_THALATTA!_
It was five years now, since I had first gone up, (without any intention
of doing so) from the surface of the earth into the regions of the air,
through the sudden expansion of my heart and system, at the thought of
three days' holiday. In the interval, there had been times of elation
and elevation, when it was difficult for me to keep down, and the mere
shake of an elbow would have sent me up. And among them, I recollect one
Christmas-eve, when there was a hard frost on, and the people at the
Hampstead ponds were skating, and the ice was all green for boys to
slide on, and the trees on the hill were all feathered with snow, and
Jack Windsor came up to me, and said, "plum-pudding for dinner, at your
house, Tommy; I smelled it, as I came up the Lane"--I was all on the
flutter to fly, and astonish the people, who were putting skates on; and
I could not have helped it--for there was nothing to lay hold of--if
_Grip_ (who was full of my bodily welfare) had not laid hold of me by
the tails of the scarlet comforter, which mother had knotted so tightly,
that I could not get it off.
"Get away, you vile dog! Go up, Tommy," Jack Windsor cried, and would
gladly have kicked _Grip_, if prudence had permitted it; "oh, Tommy, do
go up; I have heard so much about it, and I'd give anything to see you
fly!"
For my part, I was not at all afraid; my feet were off the ground, and
there is very little doubt, that I should have escaped from the
comforter, and _Grip_, if Jack had not made such a stupid fuss about it.
"Halloa there! What are you boys doing?" A heavy policeman came
grumbling along, without any sense of the situation; "if you don't move
on, and take that beast of a dog further, I'll walk you pretty quick to
the station."
"331 V.," answered Jack, who inherited his mother's lofty style, "if you
knew who we are, you'd employ your cheek to keep your tongue in, and
save me the trouble of reporting you."
The constable pretended not to hear him; but the whole of my volatile
power was gone--so sensitive has it always been--and instead of going up
to the sky, I was glad to sit down upon the broad back of the faithful
dog.
And now, I can assure you, and you will readily believe it, that having
been plagued so long by boys, (and grown-up people, quite as
troublesome, at times) concerning what had happened to me, at an early
age, and being rebuked, and jeered, and scoffed at--sometimes for having
this gift, and sometimes for not making more of it, and sometimes for
setting up a false claim to it--young as I was, I had thought a good
deal, and made up my mind, in fifty different ways, about it.
But though my conclusions perpetually varied, there was one grain of
wisdom to be found in all. It had pleased Heaven, to afflict me with an
unusually light corporeal part, and then to relieve that affliction, in
some measure, by the gift of a buoyant and complacent mind; so that I
was able--unless a bad cold, or measles, or mumps, or chilblains stopped
me--to be hopeful that all would turn out for the best, and to keep my
nature boyish, throughout a boyhood of some perplexity.
_Grip_, though faithful, and sage, as almost all the patriarchs put
together, might still be considered a juvenile dog, by those who dwell
chiefly on the right side of things. To say that his heart was still in
the right place, would be little less than an insult to him, and to the
great race of which he was one; but it is not so wholly a matter of
course, that his mind was still ardent, and his spirit lofty. Very few
"Scientists" of any candour could have looked at _Grip_, when prepared
for battle (with his ears pricked up, and his neck on the rasp, and his
tail set with stiffening bulges) without finding a nobler result of
evolution, and a likelier survival, than their own.
His thankful spirit had not yet exhausted the joys of freedom from the
Railway box; and perhaps--though it is not for me to say it--the
Happystowe air was more mercurial than that of our works, which confined
his meditations too persistently to one theme--bone. But let that pass;
it is quite impossible to explain everything that happens; all I know is
that _Grip_ set off from the porch of the _Twentifold Arms Hotel_, with
a flourish, and a scurry, and a gambol of delight. With a gentle breeze
moving behind me, I started, to catch him and get the first sight of the
sea; and then, down a steep path, we came round the corner of what must
have been a live rock, and behold----
Behold! was a word you might have shouted at me, like thunder, without
my knowing it. Because my whole nature was absorbed in beholding, or
gazing, or staring, or mooning, or being bemooned--for the things were
done to me, without my doing any one of them. Behind me, shone the low
summer sun, throwing out my shadow any length it pleased, on an endless,
measureless, countless, unimaginable world of silver, like the moon come
down.
If I could have uttered any syllable, to let off, or thought of any
definite idea, to keep in the wondrous inconceivable expansion of my
nature, perhaps, even now, I might have stayed upon the ground. But
being as I was, away I went, starting, at a height of about ten feet
above the level of Spring-tides, with a moderate Westerly breeze behind
me, and the light of the sinking sun coming up, under the soles of my
shoes, as I slowly went round. And unluckily I had all my best clothes
on--new from a shop down in Liverpool Street, the first Sunday of the
summer holidays.
People, who have never been up like this, might suppose, at first sight,
that I was terrified; especially at being carried out to sea, as my
first acquaintance with that great space. But without laying claim to
any share of courage, I may state, as a simple matter of fact, that I
happened to feel no fear whatever. My father, (as truthful a man as ever
lived, and from whom I inherit that quality) had said that I never was
born to be drowned; and if I thought at all (which I disremember doing)
that alone would have reassured me. At any rate, I looked around, as
calmly as if I were sitting down to dinner; but with this disadvantage,
that I could not keep my gaze very firmly fixed upon anything, because
of the rotation of my body. For instance, I was able to shout down to
_Grip_ (who was howling most mournfully in the gap, and making sad jumps
to come after me) that I was all right, and would come back, by and by;
but before I could judge whether he was consoled, my eyes were on a ship
a long way out. If there had been much wind, perhaps it would have
proved a ticklish thing for me; but the air was calm, and full of yellow
light, the sea was below me, like a floor of silver, the sky of a pure
soft blue, wherever the sun did not interfere with it; and nothing on
any side suggested danger, or uneasiness.
But, whatever the state of things may be, the human element is certain
to rush in, and spoil all the comfort of nature. I had not been at all
disconcerted, at perceiving that some people on the beach were surprised
by my appearance, at a considerable height above their heads. They were
calling out loudly to one another, and running together, or running
away, and rubbing their eyes, as if the sun had taken the accuracy out
of them. This rather pleased me, and improved my flight (which depends
very much upon the approval of mankind), and I was beginning to practise
movements, which I had thought of, and heard of from Jack Windsor. Jack
had been taking swimming lessons, and being a wonderfully heavy fellow,
had tried very hard to keep his head up. He had learned the whole theory
of it beautifully, and showed me how easy it was to do; but as yet he
had never been able to do it. Whatever I have done above the surface of
the earth--which people are stupid enough to call flying--is nothing
more than swimming in the air, or floating; or best of all, perhaps, I
should say treading, as people who are heavy enough "tread water." And
my great desire was to be my own master, to steer myself a little, as a
man can do in swimming; instead of going round and round, at the air's
discretion, like a bunch of lime-berries in September.
But, just as I was learning with my hands and feet, and some guidance of
the silken summer tunic at my hips,--what did I discover but a great
long gun, taken up by a man, from a boat upon the beach, and then being
pointed with a careful aim at me! I endeavoured to scream out--"I am
Tommy; only Tommy Upmore going for a fly; if you shoot me, you will be
hanged for murder!"--but I give you my word that my fright was so great,
that no sound of any use would come out of my mouth. Old Rum's cane was
quite a joke, compared to this. Every atom of my levity turned to lead,
my hands fell to my sides, and my feet struck together, and I dropped,
like a well-bucket, when the rope is broken.
And I never had a luckier drop in my life--good as it is for all mortals
to come down--for just above my hair, (which had been floating, like a
sunset cloud, they say, but was now standing out, like a badger's, with
alarm) a heavy charge of duck-shot, that would have killed _Grip_ dead,
went whistling like a goods'-train engine; and a streak of white still
may be discovered in my head, from the combination of fear and fact.
And my drop was quite as lucky at the lower end; for descending, as you
might say without exaggeration, almost vertically, (though my head, the
lightest portion of my system, still was up) instead of falling into the
sea, I was received in a sail, spread to catch me by a very lovely boat.
Some moments elapsed, as I have reason to believe, before either my
rescuers, or myself, were fit to go into all the questions that arose.
Naturally enough, they were surprised at the style of my visit to them;
while I was not only embarrassed by shyness, at finding myself among
great people, but also to some extent confused in mind, from the many
gyrations of my upward, and the rapid descent of my downward course;
moreover, I had never been in a boat till now, and the motion of the
boards upon the water disconcerted me, more than any action of the air.
But while I was balancing myself like this, after stepping from the sail
that was spread for me, a beautiful lady, who had been sitting on a fur,
and looking at me with surprise and interest, arose and came towards me,
with some little doubt enlarging the brightness of her large bright
eyes.
"Why, you are a boy--a boy!" she cried, as if Nature ought to have made
me a girl; "and as pretty a boy as I ever beheld. From the way you went
round, and the height it was up, I thought it must be a machine at
least--one of those wonderful things they invent, to do almost anything,
nowadays. Whatever you are, you can speak, I am sure; and I am not going
to be afraid of you. Where do you come from? And what is your name? And
how long have you been up in the air, like that? And have you got any
father, and mother? And how did you get such most wonderful hair, like
spun silk, every bit of it? And--and, why don't you answer me?"
"If you please, ma'am," I said, looking up at her with wonder, for I
never had seen such a beautiful being, although I had been to a play,
several times; "I was trying to think, what question you would please to
like me to begin with answering. I'm afraid that I cannot remember them
all, because of my head going round so. But my name is 'Tommy Upmore,'
and I come from Maiden Lane, St. Pancras."
"St. Pancras! Why, that is in London, surely. Did you come in a balloon,
or how can you have done it? Sit down and rest; I am sure you must be
tired. Though you look like a rose, Master Tommy Upmore."
I answered the beautiful lady, as soon as presence of mind permitted,
that I had not come the whole way from London, through the sky, as she
seemed to suppose, but only from yonder place on the shore; where I
showed her _Grip_, still howling now and then, and striving with all his
eyes, and heart, to make sure what was become of me. She replied that,
even so, it was in her opinion wonderful; and she doubted if she could
have been brought to believe it, unless she had seen it with her own
eyes. I told her that several most eminent men of science saw nothing
surprising in it; but accounted for it easily, in various ways, without
any two having to use the same way.
Meanwhile she was begging me not to be afraid, herself having now
overcome all fear; and she signed to the boatmen (who had fallen back,
with their frank faces wrinkled, as a puzzle is) that they might come
forward, and be kind to me. It was not in their power to do this,
because they had not yet finished staring; therefore she offered me her
own white hand, and I wished that I had washed mine lately.
"These are my children," she said, as I followed her down the planks,
without a word; "it was Laura, who saw you first up in the air, and Roly
who ordered the men to row over, when that wicked young man put his gun
up. We thought it was some new kind of bird. And so you are--a boy bird!
Roly, and Laura, let me introduce you to this young gentleman. There is
nothing about him to be afraid of, although he has come down from the
clouds, or rather from the clear sky, this beautiful evening. He
declares that he can be scientifically explained; and when that can be
done, there is nothing more to say. Roly has never known what fear is,
ever since he cut his teeth."
From all I have seen of this gentleman since then--and I have seen a
great deal of him for twenty years, and never can see too much of him--I
can fully confirm what his dear mother said. Just then, he was a boy of
about my age, or a year or two older he might be; but pounds, and tens,
and twenty pounds, heavier, and an inch or two taller, and many shades
darker. I was as fair in complexion, before a great mob of troubles came
darkening me, as if I had sprung from a boiling of Pontic wax,
besprinkled with roses of Cashmere. But Roly (or to give him his full
deserts, Sir Roland Towers-Twentifold) was a dark, and thoughtful, and
determined lad, who meant to make his mark upon our history, and is
doing it.
He came up, and took my hand, as if he would squeeze any cloudiness out
of me; and nothing but the pinches I had often had at school, enabled me
to bear it without a squeak. He had been at the helm, as they call it,
to direct the boat the right way to catch me; and although he was
greatly surprised, he concluded--as all Englishmen do upon such
occasions--that the time to explain things would ensue, after they had
been dealt with.