And the rainbow-arch o’er the portal falls,
Hark to the din! and hark to the roar!
’Tis done, ’tis done; our labour is o’er.”
And the children and Red Cap saw the water in the big cauldron begin to bubble at the bottom, and then rise rapidly higher and higher.
“Run to the hill!” cried Red Cap.
Hal and Cis needed no second bidding, but ran down the terrace and then climbed up the hill-side as quickly as they could with their bare feet, and from the midst of the bushes watched the big geyser shoot up into the sky with a terrific roar.
Soon the cauldron overflowed in tossing wavelets that swept downwards from terrace to terrace, filling to overflowing the countless baths on the way, and forming one beautiful sparkling cascade—in many parts blue as the sky overhead—from the top to the lake below, which was itself blue as a summer sky.
The gnomes, perching on the bushes and flax clumps round, nodded their heads approvingly, and sang:—
“The cascade falls o’er each marble lip,
Where at night the fairies merrily trip,