Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/99

 Then Valentine shouted at them and waved his sword. He heard them scatter and go pattering away through the Dark Forest.

He went on and on and he felt weary and dispirited. Oh, very far did he go through the Dark Forest. More and more weary, and more and more dispirited he became. He went on and on, not knowing where he was going, and at last he came to where the Nixie was standing in her pool.

White was the Nixie, white like the silver birch. Her hair was in a web that was thick and high upon her head, and it was red like the winter sun between the pine trees. She laughed at him as he came near her pool, and she flung water upon him.

"Who are you?" said Valentine.

"I am the Nixie of the Dark Forest," said she, smiling at him.

She laughed, and because she was carefree in the Dark Forest Valentine came near her. He