"But the nymphs do not understand at all how much more a heartless
little monster like this dwarf loves the glitter of gold than he could
ever possibly love them. So, even while they are laughing at him, he is
forgetting them completely, and then he swears a deep oath that as long
as he lives he will never love any living thing. Now, if you can think
of anything that anybody could do more wicked, more horrible, more
cruel than that, you must know a great deal more about wicked and
horrible things than you have any right to know. After that every kind
of wrong is easy, and a little thing like stealing a lump of gold of
the size of a bushel basket is a mere nothing. The dwarf scrambles up
the point of rock again, while the nymphs, who think that he is still
chasing them, swim far away from him, and he seizes the gold and
plunges down to the bottom with it. The nymphs rush together again with
a cry of horror and grief and fright, and in an instant everything is
dark, as the flames of our fire suddenly drop down.

[Illustration: "THE GOLD SHINES OUT SO BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL."]

"But you see they fall only for a moment, and now, as they blaze up
again, brighter than ever, I see another picture. It is on the hilltop
above the river. The grass there is soft and fresh, the trees are cool
and green, and the mellow light of morning is over them all. A light,
white morning mist comes up from the river, and the sun, which has just
risen from behind the purple hills, away off where the sky touches
them, turns the mist into shifting and shimmering silver, so that it
makes the whole scene look brighter instead of dimmer. On the hill
across the river is a glorious sight. It is a castle, the grandest and
most beautiful you ever saw. Its walls are thick and strong enough for
a fortress, yet its towers and battlements look so light and graceful
that you would think they might hold themselves up there in the air, or