The White People | Page 9

were so hot and tired that I took off my boots
and stockings, and let my feet down into the water, and the water was
soft and cold, and when I got up I wasn't tired any more, and I felt I
must go on, farther and farther, and see what was on the other side of
the wall. I climbed up it very slowly, going sideways all the time, and
when I got to the top and looked over, I was in the queerest country I
had seen, stranger even than the hill of the grey rocks. It looked as if
earth-children had been playing there with their spades, as it was all
hills and hollows, and castles and walls made of earth and covered with
grass. There were two mounds like big beehives, round and great and
solemn, and then hollow basins, and then a steep mounting wall like the
ones I saw once by the seaside where the big guns and the soldiers were.
I nearly fell into one of the round hollows, it went away from under my
feet so suddenly, and I ran fast down the side and stood at the bottom
and looked up. It was strange and solemn to look up. There was
nothing but the grey, heavy sky and the sides of the hollow; everything
else had gone away, and the hollow was the whole world, and I thought
that at night it must be full of ghosts and moving shadows and pale
things when the moon shone down to the bottom at the dead of the
night, and the wind wailed up above. It was so strange and solemn and
lonely, like a hollow temple of dead heathen gods. It reminded me of a
tale my nurse had told me when I was quite little; it was the same nurse

that took me into the wood where I saw the beautiful white people. And
I remembered how nurse had told me the story one winter night, when
the wind was beating the trees against the wall, and crying and
moaning in the nursery chimney. She said there was, somewhere or
other, a hollow pit, just like the one I was standing in, everybody was
afraid to go into it or near it, it was such a bad place. But once upon a
time there was a poor girl who said she would go into the hollow pit,
and everybody tried to stop her, but she would go. And she went down
into the pit and came back laughing, and said there was nothing there at
all, except green grass and red stones, and white stones and yellow
flowers. And soon after people saw she had most beautiful emerald
earrings, and they asked how she got them, as she and her mother were
quite poor. But she laughed, and said her earrings were not made of
emeralds at all, but only of green grass. Then, one day, she wore on her
breast the reddest ruby that any one had ever seen, and it was as big as
a hen's egg, and glowed and sparkled like a hot burning coal of fire.
And they asked how she got it, as she and her mother were quite poor.
But she laughed, and said it was not a ruby at all, but only a red stone.
Then one day she wore round her neck the loveliest necklace that any
one had ever seen, much finer than the queen's finest, and it was made
of great bright diamonds, hundreds of them, and they shone like all the
stars on a night in June. So they asked her how she got it, as she and
her mother were quite poor. But she laughed, and said they were not
diamonds at all, but only white stones. And one day she went to the
Court, and she wore on her head a crown of pure angel-gold, so nurse
said, and it shone like the sun, and it was much more splendid than the
crown the king was wearing himself, and in her ears she wore the
emeralds, and the big ruby was the brooch on her breast, and the great
diamond necklace was sparkling on her neck. And the king and queen
thought she was some great princess from a long way off, and got down
from their thrones and went to meet her, but somebody told the king
and queen who she was, and that she was quite poor. So the king asked
why she wore a gold crown, and how she got it, as she and her mother
were so poor. And she laughed, and said it wasn't a gold crown at all,
but only some yellow flowers she had put in her hair. And the king
thought