Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
And the Sunday too!”
There was a short silence; the dwarfs waited to see what Guilcher would say.
“All the week have you!”
finished he gaily.
Thousands of cries which made but one cry rose up from all corners of the common. The whole heath was instantly covered with jumping Korigans. They sprung out from tufts of grass, from bushes of broom, from rocky clefts,—one would have said it was a very hive of little black men; whilst all gambolling amongst the heather, they exclaimed,
“Guilcherik, our saviour! he
Has fulfill’d the Lord’s decree!”
“By my soul! what does all this mean?” cried Benead in astonishment.
“It means,” replied the Korigans, “that God had sentenced us to dwell here amongst men, and every night to dance upon the common, until some good Christian should finish our refrain. You first lengthened it, and we hoped that the tailor you sent would have completed it; but he stopped short on the very point of doing so, and for that we punished him. You fortunately have done what he could not; our time of trial now is over, and we shall go back to our kingdom, which spreads under ground, beneath the very sea and rivers,”