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Stories from "The Rainbow Book"

<h2>ALL ON A FIFTH OF NOVEMBER</h2> MORNING It might have been the middle of the night; but it wasn't—it was Guy Fawkes' Day, and eight o'clock on a foggy morning. The London square was more than usually hushed and mournful, except for a warning call or whistle as a van cautiously lumbered along, or blundered on to the pavement. The nursery fire did its best to look cheerful: the lights were all on too, showing up the bright pictures on the walls and the bright faces of the three children who were chattering gaily at the breakfast-table. And they all looked so smart! Alec and Frank in their best suits, and tiny Molly wore her prettiest white frock and her coral necklace, just as if she were going to a party. They soon scrambled off their chairs, and Molly, standing on tiptoe, seized hold of a bunch of lilies tied up with ribbon that was on the side table, and each of her brothers eagerly possessed himself of a neat brown paper parcel. It was Father's birthday. The occasion was always kept as a holiday, and the children were waiting[140] for his call to summon them to his dressing-room. "I think he must be fifty!" remarked Alec. "I fink he's fifteen," said their little sister. She spoke in a tone of conviction, accompanied by a toss of her short curls. "Don't be silly, Mollikins," replied the boys with a laugh; but she said she was sure she was right. "Halloa, Kidlets! Come along down!" came the shout of a manly voice. There was a stampede, and a race as to who should get there first. Molly arrived a bad third, but it was she who was first for him, for he went towards her and picked her up. She put her free arm around his neck, but instead of making him her little speech she exclaimed as he kissed her— "Why, Daddy, your chin is full of splinters!" The boys delivered their presents, and were kissed or patted on the head, and thanked, before Molly parted with the flowers which she held so tightly in her little fist. "Your Babyship is very kind," said her father, gratefully shaking her by the hand, and, laughing still, he put her down. Then he took her hint, and seriously began to shave. They knew they mustn't talk to him whilst that important function was proceeding, so the three stood still, deeply absorbed as they watched the[141] performance that fascinated them with its dangers and its hairbreadth escapes. "Now I can kiss my little Mollikins and she won't complain." He put down the towel, took her up again, and rubbed his smooth cheek against hers. "Daddy, tell me how old you are," she asked, looking into his eyes. "Oh, how can I do that? It's a secret." "Do whisper it," she coaxed. After a moment's hesitation he smilingly whispered something into her ear. "Oh, what a 'tock of years!" she exclaimed. "What is it?" clamoured Alec. "I'm sure I'm right." "I'm sure I am!" asserted Frank. "I know!" cried the delighted Molly, bursting with importance. "May I tell?" Her father nodded. "Twenty-one!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "Bosh! Why, he said he was that last year!" cried Frank. "And the year before," asserted Alec; "and the year before that—I remember quite well. Father always says that." "Guy!" called their mother just then. "Please send the children in to me." She was having her morning tea, so the young people ran into the adjoining room to hug her and be hugged in return.[142] NOON "Sun's tum out!" announced Molly, as she toddled away from the nursery window. "Hooray!" shouted Frank. "It's going to be fine for this evening!" There were going to be great doings. Father's birthday and Guy Fawkes' Day made a grand double event long looked forward to with enjoyment. "Hooray!" echoed Alec rather feebly, for he was desperately busy. Outside—now that the fog had lifted—the busy hum could be heard of everyday life, mingled with boys' shouts as they trundled a guy about. "I've found something out!" suddenly exclaimed Alec in a curious voice, and he spread out on the table the front page of an old Times. "Look here, Frank!" he continued in growing excitement. "Here, under the Births—marked with red pencil—'Guy Thompson!' That's Father—here's the date. Wait a moment. Now I'll reckon it out. Hush! Don't say anything while I do the sum. I say! Father is twenty-one!" "I knew it!" exclaimed Molly, capering about. "I told you so." "Rubbish!" said Frank. "Molly, do shut up. Alec, where did you find that paper? How did it come here?"[143] "I found it there, on the rocking-chair. It looks old, and it is old. See, here's the date. It's very funny! I wish we could find out—it would be jolly to find out all by ourselves, if this really can be true. I say, I know who'd tell us. I've heard all about Somerset House—where you can get to know about people and their affairs—only I don't know where the place is, or who lives there." "An omlibus will take us anywhere," spoke up Molly. "Who's us?" inquired Frank scornfully. "Never mind her," said Alec excitedly. "I'll tell you what. Listen: this afternoon, when we've got to be in the play-room, let's go in a cab to Somerset House, and just get to know once for all. I've got four shillings in my money-box; what have you got?" "I'll count." Frank counted up to five shillings. "The man may want more. Mollikins, what have you got in your purse?" "Dot sixpence." "Well, if you pay your share, we'll take you with us—that is, if you can put on your own hat. I can help you with your coat." And so it was arranged. And at three o'clock that cold afternoon Alec, Frank, and Molly might have been seen stealing forth into the keen air; they were supposed to be playing at marbles in the garret or they might[144] have been seen, and packed back again. The boys were well muffled up, and Molly had her hat on with the back to the front. The three were in high spirits once they were off, and they realised the full importance of such an adventure. In Alec's hand was the sheet of newspaper in which the truth of the paragraph was to be tested. Alec hailed the first cab, the driver shook his head. The second paid no attention. The third asked them who they thought they were getting at and where they thought they were going to. "Somerset House!" ordered Alec, after quickly lifting Molly in, and Frank had closed the door smartly. On the way there they behaved much better than they usually did when they drove out. No one fidgeted; no one complained of feeling hungry, or thirsty, or tired, or anything. When they alighted the cabman was told to wait. Molly and her brothers passed through the imposing gateway of Somerset House, and were starting to cross the quadrangle, when they saw the Beadle in his fine uniform (whom they took to be the Duke), and learned from him where they could find the room of which they were in search. "Births, please," said Alec, bold as brass, to the gentleman behind the counter. He was leader and spokesman whenever they went shopping, and he was leader and spokesman to-day. Frank never interfered.[145] And Molly had gone stonily shy. "Births, please," repeated Alec, impatient at being stared at. "What name?" said the gentleman, looking at them amused. "Thompson," replied Alec. "Any particular Thompson? You see, we may have several Thompsons in our entries—five or six at least." "This is Mr. Guy Thompson," said Alec, showing the marked paragraph. "Very well," said the gentleman (who, thought Alec, must be the Duke's butler). "But have you got the fee?-the half-crown you must pay for the search?" "A half-crown's very dear," said Alec. "Can't you do it for less?" The gentleman looked at them with kindly eyes. "I dare say I can," he replied, putting his hand in his pocket, and rattling some coins. "But I'm afraid you'll have to pay a shilling. The King wants one." They paid their shilling for the King; watched while the gentleman looked up his records, and followed him into the corridor as he prosecuted his search. At last he said— "Quite right. Born on the fifth of November: year's all right. It's all in order." "Then Father is twenty-one?" queried both boys doubtfully.[146] Molly hopped on one foot in suppressed excitement. "Your father!" exclaimed the kindly clerk, handing back the coin. "Why, how old are you?" "Ten," replied Alec. "Thank you." "And so your father married at the age of ten or thereabouts, did he? Dear me; very precocious of him!" exclaimed the clerk, with such a serious face that the children felt quite uncomfortable. They had not considered the matter in that light at all. Their faces fell, and they felt such a wish they had never come that without a word of explanation they turned and fled. They were glad to be once more outside the building, and thankful to find the cabman still there waiting to take them back, and in their discomfiture he was hailed by them joyfully as a dear old friend. "Home!" said Alec, when they were inside. "And where might that happen to be?" asked the driver with interest. Molly, womanlike, jumped at a conclusion. "We're lost!" she wailed, and burst into tears, and it was only when she was in sight of her own nursery windows that she was comforted, and smiled once more. Without any inquiry, all their remaining savings were emptied into the willing palm of the delighted driver, who bowed his acknowledgments repeatedly.[147] The children ran through the garden entrance unobserved, and had just got their outdoor things off when the tea-bell rang. NIGHT When Alec, Frank, and Molly entered the drawing-room, where their parents were in readiness, for the great annual frolic with Father, they didn't tumble in as was their usual habit; they walked in sedately. They had something important to say. "Truly, Daddy, how old are you?" asked Molly, running up to him. She wouldn't be hushed down by the boys. She felt she wanted to make sure of what she already knew. "I told you I was twenty-one, of course! One always expects such a nice lot of presents when one is twenty-one! But you two young rascals evidently think I really must be a very old man of forty at least!" he replied, smiling. "And does he never grow older, Mummy?" "I don't see it, Molly darling." "Do you ever see the Times, boys?" he inquired. "That's just what's so queer," said Alec. "I've got it here." Alec noticed the glance which his parents exchanged, and their expression of astonishment when Frank remarked[148]— "We took it with us this afternoon to Somerset House." "Yes," corroborated Alec. "Me, too," chimed in Molly. And then they told of all they had done, and their parents tried to look grave, but couldn't, and could scarcely speak for laughing, though they extorted a promise that nothing of the kind should ever again be attempted without permission. "Surely, what is in the Times," reasoned their father, "must be true—at least one must presume so." "Halloa," broke in Alec. "I say, Frank! Look here! This Guy Thompson was born in Cambridge Square! I never noticed that. Weren't you born in Oxford Square, Father?" "Well, I think I might just as well have been born in one as in the other. All I know is, that if I was twenty-one, I am twenty-one—and the rest—you never asked me how many more. Come along, boys, now for our cushion-fight! But first of all, here are your expenses back again—your Babyship, there's your sixpence—and now I really can't wait any longer for a romp!" Soon the room was gay with laughter. Father, too, had to be a real guy and a "pretend" one, pushed about in the arm-chair with a funny long nose spoiling his jolly face. And afterwards they[149] all danced whilst their mother played a hornpipe—and really it was very difficult to guess Father's years, they might have been anything! Then he suddenly ran out. There was a rush to the window, the blind was drawn up, and soon, in the darkness of the night, a grand catharine-wheel was seen whizzing round in a blaze of dripping fire. Then such a glorious shoot of rockets arose! Whish! bang! whish! bang! they went as they burst, each of them, into a shower of gorgeous stars all purple, and green, and gold. "A—a—h!" exclaimed the three children, gazing with rapture. And— "A—a—h!" they repeated over and over and over again, as splendour followed splendour, and the sky was powdered again and again with sparks of coloured fire. <hr class="chapter"> [150] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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