The Day Boy and the Night Girl | Page 3

him from pony to horse,
and from horse to horse, until he was equal to anything in that kind
which the country produced. In similar fashion he trained him to the
use of bow and arrow, substituting every three months a stronger bow
and longer arrows; and soon he became, even on horseback, a
wonderful archer. He was but fourteen when he killed his first bull,
causing jubilation among the huntsmen, and indeed, through all the
castle, for there too he was the favorite. Every day, almost as soon as
the sun was up, he went out hunting, and would in general be out nearly
the whole of the day. But Watho had laid upon Fargu just one
commandment, namely, that Photogen should on no account, whatever
the plea, be out until sundown, or so near it as to wake in him the desire
of seeing what was going to happen; and this commandment Fargu was
anxiously careful not to break; for although he would not have
trembled had a whole herd of bulls come down upon him, charging at
full speed across the level, and not an arrow left in his quiver, he was
more than afraid of his mistress. When she looked at him in a certain
way, he felt, he said, as if his heart turned to ashes in his breast, and
what ran in his veins was no longer blood, but milk and water. So that,
ere long, as Photogen grew older, Fargu began to tremble, for he found
it steadily growing harder to restrain him. So full of life was he, as
Fargu said to his mistress, much to her content, that he was more like a
live thunderbolt than a human being. He did not know what fear was,
and that not because he did not know danger; for he had had a severe
laceration from the razor-like tusk of a boar -- whose spine, however,
he had severed with one blow of his hunting knife, before Fargu could
reach him with defense. When he would spur his horse into the midst of
a herd of bulls, carrying only his bow and his short sword, or shoot an
arrow into a herd, and go after it as if to reclaim it for a runaway shaft,
arriving in time to follow it with a spear thrust before the wounded

animal knew which way to charge, Fargu thought with terror how it
would be when he came to know the temptation of the huddle-spot
leopards, and the knife-clawed lynxes, with which the forest was
haunted. For the boy had been so steeped in the sun, from childhood so
saturated with his influence, that he looked upon every danger from a
sovereign height of courage. When, therefore, he was approaching his
sixteenth year, Fargu ventured to beg Watho that she would lay her
commands upon the youth himself, and release him from responsibility
for him. One might as soon hold a tawny-maned lion as Photogen, he
said. Watho called the youth, and in the presence of Fargu laid her
command upon him never to be out when the rim of the sun should
touch the horizon, accompanying the prohibition with hints of
consequences, none the less awful than they were obscure. Photogen
listened respectfully, but, knowing neither the taste of fear nor the
temptation of the night, her words were but sounds to him.
VII. How Nycteris Grew
THE little education she intended Nycteris to have, Watho gave her by
word of mouth. Not meaning she should have light enough to read by,
to leave other reasons unmentioned, she never put a book in her hands.
Nycteris, however, saw so much better than Watho imagined, that the
light she gave her was quite sufficient, and she managed to coax Falca
into teaching her the letters, after which she taught herself to read, and
Falca now and then brought her a child's book. But her chief pleasure
was in her instrument. Her very fingers loved it and would wander
about its keys like feeding sheep. She was not unhappy. She knew
nothing of the world except the tomb in which she dwelt, and had some
pleasure in everything she did. But she desired, nevertheless, something
more or different. She did not know what it was, and the nearest she
could come to expressing it to herself was -- that she wanted more
room. Watho and Falca would go from her beyond the shine of the
lamp, and come again; therefore surely there must be more room
somewhere. As often as she was left alone, she would fall to poring
over the colored bas-reliefs on the walls. These were intended to
represent various of the powers of Nature under allegorical similitudes,
and as nothing can be made that does not