she saw him she sprang to her feet with a glad cry and clasped her
hands. "Oh!" she cried, "have you come to rescue me?"

"Who are you?" asked Teddy, wondering at her.

She was very beautiful. Her eyes were as bright and black as a sloe, her
hair shone like threads of pure gold, and she wore a long cloak of
golden feathers over her shoulders.

When Teddy spoke she answered him, "I am Avis, the Bird-maiden."

"And how did you come here?" asked Teddy.

Then the Bird-maiden told him how she used to live in a golden castle
that was all her own; how she ate from crystal dishes and bathed every
morning in a little marble bath-tub, and had nothing to do all day but
swing in her golden swing and sing for her own pleasure. But after a
while she grew tired of all this and began to wonder what the outside
world was like, and one the day the sun was so bright and the air so
sweet that she left her home and flew out into the wide, wide world.

That was all very pleasant until she grew tired and sat down on a stone
to rest. Then a great brown robber came and caught her and carried her
down into his den, and there he kept her a prisoner in spite of her
tears and prayers, and there she must wait on him and keep his house in
order; every day he went out and left her along, coming back loaded down
with food or golden treasure that he had stolen.

"But why don't you run away?" asked Teddy. "I would."