JACK O'MEARA.

P.S.--She goes to see her tree spirit every day. But she dont talk to him
no more. She just lays down on her face and cries.

LVI

PHILIP TO JACK

I am afraid, little Jack, that my long story about the lady and the knight
in the woods did not interest you very much; and that is a pity, for, if I
cannot amuse you, how shall I do when I come to write stories for grown-up
folk? Well, anyway, I am going to tell you what happened after the lady
and the old man went away into the forest.

For awhile they walked side by side in silence. But the road was long and
it was already late, and by and by the night fell and wrapped all the
trees in solemn shadows. It was not easy to keep the path in the darkness,
and pretty soon they were quite lost and found themselves wandering
helplessly in the black tangled aisles of the forest. That was bad, for
the lady was tired in body and discomforted in heart. But worse happened
when the old man left her to seek out the path alone, for he only lost
himself more completely in the treacherous shadows and could not get back
to her. Ah, Jack, if the lady was beautiful when the sunlight shone upon
her, how lovely do you suppose she was here in the night with the white
beams of the moon sifting down through the swaying boughs upon her
blanched face? But her beauty merely frightened her the more in her
terrible loneliness, where the only sound she heard was the stealthy
whisperings of the breeze among the leaves, as if all the shadows up
yonder were weaving some plot against her, while at times a low
inarticulate moan or some sudden crackling of dry twigs floated to her out
of the impenetrable gloom of the forest. At last she threw herself on her
face under a great tree, and wept and wept for very terror and
loneliness.

Now wonderful things may happen in the night, dear Jack. The trees then
have a life of their own, and sometimes when the sun, which belongs to man
only, is gone they have power to do what they please to foolish people who
come into their circle. And so this tree that stood leaning over the
prostrate lady whispered and whispered to itself in a strange language.
Then out of the boughs there came creeping a dark cold shadow. It dropped
down noiselessly to the ground and covered the lady all about. It moved
and swayed in the faint moonlight like a column of wind-blown smoke. You
will hardly believe the res