CHAPTER V
If any reader, big or little, should wonder
whether there is a meaning in this story deeper than that of an ordinary fairy
tale, I will own that there is. But I have hidden it so carefully that the
smaller people, and many larger folk, will never find it out, and meantime the
book may be read straight on, like “Cinderella,” or “Blue-Beard,” or
“Hop-o'my-Thumb,” for what interest it has, or what amusement it may bring.
Having said this, I return to Prince Dolor, that
little lame boy whom many may think so exceedingly to be pitied. But if you had
seen him as he sat patiently untying his wonderful cloak, which was done up in
a very tight and perplexing parcel, using skillfully his deft little hands, and
knitting his brows with firm determination, while his eyes glistened with
pleasure and energy and eager anticipation—if you had beheld him thus, you
might have changed your opinion.
When we see people suffering or unfortunate, we
feel very sorry for them; but when we see them bravely bearing their sufferings
and making the best of their misfortunes, it is quite a different feeling. We
respect, we admire them. One can respect and admire even a little child.
When Prince Dolor had patiently untied all the
knots, a remarkable thing happened. The cloak began to undo itself. Slowly
unfolding, it laid itself down on the carpet, as flat as if it had been ironed;
the split joined with a little sharp crick-crack, and the rim turned up all
round till it was breast-high; for meantime the cloak had grown and grown, and
become quite large enough for one person to sit in it as comfortable as if in a
boat.
The Prince watched it rather anxiously; it was
such an extraordinary, not to say a frightening, thing. However, he was no
coward, but a thorough boy, who, if he had been like other boys, would
doubtless have grown up daring and adventurous—a soldier, a sailor, or the
like. As it was, he could only show his courage morally, not physically, by
being afraid of nothing, and by doing boldly all that it was in his narrow
powers to do. And I am not sure but that in this way he showed more real valor
than if he had had six pairs of proper legs.
He said to himself: “What a goose I am! As if my
dear godmother would ever have given me anything to hurt me. Here goes!”
So, with one of his active leaps, he sprang right
into the middle of the cloak, where he squatted down, wrapping his arms tight round
his knees, for they shook a little and his heart beat fast. But there he sat,
steady and silent, waiting for what might happen next.
Nothing did happen, and he began to think nothing
would, and to feel rather disappointed, when he recollected the words he had
been told to repeat—“Abracadabra, dum dum dum!”
He repeated them, laughing all the while, they
seemed such nonsense. And then—and then——
Now I don't expect anybody to believe what I am
going to relate, though a good many wise people have believed a good many
sillier things. And as seeing's believing, and I never saw it, I cannot be
expected implicitly to believe it myself, except in a sort of a way; and yet
there is truth in it—for some people.
The cloak rose, slowly and steadily, at first only
a few inches, then gradually higher and higher, till it nearly touched the
skylight. Prince Dolor's head actually bumped against the glass, or would have
done so had he not crouched down, crying “Oh, please don't hurt me!” in a most
melancholy voice.
Then he suddenly remembered his godmother's
express command—“Open the skylight!”
Regaining his courage at once, without a moment's
delay he lifted up his head and began searching for the bolt—the cloak
meanwhile remaining perfectly still, balanced in the air. But the minute the
window was opened, out it sailed—right out into the clear, fresh air, with
nothing between it and the cloudless blue.
Prince Dolor had never felt any such delicious
sensation before. I can understand it. Cannot you? Did you never think, in
watching the rooks going home singly or in pairs, soaring their way across the
calm evening sky till they vanish like black dots in the misty gray, how
pleasant it must feel to be up there, quite out of the noise and din of the
world, able to hear and see everything down below, yet troubled by nothing and
teased by no one—all alone, but perfectly content?
Something like this was the happiness of the
little lame Prince when he got out of Hopeless Tower, and found himself for the
first time in the pure open air, with the sky above him and the earth below.
True, there was nothing but earth and sky; no
houses, no trees, no rivers, mountains, seas—not a beast on the ground, or a
bird in the air. But to him even the level plain looked beautiful; and then there
was the glorious arch of the sky, with a little young moon sitting in the west
like a baby queen. And the evening breeze was so sweet and fresh—it kissed him
like his godmother's kisses; and by and by a few stars came out—first two or
three, and then quantities—quantities! so that when he began to count them he
was utterly bewildered.
By this time, however, the cool breeze had become
cold; the mist gathered; and as he had, as he said, no outdoor clothes, poor
Prince Dolor was not very comfortable. The dews fell damp on his curls—he began
to shiver.
“Perhaps I had better go home,” thought he.
But how? For in his excitement the other words
which his godmother had told him to use had slipped his memory. They were only
a little different from the first, but in that slight difference all the
importance lay. As he repeated his “Abracadabra,” trying ever so many other
syllables after it, the cloak only went faster and faster, skimming on through
the dusky, empty air.
The poor little Prince began to feel frightened.
What if his wonderful traveling-cloak should keep on thus traveling, perhaps to
the world's end, carrying with it a poor, tired, hungry boy, who, after all,
was beginning to think there was something very pleasant in supper and bed!
“Dear godmother,” he cried pitifully, “do help me!
Tell me just this once and I'll never forget again.”
Instantly the words came rushing into his
head—“Abracadabra, tum tum ti!” Was that it? Ah! yes—for the cloak began to
turn slowly. He repeated the charm again, more distinctly and firmly, when it
gave a gentle dip, like a nod of satisfaction, and immediately started back, as
fast as ever, in the direction of the tower.
He reached the skylight, which he found exactly as
he had left it, and slipped in, cloak and all, as easily as he had got out. He
had scarcely reached the floor, and was still sitting in the middle of his
traveling-cloak,—like a frog on a water-lily leaf, as his godmother had
expressed it,—when he heard his nurse's voice outside.
“Bless us! what has become of your Royal Highness
all this time? To sit stupidly here at the window till it is quite dark, and
leave the skylight open, too. Prince! what can you be thinking of? You are the
silliest boy I ever knew.”
“Am I?” said he absently, and never heeding her
crossness; for his only anxiety was lest she might find out anything.
She would have been a very clever person to have
done so. The instant Prince Dolor got off it, the cloak folded itself up into
the tiniest possible parcel, tied all its own knots, and rolled itself of its
own accord into the farthest and darkest corner of the room. If the nurse had
seen it, which she didn't, she would have taken it for a mere bundle of rubbish
not worth noticing.
Shutting the skylight with an angry bang, she
brought in the supper and lit the candles with her usual unhappy expression of
countenance. But Prince Dolor hardly saw it; he only saw, hid in the corner
where nobody else would see it, his wonderful traveling-cloak. And though his
supper was not particularly nice, he ate it heartily, scarcely hearing a word
of his nurse's grumbling, which to-night seemed to have taken the place of her
sullen silence.
“Poor woman!” he thought, when he paused a minute
to listen and look at her with those quiet, happy eyes, so like his mother's.
“Poor woman! she hasn't got a traveling-cloak!”
And when he was left alone at last, and crept into
his little bed, where he lay awake a good while, watching what he called his
“sky-garden,” all planted with stars, like flowers, his chief thought was—“I
must be up very early to-morrow morning, and get my lessons done, and then I'll
go traveling all over the world on my beautiful cloak.”
So next day he opened his eyes with the sun, and
went with a good heart to his lessons. They had hitherto been the chief
amusement of his dull life; now, I am afraid, he found them also a little dull.
But he tried to be good,—I don't say Prince Dolor always was good, but he
generally tried to be,—and when his mind went wandering after the dark, dusty
corner where lay his precious treasure, he resolutely called it back again.
“For,” he said, “how ashamed my godmother would be
of me if I grew up a stupid boy!”
But the instant lessons were done, and he was
alone in the empty room, he crept across the floor, undid the shabby little
bundle, his fingers trembling with eagerness, climbed on the chair, and thence
to the table, so as to unbar the skylight,—he forgot nothing now,—said his
magic charm, and was away out of the window, as children say, “in a few minutes
less than no time.”
Nobody missed him. He was accustomed to sit so
quietly always that his nurse, though only in the next room, perceived no
difference. And besides, she might have gone in and out a dozen times, and it
would have been just the same; she never could have found out his absence.
For what do you think the clever godmother did?
She took a quantity of moonshine, or some equally convenient material, and made
an image, which she set on the window-sill reading, or by the table drawing,
where it looked so like Prince Dolor that any common observer would never have
guessed the deception; and even the boy would have been puzzled to know which
was the image and which was himself.
And all this while the happy little fellow was
away, floating in the air on his magic cloak, and seeing all sorts of wonderful
things—or they seemed wonderful to him, who had hitherto seen nothing at all.
First, there were the flowers that grew on the
plain, which, whenever the cloak came near enough, he strained his eyes to look
at; they were very tiny, but very beautiful—white saxifrage, and yellow lotus,
and ground-thistles, purple and bright, with many others the names of which I
do not know. No more did Prince Dolor, though he tried to find them out by
recalling any pictures he had seen of them. But he was too far off; and though
it was pleasant enough to admire them as brilliant patches of color, still he
would have liked to examine them all. He was, as a little girl I know once said
of a playfellow, “a very examining boy.”
“I wonder,” he thought, “whether I could see
better through a pair of glasses like those my nurse reads with, and takes such
care of. How I would take care of them, too, if I only had a pair!”
Immediately he felt something queer and hard
fixing itself to the bridge of his nose. It was a pair of the prettiest gold
spectacles ever seen; and looking downward, he found that, though ever so high
above the ground, he could see every minute blade of grass, every tiny bud and
flower—nay, even the insects that walked over them.
“Thank you, thank you!” he cried, in a gush of
gratitude—to anybody or everybody, but especially to his dear godmother, who he
felt sure had given him this new present. He amused himself with it for ever so
long, with his chin pressed on the rim of the cloak, gazing down upon the
grass, every square foot of which was a mine of wonders.
Then, just to rest his eyes, he turned them up to
the sky—the blue, bright, empty sky, which he had looked at so often and seen
nothing.
Now surely there was something. A long, black,
wavy line, moving on in the distance, not by chance, as the clouds move
apparently, but deliberately, as if it were alive. He might have seen it
before—he almost thought he had; but then he could not tell what it was.
Looking at it through his spectacles, he discovered that it really was alive;
being a long string of birds, flying one after the other, their wings moving
steadily and their heads pointed in one direction, as steadily as if each were
a little ship, guided invisibly by an unerring helm.
“They must be the passage-birds flying seaward!”
cried the boy, who had read a little about them, and had a great talent for
putting two and two together and finding out all he could. “Oh, how I should
like to see them quite close, and to know where they come from and whither they
are going! How I wish I knew everything in all the world!”
A silly speech for even an “examining” little boy
to make; because, as we grow older, the more we know the more we find out there
is to know. And Prince Dolor blushed when he had said it, and hoped nobody had
heard him.
Apparently somebody had, however; for the cloak
gave a sudden bound forward, and presently he found himself high in the air, in
the very middle of that band of aerial travelers, who had mo magic cloak to
travel on—nothing except their wings. Yet there they were, making their
fearless way through the sky.
Prince Dolor looked at them as one after the other
they glided past him; and they looked at him—those pretty swallows, with their
changing necks and bright eyes—as if wondering to meet in mid-air such an
extraordinary sort of bird.
“Oh, I wish I were going with you, you lovely
creatures! I'm getting so tired of this dull plain, and the dreary and lonely
tower. I do so want to see the world! Pretty swallows, dear swallows! tell me
what it looks like—the beautiful, wonderful world!”
But the swallows flew past him—steadily, slowly
pursuing their course as if inside each little head had been a mariner's
compass, to guide them safe over land and sea, direct to the place where they
wished to go.
The boy looked after them with envy. For a long
time he followed with his eyes the faint, wavy black line as it floated away,
sometimes changing its curves a little, but never deviating from its settled
course, till it vanished entirely out of sight.
Then he settled himself down in the center of the
cloak, feeling quite sad and lonely.
“I think I'll go home,” said he, and repeated his
“Abracadabra, tum tum ti!” with a rather heavy heart. The more he had, the more
he wanted; and it is not always one can have everything one wants—at least, at
the exact minute one craves for it; not even though one is a prince, and has a
powerful and beneficent godmother.
He did not like to vex her by calling for her and
telling her how unhappy he was, in spite of all her goodness; so he just kept
his trouble to himself, went back to his lonely tower, and spent three days in
silent melancholy, without even attempting another journey on his
traveling-cloak.
CHAPTER VI
The fourth day it happened that the deaf-mute paid
his accustomed visit, after which Prince Dolor's spirits rose. They always did
when he got the new books which, just to relieve his conscience, the King of
Nomansland regularly sent to his nephew; with many new toys also, though the
latter were disregarded now.
“Toys, indeed! when I'm a big boy,” said the
Prince, with disdain, and would scarcely condescend to mount a rocking-horse
which had come, somehow or other,—I can't be expected to explain things very
exactly,—packed on the back of the other, the great black horse, which stood
and fed contentedly at the bottom of the tower.
Prince Dolor leaned over and looked at it, and
thought how grand it must be to get upon its back—this grand live steed—and
ride away, like the pictures of knights.
“Suppose I was a knight,” he said to himself;
“then I should be obliged to ride out and see the world.”
But he kept all these thoughts to himself, and
just sat still, devouring his new books till he had come to the end of them
all. It was a repast not unlike the Barmecide's feast which you read of in the
“Arabian Nights,” which consisted of very elegant but empty dishes, or that
supper of Sancho Panza in “Don Quixote,” where, the minute the smoking dishes
came on the table, the physician waved his hand and they were all taken away.
Thus almost all the ordinary delights of boy-life
had been taken away from, or rather never given to this poor little prince.
“I wonder,” he would sometimes think—“I wonder
what it feels like to be on the back of a horse, galloping away, or holding the
reins in a carriage, and tearing across the country, or jumping a ditch, or
running a race, such as I read of or see in pictures. What a lot of things
there are that I should like to do! But first I should like to go and see the
world. I'll try.”
Apparently it was his godmother's plan always to
let him try, and try hard, before he gained anything. This day the knots that
tied up his traveling-cloak were more than usually troublesome, and he was a
full half-hour before he got out into the open air, and found himself floating
merrily over the top of the tower.
Hitherto, in all his journeys, he had never let
himself go out of sight of home, for the dreary building, after all, was
home—he remembered no other; but now he felt sick of the very look of his
tower, with its round smooth walls and level battlements.
“Off we go!” cried he, when the cloak stirred
itself with a slight, slow motion, as if waiting his orders. “Anywhere
anywhere, so that I am away from here, and out into the world.”
As he spoke, the cloak, as if seized suddenly with
a new idea, bounded forward and went skimming through the air, faster than the
very fastest railway train.
“Gee-up! gee-up!” cried Prince Dolor in great
excitement. “This is as good as riding a race.”
And he patted the cloak as if it had been a
horse—that is, in the way he supposed horses ought to be patted—and tossed his
head back to meet the fresh breeze, and pulled his coat collar up and his hat
down as he felt the wind grow keener and colder—colder than anything he had
ever known.
“What does it matter, though?” said he. “I'm a
boy, and boys ought not to mind anything.”
Still, for all his good-will, by and by, he began
to shiver exceedingly; also, he had come away without his dinner, and he grew
frightfully hungry. And to add to everything, the sunshiny day changed into
rain, and being high up, in the very midst of the clouds, he got soaked through
and through in a very few minutes.
“Shall I turn back?” meditated he. “Suppose I say
'Abracadabra?'”
Here he stopped, for already the cloak gave an
obedient lurch, as if it were expecting to be sent home immediately.
“No—I can't—I can't go back! I must go forward and
see the world. But oh! if I had but the shabbiest old rug to shelter me from
the rain, or the driest morsel of bread and cheese, just to keep me from
starving! Still, I don't much mind; I'm a prince, and ought to be able to stand
anything. Hold on, cloak, we'll make the best of it.”
It was a most curious circumstance, but no sooner
had he said this than he felt stealing over his knees something warm and soft;
in fact, a most beautiful bearskin, which folded itself round him quite
naturally, and cuddled him up as closely as if he had been the cub of the kind
old mother-bear that once owned it. Then feeling in his pocket, which suddenly
stuck out in a marvelous way, he found, not exactly bread and cheese, nor even
sandwiches, but a packet of the most delicious food he had ever tasted. It was
not meat, nor pudding, but a combination of both, and it served him excellently
for both. He ate his dinner with the greatest gusto imaginable, till he grew so
thirsty he did not know what to do.
“Couldn't I have just one drop of water, if it
didn't trouble you too much, kindest of godmothers?”
For he really thought this want was beyond her
power to supply. All the water which supplied Hopeless Tower was pumped up with
difficulty from a deep artesian well—there were such things known in
Nomansland—which had been made at the foot of it. But around, for miles upon
miles, the desolate plain was perfectly dry. And above it, high in the air, how
could he expect to find a well, or to get even a drop of water?
He forgot one thing—the rain. While he spoke, it
came on in another wild burst, as if the clouds had poured themselves out in a
passion of crying, wetting him certainly, but leaving behind, in a large glass
vessel which he had never noticed before, enough water to quench the thirst of
two or three boys at least. And it was so fresh, so pure—as water from the
clouds always is when it does not catch the soot from city chimneys and other
defilements—that he drank it, every drop, with the greatest delight and
content.
Also, as soon as it was empty the rain filled it
again, so that he was able to wash his face and hands and refresh himself
exceedingly. Then the sun came out and dried him in no time. After that he
curled himself up under the bear-skin rug, and though he determined to be the
most wide-awake boy imaginable, being so exceedingly snug and warm and
comfortable, Prince Dolor condescended to shut his eyes just for one minute.
The next minute he was sound asleep.
When he awoke, he found himself floating over a
country quite unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Yet it was nothing but what most of you children
see every day and never notice it—a pretty country landscape, like England,
Scotland, France, or any other land you choose to name. It had no particular
features—nothing in it grand or lovely—was simply pretty, nothing more; yet to
Prince Dolor, who had never gone beyond his lonely tower and level plain, it
appeared the most charming sight imaginable.
First, there was a river. It came tumbling down
the hillside, frothing and foaming, playing at hide-and-seek among the rocks,
then bursting out in noisy fun like a child, to bury itself in deep, still
pools. Afterward it went steadily on for a while, like a good grown-up person,
till it came to another big rock, where it misbehaved itself extremely. It
turned into a cataract, and went tumbling over and over, after a fashion that
made the prince—who had never seen water before, except in his bath or his
drinking-cup—clap his hands with delight.
“It is so active, so alive! I like things active
and alive!” cried he, and watched it shimmering and dancing, whirling and
leaping, till, after a few windings and vagaries, it settled into a respectable
stream. After that it went along, deep and quiet, but flowing steadily on, till
it reached a large lake, into which it slipped and so ended its course.
All this the boy saw, either with his own naked
eye or through his gold spectacles. He saw also as in a picture, beautiful but
silent, many other things which struck him with wonder, especially a grove of
trees.
Only think, to have lived to his age (which he
himself did not know, as he did not know his own birthday) and never to have
seen trees! As he floated over these oaks, they seemed to him—trunk, branches,
and leaves—the most curious sight imaginable.
“If I could only get nearer, so as to touch them,”
said he, and immediately the obedient cloak ducked down; Prince Dolor made a
snatch at the topmost twig of the tallest tree, and caught a bunch of leaves in
his hand.
Just a bunch of green leaves—such as we see in
myriads; watching them bud, grow, fall, and then kicking them along on the
ground as if they were worth nothing. Yet how wonderful they are—every one of
them a little different. I don't suppose you could ever find two leaves exactly
alike in form, color, and size—no more than you could find two faces alike, or
two characters exactly the same. The plan of this world is infinite similarity
and yet infinite variety.
Prince Dolor examined his leaves with the greatest
curiosity—and also a little caterpillar that he found walking over one of them.
He coaxed it to take an additional walk over his finger, which it did with the
greatest dignity and decorum, as if it, Mr. Caterpillar, were the most
important individual in existence. It amused him for a long time; and when a
sudden gust of wind blew it overboard, leaves and all, he felt quite
disconsolate.
“Still there must be many live creatures in the
world besides caterpillars. I should like to see a few of them.”
The cloak gave a little dip down, as if to say
“All right, my Prince,” and bore him across the oak forest to a long fertile
valley—called in Scotland a strath and in England a weald, but what they call
it in the tongue of Nomansland I do not know. It was made up of cornfields,
pasturefields, lanes, hedges, brooks, and ponds. Also, in it were what the
prince desired to see—a quantity of living creatures, wild and tame. Cows and
horses, lambs and sheep, fed in the meadows; pigs and fowls walked about the farm-yards;
and in lonelier places hares scudded, rabbits burrowed, and pheasants and
partridges, with many other smaller birds, inhabited the fields and woods.
Through his wonderful spectacles the Prince could
see everything; but, as I said, it was a silent picture; he was too high up to
catch anything except a faint murmur, which only aroused his anxiety to hear
more.
“I have as good as two pairs of eyes,” he thought.
“I wonder if my godmother would give me a second pair of ears.”
Scarcely had he spoken than he found lying on his
lap the most curious little parcel, all done up in silvery paper. And it
contained—what do you think? Actually a pair of silver ears, which, when he
tried them on, fitted so exactly over his own that he hardly felt them, except
for the difference they made in his hearing.
There is something which we listen to daily and
never notice. I mean the sounds of the visible world, animate and inanimate.
Winds blowing, waters flowing, trees stirring, insects whirring (dear me! I am
quite unconsciously writing rhyme), with the various cries of birds and
beasts,—lowing cattle, bleating sheep, grunting pigs, and cackling hens,—all
the infinite discords that somehow or other make a beautiful harmony.
We hear this, and are so accustomed to it that we
think nothing of it; but Prince Dolor, who had lived all his days in the dead
silence of Hopeless Tower, heard it for the first time. And oh! if you had seen
his face.
He listened, listened, as if he could never have
done listening. And he looked and looked, as if he could not gaze enough. Above
all, the motion of the animals delighted him: cows walking, horses galloping,
little lambs and calves running races across the meadows, were such a treat for
him to watch—he that was always so quiet. But, these creatures having four
legs, and he only two, the difference did not strike him painfully.
Still, by and by, after the fashion of
children,—and I fear, of many big people too,—he began to want something more
than he had, something fresh and new.
“Godmother,” he said, having now begun to believe
that, whether he saw her or not, he could always speak to her with full
confidence that she would hear him—“Godmother, all these creatures I like
exceedingly; but I should like better to see a creature like myself. Couldn't
you show me just one little boy?”
There was a sigh behind him,—it might have been
only the wind,—and the cloak remained so long balanced motionless in air that
he was half afraid his godmother had forgotten him, or was offended with him
for asking too much. Suddenly a shrill whistle startled him, even through his
silver ears, and looking downward, he saw start up from behind a bush on a
common, something——
Neither a sheep nor a horse nor a cow—nothing upon
four legs. This creature had only two; but they were long, straight, and
strong. And it had a lithe, active body, and a curly head of black hair set
upon its shoulders. It was a boy, a shepherd-boy, about the Prince's own
age—but, oh! so different.
Not that he was an ugly boy—though his face was
almost as red as his hands, and his shaggy hair matted like the backs of his
own sheep. He was rather a nice-looking lad; and seemed so bright and healthy
and good-tempered—“jolly” would be the word, only I am not sure if they have
such a one in the elegant language of Nomansland—that the little Prince watched
him with great admiration.
“Might he come and play with me? I would drop down
to the ground to him, or fetch him up to me here. Oh, how nice it would be if I
only had a little boy to play with me.”
But the cloak, usually so obedient to his wishes,
disobeyed him now. There were evidently some things which his godmother either
could not or would not give. The cloak hung stationary, high in air, never
attempting to descend. The shepherd-lad evidently took it for a large bird,
and, shading his eyes, looked up at it, making the Prince's heart beat fast.
However, nothing ensued. The boy turned round,
with a long, loud whistle—seemingly his usual and only way of expressing his
feelings. He could not make the thing out exactly—it was a rather mysterious
affair, but it did not trouble him much—he was not an “examining” boy.
Then, stretching himself, for he had been
evidently half asleep, he began flopping his shoulders with his arms to wake
and warm himself; while his dog, a rough collie, who had been guarding the
sheep meanwhile, began to jump upon him, barking with delight.
“Down, Snap, down: Stop that, or I'll thrash you,”
the Prince heard him say; though with such a rough, hard voice and queer
pronunciation that it was difficult to make the words out. “Hollo! Let's warm
ourselves by a race.”
They started off together, boy and dog—barking and
shouting, till it was doubtful which made the more noise or ran the faster. A
regular steeplechase it was: first across the level common, greatly disturbing
the quiet sheep; and then tearing away across country, scrambling through
hedges and leaping ditches, and tumbling up and down over plowed fields. They
did not seem to have anything to run for—but as if they did it, both of them,
for the mere pleasure of motion.
And what a pleasure that seemed! To the dog of
course, but scarcely less so to the boy. How he skimmed along over the
ground—his cheeks glowing, and his hair flying, and his legs—oh, what a pair of
legs he had!
Prince Dolor watched him with great intentness,
and in a state of excitement almost equal to that of the runner himself—for a
while. Then the sweet, pale face grew a trifle paler, the lips began to quiver,
and the eyes to fill.
“How nice it must be to run like that!” he said
softly, thinking that never—no, never in this world—would he be able to do the
same.
Now he understood what his godmother had meant
when she gave him his traveling-cloak, and why he had heard that sigh—he was
sure it was hers—when he had asked to see “just one little boy.”
“I think I had rather not look at him again,” said
the poor little Prince, drawing himself back into the center of his cloak, and
resuming his favorite posture, sitting like a Turk, with his arms wrapped round
his feeble, useless legs.
“You're no good to me,” he said, patting them
mournfully. “You never will be any good to me. I wonder why I had you at all. I
wonder why I was born at all, since I was not to grow up like other boys. Why
not?”
A question so strange, so sad, yet so often
occurring in some form or other in this world—as you will find, my children,
when you are older—that even if he had put it to his mother she could only have
answered it, as we have to answer many as difficult things, by simply saying,
“I don't know.” There is much that we do not know and cannot understand—we big
folks no more than you little ones. We have to accept it all just as you have
to accept anything which your parents may tell you, even though you don't as yet
see the reason of it. You may sometime, if you do exactly as they tell you, and
are content to wait.
Prince Dolor sat a good while thus, or it appeared
to him a good while, so many thoughts came and went through his poor young
mind—thoughts of great bitterness, which, little though he was, seemed to make
him grow years older in a few minutes.
Then he fancied the cloak began to rock gently to
and fro, with a soothing kind of motion, as if he were in somebody's arms:
somebody who did not speak, but loved him and comforted him without need of
words; not by deceiving him with false encouragement or hope, but by making him
see the plain, hard truth in all its hardness, and thus letting him quietly
face it, till it grew softened down, and did not seem nearly so dreadful after
all.
Through the dreary silence and blankness, for he
had placed himself so that he could see nothing but the sky, and had taken off
his silver ears as well as his gold spectacles—what was the use of either when
he had no legs with which to walk or run?—up from below there rose a delicious
sound.
You have heard it hundreds of times, my children,
and so have I. When I was a child I thought there was nothing so sweet; and I
think so still. It was just the song of a skylark, mounting higher and higher
from the ground, till it came so close that Prince Dolor could distinguish his
quivering wings and tiny body, almost too tiny to contain such a gush of music.
“Oh, you beautiful, beautiful bird!” cried he; “I
should dearly like to take you in and cuddle you. That is, if I could—if I
dared.”
But he hesitated. The little brown creature with
its loud heavenly voice almost made him afraid. Nevertheless, it also made him
happy; and he watched and listened—so absorbed that he forgot all regret and
pain, forgot everything in the world except the little lark.
It soared and soared, and he was just wondering if
it would soar out of sight, and what in the world he should do when it was
gone, when it suddenly closed its wings, as larks do when they mean to drop to
the ground. But, instead of dropping to the ground, it dropped right into the
little boy's breast.
What felicity! If it would only stay! A tiny, soft
thing to fondle and kiss, to sing to him all day long, and be his playfellow
and companion, tame and tender, while to the rest of the world it was a wild
bird of the air. What a pride, what a delight! To have something that nobody
else had—something all his own. As the traveling-cloak traveled on, he little
heeded where, and the lark still stayed, nestled down in his bosom, hopped from
his hand to his shoulder, and kissed him with its dainty beak, as if it loved
him, Prince Dolor forgot all his grief, and was entirely happy.
But when he got in sight of Hopeless Tower a
painful thought struck him.
“My pretty bird, what am I to do with you? If I
take you into my room and shut you up there, you, a wild skylark of the air,
what will become of you? I am used to this, but you are not. You will be so
miserable; and suppose my nurse should find you—she who can't bear the sound of
singing? Besides, I remember her once telling me that the nicest thing she ever
ate in her life was lark pie!”
The little boy shivered all over at the thought.
And, though the merry lark immediately broke into the loudest carol, as if
saying derisively that he defied anybody to eat him, still, Prince Dolor was
very uneasy. In another minute he had made up his mind.
“No, my bird, nothing so dreadful shall happen to
you if I can help it; I would rather do without you altogether. Yes, I'll try.
Fly away, my darling, my beautiful! Good-by, my merry, merry bird.”
Opening his two caressing hands, in which, as if
for protection, he had folded it, he let the lark go. It lingered a minute,
perching on the rim of the cloak, and looking at him with eyes of almost human
tenderness; then away it flew, far up into the blue sky. It was only a bird.
But some time after, when Prince Dolor had eaten
his supper—somewhat drearily, except for the thought that he could not possibly
sup off lark pie now—and gone quietly to bed, the old familiar little bed,
where he was accustomed to sleep, or lie awake contentedly thinking—suddenly he
heard outside the window a little faint carol—faint but cheerful—cheerful even
though it was the middle of the night.
The dear little lark! it had not flown away, after
all. And it was truly the most extraordinary bird, for, unlike ordinary larks,
it kept hovering about the tower in the silence and darkness of the night,
outside the window or over the roof. Whenever he listened for a moment, he heard
it singing still.
He went to sleep as happy as a king.