Page:Foreign Tales and Traditions (Volume 1).djvu/384

 Heaven preserve me from that! The last time I scarcely escaped with my life. I still shudder when I think of it.” Hereupon the lady promised him a whole rich farm and a great deal of money with it, and so dazzled the rash man’s imagination that he forgot all danger, and promised a third time to steal the spring-root from the enchanted garden, though it should cost his life. “Up to this moment,” said the peasant, the spirit has only threatened me; and this shall be the last time, for I will soon be a rich man, and will spend all the rest of my life in glory and joy.”

The peasant dared not go alone this time to the mountain. “Dear boy,” said he to his eldest son, who was now grown up, “I am going to the chapel upon the mountain; you shall accompany me.” So they went together, till the ravines became more and more narrow, and the mountain more and more barren; and as they went along the dark lakes eternally overshadowed by the steep rocks, the father became thoughtful, and horror pierced his inmost soul. His eyes gleamed so wildly that his son too was seized with a cold shuddering. “What ails you, father?” said the boy. But he did not answer him, and gazed in silence on the ground. Thus they ascended higher and higher, and when they drew near the garden the father spake: “Evil spirits have beguiled me from my earliest childhood; I have cared only for riches, and have remained a stranger to the fear of God and to religion. I have led a wild and worthless life, and never gave you the good example a father ought to set before his children. Now Hell calls me, and I must purloin the spring-root from the lord of the mountain, for which he will tear me to pieces.” At this the son wept, and said: “Father, leave it; turn back with me; Heaven is merciful.” But, with the energy of despair, the father had already seized the spade and begun his work. There arose a fearful hurricane,—a water-spout rushed down and flooded all the brooks into wild torrents,—a moaning, heart-wringing sound seemed to rise up from the roots of the garden,—all the elements min-