Page:The Floating Prince - Frank R Stockton.djvu/200

Rh rascally dwarfs to work here for forty-one days, I wouldn't stay here another minute, but you can't break a contract you make with dwarfs."

"It's a pretty hard thing to have to work here, that is true," said the Ninkum, "but you owe your ill-fortune to yourself. It's all because you're known to be so ill-natured and wicked. When the dwarf was sent to hire a man to come and work in this hole, he had to go to Jorn's house first because that was the nearest place, but he just gave one knock there, and hurried away, hoping he didn't hear, for it would be a pity to have a good man like Jorn working in a place like this. Then he went after you, for he knew you deserved to be punished by this kind of work."

As the Ninkum said this, Laub's face grew black with rage.

"So that's the truth!" he cried, "when I get out of this place, I'll crush every bone in the body of that sneaking Jorn," and, so saying he rushed down into the hot hole.

"Perhaps I ought not to have told him all that," said the Ninkum, as he walked away, "but I hate secrets, they always make mischief."

When he joined Loris, the little girl said, "Let us go out of this place now. I have seen nearly every thing, and it is so dark and gloomy."

Taking leave of the kind dwarf, the two made their way out of the mine.

"I do not like such gloomy places any better than you do," said the Ninkum. "Disagreeable things are always happening in them. I like to have things bright and lively. I'll tell you what would be splendid! To make a visit to the castle of Bim."

"What is that, and where is it?" asked Loris.

"It's the most delightful place in the whole world," said the