She looked ahead, but no one was advancing. The road went in and out through the pleasant trees, the star glided above them.
CHAPTER XV
WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE?
How strange it seemed! Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
Suddenly a bluebird flew across. It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses. It put its head on one side and looked at Kitty with the brightest, friendliest eyes. It was quite blue, except for a tuft of golden feathers on its head, and a line of golden feathers round its neck like a fairy necklace. Kitty had never seen anything so wonderful as this bluebird. She stopped to look at it, and the bird looked back at her with its winning eyes. Kitty advanced on tiptoe, and it fluttered a little further into the wood. As it flew off it uttered a note.
“Listen!” said the naughty sprite, lifting its paw and giving Kitty a pat.
What a note that was! “Glug! glug! glug!” deep as the whistle of a bullfinch, then “Tri—ll—ill—ill!” it went like a lark caroling up in the sky; then suddenly the song changed, and now it was like a nightingale singing in the moonlight. Kitty’s heart swelled as she listened to the song of the beautiful creature, and as it sang it skimmed through the wood, now floating like a sea-gull on blue wings, now balancing itself on the branch of one of the forest trees.
“Come on! Do not put off any longer. It sings to keep you from following the star,” whispered the guardian child.
“Ah! let me listen a moment!” pleaded Kitty.
“Listen! listen!” said the naughty sprite, and down it gamboled from Kitty’s shoulder, seeming to call and to entice the bird, which flew out of the wood and perched on a bough singing; the tuft of golden feathers on its head stood up like a crown, its golden necklace rose like a ruff round its throat.