|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 56
"Here is Amelia!" shouted the dwarf when they reached the first
haycock.
"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed all the others, as they poked out here and there
from the hay.
"Bring a stock," said the dwarf; on which the hay was lifted, and out
ran six or seven dwarfs, carrying what seemed to Amelia to be a little
girl like herself. And when she looked closer, to her horror and
surprise the figure was exactly like her--it was her own face, clothes,
and everything.
"Shall we kick it into the house?" asked the goblins.
"No," said the dwarf; "lay it down by the haycock. The father and
mother are coming to seek her now."
When Amelia heard this she began to shriek for help; but she was pushed
into the haycock, where her loudest cries sounded like the chirruping
of a grasshopper.
It was really a fine sight to see the inside of the cock.
Farmers do not like to see flowers in a hayfield, but the fairies do.
They had arranged all the buttercups, &c., in patterns on the haywalls;
bunches of meadow-sweet swung from the roof like censers, and perfumed
the air; and the ox-eye daisies which formed the ceiling gave a light
like stars. But Amelia cared for none of this. She only struggled to
peep through the hay, and she did see her father and mother and nurse
come down the lawn, followed by the other servants, looking for her.
When they saw the stock they ran to raise it with exclamations of pity
and surprise. The stock moaned faintly, and Amelia's mamma wept, and
Amelia herself shouted with all her might.
"What's that?" said her mamma. (It is not easy to deceive a mother.)
"Only the grasshoppers, my dear," said Papa. "Let us get the poor child
home."
The stock moaned again, and the mother said, "Oh dear! oh
dear-r-Ramelia!" and followed in tears.
"Rub her eyes," said the dwarf; on which Amelia's eyes were rubbed with
some ointment, and when she took a last peep, she could see that the
stock was nothing but a hairy imp, with a face like the oldest and most
grotesque of apes.
"--and send her below," added the dwarf. On which the field opened, and
Amelia was pushed underground.
She found herself on a sort of open heath, where no houses were to be
seen. Of course there was no moonshine, and yet it was neither daylight
nor dark. There was as the light of early dawn, and every sound was at
once clear and dreamy, like the first sounds of the day coming through
the fresh air before sunrise. Beautiful flowers crept over the heath,
whose tints were constantly changing in the subdued light; and as the
hues changed and blended, the flowers gave forth different perfumes.
All would have been charming but that at every few paces the paths were
blocked by large clothes-baskets full of dirty frocks, And the frocks
were Amelia's. Torn, draggled, wet, covered with sand, mud, and dirt of
all kinds, Amelia recognized them.
"You've got to wash them all," said the dwarf, who was behind her as
usual; "that's what you've come down for--not because your society is
particularly pleasant. So the sooner you begin the better."
"I can't," said Amelia (she had already learnt that "I won't" is not an
answer for every one); "send them up to Nurse, and she'll do them. It
is her business."
"What Nurse can do she has done, and now it's time for you to begin,"
said the dwarf. "Sooner or later the mischief done by spoilt children's
wilful disobedience comes back on their own hands. Up to a certain
point we help them, for we love children, and we are wilful ourselves.
But there are limits to everything. If you can't wash your dirty
frocks, it is time you learnt to do so, if only that you may know what
the trouble is you impose on other people. _She_ will teach you."
The dwarf kicked out his foot in front of him, and pointed with his
long toe to a woman who sat by a fire made upon the heath, where a pot
was suspended from crossed poles. It was like a bit of a gipsy
encampment, and the woman seemed to be a real woman, not a fairy--which
was the case, as Amelia afterwards found. She had lived underground for
many years, and was the dwarfs' servant.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|