s pipe all the while he scraped.

"'Klaus, Klaus!' said the master of the house, his sides shaking with
laughter, 'if you don't forswear smoking this very instant, your
sponsorship sha'n't stand. As sure as my name is Twirling-stick Mike, I
won't allow it; and the boy shall be called Michael after his father.'

"Klaus laughed too, went on smoking, and tuned his fiddle.

"'Did you hear what I said, you bandy-legged Dwarf-piper?' bawled Simon,
in continuation.

"Klaus laid his fiddle aside.

"'Gossip!' said he, in a tone of meaning, 'keep within bounds--within
bounds, I say--and don't force me for once to fiddle to an ugly tune. I
am your boy's godfather; his name is Klaus, and Klaus he shall be called
amongst my children!'

"The whole company simultaneously broke out into loud laughter, and
exclaimed with one voice--

"'Amongst his children!'

"'Why, where have you left your respectable better-half, then?' asked
Simon, 'and what wench ever gave herself up to two such noble shanks?
Where, in Heaven's name, Klaus, was the parson ordained that trusted a
poor woman to you for better or worse?'

"The Dwarf smoked away, and could hardly be seen through the cloud that
enveloped him.

"'Idiots!' he murmured to himself, 'as if we lived like mere human
Creatures'--

"'What's that you say?' asked Simon, interrupting him. 'Don't talk
blasphemy, you heathenish imp, or'--

"'Be quiet, gossip!' returned the Dwarf, with a savage frown. 'Don't put
me up, or I and my children may be troublesome to you and yours yet. You
had better give me some more tobacco, for I love smoking, and so do my
people!'

"'If he isn't cracked, I am a Turk!' exclaimed Simon. 'Pride has turned
that added head of his quite round. Well, Heaven preserve me from a
cracked godfather, any how!'

"'Body of me!' interposed an old boor, one of the party, 'what the crab
says is true.'

"'True!' said Simon.

"'Yes! What, have you never heard of the Spirits and Dwarfs who, for
thousands of years, have carried on their precious games in all kinds of
underground pits and holes? Now, take my word for it, he has something
to do with them. Klaus is just the fellow for the rogues. They make
choice of a king once every fifty years--one of flesh and blood, like
ourselves. His majesty must be shaped like a dwarf--that's quite
necessary; but when he is lifted to the throne, the creatures heap upon
him all sorts of wondrous gifts. They teach him to play the fiddl