ugly, and in rags. Get thee hence that I may see thee no
more."

"Oh, my little son," cried the beggar-woman. "Will you not kiss me
before I go? I have suffered much to find thee."

"No," said the Star-Child. "I would rather kiss an adder or a toad
than thee."

So the woman went away into the forest, weeping bitterly, and the
Star-Child was glad and ran back to his playmates. But when they saw
him coming they ran away from him in fear. He went to the well and
looked in. Lo, his face was as the face of a toad and his body was
scaled like an adder. He flung himself down on the grass, and wept.

"I denied my mother," he said. "This has come upon me because of my
sin. I will seek her through all the world, nor rest until I have
found her."

So he ran away into the forest and called out to his mother to come to
him, but there was no answer. All day long he called to her, and when
the sun set he lay down to sleep on a bed of leaves, and the birds and
the animals fled from him, for they remembered his cruelty, and he was
alone save for the toad that watched him, and the slow adder that
crawled past.

And in the morning he rose up and plucked some bitter berries from the
trees and ate them, and took his way through the great wood, weeping
sorely. And of everything that he met he made inquiry if perchance
they had seen his mother.

He said to the Mole, "Thou canst go beneath the earth. Tell me, is my
mother there?"

And the Mole answered, "Thou hast blinded mine eyes. How should I
know?"

He said to the Linnet, "Thou canst fly over the tops of the tall trees
and canst see the whole world. Tell me, canst thou see my mother?"

And the Linnet answered, "Thou hast clipt my wings for thy pleasure.
How should I fly?"

And to the little Squirrel who lived in the fir tree, and was lonely,
he said, "Where is my mother?"

And the Squirrel answered, "Thou hast slain mine. Dost thou seek to
slay thine also?"

And the Star-Child wept and bowed his head and prayed forgiveness of
God's things, and went on through the forest, seeking for the
beggar-woman.

When he passed through the villages the children mocked him and threw
stones at him. He had no place to rest his head, and none had pity on
him. For the space of three years he wandered over the world, and
often seemed to see his mother in the road in front of him, and would
call to her, and run after her until the sharp flints made his feet
bleed. But overtake her he cou