Kitty had been running so fast that she could not stop herself, or perhaps she would not have been in such a hurry to cross that doleful stream.
No sooner she had bounded over to the other side than a grim woman stood before her. She appeared so suddenly that Kitty gave a start and stopped running. Was it a real woman? Was it the fog that had taken this shape? Kitty could see distinctly a face peering out of the mist, surrounded by gray hair and a high mob-cap. Perhaps this was owing to her attention being fixed upon the large pair of spectacles astride the hooked nose.
In all her life Kitty had never seen such spectacles. They shone with extraordinary effect through the dimness, as if they focused all the light of the place, and it was impossible to see the old woman’s eyes behind them. No, never had Kitty seen anything so piercing, so searching as those spectacles! When they fixed their gaze upon her she had an uncomfortable feeling that she was transparent like the glass jars in the chemist’s shop, and that the eyes behind the spectacles were seeing her through and through, right to the other side of her.
“Who are you?” asked the mouth belonging to the spectacles, in a business-like tone. “I hate wasting time asking questions. My spectacles usually spare me that trouble. But I can’t make you out. Who brought you here?”
“Nobody brought me here—that is, nobody except myself,” explained Kitty, who felt impelled to be very accurate under the inspection of those shining glassy eyes.
“Humph! Now that you have brought yourself here, what punishment have you come for?”
“Indeed,” replied Kitty eagerly, “I do not want any punishment—on no account.”
“Not want a punishment, and yet you come to Punishment Land!” repeated the old woman, with a smile curling up the corners of her lips. It was not a pleasant smile. It made Kitty feel a little creepy. “You might as well say,” continued the mouth belonging to the spectacles, “that you knock at a doctor’s door, and don’t want medicine.”
“Perhaps I had better go back,” said Kitty hurriedly, for she did not like the tone of the conversation.