The trees bathed their great heads
in the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep
in gloom; save where on the borders the sunshine broke against
their stems, or swept in long streams through their avenues,
washing with brighter hue all the leaves over which it flowed;
revealing the rich brown of the decayed leaves and fallen
pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long grasses and tiny
forests of moss that covered the channel over which it passed in
motionless rivers of light. I turned hurriedly to bid my hostess
farewell without further delay. She smiled at my haste, but with
an anxious look.
"You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think. My
son will show you into another path, which will join the first
beyond it."
Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed;
and having taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the
wood, accompanied by the youth. He scarcely spoke as we went
along; but he led me through the trees till we struck upon a
path. He told me to follow it, and, with a muttered "good
morning" left me.
CHAPTER VIII
"I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole."
GOETHE.--Mephistopheles in Faust.
My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could
not regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to
be like life itself--not to be created by any argument.
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