"After this it is not so pleasant roaming the woods and hunting all
day, with no house to go back to and no greeting of a bright face in
the evening. To make it still worse, one day, while they are hunting,
the poor boy loses sight of his father and never finds him again. So
now he is quite alone, but he still lives in the woods in the old way
till he grows to be a tall, strong, handsome young man. Perhaps he is
all the stronger and the better fighter because the most of his
enemies, and his friends too, for that matter, have been wild beasts.
That he has had one good enemy I know, because the coat that he wears
is the skin of a bear.

"And all this time the girl has been kept a prisoner at the house of
the robber, and she has grown up as well, now, to be a tall, beautiful
woman. At times, no doubt, the robber has treated her well enough, and
at times, I am afraid, not so well. But always he has urged her and has
tried to make her promise to be his wife, and now, after all these
years, at last she has promised. She has never forgotten the brave boy
whom she used to love, but the robber has told her that he is dead, and
finally she has come to believe it and has no more any hope of ever
being happy.

"I am looking right into the robber's house now. It is a strange house,
for right in the middle of it stands a large tree, which grows up
through the roof and spreads its branches over the house. And more
wonderful still, there is a sword sticking in this tree, up to the
hilt. Perhaps I might better tell you something about this sword before
we go any farther. Do you remember the gold that was stolen from the
river nymphs, the other night, when we were watching the fire, and the
magic ring that the dwarf made of it? Of course you do, and you
remember too how the Father of the Gods got it and paid it to the