at night in the open air. Those who had caught sight of any of them
said
that they had greatly altered in the course of generations; and no
wonder, seeing they lived away from the sun, in cold and wet and dark
places. They were now, not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely
hideous, or ludicrously grotesque both in face and form. There was no
invention, they said, of the most lawless imagination expressed by pen
or pencil, that could surpass the extravagance of their appearance. And
as they grew mis-shapen in body, they had grown in knowledge and
cleverness, and now were able to do things no mortal could see the
possibility of. But as they grew in cunning, they grew in mischief, and
their great delight was in every way they could think of to annoy the
people who lived in the open-air-story above them. They had enough
of
affection left for each other, to preserve them from being absolutely
cruel for cruelty's sake to those that came in their way; but still they
so heartily cherished the ancestral grudge against those who occupied
their former possession, and especially against the descendants of the
king who had caused their expulsion, that they sought every
opportunity
of tormenting them in ways that were as odd as their inventors; and
although dwarfed and mis-shapen, they had strength equal to their
Madhuri Noah
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