MAGIC
You took rose-leaves--fresh rose-leaves--and mixed them with brown
sugar. Then you wrapped them in a leaf from a grape-vine, and buried
the whole business in the ground. You let them stay for three days.
At the end of that time you dug them up and ate them; ate them with
rapture known only to those who have eaten this particular delicacy.
For to the natural fragrance of the rose-leaves and the nourishing and
delicious properties of brown sugar, that interval of three days in
the warm earth had added a new quality. A mysterious alchemy had been
at work and transformed the mixture into something exquisite--a dish
to be envied by great kings and sultans. It had about it odors of the
East; savors of Araby the blest.
So said Ed Mason's older brother, Billy. And he was nearly thirteen.
He did not use all the words which I have used to describe the taste
of the rose-leaf compound. He had merely said it was "bully." That was
enough for us--that, and the charm of the operation itself. He had
tried it many times in the far-off days of his youth; and now we set
out to make some for ourselves.
The rose-leaves were easy to get. We had only to climb over the fence
and we were in Auntie Merrill's garden. Auntie Merrill was old, and she
seldom came into the garden. She had no one with whom to share it; and
the roses budded, bloomed, and dropped their petals unheeded to the
path. From this path we gathered some; but it is likely that others
were induced, with little effort, to leave the full-blown flowers a day
or two in advance of their natural fall.
Roses are beautiful things, even to boys of eight or nine, but æsthetic
considerations must give way before the stern, practical demands of
life.
We debated whether red or yellow roses were most likely to give good
results. At last we decided to combine the two colors, and a tempting
mixture they made. We put the leaves in my hat, and climbed the fence
again into the Masons' back yard.
The next ingredient was brown sugar. Here, again, the matter was
simple. A barrel of the pleasing substance lived in a certain dim
passage leading from Ed Mason's mother's pantry. It was dark, moist,
and a joy forever. It had the crawly habit peculiar to brown sugar,
and it came away (when questing hands were plunged into the barrel)
in lumps that filled the mouth and turned the cares of life to vanity
and unimportance. With it, during hard days, we frequently restored our
wasted tissues.
The rose-leaves were left to themselves while we made a reconnaissance
in force toward the place of the sugar barrel. The enemy (one Nora
Sullivan, a desperate character) was reported as engaged in washing
dishes in the kitchen. She neglected to station any outposts, so her
carelessness was our advantage.
We made the customary investigation for a large gray rat--supposed,
since a time to which the mind of man runneth not back, to dwell behind
the barrel. As usual, he was found missing.
We seized the sugar and retired in discretion and stickiness to the
yard. There we mixed the rose-leaves and the sugar. From the vine that
grew on the side of the woodshed we picked a large leaf. This was
the vine that furnished leaves to be worn inside our hats to prevent
sunstroke on hot days.
No one knows how many sunstrokes we escaped by means of those grape
leaves.
We wrapped the red and yellow petals, well covered with sugar, in the
grape leaf, and secured it with straws and blades of grass. No creeping
worm nor brisk beetle was to partake of this food of the gods.
Next came the rite of burial. There was no doubt that the leaf and
its contents must be buried in Auntie Merrill's garden. That was the
scene of all mysteries, and the only place where our caché would be
reasonably secure from Ed Mason's sister Louise and her friend Jessie
Plummer. These were high matters, too great for the feminine intellect.
Also, of course, we had Auntie Merrill to consider. A place must be
discovered where she would not come poking around.
"Back of the lilies-of-the-valley," said Ed Mason.
"It's kind of wet there," I objected.
"What dif'rence does that make?"
"Well, it might not work there. I tell you: let's put 'em in the
corner, near Hawkins' shed."
"No; I want 'em back of the lilies-of-the-valley. It's my mother's
brown sugar, and Billy told me how to do it. You wouldn't know anything
'bout it if I hadn't told you!"
I succumbed to the force of this argument, and we began to excavate
back of the lily bed. With shingles (procured from men who were
shingling Dr. Macey's barn) we dug the pit and covered the grape leaf
with earth. Then, after driving away a prowling cat (who probably
recollected funeral services performed over deceased robins in that
very garden), we climbed the fence once more and set out to endure the
weary interval of three days.
It was Saturday morning, and ten o'clock. Not until Tuesday at the same
hour could we unearth the treasure.
Billy had said so.
Three days were required, no more and no less. At the end of that time,
to the minute, the magic forces that dwelt in the earth would have
effected the change, and what we buried as simple brown sugar and the
petals of roses would come forth in a new form--a form to make epicures
sigh with content.
We walked up the yard, by the woodshed, past the apple tree and the
clothes-jack, and out to the street. But something had happened. A
thick black cloud had descended and covered us. A few minutes before,
the sun was shining gloriously, and we stood on the mountain peak of
action and expectancy. Now it had all come to an end; the rose-leaves
were buried, and before us in all their hideous length and tediousness
stretched those three days.
Three days!
Three years rather! The face of the heavens was darkened and we
wandered in gloom. We made an effort of cheerfulness and started for
the pond with a view to catching Lucky-bugs. But we abandoned this
almost immediately, and decided to hunt up Jimmy Toppan, who lived next
door. Then we remembered that Jimmy had gone to his grandmother's farm
in the country for the whole day. By this time the pall that overhung
us had become deeper and more insufferable.
We turned the corner of the street and gazed drearily at Dr. Macey's
barn and the men at work on its roof. The old shingles were coming
down with a clatter, and the odor of the new ones filled the air.
Perhaps there was hope in shingles!
We remembered that it takes but few strokes of a jack-knife, a little
cutting and boring, to convert a shingle into a boat. It only needs
pointing at the bows and rounding at the stern, the insertion of a mast
and the fitting of a paper sail--half an old envelope will do. The
boats thus fashioned would sail half across the pond--until stuck in
the lily-pads.
We chose two shingles and began to whittle. But there was no salt in
it. Our minds wandered, and after a few moments Ed dropped his shingle,
closed his knife, and put it in his pocket.
"I'm goin' into the barn an' look for mice," he announced.
About the chutes which let grain into the stalls, mice were known to
linger. Once I had caught one in my hands, a feat which I instantly
regretted, for the mouse bit my finger and made his escape in short
order. Since that time the pursuit of the common drab mouse had been
considered a pastime not without the charm of danger and the risk
of bloodshed. But now the mention of mice only brought my thoughts
back--as if they needed bringing!--to the subject that possessed us
both.
"Do you think you drove that old cat away?" I asked abruptly.
Ed understood immediately; I did not need to specify the cat.
"I dunno," he said; "she may be foolin' round now. P'r'aps we ought to
go and see."
"Let's," I replied quickly.
We crossed the street, cut across the Toppans' back yard, and then,
by a certain fence route, well understood and prescribed for all
important occasions, entered Auntie Merrill's garden.
A cat slunk off between the box hedges, and a robin flew hurriedly from
the fence to the apple tree where he had his nest of mud and dried
grass. He uttered three or four excited notes as he flew.
The sunlight of a morning in late June fell in patches on the paths,
the hedges, and the flower beds. The rose-bushes dropped their petals,
and the syringa moved in the breeze.
That was a garden!
It had old-fashioned flowers--snapdragons, portulacas (now in full
blaze in the sun), and hollyhocks--in the days before old-fashioned
flowers became new-fashioned again. Orioles hunted their food in the
fruit trees to carry it back to their hanging nests in the elms that
shaded the street near by. It was firefly-haunted at night, and we
used to run up and down the paths and try to catch the fireflies in our
hats. It was full of long, mysterious vistas, overgrown shrubs breaking
in on the paths, and valuable hiding-places. Plums grew there, and
pears and cherries and peaches.
When, on rare occasions, Auntie Merrill walked slowly down the path,
she appeared to be totally unaware that Indians, highway robbers,
pirates, cowboys, spies, scouts, and other ruffians were dogging her
footsteps from bush to bush. We always thought it best to keep an eye
on her.
It is a perfectly safe place to-day. Auntie Merrill is dead; the shrubs
are trimmed, the hedges cut down, the paths covered with asphalt, and
the whole garden a dismal spectacle of precision, order, and expensive
simplicity.
But on the morning when we returned to look after our buried
rose-leaves, no one had dreamed of these wretched improvements. Keeping
well down below the hedge, we reached the lilies-of-the-valley without
encountering any opposition. The place of burial was inspected and the
earth searched for tracks.
None appeared.
Then we stood over the spot and meditated. A lilac bush sheltered us
from inquisitive persons in the house.
Finally Ed Mason spoke.
"I wonder how they're gettin' on," he said.
"I wonder!" said I.
Then there was another pause. I poked my foot among the lilies where we
had concealed the shingles we had used as trowels. They were waiting
for Tuesday morning.
Ed spoke again.
"Let's dig 'em up and look at 'em!"
Already I was fishing for the shingles. In half a minute we had brought
the grape leaf once more to the light of day. We unfastened it and
gazed upon its contents.
It was a quarter past ten. Fifteen minutes had passed since we buried
the mixture.
"Don't you suppose they're done?" I queried.
Ed's only reply was to take a pinch between his fingers and convey it
to his mouth.
I did the same.
Then we ate the whole lot. It tasted--and on this point I will pledge
my word--it tasted exactly like rose-leaves and brown sugar!