And now the Child liked the bright-eyed flies better than ever; and
he talked a little longer with them, and inquired why they showed
themselves so much more in spring. They did it, they said, in the
hope that their gold-green radiance might allure their cousins, the
flowers, to the pure love of light.



CHAPTER X.



During this conversation the dragon-fly had been preparing a bed for
her host. The moss upon which the Child sat had grown a foot high
behind his back, out of pure joy; but the dragon-fly and her sisters
had so revelled upon it, that it was now laid at its length along
the cave. The dragon-fly had awakened every spider in the
neighbourhood out of her sleep, and when they saw the brilliant
light, they had set to work spinning so industriously that their web
hung down like a curtain before the mouth of the cave. But as the
Child saw the ant peeping up at him, he entreated the fire-flies not
to deprive themselves any longer of their merry games in the wood on
his account. And the dragon-fly and her sisters raised the curtain
till the Child had laid him down to rest, and then let it fall
again, that the mischievous gnats might not get in to disturb his
slumbers.

The Child laid himself down to sleep, for he was very tired; but he
could not sleep, for his couch of moss was quite another thing than
his little bed, and the cave was all strange to him.