Mopsa the Fairy Part 14

Jack knew it was of no use saying anything to this formidable creature, before whom the river-horses and the elephants were rus.h.i.+ng to the sh.o.r.e; but when he looked and saw down the river rainbow behind rainbow,--I mean coil behind coil,--glittering in the sun, like so many glorious arches that did not reach to the banks, he felt extremely glad that this was a dream, and besides that, he thought to himself, "It's only a fabled monster."

"No, it's only a fable to these times," said Mopsa, answering his thought; "but in spite of that we shall have to go through all the rings."

They went under one,--silver, green, and blue, and gold. The water dripped from it upon them, and the boat trembled, either because of its great age, or because it felt the rest of the coil underneath.

A good way off was another coil, and they went so safely under that, that Jack felt himself getting used to Crakens, and not afraid. Then they went under thirteen more. These kept getting nearer and nearer together, but, besides that, the fourteenth had not quite such a high span as the former ones; but there were a great many to come, and yet they got lower and lower.

Both Jack and Mopsa noticed this, but neither said a word. The thirtieth coil brushed Jack's cap off, then they had to stoop to pa.s.s under the two next, and then they had to lie down in the bottom of the boat, and they got through with the greatest difficulty; but still before them was another! The boat was driving straight towards it, and it lay so close to the water that the arch it made was only a foot high. When Jack saw it, he called out, "No! that I cannot bear.

Somebody else may do the rest of this dream. I shall jump overboard."

Mopsa seemed to answer in quite a pleasant voice, as if she was not afraid,--

"No, you'd much better wake." And then she went on, "Jack! Jack! why don't you wake!"

Then all on a sudden Jack opened his eyes, and found that he was lying quietly on the gra.s.s, that little Mopsa really had asked him why he did not wake. He saw the Queen too, standing by, looking at him, and saying to herself, "_I_ did not put him to sleep. _I_ did not put him to sleep."

"We don't want any more stories to-day, Queen," said the apple-woman, in a disrespectful tone, and she immediately began to sing, clattering some tea-things all the time, for a kettle was boiling on some sticks, and she was going to make tea out of doors:--

The marten flew to the finch's nest, Feathers, and moss, and a wisp of hay: "The arrow it sped to thy brown mate's breast; Low in the broom is thy mate to-day."

"Liest thou low, love? low in the broom?

Feathers and moss, and a wisp of hay, Warm the white eggs till I learn his doom."

She beateth her wings, and away, away.

"Ah, my sweet singer, thy days are told (Feathers and moss, and a wisp of hay)!

Thine eyes are dim, and the eggs grow cold.

O mournful morrow! O dark to-day!"

The finch flew back to her cold, cold nest, Feathers and moss, and a wisp of hay, Mine is the trouble that rent her breast, And home is silent, and love is clay.

Jack felt very tired indeed,--as much tired as if he had really been out all day on the river, and gliding under the coils of the Craken.

He however rose up, when the apple-woman called him, and drank his tea, and had some fairy bread with it, which refreshed him very much.

After tea he measured Mopsa again, and found that she had grown up to a higher b.u.t.ton. She looked much wiser too, and when he said she must be taught to read she made no objection, so he arranged daisies and b.u.t.tercups into the forms of the letters, and she learnt nearly all of them that one evening, while crowds of the one-foot-one fairies looked on, hanging from the boughs and sitting in the gra.s.s, and shouting out the names of the letters as Mopsa said them. They were very polite to Jack, for they gathered all these flowers for him, and emptied them from their little caps at his feet as fast as he wanted them.

CHAPTER XI.

GOOD-MORNING, SISTER.

Sweet is childhood--childhood's over, Kiss and part.

Sweet is youth; but youth's a rover-- So's my heart.

Sweet is rest; but by all showing Toil is nigh.

We must go. Alas! the going, Say "good-bye."

Jack crept under his canopy, went to sleep early that night, and did not wake till the sun had risen, when the apple-woman called him, and said breakfast was nearly ready.

The same thing never happens twice in Fairyland, so this time the breakfast was not spread in a tent, but on the river. The Queen had cut off a tiny piece of her robe, the one-foot-one fairies had stretched it till it was very large, and then they had spread it on the water, where it floated and lay like a great carpet of purple and gold. One corner of it was moored to the side of Jack's boat; but he had not observed this, because of his canopy. However, that was now looped up by the apple-woman, and Jack and Mopsa saw what was going on.

Hundreds of swans had been towing the carpet along, and were still holding it with their beaks, while a crowd of doves walked about on it, smoothing out the creases and patting it with their pretty pink feet till it was quite firm and straight. The swans then swam away, and they flew away.

Presently troops of fairies came down to the landing-place, jumped into Jack's boat without asking leave, and so got on to the carpet, while at the same time a great tree which grew on the bank began to push out fresh leaves, as large as fans, and shoot out long branches, which again shot out others, till very soon there was shade all over the carpet,--a thick shadow as good as a tent, which was very pleasant, for the sun was already hot.

When the Queen came down, the tree suddenly blossomed out with thousands of red and white flowers.

"You must not go on to that carpet," said the apple-woman; "let us sit still in the boat, and be served here." She whispered this as the Queen stepped into the boat.

"Good-morning, Jack," said the Queen. "Good-morning, dear." This was to the apple-woman; and then she stood still for a moment and looked earnestly at little Mopsa, and sighed.

"Well," she said to her, "don't you mean to speak to me?" Then Mopsa lifted up her pretty face and blushed very rosy red, and said, in a shy voice, "Good morning----sister."

"I said so!" exclaimed the Queen; "I said so!" and she lifted up her beautiful eyes, and murmured out, "What is to be done now?"

"Never mind, Queen dear," said Jack. "If it was rude of Mopsa to say that, she is such a little young thing that she does not know better."

"It was not rude," said Mopsa, and she laughed and blushed again. "It was not rude, and I am not sorry."

As she said this the Queen stepped on to the carpet, and all the flowers began to drop down. They were something like camellias, and there were thousands of them.

The fairies collected them in little heaps. They had no tables and chairs, nor any plates and dishes for this breakfast; but the Queen sat down on the carpet close to Jack's boat, and leaned her cheek on her hand, and seemed to be lost in thought. The fairies put some flowers into her lap, then each took some, and they all sat down and looked at the Queen, but she did not stir.

At last Jack said, "When is the breakfast coming?"

"This is the breakfast," said the apple-woman; "these flowers are most delicious eating. You never tasted anything so good in your life; but we don't begin till the Queen does."

Quant.i.ties of blossoms had dropped into the boat. Several fairies tumbled into it almost head over heels, they were in such a hurry, and they heaped them into Mopsa's lap, but took no notice of Jack, nor of the apple-woman either.

At last, when every one had waited some time, the Queen pulled a petal off one flower, and began to eat, so every one else began; and what the apple-woman had said was quite true. Jack knew that he never had tasted anything half so nice, and he was quite sorry when he could not eat any more. So, when every one had finished, the Queen leaned her arm on the edge of the boat, and, turning her lovely face towards Mopsa, said, "I want to whisper to you, sister."

"Oh!" said Mopsa, "I wish I was in Jack's waistcoat pocket again; but I'm so big now." And she took hold of the two sides of his velvet jacket, and hid her face between them.

"My old mother sent a message last night," continued the Queen, in a soft, sorrowful voice. "She is much more powerful than we are."

"What is the message?" asked Mopsa; but she still hid her face.

So the Queen moved over, and put her lips close to Mopsa's ear, and repeated it: "There cannot be two Queens in one hive."

"If Mopsa leaves the hive, a fine swarm will go with her," said the apple-woman. "I shall, for one; that I shall!"

"No!" answered the Queen. "I hope not, dear; for you know well that this is my old mother's doing, not mine."

"Oh!" said Mopsa; "I feel as if I must tell a story too, just as the Queen does." But the apple-woman broke out in a very cross voice, "It's not at all like Fairyland, if you go on in this way, and I would as lieve be out of it as in it." Then she began to sing, that she and Jack might not hear Mopsa's story:--

On the rocks by Aberdeen, Where the whislin' wave had been, As I wandered and at e'en Was eerie; There I saw thee sailing west, And I ran with joy opprest-- Ay, and took out all my best, My dearie.