The Fairy Godmothers and Other Tales Page 9

  JOACHIM THE MIMIC.

  There was, once upon a time, a little boy, who, living in the timewhen Genies and Fairies used now and then to appear, had all theadvantage of occasionally seeing wonderful sights, and all the_dis_advantage of being occasionally dreadfully frightened. Thislittle boy was one day walking alone by the sea side, for he lived ina fishing town, and as he was watching the tide, he perceived a bottledriven ashore by one of the big waves. He rushed forward to catch itbefore the wave sucked it back again, and succeeded. Now then he wasquite delighted, but he could not get the cork out, for it wasfastened down with rosin, and there was a seal on the top. So beingvery impatient, he took a stone and knocked the neck of the bottleoff.

  What was his surprize to find himself instantly suffocated with asmoke that made his eyes smart and his nose sneeze, just as much as ifa quantity of Scotch snuff had been thrown over him! He jumped aboutand puffed a good deal, and was just beginning to cry, as a matter ofcourse for a little boy when he is annoyed; when lo! and behold! hesaw before him such an immense Genie, with black eyes and a longbeard, that he forgot all about crying and began to shake with fear.

  The Genie told him he need not be afraid, and desired him not toshake; for, said he, "You have been of great use to me; a Genie,stronger than myself, had fastened me up in yonder bottle in a fit ofill humour, and as he had put his seal at the top, nobody could drawthe cork. Luckily for me, you broke the neck of the bottle, and I amfree. Tell me therefore, good little boy, what shall I do for you toshow my gratitude?"

  But now, before I go on with this, I must tell you that the day beforethe little boy's adventure with the bottle and the Genie, the King ofthat country had come to the fishing town I spoke of, in a goldchariot drawn by twelve beautiful jet black horses, and attended by alarge train of officers and followers. A herald went before announcingthat the King was visiting the towns of his dominions, for the solepurpose of doing justice and exercising acts of charity and kindness.And all people in trouble and distress were invited to come and laytheir complaints before him. And accordingly they did so, and the goodKing, though quite a youth, devoted the whole day to the benevolentpurpose he proposed; and it is impossible to describe the amount ofgood he accomplished in that short time. Among others who benefitedwas our little boy's Mother, a widow who had been much injured andoppressed. He redressed her grievances, and in addition to this,bestowed valuable and useful presents upon her. "Look what an examplethe young King sets," was the cry on every side! "Oh, my son, imitatehim!" exclaimed our poor Widow, as in a transport of joy and emotion,she threw her arms around her boy's neck. "I wish I _could_ imitatehim and be like him!" murmured little Joachim: (such was the child'sname). "My boy," cried the Widow, "imitate every thing that is good,and noble, and virtuous, and you _will_ be like him!" Joachim lookedearnestly in her face, but was silent. He understood a good deal thathis Mother meant; he knew he was to try to do every thing that wasgood, and so be like the young King; but, as he was but a little boy,I am not quite sure that he had not got a sort of vague notion of thegold chariot and the twelve jet black horses, mixed up with his ideaof imitating all that was good and noble and virtuous, and being likethe young King. I may be wrong; but, at seven years old, you willexcuse him if his head did get a little confused, and if he could notquite separate his ideas of excessive virtue and goodness from all thesplendour in which the pattern he was to imitate appeared before hiseyes.

  However that may be, his Mother's words made a profound impressionupon him. He thought of nothing else, and if he had been in the sillyhabit of telling his dreams, I dare say he would have told his mothernext morning that he had been dreaming of them. Certainly they cameinto his head the first thing in the morning; and they were still inhis head when he walked along by the sea-shore, as has been described;so much so, that even his adventure did not make him forget them; andtherefore, when this Genie, as I told you before, offered to do anything he wanted, little Joachim said, "Genie, I want to imitate everything that is good, and noble, and virtuous, so you must make meable!"

  The Genie looked very much surprized, and rather confused; he expectedto have been asked for toys, or money, or a new horse, or somethingnice of that sort; but Joachim looked very grave, so the Genie saw hewas in earnest, and he did a most wonderful thing for a Genie; heactually sat down beside the little boy to talk to him. I don'trecollect that a single Genie in the Arabian Nights, ever did such athing before; but this Genie did: What is more, he stroked his beard,and spoke very softly, as follows:

  "My dear little boy, you have asked a great thing. I can do part ofwhat you wish, but not all; for you have asked what concerns the heartand conscience, and we Genies, cannot influence these, for the greatRuler of all things alone has them under his control. He allows us,however, power over the intellect--ah! now I see you cannot understandme, little boy!--Well! I mean this;--I can make your head clever, butI cannot make your heart good: I can give you the power of imitation,but as to _what_ you imitate, that must depend upon yourself, and thegreat Being I dare not name!"

  After saying this, the Genie laid his immense forefingers on each sideof Joachim's head just above his forehead, and then disappeared.

  Joachim felt no pain, but when he got up and put on his cap to gohome, his head seemed almost too large for it.

  Perhaps he wanted a new cap, but the phrenologists would tell you hehad got the organ of Imitation.

  He did not thoroughly understand what the Genie said, but he wasconvinced that something had been done towards making him like to theyoung King. As he was dawdling home, his eye was struck by the sightof a beautiful because picturesque dark fishing-boat, which he sawvery plainly, because the red sun was setting behind it. Joachim felta strange wish to make something like it; and, taking up a bit ofwhite chalk he saw at his feet, he drew a picture of the boat on thetarred side of another that was near him. While he was so engaged, anold fisherman came up very angrily. He thought the child wasdisfiguring his boat; but, to his surprise, he saw that the littlefellow's drawing was so capital, he wished he could do as muchhimself.

  "Why, who taught you to do that, young Master?" said he.

  Joachim was no great talker at any time, and he now merely said,"Nobody," and smiled.

  "Well, you must draw my boat some day, for me to hang up; and nowhere's a luck penny for you, for you certainly are a capital hand forsuch a youngster."

  Joachim was greatly pleased with the penny, for it was a curious oldone, with a hole through it; and he told his Mother all about it; butthough it may seem strange, he never mentioned the bottle and theGenie to her at all. That appeared to him to be a quite private affairof his own.

  He altered very much, however, by degrees. He had been till thenrather a dull, silent boy: now he talked much more, was more amusing,was always endeavouring to draw, and after being at church would tryto read the prayers like the parson. His Mother was delighted. Shebegan to think her son would grow up a good scholar after all, andbeing now well off, owing to the King's kindness, she resolved onsending little Joachim to school.

  To school, accordingly, he went; and here, my little readers, therewas a great change for him. Hitherto he had lived very much alone withhis Mother, and being quiet, and somewhat dull by nature, he had nevertill quite lately had many acquaintances of his own age.

  Now, however, he found himself among great numbers of youths, of allages, and all characters. At first he was shy and observant, but thissoon wore off, and he became a favourite. Nobody was more liked at anytime, and he was completely unrivalled in the play-ground. He couldset all the boys in a roar of laughter, when, hid behind a bush, hewould bark so like a dog that the unhappy wights who were not in thesecret expected to see a vicious hound spring out upon them, and tookto their heels in fright. He was first in every attempt at acting,which the boys got up; and there was not a cat nor a pig in theneighbourhood whose mew and squeak he could not give with the utmostexactness. If you ask how he got on at lessons, I must say--well, butnot _very_ w
ell. His powers of entertaining his companions were sogreat, that I fear he found their easily-acquired praise more temptingthan the rewards of laborious learning. He could learn easily enough,it is true; but while his steadier neighbours were working hard, hewas devising some new scheme for fun when lessons should be over, ormaking some odd drawing on his slate to induce his companions to anoutburst of laughter.

  There were many excuses to be made for little Joachim; and it isalways so pleasant to please, that I do not much wonder at his beingled astray by possessing the power.

  Time went on, meanwhile; and Joachim became aware at last that hepossessed a larger share than common of the power of imitation. Whenhe first clearly felt this, he thought of the Genie and his twoforefingers, I believe;--but his school life, and his funny ways, andthe constant diversion of his mind, quite prevented his thinking ofall the serious things