Argosy, September 1955 — page 91: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MUSIC FOR THE WICKED COUNTESS 89 Unfortunately, it was the schoolmaster’s turn to be unwilling host to the village tits that morning. Shortly after the maidens had left, forty blue-tits descended onto his doorstep, neatly removed the cap once more, and drank every drop of the milk. Mr. Bond was resigned to this happening every eleventh day, and took his morning tea milkless, before setting off to open up the school. Up at the Castle the maidens had a difficult time explaining to the Wicked Countess the sudden appearance of forty blue-tits who flew in through the window and absolutely refused to be turned out. ‘““ How are we to get this miserable man up here, will you tell me that?’’ demanded the Countess. “I’ve lost patience with him entirely.” . “You could write him a civil note of invitation, the way he’d be in no case to refuse without displaying terrible bad manners in it?” “IT never thought of that,” admitted the Countess, and she sat down and penned a little note in her crabbed, runic handwriting, asking the schoolmaster for the pleasure of his company to a musical evening. She entrusted the note to Norah, who was now a kitchen-maid at the Castle, and asked her to give it into Mr. Bond’s own hands. Norah skipped off, much pleased with the commission, and presented the note to Mr. Bond as he sat in morning school. ‘* Now isn’t it herself has done you the great honour of request- ing your worshipful presence at such a musical junketing and a singing and dancing you’d think it was King Solomon himself entertaining the Queen of Sheba? ”’ Mr. Bond scrutinized the letter carefully. ‘This is very interesting; the back of this document appears to be part of a version of the Cuchulain legend written in a very early form of Gaelic. Dear me, I must write to the Royal Society about this.”’ He became absorbed in the legend on the back, and clean forgot to read what was on the other side. The Countess was very affronted at this, and scolded Norah. severely. ‘““Tve no patience with the lot of you, at all. I can see I'll have to be after fetching him myself, the way otherwise we'll be having no music this side of midwinter.” It was now the middle of May, which is a very dangerous month for enchantment, the worst in the year apart from October. The Wicked Countess sent out her spies to inform her when comiclbooks.conn