38 THE MAGIC OAK TREE

Though Hurly-Burly was somewhat startled
at hearing such sounds come from a toad, he
was very much pleased to find that the hedge-
hog had not failed him, and that he had
some guide as to the course he should
pursue. So he warmly thanked the toad,
put him carefully back in his jacket pocket,
and marched boldly on, bearing to the right
as he had been directed. Presently the
voices around him ceased, as if their owners
had discovered that they had not served the
purpose for which they had been employed.
So the little fellow kept on for some little
way further, until he came to a place where
the right side of the path was thick with
brambles and the ground very rough, whilst
on the left a bank of soft turf sloped away
in a gradual descent, and upon the bank
grew a quantity of wild strawberries which
seemed to invite the traveller to come and
pick them. Hurly-Burly stopped for one
moment to look at this pleasant sight, and
the moment he did so there stepped out of
the wood the figure of a little girl about his
own age, and stood upon the bank just upon
his left hand, only three or four yards off.
She was a very pretty little girl, with fresh