Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/123

 Smolicheck said, no, he couldn’t open the door. He thought to himself that he would like to have one peep at the wood maidens just to see what they looked like. But he mustn’t open the door even a crack, no, he mustn’t!

The little wood maidens kept on begging him and shivering and shaking and telling him how cold they were, until Smolicheck felt very sorry for them.

“I don’t think it would matter,” he said to himself, “if I opened the door just a weeny teeny bit.”

So he opened the door just a tiny crack. Instantly two little white fingers popped in, and then two more and two more and two more, and then little white hands, and then little white arms, and then, before Smolicheck knew what as happening, a whole bevy of little wood maidens were in the room! They danced around Smolicheck and they howled and they yelled and they took hold of him and dragged him out of the house and away towards the woods!

Smolicheck was dreadfully frightened and he screamed out with all his might:

''Oh, dear Golden Antlers, wherever you are In valley or mountain or pasture afar, Come quick! Don’t delay! The wicked wood maidens are dragging away''