“But my nonsense is just as good as yours, Nanny. When you have done,
I'll tell you my dream. The stars are in it--not the moon, though. She
was away somewhere. Perhaps she was gone to fetch you then. I don't
think that, though, for my dream was longer ago than yours. She might
have been to fetch some one else, though; for we can't fancy it's only
us that get such fine things done for them. But do tell me what came
next.”
Perhaps one of my child-readers may remember whether the moon came down
to fetch him or her the same night that Diamond had his dream. I cannot
tell, of course. I know she did not come to fetch me, though I did think
I could make her follow me when I was a boy--not a very tiny one either.
“The little man took me all round the house, and made me look out of
every window. Oh, it was beautiful! There we were, all up in the air, in
such a nice, clean little house! `Your work will be to keep the windows
bright,' said the little man. `You won't find it very difficult,
for there ain't much dust up here. Only, the frost settles on them
sometimes, and the drops of rain leave marks on them.' `I can easily
clean them inside,' I said; `but how am I to get the frost and rain off
the outside of them?' `Oh!' he said, `it's quite easy. There are ladders
all about. You've only got to go out at the door, and climb about. There
are a great many windows you haven't seen yet, and some of them look
into places you don't know anything about. I used to clean them myself,
but I'm getting rather old, you see. Ain't I now?' `I can't tell,' I
answered. `You see I never saw you when you were younger.' `Never saw
the man in the moon?' said he. `Not very near,' I answered, `not to tell
how young or how old he looked. I have seen the bundle of sticks on his
back.' For Jim had pointed that out to me. Jim was very fond of looking
at the man in the moon. Poor Jim! I wonder he hasn't been to see me. I'm
afraid he's ill too.”
“I'll try to find out,” said Diamond, “and let you know.”
“Thank you,” said Nanny. “You and Jim ought to be friends.”
“But what did the man in the moon say, when you told him you had seen
him with the bundle of sticks on his back?”
“He laughed. But I thought he looked offended too. His little nose
turned up sharper, and he drew the corners of his mouth down from the
tips of his ears into his neck. But he didn't look cross, you know.”
“Didn't he say anything?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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