WHEN THE OOGLY MAN SOUGHT THE SEA

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 20

WHEN THE OOGLY MAN SOUGHT THE SEA

(Written for Sea Page by "Antiope," Seatoun.) THE Oogly Man who lived in the middle of the Big Wood seemed very restless. He had lived in the Big Wood for as long as the Little People could remember, and had never been known to penetrate even to the edge of it, or to express any desire to know anything of the great world that lay beyond. Only one swallow knew why the Oogly Man wandered back and forth so restlessly, and why he packed his belongings into a box and unpacked thorn again ever so many times in a day. For the little swallow had been talking. ; "It's so dark in this Big Wood, oh, Oogly Man!" she had said.. "Beyond this there are green, green fields, and I shall fly across a blue, blue sea." "Sea?" said the Oogly Man, who wasn't as wise as he was reputed to be. "What's sea?" Then the swallow told him. "Blue, deeper than the sky's blue, with silver ridges where the sun kisses the waves; cool, cool, and soft, with a song sweeter than the nightingale's; foam, spray, soft and sun-tipped, whiter than all the swan's feathers, to kiss my wings." And she wove a wondrous picture for the Oogly Man, so that mermaids' songs rang in his ears, the glint of fishes' scales dazzled! him, the waves' laughter and music caught his heart up, and a great restlessness tugged at his soul. The swallow was really not to blame, for it was Autumn, and she was longing to start on her long journey across the sea to another land's springtime. .' ■ But the idea of the sea gradually possessed the old Oogly Man. He must see it, feel it, perhaps bring it back. Blue, silver, gold, it shone before him. He could only think of.it,as a colourful, flimsy, beautiful thing that he,must possess. ' . One night he stole through the Big Wood on tiptoes, like a 'stealthy ghost, and by dawn he reached the Edge-of-the-Wood. It was so open, so bright, and so green in the fields that he was nearly blinded. He pushed his spectacles ori hard and hurried forward, At last he met two magpies. "Here's a cranky old man!" the first exclaimed, nudging the other, when the strange figure of the Oogly Man came in sight. "Ho, ha, ha!" cackled the other. • : : •' .. . , : The Oogly Man asked them, the way to the sea, peering at-them over his spectacles, and they cackled again. "Let's play a joke," whispered the first. . ■ -~ :■■,..:.-...' .. . "Certainly sir, we'll take.you there," he said politely. So they started cut, the Oogly Man in the middle, and a bad magpie on each side. "How kind- of you!" said the. Oogly Man, and he told them all that tho swallow had told him, as they wended their way by hedgerow and field. The more he told them the more the magpies shook with laughter, and when he told them he was going to take it home they nearly collapsed. "In a pocket handkerchief?" one asked solemnly, then laughed so much that he had to* pretend he was sneezing, and hide his face under his wing. ■ • ■ , At last, they came to a lake. It was only a tiny lake, sparkling in tht sun. "The sea! The sea!" exclaimed the birds. Two white" swans were gliding across the water. "See Mermaids!" they cried, and the swans hissed viciously. The Oogly Man had not recovered from his surprise. "I see no sea!" he. cried at last, blinking and peering at the lake. At last he stooped down and put his finger in. "Water!" he exclaimed, choking with disappointment. ". "Yes, water 1." screamed the. magpies. "See how it glistens, see the foam, see how the sun caresses its wavelet's!" But the Oogly Man said nothing. He left the bad magpies and crept back over the fields. When the magpies 'had finished laughing they fell to arguing. "The sea's just the same; it's only water!" said one. ; ". : "Is it?" said the first doubtfully. ', "Now I come to think of it. I don't really know," cried the first. "Perhaps the old fellow was right after all!" And .they puzzled over it until someone else happened along to. tease. It was night again by the time the Oogly Man crept through the Big Dark Wood, and dawn was shining purply through the trees when he sought rest and peace in his little hut. He put "Studying: Not to be disturbed" on. the card on his door, and went inside to think about his experience, and to sleep. ■ ■ - ■. ■ . V ■ '.■•■• i ■'■'■■ "I really think," he concluded, after a lengthy argument with himself, "that,those birds must have made a mistake. In fact, I'm sure they did. Just ignoramuses, that's all!" That made him feel much better, so he put his feet up and settled dowrt to sleep. ....; "I'll ask the swallow again, in- the morning," he said, snoring, and i .wonderful, colourful* flimsy dream of the sea sped through his sleep. ~-,. But by morning the swallow had departed"for another land's springtime, and the Oogly Man couldn't ask her. So he kept his vision of the sea, and forgot all about the magpies, and the lake that was only water, and as the swallow never appeared again, he kept his vision. ■ : From that day to this, the Oogly'Mahhas never been known to be restless or to wander from the-Big Wood again. And to this dayhe-has kept his vision of these^a, only with the years it has become such .a gaudy, colourful thing, cherished so in his muddled, wise old memory, that Tshpuld hatfe him to flna the sea next time he tried! • ,? , ?