Top of the World Stories for Boys and Girls Part 14

"Oh," answered the lizard, "one should never give up hope. Since I could get into the castle prison, we shall manage to get you out." And with that the tiny creature rustled away in the darkness.

A minute or two after, little Anton saw something black against the barred window. It squeezed itself between the bars and dropped with a thump to the floor.

"Here am I," chattered the squirrel, hopping to Anton. "What foolishness has been going on here?"

"As you see," replied Anton, "I am captured and bound, and in the morning I am to die."

"Oh, in the morning!" said the squirrel. "It is a long time to morning.

Much can happen before the sun gets up again."

"But I cannot stir hand or foot," said Anton. "Don't you see how they have tied my hands behind my back?"

"Oh, yes! I see that well enough," replied the squirrel, opening his big eyes wider than ever. "Where are the knots?" And with one jump he was on Anton's back, beginning immediately to gnaw at the knots with his small pointed teeth. He bit and pulled at the rope so that his little body shook with the effort; and it was not long before Anton felt the loosening at his wrists and afterward at his ankles. All at once the ropes fell off and he was free.

"Oh, you blessed little animal!" said Anton, hugging and kissing the squirrel. "Now I am a free person again, and not a tied-up bundle!"

"Yes, but there is still the high, barred window," said the squirrel.

"We must have the dove's help now." And he sprang up to the window and vanished through it.

Little Anton stood looking after him, but suddenly he could no longer see the stars and the sky as before, for they were blotted out by something that filled the whole window. He soon saw that it was the dove flapping her out-spread wings against the bars. She could not get in, but she had something in her bill which she let fall through the window.

It clanged as it hit the floor, and when Anton stooped to pick it up, he saw that it was a file.

"I found that in Rynkebryn's own window where it lay, ready to be used for his evil purposes; but now it shall help you out of prison," said the dove.

No one would have imagined they could do it, but the squirrel and the dove helped Anton to get the ropes he had been tied with up to the window, and to fasten them there so firmly that he could climb up the ropes. Then he filed and filed at the iron bars till his hands bled, while the lizard ran up and down the wall saying: "Make haste! Make haste! It will soon be morning!"

But the sun had not yet risen when little Anton stood, rescued and free, on the rocks outside the castle wall.

And there was the chamois waiting for him!

"Seat yourself on my back, little Anton!" said the chamois. "And hold tight! for we are going to gallop down the mountain so fast that straps and buckles would not keep you on!"

So Anton got on the chamois' back and held tight. This was necessary indeed; for slow as it had been trudging up the mountain, he now went down with a speed like that of a stone which, being tossed, bounds from rock to rock as it strikes them on its downward-flying way.

"I shall fall! I shall fall!" shouted Anton, clinging for dear life to the chamois' neck. "I shall pitch off head first!"

"Oh, no! You won't fall," said the chamois; "nor I, either. I am very sure-footed," and on it leaped as fast as ever.

Just as the sun rose, Anton stood at the Mayor's door and knocked. The Mayor himself came to open it, and was overwhelmed with wonder when he saw little Anton standing there as alive as ever, and without so much as a hair of his head hurt!

"I come with bad tidings," said Anton. "If you don't look out, you will have Rynkebryn and his men after you before you know it; and he is not going to spare any of you,--yourselves or your property. Every one had better be armed and ready."

The next night, Baron Rynkebryn with all his warriors came sneaking down the mountain expecting to take the peasants by surprise, and to catch them all as one catches rats in a trap; and he felt himself completely fooled when he found the peasants on the alert and prepared to give him a warm welcome! From all the country round had the town folk summoned help, and the men were armed with lances and javelins, with scythes and pitchforks; and there was nothing for Rynkebryn to do but to hasten up the mountain again as fast as his legs could carry him. But the peasants followed him all the way to Falkensten, gathered brushwood and branches which they heaped about the castle, and then set on fire, determined to destroy that den of thieves. It blazed and flamed like a bonfire and sent ruddy light far and near. The wicked Baron Rynkebryn and his men were forced to flee and to hide like wild eagles high up in desolate clefts of the mountains.

And now there was nothing good that the people did not wish to do for little Anton! They would have him to be Mayor, and a great festival should be held in his honor in the palatial hall of the Council House.

But little Anton only thanked them over and over. He had not the least desire in the world to be Mayor, neither did he care to sit and feast and sing with those who had recently sent him out on that dangerous errand without troubling themselves at all as to what would happen to him.

Therefore, he asked only that he might have what he needed in order to give a party to his nearest and dearest friends. Oh, yes! The people would gladly give him anything; he need only say what he wished for.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MAYOR WAS OVERWHELMED WITH WONDER.--_Page 171_.]

Then Anton said he would like one vest-pocket full of grain, and the other full of small snails; and one trousers-pocket full of nuts, and the other full of salt. He would like also a loaf of white bread, a bottle of wine and a handful of fresh peaches.

The people thought his wishes were very peculiar indeed; but he received what he had asked for and then started toward the mountain.

A little later, as he sat under a chestnut-tree and looked out over the valley, he heard the drums and trumpets from the festival in the Council House, where the people sat and feasted, and shouted hurrahs for their old Mayor. A spring bubbled near him; the chestnut-tree shaded him; the sun shone on the vineyards below, while high up at the top of the mountain, smoke was still rising from the ruins of Falkensten.

He had spread his table on the fresh green gra.s.s. There lay the bread and the peaches and beside them stood the flask of wine; but before he began to eat, he invited his guests to take their food. The lizard had all the little snails; the dove ate grain from Anton's one hand, while the chamois licked salt from the other; but the little squirrel sat above in the chestnut-tree and stuffed himself up to his throat with nuts, throwing all the sh.e.l.ls down upon little Anton's head.

--_Helena Nyblom_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE FOREST WITCH

It was in the earliest springtime. In the shade the air was still quite cold; but where the clear and strong suns.h.i.+ne streamed down, one could see that spring had come, for there the blossoms were beginning to stretch upward on their tiny stalks.

A couple of children were walking through the forest: a ten-year-old girl, named Nina, and her little brother Johannes.

They were seeking flowers. Nina had to find them because the flowers were too tiny and too much hidden for so small a child as Johannes to discover them for himself, but she always let him have the pleasure of picking them.

It was such a joyous spring walk that Nina did not notice how far they were straying away from their grandmother's hut, back of the hill. This little hut had been their home only for a short time. When their dear father and mother died, their grandmother had kindly taken them to live with her; and this was their first walk in the forest.

At last Nina thought they ought to go back, but just as she turned around with Johannes by the hand, who should stand before them but a hideous old creature, more glaring and frightful than you can imagine!

"What are you doing here, you wretched children?" she shrieked; "are you plucking flowers in my forest? Then shall I pluck you, you may believe!"

"Oh, pardon us," cried Nina; "we did not know that we must not pick flowers here. We are strangers in this forest. Pray, pray pardon us."

"_Snikkesnak!_" (fiddlestick!) answered the terrific old Witch, for such the creature was. "Don't talk to me! I never pay any attention to what children say; nor to old folks' talk either, for that matter. Indeed I don't! Snikkesnak! snikkesnak! But it is not you that I want, silly girl. It is the boy there who has offended me. The little rascal! It is he who picked the flowers. Now I shall take him!"

"Oh! take me, take me instead," cried Nina in terror, flinging her arms around her brother. "It is my fault! I showed him the flowers, and let him pick them. You've no right to take him! Oh! do take me; he is too little."

"_Snikkesnak!_" answered the Witch; "what a lot of talk! But you are right; the boy is small to come into my service, so I suppose I shall have to take you. Now listen well to what I say. Spring and summer are coming and I shall have no work for you then; so I shall not trouble myself about you for the present. But when autumn has come and gone, and all the leaves and flowers have disappeared, then are we very busy in the underground world.

Then you may believe that I shall teach you how to work! and I live deep down, very, very deep! Now you may go; but I will make a bargain with you.

When the last flower is faded--listen!--when the last flower is faded, meet me here on this spot--or--or----"

The old Witch stopped to think what she could best threaten Nina with.

Her wicked eyes glared around for an instant till she noticed that Nina stood, with her arms about her little brother, ready to ward off any evil that might come upon him.

"Or I shall come and catch this little rascal, and twist his arms and legs all out of joint!" screamed the Witch, shaking her knotty stick at little Johannes.

Then, after a dark glance at Nina, she shuffled off through the forest, with the crows shrieking after her, and the leaves and flowers trembling on every side.

As soon as the Witch was out of sight, Nina hastened home with Johannes.