When the darkness came, they tied my hands, and left me fast to the tree.

I slept a good deal, but woke often, and every time from a dream of lying in the heart of a heap of children.

With the morning my enemies reappeared, bringing their kicks and their bestial company.
It was about noon, and I was nearly failing from fatigue and hunger, when I heard a sudden commotion in the brushwood, followed by a burst of the bell-like laughter so dear to my heart.

I gave a loud cry of delight and welcome.

Immediately rose a trumpeting as of baby-elephants, a neighing as of foals, and a bellowing as of calves, and through the bushes came a crowd of Little Ones, on diminutive horses, on small elephants, on little bears; but the noises came from the riders, not the animals.