She never thought of asking where he was leading her.
They had not gone far down the _close_, when a roaring sound fell upon
her ear, growing louder and louder as they went on; till, turning a
sharp corner, there they saw the smithy fire. The door of the smithy
was open, and they could see the smith at work some distance off. The
fire glowed with gathered rage at the impudence of the bellows blowing
in its face. The huge smith, with one arm flung affectionately over the
shoulder of the insulting party, urged it to the contest; while he
stirred up the other to increased ferocity, by poking a piece of iron
into the very middle of it. How the angry glare started out of it and
stared all the murky _smiddy_ in the face, showing such gloomy holes
and corners in it, and such a lot of horse-shoes hung up close to the
roof, ready to be fitted for unbelievable horse-wear; and making the
smith's face and bare arms glow with a dusky red, like hot metal, as if
he were the gnome-king of molten iron. Then he stooped, and took up
some coal dust in a little shovel, and patted it down over the fire,
and blew stronger than ever, and the sparks flew out with the rage of
the fire.
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