THROUGH THE IVORY DOOR.
"I don't know," said Sylvie."Hush! I must think.I could go to him, by myself, well enough.But I want you to come too.""Let me go with you," I pleaded."I can walk as fast as you can, I'm sure."Sylvie laughed merrily."What nonsense!" she cried.
"Why, you ca'n't walk a bit! You're lying quite flat on your back!
You don't understand these things."
"I can walk as well as you can," I repeated.And I tried my best to walk a few steps: but the ground slipped away backwards, quite as fast as I could walk, so that I made no progress at all.Sylvie laughed again.
"There, I told you so! You've no idea how funny you look, moving your feet about in the air, as if you were walking! Wait a bit.I'll ask the Professor what we'd better do." And she knocked at his study-door.
The door opened, and the Professor looked out."What's that crying Iheard just now?" he asked."Is it a human animal?""It's a boy," Sylvie said.
"I'm afraid you've been teasing him?"
"No, indeed I haven't!" Sylvie said, very earnestly."I never tease him!""Well, I must ask the Other Professor about it." He went back into the study, and we heard him whispering "small human animal--says she hasn't been teasing him--the kind that's called Boy--""Ask her which Boy," said a new voice.The Professor came out again.
"Which Boy is it that you haven't been teasing?"Sylvie looked at me with twinkling eyes."You dear old thing!" she exclaimed, standing on tiptoe to kiss him, while he gravely stooped to receive the salute."How you do puzzle me! Why, there are several boys I haven't been teasing!"The Professor returned to his friend: and this time the voice said "Tell her to bring them here--all of them!""I ca'n't, and I won't! "Sylvie exclaimed, the moment he reappeared.
"It's Bruno that's crying: and he's my brother: and, please, we both want to go: he ca'n't walk, you know: he's--he's dreaming, you know"(this in a whisper, for fear of hurting my feelings)."Do let's go through the Ivory Door!""I'll ask him," said the Professor, disappearing again.He returned directly."He says you may.Follow me, and walk on tip-toe."The difficulty with me would have been, just then, not to walk on tip-toe.It seemed very hard to reach down far enough to just touch the floor, as Sylvie led me through the study.
The Professor went before us to unlock the Ivory Door.I had just time to glance at the Other Professor, who was sitting reading, with his back to us, before the Professor showed us out through the door, and locked it behind us.Bruno was standing with his hands over his face, crying bitterly.
[Image...'What's the matter, darling?']
"What's the matter, darling?" said Sylvie, with her arms round his neck.
"Hurted mine self welly much!" sobbed the poor little fellow.
"I'm so sorry, darling! How ever did you manage to hurt yourself so?""Course I managed it!" said Bruno, laughing through his tears.
"Doos oo think nobody else but oo ca'n't manage things?"Matters were looking distinctly brighter, now Bruno had begun to argue.
"Come, let's hear all about it!" I said.
"My foot took it into its head to slip--" Bruno began.
"A foot hasn't got a head!" Sylvie put in, but all in vain.
"I slipted down the bank.And I tripted over a stone.And the stone hurted my foot! And I trod on a Bee.And the Bee stinged my finger!"Poor Bruno sobbed again.The complete list of woes was too much for his feelings."And it knewed I didn't mean to trod on it!" he added, as the climax.
"That Bee should be ashamed of itself!" I said severely, and Sylvie hugged and kissed the wounded hero till all tears were dried.
"My finger's quite unstung now!" said Bruno."Why doos there be stones?
Mister Sir, doos oo know?"
"They're good for something," I said: "even if we don't know what.
What's the good of dandelions, now?"
"Dindledums?" said Bruno."Oh, they're ever so pretty! And stones aren't pretty, one bit.Would oo like some dindledums, Mister Sir?""Bruno!" Sylvie murmured reproachfully."You mustn't say 'Mister' and 'Sir,' both at once! Remember what I told you!""You telled me I were to say Mister' when I spoked about him, and I were to say 'Sir' when I spoked to him!""Well, you're not doing both, you know."
"Ah, but I is doing bofe, Miss Praticular!" Bruno exclaimed triumphantly."I wishted to speak about the Gemplun--and I wishted to speak to the Gemplun.So a course I said 'Mister Sir'!""That's all right, Bruno," I said.
"Course it's all right!" said Bruno."Sylvie just knows nuffin at all!""There never was an impertinenter boy!" said Sylvie, frowning till her bright eyes were nearly invisible.
"And there never was an ignoranter girl!" retorted Bruno."Come along and pick some dindledums.That's all she's fit for!" he added in a very loud whisper to me.
"But why do you say 'Dindledums,' Bruno? Dandelions is the right word.""It's because he jumps about so," Sylvie said, laughing.
"Yes, that's it," Bruno assented."Sylvie tells me the words, and then, when I jump about, they get shooken up in my head--till they're all froth!"
I expressed myself as perfectly satisfied with this explanation.
"But aren't you going to pick me any dindledums, after all?""Course we will!" cried Bruno."Come along, Sylvie!" And the happy children raced away, bounding over the turf with the fleetness and grace of young antelopes.
"Then you didn't find your way back to Outland?" I said to the Professor.
"Oh yes, I did!" he replied, "We never got to Queer Street; but I found another way.I've been backwards and forwards several times since then.I had to be present at the Election, you know, as the author of the new Money-act.The Emperor was so kind as to wish that I should have the credit of it.'Let come what come may,' (I remember the very words of the Imperial Speech) 'if it should turn out that the Warden is alive, you will bear witness that the change in the coinage is the Professor's doing, not mine!' I never was so glorified in my life, before!" Tears trickled down his cheeks at the recollection, which apparently was not wholly a pleasant one.
