44 



WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



the gnomes ; they are a very funny sort of people. They 

 cannot see at all after day, and they are so fond of their 

 antics, that sometimes light overtakes them, and then they 

 have to crawl under shelter of the first stone they can find, 

 until night comes again. Whenever you happen to turn over 

 the stone and see a blind, sluggish creature under it, looking 

 like a brick-dusted lizard, don't hurt the wee, helpless thing, 

 for when dark comes it will dart about and sparkle in the 

 most beautiful manner, like a living carbuncle, among the 

 strange night-flowering fungi that droop like it in the morn- 

 ing. You often see them at play, and if you do not notice, 

 will think they are nothing but fire-flies. 



There were many more creatures that these gnome-people 

 loved very well, and which lived under the earth, too. They 

 lighted the long galleries of the tiny shrews, and when the 



