said, he had committed the sin
ignorantly, not knowing the mandate of the terrible giant.

But the men bade Thule lead them to his mother's house, and point out
his stolen treasure; declaring that they could show no mercy; for,
when Loki had made a decree, no man should alter it by one jot or one
tittle.

"Oh!" thought the unfortunate boy, wringing his hands, and trembling
till the woollen tassel on his cap danced a gallopade, "oh, if the
cruel night-elf, who led me into this mischief, would only come
forward now, and help me out of it! But, alas, it is of no avail to
invoke him; for it is now broad daylight, and the sun would strike him
into a stone image in a twinkling."

When Thule, followed by the messengers of Loki, had reached the door
of his cottage, he found his gray-haired mother sprinkling the roots
of the beautiful alder, and fondling its leaves with innocent
pleasure. At sight of the armed men, she started back in affright.

"It is indeed the giant's tree," said the men to Thule. "Pluck it up,
and follow us with it to Loki's castle on the mountain."

"To Loki's castle!" shrieked the wretched mother. "Then he must pass
a frightful wilderness, be assailed by the frost-giants; and, if there
be any breath left in him, Loki will dash it out at a glance! Have
mercy on a poor old mother, O good soldiers!"

The unhappy boy touched the tree, and it came out of the ground of its
own free will; and, in a trice, stood on its feet, shook out its
branches into arms, and in another moment was no longer a tree, but a
child, with a beauty as dazzling as sunshine.

"Unfortunate men!" said she, in a voice whose angriest tones were
sweeter than the music of an AEolian harp, "unfortunate are you in
being the servants of Loki! Go, tell your cruel master that the
schemes he has plotted against me and mine have all failed: my
enchantment is over forever. Yonder boy," said she, pointing to little
Thule, "has saved me. I was, and still remain, an elf of light, as
playful and harmless as sunshine. The merciless Loki, enraged at the
love I bear the children of men, changed me to a little alder-tree,
which is the emblem of girlhood. But he had no power to keep me in
that form forever. He was obliged to make a condition, and he made the
hardest one that his artful mind could invent: 'Since you love mortals
so dearly,' said he, 'no one but a mortal shall free you from your
imprisonment. You shall remain a tree till a good child sh