Page 17 - Adventures in shadow-land

For the third time the child would have turned
away, frightened at all these strange doings in the

pond; but for the third time the green toad, larger
than ever, croaked :

ei Stay by the pond I Stay by the pond 1”
So, for the third time, Eva looked at the pond;

and there, for the third time, wag the shining
moon-face, as large now as a real full moon, though,

when Eva looked up, there was no moon shining
in the sky to be reflected in the pond; and then

the eyes in the moon-face looked harder at her,
and the toad winked at her; and then the toad
was the moon and the moon was the toad, and

both seemed to change places with each other; and
at last both of them shone and winked so that Eva

could not tell them apart; and before she knew
what she was doing she lay down quietly in the

tall grass, and the moon in the pond and the green
toad winked at her until she fell asleep.

Then the moon-eyes closed and the shining
face faded ; and the green toad slipped quietly off*

his stone into the water; and still Eva slept
soundly.

And that was what Eva saw in the pond.