lowed, and when a door at the end of the hall was opened
to let the pipers pass, a crowd of colors came rushing in, and floor,
and ceiling, and stately pillars, and glancing couches, and shining
walls, were stained with a thousand dazzling hues.

Out through the door the pipers marched; out through the door the
children followed, and when they crossed the threshold they were
treading on clouds of amber, of purple, and of gold.

"Oh, Connla," said Nora, "we have walked into the sunset!"

And around and about them everywhere were soft, fleecy clouds, and over
their heads was the glowing sky, and the stars were shining through it,
as a lady's eyes shine through a veil of gossamer. And the sky and stars
seemed so near that Connla thought he could almost touch them with his
hand.

When they had gone some distance, the pipers disappeared, and when
Connla and Nora came up to the spot where they had seen the last of
them, they found themselves at the head of a ladder, all the steps of
which were formed of purple and amber clouds that descended to what
appeared to be a vast and shining plain, streaked with purple and gold.
In the spaces between the streaks of gold and purple they saw soft,
milk-white stars. And the children thought that the great plain, so far
below them, also belonged to cloudland.

They could not see the little pipers, but up the steps was borne by
the cool, sweet air the fairy music; and lured on by it step by step
they traveled down the fleecy stairway. When they were little more
than halfway down there came mingled with the music a sound almost
as sweet--the sound of waters toying in the still air with pebbles
on a shelving beach, and with the sound came the odorous brine of the
ocean. And then the children knew that what they thought was a plain in
the realms of cloudland was the sleeping sea unstirred by wind or tide,
dreaming of the purple clouds and stars of the sunset sky above it.

When Connla and Nora reached the strand they saw the nine little pipers
marching out towards the sea, and they wondered where they were going
to. And they could hardly believe their eyes when they saw them stepping
out upon the level ocean as if they were walking upon the land; and away
the nine little pipers marched, treading the golden line cast upon the
waters by the setting sun. And as the music became fainter and fainter
as the pipers passed into the glowing distance, the children began to
wonder what was to beco