moon, and the
strange words of the song that had puzzled him the night before. What in
the world did it all mean? Why all this about the moon? Why was it a
cruel moon, and why should it attract and persuade and entice him? He
felt sure, the more he thought of it, that this had all been a device to
draw him to the window--and perhaps even farther.

The darkness began to terrify him; he dreaded more and more the waiting,
listening things that it concealed. Oh, when would the governess call to
him? When would he be able to dash through the open window and join her
in the sky?

He thought of the sunlight that had flooded the yard all day--so bright
it seemed to have come from a sun fresh made and shining for the first
time. He thought of the exquisite flowers that grew in the fields just
beyond the high wall, and the night smells of the earth reached him
through the window, wafted in upon a wind heavy with secrets of woods
and fields. They all came from a Land of Magic that after to-night might
be for ever beyond his reach, and they went straight to his heart and
immediately turned something solid there into tears. But the tears did
not find their natural expression, and Jimbo lay there fighting with his
pain, keeping all his strength for the one great effort, and waiting for
the voice that at any minute now might sound above the tree-tops.

But the hours passed and the voice did not come.

How he loathed the room and everything in it. The ceiling stretched like
a white, staring countenance above him; the walls watched and listened;
and even the mantelpiece grew into the semblance of a creature with
drawn-up shoulders bending over him. The whole room, indeed, seemed to
his frightened soul to run into the shape of a monstrous person whose
arms were outstretched in all directions to prevent his escape.

His hands never left his wings now. He stroked and fondled them,
arranging the feathers smoothly and speaking to them under his breath
just as though they were living things. To him they were indeed alive,
and he knew when the time came they would not fail him. The fierce
passion for the open spaces took possession of his soul, and his whole
being began to cry out for freedom, rushing wind, the stars, and a
pathless sky.

Slowly the power of the great, open Night entered his heart, bringing
with it a courage that enabled him to keep the terrors of the House at a
distance.

So far, the boy's strength had been equal to