as she
frequently was at the end of the day, she took it from its drawer, and
behold! the blade was red with blood. Her cry of horror brought her
youngest brother to her, and, unable to speak, she held out the knife!

'I will go,' he said.

So he walked, and he walked, and he walked, until he met the giant, and
he asked, 'Have two young men, making for yonder mountain, passed this
way?'

And the giant answered, 'Yes, they have passed by, but they never came
back, and by this I know that the spell has fallen upon them.'

'Then what must I do to free them, and to get the water of life, and the
talking bird, and the branch of the tree of beauty?'

'Go to the mountain, which you will find so thickly covered with stones
that you will hardly be able to place your feet, and walk straight
forward, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, and paying
no heed to the laughs and scoffs which will follow you, till you reach
the top, and then you may take all that you desire.'

The young man thanked the giant for his counsel, and set forth to the
mountain. And when he began to climb there burst forth all around him
a storm of scoffs and jeers; but he thought of the giant's words, and
looked neither to the right hand nor to the left, till the mountain top
lay straight before him. A moment now and he would have gained it, when,
through the groans and yells, he heard his brothers' voices. He turned,
and there was one stone the more.

And all this while his sister was pacing up and down the palace, hardly
letting the knife out of her hand, and dreading what she knew she would
see, and what she did see. The blade grew red before her eyes, and she
said, 'Now it is my turn.'

So she walked, and she walked, and she walked till she came to the
giant, and prayed him to tell her if he had seen three young men pass
that way seeking the distant mountain.

'I have seen them pass, but they have never returned, and by this I know
that the spell has fallen upon them.'

'And what must I do to set them free, and to find the water of life, and
the talking bird, and a branch of the tree of beauty?'

'You must go to that mountain, which is so full of stones that your
feet will hardly find a place to tread, and as you climb you will hear
a noise as if all the stones in the world were mocking you; but pay
no heed to anything you may hear, and, once you gain the top, you have
gained everything.'

The girl thanked him for his counse