HE
STRANGE
LITTLE
GIRL
A Story
for Children
r,v.v. M.
The Aryan Theosophical Press
Point I oma, Calif oinia, U. S. A.
Hearst Fountain
IN THE; GARDEN OF BOUGHT
The Strange
Little Girl
A Story for
Children
By V. M.
Illustrations by N. Roth
^Jryan ^heosophical Press
Point Loma, California
COPYRIGHT 1911, BY KATHERINE TINGLEY
THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS
Point Loma, California
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
. rCJ}S
The Strange Little Girl
i
NCE upon a time there was a
beautiful palace where the king s
children lived as happily as they
alone can live. They never want
ed anything and they never knew
that there could be others who were not as
happy as they. Sometimes, it is true, they
would hear a story which would make them
almost think that perhaps there was a world
beyond, which they did not know, outside
the palace of the king and its gardens, but
something would seem to say that after all
it was only a fairy story, and they would
forget that it meant anything that might
really be true.
2 \,-tfis ^TRANCE LITTLE GIRL
v "One "of -the little princesses seemed to
think more of these stories of a world be
yond the palace garden than the others, and
she would sometimes find herself gazing at
the sun, and wondering if the great world
lay beyond the purple forests where the
golden-edged clouds shone like dark moun
tains in the distance. And the name of this
princess was Eline.
More and more as she thought of these
things she felt sure that there must be a
world where things were very different
from the happy life in the palace garden ;
and in the stories which the children heard
she thought of many things, which, with the
others, she used to pass by without notice.
Once they used to hear of no sorrow, no
pain, but only joy and peace. Now, in think
ing, she sometimes noticed that there were
things which were not spoken; that there
were things passed by in silence; that there
were things which travelers passing through
the palace kept back, as though they knew
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 3
of much which the children must not know,
and yet which they would have told had
they dared.
Questions Eline asked, and the answers
seldom satisfied her, for they never seemed
to tell her everything. Every time one of
the travelers left the palace to return on his
journey there seemed to be a look of appeal
in his eyes, an appeal which only Eline
seemed to see, and which made her wish to
follow them for the very love that shone in
the kind faces of these strangers stran
gers who told the children stories of things
they loved of wonderful fairy worlds
where they were not as in the palace; of
worlds where Eline seemed to have traveled
many times, long, long ago.
One day she asked her father, the king:
" Shall I never go out of the palace, never
leave the garden of delight and see the world
that lies beyond the cloud-mountains, beyond
the sunset and the whispering forests ? "
4 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
And the king looked intently at Eline.
" These are strange fancies," he said.
"Are you not happy here in the garden ? "
Yes, I am happy," she said, " happier
than I can tell. But you have not answered
me. Is there not a world beyond? Shall I
ever see it? "
" Some traveler must have been telling
you forbidden tales/ said the king. " These
things I have said may not be spoken in my
garden."
" No traveler has told me/ said Eline.
" I have seen them looking as though they
would tell me, but could not, of things be
yond the garden, beyond the palace. I have
asked them, and they have told me nothing.
Yet I have felt that I long to go with them.
I have felt that I remember strange places,
strange sights, things I know not here, when
they speak. Sometimes, even, it seems that
I hear a voice like my own repeating a
promise a promise unfulfilled that must
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 5
be kept. I will return ! I will ! I will !
it says. And I hear voices calling in the
wind, in the rustling of the leaves, and in
the silence of the day, Come back ! Come
back ! And the birds say, Come ! The
pines whisper to me strange things, and the
laughing water in the brooks says Come !
What does it mean ? "
" I cannot tell you here," said the king.
" But why do you wish to leave the palace?
You are yet young and there are many,
many years of happiness before you. You
may stay in the palace where all things are
good, and put these things out of mind.
There is another world, but not for you
yet!"
Eline was troubled, or would have been
had such a thing been possible in the palace
of the king.
" May I ever see that land ? May I ever
leave the palace? "
" The children of the king are free to
6 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
come and go," he said. " I may not keep
them if they will not stay; for I know that
they will come again."
II
Again a traveler came to the palace. He
brought with him a harp of seven strings,
on which he played to the children. He
sang to them for a while and then for a
space was silent. Eline listened to the
strange, beautiful music. And to her it
seemed that there was speech in the harp
that it spoke. The other children seemed
to listen to the music, but to them it did not
seem to speak. To Eline there were echoes
of wonderful things the palace knew not;
things that the language of the king could
not tell. The harp spoke in a way that the
Princess Eline knew and understood, al
though there were no words in its tones.
" I WILL RETURN "
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 9
There were sad and sorrowful notes that
told of sorrows the palace never knew.
There were strains of music that sounded
harsh to the listening ear, though to the
careless they told of happiness alone. And
as she listened, Eline dreamed. Clearer and
more clear she felt that the harp told of a
world of men where sorrow and sadness and
strife were not unknown ; where joy should
be, and was not; where the people groped
their way through darkness and thought it
light. " Return ! Return ! " called the harp.
And a mighty resolve came to Eline. " I
will return! I will! I will!"
She remembered the king s saying : " The
children of the king are free to come and
go/ he had said. " I may not keep them
if they will not stay," he had told her.
She loved him much; but the call came
clear, and she dared not seek him to say
farewell, lest she should be persuaded to
remain.
10 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
She bowed her head and to the harper
spoke :
" I will go," she said. " I will return
with you.
Then the harp sent forth such a melody
of joyous music that it echoed thrilling
through the hot discordant notes of the
world beyond the sunset ; and for a moment
a chord of harmony ran through the life
of men:
"Joy unto you, men of the underworld!
Joy unto you, children of sorrow ! Joy unto
you, sons of f orgetf ulness ! Joy unto all
beings!"
They passed out of the garden together,
the musician and the soul.
THROUGH PJNI3
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 13
III
Westward they traveled, westward, ever
westward. The way was dark and some
times dreary, and Eline felt like one awak
ened from a beautiful dream before it was
ended.
Through the pine forests, over mountains,
in deep valleys, and by mighty streams they
traveled. Ever they had the harp to cheer
the way, to urge their footsteps onward.
For the path was untrodden where they
went.
" There is a path/ the harper said, " a
pleasant path and broad, but the journey is
long and we must hasten on our way. To
the setting sun, to the gleaming sea, we
must go; nor may we seek a beaten track
lest we be too late."
A river there was in whose waters were
reflected pictures of all that surrounded
them such crystal clear reflections that
sometimes it seemed as if they looked at
14
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
real things in the water
mirrored in the things
around them.
And on the waters
grew beautiful lotus-
flowers, lilies with cup-
shaped leaves. In the
blue and white petals
of the lotus also there
seemed to be reflec
tions, so clear were
they. The musician
plucked one of the cup-
like lily-pads and rilled
it with the water for
Eline.
The still surface of
the water shone like
silver in its green cup
as Eline held it. Then
the musician played.
Soft and low and sweet
were the notes of that
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 15
wonderful harp. Scarcely they rippled the
surface of the water, and yet they vibrated,
trembled, spread, until picture after picture
came to the surface of the water in colors
of every hue.
Scarcely may it be told what Eline saw in
the magic cup in the water of remembrance.
She seemed to see herself and yet another
in picture after picture. Now she saw
herself as part of a golden sea of selves
which made but one self, so lifelike were
they, so glorious was their unity. Then in
life after life Eline seemed to see her other
selves living and loving and working, sleep
ing and suffering and struggling. She saw
that on a day she had made her great resolve
to help the world. " I will return ! I will !
I will!"
And now she knew what things they were
she had seemed to remember in the king s
garden of delight. Joyously, eagerly, will
ingly, she saw that she had determined to
return to earth in body after body, to help
16 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
the men of sorrow who struggled and slum
bered and suffered. She saw that she had
before so done; that her work remained
unfinished, to be begun again where she had
laid it down. There was suffering shown
to her in the cup; there were sorrow and
grief and pain. But she saw that it must
all be, and was content. For at other times
she had desired just such things that she
might know how others felt them, that she
might help them the more with understand
ing. Happiness she had taken to give to
others, and she must repay the debt. She
saw that all things were just, and when the
musician said in a low voice:
" Will you yet proceed ? "
"I will!" she said.
" Then drink the cup," he said, " Drink! "
She drained the green cup of the lotus
leaf until scarcely a drop remained, and with
that draught she forgot all things that had
been the garden, the king, the journey
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 19
and the vision, and the master harper all
were forgotten. Only there remained a dim
remembrance as of a dream at dawn for
gotten.
IV
A little ship stood by the shore of the
great sea; into this Eline entered. There
were other ships, some better, some worse.
But somehow she knew that just this, and
not another, was the ship she wanted, and
none questioned her when she entered.
So they sailed away towards the setting
sun.
Long was the voyage and lonely ; for the
seas ran high and all was dark below in the
heart of the ship. Nine months they sailed
on the ocean, until in the time appointed
land appeared. Strange dwellings were
there, domes and spires and crowded cities.
With wide, wondering eyes Eline watched
20 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
them as the ship passed them by in strange
procession; for the men of that land were
like none she knew; none of these things
could she remember. For she had forgotten
even her name at the river of forgetfulness,
where remembrances are left in the mirror
of the waters until time and their creator
bring them back to life.
It seemed as though one of wise and
kindly countenance held her as a little child
in his arms and whispered softly, " Remem
ber! I will return! I will! I will!" A
light of happy recollection came to her and
she smiled in reply. He had spoken in her
own language as the harp had spoken, and
strangely, strangely she seemed to see in
him the harper whose music had told her
of the sorrowful land beyond the sunset.
For this moment, she remembered, and then
the thought departed.
At first the air seemed heavy and oppres
sive to the wanderer; but by degrees she
grew accustomed to it and even, in time,
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 23
scarcely felt it. Yet ever and again a dim
remembrance of brighter, purer skies came
to her. She spoke of this more than once;
but others only laughed and said: "The
child is dreaming! "
Because she was no longer dressed in
shining garments, they did not know her
for the princess she really was. Indeed,
she was no way different from those around
her but that at heart she was still the daugh
ter of the king. They could not see her
heart this they could not know. And
seeing that they did not understand, she
said no more of the thoughts that came to
her. They called it dreaming; but Eline
thought that if this were so, a dream were
better than a waking life unless
Could these be thoughts that came to her
of the world beyond the water, the reflection
of the real life? She knew not.
" We must teach this little dreamer what
is life ! " they said. " She will not know
24 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
what life is if we leave her to her dreams."
They made her work and made her play:
work that never seemed to do anyone any
good, and play that seemed like work. She
nearly forgot that in what they called her
dreams she had ever known of another life.
Sometimes she sang to herself, strange
songs that they said sounded sad and sor
rowful, yet of a sweetness all their own.
" Where does she hear them ? " people
asked.
But Eline never told. For the truth was
that they came to her in moments when her
thoughts were far away, dreaming.
" She sings like a bird in a cage that
knows of a brighter world outside," said
one. But he was a poet, so they only smiled
as if they themselves would have made the
same remark if it had not been so fanciful.
And though men thought her sad and
lonely, there was joy to her in the hum of
the bees and the song of the birds and the
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 25
rustling of the leaves. The butterflies and
the flowers and the brooks were her friends.
" What a strange child/ people said when
they heard her talking to these friends.
They did not know of the stories her friends
told her, stories which reminded her of a
wonderful garden of delight where men did
not ever stare and stare in gaping wonder
because a little child talked with the fairies
that live in all things beautiful, clothed in
robes of sunlight and rainbow hues.
They would have taken her away from
these friends but for one old man, her
grandfather, who said:
" The child will be better for the fresh
air. Let her live while she may."
So it was that she played and talked with
the flowers and sang to the brooks and lis
tened to the stories of the forest trees that
whispered among themselves. None dared
take her away.
One day she had been for a long ramble
26 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
by a mighty river, and the sun had sunk
to the westward on its journey; but she
turned not to the place she called her home.
Tired and worn out with her play, she lay
on a rock and slept.
In her sleep it seemed that a touch upon
her forehead awakened in her a vision of
things she once had known, but had now
almost forgotten. There was the king s gar
den and the palace, and the other wonderful
buildings, tall and stately mighty build
ings which seemed to speak of mighty build
ers, noble thoughts and great men s deeds.
Some were even more stately, some more
humble, than the palace. But in all there
was a sense of grander, nobler life than the
life those knew who were with her now,
and who, laughing, called her a dreamer.
And she heard a voice repeating, " I will
return! I will! I will!"
Again she smiled as she recognized the
voice. A feeling of intense happiness and
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 29
content came to her and she awoke.
More than ever it seemed as if that other
were the real life, and this a heavy dream.
V
The twilight glow still lingered in the
west and the evening breeze called her to
thoughts of home.
But she had learned wisdom, and when
they asked her where she had been, Eline
said she had fallen asleep in the sunshine
on a rock by the great river. Which was
true.
Of her dream she said nothing to any
except to the old man who alone seemed to
understand her a little. He did not laugh,
but looked with thoughtful eyes intent, into
the distance, away to the starlit sky, and it
seemed to her that he also was trying to
remember a forgotten dream of life. And
seeing this she put her hand in his trusting-
30 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
ly, and they two knew well each other s
thoughts though never a word was spoken.
It seemed to the old man that the child
was leading him along a familiar road to a
home forgotten after many weary days
of wandering.
" There are some things the heart can
say that words can never tell," he said to
himself when she was gone. " I think we
understand one another."
As time passed by Eline came to know
more and more of that other life and she
longed to tell these things to the people who
struggled and surged in hot strife to win
the things of the world they knew, never
thinking that there was a happier, purer,
brighter world. Some thought they knew
of such a one; but all except a few made
it seem like the one in which they lived
only they made it a little more bright by
day, a little more dark by night, and with
a little more success in the strife for the
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 31
things that change and pass away. These
she would tell of the nobler life she knew,
but they listened not at all.
In due time Eline was sent to school to
learn. But her teachers found little that
she did not quickly understand. For one
thing she remembered now plainly, how in
the garden of delight everything that was
done was well done were it the telling
of a story or the singing of a song or the
watering of the flowers that grew in that
fair land. All was done with a wonderful
thoroughness, and Eline now felt that she
must do all things in that way or leave them
quite alone. But often they would teach
Eline things about which she seemed to care
little and to understand as one in a dream.
Then they would call her attention to the
work only to find that she was learning to
understand a great deal more than they
themselves could tell. It was so with num
bers. When they asked her what the num
bers were by name, she not only named
32 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
them all but told them why they were so
named and what each meant. And so with
music. With every chord she seemed to see
harmonies of color, like beautiful pictures
too glorious to paint. And when she said
that life itself to her was music, Kline s
teachers did not understand.
One said : " She has learned these things
before in another life."
Another declared : " She sees the heart
of things where we see only the outer cover
ing. She sees the soul, we the body."
Perhaps they both were right.
But many gave other reasons for these
things and all of them were gravely dis
cussed. But curiously enough, the two who
gave the reasons I have told, were laughed
at and told that such things could not be.
So they said little about their thoughts be
cause, like all those who are sure that they
know the truth, they could afford to wait
until their words were proved to be right.
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 33
VI
At first Eline longed to tell the world of
better things. She would gladly have told
the world of the glorious masonry of those
noble cities which she saw in her visions
cities where men and women moved like
gods; where sorrow and want and selfish
ness seemed to be unknown. She longed to
tell them of the harmonies which came to
her of music which might stir a dead world
to life, thrilling all nature into blossoms and
fruits in abundance, as the music of a water
fall seems to send life into the flowers which
grow beside. She would have told them of
the colors with which nature loves to paint
the sky, the mountains and valleys, sea and
land, when all is ready for the master s
work. For nature paints wherever the can
vas is prepared to receive the picture, and
she asks no price for her work. Eline knew
of times in the past times that will come
again when man did not ever strive to
34 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
be rich regardless of his poorer brothers,
but each worked as he was able, all work-
ing for the whole world s good. And she
would have told them how in those times
man did not earn his living by toil unend
ing, by ceaseless pain and sorrow, but that
nature helped him as he helped her, and the
earth brought out her stores of rich fruits
for the welfare of her upgrown sons, well
knowing that they in turn with loving ser
vice would seek to make nobler and better
that which nature gave to them in charge,
birds and beasts, flowers and trees, plants
and stones and all that lives which is
everything.
Eline saw how the desire to possess more
than enough, for the selfish pleasure of say
ing, " It is mine ! " how the growth of
selfishness in the world; the love of killing
nature s younger sons for food and pleasure
increased; how the love of ease and forget-
fulness of others and of duty to mother
nature how all these things had chilled
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 35
the warmth of the one great life that is in
all things, and crippled the mother s efforts
to help her wayward sons.
Others had told these things ; others had
striven to show the glorious light of life
that shines behind the cold mist of sin and
sorrow which has been cast like a veil over
the earth; but all had been rejected. Some
were ill-received; some were stoned; some
were killed.
" How can I raise this humanity which
like a great orphan has cut itself off from
its mother and now lies ignorant of the
happiness that awaits its coming? " thought
Eline. " I have returned to tell them of
the way, and they will not hear. Others
have returned as far as they might and
have been rejected. Others still have boldly
plunged deeper yet in the hot sea of human
life and have been lost in its poisonous
fumes. Even so, I will again return, yet
lower, if by chance there be a few who will
not reject my message/
36 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
VII
So Eline hid in her heart the things she
knew and the things she would have told,
as she had hidden in her soul at the river
of forgetfulness the memory of the king s
garden of delight. And she took her way
into the world with messages of love and
of hope, such simple messages as the child
ren understood, better sometimes than their
elders. She told the children many beauti
ful fairy stories and they listened eagerly.
They did not know that these were the
stories which she had told to the learned
ones of the earth and which were really
true, though they had not believed.
The children listened, and they said : " It
is beautiful. Some day we will seek out
such a beautiful world as that of which the
stories tell."
There were houses, too, which they built
little toy houses with toy bricks. But
Eline showed them how to shape the bricks
THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL 39
and how to make each brick fit in its proper
place so that never a one shoulcf lose its
worth. And Eline showed the children how
that behind the building of beautiful man
sions there was the beautiful thought that
made the masonry so noble a work, though
it were only toy masonry. And the children
understood.
In their games they had done each his
best and they did well. But Eline showed
them games in which they all acted together,
even the little ones helping and sharing. It
was wonderful to them that they had not
thought of this before, because now they
found that they could do more than ever
they had done when each worked alone and
for himself.
Near the city where they dwelt was a
vast plain full of great boulders, which they
could have made into a great park and a
beautiful garden; but the people of the city
cared not for such things and would not
help them. By themselves they knew not
40 THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
how to move the rocks. So it remained a
waste of wild growth, except in those places
where the children had moved one by one,
and with great difficulty, the smaller stones.
Now Eline bid them take a strong rope.
" For/ said she, " we will clear that plain,
and it shall be for a dwelling and a garden
for all." She was thinking of the king s
garden.
The children looked at her in astonish
ment as though they wondered if she meant
the thing she said.
" We have no rope," they said, " and none
will give us any."
" There is your rope," said Eline, point
ing out the overgrown plain, where, amid
the rocks in the great patches from which
they had slowly and painfully drawn the