Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/164

THE CHILDREN brought them. But at last he stayed upon a branch and would not fly any farther.

"Near you now," said he, when they came up to him, "near you now is the abode of Circe the Enchantress."

They came to a beautiful lawn; a marble house stood in the middle of it, and there were roses and fountains before the house. And there was Circe the Enchantress weaving at her loom. There were creatures around her—not the strange and fearful beasts that wandering men saw when they came to Circe in the old days, but small and harmless creatures—squirrels and coneys and odd-looking hedgehogs.

As the three children came near the squirrels ran up the trees, scolding them; the coneys went running around them, and the hedgehogs put out their snouts and sniffed at them.

Circe the Enchantress, when she saw the three children, ceased weaving at her loom. Valentine came to where she stood, and Golden Hood