cried Tyltyl.

He shook his head, with evident disappointment, while the other
continued:

"After that, I shall leave you!"

"It will hardly be worth while coming!" said Tyltyl, feeling rather
vexed.

"We can't pick and choose!" said the little brother, pettishly.

They would perhaps have quarrelled, without waiting till they were on
earth, if they had not suddenly been parted by a swarm of Blue
Children who were hurrying to meet somebody. At the same time, there
was a great noise, as if thousands of invisible doors were being
opened at the end of the galleries.

"What's the matter?" asked Tyltyl.

"It's Time," said one of the Blue Children. "He's going to open the
doors."

And the excitement increased on every side. The Children left their
machines and their labours; those who were asleep woke up; and every
eye was eagerly and anxiously turned to the great opal doors at the
back, while every mouth repeated the same name. The word, "Time!
Time!" was heard all around; and the great mysterious noise kept on.
Tyltyl was dying to know what it meant. At last, he caught a little
Child by the skirt of his dress and asked him.

"Let me be," said the Child, very uneasily. "I'm in a hurry: it may be
my turn to-day.... It is the Dawn rising. This is the hour when the
Children who are to be born to-day go down to earth.... You shall
see.... Time is drawing the bolts...."

"Who is Time?" asked Tyltyl.

"An old man who comes to call those who are going," said another
Child. "He is not so bad; but he won't listen or hear. Beg as they
may, if it's not their turn, he pushes back all those who try to
go.... Let me be! It may be my turn now!"

Light now hastened towards our little friends in a great state of
alarm:

"I was looking for you," she said. "Come quick: it will never do for
Time to discover you."

As she spoke these words, she threw her gold cloak around the Children
and dragged them to a corner of the hall, where they could see
everything, without being seen.

Tyltyl was very glad to be so well protected. He now knew that he who
was about to appear possessed so great and tremendous a power that no
human strength was capable of resisting him. He was at the same time a
deity and an ogre; he bestowed life and he devoured it; he sped
through the world so fast that you had no time to see him; he ate and
ate, without stopping; he took whatever he touched. In Tyltyl's
family, he had already taken Grandad and Gran