game of hide-and-seek with his sister in the flat. It was really a
forbidden joy, owing to noise and risk of breakages, but he had unusual
privileges after his grave illness. It was dusk. The lamps in the
street were being lit. "Quietly, remember; your mother's resting in her
room," were the father's orders. She had just returned from a week by
the sea, recuperating from the strain of nursing for so many nights.
The traffic rolled and boomed along the streets below.
"Jack! Do come on and hide. It's your turn. I hid last."
But the boy was standing spellbound by the window, staring hard at
something on the pavement. Sybil called and tugged in vain. Tears
threatened. Jack would not budge. He declared he saw something.
"Oh, you're always seeing something. I wish you'd go and hide. It's
only because you can't think of a good place, really."
"Look!" he cried in a voice of wonder. And as he said it his father
rose quickly from his chair before the fire.
"Look!" the child repeated with delight and excitement. "It's a great
big horse. And it's perfectly white all over." His sister joined him at
the window. "Where? Where? I can't see it. Oh, _do_ show me!"
Their father was standing close behind them now. "I heard it," he was
whispering, but so low the children did not notice him. His face was
the colour of chalk.
"Straight in front of our door, stupid! Can't you see it? Oh, I do wish
it had come for me. It's _such_ a beauty!" And he clapped his hands
with pleasure and excitement. "Quick, quick! It's going away again!"
But while the children stood half-squabbling by the window, their
father leaned over a sofa in the adjoining room above a figure whose
heart in sleep had quietly stopped its beating. The great white horse
had come. But this time he had not only heard its wonderful arrival. He
had also heard it go. It seemed he heard the awful hoofs beat down the
sky, far, far away, and very swiftly, dying into silence, finally up
among the stars.
THE END.
Transcriber's Note
Spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been retained as in the
original publication except as follows:
Page 1
in the familar scenery _changed to_
in the familiar scenery
Page 137
that the search partly had gone _changed to_
that the search party had gone
Page 183
which disintegrate the herioc soul _changed to_
which disintegrate the heroic soul
Page 185
where they had their birth: _changed to_
where they had their birth.
Page 204
this Tessaract was bounded _changed to_
this tessaract was bounded
End of Project Gutenberg's Day and Night Stories, by Algernon Blackwood