And, suiting the action to the utterance, the feathers and the roses were thrust forward in a score of dainty hands to tickle poor Ranulf’s offending organ. But the lady who had strung him on her harp, though she was shocked at the nasal twang he had brought out of her and his instruments combined, did not forget the aid he had given when she was in a difficulty; so, as the merry group came to the attack, taking Ranulf up in her arms, she seated him on the very top of the harp out of reach (where, though not gilded, and in knickerbockers, he did very well for a Cupid), and did all in her power to protect him from the thrusts of the feathers and roses. She succeeded pretty well while only her own sex were engaged, for, being a harpist, she could move her hands rapidly over the strings and wave off the attack in all directions. But what was Ranulf’s horror to see Norval and Jaques, like a pair of rogues as they were, unable to resist the temptation to join the fun, thrust their long neck and arms over the bevy of fair ladies who surrounded him—Norval with a rose in his mouth, and Jaques with a feather in his hand. Ranulf knew at once that he must go off into fits, for the lady could not protect him from the wild flights of the long neck and hands as they flew about tickling his poor nose in all directions. He resigned himself to his fate, slid down to the ground, and went off in screams of laughter, while the merry chorus round him sang—
Lazy dog, ha! ha! wake up, I say,
You surely don’t intend to sleep upon the rug all day.
I’ll strike you with a feather,
I’ll stab you with a rose,
Unless you stop that horrid snore,
That’s groaning through your nose.
CHANGE ARMS.
And as he lay, the arms were still out to protect him, only, instead of their being uncovered except by handsome bracelets at the wrist, they seemed to get grown over with something very like brown merino; and when a voice spoke, saying, “Now, boys, leave him alone, will you?—stop tickling him at once,” it was that of his nurse (for whom his pet name, appropriately, was Harpin); and there he lay, sprawling on his back on the rug, as she kept his brothers off him.
