Puck of Pooks Hill | Page 6

fellow had actually given you a piece of it -'like this.' He held
out the turves.
'But it's our own meadow,' said Dan, drawing back. 'Are you going to
magic it away?'
Puck laughed. 'I know it's your meadow, but there's a great deal more in
it than you or your father ever guessed. Try!'
He turned his eyes on Una.
'I'll do it,' she said. Dan followed her example at once.
'Now are you two lawfully seised and possessed of all Old England,'
began Puck, in a sing-song voice. 'By right of Oak, Ash, and Thorn are

you free to come and go and look and know where I shall show or best
you please. You shall see What you shall see and you shall hear What
you shall hear, though It shall have happened three thousand year; and
you shall know neither Doubt nor Fear. Fast! Hold fast all I give you.'
The children shut their eyes, but nothing happened.
'Well?' said Una, disappointedly opening them. 'I thought there would
be dragons.'
"'Though It shall have happened three thousand year,"' said Puck, and
counted on his fingers. 'No; I'm afraid there were no dragons three
thousand years ago.'
'But there hasn't happened anything at all,' said Dan. 'Wait awhile,' said
Puck. 'You don't grow an oak in a year - and Old England's older than
twenty oaks. Let's sit down again and think. I can do that for a century
at a time.'
'Ah, but you're a fairy,' said Dan.
'Have you ever heard me say that word yet?' said Puck quickly.
'No. You talk about "the People of the Hills", but you never say
"fairies",' said Una. 'I was wondering at that. Don't you like it?'
'How would you like to be called "mortal" or "human being" all the
time?' said Puck; 'or "son of Adam" or "daughter of Eve"?'
'I shouldn't like it at all,' said Dan. 'That's how the Djinns and Afrits
talk in the Arabian Nights.'
'And that's how I feel about saying - that word that I don't say. Besides,
what you call them are made-up things the People of the Hills have
never heard of - little buzzflies with butterfly wings and gauze
petticoats, and shiny stars in their hair, and a wand like a
schoolteacher's cane for punishing bad boys and rewarding good ones. I
know 'em!'

'We don't mean that sort,'said Dan. 'We hate 'em too.'
'Exactly,' said Puck. 'Can you wonder that the People of the Hills don't
care to be confused with that painty- winged, wand-waving,
sugar-and-shake-your-head set of impostors? Butterfly wings, indeed!
I've seen Sir Huon and a troop of his people setting off from Tintagel
Castle for Hy-Brasil in the teeth of a sou'-westerly gale, with the spray
flying all over the Castle, and the Horses of the Hills wild with fright.
Out they'd go in a lull, screaming like gulls, and back they'd be driven
five good miles inland before they could come head to wind again.
Butterfly-wings! It was Magic - Magic as black as Merlin could make it,
and the whole sea was green fire and white foam with singing
mermaids in it. And the Horses of the Hills picked their way from one
wave to another by the lightning flashes! That was how it was in the
old days!'
'Splendid,' said Dan, but Una shuddered.
'I'm glad they're gone, then; but what made the People of the Hills go
away?' Una asked.
'Different things. I'll tell you one of them some day - the thing that
made the biggest flit of any,' said Puck. 'But they didn't all flit at once.
They dropped off, one by one, through the centuries. Most of them
were foreigners who couldn't stand our climate. They flitted early.'
'How early?' said Dan.
'A couple of thousand years or more. The fact is they began as Gods.
The Phoenicians brought some over when they came to buy tin; and the
Gauls, and the Jutes, and the Danes, and the Frisians, and the Angles
brought more when they landed. They were always landing in those
days, or being driven back to their ships, and they always brought their
Gods with them. England is a bad country for Gods. Now, I began as I
mean to go on. A bowl of porridge, a dish of milk, and a little quiet fun
with the country folk in the lanes was enough for me then, as it is now.
I belong here, you see, and I have been mixed up with people all my
days. But most of the others insisted on being Gods, and having

temples, and altars, and priests, and sacrifices of their own.'
'People burned in wicker baskets?' said Dan. 'Like Miss Blake tells us
about?'
'All sorts of sacrifices,' said Puck.