ding you on to the place where you must get the
apples. But mind not to stir to-night no matter how you get bitten and
stung, or else you will work great mischief to yourself."

The young man went to bed and bore all, as he did the first night, and
got up the next morning well and hearty. After a good breakfast out
comes a fresh horse, and a ball of yarn to throw between his ears. The
old man told him to jump up quick, and said that he had made it all
right with his eldest brother, not to delay for anything whatever,
"For," said he, "you have a good deal to go through with in a very short
and quick time."

He flung the ball, and off he goes as quick as lightning, and comes to
the eldest brother's house. The old man receives him very kindly and
told him he long wished to see him, and that he would go through his
work like a man and come back safe and sound. "To-night," said he, "I
will give you rest; there shall nothing come to disturb you, so that you
may not feel sleepy for to-morrow. And you must mind to get up middling
early, for you've got to go and come all in the same day; there will be
no place for you to rest within thousands of miles of that place; and if
there was, you would stand in great danger never to come from there in
your own form. Now, my young prince, mind what I tell you. To-morrow,
when you come in sight of a very large castle, which will be surrounded
with black water, the first thing you will do you will tie your horse to
a tree, and you will see three beautiful swans in sight, and you will
say, 'Swan, swan, carry me over in the name of the Griffin of the
Greenwood,' and the swans will swim you over to the earth. There will
be three great entrances, the first guarded by four great giants with
drawn swords in their hands, the second by lions, the other by fiery
serpents and dragons. You will have to be there exactly at one o'clock;
and mind and leave there precisely at two and not a moment later. When
the swans carry you over to the castle, you will pass all these things,
all fast asleep, but you must not notice any of them.

"When you go in, you will turn up to the right; you will see some grand
rooms, then you will go downstairs through the cooking kitchen, and
through; a door on your left you go into a garden, where you will find
the apples you want for your father to get well. After you fill your
wallet, you make all speed you possibly can, and call out for the swans
to carry you over the sam