accept a single thing they offer you.
If you get so far as this without speaking, elf-women come to you in the
likeness of your mother, your sister, or any other relation, and beg you
to come with them, using every art and entreaty; but beware you neither
move nor speak. And if you can continue to keep silent and motionless
all the night, until you see the first streak of dawn, then start up and
cry aloud, "Praise be to God! His daylight filleth the heavens!"

As soon as you have said this, the elves will leave you, and with you
all the wealth they have used to entice you, which will now be yours.

But should you either answer, or accept of their offers, you will from
that moment become mad.

On the night of one Christmas Eve, a man named Fusi was out on the
cross-roads, and managed to resist all the entreaties and proffers of
the elves, until one of them offered him a large lump of mutton-suet,
and begged him to take a bite of it. Fusi, who had up to this time
gallantly resisted all such offers as gold and silver and diamonds and
such filthy lucre, could hold out no longer, and crying, "Seldom have I
refused a bite of mutton-suet," he went mad.

ERNST MORITZ ARNDT

(1769-1860)

Sprung from the sturdy peasant stock of the north, to which patriotism
is a chief virtue, Ernst Moritz Arndt first saw the light at Schoritz,
Island of Ruegen (then a dependency of Sweden), December 29th, 1769. His
father, once a serf, had achieved a humble independence, and he destined
his clever son for the ministry, the one vocation open to him which
meant honor and advancement. The young man studied theology at
Greifswald and Jena, but later turned his attention exclusively to
history and literature. His early life is delightfully described in his
'Stories and Recollections of Childhood.' His youth was molded by the
influence of Goethe, Klopstock, Buerger, and Voss. After completing his
university studies he traveled extensively in Austria, Hungary, and
Northern Italy. His account of these journeys, published in 1802, shows
his keen observation of men and affairs.

[Illustration: ERNST ARNDT]

He began his long service to his country by his 'History of Serfdom in
Pomerania and Sweden,' which contributed largely to the general
abolition of the ancient abuse. He became professor of history in the
University of Greifswald in 1806, and about that time began to publish
the first series of the 'Spirit of the Times.' These were st