Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/177

WHO FOLLOWED THE PIPER you have given me and go from this palace and from my father's city."

John Ball could not bear that Valentine should say this to him and that the comradeship they had together should seem a clouded and doubtful thing. He told Valentine all that Baldwin had told him. He told him why he had slain the roan horse, and he became stone from the toes of his feet to his knees. He told him why he had burned the bridal dress, and he became stone from his knees to his heart. And then he told him why he had kissed the lips of the bride, and he became stone from the toes of his feet to the crown of his head. All in stone he stood in the chamber of colored glass, and for a while nothing was heard there except the clock ticking and Golden Hood weeping.

And now that he knew that John Ball had been true in everything a heaviness came over Valentine's heart as if it had been turned to stone, and he knew that that heaviness would be there until he saw his faithful friend in flesh {{c|145}