CHAPTER I.
The care of a large family is no light matter, as everybody knows. Andthat year I had an unusually large family. No less than seven youngurchins for Mrs. Hedgehog and myself to take care of and start in life;and there was not a prickly parent on this side of the brook, or withinthree fields beyond, who had more than four.
My father's brother had six one year, I know. It was the summer that Imyself was born. I can remember hearing my father and mother talk aboutit before I could see. As these six cousins were discussed in a tone ofinterest and respect which seemed to bear somewhat disparagingly on meand my brother and sisters (there were only four of _us_), I was ratherglad to learn that they also had been born blind. My father used to goand see them, and report their progress to my mother on his return.
"They can see to-day."
"They have curled themselves up. Every one of them. Six beautiful littleballs; as round as crab-apples and as safe as burrs!"
I tried to curl myself up, but I could only get my coat a little wayover my nose. I cried with vexation. But one should not lose heart tooeasily. With patience and perseverance most things can be brought about,and I could soon both see and curl myself into a ball. It was about thistime that my father hurried home one day, tossing the leaves at leastthree inches over his head as he bustled along.
"What in the hedge do you think has happened to the six?" said he.
"Oh, don't tell me!" cried my mother; "I am so nervous." (Which she was,and rather foolish as well, which used to irritate my father, who washasty tempered, as I am myself.)
"They've been taken by gipsies and flitted," said he.
"What do you mean by _flitted_?" inquired my mother.
"A string is tied round a hind-leg of each, and they are tethered in thegrass behind the tent, just as the donkey is tethered. So they willremain till they grow fat, and then they will be cooked."
"Will the donkey be cooked when he is fat?" asked my mother.
"I smell valerian," said my father; on which she put out her nose, andhe ran at it with his prickles. He always did this when he was annoyedwith any member of his family; and though we knew what was coming, weare all so fond of valerian, we could never resist the temptation tosniff, just on the chance of there being some about.
I had long wanted to see my cousins, and I now begged my father to letme go with him the next time he went to visit them. But he was rathercross that morning, and he ran at me with his back up.
"So you want to gad about and be kidnapped and flitted too, do you? Justlet me--"
But when I saw him coming, I rolled myself up as tight as a wood-louse,and as my ears were inside I really did not hear what else he said. ButI was not a whit the less resolved to see my cousins.
One day my father bustled home.
"Upon my whine," said he, "they live on the fat of the land. Scraps ofall kinds, apples, and a dish of bread and milk under their very noses.I sat inside a gorse bush on the bank, and watched them till my mouthwatered."
The next day he reported--
"They've cooked one--in clay. There are only five now."
And the next day--
"They've cooked another. Now there are only four."
"There won't be a cousin left if I wait much longer," thought I.
On the morrow there were only three.
My mother began to cry. "My poor dear nephews and nieces!" said she(though she had never seen them). "What a world this is!"
"We must take it as we eat eggs," said my father, with that air ofwisdom which naturally belongs to the sayings of the head of the family,"the shell with the yolk. And they have certainly had excellentvictuals."
Next morning he went off as usual, and I crept stealthily after him.With his spines laid flat to his sides, and his legs well under him, heran at a good round pace, and as he did not look back I followed himwith impunity. By and by he climbed a bank and then crept into a furzebush, whose prickles were no match for his own. I dared not go rightinto the bush for fear he should see me, but I settled myself as well asI could under shelter of a furze branch, and looked down on to the otherside of the bank, where my father's nose was also directed. And there Isaw my three cousins, tethered as he had said, and apparently very busyover-eating themselves on food which they had not had the trouble ofprocuring.
If I had heard less about the cooking, I might have envied them; as itwas, that somewhat voracious appetite characteristic of my familydisturbed my judgment sufficiently to make me almost long to be flittedmyself. I fancy it must have been when I pushed out my nose and sniffedinvoluntarily towards the victuals, that the gipsy man heard me.
He had been lying on the grass, looking much lazier than mycousins--which is saying a good deal--and only turning his swarthy facewhen the gipsy girl, as she moved about and tended the fire, got out ofthe sight of his eyes. Then he moved so that he could see her again;not, as it seemed, to see what she was doing or to help her to do it,but as leaves move with the wind, or as we unpacked our noses againstour wills when my father said he smelt valerian.
She was very beautiful. Her skin was like a trout pool--clear and yetbrown. I never saw any eyes like her eyes, though our neighbour's--theWater Rat--at times recalls them. Her hair was the colour of ripeblackberries in a hot hedge--very ripe ones, with the bloom on. Shemoved like a snake. I have seen my father chase a snake more than once,and I have seen a good many men and women in my time. Some of them walklike my father, they bustle along and kick up the leaves as he does; andsome of them move quickly and yet softly, as snakes go. The gipsy girlmoved so, and wherever she went the gipsy man's eyes went after her.
Suddenly he turned them on me. For an instant I was paralyzed and stoodstill. I could hear my father bustling down the bank; in a few minuteshe would be at home, where my brother and sisters were safe and sound,whilst I was alone and about to reap the reward of my disobedience, inthe fate of which he had warned me--to be taken by gipsies and flitted.
Nothing, my dear children--my seven dear children--is more fatal in anemergency than indecision. I was half disposed to hurry after my father,and half resolved to curl myself into a ball. I had one foot out andhalf my back rounded, when the gipsy man pinned me to the ground with astick, and the gipsy girl strode up. I could not writhe myself away fromthe stick, but I gazed beseechingly at the gipsy girl and squealed formy life.
"Let the poor little brute go, Basil," she said, laughing. "We've threeflitted still."
"Let it go?" cried the young man scornfully, and with another poke,which I thought had crushed me to bits, though I was still able to cryaloud.
The gipsy girl turned her back and went away with one movement andwithout speaking.
"Sybil!" cried the man; but she did not look round.
"Sybil, I say!"
She was breaking sticks for the fire slowly across her knee, but shemade no answer. He took his stick out of my back, and went after her.
"I've let it go," he said, throwing himself down again, "and a gooddinner has gone with it. But you can do what you like with me--and smallthanks I get for it."
"I can do anything with you but keep you out of mischief," she answered,fixing her eyes steadily on him. He sat up and began to throw stones,aiming them at my three cousins.
"Take me for good and all, instead of tormenting me, and you will," hesaid.
"Will you give up Jemmy and his gang?" she asked; but as he hesitatedfor an instant, she tossed the curls back from her face and moved away,saying, "Not you; for all your talk! And yet for your sake, _I_ wouldgive up--"
He bounded to his feet, but she had put the bonfire between them, andbefore he could get round it, she was on the other side of a tiltedcart, where another woman, in a crimson cloak, sat doing something to adirty pack of cards.
I did not like to see the gipsy man on his feet again, and havingsomewhat recovered breath, I scrambled down the bank and got home asquickly as the stiffness and soreness of my skin would allow.
I never saw my cousins aga
in, and it was long before I saw any moregipsies; for that day's adventure gave me a shock to which my childrenowe the exceeding care and prudence that I display in the choice of oursummer homes and winter retreats, and in repressing every tendency to awandering disposition among the members of my family.
Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men Page 3
