the best of spirits and full of courage. When he reached the castle he
found the outer gate open, quite as if he were an expected guest, but no
sooner had he stepped across the entry than the heavy door closed behind
him with a bang, and was bolted with a huge iron bar, exactly as if a
sentinel were doing his office and keeping watch, but no human being was
to be seen anywhere. An awful terror overcame the fiddler; but it was
hopeless to think of turning back or of standing still, and the hopes of
finding gold and other treasures gave him strength and courage to force
his way further into the castle. Upstairs and downstairs he wandered,
through lofty halls, splendid rooms, and lovely little boudoirs,
everything beautifully arranged, and all kept in the most perfect order.
But the silence of death reigned everywhere, and no living thing, not
even a fly, was to be seen. Notwithstanding, the youth felt his spirits
return to him when he entered the lower regions of the castle, for in
the kitchen the most tempting and delicious food was spread out, the
cellars were full of the most costly wine, and the store-room crammed
with pots of every sort of jam you can imagine. A cheerful fire was
burning in the kitchen, before which a roast was being basted by unseen
hands, and all kinds of vegetables and other dainty dishes were being
prepared in like manner. Before the fiddler had time to think, he was
ushered into a little room by invisible hands, and there a table was
spread for him with all the delicious food he had seen cooking in the
kitchen.

The youth first seized his fiddle and played a beautiful air on it which
echoed through the silent halls, and then he fell to and began to eat
a hearty meal. Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man
stepped into the room, not more than three feet high, clothed in a
dressing-gown, and with a small wrinkled face, and a grey beard which
reached down to the silver buckles of his shoes. And the little man sat
down beside the fiddler and shared his meal. When they got to the game
course the fiddler handed the dwarf a knife and fork, and begged him to
help himself first, and then to pass the dish on. The little creature
nodded, but helped himself so clumsily that he dropped the piece of meat
he had carved on to the floor.

The good-natured fiddler bent down to pick it up, but in the twinkling
of an eye the little man had jumped on to his back, and beat him till he
was black and blu