by E. Nesbit
CHAPTER XII
THE END
WHAT a triumph for little lame Dickie of Deptford!
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You think, perhaps, that he was happy as well as proud, for proud hecertainly was, with those words and those cheers ringing in his ears. Hehad just done the best he could, and tried to help Beale and the dogs,and the man who had thought himself to be Lord Arden had said, "I amproud that he should be the head of our house," and all the Arden folkhad cheered. It was worth having lived for.
The unselfish kindness and affection of the man he had displaced, thelove of his little cousins, the devotion of Beale, the fact that he wasLord of Arden, and would soon be lord of all the old acres--theknowledge that now he would learn all he chose to learn and hold in hishand some day the destinies of these village folk, all loyal to the nameof Arden, the thought of all that he could be and do--all these things,you think, should have made him happy.
They would have made him happy, but for one thing. All this was won atthe expense of those whom he loved best--the children who were his dearcousins and playfellows, the man, their father, who had moved heaven andearth to establish Dickie's claim to the title, and had been contentquietly to stand aside and give up title, castle, lands, and treasure tothe little cripple from Deptford.
Dickie thought of that, and almost only of that, in the days thatfollowed.
The life he had led in that dream-world, when James the First was King,seemed to him now a very little thing compared with the present glory,of being the head of the house of Arden, of being the Providence, theloving over-lord of all these good peasant folk, who loved his name.
Yet the thought of those days when he was plain Richard Arden, son ofSir Richard Arden, living in the beautiful house at Deptford, fretted atall his joy in his present state. That, and the thought of all he owedto him who had been Lord of Arden until he came, with his lame foot andhis heirship, fretted his soul as rust frets steel. These people hadreceived him, loved him, been kind to him when he was only a tramp boy.And he was repaying them by taking away from them priceless possessions.For so he esteemed the lordship of Arden and the old lands and the oldCastle.
Suppose he gave them up--the priceless possessions? Suppose he went awayto that sure retreat that was still left him--the past? It was asacrifice. To give up the here and now, for the far off, the almostforgotten. All that happy other life, that had once held all for whichhe cared, seemed thin and dream-like beside the vivid glories of thelife here, now. Yet he remembered how once that life, in King James'stime, had seemed the best thing in the world, and how he had chosen tocome back from it, to help a helpless middle-aged ne'er-do-weel of atramp--Beale. Well, he had helped Beale. He had done what he set out todo. For Beale's sake he had given up the beautiful life for the sordidlife. And Beale was a new man, a man that Dickie had made. Surely now hecould give up one beautiful life for another--for the sake of these, hisflesh and blood, who had so readily, so kindly, so generously set him inthe place that had been theirs?
More and more it came home to Dickie that this was what he had to do. Togo back to the times when James the First was King, and never to returnto these times at all. It would be very bitter--it would be like leavinghome never to return. It was exile. Well, was Richard Lord Arden to beafraid of exile--or of anything else? He must not just disappear either,or they would search and search for him, and never know that he wasgone forever. He must slip away, and let the father of Edred and Elfridabe, as he had been, Lord Arden. He must make it appear that he, RichardLord Arden, was dead. He thought over this very carefully. But if heseemed to be dead, Edred and Elfrida would be very unhappy. Well, theyshould not be unhappy. He would tell them. And then they would know thathe had behaved well, and as an Arden should. Don't be hard on him forlonging for just this "little human praise." There are very few of uswho can do without it; who can bear not to let some one, very near anddear, know that we have behaved rather decently on those occasions whenthat is what we have done.
It took Dickie a long time to think out all this, clearly, and with nomistakes. But at last his mind was made up.
And then he asked Edred and Elfrida to come up to the cave with him,because he had something to tell them. When they were all there, sittingon the smooth sand by the underground stream, Dickie said--
"Look here. I'm not going on being Lord Arden."
"You can't help it," said Edred.
"Yes, I can. You know how I went and lived in King James's time. Well,I'm going there again--for good."
"'I'VE THOUGHT OF NOTHING ELSE FOR A MONTH,' SAID DICKIE"
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"You shan't," said Elfrida. "I'll tell father."
"I've thought of all that," Dickie said, "and I'm going to ask theMouldiwarps to make it so that you _can't_ tell. I can't stay here andfeel that I'm turning you and your father out. And think what Edred didfor me, in this very cave. No, my mind's made up."
It was, and they could not shake it.
"But we shan't ever see you again."
Dickie admitted that this was so.
"And oh, Dickie," said Elfrida, with deep concern, "you won't ever seeus again either. Think of that. Whatever will you do without us?"
"That," said Dickie, "won't be so bad as you think. The Elfrida andEdred who live in those times are as like you as two pins. No, theyaren't really! Oh, don't make it any harder. I've got to do it."
There was that in his voice which silenced and convinced them. They feltthat he had, indeed, to do it.
"I could never be happy here--never," he went on; "but I shall be happythere. And you'll never forget me, though there are one or two things Iwant you to forget. And I'm going now."
"Oh, not now; wait and think," Elfrida implored.
"I've thought of nothing else for a month," said Dickie, and began tolay out the moon-seeds on the smooth sand.
"Now," he said, when the pattern was complete, "I shall hold Tinkler andthe white seal in my hand and take them with me. When I've gone, you canput the moon-seeds in your pocket and go home. When they ask you where Iam, say I am in the cave. They will come and find my clothes, andthey'll think I was bathing and got drowned."
"I can't bear it," said Elfrida, bursting into sobs. "I can't, and Iwon't."
"I shan't be really dead, silly," Richard told her. "We're bound to meetagain some day. People who love each other can't help meeting again. Oldnurse told me so, and she knows everything. Good-bye, Elfrida." Hekissed her. "Good-bye, Edred, old chap. I'd like to kiss you too, if youdon't mind. I know boys don't, but in the times I'm going to men kisseach other. Raleigh and Drake did, you know."
The boys kissed shyly and awkwardly.
"And now, good-bye," said Richard, and stepped inside the crossedtriangles of moon-seeds.
"I wish," he said slowly, "oh, dear Mouldiwarps of Arden, grant me theselast wishes. I wish Edred and Elfrida may never be able to tell what Ihave done. And I wish that in a year they may forget what I have done,and let them not be unhappy about me, because I shall be very happy. Iknow I shall," he added doubtfully, and paused.
"Oh, Dickie, _don't_," the other children cried out together. He wenton--
"I wish my uncle may restore the Castle, and take care of the poorpeople so that there _aren't_ any poor people, and every one'scomfortable, just as I meant to do."
He took off his cap and coat and flung them outside the circle, hisboots too.
"I wish I may go back to James the First's time, and live out my lifethere, and do honor in my life and death to the house of Arden."
The children blinked. Dickie and Tinkler and the white seal were gone,and only the empty ring of moon-seeds lay on the sand.
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"Shocking bathing fatality," the newspapers said. "Lord Arden drowned.The body not yet recovered."
It never was recovered, of course. Elfrida and Edred said nothing. Nowonder, their elders said. The shock was too great and too sudden
.
The father of Edred and Elfrida is Lord Arden now. He has done all thatDickie would have done. He has made Arden the happiest and mostprosperous village in England, and the stream beside which Dickie badefarewell to his cousins flows, a broad moat round the waters of theCastle, restored now to all its own splendor.
There is a tablet in the church which tells of the death by drowning ofRichard, Sixteenth Lord Arden. The children read it every Sunday for ayear, and knew that it did not tell the truth. But by the time themoon-seeds had grown and flowered and shed their seeds in the Castlegarden they ceased to know this, and talked often, sadly and fondly, ofdear cousin Dickie who was drowned. And at the same time they ceased toremember that they had ever been out of their own time into the past, sothat if they were to read this book they would think it all nonsense andmake-up, and not in the least recognize the story as their own.
But whatever else is forgotten, Dickie is remembered. And he who gave uphis life here for the sake of those he loved will live as long as lifeshall beat in the hearts of those who loved him.
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And Dickie himself. I see him in his ruff and cloak, with his littlesword by his side, living out the life he has chosen in the old Englandwhen James the First was King. I see him growing in grace and favor,versed in book learning, expert in all noble sports and exercises. ForDickie is not lame now.
I see the roots of his being taking fast hold of his chosen life, andthe life that he renounced receding, receding till he can hardly see itany more.
I see him, a tall youth, straight and strong, lending the old nurse hisarm to walk in the trim, beautiful garden at Deptford. And I hear himsay--
"When I was a little boy, nurse, I had mighty strange dreams--of anotherlife than this."
"Forget them," she says; "dreams go to the making of all proper men. Butnow thou art a man; forget the dreams of thy childhood, and play the manto the glory of God and of the house of Arden. And let thy dreams be ofthe life to come, compared to which all lives on earth are only dreams.And in that life all those who have loved shall meet and be togetherforevermore, in that life when all the dear and noble dreams of theearthly life shall at last and forever be something more than dreams."
THE END
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Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
List of Illustrations, "HUMPREYS" changed to "HUMPHREYS" (HERE,HUMPHREYS, PUT THESE)
Page 6, "pennorth" changed to "penn'orth" (gimme a penn'orth)
Page 249, "two" changed to "too" (only too well)