Yet, look as she might, she could not tell which was the right one. Then there was a flutter of wings in the air, and then she felt something pull her dress, and there at her feet was a beautiful bird, holding her dress in its beak, and it led her round and round the cages, and every cage that her dress touched melted away and disappeared, till there was only one cage and one bird left, and then the new bird never hesitated, but lit on the top of this cage, and then he said to Eva:
“This is Aster, who was changed by the Green Frog into this form. He cannot regain his own shape without you, and the Toad-Woman will tell you what you are to do. As soon as the Frog misses him she will know who you are, which she does not yet know, and she will do her best to get him away from you. Go at once, and without any delay, to the Cascade of Rocks. Your friend there will help you. And remember that a kind action never goes unrewarded.”
And then the bird was gone, and Eva was alone. She tried to open the cage and take the little green bird out, but there was no such thing as opening it. So she took the cage, and the coat, which she had mended, and the piece had grown into the velvet, so that you never could tell that it had been torn, and without going again into the hut or telling the Frog she had found the bird, she went, for the last time, by the same road by which she had come, to the grotto of the Toad-Woman.
But she had not been gone many minutes before the Green Frog, wondering that her servant did not return to hire herself again, went in search of her. And the moment she saw that the bird was gone she knew who Eva was, and that she had discovered Aster; and, angry at herself for her own stupidity, she immediately set off in pursuit, hoping it was not yet too late to regain the prizes she had lost.
CHAPTER XV.
IN THE GROTTO.
IT was with a light heart that Eva passed over the muddy way which lay between the hut and the cascade. As rapidly as she could, she went along. The little bird screamed and cried incessantly, and Eva feared, that hearing him, the frogs inhabiting this region might, by their croakings, give the alarm, and bring their powerful mistress on her track before she reached the grotto. But the frogs were all, or else seemed to be, asleep, and she passed them unnoticed.