“My dear boy! It is I. Perry, do you not know me?”
“Oh, madam!” in infinite relief, “it is you. I thought—I thought I was in elfland and that they were paying me for the tithe to hell;” and he still shuddered all over.
“No elf—no elf, dear boy; a christened boy—God’s child, and under His care;” and she began the 121st Psalm.
“Oh, but I am not under His shadow! The Evil One has had me again! He will have me. Aren’t those his claws? He will have me!”
“Never, my child, if you will cry to God for help. Say this with me, ‘Lord, be Thou my keeper.’”
He did so, and grew more quiet, and she began to repeat Dr. Ken’s evening hymn, which had become known in manuscript in Winchester. It soothed him, and she thought he was dropping off to sleep, but no sooner did she move than he started with “There it is again—the black wings—the claws—” then while awake, “Say it again! Oh, say it again. Fold me in your prayers—you can pray.” She went back to the verse, and he became quiet, but her next attempt to leave him caused an entreaty that she would remain, nor could she quit him till the dawn, happily very early, was dispelling the terrors of the night, and then, when he had himself murmured once—
“Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness me molest,”
he fell asleep at last, with a softer look on his pinched face. Poor boy, would that verse be his first step to prayer and deliverance from his own too real enemy?
CHAPTER VII
The Envoy
“I then did ask of her, her changeling child.”
Midsummer Night’s Dream.