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05 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Classic Science Fiction Books

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Chapter three in Boney's Times. Edred crept back to his stool and took his
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corner of the marble backed book of Doctor Watts with fingers that trembled. If
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you are inclined to despise him, consider that it was his first real adventure,
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even in ordinary life, and in the time he naturally lived in,
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nothing particularly thrilling had ever happened to happen to him until he became Lord Arden
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and explored Arden Castle. And now he and Elfrida had not only discovered a
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disused house and a wonderful garret with chests in it, but had been clothed
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by mysterious pigeon noises and clothes belonging to another age. But you will say,
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pigeon noises can't clothe you in anything, whatever it belongs to. Well,
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that was just what Edred told himself at the time. And yet it
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was certain that they did this sort of thing. It was that made the
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whole business so mysterious. Further, he and his sister had managed somehow to
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go back a hundred years. He knew this well, though he had no
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evidence, but that one sheet of newspaper. He felt it, as they
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say, in his bones I don't know how it was. Perhaps the air
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felt a hundred years Younger shepherds and country people can tell the hour of night
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by the feel of the air, so perhaps very sensitive people can tell the
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century by much the same means. These, of course, would be the
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people to whom adventures in times past were present would be likely to happen.
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We must always consider what is likely, especially when we are reading stories about
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unusual things. I say, Edred whispered. Presently, we've got back to
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eighteen o seven, that paper says, so I know. Elfrida whispered,
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so she must have had more of that, like shepherds telling the time of
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night feeling than even her brother. I wish I could remember what was happening
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in history in eighteen o seven, said Elfrida. But we never get past
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Edward the fourth. We always have to go back to the Saxons because of
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the new girls. But we're not in history, word arden, Edred said,
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we are in history. It'll be awful not even knowing who's king,
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said Elfrida. And then the stiff old lady looked up over very large spectacles
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with thick silver rims and said silence. Presently, she laid down the times
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and got ink and paper, no envelopes, and began to write. She
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was finishing a letter. The large sheet was almost covered on one side.
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When she had covered it quite she turned it round and began to write across
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it. She used a white goose quill pen. The ink stand was a
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china with gold scrolls and cupids and wreaths of roses painted on it. On
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one side was the ink well, on the other a thing like a china
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pepper pot, and in front a tray for the pens and sealing wax to
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lie in. Both children now knew their unpleasant poem by heart, so they
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watched the old lady, who was grandmother to the children she supposed them to
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be. When she had finished writing, she sprinkled some dust out of the
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pepper pot over the letter to dry the ink. There was no blotting paper
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to be seen. Then she folded the sheet and sealed it with the silver
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seal from the pen tray, and wrote the address on the outside. Then
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have you got your task, she asked, Here it is, said Elfrida,
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holding up the book. No impudence, miss, said the grandmother sternly,
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You very well know that I mean. Have you got it by rote
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yet, and you know too that you should say ma'am whenever you address me.
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Yes, ma'am, said Elfrida, and this was taken to mean that
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she knew her task. Then come and say it. No, no,
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you know better than that. Feet in the first position, hands behind you,
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head straight, and do not fidget with your feet. So then first
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Elfrida and then Dred recited the melancholy verses. Now said the old lady,
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you may go and play in the garden. Mayn't we take your letter to
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the post? Elfrida asked, yes, but you are not to stay in
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the George bar mind not even if missus Skinner should invite you. Just hand
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her the letter and come out. Shut the door softly, and do not
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shuffle with your feet. Yes, ma'am, said Elfrida. And on that
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they got out, they'll find us out bound to said Edred. We don't
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know a single thing about anything. I don't know where the George is or
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where to get a stamp or anything. We must find some one we can
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trust and tell them the truth, said Elfrida. There isn't any one,
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said Edred, that I trust. You can't trust the sort of people who
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stick this sort of baby flummery round a chap's neck. He crumpled his starched
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frill with hot, angry fingers. Mine prickles all round two, Elfrida reminded
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him. And it's lower and you get bigger as you go down, so
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it prickles more of me than yours, does you? Let's go back to
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the attic and try and get back to our own time. I expect we
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just got into the wrong door, don't you. Let's go now? Oh
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no, oh, said Elfrida, How dreadfully dull? Why we shall see
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all sorts of things and be tap in history for the rest of our lives.
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Let's go through with it. Do you remember which door it was the
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attic? I mean? Edred suddenly asked, Was it the third on the
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left? I don't know, but we can easily find it when we want
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it. I'd like to know, now, said Edred, obstinately. You
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never know when you are going to want things. Missus Honeysett says, you
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ought to always be able to lay your hand on anything you want the moment
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you do want it. I should like to be quite certain about being able
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to lay our hands on our own clothes. Suppose some one goes and tidies
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them up. You know what people are, all right, said Elfrida.
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We'll go and tidy them up ourselves. It won't take a minute. It
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would certainly not have taken five if things had been as the children expected.
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They raced up the stairs to the corridor where the prints were. It's not
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the first door, I'm certain, said Edred. So they opened the second,
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but it was not that either. So then they tried all the doors
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in turn, even opening at last the first one of all, and it
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was not that even. It was not any of them. We've come to
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the wrong corridor, said the boy. It's the only one, said the
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girl. And it was. For though they hunted all over the house,
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upstairs and downstairs, and tried every door, the door of the attic,
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they could not find again. And what is more, when they came to
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count up, there were fifty seven doors without it. Fifty five, fifty
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six, fifty seven, said Elfrida, and ended in a sob. The
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door's gone. We shall have to stay here forever and ever. Oh I
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want, Auntie, I do I do? She sat down abruptly on a
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small green mat in front of the last door. Which happened to be that
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of the kitchen. Edred says he did not cry too, and if what
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he says is true, Elfrida's crying must have been louder than was usual with
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her, for the kitchen door opened and the two children were caught up in
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two fat arms, and hurried into a pleasant kitchen where bright brass and copper
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pots hung on the walls, and between a large fire and a large meat
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screen, a leg of mutton turned round and round, with nobody to help
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it. Hold your noise, said the owner of the fat arms, who
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now proved to be a very stout woman in a chocolate colored print gown sprigged
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with blue roses. She had a large linen apron and a cap with flappy
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frills, and between the frills just such another good kind jolly face as missus
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Honey sets own here. Stop your mouths, she said, or your granny'll
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be after you to say nothing of boney. Stop your crying, do and
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see what cookies got for you. She opened a tin canister and picked out
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two lumps of brown stuff that looked like sand, about the size and shape
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of prunes. They were. What's that? Edred asked, rabbit me,
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said the cook, what a child? It is not no sugar when he
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sees it? Well, well, master Edred, what next I should like
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to know? The children took the lumps and sucked them. They were of
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sugar, sure enough, but the sugar had a strong, coarse taste behind
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its sweetness. And if the children had really not been quite extra polite and
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kind, they would have followed the promptings of nature. And but of course
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they knew that this would be both disgusting and ungrateful. So they got the
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sugar down somehow, while Cook beamed at them with a wide, kind smile
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between her cap frills and two hands as big as little beefsteak puddings on her
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hips. Now, no more cry babying, she said, Run along and
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play. We've got to take granny's letter to post, said Edred. And
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we don't cook, said Elfrida, on a sudden impulse. Can you keep
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a secret, can't I? Said the cook? Haven't I kept the secret
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of how firmity's made and bake well pies and all? There's no firmity to
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hold a candle to mine in this country as well. You know, we
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don't know anything, said Elfrida, that's just it, and we daren't let
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Grannie know how much we don't know. Something's happened to us, so that
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we can't remember anything that happened more than an hour ago. Bless me,
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said the cook. Don't you remember old Cookie giving you the baked apple dumplings
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when you were sent to bed without your suppers a week come Thursday? No,
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said Elfrida, but I'm sure you did. Only what are we to
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do? You're not deceiving poor Cookie, are you now like you did about
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the French soldiers being hid in the windmill, upsetting all the village like you
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did. No, it's true, it's dreadfully true. You'll have to help
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us. We don't remember anything, either of us. The Cook sat down
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heavily in a polished arm chair with a patchwork cushion. She's overlooked you,
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There's not a doubt about it. You're bewitched. Oh my pretty little DearS,
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that ever I should see the day. The Cook's fat, jolly face
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twisted and puckered in a way with which each child was familiar in the face
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of the other. Don't cry, they said, both together, and Elfrida
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added, who's overlooked what old Betty Lovell has that I'll be bound. She's
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bewitched you both as sure as eggs. As eggs, I knew there'd be
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some sort of a to do when my Lord Hatter put in the stocks for
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stealing sticks in the wood. We've got to get her to take it off,
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my DearS, that's what we've got to do. For sure. Without
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you could find a white moldywarp. And that's not likely. A white moldywarp,
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said both the children, and again they spoke together like a chorus and
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looked at each other like conspirators. You know the rhyme. Oh but if
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you've forgotten everything, you've forgotten that too, say it won't you, said
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Edred. Let's see how do it go? White moldywarp. A spell can
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make white moldywarp. A spell can break when all be well. Let moldywarp
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be when all goes ill. Then turn to he Well, all's not gone
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ill yet, said Elfrida, wriggling her neck in its prickly muslin tucker.
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Let's go and see the witch. You'd best take her something. A screw
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of sugar she'd like, and a pinch of tea. Why she'd not say
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thank you for it, said Edred, looking at the tiny packets. I
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expect you've forgotten, said Cook gently, that tea's ten shillings a pound and
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sugar's gone up to three and six since the war. What war? The
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French War you haven't forgotten. Were at war with boney in the French And
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the bonfire we had up at the church when the news came of the drubbing
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we gave them at Trafalgar, and poor dear Lord Nelson and all and your
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grandfather reading out about it to them from the George balcony, and all the
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people waiting to cheer, and him not able to get it out for choking
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pride, and because of Lord Nelson, God bless him, and the people
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couldn't get their cheers out neither for the same cause, and every one blowing
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their noses and shaking each other's hands like as if it was a mad funeral.
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Splendid, said Elfrida. But we don't remember it, nor you don't
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remember how you killed all the white butterflies last year because you said they were
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Frenchies and their white coats, and the birching you got for cruelty to dumb
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animals. His lordship said, you howled for an hour together after it,
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so you did. I'm glad we've forgotten that anyhow, said Edred. Gracious,
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said the cook, half after eleven, and my egg's not so much
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as broke from my pudding. Off you go with your letter. Don't you
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tell any one else about you forgetting. And then you come along home by
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dairy spinney, and go see old Betty. Speak pretty to her, and
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give her the tea and sugar, and keep your feet crossed under your chair
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if she asked you to sit down, and I'll give you an old knife
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plate a piece to put in your pockets. She can't do nothing if you've
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got steel on you, and get her to take it off the ill wishing,
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I mean, And don't let her know you've got steel. They don't
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like to think you've been beforehand with them. So the children went to cross
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the fields to the George, and the bean flowers smelt as sweet, and
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the skylarks sang as clearly, and the sun and the sky were just as
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golden and blue as they had been last week. And last week was really
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a hundred years on in the future, and yet it was last week too.
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From where they were, time is a very confusing thing, as the
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children remarked to each other. More than once, they found the George half
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way up Arden Village, a stately great house shaped like an e, with
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many windows and a great porch with a balcony over it. They gave their
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letter to a lady in a round cap, who sat sewing in a pleasant
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room, where there were many bottles and kegs, and rows of bright pewter
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ale pots, and little fat mugs to measure other things with, and pewter
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plates on a brown dresser. There were greyhounds too, all sprawling legs and
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shoulders and tails, entangled together like a bunch of dead eels. Before the
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widest heart the children had ever seen. They hurried away the moment they had
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given the letter. A coach top heavy with luggage, had drawn up in
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front of the porch, and as they went out they saw the ostlers leading
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away the six smoking horses. Edred felt that he must see the stables,
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so they followed. And the stables were as big as the house, and
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there were horses going in and horses going out, and hay and straw,
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and ostlers with buckets and ostlers, with harness and stalls and loose boxes,
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beyond counting, and bustle and hurry beyond words. However, many horses have
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you got, said Elfrida, addressing a man who had not joined in the
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kindly chorus of Hullo little LUNs that greeted the children. So she judged him
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to be a newcomer, as he was two and fifty, said the man,
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what for? Elfrida asked, why? For the coaches and the post
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chaise and the king's messengers, for sure? The man answered, how else
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do us all get about the country and get to hear the newses if it
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wasn't for the stable the George keeps? And then the children remembered that this
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was the time before railways and telegrams and telephones. It is always difficult to
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remember exactly where one is when one happens to get into a century that is
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not one's own Edred would have liked to stay all day watching the busyness of
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every one in the beautifulness of the horses, but Elfrida dragged him away.
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They had to find the witch, she reminded him, And in a dreadful
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tumble down cottage with big holes in its roof of rotten thatch. They did
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find her. She was exactly like the pictures of witches and story books,
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only she had not a broomstick or a high pointed hat. She had instead
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a dirty cap that had once been white, and a rusty gown that had
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once been black, and a streaky shawl that might once perhaps have been scarlet,
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but nobody could be sure of that. Now there was a black cat
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sitting on a very dirty wooden settle, and the old woman herself sat on
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a rickety three legged stool, her wrinkled face bent over a speckled hen,
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which she was nursing in her lap and holding gently in her yellow wrinkled hands.
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As soon as Edred caught sight of her through the crooked doorway, he
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stopped. I'm not going in, he said, what's the good. We
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know jolly well she hasn't bewitched us, and if we go cheeking her,
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she may, and then we shall be in a nice hole. There's the
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tea and sugar, said Elfrida. You just give it her and come away.
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I'll wait for you by the stile. So Elfrida went into the cottage
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alone and said good morning. In rather a frightened way. I've brought you
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some tea and sugar, she said, and stood waiting for the thank you,
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without which it would not be polite to say good morning and to go
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away. The thank you never came. Instead, the witch stopped stroking the
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hen and said, what for, I've not done you no arm No,
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said Elfrida. I'm sure you wouldn't. Then. What have you brought it
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for? For? Oh? Just for you, said Elfrida. I thought
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you'd like it. It's just a a love gift, you know. This
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was Aunt Edith's way of calling a present that didn't come just because it was
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your birthday or Christmas or you had had a tooth out. A love gift,
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said the old woman slowly. After all this long time, Elfrida did
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not understand. How should she. It's almost impossible for even the most grown
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up and clever of us to know how women used to be treated, and
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not so very long ago, either, If they were once suspected of being
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witches. It generally began by the old woman's being cleverer than her neighbors,
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having more wit to find out what was the matter with sick people, and
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more still to cure them. Then her extra cleverness would help her to foretell
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storms and gales and frosts, and to find water by the divining rod,
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a very mysterious business. And when once you can find out where water is
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by just carrying a forked hazel twig between your hands and walking across a meadow,
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you can most likely find out a good many other things that your stupid
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neighbors would never dream of. And in those long ago days, which really
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aren't so very long ago, your being so much cleverer than your neighbors would
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be quite enough. You would soon be known as the wise woman. And
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from wise women to which was a very short step. Indeed, so Elfrida,
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not understanding, said, yes, is your foul ill twill mend,
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said the old woman, twill mend. The healing of my hands has gone
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into it. She rose, set the hen on the hearth, where it
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fluttered, squawked, and settled among gray ashes, very much annoying the black
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cat, and laid her hand suddenly on Elfrida's shoulders. And now the healing
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of my hands is for you, she said. You have brought me a
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love gift. Never a gift have I had these fifty years but was a
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gift of fear, or a payment for help, to buy me, to
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take off a spell or put a spell on. But you have brought me
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a love gift. And I tell you you shall have your heart's desire.
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You shall have love around and about you all your life long. That which
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is lost shall be found, that which came not shall come again. In
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this world's goods, you shall be blessed and blest in the goods of the
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heart. Also, I know, I see and for you, I see
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everything good and fair. Your future shall be clean and sweet as your kind
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heart. She took her hands away. Elfrida, very much impressed by these
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flattering remarks, which she felt she did not deserve, stood still, not
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knowing what to say or do. She rather wanted to cry. I only
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brought it because Cook told me, she said. Cook didn't give you the
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kind heart that makes you want to cry for me, now, said the
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witch. The old woman sank down in a crouching heap, and her voice
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changed to one of singsong. I know, she said, I know many
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things all alone, the live long day and the death long night. I
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have learned to see as cats see through the dark, I see through the
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days that have been and shall be. I know that you are not here,
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that you are not now. You will return whence you came, and
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this time that is not yours shall bear no trace of you. And my
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blessing shall be with you in your own time and your own place. Because
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you brought a love gift to the poor old wise woman of Arden. Is
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there anything I can do for you, Elfrida asked, very sorry, indeed,
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for the old woman's voice was very pitiful. Kiss me, said the
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old woman. Kiss me with your little child's mouth that has come back a
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hundred years to do it. Elfrida did not wish to kiss the wrinkled gray
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face, but her heart wished her to be kind, and she obeyed her
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heart. Ah, said the wise woman. Now I see, Oh,
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never have I had such a vision, None of them all has ever been
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like this. I see great globes of light like the sun, in the
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streets of the city, where now are only little oil lamps and guttering lanterns.
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I see iron roads, with fiery dragons drawing the coaches, and rich
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and poor riding up and down on them. Men shall speak in England,
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and their voices be heard in France. More the voices of dead men shall
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be kept alive in boxes and speak at the will of those who still live.
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The hand looms shall cease in the cottages, and the weavers shall work
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in palaces with a thousand windows lighted as bright as day. The sun shall
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stoop to make men's portraits more like than any painter can make them. There
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shall be ships that shall run over the seas like condureels, and ships that
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shall ride over the clouds like great birds. And bread that is now a
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shilling in ninepence shall be fivepence, and the corn and the beef shall come
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from over seas to feed us. And every child shall be taught who can
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learn. And peace pray, he cried a stern voice in the doorway.
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Elfrida turned. There stood the grandfather, Lord Arden, very straight and tall
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and gray, leaning on his gold headed cane, and beside him edred,
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looking very small and found out. The witch did not seem to see see
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them. Her eyes that rolled and blinked saw nothing, but she must have
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heard. For loss to Arden, she said, loss, and woe to
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Arden. The hangings of your house shall be given to the spider, and
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the mice shall eat your carved furnishings. Your gold shall be less and less,
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and your house go down and down till there is not a field that
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is yours about your house. Lord Arden shrugged his shoulders. Likely tales,
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he said, to frighten babes with Tell me rather, if you would have
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me believe, what shall happen to morrow? To morrow, said the wise
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woman, The French shall land in Limnchurch Bay. Lord Arden laughed, And
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I give you a sign. Three signs, said the woman faintly, For
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it is tiring work seeing into the future, even when you are enlightened with
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a kiss from some one who has been there. You shall see the white
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moldiwarp, that is the badge of Arden on your threshold as you enter.
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That shall be one sign, said the old man mockingly. And the second,
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she said, shall be again the badge of your house, and your
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own chair in your own parlor. That seems likely, said Lord Arden,
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sneering. And the third said, she shall be the badge of your house
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in the arms of this child. She turned her back and picked the hen
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under the ashes. Lord Arden led Edred and Elfrida away, one in each
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hand, and as he went he was very severe on disobedient children who went
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straying after wicked witches, and they could not defend themselves without blaming the cook,
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which, of course they would not do. Bread and water for dinner.
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He said, to teach you better ways, oh, grandfather, said
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Elfrida, catching at his hand. Don't be so unkind. Just think about
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when you were little. I'm sure you like looking at witches, didn't you.
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Now, Lord Arden stared angrily at her, and then he chuckled.
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It's a bull, old girl, so it tis, he said, I
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own I remember well seeing a witch ducked no further off than New Church,
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and playing truant for my tutor to see it too. There now you see,
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said Elfrida, coaxingly. We don't mean to be naughty. We're just
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like what you were. You won't make it bread and water, will you,
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especially if bread so dear? Lord Arden chuckled again. Why the little
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white mouse has found a tongue? And never was I spoken to so bold
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as the days I wore petticoats myself. He said, well, well,
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we'll say no more about it this time, and Edred, who had privately
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considered that Elfrida was behaving like an utter idiot, thought better of it,
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so they turned across the summer fields to Arden Castle. There seemed to be
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more of the castle than when the children had first seen it, and it
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was tidier much And on the doorstep sat a white mole. There now,
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said Elfrida. The mole vanished like a streak of white paint that is rubbed
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out. Pooh, said Lord Arden. There's plenty of white moles in the
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world. But when he saw the white mole sitting up in his own carved
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arm chair in the parlor, he owned that it was very unusual. Elfrida
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stooped and held out her arms. She was extremely glad to see the mole,
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because ever since she and her brother had come into this strange time,
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she had felt that it would be the greatest possible comfort to have the mole
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on hand, the mole who understood everything, to keep and advise, and
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above all, to get them safely back into the sentry they belonged to.
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And the mouldiwarp made a little run and a little jump, and Elfrida caught
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it and held it against her waist with both her hands. Stay with me,
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whispered Elfrida to the mole. By George said Lord Arden to the universe.
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So now you see said Edred to Lord Arden, end of Section five.