Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/171

Rh Five years her father mourned her; and then John Deitrich said: “I will find my little playmate, be she alive or dead.”

He watched among the Nine Hills, he heard the Brown Dwarfs sing, And saw them dance by moonlight merrily in a ring.

And when their gay-robed leader tossed up his cap of red, Young Deitrich caught it as it fell, and thrust it on his head.

The Troll came crouching at his feet and wept for lack of it. “Oh, give me back my magic cap, for your great head unfit!”

“Nay,” Deitrich said; “the Dwarf who throws his charmed cap away, Must serve its finder at his will, and for his folly pay.

“You stole my pretty Lisbeth, and hid her in the earth; And you shall ope the door of glass and let me lead her forth.”

“She will not come; she ’s one of us; she ’s mine!” the Brown Dwarf said; “The day is set, the cake is baked, to-morrow we shall wed.”

“The fell fiend fetch thee!” Deitrich cried, “and keep thy foul tongue still. Quick! open, to thy evil world, the glass door of the hill!”

The Dwarf obeyed; and youth and Troll down the long stairway passed, And saw in dim and sunless light a country strange and vast.

Weird, rich, and wonderful, he saw the elfin under-land,— Its palaces of precious stones, its streets of golden sand.

He came unto a banquet-hall with tables richly spread, Where a young maiden served to him the red wine and the bread.

How fair she seemed among the Trolls so ugly and so wild! Yet pale and very sorrowful, like one who never smiled!

Her low, sweet voice, her gold-brown hair, her tender blue eyes seemed Like something he had seen elsewhere or something he had dreamed.

He looked; he clasped her in his arms; he knew the long-lost one; “O Lisbeth! See thy playmate—I am the Amptman’s son!”

She leaned her fair head on his breast, and through her sobs she spoke: “Oh, take me from this evil place, and from the elfin folk!

“And let me tread the grass-green fields and smell the flowers again, And feel the soft wind on my cheek and hear the dropping rain!

“And oh, to hear the singing bird, the rustling of the tree, The lowing cows, the bleat of sheep, the voices of the sea;

“And oh, upon my father’s knee to sit beside the door, And hear the bell of vespers ring in Rambin church once more!”

He kissed her cheek, he kissed her lips; the Brown Dwarf groaned to see, And tore his tangled hair and ground his long teeth angrily.

But Deitrich said: “For five long years this tender Christian maid Has served you in your evil world, and well must she be paid!

“Haste!—hither bring me precious gems, the richest in your store; Then when we pass the gate of glass, you ’ll take your cap once more.”

No choice was left the baffled Troll, and, murmuring, he obeyed, And filled the pockets of the youth and apron of the maid.