Anselmus listened and listened. Ere long, the
whispering, and lisping, and tinkling, he himself knew not how, grew
to faint and half-scattered words:
"'Twixt this way, 'twixt that; 'twixt branches, 'twixt blossoms, come
shoot, come twist and twirl we! Sisterkin, sisterkin! up to the shine;
up, down, through and through, quick! Sun-rays yellow; evening-wind
whispering; dew-drops pattering; blossoms all singing: sing we with
branches and blossoms! Stars soon glitter; must down: 'twixt this way,
'twixt that, come shoot, come twist, come twirl we, sisterkin!"
And so it went along, in confused and confusing speech. The student
Anselmus thought: "Well, it is but the evening-wind, which tonight
truly is whispering distinctly enough." But at that moment there
sounded over his head, as it were, a triple harmony of clear crystal
bells: he looked up, and perceived three little snakes, glittering
with green and gold, twisted round the branches, and stretching out
their heads to the evening sun. Then, again, began a whispering and
twittering in the same words as before, and the little snakes went
gliding and caressing up and down through the twigs; and while they
moved so rapidly, it was as if the elder-bush were scattering a
thousand glittering emeralds through the dark leaves.
"It is the evening sun which sports so in the elder-bush," thought the
student Anselmus; but the bells sounded again, and Anselmus observed
that one Snake held out its little head to him.
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