Page 16 - Adventures in shadow-land

but the same great green toad, which had hopped

down faster than she had walked, and which was

now sitting on a mossy stone near the bank. And
when Eva would have turned away he, croaked
again:

u Stay by the pond ! Stay by the pond 1”
And whether Eva wished it or not, she stood by

the pond—*for she really could not help it— and
looked. And it seemed to her that the sky grew

dark and the water black, as it always does before
a rain; and then the child grew frightened, and

would have run away, but that just then, in the
very blackest part of the pond, she saw shining

and looking up at her a little round full moon,
with a face in it; and it seemed to her, strange

though you may think it, that the eyes of the face
in the moon winked at her; and then it was gone.
And again Eva would have left the pond, but

the green toad, which she thought had suddenly
grown larger, croaked more loudly:

{t Stay by the pond ! Stay by the pond 1**
And Eva obeyed, as indeed she could not help

doing; and then again, in the pond, there camc
and went the little moon-face, only that this time

it was larger, and the eyes winked longer.
E