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Story of the Mazes front
cover |
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Maze I. The Maze of the "Happy Valley" The player who chooses this Maze for his first excursion must imagine himself setting forth on a fine summer's morning to explore the interesting sites it offers. If our tourist be a good walker, it will not be very long before he arrives a wild and romantic glen,shut in on all sides by rocks, covered with dark pines. Here he may be suddenly startled by hearing a loud roar, but the need not be afraid; this roar is a note not of menace but of welcome, and proceeds from a lordly Lion, with whose private history our readers are no doubt already acquainted. He is none other, in fact, than the grateful beast from whose foot Androeles extracted the thorn.
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| Should our excursionist have chosen a contradictory direction, he will, in the same space of time, have reached the pit of the three fortune-telling Bears, who are said to possess a knowledge of the past present and future, and who are known to be strongly attached to nuts, buns, and similar substantial refreshments. Farther to the north will be found seated under the shade of a large oak two unhappy children, whose disobedience was most severely punished: the Princess Caper, who was who was changed into a Monkey, because she wouldn't practise her scales, and Prince Foll, who was changed into a Sheep because he wouldn't eat mint-sauce with his lamb. Another inhabitant of this Maze is the "Talking Bird," the most loquacious creature in existence, who sings, talks, and dances from morning till night. Another half-hour, and, quite wearied out, we ascend a sloping and verdant hill. At our feet is a beautiful lake, on whose crystal surface a tiny boat sails merrily along. We enter it, and it bears us across the lake to the opposite bank, where we are delighted to perceive under a thick cluster of trees a cloth spread upon the grass and covered with a plentiful repast. We have reached the "Happy Valley," and, throwing ourselves upon the soft moss, declare without hesitation that never all our lives have we made so beautiful an excursion. | |
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