accomplished their purpose.

We will leave these two princes to wander here and there in their
search, and look at what was passing in another place. Deep down in the
heart of a wild wood there dwelt at that time an old woman who had an
only son, who used daily to attend to his mother's three hogs. As the
lad roamed through the forest, he one day cut a little pipe to play on.
He found much pleasure in the music, and he played so well that the
notes charmed all who heard him. The boy was well built, of an honest
heart, and feared nothing.

One day it chanced that, as he was sitting in the wood playing on his
pipe, while his three hogs grubbed among the roots of the pine-trees, a
very old man came along. He had a beard so long that it reached to his
waist, and a large dog accompanied him. When the lad saw the dog he said
to himself--

"I wish I had a dog like that as a companion here in the wood. Then
there would be no danger."

The old man knew what the boy thought, and he said--

"I have come to ask you to let me give you my dog for one of your hogs."

The lad was ready to close the bargain, and gave a gray hog in exchange
for the big dog. As he was going the old man said--

"I think you will be satisfied with your bargain. The dog is not like
other dogs. His name is Hold-fast, and if you tell him to hold, hold he
will whatever it may be, were it even the fiercest giant."