252 WALDEMAR DAA AND HIS DAUGHTERS.

I went in and out at pleasure; and that is how I know all
about it.

“ Amid smoke and ashes, amid sorrow and sleepless nights, the
hair and beard of the master turned grey, and deep furrows
showed themselves around his temples; his skin turned pale and
yellow, as his eyes looked greedily for the gold, the desired gold.

“TI blew the smoke and ashes into his face and beard: the
result of his labour was debt instead of pelf. I sung through the
burst window-panes and the yawning clefts in the walls. I blew
into the chests of drawers belonging to the daughters, wherein
lay the clothes that had become faded and threadbare from being
worn over and over again. That was not the song that had been
sung at the children’s cradle. The lordly life had changed to a
life of penury. I was the only one who rejoiced aloud in that
castle,” said the Wind. “I snowed them up. and they say snow
keeps people warm. They had no wood, and the forest from
which they might have brought it was cut down, . It was a biting
frost. 1 rushed in through loopholes and passages, over gables
and roofs, that I might be brisk. They were lying in bed because
of the cold, the three high-born daughters, and their father was
crouching under his leathern coverlet. Nothing to bite, nothing
to break, no fire on the hearth—there was a life for high-born
people! Huh-sh! let it go! But this is what my Lord Daa
could zo¢ do—he could zof let it go.

“After winter comes spring, he said. ‘After want, good
times will come: one must not loose patience; one must learn
to wait! Now my house and lands are mortgaged, it is indeed
high time; and the gold will soon come. At Easter!’

“I heard how he spoke thus, looking at a spider’s web. ‘ Thou
cunning little weaver, thou dost teach me perseverance. Let
them tear thy web, and thou wilt begin it again, and complete it.
Let them destroy it again, and thou wilt resolutely begin’ to work
again—again! That is what we must do, and that will repay
itself at last.’

“It was the morning of Easter-day. The bells sounded from
the neighbouring church, and the sun seemed to rejoice in the
sky. The master had watched through the night in feverish
exgitement, and had been melting and cooling, distilling and
mixing. 1 heard him sighing lke a soul in despair; I heard
him praying, and I noticed how | held his breath. The lamp
was burned out, but he did not notice it. I blew fiercely at the
fire of coals, and it threw its red glow upon his ghastly white
face, lighting it up with a glare, and his sunken eyes looked forth
wildly out of their deep sockets—but they became larger and
larger, as though they would burst.

“Look at the alchymic glass! It glows in the crucible, red
hot, and pure and heavy! He lifted it with a trembling hand,
and cried with a trembling voice, ‘Gold! gold!’