“If he could talk,” Muffs said, “I might b’lieve he was wondrous wise but he doesn’t say a word.”
“Wise people don’t talk,” declared Tommy, “unless they have something to say. But look! He’s pointing. He’s pointing to that bird’s nest right over our heads.”
Muffs had never seen a nest with eggs in it. The Guide hooked an arm over the branch and bent it to show her the eggs but she saw baby birds instead. Five of them! And all five had their bills open like cups. By standing right back of the Guide she could see them through his glasses.
“It’s magic,” she cried. “The birds have turned into baby dragons.”
Tommy looked too and, sure enough, everything was twice as big through the glasses. He caught a small worm and held it in his fingers.
“Here’s a snake for you, baby dragons,” he said.
Muffs and Mary fed them crumbs of bread and cookies. Soon all five of the funny bills were closed and five pair of eyes were blinking off to sleep. Shadows grew longer. The children hurried a little faster and forgot to look through the glasses.
“My, it’s a long trail!” Muffs sighed after an hour or so of hurrying. “Seems as if it must go to the ends of the earth.”
“The earth is round,” said Mary. “Round things haven’t any ends.”
“Then there isn’t any such place?” asked Muffs, dismayed. But Tommy pointed through the trees to where the earth and sky seemed to meet each other.