Sarah Tytler - "A Houseful of Girls"

Albert Mathiez - "Les grandes journees de la Constituante"

George Durston - "The Boy Scouts on the Trail"

C. Gasquoine Hartley - "Women's Wild Oats"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Magic City

E >> Edith Nesbit >> The Magic City




'All right,' the parrot answered; 'keep your pecker up!'

'What did it say?' the Pretenderette asked.

'Something about peck,' said Philip upside down.

'Ah!' said the Pretenderette with satisfaction, 'he won't do any more
pecking for some time to come.' And the wide Hippogriff wings swept on
over the wide sea.

Polly's cage fell and floated. And it floated alone till the dawn, when,
with wheelings and waftings and cries, the gulls came from far and near
to see what this new strange thing might be that bobbed up and down in
their waters in the light of the new-born day.

'Hullo!' said Polly in bird-talk, clinging upside down to the top bars
of the cage.

'Hullo, yourself,' replied the eldest gull; 'what's up? And who are you?
And what are you doing in that unnatural lobster pot?'

'I conjure you,' said the parrot earnestly, 'I conjure you by our common
birdhood to help me in my misfortune.'

'No gull who _is_ a gull can resist that appeal,' said the master of the
sea birds; 'what can we do, brother-bird?'

'The matter is urgent,' said Polly, but quite calmly. 'I am getting very
wet and I dislike salt water. It is bad for my plumage. May I give an
order to your followers, bird-brother?'

'Give,' said the master gull, with a graceful wheel and whirl of his
splendid wings.

'Let four of my brothers raise this detested trap high above the waves,'
said the parrot, 'and let others of you, with your brave strong beaks,
break through the bars and set me free.'

'Delighted,' said the master gull; 'any little thing, you know,' and his
own high-bred beak was the first to take hold of the cage, which
presently the gulls lifted in the air and broke through, setting the
parrot free.

'Thank you, brother-birds,' the parrot said, shaking wet wings and
spreading them; 'one good turn deserves another. The beach yonder was
white with cockles but yesterday.'

'Thank you, brother-bird,' they all said, and flew fleetly cocklewards.

And that was how the parrot got free from the cage and went back to the
shore to have that little talk with the blugraiwee which I told you
about in the last chapter.

* * * * * *

The ark was really very pleasant by daylight with the sun shining in at
its windows. The sun shone outside as well, of course, and the Union
Jack waved cheerfully in the wind. Breakfast was served on the terrace
at the end of the ark--you know--that terrace where the boat part turns
up. It was a very nice breakfast, and the sea was quite smooth--a quite
perfect sea. This was rather fortunate, for there was nothing else. Sea
on every side of the ark. No land at all.

'However shall we find the way,' Lucy asked the Lord High Islander,
'with nothing but sea?'

'Oh,' he answered, 'that's all the better, really. Mr. Noah steers much
better when there's no land in sight. It's all practice, you know.'

'And when we come in sight of land, will he steer badly then?'

'Oh, anybody can steer then,' said Billy; 'you if you like.' So it was
Lucy who steered the ark into harbour, under Mr. Noah's directions. Arks
are very easy to steer if you only know the way. Of course arks are not
like other vessels; they require neither sails nor steam engines, nor
oars to make them move. The very arkishness of the ark makes it move
just as the steersman wishes. He only has to say 'Port,' 'Starboard,'
'Right ahead,' 'Slow' and so on, and the ark (unlike many people I know)
immediately does as it is told. So steering was easy and pleasant; one
just had to keep the ark's nose towards the distant domes and pinnacles
of a town that shone and glittered on the shore a few miles away. And
the town grew nearer and nearer, and the black streak that was the
people of the town began to show white dots that were the people's
faces. And then the ark was moored against a quay side, and a friendly
populace cheered as Mr. Noah stepped on to firm land, to be welcomed by
the governor of the town and a choice selection of eminent citizens.

'It's quite an event for them,' said Mr. Perrin. 'They don't have much
happening here. A very lazy lot they be, almost as bad as Somnolentia.'

'What makes them lazy?' Lucy asked.

'It's owing to the onions and potatoes growing wild in these parts, I
believe,' said the Lord High Islander. 'They get enough to eat without
working. And the onions make them sleepy.'

They talked apart while Mr. Noah was arranging things with the Governor
of the town, who had come down to the harbour in a hurry and a flurry
and a furry gown.

'I've arranged everything,' said Mr. Noah at last. 'The islanders and
the M.A.'s and the animals are to be allowed to camp in the public park
till we've consulted the oracle and decided what's to be done with them.
They must live somewhere, I suppose. Life has become much too eventful
for me lately. However there are only three more deeds for the Earl of
Ark to do, and then perhaps we shall have a little peace and quietness.'

'The Earl of Ark?' Lucy repeated.

'Philip, you know. I do wish you'd try to remember that he's an earl
now. Now you and I must take camel and be off.'

And now came seven long days of camel travelling, through desert and
forest and over hill and through valley, till at last Lucy and Mr. Noah
came to the Hidden Place where the oracle is, and where that is I may
not tell you--because it's one of the eleven mysteries. And I must not
tell you what the oracle is because that is another of the mysteries.
But I may tell you that if you want to consult the oracle you have to go
a long way between rows of round pillars, rather like those in Egyptian
tombs. And as you go it gets darker and darker, and when it is quite
dark you see a little, little light a very long way off, and you hear
very far away, a beautiful music, and you smell the scent of flowers
that do not grow in any wood or field or garden of this earth. Mixed
with this scent is the scent of incense and of old tapestried rooms,
where no one has lived for a very long time. And you remember all the
sad and beautiful things you have ever seen or heard, and you fall down
on the ground and hide your face in your hands and call on the oracle,
and if you are the right sort of person the oracle answers you.

Lucy and Mr. Noah waited in the dark for the voice of the oracle, and at
last it spoke. Lucy heard no words, only the most beautiful voice in the
world speaking softly, and so sweetly and finely and bravely that at
once she felt herself brave enough to dare any danger, and strong enough
to do any deed that might be needed to get Philip out of the clutches of
the base Pretenderette. All the tiredness of her long journey faded
away, and but for the thought that Philip needed her, she would have
been content to listen for ever to that golden voice. Everything else in
the world faded away and grew to seem worthless and unmeaning. Only the
soft golden voice remained and the grey hard voice that said, 'You've
got to look after Philip, you know!' And the two voices together made a
harmony more beautiful than you will find in any of Beethoven's sonatas.
Because Lucy knew that she should follow the grey voice, and remember
the golden voice as long as she lived.

But something was tiresomely pulling at her sleeve, dragging her away
from the wonderful golden voice. Mr. Noah was pulling her sleeve and
saying, 'Come away,' and they turned their backs on the little light and
the music and the enchanting perfumes, and instantly the voice stopped
and they were walking between dusky pillars towards a far grey speck of
sunlight.

It was not till they were once more under the bare sky that Lucy said:

'What did it say?'

'You must have heard,' said Mr. Noah.

'I only heard the voice and what it meant. I didn't understand the
words. But the voice was like dreams and everything beautiful I've ever
thought of.'

'I thought it a wonderfully straight-forward business-like oracle,'
said Mr. Noah briskly; 'and the voice was quite distinct and I remember
every word it said.'

(Which just shows how differently the same thing may strike two people.)

'What did it say?' Lucy asked, trotting along beside him, still
clutching Philip's bundle, which through all these days she had never
let go.

And Mr. Noah gravely recited the following lines. I agree with him that,
for an oracle, they were extremely straightforward.

'You had better embark
Once again in the Ark,
And sailing from dryland
Make straight for the Island.'

'Did it _really_ say that?' Lucy asked.

'Of course it did,' said Mr. Noah; 'that's a special instruction to me,
but I daresay you heard something quite different. The oracle doesn't
say the same thing to every one, of course. Didn't you get any special
instruction?'

'Only to try to be brave and good,' said Lucy shyly.

'Well, then,' said Mr. Noah, 'you carry out your instructions and I'll
carry out mine.'

'But what's the use of going to the island if you can't land when you
get there?' Lucy insisted. 'You know only two people can land there,
and we're not them, are we?'

'Oh, if you begin asking what's the use, we shan't get anywhere,' said
Mr. Noah. 'And more than half the things you say are questions.'

* * * * * *

I'm sorry this chapter is cut up into bits with lines of stars, but
stars are difficult to avoid when you have to tell about a lot of
different things happening all at once. That is why it is much better
always to keep your party together if you can. And I have allowed mine
to get separated so that Philip, the parrot and the rest of the company
are going through three sets of adventures all at the same time. This is
most trying for me, and fully accounts for the stars. Which I hope
you'll excuse. However.

We now come back by way of the stars to Philip wrong way up in
the clutches of the Pretenderette. She had breathed the magic word
in the Hippogriff's ear, but she had not added any special order.
So the Hippogriff was entirely its own master as far as the choice
of where it was to go was concerned. It tossed its white mane after
circling three times between air and sky, made straight for the
Island-where-you-mayn't-go. The Pretenderette didn't know that it was
the Island-where-you-mayn't-go, and as they got nearer and she could
see plainly its rainbow-coloured sands, its palms and its waterfalls,
its cool green thickets and many tinted flowers and glowing fruits, it
seemed to her that she might do worse than land there and rest for a
little while. For even the most disagreeable people get tired
sometimes, and the Pretenderette had had a hard day of it. So she made
no attempt to check the Hippogriff or alter its course. And when the
Hippogriff was hovering but a few inches from the grass of the most
beautiful of the island glades, she jerked Philip roughly off her knee
and he fell all in a heap on the ground. With great presence of mind
our hero--if he isn't a hero by now he never will be--picked himself
up and bolted into the bushes. No rabbit could have bolted more
instantly and fleetly.

'I'll teach you,' said the furious Pretenderette, preparing to alight.
She looked down to find a soft place to jump on. And then she saw that
every blade of grass was a tiny spear of steel, and every spear was
pointed at her. She made the Hippogriff take her to another glade--more
little steel spears. To the rainbow sands--but on looking at them she
saw that they were quivering quicksands. Wherever green grass had grown
the spears now grew; and wherever the sand was it was a terrible trap of
quicksand. She tried to dismount in a little pool, but fortunately for
her she noticed in time that what shone in it so silvery was not water
but white-hot molten metal.

'What a nasty place,' said the Pretenderette; 'I don't know that I could
have chosen a nastier place to leave that naughty child in. He'll know
who's master by the time I send to fetch him back to prison. Here, you,
get back to Polistopolis as fast as you can. See? Please, I mean,' she
added, and then she spoke the magic word.

Philip was peeping through the bushes close by, and he heard that magic
word (I dare not tell you what it is) and he saw for the first time the
face of the Pretenderette. And he trembled and shivered in his bushy
lurking-place. For the Pretenderette was the only really unpleasant
person Philip had ever met in the world. It was Lucy's nurse, the nurse
with the grey dress and the big fat feet, who had been so cross to him
and had pulled down his city.

'How on earth,' Philip wondered to himself, 'did she get _here_? And how
on earth shall I get away from her?' He had not seen the spears and the
quicksands and the molten metal, and he was waiting unhappily for her to
alight, and for a game of hide and seek to begin, which he was not at
all anxious to play.

Even as he wondered, the Hippogriff spread wings and flew away. And
Philip was left alone on the island. But what did that matter? It was
much better to be alone than with that Pretenderette. And for Philip
there were no white-hot metal and spears and snares of quicksand, only
dewy grass and sweet flowers and trees and safety and delight.

'If only Lucy were here,' he said.

When he was quite sure that the Pretenderette was really gone, he came
out and explored the island. It had on it every kind of flower and fruit
that you can think of, all growing together. There were gold oranges and
white orange flowers, pink apple-blossom and red apples, cherries and
cherry-blossom, strawberry flowers and strawberries, all growing
together, wild and sweet.

At the back of his mind Philip remembered that he had, at some time or
other, heard of an island where fruit and blossoms grew together at the
same time, but that was all he could remember. He passed through the
lovely orchards and came to a lake. It was frozen. And he remembered
that, in the island he had heard of, there was a lake ready for skating
even when the flowers and fruit were on the trees. Then he came to a
little summer-house built all of porcupine quills like Helen's pen-box.

And then he knew. All these wonders were on the island that he and Helen
had invented long ago--the island that she used to draw maps of.

'It's our very own island,' he said, and a glorious feeling of being at
home glowed through him, warm and delightful. 'We said no one else might
come here! That's why the Pretenderette couldn't land. And why they call
it the Island-where-you-mayn't-go. I'll find the bun tree and have
something to eat, and then I'll go to the boat-house and get out the
_Lightning Loose_ and go back for Lucy. I do wish I could bring her
here. But of course I can't without asking Helen.'

The _Lightning Loose_ was the magic yacht Helen had invented for the
island.

He soon found a bush whose fruit was buns, and a jam-tart tree grew near
it. You have no idea how nice jam tarts can taste till you have gathered
them yourself, fresh and sticky, from the tree. They are as sticky as
horse-chestnut buds, and much nicer to eat.

As he went towards the boat-house he grew happier and happier,
recognising, one after the other, all the places he and Helen had
planned and marked on the map. He passed by the marble and gold house
with _King's Palace_ painted on the door. He longed to explore it: but
the thought of Lucy drove him on. As he went down a narrow leafy
woodland path towards the boat-house, he passed the door of the dear
little thatched cottage (labelled _Queen's Palace_) which was the house
Helen had insisted that she liked best for her very own.

'How pretty it is; I wish Helen was here,' he said; 'she helped to make
it. I should never have thought of it without her. She ought to be
here,' he said. With that he felt very lonely, all of a sudden, and very
sad. And as he went on, wondering whether in all this magic world there
might not somehow be some magic strong enough to bring Helen there to
see the island that was their very own, and to give her consent to his
bringing Lucy to it, he turned a corner in the woodland path, and walked
straight into the arms of--Helen.

[Illustration: Walked straight into the arms of Helen.]




CHAPTER IX

ON THE 'LIGHTNING LOOSE'


'But how did you get here?' said Philip in Helen's arms on the island.

'I just walked out at the other side of a dream,' she said; 'how could I
not come, when the door was open and you wanted me so?'

And Philip just said, 'Oh, Helen!' He could not find any other words,
but Helen understood. She always did.

'Come,' she said, 'shall we go to your Palace or mine? I want my supper,
and we'll have our own little blue-and-white tea-set. Yes, I know you've
had your supper, but it'll be fun getting mine, and perhaps you'll be
hungry again before we've got it.'

They went to the thatched cottage that was Helen's palace, because
Philip had had almost as much of large buildings as he wanted for a
little while. The cottage had a wide chimney and an open hearth; and
they sat on the hearth and made toast, and Philip almost forgot that he
had ever had any adventures and that the toast was being made on a
hearth whose blue wood-smoke curled up among the enchanting tree-tops of
a magic island.

And before they went to bed he had told her all about everything.

'Oh, I am so glad you came!' he said over and over again; 'it is so easy
to tell you _here_, with all the magic going on. I don't think I ever
_could_ have told you at the Grange with the servants all about, and
the--I mean Mr. Graham, and all the things as not magic as they could
possibly be. Oh, Helen! where _is_ Mr. Graham; won't he hate your coming
away from him?'

'He's gone through a dream door too,' she said, 'to see Lucy. Only he
doesn't know he's really gone. He'll think it's a dream, and he'll tell
me about it when we both wake up.'

'When did you go to sleep?' said Philip.

'At Brussels. That telegram hasn't come yet.'

'I don't understand about time,' said Philip firmly, 'and I never shall.
I say, Helen, I was just looking for the _Lightning Loose_, to go off in
her on a voyage of discovery and find Lucy.'

'I don't think you need,' she said; 'I met a parrot on the island just
before I met you and it was saying poetry to itself.'

'It would be,' said Philip, 'if it was alive. I'm glad it _is_ alive,
though. What was it saying?'

'It was something like this,' she said, putting a log of wood on the
fire:

'Philip and Helen
Have the island to dwell in,
Hooray.
They said of the island,
"It's your land and my land!"
Hooray. Hooray. Hooray.

'And till the ark
Comes out of the dark
There those two may stay
For a happy while, and
Enjoy their island
Until the Giving Day.
Hooray.

'And then they will hear the giving voice,
They will hear and obey,
And when people come
Who need a home,
They'll give the island away.
Hooray.

'The island with flower
And fruit and bower,
Forest and river and bay,
Their very own island
They'll sigh and smile and
They'll give their island away.'

'What nonsense!' said Philip, 'I never will.'

'All right, my Pipkin,' said Helen cheerfully; 'I only told you just to
show that you're expected to stay here. "Philip and Helen have the
island to dwell in." And now, what about bed?'

They spent a whole week on the island. It was exactly all that they
could wish an island to be; because, of course, they had made it
themselves, and of course they knew exactly what they wanted. I can't
describe that week. I only know that Philip will never forget it. Just
think of all the things you could do on a magic island if you were there
with your dearest dear, and you'll know how Philip spent his time.

He enjoyed every minute of every hour of every day, and, best thing of
all, that week made him understand, as nothing else could have done,
that Helen still belonged to him, and that her marriage to Mr. Graham
had not made her any the less Philip's very own Helen.

And then came a day when Philip, swinging in a magnolia tree, looked out
to sea and cried out, 'A sail! a sail! Oh, Helen, here's the ark! Now
it's all over. Let's have Lucy to stay with us, and send the other
people away,' he added, sliding down the tree-trunk with his face very
serious.

'But we can't, dear,' Helen reminded him. 'The island's ours, you know;
and as long as it's ours no one else can land on it. We made it like
that, you know.'

'Then they can't land?'

'No,' said Helen.

'Can't we change the rule and let them land?'

'No,' said Helen.

'Oh, it _is_ a pity,' Philip said; 'because the island is the place for
islanders, isn't it?'

'Yes,' said Helen, 'and there's no fear of the sea here; you remember we
made it like that when we made the island?'

'Yes,' said Philip. 'Oh, Helen, I _don't_ want to.'

'Then don't,' said Helen.

'Ah, but I _do_ want to, too.'

'Then do,' said she.

'But don't you see, when you want to and don't want to at the same time,
what _are_ you to do? There are so many things to think of.'

'When it's like that, there's one thing you mustn't think of,' she said.

'What?' Philip asked.

'Yourself,' she said softly.

There was a silence, and then Philip suddenly hugged his sister and she
hugged him.

'I'll give it to them,' he said; 'it's no use. I know I ought to. I
shall only be uncomfortable if I don't.'

Helen laughed. 'My boy of boys!' she said. And then she looked sad. 'Boy
of my heart,' she said, 'you know it's not only giving up our island. If
we give it away I must go. It's the only place that there's a door into
out of my dreams.'

'I can't let you go,' he said.

'But you've got your deeds to do,' she said, 'and I can't help you in
those. Lucy can help you, but I can't. You like Lucy now, don't you?'

'Oh, I don't mind her,' said Philip; 'but it's _you_ I want, Helen.'

'Don't think about that,' she urged. 'Think what the islanders want.
Think what it'll be to them to have the island, to live here always,
safe from the fear!'

'There are three more deeds,' said Philip dismally; 'I don't think I
shall ever want any more adventures as long as I live.'

'You'll always want them,' she said, laughing at him gently, 'always.
And now let's do the thing handsomely and give them a splendid welcome.
Give me a kiss and then we'll gather heaps of roses.'

So they kissed each other. But Philip was very unhappy indeed, though
he felt that he was being rather noble and that Helen thought so too,
which was naturally a great comfort.

There had been a good deal more of this talk than I have set down.
Philip and Helen had hardly had time to hang garlands of pink roses
along the quayside where the _Lightning Loose_, that perfect yacht, lay
at anchor, before the blunt prow of the ark bumped heavily against the
quayside--and the two, dropping the rest of the roses, waved and smiled
to the group on the ark's terrace.

The first person to speak was Mr. Perrin, who shouted, 'Here we are
again!' like a clown.

Then Lucy said, 'We know we can't land, but the oracle said come and we
came.' She leaned over the bulwark to whisper, 'Who's that perfect duck
you've got with you?'

Philip answered aloud:

'This is my sister Helen--Helen this is Lucy.'

The two looked at each other, and then Helen held out her hands and she
and Lucy kissed each other.

'I knew I should like you,' Lucy whispered, 'but I didn't know I should
like you quite so much.'

Mr. Noah and Mr. Perrin were both bowing to Helen, a little stiffly but
very cordially all the same, and quite surprisingly without surprise.
And the Lord High Islander was looking at her with his own friendly
jolly schoolboy grin.

'If you will embark,' said Mr. Noah politely, 'we can return to the
mainland, and I will explain to you your remaining deeds.'

'Tell them, Pip,' said Helen.

'We don't want to embark--at present,' said Philip shyly. 'We want you
to land.'

'No one may land on the island save two,' said Mr. Noah. 'I am glad you
are the two. I feared one of the two might be the Pretenderette.'

'Not much,' said Philip. 'It's Helen's and mine. We made it. And we want
to give it to the islanders to keep. For their very own,' he added,
feeling that it would be difficult for any one to believe that such a
glorious present was really being made just like that, without speeches,
as if it had been a little present of a pencil sharpener or a peg-top.

He was right.

'To keep?' said the Lord High Islander; 'for our very own? Always?'

'Yes,' said Philip. 'And there's no fear here. You'll _really_ be "happy
troops" now.'

For a moment nobody said anything, though all the faces were
expressive. Then the Lord High Islander spoke.

'Well,' he said, 'of all the brickish bricks----' and could say no more.

'There are lots of houses,' said Philip, 'and room for all the animals,
and the island is thirty miles round, so there's lots of room for the
animals and everything.' He felt happier than he had ever done in his
life. Giving presents is always enjoyable, and this was such a big and
beautiful present, and he loved it so.

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