The man was very entertaining, and Gaspar listened and listened to his
wonderful stories until he saw the milestone shadow stretching far
along the bank. Then he jumped up and was going to walk on, but hop
went the little man quite across the road. Gaspar went the other side;
hop came the little man back again; and so they dodged about, hither
and thither, until Gaspar's patience was quite exhausted.

"He is only a small fellow, after all," he thought; "I can take a good
run and jump over him." He took the run and gave the jump, but the
little man shot up high into the air, and he might as well have tried
to jump over the moon.

"It is a most singular thing!" said Gaspar to himself; "a little gray
man, not much larger than I am, and yet he seems to be every where at
once, like sheet lightning. There is no getting by him, and all the
time he looks at me with those bright eyes and that quiet smile, as if
he were really very much amused. Well, he must go to sleep by and by,
and then I can step over him and walk off."

So he lay down, pretending to sleep, and the little man lay down also,
with his face turned to the sky. When Gaspar thought him fast asleep,
he arose very softly, believing he could now surely escape; but at his
very first step up came a sly hand, catching him by the foot, so that
down he fell at the old man's side, and there saw the bright eyes
gazing up at the stars, without a wink of sleep in them. But Gaspar
soon forgot his travels, with all his bold intentions, and fell asleep
himself, to dream of skewers and cimeters.

In the morning the little man said, "Come now, it is foolish for you