e the rope round my body."

"Here it is," replied the witch; "and here is my blue checked
apron."

As soon as the rope was tied, the soldier climbed up the tree, and
let himself down through the hollow to the ground beneath; and here he
found, as the witch had told him, a large hall, in which many
hundred lamps were all burning. Then he opened the first door. "Ah!"
there sat the dog, with the eyes as large as teacups, staring at him.

"You're a pretty fellow," said the soldier, seizing him, and
placing him on the witch's apron, while he filled his pockets from the
chest with as many pieces as they would hold. Then he closed the
lid, seated the dog upon it again, and walked into another chamber,
And, sure enough, there sat the dog with eyes as big as mill-wheels.

"You had better not look at me in that way," said the soldier;
"you will make your eyes water;" and then he seated him also upon
the apron, and opened the chest. But when he saw what a quantity of
silver money it contained, he very quickly threw away all the
coppers he had taken, and filled his pockets and his knapsack with
nothing but silver.

Then he went into the third room, and there the dog was really
hideous; his eyes were, truly, as big as towers, and they turned round
and round in his head like wheels.

"Good morning," said the soldier, touching his cap, for he had
never seen such a dog in his life. But after looking at him more
closely, he thought he had been civil enough, so he placed him on
the floor, and opened the chest. Good gracious, what a quantity of
gold there was! enough to buy all the sugar-sticks of the
sweet-stuff women; all the tin soldiers, whips, and rocking-horses
in the world, or even the whole town itself There was, indeed, an
immense quantity. So the soldier now threw away all the silver money
he had taken, and filled his pockets and his knapsack with gold
instead; and not only his pockets and his knapsack, but even his cap
and boots, so that he could scarcely walk.

He was really rich now; so he replaced the dog on the chest,
closed the door, and called up through the tree, "Now pull me out, you
old witch."

"Have you got the tinder-box?" asked the witch.

"No; I declare I quite forgot it." So he went back and fetched the
tinderbox, and then the witch drew him up out of the tree, and he
stood again in the high road, with his pockets, his knapsack, his cap,
and his boots full of gold.

"What are you going to do with th