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[Illustration: LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE]
LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "I'm looking at the great big globe that Uncle Joe said I
might touch," said Lucy.
_Frontispiece; see page 14._]
LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE
PICTURED BY
L. FROLICH,
AND NARRATED BY
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
AUTHOR OF "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE."
_"Young fingers idly roll_
_The mimic earth, or trace,_
_In picture bright of blue and gold,_
_The orbs that round the sky's deep fold_
_Each other circling chase."_--KEBLE.
NEW EDITION
=New York=
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
1906
New edition September, 1906.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
MOTHER BUNCH 1
CHAPTER II.
VISITORS FROM THE SOUTH SEAS. 14
CHAPTER III.
ITALY 36
CHAPTER IV.
GREENLAND 43
CHAPTER V.
TYROL 50
CHAPTER VI.
AFRICA 57
CHAPTER VII.
LAPLANDERS 63
CHAPTER VIII.
CHINA 70
CHAPTER IX.
KAMSCHATKA 79
CHAPTER X.
THE TURK 83
CHAPTER XI.
SWITZERLAND 96
CHAPTER XII.
THE COSSACK 102
CHAPTER XIII.
SPAIN 108
CHAPTER XIV.
GERMANY 114
CHAPTER XV.
PARIS IN THE SIEGE 120
CHAPTER XVI.
THE AMERICAN GUEST 126
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DREAM OF ALL NATIONS 137
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
"I'M LOOKING AT THE GREAT BIG GLOBE THAT UNCLE JOE
SAID I MIGHT TOUCH," SAID LUCY _Front._
"DO PLEASE SIT DOWN, THERE'S A GOOD MOTHER BUNCH,
AND TELL ME ALL ABOUT THEM?" 19
LUCY HAD A GREAT SNEEZING FIT, AND WHEN SHE LOOKED
AGAIN INTO THE SMOKE, WHAT DID SHE SEE BUT TWO
LITTLE BLACK FIGURES 23
"I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU: HUSH, DON! DON'T BARK SO" 26
"I CAN EAT MUCH BETTER WITHOUT," SAID LAVO 31
LAVO HAD CLIMBED UP THE SIDE OF THE DOOR, AND WAS
SITTING ASTRIDE ON THE TOP OF IT 34
"AH! CECCO, CECCO!" CRIED THE LITTLE GIRL, PAUSING
AS SHE BEAT HER TAMBOURINE 39
"IS THAT THE WAY YOU GET FISH?" SHE ASKED 46
"HELP ME: I'M AFRAID," SAID LUCY 53
HARK! THERE'S A CRY, AND OUT JUMPS A LITTLE BLACK
FIGURE, WITH A STOUT CLUB IN HIS HAND 59
AND HERE BESIDE HER WAS A LITTLE FELLOW WITH A
BOW AND ARROWS SUCH AS SHE HAD NEVER SEEN
BEFORE 65
"IS IT NOT GOOD?" SAID THE LITTLE HOSTESS 73
WHISKING OVER THE SNOW, WITH ALL HER MIGHT AND
MAIN, MUFFLED UP IN CLOAKS AND FURS 78
"MARRIED! OH NO, YOU ARE JOKING" 87
"I WILL SHOW YOU WHERE YOU LIVE--THIS IS
CONSTANTINOPLE" 93
"I CUT IT OUT WITH MY KNIFE; ALL MYSELF" 99
WHILE HE JERKED OUT HIS ARMS AND LEGS AS IF THEY
WERE PULLED BY STRINGS 103
"SEE NOW," CRIED THE SPANIARD; "STAND THERE! AH!
HAVE YOU NO CASTANETS?" 111
"WHAT ARE YOU ABOUT, LITTLE BOY?" 115
"AH! MADEMOISELLE, GOOD MORNING; ARE YOU COME HERE
TO TAKE SHELTER FROM THE SHELLS?" 122
"WHAT CAN THAT BE, COMING AT THIS TIME OF DAY?" 127
"GOOD MORNING, WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?" 130
OH! SUCH A DIN 136
LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE.
CHAPTER I.
MOTHER BUNCH.
THERE was once a wonderful fortnight in little Lucy's life. One evening
she went to bed very tired and cross and hot, and in the morning when
she looked at her arms and legs they were all covered with red spots,
rather pretty to look at, only they were dry and prickly.
Nurse was frightened when she looked at them. She turned all the little
sisters out of the night nursery, covered Lucy up close, and ordered
her not to stir, certainly not to go into her bath. Then there was a
whispering and a running about, and Lucy was half alarmed, but more
pleased at being so important, for she did not feel at all ill, and
quite enjoyed the tea and toast that Nurse brought up to her. Just as
she was beginning to think it rather tiresome to lie there with nothing
to do, except to watch the flies buzzing about, there was a step on the
stairs and up came the doctor. He was an old friend, very good-natured,
and he made fun with Lucy about having turned into a spotted leopard,
just like the cowry shell on Mrs. Bunker's mantelpiece. Indeed, he said
he thought she was such a curiosity that Mrs. Bunker would come for her
and set her up in the museum, and then he went away. Suppose, oh,
suppose she did!
Mrs. Bunker, or Mother Bunch, as Lucy and her brothers and sisters
called her, was housekeeper to their Uncle Joseph. He was really their
great uncle, and they thought him any age you can imagine. They would
not have been much surprised to hear that he had sailed with Christopher
Columbus, though he was a strong, hale, active man, much less easily
tired than their own papa. He had been a ship's surgeon in his younger
days, and had sailed all over the world, and collected all sorts of
curious things, besides which he was a very wise and learned man, and
had made some great discovery. It was _not_ America. Lucy knew that her
elder brother understood what it was, but it was not worth troubling her
head about, only somehow it made ships go safer, and so he had had a
pension given him as a reward; and had come home and bought a house
about a mile out of the town, and built up a high room to look at the
stars from with his telescope, and another to try his experiments in,
and a long one besides for his museum; yet, after all, he was not much
there, for whenever there was anything wonderful to be seen, he always
went off to look at it and; whenever there was a meeting of learned
men--scientific men was the right word--they always wanted him to help
them make speeches and show wonders. He was away now: he had gone away
to wear a red cross on his arm, and help to take care of the wounded in
the sad war between the French and Germans.
But he had left Mother Bunch behind him. Nobody knew exactly what was
Mrs. Bunker's nation, indeed she could hardly be said to have had any,
for she had been born at sea, and had been a sailor's wife; but whether
she was mostly English, Dutch, or Danish, nobody knew and nobody cared.
Her husband had been lost at sea, and Uncle Joseph had taken her to look
after his house, and always said she was the only woman who had sense
and discretion enough ever to go into his laboratory or dust his museum.
She was very kind and good-natured, and there was nothing that the
children liked better than a walk to Uncle Joseph's, and, after a game
at play in the garden, a tea-drinking with her--such quantities of
sugar! such curious cakes made in the fashion of different countries!
such funny preserves from all parts of the world! and more delightful to
people who considered that looking and hearing was better sport than
eating, and that the tongue is not _only_ meant to taste with, such
cupboards and drawers full of wonderful things, such stories about them!
The lesser ones liked Mrs. Bunker's room better than Uncle Joseph's
museum, where there were some big stuffed beasts with glaring eyes that
frightened them, and they had to walk round with hands behind, that they
might not touch anything, or else their uncle's voice was sure to call
out gruffly, "Paws off!"
Mrs. Bunker was not a bit like the smart housekeepers at other houses.
To be sure, on Sundays she came out in a black silk gown with a little
flounce at the bottom, a scarlet China crape shawl with a blue dragon
upon it--his wings over her back, and a claw over each shoulder, so
that whoever sat behind her in church was terribly distracted by trying
to see the rest of him--and a very big yellow Tuscan bonnet, trimmed
with sailor's blue ribbon; but in the week and about the house she wore
a green stuff, with a brown holland apron and bib over it, quite
straight all the way down, for she had no particular waist, and her
hair, which was of a funny kind of flaxen grey, she bundled up and tied
round, without any cap or anything else on her head. One of the little
boys had once called her Mother Bunch, because of her stories; and the
name fitted her so well that the whole family, and even her master, took
it up.
Lucy was very fond of her; but when about an hour after the doctor's
visit she was waked by a rustling and a lumbering on the stairs, and
presently the door opened, and the second best big bonnet--the
go-to-market bonnet with the turned ribbons--came into the room with
Mother Bunch's face under it, and the good-natured voice told her she
was to be carried to Uncle Joseph's and have oranges and tamarinds, she
did begin to feel like the spotted cowry, to think about being set on
the chimney-piece, to cry, and say she wanted Mamma.
The Nurse and Mother Bunch began to comfort her, and explain that the
doctor thought she had the scarlatina; not at all badly; but that if any
of the others caught it, nobody could guess how bad they would be;
especially Mamma, who had just been ill; and so she was to be rolled up
in her blankets, and put into a carriage, and taken to her uncle's; and
there she would stay till she was not only well, but could safely come
home without carrying infection about with her.
Lucy was a good little girl, and knew that she must bear it; so, though
she could not help crying a little when she found she must not kiss any
one, nay not even see them, and that nobody might go with her but
Lonicera, her own washing doll, she made up her mind bravely; and she
was a good deal cheered when Clare, the biggest and best of all the
dolls, was sent in to her, with all her clothes, by Maude, her eldest
sister, to be her companion,--it was such an honour and so very kind of
Maude that it quite warmed the sad little heart.
So Lucy had her little scarlet flannel dressing gown on, and her shoes
and stockings, and a wonderful old knitted hood with a tippet to it, and
then she was rolled round and round in all her bed-clothes, and Mrs.
Bunker took her up like a very big baby, not letting any one else touch
her. How Mrs. Bunker got safe down all the stairs no one can tell, but
she did, and into the fly, and there poor little Lucy looked back and
saw at the windows Mamma's face, and Papa's, and Maude's, and all the
rest, all nodding and smiling to her, but Maude was crying all the time,
and perhaps Mamma was too.
The journey seemed very long; and Lucy was really tired when she was
put down at last in a big bed, nicely warmed for her, and with a bright
fire in the room. As soon as she had had some beef-tea, she went off
soundly to sleep, and only woke to drink tea, and administer supper to
the dolls, and put them to sleep.
The next evening she was sitting up by the fire, and on the fourth day
she was running about the house as if nothing had ever been the matter
with her, but she was not to go home for a fortnight; and being wet,
cold, dull weather, it was not always easy to amuse herself. She had her
dolls, to be sure, and the little dog Don, to play with, and sometimes
Mrs. Bunker would let her make funny things with the dough, or stone the
raisins, or even help make a pudding; but still there was a good deal of
time on her hands. She had only two books with her, and the rash had
made her eyes weak, so that she did not much like reading them. The
notes that every one wrote from home were quite enough for her. What
she liked best--that is, when Mrs. Bunker could not attend to her--was
to wander about the museum, explaining the things to the dolls: "That is
a crocodile, Lonicera; it eats people up, and has a little bird to pick
its teeth. Look, Clare, that bony thing is a skeleton--the skeleton of a
lizard. Paws off, my dear; mustn't touch. That's amber, just like barley
sugar, only not so nice; people make necklaces of it. There's a poor
little dead fly inside. Those are the dear delightful humming-birds;
look at their crests, just like Mamma's jewels. See the shells; aren't
they beauties? People get pearls out of those great flat ones, and dive
all down to the bottom of the sea after them; mustn't touch, my dear,
only look; paws off."
One would think Clare's curved fingers all in one piece, and Lonicera's
blue leather hands had been very movable and mischievous, judging by the
number of times this warning came; but of course it was Lucy herself who
wanted it most, for her own little plump, pinky hands did almost tingle
to handle and turn round those pretty shells. She wanted to know whether
the amber tasted like barley-sugar as it looked, and there was a little
musk deer, no bigger than Don, whom she longed to stroke, or still
better to let Lonicera ride; but she was a good little girl, and had
real sense of honour, which never betrays a trust, so she never laid a
finger on anything but what Uncle Joe had once given all free leave to
move.
This was a very big pair of globes--bigger than globes commonly are now,
and with more frames round them--one great flat one, with odd names
painted on it, and another brass one, nearly upright, going half-way
round from top to bottom, and with the globe hung upon it by two pins,
which Lucy's elder sisters called the poles, or the ends of the axis.
The huge round balls went very easily with a slight touch, and there was
something very charming in making them go whisk, whisk, whisk; now
faster, now slower, now spinning so quickly that nothing on them could
be seen, now turning slowly and gradually over and showing all that was
on them.
The mere twirling was quite enough for Lucy at first, but soon she liked
to look at what was on them. One she thought much more entertaining than
the other. It was covered with wonderful creatures: one bear was
fastened by his long tail to the pole; another bigger one was trotting
round; a snake was coiling about anywhere; a lady stood disconsolate
against a rock; another sat in a chair; a giant sprawled with a club in
one hand and a lion's skin in the other; a big dog and a little dog
stood on their hind legs; a lion seemed just about to spring on a young
maiden's head; and all were thickly spotted over, just as if they had
Lucy's rash, with stars big and little: and still more strange, her
brothers declared these were the stars in the sky, and this was the way
people found their road at sea; but if Lucy asked how, they always said
she was not big enough to understand, and it had not occurred to Lucy
to ask whether the truth was not that they were not big enough to
explain.
The other globe was all in pale green, with pink and yellow outlines on
it, and quantities of names. Lucy had had to learn some of these names
for her geography, and she did not want to think of lessons now, so she
rather kept out of the way of looking at it at first, till she had
really grown tired of all the odd men and women and creatures upon the
celestial sphere; but by and by she began to roll the other by way of
variety.