Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/98

 orchards, whose trees were laden with noble fruit, gleamed forth the thatched roofs of pretty cottages, the friendly smoke from whose chimnies rose curling into the clear air. At intervals on the mountain slopes, frowned turreted fortresses, at once dominating and defending the vallies beneath. In the blooming meadows which varied the scene, pastured herds of sheep and of cattle; the while, amid pleasant groves, re-echoed the soothing notes of shepherds’ pipes.

The novelty of the thing, and the agreeable aspect of the new region, so astonished and delighted the subterranean sovereign, that he never once thought of being angry with those who had, without his permission, taken possession of his territory, or of disturbing them in their operations. Like the good-natured farmer who suffers the sociable swallow, or even the troublesome sparrow, to retain unmolested the nest it has built beneath his eaves, Rubezahl benevolently resolved that the busy mortals should receive no interruption from him. On the contrary, he conceived a fancy to make acquaintance with these creatures, intermediate between spirits and animals, and see what they were made of. ’Twould serve to amuse him awhile. Forthwith, he assumed the form of a lusty hind, and offering his services to the first farmer he met with, was accepted. All that he undertook throve in the hands of Rips, for so he called himself, who soon became noted as