FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  
account-book, and feeling in his pockets for a stump of pencil that he knew was in one of them. 'By all means. I'll call my scribe.' 'Oh, I can scribe right enough, thanks,' said Cyril, finding the pencil and licking its point. He even had to bite the wood a little, for it was very blunt. 'Oh, you clever, clever boy!' said the Queen. 'DO let me watch you do it!' Cyril wrote on a leaf of the book--it was of rough, woolly paper, with hairs that stuck out and would have got in his pen if he had been using one, and ruled for accounts. 'Hide IT most carefully before you come here,' he wrote, 'and don't mention it--and destroy this letter. Everything is going A1. The Queen is a fair treat. There's nothing to be afraid of.' 'What curious characters, and what a strange flat surface!' said the Queen. 'What have you inscribed?' 'I've 'scribed,' replied Cyril cautiously, 'that you are fair, and a--and like a--like a festival; and that she need not be afraid, and that she is to come at once.' Ritti-Marduk, who had come in and had stood waiting while Cyril wrote, his Babylonish eyes nearly starting out of his Babylonish head, now took the letter, with some reluctance. 'O Queen, live for ever! Is it a charm?' he timidly asked. 'A strong charm, most great lady?' 'YES,' said Robert, unexpectedly, 'it IS a charm, but it won't hurt anyone until you've given it to Jane. And then she'll destroy it, so that it CAN'T hurt anyone. It's most awful strong!--as strong as--Peppermint!' he ended abruptly. 'I know not the god,' said Ritti-Marduk, bending timorously. 'She'll tear it up directly she gets it,' said Robert, 'That'll end the charm. You needn't be afraid if you go now.' Ritti-Marduk went, seeming only partly satisfied; and then the Queen began to admire the penny account-book and the bit of pencil in so marked and significant a way that Cyril felt he could not do less than press them upon her as a gift. She ruffled the leaves delightedly. 'What a wonderful substance!' she said. 'And with this style you make charms? Make a charm for me! Do you know,' her voice sank to a whisper, 'the names of the great ones of your own far country?' 'Rather!' said Cyril, and hastily wrote the names of Alfred the Great, Shakespeare, Nelson, Gordon, Lord Beaconsfield, Mr Rudyard Kipling, and Mr Sherlock Holmes, while the Queen watched him with 'unbaited breath', as Anthea said afterwards. She took the book and hid it r
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Marduk

 

strong

 

afraid

 
pencil
 
destroy
 

letter

 
account
 

clever

 

Babylonish

 

scribe


Robert
 

satisfied

 

partly

 

Peppermint

 

timorously

 
bending
 

abruptly

 

directly

 

ruffled

 
Shakespeare

Nelson

 
Gordon
 

Alfred

 

hastily

 

country

 

Rather

 

Beaconsfield

 
Rudyard
 

Anthea

 

breath


unbaited

 

Kipling

 

Sherlock

 

Holmes

 

watched

 

whisper

 

marked

 

significant

 

charms

 

leaves


delightedly

 

wonderful

 

substance

 

admire

 

woolly

 

accounts

 
carefully
 

feeling

 

pockets

 

finding