“I guess I’d better go do what he says,” I said vaguely, still staring at the empty stairs. Father started to laugh: the first real laugh we’d heard from him since the trouble began.

I sat on my bed and looked out at the quiet woods, black and silver in snow and moonlight, and serene. There was nothing watchful or brooding about that stillness; whatever secrets were hidden in that forest were so perfectly kept that their existence could not be suspected nor even imagined by any rational faculty.

“You’re half witch yourself, I sometimes think; the forest would probably leave you alone.

He said “Thank you” to the air in general, and felt suddenly that the silence was a listening one.

Sunlight and the smell of the sweet grass were better than sleep or food; I felt that I was awakening from a dream left behind in the shadowed eaves of the forest.

Grace would have looked magnificent in a throne. I feel foolish.

The only comfort I had in being my sisters’ sister was that I was “the clever one.”

I opened the window and leaned out, and to my exquisite delight found that the whole side of the house was covered with roses in full bloom; and I could see bright flowers leaning against the shop and stable walls. “Thank you,” I whispered to no one.

I grew up near here, and the tales you hear in your cradle stay with you whether you will or nay.