The Golden Key | Page 5

it returned with you.
Then it darted out of the door at once. You saw it go into the pot of
itself the moment it entered, did you not?"
"I did," answered Tangle, "and I thought it very strange; but then I saw
you, and forgot all about the fish."
"In Fairyland," resumed the lady, as they sat down to the table, "the
ambition of the animals is to be eaten by the people; for that is their
highest end in that condition. But they are not therefore destroyed. Out
of that pot comes something more than the dead fish, you will see."
Tangle now remarked that the lid was on the pot. But the lady took no
further notice of it till they had eaten the fish, which Tangle found nicer
than any fish she had ever tasted before. It was as white as snow, and as
delicate as cream. And the moment she had swallowed a mouthful of it,
a change she could not describe began to take place in her. She heard a
murmuring all about her, which became more and more articulate, and
at length, as she went on eating, grew intelligible. By the time she had
finished her share, the sounds of all the animals in the forest came
crowding through the door to her ears; for the door still stood wide
open, though it was pitch-dark outside; and they were no longer sounds
only; they were speech, and speech that she could understand. She
could tell what the insects in the cottage were saying to each other too.
She had even a suspicion that the trees and flowers all about the cottage
were holding midnight communications with each other; but what they
said she could not hear.
As soon as the fish was eaten, the lady went to the fire and took the lid

off the pot. A lovely little creature in human shape, with large white
wings, rose out of it, and flew round and round the roof of the cottage;
then dropped, fluttering, and nestled in the lap of the lady. She spoke to
it some strange words, carried it to the door, and threw it out into the
darkness. Tangle heard the flapping of its wings die away in the
distance.
"Now have we done the fish any harm?" she said, returning.
"No," answered Tangle, "I do not think we have. I should not mind
eating one every day."
"They must wait their time, like you and me too, my little Tangle."
And she smiled a smile which the sadness in it made more lovely.
"But," she continued, "I think we may have one for supper to-morrow.
So saying she went to the door of the tank, and spoke; and now Tangle
understood her perfectly.
"I want one of you." she said,--"the wisest."
Thereupon the fishes got together in the middle of the tank, with their
heads forming a circle above the water, and their tails a larger circle
beneath it. They were holding a council, in which their relative wisdom
should be determined. At length one of them flew up into the lady's
hand, looking lively and ready.
"You know where the rainbow stands?" she asked.
"Yes, mother, quite well," answered the fish.
"Bring home a young man you will find there, who does not know
where to go."
The fish was out of the door in a moment. Then the lady told Tangle it
was time to go to bed; and, opening another door in the side of the
cottage, showed her a little arbour, cool and green, with a bed of purple

heath growing in it, upon which she threw a large wrapper made of the
feathered skins of the wise fishes, shining gorgeous in the firelight.
Tangle was soon lost in the strangest, loveliest dreams. And the
beautiful lady was in every one of her dreams.
In the morning she woke to the rustling of leaves over her head, and the
sound of running water. But, to her surprise, she could find no
door--nothing but the moss grown wall of the cottage. So she crept
through an opening in the arbour, and stood in the forest. Then she
bathed in a stream that ran merrily through the trees, and felt happier;
for having once been in her grandmother's pond, she must be clean and
tidy ever after; and, having put on her green dress, felt like a lady.
She spent that day in the wood, listening to the birds and beasts and
creeping things. She understood all that they said, though she could not
repeat a word of it; and every kind had a different language, while there
was a common though more limited understanding between all the
inhabitants of the forest. She saw nothing of the beautiful lady,