4 CONSEQUENCES

little bigger than the first; and this caused
another, and this another, and so on, after the
manner of waves; till half the pond was moving
and marked over with circles, which got wider and
wider, but feebler and flatter, the further they
spread.

Now it was evening, and the stn was setting in
ruby and gold; and each circle of water, as it
formed itself, caught the glow on its edge, and was
tipped with colour and light ; and the school-boy
stood on the bank looking at it all. The first
circles glittered most, perhaps, because their edges
were: highest and sharpest ; but the further ones
rolled over like molten ore, till, as they stretched
out feebler and flatter, the gleams seemed to die
out gradually altogether, and the pond became
pale and smooth, and the boy had seen all that
was to be seen.

Then he too shouted “There an end!” and ran
away.

But though the boy could see no more, and had
gone home, that was not the end of the matter
either,