"Had you been walking across that wild wintry waste, Maggie May," I
began, "you would have seen at some distance before you a great
pine-wood, half buried in drifting snow, the tall trees bending before
the icy blast and tossing their branches weirdly in the wind."
"Don't you want slow music to that?" said Frank, pretending to reach for
his fiddle.
"Hush, Frank! When you looked again, Maggie May, lo! what a change!
The fairy forest has been transformed into a city. There is a blue
uncertain mist all over it, but you can plainly distinguish streets and
terraces, steeples, towers, ramparts, and ruins; and instead of the
mournful sighing of the wind that previously fell on your ear, you can
now listen to the music of bells and the pleasant murmur of the
every-day life of a great town. Towards this town then, one day, a big
wolf was journeying. It was summer then, the sun shone bright, clouds
were fleecy, and the sky was blue, and the plain all round him was
bright with the greenery of grass and dotted with wild flowers. But
neither the beauty of the day, nor the loveliness of the scenery, had
any effect on the gaunt and ugly wolf. Not being good himself, he could
see no goodness in Nature.
"`I'm far too soon,' he grumbled to himself, `I must curl up till
nightfall; I wish the sun wasn't shining, and I wish the birds wouldn't
sing so. Moonlight and the owls would suit me far better. I wonder
what makes that skylark so happy? Well, _I_ was happy once,' he
continued as he lay down behind a bush, `yes I was, but, dear me, it is
long ago. When I was young and innocent, ha! ha! I wouldn't have
stolen a tame rabbit or a chicken for all the world; I was content with
the food I found in the wild woods, and now I'm lying here waiting for
night, that I may fall upon and slay a dozen at least of those pretty
lambkins I see gambolling down on yonder lea. I wouldn't mind being
young again though, I think I might lead a better life, I think--'
"He did not think any more just then, for he had fallen sound asleep.
"The hours flew by. The sun went round and down, and a big moon rose
slowly up in the east and smiled upon the landscape.
"The time flew by, as time only flies in a fairy forest.
"The wolf moaned in his sleep, then he shivered, and shivering awoke.
No wonder he shivers: he had lain down to sleep with the soft balmy
summer winds playing around him; now all is cold snow.
"No wonder he shivers, for yonder in front of him, and not two yards
away, stands one of the most terrible-looking apparitions ever his eyes
beheld. A great grizzly boar!
"`O! dear me,' cried the wolf, `what a fright you gave me! Who are you
at all?'
"`I'm Remorse,' was the stern reply; `you used to call me Conscience
once.'
"`O! well,' said the wolf, `do go away, you have no idea how dreadful
you look. I'll--hoo--oo--oo!'
"And the wolf laid back his ears, lifted up his head and voice, and
howled till the welkin rang, just as you see him in the picture.
"`I didn't always look dreadful,' said the boar; `when I was young I was
tender, but you seared me and hardened me, and tried to bury me. Do you
remember the days when I used to beseech you to do unto others as you
would that others would do unto you? Now I'm come to do unto you as you
have done to others. Aha!'
"`Hoo--oo--oo!' howled the wolf. `O! pray go away. Hoo--oo--oo!'
"`Nay, nay,' said Remorse, `I'll never leave you more.'
"`You must be joking,' cried the wolf, `you must be mad. Hoo--oo--oo!'
"`Must I?' said Remorse; `you've led a life of discontent. Your evil
deeds are more in number than the bristles on my back.'
"`Pray don't mention them,' exclaimed the wolf, shivering all over.
"`You've led a cruel, selfish, useless life. Do you feel any the better
for it now? You don't look any better.'
"`O! no, no, no.'
"`Now look at me.'
"`I daren't. Hoo--oo--oo!'
"`Well, listen.'
"`I must.'
"`Yes, you cannot shut your ears, though you may close your eyes.
Before you tried to crush and kill me, I was your best friend, the still
small voice within you guiding you on to good. What am I now? Your
foe, your tormentor--Remorse!'
"`Mercy, mercy!' cried the wolf. `O! give me back my innocence. Be my
Conscience once again.'
"`Too late!'
"And now a cloud passed over and hid the moon, and next moment, had you
looked, neither wolf nor wild boar would you have seen.
"Nothing there save the distant fairy forest, with the wind bending its
branches and sighing mournfully across that dreary waste of snow."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. A complete description of this caravan is to be found in my
book, "The Cruise of the Land Yacht _Wanderer_," published by Messrs.
Hodder and Stoughton, Paternoster Row. The book is at all libraries.