Latest / Daily Classic Science Fiction Books / 16 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit

Transcript

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, Films and Clouds. The films were quite dry
0:05
Speaker 1: by bedtime, when, after a delightful evening with no magic
0:09
Speaker 1: in it at all, but the magic of undisturbed jolliness,
0:13
Speaker 1: Edred slipped away, unpinned them, and hid them in Elfrida's
0:17
Speaker 1: corner drawer, which he rightly judged to be a cleaner
0:21
Speaker 1: resting place for them than his own was likely to be.
0:25
Speaker 1: So there the precious films lay between Elfrida's best lace
0:28
Speaker 1: collar and the handkerchief case with three fat buttercups embroidered
0:33
Speaker 1: on it that Aunt Edith had given her at Christmas.
0:36
Speaker 1: And Edred went back to the parlor for one last
0:39
Speaker 1: game of Proverbs before bed. As he took up his cards,
0:44
Speaker 1: he thought, how strange it was that he who had
0:47
Speaker 1: been imprisoned in the tower and had talked with Sir
0:50
Speaker 1: Walter Rawleigh, should be sitting there quietly playing proverbs with
0:55
Speaker 1: his aunt and his sister, just like any other little boy.
1:00
Speaker 1: Ah ah, said Edred to himself. I am living a
1:04
Speaker 1: double life, That's what I'm doing. He had seen the
1:08
Speaker 1: expression in a book, and the idea charmed him. How
1:12
Speaker 1: pleased Edrid looks with himself, said Aunt Edith, I'm sure
1:17
Speaker 1: he's got a whole proverb or nearly in his hand already.
1:24
Speaker 1: You'll be looking pleased. Presently, he said, you always win,
1:28
Speaker 1: And when she did, for Edrid's thoughts were wandering off
1:32
Speaker 1: after the idea, how pleased Aunt Edith would look when
1:36
Speaker 1: he and Elfrida should come to her, take her by
1:39
Speaker 1: the hand and lead her to the hiding place of
1:42
Speaker 1: the treasure, and then say, behold the treasure of our home.
1:48
Speaker 1: Now we can rebuild the castle and mend the broken
1:51
Speaker 1: thatch on the cottages, and I can go to Eton
1:55
Speaker 1: and Oxford, and you can have a diamond Tiara and
1:59
Speaker 1: Elfrida and have a pony to ride, and so can I.
2:03
Speaker 1: Elfrida's thoughts were not unlike his, so Aunt Edith won
2:08
Speaker 1: the game of proverbs. You have been very good children,
2:13
Speaker 1: missus honeyset tells me, said Aunt Idith, putting the cards together.
2:18
Speaker 1: Not so extra, said Edred. I mean it's easy to
2:21
Speaker 1: be good when everything's so jolly. We have quarreled once
2:26
Speaker 1: or twice, you know, said Elfrida virtuously. Yes we have,
2:30
Speaker 1: said Edred firmly. They needn't they felt, have confessed this,
2:35
Speaker 1: and that made them feel they were good now if
2:38
Speaker 1: never before, Well, don't quarrel any more. I shall be
2:43
Speaker 1: coming over for good quite soon. Then we'll have glorious times.
2:48
Speaker 1: Perhaps we'll find the treasure you've heard about, the treasure
2:52
Speaker 1: I should jolly well think we had, Edred couldn't help saying,
2:56
Speaker 1: and Elfrida added and looked for it too, But we
3:00
Speaker 1: haven't found it. Did you ever look for it? No,
3:04
Speaker 1: said aunt didit? But I always wanted to. My grandfather
3:09
Speaker 1: used to look for it when he was a little boy.
3:12
Speaker 1: Was your grandfather Lord Arden? Dred asked, No, he was
3:17
Speaker 1: the grandson of the Lord Arden who fought for King
3:20
Speaker 1: James the third, as they called him, the Pretender, you know,
3:24
Speaker 1: when he was quite a boy, and they let him
3:27
Speaker 1: off because of his being so young, And then he
3:30
Speaker 1: mortgaged all the arden lands to keep the young Pretender
3:33
Speaker 1: Prince Charlie. You know in the ballads, he got money
3:37
Speaker 1: to send to him, and of course Prince Charles was
3:40
Speaker 1: going to pay it back when he was king. Only
3:43
Speaker 1: he never was king, she sighed. And is that why
3:47
Speaker 1: the tallow king got all the arden land? Yes, dear,
3:52
Speaker 1: that's why English people prefer tallow kings to steward King's
3:56
Speaker 1: and old Lord Arden mortgaged everything. That means he borrowed money,
4:02
Speaker 1: and if he didn't pay back the money by a
4:04
Speaker 1: certain time, he agreed to let them take the land instead.
4:08
Speaker 1: And he couldn't pay, so they took the land, all
4:11
Speaker 1: except a bit in the village and arden Knoll that
4:15
Speaker 1: was fixed so that he couldn't part from it. When
4:19
Speaker 1: we get the treasure, we'll back back the land again,
4:22
Speaker 1: said Edred. The tallow King's going to sell it. He's
4:26
Speaker 1: got so tallowy that Arden Land isn't good enough for him.
4:29
Speaker 1: Old Beale told us, and I say, Auntie, we'll rebuild
4:33
Speaker 1: the castle too, won't we And mend the holes in
4:37
Speaker 1: the thatch where the rain comes in in people's cottages.
4:41
Speaker 1: I mean, have you been much into people's cottages, aunti?
4:45
Speaker 1: Edith asked, anxiously, with a strange fear of infection, which
4:49
Speaker 1: seems a part of grown up's nature. Every one in
4:53
Speaker 1: the village, I think, said Elfrida cheerfully. Old Beale told
4:57
Speaker 1: us we ought to in case we found the treasure,
5:00
Speaker 1: so as to know what to do. The people are
5:03
Speaker 1: such tears. I believe they like us because we're Ardens.
5:08
Speaker 1: Or is it because Edred's a lord. We must find
5:13
Speaker 1: the treasure, said Edred, looking as he always did when
5:16
Speaker 1: he was very much in earnest, so like his father
5:20
Speaker 1: that Aunt Edith could hardly bear it, so as to
5:24
Speaker 1: be able to look after our people properly and to
5:27
Speaker 1: kick out the tallow king, said Elfrida. But you won't
5:32
Speaker 1: be discontented if you don't find it, said Aunt Edith.
5:36
Speaker 1: It's only sort of game. Really, No one I ever
5:40
Speaker 1: knew ever found a treasure. And think what we've found
5:44
Speaker 1: already Arden Castle, instead of Sea View terrors and the lodgers.
5:50
Speaker 1: Good night chicks. She was gone before they were up
5:53
Speaker 1: in the morning, and the morning's first business was the
5:57
Speaker 1: printing of the photographs. They they printed them in the
6:01
Speaker 1: kitchen because Missus Honet was turning out the parlor, and besides,
6:05
Speaker 1: the kitchen window was wide and sunny, and the old
6:08
Speaker 1: table scored again and again till the grain of the
6:12
Speaker 1: wood stood up in ridges was a nice, big, clear
6:15
Speaker 1: place to stand toning dishes on. They printed on mad
6:19
Speaker 1: paper because it seemed somehow less common and more like
6:23
Speaker 1: a picture than the shiny kind. The printing took the
6:27
Speaker 1: whole morning, and they had only one frame, and when
6:30
Speaker 1: they had done there were eighteen brown prints of the
6:33
Speaker 1: castle from all sorts of points of the compass north
6:38
Speaker 1: and south. And but I explained all this to you before.
6:42
Speaker 1: When the princes were dried, which as you know, is
6:45
Speaker 1: best done by sticking them up on the window, it
6:48
Speaker 1: became necessary to find a place to put them in.
6:51
Speaker 1: One could not gloat over them forever, though for quite
6:55
Speaker 1: a long time it seemed better to look at them
6:57
Speaker 1: again and again and to say that's how it ought
7:01
Speaker 1: to be, that's the way we'll have it, then to
7:05
Speaker 1: do anything else. Elfrida and Edith took the prince into
7:09
Speaker 1: the parlor, which was now neat as a new pin
7:12
Speaker 1: and smelt almost too much of beeswax and turpentine, spread
7:17
Speaker 1: them on the polished oval dining table, and gloated over them.
7:21
Speaker 1: You can see every little bit exactly right, said Elfrida.
7:26
Speaker 1: They're a little tiny bit mussy. I expect our distance
7:30
Speaker 1: wasn't right or something, but that only makes them look
7:33
Speaker 1: more like real pictures, And us, having printed them on
7:37
Speaker 1: paper that's too big, makes it more picturery too. And
7:42
Speaker 1: any one who knew how buildings are built would know
7:45
Speaker 1: how to set it up. It would be like putting
7:48
Speaker 1: brick back into the box from the pattern inside the lid. Here,
7:53
Speaker 1: Missus Honset called from the kitchen, you done with all
7:56
Speaker 1: this litter? And both children shouted yes and went on
8:01
Speaker 1: looking at the pictures. It was well that the shout
8:05
Speaker 1: was from both. If only one had done it, there
8:08
Speaker 1: might have been what Missus Honyseet called words about the
8:11
Speaker 1: matter later. For the next moment, both said the films
8:16
Speaker 1: and rushed to the kitchen, just in time to see
8:19
Speaker 1: the kitchen fire enlivened by that peculiar crackling flare which
8:23
Speaker 1: fire and films alone can produce. Missus Hornset had thrown
8:28
Speaker 1: the films on the fire with the other litter, and
8:31
Speaker 1: it was no one's fault but the children's, As Missus
8:35
Speaker 1: Hornseet pointed out, I ask you if you've done with
8:38
Speaker 1: it all, and you says yes. Only yourselves to think,
8:43
Speaker 1: she repeated again and again amid their lamentations, and they
8:47
Speaker 1: had to own that she was right. We must take
8:51
Speaker 1: extra special care of the prince, That's all, said Edred,
8:54
Speaker 1: And the history of the gardens was chosen as a
8:58
Speaker 1: hiding place. Both say and appropriate. It doesn't matter so
9:03
Speaker 1: much about the films, said Elfrida, because we could never
9:06
Speaker 1: have shown them to any one. If we find the treasure,
9:10
Speaker 1: we'll arrange for Auntie to find these prints, leave the
9:13
Speaker 1: history about or something, and she'll think they're photographs of
9:17
Speaker 1: painted pictures, so that'll be all right. As they arranged
9:22
Speaker 1: the prince between the leaves of the history, Elfrida's eye
9:26
Speaker 1: was caught by the words moat and water supply, and
9:30
Speaker 1: she read on and turned the page. Don't stop to read,
9:34
Speaker 1: said Edred, But she weighed him away. I say, listen,
9:39
Speaker 1: she said, turning back, and she read. In ancient times,
9:44
Speaker 1: Arden Castle was surrounded by a moat. The original architects
9:49
Speaker 1: of the venerable Pile, with that ingenuity, whose fruits the
9:53
Speaker 1: thinking world so much admires in the lasting monuments of
9:57
Speaker 1: their labors, diverted from its terraneous course a stream which
10:02
Speaker 1: rose through the chalk in the hills of the vicinity,
10:06
Speaker 1: and is said to be debouched into the sea about
10:09
Speaker 1: fifty yards below a high water mark. The engineering works
10:13
Speaker 1: necessary for this triumph of mind of a matter endured
10:17
Speaker 1: till sixteen forty seven, when the castle was besieged by
10:21
Speaker 1: the troops of that monster inhuman form Oliver Cromwell. To
10:26
Speaker 1: facilitate his attack on the castle, the officer in command
10:29
Speaker 1: gave orders that the stream should be diverted once more
10:33
Speaker 1: into its original channel. This order was accordingly executed by
10:38
Speaker 1: his mermidons, and the moat was left dry, this assisting
10:42
Speaker 1: materially the treacherous designs of the detestable regicides. It is
10:48
Speaker 1: rumored that the stream, despite the lapse of centuries, still
10:52
Speaker 1: maintains its subterranean course. But the present author, on visiting
10:57
Speaker 1: during the autumn of eighteen twenty one the residents of
11:00
Speaker 1: the present Earl of Arden, and by his permission most
11:04
Speaker 1: cautiously granted exploring the sight thoroughly, was unable to find
11:09
Speaker 1: any trace of its existence. The rural denizens of the
11:13
Speaker 1: district denied any knowledge of such a stream. But they
11:17
Speaker 1: are sunk in ignorance and superstition, and have no admiration
11:21
Speaker 1: for the works of philosophy or the ave inspiring beauties
11:25
Speaker 1: of nature. What a dull chap is, said Edred, But
11:30
Speaker 1: I say, when was it printed? Eighteen twenty two? I
11:34
Speaker 1: believe I know why the rural what's his names wouldn't
11:39
Speaker 1: let on about the stream, don't you see it's the
11:42
Speaker 1: stream that runs through the smuggler's cave, and they were
11:45
Speaker 1: smuggling then for all they were worth. That's clever of you,
11:50
Speaker 1: said Elfrida. Well, I bet we find traces of its
11:55
Speaker 1: existence when we've found the treasure. Come on, let's try
12:00
Speaker 1: the chests again. We'll put on the first things we
12:03
Speaker 1: find and chance it this time. There's nothing to stop us.
12:07
Speaker 1: We haven't quarreled or anything. They had not quarreled, but
12:11
Speaker 1: there was something to stop them all the same, and
12:14
Speaker 1: that something was the fact that they could not find
12:17
Speaker 1: the door. It simply was not there. And we haven't
12:22
Speaker 1: quarreled or anything, said Elfrida, despairing. When they had searched
12:27
Speaker 1: the East House again and again and found no door
12:31
Speaker 1: that would consent to lead them to the wonderful attic
12:34
Speaker 1: where the chests stood in their too wonderful rows, she
12:39
Speaker 1: sat down on the top step of the attic stairs,
12:42
Speaker 1: quite regardless of the dust that lay their thick it's
12:46
Speaker 1: all up. I can see that, said Edred. We've muffed
12:50
Speaker 1: it somehow. I wonder whether we oughtn't to have taken
12:54
Speaker 1: those photographs. Do you think perhaps could we have dreamt
12:58
Speaker 1: it all? No? Oh, said Edred, there are the prints.
13:03
Speaker 1: At least I suppose they are there. We'll go down
13:06
Speaker 1: and see. Miserably doubting, they went down and saw that
13:10
Speaker 1: the photographs were where they had put them, in between
13:13
Speaker 1: the pages of the history of Arden. I don't see
13:18
Speaker 1: what we can do, do you, said Edred forlornly. It
13:22
Speaker 1: was a miserable ending to the happenings that had succeeded
13:26
Speaker 1: each other in such a lively procession ever since they
13:30
Speaker 1: had been at Arden. It seemed as though a door
13:33
Speaker 1: had been shut in their faces, and not any more.
13:37
Speaker 1: Written in very plain letters across the chapter of their adventures.
13:43
Speaker 1: I wish we could find the witch again, said Elfrida,
13:47
Speaker 1: But she said she couldn't come into these times more
13:50
Speaker 1: than once. I wonder why, said Edred, kicking his boots
13:55
Speaker 1: miserably against the leg of the table on which he sat.
13:59
Speaker 1: That dickitch Chap must have been here pretty often to
14:02
Speaker 1: have an address at New Cross. I say, suppose we've
14:06
Speaker 1: wrote to him. It would be something to do. So
14:11
Speaker 1: they wrote, at least Elfrida did, and they both signed it.
14:15
Speaker 1: This was the letter, Dear cousin Richard, do you remember
14:20
Speaker 1: meeting us at the gunpowder plot. If you are at
14:23
Speaker 1: these modern times again, we should like to know you
14:26
Speaker 1: and to know how you get into the future. Perhaps
14:29
Speaker 1: we could get into the past the same way, because
14:32
Speaker 1: the way we used to get we can't any more.
14:36
Speaker 1: Perhaps you could come here next time instead of new
14:39
Speaker 1: Cross your affectionate friends at a distance, Miss Elfrida Arden,
14:45
Speaker 1: Lord Edred Arden p S. I don't know how Lord
14:49
Speaker 1: signed letters, because I have not been it long, but
14:52
Speaker 1: you'll know who it is. P s. S. Remember old
14:56
Speaker 1: Parrot knows. They walked down to the post with this,
15:00
Speaker 1: and as they went they remembered how they had gone
15:03
Speaker 1: to the George with old Lady Arden's letter in Boney's time,
15:07
Speaker 1: and Edred remarked listlessly that it would be rather fun
15:11
Speaker 1: to find the smuggler's cave. So when they had bought
15:14
Speaker 1: a stamp and licked it and put it on the letter,
15:17
Speaker 1: they went up on the cliff and looked among the
15:20
Speaker 1: first bushes for the entrance to the smuggler's cave. But
15:24
Speaker 1: they did not find it. Nothing makes you hotter than
15:27
Speaker 1: looking for things that you can't find, And there is
15:30
Speaker 1: no hotter place to look for things than a first
15:33
Speaker 1: forest on the downs on a sunny summer afternoon. The
15:37
Speaker 1: children were glad to sit down on a clean, smooth,
15:40
Speaker 1: grassy space and look out at the faint blue line
15:44
Speaker 1: of the sea. They had not really enjoyed looking for
15:47
Speaker 1: the smuggler's cave. Vain regrets were busy in each breast
15:51
Speaker 1: Edred gave voice to them when he said, Oh, if
15:55
Speaker 1: only we had put those cold clothes on when we
15:59
Speaker 1: had the chance, and Elfrida echoed the useless, heartfelt wail with, oh,
16:06
Speaker 1: if we only had And then they sat in silence
16:11
Speaker 1: and looked at the sea for quite a long time. Now,
16:15
Speaker 1: if you sit perfectly silent for a long time and
16:18
Speaker 1: look at the sea, or the sky, or the running
16:21
Speaker 1: water of a river, something happens to you a sort
16:26
Speaker 1: of magic. Not the violent magic that makes the kind
16:29
Speaker 1: of adventure that I have been telling you about, but
16:32
Speaker 1: a kind of gentle but very strong inside magic that
16:38
Speaker 1: makes things clear and shows you what things are important
16:43
Speaker 1: and what are not. You try it next time you
16:46
Speaker 1: are in a very bad temper, or when you think
16:50
Speaker 1: someone has been very unjust to you, or when you
16:53
Speaker 1: are very disappointed and hurt about anything. The magic worked
16:58
Speaker 1: in Edred and Elfrida and Edred said, after all, we've
17:03
Speaker 1: got the castle, and Elfrida said, and we have had
17:07
Speaker 1: some ripping times. And then they looked at the sea
17:11
Speaker 1: in more silence, during which Hope came and whispered Elfrida,
17:15
Speaker 1: who instantly said the mouldi war, perhaps it's not all over.
17:20
Speaker 1: He told us to find the door, and we did
17:23
Speaker 1: find the door. Perhaps it would tell us something new
17:26
Speaker 1: if we called it now and if it came, And
17:30
Speaker 1: if it came, said Edred. Don't talk make poetry, said Elfrida.
17:38
Speaker 1: But that was one of the things that Edred never
17:40
Speaker 1: could do. Trying to make poetry was to him like
17:44
Speaker 1: trying to remember a name you have never heard, or
17:47
Speaker 1: to multiply a number that you've forgotten by another number
17:52
Speaker 1: that you don't recollect. But Elfrida, that youthful poet, frowned
17:57
Speaker 1: and bit her lip and twisted her hands and reached
18:01
Speaker 1: out in her mind to words that she just couldn't
18:04
Speaker 1: quite think of, till the words grew tame and flew
18:08
Speaker 1: within reach, and she caught them and caged them behind
18:12
Speaker 1: the bars of rhyme. This was her poem, Dear Mouldiwarp,
18:17
Speaker 1: do come if you can and tell us if there
18:21
Speaker 1: is any plan that you can tell us for us too,
18:25
Speaker 1: to get into the past like we used to do.
18:28
Speaker 1: Dear mouldiwarp, we don't want to worry you, but we
18:33
Speaker 1: are in a frightful hurry. Shall you be always, said
18:38
Speaker 1: the white mouldiwarp, suddenly appearing between them on the jellowy
18:42
Speaker 1: dry grass. Well, well, use the season for selinis. What's
18:47
Speaker 1: to do now? I be terrible tired of all this.
18:50
Speaker 1: I wish I'd only got to give ye the treasure
18:53
Speaker 1: and go my ways. You don't give a poor mouldiwarp
18:57
Speaker 1: a minute's rest. You do terrify me. SAME's flies you do?
19:02
Speaker 1: Is there any other way, said Elfrida, to get back
19:06
Speaker 1: into the past. We can't find the door now, course
19:11
Speaker 1: you can't, said the mole. That's a chance gone and
19:15
Speaker 1: gone forever. He that will not when he may, he
19:19
Speaker 1: shall not when he would. Ah. Well, tell me where
19:23
Speaker 1: you want to go, and I'll make you a back
19:26
Speaker 1: waist working white clock anywhere you like, said Edred incautiously. Shh,
19:32
Speaker 1: said the mole, rubbing its nose with vexation. There's another chance,
19:37
Speaker 1: gone and gone forever. You be terrible spending with your chances.
19:42
Speaker 1: You be now answer shop as weasels nose. Be there
19:46
Speaker 1: any one in the past you'd like to see. If
19:49
Speaker 1: you don't know, then you don't go. And that's poacher
19:53
Speaker 1: as good as yours any day of the week. Cousin Richard,
19:57
Speaker 1: said Elfrida, and drew together. This was the only name
20:01
Speaker 1: they could think of by this. Still my DearS, said
20:05
Speaker 1: the mouldiwarp, and I'll make your white road right to
20:09
Speaker 1: where he is. So they sat still, all but their tongues.
20:14
Speaker 1: Is he in the past, said Elfrida, Because if he is,
20:18
Speaker 1: it wasn't much good our writing to him. You hold
20:21
Speaker 1: your little tongues, said the mouldiwarp, and keep your little
20:25
Speaker 1: mouth shut and your little eyes open, and wish well
20:28
Speaker 1: to the white magic. There never was a magic, yet
20:32
Speaker 1: the mole went on. That was the worse for being
20:36
Speaker 1: well wished. May I say something, said Elfrida, without its
20:40
Speaker 1: stopping the magic. Put your white handkerchief over your face
20:44
Speaker 1: and talk through it, and then you may by a
20:47
Speaker 1: most fortunate and unusual chance. Elfrida's handkerchief was white. It
20:52
Speaker 1: was in fact still folded in the sixteen blameless squares
20:56
Speaker 1: into which the laundress had ironed it. She threw it
21:00
Speaker 1: over her face as she lay back on the turf
21:03
Speaker 1: and spoke through it. I'd like to see the nurse
21:07
Speaker 1: witch again, she said, instead of cousin Richard. No, as
21:12
Speaker 1: well as that's right, said the magic mole. You shouldn't
21:17
Speaker 1: change your wishes, but there's no rule against enlarging them.
21:21
Speaker 1: On the contrary. Now, look, Elfrida whisked away the handkerchief.
21:26
Speaker 1: And look. Have you ever noticed the way the bath
21:30
Speaker 1: water runs away when you pull up the bath tap?
21:33
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen bottles filled through a funnel? The
21:36
Speaker 1: white moliwarp reached up its hands it's front feet, I
21:40
Speaker 1: would perhaps to say, towards the deep blue sky, where
21:44
Speaker 1: white clouds heard it together like giant sheep, and it spoke.
21:49
Speaker 1: At least it did not speak, but it sang yet
21:52
Speaker 1: I don't know that you could call it singing either.
21:56
Speaker 1: It was more like the first notes that a violent
21:58
Speaker 1: yields to the bow wielded by the hand of a
22:01
Speaker 1: mass musician, and the white cloud stooped to answer it.
22:06
Speaker 1: Round and round in the blue sky they circled, drawing
22:10
Speaker 1: together and swirling down as the bath water draws and
22:14
Speaker 1: swirls when you pull out the knob labeled waist round
22:18
Speaker 1: and round till they showed like a vast white funnel,
22:22
Speaker 1: whose neck hung a great ring about the group. On
22:26
Speaker 1: the dry grass of the downs. It stooped and stooped.
22:31
Speaker 1: The ring fitted down over them. They were in a
22:34
Speaker 1: white tower, narrow at its base, where that base touched
22:38
Speaker 1: the grass, but widening to the blue sky overhead. Take hands,
22:44
Speaker 1: cried the mouldiwarp. Always hold hands when there is magic about.
22:50
Speaker 1: The children clasped hands, both hands, said the Mouldiwarf, and
22:56
Speaker 1: each child reached out a hand that was caught and
22:59
Speaker 1: held round and round Incredibly swifter and swifter went the
23:04
Speaker 1: cloud funnel, and the voice of the mole at their
23:07
Speaker 1: feet sounded faint and far away. Ah, it cried, Ah,
23:12
Speaker 1: shall the very cloud stance for your delight, and you
23:15
Speaker 1: alone refrain and tread not a measure. The children leaped up,
23:21
Speaker 1: and through the cloud came something that was certainly music,
23:25
Speaker 1: though it was so vague and far away that the
23:28
Speaker 1: sharpest music master you ever had could not have made
23:32
Speaker 1: out the tune. But the rhythm of it was there,
23:35
Speaker 1: an insistent beat, beat, beat, and a beat that made
23:39
Speaker 1: your feet long to keep time to it and through
23:42
Speaker 1: the rit presently the tune pierced as the sound of
23:46
Speaker 1: the pipes pears, is the sound of the drums when
23:49
Speaker 1: you see the church brigade boys go by, when you
23:53
Speaker 1: are on your holiday by the sea, near the white
23:56
Speaker 1: tented happy camps. And that time the children's feet could
24:01
Speaker 1: not resist. They danced steps that they had not known.
24:04
Speaker 1: They knew, and they knew for the first time the
24:08
Speaker 1: delight of real dancing, None of your waltzes or even minuets,
24:13
Speaker 1: but the dancing that means youth and gayety and being
24:17
Speaker 1: out for a holiday, and determined to enjoy everything to
24:21
Speaker 1: the last breath. And as they danced, the white cloud
24:25
Speaker 1: funnel came down and closed about them, so that they
24:29
Speaker 1: danced as it were in a wrapping a white cotton wool,
24:33
Speaker 1: too soft for them even to feel it. And there
24:36
Speaker 1: was a sweet scent in the air. They did not
24:40
Speaker 1: know in that cloudy, soft whiteness what flower bore that scent,
24:45
Speaker 1: but they knew that it smelt of the spring, and
24:48
Speaker 1: of fields and hedges far away from the ugliness of towns.
24:54
Speaker 1: The cloud thinned as the scent thickened, and green light
24:58
Speaker 1: showed through it. The green lights grew the cloud funnel lifted,
25:03
Speaker 1: and Edred and Elfrida, still dancing, found themselves but two
25:08
Speaker 1: in a ring of some thirty children, dancing on a
25:12
Speaker 1: carpet of green turf, between walls of green branches, and
25:17
Speaker 1: every child wore a wreath of white may blossoms on
25:20
Speaker 1: its head. And that was the magic scene that had
25:23
Speaker 1: come to them through the white cloud of the white
25:27
Speaker 1: Mouldiwarp's magic. What is it? Why are we dancing? Edred
25:33
Speaker 1: incautiously asked of the little girl, whose hand, and not Elfrida's.
25:38
Speaker 1: He found that his left hand was holding the child laughed,
25:42
Speaker 1: just laughed. She did not answer. It was Elfrida who
25:46
Speaker 1: had his right hand, and her own right handy was
25:49
Speaker 1: clasped in that of a boy dressed in green. Oh,
25:53
Speaker 1: she said, with a note of glad recognition. It's you.
25:57
Speaker 1: I'm so glad. What is it? Why are we dancing?
26:01
Speaker 1: It's May Day, said cousin Richard, and the king is
26:05
Speaker 1: coming to look on at the revels. What king, she asked,
26:09
Speaker 1: Who but King Harry? He said, King Harry and his
26:13
Speaker 1: new queen. That but of late was the lady Anne Balin,
26:18
Speaker 1: I say dick, said Edred across his sister I'm jolly
26:22
Speaker 1: glad to see you again. We not now, said Dick earnestly.
26:27
Speaker 1: Not a word now. It is not safe. And besides,
26:31
Speaker 1: here comes the King end of Section sixteen.