Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (84 page)

The Professor chuckled in delight.
‘It had a sensible effect.
Hadn’t it?’
he enquired.

‘No, it hadn’t a sensible effect!’
Bruno said indignantly.
‘It were very silly indeed.
It jingled my elbows, and it banged my back, and it crinkled my hair, and it buzzed among my bones!"

‘I’m sure it didn’t!’
said Sylvie.
‘You’re only inventing!’

‘Oo doesn’t know nuffin about it!’
Bruno replied.
‘Oo wasn’t there to see.
Nobody ca’n’t go among my bones.
There isn’t room.’

‘Our Second Experiment,’ the Professor announced, as Bruno returned to his place, still thoughtfully rubbing his elbows, ‘is the production of that seldom-seen-but-greatly-to-be-admired phenomenon, Black Light!
You have seen White Light, Red Light, Green Light, and so on: but never, till this wonderful day, have any eyes but mine seen Black Light!
This box,’ carefully lifting it upon the table, and covering it with a heap of blankets, ‘is quite full of it.
The way I made it was this—I took a lighted candle into a dark cupboard and shut the door.
Of course the cupboard was then full of Yellow Light.
Then I took a bottle of Black ink, and poured it over the candle: and, to my delight, every atom of the Yellow Light turned Black!
That was indeed the proudest moment of my life!
Then I filled a box with it.
And now—would anyone like to get under the blankets and see it?’

Dead silence followed this appeal: but at last Bruno said ‘I’ll get under, if it won’t jingle my elbows.’

Satisfied on this point, Bruno crawled under the blankets, and, after a minute or two, crawled out again, very hot and dusty, and with his hair in the wildest confusion.

‘What did you see in the box?’
Sylvie eagerly enquired.

‘I saw nuffin!’
Bruno sadly replied.
‘It were too dark!’

‘He has described the appearance of the thing exactly!’
the Professor exclaimed with enthusiasm.
‘Black Light, and Nothing, look so extremely alike, at first sight, that I don’t wonder he failed to distinguish them!
We will now proceed to the Third Experiment.’

The Professor came down, and led the way to where a post had been driven firmly into the ground.
To one side of the post was fastened a chain, with an iron weight hooked on to the end of it, and from the other side projected a piece of whalebone, with a ring at the end of it.
‘This is a most interesting Experiment!’
the Professor announced.
‘It will need time, I’m afraid: but that is a trifling disadvantage.
Now observe.
If I were to unhook this weight, and let go, it would fall to the ground.
You do not deny that?’

Nobody denied it.

‘And in the same way, if I were to bend this piece of whalebone round the post—thus—and put the ring over this hook—thus—it stays bent: but, if I unhook it, it straightens itself again.
You do not deny that?’

Again, nobody denied it.

‘Well, now, suppose we left things just as they are, for a long time.
The force of the whalebone would get exhausted, you know, and it would stay bent, even when you unhooked it.
Now, why shouldn’t the same thing happen with the weight?
The whalebone gets so used to being bent, that it ca’n’t straighten itself any more.
Why shouldn’t the weight get so used to being held up, that it ca’n’t fall any more?
That’s what I want to know!’

‘That’s what we want to know!’
echoed the crowd.

‘How long must we wait?’
grumbled the Emperor.

The Professor looked at his watch.
‘Well, I think a thousand years will do to begin with,’ he said.
‘Then we will cautiously unhook the weight: and, if it still shows (as perhaps it will) a slight tendency to fall, we will hook it for another thousand years.’

Here the Empress experienced one of those flashes of Common Sense which were the surprise of all around her.
‘Meanwhile there’ll be time for another Experiment,’ she said.

‘There will indeed!’
cried the delighted Professor.
‘Let us return to the platform, and proceed to the Fourth Experiment!’

‘For this concluding Experiment, I will take a certain Alkali, or Acid—I forget which.
Now you’ll see what will happen when I mix it with Some—’ here he took up a bottle, and looked at it doubtfully, ‘—when I mix it with—with Something—’

Here the Emperor interrupted.
‘What’s the name of the stuff?’
he asked.

‘I don’t remember the name,’ said the Professor: ‘and the label has come off.’
He emptied it quickly into the other bottle, and, with a tremendous bang, both bottles flew to pieces, upsetting all the machines, and filling the Pavilion with thick black smoke.
I sprang to my feet in terror, and—and found myself standing before my solitary hearth, where the poker, dropping at last from the hand of the sleeper, had knocked over the tongs and the shovel, and had upset the kettle, filling the air with clouds of steam.

With a weary sigh, I betook myself to bed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

THE BANQUET

‘Heaviness may endure for a night: but joy cometh in the morning.’
The next day found me quite another being.
Even the memories of my lost friend and companion were sunny as the genial weather that smiled around me.
I did not venture to trouble Lady Muriel, or her father, with another call so soon: but took a walk into the country, and only turned homewards when the low sunbeams warned me that day would soon be over.

On my way home, I passed the cottage where the old man lived, whose face always recalled to me the day when I first met Lady Muriel; and I glanced in as I passed, half-curious to see if he were still living there.

Yes: the old man was still alive.
He was sitting out in the porch, looking just as he did when I first saw him at Fayfield Junction—it seemed only a few days ago!

‘Good evening!’
I said, pausing.

‘Good evening, Maister!’
he cheerfully responded.
‘Wo’n’t ee step in?’

I stepped in, and took a seat on the bench in the porch.
‘I’m glad to see you looking so hearty,’ I began.
‘Last time, I remember, I chanced to pass just as Lady Muriel was coming away from the house.
Does she still come to see you?’

‘Ees,’ he answered slowly.
‘She has na forgotten me.
I don’t lose her bonny face for many days together.
Well I mind the very first time she come, after we’d met at Railway Station.
She told me as she come to mak’ amends.
Dear child!
Only think o’ that!

To mak’ amends!’

‘To make amends for what?’
I enquired.
‘What could she have done to need it?’

‘Well, it were loike this, you see?
We were both on us a-waiting fur t’ train at t’ Junction.
And I had setten mysen down upat t’

bench.
And Station-Maister, he comes and he orders me off—fur t’ mak’ room for her Ladyship, you understand?’

‘I remember it all,’ I said.
‘I was there myself, that day.’

‘Was you, now?
Well, an’ she axes my pardon fur ‘t.
Think o’ that, now!
My pardon!
An owd ne’er-do-weel like me!
Ah!

She’s been here many a time, sin’ then.
Why, she were in here only yestere’en, as it were, a-sittin’, as it might be, where you’re a-sitting now, an’ lookin’ sweeter and kinder nor an angel!
An’ she says "You’ve not got your Minnie, now," she says, "to fettle for ye."
Minnie was my grand-daughter, Sir, as lived wi’ me.
She died, a matter of two months ago—or it may be three.
She was a bonny lass—and a good lass, too.
Eh, but life has been rare an’ lonely without her!’

He covered his face in his hands: and I waited a minute or two, in silence, for him to recover himself.

‘So she says, "Just tak’ me fur your Minnie!"
she says.
"Didna Minnie mak’ your tea fur you?"
says she.
"Ay," says I.
An’ she mak’s the tea.
"An’ didna Minnie light your pipe?"
says she.
"Ay," says I.
An’ she lights the pipe for me.
"An’ didna Minnie set out your tea in t’ porch?"
An’ I says "My dear," I says, "I’m thinking you’re Minnie hersen!"
An’ she cries a bit.
We both on us cries a bit—’

Again I kept silence for a while.

‘An’ while I smokes my pipe, she sits an’ talks to me—as loving an’ as pleasant!
I’ll be bound I thowt it were Minnie come again!
An’ when she gets up to go, I says "Winnot ye shak’ hands wi’ me?"
says I.
An’ she says "Na," she says: "a cannot shak’

hands wi’ thee!"
she says.’

‘I’m sorry she said that,’ I put in, thinking it was the only instance I had ever known of pride of rank showing itself in Lady Muriel.

‘Bless you, it werena pride!’
said the old man, reading my thoughts.
‘She says "Your Minnie never shook hands wi’ you!"
she says.
"An’ I’m your Minnie now," she says.
An’ she just puts her dear arms about my neck—and she kisses me on t’ cheek—an’ may God in Heaven bless her!’
And here the poor old man broke down entirely, and could say no more.

‘God bless her!’
I echoed.
‘And good night to you!’
I pressed his hand, and left him.
‘Lady Muriel,’ I said softly to myself as I went homewards, ‘truly you know how to "mak’ amends"!’

Seated once more by my lonely fireside, I tried to recall the strange vision of the night before, and to conjure up the face of the dear old Professor among the blazing coals.
‘That black one—with just a touch of red—would suit him well,’ I thought.
‘After such a catastrophe, it would be sure to be covered with black stains—and he would say:

‘The result of that combination—you may have noticed?—was an Explosion!
Shall I repeat the Experiment?’

‘No, no!
Don’t trouble yourself!’
was the general cry.
And we all trooped off, in hot haste, to the Banqueting-Hall, where the feast had already begun.

No time was lost in helping the dishes, and very speedily every guest found his plate filled with good things.

‘I have always maintained the principle,’ the Professor began, ‘that it is a good rule to take some food—occasionally.
The great advantage of dinner-parties—’ he broke off suddenly.
‘Why, actually here’s the Other Professor!’
he cried.
‘And there’s no place left for him!’