2.  The Child of the Forest

  Once, so long ago our great-grandfathers could scarcely have
heard it mentioned, there lived within the great Forest of
Burzee a wood-nymph named Necile.  She was closely related to
the mighty Queen Zurline, and her home was beneath the shade
of a widespreading oak.  Once every year, on Budding Day, when
the trees put forth their new buds, Necile held the Golden
Chalice of Ak to the lips of the Queen, who drank therefrom to
the prosperity of the Forest.  So you see she was a nymph of
some importance, and, moreover, it is said she was highly
regarded because of her beauty and grace.

  When she was created she could not have told; Queen Zurline
could not have told; the great Ak himself could not have told. 
It was long ago when the world was new and nymphs were needed
to guard the forests and to minister to the wants of the young
trees.  Then, on some day not remembered, Necile sprang into
being; radiant, lovely, straight and slim as the sapling she
was created to guard.

  Her hair was the color that lines a chestnut-bur; her eyes
were blue in the sunlight and purple in the shade; her cheeks
bloomed with the faint pink that edges the clouds at sunset;
her lips were full red, pouting and sweet.  For costume she
adopted oak-leaf green; all the wood-nymphs dress in that
color and know no other so desirable.  Her dainty feet were
sandal-clad, while her head remained bare of covering other
than her silken tresses.

  Necile's duties were few and simple.  She kept hurtful weeds
from growing beneath her trees and sapping the earth-food
required by her charges.  She frightened away the Gadgols, who
took evil delight in flying against the tree-trunks and
wounding them so that they drooped and died from the poisonous
contact.  In dry seasons she carried water from the brooks and
pools and moistened the roots of her thirsty dependents.

  That was in the beginning.  The weeds had now learned to avoid
the forests where wood-nymphs dwelt; the loathsome Gadgols no
longer dared come nigh; the trees had become old and sturdy
and could bear the drought better than when fresh-sprouted. 
So Necile's duties were lessened, and time grew laggard, while
succeeding years became more tiresome and uneventful than the
nymph's joyous spirit loved.

  Truly the forest-dwellers did not lack amusement.  Each full
moon they danced in the Royal Circle of the Queen.  There were
also the Feast of Nuts, the Jubilee of Autumn Tintings, the
solemn ceremony of Leaf Shedding and the revelry of Budding
Day.  But these periods of enjoyment were far apart, and left
many weary hours between.

  That a wood-nymph should grow discontented was not thought of
by Necile's sisters.  It came upon her only after many years
of brooding. But when once she had settled in her mind that
life was irksome she had no patience with her condition, and
longed to do something of real interest and to pass her days
in ways hitherto undreamed of by forest nymphs.  The Law of
the Forest alone restrained her from going forth in search of
adventure.

  While this mood lay heavy upon pretty Necile it chanced that
the great Ak visited the Forest of Burzee and allowed the
wood-nymphs as was their wont--to lie at his feet and listen
to the words of wisdom that fell from his lips.  Ak is the
Master Woodsman of the world; he sees everything, and knows
more than the sons of men.

  That night he held the Queen's hand, for he loved the nymphs
as a father loves his children; and Necile lay at his feet
with many of her sisters and earnestly harkened as he spoke.

  "We live so happily, my fair ones, in our forest glades," said
Ak, stroking his grizzled beard thoughtfully, "that we know
nothing of the sorrow and misery that fall to the lot of those
poor mortals who inhabit the open spaces of the earth.  They
are not of our race, it is true, yet compassion well befits
beings so fairly favored as ourselves.  Often as I pass by the
dwelling of some suffering mortal I am tempted to stop and
banish the poor thing's misery.  Yet suffering, in moderation,
is the natural lot of mortals, and it is not our place to
interfere with the laws of Nature."

  "Nevertheless," said the fair Queen, nodding her golden head
at the Master Woodsman, "it would not be a vain guess that Ak
has often assisted these hapless mortals."

  Ak smiled.

  "Sometimes," he replied, "when they are very
young--'children,' the mortals call them--I have stopped to
rescue them from misery.  The men and women I dare not
interfere with; they must bear the burdens Nature has imposed
upon them.  But the helpless infants, the innocent children of
men, have a right to be happy until they become full-grown and
able to bear the trials of humanity.  So I feel I am justified
in assisting them.  Not long ago--a year, maybe--I found four
poor children huddled in a wooden hut, slowly freezing to
death.  Their parents had gone to a neighboring village for
food, and had left a fire to warm their little ones while they
were absent.  But a storm arose and drifted the snow in their
path, so they were long on the road.  Meantime the fire went
out and the frost crept into the bones of the waiting
children."

  "Poor things!" murmured the Queen softly.  "What did you do?"

  "I called Nelko, bidding him fetch wood from my forests and
breathe upon it until the fire blazed again and warmed the
little room where the children lay.  Then they ceased
shivering and fell asleep until their parents came."

  "I am glad you did thus," said the good Queen, beaming upon
the Master; and Necile, who had eagerly listened to every
word, echoed in a whisper: "I, too, am glad!"

  "And this very night," continued Ak, "as I came to the edge of
Burzee I heard a feeble cry, which I judged came from a human
infant.  I looked about me and found, close to the forest, a
helpless babe, lying quite naked upon the grasses and wailing
piteously.  Not far away, screened by the forest, crouched
Shiegra, the lioness, intent upon devouring the infant for her
evening meal."

  "And what did you do, Ak?" asked the Queen, breathlessly.

  "Not much, being in a hurry to greet my nymphs.  But I
commanded Shiegra to lie close to the babe, and to give it her
milk to quiet its hunger.  And I told her to send word
throughout the forest, to all beasts and reptiles, that the
child should not be harmed."

  "I am glad you did thus," said the good Queen again, in a tone
of relief; but this time Necile did not echo her words, for
the nymph, filled with a strange resolve, had suddenly stolen
away from the group.

  Swiftly her lithe form darted through the forest paths until
she reached the edge of mighty Burzee, when she paused to gaze
curiously about her.  Never until now had she ventured so far,
for the Law of the Forest had placed the nymphs in its inmost
depths.

  Necile knew she was breaking the Law, but the thought did not
give pause to her dainty feet.  She had decided to see with
her own eyes this infant Ak had told of, for she had never yet
beheld a child of man.  All the immortals are full-grown;
there are no children among them.  Peering through the trees
Necile saw the child lying on the grass.  But now it was
sweetly sleeping, having been comforted by the milk drawn from
Shiegra.  It was not old enough to know what peril means; if
it did not feel hunger it was content.

  Softly the nymph stole to the side of the babe and knelt upon
the sward, her long robe of rose leaf color spreading about
her like a gossamer cloud.  Her lovely countenance expressed
curiosity and surprise, but, most of all, a tender, womanly
pity.  The babe was newborn, chubby and pink.  It was entirely
helpless.  While the nymph gazed the infant opened its eyes,
smiled upon her, and stretched out two dimpled arms.  In
another instant Necile had caught it to her breast and was
hurrying with it through the forest paths.