"No, but you put the barb in with your voice and your eyes."
"Oh wait!" interrupted Marjorie. "Oh dear, I almost had the rest of that message then! Something that you said brought it right up to the surface. Well, it's gone again. Yes, I did put the barb in, or rather it got caught in as it went past. If I could always see the words, the way that I did when I watched the pigeon-holes, I certainly would be more careful of the kind that I send about. When you see them, with sharp edges and spiney sides, you feel like calling them right back, before they can do any harm; but you never can,—they are too quick for you, when once they are called down from their places; and then all that you can do is to send soft, comfy ones right after, to try to pad the harsh ones so that they won't hurt so much where they have lodged; but you can never quite . . . ."
"No," said the Dream; "They are like one of those barbed seed-pods that keep on working in and in, and rankling and rankling. Well, we've got the lesson, so there's no use in mulling it over; just remember it, that's all. Let's be getting on."
A little farther on, the valley widened into a great circle, with tall green mountains all around it, and long white streamers of water-falls swinging down their steep sides and flashing in the sun-light. The floor of the valley was almost level
