Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 9.djvu/173

Rh Equal with equal! then all is right! That's the motto in which I delight. I am in love with the miller-boy; He wears nothing that I could destroy.

 FAITHFUL ECKART.

", would we were further! Oh, would we were home The phantoms of night tow'rd us hastily come, The band of the Sorceress sisters. They hitherward speed, and on finding us here, They'll drink, though with toil we have fetched it, the beer, And leave us the pitchers all empty."

Thus speaking, the children with fear take to flight, When sudden an old man appears in their sight; "Be quiet, child! children, be quiet! From hunting they come, and their thirst they would still, So leave them to swallow as much as they will, And the Evil Ones then will be gracious."

As said, so 'twas done! and the phantoms draw near, And shadowlike seem they, and gray they appear, Yet blithely they sip and they revel: The beer has all vanished, the pitchers are void; With cries and with shouts the wild hunters, o'er joyed, Speed onward o'er vale and o'er mountain.

The children in terror fly nimbly toward home, And with them the kind one is careful to come: "My darlings, oh, be not so mournful!"— 