necessary to be composed.  

'I see you want your tea, princess,' said the nurse: 'I will go and get it.  The room feels close: I will open the window a little. The evening is mild: it won't hurt you.'  

'There's no fear of that, Lootie,' said Irene, wishing she had put off going for the tea till it was darker, when she might have made her attempt with every advantage.  

I fancy Lootie was longer in returning than she had intended; for when Irene, who had been lost in thought, looked up, she saw it was nearly dark, and at the same moment caught sight of a pair of eyes, bright with a green light, glowering at her through the open window.  The next instant something leaped into the room.  It was like a cat, with legs as long as a horse's, Irene said, but its body no bigger and its legs no thicker than those of a cat.  She was too frightened to cry out, but not too frightened to jump from her chair and run from the room.  

It is plain enough to every one of my readers what she ought to have done--and indeed, Irene thought of it herself; but when she came to the foot of the old stair, just outside the nursery door, she imagined the creature running up those long ascents after her, and pursuing her through the dark passages--which, after all, might lead to no tower! That thought was too much.  Her heart failed her, and, turning from the stair, she rushed along to the hall, whence, finding the front door open, she darted into the court pursued--at least she thought so--by the creature.  No one happening to see her, on she ran, unable to think for fear, and ready to run anywhere to elude the awful creature with the stilt-legs.  Not daring to look behind her, she rushed straight out of the gate and up the mountain.  It was foolish indeed--thus to run farther and farther from all who could help her, as if she had been seeking a fit spot for the goblin creature to eat her in his leisure; but that is the way fear serves us: it always sides with the thing we are afraid of.  

The princess was soon out of breath with running uphill; but she ran on, for she fancied the horrible creature just behind her, forgetting that, had it been after her such long legs as those must have overtaken her long ago.  At last she could run no longer, and fell, unable even to scream, by the roadside, where she lay for some time half dead with terror.  But finding nothing lay hold of her, and her breath beginning to come back, she ventured at length to get half up and peer anxiously about her.  It was now so dark she could see nothing.  Not a single 

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