American library books ยป Other ยป The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton (pdf e book reader TXT) ๐Ÿ“•

Read book online ยซThe Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton (pdf e book reader TXT) ๐Ÿ“•ยป.   Author   -   G. K. Chesterton



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meditating continually upon the wants of that wonderful time when every staircase leads to the stars, and every garden-path to the other end of nowhere. Is it thoughtlessly, do you think, that I strike the dark old drum of peril in the paradise of children? But consider a moment; do not condemn me hastily. Even that paradise itself contains the rumour or beginning of that danger, just as the Eden that was made for perfection contained the terrible tree. For judge childhood, even by your own arsenal of its pleasures. You keep bricks; you make yourself thus, doubtless, the witness of the constructive instinct older than the destructive. You keep dolls; you make yourself the priest of that divine idolatry. You keep Noahโ€™s Arks; you perpetuate the memory of the salvation of all life as a precious, an irreplaceable thing. But do you keep only, sir, the symbols of this prehistoric sanity, this childish rationality of the earth? Do you not keep more terrible things? What are those boxes, seemingly of lead soldiers, that I see in that glass case? Are they not witnesses to that terror and beauty, that desire for a lovely death, which could not be excluded even from the immortality of Eden? Do not despise the lead soldiers, Mr. Turnbull.โ€

โ€œI donโ€™t,โ€ said Mr. Turnbull, of the toyshop, shortly, but with great emphasis.

โ€œI am glad to hear it,โ€ replied Wayne. โ€œI confess that I feared for my military schemes the awful innocence of your profession. How, I thought to myself, will this man, used only to the wooden swords that give pleasure, think of the steel swords that give pain? But I am at least partly reassured. Your tone suggests to me that I have at least the entry of a gate of your fairylandโ โ€”the gate through which the soldiers enter, for it cannot be deniedโ โ€”I ought, sir, no longer to deny, that it is of soldiers that I come to speak. Let your gentle employment make you merciful towards the troubles of the world. Let your own silvery experience tone down our sanguine sorrows. For there is war in Notting Hill.โ€

The little toyshop keeper sprang up suddenly, slapping his fat hands like two fans on the counter.

โ€œWar?โ€ he cried. โ€œNot really, sir? Is it true? Oh, what a joke! Oh, what a sight for sore eyes!โ€

Wayne was almost taken aback by this outburst.

โ€œI am delighted,โ€ he stammered. โ€œI had no notionโ โ€”โ€

He sprang out of the way just in time to avoid Mr. Turnbull, who took a flying leap over the counter and dashed to the front of the shop.

โ€œYou look here, sir,โ€ he said; โ€œyou just look here.โ€

He came back with two of the torn posters in his hand which were flapping outside his shop.

โ€œLook at those, sir,โ€ he said, and flung them down on the counter.

Wayne bent over them, and read on oneโ โ€”

โ€œLast fighting.
Reduction of the central Dervish city.
Remarkable, etc.โ€

On the other he readโ โ€”

โ€œLast small republic annexed.
Nicaraguan capital surrenders after a monthโ€™s fighting.
Great slaughter.โ€

Wayne bent over them again, evidently puzzled; then he looked at the dates. They were both dated in August fifteen years before.

โ€œWhy do you keep these old things?โ€ he said, startled entirely out of his absurd tact of mysticism. โ€œWhy do you hang them outside your shop?โ€

โ€œBecause,โ€ said the other, simply, โ€œthey are the records of the last war. You mentioned war just now. It happens to be my hobby.โ€

Wayne lifted his large blue eyes with an infantile wonder.

โ€œCome with me,โ€ said Turnbull, shortly, and led him into a parlour at the back of the shop.

In the centre of the parlour stood a large deal table. On it were set rows and rows of the tin and lead soldiers which were part of the shopkeeperโ€™s stock. The visitor would have thought nothing of it if it had not been for a certain odd grouping of them, which did not seem either entirely commercial or entirely haphazard.

โ€œYou are acquainted, no doubt,โ€ said Turnbull, turning his big eyes upon Wayneโ โ€”โ€œyou are acquainted, no doubt, with the arrangement of the American and Nicaraguan troops in the last battle;โ€ and he waved his hand towards the table.

โ€œI am afraid not,โ€ said Wayne. โ€œIโ โ€”โ€

โ€œAh! you were at that time occupied too much, perhaps, with the Dervish affair. You will find it in this corner.โ€ And he pointed to a part of the floor where there was another arrangement of childrenโ€™s soldiers grouped here and there.

โ€œYou seem,โ€ said Wayne, โ€œto be interested in military matters.โ€

โ€œI am interested in nothing else,โ€ answered the toyshop keeper, simply.

Wayne appeared convulsed with a singular, suppressed excitement.

โ€œIn that case,โ€ he said, โ€œI may approach you with an unusual degree of confidence. Touching the matter of the defence of Notting Hill, Iโ โ€”โ€

โ€œDefence of Notting Hill? Yes, sir. This way, sir,โ€ said Turnbull, with great perturbation. โ€œJust step into this side room;โ€ and he led Wayne into another apartment, in which the table was entirely covered with an arrangement of childrenโ€™s bricks. A second glance at it told Wayne that the bricks were arranged in the form of a precise and perfect plan of Notting Hill. โ€œSir,โ€ said Turnbull, impressively, โ€œyou have, by a kind of accident, hit upon the whole secret of my life. As a boy, I grew up among the last wars of the world, when Nicaragua was taken and the dervishes wiped out. And I adopted it as a hobby, sir, as you might adopt astronomy or bird-stuffing. I had no ill-will to anyone, but I was interested in war as a science, as a game. And suddenly I was bowled out. The big Powers of the world, having swallowed up all the small ones, came to that confounded agreement, and there was no more war. There was nothing more for me to do but to do what I do nowโ โ€”to read the old campaigns in dirty old newspapers, and to work them out with tin soldiers. One other thing had occurred to me. I thought it an amusing fancy to make

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