e hearthstone,
but in that tall tree that lies the secret of my strength.' Then the
old woman jumped up again and put her arms round the tree, and kissed it
heartily. Loudly laughed the dragon when he saw what she was doing.

'Old fool,' he cried, as soon as he could speak, 'did you really believe
that my strength came from that tree?'

'Where is it then?' asked the old woman, rather crossly, for she did not
like being made fun of.

'My strength,' replied the dragon, 'lies far away; so far that you could
never reach it. Far, far from here is a kingdom, and by its capital city
is a lake, and in the lake is a dragon, and inside the dragon is a wild
boar, and inside the wild boar is a pigeon, and inside the pigeon a
sparrow, and inside the sparrow is my strength.' And when the old woman
heard this, she thought it was no use flattering him any longer, for
never, never, could she take his strength from him.

The following morning, when the dragon had left the mill, the prince
came back, and the old woman told him all that the creature had said. He
listened in silence, and then returned to the castle, where he put on
a suit of shepherd's clothes, and taking a staff in his hand, he went
forth to seek a place as tender of sheep.

For some time he wandered from village to village and from town to town,
till he came at length to a large city in a distant kingdom, surrounded
on three sides by a great lake, which happened to be the very lake in
which the dragon lived. As was his custom, he stopped everybody whom he
met in the streets that looked likely to want a shepherd and begged them
to engage him, but they all seemed to have shepherds of their own, or
else not to need any. The prince was beginning to lose heart, when a man
who had overheard his question turned round and said that he had better
go and ask the emperor, as he was in search of some one to see after his
flocks.

'Will you take care of my sheep?' said the emperor, when the young man
knelt before him.

'Most willingly, your Majesty,' answered the young man, and he listened
obediently while the emperor told him what he was to do.

'Outside the city walls,' went on the emperor, 'you will find a large
lake, and by its banks lie the richest meadows in my kingdom. When you
are leading out your flocks to pasture, they will all run straight to
these meadows, and none that have gone there have ever been known to
come back. Take heed, therefore, my son, not to suffer