Zyp

“ My heart was too full of one only other girlish figure to find room in itself for a rival. What was Zyp doing now?—the wonderful fairy child, whose phantom presence haunted all my dreams for good and evil.
As I walked from the office with Duke Straw that afternoon—for, as it was Saturday, we left early—a silence fell between us till we neared Cringle’s shop. Then, standing outside, he suddenly stayed me and looked in my face.
“Shall I hate or love you?” he said, with his mouth set grimly.
He made a gesture toward his deformed lower limbs with his hands, and shrugged his shoulders. ”

“ What Robin Goodfellow fathered you, I should like to know?”
“He’s no father,” said Zyp. “He’s too full of tricks for a family man. I could tell you things of him.”
“Tell us some then,” said the doctor.
What Zyp would have answered I don’t know, for at that moment my father walked into the room. If he had had what is vulgarly called a skinful, he was not drunk, for he moved steadily up to the little group at the table with a scowl contracting his forehead. The half-emptied tumbler had caught his eye immediately and he pointed to it. I was conscious that the doctor quaked a little. ”

“ Now I was built into such a body—more, was an integral part of it. Yet could my pinioned nerves never assimilate its passionless obduracy, but jerked and struggled in agony to be free. Oh, how divine is the instinct that paints heaven all light and airiness, and innocent forevermore of the sense of weight!
Suddenly I heard Zyp’s voice, singing outside in the world, and in a moment tears, most blessed, blessed tears, sprung from my eyes and I was free. ”

“ Keep out of his way, I warn you—now and always.”
“I’m obliged to you,” he answered, in a high-strung voice; “it seems to be a choice of evils. I prefer evil anyway in the open air.”
I said not a word more and he left us, and I heard the front door close on him. Then I turned to Zyp with an agony I could not control, and she was crooning over her baby.
“Zyp, I oughtn’t to say it, I know. But—oh, Zyp! I thought all these years you might be waiting for me.”
“Hush, Renny! You wrote so seldom, and—and I was a changeling, you know, and longed for light and pleasure. ”

“ Here, to one side, would I place Zyp; to the other Dolly. Let me plead to each, counseled by heart and conscience. To Zyp: You have and have ever had that of mine to which I can give no name, but which men call “love,” as an expression of what is inexpressible. I know that this gift, this sixth sense, that, like the soul, embraces all the others, once acquired, is indestructible. For joy or evil I am doomed to it, spiritually to profit or be debased by it. ”

“ There was frost in the air, too; so that sometimes, as I moved dreamily onward, a sense as if all that gap of vivid life were a vanished vision and unreality moved strongly in me. Then it seemed that presently I should saunter into the old mill to find my father and Zyp and Jason sitting down as usual to the midday meal. ”

“ I clenched my teeth and fists and would have risen had not Zyp noiselessly prevented me. It was wormwood to me; the revelation that, for some secret cause, my father, the strong, irresistible and independent, was under the thumb of an alien. But the doctor walked off and I fell silent.
On our homeward way we came across Jason lying on his back under a tree, but he took no notice of us nor answered my call, and Zyp stamped her foot when I offered to delay and speak to him. ”

“ Zyp never plucked a flower, or allowed us to do so if she could prevent it. I well remember the first walk I took with her after her establishment in the mill, when I was attracted by a rare little blossom, the water chickweed, which sprouted from a grassy trench, and pulled it for her behoof. She beat me savagely with her soft hands, then fell to kissing and weeping over the torn little weed, which actually appeared to revive a moment under her caresses. I had to promise with humility never to gather another wild flower so long as I lived, and I have been faithful to my trust. ”

“ Had I never met Zyp, I doubt if I should ever in my manhood have realized what the grown-up, I think, seldom do, the amount of torture and wrong the young heart may endure without bursting—with no hope of sympathy, moreover, except that half-amused tolerant form of it which the old think it sufficient to extend to youth’s elastic grievances.
By and by Jason stole in. For some little time he sat upon his bed, silent; then he said in a soft voice:
“Let’s cry quits, Renny. I think I’ve paid you out for that little accident of the meads.”
“I hate you!” ”

“ She walked past the stricken man all stately, and then Modred and I jumped up and greeted her. At this the doctor’s jaw dropped, but his trembling ceased and he watched us with injected eyes. Holding my two hands, Zyp looked coyly round, leaning backward.
“I love a tall man,” she whispered; “he has more in him than a short one.” ”

“ The proud child of the woods could brook no insult to her condescension, and from my comrade she had become my enemy.
I suppose I should have been relieved that the inevitable rupture had occurred so swiftly and effectually. Judge you, you poor outcasts who, sanctifying a love in your tumultuous breasts, have had to step aside and yield to another the fruit you so coveted.
Once pledged to antagonism, Zyp, it will be no matter for wonder, adopted anything but half-measures. Had it only been her vanity that was hurt she would have made me pay dearly for the blow. ”

“ Was the old mill uncanny from the first, or is it only the ghosts with which our generation of passions has peopled it that have made it so? This I can say: That I never remember a time when Jason or I, or even Zyp, dared to be in the room of silence alone—and in company never for more than a few minutes. Modred had not the same awe of it, but Modred’s imagination was a swaddled infant. For my father I will not speak. ”

“ The day after her arrival she asked me to take her over the mill and show her everything. I complied when the place was empty of all save us. We explored room by room, with a single exception, the ancient building.
Of course Zyp said: “There’s a room you haven’t shown me, Renny.”
“Yes,” said I; “the room of silence.”
“Why didn’t we go there?”
“Never mind. There’s something wicked in it.”
“What? Do tell me! Oh, I should love to see!”
“There’s nothing to see. Let it alone, can’t you?”
“You’re a coward. I’ll get the sleepy boy to show me.” ”

“ I found my father sitting up for me amid the gusty lights and shadows of the old mill sitting-room. He welcomed me with a joy that filled my heart with remorse at having left him so long alone.
“Dad,” I said, “I have seen Zyp!”
He only looked at me in wonder.
“She was coming to implore my help to enable her and—and her husband to escape—to get away abroad somewhere.”
“Escape? From what?”
“That man—my one-time friend—that I told you about. He has pursued them all the year with deadly hatred. Jason is half-mad with terror of him, it seems.” ”

“ Whole thickets were brought full-grown from the depths of the finest forests of France, and the arts of animating marble and of moving waters filled them with every prodigy of which the imagination could dream. ”

“ These buildings which stretch across a frontage of twelve hundred yards, the unheard-of luxury of these endless apartments, this incredible multitude of objects of art, these forests transplanted, these waters of heaven gathered from all the slopes of the heights into the windings of immense conduits from Trappes and Palaiseau to Versailles, these waters of the Seine brought from Marly by gigantic machinery through that aqueduct which commands from afar the valley of the river like a superb Roman ruin, and later, an enterprise far more colossal! ”

“ The first look showed him a ragged tramp with battered hat, unshaven face and a bundle of clothes tied up in a dirty, faded red handkerchief strung on a cane over his shoulder. That one look was enough, for if there was one thing Zip despised and detested more than any other, it was a tramp. And for this one to dare to try to come in the front gate—the gate he never allowed anyone to enter unless they were well dressed—was more than he could stand, and he flew at the fellow as if he were the size of a lion and was going to devour him on the spot. ”

“ Folks only called him that when they were full of fun or very cross; indeed, you could generally tell which by their tone.
“A robin in the overhanging boughs of an apple-tree whistled cheerily as Zip drew near. Instantly the boy seized a stone, and threw it at the red feathers. The bird uttered a shrill cry of alarm, but flew away unharmed, and presently was heard again far away in the orchard. Zip was rather glad of this, after all. He wasn’t a cruel boy, but whenever he saw a bird or a squirrel, something in him, he couldn’t tell what, made him throw stones at it. ”

“ Bud, who could not bear to remain shut up in his palace while all this excitement was occurring outside the city gates, had slipped away from Fluff and joined his gigantic general, Tollydob. He was, of course, unused to war, and when he beheld the vast array of Zixi's army, he grew fearful that the magic cloak might not be able to save his city from conquest. Yet the five high counselors, who were all present, seemed not to worry the least bit.
"They're very pretty soldiers to look at," remarked old Tollydob complacently. "I'm really sorry to defeat them, they march so beautifully." ”

“ Aunt Rivette flew high above the mountain-top, and there she saw the great army of Queen Zixi climbing up the slope on the other side. The army also saw her, and stopped short in amazement at seeing a woman fly like a bird. They had before this thought their queen sure of victory, because she was a witch and possessed many wonderful arts; but now they saw that the people of Noland could also do wonderful things, and it speedily disheartened them. ”

“ And everyone was as pleased that he was found as he was that he was rescued, and their tears were turned to smiles at the comical picture he made, all covered with soot.
After trying to jump up on the doctor to lick his hands [Pg 44] in thanks for his freedom, he started for his usual bath tub, the watering trough.
"Here, where are you going so fast, Zip? Better stay here until I get a bucket of hot soapsuds to wash you off," called his master, but Zip did not stop, and the doctor followed him. Imagine his surprise when he saw him jump in the trough where he always watered his horses! ”

“ The next day at noon, when Zip came home with the doctor from making his morning visits to his patients, he was surprised to see all the furniture moved out into the side yard. At first he thought there must have been a fire, but when he saw Martha with a towel wrapped around her head, and Mrs. Huggins, the scrub-woman of the village, trying to squeeze a wide table through a narrow door, while Noah, their half-witted chore-boy, was beating carpets on the lawn, he knew it was spring house-cleaning. ”

“ Zip held on the monkey's tail until the rake appeared over his head, then he let go quickly, giving an extra bite to the tip, which came off in his mouth. He jumped back just in time to save himself from being hit on the head, for the rake came down with such force that it laid both the turkey and Peter-Kins out flat on their backs, where they lay kicking as if in the throes of death. ”

“ Hardway was a sensible woman and knew that accidents will happen, and she met with the doctor smilingly. Besides, the doctor had been her family physician for years, and they were all very, very fond of him as well as of Zip. It was hard to think of the doctor without Zip, as they were always together. So when the doctor began to apologize, Mrs. Hardway stopped him short, and told him to drink Zip's health in a glass of freshly made lemonade, and say no more about it. ”

“ Our country is entirely conquered by these monsters, so it isn't a safe place for us to stay in."
"I believe I can carry you anywhere you'd like to go," said Aunt Rivette. "You're not so very heavy."
"Suppose we go to Queen Zixi and ask her to protect us?" the princess suggested.
"That's all right if she doesn't bear us a grudge. You know we knocked out her whole army," remarked Bud.
"Quavo the minstrel says she is very beautiful and kind to her people," said the girl.
"Well, there's no one else we can trust," Bud answered gloomily, "so we may as well try Zixi. ”

“ Zip loved these daily trips, for he was a most active, nervous, curious, little dog, and always wanted to know what was going on throughout the village, and these rides gave him a splendid opportunity to find out. While the doctor was in visiting his patients, Zip would jump out of the buggy and go around to the back of the house to call on the family's cat or dog, whichever it happened to be. And though you may not know it, these animals in every household know what is going on in the home from garret to cellar, as well as all the family secrets and neighborhood gossip. ”

“ As for Zip, he slunk away and ran back to the doctor's buggy just in time to jump in as the doctor started for home. So by the time Miss Belinda had gathered up Peter-Kins and saw that the turkey was more frightened than hurt, Zip was blocks away, laughing to himself at the whack the monkey and [Pg 58] turkey had gotten instead of him, and at the funny spectacle the three of them must have made as they ran around and around the yard. ”

“ However long your arts may permit you to live, you must always beware a mirror!"
Zixi gave a sob and buried her pretty face in her hands, and it was Fluff whose tender heart prompted her to raise the witch-queen and try to comfort her. For a moment all present looked at Zixi. When their eyes again sought the form of the fairy, Lulea had vanished, and with her disappeared forever from Noland the magic cloak.
Some important changes had been wrought through the visit of the fairy. Jikki's six servants were gone, to the old valet's great delight. ”