pleasure. After supper they sported and danced in the same way, and at
midnight, especially on star-light nights, they slipped out of their
hills to dance in the open air. John used then to say his prayers, a
duty he never neglected either in the evening or in the morning, and go
to sleep.

For the first week John was in the glass hill, he only went from his
chamber to the great hall and back again. After the first week, however,
he began to walk about, making his servant show and explain everything
to him. He found that there were in that place the most beautiful walks
in which he might ramble about for miles, in all directions, without
ever finding an end to them, so immensely large was the hill in which
the little people lived, and yet outwardly it seemed but a little place,
with a few bushes and trees growing on it.

It was extraordinary that, between the meads and fields, which were
thick sown with hills and lakes and islands, and ornamented with trees
and flowers in great variety, there ran, as it were, small lanes,
through which, as through crystal rocks, one was obliged to pass to come
to any new place; and the single meads and fields were often a mile
long, and the flowers were so brilliant and so fragrant, and the songs
of the numerous birds so sweet, that John had never seen anything on
earth like it. There was a breeze, and yet one did not feel the wind. It
was quite clear and bright, and yet there was no heat. The waves were
dashing, still there was no danger, and the most beautiful little barks
and canoes came, like white swans, when one wanted to cross the water,
and went backwards and forwards of themselves. Whence all this came no
one knew, nor could John's servant tell anything about it, but one thing
John saw plainly, which was, that the large carbuncles and diamonds that
were set in the roof and walls gave light instead of the sun, moon, and