and pleased; but his heart grew still more greedy of gain, and he shut up the poor miller's daughter again in another room containing much more straw, commanding her, as before, under pain of death, to spin it into gold before morning. Then she knew not what to do, and sat down once more to weep; when the little man again made his appearance and said, "What will you give me to spin the straw into gold?"-"The ring on my finger," replied she. So her little friend took the ring, and again the wheel went hummingly round, till by the morning all was done.

The king was greatly delighted to see all this heap of treasure; but still he had not enough; so he took the miller's daughter into a yet larger room, and said, "All this must be spun to-night; and then you shall be my queen:" for he thought within himself that a richer queen he could not possibly get any where. As soon as she was alone the dwarf came in, and said, "What will you give me to spin gold for you this third time?"—"I have nothing left," said she. "Then promise you will give me," said the little man, "your first child when you are queen. "Who knows how that may be," thought the miller's daughter: and as in her perplexity she could think of no other way of getting her task done, she promised to do what he asked, and he spun once more the straw into gold. The king came in the morning, and finding every thing as he wished, married her, and so the miller's pretty daughter became queen.

At the end of a year the queen had a beautiful child, and entirely forgot the little man; but one day he came into her chamber and put her in mind of her promise. The queen was quite horrified at the idea of losing her sweet little boy, and offered him all the wealth of the kingdom in exchange; but the little man protested that a living creature was dearer to him than all the wealth of the universe. At last her tears and supplications softened him, and he said, " I will give you three days, and if during that time you tell me my name, you shall keep your child."'

Now the queen lay awake all night, thinking of all the names that she had ever heard, and despatched a messenger all over the land to find out new ones. The next day the little man came, and she began with Caspar, Melchior, and Balzer, and all the names she could remember; but to all of them he said, "That's not my name.'

The second day she sent round to learn all the most extraordinary names, such as Spindle-legs, Hunch-back, Sheep

H

shanks, and so on; but the little man still said to all that were repeated to him, "That's not my name.'

The third day the messenger came back, and said, “I can hear of no new names; but yesterday, as I was climbing a high hill in the forest, where the fox and the hare bid good night to each other, I saw a little hut, and before the hut burnt a fire, and round about the fire danced and hopped a droll little man upon one leg, and sang

"To-day I'll bake, to-morrow brew,

And then, O queen, I'll come to you,
And fetch away my boy with me;-
O what fun it is to see,

How in vain my name they guess,

And Rumpel-stilts-kin ever miss!"

When the queen heard this, she was almost frantic with joy, and as soon as the little mannikin came, and said, "Now, your majesty, what is my name?" she asked, "Is it Dick?""No!"" Is it Jack?"-"No!"

"Is not your name Rumpel-stilts-kin?" "Some fairy has told you that! some fairy has told you that!" cried the mannikin, and dashed his right foot so deep into the floor, that it sank in up to his body; and then in the same furious way, to extricate himself, he laid hold of his left leg with both hands, and split himself in two.

XVIII.

DAME HOLLE.

THERE was once a widow who had two daughters; one of them was a nice looking, diligent girl, but the other was disagreeable and idle.

She loved the idle one, however, much the best; so the other must do all the work, and be the drudge of the whole house. The poor maiden had to sit every day and spin by a well on the side of the highroad, and she spun so much, that the blood would come from her fingers. Now it happened once that her fingers bled a great deal, and when the spindle was quite

bloody, she dipped it into the well, and tried to wash it, but it dropped out of her hand and fell into the water. She wept and ran to her mother, and told her of her misfortune; but she scolded her sharply, and was so cruel as to say, "If you have let the spindle fall in, then you must just get it out again." So the little maid went back to the well, and knew not how to set about getting the spindle, but in her sorrow she fell into the water, and sunk to the bottom. When she came to herself again, she opened her eyes, and found herself in a beautiful meadow, where the sun shone brightly, and thousands of flowers were round about her.

So she walked along the meadow, and at last came to an oven which was full of bread, and the bread said, "Pull me out! pull me out! or I shall be all burnt; I have been baked long enough." So she stepped up nimbly, and took the bread out. Then she went on further, and came to a tree which hung full of apples, and the tree said to her, "Oh shake me! shake me! we apples are every one of us ripe!" So she shook the tree, and the apples fell down as if it rained, until there were no more left; so she went on again. At last she came to a little house, where a little old woman looked out of the door; but the old woman had a row of great teeth, which so frightened the poor maiden, that she would have run away, but she called after her, "Don't be frightened, dear child! stay with me; if you will do the work of my house neatly, I will be good to you; only you must be sure to make my bed well, and shake it carefully every morning, so that the feathers may fly, for then the folks below say it snows.-I am Dame Holle!

As the old lady spoke so pleasantly to her, the maid agreed to her offer, and she betook herself to her work. She took great care to do every thing to please her, and always shook the bed well;-so that she led a very happy life with her,-not an angry word, and every day roast and boiled for dinner and

supper.

Now, when she had been a long time with Dame Holle, she became sorrowful in her heart, and although she was a thousand times better off than she had been before, she yet had a longing after home. At length she said to her mistress, Though I have often grieved over my troubles at home, and though it fares so well with me here, yet I cannot stay any longer." Then Dame Holle said, "I am pleased to think that you long for your home; and as you have served me faithfully,

66

It is a saying in some parts of Germany, when it snows, "Mother Holle is making her bed."

I will myself conduct you back again." Then she took the maid by the hand and led her to a large door, and as it opened and the girl stood underneath, ready to set out, there fell a golden shower, and all the gold remained hanging about her, so that she was covered with it over and over. "All this,'

said she, "shall be yours, because you have been so diligent;" and she gave her back the spindle, too, which had fallen into the well. After this, the door was shut behind her, and the maiden looked round and found herself not far from her mother's house; and as she went into the court-yard, the cock sat upon the well-head and cried,

"Kikerikikeriki,

Our golden young lady's come back again."

Then she went into the house to her mother; and as she was all over gold, she was made welcome. When her mother heard how she had come by these riches, she wished to have the same luck for her other daughter; she must therefore go and sit by the well and spin likewise. In order that her spindle might be bloody, she pricked her fingers with it, and thrust her hand besides into a thorn-bush. Then she threw the spindle into the well, and sprung in after it. Like her sister, she came to a beautiful meadow, and walked on in the same path. When she came to the baking oven, the bread cried out, "Oh take me out! take me out! or I shall be all burnt; I have been baked long enough." But the idle girl said, "A nice affair, indeed! to dirty myself for you!" and on she went. Soon she came to the apple-tree, which cried, "Shake me! shake me! for we apples are all quite ripe!" But she answered, "You have a good deal of impudence, truly; suppose some of you were to fall upon my head ;" and so she walked away. At length she came to Dame Holle's house; and as she had heard already of her row of large teeth, she was not afraid, and willingly engaged herself to her. The first day she behaved herself very well, was very diligent, and did what the old lady told her; for she thought of the gold she would give her; but the second day she began to be lazy, and the third still more so, for she would not get up betimes in the morning. She made Dame Holle's bed, too, very badly, and did not shake it so that the feathers might fly out. This soon vexed Dame Holle, and she turned her off; but the girl was well pleased at this, and thought to herself, that the golden shower would soon come. Then Dame Holle took her to the door; but when she stood under it, instead of gold, a great kettle full of pitch came

showering down upon her. "That is the reward of your service," said Dame Holle; and clapped the door to upon her. So the idle girl came home quite covered with the pitch; and the cock on the well, when he saw her, cried out

"Kikerikikeriki,

Our dirty young lady's come back again!"

But the pitch stuck fast to her, so that nobody could get it off.

XIX.

PETER KLAUS.

IN the village of Sittendorf, at the foot of a mountain, lived Peter Klaus, a goatherd, who was in the habit of pasturing his flock upon the Kyffhâusen hills. Towards evening he generally let them browse upon a green plot not far off, surrounded with an old ruined wall, from which he could take a muster of his whole flock.

He

For some days past he had observed that one of his prettiest goats, soon after its arrival at this spot, usually disappeared, nor joined the fold again until late in the evening watched her again and again, and at last found that she slipped through a gap in the old wall, whither he followed her. It led into a passage which widened as he went into a cavern; and here he saw the goat employed in picking up the oats that fell through some crevices in the place above. He looked up, shook his ears at this odd shower of corn, but could discover nothing. Where in the earth could it come from? At length he heard over his head the neighing and stamping of horses; he listened, and concluded that the oats must have fallen through the manger when they were fed. The poor goatherd was sadly puzzled what to think of these horses in this uninhabited part of the mountain; but so it was, for the groom making his appearance, without saying a word, beckoned him to follow him. Peter obeyed, and followed him up some steps, which brought him into an open court-yard surrounded by old walls. At the side of this was a still more spacious cavern, surrounded by rocky heights, which only admitted a kind of twilight through the overhanging trees and shrubs. He went on, and came to a smooth-shaven green, where he