"She knew her sisters were so fond of it. It was like a memory of her left behind for them. It was like a part of her. And do you know, missie, the night she died--she died soon after your father was born, a year after she was married--for a whole hour, from twelve to one, that cuckoo went on cuckooing in a soft, sad way, like some living creature in trouble. Of course, we did not know anything was wrong with her, and folks said something had caught some of the springs of the works; but _I_ didn"t think so, and never shall. And----"
But here Dorcas"s reminiscences were abruptly brought to a close by Miss Grizzel"s appearance at the other end of the terrace.
"Griselda, what are you loitering so for? Dorcas, you should have hastened, not delayed Miss Griselda."
So Griselda was hurried off to her lessons, and Dorcas to her kitchen.
But Griselda did not much mind. She had plenty to think of and wonder about, and she liked to do her lessons in the ante-room, with the tick-tick of the clock in her ears, and the feeling that _perhaps_ the cuckoo was watching her through some invisible peep-hole in his closed doors.
"And if he sees," thought Griselda, "if he sees how hard I am trying to do my lessons well, it will perhaps make him be quick about "considering.""
So she did try very hard. And she didn"t speak to the cuckoo when he came out to say it was four o"clock. She was busy, and he was busy. She felt it was better to wait till he gave her some sign of being ready to talk to her again.
For fairies, you know, children, however charming, are sometimes _rather_ queer to have to do with. They don"t like to be interfered with, or treated except with very great respect, and they have their own ideas about what is proper and what isn"t, I can a.s.sure you.
I suppose it was with working so hard at her lessons--most people say it was with having been up the night before, running about the house in the moonlight; but as she had never felt so "fresh" in her life as when she got up that morning, it could hardly have been that--that Griselda felt so tired and sleepy that evening, she could hardly keep her eyes open. She begged to go to bed quite half an hour earlier than usual, which made Miss Tabitha afraid again that she was going to be ill. But as there is nothing better for children than to go to bed early, even if they _are_ going to be ill, Miss Grizzel told her to say good-night, and to ask Dorcas to give her a wine-gla.s.sful of elderberry wine, nice and hot, after she was in bed.
Griselda had no objection to the elderberry wine, though she felt she was having it on false pretences. She certainly did not need it to send her to sleep, for almost before her head touched the pillow she was as sound as a top. She had slept a good long while, when again she wakened suddenly--just as she had done the night before, and again with the feeling that something had wakened her. And the queer thing was that the moment she was awake she felt so _very_ awake--she had no inclination to stretch and yawn and hope it wasn"t quite time to get up, and think how nice and warm bed was, and how cold it was outside! She sat straight up, and peered out into the darkness, feeling quite ready for an adventure.
"Is it you, cuckoo?" she said softly.
There was no answer, but listening intently, the child fancied she heard a faint rustling or fluttering in the corner of the room by the door.
She got up and, feeling her way, opened it, and the instant she had done so she heard, a few steps only in front of her it seemed, the familiar notes, very, _very_ soft and whispered, "Cuckoo, cuckoo."
It went on and on, down the pa.s.sage, Griselda trotting after. There was no moon to-night, heavy clouds had quite hidden it, and outside the rain was falling heavily. Griselda could hear it on the window-panes, through the closed shutters and all. But dark as it was, she made her way along without any difficulty, down the pa.s.sage, across the great saloon, in through the ante-room door, guided only by the little voice now and then to be heard in front of her. She came to a standstill right before the clock, and stood there for a minute or two patiently waiting.
She had not very long to wait. There came the usual murmuring sound, then the doors above the clock face opened--she heard them open, it was far too dark to see--and in his ordinary voice, clear and distinct (it was just two o"clock, so the cuckoo was killing two birds with one stone, telling the hour and greeting Griselda at once), the bird sang out, "Cuckoo, cuckoo."
"Good evening, cuckoo," said Griselda, when he had finished.
"Good morning, you mean," said the cuckoo.
"Good morning, then, cuckoo," said Griselda. "Have you considered about me, cuckoo?"
The cuckoo cleared his throat.
"Have you learnt to obey orders yet, Griselda?" he inquired.
"I"m trying," replied Griselda. "But you see, cuckoo, I"ve not had very long to learn in--it was only last night you told me, you know."
The cuckoo sighed.
"You"ve a great deal to learn, Griselda."
"I dare say I have," she said. "But I can tell you one thing, cuckoo--whatever lessons I have, I _couldn"t_ ever have any worse than those addition sums of Mr. Kneebreeches". I have made up my mind about that, for to-day, do you know, cuckoo----"
"Yesterday," corrected the cuckoo. "Always be exact in your statements, Griselda."
"Well, yesterday, then," said Griselda, rather tartly; "though when you know quite well what I mean, I don"t see that you need be so _very_ particular. Well, as I was saying, I tried and _tried_, but still they were fearful. They were, indeed."
"You"ve a great deal to learn, Griselda," repeated the cuckoo.
"I wish you wouldn"t say that so often," said Griselda. "I thought you were going to _play_ with me."
"There"s something in that," said the cuckoo, "there"s something in that. I should like to talk about it. But we could talk more comfortably if you would come up here and sit beside me."
Griselda thought her friend must be going out of his mind.
"Sit beside you up there!" she exclaimed. "Cuckoo, how _could_ I? I"m far, far too big."
"Big!" returned the cuckoo. "What do you mean by big? It"s all a matter of fancy. Don"t you know that if the world and everything in it, counting yourself of course, was all made little enough to go into a walnut, you"d never find out the difference."
"_Wouldn"t_ I?" said Griselda, feeling rather muddled; "but, _not_ counting myself, cuckoo, I would then, wouldn"t I?"
"Nonsense," said the cuckoo hastily; "you"ve a great deal to learn, and one thing is, not to _argue_. n.o.body should argue; it"s a shocking bad habit, and ruins the digestion. Come up here and sit beside me comfortably. Catch hold of the chain; you"ll find you can manage if you try."
"But it"ll stop the clock," said Griselda. "Aunt Grizzel said I was never to touch the weights or the chains."
"Stuff," said the cuckoo; "it won"t stop the clock. Catch hold of the chains and swing yourself up. There now--I told you you could manage it."
IV
THE COUNTRY OF THE NODDING MANDARINS
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"We"re all nodding, nid-nid-nodding."
How she managed it she never knew; but, somehow or other, it _was_ managed. She seemed to slide up the chain just as easily as in a general way she would have slidden down, only without any disagreeable antic.i.p.ation of a b.u.mp at the end of the journey. And when she got to the top how wonderfully different it looked from anything she could have expected! The doors stood open, and Griselda found them quite big enough, or herself quite small enough--which it was she couldn"t tell, and as it was all a matter of fancy she decided not to trouble to inquire--to pa.s.s through quite comfortably.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "ARE YOU COMFORTABLE?" INQUIRED THE CUCKOO]
And inside there was the most charming little snuggery imaginable. It was something like a saloon railway carriage--it seemed to be all lined and carpeted and everything, with rich mossy red velvet; there was a little round table in the middle and two arm-chairs, on one of which sat the cuckoo--"quite like other people," thought Griselda to herself--while the other, as he pointed out to Griselda by a little nod, was evidently intended for her.
"Thank you," said she, sitting down on the chair as she spoke.
"Are you comfortable?" inquired the cuckoo.
"Quite," replied Griselda, looking about her with great satisfaction.
"Are all cuckoo clocks like this when you get up inside them?" she inquired. "I can"t think how there"s room for this dear little place between the clock and the wall. Is it a hole cut out of the wall on purpose, cuckoo?"
"Hush!" said the cuckoo, "we"ve got other things to talk about. First, shall I lend you one of my mantles? You may feel cold."
"I don"t just now," replied Griselda; "but perhaps I _might_."
She looked at her little bare feet as she spoke, and wondered why _they_ weren"t cold, for it was very chilblainy weather.