them away. But here they came right back again, walking,
walking straight up to him. With the red moccasins came a red mist; and
out of the mist would frightful shapes, with long, sharp claws, or long,
sharp horns and fiery eyes, come stealing forth, one after one. They
scared Sprigg almost to death, and would have torn him to pieces; but
ever, just as they would be making to spring upon him, would the red
moccasins dart in between--kick them in their ugly eyes and drive them
back into the mist.

"By and by Sprigg was moving swiftly through the dark forest--borne
onward, he knew not how; and ever before him a great ball of dim, white
light. The ball of light sank into the earth, growing brighter and
brighter. Sprigg sank with it, deeper, deeper, till far down there he
found himself in a world where there was no sun, no moon, and yet was it
very bright. Thousands and thousands of little people, all going one
way, went gliding swiftly by; so swiftly that they seemed to be on
wings. Some of them were very funny to look at; some wild, some savage;
but all were beautiful, and all were terrible. Sprigg was desperately
afraid of the little people--'Manitous,' they called themselves. Though
he need not have feared them; for, let them look as they might, they had
no thought for him but love and to do him kindness. I told Sprigg the
Manitous were loving him all the time, but he would not believe me. He
was too bad to trust them or anybody else.

"Sprigg was a liar--with a lie in his mouth had he sneaked off from
home--sneaked off 'like a spit-thief dog.' The Manitous said so; I heard
them say it.

"And the Manitous told me how it had happened that Sprigg was such a bad
boy; it was because his father and mother had loved him unwisely; and,
as they had loved him, so had they trained him. They had made a fool of
their boy by making a pet of him, as if he were a pretty little animal,
and not a little human creature. They had humored his every whim,
excused his every fault, until they had made him so vain, selfish and
false that his heart must be made to bleed to bring him to his better
self. Yes; and their hearts, too--all must be made to bleed before they
could look for happy days again.

"And there on the ground were the shadows of men and women, boys and
girls--standing, walking or flitting about, or, all on a sudden, melting
away into nothing--and never a human creature to be seen dead or alive.
Sprigg's shadow was among them