of
his matchless form, by clothing him in costly garments decked with the
rarest jewels. The old, the young, the rich, the poor, the high, the
low, all praised the fearless Siegfried, and all vied in friendly strife
to win his favor. One would have thought that the life of the young
prince could never be aught but a holiday, and that the birds would
sing, and the flowers would bloom, and the sun would shine forever for
his sake.

But the business of man's life is not mere pastime; and none knew this
truth better than the wise old king, Siegmund.

"All work is noble," said he to Siegfried; "and he who yearns to
win fame must not shun toil. Even princes should know how to earn a
livelihood by the labor of their hands."

And so, while Siegfried was still a young lad, his father sent him to
live with a smith called Mimer, whose smithy was among the hills not far
from the great forest. For in those early times the work of the smith
was looked upon as the most worthy of all trades,--a trade which the
gods themselves were not ashamed to follow. And this smith Mimer was a
wonderful master,--the wisest and most cunning that the world had ever
seen. Men said that he was akin to the dwarf-folk who had ruled the
earth in the early days, and who were learned in every lore, and skilled
in every craft; and they said that he was so exceeding old that no one
could remember the day when he came to dwell in the land of Siegmund's
fathers. And some said, too, that he was the keeper of a wonderful well,
or flowing spring, the waters of which imparted wisdom and far-seeing
knowledge to all who drank of them.

To Mimer's school, then, where he would be taught to work skilfully
and to think wisely, Siegfried was sent, to be in all respects like
the other pupils there. A coarse blue blouse, and heavy leggings, and a
leathern apron, took the place of the costly clothing which he had worn
in his father's dwelling. His feet were incased in awkward wooden shoes,
and his head was covered with a wolf-skin cap. The dainty bed, with its
downy pillows, wherein every night his mother had been wont, with gentle
care, to see him safely covered, was given up for a rude heap of straw
in a corner of the smithy. And the rich food to which he had been
used gave place to the coarsest and humblest fare. But the lad did
not complain. The days which he passed in the smithy were mirthful and
happy; and the sound of his hammer rang cheerfully, and the sparks from