“Everychild must bid farewell to father and mother,” declared Father Time.

And now Everychild was indeed dismayed.  “Bid farewell to them?” he echoed.  “Oh, please . . . and shall I never see them again?” He wished very much to approach Father Time and plead with him; but Father Time held up an arresting hand and spoke again, almost as if he were a minister in church.

“It is not given to Everychild to know what the future holds,” he said.  And then he again made a polite gesture toward the Masked Lady.  “Only she can tell what the end of the journey shall be,” he said.

It was now that Everychild looked earnestly at the Masked Lady.  If she would only take her mask off!  With a great effort he asked—­“And she—­will she befriend me when I have gone from my father and mother?”

With the deepest assurance Father Time replied, “Give her your affection and she will befriend you in every hour of loss and pain, clear to the end of your journey—­and beyond.”

“But,” said Everychild, “she—­she doesn’t look very—­she looks rather—­rather fearful, doesn’t she?”

“She is beautiful only to those who love her,” said Father Time.

This seemed reassuring; and now Everychild ventured to address the Masked Lady directly.  “And—­and will you go with me?” he asked timidly.

She replied with great earnestness:  “Everychild, go where you will, you have only to desire me greatly and I shall be with you.”

Then it seemed to Everychild that it would not be a very terrible thing to go away, after all.

It was plain that Father Time and the Masked Lady were waiting for him to go; and so without any more ado he boldly approached the door which opened out upon the street.  But his heart failed him again.  He drew back from the door and cried out—­“No, no!  I cannot.  I cannot go out that way.  Is there no other way for me to go?”

It seemed to him that his heart must cease to beat when Father Time exclaimed in a loud voice—­

“Go, Everychild!”

Still he hung back.  “But not that way!” he repeated.  “The wide world lies that way, and I should be afraid.”

“I know,” said Father Time, “that the Giant Fear lives outside that door.  But him you shall slay, and then the way will be clear.”

“I shall slay him?” exclaimed Everychild wonderingly.  “How shall I slay him?”

“Do not doubt, and a way shall be found.”

It was just at this moment that something very terrifying occurred.  There was a stealthy step outside the door—­the sort of step you hear when it is dark and you are alone.  And Everychild could not help shrinking back as he stood with his fascinated eyes held on the door.  He was staring at the door, yet he knew that the Masked Lady and Father Time were listening to that stealthy step too.  The Masked Lady had put aside her spinning wheel, and Father Time had become very grave.