Part 5 (2/2)

So Phyllis, Owen, Geoffrey, you Must sleep away till morning too; Close little eyes, lie down little heads, And sleep, sleep, sleep in happy beds.

As the Reader has not been afflicted with a great deal of verse in these pages, I shall also venture to copy here another little song which, as his brains have grown older, George has been fond of singing to them at bedtime, and with which the Reader is not likely to have enjoyed a previous acquaintance:--

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When the Sun and the Golden Day Hand in hand are gone away, At your door shall Sleep and Night Come and knock in the fair twilight; Let them in, twin travellers blest; Each shall be an honoured guest, And give you rest.

They shall tell of the stars and moon, And their lips shall move to a glad sweet tune, Till upon your cool, white bed Fall at last your nodding head; Then in dreamland fair and blest, Farther off than East and West, They give you rest.

Night and Sleep, that goodly twain, Tho' they go, shall come again; When your work and play are done, And the Sun and Day are gone Hand in hand thro' the scarlet West, Each shall come, an honoured guest, And bring you rest.

Watching at your window-sill, If upon the Eastern hill Sun and Day come back no more, They shall lead you from the door To their kingdom calm and blest, Farther off than East or West, And give you rest.

Arriving down to breakfast earlier than expected next morning, we discovered George busy at some more of his loving ingenuity. He half blushed in his shy way, but went on writing in this wise, with chalk, upon a small blackboard: '_Thursday_--_Thor's-day_--_Jack the Giant Killer's day_'. Then, in one corner of the board, a sun was rising with a merry face and flaming locks, and beneath him was written, '_Phoebus-Apollo';_ while in the other corner was a setting moon, '_Lady Cynthia_. There were other quaint matters, too, though they have escaped my memory; but these hints are sufficient to indicate George's morning occupation. Thus he endeavoured to implant in the young minds he felt so sacred a trust an ever-present impression of the full significance of life in every one of its details. The days of the week should mean for them what they did mean, should come with a veritable personality, such as the sun and the moon gained for them by thus having actual names, like friends and playfellows. This Thor's-day was an especially great day for them; for, in the evening, when George had returned from business, and there was yet an hour to bedtime, they would come round him to hear one of the adventures of the great Thor--adventures which he had already contrived, he laughingly told us, to go on spinning out of the Edda through no less than the Thursdays of two years. Certainly his ingenuity of economy with his materials was no little marvel, and he confessed to often being at his wits' end. For Thursday night was not alone starred with stories; every night there was one to tell; sometimes an incident of his day in town, which he would dress up with the imaginative instinct of a born teller of fairy-tales. He had a knack, too, of spreading one story over several days which would be invaluable to a serial writer. I remember one simple instance of his device.

He sat in one of those great cane nursing chairs, Phyllis on one knee, Owen on the other, and Geoffrey perched in the hollow s.p.a.ce in the back of the chair, leaning over his shoulder, all as solemn as a court awaiting judgment. George begins with a preliminary glance behind at Geoffrey: 'Happy there, my boy? That's right. Well, there was once a beautiful garden.'

'Yes-s-s-s,' go the three solemn young heads.

'And it was full of the most wonderful things.'

'Yes-s-s-s.'

'Great trees, so green, for the birds to hide and sing in; and flowers so fair and sweet that the bees said that, in all their flying hither and thither, they had never yet found any so full of honey in all the world. And the birds, too, what songs they knew; and the b.u.t.terflies, were there ever any so bright and many-coloured?' etc., etc.

'But the most wonderful thing about the garden was that everything in it had a wonderful story to tell.'

'Yes-s-s s.'

'The birds, and bees, and b.u.t.terflies, even the trees and flowers, each knew a wonderful fairy-tale.'

'Oh-h-h-h.'

'But of all in the garden the gra.s.shopper knew the most. He had been a great traveller, for he had such long legs.'

Again a still deeper murmur of breathless interest.

'Now, would you like to hear what the gra.s.shopper had to tell?'

'Oh, yes-s-s-s.'

'Well, you shall--to-morrow night!'

So off his knees they went, as he rose with a merry, loving laugh, and kissed away the long sighs of disappointment, and sent them to bed, agog for all the morrow's night should reveal.

Need one say that the children were not the only disappointed listeners?

Besides, they have long since known all the wonderful tale, whereas one of the poorer grown-up still wonders wistfully what that gra.s.shopper who was so great a traveller, and had such long legs, had to tell.

But I had better cease. Were I sure that the Reader was seeing what I am seeing, hearing as I, I should not fear; but how can I be sure of that?

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