Come
back!' And the birds say, 'Come!' The pines whisper to me strange
things, and the laughing water in the brooks says 'Come!' What does it
mean?"

"I cannot tell you here," said the king. "But why do you wish to leave
the palace? You are yet young and there are many, many years of
happiness before you. You may stay in the palace where all things are
good, and put these things out of mind. There is another world, but not
for you--yet!"

Eline was troubled, or would have been had such a thing been possible in
the palace of the king.

"May I ever see that land? May I ever leave the palace?"

"The children of the king are free to come and go," he said. "I may not
keep them if they will not stay; for I know that they will come again."

II

Again a traveler came to the palace. He brought with him a harp of seven
strings, on which he played to the children. He sang to them for a while
and then for a space was silent. Eline listened to the strange,
beautiful music. And to her it seemed that there was speech in the
harp--that it spoke. The other children seemed to listen to the music,
but to them it did not seem to speak. To Eline there were echoes of
wonderful things the palace knew not; things that the language of the
king could not tell. The harp spoke in a way that the Princess Eline
knew and understood, although there were no words in its tones. There
were sad and sorrowful notes that told of sorrows the palace never knew.
There were strains of music that sounded harsh to the listening ear,
though to the careless they told of happiness alone. And as she
listened, Eline dreamed. Clearer and more clear she felt that the harp
told of a world of men where sorrow and sadness and strife were not
unknown; where joy should be, and was not; where the people groped their
way through darkness and thought it light. "Return! Return!" called the
harp.

[Illustration: "I WILL RETURN"]

And a mighty resolve came to Eline. "I will return! I will! I will!"

She remembered the king's saying: "The children of the king are free to
come and go," he had said. "I may not keep them if they will not stay,"
he had told her.

She loved him much; but the call came clear, and she dared not seek him
to say farewell, lest she should be persuaded to remain.

She bowed her head and to the harper spoke:

"I will go," she said. "I will return with you."

Then the harp sent forth such a melody of jo