The Tale of Lal Part 21

What have I been thinking about? Why am I so different? Why do I feel that I want to give something to all the world? Why, Lal, I want to give, I insist upon giving. Lal, why am I a different man, with different feelings, with a _heart_?'

"Once again Lal smiled that wise smile of his.

"'The Order of Imagination does many things,' said Lal. 'If you want to give, why not give with all your heart now and as long as you live?

Everybody, however, has to make a start. Well, start by giving the Skylark a home, a good education, help him towards being the great man that I say he will one day become. You will have found a faithful, loving, lifelong friend, something as faithful and devoted as the friend whose life he himself mourns to-night.'

"'Poor old dog,' said Alderman Gold, 'I can't help him now, I wish I could, but I'll help the other, by Jove, I will; of course I'll see he has a good home, I'll see he's educated.'

"'I think he will repay you for all the money you will spend upon his education,' said the Lion, significantly.

"'And I mean to spend money,' said the Alderman. 'I've been a beastly miser, that's what I've been, but I shall never have that taunt flung at me again.'

"'Good,' nodded the Lion. 'Help him bury his pet in the big garden of your London house, and bury at the same time all the past you want to forget.'

"'I will,' said the Alderman. 'Here, come along and get fed. Here, what's your name?'

"'Skylark,' prompted the Lion.

"'Skylark? A very good name,' said the Alderman; 'it suggests Spring, and--and----'

"'Going steadily upward,' prompted the Lion.

"'By Jove, Lal, you're wonderful,' exclaimed the Alderman. 'How can I thank you for giving me my sight again, for making a different man of me? and, good gracious, now I come to think of it clearly and reasonably, every single thing you have told me has always been true.'

"'If you believe that,' said the Lion, 'listen attentively to the last thing I tell you, even more upon account of it being the last time I shall actually _speak_ to either of you.'

"'Say on, Lal, we cannot do without your help; I know I can't, and I thought I could do most things.'

"'You may consider it most inconsequent of me to mention such a childishly fabled person to you as d.i.c.k Whittington, and yet strangely enough that hero of a nursery legend will have a great deal in common with both of you in your future lives.'

"'Shall I be Lord Mayor of London three times?' laughed the Alderman, who had appeared suddenly to have discovered how to laugh, and it sounded strange to hear him.

"'I won't say _three_ times,' said the Lion, 'but you will be one of the greatest Lord Mayors of London in about fourteen years from now; you will be knighted, and you will become one of the most beloved and benevolent men in the whole City of London.'

"'That sounds fine,' said the Alderman; 'how about Master Skylark?'

"'Too early to prophesy,' said the Lion, 'with certainty, but I may say this; I think when he has also found another d.i.c.k Whittington, and one ever so different from yourself, he will become great almost by accident, but he has to find this d.i.c.k Whittington first. He will never part with d.i.c.k Whittington when he has found him, but as a result of sitting in front of him day by day in great perplexity, he will suddenly do the first thing that will make his name. You will only _resemble_ d.i.c.k Whittington in your career, the Skylark will _find_ d.i.c.k Whittington.'

"'By Jove,' said the Alderman, 'that is a pretty difficult riddle, Lal, and as I shall never solve it we can only wait and see.'

"The Lion smiled.

"'I believe you thoroughly love a riddle, Lal, you old Sphinx. Well, anything else? Tell me, how much more of the future do you see?'

"'Oh, a lot of things,' answered Lal, 'a very great many of them you would not understand now, even if I explained them to you, which I shall not think of doing. For instance, I see a very happy, cheerful and prosperous elderly gentleman--ahem!--whose acquaintance you will one day make, and whose amiable personality you in common with others will thoroughly appreciate. I see a future charming Lady Mayoress whose--ahem!--friends.h.i.+p you will be most glad of. I see two old friends falling out about a certain matter of business in all likelihood, and the _younger_ of the two will be absolutely in the right. I see an estrangement that doesn't last more than a few years, then a joyful reconciliation, perhaps all the more joyful on account of the former separation. Then,' said the Lion, 'I see something--ahem!--a series of most painful incidents, most unbecoming to myself as well as yourself.'

"'Good gracious,' said the Alderman, 'I wonder whatever that can be?'

"'Like most other things about which there is a great fuss and commotion, it will rise from a simple cause. There will be a great meeting held in a public building, and the result of that meeting will be in your favour.'

"'In my favour,' echoed the astonished Alderman.

"'Distinctly in your favour, and it will make the whole of England laugh.'

"'At me?' inquired the Alderman, with an apprehensive note in his voice of quite pardonable nervousness.

"'No,' said the Lion, 'the laugh will be rather upon your side, I think.'

"'Indeed,' said the Alderman; 'well, that sounds a bit better.'

"'Moreover,' continued the Lion, 'for my own part I regret to say I shall be taken in a triumphant procession through the streets of London, guarded upon all sides by the police, and the whole proceedings throughout will be sufficiently ridiculous to cause me the acutest discomfort, all of which will be most undeserved and brought upon me by the extravagant adulation of my would-be admirers. However, I shall have to comfort myself in that time to come by considering that I am not the only victim who has been sacrificed from the same cause.'

"'Apart from the deep mystery attached to your strange prophecies,'

observed the Alderman, 'which I do not pretend at present to understand, but which nevertheless I know will all come true, I am truly concerned about one thing. Are you really serious, Lal, in your intention of never speaking to me again? I feel the loss will be irreparable, for you have always been my wisest councillor from my boyhood upwards, and I only wish I had profited by your wisdom before and listened more attentively to your counsels in the past, whatever alterations I make in my life for the future.'

"'I shall never actually speak with either of you again,' replied Lal, 'but you will be able to live all your youthful days over again in him;' here Lal pointed to me. 'You can help him to avoid all the mistakes you have made yourself; yet do not misunderstand me, I shall give both of you a sign, and an unmistakable sign, to show how pleased I am if you fulfil all the expectations I shall have cherished about you.'

"'What sort of sign?' asked the Alderman.

"'I shall not tell you now, and you will both have to do an awful lot before I show you the sign that I am satisfied with you eventually.'

"Now let me see,' mused the Alderman, 'isn't there any little thing we could do for you to show that we hadn't forgotten you?'

"'You know what I expect of you,' retorted the Lion, 'keep your promises.'

"'Apart from that,' suggested the Alderman, 'some sort of memento, some sort of recognition.'

"'Oh, no,' hastily interposed Lal, 'no recognition, please, it is the one thing I dread most in the world owing to the curious position I occupy in public life. However, in the years to come, if you can reasonably and truthfully look back upon all you have accomplished with a certain amount of justifiable pride and satisfaction, you can come here quietly one night and place a big wreath of water-lilies; lay them as an offering between my paws; on no account hang them round my neck like the other terrible people do upon Trafalgar Day, it only makes me look ridiculous.'

"'Why water-lilies?' asked the Alderman.

"'My favourite flower,' sighed the Lion, 'and, moreover, the one I never see. You see, the fountains splash about so incessantly that there is no peaceful place where they can grow, and you wouldn't believe,' added the Lion earnestly, 'how I sometimes long for those irritating fountains to stop, and for beautiful water-lilies to grow there instead.'

"'It shall all be done as you say, and I will ponder over every single thing you have mentioned,' promised the Alderman.

"'Good-bye till then,' said the Lion in his most sepulchral voice, and then the Lion smiled at me and said, 'Good-bye, little Skylark.'

"For my own part I had stood by quite silent without saying a word, but I somehow realized that if I wasn't going to see and speak to my old friend Lal any more, there were several things I wanted to say, and a good many more things I wanted to ask.

"'Ere, 'old on 'arf a mo', c.o.c.ky,' I shouted.

"'Oh, _don't_ call me c.o.c.ky,' entreated Lal, 'and what _do_ you mean by that expression "hold on"? Is not my whole life a perpetual exhibition of "_holding on_"?'

"'You've been a first-cla.s.s, tip-top pal to me, Lal, an' I wants ter know first where that there ring wot s.h.i.+ned like blazes, and wot 'ung round my neck and then round 'is, 'as a-gone to? Ain't I to 'ave it no more?'

"'You will have the memory of it,' replied Lal; 'you have possessed it once, and I think you will have quite enough imagination left all through your life without it; in fact, in the future, at times you will have rather too much imagination for the comfort of your other fellow-creatures.'

"''Ave I got to go with 'im?' I asked; ''ave I got to say good-bye to you?'