d kings
and queens, wearing rich robes and gold crowns on the top of their
heart's desire. For kings and queens, he supposed, loved as did he and
Grendel, regarding nothing else as much in the world besides.

So Killian put heart into his deft hands, and presently had set to
work.

One evening Grendel came up from the valley, after her day's work, to
have a look at her lover; she had brought him some brown cakes and a
bottle of wine. But Killian, who had caught sight of her eyes over the
green rise at his feet, was hiding something behind his back.

'Whatever have you there?' she asked, as she saw chips, and tools, and
bits of bright foil, lying scattered about the ground. Yet for three
days he would show her nothing, only he said, 'What I do is because we
love each other so.'

At the end of that time, he showed her what he had done. There she saw
a little king and queen, about six inches high; he was in blue, and
she in white; and they were both as dear as they were small. The king
was partly like a cow-herd, having a crown over his broad-brimmed hat,
with thick wooden shoes, and leather-bound legs; and the queen was
like Grendel, with great long plaits past her waist, and a gold-worked
bodice, such as Grendel had for Sunday wear. 'Aye, aye,' cried
Grendel, 'why, it is you and me!'

Then Killian showed her how the joints of the little puppets moved on
delicate wires, and how five strings ran up, one from each limb, to be
fastened to the player's fingers, so that he might make them act as
though life were in them.

'I shall take these down with me to the valley,' said Killian. 'First
I shall go about among the villages; then, when I can do better, I
shall go to the towns. After that no doubt the kings and queens will
hear of me, and will send for me to play before them, and I shall
become rich. Then I shall come home and marry you.'

Grendel thought her lover the most wonderful man in the world, and it
is the truth he was very clever; she kissed him a hundred times, and
the little marionettes also. 'Ah,' she said, 'now we shall not have to
wait five years! in five months you will come back rich and famous,
and we shall marry, and live happily.'

How Killian had loved her while making his puppets, only she knew as
well as he. Truly, he had put his heart into them, so that they were
like living beings,--and so small that their very smallness made them
a marvel. Being a lover, he had put inside each breast a litt