breath and imprecating a thousand curses upon the obstinate wheel, had renounced in despair the attempt to move it, up it started, and after poising itself for a moment, without any assistance from its exasperated guide, bounded away with amazing velocity down the rocky declivity of the mountain! Poor coachee hastened after it, and saw with infinite astonishment that it ran as easily up the ridge of the mountain as down. After a long and toilsome chase the wheel seemed to slacken its course, and coachee began to hope he might overtake it; but just as he came up to it, and was extending his arm to lay hold of it, away it sprung from him with redoubled rapidity! Thus the wheel continued to run, and the coachman after it, over many a weary mile, up hill and down dale. At last, its pursuer succeeded in grasping it firmly, and wheel and coachman fell to the ground together; again it started up—again its tenacious pursuer sprung after, and away they flew till both fell together on a dunghill at the stable-door, whither the exhausted coachman had at first designed to conduct the wheel.
No. III THE SPRING-ROOT.
Rubezahl has his own vegetable garden in the mountain; it is shown upon the declivity of the Aupengrund. The mountain is rich in excellent herbs which have been used from very ancient times in the preparation of costly essences. Even at this day the inhabitants of Krummhubel gain their livelihood by the preparation of essences from the herbs which grow in these parts,—an art they may probably have derived from the students of Prague, who attended the
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