Pyle - Twilight Land

I found myself in Twilight Land. How I ever got there I cannot tell, butthere I was in Twilight Land.

What is Twilight Land? It is a wonderful, wonderful place where no sunshines to scorch your back as you jog along the way, where no rain fallsto make the road muddy and hard to travel, where no wind blows the dustinto your eyes or the chill into your marrow. Where all is sweet andquiet and ready to go to bed.

Where is Twilight Land? Ah! that I cannot tell you. You will either haveto ask your mother or find it for yourself.

There I was in Twilight Land. The birds were singing their good-nightsong, and the little frogs were piping "peet, peet." The sky overheadwas full of still brightness, and the moon in the east hung in thepurple gray like a great bubble as yellow as gold. All the air was fullof the smell of growing things. The high-road was gray, and the treeswere dark.

I drifted along the road as a soap-bubble floats before the wind, or asa body floats in a dream. I floated along and I floated along past thetrees, past the bushes, past the mill-pond, past the mill where the oldmiller stood at the door looking at me.

I floated on, and there was the Inn, and it was the Sign of MotherGoose.

The sign hung on a pole, and on it was painted a picture of Mother Goosewith her gray gander.

It was to the Inn I wished to come.

I floated on, and I would have floated past the Inn, and perhaps havegotten into the Land of Never-Come-Back-Again, only I caught atthe branch of an apple-tree, and so I stopped myself, though theapple-blossoms came falling down like pink and white snowflakes.

The earth and the air and the sky were all still, just as it is attwilight, and I heard them laughing and talking in the tap-room ofthe Inn of the Sign of Mother Goosethe clinking of glasses, and therattling and clatter of knives and forks and plates and dishes. That waswhere I wished to go.

So in I went. Mother Goose herself opened the door, and there I was.

The room was all full of twilight; but there they sat, every one ofthem. I did not count them, but there were ever so many: Aladdin, andAli Baba, and Fortunatis, and Jack-the-Giant-Killer, and Doctor Faustus,and Bidpai, and Cinderella, and Patient Grizzle, and the Soldier whocheated the Devil, and St. George, and Hans in Luck, who traded andtraded his lump of gold until he had only an empty churn to show for it;and there was Sindbad the Sailor, and the Tailor who killed seven fliesat a blow, and the Fisherman who fished up the Genie, and the Lad whofiddled for the Jew in the bramble-bush, and the Blacksmith who madeDeath sit in his apple-tree, and Boots, who always marries the Princess,whether he wants to or nota rag-tag lot as ever you saw in your life,gathered from every place, and brought together in Twilight Land.

Each one of them was telling a story, and now it was the turn of theSoldier who cheated the Devil.

"I will tell you," said the Soldier who cheated the Devil, "a story of afriend of mine."

"Take a fresh pipe of tobacco," said St. George.

"Thank you, I will," said the Soldier who cheated the Devil.

He filled his long pipe full of tobacco, and then he tilted it upsidedown and sucked in the light of the candle.

Puff! puff! puff! and a cloud of smoke went up about his head, so thatyou could just see his red nose shining through it, and his bright eyestwinkling in the midst of the smoke-wreath, like two stars through athin cloud on a summer night.

"I'll tell you," said the Soldier who cheated the Devil, "the story ofa friend of mine. Tis every word of it just as true as that I myselfcheated the Devil."

He took a drink from his mug of beer, and then he began.

"Tis called," said he

Once upon a time there came a soldier marching along the road, kickingup a little cloud of dust at each stepas strapping and merry andbright-eyed a fellow as you would wish to see in a summer day. Tramp!tramp! tramp! he marched, whistling as he jogged along, though hecarried a heavy musket over his shoulder and though the sun shone hotand strong and there was never a tree in sight to give him a bit ofshelter.

At last he came in sight of the King's Town and to a great field ofstocks and stones, and there sat a little old man as withered and brownas a dead leaf, and clad all in scarlet from head to foot.

"Ho! soldier," said he, "are you a good shot?"

"Aye," said the soldier, "that is my trade."

"Would you like to earn a dollar by shooting off your musket for me?"

"Aye," said the soldier, "that is my trade also."

"Very well, then," said the little man in red, "here is a silver buttonto drop into your gun instead of a bullet. Wait you here, and aboutsunset there will come a great black bird flying. In one claw it carriesa feather cap and in the other a round stone. Shoot me the silver buttonat that bird, and if your aim is good it will drop the feather cap andthe pebble. Bring them to me to the great town-gate and I will pay you adollar for your trouble."

"Very well," said the soldier, "shooting my gun is a job that fits melike an old coat." So, down he sat and the old man went his way.

Well, there he sat and sat and sat and sat until the sun touched the rimof the ground, and then, just as the old man said, there came flying agreat black bird as silent as night. The soldier did not tarry to lookor to think. As the bird flew by up came the gun to his shoulder, squintwent his eye along the barrelPuff! bang!

I vow and declare that if the shot he fired had cracked the sky hecould not have been more frightened. The great black bird gave a yell soterrible that it curdled the very blood in his veins and made his hairstand upon end. Away it flew like a flasha bird no longer, but agreat, black demon, smoking and smelling most horribly of brimstone,and when the soldier gathered his wits, there lay the feather cap and alittle, round, black stone upon the ground.

"Well," said the soldier, "it is little wonder that the old man hadno liking to shoot at such game as that." And thereupon he poppedthe feather cap into one pocket and the round stone into another, andshouldering his musket marched away until he reached the town-gate, andthere was the old man waiting for him.

"Did you shoot the bird?" said he.

"I did," said the soldier.

"And did you get the cap and the round stone?"

"I did."

"Then here is your dollar."

"Wait a bit," said the soldier, "I shot greater game that time thanI bargained for, and so it's ten dollars and not one you shall pay mebefore you lay finger upon the feather cap and the little stone."

"Very well," said the old man, "here are ten dollars."

"Ho! ho!" thought the soldier, "is that the way the wind blows?""Did Isay ten dollars?" said he; "twas a hundred dollars I meant."

At that the old man frowned until his eyes shone green. "Very well,"said he, "if it is a hundred dollars you want, you will have to comehome with me, for I have not so much with me." Thereupon he entered thetown with the soldier at his heels.