Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/163

Rh before her lover. The complaisant sprite explained to her, that as soon as the juice of the turnip was dried up, the vegetable became utterly worthless, and its functions extinct.

The fair Emma, finding that she was again to be doomed to solitude, first complained, and then wept; and so powerful are the tears of a lovely woman, that, not even a gnome could withstand them. He protested that he would explore every inch of his subterraneous domain in quest of another supply of turnips suited to her purpose; but his exertions were fruitless. Delicious fruits and fragrant flowers he found in abundance; but though he would willingly have exchanged a whole bushel of the golden apples of the Hesperides for a single turnip, not one could he procure. He then determined to ransack his dominions over-head; but what was his dismay, on emerging from below, to find the icy sceptre of winter extended over the whole earth, and not even a blade of grass penetrating through the deep masses of snow!

In this dilemma, there was nothing left for our dejected lover but to assume the appearance of a countryman, walk into the nearest village, and purchase a sackful of turnip-seed, which he laid at the feet of his beautiful tyrant. Provoked and disappointed, she now loaded him with reproaches, ridiculed the idea of his possessing such boasted power of transmutation, and cut him to the heart by sarcasms on his inability to perform what he had undertaken; in short, she raised such a storm as any one, save a lover, would have fled from. But the gnome stood his ground; and the lovely Emma at last consented to accompany him to the garden, to see him sow the seed from which her future happiness was to arise. The gnome set instantly to work, and in a few moments innumerable uprooted myrtles, hyacinths, and carnations strewed the ground. So eager indeed was Emma to forward the work of extermination, that she laid her dignity aside, and assisted her lover to tear up whole beds of her once-loved flowers, and to sow the much-valued substitutes in their place. To watch the progress of the turnip-field, was her occupation morning, noon, and night; and there at sunrise or sunset her lover never failed to find her. He rejoiced at it, for she never listened so complacently to his suit as when so engaged.

Gradually the young plants increased in size and beauty, and gradually the coldness and reserve of the princess began to give way, until at length she consented to be his—but on one condition. “My marriage,” said she to her enraptured lover, “shall not be without witnesses; go, then, and count every turnip in the field; I shall animate every one of them; for take care that you count them correctly, for if you miss but one of them, my promise shall be withdrawn.” So enchanted was the gnome, that he would not have scrupled to count the sands of the sea-shore. The counting of a field of turnips, therefore, appeared a small affair; and Emma having retired into the palace not to disturb his calcu-