Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

They had all a meaning look about them. Then I remembered

that night is the fairies' day, and the moon their sun; and I

thought--Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will

be different. At the same time I, being a man and a child of the day,

felt some anxiety as to how I should fare among the elves and other

children of the night who wake when mortals dream, and find their common

life in those wondrous hours that flow noiselessly over the moveless

death-like forms of men and women and children, lying strewn and parted

beneath the weight of the heavy waves of night, which flow on and beat

them down, and hold them drowned and senseless, until the ebbtide comes,

and the waves sink away, back into the ocean of the dark. But I took

courage and went on. Soon, however, I became again anxious, though from

another cause. I had eaten nothing that day, and for an hour past had

been feeling the want of food. So I grew afraid lest I should find

nothing to meet my human necessities in this strange place; but once

more I comforted myself with hope and went on.

Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the stems

of larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open spot of

ground in which stood a little cottage, so built that the stems of four

great trees formed its corners, while their branches met and intertwined

over its roof, heaping a great cloud of leaves over it, up towards the

heavens. I wondered at finding a human dwelling in this neighbourhood;

and yet it did not look altogether human, though sufficiently so to

encourage me to expect to find some sort of food. Seeing no door, I went

round to the other side, and there I found one, wide open. A woman sat

beside it, preparing some vegetables for dinner. This was homely and

comforting. As I came near, she looked up, and seeing me, showed no

surprise, but bent her head again over her work, and said in a low tone: "Did you see my daughter?"

"I believe I did," said I. "Can you give me something to eat, for I am

very hungry?" "With pleasure," she replied, in the same tone; "but do

not say anything more, till you come into the house, for the Ash is

watching us."

Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage; which, I

now saw, was built of the stems of small trees set closely together, and

was furnished with rough chairs and tables, from which even the bark had

not been removed. As soon as she had shut the door and set a chair-"You have fairy blood in you," said she, looking hard at me.