THE FATE OF THE SHUTTLECOCK.
"Oh," simpered the Shuttlecock, "I am quite distracted at the idea of
being called upon to take any part in public affairs. And, alas, how it
will torture my sensitive feelings to recall to mind the bright scenes
in which I appeared, and was once one of the most important actors! Ah,
my friends, although you see me reduced to this--to _this_ miserable
shadow of what I once was--you are not to imagine I was always thus
faded, thus broken and destroyed! No! In my youth my heart was indeed
light within me; for was it not of the best and most expensive species
of cork? A portion of a noble tree that once waved its umbrageous
branches in the fair land of Spain, and that fulfilled a better purpose,
even than that of sheltering a fair group of dark-eyed Castilian maids,
by furnishing the substance that was to assume so fair a shape as I did
once! My outside was no less beautiful, for I was covered with the best
and brightest hued scarlet morocco leather, and gilded richly besides. A
noble coronet of graceful plumes, once white as driven snow, adorned me,
plucked I doubt not, from the soaring pinion of some beautiful bird. Not
low, therefore, could have been the rank of him to whom I owe my
existence; indeed I have very little reason to doubt that he was of very
ancient lineage and noble name. But alas! It is unavailing to recall all
these bright departed glories, which have long, long since fled, and
left me the wreck you behold me!"
So saying, the Shuttlecock feebly waved her last remaining dingy
feather, and sank down on her side, as if in despair. But the Kite
fanned her very busily; and the Humming Top gave her such a long,
tiresome lecture on the duty of being contented, that she speedily
recovered herself, and continued her story.
"My first public appearance in life was on the occasion of a superb
Fancy Fair, which was held in the ancestral park of one of our country's
proudest nobles. It was for the benefit of a distinguished charity, and
some of the fairest and most fashionable ladies of the court were to
hold stalls on the occasion. It was whispered that even Royalty or some
of its branches might visit the spot, and therefore every effort was
made to give the fĂȘte a worthy success. Words would fail me were I to
describe to you the beauty of the scene on the important day. A monster
marquee was erected on the most commanding site in the fine domain, and
decorated gaily with the flags of all nations. A fine avenue of aged
trees made a noble sheltered walk for the gay visitors, and it led
almost all the way to the marquee, the space between being covered with
a smart scarlet-striped awning overhead.
"I had time to observe all this, as I was carried in a basket from the
Castle, down the green slopes to the marquee, by one of the many smart
ladies' maids in attendance. But when we entered, the effect, at once so
fairy-like and so elegant, rendered me motionless and almost senseless.
The interior was draped with pink and green, and the elegant stalls were
being laid out with all their pretty trifles. I was honoured with a
place on the stall of the Duchess herself, and had therefore an
excellent opportunity of witnessing the habits and manners of real high
life, and I felt at once in my element. Here, thought I, am I placed in
my natural sphere, a dweller with the fair and the noble, surrounded
with rank and beauty, and breathing only the refined air of higher life.
I was cut short in my musings by Lord Adolphus, the youngest son of the
Duchess, who, with the charming vivacity so natural to his birth and
station, abstracted me from the dainty basket in which I reposed, with a
few companions of less merit. I was soon in full activity, and took my
first flights to admiration, by the ready and graceful assistance of
himself and a young companion, also a titled member of society.
"'What a jolly shuttlecock,' remarked Lord Adolphus, 'it goes as high as
the top of the tent, I declare. I say, Gerry, do you think you could
pitch it over, outside? I'll bet you twopence you don't.'
"'I'll lay six to one, I _do_,' replied Sir Gerald, running eagerly out
of the tent, with me in his hand. He did not exhibit _quite_ the same
amount of refinement as his noble young friend; in fact, he was more
like boys in general, and lacked that _perfume_, if I may call it so, of
high breeding which so signally showed itself in _my_ earliest friend,
Lord Adolphus. After a spirited contest between the two gallant boys, I
_was_ thrown over the marquee, and, after such a lofty and prolonged
flight, fell exhausted, without the power of saving myself, into a
little crystal pool of water close by. I heard my noble young
playfellows searching for me everywhere, and began to entertain a deadly
fear that I should be left in my watery prison. Luckily, the warm day
and their game had made them thirsty, and they both came to quench their
thirst here, little thinking of finding me, whom they had no doubt so
long and vainly searched for.
"'By Jove, Dolly,' cried Sir Gerald, '_here's_ the shuttlecock after
all!'
"'What a lark,' replied Lord Adolphus; 'it's been chucked into old
Rosamond's well, and ought to come out beautiful for ever!'
"'I'm glad we found it,' said Sir Gerald; 'or perhaps there'd have been
a row. I saw Githa count 'em all, and she'd have been sure to bully us
about it.'
"'We could have given her the tin for it then,' replied Adolphus, 'only
I'm so hard up just now. I owe a lot of money for sweets and tarts; and
I want to buy a cricket bat this quarter. But hulloa, Gerry, how wet the
beggar is?'
"But the dear gentlemanly fellow, soon remedied this fault, for he wiped
me carefully with his own cambric handkerchief, and I was not the worse,
except that my coronet of plumes looked rather damp, or, as Sir Gerald
facetiously expressed it, "all draggletail!"
"A little sojourn in the glowing Sun, soon restored my feathers to their
early beauty, as I was carefully taken back, no worse for my pleasant
little gambol, and placed in the basket again, on the Duchess's stall.
The hour of opening arrived, one o'clock; but, out upon the cruel Fates!
long before the turning point of noon, lowering clouds had veiled the
bright, too treacherously bright rays of the Sun, and heavy, drenching
showers succeeded, ending in a steady downpour that promised to last out
the day. Oh dear! What ruin and destruction ensued to the elegant
erection of the morning! The marquee leaked in many places from the
sudden violence of the storm, and none of the precautions, hastily
taken, would make it quite water-tight. The unlucky visitors, with their
gay summer dresses all sopped and clinging with wet, crowded in to gain
what little shelter they could; and all was damp, dreary and desolate!
The higher class, more fortunate than the rest, accompanied the Duchess
to the Castle; the stalls were deserted in favour of the younger, and
less particular among the gay party, and the marquee was only crowded by
the more persevering vulgar mob, who were determined to have, as I heard
one of the horrors avow, "their full pennorth," all they could see and
get for their money.
"An evil destiny which seems to have fallen upon me early, relentlessly
followed me now, and ruled my unwilling sacrifice. I was positively sold
from the stall of the Duchess, by her Grace's own maid, to a rich grocer
in the city, for the sum of sixpence! Oh, degradation indeed! Fallen,
fallen, fallen from my high estate indeed was I. No friendly hand
interposed; no better purchaser came, so I was ignominiously wrapped in
paper and put in Mr. Figge's pocket. Nor had ruthless fortune yet done
with me, for when I was carried to the abode of the Figge's, although I
had been really destined as a gift to his only daughter, Araminta
Philippina, I was, by mistake in the hurry of returning, dropped in the
carriage, and although a vigorous search seemed to be made by the fine
footman, he did not succeed in finding me, and I remained hid in a far
back corner of the roomy equipage for some days. Had I fallen to the
share of Araminta Philippina, I should at least have retained the small
consolation of being incessantly pointed out as having been bought from
the Duchess herself, and a faint ray of my lost station would have still
glimmered about me.
"But, alas, on emerging from my obscurity, I found I had indeed fallen
in life, and from the highest to the lowest, for I was now located in
the Mews, where Mr. Figge's carriage was kept; and having been found
during its dusting and arrangement by the wife of the coachman, I was
handed over to her horrible tribe of uncouth, ill-behaved children.
"Oh, for the language that I heard round me now! It made my very
feathers quiver sometimes; and as for the flights I took now,--ugh--it
makes me shudder to recall them! I who had bathed in fair Rosamond's
crystal stream, was now doomed to be plunged in the inky rills that ran
in the gutters round the sooty roofs. My beautiful red leather cover was
soon dyed a dingy black; most of my feathers were violently pulled out
by some of the younger ones, and the rest became somewhat of the colour
of a London sparrow. At last, as a sort of release from worse miseries,
I was tossed up so high by the horrid little flat wooden bat, which now
became the means of my ascending, (and that in the hands of the
coachman's eldest son, was an instrument of indiscriminate torment to
everything animate and inanimate), that I fell on the ledge of a back
window in one of the houses in a square adjoining. The boy, I imagine,
did not dare to go round to the house to ask for me again, and was
therefore reduced to his original stock of playthings, consisting
chiefly of a mutilated ginger-beer bottle, some oyster shells, and a
brickbat.
"Meanwhile I dwelt for some time on the window ledge, exposed to the
wind and rain, but at any rate free from the vulgar annoyances to which
I had been subjected of late. And this I could endure more calmly, and I
had almost become resigned to my hard lot, when one day to my
astonishment the window was opened. A young woman leant out with a
hammer and nails in her hands, and proceeded to fix one in firmly on the
side of the window. She did not see me, for I had become securely lodged
in the other corner almost out of sight, and so she did not either pick
me up, nor what I secretly feared most, throw me back again into the low
haunts of my former miserable and odious life. She contented herself
with merely hanging out a bird in its cage, and then partially closed
the window again, and, I suppose, left the room.
"It is not my usual habit to make acquaintance _too_ readily with
strangers, and therefore I did not commence a conversation with my
feathered neighbour; but, then, as you are doubtless well aware, birds
are generally of a sociable disposition, and prone to make remarks and
enter into conversation with comparative strangers. And my new neighbour
proved no exception to the rule, for he began to chatter and chirp in
the most voluble manner, and had speedily related all his own personal
history, and that of several members of his family. But I am not very
fond of the affairs of people that do not belong to my own class, and
therefore did not pay much attention to his gossip. He was of a prying
disposition too, as very communicative people generally are, and seemed
rather anxious to know all about me. But I rather politely but loftily
repelled him, for I did not choose my misfortunes to be the common talk
of such small people. So I briefly informed him I had been far better
off, and indeed it was now, only owing to peculiar circumstances I
wished to remain for a time in comparative retirement.
"From him I learned that his owner was the under housemaid at this
house, and that she was shortly about to leave, having obtained another
situation where there was less work to do. The bird prattled in a lively
fashion about the merry life he had led hitherto and the continued
change he had seen, and seemed to be quite looking forward to what he
called "his next place."
"'I only wish you were going with me, you poor thing; I am sure you must
be moped to death with staying up here by yourself so long. Don't you
think you could manage to roll into my cage, and then we could go off
together?'
"My propriety was terribly shocked by this proposal of the goldfinch's,
and for some time I could give him no answer.
"'You silly thing!' said he, angrily, at last, 'surely you may travel
with your own relations, and you know you and I must be kin, because we
have both the distinguished ornament of feathers.'
"This delicate compliment softened me a little, I must confess!" said
the Shuttlecock, bridling up with a very dignified air, which, in her
dilapidated state, with her one ragged feather sticking out all awry,
was a very comic affair. Consequently none of the toys could help
laughing; as for the Kite, he was so amused that he waggled about like a
sail in a rough wind. Even the languid, delicate Doll could not forbear
a feeble smile, and the Shuttlecock became so indignant, that she would
have bounced out of the party, had her powers been equal to her spirit.
But, alas, though her cork was still sound, her wings had departed, and
the solitary draggletail feather was not sufficient to waft her above
the rude mirth of her auditors. But she was so deeply offended that it
took the Ball a long time, and a world of trouble, to pacify her. At
last, on his hinting that as time was passing by he should be reduced to
calling upon another member present for a story, she permitted herself
to be pacified, and resumed her narrative, with a more haughty air, and
in finer words than before:--
"My poor autobiography can be concluded in very few words now, for I
have but little more to relate. My feathered connection, for he
certainly made his claim good to a distant relationship, would take no
denial, and told me he had set his heart on taking me with him when he
went; and that he had a plan of his own by which he would be able to
carry out his purpose. I therefore submitted to his decision, and
counted the days, I must honestly own, very eagerly, until the period of
our joint captivity arrived. The evening before, my bird relation
requested a friendly Breeze, with whom he was on friendly terms, to blow
me close to his cage. I was then, I should tell you, possessed still of
several of my plumes, although they were in a dingy condition, and
therefore more able to help myself. A good strong gust then, at the
right moment, and carefully adjusted to the right quarter, sufficed to
take me to the ledge of the bird's food box. From thence he speedily,
though with some amount of hard work, managed to pull and drag me inside
the cage, a friendly wire stretching widely for the purpose. My friend
then carefully pushed me under his seed-box, knowing that as long as I
was pretty well out of sight, his mistress, Mary, would not take much
trouble about it. From former experience and frequent removes, he knew
well she would only find time to tie him up, cage and all, in a blue
handkerchief, and carry him off at the very last moment. All this came
to pass, as he so sagely predicted, and after being blinded-up in this
fashion for some time, and jogged and shaken in a very uncomfortable
manner, we came to our journey's end in a bedroom in this house. We were
not disturbed till next morning, for Mary had only time to give my
friend his seed and water, before she set off on her new round of
duties. Two days after, however, she managed to find time to think of
the bird.
"'You shall go down stairs into the kitchen, my pretty Dick,' said she,
chirping to him, 'for cook says she is fond of birds, and will give me
some sugar for you. But I must clean your cage first, for you are not
fit to be seen, I'm sure, now!'
"And so saying, she proceeded to make Dick's house clean and neat, and
in the course of doing so, she came upon me. 'Why, Dickey,' she said,
laughing, 'have you been trying a game of shuttlecock, by way of sport?
How came this in your cage, I wonder!'
"Dick tried to explain in his bird fashion, and did so, _I_ thought,
very intelligibly, but, then, as you know, all human beings are so very
difficult of comprehension. So she took me out in spite of all my poor
cousin's protests, and laid me on the table in her room. On the
following Sunday, when Mary was to stay at home with the little ones
while nurse went to church, she remembered me, and brought me down to
amuse the young Spensers. Like all the rest of their race, they soon
became tired of me, and I was thrust away in this dusty cupboard till
now. Of all the histories that have been related to amuse you, none, I
am sure, have surpassed mine for vicissitudes and changes. I was the
early companion of Duchesses and Lords, and yet have been doomed to
endure the society of coachmen and stable boys, and to be rescued from a
rackety bird-cage to end my days in a dusty cupboard!"
Then the Shuttlecock ceased to speak, and betook herself to her corner,
to bewail in private the sad downfall she had endured.
"And now," said the Ball, "I will call upon our venerable friend, the
Noah's Ark; I am sure he will be able to tell us a great deal that is
very interesting about himself and his numerous tribe."
The poor old Ark creaked slowly forward, and announced his willingness
to add his history to the rest, beginning in the following words.
[Illustration]