The jackdaw tossed his head at this. “Pooh! you are silly; can’t you see I’m a peacock? Just look at my fine feathers, and tell me what you suppose I want with corn? If you really are willing to give me something to eat, why, I’ll take one of those fine, fat fish swimming near the boat.” “That I cannot let you do,” Eva said. “I know who you are, now: you are the bird who stole the peacock’s feathers; I saw a picture of you in a little book I once read.” “Found out! Found out!” cawed the jackdaw; and, with that, off he flew; and he was in such a hurry to be gone that he dropped two of the long feathers which had been in his tail, and Eva picked them up and stuck them into the side of the boat. Then one of the trout, after the jackdaw was gone, put his head up out of the water and said: “It is a good thing for all of us that you said ‘no’ to the bird. For, if you had said he might take one of us, he would not have touched us, but would have pecked a hole in the boat, and she would have sunk to the bottom of the brook. We should have had to leave you, and then you never could have reached the Enchanted River.” “Where is the Enchanted River?” Eva asked the trout. He answered, “It runs through Shadow-Land.” “And where are we?” “We are on the Brook of Mists, which empties into the Enchanted River. You came out of Shadow-Land when you entered the Valley of Rest.” Then the boat went on quietly again. Only for a time, however, and presently Eva heard a voice, in a squeaky tone, calling to her: “Stop, little girl, and take me in.” And there, apparently crawling along the surface of the water, was a queer little dwarf. He had a large head, with round, green eyes; a fat, round body; and he was dressed in a yellow coat with scarlet facings, and his legs were so long and thin that they bent under him as he walked. And when he came up to the boat and laid his hand upon it, Eva saw that it was not a hand, but only a sharp black claw. [Illustration: “Stop, little girl, and take me in.” Page 112.] “Take me in!” he repeated. Eva peeped at the trout over the side of the boat before she answered him, but they were taking no notice of the dwarf, and were swimming along as quietly as ever. “Take me in!” he squeaked again. “No,” Eva said; “the boat is too small to hold us both.” “Then give me one of those peacock feathers to fan myself with.” “I must refuse you,” Eva went on; “but perhaps the jackdaw, who was here not long since, might supply you, as he did me.” “You are very unkind,” the dwarf said. “Come, now, I will give you such a pretty flower if you will only let me go a little way with you; a star-flower. Aster means--a star.” Eva shook her head. “I cannot.” “Why?” “Because I think I saw you in the forest.”