A Little Boy Lost Page 16

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE WONDERS OF THE HILLS

  Now, although Martin had gone very comfortably to sleep in her armsand found it sweet to be watched over so tenderly, he was not thehappy little boy he had been before the sight of the distant ocean.And she knew it, and was troubled in her mind, and anxious to dosomething to make him forget that great blue water. She could do manythings, and above all she could show him new and wonderful things inthe hills where she wished to keep him always with her. To caress him,to feed and watch over him by day, and hold him in her arms when heslept at night--all that was less to him than the sight of somethingnew and strange; she knew this well, and therefore determined tosatisfy his desire and make his life so full that he would always bemore than contented with it.

  In the morning he went out on the hillside, wandering listlesslyamong the rocks, and when the big cat found him there and tried totempt him to a game he refused to play, for he had not yet got overhis disappointment, and could think of nothing but the sea. But thecat did not know that anything was the matter with him, and was moredetermined to play than ever; crouching now here, now there amongthe stones and bushes, he would spring out upon Martin and pull himdown with its big paws, and this so enraged him that picking up astick he struck furiously at his tormentor. But the cat was tooquick for him; he dodged the blows, then knocked the stick out ofhis hand, and finally Martin, to escape from him, crept into acrevice in a rock where the cat could not reach him, and refused tocome out even when the Lady of the Hills came to look for him andbegged him to come to her. When at last, compelled by hunger, hereturned to her, he was silent and sullen and would not be caressed.

  He saw no more of the cat, and when next day he asked her where itwas, she said that it had gone from them and would return nomore--that she had sent it away because it had vexed him. This madeMartin sulk, and he would have gone away and hidden himself from herhad she not caught him up in her arms. He struggled to free himself,but could not, and she then carried him away a long distance downthe mountain-side until they came to a small dell, green withcreepers and bushes, with a deep carpet of dry moss on the ground,and here she sat down and began to talk to him.

  "The cat was a very beautiful beast with his spotted hide," she said;"and you liked to play with him sometimes, but in a little while youwill be glad that he has gone from you."

  He asked her why.

  "Because though he was fond of you and liked to follow you about andplay with you, he is very fierce and powerful, and all the otherbeasts are afraid of him. So long as he was with us they would notcome, but now he has gone they will come to you and let you go tothem."

  "Where are they?" said Martin, his curiosity greatly excited.

  "Let us wait here," she said, "and perhaps we shall see one by-and-by."

  So they waited and were silent, and as nothing came and nothinghappened, Martin sitting on the mossy ground began to feel a strangedrowsiness stealing over him. He rubbed his eyes and looked round; hewanted to keep very wide awake and alert, so as not to miss thesight of anything that might come. He was vexed with himself forfeeling drowsy, and wondered why it was; then listening to the lowcontinuous hum of the bees, he concluded that it was that low, soft,humming sound that made him sleepy. He began to look at the bees,and saw that they were unlike other wild bees he knew, that theywere like humble-bees in shape but much smaller, and were all of agolden brown colour: they were in scores and hundreds coming andgoing, and had their home or nest in the rock a few feet above hishead. He got up, and climbing from his mother's knee to her shoulder,and standing on it, he looked into the crevice into which the beeswere streaming, and saw their nest full of clusters of small roundobjects that looked like white berries.

  Then he came down and told her what he had seen, and wanted to knowall about it, and when she answered that the little round fruit-likeobjects he had seen were cells full of purple honey that tasted sweetand salt, he wanted her to get him some.

  "Not now--not to-day," she replied, "for now you love me and arecontented to be with me, and you are my own darling child. When youare naughty, and try to grieve me all you can, and would like to goaway and never see me more, you shall taste the purple honey."

  He looked up into her face wondering and troubled at her words, andshe smiled down so sweetly on his upturned face, looking verybeautiful and tender, that it almost made him cry to think howwilful and passionate he had been, and climbing on to her knees heput his little face against her cheek.

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  Then, while he was still caressing her, light tripping steps wereheard over the stony path, and through the bushes came two beautifulwild animals--a doe with her fawn! Martin had often seen the wilddeer on the plains, but always at a great distance and running; nowthat he had them standing before him he could see just what theywere like, and of all the four-footed creatures he had ever lookedon they were undoubtedly the most lovely. They were of a slim shape,and of a very bright reddish fawn-colour, the young one with dappledsides; and both had large trumpet-like ears, which they held up asif listening, while they gazed fixedly at Martin's face with theirlarge, dark, soft eyes. Enchanted with the sight of them, he slippeddown from his mother's lap, and stretched out his arms towards them,and the doe, coming a little nearer, timidly smelt at his hand, thenlicked it with her long, pink tongue.

  In a few minutes the doe and fawn went away and they saw them no more;but they left Martin with a heart filled with happy excitement; andthey were but the first of many strange and beautiful wild animalshe was now made acquainted with, so that for days he could think ofnothing else and wished for nothing better.

  But one day when she had taken him a good way up on the hillside,Martin suddenly recognized a huge rocky precipice before him as theone up which she had taken him, and from the top of which he hadseen the great blue water. Instantly he demanded to be taken up again,and when she refused he rebelled against her, and was firstpassionate and then sullen. Finding that he would not listen toanything she could say, she sat down on a rock and left him tohimself. He could not climb up that precipice, and so he rambledaway to some distance, thinking to hide himself from her, because hethought her unreasonable and unkind not to allow him to see the bluewater once more. But presently he caught sight of a snake lyingmotionless on a bed of moss at the foot of a rock, with the sun on it,lighting up its polished scales so that they shone like gems orcoloured glass. Resting his elbows on the stone and holding his facebetween his hands he fell to watching the snake, for though itseemed fast asleep in the sun its gem-like eyes were wide open.

  All at once he felt his mother's hand on his head: "Martin," she said,"would you like to know what the snake feels when it lies with eyesopen in the bright hot sun? Shall I make you feel just how he feels?"

  "Yes," said Martin eagerly, forgetting his quarrel with her; thentaking him up in her strong arms she walked rapidly away, andbrought him to that very spot where he had seen the doe and fawn.

  She sat him down, and instantly his ears were filled with the murmurof the bees; and in a moment she put her hand in the crevice andpulled out a cluster of white cells, and gave them to Martin.Breaking one of the cells he saw that it was full of thick honey, ofa violet colour, and tasting it he found it was like very sweethoney in which a little salt had been mixed. He liked it and hedidn't like it; still, it was not the same in all the cells; in someit was scarcely salt at all; and he began to suck the honey of cellafter cell, trying to find one that was not salt; and by and by hedropped the cluster of cells from his hand, and stooping to pick itup forgot to do so, and laying his head down and stretching himselfout on the mossy ground looked up into his mother's face with drowsy,happy eyes. How sweet it seemed, lying there in the sun, with the sunshining right into his eyes, and filling his whole being with itsdelicious heat! He wished for nothing now--not even for the sight ofnew wonderful things; he forgot the blue water, the strange,beautiful wild animals, and his only thought, if he had a thought,was that it was very nice to lie the
re, not sleeping, but feelingthe sun in him, and seeing it above him; and seeing all things--theblue sky, the grey rocks and green bushes and moss, and the woman inher green dress and her loose black hair--and hearing, too, the soft,low, continuous murmur of the yellow bees.

  For hours he lay there in that drowsy condition, his mother keepingwatch over him, and when it passed off, and he got up again, histemper appeared changed: he was more gentle and affectionate withhis mother, and obeyed her every wish. And when in his rambles onthe hill he found a snake lying in the sun he would steal softlynear it and watch it steadily for a long time, half wishing to tastethat strange purple honey again, so that he might lie again in thesun, feeling what the snake feels. But there were more wonderfulthings yet for Martin to see and know in the hills, so that in alittle while he ceased to have that desire.