He bade the visitor to enter, and he and the old queen served their son and bowed before him.

The next morning the young king rode back to his own land, and then sent attendants with horses and splendid clothes, and bade them bring his father and mother to his own home.

He had a noble feast set for them, with everything befitting the entertainment of a king, but he ordered that not a grain of salt should season it.

So the father and the mother sat down to the feast with their son and his queen, but all the time they did not know him. The old king tasted the food and tasted the food, but he could not eat of it.

“Do you not feel hungry?” said the young king.

“Alas,” said his father, “I crave your majesty’s pardon, but there is no salt in the food.”

“And so is life lacking of savor without love,” said the young king; “and yet because I loved you as salt you disowned me and cast me out into the world.”

Therewith he could contain himself no longer, but with the tears running down his cheeks kissed his father and his mother; and they knew him, and kissed him again.

Afterwards the young king went with a great army into the country of his elder brothers, and, overcoming them, set his father upon his throne again. If ever the two got back their crowns you may be sure that they wore them more modestly than they did the first time.

SO the Fisherman who had one time unbottled the Genie whom Solomon the Wise had stoppered up concluded his story, and all of the good folk who were there began clapping their shadowy hands.

“Aye, aye,” said old Bidpai, “there is much truth in what you say, for it is verily so that that which men—call—love—is—the—salt—of—”

His voice had been fading away thinner and thinner and smaller and smaller—now it was like the shadow of a voice; now it trembled and quivered out into silence and was gone.

   And with the voice of old Bidpai the pleasant Land of Twilight was also gone. As a breath fades away from a mirror, so had it faded and vanished into nothingness.

   I opened my eyes.

There was a yellow light—it came from the evening lamp. There were people of flesh and blood around—my own dear people—and they were talking together. There was the library with the rows of books looking silently on from their shelves. There was the fire of hickory logs crackling and snapping in the fireplace, and throwing a wavering, yellow light on the wall.

Had I been asleep? No; I had been in Twilight Land.

And now the pleasant Twilight Land had gone. It had faded out, and I was back again in the work-a-day world.

There I was sitting in my chair; and, what was more, it was time for the children to go to bed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Howard Pyle (1853–1911) was an American author, illustrator, and teacher who inspired a generation of artists, from N. C. Wyeth to Jessie Wilcox Smith. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Pyle spent his early years immersed in such stories as the Grimm Brothers’ tales and the Arabian Nights. After studying art in Philadelphia, he set up a small studio and began a long and successful career as a writer and illustrator. He taught at Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry before opening the Howard Pyle School of Art in 1900. He is best known for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, a compilation of Robin Hood legends adapted for children.

ABOUT LOOKING GLASS LIBRARY

The Looking Glass Library series features the world’s finest fairy tales, adventure stories, and fantasy novels—yesterday’s classics for today’s readers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Introduction copyright © 2010 by N. D. Wilson

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in 1894 by Harper & Brothers Publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pyle, Howard, 1853–1911.
Twilight land / by Howard Pyle ; introduction by N. D. Wilson.
p. cm. — (Looking Glass Library ; 3)
Summary: The storyteller finds himself in Twilight Land at the Inn of the Sign of Mother Goose where well-known characters from fairyland are gathered and each one tells a story.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89499-2
1. Fairy tales. [1. Fairy tales.] I. Wilson, Nathan D. II. Title.
PZ8.P991Tw 2010

[Fic]—dc22
2009000577

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