“it rattles!” said peggy, shaking the last cracker, and looking up at nurse.
“well, pull it now, there’s a dear,” said nurse, “and let me clear up this litter.”
peggy had just finished her birthday tea up in the nursery alone with nurse, as mother was away. of course it hadn’t been nearly so exciting as her last birthday tea—the only one she could remember—which had been downstairs with lots of other little girls and boys, who had all come to see peggy. they hadn’t talked to her or to each other much, but had eaten lots of birthday cake, and peggy had been taken up to bed before the last of them left, because she had had such a long and exciting birthday.
this year the only children who could come had suddenly started whooping-cough, and so there was no party at all. still it was better than the usual dull nursery tea, for mother had left a lot of crackers with nurse for peggy; and cook had remembered to put six new candles on the new sponge cake, and they had all been lighted, and were doing their very best to look brighter than the sunshine pouring in through the nursery windows.
“do guess what’s inside first, nannie,” said peggy, shaking the cracker again. “i guess it’s a little tiny cup and saucer for my doll’s house. now, you guess.”
[6]“oh, i don’t know—a whistle,” said nannie, beginning to clear up the pieces of brightly-coloured paper that covered the table-cloth and floor, and that really looked a great deal too pretty to burn. “that’s generally what it is. but what’s the good of guessing when you’ll know in a minute? come along and pull, i’m waiting.”
peggy shut her eyes, and putting one hand over her ear—she was always uncomfortably startled by the bang—pulled hard with the other.
the thing inside immediately flew through the air, and rolled away under the toy cupboard. and peggy followed as far as she could, lying flat on the floor and peering under. then—“o nannie, it sparkles!” she cried excitedly. “i do believe it’s a beautiful ring! i can see it quite plainly. yes, it is. it’s a gold ring with a great big green stone in it! there, i’ve got it! o nannie, look how it sparkles!”
“a bit of tin and glass,” said nurse examining it and dropping it on the table. “what they want to put such rubbish in for passes my understanding! you can’t play with it, and it’ll only get left about. now come and look at the paper blazing,” and she swept all the ends of the crackers into the fire.
peggy was terrified that her ring would follow too, and she began in a great hurry to put it on all her fingers in turn to see which it would fit.
“it won’t fit any of them except my fum,” she remarked. “but just look how well it fits my fum!” and she waved her left hand to and fro proudly.
“you can’t wear a ring at your age,” said nurse decidedly, “and no one ever wears them on their thumbs, as you very well know. oh dear, your hair ribbon’s coming right off, as usual! come here whilst i tie it on again.”
[7]“just look how it sparkles!” repeated peggy, stroking the green stone admiringly. and it certainly did. a bright green light spread from it all over that part of the nursery, just like the light in a beech wood in spring, when the sun is shining through the leaves; and it coloured and played over nurse’s face and the cupboard and the roses on the wall-paper. “do look, nannie,” cried the child, “now the fireplace is green!”
“very pretty,” said nurse absentmindedly, not looking up as she brushed peggy’s curls. “what a tangle your hair’s in, to be sure! now i think i’ll take off this clean frock and put on your brown holland so that you can have a good game with all your toys out at once, as it’s your birthday.”
“aren’t you going to play with me, too?” asked peggy rather wistfully.
“i can’t,” said nurse. “i’ve some letters to write, and post goes in half an hour—when it’ll be your bedtime. grown-ups can’t spend all their time playing with little girls, you know. here, slip your frock off and stay by the fire, whilst i fetch in your other,” and she bustled off into the night-nursery.
“i wish i was grown up,” said peggy, twirling the ring round and round her thumb and staring into the fire. “then i should drink strong tea, and eat birthday cake downstairs every day if i liked, and wear grand hats with fevvers in them!”
“i’m ready whenever you are,” said a voice behind her.
peggy turned round quickly, and then nearly jumped out of her skin with astonishment.
for behind her, on the other side of the table, stood a giant!
peggy knew in a moment that he was a real giant,[8] because he was the living image of the one on page 375 of the blue fairy book, but instead of looking cross like that one does, he had a nice wide smile, and the kindest round twinkly blue eyes peggy had ever seen. he was dressed all in brown, with bright scarlet stockings, his hair was thick and long, and so was his beard, and the nursery was so much too low for him that he had to bend nearly double, his great shoulders sending a cloud of plaster off the ceiling every time he moved. in one huge hand he held a cup of very black-looking tea, and in the other a bit of birthday cake with sugar on it and almond paste and little silver beads.
“you are a tall kind!” gasped peggy, staring up at him. “i—i don’t think nannie will be at all pleased!” and she glanced fearfully through the half-open door into the night-nursery.
“i know, that’s why i spoke,” said the giant, sitting down on the floor and stretching himself—one foot went right out of the window in the process, and the other up the chimney, but he looked much more comfortable. the cup of tea and the cake he put carefully down by his side. “you rubbed the ring and wished, you know. how do you like your dress?”
peggy looked down at herself and discovered she was wearing a striped white and yellow silk gown falling in heavy folds to the ground, and very high-waisted. on her arm was hanging, by its ribbon, a large white poke-bonnet, wreathed entirely around with a curling yellow feather.
“what are these things?” she asked in bewilderment.
“why, you wished to be grown up, didn’t you?” said the giant. “and you are. or, at least, that’s the best i can do for you. but i’m a bit out of practice i know,” and he gazed with a rather disheartened air at the bonnet.
“i don’t know what nannie will say,” said peggy[9] uneasily. (she hadn’t the heart to tell the giant that he hadn’t made her in the least the kind of grown-up she wanted to be.) “she never likes me dressing up!”
“well then, wish about it,” said the giant. “say, ‘i wish nurse to stay away half an hour.’ hurry up, she’s coming.”
“i wish nurse to stay away half an hour,” said peggy obediently. “but what’s the good of that?” she added. “here she is,” and so she was.
she came through the door hurriedly, with the frock in her hand, and when she saw the giant she jumped right up high into the air, and then she sat down on the floor with a flop.
“who is this, miss peggy?” she asked in an awful voice.
“dear me!” said the giant, struggling to his feet and knocking over the rocking-horse and three chairs in his hurry. “what can have gone wrong? the spells don’t work as they used to!” he looked at nurse nervously; then—“you must stick to me,” he whispered hoarsely to peggy, stepping back on the cup and saucer and grinding them to powder with his heel.
