Then the Hill-man tried him with something else. Arndt was a very handsome boy and everybody had told him so, until he was rather vain. Many a time, when he worked in the field, he used to look at himself in a clear, still pool, and think how golden his hair was, and how lithe and graceful his figure. Now the Hill-man knew all this; and so he led the boy to a crystal mirror and showed him his own beautiful form, set off with every advantage of rich dress. And then, by fairy spells, Arndt saw beside it the image of the little peasant as he was when he entered the hill. "Think how different!" whispered the dwarf. He breathed on the mirror, and the boy saw himself as he would be when he grew up--a hard-working, labouring man; and opposite, the semblance of a young, graceful nobleman, whose face was the same which the stream had often told him was his own. "We can make thee always thus handsome. Choose which thou wilt be," murmured the tempting voice. The boy hesitated; but the same moment came that melancholy voice--"My brother is rich, and I am poor; he is clad in silk, and I in rags. Alas, for me!" "It shall not be!" cried the noble boy. "I will go out of this place as poor as I came; but I will take Reutha with me. I will work all the days of my life; but Reutha shall not stay here. Hill-people! I want none of your treasures; but I command you to give me my sister, and let us go!" Arndt folded his arms around Reutha, and walked with her through all the gorgeous rooms, the Hill-men and women following behind, and luring him with their sweetest songs and most bewitching smiles. But Reutha's voice and Reutha's smile had greatest power of all over her brother's heart. They climbed the gloomy staircase, and stood at the opening in the hillock. Then the little Hill-man appealed once more to his master-- "Noble gentleman! remember, a life of labour with Reutha or one of continual pleasure alone! Think again!" "No, not for a moment," said Arndt, as he felt the breezes of earth playing on his cheek. How sweet they were, even after the fragrant airs of elfin-land! "At least, kind master, give me my cap!" piteously implored the Hill-man. "Take it; and good-bye for evermore!" cried Arndt, as he clasped his sister in his arms and leaped out. The chasm closed, and the two children found themselves lying in a snow-drift, with the gray dawn of a winter's morning just breaking over them. "Where have you been all night, my children?" cried the anxious mother, as they knocked at the door. Had it, indeed, been only a single night, the months that seemed to have passed while they were under the hill? They could not tell, for they were now like all other children, and their wisdom learned in fairyland had passed away. It seemed only a dream, save that the brother and sister loved each other better than ever, and so they continued to do as long as they lived. _The Unicorn_