CHAPTER TWO.
HOW LITTLE TOM WAS FOUND BY HIS GODMOTHER.
THE SPRING. THE FLOOD.
HOW THE GODMOTHER FOUND LITTLE TOM
IN A NUTSHELL.
HOW LITTLE TOM TOOK UP HIS ABODE ON CASTLE
EASTER EGG.
HOW THE GODMOTHER BROUGHT LITTLE TOM
HIS OUTFIT.
WHAT LITTLE TOM TOLD HIS GODMOTHER
ABOUT THE REALM OF GOBLINS.
The winter was cruelly cold. Snow covered the paths and drifted high against the little hut. With difficulty the herb woman made paths to the stable and to the brook.
In the night, when she could not sleep, she listened to every slight sound, in the hope that her little friends would appear again. But nothing ever happened; it was only the hoot of an owl outside, or the squeak of a mouse. The gnomes never came forth again from their underground realm.
So, in the day time she read and sewed, pondering how she could go to the nearest town to change her money and buy many little things for her comfort and for the improvement of the little hut. Her gold pieces she had hidden well behind a green tile on the hearth.
Finally, the snow began to melt, the sun became warmer, the fields lost their coat of white, the meadows became green, and spring had come. When Easter arrived, she had already planted her garden and stripped the roses of their winter coverings. The snow drops and gillyflowers were blossoming by the brook; the cowslips were poking their yellow caps out of their beds, and over the fields the larks sang joyously.