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"Stop!" cried the now enraged dwarf. "Begone! ere I, base boy! shall heave the turret down." "Certainly," replied the youth. "Big, ornary, base boy shall leave thee to rot down. Oh! yes; of course, of course!" And away he went. The Court fool came at last and let his master down. "Oh! ho!" said he of the motley, as the dwarf came slowly down the ladder. "Thou art now the first descendant of thy house." The dwarf laughed, and fell the rest of the way. "No matter!" he cried, rubbing his shins. "My house shall follow me. It shall come down too. I am going to have it all built up anew." "Bravo!" said the clown. "I thought you were too happy." On the next day the door-bell of the castle rang, and soon a varlet came to fast inform my lord the dwarf that in the parlor waited now a giant, and on the card he gave his name was written, "S.T. Mate." The dwarf unto his parlor quick repaired, and there, upon some dozen chairs the giant sat, smiling benign. "Hail to thee! good Sir Dwarf," spake the mammoth, and rising and folding his arms across his breast, he sang, in royal bass, his song: |
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"I hear that thou, O neighbor brave! Thy edifice anew would build. I come to much vain labor save. If thou to hear me now art willed." "Proceed," said the dwarf, seating himself upon a piano-stool, and screwing himself up until he was near the ceiling and on a level with the singer's head. The giant proceeded: "If thou shouldst build thy house thyself, The cost thou surely ne'er would know; But if I take the job, my friend. You'll see where every cent will go." "I like that," said the dwarf. "Pray sing some more." "I'll tell you just what it will cost; And all that you will have to do Will be to travel for a time, Whilst I your castle build anew." "That's capital!" cried the delighted dwarf. "It would suit me exactly. Warble me yet other wood notes wild." The giant sang on: "A castle such as you will want Will cost you eighty pounds—or so. I'll charge you nothing for my time; You'll see where every cent will go." |
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The dwarf revolved himself rapidly, and quickly reached the floor.
"The concert's over!" he cried, "and here's a check for eighty pounds. Proceed! Tear down; construct! I leave tonight for foreign parts. Write me when all is done. Adieu." The interview terminated. The clown, who had overheard this fair discourse, now left the castle; and retiring to a secluded spot, where—a willow drooped sadly o'er the brook, he laid him down and died. The dwarf to foreign parts now hied, and when twelve months had passed, and he had had no news of his grand castle, he returned home. He found the castle finished—all but the roof and walls. The deep cellars, with their marble copings just peeping 'neath the heavy mass of weeds that clustered to their very edge, were dark and solemn. The sly fox slunk along their passages, and grim serpents reared their heads from many a gloomy corner. The dwarf, he gazed in silence! By heavy sighs his breast was heaven, and black thoughts made his soul like Hades! Anon he mounted in hot haste, and rode unto the giant's castle on the distant hills. By sundown, the dwarf he saw on the horizon a great blue mass, the sight of which did move his inmost being. "It is his castle!" quoth he, and he gave his steed free rein. The interview was terrible! All the domestics fled and hid themselves in distant dells. At last the dwarf, exhausted by vituperation, sank upon the flagstones of the court-yard. Then folded the giant his arms and sang his song: |
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"Oh! hear me now, misguided dwarf, Eight thousand pound more I must ask. Materials, and labor too, All rose since I began my task. Among the things we can't divine. Are values of such terms as 'so;' But I've all items entered straight, Where all the money goes you'll know." |
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The dwarf gave one quick savage glance at the pocket of the giant, S.T. MATE, and then, without a word, he proudly crossed the drawbridge. But he had not long left the castle at his back ere dejection crept upon him and never left him more. The dwarf he did his cellar reach, fainting, almost bereft of speech; and as his men he staggered by, with panting breast and haggard eye, "Minstrel!" he cried, "O laggard! I for deepest depths of Lethe long. Get thy guitar and sing a song!" |
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The minstrel sang:
"O Estimate! Thy name is great, MEDUSA's head thou sure must own. Do as we will, Thy coming still Turns all our hard-earned cash to stone." |
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The dwarf, now sunk in Lethe's mud, did snore; knowing the sign, the minstrel then forbore. |
