Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy TalesVarious
General
Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17): Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales
Various
Children's literature
When Mopsa ran through the castle door it shut suddenly behind her, and
Jack was left behind. After great difficulty he succeeded in climbing
the walls, and crept through a window; and when he got inside he saw a
very wonderful sight. There was Mopsa in the great audience-room,
dressed superbly in a white satin gown, with a long train of crimson
velvet, which was glittering with diamonds. It reached almost from one
end of the gallery to the other, and had hundreds of fairies to hold it
to keep it in its place; but in her hair were no jewels, only a little
crown made of daisies, and on her shoulders her robe was fastened with a
little golden image of a boat. These things were to show the land she
had come from and the vessel she had come in. At one side of Mopsa stood
the lovely lady; and on the other, to Jack's amazement, a little boy of
his own size, who looked exactly like himself.
"I will go in," said Jack. "There is nothing to prevent me." He set his
foot on the step, and while he hesitated Mopsa came out to meet him. He
looked at her earnestly, because her lovely eyes were not looking at
him, but far away toward the west.
"Jack lives there," she said, as if speaking to herself. "He will play
there again, in his father's garden."
Then she brought her eyes down slowly from the rose-flush in the cloud
and looked at him and said, "Jack."
"Yes," said Jack, "here I am. What is it that you wish to say?"
She answered, "I am come to give you back your kiss."
GOOD-BY TO MOPSA
So she stooped forward as she stood on her step and kissed him, and her
tears fell on his cheek.
"Farewell," she said; and she turned and went up the steps into the
great hall. Jack gazed at her as she entered, and would fain have
followed, but could not stir, the great doors closed together again, and
he was left outside. Then he knew, without having been told, that he
should never enter them any more.
Suddenly he perceived that reeds were growing up between him and the
great doors, and he walked on among them toward the west. Then, as the
rosy sky turned gold color, all on a sudden he came to the edge of the
reed-bed and walked out upon a rising ground. Jack ran up it, looking
for the castle. At last he saw it, lying so far, so very far off that
all its clear outlines were lost; and very soon, as it grew dark, they
seemed to mingle with the shapes of the hill and the forest.
He looked up into the rosy sky, and held out his arms, and called:
"Come! Oh, come!" In a minute or two he saw a little black mark
overhead, a small speck, that grew larger and larger. In another instant
he saw a red light and a green light; then he heard the winnowing noise
of a bird's great wings, and suddenly the great white bird alighted at
his feet and said: "Here I am."
"I wish to go home," said Jack.
"That is well," answered the bird.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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