Opera Stories from Wagner Part 13

"I never have," calmly answered Siegfried. "Take me quickly, Mimi. I am ready to learn."

At every step Mimi chuckled to himself:--

"The ring is mine! At last the ring is mine! Now all the world shall kneel at my feet!"

"When he had gone as far as he dared, he pointed out the rest of the way to Siegfried.

"Just through here," he said. "And I shall go back now. When the dragon sees you it will be a terrible struggle! I shall wait anxiously for you, my Siegfried!"

But as Siegfried vanished from sight, he rubbed his black hands together and laughed:--

"Ah, it will be luck for Mimi if Siegfried and the dragon kill each other!"

A WOOD-BIRD'S SONG

When Siegfried had gone on a little way, he stretched himself upon a gra.s.sy mound beneath a tree to rest and think.

Looking up through the branches at the clear sky, he cried:--

"I am free! Free! Never again will I go back to that loathsome Nibelung."

A bird in the tree began singing its sweet wood-song.

"How do you do, my little feathered friend!" said Siegfried. "I am sure what you are singing is very sweet, but I cannot understand your words."

Then Siegfried cut a reed near by, and putting it to his lips, tried to whistle answers to the little bird's notes.

His music did not sound much like the song of a bird.

"I give it up, my little friend," he said, and threw away the reed.

SIEGFRIED AND THE DRAGON

"I will blow you a song on my silver horn," said Siegfried to the bird.

"I often blow this little song. It is my call for a comrade. I long for one. None better have ever come to me than the bears and foxes."

Loudly he blew his horn.

Soon there was a great crackling in the underbrush. The huge dragon came, las.h.i.+ng its deadly tail, gaping its red jaws, and blowing out poison fumes.

"Ho!" laughed Siegfried. "What a fair comrade I have charmed from his cave! You savage brute, are you going to teach me what fear is?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I AM GOING TO EAT YOU," HISSED THE DRAGON]

"I am going to eat you!" hissed the dragon, glaring at Siegfried and thrusting out its long forked tongue.

Siegfried quickly drew his sword.

Snorting fire and smoke from its nostrils, the monster raised to strike a deadly blow.

Siegfried sprang forward; a flash of steel, and his blade sank to the monster's heart.

A CHANGE COMES OVER SIEGFRIED

As Siegfried drew his blade from the breast of the dying dragon, a drop of its black blood fell on his finger.

It burned like fire.

Siegfried quickly put his finger in his mouth.

The instant the dragon's blood touched his lips, a change came over him.

He could understand the words of the little bird singing in the tree:--

"Now the gold is Siegfried's!

Now all the gold is Siegfried's!

Go into the cave, Siegfried!

Go in! Go in!

Find the helmet and the ring!

The helmet and the ring are Siegfried's!

Take them! Take them! Take them!"

Siegfried went through the brush in the direction from which the monster had come.

When he found the cave, he peered in.

All was deep, dreary darkness, but Siegfried had not learned fear.

He went in and found the gold, the helmet, and the ring.

But he did not need the gold. Its weight would only hinder him.

He looked upon the wis.h.i.+ng-cap, but surely no one could turn into anything better than a hero, and Siegfried was already a hero.

What use could he have for a wis.h.i.+ng-cap?

A hero does not try to make believe he is something which he is not.

He is brave enough to be just himself.

But the little bird fluttered at the door of the cave.

"Take the helmet and the ring, Siegfried! Take the helmet and the ring!"