But when I drew near I saw it was indeed a child, pink
and gold and palest blue. And she raised changeling hands at me, and
laughed and danced and chattered like the drops upon a waterfall; and
clear as if a tiny bell had jingled I heard her cry.
And my heart smote me heavily since I had of my own courtesy not
remembered Adele.
IV
_Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, tu-witta-woo._
--THOMAS NASH.
It was yet early, and refreshing in the chequered shade. We plodded
earnestly after our gaunt shadow in the dust, and ever downward, till
at last we drew so near to the opposite steep that I could well nigh
count its pines.
It was about the hour when birds seek shade and leave but few among
their fellows to sing, that at a stone's throw from the foot of the
hill I came to where a faint bridle-path diverged. And since it was
smooth with moss, and Rosinante haply tired of pebbles; since any but
the direct road seems ever the more delectable, I too turned aside,
and broke into the woods through which this path meandered.
Maybe it is because all woods are enchanted that the path seemed more
than many miles long.
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