I accepted with, eagerness the invitation of
my new acquaintance. We soon reached the
spot on which it seemed to me that a short
while ago I had stood, almost overpowered
by the strangely pungent odour of the old
walnut-tree. The tree itself, however, I no
longer recognised. But I noticed that the
mansion which we now entered was entirely built of
walnut-wood, richly carved and fantastically
decorated. The house was shaped like a tower, and
as we passed under the vaulted porch and entered
a spacious hall, I perceived that this tower was
longitudinally traversed from roof to basement by
a spiral wooden staircase of exquisite workmanship.
Ascending this staircase, we entered a
large airy chamber, with an open window in a
sunny recess, surrounded by a broad balcony,
overlooking the little lake we had just left, and
trellised with the most fragrant flowers. Here
Nutcracker, having motioned me to an old
wooden settle in the embrasure of the window, sat
down beside me, with the air of a man who is
well satisfied with his household gods. I could
not repress an exclamation of delight at the
prospect which I beheld from the window beside
me. Millions of brilliant winged things were
fluctuating to a fitful slumbrous music of their
own making in the liquid golden air all round.
The little lake, paved with the vivid blue and
white of a mimic heaven, lay basking in its basalt
bed, filled with the sweetness of soft light and
solacing shade, and vaguely over-voyaged by
multitudes of the mariner spider.

"I think," said Nutcracker, " that you will
better comprehend the sympathy with which I
am induced to regard you, if I give you a short
account of my history."

"Nothing," I replied, " could afford me greater
pleasure."

THE HISTORY OF NUTCRACKER.

I am not a native of this earth. I am a child
of the moon. I was born in that planet, and my
earliest years were passed among the lunar
snows. The moon, as you know, is the nearest
planet to the earth. She is the younger sister
and loving handmaiden of your green-robed
world. Therefore it is there that, upon leaving
this earth, the spirits of the departed first halt
upon their journey onwards. The moon is the
resting-place of the dead. The poor tired souls
when they first leave this world are so sore and
weary that they cannot go much further till they
have had rest and sleep. So they reach the
moon faint and drooping, and there they are
allowed to repose their troubled, anxious hearts,
and enjoy a deep sweet slumber, from which
they wake refreshed, and soothed, and quieted.

It is the duty of the moon-children to comfort
these poor careworn spirits of earth when they
come among us, and to lay them gently asleep
among the silent snows and cool and shady places
of the planet of peace.

The moon-spirits love all these strangers from
the earth, but chiefly the little children; for
between these and ourselves there is a greater
affinity; and we understand the child-spirits, and
the child-spirits understand us, as soon as they
come among us. For there is no development
in the moon; no change; no increase; no diminution;
no death. Nothing grows there. The air
that decays, and the fire that destroys, and the
water that wastes, are unknown in the lunar
land. There, all things remain as they were left
long ago, and all places are full of peace.
Therefore the moon-spirits can never grow beyond
childhood. They are immortal children, and never
grow old. The whole surface of the moon is
covered with snow. When the sunbeams fall
upon this snow they become crystallised. It is
the business of the moon-children to pick up
these crystallised sunbeams as they lie upon the
lunar snows, and throw them down upon the
earth. There, as they fall, they are melted in
the mild blue air, and diffused into the sunlight
of earth. Night is the happiest time in the
moon. For then our tender tasks are done. There
are no more sunbeams to gather up. All is quiet.
The dead slumber in the lunar caves with a
strange still glory on their pale upturned faces.
And we spirits of the moon sit silent on the
smooth cold snows, and look into the deep purple
spaces, and wonder at the multitude of stars.
Now, one night, there came sailing down from
Heaven on the blue and noiseless element that
flows between the silver stars, a company of
angels. They were clothed in long white vesture
that flowed in folds beneath their feet and floated
backwards as they flew. The shining of their
upturned wings, and lifted hair, sent far behind
them a steadfast intense light, like a flame that
is blown upon by the wind. Their hands were
folded on their bosoms, and each angel bore a
bright green palm. They were singing a solemn
hymn, and as they sailed by the moon, we called
to them across the night, and they paused on
their downward flight, upon the snowy lunar
shore, and blessed us as they passed.

The angels told us that they were bound for
the earth, where they were sent to witness and
to solemnise with song the stupendous
beneficence of a divine event. For the earth , they
told us, was full of sorrow and grief; and there
was no refuge upon earth from the sins that were
in it; but evil walked up and down upon earth
and never rested; and the spirits of men were so
filled with pride and oppression that they had no
pity even for themselves. But this night there
should be born among men a Being destined to
redeem and regenerate the poor distracted earth;
who should teach the tired souls to trust, and
the hopeless hands to pray, and comfort the
thousand aching hearts of men. Therefore, these
angels had been sent from above, to attest and
to celebrate the entrance upon earth of this Holy
Spirit of Love. And when the angels came back,
singing up to Heaven triumphant hallelujahs
through the thrilled and tingling hollows of the
deep blue night, they each cast down their
paradisal palms upon the moon, and strewed with
green benediction the pure white lunar snows.