Out of the boat she stepped then, and found the earth all paved of a
middling gravel, and nought at all growing there, not even the
smallest of herbs; and she stooped down and searched the gravel, and
found neither worm nor beetle therein, nay nor any one of the sharp
and slimy creatures which are wont in such ground.
A little further she went, and yet a little further, and no change
there was in the land; and yet she went on and found nothing; and she
wended her ways southward by the sun, and the day was windless.
At last she had gone a long way and had no sight of water south of
the isle, nor had she seen any hill, nay, not so much as an ant-heap,
whence she might look further around; and it seemed to her that she
might go on for ever, and reach the heart of Nowhither at last.
Wherefore she thought she would turn back and depart this ugly isle,
and that no other adventure abided her therein. And by now it was
high noon; and she turned about and took a few steps on the backward
road.
But even therewith it seemed as if the sun, which heretofore had been
shining brightly in the heavens, went out as a burnt-down candle, and
all was become dull grey over head, as all under foot was a dull dun.
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