"Keep close to me, my children," said the Queen, "and do not fear. Now we shall see the vision of the Mother of Gold in all its splendor." [Illustration] CHAPTER XXVIII THE MOTHER OF GOLD As the Fairy Queen spoke, she descended from the coach and held out a hand each to Lulu and Zuzu. She led them onward through a sort of hedge of dense trees which lay before them, and beyond which there arose the flickering light, yellow and warm, that had appeared to color all the air of the Secret Valley. At length they stepped out in full view of the great source of all this light, and saw before them the most strange and wonderful thing they had ever seen in all their lives. From directly at their feet, entirely across the Valley as far as they could see, there ran a great ledge or dam of pure gold, which yet did not seem solid, for it seemed to rise and fall and flutter as though it were almost ready to melt and flow; but it never did so. This great vein of gold was many miles in length, so far as they could tell; and how far back at each end it ran into the foot of the walls of the Valley no one could tell. Its front or face broke off like a wall, or rather like the side of a dam, perhaps fifty feet or more from top to bottom. Over this ledge or dam, a short distance out toward the wall of the valley, there flowed a broad river of clear water, white as crystal, which made a deep pool below the ledge of gold; and thrusting up through this sheet of falling water were points of rock which sparkled like diamonds, or gleamed dull and white like pearls; and such was the peculiar quality of this great ledge of seemingly living gold, that, as the water fell over it, it partly turned into a sort of vapor; and in this vapor, rising continually and floating away up into the sky, were thousands of butterflies, all gold and black and green, floating away upon many-colored bubbles, like soap bubbles, very light and fine. These came streaming up and up all the time, and danced out toward the top of the Valley as far as any one could see. So now Lulu and Zuzu knew where the butterflies come from in the spring, when they appear fluttering up from the south to play among the flowers. They come from the hidden Valley of Gold; and the gold they have upon their wings they certainly get from this great ledge of gold which lies across the Fairy Valley.