CHAPTER XIII
NORA'S GRANDCHILDREN
One afternoon Eric and Ivra started out for the Forest Children's mossvillage to play with them. But when they got there they found all thelittle houses deserted: not a Forest Child was to be found. They musthave gone into some other part of the forest to play. So Ivra and Ericwandered on and on, a little lonely, a little tired of just each otherfor comrades, till at last they came to the very edge of theforest,--and there was Nora's farm, a rambling red brick house, with abarn twice its size behind it. Down in the pasture by the house half adozen Snow Witches were dancing in a circle, now near, now far, all overthe pasture, and sometimes right up to the farm-house windows.
Ivra clapped her hands and bounded forward. Eric did not follow. Hestood to watch. When the Snow Witches saw Ivra running to them theyrushed to meet her. For a minute she was lost in a cloud of blown snow,and then there she was dancing in their circle back and forth across thepasture, and then away, away, away! But before she frolicked quite outof sight she turned to look for her playfellow, and beckoned to him.
"Come on," she called. "We're going to slide on the brook below thecornfield."
But Eric did not follow. He did not like the Snow Witches. And just asIvra and the Witches drifted out of sight, he thought he heard theForest Children laughing. The sound came from the barn. So Eric ran tothe door. It was a big sliding door, and now stood open on a crack justlarge enough for a child to slip through. Eric went in.
The barn was tremendously big, a great dusty place full of the smell ofhay. Ahead of him were two stalls, with a horse in one. But Eric wasmost interested in the empty stall, for it was from there the laughterseemed to come. He stood looking and listening, and then right downthrough the ceiling of the stall shot a child, and landed laughing andsquealing in the hay in the manger. She sat up, saw Eric and stared. Shewas a little girl about his own age, freckle-faced, snub-nosed andred-haired. She had the jolliest, the nicest face in the world.
Eric opened his mouth to say, "Hello," but kept it open, silent inamazement, for another child had shot through the ceiling and landedbeside the girl. This was a boy. He was red-headed, too, freckle-facedand snub-nosed. He looked even jollier than the girl.
Before Eric had closed his mouth on his amazement, "Whoop!" and downcame another boy. This boy was red-haired, freckle-faced and snub-nosed,and he looked jollier than the other two put together, if that werepossible, for his red hair curled in saucy, tight little ringlets, andhis mouth was wide with smiles.
It was this last one who said, "Hello, who are you?"
"Eric,--who are you?"
"Nora's grandchildren, of course. Come up. We're having sport."
The three children ran across the barn to a ladder and scrambled up anddisappeared through a trap door at the top. Eric followed. The attic wasfull of hay in mountains and little hills,--hay and hay and hay. Hefollowed the children around the biggest mountain, through a tunnel--andthere they vanished!
He found the hole in the stable ceiling and looked down. Not very farbelow him was the manger full of hay and red-headed children. "Look outdown there! Whoop!" cried Eric, and dropped, landing among them.
Then the four laughed heartily together and ran across the barn again,up the ladder, around the hay mountain and dropped down the hole. Theydid that dozens of times until they were tired of it.
Then they played hide-and-go-seek in the hay country, and after thatBlind Man's Buff in the barn below. The little girl was Blind Man first.They tied a red handkerchief tight over her eyes. Then they ran about,dodging her, calling her, laughing at her groping hands and hesitatingsteps. But after a few minutes she became accustomed to the darkness andran and jumped about after them until they had to be very wary and swiftindeed. Soon she caught Eric and then he was Blind Man.
By and by they played tag, just plain tag, and Eric liked that best ofall. Back and forth across the great room they raced,--up the ladder,over the hay, through the hole into the stable, round and round, in andout, up and down until they were too tired and hot for any more.
Then they lay up in the hay where there was a little window, looking farout across the meadows.
Eric saw Ivra out there in the first field, wandering around alone andnow and then looking up at the barn. She must have heard their shoutsand laughter. He pointed her out to the other children. "That is myplaymate out there," he said. "Let's open the window and call to her tocome up. She'll tell us stories."
The children looked out eagerly. "But there's nobody there," they said.
Eric laughed. "No, look!" He pointed with his finger. "Over there by thewhite birch. Look! She sees us." He waved. "Quick, help me open thewindow."
He could not find the catch. The window was draped with cobwebs anddusty with the dust of years. It looked as though it had never beenopened.
The little red-headed girl put her hand on his arm. She was laughing."Don't be silly," she said. "There's no one by the white birch. You'reimagining."
"Why, look! Of course she's there!" Eric was impatient. "She's movingnow, waving to us. Of course you see her!"
"Yes," said the jolliest of the boys. "We do see it--faintly. We've seenit before too,--a kind of a shadow on the snow. But father says it'snothing to mind. Imaginings. Nothing real, just spots in our eyes orsomething."
Then Eric remembered all that Ivra had told him. She was half fairy.People could see her if they looked hard enough. But they were not aptto believe their own eyes when they had looked. That was dreadful forher. She had not said so, but he had guessed it from her face when shetold him. Well, well, now he understood a little better. These wereEarth Children, with shadows in their eyes. Ivra could never be theirplaymate.
But _he_ could see her well enough because his eyes were clear. Andpresently he would run out to her and they would go home together. Butjust now it was jolly and cozy here in the barn, and these EarthChildren were good fun. He hoped she would wait for him, but if she didnot he would find his way alone easily enough.
"You don't really believe in it, do you?" the red-headed girl wasasking. "If you do,--better not. Grown-ups will laugh at you."
"Nora, your grandmother, won't laugh," said Eric. "She knows Ivra wellenough, and Helma, too."
"Oh, yes," said the jolliest boy. "But she is queer. We love her, andshe's a fine grandmother, I can tell you. And she tells the beststories. But she's queer just the same, and she can't fool us."
"Let's go in and get some cookies from her," said the other boy. "Theymust be done by now."
So up they hopped, and without another look towards the shadow out onthe snow by the white birch, jumped down the hole, and ran out of thebarn into the kitchen.
Nora was there knitting by a table, two big pans of cookies just out ofthe oven cooling in front of her.
How good they smelled! Eric had never tasted hot ginger cookies before,and when Nora gave him one, a big round one all for his own, he almostdanced with delight. He perched on the edge of the table and ate thatone and many another before he was done.
"This boy, grandma," began the red-headed girl.
"His name is Eric," interrupted Nora, handing him another cookie. "Iknow him very well."
"Well, he saw It while we were looking out of the barn window! And hesaid It was real and his playmate, and he wanted to call It in to tellus stories!"
"Don't say 'It,'" said Nora. "Her name is 'Ivra.' But of course youcan't play with her. She isn't an Earth Child. She's a fairy. So don'tsay anything about it to your father when he comes home to-night. Itwould make him cross."
"But it doesn't make you cross," laughed the jolliest boy. "And so won'tyou tell us some stories about it now. You know,--the little house inthe wood, the Tree Man, the Forest Children, Helma, Ivra and all therest of it."
"Do tell us a story," begged the other two.
So Nora put down her knitting, and taking the cat on her lap, a greatsleepy white fellow who had been purring by the stove, she began to tellthem stories.
/>
She told stories about Helma and Ivra, the Wind Creatures, the SnowWitches and many more. The children listened eagerly, clapping theirhands now and then, and at the end of every story asking for more.
But Eric was lost in wonder. The children thought the stories were nottrue,--just fairy stories told them by a grandmother. And Nora hadevidently long ago given up expecting them to believe. Her black eyestwinkled knowingly when they met Eric's puzzled ones.
And all the time Eric had only to turn his head to see Ivra walking outthere around in the field, looking at the farm house, waiting for him.But gradually, as the stories went on the little figure out there grewmore and more to look like just a blue shadow on the snow, paler andpaler. Finally he had to strain his eyes to see it at all.
Then he jumped down from the table and said he must go home. His heartwas beating a little wildly. For he was afraid Ivra might fade away fromhim altogether. These red-headed children were fine playfellows. Heliked them,--oh, so much! He wished he could stay and play with themfor--a week. Yes. But he must go now. That blue shadow on the snowseemed lonely.
"Take her some cookies," said Nora, filling his pockets. The childrenlaughed at the top of their voices. "Yes, take some cookies to thefairy. But you can eat them yourself and pretend it is the fairy eatingthem," they cried.
Nora laughed with them, and so after a minute Eric joined in. But he andNora looked at each other through their laughter and noddedunderstanding.
When Ivra saw him at last come out of the farm house door, she didn'twait longer, but ran away into the wood. He overtook her a long way in,walking rapidly.
"Did you have a good time with the witches?" he asked.
"Why didn't you come, too?" she said
"Oh, it was too cold. Nora's grandchildren are awfully good fun. Weplayed hide-and-go-seek, just as we played it at the Tree Man's party."
"Did they laugh at me?"
" . . . No, they laughed at me. They thought I was a funny boy."
"To have me for a playmate?"
Then Eric began to think that Ivra was not very happy. Perhaps she hadbeen lonely.
"You're always running off with the Snow Witches," he said. "But I won'tplay with Nora's grandchildren any more unless they'll let you play too.I won't, truly!"
Ivra laughed. And it was like spring coming into winter. "Yes, play withthem all you like! I love them, too. I've often watched them. Thelittlest boy, the one with the funny curls, laughs at me and stares andstares. But the other two . . . they just give me a glance and then forgetall about me. They don't think I'm real. But they are awfully jolly. Youplay with them and when you tell me about it afterwards I'll pretend Iwas there playing too."
Then the two clasped hands and went skipping home.