murmured the tempting voice.

The boy hesitated; but the same moment came that melancholy voice--"My
brother is rich, and I am poor; he is clad in silk, and I in rags.
Alas, for me!"

"It shall not be!" cried the noble boy. "I will go out of this place
as poor as I came; but I will take Reutha with me. I will work all the
days of my life; but Reutha shall not stay here. Hill-people! I want
none of your treasures; but I command you to give me my sister, and
let us go!"

Arndt folded his arms around Reutha, and walked with her through all
the gorgeous rooms, the Hill-men and women following behind, and
luring him with their sweetest songs and most bewitching smiles. But
Reutha's voice and Reutha's smile had greatest power of all over her
brother's heart.

They climbed the gloomy staircase, and stood at the opening in the
hillock. Then the little Hill-man appealed once more to his master--

"Noble gentleman! remember, a life of labour with Reutha or one of
continual pleasure alone! Think again!"

"No, not for a moment," said Arndt, as he felt the breezes of earth
playing on his cheek. How sweet they were, even after the fragrant
airs of elfin-land!

"At least, kind master, give me my cap!" piteously implored the
Hill-man.

"Take it; and good-bye for evermore!" cried Arndt, as he clasped his
sister in his arms and leaped out. The chasm closed, and the two
children found themselves lying in a snow-drift, with the gray dawn of
a winter's morning just breaking over them.

"Where have you been all night, my children?" cried the anxious
mother, as they knocked at the door.

Had it, indeed, been only a single night, the months that seemed to
have passed while they were under the hill? They could not tell, for
they were now like all other children, and their wisdom learned in
fairyland had passed away. It seemed only a dream, save that the
brother and sister loved each other better than ever, and so they
continued to do as long as they lived.

_The Unicorn_

Fritz, Franz, and Hans were charcoal-burners. They lived with their
mother in the depths of a forest, where they very seldom saw the face
of another human being. Hans, the youngest, did not remember ever
having lived anywhere else, but Fritz and Franz could just call to
mind sunny meadows, in which they played as little children, plucking
the flowers and chasing the butterflies. Indeed, Fritz was able to
compare the present state of miserable poverty i