The Little House
Everybody has heard of the Little House in the Kensington Gardens, whichis the only house in the whole world that the fairies have built forhumans. But no one has really seen it, except just three or four, andthey have not only seen it but slept in it, and unless you sleep in ityou never see it. This is because it is not there when you lie down, butit is there when you wake up and step outside.
In a kind of way everyone may see it, but what you see is not reallyit, but only the light in the windows. You see the light after Lock-outTime. David, for instance, saw it quite distinctly far away among thetrees as we were going home from the pantomime, and Oliver Bailey sawit the night he stayed so late at the Temple, which is the name ofhis father's office. Angela Clare, who loves to have a tooth extractedbecause then she is treated to tea in a shop, saw more than one light,she saw hundreds of them all together, and this must have been thefairies building the house, for they build it every night and alwaysin a different part of the Gardens. She thought one of the lights wasbigger than the others, though she was not quite sure, for they jumpedabout so, and it might have been another one that was bigger. But if itwas the same one, it was Peter Pan's light. Heaps of children have seenthe fight, so that is nothing. But Maimie Mannering was the famous onefor whom the house was first built.
Maimie was always rather a strange girl, and it was at night that shewas strange. She was four years of age, and in the daytime she wasthe ordinary kind. She was pleased when her brother Tony, who was amagnificent fellow of six, took notice of her, and she looked up to himin the right way, and tried in vain to imitate him and was flatteredrather than annoyed when he shoved her about. Also, when she was battingshe would pause though the ball was in the air to point out to youthat she was wearing new shoes. She was quite the ordinary kind in thedaytime.
But as the shades of night fell, Tony, the swaggerer, lost his contemptfor Maimie and eyed her fearfully, and no wonder, for with dark therecame into her face a look that I can describe only as a leary look.It was also a serene look that contrasted grandly with Tony's uneasyglances. Then he would make her presents of his favourite toys (whichhe always took away from her next morning) and she accepted them with adisturbing smile. The reason he was now become so wheedling and she somysterious was (in brief) that they knew they were about to be sent tobed. It was then that Maimie was terrible. Tony entreated her not to doit to-night, and the mother and their coloured nurse threatened her, butMaimie merely smiled her agitating smile. And by-and-by when they werealone with their night-light she would start up in bed crying "Hsh! whatwas that?" Tony beseeches her! "It was nothing--don't, Maimie, don't!"and pulls the sheet over his head. "It is coming nearer!" she cries;"Oh, look at it, Tony! It is feeling your bed with its horns--it isboring for you, oh, Tony, oh!" and she desists not until he rushesdownstairs in his combinations, screeching. When they came up to whipMaimie they usually found her sleeping tranquilly, not shamming, youknow, but really sleeping, and looking like the sweetest little angel,which seems to me to make it almost worse.
But of course it was daytime when they were in the Gardens, and thenTony did most of the talking. You could gather from his talk that hewas a very brave boy, and no one was so proud of it as Maimie. She wouldhave loved to have a ticket on her saying that she was his sister. Andat no time did she admire him more than when he told her, as he oftendid with splendid firmness, that one day he meant to remain behind inthe Gardens after the gates were closed.
"Oh, Tony," she would say, with awful respect, "but the fairies will beso angry!"
"I daresay," replied Tony, carelessly.
"Perhaps," she said, thrilling, "Peter Pan will give you a sail in hisboat!"
"I shall make him," replied Tony; no wonder she was proud of him.
But they should not have talked so loudly, for one day they wereoverheard by a fairy who had been gathering skeleton leaves, from whichthe little people weave their summer curtains, and after that Tony was amarked boy. They loosened the rails before he sat on them, so that downhe came on the back of his head; they tripped him up by catching hisbootlace and bribed the ducks to sink his boat. Nearly all the nastyaccidents you meet with in the Gardens occur because the fairies havetaken an ill-will to you, and so it behoves you to be careful what yousay about them.
Maimie was one of the kind who like to fix a day for doing things,but Tony was not that kind, and when she asked him which day he was toremain behind in the Gardens after Lock-out he merely replied, "Justsome day;" he was quite vague about which day except when she asked"Will it be today?" and then he could always say for certain that itwould not be to-day. So she saw that he was waiting for a real goodchance.
This brings us to an afternoon when the Gardens were white with snow,and there was ice on the Round Pond, not thick enough to skate on butat least you could spoil it for tomorrow by flinging stones, and manybright little boys and girls were doing that.
When Tony and his sister arrived they wanted to go straight to the pond,but their ayah said they must take a sharp walk first, and as she saidthis she glanced at the time-board to see when the Gardens closed thatnight. It read half-past five. Poor ayah! she is the one who laughscontinuously because there are so many white children in the world, butshe was not to laugh much more that day.
Well, they went up the Baby Walk and back, and when they returned to thetime-board she was surprised to see that it now read five o'clock forclosing time. But she was unacquainted with the tricky ways of thefairies, and so did not see (as Maimie and Tony saw at once) that theyhad changed the hour because there was to be a ball to-night. She saidthere was only time now to walk to the top of the Hump and back, and asthey trotted along with her she little guessed what was thrilling theirlittle breasts. You see the chance had come of seeing a fairy ball.Never, Tony felt, could he hope for a better chance.
He had to feel this, for Maimie so plainly felt it for him. Her eagereyes asked the question, "Is it to-day?" and he gasped and then nodded.Maimie slipped her hand into Tony's, and hers was hot, but his was cold.She did a very kind thing; she took off her scarf and gave it to him!"In case you should feel cold," she whispered. Her face was aglow, butTony's was very gloomy.
As they turned on the top of the Hump he whispered to her, "I'm afraidNurse would see me, so I sha'n't be able to do it."
Maimie admired him more than ever for being afraid of nothing but theirayah, when there were so many unknown terrors to fear, and she saidaloud, "Tony, I shall race you to the gate," and in a whisper, "Then youcan hide," and off they ran.
Tony could always outdistance her easily, but never had she known himspeed away so quickly as now, and she was sure he hurried that he mighthave more time to hide. "Brave, brave!" her doting eyes were crying whenshe got a dreadful shock; instead of hiding, her hero had run out at thegate! At this bitter sight Maimie stopped blankly, as if all her lapfulof darling treasures were suddenly spilled, and then for very disdainshe could not sob; in a swell of protest against all puling cowards sheran to St. Govor's Well and hid in Tony's stead.
When the ayah reached the gate and saw Tony far in front she thought herother charge was with him and passed out. Twilight came on, and scoresand hundreds of people passed out, including the last one, who alwayshas to run for it, but Maimie saw them not. She had shut her eyes tightand glued them with passionate tears. When she opened them somethingvery cold ran up her legs and up her arms and dropped into her heart.It was the stillness of the Gardens. Then she heard clang, then fromanother part _clang_, then _clang_, _clang_ far away. It was the Closingof the Gates.
Immediately the last clang had died away Maimie distinctly heard a voicesay, "So that's all right." It had a wooden sound and seemed to comefrom above, and she looked up in time to see an elm tree stretching outits arms and yawning.
She was about to say, "I never knew you could speak!" when a metallicvoice that seemed to come from the ladle at the well remarked to theelm, "I suppose it is a bit coldish up there?" and the elm repl
ied, "Notparticularly, but you do get numb standing so long on one leg," and heflapped his arms vigorously just as the cabmen do before they drive off.Maimie was quite surprised to see that a number of other tall trees weredoing the same sort of thing and she stole away to the Baby Walk andcrouched observantly under a Minorca Holly which shrugged its shouldersbut did not seem to mind her.
She was not in the least cold. She was wearing a russet-coloured pelisseand had the hood over her head, so that nothing of her showed except herdear little face and her curls. The rest of her real self was hidden faraway inside so many warm garments that in shape she seemed rather like aball. She was about forty round the waist.
There was a good deal going on in the Baby Walk, when Maimie arrived intime to see a magnolia and a Persian lilac step over the railing and setoff for a smart walk. They moved in a jerky sort of way certainly, butthat was because they used crutches. An elderberry hobbled across thewalk, and stood chatting with some young quinces, and they all hadcrutches. The crutches were the sticks that are tied to young trees andshrubs. They were quite familiar objects to Maimie, but she had neverknown what they were for until to-night.
She peeped up the walk and saw her first fairy. He was a street boyfairy who was running up the walk closing the weeping trees. The wayhe did it was this, he pressed a spring in the trunk and they shutlike umbrellas, deluging the little plants beneath with snow. "Oh, younaughty, naughty child!" Maimie cried indignantly, for she knew what itwas to have a dripping umbrella about your ears.
Fortunately the mischievous fellow was out of earshot, but thechrysanthemums heard her, and they all said so pointedly "Hoity-toity,what is this?" that she had to come out and show herself. Then the wholevegetable kingdom was rather puzzled what to do.
"Of course it is no affair of ours," a spindle tree said after they hadwhispered together, "but you know quite well you ought not to be here,and perhaps our duty is to report you to the fairies; what do you thinkyourself?"
"I think you should not," Maimie replied, which so perplexed them thatthey said petulantly there was no arguing with her. "I wouldn't ask itof you," she assured them, "if I thought it was wrong," and ofcourse after this they could not well carry tales. They then said,"Well-a-day," and "Such is life!" for they can be frightfully sarcastic,but she felt sorry for those of them who had no crutches, and she saidgood-naturedly, "Before I go to the fairies' ball, I should like to takeyou for a walk one at a time; you can lean on me, you know."
At this they clapped their hands, and she escorted them up to the BabyWalk and back again, one at a time, putting an arm or a finger roundthe very frail, setting their leg right when it got too ridiculous, andtreating the foreign ones quite as courteously as the English, thoughshe could not understand a word they said.
They behaved well on the whole, though some whimpered that she had nottaken them as far as she took Nancy or Grace or Dorothy, and othersjagged her, but it was quite unintentional, and she was too much of alady to cry out. So much walking tired her and she was anxious to be offto the ball, but she no longer felt afraid. The reason she felt no morefear was that it was now night-time, and in the dark, you remember,Maimie was always rather strange.
They were now loath to let her go, for, "If the fairies see you," theywarned her, "they will mischief you, stab you to death or compel youto nurse their children or turn you into something tedious, like anevergreen oak." As they said this they looked with affected pity at anevergreen oak, for in winter they are very envious of the evergreens.
"Oh, la!" replied the oak bitingly, "how deliciously cosy it is to standhere buttoned to the neck and watch you poor naked creatures shivering!"
This made them sulky though they had really brought it on themselves,and they drew for Maimie a very gloomy picture of the perils that facedher if she insisted on going to the ball.
She learned from a purple filbert that the court was not in its usualgood temper at present, the cause being the tantalising heart of theDuke of Christmas Daisies. He was an Oriental fairy, very poorly of adreadful complaint, namely, inability to love, and though he had triedmany ladies in many lands he could not fall in love with one of them.Queen Mab, who rules in the Gardens, had been confident that her girlswould bewitch him, but alas, his heart, the doctor said, remained cold.This rather irritating doctor, who was his private physician, felt theDuke's heart immediately after any lady was presented, and then alwaysshook his bald head and murmured, "Cold, quite cold!" Naturally QueenMab felt disgraced, and first she tried the effect of ordering the courtinto tears for nine minutes, and then she blamed the Cupids and decreedthat they should wear fools' caps until they thawed the Duke's frozenheart.
"How I should love to see the Cupids in their dear little fools' caps!"Maimie cried, and away she ran to look for them very recklessly, for theCupids hate to be laughed at.
It is always easy to discover where a fairies' ball is being held,as ribbons are stretched between it and all the populous parts of theGardens, on which those invited may walk to the dance without wettingtheir pumps. This night the ribbons were red and looked very pretty onthe snow.
Maimie walked alongside one of them for some distance without meetinganybody, but at last she saw a fairy cavalcade approaching. To hersurprise they seemed to be returning from the ball, and she had justtime to hide from them by bending her knees and holding out her arms andpretending to be a garden chair. There were six horsemen in front andsix behind, in the middle walked a prim lady wearing a long train heldup by two pages, and on the train, as if it were a couch, reclined alovely girl, for in this way do aristocratic fairies travel about. Shewas dressed in golden rain, but the most enviable part of her was herneck, which was blue in colour and of a velvet texture, and of courseshowed off her diamond necklace as no white throat could have glorifiedit. The high-born fairies obtain this admired effect by pricking theirskin, which lets the blue blood come through and dye them, and youcannot imagine anything so dazzling unless you have seen the ladies'busts in the jewellers' windows.
Maimie also noticed that the whole cavalcade seemed to be in a passion,tilting their noses higher than it can be safe for even fairies to tiltthem, and she concluded that this must be another case in which thedoctor had said "Cold, quite cold!"
Well, she followed the ribbon to a place where it became a bridge over adry puddle into which another fairy had fallen and been unable to climbout. At first this little damsel was afraid of Maimie, who most kindlywent to her aid, but soon she sat in her hand chatting gaily andexplaining that her name was Brownie, and that though only a poor streetsinger she was on her way to the ball to see if the Duke would have her.
"Of course," she said, "I am rather plain," and this made Maimieuncomfortable, for indeed the simple little creature was almost quiteplain for a fairy.
It was difficult to know what to reply.
"I see you think I have no chance," Brownie said falteringly.
"I don't say that," Maimie answered politely, "of course your face isjust a tiny bit homely, but--" Really it was quite awkward for her.
Fortunately she remembered about her father and the bazaar. He had goneto a fashionable bazaar where all the most beautiful ladies in Londonwere on view for half-a-crown the second day, but on his return homeinstead of being dissatisfied with Maimie's mother he had said, "Youcan't think, my dear, what a relief it is to see a homely face again."
Maimie repeated this story, and it fortified Brownie tremendously,indeed she had no longer the slightest doubt that the Duke would chooseher. So she scudded away up the ribbon, calling out to Maimie not tofollow lest the Queen should mischief her.
But Maimie's curiosity tugged her forward, and presently at the sevenSpanish chestnuts, she saw a wonderful light. She crept forward untilshe was quite near it, and then she peeped from behind a tree.
The light, which was as high as your head above the ground, was composedof myriads of glow-worms all holding on to each other, and so forminga dazzling canopy over the fairy ring. There were thousa
nds of littlepeople looking on, but they were in shadow and drab in colour comparedto the glorious creatures within that luminous circle who were sobewilderingly bright that Maimie had to wink hard all the time shelooked at them.
It was amazing and even irritating to her that the Duke of ChristmasDaisies should be able to keep out of love for a moment: yet out of lovehis dusky grace still was: you could see it by the shamed looks of theQueen and court (though they pretended not to care), by the way darlingladies brought forward for his approval burst into tears as they weretold to pass on, and by his own most dreary face.
Maimie could also see the pompous doctor feeling the Duke's heart andhear him give utterance to his parrot cry, and she was particularlysorry for the Cupids, who stood in their fools' caps in obscureplaces and, every time they heard that "Cold, quite cold," bowed theirdisgraced little heads.
She was disappointed not to see Peter Pan, and I may as well tell younow why he was so late that night. It was because his boat had gotwedged on the Serpentine between fields of floating ice, through whichhe had to break a perilous passage with his trusty paddle.
The fairies had as yet scarcely missed him, for they could not dance, soheavy were their hearts. They forget all the steps when they are sadand remember them again when they are merry. David tells me that fairiesnever say "We feel happy": what they say is, "We feel _dancey_."
Well, they were looking very undancy indeed, when sudden laughter brokeout among the onlookers, caused by Brownie, who had just arrived and wasinsisting on her right to be presented to the Duke.
Maimie craned forward eagerly to see how her friend fared, though shehad really no hope; no one seemed to have the least hope except Brownieherself who, however, was absolutely confident. She was led before hisgrace, and the doctor putting a finger carelessly on the ducal heart,which for convenience sake was reached by a little trap-door in hisdiamond shirt, had begun to say mechanically, "Cold, qui--," when hestopped abruptly.
"What's this?" he cried, and first he shook the heart like a watch, andthen put his ear to it.
"Bless my soul!" cried the doctor, and by this time of course theexcitement among the spectators was tremendous, fairies fainting rightand left.
Everybody stared breathlessly at the Duke, who was very much startledand looked as if he would like to run away. "Good gracious me!" thedoctor was heard muttering, and now the heart was evidently on fire, forhe had to jerk his fingers away from it and put them in his mouth.
The suspense was awful!
Then in a loud voice, and bowing low, "My Lord Duke," said the physicianelatedly, "I have the honour to inform your excellency that your graceis in love."
You can't conceive the effect of it. Brownie held out her arms to theDuke and he flung himself into them, the Queen leapt into the arms ofthe Lord Chamberlain, and the ladies of the court leapt into the arms ofher gentlemen, for it is etiquette to follow her example in everything.Thus in a single moment about fifty marriages took place, for if youleap into each other's arms it is a fairy wedding. Of course a clergymanhas to be present.
How the crowd cheered and leapt! Trumpets brayed, the moon came out, andimmediately a thousand couples seized hold of its rays as if they wereribbons in a May dance and waltzed in wild abandon round the fairy ring.Most gladsome sight of all, the Cupids plucked the hated fools' capsfrom their heads and cast them high in the air. And then Maimie wentand spoiled everything. She couldn't help it. She was crazy with delightover her little friend's good fortune, so she took several steps forwardand cried in an ecstasy, "Oh, Brownie, how splendid!"
Everybody stood still, the music ceased, the lights went out, and all inthe time you may take to say "Oh dear!" An awful sense of her perilcame upon Maimie, too late she remembered that she was a lost child in aplace where no human must be between the locking and the opening of thegates, she heard the murmur of an angry multitude, she saw a thousandswords flashing for her blood, and she uttered a cry of terror and fled.
How she ran! and all the time her eyes were starting out of her head.Many times she lay down, and then quickly jumped up and ran on again.Her little mind was so entangled in terrors that she no longer knewshe was in the Gardens. The one thing she was sure of was that she mustnever cease to run, and she thought she was still running long after shehad dropped in the Figs and gone to sleep. She thought the snowflakesfalling on her face were her mother kissing her good-night. She thoughther coverlet of snow was a warm blanket, and tried to pull it over herhead. And when she heard talking through her dreams she thought it wasmother bringing father to the nursery door to look at her as she slept.But it was the fairies.
I am very glad to be able to say that they no longer desired to mischiefher. When she rushed away they had rent the air with such cries as "Slayher!" "Turn her into something extremely unpleasant!" and so on, but thepursuit was delayed while they discussed who should march in front,and this gave Duchess Brownie time to cast herself before the Queen anddemand a boon.
Every bride has a right to a boon, and what she asked for was Maimie'slife. "Anything except that," replied Queen Mab sternly, and all thefairies chanted "Anything except that." But when they learned how Maimiehad befriended Brownie and so enabled her to attend the ball to theirgreat glory and renown, they gave three huzzas for the little human, andset off, like an army, to thank her, the court advancing in frontand the canopy keeping step with it. They traced Maimie easily by herfootprints in the snow.
But though they found her deep in snow in the Figs, it seemed impossibleto thank Maimie, for they could not waken her. They went through theform of thanking her, that is to say, the new King stood on her body andread her a long address of welcome, but she heard not a word of it. Theyalso cleared the snow off her, but soon she was covered again, and theysaw she was in danger of perishing of cold.
"Turn her into something that does not mind the cold," seemed a goodsuggestion of the doctor's, but the only thing they could think ofthat does not mind cold was a snowflake. "And it might melt," the Queenpointed out, so that idea had to be given up.
A magnificent attempt was made to carry her to a sheltered spot, butthough there were so many of them she was too heavy. By this time allthe ladies were crying in their handkerchiefs, but presently the Cupidshad a lovely idea. "Build a house round her," they cried, and at onceeverybody perceived that this was the thing to do; in a moment a hundredfairy sawyers were among the branches, architects were running roundMaimie, measuring her; a bricklayer's yard sprang up at her feet,seventy-five masons rushed up with the foundation stone and the Queenlaid it, overseers were appointed to keep the boys off, scaffoldingswere run up, the whole place rang with hammers and chisels and turninglathes, and by this time the roof was on and the glaziers were puttingin the windows.
The house was exactly the size of Maimie and perfectly lovely. One ofher arms was extended and this had bothered them for a second, but theybuilt a verandah round it, leading to the front door. The windows werethe size of a coloured picture-book and the door rather smaller, but itwould be easy for her to get out by taking off the roof. The fairies, asis their custom, clapped their hands with delight over their cleverness,and they were all so madly in love with the little house that they couldnot bear to think they had finished it. So they gave it ever so manylittle extra touches, and even then they added more extra touches.
For instance, two of them ran up a ladder and put on a chimney.
"Now we fear it is quite finished," they sighed.
But no, for another two ran up the ladder, and tied some smoke to thechimney.
"That certainly finishes it," they cried reluctantly.
"Not at all," cried a glow-worm, "if she were to wake without seeing anight-light she might be frightened, so I shall be her night-light."
"Wait one moment," said a china merchant, "and I shall make you asaucer."
Now alas, it was absolutely finished.
Oh, dear no!
"Gracious me," cried a brass manufacturer, "there's no handle on t
hedoor," and he put one on.
An ironmonger added a scraper and an old lady ran up with a door-mat.Carpenters arrived with a water-butt, and the painters insisted onpainting it.
Finished at last!
"Finished! how can it be finished," the plumber demanded scornfully,"before hot and cold are put in?" and he put in hot and cold. Then anarmy of gardeners arrived with fairy carts and spades and seeds andbulbs and forcing-houses, and soon they had a flower garden to theright of the verandah and a vegetable garden to the left, and roses andclematis on the walls of the house, and in less time than five minutesall these dear things were in full bloom.
Oh, how beautiful the little house was now! But it was at last finishedtrue as true, and they had to leave it and return to the dance. Theyall kissed their hands to it as they went away, and the last to go wasBrownie. She stayed a moment behind the others to drop a pleasant dreamdown the chimney.
All through the night the exquisite little house stood there in the Figstaking care of Maimie, and she never knew. She slept until the dreamwas quite finished and woke feeling deliciously cosy just as morning wasbreaking from its egg, and then she almost fell asleep again, and thenshe called out,
"Tony," for she thought she was at home in the nursery. As Tony made noanswer, she sat up, whereupon her head hit the roof, and it opened likethe lid of a box, and to her bewilderment she saw all around her theKensington Gardens lying deep in snow. As she was not in the nursery shewondered whether this was really herself, so she pinched her cheeks, andthen she knew it was herself, and this reminded her that she was inthe middle of a great adventure. She remembered now everything that hadhappened to her from the closing of the gates up to her running awayfrom the fairies, but however, she asked herself, had she got into thisfunny place? She stepped out by the roof, right over the garden, andthen she saw the dear house in which she had passed the night. It soentranced her that she could think of nothing else.
"Oh, you darling, oh, you sweet, oh, you love!" she cried.
Perhaps a human voice frightened the little house, or maybe it now knewthat its work was done, for no sooner had Maimie spoken than it began togrow smaller; it shrank so slowly that she could scarce believe itwas shrinking, yet she soon knew that it could not contain her now. Italways remained as complete as ever, but it became smaller and smaller,and the garden dwindled at the same time, and the snow crept closer,lapping house and garden up. Now the house was the size of a littledog's kennel, and now of a Noah's Ark, but still you could see the smokeand the door-handle and the roses on the wall, every one complete.The glow-worm fight was waning too, but it was still there. "Darling,loveliest, don't go!" Maimie cried, falling on her knees, for the littlehouse was now the size of a reel of thread, but still quite complete.But as she stretched out her arms imploringly the snow crept up on allsides until it met itself, and where the little house had been was nowone unbroken expanse of snow.
Maimie stamped her foot naughtily, and was putting her fingers to hereyes, when she heard a kind voice say, "Don't cry, pretty human, don'tcry," and then she turned round and saw a beautiful little naked boyregarding her wistfully. She knew at once that he must be Peter Pan.