Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/176

 taking any notice of their studied insults, the next thing was to get spades and mattocks, and set to work digging all over his territory, in search of the great copper of dollars. Rubezahl let them fag away as much as they liked, amused, indeed, at the folly of these blockheads, whom he deemed quite beneath his anger. Now and then, for the better sport, when some treasure-seeker, eager to get ahead of his competitors, would come in the night-time to dig, he would cause a small bluish flame to spring out of the earth, in a particular spot; the dupe would run up to this, thinking all his hopes about to be realized, and after working away like a horse for three or four hours, till he was ready to drop, would come to an old iron-bound box. Oh! how his heart would beat! Ay, he knew what he was about; all the other fellows were fools! Then, oh! how hard would he labour in dragging the treasure home! And oh! how difficult ’twas to keep his fingers from breaking it open until the nine days enjoined by custom in such cases to be first passed over had expired; and oh! with what palpitations of the heart would he force the lid on the tenth day; and oh! how very miserable would he look when he found nothing in the treasure-chest but stones and clods of earth! But, nothing deterred, the vagabonds persisted in coming, bawling “Rubezahl! Rubezahl!” and digging away like mad. At last the Gnome quite lost all patience, and drove