TWILIGHT LAND

a man has come to trouble by following his wife’s
advice.”

Then down he took his fur cap and up he took his
nets, and off he and the old man marched through the
moonlight, their shadows bobbing along like black spiders
_behind them.

Well, on they went, out from the town and across the
fields and through the woods, until at last they came to a
dreary, lonesome desert, where nothing was to be seen
but grey rocks and weeds and thistles.

“Well,” said the fisherman, ‘‘I have fished, man and
boy, for forty-seven years, but never did I see as unlikely
a place to catch anything as this.”

But the old man said never a word. First of all he
drew a great circle with strange figures, marking it with
his finger upon the ground. Then out from under his
red gown he brought a tinder-box and steel, and a little
silver casket covered all over with strange figures of
serpents and dragons and what not. He brought some
sticks of spice-wood from his pouch, and then he struck a
light and made a fire. Out of the box he took a grey
powder, which he flung upon the little blaze.

Puff! flash! A vivid flame went up into the moon-
light, and then a dense smoke as black as ink, which
spread out wider and wider, far and near, till all below
was darker than the darkest midnight. Then the old
man began to utter strange spells and words. Presently
there began arumbling that sounded louder and louder and
nearer and nearer, until it roared and bellowed like thunder.
The earth rocked and swayed, and the poor fisherman shook
and trembled with fear till his teeth clattered in his head.

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