'Star Caverns are places where the unused
starlight gathers. There are numbers of them about the world, and one
I know of is up here in our mountains,' he pointed through the north
wall towards the pine-clad Jura, 'not far from the slopes of Boudry
where the forests dip towards the precipices of the Areuse--' The
phrase ran oddly through him like an inspiration, or the beginning of
a song he once had heard somewhere.
'Ah, beyond le Vallon Vert? I know,' whispered Jimbo, his blue eyes
big already with wonder.
'Towards the precipices on the farther side,' came the explanation,
'where there are those little open spaces among the trees.'
'Tell us more exactly, please.'
'Star-rays, you see,' he evaded them, 'are visible in the sky on their
way to us, but once they touch the earth they disappear and go out
like a candle. Unless a chance puddle, or a pair of eyes happens to be
about to catch them, you can't tell where they've gone to. They go
really into these Star Caverns.'
'But in a puddle or a pair of eyes they'd be lost just the same,' came
the objection.
'On the contrary,' he said; 'changed a little--increased by
reflection--but not lost.'
There was a pause; the children stared, expectantly. Here was mystery.
'See how they mirror themselves whenever possible,' he went on,
'doubling their light and beauty by giving themselves away! What is a
puddle worth until a Star's wee golden face shines out of it? And
then--what gold can buy it? And what are your eyes worth until a star
has flitted in and made a nest there?'
'Oh, like that, you mean--!' exclaimed Jane Anne, remembering that the
wonderful women in the newspaper stories always had 'starry eyes.
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