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diff --git a/37547-8.txt b/37547-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba3cbfa --- /dev/null +++ b/37547-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4493 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Fairies and the Christmas Child, by Lilian Gask + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fairies and the Christmas Child + +Author: Lilian Gask + +Illustrator: Willy Pogány + +Release Date: September 27, 2011 [EBook #37547] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAIRIES AND THE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, eagkw and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + [Illustration: Cover] + + [Illustration: The Fairies + and the Christmas + Child] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration: _Fr._ "We rocked the cradle" + (_Page 182_)] + + + + + [Illustration: Title Page] + + The + Fairies and + the Christmas Child + By Lilian Gask + + The Illustrations are by + Willy Pogány + + T. Y. Crowell & Co + New York + + [Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Contents + + + Chapter Page + I. The Fairy Ring 1 + + II. The Princess with the Sea-Green Hair 25 + + III. Rose-Marie and the Poupican 45 + + IV. The Bird at the Window 67 + + V. The White Stone of Happiness 89 + + VI. The Seven Fair Queens of Pirou 109 + + VII. In the Dwarf's Palace 133 + + VIII. The Silver Horn 157 + + IX. The Little White Feather 175 + + X. The Wild Huntsman 197 + + XI. The White Princess 217 + + XII. The Favourite of the Fates 239 + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +List of Illustrations + + + "We rocked the cradle" _Frontispiece_ + Page + "I fancied that I had seen those wee brown men" 11 + + "The Fairy Ring was thronged with dancing Elves" 20 + + "Here a Fairy Princess awaited him" 33 + + Rose-Marie and the Poupican 54 + + "They tossed him three times in the air" 63 + + "She hid herself behind a curtain" 83 + + "What ails you, Madame Marguerite?" 99 + + "The Lord of Argouges threw himself on his knees" 114 + + "They instantly changed into snow-white birds" 129 + + "The Dwarf invited me to be seated" 141 + + "Elberich had jeered him finely" 151 + + "'She is yours, O Otnit!' cried the Dwarf" 154 + + "In the old man's place sat a little Dwarf" 167 + + "A little white feather danced above their heads" 189 + + "'How now?' cried a reassuring voice" 196 + + "He entreated the maiden to come down" 205 + + "Went shyly down to meet him" 212 + + "Lowered herself from her window by means of a rope + of pearls" 224 + + "He tickled the monster's nose" 233 + + "Pepita rushed into his arms" 253 + + + + + [Illustration: _To + "The Doctor" + and + Mrs. Macnaughton-Jones + my "Good Fairies" + and best of + Friends_] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter I + +The Fairy Ring + + +The worst of being a Christmas Child is that you don't get birthday +presents, but only Christmas ones. Old Naylor, who was Father's +coachman, and had a great gruff voice that came from his boots and was +rather frightening, used to ask how I expected to grow up without proper +birthdays, and I thought I might have to stay little always. When I told +Father this he laughed, but a moment later he grew quite grave. + +"Listen, Chris," he said. And then he took me on his knee--I was a small +chap then--and told me things that made me forget old Naylor, and wish +and wish that Mother could have stayed with us. The angels had wanted +her, Father explained; well, we wanted her too, and there were plenty +of angels in heaven, anyway. When I said this Father gave me a great +squeeze and put me down, and I tried to be glad that I was a Christmas +child. But I wasn't really until a long time afterwards, when I had +found the Fairy Ring, and met the Queen of the Fairies. + +This was how it happened. Father and I lived at one end of a big town, +in a funny old house with an orchard behind it, where the sparrows ate +the cherries and the apple trees didn't flower. Once upon a time, said +Father, there had been country all round it, but the streets and the +roads had grown and grown until they drove the country away, and now +there were trams outside the door, and not a field to be seen. I often +thought that our garden must be sorry to be so crowded up, and that this +was why it wouldn't grow anything but weedy nasturtiums and evening +primroses. + +Father is a doctor, and most awfully clever. If you cut off the top of +your finger, he'd pop it on again in no time, and he used to cure all +sorts of illnesses with different coloured medicines he made himself +behind a screen. + +But though he had lots and lots of patients--sometimes the surgery was +full of them, 'specially on cold nights when there was a fire--they +didn't seem to have much money to give him, and sometimes they ran +away with their furniture in the night so's not to pay their bills. +This worried Father dreadfully, and even Santa Claus was scared away +by the things he said. On Christmas Eve the old fellow quite forgot +to fill my stocking. It was all limp and empty when I woke in the +morning, and if I hadn't remembered that when I grew up I was going to +be a Commander-in-Chief, I should never have swallowed that lump in my +throat. + +Father couldn't even take me to hear "Hark The Herald Angels" at the big +church down the road that day, for someone sent for him in a hurry, and +when he didn't come in for dinner, I wished it wasn't Christmas at all. +Nancy Blake, who kept house for us and was most stingy over raisins, +banged the kitchen door when I said I would make her some toffee, and +I couldn't find anything else to do. I looked at all my books and +pretended I was a soldier in a lonely fort; then I thought I would make +up medicine myself, so's to save Father trouble when he came home. But I +burnt my fingers with some nasty stuff in a green bottle, and it hurt a +good deal. So I determined to go to meet him, and tell him what I'd +done. + +[Illustration: "Nancy Blake."] + +The trams were running as usual, and as I had a penny left out of my +pocket money--I hadn't spent it before as it had got stuck in some +bulls' eyes--I took the car to the corner; then I jumped out and walked. +There wasn't a sign of Father all down the road, and I remembered at +last that he had said he must look in at the Hospital, which was in +quite a different direction. I should have gone home then, if it hadn't +been so dull with no one but Nancy Blake. + +"He won't be back until tea time anyhow," I thought, and I made up my +mind to be a boy scout, and go and explore. + +It was a splendid day, and the roofs of the shops and houses glittered +from millions of tiny points, just as you see on Christmas cards. I +walked on and on, feeling gladder every moment, for my fingers had left +off hurting me and I knew that I couldn't be far from the woods, which +were just outside the town. I had been there once with Father, and it +was lovely; so I hurried on as quickly as I could. + +When I got there they made me think of Fairyland. The trees were +sparkling with the same frost-diamonds I had noticed on the roofs, and +through the criss-cross branches above my head the sky was as blue as +blue. A jolly little robin was twittering in a bush, enjoying himself no +end; his bright red breast reminded me of the holly I had stuck over +Father's mantelpiece, and I began to feel sad again. For it did seem +hard lines that though Christmas was my birthday, no one, not even +Father, had thought of it. + +"I wish that I hadn't been born on Christmas Day!" I said aloud, when I +had reached the very heart of the wood, and I sat down to rest on the +stump of a tree close to a little circle of bright green. It was here +I had come that day with Father, and he had told me that though it was +called a "Fairy Ring," it was really made by the spread of a very small +fungus, or mushroom. I liked the idea of the fairy ring much better, and +as I touched it with my foot I wished again that I wasn't a Christmas +child. And then I heard a sigh. + +It wasn't the robin, for he was still twittering on his bush, and it +wasn't the wind, for the air was quite sheltered behind the bank, which +was sweet with wild thyme in summer. The next moment I heard another +sigh, and this seemed to come from a frond of bracken just outside the +fairy ring. It was brown and withered, but the frost had silvered it all +over, and as I looked at it I saw the loveliest little creature you can +imagine clinging to the stem. She was only about three inches high, but +her tiny form was full of grace, and her eyes so bright and beautiful +that they shone like stars. Her hair was the palest silver-gold, and +she had a crown of diamonds and an amethyst wand that sparkled when she +moved it. The scarf wreathed round her shoulders flashed all the colours +of mother-of-pearl, and throwing it from her she hummed to herself a +little song about violets and eglantine, and sweet musk roses. Her notes +were as clear as the lark's, and as if she had called them, more Fairies +showed amidst the bracken. + +They were lovely too, though not so lovely as she. One was dressed in +pink, like a pink pea; another had a long grey coat, spangled with drops +of dew, while the third had wings like a big grey moth, and the smallest +Elf was all in brown. + +"It is Titania who sings," chirped the robin in my left ear; "Titania, +the Queen of the Fairies, though some call her the fair Queen Mab!" And +he hopped to the foot of the frond of bracken and made a funny little +duck with his head. + +"Good bird!" cried Titania, breaking off her song. "You, too, sing +through the winter gloom, and are here to welcome the sweet o' the +year." Then she pointed her gleaming wand at me, and shook her head. + +"O Christmas child," she said reproachfully, "it is well that it was I +who heard you, and not my brave lord Oberon, who has less patience with +mortal folly. So you wish you had not been born on Christmas Day? Why, +'tis the day most blessed in all the year--the day when the King of +Kings sent peace and goodwill to Man in the form of the Christ Child. It +is His birthday as well as yours, and in memory of Him the Fairies show +themselves to Christmas children, if they are pure in heart and word and +deed. Your Mother knew this, and she was glad. She called you 'Chris' to +remind you always which day you came." + +And then I was sure that I hadn't been dreaming after all, though Nancy +said, "Stuff and Nonsense," when I fancied that I had seen those wee +brown men busy about the house on winter mornings, or flitting in +shadowy corners at night, before she lit the gas. I had never spoken to +them, for I thought if I did they might run away; but I was pleased to +know they had been real. + +"You would have seen us before," said Titania, "but you live in a big +town, and your eyes were dimmed with smoke and fog. My dainty Elves love +dales and streams, and the depths of forests; in spring they throng +the meadows, decking the cowslips' coats of gold at early dawn with +splotches of ruby, my choicest favours, and hanging pearls in their +dainty ears. In summer they sleep in the roseleaves, and ride behind +the wings of butterflies, while in winter they hush the babble of the +brooks, and powder the branches of the trees with frost to hide their +nakedness. Away with you, Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed! +Go, freeze the fingers of Father Time into glassy icicles, and forget +not to seek for crimson berries on which our friends the birds may feed +at morn!" + +[Illustration: I fancied that I had seen those wee brown men] + +[Illustration] + +She clapped her hands, and the Fairies fled. I wondered why she did not +fall, since she no longer clung to the frond of bracken; but her tiny +feet were firmly planted in the fork of a leaf, and behind her glinted a +pair of wings which had been invisible before. As I watched her I +thought of a question I had often wanted to ask. + +"Where do Fairies come from?" I said, hoping she would not be offended. + +"Ah," she replied, "that is more than I may tell you. But we were here, +in these very islands, long before the people of the woods, and the +white-haired Druids who worshipped the God of the Oak. There were +spirits then, as now, in streams and rivers, and sweet-voiced Sirens in +the deep blue sea. Some Fairies rode on magic horses, and some were even +smaller than I, and lived in the ears of the yellow corn. Dagda then was +the King of the Fairies, a mighty spirit whose cauldron was supposed +to be the vast grey dome of the sky. Those were the days of Witches, +Dwarfs, and Giants, and little people who lived in the hills, and many +other Fairies known by different names. + +We are found in various guises all over the world, but our home is said +first to have been in Persia. There dwelt the ancient Jinn who haunted +the mountain recesses and the forest wilds ages before the first man +trod the earth. Here, too, were Deevs, malicious creatures of terrible +strength who warred with our sisters, the Peries. These exquisite +creatures abode at Kâf, in the deep green mountains of Chrysolite, the +realm of Pleasure and Delight, wherein was the beauteous Amber City. +Some day you may go to Persia, and then, if you meet a Peri, she will +tell you how a mortal man once came to her sisters' rescue, and +conquered the wicked Deevs." + +The thought of meeting a Peri took my breath away, for I had read about +them on winter evenings. + +"Do you mean that wherever I go I shall see the Fairies, just as I see +you now?" I cried. + +"Wherever you go!" she said, nodding her head, "and soon I believe you +will cross the sea and travel through other lands. But you must not +think," she went on earnestly, "that the Fairies in your own country are +less worth knowing, for you might spend your life in making friends with +them, and yet have much to learn." + +I can't remember half of all that Titania told me after this, but she +spoke of fair White Elves who live among the trees, and are ruled by a +King who rides abroad in a beautiful little coach with trappings of gold +and silver; of mischievous Black Elves who live underground, and haunt +people with nasty tempers; of Nymphs and Gnomes and sad-faced Trolls, +and of Brownies and Portunes and Pixies. I should have liked to hear +more about the Brownies and Portunes, but it was fun to learn how the +Brownies play tricks on lazy people who lie in bed and won't get up, +pulling the clothes right off them, and throwing these on the floor, +and of how they help the farmers' wives to bake and brew if they are +clean and neat. Titania said that Fairies dislike people who are untidy, +and I hoped that she hadn't seen my playbox or my chest of drawers. I +made up my mind that directly I got home I would put them straight, and +so that she might not notice how red I had grown, I asked her to tell me +what Portunes were. + +[Illustration: The "Portunes" were queer creatures.] + +"Queer little wrinkled creatures with faces like old men," she said. +"They wear long green coats covered with darns and patches, and are only +found now in the depths of the country. They like to live on prosperous +farms, and though some of them are barely an inch high, they can lift +heavier weights than the strongest labourer. Like the Brownies, they can +be mischievous as well as helpful. A farmer once offended a Portune by +speaking disrespectfully of his kindred, and the next time that the good +man rode home from market in the dusk, the little fellow sprang on to +the horse's reins, and guided him into the bog. Both horse and man had +to flounder out as best they could, and the farmer was careful +henceforth to mind his tongue." + +"And what are Pixies like?" I asked. She had said that I reminded her of +one of these, so of course I was curious about them. + +"They are much taller than we are, and very fair," answered Titania, +"with blue-grey eyes like yours. If you want to meet them, you must go +to Devonshire, for it is there that they make their home. They love the +ferns and the heather, and the rich red earth, and live in a Pixy-house +in a rock. They, also, are ruled by a King, who commands them as I do +my Elves and Fays, despatching them hither and thither to do his will. +Sometimes he sends them down to the mines, to show the men who work +there where the richest lode is to be found; and if the miners grumble, +or are discontented, the Pixies lead them astray by lighting false +fires. On other occasions they are told off to help the villagers with +their housework, and their attentions are warmly welcomed by the Devon +folk. One good dame was so pleased with the help a ragged little Pixie +who had torn her frock on a sweet-briar bush gave her with her spinning, +that she made her a new set of clothes of bright green cloth, and laid +these by the spinning wheel. The Pixy put them on at once, and singing + + "Pixy fine, Pixy gay, + Pixy now will run away!" + +sped out of the house in broad daylight, and, alas! she never came back +again." + +"Ho! ho! ho!" laughed a merry voice, and a shock-headed little fellow +swung himself down from a bough just behind me, and turned a somersault +on the ground. + +"Welcome, gay Puck!" Titania cried. "Whence do you come, and what do you +do this night?" + +"I come from the court of King Oberon, sweet Titania," answered the Elf, +"and to-night I plait the manes and tails of Farmer Best's grey horses. +At early dawn I shall skim the cream off the milk in his good wife's +dairy, since yester-e'en she grudged a drink of it to an orphan child. +'Robin Goodfellow has been here!' she will cry when she sees what I have +been after, and her greedy old eyes will fill with tears. That is one +of my pet names, Wide-eyes," he added, hopping on to my shoulder and +pinching my ear. "I am also Pouke, Hobgoblin, and Robin Hood. But where +are the Urchins, my merry play-fellows? It is high time that they were +here, for the lady moon has hung her lamp i' the sky." + +[Illustration: "The Fairy Ring was thronged with dancing Elves"] + +The clouds were all tinted a deep rose pink, and behind the trees, just +where the moon had risen, was a haze of purple. I knew by this that it +must be nearly tea-time, and I was just going to say that I must go, +when Titania left the frond of bracken, and alighted in the centre of +the Fairy Ring. Waving her wand, she summoned her "gladsome sprites," +and next moment the Fairy Ring was thronged with dancing Elves who wore +red caps and silver shoes, with bright green mantles buttoned with bobs +of silk. Puck flew to join them, but Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and +Mustard-seed, who sprang from nowhere, danced in an inner circle round +the Fairy Queen. They sang as they danced, and this is their song. I +found it afterwards in a book of Father's, which he said had in it more +wonderful things than all books in the world but one: + + "By the moon we sport and play, + With the night begins our day. + As we frisk the dew doth fall, + Trip it, little urchins all. + Lightly as the little bee, + Two by two and three by three, + And about goe wee, goe wee." + +"And about goe wee, goe wee!" echoed down the glade, and then the +Elves suddenly disappeared, with Puck and Titania and her attendants. + +The wood was growing darker every minute, but the sparkles of frost were +glittering still, and lit my way. At the end of the scrub I saw Father +coming to meet me, swinging down the road with such long steps that he +looked like a kindly big giant. He had guessed where I had gone, and he +was so pleased to find me that he forgot to say I mustn't explore any +more without him, as I was afraid he would. He took my hand, and we both +ran; it was lovely at home by the fire. + +I meant to have told him about Queen Titania while we were having tea, +but Nancy had made such scrumptious cakes that there wasn't time at +first, and before I had finished he began to open the letters that had +come just after he left that morning. They seemed to be all bills, and +Father sighed as he looked them over, his forehead puckered into rucks +and lines. Presently he came to a big blue envelope, and he turned +this round and round as if he thought there might be something horrid +inside. The paper crackled like anything as he drew it out, and when it +was unfolded he sat looking at it for a long time, though there didn't +seem to be much writing. At last he gave an odd kind of gasp, and took +my face between his hands. He pressed it so hard that he made me say +"O!" though I didn't want to do this, and I wondered what had happened. + +"Your great-aunt Helen is dead, Chris," he said at last, as he let me +go. "I haven't seen her for years and years.... She was not over kind to +me when I was a lad, though I believe she meant well.... And now she's +left us all her money. We shan't be poor any more." + +This was the beginning of ever so many surprises. First, Father and I +had warm new overcoats, with woolly stuff inside them that felt like +blankets, only much more soft and fluffy, and Nancy had the blue silk +dress she always vowed that she should buy when her ship came home. +There was a fire every night in Father's study, and I had one in my +bedroom. More patients came up for soup than they did for medicine, and +they said "God bless you, Sir!" to Father so often that he wanted to run +away. The children in the hospital had the biggest tree that the ward +would hold, and all the old men and women in the workhouse had a big +tea, and shawls and mufflers. + +A few weeks later a strange young man with a very shiny collar and a new +brown bag came to stay with us. Father said he was a "locum," but Nancy +said it ought to be "locust," for his appetite was enormous, and she +couldn't make enough buttered toast to please him. He had come to take +care of Father's patients until someone bought all the medicines and +things in the surgery, and I was awfully glad to hear we were going +away. + +"We'll go straight to the sunshine, Chris," said Father, "where there +are trees and flowers instead of long rows of houses, and the air isn't +full of smoke." + +And that night I dreamt all about fairies, and of what I was going to +see and hear in foreign lands. + +[Illustration: The "Locust."] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter II + +The Princess with the Sea-Green hair. + + +The cliffs were hidden in the mist when we left Dover, and the sky was +dull and grey. But very soon it began to clear; a silvery light shone +behind the clouds, and then the sun came out, and the rolling waves +turned emerald green. They tossed our steamer up and down as if it were +a cork, and Father soon went below, but I begged so hard to be allowed +to stay on deck that he said I might if I would promise, "honour +bright," not to get into mischief. + +When he had gone I put my cap into my pocket, so that it might not blow +off, and leaned over the rails to watch the swell of the sea. I wasn't +thinking of Fairies then, nor of being a Christmas child, but of how it +must feel to be shipwrecked. So when the spray blew in my face and made +me blink, I was surprised to see a merry red face grinning up at me from +the foam. It had curls of seaweed upon its forehead, and a mouth like a +big round "O". + +"I'm Father Neptune," it roared, so loudly that I could hear it quite +distinctly above the noise of the wind. "Why not take a header, and +come and ride one of my fine sea horses? 'Father wouldn't like it?' +Ho! ho! ho! What a molly-coddle of a boy!" + +A big wave tossed him on one side, and on its crest was a beautiful girl +with a shining tail, and hair like a stream of gold. Of course I knew +she was a mermaid, and would want me to go to her coral caves. + +"Won't you come with me and play with my sheeny pearls?" she cried. +"They gleam like the dawn on a summer morning, and you shall choose the +loveliest for your very own." + +She held out her arms and I nearly sprang into them, for I thought that +a pearl would be splendid for Father's pin. But just behind her I saw +two ugly mermen, with horrid green teeth and bright red eyes, and ropes +of seaweed in their long thin hands. Then I remembered that mermaids +were dangerous, and I ran straight over to the other side of the steamer +and put my fingers into my ears, so that I might not hear her call. She +spoke so sweetly that it was difficult to resist, but I did not trust +her. + +The water was calmer on this side, and I wondered why until I saw some +funny brown men, rather like Brownies, but ever so much bigger and +stronger, stretched out at full length on the tops of the waves. +They were blowing on conchs as hard as they could, and wherever +they blew, the waves grew quieter. I guessed at once that they were +Tritons--seafolk who live with Neptune in his crystal palace under the +sea. I was still watching them when Father came up behind me, and told +me that we were really in. + +We stayed the night at a big hotel where almost everyone spoke in a +language which I did not understand, and I had a grown-up dinner with +Father, with heaps of different dishes, most of them tasting much alike. +Next day we went on for hours in the train, and the air grew warmer and +warmer, and the grass more green, until at last we were in the south of +France. There were palms and orange groves and heaps of flowers, and it +would have been just splendid if Father had been all right. He hadn't +had time to be ill at home you see, and now there were no sick people +to worry him, he was so tired that he couldn't do anything. But he told +me not to worry, for once he was really rested, he would soon get well. + +And so he did, though it took a long time to rest him, and we couldn't +explore a bit. In the mornings we strolled through the gardens, or down +to the sea, and most afternoons we did nothing at all. Very often, as I +sat beside him on the verandah, with the sun shining full on the green +awning, and the roses nodding to us over the balcony, he would fall +asleep; and then a Flower-Fairy would peep through the ferns, and tell +me the loveliest stories. The Rose-Fairy came, and the Queen of the +Lilies, with a lovely gold crown upon her head; but my favourite Fairy +lived in a bed of violets. Her frock was purple, and I knew when she was +coming because the air all round grew sweet. Her stories were the best +of all. She had heard them from the wind, she said, as he played with +her leaves at dawn. My favourite was one that she said he had brought +from Provence. + + +[Illustration] + +The Princess with the Sea-Green Hair. + +"A worthy couple at Marseilles," she began, "had longed for a child +for years in vain, and great was their joy when they knew at last that +their wish was about to be granted. The boy was born during a fearful +storm, and the first sound he heard was the crash of the sea as it broke +on the shore. He was christened Paul, and grew up into a handsome lad +with a quantity of thick fair hair which curled like the tips of the +waves, and piercing blue eyes which were always twinkling with fun and +mischief. + +There was not any question as to what calling he should follow, for the +sea claimed him as a son of her own, and he was never content on dry +land. When his ship came home and the crew was dismissed, he could not +rest, and every evening at sunset he would row himself out in a little +boat as far as he could go. One summer night, when a thousand ripples +danced on the waves, he leaned over the side of his boat, gazing +down--down--down. He did not know why, but he felt quite sure that +someone was calling him, and with all his heart he longed to obey the +summons. Presently he felt himself lifted gently, and drawn through +the gleaming water by hands which he could not see. It was black as +night before they released him, for neither sun nor moon pierce the +depths of the ocean. He would have been in total darkness but for the +strange-shaped fish who carried lanterns on their heads, and guided +him to the gates of a palace, formed of millions of barnacles. These +were piled one on the top of the other until they reached an enormous +height, and were decorated with what looked like a row of human eyes. + +The gates flew open as Paul approached them, and through a passage of +mother-of-pearl he reached a chamber that flashed with opal lights. Here +a Fairy Princess awaited him--a Princess so exquisitely beautiful in +spite of her sea-green hair, that though his heart did not go out to +her, he was not repelled by the love she showed him. + +She kept him with her for many hours, and at dawn of day she bade him +return to his home, giving him two golden fish which he was to show +to all who asked him where he had spent the night, telling them he +had been a'fishing. The invisible hands which had brought him thither +bore him back to his boat, and he landed just at sunrise. His golden +fish were a source of awe and wonder to his neighbours, who had never +seen their like before; but the priest shook his head, and warned him to +have no dealings with the powers of darkness. + +[Illustration: Here a Fairy Princess awaited him--] + +[Illustration] + +But Paul could not resist rowing out to the edge of the sunset. Evening +after evening he plied his oars, and always at twilight he was drawn +down--down, to the palace of the strange Princess with the sea-green +hair. When he went on a voyage all was well with him, for his vessel +bore him to other seas, where no one called him when the sky grew red; +but he was no sooner at home with his parents than something within him +made him row out to the west. + +At last it seemed as if he had forgotten the Princess, for he fell in +love with sweet Lucile, who was as good and gentle as she was fair, and +willingly gave him her troth. Their wedding was fixed for Easter Day, +and the night before, Paul wandered down to the sea-shore, thinking +of the bliss in store for him on the morrow. His love-lit eyes fell +dreamily on his boat, which had lain for months in the shallow cove +where he had moored her, and without thinking what he was doing, he +stepped inside and took the oars in his hands. Alas! No sooner did he +feel the boat moving under him, than he was seized by the old wild +longing to sail towards the west. + +All happened as before, until he reached the Princess's palace; but now, +instead of smiling sweetly, she received him with threatening looks +which showed an array of cruel teeth behind her rose-red lips. + +'So! you have been unfaithful to me!' she cried. 'I will not slay you, +since I have greater punishments in store than death.... You shall stay +in the depths of the sea until your yellow hair is bleached and white, +and your face a mask of hideous wrinkles. Then, and then only, shall you +return to land, and those who have loved you best shall spurn you from +them as something loathsome. Scorn for scorn, and pain for pain. Thus +will I take my revenge.' + +So for seven long years Paul was a prisoner in the darkness of the deep, +his bed the black and slimy ooze, and his companions fearsome monsters +who would fain have devoured him. At last, when his hair was white +as snow, and his face so wrinkled and ugly that the children of the +mer-folk shuddered as they passed, he was seized by a sprawling octopus, +and dragged up through the water. The loathsome creature held him fast +until they reached a spot not far from the little brown cottage where +Lucile had lived with her old father, and here it loosened its coils; +and a great wave cast Paul on shore. The cottage was empty and deserted, +and the winding path he had trodden so often was covered with moss. +Close by, however, was another cottage, far more spacious, and through +the open door of this Paul saw his old sweetheart sitting beside a +cradle. She sang as she rocked it gently with her foot, and her shining +needles flew in and out of a fisherman's coarse blue sock. + +As the shadow fell across the threshold she looked up brightly, +expecting to see her husband. Meeting Paul's gaze instead, her own +grew strained with horror, and snatching her baby from the cradle she +fled to the inner room. Without a word Paul hastened away. He knew his +doom, and hastened to throw himself back to the sea. + +In his headlong flight he stumbled against an old, old woman, gathering +drift-wood on the wreck-strewn coast. She would have fallen if he had +not caught her in his arms, and as he held her she saw his eyes. They +alone were unchanged, and his mother knew them. + +'My boy--my dear boy!' she cried with a sob of joy. And she drew his +seared face down to her bosom, murmuring over it the same fond words she +had used when he was a child. She kissed him, and the spell was broken; +once more he was good to look upon.... The Princess had not known, you +see, that a mother's love is immortal." + + * * * * * + +Father was still asleep when the story came to an end, so I implored the +Fairy to tell me another. + +"This comes from Provence, too," she said in answer to my pleading, "and +will show you that sea-folk can sometimes be merciful." + + +[Illustration] + +The Sailor and the Porpoise. + +"Among the crew of the good ship _L'Oiseau_, was a sailor named Antoine, +who kept all on board alive with his merry wit. One day, while sailing +the waters of the Mediterranean, the sea only faintly ruffled by the +breeze that helped them on their way, they espied what at first appeared +to be a huge sea-serpent making its way towards them. For a few moments +the mariners watched it in much alarm; then, to their immense relief, +they found that their 'sea-serpent' was a string of harmless porpoises, +swimming in a row, with their shining black backs just appearing above +the surface of the water. As they neared the ship they broke their +ranks, and evidently regarding the sailors as their friends, gambolled +upon the waves like boisterous children. No man dreamt of interfering +with them until Antoine thoughtlessly picked up a rusty spear and threw +it at one of those farthest away. He did not do this from any desire to +kill, but only to show how excellent was his aim, and when he saw his +shaft strike home, tinging the sea with red as his victim sank with a +convulsive shudder, he was seized with self-reproach and a nameless +dread. + +And behold! a great storm shook the sea, as if the gods themselves were +angry. Thunder and lightning rolled and flashed, and raindrops heavy as +leaden balls fell in swift torrents. So fearful was the tempest that it +threatened to overwhelm the ship, and the Captain was in despair. + +In this dire extremity a knight on a magnificent black charger came +riding over the waves. + +'Surrender him who threw the spear!' he cried, and the sea stayed its +turmoil to listen. 'Do this, and I will save the ship. Else shall it +perish, with all on board, and sea creatures shall gnaw your bones.' + +The sailors were exceedingly afraid, but they would not betray their +comrade. Seeing this, Antoine stepped forth of his own accord, for he +would not let his shipmates suffer for his fault. Leaping from the deck, +he landed upon the haunches of the charger, behind the knight, and that +moment the sea became smooth as glass, and the strange steed disappeared +with his two riders. + +The ship made good way, and his shipmates never expected to see poor +Antoine again, but to the amazement and joy of all, he rejoined +the vessel a few days later as though it had stood by for him. The +excitement of the men was great as they gathered round him to hear of +his adventures. + +And truly he had a marvellous story to relate. He had ridden, he told +them, to a distant island, where in a castle of shimmering gold, on a +bed of the softest eiderdown, he found a knight stretched in agony. It +was he whom he had wounded, while in the form of a porpoise, and the +spear he had thrown so thoughtlessly was still sticking in his side. +He drew this out, with tears of shame, and then, with his guilty right +hand, he cleansed and bathed the wound. When this was done, the knight +fell into a deep sleep, and woke at dawn well as ever. Taking Antoine's +hand, he led him through many corridors lit with gems to a resplendent +banquet hall, where the walls were encrusted with star-shaped sapphires, +and the floor was of beaten gold. Many other knights were assembled +here, and maidens so fair that Antoine sighed to think of them. When he +had feasted on curious dishes of rich fruits, the same knight who had +brought him thither took him back to the sea-shore, where the same black +horse awaited their coming. Mounting as before, the charger sped like +the wind over the sea until the ship hove in sight. When they came to +within one hundred yards of the vessel, the black steed and his rider +disappeared as mysteriously as they had come, and Antoine was left +struggling in the water. However, he was an excellent swimmer, and soon +reached the ship's side, up which he easily clambered by the aid of a +rope which fortunately happened to be trailing in the water. + +This was the tale that Antoine told his shipmates, and in memory of the +clemency of the porpoise-knight, the sailors vowed that never again +would they injure a porpoise. Not only were they as good as their word, +but the vow is kept to this day by their children's children." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter III + +Rose Marie and the Poupican. + + +It was spring time when we left for Brittany. Father had been there +once with Mother, and thought he would like to go again. So I said +goodbye to my Flower-Fairy, and promised that if I could I would come +back one day to see her. + +The sunny air of the south had done Father good, and now he was almost +well. While we were in the train he read from the guide book, and told +me about curious "dolmens," or mounds of stone, which are supposed +to have been built to mark the ancients' burying places. There were +hundreds of these in Brittany, he said, and I was glad, for I knew they +were haunted by "Gorics" and "Courils"--strange Fairies of olden times. + +That very first evening, while Father was writing letters, I slipped +away by myself instead of going to bed, for I wanted to see a Poupican. +A Poupican, you must know, is the dwarf-child of a Korrigan--a Fairy who +looks lovely by night and horrible by day, and cares for nothing so that +she gets what she wants. Korrigans are said to have been princesses in +days gone by, but they were so cruel and selfish that someone laid them +under a spell, which lasts for thousands of years unless a mortal breaks +it. On account of the wicked things they said their mouths are always +dry, and they are consumed by thirst; so they chose their homes by +streams and fountains, of which there are many in Brittany. + +Father had been telling me that there was a famous fountain in a wood +not far from our hotel, and I thought I might find them here. The +fountain was hidden behind a grove of fir-trees, but the moon shone +down on its rough grey stones, and turned the square pond of water in +front of it into a silver mirror. + +At first there seemed to be no one there, but when my eyes had grown +used to the gloom I saw a number of Elves about two feet in height, with +misty white veils wound round their bodies. A cloth was spread beside +the fountain. It was covered with the loveliest things to eat--honey and +fruit, and queer-shaped cakes sprinkled with sugar comfits--while in +the centre stood a crystal goblet, from which the moon drew flashes of +soft fairy light. As I crouched in the ferns, a wee green Wood-Elf stole +up behind me; her tiny face was good and kind, and although she was so +small that I could almost have held her in my hand, I felt she was there +to protect me. + +Then I turned my eyes to the crystal goblet and I grew thirsty all at +once; and I wondered what the Korrigans would do if I took a sip of the +amber wine which filled it to the brim. + +"One drop would make you wise for ever," whispered the Wood-Elf, just as +if I had spoken, "but you would be silent for ever, also. No mortal can +drink that wine and live. The Korrigans pass it round to each other in a +golden cup at the end of their feast, which takes place but once in the +year. It gives them power to work many charms, and to take the form of +animals at will." + + +[Illustration] + +The Hunter who shot the white Doe. + +"Once, in these very woods, a hunter shot a fair white doe, when to +his amazement, she spoke to him in a human voice. He was so touched by +her reproaches that he tore his fine linen shirt into strips to bind +up her wound, and then hurried off to the spring for water to quench +her thirst. It was dusk by the time he could get back to her, for the +first spring he reached was dry, and instead of the milk-white doe, he +found a beauteous maiden, who threw herself on his bosom and entreated +him not to leave her. For a year and a day he was under her spells, +but he escaped in the end by making the sign of the cross with his two +forefingers. This sign puts a Korrigan to instant flight, for things +which are holy fill them with terror.... Ah! they have been at their +mischief again. Poor Annette will weep for this." + +The Wood-Elf stopped speaking, for running lightly over the grass, +holding each other's long white veils so as to form a swinging cradle, +came a group of nine smooth-limbed Korrigans, their red-gold hair +tossing on the wind behind them. In the midst of the hanging cradle lay +a tiny baby, with widely opened eyes and a solemn pink face, sucking a +fat round thumb. + +"They have stolen him from his mother, while she dreamt of fairy gold," +the Wood-Elf sighed. "She should not have left her door on the latch; +it was a sad mistake. In her little one's place there is now a Poupican. +At first she will not know, but will fondle and kiss the changeling as +if he were her own. After a while she will grieve to find that he gives +her no love in return for hers, and plays as readily with strangers as +with his mother. But her husband, who is a hard man, will rejoice at the +wee child's cleverness. For he will have an old head on young shoulders, +and be wise beyond his years." + +While the Wood-Elf was speaking, poor Annette's baby lay contentedly +beside the crystal goblet, sucking his thumb and looking up at the +stars. The Korrigans had left off singing now, and they were passing +round the golden cup when there came on the wind the sound of a church +bell. Flinging the cup and the goblet into the pond, and staying only +to wind the baby in their clinging veils, the Korrigans fled into the +darkness with cries of anguish. Some spell seemed to hold me, or I +should have tried to rescue the little thing; for it was dreadful to +think what might happen to him with the Korrigans. + +But the Wood-Elf was quite comforting. "He will be well taken care of," +she said, "and someday Annette may break the spell, with the help of the +Curé. Rose-Marie got back her child by her own wit, but then she has the +name of the blessed Mother. 'You would like to know how?' Then I must +speak softly, lest a Korrigan should hear." + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +Rose Marie and the Poupican. + +"Rose-Marie was very young when she married Pierre," began the Elf, "and +nothing his mother or hers could say would induce her to beware of +Korrigans when her baby came. + +'They would not hurt him even if they could,' she cried. 'Who could harm +anything so small and sweet?' And she actually set his cradle under +the cherry trees, so that his round pink face was covered with fallen +petals. Then she went to fetch Pierre from his sowing that he might see +how his little son was hidden under the spring snow, and lingered on her +way to gather a cluster of purple violets. + +When she had disappeared, the Korrigans stole her baby, leaving a +Poupican in the fragrant nest. The sun had gone in when she came back, +and the little creature was wailing fretfully, Rose-Marie snatched him +to her bosom and tried to soothe him, but from that day forward she had +no rest. Her milk was sweet and plentiful, and the cradle was soft and +warm, but he gave neither her nor her good man Pierre a moment's peace. +All through the hours of the night he wailed, and tore at her hair when +she held him close to her, scratching her face like an angry kitten. + +[Illustration: Rose-Marie and the Poupican] + +When he grew older, he was just as bad, for there was no end to his +mischief. He shut the cat in a bin of flour, and opened the oven door +when Rose-Marie was baking, so that the bread was spoilt. He drove the +hens into the brook, and cut the cord which tethered Pierre's white cow, +so that she roamed for miles. And with all he did, he never uttered a +word. It was this which first roused Rose-Marie's suspicions, and after +that she watched him carefully. + +One morning she made up her mind to surprise him into speaking, and as +he sat beside the hearth, peering at her through his half-closed eyes, +she set an egg shell on the fire, and placing in this a spoonful of +broth, stirred it carefully with a silver pin. The Poupican was amazed, +for it was nearing the dinner hour, and there would be ten to feed. At +last he could contain himself no longer. + +'What are you doing, Mother?' he asked in a strange cracked voice. + +'I am preparing a meal for ten,' returned Rose-Marie, without looking +round. + +'For ten--in an eggshell?' he cried. 'I have seen an egg before a hen; +I have seen the acorn before the oak; but never yet saw I folly such as +this!' And he fell to cackling like a full farmyard, rocking himself +from side to side, and repeating, 'Such folly I never saw!' until even +gentle Rose-Marie was moved to anger. + +'You have seen too much, my son,' she said, and lifting him up by the +scruff of his neck in spite of his struggles, she carried him out of +the house. Then, sitting down on a heap of stones beside the brook, +she proceeded to whip him soundly. At his first cry of pain a Korrigan +appeared, in the shape of an ugly old woman with bleared red eyes and +straggling tresses. She was leading a curly-haired boy by the hand, +the living image of Pierre. As she released him he flew across the +grass to Rose-Marie and hid his face in her skirts. + +'Here is thy son!' croaked the Korrigan. 'I have fed him on meal and +honey, and he has learnt no evil. Give me my Poupican, and I will go.' + +So Rose-Marie gave up the Poupican, and with a thankful heart took her +own son home." + + * * * * * + +"Do you know any more stories?" I asked when the Elf stopped for breath. +I didn't want to go back just yet, for it was jolly in the wood, and I +could smell violets close by. + +"More than I can tell," replied the Elf, "but you shall hear what +happened to Peric and Jean." + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +The Story of Peric and Jean. + +"In a beautiful valley not far from here a number of Korrigans were +accustomed to gather on summer nights, for the grass was soft as velvet, +and the mountains sheltered it from the breeze. None of the peasants +dare cross the valley after dark, lest they might be forced to join +their revels; for it was known by all that the Korrigans must dance +whether they would or not, until some mortal should break the charm that +had been laid upon them. + +One evening, when the west was aglow with fire, a farmer was sent for +to attend the sick bed of his mother, who lived on the other side of +the valley. His wife and he had been at work all day in the fields, +since labour was scarce and they were poor, and as both loved the old +woman dearly, they hurried off without stopping to lay aside their +_fourches_--little sticks which are still used in some parts of +Brittany as 'plough paddles.' By the time they were half-way across +the valley, the dusk had fallen, and they found themselves encircled +by angry Korrigans, who shrieked with rage and made as if they would +tear them to pieces. Before they had touched them, however, they all +fell back, and a moment later broke into singing. This was their +song:-- + + 'Lez y, Lez hon, + (_Let him go, let him go_,) + Bas an arer zo gant hook; + (_For he has the wand of the plough_;) + Lez on, Lez y, + (_Let her go, let her go_,) + Bas an arer zo gant y!' + (_For she has the wand of the plough_!) + +Then the dancers made way for the farmer and his wife, who reached the +old mother safely, and comforted her last hours. + +When they returned to their own homes they told what they had seen and +heard. Some of the villagers were still too much afraid of the Korrigans +to venture, but others armed themselves with _fourches_, and hastened to +the valley when night had fallen. All of these witnessed the famous +dance, but none felt inclined to join it. + +In a neighbouring village two tailors dwelt, and they were as anxious as +the rest to see the Korrigans. The elder was a tall and handsome fellow +named Jean, but in spite of his inches he had no pluck, and was idle as +well as vain. The other was Peric, a red-haired hunchback, so kind and +lovable in spite of his looks that if ever a neighbour were in trouble, +it was to Peric he went first. Though the hunchback and Jean shared the +same business, the latter was always gibing at Peric, and left him to do +most of the work. + +'Since you're so courageous,' he sneered, one fine warm night when +he and Peric had stayed behind in the valley to watch the Korrigans, +'suppose you ask them to let you join their dance. Your hump should make +you safe with them, for they are not likely to fall in love with you.' + +'All right,' said Peric cheerfully, though at this unkind reference to +his deformity his face had flushed. And taking off his cap he approached +the whirling Elves. + +'May I dance with you?' he asked politely, dropping his _fourche_ to +show he trusted them. + +'You're more brave than good looking,' they replied, their feet still +moving to the same quick measure. 'Are you not afraid that we shall work +you ill?' + +'Not a bit!' answered Peric, joining hands with them; and he started to +sing as lustily as they:-- + + '_Dilun, Dimeurs, Dimerc'her_,' + +which means 'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.' After a while he grew tired of +singing these three words so often, and went on of his own accord:-- + + '_Ha Diriaou, ha Digwener_,' + (And Thursday and Friday!) + +'_Mat! Mat!_' (Good! Good!) cried the Korrigans in chorus, and though he +could not tell why they were so delighted, he was glad to have given +them pleasure. When they offered him the choice of wealth or power in +return for some mysterious service which he seemed to have rendered +them, he only laughed, for he thought that they were poking fun at him. + +'Take away my hump, then,' he cried at last, 'and make me as handsome as +my friend Jean. A little maid whom I love dearly will not look at me +when he is near, though she likes well enough to talk to me by the +fountain if he is out of the way.' + +[Illustration: They tossed him three times in the air.] + +[Illustration] + +'Is that all?' exclaimed the Korrigans. 'That will not give us the +slightest trouble!' and catching him in their veils, they tossed him +three times in the air. The third time he alighted on his feet. He was +now as tall and straight as he could wish to be, with fine soft hair as +black as the raven's wing. + +Instead of rejoicing at his friend's good fortune, Jean was full of +envy. Forgetting his fears in his greed for gain, he pushed himself into +the midst of the Korrigans, who had once more begun to dance, and joined +them in their singing. His voice was less melodious than Peric's, and he +did not keep time so well, but they suffered him amongst them out of +curiosity. + +Presently he, like Peric, grew tired of the monotonous chant, and +shouted: + + '_Ha Disadarn, ha Disul_' + (And Saturday and Sunday) + +'What else? what else?' cried the Korrigans in great excitement, but +he only looked as stupid as an owl, and repeated these words over and +over. Catching him in their veils, they tossed him up as they had done +Peric, and when he came down again he found he had red hair and a hump. +They were angry you see, that he had come so near to breaking the spell +and had then disappointed them, for if he had only had the sense to add: + + '_Ha cetu chu er sizun_,' + (And now the week is ended) + +he would have broken the spell and set them free, since Peric had +already sung 'And Saturday and Sunday.'" + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter IV + +The Bird at the Window. + + +There were so many things in Brittany that Father wanted to show +me--places he had seen with Mother, and curious monuments, and lovely +views,--that I could not get out alone again until the day before we +went on to Normandy. No Fairy would ever speak to me unless I was quite +by myself, and the quaint little men who peered out from the old ruins +when I ran on in front, scampered away at once when Father came in +sight. + +On that last morning a funny old postman in a blue cap brought him some +letters from home. They were about the practice, and Father said that he +must stay indoors to answer them. The patients did not seem to like the +"locust" at all, according to Nancy. I don't suppose he gave them such +nice-tasting medicines as Father did. + +The moment he took up his pen I was off to the wood. The paths were +carpeted with velvet moss, and starry flowers peeped through the green. +Some bees were buzzing round a clump of violets that grew by the side of +the fountain, and sitting on the steps were two hideous old women, with +bleared red eyes and wisps of faded hair. As I drew near they scowled +most horribly, and vanished in the spray. I was delighted to find my +Wood-Elf by the violets, for somehow the sight of those two old crones +had made me shiver. + +"They were Korrigans!" the Wood-Elf whispered. "That is how they look by +daylight, so it is no wonder that they hate to be seen by mortals! I +shouldn't advise you to come here to-night, for they will bear you a +grudge, and might tempt you to dance with them!" + +I thought of what had befallen Jean, and shook my head. It must be +dreadful to have a hump, though I read of one once that turned into +wings. But Jean's didn't seem that kind. + +"I know better than to put myself in their power," I cried, and the +Wood-Elf laughed. + +"You think you are very wise," she said, pausing the next moment to coax +a bee to give her a sip of honey, "but mortal men are not a match for +Fairy Folk. The Dwarfs, or Courils, who haunt the stone tables and +curious mounds you find throughout this country, compel all travellers +by night who come their way to dance with them, whether they will or no. +They don't let them stop dancing until they drop to the ground, worn +out with fatigue, and sometimes the poor creatures never regain their +strength. Mère Gautier's husband danced with the Dwarfs when he was but +eight-and-twenty, and he has not done a stroke of work from that day +to this, though now he is eighty-five. Mère Gautier keeps the home +together, and he sits by the fireside and tells the neighbours how the +Dwarfs looked and what they said. The Curé declares that such idleness +is sinful, and that he might work if he would; but one cannot be sure, +and he makes himself out to be a very poor creature. + +The Gorics--tiny men but three feet high, though they have the strength +of giants--are little better than Courils. Near Quiberon, by the sea +shore, is a heap of huge stones, some say no less than four thousand in +number, known as 'The House of the Gorics,' and every night the Dwarfs +come out and dance round it till break of day. If they spy a belated +traveller, even in the distance, they compel him to join them, just as +the Courils do; and when he faints from sheer exhaustion they vanish in +peals of laughter." + +"The Fairy I met in the South spoke of little men who gave away fairy +gold," I said, trying not to let my voice sound sleepy. The sun was hot, +though it was early spring, and there was a grasshopper just at my elbow +who had been chirping a lullaby to her babies for the last half-hour. + +"If you shut your eyes you will see nothing!" the Wood-Elf pouted; and +I knew that she had noticed my yawn. I sat up then, and told her how +pretty I thought her frock, all brown and green, with a dainty girdle of +silver. She laughed at this, and I coaxed her to tell me another story. +It was one, she said, that had been sung in verse on the Welsh hills, +for in ancient times the people of Wales and those of "Little Britain" +were the closest friends. + + +[Illustration] + +The Wee Men of Morlaix + +"Long, long ago," she began, "a lordly castle was built at Morlaix, +in the midst of such pleasant surroundings that some little Dwarfs in +search of a home thought that they could not do better than build their +stronghold underneath it. So they set to work immediately, for they +have a very wise rule that when once they decide that a thing must +be done, it shall be done at once. By the time that the castle was +finished, their home was completed too. Far below the ground they had +fashioned a number of oval chambers, with ceilings encrusted with +gleaming pearls which they found in the bay, and floors paved with +precious amber. Beyond these chambers lay their treasure house, where +they kept rich stores of fairy gold, and the winding passages which led +to the upper world were only just wide enough to allow them to creep +through. Their entrances were cunningly contrived to look like rabbit +holes, so that strangers might think they led to nothing more than some +sandy warren. + +But the country folk knew better, for they often watched the little men +run in and out, beating a faint tattoo on the silver basins in which +they collected the morning dew and the evening mist, which served them +for food and drink. Now and then, when the sky was a vault of blue, +and the sun shone his brightest, they brought up piles of their golden +coins, that they might see them glisten in the light of day. So friendly +were they to mortals, that if they were surprised while thus employed, +they seldom failed to share their wealth. + +One very bleak autumn there was much distress on the countryside, for +the harvest had failed for the third season, and many of the smaller +farmers were on the verge of ruin. Jacques Bosquet--_Bon Jacques_--his +neighbours called him, for he had never refused his help to a friend in +need--was one of these. His frail old mother was weak and ailing, and he +did not know how to tell her that she must leave the homestead to which +she had come as a bride, full fifty years before. In his despair he +tried to borrow a thousand francs from a rich merchant in the next town; +but the merchant was a hard man, and his mouth closed like a cruel steel +trap when he told Jacques roughly that he had no money to lend. As +Jacques returned home his eyes were so dim with the tears which pride +forbade him to shed, that in passing the castle of Morlaix he all but +fell over three little men, who were counting out gold by a deep hole. + +'What is wrong with you, friend, that you do not see where you are +going?' cried the eldest of the three; and when Jacques told them of his +fruitless errand, they at once invited him to help himself to their +treasure. + +'Take all you can hold in your hand!' they urged, and since Jacques' +hand had been much broadened with honest toil, this meant a goodly sum. +The three little men had vanished before Jacques found words to express +his gratitude, and he hurried away with a thankful heart. The coins were +of solid gold, and stamped with curious signs; to his great joy he very +soon sold them for a big price, and had now sufficient not only to pay +his debts, but to carry him through the winter. + +When the merchant who had received his appeal so churlishly heard of his +good fortune, he was full of envy, and determined to lay in wait for the +little men himself. Though blessed with ample means, he coveted more, +and when at last he surprised the Dwarfs as Jacques had done, he made +so piteous a tale that they generously allowed him to take two handfuls +instead of one. But this did not content the greedy fellow, and pushing +the wee men rudely away, he stooped to fill his pockets from the heap. +As he did so, a shower of blows rained fiercely round his head and face, +and so heavily did they fall that he had much ado to save his skull. +When at last the blows ceased, and he dared to open his eyes, the Dwarfs +had gone, with all their gold, and his pockets were empty of even that +which they had contained before." + +The Wood Elf paused, for a large brown bird had perched himself on a +branch which overhung the fountain. She waited until he had dipped his +beak in the sparkling stream and flown away before she spoke again. + +"That bird is a stranger to these woods," she said presently under her +breath, "and I wondered if it were really an Elf or a Fée. One never +knows in these parts." + +"Tell me!" I urged; for I knew by her look that she was thinking of +another story. + + +[Illustration] + +The Bird at the Window. + +"There was once a most beautiful lady," she began, "whose face was so +kind and gentle that wherever she went the children flocked round her +and hung on her gown. No flower in the garden could hold up its head +beside her, for the roses themselves were not so sweet, and even the +lilies drooped before her exceeding fairness. + +From far and near lovers came to woo her, but she would none of them; +for ever in her mind was a gallant knight to whom she had plighted +her troth in the land of dreams. In the presence of a holy man, whose +features were those of the Curé who confirmed her, he had placed a ring +upon her finger; and so real did this dream seem, that she held herself +to to be the knight's true wife. Her songs were all of him as she sat +at her spinning, and her tender thoughts made warp and weft with the +shining threads. When she went to the fountain, she heard his voice in +the splash of the falling water, and when the stars shone through her +casement, she fancied that they were the adoring eyes of her beloved. +She prayed each night that she might be patient and faithful until he +claimed her, for he, and none other, should touch her lips. + +But she was very beautiful, and her parents were very poor. And when the +lord of those parts saw and desired her, they gave her to him, despite +her prayers, though he was bent and old. He carried her off to his grim +castle, and that no man but he should gaze on her loveliness, he shut +her in his tower, with only an aged widow as her attendant. The widow +was half-blind and wholly deaf, and withal so crabbed in disposition +that as she passed the very dogs in the street slunk off to a safe +distance. In vain the beautiful lady pleaded to be allowed to stroll in +the gardens, or to ply her needle on the balcony; he would not let her +stir from her gloomy chamber, and for seven long years he kept her in +durance. His love had by this time turned to hate, for her beauty was +dimmed with weeping. No longer did her hair make a mesh of gold for +sunbeams to dance in, and her face was like a sad white pearl from which +all tints had fled. And the heart of the wicked lord rejoiced, for since +he could not win her favour, and she no longer delighted his eyes, he +was glad that she should die. + +One morning in May when the dew lay thick upon the meadows and every +thrush had found a mate, the old lord went off for a long day's +hunting, and the aged widow fell fast asleep. The beautiful lady sighed +anew as the sweet spring sunshine flooded her prison, seeming to mock +her with its splendour. 'Ah, woe is me!' she cried. 'I may not even +rejoice in the sun as the meanest of God's creatures!' And in her great +despair she called aloud to her own true knight, bidding him deliver her +from her misery. Even as she spoke, a shadow fell across the window. A +bird had stayed his flight beside it; he pressed through the bars and +was at her feet. His ash-brown plumage and rounded wings told her he +was a goshawk, and from the jesses on his legs she saw he had been +a'hunting. While she gazed in surprise at his sudden appearance, she +beheld a transformation, and in less time than it takes to tell, the +goshawk had become a gallant knight, with raven locks and flashing eyes. +It was the knight of her dreams, and with a cry of joy she flew to him. + +'I could not come to thee before, my Sweet,' said he, 'since thou didst +not call for me aloud. Now shall I be with thee at thy lightest wish, +and no more shalt thou be lonely. But beware of the aged crone who +guards thy door! Her purblind eyes are not beyond seeing, and should +she discover me I must die.' + +And now the beautiful lady no longer pined to leave her prison, for she +had only to breathe his name, and her lover reappeared. Her beauty came +back to her as gladness to the earth when the sun shines after rain, and +her songs were as joyous as those of the lark when it soars high in the +heavens. The old lord was greatly puzzled, and bade the ancient widow +keep a careful watch. + +'My beautiful lady is gay!' he said, with an ugly smile. 'We must learn +why she and sighs are strangers. I had thought ere this to lay her to +sleep beneath a smooth green coverlet, and it does not please me to see +her thus content.' + +The aged crone bathed her eyes in water that flowed from a sacred +shrine, so that sight might come back to them, and hid herself behind a +curtain when the beautiful lady thought that she had left the tower. +From this place of vantage she beheld, shortly after, the arrival of +the goshawk, and his transformation into a handsome and tender knight. +Slipping away unseen, she hastened to her master and told him all, not +forgetting to describe the beautiful lady's rapture in her knight's +embrace. + +The jealous lord was furious with rage, and caused, at dead of night, +four sharp steel spikes to be fixed to the bars of the window in the +tower. On leaving his love, the goshawk flew past these safely, but +when he returned at dusk the next evening, he overlooked them in his +eagerness, and was sorely hurt. The beautiful lady hung over her +beloved, distraught with grief; all bleeding from his wounds, he sought +to comfort her. + +[Illustration: She hid herself behind a curtain.] + +[Illustration] + +'Dear love, I must die!' he murmured faintly, 'but thou shalt shortly +bear me a son who will dispel thy sorrows and avenge my fate.' Then he +gave her a ring from his finger, telling her that while she wore it +neither the old lord nor the widow would remember aught that she would +have them forget. He also gave her his jewelled sword, and bade her keep +it till the day when Fate should bring her to his tomb, and she should +'learn the story of the dead.' Then, and then only, he commanded, was +his son to know what had befallen him. + +The beautiful lady wept anew, and in a passion of grief begged him not +to leave her; but once more bidding her a fond farewell, he resumed the +form of a goshawk, and flew mournfully away. + +It happened as the knight foretold. Neither the widow nor the old lord +remembered his coming, and when the beautiful lady's son was born, the +old lord was proud and happy. His satisfaction made him somewhat less +cruel to the beautiful lady, who lived but for her boy. In cherishing +him her grief grew less, but though she had now her freedom, she never +ceased to long for the time when her son should know the truth about his +father. + +The boy grew into a lad, and the lad into a handsome and gallant +knight. He was high in favour at court, since none could approach him in +chivalry or swordmanship, and many marvelled that one so brave and pure +as he could be the son of the old lord, whose advancing years were as +evil as those of his youth had been. One day his mother and he were +summoned by the King to a great festival, and rather than let them out +of his sight, the old lord rose from his bed to go with them. They +halted on their way at a rich Abbey, where the Abbot feasted them +royally and before they left desired to show them some of the Abbey's +splendours. When they had duly admired the exquisite carvings in the +chapels, and the golden chalice on the High Altar, he conducted them to +a chapter room, where, covered with hangings of finely wrought tapestry, +and gorgeous embroideries of blue and silver, was a stately tomb. Tapers +in golden vessels burned at its head and feet, and the clouds of incense +that filled the air floated from amethyst vessels. It was the tomb, the +Abbot said, of 'a noble and most valiant knight,' who had met his death +for love's sweet sake, slain by certain mysterious wounds which he bore +on his stricken breast. + +When the beautiful lady heard this, she knew she had found the resting +place of her own true love, and taking his sword from the silken folds +of her gown, where she had ever carried it concealed from view, she +handed it to the young knight and told him all. + + 'Fair son, you now have heard,' she said, + 'That God hath us to this place led. + It is your father who here doth lie, + Whom this old man slew wrongfully.' + +With this she fell dead at her son's feet; and forthwith he drew the +sword from its jewelled scabbard, and with one swift blow smote off the +old lord's head. + +Thus did he avenge the wrongs of his parents, whom he vowed to keep in +his remembrance while life should last." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter V + +The white Stone of Happiness. + + +The fruit trees were a-glow with blossom when we reached Normandy, and +the pink and white Elves who played hide-and-seek in the boughs were as +lovely as Titania. We spent some time at a big farm, where Father had +stayed long ago with Mother, and we drove all over the country in the +farmer's gig. + +One day I woke quite early, when the birds had only just commenced to +twitter, and the sky was still rosy with dawn. I threw open my little +casement window as wide as it would go, and the air smelt so sweet, and +it was all so beautiful, that I longed to be out-of-doors. In the quiet +of the early morning the Elves might be abroad, so I slipped on my +things and stole down to the orchard. And there, sure enough, were the +Elfin hosts. + +But though I told them who I was, they were too shy to talk, and +scattered the blossom on my upturned face, when I tried to coax them. +A fat brown thrush scolded me for disturbing her babies at their +breakfast, and fluttered round me, beating her wings, until I moved +away, when the Elves seemed to be as pleased as she was, for they +wanted to be left to themselves. + +On the opposite side of the orchard was a bank of moss, and I strolled +across and sat down in a little hollow. The moss was soft as velvet, and +through the boughs of a pear tree, laden with bloom, I could see the +gate to the farm-yard. A speckled hen was the only creature in sight, +and it amused me to watch how daintily she pecked this side and that. +All at once there came an excited chorus of "_Cluck-Cluck-Cluck!_" and +it seemed as if every fowl in the place were trying to go through the +gate. They were led by a fine young cock, with beautifully bright green +head feathers. Once he was safely through, he perched himself on an +empty pail, and crowed indignantly. + +"_Cock-adoodle-do-oo!_" mocked a voice behind him, and a little boy in +a red cap gave him a box on the ears which sent him flying. + +"That bird thinks twice too much of himself," he grinned, as he ran to +me over the grass. "Who am I? Why, _Nain Rouge_ of Normandy, first +cousin to Puck and Robin Goodfellow across the water." + +He had twinkling eyes that were never still, and a roguish face. I knew +I was going to like him immensely, so I showed him my new knife and said +he might whittle his stick if he'd promise to give it back to me. _Nain +Rouge_ felt both blades with a small brown finger, and said they were +too blunt for him. + +"Blunt?" I cried. "Why, they're as sharp as sharp can be! Just see!" But +when I tried to show him how sharp they were, neither would cut at all. +I was so surprised that I hadn't a word to say, and _Nain Rouge_ doubled +himself in two with laughter. + +"Never mind," he gasped, when he could speak, "I'll make them all right +for you." He touched them again, twisting his tongue round the corner of +his mouth, and screwing his eyes up comically. + +"Now cut!" he said, and when I found they were as sharp as ever, I shut +up the blades, and put the knife back into my pocket. I was glad I had +left my watch in the house, for _Nain Rouge_ might have tried to play +tricks with that. + +"Another name I go by is the 'Lutin,'" he said, throwing himself on the +ground beside me. "When I have nothing better to do, I _lutine_, or +twist, the horses' manes. One summer afternoon two lazy maids fell fast +asleep in the hay loft, when they ought to have been down with the +reapers in the long field. I _lutined_ their hair so nicely for them +that when they woke they could not untwist it, and had to cut it off! +The House Spirits made rather a fuss, for those girls were pets of +theirs, but Abundia, Queen of the Fées and Lutins, said I had done +quite right. We can't bear laziness, you know, for we're always busy +ourselves." + +"What do you do besides mischief?" I said slyly, as he smoothed the +feather in his pretty cap. _Nain Rouge_ looked quite offended. + +"If the truth were told," he said in a huff, "I should fancy I'm twice +as much use as you are. The farmers couldn't get on without me. I look +after the horses, and help to rub the poor beasts down when they come +home tired at the end of the day; I stir their food so that it agrees +with them, and scare off the grey goblins who might put it into their +heads to work no more at the plough. And I'm as good to the farmers' +wives as an extra maid, even if I do take my pay in a drink of cream. I +dance my shadow on the wall to amuse the children if they are fretful, +and tell them stories when the wind moans down the chimney and would +frighten them if it could. And I pinch their toes when they are naughty, +and hide the playthings they leave about." + +He looked so much in earnest while he told me all this, and so very +good, that I was beginning to think he was not half so mischievous as +Puck, when he gave a funny little chuckle, and rubbed his hands. + +"Such fun as I have with the fishermen!" he cried. "If they forget to +cross themselves with holy water before they go to sea, I fill their +nets with heavy stones, or entice away the fish. When the fancy takes +me, I change myself into the form of a handsome young man, and if folks +do not then treat me with proper respect, and call me '_Bon Garçon_' +civilly, I pelt them with stones until they run! Their wives and +daughters are always gentle to poor _Nain Rouge_, however; and when I +can, I do them a good turn. Shall I tell you how I consoled the fair +Marguerite when she wept? Then listen well!" + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +The white Stone of Happiness. + +"A favourite haunt of mine," began _Nain Rouge_, "is a little fishing +village, close to Dieppe. The maidens there are more to my mind than +those on any other part of the coast; their skin is like clear pale +amber, warmed into redness where the sun has kissed it, and their +eyes--ah! you should see them! The fairest of all was Marguerite, and +often I sat for hours on her window-sill to watch her at her spinning. +Etienne would come and watch her too, and he thought, foolish lad, that +her angel-face meant an angel temper; but I knew she had a tongue. + +And such a tongue! It was like the brook, for it never stopped, and she +said such sharp and bitter things that the love of her friends withered +up as they heard them, just as spring lilies droop before a cruel East +wind. Etienne was a stranger, or he would have known better than to woo +her seriously. Strange to relate, the wayward maid was different from +the day he came. I had never known her so soft and sweet, and the +neighbours said that surely some good fairy had laid her under a spell. + +Etienne and she were wed one summer morning, but the little new moon had +not shone in the heavens a second time when there was trouble between +them. Marguerite's tongue was sharper than ever from its long rest, and +Etienne could not believe it belonged to his 'angel' bride. He left the +cottage without a word, and when he came back his mouth was grim, for +his mates had hastened to make things worse by telling him many tales. +A foolish man was Etienne, or he would not have heeded them; but that is +neither here nor there. + +From this time on he made as though he were deaf when Marguerite railed +at him, and he took her no more to his breast when he came back from the +sea. And Marguerite grieved, for she loved him well in her woman's way, +and longed for his caresses. The sight of his pale set face, and his +sombre eyes--they were like the eyes of a dog in pain, when the hand he +loves best has struck him--stung her to fresh taunts, and there came a +day when he answered her back in the same way, and all but struck her. +Ah! a woman's tongue can do rare mischief! His mother had never heard an +ugly word from him. + +One eve I met Marguerite on the shore. She was sobbing bitterly, for she +had just come out of a cave in the rocks, where dwelt a Witch who +could read the future. + +I had taken the form of a slim, dark, serious looking lad, and laying +a gentle hand upon her arm, 'What ails you, Madame Marguerite?' I said. +She glanced at me piteously, as one who seeks a refuge and knows not +where to turn, and wrung her hands. + +[Illustration: "What ails you, Madame Marguerite?"] + +[Illustration] + +'I have lost my Etienne's heart for ever, for ever,' she wailed, 'unless +I can find the White Stone of Happiness, which a mermaid throws from the +depths of the sea once in a thousand years. I may search for months, and +never find it; and Etienne holds aloof from me, and grows further away +each day.' + +Now just at her feet lay a small white stone, smooth and round as a +Fairy's plaything. I picked it up and showed it to her. + +'It shall be yours,' I told her gravely, 'if you give me your solemn +promise to heed my words.' + +'I promise!' she answered fervently, and the wind tossed her unbound +hair until it floated round her shoulders like a Kelpie's mane. A +seventh wave rushed up to her feet, and as she moved nearer the +breakwater, I sang her this little song: + + 'Fairy stone of fairy spell, + Marguerite, O guard it well! + When thine anger doth arise + Elves would rob thee of thy prize. + Press it 'neath thy tongue so red, + Hold it firm till wrath has sped. + Smile, speak softly, and behold, + Love shall warm thee as of old.' + +Then I gave her the stone, and she clasped it against her bosom and sped +to her home. + +When Etienne returned he was in a bitter mood. Luck had been against +him; he had caught no fish, and his largest net had been torn on the +rocks. Marguerite set a meal before him, but he pushed it angrily away; +for the broth had burned while she was with the Witch, and tasted +anything but pleasant. + +'Such food is not fit for a dog!' he cried. ''Twas an ill day for me +when I came to _Le Pollet_! I had done better to drown myself.' + +Marguerite stayed her fierce reply that she might slip the white stone +between her lips; and as she held it beneath her tongue her anger +suddenly melted. She thought now of Etienne's hunger and weariness, and +was sorry that she had nought in the house for him to eat. And as he sat +in moody silence she stole away, and begged some good broth from her +godmother, who had always enough and to spare. This she placed before +him beside the hearth, and smiled, and spoke in a gentle voice that made +him turn to her with a start--it was just as if the Marguerite he loved +had come back to him from the grave. Then he drew her to him, hiding his +face in her dress; and for the first time since many a long day there +was peace between them. Marguerite kept that white stone always, and +when she was tempted to speak in anger it worked like a Fairy spell." + +"And wasn't it one?" I asked, as _Nain Rouge_ put on his cap again, and +a delicious smell of fried eggs and bacon came from the farmhouse +kitchen on the breeze. + +"Not it," said _Nain Rouge_, laughing heartily, "there were thousands +like it on the beach, but you see it did just as well. For if once a +woman can be induced to hold her tongue when she is angry, there'll be +little trouble 'twixt man and wife. This has been so from all time." + +"_Cock-a-doodle doo!_" cried the black cock, strutting grandly in front +of us. _Nain Rouge_ darted after him, and I left them to themselves and +went in to breakfast. + +I did not see _Nain Rouge_ again, but I heard a great deal about him +from Madame Daudet, the farmer's wife; she called him "the plague of +her life." She said he hid her spectacles every time that she laid them +down, and that it was quite impossible to make good butter, for he would +play tricks with the cream. I think she was fond of him, all the same, +for when I mentioned his name her jolly old face crinkled up into +smiles, and she looked quite pleased and happy. + +One day when Father had gone to the village to see some sick child whom +the peasants believed to have been gazed at with "an evil eye," because +it seemed unable to get well, Madame came to me as I stood prodding +with a stick some fat black pigs who would not stir. + +"Since you are so fond of Fairy Folk," she said, "why not go to the +valley, and see if you can meet a Fée? I have never seen one myself, +but my great-great-grandmother came across a bevy of them in a +forest near Bayeux. The loveliest one was their Queen, and my +great-great-grandmother talked of her beauty until her dying day." + +"All right," I said. And she gave me some brown bread and a golden +apple, so that I need not come home for tea. Perhaps she wanted to get +me out of the way, for the sick child's aunt was coming to pay her a +visit, and she liked a gossip. + +The valley was very still. Even the birds seemed to have gone to sleep, +and the stream that trickled down from the hill tinkled very softly, as +if it had to be careful not to wake the ferns that fringed its banks. +As I looked up the glade I saw a lovely little lady coming slowly +towards me, and my heart began to thump in the queerest way. She wore a +trailing silvery gown, with a deep band of blue at its border. Her shoes +were set with tiny diamonds, and her dainty feet moved through the grass +as prettily and as softly as the wind does through the corn. She did not +see me until she had come quite close, for I stood in the shade of a +blossoming bush. As I took off my cap, her fair face flushed deeply, and +for a moment I feared she would run away. So I hastened to tell her that +I was a Christmas Child, and why I had come to the valley. At this she +smiled, and I saw that her eyes were as blue as the depths of the sea. + +"You are welcome," she said, "though at first I feared you. Such sorrow +has come to Fées through mortals that we are wont to fly at man's +approach. But a Christmas Child is almost a Fée himself, and I may talk +to you. My name is Méllisande." + +Then she asked me to walk with her through the wood, and I felt quite +proud when she took my hand. A cheeky little Elf, who overheard me say +that I would go with her anywhere, turned a somersault in the air and +burst out laughing, but I pretended not to hear. It wasn't his business, +anyhow, and I wished that that walk through the valley had been twice as +long. + +At the further end, quite hidden among the larches, was a natural grotto +of moss-grown stones, and just inside it a heap of ferns, piled up to +make a throne that was fit for a queen. Méllisande seated herself on +this, and I sat down at her feet. + +We did not talk for a long while, for she seemed to be thinking as +she stroked my hair, and I only wanted to look at her. After awhile +I asked her if she had been one of the Fées that Madame Daudet's +great-great-grandmother had met in a forest near Bayeux. She smiled +and sighed as she told me "Yes," and a wood dove flew out of the trees +and perched on her shoulder. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter VI + +The Seven Fair Queens of Pirou. + + +"Once upon a time," said Méllisande, "there dwelt at the Castle of +Argouges a noble lord who was famous not only for his bravery, but for +the extreme beauty of his dark features and slender form. All women +loved him, but though he served them with chivalry, as became a knight, +he sought his pleasure in the woods and fields rather than in their +company. He knew what the brook was humming as it gurgled over the +stones, and the wind told him all its secrets as it rustled among the +pines. Sometimes he wrote these things on a sheet of paper and read them +to himself aloud as he lay on the green sward. The Fées in the forest +drew near to listen, for the voice of this lord of Argouges was sweet as +the lute of Orpheus, and their lovely Queen lost her heart to him. Day +after day she hovered by his side, sighing when he was sad, and +rejoicing when the words he sought came quickly to his pen. + +Once when he looked up suddenly he saw her as in a vision. A silvery +veil of misty gauze half hid her exquisite form; and out of this her +face looked down upon him, pure as an angel's, but with the love of a +woman in her lustrous eyes. As he sprang to his feet, she melted away in +a white cloud, and close to his ear he heard a mournful sigh, as if her +spirit grieved to part from his. And he wrote no longer of flowing water +or whispering wind, but of the Lady of the Woods. + +For many a day he saw her no more, for Henry I of England coveted +Normandy, the ancient patrimony of his house, and sent his armies to +take possession of it. When the city of Bayeux was besieged, the Lord of +Argouges was amongst its most gallant defenders, and his resource and +daring were the talk of all. None who crossed swords with him lived to +tell the tale, for his courage was equalled by his skill. + +One morn a giant sprang from the enemy's ranks--a lusty German, well +over seven feet, with the limbs of a prize-fed ox. + +'I dare you to fight me singly, Lord of Argouges!' he cried, for he +knew with whom he had to deal. The soldiers near stayed their hands to +watch; the hearts of the Normans almost stood still, but the English +exulted, for surely now would the Lord of Argouges bite the dust, and +his fiery sword no more work havoc in their ranks! Their dismay was +great when he proved himself victor, though they would not have +wondered had they had vision to see how ever beside him moved the +shadowy form of his Lady of the Woods, directing his arm that his aim +might be swift and sure, and oft-times interposing her tender body +between him and the German's thrusts. Later on, when the gallant +knight fainted from his wounds and was left for dead, she tended him +pitifully as he lay on the blood-stained earth, moistening his lips +with the dew of heaven, and whispering such sweet thoughts to him that +the weary hours were eased by blissful dreams. He was still alive when +morning dawned, and was found by his friends and carried into camp. +Though visible to him alone, the Lady of the Woods was there beside +his couch, and the terrible sights and sounds that accompanied the +merciful efforts of those who tended the wounded could not scare her +away from him. When his suffering was over, and he could raise himself +to eat and drink, she came to him no more, and as his strength slowly +returned he was consumed with a passionate desire to find her. + +At length he was able to go home to his castle, and once more he roamed +the forest. The songs of the birds were hushed by now, and the trees +under which he used to rest were almost bare. It was autumn, for he had +been long absent, and even yet his step was slow and his proud head bent +with weakness. He was sick with longing for his gentle lady; 'If I do +not find her, I shall die!' he cried. + +Presently he came to a glade where the naked boughs formed a splendid +arch above his head, and he saw a troop of horsewomen riding toward him +on snow-white steeds. In their midst was his Lady of the Woods, a bridal +veil on her star-crowned hair, and myrtle at her breast. He awaited her +approach in a trance of delight; nearer and nearer came the prancing +horses, their skins of satin glinting in the sun. The cavalcade reached +his side; the Queen of the Fées dismounted and stood beside him, while +the ground at her feet became a bed of lilies. The Lord of Argouges +threw himself on his knees amidst their fragrance, gazing up at her with +enraptured eyes, as softly and shyly she bent toward him. + +'Once more I greet you, dear lord!' she said, and as she touched his +forehead with her lips, the birds still lingering in the forest burst +into joyful song. When the knight found words to tell her of his great +love, she plighted her troth to him, but only he heard her whispered +promise that she would be his wife. + +Once more she mounted her snow-white steed; he seated himself behind +her, and thus they rode to the castle gates, accompanied by her maidens. +Here the Lord of Argouges sprang to the ground; light as a wisp of +thistledown, she floated into his arms, and to the amaze of the +household, who had watched the approach of the procession from the +castle windows, her horse, thrice neighing, changed into a bird, and +fluttered sorrowfully away. + +[Illustration: "The Lord of Argouges threw himself on his knees"] + +'Farewell, sweet Queen!' her maidens cried, and kissing their hands to +her, rode swiftly back to the depths of the forest. + +Then the Lord of the Argouges drew the Lady of the Woods across the +threshold of the castle, and so queenly was her beauty and so gracious +her demeanour, that even his aged mother, jealous of the son for whom +she would have shed her life-blood, found no word to say against his +choice. + +'My love for him is nought beside thine,' the Fée Queen pleaded very +sweetly, 'for thou didst bring him into the world, and hast anguished +for him as none else can. But I too have suffered on his behalf; I pray +thee, let me love him too!' + +Then his mother looked long and deeply into the eyes of the woman who +had dethroned her from her dear son's heart, and what she saw there +filled her with peace. 'Be it as thou wilt,' she said, and that +self-same night the Lord of Argouges wedded his Lady of the Woods in +the castle chapel, which was decked with the fragrant lilies that sprang +wherever her feet had trod. The rejoicings lasted for seven days, and +the Lord of Argouges looked as one to whom the gates of Paradise had +opened. + +The Queen of the Fées was now to all seeming a mortal woman, and so far +from regretting that she had laid aside her rank, each day found her +more content in her husband's love, and by every womanly art she knew +she sought to please him. One favour only she asked of him--that never +in her hearing would he mention the word 'Death.' + +'If you do, you will lose me for ever,' she told him fearfully, and he +vowed by all that he held most sacred that this dread word should not +cross his lips. + +The years went on. The lovely Lady of the Woods bore him fair daughters +and gallant sons, and all was well with the Lord of Argouges. But one +thing grieved him; since the Fées' sweet Queen had linked her lot with +his, she too was subject to the laws of Time, and her beauty waned with +increasing age. The gold of her hair was streaked with silver, and her +face lost some of its soft pink bloom. Her lord spake no word of what +was in his mind as he looked at her earnestly one bright spring morn, +but she divined his regretful thoughts, and full sorrowful were her own. + +The Fées could not help her, since she had left her fairy kindred +to throw in her lot with mortal man, and so, with woman's wit, she +determined that at the forthcoming festival at the Court the splendour +of her attire should make her lord forget Time's changes. She therefore +summoned to the castle the most skilful workers in silks and broideries, +who toiled in her service day and night, that she might be richly +adorned at the Royal Tournament. + +Her gown was of azure satin, encrusted with many gems, and her long +court train glittered and shone with gold and silver. Diamonds blazed at +her breast and neck, while a circlet of rubies glowed in her hair. But +their rich red lustre made her pale sweet face look paler than ever, +and she still gazed wistfully at her glass though the Lord of Argouges +waited below, wondering what delayed her. At length he sought her +himself, and in spite of his impatience, he could but admire her +resplendent attire. + +'You have robbed the sky of his morning glories!' he told her gallantly. +Then, as she lingered still, his impatience returned: 'Fair spouse,' he +said, 'it were well if Death should send you as his messenger, for you +tarry long when you are bidden to haste!--Forgive me, Sweet! I should +not have said that word!' + +His remorse came too late, for the ominous sound had scarcely crossed +his lips when with a cry of bitter anguish, his lady became once more a +Fée, and vanished from his sight. Long and vainly did he seek her, for +though her footmarks are still to be seen on the battlements of the +Castle, and night after night she wandered round it clad in a misty robe +of white, they two met on earth no more. She is pictured still in the +crest of the house of Argouges, over its motto, 'A la Fe!'" + +I liked this story, but I wished that it had not ended quite so sadly. +When I said so to Méllisande she turned her face away from me, and I +think it was a tear drop that glittered on her hand. + +"Then I will tell you neither of Pressina nor Melusina," she said, "for +both these Fées lived to rue the day when they put faith in the word of +man. It was different with the fair Norina. She demanded no pledge, for +doubt and distrust came not nigh her path, and her love brought her only +gladness." + +The shadows lengthened; the wood dove flew off to rejoin her mate; and +Méllisande's lips began to smile as she thought of another story. + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +The Seven Fair Queens of Pirou. + +"Long, long ago," she went on presently, "when our beautiful Normandy +was known by another name, and formed part of the kingdom of Neustria, +which was given to the Duke of Paris by Charles the Bald, there lived a +wise and noble lord who was said to have magic powers. So gentle was he +that the very birds would perch on his shoulder and twitter their joys +to him, yet so brave and strong that the proudest knight cared not to +provoke his wrath. He was skilled in the lore of plants and herbs, and +by means of a slender hazel from the woods could tell where crystal +waters flowed deep in the bowels of the earth. Full many a maid would +have flown to him had he lifted his little finger, but though he was +often lonely as he wandered beneath the stars, his heart went out to +none, whether of high or low degree, and he preferred his own company to +that of a mate whom he could not love. + +One Mayday he was up at dawn, searching the fields for a tiny plant +which had some special gift of healing. The grass was spangled with +myriad flowers, but he passed them all till he came to the one he +sought--a small pale blossom of faintest lilac, with perfume as sweet as +a rose's. While yet he held it in his hand he heard a cry; it was that +of some creature in pain, and forcing his way through a prickly hedge, +he found a pure white dove with a broken wing lying under a thornbush. + +'Poor bird!' he exclaimed compassionately. 'Who has dared to injure so +fair a thing?' With tender hands he set the broken wing, binding it to +her side with three green leaves and some long-stemmed grass, and fed +her with juice from the lilac flower as he soothed her with gentle +words. When he had stilled her flutterings, he laid her on his breast, +that he might bear her home and tend her until she could fly once more +under the vault of heaven. + +On he strode through the meadow, and high in the sky the larks trilled +their pæans of joy. Never to him had seemed the earth so fair, and the +morning sun tinged his cheek with gladness. Suddenly he felt the burden +on his breast grow heavy, and stayed his footsteps in surprise. No +longer did he hold a wounded dove against his bosom, but a beauteous +maiden in pure white garb, with three green leaves bound about her arm +with stems of grass. + +He set her on her feet and stared at her in amaze; she met his +enraptured gaze with eyes that shone like twin blue stars. Then her +eyelids fell; she drooped beneath his glance as a fragile flower beneath +the sun's fierce wooing. + +And as the wind sweeps over a field of corn when it is ripe for reaping, +love took possession of him. Fée or woman, he swore, this beauteous maid +should be his wife if she were willing, and he would guard her through +good and ill while life should last. + +'Art thou mine?' he asked her presently, hoarse for very joy. + +'I am thine!' she said, for she had loved him long, and had but taken +the form of a dove to try him. And taking her home to his castle, they +were wedded by the holy priest. + +No longer now was he lonely, no longer did he wander solitary beneath +the stars, for the lovely Fée was as true and tender as mortal woman, +and made him a faithful wife. Sons were denied them, but seven fair +daughters came, and he called them after the seven gems that graced +their mother's diadem. + +The maidens were of such supreme loveliness that as they grew up to +womanhood they were known as the Seven Fair Queens; each was without +rival in her own style of beauty. Pearl was fair as day, with a skin +like milk; Ruby's dark splendour was a gift from the Queen of Night, +and her red, red mouth the bud of a perfect flower. The glorious hair +of Amber fell round her shoulders in shimmering waves of light, and +sunbeams lost themselves in her lashes. Sweet Turquoise had her mother's +eyes of blue forget-me-not, while Sapphire's were of deeper hue, and +Amethyst's that of the violet. Chrysolite's were a misty green, like the +sky in the early morning, and no mermaid sang sweeter songs than she as +she sat on the rocks at low tide. + +There came a time when the father of the Seven Fair Queens fell very +sick, and not all his potions could prolong his days. His call had come, +and so closely were he and Norina united, that one eve at sunset her +life went out with his. For awhile their orphaned daughters wept with +grief as they paced the gardens, or sat by the crackling fire in the +great hall. But youth cannot mourn for ever, and with a second spring, +glad hopes came back to them, and once more they rode in the chase. +Since they were rich as well as beautiful you may be sure they had many +wooers, but all preferred to reign alone. + +'When we wed, it will be with Fées!' they said disdainfully. This +angered their lovers, and presently they were left in peace. + +Full wisely did they use their parents' wealth, improving the land and +making sure provision for all dependant on their bounty. On the coast +of the Cotentin they built the Castle of Pirou, which gave work to the +poor for several succeeding years, and when it was finished they filled +it with gorgeous tapestries and all the treasures of art they could +collect. Here they lived in splendour, keeping open house; no passing +wayfarer, however humble, need miss a welcome if he cared to claim it. + +They were still in the first full bloom of their beauty when their fame +reached the ears of one of the great sea pirates, the dreaded Vikings +who rode the waves like giant birds of prey. North, South, East and +West, from Norway and Sweden, and little Denmark, they sailed in search +of plunder, and such was their love of fighting that they would, if +need be, challenge each other rather than allow their swords to rust +with disuse. Although they robbed, they were brave men, and believed +themselves entitled to all they took. Their vessels were small, and +light of draught, so they could penetrate many rivers, but the great +chiefs chose the sea for their battle ground, and ravaged many a town +and village on the coast of France. + +When the mighty Siegmund heard of the Seven Fair Queens of Pirou, he +resolved to storm their castle and take the loveliest for his bride. +With this intent he set sail for the coast of Cotentin with a gallant +fleet. The wind and the tide were with him; he reached it one soft +spring morning when the sea was a sheet of blue. + +As the vessel which bore him neared the shore, the Viking espied a bevy +of maidens in a sheltered cove, where the sand lay in golden ripples. +Ruby and Pearl, and the gentle Turquoise sported in a sun-kissed pool; +while Sapphire and Amethyst wove wreaths of seaweed, and Amber was +smoothing her shining hair with a slender shell of mother-of-pearl +that the waves had thrown at her feet. Chrysolite sat on a dark rock, +singing, and her soft clear notes rang over the waters, enchanting +Siegmund with their music. + +'By Thor and Odin,' he thundered, 'our journey was well planned. Haste +thee, my men, and get me to that rock! That maiden shall be my bride.' + +The boat sped swiftly, with Siegmund sitting in the stern. His yellow +locks streamed over his stalwart shoulders, and his face was like that +of some eager god as he noted Chrysolite's beauty. The maiden saw his +approach; and now the glad notes of her exquisite song changed to a +mournful rhythm. She was chanting the words that her mother had +breathed to her seven daughters as she lay a'dying: + + 'Women ye, my daughters fair + (Cloudless spreads the sky); + But when menace fills the air, + Fées, as once was I. + Slender arm shall change that day + Into snow-white plume; + Winged as birds, haste swift away + From thy threatening doom!' + +As the last words left her sorrowful lips, Chrysolite's sisters gathered +round her; the boat's keel grated on the sand, and Siegmund sprang +eagerly forward. At the same moment the Seven Fair Queens of Pirou +raised their arms, and instantly these changed, before his eyes, to +fluttering wings. High in the air mounted the maidens, and to the +bewildered gaze of Siegmund they were nought but a line of snow-white +birds flying westward in single file high up in the sky. + +[Illustration: "They instantly changed into snow-white birds."] + +[Illustration] + +When Siegmund had somewhat recovered from his amazement, he and his +followers sacked the castle, and pillaged the surrounding country; +it did them but little good, for a storm blew up as they sailed back +northward, and the ships that carried the stolen treasure were wrecked +on the rocks. As for the Seven Fair Queens, they mated with Fées, and +were glad as the morning. Every year as spring comes round, they return +to Pirou with their numerous descendants, in the form of a flock of wild +geese, and take possession of the nests which they have hollowed out in +the crumbling walls. They also appear when a child is born to the house +of Pirou; if it be a daughter, and Fate has destined her for a nun, +one sits apart in a corner of the courtyard, and sighs as if in sore +distress. If a son is born, the male birds display their plumage, and +show by their mien that they rejoice." + + * * * * * + +Méllisande rose from her throne of ferns, "It will be twilight soon," +she said, "and we must go. See! the mists are already rising in the +valley, and the night-birds awake and call. Farewell, dear Christmas +Child, farewell!" + +And, stooping down, she kissed my forehead. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter VII + +In the Dwarf's Palace. + + +Now I knew that Germany was the very country for Dwarfs and Fairies, +and when I heard that this was where we were going next I determined to +be on the look out. I did not see them, though, for a long time after we +arrived, for I was so tremendously interested in everything else. Even +in the big cities where Father spent hours and hours in the hospitals, +watching the wonderful things that the German doctors did, most of the +children looked plump and rosy, and I didn't see any so thin and pale +as those we had left at home. One of the Herr Professors, with whom we +stayed, said that this was because the State made so kind a Grandmother, +but when I asked him what he meant, he only laughed. + +I liked this professor best of all--he had such a nice way of talking, +and he loved Fairies as much as I do. He said "_Ach! So!_" when I told +him I was a Christmas Child, and smiled all over his kind old face. Then +he put his hand on my shoulder, and told me that I must remember to do +my part to make my birthday the gladdest day in the year for everyone +around me. + +"It is different in your country," he went on, "but here, in the +Fatherland, there is scarcely a cottage home which has not its Christmas +tree, even if this is only a branch of fir stuck in a broken pot, and +hung with oranges and golden balls. No child is so poor but has his +Christmas presents of cakes and toys, for if his mother cannot provide +them, she tells his teacher in good time, and the teacher sees that he +is not forgotten." + +I thought this was a ripping plan, for it is horrid when Santa Claus +forgets you, and your stockings hang all limp and flat, like mine did +last year. And I made up my mind, then and there, that next Christmas +there should be a tree for all the littlest and grubbiest children in my +old home. + +While Father was at the hospitals with the Herr Professor, I stayed with +Rudolf and Gretchen, two of his grandchildren--fat little things with +big blue eyes, who stared at me as if I had seven heads when I told them +about the Korrigans. Gretchen believed in Fairies of all kinds, but +Rudolf only in Dwarfs and Giants. He even said that Santa Claus was +just his own father dressed up, and declared he had seen his old brown +pipe peeping out of Santa Claus' pocket the last time he paid them a +visit. Gretchen said that if so, Santa Claus had taken away the old +brown pipe to bring a lovely new one in its place, and Rudolf told her +girls knew too much. They were both angry by this time, and their faces +looked very red. So I thought we had better talk about Dwarfs and +Giants. + +"Grandfather says there are no Giants now," Rudolph said seriously, "but +there are plenty of Dwarfs in the hill which looks down on the forest. I +saw one there myself last summer; he ran away and wouldn't speak to me, +as if he were afraid." + +Without saying anything to Rudolf, who might have wanted to come too, I +started for the hill directly after dinner, while he and Gretchen were +arguing again over the pipe and Santa Claus. The Professor's house was +just at the end of the town, so I didn't have far to go; but the hill +took much longer to climb than I thought it would, and I was quite out +of breath when I reached the top and sat down on a flat white stone. As +I looked about me, I swung my foot, and it tapped against a biggish rock +that was just in front. The third time that I did this, a little brown +man hopped briskly out of a crevice and stood before me. He wore a +bright red coat trimmed with green buttons, and carried in his hand a +close-fitting cap of grey. + +[Illustration: Fat little things, with big blue eyes.] + +"Gently, gently, good child!" he cried. "One knock is enough, if we want +to hear it, for our ears are as keen as we could wish. Why did you call +me, and what would you have?" + +"I would hear of you, and of your kinsmen, Master Dwarf!" I said. "I am +a Christmas Child, and the Fairies are all my friends." + +At this he bowed, and said he was glad to meet me, nodding his head with +a sort of grunt as I told him where I had met Titania. + +"If it be your pleasure," he said, looking round to see that no one was +near but me, "I will take you within the hill, and introduce you to my +wife. The ground whereon you stand is hollow, as you will soon perceive, +and we are less than a stone's throw from my palace." + +I told him that nothing would please me more than to pay him a visit, +and muttering a word in some strange language, he rapped his knuckles on +a cleft in the rock. It widened sufficiently to let us both through, and +closed again with a thud. + +The winding passage in which I found myself was lit by a soft red glow, +coming from hundreds of rubies set deep in the walls, which seemed to +be of oxidised silver. After several twists and turns, it ended in a +wide hall, where I could just stand upright under the jewelled dome! As +soon as my eyes grew accustomed to the blaze of light which came from +the diamond stars set round it, I saw a sweet little creature in a frock +of pale purple silk, cut short in the sleeves to show her pretty white +arms, on which she wore many bracelets. + +"My wife!" said the Dwarf proudly, and he explained to her who I was and +what I wanted, and a great deal more about me that I was astonished he +should know. My surprise amused him a good deal, and as his wife led the +way to her boudoir he chuckled merrily. + +"There are Kobolds, or House-Spirits in most old houses," he remarked, +"and it is more than two hundred years since the first stone was laid of +the Herr Professor's. I knew this noon that you were coming, and the +Kobold spoke well of you, and said that you were not above taking advice +from others wiser than yourself. Now, sir! What do you think of this?" +And he opened a door with a great flourish, holding it back for me to +enter. + +"It's grand!" I said, for so it was. The silver floor was inlaid with +a gold scroll; the walls, of tinted mother-o'-pearl, were adorned with +wreaths of forget-me-nots, each tiny turquoise flower having an amber +centre. The furniture was of filigree silver, so fragile to look at +that I was afraid to touch it, much less to sit down on one of the tiny +chairs, even if I could have fitted myself in. The Dwarf invited me to +be seated, and his small wife gave me a roguish smile as she brought a +velvet cushion from an inner room, and placed this on the ground. I +found afterwards that it was the Dwarfs own bed, and that his pillow was +made of spun spider silk, filled with scented roseleaves and wild thyme. + +[Illustration: The Dwarf invited me to be seated.] + +[Illustration] + +"When you are rested and refreshed," said the Dwarf kindly, as his +little spouse offered me a sip of nectar from a crystal goblet, "I will +show you my palace. There is not much to see, for we are humble folk, +and this hill comparatively a small one. The estates of some of our +nobles extend for miles, and that of our Emperor runs through a range +of mountains. In times gone by we welcomed mortals as our guests, for +we were anxious to be their friends. But they grudged us even a handful +of peas in return, and met our advances with jeers. Now we keep to our +hills as far as possible, and when we desire to walk abroad, we are +careful to wear our mist caps, which render us quite invisible." + +He sighed so deeply that the dainty lace cap poised on his wee wife's +hair was almost blown away, and then, straightening his bent shoulders, +he took me to see his Banquet Hall. The curtains were all of filigree +silver, fine as lace, and on the walls of the kitchen, where silent +little men in big white aprons kneaded cakes on crystal slabs, shone +ruby and sapphire butterflies. + +But this was nothing to what I saw in the long low vault where the Dwarf +kept his treasures. At one end was a shimmering heap of pearls, some +larger than pigeons' eggs; at another, a conical mound of diamonds, +which threw out marvellous lights as the Dwarf stirred them gently with +one small hand. + +"We know the properties of each stone," he said; "how some give +strength, and some wisdom and power to rule, while others still stir +up strife and envy, and make men merciless as beasts of prey. That +ruby you see has an evil history; a woman gave her soul for it, and +thousands were slain in her cause." + +I picked up the beautiful, glowing gem, and fancied I saw the face of an +evil demon grinning at me from its depths. Dropping it quickly, I looked +instead at a pile of rings at the other side of the vault. One in +particular drew my attention; it was of beaten gold, with a curious +stone set deep in its centre. As I held it aloof and stared at it, I +caught a glimpse of a waving meadow, with a tiny path leading past a +brook. + +"That is the ring which the Queen of Lombardy gave to her son, Otnit," +said the Dwarf. "Come with me to the Court of Rest, and you shall hear +the story." + +This was the loveliest place which I had yet seen in the palace. A +circle of orange trees in full bloom enclosed a space round a rippling +fountain, where from the gleaming beak of an opal bird a stream of water +splashed into an emerald basin. The invisible wind that stirred the +petals of the orange blossom brought with it the swish of the sea, and +somewhere, far off, a nightingale was singing. + +The Dwarf seated himself on one of the velvet cushions strewn on the +ground, and motioning me to take another, began his tale. + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +Dwarf Elberich and the Emperor. + +"Otnit, Emperor of Lombardy, was one of the greatest kings that ever +lived. By force of wisdom more than by might, he subdued the surrounding +nations, and his people looked up to him as to a god. When the time came +for him to wed, no maid in his wide dominions pleased his fancy, for +the wife he pictured in his dreams was sweet and simple, though of royal +birth, and quite unspoiled by praise and flattery. He told his ministers +this, and they shrugged their shoulders. + +'His Majesty desires the impossible!' they whispered amongst themselves, +and so it seemed until the Emperor's Uncle Elias, the wild-bearded King +of the Russians, told him of a highborn maid who was as good as she was +beautiful, and had never yet been wooed by man. + +'She shines o'er other women as bright roses do!' he cried, and Otnit +vowed to win her. + +On the eve of his departure for Syria, where she dwelt with her father +the Soldan, Otnit's mother gave him the ring you held, bidding him take +his horse and ride toward Rome while gazing at the gem in the ring, that +what he saw there might direct his path. The Emperor smiled, but wishing +to humour her, did as she requested, and rode through the silver +starlight thinking of his fair maid. At early dawn, when the welkin rang +with the song of birds, he saw mirrored in the ring a narrow pathway +trodden in the green grass. Making his way by this fragrant road, he +reached a linden tree by a lake. Here he stayed his courser, and sprang +to the ground, peering beneath its boughs. + +'Never yet from tree came so sweet-breathing a wind,' he laughed; for +lo! an infant lay on the grass, his fair white frock fringed with many +gems. Otnit found it all he could do to lift him, in spite of his +strength, but placing the little creature on the saddle, declared his +intention of taking him to the palace, and putting him in his mother's +care. + +But this did not please Dwarf Elberich, who for his own purpose had +taken the form of an innocent babe. He offered Otnit such splendid +ransom of sword and shield to set him free, that the Emperor laid him +down again, and even allowed him to hold the magic ring, by the wearing +of which it had been possible for him to see what is usually hidden from +mortal sight. + +Now it was Elberich's turn, and being once more invisible, he teased +the Emperor to his heart's content, dwelling on the anger of the +Queen-Mother should she find that her gift was lost. Not until the +Emperor was out of patience, and on the point of riding away did +Elberich restore the ring to him. + +'And now, O Otnit,' he said, 'since I see you love well your mother, +whom I loved long ere you saw the light, I will help you to gain your +bride.' + +And Otnit was glad, for he knew that the word of a Dwarf is ever as good +as his bond. + +In the spring of the year, 'when all the birds were singing,' the +Emperor called his friends together and bade them embark their troops +with his in the ships at anchor in the harbour. The waters of the bay +gleamed as a field of gold as the stately vessels glided over them, and +for long the carols of the birds on shore went with them on the breeze. +Otnit's hopes were high as he paced the deck, though he grieved that the +Dwarf had not come to join him. + +At length the fleet reached the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean, +and there King Otnit beheld a haven full of ships, far more in number +than his own. 'I would that Elberich were here, for he is skilled in +warfare,' he murmured uneasily, for his men looked askance at the fleet +before them. The words had barely left his lips when the sound of a +laugh came from aloft, and straightway the Dwarf displayed himself. He +had been in hiding amongst the rigging, and was now at hand to use his +Fairy powers in Otnit's service. + +Elberich's gift of a small round stone, which he bade him thrust into +his cheek, conferred upon Otnit the gift of language, and enabled him +to impersonate a rich merchant with so much success that his ship was +allowed to drop anchor in the harbour. When dusk had fallen, and all +was quiet, the Emperor disembarked, encamping with his troops among the +rock-hewn burial places of the ancient Phoenicians, which abounded on +that coast. Here he abode for three whole days, while Elberich sought +the King of Syria, demanding his daughter's hand in marriage for his +royal master. It was refused point blank, and, more than this, the +Soldan ordered his unwelcome visitor to be put to death. But the +flashing blades of the guards cut the empty air, and Elberich jeered at +them finely. + +[Illustration: Elberich had jeered him finely.] + +[Illustration] + +'Your daughter shall go to my lord of her own free will,' he cried to +the Soldan, 'and only so shall your skull be saved!' He then returned to +the Emperor, who bade his troops attack the city of Sidon. + +A desperate battle with the heathen followed; for awhile the enemy's +numbers triumphed, but not for long. The Emperor's charge swept all +before him, and the Soldan's soldiers fell like corn before the scythe. +Then the Dwarf led the army to the Syrian capital; and red as had been +the field of Sidon, it was as nothing to that of Muntabur, where men's +blood flowed as a crimson river. + +While yet the battle was at its height, Elberich made his way, unseen, +to an inner chamber of the Royal Palace, and though he had come to +rate the Princess for her father's obstinacy, words forsook him in her +presence. So fair a maid he had never seen; her mouth 'flamed like the +rose,' her flowing hair was the colour of rich red gold, and her lovely +eyes had the radiance of the moon. Elberich drew her to the window, and +by the aid of his power over space, showed her King Otnit in the thick +of the fight. The sun fell full on his upturned face, as, seated on his +white charger, he rallied his men for the final onslaught; he looked as +brave a knight as the Princess had ever seen, and she lowered her glance +as Elberich told her how she could save her father. + +'Death alone can wean King Otnit's desire to wed you,' he said. 'His +love for you passes the love of man, and is withal as tender as that of +a woman for her child.' + +Much more Elberich spake to her to the same purpose, and at close of day +she allowed him to lead her where he would. Together they passed through +a secret passage beneath the Palace, and so through the royal gardens, +to a path which wound down to the field of battle. + +Fighting had ceased for awhile, for the heathen had been sore smitten; +and since his men had neither eaten nor slept for many long hours, +the Emperor must needs let them rest until dawn. Full of impatience at +the delay which kept him from storming the walls that held the lady of +his love, he paced his tent, and turned to find her standing before him. +Her mouth flamed red as the reddest rose; her eyes had the lustre of the +harvest moon, and her red-gold hair framed a snowy brow that was white +as the breast of a swan. Bending his knee, he touched with his lips the +hem of her gown, and when the Princess gave him her exquisite hand, he +could scarce breathe for rapture. + +[Illustration: "'She is yours, O Otnit!' cried the Dwarf"] + +'She is yours, O Otnit!' cried the Dwarf; and the Emperor lifted her on +to his charger, speaking to her with such tender and kindly words that +her fears were stilled. With Elberich perched on the horse's mane, +they straightway rode to the coast, where the sails of the Emperor's +vessel swelled roundly in the wind. On the summer seas of the blue +Mediterranean, they two were wed; and never had mortal man a sweeter +wife, or maid a more gallant husband." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter VIII + +The Silver Horn. + + +When the Dwarf had come to the end of his story, he very politely bade +me goodbye, and bowed me out of his Castle. A week or two later we went +to Saltzburg, and there I had a real adventure. + +The Professor with whom we were staying hadn't a single grandchild, and +as all his books were old and dusty, to say nothing of being written in +German, I should have found it rather dull if he had not lent me his +nephew's pony. I had learnt to ride as a little chap, when we lived in +the country. It was lovely there, but no one was ever ill, and Father +had so few patients that we could not stay. + +The pony's name was Heinrich. He knew his way everywhere, the Professor +said, so Father didn't mind my riding him alone, and I had a ripping +time. + +One day we went to the Wunderberg, a big hill on a wide bleak moor, +which was supposed to be quite hollow, and the favourite haunt of Wild +Women. + +The ground was extremely bumpy, and several times I was almost thrown +out of the saddle. At last I got off, for I thought I would rather +walk. + +It was a splendid morning, and I was glad that I wasn't the Professor's +nephew, away at school, as I lay on my back and looked up at the sky. + +A small black beetle crawled over my hand, but I was so comfortable that +I scarcely stirred. It crossed my cuff and climbed a blade of grass; and +as I watched it a shadow fell between me and the sunlight. + +A slender woman in a white gown was standing close to me. Her face was +thin, and very wistful, and over her shoulders, down to her very feet, +fell a mantle of glistening yellow hair. + +"Are you hungry, child?" she asked gently, holding out to me a slice of +fine white bread. + +"Not yet," I answered, for we had had _Sauerkraut_ for breakfast, and I +felt that I should not want anything more to eat for a long time. She +looked disappointed, and sighed as she threw the bread away. A bird +flew down and pecked it, but after a taste or two he left it where it +was. + +"Then surely you are thirsty, and will drink from my horn?" she pleaded, +showing me a silver vessel with curious scrolls and writings traced in +gold, which had been hidden by her beautiful hair. I took a sip from its +bevelled edge, and had scarcely swallowed the first drop when I felt +myself sinking through the hill, the Wild Woman still beside me. + +"At last! At last!" she cried, clapping her shadowy hands as we stood in +a wide hall lit with amber light. "O sisters, rejoice with me! I have +found a child, and his eyes, his eyes are crystal clear." + +She bent over me as she spoke, half smothering me with her silken +tresses, and I was so afraid that those sisters of hers would hug me +too, that I scrambled away and I took to my heels and _ran_. + +But you couldn't get far in that place. It was a miniature town, with +silver streets and golden houses, and gorgeous palaces in between. +Every turn I took led to a wide square filled with rose trees, where +fountains of gold and silver water bubbled and sparkled in the +mysterious pale green light. A flock of brilliant humming birds whirred +their wings in my face so that I could not see where I was going, and +the Wild Women formed a circle round me and began to sing: + + "Only once did mortal child, + By our silver horn beguiled, + Find a way to leave us; + Though they call us strange and wild, + Thou shalt find us soft and mild. + Stay, and do not grieve us." + +Their voices were very sweet, but when they had sung that verse twice +over, I did not want to hear it again. + +"I don't mind staying with you for an hour or two," I said, as they +stopped singing, "but I shouldn't care to live here. I am a Christmas +Child, and there are other Fairy Folk I want to see." + +Then they looked at each other, and drew away. + +"Since he is a Christmas Child," said one, "we cannot keep him. You +should have known better, Sister Snow-blossom, than to bring him here!" + +"How could I tell," wailed Snow-blossom. "He seemed like any other boy, +and would just have fitted the green silk suit that I wove so long ago." + +"Alas, alas!" the others sighed. "The longer he stays, the more it will +wring our hearts to part with him. Take him back to the hill at once, +dear Snow-blossom, and bid him hasten home." + +But I didn't want to go just yet, for now that they did not wish to hug +me, I thought they were rather nice. Their faces were like pure marble, +so still and pale, and their light green eyes were very gentle. So I +asked if Snow-blossom might not show me round, as the Professors did +Father when he came to a strange town. Her sisters still urged her to +send me away at once, before she had time to grow fond of me, but she +would not listen. + +"What do you want with a mortal child?" I said, when I had been all over +the empty golden houses, and had seen the tiny cathedral, the model of +the one at Saltzburg, set with pearls and rubies, and many other +precious stones of which I did not know the name. + +"Because we are lonely," she answered; "so lonely, child. Our only +friends are the little people who guard our treasures in the centre of +the earth, and we would fain have mortals to bear us company. Once, long +ago, a goodly youth of noble birth was almost tempted to sip from our +silver horn, and had he done so his home would have known him no more. +Sweet Stella, the fairest Wild Woman who drew breath between the last +faint pulse of the night time and the glowing dawn of day, waylaid him +on the brow of the hill when he was heated in the chase, but although he +craved the cooling draught she offered him, he would not drink from her +hand; her exceeding beauty excited his suspicions, and he guessed that +she was no mortal maid. + +'Let me see what your wine is like before I taste it!' he said warily, +taking the silver horn from her hands. He had no sooner grasped it, +than he sprang to his horse and rode away. For many years the horn was +kept amongst the treasures of the House of Oldenburg, to which he +belonged, but at last, after many generations, it came back to us. No +one but you and the little Karl has drunk from it since then." + +We were under the rose trees in the great square, and I had found a seat +in a ruby and pearl pavillion, with queer golden faces staring down on +me from each corner. Snow-blossom hid her face in her hands when I asked +her who was Karl, and rocked herself to and fro; then she lifted her +head and looked at me, and I saw that she was crying. + +"I will tell you," she said, "but first come close. For words have wings +in the Wunderberg, and I would not have my sisters know I am grieving +still." + +I sat down beside her, and then she began, speaking very softly and +slowly, with deep sighs in between. The tears on her cheeks seemed to +shine like pearls, and her hair gleamed more golden than ever. + + +[Illustration] + +The little Karl and the wild-woman. + +"There was once a poor man named Henzel who should have been well +content, for his girl-wife, Gretchen, was good and sweet, and the black +bread he ate when his toil was over was pleasant to his taste. His bed +was warm, and his sleep was sound. What could a man want more? + +But Henzel was ever full of complainings. His neighbour, Johann, had +married a rich woman, and now owned a well stocked farm with many herds. +Each time that he met him, Henzel sighed. + +'I might have done better than he,' he grumbled, even when he heard that +Johann's wife was a great scold, and did not allow her husband a +moment's peace. He looked askance at his gentle Gretchen, who bore with +his rough moods tenderly, since once he had been her lover. But she +grieved in secret, for never a good word had he for her now, and her +flaxen hair lost its shimmer of satin, and her cheeks their dainty +bloom. + +She was digging in the cottage garden, for Henzel would do no work at +home, when a very old man toiled slowly up the hill. His clothes were +dusty, and his staff was bent; he looked very weary, and his voice, as +he bade her 'Goodmorrow,' was faint and low. Gretchen's heart was filled +with pity; she invited him to enter her tidy kitchen, and put before him +the best she had. It was not much, but her strange guest thanked her +gratefully. While he rested, she went to the forest, to cut him a strong +oak sapling for a staff. The old man had vanished when she returned, and +in his place sat a little Dwarf, not more than twelve inches high. + +[Illustration: In the old man's place sat a little Dwarf.] + +[Illustration] + +'I perceive that you have a kind disposition, Gretchen, which is better +than a rich dower,' he said, waving his hand for her to be seated also. +'You are already sufficiently blessed,' he went on, 'in being both +virtuous and patient, but I am willing to grant you your dearest wish. +Speak out, and tell me what you most desire.' + +Gretchen bent her brows, and pondered deeply. If she asked the Dwarf for +gold, Henzel would rejoice, but she had lived with him long enough to +know that whatever he had, he would still want more. Should she ask for +another husband, then, since the one she had, had ceased to love her, +and threw her but scornful looks? Nay--that would be wrong, for whatever +happened she was Henzel's wife. And the flush on her girlish face became +yet deeper, for a very sweet thought had fluttered across her mind. She +would ask for a little child to lie on her breast, and bear her company +through the long nights and days. + +When the Dwarf heard her whispered request, he smiled on her very +kindly. + +'You are a true woman,' he said, and disappeared as Henzel crossed the +threshold. + +'Who has been here?' he asked, scowling at the empty cup and platter. + +'An old, old man, who was tired and hungry,' Gretchen replied, +and anxious to escape his further questioning, she turned to the +newly-kindled fire, and put on a saucepan of broth for him. But Henzel +was very curious, for strangers came that way but seldom, and before +long he had drawn the whole story from Gretchen's lips, with the +exception of the Dwarf's offer to grant her a wish. + +'Did he not speak of rewarding you for your hospitality?' her husband +persisted, guessing that something had been kept back from him. And +Gretchen shyly told him for what she had asked. + +Fierce was Henzel's anger at her neglect of this opportunity to make him +rich. He stormed and raved until poor Gretchen longed to hide, and when +at last his rage had spent itself, he was sullen as winter clouds. She +would have minded this more had it not been for the dear new hope that +filled her bosom, and early in the spring a little son was born to her. + +What cared she then for Henzel's anger, so long as it did not touch her +child? It was joy enough to feel the wee thing's fingers straying over +her face, to see his limbs grow round and dimpled, and to hear him laugh +as she sang to him baby songs. Henzel went in and out, taking little +notice of either of them; his thoughts were all absorbed in schemes for +growing rich, for the love of money held him in its grip. + +When little Karl was six years old his mother died. Instead of sorrowing +for her, Henzel was glad, for now he could marry the elderly widow in +the next town who was ready to exchange her wealth for a handsome +husband. + +So Henzel, too, had now a well-stocked farm, but this brought him small +satisfaction. For his new wife was a greater scold even than Johann's, +and he dare not so much as cross the threshold without taking off his +boots. As to Karl, he was sent to mind the cattle on the Kugelmill close +by; the little lad was so ill-clad that his ragged tatters blew in the +winter wind. He was hungry also, for his stepmother grudged him the +simplest food, and but that he shared their berries with the birds, he +must have starved. + +When the hawthorns were white with the snows of spring, and the daisies +showed their golden centres on the grassy slopes, we heard him crying +for his mother. Stella flew to his side, and gathered him in her arms. +Her lovely hair covered his shivering limbs, and the desolate child +clung close to her as she held the silver horn to his curved red lips. +His soft embrace set her woman-love on fire, and veiling him in her +golden tresses, she brought him here. + +He was happy with us--as happy as the days were long. We wove for him +garments of silken sheen, and taught him to call us by the sweet name of +'Mother.' ... One day he begged us to let him play on the hill, so we +took him thither, hiding close by, that we might guard him from harm. He +was seen by some wood-cutters working near, and they took word to his +father; but before he could fetch him, we had spirited him away. Karl +never asked to play on the hill again, and all went well with us for +many years, till he sprang into a gallant youth, with his mother's eyes +and a lordly will, unlike her yielding way. + +And then? Ah me! His love for our beautiful Stella grew fierce and +wild--the love of a mortal man for a maid. And since no Wild Woman may +wed, one night he bore her away from our hill to the evening star, which +is the sanctuary of lovers. Thence she sends glad dreams to motherless +children, and to lonely women who pine for love." + + * * * * * + +I did not stay much longer in the Wunderberg, for somehow the scented +air seemed to have grown chilly. When I said to Snow-blossom that I +must leave her, she wept again, and gave me a shining strand of hair to +guide me back to the moor. It turned into gossamer when I reached the +daylight, and floated softly away. + +Heinrich was still munching at the short grass, and stared at me very +hard when I caught his bridle. I suppose he thought I had been a long +while gone. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter IX + +The Little White Feather. + + +If you've ever tried to count the raindrops, you will know how I felt +when for three whole days it poured in torrents. I was alone in the +library, watching a hole in the wainscotting through which a mouse had +just poked her head, when some one said "_Guten Morgen_" in a piping +voice, and I knew this must be a Kobold. I was rather surprised that I +had not met one of these House-Spirits before. + +He was sitting on the edge of a bookcase--a little brown man with a +wrinkled, good-natured face, and wearing no clothes. He chuckled when I +said that I would rather speak English if he did not mind, and remarked +that all languages were the same to him. + +"I believe you have met some cousins of mine, the Brownies," he went +on affably, kissing his hand to the mouse, who popped back to her hole +as if he had shocked her. "They are good little chaps, but quiet and +humdrum. You always know what a Brownie will do, but as for us--mortals +can never tell what a Kobold will be up to next. We make ourselves quite +at home in their houses, and really own them, if the truth were known. +But excuse me--I should not appear before you in this undress." + +In the twinkling of an eye the Kobold had changed himself into a +curly haired boy, with smooth pink cheeks and a red silk coat, and +knickerbockers of dark green velvet. "This is my best suit," he +explained proudly, turning himself from side to side. "I usually wear +it when I play with children who were born, like yourself, at the +blessed feast of Christmas-tide. It is only one of my many disguises, +however, though I seldom allow myself to be seen at all. I can even +hide in the cast-off coat of a harmless snake, and woe to him who lays +stick upon me or seeks to drive me away. The Heinzelmänchen, as we are +called, can be bitter foes as well as powerful friends, and 'twas an +evil day for the city of Köln when we marched out of it. It has never +prospered since." + +"Why----" I began, and the Kobold held up his hand to stop me, puckering +his baby face into a dreadful frown. + +"Why? Why? Why?" he mimicked. "How like the child of mortal man! +Everything has to tell its reason--you rob the peach of its velvet bloom +that you may find the secret of its ruddy splendour, and the fairy gems +on the grass at dawn are to you but water distilled from earth! You +would know how the tide finds a way to turn, why the light of the stars +transcends your rush-lights! Elves and Fairies and such-like things are +driven away by your curiosity, as the Heinzelmänchen were by Rosetta." + +I was going to ask who Rosetta might be, but I remembered just in time +that this would be another question. The Kobold chose a more comfortable +seat, and told me of his own accord. + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +The Sin of Rosetta. + +"Toward the end of the eighteenth century," he began, "the +Heinzelmänchen, took up their abode in the city of Köln, where Johann +Farina distilled the sweet-scented waters now famous all over the world. +When first he blended the fragrant oils of bergamot, citron, orange and +rosemary, it was we who whispered to him in what proportion he should +mix them, and how to imprison their lasting perfume. Not only him did +we help, but wherever we came across a worthy fellow who was poor +but honest, we gave him a lift up; such was Rudolph the tailor, whom +we found when a lad on the steps of the great Cathedral, without a +_pfennig_ in his pocket, and with a wolf inside him big enough to +swallow a little pig. When we saw how readily he returned a _thaler_ +that rolled to his feet to the feeble old woman who had dropped it, +though he might well have said he had not seen it fall, we took him to +our hearts, and swore to befriend him. + +'So!' we said, one to the other. 'Rudolph is worthy to be our comrade. +He is a good lad, and henceforth we will see that he does not want.' + +The first thing to be done was to procure him decent clothing, for no +one would employ him while he went in rags. We did this by pointing him +out to the wife of a rich merchant, who fancied she saw in his pinched +white face a likeness to the son she had lost long since. + +Touched by the poor lad's poverty, she gave him a suit of clothes which +had lain by for many a day, and on finding he was an orphan, apprenticed +him to a tailor. The lad worked well. We took it in turns to sit beside +him, showing him just where to place his needle, so that his seams were +always neat, and guiding his scissors so that he cut the cloth to the +best advantage. So skilful did he become that, when his time was out, +his master begged him to stay on with him as head assistant, and gave +him a good wage. + +A fine young spright was Rudolph now, with jet-black hair and eyes like +coals. His master's daughters, Euralie and Rosetta, both looked on him +with favour, and for a time it seemed that he knew not which to choose. +Euralie was small and slight, with eyes like a dove's; Rosetta was tall +and buxom, and had she been free from the vice of curiosity would have +made him a model wife. She was clever and industrious as well as witty, +and when Dark Rudolph passed by the gentle Euralie, and took Rosetta for +his betrothed, it was only the Heinzelmänchen who shook their heads. + +Never was grander wedding feast than his. While he and Rosetta where +still in church, we brought to his house the finest drinking vessels +that we could lay our hands on, and pots and pans of beaten copper that +were the envy of every housewife bidden as a guest. There were fairy +cakes in the silver dishes, and luscious fruits such as grew in no +western lands; the wine in the ruby goblets was honeyed nectar, and +though his friends quaffed deeply, their heads remained quite clear. A +proud man was Rudolph as he drank to his bride, and she looked so happy +and gay and bright, that we resolved to take her, too, under our +protection. + +And this we did. When her children came, we rocked the cradle and sang +them lullabies while she baked and brewed, and when they slept we +scrubbed and polished from garret to cellar, until her house was the +pride of the street. Often she would ask to be allowed to see us, but we +always refused, telling her to respect our wish, and be content. Still +she would not rest, and nothing that Dark Rudolph could say to her would +induce her to hold her peace. + +He had now three shops instead of one, and counted lords and barons +among his customers. No one could fit as he could, for we were always at +hand to nip in here or let out there, and many a fine straight figure +was the result of our cunning skill. His fame spread far through the +neighbouring towns, and one spring a great noble travelled to Köln to +order some rich apparel for himself and his suite. Our busy tailor was +at his wit's end how to get it finished in time, for all his assistants +were working their hardest, and still they were behind. + +'Have no fear! Dark Rudolph,' we cried, when we found him alone. 'Send +your men to rest, and leave it to us. When you wake in the morning you +shall find all done.' + +We lost not a moment that livelong night--it was as if our needles had +wings. Just before cockcrow, the door of the workroom creaked softly +open, and there stood Rosetta in her white nightgown, with her hair in +two long plaits, peering round the corner to see if she could catch us +at work. We were justly enraged, but since we heard her in time to +render ourselves invisible, and also because we loved Dark Rudolph, we +decided to give her one more chance. + +It was our custom to leave the lower part of the house at the hour of +midnight, no matter what we might be doing, and climb the steep stairs +that led to the bedrooms, to watch that the ghosts which were free to +roam till cockcrow might not ruffle the children's hair, or wake them +with their long-drawn sighs. Rosetta knew this, for she had often heard +us comforting the little Rudolph when his sleep was disturbed by a bad +dream, and with gross ingratitude she tried to be-fool us. One night, +she strewed dried peas on the top steps of the winding staircase, so +that when we came up we should lose our footing and fall to the bottom, +and thus she might see us struggling on the ground. We knew perfectly +well, however, why she had bought the peas, and stayed below. When she +rose next morning, she forgot the trap she had laid for us, and tumbled +headlong down the stairs. While she groaned and moaned over her broken +ankle, the Heinzelmänchen marched out of the town to stirring music, +which was heard by all the citizens. We sailed down the Rhine in a +phantom boat, which you may yet see floating on its waters if you look +for it at the right time. And Dark Rudolph and his Rosetta sighed for +our help in vain." + +[Illustration] + +The Kobold was a most entertaining little fellow, and stayed with me all +the morning, telling me of well known House Spirits of days gone by. One +of these tales was about + + +[Illustration] + +The Little white Feather. + +"Hinzelmann," said the Kobold solemnly, "was a Spirit who haunted the +castle of Hudemühlen, though it was not until late in the sixteenth +century that those who lived there were aware of his presence. He seemed +of so friendly a disposition that the servants became quite used to +him. They never saw him, but he would often talk with them while they +worked, telling them of what went on in the Underworld, and of the +mighty Giants of bye-gone days who had been created in order to protect +the Dwarfs from savage beasts, but had become themselves so savage in +the course of the ages that they had to be done away with. In time the +lord of the castle heard of his strange visitor, and sent him a message +saying he desired his presence at a certain hour. + +'No need to wait until then, good Sir!' laughed Hinzelmann over his +shoulder. 'I assist each morning at your lordship's toilet, though you +do not perceive me, and I blunt your razors when you are out of temper.' + +This displeased the lord of the castle, for he thought it unseemly to be +on terms of such familiar intimacy with a bodiless House-Spirit. When he +rebuked him for his presumption, Hinzelmann laughed more loudly still. +'Better men than you have to put up with my company, if I will!' he +cried, 'and, believe me, I do not intend to leave you!' + +The nobleman grew more and more uneasy, for it disturbed him to feel +that he was never alone. Hinzelmann whistled and sang through the State +rooms, and when his lordship expressed irritation this was the +House-Spirit's favourite song: + + 'If thou here wilt let me stay, + Good luck shalt thou have alway. + But if hence thou dost me chase, + Luck will ne'er come near the place.'[1] + + [Footnote 1: The Fairy Mythology] + +He hummed this morning, noon, and night, until the lord of the castle +was sick of it. 'Since I cannot drive this fellow away,' he said at +last, 'I must e'en go myself;' and telling no one of his intentions, he +summoned his coach and set out for Hanover. On the way he noticed that +no matter how fast his horses went, a little white feather danced above +their heads. Although he wondered at this, he did not connect it with +the House-Spirit, and when he arrived at his chosen Inn, sought his +couch with a mind at ease. + +'Thank heaven,' he muttered, as he turned him over and went to sleep, 'I +am free at last of this troublesome Hinzelmann. By the time I see fit +to return home, he may have gone elsewhere.' + +[Illustration: A little white Feather danced above their heads.] + +[Illustration] + +Next morning he missed his fine gold chain, which was an heirloom, and, +greatly distressed, he haughtily demanded of the Innkeeper that his +servants should be searched. + +'They have robbed me,' he cried, 'and they shall suffer for it! Cannot +one sleep at your house without meeting with knaves and thieves?' + +At this the Innkeeper was very angry. Instead of condoling with the +nobleman on his loss, and offering to make it good, he roundly rebuked +him for taking away the character of honest men without due proof. The +noble was leaving the Inn in much haste when a soft voice asked him why +he was troubled. + +'If it be on account of the bauble upon which you set such store,' it +continued, 'look under your pillow and you will find it. You cannot get +on without Hinzelmann after all!' + +'I would I had never known you, base spirit!' stormed the nobleman. 'You +have put me greatly in the wrong with all these men, and my journey has +been for nought, since you are here. If you do not quit me I will leave +this country; it is not wide enough to hold us both.' + +Then Hinzelmann spoke to him with much reason, pointing out that he +wished him no harm, and that it was impossible to shake him off, since +wherever the lord went, he could follow. + +'It was I who flew as a little white feather in front of your coach,' he +concluded. 'You played the part of a poltroon when you fled from what +you believed to be evil, instead of fighting it on your own ground. Come +back with me, and if you give me your friendship, I will work but good +to you and yours.' + +So the nobleman went back to his castle, and Hinzelmann lived there with +him. A little room was set aside for his use in an upper story, and here +they placed, by the nobleman's orders, a small round table, and a tiny +bed. No one could ever make out if he slept on this, but once when the +cook entered very quickly, to take him the dish of new milk and wheaten +crumbs which was placed each morn on his table, she saw a shallow +depression on the down pillow, as if something very small and soft had +rested there. + +When the time came for Hinzelmann to leave the castle, he presented its +lord with three fairy gifts, the last of these being a leather glove +richly wrought with pearls in a curious pattern of snails and scrolls. +So long as this glove was in possession of his house, he told him, so +long would his race flourish. And thus he requited the kindness which +had been shown him. There is nothing that we like better than to help +our friends." + +"I know," I said, nodding my head. And the House Spirit smiled as if +this pleased him. + +"We need take no credit for this," he remarked, "since the Dwarf King +himself sets us the example. His rescue of the poor old couple at +Schillingsdorf is but one of many instances of the way in which he +gladly helps those who show hospitality to him or his. + +Caught in a storm, he wandered from door to door, entreating each person +who answered his knock to let him enter and warm himself. One and all +they refused, for his green velvet garments were stained and draggled, +and they had not the wit to see that in spite of his dripping clothes +and dishevelled beard he was still every whit a king. At last he came to +the hut of an ancient shepherd, whose little old wife was as thin as he, +for food had been very scarce. The moment she saw the wanderer, her +heart went out to him. + +'Come in and welcome, you poor little fellow!' she said, setting wide +her door. 'Our fire is not much to boast of, but 'tis better than none +on a night like this.' And the shepherd hobbled to the inner room that +he might bring his Sunday coat, and place this round their visitor's +shoulders while his own lay drying on the hearth. Then the old woman +spread a white cloth on the table, and gave the Dwarf her share of the +coarse black bread which was all her cupboard contained. + +'I thank you, my friends,' he said, breaking the bread into two +fragments. As he did so, one became a fine white loaf, and the other a +noble cheese. The Dwarf laughed at the old couple's amazement, and bade +them feast to their heart's content. + +'So long as you leave on the platter a crust of bread and an inch of +cheese,' he said, 'so long will a fresh loaf and a fresh cheese spring +from these fragments during the night; but if ever a beggar entreats +your help, and you refuse him, they will turn to dust and ashes. Now I +bid you farewell, but ere long we shall meet again.' + +So saying, he went out in the rain, despite their entreaties that he +would at least stay with them until the storm was over. + +Little sleep did they have that night, for wind and rain swept through +the valley. Torrents roared down the mountain side, flooding the wooden +houses, and even worse befell at daybreak. An enormous rock snapped off +from a topmost peak, and carrying with it great masses of stones and +uprooted firs, crashed down on the little village. All living things +were buried beneath its weight except the shepherd and his wife, whose +cottage yet was spared. Tremblingly they stood on the threshold, for +they thought their last hour had come. + +'Thou hast been a good wife, my dear one,' breathed the shepherd, as he +drew her frail form close to him. + +'It is well that we should go together, since thou hast lain by my side +for nigh sixty years,' she whispered, hiding her face against his +breast. + +'How now?' cried a reassuring voice. 'Dost despair so easily?' And +looking up they saw their friend the Dwarf riding on a rough raft in +the centre of the stream, and steering before him the trunk of an +immense pine. This he proceeded to fix crosswise in front of their +little garden, so as to form a dam. The torrent now passed by the +cottage, leaving it undisturbed, and the voice of the wind was hushed. +The sun came out, and the birds sang; but the only people alive in +Schillingsdorf were the shepherd and his old wife." + +[Illustration: "'How now?' cried a reassuring voice."] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter X + +The Wild Huntsman. + + +The forest paths were dappled with sunlight as Father and I strolled +down its winding glades, and all the wood things were chirping and +chattering with joy. Now and then something brown and furry scuttled +across our path, and once I all but trod on a tiny mouse, who had hidden +herself under last year's leaves. + +"You clumsy boy!" said a tiny voice, and I turned in time to catch sight +of a wee pink Elf as she sprang from the flower Father wore in his +button hole upon a bright blue butterfly which had been hovering above +her for some time, and now darted swiftly away. + +After a while we came to an open space where the woodmen had been +felling timber. Several great trees still lay on the ground; one was +particularly straight and round, and I noticed three wide crosses cut +deep into the bark. I thought I would like to carve my name there too, +for my knife had been most beautifully sharp since the _Nain Rouge_ +touched it, so when Father sat down soon afterward to read his letters, +I went straight back to the spot. As I reached it I heard the distant +baying of hounds; the sound came nearer and nearer, and mingling with +it were shouts in a strange deep voice, which almost frightened me. +As I looked up, my knife was jerked out of my hand by a little woman +dressed in green, who pushed me breathlessly aside and sat down, +sobbing bitterly, on the middle cross. I was still staring at her when +there flashed through the air a huntsman on a fiery horse, followed by +many hounds. Their hurrying feet knocked off my cap and rumpled all my +hair. They had passed in a second, and next moment I heard their +baying far away. + +The little woman in green sobbed still, but she seemed to be growing +calmer. Her hair and eyes were a soft light grey, and her frock was most +prettily trimmed with tufts of moss. + +"Aha!" I thought when I noticed this, "you are one of the Moss-women, +I've no doubt." For I knew that these were supposed to haunt the forests +of Southern Germany. + +"That was the Wild Huntsman," said the little thing, looking at me +trustfully. "But for the kindness of the woodcutters who make these +marks in the trees they fell, I should have fallen to his bow and +spear. When we can find three crosses we are safe, for he dare not touch +us then." + +I waited to hear what else she would say, for I thought of the Kobold's +"_Why? Why? Why?_" and did not like to ask her questions. In a little +while her lips were smiling, and swaying to and fro, as a tree sways in +the wind, she began to sing. I knew I had heard that song before, but I +could not think where until I remembered that the pines which rustled +against the windows of my night nursery had often sung it when I was +small. + +"It's the song of the wind," she told me, "and the very first sound we +hear. We are born in the roots of the tree which is to be our home, and +when this dies, we must die too. So long as the sap runs through its +branches, and the bark is not cut or injured, we are safe and sound in +our snug recess, but at certain times we are bound to leave it, to seek +for food, or to attend our lords. It is then that we are in such grave +danger--and all because Elfrida tried her witcheries on a stranger." + +"What did she do?" I could not help asking. + +"I will tell you," said the Moss-woman sadly, "and then you will +understand why even the youngest of us has now grey hair." + + +[Illustration] + +The Wild Huntsman. + +"Elfrida was the fairest of our race," she sighed, "and her palace the +tallest and straightest pine that ever raised its boughs to Heaven. +When she left its shelter at early dawn to bathe in some sparkling +stream, or seek for sweet berries in the thickets, the Flower-Elves +flocked to greet her; wild roses gave her their bloom for her oval +cheeks, and the violets scented her sunny hair. Wherever she passed, the +moss grew a brighter green, and she had but to breathe on a gnarled old +trunk, and the softest feathery fronds came to hide its ugliness. The +creatures of the forest were all her friends, and took pride, as we did, +in her loveliness. + +'Have a care, Elfrida--a stranger comes!' cried a squirrel one summer +morning, staying his dancing feet to warn her. His up-cocked ears had +caught the thud of some well-shod charger's swift approach, and he +guessed he would not be riderless. + +'Go back to thy palace, dear child!' cooed a motherly pigeon who had +reared many broods of snowy fledglings, and misdoubted the sparkle in +Elfrida's pale green eyes. + +'Haste thee home, Elfrida!' cried the stream as it gurgled over the +stones; 'haste thee home, and hide thy face from the sunlight.' But +Elfrida pretended not to hear as she shook out the crystal drops from +her gorgeous hair. + +The horse and his rider were close to her now; the huntsman blew his +golden horn, and in the excitement of the chase might have passed her +by, unseeing, but for his hounds. In a moment they had surrounded her, +baying like hungry wolves, and Elfrida sprang to a branch that overhung +the water, where her white limbs gleamed against its green. The huntsman +sent the dogs to heel, and dismounting from his horse, entreated the +maiden to come down to him. Nothing loth, Elfrida coyly descended, and +the huntsman was amazed anew at her perfect form. He sat at her feet +through the hush of noonday, and at even he was there still. When the +moon turned the glades to silver, Elfrida left him, but she promised to +meet him again next day, and he could not sleep for thinking of her. + +But although she smiled on him sweetly as she lay on the banks of the +stream, and listened with languid pleasure to his fond fierce wooing, +which passed for her many an idle hour, she would not consent to be his +wife. + +'I like best the gems that I find on the lilies at daybreak,' she said, +when he vowed that the richest jewels that the earth could give should +deck her fair white arms. 'You must offer me something rarer than these +if I am to forsake my kindred to go with you.' + +Then the huntsman swore that he would give her all he had; only his +honour would he hold back, for he was sick with love and longing. + +Now behind Elfrida's loveliness dwelt a spirit of malice and wanton +cruelty, and though she loved not this wild Huntsman, and had no +intention of being his bride, she wished to see how far her power over +him could go. So she asked of him these three things: the crest of his +House cut in the stone over his castle gates, where it had stood for +centuries; the leaf from his dead mother's Bible, whereon she had +written the date of her marriage day, with the names of the children +born to her; and his father's sword. + +[Illustration: He entreated the Maiden to come down.] + +[Illustration] + +'Nay, Sweetheart!' cried the Huntsman. 'Ask me for aught else in the +world, but not for these things, since they touch my honour!' + +'These will I have, and nothing less,' said Elfrida wilfully, looking at +him through her long gold lashes until his soul went out from him. His +face was white as milk as he rode away, and the creatures of the forest +cringed with shame. For they knew she had asked what was unseemly; and +they ceased to attend her when she went to the stream at dawn. + +When the moon was at her full the Huntsman returned with the three +gifts, and now he thought to take Elfrida in his arms. But she thrust +him from her with bitter words, tearing the leaf from the sacred Book +into a thousand shreds, and tossing the crest and sword into the running +stream. + +'What!' she cried, and her scornful laugh rang through the woodland, +'shall I, Elfrida, be the sport of a man who holds the honour of his +house as something less than a maiden's whim? I will have none of +you--get you gone!' And she flung out her arms to the strong North Wind, +who caught her to him and bore her off. But not to her high pine palace +did he take her, for he was angry because of her cruelty; and far away +at the grim North Pole, she shivers yet under the thickest ice. Her +green eyes shine through the frost-bound floes, and light the depths of +the Northern seas." + +"And the Huntsman?" I questioned. + +"He died in his rage, where Elfrida left him!" said the Moss-woman +mournfully, "and his spirit seeks still to avenge his wrongs. To the +last of our race it will pursue us, until none of our kindred lives." + +"Chris! Chris! where are you?" + +It was Father's voice, and the Moss-woman vanished. Father wanted to +read me a funny letter from the Locust, who complained a lot of being +called up at night by patients who had no money, and wouldn't have paid +him even if they had. This was the way they often treated Father, but he +said "Poor beggars!" and then forgot it, while the Locust was very +cross. + +Next day I went back to the forest, hoping to find the Moss-woman again, +but she was not there. I found instead an Elf who was almost too small +to be seen. She told me that she and her sisters lived in the cells +which make leaves so green, and mixed things they drew in from the air +and sunlight with the water that came through the roots, turning these +into sugar to feed the tree. It sounded like magic, and I was so much +interested that I almost forgot to ask about the Moss-women. + +"Poor little things!" said the Leaf-Elf kindly, when I said I had seen +one. "It is well that the woodcutters are their friends, or they would +fare badly. Many a meal did they have from them in past times, and even +Hans the Unlucky never grudged them what he gave. They paid him back for +it, never fear, for they do not forget a kindness." + +"Who was he?" I asked. And this is what she told me. + + +[Illustration] + +The Luck of Hans. + +"Of all the unlucky mortals, Hans was surely the most to be pitied, for +though he was honest and frugal, nothing he touched seemed to prosper. +The farm had done well in his father's lifetime, but after he died there +was not one good season for three bad ones. Far from being idle, Hans +was up before dawn, and still hard at work at sundown. His mother sent +away her maids, since she could not pay them their wages, and kept the +house straight herself; where could you find a worthier pair? But Hans' +affairs went from bad to worse, and when (at the busiest time of the +year) his mother lost her sight and became quite blind it was clear he +was born to be unlucky. + +The farm went to rack and ruin, and there came a time when Hans was +forced to go off to the forest to fell a tree that his poor old mother +might have fuel to warm her. When the sun was high, he drew out his +lunch, and a poor little Moss-woman stole out from the undergrowth to +beg a few crumbs for her hungry children. + +'Take it all!' he cried, thrusting his bread into her tiny hands. 'It is +waste of good food for a man to eat who is as unlucky as I.' + +'I cannot repay you in kind, friend Hans,' said the Moss-woman, 'but I +will give you some good advice. In the house by the mill lives a sweet +young girl, with a face tinged with pink like a daisy's. She has loved +you long, for you are her mate. Take her to wife, and your luck will +turn.' + +Hans flushed deep crimson beneath his tan, and the veins on his forehead +grew tense and hard. + +'You--you--' he stammered; 'you must mean Elsa? And Elsa, you say, Elsa +cares for _me_? It can't--it can't--be true.' + +'A woman's heart goes where it will,' answered the Moss-woman. 'Try your +luck, friend Hans, and lose no time. Life is short, and the days are +flying.' + +Hans went at once to the house by the mill, for had he not gazed at it +time and again as the casket which held his treasure? + +When Elsa saw him coming with that look upon his face, she twisted a +ribbon, blue as her eyes, in the pale gold plait that crowned her head, +and went shyly down to meet him. + +[Illustration: "Went shyly down to meet him"] + +Hans said not a word, but he found a way to make her understand, and his +eyes spoke, though his lips were dumb. + +They were betrothed and married within the month, and little cared sweet +Elsa that her friends marvelled at her choice. She comforted the sad +blind dame, whose son was now her husband, as a happy woman comforts one +who fears she has lost all, and behold! the old woman smiled again. As +to Hans, the neighbours scarcely recognised him when they met him in +the markets; she trimmed his beard, did Elsa, with her own hands, and +mothered him as if he were a child of seven. His fields grew green, and +then golden with harvest; his scanty flocks increased and multiplied. + +'Hans' luck has changed!' the neighbours said, and they scoffed at him +no more. + +But good luck itself does not last for ever, and after three years of +plenty came a bad one for all in those parts. There was a long and +unusual drought, followed by so much rain that the roots rotted in the +ground, and sickness spread amongst sheep and oxen. Hans lost all that +he had re-gained, and to add to his misfortunes, he chopped his hand +instead of a log of wood, and could do no work for weeks. He was in +despair, and the old blind woman beside his hearth wept and wailed from +morn till eve. + +'I would I were dead,' she moaned. 'I am a useless burden, for I cannot +even knit. My store of wool is exhausted, and we have no money to buy +more.' + +'Dear Mother,' said Elsa tenderly, 'who has a greater right than you to +the last penny that Hans possesses? You carried him on your breast when +he was small and helpless, and have loved him faithfully all these +years!' + +But the mother turned her face to the wall and wrung her idle hands. + +Then Elsa sold the ring that had been her lover's gift in order to buy +for her soft white bread and warming cordials, and wool wherewith to ply +her needles. As she returned home with her basket, grieving to think of +the pain of those she loved, a Moss-woman accosted her in the forest. + +'I have nought for my children to eat,' she said. And Elsa, pitying her +the more that she herself was hungry, gave her a share of what she had, +even to a skein of the wool, that she might weave a coat for her crying +babe. + +'Wait for me here!' cried the Moss-woman earnestly, and Elsa leaned +sadly against a tree, too weary to be surprised. In a moment or two the +Moss-woman returned, carrying a grey ball of wool and some chips of +wood. + +'Give the wool to the old crone who weeps by your hearth,' said the +little thing, 'and the chips to Hans. He is lucky in his wife, if in +nought else!' + +So saying, she disappeared, and Elsa went quickly home. Thinking to +win a laugh from her husband, she opened her apron to show him the +Moss-woman's gifts, and, to her amazement, found that the chips had +turned to yellow gold, and the little grey ball of wool into a large one +of fleecy whiteness, so soft and thick that it felt like velvet! The +golden chips stocked the farm again, for they were of pure metal, and +weighty, and the ball of white wool was never exhausted during the old +woman's life time. She knitted away until her hundredth year, and when, +long afterward, the summons came also for Hans and Elsa, in their turn, +their children had good cause to bless the name of the Moss-woman." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter XI + +The White Princess. + + +It was to Italy we travelled next, to stay with the Signor, who had +lived in England once, and was a patient of Father's. + +It was fearfully hot when we arrived, and most English people had gone +away; but Father and I could bear a lot of sunshine, and we did not go +out in the middle of the day. + +In the early mornings I went off to explore while Father was still +asleep. Sometimes I made for the hills, but often I chose the city, +for I liked to wander through the streets and make friends with the +chattering children. They were jolly little beggars, with bare brown +feet and thick dark hair that fell over their faces. My favourites were +Giovanni and Mariannina; their mother worked for a grand Contessa +who lived not far from the Signor. Giovanni was thin as a reed, but +Mariannina, whose curly head did not reach her brother's shoulders, was +as plump as a partridge, and her cheeks were red instead of brown. +Adelina, the Signor's housekeeper, told me their names, and that +Mariannina was the pride and torment of Giovanni's life. + +"He adores her," she said, "but she is surely bewitched. She runs +from him like a squirrel, and is an imp for mischief. Ah, the poor +Giovanni--he has his hands full!" + +After this I often met them, and if Mariannina were in a good humour she +would smile at me through her lashes, while if she were cross she would +frown like a Witch, and even shake her tiny fist. At this, Giovanni +would look quite shocked, and would beg me in broken English not to be +hurt at '_la sorellina's_' unkindness. + +"She so ver' small!" he pleaded wistfully, and this was always his +excuse for her. + +One day she took it into her head to run away from him, and darted into +the middle of the road, almost under the heels of some prancing horses. +I happened to be close by, and seized her red skirt just in time to drag +her back. Panting with terror, Giovanni took her from me, and when he +found she was not hurt, for the first time in his life he shook her. And +then he tried to kiss my hands; I almost wished I had left Mariannina to +be run over. Before I could get away from him, he had thrust upon me +the small gilt cage he always carried about with him, and had but just +now tossed on the ground. It held his cherished '_grillo_,' or cricket, +a curious pet of which all his playmates seemed very fond. + +"It is yours, it is yours!" he cried, and seemed so grieved when I tried +to give it back to him that I was obliged to keep it. + +The cricket was a merry little creature, with a very loud voice for his +size. "_Cree-cree-cree!_" he chirped, as I carried him to the villa, and +he never once stopped all day. I believe that he sang the whole night +through, for I heard him in my dreams; and when I woke I determined to +set him free. + +I carried the little gilt cage up the slope of a hill before I +opened the door. No sooner had he hopped on the grass, when his +"_Cree-cree-cree_" was taken up by hundreds of other crickets, who +gathered round him in great excitement, chirping with all their might. +As I put my fingers into my ears, a little old woman appeared from +nowhere, and with a wave of her hand sent them all away. + +"Many mouths make a small noise great," she said, "and you are not the +first to be wearied by the crickets' song. The Sorcerer of the Seven +Heads[2] liked it as little as you did, and the White Princess owes her +happiness to this. I say what I know, for I am her Fairy Godmother." + + [Footnote 2: Crane's Italian Fairy Tales] + +"Why, they told me there were no Fairies in Italy!" I cried. And then I +was sorry that I had spoken, for the little old woman grew pale with +rage. + +"No Fairies?" she exclaimed. "Ah, foolish ones, worse than blind! Had +you not believed them you had seen countless Witches and Fays ere this, +for Ascension Day has come and gone, and they are all set free. Besides +these, there are Goblins and Spirits, and fearsome Incubas, and shadowy +Fates who sway men's destinies. All these abound in our sunny Italy for +those who have eyes to see; and there are also Fairy Godmothers, such as +I. The maidens for whom I stand sponsor comb jewels out of their hair; +diamonds and pearls, rubies, and shining turquoise. But the White +Princess' were always pearls; and pearls often turn to tears." + +Then, drawing close to me, as I sat in the long grass, she told me of + + +[Illustration] + +The White Princess. + +"The fates had dowered Queen Catherine with gifts; but though her +husband was devoted to her, and the kingdom was blessed by a long spell +of peace, she sighed unceasingly. One boon alone had been denied her, +and without this she did not care to live. + +'Let her have her way!' cried the Fates at last, weary of her +complainings. So one summer dawn a babe was found in the bed of lilies +beneath her window, and now her mourning was turned into joy. For a +daughter had been her heart's desire. + +The little Princess was christened Fiorita, but from the day of her +birth she was known as the White Princess. Her skin was as purely pale +as the petals of her guardian flowers, and the yellow gold of their +stamens was the colour of her hair. But out of her eyes looked a spirit +that boded sorrow--the spirit that would fain know all. + +The White Princess grew lovelier day by day, smiling but seldom, and +staring for hours at the distant line of the far horizon, where the +hills kept watch for ever over the land Beyond. The Queen looked on with +delight at the unfolding of this tender blossom, but her happiness did +not bring strength, and when in due time the sweet coral lips lisped the +soft word 'Mother,' her soul broke the bonds which held it, and sped +away. + +Fiorita was now twice orphaned, for her father, the King, would scarcely +look at her, since he connected her coming with the death of his beloved +wife. In order that the sight of her might not continually remind him +of his sorrow, he built a fine tower of gold and crystal, and here, +surrounded by all her ladies, the White Princess grew into womanhood. +Lovely as snow crystals, and cold as the arctic wastes, Fiorita made +few friends, and spoke to none of her inmost thoughts. The Kings of the +Earth who came to woo her were abashed by her strange white beauty, and +only the Prince Fiola remained to ask her hand. + +He was brave as a lion, and gentle as a woman, as true knights are to +this very day. The sound of his voice as he spake of his love stirred +the Princess' heart to a secret joy; but him, too, she sent away +with but a glance from her blue-grey eyes. And though I, her Fairy +Godmother, scolded her well and entreated her to say him yea, she +would not be persuaded. + +[Illustration: "Lowered herself from her window by means of a rope of +pearls"] + +'First I must see what lies hid in the land Beyond,' she said, and that +very night, when the Crystal Tower shone wanly in the moon-light, and +all her ladies were sleeping, the Princess covered her snow-white robe +with a gossamer cloak of clouded grey, and lowered herself from her +window by means of a rope of pearls, passing through her gardens and +into the forest, which lay between her and the land Beyond. All fearless +in her virgin purity, she listened neither to the Goblins who eyed her +hungrily from the shapeless trees and besought her to show them favour, +nor to the warnings of compassionate Fays who bade her return to the +Crystal Tower. + +'I seek the land Beyond,' she cried, not knowing that she could never +reach it except on spirit wings. + +Now the Prince Fiola could not sleep for love of her, and this night he +stayed his restless wanderings in the Palace grounds by the waters of a +placid lake, for the fancy came to him that therein dwelt some kindly +Sprite who, perchance, would give him counsel and further his suit. +Clear shone the moon above, making the smooth surface into a fairy +mirror which reflected the swaying trees and the mysteries of forest +depths; and as he looked, the Prince descried the shape of a slim white +form which seemed to be hurrying onward amidst a forest. The poise of +the head was Fiorita's; hers, too, was the queenly gait. But thinking +her to be safely sleeping, the Prince believed that his eyes were +cheating him, and moodily resumed his walk. When morning came, however, +he hastened to the Crystal Tower. He found it in great commotion. Doors +were opened and shut in rapid succession, and scared attendants ran in +and out like ants. + +'The Princess is not in her chamber!' her ladies told him, wringing +their hands. 'Her bed has not been slept on, and her silken wrapper is +still in its broidered case.' + +As the Prince stood bewildered, the King came up. The remembrance of his +lack of love was heavy upon him, and he strove to stifle his remorse by +loud threatenings of dire punishment to all if his daughter were not +speedily recovered. + +As he stood quietly aside in the midst of the commotion, Prince Fiola +remembered the vision of the lake, and bidding a groom go fetch him +a horse, he mounted and rode straightway to the forest. Two paths +stretched out before him; his horse would have taken that on the right, +but the Prince urged it along the other, for he thought that he caught a +glimpse of his love's white gown at the end of a woodland glade. + +It was only the feather of a dove, however, and he pressed on, barely +slackening his pace for hours. Darkness fell, but there was still no +sign of Fiorita, and when he reached the borders of the forest, and yet +had found no trace of her, his heart was sick at the thought of her +peril. He could not stop, so with only the stars to guide him, he +essayed to cross the waste that lay beyond, and at dawn was still riding +wearily on. By the following noon both horse and rider were exhausted. +The burning sun blazed down on their heads, smiting them as a sword, and +though the Prince had no pity on himself, he grieved that his horse +should suffer. Dismounting, he led it on until he came to a great rock, +down the side of which flowed a stream of water. When he and his dumb +companion had quenched their thirst, he took off its bridle and set it +free, for he knew that the faithful creature could carry him no further. + +'Make your way home, good friend,' he said, as he patted its glossy +mane. 'I cannot return without my Princess, though I fear me 'twill be +many a day before I find her.' + +And now began the most toilsome part of his journey. With the land +Beyond always before him, he trudged on and on, turning aside for +nothing; and so passed another day and night. Now the long road wound +uphill; stones blocked his way, and thorns tore his hands and face; +still he pressed on, for his love was stronger than hunger and thirst, +and pain had no terrors for him. Nevertheless, he had lost all hope, +when a turn in the path disclosed a sight which made him for the moment +forget his trouble. + +A bent old woman, crooked and frail, staggered beneath a load of sticks, +and dancing along at either side of her, were two rough boys, who mocked +at her lameness, calling her a Witch. The Prince overtook them with +rapid strides, and knowing that the power of gentleness is more lasting +than that of anger, he suppressed his wrath as he spoke to them, though +withal he reproved them sternly. + +'Know you not,' he said, 'that only cowards persecute those who are +weaker than themselves? 'Tis a woman whom you call 'mother,' and if only +for this, you should hold all women in reverence. Now go--and remember +what I have said. Here is something to purchase a gift for your parents. +See that you are more worthy of their care.' And with other words to the +same effect, he gave each a silver coin. + +Won alike by his kindness and the justice of his rebuke, the boys asked +pardon for their rudeness, and scampered off with glowing faces, while +the old woman blessed the Prince for thus befriending her. Disclaiming +her thanks, he lifted her load to his own shoulders, when it immediately +became as light as air. The next moment it fell from him altogether; and +he turned in great astonishment to meet her serious gaze. + +'_Bel giavone!_' she exclaimed, 'I pray you think me not intrusive, but +I know by your voice that your heart is heavy as the load I carried +awhile ago. Tell me your grief, that if the Fates so will, I may in my +turn help you.' + +'In truth, good mother,' said the Prince, 'no mortal can aid me now +except by telling me where I may find the White Princess, whom I seek +day and night in anguish, since she is my dear love.' + +'Even that can I do!' cried the old woman, straightening her bent figure +until she stood before him tall and queenly, her squalid rags changing +into flowing robes of purple velvet. 'I am the Witch Lucretia, and my +spells are a match for those of the Sorcerer with the Seven Heads. You +have travelled far from your White Princess, for the Sorcerer lurks in +the forest through which you passed, and Fiorita is his prisoner. No man +yet has entered his castle to leave it alive, but I will show you how +this may be done, if you are willing to change your shape and become one +of Earth's humblest creatures.' + +The Prince feared nothing so that he might once reach the side of +Fiorita, and gladly submitted himself to the enchantments of the Witch. +Lucretia lifted the silver wand that was hid in the fold of her gown, +and at its touch the Prince became a cricket, just such another as the +one which you lately restored to liberty. + +'You will find no difficulty now,' she said, 'in entering the Sorcerer's +castle, for the pitfalls he has prepared for man are as nought to they +who traverse the air. And that you may be one of many, and so a match +for his spells, I will summon my Witches and Fairies to protect you.' + +Having muttered an incantation, she blew thrice on an opalescent shell +which dangled from her waist upon a ruby chain; and troops of Fays and +Witches came hurrying down the road. Some were slender and stately, with +faces as fair as dreamland; some were twisted and bent, and some so +small that a dozen could hide in the cup of a flower. With a second wave +of her silver wand, Lucretia transformed them into a myriad crickets. +Hailing Fiola as their king, she placed him at their head, and reminding +him solemnly that persistence conquers where force must fail, bade him +lead them back to the forest. + +In an incredibly short time this aerial army arrived at the castle of +the Sorcerer with the Seven heads. It stood in the midst of a dense +thicket, surrounded by a moat, the lurking place of demons with long +forked tongues, and eyes that shot evil fires. Undaunted by their +snarls, the crickets flew over the draw-bridge, and finding a way into +the castle through the close-barred windows, swarmed round the +Sorcerer's head. A cauldron swung from the domed ceiling, over a +quenchless fire, and in this the wretch was even then concocting a +potion by which he should overcome Fiorita. Her purity had hitherto +protected her, and though he had bound her body with chains, he could +not fetter her spirit. + +[Illustration: He tickled the Monster's Nose.] + +[Illustration] + +'How dare you disturb me?' he roared, lunging at the crickets vainly +with a long and glittering knife. + +Fiola would fain have slain him where he stood, but when, forgetting his +impotence, he hurled himself forward at the monster, he only tickled his +nose. + +'Leave him to us!' cried his cricket friends; and then they began their +witch-song of '_Cree-cree-cree_.' + +Now the Sorcerer having seven heads--Greed, Envy, Spite, Malice, +Passion, Jealousy, and Despair, each of which would have instantly +sprung forth again had Fiola been able to chop it off--he had naturally +fourteen ears, and these were so extraordinarily sensitive to noise that +he had destroyed all the woodpeckers in the forest that he might not +hear their tap-tap on the trees as they searched the bark for insects. +You can judge, then, of his disgust when on his refusal to obey +Lucretia's command, and break the bonds which held Fiorita, this host of +crickets swarmed round his head, and filled the air with discord. Each +pitched his voice in a different key, and the din of battle was as +nothing to that which now pervaded the castle. + +These were the words of the witch-song: + + '_Cree-cree-cree-cree_ + Set Fiola's Princess free. + Sorcerer thou, but Witches we-- + Cricket-Witches, from grass and ditches. + _Cree-cree-cree-cree!_ + Peace thine ears no more shall know + Till thou bidst the lady go. + _Cree-cree-cree-cree!_ + Sorcerer, set the lady free!'[3] + + [Footnote 3: Crane's Italian Fairy Tales] + +Over and over again they chanted this lay, and every cricket, far and +near, joined in the maddening chorus. They sang until the Sorcerer with +the Seven Heads felt that his senses were leaving him; pallid with rage, +he severed the White Princess's chains. By the power of Lucretia, who +had clearly foreseen his discomforture, the moment that the chains fell +from her Fiorita immediately became a cricket also, and gladly did she +fly to the side of the Prince, who greeted her with rapture. + +All would now have been well had they straightway left the castle, for +Lucretia waited outside to restore to them their human form. As Fiorita +passed the great cauldron which still swung over the lamp, she could not +resist the temptation to lean over and peep inside, and the fumes from +the potion being very strong, she straightway fainted, falling into the +midst of the blood-red liquid. Before it could wholly cover her, the +Cricket King seized her wings in his mouth; he carried her thus into the +open air, where she speedily revived. Great was Lucretia's concern, +however, when she heard from Fiola what had happened. + +'Alas,' she sighed, 'not even I, who am mistress of spells and +enchantments, can avert from Fiorita the consequences of her delay. +Since the Sorcerer's potion touched her, for six months each year she +must be a cricket, even as now; for the rest, she will be the White +Princess, to dwell with you where you will.' + +Then Fiorita was sad indeed, for she had lost her longing to see the +land Beyond, and desired nothing better than to wed the Prince. But now +that he knew she loved him, no spell could dampen Fiola's joy. + +'While you are a cricket,' he said, 'I will be one too, for so long as +you are beside me--what matters else?' And the Fays and Witches, who +reverence all true love, elected to share their banishment. + +And so it was, and is to this present time. For half the year Fiola is +the Cricket King, and Fiorita, more than content, his Queen. But as +Ascension day comes round, the spell is broken, and they take their +accustomed places at the Court. It is hard to say when they are the +happier; for love is as much at home in the humblest corner of Mother +Earth as it is in a lordly Palace." + + + + +[Illustration] + +Chapter XII + +The Favourite of the Fates. + + +One night there was not a breath of air, and I could not sleep. I +tossed this way and that for hours, and directly the birds began to +twitter, I put on my things and slipped back the bolt of the grand hall +door. Once outside, it was beautifully fresh and cool, and the clouds in +the sky were like wreaths of pink flowers on a turquoise sea, arched +over with gleaming gold. They changed every moment, and while I watched +them I forgot to look where I was going. When I stopped at last I found +myself in the middle of the market place, where I had been with Father +the day before. + +It was empty now, for no one was yet awake but me. + +Among the quaint old wooden houses I noticed one that I had not seen +before; at first it seemed to be indistinct, but the longer I stared at +it, the clearer it grew. Over the door of the tiny shop was the figure +of a hen cut into the stone, and while I was wondering who had carved +it, the wings fluttered gently toward me. The bird moved its head, and +its wings were lifted; it flew to the ground, and a lovely white hen was +at my feet. It looked at me wistfully, and flew away; when I turned to +the little house once again, it was not there. But beside me stood the +Fairy Godmother. + +"Come and sit in the shade," she said, when I asked her what had become +of the hen, "and I will tell you all about her. She is seeking +Furicchia, whom she served so well, not knowing that she is a shadow +too." + +[Illustration] + + +[Illustration] + +The Enchanted Hen. + +"Furicchia," said the Fairy Godmother, "was a very poor woman who owned +a hen which an innkeeper greatly coveted. The shape of the bird was +perfect; it had a most melodious voice, and its feathers were glossy and +white as snow. + +'Come now, good dame,' the man cried, persuasively, 'I will give you +double the market value of your little hen, for I wish to make a present +of her to the widow Ursula, whom I intend to espouse.' + +'But the widow might kill and eat her!' said Furicchia, looking lovingly +at the little hen, which she had brought up by hand from a tiny chick. +It had slept beneath her best silk 'kerchief, and taken its food from +her lips. + +'That is as may be,' he replied. 'Come, Furicchia, I make you a handsome +offer. Give me the hen, and you shall fare well next feast day.' + +But Furicchia would not listen, in spite of the sad fact that her +cupboard was as empty as her netted purse. The little hen was dear to +her, though as yet it had lain no eggs, and she would not sacrifice her +to her needs. + +Ere evening came, Coccodé was clucking gaily under the kitchen table, +and Furicchia found, not one egg, but three, all a rich coffee brown, +and polished like porcelain. Having joyfully exchanged one with a +neighbour for a dish of broth, she broke the second into it, and +prudently saving the third for next day, thankfully made a good meal. +When morning came, she found eggs to the number of a round dozen strewn +about her tiny room, and from being almost on the verge of starvation, +she had plenty now and to spare. For Coccodé, the grateful creature, +laid eggs by the score, and not only were they of exquisite flavour and +very large, but it was noticed that if sick folk ate them, they +straightway returned to health. + +Furicchia was now a famous egg-wife, and the more eggs she sold, the +more eggs Coccodé laid. The little hen was both willing and industrious, +and loved her kind mistress so dearly that she was never so happy as +when helping to make her fortune. Her pride in Furicchia's first silk +gown was comical to witness; she rustled her wings against its handsome +folds, and clucked so loudly that the neighbours heard, and came to see +what was the matter. + +This silken gown it was that roused the anger of the Signora, a wealthy +woman who had much, and knew no better than to want more. Hearing of the +prodigious number of eggs which Furicchia supplied, though no one had +ever seen her with other than a single hen, she set afoot much scandal +concerning her, ending by declaring her to be an evil Witch. At this, +Furicchia's neighbours began to look askance at her; but the eggs were +so good, and so moderate in price, that on second thoughts they decided +to treat the Signora's hints with the contempt which they deserved. + +This made the lady still more angry; she resolved to find out +Furicchia's secret, and ruin her if she could, so that she might obtain +her customers for her own eggs. Coccodé was quite aware of what was +going on, and before her mistress went out one morning she bade her +fetch certain herbs that grew on a corner of barren land, and put these +on the fire in a pot of wine. + +'And now, dear mistress,' she continued, when all had been done as she +said, 'do you go out and trust your luck to Coccodé.' + +Furicchia had not long been gone, when the Signora's crafty face peeped +slyly round the door. Finding the room apparently empty, she hurried in, +delighted at such an opportunity for prying. First she peered here, and +then she peered there, ransacking Furicchia's chests, and even turning +over the leaves of her holy books, that she might see if an incantation +to Witches had been written therein. Finally, she raised the latch of +the inner chamber, where she had heard Coccodé clucking. + +'I have found out Furicchia's secret now,' she thought with glee. 'Her +little white hen is under a spell, and she and it shall be burnt as +Witches.' + +Coccodé was sitting on a pile of eggs that reached almost up to the +ceiling, and even as she clucked she was laying more. The Signora drew +close to her, and listened with all her ears, for she had distinguished +words amidst her cluckings, and immediately jumped to the conclusion +that Coccodé believed herself to be addressing her mistress. This is +what she heard: + + 'Coccodé! now there are nine! + Bring me quickly the warm red wine. + Coccodé! take them away + Many more for thee will I lay. + And thou shalt be a lady grand, + As fine as any in the land, + And should it happen that any one + Drinks of the wine as I have done, + Eggs like me she shall surely lay; + This is the secret, this is the way, + Coccodé! Coccodé!'[4] + + [Footnote 4: Leyland's 'Legends of Florence'] + +'Aha!' said the Signora joyfully, 'now I have it!' And running back to +the outer room, she lifted the wine off the fire and drank it, every +drop, though it scalded her throat and made her choke. As it coursed +through her veins she felt a most extraordinary sensation, and hurried +home as quickly as she could. A meal was laid on the table, but she +found great difficulty in taking her usual place, and could eat nothing +but some brown bread, which she pecked at in a most curious manner. As +the charm began to work, her legs grew thinner and thinner, and her feet +so large that she had to cut off her boots. Next, her brown silk dress +became a bundle of draggled feathers, while her nose turned into a +beak, and her voice into a discordant cluck; in short, she was just a +scraggy brown hen, and her friends held up their hands in horror. Eggs +she laid by the score, but before she could sit on them they turned to +mice and ran away. So she had nothing for all her trouble; and though +she possessed a handsome house, she could only perch in a barn. + +This is what comes of greed and envy, and of meddling with other +people's business." + +Just at this moment a girl darted out of a doorway opposite, followed by +an elderly woman who loudly reproved her for refusing to do her share in +some household task. Shrugging her shoulders, she came to a sudden end, +as if she knew that her breath was wasted, and the girl disappeared with +a peal of laughter. + +"She is off to gossip instead of work," said the Fairy Godmother +disapprovingly. "She will pay for it later, will pretty Ursula, for the +Fates are not likely to interfere on her behalf as they did for Pepita." + +I had to coax her to tell me this story, for she said she had much to +do, and could not stay. But when she heard that the very next day +Father and I were leaving Italy, she refused no more. We sat down on the +step of a splendid church, and no one seemed to notice us. + + +[Illustration] + +The Favourite of the Fates. + +"Troubles rolled off Pepita as water from a duck's back. So lighthearted +and full of good humour was she that nought ever seemed to vex her, and +no one living had ever heard an unkind word fall from her rosy lips. +Even the three grim Fates, who rule over mortal destinies, relaxed their +stern brows as they looked down on her, and smiled indulgently. + +Pepita was slender as a swallow, with a warm red flush on her olive +cheeks, and dainty hands that looked far too delicate and small for even +the lighter household tasks. These, indeed, Pepita seldom attempted, +singing instead from morn to eve, and charming her mother with soft +caresses when she hardened her heart and tried to scold her. + +But Pepita could spin. Ah yes, she could spin, and as no other maiden +had ever been known to do since Arachne was changed into a spider. +The snowy flax flew from under her fingers as though her distaff were +enchanted; which, indeed, was the case, for the wayward Fates had +bestowed upon her a magic gift, and having given her this, not even they +could take it away from her. + +Pepita's mother was often wroth with her, for the dame had much work on +her hands, and sighed that her only daughter should give her so little +help. Were the maiden sent to wash clothes in the stream, ten chances to +one they would go floating down the current while she twisted flowers in +her hair. Were she set to make sweet little chestnut cakes, she would +forget to put a cool green leaf at the bottom of each round baking dish, +and when they were taken out of the ashes, behold, they would be all +burnt! + +'You are a good-for-nothing!' her mother would cry angrily; but this was +not true, for Pepita could spin. + +One feast day, while her mother went to the fair, she was told to watch +the _pentola_, and to stir it carefully if it boiled too fast. It was +made of rice and good fresh meat, with vegetables from the little +garden; and it smelt so delicious that Pepita's small nostrils quivered +like the petals of a rose on a windy day. + +'I will taste it to see that all is well,' she murmured, and drawing +back the iron pot, she helped herself to a liberal portion. + +The _pentola_ was good; Pepita tasted it yet again, for she had been up +early to go to Mass, and had sung herself hungry on the way home. Soon +there was no meat left. + +'Ah, what shall I do?' she sighed, 'My mother will scold me terribly, +and will tell the Padre that I am greedy.' + +She was sighing still when her eyes fell on an old leather shoe which +had been cast away behind the door. Her face all dimpled with mischief, +Pepita soused this under a tap, and threw it into the soup. + +'They will but think that the meat is tough!' she cried with a burst of +laughter; but as the shoe fell into the boiling liquid her mother +crossed the threshold. + +'What have you done?' demanded she, peering into the pot. '_Madonnamia!_ +Was ever an honest woman cursed with such a daughter?' And breathing out +angry hopes that an Ogre would come and take her, she drove Pepita out +of the house. + +At that moment a rich young merchant was strolling by, and Pepita +unwittingly rushed into his arms. A thing such as this had never +happened to him before, and since he scarce knew what to do, he clasped +her tightly while he considered. By the time he released her, Pepita's +face was pink as apple blossom, and the tears that sparkled on it were +for all the world like dewdrops on the petals of a flower. Something +stirred in his breast, and he blushed even more than she; for when a man +falls suddenly in love he knows not where he stands. Looking from one to +the other, the wrath of Pepita's mother suddenly cooled. + +[Illustration: Pepita rushed into his Arms.] + +[Illustration] + +'Take her to wife,' she said, 'and you'll not get a bad bargain. True, +she is nought in the house, but she can spin. And with all her faults +she is not a scold.' + +'One wants more in a wife than that!' said the merchant shrewdly, though +the last of her statements went far with him, since his mother had a +tongue. Looking into Pepita's eyes, which were heavenly blue, and sweet +as an angel's, he lost his last qualm of doubt, and lifted her hand to +his lips. Then he turned once more to the elder woman. 'I have vowed to +my mother I will not wed without her free consent, but if your daughter +meets with her approval, I will gladly do as you say.' + +Guido's mother was in her seventieth year, and though she had never +beheld a face more winning than merry Pepita's, it did not please her, +and she gave her mind to finding a task which would prove beyond her +powers. + +'The garden paths are green with weeds,' she quavered; 'they have been +sadly neglected since Pietro fell ill. Take the hoe, and root them up; +leave not a single one.' + +'Nay, mother! I seek not a gardener for my wife!' her son protested +hotly, for Pepita's small hands could barely lift the hoe, and he had +set his heart on her. + +'Unless the paths be clear of weeds ere the sun sets, I will not give +thee my consent,' said the old woman obstinately; and there was nothing +left for Pepita to do but to hoe up the weeds as best she could. + +No sooner had Guido's mother ceased watching her from the window, than +Pepita whistled gently, and swift at her call came the birds she had +fed with crumbs when the fields were bare. Pointing to the weeds, she +made signs to them to destroy them, and by the time the old mother awoke +from her nap, not one was left behind. This vexed her instead of giving +her pleasure, for she did not wish her son to marry, and telling her +maids they might have a holiday, she commanded Pepita to prepare the +evening meal. + +The maiden was now in much perplexity, for she knew not how to cook, and +her experience that morning with the _pentola_ had taught her little. +But the Brownies who dwelt behind the hearth, and love to see a fair +young face bending over the pots and pans, bade her be not discouraged, +for they would stand her friends. + +Then the nimble little men flew hither and thither, fetching garlic and +oil and meat and rice in just the proportions that Guido loved, and +adding certain secret flavours of their own until the smell of the broth +made the old woman's mouth water, and she could not but praise Pepita's +cooking. When it came to the time to test her skill at spinning, she was +completely reconciled to her son's choice, and put no obstacles in the +way of the wedding. + +And now Pepita sang more blithely than ever, for though he was less well +favoured, and slower of speech than many a young man who had wooed her, +she adored her husband. She was as happy as the day was long until, +wishing to have the biggest bank account as well as the prettiest wife +in the neighbourhood, he took it into his head to turn her talent for +spinning to account, and kept her beside her distaff from morn till eve. + +'I shall soon, at this rate, be richer even than the notary,' he +thought, as he looked delighted at his stores of flax; and Pepita +besought him in vain to give her a little rest, for he could be as +obstinate as his mother. + +It was now that the Fates interfered on her behalf, though many more +worthy than she are left to shift for themselves. + +'She has lost her bloom!' sighed one grim sister. + +'Her cheeks are hollow!' observed the second. + +'Her songs are sad ones!' said the third with a dreadful frown. And then +they put their heads together, and formed a plan whereby Guido might be +outwitted. + +As he sat in the doorway that evening while Pepita span, denying himself +the sight of her in order that her work might not be disturbed, there +came up the garden path a hideous old hag, who besought him to give her +alms. + +'Look at me, Signor!' she groaned, lifting her head so that he saw the +wrinkled folds that lapped her chin. 'Once I was fair as your Pepita, +but I sat so long at my spinning wheel, that all my comeliness left me.' + +Guido hastily gave her a coin, and urged her to begone; for he did not +want Pepita to see her, or to hear what she had to say. + +Next eve came a second old woman, uglier, if possible, than the last, +and bent like some brutish beast. She had the same story to tell him of +bygone loveliness, and Guido sped her down the hill with even more haste +than before. + +The next night a third old woman appeared, so dread of aspect that he +was obliged to avert his gaze. Against his wish, he felt himself +constrained to enquire the cause of her terrible affliction. + +'I sat at my wheel, good master,' was the reply, 'until beauty and sight +both left me, and my skin became even as you see.' + +Now thoroughly alarmed, he dismissed her quickly with a handful of +coins, and calling Pepita to him, gazed at her long and searchingly. +When the flush that his now unaccustomed touch had brought to her sweet +face faded, he saw she was pale and thin. Her mouth drooped sadly, and +purple shadows brooded round her eyes. With a cry of remorse he drew her +to his breast, and kissed her tenderly. + +'You shall spin no longer, my Pepita,' he said, 'for I would rather have +you as you are than be rich as Satan himself!'" + + * * * * * + +And this was the very last story I heard. We started for home next +morning, and I went to school at the half term--a ripping school where +there was any amount of cricket, and so many other games that I had no +time to think of Fairies. + +But some day I'm going to find the Peri, and those other wonderful +Sprites and Goblins of which Titania told me when I met her in the wood +that Christmas day. + +[Illustration] + + +Printed by W. W. Curtis, Ltd., Cheylesmore Press, Coventry. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +Transcriber's note: A few obvious printer's errors were corrected. +Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were preserved. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fairies and the Christmas Child, by Lilian Gask + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAIRIES AND THE *** + +***** This file should be named 37547-8.txt or 37547-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/4/37547/ + +Produced by David Edwards, eagkw and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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