  Once more Eva and Aster, hand in hand, wandered, as they both had feared they would never again be allowed to do, through the forest, by the light of the fair young moon, which looked down upon them from the sky. And nothing came now to disturb them; no hideous faces mocked at them from behind shrub or tree; no hostile beings, in shape of spider or of frog, strove to take Aster from his young guardian. Nor were they limited, as before, to the narrow path which had previously confined their steps; but they might wander, unmolested, as their fancy led them, through the forest. Shadows still surrounded them, yet these shadows were fair and lovely to look upon: groups of sweet child-figures at play, or fair faces which smiled on the two as they passed. Flowers, too, more brilliant and beautiful in hue than any they had yet found, bloomed wherever they looked. Not the pale, scentless blossoms they had seen before, but flowers which greeted them with rich perfume, and whose bells and chalice-like cups, touched lightly by the dress of the children as they passed, rang forth in bright and joyous melody. In the bells of the flowers sat and swung tiny and beautiful shapes, which Aster told Eva were the Flower Fairies, the gentlest of the race, whose sole duty was to carry perfume to, and color the flowers. Some bathed in the dewdrops on the leaves, others rode, seated on beautiful butterflies, but all seemed gay and happy. The light shed by the growing crescent of the moon seemed brighter; the soft music which hailed her coming more joyous and triumphant; the clouds, reflecting the moon’s light, wore a rich, rosy tint, reminding Eva of the light in the Valley of Rest; the grass was green, and soft as velvet,—the little sparkling brooks which they occasionally crossed all sung the same song: When will Eva’s task be done? When will Aster’s flow’r be won? When his robes from stains are free,— When the moon’s orb round shall be,— Then the trial will be done, Then shall Aster’s flow’r be won. For a few days, however, Eva noticed that Aster seemed dull and spiritless. He scarcely ever spoke, but walked quietly by her side. Nothing seemed to attract his attention, nothing made him smile; but every now and then, when they would cross one of the little brooks, and it would sing its song, he would look down upon his dress, and say, sadly: “It will never be bright again!” Yet Eva noticed that he was careful never to trample on the flowers, or to hurt anything in their path. And as, day after day, the moon brightened and broadened, and Aster grew with her increase, Eva saw that the sad, mournful expression in his eyes vanished, and they regained their former starlike brilliancy. By slow degrees the spots and the stains upon his dress disappeared; and, as they faded away, Aster became once more his own playful and happy self. Never before had he been as gentle or as docile and affectionate as he now was, though he was very silent; and Eva thought, could he only be always as he was now she would be content never to leave him; and she began to think, almost with dread, of their approaching separation. On and on they went, till they came to a place where a tiny spring, bright as a living diamond, gushed up joyously, singing to itself for very gladness. Soft green mosses and pure white flowers grew around it; and when Aster saw it, he sprang forward with a joyous cry, and seating himself near it, he beckoned to Eva to follow his example. Then, for the first time since the two had been together, for he had never before mentioned the past, so that Eva almost thought he had forgotten it, Aster asked her to tell him how she ever had found him again. And once more Eva told the story,—this time to an interested listener,—how, after she missed him, she had sought him, but in vain, among the marked holes, and, seeking him, had climbed the rock to the door of the Valley of Rest; how she had been admitted, and had dwelt among the Happy Children till, the day of their absence, the little brook had brought her the piteous cry, “Eva! Eva! help me!” How this cry had recalled all she had forgotten, how the Dawn Fairies had given her the magic boat, in which she had gone through the cavern and down the Brook of Mists,—and then, leaving the boat, had gone, all alone, up the Enchanted River to the grotto of the Toad-Woman behind the Cascade of Rocks; how the woman had advised her, and how she had served the Green Frog; what the moth, the mouse, and the bird had done for her; how the skin covering the little green bird had been torn; and how, after the Frog was carried away by the friendly Fish Fairies, she had known that the worst was over, and the search nearly done. Aster listened, and when Eva paused, he began; and it seemed to her that, as he told his story, he spoke as he had never before spoken,—as if he was older, and more matured. “I can tell you now,” he said, “now that it is all nearly over, who THEY were of whom you used to wonder that I spoke. The Green Frog and her servants were the visible forms of THEY to whom my punishment was committed. Yet, had I obeyed you,—which was part of my trial,—you, under whose care my friends, who advised you in the shape of the toad and the Toad-Woman, were allowed to place me, but little of this trouble would have come upon me. If I failed in obedience to you,—such was the condition,—if THEY gained the slightest hold upon me,—I must fall wholly into their power, and then only, if you really wished it, could your Love have power to overcome their Hate. And you know, Eva, how I fell into their hands.” “Yes, I know,” Eva said; “but I do not yet see why you crept into the crevice in the rock.” “How could I help it?” Aster asked. “After all I had done, and all that had happened before! Because what must be, will be, and THEY made me.” “And then, after you went into the rock?” Eva asked, eagerly. “Remember, I know nothing of that.” Then Aster told her how, in the crevice of the rock, he had found that the Green Frog lay in wait for him. How she and her servants had taken him, bound and tied with the same spider’s web from which Eva had, once before, in the forest, released him, to her hut in the field of mud. And how, when there, he had to lie in the mud, as a footstool for the Frog,—and that every night she made him stand before her, and would laugh at him, and ask him why Eva and his friends did not come to help him. “I was too proud,” Aster said, “and too angry, to call for you. I thought I should, by myself, be able to escape. I tried, but the power of THEY who kept me was too great for me, and I never once succeeded even in passing the strange fence around the hut. “But all the time, Eva, I knew—and it was part of my punishment—that an appeal to you could be heard, and that you would come to help me. But that I—I, a prince,—powerful at home, and only weak now because I had lost such a trifling thing as a flower, should be compelled to ask help of one who was able to help me only because she was gentler and kinder than I was,—I could not do it. Meantime, the Green Frog laughed at my efforts to escape. Yet, do what she would to me, I never called for you. She might hang me up in the spider’s web,—she might threaten to crush me,—I was silent. “At last I could stand it no longer, I must help to carry heavy stones, and when their weight nearly crushed me,—for though only shadows to you, they were realities to me,—I would have rested, the spider would sting me and scorch me with his poisonous breath,—the jackdaw peck me,—and the Green Frog would threaten to swallow me, and tell me that now you never would come to me, for the Dawn Fairies had made you forget me. And not till then, when they told me you had forgotten me, did I speak; and the only words that I said were these, ‘Eva! Eva! help me!’” “Yes,” Eva said, “those are the same words that the brook brought me.” And then she told Aster about her dream: how the faces had asked why he lost his flower; and the frog had spoken of his coat; and the spider asked why he crept into the rock; and how, between it all, had come the wailing cry of “Eva! Eva! help me!” Then, too, Aster told her how they had spoken of what she must do, and that they thought she never would do it, or know what was to be done. And then he went on: “But at last the Green Frog grew angry, when she found that, no matter what she said or did, I only answered, ‘Eva! Eva! help me!’ For then, making her servants strip off my coat, she touched me with a stick, and said to me: “‘You shall never let Eva hear you. I will silence you.’ “And, as she spoke, I was changed all at once into the little green bird in whose shape you found me. And then the Frog, putting me in a cage, said: “‘You can never get out till your friend gets the piece of your coat, the coat itself, and then finds you. If she does these things, you may be free; but these things she cannot do unless others help her; and not till after all these things are done can she hope to find your flower again.’ “The rest, Eva, you know.” As Aster spoke, Eva looked at him. And she saw that, on the rich, green velvet of his dress, only a few tiny spots and stains were left; and then she began to wonder what would happen when the moon would again be full, and the flower they had sought so long should bloom and be found. Would Aster then return to his home? and, as for herself, what would become of her? But she did not wonder long, for the soft music which attended the disappearance of the moon thrilled through the forest, and Eva and Aster, by the side of the spring, lay down and slept. And, once more, as on the first night that Eva, holding the tiny form of Aster to her heart, had slept on the mossy bed where once the golden fountain had played, the two fair white forms bent over the sleeping children, and one said: “The punishment is over.” “Yes,” was the other’s reply, “Love has overcome Hate, and Aster has been led back, through its gentle influences, to his true self once more.” Yet, even as they spoke, two figures, with the hateful faces Eva had seen, crept slowly up through the darkness to where the children lay. But the white forms, hovering over their sleep, spoke: “Go back, oh, evil fairies! to the dark shadows among which ye dwell! Here your power is over, and our Prince is a prince once more.” And, with a low cry of disappointment and rage, the two, turning away from the bright forms, shrank into the darkness, and were seen no more. Then, with a smile on their beautiful faces, the two bright forms bent caressingly over the sleepers; and a moment later they, too, were gone, and Eva and Aster were alone. |
|
