"Let me take you up to the moon," said the fairy. "All the Jackdaws up there sing like nightingales."
"Why is that?" asked the little Jackdaw.
"Because they are all moon-struck," she answered.
"And what is it to be moon-struck?" he asked.
"Surely you should know, if anyone!" laughed the fairy. "To see things beautifully, and not as they are. On the moon you will be able to do that without any difficulty."
"Ah," said the little Jackdaw, "now I know at last that the beautiful is going to come true!"
THE GENTLE COCKATRICE
FAR above the terraces of vine, where the goat pastures ended and the rocks began, the eye could take a clear view over the whole plain. From that point the world below spread itself out like a green map, and the only walls one could see were the white flanks and tower of the cathedral rising up from the grey roofs of the city; as for the streets, they seemed to be but narrow foot-tracks on which people appeared like ants walking.