id, 'Oh, what have I done to have such a lazy son,'" replied the
man, "but I did not call you, for I did not know that was your name."

The Green one looked closely at the lad. "Is he so lazy?" he asked.
"He looks a stout, healthy fellow."

"That is the worst of it," answered the father. "He is so stout and
healthy that he eats me out of house and home, and not one stroke will
he do to pay for it. I have tried to apprentice him to different
masters, but they soon weary of him and drive him out."

"Very well; I will take him as an apprentice myself," answered the
little man. "Leave him here with me for a year. Come back at the end
of that time, and if you know him again and are able to choose him out
from among my other apprentices, then you shall take him home with
you, but if not, then he shall serve with me a year longer."

Very well, the father was willing to agree to that. It would only be
for a year, for of course he would recognize his own son anywhere. So
he left the lad with Oh and went on home again.

Oh took the lad down into the country that lies beneath this earth,
and the way was not long. There everything was green. Oh's house was
made of green rushes. His wife was green and his daughters were green
and his dog was green, and when they gave the lad food to eat, it was
green also.

The oldest daughter would have been a beauty if she had not been green
all over--eyes, hair, and all. As soon as she saw the lad she loved
him and would have been glad to have him for a husband, but he had no
fancy for her.

"When I marry," said he, "it shall be some girl who is good red and
white flesh and blood like myself."

"Never mind," said Oh. "After you have lived here for a while you will
be glad enough to have her for a wife."

The lad lived down in the under country for a year, and Oh taught him
much magic, and he was very useful to the old Green One.

But at the end of the year the father came back in search of his son.
He stopped at the very same spot in the forest where he had stopped
before and cried out in a loud voice, "Oh! Oh! I would like to see my
son."

At once Oh appeared before him. "Come with me," he said, "but remember
our bargain. If you know your son when you see him he is yours again,
but if you do not know him, then he must stay with me and serve me
still another year."

The man was very willing to agree, for it would be a strange thing if
he did not know his own son when he saw him.