Eva's Adventures in Shadow-Land

by Mary D. Nauman; Clara F. Guernsey

Then Eva thanked them for what they had done, and taking one of her long bright curls, she tied part of it round each trout’s neck, where it shone like a collar of gold. And they told her that she should keep the rest of the curl, and if at any time she was in trouble from which she could not escape, and was near water, and thought that they could help her, she should throw the rest of the curl into the water, and they would come to her.

Then, holding in her hand the two feathers the jackdaw had dropped, which the trout told her might be useful, Eva bade the trout farewell, and stepped on shore. And as her foot touched the ground, the boat moved off into the stream, and waited there.

And presently Eva said, “Go home, little boat,” and the boat immediately, with the trout, began to go up the brook. She watched it till it was out of sight, and then the child stood alone on the banks of the Enchanted River.

CHAPTER XIII.
THE ENCHANTED RIVER.

EVA had heard so much about this wonderful stream that, as she stood upon its banks, she could scarcely realize that she had at last reached it. And it looked quiet enough, now that she had come to it. It had seemed to her that the waters of the Brook of Mists had ended in nothing; but now, as she stood upon the river-bank, and looked back, she could see no water. The curling mists and vapors had spread over and covered all the way by which she had come, and the only things left to show the place of the brook were the two black rocks, half hid, half revealed, by the mists playing around them. But to remain there, looking back, would, as Eva well knew, never do. Her way lay down the river, and she might as well go boldly forward. So, slowly and carefully, she began to walk along the bank.

Quiet as the river had at first seemed, it was not very long before Eva found that it deserved its name. What she thought was land would very often prove to be water; and then again places which seemed to be a broad expanse of river would afford her a firm foothold. Here and there were sheets of what Eva thought at first was ice, so smooth and glassy did it look, yet it would not be cold to the touch. The river had no perceptible banks,—it was almost impossible to tell where earth ended and water began. Yet, walking along, sometimes with the water splashing above her ankles, Eva’s feet were never wet. The trees along the river seemed to walk on, and little green flames, tipped with orange, danced among them. Once one of these little flames fell on Eva’s dress, and when, fearing it might burn her, she brushed it off, she found that it was nothing but a harmless green leaf, with a golden tip, which had dropped from a tree hanging over the river.

Many wonderful things, too, lay on the bottom of the river. Eva saw them, and remembered dimly what they were as she caught sight of them through the clear water, though she could not tell where she ever had heard of them. An old lamp, rusty and cracked, she knew was Aladdin’s wonderful lamp; near it lay Cinderella’s little glass slippers; not far off was Blue Beard’s key; and the next thing that she saw was Jack’s famous bean-stalk. Seeing these things, and many more, she began to wonder if the flower which Aster had lost could possibly be among them, or if the piece of his coat was there; when she suddenly remembered that she had seen the latter in the possession of the Green Frog.