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Jacob and the Raven

with other Stories
 
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JACOB
&LTHE
RAVEN

with other stories for children
Fora celled cal
illustrated by Heywood Sumner

Lond on G eorge Allen
156 CharingCross Road
1896

 
 

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
  
    
 
      
 

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Contents
PAGE
FAC OESAN DIRE SRAVENE | 2 ee Cee 2G
THE BLUE-HAIRED OGRE. . . . + + = 389
INVACGARDENS 26) 6 06 oes eee tos

THE DWARF WOMAN AND THE HONEY-CAKES. . 123

vii
 
 

List of Illustrations

FRONTISPIECE : . ‘

To face Title

The woman in fur and her sleigh (from JACOB AND THE RAVEN).

Monogram in TITLE-PAGE .

Ornament : 5
Heading to CONTENTS
Ornament. A , 5 : :
Heading to List OF ILLUSTRATIONS .
Ornament

JACOB AND THE RAVEN
Ornament :
Heading : :

Lhe boy who wanted to know more than he could jind out,

Initial :
Full-Page Design . :
Roschen and the beggar woman.
Half-Page Design F 3 : :
Jacob, the little woman, and Pig Fool.
Full-Page Design . : ;

The woman in fur and Santa Claus,

Ornament
Tur Briure-HarrED OGRE
Ornament ;
Heading : : : : :
Hans and the Blue-Hatred Ogre.
Initial A :

Full-Page Design . : : é
Hans seeks his fortune in the world,
ix

PAGE
v

vi
vil
vill
ix
xi

12
13

59
71
List of Illustrations

Half-Page Design
The beautiful bird.
Side Design .
The squirrel,
Side Design .
The white hare.
Full-Page Design . :
Hans pulls out the third fee
Ornament

In a GARDEN

Full-Page Ornament

Heading

Agrippa, the gi eae aes on
Initial :
Full-Page Design .

The repose of Agrippa.
Half-Page Design

The deadly battle.
Love-in-a-Mist
Devil-in-a-Bush

Tue Dwarr WOMAN AND THE Honey-CakEs

Ornament
Heading
The delightful for ke
Initial .
Full-Page meen :
Barthel, Joan, Wolf, and ve on
Half-Page Design
The dwarf woman carrtes oy, he childs "el
Full-Page Design .
The dwarfs’ welcome.
Half-Page Design d
The dwarf tailor and his wie
Half-Page Design :
News of Barthel and Jon.
Ornament
Ornament

Ju-Su.

PAGE

74
76
79

87

94
95

95
106

116

120
121

123
127

150
154
103
174

183
184
 
 
 

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N a queer old town
with timbered houses
and steep red roofs and
great stacks of chim-
neys, there once dwelt
a boy who wanted to
know more than he
could find out. He
lived with old Grethel,

 
14 Fairy Tales

for both his father and mother were dead,
and his schoolfellows laughed and jeered at
him because his ways were not exactly like
theirs, so that he gradually grew more and
more solitary. He used to stand in the
grass of the fields, and watch the clouds
sweeping overhead, driven by wild rush of
wind or lit by some flash of white light, and
wonder where they came from and whither
they were going; until at last the desire to
know grew so strong, that one day when his
companions had teased him more than usu-
ally, he broke away from their midst, and
cried out: “Be quiet, all of you! I am going
to see for myself.”

At first they did not believe. Everything
looked exactly as it always looked. There
were the same trees, and the street where
they were playing, and the schoolmaster’s
house, and the schoolmaster’s cat spitting at
a strange dog, and the smoke coming out of
the chimneys, telling of dinner; and it was
not likely that Jacob, even if he were a fool,
would give up these solid good things for a
Jacob and the Raven Tes

mere fancy. So they only flung a few stones
and shouted, ‘‘Who stares at the clouds!”
and made faces.

But by-and-by, when his figure had grown
smaller and smaller, and the church clock
struck twelve, and the schoolmaster’s cat
crept into the house, they began to wonder
whether Jacob had really gone. Some of
the boys looked foolishly at each other, and
others declared that it was a good riddance,
but a little sickly girl, the child of the school-
master, wept bitterly, because she loved
Jacob. If she could, she would have run
after him, but her legs and her back were
too weak to carry her, and all she could do
was to stretch out her hands and cry—

‘Oh, Jacob, come back, come back !”

She was so taken up with sorrow, and
her eyes were so blurred with tears, that
she did not at first notice that an old woman
in a beggar’s dress was standing close by,
and looking hard at her, until at last she
spoke.

‘“What is the matter, little R6schen?”
16 Fairy aeales

‘Jacob is gone,” sobbed the child, ‘and
when the boys tease me there will be no
one to pommel them.”

“And where is he gone?”

Roschen did not at first reply, for she had
suddenly noticed that a raven was perched
upon the old woman’s shoulder, and she
remembered that Jacob had come home very
full of it one day, and reported that the other
boys declared she was a witch. So she said
quickly—

“ Are you really a witch?”

The old woman looked at her, but she did
not seem angry. She only said—

“Tf I were a witch I suppose I should
know where he was gone without asking.”

“Ves, that’s true,” returned the little girl.
“Well, he did not tell me anything about
it to-day, but I can guess, for he has often
talked of what he wanted. He said that
here he could never learn what he cared
about, and I think he has gone to find out
where the clouds come from. Oh, do make
him come back!”
pee Ee

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poise anaes Saeco nice us ih b EN
ben as Tees = > a fees

. Sr

SAGES SS SS

 
 
Jacob and the Raven 19

But the old woman shook her head.

“That I cannot. But if thou carest so
much, I will tell thee what I will do. I
will send my raven, Krawk, to look after
him.”

At that the child clapped her hands and
dried her tears, and when the beggar woman
had whispered something to the bird, he
slowly lifted himself from her shoulder, and
flapping his great wings, soared away over-
head. Although he seemed to fly slowly,
he was so strong that he soon overtook the
boy, who was walking towards the north,
for he lived in a very cold bleak country,
and the leaves had already been swept off
by the breath of the north wind, and of
course it was from the north that the clouds
were driven. Jacob was just saying to him-
self, ““ Now this time I will certainly go on
till I find out where they start from,” when
he heard such a loud croak close at hand
that he jumped, and when he looked there
was a black and very big raven.

“JT have seen thee before,” he shouted,
20 Fairy Tales

“with the beggar woman, and she called thee
Krawk.”

‘“‘ How clever we are!” chuckled the raven ;
“JT know thee, too, for all the boys were
crying, ‘Jacob, Jacob, what dost see in the
clouds ?’”

“JT don’t care,” said the boy sturdily. “I
am going now to find out where they come
from.”

“That is a long way off; and thou art
small to talk so big. However, I have half
a mind to go with thee.”

“With all my heart,” Jacob answered.
“Two are better than one, and when thou
art tired thou mayest ride on my shoulder.”

This set the bird laughing and cough-
ing so, that Jacob was rather affronted.
However, he swallowed the offence, and
reflected that, before they reached their
journey’s end, Krawk would find out which
was the better man of the two. All went
smoothly at first. As dusk came on, the
raven, flying high, could see over the
land, and tell Jacob where was a likely
Jacob and the Raven 21

house to sleep at. Then he would perch
on a high tree near at hand, and when the
people saw a boy all alone, they were glad
to give him a night’s lodging and fill his
pockets with food, while he in his turn
was always ready to sweep the house, or
chop wood, or draw water, and so got
along well. Once they met a flock of wild
geese flying south on their strong wings,
and with them Krawk had a short parley ;
but as to what they said, he was very
reserved, and rather annoyed Jacob, who
thought he should have heard all. Then,
as they reached further north, every-
thing grew more gloomy and bare, and
the soft rain-clouds, changing to snow-
clouds, did not fly so swiftly, and Jacob
grew disheartened and weary, and disposed
to quarrel with the raven, who certainly
spoke his mind quite freely, and perhaps
rather disagreeably.

At last one day his discontent came to a
head; and then something happened.

“He had walked a long, long way, and
2 : Fairy Tales

his legs ached. Only one house had they
passed, and there Krawk would not let
him stop.

“Why not?” Jacob asked a dozen times.

“Never mind why. I, Krawk, tell thee,
and that is enough.”

“But it is not. Let me hear thy reasons
and then I will judge. Men are wiser than
birds any way.”

The old raven hated this to be said, be-
cause he knew it was true, and it made him
cross.

“Thou a man!” he croaked. ‘‘ Why, thy
very legs are so poor they can't carry thee!”

“T can walk, though,” shouted Jacob, “and
thou canst only straddle!”

This was very rude of him, and Krawk
was extremely affronted.

“Straddle!” he cried indignantly. “ Didst
thou say straddle?”

“Ves, I did, like this,” said Jacob, mimick-
ing. ‘And what was there in that last
house that I was not to be allowed to stop?
It looked all right, and I might have been
Jacob and the Raven 2

asleep and warm by this time instead of
limping along in the dusk.”

Krawk, for all his love of mystery, would
have told him something if he had not been
so angry at the insult put upon him. |

“If thou can’st not trust me there is no
use in our keeping together,” he said huffily.
“T know what I know, and that is sufficient.
But I am sick of looking after thee, and
unless thou wilt say thou art sorry I shall
just fly my own way.”

“Go!” said Jacob, stamping his foot, for
he was not in the least sorry at that moment,
and he would not even call when the raven
soared away over the wood. But as soon
as he was out of sight, he felt fear at the
bottom of his heart, for it was getting dark,
and he was all alone. So he began to talk
aloud that he might keep away the fear.
“Sorry, indeed! I am only sorry that ever I
listened to him. As if I did not know as
well asastupid bird! I don’t believe that he
is as wise as he pretends, and [ have a great
mind to go back to that house and get a
24 Fairy Tales

night’s lodging.” He turned as he spoke,
and looked, and there out of the gloom of
the trees shone a most inviting and friendly
light. “Yes, I will,’ he said to himself
obstinately, ‘‘and to-morrow Krawk may
search and search, and then perhaps he
will be sorry when he can’t find me. That
will show him that he isn’t going to be
master.”

With this in his mind he went back, run-

ning fast and faster; and, keeping the red
light in view, he reached it sooner than he
expected, and very breathless. As he drew
nearer something seemed to rise up as if to
stop him, but it was too late. The door was
flung open, and there he stood in the full
glare.
“Come in, come in!” said a voice which
somehow turned him sick, and before him
was a very little woman with eyes as small
and venomous as those of a snake, and a
mocking smile on her lips. ‘Why didst
not turn in before?”

Jacob stared at her and stammered—
Jacob and the Raven Bigs

“Krawk—the—the raven would not let
. me.”
“Oh, indeed,” she said, still smiling.

“That was what I thought, and I shall

 

have something to say to Krawk about it.

Come in now, however, and thou shalt see
my husband.”
Jacob’s head swam, and he would very
26 Fairy Tales

much have liked to run away, but her wicked
little eyes seemed to draw him forward, so
that he was obliged to enter; and then he
stood still, shaking, for sitting with his back
against the wall, and sound asleep, was a
great man, as big as any of the giants
Roéschen had in her picture-book, and very
dreadful to look at.

The woman sat down on a three-legged
stool, and laughed till the tears streamed
down her face.

“He is big, is he not? And with such
an appetite that when he is hungry he
sticks at nothing. I call him Big Fool,
for when he is not hungry he is sleepy,
and as the work has to be done, somebody
else has got to do it. Thou art come in
the nick of time, for he did not keep the
last boy very long, and I was beginning
to wonder where I should pick up another.
It is strange, is it not, that with such a
good master and mistress no one should
care to come to the house! And thou wilt
like to begin work at once? Well, well,
Jacob and the Raven 2

have no fear! There is plenty for thee to
do, oh, plenty!”

Poor Jacob! What place was this on
which he had fallen, and what did all her
hints mean? He tried to remonstrate.

“May I sleep first, mistress? JI have
been walking all day.”

“ And I waiting for thee. Walking! Ay,
I know it, and now thou shalt work for a
change.”

And as she spoke she took down a cruel-
looking whip, and passed her hand along the
knotted thongs in a manner which made the
boy’s flesh creep. That very night she in-
sisted upon his chopping wood until every
limb ached for weariness, and all that he
got for supper was a bone which she flung
him to gnaw, and a bit of black bread, and
what was worse, he did not dare ask for
more. The next day and the next were
the same. His fear of the big man wore
off, for he seemed good-natured and only
lazy, but the woman was terrible. She
forced him to work like a slave, and out
28 Fairy Tales

of sheer wantonness, when he had dragged
up heavy buckets from the well, and felt as
if every muscle was stretched to limpness,
would laugh and kick them over, so that
he had to begin again.

“There,” she would say, ‘another time
thou’lt do better.” But that was only her
wickedness.

How Jacob longed for a sight of Krawk’s
black wings! He knew now how foolishly
and ungratefully he had behaved to the raven,
and was always on the watch to slip out of
the house, and see whether he could not get
help from the wise old bird. But he began
to think it was impossible. The woman
was ever at hand, and once when he had
nearly succeeded she caught him by the
hair, dragged him back, and beat him till he
was sore all over, though he was too proud
to cry out.

“There, witch’s brat,” she screamed, ‘‘is
that enough, or dost want more? Tie him
to thy leg, Big Fool, and see he doth not
give thee the slip, or P’'ll serve thee the same.”
 

Jacob and the Raven 29

And, small as she was, the giant cowered.

Accordingly, aching from head to foot, the
boy was tied,-but this made him only the
more determined to get away, which was
what the woman had counted on, and why
she meant to give hima chance. For Jacob
she cared nothing, but she longed with all
her wicked heart to ensnare Krawk. His
mistress was stronger than she, and if she
could get the bird her power would be
doubled, and as she was very cunning she
thought that if she treated the boy cruelly
he would be ready to do anything to get
free. She knew that the raven had not
deserted him, for she had watched, and that
very day had seen him hovering about,
though cautiously, and now she _ believed
the time was come to let the two have
word with each other. So under pretence
of Jacob’s sweeping off the snow and giving
the cow a nibble of grass and bracken, she
sent him into the wood the very next morn-
ing, when there was a break of light in the
grey sky, and she told her husband how
30 Fairy Tales

he was to keep fast hold of the rope which
held the boy all the time that he pretended
to be sound asleep, which, as he was very
lazy, suited him exactly.

She saw that the rope was secured, and
then she went into the house, and the man
began to snore before she reached it. It
was not above a minute when Jacob heard
the soft strong swish of wings, and the raven
swooped down on the branch of a tree a little
way above his head. He looked quite crest-
fallen and miserable, for he had never ceased
to reproach himself; and bruised as Jacob
was, he could hardly help smiling at the
dejected droop of his tail feathers.

“Hest!” he called eagerly. ‘“O Krawk,
thou art good not to have left me!”

“Tt was my fault,” cried the raven. “I
never meant more than to give thee a little
fright, but I should have remembered thou
wast only a fledgling, and had _ patience.
How does this shameless woman. treat
threes.

“Nay, I would not listen,” said the boy
Jacob and the Raven 31

sorrowfully. “She starves and beats me
until I am black and blue. What shall I
do? Come a little nearer that we may
whisper.”

“T dare not. She has power where thou
art standing. Dost see the circle drawn?
If I came down, I should be her slave as
well, and forced to do her evil will.”

“No one can force me to do what I
will not,” said Jacob, clenching his small
hands, and the raven was silent, for he
knew that men might say things like that,
and keep to it. The boy went on hurriedly
—‘Tf I had a knife I could cut this rope.”

“No man’s knife can cut it. Dost sup-
pose I have not thought of it? There is
one who might lend me his, but it is a
long flight, and if I leave thee Bei

“Oh, that is nothing,” cried the boy
breathlessly. ‘Good Krawk, go, go!”

He got no answer, for the old raven
was cocking his head, and looking over

 

his shoulder, and, the next moment, was
circling high in the air, while Jacob was
Re Fairy Tales

roughly dragged indoors. The woman pre-
tended to be in a fury, and threatened to
kill him. But presently she flung him from
her.

“T am sick of all this,” she said sullenly.
“Go, witch’s brat, if thou wilt, but do
one thing first. Call this Krawk of thine
to the window. He need not come inside,
but I have a mind to hear if he can
talk.”

Jacob’s heart leapt up and died down
again.

"IG 1S one.”

“Gone to come back, if not to-day, to-
morrow. To-morrow thou shalt go softly
outside the door and call. If he fears me,
say that I am not in the house. Then
when he has said a few words, thou shalt
be free. I swear it.”

And she made her voice so smooth and
small that Jacob hated it even worse than
before. But in spite of this he felt the
blood leaping in his body, for he saw she
was in earnest, and his heart cried out
Jacob and the Raven BB

with a great yearning for the open country,
and the wholesome air, and the clouds fly-
ing before the wind. And Krawk was so
clever that even if he were to fall into her
clutches he would surely manage to get out
of them again! The woman smiled, for
she saw that she had nearly got her will,
and just at that moment Jacob looked at
her. Then he said to himself—

‘“She is a wicked woman, and she wants
to make me as bad as herself, but that she
shall not do. It was my own fault coming
here, and not Krawk’s, and he ought not
to be the one to suffer.” And he stood
up as stiff as if he were a soldier, and
said boldly, ‘No, I will not call him.”

When she found herself baffled, she was
furious.

“Oh, ho, we shall see!” she cried, ‘we
shall see whose will is strongest. Lie with
the rats to-night, and starve to-morrow.”

With that she thrust him into a horrible
outhouse, which he had always dreaded,

and where, true enough, the rats raced
c
34 Fairy Tales

over him all the night through, while the
cold was so piercing that he was almost
frozen. In the morning, when she called
him out to work, she had not a word of
pity, and only tossed him a miserable hunch
of hard bread.

“There,” she said. ‘No more to-day
and less to-morrow. Dost like thy lodging,
and the rats, or wilt call the raven?”

Somehow or other, in spite of the past
night, and although his heart was sick, it
was easier for Jacob to say ‘‘ No,” and he
said it once more.

“Then thou shalt starve, as I have sworn.
No more to-day, and less to-morrow.”

But as you have heard she was very crafty,
and cared a great deal more for getting Krawk
into her power than for punishing the boy, so
she tied him again to her husband, and had
him outside the door to chop wood, while
she kept out of sight. For the sun was
shining, and the beautiful bare branches of
the trees stood up clear and strong against
white clouds, and she hoped the sight of it
Jacob and the Raven 25

all would quicken Jacob’s longing to get
away, and make him ready to do anything
for his liberty.

He drew a long breath and looked all
round at the brave winter world, and felt
miserable because he saw nothing of the
raven, for although he was more than ever
determined not to call him, it was something
to feel that he was near. The poor boy's
limbs ached so badly that he had very little
strength with which to chop wood; but
though the big man snored as usual, Jacob
was sure that his wife had eyes at the back
of her head, and did not dare to stop to rest,
lest she should rush out and beat him. _Pre-
sently, to his great joy, he heard the flap of
wings overhead, but when he looked up there
was no Krawk, only a couple of magpies
flying past. The next moment one of them
let fall something on a heap of hard snow
near the house, and the woman, who saw it
fall, came running out to pick it up. Jacob
stamped his foot with vexation, for he had
caught sight of a glittering flash as it fell,
36 Fairy Tales

and hoped that it might have been for him,
and in his heart he called the magpie
a stupid thing. It was, however, nothing
more or less than a looking-glass. The
woman was delighted. She was as vain
as a peacock, and no pedlars durst come
near the house on account of its evil repute,
so that she had had nothing better of late
than a bucket of water in which to admire
herself. Now she picked it up, and smiled,
and twisted her hair, and turned her head
first on one side and then on the other,
before holding it to her face. When she
did that something very strange happened,
for, as she held it upright, against her will
her tongue stole out as if it were drawn by
a magnet, and fixed itself tightly against
the centre of the glass, so that, although
she tried to get it away, she could not, and
the mirror remained standing straight before
her face, held there by her own tongue. She
screamed with rage, striking wildly at it,
and: her husband, waking out of his sleep,
stretched his huge limbs, and began to
Jacob and the Raven Qa

lumber towards her. It was just at that
moment that the second magpie, flying
swiftly from tree to tree, let fall a knife
in front of Jacob, who darted to pick it
up. It was so sharp that directly it touched
the rope the strands fell apart, and with one
leap the boy was free.

But as he did not know this, he fled as
if the woman were close at his heels, and
it was only when in his blind haste he had
tumbled into a snow-drift and lay kicking
desperately that he at last heard the croak
of the old raven, and something which
sounded like his hoarse laugh. Ashamed
of his panic he struggled out, and there
sat the bird on a dead bough, with his
head as usual on one side, and his bright

eyes twinkling.

“Where wert thou running in such a
hurry?” he asked, chuckling. ‘It was all
I could do to catch thee up.”

Jacob grew very red, but he spoke out
bravely.

“JT ran because I was frightened. Let
38 Fairy Tales

us go further away or that woman will be
coming after us.”

“Not she,” said Krawk significantly; “1
have taken care of that. Besides, she can-
not touch any one when they are not inside
her bounds. Remember, thou wouldst walk
straight up to her door; and I, fool that
I was, never thought of thy going back!”

“T know,” said Jacob, redder still. “I
wanted to spite thee because I was angry,
and hated saying I was sorry. But, oh,
Krawk, I am hungry! Canst thou think
of anything I could get to eat?”

The old raven was prepared for this, and
while he had persuaded the magpies, who
hate trouble of any sort, by both threats and
promises, to carry the glass and knife, he
had himself brought a hunch of bread which
the boy ate ravenously, although he would
not stop fora moment, for he could not get
rid of the. fear of pursuit. It was in vain
that Krawk assured him that he was now
quite safe; he believed, yet the next minute
was sure he heard steps. Indeed, although
Jacob and the Raven 39

the raven had managed so cleverly to get
Jacob away, he was not easy in his mind,
for he did not know what might happen to
the boy. Jacob had passed through a bad
three or four days, and want of food had
left him really exhausted; besides, he was
constantly looking behind, from terror of
the woman. It may easily be guessed,
therefore, that he was no longer the stout
active boy who had been able to put up
with cold and hardships, and Krawk had
good reason to be afraid that if he became
more tired he might be unable to get on,
and perhaps fall into a sleep from which
there would be no awakening. Several
times the wise old bird rose high into the
air, balancing himself on his strong pinions,
so that he could look well over the trees ;
but he could make out no sign of a shelter,
and dared not leave Jacob alone while he
went to seek help. Jacob knew that it
was his own wrong-headedness which had
brought him into this plight, and to do
him justice he struggled on as bravely as
40 Fairy Tales

he could without complaining. But at last
he came to a stop.

“Teave me, and save thyself, Krawk,’ he
gasped. ‘I can go no further.”

‘What talk is this?” said the raven crossly,
because he was anxious, and because he saw
from Jacob’s face that it was true. ‘‘We
shall be out of the wood in a minute, and
then it will be better walking.”

“T cannot, I cannot;” and even as he
spoke the boy staggered, dropped down on
the frost-bound ground, and there lay.

Krawk was not only in great perplexity
but distress, for he had grown to be
very fond of Jacob, even though he was apt
to scold, and now he hopped round and
round, and poked him with his beak, and
did his best to rouse him. But it was all
useless, and at last finding he could do
nothing, he rose on his great wings, and
gave his hoarse cry for help, which is one
of the dreariest sounds you can imagine.
After he had called he listened, but no cry
came back, and he was just going to call
Jacob and the Raven 41

_’ again when he caught the sound of a
grunting “ Oof, oof /” not far away.

“That is a bear,” he cried joyfully, “and
if I can put her into a good humour, I
will get her to carry Jacob. But she will
want some management.”

He marked his spot, and dropped, and
came bowing and sidling up to the bear,
who stopped nosing, and looked suspicious,
for the beasts do not much like those birds
which can talk men’s talk. But the raven
was clever enough to know how to get
round her, and he could see that she was
proud of her strength.

“Well met,” he said ; ‘the ground is hard,
but that makes no difference to thee, other-
wise I could tell thee of a good store of
earth-nuts which I passed when I was in
too great a hurry to stop.”

“I might hear where I could find them,”
grunted the bear, looking attentive, and
licking her lips.

“I could show thee easily, but that I
have some work on hand which is more
42 Fairy Tales

than I can manage, since, unluckily, I am
not strong like thee. ,It is a man-child that
I am taking to the cave, and he can go no
further. Would he be too heavy for thee?”

“Too heavy, indeed!” she sniffed. “1
could carry a dozen men-children if it
pleased me. Where is this feeble thing
of thine?” |

Krawk, secretly glad at heart, took her
to where poor Jacob lay white and helpless
on the hard road, and she snuffled round
him contemptuously.

“That!” But really she was much in-
terested.

“If thou art sure he would not be too
heavy for thee,” said Krawk carelessly,
“none could carry him so comfortably as
thou, and afterwards I would fetch the
earth-nuts. He wanted to find out where
the clouds come from, and so he was put
under my care. Then”—he shuffled over
that part of the history—“ the woman—
thou knowest—got hold of him, and has
left him like this:”
Jacob and the Raven 43

The bear growled angrily, for all the
beasts in that country dreaded the woman.

“Thou shouldst have kept him out of
her clutches,” she said. “As for the cave,
of course I can carry him as easily as if
he were my own cub, and it is lucky for
him that I, who can run: like a man on
two legs, was at hand.”

And with that she picked him up and
held him close, and shambled away at a
good pace, with the raven flying overhead
and croaking anxiously.” “Not too tight,
not too tight!” for he was afraid of her
hug. In this manner they went a long
way; the stars had been shining for hours,
and the northern lights dancing in the
heavens, before they saw before them a
black steep hill, Once or twice in the
journey Jacob had opened his eyes, and
then closed them again, feeling himself
clasped by something warm and furry, and
being too sleepy to trouble himself much
about anything. But when they stopped
he opened them wide and saw the door
44 Fairy Tales

of a cave in the hill unclose, and wondered
exceedingly that a woman should be stand-
ing inside, a woman old and yet beautiful,
for her hair was white as snow, and yet
her eyes glowed. She was very tall and
stately, and was clothed from head to foot
in rich furs. By her side stood a gaunt
grey wolf, which snarled and showed his
fangs until she struck him with a’ long
ice-staff which she carried. And when she
spoke her voice was full and deep, like
the undertone which you hear in the rush
of the wind on a winter’s night.

‘“Welcome,” she said, ‘‘welcome. Come
in without fear, for though Klopp is an ill-
natured beast, he will not venture to be
disagreeable. Who is this thou bringest,
Krawk ?”

“Tt is a man-child,” said the raven,
“who would learn where the clouds start
from.”

‘He would never have got here if I had
not carried him,” said the bear, dropping
gladly on all fours, for she was stiff.
Jacob and the Raven 48

“But he came bravely for all that,”
croaked Krawk, “for he has no wings, and
but two legs, which failed him at the
last.”

She smiled and did not speak, and Jacob
himself said nothing, but stared with all
his eyes at the strange place in which he
found himself, for the carrying had rested
him, and he had got back his senses
enough to be astonished. It was a vast
cave, far bigger than he could make out,
for the shadows stretched into unseen
depths, and here and there he caught,
through a gleam of light flung by the roar-
ing fire of logs in the centre, recesses where
stalactites hung dimly white from the roof.
Round the fire lay a number of animals—
bears, Arctic foxes, wild cats, and Klopp
the wolf. Many of them looked as if they
had been hunting, and had come in for
shelter and rest, and there were small
things as well as big, for squirrels and
marmots and wild mice frisked merrily
about. Part of the ground was bare, but
46 Fairy Tales

on other parts were stretched soft skins
and furs, and grey eider-down rugs. Per-
haps it was only that Jacob was sleepy,
but through the gloom he seemed to catch
dim shifting forms of old familiar things;
there, certainly, he had a glimpse of a
snow man which the winter before he and
the other boys had built up in the play-
ground, while Réschen sat in a window
and clapped her hands; and after that came
a flickering of lights, and the branches of
a Christmas tree with glass balls and gay
streamers floated into sight, and with it
he remembered that while all the other
children had presents from their fathers
and mothers and brothers and sisters, he
would have had none, if Rdschen had not
knitted him a soft warm comforter. It
was round his neck now, for he put up
his hand to feel, and the very thought of
it made his heart swell. Then the shadows
vanished, and he saw that round the cave
were hung spreading antlers, and the teeth
of huge mammoths, and many curious
Jacob and the Raven 47

things of which he did not so much as
know the name. He stood gazing and
wondering where he was, and what had
become of Krawk—who had flown up to
roost with other birds—and then he saw
that the woman had filled a cup from the
great cauldron which simmered on the
hearth, and was bringing it to him to
drink. As ‘soon as he had drunk, his
sleepiness increased, and, seeing his eyes
close, she lifted him in her strong arms
and laid him on a great heap of skins,
and covered him over with others.

And there he slept and slept and slept.

A great deal of work went on in the cave,
and sometimes there were such noises that
Jacob half woke, raised himself on his elbow,
and looked on with sleepy eyes. Always
there was a great roaring in the mighty
chimney, of which no one seemed to take
any notice, and all sorts of animals came
in and out, some wounded and some hungry.
The wolves were the hungriest. Once a
large moose-deer, badly hurt by the hunters,
48 Fairy Tales

only just reached the cave in time, for he
was quite exhausted; but the woman laid
her hand on the wounds, and gave him
food, and his sobbing sighs soon passed
into sleep. Occasionally there was quarrel-
ling, always helped on by Klopp the wolf,
and then the woman would speak very
sternly, and strike right and left with her
ice-staff, and Jacob would draw the skins
round him and close his eyes again, and
feel warm and content.

But at last one evening he was awakened
by a gay jingling of sleigh-bells outside, and
in tramped a burly figure, carrying a great
pack on his back, and covered with snow-
flakes. As he stood by the fire and stamped
and slapped his elbows, his jovial laugh
seemed to send a glow through the whole
cave, and the woman, leaning on her staff,
looked at him as if she loved him.

‘‘Where dost come from last, Klaus?” she
asked.

He had taken his pack from his shoulders,
and as he set it on the ground, all sorts of
a $< ue ge a BEN

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Jacob and the Raven 51

beautiful things came tumbling out, big
dolls and penny dolls, and doll-houses, and
whips, and horns, and knives, and puzzles,
and books, and tea-things, and Jack-in-the-
boxes, and carts, and horses, and bricks, and
balls. There were more things than I can
even tell you about, and as Jacob saw them
his eyes grew bigger and bigger. But when
Klaus said, ‘‘ From Steinberg,” the boy lifted
himself eagerly from the skins, and his sleepi-
ness went away. For Steinberg was his own
little town, and with the name rose up a
recollection of the gabled street, and the
schoolmaster’s house, and his playfellows, and
little Réschen, so that something seemed to
catch his throat. Klaus was still speaking.
“TI made all the children there happy,” he
went on, “except one, and she was the one
I liked the best of all. But she grieves all
day long for her playmate, a boy who went
away to try to find out where the clouds
come from. Krawk the raven went with
him, and neither of them have come back,
and she thinks they have forgotten her. She
52 Fairy Tales

cared nothing for the very prettiest doll I
could find in my pack.”

“Take me home, take me home, p/ease/”
cried a voice from behind. The woman
turned and looked at Jacob kindly.

“Will you not stay and see what I have
to show you?” she said in her deep voice.
“You wanted to know about the clouds.”

“But I know now what I want,” said
the boy very earnestly, “and it is Roschen.
Good Santa Klaus, may I go with you?
The clouds are nothing.”

“Tet him come,” said Klaus in a low
voice. ‘He has a heart.”

And the woman smiled, for though death
often walks in her footsteps, she loves young
things and cherishes the buds, and flings a
snow-covering over the earth. So now she
lifted up Jacob, and wrapped him warmly
round, and carried him to the door, where,
under a sky brilliant with the northern
lights, and thickly sprinkled with stars,
stood a beautiful sleigh drawn by six rein-
deer. Krawk, who always slept with one
Jacob and the Raven 53

eye open, bustled down in a tremendous
hurry, and hopped on the back of the sleigh.
Jacob was tucked up inside as comfortably
as possible, and then the woman—pushing
back Klopp, who, greedy-eyed and _ lean,
stood by her side—laid her hand softly on
his eyes.

“Now sleep,” she murmured, and with a
quick jangle of bells the reindeer rushed
forward, and Jacob knew no more.

When he came to himself, he rubbed his
eyes. Grey dawn was breaking, the church
clock was striking, and he was lying on his
little bed in his garret. Everything looked
so familiar that there was nothing to wonder
at except a heap on the floor over which was
flung a deerskin, which certainly was never
there before; and when he had stared a good
deal at the ceiling and the white walls, and
his one chair, and the little picture of his
father and mother standing hand in hand,
and had looked through the small panes of
glass at the great walnut tree outside, he
sprang out of bed and pulled off the skin.
54 Fairy Tales

There lay two warm suits for himself, and
a number of books, and a new pair of stilts,
and quite the most beautiful doll you ever
beheld, and a box full of its clothes, so that
he jumped for joy. He dressed himself in
his new garments, and set the books all in
a row ona Shelf his father had made before
he died, and then he tucked the doll and
its trunk under his arm, and opened the
door and slipped out. He met old Grethel,
with whom he lived, as he ran round a
corner, and she stared at him as if he had
been a ghost. Jacob did not care.

‘She knows nothing, and she shall never
know,” he said, nodding. ‘“ Only Réschen.”

The sun was shining on the red roofs, and
the weathercock on the church spire shone
like burnished gold, and his heart was so
warm and glad to be there again that he
went and thumped on the schoolmaster’s
door till all the windows round were thrown
up, and out came the heads of half the
women in the place.

“ Ach, if it is not little Jacob come home
Jacob and the Raven BG

again!” cried the neighbours. ‘ Welcome,
Jacob!”

‘Jacob, Jacob, where do the clouds start
from, and what does the wind blow?” called
the boys.

“It has blown me new clothes, as you
may see,” he answered good-humouredly,
and that wonder made them silent at once,
for they all saw that he spoke truly, and
began to respect him. But by this time
he was hammering again, and calling
‘“Roschen!” because he had heard the
patter of little feet inside, and was grow-
ing impatient; and the next moment she
had opened the door and was crying in her
turn, ‘‘O Jacob, Jacob!”

He was a little disappointed that she did
not seem to care even to look at the doll
at first, because she was so taken up with
looking at him and asking him a hun-
dred questions. But she was the only one
to whom he told everything, everything
about Krawk, and the house in the wood,
and the bear, and the cave, and Santa Klaus
56 Fairy Tales

himself. The child’s eyes grew rounder and
rounder, and it was not until she had heard
the story many times that she hugged her
doll.

“T don’t know about the clouds yet,”
said Jacob, ‘but I mean to learn, and so
I shall come to school until I do. All
that lot of books which Santa Klaus left
are sure to have everything in them. Be-
sides, I shall make Krawk tell me. He
knows heaps.”

Roschen did not very much care about
his learning, but she loved Krawk, and
meant to give him bones to pick whenever
she could get them. She wanted to know
more about the journey home than the boy
could tell her, for he had to own that he
was asleep.

“And how could he have put thee into
thy bed, and no one the wiser? Oh,
Jacob, he must have taken thee down the
chimney !”

“TI don’t know,” said Jacob, growing red
and turning away, for the same thought
Jacob and the Raven Ba

had come to him, and it was rather humi-
liating.

But he never found out, for if Krawk
could have told he would not say, though
he sometimes came to talk to the children
when there was no one by. He is older
and wiser than ever, and so is Jacob, who
is still learning while he has stopped grow-
ing, and speaks of things to Réschen which
make them both very happy, if one may
judge by their looks.

 
         
       

 
 

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The Blue-Haired Ogre

NCE upon a time in the
heart of an old forest
there lived a woodcutter,
his wife, and children.
They were very poor, and
I suppose the children ate
a good deal—when they
could get it—for it sometimes seemed to
the man as if they were always at the last
crumb. They were never quite starved, be-
cause when he had powder he could go out
and shoot some of the many birds and

59

 
60 Fairy Tales

beasts which lived in the forest, and when
the powder ran short there were traps and
snares to fall back upon, and at this work
his elder boys were almost as clever as
himself. But getting food was no doubt
a hard thing, especially in winter, when
the creatures went far themselves in search
of prey; and one very cold winter, when the
snow began early, and the man’s wife fell
ill, so that all the nursing and the cooking
came upon her husband, he began to lose
heart altogether, and at night when he sat
moodily watching the fire, after the chil-
dren had gone hungry to bed, his trouble
broke out.

“Wife,” he said, “it is of no use trying
to scramble on like this: there are too
many mouths to fill, and too little to put
into them.” And with that he stopped and
kicked one of the logs till the sparks
jumped right and left. Being a man he
wanted her to say something which he did
not like to say himself.

The poor soul looked sadly at him, tears
The Blue-Haired Ogre 61

gathering in her eyes, for up to this time
they had held together, and there had been
no question of parting, which to the mother’s
heart seemed almost like death. But she kept
her voice steady as she said—

“Tt is true; and our Karl is big and
strong. He must go.”

So the next morning Karl, who had rosy
cheeks, grey eyes, and a tremendous appetite,
had his badger cap tied tightly over his
head, with the ears sticking up, as was the
custom, a stout thorn-stick thrust into his
hands, a hunch of rye-bread tucked into
his pouch, and was told that he was to go
out and seek his fortune. He was so over-
joyed at this that he only stayed to ask
one question as to where he should be likely
to meet with it.

“Well, I don’t know,” said the father
slowly. ‘“ Folk say that for that you must
find the Blue-haired Ogre.”

“And so I will!” cried Karl. “ Find him,
and fight him, and kill him. I always
wanted to be a soldier. Good-bye, father ;
62 Fairy Tales

good-bye, mother; good-bye, little sisters.
This is splendid! Hurrah!”

“Take care!” cried his father; but Karl
only waved his hand.

The mother had the door posted open so
that from her bed she could watch the sturdy
figure plodding away over the snow, and
smiled and sighed to notice that before he
was out of sight he had begun to munch
the black bread; yet when. Peter, who was
next in age, burst into a laugh, and pointed,
she scolded him well.

“Nobody will mind when your turn
comes, good - for- nothing!” she cried
angrily. ‘‘ There isn’t one of you that can
hold a candle to Karl. See how he helped:
your father, and you, though you think
yourself so clever, coming home yesterday
without so much as a squirrel to put in
the pot! Oh, go along with you all; I’ve
no patience with you!” And then she
caught her baby to her heart and cried
over it.

The removal of Karl’s appetite made
The Blue-Haired Ogre 63

things a little better, but the winter was
the most severe they had felt in the wood
for a long while, and when the man trapped
any bird or beast—for he had no money now
with which to buy powder—it was so thin
that they could scarcely get a mouthful out
of it. Sometimes he looked at Peter—who
_ was tall, though sallow and slight —and
sighed. But he said nothing, because the
mother had lost ground when Karl went
away, and had never seemed to recover it,
and he thought that if another child were
to go, it would be the death of her. Know-
ing how low-spirited she had grown, it there-
fore amazed him mightily one evening, as he
came sadly home with little enough in his
bag, to hear her, inside the hut, laughing
just as she used to laugh in the old days
when she was the merriest and the prettiest
girl in all the country round. He could
scarcely believe his ears, but, while he hesi-
tated, the happy sound broke out again, and
he could almost fancy he heard the children
dancing for joy upon the mud floor ; indeed,
64 Fairy Tales

as he opened the door, there was no doubt
about the clatter. His wife was sitting up
in bed, her eyes shining, her arms clasped
round a familiar figure—familiar and yet
changed—and as her husband came in she
stretched out a hand to draw him nearer.

“ Karl has come back, husband,” she cried,
“he has come back to us at last!” and all
the children clapped their hands and shouted,
“Ves, Karl has come back!”

The man was glad, too, yet at the same
time disappointed, for Karl was the oldest
and the strongest, and if he could not find
his fortune who could? Karl had discovered
nothing. He had killed all the beasts he
could catch, and then, fortunately, came
upon a house where they let him sleep with
the horses. But even for that he had to
work, and as he grew thinner and thinner,
and hungrier and hungrier, he thought with
longing of the hut, father and mother,
brothers and sisters, until the longing grew
so strong that it brought him back.

“Ah, our Karl is a home bird,” said the
The Blue-Haired Ogre 65

mother, folding him in her arms contentedly,
and though the father sighed he uttered no
reproach.

“ Did you hear anything of the ogre?” he
asked. Karl looked down shamefacedly.

“They said he might be found at the edge
of the wood. But—it was so far, and I was
so hungry!”

“What are you thinking about!” cried
the mother angrily. “ Peter, get the soup,
and let Karl have my share. I can eat
nothing to-night for joy. When one is
very glad it is impossible to eat.”

So the children rejoiced, all but Peter, and
Peter was disposed to be scornful. Karl was
the strongest and the biggest, so that when
they quarrelled he always got the better, but
Peter was the cleverer, and had a shrewd
tongue. Now while the others listened
open-mouthed, he kept on thinking, “ Karl
is a dolt; if I had had his chances I should
have done very differently ;” and this, per-
haps, more than any real desire to go, was
the reason why he stood up that night, when

E
66 Fairy Tales

they had finished their poor supper, and
said—

“Tt is my turn now. Let me start to-
morrow. I warrant you I will find this
ogre and get something out of him. He
is sure to be a stupid if he is big.”

At this the mother exclaimed sharply,
“Be quiet, you are too young. We shall
be having little Hans talking of such
follies next. Oh, if only I could be up
and about again I would manage some-
thing, but the girls will never learn to be
wise

When she said this she turned her face
away lest the tears should be seen, and the
man put his arms round each little flaxen-
haired maiden.

“Do not blame them, wife,” he said
quietly; ‘they are good children, and do
their best. But Peter is right, that is the
truth. Here are too many mouths, and
he must go.”

So the next morning it was Peter, with
his rabbit-skin cap, who started alone across
The Blue-Haired Ogre 67

the snow, so eager that he could hardly wait
to say good-bye.

“T shall know how to take care of myself,
and will bring home something fine, you'll
see! Good-bye, all of you! Karl can stay
and make the soup,” he shouted gaily back,
and the mother dried her eyes and sighed—

“He was always the cleverest among you
all; not one can come up to him. Now,
Karl, can’t you stop the baby from scream-_
ing?” And that night, when the wind blew,
she lay weeping and thinking of Peter, and
sure that he was more dear to her than either
of the others.

Well, the days went by, and the pinching
frost held on, and the mother cut her own
duffle cloak into frocks for the girls, and
one morning a poor miserable little figure,
thin and haggard, crept into the hut, and
flung himself down with a gasp. The
mother sprang out of bed and gathered
him in her arms, and made the little girls
run here and run there to heap on wood, and
bring what food there was.
68 Fairy Tales

“ How thin he is!” cried little Freda.

‘And how he shakes!” whispered Johanna.

But the mother waited until her husband
and the boys came home, and then looked
in his face and said boldly—

“Thank God, father, we have our Peter
again! If we must die, it is better that we
die together. The poor boy has been pretty
nigh frightened to death, for he says it was
all quite different from when Karl went:
the whole forest was full of faces and mock-
ing voices, and as for the ogre, he caught
sight of him once stalking along under the
trees, and the very sight made his blood run
cold. How you could have the heart to
wish the poor boys to meet him I can’t
think! No, no, this shall be the end. I'll
have no more of it.” And she spoke the
words very loud, yet uneasily.

The man said nothing—that was his way.
He held his empty pipe in his hand—for
although he had had no tobacco for many
a day, it seemed to comfort him—and stared
into the fire, and wondered what next could
The Blue-Haired Ogre 69

be done. In the early morning he was in
the habit of going to the woodshed to get
wood, and while he was doing so out stole
little Hans. He had dressed himself in his
warmest homespun clothes, and his mole-
skin cap was tied crookedly over his ears,
because his mother always did that herself,
and his eyes—which were as blue as peri-
winkles—were full of tears, but his voice
was as big as he could make it. What he
said was that now it had come to his turn,
and that it was better he should go without
giving his mother the pain of consenting.
His father’s heart sank, and he shook his
head. If Karl who was so strong, and
Peter who was so clever, had failed, what
was to become of Hans, who was neither
the one nor the other, and ridiculously
young? But the boy only smiled.

“Give me a piece of bread, father, and
let me go before they wake.”

So the man went and cut a hunch, thrust
it into his hand, and stood with a swelling
heart watching him trudge away over the
70 Fairy Tales

snow. He had not gone far before a
number of half-frozen hungry little birds
came fluttering round him, and Hans was
so sorry for them that he broke off and
crumbled a bit of his bread. The very last
the father saw before he disappeared into the
heart of the black trees, was a crowd of birds
flying all round him, and others sitting on
his head and shoulders. It really seemed
as if the birds had made up their minds
which way he had to go, and that he was
obliged to follow. Once or twice he stopped

and remonstrated. ‘You don’t know about
it all, little brothers,” he said. ‘I must go
and seek my fortune in the world.” But

the birds only twittered the more, and made
such a noise that Hans was fain to go the
way they wanted, and as he loved them, they
kept him from feeling lonely. While he
walked he thought often of those he had
left behind, and of what he might do for
them.

“T know what I want,’ he said to him-
self, “that is one thing. If only I could get
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The Blue-Haired Ogre 73

something to take back, so that mother
might have a warm dress, and father a
good double-handful of tobacco! Perhaps,
too, there would be enough to fit out Karl
to be a soldier by-and-by, and get books for
Peter.”

He was so interested in his plans that -at
last he began to talk aloud, and very much
surprised he was to hear a little voice
answer—

“To have all this you must first pluck
out three hairs from the beard of the blue-
haired ogre.”

The voice was close to his ear, and when
Hans had twisted himself round he saw the
most beautiful bird you ever beheld, all
green and gold and crimson, sitting on his
shoulder, and somehow when he saw it
he no longer wondered, for it had always
astonished him that he should not under-
stand when the birds talked. Now he was
in a tremendous hurry to ask a dozen
questions.

“Oh, you beauty!” he cried, “‘where did
74 Fairy Tales

you come from? Please don’t go away till
you have told me lots of things. How is
it that you can speak so nicely? Are you
hungry? I’ve got a bit of bread still in
my pocket. And where shall I find the
ogre?”

“That is what only the others know,” said

 

the bird. “You have been good to my
people, and so we will do what we can, and
when you want help one of us will be
near.”

And when the bird flew away it was as if
a flash of jewels passed through the bare
trees, and all the other birds shot after it,
The Blue-Haired Ogre 7G

so that Hans was left alone. But his heart
was light, for he thought that he had at any
rate found out about the blue-haired ogre,
and that he would just go on and on and on
until he met with him. So he walked and
walked till he grew tired, for he was only
a little fellow, and the wood became more
grey and more lonely, and he had shared
his last morsel of bread with the birds,
and felt very hungry. At last, just as a
tear or two began to trickle down his round
cheek, he saw a brown squirrel darting
along the branch of an old tree, so old that
there were great holes and rents in its trunk,
and he guessed directly that if he only looked
long enough, in one of these holes he would
find the squirrel’s store laid up for the winter.
He knew a great deal about the ways of wild
things because he loved them, so he climbed
and poked, and before he had climbed very
high he put his finger into a fine hoard of
nuts. Such a scolding as the squirrel set
up, to be sure! Hans quite understood
what she was feeling; therefore, although
76 Fairy Tales

the nuts really made his mouth water, he
called out—

“Never mind, little sister, don’t be fright-
ened, for I will take very few, and only those
because Iam so hungry that otherwise I am
afraid I shall never find the blue-haired
ogre.”

No sooner had he said this than a sharp
little voice at his elbow
made him jump round,
and there sat the pret-
tiest squirrel he had
ever seen, with a tail
which feathered quite
over her head, and
eyes that were bright
enough to make holes

 

in you.

“Tf you don’t it will be nobody’s fault but
your own,” she said testily, and talking very
fast. “Of course it is the easiest thing in
the world to find him when everybody knows
that he passes along the edge of the wood
each evening at sunset. But you two-legged
The Blue-Haired Ogre aa

things are so slow that you would never get
there to-day in time, and now you will want
to sleep somewhere, instead of curling your-
self up on a branch and giving no one any
trouble. You really are poor helpless crea-
tures, but as you behaved well just now, I
suppose I must do what I can for you. So
I will send one of my people to show you
the way to a stuffy place with four walls and
a cover.”

“Yes, please,” said Hans. ‘But there is
- one thing I want to know very much, what
am I to do when I see the ogre?”

It was the most unfortunate question
possible, for the squirrel is one of those
who particularly dislike having to own that
they don’t know everything.

“Oh, that is nothing to me,” she said ina
great hurry, ‘the others must tell you that.
Go along, and don’t talk; you have such a
harsh voice that you deafen me.”

If Peter had been there this would have
affronted him, but Hans was not touchy, so
he only laughed and thanked her, and set off
78 Fairy Tales |

after a little brown squirrel which went in
the most whimsical way in the world, as if he
were showing off for some one to admire, and
every now and then shot up to the top of a
tree and chattered. ‘“ Whirr-r-r-r!” he said
at last, ‘‘there’s your place!”

True enough, there was a clearing and a
hut, and the people who lived there were
very kind to Hans, and wanted to keep him
the next day. When they found he would
not stay they put all the food they could
spare in his pocket, and the woman kissed
him between his blue eyes, and the man told
him the way he should go to get to the edge
of the wood. He had plenty of food for the
birds, and they were all round him again;
the sun shone and the mists were soft, and
the trees sparkled with their fringes of hoar-
frost, and he went on his way whistling.

He walked all day, and before the sun set,
while it yet glowed crimson behind the dark
stems of the trees, just as he was beginning
to grow weary, he heard the cry of some hurt
animal. Hans stopped to listen, then pushed
The Blue-Haired Ogre 79

into a thicket of brambles, and there was a
poor hare caught in a snare. It looked at
him very piteously, and he knelt down, and
gently, gently unfastened the snare, took out
the little prisoner, held it to his breast to
warm its stiff limbs, and watched it hobble
away. But this had taken time, so that
when he stood up, the sun had nearly sunk.

‘That is over, then,”
he said sorrowfully ; “1
shall never catch the
- blue-haired ogre to-
day.”

Directly he had said
so he was answered by
_ a soft smothered furry
voice, and there by his
side, shaking all over, sat a most beautiful
white hare.

“Oh, yes, you will, you will,’ it said,
“though if you take my advice you will
run away while you can. Just beyond that
pine tree is the edge of the forest, and
if you wait there he will soon be coming.

 
80 Fairy Tales

But it will be exceedingly foolish and rash
of you.”

“Why, what will he do?” asked Hans,
beginning to feel uncomfortable. ‘“ Will he
kill me?” .

“Not just directly. He will catch you
with his great hand, and pop you into the
basket he carries on his back, and then, I
suppose, will be your time to pull out the
three hairs, if you ever have the courage to
do it. The first 3

“Well!” cried Hans breathlessly.

“You must not be so abrupt. It makes
my heart go pit-a-pat. You don’t seem to
me to know what nerves are.”

“T beg your pardon,” said Hans, “‘ but do
go on.”

“The first will be pretty bad, and the
second a good deal worse, but the third !—
Oh, when you get to the third I wouldn't
be you for the world! Take my advice and
run away home while you can.”

Poor Hans! His heart sank, and it must
be owned that he hada strong inclination to

 
The Blue-Haired Ogre 81

follow this advice; but somehow, when the
hare said that word “home,” he thought of
the bad times there, and saw his mother’s
pale face bending over the baby, and he said
in a low voice—

“Thank you, little brother; and now, if
you please, I will go.”

So he stumbled over the rough ground
to the fir-tree where, as the hare had said,
was the edge of the wood, and beyond it
a broad common of brown bracken and
heather, which looked like the edge of the
world, and, where the sun had sunk in a
fiery ball, a dark bank of cloud stretched
right across the horizon. He wondered
which way the ogre would come, but he
had not to wait long, for the sound of heavy
crunching steps and of loud breathing made
him look round, and there was a monstrous
and mis-shapen figure stalking along, and
the light was still clear enough for him to
make out that his hair and beard were quite
blue. His eyes were fixed upon .the west,

and as he came nearer Hans thought they
F
2 Fairy Tales

looked so sad that he suddenly felt sorry
instead of frightened. It was just then
that he heard a tart little voice over his
head.

“Now, you had better look out,” it said,
“and-do be a little quicker than usual, if
you can! When you have got the third
hair, jump out of the basket for your life,
and hide in the fern. The hares will rustle
it well, so that he may not know where to
find you.”

Hans did not answer. He was Staring at
the ogre, who, indeed, as he came nearer,
looked most terrible. His head was large
and his limbs were long, on his back he
carried a basket, and he was so tall that
as the wind lifted his blue hair from his
forehead, it swept the lower branches of
the trees; but still, what was most dreadful
‘to the boy was the anguish in his eyes.
When he caught sight of Hans, he stopped
short and called out in a voice like the roar
of some huge beast—

“What are you doing on my ground?
The Blue-Haired Ogre 83

Come here, and I will put you into my
basket.”

At that, it must be owned, poor Hans’
heart beat so fast that he could hardly
breathe, and at the same moment he heard
a little muffled terrified sound out of the
bracken—‘ Fly, fly, fly!” it said, so that
it was all he could do to keep his legs from
following. But then he reflected that if
hares were cowardly, boys should not be,
and he looked again in the ogre’s eyes and
walked straight up to him. That certainly
surprised the monster. Any one whom he
had met with before had always set off
running, and given him some work to
catch them, and he had had his great hand
ready to pounce on Hans before he could
go far. Now, instead of pouncing, he lifted
and dropped him into his basket less roughly
than could have been expected, and as Hans
tumbled in he managed to clutch one of the
blue hairs of his beard, and to pluck it out.

“What are you about, clumsy fingers?”
roared the ogre in his terrible voice.
84 Fairy Tales

Hans trembled all over, but spoke no
- word, only held tight to his precious hair,
and thrust it into a little pocket which his
mother had sewn in his jacket. Then with
a good deal of effort he climbed up the side
of the basket, and watched; and as he did
this it comforted him to notice a grey-headed
old crow flying near, as if to give him heart.
So, thinking that when one has anything
disagreeable to do, it is well to do it at once,
he contrived to slip his hand round the great
neck, and to pull out another bristly hair.
But when this was accomplished he was
frightened. For the ogre gave a cry which
shook the snow off the trees, and in another
moment he had torn the boy out of the
basket, and was holding him up, and widen-
ing his huge cavern of a mouth, as if he
were making ready to swallow him. Hans
was so sick with terror that he shut his eyes.
But the next instant he opened them and
looked straight into the ogre’s face. The
ogre’s sad eyes looked back, and he hurriedly
dropped the boy again.into the basket. His
The Blue-Haired Ogre 85

voice sounded like thunder as he threatened
him, and Hans remembered that it was the
third attempt of which he had been told to
beware. Just as he thought of it he heard
the little muffled warning coming up once
more out of the fern—

“Drop over the edge, drop over the edge,
and run away while you can!” and he felt
so fearful that he was on the point of follow-
ing the advice, when again he seemed to see
the little sisters looking thin and ragged, and
the mother weeping because there was so
little food for the hungry mouths, and his
heart grew strong, and he said to himself—

“ After all I can but try. It is what I have
got to do, and so, come what may, I had
better do it,” and with that up he clambered
again.

But this time was much more difficult, for,
as if to protect his beard, the ogre clutched
it with both big hands, so that not a single
hair stuck out, and there did not seem a
hole into which Hans could slip his fingers.
He peeped and poked in vain, and his heart
86 Fairy Tales

was growing as heavy as lead when suddenly
- the grey-headed crow swooped straight at the
ogre’s face, beating with his wings, and peck-
ing with his beak, until in self-defence the
ogre was forced to put up a hand to save
himself, and that moment Hans made a dash
at a blue hair which stood stiffly forth, and
pulled it out.

He never knew what happened. There
was a shock which sent his head reeling,
everything whirled, and for a few minutes
he neither saw nor heard. When he came to
himself there was the wood, and the yellow
western sky barred with cloud, and the broad
heathery common. Upon a bare bough sat
the old crow, peering at him, and before him
knelt a young prince with a beautiful face
and fair hair, dressed in rich clothes, and
no ogre at all. The only things which re-
minded him of the ogre were the prince's
eyes, and even they were now scarcely sad,
for they smiled at Hans, and when he spoke
there was no roar in his voice, but something
deep which seemed to belong to the eyes.
 
 
The Blue-Haired Ogre 89

“Oh, you brave boy,” he said, “how can
I thank you? You are the only one that has
dared pull out the three hairs, and you don’t
know how afraid I was that you would run
away like the rest of them.”

“But,” said Hans, sitting up with his blue
eyes as round as saucers, “I don’t understand
one bit. Are you the ogre? What has
become of the horrid part of you, and why,
if you are glad, did you try to prevent me
from pulling out the hairs?”

“That was my punishment,” said the
prince. ‘“I was obliged against my will
to frighten any one who was likely to break
the spell. Before you came all the people
who wanted to be rich just to please them-
selves, thought that after all they would
rather have their lives, and so, sooner or
later, they dropped out of the basket and
ran away into the wood, and there was an
end of it.”

“That was the hare’s advice,” said Hans.

“Don’t let us talk about it,” said the
prince, shuddering. ‘“ No one can ever know
go Fairy ales

how dreadful it has been. Come away, we
shall find my servants and horses waiting at
the end of the wood, and you shall go back
with me to my father’s court, and be my
brother. We will share everything ; for my
father and mother will not be able to do
enough for you.”

Hans’ round face smiled broadly all over.

‘“No, no, you shall take Peter,” he said.
“He is our clever one, and will make a very
fine great man. I would rather stay at
home. Still there are several things which
it will be very nice if you would do for us.
Perhaps my mother might have a good heap
of flax to spin, and some warm clothes ; be-
cause, you see, she cut up her only thick
cloak for the little girls, who grow so fast ;
and, if it isn’t too much, father has often
said if he only had a pig he could get along
grandly; and Karl wants to be a soldier.
And, please, I should like to go back there
at once and tell them.”

They could not go that night, because it
was too late, but otherwise it all fell out as
The Blue-Haired Ogre QI

Hans desired. They found the horses and
the servants, who were overjoyed to see
their prince. But there was greater joy at
the woodcutter’s hut the next day, when
they rode there after sleeping at an inn.
The little girls were the first to see them,
and they flew to Peter, and Peter rushed
to Karl, and Karl ran to the hut where
the poor mother, her eyes swollen with
weeping, sat on a low stool rocking the
baby, and told her that Hans was coming
out of the wood riding a beautiful horse
with gay trappings. She screamed for joy,
and jumped up, and never so much as
noticed the prince or his attendants, but
clasped Hans to her heart and covered him
with kisses, while Karl raced off to find his
father.

Altogether it was some time before Hans
was allowed to speak, but when he began he
could hardly leave off, so much had he to
tell about the fine things the young prince
had promised. For there was to be a good
house built, and there were to be cows and
92 Fairy Tales

pigs and nobody knew what besides; and
crumbs for the birds, and nuts for the
squirrels, and if the hares nibbled in the
garden—well, well, after all, why not? And
Karl should be a soldier when he was big
enough, and Peter should go to college, but
Hans himself begged that he might stay and
help his father.

“Only he must always be my brother,”
said the prince softly.

 
 
ox

 
b en ‘~e : "
ge eet aie
tee Aches ZR ESYHS

 

In a Garden

HE chief person in the
garden was Dick, to
whose father it be-
longed, and next to
him Agrippa, the great
black cat. Perhaps
some of the creatures
thought it was the

other way, for only those who had _ been

there a long while, and knew Agrippa well,
were quite sure about him. After all, the
young ones said, he was a cat, and birds
and mice and even grasshoppers had been
brought up to fear his race, and it was

difficult for them to understand that he was
95

 
96 Fairy Tales

different, particularly when he moved so
softly. They tried—for Dick’s sake—to
look pleased if he stalked down the path
behind his master, or lay blinking under
the sun-dial in the gay sunshine. But, try
as they would, they often shook, especially
the harvest-mouse, who had many things, as
she said, to make her nervous.

If you could have seen that garden you
would have agreed that it was delightful.
There were tidy parts where the gardeners
were always mowing and raking, and not so
much as a fluttering leaf was allowed to rest
itself, but there were other spots—Dick’s
spots-—where they only came once in a way,
just to see that the tangle did not grow too
thick, or that the creepers did not choke the
trees, or that the sun could reach the old
dial. Some of the creatures thought this
a most terrible time, and it was true that
generally somebody suffered, but it was also
true that the thinning made it pleasanter for
those that were left. There was another
thing to be said. When the men came in
In a Garden OF)

the spring, they flung seeds about broadcast,
and so every year fresh flowers showed
themselves, and as most of the flowers,
particularly the old-fashioned ones, brought
their own elves, the merry little company
became all the merrier.

It was perhaps for this reason that Dick
so very much loved the spring. It was full
of surprises. If he pushed aside the dewy
leaves and stooped down, as likely as not he
would see clear eyes smiling up at him, and
know that here was a new friend ; and when
light-hearted young summer appeared, more
flowers and more elves gave him welcome
with bubbles of laughter. Dick understood
what they said, for he was not yet old
enough to have forgotten, and though he
had no other companions he was never
lonely. His mother had died when he was
born, and his father seldom came to the old
house, because he said Dick’s brown eyes
were so much like his mother’s that they
made him feel miserable; the servants were

kind, but content that he should play about
G
98 Fairy Tales

by himself in the garden, where, as they said,
he was safe, yet gave them no trouble. And
as for him, it was the one place in the world
where he was quite happy.

So one morning in early June there had
been a bad week for poor Dick, for what the
gardeners called a fine growing rain had
fallen day after day, and he had not been
allowed to leave the house. The rocking-
horse had done what he could, and never
grumbled, though even his sturdy legs must
have ached at last; and Agrippa had behaved
nobly, and allowed himself to be placed in
positions which in ordinary times he would
not have endured for a moment. . But at
last, to the relief of every one, the weather
changed. The ash-coloured clouds, now
grown flimsy and empty, fluttered away;
white lights shone out, and_ half-a-dozen
blackbirds and thrushes flew up in a great
hurry, to know whether Dick was never
coming. Dick said his lessons to the nurse
as fast as he possibly could, because at this
season of the year there was an immense
In a Garden 99

deal that was interesting going on in the
garden, and directly he was set free he
hastened down the path, lugging heavy
Agrippa. Agrippa never would make haste
if left to himself. He liked to stop several
times and lick his fur, and if he were very
tiresome, would repeat in a leisurely manner
two or three maxims which he had _ picked
up somewhere, such as, More haste, worse
speed; or, You will never overtake Time;
which gave him a great character for wisdom,
but were annoying to any one in a hurry.
At the same time he was so big and so very
solid that it was all Dick could do to carry
him, so that when they reached the little
glade for which they were bound, he tumbled
him down abruptly on the grass.

“Don't!” said Agrippa, and his green eyes
grew very angry, for he liked to keep up his
dignity among the creatures,

“Well, I can't help it. You shouldn’t be
so heavy,” said Dick, walking away without at-
tending. He looked here, there, and on every
side. There was a delicious freshness in the
100 Fairy Tales

air. The sun shone, the lights sparkled, and
among the long lances of the springing grass
were scattered dozens of feathery dandelion
clocks which had shot up since he had been
indoors. Dick would not stay to admire
them nor to answer the small silvery voices
calling to him on every side; he hurried on
until at last he stopped with a cry of delight
before a beautiful round ball, formed of grass
blades woven together, and swung from the
bending head of a thistle. On the top of it
he caught sight of the bright eyes of his
friend, the harvest mouse, but when he cried
out she sat up and waved her fore-paws at
him in an agony of terror, and he could hear
the sharp little sawing squeak which meant
that he was to be silent. Dick always
minded what the creatures said, so he came
quite close on tip-toe and whispered—‘“ What
is it? Oh, how beautiful!”

“Yes, yes, yes, and of course I don’t object
to you, but how could you be so thoughtless
as to bring Agrippa! The bumble-bee has
just told me, and I wouldn’t have had him
In a Garden IOI

here on any account; it has given me quite
a turn.”

“Oh, nonsense,” said. Dick; ‘ nobody
minds Agrippa. Besides, he is cross, and
is staying behind. Tell me quick, did you
make all this yourself? How did you do
it? How many have you got inside?”

“ Fight,” said the mouse, still panting, but
speaking with great pride. “If you peep
through you can see their sweet little faces.
The one to the right is the beauty.”

‘‘And where is Rusty ?”

‘‘Oh, catching flies. He was only in the
way, so I sent him away.”

‘But how do you get in?” said Dick, who
had been peering hard at the ball. “I can’t
see the least little hole.”

“JT should think not!” she said. ‘‘ Hole,
indeed! Nothing so common. But I can’t
explain, because our people have always kept
it a profound secret, and if I were to tell you
the news would be all over the world in no
time, and we should have crowds coming to
look. As it is, you have been here quite long
102 Fairy Tales

enough. Do go, oh, do/ I declare, if I were
to see Agrippa coming round the corner, I
Should faint.”

It made Dick rather angry to hear Agrippa
spoken of in this way, but before he could
say anything a small voice close by struck
in. It belonged to one of the flower elves
whom Dick knew very well and liked
because he was always ready to do a
good turn to the others. Now he dropped
down from a wild briar rose where he
had been swinging among the pink blos-
soms.

“Tf you were wise, Mrs. Mouse,” he re-
marked, “you would send post haste for
Agrippa. It isn’t he you have to fear, but
some one much more dangerous.”

“Who, who?” gasped the mouse, waving
her paws wildly. ‘“ Not—don’t tell me it’s
the hawk, for I can’t bear it!”

“I thought I caught a glimpse of him
just now through the leaves,” began the elf,
and hardly had he said the words when there
was a shrill crying and chirping overhead ;
In a Garden 103

the small birds were flying distractedly, and
screaming with all their might—

“Look up, look up! Look out, look out,
look out!” and sure enough, there was the
great hawk poised above, so still, that Dick,
staring, thought he could almost see the
cruel gleam in his eye.

The birds twittered and fluttered, and hid
themselves in the bushes, and the little elves
crept under the flower leaves, but the mouse,
though she was trembling, stayed like a brave
little mother on her nest.

‘Oh, I wish the keeper was here with his
gun!” cried Dick, before he flung up his hat,
and waved and shouted. And it was just at
that moment, when every heart was throb-
bing, and the hawk ‘still hung motionless,
that they heard a voice saying with a
yawn—

“What zs all this fuss about? It is im-
possible to sleep in peace.”

Of course Agrippa really knew quite well ;
even when he was asleep he seemed to see
most things before any one else had begun to
104 Fairy Tales :

think about them, but it always pleased him
to pretend that he was very slow and lazy.

“It's the hawk after the mouse-babies,” -
said Dick, ‘and I can’t get him away.”

“Oh, indeed!” said Agrippa, glancing up,
and his tail began to wave gently just at the
tip. ‘Oh, indeed !”

“He’s frightening them all out of their
wits, and he’s no business here,’ went on
Dick, talking like a grandfather. “I wish
you'd tell him to go.”

“I think he will go,” said Agrippa, as
lazily as ever, and indeed, whether Dick’s
shoutings or the sight of the big black cat
scared the hawk, certain it is that at this
moment he soared sullenly away over the
trees. Then the harvest mouse began to
wail tremulously.

‘Oh, my heart!” she cried, “it’s all of a
shake, and of course there’s Rusty away, and
so heedless that I shouldn’t in the least
wonder if he let himself be snapped up, and
I left with all these children to look after!
It’s too much, it really is too much!”
 
 
In a Garden 107

“Why are you so silly as to build your
nest here in the open?” asked Agrippa,
purring, and rubbing himself against Dick’s
leg, for he had quite recovered his temper.

“Tt was such a beautiful thistle,” mur-
mured the mouse, with tears in her eyes,
“and I thought nothing could climb up
the stem. Besides, the nest was so pretty,
it really seemed a pity to hide it. But now
that the hawk has found it out, I shan’t
have a moment's peace. Dear, dear, what
a world this is!”

“Oh,” said Dick, “he’s gone now, and if
I were you I wouldn’t bother,” for to tell
the truth he was getting a little tired of her
complaints. ‘Come, Agrippa, let’s go for
a walk.”

“Tm sleepy,” said Agrippa; “I didn’t
have half a nap just now, because you all
made such a noise, and I shall finish it
here. Besides, it’s very hot.”

Dick called him a lazy old thing, but
Agrippa didn’t mind. In his heart he
thought the hawk would come back again,
108 Fairy Tales

and every inch of him to the tip of his
bushy tail longed fora fight. So he curled
himself on the ground, keeping one eye
open as usual, and Dick wandered down
a grassy path where by this time the
creatures and the elves had forgotten their
fright and crept out again, swinging and
dancing and calling to each other and to
Dick. It was a great joke for them to
sit on the branches and rustle the leaves
so that the dew-drops fell on his head in
a shower, until he pretended to be half-
drowned. But at last one whispered—

‘“We haven’t shown him the new flower.
Look, Dick, look, there’s the most comical
little fellow belonging to it that ever you
saw in your life!”

“Oh, yes, look, look!” they cried together.

Then there was a tinkling clatter of
laughter, and Dick began to laugh too,
he couldn’t help it, for the elf was sitting
with his back turned to them all, and his
hair twisted up among the green spikes of
the flower.
In a Garden 109

‘Why, what’s the matter?” said Dick.

The other elves would only laugh, but a
great bumble-bee, who was sailing by with
sapphire wings, boomed out—

“Sulking because he doesn’t like his
name.”

And at that the elf gave an impatient

twist.
“T wish I hadn’t come to this horrid
place,” he said, in a choked little voice. “I

am sure I am as pretty as any one, and to
be called Devil-in-the-bush is too bad! Oh,
yes, you may laugh, but just tell me which
of you would like it? I think you are
extremely uncivil.”

‘“Bo-o-om,” sang the bumble-bee, “give
and take, give and take,” and with that he
flew straight into the bell of a white lily.

Dick was too good-natured to wish to
hurt the new-comer’s feelings, so, though it
was difficult, he managed to look grave.

“But,” he remarked, in a puzzled tone, “I
don’t see what we have to do with it? I’m
called Dick, you know, and I like it, but if I
110 Fairy Tales

hated it ever so much that wouldn’t take it
away. If it zs your name .

“It isn’t!” cried the elf, flashing round
as fast as he could, considering his twisted
hair. “It isn’t! I never was called it till
I came here. Of course my name is Love-
in-a-mist.”

“ Devil-in-the-bush,  devil-in-the-bush,
devil-in-the-bush!” twittered a dozen little
mocking voices, for I am afraid the elves are
all fond of teasing.

“Hush!” said Dick, stamping his foot.
“If you are so naughty, I will send for the
gardeners.”

And this frightened them into good be-
haviour for a minute or two, because they
are mortally afraid of the gardeners.

“You have nice blue eyes,” Dick went on,
wanting very much to say something com-
forting, “and I like the way your hair grows,
though it is so queer and tangly. If I were
you, I wouldn't mind about my name. Can
you unfasten yourself? Because if you can,
you may come with me, and I will show you

 
In a Garden I11

the harvest mouse and her nest, and Agrippa,
and the sun-dial, and all the sights.”

“Of course I can,” said the elf.

And with that he gave a tug and a twist
and jumped down to the ground, and really
now that he was not frowning so much he
was as pretty a creature as any there, and
just as full of pranks. He certainly was
very bold, for the first thing he did when
he saw Agrippa was to leap on his back, and
bury his face in the great cat's fur, and he
was not in the least frightened, as so many
of the others were. To tell the truth, Dick
was a little bit afraid that Agrippa might be
affronted at such freedom, and it was quite a
relief to him to hear him still purring com-
fortably, because then he knew it was all
right.

“What a very soft back you have!” said
the elf, quite at his ease. ‘I never felt
anything so soft before, except the mole’s,
and he is such a bloodthirsty fellow that
we don’t any of us care to go near him.
How he does fight! You are much nicer.”
112 Fairy Tales

Agrippa went on purring, and closing his
eyes.

“And pray what may your name be?”
he asked at last.

‘“Love-in-a-mist,’ said the elf, in a
tremendous hurry, and then he looked
angrily round, for a little teasing twitter
of ‘“ Devil-in-the-bush, devil-in-the-bush,
devil-in-the-bush!” came rustling out of
the leaves. |

Agrippa cocked one of his ears, but said
nothing, and Dick had taken himself off
to a place where he knew some young
thrushes were learning to fly. The harvest
mouse, having recovered her breath, was
full of bustle, running up and down the
stalk, and every now and then scolding
Rusty. Presently Agrippa stopped purring,
for the fact was he was thinking about the
hawk. He felt sure that he would come
again, and he had quite made up his mind
to kill him. What he most feared was the
sudden swoop of the bird. It is so sudden
that it is almost impossible to guard against
In a Garden 113

it, and the leaves under which Agrippa had
moved to hide himself, prevented his look-
ing overhead. The other birds might give
notice, but the sight of the hawk was apt
to make them lose their heads, and there
was not one he could trust to keep cool
and give him the exact warning he wanted
at the right instant. Something in the new
elf’s daring took his fancy.

“Here, you queer little fellow!” he called.

‘“ Devil-in-the-bush, devil-in-the- bush,
devil-in-the-bush!” whispered the mocking
little voices, until the great cat raised his
head and glared at them, and then they all
tumbled over each other in their fright.

“Ts it me you want?” said the elf, turn-

a
ing his back on the others.

“Yes, it’s you. Come round in front, and
let me ask you something.”

So the elf sprang on to an ivy trail, and
sat there swaying and swinging ; and Agrippa
gazed at him with his green eyes, and the
more he looked the more he liked his

face.
H
II4 Fairy Tales

“Can you see straight up between the
leaves to the blue sky overhead ?”

‘Of course I can.”

“Then listen very carefully,” said Agrippa,
“for I want you to attend. The hawk will
sail back before long if I know his ways,
and will swoop down on those mouse-babies.
It was very silly of the mother to hang her
nest out there in the open, but then—you
can’t put sense into those creatures, and
her being foolish doesn’t make it right for
the hawk to eat her children. So as he is a
robber. I. mean to kill him. But he would
not come if he knew I was here, therefore
I am obliged to hide, and all the others grow
so frightened when they see the hawk that
they are no good at all. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly,” said the elf, looking at him
with great respect.

“Then what you must do is to watch.
He is so quick that you mustn’t even turn
your head. Watch. And the very instant
you see him swoop, cry out, and I will
spring. You are sure you understand ?”
In a Garden I15

The elf knew all through his body that
he hated hawks, and he could not help
shuddering ; but he was a brave little fellow,
and reflected that if he could do this, no one
would ever dare call him names any more.
So he braced himself up, and nodded a
great many times, and settled himself where
he had a clear view of the sky, and waited
for what seemed to him a very long while
indeed. He was just getting so hot and
sleepy that he was obliged to pinch himself
in order to keep awake, when he saw some-
thing which woke him up in a great hurry,
and that was the big bird, sailing along and
pausing to hover just as Agrippa had warned
him. The next‘moment he was screaming ~
with all his might, and in another instant
Agrippa had hurled himself so exactly where
he knew the enemy would drop, that just as
the hawk reached the nest the cat was on
him, and knocked him over on the other
side, growling fiercely, his teeth deep in his
pinion, and every inch of fur on his body
erect with rage. If the blow had not been |
116 Fairy Tales

so unexpected, the hawk would not have
gone over so quickly, and, as it was, Agrippa
had to fight with tooth and nail as he had
never fought before. More than once, the
cruel curved beak striking at his eyes, drew
blood and almost blinded him, and he

 

needed all his strength to hold down the
beat of the powerful wings.

The creatures, who had never before seen
such a deadly battle, were paralysed with
fear; and the harvest mouse, whose nest was
bent to the ground, and who had only just
escaped being crushed by the two as they
In a Garden 117

fell, ran round in an agony. The little elf
alone kept his presence of mind, for he called
to the others to fetch Dick, and then he
scooped up a handful of sand, and flung
it straight at the hard unwinking eyes of
the great bird. It gave Agrippa just the
moment of time he wanted in which to
fasten his teeth in the hawk’s neck, so that
he could strike no more; and when Dick ran
back as fast as his legs could carry him,
he found Agrippa standing stiff with pride,
rage, and wounds, his head almost buried
in the hawk’s thick feathers, while the strong
pinions trailed on the ground. He was
much too angry at first to do anything but
growl and flash green fire from his eyes,
while all the other creatures were chirping
and squeaking and trembling with delight;
but after a while, to please Dick, he dropped
the bird on the ground, though he still stood
over him so that no one should take him
away. And when Dick praised him, he was
very short in his answers, though really
extremely happy, for a hawk is a foe worth
118 Fairy Tales

striking, and it is not every cat that cares to
encounter one.

“Tt was awfully brave of you,” said Dick,
stroking his ruffled fur. ‘I suppose there
was no one who could help you at all.”

Agrippa had his mouth full of feathers, so
that at first he was not able to speak; but
after he had got rid of them, he said with
great contempt—

‘““Who do you suppose was likely to fight
a hawk? Of course they all screeched and
ran away, except that new little creature
who the others were teasing. He has lots
_ of spirit, and did what I told him. He
is worth a dozen of the others, and his
name—’ here Agrippa looked round angrily,
and waved his tail in a threatening manner—
‘his name—do you hear, all of you ?—is
Love-in-a-mist.”

All the teasing had gone out of them, and
twenty frightened little voices made haste
to cry out at once—

“Yes, yes, of course! Love-in-a-mist,
Love-in-a-mist, Love-in-a-mist!”
In a Garden 119

The little elf looked quite happy, but
whether they would have always remembered,
if something else had not happened, I don't
know. The something else had to do with
one of the gardeners who came down the
next morning with Dick. He was a young
man, broad-shouldered, with short-sighted
eyes which spied out everything, and an
enthusiasm for his work; and he was the
one Dick liked best of all, because he had
some ideas beyond only making things quite
smooth and tidy.

“Vou aren't going to clear away much,
Lewis, are you?” asked Dick.

“No, sir, nothing. Only goin’ to tie up a
plant or two because the rain has beat ‘em
down so.” And to the great relief of the
harvest mouse he did not so much as glance
where the thistle had uplifted itself once
more.

But in a moment or two he came to a
halt.

“Never saw Love-in-a-mist open so early
in the year before,” he said, stooping to look.
120 Fairy Tales

“Tt ds Love-in-a-mist, Lewis?” said Dick
anxiously. ‘You're sure? Not—not Devil-
in-the-bush ?”

“No, no, sir, no mistake,” said Lewis,
smiling patronisingly. ‘No black about it.

 

Blue flower, green anthers, ’sparagus-like
foliage. Love-in-a-mist, sir, and worth
saving.”

And with that he pulled a wooden label
out of his pocket, wrote on it Vigella damas-
cena, and stuck it into the ground.
In a Garden 121

And though nobody understood what it
meant, they all knew that this was an honour
which only came to one or two in a lifetime,
and looked at the elf with great respect.

 
 
See

 

The Dwarf Woman and the
Honey Cakes

Pas) farm ane a
country of which
I am not going to
tell you the name,
there once lived a
little boy and girl.
The farm was a de-
lightful place, with
everything you can

 
124 Fairy Tales |

think of that a farm should have—cocks and
hens, and cows and horses, and hay-ricks
and wheat-stacks, and a great dog called
Wolf. I do not know whether spring,
summer, autumn, or winter was pleasantest ;
apple blossom and blue hyacinths ; or sweet
flowery hay; or the red apples and the busy
coming and going in the rick-yard; or the
roaring fires and the ashen faggots, and the
chestnuts popping merrily in the embers.
Best of all, whatever season came, there
were always the good father and mother,
so that Barthel and Joan were very happy
children.

Yet there were days when you would not
have believed it, for if lessons or spinning
interfered with their plans, you might have
supposed there never was such an ill-used
little couple. And at such times, as nobody
else would listen to them, they talked a great
deal about it to Ju-Ju, the ginger-coloured
puppy, who agreed with every one, because
he said it helped you on in the world. Old
Wolf was different. He loved the children,
The Dwarf Woman AB

but he was sure their father and mother
were wise, and as he said, 4e had been
obliged to learn, and he told Ju-Ju he
would find he must learn himself, if he
was to be of any good. Ju-Ju said, “ Yes,
of course,” and made a face at him behind
his back.

The farm lay all by itself in a broad flat
country. There was only one road, and
that ran at the rear, and between it and the
orchard was a grey mossy wall, on the top
‘of which Barthel and Joan liked to sit, with
their legs dangling, and the puppy between —
them, and a fine view of any one who might
chance to come along the road. It was
seldom that any one came; but one day in
autumn, when they were very cross at not
being allowed to go with the reapers, they
caught sight of a most funny-looking little
figure making its way towards them. Ju-
Ju saw it first, and gave the little “ whoof !”
he called a bark, and then Joan looked and
said it waS a woman, and Barthel looked

~ and said it was a man—more because he
126 Fairy Tales

_ was feeling that day as if contradiction were
pleasant than for any other reason—and Ju-
Ju agreed with each by turns, and they both
hugged him.

However, it really was a woman, with a
basket of honey-cakes on her arm, and she
was the smallest woman you ever saw, and
yet looked bigger than she was, for she
belonged to a tribe of dwarfs who lived in
the heart of a mountain many miles away
across the moor; and as they did not like
to be laughed at for their smallness, when
they came out into the world, which was not
often, they always managed by hook or by
crook to make themselves taller. This old
woman, for instance, was mounted on a pair
of stilts, quite a foot and a half high—per-
haps more—hidden under her quilted petti-
coat. And that for a very particular reason
which you had better hear.

The dwarfs had been greatly annoyed of
late by rude remarks which some boys had
made upon two of their principal people who
had unfortunately been overtaken walking
 

 

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The Dwarf Woman 129

along the road. They were very touchy
about their height, and anything like ridi-
cule affronted them so extremely, that after
a long debate they had come to the con-
clusion that, in order to make themselves
respected, they must have a king and
queen bigger than themselves. Some of
the elders opposed this decree, but the
younger ones were all in its favour, and
talked the loudest, and had it passed. Then
up jumped this difficulty:—Who were they
to get to be king and queen? No grown-
up person could have possibly squeezed
through the hole in the mountain - side
which served them as door, besides which
grown-up people were always busy or
suspicious, or old or ugly, or something
tiresome—so the young ones declared—so
they determined that they would try to get
hold of two men-children, and take them
home, and keep them till they had grown
too big to get out of the door. +The dwarf
woman who had reached the farm was one

of the most keen on the matter, because
I
130 Fairy Tales

her son thought he might be chosen to
command the guard, and she offered to go
forth with a basket of their very best honey-
cakes, fresh and crisp, and to see what she
could do in the way of finding the right
children. She had not met with any success
and was growing down-hearted, when she
came along the road, and saw Barthel and
Joan sitting on the wall, and the moment
she saw them she would have jumped for
joy, if it had not been for the stilts.
Directly she got under the wall she made
a beautiful curtsey.

“Good day, my little master and mistress!”

“Good day!” said Joan. “ Weare so glad
to see you, for we were getting dull, weren't
we, Ju-Ju? Have you come a long way?
And what have you in your basket?”

For Joan never lost information for want
of asking questions.

“Honey-cakes. Taste them, my dears,
taste them,” said the dwarf woman, handing
up one apiece, and one for the puppy.

And when the children had eaten them
The Dwarf Woman 131

they looked at each other, for they had never
tasted anything so good, and as for Ju-Ju,
he could not stop licking his lips. He was
a very greedy little dog.

‘““ Have some more,” said the dwarf woman ;
and Joan was stretching out her hand when
Barthel stopped her, for he was older.

‘““We would buy them from you if we had
any money,” he said, rather grandly, “ but

we haven't.”
‘Oh, that does not matter in the least,”
she said. “There are plenty where these

came from—hundreds.”

“What a nice place it must be! Is it in
the town?” asked little Joan longingly.

“Tt is a beautiful place, and perhaps some
day you would come and see me? But you
must have some more.”

So they ate, and as she seemed such a
kind woman they told her a good deal about
themselves, and how all the men and old
Wolf, the big house-dog, were down in the
reaping fields, and how they had very much
wished to go too, only, unfortunately, Barthel
132 Fairy ‘Tales

had not learned his lessons, and was supposed
to be learning them on the wall.

“Can you spell?” asked Joan. “I can’t
see the good of it.”

“ Dear, dear!” said the dwarf woman, hold-
ing up her hands. “Of course it is useful
for some people, but you are so big and so
beautiful that, instead of learning lessons, I
should say you were quite fit to be a king
and a queen, and to eat honey-cakes all the
day long.”

Now it is pleasant to be told that you are
fit to be a king or a queen when such a thing
has never been hinted at before, especially if
you happen to be rather in disgrace; and
both Barthel and Joan liked the dwarf
woman better and better, and, though they
did not quite know what to say in answer,
were wonderfully struck with her clever-
ness. So when she went on to suggest that,
perhaps, if they were tired of the wall, and
might not go down to the harvesters, they
would walk a little way along the road with
her, and that she had a great many amusing
The Dwarf Woman 133

things she could tell them, Ju-Ju said ‘ Yes”
at once, and jumped down in a hurry, though
he was only thinking of the honey-cakes, and
Joan would have bustled after him if Bar-
thel, who felt himself the responsible person,
had not held her back. He whispered rather
gruffly that they were not allowed to go with
strangers, and besides, he had not learnt his
lessons. Joan was very much disappointed.

‘“Couldn’t we make haste and come back,
and then you could learn them afterwards ?”

“Yes, of course,” said Ju-Ju, with an
impatient jump. “J am going, I can tell
you!”

But when Barthel answered shortly, ‘ No,
we can’t,” Joan knew there was an end of it,
for she never really went against Barthel;
and the dwarf woman was very desirous not
to alarm the children.

“Never mind, never mind,” she _ said
hastily. ‘I shall be coming down the road
again in a day or two, and then perhaps you
will have done your lessons. If you were
only my children it would be very different.
134 Fairy Tales

But, good-bye, good-bye. Next time I will
bring some ginger-nuts.”

So she nodded and went off, with the
children staring after her, but Ju-Ju ran as
far as he dared, and came back licking his
lips more than ever. Joan sighed.

“TIsn’t she a dear! Did you hear what
she said? Wouldn't it be nice to be a king
and queen, and do no lessons or spinning,
and eat hot honey-cakes all day long, and do
just exactly what one liked?”

“T don’t care about ,-being a king or a
queen,” said Barthel sturdily, “but I should
like to see her house. I should think
mother would let us.”

Just at that moment they heard their
mother calling them in to tea, and Ju-Ju
rushed off at once, so as not to lose any
chances. In the evening he bragged a good
deal to old Wolf about the dwarf woman,
how much she had admired him, and what
good things she had given him to eat.
Wolf cared nothing for all that, but he was
very angry to hear of strangers being about
The Dwarf Woman  ~—=_:1135

the farm when he was not there to look at
them. His hair began to stiver.

“Talked to the children,” he growled.
“What business had she to do anything
of the sort? And what were you about,
Ginger? Did you bark?”

“Bark? No, why should I?” gaped the
little dog; ‘I don’t want to be thought such
an old curmudgeon as you. No. I ate
honey-cakes. Delicious!”

“T thought I smelt some sickly stuff in
the air,” said old Wolf. ‘“ Now, I tell you
what, Ginger. By rights I should give you
a good shaking, but if you don’t learn it
that way you’d better look out, for if you
go listening to tramps, and eating all the
stuff they give you, one of these fine days
we shall find you with your four legs out
stiff and the house broken into. So don’t
say I haven’t warned you.”

“Pooh!” said Ju-Ju rudely. For he
heard Joan’s voice in the passage, and he
knew she would not let him be hurt.

Meanwhile the dwarf woman was crossing
136 Fairy Tales

the moor in a great hurry, for she felt herself
quite the most important person of the tribe,
and was burning to tell her news. The hill,
however, was so far away that it was dark
before she reached it, but this did not so
much matter, as the dwarfs always mark
out their roads with glow-worms, and shé
knew her way quite well. When she had
climbed a short distance up the mountain
she slipped off her stilts and stamped three
times on the ground. A little trap-door
instantly opened, and inside was a flight of
steps lit by torches, and going down, down,
down. When she came to the bottom there
was the busiest scene! The whole mountain
seemed to be honey-combed with the dwarfs’
dwellings, for each family had a separate
house, and each trade its separate work-
shops; and as the dwarfs use a great deal
of iron, and silver, and ore of all kinds,
you may imagine what a clash and clang
of metal went on! Of course inside the
mountain it was always dark, and therefore
the only light came from the fires of the
The Dwarf Woman 137

workmen and a vast number of pine torches
stuck about. Some of the little people
were cooking or baking cakes, some were
weaving grasses into clothes, some sitting
cross-legged stitching red shoes, and others
drawing a load of wood chips. But directly
the dwarf woman appeared, the greater
number left their work and ran to her, cry-
ing out in the most excited manner, ‘“ Well,
have you found them?”

‘“Of course I have,” she said proudly.

When she said that a shrill shout went
up and rang through the galleries, and
brought hundreds of little creatures running,
and all crying, “Is it true? Has she found
a king and queen?”

“Certainly,” said the dwarf woman, more
proudly still. ‘“ Did I not tell you? Where
is the Master Tailor?” Now the Master
Tailor had talked himself black in the face
against this new freak of his people, and he
was so cross about it, and so indignant with
her, that when he heard the uproar he
would not so much as lift his head from his
138 Fairy Tales

work. Perhaps he knew that his wife would
tell him afterwards. But the dwarf woman
was much disappointed. “It is only his
jealousy,” she said. ‘“ Now listen.”

And she went on to inform them in a
good many words about the two children
sitting on a wall, and how beautiful they
were, and how cleverly she had managed to
please them, and how very much they liked
honey-cakes, and how she was sure she
could entice them away from the house, so
that the others might seize them and bring
them to the mountain.

The dwarfs listened breathlessly.

“Oh, that is splendid!” cried one, giving
a deep sigh.

“Tt is certain that now we cannot fail to
be respected,” said another.

“Where are the crowns? Dear, dear, dear,
has nobody seen about the crowns for the
monarchs?” cried a very fussy little fellow,
dancing about in his excitement.

A few—a very few—only said ‘ Umph!”
and thought they would hear what the
The Dwarf Woman 139

Master Tailor would say, but the greater
number were quite wild with delight, and
could talk of nothing but what they would
do when they were a great nation, and hada
king and queen of their own. They could
not make enough of the dwarf woman, and
the very next day she was sent out with a
beautiful lot of fresh honey-cakes, and made
her way to the orchard wall, hoping to find
the children there. Unluckily for her they
were carrying the corn, and Barthel and
Joan were about with the waggons and with
big bearded men, so that she could only
peep at them through the hedge, and even
there she had a great fright, for Wolf found
her out and barked himself hoarse, although
she fled for her life. After this the children
caught cold, and their mother kept them in
the house, and there was no one to be seen
except Ju-Ju, who gobbled up the cakes, but
could not give her any information, so she
had to go back disappointed.

But as the dwarfs are very persevering,
they waited and watched.
140 | Fairy Tales

No sooner had the children got well than
the fine weather broke up and it began to
rain. What was more, the rain went on in
a way which no one ever remembered before.
Night and day it fell in torrents. Great
pools stood everywhere, the grass was SO
sodden that the water squished up under
each footstep, and where there were rivers
they overflowed, so that the whole country
seemed to be flooded. A great deal had to
be done to keep the sheep from being swept
away and drowned, and the farmer, his men,
and old Wolf were working their hardest all
day, and sometimes half the night. Ju-Ju
thought them extremely foolish. He was
convinced that they would have been much
wiser to have kept dry at home, sat by the
fire, and eaten their suppers; but when he
‘said so to Wolf, he got the sort of answer
which made him unwilling to offer his
opinions, unless some one was by to protect
him. So he ran home, and stretched him-
self lazily before the blazing logs, and told
Joan that Wolf was very old, and stupid,
The Dwarf Woman 141

and disagreeable, and that he should not
speak to him again.

With the farm-men kept so hard at work
you may imagine that the children’s mother
was also busy, and that she made them run
about and fetch things, and turn the hoard-
apples in the loft, and do all they could to
help: her, which they enjoyed more than the
spelling or the spinning; and one after-
noon, when the rain was still coming down
as if it never meant to stop, and the men
were away as usual looking after the sheep,
she wrapped them up, and told them to run
across to the hen-house and see whether
they could not find some eggs for supper.
Between the farm and the hen-house there
lay first the garden, which at this time of
year was generally as gay as a garden could
be, with late roses, and yellow evening prim-
roses, and great starry daisies,—though now
the poor things were all sodden and drenched
with rain,—and then a very small stream, use-
ful in dry weather for watering the cattle,
and crossed by a little wooden foot-bridge.
142 Fairy Tales

The rains of course had swollen the water,
which came swirling down so swiftly that
Barthel could hardly tear himself away from
the joy of seeing it rush under the bridge,
though Joan called to him to make haste,
and Ju-Ju, who was extremely cross at
having to come at all, stuck his impertinent
little nose in the air and sniffed contemp-
tuously.

But once in the hen-house they all found .
it delightful. There was a delicious smell
of hay to begin with, it was warm and snug,
there were all the dark corners to be peeped
into, and the excitement of discoveries, while
it amused Ju-Ju immensely to see the old
hens fly up to the rafters with cackles of
terror. So that, for one reason and another,
they stayed at least twice as long as was
necessary, and it was only an odd sort of
gurgling noise which made Joan run to the
door at last. When she got there she
shrieked, and with some reason, for what
had been land and pretty garden was now
a raging river. The bridge was gone,
The Dwarf Woman 143

everything was gone, the yellow water was
rushing into the farm, and from the upper
windows the poor mother was leaning and
calling in an agony of fear, for indeed she
thought nothing less than that both her
children had been swept away. The water
had risen within a foot of the hen-house,
and would have flowed in, only that luckily
it stood on higher ground than the rest;
but it was creeping up every moment, and
_ both Barthel and Joan ran out in a great
hurry.

To tell the truth, Barthel thought it fine
fun. To have a river suddenly appear at
your door, and even come tumbling into
your house, is naturally extremely interest-
ing; and as, directly the mother saw them,
she clasped her hands, and was evidently
comforted, he could not see what there was
to make a fuss about. But Joan was dread-
fully frightened, and so was Ju-Ju, who
stood whimpering with one paw in the
stream, his head on one side and his ears
cocked.
144 Fairy Tales

“What ave you crying for, you two?”
said Barthel impatiently. “Oh, just look,
what a pace the water comes at! I wonder
whether the fire is put out, and what the
old clock thinks of it? Oh, don’t I just
wish I was there. Come, Joan, let us make
haste!”

“But we can’t get across,” sobbed his
sister.

“Of course we can. What a silly you
are! I am going to carry you on my
back.”

Joan only sobbed the more.

“Voucan’t, youcan’t! You'll be drowned!”

“Then you stay here, and I'll go by myself
and get some one,” said the boy stoutly, but
before he had gone many steps Joan was
clutching his jacket, and he was glad to
stagger back, for the flow of the current
was enough to sweep away a grown man,
much more a little fellow like Barthel. In
another moment he would certainly have
been whirled off his legs, and as for his
mother, she was screaming and frantically
The Dwarf Woman 145

waving to him to go back. After this he
looked a little graver, though still resolute.
“I do wish you would stop crying,” he said
to Joan. “I want to think. I believe that
mother means us to go round.”

“Oh, but the water will come and drown
us!”

“Silly! Water can’t run up hill.”

“I don’t know,” said Joan miserably. “I
think it does sometimes, and then we shall
be drowned, and get wet, and not have any
foam |

“ Who-o-0-0f, who-o-0-0-of —of course!”
cried Ju-Ju, in the same tone, so that Barthel
was quite provoked.

“Well, any way, crying won’t do any
good,” he said sharply. ‘Come along, Joan,
there’s another bridge not a very long way
off, and all we've got to do is to keep on at
the top of this bank.”

Directly their mother saw them start she
nodded and smiled, so that the boy was sure
he was doing right; and when they joined

hands and ran, Joan cheered up, and almost
K
146 Fairy Tales -

thought that it was fun; but when they
reached the next crossing, and found that
bridge too swept away, her spirits sank,
and even Barthel was alarmed, though he
tried to speak cheerily.

“We must keep going on,” he said. ‘‘The
next place is not so very far off.”

“Oh, it is miles and miles,’ Joan de-
clared. ‘And I am so tired, and so wet!”

This was true, and he was looking at her
in despair, for he had begun to wonder
whether all the bridges might not be down.
And all he could say was, ‘‘ Well, we must
try, for we can’t stay here;” when at that
very moment somebody stepped out of the
shadow of a great bush growing on the bank,
and little Joan gave a scream of delight.

“© Bart,” she cried, “it is the old woman
with the honey-cakes.”

“Whoof, whoof!” cried Ju-Ju, sniffing
joyfully.

I can’t tell you how glad they were to
see a familiar face; and as for her, one
would have supposed that she was as much
The Dwarf Woman ~——_1147

- astonished as if they were the last little
couple she had expected to meet, for she held
up her hands and said, “ Well, I never!”
over and over again. The next thing was how
wet they were. “Soaking!” she exclaimed,
feeling Joan’s jacket. ‘Oh dear! oh dear!
To think of your being so far from your
house, and not being able to cross; and to
think of my having left all my cakes at
home to-day!” (But this was not true, for
she had thrown them into the river when
she changed her plan.)

“Oh!” cried Joan, in her most disap-
pointed voice. ‘And we are so hungry!”

“T shall never forgive myself,” said the
dwarf woman. “But do tell me where you
are going?”

Barthel tried to speak very bravely.

“To the next bridge, because you see we
must get to the other side.”

“ But the next bridge is washed away, and
so is the one after. You would have a good
nine miles to walk round, my dears.”

When she had said this the poor little
148 Fairy Tales

brother and sister looked at each other, and
Joan opened her mouth to give a shriek,
which always caused great consternation at
the farm. However, seeing Barthel’s face,
she gulped it down, and only slipped her
hand into her brother's and began to cry
softly. He really was a good boy, though
he was sometimes contradictory. He was
not very big, and he was very tired him-
self, but he turned to the dwarf woman
and said—

‘Please, will you put Joan on my back?
I can carry her a good way.”

“Oh, my dear, you can’t,” she said,
shaking her head. “No, no, I have been
thinking, and I will tell you how we can
manage beautifully. My house is not very
far off, and although my family are small they
are very strong. I will give them a call, and
if they happen to hear they will bring a little
cart, and that will carry you to my house,
and there you shall have nice dry clothes
and hot honey-cakes for supper. Of course
you must sleep the night, but I think I can
The Dwarf Woman 149

manage to tell them at the farm that you are
quite safe. Perhaps your little dog would
run there?”

But Ju-Ju’s eyes grew quite round with
indignation, and he instantly flung himself
on the ground, and gasped as if he were
very ill.

“Darling Ju-Ju!” said Joan, dragging
him up into her arms. “No, he is as tired
as I am, and he would never leave us,
because he is such a dear!”

Barthel was the eldest, and of course he
had to decide. It was very difficult for him.
The plan really sounded sensible, for how-
ever much they wished it it was clearly
impossible for Joan to walk all those miles;
and although for one minute he thought of
letting her go to the dwarf woman’s house
and returning home by himself, he was sure
his mother would never have approved of
his leaving her quite alone with a stranger.

“Well,” he said unwillingly, ‘‘where is
the cart?”

If he had been looking at the dwarf woman
150 Fairy Tales

he would have seen light shoot out of her
eyes, but he was looking at Joan, and

wondering why girls were made so feeble.
And that very instant the dwarf woman
put a silver whistle to her mouth, and
blew so shrilly that it sounded high above

 

the rush and tumult of the flood. Before
many minutes had passed, a light cart,
drawn by two small deer, one of which was
ridden by a scarlet postillion, came swiftly
towards them, and directly he saw it all
Barthel’s scruples vanished. He jumped
in, pulled up Joan by his side, and lifted
The Dwarf Woman Taser

Ju-Ju, yelping, by the scruff of his neck.
Then the dwarf woman climbed in, and
away they went at a speed which sucked
the very breath out of their bodies. They
dashed over a track across the moor, thickly
strewn with furze-bushes and big boulders.
Why they were not upset nobody will ever
know, for they flew like the wind. Joan
clutched the side, and opened her mouth
to cry, but she really had neither breath
nor time enough, and as for Bart, he was
mad with delight. It was glorious! On
they rushed, and every now and then the
little postillion would give a wild shout;
and then, if possible, they went faster and
faster, and it seemed to the boy as if the
shout were taken up, and echoed across
the desolate moor, as indeed it was, for
the dwarfs were watching, you may be
sure, and this shout told them that the
new King and Queen were coming; and
one and another passed on the tidings to
the hill, so that all might be ready. Fast
as they went, before they got there the
152 Fairy Tales —

rain had stopped, and the sky behind them
lightened into bright daffodil barred with
grey. But at last the dwarf woman said
with a sigh of relief, for it had been very
nervous work for her—

‘Now we are close.”

“I don’t see any house,” said Barthel.

“Oh,” she said, in a great hurry to explain,
“our house is built into the mountain side.
You see we are a small people, not big and
beautiful like you, but when we are once
inside I am sure you will be pleased.
There is a great deal more room than you
can imagine from the outside, and a great
many curious things. Besides, you must
be cold with all your things so wet, and
that is why I allowed the postillion to
drive fast. Then really we are very proud
of our honey-cakes, and I almost fancy that
I can smell them already.”

“7 can,” said Ju-Ju, licking his lips.

The drive, the novelty, and the bright moor
air had excited the children so much that
even Barthel had no longer any misgivings ;
 
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The Dwarf Woman nest

and indeed when they stopped, and the
dwarf woman saw all that had been done,
she was very proud of her people’s clever-
ness. They had enlarged the door to twice
its size, and posted it open, so that the glow
of the pine-torches made a cheerful welcome ;
and outside stood a double line of young
dwarfs, very smart-looking in their leather
jerkins with red caps and red boots, and
each carrying a silver axe. They had been
chosen for the king’s body-guard, and drilled
until they hardly knew whether they stood
on their heads or their heels. Bart was
extremely interested.

“Dear me,” he said to the dwarf woman,
‘are these all your family?”

“A few of the neighbours come to meet
you, sir. Pray, walk in.” For she prided
herself on her good manners, and Barthel
and Joan were much struck with them.

So they went down the steps, Joan carrying
Ju-Ju, lest he should be frightened. Each
moment things became more exciting, and
the children were so taken up with the
156 Fairy Tales

strange things about them that they never
noticed how, directly they had passed through
the door, the dwarfs set to work to close it
up again, until only a little hole was left,
through which neither brother nor sister
could pass; while, to make it more secure,
twelve policemen were set to guard it. As
you have heard, however, neither of them
had any idea of this, nor, though all about
them was so strange, were they in the least
uneasy, because every one smiled and curt-
sied, and as for the Lord Chamberlain, who
received them, he walked backwards, and
made such inagnificent bows that it was all
they could do not to burst out laughing.
Besides, they grew hungrier and hungrier
with the good smell of the cakes; and when
they were ushered into a room where was a
- feast all set out in tiny silver dishes, Joan
fairly clapped her hands and hugged Ju-Ju.
“O Ju-Ju, aren’t you glad!” she whispered.
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said Ju-Ju, wriggling,
for he wanted to get down and begin at once.
They had an excellent tea, though Barthel
The Dwarf Woman EY

thought it very absurd that every one insisted
upon standing up until they had finished,
and he also was rather annoyed by the
crowds of dwarfs who came running from
all sides to peep at them. It made him feel
shy and uncomfortable, and he would have
been more startled if he had heard the
remarks that were made.

‘Did you ever see any one so splendid as
our king!”

“Such cheeks!”

“Such hair!”

“Such hands!”

‘And so enormous!”

“Besides, he will grow bigger still. Oh,
certainly now we must be respected !”

But he was almost too sleepy to notice
anything, and as for little Joan, what with
the drive and the hot cakes, her eyes closed,
whether she would or no. Seeing that, the
dwarf woman made a sign, and four bed-
chamber women took her up and carried her
to a beautiful little room which had been
specially fitted up, and there undressed and
158 Fairy Tales

laid her on a silver bed. Barthel was more
solemnly walked off to his, and both chil-
dren slept very soundly, and dreamed only
of their mother’s kisses.

The morning was really puzzling, for, of
course, no light of day could get inside the
mountain, and day and night the torches had
to be kept burning; and though there were
a great many very interesting things to be
looked at, Barthel was growing uneasy. He
thought it was absurd that they should be
called Their Majesties, and his cheeks grew
red and his voice gruff, and once or twice he
was rather rude about it, for you cannot
offend a dwarf so much as by laughing at
him. As soon as he could talk privately to
Joan he began in a great hurry :—

‘““T don’t know what we could have done
differently last night, but I do want to get
out of this place now. Mother will be aw-
fully frightened at our not turning up.”

“Oh, all in good time,” said the little girl
easily, for she was enjoying herself very
much. ‘I am sure they are extremely nice
The Dwarf Woman 159

people—and so respectful. Ju-Ju likes it
better than the farm.”

‘“Ju-Ju is a greedy pig,’ said Barthel
fiercely. ‘‘There is zo place so nice as the
farm. I shall go and get hold of the dwarf
woman; she makes me rather sick with her
airs and graces, but she promised. She can’t
get out of that.” So he sent for the dwarf
woman—for he could not run and find her
for himself, as he would have liked—and
said at once: “Don’t call me Your Majesty,
please, because it is silly; we are very
much obliged to you for all you have done,
but now we want to get home, for nobody
knows where we are, and we should like to
start at once.”

Nothing could be more polite than what
she said. She could quite understand what
they felt, only unfortunately one of the deer
had hurt his leg, so that he could not be
used for a day or two, and, as he knew, it
was impossible for his little sister to walk so
far. But if he would write a letter, a mes-
senger should go at once to the farm; and
160 Fairy Tales

meanwhile, so long as they remained, she did
hope they would be pleased to act as their
king and queen.

Bart did not like this at all, but there
seemed nothing else to do, so he wrote a
little letter in a very large round hand, and
told his father exactly where they were, and
begged him to send for them at once. And,
as you may guess, the dwarf woman burnt
this letter, and just made up a few words
of her own, saying that the children were
well and happy; and not until a few days
had passed did she- trouble herself to go off
on her stilts, and lay it on the window-sill of
the farm—on the garden side, for she was
afraid that Wolf might be in the yard—with
a stone on the top to keep it from blowing
away. And then she felt she had done all
which any one could expect.

The happiest of the three was Ju-Ju. He
was allowed to do what he liked, and to eat as
much as he liked, and there was no big dog,
such as old Wolf, to keep him in order. He
thought the mountain the most delightful
The Dwarf Woman 161

place in the world, and that his young
master was very foolish to be so fussy about
getting out of it. Joan, too, liked some
things. But poor Barthel was growing mis-
erable. He was afraid the dwarfs meant to
keep them. He hated the ceremony, and
the darkness, and the stuffiness, and the
honey-cakes; and, when he thought of the
home-people, his heart swelled, and tears
would force themselves into his eyes. He
tried with all his might to find a way out,
but the dwarfs were much too clever for
him, and, as you know,:the tiny entrance
was always guarded by a dozen policemen.
So he almost despaired.

There was only one person in the place
who was disposed to help the children, and
this, though they would never have guessed
it, was the master-tailor. You see, he had
been extremely annoyed because his advice
had been set aside for that of the dwarf
woman. He had always been considered
very wise, and had no doubt on the matter

himself; while as for women, he despised
L
162 Fairy Tales ©

them with all his heart, and the dwarf
woman particularly. So it enraged him to
think that she had carried out her schemes ;
and when his wife told him that the young
king was both angry and unhappy, he so far
forgot his dignity and his white beard as to
snap his fingers in the air, and cry—‘‘I told
you so!” And although he would not con-
descend to ask questions, his wife had
learned by long experience that she must
repeat everything that passed, and that it
was her duty to talk to the children as often
as she could.

By this means she grew—for she was
tender-hearted—quite fond of them, and
came back one day wiping her red eyes.

“So like a woman!” snapped her hus-
band. “Do you ever see mecry? I daresay
it is all about nothing, too, for you women
have no self-control.”

He was sitting cross-legged on his board,
stitching together a blue and yellow coat,
and he was rather extra disagreeable that
morning because he had heard no gossip.
The Dwarf Woman 163

“Dear,” said his wife coaxingly, “it is
that poor boy”—she dared not call him the
king—‘“ He has been talking to me about
his home, and his father’s and mother’s
grief, until I really could bear it no longer.
I almost think he will die. You are so
clever, and they always mind you so much,

Ut
SS ———

 

 

, LG SS > SNS
ae AINE .

don’t you think you could persuade the
councillors to let them go?”
“Councillors? Pack of idiots! Ready
to swallow anything that fool of a woman
suggests! Of course they will die. Haven't
I always said so?”
“Yes, indeed, dear; they must all remember
164 Fairy Tales

that. But as they are so stupid and you so
clever, don’t you think you could manage
to save these poor little children?” And
then she added, quite as if it had nothing
to do with the matter, “ By the way, I must
go and see about those tom-tits,” for she
knew that tom-tits for dinner always put
him into a good humour.

Upon that he waggled his great beard,
and she listened very attentively, for she
saw he was coming round.

‘Easy enough,” he grunted. “If you
werent a woman, you might have thought
of it, too. Haven't they got a dog, and
hasn't he got a collar?”

eaves =dearayes |:

“Well, then, all there is to do is to write
a little note, which you must bring to me,
that I may sew it under his collar. Then
if they can’t go out, you can, I suppose?
And you can take him in a basket, and
when you are quite out of sight, you can
let him go, and you may be sure he won’t
be long in getting home.”
The Dwarf Woman 165

For, you see, wise as he was, the master-
tailor did not know Ju-Ju.

His wife admired his cleverness loudly,
though he turned his back, and pretended
to be sick of the subject. But, as his
greatest desire was to humiliate the dwarf
woman, when the collar and the note were
brought to him he sewed them together
with great care, and added a little red
rosette, which he thought would make the
people at the farm look closely. Meanwhile
Barthel and Joan were talking very seriously
to Ju-Ju, for the hope of seeing her mother
again had awakened a great longing in the
little girl’s heart.

“Darling Ju-Ju,” she said, “do be good.
Everything depends upon you.”

“Yes, yes, of course!” said Ju-Ju, yawning
rather rudely.

“You are sure to be able to find the way,
so mind you run home as fast as ever you
can, and don’t let the dwarfs see you. If
they do not take off your collar, scratch at
it, and pretend that it hurts,” added Barthel.
| 166 Fairy Tales

“Yes, yes, of course!”

But all the time the naughty little dog
meant to do something quite different. He
had not the least intention of leaving his
dear mountain, and he intended to hide
somewhere near, and come back in the
evening and declare he had not been able
to find the road. So that while Joan was
hugging him, and sending kisses to her
mother, and tucking him into the basket,
and he was pretending to be very sad and
tearful, he was really saying to himself—

‘Oh, how tiresome it is to have to do with
such stupid things, who are always trying to
make one as foolish as themselves! You
will soon see me back, I can tell you!”
However, whether he liked it or not, he
was obliged to go through all the first part
as it had been arranged for him. The
master-tailor’s wife carried the basket, and
took him some way across the moor before
she ventured to let him out, and then care-
fully explained to him that he was to go
home, which he already perfectly understood.
The Dwarf Woman 167

He wagged his tail, and looked quite good,
but in his naughty heart he was saying—
“Yes, of course, 1 must pretend to do what
these idiotic creatures want. It is extremely
annoying to have to go without my dinner,
but I ate as much breakfast as I could, and
I shall just set off across the moor, and
directly I am out of sight lie down in the
sun under a stone, and go to sleep. It will
be very dull, I know, but when one has
to do with men one must suffer for their
stupidity.”

So he trotted on until he thought he was
safe, and then found a nice stone, where he
lay down, and dreamt of the honey-cakes he
meant to eat in the evening; and the master-
tailors wife hurried back, that she might tell
the children how nicely he had behaved, and
how he was running steadily in the right
direction.

And now you must know that a very
strange thing happened.

The farmer and his wife were miserable
at the loss of their children. They could
168 Fairy Tales

only suppose that the flood had swept them
away and drowned them; and the farm was
indeed a sad place. So you may imagine
how delighted everybody was when the little
slip of paper was found one morning by the
dairymaid on the window-sill. But though
the news greatly relieved them, it seemed to
set the mother’s heart yearning the more to
have them back. She laughed and cried,
and beset her husband with questions which
he could not answer. Where could they be?
And who could be keeping them from her?
When old Wolf, who knew all the ins and
outs of the family, made his way into the
kitchen to find out what the stir was about,
she let him smell the letter, and told him
it said the children were well, but, oh, she
wanted to see with her own eyes!

Wolf did all he could to comfort her, and
went off into the yard without looking at
his food, which the girl had ready for him
in the passage. He pondered over it through
the day and half the night, for he was always
slow in deciding for himself; but when the
The Dwarf Woman 169

morning came he had an idea. He had
sniffed about here, there, and everywhere, and
at last found something in the air which
was like the taste of honey-cakes. The same
thing had struck him when he smelt the
letter, and as he remembered Ju-Ju talking
about the dwarf woman and her basket, he
began to think that she might have some-
thing to do with the children’s disappearance.
He wished very much that he could explain
this to his master and mistress, and his eyes
had that wistful look in them which means
that a dog longs to say something and can’t ;
for it is only the children that can understand
beast language, and not always they. But
his mistress was sure he was sorry for them,
and she patted his head and cried.

So off he started by himself, hoping the
farm would get on in his absence, and, after
a good many doubts, felt sure that he was
well on the scent of the honey-cakes. Every
now and then he lost it, but, by sniffing and
sniffing perseveringly, found it again, and
trotted along at a good round steady pace,
170 Fairy Tales

until he had got a good way across the moor,
and the mountain had grown quite distinct
in the blue air. Little he knew how much
it meant to them all! And then at that
moment he began to think about Ju-Ju, for
whom he had the greatest contempt. He
was sure that if he had been a good dog,
and acted up to his duties, he might have
been of use to the poor children; and Wolf
was sorrowfully shaking his wise head over
this, and wishing he could have trained him
better, when he went round the angle of
a great boulder, and what should he see
but Master Ju-Ju, very fat, sound asleep,
and snoring in the sun! Wolf had him
awake pretty soon, and when Ju-Ju opened
his eyes and saw the great dog standing over
him, he believed his last hour was come.
Sometimes, when he was in for punishment,
he would manage to run away, so now he
made one wild dash for escape. But Wolf
meant business, and had him rolled over
in no time, giving him one or two hard
nips by way of warning; and though Ju-Ju
The Dwarf Woman 171

yelped and howled with all his might, hoping
that the dwarfs might hear, they were too
far off, and he felt that he was in a very
bad way indeed. So he began to whine
instead.

“Let me go, Wolf, let me go, oh, do/ I
was just coming home as fast as ever I
could. I was, indeed!”

“Was that the way to go home?” growled
the old dog, with his eyes looking like balls
of fire. ‘Never fear! You shall go now,
and a little quicker than you intended.”

“Pig! Cat/ Buty!” snapped the puppy,
for he was in a great rage, and he knew that
Wolf hated to be called Bully, ever since his
master once told him that he was too hard
on the little dogs. But say what he liked,
he had to go; for even after Wolf had in-
sisted upon hearing the whole story, the old
dog knew that he could manage nothing by
himself, and that he would have to try his
best to make his master understand about
the note under the collar. So that all he
could do was to drive Ju-Ju, which he did
172 Fairy Tales

with little mercy ; for when the puppy sniffed
and puffed, and declared that his breath was
gone, Wolf only remarked that it came of
honey-cakes and fat, and that the run would
do him good.

He gave him no chance of escape until he
had him at the farm, and brought him
Straight into the kitchen, where the farmer
and his wife and the dairymaid—because
she had found it—were poring over the letter
which the dwarf woman had left, for they
did little else. You may suppose what they
felt when they saw Ju-Ju. The mother had
him in her arms in a moment.

‘Oh, husband,” she cried, “our children
are near! Otherwise, depend upon it, Ju-Ju
would never have left them, dear faithful
little creature! Oh, if only he could speak!
Ju-Ju, can’t you tell us? And how tired he
looks, and how he pants! Run, run, Lisa,
and get the poor darling some milk.”

And she kissed him again and again.

Somehow or other the children’s father
was not quite so certain. He knew the two
The Dwarf Woman 173

dogs, and he knew that Wolf was very
trusty and very wise, and he saw that he
looked ill-pleased, and noticed that he too
had evidently run a long way. So he went
himself to get him some food, and, all the
while that he was eating, Ju-Ju snarled at
him over his milk-saucer, until at last the
wife said—

“Take your great dog away. Don’t you
see the poor little dear is afraid of him?”

“Well, I’m not so sure,” said the farmer
slowly. ‘What case the puppy isin! He’s
been in the land of plenty, at all events, for
his very collar looks too tight. And what's
that red thing sticking out?” he went on,
peering at him, because he was short-sighted.

Directly Ju-Ju heard him say this, he
pretended that he saw the cat, and rushed
out barking in a great hurry, hoping that
when he came back they would have
forgotten the rosette. Directly he got out
he scratched at it with all his might, and
perhaps would have torn it off, if the mother,
who could not bear him out of her sight, had
174 Fairy Tales

not run out and caught him up in her arms
again.

‘Well, it is odd,” she said to her husband.

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ater

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“Certainly that red bow is something new.
Suppose we take off his collar.”

And when they had done so, there was
Barthel’s little note :—

“Dear father and mother,—We are quite
well, but very miserable, for the dwarfs have
The Dwarf Woman as

got us in the mountain beyond the moor,
and won’t let us go. I think they are
beasts, for they pretend we are their king
and queen. Do come quickly and get us
out. Ju-Ju has promised to take this, and
he ought to be at home by dinner-time.
Make him show you the door in the hill,
and Alease make haste.—Your dear children,
Bart and Joan.”

“Dinner-time!” said the farmer. “And
now it is evening, and see how guilty he
looks! I tell you what, wife: say what you
like, I believe it was Wolf who went out and
fetched that lazy little fat ball of a puppy
home. He has been missing all day.”

“You men are always unfair,” returned
the mother. “I am sure it is simply
wonderful that such a little creature should
have been so clever! But now, don’t let us
waste the time. Of course we must start at
once, and you must call your men, and send
for the neighbours, and march to the moun-
tain and break open the door. Dear little
Joan! What a state her frock must be in!
176 Fairy Tales

Oh! I shan’t have one moment’s peace till
they are out of those horrid creatures’

clutches.”
But all the farmer would say was, “‘ Softly,
softly!” For he was a slow-thinking man

like Wolf, and slow also to move, though
very determined when he had once started.
He knew that it was impossible to get off
that night, and he saw that the children were
well treated, and he wanted time to consider
the position. He was afraid that even if
they managed to storm the dwarfs’ dwelling,
they would contrive to carry off the children,
and hide them in some fresh place.

Therefore he made up his mind at last
that he would take with him only his old
shepherd and the two dogs, start early,
and carry with him a written demand that
Barthel and Joan should be sent out at once,
otherwise he would proceed to blow up the
door and the dwelling, and that, in fact, all
sorts of terrible things would happen. This
should be tied on Ju-Ju’s collar, and Wolf
should be sent to see that at any rate he
The Dwarf Woman 177

took it in safely, for his master could not feel
confidence in him. This, however, Ju-Ju
did not care about; for, as he was small, the
shepherd carried him part of the way, and
the airs he gave himself, and the language
he used, if only they had understood! He
called Wolf by every name he could think
of, and did not stop until the two men hid
behind a stone, and he found himself on the
ground, and told to go on quite alone with
the big dog. Then you may be sure he
talked in quite a different tone, and shook
all over, for he fully expected punishment.
However, Wolf was not thinking about him
at all. He had been a little vexed that his
mistress had not understood better, but his
mind was full of the children, and of
planning if possible to keep close to the
puppy, and see that his errand was car-
ried out.

“Ho, ho, so this is it!” he said when they
reached the door; and the smell of honey-
cakes, which had first given him the clue,

was stronger than ever.
M
178 Fairy Tales

“Yes, this is it,” snapped the puppy; ‘‘and
you'd better be off, or the soldiers will kill |
you! Whoof, Whoof!”

Now the dwarfs had been in great distress
about Ju-Ju, so directly they heard his voice
the door was opened, and he tumbled in and
down the steps like a ball, and Wolf tumbled
after him, for, though he did not generally go
so fast, he was afraid of being given the slip.
All the guard jumped back when they saw
him, for they thought it was a real wolf
rushing by, and then half of them followed
bravely in pursuit, and the whole place was
full of cries. Wolf knocked down at least a
dozen, and got a blow in his shoulder from
an axe; but he stuck close behind Ju-Ju, and
in a few moments more was leaping and
licking Barthel’s face, and Barthel had his
arms round his shaggy neck, and if he were
not quite crying, he was very near it!

The commotion by this time was terrible.
The dwarfs were so completely taken by
surprise that they lost their heads, and
imagined that their king and queen were
The Dwarf Woman 179

being devoured; and it was only when the
master-tailor’s wife had run for her husband
that they could be at all quieted. And how
he rated them, with his bright eyes gleaming
under his thick eyebrows |!

“Well, well, well,” he exclaimed, ‘I hope
you are satisfied at last! This comes of the
folly of stealing men-children. A fine dis-
turbance it has made! The children fretting
themselves to death, and wild beasts rushing
in upon us, and worse things behind, I have
no doubt. And for what? Just to please
the silly vanity of that woman,” he went on,
waggling his great beard, and pointing at
the dwarf woman, who was huddled up in
a corner, shaking all over, and ready to die
with fright.

Meanwhile Joan had been hugging Ju-Ju,
and looking under his collar, and there she
found a paper which she gave to the master-
tailor, who got on a chair and read it to the
people in his biggest voice—

“T hereby give notice: Unless my children
are sent out safe and sound in an hour's
180 Fairy Tales
time, we shall proceed to blow up your
entrance, and anything else which stands in
the way of their recovery; but if I receive
them unhurt, we undertake to leave without
molesting you in any way.”

Upon this there was a frightful panic.
Some rushed away helter-skelter, some fell
on their knees, and others, crowding round
the master-tailor, implored him to advise
them; for the bare idea of being blown up
frightened them out of their wits. As for
the dwarf woman, she screamed more loudly
than any one, and the master-tailor stamped.
At last, when he could make himself heard,
he cried— ;

‘“Guinea-pigs! Idiots! Will you do what
I tell you?

‘Yes, yes, yes!”

“Will you banish that meddlesome woman
to the kitchen, and keep her there as head-
cook ?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

‘Then all the rest is easy. Tie a bandage
over the children’s eyes, lead them to the
The. Dwarf Woman 181
door they have not seen, and leave them
outside. -That wild beast of theirs will take
care of them; and when we have got rid of
all this foolishness, it is to be hoped things
may settle down again. That is, if you ever
can learn common-sense.”

‘“ How clever he is!” said his wife admir-
ingly ; and just at that moment no one con- ©
tradicted her, for they were in a tremendous
hurry to do exactly as he told them. The
children’s eyes were bandaged, they were
hastened along passages, and round corners,
and up and down steps, until at last they
were told to go on their hands and knees,
and felt the sweet air of the outer world
upon their faces. Barthel shouted for joy;
but the dwarfs would not yet allow them to
see. They were led some way on the short
grass, and were begged to wait until they
had counted fifty, and then they might tear
off the bandages. Bart kept to this honour-
ably, so that when at last they looked, there
was only the mountain side, and not a sign
of a dwarf or a door.
182 Fairy Tales

Little Joan was half sorry. She had liked
the life and the spoiling better than Bart,
and she cried a little, and declared they
would be lost on the moor; but the boy
cheered her up, and made her put down
Ju-Ju, who whined and shook, and pretended
to be in the greatest terror, and then he
looked into Wolf’s honest eyes and said—
“Home, Wolf, home!”

The old dog set off at once as happy as a
king, and just as the children’s father and
the shepherd were thinking that the granted
time was nearly up, and that they might
have to take strong measures, they saw two
little figures coming towards them between
the tussocks of grass, with Wolf trotting
proudly in front. The father ran to meet
them, and they rushed into his arms.

As they went back, you may think how
much there was to tell. Joan was carried
first by one and then the other, until, some
three or four miles away, they found the cart
waiting, which the mother had brought her-
self, and then it had to be all told over again.
The Dwarf Woman 183

It was not until she had hugged and kissed
them for a long time that she exclaimed—

“And where is that dear faithful little
Ju-Ju, who brought us news of you?”

Yes, indeed, where was he? They all
cried out and wondered, for even Wolf had
been too much taken up with his young
master to look after him. Joan suspected,
because she knew how unwilling he was to
leave the dwarfs and the honey-cakes. And
that was really at the root of the matter.
For when he found that no one was looking,
the naughty little dog slipped behind, and
ran back as fast as his legs could carry him.
What became of him I don’t know, although
I have a strong suspicion that he died of
over-eating. But the others lived very
happily, and Wolf with them.

 
 

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