''
Then the whole family feasted on the ears of
corn and thanked the Great Spirit who gave it. So
Indian Corn came into the world.
THE NUTCRACKER DWARF
BY COUNT FRANZ POCCI (TRANSLATED)
Two boys gathered some hazelnuts in the woods.
They sat down under a tree and tried to eat them,
but they did not have their knives, and could not
bite open the nuts with their teeth.
``Oh,'' they complained, ``if only some one
would come and open the nuts for us!''
Hardly had they said this when a little man
came through the woods. And such a strange
little man! He had a great, great head, and from
the back of it a slender pigtail hung down to his
heels. He wore a golden cap, a red coat and yellow
stockings.
As he came near he sang:--
``Hight! hight! Bite! bite!
Hans hight I! Nuts bite I!
I chase the squirrels through the trees,
I gather nuts just as I please,
I place them 'twixt my jaws so strong,
And crack and eat them all day long!''
The boys almost died of laughter when they
saw this funny little man, who they knew was a
Wood Dwarf.
They called out to him: ``If you know how to
crack nuts, why, come here and open ours.''
But the little man grumbled through his long
white beard:--
``If I crack the nuts for you
Promise that you'll give me two.
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