Ingersoll Lockwood

“ Throughout the length and breadth of the South, and beyond the Great Divide, the news struck hamlet and village like the glad tidings of a new evangel, almost as potent for human happiness as the heavenly message of two thousand years ago. Bells rang out in joyful acclaim, and the very stars trembled at the telling, and the telling over and over of what had been done for the poor man by his brethren of the North, and around the blazing pine knots of the Southern cabin and in front of the mining camp fires of the Far West, the cry went up: “Silver is King! Silver is King!” ”

“ He was the happiest of the Happy Forgetters who could honestly say, I know not thy name, nor when thou wast born, not where thou dwellest, nor who thy kinsmen are; I only know that thou art my brother, and that thou wilt not see me suffer if I should forget to eat, or perish of thirst if I forget to drink, and that thou wilt bid me close my eyes if I should forget that I had laid me down to sleep.
Bulger’s and my arrival in the Land of the Happy Forgetters filled the hearts of these curious folk with secret dread. ”

“ I replied in a firm, yet humble tone.
“No human creature is stranger to me! Thou art too young to be my brother! The light that is left me shines only for my own feet!” came slowly from the hermit’s cave in a full, deep, rich voice.
“True, great master,” I replied, “but then, may I not be thy son, and follow thy footsteps?”
“Thou art very wise for thy years,” spake Benè-agâ.
“Not so wise, great master,” was my reply, “as I shall be when I have sat at thy feet.”
“Come somewhat closer; thy child-voice sounds like an echo,” continued the blind hermit. “And yet thou art not a child! ”

“ With Schneeboule for a guide, Bulger and I often went for walks through the splendid ice grottos of her father's kingdom, selecting days when the sunlight of the outer world poured strongest through the mighty lens set in the side of the mountain. Then these grottos took on a splendor that my poor tongue is powerless to describe. Their crystal mazes glittered as if their walls were set with massive jewels most wonderfully cut and polished, and as if their ceilings were fretted with gems so peerless that all the gold of the upper world would fall far short of paying for them. ”

“ My heart sank within me at sight of that wall of living boulders encircling us, with their fierce visages turned, half in wonder, half in rage, upon the, to them, two funny beings as utterly unlike themselves as each other.
But love is always stronger than fear.
Stretching out my arms and drawing Bulger close to my breast, I cried out:
“O, Bulger! do I really live? Am I not still the object of some demon’s sportive malice?”
At sound of my voice the round-bodied monsters broke out into a hideous chorus of deep, rumbling laughter, during which their bodies rolled from side to side. ”

“ It was with a great show of dignity that Bulger took his position in the stern with the tiller-ropes in his mouth, ready to pull on either side as I might direct; and setting the silver oars in place, I threw my weight upon them, and away we glided, swiftly and noiselessly, over the surface of the dark and sluggish stream.
In a few moments nothing but a faint glimmer was left to remind us of the wonderful City of Silver, where the silent Formifolk live and love and labor without ever a thought that human beings could be any happier than they. ”

“ The pitch and tar, softened by the heat of the water in Neptune’s Caldron, had bulged from the ship’s joints and allowed the calking to escape.
Like a sheet of card board, our rudder was now torn from its place and whirled away on the crest of a giant billow.
Behold us now at the very mercy of the storm, the plaything of wind and wave, a cockle shell fallen on the battle ground of nature’s waning elements.
Bulger, lashed to the rigging by my side, uttered no plaint, no cry of fear, no sound of distrust. ”

“ THE SAD, SAD TALE OF THE SORROWING PRINCESS WITH A SPECK IN HER HEART, AND WHAT ALL HAPPENED WHEN SHE HAD ENDED IT, WHICH THE READER MUST READ FOR HIMSELF IF HE WOULD KNOW. "Little baron and dear Lord Bulger," began the crystal-eyed damozel, after she had eased her soul of its load of woe by three long and deep, deep sighs, "know then that I am not the damozel Glow Stone, but none other than the royal princess Crystallina herself; that she whose hair I comb should comb mine; that she whom I have served for ten long years should have served me!" ”

“ Another instant and I’m saved! My feet strike firm.
I see the fair country come nearer and nearer.
Another leap, and with my faithful Bulger I’ve cleared the dreaded stairway of Bōga-Drappa! Staggering forward, I reach the greensward of the valley and fall fainting, after my terrible race for life!
Bulger’s mingled wailing and caresses roused me after a few moments of clouded brain and then all was well. And yet a shudder stole over me as I raised my eyes to take a last look at the rocky stairway of Bōga-Drappa, now clad once more in its black, glistening, treacherous slime. ”

“ Must he fly until he has ground his very body to such a thinness that the next obstruction will shatter it into ten thousand pieces, and hurl Bulger and me to death?
As these thoughts are flitting through my mind, the flying mass takes one last mad plunge which lands it on an almost level stretch of roadway, and by the different sound given out by the sliding block, I know that we have left the regions of ice behind us, and that our crystal sledge is gliding gently along over a track of polished marble. ”

“ I called out and in quicker time than it takes to tell it, I was on my way to the shore of the Sculptors’ Isle.
Faithful Bulger sat beside me, his eyes bright and expressive as he gazed into my face.
Landing at the foot of the marble stairway, I sprang lightly out of the launch, followed by Bulger, and bounded up the marble steps.
There were three landings before I reached the level of the temple, from each of which the outlook grew more and more delightful. In truth, it was a glorious approach to produce which art and nature had fairly outdone themselves. ”

“ I covet no other guerdon!"
"Even if I did not love thee, little baron," cried King Gelidus with an icy smile, "I would be persuaded; but loving makes easy believing. Go, Phrostyphiz, and bid one of the princess's women brush those tiny jewels that hang on Schneeboule's cheek into an alabaster cup and bestow them upon the little baron."
Scarcely had this been done when Fuffcoojah thrust his head out from under the pelt and, fixing his eyes pleadingly upon me, thrust out his tongue and opened and shut his mouth with a faint, smacking noise. ”

“ As Benè-agâ ceased speaking, he lifted his song, making the trailing mosses sway with the vigor of his notes, now deep and solemn, now clear and far-reaching.
The echoes came back softened down to flute notes. He listened breathlessly.
“O wonderful man!” thought I, “even the sleeping echoes rouse themselves to guide thy footsteps aright.”
“Come, my son!” he cried in tones of gladness, “our torches go to their end. Let us push on! Though the sun be not yet high enough to chase the inky darkness out of Palin-mâ-Talin’s depths, still, with this guiding string thou canst follow me!” ”

“ I turned many a wistful look up toward the wild regions shut in by their sheer walls and parapets, shaggy and bristling with black pines, for a low, mysterious voice came a-whispering in my inward ear that somewhere, ah, somewhere in that awful wilderness, I should one day come upon the portals of the World within a World! In spite of all I could do Bulger took a violent dislike to Ivan and Ivan to him; and if the bargain had not been made and the money paid over, I should have looked about me for another teamster. ”

“ Mine do!
’Tis Bulger’s bark and I am saved! Faster and faster the Wind Eaters ply their clubs.
I do not heed them. I do not feel them now, for nearer and nearer comes that joyous music.
’Tis here!
I’m strong again. I rise half up—my lips move—I speak—I cry out: “Quick, good Bulger, or all is lost!” A single glance at the terrible plight of his little master tells him all. With a howl of rage, his dark eyes shooting flame, he throws himself upon the heels of the Wind Eaters. ”

“ Ah, dear friends, I can feel that shudder now, so terrible was it, and what wonder, too, for a glance at the pipe of the funnel told me that it was too small to let my body pass through. The agonizing thought flashed through my mind that I had committed a terrible error—that I had mistaken some vast pit for the Giants' Well, that I had thrown Bulger's and my own life away in mad and unreasoning haste, that I should never reach the wonderful World within a World, that there in that thick gloom must we lay our bodies and bones. ”

“ It is needless to say that every body was delighted to see Bulger. They all found that he had increased in size, beauty and intelligence.
He received all this homage with a dignity that was charming to behold.
To impress the crowd with a due sense of that discipline and self-control which he acquired as the constant companion and confidant of his master, he absolutely refused to touch the many tid-bits and dainty morsels which the retainers offered him, and gazed with the utmost indifference at the other dogs in their mad scramblings for the food which he had declined. ”