ag to explain
what this and that unfamiliar object was, and noticed that he was never
at a loss for an answer of some kind, correct or not. The fireplace,
which had its summer dressing, was, it appeared, a rock garden; an old
letter lying on the floor was a charm ("Better not touch it"); the
waste-paper basket (not unnaturally) a prison; the pattern on the carpet
was--"Oh, you wouldn't understand it if I was to tell you."

Soon a voice--Wag's voice--came from somewhere near my foot.

"I say, could I get up on the top?" I offered to lift him, but he
declined rather hastily and said my leg would be all right if I didn't
mind putting it out a bit sloping: and he then ran up it on all
fours--he was quite a perceptible weight--and got on to the table from
my knee without any difficulty.

Once there, there was a great deal to interest him--books, papers, ink,
pens, pipes, matches and cards. He was full of questions about them, and
his being so much at his ease encouraged the others to follow him, so
that before very long the whole lot were perambulating the table and
making me very nervous lest they should fall off, while Wag was standing
close up to me and putting me through a catechism.

"What do you have such _little_ spears for?" he wanted to know,
brandishing a pen at me. "Is that blood on the end? whose blood? Well
then, what do you do with it? Let's see--only that?" (when I wrote a
word or two). "Well, you can tell me about it another time. Now I want
to know what these clubs in the chest are."

I said, "We make fire with them; if you like I'll show you--but it makes
a little noise."

"Go on," said Wag; and I struck a match, rather expecting a stampede.
But no, they were quite unmoved, and Wag said, "Beastly row and
smell--why don't you do the ordinary way?"

He brushed the palm of his left hand along the tips of the fingers on
his right hand, put them to his lips and then to his eyes, and behold!
his eyes began to glow from behind with a light which would have been
quite bright enough for him to read by. "Quite simple," he said; "don't
you know it?" Then he did the same thing in reverse order, touching
eyes, lips and hand, and the light was gone. I didn't like to confess
that this was beyond me.

"Yes, that's all very well," I said, "but how do you manage about your
houses? I am sure I saw lights in the windows."

"Course," he said, "put as many as you want;" and he ran round the table
dabbing his hand here