ugitives.
'Bring them to me, however you may find them, for have them I must!' he
said. So spake the old man, and the servants fled like the wind.

The runaways were crossing a great plain, when the maiden stopped.
'Something has happened!' she said. 'The ball moves in my hand, and
I'm sure we are being followed!' and behind them they saw a black cloud
flying before the wind. Then the maiden turned the ball thrice in her
hand, and cried,

'Listen to me, my ball, my ball.
Be quick and change me into a brook,
And my lover into a little fish.'

And in an instant there was a brook with a fish swimming in it. The
goblins arrived just after, but, seeing nobody, waited for a little,
then hurried home, leaving the brook and the fish undisturbed. When they
were quite out of sight, the brook and the fish returned to their usual
shapes and proceeded on their journey.

When the goblins, tired and with empty hands, returned, their master
inquired what they had seen, and if nothing strange had befallen them.

'Nothing,' said they; 'the plain was quite empty, save for a brook and a
fish swimming in it.'

'Idiots!' roared the master; 'of course it was they!' And dashing open
the door of the fifth stall, he told the goblins inside that they must
go and drink up the brook, and catch the fish. And the goblins jumped
up, and flew like the wind.

The young pair had almost reached the edge of the wood, when the maiden
stopped again. 'Something has happened,' said she. 'The ball is moving
in my hand,' and looking round she beheld a cloud flying towards them,
large and blacker than the first, and striped with red. 'Those are our
pursuers,' cried she, and turning the ball three times in her hand she
spoke to it thus:

'Listen to me, my ball, my ball.
Be quick and change us both.
Me into a wild rose bush,
And him into a rose on my stem.'

And in the twinkling of an eye it was done. Only just in time too, for
the goblins were close at hand, and looked round eagerly for the stream
and the fish. But neither stream nor fish was to be seen; nothing but a
rose bush. So they went sorrowing home, and when they were out of sight
the rose bush and rose returned to their proper shapes and walked all
the faster for the little rest they had had.

'Well, did you find them?' asked the old man when his goblins came back.

'No,' replied the leader of the goblins, 'we found