[Illustration: Flock of white swans]
The children stopped to watch them.
"Pretty!" they said. "Swans and shadow swans!"
So laughing and playing and seeing strange and beautiful things, Thorn walked a long way with the children. At last, far off, he saw a long purple line.
"That is the sea," Periwinkle told him.
When they came to it, there was a big blue water with no shore on the other side. It was beautiful, and Thorn shouted as he saw the foam-capped waves roll in and break on the white sand.
Pointing to a place along the shore, the children said, "There is our home."