for he nearly danced us all off our legs and out of shape into tired heaps of collapsed and palpitating darkness. We won't go near him for some time again, if we can only remember it. He had been very miserable all day, he was so poor; and we could not think of any way of comforting him except making him laugh. We did not succeed, with our wildest efforts ; but it turned out better than we had expected, after all ; for his shadow-dance got him into notice, and he is quite popular now, making money fast. If he does not take care, we shall have other work to do with him by-and-by, poor fellow ! r " I and some others did the same for a poor playwriter once. He had a Christmas piece to write, and being an original genius, it was not so easy for him to find a subject as it is for most of his class. I saw the trouble he was in, and collecting a few stray Shadows, we acted, in dumb show of course, the funniest bit of nonsense we could think of ; and it was quite successful. The poor fellow watched every motion, roaring with laughter at us, and delight at the ideas we put into his head. He turned it all into words, and scenes, and actions ; and the piece came off with a splendid success." " But how long we have to look for a chance of doing anything worth doing ! ': said a long, thin, especially lugubrious Shadow. " I have only done one thing worth telling ever since we met last. But I am proud of that." " What was it ? What was it ? ' rose from twenty voices. " I crept into a dining-room, one twilight, soon after

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124 The Shadows Christmas-dav. I had been drawn thither by the glow of a bright fire shining through red window-curtains. O O O At first I thought there was no one there, and was on O ' the point of leaving the room and going out again into the snowy street, when I suddenly caught the sparkle of eyes. I found that they belonged to a little boy who lay very still on a sofa. I crept into a dark corner by the sideboard, and watched him. He seemed very sad, and did nothing but stare into the fire. At last he sighed out, — ' I wish mamma would O come home.' ' Poor boy ! ' thought I, 'there is no help for that but mamma.' Yet I would try to while away the time for him. So out of my corner I stretched a lono; shadow arm, reaching all across the ceiling and O ^ O' pretended to make a grab at him. He was rather frightened at first ; but he was a brave boy, and soon O v ' saw that it was all a joke. So when I did it again, he made a clutch at me ; and then we had such fun ! For though he often sighed and wished mamma would o o come home, he always began again with me ; and on we went with the wildest game. At last his mother's knock came to the door, and, starting up in delight, he rushed into the hall to meet her, and forgot all about poor black me. But I did not mind that in the least ; for when I glided out after him into the hall, I was well repaid for my trouble by hearing his mother say to him, — ' Why, Charlie, my dear, you look ever so much better since I left you ! ' At that moment I slipped through the closing door, and as I ran across the snow, I heard the mother say, — ' What Shadow

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The Shadows 125 can that be passing so quickly ? ' And Charlie answered with a merry laugh, — ' Oh ! mamma, I suppose it must be the funny Shadow that has been playing such games with me all the time you were out.' As soon as the door was shut, I crept along the wall and looked in at the dining-room window. And I heard O his mamma say, as she led him into the room, — ' What an imagination the boy has!' Ha! ha! ha! Then she looked at him, and the tears came in her eyes ; and she stooped down over him, and I heard the sounds of a mingling kiss and sob." O O " I always look for nurseries full of children," said another ; " and this winter I have been very fortunate. I am sure children belong especially to us. One evening, looking about in a great city, I saw through the window into a large nursery, where the odious gas had not yet been lighted. Round the fire sat a company of the most delightful children I had ever seen. They were waiting patiently for their tea. It was too good an opportunity to be lost. I hurried away, and gathering together twenty of the best Shadows I could find, returned in a few moments; and entering the nursery, we danced on the walls one of our best dances. To be sure it was mostly extemporized ; but I managed to keep it in harmony by singing this song, which I made as we went on. Of course the children could not hear it : they only saw the motions that answered to it ; but with them they seemed to be very much delighted indeed, as I shall presently prove to you. This was the song : —

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126 The Shadows " Swing, swang, swingle, swuff ! Flicker, flacker, fling, fluff ! Thus we go, To and fro ; Here and there, Everywhere, Born and bred ; Never dead, Only gone. " On ! Come on. Looming, glooming, Spreading, fuming, Shattering, scattering, Parting, darting, Settling, starting, All our life Is a strife, And a wearying for rest On the darkness' friendly breast. " Joining, splitting, Rising, sitting, Laughing, shaking, Sides all aching, Grumbling, grim, and gruff. Swingle, swangle, swuff ! " Now a knot of darkness ; Now dissolved gloom ; Now a pall of blackness Hiding all the room. Flicker, flacker, fluff ! Black, and black enough !

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The Shadows 127 " Dancing now like demons • Lying like the dead ; Gladly would we stop it, And go down to bed ! But our work we still must do, Shadow men, as well as you. " Rooting, rising, shooting, Heaving, sinking, creeping ; Hid in corners crooning ; Splitting, poking, leaping, Gathering, towering, swooning. When we 're lurking, Yet we 're working, For our labour we must do, Shadow men, as well as you. Flicker, flacker, fling, fluff ! Swing, swang, swingle, swuff ! " " ' How thick the Shadows are ! ' said one of the children — a thoughtful little girl. "'I wonder where they come from/ said a dreamy little boy. " 'I think they grow out of the wall,' answered the little girl ; ' for I have been watching them come ; first one, and then another, and then a whole lot of them. I am sure they grow out of the walls.' " l Perhaps they have papas and mammas,' said an older boy, with a smile. "'Yes, yes; and the doctor brings them in his pocket,' said another, a consequential little maiden. " ' No ; I '11 tell you,' said the older boy : ' they 're ghosts.'

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128 The Shadows " ' But ghosts are white.' O " ' Oh ! but these have got black coining down the chimney.' " i No,' said a curious-looking, white-faced boy of fourteen, who had been reading by the firelight, and had stopped to hear the little ones talk; 'they 're body ghosts ; they 're not soul ghosts.' " A silence followed, broken by the first, the dreamyeyed, boy, who said,— " ' I hope they did n't make me ; ' at which they all burst out laughing. "Just then the nurse brought in their tea, and when she proceeded to light the gas we vanished." " I stopped a murder," cried another. " How ? How ? How ? " " I will tell you. I had been lurking about a sick room for some time, where a miser lay, apparently dying. I did not like the place at all, but I felt as if I should be wanted there. There were plenty of lurking-places about, for the room was full of all sorts of old furniture, especially cabinets, chests, and presses. I believe he had in that room every bit of the property he had spent a long life in gathering. I found that he had gold and gold in those places ; for one night, when his nurse was away, he crept out of bed, mumbling and shaking, and managed to open one of the chests, though he nearly fell down with the effort. I was peeping over his shoulder, and such a gleam of gold fell upon me, that it nearly killed me. But hearing his nurse coming, he slammed the lid down, and I recovered.

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The Shadows 129 "I tried very hard, but I could not do him any good. For although I made all sorts of shapes on the walls and ceilings, representing evil deeds that he had done, of which there were plenty to choose from, I could make no shapes on his brain or conscience. He had no eyes for anything but gold. And it so happened that his nurse had neither eyes nor heart for anything else either. " One day, as she was seated beside his bed, but where he could not see her, stirring some gruel in a basin, to cool it for him, I saw her take a little phial from her bosom, and I knew by the expression of her face both what it was and what she was going to do with it. Fortunately the cork was a little hard to get out, and this gave me one moment to think. "The room was so crowded with all sorts of things, that although there were no curtains on the four-post bed to hide from the miser the sight of his precious treasures, there was yet but one small part of the ceiling suitable for casting myself upon in the shape I wished to assume. And this spot was hard to reach. But having discovered that upon this very place lay a dull gleam of firelight thrown from a strange old dusty mirror that stood away in some corner, I got in front of the fire, spied where the mirror was, threw myself upon it, and bounded from its face upon the oval pool of dim light on the ceiling, assuming, as I passed, the shape of an old stooping hag, who poured something from a phial into a basin. I made the handle of the spoon with my own nose, ha ! ha ! r

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The Shadows And the shadow-hand caressed the shadow-tip of the shadow-nose, before the shadow-tongue resumed. "The old miser saw me: he would not taste the gruel that night, although his nurse coaxed and scolded till they were both weary. She pretended to taste it herself, and to think it very good ; but at last retired into a corner, and after making as if she were eating it, took good care to pour it all out into the ashes." " But she must either succeed, or starve him, at last," interposed a Shadow. " I will tell you." "And," interposed another, "he was not worth saving." "He might repent," suggested a third, who was more benevolent. "No chance of that," returned the former. "Misers never do. The love of money has less in it to cure itself than any other wickedness into which wretched men can fall. What a mercy it is to be born a Shadow ! Wickedness does not stick to us. What do we care for gold ! — Rubbish ! '' "Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! " came from a hundred shadow-voices. "You should have let her murder him, and so you would have been quit of him." "And besides how was he to escape at last? He could never get rid of her, you know." " I was going to tell you," resumed the narrator, ' only you had so many shadow-remarks to make, that you would not let me."

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The Shadows 131 " Go on ; go on." "There was a little grandchild who used to come and see him sometimes — the only creature the miser cared for. Pier mother was his daughter ; but the old ~ man would never see her, because she had married against his will. Her husband was now dead, but he had not forgiven her yet. After the shadow he had seen, however, he said to himself, as he lay awake that night--! saw the words on his face — ' How shall I get rid of that old devil ? If I don't eat I shall die ; and if I do eat I shall be poisoned. I wish little Mary would conie. Ah ! her mother would never have served me so.' He lay awake, thinking such things over and over as;aiu, all ni^ht Ions;, and I stood watchO O o7 ing him from a dark corner, till the dayspriug came and shook me out. When I came back next night, the room was tidy and clean. His own daughter, a sadfaced but beautiful woman, sat by his bedside ; and little Mary was curled up on the floor by the fire, imitating us, by making queer shadows on the ceiling with her twisted hands. But she could not think however they got there. And no wonder, for I helped her to some very unaccountable ones." " I have a story about a granddaughter, too," said another, the moment that speaker ceased. "Tell it. Tell it." " Last Christmas-day," he began, " I and a troop of us set out in the twilight to find some house where we O could all have something to do ; for we had made up our minds to act together. We tried several, but found

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132 The Shadows objections to them all. At last we espied a large lonely country-house, and hastening to it, we found great preparations making for the Christmas dinner. We rushed into it, scampered all over it, and made up our minds in a moment that it would do. We amused ourselves in the nursery first, where there were several children being dressed for dinner. AVe generally do go to the nursery first, your majesty. This time we were especially charmed with a little girl about five years old, who clapped her hands and danced about with delight at the antics we performed ; and we said we would do something for her if we had a chance. The company began to arrive ; and at every arrival, we rushed to the hall, and cut wonderful capers of welcome. Between times, we scudded away to see how the dressing went on. One girl about eighteen was delightful. She dressed herself as if she did not care much about it, but could not help doing it prettily. When she took her last look at the phantom in the glass, she half smiled to it. — But we do not like those creatures that come into the mirrors at all, your majesty. We don't understand them. They are dreadful to us. — She looked rather sad and pale, but very sweet and hopeful. So we wanted to know all about her, and soon found out that she was a distant relation and a great favourite of the gentleman of the house, an old man, in whose face benevolence was mingled with obstinacy and a deep shade of the tyrannical. We could not admire him much ; but we would not make up our minds all at once : Shadows never do.

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The Shadows 133 " The dinner-bell rang, and down we hurried. The children all looked happy, and we were merry. But there was one cross fellow amoncr the servants, and O ' did n't we plague him ! and did n't we get fun out of him ! When he was bringing up dishes, we lay in wait for him at every corner, and sprang upon him from tke floor, and from over the banisters, and clown from the cornices. He started and stumbled and blundered so in consequence, that his fellow-servants thought he was tipsy. Once he dropped a plate, and had to pick up the pieces, and hurry away with them ; and did n't we pursue him as he went ! It was lucky for him his master did not see how he went on ; but we took care not to let him get into any real scrape, though he was quite dazed with the dodging of the unaccountable shadows. Sometimes he thought the walls were coming down upon him, sometimes that the floor was gaping to swallow him ; sometimes that he would be knocked to pieces by the hurrying to and fro, or be smothered in the black crowd. " When the blazing plum-pudding was carried in, we made a perfect shadow-carnival about it, dancing and rnunimino; in the blue flames, like mad demons. And O 7 how the children screamed with delight ! " The old gentleman, who was very fond of children, was lauwhino; his heartiest lau^h, when a loud knock O O O ' came to the hall-door. The fair maiden started, turned paler, and then red as the Christmas fire. I saw it, and flung my hands across her face. She was very glad, and I know she said in her heart, ' You kind Shadow ! '

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The Shadows which paid Die well. Then I followed the rest into the hall, and found there a jolly, handsome, brown-faced sailor, evidently a son of the house. The old man received him with tears in his eyes, and the children with shouts of joy. The maiden escaped in the confusion, just in time to save herself from fainting. We crowded about the lamp to hide her retreat, and nearly put it out ; and the butler could not get it to burn up before she had glided into her place again, relieved to find the room so dark. The sailor only had seen her go, and now he sat down beside her, and, without a word, got hold of her hand in the gloom. When we all scattered O to the walls and the corners, and the lamp blazed up again, he let her hand go. O O "During the rest of the dinner the old man watched O the two, and saw that there was something between O them, and was very angry. For he was an important man in his own estimation, and they had never consulted him. The fact was, they had never known their own minds till the sailor had gone upon his last voyage, and had learned each other's only this moment. We found out all this by watching them, and then talkins; together about it afterwards. — The old gentleman «_j o o saw, too, that his favourite, who was under such obligation to him for loving her so much, loved his sou better than him ; and he grew by degrees so jealous that he overshadowed the whole table with his morose looks and short answers. That kind of shadowing is very different from ours ; and the Christmas desert grew so gloomy that we Shadows could not bear it,

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The Shadows 135 and were delighted when the ladies rose to go to the drawing-room. The gentlemen would not stay behind the ladies, even for the sake of the well-known wine. So the moody host, notwithstanding his hospitality, was left alone at the table in the great silent room. We followed the company up-stairs to the drawingroom, and thence to the nursery for snap-dragon ; but while they were busy with this most shadowy of games, nearly all the Shadows crept down-stairs again to the dining-room, where the old man still sat, rjnawino; the O ' J O O bone of his own selfishness. They crowded into the room, and by using every kind of expansion — blowing themselves out like soap bubbles — they succeeded in heaping up the whole room with shade upon shade. They clustered thickest about the fire and the lamp, till at last they almost drowned them in hills of darkness. " Before they had accomplished so much, the children, tired with fun and frolic, had been put to bed. But the little girl of five years old, with whom we had been so pleased when first we arrived, could not go to sleep. She had a little room of her own ; and I had watched her to bed, and now kept her awake by gambolling in the rays of the night-light. When her eyes were once fixed upon me, I took the shape of her grandfather, representing him on the wall as he sat in his chair, with his head bent down and his arms hanging listlessly by his sides. And the child remembered that that was just as she had seen him last ; for she had happened to peep in at the dining-room door after

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The Shadows all the rest had gone up-stairs. 'What if he should be sitting there still,' thought she, * all alone in the dark ! ' She scrambled out of bed and crept down. "Meantime the others had made the room below so dark, that only the face and white hair of the old man could be dimly discerned in the shadowy crowd. For he had filled his own mind with shadows, which we Shadows wanted to draw out of him. Those shadows are very different from us, your majesty knows. He was thinking of all the disappointments he had had in life, and of all the ingratitude he had met with. And O he thought far more of the good he had done, than the good others had got. ' After all I have done for them,' said he, with, a sigh of bitterness, l not one of them cares a straw for me. My own children will be glad when I am gone ! ' -At that instant he lifted up his eyes and saw, standing close by the door, a tiny figure in a Ions; nightgown. The door behind her was shut. O O O It was my little friend, who had crept in noiselessly. A pang of icy fear shot to the old man's heart, but it melted away as fast, for we made a lane through us for a single ray from the fire to fall on the face of the little sprite ; and he thought it was a child of his own that had died when just the age of her childniece, who now stood looking for her grandfather amou^ the Shadows. He thought she had come out O O of her grave in the cold darkness to ask why her father was sitting alone on Christmas-day. And he felt he had no answer to give his little ghost, but one he would be ashamed for her to hear. But his grand 

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The Shadows 137 child saw him now, and walked up to him with a childish stateliness, stumbling once or twice on what seemed her long shroud. Pushing through the crowded shadows, she reached him, climbed upon his knee, laid her little long-haired head on his shoulders, and said, — ' Ganpa ! you gooiny ? Is n't it your KissyDay too, ganpa ? ' " A new fount of love seemed to burst from the clay of the old man's heart. He clasped the child to his bosom, and wept. Then, without a word, he rose with her in his arms, carried her up to her room, and laying her down in her bed, covered her up, kissed her sweet little mouth unconscious of reproof, and then went to the drawing-room. " As soon as he entered, he saw the culprits in a quiet corner alone. He went up to them, took a hand of each, and joining them in both his, said, 'God bless you ! ' Then he turned to the rest of the company, and ' Now,' said he, ' let 's have a Christmas carol.'Aud well he might ; for though I have paid many visits to the house, I have never seen him cross since ; and I am sure that must cost him a good deal of trouble." " We have just come from a great palace," said another, " where we knew there were many children, and where we thought to hear glad voices, and see royally merry looks. But as soon as we entered, we became aware that one mighty Shadow shrouded the whole ; and that Shadow deepened and deepened, till it gathered in darkness about the reposing form of a

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138 The Shadows wise prince. When we sa\v him, we could move no more, Imt clung heavily to the walls, and ]>y our stillness added to the sorrow of the hour. And when we saw the mother of her people weeping with bowed head for the loss of him in whom she had trusted, we were seized with such a lonojiu^ to be Shadows no more. O O but winded angels, which are the white shadows cast in o o heaven from the Light of Light, so as to gather around her, and hover over her with comforting, that we vanished from the walls, and found ourselves floating high above the towers of the palace, where we met the angels on their way, and knew that our service was not needed." By this time there was a glimmer of approaching moonlight, and the kino; be^an to see several of those O O O stranger Shadows, with human faces and eyes, moving about amongst the crowd. He knew at once that they did not belong to his dominion. They looked at him, and came near him, and passed slowly, but they never made any obeisance, or gave sign of homage. And what their eyes said to him, the king only could tell. And he did not tell. " What are those other Shadows that move through the crowd ? " said he to one of his subjects near him. The Shadow started, looked round, shivered slightly, and laid his finger on his lips. Then leading the king a little aside, and looking carefully about him once more,— " I do not know," said he, in a low tone, " what they are. I have heard of them often, but only once did I

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The Shadows 139 ever see any of them before. That was when some of us one night paid a visit to a man who sat much alone, and was said to think a great deal. We saw two of those sitting in the room with him, and he was as pale as they were. We could not cross the threshold, but shivered and shook, and felt ready to melt away. Is not your majesty afraid of them too ! ' But the king made no answer ; and before he could speak again, the moon bad climbed above the mighty pillars of the church of the Shadows, and looked in at the great window of the sky. The shapes had all vanished ; and the king, again lifting up his eyes, saw but the walls of his own chamber, on which flickered the Shadow of a Little Child. He looked down, and there, sitting on a stool by the fire, he saw one of his own little ones, waiting to say good night to his father, and go to bed early, that he might rise early too, and be very good and happy all Christmas-day. And Ralph Rinkelmann rejoiced that he was a man, and not a Shadow. But as the Shadows vanished they left the sense of song in the king's brain. And the wrords of their song must have been something like these :— " Shadows, Shadows, Shadows all ! Shadow birth and funeral ! Shadow moons gleam overhead ; Over shadow graves we tread. Shadow-hope lives, grows, and dies. Shadow-love from Shadow-eyes

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140 The Shadows Shadow-ward entices on To shadow-words on shadow-stone, Closing up the shadow-tale With a shadow-shadow-wail. "Shadow-man, thou art a gloom Cast upon a shadow-tomb Through the endless shadow-air, From the Shadow sitting there, On a moveless shadow-throne, Glooming through the ages gone North and south, in and out, East and west, and all about, Flinging Shadows everywhere On the Shadow-painted air. Shadow-man, thou hast no story, Nothing but a shadow-glory." But Ralph Rinkelinann said to himself, — " They are but Shadows that sing thus ; for a Shadow can see but Shadows. A man sees a man where a Shadow sees only a Shadow." And he was comforted in himself.

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CROSS PURPOSES. i. NCE upon a time, the Queen of Fairyland, finding her own subjects far too well-behaved to be amusing, took a sudden longing to have a mortal or two at her court. So, after looking about her for some time, she fixed upon two to bring to Fairyland. But how were they to be brought ? " Please your Majesty," said at last the daughter of the prime minister, " I will bring the girl." The speaker, whose name was Peaseblossom, after her great-great-grandmother, looked so graceful, and hung her head so apologetically, that the queen said at once, — " How will you manage it, Peaseblossom ? ' " I will open the road before her, and close it behind her." • 141

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142 Cross Purposes " I have heard that, you have pretty \\ays of doing tilings : so you may try." The court happened to be held in an open forest glade of smooth turf, upon which there was just one mole-heap. As soon as the queen hud given her permission to Peuseblossom, up through the mole-heap came the head of a goblin, which cried out,— " Please your Majesty, I will bring the boy." " You ! r exclaimed the queen. " How Avill you do it ? " The goblin began to wriggle himself out of the earth, as if he had been a snake, and the whole world his skin, till the court was convulsed with laughter. As soon as he got free, he began to roll over and over, in every possible manner, rotatory and cylindrical, all at once, until he reached the wood. The courtiers followed, holding their sides, so that the queen was left sitting upon her throne in solitary state. When they reached the wood, the goblin, whose name was Toadstool, was nowhere to be seen. While the}' were looking for him, out popped his head from the mole-heap again, with the words,— " So, your Majesty." " You have taken your own time to answer," said the queen, laughing. "And my own way, too, eh! your Majesty?" rejoined Toadstool, grinning. " No cloubt. Well, you may try." And the goblin, making as much of a bow as he could with only half his neck above ground, disappeared under it.

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Cross Purposes H3 II. O mortal, or fairy either, can tell where Fairyland begins and where it ends. But somewhere on the borders of Fairylaud there was a nice country village, in which lived some nice country people. Alice was the daughter of the squire, a pretty, goodnatured girl, whom her friends called fairy-like, and others called silly. One rosy summer evening, when the wall opposite her window was flaked all over with rosiuess, she threw herself on her bed, and lay gazing at the wall. The rose-colour sank through her eyes and dyed her brain, and she began to feel as if she were reading a story-book. She thought she was looking at a western sea, with the waves all red with sunset. But when the colour died out, Alice gave a sigh to see how commonplace the wall grew. " I wish it was always sunset ! " she said, half aloud. " I don't like gray things." " I will take you where the sun is always setting, if you like, Alice," said a sweet, tiny voice near her. She looked down on the coverlet of the bed, and there, looking up at her, stood a lovely little creature. It seemed quite natural that the little lady should be there ; for many things we never could believe, have only to happen, and then there is nothing strange about them. She was dressed in white, with a cloak of sunset-red — the colours of the sweetest of sweet 

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144 Cross Purposes peas. On her head was a crown of twisted tendrils, with a little ujold beetle in front. O " Are you a fairy ?" said Alice. "Yes. Will you go with me to the sunset?" "Yes, I will."' When Alice proceeded to rise, she found that she was no bigger than the fairy ; and when she stood up on the counterpane, the bed looked like a great hall with a painted ceiling. As she walked towards Peaseblossom, she stumbled several times over the tufts that made the pattern. But the fairy took her by the hand and led her towards the foot of the bed. Lous; before O they reached it, however, Alice saw that the fairy was a tall, slender lady, and that she herself was quite her own size. What she had taken for tufts on the counterpane were really bushes of furze, and broom, and heather, on the side of a slope. " Where are we ? " asked Alice. " Goin£ on," answered the fairv. j Alice, not liking the reply, said, — " I want to go home." " Good-bye, then," answered the fairy. Alice looked round. A wide, hilly country lay all about them. She could not even tell from what quarter they had come. " I must go with you, I see," she said. Before they reached the bottom, they were walking over the loveliest meadow-grass. A little stream went o cantering down beside them, without channel or bank, sometimes running between the blades, sometimes

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Cross Purposes 145 sweeping the grass all one way under it. And it made a great babbling for such a little stream and such a smooth course. Gradually the slope grew gentler, and the stream flowed more softly and spread out wider. At length they came to a wood of long, straight poplars, growing out of the water, for the stream ran into the wood, and there stretched out into a lake. Alice thought they could go no farther ; but Peaseblossorn led her straight on, and they walked through. It was now dark ; but everything under the water gave out a pale, quiet light. There were deep pools here and there, but there was no mud, or frogs, or waterlizards, or eels. All the bottom was pure, lovely grass, brilliantly green. Down the banks of the pools she saw, all under water, primroses and violets and pimpernels. Any flower she wished to see she had only to look for, and she was sure to find it. When a pool came in their way, the fairy swam, and Alice swam by her ; and when they got out they were quite dry, though the water was as delightfully wet as water should be. Besides the trees, tall, splendid lilies grew out of it, and hollyhocks and irises and sword-plants, and many other long-stemmed flowers. From every leaf and petal of these, from every branch-tip and tendril, dropped bright water. It gathered slowly at each point, but the points were so many that there was a constant musical plashing of diamond rain upon the still surface of the lake. As they went on, the moon rose and threw a pale mist of light over the whole, and the diamond drops turned

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Cross Purposes to half-liquid pearls, and round every tree-top was a halo of moonlight, and the water went to sleep, and the flowers began to dream. "Look," said the fairy ; " those lilies are just dreaming themselves into a child's sleep. I can see them smiling. This is the place out of which go the things that appear to children every night. " Is this dreamland, then ? " asked Alice. " If you like," answered the fairy. " How far ani I from home ? " " The farther you go, the nearer home you are." Then the fairy lady gathered a bundle of poppies and gave it to Alice. The next deep pool that they came to, she told her to throw it in. Alice did so, and following it, laid her head upon it. That moment she began to sink. Down and down she went, till at last

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Cross Purposes 147 she felt herself lying on the long, thick grass at the bottom of the pool, with the poppies under her head and the clear water high over it. Up through it she saw the inoon, whose bright face looked sleepy too, disturbed only by the little ripples of the rain from the tall flowers on the edges of the pool. She fell fast asleep, and all night dreamed about home. III. ICHARD — which is name enough for a fairy story — was the son of a widow in Alice's village. He was so poor that he did not find himself generally welcome ; so he hardly went anywhere, but read books at home, and waited upon his mother. His manners, therefore, were shy, and sufficiently awkward to give an unfavourable impression to those who looked at outsides. Alice would have despised him ; but he never came near enough for that. Now Richard had been saving up his few pence in order to buy an umbrella for his mother ; for the winter would come, and the one she had was almost torn to ribands. One bright summer evening, when he thought umbrellas must be cheap, he was walking across the market-place to buy one : there, in the middle of it, stood an odd-looking little man, actually selling umbrellas. Here was a chance for him ! When

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148 Cross Purposes he drew nearer, lie found that the little man, while vaunting his umbrellas to the skies, was asking such absurdly small pi-ices for them, that no one would veuture to buy one. He had opened and laid them all out at full stretch oil the market-place — about five-amitwenty of them, stick downwards, like little tents — and he stood beside, haranguing the people. But he would not allow one of the crowd to touch his umbrellas. As soon as his eye fell upon Richard, he changed his tone, and said, " Well, as nobody seems inclined to buy, I think, my dear umbrellas, we had better be going home." Whereupon the umbrellas got up, with some difficulty, and began hobbling away. The people stared at each other with open mouths, for they saw that what they had taken for a lot of umbrellas, was in reality a flock of black geese. A great turkey-cock went gobbling behind them, driving them all down a lane towards the forest. Richard thought with himself, O " There is more in this than I can account for. But an umbrella that could lay eggs would be a very jolly umbrella." So by the time the people were beginning to laugh at each other, Richard was halfway down the lane at the heels of the geese. There he stooped and caught one of them, but instead of a goose he had a huge hedgehog in his hands, which he dropped in dismay ; whereupon it waddled away a goose as before, and the whole of them began cackling and hissing in a way that he could not mistake. For the turkey-cock, he gobbled and gabbled and choked himself and got right again in the most ridiculous manner. In fact, he

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Cross Purposes 149 seemed sometimes to forget that be was a turkey, arid laughed like a fool. All at once, with a simultaneous O ' long-necked hiss, they flew into the wood, and the turkey after them. But Richard soon got up with them again, and found them all hanging by their feet from the trees, in two rows, one on each side of the path, while the turkey was walking on. Him Richard followed ; but the moment he reached the middle of the suspended geese, from every side arose the most frightful hisses, and their necks grew longer and longer, till there were nearly thirty broad bills close to his head, blowing in his face, in his ears, and at the back of his neck. But the turkey, looking round and seeing what was going on, turned and walked back. When he reached the place, he looked up at the first and gobbled at him in the wildest manner. That goose grew silent and dropped from the tree. Then he went to the next, and the next, and so on, till he had gobbled them all off the trees, one after another. But wrheu Richard expected to see them go after the turkey, there was nothing there but a flock of huge mushrooms and puff-balls. " I have had enough of this," thought Richard. " I will go home again." " Go home, Richard," said a voice close to him. Looking down, he saw, instead of the turkey, the most comical-looking little man he had ever seen. " Go home, Master Richard," repeated he, grinning. " Not for your bidding," answered Richard. " Come on then, Master Richard."

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150 Cross Purposes " Xot that either, without a good reason." " I will give you such an umbrella for your mother." " I don't take presents from strangers." " Bless you, I 'in no stranger here ! Oh no ! not at all.1' And he set off in a manner usual with him, rolling every way at once. Richard could not help laughing and following. At length Toadstool plumped into a great hole full of water. " Served him right ! " thought Richard. " Served him right ! " bawled the goblin, crawling out again, and shaking the water from him like a spaniel. " This is the very place I wanted, only I rolled too fast." However, he went on rolling again faster than before, though it was now up hill, till he came to the top of a considerable height, on which grew a number of palm trees. " Have you a knife, Richard ? " said the goblin, stopping all at once, as if he had been walking quietly along, just like other people. Richard pulled out a pocket-knife and gave it to the creature, who instantly cut a deep gash in one of the trees. Then he bounded to another and did the same, and so on, till he had gashed them all. Richard, following him, saw that a little stream, clearer than the clearest water, began to now from each, increasing in size the longer it flowed. Before he had reached the O last there was quite a tinkling and rustling of the little rills that ran down the stems of the palms. This grew and grew, till Richard saw that a full rivulet was. flowing down the side of the hill.

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Cross Purposes i 5 i a a " Here is your knife, Richard," said the goblin ; but by the time he had put it in his pocket, the rivulet had grown to a small torrent. " Now, Richard, come along," said Toadstool, and threw himself into the torrent. I would rather have a boat," returned Richard. Oh, you stupid ! " cried Toadstool, crawling up the side of the hill, down which the stream had already carried him some distance. With every contortion that labour and difficulty could suggest, yet with incredible rapidity, he crawled to the very top of one of the trees, and tore down a huge leaf, which he threw on the ground, and himself after it, rebounding like a ball. He then laid the leaf on the water, held it by the stem, and told Richard to get upon it. He did so. It went down deep in the middle with his weight. Toadstool let it go, and it shot down the stream like an arrow. This began the strangest and most delightful voyage. The stream rushed careering and curveting down the hill-sider bright as a diamond, and soon reached a meadow plain. The goblin rolled alongside of the boat like a bundle of weeds ; but Richard rode in triumph through the low grassy country upon the back of his watery steed. It went straight as an arrow, and, strange to tell, was heaped up on the ground, like a ridge of water or a wave, only rushing on endways. It needed no channel, and turned aside for no opposition. It flowed over everything that crossed its path, like a great serpent of water, with folds fitting into all the ups and downs of

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152 Cross Purposes the way. If a, wall came in its course it flowed against it, heaping itself up on itself till it reached the top, whence it plunged to the foot on the other side, and flowed on. Soon he found that it was running gently up a grassy hill. The waves kept curling back as if the wind blew them, or as if they could hardly keep from running down ao-aiu. But still the stream O O mounted and flowed, and the waves with it. It found it difficult, but it could do it. When they reached the top, it bore them across a heathy country, rolling over purple heather, and blue harebells, and delicate ferns, and tall foxgloves crowded with bells purple and white. All the time, the palm-leaf curled its edges away from the water, and made a delightful boat for Richard, while Toadstool tumbled alouo; in the stream like a O porpoise. At length the water began to run very fast, and went faster and faster, till suddenly it plunged them into a deep lake, with a great splash, and stopped there. Toadstool went out of sight, and came up gasping and grinning, while Richard's boat tossed and heaved like a vessel in a storm at sea ; but not a drop of water came in. Then the goblin began to swim, and pushed and tugged the boat along. But the lake was so still, and the motion so pleasant, that Richard fell fast asleep.

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153

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154 Cross Purposes IV. ,11 EN he woke, he found himself still afloat upon the broad palm-leaf. He was alone in the middle of a lake, with flowers and trees growing in and out of it everywhere. The sun was just over the tree-tops. A drip of water from the flowers greeted him with music ; the mists were dissolving away ; and where the sunlight fell on the lake the water was clear as glass. Casting his eyes downward, he saw, just beneath him, far clown at the bottom, Alice — drowned, as he thought. He was in the act of plunging in, when he saw her open her eyes, and at the same moment begin to float up. He held out his hand, but she repelled it with disdain ; and swimming to a tree, sat down on a low branch, wonderO ' ing how ever the poor widow's son could have found his way into Fairyland. She did not like it. It was an invasion of privilege. " How did you come here, young Richard ? " she asked, from six yards off. " A goblin brought me." " All, I thought so. A fairy brought me." " Where is your fairy ? r " Here I am," said Peaseblossom, rising slowly to the surface, just by the tree on which Alice was seated. " Where is your goblin ? " retorted Alice. "Here I am," bawled Toadstool, rushing out of the

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Cross Purposes 155 water like a salmon, and casting a summersault in the air before he fell in again with a tremendous splash. His head rose a^ain close beside Peaseblossorn, who O ' being used to such creatures only laughed. " Is n't he handsome 1 " he grinned. " Yes, very. He wants polishing though." "You could do that for yourself, you know. Shall we change I r "I don't mind. You '11 find her rather silly." " That 's nothing. The boy 's too sensible for me." He dived, and rose at Alice's feet. She shrieked with

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156 Cross Purposes terr< >r. The fairy floated away like a water-lily towards Richard. " What a lovely creature ! " thought he ; but hearing Alice shriek again, lie said, " Don't leave Alice ; she 's frightened at that queer creature. — I don't think there 's any harm in him, though, Alice." " Oh, no. He won't hurt her," said Peaseblossom. "I 'in tired of her. He 's going to take her to the court, and I will take you." "I don't want to go." " But you must. You can't go home again. You don't know the way." " Richard ! Richard ! " cried Alice, in an agony. Richard sprang from his boat, and was by her side in a moment. " He pinched me," cried Alice. Richard hit the goblin a terrible blow on the head ; but it took no more effect upon him than if his head had been a round ball of India-rubber. He gave Richard a furious look, however, and bawling out, " You '11 repent that, Dick ! " vanished under the water. " Come along, Richard ; make haste ; he will murder you," cried the fairy. " It 's all your fault," said Richard. " I won't leave Alice." Then the fairy saw it was all over with her and Toadstool ; for they can do nothing with mortals against their will. So she floated away across the water in Richard's boat, holding her robe for a sail, and vanished, leaving the two alone in the lake.

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Cross Purposes i 5 7 " You have driven away my fairy ! " cried Alice. "I shall never get home now. It is all your fault, you naughty young man." "I drove away the goblin," remonstrated Richard. " Will you please to sit on the other side of the tree. I wonder what my papa would say if he saw me talking to you ! " " Will you come to the next tree, Alice ? " said Richard, after a pause. Alice, who had been crying all the time that Richard was thinking, said "I won't." Richard, therefore, plunged into the water without her, and swam for the tree. Before he got half-way, however, he heard Alice crying, " Richard ! Richard ! " This was just what he wanted. So he turned back, and Alice threw herself into the water. With Richard's help she swam pretty well, and they reached the tree. " Now for the next ! " said Richard ; and they swam to the next, and then to the third. Every tree they reached was larger than the last, and every tree before them was larger still. So they swam from tree to tree, till they came to one that was so large that they could not see round it. What was to be done ? Clearly, to climb this tree. It was a dreadful prospect for Alice, but Richard proceeded to climb: and by putting her feet where he put his, and now and then getting hold of his ankle, she managed to make her way up. There were a great many stumps where branches had withered off, and the bark was nearly as rough as a hill-side, so there was plenty of foothold for them. When they had climbed

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158 Cross Purposes a long time, and were getting very tired indeed, Alice cried out, " Richard, I shall drop — I shall. Why did you come this way ? " And she began once more to cry. But at that moment Richard caught hold of a branch above his head, and reaching down his other hand got hold of Alice, and held her till she had recovered a little. In a few moments more they reached the fork of the tree, and there sat and rested. " This is capital ! " said Richard, cheerily. " What is ? " asked Alice, sulkily. " Why, we have room to rest, and there fs no hurry for a minute or two. I 'm tired." " You selfish creature ! " said Alice. " If you are tired, what must I be ? " " Tired too," answered Richard. " But we Ve got on bravely. And look ! what 's that ? " By this time the day was gone, and the night so near, that in the shadows of the tree all was dusky and dim. But there was still li^ht enough to disO O cover that in a niche of the tree sat a huge horned owl, with green spectacles on his beak, and a book in one foot. He took no heed of the intruders, but kept muttering to himself. And what do you think the owl was saying ? I will tell you. He was talking about the book he held upside down in his foot. " Stupid book this-s-s-s ! Nothing in it at all ! Everything upside down ! Stupid ass-s-s-s ! Says owls can't read ! /can read backwards ! " " I think that is the goblin again," said Richard, in

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Cross Purposes 159 a whisper. " However, if you ask a plain question, he must give you a plain answer, for they are not allowed to tell downright lies in Fairyland." " Don't ask him, Richard ; you know you gave him a dreadful blow." " I gave him what he deserved, and he owes me the same. — Hallo ! which is the way out? '; He would n't say if you please, because then it would not have been a plain question. " Downstairs," hissed the owl, without ever lifting his eyes from the book, which all the time he read upside down, so learned was he. " On your honour, as a respectable old owl ? " asked Richard. " No," hissed the owl ; and Richard was almost sure that he was not really an owl. So he stood staring at him for a few moments, when all at once without lifting his eyes from the book, the owl said, " I will sing a song," and began :— " Nobody knows the world but me. When they 're all in bed, I sit up to see. I 'm a better student than students all, For I never read till the darkness fall ; And I never read without my glasses, And that is how my wisdom passes. Howlowlwhoolhoolwoolool. " I can see the wind. Now who can do that ? I see the dreams that he has in his hat ; I see him snorting them out as he goes — Out at his stupid old trumpet-nose.

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160 Cross Purposes Ten thousand things that you could n't think I write them do\vn with pen and ink. Howlowlwhooloolwhitit that 's wit. " You may call it learning — 't is mother-wit. No one else sees the lady-moon sit On the sea, her nest, all night, the owl, Hatching the boats and the long-legged fowl. When the oysters gape to sing by rote, She crams a pearl down each stupid throat. Howlowlwhitit that 's wit, there !s a fowl ! " And so sin^ius;, he threw the book in Richard's face, O O7 ' spread out his great, silent, soft wings, and sped away into the depths of the tree. When the book struck Richard, he found that it was only a lump of wet moss. While talking to the owl he had spied a hollow behind one of the branches. Judging this to be the way the owl meant, he went to see, and found a rude, ill-defined staircase going down into the very heart of the trunk. But so laroje was the tree that this could O not have hurt it in the least. Down this stair, then, Richard scrambled as best he could, followed by Alice -not of her own will, she gave him clearly to understand, but because she could do no better. Down, down they went, slipping and falling sometimes, but never very far, because the stair went round and round. It caught Richard when he slipped, and he caught Alice when she did. They had begun to fear that there was no end to the stair, it went round and round so steadily, when, creeping through a crack, they

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Cross Purposes 1 6 1 found themselves in a great hall, supported by thousands of pillars of gray stone. Where the little light came from they could not tell. This hall they began to cross in a straight line, hoping to reach one side, and intending to walk along it till they came to some opening. They kept straight by going from pillar to pillar, as they had done before by the trees. Any honest plan will do in Fairyland, if you only stick to it. And no plan will do if you do not stick to it. It was very silent, and Alice disliked the silence more than the dimness, — so much, indeed, that she longed to hear Richard's voice. But she had always been so cross to him when he had spoken, that he thought it better to let her speak first; and she was too proud to do that. She would not even let him walk alongside of her, but always went slower when he wanted to wait for her ; so that at last he strode on alone. And Alice followed. But by degrees the horror of silence grew upon her, and she felt at last as if there was no one in the universe but herself. The hall went on widening around her ; their footsteps made no noise ; the silence grew so intense that it seemed on the point of taking shape. At last she could bear it no longer. She ran after Richard, got up with him, and laid hold of his arm. He had been thinking for some time what an obo stinate, disagreeable girl Alice was, and wishing he had her safe home to be rid of her, when, feeling a hand, ' O and looking around, he saw that it was the disagreeable girl. She soon began to be companionable after

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1 62 Cross Purposes a t'a-hion. for she began to think, putting everything together, that Richard must have been several times in O Fairyland before now. " It is very strange," she said to herself ; " for he is quite a poor boy, I am sure of that. His arms stick out beyond his jacket like the ribs of his mother's umbrella. And to think of me wandering about Fairyland with // //// / ' The moment she touched his arm, they saw an arch of blackness before them. They had walked straight to the door — not a very inviting one, for it opened upon an utterly dark passage. Where there was only one door, however, there was no difficulty about choosing. Richard walked straight through it ; and from the greater fear of being left behind, Alice faced the lesser fear of going on. In a moment they were in total darkness. Alice clung to Richard's arm, and murmured, almost against her will, " Dear Richard ! " o It was strange that fear should speak like love ; but it was in Fairyland. It was strange, too, that as soon as she spoke thus, Richard should fall in love with her all at once. But what was more curious still was, that, at the same moment, Richard saw her face. In spite of her fear, which had made her pale, she looked very lovely. " Dear Alice ! " said Richard, " how pale you look ! ': " How can you tell that, Richard, when all is as black as pitch ? " " I can see your face. It gives out light. Now I can see your hands. Now I can see your feet. Yes, I can see every spot where you are going to — No, don't

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Cross Purposes 163 put your foot there. There is an ugly toad just there." The fact was, that the moment he began to love Alice, his eyes began to send forth light. What he thought came from Alice's face, really came from his eyes. All about her and her path he could see, and every minute saw better; but to his own path he was blind. He could not see his hand when he held it straight before his face, so dark was it. But he could see Alice, and that was better than seeing the wayever so much. At leno;th Alice too beo;an to see a face dawning ~ ~ o through the darkness. It was Richard's face ; but it o / was far handsomer than when she saw it last. Her eyes had beomn to o;ive lisfht too. And she said to »' O O O herself — " Can it be that I love the poor widow's son \ -I suppose that must be it," she answered to herself, with a smile ; for she was not disgusted with hero self at all. Richard saw the smile, and was glad. Her paleness had gone, and a sweet rosiuess had taken its place. And now she saw Richard's path as he saw hers, and between the two sights they got on well. They were now walking on a path betwixt two deep waters, which never moved, shining as black as ebony where the eyelight fell. But they saw ere long that this path kept growing narrower and narrower. At last, to Alice's dismay, the black waters met in front of them. " What is to be done now, Richard ? " she said. When they fixed their eyes on the water before

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164 Cross Purposes them, tlirv saw that it was swarming with lizards, and fm«>s, and black snakes, and all kinds of strain^ and o ' ~ uuK creatures, especially some that had neither heads, nor tails, nor legs, nor fins, nor feelers, being, in fact, only living lumps. These kept jumping out and in, and sprawling upon the path. Richard thought for a few moments before replying to Alice's question, as, indeed, well he might. But he came to the conclusion f O that the path could not have gone on for the sake of stopping there ; and that it must be a kind of finger that pointed on where it was not allowed to go itself. So he caught up Alice in his strong arms, and jumped into the middle of the horrid swarm. And just as minnows vanish if you throw anything amongst them, just so these wretched creatures vanished, right and left and every way. He found the water broader than he had expected ; and before he got over, he found Alice heavier than he could have believed ; but upon a firm, rocky bottom, Richard waded through in safety. AVheu he reached the other side, he found that the bank was a lofty, smooth, perpendicular rock, with some rough steps cut in it. By-aud-by the steps led them right into the rock, and they were in a narrow passage once more, but, this time, leading up. It wound round and round, like the thread of a great screw. At last, Richard knocked his head against something, and could go no farther. The place was close and hot. He put up his hands, and pushed what felt like a warm stone: it moved a little.

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Cross Purposes 165 "Go down, you brutes ! " growled a voice above, quivering with auger. " You '11 upset niy pot and my cat, and my temper, too, if you push that way. Go down ! '' Richard knocked very gently, and said : " Please let us out." " Oh, yes, I dare say ! Very fine and soft-spoken ! Go down, you goblin brutes ! I 've had enough of */ O O you. I '11 scald the hair off your ugly heads if you do that again. Go down, I say ! " Seeing fair speech was of no avail, Richard told Alice to go down a little, out of the way ; and, setting his shoulders to one end of the stone, heaved it up; whereupon down came the other end, with a pot, and a fire, and a cat which had been asleep beside it. She frightened Alice dreadfully as she rushed past her, showing nothing but her green lamping eyes. Richard, peeping up, found that he had turned a hearthstone upside down. On the edge of the hole stood a little crooked old man, brandishing a mopstick in a tremendous rage, and hesitating only where to strike him. But Richard put him out of his difficulty by springing up and taking the stick from him. Then, having lifted Alice out, he returned it with a O ' bow, and, heedless of the maledictions of the old man, proceeded to get the stone and the pot up again. For puss, she got out of herself. Then the old man became a little more friendly, and said : " I beg your pardon, I thought you were goblins. They never will let me alone. But you must allow,

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1 66 Cross Purposes it was rather an unusual way of paying a morning call." And the creature bowed conciliatingly. " It was, indeed," answered Richard. " I wish you had turned the door to us instead of the hearthstone." For he did not trust the old man. " But," he added, " I hope you will forgive us." " Oh, certainly, certainly, my dear young people. Use your freedom. But such young people have no business to be out alone. It is against the rules." " But what is one to do — I mean two to do — when they can't help it ? " "Yes, yes, of course; but now, you know, I must take charge of you. So you sit there, young gentleman ; and you sit there, young lady." He put a chair for one at one side of the hearth, and for the other at the other side, and then drew his chair between them. The cat got upon his hump, and then set up her own. So here was a wall that would let through no moonshine. But although both Richard and Alice were very much amused, they did not like to be parted in this peremptory manner. Still they thought it better not to anger the old man any more— in his own house, too. But he had been once angered, and that was once too often, for he had made it a rule never to forgive without taking it out in humiliation. o It was so disagreeable to have him sitting there beo o tween them, that they felt as if they were far asunder. In order to get the better of the fancy, they wanted to hold each other's hands behind the dwarf's back. But

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Cross Purposes 167 the moment their hands began to approach, the back of the cat began to grow long, and its hump to grow high ; and, in a moment more, Richard found himself crawling wearily up a steep hill, whose ridge rose against the stars, while a cold wind blew drearily over it. Not a habitation was in sight ; and Alice had vanished from his eyes. He felt, however, that she must be somewhere on the other side, and so climbed and climbed, to get over the brow of the hill, and down to where he thought she must be. But the longer he O «— ' climbed, the farther off the top of the hill seemed ; till at last he sank quite exhausted, and — must I confess it? — very nearly began to cry. To think of being separated from Alice, all at once, and in such a disa 

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1 68 Cross Purposes greeable way! But he i'ell a-thinking instead, and soon said to himself: "This must be some trick of that wretched old man. Kitlicr this mountain is a cat «»r it is not. If it is a mountain, this won't hurt it ; if it is a cat, I hope it will/1 \Yith that, he pulled out his pocket-knife, and feeling for a soft place, drove it at one blow up to the handle in the side of tlie mountain. A terrific shriek was the first result ; and the second, that Alice and he sat looking at each other across the old man's hump, from which the cat-a-mountain had vanished. Their host sat staring at the blank lireplace, without ever turning round, pretending to know nothing of what had taken place. " Come along, Alice," said Richard, rising. " This won't do. We won't stop here." Alice rose at once, and put her hand in his. They walked towards the door. The old man took no notice of them. The moon was shining brightly through the O »/ O window ; but instead of stepping out into the moonlight when they opened the door, they stepped into a great beautiful hall, through the high gothic windows of which the same moon was shining. Out of this hall they could find no way, except by a staircase of stone which led upwards. They ascended it together. At the top Alice let go Richard's hand to peep into a little room, which looked all the colours of the rainbow, just like the inside of a diamond. Richard went a step or two along a corridor, but finding she had left him, turned and looked into the chamber. He could

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Cross Purposes 169 see her nowhere. The room was full of doors ; and she must have mistaken the door. He heard her voice calling him, and hurried in the direction of the sound. But he could see nothing of her. " More tricks," he O said to himself. " It is of no use to stab this one. I must wait till I see what can be done." Still he heard Alice calling him, and still he followed, as well as he could. At length he came to a doorway, open to the air, through which the moonlight fell. But when he ' C_J c_7 reached it, he found that it was high up in the side of a tower, the wall of which went straight down from O his feet, without stair or descent of any kind. Again he heard Alice call him, and lifting his eyes, saw her, across a wide castle-court, standing at another door ' O just like the one he was at, with the moon shining full upon her. " All right, Alice ! " he cried. " Can you hear me ? " "Yes," answered she. " Then listen. This is all a trick. It is all a lie of that old wretch in the kitchen. Just reach out your hand, Alice dear." Alice did as Richard asked her ; and, although they saw each other many yards off across the court, their hands met. " There ! I thought so ! ' exclaimed Richard, triumphantly. " Now, Alice, I don't believe it is more than a foot or two down to the court below, though it O looks like a hundred feet. Keep fast hold of my hand, and jump when I count three." But Alice drew her hand from him in sudden dismay ; whereupon Richard

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i 70 Cross Purposes said. " \Vell, I will tiy first/1 and jumped. The same moment, his cheery laugh came to Alice's ears, as she saw him standing safe on the ground, far below. " Jump, dear Alice, and I will catch you," said he. " I can't ; I am afraid," answered she. " The old man is somewhere near you. You had better jump," said Richard. Alice jumped from the wall in terror, and only fell a foot or two into Richard's arms. The moment she touched the ground, they found themselves outside the door of a little cottage which they knew very well, for it was only just within the wood that bordered on their village. Hand in hand they ran home as fast as they could. When they reached a little gate that led into her father's grounds, Richard bade Alice good-bye. The tears came in her eyes. Richard and she seemed to have grown quite man and woman in Fairyland, and they did not want to part now. But they felt that they must. So Alice ran in the back way, and reached her own room before any one had missed her. Indeed, the last of the red had not quite faded from, the west. As Richard crossed the market-place on his way home, he saw an umbrella-man just selling the last of his umbrellas. He thought the man gave him a queer look as he passed, and felt very much inclined to punch his head. But remembering how useless it had been to punch the goblin's head, he thought it better not. In reward of their courage, the Fairy Queen sent them permission to visit Fairyland as often as they

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Cross Purposes i 7 1 pleased ; and no goblin or fairy was allowed to interfere with them. For Peaseblossoni and Toadstool, they were both banished from court, and compelled to live together, for seven years, in an old tree that had just one green leaf upon it. Toadstool did not mind it much, but Peaseblossoni did.

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•V ,-.'-- g THE GOLDEN KEY. HERE was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt's stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key. "And what is the key for?': the boy would ask. " What is it the key of \ What will it open ? " " That nobody knows," his aunt would reply. " He has to find that out." 'I suppose, being gold/' the boy once said, thoughtfully, " that I could get a good deal of money for it if I sold it." " Better never find it than sell it," returned his aunt. And then the boy went to bed and dreamed about the golden key. Now all that his great-aunt told the boy about the golden key would have been nonsense, had it not been 172

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The Golden Key 173 that their little Louse stood on the borders of Fairylaud. For it is perfectly well known that out of Fairylaud uobody ever can find where the rainbow stands. The creature takes such good care of its golden key, always flitting from place to place, lest any one should find it ! But in Fairyland it is quite different. Things that look real in this country look very thin indeed in Fairyland, while some of the things that here cannot stand still for a moment, will ~ not move there. So it was not in the least absurd of the old lady to tell her nephew such things about the golden key. "Did you ever know anybody to find it ?" he asked, one evening. " Yes. Your father, I believe, found it." " And what did he do with it, can you tell me ? ' " He never told me." " What was it like ? " " He never showed it to me." " How does a new key come there always ? " " I don't know. There it is." " Perhaps it is the rainbow's egg." " Perhaps it is. You will be a happy boy if you find the nest." " Perhaps it comes tumbling down the rainbow from the sky." " Perhaps it does." One evening, in summer, he went into his own room, and stood at the lattice-window, and gazed into the forest which fringed the outskirts of Fairyland. It

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i 74 The Golden Key came dose up to his great-aunt's garden, and, indeed, sent some straggling trees into it. The forest lay to the east, and the sun, which was setting behind the O cottage, looked straight into the dark wood with O ' O his level red eye. The trees were all old, and had few branches below, so that the sun could see a great way into the forest ; and the boy, being keen-sighted, could see almost as far as the sun. The trunks stood like rows of red columns in the shine of the red sun, and he could see down aisle after aisle in the vanishing distance. And as he gazed into the forest he began to feel as if the trees were all waiting for him, and had O ' something they could not go on with till he came to them. But he was hungry, and wanted his supper. 80 he lino-ered. O Suddenly, far among the trees, as far as the sun could shine, he saw a glorious thing. It was the end of a rainbow7, large and brilliant. He could count all the seven colours, and could see shade after shade beyond the violet ; while before the red stood a colour more gorgeous and mysterious still. It was a colour he had never seen before. Only the spring of the rainbow-arch was visible. He could see nothing of it above the trees. " The golden key ! " he said to himself, and darted out of the house, and into the wood. He had not gone far before the sun set. But the rainbow only glowed the brighter. For the rainbow of Fairyland is not dependent upon the sun as ours is. The trees welcomed him. The bushes made way for

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The Golden Key 175 him. The rainbow grew larger and brighter ; and at length he found himself within two trees of it. O It was a grand sight, burning away there in silence, with its gorgeous, its lovely, its delicate colours, each distinct, all combining. He could now see a great deal ' O O more of it. It rose hio;h into the blue heavens, but O bent so little that he could not tell how hio-h the crown vJ of the arch must reach. It was still only a small portion of a huge bow. He stood gazing at it till he forgot himself with delight— even forgot the key which he had come to seek. And as he stood it grew more wonderful still. For in each of the colours, which was as laro;e as the column ~ of a church, he could faintly see beautiful forms slowly ascending as if by the steps of a winding stair. The forms appeared irregularly — now one, now many, now several, now none — men and women and children — all different, all beautiful. He drew nearer to the rainbow. It vanished. He started back a step in dismay. It was there again, as beautiful as ever. So he contented himself with standing as near it as he might, and watching the forms that ascended the glorious colours towards the unknown o height of the arch, which did not end abruptly, but faded away in the blue air, so gradually that he could not say where it ceased. When the thought of the golden key returned, the boy very wisely proceeded to mark out in his mind the space covered by the foundation of the rainbow, in order that he mio-ht know where to search, should O *

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i 76 The Golden Key tin- rainbow disappear. It was based chiefly upon a lied

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The Golden Key 177 mer of rainbow, and went towards it. — And now I will 2TO back to tbe borders of the forest. o Not far from the house where the boy had lived, there was another house, the owner of which was a merchant, who was much away from home. He had lost his wife some years before, and had only one child, a little girl, whom he left to the charge of two servants, who were very idle and careless. So she was neglected and left untidy, and was sometimes ill-used besides. Now it is well known that the little creatures commonly called fairies, though there are many different kinds of fairies in Fairyland, have an exceeding dislike to untidiness. Indeed, they are quite spiteful to slovenly people. Being used to all the lovely ways of the trees and flowers, and to the neatness of the birds and all woodland creatures, it makes them feel miserable,

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i 78 The Golden Key even iu their deep woods and on their grassy carpets, to think that within the same moonlight lies a dirt v, ~ v ' uncomfortable, slovenly house. And this makes them .•Higry with the people that live in it, and they would gladly drive them out of the world if they could. They want the whole earth nice and clean. So they pinch the maids black and blue, and play them all manner of uncomfortable tricks. But this house was quite a shame, and the fairies in the forest could not endure it. They tried everything on the maids without effect, and at last resolved upon making a clean riddance, beginning with the child. They ought to have known that it was not her fault, but they have little principle and much mischief in them, and they thought that if they got rid of her the maids would be sure to be turned away. So one evening, the poor little girl having been put to bed early, before the sun was down, the servants went off to the village, locking the door behind them. The child did not know she was alone, and lay contentedly looking out of her window towards the forest, of which, however, she could not see much, because of the ivy and other creeping plants which had straggled across her window. All at once she saw an ape making faces at her out of the mirror, and the heads carved upon a great old wardrobe grinning fearfully. Then two old spider-legged chairs came forward into the middle of the room, and began to dance a queer, old-fashioned dance. This set her lauo;hinor and she O O7 forgot the ape and the grinning heads. So the fairies

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The Golden Key 179 saw they had made a mistake, and sent the chairs back to their places. But they knew that she had been reading the story of Silverhair all day. So the next moment she heard the voices of the three bears upon the stair, big voice, middle voice, and little voice, and she heard their soft, heavy tread, as if they had had stockings over their boots, coming nearer and nearer to the door of her room, till she could bear it no longer. ' «D She did just as Silverhair did, and as the fairies wanted her to do : she darted to the window, pulled it open, got upon the ivy, and so scrambled to the ground. She then fled to the forest as fast as she could run. Now, although she did not know it, this was the very best way she could have gone ; for nothing is ever so mischievous in its own place as it is out of it ; and, besides, these mischievous creatures were only the children of Fairyland, as it were, and there are many other beings there as well ; and if a wanderer gets in among them, the good ones will always help him more than the evil ones will be able to hurt him. The sun was now set, and the darkness coming on, but the child thought of no danger but the bears behind her. If she had looked round, however, she would have seen that she was followed by a very different creature from a bear. It was a curious creature, made like a fish, but covered, instead of scales, with feathers of all colours, sparkling like those of a humming-bird. It had fins, not wings, and swam through the air as a fish does through the water. Its head was like the head of a small owl.

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i So The Golden Key After ru lining a l<>n^ way, and as the last of the \vas disappearing, she passed under a live with ng brunches. It [)rop[>ed its branches to the ground all about her, and caught her as in a trap. She struggled to get out, but the branches pressed her closer and closer to the trunk. She was in great terror and distress, when the air-fish, swimmiuir into the 7 O thicket of branches, began tearing them with its beak. They loosened their hold at once, and the creature went on attacking them, till at length they let the O O v child o;o. Then the air-fish came from behind her, and o swam on in front, glittering and sparkling all lovely colours ; and she followed. It led her gently along till all at once it swam in at a cottage-door. The child followed still. There was a O bright fire in the middle of the floor, upon which stood a pot without a lid, full of water that boiled and bubbled furiously. The air-fish swam straight to the pot and into the boiling water, where it lay quiet. A beautiful woman rose from the opposite side of the fire and came to meet the girl. She took her up in her arms, and said,— " Ah, you are come at last ! I have been looking for you a long time." She sat down with her on her lap, and there the girl sat staring at her. She had never seen anything so beautiful. She was tall and strong with white arms O' and neck, and a delicate flush on her face. The child could not tell what was the colour of her hair, but could not help thinking it had a tinge of dark green.

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1 82 The Golden Key She had not one ornament upon her, but she looked as if she had just put off quantities of diamonds and emeralds. Yet here she was in the simplest, poorest little cottage, where she was evidently at home. She was dressed in shining green. The girl looked at the lady, and the lady looked at the girl. " What is your name ? " asked the lady. " The servants always called me Tangle." "Ah, that was because your hair was so untidy. But that was their fault, the naughty women ! Still it is a pretty name, and I will call you Tangle too. You must not mind nay asking you questions, for you may ask me the same questions, every one of them, and any others that you like. How old are you ? " " Ten," answered Tangle. "You don't look like it," said the lady. " How old are you, please ? " returned Tangle. " Thousands of years old," answered the lady. " You don't look like it," said Tangle. " Don't I ? I think I do. Don't you see how beautiful I am ? " And her great blue eyes looked down on the little Tangle, as if all the stars in the sky were melted in them to make their brightness. " Ah ! but," said Tangle, " when people live long they grow old. At least I always thought so." "I have no time to grow old," said the lady. "I am too busy for that. It is very idle to grow old. — But I cannot have my little girl so untidy.

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The Golden Key 183 Do you know I can't find a clean spot on your face to kiss ? " " Perhaps," suggested Tangle, feeling ashamed, but not too much so to say a word for herself — "perhaps that is because the tree made me cry so." " My poor darling ! " said the lady, looking now as if the moon were melted in her eyes, and kissing her little face, dirty as it was, " the naughty tree must suffer for making a girl cry." " And what is your name, please ? " asked Tangle. " Grandmother," answered the lady. " Is it, really ? " "Yes, indeed. I never tell stories, even in fun." " How good of you ! " " I could n't if I tried. It would come true if I said it, and then I should be punished enough." And she smiled like the sun through a summer-shower, " But now," she went on, " I must get you washed and dressed, and then we shall have some supper." " Oh ! I had supper long ago," said Tangle. " Yes, indeed you had," answered the lady — " three years ago. You don't know that it is three years since you ran away from the bears. You are thirteen and more now.r Tangle could only stare. She felt quite sure it was true. " You will not be afraid of anything I do with you -will you ? " said the lady. " I will try very hard not to be ; but I can't be certain, you know," replied Tangle.

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184 The Golden Key "I like your saying so, and I shall be quite satisfied," answered tin- lady. She took oil' the girl's night-gown, rose with her in her arms, and goinu' to the wall of the cottage, opened a door. Then Tangle saw a deep tank, the sides of which were filled with green plants, which had flowers of all colours. There was a roof over it like the roof of the cottage. It was filled with beautiful clear water, in which swam a multitude of such fishes as the one that had led her to the cottage. It wras the lii>'ht their o o colours gave that showed the place in which they were. The lady spoke some words Tangle could not understand, and threw her into the tank. The fishes came crowding about her. Two or three of them got under her head and kept it up. The rest of them rubbed themselves all over her, and with their wet feathers washed her quite clean. Then the lady, who had been looking on all the time, spoke again ; whereupon some thirty or forty of the fishes rose out of the water underneath Tangle, and so bore her up to the arms the lady held out to take her. She carried her back to the fire, and, having dried her well, opened a chest, and taking out the finest linen garments, smelling of grass and lavender, put them upon her, and over all a green dress, just like her own, shining like hers, and soft like hers, and going into just such lovely folds from the waist, where it was tied with a brown cord, to her bare feet. "Won't you give me a pair of shoes too, grandmother ? " said

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The Golden Key 185 "No, my dear; no shoes. Look here. I wear no shoes." So saying, she lifted her dress a little, and there were the loveliest white feet, but no shoes. Then Tangle was content to go without shoes too. And the lady sat down with her again, and combed her hair, and brushed it, and then left it to dry while she got the supper. First she got bread out of one hole in the wall ; then milk out of another ; then several kinds of fruit out of a third ; and then she went to the pot on the fire, and took out the fish now nicely cooked, and, as soon as she had pulled oft' its feathered skin, ready to be eaten. " But," exclaimed Tangle. And she stared at the o fish, and could say no more. " I know what you mean," returned the lady. " You do not like to eat the messenger that brought vou o */ home. But it is the kindest return you can make. The creature was afraid to go until it saw me put the pot on, and heard me promise it should be boiled the moment it returned with you. Then it darted out of the door at once. You saw it go into the pot of itself the moment it entered, did you not?" " I did," answered Tangle, " and I thought it very strange ; but then I saw you, and forgot all about the fish." " In Fairyland," resumed the lady, as they sat down to the table, " the ambition of the animals is to be eaten by the people ; for that is their highest end in

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i S6 The Golden Key that condition. But they are not therefore destroyed. Out of that pot comes something more than the dead fish, you will see." Tangle now remarked that the lid was on the pot. But the lady took no further notice of it till they had eaten the fish, which Tangle found nicer than any fish she had ever tasted before. It was as white as snow, and as delicate as cream. And the moment she had swallowed a mouthful of it, a change she could not 7 O describe began to take place in her. She heard a murmuring all about her, which became more and more o articulate, and at length, as she went on eating, grew intelligible. By the time she had finished her share, the sounds of all the animals in the forest came crowdins; through the door to her ears ; for the door still O O stood wide open, though it was pitch dark outside ; and they were no longer sounds only ; they were speech, and speech that she could understand. She could tell what the insects in the cottage were saying to each other too. She had even a suspicion that the trees and flowers all about the cottage were holding midnight communications with each other ; but what o they said she could not hear. As soon as the fish was eaten, the lady went to the fire and took the lid off the pot. A lovely little creature in human shape, with large white wings, rose out of it, and flew round and round the roof of the cottage ; then dropped, fluttering, and nestled in the lap of the lady. She spoke to it some strange words, carried it to the door, and threw it out into the darkness.

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The Golden Key 187 Tangle heard the flapping of its wings die away in the distance. " Now have we done the fish any harm ? " she said, returning. " No," answered Tande, " I do not think we have. O ' I should not rnind eating one every day." " They must wait their time, like you and me too, my little Tangle." And she smiled a smile which the sadness in it made more lovely. " But," she continued, " I think we may have one for supper to-morrow." So saying she went to the door of the tank, and spoke ; and now Tangle understood her perfectly. " I want one of you," she said, — u the wisest." Thereupon the fishes got together in the middle of the tank, with their heads forming a circle above the water, and their tails a larger circle beneath it. They were holding a council, in which their relative wisdom should be determined. At length one of them flew up into the lady's hand, looking lively and ready. " You know where the rainbow stands ? " she asked. " Yes, mother, quite well," answered the fish. "Bring home a young man you will find there, who does not know where to go." The fish was out of the door in a moment. Then the lady told Tangle it was time to go to bed ; and, opening another door in the side of the cottage, showed her a little arbour, cool and green, with a bed of purple heath growing in it, upon which she threw

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1 88 The Golden Key a large wrapper made of the feathered skins of the wise tishes. shining gorgeous in the firelight. Tangle \\-as >oon lost in the strangest, loveliest dreams. And the beautiful lady was in every one of her dream^. In the morning she woke to the rustling of leaves CJ O over her head, and the sound of running water. But, to her surprise, she could find no door — nothing but the moss-grown wall of the cottage. So she crept through an opening in the arbour, and stood in the forest. Then she bathed in a stream that ran merrily through the trees, and felt happier ; for having once been in her grandmother's pond, she must be clean and tidy ever after; and, having put on her green dress, felt like a lady. She spent that day in the wood, listening to the birds and beasts and creeping things. She understood all that they said, though she could not repeat a word of it ; and every kind had a different language, while there was a common though more limited understanding between all the inhabitants of the forest. She saw nothing of the beautiful lady, but she felt that she was near her all the time ; and she took care not to go out of sight of the cottage. It was round, like a snow-hut or a wisrwam ; and she could see neither door O t nor window in it. The fact was, it had no windows ; and though it was full of doors, they all opened from the inside, and could not even be seen from the outside. She was standing at the foot of a tree in the twilight, listening to a quarrel between a mole and a

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The Golden Key 189 squirrel, in which the mole told the squirrel that the tail was the best of him, and the squirrel called the mole Spade-fists, when, the darkness having deepened around her, she became aware of something shining in her face, and looking round, saw that the door of the cottage was open, and the red light of the fire flowing from it like a river through the darkness. She left Mole and Squirrel to settle matters as they might, and darted off to the cottage. Entering, she found the pot boiling on the fire, and the grand, lovely lady sitting on the other side of it. u I Ve been watching you all day," said the lady. "You shall have something to eat by-and-by, but we must wait till our supper conies home." She took Tangle on her knee, and began to sing to her — such songs as made her wish she could listen to them for ever. But at length in rushed the shining fish, and snuggled down in the pot. It was followed by a youth who had outgrown his worn garments. His face was ruddy with health, and in his hand he carried a little jewel, which sparkled in the firelight. The first words the lady said were,— " What is that in your hand, Mossy ? " Now Mossy was the name his companions had given him, because he had a favourite stone covered with moss, on which he used to sit whole days reading ; and they said the moss had begun to grow upon him too. Mossy held out his hand. The moment the lady saw that it was the golden key, she rose from her

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190 The Golden Key chair, kissed Mossy on the forehead, made him sit down on her seat, and stood before him like a servant. Mossy could not bear this, and rose at once. But the lady begged him, with tears in her beautiful eyes, to sit, and let her \vait on him. " But you are a great, splendid, beautiful lady," said Mossy. " Yes, I am. But I work all day long — that is my pleasure ; and you will have to leave me so soon ! " " How do you know that, if you please, madam ? " asked Mossy. " Because you have got the golden key." " But I don't know what it is for. I can't find the key-hole. Will you tell me what to do ? " "You must look for the key-hole. That is your work. I cannot help you. I can only tell you that if you look for it you will find it." " What kind of a box will it open ? What is there inside ? " " I do not know. I dream about it, but I know nothing." " Must I go at once ? " " You may stop here to-night, and have some of my supper. But you must go in the morning. All I can do for you is to give you clothes. Here is a girl called Tangle, whom you must take with you." " That will be nice," said Mossy. "No, no!" said Tangle. "I don't want to leave O you, please, grandmother." " You must go with him, Tangle. I am sorry to

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The Golden Key 191 lose you, but it will be the best thing for you. Even the fishes, you see, have to go into the pot, and then out into the dark. If you fall in with the Old Man of the Sea, niind you ask him whether he has not got some more fishes ready for me. My tank is getting thin." So saying, she took the fish from the pot, and put the lid on as before. They sat down and ate the fish and then the winged creature rose from the pot, circled the roof, and settled on the lady's lap. She talked to it, carried it to the door, and threw it out into the dark. They heard the flap of its wings die away in the distance. The lady then showed Mossy into just such another chamber as that of Tangle ; and in the morning he found a suit of clothes laid beside him. He looked very handsome in them. But the wearer of Grandmother's clothes never thinks about how he or she looks, but thinks always how handsome other people are. Tangle was very unwilling to go. " Why should I leave you ? I don't know the young man," she said to the lady. *> " I am never allowed to keep my children long. You need not go with him except you please, but you must go some day ; and I should like you to go with him, for he has found the golden key. No girl need be afraid to go with a youth that has the golden key. You will take care of her, Mossy, will you not ? '' " That I will," said Mossy. And Tangle cast a glance at him, and thought she should like to go with him.

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The Golden Key •• Ami." said the lady, " it' you should lose each other as \ ou go through tlu — the — I never can remember the name of that country, — do not be afraid, but i:'o on and on." She kissed Tangle on the mouth and Mossy on tinforehead, led them to the door, and \vaved her hand eastward. Mossy and Tangle took each other's hand •/ and walked away into the depth of the forest. In his right hand Mossy held the golden key. They wandered thus a long way, with endless amusement from the talk of the animals. They soon learned enough of their language to ask them necessary questions. The squirrels were always friendly, and gave them nuts out of their own hoards ; but the bees were selfish and rude, justifying themselves on the ground that Tangle and Mossy were not subjects .of their queen, and charity must begin at home, though indeed they had not one drone in their poorhouse at the time. Even the blinking moles would fetch them an earth-nut or a truffle now and then, talking as if their mouths, as well as their eyes and ears, were full of cotton wool, or their own velvety fur. By the time they got out of the forest they were very fond of each other, and Tangle was not in the least sorry that her grandmother had sent her away with Mossy. At length the trees grew smaller, and stood farther apart, and the ground began to rise, and it got more and more steep, till the trees were all left behind, and the two were climbing a narrow path with rocks on each side. Suddenly they came upon a rude doorway,

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The Golden Key 193 by which they entered a narrow gallery cut in the rock. It grew darker and darker, till it was pitch-dark, and they had to feel their way. At length the light began to return, and at last they came out upon a narrow path on the face of a lofty precipice. This path went winding down the rock to a wide plain, circular in shape, and surrounded on all sides by mountains. Those opposite to them were a great way off, and towered to an awful height, shooting up sharp, blue, ice-enamelled pinnacles. An utter silence reigned where they stood. Not even the sound of water reached them. Looking down, they could not tell whether the valley below was a grassy plain or a great still lake. They had never seen any space look like it. The way to it was difficult and dangerous, but down the narrow path they went, and reached the bottom in safety. They found it composed of smooth, light-coloured sandstone, undulating in parts, but mostly level. It was no wonder to them now that they had not been able to tell what it was, for this surface was everywhere crowded with shadows. It was a sea of shadows. The mass was chiefly made up of the shadows of leaves innumerable, of all lovely and imaginative forms, waving to and fro, floating and quivering in the breath of a breeze whose motion was unfelt, whose sound was unheard. No forests clothed the mountain-sides, no trees were anywhere to be seen, and yet the shadows of the leaves, branches, and stems of all various trees covered the valley as far as their eyes could reach. They soon spied the shadows of flowers mingled with those of the

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194 The Golden Key leaves, and n<>\v and then the shadow of a bird with open beak, and throat distended with song. At times would appear the forms of strange, graceful creatures, running up and down the shadow-boles and along the branches, to disappear in the wind-tossed foliage. As they walked they waded kuee-deep in the lovely lake. For the shadows were not merely lying on the surface of the ground, but heaped up above it like substantial forms of darkness, as if they had been cast upon a thousand different planes of air. Tangle and Mossy often lifted their heads and gazed upwards to descry whence the shadows came ; but they could see nothing more than a bright mist spread above them, higher than the tops of the mountains, which stood clear against it. No forests, no leaves, no birds were visible. After a while, they reached more open spaces, where the shadows were thinner; and came even to portions over which shadows only flitted, leaving them clear for such as might follow. Now a wonderful form, half bird-like, half human, would float across on outspread sailing pinions. Anon an exquisite shadow group of gambolling children would be followed by the loveliest female form, and that again by the grand stride of a Titanic shape, each disappearing in the surrounding press of shadowy foliage. Sometimes a profile of unspeakable beauty or grandeur would appear for a moment and vanish. Sometimes they seemed lovers that passed linked arm in arm, sometimes father and son, sometimes brothers in loving contest, sometimes sisters entwined in gracefullest community of complex

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The Golden Key '95 form. Sometimes wild horses would tear across, free, or bestrode by noble shadows of ruling men. But some of the things which pleased them most they never knew how to describe. About the middle of the plain they sat down to rest in the heart of a heap of shadows. After sitting for a while, each, looking up, saw the other in tears: they were each longing after the country whence the shadows fell.

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The Golden Key " We must find the country from which the shadows come," said Mossv. •/ "We must, dear Mossy/1 responded Tangle. "What if your golden key should be the key to // / ' u Ah ! that would be grand," returned Mossy."But we must rest here for a little, and then we shall be able to cross the plain before night." So he lay down on the ground, and about him on every side, and over his head, was the constant play of the wonderful shadows. He could look throuo-h. o them, and see the one behind the other, till they mixed in a mass of darkness. Tangle, too, lay admiring, and wondering, and longing after the country whence the shadows came. When they were rested they rose and pursued their journey. How long they were in crossing this plain I cannot tell ; but before night Mossy's hair was streaked with gray, and Tangle had got wrinkles on her forehead. As evening drew on, tlie shadows fell deeper and rose higher. At length they reached a place where they rose above their heads, and made all dark around them. Then they took hold of each other's hand, and walked on in silence and in some dismay. They felt the gathering darkness, and something strangely solemn besides, and the beauty of the shadows ceased to delight them. All at once Tangle found that she had not a hold of Mossy's hand, though when she lost it she could not tell. u Mossy, Mossy ! " she cried aloud in terror.

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The Golden Key 197 But no Mossy replied. A moment after, the shadows sank to her feet, and down under her feet, and the mountains rose before her. She turned towards the gloomy region she had left, and called once more upon Mossy. There the gloom lay tossing and heaving, a dark, stormy, foauiless sea of shadows, but no Mossy rose out of it, or came climbing up the hill on which she stood. She threw herself down and wept in despair. Suddenly she remembered that the beautiful lady had told them, if they lost each other in a country of which she could not remember the name, they were not to be afraid, but to go straight on. " And besides," she said to herself, " Mossy has the golden key, and so no harm will come to him, I do believe." She rose from the ground, and went on. Before long she arrived at a precipice, in the face of which a stair was cut. When she had ascended halfway, the stair ceased, and the path led straight into the mountain. She was afraid to enter, and turning again towards the stair, grew giddy at sight of the depth beneath her, and was forced to throw herself down in the mouth of the cave. When she opened her eyes, she saw a beautiful little creature with wings standing beside her, waiting. "I know you," said Tangle. " You are my fish." " Yes. But I am a fish no longer. I am an aeranth now." " What is that ? " asked Tangle.

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The Golden Key '• \Vhat you see I am," answered the shape. " And I am come to lead you through the mountain." " Oh ! thank you, dear fish — acranth, I mean," returned Tangle, rising. Thereupon the aerauth took to his wings, and flew on through the long, narrow passage, reminding Tangle very much of the way he had swum on before when he was a fish. And the moment his white wings moved, they began to throw off a continuous shower of sparks of all colours, which lighted up the passage before them. — All at once he vanished, and Tangle heard a low, sweet sound, quite different from the rush and crackle of his wings. Before her was an open arch, and through it came lis;ht, mixed with the sound of O O ' & sea-wraves. She hurried out, and fell, tired and happy, upon the yellow sand of the shore. There she lay, half asleep with weariness and rest, listening to the low plash and retreat of the tiny waves, which seemed ever enticing the land to leave off being laud, and become sea. And as she lay, her eyes were fixed upon the foot of a great rainbow standing far away against the sky on the other side of the sea. At length she fell fast asleep. When she awoke, she saw an old man with long white hair down to his shoulders, leaning upon a stick covered with green buds, and so bending over her. " What do you want here, beautiful woman ? " he said. " Am I beautiful ? I am so glad ! " answered Tangle, rising. " My grandmother is beautiful."

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The Golden Key 199 " Yes. But what do you want ? ' he repeated kindly. "I think I want you. Are not you. the Old Man of the Sea? " " I am." " Then grandmother says, have you any more fishes ready for her ? ' u We will go and see, my dear," answered the Old Man, speaking yet more kindly than before. " And I can do something for you, can I not ? ' " Yes — show me the way up to the country from which the shadows fall," said Tangle. For there she hoped to find Mossy again. " Ah ! indeed, that would be worth doing," said the Old Man. " But I cannot, for I do not know the way myself. But I will send you to the Old Man of the Earth. Perhaps he can tell you. He is much older than I am." Leaning on his staff, he conducted her along the shore to a steep rock, that looked like a petrified ship turned upside down. The door of it was the rudder of a great vessel, ages ago at the bottom of the sea. Immediately within the door was a stair in the rock, down which the Old Man went, and Tangle followed. At the bottom the Old Man had his house, and there he lived. As soon as she entered it, Tangle heard a strange noise, unlike anything she had ever heard before. She soon found that it was the fishes talking. She tried to understand what they said; but their speech was so

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2oo The Golden Key old-fashioned, and rude, and undefined, that she could not make much of it. " I will go and see about those fishes for my daughter," said the Old Man of the Sea. And moving a slide in the wall of his house, he first looked out, and then tapped upon a thick piece of crystal that filled the round opening. Tangle came up behind him, and peeping through the window into the heart of the great deep green ocean, saw the most curious creatures, some very ugly, all very odd, and with especially queer mouths, swimming about everywhere, above and below, but all coming towards the window in answer to the tap of the Old Man of the Sea. Only a few could get their mouths against the glass ; but those who were floating miles away yet turned their heads towards it. The Old Man looked through the whole flock carefully for some minutes, and then turning to Tangle, said,— " I am sorry I have not got one ready yet. I want more time than she does. But I will send some as soon as I can." He then shut the slide. Presently a great noise arose in the sea. The Old Man opened the slide again, and tapped on the glass, whereupon the fishes were all as still as sleep. " They were only talking about you," he said. " And they do speak such nonsense !- -To-morrow," he continued, " I must show you the way to the Old Man of the Earth. He lives a long way from here." "Do let me go at once," said Tangle.

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The Golden Key 201 " No. That is not possible. You must come this way first." He led her to a hole in the wall, which she had not observed before. It was covered with the green leaves and white blossoms of a creeping plant. " Only white-blossoming plants can grow under the sea," said the Old Man. " In there you will find a bath, in which you must lie till I call you." Tangle went in, and found a smaller room or cave, in the further corner of which was a great basin hollowed out of a rock, and half-full of the clearest sea-water. Little streams were constantly running into it from cracks in the wall of the cavern. It was polished quite smooth inside, and had a carpet of yellow sand in the bottom of it. Large green leaves and white flowers of various plants crowded up over it, draping and covering it almost entirely. No sooner was she undressed and lying in the bath, than she began to feel as if the water were sinking into her, and she were receiving all the good of sleep without undergoing its forgetfulness. She felt the good coming all the time. And she grew happier and more hopeful than she had been since she lost Mossy. But she could not help thinking how very sad it was for a poor old man to live there all alone, and have to take care of a whole seaful of stupid and riotous fishes. After about an hour, as she thought, she heard his voice calling her, and rose out of the bath. All the O ? fatigue and aching of her long journey had vanished.

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2O2 The Golden Key She was as whole, and strong, and well as if she had slept for seven days. Returning to the opening that led into the other part of the house, she started back with amazement, for through it she saw the form of a strand man, with o o a majestic and beautiful face, waiting for her. " Come," he said ; " I see you are ready." She entered with reverence. " Where is the Old Man of the Sea ? " she asked, humbly. "There is no one here but me," he answered, smiling. " Some people call me the Old Man of the Sea. Others have another name for me, and are terribly frightened when they meet me taking a walk by the shore. Therefore I avoid being seen by them, for they are so afraid, that they never see what I really am. You see me now. — But I must show you the way to the Old Man of the Earth." He led her into the cave where the bath was, and there she saw, in the opposite corner, a second opening in the rock. " Go down that stair, and it will bring you to him," said the Old Man of the Sea. With humble thanks Tangle took her leave. She O went down the winding-stair, till she began to fear there was no end to it. Still down and down it went, rough and broken, with springs of water bursting out of the rocks and running down the steps beside her. It was quite dark about her, and yet she could see. For after being in that bath, people's eyes always give

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The Golden Key 203 out a light they can see by. There were no creeping things in the way. All was safe and pleasant, though so dark and damp and deep. At last there was not one step more, and she found herself in a glimmering cave. On a stone in the middle of it sat a figure with its back towards her — O the figure of an old man bent double with aoje. From o •—' behind she could see his white beard spread out on the rocky floor in front of him. He did not move as she entered, so she passed round that she might stand before him and speak to him. The moment she looked in his face, she saw that he was a youth of marvellous beauty. He sat entranced with the delight of what he beheld in a mirror of something like silver, which lay on the floor at his feet, and which from behind she had taken for his white beard. He sat on, heedless of her presence, pale with the joy of his vision. She stood and watched him. At length, all trembling, she spoke. But her voice made no sound. Yet the youth lifted up his head. He showed no surprise, however, at seeing her — only smiled a welcome. " Are you the Old Man of the Earth ? " Tangle had said. And the youth answered, and Tangle heard him, though not with her ears : — O " I am. What can I do for you ? ' " Tell me the way to the country whence the shadows fall." " Ah ! that I do not know. I only dream about it myself. I see its shadows sometimes in my mirror:

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204 The Golden Key the way to it I do uot know. But I think the Old Man of the Fire must know. He is much older than I am. He is the oldest man of all." " Where does he live ? " " I will show you the way to his place. I never saw him myself." So saying, the young man rose, and then stood a while gazing at Tangle. " I wish I could see that country too," he said. " But I must mind my work." He led her to the side of the cave, and told her to lay her ear against the wall. " What do you hear ? r he asked. " I hear," answered Tangle, " the sound of a great water running inside the rock." " That river runs down to the dwelling of the oldest man of all — the Old Man of the Fire. I wish I could go to see him. But I must mind my work. That river is the only way to him." Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole that went plumbdown. " That is the way," he said. " But there are no stairs." " You must throw yourself in. There is no other way." She turned and looked him full in the face — stood so for a whole minute, as she thought : it was a whole O year — then threw herself headlong into the hole.

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The Golden Key 205 When she came to herself, she found herself gliding down fast and deep. Her head was under water, but that did not signify, for, when she thought about it she could not remember that she had breathed once since her bath in the cave of the Old Man of the Sea. When she lifted up her head a sudden and fierce heat struck her, and she dropped it again instantly, and went sweeping on. Gradually the stream grew shallower. At length she could hardly keep her head under. Then the water could carry her no farther. She rose from the channel, and went step for step down the burning descent. The water ceased altogether. The heat was terrible. She felt scorched to the bone, but it did not touch her strength. It grew hotter and hotter. She said, " I can bear it no longer." Yet she went on. At the long last, the stair ended at a rude archway in an all but glowing rock. Through this archway Tangle fell exhausted into a cool mossy cave. The floor and walls were covered with moss — green, soft, and damp. A little stream spouted from a rent in the rock and fell into a basin of moss. She plunged her face into it and drank. Then she lifted her head and looked around. Then she rose and looked again. She saw no one in the cave. But the moment she stood upright she had a marvellous sense that she was in the secret of the earth and all its ways. Everything she had seen, or learned from books; all that her grandmother had said or sung to her; all the talk of the beasts, birds, and fishes ; all that had happened to

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206 The Golden Key on her journey with Mossy, ;m

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The Golden Key 207 she kuew not why, reminded her of the Valley of Shadows, and she spoke :" Where is the Old Man of the Fire ?" she said. " Here I ain," answered the Child, rising and leaving his balls on the moss. " What can I do for you ? " There was such an awful ness of absolute repose on the face of the Child that Tangle stood dumb before him. He had no smile, but the love in his large gray eyes was deep as the centre. And with the repose there lay on his face a shimmer as of moonlight, which seemed as if any moment it might break into such a ravishing smile as would cause the beholder to weep himself to death. But the smile never came, and the moonlight lay there unbroken. For the heart of the child was too deep for any smile to reach from it to his face. " Are you the oldest man of all ? " Tangle at length, although filled with awe, ventured to ask. O " Yes, I am. I am very, very old. I am able to help you, I know. I can help everybody." And the Child drew near and looked up in her face so that she burst into tears. " Can you tell me the way to the country the shadows fall from ? " she sobbed. " Yes. I know the way quite well. I go there myself sometimes. But you could not go my way; you are not old enough. I will show you how you can go." " Do not send me out into the great heat again," prayed Tangle.

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208 The Golden Key " I will not," answered the Child. And he reached up, and put his little cool hand on her heart. " Now," he said, " you can go. The fire will not burn you. Come." He led her from the cave, and following him through o O another archway, she found herself in a vast desert of sand and rock. The sky of it was of rock, lowering over them like solid thunder-clouds ; and the whole place was so hot that she saw, in bright rivulets, the yellow gold and white silver and red copper trickling molten from the rocks. But the heat never came near her. When they had gone some distance, the Child turned up a great stone, and took something like an egg from under it. He next drew a long curved line in the sand with his finger, and laid the egg in it. He then spoke something Tangle could not understand. The egg broke, a small snake came out, and, lying in the line in the sand, grew and grew till he filled it. The moment he was thus full-grown, he began to glide away, undulating like a sea-wave. "Follow that serpent," said the Child. "He will lead you the right way." Tangle followed the serpent. But she could not gofar without looking back at the marvellous Child. He stood alone in the midst of the glowing desert, beside a fountain of red flame that had burst forth at his feet, his naked whiteness glimmering a pale rosy red in the torrid fire. There he stood, looking after herr

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The Golden Key 209 till, from the lengthening distance, she could see him t O O ' no more. The serpent went straight on, turning neither to the ri^ht nor left. O Meantime Mossy had got out of the lake of shadows, and, following his mournful, lonely way, had reached the sea-shore. It was a dark, stormy evening. The sun had set. The wind was blowing from the sea. The waves had surrounded the rock within which lay the Old Man's house. A deep water rolled between it and the shore, upon which a majestic figure was walking alone. Mossy went up to him and said, — " Will you tell me where to find the Old Man of the Sea ? " " I am the Old Man of the Sea," the figure answered. / o " I see a strong kingly man of middle age," returned Mossy. Then the Old Man looked at him more intently, and said, — " Your sight, young man, is better than that of most who take this way. The night is stormy : come to my house and tell me what I can do for you." Mossy followed him. The waves flew from before the footsteps of the Old Man of the Sea, and Mossy followed upon dry sand. When they had reached the cave, they sat down and gazed at each other. Now Mossy was an old man by this time. He looked much older than the Old Man of the Sea, and his feet were very weary.

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2io The Golden Key After looking at him for a moment, the Old Man took him by the hand and led him into his inner cave. There he helped him to undress, and laid him in the bath. And he saw that one of his hands Mossy did not open. " What have you in that hand ?" he asked. Mossy opened his hand, and there lay the golden key. " Ah ! " said the Old Man, " that accounts for your knowing me. And I know the way you have to go." "I want to find the country whence the shadows fall," said Mossy. " I dare say you do. So do I. But meantime, one thing is certain. — What is that key for, do you think ? r " For a keyhole somewhere. But I don't know why I keep it. I never could find the keyhole. And I have lived a good while, I believe," said Mossy, sadly. " I 'in not sure that I 'in not old. I know my feet ache." "Do they ? " said the Old Man, as if he really meant to ask the question ; and Mossy, who was still lying in the bath, watched his feet for a moment before he replied. "No, they do not," he answered. "Perhaps I am. not old either." " Get up and look at yourself in the water." He rose and looked at himself in the water, and there was not a gray hair on his head or a wrinkle on his skin. " You have tasted of death now," said the Old Man. " Is it good ? "

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The Golden Key 2 i i " It is good," said Mossy. " It is better than life." " No," said the Old Man : " it is only more life.Your feet will make no holes in the water now." " What do you mean ? " " I will show you that presently." They returned to the outer cave, and sat and talked together for a long time. At length the Old Man of the Sea, arose and said to Mossy, — " Follow me." He led him up the stair again, and opened another door. They stood on the level of the raging sea, looking towards the east. Across the waste of waters, against the bosom of a fierce black cloud, stood the foot of a rainbow, glowing in the dark. " This indeed is my way," said Mossy, as soon as he saw the rainbow, and stepped out upon the sea. His feet made no holes in the water. He fought the wind, and clomb the waves, and went on towards the rainbow. The storm died away. A lovely day and a lovelier ni^ht followed. A cool wind blew over the wide O plain of the quiet ocean. And still Mossy journeyed eastward. But the rainbow had vanished with the storm. Day after day he held on, and he thought he had no guide. He did not see how a shining fish under the waters directed his steps. He crossed the sea, and came to a great precipice of rock, up which he could discover but one path. Nor did this lead him farther than half-way up the rock, where it ended on a plat 

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2 i 2 The Golden Key form. Here he stood and pondered. — It could not be that the way stopped here, else what was the path for? It was a rough path, not very plain, yet certainly a path. — He examined the face of the rock. It was smooth as glass. But as his eyes kept roving hopelessly over it, something glittered, and he caught sight of a row of small sapphires. They bordered a little hole in the rock. " The keyhole ! " he cried. He tried the key. It fitted. It turned. A great clang and clash, as of iron bolts on huge brazen caldrons, echoed thunderously within. He drew out the key. The rock in front of him began to fall. He retreated from it as far as the breadth of the platform would allow. A great slab fell at his feet. In front was still the solid rock, with this one slab fallen forward out of it. But the moment he stepped upon it, a second fell, just short of the edge of the first, making the next step of a stair, which thus kept dropping itself before him as he ascended into the heart of the precipice. It led him into a hall fit for such an approach — irregular and rude in formation, but floor, sides, pillars, and vaulted roof, all one mass of shining stones of every colour that light can show. In the centre stood seven columns, ranged from red to violet. And on the pedestal of one of them sat a woman, motionless, with her face bowed upon her knees. Seven years had she sat there waiting. She lifted her head as Mossy drew near. It was Tangle. Her hair had grown to her feet, and was rippled like the wind.

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213

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2 1 4 The Golden Key less sea oil broad sands. Her face was beautiful, like her grand mother's, and as still and peaceful as that of the Old Man of the Fire. Her form was tall and noble. Yet Mossy knew her at once. " How beautiful you are, Tangle ! " he said, in delight and astonishment. u Am I ? " she returned. u Oh, I have waited for you so long ! But you, you are like the Old Man of the Sea. No. You are like the Old Man of the Earth. No, no. You are like the oldest man of all. You are like them all. And yet you are my own old Mossy ! How did you come here ? What did you do after I lost you ? Did you find the keyhole ? Have you got the key still ? " She had a hundred questions to ask him, and he a hundred more to ask her. They told each other all their adventures, and were as happy as man and woman could be. For they were younger and better, and stronger and wiser, than they had ever been before. It began to grow dark. And they wanted more than ever to reach the country whence the shadows fall. So they looked about them for a way out of the cave. The door by which Mossy entered had closed again, and there was half a mile of rock between them and the sea. Neither could Tangle find the opening in the floor by which the serpent had led her thither. They searched till it grew so dark that they could see nothing, and gave it up. After a while, however, the cave began to glimmer again. The light came from the moon, but it did not

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The Golden Key 2 1 5 look like moonlight, for it gleamed through those seven pillars in the middle, and filled the place with all colours. And now Mossy saw that there was a pillar beside the red one, which he had not observed before. And it was of the same newT colour that he had seen in the rainbow when he saw it first in the fairy forest. And on it he saw a sparkle of blue. It was the sapphires round the keyhole. He took his key. It turned in the lock to the sounds of ^Eolian music. A door opened upon slow hinges, and disclosed a winding stair within. The key vanished from his fingers. Tangle went up. Mossy followed. The door closed behind them. They climbed out of the earth ; and, still climbing, rose above it. They were in the rainbow. Far abroad, over ocean, and land, they could see through its transparent walls the earth beneath their feet. Stairs beside stairs wound up together, and beautiful beings of all ages climbed along with them. They knew that they were going up to the country whence the shadows fell. And by this time I think they must have got there..

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THE CARASOYN. i. The Mountain Stream. NCE upon a time, there lived in a, valley in Scotland, a boy about twelve years of age, the son of a shepherd. His mother was dead, and he had no sister or brother. His father was out all day on the hills with his sheep ; but when he came home at night, he was as sure of finding; the cottage neat and O O clean, the floor swept, a bright fire, and his supper waiting for him, as if he had had wife and daughter to look after his household, instead of only a boy. Therefore, although Colin could only read and write, and knew nothing of figures, he was ten times wiser, and more capable of learning anything, than if he had been at school all his days. He was never at a loss when anything had to be done. 216

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The Carasoyn 2 i 7 Somehow, he always blundered into the straight road to his end, while another would be putting on his shoes to look for it. And yet all the time that he was busiest working, he was busiest building castles in the air. I think the two ought always to go together. And so Colin was never over-worked, but had plenty of time to himself. In winter he spent it in reading by the fireside, or carving pieces of wood with his pocket knife ; and in summer he always went out for a ramble. His great delight was in a little stream which ran down the valley from the mountains above. Up this burn he would wander every afternoon, with his hands in his pockets. He never got far, however — he was so absorbed in watching; its antics. SomeO times he would sit on a rock, staring at the water as / O it hurried through the stones, scolding, expostulating, muttering, and always having its own way. Sometimes he would stop by a deep pool, and watch the crimsonspotted trouts, darting about as if their thoughts and not their tails sent them where they wranted to go. And when he stopped at the little cascade, tumbling smooth and shining over a hollowed rock, he seldom O ' got beyond it. But there was one thing that always troubled him. It was, that when the stream came near the cottage, it could find no other way than through the little yard where stood the cowhouse and the pigsty ; and there, not finding a suitable channel, spread abroad in a disconsolate manner, becoming rather a puddle than a brook, all defiled with the treading of the cloven feet

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2 1 8 The Car asoyn of the cow and the pigs. In fact, it looked quite lost and ruined ; so that even after it had, with much labour, got out of the yard again, it took a long time to gather itself together, and not quite succeeding, slipped away as if ashamed, with spent forces and poverty-stricken speed ; till at length, meeting the friendly help of a rivulet coming straight from the hills, it gathered heart and bounded on afresh. " It can't be all that the cow drinks that makes the difference," said Colin to himself. "The pigs don't care about it. I do believe it 's affronted at beingO dashed about. The cow is n't dirty, but she 's rather stupid and inconsiderate. The pigs are dirty. Something must be done. Let me see." ~ He reconnoitred the whole ground. Upon the other side of the house all was rock, through which he could not cut ; and he was forced to the conclusion that the only other course for the stream to take lay right through the cottage. To most engineers this would have appeared the one course to be avoided ; but Colin's heart danced at the thought of having his dear burn running right through the house. How cool it would be all the O summer ! How convenient for cooking ; and how handy at meals ! And then the music of it ! How it would tell him stories, and sing him to sleep at night ! What a companion it would be when his father was away ! And then he could bathe in it when he liked. In winter — ah ! — to be sure ! But winter was a long way off.

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The Carasoyn 2 1 9 The very next day his father went to the fair. So Colin set to work at once. It was not such a very difficult undertaking; for the walls of the cottage, and the floor as well, were of clay — the former nearly sun-dried into a brick, and the latter trampled hard ; but still both assailable by pickaxe and spade. He cut through the walls, and dug a channel along the floor, letting in stones in the bottom and sides. After it got out of the cottage and through the small garden in front, it should find its own way to the channel below, for here the hill was very steep. The same evening his father came home. " What have you been about, Colin ? " he asked, in great surprise, when he saw the trench in the floor. " Wait a minute, father," said Colin, " till I have got your supper, and then I '11 tell you." So when his father was seated at the table, Colin darted out, and hurrying up to the stream, broke through the bank just in the place whence a natural hollow led straight to the cottage. The stream dashed out like a wild creature from a cage, faster than he could follow, and shot through the wall of the cottage. His father gave a shout ; and when Colin went in, he found him sitting with his spoon half way to his mouth, and his eyes fixed on the muddy water which rushed foaming through his floor. " It will soon be clean, father," said Colin, " and then it will be so nice ! " His father made no answer, but continued staring.

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22O The Carasoyn Colin went on with a Ions'- list of the advantages of O O having a brook running through your house. At length his father smiled and said: — O "You are a curious creature, Colin. But why should n't you have your fancies as well as older people ? We '11 try it awhile, and then we '11 see about it." The fact was, Colin's father had often thought what o a lonely life the boy's was. And it seemed hard to take from him any pleasure he could have. So out rushed Colin at the front, to see how the brook would take the shortest way headlong down the hill to its old channel. And to see it go tumbling down that hill was a sio;ht worth livins; for. ^J O " It is a mercy," said Colin, " it has no neck to break, or it would break twenty times in a minute. It flings itself from rock to rock right down, just as I should like to do, if it were n't for my neck." All that evening he was out and in without a moment's rest ; now up to the beginning of the cut, now following the stream down to the cottage ; then through the cottage, and out again at the front door to see it dart across the garden, and dash itself down the hill. At length his father told him he must go to bed. He took one more peep at the water, which was running quite clear now, and obeyed. His father followed him presently.

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The Carasoyn 221 II. The Fairy Fleet. HE bed was about a couple of yards from the edge of the brook. And as Coliii was always first up in the morning, he slept at the front of the bed. So he lay for some time gazing at the faint glimmer of the water in the dull red light from the sod-covered fire, and listening to its sweet music as it hurried through to the night again, till its murmur changed into a lullaby, and sung him fast asleep. Soon he found that he was coming awake again. He was lying listening to the sound of the busy stream. But it had gathered more sounds since he went to sleep — amongst the rest one of boards knocking together, and a tiny chattering and sweet laughter, like the tinkling of heather-bells. He opened his eyes. The moon was shining along the brook, lighting the smoky rafters above with its reflection from the water, which had been dammed back at its outlet from the cottage, so that it lay bank-full and level with the floor. But its surface was hardly to be seen, save by an occasional glimmer, for the crowded boats of a fairy fleet which had just arrived. The sailors were as busy as sailors could be, mooring along the banks, or running their boats high and dry on the shore. Some

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222 The Carasoyn had little sails which u'limmered white in the moonO shine — half-lowered, or blowing out in the light breeze that crept down the course of the stream. Some were pulling about through the rest, oars flashing, tiny voices calling, tiny feet running, tiny hands hauling at ropes that ran through blocks of shining ivory. On the O •/ shore stood groups of fairy ladies in all colours of the rainbow, green predominating, waited upon by gentlemen all in green, but with red and vellow feathers in O *• their caps. The queen had landed on the side next to Colin, and in a few minutes more twenty dances were going on at once along the shores of the fairy river. And there lay great Colin's face, just above the bed-clothes, glowering at them like an ogre. At last, after a few dances, he heard a clear, sweet, ringing voice say, " I Ve had enough of this. I 'in tired of doing like C O the big people. Let 's have a game of Hey Cockolorum Jig ! ' That instant every group sprang asunder, and every fairy began a frolic on his own account. They scattered all over the cottage, and Colin lost sight of most of them. While he lay watching the antics of two of those near him, who behaved more like clowns at a fair than the gentlemen they had been a little while before, he heard a voice close to his ear; but though he looked everywhere about his pillow, he could see nothing. The voice stopped the moment he began to look, but began again as soon as he gave it up.

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The Carasoyn 223 " You can't see me. I 'in talking to you through a hole in the head of your bed." Colin knew the knot-hole well enough. " Don't look," said the voice. " If the queen sees me I shall be pinched. Oh, please don't." The voice sounded as if its owner would cry presently. So Colin took good care not to look. It went on : " Please, I am a little girl, not a fairy. The queen stole me the minute I was born, seven years ago, and I can't get away. I don't like the fairies. They are so silly. And they never grow any wiser. I grow wiser every year. I want to get back to my own people. They won't let me. They make me play at being somebody else all night long, and sleep all day. That 's what they do themselves. And I should so like to be myself. The queen says that 's not the way to be happy at all ; but I do want very much to be a little girl. Do take me." " How am I to get you ? " asked Colin in a whisper, which sounded, after the sweet voice of the changeling, like the wind in a field of dry beans. "The queen is so pleased with you that she is sure to offer you something. Choose me. Here she comes." Immediately he heard another voice, shriller and stronger, in front of him ; and, looking about, saw standing on the edge of the bed a lovely little creature, with a crown glittering with jewels, and a rush for a sceptre in her hand, the blossom of which shone like a bunch of o-arnets.

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224 The Carasoyn "You great staring creature!" she said. "Your ~ ~ eyes are much too big to see with. What clumsy hobgoblins you thick folk are ! ' So saying, she laid her wand across Colin's eyes. " Now, then, stupid ! ' ' she said ; and that instant Colin saw the room like a huge barn, full of creatures about two feet high. The beams overhead were crowded with fairies, playing all imaginable tricks, scrambling everywhere, knocking each other over, throwing dust and soot in each other's faces, grinning from behind corners, dropping on each other's necks, and tripping up each other's heels. Two had got hold of an empty egg-shell, and coming behind one sitting on the edge of the table, and laughing at some one on the floor, tumbled it right over him, so that he was lost

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The Carasoyn 225 in the cavernous hollow. But the lady-fairies mingled in none of these rough pranks. Their tricks were always graceful, and they had more to say than to do. But the moment the queen laid her wand across his eyes, she went on : " Know, son of a human mortal, that thou hast pleased a queen of the fairies. Lady as I am over the elements, I cannot have everything I desire. One thing thou hast given me. Years have I longed for a path down this rivulet to the ocean below. Your horrid farmyard, ever since your great-grandfather built this cottage, was the one obstacle. For we fairies hate dirt, not only in houses, but in fields and woods as well, and above all in running streams. But I can't talk like O this any longer. 1 tell you what, you are a dear good boy, and you shall have what you please. Ask me for anything you like." " May it please your majesty," said Colin, very deliberately, " I want a little girl that you carried away some seven years ago the moment she was born. May it please your majesty, I want her." " It does not please my majesty," cried the queen, whose face had been growing very black. " Ask for something else." o " Then, whether it pleases your majesty or not," said Colin, bravely, " I hold your majesty to your word. I want that little girl, and that little girl I will have, and nothing else." " You dare to talk so to me, you thick ! r " Yes, your majesty."

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226 The Carasovn " Then you sha'n't have her." ''Then I '11 turn the brook right through the •-^ O hill," said Colin. "Do you think I'll let you come into my cottage to play at high jinks when you please, if you behave to me like this?" And Colin sat up in bed, and looked the queen in the face. And as he did so he caught sight of the loveliest little creature peeping round the corner at the foot of the bed. And he knew she \vas the little girl, because she was quiet, and looked frightened, and was sucking her thumb. Then the queen, seeing with whom she had to deal, and knowing that queens in Fairyland are bound by their word, began to try another plan with him. She put on her sweetest manner and looks; and as she did so, the little face at the foot of the lied grew more O troubled, and the little head shook itself, and the little thumb dropped out of the little mouth. "Dear Colin," said the queen, "you shall have the girl. But you must do something for me first." The little girl shook her head as fast as ever she could, but Colin was taken up with the queen. " To be sure I will. What is it ? " he said. And so he was bound bv a new bargain, and was in «/ ~ the queen's power. " You must fetch me a bottle of Carasoyn," said she. " What is that ? " asked Colin. " A kind of wine that makes people happy." " Why, are you not happy already ? " '•'No, Colin," answered the queen, with a sigh.

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The Carasoyn 227 " You have everything you want." " Except the Carasoyn," returned the queen. "You do whatever you like, and go wherever you please." "That's just it. I want something that I neither like nor please — that I don't know anything about. I want a bottle of Carasoyn." And here she cried like a spoilt child, not like a sorrowful woman. " But how am I to get it ? " " I don't know. You must find out." " Oh ! that 's not fair," cried Colin. But the queen burst into a fit of laughter that sounded like the bells of a hundred frolicking sheep, and bounding away to the side of the river, jumped on board of her boat. And like a swarin of bees gathered the courtiers and sailors ; two creeping out of the bellows, one at the nozzle and the other at the valve ; three out of the basket-hilt of the broadsword on the wall ; six all white out of the meal-tub ; and so from all parts of the cottage to the river-side. And amongst them Colin spied the little girl creeping on board the queen's boat, with her pinafore to her eyes ; and the queen was shaking her fist at her. In five minutes more they had all scrambled into the boats, and the whole fleet was in motion down the stream. In another moment the cottage was empty, and everything had returned to its usual size. " They '11 be all dashed to pieces on the rocks," cried Colin, jumping up, and running into the garden. When

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228 The Carasoyn he readied the fall, there was nothing to be seen but O the swift plunge and rush of the broken water in the moonlight. He thought he heard cries and shouts coming up from below, and fancied he could distinguish the sobs of the little maiden wrhom he had so o foolishly lost. But the sounds might be only those of the water, for to the different voices of a running stream there is no end. He followed its course all the way to its old channel, but saw nothing to indicate any disaster. Then he crept back to his bed, where he lay thinking what a fool he had been, till he cried himself dJ ' to sleep over the little girl who would never grow into a woman. III. The Old Woman and Her Hen. the morning, however, his courage had O7 ~ returned ; for the word Carasoyn was always saying itself in his brain. " People in fairy stories," he said, " always find what they want. Why should not I find this Carasoyn ? It does not seem likely. But the world does n't go round by likely. So I will try." But how was he to begin ? CD When Colin did not know \vhat to do, he always did something. So as soon as his father was gone to

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The Carasoyn 229 the trill, he wandered up the stream down which the fairies had come. " But I need n't go on so," he said, " for if the Carasoyn grew in the fairies' country, the queen would know how to get it." All at once he remembered how he had lost himself on the moor when he was a little boy ; and had gone into a hut and found there an old woman spinning. And she had told him such stories ! and shown him the way home. So he thought she might be able to help him now ; for he remembered that she was very old then, and must be older and still wiser now. And he resolved to go and look for the hut, and ask the old woman what he was to do. So he left the stream, and climbed the hill, and soon came upon a desolate moor. The sun was clouded and the wrind was cold, and everything looked dreary. And there was no sign of a hut anywhere. He wandered on, looking for it ; and all at once found that he had forgotten the way back. At the same instant he saw the hut right before him. And then he remembered it was when he had lost himself that he saw it the former time. " It seems the way to find some things is to lose yourself," said he to himself. He went up to the cottage, which was like a large beehive built of turf, and knocked at the door. " Come in, Colin," said a voice ; and he entered, stooping low. The old woman sat by a little fire, spinning, after

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230 The Carasoyn the old fashion, \vith a distaff and spindle. She stopped the moment he went in. " Corne and sit down by the fire," said she, " and tell me what yon want." Then Colin saw that she bad no eyes. " I am very sorry you are blind," he said. " Never you mind that, my dear. I see more than you do for all my blindness. Tell me what you want, and I shall see at least what I can do for you." " How do you know I want anything? " asked Colin. " Now that 's what I don't like," said the old woman. "Why do you waste words? Words should not be wasted any more than crumbs." " I beg your pardon," returned Colin. " I will tell you all about it." And so he told her the whole story. " Oh those children ! those children ! " said the old woman. " They are always doing some mischief. They never know how to enjoy themselves without hurting somebody or other. I really must fnve that O »/ ./ o queen a bit of my mind. Well, my dear, I like you ; and I will tell you what must be done. You shall carry the silly queen her bottle of Carasoyn. But she won't like it when she frets it, I can tell her. That 's o my business, however. — First of all, Colin, you must dream three days without sleeping. Next, you must work three days without dreaming. And last, you must work and dream three days together." " How am I to do all that ? " " I will help you all I can, but a great deal will de 

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The Carasoyn 231 pend on yourself. In the meantime you must have something to eat." O So saying, she rose, and going to a corner behind her bed, returned with a large golden-coloured egg in her hand. This she laid on the hearth, and covered over with hot ashes. She then chatted away to Colin about his father, and the sheep, and the cow, and the housework, and showed that she knew all about him. At length she drew the ashes off the egg, and put it on a plate. " It shines like silver now," said Colin. " That is a sign it is quite done," said she, and set it before him. Colin had never tasted anything half so nice. And he had never seen such a quantity of meat in an egg. Before he had finished it he had made a hearty meal. But, in the meantime, the old woman said,— " Shall I tell you a story while you have your dinner \ " " Oh, yes, please do," answered Colin. " You told me such stories before ! '' " Jenny," said the old woman, " my wool is all done. Get me some more." And from behind the bed out came a sober-coloured,, but large and beautifully-shaped hen. She walked sedately across the floor, putting down her feet daintily, like a prim matron as she was, and stopping by the door, gave a cluck, cluck. " Oh, the door is shut, is it ? " said the old woman. " Let me open it," said Colin.

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The Carasoyn u Do, my dear." "What are all those white things?' he asked, for the cottage stood in the middle of a creat bed of erass O O O with white tops. "Those are my sheep," said the old woman. "You will see." Into the grass Jenny walked, and stretching up her neck, gathered the white woolly stuff in her beak. AVhen she had as much as she could hold, she came back and dropped it on the floor; then picked the seeds out and swallowed them, and went back for more. The old woman took the wool, and fastening it on her distaff, began to spin, giving the spindle a twirl, and then dropping it and drawing out the thread from the distaff. But as soon as the spindle began to twirl, it began to sparkle all the colours of the rainbow, that it was a delight to see. And the hands of the woman, O ' instead of being old and wrinkled, were young and long-fingered and fair, and they drew out the wool, and the spindle spun and flashed, and the hen kept going out and in, bringing wool and swallowing the seeds, and the old woman kept telling Colin one story after another, till he thought he could sit there all his O life and listen. Sometimes it seemed the spindle that was flashing them, sometimes the long fingers that were spinning them, and sometimes the hen that was gathering them off the heads of the long dry grass and bringing them in her beak and laying them down on the floor. All at once the spindle grew slower, and gradually

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The Carasoyn 233 ceased turning; the lingers stopped drawing out the thread, the hen retreated behind the bed, and the voice of the blind woman was silent. " I suppose it is time for me to go," said Colin. " Yes, it is," answered his hostess. " Please tell me, then, how I ani to dreani three days without sleeping." "That 's over," said the old woman. "You Ve just finished that part. I told you I would help you all I could." "Have I been here three days, then?" asked Colin, in astonishment. " And nights too. And I and Jenny and the spindle are quite tired and want to sleep. Jenny has got three eggs to lay besides. Make haste, my boy." " Please, then, tell me what I am to do next ? r "Jenny will put you in the way. When you come where you are going, you will tell them that the old woman with the spindle desires them to lift Cumberbone Crag a yard higher, and to send a flue under Stonestarvit Moss. Jenny, show Colin the way." Jenny came out with a surly duck, and led him a good way across the heath by a path only a hen could have found. But she turned suddenly and walked home again.

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1 he Carasoyn IV. The Goblin Blacksmith, OLIX could just perceive something suggestive of a track, which he followed till the sun went down. Then he saw a dim light before him, keeping his eye upon which, he came at last to a smithy, where, looking in at the open door, he saw a huge, humpbacked smith working a forehamrner in each hand. He grinned out of the middle of his breast when he saw Colin, and said, " Come in ; come in : my youngsters will be glad of you." He was an awful looking creature, with a great hare lip, and a red ball for a nose. Whatever he didspeak, or laugh, or sneeze — he did not stop wrorking one moment. As often as the sparks flew in his face, he snapped at them with his eyes (which were the colour of a half-dead coal), now with this one, now with that ; and the more sparks they got into them the brighter his eyes grew. The moment Colin entered, he took a huge bar of iron from the furnace, and began laying on it so with his two forehammers that he disappeared in a cloud of sparks, and Colin had to shut his eyes and be glad to escape with a few burns on his face and hands. When he had beaten the iron

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The Carasoyn till it was nearly black, the smith put it in the fire ao-aiu, and called out a hundred odd names : O "Here Gob, Shag, Latchit, Licker, Freestone, Greywhackit, Mousetrap, Potatoe-pot, Blob, Blotch, Bluiiker » And ever as he called, one dwarf after another came tumbling out <>f the chimney in the corner of which T the fire was roaring. They crowded about Colin and began to make hideous faces and spit fire at him. But he kept a bold countenance. At length one pinched him, and he could not stand that, but struck him hard

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236 The Carasoyn on the head. He thought he had knocked his own O hand to pieces, it gave him such a jar; and the head rung like an iron pot. u Come, come, young man ! '" cried the smitli ; " you keep your hands off my children." " Tell them to keep their hands off me, then," said Colin. And calling to mind his message, just as they began to crowd about him again with yet more spiteful looks, lie added" Here, you imps ! I won't stand it longer. Get to your work directly. The old woman with the spindle says you 're to lift Cumberbone Crag a yard higher, and to send a flue under Stouestarvit Moss." In a moment they had vanished in the chimney. In a moment more the smithy rocked to its foundations. But the smith took no notice, only worked more furiously than ever. Then canie a great crack and a shock that threw Colin on the floor. The smith reeled, but never lost hold of his hammers or missed a blow on the anvil. " Those boys will do themselves a mischief," he said ; then turning to Colin, " Here, you sir, take that hammer. This is no safe place for idle people. If you don't work you '11 be knocked to pieces in no time." The same moment there came a wind from the chimney that blew all the fire into the middle of the smithy. The smith dashed up upon the forge, and rushed out of sight. Presently he returned with one of the goblins under his arm kicking and screaming, laid his ugly

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The Carasoyn 237 head down on the anvil, where he held him by the neck, and hit him a great blow with his hammer above the ear. The hammer rebounded, the goblin gave a shriek, and the smith flung him into the chimney, saying— " That 's the only way to serve him. You '11 be more careful for one while, I guess, Slobberkiu." And thereupon he took up his other hammer and began to work again, saying to Colin,

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?S The Carasoyn o "Now, young man, as long as \

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The Carasoyn 239 "Here, Gob," lie said; "run with it, and the wedges will be ready by the time you come back." Then, to the wedges they set. And Colin worked like three. He never knew how he could work before. Not a moment's pause, except when the smith was at the forge for another glowing mass ! And yet, to Colin's amazement, the more he worked, the stronger he seemed to grow. Instead of being worn out, the moment he had got his breath he wanted to be at it again ; and he felt as if he had grown twice the size since he took hammer in hand. And the goblins kept running in and out all the time, now for one thin"1, now O O' for another. Colin thought if they made use of all the tools they fetched, they must be working very hard indeed. And the convulsions felt in the smithy bore witness to their exertions somewhere in the neighbourhood. o And the longer they worked together, the more O */ O friendly grew the smith. At length he said — his words always adding energy to his blows— " What does the old woman want to improve Stonestarvit Moss for ? " " I did n't know she did want to improve it," returned Colin. " Why, anybody may see that. First, she wants Cumberbone Crag a yard higher — just enough to send the north-east blast over the Moss without touching it. Then she wrants a hot flue passed under it. Plain as a forehammer ! — What did you ask her to do for you ? She 's always doing things for people and making my bones ache."

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240 The Carasoyn " You don't seem to mind it much, though, sir," said Colin. "No more I do," answered the smith, with a blow that drove the anvil half way into the earth, from which it took him some trouble to drag it out again. "But I want to know what she is after now." So Colin told him all he knew about it, which was merely his own story. " I see, I see," said the smith. " It 's all moonshine ; but we must do as she says notwithstanding. And now it is my turn to give you a lift, for you have worked well. — As soon as you leave the smithy, go straight to Stonestarvit Moss. Get on the highest part of it ; make a circle three yards across, and dig a trench round it. I will give you a spade. At the end of the first day you will see a vine break the earth. By the end of the second, it will be creeping all over the circle. And by the end of the third day, the grapes will be ripe. Squeeze them one by one into a bottle — I will give you a bottle — till it is full. Cork it up tight, and by the time the queen comes for it, it will be Carasoyn." " Oh, thank you, thank you," cried Colin. " When am I to go ? " " As soon as the boys have lifted Cumberbone Crag, and bored the flue under the Moss. It is of no use till then." "Well, I'll go on with my work," said Colin, and struck away at the anvil. In a minute or two in came the same goblin whose O head his father had hammered, and said, respectfully.

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The Carasoyn 241 "It's all right, sir. The boys are gathering their O */ O o tools, and will be home to supper directly." "Are you sure you have lifted the Crag a yard?1' said the smith. "Slumkin says it 's a half inch over the yard. Gruugle says it 's three-quarters. But that won't matter—will it ? " " No. I dare say not. But it is much better to be accurate. Is the flue done ? " " Yes, we managed that partly in lifting the crag." " Very well. How 's your head ? " "It rings a little." "Let it ring you a lesson, then, Slobberkin, in future." "Yes, sir." " Now, master, you may go when you like," said the smith to Colin. " We Ve nothing here you can eat, I am sorry to say." " Oh, I don't mind that. I 'm not very hungry. But the old woman with the spindle said I was to work three days without dreaming." " Well, you have n't been dreaming — have yon ? " And the smith looked quite furious as he put the question, lifting his forehamnier as if he would serve Colin like Slobberkin. " No, that I have n't," answered Colin. " You took good care of that, sir." The smith actually smiled. " Then go along," he said. " It is all right." " But I Ve only worked 

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242 The Carasoyn " Three whole days and nights," interrupted the smith. " Gret along with you. The boys will bother you if you don't. Here 's your spade and here 's your bottle.1' V. The Moss Vineyard. did not need a hint more, but was out of the smithy in a moment. He turned, however, to ask the way : there was nothing in sight but a great heap of peats which had been dug out of the nioss, and was standing there to dry. Could he be on Stonestarvit Moss already ? The sun was just setting. He would look out for the highest point at once. So he kept climbing, and at last reached a spot whence he could see all round him for a long way. Surely that must be Cttinberboue Cras; looking down on him ! O O And there at his feet lay one of Jenny's eggs, as bright as silver. And there was a little path trodden and scratched by Jenny's feet, inclosing a circle just the size the smith had told him to make. He set to work at once, ate Jenny's egg, and then dug the trench. Those three days were the happiest he had ever known. For he understood evervthins; he did himself, *.' O and all that everything was doing round about him. He saw what the rushes were, and why the blossom

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The Carasoyn 243 came out at the side, and why it was russet-coloured, and why the pith was white, and the skin green. And he said to himself, " If I were a rush now, that 's just how I should make a point of growing." And he knew how the heather felt with its cold roots, and its head of purple bells; and the wise-looking cotton-grass, which the old woman called her sheep, and the white beard of which she spun into thread. And he knew what she spun it for : namely, to weave it into lovely white cloth of which to make nightgowns for all the good people that were like to die ; for one with one of these nightO gowns upon him never died, but was laid in a beautiful white bed, and the door was closed upon him, and no noise came near him, and he lay there, dreaming lovely cool dreams, till the world had turned round, and was ready for him to get up again and do something. He felt the wind playing with every blade of grass in his charmed circle. He felt the rays of heat shooting up from the hot flue beneath the Moss. He knew the moment when the vine was going to break from the earth, and he felt the juices gathering and flowing from the roots into the grapes. And all the time he seemed at home, tending the cow, or making his father's supper, or reading a fairy tale as he sat waiting for him to come home. At length the evening of the third day arrived. Colin squeezed the rich red grapes into his bottle, corked it, shouldered his spade, and turned homewards, guided by the peak which he knew in the

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244 The Carasoyn distance. After walking all ni^ht in the moonlight, o o o he canie at length upon a place which he recognized, and so down upon the brook, which he followed home. He met his father going out with his sheep. Great was his delight to see Colin a

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The Carasoyn 245 VI. The Consequences. UT at last tbe spring came, and after the spring the summer. And the very first warm day, Colin took his spade and pickaxe, and down rushed the stream once more, singing and bounding into the cottage. Colin was even more delighted than he had O O been the first time. And he watched late into the night, but there came neither moon nor fairy fleet. And more than a week passed thus. At length, on tbe ninth night, Colin, who had just fallen asleep, opened his eyes with a sudden wakefulness, and behold ! the room was all in a glimmer with moonshine and fairy glitter. Tbe boats were rocking on the water, and the queen and her court bad landed, and were dancing merrily on the earthen floor. He lost no time. " Queen ! queen ! " he said, " I Ve got your bottle of Carasoyn.'1 The dance ceased in a moment, and the queen bounded upon the edge of his bed. " I can't bear the look of your great, glaring, ugly eyes," she said. "I must make you less before I can talk to you." So once more she laid her rush wand across his eyes,

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246 The Carasoyn whereupon Colin saw them all six rimes the size they were before, and the queen went on : " Where is the Carasoyu ? Give it me." " It is in my box under the bed. If your majesty will stand out of the way, I will get it for you." The queen jumped on the floor, and Colin, leaning from the bed, pulled out his little box, and got out the bottle. '' There it is, your majesty," he said, but not offering it to her. " Give it me directly," said the queen, holding out her hand. " First give me niy little girl," returned Colin, boldly. '• Do you dare to bargain with me ? " said the queen, angrily. "Your majesty deigned to bargain with me first," said Colin. " But since then you tried to break all our necks. You made a wicked cataract out there on the other side of the garden. Our boats were all dashed to O pieces, and we had to wait till our horses were fetched. If I had been killed, you could n't have held me to my bargain, and I won't hold to it now." o u If you chose to go down my cataract- bes;an Colin. O u Your cataract ! " cried the queen. " All the waters that run from Loch Lonely are mine, I can tell you — all the way to the sea." " Except where they run through farmyards, your majesty."

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The Carasoyn 247 u I '11 rout you out of the country," said the queen. " Meantime I '11 put the bottle in the chest again," returned Colin. The queen bit her lip with vexation. " Come here, Changeling," she cried at length, in a flattering tone. And the little girl came slowly up to her, and stood staring at Colin, with the tears in her eyes. " Give me your hand, little girl," said he, holding out his. She did so. It was cold as ice. "Let go her hand," said the queen. "I won't," said Colin. "She 's mine." " Give me the bottle then," said the queen. " Don't," said the child. But it was too late. The queen had it. " Keep your girl," she cried, with an ugly laugh. " Yes, keep me," cried the child. The cry ended in a hiss. Colin felt something slimy wriggling in his grasp, and looking down, saw that instead of a little girl he was holding a great writhing worm. He had almost flung it from him, but recovering himself, he grasped it tighter. " If it 's a snake, I '11 choke it," he said. " If it 's a girl, I '11 keep her. The same instant it changed to a little white rabbit, which looked him piteously in the face, and pulled to get its little forefoot out of his hand. But, though he tried not to hurt it, Colin would not let it go. Then

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248 The Carasoyn the rabbit changed to a great black cat, with eyes that flashed green fire. She sputtered and spit and swelled her tail, but all to no purpose. Colin held fast. Then it was a wood pigeon, struggling and fluttering in terror to get its wing out of his hold. But Colin still held fast. All this time the queen had been getting the cork out. The moment it yielded she gave a scream and dropped the bottle. The Carasoyn ran out, and a strange odour filled the cottage. The queen stood shivering* and sobbing beside the bottle, and all her O O court canie about her and shivered and sobbed too, and their faces grew ancient and wrinkled. Then the queen, bending and tottering like an old woman, led the way to the boats, and her courtiers followed her, limping and creeping and distorted. Colin stared in amazement. He saw them all go aboard, and he heard the sound of them like a far-off company of men and women crying bitterly. And away they flo.ated down the stream, the rowers dipping no oar, but bending weeping over them, and letting the boats drift along the stream. They vanished from his sight, and the rush of the cataract came up on the night-wind louder than he had ever heard it before. — But alas! when he came to himself, he found his hand relaxed, and the dove flown. Once more there was nothing left but to cry himself asleep, as he well might. In the morning he rose very wretched. But the moment he entered the cowhouse, there, beside the cow, on the milking stool, sat a lovely little girl, with just one white garment on her, crying bitterly.

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The Carasoyn 249 " I am so cold," she said, sobbing. He caught her up, ran with her into the house, put her into the bed, and ran back to the cow for a bowl of warm milk. This she drank eagerly, laid her head down, and went fast asleep. Then Colin saw that though she must be eight years old by her own account, her face was scarcely older than that of a baby of as many months. When his father came home you may be sure he stared to see the child in the bed. Colin told him what had happened. But his father said he had met a troop of gypsies on the hill that morning. " And you were always a dreamer, Colin, even before you could speak." " But don't you smell the Carasoyn still ? v said Colin. " I do smell something very pleasant, to be sure," returned his father; "but I think it is the wall-flower on the top of the garden- wall. What a blossom there is of it this year ! I am sure there is nothing sweeter in all Fairyland, Colin." Colin allowed that. The little girl slept for three whole days. And for three days more she never said another word than " I •/ am so cold ! " But after that she began to revive a little, and to take notice of things about her. For / o three weeks she would taste nothing but milk warm from the cow, and would not move from the chimneycorner. By degrees, however, she began to help Colin a little with his house-work, and as she did so, her face

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250 The Carasoyn gathered more and more expression ; and she made such progress, that by the end of three months she could do everything as well as Colin himself, and certainly more neatly. Whereupon he gave up his duties to her, and went out with his father to learn the calling of a shepherd. Thus things went on for three years. And Fairy, as they called her, grew lovelier every day, and looked up to Colin more and more every day. At the end of the three years, his father sent him to an old friend of his, a schoolmaster. Before he left, he made Fairy promise never to go near the brook after sundown. He had turned it into its old channel the very day she came to them. And he bested his father */ v OO especially to look after her when the moon was high, for then she orew very restless and strange, and her O J O / eyes looked as if she saw things other people could not see. When the end of the other three years had come, the schoolmaster would not let Colin 2:0 home, but o insisted on sending him to college. And there he remained for three years more. t/ When he returned at the end of that time, he found Fairy so beautiful and so wise, that he fell dreadfully in love with her. And Fairy found out that she had been in love with him since ever so long — she did not know how long. And Colin's father agreed that they should be married as soon as Colin should have a house to take her to. So Colin went away to London, and worked very hard, till at last he managed to get a little

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The Carasoyn 251 cottage in Devonshire to live in. Then he went back to Scotland and married Fairy. And he was very glad to get her away from the neighbourhood of a queen who was not to be depended upon. VII. The Banished Fairies. HOSE fairies had for a Ions; time been O doing wicked things. They had played many ill-natured pranks upon the human mortals ; had stolen children upon whom they had no claim ; had refused to deliver them up when they were demanded of them ; had even terrified infants in their cradles ; and, final proof of moral declension in fairies, had attempted to get rid of the obligations of their word, by all kinds of trickery and false logic. It was not till they had sunk thus low that their queen began to long for the Carasoyn. She, no more than if she had been a daughter of Adam, could be happy while going on in that way; and, therefore, having heard of its marvellous virtues, and thinking it would stop her growing misery, she tried hard to procure it. For a hundred years she had tried in vain. Not till Colin arose did she succeed. But the Carasoyn was only for really good people, and therefore when

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252 The Carasoyn the iron bottle which contained it was uncorked, she, and all her attendants were, by the vapours thereof, suddenly changed into old men and women fairies. They crowded away weeping and lamenting, and Colin had as yet seen them no more. For when the wickedness of any fairy tribe reaches its climax, the punishment that falls upon them is, that they are compelled to leave that part of the country where they and their ancestors have lived for more years than they can count, and wander away, driven by an inward restlessness, ever longing after the country they have left, but never able to turn round and go back to it, always thinking they will do so to-morrow, but when to-morrow comes, saying tomorrow again, till at last they find, not their old home, but the place of their doom — that is, a place where their restlessness leaves them, and they find they can remain. This partial repose, however, springs from no satisfaction with the place; it is only that their inward doom ceases to drive them further. They sit down to weep, and to long after the country they have left. This is not because the country to which they have been driven is ugly and inclement — it may or may not be such : it is simply because it is not their country. If it would be, and it must be, torture to the fairy of a harebell to go and live in a hyacinth — a torture quite analogous to which many human beings undergo from their birth to their death, and some of them longer, for anything I can tell — think what it must be for a tribe of fairies to have to go and live in a country

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The Carasoyn 253 quite different from that in and for which they were born. To the whole tribe the country is what the flower is to the individual ; and when a fairy is born to whom the whole country is what the individual flower is to the individual fairy, then the fairy is king or queen of the fairies, and always makes a new nursery rhyme for the young fairies, which is never forgotten. When, therefore, a tribe is banished, it is long before they can settle themselves into their new quarters. Their clothes do not fit them, as it were. They are constantly wriggling themselves into harmony with their new circumstances — which is only another word for clothes — and never quite succeeding. It is their punishment — and something more. Consequently their temper is not always of the evenest ; indeed, and in a word, they are as like human mortals as may well be, considering the differences between them. In the present case, you would say it was surely no great hardship to be banished from the heathy hills, the bare rocks, the wee trotting burnies of Scotland, to the rich valleys, the wooded shores, the great rivers, the grand ocean of the south of Devon. You may say they could not have been very wicked when this was all their punishment. If you do, you must have studied the human mortals to no great purpose. You do not believe that a man may be punished by being made very rich ? I do. Anyhow, these fairies were not of your opinion, for they were in it. In the splendour of their Devon banishment, they sighed for their bare Scotland. Under the leafy foliage of the Devon 

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254 The Carasoyn shire valleys, with the purple and green ocean before them, that had seen ships of a thousand builds, or on the shore rich with shells and many-colored creatures, they longed for the clear, cold, pensive, open sides <>f the far-stretching heathy sweeps to which a gray, wild, torn sea, with memories only of Norsemen, whales, and mermaids, cried aloud. For the big rivers, on which reposed great old hulks scarred with battle, they longed after the rocks and stones and rowan and birch-trees of the solitary burns. The country they had left might be an ill-favoured thing, but it was their own. Now that which happens to the aspect of a country when the fairies leave it, is that a kind of deadness falls over the landscape. The traveller feels the wind as before, but it does not seem to refresh him. The child sighs over his daisy chain, and cannot find a redtipped one amongst all that he has gathered. The cowslips have not half the honey in them. The wasps outnumber the bees. The horses come from the plow more tired at night, hanging their heads to their very hoofs as they plod homewards. The youth and the maiden, though perfectly happy when they meet, find the road to and from the trysting-place unaccountably lono- and dreary. The hawthorn-blossom is neither so t/ white nor so red as it used to be, and the dark roii^h ' O bark looks through and makes it ragged. The day is neither so warm nor the night so friendly as before. In a word, that something which no one can either describe or be content to go without is missing. Every 

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The Carasoyn 255 thing is common-place. Everything falls short of one's expectations. But it does not follow that the country to which the fairies are banished is so much richer and more beautiful for their presence. If that country has its own fairies, it needs no more, and Devon in especial has been rich in fairies from the time of the Phoenicians, and ever so long before that. But supposing there were no aborigines left to quarrel with, it takes centuries before the new immigration can fit itself into its new home. Until this comes about, the queerest things are constantly happening. For however could a convolvulus grow right with the soul of a Canterbury-bell inside it, for instance ? The banished fairies are forced to do the best they can, and take the flowers the nearest they can find. VIII. Their Revene. FHEN Colin and his wife settled then in their farm-house, the same tribe of fairies was already in the neighbourhood, and was not long in discoverino1 who had come after them. An o assembly was immediately called. Something must be done ; but what, was disputed. Most of them thought only of revenge — to be taken upon the children. But

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2 5 6 The Carasoyn the queen hesitated. Perhaps her sufferings had done her good. She suggested that before coming to any conclusion they should wait and watch the household. In consequence of this resolution they began to frequent the house constantly, and sometimes in great numbers. But for a long time they could do the children no mischief. Whatever they tried turned out to their amusement. They were three, two girls and a boy ; the girls nine and eight, and the boy three years old. When they succeeded in enticing them beyond the home-boundaries, they would at one time be seized with an unaccountable panic, and turn and scurry home without knowing why ; at another, a great butterfly or dragon fly, or some other winged and lovely creature, would dart past them, and away towards the house, and they after it, scampering ; or the voice of their mother would be heard calling from the door. O But at last their opportunity arrived. One day the children were having such a game ! The sisters had blindfolded their little brother, and were carrying him now on their backs, now in their arms, all about the place ; now up stairs, talking about the rugged mountain paths they were climbing ; now down again, filling him with the fancy that they were descending into a narrow valley ; then they would set the tap of a rain-water barrel running, and represent that they were travelling along the bank of a rivulet. Now they were threading the depths of a great forest : and when the low of a cow reached them from a ni^h

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The Carasoyn 257 field, that was the roaring of a ]ion or a tiger. At length they reached a lake into which the rivulet ran, and then it was necessary to take off his shoes and socks, that he might skim over the water on his bare feet, which they dipped and dabbled now in this tub, now in that, standing for farm and household purposes by the water-butt. The sisters kept their own imaginations alive by carrying him through all the strange places inside and outside of the house. When they told him they were ascending a precipice, they were, in fact, climbing a rather difficult ladder up to the door of the hay-loft ; when they told him they were traversing a pathless desert, they were, in fact, in a waste, empty place, a wide floor, used sometimes as a granary, with the rafters of the roof coming down to it on both sides, a place abundantly potent in their feelings to the generation of the desert in his ; when they were wandering through a trackless forest, they were, in fact, winding about amongst the trees of a lar^eO O o orchard, which, in the moonlight, was vast enough for the fancy of any child. Had they uncovered his eyes at any moment, he would only have been seized with a wonder and awe of another sort, more overwhelming because more real, and more strange because not even in part bodied forth from his own brain. In the course of the story, and while they bore the bare-footed child through the orchard, telling him they saw the fairies gliding about everywhere through the trees, not thinking that he believed every word they told him, they set him down, and the child suddenly

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258 The Carasoyn opened his eyes. His sisters were gone. The moon was staring at him out of the sky, through the mossy tranches of the apple-trees, which lie thought looked like old women all about him, they were so thin and bony. When the sisters, who had only for a moment run behind some trees, that they might cause him additional amazement, returned, he was gone. There was terrible lamentation in the house ; but his father and mother, who were experienced in such matters, knew that the fairies must be in it, and cherished a hope that their son would yet be restored to them, though all their endeavours to find him wrere unavailing. IX. The Fairv Fiddler. L HE father thought over many plans, but '/ never came upon the right one. He n°t know that they were the same vQF- II I •' tribe which had before carried away tat - > -M^f^"''"1'' "• * t sssK^ ]jj8 wjfe when slje was an infant. If he had, they might have done something sooner. At length, one niujht, towards the close of seven O ' O years, about twelve o'clock, Colin suddenly opened his eyes, for he had been fast asleep and dreaming, and saw a few grotesque figures which he thought he must have

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The Carasoyn 259 seen before, dancing on the floor between him and the nearly extinguished fire. One of them had a violin, but when Colin first saw him he was not playing. Another of them was singing, and thus keeping the dance in time. This was what he sang, evidently addressed to the fiddler, who stood in the centre of the dance : — " Peterkin, Peterkin, tall and thin, What have you done with his cheek and his chin ? What have you done with his ear and his eye ? Hearken, hearken, and hear him cry." Here Peterkin put his fiddle to his neck, and drew from it a wail just like the cry of a child, at wThich the dancers danced more furiously. Then he went on playing the tune the other had just sung, in accompaniment to his own reply :— " Silversnout, Silversnout, short and stout, I have cut them off and plucked them out, And salted them down in the Kelpie's Pool, Because papa Colin is such a fool." Then the fiddle cried like a child again, and they danced more wildly than ever. Colin, filled with horror, although he did not more than half believe what they were saying, sat up in bed and stared at them with fierce eyes, waiting to hear what they would say next. Silversnout now resumed his part : —

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260 The Carasoyn " Ho, ho ! Ho ! ho ! and if he don't know, And fish them out of the pool, so — so, — here they all pretended to be hauling in a net as they danced. " Before the end of the seven long years, Sweet babe will be left without eyes or ears." Then Peterkin replied :" Sweet babe will be left without cheek or chin, Only a hole to put porridge in ; Porridge and milk, and haggis, and cakes : Sweet babe will gobble till his stomach aches." From this last verse, Colin knew that they must be Scotch fairies, and all at once recollected their figures as belonging to the multitude he had once seen frolicking in his father's cottage. It was now Silversuout's turn. He began :— " But never more shall Colin see Sweet babe again upon his knee, With or without his cheek or chin, Except — Here Silversnout caught sight of Colin's face staring at him from the bed, and with a shriek of laughter O they all vanished, the tones of Peterkin's fiddle trailing after them through the darkness like the train of a shooting; star.

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The Carasoyn 261 X. The Old Woman and Her Hen. r^^_ QW Colin had got the better of these '$ fairies once, not by his own skill, but by the help that other powers had afforded him. What were those powers? First the old woman on the heath. Indeed, he might attribute it all to her. He would go back to Scotland and look for her and find her. But the old woman was never found except by the seeker losing himself. It could not be done otherwise. She O would cease to be the old woman, and become her own hen,, if ever the moment arrived when any one found her without losing himself. And Colin since that time had wandered so much all over the moor, wide as it was, that lay above his father's cottage, that he did not believe he was able to lose himself there any more. He had yet to learn that it did not so much matter where he lost himself, provided only he was lost. Just at this time Colin's purse was nearly empty, and he set out to borrow the money of a friend who lived on the other side of Dartmoor. When he got there, he found that he had gone from home. Unable to rest, he set out as;am to return. o It was almost ni^ht when he started, and before he O ' had got many miles into the moor, it was dark, for there

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262 The Carasoyn was no moon, and it was so cloudy tliat lie could not see the stars. He thought he knew the way quite well, but as the track even in daylight was in certain places very indistinct, it was no wonder that he strayed from it, and found that he had lost himself. The same moment that he became aware of this, he saw a light away to the left. He turned towards it and found it proceeded from a little hive-like hut, the door of which

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The Carasoyn 263 stood open. When he was within a yard or two of it, he heard a voice say" Come in, Colin ; I 'in waiting for you." Colin obeyed at once, and found the old woman seated with her spindle and distaff, just as he had seen her when he was a boy on the moor above his father's cottage. " How do you do, mother ? " he said. "I am always quite well. Never ask me that question." "Well, then, I won't any more," returned Colin. " But I thought you lived in Scotland ? " " I don't live anywhere ; but those that will do as I tell them, will always find me when they want me." " Do you see yet, mother ? " " See ! I always see so well that it is not worth while to burn eyelight. So I let them go out. They were expensive." Where her eyes should have been, there was nothing but wrinkles. " What do you want ? " she resumed. " I want my child. The fairies have got him." " I know that." " And they have taken out his eyes." " I can make him see without them." " And they have cut off his ears," said Colin. " He can hear without them." "And they Ye salted down his cheek and his chin." " Now I don't believe that," said the old woman.

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264 The Carasoyn "I beard them say so myself," returned Colin. " Those fairies are worse liars than any I know. But something must be done. Sit down and I '11 tell you a story." " There 's only nine days of the seven years left," said Colin, in a tone of expostulation. " I know that as well as you," answered the old woman. " Therefore, I say, there is no time to be lost. Sit down and listen to my story. Here, Jenny." The hen came pacing solemnly out from under the bed. " Off to the sheep-shearing, Jenny, and make haste, for I must spin faster than usual. There are but nine days left." Jenny ran out at the door with her head on a level with her tail, as if the kite had been after her. In a few moments she returned with a bunch of wool, as they called it, though it was only cotton from the cotton-grass that grew all about the cottage, nearly as big as herself, in her bill, and then darted away for more. The old woman fastened it on her distaff, drew out a thread to her spindle, and then began to spin. And as she spun she told her story— fast, fast ; and Jenny kept scampering out and in ; and by the time Colin thought it must be midnight, the story was told, and seven of the nine days were over. " Colin," said the old woman, " now that you know all about it, you must set off at once." " I am ready," answered Colin, rising. " Keep on the road Jenny will show you till you

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The Carasovn 265 come to the cobbler's. Tell him the old woman with the distaff requests him. to give you a lump of his wax." " And what am I to do with it ? " " The cobbler always knows what his wax is for." And with this answer, the old woman turned her face towards the fire, for, although it was summer, it was cold at niht on the moor. Colin, moved by sudden curiosity, instead of walking out of the hut after Jenny, as he ought to have clone, crept round by the wall, and peeped in the old woman's face. There, instead of wrinkled blindness, he saw a pair of flashing orbs of light, which were rather reflected on the fire than had the fire reflected in them. But the same instant the hut and all that was in it vanished, he felt the cold fog of the moor blowing upon him, and fell heavily to the earth. XL The Goblin Cobbler. rHEN he came to himself he lay on the moor still. He got up and gazed around. The moon was up, but there was no hut to be seen. He was sorry enough now that he had been so foolish. He called, " Jenny, Jenny," but in vain. What was he to do ? To-morrow was the eighth of the

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266 The Carasoyn nine days left, and if before twelve at night the following day he had not rescued his boy, nothing could be done, at least for seven years more. True, the year was not quite out till about seven the following evening, but the fairies instead of giving days of grace, always take them. He could do nothing but begin to walk, simply because that gave him a shadow more of a chance of finding the cobbler's than if he sat still, but there was no possibility of choosing one direction rather than another. He wandered the rest of that night and the next day. He could not go home before the hour when the cobbler could no longer help him. Such was his anxiety, that although he neither ate nor drank, he never thought of the cause of his gathering weakness. As it grew dark, however, he became painfully aware of it, and was just on the point of sitting down exhausted upon a great white stone that looked inviting, when he saw a faint glimmering in front of him. He was erect in a moment, and making towards the place. As he drew near he became aware of a noise made up of many smaller noises, such as might have proceeded from some kind of factory. Not till he was close to the place could he see that it was a long low hut, with one door, and no windows. The light shone from the door, which stood wide open. He approached, and peeped in. There sat a multitude of cobblers, each on his stool, with his candle stuck in the hole in the seat, cobbling away. They looked rather little men, though not at all of fairy-size. The most remarkable thing

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The Carasoyn 267 about them was, that at any given moment they were all doing precisely the same thing, as if they had been a piece of machinery. When one drew the threads in stitching, they all did the same. If Colin saw one wax his thread, and looked up, he saw that they were all waxing their thread. If one took to hammering on his lapstone, they did not follow his example, but all together with him they caught up their lapstones and fell to hammering away, as if nothing but hammering could ever be demanded of them. And when he came to look at them more closely, he saw that every one was blind of an eye, and had a nose turned up like an awl. Every one of them, however, looked different from the rest, notwithstanding a very close resemblance in their features. The moment they caught sight of him, they rose as one man, pointed their awls at him, and advanced towards him like a closing bush of aloes, glittering with spikes. " Fine upper-leathers," said one and all, with a variety of accordant grimaces. " Top of his head — good paste-bowl," was the next general remark. u Coarse hair — good ends," followed. " Sinewrs — g-ood thread." O " Bones and blood — good paste for seven-leaguers." " Ears — o-ood loops to pull 'ein on with. Pair short now." " Soles — same for queen's slippers." And so on they went, portioning out his body in the

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268 The Carasoyn most irreverent fashion for the uses of their trade, till having come to his teeth, and said" Teeth — good brads," — they all gave a shriek like the whisk of the waxed threads through the leather, O and sprung upon him with their awls drawn back like daggers. There was no time to lose. " The old woman with the spindle- ' said Colin. " Don't know her," shrieked the cobblers. "The old woman with the distaff," said Colin, and they all scurried back to their seats and fell to hammering vigorously. " She desired me," continued Colin, " to ask the cobbler for a lump of his wax." Every one of them caught up his lump of wrought rosin, and held it out to Colin. He took the one offered by the nearest, and found that all their lumps were gone ; after which they sat motionless and stared at him. " But what am I to do with it ? " asked Colin. "I will walk a little way with you," said the one nearest, " and tell you all about it. The old woman is niy grandmother, and a very worthy old soul she is." Colin stepped out at the door of the workshop, and the cobbler followed him. Looking round, Colin saw all the stools vacant, and the place as still as an old churchyard. The cobbler, who now in his talk, gestures, and general demeanour, appeared a very respectable, not to say conventional, little man, proceeded to give him all the information he required, accompanying it with the present of one of his favourite awls. They walked a long way, till Colin was amazed to

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The Carasoyn 269 find that his strength stood out so well. But at length the cobbler said" I see, sir, that the sun is at hand. I must return to my vocation. When the sun is once up you ^yill know where you are." He turned aside a few yards from the path, and entered the open door of a cottage. In a moment the place resounded with the soft hammering of three hundred and thirteen cobblers, each with his candle stuck in a hole in the stool on which he sat. While Colin stood gazing in wonderment, the rim of the sun crept up above the horizon ; and there the cottage stood white and sleeping, while the cobblers, their lights, their stools, and their tools had all vanished. Only there was still the sound of the hammers ringing in his head, where it seemed to shape itself into words something like these : a good deal had to give way to the rhyme, for they were more particular about their rhymes than their etymology : " Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, Cobbler's man Hammer it, stitch it, As fast as you can. The week-day ogre Is wanting his boots ; The trip-a-trap fairy Is going bare-foots. Dream-daughter has worn out Her heels and her toeses, For want of cork slippers To walk over noses.

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270 The Carasoyn Spark-eye, the smith, May shoe the nightmare, The kelpie and pookie, The nine-footed bear : We shoe the mermaids — The tips of their tails — Stitching the leather On to their scales. We shoe the brownie, Clumsy and toeless, And then he goes quiet As a mole or a moless, There is but one creature That we cannot shoe, And that is the Boneless, All made of glue." A great deal of nonsense of this sort went through Coliu's head before the sounds died away. Then he found himself standing in the field outside his own O orchard. XII. The Wax and the Awl. i HE evening arrived. The sun was going down over the sea, cloudless, casting gold from him lavishly, when Colin arrived on the shore at some distance from his home. The tide was falling, and a good space of sand was uncovered, and lay glittering in the setting sun. This sand lay between some rocks and the sea; and

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The Carasoyn 2 7 1 from the rocks innumerable runnels of water that had been left behind in their hollows were hurrying back to their mother. These occasionally spread into little shallow lakes, resting in hollows in the sand. These lakes were in a constant ripple from the flow of the little streams through them ; and the sun shining on these multitudinous ripples, the sand at the bottom shone like brown silk watered with gold, only that the golden lines were flitting about like living things, never for a moment in one place. Now Colin had no need of fairy ointment to anoint his eyes and make him able to see fairies. Most people need this ; but Colin was naturally gifted. Therefore, as he drew near a certain high rock, which he knew very well, and from which many streams were flowing back into the sea, he saw that the little lakes about it were crowded with fairies, playing all kinds of pranks in the water. It was a lovely sight to see them thus frolicking in the light of the setting sun, in their gay dresses, sparkling with jewels, or what looked like jewels, flashing all colours as they moved. But Colin had not much time to see them ; for the moment they saw him, knowing that this was the man whom they had wronged by stealing his child, and knowing too that he saw them, they fled at once up the high rock and vanished. This was just what Colin wanted. He went all round and round the rock, looked in every direction in which there might be a pool, found more fairies, here and there, who fled like the first up the rock and disappeared. When he had thus driven them all from the sands, he approached the rock, tak 

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272 The Carasoyn ing the lump of cobbler's wax from his pocket as he went. He scrambled up the rock, and, without showing his face, put his hand on the uppermost edge of it, and began drawing a line with the wax all along. He went creeping round the rock, still drawing the wax along the edge, till he had completed the circuit. Then he peeped over. Now in the heart of this rock, which was nearly covered at high- water, there was a big basin, known as the Kelpie's Pool, filled with sea-water and the loveliest sea- weed and many little sea-animals ; and this was a favourite resort of the fairies. It was now, of course, crowded. When they saw his big head come peeping over, they burst into a loud fit of laughter, and began mocking him and making game of him in a hundred ways. Some made the ugliest faces they could, some queer gestures of contempt ; others sung bits of songs, and so on ; while the queen sat by herself on a projecting corner of the rock, writh her feet in the water, and looked at him sulkily. Many of them kept on plunging and swimming and diving and floating, while they mocked him ; and Colin would have enjoyed the sight much if they had not spoiled their beauty and their motions by their grimaces and their gestures. " I want my child," said Colin. " Give him his child," cried one. Thereupon a dozen of them dived, and brought up a huge sea-slug — a horrid creature, like a lump of blubber — and held it up to him, saying — " There he is ; come down and fetch him."

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The Carasoyn 273 Others offered him a blue lobster, struggling in their grasp ; others, a spider-crab ; others, a whelk ; while some of them sung mocking verses, each capping the line the other gave. At length they lifted a dreadful object from the bottom. It was like a baby with his face half eaten away by the fishes, only that he had a huge nose, like the big toe of a lobster. But Colin was not to be taken in. " Very well, good people," he said, " I will try something else." O He crept down the rock again, took out the little cobbler's awl, and bea;an boriucr a hole. It went O O through the rock as if it had been butter, and as he O drew it out the water followed in afar-reaching spout. He bored another, and went on boring till there were three hundred and thirteen spouts gushing from the rock, and running away in a strong little stream towards the sea. He then sat down on a ledge at the foot of the rock and waited. By-and-by he heard a clamour of little voices from the basin. They had found that the water was getting very low. But when they discovered the holes by which it was escaping, " He 's got Dottlecob's awl ! He 's got Dottlecob's awl ! " they cried with one voice of horror. When he heard this, Colin climbed the rock again to enjoy their confusion. But here I must explain a little. In the former part of this history I showed how fond these fairies were of water. But the fact was, they were far too fond of it. It had grown a thorough

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274 The Carasoyn dissipation with them. Their business had been chiefly to tend and help the flowers in which they lived, and to do good offices for every thing that had any kind of life about them. Hence their name of Good People. But from finding the good the water did to the flowers, and from sharing in the refreshment it brought them, O o flowing up to them in tiny runnels through the veins of the plants, they had fallen in love with the water itself, for its own sake, or rather for the pleasure it gave to them, irrespective of the good it was to the flowers which lived upon it. So they neglected their business, and took to sailing on the streams, and plunging into every pool they could find. Hence the rapidity of their decline and fall. Again, on coming to the sea-coast, they had found that the salt water did much to restore the beauty they had lost by partaking of the Carasoyn. Therefore they were constantly on the shore, bathing for ever in the water, especially that left in this pool by the ebbing tide, which was particularly to their taste ; till at last they had grown entirely dependent for comfort on the sea- water, and, they thought, entirely dependent on it for existence also, at least such existence as was in the least worth possessing. Therefore when they saw the big face of Colin peering once more over the ledge, they rushed at him in a rage, scrambling up the side of the rock like so many mad beetles. Colin drew back and let them come on. The moment the foremost put his foot on the line that Colin had drawn around the rock, he slipped

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The Carasoyn 275 and tumbled backwards head over heels into the pool, shrieking — " He 's got Dottlecob's wax ! " " He 's got Dottlecob's wax ! " screamed the next, as he fell backwards after his companion, and this took place till no one would approach the line. In fact no fairy could keep his footing on the wax, and the line was so broad — for as Colin rubbed it, it had melted and spread — that not one of them could spring over it. The queen now rose. " What do you want, Colin ? " she said. " I want my child, as you know very well," answered Colin. " Come and take him," returned the queen, and sat down again, not now with her feet in the water, for it was much too low for that. But Colin knew better. He sat down on the edge of the basin. Unfortunately, the tail of his coat crossed the line. In a moment half-a-dozen of the fairies were out of the circle. Colin rose instantly, and there was not much harm done, for the multitude was still in prison. Ttje water was nearly gone, beginning to leave the very roots of the long tangles uncovered. At length the queen could bear it no longer. " Look here, Colin," she said ; " I wish you well." And as she spoke she rose and descended the side of the rock towards the water now far below her. She had to be very cautious too, the stones were so slippery, though there was none of Dottlecob's wax there. About O half-way below where the surface of the pool had been,

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76 The Carasovn she stopped, and pushed a stone aside. Colin saw what seemed the entrance to a cave inside the rock. The queen went in. A few moments after she came out her hands. " Oh dear ! oh dear ! What shall I do ? " she cried. " You horrid thick people will grow so. He 's grown to such a size that I can't get him out." "Will you let him go if I get him out?" asked Colin.

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The Carasoyn 277 " I will, I will. We shall all be starved to death for want of sea-water if I don't," she answered. " Swear by the cobbler's awl and the cobbler's wax," said Colin. " I swear," said the queen. " By the cobbler's awl and the cobbler's wax," insisted Colin. " I swear by the cobbler's awl and the cobbler's wax," returned the queen. " In the name of your people ? " " In the name of my people," said the queen, " that none of us here present will ever annoy you or your family hereafter.7'1 " Then I '11 come down," said Colin, and jumped into the basin. With the cobbler's awl he soon cleared a big opening into the rock, for it bored and cut it like butter. Then out crept a beautiful boy of about ten years old, into his father's arms, with eyes, and ears, and chin, and cheek all safe and sound. And he carried him home to his mother. It was a disappointment to find him so much of a baby at his age ; but that fault soon began to mend. And the house was full of jubilation. And. little Colin told them the whole story of his sojourn among the fairies. And it did not take so long as you would think, for he fancied he had been there only about a week.

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LITTLE DAYLIGHT. O house of any pretension to he called a palace is in the least worthy of the name, except it has a wood near it — very near it — and the nearer the better. Not all round it — I don't mean that, for a palace ought to be open to the sun and wind, and stand high and brave, with weathercocks glittering and flags flying ; but on one side of every palace there must be a wood. And there was a very grand wood indeed beside the palace of the king who was going to be Daylight's father ; such a grand wood, that nobody yet had ever got to the other end of it. Near the house it was kept very trim and nice, and it was free of brushwood for a long way in; but by degrees it got wild, and it grew wilder, and wilder, and wilder, until some said wild beasts at last did what they liked in it. The king and his courtiers often hunted, however, and this kept the wild beasts far away from the palace. 278

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Little Daylight 279 Oue glorious summer morning, when the wind and sun were out together, when the vanes were flashing and the flags frolicking against the blue sky, little Daylight made her appearance from somewhere — nobody could tell where — a beautiful baby, with such bright eyes that she might have come from the sun, only by and by she showed such lively ways that she might equally well have come out of the wind. There was great jubilation in the palace, for this was the first baby the queen had had, and there is as much happiness over a new baby in a palace as in a cottage. But there is one disadvantage of living near a wood : O O you do not know quite who your neighbours may be. Everybody knew there were in it several fairies, living within a few miles of the palace, who always had had something to do with each new baby that came ; for fairies live so much longer than we, that they can have business with a good many generations of human mortals. The curious houses they lived in were well known also, — one, a hollow oak ; another, a birch-tree, though nobody could ever find how that fairy made a house of it ; another, a hut of growing trees intertwined, and patched up with turf and moss. But there was another fairy who had lately come to theplace, and nobody ever knew she was a fairy except, the other fairies. A wicked old thing she was, always: concealing her power, and being as disagreeable as she; could, in order to tempt people to give her offencer that she might have the pleasure of taking vengeance upon them. The people about thought she was a

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280 Little Daylight witch, and those who knew her by sight were cai'eful to avoid offending her. She lived in a mud house, in a swampy part of the forest. In all history we find that fairies give their remarkable gifts to prince or princess, or any child of sufficient importance in their eyes, always at the christening. Now this we can understand, because it is an ancient custom, amongst human beings as well ; and it O O is not hard to explain wThy wicked fairies should choose the same time to do unkind things ; but it is difficult O / to understand how they should be able to do them, for you would fancy all wicked creatures would be powerless on such an occasion. But I never knew of any interference on the part of a wicked fairy that did not turn out a good thing in the end. What a good thing, for instance, it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred years ! Was she not saved from all the plague of young men who w^ere not worthy of her ? And did she not come awake exactly at the right moment when the right prince kissed her ? For my part, I cannot help wishing a good man}T girls would sleep till just the same fate overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more agreeable to their friends. Of course all the known fairies were invited to the christening. But the king and queen never thought of inviting an old witch. For the power of the fairies they have by nature ; whereas a witch gets her power by wickedness. The other fairies, however, knowing the danger thus run, provided as well as they could

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Little Daylight 281 against accidents from her quarter. But they could neither render her powerless, nor could they arrange their gifts in reference to hers beforehand, for they could not tell what those mi^ht be. o Of course the old has; was there without beins; asked. O O Not to be asked was just what she wanted, that she mio-ht have a sort of a reason for doinoj what she wished O o to do. For somehow even the wickedest of creatures likes a pretext for doing the wrong thing. Five fairies had one after the other given the child such gifts as each counted best, and the fifth had just stepped back to her place in the surrounding splendour of ladies and gentlemen, when, mumbling a laugh between her toothless gums, the wicked fairy hobbled out into the middle of the circle, and at the moment when the archbishop was handing the baby to the lady at the head of the nursery department of state affairs, addressed him thus, giving a bite or two to every word before she could part with it : "Please your Grace, I 'm very deaf: would your Grace mind repeating the princess's name ? ' " With pleasure, my good woman," said the archbishop, stooping to shout in her ear : " the infant's name is little Daylight." " And little daylight it shall be," cried the fairy, in the tone of a dry axle, " and little good shall any of her gifts do her. For I bestow upon her the gift of sleeping all day long, whether she will or not. Ha, ha ! He, he ! Hi, hi ! " Then out started the sixth fairy, who, of course, the

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282 Little Daylight others bad arranged should come after the wicked one, in order to undo as much as she might. " If she sleep all day," she said, mournfully, " she shall, at least, wake all night.1' "A nice prospect for her mother and me !" thought the poor king ; for they loved her far too much to give her up to nurses, especially at night, as most kings and queens do — and are sorry for it afterwards. " You spoke before I had done," said the wicked fairy. " That 's against the law. It gives me another chance." " I beg your pardon," said the other fairies, all together. O " She did. I had n't done laughipcr " said the crone. o o ' " I had only got to Hi, hi ! and I had to go through Ho, ho ! and Hu, hu ! So I decree that if she wakes all nifrht she shall wax and wane with its mistress the O moon. And what that may mean I hope her royal parents will live to see. Ho, ho ! Hu, hu !" But out stepped another fairy, for they had been wise enough to keep two in reserve, because every fairy knew the trick of one. " Until," said the seventh fairy, " a prince conies who shall kiss her without knowing it." The wicked fairy made a horrid noise like an angry cat, and hobbled away. She could not pretend that she had not finished her speech this time, for she had laughed Ho, ho ! and Hu, hu ! " I don't know what that means," said the poor king to the seventh fairy.

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Little Daylight 28 2 6 " Don't be afraid. The meaning will come with the thing itself," said she. The assembly broke up, miserable enough — the queen, at least, prepared for a good many sleepless nights, and the lady at the head of the nursery department anything but comfortable in the prospect before her, for of course the queen could not do it all. As for the king, he made up his mind, with what courage he could summon, to meet the demands of the case, but wondered whether he could with any propriety require the First Lord of the Treasury to take a share in the burden laid upon him. I will not attempt to describe what they had to go through for some time. But at last the household settled into a regular system-— a very irregular one in some respects. For at certain seasons the palace rang all night with bursts of laughter from little Daylight, whose heart the old fairy's curse could not reach ; she was Daylight still, only a little in the wrong place, for she always dropped asleep at the first hint of dawn in the east. But her merriment was of short duration. When the moon was at the full, she was in glorious spirits, and as beautiful as it was possible for a child of her age to be. But as the moon waned, she faded, until at last she was wan and withered like the poorest, sickliest child you might come upon in the streets of a great city in the arms of a homeless mother. Then the night was quiet as the day, for the little creature lay in her gorgeous cradle night and day with hardly a motion, and indeed at last without even a moan, like one

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284 Little Daylight dead. At first they often thought she was dead, but at last they got used to it, and only consulted the almanac to find the moment when she would be

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Little Daylight 285 of heavenly blue, brilliant and profound as the sky of a June day. But so much more painful and sad was the change as her bad time came on. The more beautiful she was in the full moon, the more withered and worn did she become as the moon waned. At the time at which my story has now arrived, she looked, when the moon was small or gone, like an old woman exhausted with suffering. This was the more painful that her appearance was unnatural ; for her hair and eyes did not change. Her wan face was both drawn and wrinkled, and had an eager hungry look. Her skinny hands moved as if wishing, but unable, to lay hold of something. Her shoulders were bent forward, her chest went in, and she stooped as if she were eighty years old. At last she had to be put to bed, and there await the flow of the tide of life. But she grew to dislike being seen, still more being touched by any hands, during this season. One lovely summer evening, when the moon lay all but gone on the verge of the horizon, she vanished from her attendants, and it was only after searching for her a long time in great terror, that they found her fast asleep in the forest, at the foot of a silver birch, and carried her home. A little way from the palace there was a great open glade, covered with the greenest and softest grass. This was her favourite haunt ; for here the full moon shone free and glorious, while through a vista in the trees she could generally see more or less of the dying inoon as it crossed the opening. Here she had a little rustic house built for her, and here she mostly resided. None

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286 Little Daylight of the court might go there without leave, aud her own attendants had learned by this time not to be officious in waiting upon her, so that she was very much at liberty. Whether the good fairies had anything to do with it or not I cannot tell, but at last she got into the way of retreating further into the wood every night as the moon waned, so that sometimes they had great trouble in finding her ; but as she was always very angry if she discovered they were watching her, they scarcely dared to do so. At length one night they thought they had lost her altogether. It was morning before they found her. Feeble as she was, she had wandered into a thicket along way from the glade, and there she lay — fast asleep, of course. Although the fame of her beauty and sweetness had gone abroad, yet as everybody knew she was under a bad spell, no king in the neighbourhood had any desire to have her for a daughter-in-law. There were serious O objections to such a relation. About this time in a neighbouring kingdom, in consequence of the wickedness of the nobles, an insurrection took place upon the death of the old king, the greater part of the nobility was massacred, and the young prince was compelled to flee for his life, disguised like a peasant. For some time, until he got out of the country, he suffered much from hunger and fatigue ; but when he got into that ruled by the princess's father, and had no longer any fear of being recognized, he fared better, for the people were kind. He did not abandon his disguise, however. One tolerable reason was that he had no other clothes to put on, and

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Little Daylight 287 another that he had very little money, and did not know where to get any more. There was no good in telling everybody he met that he was a prince, for he felt that a prince ought to be able to get on like other people, else his rank only made a fool of him. He had read of princes setting out upon adventure ; and here he was out in similar case, only without having had a choice in the matter. He would go on, and see what would come of it. For a day or two he had been walking through the palace-wood, and had had next to nothing to eat, when he came upon the strangest little house, inhabited by a very nice tidy motherly old woman. This was one of the good fairies. The moment she saw him she knew quite well who he was and what was going to come of it ; but she was not at liberty to interfere with the orderly march of events. She received him with the kindness she would have shown to any other traveller, and gave him bread and milk, which he thought the most delicious food he had ever tasted, wondering that they did not have it for dinner at the palace sometimes. The old woman pressed him to stay all night. When he awoke he was amazed to find how well and strong he felt. She would not take any of the money he offered, but bested him, if he found occasion of continuing oo in the neighbourhood, to return and occupy the same quarters. "Thank you much, good mother," answered the prince ; " but there is little chance of that. The sooner I get out of this wood the better." " I don't know that," said the fairy.

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288 Little Daylight " What do you mean ? " asked the prince. " Why, how should I know ? " returned she. " I can't tell," said the prince. " Very well," said the fairy. " How strangely you talk ! " said the prince. " Do I ? " said the fairy. " Yes, you do," said the prince. " Very well," said the fairy. The prince was not used to be spoken to in this fashion, so he felt a little angry and turned and walked away. But this did not offend the fairy. She stood at the door of her little house looking after him till the trees hid him quite. Then she said " At last ! '" and went in. The prince wandered and wandered, and got nowhere. The sun sank and sank and went out of sight, and he seemed no nearer the end of the wood than ever. He sat down on a fallen tree, ate a bit of bread the old woman had Driven him, and waited for the O moon ; for, although he was not much of an astronomer, he knew the moon would rise some time, because she had risen the night before. Up she came, slow and slow, but of a good size, pretty nearly round indeed ; whereupon, greatly refreshed with his piece of bread, he got up and went — he knew not whither. After walking a considerable distance, he thought he was coming to the outside of the forest ; but when O he reached what he thought the last of it, he found ~ himself only upon the edge of a great open space in it, covered with grass. The moon shone very bright, and

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I I w p 289

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290 Little Daylight be thought he had never seen a more lovely spot. Still it looked dreary because of its loneliness, for he could not see the house at the other side. He sat down weary again, and gazed into the glade. He had not seen so much room for several days. All at once he espied something in the middle of the grass. AVhat could it be ? It moved ; it came nearer. Was it a human creature, gliding across — a girl dressed in white, gleaming in the moonshine? She came nearer and nearer. He crept behind a tree and watched, wondering. It must be some strange being of the wood — a nymph whom the moonlight and the warm dusky air had enticed from her tree. But when she came close to where he stood, he no longer doubted she was human — for he had caught sight of her sunny hair, and her clear blue eyes, and the loveliest face and form that he had ever seen. All at once she began sinking like a nio;htino;ale, and dancino- to her own O O O O ' O music, with her eyes ever turned towards the moon. She passed close to where he stood, dancing on by the edge of the trees and away in a great circle towards the other side, until he could see but a spot of white in the yellowish green of the moonlit grass. But when he feared it would vanish quite, the spot grew, and became a figure once more. She approached him again, singing and dancing and waving her arms over her head, until she had completed the circle. Just opposite his tree she stood, ceased her song, dropped her arms, and broke out into a long clear laugh, musical as a brook. Then, as if tired, she threw herself on

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Little Daylight 291 the grass, and lay gazing at the moon. The prince was almost afraid to breathe lest he should startle her, and she should vanish from his sight. As to venturing near her, that never came into his head. She had lain for a lono; hour or louo-er, when the O O prince began again to doubt concerning her. Perhaps she was but a vision of his own fancy. Or was she a spirit of the wood, after all ? If so, he too would haunt the wood, glad to have lost kingdom and everything for the hope of being near her. He would build him a hut in the forest, and there he would live for the pure chance of seeing her again. Upon nights like this at least she would come out and bask in the moonlight, and make his soul blessed. But wThile he thus O ' dreamed she sprang to her feet, turned her face full to the moon, and began sino-ino; as if she would draw her CJ O O down from the sky by the power of her entrancing voice. She looked more beautiful than ever. Again she began dancing to her own music, and danced away into the distance. Once more she returned in a similar manner; but, although he was watching as eagerly as before, what with fatigue and what with gazing, he fell fast asleep before she came near him. When he awoke it was broad daylight, and the princess was nowhere. He could not leave the place. What if she should come the next night ! He would gladly endure a day's hunger to see her yet again : he would buckle his belt quite tight. He walked round the glade to see if he could discover any prints of her feet. But the grass

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292 Little Daylight was so short, and her steps had beeii so light, that she had not left a single trace behind her. O He walked half-way round the wood without seeing anything to account for her presence. Then he spied a lovely little house, with thatched roof and low eaves, surrounded by an exquisite garden, with doves and peacocks walking in it. Of course this must be where the gracious lady who loved the moonlight lived. Forgetting his appearance, he walked towards the door, determined to make inquiries, but as he passed a little pond full of gold and silver fishes, he caught sight of himself, and turned to find the door to the kitchen. There he knocked, and asked for a piece of bread. The good-natured cook brought him in, and gave him an excellent breakfast, which the prince found nothing the worse for beino- served in the kitchen. While he O ate, he talked with his entertainer, and learned that this was the favourite retreat of the Princess Daylight. But he learned nothing more, both because he was afraid of seeming inquisitive, and because the cook did not choose to be heard talking about her mistress to a O peasant lad who had begged for his breakfast. As he rose to take his leave, it occurred to him that he mi^ht not be so far from the old woman's cottage as O O he had thought, and he asked the cook whether she knew anything of such a place, describing it as well as he could. She said she knew it well enough, adding with a smile" It 's there you 're going, is it ? " " Yes, if it 's not far off."

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Little Daylight 293 " It 's not more than three miles. But mind what you are about, you know." u Why do you say that ? " " If you 're after any mischief, she '11 make you repent it." " The best thing that could happen under the circumstances," remarked the prince. " What do you mean by that?" asked the cook. " Why, it stands to reason," answered the prince, " that if you wish to do anything wrong, the best thing for you is to be made to repent of it." " I see," said the cook. " Well, I think you may venture. She 's a good old soul." " Which way does it lie from here ? " asked the prince. She gave him full instructions ; and he left her with many thanks. Being now refreshed, however, the prince did not go back to the cottage that day: he remained in the forest, amusing himself as best he could, but waiting o o anxiously for the night, in the hope that the princess would again appear. Nor was he disappointed, for, directly the moon rose, he spied a glimmering shape far across the glade. As it drew nearer, he saw it was she indeed — not dressed in white as before : in a pale blue like the sky, she looked lovelier still. He thought it was that the blue suited her yet better than the white ; he did not know that she was really more beautiful because the moon was nearer the full. In fact the next night was full moon, and the princess would then be at the zenith of her loveliness.

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294 Little Daylight The prince feared for some time that she was not coming near his hiding-place that night ; but the circles in her dance ever widened as the moon rose, until at last they embraced the whole glade, and she came still closer to the trees where he was hiding than she had o come the niirht before. He was entranced with her O loveliness, for it was indeed a marvellous tiling. All O night long he watched her, but dared not go near her. He would have been ashamed of watching her too, had he not become almost incapable of thinking of anything but how beautiful she was. He watched the whole night long, and saw that as the moon went down she retreated in smaller and smaller circles, until at last he could see her no more. Weary as he was, he set out for the old woman's cottage, where he arrived just in time for her breakfast, which she shared with him. He then went to bed, and slept for many hours. When he awoke, the sun was down, and he departed in great anxiety lest he should lose a glimpse of the lovely vision. But, whether it was by the machinations of the swamp-fairy, or merely that it is one thing to go and another to return by the same road, he lost his way. I shall not attempt to describe his misery when the moon rose, and he saw nothing but trees, trees, trees. She was high in the heavens before he reached the glade. Then indeed his troubles vanished, for there was the princess coming dancing towards him, in a dress that shone like gold, and with shoes that glimmered through the grass like fire-flies. She was of course still more beautiful than

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Little Daylight 295 before. Like an embodied sunbeam she passed him, and danced away into the distance. \> Before she returned in her circle, clouds had begun to gather about the moon. The wind rose, the trees moaned, and their lighter branches leaned all one way

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296 Little Daylight before it. The prince feared that the princess would go in, and he should see her no more that night. But she came dancing on more jubilant than ever, her golden dress and her sunny hair streaming out upon the blast, waving her arms towards the moon, and in the exuberance of her delight ordering the clouds away ~ o J from off her face. The prince could hardly believe she was not a creature of the elements, after all. By the time she had completed another circle, the clouds had gathered deep, and there were growlings of distant thunder. Just as she passed the tree where he stood, a flash of lightning blinded him for a moment, and when he saw again, to his horror, the princess lay on the ground. He darted to her, thinking she had been struck; but when she heard him coming, she was on her feet in a moment. " What do you want ? " she asked. u I beg your pardon. I thought — the lightningsaid the prince, hesitating. "There is nothing the matter," said the princess, waving him off rather haughtily. The poor prince turned and walked towards the wood. " Come back," said Daylight : " I like you. You do what you are told. Are you good ? " " Not so good as I should like to be," said the prince. " Then go and grow better," said the princess. Again the disappointed prince turned and went. " Come back," said the princess. He obeyed, and stood before her waiting.

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Little Daylight 297 " Can you tell me what the sun is like ? " she asked. "No," lie answered. " But where 's the good of asking what you know ? " "But I don't know," she i-ejoined. " Why, everybody knows." " That 's the very thing : I 'in not everybody. I Ve never seen the sun." "Then you can't know what it 's like till you do see it." "I think you must be a prince," said the princess. " Do I look like one ? " said the prince. " I can't quite say that." "Then why do you think so ? " " Because you both do what you are told and speak the truth. — Is the sun so very bright ? " " As bright as the lightning." " But it does n't go out like that, does it ? " " Oh no. It shines like the moon, rises and sets like the moon, is much the same shape as the moon, only so bright that you can't look at it for a moment." */ "But I would look at it," said the princess. " But you could n't," said the prince. " But I could," said the princess. "Why don't you, then?" "Because I can't." "Why can't you?" "Because I can't wake. And I never shall wake until " Here she hid her face in her hands, turned away, and walked in the slowest, stateliest manner towards the

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298 Little Daylight house. The prince ventured to follow her at a little distance, but she turned and made a repellent gesture, which, like a true gentleman-prince, he obeyed at once. He waited a long time, but as she did not come near him again, and as the night had now cleared, he set off at last for the old woman's cottage. O It was long past midnight when he reached it, but, to his surprise, the old woman was paring potatoes at the door. Fairies are fond of doing odd things. Indeed, however they may dissemble, the night is always their day. And so it is with all who have fairy blood in them. " Why, what are you doing there, this time of the night, mother? " said the prince ; for that was the kind way in which any young man in his country would address a woman who was much older than himself. " Getting your supper ready, my son," she answered. " Oh ! I don't want any supper," said the prince. " Ah ! you Ve seen Daylight," said she. "I 've seen a princess who never saw it," said the prince. " Do you like her ? " asked the fairy. " Oh ! don't I ? " said the prince. " More than you would believe, mother." " A fairy can believe anything that ever was or ever could be," said the old woman. " Then you are a fairy ? " asked the prince. "Yes," said she. " Then what do vou do for things not to believe ? " •/ O asked the prince.

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Little Daylight 299 ''There 's plenty of them — everything that never was nor ever could be." "Plenty, I grant you," said the prince. "But do you believe there could be a princess who never saw the daylight ? Do you believe that, now ? " This the prince said, not that he doubted the princess, but that he wanted the fairy to tell him more. She was too old a fairy, however, to be caught so easily. " Of all people, fairies must not tell secrets. Besides, she 's a princess." " Well, I '11 tell you a secret. I 'm a prince." " I know that." " How do you know it ? " " By the curl of the third eyelash on your left eyelid." " Which corner do you count from ? '' " That 's a secret." " Another secret ? Well, at least, if I am a prince, there can be no harm in telling me about a princess." " It 's just princes I can't tell." " There ain't any more of them — are there \ " said the prince. " What ! you don't think you 're the only prince in the world, do you ? '' " Oh, dear, no ! not at all. But I know there 's one too many just at present, except the princess— "Yes, yes, that 's it," said the fairy. " What 's it? " asked the prince. But he could get nothing more out of the fairy, and

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3OO Little Daylight had to go to bed unanswered, which was something of a trial. Now wicked fairies will not be bound by the laws which the good fairies obey, and this always seems to give the bad the advantage over the good, for they use means to gain their ends which the others will not. But it is all of no consequence, for what they do never succeeds ; nay, in the end it brings about the very thing they are trying to prevent. So you see that somehow, for all their cleverness, wicked fairies are dreadfully stupid, for, although from the beginning of the world they have really helped instead of thwarting the good fairies, not one of them is a bit the wiser for it. She will try the bad thing just as they all did before her ; and succeeds no better of course. The prince had so far stolen a march upon the swampfairy that she did not know he was in the neighbourhood until after he had seen the princess those three times. When she knew it, she consoled herself by thinking that the princess must be far too proud and too modest for any young man to venture even to speak to her before he had seen her six times at least. But there was even less danger than the wicked fairy thought ; for, however much the princess might desire to be set free, she was dreadfully afraid of the wrong prince. Now, however, the fairy was going to do all she could. She so contrived it by her deceitful spells, that the next night the prince could not by any endeavour find his way to the glade. It would take me too long to

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Little Daylight 301 tell her tricks. They would be amusing to us, who know that they could not do any harm, but they were something other than amusing to the poor prince. He wandered about the forest till daylight, and then fell fast asleep. The same thing occurred for seven following days, during which neither could he find the good fairy's cottage. After the third quarter of the moon, however, the bad fairy thought she might be at ease about the affair for a fortnight at least, for there was no chance of the prince wishing to kiss the princess during that period. So the first clay of the fourth quarter he did find the cottage, and the next day he found the glade. For nearly another week he haunted it. But the princess never came. I have little doubt she was on the farther edge of it some part of every night, but at this period she always wore black, and, there being little or no light, the prince never saw her. Nor would he have known her if he had seen her. How could he have taken the worn decrepit creature she was now, for the glorious Princess Daylight? At last, one night when there was no moon at all, he ventured near the house. There he heard voices talking, although it was past midnight ; for her women were in considerable uneasiness, because the one whose turn it was to watch her had fallen asleep, and had not seen which way she went, and this was the night when she would probably wander very far, describing a circle which did not touch the open glade at all, but stretched away from the back of the house, deep into that side of the forest — a part of which the prince knew

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302 Little Daylight nothing. When he understood from what they said that she had disappeared, and that she must have gone somewhere in the said direction, he plunged at once into the wood to see if he could find her. For hours, he roamed with nothing to guide him but the vague notion of a circle which on one side bordered on the house, for so much had he picked up from the talk he had overheard. It was getting towards the dawn, but as yet there was no streak of lic;ht in the sky, when he came to a great d> »/ ' O birch -tree, and sat down weary at the foot of it. While he sat — very miserable, you may be sure — full of fear for the princess, and wondering how her attendants could take it so quietly, he bethought himself that it would not be a bad plan to light a fire, which, if she were anywhere near, would attract her. This he managed with a tinder-box, which the good fairy had given him. It was just beginning to blaze up, when he heard a moan, which seemed to come from the other side of the tree. He sprung to his feet, but his heart throbbed so that he had to lean for a moment against the tree before he could move. When he got round, there lay a human form in a little dark heap on the earth. There was light enough from his fire to show that it was not the princess. He lifted it in his arms, hardly heavier than a child, and carried it to the flame. The countenance was that of an old woman, but it had a fearfully strange look. A black hood concealed her hair, and her eyes were closed. He laid her down as comfortably as he could, chafed her hands, put a little

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Little Daylight cordial from a bottle, also the gift of the fairy, into her mouth ; took off his coat and wrapped it about her and in short did the best he could. In a little while she opened her eyes and looked at him — so pitifully ! The tears rose and flowed down her gray wrinkled cheeks, but she said never a word. She closed her eyes again, but the tears kept on flowing, and her whole appearance was so utterly pitiful that the prince was very near crying too. lie begged her to tell him what was the matter, promising to do all

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304 Little Daylight lie could to help her; but still she did not speak. He thought she was dying, and took her in his arms again to cany her to the princess's house, where he thought the good-natured cook might be able to do something for her. When he lifted her, the tears flowed yet faster, and she gave such a sad moan that it went to his very heart. " Mother, mother ! '; he said- "Poor mother!" and kissed her on the withered lips. She started ; and what eyes they were that opened

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Little Daylight 305 upon him ! But he did not see them, for it was still very dark, and he had enough to do to make his way through the trees towards the house. Just as he approached the door, feeling more tired than he could have imagined possible — she was such a little thin old thing — she began to move, and became so restless that, unable to carry her a moment longer, he thought to lay her on the grass. But she stood upright on her feet. Her hood had dropped, and her hair fell about her. The first gleam of the morning was caught on her face : that face was bright as the o

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