Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/57

 round the Wood of Daylight-Gone. It was called the Dark Forest. No one knew what beings were in it. And between the Wood of Daylight-Gone and the Dark Forest was the Deep Wood. In the Deep Wood were dwarfs and wild creatures.

When Philemon spoke of the Dark Forest, Golden Hood said, "If I went into it, should I ever see you two again?"

"If you went into it, Golden Hood," said Valentine, "I should follow and bring you back."

"And if Golden Hood and you, Valentine, went into the Dark Forest, I should go seeking you, day after day," said John Ball, the Miller's son. They said no more about the Dark Forest. With the other children they played under the great ash trees and beside the bushy white-thorn trees in the Wood of Daylight-Gone.

Johnny-Jump-Up and Jumping Joan, the showman's daughter, and Meg, the little rag-picker, and Philomena, the countess's child,