“At one end of the mer-village Klara could see one palace, bigger and more beautiful than all the others.  Through an open window she caught a glimpse of the mer-king—­a jolly old fellow with a fat red face and a long white beard sitting on a throne of gold.  At his side reclined the mer-queen—­a very beautiful lady with a skin as white as milk and eyes as green as emeralds.  Little mer-princes and little mer-princesses were playing on the floor with tiny mer-kittens and tinier mer-puppies.  One sweet little mer-baby was tiptailing towards the window with a pearl that she had stolen from her sister’s coronet.

“It seemed to Klara that this mer-village was the most enchanting place that she had ever seen in her life.  Oh, how she wanted to live there!

“‘Oh, good mer-king,’ she called entreatingly, ’and good mer-queen, please let me come to live in your palace.’

“Bing!  The water rustled and roiled as if all the birds of paradise that the world contained had taken flight.  Swish!  It was perfectly quiet again.  The mer-village was as deserted as a graveyard.

“’Well, if they don’t want me, they shan’t get me, Klara said.  And she walked on twice as proud.’

“By this time she was getting closer and closer to the moon.  The nearer she came the bigger it grew.  Now it filled the entire sky.  The door had remained open all this time.  Through it she could see a garden—­a garden more beautiful than any fairy-tale garden that she had ever read about.  From the doorway silvery paths stretched between hedges as high as a giant’s head.  Sometimes these paths ended in fountains whose spray twisted into all kinds of fairy-like shapes.  Sometimes these paths seemed to stop flush against the clouds.  Nearer stretched flower-beds so brilliant that you would have thought a kaleidoscope had broken on the ground.  Birds, like living jewels, flew in and out through the tree-branches.  They sang so hard that it seemed to Klara they must burst their little throats.  From the branches hung all kinds of precious stones, all kinds of delicious-looking fruits and candies.

“Klara could not scramble through the door quickly enough.

“But as she put one foot on the threshold the little old lady appeared.  She looked as if she had stepped out of a fairy-tale.  And yet Klara had a strange feeling of discomfort when she looked at her.  It seemed to Klara that the old lady’s mouth was cruel and her eyes hard.

“‘Are you the little girl who’s run away?’ the old lady asked.

“‘Yes,’ Klara faltered.

“‘And you want to live in the Kingdom of the Moon?’

“‘Yes.’

“‘Enter then.’

“The old lady stepped aside and Klara marched across the threshold.  She felt the door swinging to behind her.  She heard a bang as it closed, shutting her out of the world and into the moon.

“And then—­and then—­what do you think happened?”

Billy stopped for a moment.  Rosie and Maida rose to their knees.