ainst the north wind; for if
you do----'

But at this moment the hour struck, and Tom the Cat sprang into the
air and disappeared like a soap bubble.

For a while the three children remembered what had been said to them;
they played quietly in the palace, and did not touch the black ball on
the nursery table. But towards sunset it so happened that they were
all leaning against the table, with their elbows resting on it, and
their heads between their hands. There lay the black ball mysterious
and quiet. The longer the children looked at it the more mysterious it
appeared. At last Hilda said:

'I wonder where it came from?'

'I wonder what it's made of?' said Harold.

'I wonder why we mustn't touch it?' said Hector.

Then all three looked at it steadily for another minute. Then Hilda
exclaimed suddenly:

'I believe it moved!'

'So do I!' cried Harold.

'I don't!' said Hector. 'But I can make it move.' And with that he
gave the table a tip, and the black ball rolled off, bounced on to the
floor, and jumped out of the window into the garden.

'You have disobeyed Tom the Cat,' said Hilda, after a pause.

'How shall we ever get it back again?' cried Harold, running to the
window and looking out. 'Oh, I can see it! there, in the middle of the
lawn.'

'Yes, but we are not to go into the garden,' said Hilda.

'It is all Hector's fault,' said Harold.

'I am going into the garden to play with the ball,' said Hector
boldly; and he walked off.

'What a naughty boy he is!' said Harold to Hilda.

'Yes; but the wind blows from the south,' she answered. 'You may stay
here if you like; I think I shall go and play with Hector.' And she
walked off.

'What naughty children they are!' said Harold to himself. 'But Hilda
is older than I, and Hector is younger, so I think I will go out too.'
So he ran after the others, and came up with them just as Hector had
picked up the black ball and was tossing it to Hilda.

'Let us play in a triangle,' said Harold. So they stood at the three
corners, and tossed the ball from one to another.

But, strange to say, the wind, which had been blowing all day from the
south, had suddenly changed to the north; and the spots on the
children's faces began to get blacker than ink and hotter than pepper.
And, as they had to keep rubbing the spots first with one hand and
then with another, they were continually missing the ball when it was
thrown to them; and they did not notice that every ti