Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/117

 Moss; they passed the fire around which the robbers had sat when John Ball had eaten the wolf meat that changed him; they came to the last of the stone-like trees, and they were at the edge of the Dark Forest.

They hurried away as swiftly as they could. Bats squeaked around them, and Baldwin was still so filled with the terror of the Dark Forest that tremors went all through him.

They came into a space that had been green and that now was dry. In the middle of that space there was a tree that was all bare and broken. Golden Hood stayed beside it, and as she did she heard a voice from the tree saying, "Tend me, O, tend me, living one."

She stayed under the tree, and again she heard the voice of the tree and it said, "Tend me, O, tend me, living one." "I will tend you, tree," said Golden Hood.

She sat under the tree for a while, and Baldwin, the old mill horse, went searching around. He came back to where Golden Hood was, and