Jackanapes | Page 7

oyster-shells. Running away was her pet principle;
the only system, she maintained, by which you can live long and easily,
and lose nothing. If you run away when you see danger, you can come
back when all is safe. Run quickly, return slowly, hold your head high,
and gabble as loud as you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the
Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you struggle and get
hurt, if you can lower your head and swerve, and not lose a feather?
Why in the world should any one spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his
skin, if he can help it?
"'What's the use' Said the Goose."
Before answering which one might have to consider what world--which
life--whether his skin were a goose-skin; but the Grey Goose's head
would never have held all that.
Grass soon grows over footprints, and the village children took the
oyster-shells to trim their gardens with; but the year after Tony rode
Bucephalus there lingered another relic of Fairtime, in which
Jackanapes was deeply interested. "The Green" proper was originally
only part of a straggling common, which in its turn merged into some
wilder waste land where gipsies sometimes squatted if the authorities
would allow them, especially after the annual Fair. And it was after the
Fair that Jackanapes, out rambling by himself, was knocked over by the

Gipsy's son riding the Gipsy's red-haired pony at break-neck pace
across the common.
Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the worse, except for being
heels over head in love with the red-haired pony. What a rate he went at!
How he spurned the ground with his nimble feet! How his red coat
shone in the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped out of his dark
forelock as it was blown by the wind!
The Gipsy boy had had a fright, and he was willing enough to reward
Jackanapes for not having been hurt, by consenting to let him have a
ride.
"Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman, and swing us all on the
gibbet, you rascal?" screamed the Gipsy-mother, who came up just as
Jackanapes and the pony set off.
"He would get on," replied her son. "It'll not kill him. He'll fall on his
yellow head, and it's as tough as a cocoanut."
But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to the red-haired pony as he had
stuck to the hobbyhorse; but oh, how different the delight of this wild
gallop with flesh and blood! Just as his legs were beginning to feel as if
he did not feel them, the Gipsy boy cried "Lollo!" Round went the pony
so unceremoniously, that, with as little ceremony, Jackanapes clung to
his neck, and he did not properly recover himself before Lollo stopped
with a jerk at the place where they had started.
"Is his name Lollo?" asked Jackanapes, his hand lingering in the wiry
mane.
"Yes."
"What does Lollo mean?"
"Red."
"Is Lollo your pony?"

"No. My father's." And the Gipsy boy led Lollo away.
At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole away again to the common.
This time he saw the Gipsy-father, smoking a dirty pipe.
"Lollo is your pony, isn't he?" said Jackanapes.
"Yes."
"He's a very nice one."
"He's a racer."
"You don't want to sell him, do you?"
"Fifteen pounds," said the Gipsy-father; and Jackanapes sighed and
went home again. That very afternoon he and Tony rode the two
donkeys, and Tony managed to get thrown, and even Jackanapes'
donkey kicked. But it was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic
swiftness and the dainty mischief of the red-haired pony.
A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very seriously to Jackanapes.
She was a good deal agitated as she told him that his grandfather, the
General, was coming to the Green, and that he must be on his very best
behavior during the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off calling him
Jackanapes and to get used to his baptismal name of Theodore before
the day after to-morrow (when the General was due), it would have
been satisfactory. But Miss Jessamine feared it would be impossible in
practice, and she had scruples about it on principle. It would not seem
quite truthful, although she had always most fully intended that he
should be called Theodore when he had outgrown the ridiculous
appropriateness of his nickname. The fact was that he had not outgrown
it, but he must take care to remember who was meant when his
grandfather said Theodore.
Indeed for that matter he must take care all along.
"You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes," said Miss Jessamine.

"Yes aunt," said Jackanapes, thinking of the hobby-horses.
"You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank GOD, I can tell your
grandfather that. An obedient boy,