both path and thread. And still the path grew rougher and steeper, and
the mountain grew wilder, till Irene began to think she was going a
very
long way from home; and when she turned to look back, she saw that
the
level country had vanished and the rough bare mountain had closed in
about her. But still on went the thread, and on went the princess.
Everything around her was getting brighter and brighter as the sun
came
nearer; till at length his first rays all at once alighted on the top of
a rock before her, like some golden creature fresh from the sky. Then
she saw that the little stream ran out of a hole in that rock, that the
path did not go past the rock, and that the thread was leading her
straight up to it. A shudder ran through her from head to foot when
she
found that the thread was actually taking her into the hole out of which
the stream ran. It ran out babbling joyously, but she had to go in.
She did not hesitate. Right into the hole she went, which was high
enough to let her walk without stooping. For a little way there was a
brown glimmer, but at the first turn it all but ceased, and before she
had gone many paces she was in total darkness. Then she began to be
frightened indeed. Every moment she kept feeling the thread
backward,
Madhuri Noah
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