A Little Boy Lost Page 13

  CHAPTER XI

  THE LADY OF THE HILLS

  No escape was possible for poor little Martin so long as it was dark,and there he had to stay all night, but morning brought him comfort;for now he could see the reed-stems that hemmed him in all round,and by using his hands to bend them from him on either side he couldpush through them. By-and-by the sunlight touched the tops of thetall plants, and working his way towards the side from which thelight came he soon made his escape from that prison, and came into aplace where he could walk without trouble, and could see the earthand sky again. Further on, in a grassy part of the valley, he foundsome sweet roots wrhich greatly refreshed him, and at last, leavingthe valley, he came out on a high grassy plain, and saw the hillsbefore him looking very much nearer than he had ever seen them lookbefore. Up till now they had appeared like masses of dark bluebanked up cloud resting on the earth, now he could see that theywere indeed stone--blue stone piled up in huge cliffs and crags highabove the green world; he could see the roughness of the heaped uprocks, the fissures and crevices in the sides of the hills, and hereand there the patches of green colour where trees and bushes hadtaken root. How wonderful it seemed to Martin that evening standingthere in the wide green plain, the level sun at his back shining onhis naked body, making him look like a statue of a small boy carvedin whitest marble or alabaster. Then, to make the sight he gazed onstill more enchanting, just as the sun went down the colour of thehills changed from stone blue to a purple that was like the purpleof ripe plums and grapes, only more beautiful and bright. In a fewminutes the purple colour faded away and the hills grew shadowy anddark. It was too late in the day, and he was too tired to walkfurther. He was very hungry and thirsty too, and so when he hadfound a few small white partridge-berries and had made a poor supperon them, he gathered some dry grass into a little heap, and lyingdown in it, was soon in a sound sleep.

  It was not until the late afternoon next day that Martin at last gotto the foot of the hill, or mountain, and looking up he saw it likea great wall of stone above him, with trees and bushes and trailingvines growing out of the crevices and on the narrow ledges of therock. Going some distance he came to a place where he could ascend,and here he began slowly walking upwards. At first he could hardlycontain his delight where everything looked new and strange, andhere he found some very beautiful flowers; but as he toiled on hegrew more tired and hungry at every step, and then, to make mattersworse, his legs began to pain so that he could hardly lift them. Itwas a curious pain which he had never felt in his sturdy little legsbefore in all his wanderings.

  Then a cloud came over the sun, and a sharp wind sprang up that madehim shiver with cold: then followed a shower of rain; and now Martin,feeling sore and miserable, crept into a cavity beneath a pile ofoverhanging rocks for shelter. He was out of the rain there, but thewind blew in on him until it made his teeth chatter with cold. Hebegan to think of his mother, and of all the comforts of his losthome--the bread and milk when he was hungry, the warm clothing, andthe soft little bed with its snowy white coverlid in which he hadslept so sweetly every night.

  "O mother, mother!" he cried, but his mother was too far off to hearhis piteous cry.

  When the shower was over he crept out of his shelter again, and withhis little feet already bleeding from the sharp rocks, tried toclimb on. In one spot he found some small, creeping, myrtle plantscovered with ripe white berries, and although they had a verypungent taste he ate his fill of them, he was so very hungry. Thenfeeling that he could climb no higher, he began to look round for adry, sheltered spot to pass the night in. In a little while he cameto a great, smooth, flat stone that looked like a floor in a room,and was about forty yards wide: nothing grew on it except some smalltufts of grey lichen; but on the further side, at the foot of a steep,rocky precipice, there was a thick bed of tall green and yellow ferns,and among the ferns he hoped to find a place to lie down in. Veryslowly he limped across the open space, crying with the pain he feltat every step; but when he reached the bed of ferns he all at oncesaw, sitting among the tall fronds on a stone, a strange-lookingwoman in a green dress, who was gazing very steadily at him witheyes full of love and compassion. At her side there crouched a bigyellow beast, covered all over with black, eye-like spots, with abig round head, and looking just like a cat, but a hundred timeslarger than the biggest cat he had ever seen. The animal rose upwith a low sound like a growl, and glared at Martin with its wide,yellow, fiery eyes, which so terrified him that he dared not moveanother step until the womaan, speaking very gently to him, told himnot to fear. She caressed the great beast, making him lie down again;then coming forward and taking Martin by the hand, she drew him upto her knees.

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  "What is your name, poor little suffering child?" she asked, bendingdown to him, and speaking softly. "Martin--what's yours?" he returned,still half sobbing, and rubbing his eyes with his little fists.

  "I am called the Lady of the Hills, and I live here alone in themountain. Tell me, why do you cry, Martin?"

  "Because I'm so cold, and--and my legs hurt so, and--and because Iwant to go back to my mother. She's over there," said he, withanother sob, pointing vaguely to the great plain beneath their feet,extending far, far away into the blue distance, where the crimsonsun was now setting.

  "I will be your mother, and you shall live with me here on themountain," she said, caressing his little cold hands with hers."Will you call me mother?"

  "You are _not_ my mother," he returned warmly. "I don't want to callyou mother."

  "When I love you so much, dear child?" she pleaded, bending downuntil her lips were close to his averted face.

  "How that great spotted cat stares at me!" he suddenly said."Do you think it will kill me?"

  "No, no, he only wants to play with you. Will you not even look at me,Martin?"

  He still resisted her, but her hand felt very warm andcomforting--it was such a large, warm, protecting hand. So pleasantdid it feel that after a little while he began to move his hand upher beautiful, soft, white arm until it touched her hair. For herhair was unbound and loose; it was dark, and finer than the finestspun silk, and fell all over her shoulders and down her back to thestone she sat on. He let his fingers stray in and out among it; andit felt like the soft, warm down that lines a little bird's nest tohis skin. Finally, he touched her neck and allowed his hand to restthere, it was such a soft, warm neck. At length, but reluctantly,for his little rebellious heart was not yet wholly subdued, heraised his eyes to her face. Oh, how beautiful she was! Her love andeager desire to win him had flushed her clear olive skin with richred colour; out of her sweet red lips, half parted, came her warmbreath on his cheek, more fragrant than wild flowers; and her largedark eyes were gazing down into his with such a tenderness in themthat Martin, seeing it, felt a strange little shudder pass throughhim, and scarcely knew whether to think it pleasant or painful."Dear child, I love you so much," she spoke, "will you not call memother?"

  Dropping his eyes and with trembling lips, feeling a little ashamedat being conquered at last, he whispered "Mother."

  She raised him in her arms and pressed him to her bosom, wrappingher hair like a warm mantle round him; and in less than one minute,overcome by fatigue, he fell fast asleep in her arms.