Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/140

 So she opened the seventh door and went out of the eagles' nest. She went down toward the black house that was beside the bare tree. It was farther away than she had thought, and she spent hours and hours in coming to it.

The bent old woman was not before the house. Golden Hood peeped in and saw her. She was looking into a glass, and "Come in," she said, and the voice she said it in sounded to the maiden like the voice she had heard in the Dark Forest when one said, "Your shears will do as well as the spindle or the long thorn." Golden Hood had taken two steps in and now she took one step back. The hag stepped up to her and took her by the wrist.

"You are cold, cold, girl," said she.

"Oh, no, I'm not cold," said Golden Hood.

"You'll have to stay for a while," said the hag.

"But I don't like the creaking of the bare tree outside, nor the flapping of the raven's wings."

"All the same you will have to stay here until I warm you."