"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 yourback!
You don't understand these things."

"I can walk as well as you can," I repeated.  And I tried my bestto
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, movingyour
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 cryingI
heard 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.  "Inever tease him!"
"Well, I must ask the Other Professor about it." He went back intothe
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 outagain.

"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 stoopedto
receive the salute.  "How you do puzzle me!  Why, there areseveral
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'sgo
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 justtouch
the floor, as Sylvie led me through the study.

The Professor went before us to unlock the Ivory Door.  I had justtime
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 hisface,
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 yourselfso?"

"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.  Andthe stone
hurted my foot!  And I trod on a Bee.  And the Bee stingedmy finger!"
Poor Bruno sobbed again.  The complete list of woes was too muchfor
his feelings.  "And it knewed I didn't mean to trod on it!" headded,
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 bestones?
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!  Andstones
aren't pretty, one bit.  Would oo like some dindledums, MisterSir?"

"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 wishtedto
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 nuffinat 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.  "Comealong
and pick some dindledums. That's all she's fit for!" he added in avery
loud whisper to me.

"But why do you say 'Dindledums,' Bruno?  Dandelions is the rightword."

"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!"  Andthe 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 theProfessor.

"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 authorof
the new Money-act.  The Emperor was so kind as to wish that Ishould
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 Wardenis
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.

"Is the Warden supposed to be dead?"

"Well, it's supposed so: but, mind you, I don't believe it!
The evidence is very weak--mere hear-say.  A wandering Jester,with a
Dancing-Bear (they found their way into the Palace, one day) has been
telling people he comes from Fairyland, and that the Warden died there.
I wanted the Vice-Warden to question him, but, most unluckily, he and
my Lady were always out walking when the Jester came round.  Yes,the
Warden's supposed to be dead!"  And more tears trickled down theold
man's cheeks.

"But what is the new Money-Act?"

The Professor brightened up again.  "The Emperor started the thing,"
he said.  "He wanted to make everybody in Outland twice as richashe
was before just to make the new Government popular.  Only therewasn't
nearly enough money in the Treasury to do it.  So I suggestedthat he
might do it by doubling the value of every coin and bank-note in
Outland.  It's the simplest thing possible.  I wonder nobodyever
thought of it before!  And you never saw such universal joy.
The shops are full from morning to night.  Everybody's buyingeverything!"

"And how was the glorifying done?"

A sudden gloom overcast the Professor's jolly face.  "They didit as I
went home after the Election," he mournfully replied.  "It waskindly
meant but I didn't like it!  They waved flags all round me tillI was
nearly blind: and they rang bells till I was nearly deaf: and they
strewed the road so thick with flowers that I lost my way!"  Andthe
poor old man sighed deeply.

"How far is it to Outland?"  I asked, to change the subject.

"About five days' march.  But one must go back--occasionally. You see,
as Court-Professor, I have to be always in attendance on Prince Uggug.
The Empress would be very angry if I left him, even for an hour."

"But surely, every time you come here, you are absent ten days, at least?"

"Oh, more than that!" the Professor exclaimed.  "A fortnight, sometimes.
But of course I keep a memorandum of the exact time when I started,
so that I can put the Court-time back to the very moment!"
"Excuse me," I said.  "I don't understand."

Silently the Professor drew front his pocket a square gold watch,
with six or eight hands, and held it out for my inspection.
"This," he began, "is an Outlandish Watch--"

"So I should have thought."

"--which has the peculiar property that, instead of its going with the
time, the time goes with it.  I trust you understand me now?"

"Hardly," I said.

"Permit me to explain.  So long as it is let alone, it takes itsown
course.  Time has no effect upon it."

"I have known such watches," I remarked.

"It goes, of course, at the usual rate.  Only the time has to gowith it.
Hence, if I move the hands, I change the time.  To move them forwards,
in advance of the true time, is impossible: but I can move them asmuch
as a month backwards---that is the limit.  And then you have theevents
all over again--with any alterations experience may suggest."

"What a blessing such a watch would be," I thought, "in real life!
To be able to unsay some heedless word--to undo some reckless deed!
Might I see the thing done?"

"With pleasure!" said the good natured Professor.  "When I movethis
hand back to here," pointing out the place, "History goes back fifteen
minutes!"

Trembling with excitement, I watched him push the hand round as he
described.

"Hurted mine self welly much!"

Shrilly and suddenly the words rang in my ears, and, more startled than
I cared to show, I turned to look for the speaker.

Yes!  There was Bruno, standing with the tears running down hischeeks,
just as I had seen him a quarter of an hour ago; and there was Sylvie
with her arms round his neck!

I had not the heart to make the dear little fellow go through his
troubles a second time, so hastily begged the Professor to push the
hands round into their former position.  In a moment Sylvie andBruno
were gone again, and I could just see them in the far distance, picking
'dindledums.'

"Wonderful, indeed!"  I exclaimed.

"It has another property, yet more wonderful," said the Professor.
"You see this little peg?  That is called the 'Reversal Peg.'If you
push it in, the events of the next hour happen in the reverse order.
Do not try it now.  I will lend you the Watch for a few days,and you
can amuse yourself with experiments."

"Thank you very much!"  I said as he gave me the Watch.  "I'lltake the
greatest care of it--why, here are the children again!"

"We could only but find six dindledums," said Bruno, putting them into
my hands, "'cause Sylvie said it were time to go back.  And here'sa
big blackberry for ooself!  We couldn't only find but two!"

"Thank you: it's very nice," I said.  And I suppose you ate theother,
Bruno?"

"No, I didn't," Bruno said, carelessly.  "Aren't they pretty dindledums,
Mister Sir?"

"Yes, very: but what makes you limp so, my child?"

"Mine foot's come hurted again!"  Bruno mournfully replied. And he sat
down on the ground, and began nursing it.

The Professor held his head between his hands--an attitude that I knew
indicated distraction of mind.  "Better rest a minute," he said.
"It may be better then--or it may be worse.  If only I had someof my
medicines here!  I'm Court-Physician, you know," he added, asideto me.

"Shall I go and get you some blackberries, darling?"  Sylvie whispered,
with her arms round his neck; and she kissed away a tear that was
trickling down his cheek.

Bruno brightened up in a moment.  "That are a good plan!" he exclaimed.
"I thinks my foot would come quite unhurted, if I eated a blackberry--
two or three blackberries--six or seven blackberries--"

Sylvie got up hastily.  "I'd better go she said, aside to me, beforehe
gets into the double figures!

Let me come and help you, I said.  I can reach higher up than youcan.

Yes, please, said Sylvie, putting her hand into mine: and we walkedoff
together.

Bruno loves blackberries, she said, as we paced slowly along by a tall
hedge, that looked a promising place for them, and it was so sweetof
him to make me eat the only one!

Oh, it was you that ate it, then?  Bruno didn't seem to like totell me
about it.

No; I saw that, said Sylvie.  He's always afraid of being praised.
But he made me eat it, really!  I would much rather he --oh, what'sthat?
And she clung to my hand, half-frightened, as we came in sight of a
hare, lying on its side with legs stretched out just in the entranceto
the wood.

It's a hare, my child.  Perhaps it's asleep.

No, it isn't asleep, Sylvie said, timidly going nearer to look at it:
it's eyes are open.  Is it--is it--her voice dropped to an awestruck
whisper, is it dead, do you think?"

"Yes, it's quite dead," I said, after stooping to examine it.
"Poor thing!  I think it's been hunted to death.  I knowthe harriers
were out yesterday.  But they haven't touched it.  Perhapsthey caught
sight of another, and left it to die of fright and exhaustion."

"Hunted to death?"  Sylvie repeated to herself, very slowly andsadly.
"I thought hunting was a thing they played at like a game.  Brunoand I
hunt snails: but we never hurt them when we catch them!"

"Sweet angel!"  I thought.  "How am I to get the idea of Sportinto your
innocent mind?"  And as we stood, hand-in-hand, looking down atthe dead
hare, I tried to put the thing into such words as she could understand.
"You know what fierce wild-beasts lions and tigers are?"  Sylvienodded.
"Well, in some countries men have to kill them, to save their own lives,
you know."

"Yes," said Sylvie: "if one tried to kill me, Bruno would kill it ifhe
could."

"Well, and so the men--the hunters--get to enjoy it, you know:
the running, and the fighting, and the shouting, and the danger."

"Yes," said Sylvie.  "Bruno likes danger."

"Well, but, in this country, there aren't any lions and tigers, loose:
so they hunt other creatures, you see." I hoped, but in vain, thatthis
would satisfy her, and that she would ask no more questions.

"They hunt foxes," Sylvie said, thoughtfully.  "And I think theykill
them, too.  Foxes are very fierce.  I daresay men don't lovethem.
Are hares fierce?"

"No," I said.  "A hare is a sweet, gentle, timid animal--almostas
gentle as a lamb."

"But, if men love hares, why--why--" her voice quivered, and her sweet
eyes were brimming over with tears.

"I'm afraid they don't love them, dear child."

"All children love them," Sylvie said.  "All ladies love them."

"I'm afraid even ladies go to hunt them, sometimes."

Sylvie shuddered.  '"Oh, no, not ladies!' she earnestly pleaded.
"Not Lady Muriel!"

"No, she never does, I'm sure--but this is too sad a sight for you,dear.
Let's try and find some--"

But Sylvie was not satisfied yet.  In a hushed, solemn tone, withbowed
head and clasped hands, she put her final question.
"Does GOD love hares?"

"Yes!"  I said.  "I'm sure He does!  He loves every livingthing.
Even sinful men.  How much more the animals, that cannot sin!"

"I don't know what 'sin' means," said Sylvie.  And I didn't tryto
explain it.

"Come, my child," I said, trying to lead her away.  "Wish good-byeto
the poor hare, and come and look for blackberries."

"Good-bye, poor hare!"  Sylvie obediently repeated, looking overher
shoulder at it as we turned away.  And then, all in a moment,her
self-command gave way.  Pulling her hand out of mine, she ranback to
where the dead hare was lying, and flung herself down at its side in
such an agony of grief as I could hardly have believed possible inso
young a child.

"Oh, my darling, my darling!" she moaned, over and over again.
"And God meant your life to be so beautiful!"

Sometimes, but always keeping her face hidden on the ground, she would
reach out one little hand, to stroke the poor dead thing, and thenonce
more bury her face in her hands, and sob as if her heart would break.
[Image...The dead hare]

I was afraid she would really make herself ill: still I thought
it best to let her weep away the first sharp agony of grief: and, after
a few minutes, the sobbing gradually ceased, and Sylvie rose to her
feet, and looked calmly at me, though tears were still streaming down
her cheeks.

I did not dare to speak again, just yet; but simply held out my handto
her, that we might quit the melancholy spot.

Yes, I'll come now, she said.  Very reverently she kneeled down,
and kissed the dead hare; then rose and gave me her hand,
and we moved on in silence.

A child's sorrow is violent but short; and it was almost in her usual
voice that she said after a minute "Oh stop stop!  Here are somelovely
blackberries!"

We filled our hands with fruit and returned in all haste to where the
Professor and Bruno were seated on a bank awaiting our return.

Just before we came within hearing-distance Sylvie checked me.
"Please don't tell Bruno about the hare!" she said.

Very well, my child.  But why not?

Tears again glittered in those sweet eyes and she turned her head away
so that I could scarcely hear her reply.  "He's--he's very fondof
gentle creatures you know.  And he'd--he'd be so sorry! I don't want
him to be made sorry."

And your agony of sorrow is to count for nothing, then, sweet unselfish
child!  I thought to myself. But no more was said till we hadreached
our friends; and Bruno was far too much engrossed, in the feast wehad
brought him, to take any notice of Sylvie's unusually grave manner.

"I'm afraid it's getting rather late, Professor?"  I said.

"Yes, indeed," said the Professor.  "I must take you all throughthe
Ivory Door again.  You've stayed your full time."

"Mightn't we stay a little longer!" pleaded Sylvie.

"Just one minute!" added Bruno.

But the Professor was unyielding.  "It's a great privilege, coming
through at all," he said.  "We must go now." And we followed him
obediently to the Ivory Door, which he threw open, and signed to meto
go through first.

"You're coming too, aren't you?"  I said to Sylvie.

"Yes," she said: "but you won't see us after you've gone through."

"But suppose I wait for you outside?"  I asked, as I stepped throughthe
doorway.

"In that case," said Sylvie, "I think the potato would be quite
justified in asking your weight.  I can quite imagine a reallysuperior
kidney-potato declining to argue with any one under fifteen stone!"

With a great effort I recovered the thread of my thoughts.
"We lapse very quickly into nonsense!"  I said.