OF THE NODDING MANDARINS
"We're all nodding, nid-nid-nodding."
How she managed it she never knew; but, somehow or other, it was managed. She seemed to slide up the chain just as easily as in a general way she would have slidden down, only without any disagreeable anticipation of a bump at the end of the journey. And when she got to the top how wonderfully different it looked from anything she could have expected! The doors stood open, and Griselda found them quite big enough, or herself quite small enough – which it was she couldn't tell, and as it was all a matter of fancy she decided not to trouble to inquire – to pass through quite comfortably.
And inside there was the most charming little snuggery imaginable. It was something like a saloon railway carriage – it seemed to be all lined and carpeted and everything, with rich mossy red velvet; there was a little round table in the middle and two arm-chairs, on one of which sat the cuckoo – "quite like other people," thought Griselda to herself – while the other, as he pointed out to Griselda by a little nod, was evidently intended for her.
"Thank you," said she, sitting down on the chair as she spoke.
"Are you comfortable?" inquired the cuckoo.
"Quite," replied Griselda, looking about her with great satisfaction. "Are all cuckoo clocks like this when you get up inside them?" she inquired. "I can't think how there's room for this dear little place between the clock and the wall. Is it a hole cut out of the wall on purpose, cuckoo?"
"Hush!" said the cuckoo, "we've got other things to talk about. First, shall I lend you one of my mantles? You may feel cold."
"I don't just now," replied Griselda; "but perhaps I might."
She looked at her little bare feet as she spoke, and wondered why they weren't cold, for it was very chilblainy weather.
The cuckoo stood up, and with one of his claws reached from a corner where it was hanging a cloak which Griselda had not before noticed. For it was hanging wrong side out, and the lining was red velvet, very like what the sides of the little room were covered with, so it was no wonder she had not noticed it.
Had it been hanging the right side out she must have done so; this side was so very wonderful!
It was all feathers – feathers of every shade and colour, but beautifully worked in, somehow, so as to lie quite smoothly and evenly, one colour melting away into another like those in a prism, so that you could hardly tell where one began and another ended.
"What a lovely cloak!" said Griselda, wrapping it round her and feeling even more comfortable than before, as she watched the rays of the little lamp in the roof – I think I was forgetting to tell you that the cuckoo's boudoir was lighted by a dear little lamp set into the red velvet roof like a pearl in a ring – playing softly on the brilliant colours of the feather mantle.
"It's better than lovely," said the cuckoo, "as you shall see. Now, Griselda," he continued, in the tone of one coming to business – "now, Griselda, let us talk."
"We have been talking," said Griselda, "ever so long. I am very comfortable. When you say 'let us talk' like that, it makes me forget all I wanted to say. Just let me sit still and say whatever comes into my head."
"That won't do," said the cuckoo; "we must have a plan of action."
"A what?" said Griselda.
"You see you have a great deal to learn," said the cuckoo triumphantly. "You don't understand what I say."
"But I didn't come up here to learn," said Griselda; "I can do that down there;" and she nodded her head in the direction of the ante-room table. "I want to play."
"Just so," said the cuckoo; "that's what I want to talk about. What do you call 'play' – blindman's-buff and that sort of thing?"
"No," said Griselda, considering. "I'm getting rather too big for that kind of play. Besides, cuckoo, you and I alone couldn't have much fun at blindman's-buff; there'd be only me to catch you or you to catch me."
"Oh, we could easily get more," said the cuckoo. "The mandarins would be pleased to join."
"The mandarins!" repeated Griselda. "Why, cuckoo, they're not alive! How could they play?"
The cuckoo looked at her gravely for a minute, then shook his head.
"You have a great deal to learn," he said solemnly. "Don't you know that everything's alive?"
"No," said Griselda, "I don't; and I don't know what you mean, and I don't think I want to know what you mean. I want to talk about playing."
"Well," said the cuckoo, "talk."
"What I call playing," pursued Griselda, "is – I have thought about it now, you see – is being amused. If you will amuse me, cuckoo, I will count that you are playing with me."
"How shall I amuse you?" inquired he.
"Oh, that's for you to find out!" exclaimed Griselda. "You might tell me fairy stories, you know: if you're a fairy you should know lots; or – oh yes, of course that would be far nicer – if you are a fairy you might take me with you to fairyland."
Again the cuckoo shook his head.
"That," said he, "I cannot do."
"Why not?" said Griselda. "Lots of children have been there."
"I doubt it," said the cuckoo. "Some may have been, but not lots. And some may have thought they had been there who hadn't really been there at all. And as to those who have been there, you may be sure of one thing – they were not taken, they found their own way. No one ever was taken to fairyland – to the real fairyland. They may have been taken to the neighbouring countries, but not to fairyland itself."
"And how is one ever to find one's own way there?" asked Griselda.
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