hole.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ENCHANTED FIRE.

Now, Harold--after he had seen Hilda and the cat vanish up the trunk
of the tall pine-tree--had sat himself down rather disconsolately
beside the fire, which was blazing away famously, yellow, red, and
blue. He rested his back against the trunk of the tree, and fixed his
eyes upon the fire; it made a slight rustling and crackling noise as
it burned. There was also another noise, but that did not come from
the fire; it was a chopping noise, sounding far away in the forest,
and Harold knew that it was Rumpty-Dudget cutting down the trees. Each
time he heard this sound it seemed to be a little nearer. Then he
would wonder to himself what he should do if Rumpty-Dudget were
suddenly to appear. He must not, at all events, let the fire go out;
and every once in a while he took a faggot from the pile that he and
Hilda had heaped up and put it in the leaping flame; but he was very
careful to avoid stepping outside the circle which Tom the Cat had
drawn with the tip of his tail.

In this manner a very long time passed away, and Harold, who had never
sat up so late before in his life, began to get uncommonly sleepy. But
still Hilda and Tom did not return; and Harold knew that, if he were
to lie down and take a nap, the enchanted fire might go out before he
waked up again; and, as Tom had warned him, once out it could never be
rekindled. Moreover, Rumpty-Dudget would then be able to steal the
fire-blackened logs and blacken poor Hector's face all over with them,
so that he never could be saved. Therefore Harold kept himself awake,
partly by sitting on a pine-needle which he had found stuck in the
moss cushion, and partly by putting fresh faggots into the flame,
which went on burning blue, yellow, and red.

But another very long time passed away, and the sound of
Rumpty-Dudget's axe sounded nearer, and the forest was dark and full
of mystery, and there was no sign yet of Hilda and the cat. 'I never
knew before,' said Harold to himself, 'that a night was so much
longer than a day. I always thought they were a great deal shorter,
But then I have no Fairy Aunt now to come and whisper pleasant stories
into my ear. Heigho! well, I suppose I must put on another faggot.'
And he got up to fetch one.

Much to his consternation, however, he found that there was now only a
single faggot left of all those that he and Hilda had gathered
together.

He was really frightened at this, and k