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Gutta-Percha Willie, a fiction by George MacDonald |
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Chapter 12. A New Scheme |
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_ CHAPTER XII. A NEW SCHEME I have said that Willie's father and mother used to talk without restraint in his presence. They had no fear of Willie's committing an indiscretion by repeating what he heard. One day at dinner the following conversation took place between them. "I've had a letter from my mother, John," said Mrs Macmichael to her husband. "It's wonderful how well she manages to write, when she sees so badly." "She might see well enough--at least a great deal better--if she would submit to an operation, said the doctor. "At _her_ age, John!" returned his wife in an expostulatory tone. "Do you really think it worth while--for the few years that are left her?" "Worth while to see well for a few years!" exclaimed the doctor. "Indeed, I do." "But there's another thing I want to talk to you about now," said Mrs Macmichael. "Since old Ann's death, six months ago, she says she has been miserable, and if she goes on like this, it will shorten the few days that are left her. Effie, the only endurable servant she has had since Ann, is going to leave at the end of her half-year, and she says the thought of another makes her wretched. She may be a little hard to please, but after being used to one for so many years, it is no wonder if she be particular. I don't know what is to be done." "I don't know, either--except you make her a present of Tibby," said her husband. "John!" exclaimed Mrs Macmichael; and "John" burst out laughing. "You don't think they'd pull together?" he said. "Two old people--each with her own ways, and without any memories in common to bind them together! I'm surprised at your dreaming of such a thing," exclaimed his wife. "But I didn't even dream of it; I only said it," returned her husband. "It's time you knew when I was joking, wifie." "You joke so dreadfully like earnest!" she answered. "If only we had one more room in the house!" said the doctor, thoughtfully. "Ah!" returned his wife, eagerly, "that would be a blessing! And though Tibby would be a thorn in every inch of grandmamma's body, if they were alone together, I have no doubt they would get on very well with me between them." "I don't doubt it," said her husband, still thoughtfully. "Couldn't we manage it somehow, John?" said Mrs Macmichael, half timidly, after a pause of some duration. "I can't say I see how--at this moment," answered the doctor, "much as I should like it. But there's time yet, and we'll think it over, and talk about it, and perhaps we may hit upon some plan or other. Most things _may_ be done; and everything necessary _can_ be done _some_how. So we won't bother our minds about it, but only our brains, and see what they can do for us." With this he rose and went to his laboratory. Willie rose also and went straight to his own room. Having looked all round it thoughtfully several times, he went out again on the landing, whence a ladder led up into a garret running the whole length of the roof of the cottage. "My room would do for grannie," he said to himself; "and I could sleep up there. A shake-down in the corner would do well enough for me." He climbed the ladder, pushed open the trap-door, crept half through, and surveyed the gloomy place. "There's no window but a skylight!" he said; and his eyes smarted as if the tears were about to rush into them. "What _shall_ I do? Wheelie will be useless!--Well, I can't help it; and if I can't help it, I can bear it. To have grannie comfortable will be better than to look out of the window ever so much." He drew in his head, came down the ladder with a rush, and hurried off to school. At supper he laid his scheme before his father and mother. They looked very much pleased with their boy. But his father said at once-- "No, no, Willie. It won't do. I'm glad you've been the first to think of something--only, unfortunately, your plan won't work. You can't sleep there." "I'll engage to sleep wherever there's room to lie down; and if there isn't I'll engage to sleep sitting or standing," said Willie, whose mother had often said she wished she could sleep like Willie. "And as I don't walk in my sleep," he added, "the trap-door needn't be shut." "Mice, Willie!" said his mother, in a tone of much significance. "The cat and I are good friends," returned Willie. "She'll be pleased enough to sleep with me." "You don't hit the thing at all," said his father. "I wonder a practical man like you, Willie, doesn't see it at once. Even if I were at the expense of ceiling the whole roof with lath and plaster, we should find you, some morning in summer, baked black as a coal; or else, some morning in winter frozen so stiff that, when we tried to lift you, your arm snapped off like a dry twig of elder." "Ho! ho! ho!" laughed Willie; "then there would be the more room for grannie." His father laughed with him, but his mother looked a little shocked. "No, Willie," said his father again; "you must make another attempt. You must say with Hamlet when he was puzzled for a plan--'About my brains!' Perhaps they will suggest something wiser next time." Willie lay so long awake that night, thinking, that _Wheelie_ pulled him before he had had a wink of sleep. He got up, of course, and looked from the window. The day was dreaming grandly. The sky was pretty clear in front, and full of sparkles of light, for the stars were kept in the background by the moon, which was down a little towards the west. She had sunk below the top of a huge towering cloud, the edges of whose jags and pinnacles she bordered with a line of silvery light. Now this cloud rose into the sky from just behind the ruins, and looking a good deal like upheaved towers and spires, made Willie think within himself what a grand place the priory must have been, when its roofs and turrets rose up into the sky. "They say a lot of people lived in it then!" he thought with himself as he stood gazing at the cloud. Suddenly he gave a great jump, and clapped his hands so loud that he woke his father. "Is anything the matter, my boy?" he asked, opening Willie's door, and peeping in. "No, papa, nothing," answered Willie. "Only something that came into my head with a great bounce!" "Ah!--Where did it come from, Willie?" "Out of that cloud there. Isn't it a grand one?" "Grand enough certainly to put many thoughts into a body's head, Willie. What did it put into yours?" "Please, I would rather not tell just yet," answered Willie, "--if you don't mind, father." "Not a bit, my boy. Tell me just when you please, or don't tell me at all. I should like to hear it, but only at your pleasure, Willie." "Thank you, father. I do want to tell you, you know, but not just yet." "Very well, my boy. Now go to bed, and sleep may better the thought before the morning." Willie soon fell asleep now, for he believed he had found what he wanted. He was up earlier than usual the next morning, and out in the garden. "Surely," he said to himself, "those ruins, which once held so many monks, might manage even yet to find room for me!" He went wandering about amongst them, like an undecided young bird looking for the very best possible spot to build its nest in. The spot Willie sought was that which would require the least labour and least material to make it into a room. Before he heard the voice of Tibby, calling him to come to his porridge, he had fixed upon one; and in the following chapter I will tell you what led him to choose it. All the time between morning and afternoon school, he spent in the same place; and when he came home in the evening, he was accompanied by Mr Spelman, who went with him straight to the ruins. There they were a good while together; and when Willie at length came in, his mother saw that his face was more than usually radiant, and was certain he had some new scheme or other in his head. _ |
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