Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/102

 well and he drank the water. Then he left the cup in the well and it floated there.

Her face was without thought and without care. She had short words that seemed to have many meanings, and she said them over and over again. Her hands held his hands and held his arms, and he did not draw away from her. Then she drew him into her pool. She drew him down and down.

Softly, softly he was borne down through the water. He stood on the bottom, and she opened a door in a rock and brought him into a chamber that was heaped up with green moss.

Then she gave him a thick, honeyed drink, and she gave him berries and mushrooms and dead dried things that had long, bony limbs. And Valentine ate and he rested on the thick green moss.

In the chamber under the pool all was shadowy and slumberous, and Valentine stayed there in a half dream, and always near him were the white hands of the Nixie. Her laughter and her