Five Children and It E. Nesbit (uplifting books for women TXT) đ
- Author: E. Nesbit
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âOf course I donât mean to say,â he admitted, âthat it wasnât a good thing to get Martha and the Lamb out of the light for the afternoon; but as for Red Indiansâ âwhy, you know jolly well the wishes always come that very minute. If there was going to be Red Indians, theyâd be here now.â
âI expect they are,â said Anthea; âtheyâre lurking amid the undergrowth, for anything you know. I do think youâre most beastly unkind.â
âIndians almost always do lurk, really, though, donât they?â put in Jane, anxious for peace.
âNo, they donât,â said Cyril tartly. âAnd Iâm not unkind, Iâm only truthful. And I say it was utter rot breaking the water-jug; and as for the missionary-box, I believe itâs a treason-crime, and I shouldnât wonder if you could be hanged for it, if any of us was to splitâ ââ
âShut up, canât you?â said Robert; but Cyril couldnât. You see, he felt in his heart that if there should be Indians they would be entirely his own fault, so he did not wish to believe in them. And trying not to believe things when in your heart you are almost sure they are true, is as bad for the temper as anything I know.
âItâs simply idiotic,â he said, âtalking about Indians, when you can see for yourselves that itâs Jane whoâs got her wish. Look what a fine day it isâ âOh!â ââ
He had turned towards the window to point out the fineness of the dayâ âthe others turned tooâ âand a frozen silence caught at Cyril, and none of the others felt at all like breaking it. For there, peering round the corner of the window, among the red leaves of the Virginia creeper, was a faceâ âa brown face, with a long nose and a tight mouth and very bright eyes. And the face was painted in coloured patches. It had long black hair, and in the hair were feathers!
Every childâs mouth in the room opened, and stayed open. The treacle-pudding was growing white and cold on their plates. No one could move.
Suddenly the feathered head was cautiously withdrawn, and the spell was broken. I am sorry to say that Antheaâs first words were very like a girl.
âThere, now!â she said. âI told you so!â
Treacle-pudding had now definitely ceased to charm. Hastily wrapping their portions in a Spectator of the week before the week before last, they hid them behind the crinkled-paper stove-ornament, and fled upstairs to reconnoitre and to hold a hurried council.
âPax,â said Cyril handsomely when they reached their motherâs bedroom. âPanther, Iâm sorry if I was a brute.â
âAll right,â said Anthea; âbut you see now!â
No further trace of Indians, however, could be discerned from the windows.
âWell,â said Robert, âwhat are we to do?â
âThe only thing I can think of,â said Anthea, who was now generally admitted to be the heroine of the day, âisâ âif we dressed up as like Indians as we can, and looked out of the windows, or even went out. They might think we were the powerful leaders of a large neighbouring tribe, andâ âand not do anything to us, you know, for fear of awful vengeance.â
âBut Eliza, and the cook?â said Jane.
âYou forgetâ âthey canât notice anything,â said Robert. âThey wouldnât notice anything out of the way, even if they were scalped or roasted at a slow fire.â
âBut would they come right at sunset?â
âOf course. You canât be really scalped or burned to death without noticing it, and youâd be sure to notice it next day, even if it escaped your attention at the time,â said Cyril. âI think Antheaâs right, but we shall want a most awful lot of feathers.â
âIâll go down to the henhouse,â said Robert. âThereâs one of the turkeys in thereâ âitâs not very well. I could cut its feathers without it minding much. Itâs very badâ âdoesnât seem to care what happens to it. Get me the cutting-out scissors.â
Earnest reconnoitring convinced them all that no Indians were in the poultry-yard. Robert went. In five minutes he came backâ âpale, but with many feathers.
âLook here,â he said, âthis is jolly serious. I cut off the feathers, and when I turned to come out there was an Indian squinting at me from under the old hen-coop. I just brandished the feathers and yelled, and got away before he could get the coop off top of himself. Panther, get the coloured blankets off our beds, and look slippy, canât you?â
It is wonderful how like an Indian you can make yourselves with blankets and feathers and coloured scarves. Of course none of the children happened to have long black hair, but there was a lot of black calico that had been got to cover schoolbooks with. They cut strips of this into a sort of fine fringe, and fastened it round their heads with the amber-coloured ribbons off the girlsâ Sunday dresses. Then they stuck turkeysâ feathers in the ribbons. The calico looked very like long black hair, especially when the strips began to curl up a bit.
âBut our faces,â said Anthea, âtheyâre not at all the right colour. Weâre all rather pale, and Iâm sure I donât know why, but Cyril is the colour of putty.â
âIâm not,â said Cyril.
âThe real Indians outside seem to be brownish,â said Robert hastily. âI think we ought to be really redâ âitâs sort of superior to have a red skin, if you are one.â
The red ochre cook used for the kitchen bricks seemed to be about the reddest thing in the house. The children mixed some in a saucer with milk, as they had seen cook do for the kitchen floor. Then they carefully painted each otherâs faces and hands with it, till they were quite as red as any Red Indian need beâ âif not redder.
They knew at once that they must look very terrible when they met Eliza in the passage, and she screamed aloud. This unsolicited testimonial pleased them very much. Hastily telling her not to be a goose, and that it
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