Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 05 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit

Transcript

05 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter three in Boney's Times. Edred crept back to his
0:06
Speaker 1: stool and took his corner of the marble backed book
0:08
Speaker 1: of Doctor Watts with fingers that trembled. If you are
0:12
Speaker 1: inclined to despise him, consider that it was his first
0:15
Speaker 1: real adventure, even in ordinary life, and in the time
0:19
Speaker 1: he naturally lived in, nothing particularly thrilling had ever happened
0:23
Speaker 1: to happen to him until he became Lord Arden and
0:26
Speaker 1: explored Arden Castle. And now he and Elfrida had not
0:30
Speaker 1: only discovered a disused house and a wonderful garret with
0:33
Speaker 1: chests in it, but had been clothed by mysterious pigeon
0:36
Speaker 1: noises and clothes belonging to another age. But you will say,
0:41
Speaker 1: pigeon noises can't clothe you in anything, whatever it belongs to. Well,
0:45
Speaker 1: that was just what Edred told himself at the time.
0:48
Speaker 1: And yet it was certain that they did this sort
0:51
Speaker 1: of thing. It was that made the whole business so mysterious. Further,
0:55
Speaker 1: he and his sister had managed somehow to go back
0:57
Speaker 1: a hundred years. He knew this well, though he had
1:01
Speaker 1: no evidence, but that one sheet of newspaper. He felt it,
1:04
Speaker 1: as they say, in his bones I don't know how
1:08
Speaker 1: it was. Perhaps the air felt a hundred years Younger
1:11
Speaker 1: shepherds and country people can tell the hour of night
1:14
Speaker 1: by the feel of the air, so perhaps very sensitive
1:17
Speaker 1: people can tell the century by much the same means. These,
1:21
Speaker 1: of course, would be the people to whom adventures in
1:23
Speaker 1: times past were present would be likely to happen. We
1:26
Speaker 1: must always consider what is likely, especially when we are
1:30
Speaker 1: reading stories about unusual things. I say, Edred whispered. Presently,
1:36
Speaker 1: we've got back to eighteen o seven, that paper says,
1:39
Speaker 1: so I know. Elfrida whispered, so she must have had
1:43
Speaker 1: more of that, like shepherds telling the time of night
1:46
Speaker 1: feeling than even her brother. I wish I could remember
1:49
Speaker 1: what was happening in history in eighteen o seven, said Elfrida.
1:53
Speaker 1: But we never get past Edward the fourth. We always
1:56
Speaker 1: have to go back to the Saxons because of the
1:58
Speaker 1: new girls. But we're not in history, word arden, Edred said,
2:03
Speaker 1: we are in history. It'll be awful not even knowing
2:06
Speaker 1: who's king, said Elfrida. And then the stiff old lady
2:10
Speaker 1: looked up over very large spectacles with thick silver rims
2:14
Speaker 1: and said silence. Presently, she laid down the times and
2:19
Speaker 1: got ink and paper, no envelopes, and began to write.
2:22
Speaker 1: She was finishing a letter. The large sheet was almost
2:25
Speaker 1: covered on one side. When she had covered it quite
2:28
Speaker 1: she turned it round and began to write across it.
2:31
Speaker 1: She used a white goose quill pen. The ink stand
2:34
Speaker 1: was a china with gold scrolls and cupids and wreaths
2:37
Speaker 1: of roses painted on it. On one side was the
2:40
Speaker 1: ink well, on the other a thing like a china
2:42
Speaker 1: pepper pot, and in front a tray for the pens
2:45
Speaker 1: and sealing wax to lie in. Both children now knew
2:48
Speaker 1: their unpleasant poem by heart, so they watched the old lady,
2:52
Speaker 1: who was grandmother to the children she supposed them to be.
2:55
Speaker 1: When she had finished writing, she sprinkled some dust out
2:57
Speaker 1: of the pepper pot over the letter to dry the ink.
3:00
Speaker 1: There was no blotting paper to be seen. Then she
3:03
Speaker 1: folded the sheet and sealed it with the silver seal
3:05
Speaker 1: from the pen tray, and wrote the address on the outside.
3:09
Speaker 1: Then have you got your task, she asked, Here it is,
3:14
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, holding up the book. No impudence, miss, said
3:19
Speaker 1: the grandmother sternly, You very well know that I mean.
3:22
Speaker 1: Have you got it by rote yet, and you know
3:25
Speaker 1: too that you should say ma'am whenever you address me. Yes, ma'am,
3:30
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, and this was taken to mean that she
3:33
Speaker 1: knew her task. Then come and say it. No, no,
3:37
Speaker 1: you know better than that. Feet in the first position,
3:40
Speaker 1: hands behind you, head straight, and do not fidget with
3:44
Speaker 1: your feet. So then first Elfrida and then Dred recited
3:49
Speaker 1: the melancholy verses. Now said the old lady, you may
3:53
Speaker 1: go and play in the garden. Mayn't we take your
3:57
Speaker 1: letter to the post? Elfrida asked, yes, but you are
4:00
Speaker 1: not to stay in the George bar mind not even
4:03
Speaker 1: if missus Skinner should invite you. Just hand her the
4:06
Speaker 1: letter and come out. Shut the door softly, and do
4:09
Speaker 1: not shuffle with your feet. Yes, ma'am, said Elfrida. And
4:13
Speaker 1: on that they got out, they'll find us out bound
4:17
Speaker 1: to said Edred. We don't know a single thing about anything.
4:21
Speaker 1: I don't know where the George is or where to
4:23
Speaker 1: get a stamp or anything. We must find some one
4:26
Speaker 1: we can trust and tell them the truth, said Elfrida.
4:30
Speaker 1: There isn't any one, said Edred, that I trust. You
4:33
Speaker 1: can't trust the sort of people who stick this sort
4:35
Speaker 1: of baby flummery round a chap's neck. He crumpled his
4:39
Speaker 1: starched frill with hot, angry fingers. Mine prickles all round two,
4:44
Speaker 1: Elfrida reminded him. And it's lower and you get bigger
4:47
Speaker 1: as you go down, so it prickles more of me
4:49
Speaker 1: than yours, does you? Let's go back to the attic
4:52
Speaker 1: and try and get back to our own time. I
4:54
Speaker 1: expect we just got into the wrong door, don't you.
4:57
Speaker 1: Let's go now? Oh no, oh, said Elfrida, How dreadfully dull?
5:03
Speaker 1: Why we shall see all sorts of things and be
5:05
Speaker 1: tap in history for the rest of our lives. Let's
5:08
Speaker 1: go through with it. Do you remember which door it
5:11
Speaker 1: was the attic? I mean? Edred suddenly asked, Was it
5:15
Speaker 1: the third on the left? I don't know, but we
5:18
Speaker 1: can easily find it when we want it. I'd like
5:21
Speaker 1: to know, now, said Edred, obstinately. You never know when
5:24
Speaker 1: you are going to want things. Missus Honeysett says, you
5:27
Speaker 1: ought to always be able to lay your hand on
5:29
Speaker 1: anything you want the moment you do want it. I
5:32
Speaker 1: should like to be quite certain about being able to
5:34
Speaker 1: lay our hands on our own clothes. Suppose some one
5:37
Speaker 1: goes and tidies them up. You know what people are,
5:40
Speaker 1: all right, said Elfrida. We'll go and tidy them up ourselves.
5:45
Speaker 1: It won't take a minute. It would certainly not have
5:47
Speaker 1: taken five if things had been as the children expected.
5:51
Speaker 1: They raced up the stairs to the corridor where the
5:53
Speaker 1: prints were. It's not the first door, I'm certain, said Edred.
5:57
Speaker 1: So they opened the second, but it was not that either.
6:01
Speaker 1: So then they tried all the doors in turn, even
6:03
Speaker 1: opening at last the first one of all, and it
6:06
Speaker 1: was not that even. It was not any of them.
6:10
Speaker 1: We've come to the wrong corridor, said the boy. It's
6:13
Speaker 1: the only one, said the girl. And it was. For
6:17
Speaker 1: though they hunted all over the house, upstairs and downstairs,
6:21
Speaker 1: and tried every door, the door of the attic, they
6:24
Speaker 1: could not find again. And what is more, when they
6:27
Speaker 1: came to count up, there were fifty seven doors without it.
6:31
Speaker 1: Fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven, said Elfrida, and ended
6:35
Speaker 1: in a sob. The door's gone. We shall have to
6:38
Speaker 1: stay here forever and ever. Oh I want, Auntie, I
6:41
Speaker 1: do I do? She sat down abruptly on a small
6:45
Speaker 1: green mat in front of the last door. Which happened
6:48
Speaker 1: to be that of the kitchen. Edred says he did
6:50
Speaker 1: not cry too, and if what he says is true,
6:53
Speaker 1: Elfrida's crying must have been louder than was usual with her,
6:56
Speaker 1: for the kitchen door opened and the two children were
6:58
Speaker 1: caught up in two fat arms, and hurried into a
7:01
Speaker 1: pleasant kitchen where bright brass and copper pots hung on
7:04
Speaker 1: the walls, and between a large fire and a large
7:07
Speaker 1: meat screen, a leg of mutton turned round and round,
7:09
Speaker 1: with nobody to help it. Hold your noise, said the
7:14
Speaker 1: owner of the fat arms, who now proved to be
7:16
Speaker 1: a very stout woman in a chocolate colored print gown
7:19
Speaker 1: sprigged with blue roses. She had a large linen apron
7:22
Speaker 1: and a cap with flappy frills, and between the frills
7:25
Speaker 1: just such another good kind jolly face as missus Honey
7:28
Speaker 1: sets own here. Stop your mouths, she said, or your
7:32
Speaker 1: granny'll be after you to say nothing of boney. Stop
7:35
Speaker 1: your crying, do and see what cookies got for you.
7:38
Speaker 1: She opened a tin canister and picked out two lumps
7:41
Speaker 1: of brown stuff that looked like sand, about the size
7:44
Speaker 1: and shape of prunes. They were. What's that? Edred asked,
7:49
Speaker 1: rabbit me, said the cook, what a child? It is
7:54
Speaker 1: not no sugar when he sees it? Well, well, master Edred,
7:58
Speaker 1: what next I should like to know? The children took
8:01
Speaker 1: the lumps and sucked them. They were of sugar, sure enough,
8:05
Speaker 1: but the sugar had a strong, coarse taste behind its sweetness.
8:08
Speaker 1: And if the children had really not been quite extra
8:11
Speaker 1: polite and kind, they would have followed the promptings of nature.
8:14
Speaker 1: And but of course they knew that this would be
8:17
Speaker 1: both disgusting and ungrateful. So they got the sugar down somehow,
8:21
Speaker 1: while Cook beamed at them with a wide, kind smile
8:24
Speaker 1: between her cap frills and two hands as big as
8:27
Speaker 1: little beefsteak puddings on her hips. Now, no more cry babying,
8:33
Speaker 1: she said, Run along and play. We've got to take
8:36
Speaker 1: granny's letter to post, said Edred. And we don't cook,
8:41
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, on a sudden impulse. Can you keep a secret,
8:45
Speaker 1: can't I? Said the cook? Haven't I kept the secret
8:49
Speaker 1: of how firmity's made and bake well pies and all?
8:52
Speaker 1: There's no firmity to hold a candle to mine in
8:55
Speaker 1: this country as well. You know, we don't know anything,
8:59
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, that's just it, and we daren't let Grannie
9:03
Speaker 1: know how much we don't know. Something's happened to us,
9:06
Speaker 1: so that we can't remember anything that happened more than
9:08
Speaker 1: an hour ago. Bless me, said the cook. Don't you
9:13
Speaker 1: remember old Cookie giving you the baked apple dumplings when
9:15
Speaker 1: you were sent to bed without your suppers a week
9:17
Speaker 1: come Thursday? No, said Elfrida, but I'm sure you did.
9:23
Speaker 1: Only what are we to do? You're not deceiving poor Cookie,
9:27
Speaker 1: are you now like you did about the French soldiers
9:29
Speaker 1: being hid in the windmill, upsetting all the village like
9:32
Speaker 1: you did. No, it's true, it's dreadfully true. You'll have
9:37
Speaker 1: to help us. We don't remember anything, either of us.
9:40
Speaker 1: The Cook sat down heavily in a polished arm chair
9:43
Speaker 1: with a patchwork cushion. She's overlooked you, There's not a
9:48
Speaker 1: doubt about it. You're bewitched. Oh my pretty little DearS,
9:52
Speaker 1: that ever I should see the day. The Cook's fat,
9:56
Speaker 1: jolly face twisted and puckered in a way with which
9:59
Speaker 1: each child was familiar in the face of the other.
10:02
Speaker 1: Don't cry, they said, both together, and Elfrida added, who's
10:07
Speaker 1: overlooked what old Betty Lovell has that I'll be bound.
10:11
Speaker 1: She's bewitched you both as sure as eggs. As eggs,
10:15
Speaker 1: I knew there'd be some sort of a to do
10:17
Speaker 1: when my Lord Hatter put in the stocks for stealing
10:19
Speaker 1: sticks in the wood. We've got to get her to
10:22
Speaker 1: take it off, my DearS, that's what we've got to do.
10:24
Speaker 1: For sure. Without you could find a white moldywarp. And
10:27
Speaker 1: that's not likely. A white moldywarp, said both the children,
10:33
Speaker 1: and again they spoke together like a chorus and looked
10:35
Speaker 1: at each other like conspirators. You know the rhyme. Oh
10:40
Speaker 1: but if you've forgotten everything, you've forgotten that too, say
10:44
Speaker 1: it won't you, said Edred. Let's see how do it go?
10:49
Speaker 1: White moldywarp. A spell can make white moldywarp. A spell
10:53
Speaker 1: can break when all be well. Let moldywarp be when
10:56
Speaker 1: all goes ill. Then turn to he Well, all's not
11:00
Speaker 1: gone ill yet, said Elfrida, wriggling her neck in its
11:04
Speaker 1: prickly muslin tucker. Let's go and see the witch. You'd
11:08
Speaker 1: best take her something. A screw of sugar she'd like,
11:11
Speaker 1: and a pinch of tea. Why she'd not say thank
11:13
Speaker 1: you for it, said Edred, looking at the tiny packets.
11:17
Speaker 1: I expect you've forgotten, said Cook gently, that tea's ten
11:22
Speaker 1: shillings a pound and sugar's gone up to three and
11:24
Speaker 1: six since the war. What war? The French War you
11:29
Speaker 1: haven't forgotten. Were at war with boney in the French
11:32
Speaker 1: And the bonfire we had up at the church when
11:34
Speaker 1: the news came of the drubbing we gave them at Trafalgar,
11:37
Speaker 1: and poor dear Lord Nelson and all and your grandfather
11:40
Speaker 1: reading out about it to them from the George balcony,
11:43
Speaker 1: and all the people waiting to cheer, and him not
11:46
Speaker 1: able to get it out for choking pride, and because
11:48
Speaker 1: of Lord Nelson, God bless him, and the people couldn't
11:51
Speaker 1: get their cheers out neither for the same cause, and
11:54
Speaker 1: every one blowing their noses and shaking each other's hands
11:57
Speaker 1: like as if it was a mad funeral. Splendid, said Elfrida.
12:02
Speaker 1: But we don't remember it, nor you don't remember how
12:05
Speaker 1: you killed all the white butterflies last year because you
12:07
Speaker 1: said they were Frenchies and their white coats, and the
12:10
Speaker 1: birching you got for cruelty to dumb animals. His lordship said,
12:14
Speaker 1: you howled for an hour together after it, so you did.
12:18
Speaker 1: I'm glad we've forgotten that anyhow, said Edred. Gracious, said
12:23
Speaker 1: the cook, half after eleven, and my egg's not so
12:26
Speaker 1: much as broke from my pudding. Off you go with
12:29
Speaker 1: your letter. Don't you tell any one else about you forgetting.
12:32
Speaker 1: And then you come along home by dairy spinney, and
12:35
Speaker 1: go see old Betty. Speak pretty to her, and give
12:37
Speaker 1: her the tea and sugar, and keep your feet crossed
12:40
Speaker 1: under your chair if she asked you to sit down,
12:42
Speaker 1: and I'll give you an old knife plate a piece
12:44
Speaker 1: to put in your pockets. She can't do nothing if
12:46
Speaker 1: you've got steel on you, and get her to take
12:48
Speaker 1: it off the ill wishing, I mean, And don't let
12:51
Speaker 1: her know you've got steel. They don't like to think
12:53
Speaker 1: you've been beforehand with them. So the children went to
12:56
Speaker 1: cross the fields to the George, and the bean flowers
12:58
Speaker 1: smelt as sweet, and the skylarks sang as clearly, and
13:02
Speaker 1: the sun and the sky were just as golden and
13:04
Speaker 1: blue as they had been last week. And last week
13:07
Speaker 1: was really a hundred years on in the future, and
13:10
Speaker 1: yet it was last week too. From where they were,
13:13
Speaker 1: time is a very confusing thing, as the children remarked
13:16
Speaker 1: to each other. More than once, they found the George
13:19
Speaker 1: half way up Arden Village, a stately great house shaped
13:23
Speaker 1: like an e, with many windows and a great porch
13:25
Speaker 1: with a balcony over it. They gave their letter to
13:28
Speaker 1: a lady in a round cap, who sat sewing in
13:30
Speaker 1: a pleasant room, where there were many bottles and kegs,
13:34
Speaker 1: and rows of bright pewter ale pots, and little fat
13:37
Speaker 1: mugs to measure other things with, and pewter plates on
13:40
Speaker 1: a brown dresser. There were greyhounds too, all sprawling legs
13:45
Speaker 1: and shoulders and tails, entangled together like a bunch of
13:47
Speaker 1: dead eels. Before the widest heart the children had ever seen.
13:51
Speaker 1: They hurried away the moment they had given the letter.
13:53
Speaker 1: A coach top heavy with luggage, had drawn up in
13:56
Speaker 1: front of the porch, and as they went out they
13:59
Speaker 1: saw the ostlers leading away the six smoking horses. Edred
14:03
Speaker 1: felt that he must see the stables, so they followed.
14:06
Speaker 1: And the stables were as big as the house, and
14:08
Speaker 1: there were horses going in and horses going out, and
14:11
Speaker 1: hay and straw, and ostlers with buckets and ostlers, with
14:14
Speaker 1: harness and stalls and loose boxes, beyond counting, and bustle
14:18
Speaker 1: and hurry beyond words. However, many horses have you got,
14:23
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, addressing a man who had not joined in
14:25
Speaker 1: the kindly chorus of Hullo little LUNs that greeted the children.
14:30
Speaker 1: So she judged him to be a newcomer, as he
14:32
Speaker 1: was two and fifty, said the man, what for? Elfrida asked, why?
14:39
Speaker 1: For the coaches and the post chaise and the king's messengers,
14:42
Speaker 1: for sure? The man answered, how else do us all
14:45
Speaker 1: get about the country and get to hear the newses
14:47
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for the stable the George keeps? And
14:50
Speaker 1: then the children remembered that this was the time before
14:53
Speaker 1: railways and telegrams and telephones. It is always difficult to
14:57
Speaker 1: remember exactly where one is when one happens to get
15:00
Speaker 1: into a century that is not one's own Edred would
15:04
Speaker 1: have liked to stay all day watching the busyness of
15:06
Speaker 1: every one in the beautifulness of the horses, but Elfrida
15:09
Speaker 1: dragged him away. They had to find the witch, she
15:12
Speaker 1: reminded him, And in a dreadful tumble down cottage with
15:15
Speaker 1: big holes in its roof of rotten thatch. They did
15:18
Speaker 1: find her. She was exactly like the pictures of witches
15:22
Speaker 1: and story books, only she had not a broomstick or
15:25
Speaker 1: a high pointed hat. She had instead a dirty cap
15:28
Speaker 1: that had once been white, and a rusty gown that
15:31
Speaker 1: had once been black, and a streaky shawl that might
15:34
Speaker 1: once perhaps have been scarlet, but nobody could be sure
15:37
Speaker 1: of that. Now there was a black cat sitting on
15:40
Speaker 1: a very dirty wooden settle, and the old woman herself
15:43
Speaker 1: sat on a rickety three legged stool, her wrinkled face
15:46
Speaker 1: bent over a speckled hen, which she was nursing in
15:48
Speaker 1: her lap and holding gently in her yellow wrinkled hands.
15:52
Speaker 1: As soon as Edred caught sight of her through the
15:53
Speaker 1: crooked doorway, he stopped. I'm not going in, he said,
15:58
Speaker 1: what's the good. We know jolly well she hasn't bewitched us,
16:01
Speaker 1: and if we go cheeking her, she may, and then
16:04
Speaker 1: we shall be in a nice hole. There's the tea
16:06
Speaker 1: and sugar, said Elfrida. You just give it her and
16:09
Speaker 1: come away. I'll wait for you by the stile. So
16:13
Speaker 1: Elfrida went into the cottage alone and said good morning.
16:17
Speaker 1: In rather a frightened way. I've brought you some tea
16:20
Speaker 1: and sugar, she said, and stood waiting for the thank you,
16:23
Speaker 1: without which it would not be polite to say good
16:25
Speaker 1: morning and to go away. The thank you never came. Instead,
16:30
Speaker 1: the witch stopped stroking the hen and said, what for,
16:34
Speaker 1: I've not done you no arm No, said Elfrida. I'm
16:38
Speaker 1: sure you wouldn't. Then. What have you brought it for? For? Oh?
16:44
Speaker 1: Just for you, said Elfrida. I thought you'd like it. It's
16:48
Speaker 1: just a a love gift, you know. This was Aunt
16:52
Speaker 1: Edith's way of calling a present that didn't come just
16:54
Speaker 1: because it was your birthday or Christmas or you had
16:57
Speaker 1: had a tooth out. A love gift, said the old
17:01
Speaker 1: woman slowly. After all this long time, Elfrida did not understand.
17:08
Speaker 1: How should she. It's almost impossible for even the most
17:11
Speaker 1: grown up and clever of us to know how women
17:13
Speaker 1: used to be treated, and not so very long ago, either,
17:16
Speaker 1: If they were once suspected of being witches. It generally
17:20
Speaker 1: began by the old woman's being cleverer than her neighbors,
17:23
Speaker 1: having more wit to find out what was the matter
17:25
Speaker 1: with sick people, and more still to cure them. Then
17:29
Speaker 1: her extra cleverness would help her to foretell storms and
17:32
Speaker 1: gales and frosts, and to find water by the divining rod,
17:36
Speaker 1: a very mysterious business. And when once you can find
17:39
Speaker 1: out where water is by just carrying a forked hazel
17:42
Speaker 1: twig between your hands and walking across a meadow, you
17:46
Speaker 1: can most likely find out a good many other things
17:48
Speaker 1: that your stupid neighbors would never dream of. And in
17:51
Speaker 1: those long ago days, which really aren't so very long ago,
17:55
Speaker 1: your being so much cleverer than your neighbors would be
17:58
Speaker 1: quite enough. You would soon be known as the wise woman.
18:02
Speaker 1: And from wise women to which was a very short step. Indeed,
18:07
Speaker 1: so Elfrida, not understanding, said, yes, is your foul ill
18:13
Speaker 1: twill mend, said the old woman, twill mend. The healing
18:17
Speaker 1: of my hands has gone into it. She rose, set
18:21
Speaker 1: the hen on the hearth, where it fluttered, squawked, and
18:24
Speaker 1: settled among gray ashes, very much annoying the black cat,
18:28
Speaker 1: and laid her hand suddenly on Elfrida's shoulders. And now
18:32
Speaker 1: the healing of my hands is for you, she said.
18:36
Speaker 1: You have brought me a love gift. Never a gift
18:39
Speaker 1: have I had these fifty years but was a gift
18:41
Speaker 1: of fear, or a payment for help, to buy me,
18:44
Speaker 1: to take off a spell or put a spell on.
18:47
Speaker 1: But you have brought me a love gift. And I
18:49
Speaker 1: tell you shall have your heart's desire. You shall have
18:53
Speaker 1: love around and about you all your life long. That
18:56
Speaker 1: which is lost shall be found, that which came not
18:59
Speaker 1: shall come again. In this world's goods, you shall be
19:02
Speaker 1: blessed and blest in the goods of the heart. Also,
19:06
Speaker 1: I know, I see and for you, I see everything
19:10
Speaker 1: good and fair. Your future shall be clean and sweet
19:13
Speaker 1: as your kind heart. She took her hands away. Elfrida,
19:18
Speaker 1: very much impressed by these flattering remarks, which she felt
19:20
Speaker 1: she did not deserve, stood still, not knowing what to
19:24
Speaker 1: say or do. She rather wanted to cry. I only
19:27
Speaker 1: brought it because Cook told me, she said. Cook didn't
19:32
Speaker 1: give you the kind heart that makes you want to
19:34
Speaker 1: cry for me, now, said the witch. The old woman
19:37
Speaker 1: sank down in a crouching heap, and her voice changed
19:41
Speaker 1: to one of singsong. I know, she said, I know
19:45
Speaker 1: many things all alone, the live long day and the
19:49
Speaker 1: death long night. I have learned to see as cats
19:52
Speaker 1: see through the dark, I see through the days that
19:56
Speaker 1: have been and shall be. I know that you are
19:59
Speaker 1: not here, that you are not now. You will return
20:02
Speaker 1: whence you came, and this time that is not yours
20:05
Speaker 1: shall bear no trace of you. And my blessing shall
20:08
Speaker 1: be with you in your own time and your own place.
20:10
Speaker 1: Because you brought a love gift to the poor old
20:12
Speaker 1: wise woman of Arden. Is there anything I can do
20:16
Speaker 1: for you, Elfrida asked, very sorry, indeed, for the old
20:20
Speaker 1: woman's voice was very pitiful. Kiss me, said the old woman.
20:25
Speaker 1: Kiss me with your little child's mouth that has come
20:27
Speaker 1: back a hundred years to do it. Elfrida did not
20:31
Speaker 1: wish to kiss the wrinkled gray face, but her heart
20:34
Speaker 1: wished her to be kind, and she obeyed her heart. Ah,
20:39
Speaker 1: said the wise woman. Now I see, Oh, never have
20:43
Speaker 1: I had such a vision, None of them all has
20:46
Speaker 1: ever been like this. I see great globes of light
20:50
Speaker 1: like the sun, in the streets of the city, where
20:52
Speaker 1: now are only little oil lamps and guttering lanterns. I
20:56
Speaker 1: see iron roads, with fiery dragons drawing the coaches, and
20:59
Speaker 1: rich and poor riding up and down on them. Men
21:03
Speaker 1: shall speak in England, and their voices be heard in France.
21:06
Speaker 1: More the voices of dead men shall be kept alive
21:09
Speaker 1: in boxes and speak at the will of those who
21:11
Speaker 1: still live. The hand looms shall cease in the cottages,
21:15
Speaker 1: and the weavers shall work in palaces with a thousand
21:17
Speaker 1: windows lighted as bright as day. The sun shall stoop
21:20
Speaker 1: to make men's portraits more like than any painter can
21:23
Speaker 1: make them. There shall be ships that shall run over
21:26
Speaker 1: the seas like condureels, and ships that shall ride over
21:29
Speaker 1: the clouds like great birds. And bread that is now
21:32
Speaker 1: a shilling in ninepence shall be fivepence, and the corn
21:35
Speaker 1: and the beef shall come from over seas to feed us.
21:37
Speaker 1: And every child shall be taught who can learn. And
21:40
Speaker 1: peace pray, he cried a stern voice in the doorway.
21:45
Speaker 1: Elfrida turned. There stood the grandfather, Lord Arden, very straight
21:50
Speaker 1: and tall and gray, leaning on his gold headed cane,
21:54
Speaker 1: and beside him edred, looking very small and found out.
21:58
Speaker 1: The witch did not seem to see see them. Her
22:00
Speaker 1: eyes that rolled and blinked saw nothing, but she must
22:03
Speaker 1: have heard. For loss to Arden, she said, loss, and
22:09
Speaker 1: woe to Arden. The hangings of your house shall be
22:12
Speaker 1: given to the spider, and the mice shall eat your
22:14
Speaker 1: carved furnishings. Your gold shall be less and less, and
22:17
Speaker 1: your house go down and down till there is not
22:19
Speaker 1: a field that is yours about your house. Lord Arden
22:23
Speaker 1: shrugged his shoulders. Likely tales, he said, to frighten babes
22:28
Speaker 1: with Tell me rather, if you would have me believe,
22:31
Speaker 1: what shall happen to morrow? To morrow, said the wise woman,
22:36
Speaker 1: The French shall land in Limnchurch Bay. Lord Arden laughed,
22:41
Speaker 1: And I give you a sign. Three signs, said the
22:44
Speaker 1: woman faintly, For it is tiring work seeing into the future,
22:48
Speaker 1: even when you are enlightened with a kiss from some
22:50
Speaker 1: one who has been there. You shall see the white moldiwarp,
22:54
Speaker 1: that is the badge of Arden on your threshold as
22:57
Speaker 1: you enter. That shall be one sign, said the old
23:01
Speaker 1: man mockingly. And the second, she said, shall be again
23:05
Speaker 1: the badge of your house, and your own chair in
23:07
Speaker 1: your own parlor. That seems likely, said Lord Arden, sneering.
23:14
Speaker 1: And the third said, she shall be the badge of
23:17
Speaker 1: your house in the arms of this child. She turned
23:21
Speaker 1: her back and picked the hen under the ashes. Lord
23:25
Speaker 1: Arden led Edred and Elfrida away, one in each hand,
23:28
Speaker 1: and as he went he was very severe on disobedient
23:31
Speaker 1: children who went straying after wicked witches, and they could
23:34
Speaker 1: not defend themselves without blaming the cook, which, of course
23:37
Speaker 1: they would not do. Bread and water for dinner. He said,
23:42
Speaker 1: to teach you better ways, oh, grandfather, said Elfrida, catching
23:47
Speaker 1: at his hand. Don't be so unkind. Just think about
23:50
Speaker 1: when you were little. I'm sure you like looking at witches,
23:53
Speaker 1: didn't you. Now, Lord Arden stared angrily at her, and
23:57
Speaker 1: then he chuckled. It's a bull, old girl, so it tis,
24:02
Speaker 1: he said, I own I remember well seeing a witch
24:05
Speaker 1: ducked no further off than New Church, and playing truant
24:08
Speaker 1: for my tutor to see it too. There now you see,
24:12
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, coaxingly. We don't mean to be naughty. We're
24:16
Speaker 1: just like what you were. You won't make it bread
24:18
Speaker 1: and water, will you, especially if bread so dear? Lord
24:22
Speaker 1: Arden chuckled again. Why the little white mouse has found
24:26
Speaker 1: a tongue? And never was I spoken to so bold
24:29
Speaker 1: as the days I wore petticoats myself. He said, well, well,
24:33
Speaker 1: we'll say no more about it this time, and Edred,
24:36
Speaker 1: who had privately considered that Elfrida was behaving like an
24:39
Speaker 1: utter idiot, thought better of it, so they turned across
24:43
Speaker 1: the summer fields to Arden Castle. There seemed to be
24:45
Speaker 1: more of the castle than when the children had first
24:47
Speaker 1: seen it, and it was tidier much And on the
24:51
Speaker 1: doorstep sat a white mole. There now, said Elfrida. The
24:56
Speaker 1: mole vanished like a streak of white paint that is
24:59
Speaker 1: rubbed out. Pooh, said Lord Arden. There's plenty of white
25:03
Speaker 1: moles in the world. But when he saw the white
25:06
Speaker 1: mole sitting up in his own carved arm chair in
25:09
Speaker 1: the parlor, he owned that it was very unusual. Elfrida
25:13
Speaker 1: stooped and held out her arms. She was extremely glad
25:16
Speaker 1: to see the mole, because ever since she and her
25:19
Speaker 1: brother had come into this strange time, she had felt
25:21
Speaker 1: that it would be the greatest possible comfort to have
25:24
Speaker 1: the mole on hand, the mole who understood everything, to
25:27
Speaker 1: keep and advise, and above all, to get them safely
25:30
Speaker 1: back into the sentry they belonged to. And the mouldiwarp
25:34
Speaker 1: made a little run and a little jump, and Elfrida
25:36
Speaker 1: caught it and held it against her waist with both
25:39
Speaker 1: her hands. Stay with me, whispered Elfrida to the mole.
25:44
Speaker 1: By George said Lord Arden to the universe. So now
25:49
Speaker 1: you see said Edred to Lord Arden, end of Section five.