very fond of climbing
herself when she was a child.

They wore old serge skirts and jerseys that they could not spoil.

This tree made a splendid arbour, or house with a suite of rooms.
Lottchen sat up in the branches like a little bird, and like a little
bird she sang all the songs she knew. From this tree you could see the
mountain called the Stellerskuppe and the blue sky through the
tree-stems on the summit. At sunset time, the sky behind the trees
turned a golden colour, till it looked like a picture of fairyland.

It was a fine view, but still you could not see from here the famous
oak-tree, where the little green tree man lived. This was ten minutes'
walk from the farm.

Trudel and Lottchen saw him first on a wet day when they had set out for
a walk in spite of the rain, with their green waterproof cloaks on with
hoods over their heads, looking for all the world like wood-goblins
themselves. They were walking down a narrow green path, and mother was
some distance behind.

"Do just look, Trudel," said Lottchen. "I believe there is a little man
in that hollow tree!"

"So there is, he is smiling and bowing to us, let's go and visit him,"
said Trudel, always enterprising.

Lottchen hung back, feeling a little afraid; she was always on the
look-out for the unexpected, and yet was surprised when something really
happened.

"Come along, darling," said Trudel, grasping her smaller sister by the
hand.

They both distinctly saw the little man; they said they could have drawn
him afterwards, and indeed they attempted to do so as well as they
could. But as they approached the venerable oak, the little man
vanished, and all they saw was a strange green stain on the inside of
the tree, resembling a dwarf with a peaked hood on.

"Just look at this Gothic window," said Lottchen, proud of her knowledge
of the word "Gothic." "How nicely this tree-room is carved. I am sure
_he_ lives here; where are his little chairs and tables? I should love
to see them."

They peeped through a window or hole in the old tree and saw their
mother approaching.

"Mother, mother, here lives a real tree man; we saw him--didn't you?"

Mother smiled--what the children called her mysterious smile.

"You look like two little wood-men yourselves," she said. "Lottchen,
stand up straight in the hole and look at me."

Lottchen stood up just fitting into the green mark on the tree behind
her. She made a pretty picture, her laughing brown eye