Page 35 - Adventures in shadow-land

the forest. It died away and then returned; and

then came again and again, in tones so marvel­
lously sweet that Eva, who had just taken the

little figure into her hands, dropped him into her
lap, and pushed her long golden curls away from
her face, the better to listen to the melody.

Once more it came, and once more died away
into silence. And then there was a low, rushing

sound, and, far in the distance, Eva saw arise, as it
were from out of the earth, among the trees, the

tiny silver crescent of a young new moon,— and as
she looked at it, it rose higher and higher, and

faster and faster, till it reached, in a few minutes,
the very centre of the sky, the child’s blue eyes
still following it; and when once there it paused,

and floated among the strange, gleaming clouds,
which surrounded it, like a little shining boat.

With a sudden impulse Eva bent down and
kissed the little figure lying in her lap; and then

she looked up at the crescent of the moon, as
upon the face of an old friend; and she would

have sat there longer watching it, but that all at
once a little, weak voice said:
“ lam awake again, and there is my home,”