are and very brown. When he saw Kaethe, he gave a wild kind of
Indian whoop, and danced round and round her, much to the poor child's
dismay, his eyes flashing all sorts of colours. Her heart beat fast, but
not a word or sound would come out of her mouth.

The boy then made a deep bow, and took her by the hand. Soon he had his
long arms round her waist and was trying to kiss her.

Kaethe began to cry with fear and indignation, "You rude, naughty boy,"
she said, "I will tell my mother of you."

The imp seemed much surprised, caught one of her tears on his finger,
held it up to the light and then sucked it, making funny faces all the
time. Kaethe could not help laughing, and then she dried her tears with a
corner of her apron. She sat down on a tree-trunk for a moment and tried
to think.

Immediately the boy sat by her, and begged her to give him a kiss. He
looked quite nice and pretty for the moment, and Kaethe thought she had
better do as he wished, or he might begin his antics again. So she gave
him a motherly kiss, just as she would give to her baby brother, smack!
on the cheek. Immediately the queer look went out of his eyes, and a
more human expression took its place.

"Kaethe," he said, "Kaethe, I am but a lonely little imp of the forest,
but I love you, Kaethe, and I want you to marry me, and live with me
always, and be my own little wife. Will you, O will you? O _do, do_,
do," he said, dancing up and down in wild excitement.

"O goodness gracious me, you are certainly quite crazy," said Kaethe, "I
will tell my mother of you!" She began to cry again, and smacked him
whenever he tried to come near her.

Then he seized her by the hand and dragged her after him into the wild
woods, till they were lost in the forest.

"O dear, O dear, whatever _shall_ I do? what will mother say when she
finds no Kaethe, no supper, and no baby. Boo-o-o-o!"

"Never mind," said our imp consolingly, "you can't help it now, you have
run away with me you see."

"I didn't, indeed I didn't," interrupted Kaethe indignantly.

"I will send a moonshine Kaethchen to take your place for the night. You
_are_ fond of dreaming, aren't you?"

"O yes, mother often calls me 'Traeum Lies' (Dreaming Liese)."

"Well then, it's all right, she will not notice anything, and you and I
will have fine times together. If you won't marry me, at least, we can
get _engaged_ you know, that will be fine fun."

"Hum----" said Kaethe, "that _would_ be amu