he found himself lying in a strange place, where was
neither wood nor fire. He rubbed his eyes, and tried to recollect what
had happened to him the night before, and thought he must have been
dreaming, but he could not understand how he came to be lying in quite a
strange place. A great noise resounded from a distance, and he felt the
ground under his feet tremble. Hans listened for some time to find out
where the noise came from, and then determined to follow it, hoping to
find some people. Presently he reached the entrance to a cavern, from
which the noise proceeded, and where a fire was shining. When he
entered, he found a huge smithy filled with bellows and anvils, and
seven workmen stood round each anvil. But stranger smiths were not to
be found in the world. They were not higher than the knee of an ordinary
man, and their heads were larger than their own bodies, and they wielded
hammers more than twice as large as themselves. But they smote on the
anvil so lustily with these huge iron hammers that the strongest man
could not have struck harder. The little smiths were clad in leathern
aprons which reached from the neck to the feet; but at the back their
bodies were as naked as God had made them. In the background a high
bench stood against the wall, on which sat Hans' friend with the fir
staff, and looked sharply after the work of the little journeymen. A
large can stood at his feet, from which the workmen took a drink now and
then. The master of the smithy was no longer dressed in white, as on the
previous day, but wore a black sooty coat, and round his waist a
leathern belt with a great buckle. Now and then he made a sign to the
workmen with his fir staff, for the noise was so great that no human
voice could have been heard. Hans was uncertain whether any one had
noticed him, for both master and men continued their work without paying
any attention to the stranger. After some hours, the little smiths were
allowed to rest; the bellows were stopped, and the heavy hammers thrown
on the ground. When the workmen had left, the master rose from the
bench, and called to Hans to approach.

Oh, what riches and treasure Hans beheld there! All sorts of gold and
silver lay about everywhere, and glittered and gleamed before his eyes.
Hans amused himself by counting the bars of gold in a single heap, and
had just counted up to five hundred and seventy, when the master turned
round and said, smiling, "You'd better leave off, for