orse, quivering in every limb, moaned piteously, as if in pain.
On came the steeds, until they almost touched the shore, then rearing,
they seemed about to spring on to it. The frightened dwarf turned his
head to fly, and as he did so he heard the twang of a golden harp, and
right before him who should he see but the little man of the hills,
holding a harp in one hand and striking the strings with the other.

"Are you ready to pay the price?" said he, nodding gayly to the dwarf.

As he asked the question, the listening water-steeds snorted more
furiously than ever.

"Are you ready to pay the price?" said the little man a second time.

A shower of spray, tossed on shore by the angry steeds, drenched the
dwarf to the skin, and sent a cold shiver to his bones, and he was so
terrified that he could not answer.

"For the third and last time, are you ready to pay the price?" asked the
fairy, as he flung the harp behind him and turned to depart.

When the dwarf saw him going he thought of the little princess in the
lonely moor, and his courage came back, and he answered bravely:

"Yes, I am ready."

The water-steeds, hearing his answer, and snorting with rage, struck the
shore with their pounding hoofs.

"Back to your waves!" cried the little harper; and as he ran his fingers
across his lyre, the frightened steeds drew back into the waters.

"What is the price?" asked the dwarf.

"Your right eye," said the fairy; and before the dwarf could say
a word, the fairy scooped out the eye with his finger, and put it
into his pocket.

The dwarf suffered most terrible agony; but he resolved to bear it for
the sake of the little princess. Then the fairy sat down on a rock at
the edge of the sea, and, after striking a few notes, he began to play
the "Strains of Slumber."

The sound crept along the waters, and the steeds, so ferocious a moment
before, became perfectly still. They had no longer any motion of their
own, and they floated on the top of the tide like foam before a breeze.

"Now," said the fairy, as he led the dwarf's horse to the edge of the
tide.

The dwarf urged the horse into the water, and once out of his depth, the
old horse struck out boldly for the island. The sleeping water-steeds
drifted helplessly against him, and in a short time he reached the
island safely, and he neighed joyously as his hoofs touched solid
ground.

The dwarf rode on and on, until he came to a bridle-path, and following
this, it