sprite sang out again:
“They’re _all_ crying! They’re _all_ coming to! They’re _all_ right!
Hurrah!”
[Illustration]
He picked up the three babies and bundled them in his arms, and
without another word gave a leap into the water and splash! went down
and out of sight, babies and all.
Florrie laughed, Winnie laughed, and Pennie and Merrimeg laughed too.
“But I’m sorry his house is ruined,” said Merrimeg.
“Oh, he’ll mend it in no time,” said Florrie. “But see, Merrimeg,
you’re all wet!”
“Goodness!” said Merrimeg. “I’d forgotten all about it.”
“Stand here,” said Florrie, and she and the other two fairies placed
Merrimeg in the middle and turned their backs to her.
Their wings began to flutter gently, and then began to move faster
and faster, making a strong breeze which blew all over Merrimeg.
Fanned in this way by the great butterfly wings, she was soon dry.
“Good-by, Merrimeg,” said Florrie.
“Good-by, dear Merrimeg,” said each of the others.
“Thank you for my star,” said Winnie. “You must think of us whenever
you look up at the stars.”
“Indeed I will,” said Merrimeg.
The starlight fairies stood on tiptoe for a moment, and fluttered
their wings; and then they rose quietly in the air, and flew straight
up. When they were above the tree tops, they began to circle round
and round, going higher and higher; far, far up through the night
they went on circling; and long after Merrimeg could see them no
more, she could see the star, bright as a diamond, go circling up and
up....
She ran away home, and crept in quietly at the front door, and lay
down in her bed and snuggled under the covers. Her mother was still
asleep. She must have gone to sleep herself presently; she woke up
and thought of the lost star, and remembered that she had not waited
to see if it was in its place. She got out of bed and tiptoed to the
window, and putting her head out looked up.
A star was sparkling just overhead, where there had been none before.
The star was in its place.
“I’m glad of that,” she said out loud.
“What did you say?” said her mother, waking up.
“I was only saying--only saying----”
“Never mind what you were saying. Go back to bed, and go to sleep.
You’ll catch your death of cold.”
“Yes, mother,” said Merrimeg.
[Illustration: MERRIMEG AND THE ECHO DWARFS]
_MERRIMEG AND THE ECHO DWARFS_
“Now, Merrimeg,” said Merrimeg’s mother, “take this basket and go to
the brook in the woods, and bring me back a basketful of water cress
for supper. And be sure to come straight back.”
“Yes, mother,” said Merrimeg. And she went off down the village
street singing, with her basket on her arm. But first she put in her
pocket the blue saltcellar from the kitchen, full of salt.
She walked a long way into the woods, and at last she came to a
little brook running along over the stones. There in the clear water
she found plenty of fresh green water cress growing. She pulled it up
by the handful and filled her basket with it.
She knew that she ought to go straight home, but this was not one of
her days for being good. She left the basket on the grass, and took
out of her pocket the saltcellar with the salt in it. Then she looked
around for birds.
A blue bird came hopping by on the ground, and Merrimeg stole up
behind it on tiptoe, and sprinkled a little salt right down over
its tail. But just at that minute the bird flew up into a tree, and
Merrimeg was too late.
Off went the bird from tree to tree, and Merrimeg ran after it as
fast as she could, holding out her saltcellar. Pretty soon the bird
hopped down onto the ground again, and Merrimeg tiptoed up behind it
and sprinkled her salt down over its tail. But she was just a bit too
late, and the bird flew up into a tree.
Merrimeg followed the bird a long, long way, and whenever it hopped
down onto the ground she tried to sprinkle a little salt on its tail;
but she was always just a wee bit too late.
At last, when she was at the foot of a hill that rose up out of the
woods, she stamped her foot and cried out:
“Oh, you good-for-nothing naughty bird!”
“Naughty bird!” came back her own voice to her from the top of the
hill.
Merrimeg was astonished. She had never heard an echo before.
She thought she would try it again, so she called out:
“Oh, you naughty bird, come down here!”
Her own voice came back to her from the same place up the hill, but
it didn’t quite repeat her words; it said:
“Come on down!”
The echo must have made a mistake. Merrimeg was more than ever
astonished. She waited a minute, and then the same voice came down to
her from the top of the hill, and it said:
“Down here!”
The echo had got it right this time. Evidently it must have been a
very young echo indeed.
Merrimeg forgot all about the blue bird, and she began to climb the
hill to find out who it was that was mocking her.
She didn’t know it, but there was an Echo Dwarf who lived in a cave
near the top of the hill, and there lived with him his little boy,
a very little boy, who was just learning how to make echoes. Big
Hark was the father’s name. Little Hark was the little boy’s name.
Big Hark had a great deal of trouble in teaching Little Hark to make
echoes, for Little Hark often forgot, and instead of calling back the
same words he had heard, he would often call back words of his own.
Besides, if the words he had to call back were big words, he always
got them mixed up. His father never knew when he was going to make a
mess of everything. And when he did that, it made Big Hark so angry
he could hardly speak.
Merrimeg went on up the hill, and pretty soon she called out again:
“Why couldn’t I catch the bird with my salt?”
“Too slow!” came back the voice from the top of the hill.
Merrimeg couldn’t understand this at all. She listened for a minute,
and then she heard another voice up above her:
[Illustration: “OXTRAGOB BORGS, GOOBLIK!”]
“My salt! Oxtragob borgs, gooblik!”
This was Little Hark’s father, and when he said “Oxtragob borgs,
gooblik!” he meant, in the private language of the Echo Dwarfs,
“Wrong again, stupid!”
Big Hark and Little Hark were standing in front of their cave, and
Big Hark was letting Little Hark practice at making echoes, as
Merrimeg came up the hill. Not many people came that way, and Big
Hark was glad of the chance to give his little boy a lesson.
Merrimeg came on further and further up the hill, and after a while
she stopped and called out again:
“Are you still there?”
“Still there!” came back the voice.
This made her quite angry. She did not like to be mocked every time
she opened her mouth. She cried out:
“Stop mocking me!”
“Mocking me!” came back the voice.
This made her very angry indeed. Without saying anything more she
clambered on up the hill and stopped all out of breath on a little
ledge before the mouth of a cave. There a little further on along
the path was standing Little Hark himself, with his hands up to his
mouth, all ready to shout back an echo. His father had gone inside
the cave.
Little Hark was very small indeed, and Merrimeg looked quite like a
giant beside him. She ran to him and stood over him and shook her
finger at him and said:
“What do you mean by mocking me all the time?”
“All the time?” said Little Hark, looking very much frightened.
“Yes, all the time!” said Merrimeg. “What do you mean by it?”
“Mean by it?” said the little Echo Dwarf.
“Don’t you dare repeat everything I say to you!” cried Merrimeg. “You
naughty thing, you’re mocking me!”
“You’re mocking me!” said Little Hark, beginning to cry.
“Why, you awful little thing, I’m not!” cried Merrimeg. “How dare
you say such a thing? How dare you?”
[Illustration: “HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH A THING? HOW DARE YOU?”]
“How dare you?” said Little Hark, crying harder.
This made Merrimeg very angry, so angry that she could not say
another word. She seized hold of Little Hark’s arm and shook him.
There she was shaking him, pretty hard too, and Little Hark was
bawling out loud, when Big Hark, his father, came out of the cave and
hurried towards them to see what was the matter.
Big Hark was very strong, though he was not very big. He threw his
arms around Merrimeg and dragged her away from Little Hark and hauled
her along to the cave and pulled her into it. Before she knew it her
arms were bound up tight with tough vines which Big Hark had snatched
down from the wall.
Big Hark made her sit down on the floor with her back against the
wall, and he and Little Hark stood before her. Little Hark looked at
his father and said:
“Kormsdee lokspit calliper?”
This meant, in the private language of the Echo Dwarfs, “What are you
going to do with her?”
“Lokspit meegs,” said Big Hark, “doomdog askbiddle beddagog
diskorfunjax krissmuss.”
This meant, “I am going to keep her here for seven Christmases, for
you to practice your echo lessons on.”
“Snexterbean?” asked Little Hark. This meant, “What then?”
“Lokspit snexter,” said Big Hark, “flambilly noformikin beskeem.”
This meant, as you may imagine, “I am then going to give her to the
Fire Bubbles at the back of the cave.”
Merrimeg tried to get her arms loose, and cried out:
“I want to go home! I want to go home!”
Big Hark nudged Little Hark, reminding him to practice his echo, and
Little Hark said:
“Go home!”
“All right, then, I will!” cried Merrimeg, and she struggled to her
feet and started to run towards the mouth of the cave. But Big Hark
caught her and held her, and she cried out:
“Let me go! Let me go!”
“Go!” said Little Hark, echoing her words, and Merrimeg cried:
“I can’t! He won’t let me!”
[Illustration]
Now Little Hark should have said “Let me!” But he forgot all about
echoing her words, and he shouted out two words of his own.
“Run back!” he cried, and this was what gave Merrimeg her chance to
escape. For Big Hark was so angry at Little Hark’s forgetting to echo
back Merrimeg’s own words, and calling back words of his own instead,
which was strictly forbidden, that he let go of Merrimeg and turned
round on Little Hark and shook his finger at him and shouted, “Let
me! Oxtragob borgs, gooblik!” and boxed Little Hark’s ears with all
his might and main.
Little Hark broke out crying, and Merrimeg dashed away into the
dark at the back of the cave, and ran on faster and faster into the
darkness. Pretty soon she heard Big Hark shout out something in his
own language, and she knew that he was running after her. So she ran
on faster than before, and in a moment she struck against a wall in
the dark, and feeling it with her hands she turned a corner and saw
something which almost made her stop breathing.
It was a stream of sparkling red fire, running across the ground
right in her path.
As she looked at it, an enormous bubble, like a soap bubble, but
red-hot and shining like fire, rose from the stream and floated up in
the air towards her. She crouched down, and the Fire Bubble floated
up to the ceiling and burst with a loud crack and a shower of sparks;
and then another one rose from the stream and floated towards her
and broke against the ceiling; and then another and another, one
right after the other.
Merrimeg was frightened so that she couldn’t move. She didn’t dare
to go on, and she didn’t dare to go back. She heard the voice of Big
Hark behind her in the dark, crying out: “Sdig! sdig!” And at that
moment she----
Well, she heard another voice, from the other side of the Fire
Bubbles, and it said:
“I believe it is, brother, I believe it is.”
Merrimeg clapped her hands with joy and cried: “Here I am! Help me!
Help me!”
Big Hark’s voice behind her echoed her words, “Help me!” and the
other voice, on the far side of the Fire Bubbles, said:
“I suppose we’d better help her, brother Nibby.”
“I’m quite of your opinion, brother, quite,” said the voice of
brother Nibby.
“Quite,” said Big Hark, in echo, just behind Merrimeg. As he said
this he threw his arms around her and began to drag her back into
the cave. Little Hark came running up, and he tugged at his father’s
coat and said, “Skeems non doogdag, himpotter,” which meant, “Please
don’t hurt her, father.”
But he hadn’t any more than said these words than Malkin and Nibby,
the two gnomes, rushed across the stream of fire, knocking the Fire
Bubbles right and left with their hands, and Malkin picked up Little
Hark, slung him on his shoulder, and ran back with him across the
stream of fire, knocking the Fire Bubbles right and left as he ran.
“Ishkameerz! O ishkameerz!” cried Big Hark, and he let go of Merrimeg
and rushed down to the stream of fire, holding out his hands towards
the little boy on the other side. But he did not dare go near the
fire.
“I believe now maybe he’ll give her up,” said Malkin from the other
side of the fire.
“Give her up!” said Little Hark, struggling on Malkin’s shoulder.
“Fee skimble fen bitkin, fee skimble fen moklin!” shouted Big Hark,
which meant, “If you’ll give up the boy, I’ll give up the maiden!”
“Good!” cried Malkin.
“Good!” said Little Hark.
Nibby the gnome ran to Merrimeg and unfastened the vines that bound
her arms, and lifted her up and carried her across the stream of
fire, knocking the Fire Bubbles away with his hand, so that she
wasn’t harmed in the least; and at the same time brother Malkin
crossed the stream of fire and put down Little Hark beside his father.
“Hurry! hurry!” cried Merrimeg, and pulled the two gnomes away into
the darkness beyond the fire.
“Farewell!” cried Malkin.
“Good-by!” called back Little Hark, and his father shook him by the
shoulder and said, “Oxtragob borgs, gooblik!” which meant, as you
know, “Wrong again, stupid!”
“Take me home quick,” said Merrimeg as she went on between the two
gnomes deeper and deeper into the darkness.
“She’s not very polite to-day, brother,” said Malkin.
“Not very, brother, not very, indeed,” said Nibby. “She really ought
to say ‘Please,’ I think.”
“Maybe something’s happened to bother her,” said Malkin.
“Maybe so, maybe so,” said Nibby. “I wonder what it could be.”
They went down into the earth for a long way, and then they went up
under the earth for a long way, and at last they stopped.
“Here we are, brother Nibby,” said Malkin, and he appeared to be
opening a door.
“Home again, brother Malkin,” said Nibby, and the three of them
climbed a ladder, and Nibby raised a door overhead, and the next
minute they were in the gnomes’ kitchen.
Malkin and Nibby sat themselves down at their little table, where a
candle was burning, and Malkin said:
“I suppose we’d better ask her to stay to supper, brother.”
“Just what I was thinking,” said Nibby. “But which one of us will ask
her?”
“Oh, _you_ must be the one to do that, brother.”
“Oh, no, you can do it so much better, brother Malkin. _You_ must----”
“Goodness gracious me!” said Merrimeg. “You don’t need to ask me. I
can’t stay anyway.”
“Not very polite to-day, brother, not very polite,” said Malkin.
“I’m afraid not, brother, I’m afraid not,” said Nibby.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” said Merrimeg. “Please excuse me. I really have
to go home. And I’m ever so much obliged to you.”
She climbed the ladder to the ceiling and went up through the little
door there, and calling down good-by she stepped out onto the roof of
the gnomes’ house, and closed down the door after her.
She ran as fast as she could through the woods, until she came to
the brook where she had left her basket. There it was, full of water
cress, just as she had left it. She snatched it up and ran all the
way home.
When she came in at the kitchen door of her house, her mother was
rummaging in the cupboard, as if she were looking for something she
had lost.
“Well, Merrimeg, you’ve been a precious long time getting a little
basketful of water cress. I’ve lost my blue saltcellar with the salt
in it. Do you think you can find it?”
Merrimeg suddenly found that the saltcellar was no longer in her
pocket. She must have lost it somewhere in the woods.
“No, mother,” said she.
[Illustration: MERRIMEG AND THE RAG-BONE MAN]
_MERRIMEG AND THE RAG-BONE MAN_
“Rags! bones! old iron!”
Merrimeg put her head out of the front window and looked down the
street.
A queer man with a dirty face was coming along, and he was bending
down under a heavy sack which he was carrying on his back.
“Rags! bones! old iron!” he cried, and all the children who were
playing in the street ran indoors in a fright.
It was the Rag-Bone Man. Everybody said that if you didn’t look sharp
he’d snatch you up and stuff you in his sack and carry you off and
never, never bring you back any more; so all the children in that
village were terribly afraid of him, and whenever they saw him coming
they simply took to their heels and fled.
“Rags! bones! old iron!” cried the Rag-Bone Man.
“Oh, pshaw,” said Merrimeg, “_I’m_ not afraid.”
She went out into the street and watched him coming. He came on
nearer and nearer. He reached the house next door and stopped there
and stared at Merrimeg.
“Rags! bones! old iron!” he shouted out, at the top of his voice, and
quick as a wink Merrimeg sprang back into the house and banged the
door and bolted it and ran to her room and buried her head under the
pillows. It was a long time before she came out again.
When she did come out, she didn’t go into the street, because the
Rag-Bone Man was still there, probably. She went into the cabbage
garden, where her mother was hanging up clothes.
“Where are you going, Merrimeg?” said her mother.
“Nowhere,” said Merrimeg.
“You’d better go over to Tish’s house now. They’re expecting you to
have supper with them. And don’t get your dress soiled, and don’t
stay too late.”
“No’m,” said Merrimeg.
“Before you go, take these handkerchiefs and spread them out on the
rose bushes in the sun to dry.”
“Yes’m,” said Merrimeg.
Her mother kissed her, and went into the kitchen; and Merrimeg,
carrying the wet handkerchiefs, walked over to the apple orchard,
thinking about apples, and forgetting all about the rose bushes. She
always liked to eat apples just before meals.
In the orchard she stopped under a tree and reached up towards the
lowest branch, and just at that moment she heard the sound of some
one crying. It seemed to come from the other side of the tree. She
tiptoed around the tree to see who it was.
It was the Rag-Bone Man. He was sitting on the ground, with his back
against the tree, and his sack beside him, and he was crying to
himself pretty loud, and sniffling and wiping away the tears with the
back of his hand.
Merrimeg was so frightened that she could not move.
“Gimme a handkerchief, quick,” said the Rag-Bone Man, and he snatched
the handkerchiefs out of her hand and put one of them to his nose.
“Oh!” he said, and threw the handkerchiefs down. “They’re wet! They
won’t do! What good is a wet handkerchief? Haven’t you got a dry one?”
“No, sir,” said Merrimeg, in a shaky little voice.
“Then it’s no use,” said the Rag-Bone Man. “I reckon I’ll have to
stop crying. You can’t cry without a handkerchief. Why didn’t you
bring me a dry one?”
“I didn’t know you wanted one,” said Merrimeg.
“Well, you didn’t think I could cry into a wet one, did you? You
don’t expect me to do that, do you? Do you, or don’t you?”
“No, sir,” said Merrimeg.
“The next time you come around me when I’m crying, you bring me a dry
one, d’you understand?”
[Illustration: “GIMME A HANDKERCHIEF QUICK,” SAID THE RAG-BONE MAN]
“Yes, sir,” said Merrimeg.
“Don’t say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ all the time. Why don’t you ask
me what I’m crying about?”
“Yes, sir,” said Merrimeg, twisting her apron. “I mean--if you
please----”
“I’m crying about--I’m crying about--oh, dear! I’m going to cry
again, I _know_ I am! And I _never_ have any handkerchief!”
He burst into tears again, and Merrimeg began to feel sorry for him.
“Yes, sir?” said she.
He wiped his face with the back of his hand, and smeared the dirt all
over it most terribly.
“It’s--it’s--about the children,” he said, crying out louder than
before. “I can’t--I can’t--help it. It’s because they--they won’t
come near me--they’re afraid of me--they won’t speak to me--they
won’t let me tell ’em about Rags--they run away from me--oh, it’s too
hard, it’s too hard!”
He sniffled and gulped. Merrimeg felt very sorry for him indeed.
“Please, sir,” said she, “do you want----”
“I want a handkerchief. Look in that bag and see if you can find one.
Oh, dear! If the children would only let me speak to ’em! Then I
could tell ’em all about Rags! Why don’t you hurry? Can’t you see I
need a handkerchief? Will you, or won’t you?”
Merrimeg quickly opened the sack. She put her head down into it and
looked in; and before she knew what was going on her heels were
lifted up and she was plopped down head first into the bag, and there
she was, tied up tight inside the rag-bone sack.
She kicked and screamed, but it wasn’t any use. The Rag-Bone Man
slung the sack on his back and made off through the orchard as fast
as he could go.
Merrimeg stopped kicking, when she found it wasn’t any use, and after
a long time she came down on the ground with a bump, and she heard
the Rag-Bone Man call out, “Open the door!”
The sack was untied, and she stood up. She was standing before a
little house in the woods, and the trees about it were dark and
gloomy, and the sun had gone down.
The door of the little house opened, and a little girl, smaller than
Merrimeg, stood in the doorway. She was a very ragged little girl,
and her face was dirty and sad. She looked at Merrimeg with big
solemn eyes.
“I’ve brought you one at last!” cried the Rag-Bone Man. “Here she is!
I’ve got one for you at last! Somebody to play with! Here she is, and
she’s going to stay with you and play with you, and never go home any
more! Now we’ve got her we’ll _keep_ her. Now you’ll have company!
Ain’t she a pretty one, though? Ain’t I a good father? Come in, come
on in!”
He seized the two little girls by the hand and ran into the house
with them.
It was a tiny house, with only two rooms, one in front and one
behind. The Rag-Bone Man began to get out plates and knives and forks
and set them about on a table in the front room. The two little
girls stood staring at each other.
“What’s your name?” said the Rag-Bone Man’s little girl.
“Merrimeg,” said she.
“My name is Rags. That’s my father. He’s been trying for a long, long
time to bring me somebody to live with me here and play with me, but
they always ran away from him. You’re the first. Are you lonely?”
“No,” said Merrimeg.
“I am. But I won’t be any longer. I’ve got you to play with me now.”
“Can’t I--ever--go home--any more?” said Merrimeg.
“Oh, father!” said little Rags. “She wants to go home already!”
“Go home?” cried the Rag-Bone Man. “Are you talking about going home
already? Oh, dear, _don’t_ make me cry again! If you talk like that,
I’ll cry, I _know_ I will! You _can’t_ leave us! It wouldn’t do! No,
no! Sit down and eat your supper. Oh, dear, she wants to go home!”
They sat down at the table, but Merrimeg couldn’t eat; and after
supper Rags and Merrimeg went to bed together in a little bed in the
back room. The stars shone in through the window.
“To-morrow,” said Rags, pulling the covers up over Merrimeg, “we’ll
have a grand play in the woods all day. Oh, won’t I be happy, though!
I know where there’s a lot of wild strawberries, and a brook with
crawly things on the bottom, and--oh, I’m so glad you’ve come! And
father won’t ever let you leave me as long as you live! Oh, isn’t it
jolly! I’ll never be lonely any more!”
She sighed with happiness, and nestled her head down on the pillow,
and went to sleep.
But Merrimeg didn’t go to sleep. She thought about her mother, and
what would happen if she never went home any more, and how she would
miss her mother, and what the other children in the village would say
after she’d been away for years and years, and--she sat up in bed.
The little house was very still. She made up her mind that if she
was ever going to get home, she had better try to steal away now. She
got up quietly and dressed herself, and opened the door of the front
room on a crack and peeked in.
A candle was burning on the table in there, and the Rag-Bone Man was
over at the other side of the room, opening the drawers of a bureau
one after another, and rummaging about inside. He was sniffling
dreadfully.