“The people weren’t, with the houses and everything spoiled.”
“But they built new ones, very quickly. It doesn’t take long to build a house like a bird-cage. They drove the loaded ox-carts only a little way down the slope of the mountain; and before you could think, there was a new village just like the old, and everything was just as it was before. The brown babies and the spotted pigs ran and tumbled about, and the women went right on grinding corn to make more and more flat cakes; but they didn’t do much housework or sewing, and everybody slept a good deal in the midday heat; then when the cool evening came they gathered together to visit comfortably, while the children played about in the moonlight.”
“Like us?” asked the Kitten.
“Like us,” said the Princess. “Only you aren’t playing about; you are listening to more story.”
“Oh, is it more?” asked Pat.
“A tiny bit,” said the Princess. And the Others wriggled down into their places to listen quite differently from the way they listened when it was conversation. She began to speak in a still voice:—
“So it was one night when the full, round moon shone, silver-bright above the treetops. One of the women sat a little apart, and watched it soaring among the stars. And as she looked, it seemed to her it was not quite round; a tiny slice was gone from one edge.
“‘See the moon!’ she called to the others, pointing upward.
“They gathered near; and as they watched it, the dark shadow crept forward, across the face of the moon.
“‘What is it?’ asked the children.