Martin Pippin in the Apple OrchardFarjeon, Eleanor
General
Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard
Farjeon, Eleanor
Fairy tales; Minstrels -- Fiction
"Where's High and Over?" said Hobb.
"Find out," said the muddy man, and gave a wriggle that did him no good.
"I will," said Hobb, "for you shall tell me." And he looked so sternly
at the muddy man that Jerry cringed, moaning:
"I thought by his voice twas a turtle, but I see by his eye tis an
eagle. If you must know you must. And south of Cradle Hill that's south
of Pinchem that's south of Hobb's Hawth that's south of the Burgh
that's south of this pond is where High and Over is. And I'll thank you
to let me go."
Nevertheless, when Hobb released him Jerry forgot the thanks and
disappeared into the mud taking the cap with him. But Hobb did not care
for his thanks. He hurried south as fast as his feet would carry him,
going by the places he knew and then by those he did not, till he came
at nightfall to High and Over.
And on High and Over a great wind was blowing from all the four
quarters of heaven at once. And Hobb was caught up in the crossways of
the wind, and turned about and about till he was dizzy, and all his
thoughts were churning in his brain, so that he could not tell one from
the other. And at the very crisis of the churning a voice in the wind
from the north roared in his ear:
"What do you want that you lack?"
And a voice from the south murmured, "What is the wish of your heart?"
And a voice from the west sighed, "What is it that life has not given
you?"
And a voice from the east shrieked, "What will you have, and lose
yourself to have?"
And Hobb forgot his brothers and why he was there, he forgot everything
but the dream of his soul which had been churned uppermost in that
turmoil, and he cried aloud, "A golden rose!"
Then the four voices together roared and murmured and sighed and
shrieked, "Open Winkins! Open Winkins! Open Winkins! Open Winkins!" And
the tumult ceased with a shock, and the shock of silence overwhelmed
Hobb with sickness and darkness, and his senses deserted him. As he
became unconscious he seemed to be, not falling to earth, but rising in
the air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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