by E. Nesbit
V
SEPTIMUS SEPTIMUSSON
The wind was screaming over the marsh. It shook the shutters and rattledthe windows, and the little boy lay awake in the bare attic. His mothercame softly up the ladder stairs shading the flame of the tallow candlewith her hand.
'I'm not asleep, mother,' said he. And she heard the tears in his voice.
'Why, silly lad,' she said, sitting down on the straw-bed beside him andputting the candle on the floor, 'what are you crying for?'
'It's the wind keeps calling me, mother,' he said. 'It won't let mealone. It never has since I put up the little weather-cock for it toplay with. It keeps saying, "Wake up, Septimus Septimusson, wake up,you're the seventh son of a seventh son. You can see the fairies andhear the beasts speak, and you must go out and seek your fortune." AndI'm afraid, and I don't want to go.'
'I should think not indeed,' said his mother. 'The wind doesn't talk,Sep, not really. You just go to sleep like a good boy, and I'll getfather to bring you a gingerbread pig from the fair to-morrow.'
But Sep lay awake a long time listening to what the wind really did keepon saying, and feeling ashamed to think how frightened he was of goingout all alone to seek his fortune--a thing all the boys in books wereonly too happy to do.
Next evening father brought home the loveliest gingerbread pig withcurrant eyes. Sep ate it, and it made him less anxious than ever to goout into the world where, perhaps, no one would give him gingerbreadpigs ever any more.
Before he went to bed he ran down to the shore where a great new harbourwas being made. The workmen had been blasting the big rocks, and on oneof the rocks a lot of mussels were sticking. He stood looking at them,and then suddenly he heard a lot of little voices crying, 'Oh Sep, we'reso frightened, we're choking.'
The voices were thin and sharp as the edges of mussel shells. They wereindeed the voices of the mussels themselves.
'Oh dear,' said Sep, 'I'm so sorry, but I can't move the rock back intothe sea, you know. Can I now?'
'No,' said the mussels, 'but if you speak to the wind,--you know hislanguage and he's very fond of you since you made that toy forhim,--he'll blow the sea up till the waves wash us back into deepwater.'
'But I'm afraid of the wind,' said Sep, 'it says things that frightenme.'
'Oh very well,' said the mussels, 'we don't want you to be afraid. Wecan die all right if necessary.'
Then Sep shivered and trembled.
'Go away,' said the thin sharp voices. 'We'll die--but we'd rather diein our own brave company.'
'I know I'm a coward,' said Sep. 'Oh, wait a minute.'
'Death won't wait,' said the little voices.
'I can't speak to the wind, I won't,' said Sep, and almost at the samemoment he heard himself call out, 'Oh wind, please come and blow up thewaves to save the poor mussels.'
The wind answered with a boisterous shout--
'All right, my boy,' it shrieked, 'I'm coming.' And come it did. Andwhen it had attended to the mussels it came and whispered to Sep in hisattic. And to his great surprise, instead of covering his head with thebed-clothes, as usual, and trying not to listen, he found himselfsitting up in bed and talking to the wind, man to man.
'Why,' he said, 'I'm not afraid of you any more.'
'Of course not, we're friends now,' said the wind. 'That's because wejoined together to do a kindness to some one. There's nothing like thatfor making people friends.'
'Oh,' said Sep.
'Yes,' said the wind, 'and now, old chap, when will you go out and seekyour fortune? Remember how poor your father is, and the fortune, if youfind it, won't be just for you, but for your father and mother and theothers.'
'Oh,' said Sep, 'I didn't think of that.'
'Yes,' said the wind, 'really, my dear fellow, I do hate to bother you,but it's better to fix a time. Now when shall we start?'
'We?' said Sep. 'Are you going with me?'
'I'll see you a bit of the way,' said the wind. 'What do you say now?Shall we start to-night? There's no time like the present.'
'I do hate going,' said Sep.
'Of course you do!' said the wind, cordially. 'Come along. Get into yourthings, and we'll make a beginning.'
So Sep dressed, and he wrote on his slate in very big letters, 'Gone toseek our fortune,' and he put it on the table so that his mother shouldsee it when she came down in the morning. And he went out of the cottageand the wind kindly shut the door after him.
The wind gently pushed him down to the shore, and there he got into hisfather's boat, which was called the _Septimus and Susie_, after hisfather and mother, and the wind carried him across to another countryand there he landed.
'Now,' said the wind, clapping him on the back, 'off you go, and goodluck to you!'
And it turned round and took the boat home again.
When Sep's mother found the writing on the slate, and his father foundthe boat gone they feared that Sep was drowned, but when the windbrought the boat back wrong way up, they were quite sure, and they bothcried for many a long day.
The wind tried to tell them that Sep was all right, but they couldn'tunderstand wind-talk, and they only said, 'Drat the wind,' and fastenedthe shutters up tight, and put wedges in the windows.
Sep walked along the straight white road that led across the newcountry. He had no more idea how to look for _his_ fortune than youwould have if you suddenly left off reading this and went out of yourfront door to seek _yours_.
However, he had made a start, and that is always something. When he hadgone exactly seven miles on that straight foreign road, between strangetrees, and bordered with flowers he did not know the names of, he hearda groaning in the wood, and some one sighing and saying, 'Oh, how hardit is, to have to die and never see my wife and the little cubs again.'
The voice was rough as a lion's mane, and strong as a lion's claws, andSep was very frightened. But he said, 'I'm not afraid,' and then oddlyenough he found he had spoken the truth--he wasn't afraid.
He broke through the bushes and found that the person who had spoken wasindeed a lion. A javelin had pierced its shoulder and fastened it to agreat tree.
'All right,' cried Sep, 'hold still a minute, sir.'
He got out his knife and cut and cut at the shaft of the javelin till hewas able to break it off. Then the lion drew back and the broken shaftpassed through the wound and the broken javelin was left sticking in thetree.
'I'm really extremely obliged, my dear fellow,' said the lion warmly.'Pray command me, if there's any little thing I can do for you at anytime.'
'Don't mention it,' said Sep with proper politeness, 'delighted to havebeen of use to you, I'm sure.'
So they parted. As Sep scrambled through the bushes back to the road hekicked against an axe that lay on the ground.
'Hullo,' said he, 'some poor woodman's dropped this, and not been ableto find it. I'll take it along--perhaps I may meet him.'
He was getting very tired and very hungry, and presently he sat down torest under a chestnut-tree, and he heard two little voices talking inthe branches, voices soft as a squirrel's fur, and bright as asquirrel's eyes. They were, indeed, the voices of two squirrels.
'Hush,' said one, 'there's some one below.'
'Oh,' said the other, 'it's a horrid boy. Let's scurry away.'
'I'm not a horrid boy,' said Sep. 'I'm the seventh son of a seventhson.'
'Oh,' said Mrs. Squirrel, 'of course that makes all the difference. Havesome nuts?'
'Rather,' said Sep. 'At least I mean, yes, if you please.'
So the squirrels brought nuts down to him, and when he had eaten as manyas he wanted they filled his pockets, and then in return he chopped allthe lower boughs off the chestnut-tree, so that boys who were _not_seventh sons could not climb up and interfere with the squirrels'housekeeping arrangements.
Then they parted, the best of friends, and Sep went on.
'I haven't found my fortune yet,' said he, 'but I've made a friend ortwo.'
And just as he
was saying that, he turned a corner of the road and metan old gentleman in a fur-lined coat riding a fine, big, grey horse.
'Hullo!' said the gentleman. 'Who are you, and where are you off to sobright and early?'
'I'm Septimus Septimusson,' said Sep, 'and I'm going to seek myfortune.'
'And you've taken an axe to help you carve your way to glory?'
'No,' said Sep, 'I found it, and I suppose some one lost it. So I'mbringing it along in case I meet him.'
'Heavy, isn't it?' said the old gentleman.
'Yes,' said Sep.
'Then I'll carry it for you,' said the old gentleman, 'for it's one thatmy head forester lost yesterday. And now come along with me, for you'rethe boy I've been looking for for seven years--an honest boy and theseventh son of a seventh son.'
So Sep went home with the gentleman, who was a great lord in thatcountry, and he lived in that lord's castle and was taught everythingthat a gentleman ought to know. And in return he told the lord all aboutthe ways of birds and beasts--for as he understood their talk he knewmore about them than any one else in that country. And the lord wrote itall down in a book, and half the people said it was wonderfully clever,and the other half said it was nonsense, and how could he know. This wasfame, and the lord was very pleased. But though the old lord was sofamous he would not leave his castle, for he had a hump that anenchanter had fastened on to him, and he couldn't bear to be seen withit.
'But you'll get rid of it for me some day, my boy,' he used to say. 'Noone but the seventh son of a seventh son and an honest boy can do it. Soall the doctors say.'
So Sep grew up. And when he was twenty-one--straight as a lance andhandsome as a picture--the old lord said to him.
'My boy, you've been like a son to me, but now it's time you got marriedand had sons of your own. Is there any girl you'd like to marry?'
'No,' said Sep, 'I never did care much for girls.'
The old lord laughed.
'Then you must set out again and seek your fortune once more,' he said,'because no man has really found his fortune till he's found the ladywho is his heart's lady. Choose the best horse in the stable, and offyou go, lad, and my blessing go with you.'
So Sep chose a good red horse and set out, and he rode straight to thegreat city, that shone golden across the plain, and when he got there hefound every one crying.
'Why, whatever is the matter?' said Sep, reining in the red horse infront of a smithy, where the apprentices were crying on to the fires,and the smith was dropping tears on the anvil.
'Why the Princess is dying,' said the blacksmith blowing his nose. 'Anasty, wicked magician--he had a spite against the King, and he got atthe Princess when she was playing ball in the garden, and now she'sblind and deaf and dumb. And she won't eat.'
'And she'll die,' said the first apprentice.
'And she _is_ such a dear,' said the other apprentice.
Sep sat still on the red horse thinking.
'Has anything been done?' he asked.
'Oh yes,' said the blacksmith. 'All the doctors have seen her, but theycan't do anything. And the King has advertised in the usual way, thatany one who can cure her may marry her. But it's no good. King's sonsaren't what they used to be. A silly lot they are nowadays, all taken upwith football and cricket and golf.'
'Humph,' said Sep, 'thank you. Which is the way to the palace?'
The blacksmith pointed, and then burst into tears again. Sep rode on.
When he got to the palace he asked to see the King. Every one there wascrying too, from the footman who opened the door to the King, who wassitting upon his golden throne and looking at his fine collection ofbutterflies through floods of tears.
'Oh dear me yes, young man,' said the King, 'you may _see_ her andwelcome, but it's no good.'
'We can but try,' said Sep. So he was taken to the room where thePrincess sat huddled up on her silver throne among the white velvetcushions with her crown all on one side, crying out of her poor blindeyes, so that the tears ran down over her green gown with the red roseson it.
And directly he saw her he knew that she was the only girl, Princess asshe was, with a crown and a throne, who could ever be his heart's lady.He went up to her and kneeled at her side and took her hand and kissedit. The Princess started. She could not see or hear him, but at thetouch of his hand and his lips she knew that he was her heart's lord,and she threw her arms round his neck, and cried more than ever.
He held her in his arms and stroked her hair till she stopped crying,and then he called for bread and milk. This was brought in a silverbasin, and he fed her with it as you feed a little child.
The news ran through the city, 'The Princess has eaten,' and all thebells were set ringing. Sep said good-night to his Princess and went tobed in the best bedroom of the palace. Early in the grey morning he gotup and leaned out of the open window and called to his old friend thewind.
And the wind came bustling in and clapped him on the back, crying,'Well, my boy, and what can I do for you? Eh?'
Sep told him all about the Princess.
'Well,' said the wind, 'you've not done so badly. At any rate you've gother love. And you couldn't have got that with anybody's help but yourown. Now, of course, the thing to do is to find the wicked Magician.'
'Of course,' said Sep.
'Well--I travel a good deal--I'll keep my eyes open, and let you knowif I hear anything.'
Sep spent the day holding the Princess's hand, and feeding her at mealtimes; and that night the wind rattled his window and said, 'Let me in.'
It came in very noisily, and said, 'Well, I've found your Magician, he'sin the forest pretending to be a mole.'
'How can I find him?' said Sep.
'Haven't you any friends in the forest?' asked the wind.
Then Sep remembered his friends the squirrels, and he mounted his horseand rode away to the chestnut-tree where they lived. They were charmedto see him grown so tall and strong and handsome, and when he had toldthem his story they said at once--
'Oh yes! delighted to be of any service to you.' And they called to alltheir little brothers and cousins, and uncles and nephews to search theforest for a mole that wasn't really a mole, and quite soon they foundhim, and hustled and shoved him along till he was face to face with Sep,in a green glade. The glade was green, but all the bushes and treesaround were red-brown with squirrel fur, and shining bright withsquirrel eyes.
Then Sep said, 'Give the Princess back her eyes and her hearing and hervoice.'
But the mole would not.
'Give the Princess back her eyes and her hearing and her voice,' saidSep again. But the mole only gnashed his wicked teeth and snarled.
And then in a minute the squirrels fell on the mole and killed it, andSep thanked them and rode back to the palace, for, of course, he knewthat when a magician is killed, all his magic unworks itself instantly.
But when he got to his Princess she was still as deaf as a post and asdumb as a stone, and she was still crying bitterly with her poor blindeyes, till the tears ran down her grass-green gown with the red roses onit.
'Cheer up, my sweetheart,' he said, though he knew she couldn't hearhim, and as he spoke the wind came in at the open window, and spoke verysoftly, because it was in the presence of the Princess.
'All right,' it whispered, 'the old villain gave us the slip thatjourney. Got out of the mole-skin in the very nick of time. He's a wildboar now.'
'Come,' said Sep, fingering his sword-hilt, 'I'll kill that myselfwithout asking it any questions.'
So he went and fought it. But it was a most uncommon boar, as big as ahorse, with tusks half a yard long; and although Sep wounded it itjerked the sword out of his hand with its tusk, and was just going totrample him out of life with its hard, heavy pigs'-feet, when a greatroar sounded through the forest.
'Ah! would ye?' said the lion, and fastened teeth and claws in the greatboar's back. The boar turned with a scream of rage, but the lion had gota good grip, and it did not loosen teeth
or claws till the boar layquiet.
'Is he dead?' asked Sep when he came to himself.
'Oh yes, he's _dead_ right enough,' said the lion; but the wind came uppuffing and blowing, and said:
'It's no good, he's got away again, and now he's a fish. I was just aminute too late to see _what_ fish. An old oyster told me about it, onlyhe hadn't the wit to notice what particular fish the scoundrel changedinto.'
So then Sep went back to the palace, and he said to the King:
'Let me marry the dear Princess, and we'll go out and seek our fortune.I've got to kill that Magician, and I'll do it too, or my name's notSeptimus Septimusson. But it may take years and years, and I can't beaway from the Princess all that time, because she won't eat unless Ifeed her. You see the difficulty, Sire?'
The King saw it. And that very day Sep was married to the Princess inher green gown with the red roses on it, and they set out together.
The wind went with them, and the wind, or something else, seemed to sayto Sep, 'Go home, take your wife home to your mother.'
So he did. He crossed the land and he crossed the sea, and he went upthe red-brick path to his father's cottage, and he peeped in at the doorand said:
'Father, mother, here's my wife.'
They were so pleased to see him--for they had thought him dead, thatthey didn't notice the Princess at first, and when they did notice herthey wondered at her beautiful face and her beautiful gown--but itwasn't till they had all settled down to supper--boiled rabbit itwas--and they noticed Sep feeding his wife as one feeds a baby that theysaw that she was blind.
And then all the story had to be told.
'Well, well,' said the fisherman, 'you and your wife bide here with us.I daresay I'll catch that old sinner in my nets one of these fine days.'But he never did. And Sep and his wife lived with the old people. Andthey were happy after a fashion--but of an evening Sep used to wanderand wonder, and wonder and wander by the sea-shore, wondering as hewandered whether he wouldn't ever have the luck to catch that fish.
And one evening as he wandered wondering he heard a little, sharp, thinvoice say:
'Sep. I've got it.'
'What?' asked Sep, forgetting his manners.
'I've got it,' said a big mussel on a rock close by him, 'the magicstone that the Magician does his enchantments with. He dropped it out ofhis mouth and I shut my shells on it--and now he's sweeping up and downthe sea like a mad fish, looking for it--for he knows he can neverchange into anything else unless he gets it back. Here, take the nastything, it's making me feel quite ill.'
It opened its shells wide, and Sep saw a pearl. He reached out his handand took it.
'That's better,' said the mussel, washing its shells out with saltwater.
'Can _I_ do magic with it?' Sep eagerly asked.
'No,' said the mussel sadly, 'it's of no use to any one but the owner.Now, if I were you, I'd get into a boat, and if your friend the windwill help us, I believe we really can do the trick.'
'I'm at your service, of course,' said the wind, getting up instantly.
The mussel whispered to the wind, who rushed off at once; and Seplaunched his boat.
'Now,' said the mussel, 'you get into the very middle of the sea--or asnear as you can guess it. The wind will warn all the other fishes.' Ashe spoke he disappeared in the dark waters.
Sep got the boat into the middle of the sea--as near as he could guessit--and waited.
After a long time he saw something swirling about in a sort of whirlpoolabout a hundred yards from his boat, but when he tried to move the boattowards it her bows ran on to something hard.
'Keep still, keep still, keep still,' cried thousands and thousands ofsharp, thin, little voices. 'You'll kill us if you move.'
Then he looked over the boat side, and saw that the hard something wasnothing but thousands and thousands of mussels all jammed closetogether, and through the clear water more and more were coming andpiling themselves together. Almost at once his boat was slowlylifted--the top of the mussel heap showed through the water, and therehe was, high and dry on a mussel reef.
And in all that part of the sea the water was disappearing, and as faras the eye could reach stretched a great plain of purple and gray--theshells of countless mussels.
Only at one spot there was still a splashing.
Then a mussel opened its shell and spoke.
'We've got him,' it said. 'We've piled our selves up till we've filledthis part of the sea. The wind warned all the good fishes--and we've gotthe old traitor in a little pool over there. Get out and walk over ourbacks--we'll all lie sideways so as not to hurt you. You must catch thefish--but whatever you do don't kill it till we give the word.'
Sep promised, and he got out and walked over the mussels to the pool,and when he saw the wicked soul of the Magician looking out through theround eyes of a big finny fish he remembered all that his Princess hadsuffered, and he longed to draw his sword and kill the wicked thing thenand there.
But he remembered his promise. He threw a net about it, and dragged itback to the boat.
The mussels dispersed and let the boat down again into the water--and herowed home, towing the evil fish in the net by a line.
He beached the boat, and looked along the shore. The shore looked a veryodd colour. And well it might, for every bit of the sand was coveredwith purple-gray mussels. They had all come up out of the sea--leavingjust one little bit of real yellow sand for him to beach the boat on.
'Now,' said millions of sharp thin little voices, 'Kill him, kill him!'
Sep drew his sword and waded into the shallow surf and killed the evilfish with one strong stroke.
Then such a shout went up all along the shore as that shore had neverheard; and all along the shore where the mussels had been, stood men inarmour and men in smock-frocks and men in leather aprons and huntsmen'scoats and women and children--a whole nation of people. Close by theboat stood a King and Queen with crowns upon their heads.
'Thank you, Sep,' said the King, 'you've saved us all. I am the KingMussel, doomed to be a mussel so long as that wretch lived. You have setus all free. And look!'
Down the path from the shore came running his own Princess, who hunground his neck crying his name and looking at him with the mostbeautiful eyes in the world.
'Come,' said the Mussel King, 'we have no son. You shall be our son andreign after us.'
'Thank you,' said Sep, 'but _this_ is my father,' and he presented theold fisherman to His Majesty.
'Then let him come with us,' said the King royally, 'he can help mereign, or fish in the palace lake, whichever he prefers.'
'Thankee,' said Sep's father, 'I'll come and fish.'
'Your mother too,' said the Mussel Queen, kissing Sep's mother.
'Ah,' said Sep's mother, 'you're a lady, every inch. I'll go to theworld's end with you.'
So they all went back by way of the foreign country where Sep had foundhis Princess, and they called on the old lord. He had lost his hump, andthey easily persuaded him to come with them.
'You can help me reign if you like, or we have a nice book or two in thepalace library,' said the Mussel King.
'Thank you,' said the old lord, 'I'll come and be your librarian if Imay. Reigning isn't at all in my line.'
Then they went on to Sep's father-in-law, and when he saw how happy theyall were together he said:
'Bless my beard but I've half a mind to come with you.'
'Come along,' said the Mussel King, 'you shall help me reign if youlike ... or....'
'No, thank you,' said the other King very quickly, 'I've had enough ofreigning. My kingdom can buy a President and be a republic if it likes.I'm going to catch butterflies.'
And so he does, most happily, up to this very minute.
And Sep and his dear Princess are as happy as they deserve to be. Somepeople say we are all as happy as we deserve to be--but I am not sure.