Gluck held in his hand. "Cast these into the river," he said, "and descend on the other side of the mountains into the Treasure Valley. And so good speed!"

As he spoke, the figure of the dwarf became indistinct. The playing colors of his robe formed themselves into a mist of dewy light; he stood for an instant veiled with them as with the belt of a broad rainbow. The colors grew faint, the mist rose into the air-the monarch had evaporated.

Gluck climbed to the brink of the Golden River, and its waves were as clear as crystal and as brilliant as the sun. When he cast the three drops of dew into the stream, there opened, where they fell, a small circular whirlpool, into which the waters descended with a musical. noise.

Gluck stood watching it for some time, very much disappointed because the river not only was not turned into gold, but its waters seemed much diminished in quantity, yet he obeyed his friend the dwarf, and descended the other side of the mountains toward the Treasure Valley.

As he went he thought he heard the noise of water working its way under the ground. When he came in sight of the Treasure Valley, behold, a river like the Golden River was springing from a new cleft of the rocks above it, and was flowing in innumerable streams among the dry heaps of red sand.

As Gluck gazed, fresh grass sprang beside the new streams, and creeping plants grew and climbed over the moistening soil. Young flowers opened suddenly along the river sides, as stars leap out when twilight is deepening, while thickets of myrtle and tendrils of vine cast lengthening shadows over the valley as they grew. Thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance which had been lost by cruelty was regained by love.

Gluck went and dwelt in the valley, and the poor were never driven from his door; and for him the river became a river of gold, according to the dwarf's promise.

And to this day the inhabitants of the valley point out the place where the three drops of dew were cast into the stream, and trace the course of the Golden River underground until it emerges in the Treasure Valley. At the top of the cataract of the Golden River are still to be seen Two Black Stones, round which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset; and these stones are still called by the people of the valley the Black Brothers.

-JOHN RUSKIN.

Alice sat on the bank of the little brook thinking over her adventures and wondering where she should go next, when her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shouting of, "Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!" and a knight, dressed in crimson armor, came galloping down upon her, brandishing a great club. Just as he reached her, the horse stopped suddenly. "You're my prisoner!" the knight cried, as he tumbled off his horse.

Startled as she was, Alice was more frightened for him than for herself at the moment, and watched him with some anxiety as he mounted again. As soon as he was comfortably in the saddle, he began once more, "You're my—" but here another voice broke in, "Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!" and Alice looked round in some surprise for the new enemy.

This time it was a White Knight. He drew up at Alice's side, and tumbled off his horse just as the Red

1 See note on page 259.

2 Find the definition and pronunciation of these words in the vocabulary.

Knight had done; then he got on again, and the two Knights sat and looked at each other for some time without speaking. Alice looked from one to the other in some bewilderment.

"She's my prisoner," the Red Knight said at last.

Yes, but then I came and rescued her!" the White Knight replied.

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Well, we must fight for her, then," said the Red Knight as he took up his helmet (which hung from the saddle and was something the shape of a horse's head) and put it on.

"You will observe the Rules of Battle, of course," the White Knight remarked, putting on his helmet, too.

"I always do," said the Red Knight, and they began banging away at each other with such fury that Alice got behind a tree to be out of the way of the blows.

"I wonder what the Rules of Battle are," she said to herself, as she watched the fight, timidly peeping out from her hiding-place. "One Rule seems to be, that if one knight hits the other, he knocks him off his horse; and, if he misses, he tumbles off himself. And another Rule seems to be that they hold their clubs with their arms, as if they were Punch and Judy. What a noise they make when they tumble! Just like a whole set of fire-irons falling into the fender! And how quiet the horses are! They let them get on and off just as if they were tables."

Another Rule of Battle, that Alice had not noticed, seemed to be that they always fell on their heads; and the battle ended with their both falling off in this way, side by side. When they got up again they shook hands, and then the Red Knight mounted and galloped off.

“It was a glorious victory, wasn't it?" said the White Knight, as he came up panting.

"I don't know," Alice said doubtfully. "I don't want to be anybody's prisoner. I want. to be a Queen."

"So you will, when you've crossed the next brook," said the White Knight. "I'll see you safe to the end of the woods—and then I must go back, you know. That's the end of my move."

"Thank you very much," said Alice. "May I help you off with your helmet?" It was evidently more than he could manage by himself; however, she managed to shake him out of it at last.

"Now one can breathe more easily," said the Knight, putting back his shaggy hair with both hands, and turning his gentle face and large, mild eyes to Alice. She thought she had never seen such a strange-looking soldier in her life.

He was dressed in tin armor, which seemed to fit him very badly, and he had a queer-shaped little deal box fastened across his shoulders upside down, with the lid hanging open. Alice looked at it with great curiosity.

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"I see you're admiring my little box," the Knight