`they stole me away when I was little, and I have had to keep
house for them ever since.'

`I still think I will go to bed, all the same,' said the youth.
`No matter what happens, I'll not go out to-night in such weather
as this.'

`Well, then, it will be the worse for yourself,' said the old
woman.

The young man lay down in a bed which stood near, but he
dared not go to sleep: and it was better that he didn't, for the
robbers came, and the old woman said that a young fellow who was
a stranger had come there, and she had not been able to get him
to go away again.

`Did you see if he had any money?' said the robbers.

`He's not one to have money, he is a tramp! If he has a few
clothes to his back, that is all.'

Then the robbers began to mutter to each other apart about
what they should do with him, whether they should murder him,
or what else they should do. In the meantime the boy got up and
began to talk to them, and ask them if they did not want a man-
servant, for he could find pleasure enough in serving them.

`Yes,' said they, `if you have a mind to take to the trade that
we follow, you may have a place here.'