“Oh!” said his companion, “it is still too hot to walk fast. If you wait awhile under the shade of this pretty wood, you will get on all the better a little later in the afternoon.”
“All right,” said Winikin, and the lads sat down on the grass. Goldlocks now drew from his pocket a humming top and set it spinning. It was made of a single carbuncle and was topped at each end with a diamond. It was called a humming top but it should have been called a musical top for the sounds it gave forth were as beautiful as an Eolian harp, and they formed distinct tunes. Winikin listened in speechless joy, till at length, tired out with play and amusement, he fell fast asleep.
Little Finikin, meanwhile, on getting out into the meadows, carefully noticed all the objects the hermit had described, so as to be sure to lose neither time nor way till at last he came to a field where he saw a little boy sitting on a bank, and crying bitterly.
Finikin felt so sorry for him that he stopped and said, “What is the matter?”
“Oh,” cried he, “I am waiting for someone to play with. My name is Brownlocks. Who are you?”
“I am Finikin,” said our little friend, “but I cannot stop to play. I am trying to find an orchard of wonderful fruit. I shall take some of it back to my sick father. The fruit will help to cure him.”
“Play with me awhile,” said Brownlocks. “I can take you to a garden where you will find better fruit than that which grows in the orchard you are looking for.”
But Finikin remembered the hermit’s words and persisted in going on his way. When he looked to see if the little boy was following him, Finikin found he had disappeared.
Finikin hurried on, and at length the scenery began to grow wilder as he came near the end of his journey. The rocks were higher and more abrupt and the vegetation more luxuriant, and soon in great joy he stopped, looked at the top of a great pile of rocks, and cried out, “There is the wonderful garden! It looks like a giant basket of fruit and flowers! How shall I ever climb up to it!”
Finikin went round the base of the rocks and looked carefully to see if he could find a path leading to the summit. No such thing was to be found but he saw a cleft between two rocks over which fell a cascade. The water had shrunk to a mere thread because the season had been very dry. Either the work of nature or the hand of man had formed rocks into rough steps, which were almost covered with a sheet of water. Finikin determined to climb the steps although they were slippery and dangerous. Slowly and carefully he made his way to the top where a hedge formed a circle round the garden. He crept through the prickly bushes and saw before him an earthly paradise. The grass was dotted over with every variety of rare, richly coloured flowers; the trees were loaded with fruit that shone like precious stones; the air was studded with the gayest butterflies; and birds with gold and silver plumage were hopping from branch to branch and trilling the sweetest songs.