OSWALD-- The children rose wide-eyed and let
Fall the wild-flowers they had gathered and stood
Listening. Again the cry: "Ho, children!"
(_Selma sits down._)
Then
They, hand in hand, slowly, and half afraid,
Moved forward, and the voices, as they moved,
Moved onward, sometimes above them in the air
Singing, and sometimes in the fernshaws: "Ho,
Here we are!" And then a wisp of sun-bright hair
Flashed in the deeper shadows of the wood.
The children, shouting, "Catch her! There she goes!"
Darted in glee from trunk to trunk. At last
The voices died away. The children saw
The great trees glooming round them--
SELMA-- Oh, I know!
They cried themselves to sleep, for they were lost,
And then the birds brought leaves and--Didn't they?
No.
OSWALD--As night came on, the elder of them, a boy,
Remembering to have heard a holy man
Speak of a house--a holy house--where men
Live as the angels live--
SELMA-- Went there?
OSWALD-- To pray.
To pray for help.
SELMA-- For the other child?
OSWALD-- For her.
SELMA--What did the fairies do?
OSWALD-- But ere he went,
Carved with his knife upon a tree a sign
A good man in the wood had taught him, a charm
Against the spirit of the forest. Then he
Told her strange words to say and leaving her
Kneeling upon the moss, her little hands
Folded, he went away. (_A pause._)
Not for himself.
SELMA--And did he not come back? Tell me the rest.
OSWALD--Come with me to the bridge.
SELMA-- Did he come back?
OSWALD--I have carved a charm.
SELMA-- A charm?
OSWALD-- For you.
SELMA-- For me?
(_A pause._)
Where are you going, Oswald?--(_A pause._) See my hair.
Why should it scare the fishes? You are wise;
Why should it, Oswald? It is soft as hers
Down in the spring, and if you'll come and look
You'll see the smallest minnows twinkle there;
They do not fear.
OSWALD-- It is a snare.
SELMA-- (_Naively._)
Is it?
I would not harm them, Oswald.
OSWALD-- Father Paul says
It is the snare of Satan.
SELMA-- I know him.
'Tis not my hair he uses.