CHAPTER V
_Which Explains who is Inside the Grey Pumpkin_
"Long ago," began Old Nancy, gazing dreamily into the fire, "a greatKing ruled over this country who had an only daughter to whom he waspassionately attached. She was a sweet, frail little creature--verydelicate. In spite of all the care and attention bestowed upon her, shegrew no stronger; indeed, as time passed, she seemed to grow weakerand weaker, until at length it became obvious to all that the Princesswas dying. The King was in despair. All that love, money, doctors, andnurses could do for her was done--but all in vain.
"Then, one evening, someone found a shabby old book at the back of ashelf in the Royal Library. To whom it belonged and how it got thereno one seemed to know, but anyway, the book proved of priceless valueas it contained a remarkable recipe for curing just such an illnessas the Princess was suffering from. I need not tell you all about thisrecipe now: it is sufficient that one of the most important itemswas--pumpkin juice. Needless to say, the King seized eagerly at anychance to save his daughter's life, and so all the pumpkins availablewere quickly purchased and the recipe made up, and a dose of thisnew cure was given to the Princess. From the very first dose therewas a marked change for the better, and with perseverance this newremedy gradually worked wonders in the Princess; she grew stronger andstronger and was soon on the road to a complete recovery.
"And then----
"But first you must know that in order to have plenty of pumpkins onhand to complete the cure, the delighted King had a special gardenmade in which to grow nothing but pumpkins; and he employed a specialstaff of gardeners to look after this garden. And every day he wouldgo to the garden himself to see how the pumpkins were getting on. Onenight, a fearful storm swept over the country; and while the thundergrowled and the lightning flashed and the wind and rain struggled formastery--some strange things were taking place down in the pumpkingarden. For when morning broke--there was not a single pumpkin left inthe garden: nor in the whole of the country, apparently. But it wasnot the storm that had destroyed them all. Under cover of the blacknight and the storm somebody had come and had deliberately cut off thepumpkins, and destroyed them.
"Now this somebody--although he was not discovered for daysafterward--was an evil little dwarf man, who imagined that he owed theKing a grudge--and sought to punish him this way.
"Nor was this all. When the Princess's nurse went to fetch hermedicine--there was none left. All the bottles were smashed to piecesand the precious liquid was spilled all over the floor.
"The King was terribly upset, and sent messengers far and wide, posthaste, to try to get some more pumpkins. But they could not get any.And from that time, as each hour passed, the Princess began to declineagain. She got steadily worse, and weaker and weaker as days went by.You can imagine what grief it must have been to her father to see herlosing her newly-gained health, to see her cheeks growing pale andthin again--to see her gradually fading away. He made every attemptpossible to get hold of a pumpkin--but it seemed as if all the pumpkinsin the land had suddenly vanished.
"At length the Princess lay at death's door; the doctors gravely shooktheir heads at each other; while the King paced ceaselessly up and downthe corridor outside her room. He was waiting thus, torn with anxietyand suspense, when a messenger arrived at the palace with a note forthe King, which contained the news that a pumpkin had been found! Theowner of the pumpkin would give it up to no one but the King himself(the note continued). Would his Majesty kindly walk down into a certainpart of the City, and go to a certain house (the address was given),where he would be met by someone who would place the pumpkin in theKings hands. The King, wondering why the person who had the pumpkindid not hasten with it to the palace, nevertheless did not wait toquestion, but went at once to the house down in the City.
"It was a quaint, stubby little house; and inside he found a littledwarf man. (The King did not know at the time that this was the personwho had destroyed the pumpkin garden on the night of the storm.)Anyway, the dwarf began immediately to pour out some of the grievancesthat he imagined he had against the King. And then he discoveredthat the King was not to blame at all. There was some sort of muddleand misunderstanding, and one of the grievances the King had nevereven heard about. When the dwarf realized that he had endangered thePrincess's life for no reason, that it had all been a mistake, andthat he had no cause at all for the spiteful and wicked thing he haddone, he got unreasonably angry (as people often do when they havewronged someone who hasn't deserved it). And so the dwarf fell toblaming and cursing the King, and finally tried to make a bargain withhim concerning the pumpkin, which he had hidden, he said, refusing todisclose its hiding-place until his demands were granted. The King,whose sole idea was to get the pumpkin as quickly as possible, firstpleaded, then commanded the dwarf to fetch the pumpkin immediately:he was willing to give any price for his daughter's sake. But stillthe dwarf haggled and delayed, until the King lost all patience anda fierce quarrel ensued. In the midst of their quarrel there came theclattering of horses' hoofs on the cobbled road without, and thensomeone rapped at the door of the dwarfs house. The angry voices withinceased, and in the silence that followed a bell could be heard tolling.And the King learnt that his daughter was dead.
"He returned to the palace, telling the messengers to arrest the dwarf,and place him in the palace dungeon. 'For I shall hold you responsiblefor my daughter's death,' said the King.
"Afterward, when the whole story of the dwarf's treachery becamepublic, it was discovered that he had not been alone on the night ofthe storm: others had helped him to destroy the pumpkins: it would havebeen impossible for him to make such a clean sweep of all the pumpkinsin the countryside by himself. It had been a carefully organized plan,of which the dwarf was the ringleader and originator. But none of theothers were half so blameworthy as the dwarf; they obeyed his orderswithout knowing his motives, and did not realize the mischief they weredoing was so serious. One or two of them were arrested and receivedlight punishments; some the authorities could not find. But thegravest offender was the dwarf, of course, and for him was reserved theheaviest punishment.
"And this was his punishment. The pumpkin that was found hidden inhis garden, the last remaining pumpkin in the country, was brought tothe palace, and with the help of a little magic the dwarf was shut up_inside_ the pumpkin--where he remains to this day.
"They say that when the dwarf found what his fate was to be, he gotvery enraged and vowed that if this punishment was carried out, hewould make the King and his people rue it, and suffer for it for everand ever.
"His threat was laughed at, and the punishment duly carried out. Aboutthat time a weird old magician happened to pass through the country,and his aid was secured to help with the punishment. He made a spell,and the big yellow pumpkin slowly opened--like a yawn--of its ownaccord. The little dwarf was lifted, struggling and screaming, andplaced in the centre; the magician waved his hands and the pumpkinclosed to again. The magician waved his hands again, and a curiousgrey shade crept over the pumpkin; and it is this grey shade thatkeeps the dwarf imprisoned. He might force his way out--perhaps even_eat_ his way out, who knows--if the pumpkin were still yellow. Thegrey is part of the magic.
THE LITTLE DWARF WAS LIFTED, STRUGGLING AND SCREAMING]
"Well, the King then called a council of Wise Men together, to considerwhat should be done with the Grey Pumpkin. Some were for keeping itin a museum (and charging a fee of 6d. for visitors to go and look atit); while others advised burying it away in the deepest dungeon of theCity, just in case the dwarf ever got out of the Pumpkin; while a thirdsection of the Council, deriding the two former suggestions, urged thatthe Grey Pumpkin be flung into a ditch beside the High Road, outsidethe City Gates. The spokesman for this last section was a brilliant,reckless young man, an eloquent speaker; he laughed at the cautionwhich prompted the first two parties to suggest a museum or a dungeon,and looked upon the latter as a grave reflection on the Magician whohad so kindly come to their aid. Did the
y not trust in the spell whichkept the Pumpkin tightly closed? he asked the Council. And besides,what person, dwarf, man, woman, or child, would be alive after beingshut up in a Pumpkin for twenty-four hours? No, let them show theirscorn for the thing by flinging it away, outside the walls of theirCity.
"Much more than this did the young man say, and in the end he gainedhis way. The Grey Pumpkin was carried to the gates of the City,escorted by a solemn procession, and thrown into a ditch outsidethe walls, amid much hissing and booing from the populace. Theyoung Councillor who had suggested all this got carried away by theexcitement of the moment, and he dashed forward and gave the GreyPumpkin that was lying quietly at the bottom of the ditch a good heartykick: this act was greeted with cheers and shouts of approval from thecrowd, until they saw that the Pumpkin, which had been sent spinning,had landed on the High Road, a dozen yards away, and was slowly rollingdown the hill. The crowd fell silent, and watched. On, on the GreyPumpkin rolled, down the hill from the City, past my cottage door--Iremember--on, on, until it disappeared at length into a dark forestright down at the bottom of the High Road.
"And after that, all our troubles began. The dwarf kept his vow, andmade us suffer. Somewhere, down in that dark forest, he got hold ofsome black magic--no one knows how, or who helped him. All we know isthat since that time he has become possessed of certain magic powers,and that one misfortune after another has overtaken our country--allcaused by the Pumpkin. Wherever he goes he makes misery and mischief: Icannot tell you all the horrible things he has done, he and his littleband of followers--those faithful few who helped him in the beginningto destroy the pumpkins, you remember. They went right over to his sideafter they were punished, and he seemed to gain some evil influenceover them. There are not many of them, but they are in all parts of thecountry, ready to help him when he needs them. And with his knowledgeof magic he could so disguise them that we could not recognize them.But they are powerless without him, and when after suffering him for along time (because we could not find a way to escape him) we finallydiscovered a way of banishing the Grey Pumpkin out of our World intoyour World where he could do no harm, his followers became practicallyharmless, until to-day.
"That is the story of how the Grey Pumpkin came to be what he is. TheKing, whom he hated, has been dead many years and another King reignsin his stead. And the young Councillor, the eloquent young Councillorwho advised the people so unwisely, was banished from Court; he hasgrown old and timid and querulous, and is a disappointed man whosecareer was blighted at the outset through the Pumpkin. You have seenthis once reckless, dashing young man; you met him just now in thewood. He is Glan's father."