Half-Past Bedtime

ted. It is always easier for people in towns to become discontented than it is for other people, because instead of fields to walk on they have only pavements; and

y; and the men in the cotton-mills were discontented because they thought that the men who owned the cotton-mills made them work too

, had a frown on her forehead, and the French mistress slapped Doris so hard that she left a red mark on Doris's cheek. Of course Doris was very angry about it, and her little brothers wanted to know exactly where the mark was. But it had faded away by the time she arrived home,

ddy was dead, and Doris had five little brothers-Teddy and George, who were the twins, and Jimmy and Jocko and Christopher Mark. They were much too poor to be able to have a maid, and so Doris's mother had to do most of the work. She had to be cook and housemaid and nurse and governes

and what would Mr Joseph do if his girls went on strike, and didn't the policemen look ill-tempered? And Miss Plum couldn't make her accounts come right; and the

rder, and there was half a haddock lying in the middle of the road. So Doris went into the garden when they had all finished tea, but it was as hot in the garden as it was anywhere else; and the lady next door was grumbling to the lady beyond about one of her husband's c

hes; and as the daylight faded the moonlight grew, so that it was past ten before they fell asleep. That was when their mother came and kissed them, and she was so tired that she could hardly stand; and then she went to bed and fell asleep too, and the church clock struck eleven

, and a stout lady with a tambourine, and a soldier with a pair of cymbals, and an elderly greengrocer, who was very thin. They were standing in a row, and sitting on the ground behind them were five men, each with a drum. Doris leaned ou

of them all. He had a tenor voice with a great smack in it, like the smack of a wave against a jetty, and when he sang softly without taking a breath it was like water running through sea

r come home fr

s as black

like forest

is a hotbe

like roots

es tattooed

smell of cinna

, must I l

g! [went

, must I l

when they stopped and looked up at her window Doris really didn't know what to make of them. Then the sa

id that

e brothers younge

id that

gers on each hand and

ey could come and count them i

five drummers stared at the ground; and then the stout lady asked

to count my eyela

ortant," said

said the soldier, "we shall b

e put on her dressing-gown, but not her slippers, in case they should want to count her toes. Then

aid the stout lady, "if we

is, "at the end of the street. Of

e not frightened?"

rs still stared

Doris. "You aren't goi

said the elder

hey all crouched under the hedge; and the sailor, whose name wa

im what we had lost. This here lady has lost her husband and has been trying to find him for years and years; and this here soldier has lost his character and can't find a gen

d Doris. "And what hav

st one of his senses. The first can't see, and the second can't hear, and t

. "And what did the

lent us these here drummers. But what you've got to find, he said, is a little girl as can play this here flute, for until you've found her you can sing as loud as you like, but you won't sing right, and nobody won't hear you. But when you've found her-that's what the old man said-she'll be able to blow this here flute, for this here flute can play by itself if you find the right lit

Doris, "that sou

thought," said

st travel about, he said, and sing this here music, but the only people as'll be able to hear you will be little girls twice five years old, with five brothers younger than theirselves, and with fiv

ket and pulled out

e want to count

l except the drummers, and they

count away. I'm sure I don

gnifying glass, and began to count her right upper

hundred and four, a hundred and fiv

"you're the very one! You've

es again and saw

he flute?"

er gave i

rocer, "and it's a quarter to twelve.

acter," said

and," said t

mper," sai

lost hope, and still

is here little girl will show us the way. And when the clocks

anything. There were also two dustmen with a cart clearing up rubbish and bits of newspaper, and a water-man watering the asphalt, and some postmen outside the Post Office loading a ma

d most beguiling melody that anybody in the world had ever imagined, or ever imagined that anybody could imagine. It began very softly, like a boy whistling, and the cracking of sticks in a deep wood, and then it sounded like birds sing

saw the policeman running toward them, and the postmen, and the man from the water-cart; and she saw the windows above the shops in the market-place thrown up, and people looking out. Then came the chorus,

the concertina was groaning, and the five drummers were hitting like mad. But it was the flute, it was Doris's flute, that soared up a

he market-place was simply crammed, and by the end of the third verse all the streets that led into it were bubbling over with people dancing. There were the ironworks men dancing with their employers, and Mr Joseph dancing with his girls, and the heads of the cotton-mills dancing in

shops, and Mr Joseph gave him permission to eat everything that he could see. Funnily enough, too, both Uncle Joe and Captain Jeremy happened to be in town; and when Uncle Joe caught sight of the soldier he was so struck with his honest appearance that he gave hi

f one could hear; and the one that couldn't feel felt somebody squeezing him; and the one that couldn't smell suddenly smelt somebody's tooth powder; and the one that couldn't taste had the biggest surprise of all. For one of

Even the moon laughed, and the end of it was that they all resolved to make up their quarrels, because after what had happened it seemed so silly to go on quarrelling about anything. But wha

id the man

ced and

list

rd that I heard

hrough

f the whiten

whisper

magic

and the stars

oofs of t

ents of darkn

nced at

and we danced

! tire

ced and white

gain in

MAGIN

aunte