the opal ring, and hid it in his vest. When they
turned around he was folding up his trinkets again as calmly as
possible. "One cannot be too careful to count one's goods," he said,
gravely. "Honest people often get cheated in houses like these, and
honest as these two dogs look, I know where one of them hid that
leg-of-mutton bone that he stole yesterday!" Upon hearing this the dogs
sneaked under the table ashamed of themselves. "I would not have it on
my conscience that I robbed my master for the best bone in the world,"
continued the pedlar, and as he said this he took up a little silver
horn belonging to the lord of the castle, and, having tapped it with his
knuckle to see whether the metal was pure, folded it up in cotton, and
put it in his pack with the rest of his curiosities.

Presently Hulda came down with a little box in her hand, out of which
she took the fairy's wand.

The pedlar was so transported at the sight of it that he could scarcely
conceal his joy; but he knew that unless he could get it by fair means
it would be of no use to him.

"How dim it looks!" said little Hulda; "the stones used to be so very
bright when first I had it."

"Ah! that is a sign that the person who gave it you is dead," said the
deceitful pedlar.

"I am sorry to hear she is dead," said Hulda, with a sigh. "Well, then,
pedlar, as that is the case, I will part with the wand if you can give
me one of your fine bracelets instead of it."

The pedlar's hand trembled with anxiety as he held it out for the wand,
but the moment he had got possession of it all his politeness vanished.

"There," he said, "you have got a very handsome bracelet in your hand.
It is worth a great deal more than the wand. You may keep it. I have no
time to waste; I must be gone." So saying, he hastily snatched up the
rest of his jewels, thrust them into his pack, and slung it over his
shoulder, leaving Hulda looking after him with the bracelet in her hand.
She saw him walk rapidly along the heath till he came to a gravel-pit,
very deep, and with overhanging sides. He swung himself over by the
branches of the trees.

"What can he be going to do there?" she said to herself. "But I will run
after him, for I don't like this bracelet half so well as some of the
others."

So Hulda ran till she came to the edge of the gravel-pit, but was so
much surprised that she could not say a word. There were the great
footmarks made by the pedlar down the steep sides of