Sinister Street, vol. 1

like a bird. Time stretched before him in unimaginable reckonings. It was now the beginning of autumn, and the leaves of the lime trees, falling to lie s

om was always gaslit, even for dinner at one o'clock. Stella was peevish, and games became impossible. The two black kittens were an entertainment and took part with Michael in numberless dramas of revenge and punishment, of remorse and exaggerated cherishing. These histrionic pastimes became infused with a terrible reality, when one day the favourite kitten ju

these presents came from his mother together with half a dozen books. He received no other presents except from the household. Nurse gave him a china house, romantic when illuminated by a night-light; Annie shyly placed before him a crystal globe that when shaken gave a wonderful reproduction of a snow-storm falling upon a weather-worn tin figure with a green face, blue legs and an unpainted coat. Mrs. Frith the cook

ced Michael to a state of collapse owing to the fight between the two protagonists, in which Orson's fingers were lacerated by the glittering swo

ake. In The Arabian Nights he read over and over again the stories of Aladdin, The Forty Thieves and Sinbad, owing to their familiarity through earlier narratives. On Sunday afternoons Nurse always read aloud from Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints and Mrs. Gatti's Parables from Nature, and told the story of Father Machonochie's death in

d dough down in the kitchen. The great principle of a treat was its rarity. As anything that had to be asked for became a treat automatically and as the mere fact of asking was made a reason for refusing to grant a treat, the sacred infrequency of the treat was secured. The result of this was that the visit to Kensington Gardens instead of being the jolly business it seemed to be for other children, became a tantalizing glimpse of an unattainable paradise. Michael would stand enraptured by the March winds, every impulse bidding him run and run eternally through the blowy spring weather; yet if he so much as climbed the lowest rung of the scaly part-railings, if he dallied one moment to watch a kite launched on the air, Nanny would haul him back to the perambulator's side. As for talking to other c

to lie on his back in the grass and brood upon the huge elm-trees that caught the clouds in their net. Michael wandered along to a drinking-fountain to which, access had often been forbidden. He drank four cups of water from the captive metal mug: he eyed curiously the many children who, as free as himself, ran up and down the steps of the fountain. He wished for barley-sugar that he might offer it to them and earn their approbation and company. He was particularly attracted to one group consisting of three funny little girls with splashed pinafores and holes in their stockings, and of two little boys with holes in their knickerbockers and half-peeled sticks. The group moved away from the fountain and Michael followed at a distance. The group turned somersaults over the highest railings and Michael watched it hungrily. The group strolled on, the girls nonchalant and enlaced, the boys still peeling their sticks with perseverance. Michael squeezed through the railings, and followe

about?" demande

l Saxby Fane and I live at 64 Carl

a wooden chair, while various policemen in various states of undress came and talked kindly to him, and in the end, riding on the

ing for months to come. Restrictions and repressions assumed gigantic proportions, and it was not until Nanny went upstairs to put Stella to bed and left Michael in the kitchen with Mrs

d what was she doing? That's what some people would like to know. You can't lo

nie agreed. "Supposing

Mrs Frith. "It's all very fine to put all the

outh and very slowly nodded her head until the most o

hought," said An

nk, Annie?" Micha

daring myself. Very daring I was. Out and about. Hollering after boys. The slappings I've had. But

Annie. "I was one of the quiet ones, I

e motion, I suppo

It was the excitement. I was dreadfully s

there with my late husband, eating nuts as peaceful as if we was in a real church. Beautiful. An

e an enthralling conversation between Annie and Cook. It was hateful to be compelled to ma

s absence. Michael was not allowed to speak to strange children and was still dependent on rare treats to illuminate his dulness. The landlady's husband, Mr. Wagland, played the harmonium and made jokes with Nurse, while Mrs. Wagland sang hymns and whispered with Nurse. A gleam of variety came into Michael's li

rariness, she took Michael to an old Calvinistic church with a fire-breathing vicar, a sniffling vicar's wife and a curate who sometimes clasped Michael's head with a damp hand that always felt as if it were still there when it had long been removed, like a cold linseed poultice. Now at the seaside, Michael went to a beautiful church and was so much excited by the various events that he pressed forward, peering on tiptoe. Luckily the two ladies in front of him were so devout and bo

eet. How it rained, not ferociously as in a summer storm, when the surface of the road was blurred with raindrops and the water poured along the gutters, carrying twigs and paper and orange-peel towards the drain, and when there almost seemed a chance of a second flood, an event Michael did not fear, having made up his mind to float on an omnibus to the top of the Albert Hall which had once impressed him with its perfect security. Now it was raining with the dreary mediocrity of winter, dripping from the balcony above on to the sill below, trickling down the window-panes, lying in heavy puddles about the road, a long monotonous grey soak. He sighed as he looked out of the window at the piece of waste ground opposite, that was bordered in front by a tumble-down fence and surrounded on the three other sides by the backs of grey houses. A poor old woman was picking groundsel with a melancholy persistence, and the torn umbrella which wavered above her bent form made her look like a scarecrow. Presently round t

ad passed, shivering with apprehension lest it should stop by Number Sixty-four. It went by, however, without pausing, and Michael breathed more freely, but just as he was cautiously emerging from the table, there was an extra loud postman's knock which drove him back in a panic, so that when Nurse came fussing in to fetch him to was

e was read just as the rain stopped and the sun glittered through

o

ng Mi

hat when Mother comes home at Christmas, you'll be able to show her what a clever boy she has. You would like to be in this beautiful place. As I write I can see such lovely hills and fields and lakes and mountains. I hope darling Stella is learning to s

th

ed. It had raised so many subjects for discussion

y come home at Chr

rd what

!" he sigh

o go to school?" N

ike Christmas t

orld anyone so hard to pl

o to get these

time. Plent

, wil

there'll be no canari

d. The canary-shop was found, and two canaries and a bird-cage were bought, together with packets of seed and a bird's bath and a pennyworth of groundsel and plantains. Nurse told Michael to wait in the shop while the birds were being prepared for travelling, and while she herself went to the chemist to buy a remedy for the neuralgia which she prophesied was imminent. Michael talked to the canary-man and asked a lot of questions which the canary-man seemed very glad to answer; and

tchen while Mrs. Frith cut the string and display

said Mrs. Frith. "I'

ie. "Not a bit frightened

r names?" Mrs.

ought for

ames, Mrs. Frith?

r business,

Michael wan

y're your bi

s Ste

choose for herself. Come along,

," said Michae

mine I should call

id Michael, more per

There, Annie, what doe

I'm sure. No,"

I shouldn't," Mrs. Frith final

, bustling into the kitchen. "H

aid Cook, "as how I shouldn't call nei

ll what?" Nurs

w dicky

es. Must have names. Dic

girl," Mich

be Dick and Tom," Nurse sett

oth turned out to be hens and laid twenty-three eggs bet

s a very solemn establishment indeed. Although its outward appearance was merely that of an ordinary house somewhat larger than others on accou

t day of the autumn term, Nurse and Mic

isses

and Kin

ed with little girls taking off goloshes and unlacing long brown boots, with little boys squabbling over their indoor shoes, with little girls chatting and giggling and pushing and bumping, with little boys shouting and quarrelling and kicking and pulling. A huddled and heated

quietly follow Helen Hungerford down the passage to M

boys, both about two years older than himself, to survey each other with suspicion. The other boys finding Michael beneath the dignity of their notice spoke to each other, or ra

what's y

oy gulped "Edwar

n?" asked the l

d and Ernest," he gulped aga

rown. I say, wha

said Edward.

mean a critic

t's

et the long-bodied

t a cricket is? I mean c

y conversation he had ever heard. Not even Mrs

ourself," said the pink-fac

I? I be

you d

tter than

I tha

ake their places in the class above the Kindergarten for which Michael was destined and whither he followed Miss Marrow, wondering at the size and ugliness of her. Miss Marrow's base was a black bell, on which was set a black cushion, above which was Miss Marrow's round b

th shining slips of chocolate and yellow paper, and to pleat chequered mats of the same material: these, when term was over, appeared at the prize-giving, beautifully enhanced with paper frills cut by the clever Miss Hewitt. He learned to paint texts and to keep his pencil-box tidy and to play the treble of a very unmelodious duet with Miss Hunt,

s of soldiers, a wooden battleship, and books-Hans Andersen and Grimm and the Old French Fairy-tales. As for the stockings that year, it was amazing how much managed to get into one stocking and how deliciously heavy it felt, as it was unhooked from the end of the cot and plumped down upon the bed in the gaslight of Christmas morning. There was only one sadness that hung over the festivities-the thought that his mother wo

d suddenly, "wha

kes you

Have I got a father? Must boys have father

ed worried by

a gentleman," s

s a gen

thoughtful and con

in the photogr

raph?" Mrs.

bed at th

she said, "Anyway,

an!" said symp

k her if she remembers where

e had received Nurse's inform

t?" And Nurse blew very violently to show how de

bed, there came a knock at the door, and a

o ask you if you'll go to the theatr

y think I must stay in. You see," she said smilingl

ting him with all his might and sighing

on't mind; wil

ime! Tut-tut-tut! Bed-time!

tt. "Here's Nurse to say it's be

y think I ou

ust. Come along, Michael, be a brave chap and tell your mother

gold coin into Micha

ry much, if I went

e room was swimming round him in

t," decided Mr. Pr

rse asked what he was holding. M

muttered Nanny. "That

ay round-eyed in his cot, and leaned over to kiss him. He held her to him passionately; then he burie

re lately he and his mother had sat by the fire. As for the ten-shilling piece, he thought no more about it. Soon afterwards h