“Look!” he said, pointing upward. “The star is moving.”
Yes, the fiery heart of the star had begun to beat, and already it was beginning to glide over the tree-tops.
“Oh!” Kitty exclaimed in dismay, “cannot we play a little longer?”
Just at that moment the loveliest butterfly twinkled past. It looked like a flower on wings. Because the dance had not got out of Kitty’s toes she began to dance after it.
A little girl now dashed out of the wood. She had the liveliest face, the whitest teeth, the merriest eyes Kitty had ever seen. Golden bells tinkled on her pointed cap and on her dress. Tinkle, tinkle went those golden bells as she ran. She seized Kitty by the hand, and before Kitty could say yes or no, she found herself running with her hand clasped in that of the strange child.
Kitty had never run so fast; the breeze seemed to run with her; the carpet of soft moss seemed to speed them along; the birds seemed to say, “Quick, quick; who’ll go faster, our wings or your feet?”
The sprite sniffed the woodland air with immense satisfaction; it was as wide awake now as it had been fast asleep before.
The guardian child whispered in Kitty’s ear, “Enough, enough; you have played enough.”
The star glided in the sky over the narrow path that stretched away like a straight white ribbon under the forest trees.
At last Kitty stopped, out of breath, at the foot of a branching tree. A little bird caroled above a merry song.