Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands Part 20

The boatman feels his bosom With a nameless longing move; He sees not the gulfs before him, His gaze is fixed above,

Till over boat and boatman The Rhine's deep waters run: And this, with her magic singing, The Lorelei has done!

Among the pleasing stories related on this evening was "Little Mook,"

by Hauff, and a poetic account of a "Queer Old Lady who went to College."

LITTLE MOOK.

There once lived a dwarf in the town of Niceu, whom the people called Little Mook. He lived alone, and was thought to be rich. He had a very small body and a very large head, and he wore an enormous turban.

He seldom went into the streets, for the reason that ill-bred children there followed and annoyed him. They used to cry after him,--

"Little Mook, O Little Mook, Turn, oh, turn about and look!

Once a month you leave your room, With your head like a balloon: Try to catch us, if you can; Turn and look, my little man."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE TO HEIDELBERG CASTLE.]

I will tell you his history.

His father was a hard-hearted man, and treated him unkindly because he was deformed. The old man at last died, and his relatives drove the dwarf away from his home.

He wandered into the strange world with a cheerful spirit, for the strange world was more kind to him than his kin had been.

He came at last to a strange town, and looked around for some face that should seem pitiful and friendly. He saw an old house, into whose door a great number of cats were pa.s.sing. "If the people here are so good to cats, they may be kind to me," he thought, and so he followed them. He was met by an old woman, who asked him what he wanted.

He told his sad story.

"I don't cook any but for my darling p.u.s.s.y cats," said the beldame; "but I pity your hard lot, and you may make your home with me until you can find a better."

So Little Mook was employed to look after the cats and kittens.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LITTLE MOOK.]

The kittens, I am sorry to say, used to behave very badly when the old dame went abroad; and when she came home and found the house in confusion, and bowls and vases broken, she used to berate Little Mook for what he could not help.

While in the old lady's service he discovered a secret room in which were magic articles, among them a pair of enormous slippers.

One day when the old lady was out the little dog broke a crystal vase. Little Mook knew that he would be held responsible for the accident, and he resolved to escape and try his fortune in the world again. He would need good shoes, for the journey might be long; so he put on the big slippers and ran away.

Ran? What wonderful slippers those were! He had only to say to them, "Go!" and they would impel him forward with the rapidity of the wind. They seemed to him like wings.

"I will become a courier," said Little Mook, "and so make my fortune, sure."

So Little Mook went to the palace in order to apply to the king.

He first met the messenger-in-ordinary.

"What!" said he, "you want to be the king's messenger,--you with your little feet and great slippers!"

"Will you allow me to make a trial of speed with your swiftest runner?" asked Little Mook.

The messenger-in-ordinary told the king about the little man and his application.

"We will have some fun with him," said the king. "Let him run a race with my first messenger for the sport of the court."

So it was arranged that Little Mook should try his speed with the swiftest messenger.

Now the king's runner was a very tall man. His legs were very long and slender; he had little flesh on his body. He walked with wonderful swiftness, looking like a windmill as he strode forward.

He was the telegraph of his times, and the king was very proud of him.

The next day the king, who loved a jest, summoned his court to a meadow to witness the race, and to see what the b.u.mptious pygmy could do. Everybody was on tiptoe of expectation, being sure that something amusing would follow.

When Little Mook appeared he bowed to the spectators, who laughed at him. When the signal was given for the two to start, Little Mook allowed the runner to go ahead of him for a little time, but when the latter drew near the king's seat he pa.s.sed him, to the wonder of all the people, and easily won the race.

The king was delighted, the princess waved her veil, and the people all shouted, "Huzza for Little Mook!"

So Little Mook became the royal messenger, and surpa.s.sed all the runners in the world with his magic slippers.

But Little Mook's great success with his magic slippers excited envy, and made him bitter enemies, and at last the king himself came to believe the stories of his enemies, and turned against him and banished him from his kingdom.

Little Mook wandered away, sore at heart, and as friendless as when he had left home and the house of the old woman. Just beyond the confines of the kingdom he came to a grove of fig-trees full of fruit.

He stopped to rest and refresh himself with the fruit. There were two trees that bore the finest figs he had ever seen. He gathered some figs from one of them, but as he was eating them his nose and ears began to _grow_, and when he looked down into a clear, pure stream near by, he saw that his head had been changed into a head like a donkey.

He sat down under the _other_ fig-tree in despair. At last he took up a fig that had fallen from this tree, and ate it. Immediately his nose and ears became smaller and smaller and resumed their natural shape. Then he perceived that the trees bore magic fruit.

"Happy thought!" said Little Mook. "I will go back to the palace and sell the fruit of the first tree to the royal household, and then I will turn doctor, and give the donkeys the fruit of the second tree as medicine. But I will not give the old king any medicine."

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMPUTATION.]

Little Mook gathered the two kinds of figs, and returned to the palace and sold that of the first tree to the butler.

Oh, then there was woe in the palace! The king's family were seen wandering around with donkeys' heads on their shoulders. Their noses and ears were as long as their arms. The physicians were sent for and they held a _consultation_. They decided on amputation; but as fast as they cut off the noses and ears of the afflicted household, these troublesome members grew out again, longer than before.

Then Little Mook appeared with the principles and remedies of h.o.m.oeopathy. He gave one by one of the sufferers the figs of the _second_ tree, and they were cured. He collected his fees, and having relieved all but the king he fled, taking his h.o.m.oeopathic arts with him. The king wore the head of a donkey to his latest day.

THE QUEER OLD LADY WHO WENT TO COLLEGE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE QUEER OLD LADY WHO WENT TO COLLEGE.]

There was a queer old lady, and she had lost her youth; She bought her a new mirror, And it told to her the truth.

Did she break the truthful mirror?

Oh, no, no; no, no, no, no.

But she bought some stays quite rare, Some false teeth and wavy hair, Some convex-concave gla.s.ses such as men of culture wear, And then she looked again, And she said, "I am not plain,-- I am not plain, 'tis plain, Not very, very plain, I did not think that primps and crimps Would change a body so.

I'll take a book on Art, And press it to my heart, And I'll straightway go to college, Where I think I'll catch a beau."