After that he had many adventures, and he was very busy, for he never
again forgot what the Fairy had said, that only unselfish service each
day could keep the scissors sharp and shining. When the shepherd lost a
little lamb one day on the mountain, it was Ethelried who found it
caught by the fleece in a tangle of cruel thorns. When he had cut it
loose and carried it home, the shepherd also became his firm friend, and
would have gone through fire and water to serve him.

The grandame whom he supplied with fagots, the merchant whom he rescued
from robbers, the King's councillor to whom he gave aid, all became his
friends. Up and down the land, to beggar or lord, homeless wanderer or
high-born dame, he gladly gave unselfish service all unsought, and such
as he helped straightway became his friends.

Day by day the scissors grew sharper and sharper and ever more quick to
spring forward at his bidding.

One day a herald dashed down the highway, shouting through his silver
trumpet that a beautiful Princess had been carried away by the Ogre. She
was the only child of the King of this country, and the knights and
nobles of all other realms and all the royal potentates were prayed to
come to her rescue. To him who could bring her back to her father's
castle should be given the throne and kingdom, as well as the
Princess herself.

So from far and near, indeed from almost every country under the sun,
came knights and princes to fight the Ogre. One by one their brave heads
were cut off and stuck on poles along the moat that surrounded
the castle.

Still the beautiful Princess languished in her prison. Every night at
sunset she was taken up to the roof for a glimpse of the sky, and told
to bid good-by to the sun, for the next morning would surely be her
last. Then she would wring her lily-white hands and wave a sad farewell
to her home, lying far to the westward. When the knights saw this they
would rush down to the chasm and sound a challenge to the Ogre.

They were brave men, and they would not have feared to meet the fiercest
wild beasts, but many shrunk back when the Ogre came rushing out. They
dared not meet in single combat, this monster with the gnashing teeth,
each one of which was as big as a millston.

Among those who drew back were Ethelried's brothers (the three that were
dark and the three that were fair). They would not acknowledge their
fear. They said, "We are only waiting to lay some wily plan to
capture th