ou. It is lucky that you have run about so much and
are so thin, otherwise you might stick fast on the way. Now pay
attention. This pool drains itself, through a passage under the mountain,
into the lake. I shall swim in front of you until we come to the big
basin into which the springs of these mountains empty their waters. After
that I must keep to the right, in order to get back into the lake, but
you must take the left passage, and let the current carry you along for
an hour, when it will join the head of the great Vitale river, and flow
out into the open air. Continue with the stream until it turns towards
the east, then you must climb over the mountains, and keep ever
northwards. Hold your hand under my mouth that I may give you money for
your journey."

George did as he was bid, and the fish poured forty shining groschen into
his hand. Each one of them would pay for a day's nourishment and a
night's lodging.

The fish then dived under, George plunged after it into the pool, and
followed the shimmering light that emanated from his scaly guide.
Sometimes the rocky passages, through which he crawled on his stomach in
shallow water, became so small that he bumped his head, and had to press
his shoulders together in order to pass, and often he thought that he
would stick fast among the rocks, like a hatchet in a block of wood. He
always managed to free himself, however, and finally reached the big
basin, where a crowd of maidens with green hair and scaly tails were
sporting, and they invited him to come and play tag with them. But the
fish advised him not to stop with the idle hussies, and then parted from
him.

George was alone once more, and he let himself be borne along on the
rushing subterranean stream. At length it poured out into the open air,
as the Vitale river, and the boy fell with it over a wall of rock into a
large pool surrounded by thick greenery. There was a great splash, the
trout were frightened to death, a dog began to bark, and a shepherd, who
was sitting on the bank, sprang up, for the coloured bundle that had just
shot over the falls, now arose from the water and bore the form of a
pretty boy of thirteen years.

This apparition soon stood before him, puffing, and dripping, and
regarding, with greedy eyes, the bread and cheese which the old man was
eating. The shepherd was very, very old, and deaf, but he understood the
language of the boy's eyes, and as he had just milked the goats, he held