Everychild | Page 3

Her face was redder than Everychild's
mother's face, but not so pretty. Her eyes often seemed tired, but never
too tired to beam a little.
"Are you all alone, Everychild?" she asked. She did not wait for a reply,
but asked another question: "Is something wrong with your kite?" And

again without waiting for a reply she added: "Maybe I could fix it for
you!"
And she got down on the rug on her knees and took the kite from his
hands.
Everychild, standing beside her, looked into her rather sad, kind eyes,
which were closer to him than he remembered their ever having been
before. There were little moist lines about them, and they were faded.
Her hands were not at all like his mother's hands. Not nearly so nice:
and yet how clever they were! She was really untangling the tail of the
kite, moving it here and there with large gestures.
And then Everychild forgot all about the kite. Certain amazing things
had begun to happen near by.
It had been getting dark in the room; and now it suddenly became quite
bright, though no one had turned the lights on. And there was a sound
of music--a short bit of a march, which ended all of a sudden. And then
Everychild realized that by some strange process two persons had
entered the room.
CHAPTER II
EVERYCHILD'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE GIANT
He was almost afraid to look at the two strange persons, because their
being there seemed very mysterious, and he had the thought that if he
looked at them steadily they might vanish. He knew at once that they
were not to be treated just as if they were ordinary persons. It was not
only that they had come into the room without making any noise, or
that there had been that burst of music, or that the light had brightened.
It was rather because the cook went on untangling the kite, just as if
nothing had happened.
He said to himself, "She does not know they are here. She does not
know I have seen anything."

Then it occurred to him that the two strangers were not paying any
attention to him at all, and that he might look at them as much as he
pleased.
Suddenly he recognized one of them. He had seen his picture. It was
Father Time. And he could have laughed to himself because Father
Time was a much more pleasing person than he had been in his picture.
It is true that he carried a scythe, just as he had been pictured as doing.
There was a sand-glass too. It was in two parts, connected by a narrow
stem through which the sand was running from one part to the other.
But he did not have a long white beard, and a dark robe, and a stern
face. Not at all. His eyes were all ready to twinkle. They were the
kindest eyes Everychild had ever seen. You could tell by looking at
them that if you were to hurt yourself Father Time would pity you and
comfort you. He had a rather jolly figure. You could imagine he might
be very playful. And he wore the costume of a jester--though you did
not feel like laughing at him, because his eyes were so friendly and
kind. He stood as if he were waiting to begin some sort of play.
Then Everychild looked at the other stranger. She was a lady, and very
distinguished looking. He did not recognize her, though he felt at once
that she was a very important person. She was dressed all in
shimmering white. She was very fair and her hair was dressed
beautifully. She wore a band about her hair and there was a jewel in it,
like a star. She wore a little mask over her eyes so that you could not be
sure at once whether she was a kind person or not. She sat at a spinning
wheel, and the wheel went round and round without making any noise.
She was spinning something. She looked very tranquil.
Everychild was becoming greatly excited. He touched the cook on the
hand. "Didn't it seem to you to get much lighter?" he asked.
"Lighter? No. It's getting darker," she replied.
"And--and didn't you hear any music, either?"
"I heard nothing."

It made him feel almost forlorn to have the cook say she had not
noticed anything. He drew closer to her. "Never mind the kite now," he
said. "I want you . . . Oh, don't you see anything at all? Please look!"
He stood with one finger on his lip, staring at Father Time and the
Masked Lady.
She regarded him almost with alarm. "Lord bless the child, what's
coming over him?" she exclaimed. "There's