if only they come to pass!' So
he walked on about a hundred yards, and then he heard above him in the
branches such a screaming and chirping that he looked up, and there
he saw a heap of birds tearing a cloth with their beaks and feet,
shrieking, tugging, and fighting, as if each wanted it for himself.
'Well,' said the Hunter, 'this is wonderful! It is just as the old woman
said'; and he took his gun on his shoulder, pulled the trigger, and
shot into the midst of them, so that their feathers flew about. Then the
flock took flight with much screaming, but one fell dead, and the cloak
fluttered down. Then the Hunter did as the old woman had told him: he
cut open the bird, found its heart, swallowed it, and took the cloak
home with him. The next morning when he awoke he remembered the promise,
and wanted to see if it had come true. But when he lifted up his pillow,
there sparkled the gold piece, and the next morning he found another,
and so on every time he got up. He collected a heap of gold, but at
last he thought to himself, 'What good is all my gold to me if I stay
at home? I will travel and look a bit about me in the world.' So he took
leave of his parents, slung his hunting knapsack and his gun round him,
and journeyed into the world.

It happened that one day he went through a thick wood, and when he came
to the end of it there lay in the plain before him a large castle. At
one of the windows in it stood an old woman with a most beautiful maiden
by her side, looking out. But the old woman was a witch, and she said to
the girl, 'There comes one out of the wood who has a wonderful treasure
in his body which we must manage to possess ourselves of, darling
daughter; we have more right to it than he. He has a bird's heart in
him, and so every morning there lies a gold piece under his pillow.'

She told her how they could get hold of it, and how she was to coax it
from him, and at last threatened her angrily, saying, 'And if you do not
obey me, you shall repent it!'

When the Hunter came nearer he saw the maiden, and said to himself, 'I
have travelled so far now that I will rest, and turn into this beautiful
castle; money I have in plenty.' But the real reason was that he had
caught sight of the lovely face.

He went into the house, and was kindly received and hospitably
entertained. It was not long before he was so much in love with the
witch-maiden that he thought of nothing else, and only looked in her
eyes, and w