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"Phyllida said to him, 'You will find a fresh baking of bread and a meat-pie in the larder." The Shepherd of Clouds fixed his deep, solemn gaze upon Giles and said: "Mortal, I have hearkened to your story and to the words of my faithful Eye-o, who sees all things that happen in the whole wide world; I have paid heed to the words of Ear-o, who hears all things that are to be heard under the sun.
He saw the icy caverns in which the hail-stones lie piled in monstrous bags, the lightning-bolts in their crystal jars, and even the prisoned storm-winds. You may be sure that, when he could so arrange it, Phyllida's garden had quite the finest variety of weather. For Eye-o and Ear-o would tell him about her. "Tell me, what is Phyllida doing?" Giles would say again and again.
Dawn was at hand, and the sweet, cold mountain air was blowing through the eastern window. Suddenly, the door swung open, and Eye-o and Ear-o entered. "The sun is rising, Giles," said Ear-o, "and your appointed task awaits you. The Shepherd wishes the clouds released at once. Hurry, hurry, hurry, Giles, and open their prison-door." So Giles went forth with the elves.
Presently Eye-o came clambering up the steps. "I see a village in flames," said the elf. "The inhabitants are fleeing down the roads. The news is spreading, and the people of the plain are hurrying to seek refuge in the mountains." "Oh, where is Phyllida?" cried Giles. "She is on the highway with Jack and Jill and their children, hastening toward the Valley of Thunder," answered the elf.
Eye-o and Ear-o sitting beside him, their long, strange arms clasped about their knees, looked on with sympathy. Presently Ear-o's right ear turned itself about, and after a moment's silence, the elf said: "I hear voices telling of war. I hear the Robber King of the Black Lakes summoning his terrible army. He is preparing a secret attack on the people of the plain." "I see him!
I see him!" cried Eye-o. "He is talking to the Grand Chamberlain Scelerato." "Listen," said Ear-o; "he is saying, 'We will sweep the land at dawn, steal the grain, and destroy every village to its foundation." "I see the robbers gathering," said Eye-o. "They are hiding in the dark pine forests, lest they be seen by the people of the plain.
"I went forth to seek Phyllida," said Giles, "and lost my way in the storm." "What sayest thou, Eye-o?" said the Shepherd to the elf with the single great eye in his forehead. "The mortal speaks the truth," answered Eye-o in the queerest, squealiest voice. "I saw him set out yesterday from his cottage on the plain.
"It is the Shepherd!" cried Eye-o and Ear-o. "The hour is at hand to send the clouds over the earth. Quick, Giles, unbar the doors!" So Giles unbound the giant doors, which of their own volition opened wide. A sound as of thunder heard from far away over the sea beat upon Giles's ear as the portals turned upon their hinges.
One day, with Eye-o and Ear-o by his side, he sat on a great boulder and gazed gloomily down on the plain. Spring was just ripening into early summer, the plain was at its very greenest and loveliest, and here and there a little blue wood-smoke hung over the tiny villages. Giles thought of Phyllida far, far away, and a terrible loneliness poured into his heart.
And Eye-o would answer, "She is out in the garden gathering plums"; or, "she is in the kitchen making gingerbread." And then Giles would say to Ear-o, "Tell me, what is Phyllida saying?" And Ear-o would answer, "'Oh, would that my lad were home!" Two years passed, and Giles, who had found no opportunity of escape, began to lose hope of doing so. Never again, he feared, would he see Phyllida.
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