22 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [I

 

everything was as quiet as can be imagined. After
a time, the two sisters began to get tired of walking
on, constantly expecting something to happen which
never did happen, and thought that, under the cir-
cumstances, they might as well sit down.

A little stream ran through the forest, and upon
its banks they were standing when they came to this
determination. It was a very little stream, such as
one could jump across without much difficulty ; but
its clear waters gurgled on, for all it was so little,
with a cheerful sound, now and then quite shallow, as
they passed over some bed of sand or gravel which
rose near to the surface of the stream, and anon quite
respectably deep, giving room for trout to lurk in
deep holes under the banks and for shoals of smaller
fish to dart about and disport themselves in the water.
Here the Princesses took their seats upon the bank,
and began to watch the stream and listen to its
pleasant rippling-sound.

They had not sat there long before a kingfisher
came darting by them like a flash of lightning, and
uttered a short sharp cry as for one instant he dis-
played his gaudy colours before their eyes, and then
sped away with a swiftness which it defied their gaze
to follow. The two sisters looked at each other with
surprise, for, by the miraculous power which they had
derived from their acorns, they heard with perfect
distinctness, and understood into the bargain, the
observation which the bird had made as he flew past
them. To ordinary mortals it would have seemed
but an unmeaning sound, but to them it was far
otherwise, and they knew that the kingfisher had said,