cstasy, and put him into his pocket and ran home,
crying, "Now I have her! I have my Elizabeth! Now you shall catch it,
you little mischievous rascals!" And on getting home he put the toad
into a costly silver casket, as if it was the greatest treasure.

To account for John's joy you must know Klas Starkwolt had often told
him that the underground people could not endure any ill odour, and
that the sight or even the smell of a toad made them faint and suffer
the most dreadful tortures, so that, by means of these animals, one
could compel them to anything. Hence there are no bad smells to be
found in the whole glass empire, and a toad is a thing unheard of
there; this toad must therefore have been inclosed in the stone from
the Creation, as it were for the sake of John and Elizabeth.

Resolved to try the effect of his toad, John took the casket under his
arm and went out, and on the way he met two of the little people in a
lonesome place. The moment he approached them they fell to the ground,
and whimpered and howled most lamentably, as long as he was near them.

Satisfied now of his power, he next morning summoned the fifty
principal persons, with their wives and children, to his apartment.
When they came, he addressed them, reminding them once again of his
kindness and gentleness towards them, and of the good terms on which
they had hitherto lived together. He reproached them with their
ingratitude in refusing him the only favour he had ever asked of them,
but firmly declared he would not give way to their obstinacy.
"Wherefore," said he, "for the last time, I warn you;--think for a
minute, and if you then say No, you shall feel that pain which is to
you and your children the most terrible of all sufferings."

They did not take long to deliberate, but unanimously replied "No;"
for they thought to themselves, What new scheme has the youth hit on,
with which he thinks to frighten wise ones like us? and they smiled
when they said No. Their smiling enraged John above all, and he ran
back to where he had laid the casket with the toad, under a bush.

He was hardly come within a hundred paces of them when they all fell
to the ground as if struck with a thunderbolt, and began to howl and
whimper, and to writhe, as if suffering the most excruciating pain.
They stretched out their hands, and cried, "Have mercy! have mercy! we
feel you have a toad, and there is no escape for us. Take the odious
beast away, and we will do all