“Ellaleen, if thou wilt journey alone to the willow copse, on the south side of the Blue Mountain that lies to the south of the city, thou shalt there find the means to save thy country.”
This sentence the little old woman repeated three times, and Ellaleen, when she woke in the morning, felt like a second Joan of Arc, for, of course, you know that Joan of Arc was told in a dream that she was to save her country.
Ellaleen did not wait for breakfast—not that it would have made the least difference if she had, for there was no breakfast to wait for (the King’s-taxes had called the day before)—but having obtained permission from her father and mother, whom she had told about her dream, she started off for the willow copse on the south side of the Blue Mountain.
It was late by the time she arrived there—quite dusk, in fact—and it was very much further than she expected. As she entered the copse her heart beat high with excitement, for there, on a fallen tree, sat the old woman of her dream. As soon as the old woman saw her she rose and came quickly forward.
“On a Fallen Tree sat the Old Woman of her Dream.”
“Ellaleen, I am glad thou hast come,” she said in a kindly voice, and taking the girl by her hands; “and art thou prepared to suffer much to save the people from their fearful affliction?”
“Indeed, indeed I am,” replied Ellaleen with all her heart.
“Then come with me,” said the little old woman, and she led the way to the edge of the copse.