Two Little Captives. 



59 



held on to her brother and cried out with 

 fright. 



"But the monster wouldn't listen; he 

 just marched off with them down the hill, 

 then he threw them into a bag and shook 

 them together, laughing when he heard 

 their piteous cries. After a while they came 

 to his castle down in the dark valley. Here 

 he pitched them into a deep prison, with 

 iron bars, against which poor Rob threw 

 himself, trying in vain to break them. But 

 he only succeeded in bruising his poor arms 

 and body and delighting his cruel captor. 

 Think how the mother and father felt that 

 night, when they returned tired after the 

 hard work they had been doing that day 

 to earn the supper they were carrying home, 

 with, perhaps, a few dainties for the chil- 

 dren. Imagine their feelings when they 

 saw their pretty home ruined, the door 

 broken down and the children gone. In 

 vain they went about the woods, calling 

 them, hoping to find them hiding on pur- 

 pose to tease. It was no use, the children 

 were gone, gone perhaps for ever. They 

 ran down to the castle with wild cries, and 

 begged its cruel master to give up their 

 children, their beautiful children. But he 

 threatened to shoot them, and in affright 

 they ran away, never to go back to the little 

 house that was home no longer. 



"In the meantime Jenny and Rob sat 

 huddled together in one corner of their 

 prison, not knowing what was going to hap- 

 pen next, whether they would be seized, 

 murdered and eaten by the giant, or whether 

 they were doomed to a long life in captiv- 

 ity. Food was thrown into them through 

 the bars, but they could not eat. Could 

 you eat, Bertie, under the circumstances? 

 I think not. They just let it lie there, and 

 refused to touch it. And so they crouched 

 there, hour after hour and day after day, 

 giving each other what comfort they could. 

 Jenny, who was not so strong as her brother, 

 soon gave up, and grew sicker and weaker 

 each day, until at last she just lay on the 



floor, moaning ' Mother, mother ' all day 

 long. Her brother would try to comfort 

 her, and would talk to her of the day when 

 they should escape from the prison and go 

 home to their dear little cottage in the 

 woods; but she would only shake her head 

 sadly, and say, ' No, Rob, I shall never see 

 mother again.' 



"At last the time came when she was too 

 weak to move. Her face, once so plump 

 and rosy, grew pinched and sallow, and her 

 eyes lost all their bright look. Poor Rob 

 had never seen his sister look so before, 

 and he felt very much afraid he was going 

 to lose her. He tried his best, poor boy, 

 to be cheerful for her sake, but it did no 

 good; each day she wandered nearer and 

 nearer to that dark river. 



" Every day the wicked giant would come 

 and look in at them, and sometimes he 

 would take a long stick and poke them, 

 trymg to make them jump about, when they 

 felt too sick to move. So at last poor little 

 Jenny would, scream and cry as soon as she 

 heard his steps. 



"One day the little girl was worse, and 

 Rob did not know what to do. He begged 

 her to speak to him, but she would not 

 make a sound. At last he saw her lips 

 move, and bending down, heard her mur- 

 mur, 'Good bye.' In an agony of grief 

 and despair he threw himself against the 

 bars, those cruel bars that had cut him off 

 from life and liberty. If it had not been 

 for them, he and his sister might have been 

 playing together as they used to. The re- 

 straint he had put upon himself for Jenny's 

 sake gave way, and he cried until he was 

 exhausted. At last he got up and went to 

 his sister, hoping that she was not dead, 

 but asleep. He crept up to her, and bend- 

 ing down, whispered her name softly. But 

 the eyelids never stirred, they were shut for 

 ever over the eyes that could never see 

 again. With a low cry of anguish, he 

 threw himself across Jenny's body, and 

 so the brother and sister dropped together 



