Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/178

 she had begun to collect leaves and dead branches, and was getting on bravely with her work, when the infant, getting weary of his situation, began to cry. The mother instantly ran to him, danced and tossed him for awhile, playing at the same time with the other children, and then, soothing him off to sleep, once more returned to her fuel-picking. In a few minutes the gnats again awoke the little sleepers, who all set up a tune. The mother, far from expressing the least impatience, ran to gather wild strawberries for the bigger children, and quieted the youngest by giving it the breast. These maternal attentions strongly affected the Gnome. By-and-bye, the little fellow who had been carried pick-a-back became perfectly untractable, stormed and roared, and when his mother offered him strawberries, threw them away, and only bawled the louder. The poor woman at last grew impatient. “Rubezahl!” cried she, “come here and eat up this noisy boy.” The Gnome immediately assumed his wonted form of a collier, and jumping over the hedge, said: “Here I am; what dost thou want?” The woman was at first terribly frightened at this apparition, but being naturally stout-hearted, she soon collected herself, and answered undauntedly: “I only called you to make my children quiet; now that they are so, I do not need your services; but I thank you kindly for your ready attention.”—“Knowest thou