d this time the hermit made a sign to him to
come nearer. 'My son,' whispered he, in a voice that echoed through
the cavern, 'what brings you to this dark and dismal place? Hundreds of
years have passed since my eyes have rested on the face of a man, and I
did not think to look on one again.'.

'My misery has brought me here,' replied the old man; 'I have no child,
and all our lives my wife and I have longed for one. So I left my home,
and went out into the world, hoping that somewhere I might find what I
was seeking.'

Then the hermit picked up an apple from the ground, and gave it to him,
saying: 'Eat half of this apple, and give the rest to your wife, and
cease wandering through the world.'

The old man stooped and kissed the feet of the hermit for sheer joy,
and left the cave. He made his way through the forest as fast as the
darkness would let him, and at length arrived in flowery fields,
which dazzled him with their brightness. Suddenly he was seized with a
desperate thirst, and a burning in his throat. He looked for a stream
but none was to be seen, and his tongue grew more parched every moment.
At length his eyes fell on the apple, which all this while he had been
holding in his hand, and in his thirst he forgot what the hermit had
told him, and instead of eating merely his own half, he ate up the old
woman's also; after that he went to sleep.

When he woke up he saw something strange lying on a bank a little way
off, amidst long trails of pink roses. The old man got up, rubbed his
eyes, and went to see what it was, when, to his surprise and joy, it
proved to be a little girl about two years old, with a skin as pink and
white as the roses above her. He took her gently in his arms, but she
did not seem at all frightened, and only jumped and crowed with delight;
and the old man wrapped his cloak round her, and set off for home as
fast as his legs would carry him.

When they were close to the cottage where they lived he laid the child
in a pail that was standing near the door, and ran into the house,
crying: 'Come quickly, wife, quickly, for I have brought you a daughter,
with hair of gold and eyes like stars!'

At this wonderful news the old woman flew downstairs, almost tumbling
down ill her eagerness to see the treasure; but when her husband led
her to the pail it was perfectly empty! The old man was nearly beside
himself with horror, while his wife sat down and sobbed with grief and
disappointment. There