the smithy and
hasten with great strides into the gladsome wood. For now the Prince
was growing a big lad, and his strength was even as the strength of
ten.

To-day Siegfried was in a merry mood. He would repay Mimer's rebukes
in right good fashion. He would frighten the little blacksmith dwarf
until he was forced to cry for mercy.

Clad in his forest dress of deerskins, with his hair as burnished gold
blowing around his shoulders, Siegfried wandered away into the depths
of the woodland.

There he seized the silver horn which hung from his girdle and raised
it to his lips. A long, clear note he blew, and ere the sound had died
away the boy saw a sight which pleased him well. Here was good prey
indeed! A bear, a great big shaggy bear was peering at him out of a
bush, and as he gazed the beast opened its jaws and growled, a fierce
and angry growl. Not a whit afraid was Siegfried. Quick as lightning
he had caught the great creature in his arms, and ere it could turn
upon him, it was muzzled, and was being led quietly along toward the
smithy.

Mimer was busy at his forge sharpening a sword when Siegfried reached
the doorway.

At the sound of laughter the little dwarf raised his head. It was the
Prince who laughed. Then Mimer saw the bear, and letting the sword he
held drop to the ground with a clang, he ran to hide himself in the
darkest corner of the smithy.

Then Siegfried laughed again. He was no hero-boy to-day, for next
he made the big bear hunt the little Nibelung dwarf from corner to
corner, nor could the frightened little man escape or hide himself
in darkness. Again and again as he crouched in a shadowed corner,
Siegfried would stir up the embers of the forge until all the smithy
was lighted with a ruddy glow.

At length the Prince tired of his game, and unmuzzling the bear he
chased the bewildered beast back into the shelter of the woodland.

Mimer, poor little dwarf, all a-tremble with his fear, cried angrily,
"Thou mayest go shoot if so it please thee, and bring home thy dead
prey. Dead bears thou mayest bring hither if thou wilt, but live
bears shalt thou leave to crouch in their lair or to roam through the
forest." But Siegfried, the naughty Prince, only laughed at the little
Nibelung's frightened face and harsh, croaking voice.

Now as the days passed, Mimer the blacksmith began to wish that
Siegfried had never come to dwell with him in his smithy. The
Prince was growing too strong, too brave to