Chapter 5: The House of the Seven Little Dwarfs

“Mistress,” said the gander, “you will have to alight now if we are to go in here in search of the forest folk. It would only bruise my wings for nothing if I tried to fly where the trees are so thick.”

“Very well,” answered Ellen, stepping down from his back to the ground. “And I do believe,” she added, “that I see a house now beyond those bushes. Don’t you?”

“Yes, I believe I do,” said the gander. “Let us go over in that direction and see.”

A very short walk brought them to the house. It was a very cunning little house, with a door and windows just about large enough for a large child.

Ellen went up to the door and knocked. She could hear some one rattling about inside and moving things around, but there was no answer to her rap, so she knocked again.

A moment’s silence followed, and then the door was suddenly and violently thrown open. There stood a little dwarf holding a great wooden spoon in his hand as though it were a club. His eyes had a scared look.

“Who are you, and what do you want here?” he cried, in a voice that he tried to make very big and bold, though it trembled in spite of him.

“I am Ellen,” answered the little girl, “and I stopped here to ask if you could tell me the way to the Queerbodies’ house.”

“Oh, is that all,” said the dwarf with a sigh of relief. “I was afraid when you first knocked that you might be one of those bad underground dwarfs. But come in; come in. I don’t know the way myself, but maybe one of my brothers may. They’ll be here soon if you’ll come in and wait a bit. I’m just cooking dinner for them.”

“Thank you,” said Ellen. “May my gander come in too?”

“Yes, yes; bring him in.”

As Ellen followed the dwarf into the house she looked about her and thought it was the very cunningest little house she had ever seen. In the middle of the room was a long low table set with seven wooden bowls, seven wooden forks, and seven wooden spoons. Around the table were seven little chairs just the right size for children or dwarfs. There were also a wooden dresser painted red, a dough-trough, a clock, and a settee; but everything was small. Ellen thought what fun it would be to keep house there.

The only big thing in the room was a huge black pot that stood on the stove, and in which something was cooking. The dwarf was obliged to stand on a stool in order to reach over and stir it with his big spoon.

“Porridge,” he said looking over his shoulder at Ellen. Then he repeated in a tone of contempt, “Porridge!” Giving it a last stir he stepped down from the stool, and using all his strength he pushed the pot to the back part of the stove. Then he came and sat down opposite to Ellen.

“I suppose you think porridge is a strange thing to have for dinner,” he said, still speaking bitterly. “So do I. And to think I had a good dinner all ready and cooked just a little while ago!”

“What became of it?” asked Ellen.

“Why I just went a little way into the forest to see if my brothers were coming, and in that little time that I was away those bad underground dwarfs were here, and when I came back the meat was gone, and the potatoes were gone, and ashes were dropped in the soup, so it was fit for nothing but to be thrown out. Oh, they’re bad ones, they are.”

“So then you cooked some porridge?”

“It was the best I could do at this hour of the day. There’ll be grumbling enough about it when my brothers come home. Those underground dwarfs are always up to some mischief or other. They weren’t so much trouble—indeed they didn’t trouble us at all as long as the good Bear Prince was about. They were too much afraid of him even if he was enchanted; but he broke the enchantment and married Snow-White and went to live in his castle, far away. Now the underground dwarfs have no one to be afraid of, and we daren’t leave the house alone a minute or they’re up to some mischief.”

Ellen sat staring at the dwarf. She knew the story of that Bear Prince very well. It was all about how he came to the house where Rose-Red and Snow-White lived and asked for shelter one bitter winter night. He was in the shape of a bear then because he had been enchanted by a wicked dwarf, but afterward he caught the dwarf and killed him, and then his bear-skin dropped from him. So he came back to his true shape of a handsome prince and married little Snow-White. Ellen knew the story almost by heart, but never before had she believed that it was really true.