"the wind had lulled them to sleep."
Ah! what a beautiful land it was! The two children wandered through it hand in hand, and revelled in all its glories—now underneath the stately forest trees, or breaking through the tangled brushwood all radiant with green and gold, and crimson leaves and lovely flowers, or now sitting on the river-bank listening to the stories the river told them of the lands through which it had passed; whilst the Wind sang so many wonderful songs that Lilla begged to hear them over again.
And after the Wind had lulled them to sleep among the soft clover and wild thyme, the moon and stars peeped out and sent them beautiful dreams, whilst two nightingales sat among the roses and sang "Lullaby, lullaby" as sweetly as the southern wind.
So that whether waking or sleeping the children were happy.
Sometimes Lilla would say—
"Ah! if it had not been for the words on the board, I should still have been living with the cross old woman in the town with the long street and the cathedral. And she would have gone on scolding me for ever and ever; and whatever should I have done, I wonder."
"You may thank me," said the Magpie, "for having brought you away; that's very certain."
"You may thank me also," said the Multiphobus, "and I am sure you ought to do so, for it was I who nailed up the board with the magic words upon the garden wall."
And of course, as I need not tell you, Lilla did thank them.
Julia Goddard.