Page 102 - Adventures in shadow-land

margin they were standing, began to ripple along
faster, and murmur louder, while the musical

fountains began to play* and the birds to sing—
ffand now you must leave us: everything is in

readiness, and the time has come."
Then, with Eva in their midst, the children
began to Walk slowly along the brook, which no

longer brought Aster's voice with it. On they

Went, through the calm valley; not, however, as
Eva had expectcd, to the door in the rock through
which she had entered, and which she had never

been able to find again,— though she had looked

for it the day before, but in the opposite direc­
tion,— towards the cavern in which the waters of
the brook disappeared. She asked why she was

not to be allowed to seek for Aster among the
rocky, stony wastes in which he had disappeared,

u Because that is all over, and you cannot go
back into the Past,n was the reply. u Nothing,

which has once happened there, or been seen
there, remains in Shadow-Land.”

They had come, by this time, to the cavern,
and Eva saw that its roof was higher above the

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