ignal shot
down, a distant roar drew near, and a real train rumbled past which,
beheld from Michael's window, looked like a toy train loaded with dolls,
one of whom wore a red tam-o'-shanter. Michael longed to be sitting once
again in that moving wonderland and to be looking out of the window,
himself wearing just such another red tam-o'-shanter. Beyond the railway
was surely a very extraordinary place indeed, with mountains of coal
everywhere and black figures roaming about; and beyond this, far far
away, was a very low line of houses with a church steeple against an
enormous sky.

"Dinner-time! Tut-tut," said Nurse, suddenly bustling into the room to
interrupt Stella's saga and Michael's growing dread of being left alone
in that wilderness beyond the railway lines.

"Could I be left there?" he asked.

"Left where?"

"There." He pointed to the coal-yard.

"Don't point!" said Nurse.

"What is that place?"

"The place where coal comes from."

"Could I be left there?" he persisted.

"Not unless one of the coalmen came over the wall and carried you off
and left you there, which he will do unless you're a good boy."

Michael caught his breath.

"Can coalmen climb?" he asked, choking at the thought.

"Climb like kittens," said Nurse.

A new bogey had been created, black and hairy with yellow cat's eyes and
horrid prehensile arms.

Michael and Stella were now lifted out of the cots and dumped on to the
cold oilcloth and marched into the adjacent bathroom, where their faces
and hands were sponged with a new sponge that was not only rough in
itself, but also had something that scratched buried in one of the
pores. During this operation, Nurse blew violent breaths through her
tightly closed lips. When it was over, Stella was lifted up into Nurse's
arms; Michael was commanded to walk downstairs in front and not to let
go of the banisters; then down they went, down and down and down--past
three doors opening into furniture-heaped rooms, past a door with upper
panels of coloured glass in a design of red and amber sparrows upon a
crude blue vegetation--a beautiful door, Michael thought, as he went by.
Down and down and down into the hall which was strewn with bits of straw
and shavings and had another glass-panelled door very gaudy. Here the
floor was patterned with terra-cotta, yellow, black and slate-blue
tiles. Two more doors were passed, and a third door was reached, opening
apparently on a box into which ligh