Come now to supper, my dear."
So I got up very stiffly, for I felt weak and dizzy still,
and went with her. I said:
"I'm sorry, Mother, that after all I couldn't bring you any
of the jewels."
Whereupon she laughed again and said something about
"Cornelia" which I am too modest to repeat, but which, being
scholars, you will know by heart, and said that she was glad
enough to have me back at all.
Sirs, you cannot think how beautiful our little dining-room
looked to me, with the old brass-handled highboy in the
corner and the pots of flowers on the sill--far more
beautiful than the fretted golden towers and gem-girdled
walls of the City under the Sea.
So take my advice, young sirs, the advice of a man many years
older than you bold young blades: don't you ever go listening
to a half-breed Peruvian that comes slinking to your window,
no matter how enticing may be his tales of treasure.
Your most faithful
BOTTLE MAN.
"_Do_ you think he dreamed it?" Jerry said.
"Whatever it was, he must have been glad to get back," I said,
switching off the light so that we could talk in the dark, which is
more creepy and pleasant.
"But the treasure!" Jerry said. "Do you suppose there ever was such
treasure in the world? That's something like! Imagine finding gold
trees and birds eating jewels on the Sea Monster! By the way, do you
know about 'Cornelia'?"
I said I thought she had something to do with sitting on a hill and
her children turning to stone one after the other, but Jerry said
that was Niobe and that it was she who turned to stone, not the
children.
Pages:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52