22 UNDINE.

that ill-omened wood The wood and its mysteries, for all I should have cared, might have waited long enough."

" Yesterday morning, then," pursued the knight, smil- ing kindly ui)on Undine, " I set out from the city, my enterprise before me. The earlj'^ light lay rich upon the verdant turf. It shone so rosy on the slender boles of the trees, and there was so merry a whispering among the leaves, that in my heart I could not but laugh at peo])Ie who feared meeting any thing to terrify them in a spot so delicious. * I shall soon pass through the forest, and as speedily return/ I said to myself in the overflow of joyous feeling ; and ere I was well aware, I had entered deep among the green shades ; while of the plain that lay behind me, I was no longer able to catch a glimpse.

" Then the conviction for the first time impressed me, that in a forest of so great extent I might very easily be- come bewildered, and that this perhaps might be the only danger which was likely to threaten those who explored its recesses. So I made a halt, and turned myself in the direction of the sun, which had meantime risen somewhat higher ; and while I was looking up to observe it, I saw something black among the boughs of a lofty oak. My first thought was, ' It is a bear !' and I grasped my weapon: the object then accosted me from above in a human voice, but in a tone most harsh and hideous ; ' If I overhead here do not gnaw off these dry branches, Sir Noodle, wliat shall we have to roast you with, when midnight comes?' And with that it grinned, and made such a rattling with the branches, that my courser became mad with atlVight, and rushed furiously forward with me, before I had time to see distinctly what sort of a devil's beast it was."

" You must not speak so," said the old fisherman, crossing himself; his wife did the same, without saying a word ; and Undine, while her eye sparkled with delight, looked at the knight, and said, " The best of the sXory is, however, that as yet they liave not roasted you! Go on, now, you beautiful knight!