The Black Ship.
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THEY lived at the foot of the Pine Mountains, in the island of the
King's Garden, the mother, with her little son and daughter. The boy's
name was Hope, and the little girl's, May.
The children loved each other dearly, and were never separated. They
never had any quarrels, because Hope was the leader in all their
expeditions and plays; and May firmly believed that everything which
Hope planned and did, was better planned and better done than it would
have been by any one else in the world, by which May meant the island.
Hope, on his side, had always a tender consideration for little May in
his schemes, such as kings should have for their subjects. May would
never have dreamed of originating any scheme herself, or of questioning
any which Hope planned. If you had taken away May from Hope, you would
have taken away his kingdom, his army, his right hand; if you had
taken away Hope from May, you would have robbed her of her leader, her
king, her head, her sun. Bereaved of May, I think Hope would have been
driven from his desolate home into the wide world; bereaved of Hope,
I am sure May would never have left her home, but sat silent there
until she pined away. But together, life was one holiday to them; work
was a keener kind of play, and every day was too narrow for the happy
occupations of which each hour was brimful.
Their cottage was at the foot of the mountains, on the sea-shore.
Indeed, every house and cottage in the island stood on the sea-shore,
because the island was so long and narrow, that, from the top of
the mountain range which divided it, you could see the sea on both
sides. If in any place the coast widened, little creeks ran in among
the hills, and made the sea accessible from all points. The island
consisted entirely of this one mountain range towering to the clouds;
the higher peaks covered with snow, with a strip of coast at their
feet, sometimes narrowing to a little shingly beach, sometimes
expanding to a fertile plain, where beautiful cities with fairy
bell-towers and marble palaces gleamed like ivory carvings amidst the
palms and thick green trees.
But Hope and May knew nothing of the island beyond the little bay they
lived in, and no one they had ever seen or heard of had scaled the
mountain range and looked on the other side; no one, either in the
scattered fishermen's huts around them, or in the white town which
perched like a sea-bird on the crags on the opposite side of the bay.
Indeed, it was only from their mother's words that the children knew
their country was an island; and ever since they had heard this, the
great subject of Hope's dreams, and the great object of his schemes,
had been to scale the mountains and look on the other side. But this
was quite a secret between Hope and May; the happy secret which formed
the endless interest of their long talks and rambles, but which they
could not speak of to their mother, because she was so tenderly timid
about them, and because it was to be the great surprise which one day
was to enchant her, when Hope was a man. He was to scale the mountains,
penetrate to the wondrous land on the other side, and bring thence
untold treasures and tales of marvels to May and his mother.
The children thought Hope would very soon be old enough to go; and they
had a little cave in the rocks close to the sea where they treasured
up dried fruits and bits of iron to make tools of with which to chop
away the tangled branches in the forests, and cut steps in the glaciers
which Hope was to traverse. The lower hills the children knew well; and
the ravine which wound up far among the hills they had nearly fixed on
as the commencement of the journey.
So the days passed on with the children, rich in purposes and bright
with happy work. For they were helpful to their mother. From their
mountain expeditions they brought her firewood, and forest-honey,
and eggs of wild-fowl, and various sweet wild-berries, and wholesome
roots. They always noticed that their mother encouraged these mountain
expeditions, and seemed much happier when they took that direction than
when they kept by the sea.