Page 70 - Adventures in shadow-land

great numbers, flying around, and moaning in a
sad, mournful way which was most pitiful to bear,

As the moon neared the full, stranger shadows
and shapes came near. Yet the two went on, fol­

lowing the path, though Eva sometimes imagined
that the inhabitants of this strange country were

opposed to their passing through it. The music
which had been always heard at the rising and set­

ting of the moon grew fainter and fainter, till at
last her ascent and fall, came in perfect silence.
Then the strange shadows disappeared, but the

path led through a stonier and more rocky coun­

try, where all was wild and barren, and where,
after the moon was gone, little, dancing flames
played on the stones. Sometimes it was hard, in­

deed almost impossible, for the two children to
climb over the rough places in their path; and

Aster was very often discouraged ; but Eva perse­
vered, for she felt that the flower they sought could

never be found in this barren and dreary land.
I have said that Aster became every day more

obstinate and perverse. Sometimes Eva thought
that the strange flower, like a dragon-fly, which

he had picked, and which, he said stung him, had