I
Once upon a time there dwelt in a far country two children, a sister and
a brother, named Tilsa and Tobene. Tilsa was twelve and Tobene was ten,
and they had grown up, as it were, hand in hand. Their father died when
Tobene was only a little piece of pink dimpled dough, and when their
mother died too, a few years after, old Alison was told to pack up the
things and journey with Tilsa and Tobene to the children's grandfather,
the Liglid (or Lord Mayor) of Ule, whom they had never yet seen.
Old Alison was their nurse, and she had been their father's nurse before
them. Nothing worth knowing was unknown to old Alison: she could tell
them where the fairies danced by night, and the names and habits of the
different people who live in the stars, and the reason why thrushes'
eggs have black spots and hedge sparrows' none, and how to make Toffee
of Paradise, and a thousand useful and wonderful things beside.
Alison was old and wrinkled and bent, but there was not a warmer heart
in all the world, and no tongue could say kinder words than hers, and no
hands minister so lovingly to those who needed help. It was said that
Alison had only to look at a sore place and it was healed again. If any
one loved her more than Tilsa it was Tobene; and if any one loved her
more than Tobene it was Tilsa; and old Alison's love for them was as
strong.
On the day appointed, the three travellers set forth in a chariot driven
by postilions, and in the course of a week's journeying through strange
countries came at last to Ule.
At the southern gate they were met by the Liglid. They discovered him to
be more than a mere person--a Personage!--with white hair, and little
beady eyes, and a red nose, and a gold-laced hat.
'Welcome,' said he, 'welcome, Tilsa and Tobene, to the city or Ule.' And
then he kissed the air an inch or two from the cheek of his
grandchildren and led the way to his house.