Page 68 - Adventures in shadow-land

C H A P T E R V I I L

W HAT A S T E R DID.

H E farther the progress which the children
made into the forest, the wilder and more

singular became the country through
which they passed, Shadows cast by no visible

forms went before them in the path,—shadows
which shook, moved, and trembled; which seemed

as if they might all at once become real forms;
shadows which had something dreadful about them,

so that Eva was glad they were always in advance of
her, and that her foot never had to touch the ground

on which they lay. The color of the moon's light
was changed. She shone with a pale greenish lustre.

No green plants, no beautiful flowers, grew in the
stony, rocky soil through which their path now

lay. It produced things like sticks full of thorns.
Under the stones lay hidden long, slender lizards,