"Is it me that you are whistling to like a dog?" said the dwarf.
"I am, you vermin! It is an honour you don't deserve."
"Just listen to me, Sperver," replied the little man with sublime scorn;
"you cannot spit so high as my shoe!" which he contemptuously held out.
"Suppose I were to come up?"
"If you come up a single step I'll squash you flat with this volume!"
Gideon laughed, and replied--
"Don't get angry, friend; I don't mean to do you any harm; on the
contrary, I greatly respect you for your learning; but what I want to
know is what you are doing here so early in the morning, by lamplight?
You look as if you had spent the night here."
"So I have; I have been reading all night."
"Are not the days long enough for you to read in?"
"No; I am following out an important inquiry, and I don't mean to sleep
until I am satisfied."
"Indeed; and what may this very important question be?"
"I have to ascertain under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered
my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia. You know,
Sperver, that my ancestor Otto was only a cubit high--that is, a foot and
a-half.
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