CHAPTER XXXII. THE LOVERS AND THE BAGS
Bitterly cold grew the night. The body froze under me. The cry of thewolves came nearer; I heard their feet soft-padding on the rocky ground;their quick panting filled the air. Through the darkness I saw the manyglowing eyes; their half-circle contracted around me. My time was come!I sprang to my feet.--Alas, I had not even a stick!
They came in a rush, their eyes flashing with fury of greed, their blackthroats agape to devour me. I stood hopelessly waiting them. One momentthey halted over the horse--then came at me.
With a sound of swiftness all but silence, a cloud of green eyes camedown on their flank. The heads that bore them flew at the wolves with acry feebler yet fiercer than their howling snarl, and by the cry I knewthem: they were cats, led by a huge gray one. I could see nothing ofhim but his eyes, yet I knew him--and so knew his colour and bigness. Aterrific battle followed, whose tale alone came to me through the night.I would have fled, for surely it was but a fight which should haveme!--only where was the use? my first step would be a fall! and my foesof either kind could both see and scent me in the dark!
All at once I missed the howling, and the caterwauling grew wilder. Thencame the soft padding, and I knew it meant flight: the cats had defeatedthe wolves! In a moment the sharpest of sharp teeth were in my legs;a moment more and the cats were all over me in a live cataract,biting wherever they could bite, furiously scratching me anywhere andeverywhere. A multitude clung to my body; I could not flee. Madly I fellon the hateful swarm, every finger instinct with destruction. I torethem off me, I throttled at them in vain: when I would have flung themfrom me, they clung to my hands like limpets. I trampled them under myfeet, thrust my fingers in their eyes, caught them in jaws strongerthan theirs, but could not rid myself of one. Without cease they keptdiscovering upon me space for fresh mouthfuls; they hauled at my skinwith the widespread, horribly curved pincers of clutching claws; theyhissed and spat in my face--but never touched it until, in my despair, Ithrew myself on the ground, when they forsook my body, and darted atmy face. I rose, and immediately they left it, the more to occupythemselves with my legs. In an agony I broke from them and ran, carelesswhither, cleaving the solid dark. They accompanied me in a surroundingtorrent, now rubbing, now leaping up against me, but tormenting me nomore. When I fell, which was often, they gave me time to rise; when fromfear of falling I slackened my pace, they flew afresh at my legs.All that miserable night they kept me running--but they drove me by acomparatively smooth path, for I tumbled into no gully, and passing theEvil Wood without seeing it, left it behind in the dark. When at lengththe morning appeared, I was beyond the channels, and on the verge of theorchard valley. In my joy I would have made friends with my persecutors,but not a cat was to be seen. I threw myself on the moss, and fell fastasleep.
I was waked by a kick, to find myself bound hand and foot, once more thethrall of the giants!
"What fitter?" I said to myself; "to whom else should I belong?" and Ilaughed in the triumph of self-disgust. A second kick stopped my falsemerriment; and thus recurrently assisted by my captors, I succeeded atlength in rising to my feet.
Six of them were about me. They undid the rope that tied my legstogether, attached a rope to each of them, and dragged me away. I walkedas well as I could, but, as they frequently pulled both ropes at once,I fell repeatedly, whereupon they always kicked me up again. Straight tomy old labour they took me, tied my leg-ropes to a tree, undid my arms,and put the hateful flint in my left hand. Then they lay down and peltedme with fallen fruit and stones, but seldom hit me. If I could havefreed my legs, and got hold of a stick I spied a couple of yards fromme, I would have fallen upon all six of them! "But the Little Ones willcome at night!" I said to myself, and was comforted.
All day I worked hard. When the darkness came, they tied my hands, andleft me fast to the tree. I slept a good deal, but woke often, and everytime from a dream of lying in the heart of a heap of children. With themorning my enemies reappeared, bringing their kicks and their bestialcompany.
It was about noon, and I was nearly failing from fatigue and hunger,when I heard a sudden commotion in the brushwood, followed by a burst ofthe bell-like laughter so dear to my heart. I gave a loud cry of delightand welcome. Immediately rose a trumpeting as of baby-elephants, aneighing as of foals, and a bellowing as of calves, and through thebushes came a crowd of Little Ones, on diminutive horses, on smallelephants, on little bears; but the noises came from the riders, not theanimals. Mingled with the mounted ones walked the bigger of the boysand girls, among the latter a woman with a baby crowing in her arms. Thegiants sprang to their lumbering feet, but were instantly saluted with astorm of sharp stones; the horses charged their legs; the bears rose andhugged them at the waist; the elephants threw their trunks round theirnecks, pulled them down, and gave them such a trampling as they hadsometimes given, but never received before. In a moment my ropes wereundone, and I was in the arms, seemingly innumerable, of the LittleOnes. For some time I saw no more of the giants.
They made me sit down, and my Lona came, and without a word began tofeed me with the loveliest red and yellow fruits. I sat and ate, thewhole colony mounting guard until I had done. Then they brought up twoof the largest of their elephants, and having placed them side by side,hooked their trunks and tied their tails together. The docile creaturescould have untied their tails with a single shake, and unhooked theirtrunks by forgetting them; but tails and trunks remained as their littlemasters had arranged them, and it was clear the elephants understoodthat they must keep their bodies parallel. I got up, and laid myself inthe hollow between their two backs; when the wise animals, counteractingthe weight that pushed them apart, leaned against each other, and madefor me a most comfortable litter. My feet, it is true, projected beyondtheir tails, but my head lay pillowed on an ear of each. Then some ofthe smaller children, mounting for a bodyguard, ranged themselves ina row along the back of each of my bearers; the whole assembly formeditself in train; and the procession began to move.
Whither they were carrying me, I did not try to conjecture; I yieldedmyself to their pleasure, almost as happy as they. Chattering andlaughing and playing glad tricks innumerable at first, the moment theysaw I was going to sleep, they became still as judges.
I woke: a sudden musical uproar greeted the opening of my eyes.
We were travelling through the forest in which they found the babies,and which, as I had suspected, stretched all the way from the valley tothe hot stream.
A tiny girl sat with her little feet close to my face, and looked downat me coaxingly for a while, then spoke, the rest seeming to hang on herwords.
"We make a petisson to king," she said.
"What is it, my darling?" I asked.
"Shut eyes one minute," she answered.
"Certainly I will! Here goes!" I replied, and shut my eyes close.
"No, no! not fore I tell oo!" she cried.
I opened them again, and we talked and laughed together for quiteanother hour.
"Close eyes!" she said suddenly.
I closed my eyes, and kept them close. The elephants stood still. Iheard a soft scurry, a little rustle, and then a silence--for in thatworld SOME silences ARE heard.
"Open eyes!" twenty voices a little way off shouted at once; but when Iobeyed, not a creature was visible except the elephants that bore me.I knew the children marvellously quick in getting out of the way--thegiants had taught them that; but when I raised myself, and looking aboutin the open shrubless forest, could descry neither hand nor heel, Istared in "blank astonishment."
The sun was set, and it was fast getting dark, yet presently a multitudeof birds began to sing. I lay down to listen, pretty sure that, if Ileft them alone, the hiders would soon come out again.
The singing grew to a little storm of bird-voices. "Surely the childrenmust have something to do with it!--And yet how could they set thebirds singing?" I said to myself as I lay and listened. Soon, however,happening to look up into the tree under w
hich my elephants stood,I thought I spied a little motion among the leaves, and looked morekeenly. Sudden white spots appeared in the dark foliage, the music dieddown, a gale of childish laughter rippled the air, and white spots cameout in every direction: the trees were full of children! In the wildestmerriment they began to descend, some dropping from bough to boughso rapidly that I could scarce believe they had not fallen. I left mylitter, and was instantly surrounded--a mark for all the artillery oftheir jubilant fun. With stately composure the elephants walked away tobed.
"But," said I, when their uproarious gladness had had scope for a while,"how is it that I never before heard you sing like the birds? Even whenI thought it must be you, I could hardly believe it!"
"Ah," said one of the wildest, "but we were not birds then! We wererun-creatures, not fly-creatures! We had our hide-places in the bushesthen; but when we came to no-bushes, only trees, we had to build nests!When we built nests, we grew birds, and when we were birds, we had to dobirds! We asked them to teach us their noises, and they taught us, andnow we are real birds!--Come and see my nest. It's not big enough forking, but it's big enough for king to see me in it!"
I told him I could not get up a tree without the sun to show me the way;when he came, I would try.
"Kings seldom have wings!" I added.
"King! king!" cried one, "oo knows none of us hasn't no wings--foolisfeddery tings! Arms and legs is better."
"That is true. I can get up without wings--and carry straws in my mouthtoo, to build my nest with!"
"Oo knows!" he answered, and went away sucking his thumb.
A moment after, I heard him calling out of his nest, a great way up awalnut tree of enormous size,
"Up adain, king! Dood night! I seepy!"
And I heard no more of him till he woke me in the morning.