Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/119

 image that she saw that she could not help but smile down to it as it showed itself in the well.

The moons in the night changed as the days and nights went by; still Golden Hood tended the tree. When she had watered it and touched all its branches Baldwin would come and talk to her. Baldwin would tell her that some day and soon John Ball would come out of the Dark Forest. "And will he have Valentine with him?" Golden Hood would ask. "He will find Valentine and he will have Valentine with him," Baldwin would say.

The days went by, and a bud came here and a bud came there on the tree. The buds swelled into leaves and the whole tree became green and joyous. A first white blossom came. The tree swayed its branches so that the blossom fell and touched Golden Hood on the lips where she lay below.

She sat up, her hands in, her lap and her golden hood fallen upon her shoulders. She