they had got time to rest themselves,
the princess's steward came to hear their story.

'You saw what was written above the door,' he said to the father. 'Tell
me who you are and what your history has been.'

'Dear me, I have nothing of any importance to tell you,' said the old
man, 'and I am sure we should never have made so bold as to trouble you
at all if it hadn't been for the youngest of our two sons here.'

'Never mind that,' said the steward; 'you are very welcome if you will
only tell me the story of your life.'

'Well, well, I will,' said he, 'but there is nothing to tell about it.
I and my wife have lived all our days on a moor in North Jutland, until
this last year, when she took a fancy to go to Rome. We set out with our
two sons but turned back long before we got there, and are now on our
way home again. That's all my own story, and our two sons have lived
with us all their days, so there is nothing more to be told about them
either.'

'Yes there is,' said Rasmus; 'when we were on our way south, we slept in
the wood near here one night, and I shot a stag.'

The steward was so much accustomed to hearing stories of no importance
that he thought there was no use going further with this, but reported
to the princess that the newcomers had nothing to tell.

'Did you question them all?' she said.

'Well, no; not directly,' said he; 'but the father said that none of
them could tell me any more than he had done.'

'You are getting careless,' said the princess; 'I shall go and talk to
them myself.'

Niels knew the princess again as soon as she entered the room, and was
greatly alarmed, for he immediately supposed that all this was a device
to discover the person who had run away with the sword, the slipper and
the half of the handkerchief, and that it would fare badly with him if
he were discovered. So he told his story much the same as the others did
(Niels was not very particular), and thought he had escaped all further
trouble, when Rasmus put in his word. 'You've forgotten something,
Niels,' he said; 'you remember you found a sword near here that night I
shot the stag.'

'Where is the sword?' said the princess.

'I know,' said the steward, 'I saw where he laid it down when they came
in;' and off he went to fetch it, while Niels wondered whether he
could make his escape in the meantime. Before he had made up his
mind, however, the steward was back with the sword, which the princess
recognised at on