, sitting on a low
stool at his feet, gazed with wondering eyes now on the child sleeping
on the bed, and then at his father's face.

"Ay, wife," the wood-cutter began, speaking in the _Plattdeutsch_ used
by the dwellers in the Forest, "'tis a wonderful story I have to tell.
'Twas a big bit of work I had to finish to-day, first cutting and then
piling up the wood far in the Forest. I had worked hard, and was
wearying to be home with you and the children; but the last pile had to
be finished, and ere it was so the evening was darkening and the wind
was rising. So when the last log was laid I collected my things, and
putting on my blouse, set off at a quick pace for home. But remembering
I had a message to leave at the hut of Johann Schmidt, telling him to
meet me in the morning to fell a tree that had been marked for us by the
forester, I went round that way, which thou knowest leads deeper into
the Forest. Johann had just returned from his work, and after exchanging
a few words I turned homewards.

"The road I took was not my usual one, but though it led through a very
dark part of the Forest, I thought it was a shorter way. As I got on I
was surprised to see how dark it was. Glimpses of light, it is true,
were visible, and the trees assumed strange shapes, and the Forest
streams glistened here and there as the rising moon touched them
with its beams. But the gathering clouds soon obscured the faint
moonlight.--You will laugh, Hans, when I tell you that despite what I
have so often said to you about not believing in the woodland spirits,
that even your good Muetterchen believes in, my heart beat quicker as now
one, now another of the gnarled trunks of the lower trees presented the
appearance of some human form; but I would not let my fear master me, so
only whistled the louder to keep up my courage, and pushed on my way.

"The Forest grew darker and darker, and the wind began to make a wailing
sound in the tree-tops. A sudden fear came over me that I had missed my
way and was getting deeper into the Forest, and might not be able to
regain my homeward path till the morning dawned, when once more for a
few minutes the clouds parted and the moon shone out, feeble, no
doubt--for she is but in her first quarter--and her beams fell right
through an opening in the wood, and revealed the figure of a little
child seated at the foot of a fir tree. Alone in the Forest at that
time of night! My heart seemed to stand still, and I