Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/171

 through the thick underwood, and, after much labour, reached the well-remembered rock. He at once recognized all the land-marks he had so well impressed on his memory; and, prominent among them, there stood, and had stood for centuries, the hollow oak, amongst the roots of which the subterranean entrance opened; but not a trace of any opening was now to be seen.

In vain did he try every means he could think of to gain admission into the mountain; he took up a great stone and threw it a dozen times against the rock with all his might; he intreated, implored it to open; he drew the bag of crowns from his pocket, and rattled its contents, calling out as loud as he could bawl: “Spirit of the Mountain! come and receive thy due!” But the Spirit was not to be seen or heard. The honest debtor was therefore fain to carry his dollars back again out of the wood, through which, strange enough, he had now no difficulty in making his way, a path presenting itself which he had not before remarked. As soon as his wife and children saw him coming they joyfully ran to meet him; but Veit, full of sorrow and heaviness at not being able to effect his payment, threw himself disconsolately on the grass, to consider what he should do. By-and-bye, his old device recurred to him, and up he jumped with a delighted air. “Yes! yes! that will be sure to do,” cried he; “I’ll call on him by his