Up! Horsie! | Page 5

a court-yard nor
back-premises of any sort, and consisted solely of a front wall with
windows, but no rooms behind, like a ruin, though he had hitherto
entertained the notion that he had slept beneath its roof, and on soft
cushions too, which he now plainly perceived could only have been
clouds like his fabulous flock. Eager to pursue his discoveries still
further, he went on fiddling as he came down the hillock towards the
lady, when what was not his horror and surprise on perceiving that the
face he had so much admired was hollow as a mask behind!
On hearing him playing in so unusual a manner, the lady turned round
her head sharply, exhibiting her bewitching countenance to his gaze,
and singing more sweetly than ever, as she offered him a goblet of wine.
It was fortunate he could not hear her sing, or that voice would have
melted all his resolutions, instead of which, he boldly dashed down the
proffered cup, and on her offering to give him a kiss, he dealt her a box
on the ear, which upset her like a card figure, when he became so
horrified at the spectral unreality of the objects about him, that he ran
off as fast as his legs would carry him, fiddling like mad as he went
along. In his frantic flight he passed by streams of water that seemed to
be nothing but tinfoil, and rocks that looked as if they were made of
pasteboard, and hollow like the Elle-maid's face, nor did he stop to take
breath till after all the objects in the landscape had resumed their
natural consistence, and clouds were clouds, and sheep real woolly
sheep, which shewed him to be beyond the limits of Elf-land.

Meantime evening had waned into night, and the moon was beginning
to rise, when Gilbert flung himself down on a bank to rest after his
headlong scamper. The cool air blew refreshingly over his fevered
brow, and he felt like one restored to reason after a fit of madness, or
awaking after a strange uneasy dream. "Now," thought he, "I need only
gather some ragwort and go home." And he looked all about for some,
but as it happened to be very rare in that neighbourhood, he walked on
a good way, peering about in the moonlight before he could find any.
When at last he hit upon the wished for herb, great was his joy, and he
plucked it as triumphantly as if he held in his hand the bridle of the
finest steed mortal ever looked upon, crying out: "Up! Horsie!" in a
loud voice. But no horsie answered to the appeal, and the ragwort
remained the simple herb it was before. Again and again he called out
the magic formula in tones now commanding and now entreating, and
lastly quite passionately, only there was no spur nor whip that could
move the ragwort to serve as his horse. He now perceived old Sandy
had tricked him after all, and sent him to Elf-land without giving him
the means of coming back. So there was nothing for it but to trudge all
the way back on foot,--and a long way it was I can tell you! It is true
Gilbert retained a hope that kept up his spirits a good while, that he
should still find some of the right sort of ragwort, and accordingly in
each new district he came to, he industriously gathered some specimens
to try the experiment, but with no better success. And after each fresh
disappointment, he could not help saying to himself: "I wish I had
given Sandy a lift, and then I should never have got into this scrape."
The worst of it was that Gilbert had scarcely any money about him, and
when that little was spent, he was at his wit's end to know how to pay
his way home. Luckily he still had the fiddle, and though he could not
play a single tune, its tones were so sweet that people liked to hear
them, and village children enjoyed having a scrape upon it, so that he
always managed to get a night's lodging and a supper as he journeyed
along, and even to get carried across the sea, for the sailors said it was
as good as listening to a mermaid.
When at last he reached home, he hung up the fiddle in his cottage, but
that same night it cracked right through with a loud moan, and fell in
shivers on the floor. Gilbert tried to mend it, but he never could manage

to restore it to its right shape again. It was like a puzzle that baffles a
child's attempts to put it together. However, he made a sort of box of