ABOUT FAIRYLAND
By the time Boodles was sixteen she was shaped and polished. Weevil had
done what he could; not much, for the poor old thing was neither learned
nor rich; and she had gone to Tavistock, where various arts had been
crammed into her brain, all mixed up together like the ingredients of a
patent pill. Boodles knew a good deal for seventeen; but Nature and
Dartmoor had taught her more than the school-mistress. She was a fresh
and fragrant child, with no unhealthy fancies; loving everything that
was clean and pretty; loathing spiders, and creeping things, and filth
in general; and longing ardently already to win for herself a name and a
soul a little higher than the beetles. They were presumptuous longings
for a child of passion, who did not know her parents, or anything about
her origin beyond the fact that she had been thrown out in a bundle of
fern, and taken in and cared for by Abel Cain Weevil.
At the tender age of fourteen Boodles received her love-wound. It was
down by the Tavy, where the water swirls round pebbles and rattles them
against its rocks below Sandypark. Her love-affair was idyllic, and
therefore dangerous, because the idyllic state bears the same
resemblance to rough and brutal life as the fairy-tale bears to the true
story of that life. The tales begin with "once upon a time," and end
with "they lived happily ever after." The idyllic state begins in the
same way, but ends, either with "they parted with tears and kisses and
never saw each other again," or "they married and were miserable ever
afterwards." Only children can blow idyll-bubbles which will float for a
time. Elderly people try, but they only make themselves ridiculous, and
the bubbles will not form. People of thirty or over cannot play at
fairy-tales. When they try they become as fantastic a sight as an old
gentleman wearing a paper hat and blowing a penny trumpet. Shakespeare,
who knew everything about human nature that men can know, made his Romeo
and Juliet children, and ended their idyll as such things must end.
Customs have changed since; even children are beginning to understand
that life cannot be made a fairy-tale; and Romeo prefers the football
field to sighing beneath a school-girl's balcony; and Juliet twists up
her hair precociously and runs amok with a hockey-stick.
Still fairy-tales lift their mystic blooms to the moon beside the Tavy,
and Boodles had seen those flowers, and wandered among them very
delicately. The boy was Aubrey Bellamie, destined for the Navy, and his
home was in Tavistock. He had come into the world, amid an odour of
respectability, two years before Boodles had crept shamefully up the
terrestrial back stairs. All he knew about Boodles was the fact that she
was a girl; that one all-sufficient fact that makes youths mad. He knew,
also, that her head was glorious, and that her lips were better than
wine. He was a clean, pretty boy; like most of the youths in the Navy,
who are the good fresh salt of Devon and England everywhere. Boodles
came into Tavistock twice a week to be educated, and he would wait at
the door of the school until she came out, because he wanted to educate
her too; and then they would wander beside the Tavy, and kiss new
knowledge into each other's young souls. The fairy-tale was real enough,
because real life had not begun. They were still in "once upon a time"
stage, and they believed in the happy ending. It was the age of
delusion; glorious folklore days. There was enough fire in them both to
make the story sufficiently life-like to be mistaken for the real thing.
Aubrey's parents did not know of the love-affair then; neither did
Weevil. In fairy-tales relations are usually wicked creatures who have
to be avoided. So for months they wandered beside the river of
fairyland, and plucked the flowers of that pleasant country which were
gleaming with idyllic dew.
"I can't think why you love my head so," Boodles had protested, when a
thunderstorm of affection had partially subsided. "It's like a big
tangle of red seaweed. The girls at the school call me Carrots."
"I should like to hear them," said Aubrey fiercely; "Darling, it's the
loveliest head in the world."
And then he went on to talk a lot of shocking nonsense about flowers and
sunsets, and all other wondrous flaming things, which had derived their
colour and splendour from the light of his sweetheart's head, and from
none other source or inspiration whatsoever.
"If I was a boy I shouldn't love a girl with red hair. There are such a
lot of girls you might love. Girls with silky flaxen hair, and girls
with lovely brown hair--"
"They are only girls," said Aubrey disdainfully. "Not angels."
"Do angels have red hair?" asked Boodles.
"Only a very few," said the boy. "Boodles--and one or two others whose
names I can't remember just now. It's not red hair, sweetheart. It's
golden, and your beautiful skin is golden too, and there is a lot of
gold-dust scattered all over your nose."
"Freckles," laughed Boodles. "Aubrey, you silly! Calling my ugly
freckles gold-dust! Why, I hate them. When I look in the glass I say to
myself: 'Boodles, you're a nasty little spotted toad.'"
"They are just lovely," declared the boy. "They are little bits of
sunshine that have dropped on you and stuck there."
"I'm not sticky."
"You are. Sticky with sweetness."
"What a dear stupid thing!" sighed Boodles. "Let me kiss your lovely
pink and white girl's face--there--and there--and there."
"Boodles, dear, I haven't got a girl's face," protested Aubrey.
"Oh, but you have, my boy. It's just like a girl's--only prettier. If I
was you, and you was me--that sounds rather shocking grammar, but it
don't matter--every one would say: 'Look at that ugly boy with that
boodle-oodle, lovely, _bu_tiful girl.' There! I've squeezed every bit of
breath out of him," cried Boodles.
There was a certain amount left, as she soon discovered; enough to
smother her.
"If you hadn't got golden hair, and freckles, I should never have fallen
in love with you," declared the boy. "If you were to lose your freckles,
if you lost only one, the tiniest of them all, I shouldn't love you any
more."
"And if you lose that dear girl's face I won't love you," promised
Boodles. "If you had a horrid moustache to tickle me and make me sneeze,
I wouldn't give you the smallest, teeniest, wee bit of a kiss. Well, you
can't anyhow, because you've got to be an admiral. How nice it will be
when you are grown up and have a lot of ships of your own."
"We shall be married long before then. Boodles, darling," cried the
eager boy. "Directly I am twenty-one we will be married. Only five more
years."
"Such a lot happens in a year," sighed Boodles. "You may meet five more
girls far more sunshiny than me, with redder hair and more freckles,
since you are so fond of them--"
"I shan't. You are the only girl who ever was or shall be."
That is how boys talk when they are sixteen, and when they are
twenty-six, and sometimes when they are very old boys of sixty; and
girls generally believe them.
"I wonder if it is right of you to love me," said Boodles doubtfully.
The answer was what might have been looked for, and ended with the usual
question: "Why not?"
"Because I'm only a baby."
"You are fourteen, darling. You will be nineteen by the time we are
married."
Although they were only at the beginning of the story they were already
slapping over the pages, anxious to reach the "lived happily ever after"
conclusion. Young people are always wanting to hurry on; middle-aged to
marktime; old to look back. The freshness of life is contained in the
first chapter. Youth is a time of unnatural strength, of insanity, a
dancing-round-the-may-pole sort of time. Common-sense begins to come
when one has grandchildren. Boodles and Aubrey wandered a thousand times
in love's fairyland on the romantic banks of the rattling Tavy, and knew
as much during their last walk as upon the first; knew they were in love
cleanly and honestly; knew that the joy of life was no myth; but knowing
nothing, either of them, concerning Giant Despair, who has his mantle
trimmed with lovers' hearts, or the history of the fair maid of Astolat,
or the existence of Castle Dolorous. Love is largely a pleasure of the
imagination, thus a fairy-tale, and sound practical knowledge sweeps the
romance of it all away.
The whole of that folly--if the only real ecstatic bliss of life which
is called first love be folly--seemed gone for ever. Aubrey was packed
off to do his part in upholding the honour of Boodlesland, as his
country named itself in his thoughts; and the years that intervened
discovered him probably kissing girls of all complexions, girls with
every shade of hair conceivable, girls with freckles and without; and
being kissed by them. Boys must have their natural food, and if the best
quality be not obtainable they must take what offers. In the interval
Boodles remained entirely unkissed, and received no letters. She wasn't
surprised. His love had been too fierce. It had blazed up, burnt her,
and gone out. Aubrey had forgotten her; forgotten those wonderful walks
in Tavyland; forgotten her radiant head and golden freckles. It was all
over, that romance of two babies. It was Boodles who did not forget;
Boodles who had the wet pillow sometimes; Boodles who was constant like
the gorse, which is in flower all the year round.
No one would call the ordinary Dartmoor postman an angel--his appearance
is too much against him--but he does an angel's work. Perhaps there is
nothing which quickens the heart of any lonely dweller on the moor so
perceptibly as the heavy tread of that red-faced and beer-tainted
companion of the goddess of dawn. He leaves curses as well as blessings.
He pushes love-letters and bills into the box together. Sometimes he is
an hour late, and the miserable watcher frets about the house. Sometimes
the wind holds him back. He can be seen struggling against it, and the
watcher longs to yoke him to wild horses. There are six precious
post-times each week, and the lonely inhabitant of the wilds would not
yield one of them to save his soul alive.
There was an angel's visit to Lewside Cottage, and a letter for Boodles
fell from heaven. The child pounced upon it, rushed up to her room like
a dog with a piece of meat, locked the door lest any one should enter
with the idea of stealing her prize, gloated upon it, almost rolled upon
it. She did not open it for some time. She turned it over, smelt it,
pinched it, loved it. Tavistock was blurred across the stamp. There was
no doubt about that letter. It was a tangible thing. It did not fade
away like morning dew. She opened it at last, but did not dare to read
it through. She took bites at it, tasting it here and there; and had
every sentence by heart before she settled down to read it properly. So
she was still dearest Boodles, and he was the same devoted Aubrey. The
child jumped upon her bed, and bit the pillow in sheer animal joy.
He had just come home, and was writing to her at once. She wouldn't
recognise him because he had become a tough brown sailor, and the girl's
face was his no longer. He was coming to see her at once; and they would
walk again by the Tavy and be just the same as ever; and swear the same
vows; and kiss the same kisses; and be each other's sun and moon, and
all the rest of the idyllic patter, which was as sweet and fresh as ever
to poor Boodles. For he had been all the world over and discovered there
was only one girl in it; and that was the girl with the radiant head,
and the golden skin, and the gold-dust upon her nose. He was as true as
he always had been, and as he always would be for ever and evermore.
Boodles saw nothing mad or presumptuous in that closing sentence. It was
just what she would have said. There is no hereafter for young people in
their teens; there is an ever and evermore for them. They are like a
kitten playing with its own tail, without ever realising that it is its
tail.
Boodles became at once very light and airy. She seemed to have escaped
from the body somehow. She felt as if she had been transformed into a
bit of sunshine. She floated down-stairs, lighted up the living-room,
wrapped herself round Abel Cain, floated into the kitchen to finish
preparations for breakfast, discovered the material nature of her hands
by breaking a milk-jug, and then humanity asserted itself and she began
to shriek.
"Boodle-oodle!" cried old Weevil; "you have been sleeping in the
moonshine."
"I've broken the milk-jug," screamed Boodles.
Weevil came shuffling along the passage. Small things were greatly
accounted of in Lewside Cottage. There were most of the ingredients of
tragedy in a broken milk-jug.
"How did you do it?" he wailed.
"It was all because the butter is so round," laughed Boodles.
Weevil was frightened. He thought the child's mind had broken too; and
that was even more serious than the milk-jug. He stood and stared, and
made disjointed remarks about bright Dartmoor moons, and girls who would
sleep with their blinds up, and insanity which was sure to follow such
rashness. But Boodles only laughed the more.
"I'll tell you," she said. "The butter is very round, and I had it on a
plate. I must have tilted the plate, and it was roll, butter, roll.
First on the table, where it knocked the milk-jug off its legs. Then it
rolled on the floor, and out of the door. It's still rolling. I expect
it is nearly at Mary Tavy station by now, and it ought to reach
Tavistock about ten o'clock at the rate it was going. It's sure to roll
on to Plymouth, right through the Three Towns, and then across the Hoe,
and about the time we go to bed there will be a little splash in the
sea, and that will be the end of the butter, which rolled off the plate,
and broke the milk-jug, and started from the top of Dartmoor at
half-past eight by the clock in Lewside Cottage, which is ten minutes
fast--and that's all I can think of now," gasped Boodles.
"My poor little girl," quavered Weevil. "The butter is on the plate in
front of you."
"Well, it must have rolled back again. It wanted to see its dear old
home once more."
Weevil began to pick up the fragments of the milk-jug. "There is
something wrong with you, Boodle-oodle," he said tenderly. "I don't want
you to have any secrets, my dear. You are too young. There was a letter
for you just now?"
At that the whole story came out with a rush. Boodles could hold nothing
back that morning. She told Weevil about the fairy-tale, from the "once
upon a time" up to the contents of that letter; and she begged him to
play the part of good genie, and with his enchantments cause
blissfulness to happen.
Weevil was very troubled. He had feared that the radiant head would do
mischief, but he had not expected trouble to come so soon. The thing was
impossible, of course. Even radiant growths must have a name of some
sort. Aubrey's parents could not permit weeds to grow in their garden.
There were plenty of girls "true to name," like the well-bred roses of a
florist's catalogue, wanting smart young husbands. There was practically
no limit to the supply of these sturdy young plants. Boodles might be a
Gloire de Devon, but she was most distinctly not in the catalogue. She
was only a way-side growth; a beautiful fragrant weed certainly, like
the sweet honeysuckle which trails about all the lanes, and is in itself
a lovely thing, but is not wanted in the garden because it is too
common; or like the gorse, which as a flowering shrub is the glory of
the moor, but not of the garden, because it is a rank wild growth. Were
it a rare shrub it would be grown upon the lawns of the wealthy; but
because it is common it must stay outside.
"Boodles, darling, I am so sorry," the old man murmured.
"But you mustn't be," she laughed. "Sorry because I'm so happy! You must
be a _bu_tiful old daddy-man, and say you are glad. I can't help being
in love. It's like the measles. We have to catch it, and it is so much
better to go through it when you're young. Now say something nice and
let me go. I want to run to the top of Ger Tor, and scream, and run back
again."
"Oh, dear heaven!" muttered Weevil, playing with the bits of milk-jug.
"I can't tell the poor baby, I can't tell it."
"Don't be weepy, daddy-dear-heart," murmured Boodles, coming and loving
him. "I know I'm only a baby, but then I'm growing fast. I'll soon be
eighteen. Such a grown-up woman then, old man! I'll never leave
him--that's the trouble, I know. I'll always boil him's eggs, and break
him's milk-jugs. Only he must be pretty to Boodles when she's happy, and
say he's glad she's got a lovely boy with the beautifullest girl's face
that ever was."
Weevil unmeshed himself and shuffled away, pelting imaginary foes with
bits of milk-jug, blinking his eyes like a cat in the sunshine. He could
not destroy the child's happiness. As well expect the painter who has
expended the best years of his life on a picture to cut and slash the
canvas. Boodles was his own. He had made and fashioned her. He could not
extinguish his own little sun. He must let her linger in fairyland, and
allow destiny, or human nature, or something else equally brutal, to
finish the story. Elementary forces of nature, like Pendoggat, might be
cruel, but Weevil was not a force, neither was he cruel. He was only an
eccentric old man, and he wanted it to be well with the child. She would
have her eyes opened soon enough. She would discover that innocents
thrust out on the moor to perish cannot by the great law of propriety
take that place in life which beauty and goodness deserve. They must go
back; like Undine, coming out with brave love to seek a soul, succeeding
at first, but failing in the end, and going back at last to the state
that was hers. Poor little bastard Boodles! How mad she was that
morning! Weevil hardly noticed that his eggs were hard-boiled.
"Darling," he said tenderly, anxious to divert her mind--as if it could
be diverted!--"go and see Peter, and tell him we must have that clock.
You had better bring it back with you."
That clock was a favourite subject of conversation. If had amused
Boodles for two years, and it amused her then. It was only a common
little clock, or Peter would never have been entrusted with it. Peter,
who knew nothing, was among other things a mechanician. He professed his
ability to mend and clean clocks. Possibly Grandfather had taught him
something. He had studied the old gentleman's internal arrangements all
his life, and had, he considered, mastered the entire principle of a
clock's construction and well-being. Therefore when Boodles met him one
day, and informed him that a little clock in Lewside Cottage was choked
with dust and refused to perform its duty, Peter promised he would
attend at his earliest convenience, to lay his hand upon it, and restore
it to activity. "When will you come?" asked Boodles.
"To-morrow," answered Peter.
The day came, but not Peter. He was hardly expected, because promises
are meaningless phrases in the mouths of Dartmoor folk. In the matter of
an eternal "to-morrow" they are like the Spanish peasantry. They always
promise upon their honour, but, as they haven't got any, the oath might
as well be omitted. When reminded of their solemn undertaking they have
a ready explanation. Their conscience would not permit them to come. It
is the same when they agree to charge an unsuspecting person so much for
duties performed, and then send in a bill for twice the amount.
Conscience would not allow them to charge less. The Dartmoor conscience
is a beautiful thing. It urges a man to act precisely as he wants to.
A month or so passed--the exact period is of no account in such a
place--and Boodles saw Peter approaching her. When within sight of her
he put out his arm and began to cry aloud. She hurried towards him,
afraid that something was wrong; the arm was still extended, and the cry
continued. Peter was like an owl crying in the wilderness. Drawing near,
he became at last intelligible. "I be coming," he cried. "I be coming to
mend the clock."
"Now?" asked Boodles.
"To-morrow," said Peter.
This sort of thing happened constantly. Whenever they came within sight
of each other, and Peter called often at the village to purchase pints
of beer, the little man would hurry towards Boodles, with his
outstretched arm and monotonous cry: "To-morrow." He was always on his
way to Lewside Cottage, but something always hindered him from getting
there. He did not despair, however. He felt confident that the day would
arrive when he would attend in person and restore the clock. It was
merely a matter of time. Thus a year went by and the pledge remained
unfulfilled.
One Sunday evening Boodles went to church, and it so happened that Peter
was there also. Peter had just then reasons of his own for wishing to
ingratiate himself with the church authorities, and he considered that
the appearance of his vile body in a devotional attitude somewhere in
the neighbourhood of the pulpit would be of material assistance to his
ambition. Peter entered with a huge lantern, the time being winter, and
the evening dark--the night rather, for the Dartmoor day in winter is
well over by five o'clock--flapped up the aisle with goose-like steps,
tumbled into a seat breathing heavily, and making as much noise with his
boots as a horse upon cobblestones, banged the lantern down, and gazed
about the building with an air of proprietorship. The next thing was to
blow out the candle in his lantern. He opened it, and made windy noises
which were not attended with success. "Scat 'en," cried Peter
boisterously. "When her's wanted to go out her never will, and when her
bain't wanted to go out her always du."
At that moment Boodles entered. Peter was delighted to see her friendly
face. The lantern clattered to the floor, and its master stretched out
his arm, and exclaimed in a whisper which would have carried from one
side of Tavy Cleave to the other: "I was a-coming yesterday, but I never
got as far. Had the tweezers in my trousers, and here they be." He
brought out the implement and brandished it in the faces of the
congregation. "I'm a-coming to-morrow sure 'nuff." Then he went to work
again at the lantern. Peter had not developed the spirit of reverence;
and the service was unable to commence until he had finished blowing.
When the proceedings were over he followed Boodles out of church and
along the road, all the time asserting that the tweezers and his
trousers had been inseparable for the last six months, that he had
started for Lewside Cottage every day, and something had always cropped
up to prevent him from reaching his destination, but that the next day
would bring him, wet or fine, upon his word of honour it would. He had
been remiss in the past, he owned, but if he failed to attend on Monday
morning at half-past eleven punctual, with the tweezers in his trousers,
he hoped the young lady and the old gentleman would never trust him
again.
A few more weeks went by, and then Boodles put the clock into a basket,
and came out to the hut-circles.
Peter was grievously dismayed. "Why didn't ye tell me?" he said. "I'd
ha' come for 'en. I wouldn't ha' troubled yew to ha' brought 'en. If yew
had told I there was a clock to mend, I'd ha' come for him all to wance,
and fetched him home, and mended him same day."
It would have been useless to remind Peter of his promises and his
eternal procrastination. He would only have pleaded that he had
forgotten all about it. People such as Peter cannot be argued with.
Boodles left the clock, and Peter promised it should be cleaned at once,
and brought back in a day or two.
During the next few months the couple at Lewside Cottage made merry over
that clock. Left to himself Peter would have said no more about it, but
would simply have added it to his stock of earthly possessions. However,
Boodles gave him no peace. Peter could hardly enter the village for the
necessity of his existence without being accosted upon the subject; and
at last the slumbering fires of mechanism within him kindled into flame.
He declared he had never seen such a clock; it was made all wrong; it
was not in the least like Grandfather. He explained that it would be
necessary to take it entirely to pieces, alter the works considerably,
and reconstruct it in accordance with the recognised model, adding such
things as weights and pendulum; and that would be a matter of a year's
skilled labour. He pointed out, moreover, that the clock was painted
green, and that in itself would be sufficient to clog the works, as it
was well known that clocks would not keep proper time unless they were
painted brown. That was a trade secret. Boodles replied that there was
nothing whatever wrong with the works of the clock. It only required
cleaning, and she believed she could do it herself. Peter wagged his
head in amazement. The folly and ignorance of young maids eclipsed his
understanding.
The second year came to an end, and the clock was in precisely the same
condition as at first. Peter was glad to have it because it made a nice
ornament for his section of Ger Cottage. He had only touched it once,
and then Mary, who happened to be present, exclaimed: "Dear life, Peter,
put 'en down, or you'll be tearing 'en."
The tenants of Lewside Cottage had become tired of the endless comedy.
So, on that morning when Boodles had her letter, it was the most natural
thing in the world for Weevil to suggest that she should go and reclaim
their property; and as the girl was longing for the open moor and the
sight of Tavy Cleave, which was on the way to fairyland, she went,
running part of the way for sheer joy, singing and laughing all the
time.
The hut-circles were deserted. Mary was out on the "farm," which was a
ridiculous scrap of reclaimed moor about the same size as an Italian
mountaineer's vineyard; and Peter had gone to the village inn on
business. Boodles looked inside. There was Grandfather, ticking in his
usual misanthropic way; and there was the uncleaned clock in the centre
of the long shelf which ran above the big fire-place. Boodles took it,
and ran off, laughing to think of Peter's dismay when he returned and
discovered that his mantelshelf lacked its principal ornament. He would
think some one had stolen it, and the fright would be a punishment for
him. Boodles raced home, put the clock on the kitchen table, opened it,
and placing the nozzle of the bellows among the works cleaned them
vigorously. When old Weevil came shuffling in the clock was going
merrily.
"I've done in two minutes what Peter couldn't do in two years," laughed
the happy child.
Weevil shuffled out. He was in a restless mood. He knew he ought to tell
Boodles that she mustn't be happy, only he could not. Somebody or
something would have to use her as she had used the clock; blow wildly
into her poor little soul, and do for her in two minutes what Weevil
would never have done in two years.