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I:HODA FORSAKEN.
135
u But, ma'am
"
! began Ehoda, and then stopped,
finding herself alone, with only the little diamond box
at her feet to prove that the fairy had ever been with
her.
"Isn't she queer, Chimney-Elf?" cried Ehoda, staring
about her. No one replied, and Ehoda stared still
harder. Could it be that the Chimney-Elf had deserted
her ? She called his name loudly and repeatedly, but
only the wind sighing through the pine-trees and the
crows flying far over her head replied. The moody
little elf had grown jealous of Ehoda's interest in the
fairy and her friends, and had either taken himself off,
or rendered himself invisible, and refused to reply to
her entreaties.
"Oh, dear, dear, what shall I do now?" exclaimed
the poor child, sinking down upon the root of a great
tree, and looking despairingly about her. As she did so,
the tramp of a horse's feet became audible in the distance,
and in another moment Ehoda perceived the glittering
figure of a knight in full armor, mounted upon a
large black war-horse, slowly
riding np
the avenue of
arching trees, beneath which the fairy had dropped her.
He did not at first perceive her, and Ehoda examined
both knight and war-horse with a sort of frightened curiosity,
for although she had read of such beings in her
story-books, she had never seen anything of the sort.
The knight had taken his helmet off and hung it at his
saddle-bow, so that Ehoda perceived him to be both