ng through the bushes and
presently a sound of voices. Someone whispered on one side of him:
'There goes someone,' and was answered from the other side: 'Oh, let him
pass. He's only a bear-keeper, and as poor as any church mouse.' So
golden lad rode through the forest and no harm befell him.

One day he came to a village, where he saw a girl who struck him as
being the loveliest creature in the whole world, and as he felt a great
love for her, he went up to her and said: 'I love you with all my heart;
will you be my wife?' And the girl liked him so much that she put her
hand in his and replied: 'Yes, I will be your wife, and will be true to
you as long as I live.'

So they were married, and in the middle of all the festivities and
rejoicings the bride's father came home and was not a little surprised
at finding his daughter celebrating her wedding. He enquired: 'And who
is the bridegroom?'

Then someone pointed out to him the golden lad, who was still wrapped up
in the bear's skin, and the father exclaimed angrily: 'Never shall a
mere bear-keeper have my daughter,' and tried to rush at him and kill
him. But the bride did all she could to pacify him, and begged hard,
saying: 'After all he is my husband, and I love him with all my heart,'
so that at length he gave in.

[Illustration]

However, he could not dismiss the thought from his mind, and next
morning he rose very early, for he felt he must go and look at his
daughter's husband and see whether he really was nothing better than a
mere ragged beggar. So he went to his son-in-law's room, and who should
he see lying in the bed but a splendid golden man, and the rough
bearskin thrown on the ground close by. Then he slipped quietly away,
and thought to himself, 'How lucky that I managed to control my rage! I
should certainly have committed a great crime.'

Meantime the golden lad dreamt that he was out hunting and was giving
chase to a noble stag, and when he woke he said to his bride: 'I must go
off and hunt.' She felt very anxious, and begged he would stay at home,
adding: 'Some mishap might so easily befall you,' but he answered, 'I
must and will go.'

So he went off into the forest, and before long a fine stag, such as he
had seen in his dream, stopped just in front of him. He took aim, and
was about to fire when the stag bounded away. Then he started off in
pursuit, making his way through bushes and briars, and never stopped all
day; but in the evening the s