_THE GIFT OF THE FOUNTAIN._
I have said that Eva wondered at nothing which came to pass in this
land through which she was wandering; nothing surprised her, but the
most singular occurrences appeared natural; and so it did not seem at
all strange to her that the path and the brook should be swallowed up,
as it were, by the dark, hungry, impenetrable forest; and it was almost
with a feeling of pleasure at the change that after the one hurried
glance she gave to the path by which she had come, and which was now no
longer to be seen, that she went, still holding the little stick in her
hand, up the opening between the trees to the beautiful fountain.
And as she drew near, the bright waters of the fountain played higher
and higher, and sparkled and glistened in golden beauty; and rainbows
of many colors surrounded it, so that Eva longed to dip her hands in
its joyous flow, while the waters as they fell tinkled merrily like
silvery fairy bells; and she came nearer and nearer, thinking she had
never heard such sweet music as this water made, till she was within a
few feet of the fountain.
But when there she paused. For, out of the earth,--all round and even
under the dropping spray and the falling waters,--sprang myriads of
little rainbow-colored flames, which danced to and fro among and under
the water-drops,--like a circle of tiny, fiery sentinels, guarding the
fountain. And Eva, afraid to cross this circle of flames, for which
she was unprepared, would not have ventured nearer, but that at this
very moment the little stick which she held turned in her hand, and
pointed downward; and then Eva saw that it pointed to a little path,
like that by which she had come, which ran around the fountain; and
the child followed the path; until she had walked once, twice, thrice,
around the playing waters, and yet, though she looked for it, found no
spot where the little flame-sentinels, like faithful soldiers on duty,
would permit her to pass. And then she would have turned away from the
beautiful water,--her foot, indeed, had left the path,--when she heard
a voice, even sweeter and more silvery than the voice of the brook,
coming from the very midst of the fountain, and saying:
“Eva! Eva! have no fear,
To the fountain’s brink come near.”
And hearing these words, Eva stood still in surprise, yet without
obeying them. But, after a moment’s pause, the voice repeated the words.
Then, for the first time since her wanderings had begun, Eva spoke, and
her voice sounded strange in her own ears, low though it was:
“How can I cross the fire?”
A little, low, melodious laugh, like that of a merry child, answered
her; and when Eva looked to see whence it came, she saw that the
little knot upon the end of her cane was a real head, that the lips
were laughing, and that from the queer eyes came two funny little blue
flames; and as Eva looked at it, very much tempted to throw it away,
the head laughed again, and then the lips parted and said:
“Flames, like these, of shadow birth,
May not harm a child of earth.”
Then the voice was silent. But a thousand rainbow-colored bubbles
glowed at once all over the waters of the fountain; and on each bubble
there stood and danced a tiny elf, clad in bright colors; shapes so
light and airy that their frail supports never failed them; and the
tiny flames grew brighter, and then, as Eva still hesitated, fearing
yet to cross them, the lips of the little head spoke once more:
“’Neath thy step they will expire--
Fear not, Eva; cross the fire.”
Hearing this, Eva stepped forward. As she did so, the little stick
dropped or slipped from her hand, and, rolling into the fountain,
disappeared in its waters; and at every step she took she saw that the
little flames died away, as the voice had said, under her feet; till,
when she reached the fountain’s brink, they were all gone, and no
trace of them was left. As she looked at the waters, they seemed to
become solid, and shape themselves into an image carved as it were out
of pure, shining gold, yet glowing with many colors; and then, slowly,
slowly, with a sound like distant music, the beautiful, wonderful thing
began to sink into the earth; and Eva, her tiny hands clasped, her fair
cheeks flushed, her soft blue eyes sparkling, stood in silence and
looked. And just as the magic fountain, which, when the child first
came up to it, had been so high that its waters played far above her
head, had sunk so low that Eva, had she wished, might have laid her
hand upon its summit, she saw, cradled as it were, on the very crest
of what had been the golden water, a tiny figure; not like one of the
elves which had danced on the rainbow-bubbles, but like a sleeping
child, which Eva thought, at first, was only a doll lying there, in its
green-and-scarlet velvet dress; and for a moment the slow, descending
motion of the fountain stopped, and Eva heard these words, in the same
voice which had spoken before through the lips of the little head,
though this time it came from the fountain:
“Take it, Eva, ’tis thy fate,
See, for thee the waters wait.”
Obedient to the voice, the child stretched forth her hand, and as her
slight fingers closed upon the little, motionless form, a bright and
dazzling crimson light seemed to flash everywhere, and the water,
losing its solidity, began once more to gleam and sparkle, and to sink
again into the earth; and in another moment it was gone, and in the
place where the fountain had played there was now a bed of soft, green
moss, through and around which was twined a vine, whose leaves were
mingled with clusters of bright scarlet berries. Then for the first
time she missed her little stick; and she looked for it, but it was
nowhere to be found.
And then the sky grew dark, as the glorious crimson light slowly faded
away, and one by one stars peeped out from the sky; and Eva, still
clasping the little figure which had come so strangely to her, to
her heart, lay down quietly upon the soft, green moss, which seemed
to have sprung up there expressly as a bed for her, and before many
minutes had passed she was asleep.
But while she slept, there hovered over her two fair white forms, who
looked at her and smiled, and then one of them whispered to the other,
in the silvery voice of the brook:
“The worst is over.”
“No,” the other replied. “Although the boy is safe, for a time, in the
hands of his protector, his punishment is not yet over. Love must teach
him obedience,--that alone can appease and work out the will of Fate.”
“And we can do no more for him!”
“We can only wait, and hope.”
A moment later, and the two bright forms were gone. And, watched by the
twinkling stars, lulled by the low murmur of the gentle breeze playing
among the trees of the great forest, the fair child slept, holding
clasped to her innocent breast the helpless figure which had come to
her as the gift of the fountain.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]