by E. Nesbit
THE RING AND THE LAMP
You are, of course, a singularly intelligent child, and so must oftenhave wondered what has become of all the interesting things that youread about in the old fairy-tales--the shoes of swiftness, and the swordof sharpness, and the cloak that made its wearer invisible, and thingslike that. Well, the fact is all these things are still in the world,hidden about somewhere, only people are so busy with new inventions,wireless telegraphs and X rays, and air-ships, that they don't troubleany more to look for the really interesting things. And if you don'tlook for things, you don't find them--at least, not often; though somelucky persons have only to walk out of doors and adventures happen tothem as readily as breakfast and bed happen to ordinary folk. But whenpeople do find any of the wonderful old treasures they generally holdtheir tongues about it, because it is so difficult to make peoplebelieve the truth if it is at all out of the way. Two of the wonderthings out of the old stories were found only the other day by a littlegirl in Sussex; and she never told anyone but me and one other person. Ioften have things told me that no one else ever hears of, becauseeveryone knows that I can believe anything.
The little-girl-in-Sussex's name was Seraphina Bodlett. She did notbelong to Sussex, having been born in Tooting; but she was staying at aSussex farmhouse for the summer holidays. It was the very nicest placeto stay at, plenty of room to play in--all the Sussex Downs, infact--and plenty of animals to pet and feed. The only thing was that allthe other people at the farm were grown up, and Seraphina longed verymuch for someone to play with. The farmer's daughter, Miss Patty, wasvery kind, and always quite willing to play Halma; only it happened thatHalma was not what Seraphina wanted to play.
It was summer, and Seraphina went to bed early, while it was stilldaylight. She used to lie awake in the big four-post bed, with the whitedimity curtains, and look at the latticed window and the oak chest ofdrawers with the shell boxes on it, and try to make herself dream thatshe had another little girl to play with. But she always surprisedherself by waking up in the morning without having dreamed of anythingat all.
The best parlour at the farm was a very nice place, but Seraphina (whosename takes so long to write that I think I had better call her Fina, aseveryone else did) was not usually allowed to play there, and the blindswere always drawn down exactly halfway, because that is genteel.
Sometimes Fina was taken into the parlour by Miss Patty, and then MissPatty would bring out the curiosities that her brother the sailor hadbrought home from his voyages: South Sea necklaces of seeds and beadsand cut-up reeds, and fat idols from India, with far more arms than mostof us could find a use for. Then there were beady pincushions made byseamen, and a stuffed parrot exactly like life, except that one eye wasout, and Chinese junks in beautiful carved ivory, and a pagoda (orChinese temple), and that was of ivory too, and all carved out of onesolid block, Miss Patty said. Fina loved the pagoda best of all thecuriosities. You could see right into it. It was a tower with sevenstories, and it had little gold bells on it that rang when Miss Pattytook off the glass case and gently shook the wooden stand. Of course,Fina was never allowed to shake it herself.
'Where did it come from?' She asked this question every time she wasshown the pagoda.
'It came from the Emperor of China's own Summer Palace at Pekin,' MissPatty always said; 'but my brother Bob never would tell me how he gotit.'
Then, when Fina had had a last peep through the windows of the pagoda,the glass case would be put on again, and Fina would be told to 'runalong now and play.'
One day she was 'running along and playing' when she met a playfellow.It was a fat foxhound puppy, very clumsy and very affectionate. They hada romp together, and then the puppy blundered off, and Fina went indoorsto wash her hands, because the puppy's idea of a romp had been a roll inthe dust, which Fina had gladly consented to share.
But as she passed the door of the best parlour she stopped a minute, forthe door was open. It was the day for cleaning out the room, but MissPatty had stopped in the middle of the cleaning to go to the back-doorto see a pedlar who had some really wonderful bargains in handkerchiefsand silk dresses, and mixed white pins and back-hair combs. Fina oftenwondered afterwards whether that pedlar was a real pedlar or a magicianin disguise.
Now, Fina was an obedient little girl. She did _not_ slip into theparlour to have a look round just because the door was open and no onewas about. But she had not been forbidden to _look_ in, if she got thechance, so she stood at the door and looked at the stuffed parrot, andthe junk, and the rest of the things; and as she looked she started, andsaid:
'_Oh!_ it will tumble down--I know it will--if a door banged even!'
And just then the front-door _did_ bang, and the pagoda trembled; for itwas standing at the very edge of the chiffonnier, and one of the littleblack, carved claw-feet of its stand was actually overhanging thechiffonnier edge.
'I _must_ stand it steady,' said Fina. 'If I go and tell Miss Patty itmay tumble off before I get back.'
So she went quickly in and took the glass case and stand and pagoda verycarefully in her hands to move them back to a safe place.
It was this very moment that the foxhound puppy chose for rushingin--all wriggle and bark and clumsy paws--and plunging between Fina'sfeet. She reeled, staggered, and she, the puppy, the stand, the glasscase, and the precious pagoda, all went down together in a crushingheap.
When Fina picked herself up the puppy's tail was just disappearing roundthe door, and at her feet lay a scattered heap of splintered ivory andglass, the hopeless ruins of the beautiful pagoda.
Her heart seemed to stand still, and then began to beat so hard and fastthat she felt as though she had a steam-engine in her chest.
Her hands trembled so much that she could hardly pick up the pieces; butshe did begin to pick them up.
'Perhaps it could be mended,' she said, 'with glue or white of egg, likenurse did the china basin; only the pieces are so small and chippety,some of them, that I don't see how you could ever fit them together. AndMiss Patty will be in in a minute! Oh, I wish I was somebody else andnot me! Oh, whatever will she say?'
Among the shivered splinters of ivory the little gold bells werescattered.
'But what's that?' said Fina. 'It's not a bell or----'
She picked whatever it was up from among the shattered ivory and glass.It was a gold ring, thick and beautiful, with a strange design on itlike on the sides of tea-caddies. She slipped it on her hand to keep itsafe while she went on with the dismal work of picking up the pieces.And then, suddenly, the dreadfulness of the deed she had done--thoughquite the puppy's fault, and not hers at all--came over her. She beganto breathe quickly and then to make faces, and in a moment she wassobbing and sniffing, and rubbing her wet eyes with her knuckles, stilldirty from her politeness in letting the puppy choose what game she andit should play at.
She was roused from her crying by a voice, and it was not Miss Patty'svoice. It said:
'Your servant, miss. What can I have the pleasure of doing for you?'
She took her knuckles out of her eyes, and saw, from between her verydirty eyelids, a tall footman who was bowing respectfully before her.He was dressed wonderfully in green satin--his large and lovely legswore white silk stockings, and his hair was powdered till it was aswhite as the inside of a newly-sheared fleece.
'"Your servant, Miss. Do I understand that you order meto mend this?"'--Page 207.]
'Thank you,' said Fina, sobbing, but polite; 'no one can do anythingfor me, unless they can mend all this, and of course nobody can.'
'Your servant, miss,' said the footman. 'Do I understand that you orderme to mend this?'
'If you can,' said Fina, a ray of hope lighting her blighted existence;'but, of course----WHAT?'
The pagoda stood on the table _mended_! Indeed, it seemed as thoughthere had never been any breaking. It was there, safe and sound as ithad always been, on its ebony stand, with the shining bubble of itsglass case rising dome-like over it.
T
he footman had vanished.
'_Well!_' said Fina, 'I suppose it was all a waking dream. How horrible!I've read of waking dreams, but I didn't know there were ever wakingnightmares. Perhaps I better _had_ wash my hands--and my face,' sheadded, when she saw it, round, red, and streaked with mud (made of dustand tears), in the glass of the chiffonnier.
She dipped her face in fresh water in the willow-patterned basin in herbig attic bedroom. Then she washed her hands. And as she began to rubthe soap on she heard a noise.
'Your servant, miss. What can I have the pleasure of doing for you?'
And there was that footman again.
'Who are you?' said Fina. 'Why do you follow me about?'
'I am the Slave of the Ring, please, miss,' replied the footman, withanother bow. 'And, of course, when you rubs it I appears.'
'The Slave of the Ring?' said Fina, letting the soapsuds drip from herhands to the carpet. 'Do you mean Aladdin's ring?'
'The ring belonged to the gentleman you mentions at one time, miss.'
'But I thought the Slave of the Ring was a genie--a great, foaming,fierce, black slave in a turban.'
'Times is changed, miss,' said the footman. 'In this here civilisedcountry there aren't no slaves, only servants. You have to keep up withthe times, even if you're a----'
'But I thought the Slave of the Ring spoke Chinese?'
'So I does, miss, when in that country. But whatever'd be the use oftalking Chinese to you?'
'But tell me--oh, there's the dinner-bell! Look here, I wish you'd notkeep appearing so suddenly. It does startle me so.'
'Then don't you go on rubbing the ring sudden, miss. It's that as doesit. Nothing I can do for you, miss?'
'Not now,' said Fina, and he vanished as she spoke.
When Fina sat down to dinner in the farm kitchen--a very nice dinner itwas, boiled pork and beans, and a treacle-tart to follow--she picked upher horn-handled knife and fork and clutched them hard. They felt realenough. But the footman--she must have dreamed him, and the ring. Shehad left the ring in the dressing-table drawer upstairs, for fear sheshould rub it accidentally. She knew what a start it would give MissPatty and the farmer if a genie footman suddenly appeared from nowhereand stood behind their chairs at dinner.
Miss Patty seemed very cheerful.
'It _was_ a piece of luck, father, wasn't it, that pedlar wantingChinese things? He gave me two pieces of broadcloth that'll cut intothree or four coats for you, and a length of black silk that rich it'llstand alone, and ten pounds in gold, and half a dozen silkneck-squares.'
'Yes,' said the farmer, 'it was a good bargain for you; and Bob give youthe pagoda, and you've a right to do as you like with your own.'
'Oh, Miss Patty,' said Fina, 'you've never been and sold the pagoda--thebeautiful, darling pagoda?'
'Yes, I have, dear; but never mind, I'll buy you a new doll out of themoney I got for it.'
'Thank you,' said Fina; but the pork and beans did not taste so nice nowshe knew that the pretty pagoda was sold. Also she was rather worriedabout the ring. Ought she to keep it? She had found it, of course, butsomeone must have lost it. Yet she couldn't bear to give it up, when shehadn't made the slave of it do a single thing for her, except to mendthe pagoda.
After dinner Fina went and got the ring. She was very careful not to rubit till she was safe and alone in a quiet green nook in the little woodat the end of the garden, where the hazels and sweet chestnuts andhornbeams grew so closely that she was quite hidden.
Then she rubbed the ring, and instantly the footman was there. But therewas no room for him to stand up under the thicket, so he appearedkneeling, and trying to bow in that position.
'Then it's not a dream?' said she.
'How often I have heard them very words!' said the Slave of the Ring.
'I want you to tell me things,' said Fina. 'Do sit down; you look souncomfortable like that.'
'Thank you, miss,' said the footman; 'you're very thoughtful for a childof your age, and of this age, too! Service ain't what it was.'
'Now, tell me,' she said, 'where did the ring come from?'
'There's seven secrets I ain't allowed to tell,' the footman said, 'andthat there what you asked me's one of them; but the ring's as old asold--I can tell you that.'
'But I mean where did it come from just now--when I found it?'
'Oh, _then_. Why, it come out of the pagoda, of course. The floor of thethird story was made double, and the ring was stuck between the floor ofthat and the ceiling of the second floor, and when you smashed thepagoda o' course it rolled out. The pagoda was made o' purpose to takecare of the ring.'
'Who made it?' asked Fina.
'I did,' said the genie proudly.
'And now,' said Fina, 'what shall we do?'
'Excuse me,' the footman said firmly; 'one thing I'm _not_ bound to dois to give advice.'
'But you'll do anything else I tell you?'
'Yes, miss--almost anything. I'll talk to you willing, I will, and tellyou my life's sorrows.'
'I should like that some other time,' said Fina, 'but just now, perhaps,you'd better get me a doll.'
And a doll lay at her feet among the dead leaves. It was a farthingDutch doll.
'You didn't say what sort of a doll,' said the footman, when she hadrubbed the ring and he had reappeared, and she had reproached him. 'I'vebeen in service long enough to do exactly what I am told. My life-sorrowhas been----'
'I say,' Fina said suddenly, 'can't you get the pagoda back for me?'
Instantly the pagoda was there and the footman was not. Fina spent theafternoon playing with the beautiful ivory toy, but when it was tea-timeshe had to ask the genie footman to take it away again, for she darednot face the questions and she could not invent the explanations thatwould have followed if she had turned up at the house with the pagodaunder her arm.
You will think that Fina ought to have been the happiest of littlegirls, now that she had a genie footman Slave of the Ring in a greencoat to get her anything she wanted, and run her errands on hisbeautiful balustrade-like white silk legs. But this was not so.
It was all very well to go into the wood every day and make the footmanfetch her the most beautiful dolls and toys and sweets, but even sweetsare dull if you eat them alone; and what is the use of toys, or evenpagodas, if you have no one to show them to, and dare not have themexcept in a secret corner of the wood?
She tried to get the footman to play with her, but he said that was alittle more than anyone could expect, and began again about his sorrows;and as for getting him to take any interest in the wonderful things hefetched for her, she felt at once that these were nothing to a geniefootman with such a jewelled and exciting past as his.
She was not a very clever little girl. She wished for a white pony, and,of course, it came, but there was no room for it in the wood, and itwalked on her foot and tried to bite her, and she hastily had to send itaway. She wished for a pet lamb, but it baaed so loudly that she wasalmost discovered by the farmer, so that had to go too. And she hadbeen wishing for these vain and unsatisfying things for more than a weekbefore she thought of asking for a little girl to play with.
The genie brought a little girl at once, but she was a horrid littlegirl, with a red pigtail and a green frock trimmed with black beadtrimming, and she broke the toys and laughed at Fina when she tried totell her the story of the pagoda and the Ring Slave. Also there was noroom to play in the secret nook in the wood, and when the little girlhad slapped Fina and taken the pagoda away from her it seemed best toask the genie to take the little girl herself away. Fina never saw heragain, and never wanted to either!
At last Fina knew that what she really wanted was not only someone toplay with, but a good place to play in, so she shut her eyes andthought--as hard as a not very clever person of eight can think--andthen she rubbed the ring and said:
'Please take me somewhere where there is a little girl who will playwith me, a nice little girl, and room to play in.'
And at on
ce the wood vanished--like a magic-lantern picture when thekind clergyman who is showing it changes the slide--and she was in astrange room.
'The little girl had slapped Fina and taken the pagodaaway.'--Page 214.]
It was a nursery--very large and light. There were flowers at thewindow, and pictures on the walls, and many toys. And on a couch,covered with a bright green rug with yellow daisies embroidered on it,lay a little girl with pretty yellow hair and kind, merry blue eyes.
'_Oh!_' said the little girl, very much astonished.
'_Oh!_' said Fina, at the same minute, and with the same quantity ofastonishment.
'I've come to play with you, if you'll let me,' said Fina.
'How lovely! But how did you get in?'
'The Slave of the Ring brought me.'
'The Slave of the Ring! How wonderful!'
'Yes, isn't it? What's your name?'
'Ella.'
'Mine's Fina. Wouldn't you like to see my Ring Slave, Ella?'
'Yes--oh yes!' Ella was laughing softly.
Fina rubbed the ring and the footman genie appeared, his silk legs morebeautifully silk than ever.
'Please fetch the pagoda.'
The pagoda toppled on to the couch, and the genie vanished, as healways did when he had executed an order.
When Ella had admired the pagoda, which she did very thoroughly andsatisfyingly, she said:
'And now I'll show you _mine_!'
She pulled a battered iron thing from under her pillow and rubbed it.Instantly a very grand stout gentleman in evening dress stood beforethem. He had most respectable whiskers, and he said:
'What can I do for you, madam?'
'Who is it?' whispered Fina.
'It's the Slave of the Lamp,' said Ella. 'He says he's disguised as aperfect butler because times have changed so since _his_ time.'
'Send him away,' said Fina.
'Oh, dear Ella,' she went on, when they were alone, 'tell me all aboutyours, and I'll tell you all about mine.'
'Well,' said Ella, 'I found the lamp at the seaside, just before I hurtmy back. I fell off the sea-wall, you know, and I shan't be able to walkfor ever so long. And one day I rubbed it by accident, and since then mybeautiful perfect butler gets me anything I want. Look here, I'll tellhim to make it like it was yesterday.'
The lamp was rubbed, the order given, and the nursery became a palacehall hung with cloth of gold and blazing with jewels and softly-colouredlamps.
'But can't your butler cure your back?'
'No. Time is the only genie who can do that, my butler says. You don'tknow how I've wanted someone to show it all to! But I never thought ofwishing for you. It's only a week since I found the lamp----'
'Do they leave you alone all the time?'
'Oh no, only when I say I'm sleepy; and my butler has orders to changeeverything to ordinary directly the door-handle turns.'
'Have you told anyone?'
'Oh _no_! My butler says if you tell anyone grown-up that you've got thelamp it will vanish away. I can't remember whether it's like that in the"Arabian Nights"; perhaps it's a new rule.'
The two little girls talked all the afternoon about the wonderful thingsthey would make their slaves do for them, and they were so contentedwith each other's company that they never once called on their slavesfor anything.
But when Fina began to feel the inside feeling that means teatime, sherubbed the ring for her slave to take her back to the farm.
'I'll get my slave to take me to see you home,' said Ella. 'He can carryme quite without hurting me.'
So she rubbed the lamp, and the stately butler instantly appeared.
'Please----' Ella began; but the glorious butler interrupted.
'James,' he said to the footman, 'what are you doing here?'
'I'm in service with this young lady, Mr. Lamp, sir.'
'Give me the ring, James.'
And instantly the footman took the ring, very gently but quiteirresistibly, from Fina's finger, and handed it to the butler.
'Oh _no_!' Fina cried, 'you've no right to take my ring. And he's noright to obey you. He's _my_ slave.'
'Excuse me, madam,' said the butler, looking more and more perfect, andmore and more the sort of person who is sure to know best, 'he is not_your_ slave. He is the Slave of the Ring. But then, you see, he is afootman, and footmen have to obey butlers all the world over.'
'"We'll see if you are going to begin a-ordering of meabout."'--Page 219.]
'That's so, miss,' said the footman; 'but the lamp's stronger than thering.' He snatched up the lamp. 'Now, then,' he said, turning fiercelyto the butler, 'we'll see if you're going to begin a-orderin' of meabout!'
The butler so far forgot himself as to scratch his head thoughtfully.
'Yes,' he said, after a pause; 'I've got to own that you've got thebetter of me there, James Rings. But why dispute--which is beneath thedignity of a six-foot footman like yourself, to say nothing of thedignity of a butler, which is a thing words can't do justice to? You'remy slave because I've got the ring and because I'm a butler and you're afootman. And I'm your slave because you've got the lamp. It's half adozen of one and six and a half of the other. Can't we come to someagreement between ourselves, James?'
'Oh,' cried Ella, 'what about _us_?'
'We are excessively sorry to cause any inconvenience, madam,' said thebutler, 'but we give you five minutes' notice. We are leaving servicefor good.'
'Oh, Lamps!' cried Ella. 'And you were always such a beautiful butler. Ithought you enjoyed being it.'
'Don't you make any mistake, miss,' the footman put in. 'Nobody _enjoys_being in service, though they has to put up with it. Me and Mr. Lamps isretiring from service. Perhaps we may take a little business and go intopartnership, and always wishing you well, young ladies both.'
'But,' said Fina, 'you _can't_ go and leave me here! Why, I should neverget home. I don't so much as know what county I'm in.'
'You're in Auckland, miss,' said James.
'There isn't such a country.'
'Pardon me, madam,' said the butler, 'there is. In New Zealand.'
'Don't cry, miss,' said James. 'If Mr. Lamps 'll only give the word,I'll take you home.'
'And then I shall never see Ella again.'
'Oh, tell Lamps to rub the ring and tell you to arrange for me to comeand live near her in England,' cried Ella; 'if he'll do that I don'tcare. I'd rather have a friend than twenty slaves.'
'A very proper sentiment, ma'am,' said the butler approvingly. 'Is thereany other little thing we could do to oblige you?'
'The pagoda,' said Fina. 'If you could only get it back to Miss Patty,so that she won't lose the things she sold it for, and won't know aboutthe ring having been in it.'
'Consider it done, madam,' said the Slave of the Lamp, stroking hisrespectable butlerial whisker. 'Now, if you're ready, your footman shallsee you home.'
'Good-bye, oh, good-bye,' said the little girls, kissing each other verymuch.
Then Fina shut her eyes, and there she was in the wood in Sussex--alone.
'Now, _have_ I dreamed it all?' she said, and went slowly home to tea.
The first thing she saw on the tea-table was the pagoda! And the nextwas a brown-faced sailor eating hot buttered toast in the Windsorarmchair.
'Well may you look!' said Miss Patty; 'this is my brother Bob, newlyarrived from foreign parts. And he met that pedlar and bought the pagodaoff him for two pounds and a highly-coloured cockatoo he was bringinghome. And these ten sovereigns the wicked old man gave me are bad ones.But the dresses and the cloth are good. It's a wonderful world!'
Fina thought so too.
Now, the oddest thing about all this is that six months later some newpeople came to live in the house next door to the house where Fina livedin Tooting. And those new people came from New Zealand. And one of themwas called Ella!
Fina knew her at once, but Ella had forgotten her, and forgotten thebeautiful perfect butler and the perfect footman, and the lamp and
thering, and everything. Perhaps a long sea-voyage is bad for the memory.Anyway, the two little girls are close friends, and Ella loves to hearFina tell the story of the two slaves, though she doesn't believe a wordof it.
Fina's father and Ella's father have left Tooting now. They live inlovely houses at Haslemere. And Fina has a white pony and Ella has abrown one. Their fathers are very rich now. They both got situations asmanagers to branch houses of Messrs. Lamps, Rings, and Co., ElectricalEngineers. Mr. Lamps attends to the lighting department, and Mr. Ringsis at the head of the bells, which always ring beautifully. And I hearthat Ella's father and Fina's father are likely to be taken intopartnership. Mr. Bodlett has bought the pagoda, at Fina's earnestrequest, and it stands on a sideboard in his handsome drawing-room.Fina sometimes asks it whether she really did dream the whole story ornot. But it never says a word.
Of course, you and I know that every word of the story is true.