The Zankiwank and The Bletherwitch: An Original Fantastic Fairy Extravaganza. Fitz-Gerald Shafto Justin Adair

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СКАЧАТЬ them very much was the deference with which they greeted their quaint rescuer, as they passed by. For every creature from the Lion to the Mouse bowed most politely as they approached him, and then went on their way gaily frisking, for this was their weekly half-holiday.

      "How do you like my Menagerie," enquired the Dwarf. "Rough and ready, perhaps, but as docile as a flat-iron if you treat them properly."

      "It is just like the Zoo," declared Willie. "Or the animals in Æsop's Fables," suggested Maude.

      This delighted the Dwarf very much, for though he looked so serious, he was full of good humour and skipped about with much agility.

      "Good! Good!" he cried. "Æsop and the Zoo! Ha! Ha! He! He! Anybody can be a Zoo but only one can be Æsop, and I am he!"

      "Æsop! Are you really Mr Æsop, the Phrygian Philosopher?" cried Maude.

      "King Æsop, I should say," corrected Willie. "I am glad we have met you, because now, perhaps, you will kindly tell us what a Fable really is."

      "A Fable," said the merry Æsop, with a twinkle in his witty eyes, "is a fictitious story about nothing that ever happened, related by nobody that ever lived. And the moral is, that every one is quite innocent, only they must not do it again!"

      "Ah! that is only your fun," said Willie sagely, "because of the moral. Why do they give you so many morals?"

      "I don't know," answered Æsop gravely. "But the Commentators and Editors do give a lot of applications and morals to the tales of my animals, don't they?"

      "I like a tale with a moral," averred Maude, "it finishes everything up so satisfactorily, I think. Now, Mr Æsop, as you know so much, please tell us what a proverb is?"

      "Ah!" replied Mr Æsop, "I don't make proverbs. There are too many already, but a proverb usually seems to me to be something you always theoretically remember to practically forget."

      Neither of the children quite understood this, though Maude thought it was what her papa would call satire, and satire was such a strange word that she could never fully comprehend the meaning.

      Willie was silent too, like his sister, and seeing them deep in thought, King Æsop waved a little wand he had in his hand, and all the Birds and Beasts and Fishes joined hands and paws, and fins and wings, and danced in a circle singing to the music of a quantity of piping birds in the trees: —

      If you want to be merry and wise,

      You must all be as bright as you can,

      You never must quarrel,

      Or spoil a right moral,

      But live on a regular plan.

      You must read, write and arith-metise,

      Or you'll never grow up to be good;

      And you mustn't say "Won't,"

      Or "I shan't" and "I don't,"

      Or disturb the Indicative Mood.

      So round about the Knowledge Tree,

      Each boy and girl must go,

      To learn in school the golden rule,

      And Duty's line to toe!

      If you want to be clever and smart,

      You must also be ready for play,

      And don't be too subtle

      When batting your shuttle,

      But sport in a frolicsome way.

      With bat and with ball take your part,

      Or with little doll perched on your knee,

      You sing all the time,

      To a nursery rhyme,

      Before you go in to your tea!

      So round about the Sunset Tree

      Each boy and girl should go

      To play a game of – What's its name?

      That is each game – you know!

      After merrily joining in this very original song, with dancing accompaniment, Maude and Willie thanked King Æsop for permitting his animals to entertain them.

      "Always glad to please good little boys and girls, you know," he replied pleasantly, "even in their play they furnish us with a new fable and a moral."

      "And that is?"

      "All play and no work makes the world stand still."

      Before they could ask for an explanation, their attention was once more drawn to the animals, who had commenced playing all kinds of games just the same as they themselves played in the play-ground at school. The Toads were playing Leap-frog; the Elephants and the Bears, Fly the Garter; the Dromedaries, Hi! Spie! Hi! while the snakes were trundling their hoops. The Lions and the Lambs were playing at cricket with the Donkeys as fielders and the Wombat as umpire.

      The Frogs were in a corner by themselves playing "Kiss in the Ring," and crying out: —

      "It isn't you! It isn't you!

      We none of us know what to do,"

      in a very serio-comic manner. Then the Storks and the Cranes and the Geese and the Ganders were standing in a circle singing: —

      Sally, Sally Waters,

      Sitting in the Moon,

      With the camel's daughters,

      All through the afternoon!

      Oh Sally! Bo Sally!

      Where's your dusting pan;

      My Sally! Fie Sally!

      Here is your young man!

      In another part the Crabs, the Sheep, and the Fox, were vowing that London Bridge was Broken Down, because they had not half-a-crown, which seemed a curious reason. Then all the rest of the wild creatures, Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, commenced an extraordinary dance, singing, croaking, flapping their fins and spreading their wings, to these words: —

      We are a crowd of jolly boys,

      All romping on the lea;

      We always make this merry noise,

      When we return from sea.

      So we go round and round and round,

      Because we've come ashore;

      For Topsy Turvey we are bound,

      So round again once more.

      Go in and out of the coppice,

      Go in and out at the door;

      And do not wake the poppies,

      Who want to have a snore.

      It was too ridiculous; they could recognise every animal they had read about in Æsop, and they were all behaving in a manner they little dreamed could be possible, out of a Night-mare. But it certainly was not a Night-mare, though they could distinguish several horses and ponies.

      They never seemed to stop in their games, and even the Ants and the Gnats were playing – and above all a game of football, – though as some played according to Association and some to Rugby rules, of course it was rather perplexing to the on-lookers. When they grew tired of watching the Animal World enjoying their holiday, they turned to consult King Æsop, but to their astonishment, he was not near them – he had vanished! And when they turned round the other way the Animals had vanished too, and they were quite alone. Indeed everything seemed to disappear, even the light that had been their СКАЧАТЬ