Part 149 (1/2)
”Sing thee a story, baby? Well, after all, why not? And wilt thou sit o'
my knee and hear it?”
”Yea.”
”Then I must 'een doff this breastplate. 'Tis too hard for thy soft cheek. So. And now I must doff this bristly cilice; they would p.r.i.c.k thy tender skin, perhaps make it bleed, as they have me, I see. So. And now I put on my best pelisse, in honour of thy wors.h.i.+pful visit. See how soft and warm it is; bless the good soul that sent it; and now I sit me down; so. And I take thee on my left knee, and put my arm under thy little head; so. And then the psaltery, and play a little tune; so, not too loud.”
”I ikes dat.”
”I am right glad on't. Now list the story.”
He chanted a child's story in a sort of recitative, singing a little moral refrain now and then. The boy listened with rapture.
”I ikes oo,” said he. ”Ot is oo? is oo a man?”
”Ay, little heart, and a great sinner to boot.”
”I ikes great tingers. Ting one other tory.”
Story No. 2 was chanted.
”I ubbs oo,” cried the child, impetuously. ”Ot caft[K] is oo?”
”I am a hermit, love.”
”I ubbs vermins. Ting other one.”
But during this final performance, Nature suddenly held out her leaden sceptre over the youthful eyelids. ”I is not eepy,” whined he very faintly, and succ.u.mbed.
Clement laid down his psaltery softly and began to rock his new treasure in his arms, and to crone over him a little lullaby well known in Tergou, with which his own mother had often set him off.
And the child sank into a profound sleep upon his arm. And he stopped crooning, and gazed on him with infinite tenderness, yet sadness; for, at that moment he could not help thinking what might have been but for a piece of paper with a lie in it.
He sighed deeply.
The next moment the moonlight burst into his cell, and with it, and in it, and almost as swift as it, Margaret Brandt was down at his knee with a timorous hand upon his shoulder.
”GERARD, YOU DO NOT REJECT US. YOU CANNOT.”
FOOTNOTES:
[I] More than one hermit had received a present of this kind.
[J] Query? ”looking-gla.s.s.”
[K] Craft. He means trade or profession.
CHAPTER XCVII