Seeing Honor all eagerness, he hobbled across the room, and returned, pushing before him a small table covered with bits of wood and carving tools.
“Like that!” he repeated, settling himself, and taking up his work. “While the hands work, the tongue may play; if it speaks no evil!” added the boy, crossing himself gravely.
“Tell me about the pixies!” cried Honor. “Did you ever see one, Zitli?”
Zitli glanced toward the dairy.
“The sister holds it not well to speak of them,” he said uneasily; “but so long as one says no harm—Brother Atli thinks it was a dwarf I saw, mademoiselle, a mortal being, only small, like a tiny child. There are such, he says, and all he says is true. Nevertheless—” he paused.
“Nevertheless? Do go on, Zitli!”
“He was very small!” Zitli spoke in a half-whisper. “Smaller than any child I ever saw; and he wore a green coat. Mademoiselle can judge for herself. Certain it is that he had a bag full of money, hung from his belt. There was a hole in it, and some coins had fallen out, gold and silver pieces. There they lay in the road, and he all unknowing. I called to him, and he turned and gave me a look of anger truly frightful. I began to pick up the coins, and brought them to him as quickly as I could; then, quite suddenly, his look changed. He thanked me as a father might, and gave me—look, mademoiselle!”
He drew from under his shirt a small bag that hung round his neck, and opening it, displayed a gold coin.
“Oh, Zitli, how wonderful!” cried Honor. “And you think—you really think he was a pixy? May I look? Oh! but—but this is a real coin, isn’t it? A ten-florin piece. Would a pixy have that, do you think, Zitli?”
Zitli nodded thrice, gravely. “Mademoiselle,” he said, “those people can have what they like—or the appearance of it. Never while I live will I spend this gold; and—mademoiselle may think this strange, but it is true—since I have had it my back has given me no pain; but none at all, compared with former times. It is true, as my sister says, that the doctor at Lucerne gave also some help; yes, I am not ungrateful to him; but—” he nodded several times, gravely, as he replaced the bag around his neck.