m trapeze to trapeze, with the littlest boy
happily in the greatest danger, midway in the air between the two proud
parents, who were hurling him back and forth.

It was absurd to think of anything like this in connection with a family
of which only one member had either courage or ambition. One had only to
study Clytie or Grandfather Delcher a few moments to see how hopeless it
all was.

The next best life to be aspired to was that of a house-painter, who could
climb about unchided on the frailest of high scaffolds, swing from the
dizziest cupola, or sway jauntily at the top of the longest ladder--always
without the least concern whether he spilled paint on his clothes or not.

Then, all in a half-hour, one afternoon, both he and Nancy seemed to cross
a chasm of growth so wide that one thrilled to look back to the farther
side where all objects showed little and all interests were juvenile. And
this phenomenon, signalised by the passing of the Gratcher, came in this
wise. As they rested from play--this being a time when the Gratcher was
most likely to be seen approaching by him of the Gratcher-eye, the usual
alarm was given, followed by the usual unbreathing silence. The little boy
fixedly bent his magic eye around the corner of the house, the little girl
scrambling to him over the grass to clutch one of his arms, to listen
fearfully for the setting of the monster's crutches at the end of each
stride, to feel if the earth trembled, as it often distinctly did, under
his awful tread.

Wider grew the eyes of both at each "Now he's nearer still!" of the little
boy, until at last the girl must hide her head lest she see that awful
face leering past the corner. For, once the Gratcher's eye met yours
fairly, he caught you in an instant and worked his will. This was to pick
you up and look at you on all sides at once with the eyes in his
finger-ends, which tickled you so that you lost your mind.

But now, at the shrillest and tensest report of progress from the gifted
watcher, all in a wondrous second of realisation, they turned to look into
each other's eyes--and their ecstasy of terror was gone in the quick
little self-conscious laughs they gave. It was all at once as if two
grown-ups had in a flash divined that they had been playing at a childish
game under some spell. The moment was not without embarrassment, because
of their having caught themselves in the very act and frenzy of showing
terror of this clumsy fiction.