THE sky was clear, and the rays of the sun fell hot upon the dry woods
that morning when Master and the children and their Uncle Silas reached
the landing at Catamount. Its eastern shore lay deep under cool shadows.
The water plane was like taut canvas on which a glowing picture of
wooded shore and sky and mountain had been painted. Golden robins darted
across a cove and sang in the tree-tops.
Master righted his canoe and put the children aboard and took his place
in the stern-seat.
"I'll slip over to R-Robin," said the Emperor as he shoved the canoe
into deep water. With him to "slip" meant to go, and in his speech he
always "slipped" from one point to another.
Master pushed through the pads and slowly cut the still shadow. The
inverted towers of Painter Mountain began to quake beneath his canoe.
Sue sat in the bow and Socky behind her. The curly hair of the girl,
which had, indeed, the silken yellow of a corn-tassel, showed beneath
her little pink bonnet. Something about her suggested the rose half
open. Socky wore his rabato and necktie and best suit of clothes. They
were both in purple and fine linen, so to speak---no one had thought to
tell them better.
As they came near the point of Birch Cove, Master began to turn the bow
and check his headway. There, on a moss-covered rock, stood the maiden
whom he had seen the day before. A crow with a small scarlet ribbon
about his neck clung upon her shoulder. The girl was looking at the two
children. The bird rose on his wings and, after a moment of hesitation,
flew towards them, the ends of the scarlet ribbon fluttering in the
air. Socky drew back as the crow lighted on a gunwale near his side. Sue
clung to the painter and sat looking backward with curiosity and fear
in her face. The crow turned his head, surveying them as if he were,
indeed, quite overcome with amazement.
"Sit still," said Master, quietly. "He won't hurt you."
The bird rose in the air again, and, darting downward, seized a shiny
buckle above the visor of the boy's cap, which lay on the canoe bottom,
and bore cap and all to his young mistress. Socky began to cry with
alarm.
Master reassured him and paddled slowly towards the moss-covered rock.
Silently his bow touched the shore. He stuck his paddle in the sand. He
stepped into the shallow water and helped the children ashore. In the
edge of the tamaracks and now partly hidden by their foliage, Miss
Dunmore stood looking at the children. Her figure was tall, erect, and
oddly picturesque. Somehow she reminded Master of a deer halted in its
flight by curiosity. Her face, charming in form and expression, betrayed
a childish timidity and innocence. Her large, blue eyes were full of
wonder. Pretty symbols of girlish vanity adorned her figure. There
were fresh violets on her bodice, and a delicate, lacy length of the
moss-vine woven among her curls. The girl's hair, wonderfully full and
rich in color, had streaks of gold in it. A beaded belt and holster of
Indian make held a small pistol.
"Miss Dunmore, I believe?" he ventured.
The girl retired a step or two and stood looking timidly, first at him
and then at the children. Her manner betrayed excitement. She addressed
him with hesitation. "My--my name is Edith Dunmore," she said, in a
tone just above a whisper. With trembling hands she picked a spray of
tamarack that for a moment obscured her face.
"You are the nun of the green veil. I have heard of you," said Master.
"I--I must not speak to you, sir," she said, as she retreated a little
farther.
"My name is Master--Robert Master," said he. "I shall stay only a
minute, but these children would like to know you." While speaking he
had returned to his canoe. Socky and Sue stood still, looking up at the
maiden.
"Children!" she exclaimed, in a low, sweet, tremulous, tone, as she took
a step towards them. "The wonderful little children?"
"Sometimes I think they are brownies," he answered, with a smile of
amusement. "But their uncle calls them little fawns."
Her right hand, which held the spray of tamarack, fell to her side; her
left hand clung to a branch on which the crow sat a little above her
shoulder, and her cheek lay upon her arm as she looked down wistfully,
fondly, at the children. Her blue eyes were full of curiosity.
Socky and Sue regarded the beautiful maiden with a longing akin to that
in her. In all there was a deep, mysterious desire which had grown out
of nature's need--in them for a mother, in her for the endearing touch
of those newly come into the world and for their high companionship.
Moreover, these two little ones, who had now a dim and imperfect
recollection of their mother, had shaped an ideal--partly through the
help of Gordon--to take its place. Therein they saw a lady, young and
beautiful and more like this one who stood before them than like any
they had yet beheld. Sue grasped the hand of her brother, and both stood
gazing at the maiden, but neither spoke nor moved for a moment. Edith
Dun-more leaned forward a little, looking into their faces.
"Can you not speak to me?" she asked.
Socky began to be embarrassed; his eyes fell; he shook his head
doubtfully.
Edith Dunmore looked up at the stalwart figure of the young man. Their
eyes met. She quickly turned away. The tame crow, on the bough above,
began to laugh and chatter as if he thought it all an excellent joke.
"May--I--take them in my arms?" she asked, with hesitation.
"Yes; but I warn you--they have a way of stealing one's heart."
"Ah-h-h-h-h!" croaked the little crow, in a warning cry, as if he had
seen at once the peril of it.
She had begun to move slowly, almost timidly, towards the children. She
knelt before them and took the little hand of Sue in hers and looked
upon it with wonder. She touched it with her lips; she pressed it
against her cheek; she trembled beneath its power. The touch of the
child's hand was, for her, it would almost seem, like that of One on the
eyes of Bartimeus. Suddenly, as by a miracle, Edith Dunmore rose out
of childhood. The veil of the nun was rent away. She was a woman fast
coming into riches of unsuspected inheritance. She put her arms about
the two and gently drew them towards her and held them close. Her
embrace and the touch of her breast upon theirs were grateful to them,
and they kissed her. Her eyes were wet, her sweet voice full of familiar
but uncomprehended longing when she said, "Dear little children!"
"Tut, _tut!_" said the tame crow, who had crept to the end of his
branch, where he stood looking down at them. In a moment he began to
break the green twigs and let them fall on the head of his mistress.
Sue felt the hair and looked into the face and eyes of the maiden with
wondering curiosity. Socky ran his fingers over the beaded belt. Both
had a suspicion which they dared not express that here was an angel in
some way related to their mother.
"You are a beautiful lady," said the boy, with childish frankness.
Master has often tried to describe the scene. He confesses that words,
even though vivid and well spoken, cannot make one to understand the
something which lay beneath all said and done, and which went to his
heart so that for a time he turned and walked away from them.
"Do you remember when you were fairies?" the girl asked of the children.
The latter shook their heads.
"Tell us about the fairies," Sue proposed, timidly.
"They are old, old people--so my father has told me," said the beautiful
lady. "They came into this world thousands of years ago riding in a
great cloud that was drawn by wild geese. The fairies came down, each on
a big flake of snow, and got off in the tree-tops and never went away.
At first they were the teentiest folks--so little that a hundred of them
could stand on a maple leaf--and very, very old. My father says they
were never young in their lives, and I guess they have always lived.
They rode around on the backs of the birds and saw everything in the
world and had such a good time they all began to grow young. Now, as
they grew young they grew bigger and bigger, and every spring a lot more
of the little old people came out of the sky and began to grow young
like the others. And by-and-by some of them were as big as your thumb
and bigger."
"How big do they grow?" the boy asked.
"As they grow young they keep growing bigger. By-and-by the birds cannot
carry them. Then they have to walk, and for the first time in their
lives they begin to get hungry and learn to cry and nobody knows what
is the matter with them. The fairies complain about the noise they make,
and one night a little old woman takes them down into the woods to get
them out of the way. And violets grow wherever their feet touch the
ground, and they sit in a huckleberry bush and make a noise like the cry
of a spotted fawn. The fawns hear them and know very well what they are
crying for. The fawns have always loved them. When the fairies come down
out of the tree-tops they always ride on the fawns, and where they have
sat you can see a little white spot about as big as a flake of snow.
That's why the fawns are spotted, and you know how shy they are--they
mustn't let anybody see the fairies. Well, the young ones sit there in
a huckleberry bush crying. The little animals come and lick their faces
and tell them of a wonderful spring where milk flows out of a little
hill and has a magic power in it, for even if one were crying and tasted
the milk he always became happy. The young fairies climb on the backs of
the fawns and ride away. By-and-by the fawns come to their mothers and
their mothers tell them that no one who has teeth in his head can drink
at the spring. So they wonder what to do. By-and-by they go to the
woodpecker, for he has a pair of forceps and can pull anything, and the
woodpecker pulls their teeth. Then the young fairies do nothing but ride
around--each on a spotted fawn--and drink at the wonderful spring and
grow fat and lazy, and the birds pull every hair out of their heads to
build nests with. They live down in the woods, for they cannot climb
the trees any more, and one day they fall asleep for the first time and
tumble off the fawns and lie on the ground dreaming.
"They dream of the fairy-heaven where they shall grow old again and each
shall have a mother and his own wonderful spring of milk. Now that day
trees begin to grow in the ground beneath them. The trees grow fast, and
all in a night they lift the sleeping fairies far above the ground. The
wind rocks them and they lie dreaming in the tree-tops until a crane, as
he is crossing over the sky, looks down and sees them and goes and takes
them away. You know the cranes have to go through the sky every day and
pick up the young fairies."
She paused and sat holding the hands of little Sue and looking at them
as if their beauty were a great wonder.
"Where do they take them?"
Master was returning, and the girl rose like one afraid and whispered to
the children, "I will tell you if--if you will come again."
"I shall ask your father if I may come and see you," said Master as he
came near.
"Ha! ha! ha!" the bird croaked, fluttering in the air and lighting on
the shoulder of his mistress.
The children stepped aside quickly, as if in fear of it.
She took the crow on her finger and held him at arm's-length. He turned
and tried to catch an end of the scarlet ribbon. She was a picture then
to remind one of the days of falconry. She ran a few paces up a green
aisle in the thicket. She stopped where the young man was unable to see
her.
"Could--could you bring the children again, sir?" she asked.
"On Thursday, at the same hour," he answered.
He heard again the warning of the little crow and her footsteps growing
fainter in the dark trail of the deer.