He began to feel his way about the place, and for a while went wandering
up and down. His little footsteps waked little answering echoes in the
great house. It wasn't too big to mind him. It was as if the church knew
he was there, and meant to make itself his house. So it went on giving
back an answer to every step, until at length Diamond thought he should
like to say something out loud, and see what the church would answer.
But he found he was afraid to speak. He could not utter a word for fear
of the loneliness. Perhaps it was as well that he did not, for the sound
of a spoken word would have made him feel the place yet more deserted
and empty. But he thought he could sing. He was fond of singing, and
at home he used to sing, to tunes of his own, all the nursery rhymes he
knew. So he began to try `Hey diddle diddle', but it wouldn't do. Then
he tried `Little Boy Blue', but it was no better. Neither would `Sing a
Song of Sixpence' sing itself at all. Then he tried `Poor old Cockytoo',
but he wouldn't do. They all sounded so silly! and he had never thought
them silly before. So he was quiet, and listened to the echoes that came
out of the dark corners in answer to his footsteps.
At last he gave a great sigh, and said, “I'm so tired.” But he did not
hear the gentle echo that answered from far away over his head, for at
the same moment he came against the lowest of a few steps that stretched
across the church, and fell down and hurt his arm. He cried a little
first, and then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees. At the top
he came to a little bit of carpet, on which he lay down; and there he
lay staring at the dull window that rose nearly a hundred feet above his
head.
Now this was the eastern window of the church, and the moon was at that
moment just on the edge of the horizon. The next, she was peeping over
it. And lo! with the moon, St. John and St. Paul, and the rest of them,
began to dawn in the window in their lovely garments. Diamond did not
know that the wonder-working moon was behind, and he thought all the
light was coming out of the window itself, and that the good old men
were appearing to help him, growing out of the night and the darkness,
because he had hurt his arm, and was very tired and lonely, and North
Wind was so long in coming. So he lay and looked at them backwards over
his head, wondering when they would come down or what they would do
next. They were very dim, for the moonlight was not strong enough for
the colours, and he had enough to do with his eyes trying to make out
their shapes. So his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired, and his
eyelids grew so heavy that they would keep tumbling down over his eyes.
He kept lifting them and lifting them, but every time they were heavier
than the last. It was no use: they were too much for him. Sometimes
before he had got them half up, down they were again; and at length he
gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast asleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account