Page 47 - Adventures in shadow-land

Wkat Aster was. 43

could not tell her. Just then a cloud came over
the face of the moon, hiding her from their sight;

and as the darkness came over everything, only
leaving for a moment the pale earth-light, it

seemed to Eva that there were faces looking at
her, peeping from behind every tree ; and then
a light breeze sprang rip, just moving the flowers,

and from the bell of one of them seemed to come

these words, all in verse, for in Fairy-Land and in
Shadow-Land people seldom speak in plain prose
as we d o :

O'er this spot do t h e y have power,
Not here growe Lli Aster's flower.
Wander, Eva, wander on
Till thy hand the prize hath won.

Then the breeze died away, and the voice was

silent; and Eva saw that Aster was asleep, and*

frightened at the faces which made grimaces and
mocked at her, more angrily, she thought, on ac­
count of the warning the flower had sung, she

touched him to awaken him; and as she did so
the cloud passed from the face of the moon, and

as once more her pure, clear light returned,
the ugly, threatening faces vanishedt and Aster