Soon there came a youth strolling toward us through the trees, and he sat down and began to talk in a friendly way, just as if he knew us.But we did not answer him, for he was a stranger and we were not used to strangers and were shy of them.He had new and good clothes on, and was handsome and had a winning face and a pleasant voice, and was easy and graceful and unembarrassed, not slouchy and awkward and diffident, like other boys.We wanted to be friendly with him, but didn't know how to begin.Then I thought of the pipe, and wondered if it would be taken as kindly meant if I offered it to him.But I remembered that we had no fire, so I was sorry and disappointed.But he looked up bright and pleased, and said:
"Fire? Oh, that is easy; I will furnish it."I was so astonished I couldn't speak; for I had not said anything.He took the pipe and blew his breath on it, and the tobacco glowed red, and spirals of blue smoke rose up.We jumped up and were going to run, for that was natural; and we did run a few steps, although he was yearningly pleading for us to stay, and giving us his word that he would not do us any harm, but only wanted to be friends with us and have company.So we stopped and stood, and wanted to go back, being full of curiosity and wonder, but afraid to venture.He went on coaxing, in his soft, persuasive way; and when we saw that the pipe did not blow up and nothing happened, our confidence returned by little and little, and presently our curiosity got to be stronger than our fear, and we ventured back--but slowly, and ready to fly at any alarm.
He was bent on putting us at ease, and he had the right art; one could not remain doubtful and timorous where a person was so earnest and simple and gentle, and talked so alluringly as he did; no, he won us over, and it was not long before we were content and comfortable and chatty, and glad we had found this new friend.When the feeling of constraint was all gone we asked him how he had learned to do that strange thing, and he said he hadn't learned it at all; it came natural to him--like other things--other curious things.
"What ones?"
"Oh, a number; I don't know how many."
"Will you let us see you do them?"
"Do--please!" the others said.
"You won't run away again?"
"No--indeed we won't.Please do.Won't you?""Yes, with pleasure; but you mustn't forget your promise, you know."We said we wouldn't, and he went to a puddle and came back with water in a cup which he had made out of a leaf, and blew upon it and threw it out, and it was a lump of ice the shape of the cup.We were astonished and charmed, but not afraid any more; we were very glad to be there, and asked him to go on and do some more things.And he did.He said he would give us any kind of fruit we liked, whether it was in season or not.We all spoke at once;"Orange!"
"Apple!"
"Grapes!"
"They are in your pockets," he said, and it was true.And they were of the best, too, and we ate them and wished we had more, though none of us said so.
"You will find them where those came from," he said, "and everything else your appetites call for; and you need not name the thing you wish; as long as I am with you, you have only to wish and find."And he said true.There was never anything so wonderful and so interesting.Bread, cakes, sweets, nuts--whatever one wanted, it was there.He ate nothing himself, but sat and chatted, and did one curious thing after another to amuse us.He made a tiny toy squirrel out of clay, and it ran up a tree and sat on a limb overhead and barked down at us.Then he made a dog that was not much larger than a mouse, and it treed the squirrel and danced about the tree, excited and barking, and was as alive as any dog could be.It frightened the squirrel from tree to tree and followed it up until both were out of sight in the forest.
He made birds out of clay and set them free, and they flew away, singing.
At last I made bold to ask him to tell us who he was.
"An angel," he said, quite simply, and set another bird free and clapped his hands and made it fly away.
A kind of awe fell upon us when we heard him say that, and we were afraid again; but he said we need not be troubled, there was no occasion for us to be afraid of an angel, and he liked us, anyway.He went on chatting as simply and unaffectedly as ever; and while he talked he made a crowd of little men and women the size of your finger, and they went diligently to work and cleared and leveled off a space a couple of yards square in the grass and began to build a cunning little castle in it, the women mixing the mortar and carrying it up the scaffoldings in pails on their heads, just as our work-women have always done, and the men laying the courses of masonry--five hundred of these toy people swarming briskly about and working diligently and wiping the sweat off their faces as natural as life.In the absorbing interest of watching those five hundred little people make the castle grow step by step and course by course, and take shape and symmetry, that feeling and awe soon passed away and we were quite comfortable and at home again.We asked if we might make some people, and he said yes, and told Seppi to make some cannon for the walls, and told Nikolaus to make some halberdiers, with breastplates and greaves and helmets, and I was to make some cavalry, with horses, and in allotting these tasks he called us by our names, but did not say how he knew them.Then Seppi asked him what his own name was, and he said, tranquilly, "Satan," and held out a chip and caught a little woman on it who was falling from the scaffolding and put her back where she belonged, and said, "She is an idiot to step backward like that and not notice what she is about."It caught us suddenly, that name did, and our work dropped out of our hands and broke to pieces--a cannon, a halberdier, and a horse.Satan laughed, and asked what was the matter.I said, "Nothing, only it seemed a strange name for an angel." He asked why.
"Because it's--it's--well, it's his name, you know.""Yes--he is my uncle."