and they also laughed delightedly, and the Thin
Woman admitted that the fly had got the worse of it; but, after a while,
she said that the part of the cow's back against which she was resting
was bonier than anything she had ever leaned upon before, and that while
thinness was a virtue no one had any right to be thin in lumps, and that
on this count the cow was not to be commended. On hearing this the cow
arose, and without another look at them it walked away into the dusky
field. The Thin Woman told the children afterwards that she was sorry
she had said anything, but she was unable to bring her self to apologise
to the cow, and so they were forced to resume their journey in order to
keep themselves warm.

There was a sickle moon in the sky, a tender sword whose radiance stayed
in its own high places and did not at all illumine the heavy world
below; the glimmer of infrequent stars could also be seen with spacious,
dark solitudes between them; but on the earth the darkness gathered
in fold on fold of misty veiling, through which the trees uttered an
earnest whisper, and the grasses lifted their little voices, and the
wind crooned its thrilling, stern lament.

As the travellers walked on, their eyes, flinching from the darkness,
rested joyfully on the gracious moon, but that joy lasted only for a
little time. The Thin Woman spoke to them curiously about the moon,
and, indeed, she might speak with assurance on that subject, for
her ancestors had sported in the cold beam through countless dim
generations.

"It is not known," said she, "that the fairies seldom dance for joy,
but for sadness that they have been expelled from the sweet dawn, and
therefore their midnight revels are only ceremonies to remind them
of their happy state in the morning of the world before thoughtful
curiosity and self-righteous moralities drove them from the kind face of
the sun to the dark exile of midnight. It is strange that we may not be
angry while looking on the moon. Indeed, no mere appetite or passion of
any kind dare become imperative in the presence of the Shining One; and
this, in a more limited degree, is true also of every form of beauty;
for there is something in an absolute beauty to chide away the desires
of materiality and yet to dissolve the spirit in ecstasies of fear and
sadness. Beauty has no liking for Thought, but will send terror and
sorrow on those who look upon her with intelligent eyes. We may neither
be angry nor gay