THE VILLAGE OF HIDE AND SEEK.
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Illustration: _"The now smiling vagabond stood bowing and scraping in
the middle of the sunbaked road."_
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THE VILLAGE
OF
HIDE AND SEEK
BY
BINGHAM THOBURN WILSON
AUTHOR OF
"YE MOUNTAINEER," "THE TALE OF THE PHANTOM YACHT," ETC.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
W. HERBERT DUNTON
Illustration: Publisher's logo
NEW YORK
CONSOLIDATED RETAIL BOOKSELLERS
1905
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COPYRIGHTED, 1905, BY
CONSOLIDATED RETAIL BOOKSELLERS
REGISTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON
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(_All Rights Reserved_)
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PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, 1905.
{Printed in the United States of America}.
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_Dedication._
TO THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY AND RAGS. TO THE
HOUSEHOLD OF SORROW AND BURDENSOME CARE.
TO THE LIVES IN THE SHADOW OF THE DARK GAUNT
FORM OF WOE. TO THOSE WHOSE EARS HAVE BEEN
ATTUNED TO THE HOLLOW, MOCKING VOICE OF
GRIEF. TO THE HUMBLEST OF THE HUMBLE, THE
POOR; THE VERY POOR. AND MAY THIS STORY
PROVE TO BE STARLIGHT IF NOT SUNSHINE.
VERY RESPECTFULLY,
THE AUTHOR.
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CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER
I. "HIS HIGHNESS," THE VAGABOND
II. AUNT TWADDLES
III. THE PATH UP THE CLIFF
IV. THE CAVE IN THE MOUNTAIN
V. THE VILLAGE OF HIDE AND SEEK
VI. THE QUEEN OF THE DOLLS
VII. KIMBO, THE GIANT
VIII. THE ISLAND OF DREAMS
IX. SODA WATER FOUNTAIN
X. IN THE VILLAGE OF HIDE AND SEEK
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
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"Frontisepiece."
"Almost dumb with surprise, the children turned about to gaze on the
world that lay far beneath them"
"All the odd, ill-fitting garments ... were changed into raiments of
rich lace and gold"
"He seemed to be leaping over great fields fully a mile at a stride"
"The children stopped to look back upon the spot from which they had
just come"
"Looking upward they were amazed to behold the open sky filled with
sweet-voiced angels"
"He gave the old harp a nimble sweep with his dexterous fingers that
filled the air with enchanting music"
"Perhaps you have noticed by my long hair and studious demeanor that I
am both a gentleman and a scholar"
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THE VILLAGE OF HIDE AND SEEK
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CHAPTER I
"HIS HIGHNESS," THE VAGABOND
On a bright sunny day in the middle of the month of August, a merry
group of gaily dressed children were romping upon the green lawn of a
country place, that, from its well kept and cleanly surroundings, could
not have been mistaken for any other than the home of some prosperous
and perhaps retired gentleman of wealth and refinement.
The old-fashioned stone house, with its wide porch and heavily carved
wooden columns green-coated with climbing ivy, rose amid the stately
trees of the lawn, until it seemed lost in a bower of shadowy foliage.
The low, thatch-roofed out-buildings and long lines of far-reaching
fence, carefully coated with fresh whitewash, stood glistening in the
sunlight, quite in harmony with the polished marble window sills of the
great stone mansion.
Standing in the very centre of the scene, like some still lingering
remnant of the long gone and almost forgotten past, arose the tall,
rustic arm of an old-fashioned well-sweep, that raised or lowered a
moss-covered, old oaken bucket, filled to overflowing and dripping wet
with cool, clear water, not unfrequently visited by this gamboling group
of merry children both during and after their play.
As the children rested for a moment beneath the sheltering arms of an
old oak tree, they were much surprised to behold the form of a wandering
vagabond ambling along the dusty road. His hat was well drawn down over
his eyes to avoid the glaring rays of the mid-day sun. Over his shoulder
and made fast to the end of a crooked stick, that might have answered as
well for a defence as for a staff, hung his sum total of earthly
possessions, tied carefully into a small bundle and as carefully hid
from view within the folds of a red bandanna handkerchief.
A passing glance only was needed to tell that the wanderer was weary;
and as his eyes, glistening with envy, beheld the cool shade of the
trees, and the still more inviting bucket above the well, that,
half-filled and leaking, hung suspended in mid-air, he halted his weary
pace in the road near the gate and beckoned the children to approach.
No second invitation was needed. The boys, more daring and venturesome,
bounded toward him with a merry shout and were soon standing on the edge
of the lawn near the wanderer; but the little girls, like so many timid
fawns of the forest, with a feeling more of fear than of curiosity,
lingered tardily behind; and it was some time before they joined their
less cautious companions.
He was a curious-looking, but quite jolly vagabond indeed; and although
his face was begrimed and smeared with mingled perspiration and dust,
his eyes shone with a merry, good-natured twinkle, as he doffed his well
worn and dusty black hat and bowed with an air of politeness, quite
unknown to the common everyday tramp of the highways of the world.
One of the children laughingly exclaimed:
"Where are you going?"
And another: "Where did you come from?"
And still a third: "Where is your home?"
And so on, until the now smiling vagabond, waiting for a chance to
reply, stood bowing and scraping in the middle of the sunbaked road as
he calmly received volley after volley of almost unanswerable questions.
"Well!" he exclaimed at last, as the children became suddenly silent,
"you ask me where I am from and where I am going, so now let me say:
just at present I am from everywhere in general and bound nowhere in
particular!"
And he began pounding the dust from his body and limbs with his old hat,
as if wishing to make himself look presentable, even if out in the
middle of a hot, dusty roadway; and looking up with a longing glance, he
asked permission to obtain a drink of water from the well on the lawn.
The big gate was still closed to "His Most Royal Highness," and as the
mere thought of his entering the lawn dawned upon the minds of the now
silent children, they drew back in affright and with solemn faces; nor
would they think of granting the stranger's request until finally one
little fellow called his companions together for a moment, as he almost
pleadingly said:
"It is wrong to deny a poor man a drink of water. He is weary and
perhaps far from home, while God gives us the water so freely. Beside,
he cannot take the shade of these trees away with him when he goes, so,
while he rests on the lawn, I will bring him a drink from the well
myself."
And with a light foot, but a much lighter heart, the boy bounded away in
haste, while the weary "Knight of the Road" entered the shadow of a big
maple tree on the lawn and stood waiting for him to return.
As he gulped down the cool, refreshing water in a manner as though
famished, he blinked his bright sparkling eyes in evidence of much
relish; then casting a thankful glance upon the face of his new found
friend, he turned toward him with a smile as he said:
"My little lad, for your kind act to a weary and thirsty man let me say;
if you will gather your little friends about me under the shade of this
tree, I will tell you an interesting story, which, if you will listen
carefully, may give you something of my past wanderings as well as an
answer to some of the questions you asked of me while I was out in the
road."
Without a word of reply, the children, anxious to know what the
stranger's story might be, sank here and there upon the grass, as the
vagabond thus began his strange tale.
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