Timothy turned away from these grinning little creatures, and moved to where another group were sketching other pictures. He was almost afraid to look at the pictures, but when he did so, he saw that the painters were making designs too ugly and horrid to look at. But Timothy was perplexed, for of all the pictures there was none that he did not think he had seen somewhere before. And these little Imps were singing the same song that the others were singing, and Timothy thought that he caught the refrain:—
“Bad little,
Sad little,
Mad little
Thoughts!”
Here he turned to look into the recesses and alcoves under the galleries. Not all the inhabitants of the edifice were like the little creatures who had brought him hither. Oh, no! In the shadows of the great pillars there lurked and crawled great slimy things that made one shudder to see. Enormous spiders, larger than any Timothy had ever dreamed of, ran swiftly across the floor. Centipedes and lizards clung to the mouldy walls, and cold, slippery serpents glided noiselessly along. Occasionally he came upon huge shapeless creatures who lay curled upon the floor, staring at him with watery eyes.
Timothy hastily picked his way out into the light again. Here he found other groups of painters. One group was using brighter colours and blending them beautifully. But he could scarcely believe his own eyes when he saw the picture of the fine mansion he was planning, and the images of a thousand other things he had wished and hoped for.
But the painters in the next group were acting very strangely. They touched their brushes to the wall hastily and tremblingly, glancing over their shoulders as if in terror. And though their pictures did not assume any definite form, Timothy felt most uneasy. There he saw the dim outline of another world of which he had heard, but had forgotten to think of for many years.
Meanwhile Timothy had reached the upper end of the room, and found himself close to a great curtain tightly drawn. On either side of it he beheld a marble basin. One of the basins had evidently contained a fountain, but it was now half choked with mud, and only a little water oozed out of it. On looking into the other, he was astonished to find it full of liquid fire.
Just then he heard behind the curtain the sound as of a mighty rushing wind, and at the same moment the two fountains boiled up and cast out their dirt, and this they continued to do until each basin was brimming full, one of pure water and the other of pure fire.