THE WONDERS OF THE HILLS
Now, although Martin had gone very comfortably to sleep in her arms
and found it sweet to be watched over so tenderly, he was not the
happy little boy he had been before the sight of the distant ocean.
And she knew it, and was troubled in her mind, and anxious to do
something to make him forget that great blue water. She could do many
things, and above all she could show him new and wonderful things in
the hills where she wished to keep him always with her. To caress him,
to feed and watch over him by day, and hold him in her arms when he
slept at night--all that was less to him than the sight of something
new and strange; she knew this well, and therefore determined to
satisfy his desire and make his life so full that he would always be
more than contented with it.
In the morning he went out on the hillside, wandering listlessly
among the rocks, and when the big cat found him there and tried to
tempt him to a game he refused to play, for he had not yet got over
his disappointment, and could think of nothing but the sea. But the
cat did not know that anything was the matter with him, and was more
determined to play than ever; crouching now here, now there among
the stones and bushes, he would spring out upon Martin and pull him
down with its big paws, and this so enraged him that picking up a
stick he struck furiously at his tormentor. But the cat was too
quick for him; he dodged the blows, then knocked the stick out of
his hand, and finally Martin, to escape from him, crept into a
crevice in a rock where the cat could not reach him, and refused to
come out even when the Lady of the Hills came to look for him and
begged him to come to her. When at last, compelled by hunger, he
returned to her, he was silent and sullen and would not be caressed.
He saw no more of the cat, and when next day he asked her where it
was, she said that it had gone from them and would return no
more--that she had sent it away because it had vexed him. This made
Martin sulk, and he would have gone away and hidden himself from her
had she not caught him up in her arms. He struggled to free himself,
but could not, and she then carried him away a long distance down
the mountain-side until they came to a small dell, green with
creepers and bushes, with a deep carpet of dry moss on the ground,
and here she sat down and began to talk to him.
"The cat was a very beautiful beast with his spotted hide," she said;
"and you liked to play with him sometimes, but in a little while you
will be glad that he has gone from you."
He asked her why.
"Because though he was fond of you and liked to follow you about and
play with you, he is very fierce and powerful, and all the other
beasts are afraid of him. So long as he was with us they would not
come, but now he has gone they will come to you and let you go to
them."
"Where are they?" said Martin, his curiosity greatly excited.
"Let us wait here," she said, "and perhaps we shall see one by-and-by."
So they waited and were silent, and as nothing came and nothing
happened, Martin sitting on the mossy ground began to feel a strange
drowsiness stealing over him. He rubbed his eyes and looked round; he
wanted to keep very wide awake and alert, so as not to miss the
sight of anything that might come. He was vexed with himself for
feeling drowsy, and wondered why it was; then listening to the low
continuous hum of the bees, he concluded that it was that low, soft,
humming sound that made him sleepy. He began to look at the bees,
and saw that they were unlike other wild bees he knew, that they
were like humble-bees in shape but much smaller, and were all of a
golden brown colour: they were in scores and hundreds coming and
going, and had their home or nest in the rock a few feet above his
head. He got up, and climbing from his mother's knee to her shoulder,
and standing on it, he looked into the crevice into which the bees
were streaming, and saw their nest full of clusters of small round
objects that looked like white berries.
Then he came down and told her what he had seen, and wanted to know
all about it, and when she answered that the little round fruit-like
objects he had seen were cells full of purple honey that tasted sweet
and salt, he wanted her to get him some.
"Not now--not to-day," she replied, "for now you love me and are
contented to be with me, and you are my own darling child. When you
are naughty, and try to grieve me all you can, and would like to go
away and never see me more, you shall taste the purple honey."
He looked up into her face wondering and troubled at her words, and
she smiled down so sweetly on his upturned face, looking very
beautiful and tender, that it almost made him cry to think how
wilful and passionate he had been, and climbing on to her knees he
put his little face against her cheek.
[Illustration: ]
Then, while he was still caressing her, light tripping steps were
heard over the stony path, and through the bushes came two beautiful
wild animals--a doe with her fawn! Martin had often seen the wild
deer on the plains, but always at a great distance and running; now
that he had them standing before him he could see just what they
were like, and of all the four-footed creatures he had ever looked
on they were undoubtedly the most lovely. They were of a slim shape,
and of a very bright reddish fawn-colour, the young one with dappled
sides; and both had large trumpet-like ears, which they held up as
if listening, while they gazed fixedly at Martin's face with their
large, dark, soft eyes. Enchanted with the sight of them, he slipped
down from his mother's lap, and stretched out his arms towards them,
and the doe, coming a little nearer, timidly smelt at his hand, then
licked it with her long, pink tongue.
In a few minutes the doe and fawn went away and they saw them no more;
but they left Martin with a heart filled with happy excitement; and
they were but the first of many strange and beautiful wild animals
he was now made acquainted with, so that for days he could think of
nothing else and wished for nothing better.
But one day when she had taken him a good way up on the hillside,
Martin suddenly recognized a huge rocky precipice before him as the
one up which she had taken him, and from the top of which he had
seen the great blue water. Instantly he demanded to be taken up again,
and when she refused he rebelled against her, and was first
passionate and then sullen. Finding that he would not listen to
anything she could say, she sat down on a rock and left him to
himself. He could not climb up that precipice, and so he rambled
away to some distance, thinking to hide himself from her, because he
thought her unreasonable and unkind not to allow him to see the blue
water once more. But presently he caught sight of a snake lying
motionless on a bed of moss at the foot of a rock, with the sun on it,
lighting up its polished scales so that they shone like gems or
coloured glass. Resting his elbows on the stone and holding his face
between his hands he fell to watching the snake, for though it
seemed fast asleep in the sun its gem-like eyes were wide open.
All at once he felt his mother's hand on his head: "Martin," she said,
"would you like to know what the snake feels when it lies with eyes
open in the bright hot sun? Shall I make you feel just how he feels?"
"Yes," said Martin eagerly, forgetting his quarrel with her; then
taking him up in her strong arms she walked rapidly away, and
brought him to that very spot where he had seen the doe and fawn.
She sat him down, and instantly his ears were filled with the murmur
of the bees; and in a moment she put her hand in the crevice and
pulled out a cluster of white cells, and gave them to Martin.
Breaking one of the cells he saw that it was full of thick honey, of
a violet colour, and tasting it he found it was like very sweet
honey in which a little salt had been mixed. He liked it and he
didn't like it; still, it was not the same in all the cells; in some
it was scarcely salt at all; and he began to suck the honey of cell
after cell, trying to find one that was not salt; and by and by he
dropped the cluster of cells from his hand, and stooping to pick it
up forgot to do so, and laying his head down and stretching himself
out on the mossy ground looked up into his mother's face with drowsy,
happy eyes. How sweet it seemed, lying there in the sun, with the sun
shining right into his eyes, and filling his whole being with its
delicious heat! He wished for nothing now--not even for the sight of
new wonderful things; he forgot the blue water, the strange,
beautiful wild animals, and his only thought, if he had a thought,
was that it was very nice to lie there, not sleeping, but feeling
the sun in him, and seeing it above him; and seeing all things--the
blue sky, the grey rocks and green bushes and moss, and the woman in
her green dress and her loose black hair--and hearing, too, the soft,
low, continuous murmur of the yellow bees.
For hours he lay there in that drowsy condition, his mother keeping
watch over him, and when it passed off, and he got up again, his
temper appeared changed: he was more gentle and affectionate with
his mother, and obeyed her every wish. And when in his rambles on
the hill he found a snake lying in the sun he would steal softly
near it and watch it steadily for a long time, half wishing to taste
that strange purple honey again, so that he might lie again in the
sun, feeling what the snake feels. But there were more wonderful
things yet for Martin to see and know in the hills, so that in a
little while he ceased to have that desire.