ether than if they had been sparks from
a fire. Away they sped, some one way and some another, into the woods
and over the hills,--there was no keeping track of them. The lad
shouted and ran and ran and shouted till the sweat poured down his
face, but he could not herd them back. By the time evening came he had
scarce a score of them to drive home to the palace.

And there on the steps stood the King with a stout rod in his hands,
all ready to give the lad a beating. And a good beating it was, I can
tell you. When the King had finished with him he could hardly stand.
Home he went with only his sore bones for wages.

Then it was the second brother's turn. He also had a mind to try his
hand at keeping the King's hares, with the chance of winning the
Princess for a wife. Off he set along the same road his brother had
taken, and after a while he came to the place where the old crone was
dancing about with her long, green nose still caught in the crack of a
log. He was just as fond of a good laugh as his brother was, and he
stood for a while to watch her, for he thought it a merry sight. He
laughed and laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks, and the old
hag was screaming with rage.

"You gawk! Come and drive a wedge into the crack so that I can get my
nose out," she bawled. "Here I have been for twice a hundred years and
no Christian soul has come to set me free."

"If you have been there that long it will not hurt to stay a bit
longer," said the youth. "I'm no woodsman, and besides that I'm on my
way to the King's palace to win a Princess for a wife." And away he
went, leaving the old woman screaming after him.

After a while the second brother came to the palace, and when the
servants heard why he had come they were not slow in bringing him
before the King. Yes, the King was as much in need of a herdsman for
his hares as ever, but was the lad willing to run the risk of having
only a beating for his pains?

Yes, the lad was willing to run that risk, for he was almost sure he
could keep the herd together, and it was not every day one had a
chance of winning a Princess for a wife.

So they took him out to the paddock where the hares were. All morning
he herded them there as his brother had done before him, and that was
an easy task. But it was in the afternoon that the trouble began. For
no sooner did the fresh wind of the hillside ruffle up their fur than
away they fled, this way and that, kicking up their heels