it was on a dreary winter's night, just such a one as it may be now—only you cannot see it for your closed shutters and curtains—that two children were coming home from their daily work, for their parents were poor, and arndt and reutha had already to use their little hands in labour. they were very tired, and as they came across the moor the wind blew in their faces, and the distant roaring of the baltic sea, on whose shore they lived, sounded gloomy and terrible.
"dear arndt, let me sit down and rest for a minute, i can go no farther," said reutha, as she sank down on a little mound that seemed to rise up invitingly, with its shelter of bushes, from the midst of the desolate moor.
the elder brother tried to encourage his little sister, as all kind brothers should do; he even tried to carry her a little way; but she was too heavy for him, and they went back to the mound. just then the moon came out, and the little hillock looked such a nice resting-place, that reutha longed more than ever to stay. it was not a cold night, so arndt was not afraid; and at last he wrapped his sister up in her woollen cloak, and she sat down.
"i will just run a little farther and try if i can see the light in father's window," said arndt. "you will not be afraid, reutha?"
"oh, no! i am never afraid."
"and you will not go to sleep?"
"not i," said reutha; and all the while she rubbed her eyes to keep them open, and leaned her head against a branch which seemed to her as soft and inviting as a pillow.
arndt went a little way, until he saw the light which his father always placed so as to guide the children over the
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moor. then he felt quite safe and at home, and went back cheerfully to his sister.
reutha was not there! beside the little mound and among the bushes did poor arndt search in terror, but he could not find his sister. he called her name loudly—there was no answer. not a single trace of her could be found; and yet he had not been five minutes away.
"oh! what shall i do?" sobbed the boy; "i dare not go home without reutha!" and there for a long time did arndt sit by the hillock, wringing his hands and vainly expecting that his sister would hear him and come back. at last there passed by an old man, who travelled about the country selling ribbons and cloths.
"how you are grown since i saw you last, my little fellow!" said the man. "and where is your sister reutha?"
arndt burst into tears, and told his friend of all that had happened that night. the peddler's face grew graver and graver as the boy told him it was on this very spot that he lost his little sister.
"arndt," whispered he, "did you ever hear of the hill-men? it is they who have carried little reutha away."
and then the old man told how in his young days he had heard strange tales of this same moor; for that the little mound was a fairy-hill, where the underground dwarfs lived, and where they often carried off young children to be their servants, taking them under the hill, and only leaving behind their shoes. "for," said the peddler, "the hill-people are very particular, and will make all their servants wear beautiful glass shoes instead of clumsy leather."
so he and arndt searched about the hill, and there, sure enough, they found reutha's tiny shoes hidden under the long grass. at this her brother's tears burst forth afresh.
"oh! what shall i do to bring back my poor sister? the hill-men and women will kill her!"
"no," said the old man, "they are very good little people, and they live in a beautiful palace underground. truly, you will never see reutha again, for they will keep her with them a
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hundred years; and when she comes back you will be dead and buried, while she is still a beautiful child."
and then, to comfort the boy, the peddler told him wonderful stories of the riches and splendour of the hill-people, how that sometimes they had been seen dancing at night on the mounds, and how they wore green caps, which, if any mortal man could get possession of, the dwarfs were obliged to serve him and obey him in everything. all this arndt drank in with eager ears; and when the peddler went away he sat a long time thinking.
"i will do it," at last he said aloud. "i will try to get my dear reutha safe back again."
and the boy stole noiselessly to the mound which the hill-men were supposed to inhabit. he hid himself among the surrounding bushes, and there he lay in the silence and darkness, his young heart beating wildly, and only stilled by one thought that lay ever there, that of the lost reutha. at last a sudden brightness flashed upon the boy's eyes; it could not be the moon, for she had long set. no; but it was a sight more glorious than arndt had ever dreamed of.
the grassy hill opened, and through this aperture the boy saw a palace underground, glittering with gold and gems. the hill-men danced about within it, dressed like tiny men and women. arndt thought how beautiful they were, though they seemed no bigger than his own baby sister of six months old. one by one they rose out of the opening, and gambolled on the snow-covered mound; but wherever they trod flowers sprang up, and the air grew light and warm as summer. after a while they ceased dancing and began ball-playing, tossing their little green caps about in great glee. and lo and behold! one of these wonderful caps, being tossed farther than usual, lighted on the very forehead of the peeping boy!
in a moment he snatched it and held it fast, with a cry of triumph. the light faded—the scene vanished—only arndt heard a small weak voice whispering, humbly and beseechingly in his ear.
"please, noble gentleman, give me my cap again."
"no, no, good hill-man," answered the courageous boy;
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"you have got my little sister, and i have got your cap, which i shall keep."
"i will give you a better cap for it—all gold and jewels—oh, so beautiful!" said the hill-man, persuasively.
"i will not have it. what good would it do me? no, no, i am your master, good dwarf, as you very well know, and i command you to take me down in the hill with you, for i want to see reutha."
there shone a dim light on the grass, like a glowworm, and then arndt saw the elfin mound open again; but this time the palace looked like a dim, gloomy staircase. on the top stair stood the little hill-man, holding the glowworm lamp, and making many low bows to his new master. arndt glanced rather fearfully down the staircase; but then he thought of reutha, and his love for her made him grow bold. he took upon himself a lordly air, and bade his little servant lead the way.
the hill-man took him through beautiful galleries, and halls, and gardens, until the boy's senses were intoxicated with these lovely things. every now and then he stopped, and asked for reutha: but then there was always some new chamber to be seen, or some dainty banquet to be tasted; until, by degrees, arndt's memory of his little sister grew dimmer, and he revelled in the delights of the fairy palace hour after hour. when night came—if so it could be called in that lovely place, where night was only day shadowed over and made more delicious—the boy felt himself lulled by sweet music to a soft dreaminess, which was all the sleep that was needed in that fairy paradise.
thus, day after day passed in all gay delights, the elfin people were the merriest in the world, and they did all their little master desired. and arndt knew not that while they surrounded him with delights it was only to make him forget his errand. but one day, when the boy lay on a green dell in the lovely fairy-garden, he heard a low, wailing song, and saw a troop of little mortal children at work in the distance. some were digging ore, and others making jewellery, while a few stood in the stream that ran by, beating linen, as it seemed. and among
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these poor little maidens, who worked so hard and sang so mournfully, was his own sister reutha.
"no one cares for me," she murmured; and her song had in it a plaintive sweetness, very different from the way in which the little danish maiden spoke on earth. "reutha is alone—her hands are sore with toil—her feet bleed—but no one pities her. arndt sleeps in gorgeous clothes, while reutha toils in rags. arndt is the master—reutha is the slave! poor reutha is quite alone!"
even amidst the spells of fairyland that voice went to the brother's heart. he called the hill-people, and bade them bring reutha to him. then he kissed her, and wept over her, and dressed her in his own beautiful robes, while the hill-men dared not interfere. arndt took his sister by the hand, and said—
"now, let us go; we have stayed long enough. good hill-man, you shall have your cap again when you have brought reutha and me to our own father's door."
but the hill-man shook his tiny head, and made his most obsequious bow. "noble master, anything but this! this little maid we found asleep on our hill, and she is ours for a hundred years."
here arndt got into a passion; for, convinced of the power the little green cap gave him over the dwarfs, he had long lost all fear of them. he stamped with his foot until the little man leaped up a yard high, and begged his master to be more patient.
"how dare you keep my sister? you ugly little creatures!" cried the boy, his former pleasant companion becoming at once hateful to him. but the hill-people only gave him gentle answers; until at last he grew ashamed of being so angry with such tiny creatures. they led him to a palace, more beautiful than any he had yet seen, and showed him pearls and diamonds heaped up in basketfuls.
"you shall take all these away with you, noble sir!" said his little servant. "they will make you a rich man all the days of your life, and you will live in a palace as fine as ours. is not that far better than having a poor helpless sister to work for?"
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but arndt caught a glimpse of reutha, as she sat outside; weeping—she dared not enter with him—and he kicked the baskets over, and scattered the jewels like so many pebbles.
"keep all your treasures, and give me my sister!" cried he.
then the hill-man tried him with something else. arndt was a very handsome boy and everybody had told him so, until he was rather vain. many a time, when he worked in the field, he used to look at himself in a clear, still pool, and think how golden his hair was, and how lithe and graceful his figure. now the hill-man knew all this; and so he led the boy to a crystal mirror and showed him his own beautiful form, set off with every advantage of rich dress. and then, by fairy spells, arndt saw beside it the image of the little peasant as he was when he entered the hill.
"think how different!" whispered the dwarf. he breathed on the mirror, and the boy saw himself as he would be when he grew up—a hard-working, labouring man; and opposite, the semblance of a young, graceful nobleman, whose face was the same which the stream had often told him was his own.
"we can make thee always thus handsome. choose which thou wilt be," murmured the tempting voice.
the boy hesitated; but the same moment came that melancholy voice—"my brother is rich, and i am poor; he is clad in silk, and i in rags. alas, for me!"
"it shall not be!" cried the noble boy. "i will go out of this place as poor as i came; but i will take reutha with me. i will work all the days of my life; but reutha shall not stay here. hill-people! i want none of your treasures; but i command you to give me my sister, and let us go!"
arndt folded his arms around reutha, and walked with her through all the gorgeous rooms, the hill-men and women following behind, and luring him with their sweetest songs and most bewitching smiles. but reutha's voice and reutha's smile had greatest power of all over her brother's heart.
they climbed the gloomy staircase, and stood at the opening in the hillock. then the little hill-man appealed once more to his master
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—
"noble gentleman! remember, a life of labour with reutha or one of continual pleasure alone! think again!"
"no, not for a moment," said arndt, as he felt the breezes of earth playing on his cheek. how sweet they were, even after the fragrant airs of elfin-land!
"at least, kind master, give me my cap!" piteously implored the hill-man.
"take it; and good-bye for evermore!" cried arndt, as he clasped his sister in his arms and leaped out. the chasm closed, and the two children found themselves lying in a snow-drift, with the gray dawn of a winter's morning just breaking over them.
"where have you been all night, my children?" cried the anxious mother, as they knocked at the door.
had it, indeed, been only a single night, the months that seemed to have passed while they were under the hill? they could not tell, for they were now like all other children, and their wisdom learned in fairyland had passed away. it seemed only a dream, save that the brother and sister loved each other better than ever, and so they continued to do as long as they lived.
