little that they would only have
reached to my knee; they looked like men and women, but they were
better proportioned. They called themselves Elves, and their garments
were composed of the leaves of flowers, trimmed with the wings of
gnats and flies--not at all ugly. They seemed as if they were
searching for something--what I did not know; but when they came a
little nearer to me their leader tapped my sausage-stick, and said,
'This is what we want; it is all ready, all prepared;' and he became
more and more joyful as he gazed upon my walking-stick.

"'You may borrow it, but not keep it,' said I.

"'Not keep it!' they all exclaimed together, as they seized my
sausage-stick, and, dancing away to the green mossy spot, placed the
sausage-stick there in the centre of it. They determined also on
having a Maypole; and the stick they had just captured seeming quite
suited to their purpose, it was soon ornamented.

"Small spiders spun gold threads around it--hung up waving veils and
flags so finely worked, shining so snow-white under the moonbeams,
that my eyes were quite dazzled. They took the colours from the wings
of the butterflies, and sprinkled them on the white webs, till they
seemed to be laden with flowers and diamonds. I did not know my own
sausage-stick--it had become such a magnificent Maypole, that
certainly had not its equal in the world. And now came tripping
forwards the great mass of the elves, most of them very slightly
clad; but what they did wear was of the finest materials. I looked
on, of course, but in the background, for I was too big for them.

"Then what a game commenced! It was as if a thousand glass bells were
ringing, the sound was so clear and full. I fancied the swans were
singing, and I also thought I heard cuckoos and thrushes. At length it
seemed as if the whole wood was filled with music. There were the
sweet voices of children, the ringing of bells, and the songs of
birds; and all these melodious sounds seemed to proceed from the
elves' Maypole--an orchestra in itself--and that was my sausage-stick.
I never would have believed that so much could have come from it; but
much, of course, depended on what hands it fell into. I became very
much agitated, and I wept, as a little mouse can weep, from sheer
pleasure.

"The night was all too short; but, at this time of the year, the
nights are not long up yonder. At the dawn of day there arose a fresh
breeze; the surface of the lake became ruff