HALF-A-CROWN
[Illustration: CLINK-OF-THE-HOLE.]
“So useful it is to have money, heigh ho!
So useful it is to have money!”
A. H. CLOUGH.
The old hound went straight through the town, smelling Clink’s
footsteps, till he came into a large field of barley; and there,
sitting against a sheaf, for it was harvest time, they found
Clink-of-the-Hole. He was a very ugly little brown man, and he was
smoking a pipe in the shade; while crouched near him was the poor
little woman, with her hands spread before her face.
“Good day, sir,” said Clink to Jack. “You are a stranger here, no
doubt?”
“Yes,” said Jack; “I only arrived this morning.”
“Have you seen the town?” asked Clink, civilly; “there is a very fine
market.”
“Yes, I have seen the market,” answered Jack. “I went into it to buy a
slave, but I did not see one that I liked.”
“Ah!” said Clink; “and yet they had some very fine articles.” Here he
pointed to the poor little woman, and said, “Now that’s a useful body
enough, and I had her very cheap.”
“What did you give for her?” said Jack, sitting down.
“Three pitchers,” said Clink, “and fifteen cups and saucers, and two
shillings in the money of the town.”
“Is their money like this?” said Jack, taking out his shilling.
When Clink saw the shilling he changed colour, and said, very
earnestly, “Where did you get that, dear sir?”
“Oh, it was given me,” said Jack, carelessly.
Clink looked hard at the shilling, and so did the fairy woman, and
Jack let them look some time, for he amused himself with throwing
it up several times and catching it. At last he put it back in his
pocket, and then Clink heaved a deep sigh. Then Jack took out a penny,
and began to toss that up, upon which, to his great surprise, the
little brown man fell on his knees, and said, “Oh, a shilling and a
penny--a shilling and a penny of mortal coin! What would I not give for
a shilling and a penny!”
[Illustration: THE LITTLE BROWN MAN FELL ON HIS KNEES AND SAID, “OH, A
SHILLING AND A PENNY.”]
“I don’t believe you have got anything to give,” said Jack, cunningly;
“I see nothing but that ring on your finger, and the old woman.”
“But I have a great many things at home, sir,” said the brown
man, wiping his eyes; “and besides, that ring would be cheap at a
shilling--even a shilling of mortal coin.”
“Would the slave be cheap at a penny?” said Jack.
“Would you give a penny for her, dear sir?” inquired Clink, trembling
with eagerness.
“She is honest,” answered Jack; “ask her whether I had better buy her
with this penny.”
“It does not matter what she says,” replied the brown man; “I would
sell twenty such as she is for a penny--a real one.”
“Ask her,” repeated Jack; and the poor little woman wept bitterly, but
she said “No.”
“Why not?” asked Jack; but she only hung down her head and cried.
“I’ll make you suffer for this,” said the brown man. But when Jack took
out the shilling, and said, “Shall I buy you with this, slave?” his
eyes actually shot out sparks, he was so eager.
“Speak!” he said to the fairy woman; “and if you don’t say ‘Yes,’ I’ll
strike you.”
“He cannot buy me with that,” answered the fairy woman, “unless it is
the most valuable coin he has got.”
The brown man, on hearing this, rose up in a rage, and was just going
to strike her a terrible blow, when Jack cried out, “Stop!” and took
out his half-crown.
“Can I buy you with this?” said he; and the fairy woman answered, “Yes.”
Upon this Clink drew a long breath, and his eyes grew bigger and bigger
as he gazed at the half-crown.
“Shall she be my slave for ever, and not yours,” said Jack, “if I give
you this?”
“She shall,” said the brown man. And he made such a low bow, as he took
the money, that his head actually knocked the ground. Then he jumped
up; and, as if he was afraid Jack should repent of his bargain, he ran
off towards the hole in the hill with all his might, shouting for joy
as he went.
“Slave,” said Jack, “that is a very ragged old apron that you have got,
and your gown is quite worn out. Don’t you think we had better spend my
shilling in buying you some new clothes? You look so very shabby.”
“Do I?” said the fairy woman, gently. “Well, master, you will do as you
please.”
“But you know better than I do,” said Jack, “though you are my slave.”
“You had better give me the shilling, then,” answered the little old
woman; “and then I advise you to go back to the boat, and wait there
till I come.”
“What!” said Jack; “can you go all the way back into the town again? I
think you must be tired, for you know you are so very old.”
The fairy woman laughed when Jack said this, and she had such a sweet
laugh that he loved to hear it; but she took the shilling, and trudged
off to the town, and he went back to the boat, his hound running after
him.
He was a long time going, for he ran a good many times after
butterflies, and then he climbed up several trees; and altogether he
amused himself for such a long while that when he reached the boat his
fairy woman was there before him. So he stepped on board, the hound
followed, and the boat immediately began to swim on.
“Why, you have not bought any new clothes!” said Jack to his slave.
“No, master,” answered the fairy woman; “but I have bought what I
wanted.” And she took out of her pocket a little tiny piece of purple
ribbon, with a gold-coloured satin edge, and a very small tortoiseshell
comb.
When Jack saw these he was vexed, and said, “What do you mean by being
so silly? I can’t scold you properly, because I don’t know what name to
call you by, and I don’t like to say ‘Slave,’ because that sounds so
rude. Why, this bit of ribbon is such a little bit that it’s of no use
at all. It’s not large enough even to make one mitten of.”
“Isn’t it?” said the slave. “Just take hold of it, master, and let us
see if it will stretch.”
So Jack did. And she pulled, and he pulled, and very soon the silk had
stretched till it was nearly as large as a handkerchief; and then she
shook it, and they pulled again. “This is very good fun,” said Jack;
“why now it is as large as an apron.”
So she shook it again, and gave it a twitch here and a pat there; and
then they pulled again, and the silk suddenly stretched so wide that
Jack was very nearly falling overboard. So Jack’s slave pulled off her
ragged gown and apron, and put it on. It was a most beautiful robe of
purple silk, it had a gold border, and it just fitted her.
[Illustration: “MASTER, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?”]
“That will do,” she said. And then she took out the little
tortoiseshell comb, pulled off her cap, and threw it into the river.
She had a little knot of soft grey hair, and she let it down, and began
to comb. And as she combed the hair got much longer and thicker, till
it fell in waves all about her throat. Then she combed again, and it
all turned gold colour, and came tumbling down to her waist; and then
she stood up in the boat, and combed once more, and shook out the hair,
and there was such a quantity that it reached down to her feet, and she
was so covered with it that you could not see one bit of her, excepting
her eyes, which peeped out, and looked bright and full of tears.
Then she began to gather up her lovely locks; and when she had dried
her eyes with them, she said, “Master, do you know what you have done?
look at me now!” So she threw back the hair from her face, and it was a
beautiful young face; and she looked so happy that Jack was glad he had
bought her with his half-crown--so glad that he could not help crying,
and the fair slave cried too; and then instantly the little fairies
woke, and sprang out of Jack’s pockets. As they did so, Jovinian cried
out, “Madam, I am your most humble servant;” and Roxaletta said, “I
hope your Grace is well;” but the third got on Jack’s knee, and took
hold of the buttons of his waistcoat, and when the lovely slave looked
at her, she hid her face and blushed with pretty childish shyness.
“These are fairies,” said Jack’s slave; “but what are you?”
“Jack kissed me,” said the little thing; “and I want to sit on his
knee.”
“Yes,” said Jack, “I took them out, and laid them in a row, to see if
they were safe, and this one I kissed, because she looked such a little
dear.”
“Was she not like the others, then?” asked the slave.
“Yes,” said Jack; “but I liked her the best; she was my favourite.”
Now, the instant these three fairies sprang out of Jack’s pockets, they
got very much larger; in fact, they became fully grown--that is to
say, they measured exactly one foot one inch in height, which, as most
people know, is exactly the proper height for fairies of that tribe.
The two who had sprung out first were very beautifully dressed. One
had a green velvet coat, and a sword, the hilt of which was encrusted
with diamonds. The second had a white spangled robe, and the loveliest
rubies and emeralds round her neck and in her hair; but the third, the
one who sat on Jack’s knee, had a white frock and a blue sash on. She
had soft, fat arms, and a face just like that of a sweet little child.
When Jack’s slave saw this, she took the little creature on her knee,
and said to her, “How comes it that you are not like your companions?”
And she answered, in a pretty lisping voice, “It’s because Jack kissed
me.”
“Even so it must be,” answered the slave; “the love of a mortal works
changes indeed. It is not often that we win anything so precious. Here,
master, let her sit on your knee sometimes, and take care of her, for
she cannot now take the same care of herself that others of her race
are capable of.”
So Jack let little Mopsa sit on his knee; and when he was tired of
admiring his slave, and wondering at the respect with which the
other two fairies treated her, and at their cleverness in getting
water-lilies for her, and fanning her with feathers, he curled himself
up in the bottom of the boat with his own little favourite, and taught
her how to play at cat’s-cradle.
When they had been playing some time, and Mopsa was getting quite
clever at the game, the lovely slave said, “Master, it is a long time
since you spoke to me.”
“And yet,” said Jack, “there is something that I particularly want to
ask you about.”
“Ask it, then,” she replied.
“I don’t like to have a slave,” answered Jack; “and as you are so
clever, don’t you think you can find out how to be free again?”
“I am very glad you asked me about that,” said the fairy woman. “Yes,
master, I wish very much to be free; and as you were so kind as to give
the most valuable piece of real money you possessed in order to buy
me, I can be free if you can think of anything that you really like
better than that half-crown, and if I can give it you.”
“Oh, there are many things,” said Jack. “I like going up this river to
Fairyland much better.”
“But you are going there, master,” said the fairy woman; “you were on
the way before I met with you.”
“I like this little child better,” said Jack; “I love this little
Mopsa. I should like her to belong to me.”
“She is yours,” answered the fairy woman; “she belongs to you already.
Think of something else.”
Jack thought again, and was so long about it that at last the beautiful
slave said to him, “Master, do you see those purple mountains?”
Jack turned round in the boat, and saw a splendid range of purple
mountains, going up and up. They were very great and steep, each had a
crown of snow, and the sky was very red behind them, for the sun was
going down.
“At the other side of those mountains is Fairyland,” said the slave;
“but if you cannot think of something that you should like better
to have than your half-crown, I can never enter in. The river flows
straight up to yonder steep precipice, and there is a chasm in it
which pierces it, and through which the river runs down beneath, among
the very roots of the mountains, till it comes out at the other side.
Thousands and thousands of the small people will come when they see the
boat, each with a silken thread in his hand; but if there is a slave in
it, not all their strength and skill can tow it through. Look at those
rafts on the river; on them are the small people coming up.”
Jack looked, and saw that the river was spotted with rafts, on which
were crowded brown fairy sailors, each one with three green stripes on
his sleeve, which looked like good-conduct marks. All these sailors
were chattering very fast, and the rafts were coming down to meet the
boat.
“All these sailors to tow my slave!” said Jack. “I wonder, I do wonder,
what you are?” But the fairy woman only smiled, and Jack went on:
“I have thought of something that I should like much better than my
half-crown. I should like to have a little tiny bit of that purple gown
of yours with the gold border.”
Then the fairy woman said, “I thank you, master. Now I can be free.”
So she told Jack to lend her his knife, and with it she cut off a very
small piece of the skirt of her robe, and gave it to him. “Now mind,”
she said; “I advise you never to stretch this unless you want to make
some particular thing of it, for then it will only stretch to the right
size; but if you merely begin to pull it for your own amusement, it
will go on stretching and stretching, and I don’t know where it will
stop.”
[Illustration]