With the Midnight Ship.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 13

With the Midnight Ship.

By A. D. BRIGHT, Author of "The Fortunate Princeling," &c,

"Come for a rido in my aeroplane," at tfsitl the Traveller. Clifford knew he was the Traveller, be- ?> cause of his sun-burned face and the haversack on his shoulder. , "Thanky, Sir," ho gasped, and stepped tl gingerly from the loop of his kite to which he was. clinging, on to the balloon punt that bobbed beside, him. , _ u | Instantly tho kite rose in the air, and st the balloonist paddled off towards a dark tl body which the boy ha<l mistaken for a •' cloud, but which proved to. be. a large, P though lightly constructed airship, luing p round «*itl» bags and packages'.and haul- tl pers, and millions of toys. , tl "Well,'' said the pleasant voice, as tho " owner stamped his feet, on the deck to n warm them, ",1 think you'll be uioro comfortable here. Pretty 'cramped on the tl kite, wasn't it? However did you man- h age to get there?" v , _ j;| "i don't know, sir," replied tho little n toy. "1 went to bed early, and was fitting up watching tor .Santa Claus. Then 1 went to sleep, i suppose, I S( woke I was hanging to the kite." j ( The Traveller shook his head. "A'very a awkward position. It looked like the ' work of Christmas Pudding, but he does not begin business till to-morrow. So ;it must havo been that fellow Nightmare .. up to his pranks. I don't know how. you'd have got down, if- I liadn t come by." g Clifford didn't know either; but he only n smiled, for lie was wondering who his new acquaintance was. Now his smile, great-aunt Sara had said, was Clifford s fortune, and indeed most folks approved j. of it, and the Traveller was no excep- r tion to the rule. Ho smiled too, and ~ Clifford thought ho had never seen anything so jolly in his life. It made him Eo happy that he laughed out aloud in j, Very gladness. „ v "That settles i(," said the Traveller. a •"i meant to put you down at the first c port, but. you shall come along with mo j. jf you like. How would that suit you? Should you like to lly?" > j. "Ra-a-ther" cried the little boy. r All the time as they talked tho Travel- d ler had been looking carefully about tho Ship—first at .tho machinery, then round J the deck. Then he lifted his eyes to tho rj sails. 1 • t "Why, there are no Christmas puddings on board!" he exclaimed, and he clapped f his hands. < .. . t Instantly a toy balloon boat with a crew of tiny rowers dressed as cooks jj came alongside. ■■•.*« "You're late," cried tho Traveller, peer- . ing'over the side at them. "How. many puddings and cakes have _ you c "Ten millions of each kind," came the reply. 1 j "Then get them on board at once. Look ] gharp!" , ~ There they were on ropes, round the ; whole length of the aeroplane, like gigan- f tic strings of onions—big puddings, little . puddings, puddings in basins, puddings , in bags—and they seemed so firmly tied that they would never come off again. It made Clifford stare, for he had never , Been such quick work before. "They're fairies, you see," explained the t Traveller, pointing to the rowers, who * were bv this time leaving the ship's side, j "We should never manage our trips if they did not help us" ' . s ■There never was such a queer figure Clifford thought, as his new acquaintance , took his place to steer. At first ho ap- j peared to be very old, fc» his long curling locks were as white as the beard , that swept his knees. Yet he stood every inch of bis great, height, and. his broad t shouldm swung' ,to -the ; footsteps qf_ a j jtrong man. Keen' blue eyes looked out t from under v.-hitj " overhanging brows, nncl the weather-beaten face was matched . by a pair of long .sinewy hands. The- j voice was quite young. "Sit down here, lad," he said, pointing to a heap of furs beside him. "You'll n find it pretty cold at times, and therms ; not much room to run about on deck. ' The ship doesn't look exactly pretty, but ■we've got all tho cargo we neeil, and I j never did care for appearances." . Certainly the ship did look rather odd. Millions of parcels were piled on the deck, . ond rocking-horses and cricket-bats, and carts and kites and skipping ropes were hanging from every spar; while hampers were swung with tho ropes of puddings . all along the sides. Suddenly Clifford clapped his hands. "I know you now," he snouted. "You're Santa Claus, and this is the Christmas Ship. Father said you'd come at midnight." Santa Claus smiled. "Yes," ho said, •"you know me, I see. I thought you'd mistake me for Father Time, but I expect you knew the Christmas Ship. Father Time won't take even a carpet-bag with him, while not many baggage wagons jarry as much cargo as we do. I suppose we're safely packed," ho added, turning to his assistant, the one-eyed messenger, who was tightening the strings of the largest packages. "No fear of dropping the Noah's Arks, is there?. We don't want a shower of them, nor of wooden dolls. They fall like brick bate from this height." "They're all as safe as eggs," grunted the one-eyed one. Clifford was thinking that did not sound Tery secure, when there was a ' tremendous burst of music. Voices seemed to be singing all round them, and bells—ding dong! ding dong! It was quite deafening. "There's the Midnight Ship," shouted the messenger. "Now we're moving!" Moving indeed! It took the boy's breath away. Talk of express trains, and wild lire and greased lightning! Why, in one minute they had travelled hundreds of miles. Past, houses and trees, and church steeples and telegraph posts, and flaming Ftreet lamps and station lights, and mail trains; out past tho lower hill-tops and the Wider country plains, over the crowns of the forest trees and tho white-capped mountain*; <'H over the silent seas where patches of light dipping into the darkness mid rising again marked some labouringocean tramp or hurrying ocean-liner. That was flying if you like. Even tho stars and the moon raced ahove them, and away on the horizon hurried another great aeroplane. "That is the Midnight Ship," said Santa Claus. "We must keep up with her. She carries the Band." Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! as the two ships fiew on their Christmas wings, Ding dong Ding! Clifford had never heard such a chiming before. And everywhere the sound of voices. The one-eyed messenger was bobbing about liko a cork, ono moment racing among the packages, at another clinging to the sails; now loosening something from the sides, and as he ran he flung overboard everything he touched. As tho different packages fell they turned into grains of sand, and very soon there was a regular stream of these stretching from either side of the ship in oblique lines tinted with silver. Tho lights of a great town flickered'on the dim horizon. "Gobble, gobble, gobble," came a flock of Christmas turkeys. Clifford laughed to see I hem, for some, of them were cooked, and sailing along with these came a Hight of Christmas hams. Put the city was hurrying so fast to meet them that the. .little boy had to turn iroiri thebe and the hissing geeso to watch the growing lights that pricked out the streets and the shipping in the harbour. As tho town came closer, the Christmas ship swung lower to meet it, and the one-eyed messenger torouD and down the fleck in and out anion? tho packages $k'c a piecc of quick-silver. "Tlion lie ftirned to his master. "We must have fanro heip," he cried. "Call out the Shristma-f wishes." ,'anta Claus clapped his hands again. Down sank tb© gceso and turkeys, down fell the harns. Some lodged on roof tree.?, some fell down chimneys, some were caught and held by the telegraph wires, and some sailed in at the open windows straight into tho ovens waiting for them. 'Round the Christmas ship tho air was filled with fairies, each with a tiny bell that chimed in time with the bells of midnight. Ding dong! tinkle tinkle! They wore riding moths and lire-flies, or driving in cars of thistledown. Some sailed in tiny balloons shaped like, noletsj nud as their bells sounded,'the pacs-

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es flung overboard from I tin Christmas ip turned into scented rose leaves 111eud nf grains of sand. Clifford cried out delight, for the air brought baek to m tlio rose garden at home in summer. "They all take their right shapes when ley touch earth," whispered the oneed messenger hoarsely. Ho was resting take breath' closo beside the little hoy, r the fairies were at worl; now. They 1 smiled and nodded at Clifford as they epped on board and piled the letters icy had brought in front of Santa Clans, s he read them they gathered up the ■esonts.. They lifted sacks of coal, and Hinds of tea, and blankets for the .old :oplie, as easily in their tiny hands as if ley had really been roso leaves; and lev carried away picture boolcs and toy icvcles and dolls and what not. They ere as quick ns Thought in their moveents, so it was only a second or two ?fore the ear swung on its way again, le city crawling oiit from under it, and itrrying into the darkness as Jin electric tr may bo seen from a hillside crossing le plain below, and fading into the ight. "Wo shall see a good many more of lose fairies before we reach borne again, lid Santa Claus. "They come on-board i help whenever tlio Christmas presents re too many for us. X don't know how o should manage without them." The one-eyed' messenger was at work *ain, and "Christmas gifts were , again tiling, as grains of sand. "Where do they gof" asked Clifford. "Straight into the stockings," chuckled uiita Claus. "Won't there be fun in the lorning?" . ./. lint Clifford breathed a sigh of disapointment. "I never knew the presents ime like that," lie said wistfully. "I lionght you went into every house, and sad the* letters, and filled the stockings oiirself." "With two big bags on my back,' uighed his,friend. "The world is too ig for that now. I used to do it once— -hen your great grandfather was young, nd before that. X went half my round n skates then, but it was tiring for old ones, and I grew too stiff to creep in t keyholes. This is a better way. X do he same as the owners of the Magic !arpet and tlio Plying 'Horso did turn- f reds of years ago. ."All tho things reuired by good children go into the stock- 1 ngs,' I say io myself, and it is done, i 'lien, 'All the wishes of bad children urn into Gregory I'owdcrs and rods in ] lickle,'—and there they are again; My i icssenger hurries about, and sends off he very things I think of. And at every ! reat town tho Christmas wishes come . n board, and turn 'Quick march!' into Double quick!' And we have to look harp or wo should bo too late for Christmis. You seo I'm slow, for I am getting id. Why, I knew your grandfather." "Oh," "said the little boy, "did you eally know my grandfather?" and he ooked with new interest at tho traveller. Sauta Claus smiled. . "Well, he knew' ne," he replied, "and so did his grandathor, and his again. I had only a passng acquaintance with them, but they ;now mo quite as well as your father loes, or as you did until to-night." "Why," began then •topped. "Go on," said'.his friend; but the boy till hesitated. "I think I was going to be rude,"' he darted out at last. / Santa Claus laughed. "Let's hear it," he laid, "and if ifs rude I won't answer." • Clifford coloured to the ears. ; ■'"I-was ;oing to say you must be as old as Adam'," le confessed unwillingly. "That's not so dreadful," cried his riond, laughing again.- "Of'course I'm dd, but I'm a little'yoilngh - 'than;Adam, itill I'm the same age hs.'Christmas. I've. • ind a busy life "too; and r that r 'lna'kps'\<)flp; , eem old. AY'hy—when I was youngs—" But another great town appeared rushng in from the liorizoti, followed closely iy another, and then another, and yet mother half-dozen 'more, for the air-ship vas now racing across tho world of Many people. What with tho cries of the geese ind turkeys, the bustle among the C'hristlias wishes, and the music and bellringng from the Midnight ship, neither Santa Pilaus nor the little boy could 'think ol travellers' tales. . But when the shimmer of the desert jelow told of a few minutes' leisure, the jld traveller took lip his- story again. "When I was young," lie continued, 'the world was quite small—that is the s'orld I had a speaking acquaintance with. And I had a hard time for I was quite ii poor fellow then. I hung round cellars ind caves with the workers, for I did not care to go near the rich who did not want me. Indeed it was years before I saw a palace pr a church. But then my world grew wider, and I had a very pleasant time. Indeed I began to feel quite grand, for now I visited only the castles and churches and royal halls. But I grew out of that foolish age and at last found my friends everywhere—in the labourers' cottages and the kings' courts, down in the mines and out at sea. And I was very welcome everywhere in those old days I can tell you. But it was a slow world then. Though I travelled as fast as I was able I often wonder how I managed to get round it. But then, by the way, it wasn't round and that made it easier."' "Why," said Clifford, much surprised, "I thought the earth was always round." Santa Claus shook his head. "When first I knew it," ho said, "itwas as flat as a plate except for the mountains and deserts, and I did not trouble much about them. That was a very good thing, for it was the right size to travel over when cue had to walk. As soon as men made it round thoy began to scampcr about it, and it was as much as I could d'oto follow them before I took to flying. Why even on this desert there are folks expecting me, out on the snow'plains they are waiting, and up on tho highest mountain ranges ther-j an' huts where they watch. But if the world wasn't round, men never would have got there." Tho one-eyed messenger had come up, and now began to steer. "There are people in the waste places that the master looks after himself," he explained to Clifford. "He won't trust them to me." Clifford was feeling much puzzled. "I don't see how the earth was made round," lie said, thinking aloud—a habit his father- often laughed at. "It was those meddlesome men," grumbled tho one-eyed one. "They're always climbing somewhere or doing something to give the Christmas ship more work. AVhy, they're not content with the deserts now, but go out among the icebergs. Soon the airship will have to follow them right under the Southern Cross and tho Pole Star. They call it hunting for the Poles, hut I call it just contradictiousness. Why can't they 6tay at, home in their towns where roast turkeys can fly in at the window. One can't drop a stone into the snow huts." Eo seemed very much annoyed—that was evident, so that the little boy began to bo quite ashamed of men. It was a relief when Santa Claus took his place at-the wheel again, for more towns were hurrying to meet them—towns with flat roofs and pointed pillars like needles, and great buildings crowned with domes. The Christmas, wishes that came on board carried palm leaves to fan themselves with, and they were dressed quaintly in the brightest of colours. "They look different, but they are all the same wishes really—kind and happy fairies that do more than half my work," said Santa Claus. "Whether they have black faces or brown, or white or yellow, whether dressed in furs or gossamer, whether they bring rose-leaves or palms, they all carry merriment and good fellowship to tho world of men; and they work as quickly as my messenger, and that is saying a good deal, for he has only one eye." "Why—is that a help to him?" asked Clifford, much surprised again. "Of course if. is," was the reply. "Why, with one eye he sees straight ahead, and need never lose time in looking about. But the Christmas fairies are as quick as he. If they gave up work I should never get mine done, for I must call at every town on earth to-night, and at almost every village." Down below them spread the ocean again. Clifford was nodding on his lounge and (lid not. notice the. islands as the airship swept otc" thciu, He wai ysrj

6loepy. Travelling is tiring work always —especially at midnight on tho borders of space. More islands, and more again, and then a. number of great towns came hurrying one after [lie other. The crowds of Christmas wishes confused the little boy, and the twinkling lights made his ryc\s ache. So ho closed them to rest tlicm, and saiik back on his furs. Ho never sa\v the coral islands, lior the longest chain of-mountains, nor tho great rivers, nor the giant lakes. The two great airships sailed over them, and Christmas fairies came and went—some with golden locks and blue eyes, Mimo bare-fo!>lc-<l with girdle.s of grasses—these had <\ves as black ;is sloes. Clifford did not see any of hut in his dreaming he heard the bells. Ding (long! Ding dong! as the car 'Hew like the wind, always keeping the great .Midnight ship in sight.' Now they were steering by the I'ole Star for the North— Oh the merry chiming and the singing at midnight—Now rushing 'through the Tropics, Ding, dong, dong! The deserts stretched white belo.v tho stars of two hemispheres, and still the voices singing "Goodwill towards men." Now the great car swung low to meet the cool breezes blowing seawards. Ding dong! ding dong! and so it headed south again where the Southern Cross stood under its sentinel pointers; and at intervals great towns came with fairy hosts to meet them. Ding dong! Ding dong! "Goodwill .towards men." * * * * "Father," cried Nora in groat excitement the next morning, "I've got my books, but not the grown up doll. l!m sure Sanhi Clans brought it to tho wrong room, for I saw him turn in at Clifford's door with a bundle in lus" arms. Mine was open and I saw him as plainly as anything." "How did you know it was Santa Clans?" asked her father. . "Well he looked likn a great bear with furs and things, and the clocks w 7 ere striking twelve." "That sounds conclusive," said Ifr. Murdock, smiling at his shaving brush, "Quite! Santa Clans was in a hurry, and didn't know the change we made last year. You had Clifford's room then. So lie must have thought you had changed into a bov, and wouldn't want a doll. Still he might have left it with Clifford, Did he?" But here Clifford burst in with his story which interested his father very much. Then the breakfast-bell rang, and they went down and told the. tale to mother, and father said Nora must have seen Santa Clans or the one-eyed messenger bringing Clifford home. But the little girl pouted and would not believe tho story. She said Clifford had made it up. Then father said it was finite r.s likely to be true as hers was, and mother laughed at first at each of them in turn. "At any rate," father declared, "Clifford heard the bells." "And (he waits," said mother. "But hark children!"—and sho went to the window. Sho was cj uitc grave now. Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! rang the Christmas Bells across the snow. ■ • [The above story is taken from Hiss Bright's new book "On the Plains of Nod," by permission, of the author.]