Little Ellie.
lovely, and yet that was only an inch high; on which account she gave her the name of “Ellie.”[1]
She made the baby a cradle out of a polished walnut-shell, gave her blue violets as mattress, and a rose-leaf for counterpane. In this cradle little Ellie slept at night; by day she played on the table. Here a plate full of water was placed, surrounded by a garland of flowers that dipped their stems in the water: in the middle, a large tulip-leaf was swimming, and on this Ellie was to sit, and to sail from one side of the plate to the other; and two white horse-hairs served as oars to row her boat with. All this looked exceedingly pretty; besides, Ellie could sing, and with so sweet a voice that the like nobody ever had heard.
- ↑ This tale is called “Ellise” in the original; a name given to the beautiful daughters of the fairy-people in the mythology of the North. As, however, to the English reader the word would not have conveyed the original idea of a diminutive being, I preferred giving the story the title I have.—The Translator.
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