be unattended. When thou hast ascertained the number of turnips, so that I may form my arrangements, I will convert them into a magnificent train; but take care how you miscount, even by one. This is the proof I demand of thy devotion.”
However unwilling the Gnome might be to quit his beautiful betrothed at such a moment, he delayed not to obey her; and running to the field, set to work with more haste than good speed, hurrying along the rows of turnips as fast as the doctors do along the rows of patients’ beds in a hospital. So zealous was he in his exertions, that the account was quickly summed up; but to “make assurance doubly sure,” he deemed it safest to go over the computation again, when, to his great annoyance, he discovered an error which necessitated a third scrutiny; and this, again, only served to manifest a new defect of addition. Nor can we be surprised at these mistakes; the idea of a pretty girl is quite enough to confuse the brain of the very best of arithmeticians; the most infallible among them have been known to blunder when the figure of a fair lady has happened to get mixed up with the other figures to which they were applying themselves.
No sooner had the crafty Emma lost sight of her lover than she took measures for flight. She had kept in reserve a large juicy turnip, which, at a stroke of her wand, became a powerful horse, ready
