ge church. In the
same village there lived three brothers, who were all determined to
kill the mischievous hawk. But in vain did the two eldest mount guard
in the church with their guns; as soon as the bird appeared high above
their heads, sleep overpowered them, and they only awoke to hear the
windows crashing in.

Then the youngest brother took his turn of guarding the windows, and
to prevent his being overcome by sleep he placed a lot of thorns under
his chin, so that if he felt drowsy and nodded his head, they would
prick him and keep him awake.

The moon was already risen, and it was as light as day, when suddenly
he heard a fearful noise, and at the same time a terrible desire to
sleep overpowered him.

His eyelids closed, and his head sank on his shoulders, but the thorns
ran into him and were so painful that he awoke at once. He saw the
hawk swooping down upon the church, and in a moment he had seized his
gun and shot at the bird. The hawk fell heavily under a big stone,
severely wounded in its right wing. The youth ran to look at it, and
saw that a huge abyss had opened below the stone. He went at once to
fetch his brothers, and with their help dragged a lot of pine-wood and
ropes to the spot. They fastened some of the burning pine-wood to the
end of the rope, and let it slowly down to the bottom of the abyss. At
first it was quite dark, and the flaming torch only lit up dirty grey
stone walls. But the youngest brother determined to explore the abyss,
and letting himself down by the rope he soon reached the bottom. Here
he found a lovely meadow full of green trees and exquisite flowers.

[Footnote 17: From the Polish. Kletke.]

In the middle of the meadow stood a huge stone castle, with an iron
gate leading to it, which was wide open. Everything in the castle
seemed to be made of copper, and the only inhabitant he could discover
was a lovely girl, who was combing her golden hair; and he noticed
that whenever one of her hairs fell on the ground it rang out like
pure metal. The youth looked at her more closely, and saw that her
skin was smooth and fair, her blue eyes bright and sparkling, and her
hair as golden as the sun. He fell in love with her on the spot, and
kneeling at her feet, he implored her to become his wife.

The lovely girl accepted his proposal gladly; but at the same time she
warned him that she could never come up to the world above till her
mother, the old witch, was dead. And she went on