Tom put on a warm suit, belted on his sword and prepared a bundle of food, while Chrysomela put on a warm cloak of mole's fur lined with the silk of ants. When they were ready, they stepped out and looked around over their kingdom for the last time. The sun shone through the clouds, brightening the dry stumps, while the cold wind whirled showers of leaves and yellow beech nut shells over the dark water. The Wood-bug was waiting for them, so at once they sat down on his back and started to ride through the forest. For a long time they rode quietly. The Wood-bug walked heavily but quickly, as the winter sleep was not yet on him. Finally they came to the edge of the forest where there was a road with deep ruts, in which stood pools of water. The Wood-bug crossed the road to the stubble field, where he put them down and said, »This is the field and the path of human beings. It is not for us for, if we walk along it, before we are aware, we are crushed. Go along the stubble field. There it is safe and somewhere down there, you will find the hut.« They wanted to thank him, but the good Wood-bug was already running back across the path, hurrying to reach his own little den; so the two travelers started out by themselves to find the human dwelling. [Illustration] CHAPTER ELEVEN. CHRYSOMELA'S DEATH. LITTLE TOM AND CHRYSOMELA BETAKE THEMSELVES TO TOM'S GODMOTHER. THEY REST UNDER THE DOG-ROSE. THE WIND SWEEPS THEM INTO A FURROW. THEY WANDER IN THE DARK AND MEET A HAMSTER. IN THE HAMSTER'S BURROW. CHRYSOMELA FALLS ILL AND DIES. THE FUNERAL. THE HAMSTER TAKES LITTLE TOM THROUGH THE SNOW TO THE CHAPEL. LITTLE TOM LEARNS, FROM A MOUSE, ABOUT THE DEATH OF HIS GODMOTHER AND VISITS HER TOMB. HE RETURNS WITH THE HAMSTER. THE SLEDGE OF QUEEN FAIRY. * * * * * [Illustration] Tom walked with Chrysomela along the edge of the stubble field, down the road; that was all they knew of their direction--that they must always be going down. They expected that the way would not be long, for they remembered that, in one day, the ants had brought all their possessions from the Godmother's house to the wood. They forgot that the ants knew the direction and therefore walked straight over everything, while they, not knowing where to go, had to travel the path of the humans and therefore traveled in a wide circle. Chrysomela was well wrapped up in her cloak and over her head she had pulled a cobweb veil, so that her golden hair should not fly around, but on her feet she had only little, light shoes of birch bark. After she had gone a little way, she felt how heavily she was walking over the clods by the stubble field and stumbled so that she had to lean on Tom's strong arm.