Then it seemed to Toby that through the forest there came flying,
with a harsh sweet voice and a tumult of wings, a bird of all
colours, ugly and beautiful, and he knew, though later there might be
people to tell him otherwise, that that was the end of everything.
Children Of The Moon
The boy stood at the place where the park trees stopped and the
smooth lawns slid away gently to the great house. He was dressed only
in a pair of ragged knickerbockers and a gaping buttonless shirt, so
that his legs and neck and chest shone silver bare in the moonlight.
By day he had a mass of rough golden hair, but now it seemed to brood
above his head like a black cloud that made his face deathly white by
comparison. On his arms there lay a great heap of gleaming dew-wet
roses and lilies, spoil of the park flower-beds. Their cool petals
touched his cheek, and filled his nostrils with aching scent. He felt
his arms smarting here and there, where the thorns of the roses had
torn them in the dark, but these delicate caresses of pain only
served to deepen to him the wonder of the night that wrapped him
about like a cloak. Behind him there dreamed the black woods, and
over his head multitudinous stars quivered and balanced in space; but
these things were nothing to him, for far across the lawn that was
spread knee-deep, with a web of mist there gleamed for his eager eyes
the splendour of a fairy palace. Red and orange and gold, the lights
of the fairy revels shone from a hundred windows and filled him with
wonder that he should see with wakeful eyes the jewels that he had
desired so long in sleep.
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