The Ship of Stars

about it, whatever it might be. But once or twice after this, coming into the parlour suddenly, he found his father

er. Toward August, however, they began again; and by-and-by his mother told him. They were going to a parish on the North

mility, "the most of it sea

a, then. How wou

will take us m

een except on ship's boats. It disappeared every Tuesday and Saturday over the hill and into a mysterious country, from which it emerged on Mondays and Fridays with a fine flavour of the sea renewed upon it and upon Joby. No other driver wore a blue guernsey, or rings in hi

be ships?"

the distance. It's a poor, outlandish

get into a boat and preach; just l

re is a church, I believe, though it's a tumble-down one. Nobody has preach

eman who came to ask f

m so much good as your father's. That'

go to heaven

wherever you pick up

's in th

husband that night what the child had said. "My dear

be talking disrespect

s which were to be left behind-the tool-shed (Crusoe's hut, Cave of Adullam, and Treasury of the Forty Thieves), the stunted sycamore-tree which he had climbed at different times as Zacchaeus, Ali Baba, and Man Friday with the bear behind him; the clothes' prop, which, on the strength of its forked tail, had so often played Dragon to his St. George. When he returned to the empty house, he found his mother in the passage. She had been for a walk alone. The candle was lit, and he saw she had been crying. This told him where she had been; for, although he remembered nothing about it, he knew he had once possessed a small sister, who lived with him

a little

l her Pe

through

deep

s up the

high

r little

but on

ne-eyed, and always wandering; and that his mother went out

window-seat. A neighbour had lent the crockery, and Taffy was greatly taken with the pattern on the cups and saucers. He wanted to run round again and repeat his good-byes to the house, but there was no time. By-and-by the door opened, and two men, neighbour

r, you see!" she cr

hat Joby was getting impatient. Humility handed the door-key to her,

oisted in and laid with her couch across the seats, so that her shoulders rested against one side of the van and

they we

ved farewells. At the top of the town they overtook three sailor-boys, with b

by's horses astonished him; they were so broad behind, and so narrow at the shoulders. He wanted to ask if the shape were at a

handing him the whip. "Only

nk y

a scholar, like your

es

phe

es

ttons. I ha'n't got no buttons-visible that is-'pon my week-a-day clothes; so I keeps the lo

won

on't want it known

yes-o

e you'll know why he

a lot t

tamps clattering and working up and down like ogres' teeth. Next they came to a church town, with a green and a heap of linen spread to dry (for it was Tuesday), and a flock of geese that ran and hissed after the van, until Joby took the whip and, leaning out, looped the gander by the neck and pul

onnet and give yellow tickets?"

minute. "Ah, you're on

your eyes skinned

before them the granite road stretched like a white ribbon, with moors on either hand, dotted with peat-ricks a

f place is N

ere. I drop you a

sort of pl

ll you what fo

ea and

orld and int

, and if I'm wrong yo

affy persevered. "Wha

everely. "Look here, sonny

window at his back, and he twisted himself round, and nodded to his mother and grandmother inside the

sing you

s your

l alone, and ever

ve," said Joby. The so

er S

sing you

your S

in the ship a-sailing

of stars?" He grinned and pulled open his sailor's jumper and singlet; and there, on his naked breast, Taff

me again?" asked the boy, an

affy gravely; which made

that?" he asked Joby, as t

a pasty, twice the size of Taffy's, in a nose-bag. They ate as they went, holding up their pasties from time to time and comparing progress. Late in the afternoon they came to hedges again, and at length to an inn; and in front of it Taffy spied his fa

ed parasols, walking together across a desert. The queen on one side wore a scarlet turban and a blue robe; but the queen on the other side wore a blue turban

took the road toward the sunset. As the dusk fell closer around, Mr. Raymond lit a horn lantern and carried it before them. The rays of it danced and wheeled upon the hedges and gorse bushes. Taffy began to feel sleepy, though it was long before his usual bedtime. The air seemed to wei

d now and again upon stone hedges built in zigzag layers, and upon

s tune that filled the night. When Taffy listened i

hip, heaving and lurching over a soft, irregular floor that returned no sound. But suddenly the ship became a cart

ase and room with a bed in it, which, oddly enough, turned out to be his own. He stared at the pink roses on the curtains. Yes