of extreme necessity. The pious old fisherman, however, many times
passed through it without harm, when he carried the fine fish which
he caught by his beautiful strip of land to a great city lying only
a short distance beyond the forest.

Now the reason he was able to go through this wood with so much ease
may have been chiefly this, because he entertained scarcely any
thoughts but such as were of a religious nature; and besides, every
time he crossed the evil-reported shades, he used to sing some holy
song with a clear voice and from a sincere heart.

Well, while he sat by his nets this evening, neither fearing nor
devising evil, a sudden terror seized him, as he heard a rushing in
the darkness of the wood, that resembled the tramping of a mounted
steed, and the noise continued every instant drawing nearer and
nearer to his little territory.

What he had fancied, when abroad in many a stormy night, respecting
the mysteries of the forest, now flashed through his mind in a
moment, especially the figure of a man of gigantic stature and snow-
white appearance, who kept nodding his head in a portentous manner.
And when he raised his eyes towards the wood, the form came before
him in perfect distinctness, as he saw the nodding man burst forth
from the mazy web-work of leaves and branches. But he immediately
felt emboldened, when he reflected that nothing to give him alarm had
ever befallen him even in the forest; and moreover, that on this open
neck of land the evil spirit, it was likely, would be still less
daring in the exercise of his power. At the same time he prayed
aloud with the most earnest sincerity of devotion, repeating a
passage of the Bible. This inspired him with fresh courage, and soon