his underlings and thralls."

And he nursed this thought, and brooded over the hatred
which he felt towards the blameless boy; but he did not dare
to harm him, for fear of their master, Mimer. And Siegfried
busied himself at his forge, where the sparks flew as
briskly and as merrily as ever before, and his bellows
roared from early morning till late at evening. Nor did the
foreman's unkindness trouble him for a moment, for he knew
that the master's heart was warm towards him.

Oftentimes, when the day's work was done, Siegfried sat with
Mimer by the glowing light of the furnace-fire, and listened
to the sweet tales which the master told of the deeds of the
early days, when the world was young, and the dwarf-folk and
the giants had a name and a place upon earth. And one night,
as they thus sat, the master talked of Odin the All-Father,
and of the gods who dwell with him in Asgard, and of the
puny men-folk whom they protect and befriend, until his
words grew full of bitterness, and his soul of a fierce
longing for something he dared not name. And the lad's heart
was stirred with a strange uneasiness, and he said,--

"Tell me, I pray, dear master, something about my own kin,
my father's fathers,--those mighty kings, who, I have heard
said, were the bravest and best of men."

Then the smith seemed pleased again. And his eyes grew
brighter, and lost their far-away look; and a smile played
among the wrinkles of his swarthy face, as he told a tale of