Stone Face. Indeed, they said it was all a mistake, and the great man
was yet to come.

Suddenly through the valley there ran another rumor. Years before a
young man had left the valley, had gone into the world as a warrior, and
finally had become a great commander. Such had been his character and
life that the illustrious man was called by the name of Old
Blood-and-Thunder. This old general, being worn out with warfare,
decided to return to his native valley and spend his last days in peace.
But the most wonderful thing about Old Blood-and-Thunder was the fact
that all who knew him said that he was the man so long hoped for in the
valley, for he looked exactly like the Great Stone Face.

Great preparations, therefore, were made to receive the General--a
banquet was to be given and speeches made in his honor. On the day of
the festival Ernest, with all the others of the village, left their work
and went to the woods, where the banquet was held. A great crowd
surrounded the tables, so that Ernest at first could not see the great
man for whom he had waited and hoped so long, so he contented himself
with looking at the great face on the mountain side, which he could see
plainly through the trees. Meanwhile he could hear those around him
talking about Old Blood-and-Thunder and the Great Stone Face.

"'Tis the same face, to a hair," cried one man, clapping his hands for
joy.

"Wonderfully like, that's a fact," said another.

"Like! Why, I call it Old Blood-and-Thunder himself, in a monstrous
looking-glass," cried a third.