Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

"But he will not always come off well," I ventured to say.

"Perhaps not," rejoined the knight, "in the individual act; but the

result of his lifetime will content him."

"So it will fare with you, doubtless," thought I; "but for me---"

Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said,

hesitatingly: "May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when she

came to your castle to find you?"

He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said-

"I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is something

about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the privilege of the

country; namely, to go unquestioned. I, however, being only a man, such

as you see me, am ready to tell you anything you like to ask me, as far

as I can. The little beggar-girl came into the hall where I was sitting,

and told me a very curious story, which I can only recollect very

vaguely, it was so peculiar. What I can recall is, that she was sent to

gather wings. As soon as she had gathered a pair of wings for herself,

she was to fly away, she said, to the country she came from; but where

that was, she could give no information.

"She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths; and

wherever she begged, no one refused her. But she needed a great many of

the wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair for her; and so she

had to wander about day after day, looking for butterflies, and night

after night, looking for moths; and then she begged for their wings. But

the day before, she had come into a part of the forest, she said, where

there were multitudes of splendid butterflies flitting about, with wings

which were just fit to make the eyes in the shoulders of hers; and she

knew she could have as many of them as she liked for the asking; but as

soon as she began to beg, there came a great creature right up to her,

and threw her down, and walked over her. When she got up, she saw

the wood was full of these beings stalking about, and seeming to have

nothing to do with each other. As soon as ever she began to beg, one of

them walked over her; till at last in dismay, and in growing horror of

the senseless creatures, she had run away to look for somebody to help

her. I asked her what they were like. She said, like great men, made of

wood, without knee-or elbow-joints, and without any noses or mouths or

eyes in their faces. I laughed at the little maiden, thinking she was

making child's game of me; but, although she burst out laughing too, she

persisted in asserting the truth of her story."