Atondido Stories
Klaas never could bear, because of its strong odor. Soon the
cakes and balls were heaped so high around him that the boy, as
he looked up, felt like a frog in a well. He groaned when he
thought the high cheese walls were tottering to fall on him. Then
he screamed, but the fairies thought he was making music. They,
not being human, do not know how a boy feels.
At last, with a thick slice in one hand and a big hunk in the
other, he could eat no more cheese; though the fairies, led by
their queen, standing on one side, or hovering over his head, still
urged him to take more.
At this moment, while afraid that he would burst, Klaas saw
the pile of cheeses, as big as a house, topple over. The heavy
mass fell inwards upon him. With a scream of terror, he thought
himself crushed as flat as a Friesland cheese.
But he wasn't! Waking up and rubbing his eyes, he saw the
red sun rising on the sand-dunes. Birds were singing and the
cocks were crowing all around him, in chorus, as if saluting him.
Just then also the village clock chimed out the hour. He felt his
clothes. They were wet with dew. He sat up to look around.
There were no fairies, but in his mouth was a bunch of grass
which he had been chewing lustily.
Klaas never would tell the story of his night with the fairies,
nor has he yet settled the question whether they left him because
the cheese-house of his dream had fallen, or because daylight
had come.
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