"Shut your eyes," said my conductor or steed, I don't know which to call him; "go to sleep if you like. I'll wake you when we meet the others."
"Thank you," I said, feeling too content and comfortable to disagree with anything he said.
Then came a feeling of being raised up, a breath of colder air, which seemed to grow warm again almost immediately, and I knew nothing more till I heard the words, "Here they are."
I opened my eyes and looked about me. It was night—overhead in the deep blue sky innumerable stars were sparkling, and down below at our feet I heard the lap-lap of rippling waves. A dark, half-shadowy figure stood at my right hand, and as I saw it more clearly I distinguished the form of the other lion, with—yes, there was some one sitting on his back.
"Haddie," I exclaimed.
"Yes, yes, Geraldine, it's me," my brother's own dear voice replied. "We're going right over the sea—did you know?—isn't it splendid? We're going to see father and mamma. Hold out your hand so that you can feel mine."
THE BROTHER LIONS ROSE INTO THE AIR.
I did so, and my fingers clasped his, and at that moment the brother lions rose into the air, and down below, even fainter and fainter, came the murmur of the sea, while up above, the twinkling stars looked down on what surely was one of the strangest sights they had ever seen in all their long, long experience!