YOUNG and unmarried man, who had few goods, yet who was ready with his hands and a wonderful worker, lived once upon a time in Spain. He spent much time during the day among the mountains, cutting the hazel-rods, with which he made at home crates and wattles, to be sold at fairs and markets. He also tilled a little piece of hired land, and in partnership with another he had a small cow. So he went on slowly gaining, with patched breeches and not very full stomach, but with good health, and contented,- because, perhaps, he had known nothing better.

But being one day in the mountains, and in the most lonely part of them,- because in the least frequented parts they always find good hazel-rods,he cut this rod and that, and lo, he heard the music of a sea-shell near him! and so sweetly made that it was glorious to hear. And hearing the sea-shell so near, he went toward the sound; and going toward the sound, he parted the brambles; and parting the brambles, he came to a very pretty little opening, where he saw the sea-shell alone, against a great mole-hill, sounding without ceasing. But, for all that, he came nearer the mole-hill and saw that at its very edge, and with his little feet in the hole, there was seated a dwarf smaller than a man's clinched hand, and that it was this dwarf who made the music upon the sea-shell. And the dwarf, seeing the young man, stopped playing, and said to him:

"What is it, good friend?"

"I came here," responded the youth, "to know who makes such fine music; but if I disturb you, I will go back to the place from which I came." At this the dwarf said to the young man :

"Disturb whom, man? Know that it was for you to come that I was playing."

And so the youth and the dwarf got into conversation, and the youth told the dwarf all the troubles of his life. And after telling him all the troubles of his life, the dwarf said to the young man :

"But, friend, I knew of all this before; and because I knew of it all, I called you with the music, to ask you what it is you desire in reward for your rectitude."

To this the young man responded:

"Besides what I have from my rented ground and the partnership, if I had twice as much more with which to live without this labor upon the mountains, which is what troubles me, I should believe myself the richest man in the place, and would not envy the King of the Indies."

Then the dwarf said to him:

But the young man was astonished at this command, and thought the dwarf was mocking at him. Then the dwarf said again :

"Take it up, man, without hesitation, for I have my palaces full of it; and to them this passage goes in which my feet are."

Whether the youth thought this was true or not, he pulled his handkerchief out from his breast and threw into it a good heap of the dirt, and then tied the corners of the handkerchief together. And then the dwarf said to him:

"Now go home, and when you go to bed, put this dirt under your bed-blanket, as it is in your handkerchief. When you awake in the morning, you will see if I have deceived you."

Well, the young man did as he was directed, and upon awaking in the morning with the sun, he opened the handkerchief; and behold, the dirt had changed into golden doubloons and half-doubloons-with one and another he had more than a thousand! The poor crate-maker was almost beside himself with joy. But as his senses came back to him little by little, he began to make his plans: so many measures of ground so, and so many in this way; so many cattle of this kind, and so many of another; a cart of this kind; a house like this. And you must know that in a little time, with great care, and with flocks and herds in sight, wellclothed and fed, and with money left in the top of his chest, there was such a flutter that the best girls of the place were kind to him, and sent him memorials with their eyes. And well did he merit it; because, besides being a good young man and rich, he continued to be an honored laborer, just the same as when he was poor.

But behold, one day it came to his mind to see a little of the world, something that he had never seen; so all at once he took up his quarters in the city. Ah, what did he not see there, of festivity, courtliness, and dominion? Those, yes, those were the young ladies, with their silken attire, and their laces, and their fans, and faces of May roses. Those, yes, those were the young gentlemen, with their coats of fine cloth, their golden tassels, and their shining boots! What a life was theirs! This one on horseback, that one in a coach, the other, with gay companions! Going here, going there; a good table, plenty of servants, and a big palace what would you want but to live so, and live in glory?

So it came to pass that the young man went back to his village thinking himself the most unfortunate creature in the world. And going back so to his native village, he began to doubt about the

he had seen, and of being a gentleman with the best. And thinking in this way, he wanted the gay coach and horses, and the servants and

"ALL AT ONCE HE TOOK UP HIS QUARTERS IN THE CITY." the palace, and a grand lady for a wife; and one could not mention the girls of his neighborhood to him, because they all seemed unworthy such a person as himself. So when he had entirely stopped attending to his usual labors, and began to feed upon his vanity, there came into his mind a certain idea that he did not quite dare to put in execution. But, you see, as things were, he had no other way than to do it, because his vanity was like to make an end of him, and he would not return to the soil he had stopped tilling.

So one day he yoked his oxen to his cart, put into the cart half a dozen empty sacks, and went up into the mountains; and going up into the mountains, he came to the place for which he was looking; and coming to that place, he heard the sound of the dwarf's shell; and hearing the sound, he went near to the dwarf, and said to him:

"Hallo, my good friend! I came to thank you for the kindness you did to me some time ago, and to ask of you a new one, if it does not displease you."

"What is there to displease me, man?" responded the dwarf. "If it is anything I can do, ask it freely."

This answer gave joy to the heart of the young man, and he said to the dwarf:

passage toward his palaces, and left the young man alone; and the young man dug and dug, and in a little time he filled his sacks with dirt, and then went home with them as happy as the crickets. And when night came, he went to bed; but he

HALLO, MY GOOD FRIEND! I CAME TO THANK YOU FOR THE KINDNESS YOU DID TO ME SOME TIME AGO!"

brought here, with the same kind of dirt that you gave me before."

"All this country is full of it," answered the dwarf; "and that being so, dig where you like, and fill them to your liking. Don't forget to put them to-night near the bed, to open them as soon as you awake in the morning."

carried in his mind, and at daylight he was livelier than a rabbit; and being livelier than a rabbit, he thought he would dig a deep well in which to guard so many doubloons as ought to come out of those sacks. And, thinking about this, he opened the sacks; and upon opening the sacks, he found nothing therein but the dirt he had shoveled into them in the mountains! The poor young man was in agony; and being in agony, he tried to console himself with the thought that, looking at things properly, there was enough for him with what remained from the first time; and, thinking so, he went to the chest where he kept the little money that he had left, and behold, that was dirt also, like the dirt in the sacks! — and even the papers about his purchases were dirt!

Then he went to the stable, and his oxen were mountains of dirt; and great heaps of dirt were the herds which he bought with the money of the dwarf. There was left then not one beast except the cow of the partnership.

Then he went back to the house, and he saw that it was the same in which he lived when he was a poor crate-maker; and at the gate there was a load of hazel-rods and some half-finished crates. He sobbed, and beat his breast, the idle fellow, and went up into the mountains to tell the dwarf about his misfortune; but the dwarf said to him:

"This which has happened to you I can not help. I can only say to you that the misery which has come upon you is the punishment upon your covetousness; for you wished to pass at one bound, without meriting it, from the position of a thrifty crate-maker to that of a gentleman of importance. But the linnet keeps to its kind." •

And the dwarf disappeared in the passage leading to his palaces; but the youth heard no more the music of the shell, as if it were a sound from