Hogfather

It would give some idea of the scale of the Hogswatchnight Feast that a light snack at UU consisted of a mere three or four courses, not counting the cheese and nuts.

Some of the wizards had been practising for weeks. The Dean in particular could now lift a twenty-pound turkey on one fork. Having to wait until midnight merely put a healthy edge on appetites already professionally honed.

There was a general air of pleasant expectancy about the place, a general sizzling of salivary glands, a general careful assembling of the pills and powders against the time, many hours ahead, when eighteen courses would gang up somewhere below the ribcage and mount a counterattack.

Ridcully stepped out into the snow and turned up his collar. The lights were all on in the High Energy Magic Building.

‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘Hogswatchnight and they’re still working. It’s just not natural. When I was a student I’d have been sick twice by now—’

In fact Ponder Stibbons and his group of research students had made a concession to Hogswatchnight. They’d draped holly over Hex and put a paper hat on the big glass dome containing the main ant heap.

Every time he came in here, it seemed to Ridcully, something more had been done to the … engine, or thinking machine, or whatever it was. Sometimes stuff turned up overnight. Occasionally, according to Stibbons, Hex hims—itself would draw plans for extra bits that he — it needed. It all gave Ridcully the willies, and an additional willy was engendered right now when he saw the Bursar sitting in front of the thing. For a moment, he forgot all about verrucas.

‘What’re you doing here, old chap?’ he said. ‘You should be inside, jumping up and down to make more room for tonight.’

‘Hooray for the pink, grey and green,’ said the Bursar.

‘Er … we thought Hex might be of … you know … help, sir,’ said Ponder Stibbons, who liked to think of himself as the University’s token sane person. ‘With the Bursar’s problem. We thought it might be a nice Hogswatch present for him.’

‘Ye gods, Bursar’s got no problems,’ said Ridcully, and patted the aimlessly smiling man on the head while mouthing the words ‘mad as a spoon’. ‘Mind just wanders a bit, that’s all. I said MIND WANDERS A BIT, eh? Only to be expected, spends far too much time addin’ up numbers. Doesn’t get out in the fresh air. I said, YOU DON’T GET OUT IN THE FRESH AIR, OLD CHAP!’

‘We thought, er, he might like someone to talk to,’ said Ponder.

‘What? What? But I talk to him all the time! I’m always trying to take him out of himself,’ said Ridcully. ‘It’s important to stop him mopin’ around the place.’

‘Er … yes … certainly,’ said Ponder diplomatically. He recalled the Bursar as a man whose idea of an exciting time had once been a soft-boiled egg. ‘So … er … well, let’s give it another try, shall we? Are you ready, Mr Dinwiddie?’

‘Yes, thank you, a green one with cinnamon if it’s not too much trouble.’

‘Can’t see how he can talk to a machine,’ said Ridcully, in a sullen voice. ‘The thing’s got no damn ears.’

‘Ah, well, in fact we made it one ear,’ said Ponder. ‘Er …’

He pointed to a large drum in a maze of tubes.

‘Isn’t that old Windle Poons’ ear trumpet sticking out of the end?’ said Ridcully suspiciously.

‘Yes, Archchancellor.’ Ponder cleared his throat. ‘Sound, you see, comes in waves—’

He stopped. Wizardly premonitions rose in his mind. He just knew Ridcully was going to assume he was talking about the sea. There was going to be one of those huge bottomless misunderstandings that always occurred whenever anyone tried to explain anything to the Archchancellor. Words like ‘surf’, and probably ‘ice cream’ and ‘sand’ were just …

‘It’s all done by magic, Archchancellor,’ he said, giving up.

‘Ah. Right,’ said Ridcully. He sounded a little disappointed. ‘None of that complicated business with springs and cogwheels and tubes and stuff, then.’

‘That’s right, sir,’ said Ponder. ‘Just magic. Sufficiently advanced magic.’^{37}

‘Fair enough. What’s it do?’

‘Hex can hear what you say.’

‘Interesting. Saves all that punching holes in bits of cards and hitting keys you lads are forever doing, then—’^{38}

‘Watch this, sir,’ said Ponder. ‘All right, Adrian, initialize the GBL.’

‘How do you do that, then?’ said Ridcully, behind him.

‘It … it means pull the great big lever,’ Ponder said, reluctantly.

‘Ah. Takes less time to say.’

Ponder sighed. ‘Yes, that’s right, Archchancellor.’

He nodded to one of the students, who pulled a large red lever marked ‘Do Not Pull’. Gears spun, somewhere inside Hex. Little trap-doors opened in the ant farms and millions of ants began to scurry along the networks of glass tubing. Ponder tapped at the huge wooden keyboard.

‘Beats me how you fellows remember how to do all this stuff,’ said Ridcully, still watching him with what Ponder considered to be amused interest.