POOR CECCO
Chapter I
HOW MURRUM SHUT THE TOY-CUPBOARD DOOR
Dong!
That is the old clock in the hall striking midnight. A tall old clock with a round foolish face. He always looks surprised, though he ought to know perfectly well what the hour is. “Dong!” he says. “Another thirty minutes gone! Now, how did that happen?”
It is so still that the voice of the old clock can be heard all through the house. Upstairs, where the children are asleep; out in the kitchen, where the mice run to and fro on the floor—even outside on the doorstep, where Murrum, the black cat, sits in a square of moonlight washing his paws.
Murrum is not so old as the clock, but he knows far more; in fact, he knows everything. He knows where all the birds’ nests are, and who just rang the doorbell, and what the family are going to have for dinner. He knows why the cream disappears and what happened to cook’s silver thimble and just where Boodles buried his last hambone. He knows all these things and a great deal more, but he doesn’t go about chattering. He leaves that to the sparrows and the house-mice, who spread all the gossip between them. Murrum sits and washes his paws.
The moonlight is white on the doorstep and Murrum is black, but there is a white patch just under his chin, and he has four white mittens. He washes and washes, down his nose and over his ears and round his ears, and while he washes he smiles.
“I’ve fixed them this time!” says Murrum.
“Fixed what?”
Murrum stops washing and stares down with his pale insolent eyes.
It is Toad, the old night-watchman, with his brown wrinkled coat and speckled vest. He comes out from under the doorstep, blinks up through his gold spectacles and grunts. “Fixed what?” he says again.
“Mind your own business!” says Murrum.
“It is my business!” said the Toad. “Everything’s my business. I wish it wasn’t. I have too much to look after, that’s what it is! It keeps me on the hop the whole time. Dearie me, what’s all that noise?”
There was certainly a commotion going on indoors. Bumping and thumping and clattering, and with it the queerest little shrieks and howls. Muffled noises, as though a number of small people were shut up together in a box and were extremely angry about it. One voice, louder than the rest, that sounded like a very sad five-finger exercise.
Murrum listened, his head turned to one side and one paw still lifted.
“A fine rage they’re in, aren’t they!” said Murrum. “That’ll teach them to spoil my mousing!”
“Dearie me,” said the Toad, “what have you been to now? Who is doing all that squealing?”
“Why, the toys, to be sure!” said Murrum. “A wretched noisy crowd they are, night after night prancing and singing all over the house! The place isn’t fit to live in. There’s three nights now I haven’t caught a single mouse, with their carryings on. No sooner do I get to work and settle down, all in position, nicely balanced, than—bing!—in they start with their noise, and I have to begin all over again. It’s enough to make one a nervous wreck. But I’ve settled them to-night. I turned the button on the toy-cupboard door and now they can’t get out.”
The Toad pushed back his spectacles and scratched his head. “They’ll be terribly angry!” he said at last.
“Let them be angry!” said Murrum. “Who cares for that? What sensible people see in those things I can’t imagine! The best of them isn’t worth three hairs off a kitten’s tail. There’s that Anna, with her stupid face, and the rag doll, and Bulka, that you can’t so much as look at but he starts squealing, and Harlequin, that thinks he’s so wonderful—a stupid lot, I call them! And as for that loose-jointed thing like a dog, that they call Poor Cecco, always poking about where he isn’t wanted, he’s the worst of the lot! Ugh! I can’t stand the sight of him!”
“Still,” said the Toad, “you shouldn’t have locked them up in the cupboard. That’s going too far. You could be had up for that!”
“I don’t care!” said Murrum. “I do what I like and I go where I choose! And now I’m off to keep my appointment!”
And he gave a last look at his coat, all smooth and glossy, stretched out his ten white toes on the doorstep, and arched his back.
Now all the while Murrum was talking some one had been creeping very slowly along the edge of the porch just over Murrum’s head. He had to move rather stiffly and carefully because he was all made of wood, and if he once let his joints rattle there would be a terrible noise. So he went gently—clop—clop—and when he reached the big flower-pot that stood just by the doorstep he folded his hind legs under him and lay down, with one ear cocked up, to hear what was going on. For Murrum hadn’t been quite as clever as he thought he was, and when he shut the toy-cupboard door Poor Cecco wasn’t inside at all.
In fact it very seldom happened, as Murrum might have remembered if he hadn’t been in such a hurry, that Poor Cecco did get put away with the other toys when the nursery was tidied at night. Poor Cecco had been through many adventures and was well able to look after himself, and, being made of wood, it didn’t much matter if he was left out in the rain all night, so nobody troubled very much about him. And if any one did happen to want Poor Cecco the best sort of place to look for him, at any time, would be out in the garden or under the bureau or down behind the woodbox in the back kitchen. Once indeed he nearly got thrown on the fire by mistake, only Cook recognised him just in time. Sometimes he would disappear for days at a stretch and then turn up where you least expected him, in the laundry basket, or poked away under the sofa cushions. But with all his irregular habits he rarely came to grief, for he was the cleverest of all the toys.
He stayed quite still now behind the flower-pot and listened to what Murrum had to say.
“Ah, there’s nothing like being popular in society!” sighed the Toad. “Now, with me it’s work—work all the time!”
Murrum wasn’t listening. He came down from the doorstep, still stretching himself and yawning very delicately so as to show the inside of his pink mouth. Standing in the moonlight, he began to make camels, humping his back and waving his long tail from side to side while he admired his shadow on the ground. But just as he was nicely balanced on tiptoe, making the last and most beautiful camel of all, Poor Cecco wriggled out from behind the flower-pot, took a flying jump and landed, with all his joints rattling, right on Murrum’s nose!
Murrum gave one terrible yowl and flew off down the garden path and over the wall, with his tail as big as a saucepan handle.
Poor Cecco lay on the ground and laughed, all his four legs sprawling and one ear still cocked up.
“Where did you come from?” asked the Toad, rubbing his head, which Poor Cecco had narrowly escaped kicking.
“Hinksman!” said Poor Cecco, which means: “I won’t tell you!”
“I suppose you think that’s clever!” said the Toad, still rubbing his head, for he was quite annoyed, and moreover his spectacles had nearly dropped off with fright. “Respectable people hop on the ground, and don’t go dropping out of the skies like that. If you think you’re an airplane say so at once, and then at least one is warned!”
And he turned his back and began to shuffle away along the edge of the flower-border.
“Don’t be in such a hurry!” said Poor Cecco.
But the Toad made no answer. He was already late on his evening rounds. Poor Cecco stood up and shook himself.
“And now, I suppose,” he said, “I had better go and let them out!”
