AN IMPERIAL BIRTHDAY.
The next day was General Napoleon Smith's birthday. Outwardly it
looked much like other days. There were not, as there ought to have
been, great, golden imperial capital N's all over the sky. Nature
indeed was more than usually calm; but, to strike a balance, there was
excitement enough and to spare in and about the house of Windy
Standard. Very early, when it was not yet properly light, but only
sort of misty white along the wet grass and streaky combed-out grey up
above in the sky, Prissy waked Sir Toady Lion, who promptly rolled
over to the back of his cot, and stuck his funny head right down
between the wall and the edge of the wire mattress, so that only his
legs and square sturdy back could be seen.
Toady Lion always preferred to sleep in the most curious positions. In
winter he usually turned right round in bed till his head was far
under the bed-clothes, and his fat, twinkly, pink toes reposed
peacefully on the pillow. Nothing ever mattered to Toady Lion. He
could breathe through his feet just as well as through his mouth, and
(as we have seen) much better than through his nose. The attention of
professors of physiology is called to this fact, which can be
established upon the amplest evidence and the most unimpeachable
testimony. In summer he generally rolled out of bed during the first
half hour, and slept comfortably all the rest of the night on the
floor.
"Get up, Toady Lion," said his sister softly, so as not to waken Hugh
John; "it is the birthday."
"Ow don' care!" grumbled Toady Lion, turning over and over three or
four times very fast till he had all the bed-clothes wrapped about him
like a cocoon; "don' care wat it is. I'se goin' to sleep some more.
Don't go 'prog' me like that!"
"Come," said Prissy gently, to tempt him; "we are going to give Hugh
John a surprise, and sing a lovely hymn at his door. You can have my
ivory Prayer-book----"
"For keeps?" asked Toady Lion, opening his eyes with his first gleam
of interest.
"Oh, no, you know that was mother's, and father gave it to me to take
care of. But you shall have it to hold in your hand while we are
singing."
"Well, then, can I have the picture of the anzel Michael castin' out
the baddy-baddy anzels and hittin' the Bad Black Man O-such-a-whack on
the head?"
Prissy considered. The print was particularly dear to her heart, and
she had spent a happy wet Saturday colouring it. But she did want to
make the birthday hymn a success, and Toady Lion had undeniably a fine
voice when he liked to use it--which was not often.
"All right," she said, "you can have my 'Michael and the Bad Angels,'
but you are not to spoil it."
"Shan't play then," grumbled Toady Lion, who knew well the strength of
his position, and was as troublesome as a _prima donna_ when she knows
her manager cannot do without her--"shan't sing, not unless 'Michael
and the Bad Angels' is mine to spoil if I like."
"But you won't--will you, dear Toady Lion?" pleaded Prissy. "You'll
keep it so nice and careful, and then next Saturday, when I have my
week's money and you are poor, I'll buy it off you again."
"Shan't promise," said the Obstinate Brat--as Janet, happily inspired,
had once called him after being worsted in an argument, "p'rhaps yes,
and p'rhaps no."
"Come on then, Toady Lion," whispered Prissy, giving him a hand and
deciding to trust to luck for the preservation of her precious print.
Toady Lion was often much better than his word, and she knew from
experience that by Saturday his financial embarrassments would
certainly be such that no reasonable offer was likely to be refused.
Toady Lion rose, and taking his sister's hand they went into her room,
carefully shutting the door after them. Here Prissy proceeded to
equip Toady Lion in one of her own "nighties," very much against that
chorister's will.
"You see, pink flannel pyjams are not proper to sing in church in,"
she whispered: "now--you must hold your hymn-book so, and look up at
the roof when you sing--like the 'Child Samuel' on the nursery wall."
"Mine eyes don't goggle like his," said Toady Lion, who felt that
Nature had not designed him for the part, and who was sleepy and cross
anyway. Birthdays were no good--except his own.
It happened that Janet Sheepshanks was going downstairs early to set
the maids to their morning work, and this is what she saw. At the
closed door of Hugh John's chamber stood two quaint little figures,
clad in lawny white, one tall and slim, the other short and chubby as
a painted cherub on a ceiling. They had each white hymn-books
reverently placed between their hands. Their eyes were raised
heavenwards and their lips were red and parted with excitement.
The stern Scotswoman felt something suddenly strike her heart.
"Eh, sir," she said, telling the tale afterwards, "the lassie
Priscilla was sae like her mither, my puir bairn that is noo singing
psalms wi' the angels o' God, that I declare, my verra heart stood
still, for I thocht that she had come back for yin o' the bairns. And,
oh! I couldna pairt wi' ony o' them noo. It wad fairly break my heart.
And there the twa young things stood at the door, but when they began
to sing, I declare I juist slippit awa' doon to the closet and grat
on the tap o' a cask o' paraffeen!"
And this is what Janet Sheepshanks heard them sing. It was not perhaps
very appropriate, but it was one of the only two hymns of which Toady
Lion knew the words; and I think even Mr. Charles Wesley, who wrote
it, would not have objected if he had seen the angelic devotion on
Prissy's face or the fraudulent cherub innocence shining from that of
Sir Toady Lion.
"Now, mind, your eyes on the crack of the door above," whispered
Prissy; "and when I count three under my breath--sing out for your
very life."
Toady Lion nodded.
"One--two--three!" counted Prissy.
"_Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King,
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled._"
"What is 'weconciled'?" asked Toady Lion, who must always ask
something on principle.
"Oh, never mind now," whispered Prissy hastily; "keep your eyes on the
top crack of the door and open your mouth wide."
"Don't know no more!" said Toady Lion obstinately.
"Oh yes, you do," said Prissy, almost in tears; "go on. Sing _La-La_,
if you don't, and we'll soon be at the chorus, and you know that
anyway!"
Then the voice of Prissy escaped, soaring aloft in the early gloom,
and if any human music can, reaching the Seventh Sphere itself, where,
amid the harmonies of the universe, the Eternal Ear hearkens for the
note of sinful human praise.
The sweet shrill pipe of Toady Lion accompanied her like a heavenly
lute of infinite sweetness. It was at this point that Janet made off
in the direction of the paraffin barrel.
"_Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies:
Universal nature, say,
'Christ the Lord is risen to-day!'_"
The door opened, and the head of Hugh John appeared, his hair all on
end and his pyjama jacket open at the neck. He was hitching up the
other division of the suit with one hand.
"'Tain't Christmas, what's the horrid row? Shut it!" growled he
sleepily. Prissy made him the impatient sign of silence so well
understood of children, and which means that the proceedings are not
to be interrupted.
"Your birthday, silly!" she said; "chorus now!" And Hugh John himself,
who knew the value of discipline, lined up and opened his mouth in the
loud rejoicing refrain:--
"_Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!_"
A slight noise behind made them turn round, and there the children
beheld with indignation the whole body of the servants grouped
together on the landing, most of them with their handkerchiefs to
their eyes; while Jane Housemaid who had none, was sobbing
undisguisedly with the tears rolling down her cheeks, and vainly
endeavouring to express her opinion that "it was just beautiful--they
was for all the world like little angels a-praisin' God, and--_a-hoo!_
I can't help it, no more I can't! And their mother never to see them
growed up--her bein' in her grave, the blessed lamb!"
"_I_ don't see nuffin to kye for," said Toady Lion unsympathetically,
trying to find pockets in Prissy's night-gown; "it was a nice
sing-song!"
At this moment Janet Sheepshanks came on the scene. She had been
crying more than anybody, but you would never have guessed it. And
now, perhaps ashamed of her own emotion, she pretended great scandal
and indignation at the unseemly and irregular spectacle, and drove the
servants below to their morning tasks, being specially severe with
Jane Housemaid, who, for some occult reason, found it as difficult to
stop crying as it had been easy to begin--so that, as Hugh John said,
"it was as good as a watering-can, and useful too, for it laid the
dust on Jane's carpets ready for sweeping, ever so much better than
tea-leaves."