Page:Stories of Norse Gods and Heroes.djvu/20

14 with sooty faces. Some were hammering iron, and others were smelting gold. Some were cutting out rock crystals and staining them red for garnets and rubies. The elf women brought violets and the greenest grass to be found on the earth above. With these they stained crystals blue and green for sapphires and emeralds.

Some of the elf women brought children's tears from the upper earth, and the gentlest elves changed them into pearls.

As fast as they were finished the jewels were carried away by the little elf boys and hidden in the ground, where they are found to this day. If you wish to see what cunning workmen the elves were, look at the shining faces and straight edges of quartz crystals, or at the beautiful coloring of emeralds and rubies.

The little elf girls crept through the earth under the ocean and gave the pearls to the oysters to keep. Even now the oysters shut their shells tight and will not give up the pearls.

Loke watched the little workmen a long time. Then he went in and told his errand. Nothing delighted the elves