Through this dismal place he trudged along, with his knees shaking, but with a brave heart, until he came to a great pine, which evidently had been struck by lightning, for it stood up white and tall, lifting its bare arms to the sky, like some specter giant crying for vengeance.
Luckily he had placed the bluebird in his pocket, fearing that the low hanging branches would sweep it from his shoulders. Had he not done so before arriving at this spot the opportunity would not have presented itself again.
Right at the foot of the pine, on a decaying log, sat a little old man, who was altogether the ugliest looking object that Ned had ever seen. He was about half the size of ordinary men, though the whiteness of his hair and beard showed plainly that he would never be any taller, and though his body was short and crooked to the last degree, his face was long and pale, but was lighted up by wonderfully brilliant eyes.
These were fixed on Ned from the moment he came in sight, and, piercing through the darkness, it is no wonder that they chilled the poor boy's blood and failed to quicken his pace. Indeed, it is not quite certain that he would have gone forward at all if the greater part of the forest had not been behind him, though there seemed to be a spell in the strange eyes that drew the boy on in spite of himself.
"Come along! What are you afraid of?" cried the dwarf in a little, dry voice, that sounded like the cracking of a dry twig beneath one's foot.
Ned hesitated, and, as if seeking the comfort of something alive and friendly, thrust his hand into his pocket alongside of the little bluebird.
"Come on! Come on, little master," repeated the dwarf. "Here I have been waiting more than an hour to tell you some good news, and now that you are here you would hinder me because you are such a coward."
"I don't know you," said Ned, as an excuse.
"Well, well, no matter for that. I know you well enough. Would you read about gnomes and then be so cowardly that you would fear to associate with them?"
As he finished speaking, he arose, disclosing a doorway in the trunk of the pine tree behind him.