""Indeed I do," replied the old woman, "and Joseph knows he"ll be welcome."
"And thus it was arranged, and in about ten days" time Joe went to their house, and carried them a very glowing account of the remarkable success that had attended him "along of the parlours;" he also opened his heart so much, that he actually took me with him, as an offering to Liza. I am very much afraid the glory of those horrid little new parlours had quite put him out of conceit with me. Liza had been as good as her word, and furnished Joe with a pocket full of ottomy"s, all covered with gay shreds of chintz. The nurse at Mrs. Spenser"s had sent them a most bountiful collection of bits, for she had spoken to her mistress, and told her the purpose she was collecting them for, and Mrs. Spenser, with her usual kindness, had herself found a good parcel of bits to add to the store.
"On hearing this, Joe thought he could do no less than to leave me with his humble and grateful duty to the young ladies at Mrs. Spenser"s house, on his way back to his own underground home. And so this is how I became a member of your circle, my friends, and have had the honour of being called on to amuse you in my turn. I believe, from a few words I heard nurse let fall some time ago, that my old master is still alive, and doing a flourishing trade in "Kitchens and Parlours!" And I have no doubt he is still carrying out his less lucrative, but charitable calling, among the sick children of his wretched neighbourhood."
"We are all much obliged to you for your history," said the Ball, "which is quite as interesting as any we have heard this evening. And now I shall call upon our very fair friend the Shuttlec.o.c.k for the next story."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FATE OF THE SHUTTLEc.o.c.k.
"Oh," simpered the Shuttlec.o.c.k, "I am quite distracted at the idea of being called upon to take any part in public affairs. And, alas, how it will torture my sensitive feelings to recall to mind the bright scenes in which I appeared, and was once one of the most important actors! Ah, my friends, although you see me reduced to this--to _this_ miserable shadow of what I once was--you are not to imagine I was always thus faded, thus broken and destroyed! No! In my youth my heart was indeed light within me; for was it not of the best and most expensive species of cork? A portion of a n.o.ble tree that once waved its umbrageous branches in the fair land of Spain, and that fulfilled a better purpose, even than that of sheltering a fair group of dark-eyed Castilian maids, by furnishing the substance that was to a.s.sume so fair a shape as I did once! My outside was no less beautiful, for I was covered with the best and brightest hued scarlet morocco leather, and gilded richly besides. A n.o.ble coronet of graceful plumes, once white as driven snow, adorned me, plucked I doubt not, from the soaring pinion of some beautiful bird. Not low, therefore, could have been the rank of him to whom I owe my existence; indeed I have very little reason to doubt that he was of very ancient lineage and n.o.ble name. But alas! It is unavailing to recall all these bright departed glories, which have long, long since fled, and left me the wreck you behold me!"
So saying, the Shuttlec.o.c.k feebly waved her last remaining dingy feather, and sank down on her side, as if in despair. But the Kite fanned her very busily; and the Humming Top gave her such a long, tiresome lecture on the duty of being contented, that she speedily recovered herself, and continued her story.
"My first public appearance in life was on the occasion of a superb Fancy Fair, which was held in the ancestral park of one of our country"s proudest n.o.bles. It was for the benefit of a distinguished charity, and some of the fairest and most fashionable ladies of the court were to hold stalls on the occasion. It was whispered that even Royalty or some of its branches might visit the spot, and therefore every effort was made to give the fete a worthy success. Words would fail me were I to describe to you the beauty of the scene on the important day. A monster marquee was erected on the most commanding site in the fine domain, and decorated gaily with the flags of all nations. A fine avenue of aged trees made a n.o.ble sheltered walk for the gay visitors, and it led almost all the way to the marquee, the s.p.a.ce between being covered with a smart scarlet-striped awning overhead.
"I had time to observe all this, as I was carried in a basket from the Castle, down the green slopes to the marquee, by one of the many smart ladies" maids in attendance. But when we entered, the effect, at once so fairy-like and so elegant, rendered me motionless and almost senseless.
The interior was draped with pink and green, and the elegant stalls were being laid out with all their pretty trifles. I was honoured with a place on the stall of the d.u.c.h.ess herself, and had therefore an excellent opportunity of witnessing the habits and manners of real high life, and I felt at once in my element. Here, thought I, am I placed in my natural sphere, a dweller with the fair and the n.o.ble, surrounded with rank and beauty, and breathing only the refined air of higher life.
I was cut short in my musings by Lord Adolphus, the youngest son of the d.u.c.h.ess, who, with the charming vivacity so natural to his birth and station, abstracted me from the dainty basket in which I reposed, with a few companions of less merit. I was soon in full activity, and took my first flights to admiration, by the ready and graceful a.s.sistance of himself and a young companion, also a t.i.tled member of society.
""What a jolly shuttlec.o.c.k," remarked Lord Adolphus, "it goes as high as the top of the tent, I declare. I say, Gerry, do you think you could pitch it over, outside? I"ll bet you twopence you don"t."
""I"ll lay six to one, I _do_," replied Sir Gerald, running eagerly out of the tent, with me in his hand. He did not exhibit _quite_ the same amount of refinement as his n.o.ble young friend; in fact, he was more like boys in general, and lacked that _perfume_, if I may call it so, of high breeding which so signally showed itself in _my_ earliest friend, Lord Adolphus. After a spirited contest between the two gallant boys, I _was_ thrown over the marquee, and, after such a lofty and prolonged flight, fell exhausted, without the power of saving myself, into a little crystal pool of water close by. I heard my n.o.ble young playfellows searching for me everywhere, and began to entertain a deadly fear that I should be left in my watery prison. Luckily, the warm day and their game had made them thirsty, and they both came to quench their thirst here, little thinking of finding me, whom they had no doubt so long and vainly searched for.
""By Jove, Dolly," cried Sir Gerald, "_here"s_ the shuttlec.o.c.k after all!"
""What a lark," replied Lord Adolphus; "it"s been chucked into old Rosamond"s well, and ought to come out beautiful for ever!"
""I"m glad we found it," said Sir Gerald; "or perhaps there"d have been a row. I saw Githa count "em all, and she"d have been sure to bully us about it."
""We could have given her the tin for it then," replied Adolphus, "only I"m so hard up just now. I owe a lot of money for sweets and tarts; and I want to buy a cricket bat this quarter. But hulloa, Gerry, how wet the beggar is?"
"But the dear gentlemanly fellow, soon remedied this fault, for he wiped me carefully with his own cambric handkerchief, and I was not the worse, except that my coronet of plumes looked rather damp, or, as Sir Gerald facetiously expressed it, "all draggletail!"
"A little sojourn in the glowing Sun, soon restored my feathers to their early beauty, as I was carefully taken back, no worse for my pleasant little gambol, and placed in the basket again, on the d.u.c.h.ess"s stall.
The hour of opening arrived, one o"clock; but, out upon the cruel Fates!
long before the turning point of noon, lowering clouds had veiled the bright, too treacherously bright rays of the Sun, and heavy, drenching showers succeeded, ending in a steady downpour that promised to last out the day. Oh dear! What ruin and destruction ensued to the elegant erection of the morning! The marquee leaked in many places from the sudden violence of the storm, and none of the precautions, hastily taken, would make it quite water-tight. The unlucky visitors, with their gay summer dresses all sopped and clinging with wet, crowded in to gain what little shelter they could; and all was damp, dreary and desolate!
The higher cla.s.s, more fortunate than the rest, accompanied the d.u.c.h.ess to the Castle; the stalls were deserted in favour of the younger, and less particular among the gay party, and the marquee was only crowded by the more persevering vulgar mob, who were determined to have, as I heard one of the horrors avow, "their full pennorth," all they could see and get for their money.
"An evil destiny which seems to have fallen upon me early, relentlessly followed me now, and ruled my unwilling sacrifice. I was positively sold from the stall of the d.u.c.h.ess, by her Grace"s own maid, to a rich grocer in the city, for the sum of sixpence! Oh, degradation indeed! Fallen, fallen, fallen from my high estate indeed was I. No friendly hand interposed; no better purchaser came, so I was ignominiously wrapped in paper and put in Mr. Figge"s pocket. Nor had ruthless fortune yet done with me, for when I was carried to the abode of the Figge"s, although I had been really destined as a gift to his only daughter, Araminta Philippina, I was, by mistake in the hurry of returning, dropped in the carriage, and although a vigorous search seemed to be made by the fine footman, he did not succeed in finding me, and I remained hid in a far back corner of the roomy equipage for some days. Had I fallen to the share of Araminta Philippina, I should at least have retained the small consolation of being incessantly pointed out as having been bought from the d.u.c.h.ess herself, and a faint ray of my lost station would have still glimmered about me.
"But, alas, on emerging from my obscurity, I found I had indeed fallen in life, and from the highest to the lowest, for I was now located in the Mews, where Mr. Figge"s carriage was kept; and having been found during its dusting and arrangement by the wife of the coachman, I was handed over to her horrible tribe of uncouth, ill-behaved children.
"Oh, for the language that I heard round me now! It made my very feathers quiver sometimes; and as for the flights I took now,--ugh--it makes me shudder to recall them! I who had bathed in fair Rosamond"s crystal stream, was now doomed to be plunged in the inky rills that ran in the gutters round the sooty roofs. My beautiful red leather cover was soon dyed a dingy black; most of my feathers were violently pulled out by some of the younger ones, and the rest became somewhat of the colour of a London sparrow. At last, as a sort of release from worse miseries, I was tossed up so high by the horrid little flat wooden bat, which now became the means of my ascending, (and that in the hands of the coachman"s eldest son, was an instrument of indiscriminate torment to everything animate and inanimate), that I fell on the ledge of a back window in one of the houses in a square adjoining. The boy, I imagine, did not dare to go round to the house to ask for me again, and was therefore reduced to his original stock of playthings, consisting chiefly of a mutilated ginger-beer bottle, some oyster sh.e.l.ls, and a brickbat.
"Meanwhile I dwelt for some time on the window ledge, exposed to the wind and rain, but at any rate free from the vulgar annoyances to which I had been subjected of late. And this I could endure more calmly, and I had almost become resigned to my hard lot, when one day to my astonishment the window was opened. A young woman leant out with a hammer and nails in her hands, and proceeded to fix one in firmly on the side of the window. She did not see me, for I had become securely lodged in the other corner almost out of sight, and so she did not either pick me up, nor what I secretly feared most, throw me back again into the low haunts of my former miserable and odious life. She contented herself with merely hanging out a bird in its cage, and then partially closed the window again, and, I suppose, left the room.
"It is not my usual habit to make acquaintance _too_ readily with strangers, and therefore I did not commence a conversation with my feathered neighbour; but, then, as you are doubtless well aware, birds are generally of a sociable disposition, and p.r.o.ne to make remarks and enter into conversation with comparative strangers. And my new neighbour proved no exception to the rule, for he began to chatter and chirp in the most voluble manner, and had speedily related all his own personal history, and that of several members of his family. But I am not very fond of the affairs of people that do not belong to my own cla.s.s, and therefore did not pay much attention to his gossip. He was of a prying disposition too, as very communicative people generally are, and seemed rather anxious to know all about me. But I rather politely but loftily repelled him, for I did not choose my misfortunes to be the common talk of such small people. So I briefly informed him I had been far better off, and indeed it was now, only owing to peculiar circ.u.mstances I wished to remain for a time in comparative retirement.
"From him I learned that his owner was the under housemaid at this house, and that she was shortly about to leave, having obtained another situation where there was less work to do. The bird prattled in a lively fashion about the merry life he had led hitherto and the continued change he had seen, and seemed to be quite looking forward to what he called "his next place."
""I only wish you were going with me, you poor thing; I am sure you must be moped to death with staying up here by yourself so long. Don"t you think you could manage to roll into my cage, and then we could go off together?"
"My propriety was terribly shocked by this proposal of the goldfinch"s, and for some time I could give him no answer.
""You silly thing!" said he, angrily, at last, "surely you may travel with your own relations, and you know you and I must be kin, because we have both the distinguished ornament of feathers."
"This delicate compliment softened me a little, I must confess!" said the Shuttlec.o.c.k, bridling up with a very dignified air, which, in her dilapidated state, with her one ragged feather sticking out all awry, was a very comic affair. Consequently none of the toys could help laughing; as for the Kite, he was so amused that he waggled about like a sail in a rough wind. Even the languid, delicate Doll could not forbear a feeble smile, and the Shuttlec.o.c.k became so indignant, that she would have bounced out of the party, had her powers been equal to her spirit.
But, alas, though her cork was still sound, her wings had departed, and the solitary draggletail feather was not sufficient to waft her above the rude mirth of her auditors. But she was so deeply offended that it took the Ball a long time, and a world of trouble, to pacify her. At last, on his hinting that as time was pa.s.sing by he should be reduced to calling upon another member present for a story, she permitted herself to be pacified, and resumed her narrative, with a more haughty air, and in finer words than before:--
"My poor autobiography can be concluded in very few words now, for I have but little more to relate. My feathered connection, for he certainly made his claim good to a distant relationship, would take no denial, and told me he had set his heart on taking me with him when he went; and that he had a plan of his own by which he would be able to carry out his purpose. I therefore submitted to his decision, and counted the days, I must honestly own, very eagerly, until the period of our joint captivity arrived. The evening before, my bird relation requested a friendly Breeze, with whom he was on friendly terms, to blow me close to his cage. I was then, I should tell you, possessed still of several of my plumes, although they were in a dingy condition, and therefore more able to help myself. A good strong gust then, at the right moment, and carefully adjusted to the right quarter, sufficed to take me to the ledge of the bird"s food box. From thence he speedily, though with some amount of hard work, managed to pull and drag me inside the cage, a friendly wire stretching widely for the purpose. My friend then carefully pushed me under his seed-box, knowing that as long as I was pretty well out of sight, his mistress, Mary, would not take much trouble about it. From former experience and frequent removes, he knew well she would only find time to tie him up, cage and all, in a blue handkerchief, and carry him off at the very last moment. All this came to pa.s.s, as he so sagely predicted, and after being blinded-up in this fashion for some time, and jogged and shaken in a very uncomfortable manner, we came to our journey"s end in a bedroom in this house. We were not disturbed till next morning, for Mary had only time to give my friend his seed and water, before she set off on her new round of duties. Two days after, however, she managed to find time to think of the bird.
""You shall go down stairs into the kitchen, my pretty d.i.c.k," said she, chirping to him, "for cook says she is fond of birds, and will give me some sugar for you. But I must clean your cage first, for you are not fit to be seen, I"m sure, now!"
"And so saying, she proceeded to make d.i.c.k"s house clean and neat, and in the course of doing so, she came upon me. "Why, d.i.c.key," she said, laughing, "have you been trying a game of shuttlec.o.c.k, by way of sport?
How came this in your cage, I wonder!"
"d.i.c.k tried to explain in his bird fashion, and did so, _I_ thought, very intelligibly, but, then, as you know, all human beings are so very difficult of comprehension. So she took me out in spite of all my poor cousin"s protests, and laid me on the table in her room. On the following Sunday, when Mary was to stay at home with the little ones while nurse went to church, she remembered me, and brought me down to amuse the young Spensers. Like all the rest of their race, they soon became tired of me, and I was thrust away in this dusty cupboard till now. Of all the histories that have been related to amuse you, none, I am sure, have surpa.s.sed mine for vicissitudes and changes. I was the early companion of d.u.c.h.esses and Lords, and yet have been doomed to endure the society of coachmen and stable boys, and to be rescued from a rackety bird-cage to end my days in a dusty cupboard!"
Then the Shuttlec.o.c.k ceased to speak, and betook herself to her corner, to bewail in private the sad downfall she had endured.
"And now," said the Ball, "I will call upon our venerable friend, the Noah"s Ark; I am sure he will be able to tell us a great deal that is very interesting about himself and his numerous tribe."
The poor old Ark creaked slowly forward, and announced his willingness to add his history to the rest, beginning in the following words.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER IX.
WHAT BECAME OF NOAH"S ARK AND ALL ITS BEASTS.
"I must tell you a little about the hands that first made us, and to do so I must take you in fancy to the high Alps in Switzerland. There, during the long bright summer months, according to the practice of the country, the flocks and herds are pastured, only descending to the villages in autumn, when food and fodder grow scant. A temporary dwelling is erected, in which the Sennerin, the young girl who usually takes charge of them, lives for the season, and where she follows the dairy business peculiar to her calling. The long summer days pa.s.s so calmly and pleasantly there, while the cows and their young ones crop the juicy herbage of these mountain pastures. Meanwhile the shepherd lads, and those who are not busied in more active labours, often pa.s.s their leisure hours, while guarding their flocks with the help of their intelligent dogs, in carving cleverly some pretty little toys in the light wood peculiar to their province. These find a ready sale with the travellers, who climb these lofty heights to feast their eyes on the ranges of distant peaks and Alpine pa.s.ses, that seem almost reaching up to the sky.
"Sitting on the gra.s.s, with their quaint, old-fashioned knives, these lads carve elegant and graceful trifles, that often eventually find their way into royal palaces, and are used by many dainty fingers. My maker, however, was more given to the construction of toys for children; he preferred fashioning all kinds of animals and reptiles, to making flower bestudded paper knives or perforated work baskets; and he found a very good and ready sale for all he had time to manufacture. By his patient and incessant industry, he had earned a comfortable living for many years for his blind and aged mother, to whom he was a most dutiful and tender son. Never a penny of Fritz"s money was spent in idle folly, for neither gay ribbons for his hat nor silver buckles for his shoes ever wiled away his earned money from its pious purpose. He certainly was a true but very humble admirer of our Sennerin, who was the only daughter of a rich farmer of the village; and I had a few opportunities for noticing that she always prized more the simple Alpine roses, for which Fritz had climbed many a dangerous spot, than she did the elaborate carvings or purchased trinkets which were offered to her by others. I hope long ere this, Fritz, the good son and industrious villager, is the owner of the goodly farm, and the happy husband of the pretty Sennerin. But I did not remain long enough to know much of the progress of his affairs; for although it took him half the summer to make me and two similar Arks, we were readily disposed of at once, on his return to the village. The toy merchant made his yearly visit then, and carried us all off with a host of other articles of similar manufacture.
"I hope I may be excused for a little pardonable vanity in describing our personal appearance to you; for, in common with you all, I have been also divested by time and rough usage of most of my early charms. When I was first springing from beneath the skilful fingers of Fritz, I was the prettiest specimen of a model Swiss cottage set upon a boat floor, that ever was made. My walls were formed of the pretty very white species of wood, used by these deft shepherd carvers, and light, graceful openwork patterns were formed on them, by delicately cut cross pieces of a darker shade. The roof, with wide projecting eaves, after the regular chalet pattern, had its cross beams, and here and there the usual stones, laid on it, which, in the original structures, are placed there to add some weight of resistance to the furious mountain gales that come sweeping down the deep gorges. There was a row of windows, which were really cut out and glazed, through which you might obtain a view of the jumble of animals huddled together inside. A perforated gallery of light wood ran all round the walls half way up, from whence a staircase, general to these Swiss cottages, led down, and in this case terminated on the floor of the flat wooden boat, which of rather unusual depth, formed the bottom of the Ark.