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184 that knocks at my door and spoils my rest?" and that some one was so loud of speech that the earth quaked.

"Oh! open the door, father, there's a dear," said the prince. "It is your son who has come home again."

Yes! he opened the door fast and well.

"I almost thought you lay at the bottom of the sea," said the greybeard. "But you are not alone, I see," he said.

"This is the lad who saved me," said the prince. "I have asked him hither that you may give him his meed."

Yes, he would see to that, said the old fellow.

"But now you must step in," he said; "I am sure you have need of rest."

Yes! they went in and sat down, and the old man threw on the fire an armful of dry fuel and one or two logs, so that the fire blazed up and shone as clear as the day in every corner, and whichever way they looked it was grander than grand. Anything like it the lad had never seen before, and such meat and drink as the greybeard set before them he had never tasted either; and all the plates, and cups, and stoops, and tankards were all of pure silver or real gold.

It was not easy to stop the lads. They ate and drank and were merry, and afterwards they slept till far on next morning. But the lad was scarcely awake before the greybeard came with a morning draught in a tumbler of gold.

So when he had huddled on his clothes and broken his fast, the old man took him round with him and showed him everything, that he might choose