Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno.djvu/225

XIV] kittens from chickens at one glance)——and I was passing on, when a sudden thought made me stoop down and examine the leaves.

Then a little thrill of delight ran through me——for I noticed that the holes were all arranged so as to form letters; there were three leaves side by side, with "B," "R," and "U" marked on them, and after some search I found two more, which contained an "N" and an "O."

And then, all in a moment, a flash of inner light seemed to illumine a part of my life that had all but faded into oblivion——the strange visions I had experienced during my journey to Elveston: and with a thrill of delight I thought "Those visions are destined to be linked with my waking life!"

By this time the 'eerie' feeling had come back again, and I suddenly observed that no crickets were chirping; so I felt quite sure that "Bruno" was somewhere very near.

And so indeed he was——so near that I had very nearly walked over him without seeing him; which would have been dreadful, always supposing that Fairies can be walked over——my own belief is that they are something of