Genre Fiction. Page - 248

ely to befighting and much trouble as the result.'"

"Is that all the Book says?" asked Ozma.

"Every word," said Dorothy, and Ozma and Glinda bothlooked at the Record and seemed surprised andperplexed.

"Tell me, Glinda," said Ozma, "who are theFlatheads?"

"I cannot, your Majesty," confessed the Sorceress."Until now I never have heard of them, nor have I everheard the Skeezers mentioned. In the faraway corners ofOz are hidden many curious tribes of people, and thosewho never leave their own countries and never arevisited by those from our favored part of Oz, naturallyare unknown to me. However, if you so desire, I canlearn through my arts of sorcery something of theSkeezers and the Flatheads."

"I wish you would," answered Ozma seriously. "Yousee, Glinda, if these are Oz people they are mysubjects and I cannot allow any wars or troubles in theLand I rule, if I can possibly help it."

"Very well, your Majesty," said the Sorceress, "Iwill try to get some information to guide you. P

could be those voices? What human hands could have levelled that road and marshalled those lamps?

"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes or fiends dwell within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me. I shuddered at the thought of descending further and braving the inhabitants of this nether valley. Nor indeed could I have done so without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to the bottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down abrupt, smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty. Now I have told you all."

"You will descend again?"

"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not."

"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage. 8I will go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and strength- and- pardon me- you must not drink more to-night. our hands and feet must be steady and firm tomorrow."

Chapter II.

With the morning my friend'

in charge to thee? 70

Dro. E. To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me.

Ant. S. Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness, And tell me how thou hast disposed thy charge.

Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you from the mart Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner: 75 My mistress and her sister stays for you.

Ant. S. Now, as I am a Christian, answer me, In what safe place you have bestow'd my money; Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours, That stands on tricks when I am undisposed: 80 Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

Dro. E. I have some marks of yours upon my pate, Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders; But not a thousand marks between you both. If I should pay your worship those again, 85 Perchance you will not bear them patiently.

Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks? what mistress, slave, hast thou?

Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix; She that doth

d the ray, and that the crystal none the less remained luminous. Greatly astonished, he lifted it out of the light ray and carried it to the darkest part of the shop. It remained bright for some four or five minutes, when it slowly faded and went out. He placed it in the thin streak of daylight, and its luminousness was almost immediately restored.

So far, at least, Mr. Wace was able to verify the remarkable story of Mr. Cave. He has himself repeatedly held this crystal in a ray of light (which had to be of a less diameter than one millimetre). And in a perfect darkness, such as could be produced by velvet wrapping, the crystal did undoubtedly appear very faintly phosphorescent. It would seem, however, that the luminousness was of some exceptional sort, and not equally visible to all eyes; for Mr. Harbinger--whose name will be familiar to the scientific reader in connection with the Pasteur Institute--was quite unable to see any light whatever. And Mr. Wace's own capacity for its appreciation was out o

sh, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, encreaseth to 28 pounds.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolifick dyet, there are more children born in Roman Catholick countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists among us.

I have already computed the

emselves into pink flakes modulated with tints of unspeakable softness; and the air had so much life and sweetness, that it was a pain to come within doors. What was it that nature would say? Was there no meaning in the live repose of the valley behind the mill, and which Homer or Shakspeare could not reform for me in words? The leafless trees become spires of flame in the sunset, with the blue east for their back-ground, and the stars of the dead calices of flowers, and every withered stem and stubble rimed with frost, contribute something to the mute music.

The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape is pleasant only half the year. I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer. To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. The heavens change every mome

h all fringed with ferns and creepers. They passed through the arch into a deep, narrow gully whose banks were of stones, moss-covered; and in the crannies grew more ferns and long grasses. Trees growing on the top of the bank arched across, and the sunlight came through in changing patches of brightness, turning the gully to a roofed corridor of goldy-green. The path, which was of greeny-grey flagstones where heaps of leaves had drifted, sloped steeply down, and at the end of it was another round arch, quite dark inside, above which rose rocks and grass and bushes.

"It's like the outside of a railway tunnel," said James.

"It's the entrance to the enchanted castle," said Kathleen. "Let's blow the horns."

"Dry up!" said Gerald. "The bold Captain, reproving the silly chatter of his subordinates ,"

"I like that!" said Jimmy, indignant.

"I thought you would," resumed Gerald "of his subordinates, bade them advance with caution and in silence, because after all there might be some

with anallowance from his patron, and (it is generally agreed) madeacquaintance with the money-lenders. He was supposed, by hispatron and any others who inquired, to be "writing"; but what hewrote, other than letters asking for more time to pay, has neverbeen discovered. However, he attended the theatres and musichalls very regularly--no doubt with a view to some seriousarticles in the "Spectator" on the decadence of the Englishstage.

Fortunately (from Mark's point of view) his patron died duringhis third year in London, and left him all the money he wanted.From that moment his life loses its legendary character, andbecomes more a matter of history. He settled accounts with themoney-lenders, abandoned his crop of wild oats to the harvestingof others, and became in his turn a patron. He patronized theArts. It was not only usurers who discovered that Mark Ablett nolonger wrote for money; editors were now offered freecontributions as well as free lunches; publishers were givenagreements f

y express request. He took his time to examine and think; and he saw the chance of saving the patient by venturing on the use of the lancet as plainly as I did--with my forty years' experience to teach me! A young man with that capacity for discovering the remote cause of disease, and with that superiority to the trammels of routine in applying the treatment, has no common medical career before him. His holiday will set his health right in next to no time. I see nothing in his way, at present--not even a woman! But," said Sir Richard, with the explanatory wink of one eye peculiar (like quotation from Shakespeare) to persons of the obsolete old time, "we know better than to forecast the weather if a petticoat influence appears on the horizon. One prediction, however, I do risk. If his mother buys any of that lace--I know who will get the best of the bargain!"

The conditions under which the old doctor was willing to assume the character of a prophet never occurred. Ovid remembered that he was go

all just mention; it was at the time whenpress warrants were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Islands.The woman's husband was pressed, their goods seized for some debtsof his, and she, with two small children, turned into the streetsa-begging. It is a circumstance not to be forgotten, that she wasvery young (under nineteen), and most remarkably handsome. Shewent to a linen-draper's shop, took some coarse linen off thecounter, and slipped it under her cloak; the shopman saw her, andshe laid it down: for this she was hanged. Her defence was (I havethe trial in my pocket), "that she had lived in credit, and wantedfor nothing, till a press-gang came and stole her husband from her;but since then, she had no bed to lie on; nothing to give herchildren to eat; and they were almost naked; and perhaps she mighthave done something wrong, for she hardly knew what she did." Theparish officers testified the truth of this story; but it seems,there had been a good deal of shop-lifting ab