Page 21 - Adventures in shadow-land

silvery ripple of the brook, which kept company

with the path Eva trod, and whose waters mur­
mured, gently, “ Follow, follow me I”

And Eva followed the murmuring brook, which
seemed to her like a pleasant companion in this

silent land, where, even as there was no sound,
there was no sign o f life; nothing like the real

world which the child had left, and of which,
with the fall of the little violet from her curls, she

had lost all recollection M, even as though that
world had never existed for her. Once or twice,

as she went on, holding her little stick in her
hand, she imagined that she saw child-figures
beckoning to her; but, upon going up to them,

she always found that either a rock, or a low,

leafless shrub, or else a rising wreath of mist, had
deceived her.
Yet, though she was alone, with no one near

her, not even a bird to flit merrily from tree to
i
tree, nor an insect to buzz across her path, Eva
felt and knew no fear, and not for a moment did
she care that she was alone. The silvery ripple

of the little brook, along which her path lay,

sounded lifce a pleasant voice in her ears; \yhen