368 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
patient giants of the forest that have Iain here wait- 
ing for us to come and free them. 
Sometimes a bat flies across the fire, and one night 
a dark toad was discovered sitting close to your ear. 
But he had nothing important to say. He sat still 
for a while, his eyes glistening in the firelight that 
seemed to fascinate him. Then he attempted to 
enter the heaven thus suddenly opened to his imag- 
ination. In pursuit of his dream he went straight 
into the fire. What he expected to find, who can 
say? And what a disillusionment it must have been 
when he found himself sitting on a red-hot fagot ! He 
made a quick backward movement, to be swept 
into safety by a merciful human hand. If a toad had 
the wings of a moth, it would doubtless fly into the 
fire in the same way. A toad followed a lantern a 
long distance one night. It is impossible not to like 
the toad when you once really know it. Besides its 
friendly manners it has the most beautiful eyes in 
the world. Those eyes so soft and bright betoken a 
good heart. What is the old fable of the toad wear- 
ing a jewel in its head? The truth of that is, the toad 
wears two jewels, and they are its lovely golden- 
brown eyes. 
As the fire dies down, talking ceases, the black trees 
come out more plainly, and the head of the Grand- 
father wears a crown of stars where great Scorpio 
lies along the sky. 
If you chance to waken in the night, out through 
the triangular space between the open tent-flaps 
you see the slopes of the Grandfather bathed in 
