Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays

tmosphere of mystery abroad, which he was conscious of at odd minutes. He met Marjorie on the morning of the day before

d very politely asked him to take off his coat. The stranger had then knelt down on the floor in front of him, and had produced a tape, with which he proceeded to measure Archie all over, from his hip to his knee and his knee to his ankle, and round his waist, and round his chest, and all along his arms, making notes of those things in a book. Blessington had told him that Mr. Johnson wanted to see how much he had grown, which was c

use, said that he hadn't seen her... but in that pause something of the glory faded out of the bright trailing clouds. When he was asked that directly he did not feel sure whether he believed in Abracadabra in the same way in which he believed in Blessington or Jeannie. So short a time ago-last summer only-Alice in Wonderland and the

th been sufficiently advanced for such a decoration. But on this occasion he saw instantly and clearly that he must not hurt his mother's feelings by expressing scepticism about Abracadabra. Perhaps his mother still believed in her herself (though there were difficulties about supposing that, seeing that if Abracadabra was not Abracadabra she was certainly his mother); but, in any case, she thought Archie believed in Abracadabra, which made quite sufficient reason for his appearing to do so. If Abracadabra was an invention designed to awe, delight, and m

nd, in order to spare his mother the mortification of knowing that he had doub

o her, mummy?" he said,

Str

he went by like a flash of lig

any thunder

that might have been th

think she'll

rings up and down her fingers. As he held it, he sudd

k train," he

rfectly certain that it was in his mother's bedroom at this m

clock-work tr

that he was playing a part, for he knew his

t el

cularly a pen that writes witho

the things you want, and leave the paper ly

hat do?" a

to Her Fairy Majesty the Empress Abracadabra. Then, when the fairies come round to collect the post, they will find it there, and take it to Abracadabra. And perhaps if she co

e days last summer, a day crammed full of the most delightful events, Archie had found himself firmly believing that that particular day was never coming to an end. True, it had come to an end, but that perhaps was because he hadn't believed strongly enough... There was a lovely story which his mother had read him about a man called Joshua, who wanted a day to remain until he had killed all his enemies, and sure enough the sun stood still until he had accomplished that emphatic task. He never doubted that, because it cam

tle cracklings, which she told him was electricity which was the thing that made the lamps burn. She had allowed him to take a brush to bed with him, and make more cracklings for five minutes until she returned to put his light out, and Archie made a wonderful story to himself as he looked at the fire, that he would get an electric lamp and paste it to his head, so that he should be able to read by the light of his hair. All at once this seemed so feasible, so easy of belief that he pictured to himself everybody walking about the house in the evening lit by themselves... And then William came round the corner (he did not know what corner), carrying an electric pike for a birthday pres

*

ably feel that you have lived your life, and that there is nothing much left to live for; for the rest would be but a slow descent into the vale of years. But to-day he was six, and it was his birthday, and... and there was no sign of the letter he had written to Abracadabra on his c

Archie most envied about that young man. Harry had taken the coat and trousers off one day in the summer when the two boys were playing in the copse by the lower end of the lake, and had let Archie put them on for three minutes. That had been a thrilling adventure; it implied undressing out of doors, which was a very unusual thing to do, and he loved the feeling of the rough serge down his bare calves. He had, of course, offered Harry the privilege of putting on his knicker

n, with her hand on his shoulder, gently stirring him, and her face close to his, whispering to him, "Eh, it's time to get up." So this morning, not for the first time, he simulated sleep in order to recapture that lovely sense of being awakened by love. (You must und

s on top. Already Archie had heart-burnings at the knowledge of his knowledge of the sailor-suit. Blessington meant it to be a surprise to him, and a surprise he determined it should be. In the interval there was another surprise: how would Blessington wake him? She would be sure

f, knowing himself. That was just the only thing to think about this morning. He ceased to

close to his, and her hand still underneath his be

n. "Wake up, my darling: it's your bi

hand and flung his

fun?" he said. "What did

y bath and put my clothes on. Now, will you do the same, for I

ht," sai

body about eight times in each direction. Then he was allowed to pour out the hot water into his bath, in order to encourage himself, but before he stepped into that delicious steamy warmth he had to bend down eight times with a long frosty expulsion of breath, and stand up eight times with a great draught of cold air in his lungs. All this had been explained to him by a stranger-not Mr. Johnson-who, a year ago, had come into his nursery and had been very much interested in his anatomy. Archi

onge-full down his spine. That over, he might wash his face and his neck, and well behind his ears with soap. Up till a few months ago Blessington had always superintended the bath, and done these things for him; but now he did them for himself as agent, with Blessington as inspector-general in the background, who might a

, and, after washing his face in the cold water, to put cold water everywhere within reach of him on one arm and then the other, on a chest, on a stomach, on o

is new clothes and was

gton re

're just as easy to manage as the old ones, and m

be here for tea,"

at. Did they come just ordinarily, like oth

ey were a birthday pre

?" demand

suddenly

id. "I like them better

them and strength to tear them," she said

sitting-room) he would almost have wished himself back in his knickerbockers. But the remembered rough touch of the serge on his legs provided encouragement, and soon the new glories burst upon a sympathetic and not a mocking world. They were at breakfast downstairs, and Archie, though he had already had his, was bidden by his father to have a cup of coffee, which he poured out himself at the side-table, and to drink it slowly, and at the bottom of it, among

the afternoon, as he returned home from his walk with Blessington and Jeannie in the early dusk, he received an impression which was to be more inextricably connected with his sixth birthday than even the sailor suit. They were within a few yards of the front-door when there ran out of th

ght a thrush. We must get it fr

suddenly thought of himself in the jaws of a tiger, of the clutch of the long white teeth, of the fear, and the helplessness; and a queer tremor made him catch his breath, as there smote upon him an emotion tha

o as not to lose the chance, at this cat-hour of dusk, of a further stalk and capture. They carried the bird into the hall, where they looked at it, but it lay quite still in Blessington's

, it's dead," s

he desolation of

n," he said. "It'll get all right

you like we'll bury it. There'll be just time before

in body" in reverent hands. It was warm and soft and still; by now the bright eyes had grown quite dull, and the blood on the speckled brea

eannie?" he said. "The th

me as birds kill worms, or you and Will

Archie. "Worms aren't nice; they don

hocolates, and into this fragrant coffin the little limp body was i

for it," he said. "It w

dead," said ho

gton unders

for it," she said, "and then we'll cove

ris-a crisantepum?" said

just

e the bird's head, an

ocession to the tool-she

an

ascinating ritual. "And I'll carry the coffin and go fir

be quick," sa

Jeannie. "It's a funer

the Carpenter.' That's sad, b

grave underneath the laurestinus. The coffin was once more opened to see that the thrush was quite comfortable, and the

y a prayer, Jea

s only a

nsidered

he said. "I shal

or cap and knelt dow

"Good-night, thrush. I can't think of

said J

r," said Blessington. "And let's see who

and so Jeannie won, and very nearly began telling her mother about it

de a lovely grave by the tool-house, and I said prayers, though Jeannie told me y

, de

have lots

taker," said Jeannie. "

ch

and kill it? That was the part I didn't like, and I expect the thrush hated it

lling his small brain in order

Cyrus hadn't killed it. But, if it

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snobbishness common to almost all small boys Archie thought it rather jolly, without swaggering at all, to be able to greet his friend in the midst of these glories, so that he could see their splendour for himself. In other ways, he would have perhaps preferred the nursery, and certainly would have done so when the moment came for him to cut his birthday-ca

ous story about a boy whose mother had lost his birthdays, so that year after year went by without his having a birthday at all. The lights had been put out, and only the magic of leaping fire-light guided their hands to the chocolate-box, and every moment the phanta

nderneath the stairs i

questions we

ys in all, so he had one every day for m

ts' dinner broke in upon the quiet, with the most appalling clamour. Archie swallowed a chocolate whole, and

" said Lady Davidstow. "Harry, will

id firmly. "But-but s

and with a pleasing sense of terror the two bo

said Archie. "Oh, mum

w one person who makes a n

ism of the day before had vanished like smoke. It had occurred to him tha

eard her sneeze it was just l

ing back, shriek

do when she blows h

mouth when a piercing trumpet-bla

er do? Shall we go into the hall? She would like us

e black hall. The wood-fire in the hearth there had died down to a mere smoulde

y Davidstow in an awe-struck whisper. "

, coming close to her. "

htened at, Archie," said she. "Which

ight, they could all see that it was not Something there, but Somebody. The outlines of a head,

She had on a huge poke-bonnet which cast a shadow over her face, and left it terrifyingly vague. Her bonnet was trimmed with sunflowers and lilies of the valley, and round the edge of it went a row of diamonds which were quite as big as the drops in a glass chandelier. Another necklace of the same brilliance went round he

d her foot

voice. "I sneezed to show I was coming, and, when I got through the k

d with faltering steps

esty, forgive

iated fairy. "Why shouldn't I take you away in

scepticism, but he couldn't find an atom of it. The thought of hi

se don't,

that?" asked

oken, and took hold of Jeannie on

it's Archi

to take your ridiculous

e don't,"

I'll make her extra lady-in-waiting on my peacock-

aid Archie, remembering that his mother was

in, when all the paper was stripped off, nothing more than a single acid drop, in order to teach the mistress of the tortoise-shell robes better manners when her mistress came to pay a visit, and Blessington, summoned from the nursery, was presented with a new cap. But the bulk of the gifts, as was proper, was for Archie, a clock-work train, and a pen that needed no dipping, and a fishing-rod, and a second suit of sailor-clothes. And then the light went out again, and Abracadabra began sneezing and blowing her nose with such deafening violence that the screen which stood just behind her rocked with the concussion, and the

clasped round his knees, as his custom was. Certainly Abracadabra had been wonderfully real to-day, and certainly she was not his mother. Then he recollected that Marjorie had not appeared at all, and wondered if Marjorie per