DAY after day the moon grew brighter and brighter, and at last it was full again.
Every day David looked out of one of the second story windows, and every day he saw something new.
One day, what should he see but the moon-path itself stretching across the water far away into the distance. At the end of it were dark rocks against the sky. David knew very well what place it was now. It was the place whence he had started upon his journey for the moon. There was the flat rock with the waves beating up against it. He could even see the roofs of the village; and--yes--who should that be but Hans Krout himself sitting on the rocks. Hans was looking out across the moon-path toward the moon. He saw David almost as soon as David had seen him, and he waved his hand toward him. "How goes it, David?" he called across the water.
"It goes well," called David in answer.
"Going to take another trip?" said Hans Krout.
"Yes," said David; "good by!" Then the moon rose up above the edge of the water, and Hans Krout and the rocks and the distant roofs of the village and the moon-path all faded slowly, slowly away. "Good by!" called Hans Krout's voice, now faint in the distance, across the water. Then all was gone, and nothing was there except the empty sky and the bright stars, while the moon floated up into the hollow space like a big round bubble. Then David knew that he could go back home again whenever he chose. It made him feel very happy, for, strange as it may sound, no one cares to live in the moon-house forever, wonderful as it all is. Either one wants after a while to get back home again, or else one wants to get out the back door into the moon-garden, or somewhere else.
So once more David lived in the moon-house while it waned and waned, and as it floated in the hollow sky he polished and polished the stars with lamb's-wool till they shone and sparkled brighter than ever. When the moon was full, the basket was full of stars; as it waned there were fewer and fewer in the basket, until all were gone. Then again the moon-light was gone, and the second-story window-shutters were all shut, and everything was dark.
Once more David sat down in the moon-kitchen with the Man-in-the-moon, watching him mend and stitch, and patch and cobble, and tinker and cook and make the beds, and now and then read the almanac by candle-light. But all the time David was watching the Man-in-the-moon he was also watching the stairway into the second story and the door that opened into it as well; for he knew that the Moon-Angel would come again as he had come before, and he was waiting for him.
Suddenly, one morning, he was there again--the Moon-Angel. David heard the singing and saw the light, and he knew the Moon-Angel was there. This time, without waiting for the Man-in-the-moon to tell him to do so, he ran up-stairs to the second story and opened the door. There was the Moon-Angel gazing at the star. It flickered and blazed and shone now red, now blue, while the two stars in the Moon-Angel's eyes flickered and blazed and shone now red and now blue as did the star. The Moon-Angel smiled a smile, and he looked at David without ceasing to look at the star.
"What is it, David?" said the Moon-Angel; "do you wish to go back to the moon-garden again "
"Yes," said David, "if I can be spared."
"You shall go," said the Moon-Angel, "for three days."
"Down the back stairs?" said David.
"Down the back stairs," said the Moon-Angel.
David looked around, and there were the back stairs. Who then so happy as he? He scampered away down the back stairs, and this time he knew them so well that he did not have to feel his way. Down he ran and down he ran, and there was the sunlight shining through the cracks of the door. Again he heard the voices of children upon the other side of the door. Click-clack! He lifted the latch, and there he was out in the dazzling sunlight once more.
The voices of the children stopped the moment he stepped out of the moon. "Oh-h-h-h!" cried all the children, "here is David again." The beautiful lady was sitting on the soft, warm grass, holding in her lap a new little child, who had just come into the moon-garden. He sat with his thumb in his mouth, staring at David with his big, round, blue eyes. Then all the children ran to David and began hugging and kissing him--that is, all of them except Phyllis. She stood a little way off, looking at David with her finger in her mouth. The beautiful lady looked at him too, and smiled until her face shone.
* * * *
Thus it was for five months. During that time David lived in the moon and did his work and looked out of the windows, and for three days in every month he went into the moon-garden and played with the children. And it seemed to him that that was what he lived for,--to play those three days in the moon-garden.
Then one time the beautiful lady took him by the hand and led him into the house. He went with her, wondering. She led him along a passage-way until they came to her own room, which was at the far end of the long house. It was a pretty room, that looked out into the garden through tall clear windows with thin curtains, and everything in it was sky-blue. There was the lady's desk and her pens and ink and account book. David looked about him, wondering why she had brought him there.
She laid her hand upon David's shoulder and spoke to him. "This is the last time you can come into the moon-garden, David," said she.
David looked at her like one struck dumb. At first he did not understand her words; when he did, it seemed to him as though everything was falling away from him. Then he felt his throat begin to choke and choke. Was it then true? Was he never to come back to the beautiful moon-garden again; never to see Phyllis again ; never to play with the children again?
"No," said the beautiful lady, just as if he had spoken, " you are never to come back into the moon-garden again."
"Why not ?" said David.
"Because," said she, "before this time next month you will be twelve years old, and no one can live here after he or she is twelve years old."
"Why not?" said David.
The beautiful lady smiled in answer. "Ah, David," said she, "many ask that question, but only one can answer it--that one is the Moon-Angel himself. Yes, David, it seems to be sad that we cannot always be happy like little children; but so it is, David. Innocent little children must grow into men and women who are not innocent. Why it should be so only the Moon-Angel can tell. Nevertheless, so it is, and as it is with others down in the brown world, so it must be with you here, David. For the time has now come when you must leave us here, so that you may grow up into a man, and thus be able to do the work for which you were sent."
"But I would rather live in the moon-garden and be happy," said David.
Again the lady smiled until her face shone bright as the Moon-Angel's face shone when he smiled. "Aye," said she, "so it is with all of us, David. We would all like to be happy, but it cannot be so. You must leave the moon-garden now, and must go away and grow to be a man."
David stood silent, thinking about it. "And am I never to see Phyllis again?" said he at last, almost crying.
"I did not say you were never to see Phyllis again," said the lady. "That depends upon yourself." She looked at David in the eyes. "Tell me," said she, "what did you say to Phyllis one day? Did you not say that you two should be married when you grew up?"
"Yes," said David, and he blushed fiery red.
"Then if it is to be so, you must do something to win her," said the lady. "For, listen, David, Phyllis is not as other children. You did not know it, and she does not know it; but she is a Princess, and her father is a great King."
"A Princess!" cried out David.
"Yes," said the lady, "a Princess."
Poor David stood staring at her. "Then she will not think of me when she grows up," said he. "She will forget me."
"That remains to be seen," said the lady.
"She will not forget you if you do the work for which you were sent."
"And what work is that? " said David.
"It is," said the lady, "to find the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book, which lies in the Iron Castle of the Iron Man, and to bring it back to the brown earth again. That is what you were really sent here to do."
"And how am I to do all that?" said David. "How am I to find the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book and the Iron Castle of the Iron Man? I never heard tell of them before."
"I will tell you," said the lady. "First of all you are to go around behind the Moon-Angel."
"That is not much to do," said David.
"Is it not? " said the lady; "Ah, David, you do not know what you say. He who can dare to do that, can dare anything."
"I don't understand you," said David.
"Don't you? But you will after you have tried. Just now you must listen to what I have to say, for the time draws near when you must go. If, when it comes to doing it, you dare to go behind the Moon-Angel to the Moon-ocean, where the great gray cliffs of rocks look down on the sea, and where the old woman with the red petticoat lives, then she will tell you what to do."
"And who is the old woman with the red petticoat?" said David.
"Ah, David," said the lady, "even I cannot tell you that. Few have seen her, and fewer still have talked with her. But this I know: she can tell you all about the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book, and what you are to do to find them. For she knows everything, and more beside."
"Then I will go to her," said David.
The lady smiled. "Do so," said she. "But first you will have to go beyond and behind the Moon-Angel."
"I can easily do that," said David again. "I am not afraid of the Moon-Angel." Again the lady smiled, and this time, oh, so strangely, for she knew what it was to go behind the Moon-Angel. David did not know; but she knew, and she looked almost with pity on him as she smoothed the hair back from his forehead. "God bless you, David," said she. "But hark! there is the bell."
Tinkle-tinkle-tinkle! Yes; there was the bell, and there was the moon-house, and there was the Man-in-the-moon standing, ringing the bell just as the school teacher rings the bell when playtime is over.
"May I not say good-by to the other children?" said David.
"No," said the lady; "I will say good-by for you."
"May I not even say good-by to Phyllis?"
"No; not even to her."
Tinkle-tinkle-tinkle! sounded the bell again.
"Then I will say good-by to you," said poor little David, in a choked voice, and he flung his arms around the lady's neck. She pressed him close, close to her, and kissed him upon the forehead. "Good-by," said she. Then she put him from her, and he turned and ran away, the big round moon, the garden and all blurring to the hot tears that brimmed his eyes.
The Man-in-the-moon reached down his hand, and David took it. "A long step," said the Man-in-the-moon. "That is it." Click-clack! And there was David inside the moon again, with the back door shut upon all that he had left behind.