The Silent Readers Part 44

So they came, troop after troop, more than I can describe, or you could remember, only I must tell you that the last of all were the most lovely. The ladies, all of whom had dark hair, were clad in white velvet lined with the palest violet silk, while round the hems of the skirts and on the bodices were bands of soft white swansdown.

Swansdown also edged the little violet cloaks which hung from their shoulders. I cannot describe to you how beautiful they looked, with their rosy, smiling faces, and long black curls. On their heads they wore little silver crowns set with amethysts; amethysts, too, sparkled on their necks and over their gowns. In their hands they carried long trails of the lovely blossom of the wistaria. Their companions were clad in white and green, and in their left hands they carried silver rods with emerald stars at the top.

It really seemed at one time as though the troops of Little People would never cease pouring out of the hill. They did so at last, though, and as soon as all were in their places the music suddenly changed.

The old man by this time seemed able to see more clearly, and hear more distinctly, and his sense of smell grew keener. Never were such flashing gems as here, never had any flowers such scents as these that were here.

There were now thousands of little ladies gathered on the Gump, and these all broke out into song at the same instant. The words were in an unknown tongue, but the song was evidently about some great personages who were about to emerge from the amazing hill, for again it opened, and again poured forth a crowd of Small People.

First of all came a bevy of little girls in white gauze, scattering flowers, which as soon as they touched the ground, sprang up into full life and threw out leaves and more flowers, full of exquisite scents; then came a number of boys playing on sh.e.l.ls as though they were harps, and making ravishing music, while after them came hundreds and hundreds of little men clad in green and gold, followed by a perfect forest of banners spreading and waving on the air.

Then last, but more beautiful than all that had gone before, was carried a raised platform covered with silk embroidered with real gold, and edged with crystals, and on the platform were seated a prince and princess of such surpa.s.sing loveliness that no words can be found to describe them. They were dressed in the richest velvet, and covered with precious stones which blazed and sparkled in the myriad lights until the eye could scarce bear to look at them.

Over her lovely robe the princess's hair flowed down to the floor, where it rested in great shining, golden waves. In her hand she held a golden sceptre, on the top of which blazed a diamond as large as a walnut, while the prince carried one with a sapphire of equal size.

After a deal of marching backwards and forwards, the platform was placed on the highest point of the Gump, which was now a hill of flowers, and every fairy walked up and bowed, said something to the prince and princess, and pa.s.sed on to a seat at the tables.

At length all were seated, whereupon the prince gave a signal, on which a number of footmen came forward carrying a table laden with dainty food in solid gold dishes, and wines in goblets of precious stones which they placed on the platform before the prince and princess. As soon as the royal pair began to eat, all the hosts around them followed their example, and such a merry, jovial meal they had.

The viands disappeared as fast as they could go, laughter and talk sounded on all sides, and never a sign did any of them give that they knew that a human being was watching them.

"Ah!" thought the old miser to himself. "I can't get all I'd like to, but if I could reach up to the prince's table I could get enough at one grab to set me up for life!"

Stooping down, he slowly and stealthily dragged himself nearer and nearer to the table. He felt quite sure that no one could see him.

What he himself did not see was that hundreds of wicked little Spriggans had tied ropes on to him and were holding fast to the ends.

He crawled and crawled so slowly and carefully that it took him some time to get over the ground, but he managed it at last, and got quite close up to the lovely little pair. Once there he paused for a moment and looked back,--perhaps to see if the way was clear for him to run when he had done what he meant to do. He was rather startled to find that all was as dark as dark could be, and that he could see nothing at all behind him. However, he tried to cheer himself by thinking it was only that his eyes were dazzled by looking at the bright lights so long. He was even more startled, though, when he turned round to the Gump again, to find that every eye of all those hundreds and thousands of fairies on the hill was looking straight into his eyes.

At first he was really frightened, but as they did nothing but look, he told himself that they could not really be gazing at him, and grew braver with the thought. Then slowly bringing up his hat, as a boy does to catch a b.u.t.terfly, he was just going to bring it down on the silken platform and capture prince and princess, table, gold dishes and all, when hark! A shrill whistle sounded, the old man's hand, with the hat in it, was paralyzed in the air, so that he could not move it backwards or forwards, and in an instant every light went out, and all was pitchy darkness.

There was a whir-r-r and a buzz, and a whir-r-r, as if a swarm of bees were flying by him, and the old man felt himself fastened so securely to the ground that, do what he would, he could not move an inch, and all the time he felt himself being pinched, and p.r.i.c.ked, and tweaked from top to toe, so that not an inch of him was free from torment. He was lying on his back at the foot of the Gump, though how he got there he could never tell. His arms were stretched out and fastened down, so that he could not do anything to drive off his tormentors, his legs were so secured that he could not even relieve himself by kicking, and his tongue was tied with cords, so that he could not call out.

There he lay, no one knows how long, for to him it seemed hours, and no one else but the fairies knew anything about it. At last he felt a lot of little feet running over him, but whose they were he had no idea until something perched on his nose, and by the light of the moon he saw it was a Spriggan. His wicked old heart sank when he realized that he had got into their clutches, for all his life he had heard what wicked little creatures they were.

The little imp on his nose kicked and danced and stamped about in great delight at finding himself perched up so high. We all know how painful it is to have one's nose knocked, even ever so little, so you may imagine that the old miser did not enjoy himself at all. Master Spriggan did, though. He roared with laughter, as though he were having a huge joke, until at last, rising suddenly to his feet and standing on the tips of his tiny toes, he shouted sharply, "Away! away! I smell the day!" and to the old man's great relief off he flew in a great hurry, followed by all his mischievous little companions who had been playing games, and running races all over their victim's body.

Left at last to himself, the mortified old man lay for some time, thinking over all that had happened, trying to collect his senses, and wondering how he should manage to escape from his bonds, for he might lie there for a week without any human being coming near the place.

Till sunrise he lay there, trying to think of some plan, and then, what do you think he saw? Why, that he had not been tied down by ropes at all, but only by thousands of gossamer webs! And there they were now, all over him, with the dew on them sparkling like the diamonds that the princess had worn the night before. And those dewdrop diamonds were all the jewels he got for his night's work.

When he made this discovery he turned over and groaned and wept with rage and shame, and never, to his dying day, could he bear to look at sparkling gold or gems.

At last, afraid lest he should be missed, and searchers be sent out to look for him, he got up, brushed off the dewy webs, and putting on his battered old hat, crept slowly home. He was wet through with dew, cold, full of rheumatism, and very much ashamed of himself.

Very good care he took to keep that night's experiences to himself. No one must know his shame.

Years after, though, when he had become a changed man, and repented of his former greediness, he let out the story bit by bit to be a lesson to others, until his friends and neighbors, who loved to listen to anything about fairies, had gathered it all as I have told it to you here. And you may be quite sure it is all true, for the old man was not clever enough to invent it.

--_From "Strange Stories from Cornwall", by Mabel Quiller-Couch._

THINKING AND DOING

Arrange your papers with your name and grade on the first line; place the date and your room or teacher's name on the second line; leave the third line blank, and, beginning with the fourth line, number the lines from 1 to 6. This exercise is to help you read quietly and accurately. See that you understand all the directions in each problem before you attempt to carry them out. On the other hand, work as quickly as you can.

1. If Christopher Columbus lived before George Washington, make a cross on the first line, but if George Washington lived before Columbus, write the word _old_ there.

2. An egg which is not fresh will float in salt water. Out of a dozen eggs seven floated and five sank.

Were there more fresh eggs or more stale eggs in the dozen? Write your answer on the second line.

3. "And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then if ever come perfect days."

This is a quotation from a poem by James Russell Lowell. If you think from these lines that the poet prefers June weather to October weather, write the word _summer_ on the third line. If you think he prefers October weather, write the word _autumn_ there.

4. At an army camp in Georgia the flag on the flag-staff at headquarters was blowing toward Washington, D. C.

From what general direction was the wind? Write your answer on the fourth line.

5. All the education of the middle ages was to be found in the monasteries.

From this fact which would you expect to find the better educated, churchmen or soldiers?

6. If pink is lighter than red, and red is lighter than purple, which of these colors is darker than red?

A TRIP TO THE MOON

You should all begin reading at the same time.

This is a selection that you can read easily. You will have to pay close attention, however, because you will be asked questions about the interesting facts told here.

Your teacher will decide when to have you close your books. Then she will have a contest between the boys and girls or between sections of the cla.s.s to see which group can answer the questions better.

When we were very young we had a nursery rhyme which told of an old witch who rode away upon a broomstick to sweep the cobwebs from the sky. Of course we understood that it was just a nonsense rhyme. But nowadays when people can really fly up in the air, not on broomsticks but on aeroplanes, it does not seem so nonsensical.

Suppose we agree to take a trip, in our imagination, right away up into the sky till we reach the moon! Of course, we can never hope really to fly to the moon. One reason is that the air goes up only a comparatively short distance. But you can do wonderful things in your imagination! We shall suppose we have a machine that does not require air in which to fly, and that we can live very comfortably in an enclosed cabin attached to this wonderful flying machine.

At what speed are we going to make our machine fly? Some aeroplanes have traveled more than one hundred miles in an hour, but that speed will be far too slow for us because we have such great distances to go.

Flying at one hundred miles per hour, we should not reach the moon for three months. And the moon is our nearest neighbor in s.p.a.ce. The sun is four hundred times as far away as the moon, so it would take us a hundred years to reach the sun. And even this far-distant sun seems a near neighbor when we think of the distance from us to the fixed stars. To reach the nearest of the stars it would take us millions of years. I am not going to ask you to imagine yourself living for millions of years, shut up in the cabin of our flying machine. It is quite evident that we must increase the speed of our machine. Suppose we make it go as fast as a ray of light can travel! How fast is that?

The speed of light is so great than any race we set for it on this earth seems no time at all. You know that it takes us several months to travel round this world in a steamer. Of course we could go far faster in a flying machine. But even if we could keep flying all the time at one hundred miles per hour, it would take us ten days.

Suppose now that it were possible to send a ray of light on this same journey around the world. It would have traveled right round before you could count "one". Indeed it could travel five hundred times round the world in one minute. That may help to give you some vague sort of idea of the speed at which our flying machine is to travel.