CHAPTER XI
Round the Fire
Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny liked to have an individual knowledge ofeach of their pupils, and as they did not yet know the Ramsays very wellthey asked them to tea one day. So after school Mavis and Merle stayedbehind and washed their hands, and went with the boarders into thedining-room, and ate scones and honey and home-baked cake, and feltrather shy and hardly spoke at all, although they were both sittingclose to Miss Pollard, who made most noble efforts at conversation. Whentea was over, those girls who were due to practise departed to theseveral pianos, and began a kind of musical combat of scales andstudies. The others collected round the fire in the recreation-room.Preparation had been put off on account of the visitors, and MissPollard had announced that she and Miss Fanny were coming in for half anhour's chat or fun.
"You must decide what you'd like to do," she said. "Ask Mavis and Merlewhat are their favourite games. Do they know 'adverbs'? It must besomething you can all play."
Standing in front of the fire everybody proposed something different,and nobody wanted anybody else's suggestion. Matters seemed likely to gorather lamely till Mamie had a really sensible idea.
"Let's ask Miss Pollard to tell us a Devonshire story instead of playinggames."
"Does she know any Devonshire stories?" said Merle quickly.
"Heaps and heaps. She says she learnt them from the old people aboutDurracombe, when she was a little girl, and her father was vicar. She'swritten most of them down. She has them in a manuscript book. We wanther to get it published some day, because they're so topping. They'reall about Devonshire pixies and witches and charms and things."
"I'd love to hear one."
"So would I," added Mavis, "I'd like it far better than playing a game,if you others don't mind."
"Oh, it's you visitors who are to choose."
So when Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny entered, and inquired what was to bethe particular form of entertainment, Mamie voted for Devonshirestories, and all hands were held up in favour of her proposal.
"My little folk-tales!" exclaimed Miss Pollard, looking very pleased."They're collected from the neighbourhood. The old people used to tellthem years ago, but nowadays I don't think anybody in Durracombe caresabout pixies. Most of them would have been forgotten if I hadn't writtenthem down. I'll fetch the book. I'd rather read you one than try toremember it. I never can recollect the best points when I tell stories."
Miss Pollard returned presently with a small manuscript volume, theresult of rather careful work on her part, for she was interested in theold legends of the district. She settled herself in a wicker arm-chair,with Doreen on her lap, and Elsbeth squatting on the floor leaningagainst her knee, while Miss Fanny, on the opposite side of the hearth,gave similar petting to Jessie and Prue. It was a "home-y" littlecircle, not in the least like school. Mavis could not help thinking howsweet Miss Pollard looked, with the firelight shining on her silverhair, and an unwonted pink colour in her cheeks. Miss Fanny, too, waspicturesque in the gloaming, and Prue's red-gold head made a bright spotof colour against her dull-green dress.
"They're dears, both of them," thought Mavis. "Absolute dears! Anybodymore unlike school-mistresses I never met in my life. They ought to havebeen married. They must have been so pretty when they were young. Isuppose they never met anybody in this out-of-the-way place. The schoolmay be old-fashioned, and behind the age, and all the rest of it, butthey give the boarders a good time at any rate. They're just mothers tothose Indian children. I'm glad to have had a peep at them behind thescenes and seen this side of them. I believe I'm rather in love withthem both."
But Miss Pollard had opened her manuscript book and, in her pleasantcultured voice, was beginning to read.
STOLEN BY THE PIXIES
Nancy Gurney sat by the side of the driftwood fire, and her tears fell fast as she rocked the cradle of her sleeping child. The afternoon sun shone brightly through the narrow casement window, and lit up the earthen floor and the brown rafters with a warm yellow glow. From outside came the fresh smell of the sea, and the soft grinding of the pebbles, while the waves lapped gently over the beach, as if they had never lashed themselves into foaming breakers against the cliffs.
The red poppies which grew on the low-thatched roof raised up their heads, battered by yesterday's storms, the great flat fish, hung up to dry in the sun by the doorway, flapped in the light breeze, and from the shore came the shrill eager voices of children, who gathered the driftwood cast up by the gale. But the fishing-boats! The brown-sailed fishing-boats that ought to have beaten back so safely into the harbour with the turn of the tide, alas! there was never a sign nor a sail of them to be seen, and there was many an aching heart in Bulvertor that day.
"Maybe they've got safe off towards the Cornish coast," said Kitty Trefyre, who sat knitting in the inglenook.
"Nay," said Nancy sadly, "they'd have been round the head by now. It's only the stoutest of boats that could have weathered such a gale as blew last night, and _The Dolphin_ was hardly seaworthy at best. No! They're gone! They're gone! We shall never see the brown sails again! The sea has taken my Peter as it has claimed all my dearest and best, and my poor boy is a fatherless babe."
She dropped her head on her hands, and sobbed till the tears fell into the cradle over the sleeping child.
"Don't take it so hard!" said Kitty. "We won't give them up yet! And whisht, girl, whisht! Whatever you do don't weep over the boy! Have you never heard that if tears fall on a sleeping child the pixies have power to steal it away?"
Nancy dashed the tears from her eyes, and walked to the doorway to take one long wistful look over the bay. The old woman laid aside her knitting and followed her.
"It's ill luck!" she muttered. "Ill luck to shed tears on sleeping babes, and I doubt me but evil will come of it. I'll gather some fern seed and drop it in the cradle. It's a well-known charm for keeping off pixies or witches, and 'tis better to be wise in time--wise in time!"
She hobbled out across the garden to where the ferns grew under the hedge, while Nancy turned sadly again to the fireside. She stooped over the cradle to kiss her sleeping child, but started back with a piercing, bitter cry. _The cradle was empty!_
The sound of her grief soon brought old Kitty hurrying to the cottage.
"My boy! My beautiful boy!" sobbed the despairing mother. "The pixies have stolen him away. Oh, that I had wept myself blind ere I let the tears fall over his cradle!"
She sat rocking herself to and fro in her sorrow, while the old woman threw the fern seed, picked, alas! too late, into the driftwood fire.
"There's one hope left," said Kitty, when the first wild burst of grief had worn itself away. "I am cunning and wise in the ways of the pixies, and I know that they dance each night in the moonlight on the ledge of rock where the sea-pinks bloom on the face of St. Morna's Cliff. If you hide yourself there, with a wreath of vervain round your hair, and could catch them unawares, my heart tells me you might force them to restore what they have stolen. But, alas! the plan is well-nigh impossible, for how could you tread safely over the crags where the boldest of our cliff climbers scarce dare to venture?"
"Yet I will do it!" cried Nancy, as she rose up with a new light in her eyes. "Quick! weave me the wreath of vervain, and show me by what spell I may force the fairies to give me back my child."
"Nay, that I cannot tell you," said old Kitty. "Your own mother-wit must find out the way. Start when the twilight has fallen, and when seven stars are shining over the sea; tell none your errand, and cast three sprigs from your vervain wreath if a hare should cross your path. Turn your wedding ring round on your finger before you venture to climb down the cliff, and call on St. Morna to help you. Watch silently all that may happen till you see your opportunity arise--and
may good luck and my blessing go with you!"
The dusk had fallen over the village, and the stars were beginning to shine in the darkening sky, when Nancy, with the wreath of vervain twined through her dark hair, crept softly past the last of the cottages, and took the little briary path which led through the low sandhills, and over the wind-swept hill-side up to St. Morna's Cliff.
Not a sound broke the silence, for the sea-gulls had vanished with the sunshine, and not even a fieldmouse stirred in the bracken. With hasty step she hurried along, for she must reach her post before moonrise. The path grew steeper, the bracken gave way to heather, and at length she found herself on the smooth grassy surface of St. Morna's Cliff. Down far below her she could see the wide rocky ledge where the sea-pinks were catching the last glow from the western sky. How steep the crag looked! The few tufts of grass and jutting-out pieces of rock offered her scarcely a foothold; should she make one false step she must be dashed to atoms upon the precipice beneath. She looked down and shivered; but the thought of her child sent a thrill of courage to her heart. Kneeling down on the short grass she prayed to St. Morna for help; then, turning her wedding ring round upon her finger, she swung herself over the edge of the cliff.
Clutching at a root here, feeling with her feet for the slightest foothold, grasping the worn splinters of the crag, she let herself down the face of the rock, till with panting breath and bleeding fingers she fell among the sea-pinks on the ledge below. She lay there for a while, half-insensible, till the first rays of the rising moon began to shimmer over the sea. Then she rose hastily, and, hiding herself behind a huge boulder, waited for what should happen.
When the first faint moonbeams fell all silvery white upon the ledge, the sea-pinks lifted their pretty heads; they grew and grew till each had changed into a gorgeous tropical flower, then, leaving their places, they ranged themselves into a wide circle, and cast forth such a fragrance as might have stolen out of the open gates of Paradise. Upon each hung a tiny silver bell, and as they nodded their heads the bells chimed out the sweetest fairy tunes. Little stars began to glitter among the leaves, some pink, some blue, some golden, and the short green grass inside the circle smoothed itself out into the most beautiful dancing-floor.
Then there was a great rushing sound in the sky, and from far and near there flew flocks of snow-white sea-gulls. As they reached the ledge their wings fell from them, and they turned into lovely little pixies, as light and transparent as gossamer. Joining hands, they stepped inside the circle of flowers and danced a graceful, intricate measure, while the fairy bells rang out their sweetest tunes. On and on they danced, hour after hour; the moon rose slowly in the sky, but the pixies' feet seemed never to tire as they beat time to the enchanting music.
Hiding behind the boulder of rock Nancy had been quite unnoticed, but her eager eyes watched all that had been taking place. Stretching out her hand very gently she managed to steal a pair of the sea-birds' wings, and hide them away in her bosom.
The little bells still rang out their chimes, and the pixies tripped lightly over the grass, till at length the moon began to wane, and the first glimmer of approaching dawn showed in the eastern sky.
Then the tiny dancers stopped short in their merry pastime, and, taking their white wings again, they flew away over the sea like a cloud of foam flakes. The coloured stars and the silver bells had disappeared, the tropical flowers broke up their circle and changed once more into simple little sea-pinks, and the grass, where the pixies had danced, grew up fresher and greener than ever.
But one little pixie was left behind. She wandered round wringing her hands and seeking vainly for the sea-bird's wings that should have borne her away with the others. Tripping behind the great boulder of rock she came face to face with Nancy, who still crouched in its shadow.
"Mortal! cruel mortal!" cried the pixie, "you have stolen my wings! Give them back, I pray you, before the dawn breaks, for the first rays of sunshine will wither me up, and I shall turn into a little faded brown leaf."
"Pixie! cruel pixie!" cried Nancy, "you have stolen my child! Bring him back to my arms, and then and not till then will I restore you your wings."
"How can I find you your child?" screamed the pixie. "Oh! give me my wings--my pretty white wings; let me fly safely away over the sea ere I turn for ever into a little withered brown leaf!" and she stamped her tiny foot in her helpless passion.
"You can and shall find me my child," said Nancy, "for I know that the pixies have stolen him away, and that only a pixie can bring him back to me. Look! the sky is reddening already, your time is short. Do my bidding speedily, and the wings are yours."
"The dawn! the dawn!" shrieked the pixie. "Mortal, I will grant you what you ask! Each of the sea-pinks which bloom on this green turf holds the soul of a child which we have stolen away from its cradle. For a moment each pretty flower shall wear its human face, then choose out your own child swiftly and let me be gone."
She clapped her hands, and each of the little sea-pinks turned to a smiling baby face. All the merry eyes and tiny curls were there that mothers had mourned for all over the country-side, and at her feet Nancy saw the sweet, laughing face of her stolen child. With a cry of joy she clasped him in her arms.
"The dawn! the dawn!" cried the pixie. "Mortal, give me my wings!"
Nancy drew them from her bosom, and gave them into the eager, entreating fingers. With a great rush of light the sun rose, his golden beams fell on the wide ledge of rock, lighting up a bed of simple little sea-pinks, while over the broad blue sea there flew a solitary sea-gull.
Folding her shawl about her child, Nancy slung him on to her back, and with slow steps and painful fingers she climbed up the face of the cliff. The larks were rising out of the heather, the little blue butterflies were flitting over the yellow gorse, the dew-drops hung like jewels in the gossamer, and far away on the distant water she could see the brown sails of the missing fishing-boats as they beat safely over the bar into Bulvertor Harbour.
* * * * *
"The story was told me in Devonshire dialect when I was a little girl,"said Miss Pollard, as she closed her book, "but I wrote it in ordinaryEnglish because the other is so hard to understand. It's funny that inthe accounts of fairies they always seem to speak the local languages.Irish fairies talk Erse, and Welsh fairies sing in Welsh. Have youpixies in the north, Mavis?"
"They're called 'boggarts' in our part of the world," laughed Mavis,"and I suppose they talk dialect. There's a north-country story about aboggart--a creature something like a brownie--that lived at a farm, andwas such a bother that the people thought they'd remove to get rid ofhim. They put all their furniture on a cart, and started out. They met aneighbour, who said to them: 'So thee's flittin'!' and the boggartpopped its ugly little head out of the churn and said: 'Aye, we'sflittin'!'.
"The people were so disgusted to find that it intended to go with themto new quarters that they turned back to their old farm and decided toput up with the nuisance."
"Ayah used to tell us Indian fairy tales," said Mamie, "but they wereabout princes and devas and lovely ladies."
"There are fairy tales all over the world," said Miss Pollard, "and ifwe go on telling them we shall never stop. It's time for preparationnow. You little people must run away, and the others must fetch theirbooks. Mavis and Merle must come some time to have tea with us again."