1. The Laughing Valley


When Claus came the Valley was empty save for the grass, the brook,
the wildflowers, the bees and the butterflies. If he would make his
home here and live after the fashion of men he must have a house.
This puzzled him at first, but while he stood smiling in the sunshine
he suddenly found beside him old Nelko, the servant of the Master
Woodsman. Nelko bore an ax, strong and broad, with blade that gleamed
like burnished silver. This he placed in the young man's hand, then
disappeared without a word.

Claus understood, and turning to the Forest's edge he selected a
number of fallen tree-trunks, which he began to clear of their dead
branches. He would not cut into a living tree. His life among the
nymphs who guarded the Forest had taught him that a live tree is
sacred, being a created thing endowed with feeling. But with the dead
and fallen trees it was different. They had fulfilled their destiny,
as active members of the Forest community, and now it was fitting that
their remains should minister to the needs of man.

The ax bit deep into the logs at every stroke. It seemed to have a
force of its own, and Claus had but to swing and guide it.

When shadows began creeping over the green hills to lie in the Valley
overnight, the young man had chopped many logs into equal lengths and
proper shapes for building a house such as he had seen the poorer
classes of men inhabit. Then, resolving to await another day before
he tried to fit the logs together, Claus ate some of the sweet roots
he well knew how to find, drank deeply from the laughing brook, and