He did not see it all as he sat on his horse--he was,as yet,too young;but he did feel the contrast between the din and glare around him and the silence and dark beyond,and,afterwards,looking back,he knew that he had found in that same contrast the very heart of romance.As it was,he simply clutched his horse's beautiful head and waited for the ride to begin.
They were off!He felt his horse quiver under him,he saw the mansions of the Two-Headed Giant and the Fat Lady slip to the right,the light seemed to swing like the skirt of someone's dress,upwards across the floor,and from the heart of the golden woman and the king and the minstrel a scream burst forth as though they were announcing the end of the world.After that he had no clear idea as to what occurred.He was swung into space,and all the life that had been so stationary,the booths,the lights,the men and women,the very stars went swinging with him as though to cheer him on;the horse under him galloped before,and the faster he galloped the wilder was the music and the dizzier the world.He was exultant,omnipotent,supreme.He had long known that this glory was somewhere if it could only he found,all his days he seemed to have been searching for it;he beat his horse's neck,he drove his legs against his sides."Go on!Go on!Go on!"he cried."Faster!Faster!Faster!"
The strangest things seemed to rise to his notice and then fall again--a peaked policeman's hat,flowers,a sudden flame of gas,the staring eyes and dead white arms of the golden woman,the flying forms of the horses in front of him.All the world was on horseback,all the world was racing higher and higher,faster and faster.He saw someone near him rise on to his horse's back and stand on it,waving his arms.He would like to have done that,but he found that he was part of his horse,as though he had been glued to it.He shouted,he cried aloud,he was so happy that he thought of no one and nothing.The flame danced about him in a circle,he seemed to rise so high that there was a sudden stillness,he was in the very heart of the stars;then came the supreme moment when,as he had always known,that one day he would be,he was master of the world.Then,like Lucifer,he fell.Slowly the stars receded,the music slackened,people rocked on to their feet again.The Two-Headed Giant slipped hack once more into his place,he saw the sinister lady still devouring her supper,women looking up at him gaped.His horse gave a last little leap and died.
This marvellous experience he repeated four times,and every time with an ecstasy more complete than the last.He rushed to a height,he fell,he rushed again,he fell,and at every return to a sober life his one intention was instantly to be off on his steed once more.He was about to start on his fifth journey,he had paid his halfpenny,he was sitting forward with his hands on the black mane,his eyes,staring,were filled already with the glory that he knew was coming to him,his cheeks were crimson,his hat on the back of his head,his hair flying.He heard a voice,quiet and cool,a little below him,but very near:
"Jeremy.Jeremy.Come off that.You've got to go home."He looked down and saw his Uncle Samuel.
IV
It was all over;he knew at once that it was all over.
As he slipped down from his dear horse he gave the glossy dark mane one last pat;then,with a little sigh,he found his feet,stumbled over the wooden steps and was at his uncle's side.
Uncle Samuel looked queer enough with a squashy black hat,a black cloak flung over his shoulders,and a large cherry-wood pipe in his mouth.Jeremy looked up at him defiantly.
"Well,"said Uncle Samuel sarcastically."It's nothing to you,Isuppose,that the town-crier is at this moment ringing his bell for you up and down the Market Place?""Does father know?"Jeremy asked quickly.
"He does,"answered Uncle Samuel.
Jeremy cast one last look around the place;the merry-go-round was engaged once more upon its wild course,the horses rising and falling,the golden woman clashing the cymbals,the minstrel striking,with his dead eyes fixed upon space,his harp.All about men were shouting;the noise of the coconut stores,of the circus,of the band,of the hucksters and the charlatans,the crying of children,the laughter of women--all the noise of the Fair bathed Jeremy up to his forehead.
He swam in it for the last time.He tried to catch one last glimpse of his coal-black charger,then,with a sigh,he said,turning to his uncle:"I suppose we'd better be going.""Yes,I suppose we had,"said Uncle Samuel.