little bit of a room--the only other person in the house was a woman
as old as the mountains--on the sudden I heard something stirring and
scraping near me. I opened the window shutter at my head a little, and
as the half moon peept into the room, I saw a tiny creature brushing
away at my shoes. 'Who are you?' I askt the mite; for he lookt much
like a boy of eleven years old.--'Hush!' said the little thing, and
brusht away busily. 'I am Silly, the good comrade.'--'Silly?' askt I;
'he's one whom I know nothing of.'--'Dame knows him, Ursul knows him,'
said the little one, and put my shoes on the floor.--'Leave my things
alone,' cried I.--'Make 'em clean, dust 'em, brush 'em neat,' answered
the creature, and set to work at my Sunday hat.--'Is this farce never
to end?' I called out to him; 'brush your own nose.'--He laught, and
seemed to have no notion that I had any right to give orders in my own
room. 'Art afraid, he then giggled out, of big Ulric? Need not be
afraid. Ask him to morrow, when he sets at you again, where he got the
brown fire scar atop of his head over the right eyebrow; he'll soon be
meek as a lamb.' The creature was gone. I listened; there was nothing.
I closed the window shutter again and fell asleep. In the morning it
seemed to me as if the whole had been merely a dream. My shoes however
were clean, my hat brusht. At length I askt old Ursul about the
unknown boy. She was very deaf; and it was long before I could make
her understand what I meant. 'Ah! she at last cried, has the little
boy been with thee? Well, well, good betide thee, my tall lad. The
tiny thing harms nobody, and brings luck to everyone he takes notice
of. I have known him now well-nigh these forty years. He goes round to
the houses where he likes the folks, and helps them in their
housekeeping, now in one thing, now in another. Cleaning everything is
his darling employment. He can't bear dust; dirty sooty pots and other
kitchenware are his aversion; and he will often scrub at 'em with all
his might. Bright brass vessels, shining copper pans, are things he is
quite bewitcht with; pewter plates too he likes very well. Many a time
has he brought me a groschen, bright and new, as if it had come from
the mint.'--'But where does the imp live?' I cried.--'Where does the
child live?' she said: 'people choose to call it goblin, or manikin;
he himself signs himself Silly; that is his christen-name. But he is a
kind good-natured sprite; and so thou