followed her
into the deep forest. Suddenly the hare ran into a hole in the ground.
The prince kept in sight of her and soon found to his dismay that he
was in a big cave. At the very rear of the cave there was the most
enormous giant he had ever seen in his life.

The prince was terribly frightened. "Oh, ho!" said the giant in such a
deep savage voice that the cave echoed and re-echoed with his words.
"You thought you'd catch my little hare, did you? Well, I've caught
you instead!"

The giant seized the prince in one of his enormous hands and tossed
him lightly into a box at one end of the cave. He put the cover on the
box and locked it down with a big key. The prince could get only a
tiny bit of air through a little hole in the top, and he thought that
he never could live. Hours passed. Sometimes the prince slept, but
more often he lay there thinking about his sick father and what he
could ever do to get out of the box and back once more to his father's
side.

Suddenly he heard the key turn in the lock. The cover was lifted, and
he saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen
or dreamed of. "I am the hare you followed into the cave," said she
with a smile. "I am an enchanted princess and, though I have to take
the form of a hare in the daytime, at night I am free to resume my own
shape. You got into this trouble following me into the cave and I am
so sorry for you that I am going to let you out."

[Illustration: He saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he
had ever dreamed of]

"You are so beautiful that I could stay here for ever and gaze into
your lovely eyes," said the prince.

"You would see only a hare in the daytime," replied the princess. "It
is not always night. Besides, the giant may return at any moment. He
just went out on a hunting trip because he thought that you would not
make a sufficiently big supper for him. Don't be foolish. I'll show
you the way out of the cave and then you must hurry home as fast as
possible."

The prince thanked her for all her great kindness to him and acted
upon her advice. He went home by the nearest path, but when he reached
the palace his father was already dead. The palace was wrapped in
mourning.

The prince was so overcome with grief that he felt that he could not
keep on living in the palace. After his father's funeral he went away
as a wanderer. He changed clothes with a poor fisherman whom he met by
the river, for he did not