{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_48593/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_48593","id":"gutenberg_48593","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48593","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Dreams -- Juvenile fiction","Fairy tales -- Juvenile fiction","Fantasy literature","Grandparent and child -- Juvenile fiction","Imaginary places -- Juvenile fiction","Memory -- Juvenile fiction","Memory disorders in old age -- Juvenile fiction","Nursery rhymes -- Juvenile fiction","Storytelling -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"As the Goose Flies\n\n                        _Written & Illustrated_\n\n                                 _By_\n\n                            Katharine Pyle\n\n\n\n                             Published by\n                          Little, Brown & Co.\n                                Boston\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                          _Copyright, 1901_,\n                     BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY\n\n                         _All rights reserved_\n\n\n                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                               Contents\n\n\n        Chapter                               Page\n\n  I     BEHIND THE BOOKCASE                     9\n\n  II    BEYOND THE WALL                        15\n\n  III   THE FIVE LITTLE PIGS AND THE GOAT      24\n\n  IV    UP IN THE CLOUD-LAND                   45\n\n  V     THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN LITTLE DWARFS   58\n\n  VI    THE GREAT GRAY WOLF                    77\n\n  VII   THE MAGIC LAMP                         89\n\n  VIII  BLUEBEARD'S HOUSE                     108\n\n  IX    BEYOND THE MIST                       120\n\n  X     IN THE HOUSE OF THE QUEERBODIES       137\n\n  XI    THE PRINCESS GOLDENHAIR               156\n\n  XII   HOME AGAIN                            175\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nList of Illustrations\n\n\n  \"Then away he flew toward the dark line of\n    forest\"                                           _Frontispiece_\n\n  \"Ellen stood at the nursery window\"                     _page_   9\n\n  \"Presently she shaded her eyes with her hand\n    and looked up at the sky\"                             _page_  16\n\n  \"Mother Goose told her how to do it\"                    _page_  22\n\n  \"Ellen thought they were the cunningest little\n    things for dolls that she had ever seen\"              _page_  34\n\n  \"As her eyes grew used to the gloom she saw\n    a very large and very ugly goat\"                      _page_  40\n\n  \"The gander and Ellen began to let the rope\n    slip\"                                            _face page_  55\n\n  \"There stood a little dwarf holding a great\n    wooden spoon\"                                         _page_  59\n\n  \"It beat and buffeted them with its wings and\n    hissed so piercingly in their ears that they\n    did not know what was after them\"                _face page_  73\n\n  \"Close to her was an enormous gray wolf\"                _page_  78\n\n  \"Spread its wings and flew up over his head\"            _page_  86\n\n  \"The slaves threw themselves down before\n    her\"                                             _face page_  91\n\n  \"A terrible black genie appeared before her\"            _page_ 100\n\n  \"Ellen climbed upon the gander's back and\n    she then could just reach the knocker\"                _page_ 112\n\n  \"Ellen raised the horn to her lips and blew\"            _page_ 122\n\n  \"Still he kept whispering in its ear\"                   _page_ 126\n\n  \"An enormous dragon lay stretched in a rocky\n    defile\"                                               _page_ 129\n\n  \"She saw a tall man oddly dressed in green\n    and yellow\"                                           _page_ 138\n\n  \"Timidly the little girl took the white hand\"      _face page_ 154\n\n  \"The fairy knelt before her and lifted the edge\n    of the cloak\"                                         _page_ 162\n\n  \"The fairy drew his sword and pointed it at\n    her\"                                             _face page_ 171\n\n  \"Ellen put her ear against the golden wall\"             _page_ 179\n\n  Tailpiece                                               _page_ 183\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n_Chapter One_\n\n_Behind the Bookcase_\n\n\nEllen stood at the nursery window looking out at the gray sky and the\nwet, blowing branches of the trees. It had been raining and blowing all\nday. The roof pipes poured out steady waterfalls; the lilacs bent over,\nheavy with the rain. Up in the sky a bird was trying to beat its way\nhome against the wind.\n\nBut Ellen was not thinking of any of these things. She was thinking of\nthe story that her grandmother had forgotten again.\n\nEllen's grandmother was very old; so old that she often called Ellen by\nthe names of her own little children; children who had grown up or died\nyears and years ago. She was so old she could remember things that had\nhappened seventy years before, but then she forgot a great many things,\neven things that had occurred only a few minutes before. Sometimes she\nforgot where her spectacles were when they were pushed back on her\nhead. Most of all she forgot the stories she tried to tell Ellen. She\nwould just get to a very interesting place, and then she would push her\nspectacles up on her forehead and look vaguely about her. \"I forget\nwhat came next,\" she would say.\n\nVery often Ellen could help her out. \"Why, granny, don't you know the\nlittle bear's voice was so thin and shrill it woke little Silverhair\nright up? Then when she opened her eyes and saw the three bears--\" or,\n\"Why then when Jack saw the giant was fast asleep he caught up the\ngolden hen--\" and so the little girl would go on and finish the story\nfor the old grandmother.\n\nBut there was one story that Ellen could not finish for her\ngrandmother. It was a story that she had never heard; at least she\nhad never heard the end of it. It was about a little princess named\nGoldenlocks who always had to wear a sooty hood over her beautiful\nshining hair, and who had a wicked stepmother.\n\nAgain and again the grandmother had begun the story, but she never got\nfurther in it than where Goldenlocks was combing her hair at night all\nalone in the kitchen. When she had reached that point she would stop\nand say, \"Ah, what was it that came next? What was it, little Clara?\nCan't you remember? It's so long since I have told it.\" Clara was the\nname by which the grandmother oftenest called Ellen.\n\nSometimes the little girl tried to make up an ending to the story, but\nalways the grandmother would shake her head. \"No, no,\" she would cry,\n\"that's not it. What was it? What was it? Ah, if I could but remember!\"\n\nShe worried and fretted so over the story that Ellen was always sorry\nto have her begin it. Sometimes the old grandmother almost cried.\n\nNow as the child stood looking through the window at the rainy world\noutside, her thoughts were upon the story, for the grandmother had been\nvery unhappy over it all day; Ellen had not been able to get her to\ntalk or think of anything else.\n\nThe house was very quiet, for it was afternoon. The mother was busy in\nthe sewing-room, grandmother was taking a nap, and nurse was crooning\nsoftly to the baby in the room across the hall.\n\nEllen had come to the nursery to get a book of jingles; she was going\nto read aloud to her mother. Now as she turned from the window it\noccurred to her that she would put the bookcase in order before she\nwent down to the sewing-room. That was just the thing to do on a rainy\nday.\n\nShe sat down before the shelves and began pulling the books out, now\nand then opening one to look at a picture or to straighten a bookmarker.\n\nThe nursery walls were covered with a flowered paper, and when Ellen\nhad almost emptied the shelves she noticed that the paper back of them\nwas of a different color from that on the rest of the room. It had not\nfaded. The blue color between the vines looked soft and cloudlike, too,\nand almost as though it would melt away at a touch.\n\nEllen put her hand back to feel it.\n\nInstead of touching a hard, cold wall as she had expected, her hand\nwent right through between the vines as though there were nothing\nthere.\n\nEllen rose to her knees and put both hands across the shelf. She found\nshe could draw the vines aside just as though they were real. She even\nthought she caught a glimpse of skies and trees between them.\n\nIn haste she sprang to her feet and pushed the bookcase to one side so\nthat she could squeeze in behind it.\n\nShe caught hold of the wall-paper vines and drew them aside, and then\nshe stepped right through the wall and into the world beyond.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Two_\n\n_Beyond the Wall_\n\n\nIt was not raining at all beyond the wall. Overhead was a soft, mild\nsky, neither sunny nor cloudy. Before her stretched a grassy green\nmeadow, and far away in the distance was a dark line of forest.\n\nJust at the foot of the meadow was a little house. It was such a\ncurious little house that Ellen went nearer to look at it. It was not\nset solidly upon the ground, but stood upon four fowls' legs, so that\nyou could look clear under it; and the roof was covered with shining\nfeathers that overlapped like feathers upon the back of a duck. Beside\nthe door, hitched to a post by a bridle just as a horse might be, was\nan enormous white gander.\n\nWhile Ellen stood staring with all her eyes at the house and the\ngander, the door opened, and a little old woman, in buckled shoes,\nwith a white apron over her frock and a pointed hat on her head,\nstepped out, as if to look about her and enjoy the pleasant air.\n\nPresently she shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the sky;\nthen she looked at the meadows, and last her eyes fell upon the little\ngirl who stood there staring at her. The old woman gazed and gazed.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Well, I declare,\" she cried, \"if it isn't a little girl! What are you\ndoing here, child?\"\n\n\"I'm just looking at your house.\"\n\n\"But how did you happen to come here?\"\n\n\"I came through the nursery wall. I didn't know it was soft before.\"\n\nA number of queer-looking little people had come out from the house\nwhile Ellen and the old woman were talking, and they gathered about in\na crowd and stared so hard and were so odd-looking that Ellen began\nto feel somewhat shy. They kept coming out and coming out until she\nwondered how the house could have held them all.\n\nThere was a little boy with a pig in his arms, and now and then the\npig squealed shrilly. There was a maid with a cap and apron, and her\nsleeves were so full of round, heavy things that the seams looked ready\nto burst. A pocket that hung at her side was full, too, and bumped\nagainst her as she walked. She came quite close to Ellen, and the child\ncould tell by the smell that the things in her sleeves and pocket were\noranges. There was one who Ellen knew must be a king by the crown on\nhis head; he was a jolly-looking fellow, and had a pipe in one hand\nand a bowl in the other.\n\nThere were big people and little people, young people and old; and a\ndish and spoon came walking out with the rest. But what seemed almost\nthe strangest of all to Ellen was to see an old lady come riding out\nthrough the door of the house on a white horse.\n\n\"I wonder where she keeps it,\" thought the little girl to herself. \"I\nshouldn't think it would be very pleasant to have a horse in the house\nwith you.\"\n\nThe old lady's hands were loaded with rings, and as the horse moved\nthere was a jingling as of bells. The words of a nursery rhyme rang\nthrough Ellen's head in time to the jingling:--\n\n    \"_Rings on her fingers\n      And bells on her toes,\n    She shall have music\n      Wherever she goes._\"\n\n\"Why,\" she cried, \"it's the old lady of Banbury Cross. And\"--she\nlooked around at the crowd--\"why, I do believe they're _all_ out of\nMother Goose rhymes.\"\n\n\"Of course they are,\" said the little old woman with the pointed hat.\n\"What did you suppose would live in Mother Goose's house?\"\n\n\"And are you Mother Goose?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"Yes, I am. Don't you think I look like the pictures?\"\n\n\"But--but--I didn't know you were alive. I thought you were only a\nrhyme.\"\n\n\"Only a rhyme! Well, I should think not. How do you suppose there could\nbe rhymes unless there was something to make them about?\"\n\n\"And all the rest, too,\" said Ellen dreamily, looking about her. \"'Tom,\nTom, the piper's son,' and 'Dingty, Diddlety, my mammy's maid,' and\n'Old King Cole'--why, they're _all_ alive. How queer it seems! I wonder\nif the stories are alive, too.\"\n\n\"Yes, just as alive as we are.\"\n\n\"And the story grandmother forgot--oh, _do_ you suppose I could find\nthat story?\"\n\n\"The story she forgot!\" answered Mother Goose thoughtfully. \"What was\nit about?\"\n\n\"Why, that's it; I don't know. Nobody knows only just grandmother, and\nshe's forgotten.\"\n\nMother Goose shook her head. \"If every one's forgotten it, I'm afraid\nit must be at the house of the Queerbodies. That's where they send all\nthe forgotten stories; then they make them over into new ones.\"\n\n\"Couldn't I go there to find it?\"\n\n\"I don't know. I've never been there myself. Of course, they wouldn't\nlet me in. But you're a real child. Maybe you could get in. Only, how\nwould you get there? It's a long, long journey, through the forest and\nover hills and streams.\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" said Ellen. \"I've never journeyed very far; only just\nto Aunt Josephine's.\"\n\nMother Goose knitted her brows and began to think hard. Suddenly her\nface brightened. \"I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll lend you my gander;\nand he'll carry you there in short order, however far it is.\"\n\n\"Oh, thank you, but I don't believe I could ride him! I'd fall off, I'm\nsure.\"\n\n\"No, you wouldn't. He goes as smoothly as a dream goose, and almost as\nfast. Yes, I'll lend him to you. But there's one thing I'd like you to\ndo for me in return when you reach the house of the Queerbodies.\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\n\"I'd like you to ask about a rhyme I used to have. I think they must\nhave it there, for I've lost it; and if it hasn't been made over yet,\nperhaps you could manage to get it for me.\"\n\n\"What's its name?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"Well, it hasn't any name, but it looks like this:--\n\n        \"_Johnnykin learned to ride the wind,\n        But he wouldn't let any one on behind.\n              But the wind ran away\n              With Johnny one day,\n    And that wasn't such fun I have heard him say._\"\n\nEllen promised to do what she could about it, and then Mother Goose\nsent Little Boy Blue to unhitch the gander and bring him to them. Ellen\nfelt rather nervous about mounting him, but Mother Goose told her how\nto do it.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThen the white gander spread his wings. The wind rustled through them\nlike the sound made by the leaves of a book when they are turned. Up,\nup rose the gander as smoothly as a bubble rises through the air and\nthen away he flew toward the dark line of forest that Ellen saw in the\ndistance.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Three_\n\n_The Five Little Pigs and the Goat_\n\n\nOn and on went the white gander so smoothly and swiftly that the\ncountry slipped away beneath just as the leaves of a book do when\nthey slip from under your finger too fast for you to see the print or\npictures.\n\n\"I wonder what that is,\" said Ellen as a spot of red shone out among\nthe green beneath.\n\nThe gander stayed his wings so that Ellen could look.\n\nIt was a little red brick house. Around it were other houses that\nlooked as though they were built of sods. They had chimneys and from\ntwo or three of these chimneys thin lines of smoke rose through the\nstill air.\n\nAs the gander hovered above them from a knoll a little way beyond\nthere suddenly sounded a shrill and piteous squeaking.\n\n\"Oh, what's that?\" cried Ellen. \"It must be a pig and I'm afraid some\none is hurting it. Oh dear!\"\n\n\"Do you want to go and see mistress?\" asked the gander.\n\nEllen said she did, so the gander turned in that direction.\n\nWhen they reached the knoll they found that it was indeed a pig that\nwas making the noise, but Ellen could not see why it was shrieking so.\nIt sat there all alone under an oak tree and with its pink nose lifted\nto the sky and its eyes shut it wept aloud. The tears trickled down its\nbristly cheeks.\n\nSuddenly it stopped squeaking, and getting up began quietly hunting\nabout for acorns, and craunching them as though it found them very good.\n\n\"What's the matter, you poor little pig?\" asked Ellen, looking down at\nit from the gander's back.\n\nShe had not spoken with any idea of receiving any answer.\n\nThe little pig looked up when he heard her voice. As soon as he saw\nher he sat down and began squeaking so shrilly that Ellen felt like\ncovering her ears.\n\n\"Week! Week! Week!\" he cried. \"Can't find my way home.\"\n\nFor a moment Ellen was so surprised at hearing the pig speak that she\ncould not say anything. Then she asked, \"Where do you live?\" But the\npig did not hear her. \"Where do you live?\" she repeated in a louder\ntone; then she shouted, \"Hush!\" so loudly that the little pig stopped\nshort with his mouth half open and the tears still standing in his eyes.\n\n\"Where do you live?\" she asked for the third time.\n\n\"I live over by the wood in the little sod house next to the brick\none,\" answered the little pig.\n\n\"Well, isn't that it there?\" and Ellen pointed to the sod houses over\nwhich she had just flown.\n\nThe little pig looked. \"Why, so it is,\" he cried. Then curling up his\nlittle tail he trotted away in that direction.\n\nThe white gander flew beside him and Ellen talked as they went. \"Why\ndidn't you see it before?\"\n\n\"I was coming home from market with my brother; he's quite a big pig;\nand I stopped to eat some acorns, so he said he wouldn't wait for me\nany longer, and he went on and that lost me.\"\n\n\"But if you'd just looked you would have seen it.\"\n\n\"I couldn't look because I was hunting for acorns, and then I began to\ncry, and then I hunted for some more acorns.\"\n\nIt sounded so foolish, Ellen couldn't help laughing. \"I think I'd\nbetter go home with you or you may get lost again,\" she said. Presently\nshe asked, \"How many brothers have you?\"\n\n\"Four,\" answered the pig. \"One of them's going to have roast beef for\ndinner.\" Suddenly he sat down and began to cry again.\n\n\"What in the world's the matter now?\" asked Ellen in desperation.\n\n\"Oweek! Oweek! Maybe he's eaten it all.\"\n\n\"Well you'd better hurry home and see. If you keep on sitting here and\ncrying, I know you won't get any.\"\n\nThis thought made the little pig jump up and start toward home as fast\nas his short legs would carry him.\n\nWhen they reached the sod house next to the brick one another pig\nwas standing in the doorway looking out. He was larger than Ellen's\ncompanion.\n\nHe stared hard at the little girl and her gander, but when he spoke it\nwas to the little pig. \"You naughty little pig, why didn't you come\nhome?\"\n\nThe little pig did not answer this question. \"Has Middling finished his\nroast beef?\" he asked.\n\n\"There's some fat left.\"\n\nAs the little pig hurried in through the door, Ellen asked of the\nother, \"Is this your house?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" grunted the pig.\n\nThree other pigs had appeared in the doorway by this time. They all\nstared at the little girl.\n\n\"It's a dear little house,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"Would you like to look inside?\" asked the largest pig.\n\nEllen said she would.\n\nShe slipped from the gander and the pigs made way for her to go in; but\nshe only looked through the doorway, without entering. The littlest pig\nwas seated at a table eating beef fat as fast as he could. Ellen did\nnot think he ate very nicely.\n\n\"It's a dear little house,\" she repeated.\n\nThen she looked about her. At the window of one of the other houses she\ncaught a glimpse of a head. It looked like a cat's head.\n\n\"Who live in all these other houses?\" she asked.\n\n\"Well, in that brick house lives another pig,\" answered the pig they\ncalled Middling. \"Sometimes he comes to see us, but he doesn't have\n_very_ much to do with us, because he's in a story; a _real_ story you\nknow, and we're only in a rhyme.\"\n\n\"What story is he in?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"The story of the wolf that huffed and puffed and blew the house in. He\nhad two brothers, and one built a house of leaves and one built a house\nof straw, and the wolf came and blew their houses in and ate them up,\nbut this one built his house of bricks, so when the wolf came to it--\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, I know that story,\" interrupted Ellen, for she had heard it\nso often she was rather tired of it. \"Who lives in the house beyond\nthat?\"\n\n\"The seven little kids. A wolf really did swallow them once, but their\nmother cut him open with her scissors while he was asleep and they all\ngot out.\"\n\n\"And who lives in the little furry house with the chimneys like\npointed ears?\"\n\n\"An old cat. She's nothing but a rhyme. She's very particular, though.\nWhy, one time she was just as _mad_ at her kittens, just because they\nlost some mittens she had knitted for them.\"\n\nSo Middling went on talking of all the people who lived in the village,\nwhile Ellen listened and wondered. It seemed so strange she could\nhardly believe it was all true.\n\n\"What fun you must have together!\" she said at last.\n\nThe pigs looked at each other and grunted. \"We would have,\" said a slim\npig that the others called Ringling, \"if it wasn't for an old goat that\nlives in a cave down at the end of the street.\"\n\n\"Oh, but he's a naughty one,\" broke in Thumbie, the fattest pig. \"He's\nalways doing mischief and playing tricks on us.\"\n\n\"That was a bad trick he played on you, Thumbie,\" said Middling.\n\n\"What was that?\" asked the little girl.\n\n\"Well, we were all away except Thumbie, and he was asleep in the\ndoorway, and the old goat saw him and brought a paint pot and painted\nhis back so it looked like a big fat face lying there. So when we came\nhome we didn't know what it was, and we were scared, but Thumbie woke\nup and began to get up, and Ringling she squeaked, 'Run! run! Big face\nis after us,' so we all began to run. Thumbie he saw us all running,\nso he got scared too, and he ran after us, and the faster we ran the\nfaster he ran. After a while he tripped and fell, and then he began to\ncry and we knew who it was.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, he's as mean as mean can be,\" went on Middling. \"Why, one\ntime when our raspberries were ripe old Shave-head came here--\"\n\n\"Who's Shave-head?\" interrupted Ellen.\n\n\"Oh, he's the goat. Old Shave-head came here and asked if he couldn't\nhave some of our raspberries, and we said yes he could if he'd give\nus a present, and he said he would, so he went home and brought a big\npannikin and put it on the table. It was covered.\n\n\"Then he went out in the garden and began to pick raspberries as fast\nas ever he could.\n\n\"We all sat round and wondered what was in the pannikin.\n\n\"Littlesie guessed it was acorns, and Thumbie thought it was apple\nparings, and I thought it was pancakes because it was in a pannikin.\"\n\n\"And what was it?\" asked Ellen, very much interested.\n\n\"Well, it was a joke,\" said Middling slowly. \"He'd fixed up a sort\nof big jumping-jack inside, and when we took off the lid it jumped\nout at us and said, 'Woof!' It scared us so we all squeaked and\njumped back in our chairs, and the chairs upset and down we came,\n_clatterly-slam-bang_!\"\n\nEllen could not help laughing at that.\n\n\"He painted all our dolls, too,\" said Fatty, \"and almost spoiled them.\"\n\n\"Have you dolls?\" cried Ellen in surprise.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Oh, yes, indeed. I'll show them to you,\" and Thumbie ran into the\nhouse to get them. When he brought them out Ellen thought they were\nthe cunningest little things for dolls that she had ever seen. They\nwere little wooden pigs just like the real pigs themselves only very\nsmall. But they were painted in the funniest way. One was bright purple\nwith a yellow nose, and one was pea-green with red legs, another was\nsky-blue spotted all over with pink, and the other two were just as\nfunny-looking.\n\nAfter Ellen had looked at them she asked, \"Did the goat paint them that\nway?\"\n\n\"Yes, he did, and I think it's real mean.\" It was Middling who answered.\n\n\"What are some of the other tricks he plays?\"\n\nMiddling thought awhile. \"I don't remember any more.\"\n\n\"There was that Fourth-o'-July trick he played on the mother of the\nseven kids,\" suggested Ringling.\n\n\"Oh, yes. That was mean too; she's so good. She bakes us cookies\nsometimes and then she gives the old goat some. She's always good to\nhim and nobody likes him either.\"\n\n\"What was the trick?\"\n\n\"He took torpedoes and put them all down the path at the Mother Goat's.\nIt was a gravel path, and she thought the torpedoes were just part of\nit. Fourth-o'-July morning she came out to get a pail of water and when\nshe struck a torpedo with her hard hoof it went off, bang! It scared\nher so she jumped up in the air, and when she came down it was on some\nmore torpedoes. Bang! bang! they went. Every time she made a leap and\ncame down some more torpedoes went off. Mother Goat was so scared she\nwent to bed for all the rest of the day, and it was Fourth-o'-July,\ntoo. I just wish we could drive him away.\"\n\n\"So do we,\" cried all the other pigs. \"Then we'd be happy. He's just an\nugly old baldhead, anyway.\"\n\n\"I never saw a bald goat,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"His master shaved him,\" said Ringling, \"he was so bad.\"\n\n\"Why? What did he do?\"\n\n\"Well, his master had three sons, and he sent them one at a time to\ntake the goat out to pasture. Every time before the boy brought the\ngoat home he would ask, 'Goat, have you had enough?' And the goat\nwould answer:\n\n    \"'_I am satisfied quite;\n    No more can I bite._'\n\nThen the boy would bring him home and put him in the stable. But the\nfather always wanted to be sure his goat had had enough, so he would go\nout himself and say, 'Goat have you had enough to-day?' Then it would\nanswer:\n\n    \"'_I only jumped about the fields,\n    And never found a bite._'\n\nIt made the father so angry to think his sons should have treated the\ngoat that way that he drove them away from home.\"\n\n\"I know,\" Ellen interrupted. \"Then when the father found out that the\ngoat had deceived him and made him send his sons away--\"\n\n\"He shaved the goat's head and drove it away with a yard-stick,\" cried\nMiddling, raising his voice. He wanted to tell the story himself.\n\"Then it hid in a bear's cave--\"\n\n\"I know.\"\n\n\"And the bear was afraid to go home, for he could just see the goat's\neyes shining in the cave and he didn't know what it was, and he was\nafraid to go in; but a bee said it would see, so it went in and stung\nthe goat on the head and then the goat jumped out of the cave and ran\ntill it came here, and I do wish somebody would take it away.\"\n\n\"I would,\" said Ellen, \"if I knew where to take it.\" She was not afraid\nof the goat, for she had a pet one at home that drew a little wagon.\n\nLittlesie, who had finished his roast beef and had come to the door,\nlooked frightened. \"You couldn't,\" he cried. \"Why Baldhead would butt\nyou right over if you tried to touch him.\"\n\n\"Mistress,\" said the white gander, \"I know how you could make the goat\ngo away.\"\n\n\"How?\" asked Ellen.\n\nThen the gander told his plan, while Ellen and all the five pigs\nlistened.\n\n\"Good, good,\" cried the pigs when they had heard it, and they clapped\ntheir hoofs and leaped up into the air.\n\nEllen, too, thought it a good plan and said she would do everything as\nthe gander told her.\n\nThe pigs showed her where the goat lived, and then they ran back home,\nfor the gander said it would be better for Ellen and him to go to see\nthe goat by themselves.\n\nIt was in a sort of a cave under a hillock that he lived. The cave had\nbut one window and that was only a hole through the earth, but it had a\ndoorway and a wooden door.\n\nThere Ellen knocked and a rough voice within asked, \"Who is that\nknocking at my door?\"\n\nAnd Ellen answered, \"Some one who never was here before.\"\n\nAgain the rough voice spoke:\n\n    \"_Then lift the latch that I may see\n    Who dares to come and knock for me._\"\n\nThen Ellen lifted the latch and after a moment's hesitation pushed open\nthe door and stepped inside.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAt first it seemed so dark in the cave after the brightness outside\nthat she could see nothing, but as her eyes grew used to the gloom she\nsaw that one end of the cave was almost filled with straw, and upon\nthis was sitting a very large and very ugly goat.\n\nHis hair was rough and shaggy; his head was shaved and his little eyes\nlooked at Ellen fiercely from under his curving horns.\n\n\"What do you mean by coming and disturbing me here in my cave?\" he\nasked.\n\nHis voice was so very harsh that for a moment Ellen was rather\nfrightened, but she remembered her pet goat at home and spoke up\nbravely:\n\n\"If you please, I've come to ask you whether you won't go away and find\nsome other place to live.\"\n\n\"_Go!_\" cried the goat, half rising. \"Me go?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Ellen. \"You see, you tease and bother the animals that\nlive here so much that they all want you to go, and I told the pigs I\nwould come and tell you.\"\n\n\"Then you can tell them,\" howled the goat in a rage, \"that I'll never\ngo. Have I sent three sons packing from their father's house and\nfrightened a bear from his cave to be ordered out of my house at last\nby some pigs?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" said Ellen, \"but you'll have to go anyway.\"\n\n\"I won't go,\" howled the goat.\n\n\"Yes, you'll have to,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"But I won't,\" howled the goat.\n\nThen Ellen did what the gander had told her to do. She put her hands to\nher mouth and buzzed into them like a bee.\n\nThe goat started up as though he had been shot. Ever since he had been\nstung out of the bear's cave there was nothing in the world that he\nfeared like a bee. He began to shiver and shake, and his bald head\nturned quite pale, \"Oh don't sting me,\" he cried. \"Please don't, and\nI'll do whatever you wish.\"\n\n\"Then come with me,\" said Ellen, \"and I won't hurt you.\"\n\n\"What are you going to do with me,\" asked the goat quite meekly,\ngetting up and coming to her.\n\n\"I don't know just yet, but you can't stay here any longer. I'll try to\nfind a good home for you somewheres.\"\n\nThen she fastened a stout twine, that the pigs had given her, about the\ngoat's neck, and led him forth.\n\nThe animals in the village had heard from the pigs how Ellen had gone\nto try to get the old goat to go away, and they were all standing at\ntheir doors watching.\n\nThey had expected to see Ellen and the gander come running from the\ncave with the old goat butting them.\n\nHow surprised they were to see their enemy come out trotting meekly\nat Ellen's heels, following wherever she chose to lead it. They all\nmurmured together of their surprise but they were still too much afraid\nof the goat to shout or show the delight they felt.\n\nEllen nodded shyly to the animals as she walked down the street.\n\nWhen she reached the pigs' house they were all watching for her.\nMiddling ran out and pushed something into her hand. \"It's a present\nfor you,\" he whispered. Then he ran back to join the others, but he was\nso glad the goat was going that he could not help jumping up into the\nair and squeaking as he ran.\n\nThe present he had given Ellen was the prettiest of the little wooden\npigs; the one that was painted sky-blue with pink spots.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Four_\n\n_Up in the Cloud-Land_\n\n\nEllen walked on toward the forest, followed by the white gander and\nthe goat. She wondered what she could do with the goat. She could not\ntake it with her, and if she turned it loose it would go and worry some\nother animals, she was sure.\n\nOver toward the right at the very edge of the wood was a house. Ellen\nthought perhaps the people who lived there would take care of the goat,\nso she went over toward it.\n\nWhen she reached the house, she found it was a very comfortable one\nwith a porch covered with vines, and a stable and out-buildings at the\nback.\n\nOn the porch sat a gray-haired woman dressed in silk. She was looking\nup toward the quiet sky and listening to music that sounded from within\nthe house. Ellen had never heard such beautiful music in all her life.\nAs long as it sounded she could do nothing but stand and listen.\nThrough the open window the little girl could see the top of a golden\nharp. She supposed some one must be playing on it, but she had never\nknown before that any one in the world could play as beautifully as\nthat.\n\nWhen the music stopped the woman on the porch stirred and sighed. Then\nshe lowered her eyes and her gaze fell upon Ellen. She rose and came to\nthe edge of the porch. \"Good-morning, child,\" she said. \"Did you want\nto see me?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Ellen. \"I wanted to know whether you didn't want a goat.\"\n\n\"Why, no,\" answered the woman with some surprise, \"I don't. We have\nall the animals about the place that we want.\"\n\n\"I wish you _would_ take this one,\" urged Ellen. \"I don't know what to\ndo with it.\"\n\n\"How do you come to be leading it about the country? Is it your goat?\"\n\n\"Not exactly.\" She began to tell the woman all her story of how she\nhad followed the little pig to the village; of how she had found the\nanimals were being worried by the goat, and of how she had made it come\naway with her. It all sounded so strange, Ellen was half afraid the\nwoman would not believe it. She did not seem to think it surprising,\nhowever; but when Ellen had ended she shook her head. \"No,\" she said;\n\"we wouldn't want such a mischievous animal about, I'm sure; but I'll\nask my son.\" Then she called, \"Jack, Jack!\"\n\nIn answer a tall, stout lad came to the door. \"What is it, mother?\" he\nasked.\n\n\"Here's a child who has a goat, and she says this, that, and the\nother\" (and the woman repeated Ellen's story). \"Now the end of the\nmatter is, she wants to leave the goat here with us.\"\n\n\"I don't see how we can--\" began the lad slowly, when suddenly he\nstopped and listened intently with a strange, scared look on his face.\n\nHis mother caught him by the arm. \"What is it, Jack?\" she cried. \"What\nare you listening to? It isn't--\"\n\nJack nodded without answering.\n\nAnd now all listened, and Ellen knew that a sound she had heard some\nminutes before, without particularly noticing it, was the voice of\nsome one weeping and complaining. The voice was very faint and far\noff, but in the silence the little girl could make out the words, \"I\ncan't get down! I can't get down! Woe is me, but it's lonely up here.\"\nEllen could not tell where the voice came from, but it seemed to come\nfrom the sky. There was silence for a moment and then it began again\nlamenting and weeping.\n\nThe woman threw her silk apron over her head and began to rock herself\nand sob. \"Oh, the poor thing! I can't stand it, Jack,\" she cried.\n\"You've got to get her down somehow. You've _got_ to.\"\n\nThe lad had turned somewhat pale. \"What can I do, mother?\" he asked.\n\"You know I've tried everything I know, but there's never a ladder in\nall the world that would reach that far, and we have no more such beans\nas those.\"\n\n\"Who is it?\" asked Ellen in a whisper.\n\nThe woman put down her apron and wiped her eyes. \"It's that giant's\npoor wife,\" she answered. \"You see it all came from Jack's selling our\ncow for a hatful of beans. I punished him well for it, but what good\ndid that do? Then he planted them, and one of them grew so fast it grew\nright up to the sky.\"\n\n\"Oh; Jack and the Beanstalk!\" cried Ellen.\n\n\"Then nothing would do but Jack must climb up and see what was at the\ntop of the beanstalk. He climbed and he climbed,\" the woman went on,\nher voice broken by sobs, \"until at last he climbed right up to the\nsky. There he found a wonderful country and a giant had a castle there.\nThe giant was very rich. Besides his other treasures he had two bags of\ngolden money, a golden hen, and a golden harp that played of itself.\nPerhaps you heard the harp playing as you came up.\"\n\n\"Yes, I did,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"All these things Jack managed to steal, one at a time, and brought\nthem down the beanstalk with him. That was all right enough, for\nthose things had once belonged to Jack's father, and had been stolen\nfrom him by the giant. Jack had no trouble in getting away with the\nbags of money and the hen, but the time he brought the harp the giant\ndiscovered him and chased him. He came clambering down the beanstalk\nafter the lad, and would have killed us both without doubt, but Jack\nran in and got a hatchet and chopped down the beanstalk. The giant,\nwho was only half way down, fell with it and was killed, and I never\nwas sorry for him a moment, for he was a wicked, cruel giant. The only\nthing I grieve about is his poor wife. She was so good to Jack, and now\nshe is left there all alone in the giant's house, and no way of getting\nher down again, as far as I can see.\"\n\nThe woman began to sob again more bitterly than ever. As for Jack, he\nturned away and, putting his arm against the wall, hid his face in it.\n\nThe white gander plucked Ellen by the skirt. \"Mistress, Mistress! Come\nwith me a moment,\" he whispered.\n\nEllen followed him a little apart.\n\n\"I think I might help you to get the giant's wife down,\" he said.\n\n\"How would you do it?\"\n\n\"Do you mount upon my back and I'll fly up there with you, for wings\ncan fly where never ladder can reach. When we're once up there we'll\nsoon find some way to get her down.\"\n\nEllen was pleased with this advice, and returning to the porch she told\nJack and his mother what the gander had said.\n\nThey were filled with joy and gratitude. \"If you only will get her down\nthere is nothing you can ask for that we will not give you,\" cried the\nmother, \"even the golden harp itself.\"\n\nEllen seated herself upon the gander's back and gathered the reins into\nher fingers. Then the bird spread its strong wings and rose in the\nair. Up and up it flew. The sky seemed to grow nearer and Jack and his\nmother and the old bald goat shrank to mere specks below.\n\nUp, up, until Ellen grew dizzy with the height and closed her eyes.\n\nThere was a slight jar, and then the gander spoke, \"Mistress, we are\nhere.\"\n\nEllen unclosed her eyes and looked about her. She was in a wide gray\ncountry, such as she had never seen before. Everything about her was\ngray, the trees, the grass, the streams and sky--everything; and not\nfar away was a gigantic, shadowy gray castle.\n\nClose to where the gander had alighted stood a little old woman with\nher hands clasped. She was looking at Ellen with wide, wondering eyes.\nPresently she came nearer, and timidly stretching out her hand she\ntouched Ellen with her finger. \"Are you real, or are you only a dream?\"\nshe asked.\n\n\"Why I'm real, of course,\" said Ellen.\n\nThe little old woman caught her by the arm and began to sob with joy.\n\"Oh, I'm so glad, so glad,\" she cried. \"I've been so lonely up here.\nYou won't go away and leave me here alone again, will you?\"\n\n\"I've come to take you down,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"Oh, that's better still. It's many a long and weary year since my foot\nhas been on the dear green grass. But how will you get me down?\"\n\n\"I thought maybe the gander would carry us,\" said Ellen, but the white\ngander shook his head.\n\n\"No, no; my wings are not strong enough for that, and if I should fall\nwe would all three break our necks.\"\n\n\"Then what shall we do?\"\n\n\"I have a rope,\" said the little old woman timidly. \"While I have been\nup here alone I spent my time making it, and now I think it is long\nenough. I often thought I would try to lower myself to the earth by it,\nbut I was afraid.\"\n\nEllen looked at the gander. \"That might do,\" he said. \"Bring it here,\nand bring a basket, too; the biggest one you have.\"\n\nThe little old woman hastened away, and in a short time returned with\nthe rope and a basket.\n\n\"Now tie them together,\" said the gander.\n\nEllen and the old woman did this, seeing to it that the knots were\ntight.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nThen the white gander made Ellen twist the rope around a tree, so that\nthe basket would hang down just over the cloudy edge of the sky country.\n\n\"Now get in the basket,\" said the gander.\n\nThe little old woman looked rather frightened, but she did as she was\nbid. Then the gander and Ellen began to let the rope slip, and as it\nslipped the basket slowly sank from sight. The weight did not seem\ngreat because of the rope's being twisted about the tree.\n\nDown and down went the basket and the little old woman in it; down and\ndown went the rope. Ellen thought they never would get done letting\nit slip. At last there was no more pull on it. \"She has reached the\nground,\" said the gander. \"And now, mistress, get on my back and we\nwill fly down.\"\n\n\"Oh, I'm almost afraid, we are so far up.\"\n\n\"Shut your eyes and hold me by the neck.\"\n\nEllen seated herself upon the gander's back. Then she clasped her arms\nabout its neck and closed her eyes, as she was bid and then the gander\nflew out over the edge of the cloud-land.\n\nIt took but a little while for them to find themselves once more down\nin front of the vine-covered porch, and there was the little old woman\nwith Jack and his mother, and they were joyful indeed.\n\n\"And now what will you have as a reward?\" asked Jack's mother. \"Will\nyou have the golden harp? Or will you have a bag of golden money? Or\nwhat?\"\n\nBut Ellen said she would not take anything, for she did not wish to\nburden down the gander. All she asked was that they would keep the goat\nand be kind to him, and that they would tell her how to get to the\nQueerbodies' House.\n\n\"The first I will gladly do,\" said Jack's mother, \"but as to the\nsecond, all I can tell you is that the Queerbodies' House lies on the\nother side of the forest; but if you ask the forest folk, no doubt they\ncan direct you how to go.\"\n\n\"This you must take at least,\" cried the little old woman; \"it is all\nI brought from the gray country.\" She lifted her skirt, and from the\npocket of the petticoat beneath she drew out an egg. It was just the\nsize of a hen's egg and shaped like one, but Ellen exclaimed with\nadmiration when she saw it, for it was all of pure yellow gold, and\nshone like glass. \"Take it,\" said the little old woman, \"I have no need\nof it now, for Jack and his mother have promised that I shall live here\nwith them and share all that they have. You see you can easily carry\nthis.\"\n\nEllen took the egg and thanked the little old woman. Then bidding\ngood-by to all, she seated herself upon her gander, and away they flew\nso swiftly that almost immediately the vine-covered house was far away,\nand they found themselves at the edge of the deep, green forest.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Five_\n\n_The House of the Seven Little Dwarfs_\n\n\n\"Mistress,\" said the gander, \"you will have to alight now if we are to\ngo in here in search of the forest folk. It would only bruise my wings\nfor nothing if I tried to fly where the trees are so thick.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" answered Ellen, stepping down from his back to the ground.\n\"And I do believe,\" she added, \"that I see a house now beyond those\nbushes. Don't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, I believe I do,\" said the gander. \"Let us go over in that\ndirection and see.\"\n\nA very short walk brought them to the house. It was a very cunning\nlittle house, with a door and windows just about large enough for a\nlarge child.\n\nEllen went up to the door and knocked. She could hear some one rattling\nabout inside and moving things around, but there was no answer to her\nrap, so she knocked again.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA moment's silence followed, and then the door was suddenly and\nviolently thrown open. There stood a little dwarf holding a great\nwooden spoon in his hand as though it were a club. His eyes had a\nscared look.\n\n\"Who are you, and what do you want here?\" he cried, in a voice that he\ntried to make very big and bold, though it trembled in spite of him.\n\n\"I am Ellen,\" answered the little girl, \"and I stopped here to ask if\nyou could tell me the way to the Queerbodies' house.\"\n\n\"Oh, is that all,\" said the dwarf with a sigh of relief. \"I was afraid\nwhen you first knocked that you might be one of those bad underground\ndwarfs. But come in; come in. I don't know the way myself, but maybe\none of my brothers may. They'll be here soon if you'll come in and wait\na bit. I'm just cooking dinner for them.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said Ellen. \"May my gander come in too?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes; bring him in.\"\n\nAs Ellen followed the dwarf into the house she looked about her and\nthought it was the very cunningest little house she had ever seen.\nIn the middle of the room was a long low table set with seven wooden\nbowls, seven wooden forks, and seven wooden spoons. Around the table\nwere seven little chairs just the right size for children or dwarfs.\nThere were also a wooden dresser painted red, a dough-trough, a clock,\nand a settee; but everything was small. Ellen thought what fun it would\nbe to keep house there.\n\nThe only big thing in the room was a huge black pot that stood on the\nstove, and in which something was cooking. The dwarf was obliged to\nstand on a stool in order to reach over and stir it with his big spoon.\n\n\"Porridge,\" he said looking over his shoulder at Ellen. Then he\nrepeated in a tone of contempt, \"_Porridge!_\" Giving it a last stir he\nstepped down from the stool, and using all his strength he pushed the\npot to the back part of the stove. Then he came and sat down opposite\nto Ellen.\n\n\"I suppose you think porridge is a strange thing to have for dinner,\"\nhe said, still speaking bitterly. \"So do I. And to think I had a good\ndinner all ready and cooked just a little while ago!\"\n\n\"What became of it?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"Why I just went a little way into the forest to see if my brothers\nwere coming, and in that little time that I was away those bad\nunderground dwarfs were here, and when I came back the meat was gone,\nand the potatoes were gone, and ashes were dropped in the soup, so it\nwas fit for nothing but to be thrown out. Oh, they're bad ones, they\nare.\"\n\n\"So then you cooked some porridge?\"\n\n\"It was the best I could do at this hour of the day. There'll be\ngrumbling enough about it when my brothers come home. Those underground\ndwarfs are always up to some mischief or other. They weren't so much\ntrouble--indeed they didn't trouble us at all as long as the good\nBear Prince was about. They were too much afraid of him even if he was\nenchanted; but he broke the enchantment and married Snow-White and went\nto live in his castle, far away. Now the underground dwarfs have no\none to be afraid of, and we daren't leave the house alone a minute or\nthey're up to some mischief.\"\n\nEllen sat staring at the dwarf. She knew the story of that Bear Prince\nvery well. It was all about how he came to the house where Rose-Red and\nSnow-White lived and asked for shelter one bitter winter night. He was\nin the shape of a bear then because he had been enchanted by a wicked\ndwarf, but afterward he caught the dwarf and killed him, and then his\nbear-skin dropped from him. So he came back to his true shape of a\nhandsome prince and married little Snow-White. Ellen knew the story\nalmost by heart, but never before had she believed that it was really\ntrue.\n\n\"And did you really see that enchanted Prince with your very own eyes?\"\nshe asked.\n\n\"Oh, yes; we knew him well while he was a bear. Many and many a time\nhas he lain there before that very stove snoring away. But after he\nonce began going to the widow's house he stopped coming here. The widow\nwas the mother of Snow-White and Rose-Red.\n\n\"Perhaps it was just as well though, anyway. He might have frightened\nour own beautiful Snowdrop, for she was keeping house for us then.\"\n\n\"Who was Snowdrop?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"She was the daughter of a king, but she had a wicked stepmother who\nhated her. The stepmother gave her to a huntsman bidding him kill\nher, but the man had pity on the poor child. He helped her to escape\nand then killed a deer and took its heart to the wicked stepmother,\npretending it was Snowdrop's heart. Then Snowdrop came here to live\nwith us. We sheltered her and loved her, but the wicked stepmother\nhunted her out and came here to take the poor child's life.\"\n\n\"Oh, I know,\" cried Ellen eagerly. \"It's the story of the magic mirror.\"\n\nBut the dwarf went on as though he had not heard her. His thoughts were\nall of those past days when Snowdrop had made their little house bright\nwith her beauty. \"Yes, she came here, that wicked Queen. She came in\ndisguise while we were away, pretending to have laces and stays for\nsale. We had warned Snowdrop to beware of all strangers, but the child\nwas so good and innocent herself that she could not think harm of any\none.\n\n\"She talked to the stepmother and looked at her wares without knowing\nher. She bought a beautiful pair of stays, too. Then the wicked Queen\nsaid she would lace them up for her. She laced them, and suddenly drew\nthe cord so tight that Snowdrop could not breathe, but fell down as\nthough dead.\n\n\"She was not dead, however, and when we came home we cut the cord so\nshe could breathe, and so we saved her.\n\n\"Once the wicked one brought a poisoned comb and gave it to Snowdrop,\nand as soon as it was put in her hair Snowdrop fell down as though\ndead. Then too we saved her, drawing out the comb.\n\n\"But the third time we could do nothing. It was a piece of a poisoned\napple that the stepmother brought her. Snowdrop took a bite of the\napple and it lodged in her throat. When we came home, there she lay on\nthe floor as though dead and we could not tell what it was that ailed\nher.\n\n\"We put her in a crystal casket, meaning to keep her always.\n\n\"But a prince came by that way and saw Snowdrop lying there motionless.\nThough she could not move nor speak he loved her so dearly that when\nhe begged for her we could not refuse him. We gave her to him and he\ncarried her away, but on the journey the apple jolted out and she\nopened her eyes and spoke and lived.\n\n\"She is a great queen now, but she has never forgotten us. Every month\nshe comes to see us in her great chariot drawn by six white horses and\nwith out-riders. Oh, you should see her then, so grand and beautiful.\nBut she is not proud. She sits and eats with us just as she used to do.\nYes, and she cooked us a dinner, too, one time. Cooked it with her own\nroyal hands, laughing all the while.\"\n\n\"Oh, I _wish_ I could see her,\" cried Ellen.\n\nThe dwarf sat smiling to himself and rubbing one hand over the hairy\nback of the other.\n\nSuddenly he started from his thoughts. \"There come my brothers,\" he\ncried.\n\nGathering up the wooden bowls he carried them over to the porridge pot\nand began to fill them.\n\nThere was a sound of footsteps and voices outside, and presently in\nthrough the doorway came six more sturdy dwarfs, all looking as like\nthe one by the stove as one pea is like another. They all stopped and\nstared at Ellen. \"Who is this?\" asked one of them.\n\n\"Oh, it's just a child from the real world,\" said the dwarf by the\nstove. \"Nothing to be afraid of. She just stopped here to ask her way\nto the Queerbodies' house, but I don't know how to tell her.\"\n\n\"I know the way,\" said one of the new-comers. \"But sit down, child; you\nmust have a bite and a sup with us before you go.\"\n\n\"Thank you, I don't think I'm hungry,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"What's this?\" cried another dwarf, eying the porridge that had been\nset before him. \"Where's our good dinner of soup and meat?\"\n\nWhile the stay-at-home told his story of the lost dinner the looks of\nthe other dwarfs grew blacker and blacker. \"See now,\" cried one of\nthem, striking his hairy fist upon the table; \"'tis just as I tell you;\nthose underground dwarfs grow more bold and mischievous every day.\nThere's nothing for it but for two of us to stay at home, one to cook\nand one to act as guard.\"\n\n\"But, brother, how can we do that?\" asked another. \"Our hands are few\nenough as it is, for the work to be done.\"\n\n\"If there were but some way to frighten them off,\" said another\nmournfully. \"But I don't see how we could do that.\"\n\n\"Why don't you make a scarecrow to frighten them away? That's the way\nwe do at home,\" Ellen suggested.\n\n\"What is a scarecrow?\" asked another dwarf hopefully, but when Ellen\ntold him he shook his head. \"No, no; they're so quick they'd guess in a\nminute that we were trying to trick them, and that it couldn't move.\"\n\n\"Well, I know what we'll do,\" cried Ellen. \"We won't make a scarecrow;\nwe'll make a scare-gander. We'll dress the gander up like a figure and\nit shall sit there quietly, and then, when the dwarfs come in to look\nat it, it can fly up and beat them with its wings so they'll never dare\nto come back again.\"\n\nThe gander stretched its great wings up and beat them loudly. \"Yes,\nyes,\" it hissed.\n\n\"That might do,\" said the dwarfs; \"but first we'll have our dinners,\nfor we have been working hard and we're hungry.\"\n\nSo, as soon as they had finished eating their porridge they dressed\nthe white gander. Ellen put her hat on its head and her shoes on its\nfeet. They tied an apron that had belonged to Snowdrop about his neck,\nand put on a veil that hung down over his beak. Then they set him in a\nchair, and he looked so funny that Ellen could hardly help laughing.\n\n\"Now we'll all go back to our work,\" said the oldest dwarf, \"and when\nthose evil ones count that all seven of us have gone they'll soon be\nhere to see what mischief they can do about the house.\"\n\nSo the dwarfs all put on their caps, and, shouldering their drills and\npicks, off they started, leaving the white gander sitting in the chair.\n\nAs for Ellen, she hid in the dresser, keeping the door just a crack\nopen so she could see out.\n\nShe had only been in there a few minutes when there was a noise at the\nwindow and an evil looking dwarf peered in. He peered all about the\nkitchen and then he cried, \"It's all right. They've all gone and left\nthe house to take care of itself. They'll be sorry enough they left it\nwhen they come back. Quick! In, all of us, and see what mischief we can\ndo.\"\n\nWith that he dropped back from the window, and in a minute a great\ncrowd of dwarfs came tumbling in through the door. They were not as\nlarge as the good dwarfs, but they looked so spiteful and evil that\nEllen was frightened and wished she and her white gander were well out\nof it.\n\n\"What mischief shall we begin with?\" cried one.\n\n\"Let's pull all the pots and pans out of the dresser first,\" said\nanother, \"and see what ones we can break.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" cried still others.\n\nSeveral of them started over toward the dresser where Ellen was hidden,\nand if they had found her there it would have gone hard with her, but\nat the same moment one of them cried, \"Oh, look here! Just see this\npuppet they've dressed up. Did they think they could scare us with\nthat? Let's tear it to pieces before we do anything else.\"\n\nAll the dwarfs rushed pell-mell toward the chair where the gander sat,\ndressed in Ellen's hat and shoes and with a veil over its face. It sat\nas still as a stone until they were close upon it. Then up rose the\ngreat white gander with a hiss. It spread its wide strong wings,\nand before the dwarfs could escape it had brought them down with such\na blow that three of the dwarfs were knocked head over heels. The rest\ncried out in terror at the sight, and hastened towards the door, but\nthe goose was after them.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIt beat and buffeted them with its wings and hissed so piercingly in\ntheir ears that they did not know what was after them. Out through the\ndoor they went and away over stump and through brier with the great\nwhite gander after them. The forest re-echoed with their harsh cries of\nfear.\n\nThe good dwarfs heard it, and came hastening home to learn how Ellen's\nplot had succeeded. Just after they came in, back came the gander, and\nif ever a bird laughed it was laughing then.\n\n\"Mistress, did I not beat them well?\"\n\n\"You did indeed,\" said Ellen, and all the dwarfs agreed with a loud\nvoice.\n\nThen Ellen showed them how to take a pillow and dress it up as the\ngander had been dressed. They set it in a chair and moved the chair in\nfront of the window, so that when you look at it from the outside it\nwas exactly as though it were the gander itself sitting there. \"I think\nthey'll be afraid ever to come near the house again as long as that is\nthere,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"They will indeed,\" cried all the dwarfs.\n\nThen the child again begged them to tell her which way she was to go to\nfind the Queerbodies' house.\n\n\"That's easily told,\" answered the oldest dwarf. \"All you have to do is\nto watch the leaves and follow the way they turn, and that will soon\nbring you where you want to go.\"\n\n\"How queer!\" cried Ellen. \"With us the leaves turn every which way, as\nthe wind happens to blow.\"\n\n\"I don't see much use in that,\" said the dwarf. \"I don't see how you\never find your way through the woods if that's the way they do. Come,\nlook here.\"\n\nHe led Ellen out under the trees in front of the house. There was no\nbreath of air and the leaves all hung motionless. \"Now take a few\nsteps,\" said the dwarf. Ellen did so and immediately all the leaves\nstirred and began pointing toward the right, like wise little green\nfingers. \"That's your way,\" said the dwarf. \"Only remember and follow\nthe direction they point out and you can't lose it.\"\n\nEllen thanked the kindly dwarfs, and she and her gander started briskly\noff toward the right.\n\nOn and on they went, and after a while they passed close to where there\nwas a great heap of rocks; something kept bobbing about back of this\nheap, now appearing, now disappearing. At first Ellen thought it was a\nbig bird, but as she went nearer the gander spoke: \"Mistress, it's one\nof those wicked dwarfs.\"\n\nEllen stopped short, feeling rather frightened, but now the dwarf\nclimbed on top of the rock and called to her: \"Child, child, did you\nsee a little house in the woods as you came along?\"\n\n\"Yes, I did,\" answered Ellen.\n\n\"And did you stop there?\"\n\n\"Yes, I did.\"\n\n\"And did you see anything of the big doll that beats you with flails?\"\nHe meant the gander and its wings.\n\n\"Oh, yes,\" said Ellen; \"I saw that too.\"\n\n\"And is it still there?\"\n\n\"No, they haven't that one, but they have another doll half as big\nagain. It sits by the window, and if you'll go and look you'll see it\nthere now.\"\n\n\"No, no,\" cried the dwarf. \"If that's true we'll never go near the\nhouse again,\" and away he went, hopping over the rocks and disappearing\nin a big crack, and Ellen saw no more of him or his kind.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Six_\n\n_The Great Gray Wolf_\n\n\nOn and on went Ellen and the gander, following the pointing of the\nleaves, and all the while the forest kept growing deeper and greener\nand lonelier.\n\nThere were no flowers now as there had been at first, but here and\nthere on the trees or ground grew wonderful fungi. Some were yellow\nas gold, some were red as blood, and still others were streaked and\nspotted as beautifully as sea-shells. The only flowers to be seen were\nthe wax-white \"Indian-pipes\" and there were whole clumps of them.\n\nEllen had just stooped to pick some, when suddenly the gander hissed,\nand at the same moment a harsh voice spoke so close to her ear that it\nmade her start, \"Good morning!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nEllen glanced around, and there, standing close to her, was an enormous\ngray wolf, ragged and scarred. The sound of his paws had been so\nmuffled by the moss that she had not heard him coming.\n\n\"Good morning,\" answered Ellen, her heart beating a little faster at\nsight of him.\n\n\"Where are you going this pleasant day?\" asked the wolf.\n\n\"I am on my way to the Queerbodies' house.\"\n\n\"The Queerbodies! I never heard of them. Are they good to eat?\" said\nthe wolf. Then he added hastily, \"No, no; I don't mean that. I meant\nare they pleasant, merry people?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" answered Ellen. \"I've never seen them, and I'm not sure\nwhether I can find them at all. But if I mean to get to their house\nto-day I think I'd better be going; so good-bye,\" and she began to walk\non, for she did not like to be there in that lonely spot with a great\ngray wolf for company.\n\nThe wolf, however, trotted along beside her. \"Not good-bye,\" he said,\n\"for I have nothing to do just now, so I'll just go with you part of\nthe way for the sake of the walk and the company.\"\n\nEllen said nothing, but quickened her steps, while the gander and the\ngray wolf kept up with her, the one on one side, the other on the\nother.\n\nPresently the wolf began again. \"Now about those Queerbodies, it's\ncurious I never heard of them, for I thought I knew everybody\nhereabouts: the dwarfs, and Little Red Riding Hood, and the three\nbears, and--\" he hesitated for a moment, and then added with a gulp,\n\"and the woodsmen; but no Queerbodies that I ever heard tell of.\"\n\n\"Who lives there?\" asked Ellen, pointing to a little house she had just\ncaught sight of in a dank and lonely glade. It had occurred to her that\nshe might stop there for a glass of water and so rid herself of the\nwolf's company.\n\nThe wolf grinned, as though he guessed her thought. \"Nobody lives there\nnow. Queer looking house isn't it?\"\n\nEllen thought it was indeed a queer looking house. \"Why, what is it\nmade of?\" she asked.\n\n\"Bread and cake and barley sugar. But wouldn't you like to see it\ncloser? You might eat some of it, too, if you like, for no one ever\nvisits it now except the wind and rain.\"\n\nEllen walked over toward the house, while the wolf stopped a moment to\nbite out a burr that had stuck between his toes. \"I'll be with you in a\nmoment,\" he called after her.\n\n\"Mistress,\" said the gander stretching up its neck to whisper in\nEllen's ear, \"that old Gray-coat means no good to us.\"\n\n\"He frightens me,\" Ellen whispered back, \"but what can I do?\"\n\n\"He isn't looking now. Let's slip inside the house and lock the door.\"\n\nEllen glanced back over her shoulder. The wolf was still busy over the\nburr, but it was some distance to the house. \"Do you think we can get\nthere before him?\" she asked.\n\n\"We can but try.\"\n\n\"Come, then,\" and Ellen began to run toward the house; while the gander\nran beside her, helping himself along with his wings.\n\nAt the noise they made, the wolf looked up, and then with a howl of\nrage came tearing after them with long swift bounds. By the time Ellen\nand the gander were on the threshold of the house he was at the foot of\nthe steps, but, turning, the little girl slammed the door and shot the\nbolt into place.\n\nWith a howl of rage, the wolf flung himself against it so that it shook\nagain, and Ellen and the gander trembled as they stood within; but the\ngood door held, the bolt was true, and the wolf might do his worst;\nthey were safe from him for the time at least.\n\nFinding that he could do nothing, old Gray-coat sat down panting, his\nfierce eyes fixed upon the house. \"Wait a bit,\" he muttered to himself.\n\"You have escaped me this time, but I have as much time to spend as\nyou, and how will it be when you have to come out again?\"\n\nEllen, who heard this, looked at the gander. \"What he says is true,\"\nshe whispered. \"We are safe now, but we can't stay here; and how are\nwe to get away without his catching us?\"\n\n\"Let us think about that, perhaps we can contrive some way,\" the gander\nmade answer.\n\nHe began to look about. The inside of the house was not built of cake\nand bread like the outside, but of wood, and the furniture was wooden\nalso. At one end of the room was a great iron cage with a door and a\npadlock and key to fasten it. The cage was open at the top, but the\nbars were too high for any one but a monkey to climb out over them.\n\n\"I believe I know exactly what house this is,\" Ellen cried suddenly.\n\"It's the house where H\u00e4nsel and Gretel came when they were lost in the\nforest; the house where the wicked witch lived. And this is the cage\nwhere she kept H\u00e4nsel. You know she put him in the cage and shut the\ndoor and fastened him in.\"\n\nStooping, she picked up some hard red bits of shell from the floor.\n\"Crabs' claws! Yes, now I know it's the same. Don't you know the story\nsays, 'the best of food was cooked for poor H\u00e4nsel, but Gretel received\nnothing to eat but crabs' claws.'\"\n\nThe gander walked into the cage and looked it over carefully.\n\"Mistress, I believe I can get rid of the wolf,\" he said.\n\n\"How is that?\"\n\n\"In this way,\" and the gander began to tell his scheme, while the\nlittle girl listened eagerly. \"Yes, yes,\" she cried; \"that might do.\nAnd I'm to hide in the cupboard while you open the door. Yes, and then\nto slip out and fasten the lock. Yes, I'll do it.\"\n\nAfter they had their plan all arranged Ellen did as she said. She\ntiptoed across the floor and hid herself in the closet.\n\nThe gander waited until she was safely settled and all was quiet, and\nthen he waddled over to the house door and peeped out through the\nkeyhole. There at the foot of the steps sat the wolf, his red tongue\nhanging out over his long white teeth, his fierce eyes fixed on the\nhouse.\n\nSuddenly with a rattle and noise the gander unbolted the door and flung\nit open. Like a flash the wolf bounded up and into the house. He gave a\nglance about him. Ellen was not to be seen, because she was hiding in\nthe cupboard, but there was the plump white gander. It had flown away\nfrom the door as if in a great fright and into the cage. \"Just where it\nis easy to catch you!\" cried the wolf, as he bounded into the cage in\npursuit of it, every tooth in his head showing.\n\nThe gander, however, was not to be so easily caught as the wolf had\nthought. In a moment it spread its wings and flew up over his head,\nwhile at the same time Ellen slipped out of the cupboard and shut the\ncage door, turning the key, tick-a-lock.\n\nThere was the wolf safely fastened behind the iron bars, but the\ngander flew out over the top of the cage and alighted on the floor at\nEllen's side. \"Come, Mistress,\" he said, \"the way is clear now, and we\ncan journey on as soon as we choose.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHow the wicked old wolf did howl and threaten! But it was no good.\nEllen and the gander let him make all the noise he chose, but they left\nhim there. All they would do was to promise to send the first woodsman\nthey met in the woods to take charge of the cruel old Gray-coat.\n\nThey had scarcely travelled beyond sound of his howls when they met a\nhuntsman with horn and gun journeying along under the trees. He greeted\nthe two, and would have passed on, but Ellen stopped him.\n\n\"If you please,\" said she, \"there's a wolf fastened in a cage in the\nlittle cake house back there. If you live near here would you mind\ntaking care of him and seeing that he gets food and water?\"\n\n\"A wolf!\" cried the huntsman. \"Who caught it?\"\n\n\"This gander and I,\" and Ellen began telling the huntsman all about\ntheir meeting it, and what a narrow escape they had had.\n\nThe huntsman could not wonder enough. \"I know that old wolf well\nenough,\" he said. \"You have had a narrow escape, child. That is the\nsame wolf that came so near to eating up Red Riding Hood.\" The man\nthen went on to say that he would get some of his fellows and they\nwould bind the wolf and carry him to King Thrush-beard, who was making\na collection of wild animals.\n\nHe begged the little girl to come with him as the king would be sure to\ngive a large reward for such a large, fierce beast, but Ellen said she\nhad no time. She must hasten on if she wished to reach the Queerbodies'\nhouse that day.\n\n\"Then at least accept this horn,\" and the huntsman unslung the one that\nhe carried at his shoulder. \"It is all I have to offer you, but it may\nserve to remind you of your adventure.\"\n\nEllen thought the horn very pretty, and was delighted. She thanked the\nhuntsman, and then, bidding him good-by, she and her gander started\nforward once more upon their journey.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Seven_\n\n_The Magic Lamp_\n\n\n\"Mistress, I think we must be coming to the end of the forest,\" said\nthe gander. \"The trees are not so close together, and I seem to see a\nlight beyond.\"\n\n\"I hope we are,\" answered the little girl.\n\n\"Once we are out from under the trees I can use my wings and then we'll\nget along faster,\" the gander added.\n\nEven sooner than he had thought, they came to the edge of the forest,\nwhere the open country began. It seemed very bright after the leafy\nshade where they had travelled so long.\n\nBefore them was the gentle slope of a hill, and away beyond it stood a\ncastle that shone like gold against the sky. \"Oh see,\" cried Ellen, \"a\ncastle. Let's go nearer and look at it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" answered the gander. \"Seat yourself upon my back and we'll\nsoon be there.\"\n\nAs the little girl was settling herself between his wings they heard a\nfar-off sound of trumpets, and saw a number of people coming out of the\ncastle. Even at that distance she could tell by the way the sunlight\nglittered on their clothing that they must be very magnificently\ndressed. There were horses, too, with nodding plumes. They all seemed\nto be forming in a procession, and then with another sound of trumpets\nthey began to move away in an opposite direction.\n\n\"Oh hurry,\" cried Ellen, almost falling off the gander in her\neagerness. \"It must be a parade.\"\n\nThe gander spread his wings and flew as fast as he could, but when he\nreached the castle the procession had disappeared. No one was to be\nseen but two slavesstanding at the foot of the steps before the\ndoor. They were very magnificent, being dressed all in cloth of gold,\nand wearing about their necks collars of diamonds and rubies.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Was that a parade that just went away?\" asked Ellen, as the gander\nalighted softly upon the palace steps.\n\nThe slaves seemed struck with terror and amazement at her sudden\nappearance. They threw themselves down before her hiding their eyes.\n\"Do not harm us,\" they cried. \"We are only poor slaves.\"\n\n\"Why I'm not going to hurt you,\" said Ellen. \"I couldn't, anyway. I'm\nonly a little girl.\"\n\n\"But surely you must be a magician to ride through the air in this\nway,\" and one of the slaves raised his head a little.\n\nEllen felt like laughing. \"No, I'm not anything but a child, and this\nis Mother Goose's gander.\"\n\nThe slaves now rose from the ground with a relieved look, \"And you are\nreally not a magician?\"\n\n\"No, of course not. But what was all that we saw? We thought it was a\nparade.\"\n\n\"It was our master Aladdin with his slaves and guards riding away to\npay a visit to his father-in-law, the sultan.\"\n\n\"_Aladdin!_ Do you mean the Aladdin who has the wonderful lamp?\"\n\n\"Even the same.\"\n\n\"Oh, I do wish I could see the lamp,\" and the child clasped her hands\nin her eagerness. \"I never believed it was true before. Don't you think\nhe would let me look at it?\"\n\n\"He is away now, as we have just told you.\"\n\n\"But couldn't you let me see it? I've always wondered what it looked\nlike, and thought what I'd wish for, if I had it.\"\n\nThe slaves looked at her suspiciously and began to whisper together.\nThen one of them turned to her again and spoke, \"I cannot promise,\"\nhe said, \"but if you will be pleased to follow me it may be that the\nsoldiers will allow you to see the lamp.\"\n\nThe gander plucked at Ellens sleeve. \"Mistress, Mistress, do not follow\nhim,\" he whispered. \"I don't know why, but I fear danger.\"\n\nEllen, however, was too eager to heed what the gander said. It was too\nwonderful a chance to lose; the chance of really seeing--perhaps even\nhandling--the lamp of Aladdin. So she drew her sleeve away, and as the\nslaves led the way she followed them into a great hallway all of gold,\nset with patterns of rubies and emeralds.\n\nThe hall was empty with no one in sight except themselves, though Ellen\ncould hear a distant sound of music and singing from some other part of\nthe castle.\n\nAlong the hall they went, and up a flight of golden steps. After this\nthere was another hall and more stairs and winding ways, until Ellen\nfelt completely lost.\n\nAt last they came to a barred and bolted door before which stood two\nsoldiers with drawn swords in their hands. As they saw Ellen and the\ngander coming up the hall they crossed their swords before the door.\n\"Who are these whom you have dared to bring hither?\" they cried to the\nslaves.\n\nThe slaves made a deep reverence. \"If you please,\" answered one of\nthem, \"it is one who says she is a child, and who comes begging to see\nthe lamp of Aladdin.\"\n\nEllen began to feel somewhat timid, the soldiers looked at her so\nfrowningly and suspiciously. \"If you don't mind,\" she began, \"I thought\nI would like to see it, but if it's too much trouble, of course it\ndoesn't matter.\"\n\nThe foremost slave advanced with great respect and began whispering to\nthe soldiers. They frowned more and more heavily as they listened. At\nlast as the slave finished whispering they lowered their swords. \"Very\nwell,\" said one of them to Ellen, \"you shall see the lamp.\" He made a\nmotion and the slaves sprang forward and unbolted and unbarred the door.\n\nAt a gesture from the soldier Ellen stepped inside. On the instant, and\nbefore the gander had time to follow her in, the door was shut behind\nher with a crash, and she heard the bolts and bars falling into place.\n\nWith a sudden fear she turned and tried to open the door. It was fast.\nThey had made her a prisoner. \"Let me out! Let me out!\" she called, but\nthere was no answer. \"It's nothing but a fairy tale,\" whispered the\nchild to herself. \"Nothing but a fairy tale, so of course they can't\nhurt me, but I wish my gander was in here, too. I wonder why they shut\nthe door, anyway. They said I might come in.\" Then a sudden suspicion\nstruck her. \"I wonder if they thought I had come here to steal the\nlamp?\" Breathing rather fast, she turned and looked about her. The room\nwhere she stood was very large and high. Like the halls it was made\nentirely of gold, and the walls were polished until it seemed as though\nthey must be too slippery for even a fly to crawl upon them. There was\nno door except the one by which she had come in, and though there were\ntwo windows they were very narrow, and set so high in the wall that it\nwould have needed a long ladder to climb up to them. Ellen walked all\naround the room. There seemed no possible way of getting out.\n\nHalf way up one of the walls and far out of reach was a little shelf\nset with rubies and diamonds and other precious stones, and upon this\nshelf stood a battered, rusty old lamp. As Ellen's eyes fell upon it\nshe felt sure it must be the magic lamp.\n\nSuddenly she was startled by something coming against the opening of\none of the windows and darkening it. There was a sound of brushing and\nrustling, and her gander flew down beside her. \"Here I am, Mistress,\"\nhe said.\n\n\"Oh dear, Gander,\" cried Ellen, \"I'm so glad you've come! Why did they\nshut the door?\"\n\n\"Well, from the talk I heard around me, they were afraid you wanted to\nsteal that lamp up there on the shelf and run away with it, and that's\nwhy they locked you in here. I don't see why any one should want to\nsteal that lamp though. Why it's not even gold,--nothing but copper.\"\n\n\"No, but then I think it must be Aladdin's magic lamp,\" Ellen explained.\n\nShe found that the gander had never even heard of the lamp and the\ngenie, so she told him all about it. She told him of its being a magic\nlamp, and of how, if any one rubbed it a great genie would appear who\nwould do whatever he was told to do by the one who held the lamp.\n\n\"Well!\" said the gander, drawing a long breath as she finished. \"No\nwonder they thought you wanted to steal it, if it's like that. Why it's\nas good as a wishing stone.\"\n\n\"But of course I didn't want to take it,\" cried Ellen indignantly. \"Why\ndidn't they ask me, and I'd have told them I didn't.\"\n\n\"Well, the great thing now is how are you to get out?\" said the gander.\n\n\"Why don't you take me up on your wings and fly out of the window?\"\n\nThe gander looked up doubtfully at the narrow slit where he had just\ncome in. \"I'm afraid I can't. That window was a tight fit even for me,\nand I never could get you through.\"\n\n\"Then what _am_ I to do?\"\n\nThe gander thought for awhile. \"Did you say that if you held that lamp\nand rubbed it a genie would come?\"\n\n\"Yes, I suppose he would.\"\n\n\"And he would do whatever you bade him?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Then the thing for you to do is to rub the lamp and when the genie\ncomes to tell him to set you free.\"\n\nEllen felt frightened at the idea of calling up a great black genie.\n\"But I couldn't reach the lamp away up there, even if I wanted to,\" she\nsaid.\n\n\"No trouble about that,\" and the gander spread his wings, \"I can help\nyou there.\" So saying, he flew up to where the shelf was. As he reached\nit he struck at the lamp with his wing, but he missed it; again he\ntried, and this time he just grazed it with his feathers; a third time\nand then he struck it fairly and the lamp fell clattering and rattling\nand rolled across the golden floor to Ellen's feet.\n\nTrembling, the little girl picked it up.\n\n\"Rub it; rub it, Mistress,\" said the gander. \"I hear the soldiers\ncoming.\"\n\nBut Ellen hesitated. \"I'm afraid,\" she cried.\n\n\"Quick,\" and the gander flapped his wings in his excitement. \"If they\ncatch you again you may never get away.\"\n\nThen Ellen brushed her thumb across the side of the lamp.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nImmediately, and with a sound like a thunder-clap a terrible black\ngenie appeared before her. \"What wouldst thou have?\" he cried in a\ngreat voice. \"I am ready to obey thee as thy slave and the slave of all\nthose who have the lamp in their hands.\"\n\nThe little girl was so frightened at the sight of this terrible being\nshe had called up that she stood there unable to move.\n\n\"Speak, Mistress!\" cried the gander, \"for here come the soldiers.\"\n\nAnd indeed at that moment the door was thrown open and the soldiers\nburst into the room. They had heard the noise of the genie's coming\nand were afraid Ellen was getting away. But as they saw a terrible\nblack being crouching there before the little girl, they shrank back in\nterror. The next instant, however, one of the boldest of them sprang\nforward to tear the lamp from Ellen's hands.\n\nAt that she found her voice. \"I wish,\" she cried, \"to be in a place of\nsafety with my gander.\"\n\nImmediately, before she could catch her breath, she found herself being\nwhisked through the air by the genie. Then before she could catch her\nbreath she was set gently upon the ground.\n\nWhen she could look about her she saw that she and the gander were\nstanding on a grassy plain some distance from the castle. She still\nheld the lamp in her hands, and the genie was still with her.\n\n\"Hast thou any further commands?\" asked he, in his terrible voice.\n\n\"No,\" answered Ellen, trembling violently.\n\n\"Then I will go,\" said the genie, and he began to fade away.\n\n\"Oh, wait a minute,\" the child called after him. \"What shall I do with\nthe lamp?\"\n\n\"Wouldst thou not wish to keep it?\"\n\n\"Why no, it isn't mine.\"\n\n\"Shall I return it to the castle?\"\n\n\"Oh no, Mistress,\" the gander interrupted, \"they might rub it and tell\nthe genie to bring us back and keep us prisoners.\"\n\n\"Then destroy it,\" the genie suggested.\n\n\"But what would become of Aladdin and his castle and everything if I\ndid?\"\n\n\"They would stay as they are. And moreover if the lamp were destroyed\nhe would no longer be tormented with fears lest an enemy should steal\nit and send me to destroy all he has.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Ellen, \"I'll do it. But I can't break the lamp. How\n_can_ I destroy it?\"\n\n\"I will cause the earth to open,--to open down to the great fires\nbelow. Then throw the lamp in and the flames will destroy it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the little girl.\n\nThe genie struck his foot upon the ground and muttered some magic\nwords. Immediately the ground was rent open, and down in this chasm\ncould be heard the roaring of the under fires. \"Make haste,\" he cried.\n\"Cast the lamp into the flames or they will devour thee.\"\n\nHardly knowing what she did Ellen threw the lamp from her down into the\nfiery chasm.\n\nImmediately there was a loud roaring like thunder. The earth and sky\nseemed to shake and the castle to tremble from its foundation to its\nhighest turret. A mist came before Ellen's eyes. When it cleared away\nall was still. The chasm had closed and the distant castle was still in\nits place.\n\nThe gander, which had crouched down in its terror with its head and\nneck stretched along the ground, arose slowly and looked about it.\n\nThe genie had become as thin as smoke, but he was standing there dark\nand gigantic as before. \"I am free! I am free!\" he cried in a joyful\nvoice. \"At last I may come and go as I choose, no longer a slave of the\nlamp. It is you, child, who have freed me, and I am not ungrateful,\nas you shall soon see. If I have made Aladdin rich and powerful, I\nwill make you ten times more so. You shall have a castle even more\nmagnificent than his with slaves and treasures and horses and chariots.\"\n\nEllen gasped. \"Oh no,\" she said, \"I don't think I want all that. I have\nto go home pretty soon, and I don't believe I'd like to have to live in\na castle.\"\n\n\"But you could still go home,\" said the genie. \"You could go home\nin such magnificence as you never dreamed of, with outriders and\ntrumpeters and dressed in cloth of gold and precious stones.\"\n\nBut the thought of such magnificence frightened Ellen. \"No, no,\" she\nrepeated. \"I'm afraid my mother wouldn't like it.\"\n\nThe genie looked disappointed. \"Well,\" he said, \"Of course, it's just\nas you like.\" He was still fading away and growing more mistlike.\n\n\"I wish,\" Ellen exclaimed, \"that Aladdin knew what had become of the\nlamp.\"\n\n\"Thy wish shall be granted,\" answered the genie. \"I will myself tell\nhim that it has been destroyed. And now farewell, and remember if thou\nshouldst ever wish to have that castle thou needst only clap thy hands\nthree times and call upon the genie of the lamp to fulfil his promise\nand it shall be thine.\"\n\nThe genie had grown so transparent now that it was only by straining\nher eyes that Ellen could still see his shape as one sees an empty\nglass. Then he was gone entirely. \"Thank you very much,\" she called\nafter him. She waited a moment and as there was no answer she called\nagain, \"Thank you!\" Then she turned to the gander. \"I think he's gone,\"\nshe said, adding in a whisper, \"and I'm glad he has, because he _did_\nfrighten me a little, he was so very big and black.\"\n\nThe gander made no answer except to ask Ellen if she were ready to go.\nHe seemed anxious for them to be on their way once more, so the little\ngirl mounted on his back and they were soon flying swiftly along.\n\n\"I hope,\" said Ellen after a silence, \"that Aladdin won't mind about\nthe lamp being burned up.\"\n\n\"I should think he would be glad,\" replied the gander. \"He must have\nbeen terribly afraid all the time that enemies would get it and make\nthe genie destroy him and his castle.\"\n\n\"Yes, that is true,\" said Ellen; then she added after another silence,\n\"And how glad that poor genie was that I had set him free at last.\"\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Eight_\n\n_Bluebeard's House_\n\n\n\"Mistress, do you see that gray mist before us?\" said the gander. \"I\nthink we have reached the border of the Fairy Tale Country, and beyond\nthat mist lies the country of the Queerbodies.\"\n\nEllen drew rein, and the gander allowed himself to sink slowly to the\nground. There he folded and settled his wings, and he and his mistress\nstood looking at the wall of mist before them. It was like the mist\nthat hangs over streams in the early morning. They could not tell at\nall how high it was. Sometimes it looked quite low, and sometimes it\nseemed to reach up to the sky itself so that they could not tell where\none ended and the other began.\n\n\"Look,\" cried Ellen in a whisper. \"Do you suppose that is one of the\nQueerbodies?\"\n\nA gigantic shadow had appeared upon the wall of mist. It moved with\nsuch tremendous strides that it was out of sight in a moment. And now\nthey saw other shadows. Some seemed to be bending over and taking up\nhandfuls of earth and examining them as if in search of something.\nOthers seemed to reach up as if after invisible fruit. Some were\ntalking and nodding together, and every now and then one would turn and\nhurry away, as if suddenly remembering some business.\n\nThey were not all as big as the first shadow, though some of them\nstretched up so high that their heads and shoulders were lost in the\ngrayness of the sky.\n\n\"They must be the Queerbodies,\" said the gander in a low tone, \"for I'm\nsure they're not fairy tales.\"\n\n\"But they look so big,--like giants. Do you think they'll hurt us?\nJust suppose they were wicked giants who ate children like so many\nradishes.\" Ellen had read some place in a fairy story of giants who did\nthat.\n\n\"Maybe we'd better stop and ask some place,\" suggested the gander. \"If\nthey ate children I'm sure they'd eat ganders too, for some people who\ndon't eat children at all eat ganders.\"\n\nThen Ellen looked about and saw that not far away stood a very large,\nfine house. It was not by any means as magnificent as Aladdin's, but\nstill it was very handsome.\n\n\"Let us ask at that house,\" said Ellen. \"They live so close to the mist\nthat I'm sure they must know what goes on beyond, even if they have\nnever been there.\"\n\nThe gander was more than willing for this; so he took Ellen up and\nflew with her to the house. There she alighted and mounted the steps,\nbut the door was so very grand and tall that she could not reach the\nknocker, and had to knock with her knuckles.\n\nThere was a moment's silence, and then a voice within called, \"Sister\nAnne, Sister Anne, did you hear anything?\"\n\nAnother voice answered, \"I heard the brushing of the vine leaves\nagainst the lattice, but I heard nothing else.\"\n\n\"Your knuckles are too soft, Mistress,\" said the gander; \"let me\nknock,\" and with his bill he struck against the door.\n\nAgain the same voice within called, \"Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you\nhear nothing now?\" And the second voice answered, \"I hear a woodpecker\ntapping upon a branch outside, but that is all.\"\n\n\"Mistress, it is no use,\" said the gander, \"you will have to climb upon\nmy back so as to reach the knocker, or they will never hear us.\"\n\nSo Ellen climbed upon the gander's back and then she found she could\njust reach the knocker. Rap, rap, rap! she struck upon the door.\n\n\"Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you still hear nothing?\" cried the first\nvoice.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Yes, now I hear some one knocking upon the door.\"\n\nIn a moment the door opened and a lady stood in the doorway gazing with\nwonder at the child and the gander.\n\n\"What is it, Sister? Who is there?\" called the first voice impatiently.\n\n\"It's a child,\" answered the lady in the doorway. \"A real child it\nlooks like.\"\n\nAlmost instantly another lady came hurrying down the hall and joined\nthe one at the door. She was more beautiful than the first, but her\nface had a scared look as though she had once had such a fright that\nshe had never gotten over it.\n\n\"Why, yes, it is a real child,\" she cried. \"You are a real child,\naren't you? Where did you come from, and where are you going? Is that\nyour gander? What are you going to do with it?\"\n\nThere were so many questions that Ellen hardly knew which to answer\nfirst, but she began, \"I came through the nursery wall, and I'm trying\nto find the Queerbodies' house, and this is Mother Goose's gander. She\njust lent it to me for awhile.\"\n\n\"Going to the Queerbodies' house!\" The beautiful lady glanced at her\nsister. Then she took Ellen by the hand and drew her gently in. \"Come\nin and tell me all about it.\"\n\n\"I think I must hurry on,\" said Ellen. \"It's been a longer journey than\nI thought;\" but she allowed herself to be drawn in.\n\nThe room where the strange ladies took her was very magnificently\nfurnished, and there the beautiful one whose name was Fatima made her\nsit in a big armed chair. She offered another chair to the gander and\nhe seated himself in it as gravely as possible, resting his wings on\nthe arms. \"And now,\" cried Fatima eagerly, \"tell me all about it.\"\n\nSo Ellen began and told her about her journey, while Fatima listened\nwith her chin in her hand, and her eyes never leaving the child's face.\nSister Anne listened too. \"But now,\" Ellen ended, \"I feel afraid to go\nany further, for it looks as though there were giants beyond that mist.\nDo you know whether they're cross giants or not?\"\n\nFatima started up and clasped her hands. \"Oh if I only knew what they\n_are_ like,\" she cried. \"I watch from my window and long so to know\nwhat they are doing and how they look that sometimes it seems as if I\ncould not bear it. Some day I know I shall go through the mist just to\nfind out.\"\n\n\"Fatima! Fatima!\" cried Sister Anne warningly. Then she added, turning\nto Ellen, \"She's so curious. She always has been so, and that's what\nall her troubles came from.\"\n\n\"Oh yes,\" murmured Fatima, dropping back in her chair. \"I suppose you\nknow my story? I suppose you've heard of Bluebeard, haven't you?\" and\nleaning forward again she looked eagerly at Ellen.\n\n\"Oh yes, I have all about him in a book at home. It has colored\npictures, and there's a picture of Fatima with her hair all down, and\none of Sister Anne up on the tower and the brothers coming in, and ever\nso many more.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, I shall never forget that time when my brothers came rushing\nin. And then that day when I looked in the room and saw all the heads\nin a row and dropped the key--\" Fatima shuddered, and hid her face in\nher hands.\n\n\"Are you really that Fatima?\" asked Ellen. She was afraid it was hardly\npolite to ask, but she did want so much to know.\n\n\"Yes, she is,\" Sister Anne answered for her, for Fatima seemed unable\nto speak. \"And I often remind her of all the troubles her curiosity\nbrought on her that time. A little more and her head would have been\nchopped off; but she doesn't seem to have learned anything. She'd go\noff to the Queerbodies' country now if I'd let her, just so as to see\nwhat they're like. Then the first thing she knew they'd be making her\ninto another story, and she'd never get back.\"\n\n\"Yes, I _do_ want to know,\" cried Fatima. She leaned forward, and\ncaught Ellen by the wrist so suddenly that it startled her. \"Couldn't\n_you_ come back and tell me all about it,\" she cried.\n\n\"Why I--I don't know whether I come back this way; I hoped there was\na shorter way home,\" and Ellen's lip trembled, for she was getting a\nlittle tired of her long journeyings in spite of her wish to find the\nlost story.\n\n\"Then your gander; maybe he could come back.\"\n\n\"Oh yes,\" answered the gander, \"I'll have to come back this way. But\nthe thing is, do we want to go any further. I didn't like the looks of\nthose giants myself.\"\n\n\"Oh yes,\" urged Fatima. \"I wouldn't be afraid. Maybe it's only their\nshadows that are so big. And then I tell you what; I'll give you\nsomething that may help you along. Look!\" With fingers that trembled\nwith eagerness she drew a key-ring from her pocket and slipped from it\na key. The key seemed to be of pure gold, but upon one side of it was a\nrusty spot. Ellen wondered whether it was the key that had unlocked the\ndoor of the forbidden chamber.\n\n\"Take this,\" said Fatima. \"It is a magic key, and there is never a lock\nit will not fit nor a catch it will not undo.\"\n\nEllen was slow about taking it. She glanced at the gander. \"I don't\nbelieve I want to go back, but I don't know.\"\n\nThe gander answered her look. \"We'll go on then,\" he said, \"and if we\nhave that key they can't keep us locked up, and my wings will be always\ngood to carry us out of trouble.\"\n\n\"And you'll bring me back word?\" cried Fatima.\n\n\"Yes, I will,\" the gander promised.\n\nAnd now Fatima was eager for them to go. It seemed as though she could\nnot wait to have her curiosity satisfied. Sister Anne would have had\nthem stay and rest awhile and have some refreshment after their long\njourney, but Fatima could not hide her impatience to have them start.\nAnd indeed Ellen and the gander were in as much haste as she.\n\nFatima went with them to the very edge of the wall of mist and the\nlast thing they heard as they plunged into it was her voice calling\nafter them, \"Don't forget, you are to bring me word, and make haste;\nmake haste.\"\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Nine_\n\n_Beyond the Mist_\n\n\n\"Oh how cold and still and gray,\" cried Ellen. They were in the very\nheart of the mist. She could hear the steady beat of the gander's\nwings, but the grayness around was so thick that she could see nothing\nbut the dim outline of his neck before her. She would not have known\nwhether they were moving at all if it had not been for the stir of air\nagainst her face.\n\n\"Mistress, do you see light before us?\" asked the gander.\n\n\"No, nothing but the grayness.\"\n\n\"One might travel around and around in this mist, and yet never find\none's way out,\" said the gander half to itself.\n\nOn and on it flew. \"Is there no light before us yet?\" it asked again,\nand its wings seemed to flag.\n\n\"No, there is nothing.\"\n\n\"Can you hear any sound?\"\n\nEllen listened. \"Nothing but the beating of your wings.\"\n\n\"Mistress, I no longer know whether I am flying forward or not. For all\nI can tell I may be going around in a circle.\"\n\nThe child looked helplessly about her.\n\n\"I wonder if I were to blow upon the horn the huntsman gave me whether\nsome one would hear and answer?\" she suggested.\n\n\"You might try it.\"\n\nEllen raised the horn to her lips and blew. They both listened, but\nthere was no reply.\n\nAgain she blew. Still silence.\n\nThe third time she drew a deep breath and blew with all her might. The\ngander stayed his flight to listen, and now, away toward the right\nhand, there sounded a faint halloo. The gander turned and flew in that\ndirection, and they had gone but a little way when the grayness before\nthem grew lighter. Another moment or so, and they were through the\nmists and out upon the other side.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBut Ellen looked about her in dismay. They were in the midst of a great\nbarren desert. There was no tree nor house in sight, no bird nor\nliving thing.\n\nYes, there was one thing alive, for just as Ellen thought this,\nsomething stirred and stood up from a heap of rocks nearby. It was a\nlad of about twelve or thirteen. At first Ellen thought it was the son\nof the gardener they had at home; it certainly looked like him. The\nlittle girl was very fond of this lad, though people used to say he was\nqueer and not quite right in his mind. He often made up stories and\ntold them to her. She never had felt as glad to see him, though, as she\nfelt then. When she went closer, however, the lad did not seem to know\nher, so she wondered whether it was the gardener's son after all. It\ncertainly looked like him.\n\n\"Was that you blowing a horn?\" asked the lad.\n\n\"Yes; we were lost in the mist and wanted to get out, but we wanted to\nget out on the side where the Queerbodies live.\"\n\n\"Well, this is it.\"\n\nEllen looked about her. \"But where are they? I saw their shadows on the\nmist.\"\n\nThe lad laughed. \"Oh that's nothing. Why, I used to see their shadows\nagainst the sky even when I was at home, but you'll have to travel far\nfrom here before you find them. I suppose you have a compass.\"\n\n\"No. What for?\"\n\n\"To find your way across the desert. Now I have a compass all right,\nbut I'm so tired I can't go a step further.\" The lad paused and looked\nat the gander. \"I don't suppose your gander could carry double?\"\n\n\"No, I couldn't,\" answered the gander.\n\n\"Well, I didn't think you could, but it's too bad, for I could have\ntold you how to go. If I only had brought anything to begin with I'd\nmake something to ride on; but I didn't know the journey would be so\nlong and weary.\"\n\n\"Do you mean,\" said Ellen, \"that if you had anything to begin with you\ncould _really_ make something to ride on?\"\n\n\"Oh yes. Almost everybody, before they start out for the Queerbodies',\nlearns to make something out of nothing; but I was in such a hurry to\nstart I only learned to make much out of little, and that's the trouble\nnow.\"\n\n\"Haven't you anything in your pocket to begin on?\" asked Ellen, for the\nlad's pockets were bulging with something that jingled every time he\nmoved.\n\n\"Nothing that would do. It must be something that was once alive. Now\nyou don't happen to have such a thing about you as a twig or a chip of\nwood?\"\n\n\"No. That is, nothing but a little wooden pig, and it was never alive.\"\n\n\"No, but the wood was when it was growing. Will you let me see it?\"\n\nAs Ellen drew the toy from her pocket the boy took it from her\neagerly. His eyes sparkled. \"The very thing!\" he cried. \"I can make a\nmagnificent riding-horse out of this.\" Holding the pig to his mouth,\nthe boy began to whisper magic in its wooden ear. As he did so the pig\nbegan to grow. It grew and it grew, while Ellen stared in wonder.\n\nWhen it was too large for the boy to hold in his hands he set it down\non the ground. Still he kept whispering in its ear and the pig kept on\ngrowing, until at last it was as large as a pony.\n\nWhen it was that big the lad stopped. \"There!\" he said to Ellen,\nlooking at the pig with pride, \"how is that for a riding-horse?\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"I think it's fine, but I shouldn't call it a riding-_horse_; I think\nit's more of a riding-_pig_.\"\n\n\"All the same,\" said the lad. \"Now the next thing is a bridle. When a\nmagic pig like this once does start going it won't stop for a word. I\nsuppose you haven't anything about you that would serve for a bridle.\"\n\n\"Nothing but this,\" and Ellen touched the golden chain that the dwarfs\nhad hung about her neck.\n\n\"That will do,\" cried the boy; \"give it here.\" He seemed to feel so\nsure that Ellen would lend him the chain that she did not know how to\nsay no, so she took it off and handed it to him.\n\nThe lad quickly arranged it as a bridle, and then before he mounted the\npig he took out his compass and made sure of the direction in which\nthey were to go.\n\n\"And now I'm ready,\" he cried; \"follow me.\"\n\nWith that he leaped on the pig's back, and no sooner had he touched\nit than away it went like the wind. Its blue legs with the pink spots\ntwinkled along so fast that it took all the gander knew to keep up with\nthem.\n\nOn and on they went; the wind whistled past Ellen's ears, and the\nground sped away beneath so fast that she grew almost dizzy.\n\nThe lad, however, did not seem to mind how fast they went. Now and then\nhe settled himself more comfortably on the pig's back, and now and then\nhe took out his compass and looked at it to make sure they were going\nin the right direction.\n\nAfter they had gone a long distance in this way he drew rein. \"There!\"\nhe said, \"the desert is passed; but there is a greater danger than it\nto come.\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\n\"Look!\" And the lad pointed.\n\nEllen looked, and then she saw that what she had thought was a stretch\nof grass and rocks before them, was really an enormous green and gray\ndragon that lay stretched in a rocky defile.\n\nHis neck and tail were coiled upon the ground; his wings stretched up\nthe rocky walls on each side of him, and their tips were like tall\ngreen trees against the sky. Presently he turned his head and Ellen\ncould see his big blinking eyes, each as big as a barrel. He yawned and\nhis mouth was like a red cavern.\n\nEllen was frightened.\n\n\"Suppose he comes at us,\" she whispered.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Oh no, he won't pay any attention to us,\" the lad assured her. \"That\nis, unless we try to go past him, and then he'd snap us up in a\ntwinkling.\"\n\n\"Couldn't we go round?\"\n\n\"No, this is the only way, right between these rocks.\"\n\n\"I could fly over,\" said the gander boldly.\n\nThe lad laughed. \"Fly over! Why look at his wings. He'd catch you in a\nminute. Have you ever seen a bird after a little butterfly? That's the\nway he'd catch you if you tried any such tricks as that.\"\n\n\"Then what _are_ we to do?\" asked Ellen.\n\n\"Wait,\" answered the lad. \"They'll come to feed him after a while;\nmaybe in a week or so; and after he's been fed he always sleeps for ten\nminutes; then we can safely go past, for nothing will waken him for\nthose ten minutes. You might hit him on the head with an axe and he\nwouldn't stir.\"\n\n\"A week or so!\" cried Ellen in dismay. \"Why I can't wait a week or so,\nI have to be home this evening before dark.\"\n\n\"Well, I don't see what we can do unless you have something to feed him\nwith.\"\n\n\"I have a golden egg. That's all.\"\n\n\"A golden egg!\" cried the lad joyfully. \"Why didn't you say so before?\nWhy, it's just the thing. Give it to me.\"\n\nHe took the egg from Ellen and slowly rode over toward the dragon. The\ngreat creature watched him with its blinking eyes, and when the lad\nseemed to be coming too near it raised its head and hissed warningly.\nEllen trembled, the sound was so loud and terrible, as though a dozen\nengines were letting off steam all at once.\n\nThe lad, however, did not seem at all frightened. He checked the pig\nand motioned to the dragon to open its mouth. Ellen had seen people\nmotion to the elephant at the Zoo in that same way when they wanted it\nto lift up its trunk, and open its mouth to have peanuts thrown in.\n\nThe dragon seemed to understand, for after the boy had motioned once\nor twice it opened its great jaws. Then the lad threw the golden egg\nin, and it seemed just as small a thing for the dragon as a peanut or a\ncurrant would to an elephant.\n\nThe dragon waited a while with its mouth still open for the boy to\nthrow some more in. As he did not do this, however, it closed its mouth\nand began to chew the golden egg.\n\nIt chewed, and it chewed, and it chewed, and all the while it chewed it\nseemed to be growing sleepier and sleepier. At last it swallowed the\negg, and then its eyes shut tight and it went fast asleep.\n\nThe boy turned and beckoned to Ellen. \"Come on,\" he shouted at the top\nof his lungs.\n\n\"Oh don't talk so loud,\" Ellen whispered, coming up to him as fast as\nshe could. \"You might waken him.\"\n\nThe lad burst into a shout of laughter that made the little girl\ntremble. \"Not I,\" he cried. \"He'll sleep for nine minutes yet. One\nminute has gone already.\"\n\n\"Then let's hurry.\"\n\nThe gander flew up and on, and the boy was not slow to follow, riding\nhis blue and pink pig right over the dragon. Ellen was in terror lest\nit should waken in spite of what the boy had said, but he did not seem\nin the least afraid. He even seemed to take pleasure in making the\npig trot the full length of the dragon's tail just as children take\npleasure in walking along a railroad track.\n\nAt last they were safely over, and Ellen drew a sigh of relief.\n\nOn and on they went, and instead of the rocky walls on either side of\nthem growing lower they grew higher and higher, arching over more and\nmore until at last they met and made a sort of gallery. There was very\nlittle light here, and when at last the pig stopped and the gander\nsettled to the ground Ellen had to look twice before she saw that they\nwere in front of a heavily barred door. \"Where are we now?\" she asked.\n\nThe eyes of the boy were flashing with eagerness. \"It is the door of\nthe Queerbodies' house,\" he cried. He sprang from the pig, and, taking\nhold of the handle, he tried to open it. \"Locked!\" he added.\n\nSlipping his hand into his pocket he drew from it a whole handful of\nkeys. Then Ellen knew that they were what had jingled every time he\nmoved.\n\nHe began to try one key after another, but none of them seemed to fit.\n\nAs he was busy in this way a curious roar sounded through the gallery,\nechoing and re-echoing from the rocky walls. \"What's that?\" cried Ellen.\n\n\"Oh, only the dragon yawning. He must have wakened up,\" answered the\nlad coolly, still busy with his keys.\n\n\"But won't he follow us?\"\n\n\"No; he only guards the entrance to the defile.\"\n\nFinding that none of the keys he first held would open the lock the\nlad had drawn out another handful; but these were no better than the\nothers. One after another he tried all that he had, but not any would\nunlock the door. Having tried the last of all, the boy threw it down\nand sank upon the floor in despair.\n\n\"It is no good,\" he cried. \"It is just as I feared. And yet I've been\ncollecting those keys for the last seven months.\"\n\n\"Can't you unlock it?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Then what are you going to do?\"\n\n\"I don't know. I didn't mind the desert or the dragon, but this was\nwhat I was afraid of all along.\"\n\n\"Mistress,\" said the gander, \"Where is the key that the lady Fatima\ngave you? If what she said was true, it should unlock the door.\"\n\n\"Oh yes!\" cried Ellen. \"I forgot it.\"\n\nWith eager fingers she took the key from her pocket and pressed it into\nthe lad's hand. \"Try this,\" she said.\n\nVery hopelessly the boy arose and put the key to the lock. His face\nchanged as he found it seemed to go in it easily. He turned the key,\nthe lock slipped back, the door opened, and Ellen, following close at\nhis heels, entered at last the House of the Queerbodies.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Ten_\n\n_In the House of the Queerbodies_\n\n\nEllen and her companions were standing in a circular golden hall. All\naround the hall were arched doorways, and overhead, supported by golden\npillars, was a blue dome studded with jewels that shone like stars.\nThere were no windows to be seen, but all the hall was filled with a\nclear and pleasant light that seemed to come from the dome.\n\nAs Ellen looked wonderingly about, she heard a tapping sound behind\nher, and turning saw a tall man oddly dressed in green and yellow, and\nholding in his hand an ivory rod tipped with gold. It was this rod that\nshe had heard as it tapped on the floor.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe man stood looking at her and her friends in silence for a few\nmoments.\n\nThen he said, \"Now how did you all get in here I should like to know;\nI have not opened the door to any one this morning.\"\n\n\"I had a key,\" answered Ellen, \"and it fitted the door, so this lad\nunlocked it. We didn't know there was any one here to open it for us.\"\n\n\"Yes, I am the keeper of the gate, but I don't open for every one that\nknocks. But how did you find your way to the door, in the first place?\"\n\n\"I came on this gander; it's Mother Goose's gander, you know.\"\n\n\"Oh, then, that is all right. But how about this lad? Did he come on\nthe gander too?\"\n\n\"No, I came on the pig,\" answered the boy, speaking for himself.\n\n\"I don't know that pig. Where did you get it?\"\n\nThe lad told him. The gate-keeper shook his head. \"It isn't really your\npig, you know. You ought to have made it out of nothing. But did you\ncome across the desert?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And you passed the dragon?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And unlocked the door! Well, I suppose it's all right. And what do you\nwant to set about, now that you are here?\"\n\n\"I should like to try my hand at fitting a puzzle together,\" answered\nthe lad boldly.\n\nEllen stared. She had never heard anything so curious; for the lad to\nhave come all that way and through all those dangers, and then want to\nplay with a puzzle the first thing.\n\nThe gate-keeper, however, did not seem at all surprised. He walked over\nto one of the golden pillars and took a key from the bunch at his side.\nAnd now Ellen noticed that in each of the pillars was a narrow door.\nThe gate-keeper unlocked the one in front of which he stood, and when\nhe opened it the little girl could see that the pillar was hollow and\nfitted with shelves just like a closet. From a shelf the man took a\nbox of puzzle blocks and put it in the lad's hand.\n\n\"That's your room in there,\" he said, pointing to one of the arched\ndoorways.\n\nThe lad took the puzzle, and hastened away with such eager joy that he\nseemed to have quite forgotten Ellen and everything, even the magic pig\nthat followed close at his heels.\n\nThe little girl looked after him. \"I should think if he just wanted a\npuzzle he could have gotten one at home,\" she said.\n\n\"Not such puzzles as these,\" answered the man. \"Did you ever see a\nQueerbodies' puzzle when it was finished?\"\n\n\"I don't think I did.\"\n\n\"Then come here, and I'll show you some.\"\n\nThe man led Ellen over to a large case and opening the lid he bade\nher look in. There, all placed in rows, were countless boxes of\npuzzles,--puzzles that were finished. As Ellen looked she gave a\nlittle cry of astonishment and delight. The pictures she saw were just\nsuch as one might see upon any puzzle blocks,--pictures of children\nswinging in a garden, of a farm-yard scene, or a child's birthday\nparty. The difference was that all of these were alive. The swing\nreally swung up and down; the trees and flowers stirred their leaves;\nthe tiny cows switched their tails to scare away flies too small for\nEllen to see, and a cock upon the fence swelled his neck and crowed.\nThe children at the party looked at the gifts and then began to play.\nEllen even fancied that she could hear their voices very tiny and clear\nas they laughed and talked together.\n\n\"Do you have puzzles like that at home?\" asked the keeper of the gate.\n\n\"Oh no,\" cried Ellen. She drew a long breath as the man closed the\ncase. \"Can everybody that comes here make puzzles like those?\"\n\n\"No, indeed. Sometimes even when they get the puzzles finished they\ndon't come alive, and then they're good for nothing but to be thrown\naway. Do you see all these doorways?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well, there are people in all those rooms, and in every room they're\ndoing something different.\"\n\n\"What are some of the things they do?\"\n\n\"Over there,\" and the man pointed to one of the doorways, \"they're\nmaking garments out of thin air; in the room next to that they're\nstringing stars.\"\n\n\"Stringing stars?\"\n\n\"Yes. They fish for them with nets from the windows and then string\nthem for crowns and necklaces. It's very pretty to see. Then there's a\nwhole room where they do nothing but make forgotten stories over into\nnew ones.\"\n\n\"Oh! Oh!\" cried Ellen, clasping her hands. \"That's what I came for. I\ncame to look for a forgotten story. _Do_ you suppose it's there?\"\n\n\"Why, I don't know. I shouldn't wonder. But do you want to make it\nover?\"\n\n\"No, I want to find it the way it is. My grandmamma used to know it,\nbut she's forgotten it now, so I want to find it, so as to tell her\nabout it.\"\n\n\"Well, I don't know,\" said the man doubtfully. \"We might go and ask\nabout it. I don't know very much about the different rooms myself, but\ncome and we'll see.\"\n\nThe room of the forgotten stories, to which the gate-keeper now led\nEllen was very large. So large that when the little girl stood in the\ndoorway and looked about her she could hardly see where it ended. Upon\nthe floor in rows stood countless golden jars. Among these rows figures\nwere moving about or pausing at different jars to take something from\nthem. They all seemed very busy, though Ellen could not make out what\nthey were doing at first.\n\nQuite near the door a girl or a woman was standing; Ellen could not\ntell which she was. She looked like a woman, but her hair hung down\nher back in a heavy plait. She wore some sort of loose brown garments.\nHer hands were clasped before her and she seemed to be thinking deeply;\nso deeply that she did not notice the gate-keeper nor Ellen nor the\ngander as they stood looking at her.\n\nSuddenly she began to smile to herself, and, bending over one of the\njars, she thrust her hand into it and brought it forth filled with\nsome substance like wet clay, only much more beautiful than clay, for\nit glistened and shone between her fingers with all the colors of the\nrainbow. This she began to pat and mould into shape as she held it,\nhumming softly to herself meanwhile as if from sheer happiness.\n\nThe gate-keeper waited a few minutes to see whether she would notice\nhim, and then he tapped upon the floor with his ivory staff. The\nQueerbody looked around at the sound.\n\n\"Excuse me,\" said the man, \"but here's a little girl who has just come,\nand she says she's come to look for a forgotten story; can you tell her\nanything about it?\"\n\nThe Queerbody gazed earnestly at Ellen. \"A forgotten story!\" she\nrepeated slowly. \"This is the place to come for forgotten stories, but\nit may be that it has been made into something else. How long is it\nsince it was forgotten,--this story that you want?\"\n\nEllen told her a long time; ever since her grandmother was a little\ngirl.\n\nThe Queerbody shook her head. \"I'm afraid it may have been made over,\"\nshe said; \"but there's no telling. There are some stories that have\nbeen here for many, many years; this one I was just beginning to use,\nfor instance,\" and she held out her hands full of the shimmering stuff\nfor Ellen to see.\n\n\"Why, is that a forgotten story?\" asked Ellen. \"I didn't know stories\never looked like that.\"\n\n\"This is only part of a story. When a story has been forgotten it\nis all divided up and put into different jars. Wondercluff we call\nit then. When we make a new story we take a handful from this and a\nhandful from that, and when it's done you'd never know it was just old\nthings pieced together. But what did your forgotten story look like?\nCan you tell me anything about it?\"\n\nEllen could not tell her very much. \"It was about a little princess\ncalled Goldenhair, and she had a wicked stepmother. The stepmother made\nher wear a sooty hood, but the fairies helped the princess. Then one\ntime Goldenhair was combing her hair in the scullery and the stepmother\ncame in and made her cut all her hair off; and I don't know the rest.\"\n\nThe Queerbody began to laugh. She held out the handful of wondercluff\ntoward Ellen. \"Why this is a part of that very story,\" she cried, \"and\nyou came just in time. A little later and it would have been made into\nsomething else. Wait a bit. See if I can't put it together.\"\n\nShe reached down into other jars, and took out handful after handful of\ndifferent wondercluff. Heaping it on a marble table she began to pat\nand mould it, working deftly with her slim long fingers. And as she\nworked, beneath her hands a figure began to grow.\n\nEllen watched, as if fascinated.\n\nFirst the head with a golden crown. \"It must have a crown because the\nstory's about a princess and royal folk,\" the Queerbody explained. Next\nappeared the body in a long flowing robe fastened by an embroidered\ngirdle. Then beautiful white hands and arms. At last it was all done\nbut the feet.\n\nWith her eyes fixed lovingly upon the figure she had made, the\nQueerbody reached down into a jar that she had not touched before.\nSuddenly her look changed. The smile faded from her face and she\nturned her eyes on Ellen. \"Oh, I forgot,\" she said in a low, sad voice.\nShe drew her hand from the jar. There was nothing in it.\n\n\"What did you forget?\" asked the little girl.\n\n\"I forgot the castle. I can't finish the story after all.\"\n\n\"But why not? She's all done but her feet. I should think you could\neasily do those.\"\n\n\"No, you see they have to be made of castle wondercluff. There was a\ncastle in the story, and I haven't used any of that yet.\"\n\n\"What _do_ you mean?\"\n\n\"You see, when a story is broken to pieces all the parts of it are put\nin different jars, as I told you. All the king wondercluff in a jar,\nand birds in another jar, magic in another, witches in another, and so\non. All the castles were put in this jar, and now I remember another\nQueerbody was making a story this morning and she used the last piece\nof castle there was. Look for yourself. The jar is empty.\"\n\nEllen looked in the jar. There was nothing there. \"Can't you use\nsomething else?\"\n\n\"Of course not.\" The Queerbody spoke with some impatience. \"Don't you\nremember the story begins with a castle where the princess lives?\"\n\nSuddenly, like a flash, Ellen remembered the genie and his promise. At\nthe same moment the gander plucked at her sleeve. \"Mistress, the castle\nyou were promised,\" he whispered. There was no need of his reminding\nher.\n\n\"If I were to get a castle for you could you finish the story?\" she\nasked the Queerbody hesitatingly.\n\n\"Yes, but where could you get a castle, you little girl?\"\n\n\"I think I can get one.\" Ellen looked about. \"We'd better go out in the\nhall,\" she whispered. She was afraid if she summoned the genie in there\nit would frighten the busy people around her.\n\nShe led the way back into the silent, empty hall while the gatekeeper\nand the Queerbody followed her wondering.\n\nEllen walked on until she stood under the centre of the dome. Then she\nstopped and looked at the others. \"You needn't be afraid,\" she said,\n\"he won't hurt you;\" but she herself felt a little nervous at the idea\nof calling up the genie again. However, she drew a long breath, and\nthen, clapping her hands three times, she summoned him to appear.\n\nThere was a loud noise as of thunder that made the gander cower behind\nEllen, while the gatekeeper and the Queerbody trembled and turned pale.\nImmediately the genie appeared, more gigantic and terrible-looking than\never.\n\n\"Thou hast called me, and I am here at thy command,\" he said to Ellen.\n\"Wilt thou now have the castle, the treasures, the slaves and horsemen\nthat I promised thee?\"\n\n\"Not the treasures and all that,\" answered Ellen, and her voice\nsounded very little and soft after the genie's, \"but I should like the\ncastle now if I may have it?\"\n\n\"It shall be thine. And where wilt thou have it?\"\n\n\"I'd like it in a golden jar over in that room,\" said Ellen, pointing\nover to the forgotten story room.\n\n\"In a jar!\" cried the genie in amaze, and he scowled as though he\nthought Ellen was making fun of him. But when she explained how it was,\nand why she wanted the castle, he burst into a roar of laughter that\nechoed and re-echoed against the blue dome. \"I have heard of a genie in\na bottle, but never of a castle in a jar,\" he cried. \"However, it shall\nbe thine. But hast thou no further wishes?\"\n\n\"No, that's all,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"Then look in the jar and thou wilt find it there. Henceforth I appear\nto thee no more.\"\n\nImmediately, and with another crash as of thunder, the genie was\nresolved into air and disappeared. For a moment the hall seemed\nclouded with a thin gray vapor and then that too faded away and all was\nas it had been before.\n\nEllen and the others looked at each other while the gander craned its\nneck this way and that, as if to make sure that the genie had really\ngone.\n\nThe Queerbody was the first to speak. She drew a long breath. \"I\nshouldn't like to see _him_ again,\" she said. \"But I wonder if he\nreally put the castle there.\"\n\n\"I believe he did,\" said Ellen.\n\n\"Let us go and see.\" The Queerbody was all eagerness.\n\nThey hastened back to the room of the forgotten stories and bent over\nthe castle jar. The Queerbody gave a cry of joy. It was half full of\nglistening wondercluff.\n\nReaching down into the jar she brought out great handfuls that shone\nand glistened. \"_Now_ I can finish the story,\" she cried.\n\nShe began patting and moulding with hands that trembled with eagerness\nand under her fingers the silvery feet of the fairy tale seemed almost\nto shape themselves. Then suddenly the figure stood complete, a tall\nand shining lady with a crown upon her head. The eyes, however, were\nblank and unseeing, and there was no breath to stir the silver robe.\n\n\"Take her hand,\" the Queerbody said to Ellen.\n\nTimidly the little girl took the white hand of the Fairy Tale in hers.\nIt was very cold, but as she held it, it seemed to grow warm and soft\nin her fingers.\n\n\"Speak to her,\" the Queerbody now commanded. At first Ellen could not\nthink of what to say. Then, \"Are you,--are you the forgotten Story I\ncame to find?\" she whispered.\n\nSlowly the color flushed into the Fairy Tale's face; the life came into\nher eyes. Slowly very slowly she turned her head and looked down into\nEllen's eager face. \"Am I that Story?\" she murmured. \"Look in my\neyes and see.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nShe bent toward the child, and Ellen looked into her eyes. Such\nwonderful eyes they were. As she looked, Ellen seemed to lose herself\nin their clear depths. She lost all sense of where she was--even of the\nlady herself.\n\nShe never could tell afterward whether the lady spoke and told her the\nstory, or whether she saw it mirrored in those eyes, or whether she was\nherself the little Princess Goldenhair living it all, but this was the\nfairy tale.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Eleven_\n\n_The Princess Goldenhair_\n\n\nThere were once a king and queen who had no children, though they\ngreatly longed for them.\n\nOne day the queen was sitting at the window sewing, and the sunlight\nshone upon the golden thimble she wore, so that it fairly dazzled the\neyes. \"I wish,\" said the queen, \"that I had a little daughter and that\nher hair was as golden as my thimble in the sun.\"\n\nSoon after this a daughter was indeed born to the queen, and the hair\nupon her head was of pure gold, but in the hour that she was born the\nqueen herself died.\n\nAs the little princess grew up, her hair was the wonder of all and\nbecause it was so beautiful she was always called the Princess\nGoldenhair or Goldilocks.\n\nThe king was prouder of his daughter's beauty than of all his\ntreasures, and there was nothing he loved better than to see her\nunfasten her shining hair and shake it down about her, and then it was\nso long and bright that it covered her like a golden mantle.\n\nBut one day the king went hunting, and in the chase he rode so fast\nthat at last he left all his followers behind.\n\nHe had reached a deep and lonely glade when suddenly his horse reared\nunder him, and there, standing directly in his path was a beautiful\nwoman dressed all in black. Her hair, too, was black as a raven's wing\nand her eyes were strangely bright. She stood looking at the king and\nshe did not speak.\n\nThe king did not speak either, at first, for there was something in her\nlook that made him ill at ease, even while he wondered at her beauty.\n\n\"Who are you?\" he said at last; but she made no answer. Then he\nquestioned her whence she came, but she was still silent. But when he\nasked her if she would go back to the palace with him she nodded her\nhead. So the king took her up before him and rode home with her.\n\nAfter that the stranger lived at the palace. She spoke little and when\nshe did her voice was hoarse and croaking, but she was very beautiful,\nand the king loved her and made her his queen.\n\nThere were great rejoicings over the marriage; but Goldenhair wept and\nwept; she feared the stepmother with her black hair and her bright\nround eyes.\n\nNevertheless at first the new queen was kind enough to the child. But\nthen, little by little, she began to show the hatred she felt toward\nher. After a while it was nothing but hard words and harder looks.\nAbove all, she could not bear the sight of the princess's hair, but\nshuddered every time she saw it. After a while she had a dark hood\nmade, and she obliged the princess to wear it, so that her hair might\nbe hidden.\n\nThe child never dared to take off the hood by day, but every evening\nafter the maids had left the scullery she would steal down there with\na candle. It was very dark in the scullery, and the mice and beetles\nscuttled to and fro, but as Goldenhair opened the door she would say,\n\n    \"_Nimble mice that fear the light,\n    Small, black beetles of the night,\n    Shadows lurking here and there,\n    I pray you fright not Goldenhair._\"\n\nThen the mice and the beetles would noiselessly disappear in the\ncracks; the shadows would shrink into corners, and entering, Goldenhair\nwould take off her hood, and shake down her hair to comb and brush its\nshining lengths. Then she would bind it up again and cover it with her\nhood before she went up into the castle.\n\nThe stepmother knew nothing of this, but every day she grew bolder in\nher hate. She took from Goldenhair all the beautiful clothes and jewels\nthat her father had had made for her and gave her instead things scarce\nbetter than those a kitchen wench might wear.\n\nHowever the princess made no complaint, and the king her father did not\neven seem to notice it. It was as though the wicked queen had cast a\nspell over him so that he could see or think of no one but her.\n\nOne day when Goldenhair's heart was very heavy she wandered off by\nherself into the deep forest that lay all about the palace.\n\nShe had not gone far when her cloak caught upon a thorn-bush and was\ntorn. When she saw the rent she was frightened, for she knew her cruel\nstepmother would make it an excuse for punishing her; and at the\nthought of her helplessness the child threw herself down at the foot\nof a tree and began to weep.\n\nSuddenly a voice beside her said, \"Why do you weep so bitterly,\nPrincess?\"\n\nGoldenhair looked up, and there, standing close beside her, was a fairy\nyouth. He was very small, and was dressed all in green and silver. He\nhad a cap upon his head, and about his neck was a chain, from which\nhung a jewel that sparkled brighter than a diamond.\n\nGoldenhair gazed at him wonderingly. \"I am weeping because I have torn\nmy cloak,\" she answered, \"and I am afraid my stepmother will punish\nme.\" And with that she began to sob again.\n\nThen the fairy felt sorry for her, as he had never felt sorry for any\none before. \"Do not weep,\" he said, \"and I may be able to help you.\"\n\nWith that he stepped to a toadstool close by, and, feeling under it,\nhe drew out a toadstool thorn, invisible to mortal eyes. This he\nthreaded with a strand of spider-web silk, and then he placed it in\nGoldenhair's fingers. \"Draw together the edges of the cloak where it is\ntorn,\" he said, \"and sew it with this.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe princess looked at her fingers, but she could see nothing. Still,\nshe could feel the magic strand. Wondering, she drew the edges of the\nrent together, and began stitching with the invisible needle; and as\nshe stitched, the torn edges twisted and wove together again, so that\nthey became whole as they had been before.\n\nWhen she had finished, the fairy knelt before her and lifted the edge\nof the cloak. \"Look,\" he said; \"now no one could know that it had ever\nbeen torn.\" And then immediately he vanished like a breath.\n\nGoldenhair rubbed her eyes and looked about her. The forest was very\nstill. There was not a living thing to be seen, not even a bird or a\nsquirrel. She lifted her cloak and looked, but she could not see where\nit had been mended. Then suddenly she felt afraid, and, turning, she\nran back to the castle as fast as she could.\n\nAll the rest of the day she thought and thought about the fairy, and\nwondered whether she had really seen him, but she could scarcely\nbelieve it.\n\nThe next night when it grew dark Goldenhair stole down as usual to the\nscullery to comb her hair. She made sure that no one was there, and\nthen she took off her hood and shook down her locks. When she had done\nthat, they almost covered her with their golden strands. She began to\nbrush and comb them, and as she brushed she sang:--\n\n    \"_I comb my locks, I comb my locks!\n      My father is a king;\n    My stepmother has hair as black\n      As any raven's wing._\n\n    \"_I comb my locks, I comb my locks!\n      She bids me bind them tight;\n    She makes me wear a sooty hood\n      To hide them from her sight._\n\n    \"_I comb my locks, I comb my locks!\n      Alas! that only here\n    I dare to lay my hood aside\n      And brush them without fear._\"\n\nHaving brushed her hair until it shone, Goldenhair bound it up again,\nand covered its brightness with her hood. She took up her candle and\nwas about to leave the scullery when she heard a sound as of some one\nsighing sadly.\n\nShe listened, but all was still. \"'Twas only the wind that sighed\nbeneath the door,\" she said to herself, and again she was about to go\nwhen she heard the sighing once more, and this time she knew that it\nwas not the wind. The sound came from the outer door of the scullery,\nthe one that opened into the forest.\n\nGoldenhair was frightened, but yet she could not think of any one being\nin distress without longing to help them. She crept over to the door\nand laid her ear against it. \"Who is there?\" she asked.\n\nThere was no answer, but she heard some one grieving softly on the\nother side of the door. Then all was still.\n\n\"Who is there?\" repeated Goldenhair. \"If it is some one in trouble,\nspeak.\"\n\nThere was no answer, but a sigh so sad that it went to the heart. She\nhesitated no longer, but opened the door.\n\nThe draught of wind almost blew out her candle, but she put her hand\naround it to shelter it, and by its light she saw leaning against the\ndoorway the same fairy she had seen in the forest.\n\nThe princess looked and wondered. \"Why are you here?\" she asked. \"Did\nyou come to look for me?\"\n\n\"Alas,\" sighed the fairy, \"I would that I had never seen you.\"\n\n\"Why do you say that?\" asked the princess.\n\n\"Because if I had not seen you weeping in the forest I would not have\nbroken the fairy laws, teaching you to mend your cloak with magic such\nas fairies alone should use. It is for this that sorrow has come upon\nme and I have been banished from the fairy court. Now I must journey\nout in the huge rough world like an outcast, until I have accomplished\nthe task set me by the fairy queen for a punishment.\"\n\nWhen Goldenhair heard this she was greatly troubled, for she felt that\nshe was indeed the cause of it all.\n\n\"What is this task they have set you?\" she asked in a trembling voice.\n\n\"It is to weave a net of magic gold; the net in whose meshes alone can\nbe caught a wicked enchantress who has been haunting this forest. For a\nlong time she has been darkening it with her wicked spells and now upon\nme has fallen the heavy task of ridding the forest of her.\"\n\n\"But is this magic gold so hard to find? You are a fairy and surely you\nshould know where to seek it.\"\n\n    \"_Though I am as old as the oldest tree\n    Such gold I never yet did see._\n\nOnly this much I know for this the queen told me; it is gold--\n\n    _That lives and yet is not alive;\n    That comes neither from earth nor water;\n    Softer than silk and harder to weld than steel._\"\n\n    \"_Gold that lives and yet is not alive;\n    That comes neither from earth nor water;\n    Softer than silk but harder to weld than steel_\"\n\nthe princess murmured softly to herself. Then suddenly she gave a\ncry of joy. Setting down the candle, she slipped off her hood and\nshook down her hair, so that it fell all about her, glittering in the\ncandle-light. \"Is not this the magic gold?\" she cried. \"See! It lives\nand yet it is not alive. It comes neither from the earth nor from the\nwater, and it is softer than silk and yet all the hammers in the world\ncould not weld one strand of it.\"\n\nThe fairy cried aloud in his wonder and admiration. \"It is indeed the\nmagic gold.\"\n\n\"Then take it,--take it and weave your net,\" cried Goldenhair.\n\nWith hands that trembled with eagerness she drew from her pocket a pair\nof golden scissors that had been her mother's. With these she clipped\nstrand after strand of the shiny locks, and they fell at the fairy's\nfeet; they lay there in a shining heap.\n\n\"Enough! enough!\" he cried.\n\n\"Then, quick,\" said the princess, \"let us begin to knot them into a\nnet.\"\n\n\"No need of that,\" answered the fairy. \"There is a quicker way than\nthat.\" Drawing his fairy sword from its sheath, he struck it lightly\nupon the shining locks.\n\n          \"_Fold on fold,\n          Magic gold,\n    Into a net be knotted and rolled_,\"\n\nhe cried. At his spell the silken locks began to twist themselves; they\nrolled into strands and knotted together in meshes until they were a\ngolden net.\n\nSuddenly the princess turned her head and looked behind her. She had\nheard a sound at the scullery door. The next moment it was thrown open,\nand there stood the stepmother, peering in with an evil look. Behind\nher was the king.\n\n\"Look,\" cried the queen, pointing at Goldenhair. \"Is it not just as I\ntold you? The girl knows that I hate the very sight of her hair, and\nthat I gave her a hood to wear that I might not see it; yet at every\nchance she has she slips away to comb her locks and weave her wicked\nspells.\"\n\n\"Do you indeed dare to weave your spells against the queen?\" cried the\nking angrily,--for he was under the enchantment of the wicked queen,\nand he believed all that she wished him to.\n\nGoldenhair began to weep. \"Alas!\" she sobbed, \"I know no spells, and I\nthought that if I came here to comb my hair she would never see it.\"\n\nSuddenly the stepmother spied the scissors, which Goldenhair had let\nfall upon the floor. Stooping, she snatched them up. \"Since you will\nheed nothing that I say, there is but one way left; your hair shall be\nshorn close to your head, even to the last lock.\"\n\nBut at this moment the fairy stepped forward from the shadow in which\nhe had been standing. In the dark scullery he seemed to shine with\nlight. \"There is no need of that,\" he cried. \"I know you, wicked\nenchantress; and the net has already been woven that shall break\nyour evil spells.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe queen gave a hoarse cry and shrank back; but in a moment the fairy\nhad caught up the net from the floor and cast it over her. It was in\nvain that she struggled; the net only drew closer and closer about her.\n\n\"Why, what is this?\" cried the king, but the queen only croaked\nhoarsely in reply.\n\nThe fairy drew his sword and pointed it at her. \"By the power of the\nmagic net take your true shape, false queen,\" he cried. And then--it\nwas no longer a woman who struggled in the net, but only a great black\nraven, with a curving beak and cruel, angry eyes. It struggled there a\nwhile, and then flew out into the dark forest, dragging the net with\nit, and croaking hoarsely as it went.\n\n\"Let her go,\" said the fairy, \"for, whatever becomes of her, her power\nhas now gone forever.\"\n\nSuddenly there was a soft strain of music, and the scullery was filled\nwith rosy light. \"They are coming, are coming for me,\" cried the fairy,\nand his face grew bright with joy. The next moment the fairy queen\nstood beside him, and with her were a great crowd of attendant fairies.\n\nThe banished elf sank upon his knee before her, but she raised him\ngraciously.\n\n\"Your task has been well done,\" she said. \"You have freed the forest\nfrom the evil magic that has been haunting it, and now you shall return\nto the fairy court; and not only this, but you shall be my favorite\npage and follow in my train.\"\n\nOnce more the fairy knelt before her to kiss her hand.\n\nThe queen turned to Goldenhair. \"And you, dear child,\" she said, \"you\nhave suffered so much here,--leave it all. Come with us, and with one\ntouch of my wand you shall become a fairy too.\"\n\nBut at this the king started forward. With the breaking of the evil\nspell all his former love for his little daughter had returned. \"Do\nnot leave me, Goldenhair,\" he cried.\n\n\"No,\" said Goldenhair to the fairy, \"he is my father, and I may not\nleave him; he would be lonely without me, now that the queen has gone.\"\n\n\"Then, farewell,\" cried the fairies. \"The forest calls us, and we have\nalready lingered too long. Farewell, farewell, Goldenhair.\" So saying,\nthey disappeared, the light and music fading with them.\n\nThey were never seen in the castle again; but often in the wood the\nprincess would come upon them dancing in their fairy rings, or hear\nthem call to her from flowers or clumps of fern, for they did not hide\nfrom her as they do from others.\n\nTime went on, and many kings and princes sought the hand of Goldenhair\nin marriage; but she would have none of them.\n\nAt last the old king died, and then suddenly there appeared at the\ncourt a tall and noble youth. All wondered at his beauty, but no one\nbut Goldenhair knew that it was the fairy of the wood, who had become a\nmortal being for her sake.\n\nShe loved him and gave him her hand, and they were married; and after\nthat they ruled the kingdom together in great peace and happiness.\n\n\n\n\n_Chapter Twelve_\n\n_Home Again_\n\n\nEllen looked about her. She was still standing in the golden room of\nthe Queerbodies' house. Before her was the Fairy Tale, smiling down\ninto her face with shining eyes. There, too, were the gander and the\nQueerbody.\n\n\"Is that the story?\" the Queerbody asked.\n\nEllen clasped her hands. \"Oh, yes,\" she cried, looking up into the\nFairy Tale's face. \"I'm sure you're the one. There were Goldenhair and\nthe sooty hood and all. You 'll stay made up now, won't you?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the Story; \"and more than that, I'm going back with you\ntoo.\"\n\nEllen gave a little cry of delight. She took the Story's hand in hers,\nand it was so smooth and white she laid her cheek against it, and then\nkissed it softly.\n\n\"But how about the rhyme?\" asked the gander.\n\n\"Oh, yes; I'd forgotten to ask for that.\" Then Ellen told the Queerbody\nhow she had promised Mother Goose that she would try to find a\nforgotten rhyme for her. The child couldn't tell the Queerbody exactly\nwhat the rhyme was, of course, because it was a forgotten one, but she\nexplained as well as she could.\n\nThe Queerbody seemed to know which one she meant. \"Oh, yes, I can\neasily make that over; but if I do, you must promise to remember it and\nsay it sometimes after you go back.\"\n\nEllen was very willing to promise.\n\nThen the Queerbody bent over another jar and took out some wondercluff.\nShe patted and twisted and pulled, and then she set what she had made\nupon the floor. It was a funny-looking little rhyme, with a brown\nbelted coat and a pointed cap, and a broad grin on its fat, round face.\n\n\"Quank! quank!\" cried the gander. \"There he is again.\"\n\nThe Rhyme blinked and looked about him, and then he spoke, still\ngrinning broadly.\n\n\"Hello! I guess I've been forgotten, haven't I? But somebody seems to\nhave brought me back. Well, there's the old gander, same as ever.\" He\nran over and caught hold of the gander's bridle. \"Give me a ride?\" he\nasked.\n\n\"Yes, I'm going to carry you back with me.\"\n\n\"Oh, goody, goody!\" And the Rhyme hopped up and down as though its toes\nwere made of rubber.\n\nBut Ellen looked anxious. \"I wonder how we're all to get back,\" she\nsaid, with a glance at the Fairy Tale. \"I don't believe the gander can\ncarry us all.\"\n\n\"Oh, you're not going back with me,\" he answered. \"The journey's too\nlong for that, and there's an easier way.\"\n\n\"Yes, a much easier way,\" chimed in the Queerbody. \"Why, it's so easy\nthat sometimes I go home without even trying.\"\n\nEllen wondered. \"Do you? And then you have to come all that long way to\nget here again?\"\n\n\"No, it's shorter when you know the way. Sometimes I get back in a\nminute. But put your ear against the wall and listen.\"\n\nEllen put her ear against the golden wall. As she listened she gave\na little gasp of amazement, and yet what she heard was not so very\nwonderful; it was only the voices of her mother and the seamstress\ntalking quietly together in the sewing-room.\n\nPresently the voices grew fainter. Ellen leaned harder against the wall\nto catch their tones. Then all in a moment the wall yielded to her\nweight, just as a snowdrift might, and she fell through it.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nShe put out her hands to save herself, and caught hold of something\nhard and solid; it was the shelf of the bookcase. She was back in her\nown familiar nursery. She looked about her. There was no sign of where\nshe had come through, no break in wall or ceiling. With a little cry\nshe leaned forward and thrust her hands back between the book-shelves.\nThey touched only the hard, cold wall. The vines were only painted on\nthe paper; they would not draw aside under her eager fingers.\n\nAs Ellen turned from the bookcase she saw the shape of the Fairy Tale\nstanding between her and the window. She was sure she saw it. It smiled\nand waved its hand to her, and then it was gone like the fading of\none's breath upon the window-pane.\n\n\"Dear Fairy Tale, where are you?\" cried Ellen; but there was no reply.\n\nEllen waited a moment. \"Fairy Tale!\" she whispered.\n\nStill silence.\n\nOpening the door into the entry, the little girl ran down to the\nsewing-room as fast as she could. \"Mamma, mamma!\" she called.\n\nShe burst like a little whirlwind into the room where her mother\nand the seamstress were quietly at work, and threw herself into\nher mother's lap. \"I've been having the queerest time,\" she cried\nexcitedly; \"and you never could guess where I've been; never.\"\n\n\"Wait,\" said her mother; \"you're tumbling my work. And how excited you\nare, dear!\"\n\nShe put aside her sewing, and took the little girl upon her lap. \"Now,\nwhat have you been doing?\"\n\nBreathlessly and with flushing cheeks Ellen told her mother all about\nher journey and her strange adventures on her way to the Queerbodies'\nhouse.\n\nThe mother listened and wondered. \"That was a wonderful dream, indeed,\"\nshe said.\n\n\"A dream! Why, it wasn't a dream, mamma. It really happened. And then\nI saw the Fairy Tale after I came back. And then the Forgotten Story\nitself; I couldn't have dreamed all that, you know.\"\n\n\"But, my dear, it couldn't have been anything but a dream.\"\n\n\"Well, wait. I'm going to go down and tell grandmamma about it; and if\nit's the same story, then you know it _must_ be true.\"\n\n\"Very well; only go down quietly, for she may not have wakened from her\nnap yet.\"\n\nWhen Ellen peeped in through her grandmother's door, however, she\nsaw the old lady sitting over in her rocking-chair near the window,\nknitting.\n\n\"May I come in?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes, yes, come in, little Clara. I was just wondering where you and\nall the other children were.\"\n\nThe child drew up a little stool and sat down by her grandmother's\nknee. \"Granny,\" she said, trying to speak quietly, \"I think I know what\nhappened to little Goldenhair now. Shall I tell you the story?\"\n\n\"Yes, do, my dear.\"\n\nSo Ellen told her grandmother the story of Goldenhair.\n\nThe grandmother listened, smiling and nodding her head. After a while\nshe grew so interested that she pushed her glasses up on top of her\ncap.\n\n\"Yes, yes, that is it. I didn't know anybody remembered that story any\nmore, but that is the way I heard it when I was a child.\"\n\n\"Then it's true,\" cried the child triumphantly; \"and I really did find\nthe Queerbodies' house, and see them making stories.\"\n\n\"Ah, yes, I knew a Queerbody once, and she used to make\nstories;--verses, too. She was a lovely girl. It was long ago.\"\n\n\"And did she tell you all about the Queerbodies' house and the golden\njars?\"\n\nBut the grandmother shook her head. \"It is a long time ago, and I\nforget. I am so old--so old, little Clara.\"\n\n\"I knew it was n't a dream,\" murmured the child; and as she sat there\nby her grandmother's knee she felt the Fairy Tale was there, smiling\ngently upon them both, even though no one could see her.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBy Katharine Pyle\n\n  THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL\n  AS THE GOOSE FLIES\n  NANCY RUTLEDGE\n  IN THE GREEN FOREST\n  WONDER TALES RETOLD\n  TALES OF FOLK AND FAIRIES\n  TALES OF WONDER AND MAGIC\n  FAIRY TALES FROM FAR AND NEAR\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"As the Goose Flies","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":26344}