The Man with the Pan-Pipes, and Other Stories Page 6

  A LIVE DUMMY.

  The Merediths were spending the autumn on the French coast, at asea-bathing place called Sablons-sur-mer. It is a nice bright littleplace. I am afraid the inhabitants would be offended if they heard itcalled "little," for they think it a very important town! It consistsof two long streets--one facing the sea, one inland, where the shopsand the houses of the people who live there all the year round, are.And between these two streets run smaller ones--so small that they aremore passage-ways than streets. The most imposing one is called an"arcade"; in it are the best shops, a bazaar of all sorts of fancythings to delight children's eyes, from tin buckets and spades to digwith in the sands, to rocking-horses, though not of a very expensivekind. At one corner of this arcade is a large, ready-made tailor'sestablishment; this shop, for reasons I will explain to you, dividedthe children's attention with the bazaar.

  There were ever so many Merediths; three girls and two boys and acouple of cousins. The Sablons people are accustomed to Englishvisitors, so the sight of this band of children was not startling tothem; and the little _messieurs_, and the _jeunes mees_, soon hadseveral friends in the place, whom they never passed without afriendly nod and a _bon jour_ or _bon soir_, as the case might be.

  The cousins I have mentioned were not with the Merediths on theirfirst arrival. There had been some doubt of finding a house largeenough to take the whole party in, so Bessie and Hugh had waited attheir own home in the country in England in a state of franticanxiety, till one fine day came a letter from their aunt with thedelightful news that the children might be despatched as soon as theycould be got ready.

  Bessie and Hugh had never paid a visit to France before; so the twonew-comers had plenty of "guides" to explain everything to them, andshow them the "lions" of Sablons-sur-mer. Only one condition was madeby Lilian, the eldest and nearly "grown up" Meredith girl. Bessie andHugh _must_ manage not to seem like English tourists "gaping aboutwith guide-books in their hands, and looking as if they had never beenout of an English country village."

  "But we scarcely ever have been," said Bessie; "at least, only when wego to grandmamma's at Cheltenham, and Hugh was once three days inLondon."

  "That doesn't matter," said Miss Meredith; "you needn't look like someof the English people one sees over here. I feel quite ashamedsometimes to own them for my country people."

  Bessie was too much in awe of her big cousin to ask her to explainmore exactly what it was she was not to do, or to "look." But sheresolved to herself to be on her very best behaviour, and Madge andLetty assured her it would be "all right"--she needn't talk Frenchwhen there was any one who "mattered" to hear, and she needn't _seem_as if things were strange to her, that was what Lilian minded.

  The Arcade]

  "Mayn't I look in at the shop-windows, even?" asked Bessie, ratherdolefully.

  Shop-windows were very delightful and charming to the little countrycousin.

  "Of course you may. Every body does," said Letty; "especially at thebazaar. It's not windows; it's all open, you know, like stalls at amarket," explained Madge; "it's a regular bazaar. Not look at it!--whyit's _made_ to be looked at. And oh; Bessie," Letty went on again,"you _will_ be amused at the big tailor's, or ready-made clothier's,as mamma calls it, at the corner of the arcade. It's something likeMadame Tussaud's--such a lot of wax dummies at the door. And theychange their clothes every few days. Some of them are quite big, likemen; and some little boys. They've got one now which they _think_ isdressed like an English sailor-suit boy--you never saw such acostume! And there's a man in a red coat--our boys say he is meant tobe an English 'milord' dressed for 'the hunt.'"

  The Dummies]

  When Bessie saw the bazaar she was as full of admiration of it as evenMadge and Letty could desire, especially of the big tailor's. Therewas a brilliant show of figures, from the little wax boy in imaginaryEnglish sailor costume, to a moustached gentleman elaborately got upin evening suit, white tie and all.

  "Oh, how funny they are!" Bessie exclaimed. "But I don't see the onein the red coat."

  "He's not there to-day," said Madge. "Perhaps we'll see him againto-morrow, in something different."

  "It must be great fun dressing, and undressing them," said Bessie. "Dothey change them nearly every day?"

  "Oh no, not so often as that. But we watch them always, to see."

  But for the next two or three days there was no change. Bessie lookedin vain for the red-coated one she was so curious to see.

  The New Dummy]

  Now I must tell you that there was sometimes a regiment, or part of aregiment, at Sablons. They came for rifle-practice on the sands; andthere was always a great excitement when a new detachment came in. Anda few days after Bessie and Hugh made their appearance, the town wasawakened early one morning by the tramp of a number of red-coats, whohad marched over from an inland town, where there were large barracks.Next day on their way home, as usual, from their morning bath, thelittle girls passed through the arcade. Madge and Letty did not givethe dummies more than a passing glance, till suddenly they noticedthat Bessie had stayed behind.

  "There she is," said Letty; "she's staring at the figures. Why--isthat--?" and she hesitated.

  There she was, sure enough--Bessie, that is to say--standing in frontof a tall figure, a red-coated one in all the glory of a scarletuniform, and with several medals on the right breast, which the littlegirl on her tip-toes was reaching up to and examining, one afteranother, with great interest. Letty and Madge drew near and looked ather with a curious misgiving. She glanced round.

  "Letty, Madge," she said, "do come here and look at this new dummy.It's got a lot of medals, and----"

  She stopped with a little shriek. The "new dummy" had suddenly raisedits right arm, saluting Bessie with military precision as it steppedslightly to one side, with the words--

  "_A votre service, Mademoiselle._"

  "Oh, oh!" gasped Bessie. "It's alive--it's--it's a man, a livingsoldier."

  And so the supposed dummy was! A young officer, who, happening likethe children themselves to be standing in front of the tailor'sstaring at the figures, had actually been mistaken by Bessie for oneof the waxen group. He had entered into the joke, and remainedperfectly motionless while the little girl made her investigation,doubtless explaining all to himself by the fact of her being a _jeunemees_--one of that extraordinary English nation of whom it isimpossible to say what they won't do next.

  Oh, how ashamed Bessie was! How scarlet grew Letty and Madge! Butthere was nothing to be done. The officer had already disappeared atthe other end of the arcade with a second friendly and smiling thoughrespectful salute.

  One thought struck the three children--Susanne, the maid, wasfortunately a little in advance and had not seen the strange mistake.

  "_Don't_ let's tell Lilian," they said. "She'd never get over it, shereally wouldn't."

  But mother--aunty as she was to Bessie--_was_ told, and comforted themortified and shamefaced little girl as well as she could.

  "After all," she said, "it was nothing _naughty_; Bessie had not meantto be rude; and she was quite sure the officer had not thought herso."

  Nor had he. But it was a very amusing story to relate; and ifBessie had been within hearing of him when he told it to hisbrother-officers, I think she _could_ not but have joined in theirlaughter.

  Oh, Oh! It's ALIVE!]