Destined to be

chapter 34

Previously ;

How hard my mistress , the Lizard , makes me work ! Who would have thought she would have wished to deck her green head with opals down there , where there are only a tribe of brown gnomes to see her ? But I have not given her that one out of the ring which I stole , nor three others that I conjured out of the crozier of the priest as I knelt at the altar , and they thought I was rehearsing a prayer to the Virgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . " After resting some time , the pedlar took up his pack and went boldly on to the gardens , never doubting but that Hulda was dead ; but it so happened that at that moment Hulda and her mother sat at work in a shady part of the garden under some elder - trees . " What is the matter , my sweet bird ? " said Hulda , for the bird pecked her wrist , and fluttered its wings , and opened its beak as if it were very much frightened . " Let us go , mother , and look about us , " said Hulda . So they both got up and wandered all over the gardens ; but the pedlar , in the meantime , had walked on toward the town , and they saw nothing of him . " Sing to me , my sweet bird , " said Hulda that night as she lay down to sleep . " Tell me _ why _ you pecked my wrist ." Then the bird sang to her : " Who came from the ruin , the ivy - clad ruin , With old shaking arches , all moss overgrown , Where the flitter - bat hideth , The limber snake glideth , And chill water drips from the slimy green stone ? "

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" Who did ? " asked Hulda . " Not the pedlar , surely ? Tell me , my pretty bird ." But the bird only chirped a little and fluttered its golden wings , so Hulda ceased to ask it , and presently fell asleep , but the bird woke her by pecking her wrist very early , almost before sunrise , and sang : " Who dips a brown hand in the chill shaded water , The water that drips from a slimy green stone ? Who flings his red cap At the owlets that flap Their white wings in his face as he sits there alone ? " Hulda , upon hearing this , arose in great haste and dressed herself ; then she went to her father and mother , and entreated that they would come with her to the old ruin . It was now broad day , so they all three set out together . It was a very hot morning , the dust lay thick upon the road , and there was not air enough to stir the thick leaves of the trees which hung overhead . They had not gone far before they found themselves in a crowd of people , all going toward the castle ruin , for there , they told Hulda , the pedlar , the famous pedlar from the north , who sold such fine wares , was going to perform some feats of jugglery of most surprising cleverness . " Child , " whispered Hulda's mother , " nothing could be more fortunate for us ; let us mingle with the crowd and get close to the pedlar . " Hulda assented to her mother's wish , but the heat and dust , together with her own intense desire to rescue the lost wand , made her tremble so that she had great difficulty in walking . They went among gypsies , fruitwomen , peasant girls , children , travelling musicians , common soldiers , and laborers ; the heat increased , and the dust and the noise , and at last Hulda and her parents were borne forward into the old ruin among a rush of people running and huzzaing , and heard the pedlar shout to them : " Keep back , good people ; leave a space before me ; leave a large space between me and you ." So they pressed back again , jostling and crowding each other , and left an open space before him from which he looked at them with his cunning black eyes , and with one hand dabbling in the cold water of the spring . The place was open to the sky , and the broken arches and walls were covered with thick ivy and wall flowers . The pedlar sat on a large gray stone , with his red cap on and his brown fingers adorned with splendid rings , and he spread them out and waved his hands to the people with ostentatious ceremony . " Now , good people , " he said , without rising from his seat , " you are about to see the finest , rarest , and most wonderful exhibition of the conjuring art ever known ! "

" Stop ! " cried a woman's voice from the crowd , and a young girl rushed wildly forward from the people , who had been trying to hold her back . " I impeach you before all these witnesses ! " she cried , seizing him by the hand . " See justice done , good people. I impeach you , pedlar . Where's the ring - - my mother's ring - - which you stole on Midsummer's day in the castle ? "

"Good people , " said the pedlar , pulling his red cap over his face , and speaking in a mild , fawning voice , " I hope you'll protect me . I hope you won't see me insulted ."

" My ring , my ring ! " cried Hulda ; " he wore it on his finger but now ! "

" Show your hand like a man ! " said the people . " If the lady says falsely , can't you face her and tell her so ? Never hold it down so cowardly ! " The pedlar had tucked his feet under him , and when the people cried out to him to let the rings on his hand be seen , he had already burrowed with them up to his knees in the earth . " Oh , he will go down into the earth ! " cried Hulda . " But I will not let go ! Pedlar , pedlar , it is useless ! If I follow you before the Lizard , your mistress , I will not let go ! " The pedlar turned his terrified , cowardly eyes upon Hulda , and sank lower and lower . The people were too frightened to move . " Stop , child , " cried her mother . " Oh , he will go down and drag thee with him ." But Hulda would not and could not let go .

The pedlar had now sunk up to his waist. Her mother wrung her hands, and in an instant the earth closed upon them both, and, after falling in the dark down a steep abyss, they found themselves, not at all the worse, standing in a dimly lighted cave with a large table in it piled with mouldy books. Behind the table was a smooth and perfectly round hole in the wall about the size of a cartwheel. Hulda looked that way, and saw how intensely dark it was through this hole, and she was wondering where it led to when an enormous green Lizard put its head through into the cave, and gazed at her with its great brown eyes. "What is thy demand, fine child of the daylight?" said the Lizard. "Princess," replied Hulda, "I demand that this thy servant should give up to me a ring which he stole in my father's castle when I was a child." The pedlar no sooner heard Hulda boldly demand her rights than he fell on his knees and began to cry for mercy. "Mercy rests with this maiden," said the Lizard. At the same time she darted out her tongue, which was several yards in length and like a scarlet thread, and with it stripped the ring from the gnome's finger and gave it to Hulda. "Speak, maiden, what reparation do you demand of this culprit, and what shall be his punishment?" "Great princess," replied Hilda, "let him restore to me a golden wand which I sold to him, for it belongs to a fairy whom he has long persecuted." "Here it is, here it is!" cried the cowardly gnome, putting his hand into his bosom and pulling it out, shaking all the time, and crying out most piteously, "Oh, don't let me be banished from the sunshine!" "After this double crime no mercy can be shown you," said the Lizard, and she twined her scarlet tongue round him, and drew him through the hole to herself. At the same instant it closed, and a c***k came in the roof of the cave, through which the sunshine stole, and as Hulda looked up in flew a brown moth and settled on the magic bracelet. She touched the moth with the wand, and instantly it stood upon her wrist--a beautiful and joyous fairy. She took her wand from Hulda's hand, and stood for a moment looking gratefully in her face without speaking. Then she said to the wand: "Art thou my own again, and wilt thou serve me?" "Try me," said the wand. So she struck the wall with it, and said, "Cleave, wall!" and a hole came in the wall large enough for Hulda to creep through, and she found herself at the foot of a staircase hewn in the rock, and, after walking up it for three hours, she came out in the old ruined castle, and was astonished to see that the sun had set. The moment she appeared her father and mother, who had given her over for lost, clasped her in their arms and wept for joy as they embraced her. "My child," said her father, "how happy thou lookest, not as if thou hadst been down in the dark earth!" Hulda kissed her parents and smiled upon them; then she turned to look for the fairy, but she was gone. So they all three walked home in the twilight, and the next day Hulda set out again with her parents to return to the old castle in Norway. As for the fairy, she was happy from that day in the possession of her wand; but the little golden bird folded its wings and never sang any songs again.

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