smeared it with disgusting ointment, till it was quite impossible to
recognize the beautiful Eliza.
When her father saw her, he was much shocked, and declared she was not
his daughter. No one but the watch-dog and the swallows knew her; and
they were only poor animals, and could say nothing. Then poor Eliza wept,
and thought of her eleven brothers, who were all away. Sorrowfully, she
stole away from the palace, and walked, the whole day, over fields and
moors, till she came to the great forest. She knew not in what direction to
go; but she was so unhappy, and longed so for her brothers, who had been,
like herself, driven out into the world, that she was determined to seek
them. She had been but a short time in the wood when night came on, and
she quite lost the path; so she laid herself down on the soft moss, offered up
her evening prayer, and leaned her head against the stump of a tree. All
nature was still, and the soft, mild air fanned her forehead. The light of
hundreds of glow-worms shone amidst the grass and the moss, like green
fire; and if she touched a twig with her hand, ever so lightly, the brilliant
insects fell down around her, like shooting-stars.
All night long she dreamt of her brothers. She and they were children
again, playing together. She saw them writing with their diamond pencils on
golden slates, while she looked at the beautiful picture-book which had cost
half a kingdom. They were not writing lines and letters, as they used to do;
but descriptions of the noble deeds they had performed, and of all they had
discovered and seen. In the picture-book, too, everything was living. The
birds sang, and the people came out of the book, and spoke to Eliza and her
brothers; but, as the leaves turned over, they darted back again to their
places, that all might be in order.
When she awoke, the sun was high in the heavens; yet she could not see
him, for the lofty trees spread their branches thickly over her head; but his
beams were glancing through the leaves here and there, like a golden mist.
There was a sweet fragrance from the fresh green verdure, and the birds
almost perched upon her shoulders. She heard water rippling from a number
of springs, all flowing in a lake with golden sands. Bushes grew thickly
