which they had learned among the
Shee-they cracked their finger-joints quickly or slowly and so were able
to communicate with each other over immense distances, for by dint of
long practice they could make great explosive sounds which were nearly
like thunder, and gentler sounds like the tapping of grey ashes on a
hearthstone. The Thin Woman hated her own child, but she loved the Grey
Woman's baby, and the Grey Woman loved the Thin Woman's infant but could
not abide her own. A compromise may put an end to the most perplexing
of situations, and, consequently, the two women swapped children, and
at once became the most tender and amiable mothers imaginable, and the
families were able to live together in a more perfect amity than could
be found anywhere else.

The children grew in grace and comeliness. At first the little boy was
short and fat and the little girl was long and thin, then the little
girl became round and chubby while the little boy grew lanky and wiry.
This was because the little girl used to sit very quiet and be good and
the little boy used not.

They lived for many years in the deep seclusion of the pine wood wherein
a perpetual twilight reigned, and here they were wont to play their
childish games, flitting among the shadowy trees like little quick
shadows. At times their mothers, the Grey Woman and the Thin Woman,
played with them, but this was seldom, and sometimes their fathers, the
two Philosophers, came out and looked at them through spectacles which
were very round and very glassy, and had immense circles of horn all
round the edges. They had, however, other playmates with whom they could
romp all day long. There were hundreds of rabbits running about in the
brushwood; they were full of fun and were very fond of playing with the
children. There were squirrels who joined cheerfully in their games, and
some goats, having one day strayed in from the big world, were made so
welcome that they always came again whenever they got the chance. There
were birds also, crows and blackbirds and willy-wagtails, who were well
acquainted with the youngsters, and visited them as frequently as their
busy lives permitted.

At a short distance from their home there was a clearing in the wood
about ten feet square; through this clearing, as through a funnel, the
sun for a few hours in the summer time blazed down. It was the boy who
first discovered the strange radiant shaft in the wood. One day he had
been sent out