and there was a steady,
gentle shower of yellow leaves down the Forest. That morning when he
woke the little house seemed suspended in a golden mist. As he stood in
the doorway he felt as though it might drift away up over the trees and
into space any minute. But after a little he knew it was not Helma's
little forest house that was to go swinging away into space and
adventure,--it was himself. And suddenly he wanted to go _then_,--to the
sea and over and beyond. He called the news in to Helma and Ivra, who
were still within doors. Helma came swiftly out to him.

"The trees are beckoning again, mother," he cried. "The way they did a
year ago when I first came here. Now it is just as Wild Star said. The
music is beginning to go on. There's magic out to-day. Oh, what made
Wild Star know so much?"

"Sit down," said Helma. She took his hand and drew him down beside her
on the door stone. Then she held it firmly while very slowly and
distinctly, but once only, she gave him directions about how to go,
where to go and what to do, so that he might follow the magic.

Eric sat and listened attentively, in spite of the high beating of his
heart, and the magic working in his head. As soon as she was done, he
wanted to go right away that minute. For even in his happiness he knew
that saying good-by to all his friends in the Forest would be too sad a
task. They did not say good-by when they went on long adventures, or
followed summer south. They simply disappeared one day, and those who
stayed behind forgot them until next season. So Eric would do as they.

Only last week Helma had made him a warm brown suit for the coming
winter. The new strong sandals on his feet he had made himself. His cap
was new, too, and Helma had stuck two new little brown feathers in it as
in the old one; so he still had a look of flying. There was really
nothing to delay his departure further. Helma called to Ivra, and she
came out slowly. There was no need to explain things to her, for she had
heard everything.

Helma lifted Eric's chin in her palms and looked long and earnestly at
the child she was letting go away from her all alone out into the queer
world of Earth People. She picked him up in her strong arms then, as
though he were a very little boy, and kissed him. She ran with him to
the opening in the hedge and set him down there, laughing.

"Run along now 'round the world," she said. "And when you come back
bring a hundred new World Stories w