Fairy Tales from the German Forests Part 8

she said, "I will tell my mother of you."

The imp seemed much surprised, caught one of her tears on his finger, held it up to the light and then sucked it, making funny faces all the time. Kathe could not help laughing, and then she dried her tears with a corner of her ap.r.o.n. She sat down on a tree-trunk for a moment and tried to think.

Immediately the boy sat by her, and begged her to give him a kiss. He looked quite nice and pretty for the moment, and Kathe thought she had better do as he wished, or he might begin his antics again. So she gave him a motherly kiss, just as she would give to her baby brother, smack!

on the cheek. Immediately the queer look went out of his eyes, and a more human expression took its place.

"Kathe," he said, "Kathe, I am but a lonely little imp of the forest, but I love you, Kathe, and I want you to marry me, and live with me always, and be my own little wife. Will you, O will you? O _do, do_, do," he said, dancing up and down in wild excitement.

"O goodness gracious me, you are certainly quite crazy," said Kathe, "I will tell my mother of you!" She began to cry again, and smacked him whenever he tried to come near her.

Then he seized her by the hand and dragged her after him into the wild woods, till they were lost in the forest.

"O dear, O dear, whatever _shall_ I do? what will mother say when she finds no Kathe, no supper, and no baby. Boo-o-o-o!"

"Never mind," said our imp consolingly, "you can't help it now, you have run away with me you see."

"I didn't, indeed I didn't," interrupted Kathe indignantly.

"I will send a moons.h.i.+ne Kathchen to take your place for the night. You _are_ fond of dreaming, aren't you?"

"O yes, mother often calls me 'Traum Lies' (Dreaming Liese)."

"Well then, it's all right, she will not notice anything, and you and I will have fine times together. If you won't marry me, at least, we can get _engaged_ you know, that will be fine fun."

"Hum----" said Kathe, "that _would_ be amusing. We might _play_ at being engaged! that would not matter."

"Have you a gold ring for me?"

"O we will go and buy one at the flower shop," said he.

"At the _flower_ shop, that is a funny place to buy rings at," said Kathe.

"b.u.t.tercups and dandelions melted to a yellow heat make splendid fairy gold," he replied.

"Ah, then you really _are_ a fairy!" said the little girl.

"Why of course, did you think I was a human child like you? What _did_ they teach you at school?"

"Reading, writing and arithmetic, history and geography and scripture and sewing," said Kathe.

"But not how to know a fairy when you see one, O my stars!" said our hero.

"What is the good of learning To read and write and sew, To count and do addition If fairies you don't know?

How do you know a fairy?

O by his glittering eye, And by his light, light footsteps You know when he goes by.

O what are school and lessons, My little maiden, pray, If to the land of fairy They do not show the way?"

So he sang, and Kathchen thought to herself: "I've always suspected that we did not learn _everything_ at school."

By this time her little head was completely turned; she thought no more of supper or mother or baby, but only wondered with round eyes what would happen next.

The moon shone brilliantly through the branches, and she noticed that the trees began to move, and some of them quickly changed places.

"Have you ever seen the trees dance?" said our hero. We will call him Green Ears; for I had forgotten to say that being a tree-imp, his ears were shaped like oak leaves, and were green tinged with pinky red. It was peculiar of course, but not so very noticeable on account of his thick curly hair. He was able to move them if anything startled him, to p.r.i.c.k up his ears in very truth; then you saw that they really _belonged_ to him.

The trees did not wait for Kathe to reply; they formed themselves in long avenues and began a stately dance, something like a quadrille.

A soft fairy music was played by an invisible band. Squirrels sprang at intervals from one tree to another, spreading out their bushy tails and uttering strange cries like new-born babies.

Birds flew in and out singing and keeping time to the music and rhythm of the dance. It was a strange sight, grotesque yet beautiful; the trees took half human forms and faces; it was funny to see how they joined hands (or branches) from time to time in the dance. After they had watched for some time and the sport had become monotonous, Green Ears took Kathe to the top of the hill, and there they saw the beautiful peaked mountain called the Rossert, bathed in the moonlight.

"Well, children, enjoying yourselves on this fine night, I hope?" said a woman of tall and commanding presence. "Will you come home and have supper with me? I am sure Green Ears has forgotten to offer you anything to eat."

Here she chucked him under his pointed chin.

The two children, fairy and human, turned and followed her, they felt that she was a person of authority and must be obeyed. Her fair hair fell in waving ma.s.ses almost to her feet, it was covered with soft feathers, as if she had recently been filling feather beds.

The children saw a lighted cottage before them, with red roof and black-beamed walls like so many in the Taunus. A strong smell of honeysuckle was wafted towards them.

"This is my wood cottage, it is quite close to the Rossert, as you see.

Some people call me the wood-woman, others Frau Holle," she said. "The Old King (the mountain called Altkonig) is my brother; Olle (slang in German for _old_) or Holle, it is all the same, we are all relations in the Taunus, you must know!"

In front of the house was a dear little garden. The moonlight shone brightly on the flower-beds. The fairies were awake and peeped out with the greatest interest as the children entered.

Over the door was written in letters made of light, like those beautiful advertis.e.m.e.nts of beer and chocolate which so adorn the city of London by night:

THIS WAY TO FAIRYLAND.

Kathe felt that she was learning more in one night than in all her life before of that strange dream-world on the borders of which we live.

The house was so neat and tidy, that it looked as if it had just been spring-cleaned; the windows stood wide open, the moonlight streamed in.

A little table was laid for supper.

Frau Holle invited them to sit down and they did so at once.

Green Ears sat opposite to Kathe staring at her with a wistful expression of adoration and love in his eyes.

A chocolate pudding with cream and sugar and a bilberry jelly stood on the table, also rolls which were thickly b.u.t.tered and spread with various kinds of fairy sausage purely vegetarian in character. Mugs of delicious-looking milk were ready for each child.

But the supper reminded Kathe of her home and she felt a little uneasy.

However she had _at the bottom of all_ a comfortable feeling that all was right. This is the way with many of our self-imposed troubles, big people's as well as little people's. We groan and grumble, and express our views that everything is very wrong, and the world is soon going to the dogs, but _at the bottom of all_, we know that it is all right, and that all things work together for good.

Green Ears began to fidget; he was like a little girl I know, and _could_ not sit still for more than one minute.

"Frau Holle," he said, "Frau Holle, Gracious Lady, we want to get engaged."