Harding's luck

try once more the magic of the moon-seeds and the rattle and the white seal, and try to get back into

moved his legs in the bed, rejoicing that he was no longer lame. Then he opened his eyes to feast them on the big, light tapestried roo

spell of the moon-seeds and the rattle and the white seal was not certain to take him where he wished to be, nothing i

of this I'll stick to the wood-carving, and not go

it was not a garden he had ever seen before. It had marble seats, balustra

rison yard," he told himself. "Come, keep your he

There were no clothes there. But the shirt he had on wa

dark, even panelling. He was not shut in a room but in a

admirably-who was living two lives with such credit in both, who was managing a g

nd that only gave him the desperate courage to bea

lid back and between them the nurse came to him-the nurse wi

round her big, c

clothes hung over her arm, his doublet and little fa

o glad. I thought I'd got

ress him, soothing him back to confide

ugar-loaf buttons of the doublet. "You must list

ime didn't move-

o your cousins at your uncle's town house. And you all have lessons together-thy tutor gives them. And thy cousins love him no better than thou dost. All thou hast to do is to forget thy dream, and take up thy life here-and be slow to speak, for a day or two, till thou

I am ugly I need not be hateful!" His tutor, who had a nasty way of creeping up behind people, came up behind him at the wrong moment. Dickie was caned on both hands and kept in. Also his dinner was of bread and water, and he had to write out two hundred times, "I am a bad boy, and I ask the pardon of my good tutor. The fifth day of November, 16

stonished to find that he knew his way about the house quite well, th

t it, but I thought of thee, and for this once I did all his

m her sampler, set the f

said. "I do hate t

or had stopped striking-a feeling of sudden change. But he could not wait to wond

d held out his hand. They we

ll as a house in London, and that he and his wife were great favorites at the Court of King James the First. If you have not read that book, and didn't already know these things-well, you know them now. And

ct that he remembered nothing whatever of the doings of the last month. Elfrida did not seem very anxious to talk, either. The garden was most interestin

ickie was wondering why he had felt that queer clock-stopping feel

e to r

th of N

der treaso

no r

powder

ever be

And he remembered hearing his father, Sir Richard Arden, say, "Treas

sin, nor a safe one. 'Tis b

, you know, and he's al

ber. He had had to write the date two hundred times so he was fairly certain of it. He was afraid of saying too much or too

re more

said E

to feel his way, "what tre

g thing to say, when Elfrida

e of the names of the conspirators and

thing to say, and he said

ently knew all about the matter, "so a lot of them decided to kill him and the

o had gone on the barge to Gravesend and played with him at the Deptford house had neve

to be hunting and to seize the Princess Elizabeth and proclaim her Queen, and t

nd without knowing why he felt uneasy, and because he f

rowing so strong. But he heard her say, "Mr. Tresham wrote to his relation, Lord Monteagle, that they were go

ment everything grew confused. Mr. Parados was asking questions and little Elfrida was trying to answer them, and Dickie understo

" the loathsome tutor was saying, "or it w

een with terror, and look

manage, "you frighten my cousin. It is but a tale she

r would not

istory," he he

one in the house with Mr. Parados, the nurse, and the servants, for the Earl and Countess

powder Plot should have been carried out; and Elfrida it was, and not Mr

when all this was matter of history? Dickie's brain felt fat-swollen-as though it would burst, and he was gla

the days went on, and lessons with Mr. Parados were a sort of Inquisition torture to Dickie. For the tutor never let a day pass without trying to find out whether Dickie had shared in any

se. And at last he really did arrange a scheme for getting Elfrida out of the Tower-a perfectly workable scheme. And what is more, it worked. If you want to know how it was done, ask some grown-up to tell you how Lady Nithsdale got her husband out of the Tower when he was a prisoner there, and in danger of having his head cut off, and you will readily understand the kind of scheme it was. A necessary part of it was the dressing up of

all these dangerous happenings, found himself su

is way to his panelled bed-closet, and took off the smart velvet and fur which he had worn in his visit to the Tower, and put on his every-day things. You may be

s it?"

u mustn't be in it, because we're going away, and you've got to st

anted to do these four years." He had not known that he had known the tu

" said Edred. "You

d Dickie of D

ida, explaining affectionat

t the grand manner that seemed to suit these times of ruff and s

, Edred, he has a right to hear. He's one of us

on't," Dickie

to believe at all. We are not what we seem, Edred and I. We don't really belong here at all. I don't know what's become of the real Elfrid

ped-clock feeling came stro

years later in history. Only we've got a charm-because in our time Edred is Lord Ard

te," sai

ed rather sadly, "and I knew you wouldn't believe it, but it is true. And now we're going back to our times-Queen Alexandra, you know, and King Edward the Sev

t it possible but that he was the only

said Edred complacentl

onderful change should happen to any one besides himself. This

; "don't try to believe it. I know you can't.

Edred said. "What can we do

found a voi

ore. It makes it seem not real. It's only a dream, really,

Edred; and, darting to a corner, produced a ph

seen anything like this before. This

ter had had a larger one of the same kind. It was horrible to him, this intrusion of the scientific a

ly dream. But it's not worth while to pretend I do

id Elfrida. . . . "Did you ever dream

riumphs of civilization. And added that Kent made 615 against Derbyshire last Thursday. Edred and

with old Parrot-nose." And suggested shovelling the snow off the roof into

ttern, and it had unaccountably come with him. It was a bill for three ship's guns and compasses and six flags, which Mr. Beale had bought for him in London for the fitting out of a little ship he had made to order for the small son of the amiable pawnbroker. He scribbled on the back of this bil

another moment, so very softly and carefully he crept out and hid behind a tall press at the end of the passage. He felt that strange things were happening in the house and that he must know what they were. Presently there were voices below, voices coming up the stairs-the n

tairs. Dickie followed. He had to follow. He could not be left out of this, t

keen wind rushed through it, and by the blown candle's light he could see snowflakes whirled into the house thr

up on to the window-ledge. And jumped out. Out of the third-flo

've been made to jump out, to punish them for getting

bound to the window, set his knee on it, stood up and jumped; and he heard, as his knee touched

Dickie told himself, "and then I shall k

white reins. And a horse? No-a swan with wide, white wings. He grasped the reins and guided the strange steed to a low swoop that should bring him near the flare of torches in the street, outside the great front door. And as the swan laid its long neck

ided away between snow and stars, and on the landing ins

id; "my dear, foo

ulling himse

ake up. If it's real-real, with magic in it-you've got to explai

emed to him that something small and white slid along the wainscot of the corridor a

warm curtained room, blew to flame the gray ashes on the open hearth, gave him elder wine t

forth in space-the space of a room, a playing-field, or a garden alley. Often children lose this power when they are quite young. Sometimes it comes to them gradually so that they hardly know when it begins, and leaves them as gradually, like a dream when you wake and stretch yourself. Sometim

iced any difference so much as that I felt something queer. I could

were not the cousins

ord been then-all this time-while those other ki

-but they don't know it, and never will know it. They haven't the

and the voice-and jumping out o

gic-the white Mouldiwarp

he badge of Arden's house-its picture being engraved on Tinkler, and how it

ss. Dickie learned that the Edred and Elfrida who belonged to his own times had a father who was supp

id Dickie-"but can't I s

"But maybe I will teach thee a little spell to bring it on another day

gs of the magic, and how he had heard t

he badge, and the Mouldiwarp who is the crest, and the Great Mouldiwarp who sits on the green a

cousins and help them

they are going. Then thou canst speak with them. Wish to be there a

but not eagerly, fo

ie went to bed, his weary brain full of new thing

merry country life of those days, and there found the old nurse herself, Edred and Elfrida, and helped them to recover their father from a far country. There also you may read of the marvels of the white clock, and the cliff that none could climb, and the children who were white cats, and the Mouldiwarp who became as big as a

ather self-important. The second Mouldiwarp he had not yet met. I have told you all these things very short

ir of sleeves. Those children can't get any more magic of their own now, but you could take them into yours. Only for that you'd have to meet them in your ow

f, and as I am afraid you too must be, "if they're seve

me? But there's seasons, and the season they came out of was summer, and the season you'll go back to 'ti

the Tower? Will he be behead

And now, my lamb, I've more to tell thee. But come into thy panelled chamber where thy tutor can

se were safe in his room, and then he said, "Come with me t

in thy time-how all the green trees are gone, and good work is gone, and people do bad work for just so much as will keep together their worn bodies and desolate souls. And sometime

me is fallen into ruin and decay, and to mend the houses of the tenants, and to do good to the poor and needy. But you know that now they have used their magic to get back their father, and can no longer use it to look fo

asure, of course," said practical Dickie,

some year in the past-any year-go into it a

id, "and then I may com

. The Ardens stay where duty bin

Arden there," sa

hard on it, from Arden to Harden, and that again to Harding. Thus names are changed ever and agai

Arden when I go back,

" she sai

said Dickie rathe

nce thy tutor is imagining unkind things in his heart for thee, go quickly. Set out thy moon-seeds a

Dickie. "I do want

feel nothing solid, not even the ground under his feet

he gray blueness, and the Mouldiwarp he had seen in that wonderful a

be," in the thick speech of the peasant people round abou

the other Mouldiwarp with precise and gentle utterance. "As Mo

voice, a finer nose than the Mouldiwarp, h

" said the Mouldiwarp, "so's 'e-

uch as perhaps you or I would have done. It was not his pet kind of magic. He liked the good, straightforward, old-fashioned kind of magic that he was accustom

glad to see

manners," the M

tantly. Dickie could not help seeing that both th

p?" he asked, to keep up the conversa

agic. He is very great. I work the magic of space, my brother here works the magic of time, and the Great Mouldiestwarp contro

ckie asked, and both the cr

e chits of thine," the Mouldier said to the Mouldy (whic

Mouldy shortly. "All's for the best, and the e

kie, "and I want to go back to Mr. Beale and stay wit

n," said the Mouldy

c of steadfast heart and the patient purpose, and these thou hast wi

darkness turning to dawn, and Dickie was able again to feel solid things-the floor under him, his hand on the sharp edge of the armchair, and the

" said Dickie, got up, put Tinkler and the seal and the

der Terrace. He was going to help Mr. Beale to live it. So let him feel a little bit of a hero, since that was what indeed he was, even though, of course, a