TOOK HER FATHER’S HAND
“Let me consider,” said the young lover, suddenly raising his head, “if there is a way to perform this task.”
But by the time he had estimated the length of the ground and the depth of the ravine on which he had to construct a paved way in a single night, and had realized the impossibility of carting the necessary stones for the colonnade, he groaned and sighed in dire despair.
“Night is falling,” he cried; “I will try my last resource. I will go and see if the miners who work in my uncle’s copper-mines could do this work before dawn.”
He at once started off to the Sunny Wood; he summoned the overseers and asked them if they could build a paved roadway from the Giant’s Castle to the town gates in a single night.
The overseers answered him that it would take at least a year, employing a thousand workmen a day, to execute such a work.
Harry, in deep dismay, took his homeward road, completely overwhelmed by his misfortunes. On the way he saw a little black-haired man, with a tall green hat and white pointed beard, leaning against a tree. He was not more than three feet high. He looked at the young knight with flaming eyes.
HE WAS NO MORE THAN THREE FEET HIGH
“You look sorrowful, Knight of Housestone; no mortal power can help you in your distress ... but if you like I can overcome your difficulties.”