CHAPTER XX
--BUT DIFFERENTLY!
Church was very--that is, they enjoyed the service very much, withoutknowing precisely why they liked it. They joined in the hymns with moreenergy than usual, because they felt "singy" and knew the tunes aswell. Colonel Stumper handed round one of the bags at the end of a longpole--and, though the clergyman didn't look at all as if he requiredfeeding, the threepenny bits dropped in without the least regret on thepart of the contributors. Tim's coin, however, having been squeezed forseveral minutes before the bag came round, stuck to his moist finger,and Stumper, thinking he had nothing to put in, drove the long handlepast him towards Maria. That same instant the coin came un-stuck, anddropped with a rattle into the aisle. Come-Back Stumper stooped torecover it. Whereupon, to Judy, Tim and Uncle Felix, watching him, camea sudden feeling of familiarity, as though all this had happenedbefore. The bent figure, groping after the hidden coin, seemedirresistibly familiar. It was very odd, they thought, very odd indeed.Where--when--had they seen him groping before like that, almost on allfours? But no one, of course, could remark upon it, and it was only Timand Judy who exchanged a brief, significant glance. Maria, beingasleep, did not witness it, nor did she contribute to the feeding ofthe clergyman either.
There followed a short sermon, of which they heard only the beginning,the end, and certain patches in the middle when the preacher raised hisvoice abruptly, but the text, they all agreed, was "Seek and ye shallfind." During the delivery of the portions that escaped them, Timscratched his head and thought about rabbits, while Judy's mindhesitated between various costumes in the pews in front of her, unableto decide which she would wear when she reached the age of itsrespective owner.
And so, in due course, feeling somehow that something very real hadbeen accomplished, they streamed out with the rest of the congregationinto the blazing summer sunshine. Expectant, inquisitive and hungry,they stood between the yew trees and the porch, yawning and fidgetinguntil Uncle Felix gave the signal to start. The sunlight made themblink. There was something of pleasurable excitement in knowingthemselves part of a "Congregation," for a Congregation was distantlyconnected with "metropolis" and "govunment," and an important kind ofthing at any time.
They stood and watched it. It scattered slowly, loth to separate andgo. There was no hurry certainly. People talked in lowered voices, asif conversation after service was against the rules, and the church andgraves might overhear; they smiled, but not too gaily; they seemedsubdued; yet really they wanted to sing and dance--once safely out ofhearing and sight, they would run and jump and stand on their heads.The children, that is, attributed their own feelings to them.
Several--all "Members" of the Congregation--approached and asked unrealquestions, to which Judy, as the eldest, gave unreal answers:
"Your parents will soon be back again?"
"Yes; Father comes to-morrow, Mother too."
"I hope they have enjoyed their little change."
"I think so--thank you."
Gradually the Congregation melted away, broughams and victorias droveoff sedately down the road, the horses making as little sound aspossible with their hoofs. The Choir-boys emerged from a side-door andvanished into a field; a series of Old Ladies and Invalids felt theirway down the gravel path with sticks; the "Neighbours," looking cleanand dressed-up, went off in various directions--gravely, voices hushed,manners circumspect. Tim, feeling as usual "awfully empty afterchurch," was sure they ran as fast as ever they could the moment theywere out of sight. A Congregation was a wonderful thing altogether. Itwas a puzzle how the little church could hold so many people. Theywatched the whole familiar business with suppressed excitement,forgetting they were hungry and impatient. It was both real and unreal,something better beckoned beyond all the time; but there was no hurry.It was a deep childhood mystery--wonder filled them to the brim.
"Come on, children; we'll be off now," sounded their uncle's voice, andat the same moment Come-Back Stumper joined them. He had been countingover the money with the clergyman, of course, all this time. He wasvery slow. They hoped their contributions had been noticed.
"You'll come back with us?" suggested Uncle Felix. And Stumper,growling his acceptance, walked home to lunch with them in the old MillHouse. In his short black coat, trousers of shepherd's plaid, andknotted white tie bearing a neat horseshoe pin, he looked smart yetsoldierly. Tim apologised for his moist finger and the threepenny bit."I thought it had got down a hole," he said, "but you found itwonderfully." "It simply flew!" cried Judy. "Clever old thing!" sheadded with admiration.
"I've found harder things than that," said Stumper. "It hid itselfwell, though--bang in the open like a lost collar-stud. Thought I'dnever look _there!"_
They glanced at one another with a curious, half-expectant air, and Timsuddenly took the soldier's hand. But no one said anything more aboutit; the sin was forgiven and forgotten. Uncle Felix put in a vagueremark concerning Indian life, and Stumper mentioned proudly that a newedition of his scouting book was coming out and he had just finishedrevising the last sheets. "All yesterday I spent working on it," heinformed them with a satisfied air, whereupon Tim said "Fancy that!"and Judy exclaimed "Did you really?" They seemed to have an idea thathe was doing something else "all yesterday"; but no one knew exactlywhat it was. Then Judy planted herself in the road before him, made himstop, and picked something off his shoulder. "A tiny caterpillar!" sheexplained. "Another minute and you'd have had it down your neck." "Itwould have come back though," he said with a gruff laugh. "It might'nthave," returned Judy. "But look; it's awfully beautiful!" They examinedit for a moment, all five of them, and then Judy set it down carefullyin the ditch and watched it march away towards the safer hedge.
It was a pleasant walk home, all together; they took the short cutacross the fields; the world was covered with flowers, birds weresinging, the air was fresh and sweet and the delicious sunlight notuncomfortably hot. Tim ran everywhere, exploring eagerly like a dog,and, also like a dog, doubling the journey's length. He whistled tohimself; from time to time he came back to report results of hisdiscoveries. He was full of energy. Judy behaved in a similar manner,dancing in circles to make her hair and dress fly out; she sang bits ofthe hymn-tunes that she liked, taking the tune but fitting words of herown upon it. Maria was carried over two fields and a half; thedown-hill parts she walked, however. She kept everybody waiting. Theycould not leave her. She contrived to make herself the centre of theparty. Stumper and Uncle Felix brought up the rear, talking together"about things," and whirling their sticks in the air as though ithelped them forward somehow.
On the slippery plank-bridge across the mill stream all paused a momentto watch the dragon-flies that set the air on fire with their colouredtails.
"The things that nobody can understand!" cried Judy.
"Nobody else," Tim corrected her. "We do!"
They leaned over the rail and saw their own reflections in the runningwater.
"Why, Come-Back hasn't got a button-hole!" exclaimed Judy--and flew offto find one for him, Tim fast upon her heels like a collie after adipping swallow. They raced down the banks where the golden king-cupsgrew in spendthrift patches and disappeared among the colonies ofreeds. Between some hanging willow branches further down they werevisible a moment, like dryad figures peering and flitting through thecataract of waving green. They searched as though their lives dependedon success. It was absurd that Stumper had no button-hole!
Maria, seated comfortably on the lower rail, watched their efforts andlistened to the bursts of laughing voices that came up-stream--then,with a leisurely movement, took the flower from her own button-hole andhanded it to Stumper. The eyes rolled upwards with theflower--solemnly. And Come-Back saw the action reflected in the streambelow.
"Aw--thank you, my dear," he said, fastening the forget-me-not into hisSunday coat, "but I ought not to take it all. It's yours." The voicehad a quiet, almost distant sound in it.
"Ours," Maria murmured to herself, addressing the faces
in the water.She took the fragment Stumper handed back to her. All three, forgettingit was time for lunch, forgetting they were hungry, forgetting thatthere was still half a mile of lane between them and the house, gazeddown at their reflections in the stream as though fascinated. UncleFelix certainly felt the watery-enchantment in his soul. Thereflections trembled and quivered, yet did not pass away. The streamflowed hurrying by them, yet still was always there. It gave him astrange, familiar feeling--something he knew, but had forgotten.Everything in life was passing, yet nothing went--there was no hurry.The rippling music, as the water washed the banks and made the grassesswish, was audible, and there was a deeper sound of swirling round thewooden posts that held the bridge secure. Bubbles rose and burst inspray. A lark, hanging like a cross in the blue sky, overhead, droppedsuddenly as though it was a stone, but in the reflection it rushed upinto their faces. It seemed to rise at them from the pebbly bed of thestream. Both movements seemed one and the same--both were true--thedirection depended upon the point of view.
It startled them and broke the water-spell. For the singing stoppedabruptly too. At the same moment Judy and Tim arrived, their arms fullof flowers, hemlock, ferns, and bulrushes. They were breathless andexhausted; both talked at once; they had quite forgotten, apparently,what they had gone to find. Judy had seen a king-fisher, Tim haddiscovered tracks of an otter; in the excitement they forgot about thebutton-hole. But, somehow, the bird, the animal, and the flowers werethe same thing really--one big simple thing. Only the point of view wasdifferent.
"We've looked simply everywhere!" cried Judy.
"Just look what we found!" Tim echoed.
To Uncle Felix it seemed they said one and the same thing merely--using_one_ word in many syllables.
"Beautiful!" agreed Stumper, as they emptied their arms at his feet inwild profusion; "and enough for everybody too!"
Stumper also said the thing they had just said. Uncle Felix watched himmove forward, where Maria was already using the heaped-up greenery as acushion for her back, and pick something off the stem of a giantbulrush.
"But that's what I like best," he exclaimed. "Look at the colour, willyou--blue and cream and yellow! You can hear the Ganges in it, if youlisten close enough." He held a small, coloured snail-shell between hissinewy fingers, then placed it against his ear, while the others,caught by a strange enveloping sense of wonder, stared and listened,swept for a moment into another world.
"How marvellous!" whispered some one.
"Extrornary!" another murmured.
"Yes," said Maria. Her voice made a sound like a thin stone fallingfrom a height into water. But Maria had said the same thing as theothers, only said it shorter. An entire language lay in thatmono-syllable. Again, it was the point of view of doing, saying oneenormous thing. And Maria's point of view was everywhere at once--thecentre.
"Listen!" she added the next minute.
Perhaps the sunlight quivering on the surface of the stream confusedthem, or perhaps it was the murmur and movement of the leaves upon thebanks that brought the sense of sweet, queer bewilderment upon allfive. A new sound there certainly was--footsteps, as though some onecame dancing--voices, as though some one sang. Figures were seen in thedistance among the waving world of green; they moved behind thecataract of falling willow branches; and their distance was as thedistance of a half-remembered dream.
"They're coming," gasped Judy below her breath.
"They're coming back," Tim whispered, the tone muffled, underground.
"Eh?" ejaculated Stumper. "Coming back?" His voice, too, had distancein it.
Whether they saw it in the reflections on the running water, or whetherthe maze of shadow and sunshine in the wooded banks produced it, no oneknew exactly. The figures, at any rate, were plainly visible, movingalong with singing and dancing through the summery noontide of thebrilliant day. No one spoke while they went by, no one except Maria whoat intervals murmured "Yes." There was no other audible comment orremark. They afterwards agreed that Weeden was seen clearest, butThompson and Mrs. Horton were fairly distinct as well, and bringing upthe rear was a figure in blue that could only have been the Policemanwho lived usually upon the high road to London. They carried flowers intheir arms, they moved lightly and quickly--it was uncommonly likedancing--and their voices floated through the woodland spaces with asound that, if it was not singing, was at least an excellentimitation--an attempt to sing!
"They're not lost," said Tim, as they disappeared from view. "They'rejust looking--for the way."
"The way home," said Judy. "And they're following some one--who knowsit."
"Yes," added Maria. For another figure, more like a tree moving in thewind than anything else, and certainly looking differently to each ofthem--another figure was seen in advance of the group, seen in flashes,as it were, and only glimpses of it discernible among the world ofmoving green. This other figure was singing too; snatches of wild sweetmusic floated through the quiet wood--one said the singing of a bird,another, the wind, a third, the rippling murmur of the stream--but, toone and all, an enchanting and enticing sound. And, to one and all,familiar too, with the familiarity of a half-remembered dream.
And a flood of memory rose about them as they watched and listened, atide that carried them away with it into the heart of something theyknew, yet had forgotten. In the few moments' interval an eternity mighthave passed. Their hearts opened curiously, they saw wonder growinglike a flower inside--the exquisite wonder of common things. There wassomething they were looking for, but they had found it. The flower ofwonder blossomed there before their very eyes, explaining the world,but not explaining it away, explaining simply that it was wonderfulbeyond all telling. They all knew suddenly what they didn't know theyknew; they understood what nobody understands. None knew why it camejust at this particular moment, and none knew where it came fromeither. It was there, so what else mattered. It broke upon them out ofthe heart of the summer's day, out of this very ordinary Sundaymorning, out of the brimming life all about them that was passing butcould never pass away. The familiar figures of the gardener, thebutler, the policeman and the cook brought back to them the memory ofsomething they had forgotten, yet brought it back in the form ofendless and inexhaustible enticement rather than of complete recovery.There had been long preparation somewhere, growth, development; butthat was past and they gave no thought to it; Expectancy and Wonderrushed them off their feet. The world hid something. Every one waslooking for it. _They_ must go on looking, looking, looking too!
_What_ it was they had forgotten--they entirely forgot. Only themarvellous hint remained, and the certainty that it could be found.For, to each of them it seemed, came this fairy reminder, stealingdeliciously upon the senses: somewhere, somehow, they had known anexperience that had enriched their lives. It had become part of them.It had always been in them, but they had found it now. They felt quitepositive about it. They believed. To Tim came messages from the solidearth about him, secrets from creatures that lived in it and knew;Judy, catching a thousand kisses from the air upon her cheeks, divinedthe mystery of all flying life--that brought the stars within herreach; Maria, possessing all within herself, remained steady and calmat the eternal centre of the circle--a clearing-house for messages fromeverywhere at once. Asking nothing for herself, she merely wanted togive away, give out. She said "Yes" to all that came her way; and alldid come her way. To every one of them, to Stumper and Uncle Felix too,came a great conviction that they had passed nearer, somehow, to aneverlasting joy. There was no hurry, life had just begun--seemedsinging everywhere about them. There was Unity.
"It's a lovely day," remarked Uncle Felix presently. "I want myluncheon."
He picked up Maria and moved on across the bridge.
"It's the Extra Day," Maria whispered in his ear. "It's my adventure,but you all can have it."
The others followed with Come-Back Stumper, and in the lane they sawthe figures of Weeden, Thompson and Mrs. Horton in front of them,coming home from church. They were walking q
uietly enough.
"We're not late, then," Tim remarked. "There's lots of time!"
Crossing the field in the direction of the London road a policeman wasmoving steadily. They saw him stoop and pick a yellow flower as hewent. He was off to take charge of the world upon his Sunday beat. Hedisappeared behind a hedge. The butler and the cook vanished through aside-door into the old Mill House about the same time.
In due course, they also arrived at the porch, and Uncle Felix set hisburden down. As they scraped their muddy boots and rubbed them on themat, their backs were turned to the outside world; but Maria, whoseboots required no scraping, happened to face it still. As usual shefaced in all directions like a circle.
"Look," she said. "There's some one coming!"
And they saw the figure of a tramp go past the opening of the drivewhere the London road was just visible. He paused a moment and lookedtowards the house. He did not come in. He just looked--and waved hishand at them. The next minute he was gone. But not before Maria hadreturned his wave.
"He'll come back," suggested Stumper, as they went inside.
"Yes," said Maria. "He's mine--but you can have him too."
Ten minutes later, when they all sat down to lunch, the big blue figureof the policeman passed the opening of the drive. Being occupied withhot roast beef, they did not see him. He paused a moment, lookedtowards the house, and then went slowly out of sight again along theLondon road, following the tramp....
THE END
The Extra Day Page 30
