First, came the pipers and the band of musicians, playing on strange, curved trumpets and beating drums that sounded like the hum of many flying insects. Behind them walked the old king and the young queen in long robes of spotted butterfly wings and wearing golden crowns that glistened with precious stones; then the nurse, bearing a little baby upon a cushion of silver cobweb, tied with a hair of gold. Following them were many dignitaries in gorgeous cloaks and, last of all, came men and women of the people, hurrying across the floor like little insects, for they were hardly any larger.
When the procession of tiny folk reached the old lady's shoe, they fearlessly climbed up her skirt to her lap and on across her arms which rested on the press. She laughed to see the great crowd walk over her and was careful not to move—indeed, she hardly breathed—lest she might hurt one of them.
When all had gathered around the tree, one old man took the little prince in his arms and, as the others knelt before him, he made them a long speech. The old lady could not understand it at all, for it sounded to her like a fly buzzing on the window pane; but, when the old man had finished, all shouted together: »Long live our prince, Tom! May he reign happily!«
The girls began to dance around the tree and all the little people jumped and laughed and shouted with merriment. The king and the queen, followed by the nurse with the little prince, stepped upon the old book, which made a good platform, and thanked the herb woman for her kindness. The king then begged her to be a kind godmother to the prince and to continue to be a good friend to his people, just as her ancestors had been. The old lady promised this with pleasure, for she felt a great love for the little folk who brought back so vividly the days when her people were rich and famous.
The queen started to take the wrappings from the tiny baby, which were bound round and round about him, and the herb woman and the old king talked of the golden days gone by. The king told her the tales he had from his forefathers, of the brilliant life in the great castle; how the gnomes nestled in the soft tapestries by the great marble hearths; how they cleaned and polished the gold and precious stones in the underground chambers; how, on clear moonlight nights, they danced graceful figures with the fairies; and how, with grasshoppers as horses, they held noisy tournaments.
Whenever there was a newborn baby in the castle, the gnomes, in the night, wove beautiful dreams which they spread out in the rays of the moon under the canopy of the mother's bed and guarded the baby in its silver cradle.
The old lady listened happily, gazing at the gathering of the gnomes, lighted by the trembling rays of the candles, now almost burned out. Many of the young men had clambered into the branches of the tree and were swinging in the paper chains and sitting astride the golden nuts and red apples. Little girls were sliding back and forth on the slippery surface of the press, while serious old men and grayhaired women walked sedately in groups around the base of the tree. There were so many of the little people that they could not be counted.
The herb woman looked at the swiftly moving, variegated crowd until her eyelids drooped. She was already half asleep when the old king came to bid her good-by and, as in a dream, she heard him say: »Honored lady, for centuries your race protected us and, today, we would like to reward you. The great treasures of your family long ago disappeared, but, in the old, choked-up well, there still remains much gold. This we have carefully guarded from generation to generation and kept in clean and good order. In the well casing, in the fifth circle of stones from the top, you will find one engraved with a horseshoe. Behind this stone, you will find the money which your forefathers hid there; but be careful to replace the stone and not to disturb our underground realm.«