His mother's arm was about him.

Stars flashed above, and a glimmer fell on her gentle face--a dew of light, as it were.

Her dark eyes appeared darker than usual as she leaned and drew her shawl over his shoulder.
Ahead, the rays of the lantern kept up their dance, but they flared now and again upon stone hedges built in zigzag layers, and upon unknown feathery bushes, intensely green and glistening like metal.
The cart jolted and the lantern swung to a soundless tune that filled the night.

When Taffy listened it ceased; when he ceased listening, it began again.
The lantern stopped its dance and stood still over a ford of black water.

The cart splashed into it and became a ship, heaving and lurching over a soft, irregular floor that returned no sound.
But suddenly the ship became a cart again, and stood still before a house with a narrow garden-path and a light streaming along it from an open door.
His father lifted him down; his mother took his hand.