` See what it is to be beautiful ! Sir Harry Dawe -- pardon , Hal -- says I am the very image of a head for a gargoyle . ' The man laughed and raised his dark velvet cap to the children , and his grizzled hair bristled out in a stormy fringe . He was old -- forty at least -- but his eyes were young , with funny little wrinkles all round them . A satchel of embroidered leather hung from his broad belt , which looked interesting . ` May we see ? ' said Una , coming forward . ` Surely -- sure-ly ! ' he said , moving up on the window-seat , and returned to his work with a silver-pointed pencil . Puck sat as though the grin were fixed for ever on his broad face , while they watched the quick , certain fingers that copied it . Presently the man took a reed pen from his satchel , and trimmed it with a little ivory knife , carved in the semblance of a fish . ` Oh , what a beauty ! ' cried Dan . '' Ware fingers ! That blade is perilous sharp . I made it myself of the best Low Country cross-bow steel . And so , too , this fish . When his back-fin travels to his tail -- so -- he swallows up the blade , even as the whale swallowed Gaffer Jonah ... Yes , and that 's my ink-horn . I made the four silver saints round it . Press Barnabas 's head .
It opens , and then -- ' He dipped the trimmed pen , and with careful boldness began to put in the essential lines of XXXXX 's rugged face , that had been but faintly revealed by the silver-point .
Dan Dawe Hal Jonah Puck Una back-fin cross-bow gargoyle window-seat