the shortest cut to the Wise Woman,
and told her the man's story. After a long look in the mirror and the
pot, she wagged her head slowly and said, 'It's all dark, children. You
see, being as there's no Moon to conjure by, I can't tell ye where she's
gone or what's made off with her--which same I could tell ye fine if she
was in her right place. But mebbe, if ye do what I'm going to tell ye,
then ye may hap on her yourselves. Listen now! Just before the darklings
come, each of ye take a stone in your mouth and a twig of the
witch-hazel in your hands, and go into the marshes without fear. Speak
no word, for fear of your lives, but keep straight on till ye come to a
spot where ye'll see a coffin with a cross and a candle on it. That's
where ye'll find your Moon, I'm thinking, if ye're lucky.

So the next night as the dark began to fall they all trooped out into
the marshes, each with a stone in his mouth and a twig of the
witch-hazel in his hands. Never a word they spoke, but kept straight on;
and, I'm telling you, there was not one among them but had the creeps
and the starts. They could see nothing around them but bogs and pools
and snags; but strange sighing whispers brushed past their ears, and
cold wet hands sought theirs and tugged at the hazel twigs. But all at
once, while looking everywhere for the coffin with the cross and the
candle, they espied the big, strange stone, and it looked just like a
coffin; while at the head of it was a black cross formed by the branches
of the snag, and on this cross flickered a tiny light just like a
candle.

When they saw these things they all knew that what the Wise Woman had
told them was true: they were not far from their beloved Moon. But,
being mighty feared of Bogles and the other Evil Things, they all went
down on their knees in the mud and said the Lord's Prayer, once
forwards, in keeping with the cross, and once backwards to keep off the
Horrors of the Darkness. All this they said in their minds, without
saying a word aloud, for they well knew what would happen to them if
they neglected the Wise Woman's advice.

Then they rose up and laid hands on the great stone and heaved it up.
And my Granny says, that as they did it, some of them saw, just for one
tiddy-widdy little waste of a minute, the most beautiful face in the
world gazing up at them with wistful eyes like--like--I really can't
remember how my Granny described them, but it was either 'pools of
gratitude' or 'l