l
christenings, marriages, and wakes. Klaus knew this as well as every
body else, and, like a wise man, did the best he could to turn his
popularity to account--the more so, poor fellow! because he was obliged
to put up with all kinds of ridicule and teasing. Stringstriker, you
must know, was a most comical little fellow, with very small thin bandy
legs, that had to bear the burden of a huge square trunk, which, in its
turn, supported a big head that was for ever waggling to and fro,
without affording the slightest indication of a neck. The entire little
man measured exactly three feet five inches and an eighth, and he was
best known to his acquaintance by the name of _Dwarf-fiddler_ or
_Dwarf-piper_; for the little gentleman smoked away for his life, and
liked nothing better.

"So misshapen a figure, it may readily be supposed, made a very good
target for the shafts of mockery. Nicholas, however, troubled himself
but little about them; and it was small complaint you heard from him so
long as he was well paid, got his savoury morsel, and, above all, a
liberal supply of his choice favourite--_Tobacco_. True, folks might now
and then, as the saying is, _draw the cord too tight_ and be too hard
upon the scraper; and then Klaus, like most deformed creatures, had wit
and venom enough at his command, and could rid himself right easily of
his tormentors.

"The Dwarf--it might be to render himself thoroughly independent, or,
more likely still, to surround his diminutive individuality with an air
of mystery--had abandoned his birth-place, and established himself about
two miles away from it, near a singularly-formed sandstone rock,
situated in a small but exceedingly pretty fir-wood, and commonly known
by the name of the Bear's church. Here he spent his quiet life, wholly
engaged in the practice of his art. Travellers taking their road by
night, and in calm weather, from _Bertsdorf_ to _Hoernitz_ or over the
Breitenberg to _Gross-schoenau_ were arrested by the exquisite strains,
now touchingly plaintive, now joyously merry, that poured from Klaus's
magical instrument; and many a happy soul, allured by the enchanting
melody, lingered within sound of it, until wholly subdued and rendered
powerless by awe and superstitious fear. Although by day the fiddler was
visible to none, yet by night he was often seen waddling out of the wood
and over the fields, on his way to a clear spring, whence he drew water
for his housekeeping, which