n the same way;
and at midnight, especially on starlight nights, they slipped out of
their hills to dance in the open air. John used then, like a good boy,
to say his prayers and go to sleep, a duty he never neglected either
in the evening or in the morning.

For the first week that John was in the glass-hill he only went from
his chamber to the great hall and back again. After then, however, he
began to walk about, making his servant show and explain everything to
him. He found that there were here most beautiful walks, in which he
might ramble along for miles, in all directions, without ever finding
an end of them, so immensely large was the hill that the little people
lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed but a little hill, with a few
bushes and trees growing on it.

He found also meadows and lanes, islands and lakes, where the birds
sang sweeter, and the flowers were more brilliant and fragrant than
anything he had ever seen on earth. There was a breeze, and yet one
did not feel the wind; it was quite clear and bright, but there was no
heat; the waves were dashing, still there was no danger; and the most
beautiful little barks and canoes came, like white swans, when one
wanted to cross the water, and went backwards and forwards of their
own accord. Whence all this came nobody knew, nor could his servant
tell anything about it.

These lovely meads and plains were, for the most part, all solitary.
Few of the underground people were to be seen upon them, and those
that were just glided across them, as if in the greatest hurry. It
very rarely happened that any of them danced out here in the open air;
sometimes about three of them did so; at the most half a dozen: John
never saw a greater number together. The meadows never seemed
cheerful, except when the earth-children, who were kept as servants,
were let out to walk. This, however, happened but twice a week, for
they were mostly kept employed in the great hall and adjoining
apartments, or at school.

For John soon found they had schools there also; he had been there
about ten months, when one day he saw something snow-white gliding
into a rock, and disappearing. "What!" said he to his servant, "are
there some of you too that wear white, like the servants?" He was
informed that there were; but they were few in number, and never
appeared at the large tables or the dances, except once a year, on the
birthday of the great Hill-king, who dwelt many thousand miles below