Cross Purposes and The Shadows | Page 4

saw that a full rivulet was flowing down the side of the hill.
"Here is your knife, Richard," said the goblin; but by the time he had
put it in his pocket, the rivulet had grown to a small torrent.
"Now, Richard, come along," said Toadstool, and threw himself into
the torrent.
"I would rather have a boat," returned Richard.
"Oh, you stupid!" cried Toadstool crawling up the side of the hill, down
which the stream had already carried him some distance.
With every contortion that labour and difficulty could suggest, yet with
incredible rapidity, he crawled to the very top of one of the trees, and
tore down a huge leaf, which he threw on the ground, and himself after
it, rebounding like a ball. He then laid the leaf on the water, held it by
the stem, and told Richard to get upon it. He did so. It went down deep
in the middle with his weight. Toadstool let it go, and it shot down the
stream like an arrow. This began the strangest and most delightful
voyage. The stream rushed careering and curveting down the hill-side,
bright as a diamond, and soon reached a meadow plain. The goblin
rolled alongside of the boat like a bundle of weeds; but Richard rode in
triumph through the low grassy country upon the back of his watery
steed. It went straight as an arrow, and, strange to tell, was heaped up
on the ground, like a ridge of water or a wave, only rushing on endways.
It needed no channel, and turned aside for no opposition. It flowed over
everything that crossed its path, like a great serpent of water, with folds

fitting into all the ups and downs of the way. If a wall came in its
course it flowed against it, heaping itself up on itself till it reached the
top, whence it plunged to the foot on the other side, and flowed on.
Soon he found that it was running gently up a grassy hill. The waves
kept curling back as if the wind blew them, or as if they could hardly
keep from running down again. But still the stream mounted and
flowed, and the waves with it. It found it difficult, but it could do it.
When they reached the top, it bore them across a heathy country,
rolling over purple heather, and blue harebells, and delicate ferns, and
tall foxgloves crowded with bells purple and white. All the time the
palm-leaf curled its edges away from the water, and made a delightful
boat for Richard, while Toadstool tumbled along in the stream like a
porpoise. At length the water began to run very fast, and went faster
and faster, till suddenly it plunged them into a deep lake, with a great
splash, and stopped there. Toadstool went out of sight, and came up
gasping and grinning, while Richard's boat tossed and heaved like a
vessel in a storm at sea; but not a drop of water came in. Then the
goblin began to swim, and pushed and tugged the boat along. But the
lake was so still, and the motion so pleasant, that Richard fell fast
asleep.

CHAPTER IV.
When he woke he found himself still afloat upon the broad palm-leaf.
He was alone in the middle of a lake, with flowers and trees growing in
and out of it everywhere. The sun was just over the tree-tops. A drip of
water from the flowers greeted him with music; the mists were
dissolving away, and where the sunlight fell on the lake the water was
clear as glass. Casting his eyes downward, he saw, just beneath him, far
down at the bottom, Alice drowned, as he thought. He was in the act of
plunging in, when he saw her open her eyes, and at the same moment
begin to float up. He held out his hand, but she repelled it with disdain,
and swimming to a tree, sat down on a low branch, wondering how
ever the poor widow's son could have found his way into Fairyland.
She did not like it. It was an invasion of privilege.

"How did you come here, young Richard?" she asked, from six yards
off.
"A goblin brought me."
"Ah! I thought so. A fairy brought me."
"Where is your fairy?"
"Here I am," said Peaseblossom, rising slowly to the surface just by the
tree on which Alice was seated.
"Where is your goblin?" retorted Alice.
"Here I am," bawled Toadstool, rushing out of the water like a salmon,
and casting a summersault in the air before he fell in again with a
tremendous splash. His head rose again close beside Peaseblossom,
who being used to such creatures only laughed.
"Isn't he handsome?" he grinned.
"Yes, very. He wants