Cross Purposes and The Shadows | Page 5

going to take her to the court, and I will take you."
"I don't want to go."
"But you must. You can't go home again. You don't know the way."
"Richard! Richard!" cried Alice, in an agony.
Richard sprang from his boat, and was by her side in a moment.
"He pinched me," cried Alice.
Richard hit the goblin a terrible blow on the head; but it took no more effect upon him than if his head had been a round ball of india-rubber. He gave Richard a furious look, however, and bawling out, "You'll repent that, Dick!" vanished under the water.
"Come along, Richard; make haste; he will murder you," cried the fairy.
"It is all your fault," said Richard. "I won't leave Alice."
Then the fairy saw it was all over with her and Toadstool; for they can do nothing with mortals against their will. So she floated away across the water in Richard's boat, holding her robe for a sail, and vanished, leaving the two alone in the lake.
"You have driven away my fairy!" cried Alice. "I shall never get home now. It is all your fault, you naughty young man."
"I drove away the goblin," remonstrated Richard.
"Will you please to sit on the other side of the tree? I wonder what my papa would say if he saw me talking to you!"
"Will you come to the next tree, Alice?" said Richard, after a pause.
Alice, who had been crying all the time that Richard was thinking, said "I won't." Richard, therefore, plunged into the water without her, and swam for the tree. Before he had got half-way, however, he heard Alice crying "Richard! Richard!" This was just what he wanted. So he turned back, and Alice threw herself into the water. With Richard's help she swam pretty well, and they reached the tree. "Now for the next!" said Richard; and they swam to the next, and then to the third. Every tree they reached was larger than the last, and every tree before them was larger still. So they swam from tree to tree, till they came to one that was so large that they could not see round it. What was to be done? Clearly to climb this tree. It was a dreadful prospect for Alice, but Richard proceeded to climb; and by putting her feet where he put his, and now and then getting hold of his ankle, she managed to make her way up. There were a great many stumps where branches had withered off, and the bark was nearly as rough as a hill-side, so there was plenty of foothold for them. When they had climbed a long time, and were getting very tired indeed, Alice cried out, "Richard, I shall drop--I shall. Why did you come this way?" And she began once more to cry. But at that moment Richard caught hold of a branch above his head, and reaching down his other hand got hold of Alice, and held her till she had recovered a little. In a few moments more they reached the fork of the tree, and there they sat and rested. "This is capital!" said Richard, cheerily.
"What is?" asked Alice, sulkily.
"Why, we have room to rest, and there's no hurry for a minute or two. I'm tired."
"You selfish creature!" said Alice. "If you are tired, what must I be!"
"Tired too," answered Richard. "But we've got on bravely. And look! what's that?"
By this time the day was gone, and the night so near, that in the shadows of the tree all was dusky and dim. But there was still light enough to discover that in a niche of the tree sat a huge horned owl, with green spectacles on his beak, and a book in one foot. He took no heed of the intruders, but kept muttering to himself. And what do you think the owl was saying? I will tell you. He was talking about the book that he held upside down in his foot.
"Stupid book this-s-s-s! Nothing in it at all! Everything upside down! Stupid ass-s-s-s! Says owls can't read! I can read backwards!"
"I think that is the goblin again," said Richard, in a whisper. "However, if you ask a plain question, he must give you a plain answer, for they are not allowed to tell downright lies in Fairyland."
"Don't ask him, Richard; you know you gave him a dreadful blow."
"I gave him what he deserved, and he owes me the same.--Hallo! which is the way out?"
He wouldn't say if you please, because then it would not have been a plain question.
"Down-stairs," hissed the owl, without ever lifting his eyes from the book, which all the time he read upside down, so learned was he.
"On your honour, as a respectable old owl?" asked Richard.
"No," hissed the owl; and Richard was almost sure that he was not really