ime to time in the dance. After they had
watched for some time and the sport had become monotonous, Green Ears
took Kaethe to the top of the hill, and there they saw the beautiful
peaked mountain called the Rossert, bathed in the moonlight.

"Well, children, enjoying yourselves on this fine night, I hope?" said a
woman of tall and commanding presence. "Will you come home and have
supper with me? I am sure Green Ears has forgotten to offer you anything
to eat."

Here she chucked him under his pointed chin.

The two children, fairy and human, turned and followed her, they felt
that she was a person of authority and must be obeyed. Her fair hair
fell in waving masses almost to her feet, it was covered with soft
feathers, as if she had recently been filling feather beds.

The children saw a lighted cottage before them, with red roof and
black-beamed walls like so many in the Taunus. A strong smell of
honeysuckle was wafted towards them.

"This is my wood cottage, it is quite close to the Rossert, as you see.
Some people call me the wood-woman, others Frau Holle," she said. "The
Old King (the mountain called Altkoenig) is my brother; Olle (slang in
German for _old_) or Holle, it is all the same, we are all relations in
the Taunus, you must know!"

In front of the house was a dear little garden. The moonlight shone
brightly on the flower-beds. The fairies were awake and peeped out with
the greatest interest as the children entered.

Over the door was written in letters made of light, like those beautiful
advertisements of beer and chocolate which so adorn the city of London
by night:

THIS WAY TO FAIRYLAND.

Kaethe felt that she was learning more in one night than in all her life
before of that strange dream-world on the borders of which we live.

The house was so neat and tidy, that it looked as if it had just been
spring-cleaned; the windows stood wide open, the moonlight streamed in.
A little table was laid for supper.

Frau Holle invited them to sit down and they did so at once.

Green Ears sat opposite to Kaethe staring at her with a wistful
expression of adoration and love in his eyes.

A chocolate pudding with cream and sugar and a bilberry jelly stood on
the table, also rolls which were thickly buttered and spread with
various kinds of fairy sausage purely vegetarian in character. Mugs of
delicious-looking milk were ready for each child.

But the supper reminded Kaethe of her home and she felt a litt