The path led to a small circular clearing, a shaft that sucked the daylight down.

It was as if the sunshine were being poured in one stream from a flooded sky, and danced in the dark cup earth held for it.

The trees grew close and tall round the clearing.

Light dripped from their leaves and streamed down their stems, turning their grey to silver.
The bottom of the cup was a level floor of grass that had soaked in light till it shone like emerald.

A stone cottage faced the path; so small that a laburnum brushed its roof and a may-tree laid a crimson face against the grey gable of its side.