But the Child was only sunk into a dream of delight, and was wishing
HE were a sunbeam or a moonbeam; and he would have been glad to hear
more and more, and for ever. But at last, as all was still, he
opened his eyes and looked around for his dear guest; but she was
flown far away; so he could not bear to sit there any longer alone,
and he rose and went to the gurgling brook. It gushed and rolled so
merrily, and tumbled so wildly along as it hurried to throw itself
head over heels into the river, just as if the great massy rock out
of which it sprang were close behind it, and could only be escaped
by a break-neck leap.

Then the Child began to talk to the little waves, and asked them
whence they came. They would not stay to give him an answer, but
danced away, one over another; till at last, that the sweet Child
might not be grieved, a drop of water stopped behind a piece of
rock. From her the Child heard strange histories, but he could not
understand them all, for she told him about her former life, and
about the depths of the mountain.

"A long while ago," said the Drop of Water, "I lived with my
countless sisters in the great ocean, in peace and unity. We had
all sorts of pastimes; sometimes we mounted up high into the air,
and peeped at the stars; then we sank plump down deep below, and
looked how the coral builders work till they are tired, that they
may reach the light of day at last. But I was conceited, and
thought myself much better than my sisters. And so one day, when
the sun rose out of the sea, I clung fast to one of his hot beams,
and thought that now I should reach the stars, and become one of