Page 92 - Adventures in shadow-land

brook I Come to the brook!” And then it

began to hop towards the brook just as fast as it
could go.

She forgot her promise to the children, and,
just exactly as she had done once before, she

obeyed the toad, and went down to the brook.
And when she got there, she could not Imagine

why the toad wanted her to go there, Tor he was
nowhere to be seen, and the brook looked just as

it always did. But she sat down by it, and watched
the merry water as it rippled along over Its pebbly

bed- Then, soothed by the low murmur it made,
bhe lay down on the grass and fell asleep. And

while she was asleep she had a dream; and this is
what she dreamed:

She saw Aster, his dress torn, dirty, and ragged,
his long curls tangled \ tired and sad, and com­

pelled to carry burdens of stone too heavy for
h
him to lift. And when he wanted to rest, two

figures, with the faces which Eva had seen in the
forest and among the curling mists and vapors at

the foot of the precipice, beat him with rods full
of thorns. And then a huge red-and-black spider

would ating him In the foot, or a great green frog,