Mother Rigby, meanwhile, with one brown arm akimbo and the otherstretched towards the figure, loomed grimly amid the obscurity withsuch port and expression as when she was wont to heave a ponderousnightmare on her victims and stand at the bedside to enjoy theiragony. In fear and trembling did this poor scarecrow puff. But itsefforts, it must be acknowledged, served an excellent purpose; for,with each successive whiff, the figure lost more and more of its dizzyand perplexing tenuity and seemed to take denser substance. Its verygarments, moreover, partook of the magical change, and shone withthe gloss of novelty and glistened with the skilfully embroidered goldthat had long ago been rent away. And, half revealed among thesmoke, a yellow visage bent its lustreless eyes on Mother Rigby.
At last the old witch clinched her fist and shook it at the figure.
Not that she was positively angry, but merely acting on the principle-perhaps untrue, or not the only truth, though as high a one asMother Rigby could be expected to attain- that feeble and torpidnatures, being incapable of better inspiration, must be stirred upby fear. But here was the crisis. Should she fail in what she nowsought to effect, it was her ruthless purpose to scatter the miserablesimulacre into its original elements.
"Thou hast a man's aspect," said she, sternly. "Have also theecho and mockery of a voice! I bid thee speak!"The scarecrow gasped, struggled, and at length emitted a murmur,which was so incorporated with its smoky breath that you couldscarcely tell whether it were indeed a voice or only a whiff oftobacco. Some narrators of this legend hold the opinion that MotherRigby's conjurations and the fierceness of her will had compelled afamiliar spirit into the figure, and that the voice was his.
"Mother," mumbled the poor stifled voice, "be not so awful with me!
I would fain speak; but being without wits, what can I say?""Thou canst speak, darling, canst thou?" cried Mother Rigby,relaxing her grim countenance into a smile. "And what shalt thousay, quotha! Say, indeed! Art thou of the brotherhood of the emptyskull, and demandest of me what thou shalt say? Thou shalt say athousand things, and saying them a thousand times over, thou shaltstill have said nothing! Be not afraid, I tell thee! When thoucomest into the world (whither I purpose sending thee forthwith)thou shalt not lack the wherewithal to talk. Talk! Why, thou shaltbabble like a mill-stream, if thou wilt. Thou hast brains enough forthat, I trow!""At your service, mother," responded the figure.
"And that was well said, my pretty one," answered Mother Rigby.
"Then thou speakest like thyself, and meant nothing. Thou shalt have ahundred such set phrases, and five hundred to the boot of them. Andnow, darling, I have taken so much pains with thee and thou art sobeautiful, that, by my troth, I love thee better than any witch'spuppet in the world; and I've made them of all sorts- clay, wax,sticks, night fog, morning mist, sea foam, and chimney smoke. But thouart the very best. So give heed to what I say.""Yes, kind mother," said the figure, "with all my heart!""With all thy heart!" cried the old witch, setting her hands to hersides and laughing loudly. "Thou hast such a pretty way of speaking.
With all thy heart! And thou didst put thy hand to the left side ofthy waistcoat as if thou really hadst one!"So now, in high good humor with this fantastic contrivance of hers,Mother Rigby told the scarecrow that it must go and play its part inthe great world, where not one man in a hundred, she affirmed, wasgifted with more real substance than itself. And, that he might holdup his head with the best of them, she endowed him, on the spot,with an unreckonable amount of wealth. It consisted partly of a goldmine in Eldorado, and of ten thousand shares in a broken bubble, andof half a million acres of vineyard at the North Pole, and of a castlein the air, and a chateau in Spain, together with all the rents andincome therefrom accruing. She further made over to him the cargo of acertain ship, laden with salt of Cadiz, which she herself, by hernecromantic arts, had caused to founder, ten years before, in thedeepest part of mid-ocean. If the salt were not dissolved, and couldbe brought to market, it would fetch a pretty penny among thefishermen. That he might not lack ready money, she gave him a copperfarthing of Birmingham manufacture, being all the coin she had abouther, and likewise a great deal of brass, which she applied to hisforehead, thus making it yellower than ever.
"With that brass alone," quoth Mother Rigby, "thou canst pay thyway all over the earth. Kiss me, pretty darling! I have done my bestfor thee."Furthermore, that the adventurer might lack no possible advantagetowards a fair start in life, this excellent old dame gave him a tokenby which he was to introduce himself to a certain magistrate, memberof the council, merchant, and elder of the church (the four capacitiesconstituting but one man), who stood at the head of society in theneighboring metropolis. The token was neither more nor less than asingle word, which Mother Rigby whispered to the scarecrow, andwhich the scarecrow was to whisper to the merchant.
"Gouty as the old fellow is, he'll run thy errands for thee, whenonce thou hast given him that word in his ear," said the old witch.
"Mother Rigby knows the worshipful Justice Gookin, and theworshipful Justice knows Mother Rigby!"Here the witch thrust her wrinkled face close to the puppet's,chuckling irrepressibly, and fidgeting all through her system withdelight at the idea which she meant to communicate.
