But Eric did not let his surprise delay him.  He ran after her just as fast as he could, and that was very, very fast, for running with Ivra had taught him to run faster than most Earth Children ever dream of running.  Soon, Wild Thyme slowed down a little, and faced him, running backward, her bushy hair raised from her head in the wind of her running, her little brown face and great purple eyes gleaming mischievously.  Eric sprang for her.  She dodged.  He sprang again.  She dodged again.  He cried out in vexation and sprang again, straight and sure.  He caught her by her bushy hair as she turned to fly.

And a strange thing happened to him in that second, the second he caught her hair.  Instead of Wild Thyme and the sunny field, he was looking at the sea.  He was standing on the shore, looking away and away, almost to foreign lands.  Now ever since that spring night on the shore he had been thinking of the sea and longing with all his might to cross it and see foreign lands for himself.  Only that had seemed impossible, and something he must surely wait till he was grown up to do.  But now, in a flash, as his fingers closed on Wild Thyme’s hair, he knew that he could indeed do that, and anything else he really set his heart on.

No girl, even a fairy, likes to have her hair pulled.  So Wild Thyme was angry.  She pinched Eric’s arm with all her strength.  Then he was angry.  And so they stood holding each other, he her by the hair, and she him by the arm, staring hotly into each other’s faces.  But slowly they relaxed, and becoming their own natural selves again, broke into laughter.

“You’ll play with us, won’t you?” Eric asked.

“Of course,” she said, “and I am It!” And away they ran to find the others, Ivra, the Tree Girl, the Forest Children, and Dan and Nan.  When those saw who it was Eric had captured they ran to meet her, shouting gayly, “Wild Thyme!  Goody!  Goody!  Hello, Wild Thyme!” They seemed to have known her always.  She and Ivra threw their arms about each other’s shoulders and danced away to the goal.

Wild Thyme was a wonderful playfellow.  She was so wild, so free, so strong, so mischievous.  And when the game was ended she invited them to a dance that very night.  “It’s to be around the Tree Man’s Tree,” she said.  “And all come—­come when the moon rises.”

. . .  Perhaps Eric’s good times in the Forest reached their very height that June night of the dance.  He had never been to a dance before, and just at first he did not think there would be much fun in it.  But Ivra wanted him to go, and offered to show him about the dances.  So they ran away from the others to the edge of the field where Eric had discovered Wild Thyme, and there on the even, grassy ground Ivra showed him how to dance.  It was very easy,—­not at all like the dances Earth Children dance.  It was much more fun, and much livelier.  The dances were just whirling and skipping and jumping, each dancer by himself, but all in a circle.  Eric liked it as well as though it had been a new game.