_The Other Side of the Tree_
The two children gazed in astonishment at the unfamiliar scene in
front of them, for here was a place they had never seen before, and
yet, apparently, a place within ten minutes’ walk of their home—a
place that led out of the little wood at the end of their garden. And
they thought they knew every nook and corner of that wood, and of the
fields and lanes beyond for several miles round their house. Yet here
was a place they had never seen before; and, more puzzling still, the
soft glow of evening and sunset had taken the place of the moonlight
and gloom which had been all around them in the wood. For they were
still standing close to the same big old tree, but instead of the
wood continuing for a quarter of a mile on, and ending at the edge of
Farmer Hart’s cornfields as it always _had_ done, it ended abruptly
right in front of them, by the side of a broad white road. This road
stretched away to the left, up and up a big hill. You could see it
winding like a white ribbon, bordered by the green and brown trees of
the woods that clustered on each side. And, at the top of the hill,
where the road ended, glistened the white walls and roofs of a distant
city. To the right the road continued past the wood where the children
were standing, and sloped down, down, till it was lost to sight in the
burning crimson and gold afterglow of the sunset.
Jack and Molly looked up the road and down the road, but all was
silent, and not a soul in sight. Then a wisp of blue smoke among the
trees on the opposite side of the road caught their attention, and they
saw that it was curling from the chimney of a snug little red-roofed
cottage, which nestled, half hidden, on the fringe of the wood across
the road.
The children looked at each other in bewilderment. Then they turned and
examined the giant tree behind them, but that did not help them much.
It was certainly the same tree, but it was not the same wood. Something
queer had happened—it did not seem to be even the same country.
They looked up and down the road again, and behind them and before
them—and listened. But all was silent. Their eyes wandered back to the
curling blue smoke, the only sign of life within sight.
“Better ask some one where we’ve got to,” said Jack, eyeing the smoke.
“But where’s IT gone?” began Molly, then broke off quickly. “Hush!
What’s that!” she said.
She plucked Jack’s sleeve and drew him into the shadow of the trees. A
distant sound of voices came floating through the still evening air.
There were evidently two speakers, for, as the sounds drew nearer the
children could hear a high, loud, jolly voice, flowing continuously,
and punctuated every now and then by a low, mumbling voice. After a few
seconds the words of the high-voiced speaker became distinguishable.
“Stuff and nonsense!” it cried shrilly. “Pull yourself together,
Father. Come now, come now, snap your fingers in its face! Laugh at it,
I say, and—tss——” The speaker made a little hissing noise. “Where is
it?”
The other voice here murmured some reply too low for the children to
catch.
“What’s that?” replied the first speaker. “No—not _you_. But I’ll tell
you what will happen, you’ll be having an attack of melancholia——”
“Oh, not that, not that!” The low voice was raised and pleading. “Don’t
talk of melons, Glan, don’t, I pray you. They make me think of those
lemons—and the—and——”
“Now don’t you think of that any more,” ordered the high voice. “Come,
come, come. Pull yourself together....”
The speakers became visible, wending their way through the wood in
which the children were standing. One was a young, fat, rosy-cheeked
man, with a jolly smile, wearing a white overall and white baker’s
cap; he was clean-shaven, and was the possessor of the high voice. His
companion was a striking contrast to him, being old and thin and pale,
with a long white beard; he was dressed in a rich, dark-coloured robe,
and had a number of keys dangling from his belt. They pulled up short
when they caught sight of Jack and Molly; then advanced slowly, with
sidelong glances at each other and low whispers.
Molly stepped forward.
“If you please,” she said, very politely, “could you tell us where we
are?”
“Could you tell us _who_ you are, little lady?—that’s more to the
point,” said the young man pleasantly.
“I’m Molly, and this is my brother Jack,” the little girl replied;
which did not enlighten the young man very much.
The old man gazed at them with his small, dull eyes, and ran his
fingers nervously through his beard.
“We’ve only just come—through that tree,” volunteered Jack, pointing
to the giant tree behind them.
“Through the tree!” exclaimed the old man and the young man together.
“Then you are from the Impossible World,” added the young man in an
excited, high voice.
“We live in England,” said Jack with dignity.
“That may be. I don’t know England. But if it lies on the other side of
that Tree it is in the Impossible World.”
“Why do you call it that?” asked Molly.
“Because that’s its name in our geography books. This is the Possible
World, and always was—except——” The young man glanced at the old
man, who turned his head aside.
“Don’t speak of that,” groaned the old man.
“Cheer up, Father,” cried the young man. “Pull yourself together now.
Snap your fingers and—tss—it is gone, remember.” And he beamed
encouragingly down at the thin little old man beside him, who only
looked more depressed than ever at his son’s efforts to cheer him up.
“But how is it we’ve played in this wood—I mean that wood—ever so
many times and never found our way here before?” inquired Jack.
“Because though you’ve walked _round_ that tree many times you’ve never
come _through_ it before,” said the young man. “There are two sides to
every tree, just as there are two sides to every question. When you
‘walk round’ a question, do you see both its sides? No. It is only
if you go _into_ a question that you see this side and that. Well,
then—when you only walked round that tree it stands to sense that you
couldn’t find yourself here. But when you go into the tree—tss”—he
threw out his hand—“behold! here you are. It’s perfectly simple.”
It certainly sounded sensible and quite simple as the young man
explained it, but Jack and Molly still felt rather mystified.
“But _why_ do you call ours the Impossible World?” asked Jack.
“Because it’s full of impossible things,” replied the young man.
“Impossible people, impossible ideas, impossible laws, impossible
houses, there is so much impossible misery and injustice, and
impossible talk, that it’s quite impossible for any possible creature
to live in it. On the other hand, this land (which is the other side of
yours) is the Possible World now; for a time it was Impossible, but we
sent——” Here the old man winced. “I’m sorry, Father. But you must let
me tell the little lady and her brother where they are. I know. You go
and sit down under that tree, and think of buttercups.”
“But they’re the colour of lemons,” whined the old man feebly.
“Not all of them—think of the ones that aren’t. There; run along. I
shan’t be two minutes explaining.”
And he patted his father on the shoulder as the old man shuffled across
the leaves to the foot of a tree some yards away, where he sat down,
and remained shaking his head and looking on the ground, mumbling to
himself, while the young man explained the cause of his depression to
Jack and Molly.
“It’s this way!” he began, after glancing over his shoulder to make
sure his Father couldn’t hear. “For hundreds of years this has been
the Possible World, because it was possible for everyone in it to be
happy. But there came a time when an evil influence crept into the land
and made it Impossible. It was through this evil Thing that my Father,
who was one of the King’s Advisers, lost his place at Court. The whole
country was under a cloud. Then, Old Nancy—she lives in the cottage
yonder”—he pointed to the little red-roofed cottage with the smoke
curling from the chimney, on the opposite side of the road—“Old Nancy,
she discovered a spell, and she saved us—she banished the evil Thing
to the Impossible World and our world became Possible again. Lately, my
Father has been afflicted with dreams that he says always come to him
before trouble overtakes the country, and he fears by some mishap that
the country may become Impossible again.”
“What does he dream of?” inquired Molly.
“Lemons,” said the young man; “and do what I can I cannot shake him
out of the gloom into which he has fallen.... It’s strange,” the young
man continued, “but poor old Father seems the only person who did not
cheer up when the World became Possible again. It was a nasty shock
for him, being banished from Court; and although they’ve taken him
back and given him another post—I suppose he’s getting old. And then
those dreams——” Glan’s face became serious for a moment. “However,
they mean nothing, I’m sure. And now you are here you’d like to see
our Possible Country, wouldn’t you? I’m afraid as you are from the
Impossible World you’ll have to get a Pass before you can come into the
City—but that’ll be all right. You must come and have tea with us. I
opened a little baker’s and pastry-cook’s business when Father lost
his place at Court, and I still keep it up—fascinating work, making
puff pastry and currant buns. I run a special line in gooseberry-jam
puffs. I used to do a lovely line in lemon cheese-cakes, but I’ve had
to leave them off since Father’s had those dreams. He can’t bear to be
reminded——” He stopped, a little out of breath.
“We’d love to come up to the City; where can we get a Pass?” said Molly.
“But, I say, what about that thing we were following,” broke in Jack,
suddenly remembering what it was they had followed through the tree;
the interest of meeting their new acquaintances had made the children
forget for a few minutes. “We’d forgotten, hadn’t we, Molly? We were
really following a Pumpkin, you know,” he said, turning to the young
man.
“A what!” and the young man’s voice rose to a shriek, and his eyes grew
round.
“A Pumpkin,” faltered Jack, a little dismayed, “A Grey Pumpkin.”
“Father! Father! It’s come back,” shouted the young man, wheeling round
excitedly.
“Come back!” repeated the old man, rising to his feet and stumbling
toward them. “Come back! What has come back? Not the—not——”
“The Pumpkin,” gasped Glan, his fat, jolly face pale and his hands
trembling.
“Oh, my heart and soul,” cried the old man, his eyes wild with fear,
wringing his hands together. “What did I warn you! What did I warn
you! I said those lemons meant trouble. Oh, my heart and soul, what
shall we do!”
The father and son stared wildly into each other’s eyes for a second.
“What shall we do, Glan? What shall we do?” the old man quavered,
shaking from head to foot.
“Where has the Pumpkin gone?” asked Glan, turning to the children.
“We don’t know,” said Molly, frightened at the distress of the two men.
“It came through the tree before us, we followed it, and by the time we
got through it had disappeared.”
“I must go and spread the alarm. I must go and warn. Oh, my heart and
soul!” the old man sobbed, and turning, he stumbled out on to the white
road and waddled rapidly up the hill toward the walls of the city,
mumbling and chattering and sobbing to himself, the keys at his belt
jangling a dismal accompaniment.
“If it’s back, then the country will be Impossible again,” groaned
Glan. “It was through the Grey Pumpkin that it became Impossible
before. But just tell me quickly—how did it happen? What do you know
about the Pumpkin, and where did you first see it?”
The children explained as quickly as they could, while Glan stood
nodding his head and glancing every other second over his shoulder at
the receding figure of his father.
“I wondered how you discovered the three knocks on the tree,” he
muttered. “It can only be done when the moon is full, you know. You
didn’t know? I thought you might have discovered it accidentally, when
you were playing, p’raps. Somebody from the Impossible World did that
before—many years ago. Well, go on.”
The children finished their story.
“Oh, it’s the Pumpkin right enough,” said Glan. “Now what can have
happened. Old Nancy must have forgotten the usual sunset spell.... No,
no, she’d never forget ... she’s never forgotten. There must be foul
play somewhere. We must go to her at once and see what’s happened.
Come!”
And followed by the two children he hurriedly crossed the road to the
little cottage opposite, and rapped loudly with his knuckles on the
door.