The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales/The Castle of Bim
THE CASTLE OF BIM.
LORIS was a little girl, about eleven years old, who lived with her father, in a very small house among the mountains of a distant land. He was sometimes a wood-cutter, and sometimes a miner, or a ploughman, or a stone-breaker. Being an industrious man he would work at anything he could do when a chance offered, but as there was not much work to do in that part of the country, poor Jorn often found it very hard to make a living for himself and Loris.
One day, when he had gone out early to look for work, Loris was in her little sleeping-room under the roof, braiding her hair. Although she was so poor, Loris always tried to make herself look as neat as she could, for that pleased her father. She was just tying the ribbon on the end of the long braid, when she heard a knock at the door below. "In one second," she said to herself, "I will go. I must tie this ribbon tightly, for it would never do to lose it."
And so she tied it, and ran down-stairs to the door; there was no one there.
"Oh, it is too bad!" cried Loris. "Perhaps it was some one with a job for father. He told me always to be very careful about answering a knock at the door, for there was no knowing when some one might come with a good job, and now some one has come, and gone," cried Loris, looking about in every direction for the person who had knocked. "Oh, there he is! How could he have got away so far in such a short time? I must run after him."
So away she ran as fast as she could, after a man she saw, walking away from the cottage in the direction of a forest.
LORIS FOLLOWS THE SHORT MAN.
"Oh, dear!" she said, as she ran, "How fast he walks! and he is such a short man, too! He is going right to the hut of Laub, that wicked Laub, who is always trying to get away work from father, and he came first to our house, but thought there was nobody at home."
Loris ran and ran, but the short man did walk very fast. However, she gradually gained on him, and just as he reached Laub's door, she seized him by the coat. "Stop—sir, please," she said, scarcely able to speak, she was so out of breath. The man turned and looked at her. He was a very short man, indeed, for he scarcely reached to Loris' waist.
"What do you want?" he said, looking up at her.
"Oh, sir!" she gasped, "you came to our house first,—and I came to the door—almost as quick as I could—and if it's any work—father wants work—ever so bad."
"Yes," said the short man, "but Laub wants work too. He is very poor."
"Yes, sir," said Loris, "but—but you came for father first."
"True," said the short man, "but nobody answered my knock, and now I am here. Laub has four young children, and sometimes they have nothing to eat. It is never so bad with you, is it?"
"No, sir," said Loris.
"Your father has work sometimes, is it not so?"
"Yes, sir," answered Loris.
"Laub is often without work for weeks, and he has four children. Shall I go back with you, or knock here?"
"Knock," said Loris softly.
The short man knocked at the door, and instantly, there was heard a great scuffling and hubbub within. Shortly all was quiet, and then a voice said, "Come in."
"He did not wait so long for me," thought Loris.
The short man opened the door, and went in, Loris following him. In a bed, in the corner of the room, were four children; their heads just appearing above a torn sheet which was pulled up to their chins.
"Hello! what's the matter?" said the short man, advancing to the bed.
"Please, sir," said the oldest child, a girl of about the age of Loris, with tangled hair and sharp black eyes, "We are all sick, and very poor, and our father has no work. If you can give us a little money to buy bread——"
"All sick, eh!" said the short man. "Any particular disease?"
"We don't know about diseases, sir," said the girl, "we've never been to school."
"No doubt of that," said the man. "I have no money to give you, but you can tell your father that if he will come to the mouth of the Ragged Mine, to-morrow morning, he can have a job of work which will pay him well." So saying he went out. Loris followed him, but he simply waved his hand to her, and in a few minutes was lost in the forest.
Loris looked sadly after him, and then walked slowly towards her home.
The moment their visitors had gone, the Laub children sprang out of bed, as lively as crickets.
"Ha! Ha!" cried the oldest girl, "She came after him to get it, and he wouldn't give it to her, and father's got it. Served her right the horrid thing!" and all the children shouted, "Horrid thing!" One of the boys now ran out, and threw a stone after Loris, and then they sat down to finish eating a meat-pie, which had been given them.
"Well," said Jorn, that evening when Loris told him what had happened. "I'm sorry, for I found but little work to-day, but it can't be helped. You did all you could."
"No, father," said Loris. "I might have gone to the door quicker."
"That may be," said Jorn, "and I hope you will never keep any one waiting again."
Two or three days after this, as Loris was stooping over the fire, in the back room of the cottage, preparing her dinner, she heard a knock.
Springing to her feet, she dropped the pan she held in her hand, and made a dash at the front door, pulling it open with a tremendous fling. No one should go away this time.
"Hello! Ho! ho!" cried a person outside, giving a skip backwards. "Do you open doors by lightning here?"
"No, sir," said Loris; "but I didn't want to keep you waiting."
"I should think not," said the other; "why I had hardly begun to knock."
This visitor was a middle-sized man, very slight, and, at first sight, of a youthful appearance. But his hair was either powdered or gray, and it was difficult to know whether he was old or young. His face was long and smooth, and he nearly always looked as if he was just going to burst out laughing. He was dressed in a silken suit of light green, pink, pale yellow and sky blue, but all the colors were very much faded. On his head was stuck a tall orange-colored hat, with a lemon-colored feather.
"Is your father in ?" said this strange personage.
"No, sir," said Loris. "He will be here this evening, and I can give him any message you may leave for him."
"I haven't any message," said the other. "I want to see him."
"You can see him about sun-set," said Loris, "if you will come then."
"I don't want to come again. I think I'll wait," said the man.
Loris said, "very well," but she wondered what he would do all the afternoon. She brought out a stool for him to sit upon, for it was not very pleasant in the house, and there he sat for some time looking at the chicken-house, where there were no chickens; and the cow-house, where there was no cow; and the pig-sty, where there were no pigs. Then he skipped up to the top of a little hillock near by, and surveyed the landscape. Loris kept her eye upon him, to see that he did not go away without leaving a message, and went on with her cooking.
When her dinner was ready she thought it only right to ask him to have some. She did not want to do it, but she could not see how she could help it. She had been taught good manners.
So she went to the door, and called him, and he instantly came skipping to her.
"I thought you might like to have some dinner, sir," she said, "I haven't much, but——"
"Two people don't want much," he said, "where shall we have it? In the house, or will you spread the cloth out here on the grass?"
"There's not much use of spreading a cloth, sir," she said, "I have only one potato, and some salt."
"That's not a dinner," said the other cheerfully, "a dinner is soup, meat, some vegetables (besides potatoes, and there ought to be two of them, at least), some bread, some cheese, pudding and fruit."
"But, I haven't got all that, sir," said Loris, with her eyes wide open at this astonishing description of a dinner.
"Well then, if you haven't got them the next best thing is to go and get them."
Loris smiled faintly, "I couldn't do that, sir," she said, "I have no money."
"Well then, if you can't go the next best thing is for me to go. The village is not far away—just wait dinner a little while for me," and so saying he skipped away at a great pace.
Loris did not wait for him, but ate her potato and salt. "I'm glad he is able to buy his own dinner," she said, "but I'm afraid he won't come back. I wish he had left a message." But she need not have feared.
In a half-hour the queer man came back, bearing a great basket covered with a cloth. The latter he spread on the ground, and then set out all the things he had said were necessary to make up a dinner. He prepared a place at one end of the cloth for Loris, and one at the other end for himself.
THE NINKUM AND LORIS TAKE DINNER.
"Sit down," said he, seating himself on the grass, "Don't let things get cold."
"I've had my dinner," said Loris. "This is yours."
"Whenever you're ready to begin," said the man, lying back on the grass and looking placidly up to the sky, "I'll begin. But not until then."
Loris saw he was in earnest, and, as she was a sensible girl she sat down at the end of the cloth.
"That's right," gaily cried the queer man, sitting up again, "I was a little afraid you'd be obstinate and then I should have starved."
When the meal was over, Loris said, "I never had such good dinner in my life."
The man looked at her and laughed. "This is a funny world isn't it?" said he.
"Awfully funny!" replied Loris, laughing.
"You don't know what I am, do you?" said the man to Loris as she gathered up the dishes and put them, with what was left of the meal, into the basket.
"No, sir; I do not," answered Loris.
"I am a Ninkum," said the other. "Did you ever meet with one before?"
"No, sir, never," said Loris.
"I am very glad to hear that," he said. "It's so pleasant to be fresh and novel." And then he went walking around the house again, looking at everything he had seen before. Soon he laid himself down on the grass, near the house, with one leg thrown over the other and his hands clasped under his head. For a long time he lay in this way, looking up at the sky and the clouds. Then he turned his head, and said to Loris, who was sewing by the door-step:
"Did you ever think how queer it would be if everything in the world were reversed; if the ground were soft and blue like the sky, and if the sky were covered with dirt and chips and grass, and if fowls and animals walked about on it, like flies sticking to a ceiling?"
"I never thought of such a thing in my life," said Loris.
"I often do," said the Ninkum, "It expands the mind."
For the whole afternoon the Ninkum lay on his back, and expanded his mind, and then, about sunset Loris saw her father returning. She ran to meet him, and told him of the Ninkum who was waiting to see him. Jorn hurried to the house, for he felt sure that his visitor must have an important job of work for him, as he had waited so long.
"I am glad you have come," said the Ninkum, "I wanted to see you very much, for two things. The first was that we might have supper. I'm dreadfully hungry, and I know there's enough in that basket for us all. The second thing can wait; it's business."
So Loris and the Ninkum spread out the remains of the dinner, and the three made a hearty supper. Jorn was highly pleased; he had expected to come home to a very different meal from this.
"Now, then," said the Ninkum, "We'll talk about the business."
"You have some work for me, I suppose," said Jorn.
"No," said the Ninkum, "none that I know of. What I want is for you to go into partnership with me."
"Partnership!" cried Jorn, "I don't understand you. What kind of work could we do together?"
"None at all," said the Ninkum, "for I never work. Your part of the partnership will be to chop wood, and mine, and plough, and do just what you do now. I will live here with you, and will provide the food, and the clothes, and the fuel, and the pocket-money for the three of us."
"But you couldn't live here," cried Loris, "our house is so poor, and there is no room for you."
"There need be no trouble about that," said the Ninkum, "I can build a room, right here, on this side of the house. I never work," he said to Jorn, "but I hate idleness. So what I want is to go into partnership with a person who will work,—an industrious person like you. Then my conscience will be at easy. Please agree as quickly as you can, for it's beginning to grow dark, and I hate to walk in the dark."
Jorn did not hesitate. He agreed instantly to go into partnership with the Ninkum, and the latter, after bidding them good-night, skipped gaily away.
The next day, he returned with carpenters, and laborer and lumber, and timber, and furniture, and bedding, and a large and handsome room was built for him, on one side of the house and he came to live with Jorn and Loris. For several days he had workmen putting a fence around the yard, and building a new cow-house, a new chicken-house, and a new pig-sty. He bought a cow, pigs and chickens, had flowers planted in front of the house, and made everything look very neat and pretty.
"Now," said he one day to Loris and Jorn as they were eating supper together, "I'll tell you something. I was told to keep it a secret, but I hate secrets; I think they all ought to be told as soon as possible. Ever so much trouble has been made by secrets. The one I have is this: That dwarf, who came here and then went and hired old Laub to work in his mine——"
"Was that a dwarf? " asked Loris, much excited.
"Yes, indeed," said the Ninkum, "a regular one. Didn't you notice how short he was? Well, he told me all about his coming here. The dwarfs in the Ragged Mine found a deep hole, with lots of gold at the bottom of it, but it steamed and smoked and was too hot for dwarfs. So the king dwarf sent out the one you saw, and told him to hire the first miner he could find, to work in the deep hole, but not to tell him how hot it was until he had made his contract. So the dwarf had to come first for you, Jorn, for you lived nearest the mine, but he hoped he would not find you, for he knew you were a good man. That was the reason he just gave one knock, and hurried on to Laub's house. And then he told me how Loris ran after him, and how good she was to agree to let him give the work to Laub, when she thought he needed it more than her father. 'Now,' says he to me, 'I want to do something for that family, and I don't know anything better that could happen to a man like Jorn, than to go into partnership with a Ninkum."
At these words, Jorn looked over the well-spread supper-table, and he thought the dwarf was certainly right.
"So that's the way I came to live here," said the Ninkum, "and I like it first-rate."
"I wish I could go and see the dwarfs working in their mines," said Loris.
"I'll take you," exclaimed the Ninkum. "It's not a long walk from here. We can go to-morrow."
Jorn gave his consent, and the next morning Loris and the Ninkum set out for the Ragged Mine. The entrance was a great jagged hole in the side of a mountain, and the inside of the mine had also a very rough and torn appearance. It belonged to a colony of dwarfs, and ordinary mortals seldom visited it, but the Ninkum had no difficulty in obtaining admission. Making their way slowly along the rough and sombre tunnel, Loris and he saw numbers of dwarfs, working with pick and shovel, in search of precious minerals.
Soon they met the dwarf who had come to Jorn's house, and he seemed glad to see Loris again. He led her about to various parts of the mine, and showed her the heaps of gold and silver and precious stones, which had been dug out of the rocks around them.
The Ninkum had seen these things before, and so he thought he would go and look for the hot hole, where Laub was working; that would be a novelty.
He soon found the hole, and just as he reached it, Laub appeared at its opening, slowly climbing up a ladder.
He looked very warm and tired, and throwing some gold ore upon the ground, from a basket which he carried on his back, he sat down and wiped the perspiration from his forehead.
THE NINKUM FINDS LAUB IN THE MINE.
That is warm work, Laub," said the Ninkum, pleasantly.
"Warm!" said Laub, gruffly, "hot—hot as fire. Why the gold down at the bottom of that hole burns your fingers when you pick it up. If I hadn't made a contract with these rascally dwarfs to work here for forty-one days, I wouldn't stay here another minute, but you can't break a contract you make with dwarfs."
"It's a pretty hard thing to have to work here, that is true," said the Ninkum, "but you owe your ill-fortune to yourself. It's all because you're known to be so ill-natured and wicked. When the dwarf was sent to hire a man to come and work in this hole, he had to go to Jorn's house first because that was the nearest place, but he just gave one knock there, and hurried away, hoping he didn't hear, for it would be a pity to have a good man like Jorn working in a place like this. Then he went after you, for he knew you deserved to be punished by this kind of work."
As the Ninkum said this, Laub's face grew black with rage.
"So that's the truth!" he cried, "when I get out of this place, I'll crush every bone in the body of that sneaking Jorn," and, so saying he rushed down into the hot hole.
"Perhaps I ought not to have told him all that," said the Ninkum, as he walked away, "but I hate secrets, they always make mischief."
When he joined Loris, the little girl said, "Let us go out of this place now. I have seen nearly every thing, and it is so dark and gloomy."
Taking leave of the kind dwarf, the two made their way out of the mine.
"I do not like such gloomy places any better than you do," said the Ninkum. "Disagreeable things are always happening in them. I like to have things bright and lively. I'll tell you what would be splendid! To make a visit to the castle of Bim."
"What is that, and where is it?" asked Loris.
"It's the most delightful place in the whole world," said the Ninkum, "While you're there you do nothing and see nothing but what is positively charming, and every body is just as happy and gay as can be. It's all life and laughter, and perfect delight. I know you would be overjoyed if you were there."
"I should like very much to go," said Loris, "if father would let me."
"I'll go and ask him this minute," said the Ninkum. "I know where he is working. You can run home, and I will go to him, and then come and tell you what he says."
So Loris ran home, and the Ninkum went to the place where Jorn was cutting wood. "Jorn," said the Ninkum, "suppose that every thing in the world were reversed; that you chopped wood, standing on your head, and that you split your axe, instead of the log you struck. Would not that be peculiar?"
"Such things could not be," said Jorn, "what is the good of talking about them?"
"I think a great deal about such matters," said the Ninkum. "They expand my mind, and now, Jorn, reversibly speaking will you let Loris go with me to the castle of Bim?"
"Where is that?" asked Jorn.
"It is not far from here. I think we could go in half a day. I would get a horse in the village.
"And how long would you stay?"
"Well, I don't know. A week or two, perhaps. Come, now, Jorn, reversibly speaking, may she go?"
"No, indeed," said Jorn, "on no account shall she go. I could not spare her."
"All right," said the Ninkum, "I will not keep you from your work any longer. Good-morning."
As soon as he was out of Jorn's sight, the Ninkum began to run home as fast as he could.
"Get ready, Loris," he cried, when he reached the house. "Your father says, reversibly speaking, that on every account you must go. He can well spare you."
"But must we go now?" said Loris. "Cannot we wait until he comes home, and go to-morrow?"
"No, indeed," said the Ninkum. "There will be obstacles to our starting to-morrow. So let us hasten to the village, and hire a horse. Your father will get along nicely here by himself, and he will be greatly pleased with your improvement when you return from the castle of Bim."
So Loris, who was really much pleased with the idea of the journey, hastened to get ready, and having put the house-key under the front door-stone, she and the Ninkum went to the village, where they got a horse and started for the castle of Bim.
The Ninkum rode in front, Loris sat on a pillow behind, and the horse trotted along gaily. The Ninkum was in high good spirits, and passed the time in telling Loris of all the delightful things she would see in the castle of Bim.
Late in the afternoon, they came in sight of a vast castle, which rose up at the side of the road like a little mountain.
"Hurrah!" cried the Ninkum, as he spurred the horse. "I knew we were nearly there!"
Loris was very glad that they had reached the castle, for she was getting tired of riding, and when the Ninkum drew up in front of the great portals, she felt sure that she was going to see wonderful things, for the door, to begin with, was, she felt sure, the biggest door in the whole world.
"You need not get off," said the porter, who stood by the door, to the Ninkum, who was preparing to dismount, "you can ride right in."
Accordingly, the Ninkum and Loris rode right in to the castle through the front door. Inside, they found themselves in a high and wide hall-way paved with stone, which led back to what appeared to be an inner court. Riding to the end of this hall,
THE GIANT WELCOMES HIS GUESTS.
they stopped in the door-way there, and looked out. In the centre of the court, which was very large, there stood side by side, and about twenty feet apart, two great upright posts, like the trunks of tall pine trees. Across these, near their tops, rested a thick and heavy horizontal pole, and on this pole a giant was practising gymnastics.
Hanging by his hands, he would draw himself up, until his chin touched the pole. And again and again he did this, until the Ninkum said in a whisper, "Twelve times. I did not think he could do it."
The giant now drew up his legs, and threw them over the bar, above his head. Then, by a vigorous effort, he turned himself entirely over the bar, and hung beneath it by his hands. After stopping a minute or two to breathe, he drew up his legs again, and putting them under the bar, between his hands as boys do when they "skin the cat," he turned partly over, and hung in this position.
His face was now turned toward the doorway, and he first noticed his visitors.
"Hello!" said he to the Ninkum. "Could you do that?"
"Not on that pole," answered the Ninkum, smiling.
"I should think not," said the giant, dropping to his feet, and puffing a little. "Ten years ago, when I did not weigh so much, I could draw myself up twenty-seven times. Come in with me and have some supper. Is that your little daughter?"
"No," said the Ninkum, "I am her guardian for the present."
"Ride right up-stairs," said the giant, "My wife is up there and she will take care of the little girl."
"I am afraid," said the Ninkum, "that my horse cannot jump up those great steps."
"Of course not," said the giant. "Let me help you up, and then I will go down and bring your horses."
"Oh, that won't be necessary," said the Ninkum, and Loris laughed at the idea.
"You may want to look at the house," said the giant, "and then you will need them."
"So the giant took the Ninkum and Loris up-stairs, and then came down, and brought up the horses. The upper story was as vast and spacious as the lower part of the castle, and by a window the giant's wife sat, darning a stocking.
As they approached her, the Ninkum whispered to Loris: "If there were such holes in my stockings I should fall through." The giantess was very glad to see Loris, and she took her up in her hand, and kissed her, very much as a little girl would kiss a canary bird. Then the giant children were sent for—two big boys and a baby girl, who thought Loris was so lovely that she would have squeezed her to death, if her mother had allowed her to take the little visitor in her hands.
During supper, Loris and the Ninkum sat in chairs with long legs, like stilts, which the giant had had made for his men and women visitors. They had to be very careful, lest they should tip over and break their necks.
After supper, they sat in the great upper hall, and the giant got out his guitar and sang them a song.
"I hope there are not many more verses," whispered the Ninkum to Loris, "My bones are almost shaken apart."
"How did you like that?" asked the giant, when he had finished.
"It was very nice," said the Ninkum, "it reminded me of something I once heard before; I think it was a wagon-load of copper pots, rolling down a mountain, but I am not sure."
The giant thanked him, and soon after, they all went to bed Loris slept in the room with the giantess, on a high shelf where the children could not reach her.
Just before they went to their rooms the Ninkum said to Loris
"Do you know that I don't believe this is the Castle of Bim?"
"It didn't seem to be like the place you told me about," said Loris, "but what are we to do?"
"Nothing, but to go to bed," said the Ninkum. "They are very glad to see us, and to-morrow we will bid them good-bye, and push on to the Castle of Bim."
With this, the Ninkum jumped on his horse, and rode to his room.
The next day, after they had gone over the Castle and seen all its sights, the Ninkum told the giant that he and Loris must pursue their journey to the Castle of Bim.
"What is that?" said the giant, and when the Ninkum proceeded to describe it to him, he became very much interested.
"Ho! Ho! good wife!" he cried, "Suppose we go with these friends to the Castle of Bim. It must be a very pleasant place, and the exercise will do me good. I'm dreadfully tired of gymnastics. What do you say? We can take the children."
The giantess thought it would be a capital idea, and so they all put on their hats and caps, and started off, leaving the castle in charge of the giants' servants, who were people of common size.
They journeyed all that day. Loris and the Ninkum riding ahead, followed by the giant, then by the giantess carrying the baby, and lastly the two giant boys with a basket of provisions between them.
That night they slept on the ground, under some trees, and the Ninkum admitted that the Castle of Bim was a good deal further off than he had supposed it to be.
Toward afternoon of the next day they found themselves on some high land, and coming to the edge of a bluff, they saw 
THE NINKUM AND HIS COMPANY ENTER THE CITY.
in the plain below, a beautiful city. The giant was struck with admiration.
"I have seen many a city," said he, "but I never saw one so sensibly and handsomely laid out as that. The people who built that place knew just what they wanted."
"Do you see that great building in the centre of the city?" cried the Ninkum. "Well, that is the Castle of Bim. Let us hurry down." So, away they all started, at their best speed, for the city.
They had scarcely reached one of the outer gates, when they were met by a citizen on horseback, followed by two or three others on foot. The horseman greeted them kindly, and said that he had been sent to meet them. "We shall be very glad," he said to the Ninkum, "to have you and the little girl come into our city to-night, but if those giants were to enter, the people, especially the children, would throng the streets to see them, and many would unavoidably be trampled to death. There is a great show tent out here, where they can very comfortably pass the night, and to-morrow we will have the streets cleared, and the people kept within doors. Then these great visitors will be made welcome to walk in and view the city."
The giants agreed to this, and they were conducted to the tent, where they were made very comfortable, while the Ninkum and Loris were taken into the city, and lodged in the house of the citizen who had come to meet them.
The next day the giants entered the city, and the windows and doors in the streets which they passed through, were crowded with spectators.
The giant liked the city better and better, as he walked through it. Everything was so admirably pleasing, and in such perfect order, The others enjoyed themselves very much, too, and Loris was old enough to understand the beauty and conveniences of the things she saw around her.
Towards the end of the day, the Ninkum came to her.
"Do you know," said he, "that the Castle of Bim is not here? That large building is used by the governors of the city. And what a queer place it is! Everything that they do turns out just right. I saw a man set a rat-trap and what do you think? He caught the rat! I could not help laughing. It is very funny."
"But what are you going to do?" asked Loris.
"We will stay here to-night," said the Ninkum, "they are very kind,—and to-morrow we will go on to the Castle of Bim."
The next day, therefore, our party again set out on their journey. The Ninkum had told the citizen, who had entertained him, where they were going and his accounts of the wonderful Castle induced this worthy man to go with him.
"In our city," said he, "we try to be governed in everything by the ordinary rules of common sense. In this way we get along very comfortably and pleasantly, and everything seems to go well with us. But we are always willing to examine into the merits of things which are new to us, and so I would like to go to this curious castle, and come back and report what I have seen to my fellow-citizens."
His company was gladly accepted, and all set out in high good humor, the citizen riding by the side of Loris and the Ninkum.
But when they had gone several miles, the giantess declared that she believed she would go back home. The baby was getting very heavy, and the boys were tired. The giant could tell her about the Castle of Bim when he came home.
So the giantess turned back with her children, her husband kissing her good-bye, and assuring her that he would not let her go back by herself if he did not feel certain that no one would molest her on the way.
The rest of the party now went on at a good pace, the giant striding along as fast as the horses could trot. The Ninkum did not seem to know the way as well as he had said he did. He continually desired to turn to the right, and, when the others inquired if he was sure that he ought to do this, he said that the best thing a person could do when a little in doubt was to turn to the right.
The citizen did not like this method of reasoning, and he was about to make an objection to it, when a man was perceived, sitting, in doleful plight, by the side of the road. The Ninkum who was very kind-hearted, rode up to him, to inquire what had happened to him, but the moment the man raised his head, and before he had time to say a word, Loris slipped off her horse and threw her arms around his neck.
"Oh father! father!" she cried. "How came you here?"
It was indeed, Jorn, ragged, wounded and exhausted.
In a moment everyone set to work to relieve him. Loris ran for water and bathed his face and hands; the citizen gave him some wine, from a flask; the giant produced some great pieces of bread and meat; and the Ninkum asked him questions.
Jorn soon felt refreshed and strengthened, and then he told his story. He had been greatly troubled, when he found that Loris had gone away against his express orders.
"Why father," cried Loris, at this point, "you said I could go."
"Never," said Jorn, "I said you could not go."
"Reversibly speaking," said the Ninkum smiling, "he consented, that was the way I put the question to him. If I had not put it in that way, I should have told a lie."
Everybody looked severely at the Ninkum, and Loris was very angry, but her father patted her on the head, and went on with his story. He would have followed the Ninkum and his daughter, but he did not know what road they had taken, and as they were on a horse he could not in any case, expect to catch up with them.
So he waited, hoping they would soon return, but, before long he was very glad that Loris was away.
The wicked Laub, who, in some manner, had found out that he had been made to work in the dwarfs' mine instead of Jorn, who had been considered too good for such disagreeable labor, had become so enraged, that he broke his contract with the dwarfs, and, instead of continuing his work in the mine, had collected a few of his depraved companions, and had made an attack upon Jorn's house.
The doors had been forced, poor Jorn had been dragged forth, beaten, and forced to fly, while Laub and his companions took possession of the house, and everything in it.
"But how could you wander so far, dear father?" asked Loris.
"It is not far," said Jorn, "our home is not many miles away."
"Then you have been going in a circle," said the citizen to the Ninkum, "and you are now very near the point you started from."
"That seems to be the case," said the Ninkum, smiling.
"But we won't talk about it now," said the citizen. "We must see what we can do for this poor man. He must have his house again."
"I would have asked the dwarfs to help me," said Jorn, "but I believe they would have killed Laub and the others if they had resisted, and I didn't want any blood shed."
"No," said the citizen. "I think we can manage it better than that. Our large friend here, will be able to get these people out of your house without killing them."
"Oh, yes," said the giant, "I'll attend to that."
Jorn being now quite ready to travel, the party proceeded, and soon reached his house.
When Laub perceived the approach of Jorn and his friends, he barricaded all the doors and windows, and, with his companions prepared to resist all attempts to enter.
But his efforts were useless. The giant knelt down before the house, and having easily removed the door, he thrust in his arm, and sweeping it around the room, easily caught three of the invaders.
He then put his other arm through the window of the Ninkum's room, and soon pulled out Laub, taking no notice of his kicks and blows.
The giant then tied the four rascals in a bunch by the feet, and laid them on the grass.
"Now," said the citizen to the Ninkum, "as there seems to be nothing more to be done for this good man and his daughter, suppose you tell me the way to the Castle of Bim. I think I can find it, if I have good directions, and I do not wish to waste any more time."
"I do not know the exact way," answered the Ninkum.
"What!" cried the other, "have you never been there?"
"No," said the Ninkum.
"Well, then, did not the person who told you about it, tell you the way?"
"No one ever told me about it," replied the Ninkum. "I have thought a great deal on the subject, and I feel sure that there must be such a place, and the way to find it is to go and look for it."
"Well," said the citizen, smiling, "you are a true Ninkum. I suppose we have all thought of some place where everything shall be just as we want it to be, but I don't believe any of us will find that place. I am going home."
THE GIANT PUTS HIS ARM THROUGH THE DOORWAY.
"And I too," said the giant, "and on my way I will stop at the Ragged Mine, and leave these fellows to the care of the dwarfs. They will see that they molest honest men no more."
"And I think I will go too," said the Ninkum. "I liked this place very much, but I am getting tired of it now."
"That will be a good thing for you to do," said the citizen, who had heard the story of how the Ninkum had been sent to Jorn and Loris, as a reward. "You have lived for a time with these good people, and have been of some service to them, but I am quite sure they now feel that partnership with a Ninkum is a very dangerous thing, and should not be kept up too long."
"No doubt that's true," said the Ninkum. "Good-bye, my friends. I will give you my room and everything that is in it"
"You have been very kind to us," said Loris.
"Yes," said Jorn, "and you got me work that will last a long time."
"I did what I could," cried the Ninkum, mounting his horse, and gaily waving his hat around his head, "and, reversibly speaking, I took you to the Castle of Bim."