nearly an hour to my usual bedtime, so I
thought I would go home at once for my dress and spade and bier, and
for some roses. For I had resolved to bury this (my first robin-redbreast)
in a grave lined with rose-leaves, and to give him a wreath of
forget-me-nots.
Just as I was going I heard a loud buzz above my head, and something
hit me in the face. It was a beetle, whirring about in the air, and as I
turned to leave poor Robin the beetle sat down on him, on the middle
of his red breast, and by still hearing the buzzing, I found that another
beetle was whirling and whirring just above my head in the air. I like
beetles (especially the flying watchmen), and these ones were black too;
so I said, for fun, "You've got on your black things, and if you'll take
care of the body till I get my spade you shall be Brothers of Pity."
I ran home, and I need not have gone indoors at all, for I keep my cloak
and my spade and the bier in the summer-house, but the bits of wood
were in the nursery cupboard, so, after I had got some good roses, and
was quite ready, I ran up-stairs, and there, to my great vexation, Nurse
met me, and said I was to go to bed.
I thought it was very hard, because it had been a very hot day, and I had
had to go a walk in the heat of the sun along the old coaching-road with
Nurse, and it seemed so provoking, now it was cool and the moon was
rising, that I should have to go to bed, especially as Nurse was sending
me there earlier than usual because she wanted to go out herself, and I
knew it.
I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. Every time I opened my eyes the
moonlight was more and more like daylight through the white blind. At
last I almost thought I must have really been to sleep without knowing
it, and that it must be morning. So I got out of bed, and went to the
window and peeped; but it was still moonlight--only moonlight as
bright as day--and I saw Nurse and two of the maids just going through
the upper gate into the park.
In one moment I made up my mind. Nurse had only put me to bed to
get me out of the way. I did not mean to trouble her, but I was
determined not to lose the chance of being Brother of Pity to a
robin-redbreast.
I dressed myself as well as I could, got out unobserved, and made my
way to the summer-house. Things look a little paler by moonlight,
otherwise I could see quite well. I put on my cloak, took my spade and
the handle of the bier in my right hand, and holding the mask over my
face with my left, I made my way to the quarry field.
It was a lovely night, and as I strolled along I thought with myself that
the ground where Robin lay was too stony for my spade, and that I
must move him a little lower, where some soft earth bordered one side
of the quarry.
I was as certain as I had ever been of anything that I did not think about
this till then, but when I got to the quarry the body was gone from the
place where I had found it; and when I looked lower, on the bit of soft
earth there lay Robin, just in the place where I was settling in my mind
that I would bury him.
I could not believe my eyes through the holes in my mask, so I pulled it
off, but there was no doubt about the fact. There he lay; and round him,
when I looked closer, I saw a ridge like a rampart of earth, which
framed him neatly and evenly, as if he were already halfway into his
grave.
The moonlight was as clear as day, there was no mistake as to what I
saw, and whilst I was looking the body of the bird began to sink by
little jerks, as if some one were pulling it from below. When first it
moved I thought that poor Robin could not be dead after all, and that he
was coming to life again like the flying watchman, but I soon saw that
he was not, and that some one was pulling him down into a grave.
When I felt quite sure of this, when I had rubbed my eyes to clear them,
and pulled up the lashes to see if I was awake, I was
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