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Chapter 11 Gentian at the Loom · The Wind Boy

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Chapter eleven of The Wind Boy by Ethel Cook Eliot. This LibriVox recording is
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in the public domain. Chapter eleven Gentian at the Loom. When the children
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got back to the little brown house, they found their mother beside the lamp
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and the bowl of tulips, working with the plastilina. Already it was beginning
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to take shape again. They stopped by her shoulder to watch. She hardly
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knew that they were there. However, she was so absorbed in what she
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was doing, and because they wanted the work to go well just as much
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as she did, and because they knew that if they spoke and called her
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mind away, she might do no more That night, they said not a
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word, but after a little quietly turned aside. Kay settled down to a
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book. He was reading, a story of the sea, and Gentian ran
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softly up to NaN's attic room. Nan was sitting in the open window mending
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one of Kay's stockings. Beside her was a heap of brown and black stockings
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belonging to both the children, and a torn frock of Gentian's. Nan was
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holding her work close to the window to catch the very last ray of light.
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She looked up at Gentian and smiled a greeting. She knew very well
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what Gentian wanted. For both nights that Nan had been here, Gentian had
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come up to look at and to touch the starry brightness night robe. So
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now, Nan said, even before Gentian had asked permission, Yes, you
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may open the drawer and take it out. Oh, may I bring it
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over there by the window. Yes, do so Gentian pulled out the top
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drawer in the chest of drawers, and that, to her was something like
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opening a door into the night sky. The night robe lay folded there,
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so blue and starry. Gentian lifted it out with her finger tips. She
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had to look to make sure that there was anything there but air. It
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was so light, slowly and carefully that its trailing wispy folds should not sweep
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the floor. She carried it over to the window and the last light of
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day there she sat down on the floor at NaN's knee and held the wonderful
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robe in her lap. Her face as she bent above it was full of
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delight and wonder Nan put by her, darning to watch Gentian's face so full
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of rapture, But Gentean was too lost in the happiness of gazing at the
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starry brightness to know that Nan was looking at her at last, In spite
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of her delight, she sighed, but ever so softly. What is it,
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gentein, Nan asked, in words almost as soft as the sigh.
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Oh, I wonder if I shall ever have anything so beautiful. Nan did
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not answer at once, but stayed looking down into Gentian's lifted blue eyes.
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Then she said, in a matter of fact voice, any one who has
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a night down like this has to make it. Genteen, I do not
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know whether you could learn to make it, but I think you might.
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But where would I ever get the starry brightness to make it of? Why
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you would have to make the starry brightness? That is what a man?
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Well, I can hardly do that. Why do you say so? Wouldn't
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you like to try? How could I try? Trying is the easiest end
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of it. It's the doing that we'll tell. Genteen was gazing up at
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Nan with hope and delight now in her blue eyes. If you want to
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try right away now to night, you will have to go through into the
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other house, the one above this one. Remember, for the starry brightness
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cannot be made down here, not without giving a lifetime to it? Do
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you mean that little brown house we saw just above ours in the crystal light
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that day with the wind. Boy, am I to go up there?
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Yes, a young woman who lives in that house has promised me that you
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will help you with the making of a little starry brightness robe just for yourself.
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This morning, when I was tidying my room, I suddenly saw the
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way up into that other house. There I found her, and we talked
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about you and the way you came at night to see my starry robe.
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And she herself said she would ask the great artist there, great artist you
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know, to set up his loom for you. She is expecting you now,
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Oh how kind she is. But what has the great artist to do
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with it? He has the loom and the colors. So it is to
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his house you must go if you are to weave the starry brightness. Run
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through now to the other house, and the kind young girl will take you.
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Gentiean sprang up and ran to put NaN's night robe back into the drawer.
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Then she looked all about the little attic room eagerly, expectantly, but
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slowly her eager face grew blank. Oh where can I go through? She
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cried, See Nan, it is all just a hard old plaster. All
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you will have to get very still and then remember what the wind boy showed
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us when he pointed that is all. So Gentian grew very still. She
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even shut her eyes, and she remembered hard. Are you through? Nan
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asked after a minute, Why no, said Gentian, when she had opened
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her eyes and glanced about at the attic room very dim now in the dusk.
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Can't you see I'm still here where I'm through? Nan laughed, And
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I wouldn't know whether you were two without asking. Good I you're through through
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to the other house, yes, but that can't be. You're here with
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me. I'm through at the same time, and I do wish you would
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hurry and come too, for I must get back to those stockings. There
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are so many, and Kane eats his for school tomorrow. Gentian was almost
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in tears. She believed Nan when she said she was through into the clear
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land, though she could not understand how that could be when she saw her
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here at the same time. But there was something in NaN's voice and in
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her eyes that made everyone who listened to her and looked at her believe her,
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no matter how strange things, she said, But what can I do
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to come through too, Gentian begged, Grow still, I am still.
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I don't mean that kind of still still with your body, I mean deep
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still, still with your heart. So Gentian tried again. But how was
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she ever to grow deep still when she was so excited? Deep still,
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deep still, deep still, Nan said to her softly, over and over.
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And when NaN's voice stopped, Gentian had grown deep still, and there
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she was threw into the other house. She was standing with Nan in an
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attic room very like NaN's own. Only even at first glance you would have
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known it was a room in the clear Land, for the light was clearest,
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serenest, crystal, and though it was almost night here, as in
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the land below, there was no darkness in this twilight. The purple dusk
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was bathed in crystal. I can't stay with you because of the stockings,
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Nan said, But if you run down the stairs, you will find that
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kind young girl waiting for you somewhere. I'm sure I told her you would
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harm you know, Oh, please do stay, Gentian begged. When she
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had gone up into the clear Land with Kay and the wind boy, she
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had felt no strangeness and when she had got through to the other school,
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she had not been strange either. But here, in the clear land's dusk,
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in its purple shadows, even if they were crystal shadows, in this
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empty attic room, she did feel strange and alone. Please stay, she
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begged. Nan shook her head. No, I must go back, But
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run along down, dear, and bring back with you, if you can,
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a starry brightness night robe. At mention of the starry brightness night robe,
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Gentian forgot her strangeness. She stood on tiptoe to kiss NaN's cheek,
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and then without another word, she ran out of the room and down the
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stairs. In her own house, the stairs would have been quite dark by
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now, but here in this other house she could see well enough in the
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shadows. She went rather shyly through the hall downstairs to the sitting room door,
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for after all, this house she had entered from the top was not
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her own, and she had not even knocked. But the sitting room was
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empty, how like and unlike her own. There was a big bowl of
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tulips on a little low table against the wall. Only the curtains were gold
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and not brown. For a minute, she thought that she must be dreaming
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or that she was still in her own house after all. But as she
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stood there alone for a minute, the crystal light and the sweet stillness over
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everything made her know that she was indeed in the clear land. But where
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was the friendly young girl Nan had promised we'd be waiting. The strangeness had
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come back to Gentian's heart. As she stood alone in this other room,
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she turned and very softly, lonely, went out into the hall and to
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the door. There on the door stone, in the crystal, lonely twilight,
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sat a girl about NaN's age, a girl with a clear, quiet
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face. Twilight was in her eyes and in her hair, and she was
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wrapped about in a twilight cloak. Gentian never learned her name, but then
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and always after, she called her the Twilight Girl. I was waiting for
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you, said the twilight girl. Nan was sure you would want to come.
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I have told the artist, and he has set up the colors and
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left the loom ready. Gentian clapped her hands. Thank you, oh,
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thank you. If I can only make a starry, brightness night robe like
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NaN's, come, then, the Twilight girl said, rising and taking Gentian
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by the hand, they went out at the little swinging gate down the street
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and turned in at the Artist's drive. Looking up at the mansion, Gentian
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saw how it was very much like their own artist's mansion, except that it
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was whiter and more shining, and its towers and arches were lost in the
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sky. Up the wide, shallow marble steps they went, and in at
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the great front door, which was standing wide open. The twilight girl had
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not bothered to ring the bell, nor did she now look around for any
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one. She led Gentian in as though the house were hers, and up
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the stairway. At first Gentian felt a little shy about coming into the Great
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Artist's House. So but then she remembered how Nan said that children were free
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to go in and out of the Great Artist's House, just as the wind
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was free to blow in and out, and she felt strange about it no
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longer. Up and up and up they went, flight after flight of wide
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stairs, and at the top of each flight, through winding passages. If
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Gention had climbed so many stairs down in the world, her legs would surely
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have begun to ache. But here her sandals were silver, remember, and
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it was rather like climbing blue air. Indeed, the stairs were blue,
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and may very well have been air. Down one long passage, she saw
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the great artist himself, pacing back and forth before a row of windows opening
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towards the Twilight mountains. He was very tall and very noble, and dressed
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in a flowing silvery robe. His head was bent as he paced or turned
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away towards the windows, so he did not see Genteen and the Twilight Girl,
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or know that they had stopped to gaze at him. He is planning
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his work, the Twilight Girl whispered, and Gentian remembered how her mother,
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when she was planning a new statue, would pace back and forth in the
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same way. After that, they climbed a very steep, narrow flight of
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stairs that ended in a tower room. The windows all around were opened outward,
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and when Gentian stood in the room, she felt that she was standing
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high up in the sky where it turns to blue, Only now it was
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the soft blue of evening. They one of the windows, a little loom
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was set up, and before it stood a stool. Sit here on the
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stool, the Twilight Girl said, and I will show you how to begin.
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So Gentian sat down on the stool before the loom. Her feet did
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not touch the floor. And the Twilight Girl smiled at that. You are,
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after all a very little girl to be sitting at this loom, she
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said, But it will do no harm to try. And Nan thought that
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you could make the starry brightness even if your feet wouldn't touch. How grateful
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Gentian was to Nan for so believing in her. And when the Twilight Girl
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had shown her how to handle the colors and how to set to work,
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she said to herself, Oh, it's much easier than I thought it could
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be. I know I can do it now, the Twilight Girl said,
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giving all the colors into her hands. Try. But Gentian hardly had to
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try. She could do it right from the first, very swiftly. Under
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her hands, starry brightness began to grow, and very soon she found that
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as she worked she could think too, and she went on thinking her thoughts
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while her hands flew. She thought, Oh, this is going to be
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too beautiful to wear at night when no one sees me. I want to
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wear it in the day, when my schoolmates down there see me coming in
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something so beautiful and strange, they will not laugh at me anymore. They
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will stop talking about my being so queer and a foreigner. They will wish
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that they had a starry brightness and talk only about that. But as Gentian
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thought these thoughts, the threads had grown tangled and more tangled, until now
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they ended in a snarl, and the starry brightness was losing its starringess under
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her fingers. What are you doing, wondered the Twilight girl, bending above
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her. What are you thinking of? To let the stars go? Then
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Gentian told her what she was thinking of. The Twilight Girl shook her head.
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That was it, she said her, smile a little sad. Of
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course, you can't weave a starry robe with those thoughts. Starry brightness is
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not to make you proud before others with it is just for yourself. You
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can't make it except just for yourself. Do you mean that my thoughts spoil
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it? Asked Gentian, surprised, of course, answered the Twilight girl.
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You must give up wanting anybody to see your robe, and then you may
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be able to untangle the threads. Perhaps so, gent gave up the thought,
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and the threads almost untangled themselves in her fingers. Again, The weaving
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went on swiftly and smoothly, and soon it was going so easily that Gentian
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began to think her thoughts again as it grew in beauty and starliness. She
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thought, Oh, I want mother to have one. Poor dear mother who
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works so hard and has no pretty clothes, How happy such a beautiful,
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starry robe would make her. I would rather she had it than I.
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But the threads were getting tangled again, and the stars no longer forming.
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What are you thinking of now, the Twilight Girl spoke softly, bending at
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Gentian's shoulder. Something is wrong, see there are no more stars, Gentian
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told her thoughts. The Twilight girls smiled, well, was not sad now,
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but it was grave. That was a nice thought, Gentian, she
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said, But this kind of robe each one must make for himself. No
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one else can do it for him. You must make it yours in your
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thought, or it will not come right. That saddened Gentian for a minute.
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Where was the happiness of doing it just for yourself if you couldn't do
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it for someone else too? But after a minute her doubt about the happiness
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of it passed, and she tried again. Then the stars came quickly and
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flowingly, and the blue under Gentian's flying fingers trembled and grew deep into a
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sky, and Gentian thought, it isn't every little girl of eight who could
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make a thing so beautiful. I must be different somehow from most other children.
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But hardly had the stars at this thought begun to dim before without noticing
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she stopped. No, no, she said out loud. It was the
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artist who set up the loom for me and gave me the colors. I
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must be grateful to the artist. He could do it for any little girl
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he wanted to. And the twilight girl, who had reached her hand to
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stop Gentian drew it back, now a light of gladness in her eyes.
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After that the starry robe grew and grew. Sometimes with her thoughts the threads
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would go wrong again and begin to tangle, But then Gentian would rest a
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minute and get deep still. After that her thoughts would change, and all
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would be well. And soon those times ended altogether, and it was smooth
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work and swift. The starry brightness had grown almost large enough now for a
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night robe for Gentian, and it lay on the loom like a piece of
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the night sky. It was then that the great Artist came up the narrow
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steep stairs into the tower room and stood behind Gentian, looking down at her
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busy fingers, but Gentian had not heard him so softly had he come.
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The Twilight Girl stood back so that he might see all. He nodded and
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then stayed still watching. Soon all the thread was used, and Gentian turned
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up to look at the Twilight Girl. When she saw the great artist above
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her, there in his silvery robes, she got down from the stool and
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stood before him, awed and happy. You have done un well, little
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human, he said, in a voice, the sound of which Gentian could
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never afterward remember. Perhaps Gentian should have thanked him then for having set up
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the loom for her and letting her come up to work on it, but
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she was too much in awe of him to say anything at all. She
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could only smile into his deep eyes and be still. Then he stooped,
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and, taking the starry brightness from the loom, handed it to her.
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She gazed her thanks out of her blue Gentian eyes as she held the starry
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brightness against her breast. The Twilight Girl took her hand and led her away
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down the stairs. When they got back to the little brown house, the
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Twilight Girl said gently, run up the stairs, now, Gentian, and
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back to Nan, Who's waiting. It will be easy enough for you to
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find the way through to the earth. With that starry robe in your arms,
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everything will be easier. She bent down and kissed Gentian on her cheek,
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a cool, kind kiss. The great arcist was pleased with you.
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You should be very happy, she said. Oh I am very very happy.
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Genteen answered, and oh, I thank you. The twilight girl shook
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her head, smiling. You did it all every bit by yourself, Nan
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will know. So Gentian ran away up the stairs, and when she opened
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the door into the attic room, she knew that she was back in her
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own world, for there was dark at the window, and Nan was sitting
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by a lamp finishing the last stocking. Gentian ran up to her and threw
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the starry brightness in a heap into her lap. How NaN's face shone.
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Then, yes, I think it outshone even Gentians. Now I will sew
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it up for you, she said, And to night you shall sleep in
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it, Oh will you? And may i? Gentian clapped her hands.
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So under the lamp light, Nan sewed up the starry filled me gown,
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while Gentian knelt on the floor at her knee and watched. When it was
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done, she handed it to Gentian and said, now run away to bed,
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for your mother remembers to send you. That will be a fine surprise
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for her, for once in her life. Gentian was only too eager to
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run away to bed. End of chapter eleven.