The Little House in the Fairy Wood

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE JUNE MOON

  Now every day Eric was becoming acquainted with strange Forest People:those who had hidden away from winter in trees, and those who werewandering up from the south along with the birds, and Blue Water People,of course, all along the Forest streams. The Forest teemed with newplaymates for him and Ivra.

  Hide-and-go-seek was still the favorite game. And now it was more fun tobe "It" than to be hiding almost, for one was likely to come uponstrangers peeping out of tree hollows, swimming under water, or swingingin the tree tops, any minute. When the person who was "It" came acrossone of these strangers he would simply say, "I spy, and you're It." Thenhe would draw the stranger away to the goal, where he usually joined thegame and was as much at home as though he had been playing in it fromthe very first.

  The day that Eric found Wild Thyme so was the best of all,--or rathershe was the best of all. And that was strange, for when he first spiedher he did not like her at all. Her dress was a purple slip just to herknees, with a big rent in the skirt. Her hair was short and bushy anddark. And her face was soberer than most Forest People's faces. She wassitting out at the edge of the Forest on a flat rock, her chin in herhands, and she did not look eager to make friends with any one.

  But he cried, "I spy! You're It!" just the same. She did not lift hereyes. She only said, "You must catch me first. I am Wild Thyme, and thatwill be hard!"

  Eric laughed, for she was not a yard away from him. And he sprangforward as he laughed. But she was quicker than he. She had been atperfect rest on the rock, her chin in her hands, and not looking at him,but the instant he jumped she was off like a flash, a purple streakacross the field.

  But Eric did not let his surprise delay him. He ran after her just asfast as he could, and that was very, very fast, for running with Ivrahad taught him to run faster than most Earth Children ever dream ofrunning. Soon, Wild Thyme slowed down a little, and faced him, runningbackward, her bushy hair raised from her head in the wind of herrunning, her little brown face and great purple eyes gleamingmischievously. Eric sprang for her. She dodged. He sprang again. Shedodged again. He cried out in vexation and sprang again, straight andsure. He caught her by her bushy hair as she turned to fly.

  And a strange thing happened to him in that second, the second he caughther hair. Instead of Wild Thyme and the sunny field, he was looking atthe sea. He was standing on the shore, looking away and away, almost toforeign lands. Now ever since that spring night on the shore he had beenthinking of the sea and longing with all his might to cross it and seeforeign lands for himself. Only that had seemed impossible, andsomething he must surely wait till he was grown up to do. But now, in aflash, as his fingers closed on Wild Thyme's hair, he knew that he couldindeed do that, and anything else he really set his heart on.

  No girl, even a fairy, likes to have her hair pulled. So Wild Thyme wasangry. She pinched Eric's arm with all her strength. Then _he_ wasangry. And so they stood holding each other, he her by the hair, and shehim by the arm, staring hotly into each other's faces. But slowly theyrelaxed, and becoming their own natural selves again, broke intolaughter.

  "You'll play with us, won't you?" Eric asked.

  "Of course," she said, "and I _am_ It!" And away they ran to find theothers, Ivra, the Tree Girl, the Forest Children, and Dan and Nan. Whenthose saw who it was Eric had captured they ran to meet her, shoutinggayly, "Wild Thyme! Goody! Goody! Hello, Wild Thyme!" They seemed tohave known her always. She and Ivra threw their arms about each other'sshoulders and danced away to the goal.

  Wild Thyme was a wonderful playfellow. She was so wild, so free, sostrong, so mischievous. And when the game was ended she invited them toa dance that very night. "It's to be around the Tree Man's Tree," shesaid. "And all come--come when the moon rises."

  . . . Perhaps Eric's good times in the Forest reached their very heightthat June night of the dance. He had never been to a dance before, andjust at first he did not think there would be much fun in it. But Ivrawanted him to go, and offered to show him about the dances. So they ranaway from the others to the edge of the field where Eric had discoveredWild Thyme, and there on the even, grassy ground Ivra showed him how todance. It was very easy,--not at all like the dances Earth Childrendance. It was much more fun, and much livelier. The dances were justwhirling and skipping and jumping, each dancer by himself, but all in acircle. Eric liked it as well as though it had been a new game.

  Late that afternoon Helma and Ivra and Eric gathered ferns and flowersto deck themselves for the evening. They put them on over the stream,which was the only mirror in the Forest.

  Helma made a girdle of brakes for herself, and a dandelion wreath forher hair. She wove a dear little cap of star flowers for Ivra, and achain of them for her neck. Eric crowned himself with bloodroot andcontrived grass sandals for his feet. But the sandals, of course, worethrough before the end of the first dance and fell off.

  They had a splendid supper of raspberries and cream, which they sat onthe door stone to eat, and then told stories to each other, while theywaited for the moon to rise. It came early, big and round and yellow,shining through the trees, flooding the aisles of the Forest with silverlight until they looked like still streams, and the trees like masts ofgreat ships standing in them.

  Then the three hurried away to the Tree Man's. They ran hand in handthrough the forest aisles, their faces as bright to each other as indaylight. But before they even came in sight of the tree they heardmusic.

  "Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrummmm, thrummmmmmmmmmmm." Very soft, veryinsistent, very simple and strangely thrilling. When they came to thetree, there were the Forest Children, who had come early, whirlingaround in a circle, and the Tree Girl in the center of the circle makingmusic with a tiny instrument she held in one hand and touched with thefingers of the other.

  Soon Forest People began arriving from every direction. There were theBlue Water Children, bright pebbles around their necks, and white seashells in their blue hair. The Forest Children were crowned withmaidenhair fern. The Tree Girl was the most beautiful of all in hersilver cobweb frock and her cloudy hair. The Tree Man stood still in theshadow, but his long white beard gleamed out, and his deep eyes. WildThyme wore a rope of the flower that is named for her around her neck,but there was a new rent in her purple frock and her legs were scratchedas though she had remembered her dance only the last minute and comeplunging the shortest way through bushes, which was true.

  Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrummmmmmmmmm.

  Every one except the Tree Man was dancing, bewitched in the moonlight,all over the grassy space around the great tree. The grass was cool andrefreshing under Eric's bare feet, and he often dug his bare toes intothe soft earth at its roots as he leapt or ran just to make sure he wason earth at all. For he felt as though he were swimming in moonlight, orat least treading it.

  Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrummmmmmmmmm.

  When the Tree Girl's music stopped between dances, then it would go onin Eric's head. It was just the sound of the night after all. Once Ericnoticed that the Beautiful Wicked Witch was dancing next to him in thecircle but he was not afraid of her there with the others, and in brightmoonlight. And she was plotting no ill. Her face was sparkling withdelight and she had utterly forgotten herself in the dance.

  When the great moon hung just above them, and shadows were few and farbetween, the Tree Mother came walking through the Forest, quieter andmore beautiful than the moon. Wild Thyme ran to her and laid her bushyhead against her breast. For Wild Thyme only of all the Forest Peopleloved her without awe. The Tree Mother put her hand on Wild Thyme's headand stood to watch the dancing. Her robe gleamed like frost, and herhair was a pool of light above her head.

  Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrummmmmmmmm.

  Wild Thyme jumped back into the dance and the Tree Mother stood alone.But although she stood as still as a moonbeam under the tree, she madeEric think of dancing more than all the others put together. It was hereyes. The thrum, thrum, thrum, thrummmmmmmmmm was in
them, and the restof that night Eric felt as though the music-instrument the Tree Girl wasswinging was silent, and that all the music flowed from Tree Mother.

  But Eric, after all, was only an Earth Child, and his legs got verytired in spite of the music and the moonlight. So at last he slipped outof the circle, and stumbling with weariness and sleepiness went to TreeMother. She picked him up in her arms, and the minute his head touchedher shoulder he was sound asleep, the music at last hushed in his head.

  When he woke it was summer dawn. The birds were flitting above in thetree-boughs and making high singing. He was alone, lying beneath asilver birch, his head among the star flowers.

  He knew that Helma and Ivra had not wanted to wake him, but had gonehome when the moon set, and were waiting breakfast for him there now. Sohe jumped up and ran home through the dew.