Had Eva consulted her own wishes, and been able to carry them out, she would not have waited one moment, but would have gone at once out into Shadow-Land, which she now knew lay all around the valley. She knew, too, that the little brook running through the valley, and which had brought her Aster’s cry for help, was the same whose “Follow, follow me!” had led her to the golden fountain from whose crest she had received her little charge. But how to leave the valley she did not know. She could do nothing by herself,--she must wait till the return of the children,--so that she could scarcely be patient till the hours of darkness came, knowing that during them, and before the soft, rosy light could dawn again, that they would be with her. There was nothing for it, however, but patience, and at last, after a day which had seemed at least a year long, darkness covered the valley; and although Eva had fully intended to keep awake until the children’s return, her eyes, try and resolve as she might, would not stay open, and she slept. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XI. _THE MAGIC BOAT._ Morning came, and Eva awoke, to find that she was all alone in the palace, and to wonder at the utter stillness around her. There was no song of birds to be heard,--no fall of musical waters,--no merry children’s ringing laughter and sweet voices. To all intents and purposes the palace seemed as deserted as it had been the day before. And wondering at all this, Eva rose, and went out of the palace to look for her companions. They had returned; but when she saw them she understood why everything was so still. For, instead of the merry songs and joyous games and dances with which they had been accustomed to begin the day, they were gathered in little groups, and every face wore a sad and mournful expression. They seemed troubled, and every now and then one of them would point to the brook, and then shake her head; and Eva was going to ask them what could possibly have happened, and what the matter was, when they saw her; and then the whole crowd came around her, and before she could say a word, they exclaimed, with one voice: “Oh, Eva! Eva! what have you done? You forgot your promise; you went to the brook, and you heard its story?” Then it came into Eva’s mind that she must leave the children, who seemed so sorry for what she had done, and she hung her head and said, timidly: “I could not help it.” “It is true, and only what we feared,” one of them said,--the same one who had spoken to Eva through the door. “We knew how it would be before we left you. You could not help it, for it was Fate, and no promise can bar the power, no wishes change the will, of Fate.”