The Child of the Forest

Once, so long ago our great-grandfathers could scarcely have heard it
mentioned, there lived within the great Forest of Burzee a wood-nymph
named Necile.  She was closely related to the mighty Queen Zurline, and
her home was beneath the shade of a widespreading oak.  Once every
year, on Budding Day, when the trees put forth their new buds, Necile
held the Golden Chalice of Ak to the lips of the Queen, who drank
therefrom to the prosperity of the Forest.  So you see she was a nymph
of some importance, and, moreover, it is said she was highly regarded
because of her beauty and grace.

When she was created she could not have told; Queen Zurline could not
have told; the great Ak himself could not have told.  It was long ago
when the world was new and nymphs were needed to guard the forests and
to minister to the wants of the young trees.  Then, on some day not
remembered, Necile sprang into being; radiant, lovely, straight and
slim as the sapling she was created to guard.

Her hair was the color that lines a chestnut-bur; her eyes were blue in
the sunlight and purple in the shade; her cheeks bloomed with the faint
pink that edges the clouds at sunset; her lips were full red, pouting
and sweet.  For costume she adopted oak-leaf green; all the wood-nymphs
dress in that color and know no other so desirable.  Her dainty feet
were sandal-clad, while her head remained bare of covering other than
her silken tresses.

Necile's duties were few and simple.  She kept hurtful weeds from
growing beneath her trees and sapping the earth-food required by her
charges.  She frightened away the Gadgols, who took evil delight in
flying against the tree-trunks and wounding them so that they drooped
and died from the poisonous contact.  In dry seasons she carried water
from the brooks and pools and moistened the roots of her thirsty
dependents.

That was in the beginning.  The weeds had now learned to avoid the
forests where wood-nymphs dwelt; the loathsome Gadgols no longer dared
come nigh; the trees had become old and sturdy and could bear the
drought better than when fresh-sprouted.  So Necile's duties were
lessened, and time grew laggard, while succeeding years became more
tiresome and uneventful than the nymph's joyous spirit loved.

Truly the forest-dwellers did not lack amusement.  Each full moon they
danced in the Royal Circle of the Queen.  There were also the Feast of
Nuts, the Jubilee of Autumn Tintings, the solemn ceremony of Leaf
Shedding and the revelry of Budding Day.  But these periods of
enjoyment were far apart, and left many weary hours between.

That a wood-nymph should grow discontented was not thought of by
Necile's sisters.  It came upon her only after many years of brooding.
But when once she had settled in her mind that life was irksome she had
no patience with her condition, and longed to do something of real
interest and to pass her days in ways hitherto undreamed of by forest
nymphs.  The Law of the Forest alone restrained her from going forth in
search of adventure.

While this mood lay heavy upon pretty Necile it chanced that the great
Ak visited the Forest of Burzee and allowed the wood-nymphs as was
their wont--to lie at his feet and listen to the words of wisdom that
fell from his lips.  Ak is the Master Woodsman of the world; he sees
everything, and knows more than the sons of men.

That night he held the Queen's hand, for he loved the nymphs as a
father loves his children; and Necile lay at his feet with many of her
sisters and earnestly harkened as he spoke.

"We live so happily, my fair ones, in our forest glades," said Ak,
stroking his grizzled beard thoughtfully, "that we know nothing of the
sorrow and misery that fall to the lot of those poor mortals who
inhabit the open spaces of the earth.  They are not of our race, it is
true, yet compassion well befits beings so fairly favored as ourselves.
Often as I pass by the dwelling of some suffering mortal I am tempted
to stop and banish the poor thing's misery.  Yet suffering, in
moderation, is the natural lot of mortals, and it is not our place to
interfere with the laws of Nature."

"Nevertheless," said the fair Queen, nodding her golden head at the
Master Woodsman, "it would not be a vain guess that Ak has often
assisted these hapless mortals."

Ak smiled.

"Sometimes," he replied, "when they are very young--'children,' the
mortals call them--I have stopped to rescue them from misery.  The men
and women I dare not interfere with; they must bear the burdens Nature
has imposed upon them.  But the helpless infants, the innocent children
of men, have a right to be happy until they become full-grown and able
to bear the trials of humanity.  So I feel I am justified in assisting
them.  Not long ago--a year, maybe--I found four poor children huddled
in a wooden hut, slowly freezing to death.  Their parents had gone to a
neighboring village for food, and had left a fire to warm their little
ones while they were absent.  But a storm arose and drifted the snow in
their path, so they were long on the road.  Meantime the fire went out
and the frost crept into the bones of the waiting children."

"Poor things!" murmured the Queen softly.  "What did you do?"

"I called Nelko, bidding him fetch wood from my forests and breathe
upon it until the fire blazed again and warmed the little room where
the children lay.  Then they ceased shivering and fell asleep until
their parents came."

"I am glad you did thus," said the good Queen, beaming upon the Master;
and Necile, who had eagerly listened to every word, echoed in a
whisper: "I, too, am glad!"

"And this very night," continued Ak, "as I came to the edge of Burzee I
heard a feeble cry, which I judged came from a human infant.  I looked
about me and found, close to the forest, a helpless babe, lying quite
naked upon the grasses and wailing piteously.  Not far away, screened
by the forest, crouched Shiegra, the lioness, intent upon devouring the
infant for her evening meal."

"And what did you do, Ak?" asked the Queen, breathlessly.

"Not much, being in a hurry to greet my nymphs.  But I commanded
Shiegra to lie close to the babe, and to give it her milk to quiet its
hunger.  And I told her to send word throughout the forest, to all
beasts and reptiles, that the child should not be harmed."

"I am glad you did thus," said the good Queen again, in a tone of
relief; but this time Necile did not echo her words, for the nymph,
filled with a strange resolve, had suddenly stolen away from the group.

Swiftly her lithe form darted through the forest paths until she
reached the edge of mighty Burzee, when she paused to gaze curiously
about her.  Never until now had she ventured so far, for the Law of the
Forest had placed the nymphs in its inmost depths.

Necile knew she was breaking the Law, but the thought did not give
pause to her dainty feet.  She had decided to see with her own eyes
this infant Ak had told of, for she had never yet beheld a child of
man.  All the immortals are full-grown; there are no children among
them.  Peering through the trees Necile saw the child lying on the
grass.  But now it was sweetly sleeping, having been comforted by the
milk drawn from Shiegra.  It was not old enough to know what peril
means; if it did not feel hunger it was content.

Softly the nymph stole to the side of the babe and knelt upon the
sward, her long robe of rose leaf color spreading about her like a
gossamer cloud.  Her lovely countenance expressed curiosity and
surprise, but, most of all, a tender, womanly pity.  The babe was
newborn, chubby and pink.  It was entirely helpless.  While the nymph
gazed the infant opened its eyes, smiled upon her, and stretched out
two dimpled arms.  In another instant Necile had caught it to her
breast and was hurrying with it through the forest paths.