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Her black eyes were sparkling and she nodded good-morning to him as though he were a prince, or at least a grown-up. He could not help nodding back. He liked her very much, she was so beautiful and so friendly. "Come in and get warm," she called, "and I'll show you my pretty bird." Eric remembered Ivra's warnings, but he wanted to go in so much that he found himself doing it.
They were roused early in the morning by something tapping lightly on the doors and windows. Eric was out of bed first, and saw the Wind Creatures, half a dozen or more of them, looking in and beckoning. Their purple wings gleamed gold in the early morning sun. Wild Star was standing in the open door. "Happy birthday!" he cried and tossed a snow ball into Ivra's bed.
Immediately he stopped eating and dropped his spoon. His eyes filled with tears. He had utterly forgotten about his plight until then, how he was homeless, workless and bound to starve and freeze sooner or later. Ivra's mother saw the misery in his face and quietly spoke, "We hope for a long time. As long as you want to, anyway.
Up under the pine were sleds enough for every one, made all of woven hemlock branches. They needed no runners for the ice was so slippery and the hill so steep anything would go down it fast enough. Ivra's Forest Friends must have worked all the day before to make those sleds and now her shining face and clasped hands were reward enough. She was the first to try the hill.
Eric forgot all about being a prisoner, and forgot the little caged creatures around the wall. He was delighted with the frock being pushed down on Ivra's shoulders. "How beautiful you'll be!" he cried. But Ivra wriggled away from it and stood clear. Her rudely made brown frock and worn sandals looked odd in that satin room.
The children were about Eric's and Ivra's ages, and the young woman was their mother. The children's names were Nan and Dan, and the woman's name was Sally. But though they had Earth names they were of the fairy-kind, called in the Forest "Blue Water People." Just peer into a clear pool or stream, almost any bright day, and you will be pretty sure to see one of them looking up at you.
She daren't go into the village." "Why daren't she?" asked Eric. "How dare she?" cried the old woman. "She'd be seen, for she's only part fairy, of course. But hush, hush!" She clapped her hands over her mouth. "What am I telling you, one of the secrets of the forest, and you a stranger here? You must forget it all. Ivra's a good child.
"Why, then he will see Helma somewhere!" cried Eric. Ivra sprang from her bed. "Eric, how splendid! We must go with him! Why didn't I think of it at the very first!" They did not stop for breakfast, but were into their coats and ready for the day's search in a twinkling. Neither of them had bothered to undress the night before. Ivra's hair had gone unbrushed for two days.
The Wind Creatures sat a little way off where it was cool enough for their comfort, but not too far to hear Ivra's clear voice. This time she told all she knew about the birthday of this Earth, one of the most magical and splendid and strange of her stories. But it was the shortest day in the year, Ivra's birthday, and night fell all too soon.
See, I left the roots on, the way she likes them. Let's plant them by the door stone." They dug up the earth with their hands, Forest Children's hands, Wild Star's hands, Eric's and Ivra's, and planted the flowers all about the door stone. Then Wild Star flew away a little languidly. Ivra looked after him.
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