e the king and queen were seated.

'I have come to claim your promise,' he said. 'Give me your youngest
daughter.'

Then they led the servant maid up to him, and he said to her: 'You must
mount on my back, and I will take you to my castle.' And with these
words he swung her on to his back and left the palace.

When they reached the place where he had met the king and given him the
wreath of wild flowers, he stopped, and told her to dismount that they
might rest a little.

So they sat down by the roadside.

'I wonder,' said the wolf, 'what your father would do if this forest
belonged to him?'

And the girl answered: 'My father is a poor man, so he would cut down
the trees, and saw them into planks, and he would sell the planks, and
we should never be poor again; but would always have enough to eat.'

Then the wolf knew that he had not got the real princess, and he swung
the servant-maid on to his back and carried her to the castle. And he
strode angrily into the king's chamber, and spoke.

'Give me the real princess at once. If you deceive me again I will cause
such a storm to burst over your palace that the walls will fall in, and
you will all be buried in the ruins.'

Then the king and the queen wept, but they saw there was no escape.
So they sent for their youngest daughter, and the king said to her:
'Dearest child, you must go with the white wolf, for I promised you to
him, and I must keep my word.'

So the princess got ready to leave her home; but first she went to her
room to fetch her wreath of wild flowers, which she took with her. Then
the white wolf swung her on his back and bore her away. But when they
came to the place where he had rested with the servant-maid, he told her
to dismount that they might rest for a little at the roadside. Then
he turned to her and said: 'I wonder what your father would do if this
forest belonged to him?'

And the princess answered: 'My father would cut down the trees and turn
it into a beautiful park and gardens, and he and his courtiers would
come and wander among the glades in the summer time.'

'This is the real princess,' said the wolf to himself. But aloud he
said: 'Mount once more on my back, and I will bear you to my castle.'

And when she was seated on his back he set out through the woods, and
he ran, and ran, and ran, till at last he stopped in front of a stately
courtyard, with massive gates.

'This is a beautiful castle,' said the princess, as the gat