Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/100

 through the keyhole as the gaoler drew out the key, after the accustomed manner of sprites.

These first essays at the study of mankind were obviously not calculated to excite any especial feeling of philanthropy in the mind of our gnome, who returned full of indignation to his mountain peak, where he stopped awhile to survey once more the smiling landscape which human industry had created, and marvelled greatly that Dame Nature should have lavished her blessings upon such a cross-grained brood as he had come across. Meditating hereupon, it occurred to him that perhaps he had not sufficiently investigated the matter, and he accordingly resolved to make one more experiment. Retracing his steps, the invisible monarch descended into the valley, and taking a new direction, was strolling through a delicious grove, when, behold, he saw through the trees at a short distance before him, a girl, lovely and fine-formed as Venus, preparing for the bath, surrounded by her companions, with whom, as they reclined on the grassy margin of a cascade, whose silver flood fell gently into a basin constructed by the all-providing hand of Nature, she was prattling in the innocent freedom and gaiety of youth. This vision had such an effect upon his gnomic Majesty, that he well nigh forgot his spiritual nature and attributes, or, rather, would willingly have accepted the lot of humanity, could he have shared it with the fair