When I Was a Little Girl/Chapter 5
V
THE KING’S TRUMPETER
And so it is for that night long ago when Mary Elizabeth and I stood by the tree and tried to think of something to say, that after all these years I have made the story of Peter.
Long years ago, when the world was just beginning to be, there was a kingdom which was not yet finished. Of course when a world has just stopped being nothing and is beginning to be something, it takes a great while to set all the kingdoms going. And this one wasn’t done.
For example, in the palace garden where little Peter used to play, the strangest things were to be met. For the mineral kingdom was just beginning to be vegetable, and the vegetable was just beginning to be animal, and the animal was just beginning to be man,—and man was just, just beginning to know about his living Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/98 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/99 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/100 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/101 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/102 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/103 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/104 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/105 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/106 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/107 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/108 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/109 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/110 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/111 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/112 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/113 the chameleon in his blood; little donkey men; and a fine old gentleman or two made like eagles—all of them getting done into men as quickly as possible. In the midst rode the king of the carnival, who had evidently not long since been a lion, and that no doubt was why they picked him out. He rode on a golden car from which sprays of green sprang out to reach from side to side of the broad street. And at his lips, held like a trumpet, he carried little Peter, one hand on Peter’s feet set to the kingly lips, and the other stretched out to Peter’s breast.
Then Peter lifted up his shrill little voice and shouted loud his message:—
“The world is beginning! The world is beginning! The world is beginning! You must go and help the king. You must go-o-o and help the king!”
But just as he cried that, the carnival band struck into a merry march, and all the heralds were calling, and the people were shouting, and Peter’s little voice did not reach very far.
“Shout again!” bade the king of the carnival, who did not care in the least what Peter said, so long only as he acted like a trumpet.
So Peter shouted again—shouted his very Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/115 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/116 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/117 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/118 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/119 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/120 Page:When I Was a Little Girl (1913).djvu/121 “Go we forth together to try again,” the poet repeated.
He touched his lute, and its melody slipped into the sunshine.
“Toward the time when, holden in a vessel holy,
You shall be a flower.”
Then Peter stretched out his arms, and his whole slender little body became like one trumpet voice, and that voice strong and clear to reach round the world itself.
“I try once again!” he answered. “The world is beginning. I must go and help the king.”