bald hill. He knew it by the tall pine-trees that grew round it; and

down in the farm-yard he saw a man with a bucket going out to feed the

calves. Neville called loudly to him, but the man did not even look

up. Now he was far beyond that farm-house and above an orchard, where

he saw the fruit-trees standing in straight rows; and a few seconds

later the mountain range was beneath him, and Neville knew that the

cloud that looked like a horse was making straight for the golden

gateway, which was now glowing dully in a grey sky. He was riding into

the sunset.

Swiftly as the wind that drove it, the Cloud Horse drifted over the

mountain range. There was a sudden glow of golden light all about him,

and then a flash of colour so wonderful that Neville could not bear to

look. He closed his eyes, and, as he did so, he felt that the Cloud

Horse had come to a halt at last.

So Neville sat upon the cloud, not daring to open his eyes for quite a

long time. When at last he did look again he almost fainted with the

wonder of it. He was inside the sunset.

But scarcely had he begun to enjoy the wonderful sight, when he was

startled by the sound of a funny, shrill little voice close by his

side. Looking down, he saw a strange little man, no taller than a

walking-stick, and dressed from top to toe in golden-yellow clothes.

"My stars!" said the wee yellow man. "How did YOU manage to get in

here? Don't you know this is private?"

"I'm very sorry," said Neville, "but I couldn't help it. The Cloud

Horse brought me, you know."

"Ah!" said the wee yellow man. "He tricked you, did he? He's much too

playful, that Cloud Horse; and, I must say, he's put you in a pretty

fix."

"Excuse me," said Neville, "but do you mind telling me who you are?"

"I?" cried the little yellow man. "Why, I'm the Last Sunbeam, of

course. I thought you knew that. My job, you know, is to shut up the

show when the sunset is over. And it's pretty hard work, I can tell

you, because I've got to keep on doing it all round the earth every

few minutes or so. And it gets very tiresome at times. Would you

believe it? I've never seen a dawn or a bright mid-day in all my

life--just sunsets all the time. Sunsets for breakfast, sunsets for

dinner, sunsets for supper. And if I make the tiniest little slip, the

head scene-shifter is down on me like a ton of bricks."

"Goodness me!" said Neville. "I didn't know you had scene-shifters

here." Neville had been to see pantomimes, and therefore knew what a

scene-shifter was.

"Then how do you think we shift the scenes?" cried the wee yellow man

rather crossly. Then he suddenly became very busy about nothing, as he

whispered, "Look out! Here's the head scene-shifter coming now."

Looking back, Neville saw, coming towards them, a man with very large

ears. He was not a nice-looking man, and he was extremely like the

cloud man that Neville had sometimes seen in the sky when he went to

look at the sunset from the bald hill.

"Now then! Now then!" roared the man with the large ears. "Move

yourself there, Goldie! We shut up the show here in a few minutes, and

open at once on the next range. See that you have that curtain down on

time."

"Certainly, sir," replied the little yellow man very humbly.

Then the man with the large ears noticed Neville for the first time.

He frowned darkly, and his big ears seemed to flap with annoyance.

"Who is this on our Cloud Horse?" he roared in his great angry voice.

"Just a little boy," said the yellow man--for Neville was far too

frightened to speak. "Just a little boy that the Cloud Horse has been

playing tricks on. I think he'd like to be getting home--just over by

the bald hill, if you don't mind, sir."

"Certainly not!" shouted the man with the large ears. "The Cloud Horse

is not to go out there again to-night, nor the silly little boy

either. I'm not going to have the sunset upset by any such silly

nonsense. You mind what I say and attend to your work."

And, without another glance at Neville, the man with the large ears

strode off to arrange for the sunset on the next range, miles and

miles away.

Neville gazed at the wee yellow man hopelessly, and the wee yellow man

gazed at Neville, and neither spoke a word until the man with the

large ears was well out of the way. Then the Last Sunbeam grew quite

cheerful again.

"Well," said he, "you heard what the head scene-shifter said. You

certainly can't go home by the way you came. The only thing for you to

do is to go round. You'll just about have time to do it, if you

hurry."

"Go round?" repeated Neville in a puzzled voice. "Go round what, round

where?"

"Round the world, of course," replied the little yellow man.

"Round the world?" cried Neville. "Why you must be making fun of me,

and I think that is very unkind."

"Not a bit of it," laughed the little yellow man. "You need not make

such a fuss about it. Why, I go round the world once every day with

the sunset. You have only to go a bit faster so as to do it in a few

minutes, and with the Cloud Horse to help you that's easily managed.

Don't you worry about the Cloud Horse. He has got to do just whatever I

tell him. Now, excuse me for one moment and I'll give you full

directions."

With that the wee yellow man went behind a pink cloud and came

back with a beautiful blue flower in his hand.

"This," he said, handing the flower to Neville, "is a Sky Flower. It

is made entirely out of a genuine piece of sky, and it is a

talisman--that's a longer word for charm, you know--which takes you

free round the world. The one thing you have to remember is that you

mustn't, on any account, lose that flower until you get home again.

Now, just exactly what you have to do is to travel West and race round

the world until you catch up with this evening again. It is quite

simple."

"Simple!" cried Neville. "Why I don't understand it at all."

"Dear me!" said the wee yellow man rather impatiently, "you are very

dense. Now listen carefully. The world, you know, turns round from

West to East, and that makes it seem as if the sun is going round the

world from East to West. Very well. So what you have to do is to ride

West upon the Cloud Horse much faster than the sun appears to travel,

and catch him up again before he gets well away from here. The Cloud

Horse is in good condition, and you should easily do it in a few

minutes."

"A few minutes!" gasped Neville.

"Keep quiet and listen," snapped the wee yellow man. "A few miles West

from here you will come into broad daylight. That will be afternoon.

After that you will meet mid-day, and, passing that, you will reach

the place where it is only dawn. That's about half-way round the

earth. Show the Sky Flower to the porter of the Dawn, and he will let

you through. Then you get to the half of the world where it is night,

and you must race round that till you reach the place where it is only

evening. That will be THIS evening, somewhere about here, for you will

have taken only a few minutes altogether. And when you see your own

home or the bald hill again, grasp the Sky Flower tightly in your

hand, jump off the Cloud Horse, and you will float gracefully down to

the earth. It won't hurt you. Then you can go home, and I hope you

will not be late for dinner."

"But," began Neville, "I can't understand--"

"My time is valuable," said the wee yellow man, as he shook hands.

"Good-bye, and a pleasant journey." With that he smacked the Cloud

Horse smartly on the flank, and in a moment it was racing into the

West at a most terrific pace.

Stay tuned for upcoming installments of The Boy Who Rode Into the Sunset.

For kids who love stories about white horses, a must-read is

Saving Bluestone Belle, the award-winning comic-

adventure novel by Strawberry Shakespeare. Click the link below to

see the eye-popping book cover and learn more about this rollicking

adventure tale!