The Ass rubbed his forehead against his leg. Was he ready to die at any moment? He could not honestly answer Yes. Weeks and weeks with nothing to eat! And here the buttercups and daisies were enough for a dozen asses. He might indeed be an Arab steed – but then again, he mightn’t. Up and down went his shaggy head as he pondered the difficult problem.
“That’s for you, old Natterjack!” The Tramp tossed the core of his apple under the stepping-stone.
“Don’t call me Natterjack!” snapped the Toad.
“Puddocky, then, if you prefer it!”
“Those are the names one gives to toads. I am a frog in disguise.”
“Oh, happy creature!” the Tramp exclaimed. “Sitting on lily-leaves all night, singing a song to the moon.”
“All night? I’d take my death of cold!”
“Catching spiders and dragon-flies for the lady-frog of your choice!”
“None for myself?” the Toad enquired.
“A frog that would a-wooing go – and you are certainly such a one! – wouldn’t want to catch for himself!”
The Toad was, however, not so sure. He liked a juicy spider. He was just deciding, after all, that he might as well be a toad, when – plop! – went a pebble right beside him and he hurriedly popped in his head.
“Who threw that?” said the Tramp quickly.
“I did,” came the answer from the bridge. “Not to hit him! Just to make him jump!”
“Good boy!” The Tramp looked up with a smile. “A fine, friendly lad like you wouldn’t hurt a toad!”
“Of course I wouldn’t. Or anything else. But don’t you call me boy or lad. I’m really a—”
“Wait! Don’t tell me! Let me guess! An Indian? No – a pirate!”
“That’s right!” said the Boy, with a curt nod, showing all the gaps in his teeth in a terrible pirate smile. “If you want to know my name,” he snarled, “just call me One-eyed Corambo!”
“Got your cutlass?” the Tramp enquired. “Your skull and crossbones? Your black silk mask? Well, I shouldn’t hang about here any longer! Landlubbers aren’t worth robbing! Set your course away from the North. Make for Tierra del Fuego.”
“Been there,” the Boy said loftily.
“Well, any other place you like – no pirate lingers long on land. Have you been –” the Tramp lowered his voice – “have you been to Dead Man’s Drop?”
The Boy smiled and shook his head.
“That’s the place for me,” he cried, reaching for his monkey. “I’ll just go and say goodbye to my mother and – ”
“Your mother! Did I hear aright? One-eyed Corambo hopping off to say goodbye to his mother! A pirate captain wasting time by running home – well, really!” the Tramp was overcome with amusement.
The Boy looked at him doubtfully. Where, he wondered, was Dead Man’s Drop? How long would it take him to go and come? His mother would be anxious. And apart from that – as he’d reason to know – she was making pancakes for supper. It might be better, just for today, to be his outer self. Corambo could wait until tomorrow, Corambo was always there.
“Taking your monkey along as a mascot?”The Tramp looked quizzically at the toy.
He was answered by an angry squeal. “Don’t you call me a monkey!” it jabbered. “I’m a little boy in disguise!”
“A boy!” cried the Tramp. “And not at school?”
“School?” said the Monkey nervously. “ ‘Two and two make five,’ you mean, and all that sort of thing?”
“Exactly,” said the Tramp gravely. “You’d better hurry along now before they find you’re missing. Here!” He scrabbled among his rags, drew two chocolates from under his collar, and offered one to the Monkey.
But the little creature turned its back. School – he hadn’t bargained for that. Better, any day of the week, to be a moth-eaten monkey. He felt a sudden rush of love for his old fur coat and his glass eyes and his wrinkled jungle tail.
“You take it, Corambo!” The Tramp grinned. “Pirates are always hungry.” He handed one chocolate to the Boy and ate the other himself.
“Well,” he said, licking his lips, “time flies and so must I!” He glanced round at the little group and gave a cheerful nod.
“So long!” He smiled at them rosily. And thrusting his hands among his rags, he brought out a piece of bread and butter, and sauntered away across the bridge.
The Boy gazed after him thoughtfully, with a line across his brow. Then suddenly he threw up his hand.
“Hey!” he cried.
The Tramp paused.
“What is your name? You never told us! Who are you?” said the Boy.
“Yes, indeed!” came a score of voices. “Who are you?” the Goose-girl asked; and the Swineherd, the geese, the swine and the Ass echoed the eager question. Even the Toad put out his head and demanded: “Who are you?”
“Me?” cried the Tramp, with an innocent smile. “If you really want to know,” he said, “I’m an angel in disguise.”
He bowed to them amid his tatters and waved as he turned away.
“Ha, ha, ha! A jolly good joke!”
The Boy burst into a peal of laughter. Jug-jug-jug! in his throat it went. That tattered old thing an angel!
But suddenly the laugh ceased. The Boy stared, screwed up his eyes, looked again and stared.
The Tramp was skipping along the road, hopping for joy, it seemed. Each time he skipped his feet went higher, and the earth – could it really be true? the Boy wondered – was falling away beneath him. Now he was skimming the tops of the daisies and presently he was over the hedge, skipping higher and higher. Up, up he went and cleared the woodland, plumbing the depths of the sky. Then he spread himself on the sunny air and stretched his arms and legs.
And as he did so the tattered rags fluttered along his back. Something, the watchers clearly saw, was pushing them aside.
Then, feather by feather, from under each shoulder, a broad grey pinion showed. Out and out the big plumes stretched, on either side of the Tramp, until he was only a tattered scrap between his lifting wings. They flapped for a moment above the trees, balancing strongly against the air, then with a sweeping sea-gull movement they bore him up and away.
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” the Goose-girl sighed, knitting her brows in a frown. For the Tramp had put her in an awkward predicament. She was almost – if not quite – convinced she was not the daughter of a King, and now – well look at him! All those feathers under his rags! If he was an angel, what was she? A goose-girl – or something grander?
Her mind was whirling. Which was true? Shaking her head in bewilderment, she glanced across the stream at the Swineherd, and the sight of him made her burst out laughing. Really, she couldn’t help it.
There he sat, gazing up at the sky, with his curls standing on end with surprise, and his eyes as round as soup-plates.
“Ahem!” She gave a delicate cough. “Perhaps it will not be necessary to fight the Dragon now!”
He turned to her with a startled look. Then he saw that she was smiling gently and his face suddenly cleared. He laughed and leapt across the stream.