the child was to have a birthday tomorrow and was therefore not uneasy about being late home from school this afternoon. he had lost his pencil case; a hollow long round thing it was, like a rolling-pin, only it had green and yellow rings painted upon it. he kept his marbles in it and so he was often in a trouble about his pencils. he had not tried very much to find the pencil case because the boys “deludered” him—that’s what his father always said. he had asked heber gleed if he had seen it—he had strange suspicions of that boy—but heber gleed had sworn so earnestly that the greengrocer opposite the school had picked it up, he had even “saw him do it,” that felix tincler went into mr. gobbit’s shop, and when the greengrocer lady appeared in answer to the ring of the door bell he enquired politely for his pencil case. she was tall and terrible with a squint and, what was worse, a large velvety mole with hairs sprouting from it. she immediately and with inexplicable fury desired him to flee from her greengrocer shop, with a threat of alternative castigation in which a flatiron and a red-hot pick-axe were to figure with unusual and unpleasant prominence. well he had[176] run out of mr. gobbit’s shop, and there was heber gleed standing in the road giggling derisively at him. felix walked on alone, looking in the gutters and areas for his pencil case, until he encountered another friendly boy who took him to dig in a garden where they grew castor-oil plants. when he went home it was late; as he ran along under the high wall of the orphanage that occupied one end of his street its harsh peevish bell clanged out six notes. he scampered past the great gateway under the dismal arch that always filled him with uneasiness, he never passed it without feeling the sad trouble that a prison might give. he stepped into his own pleasant home, a little mute, and a little dirty in appearance; but at six years of age in a home so comfortable and kind the eve of the day that is to turn you into seven is an occasion great enough to yield an amnesty for peccadilloes. his father was already in from work, he could hear him singing. he gave his mother the sprigs he had picked from the castor-oil plant and told her about the pencil case. the meal was laid upon the table, and while mother was gone into the kitchen to boil the water for tea he sat down and tried to smooth out the stiff creases in the white table cloth. his father was singing gaily in the scullery as he washed and shaved:
high cockalorum,
charlie ate the spinach....
he ceased for a moment to give the razor a vigorous stropping and then continued:
[177]
high cockalorum,
high cockalee....
felix knew that was not the conclusion of the song. he listened, but for some moments all that followed was the loud crepitation of a razor searching a stubborn beard and the sigh of the kettle. then a new vigour seized the singer:
but mother brought the pandy down
and bate the gree....
again that rasping of chin briefly intervened, but the conclusion of the cropping was soon denoted by the strong rallentando of the singer:
...dy image,
high cock-alorum,
high cock-a-lee.
mrs. tincler brought in the teapot and her husband followed her with his chin tightly shaven but blue, crying with mock horror:
“faylix, my son! that is seven years old tomorrow! look at him, mary, the face of him and the hands of him! i didn’t know there was a bog in this parish; is it creeping in a bog you have been?”
the boy did not blench at his father’s spurious austerity, he knew he was the soul of kindness and fun.
“go wash yourself at the sink,” interposed his mother. kevin tincler, taking his son by the hand, continued with mocking admonishment: “all the fine[178] copybooks of the world that you’ve filled up with that blather about cleanliness and holiness, the up strokes very thin and the down strokes very thick! what was it, mary, he has let it all out of his mind?”
“go and wash, felix, and come quickly and have your tea,” laughed mary tincler.
“ah, but what was it—in that grand book of yours?”
the boy stood, in his short buff tunic, regarding his father with shy amusement. the small round clear-skinned face was lovely with its blushes of faint rose; his eyes were big and blue, and his head was covered with thick curling locks of rich brown hair.
“cleanliness comes next to godliness,” he replied.
“does it so, indeed?” exclaimed his father. “then you’re putting your godliness in a pretty low category!”
“what nonsense,” said mary tincler as the boy left them.
the irishman and his dark-eyed saxon wife sat down at the table waiting for their son.
“there’s a bit of a randy in the town gardens tonight, mary—dancing on the green, fireworks! when the boy is put to bed we’ll walk that way.”
mary expressed her pleasure but then declared she could not leave the boy alone in his bed.
“he’ll not hurt, mary, he has no fear in him. give him the birthday gift before we go. whisht, he’s coming!”
the child, now clean and handsome, came to his chair and looked up at his father sitting opposite to him.
“holy mother!” exclaimed the admiring parent, “it’s[179] the neck of a swan he has. faylix tincler, may ye live to be the father of a bishop!”
after tea his father took him up on the down for an hour. as they left their doorway a group of the tidy but wretched orphans was marching back into their seminary, little girls moving in double columns behind a stiff-faced woman. they were all dressed alike in garments of charity exact as pilchards. grey capes, worsted stockings, straw hats with blue bands round them, and hard boots. the boys were coming in from a different direction, but all of them, even the minutest, were clad in corduroy trousers and short jackets high throated like a gaoler’s. this identity of garment was contrary to the will of god for he had certainly made their pinched bodies diverse enough. some were short, some tall, dark, fair, some ugly, others handsome. the sight of them made felix unhappy, he shrank into himself, until he and his father had slipped through a gap in a hedge and were going up the hill that stretched smoothly and easily almost from their very door. the top of the down here was quiet and lovely, but a great flank of it two miles away was scattered over with tiny white figures playing very deliberately at cricket. pleasant it was up there in the calm evening, and still bright, but the intervening valley was full of grey ungracious houses, allotments, railway arches, churches, graveyards, and schools. worst of all was the dull forbidding aspect of the orphanage down beyond the roof of their own house.
they played with a ball and had some wrestling matches until the declining day began to grow dim even[180] on the hill and the fat jumbo clouds over the town were turning pink. if those elephants fell on him—what would they do? why, they’d mix him up like ice-cream! so said his father.
“do things ever fall out of the sky?”
“rain,” said mr. tincler.
“yes, i know.”
“stars—maybe.”
“where do they go?”
“o they drop on the hills but ye can never find ’em.”
“don’t heaven ever?”
“what, drop down! no,” said mr. tincler, “it don’t. i have not heard of it doing that, but maybe it all just stoops down sometimes, faylix, until it’s no higher than the crown of your hat. let us be going home now and ye’ll see something this night.”
“what is it?”
“wait, faylix, wait!”
as they crossed from the hill mary drawing down the blinds signalled to them from the window.
“come along, felix,” she cried, and the child ran into the darkened room. upon the table was set a little church of purest whiteness. kevin had bought it from an italian hawker. it had a wonderful tall steeple and a cord that came through a hole and pulled a bell inside. and that was not all; the church was filled with light that was shining through a number of tiny arched windows, blue, purple, green, violet, the wonderful windows were everywhere. felix was silent with wonder; how could you get a light in a[181] church that hadn’t got a door! then mary lifted the hollow building from the table; it had no floor, and there was a night-light glowing in one of her patty-pans filled with water. the church was taken up to bed with him in the small chamber next his parents’ room and set upon a bureau. kevin and mary then went off to the “bit of devilment” in the town gardens. felix kept skipping from his bed, first to gaze at the church, and then to lean out of the window in his nightshirt, looking for the lamplighter who would come to the street lamp outside. the house was the very last, and the lamp was the very last lamp, on one of the roads that led from the town and thence went poking out into the steady furze-covered downs. and as the lamp was the very last to be lit darkness was always half-fallen by the time the old man arrived at his journey’s end. he carried a pole with a brass tube at one end. there were holes in the brass tube showing gleams of light. the pole rested upon his shoulders as he trudged along humming huskily.
“here he is,” cried felix, leaning from the window and waving a white arm. the dull road, empty of traffic and dim as his mother’s pantry by day, curved slightly, and away at the other end of the curve a jet of light had sprung suddenly into the gloom like a bright flower bursting its sheath; a black figure moved along towards him under the orphanage wall. other lamps blossomed with light and the lamplighter, approaching the tinclers’ lamp, thrust the end of his pole into the lantern, his head meanwhile craning back[182] like the head of a horse that has been pulled violently backwards. he deftly turned the tap; with a tiny dull explosion that sounded like a doormat being beaten against the wall in the next street the lamp was lit and the face of the old man sprang into vague brilliance, for it was not yet utterly dark. vague as the light was, the neighbouring hills at once faded out of recognition and became black bulks of oblivion.
“oi.... oi....” cried the child, clapping his hands. the old man’s features relaxed, he grunted in relief, the pole slid down in his palm. as the end of it struck the pavement a sharp knock he drew an old pipe from his pocket and lit it quite easily although one of his hands was deficient of a thumb and some fingers. he was about to travel back into the sparkling town when felix called to him:
“soloman! soloman!”
“goo an to yer bed, my little billycock, or you’ll ketch a fever.”
“no, but what’s this?” felix was pointing to the ground below him. the old man peered over the iron railings into the front garden that had just sufficient earth to cherish four deciduous bushes, two plants of marigold, and some indeterminate herbs. in the dimness of their shadows a glowworm beamed clearly.
“that?” exclaimed he. “o s’dripped off the moon, yas, right off, moon’s wastin’ away, you’ll see later on if you’m watch out fer it, s’dripped off the moon, right off.” chuckling, he blew out the light at the end of his pole, and went away, but turned at intervals to wave his hand towards the sky, crying “later on,[183] right off!” and cackling genially until he came to a tavern.
the child stared at the glowworm and then surveyed the sky, but the tardy moon was deep behind the hills. he left the open window and climbed into bed again. the house was empty, but he did not mind, father and mother had gone to buy him another birthday gift. he did not mind, the church glowed in its corner on the bureau, the street lamp shined all over the ceiling and a little bit upon the wall where the splendid picture of wexford harbour was hanging. it was not gloomy at all although the orphanage bell once sounded very piercingly. sometimes people would stroll by, but not often, and he would hear them mumbling to each other. he would rather have a chinese lantern first, and next to that a little bagpipe, and next to that a cockatoo with a yellow head, and then a chinese lantern, and then.... he awoke; he thought he heard a heavy bang on the door as if somebody had thrown a big stone. but when he looked out of the window there was nobody to be seen. the little moon drip was still lying in the dirt, the sky was softly black, the stars were vivid, only the lamp dazzled his eyes and he could not see any moon. but as he yawned he saw just over the down a rich globe of light moving very gradually towards him, swaying and falling, falling in the still air. to the child’s dazzled eyes the great globe, dropping towards him as if it would crush the house, was shaped like an elephant, a fat squat jumbo with a green trunk. then to his relief it fell suddenly from the sky right[184] on to the down where he and father had played. the light was extinguished and black night hid the deflated fire-balloon.
he scrambled back into bed again but how he wished it was morning so that he could go out and capture the old elephant—he knew he would find it! when at last he slept he sank into a world of white churches that waved their steeples like vast trunks, and danced with elephants that had bellies full of fire and hidden bells that clanged impetuously to a courageous pull of each tail. he did not wake again until morning was bright and birds were singing. it was early but it was his birthday. there were no noises in the street yet, and he could not hear his father or mother moving about. he crawled silently from his bed and dressed himself. the coloured windows in the little white fane gleamed still, but it looked a little dull now. he took the cake that mother always left at his bedside and crept down the stairs. there he put on his shoes and, munching the cake, tiptoed to the front door. it was not bolted but it was difficult for him to slip back the latch quietly, and when at last it was done and he stood outside upon the step he was doubly startled to hear a loud rapping on the knocker of a house a few doors away. he sidled quickly but warily to the corner of the street, crushing the cake into his pocket, and then peeped back. it was more terrible than he had anticipated! a tall policeman stood outside that house bawling to a woman with her hair in curl papers who was lifting the sash of an upper window. felix[185] turned and ran through the gap in the hedge and onwards up the hill. he did not wait; he thought he heard the policeman calling out “tincler!” and he ran faster and faster, then slower and more slow as the down steepened, until he was able to sink down breathless behind a clump of the furze, out of sight and out of hearing. the policeman did not appear to be following him; he moved on up the hill and through the soft smooth alleys of the furze until he reached the top of the down, searching always for the white elephant which he knew must be hidden close there and nowhere else, although he had no clear idea in his mind of the appearance of his mysterious quarry. vain search, the elephant was shy or cunning and eluded him. hungry at last and tired he sat down and leaned against a large ant hill close beside the thick and perfumed furze. here he ate his cake and then lolled, a little drowsy, looking at the few clouds in the sky and listening to birds. a flock of rooks was moving in straggling flight towards him, a wide flat changing skein, like a curtain of crape that was being pulled and stretched delicately by invisible fingers. one of the rooks flapped just over him; it had a small round hole right through the feathers of one wing—what was that for? felix was just falling to sleep, it was so soft and comfortable there, when a tiny noise, very tiny but sharp and mysterious, went “ping!” just by his ear, and something stung him lightly in the neck. he knelt up, a little startled, but he peered steadily under the furze. “ping!” went something again and stung him in the ball of the eye. it made[186] him blink. he drew back; after staring silently at the furze he said very softly “come out!” nothing came; he beckoned with his forefinger and called aloud with friendliness “come on, come out!” at that moment his nose was almost touching a brown dry sheath of the furze bloom, and right before his eyes the dried flower burst with the faint noise of “ping!” and he felt the shower of tiny black seeds shooting against his cheek. at once he comprehended the charming mystery of the furze’s dispersal of its seeds, and he submitted himself to the fairylike bombardment with great glee, forgetting even the elephant until in one of the furze alleys he came in sight of a heap of paper that fluttered a little heavily. he went towards it; it was so large that he could not make out its shape or meaning. it was a great white bag made of paper, all crumpled and damp, with an arrangement of wire where the hole was and some burned tow fixed in it. but at last he was able to perceive the green trunk, and it also had pink eyes! he had found it and he was triumphant! there were words in large black letters painted upon it which he could not read, except one word which was cure. it was an advertisement fire-balloon relating to a specific for catarrh. he rolled the elephant together carefully, and carrying the mass of it clasped in his two arms he ran back along the hill chuckling to himself, “i’m carrying the ole elephant.” advancing down the hill to his home he was precariously swathed in a drapery of balloon paper. the door stood open; he walked into the kitchen. no one was in the kitchen[187] but there were sharp strange voices speaking in the room above. he thought he must have come into the wrong house but the strange noises frightened him into silence; he stood quite still listening to them. he had dropped the balloon and it unfolded upon the floor, partly revealing the astounding advertisement of
peasegood’s podophyllin
the voices above were unravelling horror upon horror. he knew by some divining instinct that tragedy was happening to him, had indeed already enveloped and crushed him. a mortar had exploded at the fireworks display, killing and wounding people that he knew.
“she had a great hole of a wound in the soft part of her thigh as you could put a cokernut in....”
“god a mighty...!”
“died in five minutes, poor thing.”
“and the husband ... they couldn’t...?”
“no, couldn’t identify ... they could not identify him ... only by some papers in his pocket.”
“and he’d got a little bagpipe done up in a package ... for their little boy....”
“never spoke a word....”
“never a word, poor creature.”
“may christ be good to ’em.”
“yes, yes,” they all said softly.
the child walked quietly up the stairs to his mother’s bedroom. two policemen were there making notes in their pocket books, their helmets lying on the unused bed. there were also three or four friendly[188] women neighbours. as he entered the room the gossip ceased abruptly. one of the women gasped “o jesus!” and they seemed to huddle together eyeing him as if he had stricken them with terror. with his fingers still upon the handle of the door he looked up at the tallest policeman and said:
“what’s the matter?”
the policeman did not reply immediately; he folded up his notebook, but the woman who had gasped came to him with a yearning cry and wrapped him in her protesting arms with a thousand kisses.
“ye poor lamb, ye poor little orphan, whatever ’ull become of ye!”
at that moment the bell of the orphanage burst into a peal of harsh impetuous clangour, and the policemen picked up their helmets from the bed.
