Algernon Blackwood by A Prisoner in Fairyland Page A

road for Spirits,
A road for the Great Spirit.
Among us are three hunters
Who chase a bear:
There never was a time
When they were not hunting;
We look down on the mountains.
This is the Song of the Mountains.
    Red Indian
(
Algonquin
)
Lyric
.
     Translator, J. D. PRINCE.
    'A star-story, please,' the boy repeated, cuddling up. They all drew,
where possible, nearer. Their belief in their father's powers, rarely
justified, was pathetic. Each time they felt sure he would make the
adventures seem real, yet somehow he never quite did. They were aware
that it was invention only. These things he told about he had not
experienced himself. For they badly needed a leader, these children;
and Daddy just missed filling the position. He was too 'clever,' his
imagination neither wild nor silly enough, for children. And he felt
it. He threw off rhymes and stories for them in a spirit of bravado
rather—an expression of disappointment. Yet there was passion in them
too—concealed. The public missed the heart he showed them in his
books in the same way.
    'The stars are listening....' Jimbo's voice sounded far away, almost
outside the window. Mother now snored audibly. Daddy took his courage
in both hands and made the plunge.
    'You know about the Star Cavern, I suppose—?' he began. It was the
sudden idea that had shot into him, he knew not whence.
    'No.'
    'Never heard of it.'
    'Where is it, please?'
    'Don't interrupt. That wasn't a
real
question. Stories always begin
like that.' It was Jane Anne who thus finally commanded order.
    'It's not a story exactly, but a sort of adventure,' he continued,
hesitating yet undaunted. 'Star Caverns are places where the unused
starlight gathers. There are numbers of them about the world, and one
I know of is up here in our mountains,' he pointed through the north
wall towards the pine-clad Jura, 'not far from the slopes of Boudry
where the forests dip towards the precipices of the Areuse—' The
phrase ran oddly through him like an inspiration, or the beginning of
a song he once had heard somewhere.
    'Ah, beyond le Vallon Vert? I know,' whispered Jimbo, his blue eyes
big already with wonder.
    'Towards the precipices on the farther side,' came the explanation,
'where there are those little open spaces among the trees.'
    'Tell us more exactly, please.'
    'Star-rays, you see,' he evaded them, 'are visible in the sky on their
way to us, but once they touch the earth they disappear and go out
like a candle. Unless a chance puddle, or a pair of eyes happens to be
about to catch them, you can't tell where they've gone to. They go
really into these Star Caverns.'
    'But in a puddle or a pair of eyes they'd be lost just the same,' came
the objection.
    'On the contrary,' he said; 'changed a little—increased by
reflection—but not lost.'
    There was a pause; the children stared, expectantly. Here was mystery.
    'See how they mirror themselves whenever possible,' he went on,
'doubling their light and beauty by giving themselves away! What is a
puddle worth until a Star's wee golden face shines out of it? And
then—what gold can buy it? And what are your eyes worth until a star
has flitted in and made a nest there?'
    'Oh, like that, you mean—!' exclaimed Jane Anne, remembering that the
wonderful women in the newspaper stories always had 'starry eyes.'
    'Like that, yes.' Daddy continued. 'Their light puts sympathy in you,
and only sympathy makes you lovely and—and—'
    He stopped abruptly. He hesitated a moment. He was again most suddenly
aware that this strange idea that was born in him came from somewhere
else, almost from
some one
else. It was not his own idea, nor had he
captured it completely yet. Like a wandering little inspiration from
another mind it seemed passing through him on uncertain, feathery
feet. He had suddenly lost it again. Thought wandered. He stared at
Jimbo, for Jimbo somehow seemed the channel.
    The children waited, then talked among themselves. Daddy so often got
muddled and inattentive in