It was such a strange thing—so unlike the things of every day, and so
totally an unexpected thing, that for a little while they all three had
a sense of scarcely knowing what to do with themselves. If Robin and Meg
had not somehow rather liked the man, and vaguely felt him friendly, and
if there had not been in their impressionable minds that fancy about his
being far from as happy as the other people of the crowds looked, it is
more than probable that they would not have liked their position, and
would have felt that it might spoil their pleasure.
But they were sympathetic children, and they had been lonely and sad
enough themselves to be moved by a sadness in others, even if it was an
uncomprehended one.
As she walked by the man’s side, still letting her hand remain in his,
Meg kept giving him scrutinizing looks aside, and trying in her way to
read him. He was a man just past middle life, he was powerful and
well-built, and had keen, and at the same time rather unhappy-looking,
blue eyes, with brows and lashes as black as Rob’s and her own. There
was something strong in his fine-looking, clean-shaven face, and the
hand which held hers had a good, firm grasp, and felt like a hand which
had worked in its time.
As for the man himself, he was trying an experiment. He had been
suddenly seized with a desire to try it, and see how it would result. He
was not sure that it would be a success, but if it proved one it might
help to rid him of gloom he would be glad to be relieved of. He felt it
rather promising when Meg went at once to the point and asked him a
practical question.
“You don’t know our names?” she said.
“You don’t know mine,” he answered. “It’s John Holt. You can call me
that.”
“John Holt,” said Meg. “Mr. John Holt.”
The man laughed. Her grave, practical little air pleased him.
“Say John Holt, without the handle to it,” he said. “It sounds well.”
Meg looked at him inquiringly. Though he had laughed, he seemed to mean
what he said.
“It’s queer, of course,” she said, “because we don’t know each other
well; but I can do it, if you like.”
“I do like,” he said, and he laughed again.
“Very well,” said Meg. “My name’s Margaret Macleod, I’m called Meg for
short. My brother’s name is Robin, and Ben’s is Ben Nowell. Where shall
we go first?”
“You are the leader of the party,” he answered, his face beginning to
brighten a little. “Where shall it be?”
“The Palace of the Genius of the Flowers,” she said.
“Is that what it is called?” he asked.
“That’s what we call it,” she explained. “That’s part of the fairy
story. _We_ are part of a fairy story, and all these are palaces that
the Genii built for the Great Magician.”
“That’s first-rate,” he said. “Just tell us about it. Ben and I have not
heard.”
At first she had wondered if she could tell her stories to a grown-up
person, but there was something in his voice and face that gave her the
feeling that she could. She laughed a little when she began; but he
listened with enjoyment that was so plain, and Ben, walking by her side,
looked up with such eager, enraptured, and wondering eyes, that she went
on bravely. It grew, as stories will, in being told, and it was better
than it had been the day before. Robin himself saw that, and leaned
towards her as eagerly as Ben.
By the time they entered the Palace of the Flowers and stood among the
flame of colors, and beneath the great palm fronds swaying under the
crystal globe that was its dome, she had warmed until she was all aglow,
and as full of fancies as the pavilions were of blossoms.
As she dived into the story of the Genius who strode through tropical
forests and deep jungles, over purple moors and up mountain sides, where
strange-hued pale or vivid things grew in tangles, or stood in the sun
alone, John Holt became of the opinion that his experiment would be a
success. It was here that he began to find he had gifts to give. She
asked him questions; Robin and Ben asked him questions; the three drew
close to him, and hung on his every word.
“You know the things and the places where they grow,” Meg said. “We have
never seen anything. We can only try to imagine. You can tell us.” And
he did tell them; and as they went from court to pavilion, surrounded by
sumptuous bloom and sumptuous leafage and sumptuous fragrance, the three
beginning to cling to him, to turn to him with every new discovery, and
to forget he was a stranger, he knew that he was less gloomy than he had
been before, and that somehow this thing seemed worth doing.
And in this way they went from place to place. As they had seen beauties
and wonders the day before, they saw wonders and beauties to-day, but
to-day their pleasure had a flavor new to them. For the first time in
years, since they had left their little seat at their own fireside, they
were not alone, and some one seemed to mean to look after them. John
Holt was an eminently practical person, and when they left the Palace of
the Flowers they began vaguely to realize that, stranger or not, he had
taken charge of them. It was evident that he was in the habit of taking
charge of people and things. He took charge of the satchel. It appeared
that he knew where it was safe to leave it.
“Can we get it at lunch time?” Robin asked, with some anxiety.
“You can get it when you want it,” said John Holt.
A little later he looked at Ben’s pale, small face scrutinizingly.
“Look here,” he said, “you’re tired.” And without any further question
he called up a rolling-chair.
“Get into that,” he said.
“Me?” said Ben, a little alarmed.
“Yes.”
And, almost a shade paler at the thought of such grandeur, Ben got in,
and fell back with a luxurious sigh.
And at midday, when they were beginning to feel ravenous, though no one
mentioned the subject, he asked Meg a blunt question.
“Where did you eat your lunch yesterday?” he asked.
Meg flushed a little, feeling that hospitality demanded that they should
share the remaining eggs with such a companion, and she was afraid there
would be very few to offer, when Ben was taken into consideration.
“We went to a quiet place on the Wooded Island,” she said, “and ate it
with the roses. We pretended they invited us. We had only hard-boiled
eggs and a sandwich each; but a kind woman gave us something of her
own.”
“We brought the eggs from home,” explained Rob. “We have some chickens
of our own, who laid them. We thought that would be cheaper than buying
things.”
“Oh!” said John Holt. “So you’ve been living on hard-boiled eggs. Got
any left?”
“A few,” Meg answered. “They’re in the satchel. We shall have to go and
get it.”
“Come along, then,” said John Holt. “Pretty hungry by this time, aren’t
you?”
“Yes,” said Meg, with heartfelt frankness, “we are!”
It was astonishing how much John Holt had found out about them during
this one morning. They did not know themselves how much their answers to
his occasional questions had told him. He had not known himself, when he
asked the questions, how much their straightforward, practical replies
would reveal. They had not sentimentalized over their friendless
loneliness, but he had found himself realizing what desolate, unnoticed,
and uncared-for things their lives were. They had not told him how they
had tired their young bodies with work too heavy for them, but he had
realized it. In his mind there had risen a picture of the Straw Parlor,
under the tent-like roof of the barn, with these two huddled together in
the cold, buried in the straw, while they talked over their desperate
plans. They had never thought of calling themselves strong and
determined, and clear of wit, but he knew how strong and firm of purpose
and endurance two creatures so young and unfriended, and so poor, must
have been to form a plan so bold, and carry it out in the face of the
obstacles of youth and inexperience, and empty pockets and hands. He had
laughed at the story of the Treasure saved in pennies, and hidden deep
in the straw; but as he had laughed he had thought, with a quick, soft
throb of his heart, that the woman he had loved and lost would have
laughed with him, with tears in the eyes which Meg’s reminded him of. He
somehow felt as if she might be wandering about with them in their City
Beautiful this morning, they were so entirely creatures she would have
been drawn to, and longed to make happier.
He liked their fancy of making their poor little feast within scent of
the roses. It was just such a fancy as She might have had herself. And
he wanted to see what they had to depend on. He knew it must be little,
and it touched him to know that, little as they had, they meant to share
it with their poorer friend.
They went for the satchel, and when they did so they began to calculate
as to what they could add to its contents. They were few things, and
poor ones.
He did not sit down, but stood by and watched them for a moment, when,
having reached their sequestered nook, they began to spread out their
banquet. It was composed of the remnant eggs, some bread, and a slice of
cheese. It looked painfully scant, and Meg had an anxious eye.
“Is that all?” asked John Holt, abruptly.
“Yes,” said Meg. “We shall have to make it do.”
“My Lord!” ejaculated John Holt, suddenly, in his blunt fashion. And he
turned round and walked away.
“Where’s he gone?” exclaimed Ben, timidly.
But they none of them could guess. Nice as he had been, he had a brusque
way, and, perhaps, he meant to leave them.
But by the time they had divided the eggs, and the bread and cheese, and
had fairly begun, he came marching back. He had a basket on his arm, and
two bottles stuck out of one coat pocket, while a parcel protruded from
the other. He came and threw himself down on the grass beside them, and
opened the basket. It was full of good things.
“I’m going to have lunch with you,” he said, “and I have a pretty big
appetite, so I’ve brought you something to eat. You can’t tramp about on
that sort of thing.”
The basket they had seen the day before had been a poor thing compared
to this. The contents of this would have been a feast for much more
fastidious creatures than three ravenous children. There were chickens
and sandwiches and fruit; the bottles held lemonade, and the package in
the coat pocket was a box of candy.
“We—never had such good things in our lives,” Meg gasped, amazed.
“Hadn’t you?” said John Holt, with a kind, and even a happy, grin.
“Well, pitch in.”