'Across the river,' she answered, and trotted forward.

Now the cantonment in which the 195th lay was bounded on the north by
a river--dry in the winter. From his earliest years, Wee Willie
Winkie had been forbidden to go across the river, and had noted that
even Coppy--the almost almighty Coppy--had never set foot beyond it.
Wee Willie Winkie had once been read to, out of a big blue book, the
history of the Princess and the Goblins--a most wonderful tale of a
land where the Goblins were always warring with the children of men
until they were defeated by one Curdie. Ever since that date it
seemed to him that the bare black and purple hills across the river
were inhabited by Goblins, and, in truth, every one had said that
there lived the Bad Men. Even in his own house the lower halves of
the windows were covered with green paper on account of the Bad Men
who might, if allowed clear view, fire into peaceful drawing-rooms
and comfortable bedrooms. Certainly, beyond the river, which was the
end of all the Earth, lived the Bad Men. And here was Major
Allardyce's big girl, Coppy's property, preparing to venture into
their borders! What would Coppy say if anything happened to her? If
the Goblins ran off with her as they did with Curdie's Princess? She
must at all hazards be turned back.

The house was still. Wee Willie Winkie reflected for a moment on the
very terrible wrath of his father; and then--broke his arrest! It was
a crime unspeakable. The low sun threw his shadow, very large and
very black, on the trim garden-paths, as he went down to the stables
and ordered his pony. It seemed to him in the hush of the dawn that
all the big world had been bidden to stand still and look at Wee
Willie Winkie guilty of mutiny. The drowsy _sais_ gave him his mount,
and, since the one great sin made all others insignificant, Wee