On a night of a heavy snow-storm, between Christmas and New Year, a traveller lost his way. Pushing ahead through the deep snowdrifts he became almost exhausted and thanked his luck, when at last he found a shelter from the storm under a big juniper bush.

He intended to stay there overnight, hoping to find his way in the morning. He wrapped himself in his fur-coat, curled up like a hedgehog, and soon fell asleep. He did not know how long he had been sleeping, when he felt somebody shaking him and heard a voice calling, "Stranger, get up! Or the snow-storm will bury you and you may never get out!"

The man raised his head, opened his sleepy eyes and saw before him a tall man with a young pine tree, twice his size, as a staff in his hand. "Come with me," said the man. "We have a bonfire in the woods, it is better to rest there than here in the open."

The traveller did not decline such an invitation; he got up and went with the stranger. The snow-storm was so furious that it was impossible to see farther than three paces ahead, but when the stranger raised his staff and called, "Stop there, Mother Blizzard. Give way!" there at once appeared a quiet wide roadway in front of them, where no snow was falling, while on both sides of them an angry snow-storm was raging. It seemed as if an invisible wall was holding back the snow from both sides of the roadway.

Some time had passed before the men reached the woods, and from far off they saw the glow of the fire. "What is your name?" asked the stranger.

"I am Tall Hans's son Hans," was the answer.

Around the fire there sat three men, clad in white linen garments, as if it were midsummer. Thirty-odd paces from all around the fire it looked as if it really were summer; the moss was dry, trees were in leaf and ants were busy in the green grass; though at the same time Hans could hear the roaring of the snow-storm nearby.

Even stranger was the fire itself—though it burnt very brightly, it did not give off any smoke. "Don't you think Hans, that this is a better place to rest than under the juniper bush in the open?" Hans had to agree and thanked his guide for bringing him to this place. Then he took off his fur-coat, rolled it up and put it as a pillow under his head and laid himself down by the fire.

The stranger got his flask from under a tree and offered Hans a drink; the drink was very refreshing and gave Hans a feeling of happiness. Then the stranger laid himself down as well, and started to talk to his companions in a language Hans did not understand and he soon fell asleep.

The next morning, when Hans awoke, he found himself in an unknown place. He wasn't in the woods and there was no fire. Rubbing his eyes and recollecting what he had seen the night before, Hans concluded that it must all have been a dream, but he could not explain to himself how he came to be there.

From afar a loud thumping sound reached his ears and he felt as if the ground were shaking under him. Hans tried to make out from which direction the sound was coming and decided to trace it, in the hope of finding some people there. Soon he came to the entrance of a cave from where the sound came. He saw a faint glow of light inside. Hans entered the cave and found himself in an enormous smithy, with many bellows and anvils. Around each anvil seven men were at work.

Queerer blacksmiths could not be found anywhere in the world. The men were about knee-high, but their heads were larger than their thin bodies, and the hammers they held in their hands were twice their size. With these hammers the little fellows were dealing such heavy blows on the anvils which even stronger and more powerful men could not have done. The little blacksmiths had nothing on, except long leather aprons which covered their fronts, while their backs were as naked as Mother Nature had made them.

Near to the back wall Hans noticed the stranger he had met in the snow-storm. He sat on a tall tree trunk and was attentively watching the little men work. At his feet stood a high wooden jug, from which the little workers drank from time to time.

The stranger—who turned out to be the master blacksmith—was not clad in the white garment he had worn the night before, but in dark, dust-covered clothes, and had on a leather girdle with a huge clasp; the tall pine staff was still in his hand and with it he made, now and then, some signs to his men, because above the loud noise and the constant vibration no talk could be heard.

Hans did not know if anybody had noticed him or not as the master and his men were all working hard and paid no attention to the intruder.

Some hours later the little men took a rest. The bellows were stopped and the heavy hammers thrown down. Now, when the workers were gone, the master arose from his seat and motioned Hans to come nearer. "I saw you coming," he remarked, "but the hasty work did not permit me to talk to you earlier. Be my guest for today, and look round my house. Entertain yourself here till I change out of my working clothes."

With these words he took a key from his pocket, opened a door in the back wall and invited Hans to enter. What marvellous treasures were stored here! Great heaps of gold and silver bars were piled all around!

Hans began to count the bars of gold in one of the piles and he had counted exactly five hundred and seventy bars when the master returned and said with a smile, "Stop counting, it would take too much time! Better take a few bars from the pile, as a present from me."

Hans did not wait to be asked twice—he grasped a bar of gold with both hands, but could not even move it!

The master laughed and said, "Oh, you feeble flea, you can't take with you even the smallest gift I offer, therefore you have to be satisfied with only looking at it." Talking thus he led Hans to the second, then to the third and to the fourth room, till they reached the seventh room, which was the size of a church, and like all the others was stored from floor to ceiling with gold and silver bars.

Hans was dazzled and stood amazed before the endless treasures, sufficient to buy all the kingdoms of the world. And here it lay unused.

He asked his host, "Why are you storing these fortunes here, where nobody can profit by them? If you would share them among the people of the world, all men would become rich, and there would be no need to do hard work."

"That is why I cannot give these treasures to mankind, as all the world would perish of idleness. If man had no need to work he would soon die. Man is intended to toil, in order to keep alive."

Hans did not agree with this explanation and argued boldly against the opinion of his host. Then he asked him to explain for what purpose he was storing all that gold and silver there; and why, though he had more than enough, he was tirelessly storing more and more treasure.

The master said, "I am not a man, though I have a human figure and face. I am a higher being, whom God has assigned to rule the world and keep order in it. It is His wish that my helpers and I have to make gold and silver here underground. Every year a small portion of it is given out to men, exactly as much as they need for their use. First we have to grind the gold into small grains, mix it with soil, clay and sand, so that man has laboriously to dig for it and find it by chance. But, my friend, we must bring our talk to an end, for it is mealtime. If you want to look at my treasures, stay here, delight your heart with the sight of the glittering gold, till I come back for you." And he left Hans on his own.

Hans walked from room to room, tried to lift some smaller bars of gold, but again he did not succeed. Though he had often heard from cleverer men how heavy gold was, he never believed it, until now that he had experienced it himself.

When the host returned, he was so transformed that Hans, at first sight, did not recognize him. He now wore a bright flame-coloured silken garment, which was richly adorned with gold; a wide golden belt was around his waist and on his head he had a glittering golden crown, with precious stones sparkling in it like the stars in a winter sky. Instead of his former pine staff, he held in his hand a small wand of purest gold which with its golden branches and pine-needles looked like a small pine tree.

When the keeper of all this royal wealth had closed and locked the doors of the gold chambers, he put the keys into his pocket, took Hans by the hand and led him out of the smithy into another room, where a fine meal was waiting for them.

All the tables and chairs were of silver. In the middle of the room stood a magnificent table, with two silver chairs. The plates, pitchers, beakers and bowls were made of gold. When the two men had seated themselves at the table, twelve of the choicest dishes were served. The servants looked like the little blacksmiths Hans had seen before, only they were clad in white garments.

The swiftness and skilfulness of the little men amazed Hans, and though they did not have wings they seemed to fly about. As they were not as high as the table, they had to jump onto the table and down again every time. Carrying big plates and dishes in their hands, filled to the brim with food, the little men handled them with such skill that not a drop was spilled. Between courses they filled the beakers of the diners with mead and rare wines.

The host conversed with Hans in a friendly manner and entrusted him with some secrets. He said, when their conversation turned to the night of the snow-storm, "Between Christmas and the New Year, I often wander on the Earth. I want to learn how humans live, and like to get acquainted with some of them. But, from what I have learned I cannot praise them much. Most of them are living to spite and to harm each other. They are all, more or less, complaining about their fellow men; nobody is prepared to see his own shortcomings, but blames everyone else for his misfortunes."

Hans tried to disprove this as well as he could, but the hospitable master ordered the servants to pour more and more of the good wine into the beaker of his guest, so that Hans's tongue became heavy and at last he could not even understand what was said to him.

Before long Hans fell asleep in his chair. In the weariness of his confused head he had a strange and motley dream, in which piles of gold were incessantly before his eyes. In his dream he was much stronger and was carrying a pair of golden bars with ease. When he sat down for a rest, he heard strange voices, which he thought were the voices of the little blacksmiths.

Half opening his eyelids he saw a leafy forest around him. He was lying on the green grass. The sun shone gaily, sending its warm rays into his eyes. It took some time for Hans to free himself from the bonds of sleep and to recall what had happened to him.

By and by his memory returned, but the recollected happenings seemed strange and did not agree with the created order of the world as he knew it.

Hans recalled how, on a stormy night, a few days after Christmas, he had lost his way in the woods, and everything that happened later. He had slept in the company of unknown men by fire; on the following day, he had been the guest of the stranger; he had dined with him and had drunk much of the wonderful wine—but surely this must have been only a few days ago. Now full summer reigned around him! Some mysterious charm must have been at work here.

Arising from the ground Hans saw the place where the bonfire had been. The cinders glittered in the sun in a strange way. Examining the place more closely Hans noticed that the supposed ashes were of fine silver dust and that the cinders were of pure gold.

What luck! Where was he to get a bag to take it home? Necessity is the best teacher. Hans took off his fur-coat, swept all the silver ashes together, not a grain of dust was ignored by him, put the silver dust and all the gold cinders on his coat, made it into a bundle, and tied it with his belt, so that nothing could fall out. The load did not look large, but it was heavy enough and Hans had to use all his strength to carry it to a safe place and hide it.

By a happy chance Hans had become a rich man. He decided to leave this part of the country and move to another, where nobody would know him. There, with a portion of his wealth he bought a fine manor, then married a lovely girl and they lived happily to the end of their lives.