fairy. I did not wish at first to ask for it. I will not take the wand
if it is of value to you, and I should be grieved to have it against
your will."
"Child," said the fairy, "you do not know our nature. I have said
whatever you wished should be yours. I cannot alter this decree; it
_must_ be so. Take my wand; and I entreat you to guard it
carefully, and never to give it away lest it should get into the hands
of my enemy; for if once it should, I shall become his miserable
little slave. Keep my wand with care; it is of no use to you, but in
the course of years it is possible I may be able to regain it, and on
Midsummer night I shall for a few hours return to my present shape,
and be able for a short time to talk with you again."
"Dear fairy," said little Hulda, weeping, and putting out her hand for
the wand, which the fairy held to her, "is there nothing else that I
can do for you?"
"Nothing, nothing," said the fairy, who had now become so transparent
and dim that they could scarcely see her; only the wings on her
shoulders remained, and their bright colors had changed to a dusky
brown. "I have long contended with my bitter enemy, the chief of the
tribe of the gnomes--the ill-natured, spiteful gnomes. Their desire is
as much to do harm to mortals as it is mine to do them good. If now he
should find me I shall be at his mercy. It was decreed long ages ago
that I should one day lose my wand, and it depends in some degree upon
you, little Hulda, whether I shall ever receive it again. Farewell."
And now nothing was visible but the wings: the fairy had changed into
a moth, with large brown wings freckled with dark eyes, and it stood
trembling upon the table, till at length, when the children had
watched it some time, it fluttered toward the window and beat against
the panes, as if it wished to be released, so they opened the casement
and let it out in the wind and cold.
Poor little thing! They were very sorry for it; but after a while they
nearly forgot it, for they were but children. Little Hulda only
remembered it, and she carefully enclosed the beautiful sceptre in a
small box. But Midsummer day passed by, and several other Midsummer
days, and still Hulda saw nothing and heard nothing of the fairy. She
then began to fear that she must be dead, and it was a long time since
she had looked at the wand, when one day in the middle of the Norway
summer, as she was playing in one of the deep bay windows of the
castle, she saw a pedlar with a pack on his back coming slowly up the
avenue of pine-trees, and singing a merry song.
"Can I speak to the lady of this castle?" he said to Hulda, making at
the same time a very low bow.
Hulda did not much like him, he had such restless black eyes and such
a cunning smile. His face showed that he was a foreigner; it was as
brown as a nut. His dress also was very strange; he wore a red turban,
and had large earrings in his ears, and silver chains wound round and
round his ankles.
Hulda replied that her mother was gone to the fair at Christiania, and
would not be back for several days.
"Can I then speak with the lord of the castle?" asked the pedlar.
"My father is gone out to fish in the fiord," replied little Hulda;
"he will not return for some time, and the maids and the men are all
gone to make hay in the fields; there is no one left at home but me
and my old nurse."
The pedlar was very much delighted to hear this. However, he pretended
to be disappointed.
"It is very unfortunate," he said, "that your honored parents are not
at home, for I have got some things here of such wonderful beauty that
nothing could have given them so much pleasure as to have feasted
their eyes with the sight of them--rings, bracelets, lockets,
pictures--in short, there is nothing beautiful that I have not got in
my pack, and if your parents could have seen them they would have
given all the money they had in the world rather than not have bought
some of them."
"Good pedlar," said little Hulda, "could you not be so very kind as
just to let me have a sight of them?"
The pedlar at first pretended to be unwilling, but after he had looked
all across the wide heath and seen that there was no one coming, and
that the hounds by the doorway were fast asleep in the sun, and the
very pigeons on the roof had all got their heads under their wings, he
ventured to step across the threshold into the bay window, and begin
to open his pack and display all his fine things, taking care to set
them out in the sunshine, which made them glitter like glowworms.
Little Hulda had never seen anything half so splendid before. There
were little glasses set round with diamonds, and hung with small
tinkling bells which made delightful music whenever they were shaken;
ropes of pearls which had a more fragrant scent than bean-fields or
hyacinths; rings, the precious stones of which changed color as you
frowned or smiled upon them; silver boxes that could play tunes;
pictures of beautiful ladies and gentlemen, set with emeralds, with
devices in coral at the back; little golden snakes, with brilliant
eyes that would move about; and so many other rare and splendid jewels
that Hulda was quite dazzled, and stood looking at them with blushing
cheeks and a beating heart, so much she wished that she might have one
of them.
"Well, young lady," said the cunning pedlar, "how do you find these
jewels? Did I boast too much of their beauty?"
"Oh, no!" said Hulda, "I did not think there had been anything so
beautiful in the world. I did not think even our queen had such fine
jewels as these. Thank you, pedlar, for the sight of them."
"Will you buy something, then, of a poor man?" answered the pedlar.
"I've travelled a great distance, and not sold anything this many a
day."
"I should be very glad to buy," said little Hulda, "but I have
scarcely any money; not half the price of one of these jewels, I am
sure."
Now there was lying on the table an ancient signet-ring set with a
large opal.
"Maybe the young lady would not mind parting with this?" said he,
taking it up. "I could give her a new one for it of the latest
fashion."
"Oh, no, thank you!" cried Hulda, hastily, "I must not do so. This
ring is my mother's, and was left her by my grandmother."
The pedlar looked disappointed. However, he put the ring down, and
said, "But if my young lady has no money, perhaps she has some old
trinkets or toys that she would not mind parting with--a coral and
bells, or a silver mug, or a necklace, or, in short, anything that she
keeps put away, and that is of no use to her?"
"No," said the little girl, "I don't think I have got anything of the
kind. Oh, yes! to be sure, I have got somewhere up-stairs a little
gold wand, which I was told not to give away; but I'm afraid she who
gave it me must have been dead a long while, and it is of no use
keeping it any longer."
Now this pedlar was the fairy's enemy. He had long suspected that the
wand must be concealed somewhere in that region, and near the sea, and
he had disguised himself, and gone out wandering among the farmhouses
and huts and castles to try if he could hear some tidings of it, and
get it if possible into his power. The moment he heard Hulda mention
her gold wand, he became excessively anxious to see it. He was a
gnome, and when his malicious eyes gleamed with delight they shot out
a burning ray, which scorched the hound who was lying asleep close at
hand, and he sprang up and barked at him.
"Peace, peace, Rhan!" cried little Hulda; "lie down, you unmannerly
hound!" The dog shrank back again growling, and the pedlar said in a
careless tone to Hulda:
"Well, lady, I have no objection just to look at the little gold wand,
and see if it is worth anything."
"But I am not sure that I could part with it," said Hulda.
"Very well," replied the pedlar, "as you please; but I may as well
look at it. I should hope these beautiful things need not go begging."
As he spoke he began carefully to lock up some of the jewels in their
little boxes, as if he meant to go away.
"Oh, don't go," cried Hulda. "I am going upstairs to fetch my wand. I
shall not be long; pray wait for me."
Nothing was further from the pedlar's thought than to go away, and
while little Hulda was running up to look for the wand he panted so
hard for fear that after all he might not be able to get it that he
woke the other hound, who came up to him, and smelt his leg.
"What sort of a creature is this?" said the old hound to his
companion, speaking, of course, in the dogs' language.
"I'm sure I can't say," answered the other. "I wonder what he is made
of,--he smells of mushrooms! quite earthy, I declare! as if he had
lived underground all his life."
"Let us stand one on each side of him, and watch that he doesn't steal
anything."
So the two dogs stood staring at him; but the pedlar was too cunning
for them. He looked out of the window, and said, "I think I see the
master coming," upon which they both turned to look across the heath,
and the pedlar snatched up the opal ring, and hid it in his vest. When
they turned around he was folding up his trinkets again as calmly as
possible. "One cannot be too careful to count one's goods," he said,
gravely. "Honest people often get cheated in houses like these, and
honest as these two dogs look, I know where one of them hid that
leg-of-mutton bone that he stole yesterday!" Upon hearing this the
dogs sneaked under the table ashamed of themselves. "I would not have
it on my conscience that I robbed my master for the best bone in the
world," continued the pedlar, and as he said this he took up a little
silver horn belonging to the lord of the castle, and, having tapped it
with his knuckle to see whether the metal was pure, folded it up in
cotton, and put it in his pack with the rest of his curiosities.
Presently Hulda came down with a little box in her hand, out of which
she took the fairy's wand.
The pedlar was so transported at the sight of it that he could
scarcely conceal his joy; but he knew that unless he could get it by
fair means it would be of no use to him.
"How dim it looks!" said little Hulda; "the stones used to be so very
bright when first I had it."
"Ah! that is a sign that the person who gave it you is dead," said the
deceitful pedlar.
"I am sorry to hear she is dead," said Hulda, with a sigh. "Well,
then, pedlar, as that is the case, I will part with the wand if you
can give me one of your fine bracelets instead of it."
The pedlar's hand trembled with anxiety, as he held it out for the
wand, but the moment he had got possession of it all his politeness
vanished.
"There," he said, "you have got a very handsome bracelet in your hand.
It is worth a great deal more than the wand. You may keep it. I have
no time to waste; I must be gone." So saying, he hastily snatched up
the rest of his jewels, thrust them into his pack, and slung it over
his shoulder, leaving Hulda looking after him with the bracelet in her
hand. She saw him walk rapidly along the heath till he came to a
gravel-pit, very deep, and with overhanging sides. He swung himself
over by the branches of the trees.
"What can he be going to do there?" she said to herself. "But I will
run after him, for I don't like this bracelet half so well as some of
the others."
So Hulda ran till she came to the edge of the gravel-pit, but was so
much surprised that she could not say a word. There were the great
footmarks made by the pedlar down the steep sides of the pit; and at
the bottom she saw him sitting in the mud, digging a hole with his
hands.
"Hi!" he said, putting his head down. "Some of you come up. I've got
the wand at last. Come and help me down with my pack."
"I'm coming," answered a voice, speaking under the ground; and
presently up came a head, all covered with earth, through the hole the
pedlar had made. It was shaggy with hair, and had two little bright
eyes, like those of a mole. Hulda thought she had never seen such a
curious little man. He was dressed in brown clothes, and had a
red-peaked cap on his head; and he and the pedlar soon laid the pack
at the bottom of the hole, and began to stamp upon it, dancing and
singing with great vehemence. As they went on the pack sank lower and
lower, till at last, as they still stood upon it, Hulda could see only
their heads and shoulders. In a little time longer she could only see
the top of the red cap; and then the two little men disappeared
altogether, and the ground closed over them, and the white nettles and
marsh marigolds waved their heads over the place as if nothing had
happened.
Hulda walked away sadly and slowly. She looked at the beautiful
bracelet, and wished she had not parted with the wand for it, for she
now began to fear that the pedlar had deceived her. Nevertheless, who
would not be delighted to have such a fine jewel? It consisted of a
gold hoop, set with turquoise, and on the clasp was a beautiful bird,
with open wings, all made of gold, and which quivered as Hulda carried
it. Hulda looked at its bright eyes--ruby eyes, which sparkled in the
sunshine--and at its crest, all powdered with pearls, and she forgot
her regret.
"My beautiful bird!" she said, "I will not hide you in a dark box, as
the pedlar did. I will wear you on my wrist, and let you see all my
toys, and you shall be carried every day into the garden, that the
flowers may see how elegant you are. But stop! I think I see a little
dust on your wings. I must rub it off." So saying, Hulda took up her
frock and began gently rubbing the bird's wings, when, to her utter
astonishment, it opened its pretty beak and sang:
"My master, oh, my master,
The brown hard-hearted gnome,
He goes down faster, faster,
To his dreary home.
Little Hulda sold her
Golden wand for me,
Though the fairy told her
That must never be--
Never--she must never
Let the treasure go.
Ah! lost forever,
Woe! woe! woe!"
The bird sang in such a sorrowful voice, and fluttered its golden
wings so mournfully, that Hulda wept.
"Alas! alas!" she said, "I have done very wrong. I have lost the wand
forever! Oh, what shall I do, dear little bird? Do tell me."
But the bird did not sing again, and it was now time to go to bed. The
old nurse came out to fetch Hulda. She had been looking all over the
castle for her, and been wondering where she could have hidden
herself.
In Norway, at midsummer, the nights are so short that the sun only
dips under the hills time enough to let one or two stars peep out
before he appears again. The people, therefore, go to bed in the broad
sunlight.
"Child," said the old nurse, "look how late you are--it is nearly
midnight. Come, it is full time for bed. This is Midsummer day."
"Midsummer day!" repeated Hulda. "Ah, how sorry I am! Then this is a
day when I might have seen the fairy. How very, very foolish I have
been!"
Hulda laid her beautiful bracelet upon a table in her room, where she
could see it, and kissed the little bird before she got into bed. She
had been asleep a long time when a little sobbing voice suddenly awoke
her, and she sat up to listen. The house was perfectly still; her cat
was curled up at the door, fast asleep; her bird's head was under its
wing; a long sunbeam was slanting down through an opening in the green
window-curtain, and the motes danced merrily in it.
"What could that noise have been?" said little Hulda, lying down
again. She had no sooner laid her head on the pillow than she heard it
again; and, turning round quickly to look at the bracelet, she saw the
little bird fluttering its wings, and close to it, with her hands
covering her face, the beautiful, long lost fairy.
"Oh, fairy, fairy! what have I done!" said Hulda. "You will never see
your wand again. The gnome has got it, and he has carried it down
under the ground, where he will hide it from us forever."
The fairy could not look up, nor answer. She remained weeping, with
her hands before her till the little golden bird began to chirp.
"Sing to us again, I pray you, beautiful bird!" said Hulda; "for you
are not friendly to the gnome. I am sure you are sorry for the poor
fairy."
"Child," said the fairy, "be cautious what you say--that gnome is my
enemy; he disguised himself as a pedlar the better to deceive you, and
now he has got my wand he can discover where I am; he will be
constantly pursuing me, and I shall have no peace; if once I fall into
his hands, I shall be his slave forever. The bird is not his friend,
for the race of gnomes have no friends. Speak to it again, and see if
it will sing to you, for you are its mistress."
"Sing to me, sweet bird," said Hulda, in a caressing tone, and the
little bird quivered its wings and bowed its head several times; then
it opened its beak and sang:
"Where's the ring?
Oh the ring, my master stole the ring,
And he holds it while I sing,
In the middle of the world.
Where's the ring?
Where the long green Lizard curled
All its length, and made a spring
Fifty leagues along.
There he stands,
With his brown hands,
And sings to the Lizard a wonderful song.
And he gives the white stone to that Lizard fell,
For he fears it--and loves it parsing well."
"What!" said Hulda, "did the pedlar steal my mother's ring--that old
opal ring which I told him I could not let him have?"
"Child," replied the fairy, "be not sorry for his treachery; this
theft I look to for my last hope for recovering the wand."
"How so?" asked Hulda.
"It is a common thing among mortals," replied the fairy, "to say the
thing which is not true, and do the thing which is not honest; but
among the other races of beings who inhabit this world the penalty of
mocking and imitating the vices of you, the superior race, is, that if
ever one of us can be convicted of it, that one, be it gnome, sprite,
or fairy, is never permitted to appear in the likeness of humanity
again, nor to walk about on the face of the land which is your
inheritance. Now the gnomes hate one another, and if it should be
discovered by the brethren of this my enemy that he stole the opal
ring, they will not fail to betray him. There is, therefore, no doubt,
little Hulda, that he carries both the ring and the wand about with
him wherever he goes, and if in all your walks and during your whole
life you should see him again, and go boldly up to him and demand the
stolen stone, he will be compelled instantly to burrow his way down
again into the earth, and leave behind him all his ill-gotten gains."
"There is, then, still some hope," said Hulda, in a happier voice;
"but where, dear fairy, have you hidden yourself so long?"
"I have passed a dreary time," replied the fairy. "I have been
compelled to leave Europe and fly across to Africa, for my enemy
inhabits that great hollow dome which is the centre of the earth, and
he can only come up in Europe; but my poor little brown wings were
often so weary in my flight across the sea that I wished, like the
birds, I could drop into the waves and die; for what was to me the use
of immortality when I could no longer soothe the sorrow of mortals?
But I cannot die; and after I had fluttered across into Egypt, where
the glaring light of the sun almost blinded me, I was thankful to find
a ruined tomb or temple underground, where great marble sarcophagi
were ranged around the walls, and where in the dusky light I could
rest from my travels, in a place where I only knew the difference
between night and day by the redness of the one sunbeam which stole in
through a crevice, and the silvery blue of the moonbeam that succeeded
it.
"In that temple there was no sound but the rustling of the bat's wings
as they flew in before dawn, or sometimes the chirping of a swallow
which had lost its way, and was frightened to see all the grim marble
faces gazing at it. But the quietness did me good, and I waited,
hoping that the young King of Sweden would marry, and that an heir
would be born to him (for I am a Swedish fairy), and then I should
recover my liberty according to an ancient statute of the fairy realm,
and my wand would also come again into my possession; but alas! he is
dead, and the reason you see me to-day is, that, like the rest of my
race, I am come to strew leaves on his grave and recount his virtues.
I must now return, for the birds are stirring; I hear the cows lowing
to be milked, and the maids singing as they go out with their pails.
Farewell, little Hulda; guard well the bracelet; I must to my ruined
temple again. Happy for me will be the day when you see my enemy (if
that day ever comes); the bird will warn you of his neighborhood by
pecking your hand.
"One moment stay, dear fairy," said Hulda. "Where am I most likely to
see the gnome?"
"In the south," replied the fairy, "for they love hot sunshine. I can
stay no longer. Farewell."
So saying, the fairy again became a moth and fluttered to the window.
Little Hulda opened it, the brown moth settled for a moment upon her
lips as if it wished to kiss her, and then it flew out into the
sunshine, away and away.
Little Hulda watched her till her pretty wings were lost in the blue
distance; then she turned and took her bracelet, and put it on her
wrist, where, from that day forward, she always wore it night and day.
Hulda now grew tall, and became a fair young maiden, and she often
wished for the day when she might go down to the south, that she might
have a better chance of seeing the cruel gnome, and as she sat at work
in her room alone she often asked the bird to sing to her, but he
never sang any other songs than the two she had heard at first.
And now two full years had passed away, and it was again the height of
the Norway summer, but the fairy had not made her appearance.
As the days began to shorten, Hulda's cheeks lost their bright color,
and her steps their merry lightness; she became pale and wan. Her
parents were grieved to see her change so fast, but they hoped, as the
weary winter came on, that the cheerful fire and gay company would
revive her; but she grew worse and worse, till she could scarcely walk
alone through the rooms where she had played so happily, and all the
physicians shook their heads and said, "Alas! alas! the lord and lady
of the castle may well look sad: nothing can save their fair daughter,
and before the spring comes she will sink into an early grave."
The first yellow leaves now began to drop, and showed that winter was
near at hand.
"My sweet Hulda," said her mother to her one day, as she was lying
upon a couch looking out into the sunshine, "is there anything you can
think of that would do you good, or any place we can go to that you
think might revive you?"
"I had only one wish," replied Hulda, "but that, dear mother, I cannot
have."
"Why not, dear child?" said her father. "Let us hear what your wish
was."
"I wished that before I died I might be able to go into the south and
see that wicked pedlar, that if possible I might repair the mischief I
had done to the fairy by restoring her the wand."
"Does she wish to go into the south?" said the physicians. "Then it
will be as well to indulge her, but nothing can save her life; and if
she leaves her native country she will return to it no more."
"I am willing to go," said Hulda, "for the fairy's sake."
So they put her on a pillion, and took her slowly on to the south by
short distances, as she could bear it. And as she left the old castle,
the wind tossed some yellow leaves against her, and then whirled them
away across the heath to the forest. Hulda said:
"Yellow leaves, yellow leaves,
Whither away?
Through the long wood paths
How fast do ye stray!"
The yellow leaves answered:
"We go to lie down
Where the spring snowdrops grow,
Their young roots to cherish
Through frost and through snow."
Then Hulda said again to the leaves:
"Yellow leaves, yellow leaves,
Faded and few,
What will the spring flowers
Matter to you?"
And the leaves said:
"We shall not see them,
When gaily they bloom,
But sure they will love us
For guarding their tomb."
Then Hulda said:
"The yellow leaves are like me: I am going away from my place for the
sake of the poor fairy, who now lies hidden in the dark Egyptian ruin;
but if I am so happy as to recover her wand by my care, she will come
back glad and white, like the snowdrops when winter is over, and she
will love my memory when I am laid asleep in my tomb."
So they set out on their journey, and every day went a little distance
toward the south, till at last, on Christmas Eve, they came to an
ancient city at the foot of a range of mountains.
"What a strange Christmas this is!" said Hulda, when she looked out
the next morning. "Let us stay here, mother, for we are far enough to
the south. Look how the red berries hang on yonder tree, and these
myrtles on the porch are fresh and green, and a few roses bloom still
on the sunny side of the window."