Adventures of Prince Lazybones, and Other Stories

by Mrs. Molesworth

  CHAPTER VI

  The model-room of the elves' water-work department was a grotto ofsalt--glittering, dazzling, sparkling, and flashing--divided into twoequal parts, or as if a huge shelf had been placed across it.

  On the top of the shelf was a tiny park or forest, with all the naturaldifferences of the ground exactly represented by grasses, plants,flowers, rocks, and trees, living and growing, but on a scale so smallthat Leo was forced to use a microscope to properly enjoy its beauty.Even the herbage was minute, and the trees no larger than small ferns,but as his eyes grew accustomed to the glass he was amazed to find thehills and dales of his home here reproduced in the most familiar manner.

  It was truly an exquisite scene. Field upon field dotted with daisies,woodland as dense and wild as untrained nature leaves it, and hill uponhill clambering over one another, all so minute and yet so real, anddashing down from the tiny mountains was a stream of foaming water,winding about and gathering in from all sides other tributary brooks,so small that they would hardly have floated a good-sized leaf.

  And now Leo understood the meaning of it all, as he looked underneaththe shelf where tiny pumps and rams were forcing up the water for thisstream.

  Knops touched a spring and set a new series of wheels in motion, when,instantly, a gushing fountain flowed up in a small stone basin beneath arustic cross; then a little lake appeared, on which were sailing smallswans; and finally a rushing, roaring flood started some mill-wheels andalmost threatened destruction to the tiny buildings upon its banks.

  "This," said Knops, "shows you how we use the power of our reservoirs,but it can give you no idea of the immense trouble we have in layingpipes for great distances. Some of our elves find it so difficult thatthey beg for other work, and many run off altogether and liveabove-ground, inhabiting the regions of springs and brooks, and somuddying them and filling them up with weeds that men let them alone,which is just what they desire."

  "Do fish ever clog your pipes?" asked Leo.

  "Never. We have none in our lakes; the water is too pure and free fromvegetable matter for fish. It is doubly distilled. Taste it."

  Leo took the glass which Knops offered, and confessed he had nevertasted anything more delicious.

  "We sometimes force carbonic gas into mineral springs, but that, as wellas the salts considered so beneficial, is left to our chemists toregulate. Paz, do you know anything about this?"

  "Not much, Master Knops. I have seen iron in various forms introduced,but think that is usually controlled by the earth's formation."

  Leo sighed at his own ignorance, and vowed to study up these matters;but Knops, seeing his look of dejection, asked, "How would you like abath?"

  "Delightful. Where? Surely not in the lake; it looks so cold and glassyI should not dare."

  "Oh, no, no," laughed Knops. "Do you think I'd let you bathe in areservoir? Never! We are too cleanly for that, begging your pardon. Hereis our general bath. It's quite a tub, isn't it?"

  "I should think so," said Leo, surveying quite a spacious apartment,about which were pipes and faucets, clothes-lines and screens.

  Here his friend left him, and he was glad to doff his garments for aplunge. He found that he could make the water hot or cold at will, andso luxurious was it that he would have stayed in any length of time hadnot a crowd of elves come chattering in, and with whoop and screamsurrounded him. Though they could not see him, they were conscious ofsome disturbing force in the water, and in an instant a lot of them hadscrambled on his back, and were making a boat of him. They pulled hishair and his ears unmercifully, and because he swam slowly, with theirweight upon him, they whacked and thumped him like little pirates. Buthe had his revenge, for with one turn he tumbled them all off, andsprang from the bath, leaving them to squirm and squabble by themselves.

  Laughing heartily at their antics, he rejoined Knops and Paz, whom hefound poring over some maps spread out before them.

  "We have been discussing the length of a journey to the Geysers ofIceland, also to the hot springs of the Yellowstone, but I am afraideither would require too much time. Was your bath agreeable?"

  "Very," said Leo, describing how he had been pummelled.

  "Those were the fellows from the steam-rooms--stokers probably. Roughenough they are. Do you care to have a glance at them at work?"

  "Don't care if I do," said Leo, in his old drawling manner; then,correcting himself, he added: "If it suits your convenience, I shall bevery happy to take a look."

  "That is all it will be, I promise you," said Paz; "the heat is awful."

  Leo thought as much when Knops, having tied a respirator over his mouth,opened another door. Such a cloud of vapor puffed out that he could butdimly discern what seemed to be a tank of boiling, bubbling water,resting on a bed of soft coal, about which stark little forms weredancing and poking with long steel bars until flames leaped out liketongues of fire.

  "Oh," said Leo, as he quickly turned from his place, "how do they endureit? It is dreadful!"

  "They are used to it; they all came from Terra del Fuego," repliedKnops, calmly. "And now, as a contrast to them, look in here."

  A hut of solid ice presented itself. Long pendants of ice hung from theceiling, snow in masses was being formed into shapes of statue-likegrace by a company of little furry objects whose noses were not evenvisible, and others were tracing out, on a broad screen of lace-liketexture, patterns of every star and leaf and flower imaginable.

  Leo was so delighted that, although shivering, he could not bear toleave them, but begged Knops to lend him a wrap.

  Taking from a pile of furs in a corner several small garments, Pazpinned them together and threw them over Leo's shoulders, and as hecontinued to watch the beautiful work Knops explained its character.

  "This is our place for working out designs for those who are unskilledin frost-work. Frostwork is something too delicate for human hands, butin it we excel. Have you never seen on your window-pane of a cold wintermorning the picture of a forest of pines, or sheets of sparkling starsand crystals? I am sure you have. Well, we do all that work on yourwindows, not with artificial snow and ice such as you see here, but bydexterous management we catch the falling flakes and mould them to ourwill, sometimes doing nothing more than spangling a sheet of glass, andagain working out the most elaborate and fantastic marvels ofembroidery. But in art our productions are almost endless. We color thetiniest blades of grass and beds of strawberry leaves until the mossupon which they rest look like velvet with floss needlework. We polishthe chestnuts till they appear as if carved of rosewood. We stripthistles of their prickly coat, and use the down for pillows. Themilk-weed, as it ripens its silken-winged seeds, serves us for manybeautiful purposes. We tint the pebbles of a brook till they comparewith Florentine mosaics. We wreathe and festoon every bare old bowlderand every niche made barren by the winds. Indeed, the list of our workswould fill a volume."

  Leo listened and looked, though his feet were getting numb and hisfingers nearly frozen. Many a time he had seen just such cappings togate-posts and projections as were here being moulded, and just suchrows of pearly drops on a gable's edge; but when, as if to speciallyplease him, the busy workers carved a little snow maid winding a scarfabout her curly locks, he clapped his hands in admiration, making such anoise that each little Esquimau dropped his tool in alarm.

  "Gently! gently!" said Paz and Knops; "they are easily frightened.Though they do not see you, their instinct is so fine that they cannearly guess your presence."

  "I am sorry if I have frightened them," said Leo. "Can't you saysomething to soothe them? Tell them how lovely their things are. I longto try and imitate them."

  Knops said a few words in a language Leo did not comprehend, and thelittle people gathered up their trowels again. But it was time to go,and Leo had to follow his guides and leave the snow people with morereluctance than anything he had yet seen.