"Yes," said Hugh, "it"s very nice _now_, but it wasn"t very nice when I was all alone in the dark in that long pa.s.sage. As you seem to know all about everything, Jeanne, I suppose you know about that."
He spoke rather, just a very little, grumpily, but Jeanne, rather to his surprise, did not laugh at him this time. Instead, she looked up in his face earnestly, with a strange deep look in her eyes.
"I think very often we have to find our way in the dark," she said dreamily. "I think I remember about that. But," she went on, with a complete change of voice, her eyes dancing merrily as if they had never looked grave in their life, "it"s not dark now, Cheri, and it"s going to be ever so bright. Just look at the lovely moon through the trees. Do let us go now. Gee-up, gee-up, crack your whip, Houpet, and make them gallop as fast as you can."
Off they set--they went nice and fast certainly, but not so fast but that the children could admire the beautiful feathery foliage as they pa.s.sed. They drove through the forest--for the trees that Hugh had so admired were those of a forest--on and on, swiftly but yet smoothly; never in his life had Hugh felt any motion so delightful.
"_What_ a good coachman Houpet is!" exclaimed Hugh. "I never should have thought he could drive so well. How does he know the road, Jeanne?"
"There isn"t any road, so he doesn"t need to know it," said Jeanne.
"Look before you, Cheri. You see there is no road. It makes itself as we go, so we can"t go wrong."
Hugh looked straight before him. It was as Jeanne had said. The trees grew thick and close in front, only dividing--melting away like a mist--as the quaint little carriage approached them.
Hugh looked at them with fresh surprise.
"Are they not real trees?" he said.
"Of course they are," said Jeanne. "Now they"re beginning to change; that shows we are getting to the middle of the forest. Look, look, Cheri!"
Hugh "looked" with all his eyes. What Jeanne called "changing" was a very wonderful process. The trees, which hitherto had been of a very bright, delicate green, began gradually to pale in colour, becoming first greenish-yellow, then canary colour, then down to the purest white. And from white they grew into silver, sparkling like innumerable diamonds, and then slowly altered into a sort of silver-grey, gradually rising into grey-blue, then into a more purple-blue, till they reached the richest corn-flower shade. Then began another series of lessening shades, which again, pa.s.sing through a boundary line of gold, rose by indescribable degrees to deep yet brilliant crimson. It would be impossible to name all the variations through which they pa.s.sed. I use the names of the colours and shades which are familiar to you, children, but the very naming any shade gives an unfair idea of the marvellous delicacy with which one tint melted into another,--as well try to divide and mark off the hues of a dove"s breast, or of the sky at sunset. And all the time the trees themselves were of the same form and foliage as at first, the leaves--or fronds I feel inclined to call them, for they were more like very, very delicate ferns or ferny gra.s.s than leaves--with which each branch was luxuriantly clothed, seeming to bathe themselves in each new colour as the petals of a flower welcome a flood of brilliant sunshine.
"Oh, how pretty!" said Hugh, with a deep sigh of pleasure. "It is like the lamps, only much prettier. I think, Jeanne, this must be the country of pretty colours."
"This forest is called the Forest of the Rainbows. I know _that_," said Jeanne. "But I don"t think they call this the country of pretty colours, Cheri. You see it is the country of so many pretty things. If we lived in it always, we should never see the end of the beautiful things there are. Only----"
"Only what?" asked Hugh.
"I don"t think it would be a good plan to live in it _always_. Just sometimes is best, I think. Either the things wouldn"t be so pretty, or our eyes wouldn"t see them so well after a while. But see, Cheri, the trees are growing common-coloured again, and Houpet is stopping. We must have got to the end of the Forest of the Rainbows."
"And where shall we be going to now?" asked Hugh. "Must we get out, do you think, Jeanne? Oh, listen, I hear the sound of water! Do you hear it, Jeanne? There must be a river near here. I wish the moonlight was a little brighter. Now that the trees don"t shine, it seems quite dull.
But oh, how plainly I hear the water. Listen, Jeanne, don"t you hear it too?"
"Yes," said Jeanne. "It must be----" but before she had time to say more they suddenly came out of the enchanted forest; in an instant every trace of the feathery trees had disappeared. Houpet pulled up his steeds, the two chickens got down from behind, and stood one on each side of the carriage door, waiting apparently for their master and mistress to descend. And plainer and nearer than before came the sound of fast-rushing water.
"You see we are to get down," said Hugh.
"Yes," said Jeanne again, looking round her a little timidly. "Cheri, do you know, I feel just a very, very little bit frightened. It is such a queer place, and I don"t know what we should do. Don"t you think we"d better ask Houpet to take us back again?"
"Oh no," said Hugh. "I"m sure we"ll be all right. You said you wanted to have some fun, Jeanne, and you seemed to know all about it. You needn"t be frightened with _me_, Jeanne."
"No, of course not," said Jeanne, quite brightly again; "but let us stand up a minute, Hugh, before we get out of the carriage, and look all about us. _Isn"t_ it a queer place?"
"It" was a wide, far-stretching plain, over which the moonlight shone softly. Far or near not a shrub or tree was to be seen, yet it was not like a desert, for the ground was entirely covered with most beautiful moss, so fresh and green, even by the moonlight, that it was difficult to believe the hot sunshine had ever glared upon it. And here and there, all over this great plain--all over it, at least, as far as the children could see--rose suddenly from the ground innumerable jets of water, not so much like fountains as like little waterfalls turned the wrong way; they rushed upwards with such surprising force and noise, and fell to the earth again in numberless tiny threads much more gently and softly than they left it.
"It seems as if somebody must be shooting them up with a gun, doesn"t it?" said Hugh. "I never saw such queer fountains."
"Let"s go and look at them close," said Jeanne, preparing to get down.
But before she could do so, Houpet gave a shrill, rather peremptory crow, and Jeanne stopped short in surprise.
"What do you want, Houpet?" she said.
By way of reply, Houpet hopped down from his box, and in some wonderfully clever way of his own, before the children could see what he was about, had unharnessed Nibble and Grignan. Then the three arranged themselves in a little procession, and drew up a few steps from the side of the carriage where still stood the chicken-footmen. Though they could not speak, there was no mistaking their meaning.
"They"re going to show us the way," said Hugh; and as he spoke he jumped out of the carriage, and Jeanne after him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ONWARDS QUIETLY STEPPED THE LITTLE PROCESSION.--p. 75.]
CHAPTER V.
FROG-LAND.
"They have a pretty island, Whereon at night they rest; They have a sparkling lakelet, And float upon its breast."
THE TWO SWANS.
Onwards quietly stepped the little procession, Houpet first, his tuft waving as usual, with a comfortable air of importance and satisfaction; then Nibble and Grignan abreast--hand-in-hand, I was going to have said; next Hugh and Jeanne; with the two attendant chickens behind bringing up the rear.
"I wonder where they are going to take us to," said Hugh in a low voice.
Somehow the soft light; the strange loneliness of the great plain, where, now that they were accustomed to it, the rushing of the numberless water-springs seemed to be but one single, steady sound; the solemn behaviour of their curious guides, altogether, had subdued the children"s spirits. Jeanne said no more about "having fun," yet she did not seem the least frightened or depressed; she was only quiet and serious.
"Where _do_ you think they are going to take us to?" repeated Hugh.
"I don"t know--at least I"m not sure," said Jeanne; "but, Cheri, isn"t it a good thing that Houpet and the others are with us to show us the way, for though the ground looks so pretty it is quite boggy here and there. I notice that Houpet never goes quite close to the fountains, and just when I went the least bit near one a minute ago my feet began to slip down."
"I haven"t felt it like that at all," said Hugh. "Perhaps it"s because of my wall-climbers. Dudu gave me a pair of wall-climbers like the flies", you know, Jeanne."
"Did he?" said Jeanne, not at all surprised, and as if wall-climbers were no more uncommon than goloshes. "He didn"t give me any, but then I came a different way from you. I think every one comes a different way to this country, do you know, Cheri?"
"And very likely Dudu thought I could carry you if there was anywhere you couldn"t climb," said Hugh, importantly. "I"m sure I----" he stopped abruptly, for a sudden crow from Houpet had brought all the party to a standstill. At first the children could not make out why their guide had stopped here--there was nothing to be seen. But pressing forward a few steps to where Houpet stood, Hugh saw, imbedded in the moss at his feet, a stone with a ring in it, just like those which one reads of in the _Arabian Nights_. Houpet stood at the edge of the stone eyeing it gravely, and somehow he managed to make Hugh understand that he was to lift it. Nothing loth, but rather doubtful as to whether he would be strong enough, the boy leant forward to reach the ring, first whispering, however, to Jeanne,
"It"s getting like a quite real fairy tale, isn"t it, Jeanne?"
Jeanne nodded, but looked rather anxious.
"I"m _afraid_ you can"t lift it, Cheri," she said. "I think I"d better stand behind and pull _you_--the ring isn"t big enough for us both to put our hands in it."
Hugh made no objection to her proposal, so Jeanne put her arms round his waist, and when he gave a great pug to the ring she gave a great pug to him. The first time it was no use, the stone did not move in the least.
"Try again," said Hugh, and try again they did. But no--the second try succeeded no better than the first--and the children looked at each other in perplexity. Suddenly there was a movement among the animals, who had all been standing round watching the children"s attempts; Jeanne felt a sort of little pecking tug at her skirts--how it came about I cannot say, but I think I forgot to tell you that, unlike Hugh in his red flannel dressing gown, _she_ was arrayed for their adventures in her best Sunday pelisse, trimmed with fur--and, looking round, lo and behold! there was Houpet holding on to her with his beak, then came Nibble, his two front paws embracing Houpet"s feathered body, Grignan behind him again, clutching with his mouth at Nibble"s fur, and the two chickens at the end holding on to Grignan and each other in some indescribable and marvellous way. It was, for all the world, as if they were preparing for the finish-up part of the game of "oranges and lemons," or for that of "fox and geese!"
The sight was so comical that it was all the children could do to keep their gravity, they succeeded in doing so, however, fearing that it might hurt the animals" feelings to seem to make fun of their well-meant efforts.
"Not that _they_ can be any use," whispered Hugh, "but it"s very good-natured of them all the same."
"I am not so sure that they can"t be of any use," returned Jeanne.