Eva's Adventures in Shadow-LandNauman, Mary D. (Mary Dummett)
Science
Eva's Adventures in Shadow-Land
Nauman, Mary D. (Mary Dummett)
Children's stories; Fairies -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy fiction
She saw Aster, his dress torn, dirty, and ragged, his long curls
tangled; tired and sad, and compelled to carry burdens of stone too
heavy for him to lift. And when he wanted to rest, two figures, with
the faces which Eva had seen in the forest and among the curling mists
and vapors at the foot of the precipice, beat him with rods full of
thorns. And then a huge red-and-black spider would sting him in the
foot, or a great green frog, with prominent black eyes, would threaten
to swallow him; and then the boy would cry, and call for Eva to come
and help him.
Then the frog would say:
“Why did you let me tear your coat?”
And the faces would ask:
“Why did you lose your flower?”
And then the spider would say:
“Why did you creep into the rock?”
And to all this Aster would only answer with the cry, “Eva! Eva! help
me!”
Then one of the faces said, angrily:
“We shall punish you here until three things are done, because through
three things you fell into our power. First. Eva must find your coat.
Second. She must get the piece to mend it with. Third. She must find
you. But you need not call her, because she cannot hear you; for she
is in the Valley of Rest with the Happy Children, who are the Dawn
Fairies, and she has forgotten you. And there are many dangers to pass
in Shadow-Land before, she can come to you; and she will not come,
unless she hears you call.”
Then they would beat him again; and Aster would cry, louder than ever,
“Eva! Eva! help me!”
And then the dream passed away, and Eva awoke. And it seemed to her
that Aster’s voice mingled with the rippling of the water, and it
cried, piteously, “Eva! Eva! help me!”
And then Eva knew why it was that the children had begged her not to
go near the brook while they were gone; because its voice would bring
back to her all that she had forgotten. For now, as she sat by it, she
remembered everything that the leaves of the flower which she had eaten
had made her forget; and she sprang to her feet, determined to follow
the course of the brook, and let it lead her to where Aster was.
She went all through the fair valley, along the margin of the brook
with whose waters Aster’s voice still seemed to mingle. It led her
at last to the high rocks, which, like a steep wall, surrounded the
valley, and where a low cavern, the roof of which was only a few
inches above the surface of the water, received the brook. Eva could
not enter it, neither could she climb the steep precipice-like wall;
and, with Aster’s voice still sounding piteously in her ears, with
a heavy heart, after several fruitless efforts to climb the rocks,
she went back to the palace, determined to wait for the return of the
children; for, although she had been very happy while with them, and
was unwilling to leave them, she intended to ask them how she could
leave the peaceful Valley of Rest, and if they would provide her with
the means of continuing her search for Aster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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