with her staff, then she laughed again, and sang a snatch of song
in mockery:

"I am a king,
I have no crown,
I have no throne to sit in--"

"Pull me up, boy," she said. She wound a leg about the staff, and,
taking hold, he drew her up as if she had been a feather.

"If I had a hundred mouths I would kiss you for that," she said, still
mocking; "but having only one, I'll give it to the cat, and weep for
Golgothar."

"Silly jade," he said, and turned towards his tent.

As they passed a slippery and dangerous place, where was one strong
solitary tree, she suddenly threw a noose over him, drew it fast and
sprang far out over the precipice into the air. Even as she did so, he
jumped behind the tree, and clasped it, else on the slippery place he
would have gone over with her. The rope came taut, and presently he drew
her up again to safety, and while she laughed at him and mocked him, he
held her tight under his arm, and carried her to his lodge, where he let
her go.

"Why did you do it, devil's madcap?" he asked.

"Why didn't you wait for the hundred men so strong?" she laughed.

"Why did you jump behind the tree?

"'If I had a hundred men, heigho,
I would buy my corn for a penny a gill.
If I had a hundred men or so,
I would dig a grave for the maid of the hill, heigho!'"

He did not answer her, but stirred the soup in the pot and tasted it,
and hung a great piece of meat over the fire. Then he sat down, and only
once did he show anger as she mocked him, and that was when she thrust
her hand into his breast, took out the little stone image, and said:

"If a little stone god had a hundred hearts,
Would a little stone goddess trust in one?"

Then she made as if she would throw it into the fire, but he caught her
hand and crushed it, so that she cried out for pain and anger, and said:

"Brute of iron, go break the posts in the brigands' prison-house, but
leave a poor girl's wrist alone. If I had a hundred men--" she added,
mocking wildly again, and then, springing at him, put her two thumbs
at the corners of his eyes, and cried: "Stir a hand, and out they will
come--your eyes for my bones!"

He did not stir till her fury was gone. Then he made her sit down and
eat with him, and afterwards she said softly to him, and without a
laugh: "Why should the people say, 'Golgothar is our shame, for he has
great strength, and yet he doe