My tiny rill, a mere infant so near its source, was turning and twisting in the thick grass and seemed to try and walk on all fours as little children do. Farther down it had become a little girl, having increased in size and bulk; it now wandered hither and thither, carelessly, capriciously, leaping merrily over the rocks and carrying off here a flower and there a flower that grew on its banks, no doubt for the purpose of making a bouquet. Still farther on, I witnessed its marriage with a big brook that had come down all the way from the mountains; it was a young woman now, a wife, and walked soberly through the plain, like a prudent stream, bearing already boats on its surface and preparing to join an elder sister, the Moselle. Soon I had to cross it on a bridge; on this same bridge four Prussian soldiers were busy watching the water as it flowed by, no doubt in the hope of catching a fair Undine as she was stealthily slipping down the river. As for myself, I had in vain traced the unknown little river from its birth all {305}along its banks, under the thick shelter of willows and alder bushes; neither day before yesterday on the Rhine, nor yesterday on the Moselle, nor today, did I ever find a trace of a Nymph, a Nix, or an Undine! What must be my conclusion? A thief who had been brought before a police court and was there confronted with two persons who had seen him steal, said:-- “These men claim that they have seen me, but I, I could bring twenty other witnesses who would swear that they have not seen me!” “What does that prove?” asked the judge of the court. [Illustration: 325] I saw nothing. “What does that prove?” as the wise judge said to the thief. [Illustration: 329] XIII. {309}Familiar Spirits.--_Butzemann.--The Good Frau Holle.--Ko-bolds.--A Kobold in the Cook’s Employ.--Zotterais and the Little White Ladies.--The Killecroffs, the Devil’s Children.--White Angels.--Granted Wishes, a Fable._ France, which is skeptic to the core, has no idea of the importance of certain visible or invisible spirits, who eagerly seek the society of man, sleeping {310}under his roof, or in certain cases becoming members of his family, in the strictest sense of the word. Besides, they render efficient services to a good housekeeper; they may do great harm if they are made angry, and they give at times most useful advice. These hobgoblins, little known outside of Germany and England, frequent also the French provinces watered by the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, and are sometimes brought to Paris by cooks from Alsace and coachmen from Lorraine. Let us rapidly glance, not at all, but at some of the best authenticated among these familiar spirits.