I come to ask the skill of the wise woman in discovering a secret long hidden from our family." He stopped suddenly, for the woman held up her hand as if to stop him, and her voice took a strange hissing tone.
"Silence! Enough--thou hast spoken enough.

Let me now tell thee the rest.

I will tell thee what thou hast come to seek for.

Silence! I will consult the spirits; they will tell me all." Drawing nearer to her the crystal bowl, the old woman bent her head over it, and whispered incantations, as it seemed, over its contents.

For a while there was deep silence in the room, and Cherry felt chill with excitement and wonder.