The Blue Moon | Page 6

the overhead boughs; and behind them lay a sledge,

long and with deep sides like the sides of a ship. All blue they seemed
in that strange light.
There too, but nearer to hand, was the moon-fay himself waiting--a
great figure of lofty stature, clad in furs of blue fox-skin, and with
heron's wings fastened above the flaps of his hood; and these lifted
themselves and clapped as Hands and the Princess drew near.
"Are you coming to the blue moon ?" called the fay, and his voice
whistled and shrewed to them like the voice of a wind.
Hands-pansy gave back answer stoutly: "Yes, yes, we are coming!"
And indeed what better could he say?
"But," cried Nillywill, holding back for a moment, "what will the blue
moon do for us?"
"Once you are there," answered the moon-fay, "you can have your wish
and your heart's desire; but only once in a blue moon can you have it.
Are you coming?"
"We are coming!" cried Nillywill. "Oh, let us make haste!"
"Tread softly," whispered the moon-fay, "and stoop well under these
boughs, for if anything awakes to behold the blue moon, the memory of
it can never die. On earth only the nightingale of all living things has
beheld a blue moon; and the triumph and pain of that memory wakens
him ever since to sing all night long. Tread softly, lest others waken
and learn to cry after us; for we in the blue moon have our sleep
troubled by those who cry for a blue moon to return." He looked
towards Nillywill, and smiled with friendly eyes. "Come!" he said
again, and all at once they had leapt upon the sledge, and the reindeer
were running fast down toward the sea.
The blue moon was resting with its lower rim upon the waters. At that
sight, before they were clear of the avenues of the garden, one of the
reindeer tossed up his great branching horns and snorted aloud for joy.
With a soft stir in the thick boughs overhead, a bird with a great trail of
feathers moved upon its perch.
The sledge, gliding from land, passed out over the smoothed waters,
running swiftly as upon ice; and the reflection of the stars shone up like
glow-worms as Nillywill and Hands-pansy, in the moon-fay's company,
sped away along its bright surface.
The still air whistled through the reindeers' horns; so fast they went that
the trees and the hanging gardens and the palace walls melted away

from view like wreaths of smoke. Sky and sea became one magic
sapphire drawing them in towards the centre of its life, to the heart of
the blue moon itself.
When the blue moon had set below the sea, then far behind upon the
land they had left the leaves rustled and drew themselves sharply
together, shuddering to get rid of the stony stillness, and the magic hues
in which they had been dyed; and again the nightingale broke out into
passionate triumph and complaint.
Then also from the bough which the reindeer had brushed with its
horns a peacock threw back its head and cried in harsh lamentation,
having no sweet voice wherewith to acclaim its prize. And so ever
since it cries, as it goes up into the boughs to roost, because it shares
with the nightingale its grief for the memory of departed beauty which
never returns to earth save once in a blue moon.
But Nillywill and Hands-pansy, living together in the blue moon, look
back upon the world, if now and then they choose to remember,
without any longing for it or sorrow.

A Chinese Fairy Tale
Tiki-pu was a small grub of a thing; but he had a true love of Art deep
down in his soul. There it hung mewing and complaining, struggling to
work its way out through the raw exterior that bound it.
Tiki-pu s master professed to be an artist: he had apprentices and
students, who came daily to work under him, and a large studio littered
about with the performances of himself and his pupils. On the walls
hung also a few real works by the older men, all long since dead.
This studio Tiki-pu swept; for those who worked in it he ground
colours, washed brushes, and ran errands, bringing them their dog
chops and bird's-nest soup from the nearest eating-house whenever they
were too busy to go out to it themselves. He himself had to feed mainly
on the breadcrumbs which the students screwed into pellets for their
drawings and then threw about upon the floor. It was on the floor, also,
that he had to sleep at night.
Tiki-pu looked after the blinds, and mended the paper window-panes,
which were often broken when the apprentices threw their