So the party began.

CHAPTER VII

TREE MOTHER AND THE DROWSY BOAT

“Let’s play hide-and-go-seek,” cried the Forest Children, for that is always their favorite game.

Up jumped Wild Star, down fluttered the Bird Fairies, in crowded the Forest Children, and the Tree Man counted out for them.  He pointed his finger at each in turn while he said this verse, which he made up on the spot: 

  “Sticks are racing in the flood—­
    Trees are racing in the wood—­
  In the tree-tops winds are racing—­
    In the sky-tops clouds are chasing. 
  In the tree-heart snug and warm,
    We hear nothing of the storm.

  When we play at hide-and-seek,
    It is you must count the sheep.”

At “you” the finger pointed at Eric, and it meant that he was to be “It.”

“Put your head here on my knee.  Shut your eyes and count one hundred sheep jumping over a stone wall, not too fast,” explained the Tree Man.  “While you’re counting the others hide.  Anywhere in this room, and anywhere on the stairs.  Out-doors is no fair.”

“But where are the sheep?” asked Eric, “and how can I count them with my eyes shut?”

Every one suddenly looked puzzled.  The Forest Children’s eyes grew wide with wondering.  The Bird Fairies fluttered uneasily.  The Tree Girl seemed dazed.  Wild Star said, “Why, we never thought of that,—­where are they?”

But Ivra laughed and ran to Eric.  She took his hand and said, “The sheep are inside your own head.  Just shut your eyes and try to see them.  It is very easy.  The wall is low, and there’s a place where the stones are beginning to roll down.  The sheep go over there, one by one.”

Eric shut his eyes and put his head down on the Tree Man’s knee.  And it began to happen just as Ivra had said.  There was a green hill-pasture, a little gray stone wall slanting across it, and sheep, one by one, jumping where the wall was broken down, following their leader.  He counted one hundred of them and then stopped although a dear little lamb was trotting down the hill, trailing the procession.  He wanted to see if the lamb would be able to jump the wall too.  But the Tree Man had said one hundred, so he stopped and opened his eyes.

Things were strange.  The Tree Man was nothing but an old stump.  The room felt very cold and it was bare.  The fire in the boulder had gone out.  But he heard a soft fluttering somewhere and took heart.  The Bird Fairies!  They might be hiding high, having wings.  He went all around the room, looking up into the dusk.  At last, there they were in row on a beam, their wings spread over their eyes.

“Bird Fairies, I spy!” cried Eric, and ran towards the stump.  But wings are swifter than feet, and the Bird Fairies reached the goal first.

He found Ivra at the top of the second flight of stairs, curled up in a shadow.