ached the opal centre, and was circling it. Then quickly all the
laughter stopped; the green feet came twinkling sixteens to the
dozens, so as to get round the post before him and away.

One lap, he was before her; two laps, he turned again to her coming,
and found her falling into his arms. She blossomed into sight at his
touch: from top to toe she was there! All rosy and alive he had her in
his clasp, laughing, crying, clinging, yet struggling to be free. She
made a most endless handful, till Tulip had caught her by the hair and
kissed her between the eyes.

All round and overhead the magic crystal reared up arches of fire, to
a roof that dropped like rain, while Tulip and his prize sank down
exhausted on the great hub of opal to rest. As he touched it all the
secret wonders of the Wishing-Pot were opened and revealed to his
gaze.

Crowds and crowds of faces were what he most saw; everywhere that he
turned he saw old friends and neighbours who, he thought, had been
dead and gone, looking sadly, and shaking long sorrowful faces at
him. 'You here too, Tulip?' they seemed forever to be saying. 'Always
another, and another; and now you here too!'

There was the dairyman's wife, who had waited seven years to have a
child, holding a little will-o'-the-wisp of a thing in her arms. Now
and then for a while it would lie still, and then suddenly it would
leap up and dart away; and she, poor soul, must up and after it,
though the chase were ever so long!

There also was Miller Dick with his broad thumbs, counting over a rich
pile of gold, which, ever and anon, spun up into the air, and went
strewing itself like dead leaves before the wind. Then he too must
needs up and after it, till it was all caught again, and added
together, and made right.

There were small playmates of Tulip's childhood, each with its little
conceit of treasure: one had a toy, and another a lamb, another a
bird; and all of them hunted and caught the thing they loved, and
kissed it and again let go. So it went on, over and over again, more
sad than the sight of a quaker as he twiddles his thumbs.

Whenever they were at peace for a moment, they turned their eyes his
way. 'What, you here too, Tulip?' was always the thing they seemed to
be saying.

While Tulip sat looking at them, and thinking of it all, suddenly his
lady disappeared, and only her green feet darted from his side and
began running round and round in a circle. Then was he just about to