Narrative Poems, part 7, Bay of Seven Islands | Page 8

the door of glass and let me?lead her forth."
"She will not come; she's one of us; she's?mine!" the Brown Dwarf said;?The day is set, the cake is baked, to-morrow we?shall wed."
"The fell fiend fetch thee!" Deitrich cried, "and?keep thy foul tongue still.?Quick! open, to thy evil world, the glass door of?the hill!"
The Dwarf obeyed; and youth and Troll down, the?long stair-way passed,?And saw in dim and sunless light a country strange?and vast.
Weird, rich, and wonderful, he saw the elfin?under-land,--?Its palaces of precious stones, its streets of golden?sand.
He came unto a banquet-hall with tables richly?spread,?Where a young maiden served to him the red wine?and the bread.
How fair she seemed among the Trolls so ugly and?so wild!?Yet pale and very sorrowful, like one who never?smiled!
Her low, sweet voice, her gold-brown hair, her tender?blue eyes seemed?Like something he had seen elsewhere or some.?thing he had dreamed.
He looked; he clasped her in his arms; he knew?the long-lost one;?"O Lisbeth! See thy playmate--I am the?Amptman's son!"
She leaned her fair head on his breast, and through?her sobs she spoke?"Oh, take me from this evil place, and from the?elfin folk,
"And let me tread the grass-green fields and smell?the flowers again,?And feel the soft wind on my cheek and hear the?dropping rain!
"And oh, to hear the singing bird, the rustling of?the tree,?The lowing cows, the bleat of sheep, the voices of?the sea;
"And oh, upon my father's knee to sit beside the?door,?And hear the bell of vespers ring in Rambin?church once more!"
He kissed her cheek, he kissed her lips; the Brown?Dwarf groaned to see,?And tore his tangled hair and ground his long?teeth angrily.
But Deitrich said: "For five long years this tender?Christian maid?Has served you in your evil world and well must?she be paid!
"Haste!--hither bring me precious gems, the?richest in your store;?Then when we pass the gate of glass, you'll take?your cap once more."
No choice was left the baffled Troll, and, murmuring,?he obeyed,?And filled the pockets of the youth and apron of?the maid.
They left the dreadful under-land and passed the?gate of glass;?They felt the sunshine's warm caress, they trod the?soft, green grass.
And when, beneath, they saw the Dwarf stretch up?to them his brown?And crooked claw-like fingers, they tossed his red?cap down.
Oh, never shone so bright a sun, was never sky so?blue,?As hand in hand they homeward walked the pleasant?meadows through!
And never sang the birds so sweet in Rambin's?woods before,?And never washed the waves so soft along the Baltic?shore;
And when beneath his door-yard trees the father?met his child,?The bells rung out their merriest peal, the folks?with joy ran wild.
? END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BAY OF SEVEN ISLANDS, ETC *** By John Greenleaf Whittier
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