, and gave him one of the
precious apples to taste. He took the fruit in his hand, bit it, and
gave it back to the good dame. She put it in its place again, closed the
lid, and locked it with her usual care.

"Your apples are not so good as they used to be," said Loki, making a
very wry face. "Why don't you fill your box with fresh fruit?"

Idun was amazed. Her apples were supposed to be always fresh,--fresher
by far than any that grow nowadays. None of the gods had ever before
complained about them; and she told Loki so.

"Very well," said he. "I see you do not believe me, and that you mean to
feed us on your sour, withered apples, when we might as well have golden
fruit. If you were not so bent on having your own way, I could tell you
where you might fill your box with the choicest of apples, such as Odin
loves. I saw them in the forest over yonder, hanging ripe on the trees.
But women will always have their own way; and you must have yours, even
though you do feed the gods on withered apples."

So saying, and without waiting to hear an answer, he limped out at the
door, and was soon gone from sight.

Idun thought long and anxiously upon the words which Loki had spoken;
and, the more she thought, the more she felt troubled. If her husband,
the wise Bragi, had been at home, what would she not have given? He
would have understood the mischief-maker's cunning. But he had gone on
a long journey to the South, singing in Nature's choir, and painting
Nature's landscapes, and she would not see him again until the return
of spring. At length she opened the box, and looked at the fruit. The
apples were certainly fair and round: she could not see a wrinkle or a
blemish on any of them; their color was the same golden-red,--like the
sky at dawn of a summer's day; yet she thought there must be something
wrong about them. She took up one of the apples, and tasted it. She
fancied that it really was sour, and she hastily put it back, and locked
the box again.

"He said that he had seen better apples than these growing in the
woods," said she to herself. "I half believe that he told the truth,
although everybody knows that he is not always trustworthy. I think I
shall go to the forest and see for myself, at any rate."

So she donned her cloak and hood, and, with a basket on her arm, left
the house, and walked rapidly away, along the road which led to the
forest. It was much farther than she had thought, and the sun was almost
d