Page 154 - Adventures in shadow-land

to Eva’ s great amazement, a door In the cage
opened and the woman put her hand in it and

took out the bird, which screamed louder and
peeked harder than ever.

“ Now,” said the Toad-Woman, “ we must
make all the haste we can. We must find Aster

before the Frog gets here. I ’ll hold the bird’s
head, and yon take his tail, and then pull,— pull

as hard as you can,”
All this was so queer to Eva, who thought they

had found Aster, that she could not understand
it. But the old woman saw her trouble, and,

without getting angry or impatient, as some
fairies would have done, she said to E va;

“ Aster is sewed up in the bird’s skin. And
we can only get him out by tearing it apart.

Make haste, there is no time to be lost.1’
So the old woman at the head, and Eva at the

tail, pulled, and pulled, and pulled. And the
harder they pulled, the more the bird screamed

and cried, till Eva pitied him so that she could
scarcely bear to hurt him, But whenever she

would want to stop the Toad-Woman would tell
her to pull harder.