The Field of Clover | Page 9

Well, calling on the Well-folk for the
replenishment of his crystal, and turning the draught to wine by the
sweetness of his magic ring.
At length he saw a cloud rising to him from a distance; like a great opal

it hung motionless between earth and heaven. Coming nearer he saw
the giant himself stretched out for a day's journey across the sand. His
head lay under the colours of the dawn, and his feet were covered with
the dusk of evening, and over his middle shone the noonday sun.
Under the giant's shadow Noodle stopped, and gazed up into the cloud;
through the outer covering of its mists he saw what seemed to be balls
of fire, and knew that within lay the dream and the garden of the
Burning Rose.
The giant laughed and muttered in his sleep, for the dream was sweet to
him. 'O Rose,' he said, 'O sweet Rose, what end is there of thy
sweetness? How innumerable is the dance of the Roses of my
Rose-garden!'
Noodle caught hold of the ropes of the giant's hair, and climbed till he
sat within the hollow of his right ear. Then he put to his lips the ring,
the Sweetener, and sang till the giant heard him in his sleep; and the
sweet singing mixed itself with the sweetness of the Rose in the giant's
brain, and he muttered to himself, saying: 'O bee, O sweet bee, O bee in
my brain, what honey wilt thou fetch for me out of the Roses of my
Rose-garden?'
So, more and more, Noodle sweetened himself to the giant, till the
giant passed him into his brain, and into the heart of the dream, even
into the garden of the Burning Rose.
Far down below the folds of the cloud, Noodle remembered that the
Galloping Plough lay waiting a call from him. 'When I have stolen the
Rose,' thought he, 'I may need swift heels for my flight.' And he put the
Sweetener to his lips and whistled the Plough up to him.
It came, cleaving the encirclement of clouds like a silver gleam of
moonlight, and for a moment, where they parted, Noodle saw a rift of
blue sky, and the light of the outer world clear through their midst.
The giant turned uneasily in his sleep, and the garden of the Burning
Rose rocked to its foundations as the edge of things real pierced into it.

'While I stay here there is danger,' thought Noodle. 'Surely I must make
haste to possess myself of the Rose and to escape!'
All round him was a garden set thick with rose-trees in myriads of
blossom, rose behind rose as far as the eye could reach, and the
fragrance of them lay like a heavy curtain of sleep upon the senses.
Noodle, beginning to feel drowsy, stretched out his hand in haste to the
nearest flower, lest in a little while he should be no more than a part of
the giant's dream. 'O beloved Heart of Melilot!' he cried, and crushed
his fingers upon the stem.
The whole bough crackled and sprang away at his touch; the Rose
turned upon him, screaming and spouting fire; a noise like thunder
filled all the air. Every rose in the garden turned and spat flame at
where he stood. His face and his hands became blistered with the heat.
Leaping upon the back of his Plough, he cried, 'Carry me to the borders
of the garden where there are open spaces! The price of the Princess is
upon my head!'
The Plough bounded this way and that, searching for some outlet by
which to escape. It flew in spirals and circles, it leaped like a flea, it
burrowed like a mole, it ploughed up the rose-trees by the roots. But so
soon as it had passed they stood up unharmed again, and to whatever
point of refuge the Plough fled, that way they all turned their heads and
darted out vomitings of fire.
In vain did Noodle summon the Well-folk to his aid; his crystal shot
forth fountains of water that turned into steam as they rose, and fell
back again, scalding him.
Then with two deaths threatening to devour him, he brandished the ring,
calling upon the Fire-eaters for their aid.
They laughed as they came. 'Here is food for you!' he cried. 'Multiply
your appetites about me, or I shall be consumed in these flames!'
'Brandish again!' cried they--the same seven whom he had fed. 'We are

not enough; this fire is not quenchable.'
Noodle brandished till the whole garden swarmed with their kind. One
fastened himself upon every rose, a gulf opposing itself to a torrent. All
sight of the conflagration disappeared; but within there went a roaring
sound, and the bodies