ok the kite from his
hands.

Everychild, standing beside her, looked into her rather sad, kind eyes,
which were closer to him than he remembered their ever having been
before. There were little moist lines about them, and they were faded.
Her hands were not at all like his mother's hands. Not nearly so nice:
and yet how clever they were! She was really untangling the tail of
the kite, moving it here and there with large gestures.

And then Everychild forgot all about the kite. Certain amazing things
had begun to happen near by.

It had been getting dark in the room; and now it suddenly became quite
bright, though no one had turned the lights on. And there was a sound
of music--a short bit of a march, which ended all of a sudden. And
then Everychild realized that by some strange process two persons had
entered the room.

CHAPTER II

EVERYCHILD'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE GIANT

He was almost afraid to look at the two strange persons, because their
being there seemed very mysterious, and he had the thought that if he
looked at them steadily they might vanish. He knew at once that they
were not to be treated just as if they were ordinary persons. It was
not only that they had come into the room without making any noise, or
that there had been that burst of music, or that the light had
brightened.

It was rather because the cook went on untangling the kite, just as if
nothing had happened.

He said to himself, "She does not know they are here. She does not
know I have seen anything."

Then it occurred to him that the two strangers were not paying any
attention to him at all, and that he might look at them as much as he
pleased.

Suddenly he recognized one of them. He had seen his picture. It was
Father Time. And he could have laughed to himself because Father Time
was a much more pleasing person than he had been in his picture. It is
true that he carried a scythe, just as he had been pictured as doing.
There was a sand-glass too. It was in two parts, connected by a narrow
stem through which the sand was running from one part to the other.

But he did not have a long white beard, and a dark robe, and a stern
face. Not at all. His eyes were all ready to twinkle. They were the
kindest eyes Everychild had ever seen. You could tell by looking at
them that if you were to hurt yourself Father Time would pity you and
comfort you. He had a rather jolly figure. You could imagine he might
be very pla