"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."