But no sooner was he back on the earth, and in the sunlight again,
than he heard footsteps behind him. Then he knew that he had been
discovered.
He glanced over his shoulder and there were the two little men, who
had led him first and had formerly been his guards. They scowled at
him as if they were mad enough to bite off the heads of tenpenny
nails. Then they rushed after him, and there began a race to the
cottage.
But the boy had legs twice as long as the little men, and got to the
cottage door first. He now thought himself safe, but pushing open the
door, he stumbled over the copper threshold, and the ball rolled out
of his hand, across the floor of hardened clay, even to the nearly
white-washed border, which ran about the edges of the room. It stopped
at the feet of his mother, whose eyes opened wide at the sight of the
ball of shining gold.
As he lay sprawling on the floor, and before he could pick himself up,
one of the little men leaped over him, rushed into the room, and, from
under his mother's petticoats, picked up the ball.
They spat at the boy and shouted, "traitor," "rascal," "thief," "false
mortal," "fox," "rat," "wolf," and other bad names.
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