He replied--
"Dear Elizabeth, all you say is true, and I now feel that it is a sin
for Christians to stay here; and it seems to me as if our Lord said to
us in that cry of the cocks, 'Come up, ye Christian children, out of
those abodes of illusion and magic; come to the light of the stars,
and act as children of light.' I now feel that it was a great sin for
me to come down here, but I trust I shall be forgiven on account of my
youth; for I was a child and knew not what I did. But now I will not
stay a day longer. They cannot keep _me_ here."
At these last words, Elizabeth turned pale, for she recollected that
she was a servant, and must serve her fifty years. "And what will it
avail me," cried she, "that I shall continue young and be but as
twenty years old when I go out, for my father and mother will be dead,
and all my companions old and gray; and you, dearest John, will be old
and gray also," cried she, throwing herself on his bosom.
John was thunderstruck at this, for it had never before occurred to
him; he, however, comforted her as well as he could, and declared he
would never leave the place without her. He spent the whole night in
forming various plans, at last he fixed on one, and in the morning he
dispatched his servant to summon to his apartment six of the principal
of the little people. When they came, John thus mildly addressed them:
"My friends, you know how I came here, not as a prisoner or servant,
but as a lord and master over one of you, and consequently, over all.
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