crack in the rocks. You can puff yourself up like a dragon, of course,
but can you make yourself small as easily? Oh, no, I cannot believe
that.'

"'I can be anything, anything, I tell you,' the dwarf cries, getting
still more angry; 'I will be as small as you like,' and in another
second he has changed himself into a toad, not much bigger than your
hand, as slimy as ever, looking still just as wicked as the dwarf
himself, and almost as ugly.

"'Now is the time--quick!' cries the Fire God, and in an instant the
Father of the Gods stamps his foot upon the toad and has him fast. The
Fire God stoops and pulls the magic helmet off the toad's head, and
instantly he is the dwarf again, but he is still firmly held under the
god's foot, and they tie him with cords and drag him away with them, up
among the rocks from which they came."

"That is just the way Puss in Boots caught the ogre, when he turned
himself into a mouse," said the little girl.

"Yes, to be sure it is, but you know there are only a very few stories
in the world, any way, and we cannot find new ones. The most we can
ever do is to tell the old ones over in different ways, and after all
it is better so, for old things are better than new almost always, as
you will find when you get a little older yourself. But now, with the
fire burning up a little better to help me, we are back above ground.
Let us put on more wood and see if we cannot make it better yet. We are
just where we were before, on the hill by the river and the castle of
the gods. And back now come the two gods from under the ground,
dragging the dwarf with them. 'And what will you give us now,' they