But here right from the hut ran Agnes,—fearless, glad, and flew to Martha with wide-open arms. The witch laughed once,—a laugh that made Dame Gerda sure the two ravens were a pair of fiends, very anxious for her own and her children’s souls. Then the sorceress moved about the circle, drawing the staff from left to right, and so lifting a great load also from Fritz’s and Wolf’s blank minds. She took Maid Agnes by the hand; the ravens cawed again. She flourished thrice on high, and they saw her vanishing in the forest. But, even when hid, her song pealed clearly:—
“Up away! the wood-thrush calls us,
Over ash and beech and thorn!
Up away! the king-oak calls us,
Singing with his leaves to morn.
For the wind-lord wakes,
Through the greenwood shakes
All the trees,
In his glees
As he greets the fire-kissed dawn!