at went walking
in the night, wandering late alone. And after that they waited for
the dawn. And the queenly dawn appeared, and the marsh-lights of the
Wild Things paled in the glare, and their bodies faded from view;
and still they waited by the marsh's edge. And to them waiting came
over field and marsh, from the ground and out of the sky, the myriad
song of the birds.

This, too, the Wild Things put into the piece of haze that they had
gathered in the marshlands, and wrapped it all up in their
dew-bespangled gossamer. Then the soul lived.

And there it lay in
the hands of the Wild Things no larger than a hedgehog; and wonderful
lights were in it, green and blue; and they changed ceaselessly,
going round and round, and in the grey midst of it was a purple
flare.

And the next night they came to the little Wild Thing and
showed her the gleaming soul. And they said to her: 'If you must
have a soul and go and worship God, and become a mortal and die,
place this to your left breast a little above the heart, and it will
enter and you will become a human. But if you take it you can never
be rid of it to become immortal again unless you pluck it out and
give it to another; and we will not take it, and most of the humans
have a soul already. And if you cannot find a human without a soul
you will one day die, and your soul cannot go to Paradise, because
it was only made in the marshes.'

Far away the little Wild Thing saw
the cathedral windows alight for evensong, and the song of the
people mounting up to Paradise, and all the angels going up and
down. So it bid farewell with tears and thanks to the Wild Things of
the kith of Elf-folk, and went leaping away towards the green dry
land, holding the soul in its hands.

And the Wild Things were sorry that it had gone, but could not be
sorry long, because they had no souls.

At the marsh's edge the little Wild Thing gazed for some moments
over the water to where the marsh-fires were leaping up and down,
and then pressed the soul against its left breast a little above the
heart.

Instantly it became a young and beautiful woman, who was cold and
frightened. She clad herself somehow with bundles of reeds, and went
towards the lights of a house that stood close by. And she pushed
open the door and entered, and found a farmer and a farmer's wife
sitting over their supper.

And the farmer's wife took the little Wild Thing with the soul of
the marshes up to her roo