se so!"

Hansel was heard to say, "Oh, yes, I get enough to eat now: but who
knows how soon I shall be required to go without eating?"

Grettel said, "It's all very well, but no one can tell me we'll come to
any good in this place surrounded by a forest in which there may be all
kinds of monsters!"

Tom Hubbard maintained that his little black dog had never had so many
fleas since the day he was born, and that it was all the fault of the
old castle.

Little Bo-Peep and Little Boy Blue were seen to weep together and to
confide in each other the fear that they would some day have to return
to the folds to find that the wolves had become much larger and more
ferocious than they had even been before.

Even the gentle Prince Arthur became moody and remarked to Everychild
on one occasion, "There's always a good deal of visiting among kings,
and we may expect some one to see me here sooner or later and carry
word to King John. And then there will be no further liberty for me."

For the time being everybody forgot all about the Masked Lady, who sat
alone much of the time, and regarded this person or that with steadfast
eyes through her mask.

To speak quite plainly, the Masked Lady had been putting off to the
last possible moment a step from which she could not help but shrink.

The time had come for Everychild to take that dread journey to the
Mountain of Reality. She had given him as many days of grace as she
could possibly permit. And at last she said solemnly:

"It shall be to-morrow."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE MOUNTAIN OF REALITY

The next day the giant, standing out on the rampart where every one
could see and hear him, was shouting--"The world is full of evil! The
world is full of evil!" And his friends thought sadly of that day, now
only a little while ago, when it had been his wont to say that the
world was full of good--that, indeed, everything was good if you looked
at it in the right way. But suddenly he stopped shouting and lifted
his head.

It was the first time he had been seen to lift his head in a number of
days, and it seemed very good to see him do this. He seemed to be
listening intently, and also with a certain faint, dawning hope.

At the very same time Everychild lifted his head also and listened, but
as he did so he clasped his hands with dread.

And also Prince Arthur and Cinderella and Hansel and Grettel and the
other children lifted their heads and listened.

They had all