one who rejoiced aloud
in that castle," said the Wind. "I snowed them up, and they say snow
keeps people warm. They had no wood, and the forest from which they
might have brought it was cut down. It was a biting frost. I rushed in
through loopholes and passages, over gables and roofs, that I might be
brisk. They were lying in bed because of the cold, the three high-born
daughters; and their father was crouching under his leathern coverlet.
Nothing to bite, nothing to break, no fire on the hearth--there was a
life for high-born people! Huh-sh, let it go! But that is what my Lord
Daa could _not_ do--he could _not_ let it go.

"'After winter comes spring,' he said. 'After want, good times will
come: one must not lose patience; one must learn to wait! Now my house
and lands are mortgaged, it is indeed high time; and the gold will
soon come. At Easter!'

"I heard how he spoke thus, looking at a spider's web. 'Thou cunning
little weaver, thou dost teach me perseverance. Let them tear thy web,
and thou wilt begin it again, and complete it. Let them destroy it
again, and thou wilt resolutely begin to work again--again! That is
what we must do, and that will repay itself at last.'

"It was the morning of Easter-day. The bells sounded from the
neighbouring church, and the sun seemed to rejoice in the sky. The
master had watched through the night in feverish excitement, and had
been melting and cooling, distilling and mixing. I heard him sighing
like a soul in despair; I heard him praying, and I noticed how he held
his breath. The lamp was burnt out, but he did not notice it. I blew
at the fire of coals, and it threw its red glow upon his ghastly white
face, lighting it up with a glare, and his sunken eyes looked forth
wildly out of their deep sockets--but they became larger and larger,
as though they would burst.

"Look at the alchymic glass! It glows in the crucible, red-hot, and
pure and heavy! He lifted it with a trembling hand, and cried with a
trembling voice, 'Gold! gold!'

"He was quite dizzy--I could have blown him down," said the Wind; "but
I only fanned the glowing coals, and accompanied him through the door
to where his daughters sat shivering. His coat was powdered with
ashes, and there were ashes in his beard and in his tangled hair. He
stood straight up, and held his costly treasure on high, in the
brittle glass. 'Found, found!--Gold, gold!' he shouted, and again held
aloft the glass to let it flash in the sun