Presently she saw that it was crowded with children. It was the tramp of their little feet she had heard, for they were running, running.
“Why, that is not punishment, that is play,” said Kitty, astonished.
“Speak to them,” answered Love.
Some of the children were running with quite a spirited air, as if they were enjoying the race; their heads were uplifted, their chins poked out; others plodded on wearily with a dogged expression, while some looked angry and miserable; and others again seemed dazed and wandered foolishly up and down, going backward and forward about the same spot. Tramp, tramp, went those impetuous, tired, foolish feet. Kitty advanced a step or two, then some of the children trooped up toward the spot nearest to her. “We want to get out! We want to get out!” they said in fretful voices that sounded a long way off yet were quite distinct. “We want to get out! We want to get back to Obedience Path,” they repeated, looking anxiously at Kitty, as if they thought she might show them the way out of this labyrinth.
Kitty looked eagerly about to see if she could help them to find the right path; but every pathway was so turning and twisting, so crooked and intricate, that it made her giddy to try and follow its curves and caprices. She shook her head sadly, and the children then left her, and tramp, tramp went those restless little feet.
One child alone remained behind, going backward and forward like a little bird flitting about the door of its cage.
“I want to get out! I want to get out!” he said plaintively.
“What is this place?” asked Kitty.
“It is Disobedience Maze,” said the child in a thin, clear voice. “We are the disobedient children, and because we would follow our own way instead of the one that we were told to go we have lost the Path of Obedience. I would go to the right when I was told to go to the left. I would go back when I was told to go on. I would do what I was told not to do, and one day I found I had got into this miserable place, which is so full of dreadful troubles, and thorns, and twistings. I am so tired! I am so tired! I want to find my way to Obedience Path.”