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

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Chapter ten, White Wings and a Brownie. Perhaps I had better begin this
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chapter by telling you exactly how Edward got even with Old Parrot Knows, as
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he put it. You will remember that Master Parodiss was the Arden's tutor in
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the time of King James the First, and that it was for his eavesdropping
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and tail bearing that Edred and Elfrida were imprisoned in the Tower of London.
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There was very little time in which to get even with any one, and
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of course getting even with people is not really at all a proper thing to
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do. Yet Edward did it. Edred had got Elfrida out of the tower,
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just as Lady Nestill got her lord out, and now he and she
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and cousin Richard were at arden House in Soho, and the old Nurse,
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who was also astonishingly the old Witch, had said that there was no time
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to be lost. But I must be even with Old parrot Knows, said
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Edred. He was feeling awfully brave and splendid inside because of the way he
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had planned and carried out the Nestale rescue of Elfrida, and also he felt
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that he could not bear to go back to his own times without somehow marking
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his feelings about mister Parridos as to how it was to be done. Cousin
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Richard was not to have anything to do with it, because why they would
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be whisked away by some white road that the Moudiwarp would find for them when
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they called it to the help by spoken poetry. He would be left behind
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to bear the blame of everything this Edred and Elfrida decided in a quick whispered
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conference, But cousin Dick wanted to know what they were talking about and why
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he wasn't to help in what he had wanted to do these four years.
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If we tell you, said Elfrida, you won't believe us. You might
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at least make the trial, said cousin Richard. So they told him,
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and though they were as quick as possible, the story took some time to
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tell. Richard Arden listened intently. When the day was told. He said
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nothing. You don't believe it, said Edred. I knew you wouldn't.
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Well, it doesn't matter. What can we do to pay out old parrot
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notes. I don't like it, said Richard. Suddenly, it's never been
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like this before. It makes it seem not real. It's only a dream.
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Really, I suppose, and I always believed so that it wasn't.
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I don't understand a word you're saying, said Edred. But what we've been
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saying is true anyhow. Look here, he darted to the dark corner of
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the parlor, where he had hidden the camera behind a curtain. Look here,
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I bet you haven't got anything like this. It comes from our times
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ever so far on in history, out of the times where we come from,
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the times that haven't happened yet, at least now we're here, they
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haven't happened yet. You don't know what it is. It's a machine for
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the sun to make pictures with. Oh stow, that, said Richard rarely.
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I know now it's all a silly dream, But it's not worse about
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trying to dream that. I don't know a Kodak when I see it.
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That's a brownie. There was a horse full of speechless amazement. Then if
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you've dreamed about our times, said Elfrida, you might believe in us dreaming
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about yours. Did you dream of anything except brownies? Did you ever dream
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of fine carriages? Fine boats? And don't talk as if I were a
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baby, Richard interrupted, I know all about railways and steamboats, and the
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hippodrome and the Crystal Palace. I know Kent made six fifteen against Derbyshire last
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Thursday. Now then, but I say, do tell us. I shan't
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tell you anything more, but I help you to get even with Parrot nos.
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I don't care if I am left here after you go, said Richard.
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Let's shovel all the snow off the roof and to his room and take
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our chance. Edid and Elfrida would have lied something more subtle, but there
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was no time to think of anything. I know where they are shoveled,
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said Richard. If they've not got mixed up in the dream, I say,
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said Edred slowly. I'd like to write that down about Kent and see
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if it's right. Afterwards, there was a quilt sticking out of the pewter
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inkstand on the table where they were used to do their lessons. But no
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paper here. Hurry up, said cousin Richard, and pulled a paper out
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of the front of his stablet. I'll write it, shall I, he
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wrote, and gave the thing screwed up to Edward, who put it in
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the front of his stablet. Then the three went up on to the roof,
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groped among the snow till they found the edge of the skylight that was
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the tutor's window for learning was lodged in the attic at Arden House. They
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broke the thick glass with the edges of their spades and shoveled in the thick
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white snow, shoveled all the harder for the shouts and angry word that presently
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sounded below them. Then, when mister Powders came angrily up on to the
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roof, shivering and stumbling among the snow, they slipped behind the chimney stack,
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and so got back to the trap door before he did, and shut
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it and bolted it, and said ah underneath it, and went away,
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locking his room door as they passed, and leaving him to stand there on
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the roof and shout for help from the street below, or else to drop
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through his broken skylight into the heaped snow in his room. He was quite
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free and could do whichever he chose. They never knew which he did choose,
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and you will never know either. And then Richard was sent to bed
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by the old Witcheners and went and the mouldiwarp was summoned and insisted that the
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only way back to their own times was jumping off the roof, and of
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course mister Powders was on the roof, which made all the difference. And
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the soldiers of the art were knocking at the front door with the butts of
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their pistols. But we can't go on to the roof, said Edward,
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and explained about mister Powders. Humph, said the mouldiwarp. That's chabler,
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unfortunate. That is well, the top landing window will have to do.
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That's all. Where's the other child gone to bed? Said the rich nurse.
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Shortly ti y checkered the moudiwarp. Some peoples too clever by half,
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think of you not having found that out, and you a witch too,
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ti he in. All the time the soldiers were hammering away like mad at
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the front door. Ifrida caught the mouldiwarp, and the nurse caught Edward's hand,
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and the four raised up the stairs to the waytop landing, where there
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was a little window at the very end. The air was keen and cold.
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The window opened difficultly, and when it was opened the air was much
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colder than before. Now, then out with you ladies first, cried the
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moudiwarp. You don't really mean, said Efrida. You can't mean that we
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are to jump out into into nothing. I mean y're to jump out,
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right enough, said the moodiwarp. What you're to jump into is any pair
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of shoes, and it's my lookout anyway. It's ours a little too,
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isn't it, said Elfrida timidly, and her teeth were chattering. She always
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said afterwards that it was with cold. Then get along home your way,
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said the moudiwarp, beginning to vanish. Oh don't, don't go, Efrida
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cried, and the pounding on the door downstairs got louder and louder. If
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I don't, then you must, said the moudiwarp testily, But it stopped
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vanishing. Put me down, it said, put me down, and jump
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for goodness sake. She put it down. Suddenly, the nurse caught Elfrida
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in her arms and kissed her many times. Farewell, my honey, love,
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she said, all party, I'm not forever else I could scarce.
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Let thee go. Now climb up, set thy foot here on the beam.
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Now they knee and the sill, So jump, Efrida crouched on the
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window ledge, where the snow lay thick and crisp. It was very very
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cold. Have ye ever had to jump out of a top floor window into
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the dark when it was snowing heavily? If so, you will remember how
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much courage it needed. Efrida set her teeth, looking down into black nothing
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dotted with snowflakes. Then she looked back into a black passage lighted only by
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the rushlight. The nurse carried Edward. It'll be all right, she asked.
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You're sure he'll jump? All right? Of course I shall, said
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Edred in his new voice. Here let me go first, to show you
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I'm not a coward. Of course, Elfrida instantly jumped, and next moment
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Edrad jumped too. It was a horrible moment, because, however much you
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try, that the moudiwarb you could not in an instant forget what you had
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been taught all your life that if you jumped out of top floor windows you
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would certainly be smashed to pieces on the stones below. To remember this,
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and remembering it to jump clear is a very brave deed, and brave deeds
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sooner or later have their reward. The brave deed of Edred and Elfrida received
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its reward sooner as Ifrida jumped, she saw the snowflakes gather and thicken into
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a cloud beneath her. The cloud was not the sword that lets you through
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either. It was solid and soft as pied either down feathers. She knew
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this as it rose up and caught her, or as she fell on it.
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She never knew which. Next moment, Edred was beside her, and
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the white, downy softness was shaping itself round and under them into the form
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of a seat, a back, arms, and place for the feet to
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rest. It's what's that in your hand, Elfrida asked Rains, said Edred
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with certainty, White rains, it's a carriage. It was a carriage made
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of white snowflakes. The snow flakes that were warm and soft as flathers.
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There were wide, soft carriage rugs that curled round and tucked themselves in entirely
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of their own accord. The rains were of snowflakes, joined together by some
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magic weaving, and warm and soft as white velvet. And the horses there
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aren't any horses. They are swans. White swans, cried Elfrida, and
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the voice of the mouldiwarp behind and above cried softly, All white things obey
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me. Edred knew how to drive, and now he could not resist the
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temptation to drive the six white swans round to the front of the house and
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to swoop down, passing just over the heads of the soldiers of the Guard,
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who were still earnestly pounding at the door of unn house, and yelled
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to them, ha ha sewed again, which seemed to startle them very much.
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Then he wheeled the swans round and drove quickly through the air along the
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way which he knew quite well without being told to be the right way.
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And as the snow carriage wheeled, both Edward and Elfrida had a strange,
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sudden vision of another smaller snow carriage, drawn by two swans only, that
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circled above theirs and vanished in the deep dark of the sky, giving them
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an art tantalizing glimpse of a face they knew and yet couldn't remember distinctly enough
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to give a name to the owner of it. Then the swans spread their
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wide, mighty wings to the air and strained with their long, strong necks
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against their collars, and the snow equipage streamed out of London like a slender
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white scarf driven along in the wind, and London was left behind and the
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snowstorm, and soon the dark blue of the sky was over them Juel with
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the quiet silver of watchful stars, and the deeper dark of the Kentish County
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lay below Jeue it with the quiet gold from the windows of farms already half
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asleep. And the air that rushed past their faces as they went was no
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longer cold, but soft as June are is, And Elfrida always declared afterwards
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that she could smell white lilies all the way. So across the darkened counties
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they went, and the ride was more wonderful than any ride they had ever
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had before or would ever have again. All too soon the swans hung poised
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on long level wings outside the window of a tower in ann Castle, a
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tower they did not know. But though they did not know the tower,
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it was quite plain that they were meant to get in at the window of
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it. Dear Swan, said Elfrida, who had been thinking as she sat
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clutching her brownie. Can't we stay in your carriage in its light? We
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do so want to take a photograph of the castle. The swans shook their
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white, flat snake like heads just as though they understood, and there was
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the open window, evidently waiting to welcome the children. So they got out,
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very much against their wills. And there they were in the dark room
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of the tower, and it was very cold. But before they had time
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to begin to understand how cold it was and how comfortable they were likely to
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be for the rest of the night, six swans heads appeared at the window
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and said something. Oh, said Elfrida, I do wish we'd learn Swanish
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instead of friend at school, But it did not matter. The next moment
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the swans had stucked and reappeared, holding in their beaks the soft, fluffy,
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white rugs that had kept the children so warm, and the snow carriage.
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The swans pushed the rugs through the window with their strong white wings and
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made some more remarks and swamp language. Oh thank you, said the children,
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good bye, good bye. Then there was the rush of white going
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wings, and the children tired out culed on the floor, wrapped in the
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soft rugs. The happiest kind of dreams were tucked up in that coverlet and
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it seemed hardly any time at all before the children woke to find the winter
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sunshine looking in at them through the narrow windows of the towel. Elfrida jumped
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up and threw off the silver, white, downy soft coverlet. It instantly
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tore itself into five pieces of different shapes and sizes, And these screwed themselves
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up and drew themselves in and blew themselves out, and turned before her bavery
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eyes into a silver basin of warm water, a piece of lily scented soap,
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a towel, a silver comb, and an ivory toothbrush. Well said
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Elfrida, when she had finished a simple toilet. The basin, soap,
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towel, toothbrush, and coat ran together like globules of quicksilver, made a
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curious tussled lump of themselves, and straightened out into the fluffy coverlet. Again,
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well said Elfrida Again. Then she woke Edward, and his coverlet played
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the same clever and pretty trick for him. And when the children started to
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go down with the brownie and take the photographs of the castle, the shining
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coverlet jumped up into two white furry coats, such as the very affluent might
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wear when they went a motoring if the very affluand ever thought of anything so
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pretty in one of the coats came politely to the side of each child,
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holding out its arms as if it were saying, do please oblige me by
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putting me on, which, of course both the children did. They crept
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down the corkscrew stairs and threw a heavy door that opened under the arch of
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the great gateway. The great gate was open, and on the step of
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the door opposite to the one by which they had come out, the soldier
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said. He held his helmet between his knees and was cowering it with sand
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and whistling as he scowled. He touched his forehead with his sandy hand,
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but did not get up. You're earlier field, he said, and went
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on rubbing the sand on the helmet. It's such a pretty day, said
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Elfrida. Maybe go out and welcome, said the man simply, But go
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not beyond the twelve acre, for fear of rough fog and Egyptians, and
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go not far, but breakfast will have a strong voice to call you back.
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They went out, and instead of stepping straight on to the turf of
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the downs, their stout shoes struck, echoing notes from the wooden planks of
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a bridge. It's the drawbridge, said Edred in tones of awe. And
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there's the moat, look and his cupboard with cat eyes at the edges there
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was, and it was. And at the moat's far edge their feet fast
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in the cat eyes were reeds and satch, brown and yellow and dried that
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rustled and whispered as the white jug flew out of them. How lovely,
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said Elfrida. I do wish Arden had moat. Now if we find out
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where the water comes from, said Edred, practically we might get the moat
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back when we'd found the treasure. So when they crossed the moat and felt
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the frozen dew crackle under their feet as they trod the grass, they set
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out, before photographing the castle, to find out where the moat water came
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from. The moat, they found was fed by a stream that came across
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the field from Arden Knowle and entered the moat at the northeast corner, leaving
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it at the corner that was in the southwest. They followed the stream,
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and it was not till they had got quite into the middle of the field
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and well away from the castle that they saw how very beautiful the castle really
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was. It was quite perfect, no crumbled arches, no broken pillars,
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no shatter better at once, oh, said Edred, how beautiful it is.
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How glad I am that we've got a castle like this. Our castle
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isn't like this, said Elfrida. No, but it shall be when we
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find the treasure. You've got the two film words, all right, yes,
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said Elfrida, who had got them in a great unreedy pocket that was
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hanging and banging against their legs under the full skirt. Oh look, where's
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the river? It stops short, It certainly seemed to. They were walking
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beside it, and it ran swiftly, looking like a steel gray ribbon on
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the green closs of the field. And half way across the field it did
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stop short. There wasn't any more of it, as though the ribbon had
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been snipped off by a giant pair of scissors, and the rest of it
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rode up and put by safely somewhere out of the way. My hat,
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said Edred. It does stop short in no mistake. Curiosity brigged him and
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he started running. They both ran. They ran to the spot where the
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giant scissors seemed to have slipped off the stream, and when they got there
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they found that the stream seemed to have got tired of running above ground,
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and without any warning at all any sloping of its bed or any deepening of
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its banks, plunged straight down into the earth through a hole not eight feet
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across. They stood fascinated watching the water as it shot over the edge of
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the hole like a steel bend on a driving wheel, smooth and shining,
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and moving so swiftly that it hardly seemed to move it all. It was
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Edred who roused himself to say, I could watch it forever, but we'll
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have it back. We'll have it back. Come along, let's go and
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see where it comes from. Let's photograph this place first, said Elfrida,
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so as to know you know, And the brownie clicked twice. Then they
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retraced their steps beside the stream dream and round two sides of the moat,
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and across the field to Arden Knoll. And there, oh, wonderful to
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see. The stream came straight out of the knoll at the part which joined
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on to the rest of the world, come out under a rough, low
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arch of stone that lay close against the bay lip of the water. So
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that's where it came from, and that's where it goes to, said Elfrida.
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I wonder what became of it and why it isn't at arden. Now
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we'll bring it back, said Verret firmly, when we find the treasure.
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And again the browney clicked, and we'll make the castle like it is now,
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said Elfrida. Come on, let's photograph it. So they went back
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and they photographed the castle. They photographed from the north and the south,
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and the east, and the west, and the northeast and the southeast and
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the north northwest and all the rest of the points of the compass that I
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could easily tell you for light, but why be wearisome and instructive. And
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they went back across the hollow echoing drawbridge and passed the soldier who had now
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polished his helmd to his complete satisfaction, and was wearing it. There was
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a brief and ron conference on the drawerbridge, the subject of at breakfast Edred
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wanted to stay. He was curious to see what sort of breakfast people had
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in the country, and James the firstest time Elfrida wanted to get back to
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nineteen o eight and the certainty of eggs and bacon. If we stay here,
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we shall only be dragged into some new adventure, she urged. I
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know we shall. I never in my life knew such a place as history
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for adventures to happen in, and am tired. Besides, Oh, Edward,
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do come along? I believe it stacks, said Edred, and he
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sniffed questioningly. It smells like onion stuffing Stephen. Nonsense, said Elfrida.
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That's for dinner. Most likely, I expect breakfast for us would be bread
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and water. You'd find we'd done something wrong as lightly as not. Oh,
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come along, do before we get punished for it. Besides, don't
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you want to know whether what cousin Richard said about the cricket was right?
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Well? Yes, said Edred. And we can always come back here,
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can't we? Of course we can, Efrida said eagerly. Oh, come
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on. So they climbed up to the twisty, twiny corkscrew staircase and found
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the door of the room where they had slept under the wonderful white coverlets that
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now were coats. Then they stood still and looked at each other with a
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sudden shock. How are we to get back, was the unspoken question that
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trembled on each lip. The magic white coats cut it close round their necks.
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There was somehow comfort and confidence in the soft, frontly touch of that
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magic fur. When you are wearing that sort of coat, it is quite
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impossible to feel that everything will not come perfectly right the moment you really earnestly
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and thoroughly wished that it should come right. Our clothes, said Elfrida.
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Oh yes, of course, said Edred. I was forgetting. You may
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as well go on forgetting, said his sister, because the clothes aren't here.
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They are the other side of the twisty, twiny, inside out,
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upside down shakiness that turned the attic into the tower. I suppose the tower
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would turn back into the attic if you could only start the shaky upside downness
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going wrong way before you know. I suppose it would, said Edred,
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stopping short with his fingers between the buttons of his doublet. Hallo, what's
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this? He pulled out a folded paper. It's the thing about cricket that
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cousin Richard gave you. Don't bother about that. Now, I want to
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get back. I suppose we ought to make some poetry. But Edred pulled
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out the paper and folded it. It might vanish, you know, he
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said, or get stuck here, and when we got home we should find
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it gone when we came to look for it. Let us see what he
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says, Kin did make. He straightened out the paper, looked at it,
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looked again, and held it out with a sudden armsling's gesture. Look
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at that, he said, If that's true, which had has streamed our
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times? And no mistake, And what's more, he's bought things back here
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out of our times. Efida took the paper and looked at it, and
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her mouth dropped open. If it's true, said she, But it must
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be true. The paper almost fell from her hand, for it was a
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bill from damages for three ships, guns, a compass and a half dozen
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flags. And the bill was made out to mister R. D Arden,
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one hundred seventeen Lowrie Grove, New Cross, London, s E. On
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the other side was the penciled record of the runs made by Cant the previous
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Thursday, I say, said Elfrida, and was going on to say,
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I don't know what clever and interesting things, when she felt the fur coat
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creep and wriggle oswar its soft lengths and the long and soft wits, and
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no wriggle that ever was wriggled expressed so completely danger, danger, danger.
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You'd better get off while you can, while you can. A quite violent
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ruffling of the fur round the neck of her coat said, as plain as
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they could speak, don't stop to jar go now now. Now, when
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you say a lady is a true daughter of Eve, you mean that she
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is inquisitive. Elfrida was enough Eve's daughter to scurry to the window and look
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out. A thrill ran right down her backbone and ended in an empty feeling
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at the ends of her fingers and feet. Soldiers, she cried, and
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they after us. I know they are. The fur coat knew it too,
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if knowledge can be expressed by wriggling. Oh, and they're pulling up
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the drawbridge, what for, said Edred, who had come to the window
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too. And I say, doesn't the portcullis look yet teenish when it comes
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down like that? Through the window, one looked straight down on to the
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drawerbridge, and as the tower stuck out beyond the gate, its side window
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gave an excellent view of the slowly descending pot colors, I say, said
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Elfrida. My fluffy coat says, go doesn't yours? It would if i'd
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listened to it, said Edred carelessly. The soldiers were quite near now,
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so near that Elfrida could see how fierce they looked, and she knew that
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they were the same soldiers who had hammered so loud and so hard at the
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door of arden House, and sorrow they must have ridden all night. So
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she screwed her mind up to make poetry, just as you screw your muscles
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up to jump a gate or run a hundred yards. And almost before she
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knew that she was screwing it up at all, the screw had acted,
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and she had screwed out a piece of mouldiwarp poetry, and was saying it
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aloud, dear Moudiwarp, since cousin Dick buys his beautiful flags from damages,
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Take us away, and take us quick before the soldiers do us any damages.
27:19
And the moment she had said it, the white mashic coats grew up
27:22
and go down and wrapped the children up as tight and as soft as ever
27:26
a silk worm wrapped itself when it was tired of being a silk worm and
27:30
entered into its cocoon as the first step towards being a person with wings.
27:37
Can you imagine what it would be like to have lovely liquid sleep emptied on
27:41
you by the warm tupful That is what it felt like inside the white,
27:45
wonderful cocoons. The children knew that the tower was turning wrong way up and
27:51
then set out, But it didn't matter a bit. Sleeve was raining down
27:55
on them in magic showers. No, it was closing on them closer and
28:00
closer, nearer and nearer, soft delicious layers of warm delight. A soft
28:07
humming sound was in their ears, like the sound of bees when he pushed
28:11
through a bed of Canterbury bells. And the next thing that happened was that
28:15
they came out of the past into the present with a sort of snap of
28:18
light and a twist of sound. It was like coming out of a railway
28:22
channel into daylight. The magic coverlet cold cocoons had even saved them the trouble
28:29
of changing into their own clothes, for they found that the stiff, heavy
28:33
clothes had gone, and they were dressed in the little ordinary things that they
28:37
had always been used to And now said Elfrida, let's have another look at
28:41
that Gammager's paper if it hasn't disappeared. I expect it has, though,
28:47
but it hadn't. I should like to meet Dick again, said Edred as
28:52
they went downstairs. He was much the jolliest boy I ever met. Perhaps
28:56
he shall, Elfrida said, hopefully. You see he does come into our
29:00
times. I expect that new Cross time he stayed quite a long while,
29:07
like we did when we went to Gunpowder Plot times. Or we might go
29:11
back there a little later when the Gunpowder Plot has all died away and been
29:15
forgotten. It isn't forgotten yet, said Edred, And it's three hundred years
29:21
ago. Now let's develop our films. I'm not at all sure about those
29:25
films. You see. We took the films with us, and of course
29:29
we've brought them back. But the picture that's on the films, we didn't
29:33
take that with us. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if the films are
29:36
all blank. It's very very clever of you to think of it, said
29:40
Effida, respectfully. But I do hope it's a perfectly silly idea of yours.
29:45
Let's ask missus, honey, said, if you may use the old
29:48
room, she said, used to be the stew room to develop them in.
29:52
It'll be a ripping dark room when the shutters are up. Course you
29:56
may, said missus Honey said yes, and I care you. You in
30:00
a couple of paces of water the flo of stone, so it won't matter
30:03
if you do slop a bit. You pump, my lord, and I'll
30:07
hold the pails. Why was that part of the house let to go all
30:11
dirty and copwabby, asked Elfrida, when the hoarse voice of the pump had
30:15
ceased to be heard. It's always been so, said missus sonnystt. I
30:19
couldn't take upon me to clear up without miss Edith's order, not by what
30:25
my fingers itch to be at it with a broom and a swabbing brush.
30:29
But why, ELFREDA persisted. Oh it's one of them old ancient tales,
30:34
said Missus Sonney said, Old Beale could tell you if any one could we
30:41
go down to Old Beale's, said Edred decidedly, as soon as we've developed
30:45
our pictures of the castle, if there are any pictures, he added,
30:49
You never can tell with some footy machines, can you, said Missus Honeysett
30:53
sympathetically. My husband's cousin's wife was took with all our family by her own
30:59
back door. And when they come to wash out the picture, it turned
31:02
out that they took the next door people's water bite by mistake, owing to
31:06
their billygoat jugging the young man's elbow that had got the camera. And it
31:11
wasn't a bit like any of them. End of section thirteen.