Sure enough, at the month's end down she stepped, wrapped up in a
black cloak, and a black hood over her yellow shining hair. Straight
she went to the bog edge and looked about her. Water here and water
there; waving tussocks and trembling mools, and great black snags all
twisted and bent. Before her all was dark--dark but for the glimmer of
the stars in the pools, and the light that came from her own white
feet, stealing out of her black cloak.
The Moon drew her cloak faster about her and trembled, but she
wouldn't go back without seeing all there was to be seen; so on she
went, stepping as light as the wind in summer from tuft to tuft
between the muddy, gurgling water holes. Just as she came near a big
black pool her foot slipped and she was nigh tumbling in. She grabbed
with both hands at a snag near by, to steady herself with, but as she
touched it, it twined itself round her wrists, like a pair of
handcuffs, and gripped her so that she couldn't move. She pulled and
twisted and fought, but it was no good. She was fast, and must stay
fast.
Presently as she stood trembling in the dark, wondering if help would
come, she heard something calling in the distance, calling, calling,
and then dying away with a sob, till the marshes were full of this
pitiful crying sound; then she heard steps floundering along,
squishing in the mud and slipping on the tufts, and through the
darkness she saw a white face with great feared eyes.
'T was a man strayed in the bogs. Mazed with fear he struggled on
toward the flickering light that looked like help and safety. And when
the poor Moon saw that he was coming nigher and nigher to the deep
hole, farther and farther from the path, she was so mad and so sorry
that she struggled and fought and pulled harder than ever. And though
she couldn't get loose she twisted and turned, till her black hood
fell back off her shining yellow hair, and the beautiful light that
came from it drove away the darkness.
Oh, but the man cried with joy to see the light again. And at once all
evil things fled back into the dark corners, for they cannot abide the
light. So he could see where he was, and where the path was, and how
he could get out of the marsh. And he was in such haste to get away
from the Quicks, and Bogles, and Things that dwelt there, that he
scarce looked at the brave light that came from the beautiful shining
yellow hair, streaming out over the black cloak and falling to the
water at his feet. And the Moon herself was so taken up with saving
him, and with rejoicing that he was back on the right path, that she
clean forgot that she needed help herself, and that she was held fast
by the Black Snag.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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