kfast, his mother said to him,
'Child, where did you get that ring?'

'A woman gave it to me yesterday, and she told me, father, to tell you
that she wanted her forfeit, and when was she to have it?'

Then his father burst into tears and said, 'If she comes again you
must say to her that your parents bid her take her forfeit at once, and
depart.'

At this they both began to weep afresh, and his mother kissed him, and
put on his new clothes and said, 'If the woman bids you to follow her,
you must go,' but the boy did not heed her grief, he was so pleased
with his new clothes. And when he went out, he said to his play-fellows,
'Look how smart I am; I am going away with my aunt to foreign lands.'

At that moment the ogress came up and asked him, 'Did you give my
message to your father and mother?'

'Yes, dear aunt, I did.'

'And what did they say?'

'Take it away at once!'

So she took him.

But when dinner-time came, and the boy did not return, his father and
mother knew that he would never come back, and they sat down and wept
all day. At last Halfman rose up and said to his wife, 'Be comforted; we
will wait a year, and then I will go to the ogress and see the boy, and
how he is cared for.'

'Yes, that will be the best,' said she.

The year passed away, then Halfman saddled his horse, and rode to the
place where the ogress had found him sleeping. She was not there, but
not knowing what to do next, he got off his horse and waited. About
midnight she suddenly stood before him.

'Halfman, why did you come here?' said she.

'I have a question I want to ask you.'

'Well, ask it; but I know quite well what it is. Your wife wishes you to
ask whether I shall carry off your second son as I did the first.'

'Yes, that is it,' replied Halfman. Then he seized her hand and said,
'Oh, let me see my son, and how he looks, and what he is doing.'

The ogress was silent, but stuck her staff hard in the earth, and the
earth opened, and the boy appeared and said, 'Dear father, have you come
too?' And his father clasped him in his arms, and began to cry. But the
boy struggled to be free, saying 'Dear father, put me down. I have got
a new mother, who is better than the old one; and a new father, who is
better than you.'

Then his father sat him down and said, 'Go in peace, my boy, but listen
first to me. Tell your father the ogre and your mother the ogress, that
never more shall they have any children of mine.'

'All r