"
So they agreed, and in half an hour were opposite the hut, and, riding
across to it to ask a few questions, found the poor mother sitting on
the doorstep, with her apron over her head, rocking herself to and fro.
"We have come to help you, mistress," said Sam. "How do you think he is
gone?"
She said, with frequent bursts of grief, that "some days before he had
mentioned having seen white children across the water, who beckoned him
to cross and play; that she, knowing well that they were fairies, or
perhaps worse, had warned him solemnly not to mind them; but that she
had very little doubt that they had helped him over and carried him away
to the forest; and that her husband would not believe in his having
crossed the river."
"Why, it is not knee-deep across the shallow," said Cecil.
"Let us cross again," said Sam; "he _may_ be drowned, but I don't think
it."
In a quarter of an hour from starting, they found, slightly up the
stream, one of the child's socks, which in his hurry to dress he had
forgotten. Here brave Rover took up the trail like a bloodhound, and
before evening stopped at the foot of a lofty cliff.
"Can he have gone up here?" said Sam, as they were brought up by the
rock.
"Most likely," said Cecil. "Lost children always climb from height to
height. I have heard it often remarked by old bush hands.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195