He drew a long breath, trying to draw courage in with it, threw back his
shoulders more soldierly than ever, and marched in through the back door
and straight to the larder. Then he took what he thought he ought to
have for breakfast. This is what he thought:
1 cherry pie,
2 custards in cups,
1 cold sausage,
2 pieces of cold toast,
1 piece of cheese,
2 lemon cheese-cakes,
1 small jam tart (there was only one left),
Butter, 1 pat.
'What jolly things the servants have to eat,' he said. 'I never knew. I
thought that nothing but mutton and rice grew here.'
He put all the food on a silver tray and carried it out on to the
terrace, which lies between the two wings at the back of the house. Then
he went back for milk, but there was none to be seen so he got a white
jug full of water. The spoons he couldn't find, but he found a
carving-fork and a fish-slice. Did you ever try to eat cherry pie with a
fish-slice?
'Whatever's happened,' said Philip to himself, through the cherry pie,
'and whatever happens it's as well to have had your breakfast.' And he
bit a generous inch off the cold sausage which he had speared with the
carving-fork.
And now, sitting out in the good sunshine, and growing less and less
hungry as he plied fish-slice and carving-fork, his mind went back to
his dream, which began to seem more and more real. Suppose it really
_had_ happened? It might have; magic things did happen, it seemed. Look
how all the people had vanished out of the house--out of the world too,
perhaps.
'Suppose every one's vanished,' said Philip. 'Suppose I'm the only
person left in the world who hasn't vanished. Then everything in the
world would belong to me. Then I could have everything that's in all the
toy shops.' And his mind for a moment dwelt fondly on this beautiful
idea.
Then he went on. 'But suppose I vanished too? Perhaps if I were to
vanish I could see the other people who have. I wonder how it's done.'
He held his breath and tried hard to vanish. Have you ever tried this?
It is not at all easy to do. Philip could not do it at all. He held his
breath and he tried and he tried, but he only felt fatter and fatter and
more and more as though in one more moment he should burst. So he let
his breath go.
'No,' he said, looking at his hands; 'I'm not any more invisible than I
was before. Not so much I think,' he added thoughtfully, looking at what
was left of the cherry pie. 'But that dream----'
He plunged deep in the remembrance of it that was, to him, like swimming
in the waters of a fairy lake.
He was hooked out of his lake suddenly by voices. It was like waking up.
There, away across the green park beyond the sunk fence, were people
coming.
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