Bee Read Free Page B

rises; I shall seize her as she passes, and I will give her to you, Honey-Bee.”
    â€œYes,” said Honey-Bee, “give her to me and I will put her in my hair.”
    Then they busied themselves searching for the places they knew as on a map.
    â€œI recognise everything,” said Honey-Bee, who recognised nothing, “but what are those little square stones scattered over the hillside?”
    â€œHouses,” George replied. “Those are houses. Don’t you recognise the capital of the Duchy of Clarides, little sister? After all, it is a great city; it has three streets, and one can drive through one of them. Don’t you remember that we passed through it last week when we went to the Hermitage?”
    â€œAnd what is that winding brook?”
    â€œThat is the river. See the old stone bridge down there?”
    â€œThe bridge under which we fished for crayfish?”
    â€œThat’s the one; and in one of the niches stands the statue of the ‘Woman without a Head.’ One cannot see her from here because she is too small.”
    â€œI remember. But why hasn’t she got a head?”
    â€œProbably because she has lost it.”
    Without saying if this explanation was satisfactory, Honey-Bee gazed at the horizon.
    â€œLittle brother, little brother, just see what sparkles by the side of the blue mountains? It is the lake.”
    â€œIt is the lake.”
    They then remembered what the Duchess had told them of these beautiful and dangerous waters where the nixies dwell.
    â€œWe will go there,” said Honey-Bee.
    George was aghast. He stared at her with his mouth wide open.
    â€œBut the Duchess has forbidden us to go out alone, so how can we go to this lake which is at the end of the earth?”
    â€œHow can we go? I don’t know. It’s you who ought to know, for you are a man and you have a grammar-master.”
    This piqued George who replied that one might be a man, and even a very brave man, and yet not know all the roads on earth. Whereupon Honey-Bee said drily with a little air of scorn which made him blush to his ears:
    â€œI never said I would conquer the blue mountains or take down the moon. I don’t know the way to the lake, but I mean to find it!”
    George pretended to laugh.
    â€œYou laugh like a cucumber.”
    â€œCucumbers neither laugh nor cry.”
    â€œIf they did laugh they would laugh like you. I shall go along to the lake. And while I search for the beautiful waters in which the nixies live you shall stay alone at home like a good girl. I will leave you my needle-work and my doll. Take care of them, George, take good care of them.”
    George was proud, and he was conscious of the humiliation with which Honey-Bee covered him.
    Gloomily and with head bowed he cried in a hollow voice:
    â€œVery well, then, we will go to the lake.”

VII
    In which is described how George and Honey-Bee went to the lake
    The next day after the midday meal, the Duchess having gone to her own room George took Honey-Bee by the hand. “Now come!” he said. “Where?” “Hush!”
    They crept down stairs and crossed the courtyard. After they had passed the postern, Honey-Bee again asked where they were going.
    â€œTo the lake,” George said resolutely. Honey-Bee opened her mouth wide but remained speechless. To go so far without permission and in satin shoes! For her shoes were of satin. There was no sense in it.
    â€œWe must go and there is no need to be sensible.”
    Such was George’s proud reply. She had once humiliated him and now she pretended to be astonished.
    This time it was he who disdainfully sent her back to her dolls. Girls always tempt one on to adventures and then run away. So mean! She could remain. He’d go alone.
    She clung to his arm; he pushed her away.
    She hung about his neck.
    â€œLittle brother,” she sobbed, “I will follow you.”
    He allowed himself to be moved