r filled a golden
bowl with smoking stew from the caldron, another poured wine and ale
into the clear goblets, and a fourth heaped porcelain dishes from every
simmering pot and pipkin on the hearth; rolls of bread whiter than
hoar-frost, and piles of purple and golden fruit followed, while the
half-starved boy warmed his fingers at the blaze, and then ate and drank
his fill of such viands as he had never before tasted, even in dreams.
But when he could do no more good trencher-service, and the little old
woman reminded him of the wish he was to ask the Dwarf-king to grant, he
sat a long time pondering this important matter.

Now, among the legends that his old grandmother had recounted was one
that had made especial impression on his fancy,--an old Bohemian
tradition of a red-winged goose, followed by six goslings, which
traversed the forests and valleys in the dead of winter, uncaught and
unhurt, for hundreds of years, though whoever was so skilful or so lucky
as to catch the goose would after that succeed in all his undertakings.
Mihal bethought himself, as he sat there, that perhaps the Dwarf-king
was master of this wonderful bird, and could give him the prize at once,
without delay or toil; so he slid from his seat at the table, and,
approaching the king, made known his request.

The dwarf fixed his keen eyes sharply on the child, and shook his
grizzled head from side to side before he spoke, in his rough but kindly
voice, and said: "I cannot do that for thee, little one! All the
treasures in my mountain, or the heart of the dumb earth, could not buy
for thee the red-winged goose. She must be caught; but there is only one
way to this end, and that way hitherto hath no mortal known. He who
would capture the goose must first have caught the goslings, and that
not by two or three, or as he may choose to trap them, but always the
nearest one first, which is ever the last, seeing that they follow her
in line, unbroken and unwavering. Thou must take them one by one, and in
their order, child, however sorely tempted to break the sequence. Keep
thine eye and thy labor for the nearest one, and at last the red-winged
goose itself will reward thy patience."

Mihal heard and treasured up the Dwarf-king's orders, spoke his simple
thanks, bowing low, and, after a gay farewell to the little old woman
who had been his jackdaw, went his way into the upper air; and just as
the sun arose, touching the pine-tree tops with fire, he ca