Complete Works of Bram Stoker (415 page)
Read Complete Works of Bram Stoker Online
Authors: Bram Stoker
As the Bird of Prey swooped down, the Tiger rose again and arched his back as though about to spring to meet it, and the Serpent raised his mighty coils and opened his great jaws as if about to strike.
But when the Bird saw the Child it too became less fierce, and hung in mid air with its head drooped as though making submission. Presently the Serpent coiled itself and lay as before, the Tiger went back to watch and guard, and the Bird of Prey alit in the glade and watched and guarded too.
May and Sibold began to look with wonder on the Beautiful Boy, before whom these monsters made obeisance; but they could not see anything strange.
Again there was another terrible sound - this time out to sea - a rushing and swishing as if some giant thing was lashing the water.
Looking round, the children saw two monsters coming. These were a Shark and a Crocodile. They rose out of the sea and came up on land. The Shark was jumping along, with its tail beating about and its triple rows of great teeth grinding together. The Crocodile was crawling along with its big feet and short bent legs; and its terrible mouth was opening and shutting, snapping its big teeth together.
When these two got near, the Tiger and the Serpent and the Bird of Prey all rose to guard the Child; but when the new comers saw the Baby, they too made submission, and they also kept watch and guard - the Crocodile crawling on the beach, and the Shark moving up and down in the water - just like sentries.
Again May and Sibold looked at the Beautiful Child and wondered.
Once more there was a terrible noise, more awful than had yet been.
The earth seemed to shake, and a deep rumbling sound came from far below. Then, a little way off, a mountain suddenly rose; its top opened, and forth burst, with a sound louder than a storm, fire and smoke. Great volumes of black vapour rose and hung, a dark cloud, overhead. Red-hot stones of enormous size were shot aloft and fell again into the crater, and were lost. Down the sides of the mountain rolled torrents of burning lava, and springs of fiercely-boiling water burst forth on every side.
Sibold and May were more frightened than ever, and May clasped the dear Baby closer to her breast.
The thunder of the burning mountain grew louder and louder, the fiery lava poured thick and fast, and from the crater rose the head of a fiery Dragon, with eyes like burning coals and teeth like tongues of flame.
Then the Tiger and the Serpent and the Bird of Prey, and the Crocodile and the Shark, all prepared to defend the Wondrous Child.
But when the fiery Dragon saw the Boy it, too, was quelled; and it crawled humbly out from the burning crater.
Then the fiery mountain sunk again into the earth, the burning lava disappeared; and the Dragon remained with the others to watch and guard.
Sibold and May were more amazed than ever, and looked at the Baby more curiously still. Suddenly May said to her brother:
“Sibold, I want to whisper you something.”
Sibold bent his head, and she whispered very softly into his ear:
“I think the Ba is an Angel!”
Sibold looked at him in awe as he answered:
“I think so, too, dear. What are we to do?”
“I do not know,” said May; “I hope he will not be angry with us for calling him ‘Ba.’”
“I hope not,” said Sibold.
May thought for a moment, and then her face lit up with a glad smile as she said:
“He will not be angry, Sibold. You know we entertained him unawares.”
“Quite true,” said Sibold.
Whilst they were talking, all sorts of animals and birds and fishes were coming into the glade, walking arm in arm, as well as they could - for none of them had arms. A Lion and a Lamb came first, and these two bowed to the Child, and then went and lay down together. Then came a Fox and a Goose; and then a Hawk and a Pigeon; and then a Wolf and another Lamb; then a Dog and a Cat; and then another Cat and a Mouse; and then another Fox and a Stork; and a Hare and a Tortoise; and a Pike and a Trout; and a Sparrow and a Worm; and many, many others, till all the glade was full of living things all at peace with one another.
They all sat round the glade in pairs, and they all looked at the Wondrous Child.
May whispered again to Sibold:
“I think if he is an Angel we ought to be very respectful to him.”
Sibold nodded, slowing that he agreed with her; so she cuddled up the Baby closer and said:
“Please, Mister Ba, do not they all look nice and pretty sitting around like that?”
The Beautiful Child smiled sweetly as he answered:
“Beautiful and sweet they look.”
May said again:
“I wish they would always be like that, and never fight nor disagree at all, dear Ba. Oh! I beg your pardon. I mean, Mister Ba.”
The Child asked her:
“Why do you beg my pardon?”
“Because I called you Ba, instead of Mister Ba.”
The Boy asked again:
“Why should you call me Mister Ba?”
May did not like to say, “Because you are an Angel,” as she would like to have said, so she cuddled the Child closer and whispered into his little pink ear:
“You know.”
The Child put his little arms round her neck and kissed her, and said, very low and very sweetly, words that all her life long she never forgot:
“I do know. Be always loving and sweet, dear child, and even the Angels will know your thoughts and will listen to your words.”
May felt very happy. She looked at Sibold, who bent over and kissed her, and called her “sweet little sister;” and all the animals in pairs, and all the terrible ones on guard, said all together like a cheer:
“Right!”
Then they stopped and made all together each of the noises in turn that any of them used to show they were happy. First they all purred, and then they all crowed, and then cackled, and squeaked, and flapped their wings and wagged their tails.
“Oh, how pretty!” said May again, “look, dear Ba!” She was just going to say Mister when the Child held up its finger, so she only said “Ba.”
The Child smiled and said:
“Right, you must call me only Ba.”
Again all the animals said together like a shout:
“Right, you must say only Ba,” and then they all went through the same ways of showing their joy as before.
May said to the Child - and somehow her voice seemed very, very loud although she did not mean it, but only to whisper.
“Oh, dear Ba, I do so wish they would always continue happy and at peace like this. Is there no way of doing it?”
The Beautiful Child opened its mouth to speak, and all the living things put up their claws, or their wings, or their fins to their cars, to listen attentively.
He spake, and his words seemed full of sound but very soft, like the echo of distant thunder coming over far waters on the wings of music.
“Know, dear children, and know ye all that list - there shall be peace on earth between all living things when the children of men are for one hour in perfect love and harmony with each other. Strive, oh! strive, each and all of you, that it may be so.”
As he spoke there came over all a solemn hush, and they were very still.
Then the Wondrous Child seemed to float out of May’s arms and to move down toward the sea. All the living things instantly hurried to make a great double line between which he passed.
May and Sibold followed him hand in hand. He waited for them at the marge of the sea and then kissed them both.
Whilst he was kissing them, the boat came close to shore; the anchor climbed on board; the white sails ran aloft, and a fresh breeze began to blow towards home.
The Wondrous Child moved on to the prow, and there rested. Sibold and May went on board, and took their old place; and after kissing their hands to all the living things - who were by this time dancing all together in the glade - they kept their eyes fixed on the Beautiful Boy.
As they sat hand in hand, the boat moved along gently, but very swiftly. The shore, with its many beautiful places, seemed gliding into a dim mist as they swept along.
Presently they saw their own creek, and the great Willow towering over all the other trees on shore.
The boat came to land. The Wondrous Child, floating in the air, moved onward towards the Willow Bower.
Sibold and May followed.
He entered the Bower; they came close after.
As the leafy curtain fell behind them, the figure of the Wondrous Child got dimmer and dimmer; till at last, looking at them lovingly, and waving his tiny hands, as if blessing them, he seemed to melt away into the air.
Sibold and May sat for a long time, hand in hand, thinking. Then both feeling sleepy, they put their arms round each other, and lay down to rest.
In this position they again fell asleep, with the Poppies all around them.
SNOW BOUND: THE RECORD OF A THEATRICAL TOURING PARTY
This collection of fifteen short stories was first published in 1908. Stoker weaves the stories together as a series of tales told by the members of a touring theatre company on a snowbound train.
The first edition
CONTENTS
PREFACE
The Truth - or rather Accuracy - of these Stories may be accepted or not as the Reader pleases. They are given as Fiction.
Bram Stoker
THE OCCASION
For a little while the train seemed to stumble along amongst the snowdrifts. Every now and again there would be a sudden access of speed as a drift was cleared, just as in a saw-mill the ‘buzz’ saw rushes round at accelerated speed as the log is cleaved, or as a screw ‘races’ when the wave falls away. Then would follow an ominous slowing down as the next snowdrift was encountered. The Manager, pulling up the blind and peering out on the waste of snow, remarked:
‘Nice cheerful night this; special nice place to be snowed up. So far as I can see, there isn’t a house between the North Sea and the Grampians. There! we’ve done it at last! Stuck for good this time!’ - for the slow movement of the train stopped altogether. The rest of the Company waited in anxious expectancy, and it was with a general sigh of relief that they saw the door on the sheltered side of the saloon open under the vigorous jerk of the Guard: anything was better than the state of uncertainty to which they had been reduced by the slow, spasmodic process of the last two hours. The Guard shook the rough mass of snow from him as he came in and closed the door.
‘Very sorry to tell you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that we’ve come to a stop at last. We’ve been fighting the snow ever since we left Aberdeen, and the driver had hopes we might win on as far as Perth. But these drifts are one too many for us. Here we are till daylight unless we can get some place nigh at hand for ye to shelter.’ The practical mind of the Manager at once grasped a possibility.
‘Why not go back to Aberdeen? We have cleared the road so far, and we should be able to run back over it now.’ The Guard shook his head.
‘That mecht do by ordinar’; but with a wind like this and such a snowfall as I’ve never seen the like of, we wouldn’t be able to run a mile. But, anyhow, the Stoker has gone out to prospect; and we’ll soon know what to expect.’
‘Tell the Driver to come here,’ said the Manager. ‘I should like to know exactly how we stand as to possibilities.’ As the door opened for his passing out, the keen blast of icy air which rushed in sent a shiver through the whole Company. They were all too miserable and too anxious to say anything, so the silence was unbroken till the Guard returned with the Engine-Driver, the latter muffled, his black, oily clothes additionally shiny with the running of the melted snow.
‘Where are we?’ asked the Manager.
‘Just about ten miles from anywhere, so far as I can make out. The snow falls so fast that you cannot see ten feet ahead, and the Stoker has come back, unable to get twenty yards away from the train.’
‘Then I suppose there is no help for us till the storm ceases?’
‘None!’
‘And we have to pass the night on the train without any sort of comfort that you can give us?’
‘That’s so.’ A groan from all followed the words. The Manager went on:
‘Then we must do what we can to keep warm at least. We must make a fire here.’ The Guard struck in sharply:
‘Mak’ a fire in the Company’s carriage, and burn the whole timing up to a cender? Ye’ll no mak’ a fire here!’ He spoke decisively. The Manager answered with equal decision:
‘Who will prevent us?’
‘I will.’
‘Indeed! How will you do it?’
‘By the authority of the Great North line which I represent. So tak’ ye formal notice that I forbid any fire in the carriage.’ He paused, self-satisfied.