TWILIGHT LAND

“What brings this bird of ill omen?” said the old man,
and he drew his sword to kill it. He raised his hand to
strike, but the raven did not try to fly away as he had
expected, but bowed his neck to receive the stroke. Then
the old man saw that the tears were running down from
the raven’s eyes, and he held his hand. ‘What strange
thing is this?” he said. ‘Surely nothing but the living
soul weeps; and how, then, can this bird shed tears?”
So he took the raven up and looked into his eyes, and in
them he saw the prince’s soul. ‘ Alas!” ‘he cried, “my
heart misgives me that something strange has happened.
Tell me, is this not my foster-son, the prince?”

The raven answered ‘‘ Croak!” and nothing else ; but
the good old man understood it all, and the tears ran
down his cheeks and trickled over his beard. ‘‘ Whether
man or raven, you shall still be my son,” said he, and he
held the raven close in his arms and caressed it.

He had a golden cage made for the bird, and every day
he would walk with it in the garden, talking to it as a
father talks to his son. —

One day when they were thus in the garden together
a strange lady came towards them down the pathway.
Over her head and face was drawn a thick veil, so that
the two could not tell who she was. When she came
close to them she raised the veil, and the raven-prince
saw that her face was the living likeness of the queen’s ;
and yet there was something in it that was different. It
was the second sister of the queen, and the old man knew
her and bowed before her.

“Listen,” said she. “I know what the raven is, and
that it is the prince, whom the queen has bewitched. I
also know nearly as much of magic as she, and it is that

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