The Golden Key | Page 7

you? I don't know the young man," she said to the
lady.
"I am never allowed to keep my children long. You need not go with
him except you please, but you must go some day; and I should like
you to go with him, for he has the golden key. No girl need be afraid to
go with a youth that has the golden key. You will take care of her,

Mossy, will you not?"
"That I will," said Mossy.
And Tangle cast a glance at him, and thought she should like to go with
him.
"And," said the lady, "If you should lose each other as you go through
the--the--I never can remember the name of that country,--do not be
afraid, but go on and on."
She kissed Tangle on the mouth and Mossy on the forehead, led them
to the door, and waved her hand eastward. Mossy and Tangle took each
other's hand and walked away into the depth of the forest. In his right
hand Mossy held the golden key.
They wandered thus a long way, with endless amusement from the talk
of the animals. They soon learned enough of their language to ask them
necessary questions. The squirrels were always friendly, and gave them
nuts out of their own hoards; but the bees were selfish and rude,
justifying themselves on the ground that Tangle and Mossy were not
subjects of their queen, and charity must begin at home, though indeed
they had not one drone in their poorhouse at the time. Even the blinking
moles would fetch them an earth-nut or a truffle now and then, talking
as if their mouths, as well as their eyes and ears, were full of cotton
wool, or their own velvety fur. By the time they got out of the forest
they were very fond of each other, and Tangle was not in the least sorry
that her grandmother had sent her away with Mossy.
At length the trees grew smaller, and stood farther apart, and the
ground began to rise, and it got more and more steep, till the trees were
all left behind, and the two were climbing a narrow path with rocks on
each side. Suddenly they came upon a rude doorway, by which they
entered a narrow gallery cut in the rock. It grew darker and darker, till
it was pitch dark, and they had to feel their way. At length the light
began to return, and at last they came out upon a narrow path on the
face of a lofty precipice. This path went winding down the rock to a
wide plain, circular in shape, and surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Those opposite to them were a great way off, and towered to an awful
height, shooting up sharp, blue, ice-enamelled pinnacles. An utter
silence reigned where they stood. Not even the sound of water reached
them.
Looking down, they could not tell whether the valley below was a
grassy plain or a great still lake. They had never seen any place look
like it. The way to it was difficult and dangerous, but down the narrow
path they went, and reached the bottom in safety. They found it
composed of smooth, light-coloured sandstone, undulating in parts, but
mostly level. It was no wonder to them now that they had not been able
to tell what it was, for this surface was everywhere crowded with
shadows. It was a sea of shadows. The mass was chiefly made up of the
shadows of leaves innumerable, of all lovely and imaginative forms,
waving to and fro, floating and quivering in the breath of a breeze
whose motion was unfelt, whose sound was unheard. No forests
clothed the mountain-sides, no trees were anywhere to be seen, and yet
the shadows of the leaves, branches, and stems of all various trees
covered the valley as far as their eyes could reach. They soon spied the
shadows of flowers mingled with those of the leaves, and now and then
the shadow of a bird with open beak, and throat distended with song.
At times would appear the forms of strange, graceful creatures, running
up and down the shadow-boles and along the branches, to disappear in
the wind-tossed foliage. As they walked they waded knee-deep in the
lovely lake. For the shadows were not merely lying on the surface of
the ground, but heaped up above it like substantial forms of darkness,
as if they had been cast upon a thousand different planes of the air.
Tangle and Mossy often lifted their heads and gazed upwards to descry
whence the shadows came; but they could see nothing more than a
bright mist spread above them, higher than the tops of the mountains,
which stood clear against it. No forests, no