[The Black Dwarf by Sir Walter Scott]@TWC D-Link book
The Black Dwarf

CHAPTER IV
4/13

His body, thick and square, like that of a man of middle size, was mounted upon two large feet; but nature seemed to have forgotten the legs and the thighs, or they were so very short as to be hidden by the dress which he wore.

His arms were long and brawny, furnished with two muscular hands, and, where uncovered in the eagerness of his labour, were shagged with coarse black hair.

It seemed as if nature had originally intended the separate parts of his body to be the members of a giant, but had afterwards capriciously assigned them to the person of a dwarf, so ill did the length of his arms and the iron strength of his frame correspond with the shortness of his stature.

His clothing was a sort of coarse brown tunic, like a monk's frock, girt round him with a belt of seal-skin.

On his head he had a cap made of badger's skin, or some other rough fur, which added considerably to the grotesque effect of his whole appearance, and overshadowed features, whose habitual expression seemed that of sullen malignant misanthropy.
This remarkable Dwarf gazed on the two youths in silence, with a dogged and irritated look, until Earnscliff, willing to soothe him into better temper, observed, "You are hard tasked, my friend; allow us to assist you." Elliot and he accordingly placed the stone, by their joint efforts, upon the rising wall.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books