for some crumbs, but he threw
stones at them, and frightened them off. Then he began to wonder where
he should sleep. Not in the open space he was in, for that was bare and
cold, and though he had walked a long way that day, and was tired, he
dragged himself up, and went on seeking for a shelter.

At length he saw a deep sort of hole or cave under a great rock, and
as it seemed quite empty, he went in, and lay down in a corner. About
midnight he was awakened by a noise, and peeping out he beheld a
terrible ogress approaching. He implored her not to hurt him, but to
let him stay there for the rest of the night, to which she consented, on
condition that he should spend the next day in doing any task which she
might choose to set him. To this the young man willingly agreed, and
turned over and went to sleep again. In the morning, the ogress bade him
sweep the dust out of the cave, and to have it clean before her return
in the evening, otherwise it would be the worse for him. Then she left
the cave.

The young man took the spade, and began to clean the floor of the cave,
but try as he would to move it the dirt still stuck to its place. He
soon gave up the task, and sat sulkily in the corner, wondering what
punishment the ogress would find for him, and why she had set him to do
such an impossible thing.

He had not long to wait, after the ogress came home, before he knew what
his punishment was to be! She just gave one look at the floor of the
cave, then dealt him a blow on the head which cracked his skull, and
there was an end of him.

Meanwhile his next brother grew tired of staying at home, and let his
parents have no rest till they had consented that he also should be
given some food and some new boots, and go out to see the world. On his
road, he also met the two old beggars, who prayed for a little of his
bread and milk, but this young man had never been taught to help other
people, and had made it a rule through his life to keep all he had to
himself. So he turned a deaf ear and finished his dinner.

By-and-by he, too, came to the cave, and was bidden by the ogress to
clean the floor, but he was no more successful than his brother, and his
fate was the same.

Anyone would have thought that when the old people had only one son left
that at least they would have been kind to him, even if they did not
love him. But for some reason they could hardly bear the sight of him,
though he tried much harder to make them co