r shoulders
to the door with despairing force.

The Cat pretended to be anxious, while secretly rejoicing:

"This may be the end of it," she said, curling her whiskers. "They
won't dare to go on after this."

Dear Tylo made superhuman efforts to help his little master, while
Mytyl stood crying in a corner.

At last, our hero gave a shout of triumph:

"Hurrah! They're giving way! Victory! Victory! The door is shut!"

At the same time, he dropped on the steps, utterly exhausted, dabbing
his forehead with his poor little hands which shook with terror.

"Well?" asked Night, harshly. "Have you had enough? Did you see them?"

"Yes, yes!" replied the little fellow, sobbing. "They are hideous and
awful.... I don't think they have the Blue Bird...."

"You may be sure they haven't," answered Night, angrily. "If they had,
they would eat him at once.... You see there is nothing to be
done...."

Tyltyl drew himself up proudly:

"I must see everything," he declared. "Light said so...."

"It's an easy thing to say," retorted Night, "when one's afraid and
stays at home!"

"Let us go to the next door," said Tyltyl, resolutely. "What's in
here?"

"This is where I keep the Shades and the Terrors!"

Tyltyl reflected for a minute:

"As far as Shades go," he thought, "Mrs. Night is poking fun at me.
It's more than an hour since I've seen anything but shade in this
house of hers; and I shall be very glad to see daylight again. As for
the Terrors, if they are anything like the Ghosts, we shall have
another good joke."

Our friend went to the door and opened it, before his companions had
time to protest. For that matter, they were all sitting on the floor,
exhausted with the last fright; and they looked at one another in
astonishment, glad to find themselves alive after such a scare.
Meanwhile, Tyltyl threw back the door and nothing came out:

"There's no one there!" he said.

"Yes, there is! Yes, there is! Look out!" said Night, who was still
shamming fright.

She was simply furious. She had hoped to make a great impression with
her Terrors; and, lo and behold, the wretches, who had so long been
snubbed by Man, were afraid of him! She encouraged them with kind
words and succeeded in coaxing out a few tall figures covered with
grey veils. They began to run all around the hall until, hearing the
Children laugh, they were seized with fear and rushed indoors again.
The attempt had failed, as far as Night was concerned, a