Oh, what a thrill
went through Alba as he felt this new possession,--a hand and a foot! A
thousand such, had they not said? What it all meant he could only
wonder; but the one real possession was at least certain, and in that he
began to feel that all things were possible.
And now shall we see where the dwarf led him, and where the fairy, and
what was actually done in the underground tour?
The dwarf had need of his bright eyes and his skilful hands; for the
soft, tiny foot intrusted to him was a mere baby, that had to find its
way through a strange, dark world; and, what was more, it must not only
be guided, but also fed and tended carefully: so the bright eyes go
before, and the brown fingers dig out a roadway, and the foot that has
learned to trust its guide utterly follows on. There is no longer any
danger: he runs against no rocks; he loses his way among no tangled
roots; and the hard earth seems to open gently before him, leading him
to the fields where his own best food lies, and to hidden springs of
sweet, fresh water.
Do you wonder when I say the foot must be fed? Aren't your feet fed? To
be sure, your feet have no mouths of their own; but doesn't the mouth in
your face eat for your whole body, hands and feet, ears and eyes, and
all the rest? else how do they grow? The only difference here between
you and Alba is, that his foot has mouths of its own, and as it wanders
on through the earth, and finds any thing good for food, eats both for
itself and for the rest of the body; for I must tell you, that, as the
little foot progresses, it does not take the body with it, but only
grows longer and longer and longer, until, while one end remains at home
fastened to the body, the other end has travelled a distance, such as
would be counted miles by the atoms of people who live in the under-
world.
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