Hoodie

""I never did see anything so nice," she said. "Can I see the pictures when I"m _in_ the bed, Mrs. Denny?"

""Oh yes, my dear, they"re double--the same inside as out," said Mrs.

Denny, turning them as she spoke.

""How nice!" said Lena; "well, if I"m late for breakfast, Mrs. Denny, you"ll know that it"ll be with looking at the curtains."

""I"m not afraid but that you"ll sleep well in this bed, Miss Lena,"

said the old nurse. "There"s something very lucky about it. Many a one has told me they never had such sweet sleep or such pretty dreams as in our old bed. It"s maybe that the room is a very pleasant one, never either too hot or too cold, and there"s a beautiful scent of lavender, Miss Lena, all through the bed, as you"ll find."

"Lena poked her little nose into the pillows on the spot.

""Oh yes," she said, "it"s _beautiful_."

""But you must be, or any way you should be, hungry, my dear," said nurse. "And tea"s all ready. Come away down-stairs, and then you must go to bed early, you know. I must take great care of you, so that you"ll look quite a different little girl when you go home again."

"Lena did justice to the tea, I a.s.sure you. She thought she had never enjoyed anything so much before as the nice things Mrs. Denny had got ready for her. And after tea there was her little box to unpack, and her things to arrange neatly in the old-fashioned bureau and on the shelves of the large light closet, opening out of the room. And by the time all this was done Lena began to feel both sleepy and tired, and was not at all sorry when Mrs. Denny told her that she thought it was quite time for her to go to bed.

"And oh how very comfortable she felt when she was fairly settled in the dear old bed! It was _so_ snug--just soft enough, but not too soft--not the kind of suffocatingly soft feather-bed in which you get down into a hole and never get out of it all night. It was springy as well as soft, and though the linen was not perhaps so fine as what Lena was accustomed to at home, it was real homespun for all that--and through everything there was the delicious wild thymy sort of scent of lavender which Mrs.

Denny had promised her. Lena went to sleep really burrowing her nose, which was rather a snub one to begin with unfortunately, into the pillow, and the last words she thought to herself were, "I could really fancy myself in a sort of fairy-land. And oh how nice it will be in the morning to lie awake and look at those lovely curtains."

"There was not so very much lying awake however the first morning as she had expected. It was so late when she awoke that the sun was quite a good way up in the sky, and Mrs. Denny was standing by the bed smiling at her little visitor, and wondering if she would have to make fresh bread and milk for her, as the bowlful that was ready would be quite spoilt with waiting so long. Up jumped Lena.

""Oh, dear Mrs. Denny," she said, "I have had such a beautiful, lovely sleep. And you don"t know what funny dreams I had. I dreamt that there were fairies hidden in all the little crinks of the curtains, and I heard them talking about me and telling each other that it was the first time I had slept there, and they wondered if I was a good little girl.

And then I thought I heard one say "if she is good we can please her well." _Wasn"t_ it funny, Mrs. Denny?"

""Very funny," said Mrs. Denny, smiling. "But you know, Miss Lena, I told you you"d have beautiful sleeps and dreams here, didn"t I?"

""Yes," said Lena, "and I"m _so_ hungry, you don"t know how hungry I am."

"So she jumped up and washed and dressed and said her prayers, and came down to the kitchen as fresh and bright as a little girl could look. And Farmer Denny declared, if the roses in the gardens had been in bloom, he could have thought she had been stealing some for her cheeks--for already there was certainly more colour in them than when she had arrived. So the time pa.s.sed very happily, and Lena did not feel the least dull either by day or by night.

"It had not been the time of the full moon when she first came, but a few days later it happened to be so, and as the weather was beautifully fine just then there were almost no clouds in the sky, and the moon had it all her own pretty way. One night Lena woke up suddenly--it seemed to her that she had been asleep a long, long time, and she didn"t feel the least heavy or confused, but quite fresh and brisk as if she had had all the sleep she needed. And the shining moonlight came pouring in at the windows in a sort of wide band of light falling right across the bed and showing out most beautifully the colours and patterns on the old-fashioned curtains. They looked even brighter than by daylight, and as Lena lay and looked at them, she saw wonderful new pictures that she had never noticed before--the sort of pathway between the green branches and foliage that seemed to lead up to one of the little bowers or grottos grew more distinct, and as Lena tried to trace it out with her eyes, she suddenly saw a little figure moving along the path she was looking at. She rubbed her eyes and looked again--the figure had disappeared, but instead she saw clearly in the moonlight two b.u.t.terflies flitting about the same path, darting first backwards, then forwards, as if inviting her to follow them.

""If only I were a fly and could walk straight up a wall," thought Lena, "I"d really step up that curtain and see if I couldn"t make my way into that grotto," and then she laughed to herself at the fancy--"as if any one _could_ walk into a picture!" she said.

"And then it seemed to her that the b.u.t.terflies melted into the leaves--and there was no movement at all on the curtains.

""It must have been the trembling of the moonlight that made me fancy it," Lena said to herself. And the next morning when she awoke she stood up on tiptoe to examine the particular spot where she had seen these curious things. It looked just the same as the other parts of the curtains--only half hidden among the bushy leaves near the rustic doorway that Lena called the arbour, she found out a queer brown little face that she had not seen before. It seemed to her to peep out at her suddenly, and she fancied that it was the face of the figure she had watched moving along the path in the moonlight.

""How funny that I never noticed it before," she said, for when she looked at the same place on the pattern in other parts of the curtains she noticed the same queer little brown face, just like a monkey peeping from among the branches.

"She was so surprised that she thought she would ask Mrs. Denny if _she_ had ever noticed "the monkeys," but somehow it went quite out of her head. It was not till the next night that she remembered anything more about them.

"For the next night, strange to say, she wakened again in the same sudden way. And again the moonlight was shining right on the curtains, and this time Lena felt more sure than the night before, that something was moving about among the leaves and flowers and branches that seemed to stand out so brightly.

""Oh dear," she thought to herself, "I _do_ wish I could creep up quite quietly and see if it is one of those monkeys that has got loose. Oh please, Mr. Monkey, if you are a fairy, _do_ come down and fetch me,"

she added, laughing.

"But her laughter stopped suddenly. Almost as she said the words the most curious sound reached her ears--at first it seemed like the buzzing of lots and lots of flies, bluebottles, midges, bees, c.o.c.kchafers--every sort of creature of the kind, so that Lena started up in a fright. But no--no flies of any sort were to be seen, but nearer and nearer, louder and louder came the sound, till at last it grew into a sort of chant, as if a great number of little feet were stepping along together, and a great number of little buzzing voices singing in time to them. And glancing up at the curtains Lena plainly saw a whole quant.i.ty of tiny brown figures stepping--you couldn"t call it sliding, they moved too regularly--downwards in the direction of her face. And if she had looked closer, she would have seen that every place in the pattern where the wee brown faces peeped out was empty! The monkeys had come to fetch her!

Where to?

"That I must try to tell you--but as to how she got there, that is a different matter. She never knew it herself, so how could any one else know it? All I can tell you is this--she found herself standing in front of a little house--a pretty little house, something like the carved Swiss cottages that your mamma has in the library--there was a garden all round it, thick trees and bushes at the sides, and as Lena suddenly, as it were, seemed to awake to find herself there, she heard at the same moment a sort of scuttling all about her, just as if a lot of hares or rabbits had taken flight. And when she quickly turned round to look, she saw disappearing among the shrubs ever so many--_quant.i.ties_ of pairs of little brown legs and feet--the bodies and heads belonging to them being already hidden in the green.

""It must be the monkeys," thought Lena, and as this came into her mind it struck her too that this place where she found herself was the very place where she had wished to be. Till this moment she had somehow forgotten about it, but now she looked about her with great interest--yes--this cottage must be the very place she had called an arbour, for the fence in front of it was of rustic work like dried branches twisted together, and there at the side was one of the trees with the thick leaves where the monkey"s face had peeped out--and at the other side were the plants with the big bobbing red flowers, and the other ones with the hanging yellow lilies--all the things she had noticed so often. Lena had really got her wish. She was _in_ the chintz curtains. Only there were no birds, no b.u.t.terflies, nothing moving at all--no monkeys" faces peeping at her from among the leaves. Everything was perfectly still.

""What shall I do?" thought Lena. "Shall I go into the house and look about me? I wonder if it would be rude."

"It didn"t seem so, for the door was left open--wide open, as if on purpose; so, after knocking once or twice and no one coming, Lena walked in. Such a pretty, but such a queer little house it was. It was more like a nest than a house. There was a little kitchen with cupboards all round, with open lattice-work doors through which you could see what was in them. They were filled with all sorts of queer provisions, nuts, acorns, apples of different kinds, and some fruits that Lena had never seen before. Then in the parlour the carpet was the prettiest you could imagine. Lena could not think what it was till she stooped down and felt it with her hands, and then she found it was moss, real live growing moss, so bright and green, and so soft and springy. And the sofa and chairs were all made of growing plants, twisted and trained so that the roots made the seat and the branches the back. Each was different. Lena sat down in one or two, and could not tell which was the most comfortable, they were all so nice, and so pretty. For each was ornamented with a different flower that seemed to grow in a wreath on purpose round the back and down the arms. There was no fireplace in the room, but there were some nice furry-looking rugs lying about, and when Lena looked at them closely she saw they were made of moss too--moss of a different kind, browner than the other, plaited together in some wonderful way with the soft flowery tufts kept outside. Lena lay down on the sofa and covered herself up with one of these rugs.

""How comfortable it is! What an awfully nice little house this is!" she said to herself. "But how I do wish some one would come to speak to me.

It feels rather like Silverhair in the Three Bears. Mr. Monkey, if this is your house, please come and speak to me."

"No sooner had she said this than there stood before her a wee brown figure--brown all over, face, hands, feet and all--only his eyes, which sparkled brightly like beads, were black. He was dressed in a short scarlet jacket, and on his head was a scarlet cap with a long, very long ta.s.sel. He took off the cap and bowed low--very low at Lena"s feet--the top of his head when he stood upright reached about to her knees, and he bowed so low that his nose nearly touched her toes. Lena felt rather uncomfortable--she was not used to such very great respect, and she felt a little startled to think that she had called out to the little man, as "Mr. Monkey." No doubt he was rather like a monkey, but still--

[Ill.u.s.tration: "He took off the cap and bowed low."]

"She stood to think of something nice and civil to say, but she could not, try as she might, think of anything better than "Thank you, sir."

"It did quite well--the little man seemed quite pleased, for he bowed again as low as before, and in a clear silvery voice like a little bell he spoke to Lena.

""What are your biddings, little lady?""

""Oh," said Lena, "I do so want to see all this funny place. It was very kind of you to bring me up here, but I would like to see it all. May I walk all about your garden, Mr. Mon--oh, I beg your pardon," she added in a hurry.

""Never mind," said the little man. "One name is as good as another. My brothers and I have been watching you, and we wish you well. If you will come with me I will show you all I can."

""Oh, thank you," said Lena, jumping up in a moment.

"The little man walked out of his house, and standing in front of it he gave a long shrill whistle. Immediately from every direction whole quant.i.ties of other little brown men appeared--they seemed to tumble out of every branch of the trees, to peep up out of the ground almost at Lena"s feet--till at last she felt like Gulliver among the Lilliputians.

""Fetch the carpet," said the first little man, who seemed a sort of commander, and before Lena had time to see where it came from a beautifully bright blue sheet was stretched out before her, held all round by the dozens and dozens of little brown men, as if they were going to shake it.

""Step on to it, little lady," said her friend.

"Lena did so, and no sooner had her feet touched it than she felt it rise, rise up into the air, up up, till she wondered where she was going to. Then suddenly, as suddenly as it had begun to move, it stopped.

""Where are we?" she said, just then noticing for the first time that her own particular little brown man was sitting at her feet.

""At the top," said the little man; "it would have taken you a long time to climb up here, and we did not want to tire you. Now you shall see our gardens."

"He jumped off the carpet, and Lena followed him. All the other little men had disappeared, but she hardly noticed it, she was so delighted with what she saw. Before her were beautiful flower paths--paths edged with tall growing flowers of every colour indeed, for they never stayed the same for half a moment, but kept changing like rainbows--melting from one shade into another in the loveliest way, like the coloured lights at the pantomime.

""Oh, how lovely!" said Lena. "May I gather some, please?"

"The little man shook his head.

""You cannot," he said, walking on before her.

"After a while he turned down another path.