eared. As soon as it was dark he went back to the little house,
knocked at the door, and said,

"Little sister, let me in."

Then the door was opened to him, and he went in, and rested the whole
night long on his soft bed. The next morning the hunt began anew, and
when the fawn heard the hunting-horns and the tally-ho of the huntsmen
he could rest no longer, and said,

"Little sister, let me out, I must go." The sister opened the door and
said,

"Now, mind you must come back at night and say the same words."

When the King and his hunters saw the fawn with the golden collar again,
they chased him closely, but he was too nimble and swift for them. This
lasted the whole day, and at last the hunters surrounded him, and one of
them wounded his foot a little, so that he was obliged to limp and to go
slowly. Then a hunter slipped after him to the little house, and heard
how he called out, "Little sister, let me in," and saw the door open and
shut again after him directly. The hunter noticed all this carefully,
went to the King, and told him all he had seen and heard. Then said the
King,

"To-morrow we will hunt again."

But the sister was very terrified when she saw that her fawn was
wounded. She washed his foot, laid cooling leaves round it, and said,
"Lie down on your bed, dear fawn, and rest, that you may be soon well."
The wound was very slight, so that the fawn felt nothing of it the next
morning. And when he heard the noise of the hunting outside, he said,

"I cannot stay in, I must go after them; I shall not be taken easily
again!" The sister began to weep, and said,

"I know you will be killed, and I left alone here in the forest, and
forsaken of everybody. I cannot let you go!"

"Then I shall die here with longing," answered the fawn; "when I hear
the sound of the horn I feel as if I should leap out of my skin."

Then the sister, seeing there was no help for it, unlocked the door with
a heavy heart, and the fawn bounded away into the forest, well and
merry. When the King saw him, he said to his hunters,

"Now, follow him up all day long till the night comes, and see that you
do him no hurt."

So as soon as the sun had gone down, the King said to the huntsmen:
"Now, come and show me the little house in the wood."

And when he got to the door he knocked at it, and cried,

"Little sister, let me in!"

Then the door opened, and the King went in, and there stood a maiden
more beautiful than any he had