dy on the bed had also just been receiving nourishment, and was
now passing into a quieter and less feverish condition. The parallel
always held true between himself and his body in the nursery, but he
could not know anything about this, and only supposed that it was this
open-air sleep that he felt gently stealing over him.

It brought at first strange thoughts that carried him far away to other
woods and other fields. While Miss Lake sat beside him eating her
mushrooms, his mind was drawn off to some other little folk. But it was
always stopped just short of them. He never could quite see their faces.
Yet his thoughts continued their search, groping in the darkness; he
felt sure he ought to be sharing his adventures with these other little
persons, whoever they were; they ought to have been sitting beside him
at that very moment, eating mushrooms, combing their wings, comparing
the length of their feathers, and snuggling with him into the warm hay.

But they obstinately hovered just outside his memory, and refused to
come in and surrender themselves. He could not remember who they were,
and his yearnings went unsatisfied up to the stars, as yearnings
generally do, while his thoughts returned weary from their search and he
yielded to the seductions of the soothing open-air sleep.

The moon, meanwhile, rose higher and higher, drawing a silver veil over
the stars. Upon the field the dews of midnight fell silently. A faint
mist rose from the ground and covered the flowers in their dim seclusion
under the hedgerows. The hours slipped away swiftly.

"Come on, Jimbo, boy!" cried the governess at length. "The moon's below
the hills, and we must be off!"

The boy turned and stared sleepily at her from his nest in the hay.

"We've got miles to go. Remember the speed we came at!" she explained,
getting up and arranging her wings.

Jimbo got up slowly and shook himself.

"I've been miles away," he said dreamily, "miles and miles. But I'm
ready to start at once."

They looked about for a raised place to jump from. A ladder stood
against the other side of the haystack. The governess climbed up it and
Jimbo followed her drowsily. Hand in hand they sprang into the air from
the edge of the thatched roof, and their wings spread out like sails to
catch the wind. It smote their faces pleasantly as they plunged
downwards and forwards, and the exhilarating rush of cool air banished
from the boy's head the last vestige of the open-