off into their palace. Most never return: but here and there one
escapes out again, and tells how the Trolls killed all his comrades:
but tells too, of the wonders he has seen inside, of shoes of
swiftness, and swords of sharpness, and caps of darkness; of charmed
harps, charmed jewels, and above all of the charmed wine: and after
all, the Trolls were very kind to him--see what fine clothes they
have given him--and he struts about awhile among his companions; and
then returns, and not alone. The Trolls have bewitched him, as they
will bewitch more. So the fame of the Troll-garden spreads; and more
and more steal in, boys and maidens, and tempt their comrades over
the wall, and tell of the jewels, and the dresses, and the wine, the
joyous maddening wine, which equals men with gods; and forget to tell
how the Trolls have bought them, soul as well as body, and taught
them to be vain, and lustful, and slavish; and tempted them, too
often, to sins which have no name.

But their better nature flashes out at times. They will not be the
slaves and brutes in human form, which the evil Trolls would have
them; and they rebel, and escape, and tell of the horrors of that
fair foul place. And then arises a noble indignation, and war
between the Trolls and the forest-children. But still the Trolls can
tempt and bribe the greedier or the more vain; and still the wonders
inside haunt their minds; till it becomes a fixed idea among them
all, to conquer the garden for themselves and bedizen themselves in
the fine clothes, and drink their fill of the wine. Again and again
they break in: but the Trolls drive them out, rebuild their walls,
keep off those outside by those whom they hold enslaved within; till
the boys grow to be youths, and the youths men: and still the Troll-
garden is not conquered, and still it shall be. And the Trolls have
grown old and weak, and their walls are crumbling away. Perhaps they