his foot, and it seemed a nice place to sleep in. But he had no
choice, for he was afraid of going further in the dark among the
trees; and so, creeping into the hollow among the old roots, he
curled himself up as comfortably as he could, and soon began to get
very drowsy, in spite of having no covering to keep him warm. But
although very tired and sleepy, he did not go quite to sleep, for he
had never been all alone in a wood by night before, and it was
different from the open plain where he could see all round, even at
night, and where he had feared nothing. Here the trees looked strange
and made strange black shadows, and he thought that the strange
people of the wood were perhaps now roaming about and would find him
there. He did not want them to find him fast asleep; it was better
to be awake, so that when they came he could jump up and run away
and hide himself from them. Once or twice a slight rustling sound
made him start and think that at last some one was coming to him,
stealing softly so as to catch him unawares, but he could see
nothing moving, and when he held his breath to listen there was no
sound.

[Illustration: ]

Then all at once, just when he had almost dropped off, a great cry
sounded at a distance, and made him start up wide awake again.
"O look! look! look!" cried the voice in a tone so deep and strange
and powerful that no one could have heard it without terror, for it
seemed to be uttered by some forest monster twenty times bigger than
an ordinary man. In a moment an answer came from another part of the
wood. "What's that?" cried the answering voice; and then another
voice cried, and then others far and near, all shouting "What's that?"
and for only answer the first voice shouted once more, "O look! look!