The Once and Future King Read Online Free PDF Page B

to the bookshelves and others propped against each other as if they had had too much to drink and they did not really trust themselves. These gave out a smell of must and solid brownness which was most secure. Then there were stuffed birds, popinjays, and maggot—pies and kingfishers, and peacocks with all their feathers but two, and tiny birds like beetles, and a reputed phoenix which smelt of incense and cinnamon. It could not have been a real phoenix, because there is only one of these at a time. Over by the mantelpiece there was a fox’s mask, with GRAFTON , BUCKINGHAM TO DAVENTRY , 2 HRS 20 MINS written under it, and also a forty—pound salmon with AWE , 43 MIN. , BULLDOG written under it, and a very lifelike basilisk with CROWHURST OTTER HOUNDS in Roman print. There were several bore’s tusks and the claws of tigers and libbards mounted in symmetrical patterns, and a big head of Ovis Poli, six live grass—snakes in a kind of aquarium, some nests of the solitary wasp nicely set up in a glass cylinder, an ordinary beehive whose inhabitants went in and out of the window unmolested, two young hedgehogs in cotton wool, a pair of badgers which immediately began to cry Yik—Yik—Yik—Yik in loud voices, as soon as the magician appeared, twenty boxes which contained stick caterpillars and six of the puss—moth, and even an oleander that was worth sixpence – all feeding on the appropriate leaves – a guncase with all sorts of weapons which would not be invented for half a thousand years, a rod—box ditto, a chest of drawers full of salmon flies which had been tied by Merlyn himself, another chest whose drawers were labelled Mandragora, Mandrake, Old Man’s Beard, etc., a bunch of turkey feathers and goose—quills for making pens, an astrolabe, twelve pairs of boots, a dozen purse—nets, three dozen rabbit wires, twelvecorkscrews, some ants’ nests between two glass plates, inkbottles of every possible colour from red to violet, darningneedles, a gold medal for being the best scholar at Winchester, four or five recorders, a nest of field mice all alive—o, two skulls, plenty of cut glass, Venetian glass, Bristol glass and a bottle of Mastic Varnish, some satsuma china and some cloisonné, the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (marred as it was by the sensationalism of the popular plates), two paintboxes (one oil, one water—colour), three globes of the known geographical world, a few fossils, the stuffed head of a cameleopard, six pismires, some glass retorts with cauldrons, bunsen burners, etc., and a complete set of cigarette cards depicting wild fowl by Peter Scott.
    Merlyn took off his pointed hat when he came into this chamber, because it was too high for the roof, and immediately there was a scamper in one of the dark corners and a flap of soft wings, and a tawny owl sitting on the black skull—cap which protected the top of his head.
    ‘Oh, what a lovely owl!’ cried the Wart.
    But when he went up to it and held out his hand, the owl grew half as tall again, stood up as stiff as a poker, closed its eyes so that there was only the smallest slit to peep through – as you are in the habit of doing when told to shut your eyes at hide—and—seek – and said in a doubtful voice:
    ‘There is no owl.’
    Then it shut its eyes entirely and looked the other way.
    ‘It is only a boy,’ said Merlyn.
    ‘There is no boy,’ said the owl hopefully, without turning round.
    The Wart was so startled by finding that the owl could talk that he forgot his manners and came closer still. At this the bird became so nervous that it made a mess on Merlyn’s head – the whole room was quite white with droppings – and flew off to perch on the farthest tip of the corkindrill’s tail, out of reach.
    ‘We see so little company,’ explained the magician, wiping his head with half a worn—out pair of pyjamas which he keptfor that purpose, ‘that Archimedes is a little shy of strangers. Come,