Chapter 1

VERY SHORT STORIES

MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD

VERY SHORT STORIES

AND

VERSES FOR CHILDREN.

BY

MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD,

AUTHOR OF "ANYHOW STORIES," &c.

_With Illustrations by Edith Campbell._

LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1886.

Preface.

These stories, with the exception of the first one, are reprinted from two little books--"Children Busy," etc., and "Under Mother's Wing." They were then only signed with my initials. Some of the verses appear now for the first time.

L. C.

_TO YOU--AND ETHEL AND ALICE_

CONTENTS.

PAGE

MASTER WILLIE 9

SWINGING 17

THE WOODEN DOLL 18

WATCHING 20

THE LIGHT ON THE HILLS 22

WRITING A BOOK 25

THE RABBIT 27

THE SANDY CAT 28

ON THE WAY TO THE SUN 30

IN THE MOONLIGHT 33

THE POOR LITTLE DOLL 35

THE VIOLETS 37

THE FIDDLER 39

THE BROKEN HORSE 40

THE RAINBOW-MAKER 41

OVER THE PORRIDGE 43

A-COMING DOWN THE STREET 45

THE PROUD BOY 47

SEEKING THE VIOLETS 49

TOMMY'S STOCKINGS 51

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 52

THE LITTLE MAID 54

WAR 55

PEACE 56

MY LITTLE BROTHER 58

THE KITE 59

THE TINKER'S MARRIAGE 61

THE CHILDREN AND THE GARLAND 62

ROUND THE TEA-TABLE 64

TOMMY 67

THE SWALLOWS 69

A FIRST LOVE-MAKING 71

SMUT 72

SEE-SAW 74

THE BAD GIRL 75

MORNING TIME 78

THE PINK PARASOL 80

THE SISTERS 82

THE WHITE RABBITS 83

THE WOODEN HORSE 84

THE DUCK POND 86

THE LITTLE MAID 88

THE DONKEY ON WHEELS 89

COCK-A-DOODLE 91

THE BOY AND LITTLE GREAT LADY 92

GOOD-DAY, GENTLE FOLK 94

MASTER WILLIE.

There was once a little boy called Willie. I never knew his other name, and as he lived far off behind the mountain, we cannot go to inquire. He had fair hair and blue eyes, and there was something in his face that, when you had looked at him, made you feel quite happy and rested, and think of all the things you meant to do by-and-by when you were wiser and stronger. He lived all alone with the tall aunt, who was very rich, in the big house at the end of the village. Every morning he went down the street with his little goat under his arm, and the village folk looked after him and said, "There goes Master Willie."

The tall aunt had a very long neck; on the top of it was her head, on the top of her head she wore a white cap. Willie used often to look up at her and think that the cap was like snow upon the mountain. She was very fond of Willie, but she had lived a great many years and was always sitting still to think them over, and she had forgotten all the games she used to know, all the stories she had read when she was little, and when Willie asked her about them, would say, "No, dear, no, I can't remember; go to the woods and play." Sometimes she would take his face between her two hands and look at him well while Willie felt quite sure that she was not thinking of him, but of someone else he did not know, and then she would kiss him, and turn away quickly, saying, "Go to the woods, dear; it is no good staying with an old woman." Then he, knowing that she wanted to be alone, would pick up his goat and hurry away.

He had had a dear little sister, called Apple-blossom, but a strange thing had happened to her. One day she over-wound her very big doll that talked and walked, and the consequence was quite terrible. No sooner was the winding-up key out of the doll's side than it blinked its eyes, talked very fast, made faces, took Apple-blossom by the hand, saying, "I am not your doll any longer, but you are my little girl," and led her right away no one could tell whither, and no one was able to follow. The tall aunt and Willie only knew that she had gone to be the doll's little girl in some strange place, where dolls were stronger and more important than human beings.

After Apple-blossom left him, Willie had only his goat to play with; it was a poor little thing with no horns, no tail and hardly any hair, but still he loved it dearly, and put it under his arm every morning while he went along the street.

"It is only made of painted wood and a little hair, Master Willie," said the blacksmith's wife one day. "Why should you care for it; it is not even alive."

"But if it were alive, anyone could love it."

"And living hands made it," the miller's wife said. "I wonder what strange hands they were;--take care of it for the sake of them, little master."

"Yes, dame, I will," he answered gratefully, and he went on his way thinking of the hands, wondering what tasks had been set them to do since they fashioned the little goat. He stayed all day in the woods helping the children to gather nuts and blackberries. In the afternoon he watched them go home with their aprons full; he looked after them longingly as they went on their way singing. If he had had a father and mother, or brothers and sisters, to whom he could have carried home nuts and blackberries, how merry he would have been. Sometimes he told the children how happy they were to live in a cottage with the door open all day, and the sweet breeze blowing in, and the cocks and hens strutting about outside, and the pigs grunting in the styes at the end of the garden; to see the mother scrubbing and washing, to know that the father was working in the fields, and to run about and help and play, and be cuffed and kissed, just as it happened. Then they would answer, "But you have the tall lady for your aunt, and the big house to live in, and the grand carriage to drive in, while we are poor, and sometimes have little to eat and drink; mother often tells us how fine it must be to be you."

"But the food that you eat is sweet because you are very hungry," he answered them, "and no one sorrows in your house. As for the grand carriage, it is better to have a carriage if your heart is heavy, but when it is light, then you can run swiftly on your own two legs." Ah, poor Willie, how lonely he was, and yet the tall aunt loved him dearly. On hot drowsy days he had many a good sleep with his head resting against her high thin shoulders, and her arms about him.

One afternoon, clasping his goat as usual, he sat down by the pond. All the children had gone home, so he was quite alone, but he was glad to look at the pond and think. There were so many strange things in the world, it seemed as if he would never have done thinking about them, not if he lived to be a hundred.

He rested his elbows on his knees and sat staring at the pond. Overhead the trees were whispering; behind him, in and out of their holes the rabbits whisked; far off he could hear the twitter of a swallow; the foxglove was dead, the bracken was turning brown, the cones from the fir trees were lying on the ground. As he watched, a strange thing happened. Slowly and slowly the pond lengthened out and out, stretching away and away until it became a river--a long river that went on and on, right down the woods, past the great black firs, past the little cottage that was a ruin and only lived in now and then by a stray gipsy or a tired tramp, past the setting sun, till it dipped into space beyond. Then many little boats came sailing towards Willie, and one stopped quite close to where he sat, just as if it were waiting for him. He looked at it well; it had a snow-white sail and a little man with a drawn-sword for a figure-head. A voice that seemed to come from nowhere asked--

"Are you ready, Willie?" Just as if he understood he answered back--

"Not yet,--not quite, dear Queen, but I shall be soon. I should like to wait a little longer."

"No, no, come now, dear child; they are all waiting for you." So he got up and stepped into the boat, and it put out before he had even time to sit down. He looked at the rushes as the boat cut its way through them; he saw the hearts of the lilies as they lay spread open on their great wide leaves; he went on and on beneath the crimson sky towards the setting sun, until he slipped into space with the river.

He saw land at last far on a-head, and as he drew near it he understood whither the boat was bound. All along the shore there were hundreds and hundreds of dolls crowding down to the water's edge, looking as if they had expected him. They stared at him with their shining round eyes; but he just clasped his little goat tighter and closer, and sailed on nearer and nearer to the land. The dolls did not move; they stood still, smiling at him with their painted lips, then suddenly they opened their painted mouths and put out their painted tongues at him; but still he was not afraid. He clasped the goat yet a little closer, and called out, "Apple-blossom, I am waiting; are you here?" Just as he had expected, he heard Apple-blossom's voice answering from the back of the toy-town--

"Yes, dear brother, I am coming." So he drew close to the shore, and waited for her. He saw her a long way off, and waved his hand.

"I have come to fetch you," he said.

"But I cannot go with you unless I am bought," she answered, sadly, "for now there is a wire spring inside me; and look at my arms, dear brother;" and pulling up her pink muslin sleeves, she showed him that they were stuffed with sawdust. "Go home, and bring the money to pay for me," she cried, "and then I can come home again." But the dolls had crowded up behind, so that he might not turn his boat round. "Straight on," cried Apple-blossom, in despair; "what does it matter whether you go backwards or forwards if you only keep straight when you live in a world that is round?"

So he sailed on once more beneath the sky that was getting grey, through all the shadows that gathered round, beneath the pale moon, and the little stars that came out one by one and watched him from the sky.

I saw him coming towards the land of story-books. That was how I knew about him, dear children. He was very tired and had fallen asleep, but the boat stopped quite naturally, as if it knew that I had been waiting for him. I stooped, and kissed his eyes, and looked at his little pale face, and lifting him softly in my arms, put him into this book to rest. That is how he came to be here for you to know. But in the toy-land Apple-blossom waits with the wire spring in her breast and the sawdust in her limbs; and at home, in the big house at the end of the village, the tall aunt weeps and wails and wonders if she will ever see again the children she loves so well.

She will not wait very long, dear children. I know how it will all be. When it is quite dark to-night, and she is sitting in the leather chair with the high back, her head on one side, and her poor long neck aching, quite suddenly she will hear two voices shouting for joy. She will start up and listen, wondering how long she has been sleeping, and then she will call out--

"Oh, my darlings, is it you?" And they will answer back--

"Yes, it is us, we have come, we have come!" and before her will stand Willie and Apple-blossom. For the big doll will have run down, and the wire spring and the sawdust will have vanished, and Apple-blossom will be the doll's little girl no more. Then the tall aunt will look at them both and kiss them; and she will kiss the poor little goat too, wondering if it is possible to buy him a new tail. But though she will say little, her heart will sing for joy. Ah, children, there is no song that is sung by bird or bee, or that ever burst from the happiest lips, that is half so sweet as the song we sometimes sing in our hearts--a song that is learnt by love, and sang only to those who love us.

SWINGING.

I.

Swing, swing, swing, Through the drowsy afternoon; Swing, swing, swing, Up I go to meet the moon. Swing, swing, swing, I can see as I go high Far along the crimson sky; I can see as I come down The tops of houses in the town; High and low, Fast and slow, Swing, swing, swing.

II.

Swing, swing, swing, See! the sun is gone away; Swing, swing, swing, Gone to make a bright new day. Swing, swing, swing. I can see as up I go The poplars waving to and fro, I can see as I come down The lights are twinkling in the town, High and low, Fast and slow, Swing, swing, swing.

THE WOODEN DOLL.

The wooden doll had no peace. My dears, if ever you are a doll, hope to be a rag doll, or a wax doll, or a doll full of sawdust apt to ooze out, or a china doll easy to break--anything in the world rather than a good strong wooden doll with a painted head and movable joints, for that is indeed a sad thing to be. Many a time the poor wooden doll wished it were a tin train, or a box of soldiers, or a woolly lamb, or anything on earth rather than what it was. It never had any peace; it was taken up and put down at all manners of odd moments, made to go to bed when the children went to bed, to get up when they got up, be bathed when they were bathed, dressed when they were dressed, taken out in all weathers, stuffed into their satchels when they went to school, left about in corners, dropped on stairs, forgotten, neglected, bumped, banged, broken, glued together,--anything and everything it suffered, until many a time it said sadly enough to its poor little self, "I might as well be a human being at once and be done with it!" And then it fell to thinking about human beings; what strange creatures they were, always going about, though none carried them save when they were very little; always sleeping and waking, and eating and drinking, and laughing and crying, and talking and walking, and doing this and that and the other, never resting for long together, or seeming as if they could be still for even a single day. "They are always making a noise," thought the wooden doll; "they are always talking and walking about, always moving things and doing things, building up and pulling down, and making and unmaking for ever and for ever, and never are they quiet. It is lucky that we are not all human beings, or the world would be worn out in no time, and there would not be a corner left in which to rest a poor doll's head."

WATCHING.

Dear father's ship is very near, We'll blow him kisses, baby dear,-- He may come home to-day. A happy wind that journeys south Seems just to linger round my mouth, Then bear a kiss away.

Come, baby, I will hold you--so, We'll watch the waves that outward go, And call, "Come back to-day!" For father's heart seems always near, And who can tell but he may hear, Or know the words we say?

All round and up the cottage wall The honeysuckle's grown so tall, It sees above the gate; The flowers came hurrying up so sweet-- We told the little seeds they'd meet Dear father,--and they wait.

We first shall see a speck of white, Far, far away, there where the light Has swept the morning dim; So silent will his coming seem, 'Twill be like waking from a dream To wave our hands to him.

And then, and then he'll hoist you high, And swiftly pass the people by, Just stopping here and there To shake the neighbours by the hand, And tell them of the southern land, And ask them how they fare.

He is not very far away, For mother said he'd come to-day-- We knew it by her face; She caught you up and kissed you so, And now she's busy to and fro, And sings about the place.

THE LIGHT ON THE HILLS.

"I want to work at my picture," he said, and went into the field. The little sister went too, and stood by him watching while he painted.

"The trees are not quite straight," she said, presently, "and oh, dear brother, the sky is not blue enough."

"It will all come right soon," he answered. "Will it be of any good?"

"Oh yes," she said, wondering that he should even ask, "it will make people happy to look at it. They will feel as if they were in the field."

"If I do it badly, will it make them unhappy?"

"Not if you do your very best," she answered; "for they will know how hard you have tried. Look up," she said suddenly, "look up at the light upon the hills," and they stood together looking at all he was trying to paint, at the trees and the field, at the deep shadows and the hills beyond, and the light that rested upon them.

"It is a beautiful world," the girl said. "It is a great honour to make things for it."

"It is a beautiful world," the boy echoed sadly. "It is a sin to disgrace it with things that are badly done."

"But you will do things well?"

"I get so tired," he said, "and long to leave off so much. What do you do when you want to do your best,--your very, very best?" he asked, suddenly.

"I think that I am doing it for the people I love," she answered. "It makes you very strong if you think of them; you can bear pain, and walk far, and do all manner of things, and you don't get tired so soon."

He thought for a moment. "Then I shall paint my picture for you," he said; "I shall think of you all the time I am doing it."

Once more they looked at the hills that seemed to rise up out of the deep shadows into the light, and then together they went home.

Soon afterwards a great sorrow came to the boy. While the little sister slept, she wandered into another world, and journeyed on so far that she lost the clue to earth, and came back no more. The boy painted many pictures before he saw the field again, but in the long hours, as he sat and worked, there came to him a strange power that answered more and more truly to the longing in his heart--the longing to put into the world something of which he was not ashamed, something which should make it, if only in the person of its meanest, humblest citizen, a little happier or better.

At last, when he knew that his eye was true and his touch sure, he took up the picture he had promised to paint for the dear sister, and worked at it until he was finished.

"This is better than all he has done before," the beholders said. "It is surely beautiful, for it makes one happy to look at it."

"And yet my heart ached as I did it," the boy said, as he went back to the field. "I thought of her all the time I worked,--it was sorrow that gave me power." It seemed as if a soft voice, that spoke only to his heart, answered back--

"Not sorrow but love, and perfect love has all things in its gift, and of it are all things born save happiness, and though that may be born too----"

"How does one find happiness?" interrupted the boy.

"It is a strange chase," the answer seemed to be; "to find it for one's own self, one must seek it for others. We all throw the ball for each other."

"But it is so difficult to seize."

"Perfect love helps one to live without happiness," his own heart answered to himself; "and above all things it helps one to work and to wait."

"But if it gives one happiness too?" he asked eagerly.

"Ah, then it is called Heaven."

WRITING A BOOK.

"Let us write a book," they said; "but what shall it be about?"

"A fairy story," said the elder sister.

"A book about kings and queens," said the other.

"Oh, no," said the brother, "let's write about animals."

"We will write about them all," they cried together. So they put the paper, and pens, and ink ready. The elder sister took up a fairy story and looked at it, and put it down again.

"I have never known any fairies," she said, "except in books; but, of course, it would not do to put one book inside another--anyone could do that."

"I shall not begin to-day," the little one said, "for I must know a few kings and queens before I write about them, or I may say something foolish."

"I shall write about the pig, and the pony, and the white rabbit," said the brother; "but first I must think a bit. It would never do to write a book without thinking."

Then the elder sister took up the fairy story again, to see how many things were left out, for those, she thought, would do to go into her book. The little one said to herself, "Really, it is no good thinking about kings and queens until I have known some, so I must wait;" and while the brother was considering about the pig, and the pony, and the white rabbit, he fell asleep.

So the book is not written yet, but when it is we shall know a great deal.

THE RABBIT.

The moon is shining o'er the field, A little breeze is blowing, The radish leaves are crisp and green, The lettuces are growing.

The owl is in the ivy-bush, With both his eyes a-winking; The rabbit shakes his little tail, And sits him down a-thinking--

"Oh! where are all the dormice gone? And are the frogs a-wooing? Will no one come to play with me? What are they all a-doing?"

Poor little rabbit, all alone, Don't let the master meet you; He'll shoot you with his little gun, And merrily he'll eat you!

THE SANDY CAT.

The sandy cat sat by the kitchen fire. Yesterday it had had no supper; this morning everyone had forgotten it. All night it had caught no mice; all day as yet it had tasted no milk. A little grey mouse, a saucerful of milk, a few fish or chicken bones, would have satisfied it; but no grey mouse, with its soft stringy tail behind it, ran across the floor; no milk was near, no chicken bones, no fish, no anything. The serving-maid had been washing clothes, and was hanging them out to dry. The children had loitered on their way to school, and were wondering what the master would say to them. The father had gone to the fair to help a neighbour to choose a horse. The mother sat making a patchwork quilt. No one thought of the sandy cat; it sat by the fire alone and hungry.

At last the clothes were all a-drying, the children had been scolded, and sat learning a lesson for the morrow. The father came from the fair, and the patchwork quilt was put away. The serving-maid put on a white apron with a frill, and a clean cap, then taking the sandy cat in her arms, said, "Pussy, shall we go into the garden?" So they went and walked up and down, up and down the pathway, till at last they stopped before a rose tree; the serving-maid held up the cat to smell the roses, but with one long bound it leaped from her arms and away--away--away.

Whither?

Ah, dear children, I cannot tell, for I was not there to see; but if ever you are a sandy cat you will know that it is a terrible thing to be asked to smell roses when you are longing for a saucerful of milk and a grey mouse with a soft stringy tail.

ON THE WAY TO THE SUN.

He had journeyed a long way, and was very tired. It seemed like a dream when he stood up after a sleep in the field, and looked over the wall, and saw the garden, and the flowers, and the children playing all about. He looked at the long road behind him, at the dark wood and the barren hills; it was the world to which he belonged. He looked at the garden before him, at the big house, and the terrace, and the steps that led down to the smooth lawn--it was the world which belonged to the children.

"Poor boy," said the elder child, "I will get you something to eat."

"But where did he come from?" the gardener asked.