is short little nightgown, to the spinning wheel, and began to spin.
The thread flew from the wheel, and the wheel whirled faster and
faster. I kissed his fair hair and his blue eyes, it was such a pretty
picture.

"At that moment the mother awoke. The curtain shook, she looked forth,
and fancied she saw a gnome or some other kind of little spectre. 'In
Heaven's name!' she cried, and aroused her husband in a frightened
way. He opened his eyes, rubbed them with his hands, and looked at the
brisk little lad. 'Why, that is Bertel,' said he. And my eye quitted
the poor room, for I have so much to see. At the same moment I looked
at the halls of the Vatican, where the marble gods are enthroned. I
shone upon the group of the Laocoon; the stone seemed to sigh. I
pressed a silent kiss on the lips of the Muses, and they seemed to
stir and move. But my rays lingered longest about the Nile group with
the colossal god. Leaning against the Sphinx, he lies there thoughtful
and meditative, as if he were thinking on the rolling centuries; and
little love-gods sport with him and with the crocodiles. In the horn
of plenty sat with folded arms a little tiny love-god, contemplating
the great solemn river-god, a true picture of the boy at the spinning
wheel--the features were exactly the same. Charming and life-like
stood the little marble form, and yet the wheel of the year has turned
more than a thousand times since the time when it sprang forth from
the stone. Just as often as the boy in the little room turned the
spinning wheel had the great wheel murmured, before the age could
again call forth marble gods equal to those he afterwards formed.

"Years have passed since all this happened," the Moon went on to say.
"Yesterday I looked upon a bay on the eastern coast of Denmark.
Glorious woods are there, and high trees, an old knightly castle with
red walls, swans floating in the ponds, and in the background appears,
among orchards, a little town with a church. Many boats, the crews all
furnished with torches, glided over the silent expanse--but these
fires had not been kindled for catching fish, for everything had a
festive look. Music sounded, a song was sung, and in one of the boats
the man stood erect to whom homage was paid by the rest, a tall sturdy
man, wrapped in a cloak. He had blue eyes and long white hair. I knew
him, and thought of the Vatican, and of the group of the Nile, and
the old marble gods. I thought of the simple littl