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

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The House of Arden by Edith Nesbitt, Chapter one, Arden's Lord, Part
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one. It had been a great house once, with farms and fields,
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money and jewels, with tenants and squires and men at arms. The head
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of the house had ridden out three days journey to meet King Henry at the
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boundary of his estate, and the King had ridden back with him to lie
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in the tall state bed in the castle guest chamber. The heir of the
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house had led his following against Cromwell. Younger sons of the house had fought
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in foreign lands to the honor of England, and the gilding and regilding with
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the perishable gold of glory of the old Arden name. There had been Ardens
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in Saxon times, and there were Ardens still, but few and impoverished.
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The lands were gone, and the squires and men at arms. The castle
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itself was roofless, and its unglazed windows stared blankly across the fields of strangers
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that stretched right up to the foot of its gray, weather worn walls.
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And of the male Ardens there were now known only two, an old man
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and a child. The old man was Lord Arden, the head of the
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house, and he lived lonely in a little house built of the fallen stones
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that time and Cromwell's round shot had cast from the castle walls. The child
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was dred Arden, and he lived in a house in a clean, wind
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swept town on a cliff. It was a bright faced house with bow windows
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and a green balcony that looked out over the sparkling sea. It had three
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neat white steps and a brass knocker, pale and smooth with constant rubbing.
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It was a pretty house, and it would have been a pleasant house but
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for one thing, the lodgers. For I cannot conceal from you any longer
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that edred Arden lived with his aunt, and that his aunt let lodgings.
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Letting lodgings is one of the most unpleasant of all possible ways of earning your
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living. And I advise you to try every other honest way of earning your
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living before you take to that, Because people who go to the seaside and
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take lodgings seems somehow much harder to please than the people who go to hotels.
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They want ever so much more waiting on, They want so many meals,
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and at such odd times they ring the bell almost all day long.
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They bring in sand from the shore in every fold of their clothes, and
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it shakes out of them onto the carpets and the sofa cushions and everything in
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the house. They hang long streamers of wet seaweed against the pretty roses of
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the new wallpapers, and their wash hand basins are always full of sea anemones
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and shells. Also, they are noisy. Their boots seem to be always
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on the stairs, no matter how bad a headache you may have. And
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when you give them their bill, they always think it is too much,
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no matter how little it may be. So do not let lodgings if you
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can help it. Miss Arden could not help it. It happened like this.
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Edred and his sister were at school. Did I tell you he had
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a sister? Well? He had, and her name was Elfrida. Miss
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Arden lived near the school so that she could see the children often. She
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was getting her clothes ready for her wedding, and the gentleman who was going
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to marry her was coming home from South America, where he had made a
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fortune. The children's father was coming home from South America too, with the
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fortune that he had made for He and Miss Arden's sweetheart were partners. The
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children and their aunt talked whenever they met of the glorious time that was coming,
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and how when father and Uncle Jim they called him Uncle Jim already came
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home. They were all going to live in the country and be happy ever
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after. And then the news came that father and Uncle Jim had been captured
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by brigands, and all the money was lost too, and there was no
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nothing left but the house on the cliff. So Miss Arden took the children
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from the expensive school in London and they all went to live in the cliff
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House. And as there was no money to live on, and no other
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way of making money to live on except letting lodgings, Miss Arden let them
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like the brave lady she was, and did it well. And then came
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the news that father and Uncle Jim were dead, and for a time the
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light of life went out in Cliff House. This was two years ago,
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But the children had never got used to the Lodgers. They hated them.
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At first. They had tried to be friendly with the lodger's children, but
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they soon found that the lodger's children considered Edred and Alfrida very much beneath them,
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and looked down on them accordingly, and very often the lodger's children were
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the sort of children on whom anybody might have looked down, if it were
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right and kind to look down on any one. And when Master Reginald pots
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of Peckham puts his tongue out at you want the bread, and says write
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before everybody lodgings, yeah, it is hard to feel quite the same to
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him as you did before. When there were lodgers, and there nearly always
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were, for the house was comfortable, and people who had been once came
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again. The children and their aunt had to live in the very top and
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the very bottom of the house, in the attics and the basement. In
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fact, when there were no lodgers, they used all the rooms in turn
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to keep them aired. But the children liked the big basement parlor room best
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because there all the furniture had belonged to dead and gone ardens, and all
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the pictures on the walls were of ardens dead and gone. The rooms that
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the lodgers had were furnished with a new sort of furniture that had no stories
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belonging to it, such as belonged to the old polished oak tables and bureau
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that were in the basement parlor. Edred and Elfrida went to school every day
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and learned reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, spelling, and
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useful knowledge, all of which they hated quite impartially, which means they hated
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the whole lot one thing as much as another. The only part of lessons
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they liked was the homework when if Aunt Edith had time to help them.
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Geography became like adventures, history like story books, and even arithmetic suddenly seemed
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to mean something. I wish you could teach us, always said Edred,
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very inky and interested for the first time in the exports of China. It
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does seem so silly trying to learn things that are only words and books.
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I wish I could, said Aunt Edith, But I can't do twenty nine
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thousand and seventeen things all at once. And a bell jangled. That's the
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seventh time since tea. She got up and went into the kitchen. There's
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the bell again, my poor Eliza. Never mind answer the bell, but
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don't answer them. Whatever they say, it doesn't do a bit of good,
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and it sometimes prevents their giving you half crowns when they leave. I
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do love it when they go, said Elfrida. Yes, said her aunt,
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a cap top heavy with luggage. The horse's nose turned stationward. It's
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a heavenly sight when the bill is paid. And but then I'm just as
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glad to see the luggage coming chickens. When my ship comes home, we'll
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go and live on a desert island where her aren't any cabs. We won't
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have any lodgers in our cave. When I grow up, said Edred,
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I shall go across the sea and look for your ship and bring it home.
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I shall take a steam tug and steer at myself. Then I shall
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be captain, said Elfrida. No, I shall be captain. You can't
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if you steer, yes, I can. No, you can't. Yes,
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I can well do, then, said Elfrida. And while you're doing
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it, I know you can't. I shall dig in the garden and find
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a gold mine, and Aunt Edith will be rolling in money when you come
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back, and she won't want your silly old ship. Spelling next, said
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Aunt Edith, how do you spell disagreeable? Which of us? Asked Dred
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acutely, both, said Aunt Edith, trying to look very severe. When
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you are a child, you always dream of your ship coming home, of
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having a hundred pounds or a thousand or million pounds to spend as you like.
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My favorite dream I remember was a thousand pounds and an express understanding that
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I was not to spend it at anything useful. And when you have dreamed
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of your million pounds or your thousand or your hundred, you spend happy hour
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on hour in deciding what presents you will buy for each of the people you
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are fond of, and in picturing their surprise and delight at your beautiful presence
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and your wonderful generosity. I think very few of us spend our dream fortunes
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entirely on ourselves. Of course, we buy ourselves a motor bicycle straight away,
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and footballs and bats, and dolls with real hair, and real china,
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tea sets and large boxes of mixed chocolates and Treasure Island and all the
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books that Missus Ewing wrote. But when we have done that, we begin
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to buy things for other people. It is a beautiful dream, but too
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often by the time it comes true up to a hundred pounds or a thousand,
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we forget what we used to mean to do with our money and spend
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it all in stocks and shares and eligible building sights, and fat cigars and
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fur coats. If I were young again, I would sit down and write
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a list of all the kind things I meant to do when my ship came
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home. And if my ship ever did come home, I would read that
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list. And but the parlor bell is ringing for the eighth time, and
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the front door bell is ringing too, and the first floor is ringing also,
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and so is the second floor. And Eliza is trying to answer four
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bells at once, always a most difficult thing to do. The front door
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bell was rung by the postman. He brought three letters. The first was
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a bill for mending the lid of the cistern on which Dred had recently lighted
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a fire, fortified by an impression that wood could not if there were water
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on the other side, a totally false impression, as the charge cistern lid
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proved. The second was an inquiry whether miss Arden would take a clergyman and
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at half the usual price, because he had a very large family which had
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all just had measles. And the third was the letter which is really the
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seed and beginning and backbone and rhyme and reason of this story, Edred had
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got the letters from the postman, and he stood and waited while Aunt Edith
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read them. He collected postmarks, and he had not been able to make
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out, by the thick half light of the hall gas whether any of these
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were valuable. The third letter had a very odd effect on Aunt Edith.
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She read it once and rubbed her hand across her eyes. Then she got
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up and stood under the chandelier which wanted new Berners badly and so burned with
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a very unlighting light, and read it again. Then she read it a
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third time, and then she said, oh, what is it, auntie?
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Elfrida asked anxiously. Is it the taxes? It had been the taxes
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once, and Elfrida had never forgotten. If you don't understand what this means,
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ask your poorest relations, who are all so likely to be your nicest.
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And if they don't know, ask the washerwoman. No, it's not
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the taxes, darling, said Aunt Edith. On the contrary, I don't
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know what the contrary or opposite of taxes is any more than the children did,
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but I am sure it is something quite nice, and so were they.
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Oh, Aunty, I am so glad they both said, and said
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it several times before they asked again, what is it? I think I'm
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not quite sure, but I think it's a ship come home. Oh,
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just a quite tiny little bit of a ship, a toy boat, hardly
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more than that. But I must go up to London to morrow, the
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first thing, and see if it really is a ship, and if so,
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what sort of a ship it is. Missus Blake shall come in and
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you'll be good as gold children, won't you, Yes, oh, yes,
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said the two, And not make booby traps for the butcher, or
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go on the roof in your night gowns, or play red Indians in the
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dust bin, or make apple pie beds for the lodgers. Aunt Edith asked,
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hastily, mentioning a few of the little amusements which had lately enlivened the
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spare time of her nephew and niece. No, we won't, really,
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said Edred. And we'll truly try not to think of anything new and amusing.
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He added, with real self sacrifice. I must go by the eight
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thirty train. I wish I could think of some way of of amusing you,
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she ended, for she was too kind to say of keeping you out
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of mischief for the day, which was what she really thought. I'll bring
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you something jolly for your birthday, Edred. Wouldn't you like to spend the
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day with nice missus Hammond. Oh no, said Edred, and added,
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on the inspiration of the moment, why may't we have a picnic just elf
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and me on the downs to keep my birthday? It doesn't matter at being
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the day before, does it. You said we were too little last summer,
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and we should this, And now it is this. And I have
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grown two inches and Elves grown three, so we're five inches tall than when
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we said we weren't big enough. Now you begin to see how useful arithmetic
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is, said the aunt. Very well, you shall only wear your old
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clothes and keep in sight of the road. Yes, you can have a
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whole holiday. And now to bed. Oh there's that bell again, Poor
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dear Eliza, a Clapham cub belonging to one of the lodgers, happened to
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be going up to bed just as Edred and Elfrida came through the bay's door
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that shut off the basement from the rest of the house. He put his
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tongue out through the banisters at the children of the house and said, little
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slavees. The cub thought he could get up the stairs before the two got
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round the end of the banisters, but he had not counted on the long
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arm of Elfrida, whose hands shot through the banisters and caught the cub's leg
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and held on to it till Edred had time to get round. The two
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boys struggled up the stairs together and then rolled together from top to bottomn where
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they were picked up and disentangled by their relations. Except for this little incident,
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going to bed was uneventful. Next morning, Aunt Edith went off by
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the eight thirty train. The children's school satchels were filled not with books,
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but with buns. Instead of exercise books, there were sandwiches, and in
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the place of inky pencil boxes were two magnificent boxes of peppermint creams, which
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had cost a hole shilling each and had been recklessly bought by Aunt Edith in
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the agitation of the parting hour. When they saw her off at the station,
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they went slowly up the red brick paved sidewalk that always looked as though
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it had just been washed, And when they got to the top of the
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hill, they stopped and looked at each other. It can't be wrong,
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said Edred. She never told us not to, said Elfrida. I've noticed,
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said Edred, that when grown up people say they'll see about anything you
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want, it never happens. I've noticed that too, said Elfrida. Aunty
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always said she'd see about taking us there, Yes, she did. We
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won't be mean and sneaky about it, Edred insisted, though no one had
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suggested that he would be mean and sneaky. We'll tell Aunty directly she gets
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back, of course, said Elfrida, rather relieved, for she had not
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felt at all sure that Edred meant to do this after all, said Edred.
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It's our castle. We ought to go and see the cradle of our
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race. That's what it calls it in Cliffgate, in its environs. I
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say, let's call it a pilgrimage. The satchels will do for packs,
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and we can get half many walking sticks with that penny of yours. We
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can put peas in our shoes if you like, he added generously. We
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should have to go back for them. And I don't expect the split kind
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count anyway, And perhaps they'd hurt, said Elfrida doubtfully. And I want
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my penny, for she stopped, warned by her brother's frown. All right,
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then she ended, you can have it, only give me half next
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time you get a penny. That's only fair. I'm not usually unfair,
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said Edred coldly. Don't let's be pilgrims, but I should like to,
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said Elfrida. Edred was obstinate. No, he said, we'll just walk,
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so they just walked rather dismally. The town was getting thinner, like
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the tract of stalking that surrounds a hole. The houses were farther apart and
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had large gardens, and one of them, a maid was singing to herself
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as she shook out the mats, a thing which somehow maids don't do much
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in towns. Good luck, says I to my sweetheart, for I will
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love you true and all the while we've got to part, my luck shall
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go with you. That's lucky for us, said Elfrida amiably. We're not
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her silly sweetheart, said Edred. No, but we heard her sing it,
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and he wasn't here, so he couldn't. There's a sign post.
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I wonder how far we've gone. I'm getting awfully tired, bed better of
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being pilgrims, said Edred. They never get tired, however many peas they
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have in their shoes. I will now, said Elfrida. You can't,
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said Edred. It's too late for miles and miles from the stick shop.
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Very well, I shan't go on, said Elfrida. You got out of
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bed the wrong side this morning. I've tried to soft answer you as hard
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as ever I could all the morning, and I'm not going to try any
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more. So there don't, then, said Edred, bitterly, go along
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home. If you like, you're only a girl. I'd rather be only
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a girl than what you are, said she. And what's that I should
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like to know? Elfrida stopped and shut her eyes tight. Don't don't,
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don't, don't, she said. I won't be cross. I won't be
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cross. I won't be cross. Packs drop it, don't, let's don't.
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Let's what quarrel about? Nothing, said Elfrida, opening her eyes and
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walking on very fast. We're always doing it. Aunty says, it's a
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habit. If boys are so much splendider than girls, they ought to be
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able to stop when they like. Suppose they don't like, said he,
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kicking his boots in the thick white dust, well, said she. I'll
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say I'm sorry first, Will that do? I was just going to say
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it first myself, said Edred in aggrieved tones. Come on, he added,
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more generously. Here's the sign post. Let's see what it says.
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It said, quite plainly and without any nonsense about it, that they had
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come a mile and three quarters, adding most unkindly that it was eight miles
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to Ardencastle. But it said it was a quarter of a mile to Ardenhurst's
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station. Let's go by train, said Edred grandly. No money, said
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Elfrida, very forlornly. Indeed, aha, said Edred. Now you'll see
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I'm not mean about money. I brought my new florin oh, Eedrid,
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said the girl, stricken with remorse. You are noble, pooh, said
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the boy, and his ears grew red with mingled triumph and modesty. That's
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nothing. Come on. End of Section one.