Overhead sounded a crackling and snapping, and swiftly the Equator dropped down from a great height and began to hover directly over the head of the Evening Star. Already the ice under her had begun to melt. Soon it would melt away altogether and then Billy knew that the Equator, kept at a distance now by fear of the cold snow, would fall upon her and bear her away, and perhaps turn her into a Comet right before his horrified eyes. ACROSS THE RAINBOW CHAPTER XII ACROSS THE RAINBOW “Oh, if I could only get over there!” moaned Billy. He had not stopped to think what he would do if he were there. His eagerness to help the Evening Star was so keen that he was almost ready to leap the abyss before him. He even went to the brink and tried to calculate his chances of getting across with a running jump, but he saw that the best jumper in the world could not have got half way over before he would have tumbled into the icy depths below. So, with a sigh, he sat down to think. Billy did not mean to cry--he never meant to cry--but the sight of the Equator hovering so closely over the Evening Star and melting down the snow mountain like a wax taper brought an unbidden tear or two to his eyes, and they rolled slowly down his cheeks. One of them fell on his stocking, where it quickly froze, and Billy, looking at it disconsolately, observed that it shone with the hues of the rainbow in the light thrown off by the Equator. Suddenly he leaped to his feet, dancing for joy. “The Rays!” he cried, “they will build me a bridge!” And he called them by name one after another: “Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red!” Instantly the little people stood before him, and Red, who was their spokesman, asked him what he desired. “A bridge!” cried Billy. “A bridge as quickly as you can.” It was the work of a second. The little people all sprang into the air together and lo! in front of Billy stretched a slender rainbow bridge, leading from his feet to the snow mountain on which was the imprisoned Evening Star. And at each end was a great pot of yellow gold as large as a preserve kettle. Bravely Billy started to cross the bridge. It trembled violently in the strong light, as rainbows will, for they are flimsy things at best. Billy hesitated. He was not frightened, but it was so hard to keep his balance. And then he heard a cheery shout behind him, and up came Jack Frost running as fast as his legs could carry him, and fairly panting with excitement. “It’s all right, Billy, go ahead!” he called, laying a steadying hand on the rainbow, which at once hardened under his cold. Thus encouraged Billy proceeded. As he went on he noticed that the snow mountain had ceased to melt. Indeed, it was beginning slowly to rise in the air again, thanks to the influence of Jack Frost, who was freezing the water far faster than the Equator could melt it.