you have told me--the deputy-ranger here; and for every day
less than a month in which you finish your contract I will add a hundred
nobles; but, if you fail, I will have you hanged on a tree. When will
you begin?"

"To-morrow morning," replied Ranier.

The next morning, before daylight, Ranier took his way to the forest,
leaving all his money save three groats with his mother, and, after
telling her that he might not return for a day or so, passed the guard
that he found already set, and plunged into the wood. When he came to a
place where the trees were thickest and loftiest, he whispered to
himself what he had to do, and said to the ax: "Ax! ax! chop! chop! and
work for my profit." The ax at once went to work with great earnestness,
and by night-fall over ten thousand trees were felled, hewn, and thrown
into piles. Then Ranier, who had not ceased before to watch the work,
ate some of the provisions which he had brought with him, and throwing
himself under a great tree, whose spreading boughs shaded him from the
moonlight, drew his scanty mantle around him, and slept soundly till
sunrise.

The next morning Ranier arose, and looked with delight at the work
already done; then, speaking again to the ax, it began chopping away as
before.

Now, it chanced that morning that the chief ranger had started to see
how the work was being done, and, on reaching the forest, asked the
guards if many wood-cutters had entered. They all replied that only one
had made his appearance, but he must be working vigorously, since all
that morning, and the whole day before, the wood had resounded with the
blows of axes. The Lord Woodmount thereupon rode on in great anger, for
he thought that Ranier had mocked him. But presently he came to great
piles of hewn timber which astonished him much; and then he heard the
axes' sound, which astonished him more, for it seemed as though twenty
wood-choppers were engaged at once, so great was the din. When he came
to where the ax was at work, he thought he saw--and this was through the
magic power of the fairy--thousands of wood-cutters, all arrayed in
green hose and red jerkins, some felling the trees, some hewing them
into square timber, and others arranging the hewn logs into piles of a
hundred each, while Ranier stood looking on. He was so angry at the
guards for having misinformed him, that he at once rode back and rated
them soundly on their supposed untruth. But as they persisted in the
story