tchen.

The youth first seized his fiddle and played a beautiful air on it which
echoed through the silent halls, and then he fell to and began to eat a
hearty meal. Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man
stepped into the room, not more than three feet high, clothed in a
dressing-gown, and with a small wrinkled face, and a grey beard which
reached down to the silver buckles of his shoes. And the little man sat
down beside the fiddler and shared his meal. When they got to the game
course the fiddler handed the dwarf a knife and fork, and begged him to
help himself first, and then to pass the dish on. The little creature
nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he dropped the piece of meat
he had carved on to the floor.

The good-natured fiddler bent down to pick it up, but in the twinkling
of an eye the little man had jumped on to his back, and beat him till he
was black and blue all over his head and body. At last, when the fiddler
was nearly dead, the little wretch left off, and shoved the poor fellow
out of the iron gate which he had entered in such good spirits a few
hours before. The fresh air revived him a little, and in a short time he
was able to stagger with aching limbs back to the inn where his
companions were staying. It was night when he reached the place, and the
other two musicians were fast asleep. The next morning they were much
astonished at finding the fiddler in bed beside them, and overwhelmed
him with questions; but their friend hid his back and face, and answered
them very shortly, saying, 'Go there yourselves, and see what's to be
seen! It is a ticklish matter, that I can assure you.'

[Illustration]

The second musician, who was a trumpeter, now made his way to the
castle, and everything happened to him exactly as it had to the fiddler.
He was just as hospitably entertained at first, and then just as
cruelly beaten and belaboured, so that next morning he too lay in his
bed like a wounded hare, assuring his friends that the task of getting
into the haunted castle was no enviable one. Notwithstanding the warning
of his companions, the third musician, who played the flute, was still
determined to try his luck, and, full of courage and daring, he set out,
resolved, if possible, to find and secure the hidden treasure.

Fearlessly he wandered through the whole castle, and as he roamed
through the splendid empty apartments he thought to himself how nice it
would be to live there al