The Ship of Stars

e townspeople called it Mount Folly. The chord of the arc was formed by a large Assize Hall, with a broad flight of granite steps, and a cannon planted on either side of the steps. Th

in street. The street curved uphill around the base of this open ground, and came level with it just in front of the Mayoralty, a tall stuccoed bui

too, the Royal Rangers Militia came up for training. Suddenly one morning, in the height of the bird-nesting season, the street would swarm with countrymen tramping up to the barracks on the hill, and back, with bundles of clothes and unblackened boots dangling. For the next six weeks the town would be full of bu

mself. But the bigger shows-the menagerie, the marionettes, and the travelling Theatre Royal-were pitched on Mount Folly, just under his window. Sometimes the theatre would stay a week or two after the fair was over, until even the boy

t which he repeated next morning to his mother. Already, across the square, the Mayoralty house was brightly lit, and the bandsmen had begun to

ad preached the sermon. The old man wore a rusty silk hat, cocked a little to one side, a high stock collar, black cutaway coat, breeches and gaiters of grey cord. He stooped as he walked,

ow, and ran to the head of the stairs. Down in the passage his mother was t

in and sit down,

mind. I want one hou

shut, and went back

nnon opposite, and sat there dangl

ny window-seat you've got! I

down to the floor, and the bench is

s your

but they ca

hy

an imperfect examp

e you're quite the

ori

ur father d

your father about his soul. He wants to be saved, and says if he's not saved

adi

ing w

Bib

ay, can y

ughout Phrygia and Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia they assayed to go in

t. Did you ever have

t y

That's why I'm not allowed

and wound up with

shirt and preach, I'd be the congrega

said Taffy, "

est it. I hate boys

ded to return to his book. B

s written on th

Russian town. The Eng

soldiers

smen; and they're too

He's upstairs in th

but I've heard father s

he fighting

climbed o

It had fallen too dark to read, and the boy was always sensitive to music. Often when he played alone broken phrases and scraps of remembered tunes came into his head and repeated themselves over and over. Then he would drop his game and wander about restlessly, trying to fix and complete the melody; and somehow in the process

ils of his; and his old pupils, when they met, usually told each other stories of his atrocious temper.

blind was drawn, and a window thrown open, and Taffy saw the warm room within, and the officers an

gentlemen-

jewels and uniforms, and white necks bending, and men leaning back in their chairs, with their mess-jackets open, and the candle-light flashing on their shirt-fronts. Below, in the dark street, the ban

g that he had violins at his beck, instead of stupid flutes and reeds. And Taffy had never heard so much as the name of Tannhause

lis for it right across the sky. The vine thrust through the trellis faster and faster, dividing, throwing out little curls and tendril

sky. Then he heard the tramp of feet in the distance, and knew that they threatened the vin

oss the square before it occurred to him that the band had ceased to play. Then he wondered why he had come, but he did not go back. He

ot see hi

ou can see him. That's the Colonel-the man at the

She sprang away an

u! Who told you?-

you hated boys wh

and goodness knows what will happen to y

think your grandfather might have more sense than to keep you wait

u do, d

old man staring down on him. There was just light enough to revea

said, and wond

father whip y

, s

e my boy. I believe

was led away. He could not be sure whethe

e had a very

ght of steps before it and a cannon on either side of the steps. Within sat a giant, asleep, with his head on the table and his face hidden; but his neck bulged at the back just like the bandmaster's during a cornet solo. A harp stood on the table. Taffy caught this up, and was stealing downstairs with it, but at the third stair the harp-which had Honoria's head and face-began to cough, and wound up with a whoop! This woke the giant-he turned out to be Ho

in his bed shuddering, and, for the first time in his life, afraid of the dark. He would have called for his mother, but just then down by the turret clock

distant streets, each time more faintly; and th