d,
stumbling over hard furrows, bruising his feet against stones, falling
into ditches, but still straight after his odd guide, who peered at him
now and then with one fiery eye, and wagged his head. On and on they
went, away from the pine forest, but into places where Mihal had never
been before, wide as were his usual rambles; on and on, over stone
walls, ditches, stubble-fields, and wide meadows, till they found
themselves at the foot of a high, round hill. Out of one side of this
great mound ran a pure bubbling spring, and over its waters hung an old
oak-tree, leafless now, but still strewing the ground beneath with dry
acorns. Right at the root of this tree was an upright gray stone,
apparently part of a rock deeply sunk in the hillside; dark lichens
clung to its face, and dead leaves lay piled at its foot. Beside this
stone Meister Hans paused, and, looking hard at the boy, deliberately
picked up an acorn, and, hopping to the side of the little gravelly
basin, dropped his mouthful into the fountain, and returned to the flat
stone, where Mihal stood wondering much what was to follow.

Presently the jackdaw approached the stone and knocked upon it three
times. No sound replied, but the rock opened in the middle, and there
stood a little old woman, as withered as a spring apple and as bright as
a butterfly, dressed in a scarlet bodice covered with spangles, and a
black petticoat worked in square characters with all the colors of the
rainbow. She made a reverence to the bird and Mihal, and in a shrill,
eager voice invited them to come in. The boy hesitated, but the little
old woman snatched his hand and pulled him in. A draught of warm air and
a delicious smell of food invited him still more charmingly, he was so
cold and hungry, and he passed through the cleft stone to find himself
in a high round cavern, of shining, sparkling crystals, that glittered
like jewels whenever the light of the old woman's iron lamp shone across
them. She opened a low door in the side of this cavern, and beckoned her
companions to follow. In the middle of a still larger vault stood a
great arm-chair, fashioned from beryl and jasper, with knobs of amethyst
and topaz, in which sat a dwarf no taller than little Zitza. He was
dressed in robes of velvet, green and soft as forest moss, and a ring of
rough gold lay on his grizzled hair; his little eyes were keen and
fiery, his hands withered and brown, but covered with glittering jewels.

[Illus