ll its colours
around the tops of the trees.

"For some time did travellers in the Spessart hear a hollow and
ghost-like voice, behind the rocks and thick groups of trees, utter
rhymes, which to some sounded like nonsense, to others like perfect
wisdom. If they followed the sound, they found the old man, whose
years were yet so few, as with faded eyes, and hands resting on his
knees, he looked fixedly in the distance, and uttered sentences, none
of which have been preserved. Soon, however, they were heard no more,
neither was the corpse of the old man discovered.

"Conrad married his Emma; she bore him fair children, and he lived
happily with her to an advanced age."

J. O.

[1] One of the most celebrated poets in the 12th and 13th centuries.

[2] The old word for "lore" _Minne_, from which "Minnesinger" is
derived, is feminine.

NOSE, THE DWARF.

BY W. HAUFF.

[This story is from the collection called "The Sheik of Alexandria and
his Slaves," and is supposed to be told by a slave to the Sheik.]

Sir, those people are much mistaken who fancy that there were no
fairies and enchanters, except in the time of Haroun Al Raschid, Lord
of Bagdad, or even pronounce untrue those accounts of the deeds of
genii and their princes, which one hears the story-tellers relate in
the market-places of the town. There are fairies now-a-days, and it is
but a short time since that I myself was witness of an occurrence in
which genii were evidently playing a part, as you will see from my
narrative. In a considerable town of my dear fatherland, Germany,
there lived many years ago a cobbler, with his wife, in an humble but
honest way. In the daytime he used to sit at the corner of a street
mending shoes and slippers; he did not refuse making new ones if any
body would trust him, but then he was obliged to buy the leather first,
as his poverty did not enable him to keep a stock. His wife sold
vegetables and fruit, which she cultivated in a small garden outside
the town-gates, and many people were glad to buy of her, because she
was dressed cleanly and neatly, and knew well how to arrange and lay
out her things to the best advantage.

Now this worthy couple had a beautiful boy, of a sweet countenance,
well made, and rather tall for his age, which was eight years. He was
in the habit of sitting in the market with his mother, and often
carried home part of the fruit and vegetables for the women and cooks
who had mad