The child looked up and down, and all around, and in his terror he cried more loudly, “Oh, papa, mamma! come, come to poor Edwy!”
It was an echo, the echo of the rocks which repeated the words of the child. The more loudly he spoke, the more perfect was the echo. But he could only catch the last few words, and this time he only heard, “Poor, poor Edwy!”
Edwy still dimly remembered a far-away happy home, and kind parents, and now he believed that what the echo said came from them. They were calling to him, and saying, “Poor, poor Edwy!” But where could they be? Were they in the caves, or at the top of the rocks, or in the blue bright heavens?
He looked at the rocks and the sky, and down among the reeds and sedges and alders by the side of the brook, but he could find no one.
After a while he called again, and called louder still.
“Come, come,” was the cry again, “Edwy is lost! lost! lost!”
Echo repeated the last words as before, “Lost! lost! lost!” and now the voice sounded from behind him, for he had moved round a corner of a rock.
The child heard the voice behind, and turned and ran that way. Then he stopped and heard it again in the opposite direction. Next he shrieked from fear, and echo returned the shriek, finishing up with broken sounds which to Edwy’s ears seemed as if some one a long way off was mocking him. His terror was now at its highest, and he did not know what to do, or where to go. Turning round, he began once more to run down the valley, and every step took him nearer the mouth of the glen and the entrance to the great highroad.
And who had been driving along that road, in a fine carriage with four horses, but Edwy’s own papa and mamma!
Mr. and Mrs. Lawley had given up all hopes of finding their little boy near Norwood, and they had set out in their coach to go all over the country in search of him. They had come the day before to a town near to the place where the gypsies had kept Edwy all the winter. There they had made many inquiries, and asked about the gypsies who were to be found in that country. But people were afraid of the gypsies, and did not like to say anything which might bring trouble upon themselves.