The Child's Story
by Charles Dickens
Once
upon a time, a good many years ago, there was a traveller, and he set
out upon a journey. It was a magic journey, and was to seem very long
when he began it, and very short when he got half way through.
He
travelled along a rather dark path for some little time, without meeting
anything, until at last he came to a beautiful child. So he said to the
child, "What do you do here?" And the child said, "I am always at play.
Come and play with me!"
So, he played with that child, the whole
day long, and they were very merry. The sky was so blue, the sun was so
bright, the water was so sparkling, the leaves were so green, the
flowers were so lovely, and they heard such singing-birds and saw so
many butteries, that everything was beautiful. This was in fine weather.
When it rained, they loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the
fresh scents. When it blew, it was delightful to listen to the wind,
and fancy what it said, as it came rushing from its home-- where was
that, they wondered!--whistling and howling, driving the clouds before
it, bending the trees, rumbling in the chimneys, shaking the house, and
making the sea roar in fury. But, when it snowed, that was best of all;
for, they liked nothing so well as to look up at the white flakes
falling fast and thick, like down from the breasts of millions of white
birds; and to see how smooth and deep the drift was; and to listen to
the hush upon the paths and roads.
They had plenty of the finest
toys in the world, and the most astonishing picture-books: all about
scimitars and slippers and turbans, and dwarfs and giants and genii and
fairies, and blue- beards and bean-stalks and riches and caverns and
forests and Valentines and Orsons: and all new and all true.
But,
one day, of a sudden, the traveller lost the child. He called to him
over and over again, but got no answer. So, he went upon his road, and
went on for a little while without meeting anything, until at last he
came to a handsome boy. So, he said to the boy, "What do you do here?"
And the boy said, "I am always learning. Come and learn with me."
So
he learned with that boy about Jupiter and Juno, and the Greeks and the
Romans, and I don't know what, and learned more than I could tell--or
he either, for he soon forgot a great deal of it. But, they were not
always learning; they had the merriest games that ever were played. They
rowed upon the river in summer, and skated on the ice in winter; they
were active afoot, and active on horseback; at cricket, and all games at
ball; at prisoner's base, hare and hounds, follow my leader, and more
sports than I can think of; nobody could beat them. They had holidays
too, and Twelfth cakes, and parties where they danced till midnight, and
real Theatres where they saw palaces of real gold and silver rise out
of the real earth, and saw all the wonders of the world at once. As to
friends, they had such dear friends and so many of them, that I want the
time to reckon them up. They were all young, like the handsome boy, and
were never to be strange to one another all their lives through.
Still,
