SHIN SHIRA AND THE LAME DUCK
It was during the summer holidays and my young cousin Lionel was staying with me again. We had been spending the hot afternoon strolling about Kensington Gardens, and had just been enjoying a cup of tea and some cakes under the trees at the little refreshment place near the Albert Memorial.
"I think we'd better be going home now," I said. "We'll get a motor-'bus at the gate."
"Oh! must we go yet?" pleaded Lionel. "It's so jolly out here under the trees. Let's walk home past the Round Pond."
"I've some letters to write before dinner," said I, "but—"
"Oh, bother the old letters!" interrupted Lionel. "It won't take much longer to walk, and you'll get them done all right. Come on!"
With a sigh of resignation, I not altogether unwillingly let the young scamp have his way.
It was the best part of the day: the lengthening shadows and the cool breeze which had sprung up made walking very enjoyable.
We had nearly reached the Round Pond when I heard a startled "squ-a-a-k!" at my feet, and a lame duck struggled up from the grass and limped painfully off.
"Poor thing!" cried Lionel, who was a kind-hearted little chap. "You nearly trod on it. I wonder how it got to be lame."
"Some boys," said an indistinct voice close at hand, "some boys threw a stone at it this afternoon and injured its leg."
We looked round in great surprise, for there seemed to be nobody about to account for the voice; but presently I could just discern Shin Shira's face and yellow turban appearing.
"Can't shake hands yet," said he, nodding amiably, "for they haven't arrived at present, but I've no doubt they'll be here shortly."
"I wonder how he'd get on if he wanted to scratch his nose," whispered Lionel, who had a keen sense of the ridiculous.
"It's rude to whisper in company," said Shin Shira severely, evidently aware that some remark had been made about himself—"but there, you're only a boy, and boys are—Hullo! here come my legs! that's all right! I thought I shouldn't have to wait long for them. Where are you off to?" and the little Yellow Dwarf hurried up to us now that he was quite complete.
"Oh, we're just walking home," I replied, "only Lionel had a fancy to pass the Round Pond on our way; the little model yachts one often sees there are very amusing to watch."
"Yes," agreed Shin Shira. "There's one been left behind to-day," he continued. "The boys who threw the stone at the duck were seen by the park keeper, and when he came after them they ran away, leaving their boat behind them. Serve them right if they lose it."
"Oh, yes! There it is now!" cried Lionel, running towards the edge of the Round Pond. "What a jolly little yacht. Why, it's a perfect model," and he regarded it with the greatest admiration. He took it from the water and inspected it carefully.
"I say!" he cried excitedly, "wouldn't it be ripping if we could become small enough to go for a sail in it!"
"It's a very simple matter to arrange, if you wish it," remarked Shin Shira composedly.
"D-do you really m-mean that it would be possible for you to make us as tiny as that?" stammered Lionel in his eagerness, his eyes bright with excitement.
"I couldn't do it, but the fairies might," said the Dwarf, taking up the little yellow book which I had restored to him after our last adventure.
"But should we be able to return to our proper size again?" I inquired carefully, for I remembered from previous experience that Shin Shira's magical powers had an unfortunate habit of going wrong at times.
"Without the least doubt," replied he; "in fact, from the time that you are reduced to the size which you desire to be, you very gradually increase, till your original size is reached."
"Then there's no danger?" I hazarded.
"None whatever," was the reassuring reply.
"Then do, do please let us be 'reduced,'" pleaded Lionel eagerly.
"Very well, then," said I. "And do you propose that we should go for a trip in the model yacht?"
"Of course!" declared Lionel.
"Put it in the water then," said Shin Shira, "and I'll see what I can do."
Lionel quickly put down the boat, and stood watching Shin Shira to see what would happen.
The little Yellow Dwarf was busily gathering pebbles from the edge of the pond, examining each carefully, and then throwing them down again in what appeared to be an aimless and unintelligible manner.
Presently, however, he said, "There's one," and putting a stone carefully away in his belt, he continued to search till he had found another like it.
"And there's the other," he said, coming towards us.
"Now then, all you have to do is to swallow these two little white stones and wish to be—let's see—an inch and a quarter high, and there you are."
"It seems rather a venturesome proceeding," I said, hesitatingly.
"Oh no! it'll be all right! Come along! Let's swallow them!" cried Lionel, suiting the action to the word and popping one of the stones into his mouth without further ado.
He immediately became so small that I had some difficulty in seeing him at all amongst the stones at the edge of the Pond.
"Are you not going to swallow one of the stones too?" I inquired of the Dwarf before swallowing mine.
"No, I think not," was the reply. "I'll remain as I am, I think, in case you may require assistance of a kind which only a larger person than yourself could afford."
I then swallowed my stone, and immediately became almost as tiny as my small cousin, having, for my part, wished to be reduced to the height of an inch and a half, thinking that some sort of distinction ought to be preserved in our relative sizes.
"There!" exclaimed Lionel in a vexed voice, when I had joined him. "It's no use after all! How on earth are we going to get on board?"
"Ah!" cried Shin Shira, laughing good-humouredly and now looking, to us, like a good-natured giant, towering as he did high above our heads. "Now you see the wisdom of my having remained as I am. I can simply lift you on board and push the boat off for you too."
Suiting the action to the word, he very gently and carefully picked up first Lionel and then me from the ground and placed us on board the yacht, then gave the boat a little shove which, though he didn't intend it to do so, sent us both sprawling on the deck and the boat itself well out into the water.
I think I have mentioned that a slight breeze had sprung up, and the Pond was rippled over with tiny waves, upon which our yacht danced merrily, the sails having filled out with wind which drove her along at a fine rate.
Lionel was running all over the deck examining everything eagerly.
"I wish there was a real cabin," he said; "this is only a dummy one, and I find a lot of the ropes to the sails won't act properly. I wonder how you steer the thing, too."
"By means of the rudder, I should imagine," I said.
"Of course!" exclaimed Lionel impatiently; "any baby would know that; but this one is fastened up so tightly that I can't move it."
"Well, never mind," said I, "it is evidently set in the right direction; for see, we are heading straight across the Pond, and there's Shin Shira walking round to be there to meet us when we go ashore," and I settled myself down comfortably to enjoy the pleasant trip.
"Hullo! Look at that!" cried Lionel a moment or two later, pointing to the shore.
The lame duck had been disturbed by Shin Shira's passing, and was slowly waddling towards the water.
"She's coming in!" declared Lionel. "By Jove! doesn't she look a size now we're so tiny!"
The boy was right, for, to us, the duck now appeared a formidable monster of strange and uncouth shape. Her bill, as she came quacking into the water, opened and shut in an alarming manner, revealing the fact that, if she desired to do so, she could make a meal of us at one gulp.
Somewhat to our dismay, she seemed impelled by some vague curiosity to swim in our direction, and the situation began to get distinctly alarming as she drew nearer and nearer.
"What on earth shall we do?" exclaimed Lionel. "I hope to goodness she isn't going to attack us. It would be too silly to be swallowed by a duck."
"I fancy she's only coming to have a look at us," I said, "and at any rate, if we shouted at her loudly if she came too near it would probably frighten her away."
This seemed to be the only thing to do, and as the duck continued to swim directly towards us we both began to shout and wave our arms about in what must have appeared to Shin Shira a perfectly mad fashion.
The noise, however, seemed to have the desired effect, for the duck paused, looked at us in a puzzled manner for a moment, and then turned tail and began moistening her bill in the water, lifting her head and shaking it after each mouthful, as their habit is.
"I wish she'd get out of the way," said Lionel anxiously. "We shall run into her directly, she's right in our course," and he began to shout vigorously again, in the hope of startling her.
I added my voice to his, and we both yelled our loudest, with not the slightest effect, however, for the duck continued unconcernedly to enjoy herself in her own fashion in the middle of the lake. Presently what Lionel had feared came to pass, and with a bump which sent us both off our feet, the yacht was driven straight on to the duck, which gave a terrific "Quack!" and swam off in a hurry.
"Our bowsprit's broken," announced Lionel, directly he had recovered his feet, "and it's fallen in the water and is dragging the sails with it—and—look out!" This as a gust of wind filled the mainsail and caused the boat to careen over on to her side in a highly dangerous manner.
"Look out!" and this time another and a stronger gust completed the matter, and the sail touched the water and immediately became saturated, so that the boat could not right itself.
"Well, we shan't sink, that's one thing," I said, for Lionel was looking at me in an alarmed manner. "The water cannot get into the hull, thanks to there not being a 'real' cabin and the hatches only being sham ones."
"That's all very well," said Lionel, though giving a little sigh of relief at my reassuring words, "but we can't stop here for ever. I should like to know how we are to get ashore."
Shin Shira, who had seen our accident, was shouting and gesticulating at the edge of the Pond, but the wind was blowing in his direction and carried the sound of his voice away from us, so that we couldn't hear a single word of what he was saying.
"I suppose eventually we shall drift ashore," I said hopefully.
"Yes, but not for hours and hours perhaps," said Lionel dolefully, "because the wind may change, you know, and besides it's getting dusk."
"It certainly isn't a very pleasant look-out," I agreed. "I can't see what we are to do, unless—I say! what's that big box floating towards us?"
Lionel looked in the direction in which I was pointing.
"It's an empty match-box," he said uninterestedly; "that's no good."
"I'm not so sure about that," said I. "Try and get hold of it as it drifts this way. I've an idea."
"I can't see what good an empty match-box can be to us," grumbled Lionel, doing his best, however, to aid me in capturing the prize as it blew against the side of the overturned yacht, which we at last did with some difficulty.
It was a very large box and had evidently been in the water for some time; the paper around it had become unstuck from the sides and hung loose in the water beside it.
"We must get the paper at all cost, and pray be careful not to tear it," I cried.
"Whatever for?" asked Lionel in amazement.
"Do as you're told and don't ask questions," I replied rather crossly, for I was very anxious to try an experiment which I had in my mind. So we hauled the paper aboard and stretched it on the bulwarks to dry.
Then we hauled the broken bowsprit aboard and freed it from the broken ropes with our pen-knives—a long and difficult job—and by the time we had finished, the paper which had been around the box had become dry and quite stiff by reason of the gum with which it had been stuck to the sides of the box.
"Oh, I see!" cried Lionel, as I clambered on to the box (which was fastened by a rope to the side of the yacht) and began to cut a hole in the middle. "You're going to make a raft."
"I'm going to try to," I answered grimly, for I wasn't at all sure that my experiment would be a success.
By dint of real hard work, cutting and contriving, however, we did eventually succeed in making a raft of a sort, the stiff paper, fixed to the broken bowsprit, making a capital sail; and somewhat in fear and trembling, we both got aboard and pushed off from the derelict yacht.
All went well for some time till we were nearing the shore, and then I noticed something which caused me grave alarm.
We were both growing rapidly! The raft, which had before been quite large enough to support us, was now low down in the water with our weight, and there was great danger of the water getting into the inside of the box, in which case it would undoubtedly sink.
Lionel noticed the difficulty at the same time as myself, for he gave me a startled glance.
"We're getting bigger," he said. "Do you think the raft will hold out?"
"I don't think so," I replied, "but we're quite near the water's edge now—perhaps I could swim ashore with you."
"Good gracious! I can swim twice that distance myself, thank you. Why, I beat Mullings Major hollow in the swimming competition last term, and he's four years older than me, and—"
Whatever Lionel was going to add was lost, for at that instant he had to put his boasted prowess to the test. The box, having filled with water just as I had feared it would do, sank slowly down, and we were left in the water.
Fortunately Lionel's boast was not a vain one, and he reached the shore before I did, laughing and wringing the water out of his clothes.
"Well, it's good to be on dry land once more at any rate," he said, as I waded ashore, "isn't it?"
"Yes," I agreed, looking about to see if I could discover any traces of Shin Shira in the dusk.
"There he is!" at last cried Lionel, "but his head has vanished, and there are only his legs and arms waving about. They won't be much use to us, and—by Jove! yes! Look, here comes that wretched old duck after us. We'll have to cut," and he gathered up his things and set the example.
It was quite true; the old duck had evidently come to the conclusion that we were something dainty to eat—in the frog line probably—and was waddling towards us as quickly as her game leg would allow.
Fortunately we were soon able to out-distance her; and having fixed our latitude by Kensington Palace, which we could just see in the distance, we set out for the gate.
To our tiny, but rapidly growing bodies the distance seemed an interminable one, especially as darkness was now quickly falling. We could see the lights in Kensington, but they seemed far, far away; and to add to our dismay, when at last, tired and exhausted, we did reach the gate, it was only to find it closed for the night, and that during our journey from the Pond we had grown too big to be able to squeeze through the railings.
We waited a few minutes uncertain what to do, till presently a cab came in sight, the horse walking leisurely and the cabby evidently on the look-out for a fare.
"Cabby! cabby!" I called, and Lionel added his shrill voice to mine.
The cabman looked about in bewilderment.
"Here, by the Park gates!" I yelled, and he got down from his seat and came over to where we were standing.
"Well, I'm blowed!" he exclaimed when he had had a good look at us. "What the Dickens are you? Kids or dwarfs or what?"
"Never mind what we are, cabby; get us out of here somehow, and drive us home to Kensington Square, and I'll give you a sovereign."
"Will you, though?" said the cabby. "Well, I'm gaun to do it, but the question is—how? I'll go and knock up the park keeper."
"No, no, don't do that!" I said hastily. "He'll want such a lot of explanations, and we're wet and uncomfortable and anxious to get home. Do please try and think of some way of getting us out without having to call him."
Our cabby was a man of resource, for having considered for a moment, he backed the horse close against the gate, stood on the top and lowered the horse's nosebag by means of a long rope which he kept by him in case of emergencies, and cried—
"Now then, get in there, one at a time, and I'll soon have you over here."
Lionel got in first, and as the cabby had said, was easily hauled up and deposited on the top of the cab.
I followed, and in a very short space of time we were both inside the cab and rattling home at a good pace.
I got the cabby to knock at the door, and Mrs. Putchy, to whom I quickly explained everything, gave him a sovereign for me. In a very few minutes Lionel and I were warm and comfortable each in our respective beds.
In the morning we had both grown to our original sizes, and the adventure of the day before was nothing but a memory.