mall
wind bore it up and up out of sight. And Martin, who had been looking
after it with a rapt gaze, sighed, "Oh!" And six other "Ohs!" echoed
his. Then he looked up and saw the six milkmaids standing quite close
to him, full of hesitation and longing. So he took six more pipes from
his pockets, and soon the air was glistening with bubbles, big and
little. Sometimes they blew the bubbles very quickly, shaking the tiny
globes as fast as they could from the bowl, till the air was filled
with a treasure of opals and diamonds and moonstones and pearls, as
though the king of the east had emptied his casket there. And sometimes
they blew steadily and with care, endeavoring to create the best and
biggest bubble of all; but generally they blew an instant too long, and
the bubble burst before it left the pipe. Whenever a great sphere was
launched the blower cried in ecstasy, "Oh, look at mine!" and her
comrades, merely glancing, cried in equal ecstasy, "Yes, but see mine!"
And each had a moment's delight in the others' bubbles, but everlasting
joy in her own, and was secretly certain that of all the bubbles hers
were the biggest and brightest. The biggest and brightest of all was
really blown by little Joan: as Martin, in a whisper, assured her. He
whispered the same thing, however, to each of her friends, and for one
truth told five lies. Sometimes they played together, taking their
bubbles delicately from one pipe to another, and sometimes blew their
bubbles side by side till they united, and made their venture into the
world like man and wife. And often they put all their pipes at once
into the pannikin, and blew in the water, rearing a great palace of
crystal hemispheres, that rose until it hit their chins and cheeks and
the tips of their noses, and broke on them, leaving on their fair skin
a trace of glistening foam. And as the six laughing faces bent over the
pannikin on his knees, Martin observed that Joscelyn's hair was coiled
like two great lovely roses over her ears, and that Joyce's was in
clusters of ringlets, and that Jane's was folded close and smooth and
shining round her small head, and that Jessica's was tucked under like
a boy's, while Jennifer's lay in a soft knot on her neck. But little
Joan's was hanging still in its plaits over her shoulders, and one
thick plait was half undone, and the loose hair got in her own and
everybody's way, and was such a nuisance that Martin was obliged at
last to gather it in his