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must tell you a little about the hands that first made us, and to do so I must take you in fancy to the high Alps in Switzerland. There, during the long bright summer months, according to the practice of the country, the flocks and herds are pastured, only descending to the villages in autumn, when food and fodder grow scant. A temporary dwelling is erected, in which the Sennerin, the young girl who usually takes charge of them, lives for the season, and where she follows the dairy business peculiar to her calling. The long summer days pass so calmly and pleasantly there, while the cows and their young ones crop the juicy herbage of these mountain pastures. Meanwhile the shepherd lads, and those who are not busied in more active labours, often pass their leisure hours, while guarding theirflocks with the help of their intelligent dogs, in carving cleverly some pretty little toys in the light wood peculiar to their province. These find a ready sale with the travellers, who climb these lofty heights to feast their eyes on the ranges of distant peaks and Alpine passes, that seem almost reaching up to the sky.
"Sitting on the grass, with their quaint, old-fashioned knives, these lads carve elegant and graceful trifles, that often eventually find their way into royal palaces, and are used by many dainty fingers. My maker, however, was more given to the construction of toys for children; he preferred fashioning all kinds of animals and reptiles, to making flower bestudded paper knives or perforated work baskets; and he found a very good and ready sale for all he had time to manufacture. By his patient and incessant industry, he had earned a comfortable living for many years for his blind and aged mother, to whom he was a most dutiful and tender son. Never a penny of Fritz's money was spent in idle folly, for neither gay ribbons for his hat nor silver buckles for his shoes ever wiled away his earned money from itspious purpose. He certainly was a true but very humble admirer of our Sennerin, who was the only daughter of a rich farmer of the village; and I had a few opportunities for noticing that she always prized more the simple Alpine roses, for which Fritz had climbed many a dangerous spot, than she did the elaborate carvings or purchased trinkets which were offered to her by others. I hope long ere this, Fritz, the good son and industrious villager, is the owner of the goodly farm, and the happy husband of the pretty Sennerin. But I did not remain long enough to know much of the progress of his affairs; for although it took him half the summer to make me and two similar Arks, we were readily disposed of at once, on his return to the village. The toy merchant made his yearly visit then, and carried us all off with a host of other articles of similar manufacture.
"I hope I may be excused for a little pardonable vanity in describing our personal appearance to you; for, in common with you all, I have been also divested by time and rough usage of most of my early charms. When I was first springing from beneath the skilfulfingers of Fritz, I was the prettiest specimen of a model Swiss cottage set upon a boat floor, that ever was made. My walls were formed of the pretty very white species of wood, used by these deft shepherd carvers, and light, graceful openwork patterns were formed on them, by delicately cut cross pieces of a darker shade. The roof, with wide projecting eaves, after the regular chalet pattern, had its cross beams, and here and there the usual stones, laid on it, which, in the original structures, are placed there to add some weight of resistance to the furious mountain gales that come sweeping down the deep gorges. There was a row of windows, which were really cut out and glazed, through which you might obtain a view of the jumble of animals huddled together inside. A perforated gallery of light wood ran all round the walls half way up, from whence a staircase, general to these Swiss cottages, led down, and in this case terminated on the floor of the flat wooden boat, which of rather unusual depth, formed the bottom of the Ark.
"As to my contents, they were of a rather miscellaneous character, for although Fritz hada natural love for animals, and considerable success in copying those with which he was acquainted, his knowledge of the more distant creation was limited to the quaint old woodcuts in his mother's Bible, in which they were drawn with more spirit and imagination than correctness. And so Fritz's horses, oxen, pigs, sheep, dogs, and goats were characteristic and good, but his elephant and camel, though original, were eccentric, to use a mild term. They were all executed, however, with great pains, and the wood from which they were carved was specially selected with a view to their colour and marks. Thus, for example, the tiger, though his outline and shape were rather doubtful, and he partook more than he should of the square frame of a cow, was cut out of a bit of wood where a knot had been, which caused it to be streaked in a manner very suitable to the stripes of that animal. The birds generally were a greater success, for with most of these Fritz was tolerably familiar. We had certainly all spent a very pleasant summer, high up in the Alps, with the most delicious clear sky overhead and the fragrant herbage beneath. It was so calm and clear,that the silence was broken alone by the far off sheep and goat bells, the faint low of the drowsy cattle, or the sweet song of distant birds. How often I have recalled that pleasant early life, which was so very speedily terminated.
"The toy merchant soon packed up his wares and departed, and we saw and heard nothing more, until we were unpacked from a huge case of other toys, and placed in the window of a famous toyshop in St. Paul's Churchyard. In the window there, for some months, we attracted numberless groups of delighted little admirers, but our high price placed us beyond the reach of most people. Our turn came at last; we were selected by a doating grandpapa for his pet little grand-daughter, and carefully packed up and taken to the abode of our future owner. The pretty little child was too young as yet to have such a beautiful and costly toy in her own charge, so her Mamma undertook the care of us, and Beatrice was allowed to play with us occasionally.
"She was a queer little mortal, this new mistress of ours, and not particularly fond of toys in general. She was highly delighted atfirst, and twice or thrice when she was allowed to play with us, she arranged us carefully in pairs on the table. But when Nurse or Mamma tried to improve her knowledge, and give her a sly object lesson on zoology, Miss Beatrice grew refractory, and cared for us no more. Unfortunately on one occasion when her Mamma was seriously ill, the nurse gave us to her to play with, to keep her quiet, and the whole house being somewhat upset by the illness, the child was not taken much notice of. Alas, when Nurse came in the evening to collect my animals and put me away, she found a most deplorable state of things. Beatrice had been dragging me about as a carriage for her doll, and had thus damaged my pretty railed gallery and staircase past all mending. My roof was in three pieces, and the reckless little savage had first strewn all my beasts over the floor, and then as deliberately walked over them. Oh, what a havoc was there! My poor dear cows and sheep, that had cost the ingenious Fritz so much time and trouble, had not three legs to boast of between them, and as for the birds, they were most of them pounded to pieces and bits.I thought with bitter regret of the green mountain heights where we had so merrily proceeded under Fritz's laborious fingers, and had been the admiration of the whole little Swiss village.
"When Beatrice's mother was better, she was much vexed to hear what had happened to us, and was very angry indeed with Beatrice for her wilful mischief. I believe from that time, the child took a dislike to us, for she was a capricious, odd-tempered little thing, and certainly never played with us without doing us some further injury. As for the animals, they were left and dropped all over the house. Poor old Grandmamma coming to spend the day, fell down and sprained her ancle by treading on the elephant. The camel was thrown through one of the windows by a little boy visitor during a romp with Beatrice, and Aunt Priscilla was almost irreparably offended the last time she stayed there, by finding a wooden pig in her fur-lined slipper. She put her foot hastily in without seeing it, and hurt it so, that she declared she was lame for a month afterwards. In short, we were always in trouble in some way or other, and Beatrice's mother more than once threatened to give us away.
"It would have been a small consolation to usif our young owner had played with us sometimes, or taken ever so little pride in us. But no; she only took us out to bring more shame and disgrace on us, and on herself. For instance, once when her Godmother took her to church for the first time, Beatrice took her handkerchief out of her pocket, and with it a number of wooden animals, which fell in a pattering shower on the pavement. Naughty Beatrice would stop in the middle of the aisle and pick us all up, to the astonishment of the congregation, the horror of her Godmother, and the utter scandal of the grave old clerk. Nay, worse even, for when the sermon commenced, she rushed out of her seat, and began to hunt about under the people's feet in the free benches for a missing camelopard!
"After this terrible mishap, Nurse laid hands on all the stray animals she could find, and clapped them all hastily into my box, shutting down the lid decidedly, and promising Beatrice she should see us no more. She was as good as her word, and hid us behind a great pile of clean dimity curtains in the linen closet, where we remained snugly packed away forsome time. But, alas! one day our mischievous little mistress, during one of her prowls, chanced to see the open door of the linen closet, and could not resist a sudden raid upon it. To her great joy, she found us, and carefully lugging us out, she hid us in her little cot till bedtime.
"It happened to be the day of a dinner party, and all the servants were very busy with the preparations for it, while the lady of the house was equally engaged in superintending the arrangements. In the evening, while dinner was proceeding, Beatrice, well-dressed for the occasion, was taken down into the drawing-room, to wait till she could go in to dessert. Her nurse, no doubt, was using her ears and eyes in other matters, and so the mischievous little maid was left to her own devices. The results, however, were very unpleasantly visible to her Mamma, when having helped a lady to some trifle, she observed her become very red, and lay down her spoon. On enquiry, she found that she had met with a wooden frog in the trifle, and on further search, some more of my unlucky animals were found located among the sweet dishes. A huge dog was floundering inthe jelly, and a regular flight of birds had got about the blancmange.
"The end of this disagreeable affair was, that Miss Beatrice was sent to bed in dire disgrace, and the poor innocent animals, all sticky from their sweet bath, were consigned to the fire. The few remaining creatures that were left of all the numerous flock Fritz had so proudly made, were hastily gathered together, and with me, given away next morning.
"Our next owner was a little boy, a very quiet little fellow, to whom we became the greatest treasure in the world. He thought me the most beautiful toy that was ever made, although I was in such a sadly damaged condition. His only grief was, that my stock of animals had now dwindled down to about twenty, and of these, most were maimed or deficient in some way. However, he wisely made the best of a bad matter, and set to work to repair the damage as well as he could. With his elder brother's kind help, and the loan of a glue-pot, he repaired, as neatly as possible, the breakage of my gallery and staircase. With pins, cork, and sealing-wax, he next proceeded to tinker-upthe poor mutilated animals, and succeeded in making them all stand pretty firmly once more. It would have done Fritz's honest heart good to see how carefully the little fellow handled his masterpiece, and how very conscientiously he tried to put all to rights again. And if the horsehadtwo odd scarlet legs made out of sealing-wax, it was better than going a cripple for life; and as for the squirrel, he need not have grumbled, for a black pin for a tail was better than none. To be sure, he did stick the bear's head on the wrong way, but then it did not much matter, it only looked as if he had met with a tree he wanted to climb, and was looking up it.
"And so once more we were patched up into ordinary respectability, and so pretty did we look, even in our less bright condition, that at last, as Harry was a little too old to play with such toys, and cared much more for making and mending them, we were laid out in great style, and to as much advantage, on the little chess table in the bow window, and covered with a glass shade to preserve us from the dust!
"Here we dwelt in state for some years, whileHarry grew up and went to school, and after that to college, and ceased to care for such trifles. And then his mother gave us to Celia Spenser, on her birthday, who was much delighted, and for a long while we were a very favourite toy of hers; but her little brothers and sister made fresh ravages on our impaired value, although it is but fair to say the misfortunes were unintentional, and they were really sorry when they had broken any of my beams, or lost an animal. And now our turn has come to be cast aside, and so here we are with the rest of the old pensioners!"
And having said this, the Ark creaked his lid down again, and finished his story, for which he received the thanks of all the assembled party.
"Now," said the Ball, musing gravely, "I shall call next in order on the Marbles to relate their general history, and as I don't know which of them to ask first, I must call upon them collectively."
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e are of what may be styled republican principles," said a large China Marble, rolling out of the heap. "Of all the speakers who have already come forward, the Kite, Doll, and yourself, for instance, are simple individuals. The Tea-things are a large family, under the rule of their mother, the Teapot; a kind of domestic despotism. The Noah's Ark might represent a constitutional or limited monarchy, where the Ark is a sort of governing or holding together of the rest of the members. And so they have all very properly, as representatives, related their own peculiar history. ButweMarbles are a republic, and therefore can't quite tell all our story as one, because several kinds or classes of us wish to tell their own separate tale."
"I daresay this is all very clever, and verytrue," replied the Ball, suppressing a yawn; "but I don't quite understand all you have said. However, let that pass; the only question before us is, how the proceedings are to be arranged in this manner. I think, as President of our party, I can hardly allow all of you to relate a distinct story, because there are several other people who are waiting in their turn, and it is due to them, as well as fair to the rest, not forgetting those who have gone before, that we should not spend all our time in hearing separately half a dozen members of your party."
"But we have no story to tell as a body," urged a Bright Glass Marble; "if you won't hear us separately, we have no whole adventure to relate worth mentioning."
The Ball, somewhat puzzled, consulted gravely with the rest; and after whispering in one corner with the Kite, and in another with the Rocking Horse—after having failed in obtaining any opinion from the Doll, who was too languid to care much about the matter, and having skilfully evaded the Humming Top, who had more to say on the subject than any one cared to hear—he once more took his place, and gave his decision thus:—
"After a consultation and council withseveral distinguished members of our party, I am happy to tell you that we are willing to allow three of you to relate your separate stories, on the distinct understanding that they do not exceed, in their united length, the narrations that have gone before."
On behalf of his companions, the China Marble who had first spoken, willingly agreed to the terms, and called upon the Bright Glass Marble to speak first. And so the small green glassy thing rolled smoothly forward, looking like a little curled-up snake, and began to speak.
"I am not going to relate to you the usual pursuits and habits of a common Marble! I am not made like them of mere earth or clay, but of glass—bright shining glass—the result of a marvellous combination of different things by the aid of chemical skill and knowledge. These delicate threads that you can perceive winding gracefully and symmetrically through me are of Venetian origin, and the mode of making them—once a trade secret—was first discovered in that "city of an hundred isles."I was not baked in a hot oven, as my humbler brethren are, but melted and cleared again and again in a far fiercer heat, until my nature became refined and purified, and my clear colour green as the sea which glides like a glittering network through and round Venice.
"Nor was all this trouble taken with me only that I might become a mere child's toy, like these dingy, earthen globes; no! I was designed to become a member of a charming party, who lived in separate apartments, on a large mahogany board, and our party was elegantly called for that reason by the French name ofSolitaire! Some of my family were crimson, some blue, some striped like sea-shells, some flaked with gold, but all beautiful. We lived for a long time appropriately enough in the Crystal Palace, where we lay with hosts of other brilliant things, too numerous to mention, on a long counter in the Bohemian Court. I may say, without vanity, that we were the objects of admiration to thousands, and many of our sparkling host were carried off like trophies, to adorn the mansions of the great and noble.
"My destination was at first a fortunate one;but, alas, in common with yourselves, I have also met with reverses in life; and onme, poor little me, Fate seems to have poured out all her hardest punishment. We were purchased at first by Lord Latimer for his little daughter Florine, and for a while laid on inlaid tables and were only handled by fair and jewelled fingers. I need not enter into the plan of the game of Solitaire, which had just then come out fresh, and was universally popular, for, as in many other cases what isplayto others isworkto us. I had nothing to complain of, however, for my fair young mistress was very gentle and lady-like, and skilled in the game, so that we were daintily used and carefully kept. Indeed while we breathed the perfumed air of that luxurious boudoir, sweetened with the rarest exotic flowers, and ornamented with every graceful trinket and toy that could please its owner, our life passed like a fairy dream. But sweet and amiable as Florine was, she too had her faults, and a love of change and novelty was one of them. When she had possessed us a brief year, she grew weary of us, and passed on to other amusements. Her whole thoughtswere now given to table croquet, and we lay idle and disused. At last one day we were coolly given away to little Rosie Herbert, a small friend of hers, who carried us exultingly off at once. Unluckily our new owner was a mere raw school girl, and having no mother, and more of her own way than was good for her, we were taken by her to school, and there we ran the gauntlet of twenty or thirty school girls, and never knew ten minutes' peace through the day, except at meal times. We now became acquainted with rough treatment, for we were usually sent rolling on the floor into all corners of the room half a dozen times a day, and many of my friends were lost entirely by these means. What became of them eventually I do not know, as we never met all together again, the vacant place in the board being filled up by Rosie withbeans, neighbours, I need hardly say, not by any means acceptable to the poor remainder of us! What we underwent at that dreadful school, or even a tithe of the mischievous pranks we saw there, would take too long a time to describe; and the only wonder is, that any of us escaped to tell thetale, for when our novelty wore off, the value for us lessened also. One unscrupulous girl made frequent use of us to torment her enemies by putting some of us in their beds, others in their shoes, nay, even one girl narrowly escaped choking by nearly swallowingmein a cup of tea, into which I had been slily slipped. One or two of us broke a few window panes, and we were frequently sent rolling about the writing table, until at last Miss Blunt desired Rosie to collect us all, and keep us in her play-box till the holidays, on pain of entire confiscation.
"We then, or at least the few survivors of our once numerous band, hoped we had now at last a little interval of peace, before we retired into private life. On once more emerging from obscurity, and accompanying Rosie home, we found that our chance was not much improved, for we were continually being slily purloined to replenish her brother Robert's marble bag. For a long time I had seen my companions gradually disappearing one by one, and dreaded the time when I too must follow, and at last the terrible moment arrived. I was carried off, and once more became a haunter of a school, butthis time it was one for boys, and from my former experience, I was in utter despair at the fate before me. Fortunately, however, in the first game of marbles in which Robert indulged after I came into his possession, I was won by Frank Spenser. He was just on the eve of leaving school, and consequently I had no very unpleasant encounters to anticipate. With the rest of my companions I was put aside and forgotten, and that is how I came to reside in the toy cupboard!"
"Well," said one of the common marbles, coming forward, "Ican't lay any claim to such a fine appearance, nor shall I be able to relate such a distinguished history. My origin is humble enough, for I am made of clay, in common with many other things of far more importance than marbles. My first appearance in life was in a wicker basket with a lot of others in the dingy window of old Spattleberry's shop, where we lived in company with bottles of lollipops, ginger beer, jam tarts, string, slate pencil, tops, knives, and parliament. I have lived in a public school almost all my life, and I only wish I could get back there oncemore. None of your grand scented drawing rooms and faddling girls for me! I prefer boys for companions, and revel in a playground; why I don't even object to a jacket pocket! I can't say I have exactly a partiality for pockets in general, for my friends, the boys,arerather apt to put queer things in them, such as biscuit crumbs, beetles, fishing worms, and a host of other odds and ends, not to mention an occasional snake. But I've been very lucky, for I was a favourite alley, and have a bright red ring round me, so that I was pretty generally kept in careful quarters. Oh! how many jolly games I have had in the capital playground of Dewberry Grammar School with my owner, Ben Baily, and his chum, Bill Smith. The marbles I won for him, helped by his own good play, for hewasa first-rate player, made quite a goodly store in hisplay-box. Many a boy who had been so lucky, and who played so well, would have sold them secretly to old Spattleberry, as indeed I have known some mean boys do. But Ben was an honest, open-hearted fellow, born to be a sailor, so I was not surprised to hear of him afterwards as a navalcadet, going through a course of training in the "Dreadnought" frigate. But at the time I knew him he was only a truthful, frank schoolboy, very mischievous, and getting into lots of scrapes, but then they were never wicked ones, or likely to do harm to anybody, and only arising from the spirit of fun in him, that brimmed over sometimes.
"I soon discovered how his hoard of marbles gradually melted away, for I saw him several times fill the empty bag of a little fellow who had lost his all, and who found a generous friend in Ben. But though he was very kind to the little ones, and liberal too in his way, nothing roused him to a regular raging passion quicker than meanness or cheating. Now little Sam Markham, who first bought me from old Spattleberry, was the meanest little sneak that ever lived, and did not care what he did, so long as he was not found out. Ben had an instinctive dislike of him, and never played with him, so that there was a sort of unspoken feud between them. Mean little Sam feared Ben's blunt, straightforward ways; and Ben had a sort of big contempt for Sam's trickfulness andshifty ways, and so they gave each other usually, what Ben would have called, a "wide berth."
"But one day, Ben happened to perch himself on a very high bough of the old elm tree that stood in a corner of the playground; for he was always given to climbing, and that he knew from long experience was a secure nook to rest in away from intrusion. Many a summer holiday did he spend studying Robinson Crusoe, or Peter Simple, or something of that sort. But on this day he happened to have got "Snarley-yow," which some chum had lent him, and he was deaf and blind to almost everything. But a loud squabble under the tree at last aroused him a little, and 'It's not fair, Sam; I know you're cheating,' reached his ears; and shaking himself like a waking dog, he peered down through the leaves and branches to see what was the matter. There stood Sam, his eyes twinkling, and his mouth grinning from ear to ear, as he pocketed a lot of marbles, confiscated from "blundering Bill," as William Smith was politely christened by the boys. Now Bill was a good deal younger than that little sharper, Sam, and a novice to boot in thegame, and so was not near a match for him. Ben's honest blood boiled, and he only waited a few minutes just to witness some most gross cheating, and to see poor Bill turn away with his empty bag, when he slid down the old tree trunk like a thunderbolt, coming down upon sly Sam, and sending all his ill-gotten gains spinning to every corner of the playground. Sam had the soundest thrashing he had ever experienced, and was mulcted besides of all the marbles he had robbed Bill of; and though Ben was scarcely his equal in size, and a year younger, he was far too formidable and uncompromising an antagonist for Sam to contend openly with. So he resigned his ill-gotten plunder, and slunk off rubbing his shoulders, while Ben picked up "Snarley-yow," which he had pitched away in the beginning of the fray, and somewhat too tired to re-climb his favourite look-out, threw himself on a patch of grass hard by. From that hour the friendship of little Bill Smith and Ben was sealed and cemented by Bill's giving and Ben's taking me as an offering, each ignorant that I had really originally belonged to Sam. The latterwas too cowardly to reclaim even his own, and therefore contented himself from that time by lavishing every petty but secret malignity he could devise upon the two friends. But Ben very speedily left Dewberry, and went to the Naval School, and gave me with one or two more especial favourites to Frank Spenser."
"I believe I am the next delegate," said a fine bright, speckled marble, rolling forward; "and I consider it only candid to warn you that I am not what I may appear to be. My outward looks would lead you to suppose I was made of agate, or polished stone at least, but I have really been the innocent cause of so much deception that I think it only right to state at the beginning that I am only composed of some species of chinaware, so highly glazed as to appear like a better material. We found a very ready sale at the better class of toy shops and were very popular among the young fry, who cared more for outward looks, and were not so skilful in selecting really good articles as the bigger boys.
"I was purchased at the "Civet Cat," in Brompton, by little Augusta Finekyn, as apresent for her brother Fred on his approaching birthday, and as I cost the large sum of fourpence, she had saved a month's pocket money for the purpose. She intended to keep me as a profound secret until the auspicious day; but her plan was really defeated by several unlucky mishaps. First of all, she dropped me in the middle of a crowded crossing, and was very nearly run over by an omnibus in her search for me, and only rescued by the old crossing sweeper. The paper in which I had been wrapped was so saturated with mud, that she was obliged to take it off and wrap me in a corner of her pocket handkerchief. When she arrived at home she took off her things, forgetting me in her hurry, and ran down to dinner. During that meal, having occasion to want her handkerchief she drew it out of her pocket and me with it, sending me rolling among the dishes and plates, to her great dismay. However, Freddy was good-natured, and did not wish to vex his little sister, and so he pretended not to see me. Three days intervened before the birthday, and incessantly during that time did luckless Augusta contrive to dropme about in the oddest places, putting Fred's gravity and good humour to the sorest test possible, and I think both were equally relieved when the day arrived at last, and she was able to present it in due form. Fred had plenty of marbles of a better kind and more suitable for playing, but he did not vex his affectionate little sister by telling her so. For a long time I was kept in his desk with a funny jumble of other odds and ends not often wanted, but never exposed to view, for poor Fred on first returning to school had innocently exhibited me as anagatemarble, fully believing I really was so. But a more knowing boy, the son of a working jeweller who was on the same form with him, soon undeceived him, and from that time, with natural disgust at having been "so green," as his schoolfellow said, Fred carefully buried me in the recesses of his desk, and showed me no more.
"When he left school I went back among his other valuables, and was buried for many years in his oldplay-box. But one day I was rummaged out with a host of other antiquated things and laid on the table. A very smart younglady in a gay muslin dress, plentifully be-dropped with knots of ribbon, seemed to be "tidying up" as she called it; a process that appeared to me to consist in routing out and clearing away all the old hoards, and making the room as bare as an empty shop.
"'Oh dear,' she laughed, as I tumbled out with the rest of the boyish treasures; 'here's that wretched old marble, which wasnotagate after all. The little horror! Here, Jane, give it to Cook; she wanted a marble the other day to put into her tea-kettle, and this will be just the thing for her.'
"And so I was consigned to Cook, and for many months continued to roll and rattle about in the bottom of her horrid old black tea-kettle, accumulating all the disagreeable "fur," as she called it, that is generally found lining the inside of a kettle where the water in use is very hard. My pretty streaks and spots soon disappeared beneath this dreadful covering, and no one now—not even Fred Finekyn himself—(far less the airyfied young lady, into whom my early admirer, Augusta, had merged), would have recognised the gay and polished marblein the rough, stony-looking lump that made such a dull clatter in the kettle.
"But all things come to an end, even long captivities, and so one happy day saw me, still an inhabitant of the old kettle, sold at the sale, which took place when the Finekyns went "abroad." After this I resided for some time at a marine store-shop, and there my house and I parted company, and I was sent once more into the world as a marble, for the kettle was sold elsewhere, and I was dropped out during the examination of the old woman purchaser. When I was picked up, the shopman soon finding out that I was worth looking at, cleaned me, and restored me to a faint likeness of my former show, and sold me for the reduced price of twopence to an eager school boy. After a good many vicissitudes and changes, I came into Frank Spenser's possession, and became, with the rest, an inmate of the toy-cupboard."
The Ball, spying another little marble rolling forward as if to speak, returned thanks to them for their three stories, and called on the Rocking-Horse to be the next entertainer.
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drop cap I
could tell you lots of stories," said the Rocking Horse, stumbling and limping forward, as lightly as he could with his mutilated members, "for I have really seen so much of life, and have had so many little riders in turn. There was my first owner, dear bright golden-haired Charlie, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," as he was called by all, with his bright smile, and sunny eyes, and his musical laugh. He was going to be a knight-errant, and ride about all over the country, rescuing distressed damsels, and setting captives free, and fighting at least ten people at once! There was a pretty little girl, who used to come sometimes to spend the day with his sisters, and Charlie was very fond of her, calling her his princess. Little Julia was a nice child, and was never better pleased than when shewas mounted on me behind Charley, with her fat arms clasped tight round his waist. The stories that boy used to invent, surpassed anything I ever heard before or since; I am sure he must have read a good deal, and remembered it all too, to be able to describe the things he did. And Julia used to cuddle up to him, and say what he bid her, for she was a sweet, docile little thing, but she did not understand a tenth part of what he told her, and she used to get so frightened, and cling so tight, and call out 'O Charlie, don't rock so hard, please,' when he grew excited and set me off at first rate speed. And then Charlie used to say, 'You must not say that, Judy; you ought to say, Pray lessen your speed, gallant knight, your war charger is so fleet!' and Julia would say so, and all went smoothly enough till Charlie went off again full pelt, and then the whole thing was gone over again. But one day, one warm summer evening, Charlie was a little more wild than usual, and forgetting what he was about, he rocked too furiously, and down we all came together. It did not much matter to Charlie and me, for itwas neither our second nor third tumble, and he used only to jump up again, and rush to see whether I was damaged, before he looked at his own bruised knees, and say, 'That was a horrid spill, old boy, but never mind, we haven't damagedyourknees, anyhow!'
"But this time it was a more serious case, and I lay uncared for, while Charlie scrambled hastily up, and, like a brave boy, looked first after his poor little playmate. She was more hurt than either, and lay moaning piteously, till Charlie ran in a fright and fetched his mother. When the doctor came, as he did pretty quickly, he said poor Julia's little fat arm was broken, and she could not be removed, even home. Oh, what a sad time that was; the whole household seemed to watch night and day over the little patient sufferer, and poor Charlie roamed about in a miserable and distracted way that was quite sad to see. She was delirious and in some danger for a time; and while it lasted Charlie came and sat by me and told me all his sorrow in the most disconsolate way in the world.
"'You've brokenyourleg, gallant grey,' hesaid to me; 'but then the carpenter can mend that with no great ado, andI'vesprained my ancle, but that's nothing, for it does not hurt much, and I can easily bear that; but I wish we had both broken all our legs, before dear little Julia had been hurt. I'm afraid I shall never be a good knight now!'
"And then he laid his head on his knees, and actually cried bitterly. But all turned out better in the end, for the doctor cured Julia, and when the patient little girl grew better, all her care was to comfort Charlie, and she left her own mother (who had come to nurse her), no peace until she had formally forgiven Charlie. But poor contrite Charlie could not so readily forgive himself, and as a proof of his real wish to cure himself of his careless habits, he gave me away to Philip Reeves, an old friend of his, taking tender care to have me effectually mended up, and bidding me a most affectionate farewell. I did not like my new home very much, for though I had carried double before, little Julia was a mere feather weight, and Charlie rode very lightly; but the Reeves's children mounted me two and three at a timeplayed rude, practical jokes and treated me with all sorts of indignities. Once the little wretches actually set Tom on me with his face to my tail, and then called me a donkey, and shouted out, 'Gee up, Neddy!' And as for falls, we were always tumbling about,—my entire occupation was tumbling about. They dragged off all my pretty harness in tatters, by way of hauling me up again, and then replaced it with a horrid lot of common rope. As for my tail, oh, that was too bad! That abominable little Annie, the baby, got hold of me after one of my falls, and by the help of nurse's scissors, which had been dropped just by, she managed to shear all the hair off close to the stump, and disfigured me for life. Then another of my legs was broken, past mending. And so I lost all my good looks by degrees. To finish my troubles, the two younger boys took it into their heads that I wanted rubbing down, and they set to work with a vengeance, with the help of the nursery bath and a hard hair brush, and by the time they were found out, the nursery was swimming, and my poor complexion gone for ever!
"No one could stand that, and patience won'tlast for ever, so you cannot be surprised at my running away, and I think I managed my escape pretty luckily. One Saturday night, when the workwoman was there, her son came to fetch her home, and she somehow smuggled him into the empty nursery to wait until she was ready to go home with him. The children had all been put in their bath, and packed off early to bed, and Susan, the nursemaid, had run downstairs for a few minutes' gossip in the kitchen. Bob, the boy, began to eye me with great attention, and at last he drew near and began to play with me. His mother went to put on her bonnet and shawl, and Bob seized the opportunity.
"'You be a tidy pony!' said he, 'will you go along with me?'
"As I made no objection, and indeed was glad to go, he whipped me up in his arms, ran down the back stairs and off with me like a shot. I was in a dreadful fright for fear we should be found out, I can tell you, for there was a wretched small woolly toy-dog, an old enemy of mine, and the little horror barked with allhis might, and tried to give the alarm. But luckily for me, little Annie had that day poked a pin through the kid over his sound-hole, and so he had almost lost his voice, and was not heard at all. When I came to reflect on the matter calmly, I must own itwasrather an undignified method of running away, but I was too anxious at the time to escape, and did not think much about it. Bob hurried down some back lanes and byeways till he reached his own door, and then he rushed in, and running upstairs, hid me under his bed. He was up in the morning long before his mother, and got me out into the back-yard, hiding me behind the old water-butt. Bob's mother happened to be that week very busy, and away every day, so that he easily kept me out of the way. There was a nice hue and cry at the Reeves's when the children found out I had vanished, and Bob's mother came home each day, giving him a full history of the loss, little suspecting he was concerned in it.
"But evil deeds seldom meet with thorough success, and so Bob found out, for a playfellow of his, it seems, had watched enough of his proceedingsto find out that all was not right, and one day he attacked him on the subject. Bob was in a terrible fright, and at last made up his mind to take me back to the Reeves's again, hoping to smuggle me in after the same fashion he had brought me away. I was not much improved, as you may fancy, after being stabled so long behind that dirty tarred barrel. Indeed, I think the Reeves's children might almost have met me without recognising me. But they were not destined to be put to the trial, for just as Bob got near to the door, out sallied a whole tribe of the young ones, bound for a late walk. Bob beat a precipitate retreat, and pitched me headlong into a big laurel hedge, near the gate. As it proved afterwards, the children had not seen me, and so there I lay all night, when a drenching rain came down, and washed off all the paint I had left. I was now a poor wreck of a thing, and did not look as if I was of any value, and I was so out of heart and miserable, that I did not care what became of me. So when I was picked out of the hedge by Bill Soames, and carried to his cottage-home as a precious treasure, I was resigned to my fate.Horses, said I to myself, are peculiarly liable to these ups and downs of life, for, as we all know, the spirited racer that wins the Challenge Cup, may end his days harnessed to a cart. And so why should I lament my fate! I dare say, Bill Soames will be kind to me, and he looks as if he could ride. And so he could too, and many a prance we had on the brick floor of that old cottage, for in spite of my lame legs and docked tail, there was a little life and spirit left still in the poor old nag. And through all my life, I have beenverylucky in one thing, my foundations were good! Let what would happen to my legs or tail, at any rate, my rockers never came off! So I could get on pretty fairly even now, and Bill was as proud of me as if I had been a real flesh and blood steed.
"Many and many a box on the ears did he get from his mother, for picking her lilac or her roses to stick in my ears; and the day when she gave him some old scraps of dirty ribbon was a joyous day for him. The only pity was that his wish to adorn me to the best advantage led him in a weak moment to accept the proposal of George Hall, the little painter,who offered to make me as good as new! I can't bear to think of it, much less describethatoperation, and you may take my word for it I should have run away again, if I had not been tied up to the leg of the great wooden table. Bill remarked that he had seen the farrier singe and clip horses, and he always took good care to tie them up tight first. And so there I was at their mercy, and I came out of their hands such a figure, that I only wonder the nervous old cat, who lived there too, did not have a fit at the first sight of me. I had been painted black, with great white spots, just like big white wafers plentifully besprinkled all over me; and they had picked out my eyes and nose with such bright red borders, that it looked as if I breathed fire and flame, and I should have made a capital steed for the Fire-King in thepantomime. Bill was so delighted with me, that when I was dry and fit to be touched, he took more pains and care of me than ever. He stabled me in a corner, always offered me a share of his supper (but, as you may suppose, I don't eat bread and cheese), and covered me over from the dust with the counterpane of his own bed.
"So I was obliged to make the best of it, andbear my terrible disfigurement as well as I could, for the sake of the good, warm-hearted lad, who loved me so very dearly. And at last I got used to my new colour, and even the atrocious spots, for everybody round was always admiring me, and praising my beauty; and I began to think I was not so very bad after all, till one day, when the memory of all my reverses and troubles seemed to come back over me like a thunderbolt. I was standing out on the little green space before the cottage, in the sun, as I often did, for Bill was very fond of mounting and riding in the sight of all passers by. There was a low green quickset hedge dividing the cottage garden from the road, and a open wooden gate. I heard a voice say, 'I'll be shot if that ain't the very likeness of him. If he were only of a dirty white, and hadn't no spots, I'd say for certain it were he. There's a lump in his hind leg looks uncommon like the jine where he were broken!'
"Just at this moment, George Hall and Bill came out of the cottage door, and the speaker shuffled off rather fast, but not until I hadmanaged to catch a glimpse of him, and had recognised my old friend Bob, with whom I had first eloped. And the very next day, when I was out as usual, who should come by but "Bonnie Prince Charlie," hand in hand with little Julia. I declare the few hairs of my mane and tail fairly stiffened at the sight of them, and I longed to be able to trot out like a fairy horse and ask them to get on my back, and let me carry them off to some delightful island, and make them a real prince and princess! Dear little Julia, she had not quite got back her nice rosy fat cheeks, but her eyes were as bright, and her merry voice as sweet as ever, as she prattled merrily to Charlie, who watched over her in the most careful way, guarding the poor lame arm quite jealously from harm. I heard them before I saw them, and knew their dear voices, bless them! in a moment.
"'You shall have a carriage and pair, Judy, at least,' said Charlie, 'and a gentle mare for riding on, with a long tail and flowing mane. And you will be able to plait them up with ribbons, as Camilla did, you know, for Black Auster.'
"'I would rather have a little Shetlandpony,' said Julia, 'I'msoafraid of big horses, Charlie!'
"'Why a pony is the most dangerous of all, Julia,' replied Charley with a learned air; 'it is so much more frisky, and apt to run away. But we'll take care to have one that's warranted to carry a lady.'
"'But I'm not a real grown-up lady yet, am I?' said the innocent little girl, turning her blue wondering eyes full on Charlie, who she evidently thought the most wonderful hero in the world. Charlie laughed, and pulled her curls, and said he hopedheshould be able to take better care of her when he was bigger, 'better than Ihavedone, Ju,' he added, somewhat dolefully; 'I shall not forget that spill with Gallant Grey in a hurry. What a jolly horse he was too, and how delighted I was when Papa let me choose him at that lovely shop in London, where they sell nothing but horses, and a little girl sits and rocks on one in the window, you know. Poor old Gallant Grey, I wonder how he's getting on, and whether Phil Reeves has had as many spills as I have.But halloa, Ju, here's a queer thing! why, if there is not a rocking-horse in that little garden!'
"As Bonnie Prince Charlie and his little princess stood hand-in-hand at the gate and peeped at me with surprise through the rails, I could have eaten my head with vexation to think I could not even neigh a "how d'ye do?" to them.
"'My eyes,' said Charlie, as he slowly turned away, 'what an old nagthatis! not a bad made animal, but what a colour, and what spots! What can he be? Perhaps they're going to have Guy Faux on horseback, and are getting ready the steed!'
"And off went Charlie and Julia, and I could hear their merry voices ringing with laughter, for a long way down the lane. If it had only been in my nature to cry, I should have shed red hot tears of vexation, enough to burn up the little grass plat I stood on. I never saw Charlie and Julia again, and lived for a long while a sort of humdrum existence with Bill Soames. But life seemed very flat after that sad mortification, and I never went on the little grass plat again without remembering it. Andtime passed on, and when Bill grew bigger and went out to work, he gave me away to another chum, who was a horrid sailor boy, and had no more notion of riding than a teaspoon. He soon grew tired of me, and passed me on to some one else. And so have I served many masters, and have in my time been kept in some very queer stables. But I never cared for any of my subsequent owners so much as I did for Charlie, and Bill Soames, for they were all dull, uninteresting boys, who treated me as a mere toy, and cared less for me than a top or a kite.
"When I came to Harry Spenser, however, I began to think I was going to have a sort of second life, and be happy once more. The first thing that made me take to him was that he saved up his pocket money till he could afford to have me re-painted. I was now a bright bay, with a white star on my forehead, and though I bore a good many marks of ill usage and former accidents, and both my knees were broken, still at a distance I looked pretty well. Harry's little brother, Frank, thought me perfection, and christened me "Bay Middleton,"and had many a pleasant ride on me. But Harry was just in all the delight of the perusal of the Arabian nights, and could think of nothing but the Enchanted Horse, and he played at being Prince Firouz Schah, till I was quite tired of it. He drove two huge nails in my neck to serve for the two pegs that he was to turn, the one to raise him up among the clouds like a bird, and the other to lower him to earth once more. The latter peg is still here, as you may see, behind my ear, but they never performed that feat with me, for Harry was not magician enough to endow me with flying powers. He tried very hard to get Celia to play the part of the Princess of Bengal, but though she was very willing and obliging, and tried to do what he wished, she was too big to ride behind him, and he did not think her quite majestic enough for the part. At last, when Harry went off to Eton, I was put away here, and though for a time I indulged in a faint hope that he might look for me on his return for the holidays, I was disappointed, and even Frank has never looked for me since. And so now, my friends, I have given you a history ofall that has befallen me, including the famous episode of my running away."
The Toys, who had been much amused by the relation of the Rocking Horse, more particularly by the grave manner in which he spoke, to which his very rackety and dilapidated appearance lent a ludicrous effort, now thanked him very heartily for his story, and proceeded to call on the Skipping-rope for the next story.