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| ==__MATCH__:[[Page:Chesterton - The Coloured Lands.djvu/181]]==
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| THE TAMING OF THE NIGHTMARE
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| LITTLE JACK HORNER sat in the corner—so far the traditional
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| surroundings of the nursery hero correspond with those in which
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| we find him for the purposes of the story, but there being no
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| Christmas pie in the neighbourhood, he was unable to give vent
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| to the joyful, if somewhat egotistical, sentiment which is recorded
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| of him elsewhere. He sat in a corner, under the window, listening
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| to the weird moaning of the night-wind without, now tapping at
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| the door like a wayfarer, now whistling in the chimney like a
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| sweep, now seeming to wander, darkly muttering, like some
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| mysterious wild thing in the copse around the cottage, now rushing
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| like some vast monster over the roof with a hoarse roar rising to
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| a piping shriek as it died away. Then came violent rattling at
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| the window above him, which grew louder and fiercer till Jack
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| expected the glass to fly to pieces, and the next moment he
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| fancied he could hear a hoarse voice, muffled by coming through
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| the window say, " Let me in, why can't you let me in."
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| The
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| vague, mystified awe that he had felt at the thousand suggestive
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| voices of the wind changed into weird terror, and he cowered
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| beneath the window striving not to look round, but compelled
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| to turn by the horrible fascination of the presence of something
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| behind him. He turned, threw open the window and looked out
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| into the night. At first he could see nothing but the darkness,
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| but the next moment he made out a broad, weird, goblin face with
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| goggle eyes and a broad, queer hat, peering in through the window.
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| " You're wanted," said the creature who appeared to be some
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| 175
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