THE BROWN DWARF

The pleasant isle of Rügen looks the Baltic water o’er,

To the silver-sanded beaches of the Pomeranian shore;

And in the town of Rambin a little boy and maid

Plucked the meadow-flowers together and in the sea-surf played.

Alike were they in beauty if not in their degree:

He was the Amptman’s first-born, the miller’s child was she.

Now of old the isle of Rügen was full of Dwarfs and Trolls,

The brown-faced little Earth-men, the people without souls;

And for every man and woman in Rügen’s island found