The Golden Key | Page 2

winding stair. The forms appeared
irregularly--now one, now many, now several, now none--men and
women and children--all different, all beautiful.
He drew nearer to the rainbow. It vanished. He started back a step in
dismay. It was there again, as beautiful as ever. So he contented himself
with standing as near it as he might, and watching the forms that
ascended the glorious colours towards the unknown height of the arch,
which did not end abruptly but faded away in the blue air, so gradually
that he could not say where it ceased.
When the thought of the golden key returned, the boy very wisely
proceeded to mark out in his mind the space covered by the foundation
of the rainbow, in order that he might know where to search, should the
rainbow disappear. It was based chiefly upon a bed of moss.
Meantime it had grown quite dark in the wood. The rainbow alone was

visible by its own light. But the moment the moon rose the rainbow
vanished. Nor could any change of place restore the vision to the boy's
eyes. So he threw himself down upon the mossy bed, to wait till the
sunlight would give him a chance of finding the key. There he fell fast
asleep.
When he woke in the morning the sun was looking straight into his
eyes. He turned away from it, and the same moment saw a brilliant
little thing lying on the moss within a foot of his face. It was the golden
key. The pipe of it was of plain gold, as bright as gold could be. The
handle was curiously wrought and set with sapphires. In a terror of
delight he put out his hand and took it, and had it.
He lay for a while, turning it over and over, and feeding his eyes upon
its beauty. Then he jumped to his feet, remembering that the pretty
thing was of no use to him yet. Where was the lock to which the key
belonged? It must be somewhere, for how could anybody be so silly as
make a key for which there was no lock? Where should he go to look
for it? He gazed about him, up into the air, down to the earth, but saw
no keyhole in the clouds, in the grass, or in the trees.
Just as he began to grow disconsolate, however, he saw something
glimmering in the wood. It was a mere glimmer that he saw, but he
took it for a glimmer of rainbow, and went towards it.--And now I will
go back to the borders of the forest.
Not far from the house where the boy had lived, there was another
house, the owner of which was a merchant, who was much away from
home. He had lost his wife some years before, and had only one child, a
little girl, whom he left to the charge of two servants, who were very
idle and careless. So she was neglected and left untidy, and was
sometimes ill-used besides.
Now it is well known that the little creatures commonly known as
fairies, though there are many different kinds of fairies in Fairyland,
have an exceeding dislike to untidiness. Indeed, they are quite spiteful
to slovenly people. Being used to all the lovely ways of the trees and
flowers, and to the neatness of the birds and all woodland creatures, it

makes them feel miserable, even in their deep woods and on their
grassy carpets, to think that within the same moonlight lies a dirty,
uncomfortable, slovenly house. And this makes them angry with the
people that live in it, and they would gladly drive them out of the world
if they could. They want the whole earth nice and clean. So they pinch
the maids black and blue and play them all manner of uncomfortable
tricks.
But this house was quite a shame, and the fairies in the forest could not
endure it. They tried everything on the maids without effect, and at last
resolved upon making a clean riddance, beginning with the child. They
ought to have known that it was not her fault, but they have little
principle and much mischief in them, and they thought that if they got
rid of her the maids would be sure to be turned away.
So one evening, the poor little girl having been put to bed early, before
the sun was down, the servants went off to the village, locking the door
behind them. The child did not know she was alone, and lay
contentedly looking out of her window towards the forest, of which,
however, she could not see much, because of the ivy and other creeping
plants which had straggled across her window. All at once she saw an
ape