“Haunted by what, Zerlina?” she asked.
“It is not known,” replied the Gypsy girl, mysteriously; “but on moonlight nights some one is often seen sitting on this bank.”
“What some one—a man or a woman?” persisted Bab.
“It is not known,” repeated Zerlina. “But it has been seen, nevertheless. Besides,” she continued, “this is supposed to be the meeting-place of fairies. Though people do not believe in fairies in this country.”
“I do,” declared Mollie, and the other girls laughed light-heartedly.
“And,” went on Zerlina, “the deer who live in this wood come here to graze and drink water from the pool.”
“Now, that I can believe,” said Ruth.
“Well, it is an enchanted spot,” cried Mollie. “It must be. Look at Zerlina’s dog.”
The shepherd dog had taken his tail in his mouth and was circling slowly. The girls watched him breathlessly as he turned faster and faster. Once he fell into the stream, but he never stopped and continued to circle so rapidly, as he clambered out, that he lost all sense of direction and waltzed over the girls’ laps, staining their dresses with his wet feet, while they laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks, and the woods rang with the merry sound.
At a word from the Gypsy girl the dog stopped and stretched himself exhausted, on the ground.