{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30834/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30834","id":"gutenberg_30834","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30834","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: German Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Children's stories, German","Fairy tales","Tales -- Germany"],"text":"Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFAIRY TALES FROM THE\nGERMAN FORESTS\n\n\n_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_\n\n\"The Meadows of Play\"\n\n(With an Introduction by G. K. Chesterton;\nIllustrated by Edith Calvert.)\n\nLondon, ELKIN MATTHEWS, Vigo Street\n2s. 6d. net\n\n[Illustration: \"The Dwarf.\"]\n\n\n[Illustration:\nFAIRY TALES _from the_\nGERMAN FORESTS\n\nFRAU ARNDT]\n\n\nLONDON: EVERETT & CO. LTD. 42 Essex Street, W.C.\n\n\n\n\n TO MY DAUGHTERS\n MARGARET AND BARBARA,\n AND TO MY NEPHEWS\n CHARLES AND STEPHEN JOHNSON,\n THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY POEM\n\n \"The stories that the fairies told\n  I learnt in English lanes of old,\n  Where honeysuckle, wreathing high,\n  Twined with the wild rose towards the sky,\n  Or where pink-tinged anemones\n  Grew thousand starred beneath the trees.\n\n  I saw them, too, in London town,\n  But sly and cautious, glancing down,\n  Where in the grass the crocus grow\n  And ladies ride in Rotten Row,\n  St James's Park's a garden meet\n  For tiny babes and fairy feet.\n\n  But since I came to Germany,\n  The good folk oftener talk to me;\n  I find them in their native home\n  When through the forest depths I roam,\n  When through the trees blue mountains shine,\n  The heart of fairyland is mine.\"\n\n\n\n\nWHAT'S THE USE OF IT?\n\nA CHRISTMAS STORY\n\n\nIn a village that was close to the great forest, though it had already\nbecome the suburb of a large town, lived a little girl named Hansi\nHerzchen. She was the seventh child of a family of seven, and she lived\nat No 7 ---- Street. So you see she was a lucky child, for seven is\nalways a lucky number; but nothing had happened to prove her luck as\nyet.\n\nHer father was a clerk in the post office at the neighbouring town. He\nwould have found it hard to make two ends meet with seven little mouths\nto fill, but that his wife had brought him substantial help. She was the\ndaughter of a well-to-do farmer peasant and had a considerable dowry\nwhen she married. Moreover she was extremely thrifty and industrious.\nShe never spent a halfpenny without carefully considering if a farthing\nwould not do as well. Better L1 in the pocket than 19s. 11-1/2d., she\nused to say. She drove wonderful bargains at the market. She had no\neyes for the artistic and ornamental, though her house was so spick and\nspan, that it was good to look at in its cleanliness and order. She had\nstored up everything she had possessed since her early youth, and was\nsaid to use pins that were at least twenty years old. She managed to put\neverything to use, and the boys' knickers were sometimes made of queer\nmaterials.\n\nOne expression little Hansi often heard at home and that was the word\n\"_useful_.\" When she brought in a fresh bunch of darling, pink-tipped\ndaisies and wanted to find a corner for them and a tiny drop of water to\nput them in, the whole family would exclaim: \"Throw them away, what do\nyou want with those half-dead weeds; they're of no use.\" If one of the\nneighbours gave her a ball or toy, it was the same story: \"We've no room\nfor such rubbish here.\" Each child possessed a money-box, and every coin\nwas immediately put in. They had never had a penny to _spend_ in their\nlives.\n\nThe garden was planted solely with vegetables and potatoes and herbs of\nthe most useful character. The scarlet beans in summer, however, would\nbrighten it up, and field poppies and dandelions sprang up in a quite\nmiraculous way to Hansi's delight. For in each flower was a jolly little\nfairy, who talked to her and told her stories, because of her being a\nseventh child and living at No. 7. Perhaps, too, because Hansi's natural\ndisposition made her look out for wonders, and her loving heart included\nthe field flowers among her friends.\n\nChristmas was coming on; a pig had been killed. Hansi's father and\nmother and big brother Paul stayed up all night making sausages, and the\nchildren had sausage soup for dinner during the next week.\n\nIn preparation for Christmas, Hansi's mother baked large cakes (called\nStollen) of a plain quality, with currants few and far between. Food had\nbecome very expensive during the last few years, and no one could deny\nthat seven children were a handful.\n\nShe went in to town and returned by electric tram, with the useful\nthings that were intended for Christmas presents for the children,\nnamely:\n\n A pair of boots for Paul,\n A school-cape for Marie,\n Handkerchiefs for Fritz with his name embroidered\n     on them in red cotton,\n Stockings for Emma,\n A warm hood for Gretchen,\n An oilcloth pinafore for Karlchen, who had a special\n     talent for getting dirty,\n And lastly a new pinafore for Hansi.\n\n\"Now we might be said to have everything ready for Christmas,\" said Mrs\nHerzchen, on her return home, \"if it were not for the Christmas tree. I\nsuppose we shall have to pay at least one and six for it, and then there\nare the candles and apples, balls and sweets. It does seem absurd to\nwaste good money on such rubbish. What can be the use of it?\"\n\nShe talked away in this manner, until she made up her mind to do without\nthe tree for once.\n\n\"Your father has no time to see about it,\" she said to the children. \"He\nis taken up with looking after other people's rubbishing letters and\nparcels, and I can't be bothered--so put the idea out of your heads, you\nwon't get a tree this year.\"\n\nThe seven children felt very indignant; for it is almost a disgrace in\nGermany to have no tree; it is worse than going without a pudding on\nChristmas Day in England. The very poorest families manage somehow to\nhave their tree to light on Christmas Eve. Still they were trained to\nimplicit obedience and respect for their mother, and did not dare\ngrumble much openly.\n\nMrs Herzchen did not consult her husband about it; so he expected his\ntree as usual. The good woman felt rather uncomfortable, as if she had\neither done something wrong, or omitted doing what was right; but she\njustified herself by saying continually to herself \"What's the use of\nit?\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHansi dreamt that night of a beautiful Christmas tree that reached up to\nthe sky and was covered with shining silver, like cobwebs in the frost,\nand lit by real stars. She determined that somehow or other they should\nhave their Christmas tree as usual.\n\nWhen she came out of school at eleven o'clock, she trotted along in the\nopposite way to home, along the wide high road leading to the woods,\nwith the twisted apple-trees on either side. She made a little bobbing\ncurtsy, and said \"good day\" to everyone she met who noticed her at all;\nfor she had been taught to be polite and friendly.\n\nThe ground was frozen and sparkled brightly; the air brought the fresh\ncolour into her cheeks. She had on a warm hood and cape and a woollen\nscarf--for her mother was kind-hearted at the bottom and looked well\nafter their material comforts. Hansi's pretty fair curls peeped out from\nunder the red hood, her blue eyes with their dark lashes were more\nstarry than usual from excitement.\n\nThe fir woods looked purple-black against the white fields, and as she\ncame near, she saw the fir-trees covered with silver hoar frost \"almost\nlike the tree in my dream,\" she thought. Her heart beat faster for a\nmoment as she entered the shade of the solemn evergreen trees, but she\ndid not feel naughty to be running away from home. She felt rather as\nif she were fulfilling a mission that had been laid upon her.\n\nMeanwhile her mother was worrying and wondering what could have happened\nthat her little girl did not return at the usual time. Then she\nremembered that Hansi often went home with her friend Barbara Arndt, and\nthen they did their lessons together before dinner. That doubtless\naccounted for her non-appearance.\n\nHansi wandered on and on, and the woods seemed deserted. She picked up\nfir cones and beech nuts and acorns and filled her pinafore with them,\nalso frosted fern leaves and dry grasses exquisitely outlined with hoar\nfrost went into her apron.\n\nAt last she stopped before a little fir-tree. This was just the\nbeautiful little tree she wanted. It spread out its branches\nsymmetrically on all sides, and was slender and straight at the top.\n\"That will just do for me! If only I could get it home,\" she thought.\nShe tugged at it with her little hands, dropping some of her treasures,\nbut of course it would not move. Just then she heard something stir, and\nlooking round she saw a squirrel peeping at her from behind a big\noak-tree near by. This was a wonder in itself if she had known; for\nsquirrels are usually fast asleep in the cold weather, and only wake\nonce or twice to eat some of their store of nuts.\n\n\"O, Mr Squirrel, can't you help me,\" Hansi said. Off he went, round and\nround the trunk, and then suddenly, with a great spring and his tail\nspread out for a sail, he alighted on Hansi's tree. He stared at her in\na friendly way, and then stretched out one of his dear little paws and\noffered her a nut, politely cracking it for her first with his sharp\nteeth which had grown very long whilst he was asleep. She ate it at\nonce, but looked anxious. \"O, Mr Squirrel, do cut down this tree for me,\nand help me to carry it home,\" she said, \"or else we shall have no\nChristmas tree, and that would be _dreadful_!\"\n\nHer eyes filled with tears as she spoke. Mr Squirrel looked at her with\nhis bright eyes, twisted round suddenly, like a cat trying to catch its\nown tail, and offered her another nut.\n\n\"O, Mr Squirrel, _do_,\" she said again.\n\nHe offered her a third nut, and then he whistled shrilly; it sounded\nmore like a baby crying than a whistle. Then to her surprise, as she\nlooked down the wood path, Hansi saw a troop of little men, such as you\nsee on Christmas cards in Germany, with red caps and green jackets and\nwooden shoes turned up at the toes. \"Real Heinzelmen and no mistake,\"\nthought Hansi delightedly, \"they can help me, if anyone can.\" She\ncounted them, they were seven in number, like Snowdrop's dwarfs. They\nmade quite a noise as they marched up in order, whistling a merry tune.\nWhen they saw Hansi, they took off their red caps, and their white hair\nflew about them like a mist, till Hansi could hardly see them any more.\nThe squirrel screamed and shouted at them, and they answered him; but\nHansi could not understand at first what it was all about. She thought\nthey must be talking English; she knew a lady who lived near them, and\nwho could only talk English, poor thing. All of a sudden the earth\ntrembled--was it an earthquake? Hansi held tight on to the fir-tree,\nthough its needles hurt her hands. All she saw was the seven little men\ndisappearing into the ground down a long slide such as firemen use, when\nthey are called suddenly from sleep, and are carried by a new mechanical\napparatus direct from one floor to the other. The earth closed up again,\nand Hansi thought it must be all a dream; but in two seconds they were\nback again with silver hatchets and silver pails. With the hatchets they\nimmediately began to hack away at the tree. They made tremendous\nefforts, and became quite red in the face. The last moment before it was\nfinally felled, the squirrel bounded off, and tossed a nut to Hansi, who\ncaught it cleverly in her pinafore.\n\n\"Dear little men,\" she said, \"may I have the tree? Will you bring it\nhome for me, and I will give you all my Christmas cake? But I have\nnothing to hang on it, and make it pretty,\" she continued. The dwarfs\nbegan to chatter again like so many girls, all trying to say the same\nthing at once. Then they marched along, dragging the tree with them.\n\n\"O, Mr Dwarf, that's the wrong way home, I'm sure,\" said Hansi. But she\nfollowed them all the same. They came to where a crystal stream leapt\nover a little group of rocks. The dwarfs held their buckets under the\ncascade, and caught some drops. The drops turned into silver fish, each\nwith a little loop on the end of its tail, all ready to hang on the\ntree.\n\nThey then took Hansi's pine cones and ferns and grasses, and even\ncollected the frozen cobwebs from the bushes and let the spray from the\nwaters fall on them, and lo and behold the most exquisite gems were\nready for the decoration of the Christmas tree.\n\n\"You live at No 7, and you are seven years old,\" said the eldest of the\ndwarfs, addressing Hansi. (\"However _could_ he have known that?\" she\nthought.) \"Perhaps you can tell me what seven times seven makes?\"\n\nHansi considered a moment. \"No, we have not got so far as that in our\narithmetic,\" she replied. \"_Twice_ seven is fourteen, that I know.\"\n\n\"Seven times seven is forty-nine and is the square of seven,\" said the\ndwarf. \"Always remember that, for it is a most important fact in\nmagic!\"\n\nRummaging in his pocket, he took out a note-book and handed a leaf to\nher with this diagram and inscription on it\n\n                 To Hansi\n               . . . . . . .\n               . . . . . . .\n  well-wisher  . . . . . . .  from her\n               . . . . . . .\n               . . . . . . .\n               . . . . . . .\n               . . . . . . .\n                friend and\n\n                     _Signed_--HIMSELF!\n\n\"Thank you _very_ much,\" said Hansi, feeling duly impressed, and she\nnever forgot this difficult fact in the multiplication table again,\nalthough she didn't quite understand the diagram, and in fact lost it on\nthe way home.\n\nThe dwarfs set up the tree on a clear part of the path, and made a\nlittle stand for it of boughs cleverly intertwined and moss between.\nWith many a hop, skip and jump of delight, they hung the silver fish and\ncones and nuts on it; the cobwebs spread themselves out all over the\ntree. Then they took red holly berries, and stuck them on the boughs\nwhere they turned into red candles. All red and silver was this\nloveliest of Christmas trees!\n\nWhen it was finished, there was a momentary thrill, and they all cried\n\"Ah!\" in tones of wonder.\n\nThen Hansi noticed that a noble herd of deer had approached; the gentle\ncreatures were looking on with the deepest interest.\n\nThe woodbirds came flying from all directions, and sang as if it were\nsummer.\n\n\"Dear little men, I think I really ought to be going home,\" said Hansi\nanxiously.\n\n\"Come along then,\" said Himself. \"_You_ must go back along the high road\nas you came; we are going to play hide-and-seek; but don't be afraid,\nyou shall have your tree all right, even if it disappears sometimes.\"\n\nThey now marched along in the homeward direction; but as soon as they\ncame to the road leading out of the woods they vanished without a word\nof leave-taking. However, Hansi had not gone far down the road, when she\nsaw a Christmas tree that appeared to be walking by itself across the\nfields. Other people noticed it too, from the road, and thought how\nqueer it looked. \"But _of course_, there is someone behind carrying it,\"\nthey said to themselves, and thought no more of the matter. People\nexpect the usual before the unusual, naturally enough, and yet sometimes\nthe unusual is the most probable, as in this case.\n\nHansi was late for dinner, and had a fine scolding.\n\n\"At all events, I suppose you have done your lessons,\" said her mother.\n\n\"No, mother, I'm afraid not.\"\n\n\"Well, I never, playing again, I suppose? Now, what _can_ be the use of\nplaying, I should like to know?\"\n\nThis was an exceptionally stupid question; for most people know that\nlittle folk cannot grow mentally without play, any more than flowers can\ngrow without sunshine. \"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,\" is\nnot only a proverb, but it is true as well.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was Christmas Eve. Hansi trembled with excitement. \"What's the use of\ngetting so lively, Hansi?\" said her big brother Paul despondently. \"You\nknow quite well that we are not to have any tree this year. I shall get\na new pair of boots, and you a pinafore; these we should have to have\nanyway. That's not what I call a merry Christmas.\"\n\n\"But the bells are ringing, don't you hear them? and don't you think you\ncan see just a glimmer of silver through the door?\" said Hansi.\n\nThe children looked--well, really, perhaps there was a tree there after\nall.\n\nJust then their father came in tired, but jolly. \"Is everything ready?\nIt is late, I have been detained so long,\" he said. \"Can we go in at\nonce?\"\n\n\"I haven't got a tree this year,\" whispered his wife in an anxious\nvoice. \"I thought we couldn't afford it. What's the use of a Christmas\ntree? We can spend our money in a more practical way!\"\n\n\"What nonsense. No Christmas tree! but of course you are joking,\" said\nher husband. \"I will slip in, and light the candles.\" And with these\nwords he disappeared into the inner room, now so mysterious to the\nwaiting children.\n\nPoor Mrs Herzchen nearly began to cry. If only she had not been so\nsilly! Never, never would she neglect to get a tree again! She ought to\nhave considered other people's prejudices, and Christmas--O well,\nChristmas only comes once a year.\n\n\"I've got a surprise for mother,\" whispered Gretel, aged ten. \"I am\ngoing to recite a Christmas poem.\" \"And I am going to tell the Christmas\nstory from the Bible,\" said Hansi. \"I have made a letter-box for\nfather,\" said Fritz.\n\n\"Hush, hush! the bells are ringing--don't you hear them across the\nsnow?\" the children whispered to one another. \"But what is that other\nbell, so soft, so musical and clear!\" \"That is the summons for us all to\nenter,\" said Paul.\n\nThe door flew open, and there stood the most lovely Christmas tree they\nhad ever seen or imagined, all dazzling with silver; silver cones,\nsilver fish, silver nuts and acorns, and red candles, and over all an\nexquisitely spun cobweb of frost. \"That's my surprise for you all,\" said\nHansi, who could hardly contain herself for joy. \"I found the tree, and\nthe dear, darling Heinzelmen brought it home for me.\"\n\nMrs Herzchen was speechless with astonishment, and her husband not less\nso. \"How very extravagant,\" they said, \"but how elegant and beautiful!\nWho can have given it to us?\"\n\nBut now the children began to sing the sweet German carol sung in every\nhouse on Christmas Eve: \"O peaceful night, O holy night,\" and then, in\nher earnest, childish way, Hansi told the story of the birth of the\nChrist-child in the Manger of Bethlehem.\n\nGretel then stood up eagerly to recite the carol she had learnt at\nschool.\n\n  THE CHILDREN'S KING.\n\n \"Dear children come\n    On Christmas night,\n  Put on your gowns\n    Of purest white.\n\n  Speak not a word\n    Until you see\n  The sweet Christ child\n    On Mary's knee.\n\n  There lies the Babe\n    An Infant frail.\n  Is this the King\n    Whom nations hail?\n\n  A helpless King!\n    His mother's arm\n  Must hold him safe\n    From threatened harm.\n\n  A tender King,\n    Most young and sweet,\n  With dimpled hands\n    And tiny feet!\n\n  A Baby King:\n    Yet cherubim\n  Veil their bright eyes\n    To look on Him.\n\n  A mighty King!\n    For God above\n  Has crowned Him Lord\n    And King of Love.\n\n  Come kneel and pray,\n    Ye children dear,\n  The children's King\n    Is lying here!\"\n\nA glow of warmth and happiness illumined the whole family, and they felt\nnearer to one another than ever before. The tears actually came into\ntheir mother's eyes, when she realised that they had so nearly missed\nthis moment of supreme joy.\n\nShe felt a little ashamed of her presents, and for once in a way\nsuspected herself of having been _too_ sensible. \"We are not so very\npoor after all,\" she thought. \"I might have bought a few toys that would\nhave delighted the children's hearts, and not have cost much money. But\nnow it is too late!\"\n\nBut to her surprise, she did not see her presents at all. For each child\nthere was a gingerbread cake with his or her name on it, and then the\nmost lovely surprises--a beautiful doll for Hansi with real eyelashes,\nfretwork tools for Paul, a doll's kitchen for Gretel, and so on. For\nevery one of the family there was some delightful gift.\n\n\"Thank you, thank you, dear Heinzelmen,\" said Hansi, clasping her hands\nin ecstasy.\n\nThere was a big paper parcel addressed to Mrs Herzchen in a very queer\nhandwriting. She opened it with much excitement, thinking it would\ncontain a silk dress, at least. But lo and behold, all the presents that\nshe had intended for her children, tied together with red tape and a\ncard between, on which this verse was written:\n\n \"Useful things\n    For little folk\n  Are sensible,\n    But not a joke.\"\n            _Signed_ HIMSELF!\n\nHow the children laughed! and even Mrs Herzchen laughed too, though she\nfelt silly and a little disappointed. \"It is all very well to play\ntricks on me,\" she said. \"Just look at the Mueller children next door.\nThey have plenty of toys and are always sucking sweets; but they never\nhave comfortable, warm clothes on, and they look half fed.\"\n\n\"Of course, mother, you are right,\" said the children, \"and you were\nreally joking about the tree. We have never had one _half_ so lovely!\"\n\nMrs Herzchen felt rather embarrassed at this praise. She called her\nhusband's attention to the things on the tree. \"They can't be made of\nchocolate,\" she said, trying to bite off the corner of a fir cone. It\nwas quite hard. \"I do believe they are all solid silver!\" she said.\n\nOn closer examination, they found a little lion imprinted on each which\nproved them without doubt to be of real silver.\n\n\"I shall sell them at once, or they may vanish away,\" she said.\n\n\"I should strongly advise you not to do so,\" her husband replied, and\nthe children said, \"Oh Mother, do let us keep them always, they are so\nbeautiful?\"\n\n\"But of what use are they?\" said the incorrigible mother who, you see,\nwas not yet quite cured.\n\nMeanwhile the story was noised abroad that Hansi had found a treasure in\nthe forest.\n\nThe very next day, Christmas Day, as they were eating their goose,\nstuffed with apples, there was a ring at the bell--in walked a very\npompous Prussian policeman with fierce moustaches.\n\n\"Mrs Herzchen here?\" he asked abruptly.\n\n\"What do _you_ want?\" asked that lady, much indignant at being disturbed\nduring her Christmas dinner.\n\n\"Young person answering to the name of Hansi Herzchen here?\"\n\n\"Yes, sir. Please, sir, that's me,\" said Hansi, rising and curtsying,\nand growing very red.\n\nThe policeman produced a paper in which he entered all sorts of\nmemoranda.\n\n\"_Age and date of birth?_\" he demanded of Hansi.\n\n\"Seven years old, _of course_,\" answered Hansi. \"My birthday is on\nFebruary 27th, if you want to know. It was on a Sunday last year.\"\n\n\"That's beside the question.\" He looked severe.\n\n\"February 27th, 1897,\" said Hansi, prompted by her mother.\n\n_Residence--temporary or otherwise ----._\n\n_Baptism ---- date of ----._\n\n_Vaccinated ----._\n\nAll these facts Hansi's mother supplied at once. They are so constantly\ndemanded in Germany that she had them always ready at hand, tied up in\nseven different packets for each child.\n\n_Married or single?_\n\nHere Hansi giggled, and he entered solemnly the word \"_spinster_.\"\n\n\"Is that something _horrid_?\" asked Hansi anxiously.\n\n\"No, it only means unmarried,\" said Paul laughing. \"_What_ a fool he\nis!\"\n\n_Occupation?_\n\n\"Please sir, I go to school and learn my lessons, but I play a good deal\ntoo.\"\n\n\"We will write 'spinster,'\" he said, frowning fiercely.\n\n\"Now listen to me, child, if you do not wish to go to prison.\" The whole\nfamily shuddered with horror.\n\n\"Take all those silver things off the tree. They are 'found treasure,'\nand belong to the State. You ought to have declared them at once, and\nsaved me all this trouble,\" he said.\n\nHansi began to cry.\n\nMrs Herzchen was very angry, \"Why don't you mind your own business?\" she\nsaid. \"These things are our property. You will come and demand the\nclothes off our backs next.\"\n\n\"Be thankful that I do not accuse you of _stealing_ these valuables,\"\nanswered the fellow in a terrible voice.\n\n\"But are you sure they are not chocolate after all?\" he said. \"They look\nremarkably like it, covered with silver paper, you know.\"\n\nHe examined them carefully and ejaculating, \"Well, I never,\" tossed them\nall into a leather wallet that he had brought with him.\n\nMrs Herzchen poured forth such a storm of abuse, that he threatened her\nwith an action for libel; but she literally turned him out of doors. Her\nparting words were: \"Get out! Go along and make a fool of yourself if\nyou like.\"\n\nSome days afterwards, the man took his treasures to the office and gave\nthem up with a self-important flourish, only to be laughed at for his\npains. The cones were just common, ordinary fir cones, and the silver\nfish had turned into little dead trout, smelling very unpleasant.\n\nHe chucked them all away in the street, and this was an episode in his\ndignified career that he did not like to be reminded of.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAlthough Hansi's mother still always preferred useful things to artistic\nand ornamental ones, still she realised that the useful and ornamental\nmay often be combined, and as she dearly loved her children, and saved\nup money merely on their account, she determined that they should have a\nmerry Christmas every year, without any special help from the kind\nlittle Heinzelmen.\n\nAnd did Hansi give the cake to her dwarf friends as she had promised to\ndo? Why, of course, she did. The children went all together to the\nforest on New Year's Eve, and found the actual spot where the tree had\nstood. They placed a large piece of cake on the old stump. But they did\nnot see the Heinzelmen or even the squirrel, although they repeated\nseven times seven is forty-nine in the hope of attracting them.\n\nNow a dear little Heinzelman, whom I met out for a walk, told me this\nstory \"himself\"; but he vanished at this point, and so must I. I wish\nHansi and all her brothers and sisters a very merry Christmas, and so, I\nam sure, do you.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ENGINEER AND THE DWARFS\n\n\nA tunnel had been dug through a crag which had hitherto been considered\nas a serious obstacle in the railway route; the light now shone through\nat the farther end. There was a shout of joy from the tired workmen. The\nair had been stifling in the tunnel; the work was hard and dangerous;\nseveral men had been killed in detaching portions of rock that had been\nloosened by dynamite. It was a great relief to have got through. Now\nthe walls would have to be made smooth with cement--indeed the men had\nalready begun this work at the other end--and the tunnel tested for\ngreater security. Then the express train could run through directly,\ninstead of being obliged to shunt backwards and forwards in a way that\nmade it very uncomfortable for people who did not like sitting with\ntheir backs to the engine.\n\nThe young engineer, Karl Hammerstein, who had been supervising the\nmen's work, was glad enough to find himself in the fresh air. His head\nached violently, the oppression of the atmosphere had well-nigh\noverpowered him.\n\nThe mountain was clothed on this side with tall forest trees; the\ndrooping firs offered an inviting shade. It was seven o'clock in the\nevening, the men were packing up their tools to go home. They would be\nobliged to march back through the tunnel; for there was no way round,\nexcept through the wildest forest with a tangled undergrowth of brambles\nand ferns. But they had their lamps, and did not mind the tunnel; it was\nfamiliar enough to them, who had worked in it for months.\n\nMeanwhile Karl, who was dead-beat, stretched himself out under the\ntrees, covered himself with his cloak, and fell fast asleep, meaning\nonly to rest a minute or two, before he also set off home.\n\nIt was late when he awoke; the full moon was shining. He felt quite\ndazed. Where could he be?\n\nHe had slept in many queer little rooms when he was travelling; but they\nalways had a window and a door. Where was the window? Ugh--he\nshivered--it was cold. Then an unreasoning terror took hold of him: he\nwas only half-awake as yet. What could that dreadful gap be in the wall\nof his room, blacker than the darkness? Surely it was a bogey hole\nleading down to the bottomless pit? The next minute he laughed at his\nfears, as we usually do when we come safely out of nightmare land and\nfeel the earth--or bed beneath us again.\n\nHe saw that it was the mouth of the tunnel, and glancing up he saw the\ngiant fir-tree under which he had been sleeping with outstretched arms\nabove him in the light of the moon.\n\n\"Well--I never! what a dunderhead I am!\" he said to himself--\"fancy\nsleeping like that, why such a thing has never happened to me before! I\nhad meant to go to have supper and stay the night at the new hotel in\nElm. I have heard the landlord's daughter is an uncommonly pretty girl!\"\n\n\"Heigho!\" he went on, stretching himself, \"there's nothing for it, but\nto walk home. I might wait a long time before a motor-car came to pick\nme up here!\"\n\nThen he remembered with a sudden start that there was only one possible\nway back to Elm, and that was through the tunnel. It was not a very\npleasant idea to walk back alone through the dark, oppressive tunnel at\nmidnight; luckily he had his lantern with him.\n\n\"How could I have been such an idiot!\" he muttered to himself again. He\nfound some bread and cheese in his pocket, which he ate with a good\nappetite. His headache had gone, and he felt much refreshed after his\nsleep. Then he put on his cloak, lighted the lantern, and set out\ncheerfully to walk through the tunnel.\n\nHe had not gone far into the black darkness, when he thought he heard\nvoices whispering and talking not far away from him; then he distinctly\nfelt something or somebody brush past him.\n\n\"Hullo, who's there?\" he called out. Complete silence. He was not easily\nfrightened; but his heart began to beat quicker than usual. \"Well, if\nit's robbers or tramps, they won't find much to rob on me,\" he thought;\nfor he had only a few shillings in his pocket for his night's lodging.\n\nIt was probably a bat that had strayed in at the opening, he decided.\nSuddenly he came to a standstill. Right across the way was a mass of\nfreshly fallen earth and rock that quite obstructed his further\nprogress. \"Well this is a pretty fix to be in. How aggravating!\" he said\nto himself, and leant for a moment against the wall of the tunnel, to\nconsider what would be best to do. The wall instantly gave way, he\nstumbled, bruised his arm against a sharp corner of the rock, and his\nlantern went out. At the same time he heard a sound resembling the\nslamming of a door. \"Donnerwetter!\" he exclaimed--a mild German swear\nwhich means literally \"thunder-weather!\"--\"whatever shall I do now?\" He\nhad a box of matches in his pocket and soon succeeded in relighting the\nlantern.\n\n\"There is nothing for it, but to go back again to where I started from,\nand wait for daybreak,\" he thought.\n\nBy this time he had become confused, and had lost the sense of\ndirection; but there _could_ be only one way back. So he tramped along a\nlong winding passage that he took to be the excavated tunnel. \"How\ncurious, I could have been certain that the tunnel was much wider, and\nmore direct than this. Can I be still dreaming?\" he thought.\n\nSuddenly he was startled and astonished to come on a flight of steps\nleading downwards. There had certainly been no stairs in the tunnel! He\nsaw too that the walls were painted in a decorative way like some of the\nCatacombs in Rome; only these were far more elaborate. \"I'm in for an\nadventure, I must be lost in the heart of the mountain,\" he thought.\n\"Perhaps I shall come upon a robber's cave, or gipsies may be hiding in\nthese rocks; it is a good thing that I have this pretty little fellow\nwith me,\" and he touched the revolver in his breast pocket. He then\nobserved in front of him a faint light, other than that of his lantern\nand whistled softly with astonishment, as he saw that the way opened out\ninto a cave or vault. A few steps more, and he found himself in an\nexquisite, though tiny hall, with an arched ceiling supported by pillars\nof red granite. The walls and ceiling were beautifully inlaid with\nmosaic work in gold and coloured stones, like the interior of St Mark's,\nVenice, and seemed to be of great antiquity, though of this he could not\nbe certain.\n\nThe light was so dim that what might have been the brilliant effect of\nthe whole, was lost, and the young engineer thought to himself\ninvoluntarily: \"This ought to be lit up by electric light--it would look\nquite different then!\" As he was deliberating how electric light might\nbe laid on, a door in the wall opened, and a number of little dwarf men\ntrooped in. They did not see him at first; for he was standing behind a\npillar. They settled themselves down on benches that were arranged in a\nsemicircle, and one of them with an important air mounted a raised dais\nfacing them. He was just beginning to speak with the words: \"Gentlemen\nof the Committee,\" when they caught sight of the stranger standing in\nthe centre of the hall, lantern in hand. They gave a cry of alarm, and\nwere just going to scuttle away like frightened rabbits, when Karl\ncalled out, \"Hi--Ho there--Gentlemen of the Committee--good Sirs--don't\nrun away. I won't harm you--_Christmas Tree_.\"\n\nNow Christmas Tree is the most solemn oath among the dwarfs--it is\nequivalent to swearing on the Bible with us. How Karl knew this, he did\nnot know; it came to him on the inspiration of the minute. Perhaps his\ngrandmother had told him stories in his childhood about the dwarf men,\nin which it occurred.\n\nIt had an instantaneous effect on the dwarfs who stood still at once.\n\"But you are one of the bad men who are building the tunnel,\" they cried\nout. \"Aha--we can spoil your little game, my good fellow, we can smash\nyou and your snorting old dragon who is coming here to devour us, into\npieces. We can throw rocks on the line--Aha!\"\n\n\"We have often watched you--though you were not aware of our presence,\"\nsaid the chairman. \"We had just called a committee meeting to decide\nwhat is to be done about this matter of the tunnel.\"\n\n\"Now you know it is all nonsense about the dragon,\" said Karl\npersuasively, as if he were talking to children. \"You have heard of\ntrains, haven't you? You are not so behind the times as all that!\"\n\n\"_Some_ of us have seen the dragon and even ridden in him,\" said Mr\nChairman. \"There is a famous story about that; but the majority still\nlook upon the railway with suspicion and even distrust. We only ask to\nbe let alone, and not be interfered with by meddling mortals,\" he said\nin a gruff voice. \"What do we need with you? Our civilization and our\nhistory are more ancient even than that of India or Egypt, and from us\nthe human race is descended.\"\n\n\"I tell you what,\" said Karl, \"I could put you up to a thing or two for\nall that. We live in Modern Europe, you know, and not in ancient Egypt.\nNow, for instance, why is this beautiful hall, a perfect work of art in\nits way, so badly illuminated!\"\n\n\"Badly illuminated! Why, what do you mean?\" cried the little men\nindignantly. \"Do you not see our glow-worms hanging in festoons on the\nwalls?\"\n\n\"O, I say, _glow-worms_! in the twentieth century, that's rather strong,\nyou know! what you want, is electric light.\"\n\n\"What's that?\" said the dwarfs curiously.\n\n\"You have only to press a little button on the wall, like this,\" he\npressed his thumb on the wall--\"and the whole place is lit up almost as\nif it were day.\"\n\n\"We don't believe it--we don't believe it,\" said the little men.\n\n\"But it's true, I assure you, _Christmas Tree_,\" said Karl.\n\n\"Wouldn't it make our eyes blink?\" said one thin little fellow.\n\nKarl noticed that the dwarfs' eyes were small and their faces pale. Most\nof them had quite white beards and hair.\n\n\"That comes of living so long underground, it is a loss of pigment,\"\nthought Karl. \"Like a geranium that has been kept in the cellar! Now I\ncould fix it up for you,\" said the young engineer, always keenly on the\nlook-out for a job. \"We are going to have it laid on in the tunnel.\"\n\n\"How much would it cost?\" inquired the dwarfs.\n\n\"O, a thousand pounds or so!\" said Karl carelessly. He had heard that\ndwarfs were very rich, and he was a good man of business, and had his\neyes open to his interests.\n\n\"That's a great deal of money, a great deal of money!\" said the little\nmen in chorus.\n\n\"O, as for that I am sure we could come to an agreement,\" said Karl. \"By\nthe way,\" he went on--\"do you happen to have a telephone here? I should\nlike to 'phone to a friend of mine and tell him where I am. It would be\nsuch a joke.\"\n\n\"What's a telephone?\" asked the dwarfs.\n\n\"You don't know what a telephone is! Himmel! you _are_ old-fashioned\ndown here--you are only half civilised!\"\n\n\"Half civilised, half civilised!\" repeated the dwarfs angrily, \"let us\nrepeat our civilisation----\"\n\n\"I'll tell you what a telephone is,\" said Karl, interrupting this burst\nof eloquence. \"It is a little tube connected with a wire, you put one\npart of it to your ear, and then you put your mouth to the tube and say:\n'No. 1280,' and then listen, and your friend will speak to you from\nmiles and miles away, and you can answer him.\"\n\n\"We don't believe it, we don't believe it!\" said the unbelieving dwarfs.\n\n\"It's true for all that, _Christmas Tree_,\" said Karl. \"I could fix that\nup for you too, if you have any connection with the outer air. You must\nhave,\" he continued, sniffing, \"for the air is nice and fresh here,\nquite different to that in the tunnel. Have you a ventilating shaft?\"\n\n\"O yes,\" said the little men, \"we can show you that!\" And they led him\nout of the hall. In the passage outside was a great cleft or crevice in\nthe rocks such as we call in England a chine. Above it the moon shone\nfull and bright. A waterfall rushed down on one side; he saw ferns and\ndear little plants leaning over the water, growing between the cracks of\nthe rocks. There were also glow-worms cunningly arranged in groups that\nlooked like fairy stars. On the other side, he observed to his joy rough\nsteps leading upwards cut in the solid rock. He sighed a sigh of relief,\nhere at least was the way out.\n\nHe regarded the pretty sight with the eye of the professional engineer,\nrather than that of the artist. \"That must be a stiff climb for you\nlittle men up there,\" he said. \"Now if you had a lift!\"\n\n\"What's that?\" asked the dwarfs eagerly.\n\n\"It's a little room that goes up and down when you pull a wire rope.\"\n\n\"We don't believe it, we don't believe it,\" said the sceptical gnomes\nagain.\n\n\"It's true nevertheless; now wouldn't it be fun to have a ride in it? I\ncould fix that up too, you know, if you gave me time and helped a bit\nyourselves,\" said Karl.\n\n\"Really you poor things,\" he went on, \"You do not seem to have heard\nmuch of modern technical progress down here in this rabbit-burrow. I beg\nyour pardon I'm sure\"--as they looked displeased again--\"Now I am really\ncurious to know--have you heard of Zeppelin?\"\n\n\"Zeppelin, no!--is he the King of Germany?\" said the dwarf who had been\nin the chair.\n\n\"Ha! ha!--King of Germany--well he _is_ nearly, in some people's eyes,\"\nsaid Karl. \"He has built an airship; it is the most wonderful of all new\ninventions, it floats in the air like a boat does in the water.\"\n\n \"Close by it passes, by soft breezes fanned,\n  Like a great steamboat straight from fairyland.\"\n\nhe went on in an enthusiastic way. \"You can go for a ride in it any day\nin Frankfurt, providing the weather is fine and you can afford to pay\nL15!\"\n\n\"Just listen to him, just listen to him!\" said the dwarfs. \"We don't\nbelieve a word you have said. You are imposing on our credulity, you bad\nman,\" and thereupon they flew at him and began to beat him with their\nclubs, which were heavily weighted, and to pinch him with their long\nfingers.\n\nIt might have gone hardly with him, but quick as thought Karl flashed\nout the little revolver from his pocket. They seemed to know the meaning\nof that modern toy; for they crouched back trembling, and not daring to\nmove.\n\n\"Now stop it, will you,\" he said, \"or I shall have to shoot you, and\ntake you home with me to be stuffed or put into the National\nAnthropological Museum. They would give me a good price for you,\" he\nsaid musingly--\"they would think you were The Missing Link.\"\n\n\"O please, Mr Hammerstein, don't shoot us--(\"however did the little\nchaps find out my name!\" thought Karl) we will believe all you say, even\nif it seems the greatest nonsense to us. After all birds fly, bats fly\nand fairies fly, why should not ships and trains fly?\" said the\nspokesman, who, I must tell you, was a relation of King Reinhold in the\nTaunus Mountains and was proud of belonging to a royal family.\n\nKarl called him Mr Query, because he was so fond of asking questions,\nbut so slow to take in a new fact, as indeed were all the dwarfs.\n\n\"You promised us _Christmas Tree_ not to harm us,\" said Mr Query,\nreproachfully.\n\n\"Well, I didn't hurt anyone, did I, but how about your treatment of me?\nThat wasn't in the contract either,\" said Karl.\n\nMeanwhile Karl looked about him curiously. He had never been to\ndwarfland before, and might never have the chance of visiting it again,\nand he did not wish to lose the opportunity of seeing all he could.\n\n\"Are there any more of you?\" he asked the dwarfs.\n\n\"I should think so,\" they answered. \"Hundreds and thousands of us live\nunder this mountain.\"\n\nKarl noticed passages running in all directions, and low caves which\nseemed to be dwellings, many of them richly ornamented and furnished. In\none of these caves he observed a looking-glass, and wondered which of\nthe dwarf men trimmed his beard before it. He met a great many little\nmen scurrying about, who cast anxious glances at the giant who had\nstrayed among them. Karl had frequently to stoop; the ceilings seemed\nvery low to him, although they were high enough compared to the dwarf\nmen.\n\n\"Where are the female dwarfs?\" he asked abruptly.\n\n\"Dwarfs have no womenfolk,\" Mr Query replied. \"We did away with them\nlong, long ago!\"\n\n\"That was rather rough on them, eh?\" said Karl.\n\n\"Well it happened so many centuries ago that we have forgotten all about\nit, and so are unable to gratify your curiosity. Perhaps if you care for\nantiquities and were to study the pictures on the walls, you might find\nout.\"\n\n\"Not my line,\" said Karl shortly.\n\n\"As we have no women,\" Mr Query continued, \"we never quarrel and have no\ndifferences of opinion.\"\n\n\"I expect no lady would care to live down here with you in this dark\nhole,\" said Karl, thoughtfully. \"But to whom does the looking-glass\nbelong?\"\n\n\"A fairy comes to visit us occasionally; she makes herself useful and\ntidies up the place a bit for us,\" said the dwarf. \"She's here\nnow--would you like to see her?\"\n\n\"Of course I should,\" said Karl, his heart beating fast at the thought\nof meeting a real fairy--perhaps she was a princess in disguise, and he\nmight be chosen to win her.\n\nThe dwarf drew back the curtain that hung before a beautifully furnished\ncave, and there Karl saw a young girl who was busy dusting and arranging\nhandsome gold vases on a carved bracket. Even by the pale light of the\nglow-worms and the lantern which he had not yet extinguished, he could\nsee that she was very beautiful. She had a mass of red-brown hair, that\nwaved in tiny curls about her forehead, and hazel eyes with dark\neyelashes. As to her figure, she was small and slight, so that she did\nnot look quite so monstrous in that little world as Karl did. She had a\nbig holland apron on, with a gaily embroidered border. When she saw\nKarl, she laughed. \"To think of meeting a young man in this old\nhole--how funny,\" she exclaimed.\n\n\"Are you a fairy?\" said Karl, bewildered by her beauty.\n\n\"Do I look like one?\" she answered with a toss of her bronze curls.\n\n\"Not exactly,\" said Karl, \"but then I have never seen a fairy; you are\npretty enough for one!\"\n\nShe made a little curtsy in acknowledgment of the compliment. \"I'll have\nfinished my work soon,\" she said, \"and then we will go home together.\"\n\n\"That will be delightful,\" said Karl.\n\nThe dwarfs were looking on.\n\n\"You may go,\" said Mr Query. \"You have worked enough for to-day.\" He\nhanded her several pieces of gold. Her eyes sparkled with glee as she\npocketed the coins; she was proud of having earned some money.\n\n\"Follow me,\" she said to Karl, \"and I will show you the way home. You\nwould never be able to find it alone.\"\n\n\"The dwarfs have burrowed here like moles,\" said Karl aside to the girl,\n\"and I believe they are almost as blind and ignorant.\"\n\n\"Do not speak disrespectfully of moles,\" said a dwarf who had overheard\nthe last part of this remark. \"They belong to the most intelligent of\nall creatures; who can build a fortress like the mole?\"\n\n\"Norah,\" said the dwarfs, \"Norah, when are you coming again?\"\n\n\"Very soon,\" she said, \"I'll bring some metal polish with me, and make\nyour vases shine!\"\n\n\"Norah,\" thought Karl, \"so that is her name. I wonder where she lives?\"\n\nNorah led the way back through intricate passages until they came to the\nopen space where there was the staircase leading up to the outside\nworld. \"Good morning,\" she said to the dwarfs.\n\nKarl pulled out his watch--yes--the night was already past, it was four\no'clock.\n\n\"I'll drop in again soon, and see about your little commissions,\" he\nsaid to the dwarfs. \"Electric light you want, telephone and lift, it\nwill be rather a big job.\"\n\n\"And what about the airship?\" asked Mr Query.\n\n\"O I can't rig that up for you; you must go to Frankfurt and see that\nfor yourselves. Good morning,\" and he turned to follow Norah, who was\nalready some way up the stone staircase. From a distance she really\nlooked like a fairy. The light of dawn shone on her wonderful hair; she\nhad taken off her apron, and had on a white dress trimmed with gold,\nthat fluttered as she mounted the steps. At the top she waited to take\nbreath, and Karl easily caught her up. They gazed down into the depths\nbeneath them, but no trace of dwarfland could they see. Even the\nglow-worms had vanished, and the rough steps looked like natural niches\nin the rock. They were on the top of the mountain. Near by stood a grove\nof firs, the trees were so gnarled and stunted from their exposed\nposition that they looked like a dwarf forest, and seemed appropriate\ngrowing there.\n\n\"Your name is 'Norah',\" said Karl boldly, \"but that is all I know about\nyou!\"\n\n\"I am no fairy princess, alas,\" said Norah, \"but only a poor landlord's\ndaughter. My father and I have the new hotel in Elm!\"\n\n\"O you must be the pretty innkeeper's daughter then of whom I have heard\nso much,\" said Karl. \"Now isn't it funny, I had meant to stay the night\nat your hotel on the chance of seeing you, and now we meet under the\nearth in dwarfland--romantic I call that! Why do you work for those\nlittle beggars?\" he continued.\n\n\"For the same reason that you have proposed doing so,\" she answered, \"to\nearn money. I was picking bilberries on the mountains and strayed into\ntheir land by chance one day. I found them busy at work spring cleaning,\nand helped them a bit, and that was my first introduction to the dwarfs.\nThey pay me well for little work, and starting an hotel costs a great\ndeal of money you must know. I am glad to be able to help my father.\"\n\n\"You do not come from this part of Germany, you speak quite differently\nto us,\" said the young man inquiringly.\n\n\"My home is over the seas,\" said Norah. \"My father is an Irishman; but\nwe found it hard to get on there, and meant to emigrate to America. Then\nfather changed his mind, and we came to Germany. My mother died some\nyears ago,\" she said sadly.\n\n\"Poor child,\" said Karl in a deep, sympathetic voice, \"there must be a\ngood deal of responsibility on your young shoulders.\"\n\n\"I should just think so,\" said Norah with a sigh, \"but our hotel is\ngoing to be a tremendous success!\" As she spoke, she led the way\nthrough a little narrow path, that crossed a heath where heather grew,\nand great masses of yellow starred ragwort. \"Ah! me beloved golden\nflower,\" she cried, pointing the plant out to Karl, who had passed it by\na thousand times as a common weed, but to whom it seemed from this day\nforth to be alive and full of meaning. \"We call it fairy-horses in\nIreland,\" she said, with a rapt look on her face, \"sure and I can see my\nnative mountains when I pluck it\"--and her eyes filled with tears.\n\nShe wanted no consoling however, her mood changed quickly enough. \"Do\ncome here,\" she called out to Karl, \"and see what I've found now!\" She\nshowed him a clump of pure white heather; \"it is tremendously lucky,\"\nshe said, \"and you shall have a bit too.\" So saying she stuck a piece of\nwhite heather in his buttonhole--real white heather, not the faded\nflowers which children sometimes mistake for it. Karl treasured the\nspray carefully.\n\n\"And how did you come to be among the dwarfs?\" said Norah. But their\nfurther conversation was checked by a little brook that ran straight\nacross the path. Now Norah usually took off her shoes and stockings and\nwaded over this stream; but she did not like to do so with Karl looking\non. Karl would have liked to pick her up in his arms and carry her\nacross like a true hero of romance; but he was shy of proposing it. So\nhe fetched some large flat stones, placed them dexterously in the\nstream, and sprang across himself, then he held out a hand to Norah who\nstepped over as quickly and gracefully as a young deer.\n\n\"Now I will tell you how it was you found me in dwarfland,\" said Karl as\nthey walked on together. \"I was at work on the new tunnel----\"\n\n\"You'll not be telling me that you are a working man?\" said Norah.\n\n\"No I am an engineer. I was on duty looking after the men, then, somehow\nor other I fell against the wall of the tunnel and hurt my arm\"; he\nshowed her his torn coat as a proof of the story.\n\n\"Poor thing,\" she interrupted, \"did you bind it up properly?\"\n\n\"O, it was a mere nothing,\" said Karl. \"Well--I found myself in a\nstrange winding passage that led right down into the central hall of the\ndwarfs.\" He did not wish to say that he had been asleep; he thought that\nwould sound so silly. \"Queer little fellows they are, those dwarfs,\" he\ncontinued, \"awfully ignorant too. Now will you believe it they had never\nheard of the Zeppelin airship?\"\n\n\"We'll really have to give them lessons,\" said Norah, laughing, \"but\nperhaps they are not so stupid as they make themselves out to be!\"\n\nClimbing over boulders and stones, laughing and talking the while like\ntwo children just out of school, they reached the bottom of the mountain\nand saw the village. It could hardly be called a town as yet, though\nNorah's father hoped that the new railway station would speedily convert\nit into one.\n\n\"Do you know where our hotel is?\" said Norah. \"It is at the other end of\nthe village; we will go round through the fields; the village folk stare\nso; they are up at five o'clock to do their field-work.\n\n\"There it is!\" she called out proudly, pointing to a large white house\nwith green shutters on which the words \"Hotel Fancy\" were written in\nlarge gold letters.\n\n\"What a queer name for an hotel!\" said Karl.\n\n\"Yes, don't you think it is original and attractive?\" said Norah. \"There\nare so many hotels called Hotel Hohenzollern'--or 'The German Emperor'\nand so I thought we would have a change.\"\n\n\"It is a splendid idea,\" said Karl, who was over head and ears in love\nwith Norah by this time and thought that everything she did and said,\nwas perfect. Still, like a prudent German, he wondered to himself if she\nwould make a good housewife. He knew she must be good at cleaning or\nthe dwarfs would hardly have employed her, but her dainty little hands\ndid not look like cooking.\n\n\"What would it matter, if the dinner were burnt sometimes,\" he thought,\n\"if I could have such a pretty, fascinating little girl to marry me?\"\n\n\"Will you come in and have some breakfast?\" said Norah as they\napproached Hotel Fancy.\n\n\"Rather,\" he said, \"I must own that I am famished. I only had a dry bit\nof bread and cheese for supper, and that is a long while ago.\"\n\nIt was early still, Norah's father was not yet up; so she set to work\nand lit the fire, and soon had the water boiling for coffee. She set a\nfine breakfast before him, ham and eggs and sausage and rolls. I am\nbound in strict veracity to say that love did not prevent his consuming\na large amount. He changed his mind about her cooking, and thought that\nshe could do everything well and was a model of perfection.\n\n\"Do have some, too, yourself,\" he said, and Norah soon joined him with a\nhearty appetite.\n\nMr O'Brian, for that was the name of Norah's father, was astonished to\nfind them at breakfast when he entered the comfortably furnished\nparlour.\n\n\"An early guest, father,\" said Norah. \"He is going to put up here for\nthe present; he is an engineer at work on the tunnel; good thing for\nus\"; she whispered the last sentence. \"I will see about getting your\nroom ready,\" she said, turning to Karl.\n\n\"Please do not trouble,\" said he. \"I'm due at the tunnel again at 7 a.m.\nand it is 6 o'clock now. I hope to return to-night about 8 o'clock; then\nI shall be glad of a room,\" he said, with a hardly suppressed yawn.\n\"Pray excuse me, I had rather a bad night,\" he added with a twinkle in\nhis eyes that only Norah perceived.\n\nAs soon as he was gone, Norah handed some gold pieces to her father.\n\n\"And do you think that I am doing right in taking this money from you,\nNorah?\" he asked.\n\n\"Why of course father! I'm telling you that it's fairy gold, and will\nbring us luck,\" she replied.\n\nThe Irish have a great respect for luck and omens; many of them still\nbelieve in the good folk, and Mr O'Brian, who was of a very easygoing\ndisposition, was quite satisfied with this explanation.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSome weeks passed. Karl and Norah became better friends every day. All\nKarl's previous notions of the universe had been knocked on the head by\nhis visit to dwarfland. He had thought that he knew almost everything\nthat there was to be known, but now he was always on the look-out for\nsurprises. Moreover his love for Norah had opened his eyes. Every bush\nseemed ablaze with fire, and the roses and pinks in the gardens smelt as\nthey had never smelt before.\n\nNorah was like a fairy princess; she was not easy to win, she loved her\nfreedom, and wished to call no man lord and master. Because she was such\na wild bird and of a poetic and dreamy temperament, Karl's practical\nmind appealed to her. He possessed that which she and her father lacked.\nShe was tired of her father's promises and castles in the air, which\nusually ended in bitter disappointment. How many guests had they had\nsince Hotel Fancy had been opened? She could almost count them on her\nfingers. The peasants frequented the old inn that they were accustomed\nto in the village, and very few strangers came their way.\n\n\"I will play waiter on Sunday and help you,\" said Karl one Saturday\nevening when he had returned from his work.\n\n\"Indeed and you'll not need to,\" said Norah with a pretty Irish lilt in\nher voice, \"it's not many people that will be coming! It will be\ndifferent of course when the new station is built; then we shall be\nflourishing,\" she continued.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was a fine Sunday afternoon. Karl and Norah sat in the garden under\nthe plane-trees which made a chequered pattern in shadow on the ground,\nand sipped glasses of Apfelwein or cider in German fashion.\n\n\"It was a queer thing that we two should meet in the little people's\nland. It seems as if we were meant to pull together, doesn't it?\" said\nKarl with an effort.\n\nNorah jumped up immediately, saying that she must see if the water was\nboiling for coffee.\n\n\"No, no,\" said Karl catching her by the hand; \"you are not going to run\naway like that; you've just got to listen to me, Norah; for I can't keep\nit in any longer. You are my fairy princess--I love you with all my\nheart, and I want you to promise me to be my little wife--will you?\"\n\n\"You don't know me yet,\" said Norah blushing like a rose. \"I've got a\nmost awful temper!\"\n\n\"I'll risk it,\" said Karl laughing, and they plighted their troth under\nthe trees in the garden with no one but the empty chairs and tables\nlooking on, that were spread in anticipation of the guests who had not\narrived.\n\nSo Karl and Norah were engaged to be married and were as happy as ever\nit is possible to be in this world! They did not celebrate the event in\nthe usual ceremonious German fashion; for Norah's friends and relations\nwere in Ireland and she had only a few acquaintances in Germany as yet.\nKarl's mother was a widow, and lived with her married daughter in\nPomerania; so she could not come so far south for anything less than a\nwedding or a funeral.\n\nNow Karl began to consider the material side of the question. \"Will the\nlove that we are rich in, light the fire in the kitchen, and the little\ngod of love turn the spit O!\" What had they to live on? He was a young\nman, and his income was very small; it takes many years in Germany to\nmake a career as engineer, unless you are exceptionally lucky and have\ninfluential friends.\n\nHotel Fancy was rather like its name and did not pay at all as yet. Now\nKarl had not forgotten the dwarfs, and Norah began to miss the gold\npieces which had disappeared fast enough in the last few weeks.\n\n\"I tell you what,\" she said, \"we will go together to dwarfland. You can\narrange about the electric light, and I will do some metal polishing; we\nwill meet afterwards and come home again together, it will be splendid\nfun!\"\n\n\"How can we get there?\" asked Karl somewhat dubiously.\n\n\"Why, the same way as we came out--through the rocky gap; I know the way\nas well as anything, I have been there frequently,\" said Norah.\n\nIt was early autumn; the evenings had begun to close in. Karl had\nmanaged to get off earlier than usual; still it was almost dusk as the\ntwo set out to go to dwarfland. The sun was setting and threw a\nwonderful golden glow over the world that was reflected in the hearts of\nthe young lovers.\n\n\"My stones must be there still,\" said Karl as they came to the little\nbrook, \"for who could have taken them away?\" Yet to his surprise there\nwere no stones there; neither were any to be found in the neighbourhood.\nThere was nothing for it, but to carry Norah over. He did not feel so\nshy and embarrassed this time, as he picked up his little sweetheart\nlaughing and struggling in his arms.\n\n\"You are as light as a feather,\" he said as he set her down again.\n\n\"A feather bed, you mean,\" she said, \"and they are a pretty fair weight.\nI shall never get used to German feather beds,\" she continued. \"I can't\neven get them to look right when I make them and shake them!\"\n\n\"You need to be born and brought up to them to appreciate them,\" he\nreplied, \"but never mind, what does it matter, what is a feather bed in\ncomparison with our love?\" They laughed for pure joy and good humour as\nthey walked along; ah how quickly time passes when one is so happy! The\nsunlight gilded the rocks before them, till they looked as if they\ncontained streaks of gold ore. They crossed the little moor, and\nclambered over the rocks till they reached the stunted fir-grove.\n\nLooking back they saw that the sky had become a glowing red as it often\ndoes just before the light dies out; seen through the dark, twisted\ntrees the wood appeared to be on fire. The lovers sat down and gazed for\na few moments in silence till the glory faded from the sky.\n\n\"Now for it, Norah,\" said Karl getting up and offering her a hand, \"the\nway down into dwarfland must be quite near here!\"\n\n\"Of course I know, I can find it at once,\" she answered.\n\nThey searched carefully around for the great crack in the rocks, but\ncould find nothing in the least resembling it.\n\n\"How absurd; how _can_ we miss it when it is certainly not more than a\nyard or two away,\" said Norah.\n\n\"The steps were not so easily recognisable, if I remember rightly,\" said\nKarl, \"but we are sure to find them in a minute.\"\n\nIt grew darker and darker; the mountain was covered with boulders of\nstone, juniper bushes and stunted trees; but no trace of the great rent\nin the mountain-side could they discover.\n\n\"Did we dream it all?\" said Karl.\n\n\"Impossible, why I have been down there many times,\" said Norah\nbeginning to feel bitterly disappointed.\n\n\"Supposing I were to fetch some of my men here and blow up the rocks\nwith dynamite; we must be able to get in then, for the mountain is as\nfull of dwarfs as bees in a hive,\" said Karl, who was getting in a\ntemper.\n\n\"And do you think they would reward you handsomely for your services,\"\nsaid Norah sarcastically, \"and O the poor little men, they always\ntreated me with the utmost kindness and politeness, and gave me far more\nmoney than ever I bargained for!\"\n\n\"They nearly pinched me black and blue, till I frightened them with my\nrevolver,\" said Karl.\n\n\"The wretches!\" said Norah, \"but why?\"\n\n\"Because I was silly enough to tell them about the airship, and they\nthought I was humbugging them.\"\n\n\"How absurd!\" Norah exclaimed. \"But what are we to do now, Karl?\" she\ncontinued in a doleful voice. \"I _must_ have some money; we are still in\ndebt for the greater part of our furniture; and the house is heavily\nmortgaged.\"\n\n\"If I could only get a good post!\" said Karl sighing deeply. \"I had\nreckoned on those dwarf chaps!\"\n\n\"We shall never be able to marry,\" said Norah, now in the depths of\ndespair; \"our house will have to be given up, and our things sold by\nauction, and I, O I shall have to marry a horrid, rich old peasant who\nwill treat me as a servant, and father will be obliged to work in the\nfields.\" With this she burst into tears.\n\nIt was quite dark now save for the new moon whose pale crescent shone in\nthe sky. Norah observed it in spite of her tears.\n\n\"The new moon!\" she exclaimed. \"O do let us turn all the money that we\nhave in our pockets. How much have you got Karl?\"\n\n\"About 10 shillings,\" he replied.\n\n\"O you are richer than I am; I have only 8d. in my purse; nevertheless\nlet us turn what we have, and it will be sure to bring us a fortune.\"\n\nKarl laughed. \"You little fairy,\" he said, and looked at her with\nadmiration; then involuntarily his eyes strayed in the direction of the\nfir-grove. He thought he could see something moving there. Norah looked\ntoo. \"Karl,\" she said excitedly, \"I do believe it is the dwarf men after\nall; who else could it be?\"\n\nAt the same moment they caught sight of a queer form with a turned-up\nnose and peaked cap clearly outlined against the sky, and recognised Mr\nQuery.\n\n\"Hullo!\" said Karl.\n\n\"[text missing in original] to you,\" he said in a droll manner.\n\n\"Now, Mr Dwarf,\" said Karl, anxious to proceed to business, \"what about\nour little agreement as to electric light, etc.?\"\n\n\"The committee has decided against it,\" said Mr Query emphatically.\n\"What do we want with your new-fangled inventions; you would bring your\nworkmen with you; they would discover our treasures, and turn the whole\nplace into a mine, and of course we should be obliged to decamp.\"\n\n\"Well, there is something in what you say,\" said Karl to whom this idea\nhad already occurred, \"but we could avoid that catastrophe!\"\n\n\"As for you,\" continued the dwarf turning to Norah, \"we have discovered\nthat you are a human being also, and no fairy; therefore we shall not\nrequire your services any longer.\"\n\n\"What a horrid way to give me notice, as if I could help not being a\nfairy!\" said poor Norah weeping bitterly.\n\nThe little fellow was much distressed; he could not make out what was\nthe matter with her.\n\n\"Don't cry, little Fraeuleinchen,\" he said, \"I am sure we never thought\nyou were so fond of us as all that; it is very gratifying, but it is\ntoo late now to alter our decision; the way down into our kingdom is\nsealed for ever!\"\n\n\"I could soon open it again,\" said Karl wrathfully.\n\n\"As for that, it would not be quite such an easy matter as you think,\"\nsaid Mr Query mockingly. \"However we are willing to offer you terms,\" he\ncontinued, \"if you will leave us alone and protect our secrets.\"\n\n\"What terms?\" said Karl and Norah eagerly.\n\n\"You shall see,\" said the dwarf, \"follow me to the fir-trees.\" So saying\nhe sprang down from the stone on which he had been sitting and came up\nand shook hands with them.\n\n\"We are going to be married! what do you think of that?\" they informed\nhim.\n\n\"Humph! Your taste, not mine,\" said Mr Query. \"However Norah will be\nable to clean your gold and silver dishes capitally; that's a comfort\nfor you.\"\n\n\"We haven't got any gold and silver dishes to clean, alas!\" said Norah.\n\n\"Poor things,\" said Mr Query, \"well we'll see.\" He proceeded to the\nfir-trees where the Gentlemen of the Committee were again assembled,\nstanding in a solemn semicircle. \"If you will sign this contract, we are\nwilling to give you a reward. I speak in the name of the Gentlemen of\nthe Committee,\" said Mr Query, and the little men nodded their heads in\nassent. He drew out a roll of parchment from a bag he carried with him\nand handed it to Karl. Norah looked over his shoulder.\n\nOn the parchment was written the following:\n\n     WE,\n                     KARL HAMMERSTEIN,\n                     NORAH O'BRIAN,\n\n     pledge our solemn oath _Christmas Tree_, that we will not attempt\n     to visit dwarfland again, or molest the dwarfs in any way, by\n     offering them modern inventions for which they have no use, etc.,\n     etc., or by revealing their secret chambers to the glaring light\n     of day.\n                             _Signed_..............................\n                                     ..............................\n\n\"We are willing enough to sign,\" said Karl, \"but what are your terms,\nold man; we want to know that first. You offered us a bribe, you know.\"\n\n\"All in good time,\" said Mr Query. \"Gentlemen of the Committee, display\nthe treasure!\" The dwarf men formed themselves into a ring, in the\ncentre of which Norah and Karl could see masses of what looked like\nsolid gold. \"You may take as much of this as you like,\" they said, \"and\nwe warrant you on our solemn word of honour _Christmas Tree_ that it is\npure, unalloyed gold.\"\n\n\"We'll sign anything you like, dear little men,\" said Norah, joyfully,\n\"and I invite you all to my wedding!\"\n\n\"Three weeks from to-day,\" said Karl.\n\nBut Norah was too excited to notice what he was saying.\n\n\"I shall always believe in the new moon,\" she repeated again and again.\n\"How shall we carry it?\" she exclaimed suddenly. \"I have not even got a\nbasket with me.\"\n\n\"My men shall trundle it along for you in wheelbarrows,\" said Mr Query.\n\"No please, do not say 'thank you.' I have a great objection to being\nthanked.\"\n\nKarl and Norah now signed the document with joyful hearts. Norah\nprofessed herself very sorry not to see her dwarf friends again. She had\na real affection for the droll little men.\n\n\"You may come across us sometime again, who knows,\" said Mr Query. \"We\nmake excursions into your world from time to time. It is improbable but\nnot impossible that we may meet again. Good-bye!\" A brilliant flash as\nof lightning shot from under the ground; the earth trembled and shook.\nNorah clung to Karl in terror; for she thought that the earth would\nswallow them up too. Then Mr Query and the dwarfs disappeared\nunderground calling out as they did so: \"You see we have our lift and\nour electric light too, Mr Engineer--ha! ha!--we are not quite so behind\nthe times as you thought us--ha! ha!\"\n\nNorah and Karl stood still in speechless astonishment; then they looked\nanxiously for their gold, fearing that the dwarfs might have played them\na trick after all. But no, there were two jolly strong-looking little\nfellows with wheelbarrows. \"We've got the gold all right,\" they said.\n\"Don't you be afraid. We've put some dirty old potatoes at the top,\"\nthey continued with a cunning expression on their faces, \"just in case\nwe meet anyone on the way you know--we should have to hop skip and\njump--one, two, three and off, and it might look awkward for you.\"\n\n\"I am sure it's very kind of you,\" said Norah, \"and we can never thank\nyou enough,\" and off they all set down the mountain. It was a\ntroublesome job to get the heavy wheelbarrow over the stream. Norah\ndeclared afterwards that some of the gold was lost there; but they found\nno trace of it again if it were so. They did not feel safe until they\nreached the gate of Hotel Fancy.\n\n\"Shall we put it in the back yard or in the stable?\" said the little\nfellows in a hoarse whisper.\n\n\"Put it in the corner of the stable,\" said Norah, \"as we have not got a\nhorse no one goes in there. We will manage the rest, _thank you_ so\nmuch.\"\n\n\"_Please_ don't thank us,\" said the little men, \"dwarfs are not used to\nthat, and it hurts their feelings.\"\n\n\"Well, here is something for your labours,\" said Karl, and he gave the\nlittle men a handful of silver. They turned it over and over and seemed\nto regard it as a great curiosity. Then they heard a movement in the\nhouse, and quick as lightning they were off before Karl and Norah could\nsay good-bye.\n\nMr O'Brian was pacing up and down in a great state of agitation; it was\nnearly midnight and he feared they might have met with an accident.\n\"There's no depending on the fairies,\" he said to himself, \"and dwarfs\nare said to be treacherous,\" so you see he knew something of what Norah\nwas up to.\n\nHis joy was the greater when Norah and Karl rushed in and dragging him\nto the stables showed him the pile of gold. \"I'll be for taking it to\nthe bank at once,\" he said, \"you never know but what it may melt away,\nor turn into a heap of leaves, I've read stories like that.\"\n\n\"Our wedding shall be next week,\" said Karl, joyfully.\n\n\"And aren't you going to give me any time to get my trousseau?\" said\nNorah with a dancing light in her eyes that made her look more\nenchanting than ever. \"Sure and I'll be wanting the finest trousseau\nthat ever a princess had.\"\n\n\"We'll turn Hotel Fancy into a palace,\" said Mr O'Brian.\n\nThe wedding was celebrated three weeks from this date, as they had\nagreed. Norah wore an exquisitely soft cream silk gown, embroidered with\nreal gold; it was said that the embroidery was a present from the\ndwarfs. Certain it is too that she wore an old pearl necklace of such\nmarvellous workmanship that the like was never seen before.\n\nThe tale was whispered that a little deformed man had been seen to slip\na parcel containing the necklace into the letter-box.\n\nNorah's relations came over from Ireland to be present at the wedding,\nand you may be sure that Karl's mother arrived too all the way from\nPomerania to share the festivities and the cake. Hotel Fancy was crammed\nwith guests; every available room was occupied; there was some talk\nalready of enlarging the house.\n\nOne of the presents that the bride had from her husband, was a\nlooking-glass, set with precious stones. People thought that it was a\ncurious wedding-present, and wondered if Norah were exceptionally vain.\nBut Karl declared that if it had not been for a looking-glass he might\nnever have known his wife, a remark which sounded more mysterious than\never.\n\nMany conjectures were made concerning it, but none of them were half so\nstrange as the truth. Another present was a brooch set in diamonds in\nthe shape of a crescent moon.\n\nAs they were now wealthy, Karl was able to indulge his passion for\nmechanical inventions, and Hotel Fancy was full of the most delightful\nsurprises: fountains in unexpected places in the spray of which little\nballs danced up and down, a rare gramophone that played the most soft\nand pleasant music, every variety of electric light and so on.\n\nNorah was a little disappointed that her friends the dwarfs did not come\nto the wedding; but what could she expect if her mother-in-law and\nuncles and aunts and cousins were all asked as well! Could she expect\nthat the dignified Mr Query would condescend to become an object of\ngeneral curiosity? I have heard that the little men called and left\ntheir cards some days after the wedding, when Norah and Karl were away\non their honeymoon, and that Mr O'Brian treated them as royal visitors,\nand that they left charmed with his hospitality, and astounded at the\nmany entertaining and marvellous things that were to be seen in Hotel\nFancy.\n\n\n\n\nKAeTHCHEN AND THE KOBOLD\n\n\nHalf-way up the long steep hill that leads from Soden to Koenigstein, a\nrough road branches off to the left, plunging suddenly into a valley,\nand passing through the little village of Altenhain. As you walk down\nthis steep rocky incline, the Taunus Mountains rise up grand and high in\never-changing panorama.\n\nAt the bottom of the hill lies Altenhain, an ordinary enough Taunus\nvillage, save for the beautiful shrine that stands on the high road.\nThere a Crucifix hangs between two enormous poplar trees, one of the\nmost beautiful natural altars in the world. The trees are tall and\npointed like church spires, the trunks venerable with age. May the\nlightning spare these grand old trees, and the winds play gently through\ntheir boughs!\n\nIn this village lived a schoolmaster with his wife and family consisting\nof a daughter, twelve years old, and a baby boy. They were not really\npoor; for, besides their income, they had a piece of land to grow\npotatoes and vegetables; also a strip of vineyard and fine strawberry\nfields on the Dachberg, the produce of which they sold in Frankfurt for\na good price. Moreover, they kept pigs and chickens and geese, and two\ndear little goats that gave them milk.\n\nOn a fine September day Kaethchen (that was the daughter's name) was on\nthe Dachberg, helping her parents to gather up the potatoes for the\nwinter. Two sacks stood already full, looking from a distance like funny\nold peasants. Kaethe liked to watch the potato fires that are lit to burn\nthe refuse of the plants, smouldering and crackling in the dry autumn\nair, and the smoke curling up in the clear sky.\n\nIt was now about five o'clock, and as she had worked all day, she was\ntired and began to groan and grumble. So her mother said: \"Hurry up and\ngo home now, child, before it gets dark. Fetch the baby (the neighbours\nhad taken charge of it for the day), light the fire, put on the kettle,\nand peel and boil the potatoes for supper.\"\n\nKaethe was only too glad to be let off; her tiredness soon vanished as\nshe flew down the steep, grassy slope of the Dachberg, slipping and\ntumbling every minute. The sun was low, and glowed through the pines and\nlarches, which stand here together, making a wonderful contrast.\n\nKaethe found her way across the wet emerald field coloured with patches\nof exquisite lilac from the autumn crocuses growing there in thousands,\nhanging out their cheeky little orange tongues. She sang and shouted for\njoy, and a feeling half sadness, half exhilaration, that comes to us\noften at the twilight, came over her. She wore a little red skirt and\nloose cotton blouse, and a tidy pinafore put on in order to cover her\nsoiled frock on the way home. Her hair was ash blonde, and braided in\ntwo plaits round her head. Her eyes were dark and deep-set, and were a\nstrange contrast to her hair. She passed over the tiny bridge where the\nbrook crosses the field, and gathered a bunch of wild flowers,\nmeadowsweet and harebells, water forget-me-nots and ragged robin, and\nmade a pretty nosegay. She also picked a graceful spray of hops, the\nleaves slightly tinged with red, and wound it in and out of her hair.\nShe had forgotten the baby and the supper and all the things for which\nshe was responsible, and was just a little maiden living in her own\nenchanted land.\n\nNow the path wound close by the pine woods, and the air seemed to grow\nchillier and more solemn. She saw great white clouds resting on the\nDachberg above her. She seemed so far away, down in this valley and so\nalone. But she knew that her father and mother were near, probably\nwatching her from the hill-top; it was silly to be frightened, she knew\nthe way so well.\n\nSuddenly something sprang out of the bushes on to the path in front of\nher. She gave a great jump, but then so did he and she saw that it was\nonly an old green frog. He cheered her up at once, and she began to poke\nat him with a stick and to sing:\n\n \"The frog sits in the rushes,\n     The funny fat old man,\n  And sings his evening ditties\n     As sweetly as he can,\n  Quark--Quark--Quark.\"\n\nBut as suddenly as he had appeared on the scene, the frog vanished again\nwith a leap and a bound into the dark waters of the little brook that\nran along by the side of the way.\n\nThen she heard a rustling of the bushes and saw a little red squirrel\npeering at her with his bright, inquisitive eyes. Round and round the\ntree-trunk he went, enjoying himself thoroughly, and making fun of\nKaethchen, playing peep-bo like a baby.\n\nThe sun glowed through the tree trunks. It must be about six o'clock. \"I\nmust hurry up or supper will not be ready when my father and mother come\nhome,\" she thought.\n\nShe then became aware of the sound of footsteps coming towards her along\nthe path.\n\n\"Probably a peasant from Altenhain,\" she thought, and was pleased to\nthink of meeting a friend. But the footsteps sounded strange and light,\nmore like the pattering of raindrops through leaves, and then for a\nmoment, she turned giddy; it seemed to her as if the trees were really\nrushing past her, as they seem to do when we look at them out of a\nrailway carriage. One of the young oak trees seemed to be running\ntowards her down the path; but as she looked more closely, and her head\nbecame steadier, she saw that it was a boy a little older than herself,\nwho came running towards her, and very queer he looked.\n\nHe had a great mass of brown curly hair tumbling about his head; green\nears--it seemed to her, _could_ it be possible? No, it must be that he\nhad stuck oak leaves into his curly locks for ornament, pretty oak\nleaves tinged with soft red. Moreover he had the bluest and strangest\neyes she had ever seen. They shone like wonderful jewels at one moment,\nand then turned dull and opaque and looked almost dead. He had on rough\ngreen trousers, and a white shirt with yellow embroidered braces; his\nfeet were bare and very brown. When he saw Kaethe, he gave a wild kind of\nIndian whoop, and danced round and round her, much to the poor child's\ndismay, his eyes flashing all sorts of colours. Her heart beat fast, but\nnot a word or sound would come out of her mouth.\n\nThe boy then made a deep bow, and took her by the hand. Soon he had his\nlong arms round her waist and was trying to kiss her.\n\nKaethe began to cry with fear and indignation, \"You rude, naughty boy,\"\nshe said, \"I will tell my mother of you.\"\n\nThe imp seemed much surprised, caught one of her tears on his finger,\nheld it up to the light and then sucked it, making funny faces all the\ntime. Kaethe could not help laughing, and then she dried her tears with a\ncorner of her apron. She sat down on a tree-trunk for a moment and tried\nto think.\n\nImmediately the boy sat by her, and begged her to give him a kiss. He\nlooked quite nice and pretty for the moment, and Kaethe thought she had\nbetter do as he wished, or he might begin his antics again. So she gave\nhim a motherly kiss, just as she would give to her baby brother, smack!\non the cheek. Immediately the queer look went out of his eyes, and a\nmore human expression took its place.\n\n\"Kaethe,\" he said, \"Kaethe, I am but a lonely little imp of the forest,\nbut I love you, Kaethe, and I want you to marry me, and live with me\nalways, and be my own little wife. Will you, O will you? O _do, do_,\ndo,\" he said, dancing up and down in wild excitement.\n\n\"O goodness gracious me, you are certainly quite crazy,\" said Kaethe, \"I\nwill tell my mother of you!\" She began to cry again, and smacked him\nwhenever he tried to come near her.\n\nThen he seized her by the hand and dragged her after him into the wild\nwoods, till they were lost in the forest.\n\n\"O dear, O dear, whatever _shall_ I do? what will mother say when she\nfinds no Kaethe, no supper, and no baby. Boo-o-o-o!\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" said our imp consolingly, \"you can't help it now, you have\nrun away with me you see.\"\n\n\"I didn't, indeed I didn't,\" interrupted Kaethe indignantly.\n\n\"I will send a moonshine Kaethchen to take your place for the night. You\n_are_ fond of dreaming, aren't you?\"\n\n\"O yes, mother often calls me 'Traeum Lies' (Dreaming Liese).\"\n\n\"Well then, it's all right, she will not notice anything, and you and I\nwill have fine times together. If you won't marry me, at least, we can\nget _engaged_ you know, that will be fine fun.\"\n\n\"Hum----\" said Kaethe, \"that _would_ be amusing. We might _play_ at being\nengaged! that would not matter.\"\n\n\"Have you a gold ring for me?\"\n\n\"O we will go and buy one at the flower shop,\" said he.\n\n\"At the _flower_ shop, that is a funny place to buy rings at,\" said\nKaethe.\n\n\"Buttercups and dandelions melted to a yellow heat make splendid fairy\ngold,\" he replied.\n\n\"Ah, then you really _are_ a fairy!\" said the little girl.\n\n\"Why of course, did you think I was a human child like you? What _did_\nthey teach you at school?\"\n\n\"Reading, writing and arithmetic, history and geography and scripture\nand sewing,\" said Kaethe.\n\n\"But not how to know a fairy when you see one, O my stars!\" said our\nhero.\n\n \"What is the good of learning\n    To read and write and sew,\n  To count and do addition\n    If fairies you don't know?\n\n  How do you know a fairy?\n    O by his glittering eye,\n  And by his light, light footsteps\n    You know when he goes by.\n\n  O what are school and lessons,\n    My little maiden, pray,\n  If to the land of fairy\n   They do not show the way?\"\n\nSo he sang, and Kaethchen thought to herself: \"I've always suspected that\nwe did not learn _everything_ at school.\"\n\nBy this time her little head was completely turned; she thought no more\nof supper or mother or baby, but only wondered with round eyes what\nwould happen next.\n\nThe moon shone brilliantly through the branches, and she noticed that\nthe trees began to move, and some of them quickly changed places.\n\n\"Have you ever seen the trees dance?\" said our hero. We will call him\nGreen Ears; for I had forgotten to say that being a tree-imp, his ears\nwere shaped like oak leaves, and were green tinged with pinky red. It\nwas peculiar of course, but not so very noticeable on account of his\nthick curly hair. He was able to move them if anything startled him, to\nprick up his ears in very truth; then you saw that they really\n_belonged_ to him.\n\nThe trees did not wait for Kaethe to reply; they formed themselves in\nlong avenues and began a stately dance, something like a quadrille.\n\nA soft fairy music was played by an invisible band. Squirrels sprang at\nintervals from one tree to another, spreading out their bushy tails and\nuttering strange cries like new-born babies.\n\nBirds flew in and out singing and keeping time to the music and rhythm\nof the dance. It was a strange sight, grotesque yet beautiful; the trees\ntook half human forms and faces; it was funny to see how they joined\nhands (or branches) from time to time in the dance. After they had\nwatched for some time and the sport had become monotonous, Green Ears\ntook Kaethe to the top of the hill, and there they saw the beautiful\npeaked mountain called the Rossert, bathed in the moonlight.\n\n\"Well, children, enjoying yourselves on this fine night, I hope?\" said a\nwoman of tall and commanding presence. \"Will you come home and have\nsupper with me? I am sure Green Ears has forgotten to offer you anything\nto eat.\"\n\nHere she chucked him under his pointed chin.\n\nThe two children, fairy and human, turned and followed her, they felt\nthat she was a person of authority and must be obeyed. Her fair hair\nfell in waving masses almost to her feet, it was covered with soft\nfeathers, as if she had recently been filling feather beds.\n\nThe children saw a lighted cottage before them, with red roof and\nblack-beamed walls like so many in the Taunus. A strong smell of\nhoneysuckle was wafted towards them.\n\n\"This is my wood cottage, it is quite close to the Rossert, as you see.\nSome people call me the wood-woman, others Frau Holle,\" she said. \"The\nOld King (the mountain called Altkoenig) is my brother; Olle (slang in\nGerman for _old_) or Holle, it is all the same, we are all relations in\nthe Taunus, you must know!\"\n\nIn front of the house was a dear little garden. The moonlight shone\nbrightly on the flower-beds. The fairies were awake and peeped out with\nthe greatest interest as the children entered.\n\nOver the door was written in letters made of light, like those beautiful\nadvertisements of beer and chocolate which so adorn the city of London\nby night:\n\n THIS WAY TO FAIRYLAND.\n\nKaethe felt that she was learning more in one night than in all her life\nbefore of that strange dream-world on the borders of which we live.\n\nThe house was so neat and tidy, that it looked as if it had just been\nspring-cleaned; the windows stood wide open, the moonlight streamed in.\nA little table was laid for supper.\n\nFrau Holle invited them to sit down and they did so at once.\n\nGreen Ears sat opposite to Kaethe staring at her with a wistful\nexpression of adoration and love in his eyes.\n\nA chocolate pudding with cream and sugar and a bilberry jelly stood on\nthe table, also rolls which were thickly buttered and spread with\nvarious kinds of fairy sausage purely vegetarian in character. Mugs of\ndelicious-looking milk were ready for each child.\n\nBut the supper reminded Kaethe of her home and she felt a little uneasy.\n\nHowever she had _at the bottom of all_ a comfortable feeling that all\nwas right. This is the way with many of our self-imposed troubles, big\npeople's as well as little people's. We groan and grumble, and express\nour views that everything is very wrong, and the world is soon going to\nthe dogs, but _at the bottom of all_, we know that it is all right, and\nthat all things work together for good.\n\nGreen Ears began to fidget; he was like a little girl I know, and\n_could_ not sit still for more than one minute.\n\n\"Frau Holle,\" he said, \"Frau Holle, Gracious Lady, we want to get\nengaged.\"\n\nFrau Holle burst out laughing: \"A mortal child and a Kobold of the\nforest! nonsense, it's impossible!\"\n\nKaethchen lifted up her brown eyes. \"We might play at it,\" she said. \"It\nwould be a beautiful game.\"\n\nFrau Holle chuckled so much at this that she nearly upset the milk jug.\n\n\"How _do_ people get engaged?\" said Kaethe. \"I have often thought about\nit, but I never could imagine how they do it?\"\n\n\"Didn't they teach you that at school either?\" said Green Ears. \"My\nstars! What _did_ they teach you at school?\"\n\n\"Children,\" said the wood-woman, \"children, do you mean it?\"\n\n\"Certainly,\" said Green Ears.\n\n\"I think so,\" said Kaethe.\n\n\"Do you wish to buy rings?\"\n\n\"O yes,\" decidedly from both children.\n\n\"Now listen; there is a passage from my house leading to the shops, most\nconvenient I assure you,\" said Frau Holle. \"Everything delivered\npunctually on the premises within one minute of purchasing it. No lifts\nor motor-cars necessary. You see I know the ways of the world.\" So\nsaying she opened the back door, and they passed into a lane lighted by\nmany lamp-posts. These lamp-posts gave a very bright light and had queer\nfaces like the man in the moon. They grinned and winked as Green Ears\nand Kaethchen went by.\n\nIt was a lovely fair; a fair in fairyland you may imagine how gorgeous\nthat must be!\n\nThere were stalls on which lay all sorts of tempting things, cakes,\nsweet and toys. Kaethe felt sorry that she had no money.\n\nAt the flower stall they paused; the flowers were exquisitely arranged,\nand out of each peeped a little Fee.\n\nIn big gold letters was written:\n\n CONDENSED FLOWERS FOR SALE.\n\nAs Green Ears asked boldly for engagement rings, a fairy who stood\nbehind the stall, handed him two little gold rings made to fit any\nfinger; they were a new patent and self-adapting, the fairy said.\n\nGreen Ears was so pleased that he turned head over heels again and again\nfor joy, a funny proceeding for a would-be husband.\n\n\"Do you know _how_ to get engaged,\" he said to the fairy.\n\n\"Why no, not exactly, but I have heard it is very simple,\" said she.\n\"Mother Holle (here she made a deep curtsy), Mother Holle knows all\nabout it.\"\n\nKaethe looked out of the corner of her eyes at her lover, and wished he\nwould behave with more dignity. Now he was cramming his mouth with\nsweeties.\n\n\"Aren't you going to give me _any_?\" she said.\n\n\"O my stars!\" he said again, surprised; it had never struck him. Imps\nare usually egoists; that is to say they think _first_ of themselves.\nThere are exceptions, but this is the rule.\n\nHe went rapidly from stall to stall and returned with his arms full of\nparcels done up in pink paper which he presented to Kaethchen with a low\nbow. She accepted them with much delight and they fell to munching\nchocolate together; it was a real bond of union, and they were not the\nfirst sweethearts who discovered it.\n\nThey reached the end of the street and suddenly found themselves alone\nonce more on the slopes of the Altenhainer Thal or Valley.\n\nGreen Ears sat down by Kaethchen, and squeezed himself up closely to her.\n\n\"Give me your pretty little hand,\" he said. \"_Do_ you know which is the\nright finger?\"\n\n\"O yes!\" Kaethchen knew that quite well, though I have heard that it is a\ndisputed point in Germany.\n\nShe stuck out her little hard-worked fingers, and he put the gold ring\non the third finger of the left hand. It fitted exactly and with a cry\nof joy Kaethchen put the other on his long brown finger.\n\nThen both the children laughed and clapped their hands, and danced\nmerrily about. \"Now we are engaged,\" they cried, \"really engaged to be\nmarried!\"\n\nThey made such a noise that the squirrels were cross and threw sticks at\nthem for disturbing their early-morning sleep.\n\nThen, goodness knows why--let us call it reaction--Kaethe began to cry\nagain, great, big drops.\n\nGreen Ears was much puzzled.\n\n\"You _are_ clever, now I can't do that,\" he said. \"You must stay with\nme always, and live with me in the woods, and be my own little\nsweetheart.\"\n\n\"O no,\" said Kaethe, \"I should never be allowed to do that; I must go to\nschool every day, and then I have my exercises to do, and to help mother\nwith the housework; the baby to mind; and--O I am always so busy.\"\n\n\"I will come and help you,\" said Green Ears.\n\n\"But you _can't_, you are not _real_, you know,\" said Kaethe and began to\ncry again.\n\n\"Kaethchen,\" said Green Ears, and he looked quite serious and thinky all\nat once. \"Listen to me. I will go to the Old King; he is the ruler of\nall the fairies here, and I will beg him to teach me how to become\nhuman. It may be years before we meet again, for the way into your world\nis very hard for me to find. Yes it is easier for you to find the way\ninto our world, than for us to enter yours; but cheer up, I will dare it\nand do it for your sake! but O sweetheart wait for me; O wait for me!\"\n\n \"Wait for me, my little sweetheart,\n    Till I come to you again,\n  Win the world for you, my sweetheart,\n    With its joy and with its pain.\n\n  Wait for me, my little sweetheart,\n    For when falling on the ground\n  I beheld those curious dewdrops\n    To your heart my heart was bound.\n\n  All my fairy life is nothing,\n    All my fairy joy I give,\n  Just to hold your hands, my sweetheart,\n    In your world with you to live.\n\n  Wait for me, my little sweetheart:\n    I will find the way to you,\n  As a grown man I will seek you,\n    Seek and find you ever true.\"\n\nSo singing they walked arm in arm through the long winding valley, till\nthe dawn approached like a golden bird opening its great wings to fly.\n\nKaethchen reached her cottage door. All was silent within. \"Good-bye,\"\nshe said, and their eyes met in one last farewell.\n\n\"Auf Wiedersehen!\" said Green Ears (that pretty German farewell greeting\nwhich means so much more than good-bye), and then he stole back down the\nstony street, kissing his hands again and again to the little girl.\n\nIn some strange way Kaethchen passed _through_ the door of her little\ncottage; she had become for the time incorporeal; through the touch of a\nfairy her body and soul had become _loose_, that is to say, and she was\nable to enter the house as silently as a person in a dream. She went\nthrough the kitchen and up the steep wooden stairs. It seemed to her as\nif her feet did not touch the ground, she floated rather than walked.\nShe reached her own little attic, and saw the room as if it were a\npicture, the square window-frame, the branches of the trees outside,\nthe old pictures on the walls that she was so fond of.\n\nBut what was her surprise to see _herself_ curled up asleep in her big\nwooden bed!\n\nThe horror of it made her faint, and she remembered no more until she\nfound herself in her own bed under her own big feather sack. In order\nthat she should not forget her night's adventures, or think it was all\nmerely a dream, she found a ring of yellow grass wound tightly round her\nthird finger. From that hour, though the ring fell to pieces, the mark\nof it was clearly to be seen on her finger. It _was_ a fairy ring, you\nsee.\n\nHer mother apparently had not missed her, and the baby was as jolly as\never.\n\n\"What _was_ the matter with you last night, Kaethe?\" said her mother.\n\"You were dreamier than ever; not a word could we get out of you. You\n_must_ have been tired out, you poor child!\"\n\n\"But everything was all right, wasn't it, mother, the potatoes were\nboiled and the supper ready?\"\n\n\"Why of course you managed very nicely. Now hurry up and let us have\nbreakfast.\"\n\nNow I feel sure that all the children who read this story will want to\nknow what happened to Kaethchen and Green Ears later on.\n\nDid he really come back to visit her as a grown man?\n\nDid they marry and live happy ever after?\n\nHad he green ears as a mortal?\n\nBut alas the fairies who told me this story, have left these questions\nunanswered, at all events for the present, so I can only guess at the\nconclusion.\n\nI think myself that Green Ears was pretty sure to succeed in his quest,\nbecause if you want a thing intensely enough, you can usually get it.\n\nThey would make a rather funny married couple, that is true, and we will\nhope that Green Ears did not turn head over heels on his marriage day.\n\nBut the fairies assure me that the trials necessary to pass through in\norder to become a mortal, have a very sobering effect on the character,\nand so we can think of Green Ears as quite different, though still\nfascinating and charming.\n\nI would have liked to be present at their wedding, wouldn't you?\n\n \"O joy when on this solid earth\n  Is heard the sound of fairy mirth!\n  O joy, when under earthly things\n  Is heard the sound of fairy wings,\n  When the impossible is true,\n  When I come back and marry you!\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE OLD KING\n\n\nWalter had been playing with his kite in the garden. Somehow or other it\nwould never mount properly, unless his father was there to help him. It\nwas apt to fly up a little way, and then to fall into a bush or fence,\nand there to perch like a big bird, until Walter and his friends rescued\nit with difficulty. But on a windy day when his father took him into the\nopen fields, away the kite would sail, until Walter grew anxious lest it\nshould disappear altogether in cloudland.\n\nIt was a fine afternoon, about three o'clock, a lazy, sleepy time of\nday. A queer jumble of all the fairy stories that the boy knew, passed\nthrough his head as he sat on the lawn, day-dreaming, while his kite\nflapped its wings on the ground beside him.\n\nNow you must know that it happened to be Midsummer Eve, the summer fete\nday of the fairies. Walter stared at the mountains whose great purple\nheads he could see in the far distance across the green plain. How they\nchanged from moment to moment, as the clouds cast their shadows on them,\ntill the sun shone out bright again and chased away the shadows. As\nWalter looked intently at his favourite peak, a mountain called the Old\nKing, he saw a shining cloud on the summit against the sky, that he had\nnever noticed there before. As he gazed and gazed, the cloud seemed to\nform itself into a wonderful castle. Each turret and tower was of an\nexquisite hue like the clouds at sunset. Grey mists wreathed round it,\nand made a soft, mysterious background: the castle became more vivid and\nshone like gold.\n\nHow should Walter reach this fairy palace? For reach it he felt that he\nmust! His kite had an answer ready. It jumped up from the ground, and\nlooked at him with a queerly human expression, and seemed to say: \"Sail\nme!\"\n\nWalter gave but one touch to unwind the string, and up, up it mounted\nlike the Parzival airship, bearing the little boy with it, who held\ntight to the end of the cord. He felt rather giddy and frightened at\nfirst, but soon found out that by holding the cord in his hands to give\nhim confidence, and making movements in the air, similar to those of\nswimming, he could fly quite easily.\n\nMost of us have experienced this delightful sensation in our dreams, and\nI have heard children declare that when they were small, they used to\nfly downstairs without even touching the banisters. Perhaps flying may\nbe a forgotten art: or perhaps we have not yet learned to discover, and\nto use our wings.\n\nTo Walter it came quite naturally; on, on they flew over the trees, and\nover the houses, over the windings of the Nidda. Walter could hear the\ntinkle tinkle of sheep bells below, or was it possible that he could\nalready hear the bells of fairyland ringing? Over the church spire of a\nlittle village they soared, and all the children shouted: \"Zeppelin!\nZeppelin!\" because you see all this happened in modern times, when even\nthe children no longer believe in the supernatural.\n\nAs the kite flew nearer to the mountains Walter could see the well-known\ntower of the Feldberg, and the inns kept by the landlords Storm and\nMonster; he could see the castle of Cronberg, and the interesting\nvillage of Falkenstein.\n\nBut where was the beautiful palace on the Altkoenig? Here was nothing to\nbe seen but trees, trees, trees. He would have thought it all a dream,\nwere it not for his wonderful flight through the air. The kite now\ndropped gradually, and set Walter on the ground. Then it began to flap\nabout undecidedly, and behave queerly, like a dog seeking for a trail.\nAt last it set off again up a narrow path leading straight into the\ngreen woods.\n\nWalter followed, still holding tight by its tail, no longer soaring but\nskimming the ground. Once or twice the poor kite was entangled in the\nbranches, Walter freed it, and off it set again at a fine pace up the\nmountain-side.\n\nWalter began to feel hungry; for there is nothing like flying to give\nyou an appetite, as Mr Euler would surely tell you, but the kite allowed\nhim no time even to gather a few raspberries on the way. At last they\ncame to a place where several paths crossed. Here the woods took another\ncharacter: dark firs grew in the place of beeches and oaks. These firs\nwere covered with a silver lichen that looked like hoar frost.\n\nA little hut made of rough logs of woods stood at this crossing. At the\ndoor stood a little old woman. She had neither red eyes nor a hooked\nnose; so Walter thought to himself: \"She cannot be a wicked old witch\nlike the one who caught Haensel and Gretel.\" She had a friendly,\ngrandmotherly face, and invited Walter to come into her hut.\n\n\"You must be so hungry, you poor little man,\" she said. \"Come in, come\nin, the coffee is all hot and waiting for you!\" Then she turned to the\nkite which was turning head over heels, and making grimaces on the\nground. \"Be off with you,\" she said, \"we shall not need you any more!\"\n\n\"Good-bye, good-bye, dear kite,\" said Walter, \"thank you very much for\nbringing me here.\"\n\nThe kite grinned and made a funny bow; then he mounted up of his own\naccord, and sailed away home over the tree-tops.\n\nOn a rough wooden table was spread a delicious repast. Rolls and butter,\ncoffee and milk, Streuselkuchen and Butterkuchen such as German children\nlove, and also cakes called Bubenschenkel--or little boy's legs. Walter\ndid not quite like the name of these cakes; it made him think of witches\nagain; but they tasted quite harmless.\n\nWhilst he was eating his cake, there was a knock at the door of the hut,\nand in came a smart fox, wearing a red cap with green feather, and a\njaunty coat and waistcoat.\n\n\"Heigho! How fine you are, Mr Fox,\" said the old woman, \"I suppose you\nare going to the ball to-night?\"\n\n\"O yes, of course, I am going to be there early. Miss Bushy Tail has\npromised to be my partner for the Polonaise,\" he said. \"I hope you have\na cup of coffee ready for me.\" He then sat down, and peered at Walter\nwith his bright, inquisitive eyes. Now everyone knows that the foxes\ndance on the Feldberg on May Day. On one of the biggest fir-trees there\nhangs a picture of two foxes dancing, and these cross-roads have thence\nderived their name Fuchstanz. But they do not only dance on May Day, but\non many other occasions such as the present. Walter had often wished\nthat he could see them at their sports.\n\nPresently there was a scratching at the window, and in came a squirrel\nin a great hurry with a bag of nuts slung over his shoulder. He\ndisturbed the great black cat who was asleep on the window-sill, and she\nbristled with rage, and swore at him; but he took no notice, and was off\nagain in a jiffy, after having drunk a tiny little glass of milk which\nstood all ready for him on the table. The squirrels were very busy; for\na great many nuts were required for the feast, and they had been turning\nout their store cupboards.\n\nA little hare peeped shyly in at the door. \"Hullo!\" he said. \"Fine\ndoings at the castle to-night. I am carrying up a basket or so of Easter\nEggs. They are sure to please the Old King,\" and off he went.\n\n\"Is he really the Easter Hare?\" asked Walter; but no one answered his\nquestion.\n\nThe old woman smiled mysteriously. When Walter had finished his coffee,\nshe said: \"Now my little dear, you must be off as well, or you will be\nlate at the castle. It is a great privilege for you to be invited; it is\nlong since the Old King has sent for a mortal child.\"\n\n\"But did he send for me?\" said Walter, astonished.\n\n\"Why of course, or how could you have got here alone,\" said the fairy.\n\"But be very polite and answer nicely when spoken to, or the Old King\nmight be angry, and when he is angry the whole mountain shakes, and I\ncrouch and tremble in my little hut. But now let us see if I have not\ngot something fine for you,\" so speaking she pulled out a sack of toys\nthat stood in a dark corner and gave Walter a cart and horse. At first\nit was quite small; but when she set it on the floor, it grew and grew\nuntil it was large enough for a seven year's old boy to ride in. And O\nmarvel, the wooden horse began to prance as if it were alive!\n\nWalter sprang into the cart; the door of the hut stood wide open, and\nout he drove.\n\n\"Good-bye, good-bye,\" said the fairy of Fuchstanz. She gave him a bag of\ngingerbread nuts, beautifully ornamented, as the peasants in the\nOdenwald know how to make them. One had on it:\n\n  \"For a good boy.\"\n\nIt was an invitation from the Old King and was worded as follows:\n\n  AUDIENCE WITH HIS MAJESTY,  10-11.\n    AMUSEMENTS VARIED.\n  SUPPER AND DANCING,            12.\n    CRYING FORBIDDEN.\n                           OLD KING\n\n\"Good-bye, I will come to see you again very soon,\" said Walter, and he\ndrove up the mountain in fine style.\n\nIt was now getting quite dark; for he had stayed longer than he was\naware of in the little hut; the firs stood black and deep on either\nhand; he would have been frightened perhaps, but he was tired; he closed\nhis eyes and played at being asleep in his little bed at home. When he\nopened his eyes again, he saw bright lights flitting through the gloomy\nfir-trees like so many luminous butterflies. One flew towards him, and\nsettled on the side of his cart, and he saw that it was a lovely elf\nwith a crown of gold on his head. \"King Oberon himself,\" thought Walter,\nand the elf answered, as all fairies do, to his _thought_:\n\n\"Yes I am Oberon, King of the fairies,\" he said in a voice in a high key\nlike the hum of insects. \"I have come to look at you, it is so long\nsince I have spoken to a mortal child. Mortals care no longer for us;\nthey like true stories--that is stories about their own stupid little\nlives; 'fairies do not exist,' they say, Ha, ha, ha! we pinch their\nsilly little toes, and send them bad dreams, and hide their toys, and\nblot their copy-books, and then we do not exist, Ha, ha, ha!\"\n\n\"But I care very much,\" said Walter eagerly. \"O won't you come home with\nme and live with me always and sleep in my bed, you beautiful little\nElf-man.\" And he put out his hand to catch the fairy as a child might\ngrasp at a butterfly. But--puff!--he was off like a seed of the\nthistledown, and a peal of fairy laughter sounded in his ears. Then all\nwas still and dark again.\n\nSuddenly a sound of bells broke the stillness ling, lang, ding dong.\nThese were the foxgloves, and the balsams popped like tiny pistols, and\nfrom the tall mosses came sudden explosions and the scattering of\nilluminated spores. All this in honour of the night.\n\nSuddenly Walter became aware of a huge rock in front of him. Towering up\nblack and high on its summit was the wonderful castle that he had seen\nfrom the distant plain. White and grey were its cloudy walls, rose and\nlemon and emerald its towers and turrets; its roof was the sky studded\nwith a thousand diamond-rayed stars.\n\nThe horse could go no farther; his mission was accomplished. The boy\nbade his dear steed farewell with many fond regrets, and set out with a\nbrave heart to scale the rock alone. It was a difficult and dangerous\nclimb in the dark night; but, however, he managed with the help of\nbushes and shrubs to reach nearly to the top. But alas the last step was\ntoo steep for the little boy; it was a sheer, perpendicular wall. Our\nhero looked round in despair; big drops gathered in his eyes; but he\n_would_ not let them fall. He stood quite still, clinging to the rock\nand unable to move either forward or backward. It seemed like the climax\nof a bad dream. Suddenly he saw a bright cloud approaching him, and the\nair was full of a multitude of tiny elves. They seized hold of him by\nhis coat and knickers and boots and even by his curly hair, and bore him\nupwards singing:\n\n \"Fairies seek and fairies save\n  Children who are bold and brave.\"\n\nSo they supported him up the last step and they floated off as they had\ncome, looking in the distance like a cloud of bright fireflies.\n\nWalter now found himself in a dark, mysterious garden. The bushes and\ntrees took strange forms and seemed alive. One shrub that looked like a\nbig black bear gave a low growl, as he passed by. He was really\nfrightened and his little heart beat fast, in spite of all the fairies\nhad said in praise of his bravery. But he soon reached a lovely lighted\navenue leading straight up to the entrance of the castle. The doors\nwere open wide. Two large white owls stood on either side as sentinels.\nA stream of light poured out of the hall and dazzled Walter's eyes, so\nthat he could not see distinctly at first. Graceful wood nymphs stood\nchatting in groups. A statue of Siegfried slaying the dragon was in the\ncentre of the hall. Small fountains played round it. It seemed as if he\nwere expected at the castle as his arrival created no surprise. Two\nfairies advanced and took him by the hand. Walter thought they were the\nloveliest ladies he had ever seen. One was fair and dressed in cloudy\ngauze which changed in colour from blue to green and mauve like\nopalescent waters; the other was dark and wore a dress of rose colour\nthat changed into orange and red like leaping flames of fire. These were\nthe geniuses of water and fire. Walter did not know this at the time; at\nleast he only guessed it; he was too young to speculate as to the nature\nof the strange sights he saw. He found himself suddenly in a Court suit\nof white woollen material, beautifully embroidered and lined with\nsilver.\n\n\"Now you are a cloud with a silver lining,\" his fairy friends said to\nhim smiling. \"You are sure to please the Old King.\"\n\nWonderful fairy creatures, nixies and gnomes and goblins arrived every\nminute as guests for the castle. The hare came in quite breathless with\na basket which he delivered up to an attendant, saying: \"Eggs for His\nMajesty.\"\n\nThe fox from Fuchstanz seemed to feel himself very important; he\nswaggered about, knocking people with his bushy tail. He stuck out a paw\ncondescendingly for Walter to shake as he went by, and stared at him\nmore inquisitively than ever.\n\nAn elderly woman who would have been very neat and tidy, save that her\nhair was white with snowflakes (no, it could not be snow, it was little\nfeathers as soft as down) came in smiling with a pot of bilberry jam\nunder her arm. She had come from the Rossert Mountain, and the jam had\nbeen cooked as was her custom on the Holle Stone, that mysterious stone\non the slopes of the Rossert, so neatly marked on the Taunus map, but so\nimpossible for the curious mortal to find.\n\nGradually all these strange guests began to form into a long procession,\nand to march round the hall to the sound of fairy music.\n\nOne side of the wall was draped with a green curtain; this began to sway\nand draw itself aside. A fresh, invigorating mountain air blew in their\nfaces; they marched on to a larger and loftier room. The ceiling was the\nsky; the light was the light of thousands of stars, the same stars that\nwe know, but shining with greater brilliancy for the fairies on\nMidsummer Eve. The floor was carpeted with the softest moss. Walter's\nfeet sank into it. They marched through green arches made by skilfully\ninterlaced trees. Pines and larches were arranged as pillars, and were\nadorned by festoons of wild roses, forming garlands from one to the\nother.\n\nAt the far end of the room stood two tall poplar trees, and between them\nseated on a cloudy throne was a majestic being with flowing white beard,\nand a crown of gold on his head. As Walter approached the throne, the\npoplar leaves shook and shivered as before a thunderstorm. Then a great\nwind arose, a mist rose up, the fairy procession bowed down before the\nOld King--the Ruler of the Mountain. Then there was a sound like the\nrumbling of thunder, and the Old King spoke. Walter had some difficulty\nat first in catching the words, but by nudges, pinches, and pokes, the\ncompany gave him to understand that they were addressed to him.\n\n\"What is your name? mortal child,\" said the Old King.\n\n\"Walter, please Your Majesty,\" said Walter with a deep bow, feeling his\ncourage going into his boots.\n\n\"Walter--a good old German name,\" said the Old King. \"Doubtless you are\na poet?\"\n\n\"Oh!\" said our hero valiantly, \"when I am a man I mean to write story\npoems like Schiller and Uhland.\"\n\n\"That is right,\" said the Old King. \"Real poets are rare in these days.\nEven if I appear to them in all my splendour the stupid people merely\nremark 'a curious cloud formation,' and think they know all about it.\nYou are young\"--he went on--\"you will forget all that you have seen\nhere; but the feeling will remain that the heavens are near you. Who\nknows but what you may be a real poet in the future, a poet who shall\nopen men's eyes once more to the invisible world which lies so near\nthem. Remember your beautiful costume and show always the cloud with the\nsilver lining in your poems.\"\n\n\"Which do you like best, work or play?\" continued His Majesty in a voice\nlike distant rolls of thunder.\n\n\"Play, please Your Majesty,\" said Walter, tremulously.\n\n\"Quite right, quite right, play play all the day--good folk say--good\nfolk say! Do you cry much? My children are all such cry babies, and\nthough I scold them and lecture them every day, they will not learn to\nbehave better.\"\n\nWalter had no time to answer; for clouds came rolling up and almost hid\nhim from view.\n\n\"These are my troublesome children,\" said the Old King.\n\nSome of the clouds were dear little cuddly babies, others looked like\ngreat white poodles, others like huge black bears or crocodiles. With\noutstretched arms and winged helmets strange forms rode by on swift\nhorses with floating manes resembling the Walkuere of old; the lightning\nplayed across the sky as they passed. Truly they were a strange family\nwith much originality.\n\n\"Now, children, be off with you, and whatever you do, _don't cry_,\" said\nthe Old King. But even as he spoke, one little cloud dissolved in\nraindrops and wetted the fine clothes of the company.\n\nPresently a push and a bustle began. Long, narrow tables were brought\ninto the hall, and in a short space of time they were covered with the\nmost wonderful dainties in the way of sweets and cakes, jellies,\npuddings and fruit.\n\nWalter sat down hastily: a fine plate of Easter eggs and nuts was before\nhim. He helped himself plentifully, and even filled his pockets, which\nwas not quite good manners you know, but seemed to excite no notice.\n\nA venerable water-sprite rose presently and proposed the health of the\nOld King. Wine-glasses were filled to the brim with golden or crimson\nwine; as the glasses clinked together, the vibrations sounded sweet yet\nsad like some high violin note, as it dies on the string. Then a wind\narose, summer lightning played round the room, illuminating vividly the\nfaces of that strange company; a roar of thunder shook the castle.\nBrunhilde's fire sprang up suddenly round the outer walls, so that the\nscene was brighter than daylight. The tables were cleared away, and the\nwildest revels began. The Old King faded into the distance like a\nmountain-peak. A goblin seized hold of Walter and tore him round in the\nmaddest fashion.\n\nThe foxes had a corner to themselves; their dancing was evidently much\nadmired. Especially our friend and his sweetheart Miss Bushy Tail\ndistinguished themselves by the elegance of their steps.\n\nMother Holle seemed to keep a certain amount of order, but the revels\nbecame wilder and wilder and Walter grew strangely sleepy and tired; he\nfelt himself a part of some mad dream. As he dreamed, great clouds came\nrolling up, and all was lost in mist. When the mist cleared, Walter\nstood once more before the throne of the Old King.\n\n\"Come my little fleecy,\" the Old King was saying to a little girl cloud\nwho came tumbling down before him. \"Be the best of daughters and take\nthis little boy home; you know the way. But mind, no tears!\"\n\n\"Adieu,\" he said to Walter. Walter murmured adieu, and, in another\nmoment, he was flying with his arm round the neck of the baby cloud,\nflying, flying, flying.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHe knew no more till he found himself in his garden at home, feeling\nrather queer and sleepy. He got up, and stretched himself, and found\nthat he was quite wet; for the little cloud had dissolved in tears at\nparting from him. On the ground lay his kite looking quite innocent.\n\nHe went indoors, and found it was tea-time, and everything was just as\nusual.\n\n\"Why, child, you are quite wet! Why did you not come in during the\nshower?\" he heard his mother's voice saying to him.\n\nHe found a huge walnut in his pocket and when he cracked it out crawled\na wonderful beetle with green body streaked with gold. As Walter put out\nhis hand to secure his treasure, it flew away from him looking very much\nlike King Oberon himself. Walter thought that he heard a peal of fairy\nlaughter, but it might have been only his fancy.\n\nThe next day was his birthday, and what do you think he had as a\npresent? Why the very same cart and horse that had carried him to the\ncastle, big enough to ride in. But he never told anyone--even his\nmother--the whole story of his adventures. Perhaps he did not remember\nthem clearly himself; for the fairies protect their secrets well, and\ndraw in sleep the veil of forgetfulness over much that we have seen in\nour dreams.\n\nAnd did Walter become a great poet? He is a friend of mine, so I can\ntell you. The world has not heard of him as yet. He tells me that he\noften hears a little voice near him, singing, singing; sometimes he can\ndistinguish the words and the melodies. They make him feel sad at times,\nhe says, with longing for a world that is more beautiful than ours, but\noftener they make him feel exhilarated and happy.\n\nHe thinks that he knows many secret things that would make the world\nhappier if he could only get people to believe them. But these secrets\nare not about high explosives or torpedoes or aeroplanes, or motor-cars\nthat can do the distance between Paris and Berlin at the very shortest\nrecord. They are secrets that can only be breathed in music and poetry.\n\nBe on the look-out for him, children; for the songs he sings will be\nfull of wonder, like Kubla Khan, and the melodies will be those of\nfairyland. Did he not hear them himself on the Old King's Mountain, when\nhe attended the Midsummer fete of the fairies?\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRAGON'S TAIL\n\n\nI wonder if the girls and boys who read these stories, have heard of the\ncharming and romantic town of Eisenach? I suppose not, for it is a\ncurious fact that few English people visit the place, though very many\nAmericans go there. Americans are well known to have a special interest\nin old places with historical associations, because they have nothing of\nthe sort in America; moreover many of them are Germans by birth, and\nhave heard stories of the Wartburg, that beautiful old castle, which\nfrom the summit of a hill, surrounded by woods, overlooks the town of\nEisenach.\n\nThe Wartburg is quaintly built with dear little turrets and gables, and\nhigh towers, a long curving wall with dark beams like the peasant\ncottages, and windows looking out into the forest. It belongs at present\nto the Grand duke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach.\n\nEvery stone and corner of the Wartburg is connected with some old story\nor legend.\n\nFor instance there is the hall with the raised dais at one end and\nbeautiful pillars supporting the roof where minnesingers of old times\nused to hold their great \"musical festivals\" as we should say nowadays.\nThere was keen competition for the prizes that were offered in reward\nfor the best music and songs.\n\nIn the castle are also the rooms of St Elizabeth, that sweet saint who\nwas so good to the poor, and who suffered so terribly herself in parting\nfrom her husband and children.\n\nThen there is the lion on the roof who could tell a fine tale if he\nchose; the great banqueting hall and the little chapel.\n\nOn the top of the tower is a beautiful cross that is lit up at night by\nelectric light and can be seen from a great distance in the country\nround. This is of course a modern addition.\n\nBut the most interesting room in the castle is that where Dr Martin\nLuther spent his time translating the Bible. A reward had been offered\nto anyone who should kill this arch-heretic; so his friends brought him\ndisguised as a knight to the Wartburg, and very few people knew of his\nwhereabouts.\n\nAs you look through the latticed windows of that little room, the\nexquisite blue and purple hills of the Thueringen-Wald stretch away in\nthe distance, and no human habitation is to be seen. There too you may\nsee the famous spot on the wall where Luther threw the inkpot at the\ndevil. To be correct you can see the hole where the ink-stain used to\nbe; for visitors have cut away every trace of the ink, and even portions\nof the old wooden bedstead. There is the writing-desk with the\ntranslation of the Bible, and the remarkable footstool that consisted of\nthe bone of a mammoth.\n\nThose were the days in which a man risked his life for his faith; but\nthey were the days also, we must remember, of witchcraft and magic.\n\nOne other story of the Wartburg I must narrate in order to give you some\nidea of the interest that still surrounds the place, and influences the\nchildren who grow up there. It was in the days of the old Emperor\nBarbarossa (Redbeard).\n\nThe sister of the Emperor whose name was Jutta, was married to the\nLandgraf Ludwig of Thueringen, and they lived at the Wartburg.\n\nOne day when Barbarossa came to visit them, he observed that the castle\nhad no outer walls round it, as was usual in those days.\n\n\"What a pity,\" he said, \"that such a fine castle should be unprotected\nby walls and ramparts, it ought to be more strongly fortified.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" said Landgraf Ludwig, \"if that is all the castle needs, it can\nsoon have them.\"\n\n\"How soon?\" said the Emperor, mockingly.\n\n\"In the space of three days,\" answered his brother-in-law.\n\n\"That could only be possible with the aid of the devil,\" said\nBarbarossa, \"otherwise it could not be done.\"\n\n\"Wait and see for yourself,\" said the Landgraf.\n\nOn the third day of his visit, Ludwig said to the Emperor: \"Would you\ncare to see the walls? They are finished now.\"\n\nBarbarossa crossed himself several times, and prepared for some fearful\nmanifestation of black magic; but what was his surprise to see a living\nwall round the castle of stout peasants and burghers, ready armed, with\nweapons in their hands; the banners of well-known knights and lords\nwaved their pennants in the wind where battlements should have been.\n\nThe Emperor was much astonished, and called out: \"Many thanks,\nbrother-in-law, for your lesson; stronger walls I have never seen, nor\nbetter fitted together.\"\n\n\"Rough stones they may some of them be,\" said the Landgraf, \"yet I can\nrely on them, as you see.\"\n\nNow as you may imagine, the children who grow up in this town, must have\ntheir heads full of these tales, and many poets and artists have been\ninspired by the beauties of Eisenach. The natural surroundings of the\ntown are so wonderful, that they also provide rich material for the\nimagination.\n\nHelmut was a boy who lived in Eisenach. He was eight years old, and went\nto a day school. He lived outside the town, not far from the entrance to\nthe forest. He was a pale, fair-haired little boy, and did not look the\ntremendous hero he fancied himself in his dreams; not even when he\nbuckled on helmet, breast-plate and sword, and marched out into the\nstreet to take his part in the warfare that went on constantly there,\nbetween the boys of this neighbourhood, and the boys who belonged to\nanother part of the town.\n\nNow the Dragon's Gorge is a most marvellous place; it is surrounded on\nall sides by thick forests, and you come on it suddenly when walking in\nthe woods. It is a group of huge green rocks like cliffs that stand\npicturesquely piled close together, towering up to the sky. There is\nonly a very narrow pathway between them.\n\nHelmut had often been there with his father and mother or with other\nboys. After heavy rain or thawing snow it became impassable; at the best\nof times it was advisable for a lady not to put on her Sunday hat,\nespecially if it were large and had feathers; for the rocks are\nconstantly dripping with water. The great boulders are covered with\ngreen moss or tiny ferns; and in the spring time, wood sorrel grows on\nthem in great patches, the under side of the leaves tinged an exquisite\nviolet or pink colour. The entrance to the Dragon's Gorge is through\nthese rocks; they narrow and almost meet overhead, obscuring the sky,\ntill it seems as if one were walking under the sea. Two persons cannot\nwalk side by side here. In some parts, indeed, one can only just squeeze\nthrough; the way winds in and out in the most curious manner; there are\nlittle side passages too, that you could hardly get into at all.\n\nIn some places you can hear the water roaring under your feet; then the\nrocks end abruptly and you come out into the forest again, and hear the\nbirds singing and see the little brook dancing along by the side of the\nway. Altogether it is the most fascinating, wet and delightful walk that\nyou could imagine.\n\nHelmut had long been planning an expedition to these rocks in company\nwith other boy friends, in order to slay the dragon. He dreamt of it day\nand night, until he brought home a bad mark for \"attention\" in his\nschool report. He told his mother about it; she laughed and said he\nmight leave the poor old fellow alone; there were plenty of dragons to\nslay at home, self-will, disobedience, inattention, and so on! She made\na momentary impression on the little boy, who always wanted to be good\nbut found it difficult at times, curious to say, to carry out his\nintention.\n\nHe looked thoughtful and answered: \"Of course, mother, I know; but this\ntime I want to slay a 'really and truly' dragon, may I? Will you let me\ngo with the other boys, it would be such fun?\"\n\nThe Dragon's Gorge was not far off, and mother did not think that Helmut\ncould do himself any harm, except by getting wet and dirty, and that he\nmight do as well in the garden at home.\n\n\"If you put on your old suit and your thick boots, I think you may go.\nKeep with the other boys and promise me not to get lost!\"\n\n\"Oh, I say, won't it be fine fun! I'll run off and tell the other\nfellows. Hurrah!\" and Helmut ran off into the street. Soon four heads\nwere to be seen close together making plans for the next day.\n\n\"We'll start quite early at six o'clock,\" they said, \"and take our\nsecond breakfast with us.\" (In Germany eleven o'clock lunch is called\n_second_ breakfast.) However it was seven o'clock a.m. before the boys\nhad had their first breakfast, and met outside the house.\n\nHow mother and father laughed to see the little fellows, all dressed in\nthe most warlike costumes like miniature soldiers, armed with guns and\nswords.\n\nMother was a little anxious and hoped they would come to no harm; but\nshe liked her boy to be independent, and knew how happy children are if\nleft to play their pretence games alone. She watched the four set off at\na swinging march down the street. Soon they had recruits, for it was a\nholiday, and there were plenty of boys about.\n\nHelmut was commanding officer; the boys shouldered their guns, or\npresented arms as he directed. They passed the pond and followed the\nstream through the woods, until they came to the Dragon's Gorge, where\nthe rocks rise up suddenly high and imposing looking. Here they could\nonly proceed in single file. Helmut headed the band feeling as\ncourageous as in his dreams; his head swam with elation. Huge walls\ntowered above them; the rocks dropped water on their heads. As yet they\nhad seen or heard nothing of the dragon. Yet as they held their breath\nto listen, they could hear something roaring under their feet.\n\n\"Don't you tell me that that is only water,\" said Helmut, \"A little\nbrook can't make such a row as that--that's the dragon.\"\n\nThe other boys laughed, they were sceptical as to the dragon, and were\nonly pretending, whereas Helmut was in earnest.\n\n\"I'm hungry,\" said one boy, \"supposing we find a dry place and have our\nlunch!\"\n\nThey came to where the path wound out again into the open air, and sat\ndown on some stones, which could hardly be described as dry. Here they\nate bread and sausage, oranges and bananas.\n\n\"Give me the orange peel, you fellows. Mother hates us to throw it\nabout; it makes the place so untidy.\" So saying Helmut pushed his orange\npeel right into a crevice of the rock and covered it with old leaves.\nBut the other boys laughed at him, and chucked theirs into the little\nstream, which made Helmut very angry.\n\n\"I won't be your officer any more, if you do not do as I say,\" he said,\nand they began to quarrel.\n\n\"We're not going to fight your old dragon, we're going home again to\nplay football, that will be far better fun,\" said the boys who had\njoined as recruits, and they went off home, till only Helmut's chums\nwere left. They were glad enough to get rid of the other boys.\n\n\"We have more chance of seeing the dragon without those stupid fellows,\"\nthey said.\n\nThey finished their lunch, shouldered their guns again, and entered the\nsecond gorge, which is even more picturesque and narrow than the first.\n\nSuddenly Helmut espied something round, and slimy, and long lying on\nthe path before him like a blind worm, but much thicker than blind worms\ngenerally are. He became fearfully excited, \"Come along you fellows,\nhurry up,\" he said, \"I do believe it is the dragon's tail!\"\n\nThey came up close behind him and looked over his shoulders; the gorge\nwas so narrow here that they could not pass one another.\n\n\"Good gracious!\" they said, \"whatever shall we do now?\"\n\nThey all felt frightened at the idea of a real dragon, but they stood to\ntheir guns like men, all but the youngest, Adolf, who wanted to run away\nhome; but the others would not let him.\n\n\"Helmut catch hold of it, quick now,\" whispered Werner and Wolf, the\nother two boys.\n\nHelmut stretched out his hand courageously; perhaps it was only a huge,\nblind worm after all; but as he tried to catch it, the thing slipped\nswiftly away. They all followed it, running as fast as they could\nthrough the narrow gorge, bumping themselves against the walls,\nscratching themselves and tearing their clothes, but all the time Helmut\nnever let that tail (if it was a tail) out of his sight.\n\n\"If we had some salt to put on it,\" said he, \"we might catch it like a\ndicky bird.\"\n\n\"It would be a fine thing to present to a museum,\" said Wolf.\n\nWell, that thing led them a fine dance. It would stop short, and then\nwhen they thought they had got it, it started off again, until they were\nall puffing and blowing.\n\n\"We've got to catch it somehow,\" said Helmut, who thought the chase fine\nsport. At that moment the gorge opened out again into the woods, and the\ntail gave them the slip; for it disappeared in a crevice of the rock\nwhere there was no room for a boy to follow it.\n\n\"It _was_ a blind worm you see,\" said Werner.\n\nPresently, however, they heard a noise as of thunder, and looking down\nthe path they saw a head glaring at them out of the rocks, undeniably a\ndragon's head, with a huge jaw, red tongue, and rows of jagged teeth.\n\nThe boys stared aghast: they were in for an adventure this time, and no\nmistake. Slowly the dragon raised himself out of the rocks, so that they\nsaw his whole scaly length, like a huge crocodile. Then he began to move\nalong the path away from them. He moved quite slowly now, so there was\nno difficulty in keeping up with him; but his tail was so slimy and\nslippery that they could not keep hold of it; moreover it wriggled\ndreadfully whenever they tried to seize it. But Helmut had inherited\nthe cool courage of the Wartburg knights, and he was not going to be\novercome by difficulties.\n\nWith a wild Indian whoop he sprang on the dragon's back, and all the\nother boys followed his example, except little Adolf who was timid and\nbegan to set up a howl for his mother, I'm sorry to say. No sooner were\nthe boys on his back than the dragon set off at a fine trot up and down\nthe Dragon's Gorge, they had to hold on tight and to duck whenever the\nrock projected overhead, or when they went sharply round a corner.\n\n\"Hurrah,\" cried Helmut waving a flag, \"this is better than a motor ride.\nIsn't he a jolly old fellow?\"\n\nAt this remark the jolly old fellow stopped dead and began to snort out\nfire and smoke, that made the boys cough and choke.\n\n\"Now stop that, will you!\" said Helmut imperatively, \"or we shall have\nto slay you after all, that's what we came out for you know.\" He pointed\nhis gun at the head of the dragon as he spoke like a real hero.\n\nThe dragon began to tremble, and though they could only see his profile,\nthey thought he turned pale.\n\n\"Where's that other little boy?\" he asked in a hollow voice. \"If you\nwill give him to me for my dinner, I will spare you all.\"\n\nHelmut laughed scornfully, \"Thanks, old fellow,\" he said--\"you're very\nkind, I'm sure Adolf would be much obliged to you. I expect he's run\nhome to his mother long ago; he's a bit of a funk, we shan't take him\nwith us another time.\"\n\n\"He looked so sweet and juicy and tender,\" said the dragon sighing, \"I\nnever get a child for dinner nowadays! Woe is me,\" he sniffed.\n\n\"You are an old cannibal,\" said the boys horrified, and mistaking the\nmeaning of the word cannibal. \"Hurry up now and give us another ride,\nit's first-rate fun this!\"\n\nThe dragon groaned and seemed disinclined to stir, but the boys kicked\nhim with their heels, and there was nothing for it but to gee-up.\n\nAfter he had been up and down several times, and the boys' clothes were\nnearly torn to pieces, he suddenly turned into a great crevice in the\nrocks that led down into a dark passage, and the boys felt really\nfrightened for the first time. Daylight has a wonderfully bracing effect\non the nerves.\n\nIn a moment, however, a few rays of sunshine penetrated the black\ndarkness, and they saw that they were in a small cave. The next thing\nthey experienced was that the dragon shook himself violently, and the\nsmall boys fell off his back like apples from a tree on to the wet and\nsloppy floor. They picked themselves up again in a second, and there\nthey saw the dragon before them, panting after his exertions and filling\nthe cavern with a poisonous-smelling smoke. Helmut and Wolf and Werner\nstood near the cracks which did the duty of windows, and held their\npistols pointed at him. Luckily he was too stupid to know that they were\nonly toy guns, and when they fired them off crack-crack, they soon\ndiscovered that he was in a terrible fright.\n\n\"What have I done to you, young sirs?\" he gasped out. \"What have I done\nto you, that you should want to shoot me? Yet shoot me! yes, destroy me\nif you will and end my miserable existence!\" He began to groan until the\ncavern reverberated with his cries.\n\n\"What's the matter now, old chappie?\" said Helmut, who, observing the\nweakness of the enemy, had regained his courage.\n\n\"I am an anachronism,\" said the dragon, \"don't you know what that\nis?--well, I am one born out of my age. I am a survival of anything but\nthe fittest. _You_ are the masters now, you miserable floppy-looking\nrace of mankind. _You_ can shoot me, you can blow me up with dynamite,\nyou can poison me, you can stuff me--Oh, oh--you can put me into a cage\nin the Zoological Gardens, you have flying dragons in the sky who could\ndrop on me suddenly and crush me. You have the power. We great creatures\nof bygone ages have only been able to creep into the rocks and caves to\nhide from your superior cleverness and your wily machinations. We must\nperish while you go on like the brook for ever.\" So saying he began to\nshed great tears, that dropped on the floor splash, splash, like the\nwater from the rocks.\n\nThe boys felt embarrassed: this was not their idea of manly conduct, and\nconsiderably lowered their opinion of dragons in general.\n\n\"Do not betray me, young sirs,\" went on the dragon in a pathetic and\nweepy voice, \"I have managed so far to lie here concealed though\nmultitudes of people have passed this way and never perceived me.\"\n\n\"I tell you what,\" said Helmut touched by the dragon's evident terror,\n\"let's make friends with him, boys; he's given us a nice ride for\nnothing; we will present him with the flag of truce.\"\n\nTurning to the dragon he said: \"Allow us to give you a banana and a roll\nin token of our friendship and esteem.\"\n\n\"O,\" said the dragon brightening up, \"I like bananas. People often throw\nthe skins away here. I prefer them to orange peel. I live on such\nthings, you must know, the cast-off refuse of humanity,\" he said,\nbecoming tragic again.\n\nThey presented him with the banana, and he ate it skin and all, it\nseemed to give him an appetite. He appeared to recover his spirits, and\nthe boys thought it would be better to look for the way out. The cavern\nseemed quite smooth and round, except for the cracks through which the\ndaylight came; they could not discover the passage by which they had\nentered. The dragon's eyes were beginning to look bloodthirsty;\nremembrances of his former strength shot across his dulled brains. He\ncould crush and eat these little boys after all and nobody would be the\nwiser. Little boys tasted nicer than bananas even.\n\nMeanwhile Wolf and Werner had stuck their flags through the holes in the\nrocks, so that they were visible from the outside.\n\nNow little Adolf had gone straight home, and had told awful tales of the\ngames the others were up to, and he conducted the four mothers to the\nDragon's Gorge where they wandered up and down looking for their boys.\nAdolf observed the flags sticking up on the rocks, and drew attention to\nthem. The Dragon's Gorge resounded with the cries of \"Helmut! Wolf!\nWerner!\"\n\nThe dragon heard the voices as well; his evil intentions died away; the\nchronic fear of discovery came upon him again. He grew paler and paler;\nclouds of smoke came from his nostrils, until he became invisible. At\nthe same moment Helmut groping against the wall that lay in shadow,\nfound the opening of the passage through which they had come. Through\nthis the three boys now crawled, hardly daring to breathe, for fear of\nexciting the dragon again. Soon a gleam of light at the other end told\nof their deliverance. Their tender mothers fell on their necks, and\nscolded them at the same time. Truly, never did boys look dirtier or\nmore disreputable.\n\n\"We feel positively ashamed to go home with you,\" their mothers said to\nthem.\n\n\"Well, for once I was jolly glad you did come, mother,\" said Helmut.\n\"That treacherous old dragon wanted to turn on us after all; he might\nhave devoured us, if you had not turned up in the nick of time. Not that\nI believe that he _really_ would have done anything of the sort, he was\na coward you know, and when we levelled our guns at him he was awfully\nfrightened. Still he _might_ have found out that our guns were not\nproperly loaded, and then it would have been unpleasant.\"\n\nMother smiled, she did not seem to take the story quite so seriously as\nHelmut wished.\n\n\"We had a gorgeous ride on his back, mother dear; would you like to see\nhim? You have only to lie down flat and squeeze yourself through that\ncrack in the rocks till you come to his cave.\"\n\n\"No thank you,\" said mother, \"I think I can do without seeing your\ndragon.\"\n\n\"Oh, we have forgotten our flags!\" called out Wolf and Werner, \"wait a\nminute for us,\" and they climbed up over the rocks and rescued the\nflags. \"He's still in there,\" they whispered to Helmut in a mysterious\nwhisper.\n\n\"Mother,\" said Helmut that evening when she came to wish him good night,\n\"do you know, if you stand up to a dragon like a man, and are not afraid\nof him, he is not so difficult to vanquish after all.\"\n\n\"I'm glad you think so,\" said mother, \"'Volo cum Deo'--there is a Latin\nproverb for you; it means, that with God's help, will-power is the chief\nthing necessary; this even dragons know. Thus a little boy can conquer\neven greater dragons than the monsters vast of ages past.\"\n\n\"Hum!\" said Helmut musingly, \"mother, dear, I was a real hero to-day, I\nthink you would have been proud of me; but I must confess between\nourselves, that the old dragon was a bit of a fool!\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE EASTER HARE\n\n\nIt is curious how little children of one country know about the lives\nand interests of the children of another. Perhaps if English people\nwould send their children over to Germany, instead of their journalists,\nsingers, etc., the danger of an International war would be lessened. The\nchildren would be sure to fall in love with Germany; for it is the land\nabove all others that appeals to children. Women are said to come first\nin America, children are certainly the first consideration in Germany.\nFroebel's motto: \"Come let us live with our children,\" is nowhere better\ncarried out.\n\nA little English girl, named Patsie, came over to visit her German\nfriends, Gretel and Barbara, shortly before Easter this year; and she\nwas much surprised to find all the shop-windows filled with hares; hares\nmade of chocolate, toy hares, hares with fine red coats on, hares\ntrundling wheelbarrows or carrying baskets full of Easter eggs. Moreover\nthere was no end to the picture post cards representing the hare in\nvarious costumes, and in some connection with Easter eggs. One of these\npost cards represented a hare crawling out of a large broken egg just\nlike a chicken.\n\nPatsie asked her little friends eagerly what this all meant.\n\n\"Who is the Hare?\" she said. \"I do so want to know all about him.\"\n\n\"Why, _of course_, it is the Easter Hare,\" they replied.\n\n\"Is it possible that you have not heard of him? O, you _poor_ English\nchildren! Why, he brings us the eggs on Easter Sunday morning!\" said\nGretel.\n\n\"O don't you know,\" said Barbara, \"he hides them in the garden, unless\nit rains or is very wet; then we have to stay in our bedrooms for fear\nof frightening him, and he lays them downstairs in the dining-room or\ndrawing-room. However, this has only happened once since I was born, and\nI am nine years old; it _must_ be always fine at Easter.\"\n\n\"We have to let all the blinds down before he will come into our garden,\nhe is so dreadfully nervous,\" said Gretel. \"Then he hides the eggs in\nthe most unexpected places, we have to hunt and hunt a long time before\nwe have found them all. Last year we discovered an egg some weeks\nafterwards; luckily it was a glass one filled with sweeties; for if it\nhad been of chocolate, we could not have eaten it, after it had lain on\nthe damp mould, where the snails and worms would have crawled over it.\nSome of the eggs are made of chocolate or marzipan or sugar, and some\nare real eggs coloured blue or red or brown, or even sometimes with\npictures on them.\"\n\n\"We had two dear little baskets with dollies in them, and a big Easter\nHare made of gingerbread, as well as the eggs this year,\" said Barbara.\n\"We hunt and hunt in every corner of the garden, and then we divide our\ntreasures afterwards on two plates, so that is quite fair.\"\n\n\"You are lucky children, why does not the Hare come to England?\" said\nPatsie. \"I am sure little English children would appreciate him too!\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Gretel answering in verse:\n\n \"My dear mother says to me,\n  That he will not cross the sea;\n  That he fears his eggs would break\n  And his precious goods might shake.\n\n  He's a fairy you must know,\n  Little Barbara tells you so;\n  When he cocks his ears and blinks,\n  Then of Easter eggs he thinks.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" interrupted Barbara, \"we really and truly saw him one Easter\nSunday morning when we came back from church, just at the end of our\nstreet, where the gardens join the fields. He had a friend with him, or\nperhaps it was Mrs Easter Hare. They both looked very alarmed when they\nsaw us, and tore off as fast as they could scuttle, and hid in the\ncorn-fields. I can't remember if he had his red coat on, can you,\nGretel?\"\n\n\"No I don't think he had, he was quietly dressed in his brown fur suit,\nwith a white tail to the coat,\" said Gretel.\n\nNow mother had been puzzled for some time to think whatever connection\nthere could be between Easter Day and the Hare, and she could not find\nout. But the other day a kind friend told her: she could never have been\nable to think of it herself, it is such a queer reason. The legend is\nthat as the Hare always sleeps with its eyes open, it was the only\nliving creature that witnessed the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord, and\ntherefore for ever afterwards it has become associated with Easter.\n\nThe Easter egg is easier to account for; the idea there is, that as the\nlittle chicken breaks through the hard shell, and awakes to new life, so\nChrist broke the bars of death on the first glorious Easter morning. So\nthe simple egg has become a symbol or sign of a great heavenly truth.\nEven little children can understand this if they think about it, and\nthey will be able to find out other things too that are symbols in the\nsame way.\n\n\"One year,\" said Barbara to Patsie, \"we spent Easter Sunday at a farm in\nthe country. We made beautiful nests of moss all ready for the Easter\nHare. And just when father had called to us to come out and look for the\neggs, we saw to our disgust that the great pigs with their dirty old\nsnouts were already hunting for them, so we rushed down and had to drive\nthem away first. The geese too seemed to want to join in the game; it\nwas fine fun, I can tell you. We filled our pinafores with the eggs.\"\n\n\"When we got home again, we found the Easter Hare had been there too; so\nwe were finely spoilt that year,\" said Gretel.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSeveral weeks before Easter this year, before Patsie came to stay with\nthem, Gretel and Barbara went for an afternoon walk in the fields with\ntheir father and mother. It was getting late when they returned; white\nmists were rising over the River Nidda, until the trees in the distance\nlooked like ghosts. There was a strange feeling in the air, as if\nsomething were going to happen; the children felt excited without\nknowing why. Then they suddenly saw a bright light not far off from\nthem, along the path by the river. It seemed to revolve, then to change\nits position, then it went out altogether. They thought they saw the\ncrouching form of a man beside the light; indeed father said that it was\nprobably a labourer lighting his pipe; but, when they looked again, it\nwas unmistakably a bush that had taken a human form in the twilight. The\nchildren instinctively fell back nearer the grown-ups. There was\nsomething creepy about that bush.\n\nSuddenly a weird cry, shrill and piercing, broke the silence. It seemed\nto come from just in front of them, and sounded awful; as if a baby were\nbeing murdered. The children clutched hold of father's hand. \"It was all\nright as long as father and mother were there,\" they thought with the\ntouching confidence of children.\n\nNo one could imagine what it was. The stretching, ploughed fields on one\nside could hide nothing, the little path along the river-bank was\nclearly visible. As they approached the spot whence the crying had\nseemed to proceed, all was silent again. Gretel had heard of the magic\nflower Moly which screamed when it was pulled up by the roots; could\nthere be screaming bushes as well? But the cries had seemed to come from\nthe ploughed field, not from the river.\n\nThe sun had gone down, the air became darker and chillier. Suddenly the\ncry began again; this time it seemed to proceed directly from an empty\ntin lying near them on the ploughed field, broken and upside down. The\nchildren stared with wide-open eyes at this mysterious old tin: they\ncould not make head or tail of it, of the tin I mean.\n\nThen mother stooped and picked up a piece of egg-shell coloured a\nbeautiful red, that lay on the path, and held it up triumphantly. \"What\ndo you say to that?\" she asked the children.\n\n\"Why, it is a piece of a broken Easter egg, how queer,\" said the\nchildren, \"such a long time before Easter too.\"\n\n\"Do you know what I think?\" said mother, almost in a whisper. \"I think\nthe Easter Hare has been along here, perhaps he lives here, and that tin\nhides the entrance to his house.\"\n\n\"Let's go and see,\" said the children. But at this moment the cries\nbroke out again, coming just from their very feet it seemed. They\nsounded so uncanny that the children did not dare to move, or to\ninvestigate the tin.\n\n\"If you disturb him now, you certainly will not get any Easter eggs this\nyear,\" said mother. \"He's sure to be very busy painting them just now, I\ndare say he cries like that to frighten you away from his home.\"\n\n\"I don't think so,\" said father, \"he can hide and hold his tongue if he\nwants to; it is the little baby hares who make that noise; but just as\nwe pass by, the mother hare manages to keep them quiet for a few minutes\nby giving them something to put in their little mouths, I expect.\"\n\n\"I _would_ like to see them,\" said Barbara.\n\n\"No, come along, Barbara,\" said Gretel, \"leave them alone, it would be\nhorrid to get no Easter eggs wouldn't it?\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor many nights Barbara dreamt of the Easter Hare, and at last she made\nup the following story about him, which she wrote out beautifully in\nflowing German handwriting in an exercise-book. I thought little English\ngirls and boys would like to hear a story written by a little German\ngirl of nine years. So I have translated it for them here. It will give\nthem a good idea too of how the Easter Hare is regarded by German\nchildren.\n\n\nTHE EASTER HARE FAMILY\n\n_Story by_ BARBARA ARNDT\n\nTwo children, Paulchen and Luischen, were wandering about in the country\non Easter Day, they said sorrowfully to one another. \"Has the Easter\nHare quite forgotten us this year?\" For three hours they tramped about,\nand hunted for eggs in every corner of the fields near the big forest.\nSuddenly Paulchen found a huge egg; he called to Luischen to come at\nonce to see it, and she trotted along towards him, carrying a pretty\nlittle nest filled with Easter eggs in her hands, which she had also\nfound.\n\nThe children were very happy; it was such a lovely sunny day, and they\nwere so delighted with their treasures. However they did not give up\nhunting, and soon each of them found an Easter Hare made of the most\ndelicious chocolate. Then Luischen discovered an egg which she called an\nApril-fool's egg; for when she tried to lick it to see what it tasted\nlike, she found that it was made of soap.\n\n\"O, do come and see what a heap of eggs I've got,\" said Paulchen, in\ntones of ecstasy.\n\nThen little Luischen jumped up, calling out: \"Look, look--O do come\nhere, quick, quick, and see those two beautiful big nests filled with\nEaster eggs, and two lovely silver baskets beside them! O how exquisite!\nThe Easter Hare is too good, he is a darling, did you ever see such\nbeautiful things as he has given us. I can hardly hold mine!\"\n\n\"Neither can I,\" said Paul, \"but look over there, Luischen, there are\ntwo large baskets. I expect they are meant for us, how very convenient!\nWe can put all our things into them.\"\n\n\"Let's go and fetch them at once,\" said Luischen. \"Do you see that\npretty bush with silver palm-buds on it over there?\" she continued, \"we\nwill go and pick a few twigs from it and tie them on to our baskets with\nsome grass; then they will look more 'Eastery.'\"\n\n\"If only we knew where the Easter Hare lives,\" they said somewhat sadly,\n\"we would go and call on him at once and thank him for all his kindness\nto us.\"\n\n\"O but just look, Paulchen,\" said Luischen excitedly, \"there is\nsomething written on the rocks over there; perhaps the Easter Hare lives\nthere. Paulchen, you can read a little, do see if you can make out what\nis written.\"\n\nPaulchen read:\n\n \"I am the Master Easter Hare\n  Lay eggs, in plenty, everywhere.\"\n\n\"Come along, run, we will knock at the door,\" said Luischen joyfully. So\nthey went up to the rock and knocked.\n\n\"Come in,\" said a clear voice.\n\nThey went in and turned to the door on the right from which the voice\nhad come. They entered a comfortable room, and there on a cosy\neasy-chair, there sat father Easter Hare, who had just put on his\nspectacles to examine the eggs which his son, who was about seven years\nold, had painted.\n\n\"Good morning, dear Mr Easter Hare, we have come to thank you for the\nlovely eggs,\" said the children.\n\n\"_Dear, dear_,\" said Mr Easter Hare, \"you found them of course in your\ngarden, or----?\"\n\n\"Alas, no, we have no home, we are orphans; the people in the orphanage\ndid not treat us kindly, so we ran away, and meant to seek our fortune\nin the wide world,\" said the children. \"Then we were so lucky as to find\nthese beautiful eggs in the fields over there!\"\n\n\"Dear me, so you are orphans!--well then perhaps you would like to stay\nhere with us and learn painting and housekeeping,\" said Mr Easter Hare.\n\n\"Oh yes indeed, we should simply love to!\" answered the children, \"but\nwhere is your wife? Perhaps she will be able to teach us to be of some\nuse in the household.\"\n\n\"Well, well, my wife is in the kitchen cooking cabbage, and carrots, and\nmaking a famous salad.\"\n\n\"Oh!\" said both the children, \"may we help her dress the salad?\"\n\n\"Certainly, my wife will be very pleased to find that you can be so\nuseful; there, just opposite in the passage, is a door that leads into\nthe kitchen where my wife is busy.\"\n\nThe children followed his directions and went into the kitchen, and\nthere sat Mrs Easter Hare.\n\n\"Good morning, Mrs Easter Hare,\" said the children politely, curtsying\nand bowing, \"we have come to help you in the household, and to stay with\nyou till we are grown up; but now please let us make the salad.\"\n\n\"Well, that is very kind of you, I'm sure, to want to help me,\" said Mrs\nEaster Hare, and the children set to work at once.\n\nAfter this the children helped her every day in the kitchen in the\nmorning, and in the afternoon they learnt from father Easter Hare how to\npaint the eggs smoothly and prettily, and how to read and write; for the\nEaster Hare is educated, you must know, and far more intelligent than\nordinary hares. When they grew up and went out into the world again,\nPaulchen became a celebrated artist and lived in the artist colony at\nCronberg, and little Luischen married, and became an exemplary\nhousewife; but their best friends throughout their lives were always\n\nMR AND MRS EASTER HARE.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NIXY LAKE\n\n\nIn one of the wildest and most romantic parts of Germany, there is a\nhigh mountain which is as renowned for the strange stories that are told\nabout it, as for its many natural peculiarities. It is flat on the top,\nfalling off precipitously on every side. In recent times a high tower\nhas been built on the very edge of the rock. Curious to say, the ground\non the summit of this mountain is a bog or morass; flat slabs of stone\nhave been placed on it to enable bold tourists to reach the tower\nwithout sinking in unawares. There is a bronze ring on a balcony\nsurrounding the tower, with darts pointing in different directions,\nshowing where London, Paris, and St Petersburg, for instance, are\nsituated. I need hardly say that these towns are not visible, but that\nif a straight line could be drawn from this spot, it would reach them.\n\nNot far below the summit there is a mysterious-looking lake, which it is\nstrange indeed to find at so high a level. A huge cliff formed of\nboulders of rock rises on the one side of the lake; it falls like a\ngreat wall straight into the water; only daring little ferns and plants\nhave a foothold on it; the lake is inaccessible from this direction. A\nnarrow pathway winding in and out edged with water-reeds leads by it on\nthe other side. This lake is said to be so deep that it is unfathomable;\nit is dark brown in colour, bitter and brackish to the taste. No fish\ncan live in it. Learned men, called geologists, who study the crust of\nthe earth, have decided that this region is not volcanic in origin as it\nwould appear at first sight, but that the lake is fed by water from the\nmorass.\n\nThis mountain is constantly visited by sudden violent atmospheric\ndisturbances, great winds and heavy thunderstorms, that spring up at a\nmoment's notice, striking terror into the hearts of any travellers who\nmay be caught in them.\n\nNow several centuries ago, before the time of railways and steamboats, a\nmighty king of the water-sprites lived in this lake with his three\nbeautiful daughters, the famed nixies of the lake.\n\nThe King was a majestic old man with long white beard and hair; his eyes\nwere black and sinister, and when he drew his eyebrows together in a\nstraight line over his eyes, his frown was terrible to behold. The\nthunderstorms which devastated the country round, were attributed to\nhim. In his fits of rage, the village folk declared, he would hurl\nstones and thunderbolts down from the mountain, heedless of what or whom\nhe might destroy.\n\nThe day would be fine, the sky blue, and in a moment a storm wind would\narise, clouds would cover the heavens, and lightning shoot forth; how\ncould this be accounted for by natural agency?\n\nThe nixies were much to be pitied, if the truth were known, for their\nfather was a stern old tyrant, and interfered constantly with their\nharmless amusements, also prohibiting their leaving the lake to frolic\nat midnight with the wood-spirits, whom he considered as beneath them in\nrank.\n\nOn a warm day in the lovely month of June (which is the favourite month\nof all the year for the water-nixies, for then the white and yellow\nwater lilies are in flower, and the yellow irises shine among the\nwater-reeds) the three sisters were swimming lazily to and fro, plunging\nunder the water like seals, to reappear like seals on the look-out for\nsomething to happen. But nothing ever did happen but one of their\nfather's tempers, and of these they were tired enough as you may\nimagine. They had not fishes' tails like their cousins the mermaids, but\nslender limbs of dazzling whiteness. Their hair resembled beautiful\nseaweed as they dived under the water, or when it spread out like a fan\non the surface.\n\nThe eldest, Clothilde, was dark; she was beautiful, but haughty, and\nlooked as if she had inherited her father's temper.\n\nThe youngest was very fair; she had the golden hair of a fairy, her eyes\nwere blue, but meaningless; there was little sense in their depths. Her\nname was Elfrida.\n\nThe second sister, Lenore, was of a different type, and might have been\nmistaken for a mortal maiden. Her hair was neither dark nor fair,\nneither red nor brown, it was of a pale hazel colour and fell in\nstraight masses nearly to her feet. Her eyes were of a deep grey fringed\nwith dark lashes; they had a mysterious and pathetic look--a look caused\nby longing after something indefinite and yet desired, or by a\nprescience perhaps of coming disaster.\n\nLenore rose to the surface of the water. \"Sisters,\" she called,\n\"sisters, listen to me,\" and she swam towards the shade of the rock, and\nseated herself on a stony seat, half in half out of the water. \"I can\nbear the monotony of our existence no longer. I tire of this life of\nceaseless dancing, swimming, drifting. I want to visit the homes of men\nwho live in the village that lies below us at the foot of the mountain,\nto hear stories of the world from which we are shut out, to share as far\nas it is possible for us in the simple and homely amusements of\nmortals.\"\n\n\"I am willing to go with you,\" said Clothilde, frowning discontentedly.\n\"I am tired too of this melancholy lake; the eternal nothingness of our\nlife oppresses me too.\" She tore a water-lily to pieces as she spoke.\n\n\"O do not do that!\" said Lenore, almost as if in pain, \"the flowers can\nfeel too!\"\n\n\"What if they can!\" said Clothilde scornfully; for the cruelty of the\nnixies coursed through her veins.\n\n\"And you Elfrida,\" said Lenore, turning to her fairer sister, \"will you\ncome with us?\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said Elfrida, \"I prefer to stay here among the water-lilies. I\nhave no aspirations, I could live here for ever sleeping through the\nwinter months, dreaming through the summer ones, yet if you go, I will\ngo too; for we three have never been separated, and I should be afraid\nif I were left alone with my father.\" As she spoke she placed a\nwater-lily in her golden hair; the sunbeams struck through the fir-trees\nby the lake and fell on her, till she looked like some wonderful fairy\nprincess, too exquisite to be real.\n\nA young man happened to be passing the lake just at this moment; he\ncaught the entrancing picture as if it were a vision from Heaven; his\nbrain reeled, his breath failed him, he would have fallen in a swoon;\nbut then he met Lenore's eyes, grave, calm, and searching. A wild\nlonging and deep melancholy seized on him. He rushed towards the lake,\nand clutched hold of the branches of a young willow, only just in time\nto prevent himself from falling into those treacherous depths.\n\nWith a weird cry and their white arms raised over their heads, the\nnixies disappeared in the lake. The young man gazed as one bewitched;\ncrossed himself in fear; and gazed again. All was silent: no living\ncreature stirred; only the sunbeams fell athwart the lake, and little\ncascades of water fell over the surface of the rock.\n\n\"I have seen the nixies of the pool,\" thought the young man, who was the\nson of a rich peasant farmer in the village. \"Surely that means that I\nshall die ere long. I should not fear death,\" he continued, \"if I were\nto die in battle in honourable and open conflict; but to die young,\nstricken by some awful and unaccountable fate, that would be terrible.\"\n\nAs he turned homewards, a wind arose that nearly hurled him into the\nlake; so violent was the gust, and a storm burst forth, the like of\nwhich he had never experienced before. Branches were torn from the\ntrees, and hurled in his path; the lightning was continuous and nearly\nblinded him. Glancing fearfully back at the lake, the waters seemed to\nhave arisen in great waves, and he thought he saw the nixy King himself\nraging and roaring like a wild creature, casting the storm winds forth\nfrom their fortresses in the rocks, holding the lightning like fireworks\nin his long fingers, and hurling it across the land. Terrified,\nhalf-stunned by the thunder, and stupefied by the hail and rain, he at\nlast reached home, where his mother awaited him in great anxiety.\nHowever he soon had off his wet, torn clothes, and casting himself on\nhis bed fell into a profound slumber. He slept for nearly a night and a\nday, and when he awoke his adventures seemed to him a wild dream, and\nlike a dream were half-forgotten although they exerted a subtle\ninfluence on his waking thoughts that he was unaware of.\n\nMeanwhile the nixies, and especially Lenore, had been anxious as to his\nfate. Not until she had sent their dwarf messenger into the village to\nmake inquiries as to his welfare, could she be at rest. Her wish to\nvisit the homes of men became a passion, a burning desire that could not\nbe quenched. She called on her dread father; three times she cried out\nto him, and her sisters echoed the call. Then he arose from the depths,\nmajestic and so terrible to behold that Lenore almost lost the courage\nto address him. But he listened to her request in silence, brooding,\nwhile great ravens whirled and swooped in the sky above their heads.\nThen he spoke:\n\n\"It is decreed that no one can alter the path of fate, or avoid the doom\nthat is written in the stars. The hour has come: I have foreseen this\nday; go, my daughters, go. But remember there is one condition which you\nmust strictly obey. One night in the week you may be absent from the\nlake; but as the hour strikes twelve, you must be back again in these\nwaters. I shall send a messenger to fetch you, the dwarf Hunold, beware\nlest you keep him waiting! If you disobey, destruction will overtake\nyou, and your home will know you no more.\" He sank gloomily into the\nlake; the day was oppressive; no rain fell and the evening brought no\nrelief. Strange and uneasy were the dreams of many that night in the\nlittle village.\n\nSome young people returning late from a social gathering, reported that\nthey had seen a bright, uncanny light in the sky, like a fire, or some\nsaid like a golden hand, at midnight over the ill-omened mountain.\n\nIn those days when it was so difficult to travel from place to place,\nthe villagers were obliged to depend on themselves for amusement and\nentertainment. In the villages round about the mountain it was the\ncustom for the young people to meet together at each other's houses on\nSaturday evenings. Those who had rooms large enough, took it in turns to\ninvite all the rest; the girls brought their spinning-wheels, and the\nroom where they met was called the spinning-room. The girls were busy\nand merry at the same time. Stories were told, and songs were sung, the\nyoung men smoked and drank wine, and not infrequently the\nspinning-wheels were cleared away and there was dancing. Strangers were\nwelcome; for the peasants were renowned for their hospitality; but\nseldom did it happen that travellers passed that way; some young fellow\nperhaps might drop in who was wandering about for a year or so before\nsettling down to the work of his life as the German custom is; but\ntourists were few when roads were bad and money scarce.\n\nOne lovely summer's evening at the end of June the full moon was shining\nin the sky, the latticed windows of the peasant's house where the young\nfolk were assembled, were wide open; the air was laden with the scent of\nthe white lilies and roses that grew in the garden at the back of the\ncottage. There was no light as yet but that of the moon in the parlour;\nthe spinning-wheels too were silent; for stories were being told; one\nmore marvellous than the other, of ghosts and goblins, of dwarfs and\nmountain-spirits, and naturally enough awful tales of the neighbouring\nnixy King, and of his three daughters who lived in the enchanted lake.\n\nHermann, the young man who had been overtaken by the thunderstorm, was\npresent this evening; he was silent and glum, though the most charming\nvillage maidens chaffed him and tried to captivate him, and the peasant\ngirls in this part of Germany are renowned for their beauty and their\ngrace. The melancholy which was not so much part of his natural\ndisposition as due to the adventures of that evening, fell on him again\nlike a dark cloud oppressing his brain. The girls who had been listening\nto the stories, were by this time worked up to a state of feeling which\ncan only be described by the words creepy, or eerie. Most of them\nexperienced that unaccountable sensation which Germans call Gaensehaut\n(goose-flesh). So that a sudden knock at the door caused them to cry out\nin fear and clutch hold of their sweethearts. The knock was repeated\nthree times before anyone summoned up courage to open the door. Then the\nassembled company fell back in astonishment as three beautiful young\ngirls entered the room, each holding a spinning-wheel under her arm.\nThey walked erect like princesses, everyone was sure they must be of\nhigh rank. They wore dresses of some shimmering material such as the\nvillage folk had never seen before, and necklaces of pearls, silken hose\nand silver shoes.\n\nHermann's heart beat to bursting as he beheld them: where had he seen\nthem before? Surely they were the nixies of the magic pool, and his doom\nhad fallen upon him. Never, never, had he been able to forget Lenore's\neyes. Their mournful beauty haunted his dreams. He met them now, as his\nbreath came and went in great gasps; and there was a flash of\nrecognition between them. \"What heavenly beauty, what a noble air she\nhas,\" he thought, hardly regarding her sisters who were strictly\nspeaking far more beautiful.\n\nThe three nixies, for of course it was they, put forth all their\nfascinating arts to ingratiate themselves with the young people\nassembled there.\n\n\"You are pleased to see us, are you not?\" they said. \"We have heard of\nthe fame of your spinning-evenings, and have come from a far country to\ntake part in them. You shall see how we can spin.\"\n\n\"Very gratifying for us, I am sure,\" murmured the officiating president\nof the club.\n\n\"Now do not let us disturb you, you were telling stories I believe as\nwe entered,\" said Lenore, who, being the most human, took the lead in\nthe conversation.\n\nBut no one dared to open his mouth, even those who had been the most\neager to narrate wild tales before, seemed stricken with dumbness now.\n\n\"You could tell us a story, I believe,\" she said, turning to Hermann,\nwho could only shake his head. \"Then I must tell one myself,\" she said\nwith a little sigh. She poured forth an extraordinary story to which the\npeasants listened open-mouthed, the tale of a terrible doom that\novertook a faithless lover.\n\n\"A mortal man,\" she said, \"had made love to a beautiful nixy, and won\nher affection in return. But because she was not human, he did not think\nof marrying her, but became engaged to a village maiden who was good and\nsweet, if not so beautiful as the nixy. But the nixy had her revenge.\nShe swam under the bridge where the little river ran through the fields,\nand one day as the two were walking in the dewy meadows, she caused the\nwaters to rise suddenly in a great flood, and tore her lover away from\nhis human bride down with her in the stream, choking him under the water\ntill he was dead. Then she sat with his head on her lap, and stroked his\nbeautiful dark curls, and wept until she dissolved in tears, and became\npart of the water, which has been slightly salt from that day. The\nvillage maiden was married to a rich old peasant not long afterwards; so\nmuch for human fidelity,\" said Lenore, fixing her sad eyes on Hermann.\n\n\"He well-deserved his fate,\" said Hermann, \"who chose the lesser when he\nmight have had the greater love.\"\n\n\"I think the nixy was a mean, wicked thing,\" said a young girl, almost a\nchild, called Brigitte, with soft, dark eyes, and a sweet expression on\nher face. \"She could not really have cared for her lover, or she would\nhave wanted him to be happy with the village girl, as she knew she could\nnot marry him herself.\"\n\n\"Never,\" said Hermann, excitedly, whose blood was coursing like fire in\nhis veins, \"better death in the arms of the beloved, than a contented\nlife with lower aims!\"\n\nThe men laughed.\n\n\"Now who would have thought that Hermann was so romantic!\" they said.\n\"And he has the fattest pigs and the biggest casks of wine in the\nvillage!\"\n\nSongs were proposed; everyone joined in; the voices of the nixies were\nheard above all, clear and beautiful as a bell. They began with one of\nthe best-known songs in the German language which is always sung on\nespecially jovial occasions, it begins:\n\n \"I cannot tell why or wherefore\n    A legend of olden times\n  Deep in my heart is singing,\n    In mournful rhythmic rhymes.\"\n\nAfter several songs had been sung in unison, Hermann begged the young\nman who was the host that evening to ask the beautiful strangers to sing\na song alone and of their own choosing, he longed to hear their voices,\nunspoilt by those of others.\n\nThe nixy maidens readily complied: was not singing their most natural\nmode of expressing themselves? They sang these verses to a weird,\nhaunting melody:\n\n \"The wild-fowl are calling: come back to the lake!\n  O nixies come back, or your proud hearts must break;\n  The moonbeams are glancing, the fairies are dancing,\n  Come back.\n\n  The grey mists are rising! Beware, O beware!\n  For though you are slender and though you are fair,\n  Your treacherous waters, O nixy king's daughters,\n  Can slay.\n\n  Beware the king's anger--O tempt not your fate,\n  The white water-lilies your coming still wait;\n  Wide open each flower until the twelfth hour--\n  Beware!\"\n\nThe old pendulum clock on the wall struck eleven. How fast the time had\nflown! The three beautiful maidens rose up hastily and departed, wishing\na courteous \"good night\" and \"good luck to you\" to the company.\n\nAs Hermann opened the door for them, he saw a little dwarf with a\nlighted lantern waiting for them outside the door, and much as he wished\nto accompany them home, he did not dare to do so.\n\nWhen they had left the room, a storm of conjecture burst forth; at last\neveryone agreed that they must be the nixies of the lake.\n\n\"We did not like the look of their eyes; they were so cold and\ntreacherous,\" said some of the girls who were jealous of a beauty that\nthey felt they could never attain to.\n\n\"You are ill-natured things, not fit to sweep the floor for such\nexquisite creatures,\" said Hermann angrily; and the whole company began\nto jeer and to laugh at him, saying:\n\n\"Hermann has fallen in love with the nixies. Many a wet kiss will he\nhave from them--ha--ha!--but cold water will be his bridal bed, and\ndeath the groomsman--ha, ha!\"\n\n\"Do not be so cruel,\" said kind little Brigitte, who had blamed the nixy\nin the story. \"See how pale Hermann looks, he will faint in another\nminute; he has never been strong since he was out in that awful storm.\"\n\nHermann could bear the conversation no longer; hastily saying good night\nhe went home with wild thoughts in his head, and, alas! wild,\nungovernable love in his heart.\n\nFor the next few weeks on Saturday evenings the same thing happened.\nThere was the usual social gathering, no one was absent; the little room\ncould hardly hold the thronging guests. Then there was the eagerly\nlooked for knock at the door, and the three lovely maidens entered and\nshared so naturally in what was going on that the young people gradually\nlost somewhat of their awe of them. Who could spin so fast and so finely\nas the three strangers; who could sing such entrancing songs; who could\ntell more wonderful stories!\n\nHermann generally managed to sit by Lenore, and to hold her hand, and he\nknew his love was returned.\n\nNaturally the exquisite Elfrida, and the stately Clothilde had their\nadmirers as well.\n\n\"Soon they will have taken all our sweethearts away from us, the nasty\ncreatures,\" whispered some of the village girls under their breath, \"and\nthey cannot marry all the lads in the country round. The men are\nbewitched, that is certain--no good can come of it. Most of the men\nrealise it, however, and will come back to us in time; all except\nHermann. He is so far gone that it is quite hopeless to try and\ninfluence him.\"\n\n\"I am sorry for Lenore,\" said little Brigitte, \"I would do anything I\ncould to help her; she looks so _very_ unhappy!\"\n\nOn the night of the 9th of September the spinning evening was to be at\nHermann's house, which was a splendid building in its way, like a great\nwooden castle. He was feverish with excitement. He bought and gathered\nall the flowers he could get together, and decked the house as for a\nwedding-feast. His mother could not bake cakes that were fine enough to\nsuit his taste; the furniture seemed to him clumsy and old-fashioned. He\nwould gladly have strewn rose-leaves, instead of rushes, on the floor\nfor his lady-love to tread on. All the time a voice was telling him to\ndesist: that such love could never be hallowed; that his bride was but a\nmyth, a dream that would vanish away. His mother was terribly troubled\nabout him, and feared that the boy had lost his wits in the\nthunderstorm.\n\n\"You shall see my bride to-night, mother,\" he said. \"Ah, there is no one\nlike her!\"\n\nBut the old woman trembled and shook and crossed herself, she knew not\nwhy. She felt a presentiment of coming evil.\n\n\"She shall not escape from me so soon to-night,\" thought Hermann to\nhimself. \"I know what I will do: I shall put the clock an hour back, so\nthat when it is really twelve o'clock, they will think it is only\neleven. One hour, one blessed hour more in her company, snatched in\ndefiance of fate!\"\n\nNever had Hermann been more charming as a host than he was to-night. He\nbade his guests heartily welcome and shook them warmly by the hand.\nTrue, he was somewhat distracted and gave strange answers to questions\nthat were put to him. His eyes were constantly on the door. It opened at\nlast, and the three entered; they looked lovelier than ever; they had on\ngolden shoes and wore golden girdles. Their dresses were white edged\nwith pale green like water-lilies with a green calyx. There was to be no\nspinning to-night. Hermann had provided for music and dancing; he became\ngiddy and his senses failed him almost at the thought of dancing with\nthe lovely Lenore.\n\nAh what light little feet! They hardly seemed to touch the ground as\nthey flew round; but the time too sped by with great rushing wings,\nthough Hermann had striven to check its headlong course. They paid no\nheed to the dwarf and his constant warning taps on the door; the three\nsisters were too engrossed in the delights of the dance. But suddenly\nLenore glanced at the clock; it pointed to eleven.\n\n\"A few moments more, my beloved,\" she said, \"and then we must part. But\nwhy are you so pale?\" she asked of Hermann, whose heart was beating fast\nenough to suffocate him; for he was afraid now of the consequences of\nhis deed.\n\n\"Lenore,\" he said chokingly, \"it is midnight; I hope I have not done\nwrong. I put back the clock. I wanted to keep you all longer at my\nhouse.\"\n\nLenore turned deadly pale, then she told her sisters of the fatal trick\nthat Hermann had played on them, and they too turned white as the chalk\non the walls; well they knew their father and what his revenge might be!\n\nMurmuring a sad farewell Lenore gazed for the last time in Hermann's\neyes, and then the dark night swallowed her up for ever.\n\nThe dwarf's lantern could be seen from time to time among the forest\ntrees like a will-o'-the-wisp; then that too vanished.\n\nThe dancing and feasting went on for some time; but Hermann's heart was\nsick within him; he had no spirit left for the revelry. An indescribable\nfeeling of terror and anxiety possessed him. The clock struck twelve;\nthe guests dispersed. They had hardly left the house when a terrific\nstorm broke forth, appalling in its awful violence; the house shook,\ntrees were uprooted, lightning blazed continually. The tempest was\nnothing, however, compared to that in Hermann's breast; he could not\nrest or sleep; fearful visions assailed him: he seemed to hear his\nbeloved Lenore calling him, or begging for mercy from her cruel father.\n\nTowards morning the storm had somewhat abated though it was by no means\nover. Hermann rushed out of the house, taking a wild pleasure in\nbattling with the fierce elements. Up and up with a certain step he went\ntowards that lake where all his anguish had begun, and yet where all his\nhopes and desires were centred. As he approached the lake through the\nfir-wood, the sky over the great cliff was rosy in the early dawn, the\nbirds were singing, the harebells raised their dew-drenched heads and\nlooked at him. No motion--no sound--the lake was cruel it seemed to him\nin its indifference to his grief. \"Lenore,\" he cried, \"Lenore!\"\n\nThen the waters of the lake stirred and three waves arose, each one\ngreater than the last, and in the third was the nixy king with a cruel\nexpression on his face.\n\n\"Ah, call for Lenore,\" he said mockingly, \"but you will never see her\nagain!--Behold, the doom of the disobedient daughters is fulfilled.\" As\nhe spoke the lake stirred again, the waters whirled round, three\nexquisite rose-leaves rose from the depths of the lake and floated on\nthe surface of the water. \"Never again will you or any mortal man behold\nthe nixies of the pool; they are changed into rose-leaves; this was\ntheir punishment,\" he said, \"a poetical punishment--ha, ha!\" and he\nvanished with a tremendous clap of thunder.\n\nMore than half-mad Hermann stumbled home; for weeks he lingered between\nlife and death.\n\nThe kind little Brigitte would have liked to have taken care of him, and\nwould have made him a good wife; but because of his consuming love for\nLenore, he slowly pined away, until one day he was found lying dead\nbeside the fatal lake.\n\n\n\n\nKING REINHOLD\n\n\nThere are villages in the heart of the Taunus Mountains that are little\naltered by this progressive age; no railway, not even the post-chaise\nreaches them, and motor-cars are only to be seen as they whirr past\noccasionally on the high road.\n\nSuch a village is Elhalten; it lies in a green valley, rich with many\nflowers; a lovely little brook runs through it, disappearing suddenly\nunder houses to reappear again triumphant farther down the road. This\nbrook is called the Silber Bach or Silver Brook, on account of the\nclearness of its water. On either side of the valley rise up steep\nmountain-slopes with wild woods and rough pathways. One good road joins\nthe village with Vockenhausen, and so with the well-known town of\nEppstein.\n\nOn the farther side of the Kueppel (the steep peak that rises behind\nElhalten) is a forester's cottage, a lonely and deserted-looking\ndwelling in the middle of the forest. There I once nursed a huge\nfriendly cat who was so delighted to see a stranger that she quite\npersecuted me with her affection.\n\nOn the top of the Kueppel is an airy tower; anyone who wishes to try what\nflying is like, and cannot afford to go in the Zeppelin airship, can\nform an idea of it here. There is a most expansive view of the Taunus\nRange, and very little underneath the feet.\n\nIn the forester's hut lived a little boy named Hugo. He was the son of\nthe forester, a fine little fellow of nearly six years. Hugo had few\nstory-books; but he did not need them; for he lived in the forest, and\nthe forest tells its own tales to the children who live there. The birds\nwould chatter to him, and tell him their family histories; the silent,\nsweet-eyed deer came to the forestry to be fed in the cold winter, and\nso he learnt to know their ways. The little flowers would whisper tales\nof the strange sights they had seen in the forest, when they had by\nchance forgotten to close their petals for the night.\n\nHugo had seen much for a five year's old boy; but he longed to see more.\nHe had heard stories of wood-goblins, of fairies and nixies, and of the\nbusy dwarfs who live underground. He thirsted for adventure.\n\nNow I must tell you that just about this time the news had come from\nElhalten that a child had been lost from the village, a dear little\ngirl of four years. She had strayed by herself in the woods of the\nKueppel, and though her parents and Hugo's father, indeed all the\nvillagers had sought for her, no trace could they find, save strips of\nher little blue pinafore, and a hair ribbon on the brambles in a remote\nspot near an old quarry. You can imagine what a stir this made in the\nquiet life of the neighbourhood.\n\nSome people spoke of gipsies, some of deep holes or pools in the woods;\nothers did not say much, but they thought of the wood-spirits and\nfairies and shook their heads. Hugo had many a time played with pretty\nbaby Elsa; her father and the forester were friends, and she had spent\nthe day sometimes in the forestry on the Kueppel. You may imagine that\nthe children were more strictly watched over than usual. Hugo's mother\nkept a sharp eye on him; for she knew that his little head was full of\nall sorts of queer notions.\n\nIt happened that, about a fortnight after these events, Hugo's father\nwent out for a night's hunting. His mother had been busy all the\nafternoon; the weather was hot and sultry. At last drowsiness overcame\nher and she fell asleep with her head on the kitchen table. Now she was\ncertainly not given to falling asleep in the afternoon, she was\ngenerally much too busy for that; so I really think she must have been\nbewitched. The fairies sometimes put sleeping draughts into people's\ncoffee; then it is all up with them.\n\nNow was Hugo's opportunity. He hastily took up the brown (or grey as it\nis called in Germany) rye-bread and sausage that stood ready for his\nsupper, packed it into a beautiful green case, with two May-bugs painted\non it, snatched up his toy gun in case of accidents, and set out with a\nbrave heart to look for little Elsa.\n\nI must tell you that he had dreamt of her repeatedly since her\ndisappearance. She seemed to look at him with her wistful blue eyes, and\nto implore his help. A rhyme rang constantly in his head that seemed to\nhave reference to her; but he could not quite make out what it meant:\n\n \"King Reinhold found a little maid\n  Alone within the forest glade;\n  She wept and cried in sore distress,\n  All torn and tattered was her dress;\n  He set her on a golden throne,\n  He gave her playthings for her own.\n  But still she wept the livelong day,\n  She would not laugh, and would not play.\n  'This is most tiresome to behold;\n  What shall I do?' said King Reinhold.\"\n\nThe little maid was probably Elsa; but where was she? Who was King\nReinhold? How could Hugo deliver her? He could not answer these\nquestions. \"I must trust to luck, and hope that the fairies will help\nme. Heigho for adventures!\"\n\nIt was the twilight hour; the sky was of a delicate grey-green tint, the\nbirds called to their roving mates to come home to bed, a few faint\nstars appeared in the sky; mystery hung in the air.\n\nOn Hugo went--following a circle of green and gold that was marked on\nthe trees and seemed to show him the way. He sang and shouted merrily to\nkeep up his spirits; it was supper-time, and the night air had made him\nhungry; so he unpacked his bread and sausage and made a good meal. The\nmoon had risen, and threw a glimmer of light through the trees; the\nlingering shades of twilight vanished. On one side of the little path\nwas the dark fir-wood, impenetrable in its gloom, on the other, beeches\nand oaks. Little harebells, and pink centaury bordered the pathway.\nThere was a lovely woody smell in the late summer night, a smell of damp\nearth, and fungi and flowers, or rather a combined perfume still more\nsubtle and indescribable.\n\nThe stillness and loneliness began to oppress our hero a little for the\nfirst time. If he had been a town child he would have been horribly\nfrightened long before this; but he was as used to the silence of the\nwoods, as you may be to the noise and bustle of the street.\n\nSuddenly a muffled sound broke the silence: knock, knock, knock, like\nthe blow of hammers when the workmen are busy at some distance. Hugo's\nbrave little heart began to beat; for he knew that the noise must be\nmade by the Kobolds at work on their anvils deep underground.\n\nThen he was aware of footsteps behind him: tramp, tramp, tramp. Was it\nhis father come to fetch him home? He rather hoped that it might be so;\nbut when he plucked up courage to turn round, there was no one there! An\nowl screeched; a bush rustled near him; he turned round sharply, and\nthere he saw a little old man with a huge key in his hand sitting on a\nfelled tree-trunk. His bright blue eyes gleamed strangely in the\nmoonshine, and his shaggy grey hair stood up on either side of his\nred-peaked cap. He wore a jacket of green, lined with scarlet, and had\non heavy wooden shoes such as the peasants wear in some parts of\nGermany. He plucked a dandelion clock that grew by the way and held it\nup to the moon.\n\n\"One, two, three,\" up to nine the little man counted.\n\n\"Nine o'clock! Come along hurry up,\" said he, and he took Hugo by the\nhand.\n\nInstantly the child was able to see many things in the forest which he\nhad not observed before; strange fairy forms came floating by and gazed\nat him with sad, sweet eyes; then a stream of laughing elves passed him\nin wild frolic. Yes, once he thought that through the trees he saw the\ngigantic form of the Old King himself, throned on his mountain.\n\nDown, down a narrow bypath they clambered, over stones and through\nbrambles, and interlaced branches. Then they crossed a trout stream\nsilver clear in the moonlight. The trout were asleep; but when the dwarf\nleant over the little stone bridge and whispered a few words--flash and\nthey were off, far far down the stream; they hid under the rushes and\ntree-roots by the banks and quaked for fear. They dreaded the dwarfs and\nwith reason.\n\n\"Boiled trout with a fine butter sauce, that is my favourite dish,\" said\nthe little man to Hugo and smacked his lips greedily.\n\nThey walked along the beautifully overshadowed pathway by the trout\nstream, watching the moonlight on the rippling water, till they left the\nbrook behind, and came to a green meadow in the centre of which stood a\nvenerable oak-tree, which still bore green leaves though its trunk was\ncompletely hollow.\n\nThe tree was lit from within by a brilliant glow of rosy light. The\ndwarf approached on tiptoe, taking off his clumsy shoes, and beckoning\nto Hugo to follow him quietly. They peeped through the holes in the\ntrunk of the tree, and O what a sight they saw!\n\nTwenty or more of the tiniest children, scarcely bigger than my finger,\nsat or danced or rolled on the green mossy carpet of the tree-room.\nThese were the fairy babies, and this was the fairies' nursery. Each\nlittle girl had a dolly made of the loveliest flowers, and a cradle of\ngreen oak leaves, sewed together by grass blades.\n\nThe tiny Fee babies lay on their backs and kicked and crowed for joy,\nand the biggest of all the fairies present gave them their bottles,\nfilled with moonshine and honey-dew on which the babies thrive. The boy\nelves made the most noise; they had captured a field mouse, a huge\ncreature it seemed in comparison with them, and they were all trying to\nride on its back at once.\n\nHugo was so delighted with the lovely sight that he could not resist\ncalling out \"Oh!\" in tones of ecstasy. In an instant, puff! the light\nwent out; a cold fog arose; Hugo saw his dwarf companion change into a\nbig black bear terrible to behold. Just as our hero thought he was going\nto be eaten up, the Kobold resumed his natural form.\n\n\"Be silent if you would be wise,\" he said, and that was all.\n\nThey followed the little pathway further through the meadow and into the\nwoods again, until they came suddenly on a great pile of rocks,\npicturesquely heaped up amongst the trees, such as are so common in the\nTaunus Mountains. The dwarf went up to the rock, key in hand, and\nsearched about until he had found a secret door. Then he fitted the key\ninto the lock and turned it, then tugged and tugged to open the door.\nSuddenly it swung open, creaking noisily, and the dwarf lay on his back.\nUp he got grumbling and scolding. \"They ought to have oiled the hinges,\nthe lazy louts,\" he said.\n\nAs the door opened, Hugo saw a long corridor before him, lit by stars of\nlight, and countless mirrors reflected the stars in every direction. The\neffect was rather too dazzling after the dark night, and Hugo's eyes\nblinked. Down, down, down, the corridor gradually descended and seemed\nnever-ending. \"However shall I get out again?\" thought Hugo anxiously.\nHe did not know you see that there are many ways out of magic land.\n\nAt last they came to another door, made of crystal glass, and entered a\nlarge hall with a sparkling roof of rock crystal. In the centre was a\nfountain, a more wonderful creation fairyland does not contain. Hugo\nheld his breath for fear of saying \"Oh!\" again. Strange gnomes and\nfairies seemed to be alive in it, and the element it contained, was not\nwater, but fire. The most marvellous display of fireworks that you have\never seen, would be nothing in comparison.\n\nSometimes it illustrated well-known fairy tales: Snowdrop in her glass\ncoffin, Cinderella trying on the shoe and so on. Hugo could have watched\nit for ages, and left it reluctantly, looking back all the time. Then\nthey passed through an arched doorway, and a new scene met their view.\n\nMultitudes of little dwarf men dressed in Court attire stood round the\nroom. Facing them, on a throne of gold, with a tiny crown of gold\nstarred with bright-eyed diamonds on her head sat a real little human\ngirl, with a shabby old dolly in her arms. She was a very pretty little\ngirl, grandly dressed in a frock of blue silk embroidered with white\ndaisies, little blue socks and shoes with diamond buckles. But her face\nwas sad and pale, and her eyes red from crying, and her fair hair hung\nin tangled locks over her shoulders. She held her dolly clasped tight in\nher arms and repeated over and over again: \"I want my mamma, I want to\ngo home to my mamma.\"\n\nAs the dwarf, followed by Hugo, entered the room the dwarfs or Kobolds,\nas they are also called, bowed down with their heads to the ground, and\nsang in a gruff chorus:\n\n \"Hail, thrice hail, to King Reinhold,\n  We his subjects true and bold\n  Bow in homage to our king,\n  Each his cap on high must fling!\"\n\nWith that each Kobold threw his peaked cap up to the roof and caught it\nagain on his head, or his foot, or on his nose as the case might be.\nThen they all shouted \"Hurrah!\" and it was as if a mighty flock of\nravens were to croak all together. The little girl put her hands up to\nher ears, and was about to cry again when she saw Hugo. Then she jumped\nup eagerly with a cry of joy and sprang down the golden steps.\n\n\"O you dear, good Hugo,\" she said, \"have you come to fetch me home? I\nknew you would come,\" she continued, \"for I have dreamt of you so\noften.\"\n\nHugo looked into the sweet little face before him and, in spite of her\nfine clothes and diamond crown, he recognised little Elsa, his lost\nplaymate. He remembered his dreams, and all seemed to grow clear. He\nfelt himself very big and strong and important all at once. Putting his\narms protectingly round the little girl, he said facing the whole\nassembly: \"I have come to take this little girl, Miss Elsa, home to her\nmamma.\"\n\nKing Reinhold (for it was the king of the dwarfs himself who had\naccompanied Hugo) took up a heavy crown that lay on a cushion beside\nhim, put it on, and then took it off again, grumbling that it was too\nheavy and did not fit him properly.\n\nThen he cleared his throat and addressed his courtiers in these words:\n\"Hum! Hum! Hum! My esteemed subjects! I found this little girl some\nweeks ago in the woods, within the magic circle of my domain. She was\ncrying bitterly, and seemed very frightened. I comforted her as best I\ncould. I gave her strings of pretty beads and a tiny fan of blue jay's\nfeathers. I promised to take her with me, and give her a crown of gold,\nto set her on a golden throne, and make her Queen of all the dwarfs. I\neven condescended to offer her a kiss; but I am sorry to say the\nungrateful child smacked me in the face (cries of \"shame.\") There she\nsits, look at her! how has she repaid me for all my kindness and for all\nthe honours I have conferred on her?\" (Here Elsa began to cry again and\nto clutch tight hold of Hugo's hand.) \"She does nothing but blubber all\nday, and cuddle her dolly, and say she wants to go home to her mamma! I\nappeal to you, my Kobolds, is such a baby worthy to be Queen of our\nrealm, of a people more ancient than the mountains, older indeed than\nmankind; for we were the first inhabitants of the earth, we are\nPrimitive Man!\"\n\nA roar of applause met this speech and cries of \"She is not worthy, let\nher be deposed,\" were heard. \"She is really too young, she is but a baby\nstill,\" said one kindly looking old grandpapa Kobold.\n\nKing Reinhold raised his hand to command silence, and continued in a\nloud, harsh voice: \"When she is older, she will become too big for us;\nmortals have the strange habit of growing. No, I have thought the matter\nover. Young birds are after all safest in the nest. But this baby would\nnever be able to find the way home, not even down her own street. So I\nhave chosen this brave young man to take her home.\" Here he gave Hugo a\nslap on the back that nearly knocked him down, for dwarfs are very\nstrong in spite of their smallness, you know.\n\nElsa's face began to beam, and she would have danced for joy; but the\nKing's uncomplimentary remarks hurt her a little. _She_ was quite sure\nthat she could find her way home, a big girl of four years ought\ncertainly to know her own house. She knew exactly where it stood. Near\nthe rushing silver brook, a low, red-roofed house, and a barn with black\nbeams, also cocks and hens and geese strutting about in the little yard.\nIt was quite near the water-mill; she could hear the rushing of the\nwater as she lay in her little bed under her big feather sack, with only\nher little nose and ears peeping out. A fir-tree with a very tall stem\nand a thick bushy head stood at the back of the house.\n\nYes, she was sure that she could find it.\n\nMeanwhile some of the dwarfs were marshalled off to get the carriage\nready for the children. Then Hugo summoned up courage to address the\nKing.\n\n\"O King!\" he said, \"I have heard of the wonders of your kingdom and of\nthe marvellous skill of you workmen\"--here he stammered a little and his\noratory gave way--\"I should so much like to see something of it,\" he\nsaid shyly.\n\n\"Certainly, certainly, with the greatest pleasure,\" said King Reinhold,\nand looked much gratified. \"Intelligent child,\" he muttered. \"Ho,\nDickkopf, bring me a torch, and lead the way to the workshop,\" he said.\n\nOff he marched with majestic tread, and Hugo followed with Elsa, her\nlittle warm hand clasped tight in his own; through dark passages and\ncaves lit by a pale light; through store-rooms where masses of minerals\nwere piled up gleaming in wonderful colours; through the treasure-houses\ncontaining gold and silver and precious stones in huge quantities.\n\nThe children's eyes grew round in their heads as they saw all this\nwealth; but they did not understand much about the value of these\ntreasures; toys or sweeties would have been more to their taste.\n\nAt last they reached a long, narrow hall where thousands of little men,\nwith leather aprons on, sat busy at work. Each was employed in adorning\nand completing some work of art: costly goblets, beautiful chain rings,\nand necklaces were there, such as were never seen in the finest shops of\nParis, Berlin or London.\n\nThe \"joy of the making\" was written on every countenance; for the artist\nis always happy when at work.\n\nOne dwarf was illuminating a book, and a beautiful design of grasses and\nbutterflies grew up under his clever fingers.\n\n\"Take the book,\" said King Reinhold to Hugo. \"It is only a tiny chapter\nfrom the great book of Nature that has neither beginning nor end. But if\nyou study it carefully and earnestly, it will always bring you hope and\nhappiness, whatever your learned men may say to the contrary. Hold the\npages to the light, and you will see that they are transparent.\"\n\nAs Hugo did so with the deepest interest, behold! the pictures became\nalive; the butterflies changed into fairies and laughed, and nodded at\nhim in a friendly way.\n\n\"Look _through_ the book of Nature till you find the soul of things,\"\nsaid King Reinhold.\n\nAlthough this sounded very deep and mysterious, Hugo seemed to\nunderstand. Do you, I wonder, little children, who read this story? Or\nare you like the boy in the kindergarten to whom I was telling a fairy\nstory and who interrupted me contemptuously with the remark: \"Fairies\ndon't exist!\"\n\n\"O don't they my little man!\" said I. \"Well _you_ think so.\"\n\nPresently we read of a ball that grew, and he spoke again with great\nenergy: \"Balls don't grow.\"\n\n\"Oh, Oh!\" said I, \"Have you ever seen a little green apple.\" Then I\ntried to show him what wonderful things are always happening in this\nworld of ours, if only we have eyes to see them. I do not think I\nconvinced him; for he was very pig-headed and had a great opinion of\nhimself; and such people big or little are very difficult to argue with.\n\nTo Elsa, Reinhold gave a handful of exquisite roses. \"In fairyland roses\nmean love and happiness,\" he said. \"Little girls should be happy all the\nday long, and not wet the world with their tears. There are tears enough\nalready\"--he said ponderingly--\"tears in the centre of the earth.\"\n\nOpening out of the hall on either side were huge furnaces. Here the\nKobolds were busy smelting the ore, and preparing the materials for the\nmore skilled workmen. Here too were little cupboards with shelves into\nwhich the costly vases were put, in order to be burnt hard like china.\n\nThe heat was so intense that Hugo and Elsa could only just peep in. It\nseemed to them as if the little men must be roasted alive; but the\nKobolds were used to it, and found it quite cool and pleasant. They\nswung their hammers and chattered away at the same time, the busier the\nmerrier; they were never idle or tired of their work.\n\nA young dwarf page entered the hall and announced that the carriage was\nready. In another moment Hugo and Elsa found themselves standing in the\nforest in the moonlight. A carriage stood ready for them drawn by six\nstags. King Reinhold had dispensed with the ceremony of leave-taking; he\nhated fusses, and wanted to smoke his pipe in peace.\n\nHugo recognised the stags; he had fed them in the winter from the\nwindows of the forestry; they knew him too, and nodded their gentle\nheads.\n\nO what a ride that was home through the warm September night! They saw\nneither spirit nor goblin; no fairy marvel was revealed to them; only\nthe strong, sweet scent of the firs, the dark, weird shape of the trees,\nand the stars that shone through the branches!\n\nThey held one another tight by the hand, and leaned back on the soft\ncushions; they said nothing, they felt as if they were in a dream.\n\nPresently they heard the noise of a little brook that was hidden in the\ndark trees, and shortly afterwards they turned a corner and saw the\nlittle village of Elhalten before them, peaceful and still in the early\nmorning light.\n\nElsa recognised her home after all, and called to the stags to stop.\nThen she kissed Hugo and laid her little cheek against his and said:\n\"Good-bye, darling,\" and then she slipped into her house, and it all\nseemed quite natural. You may imagine _how_ delighted Elsa's mother was\nto have her baby girl in her arms again. There was such a kissing and\nhugging as never was before!\n\nMeanwhile Hugo drove up the steep side of the Kueppel in the rosy light\nof the early morning; luckily he met no one on that lonely way. Once he\nthought he saw a white form standing at the end of the path, like a tall\nwoman who waved her arms and beckoned. But when he looked more closely,\nit was but the growing light of day through the trees, and not Mother\nHolle, or the Wood-woman, as he had imagined. The stags galloped along\nswiftly in spite of the rough road, and soon stopped before the door of\nthe forestry. There everyone seemed still asleep; not a sound was to be\nheard. Hugo stroked the gentle heads of the stags and bade them\ngood-bye, and they vanished suddenly in the thicket of the Kueppel.\n\nWith the first rays of the sun Hugo's mother awoke, and was most\nastonished to find that she had slept all night in the kitchen.\n\n\"That's what happens, when one's husband is away,\" she said stretching\nherself and shaking her clothes. \"What has become of Hugo?\" she thought\nsuddenly, and felt anxious. She went quickly upstairs to the bedroom,\nbut there lay Hugo snugly curled up in bed with rosy cheeks and tumbled\ncurls, his nose buried deeply in his pillow.\n\nAs she came in, he roused himself and said: \"Mother, I have been to\nfetch little Elsa. She is home again\"--then he turned round and fell\nfast asleep.\n\nThe next day the news reached them that little Elsa had really been\nfound.\n\n\"Why, how curious, my boy dreamt it last night,\" said Mrs Forester.\n\n\"She was left at her parents' house at about four in the morning, so I\nheard,\" said her husband, who had just come home.\n\nElsa's parents always believed that she had been stolen by the gipsies;\nit was strange that they should have sent her back so soon, without\nasking for a reward. Moreover the child was richly dressed; that was\nalso a queer thing; her clothes were the wonder and admiration of the\nwhole village. A blue silk frock, and shoes with shining buckles; never\nhad such a finely dressed child been seen in Elhalten before.\n\nThe simple folk never dreamt that the buckles were real diamonds and\nworth a large sum of money.\n\nWhen Hugo and Elsa met again on the following Sunday, you may be sure\nthat they had much to talk about, at least when they were left alone\nundisturbed by grown-ups!\n\nAlthough the fairy gifts were invisible to all save the children\nthemselves, it seems that they had an influence on them as they grew\nolder.\n\nElsa became a sweet, loving little person, the sunshine of her home--so\nshe was called--and very, very seldom did anyone see her crying.\n\nHugo was a quiet, shy boy; but he seemed to observe everything and\npeople said of him: \"Hugo has his eyes open; he will make his mark in\nthe world some day.\" So the children grew up happy and good, and what\ncan you want to know more about them than that?\n\n\n\n\nTHE WITCH'S GRANDDAUGHTER\n\n\nPART I\n\nIn a green valley between two mountain-slopes lay a little village\ncrowned by the Castle of Eppenhain, that stood on the mountain-side,\nbuilt on projecting slabs of rock.\n\nThe quaint old houses of the village with their red, slanting roofs, and\nblack-beamed walls, made a pretty picture in the May sunshine as Count\nKarl of Eppenhain rode through the stone-paved highway, mounted on his\nwhite steed decked with scarlet fringes. The lilac bushes were in\nflower, the air was sweet with their scent, the laburnums hung out their\n\"gold rain\" between the houses, the cherry-trees in the little gardens\nshed their blossoms like snow.\n\nAt the farther end of the village was a house somewhat larger than the\npeasant's cottages, with many gables and corners. This house was\nsurrounded on all sides by a thick briar hedge. The Count knew that it\nhad belonged to an old woman who was said to be a witch. There she had\nlived all alone, save for her seven cats, her seven ravens, her\npoultry--famous for the remarkable size of the eggs--and her little\ngranddaughter, Babette.\n\nCount Karl had heard that the old woman was dead; for there had been a\ngreat fuss about her burial. The villagers had said that as she was a\nnotorious witch, she ought not to be buried in consecrated ground; but\nas the old lady had left money to the church, her tombstone was erected\nafter all in the little churchyard. The village boys declared that they\nhad seen her riding on a broomstick over the church spire; but the Count\ndid not believe such tales. He wondered what had become of the child;\nshe was the prettiest, as well as the most mischievous and ill-behaved\nchild in the village.\n\nAs the Count came up to the house, he heard voices shouting and\nscolding. Then he saw a strange hunting scene. The hunters were not men,\nbut women with sticks and brooms, and the creature pursued was neither a\nhare nor a fox, but just a little girl.\n\nYes, it was little Babette, the witch's granddaughter. She was leading\nthe fat peasant women a fine dance. They were quite unused to running,\nand were obliged to stop every few minutes to pant; then Babette danced\njust before them, made naughty faces, and (oh, fie!) stuck out her\nlittle red tongue. Her hair blew over her head in the fresh breeze, till\nshe looked like some tall flower with curling petals. Sometimes she\nstopped and shook her little fist at her pursuers; then off she flew\nagain. She knew every nook and corner of the garden, and that was to her\nadvantage.\n\nThe Count paused, laughed, then blew a blast from his horn.\n\nInstantly everyone stood still as if they were living pictures.\n\n\"Hi! Ho! Come here, good folk!\" he cried.\n\nThe women came at once, wiping their hot faces with the corner of their\naprons, puffing and blowing like so many fat seals. Babette stood at a\nsafe distance, but near enough to hear all that went on.\n\n\"Please sir,\" said one of the women with a curtsy, \"as your Lordship\nknows, the child's granny is dead and buried. Four days has the child\nlived here all alone, never a bite or sup has she had; she will die of\nstarvation. (Here Babette laughed.) She hides in the bushes like the\nwild cat that she is!\"\n\n\"Babette, little Babette, come here, child,\" he called, interrupting the\nold woman's narrative.\n\nShe came at once in obedience to his gentle command. She gave him one\nglance out of her deep brown eyes, lifting up her long black lashes, and\nhis heart was captured at once. He was very fond of children, but he had\nnone of his own. Here was a beautiful child that seemed ready made for\nhim. Not one of the women before him really wished to keep her; for they\nfeared her, and the supposed power of her dead grandmother.\n\nMeanwhile the child stood by the Count, and began to stroke his fine\nembroidered sleeve; finally she slipped her little hand into his. This\nsettled the matter.\n\n\"Well, well, we must see what is to be done for the child. Meanwhile I\nshall take her up with me to the Castle. She seems to have made you all\nrather hot,\" he remarked mischievously to the reddest and stoutest of\nthe women.\n\n\"A devil's brat, I call her!\" she muttered in return, between her teeth.\n\n\"Hush,\" said my Lord indignantly, \"she looks more like a little angel,\"\nand, indeed, at his kind words her small face had become very sweet.\n\nAs he mounted his horse again and lifted Babette to place her before\nhim, she began to cry bitterly.\n\n\"Why, little one, what ails you?\" he said. \"Are you frightened?\"\n\n\"No-o-o-o-o-o,\" said Babette, \"but I don't want to go away from my\n_beau-ti_-ful home!\"\n\n\"You shall have a far more beautiful home, and everything that you can\nwant, shall be yours,\" he said. \"Why, you would have starved there\nalone, you poor little thing!\"\n\n\"Oh no!\" said Babette, \"for Lucky--she is my pet hen you know--always\nlaid the biggest eggs for me; then I make a little hole and suck them\nso. (She tossed back her curly head.) Then I am never hungry or thirsty.\nO, who will feed Lucky, and all the baby chickens; and my cats?\" she\ncontinued, and began to cry again.\n\n\"We will fetch them all up to the Castle,\" said his Lordship\nconsolingly.\n\nThe road wound upwards and upwards, until they reached at length the\ngateway of the Castle. The heavy gates stood open to receive them. There\nwas a pretty terraced garden in the front, where peacocks strutted up\nand down, who nodded their heads as if they knew Babette.\n\nA dog sprang out barking to meet his master. Count Karl patted his head;\nthen he lifted Babette from his horse, and led her by the hand into the\nCastle. \"Welcome to Eppenhain, my little maid,\" he said, formally, but\nkindly.\n\nHer little heart beat fast; for she was timid, like all wild, untamed\ncreatures, and did not know what might happen to her next. The Count\ndrew back the heavy curtain that hung before the entrance to a room; and\nthere in a deep window niche sat a lady dressed in a rich green velvet\ndress with puffed sleeves, and a gold chain round her neck. She was\nworking at embroidery on a frame. She sprang up at once, as her husband\n(for it was the Countess herself) entered the room, and uttered a cry of\nsurprise as she saw the child.\n\n\"Why, what dirty little thing have you picked up? Send her away again at\nonce,\" she said imperiously. \"Don't touch me, child,\" as Babette\nattempted to stroke her grand dress.\n\nNow the Count had not noticed that Babette was very dirty, that her red\npinafore hung in rags, and her hair had not been combed for many a day.\nHe was somewhat taken aback, and saw that he had been rash.\n\n\"She shall be washed and properly dressed, and _then_ you will see,\" he\nsaid. He dared not tell her his plans at once. He sent for his old\nnurse, who had brought him up as a boy, and gave the child into her\ncare.\n\nThe poor woman soon had her hands full, I can tell you! You might as\nwell have tried to dress a hare as Babette! She _would_ not stand still\nfor a second, and as for a bath, she seemed to be quite afraid of it.\nHowever, several maids were called, and Babette was bathed in spite of\nkicks and screams. She was no sooner in the water than she began to\nsplash about like a baby, and to enjoy herself finely. It was almost as\ndifficult to get her out as to put her in! Some old clothes that had\nbelonged to the Count's sister, were produced. Babette thought them very\nfine, and seemed quite pleased, she stroked the old nurse's cheek,\nchucked her under the chin, and sprang up and down violently on her\nknee, \"nearly cracking my old bones,\" as nurse related afterwards. Her\ncurls were the most trouble; it would take more than one day's brushing\nto set them in order.\n\nMeanwhile Count Karl had been explaining to his wife that he meant to\nadopt Babette, and bring her up as his own daughter.\n\n\"A witch's offspring without a family pedigree,\" exclaimed his wife,\n\"must I be mother to a witch's brat?\"\n\nJust then the \"witch's brat\" entered the room, making a funny bobbing\ncurtsy, as nurse had taught her to do, just outside the door. Very\npretty she looked in her low-necked, white-embroidered frock, with the\ncherry-coloured sash, her face flushed after the bath. Even her Ladyship\nwas bound to acknowledge that she was quite a lovely child.\n\n\"What is your name, child?\" she said condescendingly.\n\n\"I don't love you,\" said Babette, and stuck out her tongue.\n\n\"Babette,\" said the Count sternly, \"if you are a _good_ little girl, and\ndo as you are told, you may stay here with us, and this lady will be\nyour mother, and I your father. Then you will be brought up as a lady\ninstead of becoming a little heathen and wild girl of the woods.\"\n\nBabette stood still a moment, as if she were considering the matter;\nthen she gravely kissed his Lordship's hand. The Countess extended her\nlily-white fingers, and Babette kissed them as well, but timidly; for\nshe feared a rebuff.\n\nJust at this moment a noise of scratching and miewing was heard at the\nwindow.\n\nBabette flew to open it, and in walked--what do you think?--seven cats\nwith their tails in the air rubbing themselves comfortably against the\nwindow-pane.\n\n\"O my dear Fotchen, dear Silverpaws, how glad I am to see you!\"\nexclaimed Babette, and she kissed them all.\n\n\"_What next?_\" said the poor Countess, holding up her hands in horror!\n\nIn a few minutes there came a rap at the window, seven times repeated.\nThese were the ravens. However, they did not venture into the room; they\nwere afraid of the big gun that stood in the corner. They flew straight\nup into a tall fir-tree, and there they chattered away as usual, hidden\nby the dark branches.\n\nThe funniest sight of all was the arrival of the poultry. The cocks\nwalked first with an air of importance and authority; the baby bantams\nsat on their mothers' backs; the whole procession toiled up the hill to\nthe Castle and entered by the yard gate. The servants watched them with\nastonishment; they too said: \"What next?\" However, no one grumbled, not\neven the Countess when she heard of it; for such guests were welcome.\nThe old witch's hens were renowned for the size of their eggs; they had\noften been bought for use at the Castle.\n\nNow the clock struck seven.\n\n\"High time for little girls to have their supper and go to bed,\" said\nher Ladyship, and nurse was called, and carried Babette off again.\n\nA beautiful wooden cot, painted white and gold, stood in the room where\nBabette was to sleep. It was still called the nursery; for the Count and\nhis sister had slept there as children.\n\nNurse persuaded her to let five of the cats sleep outside in the barn;\nbut she begged so hard to have Fotchen and Silverpaws that nurse sent\nfor a bundle of hay, and the two pussies slept in a corner of the room\nto keep her from feeling homesick.\n\nBabette stole out of her bed at six o'clock the next morning. She\ndressed herself in haste; she was so anxious to see her new\nsurroundings. It seemed to her like a wonderful dream, or like one of\nthe fairy stories that her old grandmother had so often narrated to her.\n\nYesterday, little, wild Babette, whom no one cared for, and everyone\nscorned; to-day, the Count's own daughter. She would try and be _so_\ngood, never naughty any more. She smoothed her hair a little with her\nfingers; washing she did not think necessary. Then she went down the big\noak staircase followed by her two pussies. When the young servants saw\nher, they began to tease her unmercifully and to pull the cats' tails.\n\nThen Babette grew very angry. \"Leave my cats alone, will you?\" she said.\nShe stamped her little foot, made ugly faces, and used bad words.\nFinally she escaped from her persecutors into the garden. Here she was\nalone. She sat down and cried with rage and sorrow. She had meant to be\nso good; but it was very hard when people were so horrid!\n\nHowever she heard a cock-a-doodle-do from the hen-house, and ran off\nthere, forgetting her troubles. She was greeted by a chorus of melodious\nvoices. They made such a noise that they woke my Lady out of her\ncomfortable early-morning doze. Lucky had laid an immense egg. She\nrolled it with pride to the feet of her young mistress, who promptly\nbegan to suck its contents. The ravens flew down to greet her, and she\nstroked their glossy plumage.\n\nThe five cats were still shut up and miewed bitterly. Babette luckily\nmet one of the gardeners who opened the door of the barn and freed the\ncaptives. They followed her into the big kitchen with the shining copper\npans, purring and rubbing themselves against her legs. Babette coaxed\nthe cook till he gave her seven saucers of milk; then there was a great\nsmacking of lips.\n\nWhen nurse awoke as usual at seven o'clock, she was frightened to find\nthat her little charge had vanished. \"What a child to look after in my\nold age!\" she groaned. \"And yet she is taking too! How sweet she looked\ncurled up in the old cot.\" She soon found out from the servants what\nBabette had been doing; so the child was seized upon, washed and brushed\nagain, and dressed in a stiff frock with white frills.\n\nQuite sober and respectable our little wild girl looked when she went\ndownstairs after breakfast to see my Lord and Lady in the dining-room.\n\nShe sat on the high, straight-backed sofa, and played with the carved\nlions' heads, and had never a word to say for herself until the Count\nproduced a doll that he had rummaged out from among some old treasures.\nIt was yellow from age; but its frock was of satin, and it had on\nlittle gold shoes. To Babette, who had never had a doll of her own, it\nseemed very lovely indeed. \"Is it _really_ for me?\" she asked in tones\nof ecstasy.\n\nShe was perfectly good all the morning, playing with it, washing its\nface, dressing and undressing it, and putting it to bed as little girls\nlove to do.\n\nAt dinner she shocked the polite company by putting her food into her\nmouth with her fingers; forks and spoons she did not know how to manage.\nSo she was sent to have dinner with the servants who made fine fun of\nher again, till she flew into a passion and declared with many tears\nthat she would run away. Then they were frightened lest my Lord should\nhear the noise, and soothed and petted her till she was quiet again.\nThey did not mean to be unkind; they were only stupid, and thought her\ntempers amusing.\n\nWell, the days went on, and Babette became more gentle and docile, and\ngave up many of her wild ways. She saw but little of the Countess, but\nshe grew to admire the grave, silent lady, and to long for some response\nto her affection. My Lord was Babette's best friend and protector in all\nher childish troubles. Everyone said that he was quite infatuated with\nthe child. He would play ball with her in the garden, \"regardless of\nhis knightly dignity,\" as his wife remarked.\n\nBabette knew all the animals about the Castle and ruled over them like a\nlittle queen.\n\nShe would go up to the proud peacocks and say imperiously: \"Spread out\nyour tails, or I will smack your silly heads!\" and they obeyed her\nmeekly at once.\n\nShe had a pet frog in the pond, and once when the gardener was scolding\nher for breaking some of his beautiful lilies, she popped it down his\nneck, to his horror and disgust! For this she was whipped and put to\nbed. I think she richly deserved it--don't you?\n\nThe garden at the back of the Castle led into the dense forest by which\nthe mountains were covered. Babette would sit on the stone wall and gaze\ninto the deep shades, as if she could see things there that were\ninvisible to others. She knew how to call the deer. One day she enticed\na fine stag into the garden. She made a garland of cornflowers and\nox-eye daisies, and threw it over his antlers; then she sprang on his\nback, holding a red foxglove in her hand for a whip, and galloped round\nthe garden, singing and shouting: \"Look at me, look at me! I am the\nQueen of the fairies!\"\n\nThe Countess herself owned that she had never seen a prettier sight; but\nthen she sighed deeply, and said to her husband she feared all was not\nright with the child.\n\nThe Count shared her fears to some extent, and nurse had orders never to\nlet her out of her sight.\n\nNurse had several times seen a strange man watching Babette from over\nthe wall as she played alone in the garden. She too felt nervous and\nanxious about her little charge.\n\n\nPART II\n\nYears passed by, Babette grew into a tall and charming maiden. She\nlearned to read and write, and to play on the harp. She could even speak\na little French, which was the fashionable language of the Court in\nthose days. So that with these accomplishments she was considered a fine\nlady, far above the village children, who had formerly despised her.\n\nOne fine evening (she was then about sixteen years of age) she was\nwalking with her old nurse in the forest, not far from the Castle,\npicking bilberries, and singing to herself songs of her own composing.\nThe wood was very still; not a leaf stirred. The setting sun shone out\nbehind a beech-tree, making a brilliant star of iridescent colours that\ndazzled her eyes. She heard a sudden noise as of a cough: the bushes\nnear her rustled. She felt frightened and called out: \"Nurse, nurse,\" in\ntrembling tones.\n\nAs she spoke, a man sprang out of the wood and seized her by the arm.\nNurse began to scream; but the man raised the stick he had in his hand,\nand she stood as if turned to stone.\n\nBabette's courage always rose to emergencies. She looked the man over\nfrom head to foot. He was dressed in green, with a red feather in his\ncap. His hair was dark and curly; his eyes were large and would have\nbeen beautiful, but that they had a wild and sinister look that Babette\ndid not like, and squinted slightly. She seemed to remember his face;\nbut where or when she had seen him before, she did not know. Her first\nthought was that he must be a wizard like one of those her grandmother\nhad told her stories about.\n\n\"Who are you?\" he said, shaking her slightly.\n\n\"I am Babette, daughter of Count Karl of Eppenhain,\" said Babette\nproudly.\n\n\"A Count's daughter--a fine tale--the witch's granddaughter you mean,\"\nhe said with emphasis, and Babette shuddered. \"Come along with me,\nchild!\" he continued, \"you must follow me now, and serve me well and\ncook my dinners. I knew your old grandmother and have often seen you as\na child; a little imp you were,\" he said. \"Now it is high time you\nlearnt to be useful; they will only turn your head, and teach you\nrubbish up there at the Castle; you must come along with me now.\" Then\nhe turned to the poor nurse, and said, \"In half an hour you will be free\nto return to the Castle. Adieu!\" He fixed his strange eyes on the nurse,\nwho swooned away, and thus she was found exactly half an hour afterwards\nby the housemaid, who had followed her to say that supper was ready.\n\nYou may imagine the consternation at the Castle. The poor Countess who\nhad been so cold to Babette, seemed to feel it most. She sat and cried:\n\"O Babette, come back, come back, my dear, and I will be a real mother\nto you, indeed I will.\"\n\nThe Count immediately took steps to recover her. The forests were\nsearched through and through by his men; but not the slightest trace\ncould they discover.\n\nThe seven ravens said: \"Caw, caw,\" and set off at once in search of her.\n\nThe next day Fotchen and Silverpaws and the other cats disappeared.\nLucky and several of the old witch's hens were also missed.\n\nIt was evident that they had all followed Babette, and that she must be\nalive somewhere; but where, that was the question. Where there is magic\nat work, it is always a difficult matter.\n\nOne clever youth remarked that if one could find her pets, why, then one\nmight find Babette.\n\nBut this brilliant idea was not of much use, as they were _all_ lost.\n\nMeanwhile Babette followed her strange guide with many misgivings and\nsad sinkings of the heart. They had not gone far when they came to a\ncottage in the forest, surrounded, like her granny's garden, by a briar\nhedge.\n\nNow I must tell you that Babette had fallen into the power of a reputed\nwizard, and he had the power of making everything within this briar\nhedge invisible and intangible to those outside. So that poor Babette\nwould be more safely imprisoned there than in an iron-barred fortress.\nShe did not realise this at first; she grew to understand it later, when\nshe became more acquainted with the wizard (or Mr Squint-eyes, as\nBabette called him) and his ways. The hedge was so thick and high, and\nthe thorns were so huge, that it would have been impossible for Babette\nto think of squeezing herself through it, and running away.\n\nThe wizard parted this hedge with his wand; it closed up thick and close\nbehind them as they entered.\n\nThe cottage garden was laid out in patches of vegetables. Not a flower\nwas to be seen in it; but there were fruit-trees with ripe apples, and\npears, plums and medlars; for it was the early autumn. They entered into\nthe little parlour which seemed dark and gloomy to Babette. Mr\nSquint-eyes tossed off a mug of beer that stood on the table, and told\nher to be off to bed. The poor girl was hungry; for bilberries are not\nvery satisfying and it was supper time; but she crept up the narrow\nstairs, too much frightened to say a word. She found a tiny room with a\nwhite bed in it, a looking-glass, very dim and old and uncanny-looking,\nwith candlesticks on either side, also a primitive washing-stand.\n\nAs she began to undress, a sense of fear and loneliness came over her.\nShe thought of her happy home at Eppenhain, and of the Count, and hot\ntears began to fall. However, she was accustomed to look at the cheerful\nside of things. \"They are sure to find me to-morrow,\" she said to\nherself; she knew she could not be far away.\n\nThe next morning she was awakened by a loud knocking at the door. The\nhorrid man who had stolen her, poked his head in, \"Get up, get up, you\nlazy bones,\" he said, \"and see about my breakfast.\"\n\nBabette hurried downstairs and found a small kitchen, with a door\nleading into the garden. There was a heap of dried wood just outside the\ndoor, and, after many attempts, she succeeded in making the fire.\n\nShe filled the heavy iron kettle from the pump in the yard, making her\npretty frock quite black.\n\n\"That's right, that's the way that women should work,\" said the wizard\ncoolly.\n\nBabette felt indignant and thought that he might offer to help her, but\nnot a bit of it. There he stood, leaning against the door, smoking his\nlong pipe, the picture of laziness.\n\n\"Please where is the coffee?\" said Babette.\n\n\"Use your eyes and you will find it,\" said her polite host.\n\nThen she saw a jar on a shelf labelled \"Coffee,\" and near it the\ncoffee-mill.\n\nBabette ground the beans till she was red in the face. Then she waited\nfor the water to boil. Whilst she was attending to the coffee, rolls and\nbutter appeared on the table and a blue and white china coffee service.\nThe table seemed to have laid itself; for Babette was sure that the man\nhad never moved from the door. Now breakfast was ready. They sat down\ntogether, the wizard saying never a word, but lifting one eyebrow at\ntimes in a peculiar way that made Babette feel very uncomfortable.\n\nAfter breakfast he went out of the house saying: \"Clean the house, make\nthe beds, cook the dinner.\"\n\n\"But there is no dinner to cook,\" said poor Babette.\n\n\"Find it,\" was all the reply she could get out of him.\n\nNow Babette had not been remarkable for obedience and docility, and if\nanyone had spoken to her like that at home, she would have rebelled at\nonce; but she felt instinctively that her safety here lay in doing\nexactly as she was told. The man was half-mad she feared, and if she\naroused his wrath, he might do her bodily harm.\n\nThe tears came into her eyes; she felt quite in despair; but she was a\nbrave girl and determined to make the best of things.\n\nThe vegetables in the garden occurred to her. She would cook some\ncarrots; that was easy. Stewed plums would do for pudding; but what\nabout the soup and the joint?\n\nAt this point of her deliberations a hare was thrown over the hedge.\nThis settled the question. Evidently the man did not wish to starve.\n\n\"But how shall I get its fur off?\" thought Babette. \"Bah! I shall never\nbe able to skin the creature!\"\n\nJust then she heard to her joy a \"caw caw,\" seven times repeated, and\nthere she saw her dear ravens sitting on a tree just outside the garden.\n\nNow the limit of invisibility did not exist for the witch's favourites.\nThey flew at once to Babette; she told them her troubles, and showed\nthem the hare.\n\n\"That is an easy matter,\" said the ravens, \"the hare has seven skins; we\nare seven ravens, each of us will take off one skin, and may we have the\npickings?\" said the greedy fellows.\n\n\"Anything, anything you like! Please take it away and bring it back\nagain all ready to pop in the pot!\" said Babette.\n\n\"Potted or jugged hare famous!\" said the ravens, and they laughed\nhoarsely.\n\n\"Be quiet, be quiet, or the wizard will catch you!\" she said in a\nwarning tone.\n\nNow the dinner was all ready on the stove. Potatoes she had dug out of\nthe garden. \"Hare and carrots and stewed plums, what can anyone want\nmore?\" she thought, and felt very proud. But suddenly soup occurred to\nher. How could she make soup? She had heard that soup was made of bones\nand water; but she had no bones, and those nice little halfpenny packets\nfor making soup out of nothing were not invented in those days.\n\nShe put on some hot water with a few carrots and a little chopped\nparsley in it and plenty of pepper and salt. She tasted it, as a good\ncook should, and said to herself: \"Not bad, I have tasted worse.\"\n\nShe laid the table, and punctually at one o'clock the man came in.\nBabette trembled. He proceeded at once to business; that is, he sat\ndown to dinner.\n\nSoup came first, which was unfortunate. \"Bah!\" he said, making a\nhorribly wry face, \"what stuff, child, do you want to make me sick?\"\n\n\"No-o-o,\" said poor Babette.\n\n\"Never make such soup again, or I shall fetch my sister, and she will\ncook _you_,\" he said with a terrible look.\n\nHowever the hare was tender, and when a pot of red-currant jelly\nproduced itself, seemingly from nowhere, it was quite a fine dinner.\n\nThe carrots were hard, and \"not scraped,\" as the wizard said severely.\n\"Plums too much sugar.\"\n\nBut in spite of all this grumbling she felt immensely proud of her\nmorning's work. The house was not cleaned; neither were the beds made;\nbut this he did not seem to notice. He lay on the sofa by the window,\ncovered himself up with a bear skin, and snored loudly with his mouth\nopen.\n\nBabette made up the fire, and put the kettle on to boil for tea. Then\nshe strolled out into the garden. She climbed up into a pear-tree. From\nher perch in its branches she could see far into the woods. She wondered\nwhen her friends would come and rescue her.\n\nThen she saw to her delight Lucky and some of her favourite cocks and\nhens wandering about in search of her. They came scuttling up at once.\nShe held up one finger to enjoin silence. She feared that her capturer\nmight take a fancy for roast fowl if he should see them. So they hid\nunder the hedge.\n\n\"Now I can make scrambled eggs for supper,\" thought Babette joyfully.\n\nFotchen and Silverpaws had likewise no rest when their mistress was\ngone, and they too set out in search of her. When they reached the briar\nhedge, Babette was indoors making tea. They began to miew and made a\ngreat noise.\n\n\"The old woman's cats, by Thor!\" said the wizard. \"They know a thing or\ntwo. I'll go and let them in.\" So saying he again parted the hedge with\nhis wand, and let them through. Although Babette was very pleased to see\nthem, she felt a little anxious as to their welfare.\n\nHowever the wizard scratched their heads, and was quite affectionate to\nthem. He had, it seemed, a partiality for cats.\n\nBabette felt a little happier now that her pets were with her; yet her\nheart was sore. She thought of her lovely house, of her kind, good\nfoster-father, and of all her friends, and the tears stood in her eyes.\n\nSeveral weeks passed away, and Babette cooked and scrubbed every day in\nfear and trembling, like a regular little Cinderella. Being German, she\nwas used to helping in the household, and was not so inexperienced as\nmany English girls would have been. But never a word of praise did she\nget from her queer companion; but if anything were amiss, then he opened\nhis mouth and scolded the poor girl roughly.\n\n\nPART III\n\nA young man was returning home after a day's hunting. He was the son of\nthe knight of a neighbouring castle, and his name was Sir Rudolf of\nRuppertshain. It was a hot afternoon; the sunlight made a chequered\npattern through the forest trees. His bag was heavy with game, and he\nwhistled merrily as he strode between the oak-trees and bracken fern. He\nhad a light heart and an easy conscience, few enemies and many friends,\nand added to these advantages was the exhilarating feeling of youth and\nperfect health.\n\nSuddenly he stopped and looked around him, startled. He heard a sweet\nvoice singing. The notes were clear and distinct as those of a bird, and\nyet it was no bird. Who could it be in this lonely spot? He could\ndistinguish the words of the song as he held his breath to listen:\n\n \"A lonely maiden, I,\n  Sit here and sob and sigh;\n  No man my face can see,\n  Ah, who will rescue me?\n    O lack-a-daisy-me!\n\n  O wasted life of mine!\n  Here must I sadly pine;\n  My young life hid must be\n  From all humanity.\n    O lack-a-daisy me!\n\n  O were a knight so bold,\n  As in the time of old,\n  In days of chivalry,\n  He would deliver me!\n    O lack-a-daisy-me!\"\n\nRudolf's eyes were trained by hunting. He searched the woods carefully\nround that place, and peered behind every bush and tree; but nothing was\nto be seen. His heart beat fast, this was a real adventure. Surely if a\nwood-nymph or fairy were to appear to him here in this lonely forest, it\nwould hardly seem strange.\n\nSo he summoned up his courage and addressed the wood-spirit as he\nthought. \"Who are you? Where are you?\" he said. \"Be you wood-sprite or\nfairy, I fear you not. I am ready to do your bidding; for your sweet\nvoice and your distress have touched my heart: appear, O appear!\"\n\nBabette (for of course it was she) trembled with excitement. This was\nreally a chance of escape. She had seen the young huntsman from her\nperch in the pear-tree, and had made up the impromptu song. She thought\nit was even more original than her cooking. Now she answered eagerly:\n\n\"Alas it is impossible for me to appear unto you; for I am as invisible\nas if I had on Siegfried's cap of darkness. I was stolen by a horrid\nwizard when I was walking in the forest with my nurse. Surely you have\nheard of me?\"\n\nNow of course Sir Rudolf had heard of Babette,--the story of whose\nkidnapping was told all over the country, and became more wonderful with\nevery telling. Some people said that the devil himself had carried her\noff; this was really unkind; for Babette, though lively, was not a bad\ngirl, as we know.\n\n\"Are you Babette, the witch's granddaughter?\" said the young man\nhesitatingly.\n\n\"O don't, don't say that, I want to forget that!\" said Babette, and he\nheard a slight sob. \"I am the adopted daughter of Count Karl of\nEppenhain, and O, a wicked wizard holds me here invisible under a\npowerful spell. Just think,\" said Babette crying again, \"I slave for him\nall day and cook and do all the house-work, and never a kind word or\nlook do I get from him in return. It is a shame. O dear! O dear!\"\n\n\"Please don't cry, I really cannot bear it, when I cannot even see you\nto comfort you,\" said Rudolf tenderly. \"Tell me what to do! Shall I\nshoot the wizard?\"\n\n\"No, of course not; besides, he is invisible, too. You might walk\nthrough us all, and notice no difference, so subtle is the spell,\" said\nBabette.\n\nRudolf was one of those specially gifted mortals in whom the sense of\nthings unseen is as clearly developed as the senses of sight and\nhearing. He never doubted Babette's reality, though I think a more\nup-to-date youth would certainly have done so, and have thought that his\nimagination was playing tricks with him. He felt much distressed and\nperplexed, but could think of no way out of this strange dilemma.\n\nBut an inspiration came to Babette.\n\n\"Go to Mother Holle,\" she said, \"if you really wish to help me. She was\nan intimate friend of my grandmother's, and she is a powerful fairy and\ncan perhaps help us. What is your name, brave youth?\" she continued.\n\"Sir Rudolf of Ruppertshain,\" he answered. \"Why, then, I know your\nmother quite well; but you were away travelling with your father, when I\nvisited your castle. But quick, we must not delay matters by\nconversation, though it is _dreadfully_ nice to talk to a real human\nbeing again.\" Her voice sounded near and yet far away; \"a curious kind\nof conversation,\" Rudolf thought it was.\n\n\"Where can I find Mother Holle?\" said Rudolf. \"And will she not drop\npitch on my head? I should be no good at shaking feather beds, you see!\"\n\n\"Nonsense, she won't expect you to do anything of the sort. She is very\nkind and friendly; she lives on the Rossert Mountain, quite near to your\nCastle. Hush, hush, go now! my tyrant is waking up; if he were to\nsuspect us! Go!--go!\"\n\nA complete and somewhat unnatural silence followed, like one of those\nawkward pauses in the conversation when we entertain stiff callers for\nthe first time.\n\nThen Rudolf took the precaution of marking the position of the trees in\nthat part of the woods.\n\nThree tall fir-trees raised their heads among the beech and oaks. He cut\na cross [image: anti-clockwise swastika] thus, on each one of them,\nbecause trees are so deceptive. This mark is the old symbol of the\nMithras cult, two axes placed sideways signifying the striking of fire.\nIt is an old sign known and respected by the fairies; so he hoped that\nthe good folk would see it and further his quest.\n\nOn one of the firs the ravens were assembled. They caw-cawed seven times\nto indicate their willingness to lend Rudolf their aid.\n\nThe wizard looked at Babette closely that evening. The new-born hope,\nperhaps, too, the sight of the handsome stranger had given an extra\ncolour to her cheeks. \"I may have trouble with her yet!\" he said to\nhimself, and cleared his throat with a rumbling sound.\n\nI must tell you that the cocks and hens had betrayed themselves. They\nwere silent all through the night, but when the dawn broke, they could\nnot resist one cock-a-doodle-doo! Then the wizard chuckled and brought\nthem in; but nothing had happened to them as yet.\n\nBabette lived during the next days in a state of suppressed excitement.\nShe felt that something _must_ happen for good or evil; but she did not\nknow what. Patient waiting! a hard lesson for all of us to learn, but\nharder still for a maiden of seventeen years who had been kept so long\nin that dull hole. She had passed her birthday in that horrid place!\njust think of it, and not one birthday present did she get. She made up\nfor it afterwards by having two birthdays at once; but it was not\n_quite_ so nice.\n\nMeanwhile Sir Rudolf had turned homewards pondering on his strange\nadventure, and fully determined to seek Mother Holle's aid. Should he go\nfirst to the Castle of Eppenhain and tell Babette's foster-parents that\nhe had found out where Babette was imprisoned? He felt that, credulous\nthough they were in those days, they would only laugh at him, and\nconsider the story as outside the range of possibility. They might even\nsuggest that a cask of Rhine wine had clouded his intelligence; no, he\nwould go home to Ruppertshain Castle and have supper, and think it over.\nSo he returned home, and was so silent and dreamy, and his appetite,\nwhich was usually of heroic proportions, was so small that his mother\nfelt quite anxious about him.\n\n\"You are not bewitched, Rudie dear?\" she asked anxiously, just as we\nmight inquire if he were a little upset.\n\n\"I am not sure, mother, maybe I am!\" he answered to the good lady's\ndismay.\n\nAfter sprinkling him with various herbs, she insisted on his drinking\nsome nasty aromatic tea when he went to bed. As she had put some\nspider's legs in it and a few choice things of that sort, Rudolf asked\nto be allowed to take it upstairs with him. Then I regret to say he\ndeceived the good lady by pouring it out of the window. I rather think\nthat you or I might have done the same thing under the circumstances,\nthough it was undoubtedly wrong.\n\nThe full moon was shining into the little window in the gable of the\nturret. He shook off the very natural sleepiness and fatigue consequent\non his night's hunting, took off his soiled clothes, and dressed\nhimself in his fine velvet Court suit with the beautiful lace on the\ncollar.\n\nHe opened the little window, squeezed himself (it was lucky that he was\nslight for a German knight) through the iron bars, and climbed on to the\nroof with some difficulty, not to say danger. Then he crawled\nnoiselessly along the Castle walls, fearing to be challenged by the\nwarder of the Castle on his nightly rounds. But the warder was just\nenjoying his seventh glass of lager beer, and was not very keen on the\nlook-out.\n\nAs he dropped outside the walls, his favourite dog began to bark and beg\nto go with him; but Rudolf did not dare to let him out for fear of\ncreating a disturbance.\n\nHe soon gained the little path which led through Eppenhain, and then\nthrough fields to the woods that clothed the Rossert. Great clouds had\nobscured the moon; but he was not afraid; he was so used to the woods\nand could distinguish one creature from another simply by its movements.\n\nIn his hand he carried a dark lantern. A rough path covered with rocks\nand stones led to the summit of the mountain. As he walked cautiously\nalong, a bat hit him in the face as it blundered along. \"Hi, ho, steady\nthere, old fellow!\" said Rudolf. He now entered the part of the woods\nwhere the beeches and oaks grow so closely together that at midday the\nsky seems green, rather than blue. The moon shone out suddenly, and he\nsaw by its light a gruesome-looking head without a body that seemed to\ngrin at him from among the undergrowth. His heart stood still for a\nmoment, and then he laughed at his fears; for he saw that it was only a\ngrotesque old tree-stump, such as one so often sees in the woods.\n\nSuddenly he saw a bright light through the trees, as if one of the\nbushes were on fire, or was it merely the brilliant moonbeams shining on\na wet clearing?\n\nFor a moment all was still; then lightning played across his path,\nrevealing a huge clumsy-looking giant who stood with club uplifted in\nthe way, looking as if he would dash his brains out. Brave though Rudolf\nwas, he did not wish to court danger; so he turned aside into the woods\nhoping to find another path before long that was not thus barricaded.\nThen voices seemed to mock him and to laugh at him, and he had the\nunpleasant sensation of dark shadows, moving as he moved, shadows\nunaccompanied by substance.\n\nThe rain came down, pouring, drenching rain, such as the forests love.\nIn a few minutes he was wet to the skin, as wet as if he had plunged\ninto the river with his clothes on. Naturally his vanity was to blame\nfor this; in his stout hunting clothes and thick leather boots even a\ndeluge could not have wetted him through. To add to this, the air was\nclose and stifling, and he had lost his way. All this for the sake of an\nunseen maiden. What if she were as old and ugly as Fraeulein Kunigunde of\nwhom Heinrich von Kleist has written? Somehow he felt that was\nimpossible; but even if it had been so, his natural gallantry would not\nhave deserted him, and we will hope that he would still have sought to\ndeliver her.\n\nA Christian knight is ready to help all women, be they young or old,\nrich or poor, plain or pretty.\n\nThe rain had ceased; but there was a sense of something oppressive in\nthe atmosphere. An owl with eyes that looked like live coals glared at\nhim from the branch of an oak-tree, vanishing as he approached. A fox?\nNo, it was too large for a fox; it was a wolf (there were really wolves\nin the Taunus woods in those days!) came up to him snarling. Rudolf had\nhis gun ready, but the creature moved away into the darkest shades,\nsnarling and growling as it went.\n\nAltogether I cannot say it was a pleasant walk. I do not think any one\nof us would have enjoyed it all alone at the dead of night, do you?\n\nAt this moment came a flash of lightning that struck down a tree just\nbefore Rudolf's eyes. He crossed himself involuntarily and muttered a\npaternoster.\n\nA lull followed the storm; the heavens were clear again. Rudolf made out\nby the light of his lantern a triangular spot made by three footpaths\ncrossing. It was bare of all vegetation; black ashes were heaped up in\nthe middle as if gipsies had lately lit a fire there.\n\nAn irresistible impulse made him enter this triangle, though he felt as\nif long ghostly arms were trying to hold him back.\n\nNo sooner had he stepped on to this spot than he fell into a deep sleep\nor faint. When he awoke, he saw a wonderful light near him, and in the\nmidst of the light which seemed to radiate from her presence, was a\nbeautiful lady, with long rippling fair hair.\n\n\"You are safe now in my kingdom,\" she said. \"You have passed the\nboundary between the good and evil powers, and have left the dangers of\nthe night behind you.\"\n\n\"O can you tell me where to find Mother Holle, beautiful fairy?\" he\nsaid.\n\n\"Easily enough, for I _am_ Mother Holle!\" she answered. \"I know why you\nhave come here, and I am ready to help you.\" She took him by the hand,\nand he leapt to his feet, making a low bow to the lovely lady. All the\nevil dreams that had perplexed him, fled as the night before the day,\nand he could have shouted hurrah! for joy and gladness.\n\nHe had the unshaken confidence in the final victory of good over evil,\nthat is so necessary to help us to any measure of success in this world\nwith its chequered lights.\n\nHe walked with Mother Holle a little way, till they came to an arbour\nmade of honeysuckle and wild roses, surrounded by banks of evening\nprimroses, round which luminous moths were fluttering. Into this they\nentered, and she sat down and gazed at him, till he was quite\noverwhelmed with her beauty. He had expected to see an old witch\nhobbling along with a stick and to have feather beds to make! Feather\npillows, indeed, there were in the arbour, very cosy and soft. It was\ndelightful to have a chat with such a woman in such a place, even if\nthere were no Babette in the world.\n\nMother Holle began to speak, her voice sounded like the murmur of the\nfir-trees.\n\n\"I have heard that pretty little Babette has fallen into the power of a\nbad man. He stole the magic book from her grandmother's house at a time\nwhen the old lady was ill and feeble, shortly before her death. He has\nbeen only able to make out a few of the spells--that, for instance, for\nrendering things invisible. He is not a real wizard, so that if you\nobtain the book, the power will be yours. But I strongly advise you to\nhave nothing to do with magic; it is very dangerous; but to return the\nbook to me, to whom, in fact, it rightfully belongs.\"\n\n\"Have no fear of that,\" laughed Rudolf. \"I don't want it, I would not\ntouch it with the tongs if I could help it.\"\n\n\"Now listen carefully to my instructions! At the foot of one of the\nfir-trees, grows a red toadstool, spotted with white. On it sits an ugly\nold toad. Take this handkerchief (she gave him a lovely gauze scarf),\nwrap the toad in it, and cast it to the ground. Pull up the toadstool.\nThen the whole place will become visible, and you will be able to\nconsult with Babette as to how to overcome old Squint-eyes, as she calls\nhim.\n\n\"Hold this candle alight in your hand\"--she gave him the young pointed\ntop of a fir-tree--\"it will keep off evil spells. When you have overcome\nthe man, bind him with this grass.\" So saying, she gave him a bundle of\nsilvery woodland grass. \"Then tie him up to the tallest of the three\nfir-trees and leave him to us. We will punish him according to his\ndeserts, and teach him to behave better in the future.\"\n\n\"Can you tell me anything about the fair young lady herself? Is she\nreally the granddaughter of a witch? I could well believe it; for\nverily she has bewitched me; but who were her parents? I wish to know\nfor her own sake,\" asked Rudolf anxiously.\n\n\"The old woman was really her nurse,\" said Mother Holle. \"It is true\nthat the woman had fairy blood in her veins and was learned in magic,\nbut she never used her powers for any evil purposes, and as for riding\non a broomstick, she abhorred such practices. Babette is the\ngranddaughter of the great Baron of Siebenbergen. The Baron brought his\nchildren up strictly as became their rank; but his youngest son ran away\nfrom home, and married a village maiden much beneath him in rank.\n\n\"His father was exceedingly angry and refused to acknowledge her. The\nyoung wife died when Babette was born. The father went off in despair to\nthe wars. He entrusted the tiny baby to the care of an old woman who had\nformerly been his own nurse. This old woman, who was spoken of later as\nBabette's grandmother, had been nurse to the children in Siebenbergen\nCastle for many years; but she had been dismissed suddenly in her old\nage, because evil tongues had denounced her as a witch. The Baron did\nnot believe in the charge, but, nevertheless, he was obliged to send her\naway. He had his own reputation in the country to think of, and the\ncharge of witchcraft was no light one in those days, and not so easy to\ndisprove. He gave her a handsome pension, and a comfortable house and\ntroubled himself no more about her.\n\n\"Babette's father lost interest in life on the death of his dearly\nbeloved peasant wife. He fought recklessly in the front of the battle,\nand fell, covered with many wounds. His body was brought home for burial\nand there was a grand funeral in Siebenbergen. Everyone praised his\nheroism, and lamented his early death, but no one inquired after his\npeasant wife, or knew of the existence of his baby daughter.\n\n\"The notice of the marriage and the certificate of Babette's birth are\nto be found in the church of Eppenhain, all duly registered and\ncomplete.\n\n\"The old nurse became very feeble and was hardly fitted to bring up such\na wild, high-spirited child as Babette. That is all I can tell you; you\nmust find the papers, and test the accuracy of the story for yourself.\"\n\nRudolf was deeply interested; his heart beat fast. Babette became more\nand more interesting, wrapped round in a web of romance. He wanted to\nask more questions of Mother Holle; but she faded slowly away. As she\nvanished, a voice said: \"Adieu, follow the light path, and nothing can\nmolest you.\"\n\nA long stream of light shone out from where she had stood and illumined\nthe way through the woods. It shone on and on in one great bright path,\nlike the moon shining over the sea. Rudolf reached home walking like one\nin a dream, his head full of strange and marvellous fancies.\n\n\nPART IV\n\nRudolf awoke rather later than usual; for he was thoroughly tired out.\nHis mother did not feel so concerned about him when she saw the amount\nof breakfast he consumed; but he was still silent and abstracted. His\nadventures seemed to him like a wild dream. It seemed almost absurd to\nseek for the three firs; but yet an irresistible longing led him\nthither.\n\nOn the stroke of twelve at midday he stood beneath them, and recognised\nhis own sign, and O joy! saw the toadstool with the toad sitting on it.\n\nWithout a moment's hesitation he took the handkerchief (\"which was in\nitself a proof of the reality of the story,\" he said to himself) and\nseized the horrid shiny toad (how it wriggled and squirmed like some\nevil thing!) and cast it to the ground where it sprang into a thousand\npieces. These pieces took root in the earth, so to speak, and came up\nagain as a multitude of toadstools quite wonderful to behold. Perhaps\nyou may see them if you ever come across this spot in your excursions to\nthe Taunus Mountains.\n\nThen Rudolf took hold of the red and white toadstool on which the toad\nhad sat. Surely never before had a fungus been so firmly planted in the\nearth! The whole ground seemed to shake and tremble as he tugged at it;\ntrees were uprooted in the forest; the earth moved up and down like the\nwaves of the sea. At last it was out, and bump down fell Rudolf. One of\nthe great fir-trees fell as well, luckily in another direction, or he\nmight have been crushed beneath it.\n\nWhen he got up again, he saw to his joy a little red-roofed house and a\npretty maiden sitting in a pear-tree.\n\nBabette had been watching him all the time; but she could not make out\nwhat he was doing. She had nearly fallen off the tree as he pulled up\nthe toadstool. Now she climbed carefully down and came to the hedge and\ntheir eyes met. Need I say that they fell in love, or, at any rate,\nRudolf did, at first sight. The hedge parted to let him through. Perhaps\nthis was caused by the fairy candle, or perhaps it was Mother Holle's\ndoing--who knows?\n\n\"Hush, he is asleep, you have come just at the right moment,\" said\nBabette.\n\n\"We must secure the magic book first of all,\" said Rudolf, holding the\nfir-branch firmly in his hand, \"and would you kindly light this candle\nfor me?\"\n\nBabette laughed. \"A funny candle,\" she said.\n\n\"A _fairy_ candle,\" he whispered, \"to keep off evil spells. Mother Holle\nrecommended it.\"\n\nBabette felt inclined to dance for joy. \"Can you really _see_ me?\" she\nwhispered. \"O how untidy and ragged I am, you must think me a perfect\nfright!\"\n\n\"I think you are the most beautiful lady I have ever seen,\" said Rudolf\nsincerely, and Babette blushed at the compliment, and felt very grown-up\nand important.\n\n\"I will light the candle for you at the kitchen fire. Come, we will go\ntogether softly and try and get the magic book. I know where it is. It\nis under the sofa where Old Squint-eyes is asleep. Follow me. Throw all\nthat grass away,\" she said in her old imperious way.\n\n\"Let me give it to you to hold,\" said Rudolf. \"It is also a gift from\nMother Holle, and may come in useful.\"\n\nThey walked together towards the house, Babette holding the bunch of\nsilvery grass, and entered the kitchen. Here Babette lit the\nfir-branch.\n\n\"It smells just like Christmas; there must be good times coming for poor\nlittle me,\" she said.\n\nThen they peeped into the parlour, and there was Mr Wizard fast asleep\nin spite of the earthquake. Rudolf could hardly help laughing; he looked\nsuch a funny sight with his mouth wide open, his nose very red, and his\nhair hanging over his face.\n\nBabette lifted up the bear-skin rug and pulled out the heavy book; but,\nas soon as she touched the book, the wizard awoke and seized her by the\narm and sprang to his feet with many curses.\n\nWhen he saw Rudolf, he let go of Babette's arm and tried to seize the\nyoung man. Rudolf was fully prepared and threw him off with all his\nforce. A wrestling match began, and it might have ended badly for\nRudolf; for his adversary was tremendously strong and agile, but that he\nhad unexpected assistance. The ravens flew in at the window, and beat\nthemselves against Rudolf's opponent, nearly blinding him. The cats\nstood on the cupboard, with their backs up and hair bristling ready to\nspring if necessary. The cocks and hens crowded on the window-sill in\nwar-like attitudes.\n\nMeanwhile the fumes of the fir-candle which Babette had lit, filled the\nroom, and Mr Squint-eyes could not abide the smell of burning fir. He\ngrew weaker and weaker, and more and more confused, and at last Rudolf\nthrew him down with such force that he was partially stunned.\n\nRudolf then took the woodland grass from Babette, and as he touched it,\nit wound itself in his hands into strong cord. He bound the man up with\nBabette's assistance, and gagged him with Mother Holle's handkerchief.\n\nThe two of them then lugged him into the wood, and tied him up to the\nbiggest of the fir-trees as Mother Holle had directed. Then they fetched\nthe magic book and placed it under the uprooted fir-tree, which\ninstantly stood up again as if nothing had happened, burying the book\nbeneath its roots.\n\nThey looked at the man they had tied up, bound like a martyr to the\ntree. He could not curse and swear as his mouth was stopped up; but he\nrolled his eyes and squinted so violently that he was horrible to look\nat.\n\nThen Rudolf and Babette ran off together. Breathlessly they ran and ran.\nBabette was afraid Old Squint-eyes might wriggle out after all; he was\nso thin and wiry, and she had no fancy for serving him any more. Not\nuntil they came to a main road through the woods leading to Eppenhain\nCastle, did they pause to look at one another.\n\nThen impetuous Babette (she was half a child still, you must remember)\nflew at Sir Rudolf and gave him a kiss. She turned red and white when\nshe realised, what she had done. \"I couldn't help it,\" she said. \"You\nare such a _dear_. I am so very, very grateful to you for all you have\ndone for me, an unknown and even unseen maiden.\"\n\n\"Please, don't apologise, dearest lady,\" he said. \"I liked it very, very\nmuch. Won't you give me another?\"\n\n\"_Never_,\" said Babette firmly. Subsequent events however caused her to\nrevoke this determination.\n\nRudolf did not answer, but offered her his arm, which she took shyly,\nglancing at him from time to time out of her deer-like eyes with the\nlong-fringed lashes. Ragged and untidy as she was, she looked like a\nprincess; and he in his fine clothes, soiled and torn as they were,\nlooked nevertheless like a real fairy-tale prince!\n\nHe took her straight home to Eppenhain Castle, and you may imagine the\nexcitement there! The Count clasped Babette in his arms and could hardly\nspeak for emotion. Then he turned to Rudolf saying: \"We shall never be\nable to reward you enough.\"\n\n\"I shall only want one reward, and that is the little maiden herself,\"\nsaid Rudolf.\n\nThe Countess wept and cried over her darling child, and said she would\nnever scold her any more.\n\nNurse said: \"Well, Miss Babette, you do look a fine sight to be\nsure--and to come home with such a pretty young man, too! Come upstairs\nwith me, and let me make you clean and tidy.\" And this Babette was only\ntoo glad to do.\n\nA great company of retainers were sent out by the Count to capture the\nso-called wizard; but they were unable to find either the fir-trees with\nthe mark on them or the man, or the wood cottage. Neither Babette nor\nRudolf set eyes on them since that day. I cannot say that they were\naltogether sorry.\n\nThe papers proving Babette's parentage were found to be in order, and\nher father's name and fortune became hers, so that she was not poor,\ndespised Babette any more--the witch's granddaughter--but a maiden of\ngood rank and birth with pin-money of her own.\n\nA short time afterwards there was a grand wedding in Eppenhain, and two\nhappier mortals never lived than Rudolf and Babette on that day, and,\nlet us hope, for ever afterwards!\n\n\n\n\nHOLIDAY ADVENTURES\n\n\nPART I\n\nO it was so hot, so hot; the earth was well-nigh parched up, and\nmoreover the use of water was restricted in the town where the children\nlived. The flowers in the little garden were drooping for want of\nmoisture, and the trees began to shed their leaves as if it were already\nautumn instead of July. The schools were obliged to close early; the\nchildren came home at eleven o'clock instead of at one, and announced\nthat they had heat holidays. For there is a regulation in Germany, if\nthe thermometer is over a certain degree in the shade, the school is\nclosed for the rest of the day. The high schools do not have classes in\nthe afternoon; the children have six hours lessons in the morning, with\nintervals of course for recreation and drilling. Some headmasters douche\nthe walls of the school-building with cold water, and then examine the\nthermometer; but children as well as teachers think this a very mean\nthing to do.\n\nThe school holidays commence at the beginning of July, not in August, as\nis the case in England. This year the two little girls, Trudel and\nLottchen, and their mother were going to stay at a farm, which was\nsituated high up in the midst of the most lovely woods. Trudel, I must\ntell you, was ten years old, and Lottchen eight; they both went to the\nsame school. This farm was an inn at the same time; but very few people\nvisited it during the week, and by nine o'clock the house was empty of\nguests; for the woodways were hardly safe at night. It was easy to get\nlost in those vast forests where one path so closely resembles the\nother.\n\nIt was a long climb up from the station; the children began to flag, and\nmother was tired. Father had come with them to settle them in; but he\ncould not stay longer than the first day or two; for his holidays did\nnot begin till August. He invented all sorts of games for getting along\nquicker; he deposited chocolate on stones or tree-stumps by the wayside,\nwhich was discovered by the children with a shout of joy. Then just as\nLottchen's legs were beginning to ache badly, and she was nearly crying,\nhe helped them on by telling the story of the assassination of Julius\nCaesar. Trudel had read about it in her history-book at school; but it\nwas written in such dreadfully historical language that she had not\nunderstood the story; she found it thrillingly interesting as father\ntold it. Lottchen said that she could never have treated her little\nfriend Hansi so cruelly, and that she hated that man Brutus.\n\nAt last they reached the end of the woodpath, and there lay\nWaldheim--for so the farm was called--before them. A big dog sprang out\nto meet them. Mother and Lottchen shrank back from his rough welcome;\nbut Trudel was soon ordering him about, and did not seem in the least\nsurprised when he obeyed her. His name was Bruno. The farm consisted of\na group of buildings; two houses, one for the farm labourers and the\nmaids, the other for guests. There were also large barns which had been\nnewly erected, and a pond.\n\nRound the houses were fields belonging to the farm, and then everywhere\nwoods, woods, woods. Blue mountain-crests were visible above and beyond\nthe woods.\n\nThe children partly unpacked the boxes themselves; for mother was still\nso tired. They even took off her boots and put on her shoes for her,\nlike kind little daughters, and Trudel put away their clothes neatly in\nthe cupboard. Then they all went downstairs joyfully to a cosy tea,\nwhich, I need hardly say, they enjoyed very much after their long walk\nand journey.\n\nAfter tea all fatigue vanished, and the children flew out to inspect the\npremises for themselves. The farmer had two boys of about the same age\nas Trudel and Lottchen. Their names were Hermann and Fritz. Hermann was\nvery shy; he hid himself at first and peeped out at the strange girls\nfrom corners of the yard or barns, rushing away when they caught sight\nof him. However Trudel soon coaxed him out, and they all played ball\ntogether.\n\nThen Hermann and Fritz took the girls round the farm. They went first\ninto the cow-shed; there were fourteen cows, seven calves and a bull.\nThe cow-herd was a strange, uncanny-looking fellow with a great shock of\nred hair, and a very red face. He shouted at the children in a dreadful\nhoarse voice; they felt frightened of him at first, and thought he was\nmad; but they soon found out that the poor fellow was only deaf and\ndumb. The cows were his intimate friends. He had christened each one of\nthem when they were born: Sophie, Emma, and so on. After they had gone\nhome again, the children learnt to their pride that he had named two new\ncalves after them, Trudel and Lotty.\n\nThere were four horses that were used for driving and ploughing.\nLottchen was especially fond of horses. She liked to see them come home\nfrom the field by themselves and walk straight into the stable with a\nnoble air, like a lord returning to his castle. Her favourite horse was\ncalled Hector. Lotty noticed one day that he was left alone in the\nstable, whilst the other horses were ploughing in the field. The\nstable-door was open, and after a while to her surprise he walked out.\n\"What is he going to do? I hope he will not run away and get lost,\"\nthought Lotty anxiously. But no, he just walked leisurely up to the\nfield where the other horses were hard at work and looked on! It was\nevidently dull in the stable and he wanted a little distraction. When he\nwas tired of watching his friends, he returned to the stable, where he\nwas found innocently munching hay as if nothing had happened.\n\nPigs of course were there too in plenty; they ran about everywhere,\ngrunting and snorting; also geese and chickens. Trudel liked to drive\nthe geese into the water; she was fond of commanding, as her little\nsister sometimes knew to her cost.\n\nThe maids were two peasant girls who wore very short full skirts and a\ngreat many petticoats. Their dress was a modification of the wonderful\nHessen peasant costume. These girls were ready to do anything for the\nchildren. Gustel, who was chief waitress and chambermaid at the same\ntime, said that she had never seen such pretty \"kindersche\" (little\nchildren) in all her life before!\n\nThe only other guest in the house at this time was a Herr Baron; he told\nwonderful stories of his adventures in South America.\n\n\"Drought,\" he said, \"yes, that's very bad, but floods may be worse. I\nhave known years of labour destroyed in one night by a flood. All the\nbeautiful fields of grain, our sole wealth. I lived at that time with my\nmarried sister and her family, and we had only just time to rescue\nourselves and the children. I was the last to leave the house which we\nwere never to see again. I could not decide which of my possessions to\ntake with me, so I seized up the skin of a puma that I had shot on\nanother memorable occasion, and bore it off on my shoulder, like Jason\ncarrying the golden fleece, and that was all that was left of my\npersonal property. Ah! it needs patience to conquer the elements,\" he\nsaid.\n\nAltogether the Herr Baron was a wonderful character; he seemed as if he\nwere not real, but had stepped out of a book of romance. He delighted in\nreading English stories; he was especially fond of \"She\" and \"King\nSolomon's Mines.\" The children believed that he smoked day and night;\nfor they had never seen him without a cigarette, except at meal-times.\n\nHe told father and mother the story of how he had had a bullet\nextracted from his side that he had carried about with him for years. It\nhad struck him during one of the revolutions that so frequently go on in\nSouth America. The bullet had recently set up inflammation, and a\ndangerous operation was necessary to remove it. \"Chloroform! not if I\nknow it,\" he said to the doctors. \"Just you let me smoke my cigar, and I\nshall be all right. I won't say 'Oh!'\"\n\nThe doctors were naturally very astonished and demurred at this new\nmethod of treatment; but he persisted in his determination, and the\ncigar never left his mouth till the painful business was successfully\nover!\n\nThe Herr Baron was a mysterious person; why he lived for months\ntogether in that lonely spot, no one knew. True, he was fond of hunting,\nand went out at nights with the landlord to hunt the stag.\n\nThere were hunting-boxes made of logs of wood, with steps that led up\ninto them, placed in different positions in the woods near the inn.\n\nThe children loved to climb up into them. A hunting-box made such a nice\nairy room, they said; but mother was glad when they were down again\nwithout broken limbs.\n\nMother was surprised when she entered the inn-parlour to find the Herr\nBaron engaged in a game of quartette with Trudel and Lottchen and\nFritz. Indeed he was so sociable and kind and fond of children that she\nthought it was a pity that he had none of his own.\n\nOn the pond near the house were two most remarkable-looking boats. These\nHermann and Fritz had made themselves with the aid, I believe, of the\nHerr Baron. They had a long stick and punted about in them on the water,\nand they managed them quite cleverly. To Trudel and Lottchen they seemed\nto suggest Robinson Crusoe and all sorts of fine adventures.\n\nOne day when mother was reading a book which absorbed her attention, and\nso was safe not to interfere with them, they thought, the children stole\ndown to the pond. Hermann and Fritz were waiting for them. It was a\npre-conceived plan. \"Come along and get in,\" they shouted to the girls.\n\n\"I daren't,\" said Lottchen. \"Mother would be so cross; she has forbidden\nus to go near the water.\"\n\n\"You are surely not going to spoil the fun,\" said Trudel. \"Come along;\nI'm going to get in first. I can swim, you know!\"\n\n\"But not in mud and water-weeds,\" said Lottchen wisely.\n\nThe boys began to laugh at them.\n\n\"Why, you're funky, I do believe; the pond isn't really deep anywhere,\"\nthey said.\n\nSo with beating hearts the children got into the boats, Trudel with\nFritz, and Hermann, who was the eldest of the party, with Lottchen. It\nwas splendid, quite a real adventure.\n\n\"Sit still in the middle of the boat,\" said Fritz; \"I think we had\nbetter keep near the bank.\"\n\n\"It's going down on my side; O dear, what shall I do?\" said Trudel. \"I\ndon't like it! I want to get out.\"\n\n\"You're a bit too heavy and upset the balance,\" said Fritz. \"Very well,\nthen, get out!\"\n\nTrudel tried to do so; but the boat was very wobbly. It was not so easy;\nher foot slipped, and in she stepped with one foot into the deep mud.\nShe grasped convulsively hold of a willow bush that grew on the bank.\n\nMeanwhile Hermann, seeing the predicament they were in, jumped out of\nhis boat, leaving poor Lottchen quite alone. She began to scream with\nall her might and main, and she could make a fine noise when she chose.\n\nMother heard the cries though she was some way off and flew to the pond.\n\nThe maids who were bleaching the linen in the meadow, came running to\nthe rescue as well, as fast as their legs could carry them.\n\nLotty was soon helped out of the boat. Trudel had rescued herself with\nHermann's assistance, and she looked very red and ashamed of herself.\nShe said she did not wish for any more Robinson Crusoe adventures of\nthat sort. Mother naturally gave the children a good talking to; but she\nthought they had been punished enough this time for their disobedience,\nby the fright they had had.\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE TREE MAN\n\nThere was a tree in the garden that was ideal to climb, and mother\nallowed the children to do so, for she had been very fond of climbing\nherself when she was a child.\n\nThey wore old serge skirts and jerseys that they could not spoil.\n\nThis tree made a splendid arbour, or house with a suite of rooms.\nLottchen sat up in the branches like a little bird, and like a little\nbird she sang all the songs she knew. From this tree you could see the\nmountain called the Stellerskuppe and the blue sky through the\ntree-stems on the summit. At sunset time, the sky behind the trees\nturned a golden colour, till it looked like a picture of fairyland.\n\nIt was a fine view, but still you could not see from here the famous\noak-tree, where the little green tree man lived. This was ten minutes'\nwalk from the farm.\n\nTrudel and Lottchen saw him first on a wet day when they had set out for\na walk in spite of the rain, with their green waterproof cloaks on with\nhoods over their heads, looking for all the world like wood-goblins\nthemselves. They were walking down a narrow green path, and mother was\nsome distance behind.\n\n\"Do just look, Trudel,\" said Lottchen. \"I believe there is a little man\nin that hollow tree!\"\n\n\"So there is, he is smiling and bowing to us, let's go and visit him,\"\nsaid Trudel, always enterprising.\n\nLottchen hung back, feeling a little afraid; she was always on the\nlook-out for the unexpected, and yet was surprised when something really\nhappened.\n\n\"Come along, darling,\" said Trudel, grasping her smaller sister by the\nhand.\n\nThey both distinctly saw the little man; they said they could have drawn\nhim afterwards, and indeed they attempted to do so as well as they\ncould. But as they approached the venerable oak, the little man\nvanished, and all they saw was a strange green stain on the inside of\nthe tree, resembling a dwarf with a peaked hood on.\n\n\"Just look at this Gothic window,\" said Lottchen, proud of her knowledge\nof the word \"Gothic.\" \"How nicely this tree-room is carved. I am sure\n_he_ lives here; where are his little chairs and tables? I should love\nto see them.\"\n\nThey peeped through a window or hole in the old tree and saw their\nmother approaching.\n\n\"Mother, mother, here lives a real tree man; we saw him--didn't you?\"\n\nMother smiled--what the children called her mysterious smile.\n\n\"You look like two little wood-men yourselves,\" she said. \"Lottchen,\nstand up straight in the hole and look at me.\"\n\nLottchen stood up just fitting into the green mark on the tree behind\nher. She made a pretty picture, her laughing brown eyes with the long\neyelashes, her rosy cheeks, and the wind-blown hair straying from under\nher hood.\n\n\"O look, Lottchen, here is a little basin of holy water, just like we\nsaw in the cathedral,\" said Trudel.\n\n \"Wood water,\n  Nice and brown,\n  In a little cup.\n  Wood water,\n  Wood wine,\n  Won't you drink it up?\"\n\nsaid a tiny voice that sounded like that of a wood-bird.\n\n\"Mother! did _you_ hear anything, mother?\"\n\n\"Yes, darlings, the birds are singing so sweetly now the rain is over. I\nhave brought my camp-stool. I shall sit here and sketch the tree,\" said\nmother.\n\n\"Do draw _him_,\" said Trudel, whose blue eyes were open wider than\nusual.\n\n\"Him! Whom do you mean?\" said mother.\n\n\"Why, the tree man, of course.\"\n\n\"Hum,\" said mother mysteriously, \"we'll see,\" and she settled herself\ndown to sketch.\n\nThe children collected huge acorns, and laid them on a leaf in the\nhollow tree. Then they stirred up the brackish \"holy\" water and put\ntheir fingers in it.\n\n\"It smells like lavender and roses,\" said Lottchen.\n\n\"Well, you've got a funny nose; it smells to me like blackberry and\napple-tart,\" said Trudel.\n\n\"Ha--ha--he!\" said a little voice again. Somebody was laughing. Where\ncould he be? Glancing round quickly the children saw a little man about\nthree feet high, dressed in green, wearing a long peaked cap with a\nwreath of tiny oak-leaves around it. He looked very strong, although he\nwas small, and he stuck his arms out akimbo in a curious angular way\nlike the branches of an oak-tree.\n\n\"How did you know that trees were alive?\" he asked the children.\n\nThey were embarrassed by the question.\n\n\"Why, of course we know they are not dead, unless they are cut down,\"\nthey said.\n\nThe little man shuddered; then he began to wave his arms about wildly.\n\n\"_Let_ them try to cut me down, I'll knock them down. I'll fall on them\nand crush their bones. I'll smash them like this stone!\" Here he gave a\nstone that stood near by, such a tremendous whack that sparks flew out\nof it.\n\n\"Don't smash us, please, Mr Tree Man,\" said Lottchen trembling.\n\n\"No fear, little Miss Lottchen, no fear, you're a nice little thing, you\nare; one can see that to look at you. You would _never_ cut me down,\nwould you?\"\n\n\"Why, of course not,\" said Lotty.\n\n\"_I_ should not dream of such a thing either,\" said Trudel. \"But may we\nask who you are?\" Trudel continued, \"You are surely not a tree?\"\n\n\"Well, it's like this,\" said the little man; \"I'm a tree, and the tree's\nme!\"\n\n\"_I_,\" said Trudel, correcting him, \"would be more correct.\"\n\n\"Rubbish,\" said the little man, \"Pedantic rot!--the tree's _me_, I\nrepeat. Every tree has its gnome or elf; they used to call us dryads in\nold times; but nowadays people are getting so cock-sure of knowing\neverything, that they can't see what is going on right under their\nnoses. Trees are never still,\" he continued; \"they are always moving.\n\n \"'Where there is movement, there is life,\n   Where there is life, there is thought,\n   Where there is thought, there is individuality.'\n\n\"Do you follow me? That is logically expressed.\"\n\n\"You forget we are only children, Mr Tree Man; you are talking too\ngrown-upy for us. Father talks like that sometimes; but then we don't\nlisten,\" they replied.\n\n\"Well,\" continued the gnome, \"in every tree there either lives a jolly\nfellow like me or a lovely lady fairy. Yes,\" he said in a sentimental\ntone, \"I, too, old and tough though I am, I, too, have known love.\"\n\n\"Who is she?\" asked Trudel eagerly.\n\n\"Alas! I can never reach her; my old bones are too stiff and unbendable.\nShe is a graceful larch-tree in all the glory of her youth. You may see\nher yonder!\" He sat down and sighed deeply.\n\nThe children looked in the direction that the gnome had indicated, and\nthere they saw a larch-tree on which the sunlight had just fallen. It\nwas exquisitely dressed in a robe of delicate green and--was it only\nfancy?--for one moment the children thought that they saw a lovely lady\nwith flowing tresses that gleamed golden in the sunlight, and large\nstarry eyes. As they gazed, she melted into the blue mist which shimmers\nalways between the forest trees.\n\n\"Now we must go home, children,\" mother called out, \"before it begins to\nrain again.\"\n\nThe children glanced round; their little friend had vanished, and no\ntrace was to be seen of the lady of the larch-tree. So they turned\nreluctantly from the tree-house fully determined to come again very soon\nto this enchanted spot.\n\n\"Mother, may we see your sketch?\"\n\n\"Not now,\" said mother, \"it's going to be a surprise.\"\n\n\"Did mother see him too?\"\n\n\"Do you think so?\" said Lottchen. \"Mother's a fairy herself.\"\n\n\"I think,\" said Trudel, \"she sees all sorts of queer things; but she\nwon't tell us everything she sees.\"\n\n\"It spoils some things to tell about them,\" said Lottchen. \"I shan't\ntell Hermann and Fritz about the tree man.\"\n\nHowever, when she got home again, she could not contain herself. \"Do you\nbelieve in fairies and tree men?\" she said to the boys.\n\n\"Of course not, that's all rot,\" said Hermann. \"Like Santa Claus and\nsuch things, just invented to stuff us up!\"\n\n\"Santa Claus will never come to you any more if you talk like that; _he_\nis _quite true_, I know. Trudel saw him come in last year when she was\nin bed, and she heard him filling our stockings. Of course she did not\ndare to turn round and look at him,\" said Lottchen.\n\n\"I don't say it isn't nice to believe such things,\" said Hermann\nconscientiously, \"but it isn't true; it's superstitious. You know quite\nwell, Trudel, who Santa Claus really is.\"\n\nTrudel was silent; she was ten years old, and she had her doubts.\n\n\"But I've seen a tree man to-day,\" said Lotty.\n\nThe boys laughed.\n\n\"Don't try to stuff us up with such nonsense; we're not so green as your\ntree man,\" they said.\n\nGustel, the maid, came in, and joined in the conversation. She supported\nthe boys' view.\n\n\"I don't care,\" said Lottchen, now in a high state of excitement. \"My\nmother knows a man--a very clever Irishman--a poet and a painter as\nwell, and he has often seen the fairies.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Trudel, \"it's true he draws them just as he sees them with\nrainbow-coloured wings.\"\n\n\"Well I never, you don't expect me to believe such things, do you?\" said\nGustel. \"Why, that's all lies, and it is very wicked to tell a lie!\"\n\nLotty flew into a perfect tantrum. \"How dare you say we tell lies; I\nwill tell my mother of you,\" she screamed, and threw herself on the\nfloor crying violently.\n\nMother rushed in, not knowing what had happened. \"Lotty, get up at once;\ntell me what's the matter, darling!\"\n\n\"Booh!--booh--booh!--Gustel won't believe--booh, booh, booh--that you\nknow a man who has seen the fairies!\"\n\nMother could not help laughing. \"Don't be so absurd, Lotty. Of course\nGustel does not understand what you mean. Gustel,\" she said, \"you are a\nCatholic and believe in the saints; they saw very queer things too,\nsometimes, didn't they?\"\n\n\"O yes, you're right; of course, ma'am,\" said Gustel, feeling\nembarrassed; for she had no arguments to support her disbelief in\nfairies.\n\n\"Some people can see more than others,\" continued mother. \"Now if I were\nto tell you that I could see the old poacher or wild huntsman who used\nto live in this house, riding through the yard on a moonlight night,\nwhat would you say?\"\n\n\"Lor, ma'am, if I saw him, I should die of fright,\" said Gustel, turning\npale.\n\n\"But you know that there are no such things as ghosts and fairies!\"\n\n\"Yes, ma'am, very true, ma'am, it's rather confusing what you say,\" said\npoor Gustel, feeling her head in a whirl.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was a wonderful moonlight night. As father was still away, mother sat\nby herself in the big bedroom, whilst the children slept in the little\nroom adjoining. There was a very high wind; the window-panes rattled;\nthe wooden shutters blew to and fro; the branches of the trees made\nweird patterns on the ground. The moonlight was so white that the fields\nand paths looked almost as if they were covered with snow. The\nStellerskuppe stood out black against the sky. As mother gazed, it\nseemed to her as if strange creatures were abroad that night, driven to\nand fro by that tireless hunter, the wind. Wild forms passed by and\ngazed at her with deathless eyes; for a while she remained there\nmotionless, as under a spell. Then suddenly she remembered her joke\nabout the old huntsman of evil repute, who had formerly lived in this\nfarmhouse. Did his ghost haunt it still? Mother shivered; the nights\nwere cold up in the mountains, though it was such a hot summer. She\nopened the door of the children's room and peeped in. To tell the truth,\nshe felt a little creepy, and longed for human companionship. There were\nher darlings, sleeping soundly; but as she entered the room Trudel\nturned round and flung herself on the other side of the bed, saying: \"Go\naway, go away, do not come near me!\"\n\n\"Whom do you mean, darling?\" said mother anxiously.\n\nThen Trudel groaned and spoke again in her sleep. She uttered the\nfollowing deep and mystic words: \"Gustel, bring in the shark, please;\nmother can't eat the thimble.\"\n\nNow, wasn't that a funny thing for a little girl to say in her sleep.\nMother was so amused that she wrote the words down on the spot, so as\nnot to forget them, and she troubled her head no more with thoughts of\nthe wild huntsman; indeed the spectres of the night vanished as they\nalways do vanish at a joke!\n\nSome days passed, before the children visited the oak-tree again. When\nthey did so, they found that an enormous branch had been broken off, and\nlay across the green pathway.\n\n\"O dear me,\" said Lottchen, \"our _poor_ little man. I hope it hasn't\nhurt him!\"\n\n\"It must have happened on that windy night,\" said Trudel.\n\n\"It was my own fault, it was entirely my own fault,\" said a queer little\nvoice, and there was the oak-tree man sitting in his house smoking a\nreed pipe. His arm was bound up with green fern leaves. \"Yes, it was my\nown fault; the wind excited me, and stirred my sap (that's my blood you\nknow)--I stretched out my arms towards her--one embrace--one blessed\nmoment in which to call her mine--and here you see me a cripple for\never!\"\n\n\"O _poor_ thing, we are so sorry for you,\" said the children.\n\n\"Never mind, it heals easily,\" said the oak man, \"but, alas, my beauty\nand my symmetry are gone for ever!\"\n\n\"Your leaves are so nice and fresh; and your house is so pretty; why,\nyou have got furniture in it,\" said the children in astonishment.\n\n\"Such a pretty oak table and beautifully carved chairs; where did you\nget them from?\" asked Lottchen.\n\n\"I made them myself out of my own wood; it cheered me up a bit,\" said\nthe little man. \"One must do something, you know; looks snug, doesn't\nit? Ah, well--I have known love, that is something to be proud of; I have\nexperienced the most pleasing of human emotions. Have you ever been in\nlove?\" he said inquisitively, looking at Trudel, who looked big enough\nin his eyes.\n\n\"Why no, not exactly, we're only kiddies; but still we do love lots of\npeople, of course,\" said she.\n\n\"Your day will come, your day will come. Do not desire the unattainable,\nbut content yourself with the reachable,\" he said; \"and yet ''Tis better\nto have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,' as the dear old\npoem says.\"\n\n\"He's getting grand in his language again; he _is_ a funny little man,\"\nsaid Trudel in a whisper to Lottchen.\n\n\"Stay,\" said the tree man, \"I have a good idea; I will give you a card\nof introduction to _her_, my beloved Lady Larch-tree.\"\n\nHe gave them an oak leaf with the words: \"Edle Eiche,\" printed on it,\nwhich is in English Noble Oak.\n\n\"You need not say anything; she will know it comes from me,\" he said,\nsighing sentimentally.\n\nFull of curiosity, the children turned to go to the larch-tree, which\nwas only a few steps further down the green pathway. The ardent lover\nwatched the children from the window of his little house. They knocked\nthree times on the bark of the larch-tree; and they were very pleased\nwhen a door opened in the tree, and a lovely lady was revealed to them.\nHer dress was of green, looped up with tiny pink flowers such as grow on\nthe larches in early spring; her hair streamed down like a soft veil\nabout her. She hardly seemed to see the children at first, when they\npresented their cards. She took the oak-leaf cards and pressed them to\nher heart.\n\n\"Heart of oak! King of the forest! for ever mine,\" she murmured, and her\nwords were like the sound that a little brook makes when it trickles\nbeneath dark forest trees.\n\n\"He sends you his love,\" said the children politely.\n\n\"You dear little things,\" said Lady Larch; \"it was so kind of you to\ncome and call on me. So you understand trees and their language, dear,\ndear, so young and so clever! _Would_ you like some wood wine?\"\n\n\"Not if it is dirty water with caterpillars in it,\" said Trudel.\n\n\"O dear no, it is purified and refined; it is most delicious.\" So\nsaying, she handed each of them a large acorn cup full; and they drank\nthe contents.\n\n\"It does taste nice, dear fairy,\" said the children, \"like what we make\nourselves at a doll's feast. May we ask you for some more?\"\n\n\"No, no, it is very strong, and would get into your heads, and you would\nfind out all about.... No, I'm sorry ... but----\"\n\n\"Children,\" said mother's voice, \"where are you? I have been looking for\nyou.\"\n\n\"We have only been to call on Lady Larch, mother; she has shut her door\ntight again or we would have introduced you to her,\" said Lotty.\n\n\nPART III\n\nThey came home rather late that evening and found the farm in a great\nstate of commotion. The red-haired cow-herd was shouting and crying in\nan unintelligible way; the house seemed to be deserted. They met the\nHerr Baron also preparing to set out in a hurry.\n\n\"What's the matter? Where is everybody?\" said mother.\n\n\"The silly old cow-herd has lost one of the best cows; it has strayed\noff among the bushes, and may die if it is exposed all night. Who knows\nwhere the poor creature may have got to in these vast woods?\"\n\nThe search went on till late at night; the men, including the Herr\nBaron, walked miles with their lanterns, but in vain. The deaf mute was\nin a dreadful state of mind and kept crying out in his harsh,\ndisagreeable voice: \"Not my fault--_Schimmel's_ fault.\" (Schimmel was\nthe cow.)\n\nIt was difficult enough to sleep that night; but when mother had at last\ndropped into a light doze, it must have been about four o'clock in the\nmorning, she and the children were aroused by a great shouting and\ndisturbance in the house. They looked out of the window and--what do you\nthink?--there was the lost cow, who had returned after all of her own\naccord. And with her a dear little black and white calf, who frisked and\nbounded along as if it thought it was fine fun to be in the world on\nthis lovely morning. Now wasn't that a queer thing, children, queerer\nthan all the fairy stories you have read? for this story is quite true,\nyou must know!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was an exceptionally fine Sunday, and as father had come down to\nspend the week-end, mother and the children were in the seventh heaven\nof joy. It was not possible to go to church; for the nearest town was\ntwo hours' walk away, and would be partly over fields that were exposed\nto the heat of the midday sun. So father and mother and their two little\ndaughters went to the great woodland cathedral.\n\nThe service was on the Stellerskuppe; surely no one could wish for a\nmore beautiful place of worship. Mountain after mountain ranged in the\ndistance, some with rounded or knolled heads, others rising to a peak.\nLottchen called the most pointed one Mesuvius, because she always forgot\nthe \"V.\"\n\nAs the children sat there and sang hymns, with their white Sunday frocks\non, mother fancied that eyes were peering at them from out the forest\ndepths. If they were merely those of the gentle deer, or if stranger\ncreatures still were watching them as if fascinated, she did not know:\nshe felt there were lookers-on. There is the old story of the God Pan\nwho played so divinely that all living things came to listen to him.\nPerhaps there may be a stirring at times in the souls of the mysterious\ndwellers in the forest that makes them yearn for immortality and gives\nthem a fuller sense of existence. So that all the woodland sang too at\nthat Sunday service.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, father and mother wanted to go for a longer walk\nthan usual; but the lazy children petitioned to be left behind.\n\n\"You will promise not to go near the pond,\" said mother. \"Remember it is\nSunday, and you have your best frocks on; you must not romp or climb\ntrees.\"\n\n\"O no, mother, of course not,\" said Trudel. \"We'll stay in the garden\nand promise to be very good.\"\n\nWhen father and mother returned from their walk, the first thing they\nsaw was Lottchen staggering along with a stand of empty beer-bottles.\n\n\"Whatever are you doing, Lottchen?\"\n\n\"Oh, mother, there are such heaps of people here this afternoon, and\nthere are not enough waitresses to serve them; so Trudel and I are\nhelping. Trudel has got such a lot of tips already; she has bought\nchocolate with the money. Do tell her to divide it fairly with me!\"\n\nMother looked round. The whole place was covered with tables and\nbenches; a number of gaily dressed people from the neighbouring town\nwere drinking coffee and eating cake or waffeln, a kind of pancake for\nwhich the inn was celebrated.\n\n\"Mother, don't speak to me, I'm too busy,\" said Trudel. \"I've been\nwaiting on those gentlemen; the maids were shy of them, so I said I\nwould go and ask what they wanted.\" She pointed out some young men in\nofficers' uniform, who had come from a military school. \"I've got 6d. in\ntips, and I spent it on chocolate.\"\n\n\"Well I never!\" said mother, astonished at her daughter's prowess--\"you\nhave turned into a waitress, and on Sunday afternoon too. Whatever would\nyour aunts say?\"\n\n\"I think I had better tell you what the young men said to me,\" said\nTrudel seriously. \"They said I was a sweet little thing, and that if I\nwere older, they would fall in love with me. I laughed of course; I\ncould see they were only silly old stupid heads. I told them they had\nnot much taste; for their military school was the ugliest building in\nall the town. They quite agreed with me about this, however, and then\nthey asked me who my father was, and when I said he was a professor,\nthey laughed till I thought they would burst. But now you must excuse\nme, really, mother darling. I have promised to go into the kitchen and\nwash up cups and saucers!\"\n\nThe landlady could not praise Trudel enough. Such a useful little girl,\nshe does everything in a most orderly way and wipes down the table when\nshe has finished! \"If ever you want her to learn housekeeping, pray send\nher to me, I should be delighted to teach her,\" she said.\n\n\"Yes,\" thought mother, \"and make a nice little slavey of her into the\nbargain. No, no, our Trudel is not going to turn into a housemaid!\"\n\nIf Trudel had been some years older, father and mother might have\nobjected to these experiences; but, as it was, they only laughed.\n\n\nPART IV\n\nAs the world is full of fact and fancy, so is this story. Whether it is\nbased mostly on fact or on fancy we will leave to the German\nphilosophers to decide, but I have heard that they are doubtful on this\npoint, with regard to the world, I mean.\n\nIt was a magical evening. Trudel was so engrossed in a game of cards\nwith the boys that she could not be induced to come out; moreover she\nhad a slight cold and the evenings were chilly. A glorious sunset glow\nillumined the sky as mother and Lottchen set out for their\nnever-to-be-forgotten walk.\n\n\"We will go up and see the fire on the heath; I love the smell of dry\npine wood burning,\" said mother.\n\n\"I love to see the fire dancing and crackling,\" said Lottchen. \"How\nstill everything is.\"\n\n\"It is the calm of twilight. The wind usually drops in the evening,\"\nsaid mother.\n\n\"Look, look, over there by those dark woods there is something moving,\"\nsaid Lotty. \"I think it is a white cat.\"\n\n\"A white cat! How queer that she should have strayed so far; she does\nnot belong to the farm, I know.\"\n\n\"Hush! perhaps she is not a cat at all--then she will vanish.\" And lo\nand behold when they looked again, there was no cat there, though they\nhad distinctly seen it a minute before on the field at the wood's edge.\n\n\"She is really a witch, I believe,\" said mother, with the curious\nexpression on her face that Lotty knew so well.\n\nGoing further up the hill, they saw a wonderful sight. Twenty or more\npeasant girls were busy working, hacking the ground, their faces\nilluminated by the wonderful sunset glow. They wore short full peasant\nskirts edged with bright-coloured ribbons, and each had a gaily coloured\nscarf pinned round the neck and bodice.\n\nWe learned afterwards that they were preparing the ground to plant young\nfir-trees on a clearing. Germans are so careful of their woods, they\nreplant what has been cut down, so that they have a great wealth in wood\nthat we cannot boast of in England. I believe that they would _like_ to\ncut off all the dead branches in order to make the woods quite tidy! But\nthis would be rather too big a job even for the German nation to\naccomplish!\n\nA man dressed in green with a feather in his cap, and a gun over his\nshoulder stood by watching the girls at their work.\n\nHe was a forester and seemed to act as overseer. He gave the signal to\nstop work as the strangers (mother and Lotty) approached. The women hid\ntheir tools under the dry heather until the next day, and then strapped\non the big baskets they carried on their backs, without which they\nhardly felt properly dressed. They then marched along together, singing\na melodious song in unison. As they came to the cross-roads they parted\ncompany; some went this way, some that; all kept up the tune, which\nechoed farther and farther, fainter and fainter in the distance.\n\nBefore long Lottchen and her mother were alone; but they felt that the\nground they stood on, was enchanted. Mother said it was like a scene\nfrom the opera. They watched the fire; how the flames leaped and\ncrackled; yet they were dying down. The fire made a bright contrast to\nthe dark fir-woods which formed the background to the picture. The glory\ndied from the sky; but yet it was strangely light; darker and darker\ngrew the woods near the fire. Suddenly Lotty espied bright sparks among\nthe trees.\n\n\"I do believe they have set the wood on fire,\" said mother.\n\n\"O no, mother, don't you see; let us crouch down and hide; it is the\nfairies: they are coming to the fire.\"\n\nThe air was suddenly full of bright beings.\n\n \"There is a wood fire on the hill;\n  High on the heath it glimmers still.\n  Who are these beings in the air\n  With gauzy robes and flowing hair?\n  Is it the wreathing smoke I see\n  That forms itself so curiously?\n\n  Nay, they alight: they form a ring,\n  Around the flickering fire spring,\n  And from those embers burning low\n  They light their wands, they gleam, they glow,\n  Like firework stars of rainbow hue,\n  Green, yellow, orange, lilac, blue!\n\n  Ah what a scene, how wild, how strange!\n  The stars each moment break and change\n  In thousand colours; look on high:\n  Each slender wand points to the sky,\n  Then waves and trembles: lo afar\n  On lonely woods falls many a star!\"\n\nAnd all this Trudel had missed. It seemed too great a pity, with that\nsilly old card playing.\n\nSpellbound mother and Lotty watched the fairies at their revels, till\nLottchen began to shiver.\n\n\"We really must go home,\" whispered mother. \"Trudel will be anxious.\"\n\n\"Oh, but mother I want to dance round the fire with the fairies, and I\nwant a fairy wand with shooting stars,\" said Lotty almost aloud.\n\nSuddenly it seemed as if the fairies became aware that they were\nobserved. They vanished away, and all became dark. Lottchen said she\ncould hear the sound of little feet stamping out the fire.\n\n\"Fairies, dear fairies, come again, do,\" said Lotty.\n\nNo answer, perfect stillness, not even a leaf stirred.\n\n\"Well, you are not so polite as our tree man, not half,\" said Lotty,\n\"though you are so pretty. Good night,\" she shouted.\n\nThere was a sound of suppressed laughter; then from hill and dale the\nword \"good night\" was echoed all around. Spellbound, as if in a trance,\nthey moved toward the farm. Trudel was wild with herself when she heard\nwhat she had missed.\n\n\"_To-morrow_,\" she said, but to-morrow is sometimes a long, long way\noff, and the fairies did not show themselves again during these\nholidays.\n\nOne of Lottchen's favourite walks was the echo walk, but she usually\ncame home quite hoarse after having been this way. The path wound below\nthe fairy heath on the incline of the hill; further down still were the\nfir-woods through which the light shone.\n\n\"Angel-pet!\" \"Cherry-ripe!\" \"Cheeky fellow!\" \"You're another!\" So Lotty\nshouted the whole time, and the echoes came back so surprisingly\ndistinct that Lotty was sure it must be really the fairies answering\nher. When you turned the corner of the hill, the echoes ceased. It was\ntoo queer.\n\nThe next day Trudel distinguished herself again. Two great cart-loads of\nswedes arrived that were to be stored up as fodder for the cattle in the\nwinter. Now the joy was to throw these through a hole in the wall into\nthe cellar. Hermann stood in the cart and Trudel threw the swedes to him\nas the bricklayers throw the bricks to one another. Fritz and Lottchen\nhelped too; they had to take their turn and be very quick, as the hole\nwas small. Hour after hour this went on, till the children were as black\nas chimney sweeps, and yet Trudel's energy did not fail. At last the\ncarts were empty, and only then did the little workers leave off, dead\ntired.\n\nHermann could make curious heads out of the swedes, with eyes and nose\nand mouth. If you put an old candle-end inside, they looked ghastly,\nlike some Chinese god. Lotty declared that they rolled about in the yard\nat night and grinned at her, and that she did not like \"heads without\npeople.\"\n\n\"But they _are_ so funny, Lottchen,\" said mother, and then she laughed\nat them and was not frightened any more.\n\nIn the fields grew nice little buttony mushrooms. No one knew better\nthan the Herr Baron where they were to be found and how to prepare them.\nApparently he had lived on mushrooms in the wilds of South America. He\nwas very kind in helping the children to fill their baskets to take home\nwith them; for, alas, even the pleasantest of holidays must come to an\nend; and there was only one day left. He discovered a treasure in the\nfield, a little mother-of-pearl knife, very old and rusty, and presented\nit to Trudel. He told her to soak it in petroleum to clean it. That\nknife was more trouble than all the rest of the luggage on the way\nback, for Trudel made such a fuss about it, and dissolved in tears\nseveral times when she thought that she had lost it.\n\nTo leave the beautiful cool woods, the fairies, the tree man and his\nsweetheart, the cows and the geese and all the marvels of the country,\nyes, it was hard; but home is home, and always turns a smiling face to\nus after a long absence. How nice to rediscover one's playthings and\ndolls. Trudel's first thought was always for her doll babies, and she\nwould rush upstairs, and embrace each one tenderly.\n\nAs the children drove to the station from the farm, they passed the\nfamous oak-tree, but no little man was to be seen.\n\n\"He's shy of the coachman, of course,\" said the children.\n\nLooking back, they caught a glimpse of him in the distance, and shouted\nand waved their handkerchiefs.\n\nHermann and Fritz were very sorry to say \"good-bye\" to their little\nfriends; but school began the next day, and they would not have so much\ntime for play then.\n\nThe landlady told the children a great secret before they left. \"The\nHerr Baron is going to be married next week,\" she said.\n\n\"Well, I am glad,\" said mother. \"I hope she is very nice,\" and the\nchildren echoed the wish warmly.\n\n\"She has lots of money, and is a countess, I believe,\" continued the\nlandlady.\n\n\"Well, I do hope she does not object to smoking,\" said Trudel, and they\nall laughed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Mother, you have never shown us your sketch,\" said Trudel during the\nunpacking.\n\nMother laughed. \"Where's Lottchen? I suppose she wants to see it too?\"\n\n\"Here I am,\" said Lotty. \"Oh, do be quick and show it to us!\"\n\nMother held up the sketch. There was the hollow oak-tree, and standing\nin it the little tree man himself just as the children had first seen\nhim, with his green peaked hood on.\n\n\"So mother really did see him too!\" said the children.\n\nNow this story disproves the common fallacy that only children can see\nthe fairies and forest folk; for how could mother have painted the tree\ngnome unless she had seen him?\n\n\nEVERETT AND CO. LTD., 42 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, LONDON\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note\n\nIn the tale \"The Engineer and the Dwarfs\", a line is missing in\nthe original text; since this edition is apparently the only one in\nexistence, it has sadly not been possible to discover what the missing\nsection was. However, from the context it must be a greeting, perhaps\nfrom the dwarfs' Committee.\n\nOtherwise, missing punctuation has been silently added, and the spelling\nof some names regularised. The word centuary was changed to centaury in\nthe sentence:\n\n\"Little harebells, and pink _centaury_ bordered the pathway.\"","title":"Fairy Tales from the German Forests","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":54823}