"In what direction are you going?" asked the old man.
"Eastward," I replied; nor could I have given a more definite answer.
"Does the forest extend much further in that direction?"
"Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far. For although I have
lived on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy to make
journeys of discovery into it. Nor do I see what I could discover. It
is only trees and trees, till one is sick of them. By the way, if you
follow the eastward track from here, you will pass close to what the
children say is the very house of the ogre that Hop-o'-my-Thumb visited,
and ate his little daughters with the crowns of gold."
"Oh, father! ate his little daughters! No; he only changed their gold
crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed them in
mistake; but I do not think even he ate them, for you know they were his
own little ogresses."
"Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better than I do.
However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish neighbourhood as
this, a bad enough name; and I must confess there is a woman living
in it, with teeth long enough, and white enough too, for the lineal
descendant of the greatest ogre that ever was made. I think you had
better not go near her."
In such talk as this the night wore on. When supper was finished, which
lasted some time, my hostess conducted me to my chamber.
"If you had not had enough of it already," she said, "I would have put
you in another room, which looks towards the forest; and where you
would most likely have seen something more of its inhabitants. For they
frequently pass the window, and even enter the room sometimes. Strange
creatures spend whole nights in it, at certain seasons of the year. I am
used to it, and do not mind it. No more does my little girl, who sleeps
in it always. But this room looks southward towards the open country,
and they never show themselves here; at least I never saw any."
I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might have, of
the inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the farmer's company,
and of my own later adventures, was such, that I chose rather an
undisturbed night in my more human quarters; which, with their clean
white curtains and white linen, were very inviting to my weariness.