Читать книгу The Zankiwank and The Bletherwitch: An Original Fantastic Fairy Extravaganza - Fitz-Gerald Shafto Justin Adair - Страница 3
Part II
ОглавлениеThe Fairies' Feather and
Flower Land
Faëry elves,
Whose midnight revels, by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon
Sits arbitress.
Milton.
O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you:
She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a train of little atomies,
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep.
Shakespeare.
The Fairies' Feather and
Flower Land
How long Maude and Willie had been rocking in the cradle of the deep they could not tell, nor how long it took them to steam through the Straits of Ballambangjan, for everything was exceptionally bleak and blank to them. By the way, if you cannot find the Straits of Ballambangjan in your Geography or on the Map, you should consult the first sailor you meet, and he will give you as much information on the subject as any boy or girl need require.
Both children experienced that curious sensation of feeling asleep while they were wide awake, and feeling wide awake when they imagined themselves to be asleep, just as one does feel sometimes in the early morning, when the sun is beginning to peep through the blinds, and the starlings are chattering, and the sparrows are tweeting under the eaves, outside the window.
They were no longer on the vessel that had borne them away from Fableland, and the approach of the Nargalnannacus, a fearsome creature whom nobody has yet seen, although most of us may not have heard about him.
The obliging Zankiwank was with them, and when they looked round they found themselves in a square field festooned with the misty curtains of the Elfin Dawn.
"Of course," said the Zankiwank, "this is Midsummer Day, and very soon it will be Midsummer Night, and you will see some wonders that will outwonder all the wonders that wonderful people have ever wondered both before and afterwards. Listen to the Flower-Fairies – not the garden flowers, but the wild-flowers; they will sing you a song, while I beat time – not that there is any real need to beat Time, because he is a most respectable person, though he always contrives to beat us."
Both children would have liked to argue out this speech of the Zankiwank because it puzzled them, and they felt it would not parse properly. However, as just at that moment the Elfin Orchestra appeared, they sat on the grass and listened: —
This is the Elfin Dawn,
When ev'ry Fay and Faun,
Trips o'er the earth with joy and mirth,
And Pleasure takes the maun.
Night's noon stars coyly peep,
O'er dale and dene and deep,
And Fairies fair float through the air,
Love's festival to keep.
We dance and sing in the Welkin Ring,
While Heather Bells go Ding-dong-ding!
To greet the Elfin Dawn.
The Flower-fairies spread each wing,
And trip about with mincing ging,
Upon the magic lawn.
And so we frisk and play,
Like mortals, in the day;
From acorn cup we all wake up
Titania to obey.
We never, never die,
And this the reason why,
Of Fancy's art we are the part
That lives eternalie.
We dance and sing in the Welkin Ring,
While Heather Bells go Ding-dong-ding!
To greet the Elfin Dawn.
The Flower-fairies spread each wing,
And trip about with mincing ging,
Upon the magic lawn.
"They keep very good time, don't they?" said the Zankiwank to the children, who were completely entranced with pleasure and surprise.
"Lovely, lovely," was all they could say.
Every wild flower they could think of, and every bird of the air, was to be seen in this beautiful place with the purling stream running down the centre, crossed by innumerable rustic bridges, while far away they could see a fountain ever sending upward its cooling sprays of crystal water.
"I think I shall spend my honeymoon here," said the Zankiwank. "I have already bought a honeycomb for my bride. I am so impatient to have her by my side that I have dispatched the Jackarandajam and Mr Swinglebinks in a four-wheeled cab to fetch her. When the Bletherwitch arrives I will introduce you, and you shall both be bridesmaids!"
"But I can't be a bridesmaid, you know," corrected Willie.
"Oh yes, you can. You can be anything here you like. You only have to eat some Fern seeds and you become invisible, and nobody would know you. It is so simple, and saves a lot of argument. And you should never argue about anything unless you know nothing about it, then you are sure to win."
"But," interrupted Maude, "how can you know nothing about anything?"
"'Tis the easiest thing out of the world," said the Zankiwank. "What is nothing?"
"Nothing."
"Precisely. Nothing is nothing; but what is better than nothing?"
"Something."
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Where is your logic? Nothing is better than something! I'll prove it: —
"Nothing is sweeter than honey,
Nothing's more bitter than gall,
Nothing that's comic is funny,
Nothing is shorter than tall."
"That is nonsense and nothing to do with the case," exclaimed Maude.
"Nonsense? Nonsense? Did you say nonsense?"
"Of course she did," said Willie, "and so do I."
"Nonsense! To me? Do you forget what my name is?"
"Oh, no, nothing easier than to remember it. You are the Great Zankiwank."
"Thank you, I am satisfied. I thought you had forgotten. I am not cross with you."
Maude and Willie vowed they would not cross him for anything, let alone nothing, and so the Zankiwank was appeased and offered to give them the correct answer to his own unanswerable conundrum. Do you know what a conundrum is though? I will tell you while the Zankiwank is curling his whiskers: —
A conundrum is an impossible question with an improbable answer. Think it over the next time you read "Robinson Crusoe."
"Nothing is better than a good little girl;
But a jam tart is better than nothing,
Therefore a jam tart is better than the best little girl alive."
"What do you think of that?" said the Zankiwank.
"I have heard something like it before. But that is nothing. Anyhow I would much rather be a little girl than a jam tart – because a jam tart must be sour because it's tart, and a little girl is always sweet," promptly replied Willie, kissing his sister Maude on the nose – but that was an accident, because she moved at the wrong moment.
