"Now, great altar of the golden idol, yield me the divining-rod that I may use it for the good of the suffering people."
The umbrella-stand was the altar of the golden idol, and it yielded her the old school umbrella. She carried it between her palms.
"Now," she said, "I shall sing the magic chant. You mustn't say anything, but just follow wherever I go—like follow my leader, you know—and when there is gold underneath the magic rod will twist in the hand of the priestess like a live thing that seeks to be free. Then you will dig, and the golden treasure will be revealed. H. O., if you make that clatter with your boots they'll come and tell us not to. Now come on all of you."
So she went upstairs and down and into every room. We followed her on tiptoe, and Alice sang as she went. What she sang is not out of a book—Noël made it up while she was dressing up for the priestess.
Ashen rod cold
That here I hold,
Teach me where to find the gold.
When we came to where Eliza was, she said, "Get along with you;" but Dora said it was only a game, and we wouldn't touch anything,
