"I can't see any of them. How do you see them?"

"Just as I told you at first, by thinking of them and then seeing the
thoughts reflected there."

"Well, tell me some more."

"Look at that little dark spot under the fire. When I look at it in the
way I have told you, it is the form of a dwarf. He is ugly and rough-
looking, he is crooked, and he has a wicked face. He slips and tumbles
slowly along, till he catches sight of the water nymphs, and they look
so pretty and graceful and happy, as they chase one another about and
up and down and around, that his cruel little eyes light up with
pleasure, and he calls to them that he should like to come up and play
with them too."

"Oh, now I don't believe any of it at all," said the child; "I thought
just for a little while you might know how to see all those funny
things in the fire, but you can't hear people talk in the fire."

"Oh, my dear child, you don't know very much about the fire if you
think I can't see anything I want to in it, or hear anything I want to
either. I tell you I can hear what this dwarf says, just as plainly as
I can see him walk about. Still, if you don't believe any of it and
don't care to know about the dwarf and the nymphs and the gold, perhaps
you might better go and study your multiplication table, and I will
find something else to do."

"Oh, but I do want to know about them. Please tell me some more. What
do the nymphs say to the dwarf? Can you hear that too?"