gloat, over his cash, there was nothing but leaves in a round form.
These, at his touch, crumbled to pieces. The Moss Maidens laughed
uproariously, when the mean old fellow was mad about it.

But let no one suppose that the elves, because they were smarter than
stupid human beings, were always in mischief. No, no! They did, indeed,
have far more intelligence than dull grown folks, lazy boys, or careless
girls; but many good things they did. They sewed shoes for poor
cobblers, when they were sick, and made clothes for children, when the
mother was tired. When they were around, the butter came quick in the
churn.

When the blue flower of the flax bloomed in Holland, the earth, in
spring time, seemed like the sky. Old Styf then saw his opportunity to
do a good thing. Men thought it a great affair to have even coarse linen
tow for clothes. No longer need they hunt the wolf and deer in the
forest, for their garments. By degrees, they learned to make finer
stuff, both linen for clothes and sails for ships, and this fabric they
spread out on the grass until the cloth was well bleached. When taken
up, it was white as the summer clouds that sailed in the blue sky. All
the world admired the product, and soon the word "Holland" was less the
name of a country, than of a dainty fabric, so snow white, that it was
fit to robe a queen. The world wanted more and more of it, and the Dutch
linen weaver grew rich. Yet still there was more to come.

Now, on one moonlight night in summer, the lady elves, beautiful
creatures, dressed in gauze and film, with wings to fly and with feet
that made no sound, came down into the meadows for their fairy dances.
But when, instead of green grass, they saw a white landscape, they
wondered, Was it winter?