one. He listened to hear
if there were any voices without, but he could hear nothing but the
rush of a waterfall close by, and the distant cry of sheep and lambs.
The next thing the little one remembered that he did, was to get up and
go out of the door of the hut. The hut was built of rude rafters and
wattles in the front of a cave or hole in a rock; it was down low in
the glen at the edge of the brook, a little below the waterfall. When
the child came out, he looked anxiously for somebody, and was more and
more frightened when he could see no creature of his own kind amid all
the green leaves, and all along the water's edge above and below.

"Where was the old woman all this time? who can say? but perhaps not
far off; perhaps she might have been deaf, and, though near, did not
hear the noise made by the child when he came out of the hut.

"Edwy did not remember how long he stood by the brook; but this is
certain that the longer he felt himself to be alone, the more
frightened he became, and soon began to fancy terrible things. There
was towards the top of the rock from which the waters fell a huge old
yew-tree, or rather bush, which hung forward over the fall. It looked
very black in comparison with the tender green of the fresh leaves of
the neighbouring trees, and the white and glittering spray of the
water. Edwy looked at it and fancied that it moved; his eye was
deceived by the dancing motion of the water.

"Whilst he looked and looked, some great black bird came out from the
midst of it uttering a harsh croaking noise. The little boy could bear
no more; he turned away from the terrible bush and the terrible bird,
and ran down the valley, leaving hut and all behind, and crying, as he
always did when hurt or frightened, 'Papa! mamma! Oh, come, oh, come to
Edwy!'

"He ran and ran, whilst his little bare feet were pierced with pebbles,
and his legs torn with briars, until he came to where the valley became
narrower, and where one might have thought the rocks and banks on each
side had been cleft by the hand of a giant, so nicely would they have
fitted could they have been brought together again. The brook ran along
a pebble channel between these rocks and banks, and there was a rude
path which went in a line with the brook; a path which was used only by
the gipsies and a few poor cottagers, whose shortest way from the great
road at the end of the valley to their own houses was by that solitary
way.

"As Edwy ra