Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/76

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THE CHILDREN

J) brought Janus in. He was the first, because, of course, Janus had to open everything. Then Silvanus came, talking to the children who had brought him, and carrying his bag of nuts. Faunus came too, and he sat under a tree; and he frightened everybody by making his voices sound like the howling of wolves coming nearer, nearer. Then Picus the Woodpecker came flying from branch to branch, and, the children all having come back, the things to eat were spread out.

No one had gone to fetch him, but Mars came. He had his spear, with the wolf he had just killed dangling at the end of it. He threw the wolf down when he came near where they were all sitting. They were under great ash trees, before the house and close to the spring well. All were there except Picus the Woodpecker. He went running around the trees and flying from branch to branch restlessly.

And there, in the light that seemed to be of sunlight and moonlight mixed (as sunlight and

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