_THE VALLEY OF REST._
Eva waited for a moment, with as much patience as she could, in hopes
that the door might now be opened for her. Vain hopes, for the ringing
laughter and the merry voices began again; and once more Eva would have
been discouraged, if the thought had not come that perhaps her gentle
knocking had not been heard, and once more she tapped, louder this
time, at the door.
A voice within immediately asked, “Who knocks?”
“I--Eva,” was the child’s reply.
“Eva may enter.”
Poor child! She thought the permission was useless, for the door
remained as tightly shut as ever.
“Why do you not come in?” the same voice asked, after a pause, “You are
permitted.”
“I cannot come in, because the door is shut,” Eva said.
“Take the key and unlock it.”
But Eva, after looking around carefully, could see no key, and so she
said, “I do not know where the key can be.”
“Look under your right foot,” said the voice within; and Eva, stepping
to one side, saw lying, just where her foot had been, a queer little
key, which she picked up; and seeing a key-hole among the quaint
letters of the inscription, she found the little key just fitted it;
and on turning it, the door flew open, and, as it did, a band of
beautiful children came forward to meet her, though not one of them
crossed the threshold of the door, and they bade her welcome. But when
Eva would have gone in, it seemed to her that invisible hands prevented
her entrance; and then one of the children, seeing that she still held
in her hand the white stone she had picked up near the spring, and
with which she had made the mark over Aster’s hiding-place, told her
to throw it away, for that nothing from Shadow-Land could be brought
into their valley; and then to be careful and not touch the threshold
of the door, but to step over it. And Eva did as they told her; but
when she threw the white stone over the precipice, it changed into a
large white moth as it left her hand; and Eva, watching it, saw one
of the faces rise from out of the curling mists to meet it, and then
the moth changed into a face like the one she had first seen, and then
both disappeared among the mists and vapors. And the moment she passed
through the door, it closed suddenly behind her, and could not be
told from the solid rock; and Eva saw that she was in a place totally
different from anything she had ever seen before in her wanderings.
She found that she was now in a large, grassy valley, in the midst of
which was built a beautiful rose-colored palace, shining like a star.
Flowers of the gayest hues bloomed all through the grass; fountains
of musical water, surrounded with rainbows, played here and there;
birds and butterflies of brilliant colors flew among the flowers, and
were so tame that they would alight on the children’s hands, and the
birds were so wise that they could talk, and tell the most interesting
stories, which you never grew tired of hearing. A little brook ran
sparkling through the valley, and groups of beautiful children were
playing on its banks, among whom Eva looked--but looked in vain--for
Aster.
The children gathered around her, asking where she came from, if she
was the Queen who was to reign over them, and if she was not going
to live always with them. And when Eva tried to explain how she had
come, and asked them if they knew where Aster was, they joined hands
and danced in a circle around her to their own singing, and then one
of them gave her the leaves of a flower to eat. Now the leaves of
this flower were delicious, and as sweet as honey to the taste, and
one never wearied of eating them; and as Eva ate them, all memory of
Shadow-Land and of Aster faded from her mind, and she was content to
remain in the valley with the children.
It was a pleasant life that she led in this peaceful valley,
surrounded, as it was, and shut in by high, insurmountable, and steep
rocks, over which nothing without wings could go; in which the
children dwelt, and where there was neither sun nor moon, but only
a soft, rosy light, which never hurt or dazzled the eyes, and where
nothing ever happened which could disturb the peace of the place. To
chase the brilliant butterflies, to listen to the songs and stories
of the birds, to dance on the soft green grass, and gather flowers
to make fragrant wreaths and garlands with which to decorate the
beautiful palace in which, when darkness came over the valley, they all
assembled, and where tables, spread with the most delicious fruits,
always stood ready for them,--such was the life that Eva and the
children led in the Valley of Rest.
But at last a day came when the children told Eva that, as their custom
was, they must leave the valley and carry baskets of flowers and fruit
to the Queen for whom they had at first taken her. She could not go
with them now, they said, but the next time that they went they would
take her with them. They would be gone the next morning before she was
awake, and she would be alone for that day in the valley; but then they
would return; and the only favor they asked of her was this,--that she
would not go near the brook, nor play upon its banks, while they were
absent.
Eva willingly promised this. Such a little thing as it was to promise,
when she would have the whole fair valley to herself, to go where she
pleased, and to do what she pleased! It would be very easy to keep away
from the brook.
But when once more the soft, rosy light came, and the darkness was
gone, and Eva awoke to find herself lying, all alone, on her little
bed in the palace, and to know that all the children were indeed gone,
though only for a time, a strange restlessness came over her, and she
felt that she could not stay all alone in the palace. She would go out
of it into the valley. But she was no better off there. She gathered
flowers and made beautiful wreaths and bouquets, but there was no one
to admire them when they were made. The rainbows around the fountains
were less brilliant; the birds were all gone with the children, so that
she could not listen to their songs or the stories they might have told
her. She might play and dance, but what fun was there in that, when she
had no companions to dance and play with her? Eva thought she never
had spent such a stupid, long, dull day in all her life; and she wished
it was over. The only thing which seemed as merry as ever was the
little brook, which she had promised to avoid, yet which rippled along
so joyously that it was as much as Eva could do to keep away from it.
But she remembered her promise to the children, and turning her back
upon the brook, she went and sat down near one of the fountains. She
had only been there for a few moments, when she felt something pull her
dress; and looking round to see what it was,--wondering if the children
could possibly have returned,--she saw, to her great surprise, a huge
green toad, which had hold of her dress, and which, when she looked at
it, said:
“Croak! croak!”
Then Eva knew that she had seen the toad before, and she began to
wonder how it had gotten into the Valley of Rest, where she never had
seen anything like it. But she did not have much time for wonder; for
the toad, giving her dress another pull, said to her, “Come to the
brook! 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, for 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, she 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 compelled to carry burdens of stone too
heavy for 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 sting him in the
foot, or a great green frog, with prominent black eyes, would threaten
to swallow him; and then the boy would cry, and call for Eva to come
and help him.
Then the frog would say:
“Why did you let me tear your coat?”
And the faces would ask:
“Why did you lose your flower?”
And then the spider would say:
“Why did you creep into the rock?”
And to all this Aster would only answer with the cry, “Eva! Eva! help
me!”
Then one of the faces said, angrily:
“We shall punish you here until three things are done, because through
three things you fell into our power. First. Eva must find your coat.
Second. She must get the piece to mend it with. Third. She must find
you. But you need not call her, because she cannot hear you; for she
is in the Valley of Rest with the Happy Children, who are the Dawn
Fairies, and she has forgotten you. And there are many dangers to pass
in Shadow-Land before, she can come to you; and she will not come,
unless she hears you call.”
Then they would beat him again; and Aster would cry, louder than ever,
“Eva! Eva! help me!”
And then the dream passed away, and Eva awoke. And it seemed to her
that Aster’s voice mingled with the rippling of the water, and it
cried, piteously, “Eva! Eva! help me!”
And then Eva knew why it was that the children had begged her not to
go near the brook while they were gone; because its voice would bring
back to her all that she had forgotten. For now, as she sat by it, she
remembered everything that the leaves of the flower which she had eaten
had made her forget; and she sprang to her feet, determined to follow
the course of the brook, and let it lead her to where Aster was.
She went all through the fair valley, along the margin of the brook
with whose waters Aster’s voice still seemed to mingle. It led her
at last to the high rocks, which, like a steep wall, surrounded the
valley, and where a low cavern, the roof of which was only a few
inches above the surface of the water, received the brook. Eva could
not enter it, neither could she climb the steep precipice-like wall;
and, with Aster’s voice still sounding piteously in her ears, with
a heavy heart, after several fruitless efforts to climb the rocks,
she went back to the palace, determined to wait for the return of the
children; for, although she had been very happy while with them, and
was unwilling to leave them, she intended to ask them how she could
leave the peaceful Valley of Rest, and if they would provide her with
the means of continuing her search for Aster.
Had Eva consulted her own wishes, and been able to carry them out, she
would not have waited one moment, but would have gone at once out into
Shadow-Land, which she now knew lay all around the valley. She knew,
too, that the little brook running through the valley, and which had
brought her Aster’s cry for help, was the same whose “Follow, follow
me!” had led her to the golden fountain from whose crest she had
received her little charge. But how to leave the valley she did not
know. She could do nothing by herself,--she must wait till the return
of the children,--so that she could scarcely be patient till the hours
of darkness came, knowing that during them, and before the soft, rosy
light could dawn again, that they would be with her.
There was nothing for it, however, but patience, and at last, after a
day which had seemed at least a year long, darkness covered the valley;
and although Eva had fully intended to keep awake until the children’s
return, her eyes, try and resolve as she might, would not stay open,
and she slept.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]