And all at once they
stopped, quaking and mazed and skeery, for there was the great stone,
half in, half out of the water, for all the world like a strange big
coffin; and at the head was the black snag, stretching out its two arms
in a dark gruesome cross, and on it a tiddy light flickered, like a
dying candle. And they all knelt down in the mud, and said, "Our Lord,
first forward, because of the cross, and then backward, to keep off the
Bogles; but without speaking out, for they knew that the Evil Things
would catch them, if they didn't do as the Wise Woman told them."
Then they went nigher, and took hold of the big stone, and shoved it up,
and afterwards they said that for one tiddy minute they saw a strange
and beautiful face looking up at them glad-like out of the black water;
but the Light came so quick and so white and shining, that they stept
back mazed with it, and the very next minute, when they could see again,
there was the full Moon in the sky, bright and beautiful and kind as
ever, shining and smiling down at them, and making the bogs and the
paths as clear as day, and stealing into the very corners, as though
she'd have driven the darkness and the Bogles clean away if she could.
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