A doorway in fairyland

Contents

The Blue Moon '

PAGE

The Wishing-Pot ‘

II The Galloping Plough

N r OODLE went on many miles till he came near to a rich man’s farm. Though it was

__ the middle of winter, all the fields showed

crops of corn in progress; here it was in thin blade, and here green, but in full ear ; and here it was ripe and ready for harvest. “ How is this,” he said to the first man he met, “ that you have corn here in the middle of winter ? ” “ Ah ! ” said the man,

“ you have not heard of the Galloping Plough ; you too have to fall under bondage to my master.” “ What is your master ? ” inquired Noodle, “ and in what bondage does he bind men ? ” “ My

master, and your master that shall soon be,” an¬ swered the old man, “ is the owner of all this land and the farmer of it. He is rich and sleek and fat like his own furrows, for he has the Galloping Plough as his possession. Ah, that ! his a very miracle, a wonder, a thing to catch at the heartstrings of all beholders; it shines like a moonbeam, and is better than an Arab mare for swiftness; it warms the very ground that it enters, so that seeds take root andspring, though it be the middle of winter. No man sees it but what he loses his heart to it, and sells his freedom for the possession of it. All here are men like myself who have become slaves because of that desire. You also, when you see it, will be- ..come slave to it.”

Noodle went on through the summer and the spring corn, till he came to bare fields. Ahead of him on a hill-top he saw the farmer himself, sleek and rosy, and of full paunch, lolling like a lord at his ease ; yet with a working eye in the midst of his leisure.

To and fro, up to him and back, shot a silver gleam over the purple brown of the fields ; and Noodle’s heart gave a thump at the sight,, for the spell of the Galloping Plough was on him.

Now and then he heard a clear sound that startled him with its note. It was like the sweet whistling cry of a bird many times multiplied. Ever when the silver gleam of the Plough had run its farthest from the farmer, the cry sounded ; and at the sound the gleam wavered and stayed and flew back dartingly to the farmer’s side. So Noodle understood how this was the farmer’s signal for the Plough to return ; and the Plough knew it as a horse its master’s voice, and came so fast that the wind whistled against its silver side.

As he watched, Noodle’s heart went down into the valley and up the hillside, following in the track of the Galloping Plough. “ I can never be happy again,” thought he; “ either I must possess it, or must die.”

He came to the farmer where he sat calling his Plough to him and letting it go ; and the farmer smiled, the wide indulgent smile of a man who knows that a bargain is about to fall his way.

“ What is the price,” asked Noodle, “ of yonder Galloping Plough, that runs like an Arab mare, and returns to you at your call ? ”

Said the farmer, “ A year’s service; and if the Plough will follow you, it is yours; if not, then you must be my bondman until you die ! ”

Noodle looked once the way of the Galloping Plough, and his heart flapped at his side like a sail which the wind drops and lets go ; and he had no thought or will left in him but to be where the Galloping Plough was. So he closed hands on the bargain, to be the farmer’s servant either for a year, or for his whole life.

For a year he worked upon the farm, and all the while plotted how he might win the Galloping Plough to himself. The farmer kept no watch upon it, nor put it under lock and key, for the Plough recognised no voice but his own, nor went nor came save at his bidding. In the night Noodle would go down to the shed or field where it lay, and whistle to it, trying to put forth notes of the same magical power as those which came through the farmer’s lips.

But no sound that came from his lips ever stroked life into its silver sides. The year was nearly run out, and Noodle was in despair.

Then he remembered the firestone ring, the Sweetener. “ Maybe,” said he, “ since it changes to sweetness whatever I eat and drink, it will sweeten my voice also, so that the Plough will obey.” So he put the ring between his lips and whistled; and at the sound his heart turned a somersault for joy, for he felt that out of his mouth the farmer’s magic had been over-topped and con-

The Galloping Plough stirred faintly from the furrow where it lay, breaking the ground and marring its smooth course. Then it shook its head slowly, and returned impassively to rest.

In the morning the farmer came and saw the broken earth close under the Plough’s nose. Noodle, hiding among the corn hard by, heard him say, “ What hast thou heard in the night, O my moon¬ beam, my miracle, that thy lily-foot has trodden up the ground ? Hast thou forgotten whose hand feeds thee, whose corn it is thou lovest, whose heart’s care also cherishes thee ? ”

*

The farmer went away, and presently came back bearing a bowl of corn; and Noodle saw the Plough lift its head to its master’s palm, and feed like a horse on the grain.

Then Noodle, gay of heart, waited till it was night, and surely his time was short, for on the morrow his wages were to be paid, and the Plough was to be his, or else he was to be the farmer’s bondservant for the rest of his life. He took with him three handfuls of corn, and went down to where the Plough stood waiting by the furrow. Shaping his lips to the ring, he whistled gently like a lover, and immediately the Plough stirred, and lifted up its head as if to look at him.

“ O my moonbeam, my miracle,” whispered Noodle, “ wilt thou not come to the one that feeds thee ? ” and he held out a handful of corn. But the Plough gave no regard to him or his grain : slowly it moved away from him back into the furrow.

Then Noodle laughed softly and dropped his ring, the Sweetener, into the hand that held the grain ; and barely had he offered the corn before he felt the silver Plough nozzling at his palm, and eating as a horse eats from the hand of its master.

Then he whistled again, placing the Sweetener back between his lips ; and the Galloping Plough sprang after him, and followed at his heels like a dog.

So, finding himself its master, he bid it stay for the night ; and in the morning he said to the farmer, “ Give me my wages, and let me go ! ”

e 6 s

And the farmer laughed, saying, “ Take your wages, and go ! ”

Then Noodle took off his ring, the Sweetener, and laid it between his lips and blew through it; and up like a moonbeam, and like an Arab mare, sprang the Galloping Plough at his call. So he leaped upon its back, crying, “ Carry me away out of this land, O thou moonbeam, and miracle of beauty, and never slacken nor stay except I bid thee ! ”

Vainly the farmer, borne down on a torrent of rage and amazement, whistled his best, and threw corn and rice from the rear ; for the whistling of Noodle was sweeter to the ear, and his corn sweeter to the taste, and he nearer to the heart of the Galloping Plough than was the old master whom it left behind.

Ill

THE THIRSTY WELL

S O they escaped, slitting the swift hours with ungovernable speed. The furrow they two made in the world that day, as they went shooting over the round of it, was called in after times the Equator, and men still know it by the heat of it, though it has since been covered over by the dust of ages.

To Noodle, as he went careering round it, the whole world’s circuit ran in a line across his brain, entering his vision and passing through it as a thread through the needle’s eye. Nor would he of his own will ever have stopped his galloping, but that at the completion of the first round a mighty thirst took hold of him. “ O my moonbeam,” he said, choking behind parched lips, and sick at heart, “ check me, or I faint! ” And the Galloping Plough stopped at once, and set him to earth in a green space under the shadow of overhanging boughs.

He found himself in a richly grown garden, a cool paradise for a traveller to rest in. Close at hand and inviting to the eye was a well with a bucket slung ready to be let down. Noodle had little thought of seeking for the owner of the garden to beg for a drink, since water is an equal gift to all and the right of any man ; but as he drew near he found the means to it withheld from him, the lid being fast locked. He went on in search of the owner, till at length he came upon the same lying half asleep under a thorn-bush with the key in her hand. She was an old woman, so withered and dry, she looked as if no water could have ever passed her lips.

When Noodle asked for a drink from the well, she looked at him bright and sharp, and said : “ Be¬ fore any man drinks of my water he must make a bargain with me.” “ YVhat is the bargain ? ” asked Noodle ; and she led him down to the well.

Then she unlocked the lid and bade him look in ; and at the sight Noodle knew for a second time that his heart had been stolen from him, and that to be happy he must taste that water or die.

Again he asked, with his eyes intent upon the blue wrimpling of the water in the well’s depth,

“ What is the bargain ? ” And the old woman answered, “ If you fail to draw water out of the well you must fling yourself into it.” For answer Noodle swung down the bucket, lowering it as fast as it would go ; then he set both hands to the windlass and wound.

He heard the water splashing off the sides of the bucket all the way up, as the shortening rope brought it near ; but when he drew it over the well’s brink wonder and grief held him fast, for the bucket was as empty as vanity. From behind him came a noise of laughter, and there was the old witch running round and round in a circle; and everywhere a hedge of thorns came shooting up to enclose him and keep him fast for her.

“ What a trap I am in ! ” thought Noodle ; but once more he lowered the bucket, and once more it returned to him empty.

The old woman climbed up into the thorn-hedge, and sat on its top, singing :

“ Overground, underground, round-about spell;

The Thirsty has come to the Thirsty Well! ”

Again Noodle let down the bucket; and this time as he drew it up he looked over into the well’s heart, and saw all the way up the side a hundred blue arms reaching out crystal scallops and draw¬ ing water out of the bucket as hard as they could go. He saw thick lips like sea-anemones thrust out between the crevices of the wall, sucking the crystals dry as fast as they were filled. “ Truly,” he said to himself, “ this is a thirsty well, but myself am thirstier ! ”

When he had drawn up the bucket empty for the third time, he stood considering ; and at last he fastened to it the firestone ring, the Sweetener, and lowered it once more. Then he laughed to himself as he drew up, and felt the bucket lightening at every turn till it touched the surface of things.

Empty he found it, with only his firestone hanging by the rim, and once again he let it down to be refilled. But this time as he wound up, nothing could keep him from letting a curious eye go over the brink, to see how the Well-folk fared over their wine ; and in what he beheld there was already comfort for his soul.

The blue arms went like oars out of unison ; like carpet-beaters stricken in the eyes and throat with. dust, they beat foolishly against the sides and bottom of the bucket, shattering and letting fall their goblets in each unruly attempt. And because Noodle wound leniently at the rope, willing that they should have their fill, at the last gasp they were able to send the bucket empty to the top. It was the last staving off of destiny that lay in their power to make ; thereafter wine conquered them.

Quickly Noodle drew out the ring, and sent the bucket flying on its last errand. It smacked the water, heeled over, and dipped under a full draught. Then Noodle spun the windlass with the full pinch of his energies, calling on the bucket to ascend. He heard the water spilling from its sides, and knew that the blue arms were there, battling to arrest it as it flew, and to pay him back once more with emptiness and mockery. Yet in spite of them the bucket hasted and lightened not, but was drawn

7 1 up to the well’s head brimming largely, and wink¬ ing a blue eye joyously to the light of day.

Over head and ears Noodle plunged for the quenching of his thirst, nor stayed nor drew back till his head had smitten upon the bottom of the bucket in his pursuit of the draught. Then it was apparent that only a third of the water remained, the rest having obeyed the imperative suction of his throat, and that the thirsty well had at last found a master under the eye of heaven.

In the depth of the bucket the water flashed like a burning sapphire and swung circling, curling and coiling, tossing this way and that, as if struggling to get out. At last with a laugh it threw down the bucket, and tore back into the well with a crash like thunder.

Up from the well rose a chant of voices :

“ Under Heaven, over Hell,

You have broken the spell,

You are lord of the Well.”

Noodle stepped over the brink of his new realm, calling the Well-folk to reach hands for him and bear him down. All round, the blue arms started out, catching him and handing him on from one to another ladderwise, down, and down, and down. As he went, anemone lips came out of the crannies in the wall, and kissed his feet and hands in token of allegiance. * c You are lord of the well! ” they said, as they passed him each one to the next.

He came to the bottom of the well; under his feet, wherever he stepped upon its waters, hands came up and sustained him. The knowledge of

7 2 everything that was there had become his. “ Give me,” he said, “ the crystal cup that is for him who holds kingship over you ; so shall I be lord of you in all places wherever I go.”

A blue arm reached down and drew up from the water a small crystal, that burned through the darkness w T ith a blue fire, and gave it to Noodle. “ Now I am your king, however far from you ! ” said Noodle. And they answered, chanting :

“ Under Heaven, over Hell,

You have broken the spell.

You are lord of the Well.”

“ Lift me up ! ” said he ; and the blue arms caught him and lifted him up; from one to another they passed him in ascending circles, till he came to the mouth of the well.

There overhead was the old witch, crouching and looking in to know what had become of him ; and her hair hung far down over her eyes into the well. He caught her to him by it over the brink. “ Old witch,” he said, “ you must change places with me now ! ” and he tossed her dowm to the bottom of the well.

She went like a falling shuttlecock, shrieking as she fell; and as she struck the water, the drowned bodies of the men she had sent there came to the surface, and caught her by the feet and hair, and drew her down, making an end of her, as she also had made of them.

IV The Princess Melilot

W HEN Noodle, carrying the crystal with him, set foot once more upon dry land, straightway he was again upon the back of the Galloping Plough, with the world flying away under him. But now weariness came over him, and his head weighed this way and that, so that earth and sky mixed themselves before his gaze, and he was so drugged with sleep that he had no wits to bid the Plough slacken from its speed. Therefore it happened that as they passed a wood, a hanging bough caught him, and brushed him like a feather from his place, landing him on a green bosom of grass, where he slept the sleep of the weary, nor ever lifted his head to see the Plough fast disappearing over hill and valley and plain, out of sound of his voice or sight of his eye.

When Noodle awoke and found that the Plough was gone, he was bitter against himself for his folly. “ So poor a use to make of so noble a steed ! ” he cried ; “ no wonder it has gone from me to seek for a worthier master ! If by good fortune I find it again, needs must I do great things by its aid to be worthy of its service.” So he set out, follow¬ ing the furrow of its course, determined, however far he must seek, to journey on till he found it.

For a whole year he travelled, till at length he came, footsore and weary, to a deserted palace standing in the midst of an overgrown garden. The great gates, which lay wide open, were overrun with creepers, and the paths were green with weeds. That morning he had thought that he saw far away on the hills the gleam of his silver Plough, and now hope rose high, for he could see by its track that the Plough had passed before him into the garden of the palace. “ O my moonbeam,” he thought, “ is it here I shall find you at last ? ” Within the garden there was a sound of cross questions and crooked answers, of many talking with loud voices, and of one weeping apart from the rest. When he got quite close, he was struck still with awe, and joy, and wonder. For first there lay the Galloping Plough in the middle of a green lawn, and round it a score of serving-men, tugging at it and trying to make it move on. Near by stood an old woman, wringing her hands and beg¬ ging them to leave it alone : “ For,” cried she, “ if the Plough touches but the feet of the Prin¬ cess, she will be uprooted, and will presently wither away and die. Of what use is it to break one, if the other enchantments cannot be broken ? ”

In the centre of the lawn grew a bower of roses, and beneath the bower stood the loveliest princess that ever eye beheld ; but she stood there motion¬ less, and without sign of life. She seemed neither to hear, nor see, nor breathe ; her feet were rooted to the ground ; though they seemed only to rest lightly under her weight upon the grass, no man, nor a hundred men, could stir her from where she stood. And, as the spell that held her fast bound to the spot, even so was the spell that sealed her senses,—no man might lift it from her. When Noodle set eyes upon her he knew that for the third time his heart had been stolen from him, and that to be happy he must possess her, or die.

He ran quickly to the old woman, w T ho, unre¬ garded by the serving-men, stood weeping and wringing her hands. “ Tell me,” said Noodle, “ who is this sleeper who stands enchanted and rooted like a flow T er to earth ? And who are you, and these others who work and cry at cross pur¬ poses ? ”

The old woman cried from a wide mouth : “ It is my mistress, the honey-jewel of my heart, whom you see here so grievously enchanted. All the gifts of the fairies at her christening did not prevent what was foretold of her at her birth. In her seventeenth year, as you see her now, so it was told of her that she should be.”

“ Does she live ? ” asked Noodle ; “ is she

asleep ? She is not dead ; when will she wake ? Tell me, old woman, her history, and how this fate has come upon her.”

“ She was the daughter of the king of this country by his first wife,” said the old woman, “ and heir to the throne after his death ; but w T hen her mother died the king married again, and the three daughters he had by his second wdfe were jealous of the beauty, and charm, and goodness which raised their sister so high above them in the estimation of all men. So they asked their mother to teach them a spell that should rob Melilot of her charms, and make them useless in the eyes of men. And their mother, who was wise in such arts, taught to each of them a spell, so that together they might work their will.

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“ One day they came running to Melilot, and said, ‘ Come and play with us a new game that our mother has taught us ! ’ Then they began turning themselves into flowers. 4 I will be a hollyhock ! ’ said one. ‘ And I will be a colum¬ bine ! ’ said another; and saying the spell over each other they became each the flower they had named.

“ Then they unloosed the spells, and became themselves again. 4 Oh, it is so nice to be a flower ! 9 they cried, laughing and clapping their hands. But Melilot knew no spell.

“ At last, seeing how her sisters turned into flowers, and came back safe again, ‘ I will be a rose ! ’ she cried ; ‘ turn me into a rose and out again ! 5

“ Then her three sisters joined their tongues to¬ gether, and finished the spell over her. And so soon as she had become a rose-tree, the three sisters turned into three moles, and went down under the earth and gnawed at the roots.

“ Then they came up, and took their own forms again, and sang,—

“ ‘ Sister, sister, here you are now,

Till the ploughman come with the Galloping Plough ! ’

“ Then they turned into bees, and sucked out the honey from the roses, and coming to them¬ selves again they sang,—

Sister, here you must doze and doze,

Till they bring you a flower of the Burning Rose !’

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“ Then they shook the dewdrops out of her eyes, crying —

“ ‘ Sister, your brain lies under our spell,

Till water be brought from the Thirsty Well! ’

“ Then they took the top blossom of all, and broke it to pieces, and threw the petals away as they cried,—

“ ‘ Sister, your life goes down for a term,

Till they bring you breath from the Camphor-Worm ! ’

“ And when they had done all this, they turned her back into her true shape, and left her standing even as you see her now, without warmth, or sight, or memory, or motion, dead saving for her beauty, that never changes or dies. And here she must stand till the spells which have been fastened upon her have been unloosed. No long time after, the wickedness of the three sisters and of their cruel mother was discovered to the king, and they were all put to death for the crime. Yet the ill they had done remained; and the king’s grief became so great to see his loved daughter standing dead before him that he removed with his court to another place, and left this palace to the care of only a few serving-men, and myself to keep watch and guard over the Princess.

“ So now four-fold is the spell that holds her, and to break the lightest of them the water of the Thirsty Well is needed ; with two of its drops laid upon her eyes memory will come back to her, and her mind will remember of the things of the past. And for the breaking of the second spell is needed a blossom of the Burning Rose, and the plucking of that no man’s hand can achieve ; but when the Rose is laid upon her breast, her heart will belong to the world once more, and' will beat again under her bosom. And for the breaking of the third spell one must bring the breath of the Camphor-Worm that has lain for a whole year inside its body, and breathe it between her lips ; then she will breathe again, and all her five senses will return to her. And for the last spell only the Galloping Plough can uproot her back to life, and free her feet for the ways of earth. Now, here we have the Galloping Plough with no man who can guide it, and what aid can it be ? If these fools should be able to make it so much as but touch the feet of my dear mistress, she will be mown down like grass, and die presently for lack of earth ; for only the three other charms I have told you of can put whole life back into her.”

“ As for the mastery of the Plough,” said Noodle, “ I will fetch that from them in a breath. See, in a moment, how marvellous will be the uplifting of their eyes ! ” He put to his lips the firestone ring— the Sweetener—and blew but one note through it. Then in a moment the crowd divided hither and thither, with cries of wonder and alarm, for the Plough turned and bounded back to its master quickly, as an Arab mare at the call of her owner.

The old woman, weeping for gladness, cried : “ Thou art master of the Plough ! art thou master of all the other things as well ? ”

He said : “ Of one thing only. Tell me of the Burning Rose and the Camphor-Worm ; what and where are they ? For I am the master of the ends

F of the earth by reason of the speed with which this carries me ; and I am lord of the Thirsty Well, and have the Fire-eaters for my friends.”

The old woman clapped her hands, and blessed him for his youth, and his wisdom, and his courage. “ First,” she said, “ restore to the Princess her mem¬ ory by means of the water of the Thirsty Well; then I will show you the way to the Burning Rose, for the easier thing must be done first.”

Then Noodle drew out the crystal and breathed in it, calling on the Well-folk for the two drops of water to lay on Princess Melilot’s eyes. Immediately in the bottom of the cup appeared two blue drops of water, that came climbing up the sides of the glass and stood trembling together on the brim. And Noodle, touching them with the firestone ring to make the memory of things sweet to her, bent back the Princess’s face, and let them fall under her closed lids.

“ Look ! ” cried the faithful nurse, “ light trembles within those eyes of hers ! In there she begins to remember things; but as yet she sees and hears noth¬ ing. Now it is for you to be swift and fetch her the blossom of the Burning Rose. Be wise, and you shall not fail! ”

V

THE BURNING ROSE

S HE told him how he was to go, across the desert southward, till he found a giant, longer in length than a day’s journey, lying asleep upon the sand. Over his head, it was told, hung a cloud, covering him from the heat and resting itself against his brows; within the cloud was a dream, and within the dream grew the garden of the Burning Rose. Than this she knew no more, nor by what means Noodle might gain entrance and become possessor of the Rose.