One day there was heard a tremendous explosion in the department of
Sky-High. Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs. Lucy followed her,
all eyes and ears. Irish Nora met them, running up-stairs. The kitten
fled out, and jumped over the fence. The parrot was shrieking.
Above Sky-High's door, Mrs. Van Buren saw a strange black character on a
big red paper. It was a square character and somewhat like a heavy "X"
and also somewhat like a heavy "H."
Sky-High stood calmly ironing inside his little house at the end of the
grape-arbor.
Nora followed her mistress to that abode of mystery.
"It's dynamated we are to be sure!" said she. "I shut my eyes and run,
for I thought it was Sky-High that had gone off--but there he stood
ironing! And there he stands now!"
"Sky-High," said Mrs. Van Buren, "what was that sound I heard?"
"Crackers, mistress."
"We are only allowed to fire crackers on holidays. Why did you light
crackers?"
"To disperse the evil spirits, mistress, the dragons in the air, the
imps. It is the way we serve them in China."
"There are no evil spirits here, Sky-High. What could have made you
think that there were, Sky-High?"
"The cat--she is long bewitched after my queue. I fired the crackers to
dis-power her--I saw her tail going over the fence! She is dis-possessed.
She will not jump at Sky-High's queue any more. We shoot crackers in
China when evil spirits come in the air. China is a spirit-land,
mistress. Our air is filled with bright spirits and dark ones. When the
cat begins to frisk its tail, we know there has come a company of evil
spirits. The little cat's tail this morning went snap-snap!"
"Oh, Sky-High! there are no evil spirits in this blooming garden," said
his mistress. "The little white cat is possessed by a playful spirit,
perhaps. What is that strange figure in black on the red paper flag over
the door?"
"That is the wan, mistress."
"And what is the wan, Sky-High?"
"The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits."
"Did I not say there are no evil spirits here?"
Here little Sky-High's eyes began to blink. "Why did master put a
horse-shoe over the stable-door?"
Lucy looked up at her mother. And said Nora, "I would discharge that
sassbox of a Chinese at once!"
"Have you more crackers, Sky-High?"
"In my chest, mistress."
"Keep them until the Fourth of July, Sky-High. At any time when you
think there are evil spirits about, come up to me."
"May Sky-High let the wan fly over his door?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Van Buren; "while the horse-shoe remains over the
stable to keep witches out, you may let the wan stay. You have as much
right to your superstitions as we to ours."
Sky-High in a serene and beautiful spirit continued ironing,
Nora went back to her pantry. "It's not I that likes the foreign boy
under the roof," she said. "He'll be convertin' the mistress into a
haythen! It'll not be long I'll be here!"
Lucy sat down outside among the trees and birds and watched the wan
waving gently in the wind. How neat Sky-High looked in his flowing dress
of white and blue! She wondered again if he were not indeed a wang!
After a while she made up her mind to relate a Jataka story that night.
The curious tales their little serving-man had told, he called Jataka
legends--all of them parables to illustrate the teachings of the divine
Buddha. (Also these tales had accounts of mountains that were more than
a million miles high, of trees that were a thousand miles tall, and of
fishes that were thousands of miles long.)
These tales had enchanted Lucy, though Charlie cared little for them--he
preferred to hear of kites and other Chinese games. But Lucy seemed to
catch their spirit. And in the evening, when Sky-High sat with them
under the trees or in the balconies, she often said, "Now tell us a
Jataka story!"
But one night she had said instead, "Now let _me_ tell _you_ a
Jataka story!"
The idea that Lucy had a Jataka story seemed to greatly amuse Sky-High.
But the tale itself set his black eyes shining and blinking. This had
been Lucy's tale:
"Sky-High, I dreamed that you were a wang and had lived in a palace."
To-day she sat a long time in the arbor to compose the tale she would
tell in the evening when they would be on the veranda, with Sky-High on
the stair at their feet.
So in the evening she said, "I have composed another Jataka story. Would
you like to hear it, mother? Would you, Sky-High?"