Jerry had made the biggest kite in the village; and Chubby, the woodcutter's daughter, had painted a big round moon on it and several stars as well. That alone was enough to show that it was by no means an ordinary kite; so it was no wonder that Jerry felt very proud of himself when he ran on to the village green to fly it.
"Stand back, all of you!" he said, as the girls and boys came crowding round him. "Now, you shall see my kite fly to the moon!"
No doubt, Jerry was inclined to make quite enough fuss about his kite; but it is not every day that one has a chance of flying the biggest kite in the village, especially when one is only seven years old. He felt very sad, however, when he found that his kite had no intention of flying to the moon. Every time he threw it into the air, back it fell again on the grass; and although he tried again and again, andused yards and yards of the very best string that twopence-halfpenny could buy, any one could see that something was decidedly wrong with the biggest kite in the village.
Jerry turned red, and blinked his eyes, and reminded himself desperately that he was seven years old. It was certainly hard to have spent six half-holidays in making a kite that would not fly in the end.
"Stupid thing!" he muttered crossly. "If I had the chance, just wouldn't I fly to the moon! Kites don't know when they are well off!"
But when all the boys and girls burst out laughing, and pointed their fingers at him and began to tease, it was impossible to keep back his tears any longer. After all, one cannot go on remembering for ever that one is seven years old. The children, however, only laughed the more, when the little maker of the kite suddenly flung himself down on the ground and began to cry.
"What is the use of a kite that won't fly?" they jeered. "Take it home, Jerry, and make it the same size as other people's kites! And mind you let us know what the moon is like, when your kite gets there!"
Jerry started to his feet again and shook hisfist at them. "Some day," he shouted, "I shall be able to laugh at you instead."
"When will that be, Jerry?" cried all the boys and girls.
"When my kite has flown to the moon," answered Jerry, in a determined tone; and he picked up his kite there and then, and marched off to the school to find Chubby, the woodcutter's daughter.
"Hullo, Chubby!" he said, popping his head in at the schoolroom window. "Haven't you done that sum yet?"
Chubby looked up with a doleful face. After painting a moon and several stars on the biggest kite in the village, it was not pleasant to be kept in school just because seven would not go into sixty-three.
"I shall never finish it, Jerry, never!" she said with a sigh.
"Chubby," said Jerry, solemnly, "you've been crying."
Chubby rubbed her eyes hastily with her two fists. "I don't think so," she replied in a muffled tone; "it was just three tears that trickled down my nose and made a smudge on the slate; but that isn't crying. You know it isn't, Jerry!"
Jerry rubbed his own eyes a little guiltily."My kite wouldn't fly," he remarked, and tried to look as though he did not care a bit.
"What!" cried Chubby. "Wouldn't your kite fly? Then I never need have cried at all."
Jerry clambered on the window ledge and sat there with his legs swinging to and fro. He wished Chubby would not talk so much about crying. "All the string got mixed up," he explained with dignity; "I expect that was it."
"I don't," said Chubby, decidedly; "it was because the tail was too short. I told you so, all the time."
No doubt there was something in what she said, but reasons are not much good when you are seven years old and your kite won't fly, and Jerry was not in a mood to be trifled with.
"If you know so much about it," he retorted, "you'd better come and fly it yourself."
"I only wish I could," sighed poor little Chubby. "If you'll tell me how many times seven goes into—"
"Oh, don't," interrupted Jerry, crossly. "How can I do sums when my kite won't fly?"
Then he flung himself down from the window ledge, and started off to find some one who would tell him why his kite would not fly. Half-way down the village street, he met a fine black raven.
"Good day to you," said Jerry, who knew that ravens could explain most things if they chose. "Can you tell me why my kite won't fly?"
"Caw, caw!" croaked the raven. "Nine times, Jerry, nine times! Caw, caw!"
"I wonder what he means," thought Jerry, and trudged on a little farther. Presently he met a sheep. Now, sheep do not know much as a rule, but they are always extremely anxious to tell what they do know. So Jerry asked her at once why his kite would not fly.
"Baa, baa!" said the sheep. "Nine times, Jerry, nine times! Baa, baa!"
"Everybody is going mad this afternoon," thought Jerry; and he went on a little farther. Just at the end of the village, a cockchafer came buzzing round his head.
"Buz-z-z!" hummed the cockchafer. "Nine times, Jerry, nine times! Buz-z-z!"
"Oh, go away, do!" cried Jerry, impatiently. "What do you all mean by nine times?"
The cockchafer did not go away an inch, but buzzed closer to Jerry's head than before. "Buz-z-z," he hummed; "nine times, Jerry, nine times, nine times, nine times, nine times—"
All at once, the cockchafer's meaning enteredJerry's head, which was hardly to be wondered at, considering how close his head was at that moment to the cockchafer.
"Of course it's nine times!" he cried. "Why didn't I think of that before?" Then he turned round and dragged his kite all the way back to the school, where Chubby still sat sighing over her sum.
"It goes nine times exactly, Chubby," he told her through the window; "so now you can come and help me to carry this great big kite."
"Where are we going, Jerry?" asked Chubby, when she had finished her sum and joined him.
"We are going out into the world, to discover the reason why my kite won't fly," answered Jerry; and between them they picked up the biggest kite in the village and carried it out into the world.
"How are we going to discover why your kite won't fly?" asked Chubby, when they had walked a good way. She had had no tea, to tell the truth, and was beginning to feel remarkably hungry.
"We will ask everybody we meet," said Jerry, who had had his tea and was therefore not at all hungry. "There is sure to be someone in the world who can tell us, and we will not rest until we find him."
"We haven't met anybody yet," remarked Chubby, rather dolefully. "How long do you think we shall have to go on walking before we find the right person?"
"Perhaps for years and years," answered Jerry, cheerfully. "But if we are quick, we may meet him sooner than that."
He quickened his steps as he spoke, and Chubby had to run a little to keep up with him. It was beginning to grow dark now, and the country seemed more and more desolate.
"The world is not so full of people as I expected to find it," said Jerry, in a disappointed tone. "I do hope we shall soon meet some one who will know why my kite won't fly."
Just then, he thought he heard something from behind that sounded like a sob. Sure enough, there was Chubby, wiping her eyes with the corner of her pinafore.
"I'm so hungry," she sobbed. "I want my tea. Can't we go home, Jerry, and put off seeing the world until to-morrow?"
Jerry looked at her and sighed. If it had been any one but Chubby, he would most certainly have grumbled at her. As it was, heonly propped up the kite against the hedge and made her sit down beside it.
"I am afraid I don't know the way home," he said; "but if you will wait here, I will go and get you something to eat."
He was not at all sure where he was going to find it, but he hastened along the road as fast as he could and hoped he would soon come to a house. Long before he came to a house, however, he came to a man, a little old man, who was carrying a large sack on his shoulder. Directly he saw Jerry, he swung the sack on to the ground and began untying the mouth of it.
"Well, my little fellow," he said in a friendly tone, "what do you want out of my bag?"
"That depends on what you have got in your bag," answered Jerry, promptly.
"I have everything in the world in my bag," replied the little old man, "for everything is there that everybody wants. I have laughter and tears and happiness and sadness; I can give you riches or poverty, sense or nonsense; here is a way to discover the things that you don't know, and a way to forget the things that you do know. Will you have a toy that changes whenever you wish, or a book that tells you stories whenever you listen to it, or apair of shoes in which you can dance from boyhood into youth? Choose whatever you like and it shall be yours; but remember, I can only give you one thing out of my bag, so think well before you make up your mind."
Jerry did not stop to think at all. "Have you something to eat in your bag, something that will please a hungry little girl who has had no tea?" he asked.
The little old man smiled and pulled out a small cake about the size of Jerry's fist. It did not look as though it would satisfy any one who was as hungry as Chubby; but as the old man disappeared, sack and all, the moment he had given Jerry the cake, it was not much good complaining about it. So back trotted Jerry to the place where he had left Chubby; and greatly to his relief her face beamed with joy directly she had eaten one mouthful.
"What a beautiful cake!" she cried; "it tastes like strawberry jam and toffee and ices, and all the things I like best. And see! as fast as I eat it, it comes again, so that I shall never be able to finish it. Take some, Jerry."
"Why," said Jerry, as soon as he had taken a bite, "it tastes like currant buns and ginger-beer and all the thingsIlike best. It is certain that we shall never starve as long as we have a fairy cake like this." Then he told her how he had come by it.
"Perhaps," remarked Chubby, "the little old man could have told you why your kite wouldn't fly."
"Perhaps he could," said Jerry, carelessly, "but I didn't think to ask him. We'll come along and ask the next person instead."
When, however, they looked round for the kite, it was nowhere to be seen. The moon came out obligingly from behind a cloud and helped them as much as it could; but although they searched for a long time, not a trace could they find of the biggest kite in the village.
"Oh dear, oh dear!" sighed Chubby. "Perhaps I went to sleep while you were away, and somebody came along and took it. But I did think I stopped awake, Jerry; I did indeed!"
"And so you did, to be sure!" cried a voice from the hedge; "but you would have to be very wide awake to keepthatkite from giving you the slip, as soon as the moon came up!"
Of course, no one but a wymp would have appeared like that, just in time to say the right thing; so the children were not at all surprised when a particularly wympish wymp came tumbling out of the hedge and perched himself on a thistle and wimpled at them.
"Do you mean to say you know where the kite has gone?" asked both the children, breathlessly.
"Look up there and see," answered the wymp, pointing to the sky.
The sky was covered with stars, hundreds and thousands of them, all twinkling round the moon just as Chubby had painted them on the kite. Only, she could not help thinking that her stars had more shape and were decidedly more like stars than the real stars were; but this, she supposed, might be because the real stars were such a long way off. One of them was different from all the others; it had a long bright tail that glittered like a cracker at Christmas time, and it was scurrying across the sky at such a pace that the rest of the stars had to get out of its way as best they could. Most of the people who looked out of their windows that night thought they saw a comet; but Jerry and Chubby knew better.
"Oh," they cried, clapping their hands with excitement. "There is our kite, and itisflying to the moon after all!"
"There's no doubt about that," said the wymp, who was still wimpling at them from the top of the thistle.
"But why did it not fly to the moon this afternoon, when all the other boys were looking on?" asked Jerry, regretfully.
"Because there wasn't a moon to fly to, of course!" answered the wymp. "You shouldn't expect too much, even from the biggest kite in the village. Directly therewasa moon, you see, away it flew."
"Then, if I had painted the sun on it, instead of the moon, it would have flown away this afternoon!" exclaimed Chubby.
"Exactly so," said the wymp. "Now, what ever induced you to paint a thing like the moon on anybody's kite, eh?"
"Well, you see, the moon is so nice and easy," explained Chubby. "All you have to do is to draw a circle round the biggest soup plate you can find; and then you take away the soup plate, and you paint in the eyes and the nose and the mouth, and there you are! You can't do much more than that with three paints and a brush that's got hardly any hairs, can you?"
"Yes, you can," retorted the wymp, "you can paint the sun, and that's ever so much better than painting the moon—nasty, silly, chilly thing!"
"Oh, but you can't paint the sun whenyou've only got three paints," objected Chubby. "It takes ever so many more paints than that to make it shine properly; and even then, it doesn't always."
"Shine!" repeated the wymp. "Who said anything about shining? When I say the sun, I mean the other side of the sun, of course.Thatdoesn't shine,—knows better, indeed!"
He seemed so hurt about it that Chubby hastened to pacify him. "I'm very sorry," she said. "Of course, I should like to paint your side of the sun very much, but it is a little difficult when I haven't ever been there, isn't it?"
"Perhaps it is," admitted the wymp; "but if that is all, I'll take you there this very minute. Will you come?"
Chubby looked round; and there was Jerry still gazing up at the star with the long tail, that was causing so much commotion among the countries of the sky. Just then, it reached the moon and went straight into it with a big splash; and Jerry heaved a deep sigh.
That decided Chubby. "If you please," she said, turning to the wymp in a great hurry, "I think we would rather go to the moon."
The wymp instantly flew into the most violent passion. "What!" he exclaimed, shaking allover with indignation. "You would sooner go to the moon than the back of the sun? Well, Iamsorry for you."
Chubby was just going to be frightened, when Jerry came and put his arm round her protectingly. "You see," he explained to the wymp, "it's not the moon we want, it's the kite. And the kite has gone to the moon, unfortunately. I suppose I am glad it has gone," he added rather doubtfully, "but I do wish it had waited to take me with it."
"Oh, well," said the wymp, calming down a little, "if you are quite sure you don'twantto go to the moon, I shall have the greatest pleasure in taking you there. I'll call a comet at once." He put his fingers to his mouth and blew a whistle that was long enough to reach the countries of the sky. "Now I come to think of it," he continued thoughtfully, "it is a very good thing you did not want to go to Wympland, because we should have been obliged to wait until the morning."
"Why couldn't we go to-night?" asked Jerry.
"Because there isn't a Wympland to go to," answered the wymp, promptly. "When the sun goes down it takes the back of itself with itself, and there isn't a Wympland again tillnext morning. I shouldn't be here now, if I hadn't missed the last sunbeam this evening. That is the worst of living in a place that disappears every night."
"Oh, but it doesn't disappear really," said Chubby, who wanted to show that she knew a little geography; "the sun is shining somewhere else at this very moment, only we can't see it."
"Rubbish!" said the wymp, scornfully. "Don't you believe everything you're told about the sun! Who said it didn't disappear, eh? Has any one ever gone after it to see?"
"N-no," said Chubby, doubtfully, "but—"
"That proves it doesn't go on shining, then," said the wymp, triumphantly. "There's plenty of inquisitive people who'd have gone after the sun long ago, if it hadn't the sense to disappear every night. It must have some peace, you know, if it's got to come up smiling again the next morning."
"Do the wymps disappear every night, too?" asked Jerry.
"Of course they do," answered the wymp. "Don't you?"
"I didn't know we did," said Jerry, a little bewildered. "I thought we only went to sleep."
"Ah, you do that first," said the wymp. "Then you disappear."
"No, we don't," said Chubby, positively. "We shouldn't have dreams if we disappeared."
"You certainly wouldn't have any dreams unless you did disappear," chuckled the wymp.
"Then what about to-night?" demanded Jerry. "Do you mean to say we have disappeared now?"
The wymp sighed. "Some people never will know when they're not there," he complained. "But here is our comet; jump in, or else we shall be late."
Down swooped the great shining comet, and there it lay across the road, waiting for them to mount. The children climbed on to its broad glittering tail and held tightly to each other, while the wymp mounted in front of them and stood like the man at the wheel, with his hand on the comet's head; then up they flew at a terrific pace, right through the wonderful blue darkness that stretched all round them. Far above was the great land of light that lay round the moon; but the country of the stars came in between, and the stars were still so far off that they had not even begun to look like real stars.
"Afraid of the dark?" asked the wymp over his shoulder.
"Oh, no," said Chubby. "I am only afraid of the dark you get at home when the candle is put out. This is a nice, friendly kind of darkness, and candles wouldn't make any difference to it."
"I don't know so much about that," said the wymp; "if you had the steering to do, you wouldn't mind a candle or two to help you."
"Do you steer by the points of the compass?" asked Jerry, eagerly. Some one had given him a compass on his last birthday, and he had steered by it ever since. Indeed, he had arrived late at school several times, through steering his way by the points of the compass.
"Certainly not," said the wymp; "when you are sailing on a comet, you steer by the points of the comet, of course." Just then, he gave a sharp turn to the points of the comet, and it sailed right out of the blue darkness and took them into the dim mysterious greyness of the country of the stars.
"Theyarelike real stars," murmured Chubby, for she had begun to have serious doubts whether the stars she had painted on the kite were not wrong after all. It was very comforting to find that the stars that were whizzing past them in hundreds and thousands looked just like the stars she had been accustomed to see on Christmas trees, and had such sharp points that it would not have been at all pleasant to run against one of them by mistake. Indeed, the wymp had as much as he could do to steer through the country of the stars without coming into collision with them, although the comet did not make half so much commotion in the sky as Jerry's kite had done. But then, Jerry's kite had never been trained to be a comet, and that made all the difference.
It grew lighter and lighter as they came nearer the moon, and even the stars began to look pale in the white light that was shining so close to the edge of their country. The stars were growing fewer, too, for stars naturally prefer to shine in a place where they can be seen, and just here, at the edge of their country, they could hardly be seen at all. Then the wymp gave another turn to the points of the comet, and it glided gently from the country of the stars into the pale white country of the moon.
"It's like being inside a great flame that isn't hot," whispered Chubby.
Even the wymp had to admit that the country of the moon had something in its favour. "For those who like light," he allowed, "the moon is all very well. For my part, I preferWympland, where there isn't any light at all. You can't say that of any other country on either side of the sun!"
"I don't want to say it," objected Chubby; "I am very glad thereissome light in my country."
"But there isn't," retorted the wymp. "There's only other people's light in your country! Where would you be, if you didn't borrow bits of light from the countries of the sky, eh?"
Chubby thought it would be wiser to change the conversation. "If you please," she said politely, "can you tell me when we shall get to the moon?"
"Why," laughed the wymp, "we are in the moon now!"
Chubby looked round her in bewilderment. "But where are the eyes and the nose and the mouth?" she asked.
The wymp shook his head. "I am afraid," he said gravely, "that you must have found them in the soup plate. Perhaps Jerry knows where they are."
But Jerry was looking everywhere for something that was far more important. Some people might want to come all this way to look for the man in the moon, but for his part heintended to find the biggest kite in the village, the kite that had taken him six half-holidays to make. "Do you think we shall find it soon?" he asked impatiently.
Nobody answered him, for just then the comet came to such a sudden standstill that all three of them were nearly jerked off into the air. It was not the comet's fault, however, for right in its way was Jerry's kite; and it was lucky for everybody, that night, that there was not an extremely bad accident in the countries of the sky.
"Why don't you look where you are going?" asked the kite, in just the flippant fly away sort of tone one would expect from a kite.
Jerry was so astonished at being addressed in this impudent manner by a thing he had made with his own hands, that he did not know what to reply. The comet, however, was a comet of a few words; and all it did was to put its head down and rush straight at Jerry's kite. There is no doubt that in another minute there would have been a terrific battle in the middle of the moon, if a strange, clear voice from beyond had not spoken just in time to stop it.
"Who is daring to make all this commotion in my country?" said the voice.
"Hullo!" muttered the wymp, suddenly; "I was expecting that. Good-bye, children; I'm off!" And pointing his hands downward, he took a dive from the head of the comet and disappeared in the direction of the country of the stars.
At the same instant, out from the pale white distance of the country of the moon glided a tall figure, as white and delicate and shimmering as the light that surrounded it.
"Is it—can it be the man in the moon?" whispered Chubby to the boy beside her.
Then the figure came closer, and they saw that it was a wonderful, mysterious-looking, white witch-woman.
"I am the Lady of the Moon," she said, in the same clear, cold voice. "Snow and stillness and space are wherever I go; when I smile, I make the whole world beautiful, but my smile takes the colour away from the flowers and the ripple away from the water and the warmth away from the sunshine."
She looked round, and her eye lighted on Jerry's kite. "What is that creature doing in my country?" she demanded.
All the impudence seemed to have gone out of the biggest kite in the village, for it lay there trembling at the feet of the Lady of theMoon, and had not so much as a word to say for itself. Jerry, however, summoned up courage to answer for it. After all, it was through him that the kite was there, and he naturally felt bound to defend it.
"If you please," he said, "it is my kite. I made it, all by myself,—it took six half-holidays; and Chubby painted the moon and the stars on it."
"I am afraid," said Chubby, hurriedly, "that the moon is not very much like the moon, but it was the best I could do with three paints and a brush that hadn't any hairs. The stars are right," she added anxiously.
The Lady of the Moon smiled contemptuously. "Stars, indeed!" she observed. "What does it matter how the stars are painted? The moon is far more important, and you have made a regular muddle of that! And who told you children that you might come into my country, I should like to know?"
"The wymp brought us," explained Jerry. "He was here a minute ago, but he has just left."
"No doubt he has," said the Lady of the Moon, with a little laugh that made them shiver. "Wymps know better than to come in my way. I can turn their laughter intohoar-frost, and they don't like that. As for you, unless you want to be frozen tight to the middle of the moon for the rest of your lives, you had better make haste home again."
Chubby was only too anxious to be off, for she had no wish to spend the rest of her life with some one who made people shiver whenever she laughed. Jerry, however, did not mean to have his journey to the moon for nothing.
"Please, may I take my kite back with me?" he asked boldly. "I want to show the other boys and girls that it did fly to the moon after all."
"That's all very well," objected the kite, who had stopped trembling and become impudent again; "but I don't want to go back among a lot of girls and boys who do not know how to appreciate me. When a fellow has once been a comet, you cannot expect him to end his days as a common kite."
"Oh, well," said the Lady of the Moon, gathering her mantle closely round her and stepping away from them, "settle that among yourselves, only please go out of my country first. For my part, I must go and put the finishing touches to that hoar-frost of mine before dawn."
She had hardly finished speaking when a faint gleam of pink pierced the white light around her and touched the edge of her mantle. She gave a shrill cry instantly, and waved her arms about her in the greatest excitement.
"Go, go, go! Dawn is coming, and you will be swallowed up in the setting of the moon," she screamed at them. "Go, go, go!"
Chubby began to feel tearful, for it is not pleasant to be told that one is going to be swallowed up in anything. But Jerry had a sudden inspiration.
"Jump, Chubby, jump!" he shouted, seizing her by the arm and springing away from the comet. Chubby must have done as she was told, for the next minute she found herself sitting beside him, on the top of the biggest kite in the village. As for the comet, it was only too anxious to get back to the place where it could shine and be seen; so it took a great dive down into the country of the stars, just as the wymp had done, and they never saw it again.
"Now," said Jerry sternly to his kite, "you've just got to take us home straightway without any more nonsense! If you want to stay and be swallowed up, we don't. You can come back again and be a comet for the rest of your days, for all I care; but I'm determined thatyou shall show the village first that you know how to fly. Now, down you go!"
Evidently, the kite felt that there was some sense in Jerry's words, for it made no further objections, but sailed swiftly out of the country of the moon just in time to escape being swallowed up. The downward journey was much simpler than the one of the night before, for the sun was rising as fast as it could, and the stars were disappearing so rapidly that there were hardly any of them left to get in the way. This was a very good thing, for, as I said before, Jerry's kite had not been trained to be a comet, and it takes a good deal of steering to get through the countries of the sky without an accident on the way.
Chubby was hungry enough to remember her fairy cake; and as it was nearly breakfast time, of course it tasted of milk and porridge and eggs and bacon. But Jerry refused to touch a mouthful. He was busy thinking of what the other boys and girls would say, when they saw him come sailing home on his kite.
The sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing, and the children were laughing on their way to school, when Jerry and Chubby at last reached home on the biggest kite in the village.
"Oh, oh!" cried all the boys and girls, rushing up to them in great excitement. "Here's Jerry and Chubby been sailing about on the biggest kite in the village! Where have you been, Jerry?"
Jerry smiled in a superior manner, and waved them all back with his hand.
"What a fuss you do make, to be sure!" he observed. "Didn't I tell you my kite was going to the moon?"
Then Jerry went home to breakfast; but Jerry's kite sailed back to the countries of the sky, and it has been a comet ever since.
Transcriber's Notes:Minor typographical errors have been corrected.Both "hillside" and "hill-side" were used in this text. This has been retained.Both "some one" and "someone" were used in this text. This has been retained.The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text willappear.
Minor typographical errors have been corrected.
Both "hillside" and "hill-side" were used in this text. This has been retained.
Both "some one" and "someone" were used in this text. This has been retained.
The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text willappear.