horrible dragon, by the magic helmet, so that he may guard it better.
The young man's mother was the woman whom the Daughter of the God sent
away into this forest to save her from the anger of the Father of the
Gods, as you remember. She took refuge here in the dwarf's cave and she
died soon after her son was born, and then the dwarf kept the boy and
brought him up. But it was not because he cared for him at all or had
the least kindly feeling for anybody. It was just because he wanted, as
so many others wanted, that rich treasure and the magic helmet and the
magic ring with the curse upon it.

"Now, you see, the boy's mother gave him the pieces of the broken magic
sword and told him to keep them for the boy. He knew something about
the sword and so he got it into his head that this was the very sword
that would sometime kill that dragon. And since this boy was to have
the sword, he thought, too, that he might very likely grow up to be the
man who would kill the dragon. Do you see, then, why he has kept him
and fed him and brought him up so carefully? It was just because he was
so cunning and cruel and selfish that he took good care of the boy. He
knew very well that he himself would never dare to go near enough to
that dragon for it to breathe on him, but he thought: 'Some day I will
give this boy the magic sword and make him go and kill the monster with
it, and then I will kill him and get all the treasure, with the helmet
and the ring, and then I shall be the ruler of all the dwarfs, of men,
of the gods themselves, and of the whole world.'

[Illustration: "THE SUNLIGHT FOLLOWS HIM STRAIGHT INTO THE CAVE."]

"So the baby that the dwarf took and tended at first has grown to be
this noble, brave, generous young man, and he hates the dwarf as anyone
as good and strong as he must hate anything so cowardly and mean and