THE MAN.
The child's song broke off in a little scream, for things are sometimes
startling even when you have been expecting them; but the scream
bubbled into a laugh. "Ah! I--I mean I'm laughing because you look so
funny. I took some bread and milk because I was hungry." She stopped
abruptly, feeling that sob somewhere about her again. The dwarf
advanced toward her, and she held on to the back of the chair; but he
held out his hand and smiled.
"How do you do?" he said. "I am very glad to see you; pray sit down
again and finish your supper."
"It's your supper," said the child, who was honest. "I didn't mean to
steal it; I don't know p'r'aps there isn't enough for both of us." She
had a way of leaving out words in her sentences that sometimes confused
people, but the dwarf seemed to understand.
"There's plenty for both!" he said. "Come! I'll sit down here, and you
shall give me some milk. I am hungry, too. Have some honey!" He nodded
at her, and smiled again; he had the most delightful smile the child
had ever seen. Somebody once said you could warm yourself at it as
at a fire. The child took a piece of bread, and looked at him over it
as she nibbled. He was not a tiny dwarf, not one of the kind that get
into flowers, and fight with grass-blades, and that sort of thing. No,
indeed! he was just a little man; why, he was taller than she was,
though not so very much taller. He had brown hair and a soft brown
beard; his eyes were brown, too, and full of light. All brown and gray,
for his dress was gray and soft, "kind of humplety velvet," the child
said to herself, though it was really only corduroy. He seemed all of
a piece with the house, and the gray rock behind it. Now he looked at
her, and smiled again.
"You look as if you were wondering something very much," he said. "Have
some more milk! What are you wondering?"
"Partly I was wondering where the rest of you was!" said the child.
"The rest of me?" said the man. "There isn't any more of me. This is
all there is. Don't you think it's enough?" He smiled still, but this
time it was only his mouth, and his eyes looked dark, as if something
hurt him.
"I mean the others," the child explained. "The rest of the seven. I
guess it's six, p'r'aps. There was seven of 'em where Snow-white came
to, you know."
"Seven what?" asked the man.
"Dwarfs!" said the child.
"Oh!" said the man.
He was silent for a moment, as if he were thinking; then he laughed,
and the child laughed, too. "Isn't it funny?" she said. "What are you
laughing at?"
"Yes, it is funny!" said the man. "Why, you are just like Snow-white,
aren't you? but there aren't any more dwarfs. I'm the only one there is
here."
The child thought that was a pity. "You could have much more fun if
there were seven of you," she said. "Why don't you get some more?" Then
suddenly recollecting herself, she added, hastily, "I never did cook,
but I can stir porridge, and dust I can, too, and I 'spect I could make
your bed, 'cause it wouldn't be so big, you see. I tried to make beds,
but I get all mixed up in the sheets, and the blankets are horrid, and
I never know which is the wrong side of the spread. So you see!"
"I see!" said the man.
"But I 'spect I could make yours, don't you? Should you mind if once I
didn't get the spread right, you know?"
"Not a bit. Besides, I don't like spreads. We'll throw it away."
"Oh, let's!" said the child. "Hurrah! Do you say hurrah?"
"Hurrah!" said the man. "Do you mind if I smoke a pipe?"
No, the child did not mind at all. So he brought a most beautiful pipe,
and filled and lighted it; then he sat down, and looked at the child
thoughtfully.
"I suppose you ought to tell me where you came from," he said. "It
isn't half so much fun, but I suppose they will be missing you at home,
don't you? Your mamma--"
The child hastened to explain. Her mamma was away, had gone quite away
with her papa, and left her, the child, alone with Miss Tyler and the
nurse. Now Miss Tyler was no kinds of a person to leave a child wiz;
she poked and she fussed, and she said it was shocking whenever you did
anything, but just anything at all except sit still and learn hymns. "I
hate hymns!" said the child.
"So do I!" said the man, fervently. "It's a pity about Miss Tyler.
Where is it you came from, Snow-white?"
"Oh! it's somewhere else; a long way off. I can't go back there. Dwarfs
never send people back there; they let them stay and do the work. And
I'm almost as big as you are!" the child ended, with a little quaver.
"So you are," said the man. "Now we'll wash the dishes, and forget all
about it for to-night, anyhow."
It was glorious fun washing the dishes, such pretty dishes, blue and
white, with houses and birds on them. They went into the kitchen
through one of the doors, and there all the things were bright and
shining, as if they were made of silver. The child asked the dwarf if
they were really silver, but he said oh, dear, no, only Britannia. That
sounded like nonsense, because the child knew that Britannia ruled the
waves, her papa sang a song about it; but she thought perhaps dwarfs
didn't understand about that, so she said nothing. The dwarf brought
a little cricket, and she stood on that and wiped the dishes while he
washed them; and he said he never liked washing them so much before,
and she said she never liked wiping them so much. Everything was as
handy as possible. The dish-pan was as bright as the rest of the
things, and there were plenty of clean towels, and when you shook the
soap-shaker about, it made the most charming bubbles in the clean hot
water.
"Do you ever make bubbles in your pipe?" said the child.
"Not in this one," said the dwarf. "I used to have a pipe for them;
perhaps I can find one for you by and by."
"I made bubbles in the river," she announced, polishing a glass
vigorously. "There was a stone, and I sat on it, and bubbles I made wiz
kicks, you know, in the water; and songs I made, too, and the river
went bubble, too, all the time. There was a frog, too, and he came and
said things to me, but I kicked at him. He wasn't the Frog Prince,
'cause he had no gold spots on him. Do you know the Frog Prince? Does
he live here in this river? Do you have gold balls when you play ball?"
"I'll get one," said the dwarf, recklessly. "It's no fun playing ball
alone, but now we'll have one, I shouldn't wonder. How far did you come
along the river, Snow-white?"
"Miles!" said Snow-white.
"And didn't you have shoes and stockings when you started?"
Yes, the child had had shoes and stockings, but she took them off to
see her toes make dust-toes in the dust. Did ever the dwarf do that? It
was fun! She left them away back there, miles away, before she came to
the river and the woods. And her hat--
She laughed suddenly. "Did ever you put flowers in your hat and send it
sailing for a boat?"
"Is that what you did, Snow-white?"
"Yes! and it was fun. It went bob, bob, right along wiz the water and
bubbles; and then it tipped against a stone, and then it went round the
corner, and--and that's all I know," she ended, suddenly.
"You are sleepy, Snow-white," said the dwarf. "See! the dishes are all
done; now we will put them away in the cupboard, and then we will see
about putting you away to bed."
The child objected that it was still daylight; she tried to look wide
awake, and succeeded for a few minutes, while they were putting away
the dishes in the most charming little hanging cupboard with glass
doors; but after that her head grew heavy, and her eyelids, as she
expressed it, kept flopping into her eyes.
"Where am I going to sleep?" she asked. "There ought to be little white
beds, you know, and one would be too big, and the next would be too
small, and--no, that's the Three Bears, isn't it? I don't see any beds
at all in this place." She began to rub her eyes, and it was clear that
there must be no further delay.
"Come in here," said the man. "Here is your bed, all ready for you."
He led her through the other door, and there was a tiny bedroom, all
shining and clean, like the other rooms. The bed stood in one corner,
white and smooth, with a plumpy pillow that seemed to be waiting for
the child. She sighed, a long sigh of contented weariness, and put
up her arms in a fashion which the man seemed to understand. He sat
down in a low chair and took her in his arms, where she nestled like a
sleepy kitten. He rocked her gently, patting her in an absent fashion;
but presently she raised her eyes with an indignant gleam. "You aren't
singing anything!" she said. "Sing!"
"Hush!" said the man. "How can I sing unless you are quiet?"
He hummed under his breath, as if trying to recall something; then he
laughed, in a helpless sort of way, and said to the door, "Look at
this, will you?" but there was really nothing to look at; and after
awhile he began to sing, in a soft, crooning voice, about birds, and
flowers, and children, all going to sleep: such a drowsy song, the
words seemed to nod along the music till they nodded themselves sound
asleep.
When he finished, the child seemed to be asleep too; but she roused
herself once more. She sat up on his knee and rubbed her eyes.
"Does dwarfs know about prayers?" she said, drowsily. "Do you know
about them?"
The man's eyes looked dark again. "Not much," he said; "but I know
enough to hear yours, Snow-white. Will you say it on my knee here?"
But the child slipped down to the floor, and dropped her head on his
knee in a business-like way.
"'Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.'
"I don't say the rest, 'cause I don't like it. And God bless papa and
mamma, and make me a goo'--l'--girl--amen. And God bless this dwarf,"
she added. "That's all." Then she lifted her head, and looked at the
dwarf; and something in her look, flushed as she was with sleep, the
light in her eyes half veiled, made the man start and flinch, and turn
very pale.
"No!" he said, putting out his hands as if to push the child away. "No;
leave me alone!"
The child opened her eyes a little wider, and looked at him. "What is
the matter of you, dwarf?" she said. "I wasn't touching you. Are you
cross?"
"No," said the man; and he smiled again. "Snow-white, if I don't put
you to bed, you'll be going to sleep on my best floor, and I can't have
that."
He laid her in the little bed, and tucked the bed-clothes round her
smoothly; she was asleep almost before her head touched the pillow. The
man stood looking at her a long time. Presently he took up one of her
curls and examined it, holding it up to the fading light. It was a
pretty curl, fine and soft, and of a peculiar shade of reddish brown.
He went to a box and took out a folded paper. Unfolding this, took out
another curl of hair, and laid it beside the child's; they might have
grown on the same head.
"Though I take the wings of the morning--" said the man. Then he laid
the curl back in the box, and went out and shut the door softly behind
him.