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"Walk forward and make a bow," the Good Wolf said. "You are going to be introduced."
Barty did as he was told, and made a very nice bow indeed. His Majesty, the Noah's Ark Rabbit, pointed to him with a benevolent, puzzled look.
"What kind of little animal is that?" he inquired. "I seem to remember seeing some like him when I was in the Ark, but I cannot remember what they were called."
The Good Wolf answered him.
"He is a boy, your Majesty," he said. "There are a good many of
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them on the top." (He meant on the top of the earth, outside rabbit burrows.)
"Turn round, Boy," said the Noah's Ark Rabbit, "and let me look at you." And when Barty very politely turned round and round, his Majesty scratched himself behind his long ear and repeated, "Boy- Boy-Boy?" as if he were trying to remember something, and at last he turned to his wife and said, "My dear, do you remember anything about a Boy?"
The Queen Noah's Ark Rabbit had an ivory cane which she leaned on
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when she walked, and she lifted it and began to poke Barty gently all over, as if she were trying to find out what he was made of. She was a kind looking old thing, and suddenly she began to smile.
"Of course I remember," she said, "and so will you if you think a moment. Who saved us from the Flood by taking us into the Ark? He would take us. And he cried like anything when his grandfather chose another pair. Who was it?"
His Majesty slapped his knee and rocked with laughter.
"It was a Boy!" he said. "It was a Boy as sure as I am a Noah's Ark Rabbit.
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"It was a little Boy of Shem's, and he had made pets of us," said her Majesty. "He kept us in a hutch, and when the animals were picked out in pairs he huddled us in his arms and ran to his grandfather, and said, "Grandfather, you must take these—you must. If they are left behind I shall stay with them and let the Flood drown me! And though his grandfather had picked out a much bigger pair, he was obliged to take us or let the Boy be drowned."
His Majesty slapped his knee again. "And that is why we are here
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to-day!" he exclaimed. "How did we forget about Boys!"
"It was because the Flood frightened us so much, that as soon as we were let out of the Ark we ran away as fast as we could, and burrowed deep into the earth, and we never have been on top since, so we never have seen any until this minute. Dear! Dear! Dear!" said her Majesty. "Deary, deary me!"
Barty quite blushed with pleasure. They were such nice, old, long- haired, aged, aged benevolent things.
"I am very glad that I am a boy," he said, "if it was a boy
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who saved you."
"He is the nicest little animal I ever saw," said his Majesty enthusiastically. "I am perfectly delighted to see him. He must be led to the feasting table and given everything he likes to eat. He must enjoy himself. He must stuff his pockets full of good things to carry home. What can I give you for a Christmas present, Boy? Is there anything in all the wide world I can do for you? Goodness gracious, mercy me! You are the preserver of all our race. You are a Boy!"
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He was so delighted that he spoke as fast as lightning, and his words tumbled one over the other; seeing which, the Good Wolf spoke again.
"Your Majesty, he is not only a boy," he said, "but he is a blessing and a privilege, which all boys are not."
"Then he ought to have a Christmas present. He ought to have a hundred thousand million Christmas presents," said the Noah's Ark Rabbit, looking round, and growing so excited that all his long, white fur fluffed up and stood out all over him. "Are there any about here—are there any about? Goodness gracious, mercy me!
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There ought to be Christmas presents on every side."
Her dear old Majesty, his wife, began to look about her too, waving her fore-paws in her inexpressible agitation. (Inexpressible agitation means that she was so excited that she did not know what to say.) "I don't see any! I don't see any! I don't see any!" she exclaimed. "Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!"
"Never since I came out of the Ark," said his Majesty, "have I known such a dreadful situation. A Boy—a Boy like this, and
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no presents! The place ought to be strewn with them—it ought to be piled up with them—it ought to be stuffed—and crammed and bulging with them!"
(I wish you knew how Tim used to chuckle when this part was told.)
Then the Good Wolf spoke aloud with a most agreeable smile, and unless you have seen a Good Wolf you can never know how agreeable his smile can be.
"I know what he would like, your Majesty," he said.
"Do you! Do you?" said the Noah's Ark Rabbit, his fur fluffing
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up and standing out still more because he was so interested. "Then speak up—speak up—speak up! Don't hang back, for goodness mercy's sake!"
"What he would like most of all would be that your Majesty should allow some of your subjects to be his friends and play with him," answered the Good Wolf.
"Would he—would he really?" said the Noah's Ark Rabbit. "Why, that seems a trifle."
"Oh!" cried Barty, "if they only might, if they only would. I should never want any toys again as long as I lived!" and he
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clasped his hands.
"Well, I can do that for you in the shake of a rabbit's tail," said his Majesty. "How many would you like?"
"Enough," answered Barty, rather timidly, because he was so afraid he might be asking too much, "enough to play circus, so that I could be the ring-master. I've so often wanted to be a ring-master, and once I dreamed I was one."
The Noah's Ark Rabbit put his hand into a pocket under his long white fur, and he drew out a tiny whip.
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"Take that and crack it as loud as ever you can, and see what will happen," he commanded.
Barty took it and swung it as he had seen ring-masters do, and he made it crack beautifully. What happened was that all the little animals, every one of them, turned their heads to look at him.
"Crack it again," said the Noah's Ark Rabbit.
When Barty cracked it again the little animals began to crowd into a circle all round him.
"Now, my dear," said the Queen Noah's Ark Rabbit, "you just
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walk out and choose the ones you would like best, and ask them if they will come and play with you when they hear your whip crack."
"I think I must be in a dream now," said Barty, as he began to go round the circle.
"Will you be my friend and come and play with me?" he said to the little lion, and the little lion frisked and said: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
And then he went to some little horses and to some more little lions, and to four elephants and a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus, and a little tiger and two tiny polar bears, and they all
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cried out: "Yes! Yes!" until at last he had enough animals to make a most splendid circus. There was so much shouting of "Yes! Yes! Yes!" that he began to rub his eyes.
"Are you sure I am not dreaming?" he asked the Good Wolf.
"Take him to the feasting tables," said the Noah's Ark Rabbit, "and fill him to the brim. He will know then that he is not dreaming."
Barty's eyes sparkled, because by this time he was very hungry, and when the Good Wolf led him into another illuminated hall where
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all the nice things to eat that are in the world seemed spread before him on tables, you can imagine what he did. He ate just as much as a little boy could eat after getting up early on a frosty morning and forgetting all about his breakfast. But at last a sweet smile spread over his rosy face, and he drew a long, long breath and said:
"My belt is very tight by now. Thank you ever so much, Good Wolf. I never saw anything as beautiful as the Snow Feast is, and I should like to stay until it is quite over; but if I do not go home my
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mother will be frightened. Do you think there is time for me to play a little with my circus before I go?"
"Yes, there is," the Good Wolf answered. "I'll look after the time. Come along. I see four little elephants and three lions looking over here this minute, as if they wanted to talk to you."
All the games Barty played and all the things he did that day, it would take chapters and chapters to tell about. When the Good Wolf told him it was time to go, he was being ring-master, and he was laughing and shouting with glee. And all the little animals
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were crowding round watching the elephants stand on their heads, and the horses read things written on black boards. The Noah's Ark Rabbits themselves were perfectly delighted, and said they had never enjoyed a Snow Feast as much before.
"You must come next year," they said, "and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next—" They were even going on murmuring "the next and the next," when Barty went away.
"Now," said the Good Wolf, "trot along—trot along—trot along."
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And they did trot along, down corridors and round corners, and through galleries, and in and out, and faster and faster, until at last they came to the hole they had crept in through; and they crept out through it, and found themselves once more standing in the sparkling snow with the circle of tall trees round them.
Barty clapped his hands.
"I never had such a splendid time in my life," he said. "I never had such beautiful things to eat. I never even dreamed of anything as nice as the Snow Feast."
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"Neither did I," answered the Good Wolf. "I have nothing like it even in the pink ear or the blue one. Now we must shake ourselves."
So they shook themselves—once they shook themselves—twice they shook themselves—three times and there they stood just the right size again. And the Good Wolf slipped into his harness, and Barty jumped on the red sled, and the bells jingled and jingled; and off they went, gliding over the sparkling snow, home through the deep forest where things built nests, and things burrowed under the
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earth, and made long passages and little warm caves to hide in; and where there were wonderful Snow Feasts, which only one little boy in all the world had seen or heard of, and his name was Barty.
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Chapter Four
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WHEN the Good Wolf had drawn the red sled with Barty on it nearly to the edge of the deep forest, he stopped. "Now," he said, "you must get off and unharness me."
Then Barty suddenly thought of something. "What shall I say when my mother asks me where I got my new sled?"
"Well," answered the Good Wolf, "I think I shall have to be a
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kind of secret. Mothers are very easily frightened and I wouldn't frighten a mother for anything. You might tell her it is a present from an intimate friend, and if she asks what his name is you can say it is Mr. Wolf. Have you got your whip safe?"
Barty took it out of his pocket. Now that he was his real size again it looked very tiny.
"I would advise you to go into a quiet place in the forest when you crack that whip," said the Good Wolf. "If any one came when you were playing circus your little animals would suddenly grow
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big again and that would be very inconvenient."
"There is a very quiet place I know of," answered Barty. "It is my secret playing place. You have to creep through bushes to get to it. It is round and has grass on it. It will make a beautiful circus. But when will you come back and see me?"
"I don't know yet, but I will come some time," answered the Good Wolf. "I am glad I happened to be at the edge of the forest this morning. There is some pleasure in taking a boy like you, who is
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a blessing and a privilege, to a Snow Feast. Now I must go."
Once he shook himself, twice he shook himself, three times he shook himself, and he was a wolf again.
"Good-bye," he said, "until we meet again." And off he trotted.
Barty went back to his house dragging his red sled after him and thinking about things, until his cheeks were as red as his coat.
His mother was very busy making bread, but when she saw him she was so surprised that she stopped kneading her dough.
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"Where did you get that splendid sled?" she asked.
"Some one in the forest gave it to me," answered Barty. "He said he was my intimate friend and his name was Mr. Wolf. I think," and Barty hesitated a little as he remembered, "I do think he was a kind of a fairy."
His mother laughed. "I should think he was too, if he gave me such a nice present as that," she said, and she went on with her kneading.
Barty played with his sled all the rest of the day, and at night he
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put it in a very safe corner in the woodshed. Before he went to sleep he hid the tiny whip under his pillow.
"But I do feel, now that I can't see either of them," he whispered to himself as he lay in the dark, "I do feel as if it must have been a dream. Was it?" And he had to put his hand under his pillow and touch the whip before he could go to sleep.
It was curious, but the first thing when he wakened in the morning he found himself sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes and saying aloud to himself:
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"Was it? Was it? Was it?"
Then he remembered the tiny whip and he darted his hand under his pillow, but he felt nothing. He lifted the pillow and looked under it, but he saw nothing. He jumped out of bed and shook the sheet and shook it, but he felt nothing. The tiny whip was gone.
He just stood and stared, and then he said rather slowly:
"Well, if it was a dream it was the nicest one I ever had and I'm glad I had it. Perhaps some night I shall have it again." And
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he dressed himself quickly and ran downstairs.
And this was the first thing his mother said to him as she came in from the wood shed:
"I've just been looking at your new sled, Barty, and it is the nicest one I ever saw."
"Oh!" Barty almost shouted, "is it in the woodshed? Is it?" And he flew out to look, and there it was! And it was just as red and just as jingling and just as beautiful as ever.
"The Good Wolf wasn't a dream," he cried joyfully. "And so the
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other wasn't."
But as the days went by and he wished more and more that he could find the little whip and make sure that the tiny lions and tigers and elephants had been real, he used to go and sit down very hard on the red sled and say out loud ever so many times:
"It wasn't a dream—it wasn't—it wasn't—it wasn't one! and that would make him feel quite cheerful.
One quite beautiful morning, after the snow had gone away, he was
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in his bedroom and he suddenly caught sight of something bright, shining under a wardrobe.
"I wonder what that is," he said, feeling his heart begin to beat. He crept to the wardrobe as if he thought the bright thing would get away if it heard him, and suddenly he dropped on his knees, thrust his arm far under the wardrobe, quite against the wall, and pulled out the bright thing—and it was the whip. The bright part was the gold handle. It had rolled out from under the pillow and had rested on the edge of the bed until it had been shaken off
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and rolled under the wardrobe and stayed there. Barty gave a shout.
"There," he cried, "I said it wasn't a dream—and it wasn't one!
He was so excited that he almost did a dangerous thing. He almost cracked the whip right in his bedroom, but he remembered just in time that if he did, and the little animals came and his mother came too, they would grow big all at once at sight of her, and it would be enough to frighten any mother to death—besides the room being so small that it wouldn't hold even a single elephant.
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"I'd better be careful," he said to himself, "I'm glad I thought of that in time."
When he got outside he really couldn't wait until he got into the deep forest, and was under the trees, flying along the path which led to the bushes which hid his secret place. It was a very secret place. You had to crawl through a sort of tunnel until you crawled through a hole into a clear green place with a close hedge of bushes round it, except where there was a high rock at the back—a great big rock with a cave in it. Barty had never been into the cave because it rather frightened him. He thought it looked
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like a Robber's Cave, though he had never seen any robbers about, and anyway there was only a long narrow slit in the rock for any one to squeeze in and out of. A fat robber could never have got in. Barty crawled through the hole in the bushes and stood up on his feet, quite out of breath. His eyes were sparkling with joy.
"Now then," he said when he had his breath again. "Now then!" And he stood in the middle of the green circle and cracked his whip.
It was such a little whip that it made only a little crack. And
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at first nothing came.
"Shake yourself once—shake yourself twice—shake yourself three times," he said. "Perhaps I had better crack it three times." And three times he cracked it as loud as ever he could. After he had done it he stood quite still and listened.
He listened and listened, and the deep forest seemed so still that he could hear himself breathe. He listened and listened again, and it seemed so still that he felt as if he could hear himself think. Then he listened again, and he heard a faint, faint rustle. It
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sounded far away and he did not know where it came from. But presently he knew it was coming nearer. Yes, it was coming nearer and nearer and it seemed to be coming from the right side and from the left and from before and behind him, and it grew louder and louder until it sounded like scampering and like shuffling and like jumping and like little trotting hoofs. And in about three minutes two little lions jumped over the bushes and two little tigers followed them and two little leopards after them, and two little bears came shuffling through the hole at the end of the
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tunnel, and two tiny hippopotamuses and two rhinoceroses, and two lovely elephants who marched into the middle of the ring and threw up their trunks and trumpeted; and last of all four splendid little horses, one snow white and one jet black and two with beautiful brown spots on them, leaped over the hedge and made a bow to Barty, bending their heads and scraping with their feet, and wheeled about and began to gallop round and round the ring as fast as ever they could, just as if they were at a real circus.
"Oh, I said it wasn't a dream!" shouted Barty. "And it isn't—
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it isn't—it isn't! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! And he jumped up and down and laughed for joy, and stamped and stamped and stamped. Then they all crowded round him as if they felt just as happy as he did.
"Didn't you want us before?" they said. "What a long time you were in calling us."
"I lost my whip," answered Barty, and when they all cried out "Oh-h-h!" he suddenly felt as if he must turn round and look behind, and when he did it he saw that the nicest thing in the world had happened. There sat the Good Wolf near the bushes,
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smiling at him. He could not help running to him and hugging him.
"Oh, I am glad! I am glad!" he said. "This is the nicest thing of all!"
"It is nice," answered the Good Wolf. "I was hunting in Russia and I wasn't sure I could come. But I must attend to this whip business."
He shook his blue ear and a narrow, rather long ivory box fell out.
"That is a whip box," he said, and he began to scratch in the earth until he made a rather deep hole under a bush. "Now," he said, "whenever you have done with your whip you must lock it in that
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box and put it in this hole, and you will always know where to find it."
"I will never forget," said Barty.
The circus they had that morning was ten times as nice as the one they had had before.
"Oh, what fun it would be," said Barty, "if we had a little clown." He wasn't hinting in the least, he only said it because it just came into his head, and he had no sooner said it than the Good Wolf walked forward.
"Now I should like to know," he said, "why I never thought
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once of that. It was perfectly ridiculous of me."
He gave his pink ear a flip and out flew a tiny clown in baggy white trousers with his hands stuck in the pockets, and a frill round his neck and a red and white painted face. And he turned sixteen somersaults one after the other and bounced onto his feet and stuck out his tongue, and said in a cracked little shrill voice just like a big clown: "Here we are again, sir. How are you to-morrow?"
And this was such a tremendous joke that it was not only Barty who laughed till he rolled over, but every single little animal
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laughed till it rolled over, and the grass was just covered with little elephants and lions and tigers and bears and the rest, rolling about and holding their sides. There is no knowing when they would have stopped, but in the midst of it the Good Wolf shook his blue ear and out flew the prettiest little circus lady in the world. She had pink tights on and wore so many short gauzy spangled skirts that she looked like a fairy, and she whirled round and round on the very tips of her toes, and sprang onto the backs of
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two of the prettiest horses—one foot on each back—and went galloping round the ring like lightning, smiling and kissing her hand to everybody.
That was why the circus was ten times nicer than it had been before. Everything was there. And Barty went on being ring-master and the circus grew more and more delightful and more and more exciting, until at last the whole entertainment was tired and had to sit down and rest and fan itself because it was actually hot.
They all sat in a circle, and because none of the animals were as big as kittens, Barty looked like a very pretty giant with
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rosy cheeks and curly hair. The animals had grown so fond of him that they all sat and looked at him affectionately, and the nearest elephant and lion perfectly cuddled up against him. The beautiful little lady circus rider perched on his hand and the clown sat down on his shoe.
"I am very glad to have made your acquaintance," the little lady said. "I admire you very much. You make a most delightful ring- master."
"We all like him," said the biggest little lion. "And we all mean
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to stand by him. I came to him from the Nubian desert this morning, and it is a long way off."
"I love every one of you," said Barty. "I don't believe there is any other boy in the world who has such delightful friends."
He stroked the lion's side, and he was just going to put his cheek against his mane, when he stopped suddenly and stared with wide open eyes at the long narrow opening in the big rock at the other side of the green circus. A thin, wicked face with evil shining black eyes was peering out and watching him and his animals.
He started so that he almost dropped the little lion. And that
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minute he saw another thin wicked face, and another above that and another above that, all glaring at him. And the owner of the first wicked face began to wriggle his long body through the narrow slit, and in about two minutes he had wriggled his way out and stood grinning, with swords and pistols and knives hung at his belt.
"He is a thin robber!" gasped Barty. "I knew a fat one could never get in and out. It is a Robber's Cave."
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Chapter Five103
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TO find that your secret play ground has a robber's cave in it is very startling. Barty stood up quickly and so did all the little animals. At first Barty thought they might suddenly grow big, as the Good Wolf had said they would if they saw a grown-up person. But they did not. And if they had looked as small as kittens when they were compared with a boy, they looked almost as small as
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mice when they were compared with a long, thin robber. In fact, they looked so tiny that Barty was afraid they would be hurt.
"You had better run off into the forest as fast as you can before he wriggles all the way out," he said quickly to the biggest little lion.
"No, we won't," the lion answered. "Not much. We are going to stop and see the fun."
Barty was afraid there might not be much fun, but when he saw the
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lion slowly wink one eye at him and then saw another lion wink, and a tiger and elephant wink too, until each animal in the circus had winked, he began to see that something queer was going to happen. But he could not imagine what it was going to be, because they all huddled round his feet as if they were frightened, and even shook and shivered.
When the first robber had wriggled through the slit in the rock, another one began to wriggle through, and then another and another until there were no less than four robbers standing scowling at him.
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"Hello!" said the biggest one, who was the captain, and had a feather sticking in his hat and at least four pistols and six swords hanging at his belt. "Here's a rich kid! He's just what we were looking for. He's got the finest lot of mechanical toys I ever saw in my life. Just look at those lions lashing their tails."
That made Barty very angry. He felt as if his friends were being insulted, and he strode forward and stood before them.
"They are not toys!" he shouted out. "They are as real as you are! They are my intimate friends. Go away!"