"I have but humble fare to offer you," said the donkey-eared man, but his smile was a kind one as he helped Ned to the beans with a large wooden spoon. "But as I see you are a traveler, you no doubt have fared worse at times," and he smiled again in such a friendly way, that Ned took a great liking to him.

"You are right. I'm a traveler, seeking adventures and many strange things I have seen while visiting Gnomeland."

"I have heard little of the world since my ears were changed into those of a donkey," sighed the donkey-eared man.

"Is there no magic charm which will remove them?" asked Ned, as he finished the last bean on his plate and wiped his mouth carefully with the pocket handkerchief which his kind mother had given him the very morning he had set out for Gnomeland.

"None whatever," answered the man with a sigh. "There is no charm nor magic herb, but I've heard tell of a Magic Axe that once cut down a charmed oak tree overshadowing a king's palace. But where am I to find that Magic Axe?"

"Oh master dear, pray ask this lad Your donkey ears to sever; For then your own two ears will take Their place as good as ever,"

sang a little bird from her tree in the forest.

When Ned heard that, he jumped up and went behind the door where he had hung his knapsack. Taking out the Magic Axe, he laid it on the table before the donkey-eared man.

"Cut off my ears!" shouted the donkey-eared man.

"I can't do it," said Ned, trembling all over.

"Do as I ask you," begged the donkey-eared man, laying his head on the table.

Instead, however, Ned touched the donkey ears with his little magic gold ring, at the same time whispering, "Away with you!"

Off went the long, hairy ears, and the next minute, two grew in their place, just like yours and mine.

"Oh, now I'm free from donkey ears, Three cheers and once, again, three cheers!

No more the witch's evil snare Shall force me donkey ears to wear!"

sang the donkey-eared man, dancing about the room.

All the next day Ned trudged on alone until towards evening, he came to the edge of a pine-forest, where close at hand stood a small hut made of pine-branches, plastered with mud and thatched with rye-straw. No sooner had he tapped on the door than it was opened by a girl. She looked out timidly, thinking, I suppose, it might be a robber. But when she saw Ned, she smiled.

"Come in," she said, and Ned saw four small children staring curiously at him.

The room was very smoky, for there was no chimney to the rude hut. A hole in the roof let the smoke out, and there were no windows, for the father of these children was a poor peasant who made his living by gathering turpentine in the pine forest.

Ned sat down, while the girl went on with her work until the black beans were ready for supper, when she put them all in a big wooden bowl, and invited Ned to join her and the four children.

While they were eating out of the bowl with a wooden spoon, a tame jackdaw who had been sitting on an old stool by the fireside, hopped over and perched himself close to Ned.

When the supper was over, and the children were ready for bed, he whispered, "This little family is very poor. Their father is away selling turpentine, and there is little food in the cupboard. But if you will come with me tonight, I will show you how we can help them."

When all the children were sound asleep, Ned looked over to the fireside where the jackdaw sat, his eyes shining brighter and brighter through the darkness, till they made the room so light that Ned could plainly see the five sleeping children huddled together on the straw bed in the corner.

Then the jackdaw nodded, and hopping down from the stool on which he sat, walked softly over to the door.

The moon shone brightly on the bare brown fields silvered with white frost, and in the still, cold air, the forest looked like a black cloud just dropped upon the earth.

THE MAGIC BASKET

The Little Old Woman made a low bow to the Jackdaw.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE MAGIC BASKET

ON and on they went, the jackdaw hopping over the rough fields, and now and then turning his head and winking his fiery eyes at Ned, until they found themselves at the foot of a high, round hill.

At one side of the great mound the stream which they had been following suddenly stopped short, making a deep well, over which hung an old oak tree, leafless now, but still strewing the ground with dry acorns.

Right at the foot of this tree was an upright gray stone, apparently part of a rock deeply sunk in the hillside. Beside this stone the jackdaw paused, and, turning to nod rea.s.suringly at Ned, picked up a pebble about the size of an acorn and dropped it into the well, at the same time knocking gently on the flat stone with his bill.

In a moment the rock opened in the middle, and there stood a little old woman, as withered as a spring apple and as bright as a b.u.t.terfly, dressed in a scarlet bodice covered with spangles and a black petticoat worked in square characters with all the colors of the rainbow.

Ned thought she was not nearly as attractive as the fairies whom he had but lately left, although she had on more colors than even the Queen Fairy.

On seeing the jackdaw she made a low bow, and in a shrill eager voice invited them in. Ned hesitated, but the little old woman s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand and pulled him in, asking in a whisper, "Dost thou fear for thyself when visiting the King of the Gnomes?"

Then, opening a low door in the side of the cavern, she beckoned them to follow. In the middle of a still larger vault stood an arm chair fashioned from beryl and jasper, with k.n.o.bs of amethyst and topaz, in which sat Ned's friend, the Gnome.

He was dressed in a robe of velvet, green and soft as forest moss, and a ring of gold lay on his grizzled hair. His little eyes shone keen and fiery, and his hands, withered and brown, were now covered with glittering jewels.

About the cave a hundred little men, smaller than he, were busy in a hundred ways. Some stirred kettles of smoking broth; others sliced fresh vegetables for crisp salads. Some spread a table, with golden plates and crystal goblets; three turned huge pieces of meat on a spit before a fire at the end of the cavern, while a dozen more watched the simmering pots.

The jackdaw hopped gravely past all this toward the chair of the Gnome King, who stretched out his sceptre, a tall bulrush of gold, and touched the jackdaw, who at once turned into a dwarf.

Making a low bow to the Gnome King, he turned to Ned and said:

"I was forced to take the form of a jackdaw for twenty years because I once said that gold was not as yellow as b.u.t.tercups nor so bright as sunshine. This made the Gnomes angry, because their belief is that gold is the most beautiful thing in the world. My punishment is now over and I need never return to the earth again. But I would do a favor to the poor peasant children who were so good to me."

"What favor would you ask for the poor peasant children?" asked the Gnome King.

"I would send them a Magic Basket filled with food," answered the dwarf.

No sooner had he spoken, than the Gnome ordered his subjects to fill a Magic Basket with all kinds of good things to eat. There was a golden bowl of smoking stew, a crystal goblet of wine, a golden dish of mashed potatoes and another of rice pudding.

And when the Magic Basket was covered with a damask napkin, it was handed to a dwarf messenger to take to the poor woodcutter's children, while all the little dwarfs stood around him and sang:

"In this basket they will find Food and drink of magic kind.

Never will it empty grow And no hunger they shall know."

"Hereafter," said the Gnome King, looking kindly at Ned, "a bluebird shall be your companion and will show you many and curious things. I can spare no more time, for my people must be governed, and while I have given you more attention than any other mortal because of your great fondness for fairy tales, I must now leave you in the care of this bluebird, unless, perchance, you wish to return to earth at once."

To which Ned answered eagerly that he would much rather see more of Gnomeland before again returning to the everyday routine of grammar school and lessons.