A regular waterfall of tears came gushing from her eyes, flooding all around herA regular waterfall of tears came gushingfrom her eyes, flooding all around her
Weeksand months had passed since the children's departure on their journey; and the hour of separation was at hand. Light had been very sad lately; she had counted the days in sorrow, without a word to the Animals and Things, who had no idea of the misfortune that threatened them.
On the day when we see them for the last time, they were all out in the gardens of the temple. Light stood watching them from a marble terrace, with Tyltyl and Mytyl sleeping by her side. Much had happened in the past twelve months; but the life of the Animals and Things, which had no intelligence to guide it, had made no progress, on the contrary. Bread had eaten so much that he was now not able to walk: Milk, devoted as ever, dragged him along in a Bath chair. Fire's nasty temper had made him quarrel with everybody and he had become very lonely and unhappy in consequence. Water, who had no will of her own, had ended by yielding to Sugar's sweet entreaties: they were now married; and Sugar presented a most piteoussight. The poor fellow was reduced to a shadow of his former self, shrank visibly day by day and was sillier than ever, while Water, in marrying, had lost her principal charm, her simplicity. The Cat had remained the liar that she always was; and our dear friend Tylô had never been able to overcome his hatred for her.
"Poor things!" thought Light, with a sigh. "They have not gained much by receiving the benefit of life! They have travelled and seen nothing of all the wonders that surrounded them in my peaceful temple; they were either quarrelling with one another or over-eating themselves until they fell ill. They were too foolish to enjoy their happiness and they will recognize it for the first time presently, when they are about to lose it...."
At that moment, a pretty dove, with silver wings, alighted on her knees. It wore an emerald collar round its neck, with a note fastened to the clasp. The dove was the Fairy Bérylune's messenger. Light opened the letter and read these few words:
"Remember that the year is over."
Then Light stood up, waved her wand and everything disappeared from sight.
A few seconds later, the whole company were gathered together outside a high wall with a small door in it. The first rays of the dawn were gilding the tree-tops. Tyltyl and Mytyl, whom Light was fondly supporting with her arms, woke up, rubbed their eyes and looked around them in astonishment.
"What?" said Light to Tyltyl. "Don't you know that wall and that little door?"
The sleepy boy shook his head: he remembered nothing. Then Light assisted his memory:
"The wall," she said, "surrounds a house which we left one evening just a year ago to-day...."
"Just a year ago?... Why, then...." And, clapping his hands with glee, Tyltyl ran to the door. "We must be near Mummy!... I want to kiss her at once, at once, at once!"
But Light stopped him. It was too early, she said: Mummy and Daddy were still asleep and he must not wake them with a start.
"Besides," she added, "the door will not open till the hour strikes."
"What hour?" asked the boy.
"The hour of separation," Light answered, sadly.
"What!" said Tyltyl, in great distress. "Are you leaving us?"
"I must," said Light. "The year is past. The Fairy will come back and ask you for the Blue Bird."
"But I haven't got the Blue Bird!" cried Tyltyl. "The one of the Land of Memory turned quite black, the one of the Future flew away, the Night's are dead, those in the Graveyard were not blue and I could not catch the one in the Forest!... Will the Fairy be angry?... What will she say?..."
"Never mind, dear," said Light. "You did your best. And, though you did not find the Blue Bird, you deserved to do so, for the good-will, pluck and courage which you showed."
Light's face beamed with happiness as she spoke these words, for she knew that to deserve to find the Blue Bird was very much the same thing as finding it; but she was not allowed to say this, for it was a beautiful mystery, which Tyltyl had to solve for himself. She turned to the Animals and Things, who stood weeping in a corner, and told them to come and kiss the Children.
Bread at once put down the cage at Tyltyl's feet and began to make a speech:
"In the name of all, I crave permission...."
"You sha'n't have mine!" cried Fire.
"Order!" cried Water.
"We still have tongues of our own!" roared Fire.
"Yes! Yes!" screamed Sugar, who, knowing that his end was at hand, kept kissing Water and melting before the others' eyes.
Poor Bread in vain tried to make his voice heard above the din. Light had to interfere and command silence. Then Bread spoke his last words:
"I am leaving you," he said, between his sobs. "I am leaving you, my dear Children, and you will no longer see me in my living form.... Your eyes are about to close to the invisible life of Things; but I shall be always there, in the bread-pan, on the shelf, on the table, beside the soup, I who am, if I may say so, the most faithful companion, the oldest friend of Man...."
"Well, and what about me?" shouted Fire, angrily.
"Silence!" said Light. "The hour is passing.... Be quick and say good-bye to the Children...."
Fire rushed forward, took hold of the Children, one after the other, and kissed them so violently that they screamed with pain:
"Oh! Oh!... He's burning me!..."
"Oh! Oh!... He's scorched my nose!..."
"Let me kiss the place and make it well," said Water, going up to the children gently.
This gave Fire his chance:
"Take care," he said, "you'll get wet."
"I am loving and gentle," said Water. "I am kind to human beings...."
"What about those you drown?" asked Fire.
But Water pretended not to hear:
"Love the wells, listen to the brooks," she said. "I shall always be there. When you sit down in the evening, beside the springs, try to understand what they are trying to say...."
Then she had to break off, for a regular waterfall of tears came gushing from her eyes, flooding all around her. However, she resumed:
"Think of me when you see the water-bottle.... You will find me also in the ewer, the watering-can, the cistern and the tap...."
Then Sugar came up, with a limping walk, for he could hardly stand on his feet. He uttered a few words of sorrow, in an affected voice and then stopped, for tears, he said, were not in harmony with his temperament.
"Humbug!" cried Bread.
"Sugar-plum! Lollipop! Caramel!" yelped Fire.
Closely pursued by the Dog, who overwhelmed her with bites, blows and kicksClosely pursued by the Dog, whooverwhelmed her with bites, blows and kicks
And all began to laugh, except the two children, who were very sad:
"Where are Tylette and Tylô gone to?" asked our hero.
At that moment, the Cat came running up, in a terrible state: her hair was on end and dishevelled, her clothes were torn and she was holding a handkerchief to her cheek, as though she had the tooth-ache. She uttered terrible groans and was closely pursued by the Dog, who overwhelmed her with bites, blows and kicks. The others rushed in between them to separate them, but the two enemies continued to insult and glare at each other. The Cat accused the Dog of pulling her tail and putting tin tacks in her food and beating her. The Dog simply growled and denied none of his actions:
"You've had some," he kept saying, "you've had some and you're going to have some more!"
But, suddenly, he stopped and, as he was panting with excitement, it could be seen that his tongue turned quite white: Light had told him to kiss the Children for the last time.
"For the last time?" stammered poor Tylô. "Are we to part from these poor Children?"
His grief was such that he was incapable of understanding anything.
"Yes," said Light. "The hour which you know of is at hand.... We are going to return to silence...."
Thereupon the Dog, suddenly realizing his misfortune, began to utter real howls of despair and fling himself upon the Children, whom he loaded with mad and violent caresses:
"No! No!" he cried. "I refuse!... I refuse!... I shall always talk!... And I shall be very good.... You will keep me with you and I shall learn to read and write and play dominoes!... And I shall always be very clean.... And I shall never steal anything in the kitchen again...."
He went on his knees before the two Children, sobbing and entreating, and, when Tyltyl, with his eyes full of tears, remained silent, dear Tylô had a last magnificent idea: running up to the Cat, he offered, with smiles that looked like grins, to kiss her. Tylette, who did not possess his spirit of self-sacrifice, leaped back and took refuge by Mytyl's side. Then Mytyl said, innocently:
"You, Tylette, are the only one that hasn't kissed us yet."
The Cat put on a mincing tone:
"Children," said she, "I love you both as much as you deserve."
There was a pause.
"And now," said Light, "let me, in my turn, give you a last kiss...."
As she spoke, she spread her veil round them as if she would have wrapped them for the last time in her luminous might. Then she gave them each a long and loving kiss. Tyltyl and Mytyl hung on to her beseechingly:
"No, no, no, Light!" they cried. "Stay here with us!... Daddy won't mind.... We will tell Mummy how kind you have been.... Where will you go all alone?"...
"Not very far, my Children," said Light. "Over there to the Land of the Silence of Things."
"No, no," said Tyltyl. "I won't have you go...."
But Light quieted them with a motherly gesture and said words to them which they never forgot. Long after, when they were a grandfather and grandmother in their turn, Tyltyl and Mytyl still remembered them and used to repeat them to their grandchildren.
Here are Light's touching words:
"Listen, Tyltyl. Do not forget, child, that everything that you see in this world has neither beginning nor end. If you keep this thought in your heart and let it grow up with you, you will always, in all circumstances, know what to say, what to do and what to hope for."
And, when our two friends began to sob, she added, lovingly:
"Do not cry, my dear little ones.... I have not a voice like Water; I have only my brightness, which Man does not understand.... But I watch over him to the end of his days.... Never forget that I am speaking to you in every spreading moonbeam, in every twinkling star, in every dawn that rises, in every lamp that is lit, in every good and bright thought of your soul...."
At that moment, the grandfather's clock in the cottage struck eight o'clock. Light stopped for a moment and then, in a voice that grew suddenly fainter, whispered:
"Good-bye!... Good-bye!... The hour is striking!... Good-bye!"
Her veil faded away, her smile became paler, her eyes closed, her form vanished and, through their tears, the children saw nothing but a thin ray of light dying away at their feet. Then they turned to the others ... but these had disappeared....
Thegrandfather's clock in Tyl the woodcutter's cottage had struck eight; and his two little Children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, were still asleep in their little beds. Mummy Tyl stood looking at them, with her arms akimbo and her apron tucked up, laughing and scolding in the same breath:
"I can't let them go on sleeping till mid-day," she said. "Come, get up, you little lazybones!"
But it was no use shaking them, kissing them or pulling the bed-clothes off them: they kept on falling back upon their pillows, with their noses pointing at the ceiling, their mouths wide open, their eyes shut and their cheeks all pink.
At last, after receiving a gentle thump in the ribs, Tyltyl opened one eye and murmured:
"What?... Light?... Where are you?... No, no, don't go away...."
"Light!" cried Mummy Tyl, laughing. "Why, of course, it's light.... Has been for ever so long!... What's the matter with you?... You look quite blinded...."
"Mummy!... Mummy!" said Tyltyl, rubbing his eyes. "It's you!..."
"Why, of course, it's I!... Why do you stare at me in that way?... Is my nose turned upside down, by any chance?"
Tyltyl was quite awake by this time and did not trouble to answer the question. He was beside himself with delight! It was ages and ages since he had seen his Mummy and he never tired of kissing her.
Mummy Tyl began to be uneasy. What could the matter be? Had her boy lost his senses? Here he was suddenly talking of a long journey in the company of the Fairy and Water and Milk and Sugar and Fire and Bread and Light! He made believe that he had been away a year!...
"But you haven't left the room!" cried Mummy Tyl, who was now nearly beside herself with fright. "I put you to bed last night and here you are this morning! It's Christmas Day: don't you hear the bells in the village?..."
"Of course, it's Christmas Day," said Tyltyl, obstinately, "seeing that I went away a year ago, on Christmas Eve!... You're not angry with me?... Did you feel very sad?... And what did Daddy say?..."
"Come, you're still asleep!" said Mummy Tyl, trying to take comfort. "You've been dreaming!... Get up and put on your breeches and your little jacket...."
"Hullo, I've got my shirt on!" said Tyltyl.
And, leaping up, he knelt down on the bed and began to dress, while his mother kept on looking at him with a scared face.
The little boy rattled on:
"Ask Mytyl, if you don't believe me.... Oh, we have had such adventures!... We saw Grandad and Granny ... yes, in the Land of Memory ... it was on our way. They are dead, but they are quite well, aren't they, Mytyl?"
And Mytyl, who was now beginning to wake up, joined her brother in describing their visit to the grandparents and the fun which they had had with their little brothers and sisters.
This was too much for Mummy Tyl. She ran to the door of the cottage and called with all her might to her husband, who was working on the edge of the forest:
"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" she cried. "I shall lose them as I lost the others!... Do come!... Come quick...."
Daddy Tyl soon entered the cottage, with his axe in his hand; he listened to his wife's lamentations, while the twoChildren told the story of their adventures over again and asked him what he had done during the year.
"You see, you see!" said Mummy Tyl, crying. "They have lost their heads, something will happen to them; run and fetch the doctor...."
But the woodcutter was not the man to put himself out for such a trifle. He kissed the little ones, calmly lit his pipe and declared that they looked very well and that there was no hurry.
At that moment, there came a knock at the door and the neighbour walked in. She was a little old woman leaning on a stick and very much like the Fairy Bérylune. The Children at once flung their arms around her neck and capered round her, shouting merrily:
"It's the Fairy Bérylune!"
The neighbour, who was a little hard of hearing, paid no attention to their cries and said to Mummy Tyl:
"I have come to ask for a bit of fire for my Christmas stew.... It's very chilly this morning.... Good-morning, children...."
Meanwhile, Tyltyl had become a little thoughtful. No doubt, he was glad to see the old Fairy again; but what would she say when she heard that he had not the BlueBird? He made up his mind like a man and went up to her boldly:
"Fairy Bérylune, I could not find the Blue Bird...."
"What is he saying?" asked the neighbor, quite taken aback.
Thereupon Mummy Tyl began to fret again:
"Come, Tyltyl, don't you know Goody Berlingot?"
"Why, yes, of course," said Tyltyl, looking the neighbor up and down. "It's the Fairy Bérylune."
"Béry ... what?" asked the neighbor.
"Bérylune," answered Tyltyl, calmly.
"Berlingot," said the neighbor. "You mean Berlingot."
Tyltyl was a little put out by her positive way of talking; and he answered:
"Bérylune or Berlingot, as you please, ma'am, but I know what I'm saying...."
Daddy Tyl was beginning to have enough of it:
"We must put a stop to this," he said. "I will give them a smack or two."
"Don't," said the neighbor; "it's not worth while. It's only a little fit of dreaming; they must have been sleeping in the moonbeams.... My little girl, who is very ill, is often like that...."
Mummy Tyl put aside her own anxiety for a moment and asked after the health of Neighbor Berlingot's little girl.
"She's only so-so," said the neighbor, shaking her head. "She can't get up.... The doctor says it's her nerves.... I know what would cure her, for all that. She was asking me for it only this morning, for her Christmas present...."
She hesitated a little, looked at Tyltyl with a sigh and added, in a disheartened tone:
"What can I do? It's a fancy she has...."
The others looked at one another in silence: they knew what the neighbor's words meant. Her little girl had long been saying that she would get well if Tyltyl would only give her his dove; but he was so fond of it that he refused to part with it....
"Well," said Mummy Tyl to her son, "won't you give your bird to that poor little thing? She has been dying to have it for ever so long!..."
"My bird!" cried Tyltyl, slapping his forehead as though they had spoken of something quite out of the way. "My bird!" he repeated. "That's true, I was forgetting about him!... And the cage!... Mytyl, do you see the cage?... It's the one which Bread carried.... Yes, yes, it's the same one, there it is, there it is!"
"It's the Blue Bird we were looking for! We have been miles and miles and miles and he was here all the time!""It's the Blue Bird we were looking for!We have been miles and miles and milesand he was here all the time!"
Tyltyl would not believe his eyes. He took a chair, put it under the cage and climbed on to it gaily, saying:
"Of course, I'll give him to her, of course, I will!..."
Then he stopped, in amazement:
"Why, he's blue!" he said. "It's my dove, just the same, but he has turned blue while I was away!"
And our hero jumped down from the chair and began to skip for joy, crying:
"It's the Blue Bird we were looking for! We have been miles and miles and miles and he was here all the time!... He was here, at home!... Oh, but how wonderful!... Mytyl, do you see the bird? What would Light say?... There, Madame Berlingot, take him quickly to your little girl...."
While he was talking, Mummy Tyl threw herself into her husband's arms and moaned:
"You see?... You see?... He's taken bad again.... He's wandering...."
Meantime, Neighbor Berlingot beamed all over her face, clasped her hands together and mumbled her thanks. When Tyltyl gave her the bird, she could hardly believe her eyes. She hugged the boy in her arms and wept with joy and gratitude:
"Do you give it me?" she kept saying. "Do you giveit me like that, straight away and for nothing?... Goodness, how happy she will be!... I fly, I fly!... I will come back to tell you what she says...."
"Yes, yes, go quickly," said Tyltyl, "for some of them change their color!"
Neighbour Berlingot ran out and Tyltyl shut the door after her. Then he turned round on the threshold, looked at the walls of the cottage, looked all around him and seemed wonderstruck:
"Daddy, Mummy, what have you done to the house?" he asked. "It's just as it was, but it's much prettier."
His parents looked at each other in bewilderment; and the little boy went on:
"Why, yes, everything has been painted and made to look like new; everything is clean and polished.... And look at the forest outside the window!... How big and fine it is!... One would think it was quite new!... How happy I feel here, oh, how happy I feel!"
The worthy woodcutter and his wife could not make out what was coming over their son; but you, my dear little readers, who have followed Tyltyl and Mytyl through their beautiful dream, will have guessed what it was that altered everything in our young hero's view.
It was not for nothing that the Fairy, in his dream, hadgiven him a talisman to open his eyes. He had learned to see the beauty of things around him; he had passed through trials that had developed his courage; while pursuing the Blue Bird, the Bird of Happiness that was to bring happiness to the Fairy's little girl, he had become open-handed and so good-natured that the mere thought of giving pleasure to others filled his heart with joy. And, while travelling through endless, wonderful, imaginary regions, his mind had opened out to life.
The boy was right, when he thought everything more beautiful, for, to his richer and purer understanding, everything must needs seem infinitely fairer than before.
Meanwhile, Tyltyl continued his joyful inspection of the cottage. He leaned over the bread-pan to speak a kind word to the Loaves; he rushed at Tylô, who was sleeping in his basket, and congratulated him on the good fight which he had made in the forest.
Mytyl stooped down to stroke Tylette, who was snoozing by the stove, and said:
"Well, Tylette?... You know me, I see, but you have stopped talking."
Then Tyltyl put his hand up to his forehead:
"Hullo!" he cried. "The diamond's gone!... Who's taken my little green hat?... Never mind, I don't wantit any more!... Ah, there's Fire! Good-morning, sir! He'll be crackling to make Water angry!" He ran to the tap, turned it on and bent down over the water. "Good-morning, Water, good-morning!... What does she say?... She still talks, but I don't understand her as well as I did.... Oh, how happy I am, how happy I am!..."
"So am I, so am I!" cried Mytyl.
And our two young friends took each other's hands and began to scamper round the kitchen.
Mummy Tyl felt a little relieved at seeing them so full of life and spirits. Besides, Daddy Tyl was so calm and placid. He sat eating his porridge and laughing:
"You see, they areplayingat being happy!" he said.
Of course, the poor dear man did not know that a wonderful dream had taught his little children not to play at being happy, but tobehappy, which is the greatest and most difficult of lessons.
"I like Light best of all," said Tyltyl to Mytyl, standing on tip-toe by the window. "You can see her over there, through the trees of the forest. To-night, she will be in the lamp. Dear, oh, dear, how lovely it all is and how glad I feel, how glad I...."
He stopped and listened. Everybody lent an ear. Theyheard laughter and merry voices; and the sounds came nearer.
"It's her voice!" cried Tyltyl. "Let me open the door!"
As a matter of fact, it was the little girl, with her mother, Neighbor Berlingot.
"Look at her," said Goody Berlingot, quite overcome with joy. "She can run, she can dance, she can fly! It's a miracle! When she saw the bird, she jumped, just like that...."
And Goody Berlingot hopped from one leg to the other at the risk of falling and breaking her long, hooked nose.
The Children clapped their hands and everybody laughed.
The little girl was there, in her long white night-dress, standing in the middle of the kitchen, a little surprised to find herself on her feet after so many months' illness. She smiled and pressed Tyltyl's dove to her heart.
Tyltyl looked first at the child and then at Mytyl:
"Don't you think she's very like Light?" he asked.
"She is much smaller," said Mytyl.
"Yes, indeed!" said Tyltyl. "But she will grow!..."
And the three Children tried to put a little food down the Bird's beak, while the parents began to feel easier in their minds and looked at them and smiled.
Tyltyl was radiant. I will not conceal from you, my dear little readers, that the Dove had hardly changed colour at all and that it was joy and happiness that decked him with a magnificent bright blue plumage in our hero's eyes. No matter! Tyltyl, without knowing it, had discovered Light's great secret, which isthat we draw nearer to happiness by trying to give it to others.
But now something happened. Everybody became excited, the Children screamed, the parents threw up their arms and rushed to the open door: the Bird had suddenly escaped! He was flying away as fast as he could.
"My bird! My bird!" sobbed the little girl.
But Tyltyl was the first to run to the staircase and he returned in triumph:
"It's all right!" he said. "Don't cry! He is still in the house and we shall find him again."
And he gave a kiss to the little girl, who was already smiling through her tears:
"You'll be sure to catch him again, won't you?" she asked.
"Trust me," replied our friend, confidentially. "I now know where he is."
You also, my dear little readers, now know where theBlue Bird is. Dear Light revealed nothing to the woodcutter's Children, but she showed them the road to happiness by teaching them to be good and kind and generous.
Suppose that, at the beginning of this story, she had said to them:
"Go straight back home. The Blue Bird is there, in the humble cottage, in the wicker cage, with your dear father and mother who love you."
The Children would never have believed her:
"What!" Tyltyl would have answered. "The Blue Bird, my dove? Nonsense: my dove is grey!... Happiness, in the cottage? With Daddy and Mummy? Oh, I say! There are no toys at home and it's awfully boring there: we want to go ever so far and meet with tremendous adventures and have all sorts of fun...."
That is what he would have said; and he and Mytyl would have set out in spite of everything, without listening to Light's advice, for the most certain truths are good for nothing if we do not put them to the test ourselves. It only takes a moment to tell a child all the wisdom in the world, but our whole lives are not long enough to help us understand it, because our own experience is our only light.
Each of us must seek out happiness for himself; and hehas to take endless pains and undergo many a cruel disappointment before he learns to become happy by appreciating the simple and perfect pleasures that are always within easy reach of his mind and heart.
Back Fly Leaf
Transcriber's Note:Inconsistencies in spelling e.g. color/colour,neighbor/neighbour have been left as in the original.*