was, 'It is a bear!' and I grasped my weapon. The object then
accosted me from above in a human voice, but in a tone most harsh and
hideous: 'If I, overhead here, do not gnaw off these dry branches,
Sir Noodle, what shall we have to roast you with when midnight
comes?' And with that it grinned, and made such a rattling with the
branches that my courser became mad with affright, and rushed
furiously forward with me before I had time to see distinctly what
sort of a devil's beast it was."

"You must not speak so," said the old fisherman, crossing himself.
His wife did the same, without saying a word, and Undine, while her
eye sparkled with delight, looked at the knight and said, "The best
of the story is, however, that as yet they have not roasted you! Go
on, now, you beautiful knight."

The knight then went on with his adventures. "My horse was so wild,
that he well-nigh rushed with me against limbs and trunks of trees.
He was dripping with sweat through terror, heat, and the violent
straining of his muscles. Still he refused to slacken his career.
At last, altogether beyond my control, he took his course directly up
a stony steep, when suddenly a tall white man flashed before me, and
threw himself athwart the way my mad steed was taking. At this
apparition he shuddered with new affright, and stopped trembling.
I took this chance of recovering my command of him, and now for the
first time perceived that my deliverer, so far from being a white
man, was only a brook of silver brightness, foaming near me in its
descent from the hill, while it crossed and arrested my horse's
course with its rush of waters."

"Thanks, thanks, dear brook!" cried Undine, clapping her little