Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/91

 thorn tree." Another voice said: "Now that she is in the Dark Forest, you can go behind her, and when she lies down you can cut off a tress of her hair. Your shears will do as well as the spindle or the long thorn."

Golden Hood ran. But she was running in the Dark Forest where there was no place for her to run to. As she ran a rustling thing followed after her. It went on when she went on, and it stopped when she stopped. Once, when she looked around, she saw something dark behind a tree, and she knew she saw the shining blades of shears.

On and on she went, and the rustling went behind her when she went, and the rustling stopped when her fluttering heart made her stop. She was overwearied now, and her body ached because of all the buffets she had had from striking against the trees. She went, and once she stumbled and she fell. She could not hear the rustling because her heart beat so loudly. She knew that the one who carried the shears was