By ROBERT BARR
All summer long Katharine thought about Pwyll, and often visited him in her book-bag, which she kept in her closet. Often too, she would go to her bureau and open the bottom drawer, just to peep in at the ring of truth, the thinking cap, and the magic shoes that Pwyll had given her.
Then one day, when the weather was hot and humid, and the sky covered in grey, Katharine put on the ring of truth and went wandering through the meadow behind her house into the rocky glen, where she loved to gaze up at the great boulders that loomed against the sky.
No sooner had she carefully picked her way among the stones that lay about in the glen, and come to the foot of the first boulder, but she felt a strange heaviness in the air, and sensed a whirring about her ears, which she could partly hear and partly feel. And she knew that the invisible witches of the air were abroad, and had come upon her. So she stopped very still until they should pass, as Pwyll had cautioned her.
But the longer Katharine stood still, the more the whirring increased, and the air became so heavy that she began to have to draw long breaths. The witches had not passed. They were gathering in the air at the very place where she stood. Some evil deed was afoot. She must protect herself.
So she rubbed the Ring of Truth, and called to the witches of the air:
Heavy horrors of the humid day,
now say,
what evil work ye here,
or cast what spell?
At this the witches of the air whirred and pressed until Katharine could scarcely draw breath at all, for they by no means wished to obey her command. But to no avail. Hate it they might, but obey it they must, because of the Ring of Truth. And the witches of the air told Katharine that the stones beneath her feet were enchanted children, whom they had snatched from their mothers and carried spellbound to Rocky glen. Here they lay on the ground as stones, lest they be able to flee before the witches had need of them for their evil purposes.
“And what might unbind the spell, evil witches of the air?” Katharine demanded, shutting her eyes tight-tight-tight and clenching the Ring of Truth so hard that the white showed on her knuckles.
Now the witches whirred and pressed the air even more than before, and for a moment Katharine wondered whether she would have to run away just to breathe.
But the witches answered, for answer they must:
A maid astride a golden steed
will free these children with all speed
from our awful curse and spell!
Her answer received, Katharine fled the Glen and came to the midmost part of the meadow, where she stood, safe at last, but filled with sorrow--for how ever could a maid on a golden steed ride to Rocky glen, touch the enchanted children, and free them from the witches’ spell?
But then she ran from the meadow back to her house, and donned her Magic Shoes and Thinking Cap. The Thinking Cap gave her a wonderful idea. And the Magic Shoes carried her back to the midmost part of the meadow in a single bound. There she closed her eyes and wished herself small. When she opened them again, the flowers were already taller than she was, the grass was shooting up about her ears, and the bugs were grown big as cats and dogs!
“Stop!” Katharine wished, and at once she stopped growing smaller.
Then she looked up among the flowers, and spied a large yellow butterfly, with handsome black stripes and a proud, fierce look.
Butterfly, butterfly, flutter by me,
fold thy wing of gold behind me,
she chanted.
And the great yellow butterfly alighted just behind her, and she leapt backward over his head and sat astride his shoulders.
Now take the air,
and carry me
to set the spellbound
little ones free!
And the butterfly soared off into the bright air–for the sun had broken through the clouds–bearing Katharine on its shoulders.
When the witches of the air beheld Katharine riding the wind astride a big yellow butterfly, and coming right for them, they knew a maid on a golden steed was on her way, their evil spell would be broken, and the spellbound children would go free. And they rushed whirring and slapping their wings to other parts of the Glen.
Now Katharine guided her butterfly alongside the first enchanted stone, and commanded him to alight. When he had come to rest, Katharine gently touched the stone with the fingertips of her right hand, and the stone became a little child, who blinked his eyes and looked about and smiled, as if awaking from a long sleep.
One by one Katharine guided her golden steed to each and every enchanted stone, all about the ground about the boulders, touching each of them in turn. And each became a little child.
When all the enchanted stones had become children again, they left the rocky glen to go home to their mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. And Katharine led the way on the butterfly.
